he was a new man, repeatedly
displaying not only the soldierly qualities of iron courage and a
thorough grasp of the practice of fighting, but moral qualities of a
high order, a splendid tenacity in disaster and hope deferred, and in
victory a noble magnanimity towards the conquered. One wishes that the
story could end there. But it must, unfortunately, be added that when at
last he laid aside his sword he seemed to lay aside all that was best in
him with it, while the weaknesses of character which were so conspicuous
in Mr. Ulysses Grant, and which seemed so completely bled out of General
Grant, made many a startling and disastrous reappearance in President
Grant.

Grant arrived at Washington and saw the President for the first time.
The Western campaign he left in the hands of two of his ablest
lieutenants--Sherman, perhaps in truth the greatest soldier that
appeared on the Northern side, and Thomas, a Virginian Unionist who had
left his State at the call of his country. There was much work for them
to do, for while the capture of Vicksburg and its consequences gave them
the Mississippi, the first attempt to invade from that side under
Rosecrans had suffered defeat in the bloody battle of the Chickamauga.
Sherman and Thomas resolved to reverse this unfavourable decision and
attacked at the same crucial point. An action lasting four days and full
of picturesque episodes gave them the victory which was the
starting-point of all that followed. To that action belongs the strange
fight of Look Out Mountain fought "above the clouds" by men who could
not see the wide terrain for the mastery of which they were contending,
and the marvellous charge of the Westerners up Missionary Ridge, one of
those cases where soldiers, raised above themselves and acting without
orders, have achieved a feat which their commander had dismissed as
impossible. To the whole action is given the name of the Battle of
Chattanooga, and its effect was to give Sherman the base he needed from
which to strike at the heart of the Confederacy.

Grant in Virginia was less successful. An examination of his campaign
will leave the impression that, however superior he was to previous
Northern commanders in energy, as a strategist he was no match for Lee.
The Southern general, with inferior forces, captured the initiative and
did what he chose with him, caught him in the Wilderness as he had
previously caught Hooker, and kept him there on ground which gave eve