AUTUNIA OF 1863



United States, recognizing that the people, like
himself, had grown weary of having generals
beaten and armies routed by Lee with an army
manifestly inferior in numbers and equipment,
took a new step. It was clear now to his miind
that the South could not be conquered so long as
Lee, at the head of an ariny of veteran troops,
had the power to inanwuvre them at will. It
was equally clear to him that, whatever the pub-
lie might think, the South was at last becoming
exhausted, while the North was steadily growing
stronger. He had some time before come to the
conclusion that not Richmond but Lee's army
was the proper objective of the Union armies,
andl he had so written his commanding general,
Hooker. He now took a step further. In this
state of the case, he set asideA Meade, who had
failed to destroy Lee after months of endeavor,
and called to his aid a general hitherto a stranger
to the East, but one who, in the West, had given
ev-idence of abilities which promised to prove the
kind which were needed in the situation in X irgimia.
lIe was a fighter, and so stui-dy was he that he
was as ready to fight after a defeat as before.
  In the West were several generals who had given
that. proof of unusual abilities-success-which
had been lacking in the East, where the com-
                     477