hinists and engineers, who were as
necessary as courageous fighters.

"We are held here during many priceless hours," said the general,
"because the enemy has spoiled this passenger engine. Who knows any
thing about repairing an engine?"

"I do," said a dusty tramp in blue. "I can repair this one in an hour."

"What makes you think so?"

"Well, I made it."

This was one of the strong features of Sherman's army. Among the hundred
thousand who composed it there were so many active brains and skilled
hands that the toot of the engine caught the heels of the last echoing
shout of the battle.

Learning that Hood proposed to invade Tennessee, Sherman prepared to
march across Georgia to the sea, and if necessary to tramp through the
Atlantic States.

Hood was sorry afterwards that he invaded Tennessee. He shut Thomas up
in Nashville after a battle with Schofield, and kept the former in-doors
for two weeks, when all of a sudden Thomas exclaimed, "Air! air! give me
air!" and came out, throwing Hood into headlong flight, when the Union
cavalry fell on his rear, followed by the infantry, and the forty
thousand Confederates became a scattered and discouraged mob spread out
over several counties.

The burning of Atlanta preceded Sherman's march, and, though one of the
saddest features of the war, was believed to be a military necessity.
Those who declare war hoping to have a summer's outing thereby may live
to regret it for many bitter years.

On November 16, Sherman started, his army moving in four columns,
constituting altogether a column of fire by night, and a pillar of cloud
and dust by day. Kilpatrick's cavalry scoured the country like a mass
meeting of ubiquitous little black Tennessee hornets.

In five weeks Sherman had marched three hundred miles, had destroyed two
railroads, had stormed Fort McAllister, and had captured Savannah.

On the 5th and 6th of May, 1864, occurred the battle of the Wilderness,
near the old battleground of Chancellorsville. No one could describe it,
for it was fought in the dense woods, and the two days of useless
butchery with not the slightest signs of civilized warfare sickened both
armies, and, with no victory for either, they retired to their
intrenchments.

Grant, instead of retreating, however, quietly passed the flank of the
Confederates and started for Spottsylvania Court-House, where a battle
occurred May 8-12.

Here the two armies fought five days without any advantage to