fects
little or nothing. All that we reckon as gained, therefore, is the
loss of life inflicted on the enemy." With an army thus trained in
many combats, and hardened against misfortune, defeat in one or a
dozen battles decided nothing. General Grant seems to have
understood this, and to have resolutely adopted the programme of
"attrition"--coldly estimating that, even if he lost ten men to
General Lee's one, he could better endure that loss, and could afford
it, if thereby he "crushed the rebellion."

The military theory of the Federal commander having thus been set
forth in his own words, it remains to notice his programme for the
approaching campaign. He had hesitated between two plans--"one to
cross the Rapidan below Lee, moving by his right flank; the other
above, moving by his left." The last was abandoned, from the
difficulty of keeping open communication with any base of supplies,
and the latter adopted. General Grant determined to "fight Lee between
Culpepper and Richmond, if he would stand;" to advance straight upon
the city and invest it from the north and west, thereby cutting its
communications in three directions; and then, crossing the James River
above the city, form a junction with the left of Major-General Butler,
who, moving with about thirty thousand men from Fortress Monroe, at
the moment when the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan, was to
occupy City Point, advance thence up the south side of James River,
and reach a position where the two armies might thus unite.

It is proper to keep in view this programme of General Grant. Lee
completely reversed it by promptly moving in front of his adversary
at every step which he took in advance; and it will be seen that the
Federal commander was finally compelled to adopt a plan which does not
seem to have entered his mind, save as a _dernier ressort_, at the
beginning of the campaign.

On the morning of the 4th of May, General Grant commenced crossing the
Rapidan at Germanna and other fords above Chancellorsville, and by the
morning of the 5th his army was over. It appears from his report that
he had not anticipated so easy a passage of the stream, and greatly
felicitated himself upon effecting it so successfully. "This I
regarded," he says, "as a great success, and it removed from my mind
the most serious apprehension I had entertained, that of crossing
the river in the face of an active, large, well-appointed, and
ably-commanded army." Lee had ma