mortality at the North was a little over 12 per cent., at the South, 15.5 per cent. Mr. Rhodes's conclusions, which apportion responsibilities and calamities somewhat more evenly than most writers, deserve careful consideration:

"Taking into account the better hospitals, more skilful physicians, the ample supply of medicines and the abundance of food at the North and the exceptionally high death-rate at Andersonville, Florence and Salisbury one might have expected a greater difference, which would probably be the case were all the deaths in the Confederacy known. Still it should be remembered that as the Southern summer bore hardly on the Union prisoners so did the Northern winter increase the mortality of the Confederates as the number of deaths from pneumonia bear witness. All things considered the statistics show no reason why the North should reproach the South. If we add to one side of the account the refusal to exchange the prisoners and the greater resources, and to the other the distress of the Confederacy the balance struck will not be far from even. Certain it is that no deliberate intention existed either in Richmond or Washington to inflict suffering on captives more than inevitably accompanied their confinement. Rather than to charge either section with inhumanity, it were truer to lay the burden on war."

This is a lame and impotent conclusion and can find slight basis in the facts. The whole body of testimony, Confederate as well as Union, refutes the desirable assertion that the Confederacy made any attempt to treat its prisoners humanely. Stonewall Jackson's counsel at the beginning of the war that no prisoners should be taken—and Jackson was a profoundly religious man-finds expression all over the South and at all times during the war. The North treated Confederate prisoners as human beings in temporary confinement, gave them adequate medical attention, and ample supplies of food, fuel and clothing. The Confederacy did nothing of the kind, but treated the prisoners from first to last as creatures to be exterminated at the least trouble

and expense. That thousands of Southern men died of pneumonia in Northern prisons, is true, but the North tried to save their lives; the Confederacy made no effort whatever to save the lives of its prisoners. There is, in truth, no adequate basis of comparison between Northern prisons and Southern prisons because the motives and purposes of North and South in the confinement and treatment of prisoners were incompatible: the North desiring to save life, the South, to destroy it. Had Andersonville been constructed, located, administered precisely as was the prison at Johnson's Island, such conclusions as Mr. Rhodes reaches would be logical; but unfortunately for the historian, the chapters which must be written on prisoners of war cannot be based upon any such data of equal efficiency of equipment, equal chance for life, equal purpose and motive for humane treatment of prisoners. It would have been one redeeming element of glory to the perpetual fame of the Confederacy had it treated Union prisoners even with the humanity possible amidst its most terrible "distress." No man brought before the tribunal of Justice can plead his own crimes in extenuation of his inhumanity.

Gettysburg and Vicksburg should have ended the war, but the struggle went on. General Lee retreated into winter quarters in Virginia and General Meade slowly followed him and took position along the Rapidan. The winter was passed in manoeuvres which seemed at the North singularly suggestive of McClellan's, but the conclusion of the whole was favorable to Meade; if the result of this ceaseless skirmishing and minor engagements was less startling, it remained a steady gain for the National cause: General Lee was unable to do more than to keep on the general defensive. This was due in part to the weakening of his army by the detachment of Longstreet's corps to Tennessee to reinforce General Bragg who was attempting to drive Rosecrans out of the State. On September 19th Bragg began the attack and the battle of Chickamauga, which was mainly fought the next day. Rosecrans was put to

rout, retreating to Chattanooga. The left wing was under General George H. Thomas who all the afternoon held back 50,000 Confederates, elated with victory, with half the number. From that day Thomas is known as the "Rock of Chickamauga." Bragg quickly invested Chattanooga and with every prospect of its speedy capture. The government hurried reinforcements to Rosecrans from the Army of the Potomac, under General Hooker. On the 16th, Lincoln placed General Grant in supreme command of the armies in the West, excepting Banks's army below Vicksburg. He immediately relieved Rosecrans of command and appointed Thomas in his place: one of the appointments of critical importance in the history of the country, for it brought a great man to a great service to his country. Thomas's position was full of perils, but he telegraphed Grant: "We will hold the town till we starve." But Thomas had no intention of starving. On October 23d Grant arrived at Chattanooga; General Sherman and his corps reached there after a toilsome journey from Vicksburg, November 15th. There followed, ten days later, the most dramatic, and one of the most important battles of the war-Lookout Mountain, "the battle above the clouds." It was a soldiers' victory, for the men took the initiative, swept up the mountain side and vanquished the Confederates at the point of the bayonet. The battle put an end to Confederate supremacy in East Tennessee.

Politics at the North had become defined, from the outbreak of the war, as for Lincoln or against Lincoln: as in support of the government or in attack of its policy. An acute stage was reached during the summer of 1863. Mr. Vallandigham, conveyed by Lincoln's orders through the lines to the Confederacy was pleased to consider himself both a martyr and a prisoner of war and as such surrendered himself and kept up the fiction during his brief residence at Richmond. Running the blockade he escaped to Canada and made headquarters near Niagara Falls, whence he issued addresses to his former fellow-citizens and