scape into Virginia.

General Grant was now placed at the head of the Union forces and Lee
found he had other metal with which to deal. Grant was not only made of
different material but he could profit by the experience of his
predecessors. Then, too, Grant had the great resources of the North
behind him and the confidence of President Lincoln. Lee could never
replace the 30,000 veterans lost at Gettysburg, but Grant could lose
later 80,000 and the government was amply able to replace three times
that number. Grant now commenced to starve Lee out, to wear the
Confederacy threadbare. The history of the war from now until the close
of the war is a series of flanking movements carried on by two most
skillful generals. At last Lee was obliged to surrender on the 9th of
April, 1865.

After the war he became president of Washington and Lee University, his
great popularity and good management gaining for it a large patronage.
He died on the 12th of October, 1870.

HENRY WILSON.

Great honor is due any man who rises from the shoe-maker's bench to be
Vice-President of the United States. Such a man was Henry Wilson, who
was born at Farmington, New Hampshire, February 16th, 1812. When yet a
mere child he was apprenticed to a farmer, whom he was to serve until of
age. Eleven long years did he serve this man, receiving only about one
year's schooling during that time, but he borrowed books and read
nearly one thousand volumes during the "wee sma' hours" of his
apprenticeship. Upon obtaining his majority he started on foot for
Natick, Massachusetts, and entered the town with all his worldly
possessions in a bundle. Obtaining employment as a shoemaker he was thus
occupied for the next two years. His course of reading, so faithfully
followed, had made him proficient in history, but thirsting for
additional knowledge he decided to attend school with the money he had
saved. About this time he went to Washington, when the sight of slaves
bought and sold excited his sympathy, and he decided to forever oppose
with all his might the institution of bondage, which he always did, no
matter how found. Upon his return he found his earnings swept away by
the failure of the man to whom he had intrusted them. Accordingly he
resumed the shoe business, but his light was beginning to be seen. He
was invited to partake in the anti-slavery meetings, then so frequent in
Massachusetts, and actively engaged in the campaign in which Harrison
was