536. Results of 1862. The two contending armies had about the same relative strength at the end of the year as they had at the beginning; the losses in battles were nearly equal. The fact that nothing had been gained in the East was practically a defeat to the Union, but considering the achievements in the West, the results of the campaigns of 1862 were decidedly in favor of the North.

THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR-1863

WAR IN THE EAST-LEE'S SECOND INVASION OF THE NORTH 537. Plan-Position of the Armies-Federal Defeat at Chancellorsville. The Federal plan of war for 1863 was the same as that of 1862. Hooker, who superseded General Burnside in the command of the Army of the Potomac (December, 1862), spent some months in reorganizing and recruiting his forces. By May he had a fine army of some one hundred and twenty-five thousand men encamped on the Rappahannock. The Confederates, under Lee, were still in their quarters on the southern bank of the river.

General Hooker at length led the Army of the Potomac out of camp and placed it nearly opposite the line of Lee's communication with the South. The latter, seeing Hooker's intention, attacked and defeated the Federal forces at Chancellorsville and forced them back to the northern bank of the Rappahannock. In this battle the South lost one of her ablest leaders. Stonewall Jackson, while riding back to camp in the evening, was mortally wounded by an accidental shot from one of his own men. Jackson ranks among the world's greatest military commanders.

538. The Great Battle of Gettysburg, the Turning Point of the War. Encouraged by his success, Lee, with an army of seventy thousand men, now set out to invade the North for a second time. He passed around Hooker's army, which was falling back to protect Washington, and proceeded through Maryland, into Pennsylvania. The North was alarmed. The Army of the Potomac, about one hundred thousand strong, led by General George E. Meade, who had superseded Hooker, pursued Lee and endeavored to head him off, if possible, from Harrisburg and Philadelphia. The two mighty armies encountered each other on the famous field of Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, and after a battle of three days (July 1 to 3), the Confederate troops were defeated. They made a very skillful

retreat and were slowly followed by the tired Union troops across Maryland into Virginia, where the two armies con

fronted each other on the Rapidan (a branch of the Rappahannock). Here they went into winter quarters.

Gettysburg, the most famous battle of the war, was the only

one fought on northern soil. It put an end to Confederate invasion and may be regarded as the turning point of the war. With it, the cause of the South began to decline, not only in the East, but also in the West-for, only a day after Lee had been defeated by Meade at Gettysburg, Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg to Grant.

539. Lincoln's Gettysburg Address. The battlefield of Gettysburg was made a national cemetery. It was dedicated on November 19, 1863, on which occasion President Lincoln delivered his famous Gettysburg address:

"Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in Liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war; testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final restingplace for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate-we cannot consecrate-we cannot hallow-this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us, the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us-that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion-that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom-and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

CHAPTER XXXI

FROM THE BATTLE OF GETTYSBURG TO LEE'S SURRENDER AT APPOMATTOX-1863-1865

THE WAR IN THE WEST

540. Situation. It was evident that during the year 1863 the war in the West must center about Vicksburg on the Mississippi, and Chattanooga in eastern Tennessee, for

(a) Vicksburg, a strongly fortified Confederate city, deprived the Federals of the use of the rivers; furnished the Confederates with an easy passage for troops and supplies, and controlled the only remaining railroad extending through the Confederacy to the far West;

(b) Chattanooga was so situated as to control eastern Tennessee and the natural passage of Virginia to the Southwest. Grant was placed in charge of the Vicksburg territory, and Rosecrans in charge of that about Chattanooga. The Confederate forces in the West were commanded by General Joseph E. Johnston, who had recovered from the wound received at Fair Oaks, while General Pemberton was placed second in command. Owing to a difference existing between the two generals, their forces were divided; Pemberton was stationed at Vicksburg while Johnston had his headquarters at Jackson, ready to intercept Grant's approach on Vicksburg.

541. The Federals Capture Vicksburg. While events in the East had been tending toward the defeat of Lee at Gettysburg, Grant had tried plan after plan for attacking Vicksburg, but without success. Finally Admiral Porter with his gunboats ran the supplies down the river past the batteries in a terrific fire. Grant with his army marched from Holly Springs to Memphis, and having crossed the river, proceeded down the