. The bottom of the river bristled with
torpedoes--kegs filled with powder, and surrounded with long prongs that
rested upon percussion caps. When a ship struck a prong it exploded the
cap and the powder, and again and again a boat went to the bottom. The
forts that protected the Mississippi thirty miles below the city were
sheathed with sand bags, and mounted a hundred guns; while a boom of
logs and chains crossed the river, and a fleet of fifteen vessels
including an armed ram and a floating battery were there to dispute
further progress. But Farragut lashed himself into the rigging of his
flag-ship, and his fleet stormed the passage, raked with chains and
shell. From the 18th to the 25th of April, a battle royal was waged with
splendid valour on both sides; but the forts were passed, the boom was
broken, the defensive fleet defeated, and Farragut had won New Orleans.
Farragut, David D. Porter and other heroes had their full share of war
and of glory not only here but later in Mobile Bay, and in 1863 with
Grant and Sherman at Vicksburg, and at Port Hudson on the Mississippi,
and Porter at Fort Fisher in December, 1864-January, 1865. Of absolute
maritime warfare there was none, except Winslow's sinking of the
_Alabama_, but in all the river and harbour fighting, against both
fleets and forts, there was endless demand for intrepidity, ingenuity,
large intelligence, and heroism--demands never failing of response.

The greatest soldiers of the North were McClellan, Sherman, Thomas and
Sheridan, and, towering above all, Grant. We may not linger in detail
upon them all, and can but mention George H. Thomas, the "Rock of
Chickamauga," stern as war, firm as granite, the bravest of knights;
William T. Sherman, audacious, fertile, perhaps the most brilliant of
them all; and Philip H. Sheridan, an organized thunder-storm, with the
swiftness of the war eagle, impetuous, loving adventure, the idol of his
men.

If at last Grant was the brain of the army, Sherman was, like Jackson to
Lee, its "right arm." From the beginning of his military career, Sherman
won the admiration and confidence of the government and the people of
the North. He achieved honours at Vicksburg, and from that hour on to
his victory at Atlanta and his march to the sea, his name and fame
steadily increased. His victories were won, not only by enthusiasm and
brilliancy, but by a mastery in advance of all the facts in the case.
His knowledge was microscopic, to t