h his own hand the handsomest flag in Richmond
in which to wrap his body.

When Davis gazed on the white, cold, rugged features, the tears were
streaming down his hollow checks. He bent low and the tears fell on the
face of the dead.

When an officer of the Government came to the President's Mansion where
the body lay in state to consult him on a matter of importance, the
Confederate Chieftain stared at his questioner in a dazed sort of way
and remained silent.

Lifting his haggard face at last he said in pathetic tones:

"You must excuse me, my friend, I am staggering from a dreadful blow--I
cannot think--"

Three days and nights the endless procession passed the bier and paid
their tribute of adoration and love. And when he was borne to his last
resting place through the streets of the city, the sidewalks, the
windows and the housetops were a throbbing mass of weeping women and
men.

Jefferson Davis was perhaps the only man in the South in a position to
realize the enormous loss which the Confederacy had sustained in the
death of Lee's great lieutenant.

The Southern people who gloried in Jackson's deeds had as yet no real
appreciation of the services he had rendered. They could not realize
their loss until events should prove that no man could be found to take
his place.

The brilliant victory of Chancellorsville, following so closely on
Fredericksburg, had lifted the Confederacy to the heights.

In the West the army had held its own. The safety of Vicksburg was not
seriously questioned. General Bragg confronted Rosecrans with an army so
strong he dared not attack it and yet not strong enough to drive
Rosecrans from Tennessee.

Two campaigns were discussed with Davis.

The members of his Cabinet, who regarded the possession of Vicksburg and
the continued grip on the Mississippi River vital to the life of the
Confederacy, were alarmed at Grant's purpose to fight his way to this
stronghold and take it.

They urged that Lee's army be divided and half of it sent immediately to
reenforce Bragg. With this force in the West Rosecrans could be crushed
and Grant driven from his design of opening the Mississippi.

Lee, flushed with his victories, naturally objected to the weakening of
his army by such a division. He proposed a more daring and effective way
of relieving Vicksburg.

He would raise his army to eighty-five thousand men, clear Virginia of
the enemy and sweep into Pennsylvania, carry the war into