re base of supplies and a safe line of retreat in any contingency,
while the occupation of a line from Atlanta to Mobile would, as
Grant remarked, "once more split the Confederacy in twain."

But while in Louisiana the troops stood still, awaiting the full
completion of Canby's exhaustive preparations, elsewhere events
were marching with great rapidity. On the 3d of June Grant's
campaign from the Rappahannock to the James came to an end in the
bloody repulse of Cold Harbor, with the loss of 12,737 officers
and men. On the 14th he crossed the James and sat down before
Petersburg. In the six weeks that had passed since the Army of
the Potomac made its way into the Wilderness, Grant had lost from
the ranks of the two armies of the Potomac and the James nearly as
many men as Lee had in the Army of Northern Virginia.(3)

While he was himself directing the movement of Meade and Butler
against Richmond and Petersburg, Grant ordered Hunter, who commanded
in the Shenandoah Valley, to march by Charlottesville on Lynchburg,
and sent Sheridan, with the cavalry on a great raid to Charlottesville
to meet Hunter; but Lee sent Early to intercept the movement, and
Early, moving with the speed and promptness to which Jackson's old
corps was well used, got to Lynchburg in time to head Hunter off.
Then Hunter, rightly deeming his position precarious, instead of
retreating down the valley, made his escape across the mountains
into West Virginia. This left the gates of the great valley
thoroughfare wide open for Early, who, instantly marching north,
once more invaded Maryland, harried Pennsylvania, and menaced
Washington.

It was at this crisis, when nothing was being accomplished in
Louisiana and everything was happening in Virginia, that Grant
ordered Canby to put off his designs on Mobile and to send the
Nineteenth Corps with all speed to Hampton Roads.(4) Canby understood
this to mean the First and Second divisions, and placed Emory in
command of this detachment. On the 30th of June the two divisions
began moving down the river to Algiers, and on the 3d of July the
advance steamed out of the river into the Gulf of Mexico with sealed
orders. When the steamer _Crescent_, which led the way, carrying
the 153d New York and four companies of the 114th, had dropped her
pilot outside of the passes, Davis broke the seal and for the first
time learned his destination. Within a few days the remainder of
the First division followed, with