PART VIII.

LEE’S LAST CAMPAIGNS AND LAST DAYS.

I.

GENERAL GRANT CROSSES THE RAPIDAN.

In the first days of May, 1864, began the immense campaign which was to terminate only with the fall of the Confederacy.

For this, which was regarded as the decisive trial of strength, the Federal authorities had made elaborate preparations.  New levies were raised by draft to fill up the ranks of the depleted forces; great masses of war material were accumulated at the central depots at Washington, and the Government summoned from the West an officer of high reputation to conduct hostilities on what was more plainly than ever before seen to be the theatre of decisive conflict—­Virginia.  The officer in question was General Ulysses S. Grant, who had received the repute of eminent military ability by his operations in the West; he was now commissioned lieutenant-general, and President Lincoln assigned him to the command of “all the armies of the United States,” at that time estimated to number one million men.

General Grant promptly accepted the trust confided to him, and, relinquishing to Major-General Sherman the command of the Western forces, proceeded to Culpepper and assumed personal command of the Army of the Potomac, although nominally that army remained under command of General Meade.  The spring campaign was preceded, in February, by two movements of the Federal forces:  one the advance of General B.F.  Butler up the Peninsula to the Chickahominy, where for a few hours he threatened Richmond, only to retire hastily when opposed by a few local troops; the other the expedition of General Kilpatrick with a body of cavalry, from the Rapidan toward Richmond, with the view of releasing the Federal prisoners there.  This failed completely, like the expedition up the Peninsula.  General Kilpatrick, after threatening the city, rapidly retreated, and a portion of his command, under Colonel Dahlgren, was pursued, and a large portion killed, including their commander.  It is to be hoped, for the honor of human nature, that Colonel Dahlgren’s designs were different from those which are attributed to him on what seems unassailable proof.  Papers found upon his body contained minute directions for releasing the prisoners and giving up the city to them, and for putting to death the Confederate President and his Cabinet.

To return to the more important events on the Rapidan.  General Grant assumed the direction of the Army of the Potomac under most favorable auspices.  Other commanders—­especially General McClellan—­had labored under painful disadvantages, from the absence of cooeperation and good feeling on the part of the authorities.  The new leader entered upon the great struggle under very different circumstances.  Personally and politically acceptable to the Government, he received their hearty cooeperation:  all power