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remaining to the Confederates, was no longer available for blockade-running. Another door to the outside world was shut. The persistent work of the navy by the blockade and the capture of ports was reducing the South to a state of isolation. 22 The North in its general despondency failed at first to appreciate the magnitude of this victory; but the news received on September 3 that Sherman had captured Atlanta seemed to give Farragut’s achievement a cumulative force. The taking of Atlanta was the culmination of the campaign from Chattanooga and was all the more glorious in that “a victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers.” The army which entered Atlanta was substantially the same as the army which Sherman had led out of Chattanooga. 23 The President, on September 3, issued a proclamation asking the people, when they assembled in their churches on next Sunday, to make a “devout acknowledgment to the Supreme Being” for the success of the fleet in Mobile harbor and the glorious achievements of the army in the State of Georgia; he issued orders of thanks to Farragut and Sherman, and ordered salutes of rejoicing to be fired from the navy-yards and arsenals of the country. On the Sunday appointed by the President, the people, with one accord, thanked God and took courage. 24 With epigrammatic brevity they had reduced the peace plank of the Democratic platform to the words, Resolved that the war is a failure, 1 and they now rejoiced that Farragut and Sherman had knocked out the underpinning of this platform. 2 On September 9, a letter of Grant’s was made

Note 1. The real expression was, “After four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war.” [back]

Note 2. An alteration of Seward’s remark, IV, 527. [back]

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