ANTIETAM, VICKSBURG, GETTYSBURG.
It is true that while good strokes were made in the West, the East did not do her part to put down the foe as soon as she might have done, and this was laid to lead-ers, for the troops were brave and read-y to fight when they had a chance.
What was called “The Pen-in-su-lar Cam-paign” made a start ’twixt the York Riv-er and the James Riv-er, on land which forms a pen-in-su-la.
Here through the spring and sum-mer of 1862, Mc-Clel-lan held large for-ces. There was much fight-ing, and at one time the Un-ion for-ces were with-in eight miles of Rich-mond, but in the end they had to fall back and with-draw from the Pen-in-su-la.
Pres-i-dent Lin-coln at length felt that Mc-Clel-lan was no match for the Con-fed-er-ate Gen-er-als, Lee and “Stone-wall” Jack-son. So he had to put a new man at the head of the ar-my in the East. This man was Gen. Pope who had done well in the West.
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Then came the sec-ond Bull Run fight, Au-gust 29 and 30, 1862. The foe won. Lin-coln found Pope “not up to the mark,” as a lead-er, and so put Mc-Clel-lan back once more.
It was on the 16th and 17th of Sept. 1862, that Mc-Clel-lan and Lee fought at An-tie-tam Creek, near Sharps-burg, in Ma-ry-land. This was one of the most se-vere bat-tles of the war. On Sept. 18, Lee with-drew a-cross the Po-to-mac, and Mc-Clel-lan slow-ly went af-ter him.
The Pres-i-dent had wait-ed in hopes that a “vic-to-ry” would come to the ar-my of the East, ere he made known his plan of free-ing slaves in some of the states. His own words are, “I had made a sol-emn vow to God that if Lee were driv-en back from Ma-ry-land I would crown the re-sult by a dec-la-ra-tion of free-dom to the slaves.”
So when the An-tie-tam fight came, and Lee and troops were driv-en back from Ma-ry-land, it gave so much hope to the Un-ion cause that Lin-coln felt it was the time to send forth the “draft” he made two months be-fore. This pa-per said that on the first day of Jan-u-a-ry, 1863, all slaves in those states which had left the
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 Un-ion should be free. The slaves in those states which had not gone off, such as Mis-sou-ri and Ken-tuc-ky, were not then to be free.
It had been thought by some that harm would come from this pa-per, but it did not. It was a wise move, and a bold one, and brought much good.
Great joy was felt at the North, and fresh hope came with the thought that the war might soon be at an end. But there were two more years of sad, sad work, loss, and death on both sides.
The Pres-i-dent had found that it would be best for Mc-Clel-lan to give up his post “for good.” Burn-side took his place, but it was soon seen that he was too rash.
His plan was to cross the Rap-pa-han-nock at Fred-er-icks-burg and strike at the foe on the heights back of the town on Dec. 13, 1862. There was great loss of life and no gain. The foe won.
Gen. Hoo-ker was the next man to take charge of the ar-my in the East, but no moves were made till May, ’63.
In the mean time a great deal was done in the West. Grant once more made a move a-gainst Vicks-burg, one
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 of the two strong points on the Mis-sis-sip-pi Riv-er still held by the foe. The North had, at times, thought Grant “slow” but Lin-coln had great trust in him, and said, “Wait. Give him a chance.”
Vicks-burg is on the east bank of the riv-er. Grant’s aim was to get to his troops and gun-boats be-low the town, and the plan he took was to march his men down the west bank, and let the gun-boats run past the eight miles of bat-ter-ies.
 
GUNBOATS ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
It was a-bout the mid-dle of A-pril, 1863, when the gun-boats passed the bat-ter-ies. The troops marched down the west bank of the riv-er, and then crossed in boats to the east side, at a point where they could reach the foe. On the first of May there was a fight near
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 Port Gib-son with the fore-guard of Gen. Pem-ber-ton’s ar-my. Here the foe soon had more of the South-ern troops come to help him, led by Gen. John-ston. Grant saw a chance to get be-tween these two sets of troops, and on May 14, 1863, he put down John-ston. Then he beat Pem-ber-ton in two more fights at Cham-pi-on Hills and at Black Riv-er. So the foe had to flee, for safe-ty, to Vicks-burg, where Grant had made up his mind to take him, af-ter a while, with all the rest of the foe he could find in that cit-y.
Then came the Siege of Vicks-burg which went on for near-ly sev-en weeks. The foe held out as long as there was a crust of bread left. Grant said he should stay there till he took the town.
 
FIRST CHARGE AT VICKSBURG.
These were his words;
“I can-not tell just when I shall take the town, but I mean to stay till I do, if it takes me thir-ty years.”
The en............