Early and his demoralized forces, having lost nearly everything, were obliged to take to the mountains, where Sheridan with his cavalry could not well follow. Sheridan thereupon directed his attention to scouring the Shenandoah valley and destroying all property, of which the rebels might make use, that he could lay hands on. He then, supposing that Early had had enough of his raid, left his forces in charge of Generals George Crook and Horatio G. Wright and made a flying visit to Washington.

Sheridan was mistaken in Early. That persistent officer, gathering up his broken forces and being in the meanwhile largely reinforced, on October 18 made a night attack upon the Union army at Cedar Creek near Fisher's Hill, defeated it and threw it into confusion. On that same night Sheridan, who had returned from Washington, slept at Winchester. In the morning, he started up the valley for the purpose of resuming charge of his army; but the further he rode the more he was convinced that some great disaster had occurred. Becoming alarmed he put spurs to his horse and, after a long and severe run of some thirty miles, reached the front about ten o'clock, where he found Wright re-forming his shattered lines. Such was the equestrian feat that afterwards, being embellished by a poet, became famous as "Sheridan's Ride." According to the poem, Sheridan induced his defeated army to turn around at once and rush upon and rout the exultant enemy. The fact was that he rode up on his smoking horse, swinging his cap and finding no fault, but on the contrary encouraging his men and calling in the stragglers-at the same time shouting to them, "Turn the other way, boys; we are going back to our camp. We are going to lick them out of their boots!" The stragglers did resume their places in the ranks; and then Sheridan, exercising great care and circumspection to keep up their spirits with profuse and cheering assurances of "getting even on Old Jubal," led them back. And accordingly, that same afternoon about one o'clock, he again fell upon Early and gave him another severe beating-this time driving him through the streets of Strasburg in greater disorder than he had previously driven him at Winchester and Fisher's Hill. Early's army was in fact totally destroyed and never fought again. The Union victory was indeed an extraordinary one, triumphantly

gained in the afternoon by an army that had been thoroughly beaten in the forenoon of the same day. It was a wonderful exhibition of what a single man may sometimes accomplish and forcibly reminds one of a remark of Napoleon, "The general is the head, the all-in-all of the army. It was not the Roman army that conquered Gaul, but Cæsar. It was not the Carthaginian army that made the republican army tremble at the very gates of Rome, but Hannibal. It was not the Macedonian army that penetrated to the Indus, but Alexander."

At the same time that Grant was thus exercising Lee at Petersburg and Sheridan was driving Early in the Shenandoah valley, Sherman was pressing Johnston in Georgia. He left Chattanooga on May 6 with about one hundred thousand men, consisting of the so-called armies of the Cumberland, the Tennessee and the Ohio,-the first under the subordinate command. of General Thomas, the second under that of General McPherson, and the third under General John M. Schofield. His infantry amounted to about ninety thousand; his cavalry to about six thousand, and his artillery to about four thousand with two hundred and fifty-four field-pieces. The main object of his expedition was the capture of Atlanta, the capital of Georgia, about one hundred miles southeast of Chattanooga, where were situated the chief manufactories of Confederate military supplies. On the other hand the Confederate forces under Johnston, whose duty it became to resist Sherman's advance, consisted of about sixty thousand men, divided into three corps under the subordinate lead of Generals William J. Hardee, John B. Hood and Leonidas Polk respectively. While Sherman's men were in prime condition, fully equipped, many of Johnston's were not so, and some of his raw levies not in fighting trim. All he could do therefore was to stubbornly dispute the Union progress, making the best use possible of the many defensive positions which the rough country south of Chattanooga afforded, and not to risk a regular battle; and it was upon this plan that he fought.

Sherman advanced without much delay at any point. His numbers and his skill enabled him to drive the Confederates from every stand made by them. Small conflicts took place at Resaca on May 15, Dallas May 25, Lost Mountain June 14 and Kenesaw

Mountain June 27, at which Polk was killed. Johnston kept moving backward until July 10, when he made a new stand behind the defenses of Atlanta, while Sherman followed, and the two armies faced each other with the Chattahoochee river between them. While in this position, on July 17, Johnston, who notwithstanding his able retreat did not appear to give satisfaction to the Confederate government, was superseded, and Hood, who was usually known as "the fighter," was put in his place. This was probably fortunate for the Union arms, because Hood, apparently to keep up his reputation or at least to satisfy the anti-Fabian policy of the Confederate government, at once assumed the offensive and in a short time ruined his cause. In the course of three or four weeks, he made three furious assaults on the Union lines, in every one of which he was repulsed with great loss; and about the only great damage he inflicted was the killing of the Union gen-eral McPherson. By the end of August, Sherman had managed by skillful maneuvering to get around to the rear or southward of Atlanta and cut the railroads by which the Confederates obtained their supplies. This compelled them to abandon their intrenchments; and about the beginning of September Sherman was enabled to telegraph to Washington that Atlanta was won. Upon the capture of Atlanta Sherman ordered its inhabitants to leave the place, giving them the privilege of going north or south as they might desire. About two thousand chose to go south and were transported at United States cost to Rough and Ready, an outpost in that direction; while the others were forwarded to Chattanooga. Great complaint was made at the time by the Confederates in reference to this order. Hood assumed to protest "in the name of God and humanity" against it as "unprecedented" and transcending "in studied and ingenious cruelty all acts ever brought to my attention in the dark history of war." But when it is considered that Hood himself, before abandoning the place, had destroyed all the factories and machineshops and carried off all the food and supplies, it is plain that he was the one that had violated the laws of humanity and done an act of studied and ingenious cruelty. Sherman could not feed the inhabitants; he would not massacre them as Forrest was said to have done the people at Fort Pillow; he did not want them

to interfere with his intended further advance; and he therefore in as kind and gentle a manner as possible under the circumstances sent them where they need not starve nor be in his way.

While Sherman was at Atlanta, Jefferson Davis, the Confederate president, visited Hood at Macon and attempted to practice on Sherman substantially the same kind of a strategic game that Lee tried to play on Grant at Petersburg—with the difference that, though both attempts failed, Lee did not injure himself or his army, while Davis made a mistake which in effect materially hastened the collapse and fall of the Confederacy. At his direction, Hood, instead of falling back and harassing Sherman's further progress, moved off in a northwesterly direction by the way of Tuscumbia and Florence in northwestern Alabama, into the middle of Tennessee. Davis seems to have thought that Sherman would follow Hood to protect Nashville, just as Lee thought that Grant would weaken himself to stop Early in the Shenandoah valley. But he reckoned wrongly. Sherman did not move and had no idea of moving in that direction. As Grant, however, had left Early to be dealt with by Sheridan, so Sherman left Hood to be dealt with by Thomas, who immediately made it his business to see what he was endeavoring to accomplish. As Hood approached Nashville from the southward, he was met at Franklin by a portion of the Union army under Schofield; and a severe battle took place there on November 30, in which Hood was defeated with considerable loss. He nevertheless advanced still further towards Nashville and was met in the immediate vicinity of that place by Thomas. He had at that time about forty-four thousand men; while Thomas, after being joined by Schofield from Franklin, seems to have had not quite so many. On December 15, as Hood approached, Thomas moved out of his lines and attacked him with great effect. The conflict lasted two days. On the first, Hood was driven back some two or three miles; and on the second, he was entirely routed and his army so scattered and demoralized that, like Early's after the rout at Strasburg, it never reunited.

Meanwhile, on November 11, Sherman, after burning Atlanta and destroying all the railroads in his rear, cut the telegraph lines that had theretofore kept him in communication with

Washington and the northern states and started on his famous "march through Georgia." His forces consisted of about sixtyfive thousand men; and, as these had to subsist mainly on what they could gather of the products of the country as they advanced, they were obliged to spread out to a breadth of about forty miles. For about a month, after thus plunging into the very bowels of the Confederacy, nothing was heard of him or his army at the north; and, as the days went by, great anxiety was felt. But, as it turned out, he marched all the way from Atlanta to Savannah, a distance in a straight line of about two hundred and twenty-five miles, almost without obstruction. Some small bodies of troops might have been gathered at various points to oppose him; but he managed his advance with so much skill that they could not tell where to concentrate. Nor did they know for what point he was aiming. But on December 13 he suddenly made his appearance before Fort McAllister on the Ogechee river near Savannah, which he immediately took by assault; and thus, by the unexpected success and glorious ending of his march through the very heart of the enemy's country-especially after the fears that had been entertained for his safety-he threw the entire north from Maine to California into an ecstasy of joy. On December 20, a week after the taking of Fort McAllister, the Confederates evacuated Savannah and Sherman announced the fact to Lincoln by sending word that he begged to present to him "as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns, plenty of ammunition and about twentyfive thousand bales of cotton." But-what was far more important-he also sent word that the Confederacy was nothing but an empty shell, and that he was ready with his victorious army to march northward.

About the same time that Atlanta in Georgia was taken, the port of Mobile in Alabama, which after the fall of New Orleans had become of vital importance to the Confederacy, was attacked and closed. This great service was performed by Farragut, the captor of New Orleans, then usually known as "Old Salamander." Farragut proceeded with his fleet against it in the latter part of July, 1864, and on August 5 forced his passage through a fiery rain of shot and shell into Mobile bay, captured all the