The Military Situation in the West--Siege and Capture of Vicksburg--The Mississippi Opened--Battle of Chickamauga--"The Rock of Chickamauga"--The Battle Above the Clouds--Siege of Knoxville--General Hooker Appointed to the Command of the Army of the Potomac--His Plan of Campaign Against Richmond--Stonewall Jackson's Stampede of the Eleventh Corps--Critical Situation of the Union Army--Death of Jackson--Battle of Chancellorsville--Defeat of Hooker--The Second Confederate Invasion--Battle of Gettysburg--The Decisive Struggle of the War--Lee's Retreat--Subsequent Movements of Lee and Meade--Confederate Privateering--Destruction of the _Nashville_--Failure of the Attacks on Charleston--The Military Raids--Stuart's Narrow Escape--Stoneman's Raid--Morgan's Raid in Indiana and Ohio 333 CHAPTER XVIII. ADMINISTRATION OF LINCOLN (CONCLUDED), 1861-1865. WAR FOR THE UNION (CONCLUDED), 1864-1865. The Work Remaining to be Done--General Grant Placed in Command of all the Union Armies--The Grand Campaign--Bank's Disastrous Red River Expedition--How the Union Fleet was Saved--Capture of Mobile by Admiral Farragut--The Confederate Cruisers--Destruction of the _Alabama_ by the _Kearsarge_--Fate of the Other Confederate Cruisers--Destruction of the _Albemarle_ by Lieutenant William B. Cushing--Re-election of President Lincoln--Distress in the South and Prosperity in the North--The Union Prisoners in the South--Admission of Nevada--The Confederate Raids from Canada--Sherman's Advance to Atlanta--Fall of Atlanta--Hood's Vain Attempt to Relieve Georgia--Superb Success of General Thomas--"Marching Through Georgia"--Sherman's Christmas Gift to President Lincoln--Opening of Grant's Final Campaign--Battles in the Wilderness--Wounding of General Longstreet and Death of Generals Stuart and Sedgwick--Grant's Flanking Movements Against Lee--A Disastrous Repulse at Cold Harbor--Defeat of Sigel and Hunter in the Shenandoah Valley--"Bottling-up" of Butler--Explosions of the Petersburg Mine--Early's Raids--His Final Defeat by Sheridan--Grant's Campaign--Surrender of Lee--Assassination of President Lincoln--Death of Booth and Punishment of the Conspirators--Surrender of Jo Johnston and Collapse of the Southern Confederacy--Capture of Jefferson Davis--His Release and Death--Statistics of the Civil War--A Characteristic Anecdote 367 CHAPTER XIX. ADMINISTRATIONS OF JOHNSON AND GRANT, 1865-1877.