Aggressiveness of Slavery--The Cotton States and Border States--The Fugitive Slave Law--Nullified in the North--Negroes Imported from Africa--The Struggle in Kansas--John Brown--Abraham Lincoln Pleads for Human Rights--Treason in Buchanan's Cabinet--Citizens Stop Guns at Pittsburg--Conditions at the Beginning of the Struggle--Southern Advantages--The Soldiers of Both Armies Compared--Conscription in the Confederacy--Southern Resources Limited--The North at a Disadvantage at First, but Its Resources Inexhaustible--Conscription in the North-- Popular Support of the War--Unfriendliness of Great Britain and France--Why They Did Not Interfere, 277 CHAPTER XXXIV. The Confederate Government Organized--Fort Sumter--President Lincoln Calls for 75,000 Men--Command of the Union Forces Offered to Robert E. Lee--Lee Joins the Confederacy--Missouri Saved to the Union--Battle of Bull Run--Union Successes in the West--General Grant Captures Fort Donelson--"I Have No Terms But Unconditional Surrender"--The Monitor and Merrimac Fight--Its World-wide Effect--Grant Victorious at Shiloh --Union Naval Victory Near Memphis--That City Captured--General McClellan's Tactics--He Retreats from Victory at Malvern Hill--Second Bull Run Defeat--Great Battle of Antietam--Lee Repulsed, but Not Pursued--McClellan Superseded by Burnside--Union Defeat at Fredericksburg --Union Victories in the West--Bragg Defeated by Rosecrans at Stone River--The Emancipation Proclamation, 287 CHAPTER XXXV. General Grant Invests Vicksburg--The Confederate Garrison--Scenes in the Beleaguered City--The Surrender--Hooker Defeated at Chancellorsville-- Death of "Stonewall" Jackson--General Meade Takes Command of the Army of the Potomac--Lee Crosses the Potomac--The Battle of Gettysburg--The First Two Days--The Third Day--Pickett's Charge--A Thrilling Spectacle --The Harvest of Death--Lee Defeated--General Thomas, "The Rock of Chickamauga"--"This Position Must Be Held Till Night"--General Grant Defeats Bragg at Chattanooga--The Decisive Battle of the West, 295 CHAPTER XXXVI. Grant Appointed Lieutenant-General--Takes Command in Virginia--Battles of the Wilderness--The Two Armies--Battle of Cedar Creek--Sheridan's Ride--He Turns Defeat Into Victory--Confederate Disasters on Land and Sea--Farragut at Mobile--Last Naval Battle of the War--Sherman Enters Atlanta--Lincoln's Re-election--Sherman's March to the Sea--Sherman Captures Savannah--Thomas Defeats Hood at Nashville--Fort Fisher Taken--Lee Appointed General-in-Chief--Confederate Defeat at Five Forks--Lee's Surrender--Johnston's Surrender--End of the War--The South Prostrate--A Resistance Unparalleled in History--The Blots on the Confederacy--Cruel Treatment of Union Men and Prisoners--Murder of Abraham Lincoln--The South Since the War, 301