Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/506

468 and no inducement for volunteering was offered except the choice of the company in which the recruit desired to serve. The Federal and Confederate army operations in the West are shown by the army orders and reports in January, 1863, of General Sherman and of General Pemberton. Of the first Federal attempt General Sherman says, "We failed in one great purpose of our movement—the capture of Vicksburg. General Pemberton from headquarters at Vicksburg congratulates his army for "their gallant defense of the important position."These orders and reports refer to the defeat of the strong movement begun November 28, 1862, under Grant, Sherman, McClernand and other skillful Federal commanders to capture the important positions in the West defended by Pemberton, S. D. Lee and Forrest. In the East the Federals had recoiled from their bloody defeat at Fredericksburg, in December, 1862, and with a change of commanders were organizing the next advance on Richmond. The Confederate armies were likewise concentrating all available forces to renew the combat as soon as the Virginia winter surrendered to the spring. Army operations in the West after January 8, 1863, included a variety of engagements, culminating in the disastrous surrender of Vicksburg; while in the East the army of Lee fought the battles of Chancellorsville, and, marching again across the Potomac, lost the battle of Gettysburg. These two events occurred simultaneously the first week in July, 1863, and considered together foretokened the ultimate defeat which the Confederacy at last sustained.

The embarrassments of the Confederacy were not diminished by the successes of 1862, nor by the increase during that and the following year of the Southern military force. The first impression that the war would be short was now changed early in 1863 into a doubt whether it would end in several years. In consequence of the uncertainty of the struggle Confederate finances