ence of the public, even
of Congress; but, as he himself said, no other man possessed more of
that confidence. An honest German merchant wrote home to friends that
if the North could only exchange officers with the Confederates, the war
would be over in a few weeks. In the midst of the depression the
Secretary of the Treasury issued another $100,000,000 of greenbacks to
meet pressing needs; and to fill up the ranks of the armies a Federal
conscript law was enacted in March, 1863, only a little less drastic
than the Confederate measure which was said to "rob both the cradle and
the grave."

Under these circumstances Hooker moved half-heartedly upon Lee. The two
armies, the Union out-numbering the Confederate more than two to one,
met in the dreary and almost impenetrable forest, southwest of
Fredericksburg, known as the Wilderness, though the battle which
followed bears the name of Chancellorsville. For five days the bloody
work went on, with the result that Hooker retired beaten and humiliated
before his enemy. Lee and the South had also lost their greatest
general, Stonewall Jackson, and the people of the South were feeling to
the full the disasters of war. But Lee gathered his forces from Norfolk,
Petersburg, and Richmond, every regiment that could be spared, more than
80,000 men, and set his face once more toward western Maryland and
Pennsylvania, where he confidently expected to wrest a peace from the
stubborn North. The Army of the Potomac moved on interior lines toward
Gettysburg, leaving some regiments in Washington against an emergency.
The people of Pennsylvania and New York were panic-struck; a second time
the evils of war had been transferred from Southern to Northern
territory. Great cities have not been famous for self-control and
philosophy when their banks and their rich storehouses have been
threatened with ruin. Philadelphia and New York were no exceptions to
the rule, and if it had been left to them the war would have been
brought to a close before Lee crossed the Pennsylvania border.

Once more the Union commander was changed. Upon the modest shoulders of
General George Gordon Meade fell the heavy responsibility of saving the
riches of the Middle States and the cause of the Union, for all felt
that a Confederate victory in the heart of the North would bring the
tragedy to a close. Lee was so bold and confident that he was hardly
more cautious in the disposition of his troops than he had been when
fi