ADDRESS TO THE TROOPS.

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Every desperate movement made by the traitors to regain their lost positions signally failed.

Grant was master of the field, and with all their savage strategy and barbarous cunning they could not take it from him.

By direction of the Lieutenant-General an address was issued to the troops. It was dated "Headquarters in the Field," May 13th, 1864.

In a few well-chosen words they were reminded that for eight days and nights, almost without intermission, in sunshine and in rain, they had gallantly fought a desperate foe in positions naturally strong, and rendered doubly so by intrenchments.

They had compelled him to retire, step by step, before their onward progress. They were assured that their heroic deeds, their noble endurance of privation and fatigue would be ever memorable. Called upon to render thanks to the God of battles for the mercies already shown, they were earnestly enjoined to ask for their continuance.

A great work was still before them. The enemy was again to be pursued, met and conquered. Reenforcements were at hand. By the continued blessing of Heaven their great object must finally be achieved.

The effect of this patriotic appeal was everywhere encouraging. The men felt renewed confidence in their great captain and themselves, and pressed forward with renewed vigor.

The intelligence of repeated successes under Sheridan, near Richmond, of Butler at Petersburg and on the James River, and of Sherman, in Georgia, came cheeringly to hand. Although it was apparent from all advices that the rebels were fighting in their bad cause with a determined bravery and persistence worthy of a good one, still evidences were multiplying that their supplies were being cut off, and that the spirits of the rebellious inhabitants near the battlefields were gradually becoming less exultant. Some of the most wealthy planters withdrew within the intrenchments at Richmond, carrying what supplies they could with them, and employing their negroes in the unwilling and unpaid work of aiding to fortify the city.

At midnight of the 13th of May the main body of the rebel army were reported to be retreating on Gordonsville, a strongly intrenched post of the enemy on the Virginia Central Railway, about forty-five miles direct from Richmond. Much reliance had been placed by Lee on the strength of this post. The country leading to and from it was more open than that of the Wilderness, but the roads at that time were in an almost impassable condition for troops, artillery and munitions. But Grant pressed steadily on. He politely declined to be the purveyor for the army of Gen. Lee, decidedly preferring to take care of his own. Hence the rebel chieftain could no longer depend as he had so often done

FLAG OF TRUCE.

311

before on the loyal and hard-working people of the United States furnishing him with supplies, while he should be at his bloody work of destroying their gallant sons in his cruel and wicked and barbarous war for the perpetuity of human bondage. Unfortunately for him Grant had to be consulted on the important subject of supplies. He sent forward his empty wagons, by scores, in the fond hope of filling them from the despised Yankee commissaries; but alas! for the vanity and instability of human hopes! The wilful and stubborn Grant was so disobliging as to capture them on their way, and retain them in his own possession for the use of the sick and wounded soldiers! It was a terrible cut on chivalry; but terrible as it was it had to be endured.

A flag of truce came within our lines. Now Grant had been favored with an extensive practical experience with regard to the secret operation of rebel flags of truce. He understood them perfectly. He was therefore all prepared for this one, even though it came from the great strategist of all—the traitor Lee.

The cunning request accompanying the flag was that a cessation of hostilities should take place, in order to allow the rebels time to bury their dead left behind in our hands.

"Give my compliments to Gen. Lee," said Grant in his reply to the flag, "and be so kind as to inform him that I have men enough with me to bury all the

dead his own as well as mine. And please say to him," concluded the Lieutenant-General, with the calm reserve peculiar to him, "that I beg he will not give himself any trouble, nor in any way change his plan of operations, on that account."

The messenger returned and the victorous Grant moved on. He was perversely bent on completing his original programme to fight it out on this line if it required all the summer.

These combined powerful and successful movements of Grant had a twofold effect. They encouraged the Union and discouraged the Rebellion. Public confidence was strengthened, public stocks advanced in the United States. Among the rebels

intimate that the

the Richmond papers began to Southern masses were making up their minds that the war would terminate this year, one way or the other.

"If Lee should fail," said one editor, "and his army be unsuccessful, we greatly fear that the majority of the people will begin to look the other way.”

The other way' here alluded to was construed to mean a returning glance toward the United States. It was shrewdly supposed that the advancing columns of the conquering Grant had a forcible tendency to strengthen the rebel eyesight in that direction.

Notwithstanding all its losses by the casualties of this great struggle the Army of the Potomac was declared to be relatively stronger on the 14th of May

THE NEWS AT WASHINGTON.

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than it was when it crossed the Rapidan. At that time the only railway by which the retreating rebel army could readily receive supplies was that leading from Richmond to Danville. Every other line had been more or less seriously damaged in their rear. With no supplies to be obtained from the close-fisted Grant, not even a biscuit of hard-tack or a junk of beef or pork, what was the flower of the chivalry to do?

At Washington the public business was suspended in Congress. The senators and representatives left their seats to watch at the bedsides of our wounded heroes. The ladies of the capital, with the wife of President Lincoln at their head, flocked around the sufferers with the tenderness and gentleness of their sex, supplying all their wants from abundant stores. One donation of a million of dollars came pouring in from New York to that noble auxiliary, the UnitedStates Sanitary Commission, the proceeds of a fair held for the purpose in that city. Other equally patriotic towns and neighborhoods sent forward their offerings, with equal generosity and abundance in proportion to their means. From the extremes of the East, the North and the West, from the emancipated people of Louisiana, South and North Carolina, the freewill tributes of patriotic gratitude and love flowed in upon the bleeding martyrs to American Liberty, in a manner that must for ever shed a halo of glory around the American name.