looking for new help elsewhere, Thomas at the front saved the shattered army and led it safely back to Chattanooga, where it underwent its famous long siege.  The measures for its relief were planned by Rosecrans, approved by Grant, and executed by Thomas, with large assistance from “Baldy” Smith, whose skill as an engineer was fully attested then.  When Thomas did at last succeed to the command of the Army of the Cumberland, he showed his superiority to his predecessors by marked improvement in his method of securing supplies, in his use of cavalry, and in the increased efficiency of his infantry.  When Johnston, thanks to Davis’s unwise interference with the Confederate armies, gave way to Hood, the latter almost at once gave token of his inferior skill by being defeated by the Army of the Cumberland—­by less than half of it, in fact—­in an attack intended to destroy three armies of more than five times the number of the Union force actually engaged.  Thomas was in command at this battle of Peach-tree Creek, one of the sharpest and most significant actions of the campaign, though no official report is found at the end of the chapter in which it is described.  The events that led up to the victory of Nashville are always worth the telling, and the account given in this work may be looked upon as in some respects Thomas’s own version of them.  A brief chapter by Colonel Merrill of the Engineers gives a very good description of three of the leading features of the work done by that corps in the Army of the Cumberland.  To cross great rivers there was need of pontoon-bridges; to protect the long lines of railroads it was necessary to provide block-houses; to go through a country that was often a trackless forest, and always badly provided with real high-roads, it was all-important to have maps, and to reproduce them rapidly and plentifully.  Colonel Merrill’s chapter is pithy, pointed and to the purpose, showing how well our technical troops did their share of work, and how large and important that share was in securing the general result.  The maps are also well done, and therefore useful in enabling a reader to follow out the details of the narrative.

BOOKS RECEIVED.

Dissertations and Discussions; Political, Philosophical and
Historical.  By John Stuart Mill.  Vol.  V. New York:  Henry Holt & Co.

From Everglade to Canon with the Second Dragoons, 1836-75, Compiled by
Theo.  F. Rodenbough.  New York:  D. Van Nostrand.

Grand’ther Baldwin’s Thanksgiving, with other Ballads and Poems.  By
Horatio Alger, Jr.  Boston:  Loring.

Shakespeare Hermeneutics; or, The Still Lion.  By C.M.  Ingleby, M.A.,
LL.D.  London:  Truebner & Co.

Minutes of the Ohio State Archaeological Convention.  Columbus:  Printed for the Society by Paul & Thrall.

Strength of Beams under Transverse Loads.  By Prof.  W. Allan.  New York: 
D. Van Nostrand.

The Illustrated Catholic Family Almanac for 1876.  New York:  Catholic
Publication Society.