Lincoln had now found the general that he had been looking for, the man able to lead the magnificent Federal army of seven hundred thousand men. Grant went to Virginia, the battle-field of the Confederacy, where for three years Lee had held his own and defeated four generals sent with large armies against him. Grant resolved to break the Confederate lines and to capture Richmond. He thought that one cause of the lack of Federal success had been that the parts of the great army had not worked well together; he tried to make them move like the parts of a well-ordered machine. General Sherman was sent southward on a march to Savannah to lay the country waste so that no help could be sent to Lee’s troops. Sherman’s army covered a track of country sixty miles wide, in which railroads, bridges, houses, and provisions were destroyed. It took Grant a year and it cost many lives to carry out his plan of overcoming Lee, but he never wavered. The two great generals fought one great battle after another. “I shall fight it out on this line if it takes all summer,” General Grant wrote after the battle at Spottsylvania Court House. Then came the desperate battle of Cold Harbor. After these battles the Federals received reinforcements to repair their losses, but none came to the southern army. There were none to come; even the old men and the boys were already in the field. On the second of April, 1865, the Confederates were forced to abandon Petersburg. Lee endeavored to withdraw his array but Grant followed close in the rear. After retreating seventy-five miles, the shattered, starving remnant of the Confederate army was surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, April 9, 1865. Instead of being detained as prisoners, the Confederate soldiers were released on parole and they were allowed to retain their horses. “They will need them for their plowing and spring work,” said Grant with kindly wisdom. “General,” said Lee earnestly, “there is nothing you could have done to accomplish more good either for them or for the government.” To honor Grant for his services, Congress created for him the rank of general, a higher title than even Washington held. The joy of the North at Lee’s surrender was turned to mourning by the assassination of President Lincoln. This was an even greater calamity for the South than for the North. Lincoln was succeeded by Andrew Johnson and there followed a period of grave mismanagement,--especially of southern affairs. At one time Johnson was impeached--that is, tried for misconduct in office--and he lacked only one vote of being convicted. Johnson wished to have Lee arrested and punished as a traitor. Grant said that “he had accepted Lee’s surrender and he and his soldiers were prisoners under parole and were not to be punished so long as they obeyed the laws to which they had sworn allegiance.”