d by a combined sea and land attack. Grant, though
since midsummer, 1864, held in check by Lee before Petersburg, was yet
known to be constantly increasing the strength of his army, while his
ability to strike when the time came was made evident by the freedom
with which his cavalry scoured the country about the Confederate
capital, Richmond--in one raid even completely encircling that city.
Steadily Lee's army lost strength by the attrition of the siege, by
illness and, what was worse, by desertion since no forces could be
spared from the fighting front to recover and punish the deserters.
Grant waited for the approach of spring, when, with the advance
northwards of the army at Savannah, the pincers could be applied to Lee,
to end, it was hoped, in writing _finis_ to the war.

From December 20, 1864, to February 1, 1865, Sherman remained in
Savannah, renewing by sea the strength of his army. On the latter date
he moved north along the coast, meeting at first no resistance and
easily overrunning the country. Columbia, capital of South Carolina, was
burned. Charleston was evacuated, and it was not until March, in North
Carolina, that any real opposition to the northward progress was
encountered. Here on the sixteenth and the nineteenth, Johnston, in
command of the weak Southern forces in North Carolina, made a desperate
effort to stop Sherman, but without avail, and on March 23, Sherman was
at Goldsboro, one hundred and sixty miles south of Richmond, prepared to
cut off the retreat of Lee when Grant should at last take up an
energetic offensive.

In the last week of March, Grant began cutting off supplies to Richmond,
thus forcing Lee, if he wished still to protect the Southern capital, to
come out of his lines at Petersburg and present an unfortified front.
The result was the evacuation of Petersburg and the abandonment of
Richmond, Jefferson Davis and his Government fleeing from the city on
the night of April 2. Attempting to retreat southwards with the plan of
joining Johnston's army, Lee, on April 9, found his forces surrounded at
Appomattox and surrendered. Nine days later, on April 18, Johnston
surrendered to Sherman at Durham, North Carolina. It was the end of the
war and of the Confederacy.

[Illustration: THE AMERICAN GLADIATORS-HABET! _Reproduced by permission
of the Proprietors of "Punch"_]

The rapidity with which Southern resistance in arms crumbled in 1865
when once Sherman and Grant were under way no d