Decisive battles since Waterloo : the most important military events from 1815 to 1887 . to dictate its terms. His confidence cannot be wondered at when it is re-membered that he had, not long before, defeated theUnion army of Virginia, at Chancellorsville, and, previousto Chancellorsville, had inflicted other defeats of equal BATTLE c?E GETTYSBURG. 259 importance. His army was composed of the very flowerof the Southern troops, and in order to strengthen it andprepare for the invasion of Pennsylvania, he had drawnLongstreets corps from North Carolina, when it wasgreatly needed for strengthenin
Decisive battles since Waterloo : the most important military events from 1815 to 1887 . to dictate its terms. His confidence cannot be wondered at when it is re-membered that he had, not long before, defeated theUnion army of Virginia, at Chancellorsville, and, previousto Chancellorsville, had inflicted other defeats of equal BATTLE c?E GETTYSBURG. 259 importance. His army was composed of the very flowerof the Southern troops, and in order to strengthen it andprepare for the invasion of Pennsylvania, he had drawnLongstreets corps from North Carolina, when it wasgreatly needed for strengthening Bragg, and enabling himto take the offensive against Rosecrans, and also for pre-venting the disaster which overtook the Confederates atVicksburg. By their defeat at Gettysburg, the Confed-erates suffered as heavily in mora/e as in material, and fromthat time onward, to the close of the war, the invasion ofthe North was not again possible. In all its aspects thebattle of Gettysburg is entitled to rank as one of thegreat and decisive battles in the history of the CHAPTER XV. SIEGE AND FALL OF VICKSBURG—1863. At the very outset of the civil war in America the im-portance of the possession of the Mississippi River wasperceived by the leaders on both sides of the conflict. TheConfederates sought to close the great water highway bythe erection of powerful batteries at Columbus, Kentucky,twenty miles below the junction of the Ohio and Missis-sippi at Cairo, and at the same time they obstructed itsmouth by seizing the forts below New Orleans. Immedi-ately there arose throughout all the region drained by themighty stream and its numerous tributaries a demandthat this great artery of commerce should be were a people moved by a stronger and more unitedimpulse than were the dwellers in the great valley that theFather of Waters, should be restored to peaceful naviga-tion. No more stirring prophecy was ever made than thatof General Logan when he declared
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