Page:Confederate Military History - 1899 - Volume 12.djvu/261

Rh the South were industriously working to supply the armies. The numerous Confederate dead were mourned for in thousands of homes; an army of men, disabled by wounds or disease, was scattered in all sections of the Confederacy; the widows and orphans of the fallen Southern braves were receiving the attention of legislatures in their time of need, and although the numbers of the soldiery were greatly diminished and the general resources for war had shrunken everywhere, yet the budding springtime of 1864 brought a renewal of purpose to achieve independence and a revival of the hope that it could be gained.

The chief interest in the campaign of 1864 centers in the army operations in Virginia and Georgia, but before the collision came in early May between Lee and Grant in the former State, and between Joseph E. Johnston and Sherman in the latter, there had been over 200 engagements since the ist of January, covering portions of New Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Virginia, many of these fights rising to the dignity of battles. The activity of the combatants and the great area of military operations are made apparent by this survey (at a glance) of the theater of war. The defense of the South at so many points where its territory was attacked, required local uses of its resources and detachments from the main armies of large numbers of its troops, or the arming of nearly the entire male population. In line with the policy of destruction then adopted at Washington and understood at the headquarters of the armies, many expeditions and raids invaded the Southern interior, subsisting on the country while they could and leaving desolation when they withdrew. Fighting for farm and fireside was made necessary. Agriculture was hindered, trans-