"What shall we say," he cried, "of the disgrace beneath which we should
be buried if we surrender with an army in the field more numerous than
that with which Napoleon achieved the glory of France, an army standing
among its homesteads, an army in which each individual is superior in
warlike quality to the individual who opposes him!"
When the tumult and applause had died away did he realize in the secret
places of his heart that the spirit of the South had been broken by the
terrible experiences of four years of blood and fire and death? His iron
will gave no sign. To him the manhood of the Southern soldier was
unconquerable, his courage dauntless forever.
Six months after Sherman's sword had pierced the heart of the South from
Atlanta, Lee's army in the trenches before Petersburg had reached the
end of their endurance. Lee wired Davis that his thin line could hold
back Grant's hosts but a few days and that Richmond must fall. His men
were living on parched corn.
The President hurried to the White House and slipped his arm around his
wife.
"You must leave the city, my dear."
"Please let me stay with you," she pleaded.
"Impossible," he answered firmly. "My headquarters must be in the
saddle. Your presence here could only grieve and distress me.
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