The North had nearly a million men by land and sea. The South had
perhaps two hundred thousand. The North could count on a million
recruits out of the whole reserve of twice as many. The South had
no reserves at all. The total odds were therefore five to one
without reserves and ten to one if these came in.

The scene of action, for all decisive purposes, had shrunk again,
and now included nothing beyond Virginia and the Carolinas; and
even there the Union forces had impregnable bases of attack. When
Wilmington fell in January the only port still left in Southern
hands was Charleston; and that was close-blockaded. Fighting
Confederates still remained in the lower South. But victories
like Olustee, Florida, barren in '64, could not avail them now,
even if they had the troops to win them. The lower South was now
as much isolated as the trans-Mississippi. Between its blockaded
and garrisoned coast on one side and its sixty-mile swath of
devastation through the heart of Georgia on the other it might as
well have been a shipless island. The same was true of all
Confederate places beyond Virginia and the Carolinas. The last
shots were fired in Texas near the middle of May. But they were
as futile against the course of events as was the final act of
war committed by the Confederate raider Shenandoah at the end of
June, when she sank the whaling fleet, far off in the lone
Pacific.

For the last two months of the four-years' war Davis made Lee
Commander-in-Chief. Lee at once restored Johnston to his rightful
place. These two great soldiers then did what could be done to
stave off Grant and Sherman. Lee's and Johnston's problem was of
course insoluble. For each was facing an army which was alone a