thrust to the front? "For," as says Swinton, "it was
inevitable that the first leaders should be sacrificed to the nation's
ignorance of war."

In the South, the signs of exhaustion had not yet become grave. The
conscription act, passed in April, 1862, had kept the ranks full. The
hope of foreign intervention, though distant, was by no means wholly
abandoned. Financial matters had not yet assumed an entirely desperate
complexion. Nor had the belief in the royalty of cotton received its
coup de grace. The vigor and courage of the Confederacy were unabated,
and the unity of parties in the one object of resistance to invasion
doubled its effective strength. Perhaps this moment was the flood-tide
of Southern enthusiasm and confidence; which, after the Pennsylvania
campaign, began to ebb. It is not intended to convey the idea that the
South was prosperous. On the contrary, those who read the signs aright,
saw and predicted its approaching decline. But, as far as its power
of resistance went, it was at its highest when compared with the
momentarily lessened aggressiveness of the North. For the anti-war party
was doing its best to tie the hands of the administration; and, while
this in no wise lessened the flow of men and material to the front, it
produced a grave effect upon the moral strength which our chiefs were
able to infuse into their method of conducting the war.

III. HOOKER AND THE ARMY OF THE POTOMAC.

The unfortunate course of events during the early winter of 1862-63 had
resulted in a grievous loss of morale in the Army of the Potomac. The
useless slaughter of Marye's Heights was, after a few weeks, succeeded
by that most huge of all strategic jokes, the Mud March; and
Gen. Burnside retired from a position he had never sought, to the
satisfaction, and, be it said to his credit, with the warm personal
regard, of all. Sumner, whom the weight of years had robbed of strength,
but not of gallantry, was relieved at his own request; Franklin was
shelved. Hooker thus became senior general officer, and succeeded to the
command.

No man enjoyed a more enviable reputation in the Army of the Potomac. He
had forced himself upon its notice. From Bull Run, after which action he
is said to have remarked to Mr. Lincoln that he knew more than any one
on that field; through Williamsburg, where he so gallantly held his own
against odds during the entire day, and with exhausted ammunition, until
relieved by Kearney; before