include all that part of Kentucky west of the Cumberland River. In this section were two Confederate strongholds, Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland. His military judgment told him that these forts ought to be and could be taken, but he had difficulty in getting the consent of General Halleck, his superior officer, to proceed against them. No time was lost after the consent was given. A fleet of iron-clad gunboats, under Commodore Foote, took part in the expedition, and so effectively that it captured Fort Henry by the time Grant reached it. He immediately marched against Fort Donelson, where there was a garrison of twenty thousand men, under Buckner and other generals. The gunboats went round by the Ohio to join in the assault.

For three days Grant, aided by Foote, kept up a close siege, extending his lines so as to cut off escape, and repelling every attack; then Buckner, finding that his case was hopeless, sent out a flag of truce to ask for terms of surrender. Grant's reply was brief, stern and to the point:

"No terms but unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works."

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That settled it; Buckner immediately surrendered. Fifteen thousand men, three thousand horses, and a great quantity of arms and military stores were captured. The country was electrified by the news. was the first great victory for the North. U. S. Grant was said by the people to mean "Unconditional Surrender Grant," and he sprang at once from comparative obscurity into a popular hero of the war. Grant was never again left out of sight. The eyes of the whole nation followed his every move. The Govern

ment rewarded him by making him a major-general. Donelson was taken in February, 1862. In April Grant was at Shiloh, on the Tennessee River, where, on the 6th, he was attacked by surprise by Albert Sydney Johnston and came seriously near a disastrous defeat. All day Sunday the battle raged, several thousand Union prisoners were taken, and Grant's army was driven back a mile from its first position. The night that followed was one of gloom to the army. The brave Johnston had fallen, but he had left able leaders behind. Grant was one of the few whose spirit was unshaken. When he came to his tent that evening he said to his staff:

"Well, it was tough work to-day, but we will beat them out of their boots to-morrow.'

His cool composure and stirring words were like a breath of balm to the weary and depressed officers, who now saw that they had a fighter at their head.

He kept his word. Reinforcements under Buell came up during the night and the next day the battle was resumed as hotly as before. It ended in the Confederates being broken and driven back. Nightfall found Grant and his army in possession of the field and the enemy in full retreat. It was the first great field fight of the war, and Grant was again a victor. His stock was rising fast. He had proved himself, as his wife once said of him, "a very obstinate man."

Little of importance was done in the West during the remainder of 1862, but when the spring of the next year opened Grant began active operations against the strong Confederate post at Vicksburg, a fortified town on a high bluff overlooking the Mississippi. How to capture it, and by so doing open the great

river to Union gunboats, was the problem he had long in mind. For eight months he worked at it. Sherman made an attack on it and failed. He could not get at it in the rear; he could not attack it in front; swamps and bayous defended it; he tried to get at it by cutting a canal across a bend of the river, but a storm spoiled his work; great numbers of his men were sick, and many of them died; there was a clamor at Washington to have Grant removed, but the President, who had faith in him, refused, determined that this persistent fighter should have his chance.

In the end Grant determined to attack Vicksburg from below. On a dark night in the spring of 1863 the gunboats ran past the batteries. Then the army marched down the west shore of the river, crossed it below the city, and was at length in the rear of the stronghold, having cut loose from all communications. A series of battles followed, in all of which Grant was successful. General Pemberton was driven back into Vicksburg, his supplies were cut off, and the place was besieged. For two months the siege was kept up. Several attacks were made, with much loss of life and little gain, but the grim besieger never let go his hold and fought off the enemy in his rear. In the end famine came to his aid. The garrison and the people were starving. At length, on the 3d of July, 1863, Pemberton asked for terms, and on the 4th surrendered his whole army, thirty thousand strong. It was the day of Lee's retreat from Gettysburg and the North was in exultation. The general feeling was that the backbone of the Confederacy was broken. Yet its broken backbone did not prevent it from keeping up the fight for nearly two years more.

The two years of war through which the country

had passed had taught President Lincoln and his advisers one thing: that they had one general who could conduct campaigns and win battles. When some fault-finders complained to the President that Grant drank too much whiskey, that long-headed humorist replied that he wished he knew what brand of whiskey General Grant used, as he would like to send some of the same brand to the other Union generals.

Grant had been major-general of volunteers. He was now raised to the same rank in the regular army, and in October, 1863, was given command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, having under him such able commanders as Sherman, Thomas, Hooker, and Burnside. The point of interest was now the town of Chattanooga, in the valley of the Tennessee River, where this stream bends down into Alabama. Here in September the Union armies had been badly beaten in the hard-fought battle of Chickamauga, and General Thomas was now in Chattanooga, hemmed in by the Confederate forces, with his men and horses in danger of starvation. Overlooking the town is the lofty Lookout Mountain, two thousand feet high, and two miles eastward rises Missionary Ridge, five hundred feet high. General Bragg, with the victorious Confederate army, held both these positions, which were strongly fortified.

Grant lost no time. He had been hurt by a fall from his horse, but as soon as he could get out of bed he set out for East Tennessee, telegraphing to General Thomas from Nashville: "Hold Chattanooga at all hazards. I will be there as soon as possible."

Thomas's answer showed the type of man he was: "We will hold the town till we starve."

Grant's work was prompt and decisive. He put new spirit into the men by the quickness with which he broke Bragg's hold on the river and opened the way for supplies. In a month after his arrival he had everything ready and then he launched his army against Bragg's mountain posts. On November 24 was fought the "battle above the clouds " and Lookout Mountain was taken. On the 25th Grant's men charged up the face of Missionary Ridge, swarmed into the strong Confederate works at the summit, and drove out Bragg's army, capturing many prisoners. and guns. Since the war began up to this time Grant had taken about ninety thousand prisoners and nearly five hundred guns.

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It was evident to the whole country by this time that a great soldier had come in Ulysses S. Grant. Grant is the first general I've had," said the President. "He hasn't told me what his plans are. don't know and don't want to know; I am glad to find a man who can go ahead without asking me to be the general as well as the President."

The demand of the country now was that Grant should be made commander-in-chief of all the Union armies, and this demand President Lincoln was very glad to accept. He was promoted lieutenant-general, a rank which only General Scott had borne before him, and on the 12th of March, 1864, he was appointed commander-in-chief. He had work cut out for him. Hitherto he had not met in battle the greatest of the Confederate commanders, Robert E. Lee. Since the battle of Gettysburg the two armies in Virginia had been facing each other, Lee on the defensive, Meade moving up and down, hesitating to strike.

Grant did not hesitate. He took hold with vim.