nd great danger of discouraging its spirit, while the position of the
South was in this respect the precise contrary. He was therefore the
better able to serve the State as a soldier, because throughout he
measured by a just standard the ulterior good or harm of success or
failure in his enterprises.

The affectionate confidence which existed between Lee and "Stonewall"
Jackson till the latter was killed at Chancellorsville had a parallel in
the endearing friendship which sprung up between Grant and his principal
subordinate, William T. Sherman, who was to bear a hardly less momentous
part than his own in the conclusion of the war. Sherman was a man of
quick wits and fancy, bright and mercurial disposition, capable of being
a delightful companion to children, and capable of being sharp and
inconsiderate to duller subordinates. It is a high tribute both to this
brilliant soldier and to Grant himself that he always regarded Grant as
having made him, not only by his confidence but by his example.

As has been said, Grant was required to remain on the defensive between
Memphis and Corinth, which mark the line of the Northern frontier at this
period, while Buell was advancing on Chattanooga. Later, while the
Confederates were invading Kentucky further east, attacks were also
directed against Grant to keep him quiet. These were defeated, though
Grant was unable to follow up his success at the time. When the invasion
of Kentucky had collapsed and the Confederates under Bragg were
retreating before Buell and his successor out of Middle Tennessee, it
became possible for Grant and for Halleck and the Government at
Washington to look to completing the conquest of the Mississippi River.
The importance to the Confederates of a hold upon the Mississippi has
been pointed out; if it were lost the whole of far South-West would
manifestly be lost with it; in the North, on the other hand, public
sentiment was strongly set upon freeing the navigation of the great
river. The Confederacy now held the river from the fortress of
Vicksburg, which after taking New Orleans Admiral Farragut had attacked
in vain, down to Port Hudson, 120 miles further south, where the
Confederate forces had since then seized and fortified another point of
vantage. Vicksburg, it will be observed, lies 175 to 180 miles south of
Memphis, or from Grand Junction, between Memphis and Corinth, the points
in the occupation of the North which must serve Grant as a b