Everybody now saw that General Grant was much the best general on the Union side, and President Lincoln made him commander-in-chief of all the armies in the field. Grant at once laid his plans to have the armies all work together. General Sherman was left in command of the army of the West and Grant came to Virginia to fight General Lee. In the green month of May, 1864, all the armies were set in motion, and North and South came together for the last great struggle of the war. Grant led his men into the Wilderness where General Hooker and his army had been sadly defeated the year before. Lee was there to meet him, and a great battle was fought in the depth of the woods and thickets. It lasted two whole days, but neither side won. Then Grant marched towards Richmond and Lee hurried down to head him off. Several hard battles were fought, the last being at Cold Harbor, near Richmond. Here the Union army lost terribly. Ten thousand men were killed and wounded, while the Confederates, who were behind strong earthworks, lost only a thousand. General Grant saw he could not reach Richmond that way, so he crossed the James River and began a siege of Petersburg and Richmond. This siege lasted nine months, both sides digging instead of fighting till great heaps of earth were thrown up, on whose tops were hundreds of cannon. General Grant kept his men very busy, as you may see. But General Sherman's men were just as busy. He marched south from Chattanooga, and fought battle after battle until he had gone far into Georgia and captured the important city of Atlanta. General Hood, the Confederate commander, then made a rapid march to Tennessee, thinking that Sherman would follow him. But Sherman did not move. The brave General Thomas was there to take care of Hood and his army. "Let him go; he couldn't please me better," said Sherman. What Sherman did was to cut loose from the railroads and telegraphs and march his whole army into the center of Georgia. For a whole month the people of the North heard nothing of him. His sixty thousand men might be starving for food, or might all be killed, so far as was known. It was November when they started and it was near Christmas when they were heard of again. They had lived on the country and destroyed railroads and stores, and at length they came to the sea at the city of Savannah. Three daring scouts made their way in a boat down the river by night and brought to the fleet the first news of Sherman's march. No doubt you have heard the song "Marching through Georgia." That was written to describe Sherman's famous march. The South was now getting weaker, and weaker, and most men saw that the war was near its end. It came to an end in April, 1865. Grant kept moving south till he got round the Confederate earthworks at Petersburg, and Lee was forced to leave Richmond in great haste.