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[507] Georgia, and Tennessee, both under the direction of General Grant, were the instruments by which the Confederacy was to be dissolved. These twin armies were so disposed by the plan of General Grant as to act in concert, in order that if both were victorious the Confederacy would be overwhelmed, and if either was defeated the other could render assistance. Defeat of both was not contemplated, but even in that contingency Grant had the pledge of his government to honor his further requisitions without question. The official control of the government by the result of the pending presidential election depended apparently on the success of these armies. ‘It is going on well,’ said Mr. Lincoln some months afterward, as the political campaign progressed, ‘a little more luck in our battles will make it all right.’ The forces of these great dependencies were well distributed. General Butler with 30,000 men had charge of the line along the James; General Sigel marched into the famous valley of Virginia, and General Meade with the main command under the immediate eye of Grant, amounting to about 125,000 men, occupied the north bank of the Rapidan. The other great army, commanded by General Sherman, extended from Dalton westward among the hills of Georgia, with instructions to force General Johnston, the Confederate commander, through Georgia, or to destroy his command in battle. The collision in Virginia between the armies of Lee and Grant began May 4th and continued nearly every day through the bloody series of engagements called ‘the battles of the Wilderness.’ The campaign of a month brought the Federal army to the McClellan position of 1862, but with losses from all sources which would have barred further progress had not reinforcements been freely furnished according to the promise of his government. The estimates are that Grant's army had contained 192,160 men, of which he had lost 60,000; Lee had 78,400 men and had lost nearly 20,000 in killed and wounded. In Georgia the two antagonists
Atlanta, Ga. 1899.
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