era x1fc30. hi] ACCESSION NQ. CLASSIFICATION ^-^ ^^ ^^. ^^-^^-.i^- G E A N T HIS CAMPAIGNS A MILITARY BIOGRAPHY. HENRY OOPPEE, A. M., EDITOR OF THE UNITED STATES SERVICE {MAGAZINE.: NEW YORK: CHARLES B. RICHARDSON CINCINNATI: C. F. VENT & CO. 1865. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1865. By CHAKLES B. RICHARDSON, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York. ALVOUn. I'RINTBR. > \S PREFATORY LETTER FROM THE AUTHOR TO THE PUBLISHER. Univeksity of Penxsylvania, ) PniLADELi'iiiA, July 1, 1865. ) My Deae Sir: — It is with peculiar pleasure that I have undertaken to write the military biography of Lieutenant- General Grant, because, having known him from boyhood, I have watched the successive steps and symmetrical development of his character, and tind in his complete and rounded life not a single point which will require me to trim my pen for the purposes of cham- pionship, extenuation, or palliation. We were cadets together, and I now see how the cadet of 1840 exhibited qualities, not then very striking indeed, but which only needed fostering and opportunity to make him the gener- alissimo of 1865. The task is, therefore, divested of the chief difficulty which usually besets the biographer. It is to tell a plain story, not to make out a case. Political history, it is justly said, can only be fairly written when the chief actors have passed away, when party prejudices are removed or tempered by time, when men not only dare to say, but wish to say, and to hear, the truth, with no longer any concern about personal feel- ings, and when, more than all, we arrive at such a distant point of view, that we take in the entire field of action, and establish a proper co-ordination and relation between 1 2 PREFATORY LETTER. the parts that make up the great Avhole. This is far less true of military history. The military art is not based upon policy and expediency, but upon exact mathematics. Something, it is true, must be allowed to chance, some- thing to the admixture of the political element ; and local heroes must be sometimes bolstered for a time at the expense of truth. But when the great demonstration is fully made, we can calculate and eliminate from the record the fortuitous circumstances, and the unduly praised hero soon finds his proper level ; and so it happens that the great battle-problems, in their main features at least, are, within a short time, justly solved, and forever set- tled. Although half-informed men still wage furious controversy about Waterloo, we have learned but little new on that subject since it was first presented in the dispatches. Unwritten history can do little to affect the main features of Fort Donelson, Yicksburg, or the capture of Richmond. But General Grant's case is one of peculiar force. We are met in his career with no vexed questions, and few, if any, doubtful ones. There are not two parties about his fame. He has done so much, and done all so well, that our only concern must be to place his deeds most carefully on record, in order that the world may know, fully and in detail, what they have admired in grand out- line ; and this is my purpose. I have great pride in knowing that I undertake the work, not only with General Grant's sanction, but "vvith his exclusive promise of every assistance. He has di- rected material and maps to be put in my hands, which cannot otherwise be obtained, and he and the gentlemen of his staff have offered to answer all questions, and sup- ply all I shall need to make the work a faithful historic record. He desires nothing more than this. Again, it is worthy of obs(M'vation, that the work could ji(»t liavc been i)r()porly undertaken before the present • PREFATORY LETTER. 3 time. It is only now that his career, in this war, is a fait accompli. Until the destruction of the rebellion, he was only pledged to a certain and most arduous labor, and the verdict upon any former record of his life must be "In- complete !" True, he had already done much as a gen- eral, but the great work was not done ; the most brilliant chapter, before which all others pale their fires, could not before this have been written. There is no more brilliant chapter in any military life ! The plan of my biography will exhibit a clear chrono- logical history of General Grant's campaigns, illustrated by maps and diagrams furnished, and, in some cases, sug- gested by the General ; an occasional critical summary at the close of a campaign, connecting its prominent events, and presenting its military sequence ; and an appendix, containing the most important dispatches referred to in the text. Such trutliful anecdotes as I can gather, really illustrative of his character, I shall take great pleasure in inserting ; I shaU, however, make none for the purpose. In the course of the narrative I shall try my pen at sketches of the distinguished commanders who have exe- cuted Grant's plans. Many of them are old comrades and friends, and I can therefore speak from personal knowl- edge, without having recourse to loose fancies of rapid writers, who put themselves, but not their heroes, in print. I think I may safely promise the public that although the work might have been better done by other hands, they will find, in this volume, the truth carefully sifted from the great mass of materials, systematically digested, scientifically presented in a military point of view, and uninfluenced by prejudice of any kind whatever. In complying with your request to furnish a small por- tion of the volume to make up a specimen-book, I have thought best to send you a slight sketch of Grant' s youth and cadet-life, with a glimpse of him at the opening of the 4 PREFATORY LETTER. war, and to supplement tliese with a picture of the same man, when, after a wonderful series of successes, as Lieu- tenant-General, he took the darkling world on his shoul- ders, and, as we since know, bore it, without staggering, until he could once more poise it, and send it anew upon its orbit of light and joyous life. These, it seemed to me, would best illustrate his char- acter ; while we ask the reader to wait for a short time only that we may depict, as vividly as our enthusiastic pen is able, " The story of his life From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes That he has passed," which interlink in iron chain-work the peaceful youth with the stormy, successful, illustrious manhood of our "great captain." Wishing for our joint project many readers, and a success worthy its subject, I am, very sincerely, yours, H. COPP^.E. C. B. RicnAUDsdx, Esq.. ruhlislior, 540 Broadway, N. Y. EXTRACT FROM CHAPTER I. The reverberation of Ruffin's cannon* went rolling over the land. It leaped the Blue Ridge, screamed through its wild passes, traversed the valleys of tributary streams, and poured in unabated thunder-tones upon the banks of the Mississippi. Everywhere it roused the pa- triots to action. The nation sprang to its feet. The whole country, but yesterday a people of compromisers and deprecators of civil war, now flew to arms. Volunteering was the order of the day : the enthusiasm was unbound- ed. Old men, with spectacles, and in unsightly jackets, nearly killed themselves at nightly home-guard drills in academies of music, concert rooms, and town balls ; small boys formed light-infantry companies ; women made hav- ersacks and havelocks— the latter of no earthly use ex- cept to awaken, or rather keep alive, a spirit of patriotic labor ; and men in the bloom of youth and prime of man- hood flocked to the rendezvous to take the fleld. It is true we did not know how to flght : we had no generals to lead us, except some old relics of our former wars. That fine old veteran. General Scott, had passed his seventieth year, and, from the effects of old wounds, was in no condition to take the field. Our army was but * " The first shot at Fort Sumter, from Stevens's Battery, was fired by the venerable Edmund Ruffin, of Virginia." — New York Herald, April 13, 1861. On the 20th of June, 1865, this venerable gentleman blew out his brains : he certainly made two remarkable shots. (3 GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. "tlie skeleton of the forty-eiglith," an army only in name ; our volunteers Avere willing, but entirely igno- rant ; our regulars had not been drilled at brigade ma- noeuvres, and their officers knew little about tliem. In most cases, before the war, there were not sufficient troops at the garrison-posts to drill at battalion manoeuvres. No one knew how extensive the theatre of war was to be ; on what a scale the rebels had been preparing to carry it on ; what we should need in the way of an army, of supplies and munitions of war : we were certain of one thing, and that was that we were deficient in every thing. Even the strategic features of the country— unlike those of Europe, where every little rivulet and mountain-spur has been fought over, and has its military place in history — had never been studied. Perhaps it was incident to this state of things that statesmen spoke oracularly of "no war," or "one effective blow," or "sixty days," for which to discount the struggle. But in spite of their predictions the storm grew apace, and, in the midst of obscurity, we blundered on in ignorant and absurd experiments. Speak but of a man who could aid us, suggest a hero, and the people turned to him with the blind Avorship of helpless fear. Not what he had done, but what he was going to do, made him illustrious : he was already a new incarna- tion of the god of war ; a second Napoleon come to battle. It is both needless and useless now to demonstrate how unjust this was to those thus bepraised, and what sore humiliation it was to bring upon the worshippers. But there was no calm Judgment then ; the danger was immi- nent, the need urgent, the fear great. At last the light- ning fell, and Bull Run Avas followed by a horror of great darkness over the land,— the darkest hour before the daAvn. Tlie truth is, there was no man at that tiivu^ in AuKM-ica who could grasp the colossal problem ; no man on either side. We were babes in military ])ractice ; our armies GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. 7 and onr generals needed education from the very element- ary principles, and especially that education of mistakes, which Marmont declares to be the very best of all. The Grant of Belmont could not have fought the battle of Pittsburg Landing, and it needed the practice of Vicks- burg and Chattanooga to fit him for the terrible struggles of the campaign from the Rapidan. Months and years passed, and we became gradually enlightened ; our troops became veterans, and our lead- ers, carefully sifted, became generals. None are now in- vested Avith honors who have not fully earned them, and we stand to-day at the open portals of that glorious ]3eace which our defenders have achieved, ready to accord them intelligent praise in proportion to their real merits. And thus we reach the life of Lieutenant- General Grant, one of the many who rushed to the field when Rufiin' s can- non sounded the alarm — a graduate of West Point, edu- cated, indeed, as a subordinate officer, but not as a gen- eral ; to be educated in and by the war. His career, beginning with the Sumter gun, is in itself an epitome of the war, and marks its grandest epoch when armed rebel- lion threw down its weapons, and the country, more by his power than by that of any other individual man, stood new-born, with a giant' s strength, and, in the often quoted words of Curran, never elsewhere so applicable, "redeemed, regenerated, and disenthralled, by the irre- sistible genius of universal emancipation." GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. CHAPTER II. Grant was a true autochthon, a son of the soil, heir to no splendid heritage, but to the nobility of labor. His early history needs but little comment. Born of respect- able parents to the honorable sturdy life of the West, he needs no exhibition of long descent to inaugurate his his- tory. If Napoleon could rebuke the genealogist, who was creating for him a pedigree, with the words, "Friend, my patent dates from Monte Notte," Grant may claim his American nobility from Fort Donelson. On the one hand, all efforts to establish an aristocratic descent and a remarkable childhood for such a man, are dishonest and absurd ; and, on the other hand, all at- tempts to make his antecedents very humble and his childhood very hard, in order to exalt his after life, are disgusting. The one is absurdly European, and the other belongs to the ' ' new American school of biograpln', ' ' the tendency of which is to make boys despise their fathers, that they may the more thoroughly respect them- selves.* We may, however, place on record what is truthfull}' known of his family and childhood, being sure that there is nothing in Gi'ant's past upon which he does not look with honest pride. His father is Jesse R. Grant, the descendant of a Scot- * See an exuellcnt arliolc, by Gail Hamilton^ in "Skirmislios and Sketches," in which, with the vindictiveness of Ilerod, slie shuightcrs the " BoMiiii Boys," "Ferry Boys," "Errand Boys," "Tanner Boys," itc, «&c. Lot ns ho])e she has killed all the "innocents." ^. ^ GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. 9 tisli family, first represented in this country by two bro- thers, who emigrated to what were then the American colonies, early in the eighteenth century, of whom one settled in Canada and the other in New Jersey. Jesse Grant, who comes from the New Jersey branch, was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1794. In 1805 his father died, and Jesse, then an orphan of eleven years, was apprenticed to a tanner. We need not trace the wanderings of Jesse Grant with his mother and family, from Pennsylvania to Maysville in Kentucky, then to Ra- venna, thence to Ohio. The country was in a disordered state by reason of British intrigue with Indian barbarity ; in many parts the climate was unhealthy, and so we find him, after many changes to better his lot, residing at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio. Grant' s mother was Hannah Simpson, the daughter of John Simpson. She was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania ; but removed with her father and family to Clermont County, Ohio, in 1818, where, in June, 1821, she married Jesse E.. Grant. Ten months after, on the twenty-seventh of April, 1822, their first child, known to the world as Ulysses Simpson Grant,* was born in a small one -story cottage, still standing on the banks of the Ohio, commanding a view of the river and of the Ken- tucky shore. From what we know of Grant' s parents — the probity, energy, and hard labor of his father ; the consistent Chris- tian character, kind heart, and devotion to her family displayed by his excellent mother — we have another beau- tiful illustration of the moral heritage of children, and another proof that God shows mercy and gives great reward to them that love him, to many generations. * There is a story that he was named Hiram Ulysses, but that his cadet warrant was made out for Ulysses Sydney ; that he accepted the name while at West Point, only changing it to Ulysses Simpson, in honor of his mother, when he graduated. 10 GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. Many stories are told, of course, exhibiting the sturdy character of young Grant, and his resources under diffi- culties, but none betokening in a remarkable degree the character of his future career. It is said that, upon proper occasion, he could be pugnacious ; that he was not outwitted in a bargain ; and that he contrived means of overcoming difficulties which would have checked other boys. In the same way, the biographers of Napo- leon have found the types of his after life, in his lording it over his elder brother Joseph, and in his bravery in attacking snow forts. Grant was sturdy, strong, and cool, as many other boys are, but up to the time of his first entry into service no events or actions of his life were the heralds of his present greatness. The qualities undoubtedly were there, but latent ; and of what has evoked them in most men, am- bition, he seemed to have none. The education of the boy was quite limited, like that of most Western boys in moderate circumstances. There was hard work to do, in Avhich the son must help the father, and so it was only in the midwinter months that he could attend the village school. What he learned, however, he learned well, and he acquired with the ele- ments of knowledge, not only a basis, but, what is of far more importance, an ardent desire for a full education. By the time Grant was seventeen, West Point had acquired great fame throughout the country ; it was known by its fruits ; its eUces were gentlemen of high education and noble bearing. In civic life they were e»agerly sought after to take the lead in railway engineer- ing and industrial pursuits. They were the chief men in all militia organizations ; indeed the military knowl- edge of the country was almost as much confined to them as the esoteric meaning of the Egyptian mysteries had for- merly been to the priests. It was also known that there a boy, without the nect^ssary means, could obtain the best GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. H education which the country could afford, not gratui- tously, but more : he would be paid for learning, trained and maintained as a gentleman, and would receive at the last a high, self-sustaining position — a commission in the army. To such a youth as Grant, it offered a splendid chance, and so application was made to the Honorable Thomas L. Hamer, of Grant's congressional district, who gave him the appointment. Thus, with a good basis of hard, self-reliant, and eager boyhood, he was admitted to the preliminary examination, and entered the Military Academy on the first of July, 1839.* Such are the de- tails which would have had no importance whatever, had it not been for subsequent events. Even a step farther we may follow him without any temptation to worship the incipient hero. His scholar- ship at AYest Point was respectable and no more. He went through the entire course, like his classmates, no cadet being allowed any option, f From September to June, the cadets are in bai-racks, studying, riding, and fencing in the riding-hall, and, in fine weather, drilling in the afternoons at infantry ; from June to September, they encamp upon the plain, and their time is entirely em- ployed in drills of every kind, guard duty, pyrotechny, and practical engineering. In his cadet studies, Grant had something to contend with in the fact of his own lack of early preparation, and the superior preparation of most of his competitors, who had been over a part of the course before they entered. Among these were William B. Franklin, who stood at the head of the class ; Roswell S. Ripley, not famous for his "History of the Mexican AVar" (written in the interest of General Pillow, and to injure Gent^ral Scott), * The preliminary examination is extremely simple — reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic through decimal fractions. t In our day, it was only the first section of each class who learned something more than was required of the rest. 12 GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. but quite infamous for firing with great rapidity upon the burning Sumter, which the devoted garrison were trying to extinguish ; Rufus Ingalls, the excellent quar- termaster-general of the Army of the Potomac ; Joseph J. Reynolds, late commander in Arkansas ; Christopher C. Augur, long in command at Washington ; the rebel General Franklin Gardner, who surrendered Port Hud- son to Banks when Grant had taken Vicksburg ; and others, to whom we design no discredit by not mention- ing them. Thirty-nine of the one hiindred and more who had been appointed in 1839, graduated in 1843. Grant was the independent middle man, twenty-first on the list. The honor of being his comrade for two years at the Academy, enables me to speak more intelligently, per- haps, than those of "the new school," who have invented the most absurd stories to illustrate his cadet-life, I remember him as a plain, common-sense, straight-forward youth ; quiet, rather of the old-head-on-young-shoulders order, shunning notoriety ; quite contented, while others were grumbling ; taking to his military duties in a very business-like manner ; not a prominent man in the corps, but respected by all, and very popular with his friends. His sobriquet of Uncle Sam was given to him tliere, where every good fellow has a nickname, from these very qualities ; indeed, he was a very uncle-like sort of a youth. He was then and always an excellent horseman, and his picture rises before me as I write, in the old torn coat,* obsolescent leather gig-top, loose riding pantaloons, with spurs buckled over them, going with his clanking sabre to the drill-hall.. He exhibited but little entliu- siasm in any thing : his best standing was in the math- ematical branches and their application to tactics and military engineering. * Ridiiifr-jackots, if we rcinembor rij^litly, IkuI not tlien been issued, and the cadets ahvavs wore tlieir seediest ri^: into the sweat and dust of the riding-drill. GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. 13 If we agaiu dwell upon the fact that no one, even of his most intimate friends, dreamed of a great future for him, it is to add that, looking back now, we must confess that the possession of many excellent qualities, and the entire absence of all low and mean ones, establish a logical sequence from first to last, and illustrate, in a novel manner, the poet' s fancy about " The baby figures of the giant mass Of things to come at large," the germs of those qualities which are found in beautiful combination in Wordsworth's "Happy Warrior :" " The generous spirit who, when brought Among the tasks of real life, hath wrought "Upon the plan that pleased his infant thought." And at this point of view, as we find the Western boy, after the compacting, instructing, developing processes of West Point, coming forth, a man, ready for the stern real- ities of American life, we may pause to point him out to our American youth as an example henceforth to be fol- lowed ; then, as now, a character which, in the words of a friend, "betrayed no trust, falsified no word, violated no rights, manifested no tyranny, sought no personal aggran- dizement, complained of no hardship, displayed no jeal- ousy, oppressed no subordinate ; but, in whatever sphere, protected every interest, upheld his flag, and was ever known by his humanity, sagacity, courage, and honor." What more can be claimed for any young man ? What for the greatest of captains 1 He left West Point as brevet second-lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry ; and with his army life we begin an- other chapter in his history. 14 GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. CHAPTER III. Ox the 1st of July, 1843, Grant began his army service as brevet second-lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry. The explanation of this is, that there being no vacancy in the infantry arm, all graduated cadets are thus attached, in the order of merit, to regiments, as supernumerary officers, each to await a vacancy in his turn. The regiment was then at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri ; but, in the summer of 1844, it was removed to Natchitoches, La., and, as the Mexican plot thickened, in 1845, it was sent to Corpus Christi, to watch the Mexican army then concentrating upon the frontier. Grant was made a full second-lieutenant in the seventh regiment on the 30th of September, 1845. But he had formed an attachment for the fourth, and applied to remain in it ; this was granted by the War Department. He was fortunate enough to be at Palo Alto and Resaca, May 6 and 7, 1846, the trial fights of the American army against a civilized enemy, after thirty years of peace ; and he participated in the bloody battle of Monterey, September 23, 1846. His re- giment was soon after called away from General Taylor' s command, to join General Scott in his splendid campaign from Vera Cruz to Mexico, two hundred and seventy- two miles in the heart of the enemy's country. He was at the siege and capture of Yera Cruz, March 29, 1847, and on April 1, preparatory to the advance, lie was ap- pointed regimental quarter-master, a post whicli he held during the remainder of the war. It is a position re- quiring system and patience, and drawing a small addi- GRANT AND HIS CMIPAIGNS. 15 tional pay ; it is usually conferred upon some solid, ener- getic, pains-taking officer, not necessarily one remarkal)le for dash and valor. Being in charge of the regimental equipage and trains, the quarter-master may, without impropriety, remain with these during actual battle, as we have known many to do. It is, therefore, recorded as greatly to the praise of Grant, that he always joined his regiment in battle, and shared their fighting. At Molino del Rey, September 8, 1847, he was distin- guished, and was brevetted first-lieutenant for his ser- vices : this brevet, however, owing to the fact of his becoming a full first-lieutenant by the casualties of that battle, he declined. At Chapultepec, September 13, 1847, Grant joined, with a few of his men, some detachments of the second artillery, under Captain Horace Brooks, in an attack on the enemy's breastworks, served a mountain howitzer, and hastened the enemy' s retreat, and ' ' acquit- ted himself most nobly under the observation" of his regimental, brigade, and division commanders.* For this action Grant received the brevet of captain for "gallant and meritorious conduct," awarded in 1849, but not confirmed until 1850. His first-lieutenancy dated from September 16, 1847. It must not be supposed that these services during the Mexican war are now dressed up to assimilate with his after career. He was really distinguished in that war above most of those of his own rank.f * See General Worth's, Lieutenant-Colonel Garland's, and Major Fran- cis Lee's reports of that battle. t During our residence at the capital I remember a "horse story" about Grant, which has not appeared in the books, but which is, at least, true. He was an admirable horseman, and had a very spirited horse. A Mexican gentleman, with whom he was upon friendly terms, asked the loan of his horse. Grant said afterwards, "I was afraid he could not ride liini, and yet I knew if I said a word to that effect, the suspicious Spanish nature would think I did not wish to lend him." The result was the 16 GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. Upon the close of the war by the treaty promulgated in April, 1848, the Fourth Infantry was sent first to New York, and then to the Northern frontier, and for some time Grant served in the command of his company, first at Detroit, and then at Sackett' s Harbor. In August, 1848, he married Miss Dent, sister of his classmate, Frederick J. Dent, who resided in St. Louis. Incident to the acquisition of California and the won- derful discoveries of gold, troops were more necessary on our Western coast than elsewhere, to protect the emigrants and the new Pacific settlements from the depredations of the Indians. The Fourth Infantry was therefore ordered to Oregon, in the autumn of 1851, and one battalion, with which Brevet Captain Grant was serving, was ordered to Fort DaUas, where he saw some service against the Indians. After a two-years absence from his family, and with but little prospect of promotion in those " dull and piping times of peace," Grant, having been promoted to a full captaincy in August, 1853, resigned his commission in July 31, 1854, and set forth to commence life anew as a citizen. That he tried many shifts, does not betoken a fickle or volatile nature, but simply the invention which is born of necessity. As a small farmer, near St. Louis, ai ^ a dealer in wood, he made a precarious living ; * as a Mexican mounted liim, was tliruwii before he had gone two blocks, and killed on the spot. * I visited St. Lonis at this time, and remember with pleasure, that Grant, in his farmer rig, whip in hand, came to see me at the hotel, where were Joseph J. Reynolds, then Professor, now Major-General, General (then Major) D. C. Buell, and Major Chapman of the cavalry. If Grant had ever used spirits, as is not unlikely, I distinctly remember that, upon the proposal being made to drink. Grant said, I will go in and look at you, for I never drink any tiling; and the other officers, who saw him fre- quently, afterwards told me that he drank nothing but water. (^iiiU^A&^' .^^^ '-^^^^^.:^, ^^t,^^^^:^ B.RicliccrdsoiL. PuiHslLer. frr?r '>— j)^.:v^^)i^^^P ., -■« iS Es.-^ s GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. 17 money collector he did no more, having neither the nature to bully nor the meanness to wheedle the debtors. He could not " Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee That thrift may follow fawning." He is said also to have played the auctioneer ; but in this branch, unless he made longer speeches than he has since done, he could achieve no success. In 1859 he entered into partnership with his father, who had been prosperous in the tanning business, in a new leather and saddlery store in Galena, Illinois. Here, in a place of growing trade with Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, the industry, good sense, and honesty of Grant did at length achieve a certain and honorable suc- cess, and, had the rebellion not broken out, he would have had a local reputation in the firm of Grant & Son, as an admirable judge of leather, perhaps mayor of Galena, with a thoroughly well-mended sidewalk, visited always with pleasure by his old army friends travelling West- ward, but never heard of by the public. His greatest success had been achieved in the army ; his Mexican ex- perience gave glimpses of a future in that line ; he needed only opportunity, and he was to have it abundantly. Here, then, we mark a new epoch in his life— a sudden plunge unexpected and unheralded, — " The torrent's smoothness ere it dash below." 2 18 GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. CHAPTER IV. It may be easily conceived how the treachery of Southern leaders, the secession of South Carolina, and the hombardment of Fort Sumter aifected Grant. A decided Democrat before the Avar, he had, in his limited sphere, been in favor of conceding to the South all its rights, perhaps more ; but when the struggle actually began, his patriotism and military ardor were aroused to- gether. As a patriot, he was determined to support his Government and uphold his flag ; and as a soldier, he saw opening before him a career of distinction for which he had been educated, and in which he had already, in some degree, distinguished himself. In May he raised a com- pany in his own neighborhood, and marched with it to Springfield, the place of rendezvous. It was not long before Governor Yates, to whom he had been recom- mended by a member of Congress from his State, made use of Grant's experience in organizing the State trooj^s. He was appointed Adjutant- General of the State, and pro- ceeded to the difficult task of mustering the three-months men, which, amid much confusion, he accomplished by his indefatigable energy. While on a brief visit to his father, at Covington, Kentucky, Grant received a com- mission from the Governor as colonel of the Twenty-lirst Illinois Volunteers, three-months men. They subsequent- 1}' iMilisted, owing to their confidence in him, one thousand strong, for three years' service. Grant's first concern Avas to drill and discipline his regiment, which soon b«'came marked for its excellent order. Removing them from GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. 19 their place of organization, Matoon, Illinois, to Caseyville, lie snperinteilded their drill ; and, not long after, he marched them, in default of railroad transportation, one hundred and twenty miles, to Quincy, on the Mississippi, which was supposed to be in danger. Thence he moved, under orders, to defend the line of the Hannibal and Hud- son Railroad, from Hannibal and Quincy, on the Missis- sippi, to St. Joseph, and here coming into contact with other regiments, his military knowledge and experience pointed to him, although the 5^oungest colonel, as the com- mander of the combined forces. As acting brigadier-gen- eral of this force, his head- quarters, on the 31st of July, 1861, were at Mexico, Missouri. We need not detail the marches of Grant's regiments in the "District of North- ern Missouri" — as General Pope's command was called — to Pilot Knob and Ironton and Jefferson City, to defend the river against the projected attacks of Jeff. Thompson. In August he received his commission as brigadier-general of volunteers, to date from May 17. He was seventeenth in a list of thirty-four original appointments of that date. He was ordered to proceed to Cairo, and there, with two brigades, he took command of the important strategic ter- ritory entitled "The District of Southeast Missouri," in- cluding both banks of the Mississippi River, from Cape Girardeau to New Madrid, and on the Ohio it included the whole of Western Kentucky. A glance at the map discloses the strategic importance of Cairo, as a base of operations for a southern advance, and of vital importance in the line of defence for the extensive and rich country lying between the Ohio and the Mississippi. It is esj^e- cially valuable for river exi)editions, the transi^ortation of supplies, and the equipment of a gunboat fleet. The parallel flow of the Tennessee and Cumberland north- ward into the Ohio also includes a most important por- tion of West Kentucky, which Grant saw at a glance was to become the scene of immediate hostilities. 20 GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. Grant was now in his element ; he not onlj^ accom- plished with alacrity what he was ordered to do, but he made work for his troops. He at once displayed that en- ergy Avhich he has never abated for an instant during the war. The attempted and absurd neutrality of Kentucky was one-sided ; it was to keep Union troops away and let rebels attack.* The latter were not slow in availing them- selves of this privilege. Seizing, first Hickman, and then Columbus and Bowling Green, and fortifying the Tennes- see at Fort Henry, and the Cumberland at Fort Donelson, they established a first strong line from the Mississippi to Virginia in the "neutral" State of Kentucky. Grant followed their lead in sending, on the 6th of September, a strong force to Paducah, where the Tennessee empties into the Ohio, under command of General C. F. Smith, much to the chagrin of the secessionists there, who were • awaiting a rebel force. In the same manner he occupied Smithland, near the mouth of the Cumberland, and thus made two vital moves in the game which was to cry checkmate at Fort Donelson. These points were also val- uable to the rebels as gateways of supplies. From the places now occupied Grant at once busied himself in mak- ing numerous reconnoissances in every direction, until at length he was ready to try his '"prentice hand" upon the rebels. When all was ready he moved down the river to Belmont, opposite Columbus, and there the first battle took place. The origin of that movement may be tlius bricfiy stated : — * And yet this neutrality was reproached by the rebels. Pollard says ("First Year of the War," p. 183): "If, a few months back, any one had predicted, that in an armed contest between the North and the South, the State of Kentucky would be found acting with the former, and abetting and assisting a war upon States united with her by community of institutions, of interests, and of blood, in any Southern company in whicli such a speech was adventured he would, most [irobably, have been liooted at <»« a fool or chastised as a slanderer." GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. 21 General Fremont, under date iN'ovember 1, 1861, di- rected Grant to make demonstrations "along both sides of the river towards Charleston, Norfolk, and Blandville." On the 2d, he was thus informed by Fremont: "Jeff. Thompson is at Indian's ford of the St. Francois River, twenty-five miles below Greenville, with about three thousand men. Colonel Carlin has started with a force from Pilot Knob. Send a force from Cape Girardeau and Bird's Point to assist Carlin in driving Thompson into Arkansas." Incident to these instructions, Grant sent Colonel Oglesby, with the Eighth Illinois, four com- panies of the Eleventh Illinois, the whole of the Eigli- teenth and Twenty-ninth, and three companies of cavalry, to go to Commerce, Missouri, thence to Sikeston, and pursue Jeff. Thompson (in conjunction with a force from Ironton). On the 5th, he was informed that Polk was re-enforcing Price's army from Columbus. In this com- plication of circumstances he determined to threaten Co- lumbus and attack Belmont. Oglesby was deflected to New Madrid, and Colonel W. H. L. "Wallace sent to re- enforce him. The object of the attack then was to cut off the rebel line in Kentucky from Price' s forces in Mis- souri, and also to keep Polk from interfering with the detachments Grant had sent out in pursuit of Jeff. Thompson. Grant directed General C. F. Smith to make a dem- onstration upon Columbus from Paducah, and then him- self sent down a small force on the Kentucky side to EUicott's Mills, about twelve miles from Columbus. Having taken these precautions to deceive the enemy, he embarked his expeditionary force at Cairo on the 6th of November — three thousand one hundred and fourteen men,* chiefly Illinois volunteers, with the Seventh Iowa, * McClernand's Brigade (Twentv-seventh, Tliirtieth, Thirty-first Illi- nois), with cavalry. Dougherty's Brigade, Twenty-second Illinois, Seventh Iowa. — GranVa Revised Report, June 26, 1805. 22 GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. upon four boats, convoyed by the gunboats Lexington, Captain Stembel, and Tyler, Captain Walker in com- mand, the gunboats in advance. Moving with due cau- tion, they reached Island No. 1, eleven miles above Co- lumbus, that night, and lay against the Kentucky shore. It was then he heard that Polk was crossing troops to Bel- mont to cut off Oglesby. The next morning he moved to Hunter' s Point, two miles above Belmont, on the Mis- souri shore, where his troops Avere landed and formed into column of attack. The rebel forces at Columbus were commanded by Major-General Leonidas Polk, a bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church, the purity of whose lawn is forever stained with blood drawn by carnal weapons ; a weak but brave man, whose West Point education was at least worth something to the rebel cause. Polk had posted a small force on the right bank, to keep open his communications, and, as soon as he had wind of Grant's movement, and Smith's demonstration to Maysfield, he expected an attack on Columbus, or at least in Kentucky. Indeed, until the close of the engagement, he apiDrehended an attack in his rear. Grant's movement took him somewhat b}^ surprise. From the point of debarkation, one battalion having been left as a reserve near the transports, the troops were marched by flank towards Belmont, and drawn up in line of battle about a mile from Belmont. Skirmishers were then thrown forwaid, who soon encountered Colonel Tappan's rebel force, consisting of three regiments, re- enforced by Pillow with three more, and the general engagement took place. Deploying his entire force as skirmishers. Grant drove the enemy back, fighting from tree to tree, for about two miles, until he reached the intrenched camp protected by slashed timber as an abatis. In rear of this, oi)i>osiiig our left, were tlu; Tliirteenth Arkansas and the iS'inth Tennessee: and on the right GRANT AND HIS CAMPAIGNS. 23 was Beltzhoover's "battery of seven guns and Colonel Wright's regiment, Tliis did not check our impetuous advance. Charging over it with great ardor, our men drove the enemy to the river-bank, and many of them into their transports, and were in possession of every thing.* But as Belmont is on low ground, entirely com- manded by the guns from Columbus, it was manifest that the ground thus gained could not be held, and therefore Grant fired the encampment, burning tents, blankets, and stores, and began his return movement with captured artil- lery, prisoners, and horses. But the end of our success on the field had been attained. Major- General Polk, who was now quite alive to the situation, directed his heaviest guns from Coluinbus upon our troops. He had already sent over three f regiments in one body, under General Pil- low ; these were supported by three others, under Gen- eral Cheatham, which landed some distance above, be- tween our soldiers and the boats. Further to crush Grant' s small force, the bishop, although sadly afraid of an attack on his rear at Columbus, took over two regiments in per- son to aid Pillow's panic-stricken force. But by this time Grant was in retreat to his boats, and only faced to the right and rear to punish Cheatham's flankers, and a portion of Pillow's, under Colonel Marks, who had marched up the river-bank, and endeavored to prevent his return to the boats. In that retreat we sufi'ered very severely, our troops being hard pressed by overpower- ing numbers. At five in the afternoon our troops had re-embarked, and were on their way to Cairo, while the * The rebel excuse is, that they were out of ammunition ; good, but not new. Pollard says: "In this movement Pillow's line was more or less broken, and his corps mingled together, so that when they reached the river-bank, they had the appearance of a mass of men rather than an organized corps." — First Year, p. 201. + Pollard sa.js four regiments, but we give the rebels the benetit of clergy, as the bishop says three. 24 GRANT AXD HIS CAMPAIGNS. rebels, checked by the fire of our gunboats, glared like baffled tigers, and went back to their smoking camp. We had left two caissons, but had brought oflf two guns of Beltzhoover' s battery. We had eighty -five killed, three hundred and one (many slightly) wounded, and about ninety-nine missing. The gunboats, whose duty was primarily to cover the landing and protect the transports, and also, as far as possible, to engage the Columbus batteries, performed their service to General Grant's entire satisfaction. The Confederate loss was six hundred and thirty-two (Pollard, "First Year of the War"). Both parties claimed a victory, but on the i-ecovery of the field and pursuit of our retiring columns the rebels base their claims to a success, which we need not disj)ute.* Although, in comparison with subsequent engagements, Belmont seems a small affair, it has an importance peculiarly its own. I. — It was a cowp d'essai of our new General. While others of his rank were playing quite subordinate parts in large annies. Grant was making an independent expedi- tion in command, outwitting the enemy, burning his camp, retreating successfully when overpowered, and eff'ecting his purpose in a most soldierly manner. II. — Again, it was a trial of our new troops in the AYest, and they acquitted themselves so as to elicit the hearty praise of their commander and the countr}^ They fought well in the attack, from colonels to privates, f in tlie retreat, and in cutting their way through Cheatham's force, and were never for a moment discouraged. III. — The objects of the expedition, — to prevent the enemy from sending a force to Missouri to cut off our de- * In a letter to his fiithor (November 8th), Grant says, " I can say with gratification, that every cohmol, witliout a single exception, set an example to their commands," &c. t General McClornand's "Official Report." McClernand had three horses shot under him. >2^ >? ,/X:^.,-^." -- DiSa 0. B. EICHARDbON. Publisher, :..lii HROADW.VV. NEW VORK. Wo, the subscribers, wiii ta). J una ;'i.> .i-r ilm number of copies of the above work set against our respective names, when delivered in accordance with the above conditions; (his Progjiectus volume to represent the styles of binding, size, and general ineclianical execution of the work. . fa Author - -S^oppeey--^"* ""/l Grant and his B. Title ..-.-C.S^S>^^M^=szz=s^^ss^^^^ LIBRARY NAVY DEPARTMENT Room 2730 Books must be returned within two weeks 8. OOVERMHENT r^lINTIMO OmCB: 1926 LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 013 789 283 2