trenches. All ranks were
leveled, and the South was as one band of brothers and sisters. All
formality and restraint were laid aside, and no such thing as stranger
known. The doors were thrown open to the soldiers wherever and
whenever they chose to enter; the board was always spread, and a ready
welcome extended. On the march, when homes were to be passed, or along
the sidewalks in cities, the ladies set the bread to baking and would
stand for hours in the doorway or at some convenient window to cut and
hand out slice after slice to the hungry soldiers as long as a loaf
was left or a soldier found.

With such a people to contend, with such heroes to face in the field,
was it any wonder that the North began to despair of ever conquering
the South? There was but one way by which the Northern leaders saw
possible to defeat such a nation of "hereditary madmen in war." It was
by continually wearing them away by attrition. Every man killed in the
South was one man nearer the end. It mattered not what the cost might
be--if two or a dozen soldiers fell, if a dozen households were put in
mourning, and widows and orphans were made by the score--the sacrifice
must be made and endured. The North had found in Grant a fit weapon
by which to give the blow--a man who could calmly see the slaughter
of thousands to gain an end, if by so doing the end in view could be
expedited. The absence of all feelings of humanity, the coolness
and indifference with which he looked upon his dead, his calmness
in viewing the slaughter as it was going on, gained for him the
appellation of "Grant, the Butcher." Grant saw, too, the odds and
obstacles with which he had to contend and overcome when he wrote
these memorable words, "Lee has robbed the cradle and the grave." Not
odds in numbers and materials, but in courage, in endurance, in the
sublime sacrifice the South was making in men and treasure. Scarcely
an able-bodied man in the South--nay, not one who could be of
service--who was not either in the trenches, in the ranks of the
soldiers, or working in some manner for the service. All from sixteen
to fifty were now in actual service, while all between fourteen and
sixteen and from fifty to sixty were guarding forts, railroads, or
Federal prisoners. These prisoners had been scattered all over the
South, and began to be unwieldy. The Federals under the policy of
beating the South by depleting their ranks without battle in the field
had long since ref