his own imagination with the Army of the Potomac. "When. before, in all history," asked Hawthorne, "do we find a general in command of half a million of men, and in presence of an enemy inferior in numbers and no better discipline than his own troops, leaving it still debatable, after the better part of a year, whether he is a soldier or no?" And Hawthorne's question was the question in the mind of the whole North-Had McClellan's antagonist, General Johnston, been at the head of a Confederate Army of the Potomac, equipped and numerous as was that capable force, what Northern man does not even now shrink from the thought of results that must have followed? Who can imagine that Jefferson Davis would not have found reasons for removing the Confederate capital to Washington?

The months of inactivity in the Army of the Potomac had been months of depression in the Confederacy. The South had been confident of speedy victory but the North had aroused itself to fight. Johnston's army had suffered. heavily from disease and as yet the military organization of the Confederacy was loose; a conscription of all white men between the ages of eighteen and thirty-five was provided for by the act of March 11th, and the term of all enlisted men was extended to three years. Lincoln would have McClellan advance at once upon Richmond, by land, while yet the way was open; McClellan had a plan for an advance by water, starting from the lower Chesapeake and approaching safely upon the Confederate capital. Looking backward, it seems almost incomprehensible that McClellan's policy should have been tolerated, but the explanation lies in the lack of a better man; Grant had struck a blow at Fort Donelson, but the eye of the North was set toward Richmond and the Army of the Potomac and its commander were not far from that capital.

On the 8th of March, the Merrimac, a Confederate ironclad, appeared in Hampton Roads. When the Gosport navyyard fell into the hands of the Confederates they found the United States steam frigate partially burned, sunk; they

raised her and covered her with iron plates. The work began in July. In October, the United States began building the Monitor, designed by John Ericsson; the Confederate iron-clad was completed shortly before the Monitor. Her arrival in Hampton Roads was immediately followed by her destruction of the Congress, a frigate of fifty guns, and the Cumberland, a sloop of twenty-four guns. The Union fleet was at her mercy.

As the Merrimac drew twenty-two feet she returned to Sewell's Point, just at evening, her officers not venturing to make the channel on a falling tide; they planned to return next morning and destroy the remainder of the fleet, including the Minnesota and several powerful men of war. News of the disaster alarmed Lincoln and his Cabinet; the Union navy was powerless before the Merrimac; she could enter and bombard every Northern port at her pleasure. Amidst the anxiety the Monitor, which had made the voyage down from New York in bad weather, steamed into Hampton Roads toward evening of the 8th and took a position from which she could defend the Minnesota. The Merrimac returned to the attack, early on the morning of the 9th: the Monitor interposed and began firing. The two iron-clads then joined battle. Save a slight indentation of the Merrimac's plates, she received no damage, but she was leaking; the Monitor was uninjured; a few men on the Merrimac were wounded by the concussion, and Lieutenant John L. Worden, commander of the Monitor, was blinded by a Confederate shot which struck the Monitor's sighthole, directly. This injury to her commander put her out of action for a few minutes, and the Merrimac's commander, Buchanan, interpreting the cessation of the firing as a sign of defeat, and fearing lest his ship might sink, she was leaking so badly, ran her ashore. The Monitor had saved more than the Union fleet; she had demonstrated that the Merrimac and vessels like her could be met on equal terms. More than this, the conflict, the first between iron-clads, sounded the knell of wooden ships of war; yet, at the time

of the encounter, the world did not grasp the significance of it all. A fleet of monitors was immediately constructed and the blockade of Southern ports became more complete as the war progressed.

The fall of Forts Henry and Donelson carried the Confederate line southward across central Tennessee; Missouri and Arkansas were under National control, through the successful efforts of General Curtis, but Memphis, Corinth and Vicksburg were military centres and strongly fortified by the Confederates. General Grant was not a favorite with General Halleck, who reported to McClellan his negligence in making reports. Then too, Grant's habits were not above criticism. McClellan ordered Halleck not to hesitate to arrest Grant, if the good of the service required it, and to give his command to General C. F. Smith. Halleck placed Smith in command of the expedition up the Tennessee. Grant made ample explanations of the apparent negligence in sending in reports, which satisfied Halleck. Just at this time General Smith was incapacitated from active service by an accident and Grant was restored to the command of the Army of the Tennessee. At Pittsburg Landing lay Grant with five divisions; General Lew Wallace with one division was at a point five miles below, called Crump's Landing. The Confederate army at Corinth, Mississippi, was the objective. General Buell's command, the Army of the Ohio, was to effect a conjunction with the Army of the Tennessee at Savannah, in western Tennessee. Grant appears to have had no anticipation of an attack at Pittsburg Landing. The Confederates under chief command of Albert Sidney Johnston lay at Corinth, where Johnston had joined Beauregard. This was April 3d. Beauregard was for remaining at Corinth but Johnston was resolved to take Grant by surprise and in the early morning of April 6th attacked him at Pittsburg Landing. General Halleck in his report of the battle that ensued denies that the Union army was taken by surprise; so, too, Grant and Sherman in their memoirs; but it does not appear that the Union commander

realized at first that the entire Confederate army of 40,000 men was attacking him. He was at breakfast, at Savannah, six miles away, when the attack opened; he ordered up Wallace, and sent word to Nelson, of Buell's army, to hasten from Savannah. It has been said by several military historians that the battle of Pittsburg Landing was fought not by General Grant but by his generals-Sherman, McClernand, Prentiss, and W. H. L. Wallace. Prentiss was forced to surrender and Wallace was killed. a charge General Johnston was wounded. He ordered his surgeon to attend to the wounded men; his own wound, a ball in the leg which severed an artery, thus neglected by his insistent care for others, proved fatal.

While leading

The purpose of the Confederates was to overwhelm the Union army, capture or destroy it. The first day's fighting was indecisive. Meanwhile the Union gunboats came up and shelled the woods, keeping up their fire all night and preventing the Confederates from getting rest. Sunday night, Grant and Buell met on the field and planned a general attack for next morning. The battle raged until mid-afternoon, when the Confederates retired; the Union army made no effective pursuit. The Union loss was 13,000; the Confederate, 10,700.

Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, as the battle is sometimes called, was the first of magnitude in the Civil War. More men were lost in it than Washington ever commanded at one time. Some military historians record that the arrival of Buell's army saved the Army of the Tennessee from destruction; others, that Grant could have saved the day without Buell's reinforcements. The Northern press, commenting on the battle, blamed Grant for carelessness: criticism was sharp and bitter and his retirement from the army was demanded, culminating, at last, in a strong appeal to Lincoln to remove him. Colonel McClure tells the whole story of public opinion at the time. "So much was I impressed with the importance of prompt action on the part of the President, after spending a day and evening in