evacuate Atlanta as he had threatened to abandon Richmond when confronted by McClellan,

and had abandoned Vicksburg without a blow. He must know this with absolute certainty
before yielding to the demand for his removal. That no possible mistake could be made, he
dispatched his Chief of Staff, General Braxton Bragg, to Atlanta for conference with
Johnston and make a personal report.
Bragg reported that Johnston was arranging to abandon Atlanta without a battle and the
President promptly removed him from command and appointed Hood in his place. When
Hood assumed command of the disgruntled army, it was too late to save Atlanta. Had
Johnston delivered battle with his full force at Dalton, Sherman might have been crushed as
Rosecrans was overwhelmed at Chickamauga. Hoods army was driven back into their
trenches. Sherman threw his hosts under cover of night on a wide flanking movement and
Atlanta fell.
Under the mighty impulse of this news Lincoln was relected, the peace party of the North
defeated and the doom of the Confederacy sealed. CHAPTER XLI THE FALL OF
RICHMOND The conspirators who had complained most bitterly of Davis for the
appointment of Lee to the command of the army before Richmond when McClellan was
thundering at its gates, now succeeded in passing through the Confederate Congress a bill to
create a military dictatorship which they offered to the man for whose promotion they had
condemned the President.
Lee treated this attempt to strike the Confederate Chieftain over his head with the contempt it
deserved. Davis laughed at his enemies by the most complete acceptance of their plans. His
answer to Senator Bartons committee was explicit. I have absolute confidence in General
Lees patriotism and military genius. I will gladly coperate with Congress in any plan to place
him in supreme command. Lee refused to accept the responsibility except with the advice and
direction of the President, and the conspiracy ended in a fiasco.
From the moment Shermans army pierced the heart of the South the confederate President
saw with clear vision that the cause of Southern independence was lost. Lees army must
slowly starve. His one supreme purpose now was to fight to the last ditch for better terms
than unconditional surrender which would mean the loss of billions in property and the
possible enfranchisement of a million slaves. That Lincoln was intensely anxious to stop the
shedding of blood he knew from more than one authentic source. It was rumored that the
Northern President was willing to consider compensation for the slaves. An army of a
hundred thousand determined Southern soldiers led by an indomitable general could fight
indefinitely. That it was of the utmost importance to the life of the South to secure a surrender
which would forbid the enfranchisement of the slaves and the degradation of an electorate to
their level, Davis saw with clear vision. From the North now came overtures of peace.
Francis P. Blair asked for permission to visit Richmond.
Blair proposed to end the war by uniting the armies of the North and South for an advance on
Mexico to maintain the Monroe Doctrine against the new Emperor whom Europe had set
upon a throne in the Western Hemisphere. The Confederate President received his proposals
with courtesy. I have tried in vain, Mr. Blair, he said gravely, to open negotiation with
Washington. How can the first step be taken Mr. Lincoln, I am sure, will receive
commissioners though he would give me no assurance on that point We must stop