The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln on New Year's Day, 1863, was in every sense a statesmanlike and justifiable measure. It aroused the powerful anti-slavery sentiment of England in support of the Union, and neutralized Tory sympathy with the Confederacy; it strengthened the Union cause at home, and it showed that the National Government was not afraid to punish, and was resolved to weaken its enemies by the confiscation of their property.

CHAPTER XXXV.

General Grant Invests Vicksburg-The Confederate Garrison-Scenes in the Beleaguered City-The SurrenderHooker Defeated at Chancellorsville-Death of "Stonewall" Jackson-General Meade Takes Command of the Army of the Potomac-Lee Crosses the Potomac-The Battle of Gettysburg-The First Two Days-The Third Day-Pickett's Charge-A Thrilling Spectacle-The Harvest of Death-Lee Defeated-General Thomas, "The Rock of Chickamauga"-" This Position Must Be Held Till Night "--General Grant Defeats Bragg at ChattanoogaThe Decisive Battle of the West.

The Confederates made Vicksburg a position of marvelous strength. General William Tecumseh Sherman, who had proved his eminent talent as a commander under Grant at Shiloh, assaulted the bluffs north of the town on December 29, 1862, and was repulsed. General Grant, with the perseverance which he afterward exhibited at Richmond, fought battle after battle until he had Vicksburg completely invested. Commodore David D. Porter, with a formidable fleet, bombarded the stronghold from the river, while Grant's kept up a cannonade day and night from the land side. General John C. Pemberton had about 15,000 effective men out of 30,000 within the lines of the beleaguered city. Every day the situation grew more intolerable for the besieged. Rats were on sale in the market-places with

mule-meat. The people lived in cellars and caves, children were born in caves, and it is interesting to read in a diary of that fearful time that "the churches are a great resort for those that have no caves. People fancy that they are not shelled so much, and they are substantial and the pews good to sleep in." A woman wished to go through the lines to her friends, and on July 1 an officer with a flag of truce carried the request. He came back with the statement: "General Grant says no human being shall pass out of Vicksburg; but the lady may feel sure danger will soon be over. Vicksburg will surrender on the fourth." Confederate general present when this message was received, said: "Vicksburg will not surrender." But Grant was right. On July 4 silence descended upon Vicksburg. The simoon of shot and shell was over, and men and women and children crawled from their caves into the light of day. The river vessels poured in an abundance of provisions, and plenty succeeded starvation. General Pemberton surrendered 27,000 men as prisoners of war.

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General Hooker, notwithstanding his undoubted courage, proved no more fortunate than his predecessors in command of the Army of the Potomac. With 90,000 men he attacked Lee and 45,000 men at Chancellorsville, May 1 to 4. The Confederate commander was at his best in this fearful four days' struggle. Hooker, says a high Confederate authority, had guided his army "into the mazes of the Wilderness, and got it so mixed and tangled that no chance was afforded for a display of its mettle." Lee with inferior forces managed by consummate strategy to meet and overcome Hooker's subordinates in detail. Then he prepared for a crushing blow at Hooker himself, which the latter escaped by a timely retreat. The bombastic Order No. 49 which

followed this sweeping disaster for the Union arms did not deceive either President Lincoln or the people, who had once more seen the lives of thousands of our gallant troops sacrificed on the altar of shoulder-strapped incompetency. The killed and wounded in this battle numbered about 25,000, of whom more than half were Unionists. These figures repeat eloquently that real soldiers were waiting for a real general. The death of "Stonewall" Jackson at Chancellorsville was in no slight degree a compensation for Union losses.

The tide turned at Gettysburg. General George Gordon Meade succeeded Hooker in command of the Army of the Potomac. Meade was not a brilliant man, but he was a thorough soldier, and eminently free from that spirit of envy which was the bane of our armies, which had nearly driven Grant from the service, and which was responsible for the loss of more than one battle. Elated by Chancellorsville, Lee determined to invade the North. The South made an extreme effort to replenish its armies, and that of Northern Virginia was raised to about 100,000 men. With the greater part of this magnificent host, including 15,000 cavalry and 280 guns, Lee marched down the Shenandoah Valley, crossed the Potomac on the twenty-fifth of June, and headed for Chambersburg. Meade drew near with the army of the Potomac, and such_reinforcements as had been hastily collected in Pennsylvania on the news of the invasion. At Gettysburg the two armies met for the decisive battle of the war. Meade had on the field 83,000 men and 300 guns; Lee, 69,000 men and 250 guns. For three days the two armies contended with frightful losses, and with a courage not surpassed in ancient or modern warfare. The brave General John F. Reynolds lost his life in the first encounter, and General Winfield Scott Hancock

was sent by Meade to take charge of the field. On the second day occurred the desperate conflict for Little Round Top, which resulted in that key to the Union line being seized and held by the Union troops. Neither side, however, gained any decided advantage. On the third day Lee prepared for the grand movement known in history as "Pickett's charge. Fourteen thousand men were selected as the forlorn hope of the Confederacy. For two hours before the charge 120 guns kept up a fearful cannonade upon the Union lines. Meade answered with eighty guns. About three o'clock in the afternoon Meade ceased firing. Lee thought the Northern gunners were silenced. He was mistaken; they knew what was coming.

On moved the charging column, as the smoke of battle lifted, and the "tattered uniforms and bright muskets" came plainly into view. At an average distance of about eleven hundred yards the Union batteries opened. Shot and shell tore through the Confederate ranks. Still they marched on over wounded and dying and dead. Canister now rained on their flanks, and as they came within closer range a hurricane of bullets burst upon them, and men dropped on every side like leaves in the winds of autumn. The strength of the charging column melted before the gale of death; but the survivors staggered on. When the remains of the Confederate right reached the Union works their three brigade commanders had fallen, every field officer except one had been killed or wounded; but still the remnant kept its face to the foe, led to annihilation by the dauntless Armistead. The four brigades on the left of Pickett met a similar fate. "They moved up splendidly, wrote a Union officer, "deploying as they crossed the long sloping interval. front of the column was nearly up the slope, and within a few yards of the Second Corps' front

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and its batteries, when suddenly a terrific fire from every available gun on Cemetery Ridge burst upon them. Their graceful lines underwent an instantaneous transformation in a dense cloud of smoke and dust; arms, heads, blankets, guns and knapsacks were tossed in the air, and the moan from the battlefield was heard amid the storm of battle."

One half of the 14,000 perished in the charge. Gettysburg was over, and the tide of invasion from the South was rolled back never to return. Meade had lost about 23,000 men, and Lee about 23,000. Halleck, whose business as general-inchief seemed to be to annoy successful commanders, and irritate them to the resignation point, blamed Meade for allowing Lee to retire without another battle, but public opinion upheld the victor of Gettysburg, and Congress honored him and Generals Hancock and O. O. Howard with a resolution of thanks.

General George H. Thomas, a Southern officer of the Lee and Johnston rank in military capacity, who fortunately stood by the Union, saved Chickamauga from being a Union defeat that would have done much to offset Gettysburg and Vicksburg. Rosecrans had compelled Bragg to evacuate Chattanooga, and erroneously assumed that the Confederate commander was in retreat, when in fact he had been reinforced by Longstreet and was ready to risk another battle. The two armies met in the valley of Chickamauga. Operations on the Union side were chiefly a series of blunders which resulted in the right wing of Rosecrans' army being broken and driven from the field, leaving the brunt of the conflict to be borne by General Thomas with the left wing.

The magnificent stand made by Thomas against the victorious Confederates, gained for