ble hounds,
hot on the scent of their quarry, with Jackson leading on. Nothing
could stop the eager gray lines, wave after wave of them pressing
through the woods; not even the gallant fifty guns that fought with
desperation in defense of Hazel Grove, where Hooker was rallying
his men.

For two days more the tide of battle ebbed and flowed; but always
against the Federals in the end, till, broken, bewildered, and
disheartened, they retired as best they could. Lee was unable to
pursue. Longstreet's men were still missing; and so were many supplies
that should have been forwarded from Richmond. There the Government
clung to the fond belief that this mere victory had won the war,
and that pursuit was useless. Thus Lee's last chance of crushing
the invaders was taken from him by his friends.

At the same time the Southern cause suffered another irreparable
loss; but in this case at the purely accidental hands of Southern
men. Jackson's staff, suddenly emerging from a thicket as the first
night closed in, was mistaken for Federal cavalry and shot down.
Jackson himself was badly wounded in three places and carried from
the field. He never heard the rebel yell again. Next Sunday, when the
staff-surgeon told him that he could not possibly live through the
night, he simply answered: "Very good, very good; it is all right."
Presently he asked Major Pendleton what chaplain was preaching at
headquarters. "Mr. Lacy, sir; and the whole army is praying for
you." "Thank God," said Jackson, "they are very kind to me." A
little later, rousing himself as if from sleep, he called out:
"Order A. P. Hill to prepare for action! Pass the infantry to the
front! Tell Major Hawks--" There his strength failed him. But after
a pause he said quietly, "Let us cross over the river and rest
under the shade of the trees." And with these words he died.

CHAPTER VII

GRANT WINS THE RIVER WAR: 1863

We have seen already how the River War of '62 ended in a double
failure of the Federal advance on Vicksburg: how Grant and Sherman,
aided by the flanking force from Helena in Arkansas, failed to
catch Pemberton along the Tallahatchie; and then how Sherman alone,
moving down the Mississippi, was defeated by Pemberton at Chickasaw
Bayou, just outside of Vicksburg.

Leaving Memphis for good, Grant took command in the field again
on the thirtieth of January. His army was strung out along seventy
miles of the Mississippi just north of Vicksburg, so ha