THE GREATEST CAMPAIGN IN AMERICAN HISTORY.
On the morning of the 9th of March, 1864, General Grant was commissioned
Commander-in-Chief of the Federal army, which on the 1st of
May numbered 662,345 men. This chieftain could boast a phenomenal
career. An ex-officer of the United States who had been cashiered for
drunkenness, at the opening of the war he was an obscure and improvident
tanner at Galena, Illinois. Appointed to the command of a regiment
from that State, his promotion had been rapid, and through the
unstinted praise of the Northern press he had been elevated in the fitful
minds of that people into a hero of the first magnitude. It was, consequently,
their sanguine expectation that the recent disasters to the Federal
arms under McClellan, Burnside and Hooker, would be speedily retrieved,
and that the victorious Stars and Stripes would soon float above
the doomed dome of the Confederate Capitol. They had forgotten that
the ragged Army of Northern Virginia still lay between them and the
last proud consummation.
Before entering upon the history of this, the most momentous campaign
recorded in the annals of the American continent, let us consider
for a moment the two armies which were to play the prominent parts in
the grand drama.
During the winter of 1863-4 they lay confronting each other on the
banks of the Rapidan—the Federals on the North and the Confederates
on the South. In April the new commander of the Army of the Potomac
re-formed that body into three corps, and re-distributed the troops
before composing the 1st and 3d corps. Hancock was placed in command
of the 2d; Warren of the 5th and Sedgwick of the 6th. The
entire force numbered 140,000 men. To oppose this mighty army was
that of the Army of Northern Virginia, which now had been reduced to
60,000 men. It, too, consisted of three corps, under the command of
Ewell, Hill, and Longstreet, respectively; and at the time of the Federal
advance, that of the first named lay upon the banks of the Rapidan, the
second at Orange Court House, and the third at Gordonsville.
The early days of May witnessed the beginning of the memorable campaign.
On the 4th, orders were given for an advance, and the same day
the Federal army moved southward from Culpeper Court House, and
on the 5th passed the Rapidan at Ely's and Germania fords, with
Burnside's division in the lead, and the
