I have said that the Kentucky campaign was not one of the most important operations of the civil war, but its successful issue was most welcome, coming at the time it did.  It came after a series of disasters, which had produced wide-spread despondency, and even dimmed the courage of President Lincoln.  It kindled hope in the despondent, and nerved patriotic arms to new and vigorous efforts.

“Why did Garfield, in two weeks, do what it would have taken one of you Regular folks two months to accomplish?” asked the President, of a distinguished army officer.

“Because he was not educated at West Point,” answered the officer, laughing.

“No,” replied Mr. Lincoln; “that wasn’t the reason.  It was because, when a boy, he had to work for a living.”

This was literally true.  To his struggling boyhood and early manhood, and the valuable experience it brought him, Garfield was indebted for the strength and practical knowledge which brought him safely through a campaign conducted against fearful odds.

His country was not ungrateful.  He received the thanks of the commanding general for services which “called into action the highest qualities of a soldier—­fortitude, perseverance, courage,” and a few weeks later a commission as brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from the battle of Middle Creek.

So Jim Garfield, the canal-boy, has become a general.  It is an important step upward, but where are others to come?

If this were designed to be a complete biography of General Garfield, I should feel it my duty to chronicle the important part he took in the battle of Chickamauga, where he acted as chief of staff to General Rosecranz, aiding his superior officer at a most critical point in the battle by advice which had an important influence in saving the day.  I should like to describe the wonderful and perilous ride of three miles which he took, exposing his life at every moment, to warn General Thomas that he is out-flanked, and that at least seventy thousand men are closing down upon his right wing, to crush his twenty-five thousand to fragments.  Sometimes I hope a poet, of fitting inspiration, will sing of that ride, and how, escaping from shot and shell, he plunged down the hill through the fiery storm, reaching Thomas in safety, though his noble horse at that moment fell dead at his feet.  I can not spare time for the record, but must refer my young reader to the pages of Edmund Kirke, or General James S. Brisbin.

Other duties, and another important field of action, await Garfield, and we must hurry on.  But, before doing so, I must not fail to record that the War Department, recognizing his important services at the battle of Chickamauga, sent him a fortnight later the commission of a major-general.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE CANAL-BOY BECOMES A CONGRESSMAN.