nt General and placed in command of all the armies of
the United States (March, 1864). He decided to carry on the war in
Virginia in person. Western operations he intrusted to Sherman, with
Thomas in command of the Army of the Cumberland. Sheridan came with
Grant to Virginia and led the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac. We
will first follow Sherman and Thomas and the Western armies.

[Illustration: GENERAL SHERMAN.]

[Sidenote: Sherman's army.]

[Sidenote: The march to Atlanta.]

[Sidenote: Hood attacks Sherman.]

423. The Atlanta Campaign, 1864.--Sherman had one hundred thousand
veterans, led by Thomas, McPherson, and Schofield. Joseph E. Johnston,
who succeeded Bragg, had fewer men, but he occupied strongly fortified
positions. Yet week by week Sherman forced him back till, after two
months of steady fighting, Johnston found himself in the vicinity of
Atlanta. This was the most important manufacturing center in the South.
The Confederates must keep Atlanta if they possibly could. Johnston
plainly could not stop Sherman. So Hood was appointed in his place, in
the expectation that he would fight. Hood fought his best. Again and
again he attacked Sherman only to be beaten off with heavy loss. He then
abandoned Atlanta to save his army. From May to September Sherman lost
twenty-two thousand men, but the Confederates lost thirty-five thousand
men and Atlanta too.

[Sidenote: Problems of war.]

[Sidenote: Plan of the March to the Sea.]

424. Plans of Campaign.--Hood now led his army northward to
Tennessee. But Sherman, instead of following him, sent only Thomas and
Schofield. Sherman knew that the Confederacy was a mere shell. Its heart
had been destroyed. What would be the result of a grand march through
Georgia to the seacoast, and then northward through the Carolinas to
Virginia? Would not this unopposed march show the people of the North,
of the South, and of Europe that further resistance was useless? Sherman
thought that it would, and that once in Virginia he could help Grant
crush Lee. Grant agreed with Sherman and told him to carry out his
plans. But first we must see what happened to Thomas and Hood.

[Sidenote: Hood in Tennessee.]

[Sidenote: Battle of Franklin, November, 1864.]

[Sidenote: Thomas destroys Hood's army, December, 1864.]

425. Thomas and Hood, 1864.--Never dreaming that Sherman was not in
pursuit, Hood marched rapidly northward until he had crossed the
Tennessee. He then spent three