to the rescue at the most critical moment. His rapid movements in the direction of Malvern Hill had resulted in the capture of several guns and a considerable body of prisoners.

The position of the campaign after the explosion and assault was as formidable as ever. Our lines were still advancing; the coils of war were being drawn more and more closely around the enemies of our country.

It was now the 30th of July. Gratifying intelligence came pouring in of the operations of SHERMAN, at Atlanta, and of FARRAGUT, at Mobile Bay. The spirits of our men, in spite of the intense heats and droughts they were called to encounter, and their losses by repulses at the open jaws of death in the explosion of our mine, were still exultant, and every movement was onward.

The great aim of GRANT was the complete and final possession of the Weldon railroad. All his strategy now tended to this important point.

On the 9th of August came the glorious news that Admiral FARRAGUT had passed the forts in Mobile Bay, which the boastful and arrogant rebels had boldly and loudly predicted he could not pass. Stationed at the mast-head of his gallant flag-ship, the Hartford, with his speaking trumpet placed, by means

of tubes, on the deck, he had swept into the waters of the enemy, attacking them at every assailable point, sinking and capturing their ships, taking possession of their forts, and planting the national flag on the ramparts from which, with so much of treasonable infamy, it had been hauled down. The nation. was electrified at the welcome intelligence, and shouts of joy ran along the Union lines in front of Petersburg. New successes were granted us in the variable Valley of the Shenandoah, and the movements of Sherman, in Georgia, were highly encouraging.

The continued and skillful strategy of GRANT completely deceived the rebels. They were being paid off in their own coin. Greater familiarity with their location and wily stratagems had prepared the way for those strategic movements which surprised and annoyed them to a degree they had never experienced before. But greater and more signal defeats awaited them. Instead of ending his campaign before Petersburg, the rebels found, to their deep grief and ill-dissembled chagrin, that he had but just begun it. Gradually, but surely, one after another, their insulting sneers at the Lieutenant General died away; and they were reluctantly forced to confess that Lee had, at last, met a foeman worthy of his steel. We thought he was more than worthy.

On Saturday, August 13th, the Corps of HANCOCK was thrown across the James, at Deep Bottom. This was the same point at which he had made a successful feint movement, on a previous occasion. It had been sent to City Point, on special service, and embarked on transports. Conjecture as to its ultimate destination had been busy, as usual; but all doubt was dispelled by its passing up the river, and landing at Dutch Gap. A little after sunrise, on Sunday morning, BIRNEY advanced, with FOSTER'S division, and drove the rebels a considerable distance. The lines of the enemy were broken, and a capture made of nearly a hundred prisoners.

The cavalry, under GREGG, had now cleared the road for HANCOCK, and he steadily advanced. He posted his Corps on the Newmarket road, which leads directly from Malvern Hill to Richmond-distant, at that point, only about ten miles.

BIRNEY, now promoted, and most deservedly, too, to the command of the Tenth Corps, made a gallant assault on the front of the enemy, carrying their works, which guarded the approaches to Richmond in that direction, capturing six pieces of cannon and two mortars.

The position of the rebels was a strong one, and they parted with it very reluctantly. But the skill

ful manoeuvring of HANCOCK had enabled him to reach their front in a way they were not all prepared for; and there was no resort left them but to withdraw. Our troops held the position.

But little hard fighting took place, as the strategy of HANCOCK rendered it unnecessary. The enemy were taken by surprise, and our loss was small.

The whole movement was a perfect blind to the rebels. Our troops, which they saw moving down the river, on transports, during the day, turned back again at night, and, surprising the enemy in their entrenchments, captured them with ease.

As the Second started on this imaginary voyage, their bands struck up gaily, and gave to the winds several martial and playful airs to be wafted to rebel ears. They thought we were bound to Charleston, perhaps to Washington, it might be to Mobile, peradventure to Atlanta. But when we returned that same night, up the still waters of that same river, in silence and in darkness, they woke to their sad mistake, as our men charged with a victorious shout on their works, and carried everything before them. By daylight of the next morning the splendid artillery of the Second Corps could be heard along the rebel lines, its thunders waking from their fitful slumbers the guilty dreamers of Richmond.

CHAPTER XXXI.

HIS NEW MOVEMENTS.

"A boding silence reigns,

Dread through the dull expanse; save the low sound

That, from the mountain, previous to the storm,

Rolls o'er the muttering earth."

The Seasons.

HE Union forces operating on the north bank

THE

of the James, in the middle of August, remained for a time in boding silence. Their position was one of great strategic importance. It was a mystery to the rebels. They dared not attempt to dislodge it, for they knew not how large a support might be awaiting them in its rear; and yet it did not seem to them of sufficient magnitude to warrant its long continued advance.

This habit of mystifying the rebels by his movements had become a fixed one with GRANT. It was like a second nature with him. Heretofore, in nearly every instance, the enemy could read our plans of battle, discern and predict our campaigns, before we