Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/145

 had fought another great battle with Lee at Chancellorsville and had been defeated with a loss of more than 17,000 men. No great victory had been won by a Union army in any department to compensate for these failures and heavy losses. Early in June, General Lee, with his army largely reënforced, and flushed with victories, marched northward, threatening Washington and Philadelphia. Never before had the Union cause seemed in such peril. President Lincoln hastily called upon the Governors of Maryland, Pennsylvania, New York, West Virginia and Ohio for 120,000 militia to repel the invasion. Not more than 50,000 men from the five States responded to the call. The most serious apprehensions were felt in Washington for the safety of the city, and at no time since the beginning of the Rebellion had the people of the North felt so thoroughly disheartened. Their country was about to be invaded and all the horrors of war brought to their homes.

The largest and best army ever raised in the Southern confederacy, composed of veterans who had never been beaten, was on the march of invasion. All attempts to crush this army, or capture the Confederate Capital, had ingloriously failed, and the National cause and its greatest army was now on the defensive. The disloyal element in the North was never so defiant as now. Loud and persistent threats were made of armed resistance to the draft. The only hopeful news for the Union cause in this time of general gloom was coming from Grant’s army in the West. He had penetrated the heart of the enemy’s country, won the a series of brilliant victories, driven a large army into the intrenchments at Vicksburg and, closing all avenues of escape, was now shelling that stronghold, the fall of which would open the Mississippi. Suddenly the gloom that had long that had long hung over the Union cause was lifted. On the 3d of July was ended the greatest battle ever fought on this continent. For three days the gigantic struggle for supremacy between the Confederate army under Lee, and