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ing Washington City, I received General Thomas' dispatch announcing his attack upon the enemy, and the result, as far as the battle had progressed. I was delighted, All my fears and apprehensions were dispelled. I am not yet satisfied but that General Thomas, immediately upon the appearance of Hood before Nashville, and before he had time to fortify, should have moved out with his whole force and given him battle, instead of waiting to remount his cavalry, which delayed him until the inclemency of the weather made it impracticable to attack earlier than he did. But his final defeat of Hood was so complete, that it will be accepted as a vindication of that distinguished officer's judgment."

Thomas had been more than vindicated, and it had confirmed him in the good opinion of his superiors and the army at large, as a cool, determined and far-seeing general. For this achievement he was appointed Major-General in the regular army, to date from the 15th day of December, the date of his victory at Nashville.

Thus closed the year 1864. At every point the armies of the Union had been victorious, " everywhere the rebellion was reeling and staggering beneath the blows which were dealt it."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE FINAL VICTORY.

The fourth year of the war was now entered upon. The final overthrow of the Rebellion was near at hand. It was evident, not only to the North and foreign powers, but the South, also, that their affairs were hopeless, and that a prolongation of the conflict could only prolong the reign of misery and death. Throughout the entire North there was a desire for peace, and a willingness to concede almost any terms consistent with national honor and territorial integrity.

President Lincoln, during the latter part of the winter of 1864-5, visited the army in front of Petersburg, and for the first time witnessed war in all of its horrors. His humane nature was deeply stirred by the revolting spectacle. Headley, in his "Sherman and His Campaign," in speaking of this visit, says:

"He walked over ground covered with bodies of the slain, more numerous than he could count or cared to count. He saw living men with broken heads and mangled forms, and heard the hopeless groans and piteous wails of the dying whom no human hand could save. He witnessed the bloody work of the surgeons,-those carpenters and joiners of human frames,--and saw amputated legs and arms piled up in heaps, to be carted away like the offal of a slaughter-house; and he turned from the horrid sight, exclaiming, 'This is war, horrid war--the trade of barbarians.' Appealing to his principal officers, he inquired, 'Gentlemen, is there no way by which we can put a stop to this fighting?'"

The Rebel Government had madly resolved to overthrow free institutions, and they refused to listen to any terms whatever which would tend to a reconstruction of the Union divested of slavery and State rights doctrines. To the Nationals, nothing was left but to strike, with all their strength, the final blows. The stirring events which followed, and the magnificent combinations which were brought to a triumphant conclusion, if told in detail, would

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require another volume. Suffice it to say, that in March, 1865, General Canby was advancing from New Orleans. against Mobile, to co-operate with Admiral Farragut; after a hard-fought and desperately contested battle at Blakely, the city surrendered on the morning of April 13.

General J. H. Wilson, with a cavalry expedition of fifteen thousand men, was sent out from Thomas' command

in Middle Tennessee, to co-operate with General Canby, in the reduction of Mobile. Sweeping over the region watered by the Tombigbee and Black Warrior Rivers, they captured Selma after a hard fight with Forest's Cavalry and Taylor's Infantry, capturing many prisoners and guns, and destroying all public property, stores and cotton; moving rapidly to Montgomery, he entered it unopposed on the morning of April 12. The Rebel Commander Adams, not waiting for his arrival, had set fire to ninety-five thousand bales of cotton before he fled. The "original" capital of the Confederacy was now in the hands of the Federals, and the "Stars and Stripes" were unfurled in triumph over the State House where, four years previous, the first Confederate flag was given to the breeze, upon its adoption as the ensign of the Confederacy by the "Provis ional Government," at Montgomery, March 4, 1861. Stopping two days only at Montgomery, his columns swept eastward across the State into Georgia, capturing Columbus, and West Point, reaching Macon on the 20th. Here he was informed of the surrender of Lee to Grant, and at once suspended hostile operations in accordance with an arrangement between Sherman and Johnston, which is mentioned later on. During the raid Wilson captured five fortified cities, two hundred and eighty-eight pieces of artillery, six thousand eight hundred and twenty prisoners, and destroyed a vast amount of property. He lost seven hundred and twenty-five men, ninety-nine of whom were killed.

General Stoneman was sent from East Tennessee with a cavalry force into North Carolina, to destroy railroads and military resources, and release the starving Union sol

diers at Salisbury, North Carolina, all of which was gallantly accomplished.

General Hancock had been sent to Winchester to guard against a Rebel raid north, through the Shenandoah Valley, or to make an advance south, as might be expedient. General Sheridan had attacked and badly used up General Early, at Waynesborough, capturing one thousand, six hundred prisoners, eleven guns, seventeen stand of colors, and two hundred loaded wagons.

General Terry captured Fort Fisher at the entrance of Cape Fear River, January 15, 1865, opening the port of Wilmington to the Union forces, and compelling its abandonment by the Rebels. Fort Fisher had previously gallantly resisted a combined naval and army attack under General Butler and Admiral Porter. This capture did not attract much attention in the North at the time, owing partly to the fact that there were other more momentous operations of the army that engrossed public attention. Alexander H. Stephens, in speaking of its importance to the South, in his history, says: "The closing of the port of Wilmington (the result of that capture) was the complete shutting out of the Confederate States from all intercourse by sea with foreign countries. The respiratory functions of external trade, so essential to the vitality of all communities, had been performed for the whole Confederacy, mainly, for three years, through the small aperture of the little port, choked to wheezing, as it was, by a cordon of armed ships drawn around its neck."

General Sherman commenced his northward march from Savannah with an army of sixty thousand men, moving in four parallel columns, several miles apart, the troops mainly subsisting on the country through which they

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