back to Seminary Ridge
Vicksburg was surrendered, and the control of the mighty river passed to
the forces of the North.

But it was at Stone's River that the South was at the very pinnacle of
confidence and warlike power; and it was here that she was halted and
beaten back,--never again to exhibit such strength and menace. It was here
that the tide of the Confederacy passed its flood, henceforth to recede;
here that its sun crossed the meridian and began its journey to the
twilight and the dark. Southern valor was manifested in splendid lustre on
many a field thereafter, but the capacity for sustained aggression was
gone. After Stone's River, the Southern soldier fought to repel rather
than to drive his foe.

Yet Stone's River was almost a tale of triumph for the Confederacy.

"God has granted us a happy New Year!" was the message flashed to Richmond
at the close of the first day's fighting by General Braxton Bragg,
Commander of the Army of the Tennessee. Two-thirds of the Army of the
Cumberland had been hurled out of line, and now lay clinging with
desperation to the only road from which it could secure supplies, or by
which it could retreat, and to lose which meant destruction. There was
reason, therefore, in the Southern general's exultation, as he waited for
the morrow to give him complete success. He could not know that the army
upon which had been inflicted so terrific a blow was to gather new
strength out of the very magnitude of its disaster and to return such a
counter-stroke as would give it the field and the victory. Neither could
he see that his failure here meant failure for his cause; that because at
Stone's River success had not crowned his efforts, his own magnificent
army was to be pressed further and further from the territory it claimed
as its own; that Fate had here entered the decree,--against which all
appeals would fail,--for the preservation of the Federal Union and the
death of the Confederate States of America.

WILSON J. VANCE.

CHAPTER I

NORTH AND SOUTH IN 1862

Confederate enterprise, energy, and expectation were at the zenith in
1862. No other year saw the South with so promising prospects, with plans
of campaign so bold, with such resources, both latent and developed. Her
armies were at their fullest strength, for the flower of her youth had not
yet been destroyed in battle. Want and hunger had not yet begun to chill
the hearts of her people. Her political machinery, und