satisfied and hopeful; he authorized statement that the delay after
Chickamauga was simply strategic; and the impression went abroad that
Bragg and he had affected combinations now, which would leave Grant
only the choice between retreat and destruction.

If these tactics meant the detaching of Longstreet--said thoughtful
critics--then are combination and suicide convertible terms!

Neither was public feeling much cheered by the aspect of the war in
Virginia. Lee and Meade coquetted for position, without definite
result; the former--weakened by Longstreet's absence--striving to slip
between Meade and Washington; the latter aiming to flank and mass
behind Lee, on one of the three favorite routes to Richmond. The fall
and winter wore away with these desultory movements; producing many a
sharp skirmish, but nothing more resultful. These offered _motif_ for
display of dash and military tact on both sides; that at Kelly's Ford,
on the Rapidan--where the Federals caught the Confederates
unprepared--showing the hardest hitting with advantage on the Union
side. The compliment was exchanged, by a decisive southern success at
Germania Ford; but the resultless fighting dispirited and demoralized
the people, while it only harassed and weakened the army. Both looked
to the great shock to come; forces for which were gathering, perhaps
unseen and unheard, yet felt by that morbid prescience which comes in
the supreme crises of life.

The trans-Mississippi was now absolutely cut off from participation
in the action of the eastern Confederacy; almost equally so from
communication with it. Still that section held its own, in the warfare
peculiar to her people and their situation. Quick concentrations;
sharp, bloody fights--skirmishes in extent, but battles in exhibition
of pluck and endurance--were of constant occurrence. Kirby Smith--become
almost a dictator through failure of communication--administered his
department with skill, judgment and moderation. Husbanding his internal
resources, he even established--in the few accessible ports, defiant of
blockade--a system of foreign supply; and "Kirby Smithdom"--as it came
to be called--was, at this time, the best provisioned and prepared of
the torn and stricken sections of the Confederacy.

Note has been made of the improvement of Federal cavalry; and of their
raids, that struck terror and dismay among the people. During the
winter of '63-'64, Averill penetrated the heart of Virginia, s