that
he, too, was unfitted for the great task. Early in May, believing Lee's
army to be in retreat, he attacked it at Chancellorsville, only to be
defeated with a loss of seventeen thousand men. At the beginning of the
battle, Hooker had enjoyed every advantage of position, and his army
outnumbered Lee's; but he sacrificed his position, with unaccountable
stupidity, moving from a high position to a lower one, provoking the
protest from Meade that, if the army could not hold the top of a hill,
it certainly could not hold the bottom of it; and he seemed unable to
use his men to advantage, holding one division in idleness while another
was being cut to pieces.

It is, perhaps, sufficient comment upon the folly of dismissing
McClellan to point out that within seven months of his retirement, the
Army of the Potomac, which had been the finest fighting-machine in
existence on the continent, had lost thirty thousand men on the field
and thousands more by desertion, and had been converted from a confident
and well-disciplined force into a discouraged and disorganized rabble.

* * * * *

Meanwhile a new star had arisen in the West in the person of U.S.
Grant--"Unconditional Surrender" Grant, as he was called, after his
capture of Fort Donelson--the event which riveted the eyes of the Nation
upon him and which marked the beginning of his meteor-like advancement.
We have already spoken of Grant as President, and of his unfitness
for that high office. There are also many who dispute his ability as
a commander, who point out that his army always outnumbered that opposed
to him, and who claim that his victories were won by brute force and not
by military skill. That there is some truth in this nobody can deny, and
yet his campaign against Vicksburg was one of the most brilliant in this
or any other war. It might be added, too, that it takes something more
than preponderance of numbers to win a battle--as Hooker showed at
Chancellorsville--and that Grant did win a great many.

[Illustration: GRANT]

The truth about Grant is that he was utterly lacking in that personal
magnetism which made McClellan, Sheridan and "Stonewall" Jackson
idolized by their men, and which is essential to a great commander. He
was cold, reserved, and silent, repelled rather than attracted. He
succeeded mainly because he was determined to succeed, and hung on with
bull-dog tenacity until he had worn his opponent out. Not till