t He may pour out upon all the people of America
the Spirit and peace and charity, and that He will stop the great
evils which afflict them. We at the same time beseech the God of pity
to shed abroad upon you the light of His countenance and attach you
to us by a perfect friendship.

"Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, the third of December, 1863, of our
Pontificate 18.

"(Signed) Pius IX."

The dark hour was swiftly approaching when the South and her leader
would need the prayers of all God's saints.

Failing to persuade Bragg to reconsider his resignation, Davis appointed
General Hardee as his successor to command the Western army. Hardee
declared the responsibility was more than he could assume.

Under the urgent necessity of driving the Union army back from its
position at Chattanooga and heartsick with eternal wrangling of the
opposition, Davis reluctantly ordered Joseph E. Johnston personally to
assume command of the Army of Tennessee--and the fatal deed was done.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THE RAIDERS

In February, 1864, both North and South were straining every nerve for
the last act of the grand drama of blood and tears. The Presidential
election would be held in November to choose a successor to Abraham
Lincoln. At this moment Lincoln was the most unpopular, the most
reviled, the most misunderstood and the most abused man who had ever
served as President of the United States. The opposition to him inside
his own party was fierce, malignant, vindictive and would stop short of
nothing to encompass his defeat in their nominating convention. They had
not hesitated even to accuse his wife of treason.

Military success and military success alone could save the
administration at Washington. George B. McClellan, the most popular
general of the Union army, was already slated to oppose Lincoln on a
platform demanding peace.

If the South could hold her own until the first Monday in November, the
opposition to the war in the North would crush the administration and
peace would be had at the price of Southern independence.

No man in America understood the tense situation more clearly than
Jefferson Davis. His agents in the North kept him personally informed of
every movement of the political chess board. Personally he had never
believed in the possibility of the South winning in a conflict of arms
since the death of Jackson had been given its full significance in the
battle of Gettys