Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 2

[224] same day, the news of Schofield's victory at Franklin; and Grant again proclaimed at the camp fire his admiration for Sherman, while all remembered how constantly he had insisted that Schofield was a fine soldier, and needed nothing but opportunity to prove it. Grant, indeed, had kept him in place against determined opposition from various quarters; and now, if only the success at Franklin was followed up, so that Canby could move into Mississippi, the danger at the West was past.

But while thus zealously watching the varied interests and changing circumstances in Georgia and Tennessee, as well as at Richmond and in the Valley, Grant had also planned to take advantage of Sherman's march by a new movement on the Atlantic coast. Wilmington, near the mouth of the Cape Fear river, in North Carolina, was the only important seaport now open to the enemy. At this point the rebels still received supplies of arms and clothing from abroad, and hence they sent out in return cotton and other products, by British blockaderunners. The Bermuda isles are close at hand, and if they once arrived at Nassau, the British flag protected rebel goods as well as the vessels of rebel sympathizers. During the entire war, indeed, whole branches of British industry had thriven on this contraband commerce, at the expense of the Union. Batteries of cannon were cast at Manchester for the rebel army, and ships were built in Liverpool and Glasgow yards, especially to run the national blockade; and by these means the existence of the rebellion was undoubtedly prolonged. At first, Mobile, and Charleston, and other ports had shared this traffic; but during the last year, the blockade