rians from the trenches
were sought, each one by eager crowds; and the story of every cannonade
and skirmish and charge, told in honest but homely words, was burned
into the memory of intent listeners.

Slowly that summer wore itself away. Steadily that bloody history
traced itself out; punctuated, now by many a fierce and sudden rush of
crowding Federals--ever beaten back with frightful loss; again by rare
sorties from our line, when our leaders saw the chance to strike some
telling blow.

But spite of care in those leaders and superhuman endurance in the men,
the southern troops were worn with watching and steadily melting away.
Close, ceaseless fighting thinned their ranks; there were no more
men--even the youngest of the land, or its first borns--to take the
places of the lost veterans. General Grant's words were strictly
true--"the South had robbed the cradle and the grave!" The boasted army
of the North, led by her latest-chosen champion and strategist, was
kept at bay by a skeleton of veterans, barely held together by the
worn-out sinews and undeveloped muscle of old age and infancy.

Then the fall of Atlanta came!

The people were not to be deceived by platitudes about "strategic
purposes," or empty nothings about "a campaign to nullify it." They had
gotten now beyond that; and saw the terrible blow that had been dealt
them in all its naked strength. They felt that an army that had failed
to check Sherman, when it was behind strong works, would hardly do so
in the open field. They felt that he could now at his leisure bore into
the coveted heart of our territory; that the long-attempted "bisection
of the rebellion" was accomplished; that further aid, or supplies, from
that section was impossible. And then the people of Richmond turned
once more with unfailing pride, but lessening hope, toward the
decreasing bands that still held their own gates secure. But they saw
how the deadly strain was telling upon these; that the end was near.

But even now there was no weak yielding--no despairing cry among the
southern people. They looked at the coming end steadily and
unflinchingly; and now, for the first time, they began to speculate
upon the possible loss of their beloved Capital. It was rumored in
Richmond that General Lee had told the President that the lines were
longer than he could hold; that the sole hope was to evacuate the town
and collect the armies at some interior point for a final struggle that
might