We have read that Union General William T. Sherman captured Atlanta, having in opposition to him the Confederate General John Bell Hood. The latter was a bold person, and he determined to force Sherman to fall back into Tennessee again, by going to his rear and cutting off his supplies from the North. But Sherman, knowing that the resources of the South were almost exhausted, concluded to risk a blow that might end the war. Leaving the troops in Tennessee under command of Union General George Henry Thomas, he set out from Atlanta with the rest of his army, to march southward through the heart, of the Confederacy.

Confederate General Hood, refusing to follow General Sherman into Georgia, pushed northward into Tennessee, resolved to strike Thomas before he could get his forces together. Hood attacked a part of General Thomas's troops, under Union General John McAllister Schofield, at Franklin in Tennessee. The Confederates made the most desperate charges, carrying, at first, a portion of the Union lines, but Schofield succeeded in holding his works long enough to get safely across the Harpeth River. He then fell back, and joined Thomas at Nashville.

Hood soon encamped before Nashville, where, after a rather long delay, he was attacked on the morning of December 15th by Thomas's whole army. A two days' battle ensued, which resulted in the utter defeat of Hood's army. This was a blow from which the exhausted Confederacy could not recover.

While Hood and Thomas were maneuvering in Tennessee, Sherman and his army were marching through the Confederacy. His soldiers were consuming supplies that would otherwise have sustained Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Richmond. Railroads of the greatest military value were utterly destroyed, by making fires of the cross-ties and then heating and twisting the rails. Nothing could have tended more to bring the war to an end than the breaking of the railways, on which food and soldiers must be moved. Just before the Battle of Nashville was fought, Sherman reached Savannah and laid siege to it, having been about a month without communication with the North. On the 20th of December the Confederates evacuated Savannah, and Sherman occupied it.

In order to give Sherman, when he should move northward, a new base of supplies from the sea, and in order to stop blockade-running, an expedition was sent to capture Wilmington, in North Carolina. Fort Fisher, which guarded the entrance to the place, was bombarded by a fleet and then carried by assault, on January 15, 1865. By way of Wilmington, General Schofield, with a part of Thomas's army from Tennessee, now pushed up to Goldsboro, in North Carolina, to meet Sherman when he should reach that place.

On the 1st of February, 1865, Sherman's tough veterans left Savannah and moved northward through the Carolinas, in rain and through overflowing swamps. Columbia was taken and burned. It is said to have been burned by accident, or, at least, against the orders of Sherman. The Union army pushed on northward. Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston did not give battle till Sherman had reached Averysboro, in North Carolina. Here the Confederates were defeated; but at Bentonville, on the 19th of March, Johnston came near to defeating one column of Sherman's army before reinforcements could reach it.

Sherman, by his marches, had broken to pieces the interior lines of travel in the Southern States, and greatly added to the troubles of Lee in Richmond. Neither reinforcements nor supplies could be had without difficulty, The Southern people, who had bravely suffered the greatest hardships, were now disheartened. Lee began to consider how he could retreat. But Grant, whose force was more than twice as large as Lee's, moved Sheridan's part of the army around to the south of the Confederate works, in order, if possible, to prevent Lee's dwindling army from getting away.

Lee was everywhere outnumbered, and his soldiers were beaten and captured, especially in the Battle of Five Forks, on the 1st of April. Lee had weakened his force in front of Grant, by drawing out troops to keep Sheridan from cutting the railroads that brought him supplies, and while the Battle of Five Forks was taking place, some of the Confederate works at Petersburg were carried by assault, and others were taken the next day.

The night following, that is, the 2d of April, Lee began his retreat from Richmond. His first object was to reach Danville, Va., and from that place to unite with Johnston. But, finding a Union force between him and Danville, his now starving army was turned toward Lynchburg. Sheridan's cavalry cut him off from Lynchburg, and on the 9th of April, 1865, Lee surrendered his army to General Grant, at Appomattox Court-House.

Confederate General Johnston could make no stand alone, and sixteen days later he surrendered to General Sherman. The smaller bodies of Confederate troops yielded soon after, and the four tenable years of war were at last ended. The soldiers on both sides returned to their homes. No war so vast had ever been seen in modern times, and no braver soldiers had ever fought. The impressions left by the sufferings of the civil war have produced a strong sentiment in favor of peace.