alight upon the Union standards, and gained a victory which electrified the nation and the world. In the Tullahoma campaign he had exhibited a talent for strategy equal to Napoleon in the campaign of Ulm, and without the loss of a regiment, a gun or a stand of colors, had driven Bragg from his whole line of entrenched camps, and expelled him from Middle Tennessee.

Rosecrans had been too successful. He had raised himself to too exalted a height. The fatal halo of supposed invincibility glimmered around his head. No soldier ever was or ever will be absolutely invincible, but he who is believed to be so must maintain the reputation or fall to a lower level than what he rose from. Nay, he must not merely succeed thereafter in attaining the object at which he aims; he must attain it in the manner that public opinion marks out for him, and scarcely dare achieve less than the impossible.

The limits of this sketch will not permit a discussion of the campaign in August and September, 1863, and only the conclusions can be set down, which, by a prolonged and conscientious study of the whole history of that campaign, have been arrived at.

The object that Rosecrans had in view when he commenced his great movement on the 23d of August, 1863, was to relieve East Tennessee from Confederate occupation and get possession of that central key to the Confederacy, the city of Chattanooga. The place was defended by Gen. Bragg's army, which from the first was fully equal in numbers to that under Rosecrans and soon became greatly superior. The all-knowing soldier who commanded the Union army knew from the first that Bragg could easily be reinforced, that every effort would be made by the Confederate government to save Chattanooga, and that his own force was inadequate to the mighty task he had before him. Hence he begged, pleaded and implored for reinforcements which were within easy reach, which were persistently denied him, but which when the campaign was ended came up in such numbers that had a third of them been sent to Rosecrans before he began his march across the Tennessee and the mountains to manoeuvre Bragg out of Chattanooga, would have enabled him not only to get possession of that stronghold, but to utterly destroy the army opposed to him.

Chattanooga could not be obtained without a battle. To assail it directly would be simply madness. Rosecrans therefore began that splendid series of manoeuvres to the southward of the city which carried his army into Georgia and threatened the Confederate communications with Atlanta. Bragg retired out of the city and marched southward, taking up such position that he could, at any time, return on shorter lines and compel Rosecrans to fight a battle for the prize. The Union general expected this, and had prepared accordingly. But while he was concentrating his army, that which he had clearly foreseen occurred. From every quarter of the Confed

eracy troops were hurried to Bragg's assistance. From Mississippi, from Mobile, from Savannah they came, and from Virginia_the powerful corps of Gen. Longstreet was hurried to North Georgia to overwhelm the comparatively feeble army under Rosecrans. In round numbers, 40,000 Union soldiers were to contend with 75,000 Confederates, to see which would finally hold Chattanooga.

Before the Union army was fully concentrated the Confederates assailed it, and the awful battle of Chickamauga began. The first day the assailants were repelled at all points. The second day they rushed through a gap in our lines caused by a miswording or misunderstanding of orders, and separating the right wing of our army from the centre, overwhelmed that wing. Our centre and left stood firm; Rosecrans seeing this and that the enemy who had overwhelmed our right might push up the valley (which the right had been covering) into Chattanooga, hastened to rally the right, to get the troops left behind in Chattanooga as guards to our stores and reserve artillery, in proper shape, and to prepare a new position for the army at Rossville in case the centre and left should also be compelled to retreat. It was here he showed the greatness of the true soldier who leaves nothing to chance; it was here he specially proved his worthiness for the highest command. As fast as he could do so, he urged portions of the rallied troops to the assistance of that part of the army which still held the field; he sent word of all he was doing to the brave Thomas, who was so grandly resisting the enemy's onset, and gave new courage and confidence to that veteran by assuring him when he felt he could no longer hold his position on the field the new lines would be ready for his reception. It was this knowledge that inspired Thomas with the stern determination not to retreat in the face of the foe at all. And he did not retreat. He held his own until nightfall, suffering dreadful loss, but always inflicting more than he suffered, and when the last effort of the foe had been repelled, retiring leisurely to the new lines which the genius of Rosecrans had marked out for the army.

The next day the Confederate forces, who did not know that they had gained any victory, and who had really retired from the battle-field at night as far as our own soldiers had retired, came slowly and cautiously up towards the new Union lines, took a careful look at them, heard the loud cheers of the Union legion as Rosecrans rode along them, and decided not to attack! The great object of the campaign, the great prize of the battle, namely, the city of Chattanooga, was in possession of the National troops, and never again went out of their hands.

And this was the campaign, this the battle, with which some have associated the terms "failure" and "defeat!" The gallant Army of the Cumberland had crossed a great river, toiled over two chains of mountains, and, under the leadership of the brightest military genius that the war developed, had com

pletely deceived the enemy and manoeuvred him by masterly strategy out of his stronghold, then had baffled all his efforts to regain it, had fought nearly double its own numbers for two days, suffering a loss of 15,000 men and inflicting a loss of more than 18,000 upon the enemy, had held the field until it retired of its own choice and after all firing had ceased, then leisurely assumed the new position which its great leader had prepared, and then defiantly awaited another attack which its awfully punished foe did not dare to make. And it held the city it had won and for which the battle was fought. Was all this failure and defeat? The blood of every soldier who fell upon that gory field cries out against the falsehood!

Abraham Lincoln's clear eye perceived the truth; he saw that the skill of Rosecrans had assured relief to East Tennessee, had cut the line of the enemy's defence by rail, had secured the key that was to unlock the treasure-house of the foe, and had opened the way to the very heart of the Confederacy. He telegraphed Rosecrans, as well he might, "be of good cheer; we have unabated confidence in your soldiers, in your officers and in you.

And Rosecrans was of good cheer, and immediately devised the plans for reopening communications along the line of the Nashville and Chattanooga railroad, plans which others afterwards executed; for the clearsighted Lincoln yielded to some sinister influence; and the brilliant leader of the Army of the Cumberland, after a campaign which in all its aspects was one of the most successful known to history, and in the very midst of the city which his valor and genius had won, found himself summarily relieved of his command! It was the one act of measureless injustice and wrong which, while not Abraham Lincoln's fault, stains the annals of his otherwise spotless career.

On resigning his commission General Rosecrans went to California and became a citizen of that State. He was offered and declined the Democratic nomination for governor of California in 1867. He was also offered the nomination for governor by the convention of Independent Republicans held at Marysville, and declined. In 1868 he was nominated and confirmed as United States minister to Mexico, without consultation or knowledge on his part until officially notified thereof. He accepted this appointment on condition that he should be allowed carte-blanche to represent the

good will of the American republic towards Mexico.

In 1869 he returned to California and resumed the practice of his profession, namely, that of civil and mining engineering. It should be stated, however, that during his residence in Mexico he became thoroughly convinced that the mutual prosperity of Mexico and the United States would be promoted by the progress of Mexico under her own autonomy, and, acting in accordance with his carte-blanche, he urged the Mexican cabinet and other leaders to further and foster the construction of railroads. His efforts in this direction met with such success that the initiative period of Mexican development in this regard dates from the time of these earnest efforts on his part.

In 1869 he was also offered and declined the Democratic nomination for Governor of Ohio. In 1870 he memorialized Congress, urging the encouragement of commerce with Mexico. In 1872-3, at the instance of influential people in this country, and on the invitation of the president of Mexico, he supervised the legislation in favor of railroad construction among the various States of that republic. As a result of his presence in the country, and counsel given by means of public discussion in the prominent newspapers of the republic, the legislatures of seventeen Mexican States passed unanimously resolu tions urging the government to take favorable legislative action for encouraging the construction of railroads in Mexico. In six other States, whose legislatures were not in session, the governors sent, officially, strong messages to the general government in favor of the fostering of such enterprises. Thus, practically, in twenty-three States favorable legislation was enacted asking the govern ment to encourage railroad construction.

In 1881 he was urged by the workingmen of California to allow his name to be used by the Democratic party as a candidate for the Forty-eighth Congress, and on his consent thereto was nominated and elected. He was re-elected to the Forty-ninth Congress. During each of his congressional terms he was assigned, as representative, to important legislative and political duties. In June, 1885, he was appointed by President Cleveland to the position of Register of the United States Treasury, the duties of which office he is now performing with characteristic thoroughness and efficiency. Thus his career has been as useful and honorable in peace as it was patriotic and glorious in war.