ROBERT E. LEE



of this important post which had hitherto guarded
the Mississippi. And finally, while suffering
from a severe injury, he had ridden to Chatta-
nooga, where matters, following on Rosecrans's
defeat at Chickamauga, were in a bad way, and,
arriving "tired, dirty, and well," had immediately
so straightened out the tangles and infused spirit
and courage that within a month he won the
battle of Missionary Ridge, or Chattanooga (No-
vember 23-25), and secured possession of Chat-
tanooga and Knoxville and command of Eastern
Tennessee and the adjacent regions. Such, in
brief, was the previous record of the man to
whom MNr. Lincoln now turned for aid.
  On the 10th of March, 1864, Mr. Lincoln ap-
pointed General Ulysses S. Grant lieutenant-
general in command of all the armies of the
Union, and General Grant, on the 23d of March,
took peisonal command of the armies in the East
with the stipulation, it is said, that he was to be
given such troops as he needed and was not to
be interfered with by the government in Wash-
ington. It was without doubt a wise precaution
that he took, for otherwise he might never have
survived the Wilderness and Cold Harbor.
The commission was dated March 9, and was delivered to him
bv Mr. Lincoln in the presence of his cabinet the following day.
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