More and more the eyes of the observant were turned toward the Southwest where the silent Grant was not always winning victories as at Vicksburg, but never ceased to fight. He made the most of what he had. He never offered an excuse. He never talked. He fought. Gradually he won the complete confidence of Lincoln, who without underestimating the good work of Thomas and Rosecrans, both first-class fighting men, gave Grant supreme command in the West and finally, on March 9, 1864, placed him at the head of all the Union forces of the land.

The last year is a story quickly told. The month of May found Grant pressing back the enemy in the Wilderness. Beaten a month later at Cold Harbor, Grant fought on to Petersburg. Though not always winning victories, Grant wore Lee down by constant hammering, and put a chill into the Southern heart. Sheridan swept clean the Shenandoah Valley. Sherman brought to a successful end his campaign against Atlanta, and as the year closed, reached the sea. Grant was tightening his grip on Lee. The Southern star was fast declining. With scarcely any chance to make even a running fight, Lee at last with dignity laid down his arms at Appomattox, and on April 9, 1865, the war was near an end, with Lincoln giv

ing God the glory and-as Justice Harlan sayswearing a new 'expression of serene joy, as if conscious that the great purpose of his life had been achieved."

CHAPTER XXIV

ARMS AND THE MAN

WITH the brief summary of the Civil War before us in the chapter which precedes this, it would seem worth while to observe Lincoln as month after month he dealt with some of the representative problems the War brought to him, sometimes in such complexity or massiveness as almost to break his spirit. But never quite; for Lincoln as perhaps no other man in history, save Cromwell, was "sustained and soothed by an unfaltering trust" in God and man alike.

The time has come not so much to contend for Lincoln's Christian faith as to portray it; not to attempt to prove by laws of logic Lincoln's confidence in that best in the average man which was never broken, as to flash a light along the way of those four years that will, with but little comment, show Lincoln in relationship with God and also with human beings, trusting them when they yielded to the worst, revealing to his associates traits in the mass of men they often doubted that

men had at all, even calling his erring brothers in the South back to that normal relationship of human fellowship in words in his first Inaugural as true as they are tender:

We are not enemies but friends. We must not be enemies. Though passion may have strained, it must not break our bonds of affection.

There is one passage in the first Inaugural not so well known as it ought to be; for it proves even to the most reluctant that from the first Lincoln's trust in God and trust in man went side by side through all those years of bitter bloodshed: "If the Almighty Ruler of Nations, with His eternal truth and justice, be on your side of the North, or on yours of the South, that truth and that justice will surely prevail by the judgment of this great tribunal of the American people."

The Battle of Bull Run was the first hard military test of Lincoln's twofold faith. The test was not of his choosing. The South was farther on in preparation for the war. Northern editors, in fact Northern sentiment was clamouring for the taking of Richmond and the immediate ending of the war, not foreseeing that wars are not won by the unprepared unless, like the Allies and America in the World War, it is possible at first to fight

indeterminate battles while preparations are in steady progress for the final issue. The uninformed up North staked all on that one first big battle.

It was June of 1861. The Army of the Potomac was encamped on Arlington Heights in plain view of the Capitol shimmering in the radiant sunlight of the early summer. The White House was gleaming through the lovely foliage where the birds were still busy making nests. Within, the President was dealing with his usual despatch with the details the hour brought, while visitors were coming in and out with ordered regularity. From the observation balloon, hanging over the Potomac, the biggest army ever mustered on our soil was in plain sight. It was, however, only drilling. Neither in Washington nor near was excitement evident.

But as July came in, Beauregard was evidently massing his men at Bull Run, throwing up breastworks, cutting down trees, and disposing his army so as to await attack from McDowell leading the Northern troops. As the 21st drew near, the inevitable crash was the common talk in Washington. Victory seemed so sure to non-combatants that as McDowell moved forward he and his men were followed by the fashionable and curious,