The Confederates had an important stronghold on the Mississippi River at the city of Vicksburg, where they had many forts and a large number of cannon. General Sherman tried to capture these forts but was driven back. Then General Grant tried it and found it a very hard task. The country was all swamp and creeks which no army could get through, so Grant at last marched south on the other side of the river, and then crossed over and marched north again. He had to fight every step of his way, and to live on the food his men could carry, for he had cut loose from the North. But he soon reached the city and began a long siege. The Confederates held out until all their food was gone, and until they had eaten up nearly all their horses and mules. Then they surrendered. Twenty-seven thousand men were taken prisoners. This took place on the 4th of July, 1863, the same day that General Lee marched away from the field at Gettysburg. That was one of the greatest Fourths of July this country had ever seen, for with it the last chance of the South was lost. General Lee had lost many thousands of his hardy veterans, men whom he could never replace. And in the fighting around Vicksburg and the capture of that city nearly fifty thousand more fell on the battle-field or were taken prisoners. It was a loss which the leaders of the Southern army bitterly felt. Fighting kept on for two years more, but they would have been wiser to give up then and save all the death and misery that came to them afterwards. CHAPTER XXIII WAR ON SEA AND LAND I HAVE told you part of the story of how our people fought on land. Now suppose we take a look at the water, and see how they fought there. Have any of you heard of the wonderful battle between the "Monitor" and the "Merrimac"? If you have you will be sure to remember it, for it is one of the strangest stories in the history of war. In the lower part of Chesapeake Bay is what I may call a pocket of water named Hampton Roads, into which the James River flows. Here, in the month of March, 1862, lay a fleet of war-vessels. These were not the kind of ships-of-war which we see now-a-days. They were wooden vessels, such as were used in former wars, but which would be of no more use than floating logs against the sea-monsters of to-day. Something strange was soon to happen to these proud ships. On the 8th of March there came into the waters of the bay a very odd looking craft. It was a ship, but instead of a deck it had a sloping roof made of iron bars. It looked something like a house gone adrift. I fancy the people in the wooden ships must have been a little scared when they saw it coming, for they had never seen a war-vessel with an iron roof before.