General, could not, with propriety, be made known to the American people, quietly pursuing their avocations at home. Delays, which they could neither understand nor appreciate, were necessary to the successful termination of the closing scenes of the great rebellion.

Vigorous measures were constantly in progress. By the middle of September large masses of Union troops were stationed at different points on the railroads, a few miles South of Petersburg. Our left line, in strong force, was pushed across the Weldon road, to a mile beyond it, on the west. The movement was a cause of some excitement among the rebels, who watched its progress with the deepest interest. General GRANT does not appear to have taken the trouble to inform them what it all meant. Probably he was of the opinion that they would find it out themselves, in due time. At all events, they took the hint sufficiently to strengthen their entrenchments in that immediate neighborhood.

In order to render our operations more effective, a railroad was constructed by our able engineer corps from City Point, on the James, only a few miles south of Richmond, to a convenient terminus on the Weldon road. This means of communication was soon opened to great advantage, the arrival of the first

trains of cars, suitably loaded, being received with cheering all along our lines. It was another stretch of the conquering chain of war that was environing Richmonda chain that the rebels had forged with their own guilty hands, and from the coils of which they were soon to find there was no escape.

Large reinforcements continued to swell the Union army under GRANT, who quickly massed them on his left, immediately confronting the rebel right. Where they came from, and what the hero of Vicksburg was going to do with them, seemed to pass the rebel comprehension. His movements, on all hands, continued to be to them a profound mystery. This was exactly what he intended. When the time should come and he, of all men, knew when that time would come--he was prepared to encircle Petersburg, as he had Vicksburg, with a grasp that would either compel its evacuation or destruction. For reasons creditable to his noble soldierly qualities, he much preferred the former to the latter alternative.

Matters remained in this favorable condition, when, after a short visit to the headquarters of General SHERIDAN by the Lieutenant General, the Army of the Shenandoah suddenly moved on the enemy, and won the splendid victory before Winchester, Virginia, which occurred on the 19th of September. By a

series of rapid engagements, commencing, very properly, at Bunker Hill, Sheridan drove the rebels from all their positions, killing large numbers, capturing several thousand prisoners, a large supply of provisions and many munitions of war. The rout of the enemy was complete, continuing through a series of battles, at different points, to Staunton, Virginia, when the town was possessed, with all the adjacent region, and much rebel government property destroyed. Every position was temporarily held for strategic purposes, and a blow inflicted on the rebellion in that quarter of the country from which it never could recover.

The effect of this brilliant victory on the army before Richmond can be well conceived. It cheered every loyal heart. It strengthened every patriotic arm. It had been won in accordance with plans previously laid down by GRANT, and was designed to aid him in his immediate movements on the rebel capital and its surroundings.

On the 30th of September another onward movement began. The Tenth Corps, under BIRNEY, COoperating with other selected bodies of veteran troops, moved on the strong entrenchments of the enemy, at Chapin's Farm, the nearest point to Richmond yet reached, and carried them by storm. rebel line was found to be thin, and the embankments,

The

which were among the strongest thrown up around the rebel capital, were defended by only a small force. The subsequent attempts made by the enemy to retake these commanding approaches to Richmond were so easily repulsed that the impression began to prevail in certain quarters that Lee would evacuate his capital and thus surrender his base of operations. But GRANT, and those who better comprehended the strategy of the wily rebel leader, knew better than this. He and they were perfectly assured that there must be much more severe fighting at this point, before the rebellion would be subdued.

On the 2d of October, HANCOCK advanced a portion of his Corps to a point considerably nearer the enemy. He took possession of the Boynton road, over which the enemy had been carrying their supplies, in wagons, to Petersburg. Two lines of works were found unoccupied. A skirmish line opposed our advance, but gradually fell back before the continued attacks of our troops.

CHAPTER XXXII.

CONCLUSION.

"Get and preserve a good name, if it were but for the public service." -Fuller.

N reviewing HANCOCK's history, the fact may

IN

with propriety be recorded here that, by the act of President LINCOLN, he had been made a Brigadier General in the Regular Army of the United States, his rank to be dated, as such, from the 12th of August, 1864, for gallant and distinguished services at the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Cold Harbor, and in all the operations of the army in Virginia, under Lieutenant General GRANT.

AS A BOY.

It will not, of course, be claimed for him that he was a faultless child. He had his faults and frailties, like all other children. He was no better than any other boy can be who reads this true history of his life. This much can be truthfully recorded of him, for the instruction of other American youth; he was