e, "was strong by nature
and was made stronger by art. No troops could successfully assail it, and
no commanding general should have ordered it to be done."[1] Burnside was
superseded by Hooker, and the armies in Virginia did but little more
until spring.

[1] Life of General Robert E. Lee. D. Appleton & Co.

* * *

After the battle of Shiloh the Confederates made Chattanooga, Tenn., the
base of their operations in the Southwest. General Braxton Bragg, who
succeeded Beauregard in command in that region, invaded Kentucky, and
sought to drive the inhabitants into the Confederate service. A
sanguinary battle at Perryville resulted in the complete repulse of the
Confederates, who retreated into Tennessee, carrying with them a vast
quantity of plunder. General William Starke Rosecrans now came to the
front as a successful Union commander. With Grant's left wing he defeated
the Confederates at Iuka, September 19, and Corinth, October 3 and 4, and
as chief of the Army of the Cumberland, he fought one of the great
battles of the war with General Bragg at Murfreesboro, or Stone River,
December 31 and January 2. Never during the four years of conflict did
the troops on both sides fight more resolutely. The first day was rather
favorable to the Confederates. Little was done on New Year's Day, but on
January 2 the struggle was renewed more fiercely than before. The western
armies had caught Grant's instinct of never recognizing defeat. Charge
after charge was made, first by the Confederates, then by the Union
troops, and at length the Confederate line fell back, and did not charge
again. At midnight of January 4 Bragg retired in the direction of
Chattanooga. The killed, wounded and missing numbered over 20,000,
probably about evenly divided.

* * *

The Emancipation Proclamation, issued by President Lincoln on New Year's
Day, 1863, was in every sense a statesmanlike and justifiable measure. It
aroused the powerful anti-slavery sentiment of England in support of the
Union, and neutralized Tory sympathy with the Confederacy; it
strengthened the Union cause at home, and it showed that the National
Government was not afraid to punish, and was resolved to weaken its
enemies by the confiscation of their property.

CHAPTER XXXV.

General Grant Invests Vicksburg--The Confederate Garrison--Scenes in the
Beleaguered City--The Surrender--Ho