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men under his command. Price and Van Dorn had

were advancing on the This came on the 3d and

combined their forces and town, threatening an attack. continued throughout the day, the Confederates fighting fiercely and gaining many advantages. Their success was so great that Van Dorn sent a triumphant despatch to Richmond, presaging victory, and that night his men rested on their arms, secure of conquest in the morning.

But the next day told a different tale. The Confederate veterans fought as courageously as before, even penetrating into the town and capturing the head-quarters of Rosecrans. But they were driven back, their ranks were swept with shot and shell, and before noon their hopes of victory were turned into certainty of defeat. With a wild shout of “Charge " the Federals poured over the parapets, rushed upon Van Dorn's men in a desperate hand to hand fight, and soon sent them flying in confusion to the shelter of the forest.

This ended the battle. Rosecrans gave his men a rest till next morning and then set out in pursuit, following and pushing the broken columns of the enemy for forty miles, while the cavalry kept on their track for sixty miles. Rosecrans was in strong hopes of capturing or destroying the whole fugitive army and even capturing Vicksburg. Grant did not agree with him, perhaps fearing that too extended an advance might prove dangerous, and the victor reluctantly sounded the recall. A few days after this striking victory, while the country was ringing with his praises, Rosecrans was relieved from his command and ordered to report at Cincinnati.

This was the result of events that had taken place in

Kentucky. The Confederate General Bragg had invaded that State and threatened Louisville, to which General Buell had hastened for its defence. On the withdrawal of Bragg he was followed by Buell, and their forces met in the battle of Perryville. This ended in the retreat of Bragg, who, however, was not severely pressed by the victor. The result of the whole campaign, indeed, was so unsatisfactory to the Government that Buell was removed from his command and Rosecrans ordered to succeed him. The Army of the Ohio, as it had been called, was now renamed the Army of the Cumberland.

Rosecrans found his new army in a sad condition. Marches, conflicts and misfortunes had wasted and demoralized it, leaving it with "its spirit broken, its confidence destroyed, its discipline relaxed, its courage weakened, and its hopes shattered." One-third of the number had gone, ten thousand of them being in hospitals, its cavalry was weak, and it was with great difficulty that its channel of supplies could be kept open, the Confederate cavalry being very active. Instead of following Bragg in his retreat, Rosecrans found it necessary to reorganize the army and to protect Nashville from danger, and winter set in before the men were in condition for effective service.

Meanwhile General Bragg, finding that he was not pursued, had halted and encamped at Murfreesboro, on the Stone River, about thirty miles southeast of Nashville. Having no idea that Rosecrans would undertake a winter campaign, he sent away a large portion of his cavalry, partly to annoy Grant, partly to try and break the railroad by which his antagonist obtained supplies from Louisville. Aware of this weakening of the enemy, Rosecrans thought that the

opportunity was too good to let slip, and at once put his army in motion.

On Christmas Day, 1862, the army lay in camp at Nashville. The following day found it on the march, streaming southward by all the roads leading to Murfreesboro. By evening of the 27th it was stretched out in a line more than three miles long, facing Bragg's forces on Stone River. Here the two armies lay till the night of the 30th, both prepared for battle. Rosecrans proposed to attack early the next day and seek to cut through the Confederate centre, but Bragg was too quick for him, making an attack in force on his right wing at sunrise.

Severe and desperate fighting followed. The assault of the Confederates proved irresistible. Union brigades were driven back in confusion, batteries were taken, and by eleven o'clock the Union right was completely broken up and the Confederate cavalry were in Rosecrans's rear. It seemed as if the day was lost. General Thomas, who commanded the centre, was exposed to a flank attack and obliged to fall back to a new position. Then the left wing was furiously assaulted and driven back, the only check to a complete victory for Bragg being the firm stand of Thomas and of Hazen's brigade of the left wing.

Such was the position at nightfall, Hazen alone of the whole Union army holding his original ground. Bragg seemed justified in claiming a victory. What, then, was his surprise the next morning to see his enemy standing confidently in order of battle on advantageous ground. The stubbornness of Thomas and Hazen had prevented a rout and a new line faced the Confederate forces, so strongly posted that on NewYear's Day only skirmishing was attempted, the ex

hausted armies regaining their strength for the next day's battle.

This began early on the 2d and for hours was as furious as before. The final result was due to a very heavy artillery fire, fifty-eight guns being massed and pouring their annihilating fire on the Confederate ranks. This was followed by a brilliant cavalry charge, which broke down all opposition. "In forty minutes," says Rosecrans, "the Confederates lost two thousand men and their entire line fell back, leaving four hundred captive." Bragg had enough. He held his ground during the next day, but in the night he retreated, leaving two thousand sick and wounded in the hands of the victors.

Rosecrans had won a great victory, but he followed it by months of exasperating inaction. The winter passed away, spring came and went, yet he still lay at Murfreesboro, getting ready for a new campaign, but with annoying slowness. The people of the North grew impatient, the authorities at Washington were equally impatient, frequent orders and remonstrances came from the war department, but it was the end of June before the dilatory leader consented to move. His movements then were very deliberate. July and August passed away and it was not until September 4 that he crossed the Tennessee, ready to deal with the large Confederate force which had gathered at Chattanooga.

The method now adopted by Rosecrans seemed a judicious one. Instead of attacking the strongly fortified position held by Bragg, he tried a flanking policy, threatening the railroads below Chattanooga over which Bragg received his supplies. The result was that the Confederate general hastily abandoned that

place and the Federals took it without opposition. In the days that followed Rosecrans scattered his forces widely and perilously in the pursuit of what he took to be a fleeing enemy, and discovered his mistake barely in time to concentrate his men in Chickamauga Valley. He had learned that Bragg was not fleeing in force before him and that Longstreet was bringing strong reinforcements from Virginia.

Battle was imminent, and on the 19th of September the blow fell, the conflict opening in an attack by Rosecrans on the enemy's right wing. All that day the battle raged and night fell with neither side victorious, though the Confederates had won several advantages. Late that night Longstreet arrived with his veterans from Richmond and the next day he poured his men into a gap left inadvertently in the Union centre, cutting the army in two and rolling both halves back in disorder and confusion. All seemed lost, and Rosecrans galloped in haste to Chattanooga to secure his trains and bridges and telegraphed to Washington that the Union army had been defeated.

The greater part of it really had been defeated, but one man, George H. Thomas, the "Rock of Chickamauga," saved the situation. All day long he held his post, repelling every charge and retarding Bragg's whole army. Not until night fell did he deliberately fall back, and when he reached Chattanooga it was in a firm and orderly march. We have told elsewhere how this place was held and Bragg was ultimately defeated. All we need say here is that on October 16 Rosecrans was removed from his command and Thomas appointed to succeed him.

The military career of General Rosecrans was near its end. Until now he had played an important part

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