was taking every advantage of his early morning tactics. Hood makes haste to recall his brigades from his right. But too late; his left is turned; his advanced lines there are no longer tenable.

Schofield now pushed his reserve corps well around Hood's left and toward his rear. Again the Federals advance, and while Hood is forced to shift his lines to meet Schofield, the Fourth Corps dashes over his second line of works in front. Baffled, bewildered, beaten, but still fighting obstinately, Hood yields his entire line of works and is crowded back toward the Overton Hills. He loses battery after battery and flag after flag. Will his columns break before the resistless Federal onsets, before gradually concentrating ranks filled with the enthusiasm of victory? Wood is already beyond the Granny White road and has half the Confederate lines in his possession. Schofield has scaled the heights two miles beyond Wood, and is battling with Lee's and Cheatham's men for a point in the Granny White road. Smith's men have captured ridge after ridge, hurling conquered division back upon division. Wilson is well to the south with his cavalry, feeling for the Franklin pike and Hood's rear. Sunset and darkness come to Hood's rescue. He is saved until to-morrow, but he has lost seventeen guns, twelve hundred prisoners, his entire line of works, a vast number of men killed and wounded and, worst of all, a battle which he courted and for which he waited till waiting must have become irksome.

Thomas' plans of battle had all been carried out successfully, and his losses had not been great. His slowness had come to his rescue and he had redeemed provoking tardiness with sweeping victory. He had been true to his resources and methods, had operated cautiously, acted conscientiously, and there was something substantial to speak for it. It was of this victory that Grant learned on the morning of December 15th at Washington, and over it he joined his congratulations with those of

the President and authorities. None were warmer than he in their tributes to Thomas' strategy and perseverance, and none felt relief from such a load as the old veteran's dispatch gave: "Attacked enemy's left this morning; drove it from the river, below city, very nearly to Franklin pike, distance about eight miles." Grant need not now go West, nor further entertain the, to him, disagreeable thought of disturbing one whose ability he admired, whose character he loved, whose methods only had become the subject of question.

All the night Hood was busy forming his lines and fortifying his position on the Overton Heights, five miles south of Nashville. Here he would be more concentrated and stronger than before. He was brave, seemingly not discouraged, eager for another fray, which he expected on the morrow of December 16th. Thomas too was eager. Cavalry fighting began at dawn. Again Thomas pushed Steedman forward on his left. The Fourth moved southward along the Franklin pike, feeling for the enemy. By noon the Federal columns were in front of the Confederate position, and it was apparent that even a harder battle than that of the day before must be fought. Wood was on Steedman's right, and Schofield and Smith further to the right. Thomas reconnoitered the enemy's position for a long time. It was not until 3 P. M. that he ordered an attack. Again Steedman and Wood were to bear the brunt of it. The artillery opened, and they marched up the rugged slopes to the assault on the enemy's right. The Federal ranks suffered fearfully, but despite the wide gaps hewn through them, they clambered up the steep fronts and broke over the parapets. Colored troops vied with white in this bloody onset. Ere they could plant their flags, the Confederate reserves rose up and poured volleys of musketry into the ranks of the exulting Federals. They melted away before this merciless close range fire, and at last broke in retreat, leaving the ground strewed with dead and wounded. They

were rallied at the foot of the hill and stood ready for

another charge.

Thomas was off to the right, where McArthur was pushing a gallant charge. The Sixteenth had impetuously rushed up the slopes amid a raking artillery and musketry fire and, coming in by the flank, had actually captured the entrenchments against which the Twenty-third Corps was charging. The result was most demoralizing to the enemy. McArthur's trophies were three Confederate generals, a whole division of infantry, a dozen flags and twenty-seven cannon. Federal cheers were the signal for an assault all along the lines. And now it was more daring and persistent than ever. It was carried up and over the entrenchments everywhere. The foe went down before it, or broke into ruinous retreat. Guns, munitions, flags, prisoners, fell rapidly into the hands of the victors. It was nearing nightfall, and Hood was frantically engaged in saving what he could from the wreck. But it was despairing work, for the Fourth was in pursuit, and did not desist till deep darkness fell upon the scene.

Dawn of the 17th revealed the utter demoralization of Hood's retreat. The roads were strewed with arms, accoutrements and articles of war. The defeat had been crushing and the army never rallied. Pursuit brought prisoners continuously. Hood was ruined beyond possibility of recovery. On December 29th, General Thomas, in addressing his army, said: "You have diminished the forces of the enemy since it crossed the Tennessee river to invade the State, at the least estimate, fifteen thousand men, among whom were killed, wounded or captured eighteen general officers. Your captures from the enemy, as far as reported, amount to sixty-eight pieces of artillery, ten thousand prisoners, as many stand of small arms, and thirty to forty battle flags."

Hood called Forrest to his aid and beat a hasty retreat, pursued by Wilson, through Columbia and Pulaski to Bain

bridge on the Tennessee, where he crossed, on the 27th of December, and where Thomas ordered pursuit to cease. December 17th was a glorious day for Grant and the country. Word came from Thomas of the certainty and magnitude of his victory, and at the same time from Sherman that he had struck the sea and invested Savannah. The news filled the whole North with joy. Grant sent congratulations to both his generals and urged Thomas to pursue Hood till he broke him entirely up. He was already broken completely up, for his retreat beyond the Tennessee was followed by his removal and the succession of General Richard Taylor, by the furloughing of a great part of his troops, and the transfer of the rest eastward to augment the army now forming to operate against Sherman. Thus the boast of Jefferson Davis that Hood would carry the war into the North and redeem Tennessee came to nought in a single campaign lasting from November 21st to December 17th. It had cost a fine army, while Thomas' entire less did. not exceed ten thousand men, nearly half of which returned to the ranks, after recovering from their wounds. Grant ordered two hundred shotted guns to be fired into Petersburg on December 18th, in honor of Thomas and his splendid victories of Nashville, which had clarified the entire Western situation, left it without a formidable enemy, and vindicated the wisdom of all his grand strategic plans.

All this time Sherman was pushing his four columns by parallel routes through Georgia. He was meeting with little opposition, except here and there from State militia and Wheeler's cavalry, and was cutting railroads, destroying supplies, and carrying consternation to the Confederacy. He passed through, or near to, the principal railroad centres, and covered a front varying from ten to forty miles in width. The wonderful march through an enemy's country and away from any base of supplies was full of thrilling incidents, but without an action that could be reckoned as a battle. There was no

need for serious deflection, and in a few weeks from the start it became apparent that he could make any coast destination he might select. By December 10th, he reached the vicinity of Savannah, driving the armed enemy into the fortifications about that place.

The city was at once invested. General Hazen, of the Fourteenth, crossed the Ogeechee and, on December 13th, captured Fort McAllister, after a brief but sanguinary struggle, with one hundred and fifty prisoners and twenty-two guns. This fort commanded the entrance to Ossabaw Sound. Its capture enabled Sherman to open communications with Rear-Admiral Dahlgreen, in command of the blockading squadron off Savannah. Sherman met him and arranged for a combined attack on the place. But on the night of the 21st, Hardee evacuated the city, crossing to the north side of the Savannah river. Sherman entered at once, and found one hundred and sixtyseven pieces of artillery and much valuable property. The country was electrified with his telegram to the President: "I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty heavy guns and plenty of ammunition, and also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton." Sherman had at last reached the sea, adding lustre to his name, and furnishing for military history one of its most startling and intense chapters. Sixty-five thousand men and thirty-five thousand animals had obtained abundant food for forty days, and had been short in nothing but bread. Their herd of five thousand cattle had grown to one of ten thousand. The teams were fresh, and not a wagon had been lost. Sherman had never been called upon to use more than a skirmish line for protection, and his total casualties were 103 killed, 428 wounded, and 78 missing. The spirit of his men was superb throughout.

Starting from his Atlanta base, on November 12th, he had, in pursuance of plans largely within his own discretion, but wholly in the line of Grant's original scheme of co-operation