The loss of life on both sides was dreadful. But the Confederates lost the most men and lost the battle besides. They tried in vain to break through the Union lines, and in the end they were forced to retreat. On the 4th of July General Lee sadly began his backward march, and the telegraph wires carried all through the North the tidings of a great victory. This was the turning point in the war. Six months before, President Lincoln had proclaimed the freedom of the slaves, and the armies were now fighting to make his word good. Negroes after this were taken into the Union ranks, that they might help in the fight for their own liberty. I wish to say just here that the people of the North bore the defeats in Virginia better than you would think. They had good reason to, for while they had been losing battles in the East they had been winning battles in the West. So one helped to make up for the other. If you will follow me now to the West we will see what was taking place there. The North did not have to change its generals as often in the West as in the East, for it soon found a good one; and it was wise enough to hold on to him. This was General Ulysses S. Grant, who is now honored as one of the greatest generals of the world's history. Grant was only a captain at first. Then he was made a colonel, and was soon raised to the rank of general. He met the Confederates first at Belmont, Missouri. Here he was defeated, and had to take his men aboard river-boats to get them away. That was his first and nearly his last defeat. The Confederates had built two strong forts in Kentucky which they named Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. General Grant marched against them with an army and Commodore Foote steamed against them with a fleet of iron-clad steamboats. Fort Henry was taken by the fleet before Grant could get to it. Then he marched across country to Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River. He attacked this fort so fiercely that the Confederates tried to get out of it but did not succeed. Then they proposed to surrender, and asked him what terms he would give them. "No terms except an immediate and unconditional surrender," he said. "I propose to move immediately on your works." This settled the matter. They surrendered--fifteen thousand in all. After that many said that U. S. Grant stood for "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. I cannot tell you about all the fights that took place in the West, but there was a terrible battle at a place called Pittsburg Landing, which lasted two days, and in which Grant came very near being defeated. There was a severe one at Murfreesboro on the last day of the year, and another three days afterwards. Grant was not there, but Bragg, the Confederate General, was defeated.