reënforcements, so that he had now fifty thousand brave men, most of them veterans, under his command. Ilood's army was also nearly fifty thousand strong, but he had been drawn into a position in which he was compelled to fight a force behind intrenchments, fully equal to his own.

A week passed away of heavy cannonading and incessant skirmishing, and the annoying fire of sharpshooters. Many buildings in the range of the hostile batteries were entirely destroyed. On Friday, the 9th, the weather became intensely cold, and a heavy snow-storm enveloped the contending hosts. For three days the wintry cold continued with unbroken severity. The rebel troops, who were mainly encamped upon the open plain, suffered severely. By the 13th, General Thomas had got his army so firmly in hand that he resolved to assume the offensive. General Hood, seeing indications of this movement, withdrew his forces more than a mile in the rear, and occupied strong intrenchments upon the Granny White Hills.

On Thursday, the 15th, the patriots marched out to the assault. General Steedman was on the left; Generals Wood and Smith were in the centre; Wilson's cavalry corps held the right. General Steedman was to make a vigorous feint on the left, while the main attack was to be made from our centre and right. At six o'clock in the morning our troops com

menced their movement, under cover of a heavy fire from the forts and advanced batteries. The enemy's skirmishers were soon driven in, and General Steedman, who was in advance, with great gallantry charged the main works of the enemy. It was not, however, until noon that the real battle began. The centre and the right had then attained the positions they desired, and they swept along upon the lines of the foe with resistless courage. The fighting on both sides was desperate. The enemy had supposed that we intended to turn his right flank, and had massed his troops to resist the onset of Steedman's columns.

The Union cavalry swept along the banks of the Cumberland, cutting off and capturing such of the rebels as were on the borders of the stream, until they reached a point six miles from Nashville. Then wheeling to the south, they protected our extreme right. Heavy batteries followed them, and opened with great vigor on the main line of the enemy. About three o'clock in the afternoon the whole Union line pressed forward, in the face of a tremendous fire from the enemy's artillery and musketry. But they rushed forward with enthusiasm which nothing could resist. The artillery moved resistlessly forward with a rapid and deadly fire. The charge of the infantry was desperate. The cavalry dismounted, and fought on foot. The gunboats coöperated, hurling their ponderous missiles into the hostile ranks. Speedily sixteen guns were captured, and several battleflags. A thousand prisoners were taken, and a portion of the rebel line was driven back eight miles. The loss in killed and wounded on either side was about one thousand.

During the night both parties were busy preparing for the renewal of the fight the next day. At eight o'clock in the morning the conflict was opened by a tremendous roar of artillery from all the batteries. The whole Union line moved forward at once, but so terrible was the fire encountered from the intrenchments of the foe, that one portion of our line was shattered, and fell back. Relief soon came from the right, and the troops reorganized, rushed over the enemy's left with irresistible enthusiasm, driving him impetuously from his intrenchments. The enemy's right still stood firm, and from their commanding position poured in a tremendous fire of grape and canister upon the advancing Unionista. Again and again the patriots rushed forward to the charge, only to be repulsed. At last, after a terrible struggle, the position was carried, and the rebels retreated, abandoning the stronghold they had so long and so desperately held. As night came and terminated the conflict, the field for miles around was covered with the dead and the dying, and all the indescribable wreck of battle. The enemy, under cover of darkness, were retreating rapidly, pursued by our troops to the Brentwood hills. The woods, the fields, the intrenchments were strewn with the enemy's small-arms, abandoned by them in the retreat. Two thousand prisoners and twenty pieces of artillery fell into our hands. Thus terminated gloriously to our arms the second day's battle of Nashville.

The next morning, Saturday, the 17th, the pursuit was continued, Wilson's cavalry being in the advance. It was late in the afternoon when the foe was overtaken, six miles beyond Franklin. Our cavalry charged

with the enthusiasm which the recent victories had inspired. The foe was dispersed in all directions, and was only saved from destruction by the gloom of the wintry night. Fifteen hundred of the enemy's wounded were captured in the hospitals at Franklin. The railroad was rapidly repaired from Nashville to Franklin, so that supplies could be pushed forward to General Thomas in his chase. The next morning, Sunday, the 18th, the pursuit was continued, but our forces could not overtake the foe in his rapid retreat. Many hundred prisoners were picked up, who from fatigue or wounds had dropped by the way-side.

Monday morning, the 19th, dawned gloomily. Clouds darkened the sky, and freezing rain, with a wintry wind, chilled and drenched the pursuers and the pursued. The roads were miry, and the brooks were swollen into torrents. Still, the spirit of war could allow of no repose. Onward rushed the fugitive rebels; close at their heels thundered the avenging patriots. The rebel force was virtually destroyed; they never again could make any stand. Hood's army was so effectually overthrown that the troops of General Thomas were soon on their way to join the armies of Grant in their approach to Richmond, and to coöperate with Sherman, then triumphantly sweeping through North Carolina. In this series of battles we captured about six thousand prisoners and fifty pieces of artillery. An extraordinary number of field and line officers were found among the prisoners.

On the fifteenth, the second day of the great battle of Nashville, the patriot forces of General Rousseau met a rebel force under General Forrest at Murfreesboro'. A severe engagement ensued. Forrest was defeated, with a loss of fifteen hundred men. Thus the rebel dreams of reconquering Tennessee were utterly dissipated. A raiding party from Vicksburg had severed Hood's communications with Mobile, while a formidable cavalry column from Baton Rouge were menacing his supply-trains from whatever direction they might move. Instead of wintering amidst the abounding harvests of Kentucky and Tennessee, Hood's army, having lost half its numbers, dispirited, exhausted, humiliated, was sullenly seeking refuge in the wilds of Alabama.

Leaving General Sherman's army to enjoy a brief season of repose in the streets of Savannah, let us turn to the terrific conflict in which General Grant was driving the hosts of General Lee from the Rappahannock to the James.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

THE CAMPAIGN OF THE

(May 3, 1865, to June 20th.)

WILDERNESS.

PLANS OF GENERAL GRANT.-BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS.-DESPERATION OF THE ANTAGONISTS. -DEATH OF GENERAL WADSWORTH.--FIRST MICHIGAN REGIMENT.-THE CARNAGE Of WarGENERAL MEADE'S CONGRATULATORY ORDER-FURIOUS ATTACK ON OUR BAGGAGE-TRAIN.GRANDEUR OF THE ARMY.-FLANK MOVEMENT OF GENERAL GRANT.-ATTACK ON PETERSBURG.

IMMEDIATELY after General Grant had been raised to the post of Lieutenant-General, and had thus been constituted Commander-in-Chief of all the Armies of the United States, he held an interview with the Pres ident in Washington. In response to the inquiry, "What is next to be done?" it is said that he replied, "Destroy Lee's army, and take Richmond."

General Lee was then strongly intrenched with a veteran army, one hundred thousand strong, upon the southern banks of the Upper Rapidan. He was here very formidably posted in a series of earthworks, which his whole army, under the guidance of the most able engineers, had been many months constructing. The plan adopted by General Grant was widereaching, and one which called for the most prompt and energetic action. General Sigel, with a small but effective army of observation, was placed in the Valley of the Shenandoah, that the rebels might not be able to make a rush upon Washington through that oft-frequented route. General Butler, with nearly thirty thousand troops, including ten thousand colored soldiers, was to make a show of advancing upon Richmond, by aid of transports, up the York River, and across to the Chickahominy. Having by this feint diverted the attention of the rebels, he was suddenly to descend the York, and ascend the James to City Point, and thus menace Richmond with an attack from the south.

Should the rebels in Richmond send a large force to the aid of General Lee, General Butler was to march impetuously upon the capital. Should they, on the other hand, endeavor to concentrate a large force south of the James to crush Butler, he was then to intrench himself, and await the approach of General Meade's army, which was then on the north side of the Rapidan. General Grant was to establish his head-quarters with Meades" army facing Lee. General Sherman, in Georgia, was to push the campaign, he was so heroically conducting, with all vigor, that the rebels there might not be able to send any reënforcements to the aid of their beleaguered confederates in Richmond. Meade's army, which was over a hundred thousand strong, was to march upon Richmond, either driving Lee before

them in direct vigorous assault, or dragging him after them, as by flank movements they menaced his rear. General Burnside was, in the mean time, accumulating a coöperating force at Annapolis, to advance by Acquia Creek, and unite with General Meade. Profound secrecy envel oped the plan, until it was developed in energetic action.

On Tuesday, May 3, 1864, at midnight, General Grant secretly crossed the Rapidan by fords and pontoon bridges, a few miles below the intrenchments of the rebels. His passage was not opposed. Energetically the patriot army pressed forward in its flank movement, to gain the rear of the foe. The rebels, under their able leader, General Lee, rushed from their ramparts, and endeavored to break through and crush General Grant on his line of march. It was a day of terrific battle. On the two sides, six thousand were struck down by death or wounds. The rebels were beaten back.

During the night both parties prepared to renew the conflict. Scarcely had the sun of the next day risen, ere the roar of battle again ran along the lines. The billows of war rolled to and fro, through the ravines, and the jungles, and the massive forest, and the dead and dying were strewed around like autumnal leaves. Night closed the scene, and the rebels were again baffled.

At night the army was posted along a line six or eight miles in length. The Second Corps camped at the old battle-ground at Chancellorsville. The Fifth, under General Warren, was at the Wilderness Tavern, and the Sixth, under General Sedgwick, at Germania Ford, where LieutenantGeneral Grant and General Meade established their head-quarters.

On Thursday morning, before the dawn of day, the reveillé summoned the troops to resume their march. They moved in three columns, by roads tending to the south. General Warren was on the right, General Hancock occupied the centre, and General Sheridan, with his cavalry, covered the extreme left. The army had not proceeded far before there were indi- cations that the enemy was advancing directly from the west, in great force, to fall upon the centre of our line and break through it. General Grant selected some rolling ridges, posted his troops, threw up some hasty breastworks, and awaited the onset. The line of battle thus formed extended nearly five miles, running northwest and southeast. General Sedgwick held the right, General Warren the centre, and General Hancock the left. They were in the midst of the Wilderness, and the ground was covered with a dense growth of pines and dwarf oaks, with such an impenetrable entanglement of undergrowth, as to render operations with cavalry or artillery almost impossible. About noon the battle commenced,. by an attack upon a portion of our line which had been sent forward a mile in advance to find the foe. The patriot troops, attacked by superior numbers, were compelled to fall back with the loss of two pieces of artillery. The retreating troops were soon met by reënforcements, and, after a sharp battle, the enemy were induced to move off to attack us at some other point.

It was manifestly the object of General Lee to fall, with all possible desperation, upon our army while on the march, and, breaking through the