Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 1.djvu/561

Rh feated Wallace at Monocacy on July 9, 1864, and formed line in sight of the national Capitol to the consternation of the administration. Admiral Farragut steamed into Mobile Bay with his fleet the first week of August, captured the Confederate ship &quot;Tennessee,&quot; drove the other vessels up the river and reduced the forts but failed to take the city. Meanwhile Forrest in June put Sturgis to rout at Tishomingo Creek and Morgan re-entered Kentucky, while Price again marched into Missouri. Altogether the Confederacy was showing a wonderful amount of energy in the employment of its daily lessening resources. Mr. Lincoln felt and expressed in August his discouragement on account of the failure to secure any decided victories, and especially that Richmond was so successfully defended. He then turned for consolation to further enrollment of the negro slaves, and in his August interview with Judge Mills, of Wisconsin, he cried out: &quot;Abandon all the posts now garrisoned by black men, take 200,000 men from our side and put them in the battlefield or cornfield against us and we would be compelled to abandon the war in three weeks ! General Grant at this time built his expectations of success on the approaching exhaustion of Confederate fighting men. Writing from his headquarters to Washburne, August 16, 1864, he comforts the administration with these words: &quot;The rebels have now in their ranks their last man. The little boys and old men are guarding prisoners, guarding railroad bridges and forming a good part of their garrisons for entrenched positions. A man lost by them cannot be replaced. They have robbed alike the cradle and the grave to get their present force. Besides what they lose in frequent skirmishes and battles, they are now losing from desertions and other causes at least one regiment per day. With this drain upon them the end is not far distant if we will only be true to our selves. &quot;The letter of the great Union general was written to a great politician and was designed for political