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THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 Ulysses S. G-eant, 
 
 GENEEAL UNITED STATES ARMY. 
 
 HENRY C. DEMINa 
 
 HARTFORD : 
 S. S. SCRANTON AND COMPANY. 
 
 ClXCrXN ATI : NATIONAL PUBLISHING COMPANY. 
 
 rillLADELPHIA: PARMELEE BROTHERS. 
 
 CHICAGO: O. F. GIBBS. 
 
 1868. 
 
 

 Entered, according to Act of Congress, m the year 1868, by 
 
 S. S. SCRANTON & CO., 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for tlie District of Connecticut 
 
 G * 
 nor WO' 1 vs A lerjn 
 
 Boston : 
 Stereotyped by Ceo. C. Rand & Avery 
 
I DEDICATE THIS BOOK 
 
 TO 
 
 Hon. Elihu B. Washburne, 
 
 "The Father of the House," 
 
 THE ARDENT ADMIRER OF THE SUBJECT, 
 THE GENEROUS FRIEND OF THE BIOGRAPHER. 
 
 ?2I!)ciT, in tin Sbirtg-nintb Congress, 
 
 YOU GAVE YOUR RIGHT HAND IN SUPPORT TO THE ONE, 
 
 AND YOUR LEFT IN CONFIDENCE TO THE OTHER, 
 
 THE AUTHOR WAS FIRST UNITED A\ tTH 
 
 THE THEME. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 THIS volume was undertaken at the solicitation of the 
 publishers, who wished a life of General Grant for 
 the people. 
 
 There is no authority for the youth and childliood of 
 Grant hut his father : the son never consents to indul^'e 
 i'l reminiscence respecting his early years, and uniformly 
 refers biographers to the record for his career during man- 
 hood. In regard to the Mexican War, I have been favored 
 with some material by Hon. Mr. Washburne, who has also 
 furnished me with data respecting Grant's life on the 
 frontiers. In the campaigns from Belmont to Chattanooga, 
 I have followed, upon all disputable points, the authority 
 of Gen. Adam Badeau, in his " Military History of Gen. 
 Ulysses S. Grant." I have frequently in the text expressed 
 my obligations to the careful researches of this gentleman ; 
 and I repeat my acknowledgments in this introduction. 
 The telegrams, despatches, letters, of Gen. Grant, which 
 have been for the first time given to the public by this 
 accomplished historian, I have freely used ; because I have 
 regarded them as Gen. Grant's own commentaries upon 
 his own campaigns, written, like Csesar's, in the field. In 
 the Wilderness campaign I have relied upon manuscript 
 
 5 
 
6 iist:eoduction". 
 
 reports, which were furnished me at headquarters, when I 
 was investigating a question of legislation, by authority of 
 the House of Representatives. I have also to express my 
 acknowledgments to Charles J. Hoadly, Esq., of the State 
 Library, for genealogical material ; to Hon. J. Hammond 
 Trumbull, Curator of the Watkinson Library, for facilitating 
 my researches ; to William N. Matson, Esq., for daily en- 
 couragement and aid ; and to three steadfast assistants 
 (whom I am only permitted to indicate), I am immeasur- 
 ably indebted for lightening my labors and expediting my 
 volume. 
 
 I make no professions to acquaintance with military 
 science. I can only see such system and methods in battles 
 and campaigns, and of course can only describe such, as a 
 civilian, who has only studied war in history, biography, 
 and in Jomini's analysis of the campaigns of Napoleon and 
 Frederick, may be permitted to discern. A full detail of 
 all the military movements of Grant was incompatible with 
 the limits of my volume ; and I have selected for full 
 description those which best served to illustrate his charac- 
 ter as a general. I have, moreover, attempted to avoid 
 cumulative illustration. In the chapter devoted to " Ad- 
 ministrative Experience," my authority has been the official 
 reports. 
 
 Hartford, April 28, 1868. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIKTH. — PAPENTAGE. — CHILDHOOD. 
 
 [1822-1838.] 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Plan of tlie "Work. — Pedigree. — Matthew Grant. — Noah Grant. — Noah 
 Grant, 2d. — Jesse Root Grant. — His Marriage. — Sketch of Mrs. 
 Grant. — Mother's Influence. — Birth of Grant. — The Old Home- 
 stead. — His Name. — Boyish Susceptibilities. — Traits. — Anecdotes . 19 
 
 CHAPTER 11. 
 
 EDUCATION. — WEST POINT. 
 
 [1838-1846.] 
 
 West Point. — Martial Life. — Course of Study. — Recreation. — Grant's 
 Capability. — First Examination. — Graduation. — Classmates. — In- 
 struction in Law. — Preparation for Civil Government. — Garrison 
 Life. — Jefferson Barracks. — Red River .... .31 
 
 CHAPTER m. 
 
 EDUCATION. — MEXICAN WAK. 
 
 [1846-1848.] 
 
 War. — War with Mexico. — Grant's Rank. — Matamoras. — View of 
 
 Monterey from the Heights. — Forts Tcncria and Diablo. — Surrender 
 
 of Ampudia. — Ordered to join Scott in the Advance upon Mexico. 
 
 — Grant's Enjoj-racnt of the Campaign. — Vera Cruz. — Siege of. — 
 
 7 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 % 
 
 PA6B 
 
 Enemy's Defences. — Cerro Gordo. — Plan of Attack. — Cerro Gordo 
 carried. — Prisoners. — Capture of Peeote. — Occupation of Puebla. 
 — Description of 38 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EDUCATION. — MEXICAN WAR. — CERRO GOEDO TO MEXICO. 
 
 Advance. — Mexico from the Cordilleras. — Occupation of San Agustin. 
 
 — Description of Mexican Battles confined to the General Operations 
 in which Grant was engaged. — Two Plans of Attack upon Mexico. 
 
 — Organization. — Grant's Division-Master. — Grant on the San An- . 
 tonio Causeway. — What Garland's Division sec. — What they know. 
 
 — Charge on San Antonio. — Operations of Twiggs. — Operations of 
 Pierce and Shields. — Repulse of the Assailants. — Another Charge. 
 
 — The Eighth Infantry capture the tete da pout. — Duncan's Battery- 
 opens on San Pablo. — Stormcrs on the Right seize the Salient. — 
 Churubusco taken. — Demoralization and Retreat of the Enemy. — 
 Pursuit. — Headquarters at Tacubaya. — Attempt at Armistice. — 
 Before Molino del Rey. — Casa Mata assigned to Garland's Brigade. 
 
 — Ready for the Assault. — Assault. — The Enemy's Batteries cap- 
 tured. — Ilaud-to-hand Fight in the Molino. — Casa Mata blown up. 
 
 — Reconnoissance of the Southern Avenues of Mexico. — Batteries 
 established. — Bombardment. — Pillow's Approach. — Scott's Ac- 
 count. — Garland aimed for the Alameda. — Grant flanks the Enemy. 
 
 — Grant serves a Battery. — Honorably mentioned. — Street Eight. — 
 Mexico is Ours. — Occupation of the City. — What Grant sees . . 53 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 EDUCATION. — FRONTIER SERVICE. — CIVIL LIFE. 
 
 [1848-1861.] 
 
 Tactics. — Science of Command. — Genius. — Lord Chatham. — Grant's 
 Marriage. — His Wife. — Torpor upon Military Posts. — Stationed at 
 Detroit. — Life in Detroit. — Grant in Society. — His Powers of Con- 
 versation. — Gen. McPherson's Opinion. — "No Orator." — His duties 
 of Quartermaster. — Influence of Duties on his Ch.iractcr. — Birth of 
 his Children. — The Fourth Infantry ordered to Oregon. — Stationed 
 at Bcnicia. — At Vancouver. — Description of — Life at Vancouver. 
 — Hudson's Bay Company. — Purpose for which they are sent ac- 
 complished. — Second Year. — Habitudes of Mind. — Commission as 
 Captain. — Ordered to Humboldt Bay. — Resignation. — Farmer at 
 St. Louis. — Collector at St. Louis. — Leather-Dealer at Galena. — 
 Contrasted with other Civilians Avho were also Laborers. — Distin- • 
 guishcd Men who have risen from Humble Life 76 
 
CONTENTS. 9 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WHAT DID HE ACTUALLY DO IN THE CIVIL WAK ? — IIE ADMINISTEE3 THE 
 DISTRICT OF SOUTH-EASTERN MISSOURI. 
 
 PAoa 
 
 Purpose of the Chapter. — Sir Arthur Wcllesley. — Grant hears of the 
 Bombardment of Sumter. — Exclamation thereupon. — Retrospect. — 
 Grant drills a Company. — Presents himself to Gov. Yates. — Narra- 
 tive of Gov. Yates. — Appointed Colonel of Twenty-first Illinois 
 , Infantry. — Marches it to Slissouri. — Arrives at Rlexico. — Commis- 
 sioned Brigidier-Ceneral of Volunteers. — Assumes Command of the 
 District of South-east Missouri. — Topographical Features. — Politi- 
 cal Status. —Grant at Cairo. — Seizes Puducah. — Urges Fre'mont to 
 seize Columbus and Hickman. — Polk occupies them. — Grant re- 
 strained by Fremont. — Demonstrates against Columbus. — Encoun- 
 ters the Enemy at Belmont. — Demonstration converted into an At- 
 tack. — OfiRcers with him. —Volunteers nnder Fire. — Scene of the 
 Fight. — Enemy re-enforced. — Grant makes his Way out. — His 
 Coolness. — Second Charge. — Withdraws to the Transports. — Criti- 
 cism. — Results of Belmont. — Maxim of Grant. — Polk asks for 
 Exchansje of Prisoners 91 
 
 CHAPTER Vn. 
 
 HE BREAKS THE ENEMY's CENTRE AT FORTS HENRY AND D0NEL80N. 
 
 [February, March, April, 1862.] 
 
 New Field of Operations. — Fre'mont superseded by Halleck. — Change 
 of Command over Grant; no Change of System. — Naval Service in 
 the West controlled by Halleck. — Annexation of Paducah to Grant's 
 Command. — Inactivity of our Armies. — Procrastimitiuu. — Rebel 
 Strategic Line. — Left of the Line. — Right of the Line. — Centre of 
 the Line. — Forts Henry and Donelson. — Plan of McClellan. — Of 
 Buell. — Of Halleck. — Of Grant. — Asks Permission to Attack.— 
 Denied. — Commentary. — Admiral Foote asks Permission. — "For- 
 ward, Fo')tc and Grant ! " — Grant a Minute-Man. — Situation of Furt 
 Henry. — Description of Fort Henry. — Of Hieman. — Coup-de-Main 
 instead of Siege required. — Task of Foote. — His Implements.— 
 Plan of Attack. — His Attack. — McClernand's Forces. — Difficuh 
 Marches.— ElFcct of Enemy's Fire on the Fleet.- Tenacity of 
 Fleet. — McClernand delayed by Mud.— Surrender of the Fort. 
 — Enemy in Retreat. — Saying of Napoleon.— Attack on Donelson 
 not intended by Halleck. — Grant's Promptness. — Halleck intent only 
 on the Defence of Henry. — Grant pushes on to Donelson. — Tele- 
 graphs to Halleck. — Halleck urges Defensive Operations.- Grant 
 for Offensive. — Calendar. — Donelson invested. — Troops stationed. 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 PA OS 
 
 — Defences of tlic Enemy. — Night Attack. — Arrival of Ee-enfcrco 
 ments. — Land Side of Donclson. — River Side. — Arrival of the 
 Carondelet. — Attack of. — Retires. — Bombardment by Fleet. — Grant 
 aboard Flag-Ship. — GaiTison masks their Forces to escape. — Attack 
 on our Investing Line. — Roll up McArthur. — Oglosby. — W. H. L. 
 Wallace. — Arrested by Lewis Wallace. — Enemy baffled. — Grant's 
 Arrival. — Interview with Smith. — Hurries on. — Encounters the 
 Fugitives. — Surmises the Rebel Plan. — Another Maxim. — Acts on 
 it. — Professional Soldiers in tlie Engagement. — Sketcliof Gen. Smith. 
 
 — Smith's Storming Party. — Success of it. — Scene within the Fort. 
 
 — Pillow. — Floyd. — Buckner. — Pillow and Floyd flee. — Buckner 
 asks for Terms. — Grant demands Unconditional Surrender. — Buck- 
 ner surrenders. — Telegram from Halleck. — Forgets to thank Grant 
 
 — Thanks Hunter and Smith. — Reception of News at Washington. — 
 Stanton's Commendation. — Nomination of Grant for Major-General. 
 
 — Confirmed. — Donclson the first decided Victory. — Effect on the 
 Countiy. — Strategic Line collapses. — First Communication between 
 Grant and Sherman. — Enduring Nature of their Friendship . .115 
 
 CHAPTER Vin. 
 
 HE WINS THE VICTORT OF 6HILOH. 
 
 Grant assumes Command of the District of Tennessee. — Trip to Nash- 
 ville. — Persecution by Halleck. — Ordered to Fort Henry. — Letter 
 of Halleck to McClcllan. — Gen. Smith placed in Command. — "Chris- 
 tian Morals." — Grant's Behavior. — Justifies himself. — Asks to be 
 relieved. — Halleck mollified. — Sends his Correspondence with the 
 War-Office to Grant. — Comparison with Washington. — Grant re- 
 sumes Command. — Enemy concentrated at Corinth. — Maxims of 
 Halleck. -—Topography of the Field. — Smith selects Battle-Field of 
 Shiloh. — Smith dying. — Grant at Savanna, waiting for Bucll. — Visits 
 the Front daily. — Nelson reaches Savanna. — Army Corps stationed. 
 — Position of the Corps when attacked. — Encampment, rattier than 
 Battle-Line. — Sherman's Opinion of the Battle-Field. — No Surprise, 
 but no Expectation of Battle on that Morning. — Enemy drives in the 
 Pickets. — Ideal and the Real. — Appearance of Grant in Baicle. — 
 No Display. — Manners in the Field. — Dress. — His Simplicity veils 
 his Merit. — Grant at Savanna when Battle opens. — Hastens up. — 
 Orders Nelson to move forward. — Lewis Wallace to be prepared tc 
 Advance. — Moves up Hurlbut and W. II. L. Wallace. — Interview 
 with Sherman. — Grant goes to the Left. — Stuart routed. — Prentiss 
 driven from his First Line. — His Right Brigade gives way. — Sher- 
 man's Left Brigade gives way. — Entire Line forced back. — Sherman 
 clings to Owl Creek and sustains McCIcrnand. — New Line. — Wal- 
 lace and Nelson anxiously expected. — Second Interview between 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Grant and Sherman. — Hurlbut and W. H. L. Wallace bear the Brunt 
 of the Attack. — Give way. — Prentiss's Division captured. — Situa- 
 tion at four o'clock. — Third Interview between Grant and Sherman 
 at Sunset. — Result of it. — Grant orders Offensive to be resumed in 
 the Morning. — Buell reaches Pittsburg Landing. — Interview with 
 Grant. — Conversation. — Advantages of the Field. — Sherman's Hook 
 supports the Zigzag Line. —Strength of Sherman's Grip. — Hurlbut's 
 Description of the Enemy's last Attack. — Credit due to Sherman at 
 a Pinch. — To Hurlbut and W. H. L. Wallace. — First Day's Battle 
 characterized. — Grant makes his Dispositions for the next Day during 
 the Night. — Stations the Corps. — Enemy suffering. — Advance in the 
 Morning by Nelson. — Crittenden. — McCook. — Sherman. — Lewis 
 Wallace. — McClernand and Hurlbut used as Supports. — Cohesion 
 of the Line. — Obstinacy of the Struggle. — Progress of Nelson. — 
 Crittenden. — McCook. — Sherman. — Lewis Wallace. — Scene at four 
 o'clock. — Grant during the Action. — Leads a Storming-Party. — 
 Enemy Routed. — Grant stimulates Pursuit. — Military Results of 
 Shiloh. — Influence upon Grant. — War Maxims . . . .153 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HE DEFENDS CORINTH, AND WINS THE BATTLE OF lUKA. 
 
 [May to December, 1863.] 
 
 Contemporary Criticism. — Hallcck takes Command in the Field. — Expe- 
 ditious Energy contrasted with Scientific Procrastination. — Grant a 
 Cipher. — Halleck fortifies. — Criticised. — He collects a vast Army. 
 
 — Beauregard defies him. — Six Weeks of Toil. — Sends T. W. Sher- 
 man on Rcconnoissance. — Halleck slow. — Order for Battle. — Cor- 
 inth evacuated. — I m potency of the entire Movement. — Beauregard 
 retreats. — Eludes Bncll and Pope. — Halleck goes to Washington. 
 
 — Grant again in Command. — Strategical Importance of Corinth. — 
 Price and Van Dorn. — Uncomfortable Position of Grant. — Starts 
 Rosecrans towards luka. — Pushes forward Ord. — Grant's Plan dis- 
 closed to the Rebels. — Engagement at luka. — Price escapes. — Joins 
 Van Dorn. — Result. — Grant moves forwai-d to Jackson. — Telegraphs 
 to Washington. — Enemy invest Corinth. — Attack Rosecrans. — Re- 
 pulsed. — Military District Enlarged. — JlcClernand's Intrigue. — 
 Halleck's Conduct. — General Operations of Gi'ant. — Orders Sherman 
 to move down the River. — Van Dorn seizes Holly Springs. — Cuts the 
 Railroad. — Supplies fail. — Grant establishes himself at Grand Junc- 
 tion. — Criticism. — Grant at Holly Springs. — Rupture of Communi- 
 cation. — Defences of Vicksburg. — Sherman attacks Vicksburg. — 
 Failure to carry the Town. — McClernand captures Arkansas Post. — 
 Grant goes t)ack to Memphis. — Vicksburg defiant. — Summary . 185 
 
12 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEK X. 
 
 HE BESIEGES VICKSBURG. 
 
 [January to May, 1864.] 
 
 FAOB 
 
 Topographical Features. — Natural Advantages. — Military Defences. — 
 Grant at Milliken's Bend. — Different Plans. — Canal. — Lake Provi- 
 dence. — Yazoo Pass. — Steele's Bayou. — He al)andons the Lessons 
 of Military Art. — Creates a Precedent. — Grant's Plan. — " Regular 
 Opei-ations " converted into a "Movable Column." — Dissent of the 
 Subordinates, — Sherman's Substitute. — Friendship between Grant 
 and Sherman. — How Grant's Victories are won. — Comparisons. — 
 Successive Steps to take Vicksburg. — I. Grant marches along the 
 Louisiana Shore to New Carthage and Hard Times. — Difficulties 
 on the March. — First Movement a Success. — IL Grant runs the 
 Gunboats and Transports through the Batteries. — Porter aids. — 
 Transports prepared. — Batteries open upon them. — Drop Anchor 
 belov/ Vicksburg. — IH. Grant turns Grand Gulf. — Iron-Clads batter 
 the Heights. — Failure to silence the Enemy. — Disembarks the Troops. 
 
 — Sherman's Operations. — IV. Grant transfers the Army to the 
 Mississippi Shore. — His Industry Movement a Success. — V. Grant 
 fights every Army which appears in his Front between Grand Gulf 
 and Vicksburg. — Fight at Port Gibson. — Grant hurries Subordinates. 
 
 — Modifies his Plan. — Letter from President Lincoln. — Establishes 
 himself at Harkins's Ferry. — Operations of McPhcrson. — Calendar. 
 
 — Battle of Raymond. — On the March. — Battle of Jackson. — On the 
 March. —Battle of Champion's Hill. — Of Big Black. — VI. Grant 
 drives Pcmbcrton half annihilated behind the Fortifications of Vicks- 
 burg. — Sherman reaches Bridgeport. — Interview between Grant and 
 Sherman. — Grant joins his Comrades on Walnut Hills. — Privations 
 and Hardships. — How Grant was equipped. — Siege begins . . 20'J 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 HE CAPTURES VICKSBURG. 
 
 [May 21 -Oct. 3, 1863.] 
 
 Pollard's Assertion. — Glimpses of Vicksburg on Sunday Evening. — Forces 
 in Vicksburg. — Natural and Artificial Defences. — National Foi'ces. 
 
 — Geologic Features. — First Day of Investment. — Charge of Sher- 
 man. — 22d of May assigned for a General Assault. — Bombardment 
 and Cannonade. — McArthur's Approach. — MeClemand's Approach. 
 
 — McPlicrson's Approach. — Sherman's Approach. — jVttack of Sher- 
 man. — Of McPhcrson. — Of JlcClcrnand. — Of IMc Arthur. —Day's 
 "Work a Failure. — McClernand calls for Ec-cnforccments. — Ecpeats 
 his Call. — Grant orders McPhcrson to re-enforce him. — McClcrnand's 
 
CONTENTS. 13 
 
 PAOB 
 
 Congratulatory Order. — Sherman's and McPhcrson's Opinion of the 
 Order. — McClernand relieved. — Grant re-enforced. — Investment 
 extended. — Main Problems. — Labor on Intrenclimcnts. — Grand 
 Eesnit of Intrenching Operations. — Logan explodes a Mine.— Fight 
 m the Crater. — Johnston threatens to raise the Siege. — Grant's Ex- 
 pedients to meet him. — Constructs Countervallations. — Fortifies 
 Haine'sCluif. — Despatches Ostcrhans to Big Clack. — Thwarts At- 
 tempt of tlie Garrison to escape. — Want in Vicksburg. — Rebel Sol- 
 diers refuse to fight. — Treaty between the Pickets. — White Flag 
 appears. — Pemberton asks Terms. — " Unconditional Surrender." — 
 Interview between the Commanders. — Their Appearance. — Place of 
 Meeting. — Pemberton refuses the Terms. — Bowen's Suggestion.— 
 Written Terms sent. — Accepted. — Surrender. — Energy of Grant. — 
 Logan's Divisioncntcr Vicksburg. — Meeting between Pemberton and 
 Grant. — Amount surrendered.- Nominated Major-General in the 
 llcgular Army. — Letter from President Lincoln. — Congratulations 
 of Halleck. — Comparisons. — Grant presented with a Sword. — Urges 
 the Capture of Mobile. — Organizes Negro Regiment. — Goes to New- 
 Orleans. — Ordered to report at Louisville 206 
 
 CHAPTER Xn. 
 
 HE BELIEVES CHICKAMAUGA, AND WINS ITS GREAT BATTLE. 
 [October, 1863, to March, 1864.] 
 
 Invi.'sted with the Command of the District of Mississippi. — Instructs his 
 Subordinates. — Before Chattanooga. — What he finds. — Determines 
 to seize Lookout Valley. — Stations his Troops. — Longstreet's Attack 
 on Geary. — He is repulsed. — Howard charges up the Hill. — Success 
 of the Movements. —Bragg scuds Longstreet's Corps into East Ten- 
 nessee.— Telegrams from Washington.— Fears for Burnside.— Grant's 
 Labors elsewhere. — Supervision of Sherman's March. — Bragg's Line. 
 — Cannonade opens. — Granger advances. — Orchard Knob can-ied. — 
 Army elated. —Operations of Tuesday. — Sherman scales Northern 
 Spurs. — Howard connects with him. — Hooker storms Lookout Moun- 
 tain.— Battle there.- Enemy driven to the Top Crest. — Prisoners 
 captured. — Telegrams from Washington. — Sherman threatens Enev 
 my's Line of Supplies. — Grant's plan of Battle. — Situation of Affairs 
 on W«.lnesday. — Description of the Field of Battle. — Battle in Sher- 
 man's -fi'ront.— In Hooker's.— Bragg withdraws Troops from the 
 Centre - Charge up the Crest. — Rebels demoralized and in FuU 
 Retreat. — Hooker and Sherman on the Pursuit. — Grant's Behavior 
 m the Field. — Summary. — Sends Sherman to Knoxville. — Grant's 
 Care for the Sick. — Parallels and Contrasts with other Wars. — Ivmd- 
 ness of the People towards the Sick. — Christian and Sanitary Com- 
 
14 CONTENTS. 
 
 rAO* 
 missions. — Grant's Co-operation witli the Commissions. — Extract 
 from an Agent's Letter. — Anecdote. — Characteristics of Grant. — 
 Undemonstrative. — He issues a Congratulatory Order to the Troops. 
 
 — Congress pass a Resolution of Thanks to Grant. — Present a Medal. 
 
 — Bill offered to revive the Grade of Licutcnant-General. — De- 
 bate thereon. — By Mr. Fanisworth. — Mr. Washburae. — Resolution 
 of Mr. Ross. — Bill as it went into the Senate. — Amendment of the 
 Military Committee. — Remarks by Mr. Trumbull. — INIr. Ncsmith. — 
 Eirst Amendment passed. — Remarks by Mr. Howe. — Mr. Wilson. — 
 Mr. Lane. — Mr. Nesmith. — Mr. Doolittle. — Mr. Johnson. — Mr. 
 Sherman. — Mr. Davis. — Mr. Fcssenden. — Bill passed. — Grant 
 confirmed. — His Feelings. — Letter to Gen. Sherman. — Sherman's 
 Reply. — Grant goes to Washington. — At Willard's Hotel. — Attends 
 the Cabinet-Meeting. — Speech by the President. — Reply of Grant • 298 
 
 CHAPTER Xin. 
 
 HE INVESTS PETERSBURG. 
 
 [May to July, 1864.] 
 
 (iTant as Strategist. — His Determined Will. — Comments of Mr. Pollard. 
 
 — No Concert between the Armies. — Personal Qualifications. — Ad- 
 vantage of his Experience. — Situation of Military Affiiirs when 
 Grant received Command. — Instructs Banks. — Steele. — Sherman. — 
 Meade. — Aim of the Movements. — Instructs Butler. — Co-operation 
 of the Army of the James with the Army of the Potomac. — Transfers 
 Officers. — Instmcts Sigel. — Re-organizes the Army of the Potomac. — 
 What Grant sees. — The Wilderness. — Position of the Army of North- 
 em Virginia. — Crossing the Rapidan. — Roads in the Wilderness. — 
 Enemy advance upon the Turnpike. — Warren Attacks. — Eirst Day's 
 Battle in the Wilderness. — Results. — Embarrassments of the Contest. 
 
 — Second Day's Battle. — Ninth Corps join the Army. — Hancock's 
 Attack. — Longstreet rallies Select Brigades. — Burnside's Attack — 
 Sedgwick's Front. — Settles the Question who can Pound the longest. 
 
 — Develops Leading Traits of the two Generals in Command. — Orders 
 given to renew the Contest next Morning. — Enemy falls back to In- 
 trenchments. — Pursuit. — Wan-en's. — Hancock's. — Wilson's. — Con- 
 tinuous Earthworks. — Nature of the Country beyond the Wilderness. 
 
 — Death of Sedgwick. — Character. — Summary -of Operations on 
 Tuesday and Wednesday. — Martyrs. — Grant not responsible for the 
 Slaughter. — Hancock's Attack on the Salient. — Success. — Terrible 
 Battle and Slaughter. — Comments. — Casualties Discussed. — Tu 
 Quoque Argument. — Summary of Operations betweec the 12th and 20th 
 of May. — Country through which the Army march. — North Anna. 
 — ^Battles in the Wilderness unavoidable. — Flanking Movement danger- 
 
CONTENTS. 15 
 
 PAOE 
 
 ous. — Cannot be persisted in uniformly. — Cold Harbor. — Assault 
 necessary. — Battle. — Losses. — Lee's Army. — Its Weakness com- 
 pared with its Former Strength. — Question of its Morale. — Army 
 transferred to the South Side of the James. — Why Lee did not prevent 
 it. — Movement described. — Commended. — Mode of Execution. — 
 Pontoon Bridge. — Attack on Petersburg. — Responsibility for its Fail- 
 ure discussed. — Grant's Account. — Smith's Reasons. — Smith's Re- 
 sponsibilities. — Hancock's Participation. — Authorities. — Assault on 
 Petersburg required by Military Considerations. — Failure. — More of 
 ^clat than Substantial Triumph would have been won by its Success 367 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HE RECEIVES THE SURRENDEK OF LEE. 
 
 [July, 1864 -April, 1865.] 
 
 Author's Design. — Situation and Strategical Importance of Petersburg. 
 
 — Problem of the Campaign. — Lee completes the Fortifications of 
 Petersburg. — Design of Grant. — Not strictly a Siege. — Considera- 
 tions controlling him. — Series of Engagements fought to extend oitr 
 Line. — To destroy the Enemy's Line of Supplies. — A Railroad Raid. 
 
 — Operations on the Weldon Road. — Sheridan's superb Sweep. — 
 Operations at Deep Bottom. — Explosion of a Mine. — Correlated Ex- 
 peditions a Failure until Sheridan commands in the Shenandoah 
 Valley. — Sherman's Correspondent. — Lee's Expedients. — Diversion 
 to Washington. — Arming of Negroes. — Intended Abandonment of 
 his Lines. — Grant's famous Order for the Spring Campaign. — Posi- 
 tion of the Army Corps. — Lee concentrates on his own Right. — 
 Falls upon Warren. — Repelled. — Enemy driven into their Fortifica- 
 tions. — Sheridan seizes Five Forks. — Lee attacks Sheridan. — 
 Drives him back to Dinwiddle. — Behavior of Sheridan according to 
 Grant. — Calendar. — Sheridan re-enforced. —Brilliant Action at Five 
 Forks. — Sheridan's Part. — Fifth Corps' Part. — Cannonade opens. 
 
 — Assault in the Morning. — Charge of Parke. — Of Wright. — Of 
 Humphreys. — Three Corps join. — Last Fight, and Death of Hill. — 
 President" Lincoln at City Point. — Diivis in Richmond. — Receives 
 Mess.ige from Lee. — Effect upon Davis. — Scene in Richmond during 
 the Afternoon. —At Night — The City Council. —Their Determina- 
 tion. — Ewell fires the Bridges, Iron-clads, and Storehouses. — De- 
 scription of the Fire. — Weitzel's Carnival. — Shepley's Suspicions.— 
 Convictions. — Cavalry sent to Richmond. — Reception there. — 
 Weitzel enters. —Army enters. — Skirmishers find Petersburg evacuat- 
 ed.— Lee's Line of Retreat — His Exultant Spirits. — Loses his 
 Rations. — Constrained to break up his Army into Foraging Parties. 
 
16 CONTENTS. 
 
 PA<7K 
 
 — Pursuit. — Sheridan's and Griffin's Line. — Ord's Line. — Lee 
 struck at Jetcrsville. — Chase changed to a Hunt. — Ewcll surrenders. 
 
 — Grant and Lee exchange Notes. — Lee refuses to surrender. — Sur- 
 renders. — Interview between tlie Commanders. — Terms of Surrender. 
 
 — Critics on Grant's Methods. — Wilderness Campaign unparalleled. 
 
 — Odds and Sacrifice of Life required. — Slvill which all concede to 
 Grant. — Responsibilities elsewhere. — What did he do in the Civil 
 War answered 432 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ADMINISTKATIVE EXPEEIENCE. 
 
 [April, 1865 -December, 1866.] 
 
 Roebuck's Remark. — Sound Reason in it. — No Difference in Theory 
 betv.'oen Civil Administration and Successful Management of an 
 Army. --Confirmed by Experience of Mankind. — Executive Ability 
 required in the Civil AVar. — Administration of Military Districts, 
 Civil as well as Military. — Illustrated by District of South-east Mis- 
 souri. — Executive Officer of the Law of Nations. — Exchange of 
 Prisoners a Belligereni; Right. — Treatment of Negro Soldiers. — 
 Correspondence with Dick Taylor. — Views of Emancipation. — Ad- 
 ministration at Vicksburg. — ]\Ir. Chase in favor of re-opening Trade 
 with Rebellious Slates. — Grant opposed. — Correspondence. — Com- 
 ments on the Terms offered to Lee. — Pollard's Account of Grant's 
 Behavior. — Feeling throughout the North after the Surrender of Lee. 
 
 — Stanton's Order. — Opportunity offered to Grant. — His Noble 
 Character. — Stops Recruiting. — Attempt on his Life. — Assassina- 
 tion of President Lincoln. — Account of it. — Attempt on Seward's 
 Life. — Complicity of the Rebel Government. — Implacable Indigna- 
 tion of the North. — The Sherman and Johnston Basis. — Grant at 
 Sherman's Headquarters. — Wisdom and Discretion. — FricndshiiJ for 
 Sherman. — Advises another Interview. — Johnston surrenders. — 
 T<>rms. ^ — Sheridan's Expedition to Texas. — Purpose of the Expe- 
 dition. — Grant issues a Farewell Order to the Troops. — Disbands 
 the Army. — Makes a Tour of Inspection. — Southern Animus. — 
 Bill to revive the Grade of General. — Referred to the Military Com 
 mitiee. — Object of the Bill. — The Rank of Washington. — Grant 
 the first General. — Bill passed. — Remarks of Mr. Finck. — Of Mr. 
 Le Blond. — Of Mr. Rogers. — Of Mr. Raymond. — Of Mr. Delano. 
 
 — Of Mr. Stevens. — Grant supervising Military Operations in Re- 
 bellious States. — Report of Gen. Sheridan. — Of Gen. Jeff. C. Davis. 
 
 — Of Gen. D. E. Sickles. — Grant's General Orders. — Carries out 
 the Reconstruction Laws of Congress. — Protest against the Removal 
 
CONTENTS. 17 
 
 PAOB 
 
 of Sheridan. — Appointed Secretary of War. — Eecapitulation. — 
 Mental and Moral Characteristics of Grant. — Improved by Nurture. 
 — To be judged by his Actions, not his Words. — Quotation from 
 Lord Bacon. — Interconnection of Generations. — Government to 
 transmit Political Progression of G'^nerations 482 
 
 2 
 
LIFE OF GENEML GEANT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 BIRTH. — PARENTAGE. — CHILDHOOD. 
 [1822-1838.] 
 
 THE life of the man who saved the nation's life by 
 vanquishing rebellion and destroying a rival 
 confederacy will never lose its hold upon the atten- 
 tion and interest of his countrymen. Where was he 
 born ? what were his childhood and youth ? how 
 was he educated ? what previous military discipline 
 and experience prepared him for the task ? what 
 did he actually do in the civil war? — are questions 
 upon the lips of all men. These questions I shall 
 attempt to answer. His personal characteristics, 
 bearing, look, and habits, his moral principles and 
 practice, his mental capacity and accomplishments, 
 will be themes of speculation and inquiry by future 
 generations, as by the present. This curiosity I will 
 endeavor to satisfy. 
 
 We profess here to despise blood and lineage ; but 
 no aristocracy is more inquisitive respecting the pedi- 
 
 19 
 
20 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 gree of its distinguished men. Matthew Grant emi- 
 grated from the county of Devon, in England, to Dor- 
 chester, Mass., in 1630, and removed therefrom, in 
 1635, to Windsor, Conn. He was one of the earliest 
 inhabitants, the second town-clerk, and 'the chief sur- 
 veyor, of that ancient settlement.^ Jesse Root Grant 
 is the seventh in lineal descent from this fore- 
 father.^ 
 
 The intermediate progenitors of Gen. Grant were 
 
 1 Matthew Grant married Priscilla , Nov. 16, 1 625 ; and among other issue 
 
 had Samuel, born Nov. 12, 1631, who married Mary Porter, May 27, 1658; 
 and amoii^ other issue had Samuel, born April 20, 1659, and married Graco 
 Miner, for his second wife, April 11, 1688; and among other issue had Noah, 
 born Dec. 16, 1692, and married Martha Huntington, June 12, 1717; and 
 among other issue had Noah, born July 12, 1718, and married Susanna Delano, 
 Nov. 5, 1.746 ; and among other issue had Noah, born June 20, 1748, and mar- 
 ried for his second wife, Rachael Kelly, in 1791 ; and among other issue had 
 Jesse Root, born Jan. 2.3, 1794, and married Hannah Simpson, June 24, 1821 ; 
 among other issue had Hiram Ulysses Grant, born April 27, 1822. 
 
 2 We find, in Stiles's History and Genealogies of Ancient Windsor, that 
 " Matthew Grant was one of the original company who came in " The Marj^ and 
 John," to Dorchester, in 1630; was a freeman there in 1631 ; removed to Wind- 
 sor among the very earliest ; was second town-clerk there, also the first and for 
 many years the principal surveyor; was a prominent man in the church; evi- 
 dently was just and exceedingly conscientious in all his public and private trans- 
 actions and duties. As recorder, he often added notes, explanatory or in cor- 
 rection, to the records, which have considerable value to the investigator of the 
 present day. He was the compiler of the Old Church Record, so often quoted 
 in this work ; which, in the absence of some of the earliest records of the town 
 of Windsor, assumes a value which can scarcely be over-estimated. In short, he 
 was a pious, hard-working, conscientious Christian man, and a model town- 
 clerk." 
 
 To this passage Stiles adds the following footnote : — 
 
 " In State Archives, in volume of MSS., relating to Private Controversies, 
 p. 138, in a matter concerning lands in dispute between Joseph Loomis, jun. 
 and sen., April 21, 1675, Matthew Grant testifies, — 
 
 " ' And if any. question my uprightness and legal acting about our town 
 affairs, that I have been employed in a measuring of land, and getting out of 
 lots to men, which has been done by me from our first beginning here, come 
 next September is forty yere. I never got out land to any man, until I knew he 
 had a grant to it from the townsmen, and town's approbation, or about record- 
 
BIRTH, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD. 21 
 
 well-known inhabitants of Windsor, Tolland, and Cov- 
 entry, where they intermarried with the Porters, 
 Miners, Hnntingtons, and other reputable Connecticut 
 families. It may be said of his genealogy, as has been 
 said of that of another distinguished American, " It 
 discloses no crime, and no disgrace -, but also no emi- 
 nence." But, fortunately, the subject of my biogra- 
 phy needs no boasting from ancestry ; and Mr. Ever- 
 ett's well-turned allusion to the fimily tree of "Washing- 
 ton may be apjilied to Grant : " The glory he reflected 
 upon his ancestors was greater than he could inherit." 
 As far as research has been able to recover their char- 
 acteristics, they appear to have been, as became the 
 progeny of Matthew, a hard-working, earnest, up- 
 right, conscientious, and law-abiding race. Noah 
 Grant, the fourth in the line from the- " model 
 town-clerk," and the fourth also in the ascending 
 series from the general-in-chief, was the captain of 
 one of the Connecticut companies' sent against Crown 
 Point in 1755 ; and one, too, who, during the expedi- 
 tion, surrendered his life in defence of English colo- 
 nization. 
 
 He was undoubtedly killed in the battle oi' Lake 
 George, fought on the 8th of September, 1775, in 
 which Dieskau, the flower of French chivalry, was 
 cut to pieces with his entire army by General Phineas 
 Lyman of Suffield, Conn., commanding provincials, 
 and provincials only, from Connecticut and Massa- 
 chusetts. A second Noah Grant, the grandfather of 
 
 ing after the book was turned to me, which is near twenty-tlu'ce year.'i since. I 
 •an say with a cleare conscience, I have been careful to do nothing upon oro 
 •nan's desire,' " «&,c. 
 
22 LIFE OF GENERAL GEAXT. ^ 
 
 Ulj^sses, entered the Continental army as lieutenant 
 from the town of Coventry. He rose to the rank of 
 captain, and, having served with distinction during the 
 entire Revolutionary War, removed, after its conclu- 
 sion, to Westmoreland County, Penn., where, on Jan. 
 23, 1794, Jesse Root Grant was born. 
 
 At the mature age of twenty-seven, June 24, 1821, 
 he was married to Hannah Simpson, the daughter of 
 Mr. John Simpson of Montgomery County, Penn. She 
 was herself born and educated in the same county ; 
 but in the nineteenth year of her age emigrated to 
 Clermont County, Ohio, with her fxther, who was a 
 large land-owner and an independent farmer. The 
 portrait of Mrs. Grant has been etched by her hus- 
 band's hand. I present it in his simple language, 
 without presuming to change a single word. "At 
 the time of our marriage, Mrs. Grant was an unpre- 
 tending country-girl, — handsome, but not vain. She 
 had previously joined the Methodist Church ; and I 
 can truthfully say that it has never had a more de- 
 voted and consistent member. Her steadiness, firm- 
 ness, and strength of character, have been the stay of 
 the family through life. She was always careful and 
 most watchfid over her children ; but never austere, 
 and not opposed to their free participation in inno- 
 cent amusement." ^ 
 
 I am rejoiced to find that Grant was undoubtedly 
 one of that number of illustrious men whose charac- 
 ter received its first and most essential impress from 
 maternal influence. In the early and susceptible 
 
 1 New-York Ledger, March 8, 1868. 
 
BIRTH, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD. 23 
 
 years of cliiklhoocl, from a mother's lips, lie imbibes 
 those simple yet fimdamental maxims and principles 
 which are the enduring foundation of all wise conduct 
 in life, all good institutions in human society. The 
 love of truth, the sentiment of honor, fidelity, obedi- 
 ence, constancy, are practical lessons alike for the lisp- 
 ing child, the aspiring j/^uth, the busy man, — at home, 
 in the school, on the farm, at the head of the army, in 
 the councils of the nation. As in the realm of Nature 
 the components of the material world are reduced by 
 analysis to a few simple elements, upholding, illumi- 
 nating, fructifying the whole universe by the simple 
 and omnipresent influences of gravity, heat, and light; 
 so all the institutions of society, and all the relations 
 of kindred, friend, and country, are inspired and regu- 
 lated by a few homely truths of universal application. 
 Fortunately for our race, these principles and max- 
 ims are not so numerous or abstruse that the open- 
 ing mind of childhood cannot comprehend and master 
 them. It is a satisfaction to know, that in the case 
 of Grant, before all the laws of science, all works on 
 strategy or tactics, all rules of military subordination 
 or command, he yields a filial homage and obedience 
 to these earliest lessons ; and that his character, after 
 all, but reflects that of his mother. Amonii; other 
 early influences which contributed to the formation 
 of Grant, the effect upon him of the example of 
 the Father of his Country must not be overlooked. 
 We learn from Jesse R Grant, that "'The Life of 
 Washington ' was the first book he ever read." Un- 
 equalled among the sons of men, as it has been well 
 said, for those qualities which inspire the confidence, 
 
24 LIFE OF GENERAL GKAKT, 
 
 command the respect, and win the esteem, of man 
 kind ; universally regarded as a standard and pattern 
 by which the merit of other men may be tested, — to be 
 early penetrated with a desire to emulate his virtues, 
 is to a boy at the same time both a safeguard and 
 an inspiration. I believe I may safely assert that I 
 discern the influence of many of the precepts and 
 rules which Washington adopted for the regulation 
 of his own conduct in life, in the conduct and career 
 of Grant. 
 
 Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on the 27th of April, 
 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, the 
 eldest of six children.^ 
 
 The humble dwellimr in which he first saw the light 
 — a small, one-story, framed cottage — is still standing 
 near the mouth of the Miami, on the northern bank of 
 the Ohio. Since the emigration of his flither, in 1 799, to 
 what was then known as the North-western Territory, 
 the son Jesse had been exposed to all the ordinary 
 hardships of frontier life, combined with the extraordi- 
 nary trials of Indian warfare. He was left fatherless 
 in 1805, when he was but eleven years of age ; and, 
 with the determination of one whose bread was to be 
 earned by the sweat of his brow, selected at once the 
 trade of a tanner as his employment for life. He seems 
 to have experienced more of the vicissitudes of fortune, 
 and to have been buffeted more hy personal mishaps, 
 than usually flill even to the lot of a pioneer. He 
 wanders from Deerfield, in Portage Countj^, where 
 his father died, to Marysville, Ky., where he went as 
 
 1 Ulysses, Samuel, Clara, Virginia, Orvil L., and Mary Frances. 
 
BIRTH, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD. 25 
 
 an apprentice to his half-brotlier. to learn tlie trade 
 I have ah^eadj indicated. Ilis hostility to the insti- 
 tution of slavery was the reason which induced him 
 to return to Ravenna, Ohio. He was driven from this 
 place by the fever and ague ; and it is not until the 
 close of the year 1820, that the wanderings of Jesse 
 seem finally to terminate at Point Pleasant, where 
 Uh^sses was born. According to the testimony of the 
 father, the maternal o-randmother of the future Q;eneral 
 of the army was fascinated with the exploits of the 
 wily Ithacan chief who introduced the wooden horse 
 into Troy, and was anxious that the first-born of 
 Jesse's house should be named Ulj^sses. The mater- 
 nal grandfather, it is presumed, was equally captivated 
 w^ith Tyrian history ; for he was determined that the 
 child should be christened Hiram. This family jar was 
 finally compromised by bestowing upon him the names 
 of both of the old people's heroes ; and he was accord- 
 ingly called Hiram Ulysses. This name he bore until 
 he was recommended to the Secretary of War by the 
 Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, a member of Congress from 
 Ohio, for a cadetship in West Point, by the name of 
 Ulysses Simpson Grant. The fact that Simpson was 
 the maiden name of his mother, and was also borne 
 by one of his brothers as a Christian name, undoubt- 
 edly originated the mistake.^ 
 
 To Ulysses S. Grant, the commission was issued, 
 appointing him to the Military Academy : by this 
 name he was entered upon its roster; and all the 
 applications of the young cadet to the Secretary of 
 
 1 Rev. P. C. Hcadley's Life and Deeds of Lieut.-Gen. Grant, where it ia 
 quoted as a coramunication from Jesse Root Grant. 
 
26 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 War, to have the misnomer corrected, proved unavail- 
 ing. When he graduated from the institution, he 
 was hailed as Ulysses S. Grant, both in his brevet as 
 second lieutenant and in his diploma. By this name, 
 he has since been known ; and by this name will be 
 known forever.^ 
 
 The reminiscences of a doting fixther, now in his 
 seventy-fifth year, are our only source of information 
 respecting the early years of Grant. They are, as 
 might be expected, superficial in their character j for, 
 at the period to which they relate, the father had 
 neither the time nor the inclination to penetrate into 
 the growing child's deeper communings with himself 
 We, of course, look here in vain for any conclusive 
 proof that the " boy was father of the man," or that 
 his manhood has been an attempt to realize in the 
 deeds of life the dreams of childhood. All early 
 premonitions of genius must be received with some 
 grains of allowance, when published after they have 
 been justified by the event. Ulysses was born and 
 reared on the river-side ; and his first tottering walks 
 were unquestionably bounded by the tannery, which 
 is presumed to have been within convenient distance 
 of the paternal abode. He grew up to years of dis- 
 cretion amid the changeful skies, variable climate 
 and productions, of the northern half of the temper- 
 ate zone. Bred in a frugal homestead, in a secluded 
 and unpretending neighborhood, educated for, the 
 first seventeen years of his life in a humble village- 
 school, his inner life as a boy was that of ten thou- 
 
 1 Badeau's Military History of Gen. Grant. 
 
BIRTH, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD. 27 
 
 sand urchins with similar environment. He ixazes, 
 doubtless, with mute awe at the towering Western 
 steamboat, puffing spasmodically as its huge mass 
 ploughs the Ohio. He peers with the big eyes of won- 
 der into the mystery of the tan-vats. Like innumer- 
 able other striplings with no more poetic fancy than 
 himself, his uninitiated eye begins, gradually, to 
 admire the shifting scenery of the heavens as sinking 
 day brings out the more splendid pageant of the 
 night, until the stars in turn, one by one, fade away 
 before the purpling dawn. He exults in the voice 
 of spring, the song of birds, the green luxuriance of 
 summer, the golden abundance of the harvest, the 
 masquerading attire of our sober forests in the fall. 
 He pines, too, perhaps, at the falling leaf, the wailing 
 winds, the naked tree-tops, the morning frost, the 
 wdiite pall of snow descending on the fading land- 
 escape, and the dancing and murmuring waters which 
 he loved, wrapped in the chilling embrace of the 
 ice. 
 
 In addition, however, to these boyish susceptibili- 
 ties, his inquisitive biographers have discovered that 
 the peculiar distinction of his career was clearly fore- 
 shadowed, even in childhood, by more remarkable 
 traits. No famous man's early history was ever 
 searched in vain for such intimations. We are in- 
 formed that the wondering; villan;ers detect the future 
 warrior in the composure with which his baby fingers 
 pressed the trigger of a loaded pistol, which some 
 onfe had insanely permitted him to handle, until it 
 was discharged with a loud report ; and that a 
 prophetic bystander discerned the germs of heroic 
 
28 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GEAKT. 
 
 acliievement in tlie pluck ^vitli wliicli the lisping 
 prattler shouted, " Fick it again, tick it again ! " 
 
 At school, we learn that he supplied his want of 
 quickness by a dogged diligence which demanded 
 the ^'' unconditional surrender " of bis tasks ; that he 
 attacked a knotty question with " slow but sure " ap- 
 proaches; and that, when temporarily thwarted, he 
 always " fought it out on tbat line " until he eventu- 
 ally Vv'on; that he told his teacher one day, tbat the 
 word " can't " was not in his dictionary ; that he com- 
 mitted to memory pages which he did not compre- 
 hend at the time, with the comforting assurance tbat 
 they would not be wasted upon his maturer intellect ; 
 that the genuine ma»nliness of his feelings, and the 
 dignity of his deportment, when a boy, prognosticated 
 the sterling; characteristics which the man veils under 
 a charitable spirit and an unpretending demeanor; 
 and tbat an astounded phrenologist who once manip- 
 ulated his youthful cranium, exultingly exclaimed, 
 " You need not be surprised, if at some day this boy 
 .fills the presidential chair." His remarkable fondness 
 for horses is a well-established trait of his boyhood ; 
 breaking; them to saddle and harness with his own 
 hand, and teaching them some accomplishments of 
 the ring. He was a good equestrian at nine years 
 of age. He could drive a pair of horses alone at 
 ten. At the age of eight, he could ride at full speed, 
 bare-back, and standing on one foot. In this connec- 
 tion, an anecdote is dropped by the paternal gossip, 
 which deserves to be preserved as a graphic descrip- 
 tion of a scene through which many smart lads have 
 passed, and as indicating in this particular instance 
 
BIRTH, PARENTAGE, CHILDHOOD. 29 
 
 some of that pluck, and tenacit}^ of will, which dis- 
 tinguished the Wilderness campaign. " Once, when 
 he was a boy, a show came along, in which tliere 
 was a mischievous pony, trained to go round the ring 
 like lightning; and he was expected to throw any 
 boy that attempted to ride him. 
 
 " ' Will any boy come forward and ride this pony ? ' 
 shouted the ring-master. 
 
 " Ulysses stepped forward, and mounted the pony. 
 The performance began. Round and round and 
 round the ring went the pony, faster and faster, 
 making the greatest effort to dismount the rider; 
 but Ulysses sat as steady as if he had grown to the 
 pony's back. Presently out came a large monkey, 
 and sprang up behind Ulysses. The people set up a 
 great shout of laughter, and on the pony ran ; but it 
 all produced no effect on the rider. Then the ring 
 master made the monkey jump up on to Ulysses' 
 shoulders, standing with his feet on his shoulders, and 
 with his hands holding on to his hair. At this, there 
 was another and a still louder shout ; but not a muscle 
 of Ulysses' face moved : there was not a tremor of 
 his nerves. A few more rounds, and the ring-master 
 gave it up : he had come across a boy that the pony 
 and the monkey both could not dismount." ^ At the 
 immature age of twelve, and small, too, for his years, 
 he succeeded in loading heavy maple-logs into his 
 wagon by an ingenious expedient, in which an in- 
 clined tree and the horse are made to do the worlc 
 The mechanical skill cannot be fully explained to the 
 comprehension of the reader without a diagram. I 
 
 1 New- York Ledger, March 7, 1868. 
 
80 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 freely admit that it is a specimen of engineering 
 most wonderful for a boy of twelve. It indicates a 
 tendency to supplement physical weakness by head 
 work. To my mind, it is one of the most significant 
 incidents related of his boyhood. It strongly fore- 
 shadows a disposition not to be thwarted by trifles ; 
 a precocious superiority to mere obstacles, which, 
 when fully developed, might be expected to over- 
 come those difficulties which are pronounced insur- 
 mountable. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 EDUCATION. — WEST POINT. 
 [1838-1846.] 
 
 AN exchange from the stagnation of Point Pleas- 
 ant to the animation, parade, and etiquette of 
 West Point, must have been a memorable era in the 
 life of young Grant. By such instruction from Na- 
 ture, and such training in the schoolroom, as I have 
 indicated, he had prepared himself to pass the rigor- 
 ous examination of the Academic Board in the pri- 
 xnary branches of learning ; while his perfect physical 
 health and development defied the most scrutinizing 
 tests of the surgeons of the post. He entered the 
 Military Academy in June, 1838 ; and his first expe- 
 rience of martial life was in the licensed squad-drill to 
 which the pleh is subjected by the remorseless com- 
 pany officers of the cadet battalion, and in the unli- 
 censed hazing with which the new recruit is ruthlessly 
 disciplined during his first season in camp. At early 
 dawn, he is marched to and fro with the awkward 
 squad, over that famous plateau, to the monotonous 
 " One, two, one, two, " which so frequently breaks 
 upon the morning nap of the guest at Koe's ; and he 
 may esteem himself fortunate if he is not rushed up 
 
 31 
 
32 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 the rugged road to Fort Putnam, at double-qulckj 
 oh an empty stomacli. When drill is dismissed, he 
 betakes himself, with assumed composure, but with 
 real anxiety, to the ambushes, surprises, flank-move- 
 ments, attacks in front and rear, which the senior 
 cadets are preparing for him in the camp. 
 
 Life at ^yest Point, thoudi attractive in its mere 
 external aspects, is still more so in its internal rela- 
 tions 10 the mind and character of the national eleve. 
 He learns there self-control and obedience, which are 
 no despisable attainments, either for the man or the 
 soldier. With a course of study so difficult that it 
 tasks all the strength, and so varied that it addresses 
 every faculty of the mind, the student has only to be 
 faithful to himself and his opportunities, and he may 
 acquire that extreme degree of mental control which 
 enables its fortunate possessor to turn the whole force 
 and volume of his intellect, with equal facility, upon 
 any subject and in any direction. Self-sacrificing 
 patriotism is imbibed in the atmosphere, and fostered 
 by all the associations, of the national school ; and the 
 genius of the place, its history, trophies, mementoes, 
 fire the spirit, and magnetize the soul. 
 
 The daily routine of cadet-life is somewhat monot- 
 onous. Drill and study are the accustomed order, re- 
 lieved only by the evening dress-parade, the inviting 
 ramble through scenery charming alike by natural 
 beauty and historic interest, the " Board of Visitors, " 
 annual encampments, graduations, and hops. Mar- 
 tial law governs this military post ; and it is an effi- 
 cient curb upon habits of irregularity and dissipation. 
 Temperance and continence, within its jurisdiction, 
 
EDUCATION, WEST POINT. 3? 
 
 forfeit their place as virtues ; for they are enforced 
 upon the young soldier by inexorable necessity. 
 Even a stolen visit to Benny Havens, a rollicking 
 song by stealth, the sniuggling-in per steamer of 
 contraband packages, nnder the pains and penalties 
 of a court-martial, are too excruciating substitutes for 
 genuine sport to be very seductive. 
 
 Grant encounters the severe exactions of the West- 
 Point course with no preparatory education worthy 
 of the name. " Hasten slowly " was written on his 
 forehead early in life ; and those who knew him best 
 expected from him a persistent rather than a brilliant 
 scholarship in the intellectual exercises of the insti- 
 tution, and decided superiority only in the practical 
 departments of military instruction. Both expecta- 
 tions were justified by his career as a cadet. Abstract 
 mathematics, topographical engineering, and the sci- 
 ence of war, were conquered by his characteristic 
 tenacity of will. Practical engineering succumbed 
 with less difficulty ; while infantry, artillery, and cav- 
 alry tactics were easily mastered. 
 
 He . passed with eclat that " bridge of sighs," the 
 first examination, and all the subsequent ones with 
 no dishonor ; earning successively the rank of corpo- 
 ral, sergeant, and commissioned officer of cadets. It 
 is no small test, both of physical and mental prowess, 
 to graduate at West Point. Feeble intellects yield to 
 the severity of the studies, and feeble bodies to the 
 hardships of the drill. Genuine attainment only, can 
 stand the searching' ordeal of its four annual exami- 
 nations ; and the rules and regulations in regard to 
 deportment and behavior are so trying to the careless 
 
Q 
 
 1 LIFE OF GEXER^U. GKANT. 
 
 buoyancy and undisciplined spirit of youth, that a 
 diploma upon any terms should be regarded, not as a 
 mere ovation, but a triumph. When we consider 
 that the untutored boy from the woods sustained him- 
 self in every trial of a class from which seventy were 
 dropped ; that he attained to the rank of twenty-one 
 in a graduating class of thirtjMiine, thus distancing 
 threescore and ten who entered the race, and win- 
 ning over eighteen who finally came to the goal; 
 when we consider, also, that he never lost position or 
 forfeited class-rank by demerits, — we must yield to 
 him the credit of more than ordinary capacity and 
 subordination. 
 
 The class of 1843 was led by William B. Franklin, 
 who earned the grade of major-general by distin- 
 guished service in the recent civil war. Among its 
 members were Christopher C. Augur, who served with 
 the same grade in the Department of the Gulf; Rufus 
 Ingals, Grant's devoted quartermaster in the Wil- 
 derness campaign ; Frederick T. Dent, his future 
 brother-in-law and aid, both in his campaigns and 
 in the War Department ; Gen. Reynolds, Gen. 
 Steele, Gen. Judah, Gen. Hamilton, some of whom 
 attained to eminence in defending our imperiled 
 union. Among his classmates who proved treach- 
 erous to the flag, were R. S. Ripley, S. G. French, 
 F. Gardner. 
 
 The first order which issues to the graduating cadet 
 may send him to some embryo territory in the West, 
 and impose upon him at once the important duties of 
 civil administration ; or it may despatch him to the 
 frontiers, within cannon-shot of a foreign flag, where he 
 maybe called to adjudicate, upon principles of public 
 
EDUCATION, WEST POINT. 35 
 
 law, the perplexing questions which frequently arise 
 between contiguous powers. During his career as 
 an officer, he can hardly escape being placed in such 
 relations. To prepare him for the intelligent dis- 
 charge of these important positions is no insignificant 
 part of the West-Point course. He is, therefore, 
 taught French as the language of diplomatic inter- 
 cours'e, and Spanish as the tongue of our Mexican 
 neia-hbors. He is indoctrinated in the laws of na- 
 tions, the jurisprudence of the United States, and the 
 principles of municipal law. He is made as fxmiliar 
 with the authoritative commentaries of Kent and 
 Wheaton's '' International Code " as with Mahan's 
 "Field Fortification" and Benton's "Course of Ord- 
 nance and Gunnery." 
 
 It is an error to suppose that our future officers are 
 instructed only in what pertains to war as a theory 
 and an art. Their preparation for civil affairs is as 
 thorough and complete as that of the student in our 
 colleges, or the lawyer in our towns. With sapping, 
 mining, mortar-practice, and tactics for garrison and 
 siege, are blended the logical rules and theories by 
 which truth is eliminated and sophistries detected. 
 With the science of war, which desolates, is inter- 
 woven the science of morals, which renovates and 
 ameliorates the world. 
 
 Nor should it be forgotten, in estimating the value 
 of an education at the National Academy in strength- 
 ening the ficulties of the mind, enlarging its compre- 
 hension, and preparing the graduate for useful and 
 honorable service, that not only chemistry, which 
 especially rebates to fabricating the materiel of war, 
 
36 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 is embraced in its course of study, but astronomy, 
 mechanics, physics, mineralogy, and the philosophy of 
 history, — the compass and the chart to him who 
 would, guide sagaciously the Ship of State. In a dis- 
 turbed era, with our domestic relations all embroiled, 
 what better education can be prescribed for the 
 American citizen ? 
 
 With a head stuffed with the learning of the school ; 
 with ambition kindled, and patriotism exalted, by tht 
 genius of the place ; with a mind skilled to manoeuvre, 
 attack, and defend ; a hand adroit in piling up re- 
 doubts and stockades, and in digging rifle-pits and 
 intrenchments, and apt in constructing fascines, hur- 
 dles, and sap-rollers; with all his sensibilities vivid, 
 all his senses keen, intent, animated, the model of 
 physical power and activity, — Cadet Grant is 
 launched into the stormy ocean of life. 
 
 In 1843, the army was hardly ten thousand strong, 
 and scattered in small squads over our immense area 
 of territory. Garrison-life at this time was languid 
 beyond all expression, and was chiefly occupied with 
 expedients for killing time. To Grant, with such 
 native vigor and acquired energy, a descent from 
 West Point upon such a " Castle of Indolence " was 
 a terrible shock. 
 
 Ennui is the protest of active faculties against the 
 denial to them of appropriate employment. To sub- 
 ject a man for four or five years to the incessant 
 application required by the West-Point curriculum, 
 to sharpen up all the powers of his mind to their 
 keenest edge, to prepare him by every mental and 
 
EDUCATION, WEST PO^T, 37 
 
 athletic drill for unflagging labor, and then forthwith, 
 send him to mildew and to rust at some desolate 
 post garrisoned only by a sergeant's command, is to 
 condemn him at once to self-torture and self torment. 
 And yet this was the uniform habit of the Government 
 some twenty-five years ago : this was the process to 
 which the bre vetted second lieutenants of 1843 were 
 subjected. I do not propose to follow Grant to Jef- 
 ferson Barracks and the Red River : his subsequent 
 career is too crowded with mighty events to leave 
 any space for the tedium of the ambitious and ener- 
 getic soldier, while waiting for that active employ- 
 ment to which he had been so vigorously trained. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 EDUCATION. — MEXI CAN WAR. 
 [1846-1848.] 
 
 /"^ RIM -VIS AGED 'War presents no alluring front 
 VjT to the most dauntless soldier ; but it is no exag- 
 geration to say that Grant would have embraced her 
 in his arms rather than have been chained to the 
 Peace establishment with ennui devouring his soul. 
 FamiHarity with War had not yet bred disgust. He 
 was fresh from her famous school. He had been 
 initiated in her cruel arts and mysteries ; had conned 
 her entangling maxims, and tracked her crimson foot- 
 steps over the desolated earth ; with maps and plans 
 before him, and with critical eye, he had surveyed 
 her renowned Aceldamas ; he had, as part of his daily 
 task, analyzed her infernal ingenuity in concentrating 
 and scattering armies ; and, before models of her most 
 formidable strongholds, had sat down as a besieger, and 
 approached, stormed, and captured them. Through 
 Jomini's animated pages he had marched, counter- 
 marched, and halted at points of vantage ; drawn 
 up and extended lines of battle ; flanked, and pierced 
 the centre ; and charged, vanquished, and pursued, — 
 with Frederick and Napoleon. He had almost seen 
 War in vision, and toyed with her snaky locks, and 
 
 88 
 
EDCJCATIOX, MEXICAN WAR. 39 
 
 played with her thuncler-bolts. Like ca votary of the 
 black-art, he felt an irresistible impulse to utter the 
 cabalistic spell which should usher him into the visi- 
 ble presence of the demon. In a word, he had the 
 natural inclination of all men who have mastered 
 theories to apply their principles to practice. 
 
 War was now waving her torch along our frontiers. 
 The surcharged clouds were lowering on the south- 
 western horizon. Her birds of ill-omen, snuffinf"' the 
 carnage aflir, were gathering in from every side. 
 Lines of bristling bayonets were confronting each 
 other on opposite banks of the Rio Grande. 
 
 Grant was now fidl second lieutenant, and still 
 attached to the Fourth Inflintry ; and he may be said 
 to have breathed once more, when the order reached 
 him^ in the remote swamps of Louisiana, to join the 
 army of occupation at Corpus Christi. What a relief, 
 after two years of inactivity and torpor, to find him- 
 self at this post with work at hand ! He marched 
 with the army^ to Fort Brown. On May 23, 1846, 
 Mexico declared war. 
 
 " Li every battle of Gen. Scott's, from Vera Cruz 
 to Mexico ; in every battle of Gen. Taylor's, from Palo 
 Alto to Monterey," — is Grant's creditable record in the 
 Mexican War. He fleshed the sword, which the s^ov- 
 ernment had taught him to wield, w^hen Ringold's 
 battery first struck the staggering line of Mexicans 
 in that prairie-thicket which gives to the earliest 
 action ^ in the war its name. When, the next day, 
 the stricken but undemoralized enemy rallied with 
 
 i March 8, 1846. 2 May 8, 1846. 
 
40 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 re-enforcements on a stronger position, and it became 
 apparent, as the sun was declining, that cannon could 
 not, as on the previous day, decide the contest, he 
 deployed as a skirmisher, ^Yith his regimental com- 
 rades, towards the natural ditch in which the foe was 
 intrenched ; and was on the lead when the gallant 
 Fourth leaped into the ravine of pahns,^ and cleared 
 it of every hostile bayonet. When the Mexicans ral- 
 lied again. Grant charged with that unwavering line 
 of steel, which finally broke them into fragments, and 
 scattered them on the river. He crossed the Rio 
 Grande, and occupied Matamoras ^ with Gen. Taylor's 
 column, while the haggard and sullen remnant of the 
 liostile army was creeping slowly southwardi 
 
 " Onward ! " ^ is the word ; and, with his eye on the 
 cloud-capped and towering line of Sierra Madre, he 
 joins the wearisome march to the stronghold of 
 Northern Mexico. On the 20th of August, 1S46, 
 Grant finds himself on that abrupt eminence which 
 commands a prospect of Monterey from the east. At 
 his feet lies a cultivated valley, tessellated with the 
 varied green and yellow of orange and acacia groves, 
 and waving fields of corn and sugar-cane, which 
 stretch up to the very bastions of the easternmost 
 works of defence. Beyond the forts, the sunbeams 
 glance on the marble-like stucco of the cathedral and 
 dwellings of the city, which seems to be veiled even 
 from the profane gaze of the northern barbarians by 
 the luxuriant foliage of flowering tropical trees. 
 
 Behind all, rise heavenward the Saddle and Mitre 
 
 1 May 9, 1846. « May 18, 1846. ^ juiy 20-30, 1846. 
 
EDUCATION, MEXICAN WAE. 41 
 
 Mountains, with their tremendous peaks, aptly com- 
 pared to '-'giants guarding the lovely bower at their 
 feet, and prepared to roll enormous rocks from their 
 summits upon the adventurous assailants." We do 
 not embrace the entire horizon in our view : we say 
 nothing of Independence and Federation Hills, and 
 the Bishop's Palace ; for we are concerned in this biog- 
 raphy only wath that part of the assault in which 
 Grant participates. Our business is, chiefly, with that 
 nearest fortification which stares us in the face : it 
 is formidable enough to a storming party, even if 
 Diablo was not behind it. It is named Fort Teneria. 
 The morning of the 21st breaks clear and resplend- 
 ent ; and Major Mansfield, who is in the front, recon- 
 noitring, sends back word that he has discovered a 
 point where that foremost fort is assailable. In a 
 moment Col. Garland, with two infantry regiments, 
 Bragg's battery, and the Baltimore battalion, is 
 descending the slope, followed by the rapt attention 
 and palpitating hearts of their comrades on the hill. 
 Before they had reached the point designated by 
 Mansfield, the citadel enfilades them with its fire, and 
 a masked battery in front showers them with shot 
 and shell. Fort Teneria is still silent, but frowns like 
 grim death. On they advance, until they can see 
 the eyes of the gunners when the fort opens, and 
 the assailing column, torn to pieces, is hurled into the 
 suburbs of the city, to be massacred piece-meal by 
 musketry from walls and house-tops. Meanwhile the 
 Fourth Inflintry,to which Grant was attached, had been 
 ordered to march by the left flank towards the point 
 of attack; but, ignorant of the fate of their comrades, 
 
42 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 they moved directly against the fort, when the same 
 destructive fire sweeps from the earth two -thirds of 
 their number, and scatters the survivors in dismay. 
 Fortunately for the success of the day, two companies 
 of Col. Garland's discomfited storming-party find shel- 
 ter on the roof of a tannery, within musket-range of 
 Teneria, and, with the sure aim of the rested rifle, 
 pick off, one by one, the Mexican gunners. Under the 
 cover of repeated and overwhelming volleys from this 
 " coigne of vantage," the Tennessee and Mississippi 
 volunteers rush across an intervening space of a hun- 
 dred yards, and, with a deafening war-whoop, pour 
 iike angry billows up the slope, over the parapet, 
 and through the embrasure. The work at the east end 
 is over for the day, and the Fourth Infantry bivouac 
 in Teneria for the night. I have been thus particu- 
 lar in detailing this affair, because it was Grant's 
 first encounter with war " in all its terrors clad ; " and 
 because, from his experience there in both of its 
 vicissitudes, and from its frightful slaughter, it may 
 be said to have terminated his martial novitiate by a 
 " baptism of blood." 
 
 Grant discovers at morning reveille, that Fort Di- 
 ablo has been evacuated during the night, and is 
 now occupied by the Mississippi Volunteers ; and the 
 cheering news reaches him at breakflist, that Gen. 
 Worth, by a succession of impetuous assaults, has car- 
 ried every fortified position on the western acclivities. 
 The guns of the Bishop's Palace are now turned upon 
 the devoted town from the west, and those of Teneria 
 and Diablo from the east ; and, simultaneously from 
 each of these directions, the riflemen are penetrating 
 
EDUCATION, MEXICAN WAE. 43 
 
 the suburbs, and gradually approaching each other 
 and the central plaza. The assailants find every 
 street barricaded with mason-work, every wall pierced 
 for musketry, and on every second roof a sand-bag 
 battery. Crawling from roof to roof, burrowing from 
 house to house, literally tunnelling covered ways 
 through the solid walls of the dwelling, the sharp- 
 shooters, from opposite directions, have arrived within 
 four blocks of each other ; and between the two, hud- 
 dled around the cathedral, is the Mexican garrison. 
 The cathedral is their powder-magazine ; and it is no 
 addition to their serenity of mind that Major Monroe 
 is dropping into it explosive shells from a mortar bat- 
 tery on Federation Hill. The final onslaught on the 
 besieged at bay is arrested by a bugle, with a flag 
 of truce ; and, on the 24th of September, Ampudia 
 capitulates. 
 
 Speedily there comes from Gen. Scott a requisition 
 for Worth's and Twiggs's division to join him in the 
 grand advance upon the city of Mexico. Grant's 
 regiment is included in this demand. He parted from 
 his disheartened companions when they were strug- 
 gling on towards Buena Vista, there to win im- 
 perishable laurels, and went himself to act no con- 
 temptible part in achievements which will deserve 
 one page at least when a universal history shall be 
 written. They have endured more than twenty years 
 of criticism ; they have established their reputation 
 by compaiison and by contrast ; and it may be said 
 of them, what cannot be said of any other military 
 operations on this continent, that they have not been 
 entirely eclipsed by the splendor and magnitude of 
 more recent triumphs. 
 
44 LIFL or GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 To Grant, it was a half-year of enchantment. Wm 
 assumed her most comely guise, her most captivating 
 airs, her most bewitching smile, and wove round the 
 entranced young warrior all her fascinating spells. It 
 is hard to conceive, it is impossible to describe, the ex- 
 hilaration with which he participated in that series of 
 hard-fought engagements which bore triumphantly the 
 flag of the young republic from the shores of the gulf 
 to the lake-encircled metropolis of the ancient Aztecs, 
 in the footprints of previous conquerors, whose names 
 recalled the palmiest days of the proudest monar- 
 chy ; through scenery grand and picturesque beyond 
 all example ; along the base of volcanoes once crowned 
 with fire, now lifting eternal snow far into the azure 
 depths of air ; amid the ruins of temples which once 
 smoked with human sacrifice ; and along the majestic 
 front of colossal pyramids, which carry the mind back 
 to a primeval race and an extinct civilization.^ Nor 
 
 1 Gen. Scott, who visited the Pyramid of Cholula, thus describes it : — 
 " During this halt, every corps of the army, in succession, made a most interest- 
 ing excursion of six miles to the ruins of the ancient city of Cholula, long, in 
 point of civilization and art, the Etruria of this continent, and, in respect to 
 religion, the Mecca of many of the earliest tribes known to tradition. 
 
 " One grand feature, denoting the ancient grandeur of Cholula, stands but 
 little affected by the lapse of, perhaps, thousands of years, — a pyramid built of 
 alternate layers of brick and clay, some two hundred feet in height, with a square 
 basis of more than forty acres, running up to a plateau of seventy yards square. 
 There stood, in the time of Cortcz, the great pagan temple of the Cholulans, with 
 a perpetual blazing fire on its altar, seen in the night many miles around. 
 
 " Coming up with the brigade, marching at ease, all intoxicated with the fine 
 air and splendid scenery, he (Gen. Scott) was, as usual, received with hearty 
 and protracted clieers. The group of officers who surrounded him differed 
 widely iu their objects of admiration ; some preferring this or that snow-capped 
 mountain, others the city, and some the Pyramid of Cholula, that was now 
 opening upon the view." — Lieut.-Gen. Winjield Scott's Autobiography, pp. 455-7. 
 
 " The great Volcan, as Popocatapetl was called, rose to the enormous height 
 
EDUCATION, MEXICAN WAE. 45 
 
 was it any drawback to his enjoyment, that, with 
 every step of this exciting campaign, he was advan- 
 cing in military knowledge and capacity, and also in 
 professional reputation and rank. He was favoiably 
 noticed for his skill in gunnery, when that cordon of 
 earthworks was tightening round Vera Cruz the " In- 
 vincible/' Pie was complimented for his gallantry at 
 Churubusco, when the tete de pont was carried by the 
 bayonet alone. He won his brevet of first lieutenant 
 in those bloody hours when Molino Del Key succumbed 
 to the impetuosity of our soldiery ; and the full grade 
 on that day, ever memorable in our annals, when the 
 steep and frowning heights of Chapultepec were car- 
 ried, and the trembling city below implored the mercy 
 of our artillery.-' 
 
 of 17,852 feet above the level of the sea, — more than 2,000 feet above the 
 "monarch of mountains," the highest elevation in Europe. During- die pres- 
 ent century, it has rarely given evidence of its volcanic origin ; and the " hill 
 that smokes" has almoe' forfeited its claim to the appellation. But at the time 
 of the Conquest it was frequently in a state of activity, and raged witli uncom- 
 mon fury while the Spaniards were at Tlascala."— P/-esco«'s Conquest of Mexico, 
 pp. 45, 46. 
 
 " On they trudged, however, stopping now and then to quench their thirst at 
 some mountain brook, or to gaze at the quenched volcano of PnpGcataiictl, its 
 sides begrimed with lava, and its peak soaring above the clouds. - -ScuU's Buttles 
 in Mexico, Harper's Magazine, p. 12. 
 
 Of Cholula, Prescott says, " It was of great antiquity, and was founded by 
 the primitive races who overspread the land before the Aztecs." — Prescott's Con- 
 quest of Mexico, p. 5. 
 
 The Mexican temples — teocaUis, " houses of God," as they were called — 
 wcr^ very numerous. 
 
 "Human sacrifices were adopted by the Aztecs early in the fourttenth cen- 
 tury, about two hundred years before the Conquest." — Presco^'s Conquest of 
 Mexico, pp. 72-74. 
 
 1 In Gen. Worth's repoit of operations against Chapultepec, he makes 
 acknowledgments to " Lieut. Grant, of the Fourth Infantry." 
 
 In Capt. Brooks's report of the operations of the Second Artillery against 
 Chapultepec, the following paragraph occurs: — 
 
 " I succeeded in reaching the fort with a few men. Here Lieut. U. S. Grant, 
 
46 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 Scott's campaign in Mexico was to Grant a second 
 military school, which rounded off and completed the 
 education he had acquired at the first. It was a prac- 
 tical illustration, upon a grand scale and with sublime 
 accompaniments, of the principles of military art with 
 which he had already been imbued. Engineering, 
 which he had studied at West Point, teaches, among 
 other thino;s, the modes in which walled cities are 
 approached and captured. On the 9th of March, 
 1S47, Grant found himself before one uf the two 
 walled cities in North America. Vera Cruz is sur- 
 rounded by a line of solidly-built bastions and redans, 
 with curtains between, and terminating at one ex- 
 
 and a few more men of the Fourth Infantry, found me ; and by a joint move- 
 ment, after an obstinate resistance, a strong tield-work was carried, and the 
 enemy's riglit was completely turned." 
 
 Major Lee, in his report of operations against the same fortress, mentions 
 the same officer in the following strain : — 
 
 " At the first barrier, the enemy was in strong force, which rendered it neces- 
 sary to advance witli caution. Tliis was done; and, wlien the head of the bat- 
 talion was within short musket-range of the barrier, Lieut. Grant, Fourth In- 
 fantry, and Capt. Brooks, Second Artillery, with a few men of their reipective 
 regiments, by a handsome movement to the left, turned the right flank of the 
 enemy, and the barrier was carried. Lieut. Grant behaved with distinguished 
 gallantry on the 13th and 14th." 
 
 The following passage occurs in Col. Garland's report of the same act ion: — 
 
 "The rear of the enemy had made a stand behind a breastwork, from which 
 they were driven by detachments of the Second Artillery under Capt. Brooks, 
 and tlie Fourth Infiintry under Lieut. Grant, supported by otiier regiments of 
 the division, after a short, sharp conflict. I recognized the command as it came 
 up, mounted a howitzer on the top of a convent, which, under the direction of 
 Lieut. Grant, quartermaster of the P'ourtli Infantry, and Lieut. Lendrum, Third 
 Artillery, annoyed tlie enemy considerably. I must not omit to call attention 
 to Lieut. Grant, who acquitted himself most nobly ujjon several occasions under 
 my observation." 
 
 " I have again to make acknowledgments to Cols. Garland and Clarke, bri- 
 gade commanders, as also to their respective staffs; to ... S. Smith, 
 Haller, and Grant, Fourth Infantry, especially." — Gen. Worth's Report of Bat- 
 tie of CJtapullepec. 
 
EDUCATION, MEXICAjS- WAE. 47 
 
 tremitj with Fort San lago, and at the other with 
 Fort Conception. The harbor is commanded by the 
 famous fortification of San Juan d'Ulloa, impregnable 
 to assault, but which yielded once to a bombardment 
 after a resistance which was merely contemptible. 
 The siege of Vera Cruz, though of short duration, il- 
 lustrated many of the most important practical prin- 
 ciples of engineering. The first parallel was drawn at 
 a distance of eleven hundred yards, from which a bat- 
 ievy of three thirty-two-poimders, and as many Paix- 
 han<=!, finally succeeded in demolishing the curtain, and 
 shattering the redans and bastions, and destroying half 
 the houses on the land side. The bombs of the mortar 
 batteries burned up all the combustible houses. The 
 flag of truce appeared on the third day ; and negotia- 
 tions were opened, which terminated in the surrender 
 of Vera Cruz and San Juan d'Ulloa. 
 
 We could not omit this description, because it is 
 memorable as the first siesre in wdiich Grant w^as en- 
 gaged, — the first siege of that soldier who personally 
 supervised the construction of those twelve miles of 
 trench and parallel, bristling with eighty-nine batteries; 
 that circle within circle of constantly-advancing fire ; 
 that ring within ring of artillery and musketry, which, 
 day after da}^, closed in nearer and nearer on wailing 
 Vicksburg, until it Avas slowly strangled by coils which 
 it was impotent either to sever or endure, — the first 
 siege of a soldier who environed Richmond with ram- 
 parts even more Titan-like and irresistible ; bisecting 
 the area of treason by the one triumph, and by the 
 other exterminating rebellion, and destroying the 
 Confederacy. 
 
48 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 The first step in the romantic advance was still 
 more interesting, both as an exemphfication of his 
 mihtary studies and of the prescience of his present 
 commander. It is one of the few instances on record 
 where a fj-eneral-in-chief has had such confidence in 
 himself and his troops, that he dared to promulge 
 in advance the precise plan of an engagement ; while 
 its exact conformity in execution to the preliminary 
 plan is almost without a parallel With the tenses 
 of the verb changed, the report might be substituted 
 for the order, and the order for the report. 
 
 Where the national road crosses the Rio del Plan, 
 you instantly rise from the tierra calienfe into a more 
 elevated region, and, after an hour's march, stand at 
 the entrance of one of the defiles, so famous in war- 
 like story, which Liberty, loving the mountains, gives 
 to mountaineers for their defence. Here, on the left, 
 rises a ridge, extending the whole length of the pass ; 
 and behind it rolls the rapid but shallow river through 
 a caiion a hundred feet in depth. Upon its acclivi- 
 ties, facing the road and in advantageous positions, 
 the Mexicans have planted their heavy batteries, one 
 above the other ; and the superior commanding all the 
 approaches to the inferior. Here, on your right, are 
 elongated mountain spurs, basing upon the road their 
 slopes, covered with impenetrable chaparral. They for- 
 bid any diversion to the right. Still farther west, and 
 in the direct line of your march, stand two conical 
 mounts, — Atalaya, masked from the road by one of 
 the spurs ; and Cerro Gordo, lifting itself eight hun- 
 dred feet above the plain, and presenting to you an 
 <)astern flice, steep, rugged, difficult of access, and 
 
EDUCATION, MEXICAN WAR. 49 
 
 strengthened, moreover, by two tiers of breastworks 
 and abatis. Its summit is crowned by a tower, moimt- 
 ing nine guns, which sweeps the defile and the road 
 beyond it. As if this were not enough to guard the 
 pass at the foot of Cerro Gordo, a battery of six guns 
 is planted directly on the road. You cannot find, in 
 any direction, a half-acre of level earth, where a bat- 
 talion can deploy, which is not commanded by artil- 
 lery. 
 
 Grant sees in an instant that here is no merely 
 engineering question, but a complex problem in the 
 art of war, which addresses itself to the highest 
 genius of the commander. It needs but a glance at 
 his left to show him that no skill and couracce can 
 turn the enemy's right. To the left of his line alone 
 a liankinii: movement can be aimed : and here on 
 his right are these entangled spurs; and the re- 
 sources of reconnoissance have been tasked in vain 
 to find a pathway through them. Shall the army be 
 sacrificed in forcing the defile ? shall it be decimated 
 in storming the forts ? shall the expedition be aban- 
 doned ? 
 
 When Scott reaches the ground, his experienced 
 eye speedily detects the sole expedient which can 
 brush this great obstruction from his path. Let Pil- 
 low's brigade seriously threaten, and if practicable 
 carry, these batteries of the enemy on the left of the 
 road. Let Twiggs's division, before it reaches the de- 
 file, wheel sharp to the right into this forest of chap- 
 arral, and cutting a pathway behind those elongated 
 ridges, and encircling all the Mexican works, debouch 
 beyond them all into the national road. Assail Cerro 
 
50 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 Gordo, the key of the whole position, in the rear; 
 and at the same time cut off the retreat of the 
 enemy to Jalapa. This was Scott's prehminary order 
 of battle, omitting only his directions to the artillery 
 and cavalry reserve, to Worth, — to follow and support 
 the operations of Twiggs, and the directions for the 
 vigorous pursuit of the foe after his intrenchments 
 were carried. 
 
 The performance corresponds with the programme, 
 except that Twiggs, being annoyed by a party of 
 skirmishers in executing his movement, throws oft' 
 to his left a detachment to scatter them, which unex- 
 pectedly carries the cone-shaped Atalaya, and, encou- 
 raged thereby, scales Cerro Gordo in front, and turns 
 to flight one division of Santa Anna's Mexican army 
 before Twiggs's right, on the march, has reached the 
 Jalapa Road to intercept it. Such was Grant's first 
 participation in a flanking movement. There is an- 
 other man in this army who will one day recall it. 
 Eobert E. Lee is serving on Scott's staff as captain 
 of engineers. 
 
 "The plan of attack," says Scott in his report, 
 *' sketched in General Orders, No. 111^ herewith, was 
 
 1 The first division of regulars (Wortli's) will follow the moTement against 
 the enemy's left at sunrise to-morrow morning. 
 
 As already arranged, Brig.-Gen. Pillow's brigade will march at six o'clock 
 to-morrow morning along the route he has carefully reconnoitred, and stand 
 ready, as soon as he hears the report of arms on our right, or sooner if circum- 
 stances should fivvor him, to pierce the enemy's line of batteries at such point 
 — the nearer to the river the better — as he may select. Once in the rear of 
 that line, he will turn to the right or left, or botli, and attack the batteries in 
 reverse, or, if abandoned, he will pursue the enemy with vigor until further 
 orders. 
 
 Wall's field battery and the cavalry win be held in reserve on the national 
 
EDUCATION, MEXICAN WAR. 51 
 
 finely executed by this gallant army before two 
 o'clock, P.M. yesterday. We are quite embarrassed with 
 the results of victory, — prisoners of war, heavy ord- 
 nance, field batteries, small-arms, and accoutrements. 
 About three thousand men laid down their arms, with 
 the usual proportion of field and company officers ; be- 
 sides five generals, several of them of great distinction, 
 — Pinson, Jarrero, La Vega, Noriega, and Obando. 
 
 road, a little out of view and range of the enemy's batteries. They will take 
 up that position at nine o'clock in the morning. 
 
 The enemy's batteries being carried or abandoried, all our divisions and 
 corps will pursue with vigor. 
 
 This pursuit may be continued many miles, until stopped by darkness or 
 fortified positions, towards Jalapa. Consequently, the body of the army will 
 not return to this encampment, but be followed to-morrow afternoon or 
 early the next morning by the baggage-trains of the several corps. For this 
 purpose, the feebler officers and men of each corps will be left to guard its camp 
 and effects, and to load up the latter in the wagons of the corps. A commander 
 of the present encampment will be designated in the course of this day. 
 
 As soon as it shall be known tliat the enemy's works have been carried, or 
 that the general pursuit has been commenced, one wagon for each regiment 
 and battery, and one for the cavalry, will follow the movement, to receive, un- 
 der the direction of medical officers, the wounded and disabled, who will be 
 brought back to this place for treatment in general hospital. 
 
 The surgeon-general will organize this important service, and designate that 
 hospital, as well as the medical officers to be left at it. 
 
 Every man who marches out to attack or pursue the enemy will take the 
 usual allowance of ammunition, and subsistence for at least two days. 
 
 General Orders, No. 111. — The enemy's whole line of intrenchments 
 and batteries will be attacked in front, and at the same time turned, early in the 
 day to-morrow, probably before ten o'clock, a.m. 
 
 The second (Twiggs's) division of regulars is already advanced within easy 
 turning-distance towards the enemy's left. That division has instructions to 
 move forward before daylight to-morrow, and take up position across the nation- 
 al road in the enemy's rear, so as to cut off a retreat towards Jalapa. It may 
 be re-enforced to-day, if unexpectedly attacked in force, by regiments — one 
 or two — taken from Shields's brigade of volunteers. If not, the two volunteer 
 regiments will march for that purpose at daylight to-morrow morning, under 
 Brig.-Gen. Shields, who will report to Brig.-Gen. Twiggs on getting up with 
 him, or to the general-in-chief if he be in advance. 
 
 The remaining regiment of that volunteer brigade will receive instructions 
 in the course of this day. 
 
52 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 A sixth general, Vasquez, was killed in defending the 
 battery tower in the rear of the line of defence ; the 
 capture of which gave us those glorious results." 
 
 Worth's division of four thousand men, to which 
 Grant's regiment was attached, is immediately pushed 
 on to the fortress of Perote, which was captured with- 
 out a struggle ; and from thence they quietly march 
 upon Puebla, and stack their arms in the Grand Plaza 
 of a city of eighty thousand inhabitants. Here, at an 
 elevation of seven thousand feet above the sea, which 
 tempers the climate to a perpetual summer, in the 
 centre of a valley of unrivalled fertility and beauty, 
 which annually produces two abundant crops, Grant 
 passes the months of July and August in the year 
 1847. The landscape is continually enamelled with 
 all the cereals and all the grasses of the temperate 
 zone. The apple, peach, apricot, and pear trees are 
 always in perennial fruitage or blossom. Orizaba 
 stands as a gigantic sentinel upon the horizon, and 
 the towering peaks of Malinche and Popocatapetl 
 guard the outskirts of the valley. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 EDUCATION. — MEXICAN WAR. — CERRO GORDO TO MEXICO. 
 
 ON the 7th of August the order is given to ad- 
 vance ; and, with a " Cerro-Gordo cheer," the 
 troops, overloaded with their arms and knapsacks, 
 begin to cHmb the Cordilleras, quenching their thirst 
 at the same mountain-streams which the invading 
 Spaniards had drunk two hundred years before. The 
 great features of Nature remain unchanged for ages ; 
 and, when the foremost ridge of the Rio Frio is 
 reached, the landscape which struck the bewildered 
 gaze of Grant was the same which had enchanted 
 Cortez and his companions, when, like Moses on Pis- 
 gah, they cried out, " It is the promised land ! " Well 
 might the mind be filled with admiration and awe. 
 Ten thousand feet highej than the summit on which 
 they stand, "the hill which smokes" seems near enough 
 to be touched by hand. " Stretching far away at their 
 feet were seen noble forests of oak, sycamore, and 
 cedar ; and beyond, yellow fields of maize, and the 
 towering maguey, intermingled with orchards and 
 blooming gardens : for flowers, in such demand for 
 their religious festivals, were even more abundant in 
 this populous valley than in any other part of Ana- 
 huac. In the centre of the great basin were beheld 
 the lakes, occupying then a much larger portion of 
 
 6* 63 
 
54 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 its surface than at present ; their borders thickl}' 
 studclecl with towns and hamlets, and in their midst 
 — hke some Indian empress with her coronal of 
 pearls — the fair city of Mexico, with her white 
 towers and pyramidal temples, reposing, as it were, 
 on the bosom of w^aters, the far-famed ' Venice of the 
 Aztecs.' High over all, rose the royal hill of Cha- 
 pultepec, the residence of the Mexican monarchs, 
 crowned with the same grove of gigantic cypresses 
 which at this day fling their broad shadows over the 
 land. In the distance, beyond the blue waters of the 
 lake, and nearly screened by intervening foliage, was 
 seen a shining speck, the rival capital Tezcuco ; and 
 still farther on the dark belt of porphyry, girding the 
 valley around like a rich setting which Nature has 
 devised for the fairest of her jewels. 
 
 " Such was the beautiful vision which broke upon 
 the eyes of the Spaniards. And even now, w^hen so 
 sad a change has come over the scene ; when the 
 stately forests have been laid low, and the soil, un- 
 sheltered from the fierce radiance of a tropical sun, is 
 in many cases abandoned to sterility ; when the 
 waters have retired, leaving a broad and ghastly 
 margin, white with the incrustation of salts ; while the 
 cities and hamlets on their borders have mouldered 
 into ruins, — even now that desolation broods over the 
 landscape, so indestructible are the lines of beauty 
 which Nature has traced on its features, that no 
 traveller, however cold, can gaze on them with any 
 other emotions than those of astonishment and rap- 
 ture." ^ 
 
 1 Aug. 10, the leading division, Worth's, with which I marched, crossed 
 
CERRO GORDO TO MEXICO. 55 
 
 Descending from this loftiest point of roadway 
 between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, Grant 
 encamped with the rest of the army at Chalco in 
 the Valley of Mexico, and advanced the next day to 
 San Augustin, where, on the 18th of Septeml^er, 
 1844, Scott concentrated all his troops, and established 
 his hospitals, depots, baggage and siege trains. All 
 the garrisons, except a small one at Paebla, had been 
 drawn in ; all communication with Vera Cruz and 
 home abandoned. "We threw away the scabbard," 
 says Gen. Scott, " and advanced sword in hand." 
 
 It is not the part of this biography to describe in 
 detail the wonderful engagements which supplied all 
 that was previously wanting of romance and adven- 
 ture to crown the interest which will forever attach 
 to this enchanting basin. For such description you 
 must turn to that page in the history of our country 
 which w^as there written in imperishable characters 
 by the magnanimity and heroism of her sons. Re- 
 jecting every temptation which may beguile me from 
 the path, I must concentrate my attention to the 
 line of operations in which Grant participated, for the 
 
 the Rio Frio range of mountains, — the highest point in the bed of the road be- 
 tween the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. 
 
 Descending the long western slope, a magnificent basin, with, near its centre, 
 the object of all our dreams and hopes, toils and dangers, — once the gorgeous 
 seat of the Montezumas, now the capital of a great republic, — first broke upon 
 our enchanted view. The close-surrounding lakes, sparkling under a bright 
 sun, seemed in the distance pendent diamonds. The numerous steeples, of 
 great beauty and elevation, with Popocatapetl ten thousand feet higher, appar- 
 ently near Enough to touch with the hand, filled the mind with religious awe. 
 Recovering from the sublime trance, probably not a man in the column failed 
 to say to his neighbor or himself, " Tltat splendid city soon shall he ours .' " All 
 were ready to suit the action to the word. — Scot's Autobiography, pp. 46b, 
 467. 
 
56 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 purpose of showing how he was prepared by dlsci- 
 plme and experience for the great task of subduing 
 the Rebelhon. If it would not divert me too far from 
 this special inquiry, it would be interesting to con- 
 sider what resources he possessed, even at this period, 
 for solving the great strategical question which first 
 presented itself to the commander-in-chief, — whether 
 to advance upon the capital by the national road on 
 the northern side of the lakes, and storm El Peiion; 
 or, turning to their southern border, through this 
 immense field of Ped regal (which looks as if it were 
 the scene of battle between Jupiter and the giants 
 when they tore up mountains by the roots, and threw 
 them at each other) ; and then, having forced Valen- 
 cia from the fortified camp which lies in this path, 
 carry Churubusco, Molino Del E.ey, Chapultepec, and 
 the other eastern defences. It is unnecessary to say 
 that this was the line of march finally adopted. Both 
 routes lay over causeways flan]s:ed on right and left 
 by water or marsh, and so narrow, that one well- 
 managed battery could have cleared them, in ten 
 minutes, of the entire force under Scott's command. 
 
 When the resolution is adopted to advance by 
 the southern route, the entrance to the San-Antonio 
 Causeway is immediately occupied by Worth's division. 
 It consists of two brigades. The Fourth Infantry, 
 the Second and Third Artillery, with Duncan's field- 
 battery, constitute the first, or Col Garland's brigade. 
 The Fifth, Sixth, and Eighth Regiments of infimtry, 
 with a light battery, constitute the second, or Ool 
 Clarke's brigade. I conjure the reader to impress 
 upon his mind this organization, to retain in his 
 
CEREO GORDO TO MEXICO. 57 
 
 memory the names of the division and the hrigade 
 commanders. It is essential in following movements, 
 that these officers shall be remembered, as well as 
 the numbers of the regiments which compose their 
 respective commands. Let me repeat that Grant was 
 in the Fourth Inflmtry, Garland's brigade, Worth's 
 division. Clarke w^as the brigadier of the co-operat- 
 ino; brisrade of the same division. 
 
 The general of division under whom it was Grant's 
 good fortune to serve was Scott's right arm. during 
 the campaign : wherever hard work was to be done, 
 or perils encountered, or glory won. Worth was in 
 the van. Garland and Clarke w^ere the right and 
 left arms of Worth. Of Col. Garland, Worth himself 
 says, that " he was conspicuous on many fields of the 
 Mexicaii War ; and by his skill, conduct, and courage 
 in the last great combats, greatly added to an already- 
 established reputation for patriotism and soldiership." 
 In following closely Col. Garland's impeded march to 
 the capital, we shall detect the " whereabouts " of 
 Grant in the smoke of battle, and shall witness " the 
 moving accidents by flood and field, disastrous 
 chances, hair-breadth 'scapes i' the imminent deadly 
 breach," through which Grant himself reached the 
 "hall of the Montezumas." We know from other 
 sources that he was with his reQ:iment in all its 
 actions and assaults. He was at this time quarter- 
 master of the Fourth ; and, unless called to service 
 upon the regimental staff, might have remained with 
 his baggage-wagons during every engagement. He 
 coveted no such exemption, but was always foremost 
 in its fighting ranks. 
 
58 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 "We know, then, that on this bright forenoon in 
 September, — it is the 20th of the month, — Grant 
 was standincr ^yith his brio;ade - comrades in an 
 angle of the San-Antonio Causeway. They propose 
 by this route to make an excursion to the city of 
 Mexico, and enter it by the San-Antonio Gate. They 
 possess some exciting information wdiich it is desir- 
 able that the reader shall also learn in order to enter 
 into the spirit of their adventure. They know that 
 some opposition is to be anticipated to their jaunt 
 They can see, that, half a mile ahead, the villagers 
 of San Antonio have thrown impediments across the 
 causeway which may prematurely arrest their project 
 They know that Col. Clarke with their co-brigade, 
 who designs to accompany them, has already 
 diverged into the meadows for the purpose of avoid- 
 ing the intended civilities of this hacienda, and 
 reaching the road at a point beyond it. They know 
 that some three miles ahead, where this causeway 
 crosses the Churubusco rivulet, still more formal 
 preparations are made for their reception ; that a 
 tcte de pont has been erected with bastions, connec<> 
 ing-curtains, wet ditch, every thing in the most ap- 
 proved engineering style and finish, even to the 
 four guns in embrasure and barbette bearing directly 
 upon their narrow path j and that, if the Mexicans 
 having them in charge are mischievously disposed, 
 quite serious consequences may there ensue. They 
 know that a breastwork of some four hundred yards 
 front connects this tcte de pont with the convent 
 church of San Pablo in the hamlet of Churubusco ; 
 and that, strange to say, a redoubt and abatis 
 
CEEEO GOEDO TO MEXICO. 59 
 
 obstructs the entrance into the sacred edifice, which, 
 moreover, mounts seven cannon on its consecrated 
 walls, crenelled also for musketry. They know, also, 
 that Santa Anna, with a following of twenty-seven 
 thousand soldiers, has come forth from his palace to 
 this interesting locality for the purpose of greeting 
 them upon their arrival. Tliey know that beyond the 
 river and the brido-e some eii:i;ht thousand Mexican re- 
 serves are drawn up in line, awaiting their advent. 
 They know that yesterday morning Gen. Twiggs, with 
 quite a large retinue, went through the Pedregal, some 
 five miles to the west, for the purpose of visiting the 
 fortified camp of Gen. Valencia, who, with a concourse 
 of friends, has also emerged from the city with hospi- 
 table intent. They know that it is the plan of Gen. 
 Twiggs's party, after paying their respects to the 
 Mexican general, to pursue a circuitous path for the 
 purpose of avoiding the parade and ceremonies at 
 Churubusco, and to join Garland beyond the river in 
 his excursion to the city. 
 
 Grant, with the brigade, is awaiting the signal 
 which shall announce that Clarke has reached his 
 point of destination. His guns at length are heard. 
 Garland's war-dogs, unleashed, rush impetuously npon 
 the San-Antonio intrenchments, and drive out the 
 enemy in a long straggling column, which Clarke, now 
 charging from the meadows on its flank, cuts near 
 the centre ; hurling the rear upon the village of Do- 
 lores as unworthy of further notice, but uniting with 
 Garland in scouro-ino; the severed head to the com- 
 patriot embrace of Churubusco. But the Sixth Infan- 
 try, which is on the lead, suddenly comes to a halt. 
 
60 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Tliey discover the Convent of San Pablo, with its 
 formidable defences, on the left of the causeway, the 
 tete de pont garnished with heavy guns and crowded 
 with troops, the continuous line of infantry between 
 the two ; and beyond the river, far as the eye can 
 reach, stretch away the glittering bayonets of the 
 reserves. A tremendous raking volley from the tete 
 de pont, an enfilading fire from the convent, render 
 this exposed highway untenable ; and both brigades 
 deploy through the cornfields on their right, to strike 
 the brido-e-head on the flank. 
 
 Meanwhile, the division of Twiggs, having but six 
 hours ago annihilated the army of Valencia at Con- 
 treras, faithful to its appointment, has pushed on to 
 its promised rendezvous here, and is now hammering 
 the convent, and the intrenchments which the enemy 
 presents on the right. Shields's and Pierce's brigades 
 have forded the river, and fallen on the enemy's re- 
 serves in the marshes beyond it. The battle rages at 
 three points at once, — on the left, the right, the rear. 
 Victory wavers, and it is doubtful upon which banner 
 she will perch. Garland's and Clarke's brigades are 
 stunned in their onslaught upon the flank of the tete 
 de pont The veteran Sixth Infantry stagger back? 
 decimated, from their furious leap upon its front. 
 Duncan's battery is obliged to mask itself before the 
 heavier metal of its guns. Taylor's battery, operating 
 with Twiggs upon the right, crippled in men and 
 horses, is driven from its position by the expert 
 gunnery of San Pablo ; while the assailing infantry 
 there are terribly galled by the sharpshooters of its 
 tower and roof; and Shields, on the meadows, is out- 
 flanked by the Mexican cavalry. 
 
CEKRO GOEDO TO MEXICO. 61 
 
 One daring exploit redeems the fortunes of the day, 
 — Lieut. Lougstreet, bearing the colors of the Eighth 
 Inflmtry, and leading the regiment which he inspirits 
 both by exhortation and example, leaps with it into 
 the dry-ditch of the tete c?e |JO?^f, escalades the curtain 
 without ladder or scaling-implenient, and, with the cold 
 steel alone, clears its bastions of defenders, and drives 
 them over the bridge upon their reserve. Quicker than 
 thought, he turns its captured guns upon San Pablo, 
 which is still slaughtering the columns of Twiggs 
 upon the right. Relieved from the pressure of the 
 same metal, Lieut.-Col. Duncan gallops forward with 
 his splendid battery. He opens, at a distance of two 
 hundred yards, upon the walls around the convent; 
 and seizing the prolongation of its principal face, in 
 the space of five minutes, by a fire of astonishing 
 rapidity, drives the artillery-men from the guns in 
 that quarter, and the infantry from their intrench- 
 raents ; and then turns his battery upon the convent- 
 tower. While its garrison are shocked and half demor- 
 alized by this overwhelming attack of Duncan from 
 the left, the stormers upon the right capture the 
 nearest salient which confronts them in that direction ; 
 the light artillery advance rapidly within effective 
 range ; San Pablo slackens fire ; and a dozen white 
 flags appear just as Capt. Alexander of the Third 
 Infantry is entering it, sword in hand. The whole 
 fortified position of Churubusco is taken. 
 
 When the tete c/ej90?i^, which had so long withstood 
 Worth's division, gives way, like pent-up floods, with 
 resistless power, it sweeps across the bridge, down the 
 causeway, over the ditch, overflowing the fugitives 
 
62 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 from the works and the unbroken battalions of the foe 
 upon the meadows. Shields, who is sorely beset by the 
 reserves, feels their iron grasp relax, their stout ranks 
 waver before the inflowing tide of victory, until they 
 are borne away in dismay. Garland, with deafening 
 shout ; Ayers, with a captured Mexican gun ; Hoff- 
 man, with a remnant of the gallant Sixth ; Harney, 
 with his dragoons, — while goring the retreating Mex- 
 icans, intersect the now exulting lines of Shieldb. 
 Palmettoes, New-Yorkers, New-Englanders of the 
 Ninth, survivors of that desperate charge on Par- 
 tales, join the tumultuous throng which pursues the 
 vanquished army of Santa Anna until halted by the 
 discharge of batteries at the gate of his capital. 
 
 Headquarters are established at Tacubaya, the 
 army is cantoned there and in the neighboring vil- 
 lages ; and then ensues for a fortnight that ill-advised 
 armistice and futile attempt of Commissioner Trist to 
 conquer a peace from Santa Anna in the field of 
 diplomacy. 
 
 It is yet dark on the morning of the 8th of Sep- 
 tember, when Grant, in regimental battle-line, con- 
 fronts the last fortified position upon which depends 
 the fate of the enemy's capital. Directly in his front, 
 the solid walls of Molino del Rey, five hundred feet 
 in length, rise like a precipice, save that drowsy can- 
 dles twinkle through its windows, intimating what is 
 in store when from them shall stare the muzzles of the 
 rifles. On its right the Casa Mata, or arsenal, presents 
 a forbidding mass of heavy masonry, pierced for mus- 
 ketry, and enveloped by a quadrangular field-work. 
 Between the two is the station of the enemy's field- 
 
CERRO GORDO TO MEXICO. 63 
 
 ba.ttery and of the infantry deployed on either side 
 for its protection. On its left, wrapped in the solemn 
 shade of gigantic cypresses, towers from the sum- 
 mit of a porphyritic rock the royal castle of Cha- 
 pnltepec. 
 
 We may, for the purposes of this narrative, erase 
 Chapultepec from our topographical survey ; for the 
 skilful tactical arrangements of the division-com- 
 mander have isolated it from this morning's opera- 
 tions. Casa Mata is assigned to Grant's comrades of 
 the Second Brigade as their exclusive prey. Gar- 
 land, under whom he serves, is aimed at the Molino 
 alone, which, by the masking of Chapultepec, has 
 become the extreme left of the enemy ; and his 
 business is threefold — to sustain Wrio^ht's storminsr 
 party, to protect Huger's battery of twenty-four- 
 pounders, to cut off supports from the castle. 
 
 The co-operating forces for the single movement 
 in which Grant is personally concerned are all now 
 in position. Garland is on the plain, staring directly 
 into the eyes of the Molino ; and on the Tacubaya 
 ridge, within five hundred yards of it, Huger, with his 
 matches lighted; Wright, with his forlorn hope in 
 leash ; Cadwallader and Kirby Smith, as reserves 
 against mishaps, — all with hearts kindled, muscles 
 braced, teeth set, awaiting the opening of an exciting 
 drama. Morn has hardly purpled the east, before the 
 heavy missiles of Huger's battering train pound the 
 walls and penetrate the roof of the Molino ; and, be- 
 fore the nearest mountain brino-s back the echo of his 
 first gun, lights flash, bugles sound, shouts run, and 
 arms clash along the whole line of the enemy's de- 
 
64 LIFE OF GENEliAL GKAXT. 
 
 fences^ as the roused garrison begird themselves for 
 action. At the first indication that the mtison-work 
 is yielding, Wright, with his half-legion of stormers, 
 advances at double-quick down the Tacubaya slope ; 
 and unchecked by the ditch which environs the struc- 
 ture, unshaken by the sheet of flame which flashes 
 from the light battery, by the musketry which show- 
 ers upon them, by the canister and grape which 
 enfilade every approach, in spite of its supports, 
 capt'ares the enemy's field-battery between the Casa 
 Mata aud the Molino. But as they are trailing the 
 guns upon the retreating mass, and before they are 
 discharged, the garrison, perceiving that it has been 
 dispossessed by a handful of men, and re-assured by 
 the active support of its collateral lines, rallies in 
 force, and temporarily discomfits and drives the vic- 
 tors. While they are bayoneting the wounded Amer- 
 icans left upon the field, Cadwallader's and Kirby 
 Smith's reserves are on the assassins. 
 
 Garland now rapidly moves forward with Drum's 
 section of artillery, and carries an apparently impreg- 
 nable position under the guns of Chapultepec ; and, 
 stimulated by victory, wheels up his glittering line of 
 bayonets to the support of the storming party. The 
 Fourth joins the melange of all arms which ha^ve closed 
 in upon the Molino, firing into its apertures, climbing 
 to its roof, and striving, with the butts of muskets and 
 extemporized battering-rams, to burst its doors. Ma- 
 jor Buchanan of the Fourth, with Alden and Grant, 
 are forcing the southern gate. Ayres and Anderson, 
 with some dashing acrobats, vault through an embra- 
 sure at the north-west angle. A hand-to-hand fight 
 
CEERO GORDO TO MEXICO. 65 
 
 ensues, from room to room, from floor to floor, from 
 roof to roof. In the main apartment of the building, 
 a stalwart Mexican o;athers his straa-ii^Uncr comrades 
 into a line which threatens to clear the Molino of 
 every assailant ; but the sonthern gate has yielded, 
 Buchanan and Grant appear with a serried file of the 
 Fourth Infantry, and the Molino is finally captured 
 beyond peradventure. It is thus that Grant wins 
 his first brevet. Before noon, the Casa Mata is blown 
 up, the Molino dismantled, and the fatigued survivors 
 of this desperate contest reposing on their laurels at 
 headquarters. 
 
 The next three days are devoted to a close snd 
 daring reconnoissance of the southern avenues to the 
 city by the scientific staff of Scott. It was evidently 
 his original intention to make the garitas in this quar- 
 ter his ultimate point of attack ; and his preliminary 
 movements in accord with this purpose disclosed it to 
 the enemy. They have, accordingly, fortified these 
 approaches with superior strength. In a personal 
 survey, he saw reason to change his direction ; but, 
 in order that the preconceived impression of Santa 
 Anna may remain undisturbed, he leaves Col. Riley's 
 brigade to threaten and manoeuvre here, but hastens 
 himself to organize the real advance upon the west 
 and south-west causeways. 
 
 The first step in the inverted plan is to carry that 
 natural and isolated mound, cf great elevation, 
 strongly defended at its base, on its heights, and ac- 
 clivities, and all surmounted by the Castle of Chapul- 
 tepec. Heavy batteries, within easy range, are es- 
 tablished. Pillow's and Quitman's division, re-enforced 
 
 5 
 
66 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 by storming parties from Worth and Twiggs, are held 
 under cover for assault. Bombardment and cannon- 
 ade are commenced on the morning of the 12th, and 
 continued until nightfall, when it is clearly perceived 
 that our fire is effectual 5 for a majority of the garri- 
 son are disposed to remain outside of the work, under 
 the protection of the hill, leaving within the castle 
 and on the summit the minimum only which is neces- 
 sar}^ to work the. guns. The preconcerted signal for 
 the assault is given by nine o'clock on the morning 
 of the 13th ; and the two assailing columns move for- 
 ward with an enthusiasm and alacrity which betokens 
 success. 
 
 Grant was not permitted to participate in this glo- 
 rious achievement ; and in accordance with the rule 
 I have adopted, — to confine this narrative to the 
 operations in which he was personally engaged, — it 
 would find no record here, if its universal popidarity 
 did not exempt it from the restraints and limitations 
 of the ride. The heroism of the exploit even ani- 
 mates the sluggish periods of official despatches ; and 
 Scott describes it in lano;uao;e which emulates the 
 precision of Napier and the fire of Macaulay. A para- 
 graph worthy of this commendation in such a com- 
 munication, even if it were entirely irrelevant to my 
 theme, would deserve insertion here as a curiosity of 
 literature ; and I yield to its deserts with the more 
 avidity, because it will relieve the reader, for a mo- 
 ment, from the same imperfections in my own style 
 which I am censuring in that of others. In justice, 
 too, to the brave men who marshalled the enterprise, 
 their names should be spread on every chronicle of 
 
CEEEO GOEDO TO MEXICO. 67 
 
 the Mexican W.ar in tlie authoritative words of the 
 commander-in-chief. 
 
 Pillow's approach^ lies through that open grove of 
 stately cypresses, gray with the moss of ages (now 
 filled with sharpshooters), through that tangled 
 wilderness of wild shrub which marks the site of 
 Montezuma's garden, until he emerges upon the 
 cleared and levelled area at the foot of the rocky 
 acclivity. Quitman's approach" is along the Tacubaya 
 
 1 Major-Gen. Pillow's approach on the west side lay through an open 
 groTO, filled with sharpshooters, who were speedily dislodged; when, being up 
 with the front of the attack, and emerging into open space at the foot of a rocky 
 acclivity, that gallant leader was struck down by an agonizing wound. The 
 immediate command devolved on Brig. -Gen. Cadwallader in the absence of the 
 senior brigadier (Pierce) of the same division, — an invalid since the events of 
 Aug. 19. On a previous call of Pillow, Worth had just sent him a re-enforce- 
 ment, — Col. Clarke's brigade. — Gen. ScotCs Despatch. 
 
 " Major-Gen. Quitman, nobly supported by Brig. -Gens. Shields and Smith 
 (P. P.), his other officers and men, was up with the part assigned him. Si- 
 multaneously with the movement on the west, he had gallantly approached the 
 south-east of the same works, over a causeway, with cuts and batteries, and de- 
 fended by an army strongly posted outside, to the east of the works. Those 
 formidable obstacles Quitman had to face, with but little shelter for his ti-oops, or 
 space for manajuvring. Deep ditches, flanking the causeway, made it difficult 
 to cross on either side into the adjoining meadows ; and these again were inter- 
 sected by other ditches. Smith and his brigade had been early thrown out to 
 make a sweep to the right in order to present a front against the enemy's line 
 (outside), and to turn two intervening batteries near the foot of Chapultepec. 
 This movement was also intended to support Quitman's storming parties, both 
 on the causeway. The first of these, furnished by Twiggs's division, was com- 
 manded in succession by Capt. Casey, Second Infantry, and Capt. Paul, Sev- 
 enth Infantry, after Casey had been severely wounded ; and the second, origi- 
 nally under the gallant Major Twiggs, marine corps, killed ; and then Capt. 
 IMillcr, Second Pennsylvania Volunteers. The storming party, now commanded 
 by Capt. Paul, seconded by Capt. Roberts of the rifles, Lieut. Stewart, and oth- 
 ers of the same regiment (Smith's brigade), carried the two batteries in the road, 
 took some guns, with many prisoners, and drove the enemy posted behind in 
 support. The New- York and South-Carolina Volunteers (Shields's brigade) 
 and the Second Pennsylvania Volunteers, all on the left of Quitman's line, 
 together with portions of his storming parties, crossed the meadows in front, 
 under a heavy fire, and entered the outer enclosure of Chapultepec just in timo 
 to Join in the final assault from the west. — Gen. Scott's Despatch. 
 
68 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GEANT. 
 
 Eoacl flanked with deep ditches, in the face of cross- 
 cuts, obstructions, and batteries, defended bj an 
 army of men. After a succession of desperate 
 struggles, which upon any other day would have 
 been gazetted as a pitched battle, he enters the 
 outer enclosure of Chapultepec in time to co-operate 
 with Pillow in the final assault of the west. 
 
 " The broken acclivity was still to be ascended, and 
 a strong redoubt midway to be carried, before reach- 
 ing the castle on the heights. The advance of our 
 brave men, led by brave officers, though necessarily 
 slow, was unwavering, over rocks, chasms, and mines, 
 and under the hottest fire of cannon and musketry. 
 The redoubt now yielded to resistless valor, and the 
 shouts that followed announced to the castle the fiite 
 that impended. The enemy were steadily driven 
 from shelter to shelter. The retreat allowed not 
 time to fire a single mine, without the certainty 
 of blowing up friend and foe. Those who at a dis- 
 tance attempted to apply matches to the long trains 
 were shot down by our men. There was death be- 
 low as well as above ground. At length the ditch 
 and wall of the main work were reached ; the scaling- 
 ladders were brought up and planted by the storm- 
 ing parties. Some of the daring spirits first in the 
 assault were cast down, killed or wounded : but a 
 lodgement was soon made ; streams of heroes followed ; 
 all opposition was overcome ; and several of our regi- 
 mental colors flung out from the upper walls, amidst 
 long-continued shouts and cheers, which sent dismay 
 into the capital. No scene could have been more 
 animating or glorious."^ 
 
 1 Gen. Scott's Despatch. 
 
CEEEO GOEDO TO MEXICO. 69 
 
 While these grand events are transpiring, Worth's 
 division, stripped of its first brigade by Pillow's requisi- 
 tion, is awaiting at the Molino its predestined occupa- 
 tion. The order at leno;th arrives ; and Garland leads 
 cautiously around the northern base of that consecrat- 
 ed hill under the sombre shade of its primeval grove, 
 cheered by the stars and stripes-^ which now flaunt 
 defiance from turrets reared by Spanish viceroys, 
 aimed at the entrance of the Causeway San Cosme, 
 and bound for the Alameda by the north-western gate. 
 Grant is with him, and wins an additional grade on this 
 immortal afternoon. When they reach the embank- 
 ment, they perceive that it is no place for organized 
 operations : it is narrow ; the ubiquitous canals are 
 on either side ; an aqueduct runs along the centre, 
 laid on arches of solid masonry ; it is intersected by 
 numerous dikes and cross-roads and by frowning bar- 
 ricades, behind wdiich the sullen enemy lies in wait. 
 The brigade is broken into detachments : a part are 
 thrown out, right and left, into the marsh, advancing 
 behind every natural obstacle and cover ; a part rush 
 stealthily from arch to arch. Garland is now ap- 
 
 1 There are some friendships formed in life which no difference of political 
 opinion can alienate. As a slight tribute to one of this enduring nature, I wish 
 to settle, in favor of a personal friend, a controversy in which he is too magnani- 
 mous to participate, by an authority which should forever prevent its renewal. 
 Who hauled down the Mexican flag at Chapultepec ? IMajor-Gcn. Pillow, in 
 his report of the battle of Chapultepec, says, " The gallant Col. Ransom of 
 the Ninth Infantry fell dead from a shot in the forehead while at the head of his 
 command, waving his sword, and leading his splendid regiment up the heights 
 to the summit of Chapultepec. I had myself been a witness to his heroic con- 
 duct until a moment befoi-e, when I was cut down by his side. My heart bleeds 
 with anguish at the loss of so gallant an officer. The command of his regiment 
 devolved upon Major Seymour, who faltered not, but with his command scaled 
 the parapet, entered the citadel sword in hand, and himself struck the Mexican 
 flag from the walls." — Message and Doc. for 1847, p. 406. 
 
70 LIFE OF GENEEATi GRANT. 
 
 proaching the first breastwork. Behind if is the 
 enemy in force, with his centre resting upon it and 
 his wings expanded. " When the head of the bat- 
 talion was in short musket-range of this barrier," 
 writes Major Lee, commander of the Fourth, " Lieut. 
 Grant and Capt. Brooks, with a few men of their re- 
 spective regiments, by a handsome movement to the 
 left, turned the right of the enemy, and the barrier 
 was carried." The soldiers display their habitual 
 firmness and audacity. Worth directs the move- 
 ment with tactical exactness, — massing his scattered 
 detachments upon the enemy in front, while carefully 
 guarding his own flank ; throwing ofi* artillery and 
 infantry into the marsh upon the left to turn an 
 abatis, into the marsh upon the right to clear his own 
 and Quitman's front, M'ho is pursuing a divergent 
 march to the capital. Worth pushes his troops 
 through a withering fire. They capture a second 
 battery ; they silence and dismantle a third, which 
 enfilades their path. They have reached Campo 
 Santo, where the causeway wheels into the inhabited 
 streets of the city. 
 
 " We here came in front of another battery," writes 
 Gen. Worth in his Keport, " beyond which, distant 
 some two hundred and fifty yards, and sustaining it, 
 was the last defence, or the garita of San Cosme. 
 The approach to these two defences was in a right 
 line ; and the whole space was literally swept by 
 grape, canister, and shells, from a heavy gun and 
 howitzer; added to which, severe fires of musketry 
 were delivered from the tops of the adjacent houses 
 and churches. It hence became necessary to vary 
 
CERRO GORDO TO MEXICO. 71 
 
 our mode of operations. Garland's brigade was thrown 
 to the right, within and masked by the aqueduct, 
 find instructed to dislodge the enemy from the build- 
 in<TS in his front, and endeavor to reach and turn the 
 left of the garita ; taking advantage of such cover as 
 might offer to enable him to effect these objects. 
 Clarke's brigade was, at the same time, ordered to 
 take the buildings on the left of the road, and, by the 
 use of bars and picks, burrow through from house to 
 house, and in like manner carry the right of the ga- 
 rita. While these orders were being executed, a 
 mountain-howitzer was placed on the top of a com- 
 manding building on the left, and another on Uie 
 Church of San Cosme on the right ; both of which 
 opened with admirable effect. The work of the troops 
 was tedious, and necessarily slow, but was greatly 
 favored by the fire of the howitzers." ^ The howitzer 
 on San Cosme Convent is served by a steady arm, and 
 aimed by a sure eye, that will yet be of service to the 
 country in direr extremities than this. "I recog- 
 nized the command as it came up," writes Col Gar- 
 land in his report of the action, " mounted a howitzer 
 on the top of a convent, which, under the direction 
 of Lieut. Grant, quartermaster of the Fourth Infantry, 
 and Lieut. Lendrum, Third Artillery, annoyed the 
 enemy considerably. I must not omit to call atten- 
 tion to Lieut. Grant, who acquitted himself most nobly 
 upon several occasions under my observation." 
 
 The orders which Worth recites in the paragraph I 
 have transcribed from his Report, virtually abrogates 
 
 1 Gen. Worth's Report of Battle of Chapultepec. — Messages and Documents, 
 p. 329. 
 
72 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 tactics for the remainder of the day, and transforms 
 the movement into a hand-to-hand fight. While Grant 
 is showering the roofs with his howitzer, Garland is 
 bush-fitjrhtinor on one side of the street, and Clarke 
 burrowing; on the other. And now ensues a scene 
 which beggars description. The military vocabulary, 
 with its technical terms, and the stereotyped phrases 
 and imagery of military narrative, are powerless here. 
 The sun is near the horizon. The war in the after- 
 noon, with scope and verge enough, had, like a freshet, 
 overspread the wide area of the meadows. It is now 
 "bottled up" in a narrow gorge between the paral- 
 lel walls of the street, and the gate -works at its 
 termination. The pent-up fury devours all before it ; 
 rages, howls, lashes the sides of the enclosure, as if a 
 whole menatz-erie of rabid animals had been driven 
 into a single pen. By patient toil, ingenuity, courage 
 unparalleled ; by Clarke on the left, with his model 
 cannoneers transmogrified into sappers and gymnasts ; 
 by Garland on the right, with his splendid infantry 
 reduced for the occasion into bushwhackers ; by Grant 
 and Lendrum razeed into common gunners ; by cav- 
 alrymen dismounted, voltigeurs, engineers (for all 
 arms are in this grand meUe), — inch by inch, foot by 
 foot, we crowd the Mexican gunners from the battery 
 between us and the gateway. Duncan's artillery is 
 rushed into the abandoned work with a velocity 
 which drives it muzzle to muzzle against the enemy's 
 cannon. " Once more to the breach ! " And by ma- 
 noeuvres which were never dreamed of on parade ; by 
 tactics which would astound the schools and dismay 
 the martinet ; by vaulting from house-top to house- 
 
CEEEO GORDO TO MEXICO. 73 
 
 top, squirming from window to window, worming 
 from wall to wall; by soldiers riglit-flice, left-face, 
 back-face, front-face, obliqued ; by soldiers erect, on 
 their knees, " belly-wbapper ; " by volleys from can- 
 non in the street, howitzers on the convent ; by fasi- 
 lades from all rifles, all muskets, all revolvers, from 
 all skirmishers, squads, detachments, single men; 
 by bullets from every loop-hole, cover, " coigne of 
 vantage," — the riddled garita sullenly yields. The 
 welkin rings with a shout which carries consternation 
 to ten thousand Mexican homes, as the pent>up war 
 went roaring through the pass. The city is ours! 
 
 The supports, which have been constantly report- - 
 ing during the afternoon to Gen. Worth, and which 
 could not be advantageously used in this consummate 
 C0U2') de main, are now ordered up ; and to the in- 
 spiriting music of their band, with measured tread, 
 well-trimmed ranks, and martial bearing, file through 
 the disgarnished gateway, in strange contrast with 
 the begrimed and motley crew gathered round the 
 stronghold which they had just overwhelmed. By 
 the dexterity of officers, the tangled skein is soon 
 unravelled, and these broken battalions once more 
 set in soldierly array. 
 
 McDonald, in his furious charge upon the enemy's 
 centre at Wagram, scarcely encountered more perils, 
 or met them with more fortitude, than Quitman's 
 division in its obstructed march over the Tacubaya 
 Causeway. Aware as Gen. Scott was of the strong 
 defences at the Belen Gate, and that it was, moreover, 
 commanded by the citadel beyond it, he merely in- 
 tended that Quitman should demonstrate seriously 
 
74 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 against these defences, in order to favor the decided 
 attack of Worth. But, borne on by his own gallantry 
 and by the impetuosity of his troops, Quitman over- 
 powered the Belen by two o'clock in the afternoon, 
 and effected a lodgement within it. He was preparing 
 to storm the citadel, when the city council, at four 
 o'clock in the morning, waited upon the commanding 
 general with a proposition which resulted in the 
 capitulation of Mexico upon terms imposed by Gen. 
 Scott. After dismissing the deputation, he communi- 
 cated orders both to Quitman and to Worth to feel 
 their way cautiously toward the centre of the city, 
 and to occupy respectively the Grand Plaza and the 
 Alameda. Worth occupies the beautiful park as- 
 signed to him, within three blocks of the national 
 palace ; there to encounter the assassin-like fire of 
 the convicts, which the fugitive government had 
 released from the carcels,^ and distributed into every 
 advantageous position for the massacre of our troops, 
 be it church, convent, or even hospital. Heroic Gar- 
 land is struck down, wounded by the first fire. The 
 battering-train is turned upon all structures which 
 harbor these desperadoes ; and the stealthy assassina- 
 tion which a vindictive chief had bequeathed to his 
 conquerors resulted only in the punishment of the 
 innocent of his own countrymen, that these guilty 
 conspirators might be reached. 
 
 Grant was a spectator of that splendid pageant on 
 the 14th of September, the culminating felicity of 
 Scott's long military career, — his ceremonious en- 
 
 • Worth, in his Report, says that there were thirty thousand thus liberated. 
 
CEKRO GORDO TO MEXICO. 75 
 
 trance, with all the honors, into the city of Mexico. 
 He sees groups of discharged felons, wearing their 
 tattered mantles with the air of Spanish grandees, 
 grasping their stilettos, and frowning vengeance upon 
 the hated Yankees, who stand between them and uni- 
 versal pillage. He sees the flags floating from the 
 ambassadorial palaces, and groups of elegantly-attired 
 women behind them, peering through their folds upon 
 the spectacle beneath ; and in the balconies the 
 gaudy costume of seiior and seuorita, gazing with 
 varied emotion upon the begrimed and bronzed sol- 
 diery before whose resistless valor has sunk every 
 emblem of their independence and sovereignty. He 
 hears the measured tramp of armed columns, the dis- 
 tant roll of artillery wheels, the clash of arms upon 
 the pavement, the sounding hoofs of horses on the 
 street, the inspiriting burst of " Hail to the Chief," as 
 Worth's veteran warriors, drawn up in line of battle 
 upon the Alameda, salute the passing cavalcade of 
 the general-in-chief On the Grand Plaza, where, in 
 front of the magnificent cathedral, Quitman's division 
 is presenting arms. Grant beholds, in the full uniform 
 of his rank, escorted by a squadron of dragoons, and 
 half hid by the flashing trappings of his stafi^, the tow- 
 ering form of that chieftain, who, after storming the 
 strongholds of Mexico and annihilating her armies, 
 alights at the steps of her national palace, conscious 
 desert ennobling his lineaments, and the premonitions 
 of an established fame animating his bosom. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 EDUCATION. — FRONTIER SERVICE.— CIVIL LIFE. 
 [1848-1861.] 
 
 I TRACED Grant through the course of studies at 
 West Point, to show how they disciplined his mind, 
 and educated him in the scientific element of his pro- 
 fession. I have followed him up to his graduation in 
 the Mexican War, not to adorn this narrative with 
 his personal adventures, but to exhibit in what man- 
 ner the principles imbibed at the first were illustrated 
 and enforced by the practical teachings of his second 
 military college. But his service here was, in addi- 
 tional respects, an invaluable preparation for the over- 
 whelming responsibilities of the position to which he 
 was destined. Tactics is that branch of the art of 
 war which inculcates the methods of handling arms 
 and of manoeuvring companies, brigades, divisions, and 
 army corps. So far as it applies to the first two of 
 these army-organizations, it may be acquired in the 
 drill-room or on the parade-ground ; but the heavier 
 bodies, of which they are the units, are seldom con- 
 centrated ; and therefore the soldier destined to lead 
 armies can never learn the more advanced and com- 
 
 76 
 
FEOXTIER SEPwYICE, CIVIL LIFE. 77 
 
 plex lessons of tactics, except when war is either im- 
 minent or flagrant. 
 
 But rising infinitely higher even than tactics, as 
 the qualification for the chief of mighty armies, is the 
 science of command itself, which teaches where armies 
 shall be stationed, engagements won, and campaigns 
 conducted. You may con the battles and operations 
 of the most celebrated warriors in biographies ; you 
 may learn by heart their war-maxims, as you may 
 try to master chess without a competitor, or anatomy 
 and surgery without an operating-room : but a cen- 
 tury of such fancy drill in these arts will never pro- 
 duce a Morphy, a Mott, or a Napoleon. I have heard 
 Gen. Grant affirm, that, when he was first intrusted 
 with high military authority, he knew nothing of 
 strategy except what he had learned by a critical ob- 
 servation, upon the spot, of the modes and expedients 
 by which the genius of Scott counterbalanced the in- 
 trenched positions and the numerical superiority of 
 the Mexicans. It.is a source of profound gratification 
 that such a model campaign, in all respects, was pre- 
 sented for his study and consideration. It has been 
 justly said of it, that it was conducted with fewer 
 strategical mistakes, with less sacrifice of men, with 
 less devastation in proportion to its victories, and 
 with more fidelity to the established laws and usages 
 of war, than that of any invading general upon record. 
 
 Entering into and a part of this science of com- 
 mand is that genius — born, not made — by which 
 the great masters of the art magnetize every soldier 
 in the ranks. There is something more in war than 
 what Napoleon's maxim asserts, — " the art of being 
 
78 LIFE OF GENERAL GEAXT. 
 
 the strono;est." The warrior works with instruments 
 that have souls within them. A general may be fami- 
 liar with all that the books teach of war ; he may be 
 expert in every minutia of tactics ; he may be accom- 
 plished in the theoretical and mechanical parts of 
 strategy : he may have learned all of it which can 
 be taught by study, and also by experience : yet if he 
 lack but one thing — this personal ascendency — down 
 to the dust will his banner sink before that antagonist 
 whose sole superiority is the possession of this exalted 
 attribute. It is this power, which, in the dire extrem- 
 ity, makes one man ten, and a thousand put ten thou- 
 sand to flight. It was this which Frederick exhibited 
 when his twice ten thousand veterans, inspired by 
 his own genius, vanquished at Rosbach four times ten 
 thousand French and Austrians ; the father and the 
 king exhorting his grenadiers as they passed into the 
 battle-cloud, " You yourselves know that there have 
 been no watchings, no fatigues, no sufferings, no dan- 
 gers, which I have not steadily shared with you up to 
 this very hour ; and you now see me ready to- die 
 with you and for you. All that I ask of you, com- 
 rades, is that you return me zeal for zeal and love for 
 love." It was the power of the four consummate 
 warriors of the race, — 
 
 " The science of commanding ; 
 The godlike art of moulding, welding, fettering, banding 
 The minds of millions till they move like one." 
 
 It cannot be reasonably doubted that Scott pos- 
 sessed to a considerable degree this inspiring quality 
 of eminent generalship ; and it is fortunate, that, for so 
 long a period. Grant dwelt so near the source of in- 
 
FKONTIER SERVICE, CIVIL LIFE. 79 
 
 spiration that he may have caught the flame ; so close 
 to the magnet that he may have imbibed a portion 
 of its mysterious power. It is of more importance 
 that he should be invested with it, because it is a 
 characteristic as serviceable to the statesman as to 
 the warrior. Of Lord Chatham's renowned adminis- 
 tration of En<i;land's affairs durino; a decided crisis in 
 her history, Macaulay says, " The success of our arms 
 was, perhaps, owing less to the skill of his dispositions 
 than to the national resources and the national spirit. 
 But that the national spirit rose to the emergency, 
 that the national resources were contributed with un- 
 exampled cheerfulness, — this was undoubtedly his 
 work. The ardor of his soul had set the whole king- 
 dom on fire. It inflamed every soldier who dragged 
 the cannon up the heights of Quebec, and every sail- 
 or who boarded the French ships among the rocks 
 of Britain." 
 
 After his war with the gods, Prometheus was bound 
 to a rock in Caucasus, and an immense vulture sent 
 daily to pounce upon his liver, which grew as fast as 
 it was devoured. His punishment seems to be typi- 
 cal of the tedium which preys upon the mind of the 
 soldier when he passes suddenly from such scenes as I 
 have described in the last chapter, — from Churubusco 
 and Chapultepec ; from " the exulting sense, the pulse's 
 maddening pla}-," — to the torpid perceptions and 
 sluggish arterial circulation of a hibernating bear at 
 Fort Desolation. 
 
 We never should have heard of Grant after his 
 second imprisonment in one of these dungeons of 
 Despair, but for an incident the most fortunate of 
 
80 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 his varied career. He was allowed by his military 
 superiors to select an associate to share his exile from 
 military activity. His choice fell upon one who de- 
 served all his confidence and love. He carried with 
 him to his monotonous duties cheerfulness and conso- 
 lation in the person of a bride. He was married in 
 August, 1848, to Miss Julia T. Dent, the daughter of 
 Frederick Dent, a merchant of St. Louis ; and the 
 sister of Frederick T. Dent, a classmate at West Point, 
 who has since risen to the rank of brevet brigadier- 
 general, and was the aide of Grant in several engage- 
 ments, and his assistant secretary of war when he 
 was the head, ad interim, of that department. She has 
 proved herself the kindest and most affectionate of 
 wives ; sharing with unabated courage and constancy 
 the trials and disappointments of his early manhood ; 
 fully exemplifying the truth of Lord Bacon's apho- 
 rism, that " virtue, like precious odors, is most fra- 
 grant when incensed or crushed." Prosperity and re- 
 nown have since brought to him a cup crowned with 
 blessings ; but, among them all, there is no choicer 
 felicity than that the wife of his youth, in the bloom 
 of her years, is permitted to share them. Fame and 
 position have also entailed their peculiar trials and 
 anxieties; but they are always met with fortitude 
 and composure when cheered and sustained by the 
 comj)anion who has stood beside him in so many 
 emergencies, and in both extremities of fortune. 
 
 I now enter upon a period of Grant's life upon mil- 
 itary posts, of six years' duration. It was, of course, 
 barren of that incident and adventure which consti- 
 tute the charm of the most delightful pages of biogra- 
 
FEOXTIER SERVICE, CIVIL LIFE. 81 
 
 pliy ; but it was fruitful in influence upon his life and 
 character. It was the period of repose following the 
 turmoil of war, when, after the agitation of a voyage, 
 the good wine lies on its must, — the period of medita- 
 tion which originates the proverb, " Speech is silvern ; 
 silence is golden." It was in these hours of reflection 
 that he assimilated with his own mind the books that 
 he had read, and the thoughts of others which he had 
 imbibed ; " fought his battles o'er again," with more 
 accurate comprehension now of the skill of Scott's 
 dispositions and the marvels of his strategy. Nor 
 did the tedium and ennui of which I have spoken in 
 such stronsi: lang-uag-e reach its nadir at once, but de- 
 scended gradually through the monotony of post-ser- 
 vice in the populated part of our immense territorial 
 area, until it became unbearable, when it finally ex- 
 iled him from the society of his family, and furiously 
 assailed him in — 
 
 " The continuous woods, 
 Where rolls the Oregon, and hears no sound 
 Save his own dashings." ^ 
 
 Washington, at the age of twenty-six, terminated 
 his novitiate, in that French and Indian War which 
 trained him for the Revolution, at Fort Du Quesne. 
 At the age of twenty-six, and at the conclusion of 
 Grant's novitiate in the war which schooled him for 
 the War of the Rebellion, he was stationed at Detroit. 
 Du Quesne was one of that chain of military posts, 
 stretching from the Gulf of St. Lawrence to New 
 Orleans, with which the house of Bourbon attempted 
 
 1 Grant was stationed at Vancouver on the " Oregon " just before he re 
 signed his commission. 
 6 
 
82 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEAl^T. 
 
 to environ the English Colonies of North America : 
 Detroit was another. This city, charming in its 
 natural situation, and, by the beauty of its streets 
 and the elegance of its mansions, attractive as a resi- 
 dence, is still more captivating for its society, refined, 
 cultivated, and intellectual, which, descending as it 
 has from the earliest times, is in some measure due to 
 its origin from the most polished nation in the world. 
 Grant's hurried and rugged road from his youth 
 up had prevented him from turning aside into the 
 pleasant gardens and by-paths of life ; from cultivat- 
 ing the arts de societS, or mingling much in social 
 enjoyments. The balls and parties of Detroit in the 
 winter of 1848-9 delightfully relieved the dull routine 
 of a quartermaster's duty. The new tie which he 
 liad recently formed, in addition to rendering his 
 own quarters pleasant and inviting, drew him out of 
 himself, from the mess-room and his cigar, to the 
 pleasant and agreeable circles in the city. Mrs. 
 Grant was herself fond of social pleasures and amuse- 
 ments ; and they soon became far from insupportable 
 to her husband. It is not true, as is generally sup- 
 posed, that in private life he wraps himself up in 
 reticence and reserve. It is only when pressed to 
 divulge prospective military designs, pumped by 
 adroit politicians to indorse party platforms, pestered 
 by those wdio worship " gab " to play the role of 
 stump-orator on every appropriate and inappropriate 
 occasion, that it becomes as inconvenient and impos- 
 sible for him to speak as it was for Sir Mungo Mala- 
 (j^rowther to hear when his withers were wrung by 
 Fome disagreeable innuendo. In the society of friends, 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE, CIVIL LIFE. 83 
 
 and even strangers worthy of his civility, you will 
 find him abundantly posted upon the current themes 
 of conversation, and sufficiently communicative upon 
 events in his own history which are proper subjects 
 of narrative. He is more voluble than either of his 
 neighbors who preside respectively over the naval 
 and war departments. He is both fluent in manner 
 and agreeable in the matter upon which he consents 
 to speak ; and his vocabulary is copious and even rich. 
 He never hesitates for a word, but talks with the ease 
 and fluency of one, who, charged with ideas, is borne 
 on by the sincerity and earnestness of his convictions. 
 He speaks upon all subjects with which he ought to 
 be familiar, as from a full mind ; and impresses you 
 with the conviction that he is in the habit of arran- 
 ging his ideas, and of reflecting upon affairs under 
 his official direction. You never rise from a conver- 
 sation with him without being convinced that he is 
 fertile in resources, and possesses a ready and reten- 
 tive memory. I have never met with a bureau offi- 
 cer in Washington more affable upon business-matters 
 brought under his official notice than Gen. Grant. 
 I assert this of Grant from my own knowledge of the 
 man, and as the result I have reached after frequent 
 interviews with him, during which I have heard him 
 describe the whole course of his most important cam- 
 paigns, his most memorable achievements, and paint 
 in graphic outline such scenes as the capitulation 
 of Vicksburg and the surrender of Lee. I was a 
 member of the Committee on Military Affiiirs during 
 the Thirty-ninth Congress, and to me was referred as 
 Bub-committee the bill creating the grade of general ; 
 
84 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and it was made a part of my deputed duty to con- 
 sult him upon some parts of his military operations 
 which were severely criticised by some of my associ- 
 ates. I was honored by him with frequent and pro- 
 longed audiences at his own headquarters. I have 
 been frequently authorized by the same committee to 
 consult him upon other questions which we had in 
 charge, and respecting which it was proper that we 
 should be advised by the general in command of the 
 army. His views, clear and precise, were always ex- 
 pressed forthwith without previous premeditation. I 
 once chajjeroned into his presence a party of my con- 
 stituents who had come to Washino-ton with the im- 
 pression that Gen. Grant never used his tongue 
 except to give password or countersign. After the 
 solemn ceremony of introduction, the visitors gravely 
 seated themselves as if before the marble image of 
 the commander-in-chief; and I drew the general oat 
 upon some subject for the purpose of astounding 
 them : and he gave a shock to their preconceived 
 ideas from which they have not yet recovered. I am 
 pleased to find that this opinion, which I have formed 
 from personal observation, is confirmed by a personal 
 friend of Gen. Grant, whose acquaintance with him 
 was of longer duration and more intimate than any 
 of which I can presume to boast. Gen. McPherson 
 was a citizen of the same State ; was a distinguished 
 division-commander under him in the Vicksburg Cam- 
 paign ; and was struck down in battle near Atlanta, 
 Ga., lamented by every loyal countryman. On one 
 occasion he said to a friend" To know and appreciate 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE, CIVIL LIFE, 85 
 
 Gen. Grant fully, one ought to be a member of his 
 military family. Though possessing a remarkable 
 reticence as far as military operations are concerned, 
 he is frank and affable, converses well, and has a 
 peculiarly retentive memory. When not oppressed 
 with the cares of his position, he is very fond of talk- 
 ing, and telling anecdotes." Let it not, therefore, be 
 supposed that he appeared in the fashionable circles 
 of Detroit a dumb, vacant, unapproachable guest 
 distrait He is master of the situation everywhere. 
 He finds none but peers at any man's table, and has 
 no occasion to shrink the ordeal of any society. He 
 is one of those rapid, sensible, and enjoyable talkers 
 whom you would never neglect if you were giving 
 one of those dio;uified conversaziones of the olden 
 time where sense was the rule, and frivolity the 
 exception ; v/hen, in the parlors of Washington and 
 in the library at Monticello, conversation was the "re- 
 creation of the judgment, the jubilee of the reason." 
 It is not my intention to indicate that Grant aspires 
 to any brilliancy of talk, or attempts to indulge in. 
 flights of pleasantry or " corruscations of wit and pun 
 and pith." No : his conversation is unpretending, 
 straightforward, grave, earnest, and always to the 
 point. Nor do I mean to convey the idea that he is 
 garrulous : I wish merely to asseverate that he talks 
 enough, and talks well. 
 
 " But he is no orator ; " neither was Franklin, 
 Wellington, Jefferson, nor our first deliverer from dis- 
 cord, our first mediator between conflicting States, — 
 George Washington. Fortunately for us Washington 
 was not. Angry passions were to be harmonized, the 
 
86 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 councils of colonial assemblies moderated, and con* 
 flicting sections united on the basis of general utility. 
 Skill as an orator would have degraded him into a 
 partisan, the fires of rhetoric would have inflamed 
 the composure of his judgment, and the arts of 
 harano-ue entano;led the deductions of reason. And 
 the victor of Waterloo as well as the successful j^ilot 
 of England's civil affixirs in a stormy time, the leader 
 of her cabinet in the House of Lords, rarely con- 
 descended to utter more than a word in response to 
 the most elaborate diatribe of the opposition. When 
 a proposition was introduced by some carpet knight 
 to take the colors away from a certain Indian regi- 
 ment for alleged misbehavior, Wellington demolished 
 it by a sentence, — " They went into action a thousand 
 men, and came out seventy." I have also read that 
 the great Hebrew lawgiver and the deliverer of 
 God's chosen people was " of slow speech, and of a 
 slow tongue." 
 
 The particular duties which Grant performed in 
 his military capacity were those of regimental quar- 
 termaster. There was but one company of the 
 Fourth in Detroit Barracks ; and the aggregate of 
 the command was only seventy-one men. The re- 
 maining companies were at various pomts around the 
 lake and up the straits ; and as the quartermaster's 
 stores of the entire regiment were under his manage- 
 ment, and he was responsible for them all to the 
 government, these cares involved the necessity of 
 frequent visits along the entire line from Sackett's 
 Harbor to Mackinaw. The duties of his office were 
 sufficiently onerous and inexpressibly irksome from 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE, CIVIL LIEE. 87 
 
 their monotony, and multiplicity of detail ; demanding 
 an amount of returns, duplicate and triplicate, which 
 would try the patience and exactness of the oldest 
 accountant in the " circumlocution office." He was 
 buyer and seller of these supplies, and required to 
 be sharp in his estimates, good at a bargain, exact in 
 his requisitions, honest to the government, just to 
 the contractor, methodical in his accounts, and ac- 
 curate in his vouchers. This was his commercial 
 college, where he acquired the same business habits 
 and training which Washington early learned in dis- 
 charging the duties of a surveyor. This employ- 
 ment was, doubtless, dull and trying to the aspirations 
 of a man conscious that there was more in him than 
 a mere huckster's clerk ; but it is one of the striking 
 characteristics of Grant, that he can adapt himself to 
 any circumstances, and not be driven from the faith- 
 ful performance of duties which happen to be dis- 
 agreeable and distasteful. And althouo-h such vuh'-ar 
 merits as honesty, accuracy, method, and habits of 
 business, may not command the homage of the mere 
 hero-worshipper, may not receive the applause of the 
 " pinks of American aristocracy," they are held in 
 deserved esteem by the great majority of his country- 
 men, in spite of the presumption raised against this 
 conclusion, by the character of the individuals to 
 whom they habitually commit the administration of 
 their public affairs. It also affords consolatory evi- 
 dence, that the general at the head of the army, 
 has mastered the details of the most complicated 
 bureau under him, and is himself furnished with 
 practical sagacity to detect irregularities and fraud 
 
88 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 in the department most exposed to their insinuating 
 approach. His painstaking and submissive discharge 
 of these humble duties, will not be unacceptable to 
 those who still entertain the fossilized opinion, that 
 a soldier should learn how to obey before he is in- 
 trusted with command. In my own judgment, the 
 fidelity with which he mastered them, and the ex- 
 perience and discipline, which he acquired as a quar- 
 termaster, lodured solid buttresses in his character 
 of more substantial worth, than all the glitter and 
 the show with which the most dazzling cavalry-charge 
 on record might have invested it. 
 
 Grant can never cast his eye upon the happy circle 
 which now surrounds his fireside ; he can never feel 
 the pressure of young hands upon his knee, the warm 
 arms of youth encircling his neck, the kiss of fresh 
 lips upon his cheek, or see the "hostages he has given 
 to fortune," now approaching their maturity, wearing 
 the softened features of both father and mother, faith- 
 ful to parental teaching and example, and deserving 
 unqualified confidence and love, — without touching 
 recollections of his sojourn at these garrisons upon 
 tlie lake ; for here his two eldest children were born. 
 The nature of a childless man is but half developed ; 
 and Grant found in his new relation slumbering in- 
 stincts aroused into such authoritative sway, that, 
 more than ever before, he dragged a lengthened chain 
 the farther he departed from home-attractions. Just 
 at the period when newly-awakened conjugal and 
 parental affections were beginning to inthrall him by 
 their potent spell, he was suddenly called upon to 
 smother these pure flames, to sever all domestic ties, 
 
mONTIEIl SERVICE, CIVIL LIFE. 89 
 
 and to degrade himself again to the ranks of "single 
 blessedness." 
 
 Oregon is now attracting emigration from the 
 States ; and the trail to Astoria lies through a country 
 roamed over by the Nez Perces, Blackfoot, and Snake 
 Indians; and frequent collisions are occurring between 
 these untamed savagres and emiojrant famili'is. The 
 regiment of mounted riflemen which had hitherto 
 garrisoned the posts upon the Columbia, had been 
 withdrawn to guard the greater influx of settlers into 
 California, from similar attacks from the tribes in that 
 local'^ty ; and early in 1852, the Fourth Infantry was 
 ordered to the Pacific coast. The first station of 
 Grant was at Benicia, where I find him in the fall of 
 1852. This is our depot of ordnance and quarter- 
 masters' stores in the Pacific Department ; and he 
 is engaged here for a few weeks in making requisi- 
 tions, and shipping supplies, when he is ordered to 
 Fort Vancouver in Oregon. 
 
 Grant departs with his regiment to this forlorn spot, 
 isolated from civilization on the East by an interven- 
 ing wilderness more than two thousand miles in 
 breath, and from civilization on the West by a coast- 
 range of sombre mountains, which shuts it off even 
 — save by one avenue — from the great highway of 
 nations. Vancouver is eighty miles from the sea, 
 enveloped in the melancholy shade of primitive for- 
 ests. When Grant reached it, he found it still retained 
 as one of the central seats of traffic and distribu- 
 tion, by the Hudson' s-Bay Company, which, as every- 
 body knows, is one of those gigantic monopolies 
 whicli were freely granted by Charles the Second to 
 
90 LIFE OF GENEKAL GRANT. 
 
 his favorites. Its charter gave it the exclusive right 
 to trade with the Indians around that great northern 
 gulf. Step by step has its jurisdiction marched to 
 the southward, extending these same engrossing 
 privileges over all British North America. During 
 the era of conflicting claims between the United 
 States and Great Britain upon Oregon, it had pushed 
 these pretensions into that territory, wove over it a 
 network of chief and subordinate establishments, and 
 now exercised unlimited control over the nomadic 
 Indians whom the Fourth Infantry had been de- 
 spatched to quell. The station of the company, in 
 the centre of the clearing, wore all the aspects of a 
 military post. An imposing stockade encloses an 
 area of about seven acres, with mounted bastions at 
 two of its angles ; within are the governor's residence, 
 two small buildings for clerks, and a range of 
 dwellings for families ; without is another store- 
 house, under lease to our government; and a few 
 hundred yards farther to the east, rising from a plain 
 upon the very edge of immemorial woods, are the log- 
 houses known as the Columbia Barracks ; and within 
 an arrow's flight of our flag-staff, is a group of hovels, 
 occupied by Indians, servants, and Kanackas. Four 
 companies of the Fourth are here, with Grant still 
 quartermaster : one company is at Fort Dallas, higher 
 up the Columbia ; and the remainder are so distribut- 
 ed as to guard and keep open communication between 
 Oregon and California, with assistant quartermasters 
 for their respective stations. 
 
 At this desolate station. Grant vegetated for one 
 year. Cervantes never sent Don Quixote on an 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE, CIVIL LIFE. 91 
 
 adventure more fantastic, than the one which the 
 Secretary of War had ordered four companies of an 
 infantry regiment to achieve. They must guard the 
 trail of emigrants through Oregon : the whole army 
 of the United States could not eftectually do it. 
 They must chastise Indian raiders upon the route : 
 winged soldiers, with pinions like a condor to buffet 
 mountain-blasts, might attempt it with some hope 
 of success ; but it is utterly beyond the capacity of 
 bipeds moving along the earth. When a report 
 reaches the garrison that the Indians are at a parti- 
 cular spot, you put your finger upon them, and they 
 are not there. Before a company is rallied, the war- 
 party vanishes, and can be captured as easily as the 
 winds which were with them, at the same hour, upon 
 the same occasion. The sole service of troops at 
 Vancouver is as a moral support to the emigrants, 
 and a terror to the wild foe. Even the alarms, which 
 during the first six months temporarily animate 
 the garrison, are soon checked by the adroitness of 
 Lieut.-Col. Bonneville in command, who establishes 
 intimate relations with the servants of the Hudson- 
 Bay Company, and, through the instrumentality of 
 its widely-scattered agencies, succeeds in pacifying 
 the tribes. By common sense anointed with civilities, 
 a fire in the mountains is subdued which some mili- 
 tary Dogberry, clothed in a little brief authority, 
 would have blown into a conflagration, and expended 
 millions in an abortive attempt to extinguish. 
 
 The second half-year opens with the purpose ac- 
 complished for which the troops were sent. There is 
 no Indian raider upon the trail, no war-party in the 
 
92 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 mountains, no war-cloud in the horizon. The emi- 
 grant train winds along the desolate track to Oregon 
 City, without ambuscade or assault. There is no 
 call upon the garrison, except to the drill and to the 
 dress-parade : " nothing to do " assails it like a 
 plague/ To Grant's active mind it was inexpressibly 
 irksome. With the exception of quarterly and an- 
 nual returns, his office is a sinecure ; for supplies are 
 all sent by steamer. Amusements fail to divert him. 
 Snorting mustangs haunt the plain, bounding beneath 
 the rider as if each muscle were a separate prancer, 
 and the entire horse the one " of Ukraine breed." 
 The man born on horseback scorns to bestride them. 
 Gangs of Kanackas, in fantastic attire, mounted on 
 these wild coursers, career and caracole, advance, 
 retreat, wind circle within circle, as they represent 
 mimic battles and hippodromes, before the barrack- 
 door ; but they fail to enliven the dull eye of the 
 spectator. An elk of twelve tines, dashing through 
 the underbrush, hardly tempts him to the chase. 
 The salmon — gamiest of fish — leaps the cascades 
 of the Columbia, on its way to the spawning-shoal, 
 in the stupendous defiles of the mountains. The 
 deep pool below fairly whirls and glistens with the 
 arrested silver-backs, which dart at a fly in mid air, 
 with an eagerness of spring that would have crazed 
 Sir Humphrey Davy, and held him for days absorbed 
 in wild enchantment. Grant throws his line with as 
 much listlessness as if he were bobbing for tadpoles 
 in a tan-vat. Men who have not mind enough to 
 revolt against the want of appropriate employment 
 disbelieve in ennui; men without conscience dis- 
 
FRONTIER SERVICE, CIVIL LIFE. 93 
 
 believe in remorse : but both are real calamities. 
 While thus tormented with "nothing to do," letters 
 from home drew him in that direction, as attraction 
 draws a planet to the sun. The maladie du pays, 
 which the home-guard can afford to despise because 
 the cure is always at his command, is no trifle in 
 armies, or to soldiers fastened upon remote and soli- 
 tary posts. The medical staff know it as nostalgia, 
 and it has a place upon their blanks with pneumonia, 
 dysentery, and other chronic diseases of the camp ; 
 and it seldom fails to appear in their regular morn- 
 ing reports. The " Eanz de vaches," carolled by 
 the peasants at home while milking the cows, is 
 prohibited from being sung in European armies by 
 positive order. Grant's commission as captain now 
 reaches him after he has been a year at Vancouver ; 
 and he is forthwith ordered to Humboldt Bay in Cali- 
 fornia, where his company is now stationed. The 
 Indians had been active in Humboldt County ; and 
 the same kind of alarms which for a season relieved 
 the inactivity of Vancouver had furnished the com- 
 pany at Humboldt Bay with busy idleness ; but 
 the quiet of an uninhabited island is not more serene 
 than that of Humboldt Bay when Grant reached 
 it. He is still drawn eastward by the attractions of 
 home, and by the duty which a father owes to his 
 children. At a period when his country was in per- 
 fect repose, when there was no call for army service, 
 when the special mission upon which he was exiled 
 into the wilderness had been fully performed, and 
 there was nothing to resist the paramount claim 
 of wife and children upon his protection and nurture, 
 
94 LIFE OF GENERAL GtCAM. 
 
 he resigned his commission in the army, to take effect 
 July 31, 1854 ; and, having obtained a leave ol 
 absence, joined his family at St. Louis. 
 
 I now enter upon seven years, during which Grant 
 was farmer and collector at St. Louis, and leather-deal- 
 er at Galena. In a period of profound national peace, 
 he discards his epaulets, that he may enjo}' domestic 
 life. He throws up his captain's pay, with the certain 
 knowledge that he must earn a livelihood for himself 
 and family by the labor of his hands and the sweat of 
 his brow : after all, as the Spanish proverb hath it, 
 " the shirt is nearer than the coat." The choice and the 
 Bacrifice equally impress the thoughtful mind, while 
 this new life-discipline produces fruit in the character 
 which is not to be despised. He makes himself a 
 good husband and a good father, and therefore be- 
 comes a good citizen. He works, that he may never 
 bend " the pliant hinges of the knee " to power or 
 riches. Let not proud ambition mock this homely joy 
 bought by useful toil ! Labor is twice blessed which 
 duty inspires ; and, as old George Herbert says, " The 
 man who sweeps the church makes it and himself to 
 be clean." The nation is made up of men whose daily 
 life is daily toil ; and no one represents its tone, or is 
 fit to govern it, who has not learned by bitter trial 
 that " wealth is best known by want." Brave souls 
 alone can endure this ordeal : the feeble would die from 
 inanition ; the bright would corrode with rust ; the im- 
 petuous slide into crime ; the fanciful fret themselves 
 to death in chasing the chimeras of an impracticable 
 imagination : but the fort esprit endures and waits. 
 Grant's military training is now complete ; and, to me, 
 
FEOXTIER SERVICE, CIVIL LIFE. 95 
 
 Grant cajoling his wife, dandling his babie&. working 
 with his hands, earning his bread, driving a team into 
 St. Louis mounted on his cart and selling a load of wood ; 
 Grant collecting debts ; Grant in the tannery handling 
 leather, and hauling raw hides from the festering vat, 
 — is Grant loving with the lowliest, serving with the 
 humblest, learning the lesson, mastering the complete 
 role of comrade-citizens ; it is Grant in the common 
 school of civilians, with them ripening and maturing 
 for tlij practical tasks of American life ; it is Grant 
 in the ranks, waiting the call to action, biding the sum- 
 mons to fame. Farmer Grant, collector Grant, tanner 
 Grant, are as interesting as Gen. Grant. How many of 
 the illustrious of the earth have endured the same disci- 
 pline ! how many have failed to be illustrious because 
 they have shrunk from bearing this cross ! At the age 
 of thirty-six. Grant was a working husbandman on a 
 Missouri farm. At the age of thirty-six, Cromwell was 
 a farmer at St. Ives, cultivating his fields, multiplying 
 his flocks and herds. At the age of thirty-six, Wash- 
 ington was a planter, raising tobacco, and copying his 
 accounts with mercantile neatness and precision. At 
 thirty-six, Peter the Great was working with his own 
 hands, as a common shipwright, in the dockyards of 
 Amsterdam. Franklin was not a less deliberate and 
 cautious statesman because at thirty-six he had been 
 a patient type-setter. Nor was Sherman a worse coun- 
 sellor in evil times for having, at the same age, used 
 the awl and the wax-end. How many have emerged 
 from the humblest positions to the foremost ranks of 
 our citizenship ! '' Our bare-footed ploughboys i^ise to 
 ride the Steed of State, and wield the rod of repub- 
 
96 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GEANT. 
 
 lican empire. Our printing-press sends fortli Its 
 Franklin ; oar shoemaker's bench, its Roger Sherman ; 
 our blacksmith's forge, its Gen, Greene ; our rustic 
 inn, its Gen. Putnam ; our clockmaker's stool, its John 
 Fitch ; our little grocerj-shop, its Patrick Henry ; 
 the rude habitation of a peasant noble, in the midst 
 of a forest, upon a frontier of civilization, its Daniel 
 AVebster ; the shanty of a humble Irish emigrant amid 
 the wilds of the Waxhaws, its President Andrew 
 Jackson ; a lowly cot upon the ' slashes of the Virginia 
 Hanover,' its Henry Clay ; our weaver's loom, its Presi- 
 dent Fillmore; our machinist's block, its self-taught rep- 
 resentative ^ of the industrious masses, to be pitted at 
 last against 'one of the brightest gems of American 
 aristocracy,' ~ and to win the gavel and the n:\ace of 
 the speakership in the Capitol of our great republic." ^ 
 And I may add, that, from the log-cabin of a Kentucky 
 backwoodsman, Abraham Lincoln reaches the chair 
 of president, to reflect more renown than he could in- 
 herit from the ofl&ce, by subsequently ascending that 
 dais in the temple of the world's great men, which 
 only belongs to deliverers of nations and martyrs to 
 liberty, and to the reserved seat upon it, which from 
 the beginning had awaited the coming of the eman- 
 cipator of a race. 
 
 1 N. r. Eanks. 
 
 2 Aiken of South Carolina. 
 
 ^ I cannot resist the inclination to borrow an answer to my question from a 
 friond eloquent, now, alas! no more, — the Hon. Isaac W. Stuart, — who, like 
 the Curaean sibyl, left his insjjired leaves to be scattered by the winds. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 WHA' DID HE ACTUALLY DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? — HE ADMINIS- 
 TERS THE DISTRICT OF SOUTH-EASTERN MISSOURI. 
 
 I HAVE hitherto attempted to answer the three 
 questions propounded in the opening paragraph 
 of this biography, which respect the birth, childhood, 
 education, and the preparatory military discipline and 
 experience, of Grant. I now approach the fourth, 
 the weightiest of them all, — what did he actually do 
 in this civil war? 
 
 In answering this question, it will not be a primary 
 object with me to dwell minutely upon the exciting 
 details, — the brilliant charge, the volleyed fire, the in- 
 flexible resistance, which decided the fortune of many 
 a hardly-contested day. Such delineation would 
 prominently illustrate the heroism of the soldiery, 
 rather than the ability of the commander. I am writ- 
 ing a life, not a history ; and my limits restrict me to 
 my special function. My governing purpose will be 
 to indicate the degree of his responsibility, when, in 
 subordinate position, he was carrying out or aiding 
 the campaigns or movements planned by his supe- 
 riors ; to canvass the quality of the expedients which 
 he adopted in the field to execute the conceptions of 
 Frdmont, Halleck, and the Secretary of War in the 
 
 7 97 
 
98 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 study. I sliall attempt to analyze his system of wai. 
 In describing battles, I shall, as heretofore, direct my 
 attention more to the tactical and strategical problems 
 involved in them, than to their fire and fury, their 
 thunder and blood. 
 
 When Sir Arthur Wellesley was put in command 
 of an expeditionary force designed to co-operate with 
 the Portuguese in their struggle for national sove- 
 reignty, a friend urged him not to accept an inferior 
 command after having marshalled great armies in the 
 East ; intimating to him that he would be superseded 
 by superior officers when he reached the theatre of 
 action. Sir Arthur replied in a noble spirit, " I have, 
 as we say in India, eaten of the king's salt ; and I will 
 serve his Majesty in whatever situation he may be 
 pleased to place me, be it supreme or inferior." When 
 the news of the bombardment of Sumter, disclosing a 
 conspiracy to dissever our nationality, reached the 
 leather-store of Jesse R. Grant & Co., at Galena, 111., 
 one of the partners, Ulysses S. Grant by name, clos- 
 ing his book, laying down his pen, and stepping be- 
 fore the counter, said, " I was educated at the expense 
 of my country ; and I now intend to repay her." He 
 had, seven years before, flung a military career and 
 martial aspirations to the wind ; he had worked with 
 his hands on a farm, and assisted the firm to accumu- 
 late a fortune in the leather-trade ; he had moderated 
 his ambition to his circumstances, subordinated his 
 wants to his means ; he had sedulously avoided party 
 fetters and entanglements; he had voted but once in 
 a presidential election ; he had never sought the ac- 
 quaintance of political demi-gocis; the .comrades he 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 99 
 
 had left at Vancouver were his only friends ; and he 
 was now living, with his wife and four children, in a 
 cottage on a picturesque hill of Galena, walking to 
 the leather-store, and back to his own house, three or 
 four times a day ; saying, as he picked his broken way, 
 "If I am ever mayor of Galena, I will mend this 
 pavement." What is there in the mere glory of war 
 that can lure him from retirement? 
 
 On the 13th of April, 1861, he heard the news of 
 the fall of Sumter. On the 14th, he began enrolling 
 recruits; on the 19th, he was drilling his volunteers 
 in the streets; on the 23d, he marched with them to 
 Springfield, the capital of Illinois. When he reached 
 this place, he wrote a letter to the adjutant-general 
 of the State, rehearsing his antecedents, and offering 
 his skill and experience in arms to the governor, " in 
 whatever situation he may be pleased to place me." 
 Having received no reply to this communication, he 
 presented himself in person to Gov. Yates, and solicited 
 mihtary employment. I am happy here to have that 
 distinguished statesman take up the thread of the 
 narrative : — 
 
 " In presenting himself to me, he made no reference 
 to any merits, but simply said he had been the recip- 
 ient of a mihtary education at West Point; and, now 
 that the country was assailed, he thought it his duty 
 to offer his services ; and that he would esteem it a 
 privilege to be assigned to any position where he 
 could be useful. I cannot now claim to myself the 
 credit of having discerned in him the promise of 
 great achievements, or the qualities ' which minister 
 to the making of great names,' more than in many 
 
100 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT, 
 
 others who proposed to enter the military service. 
 His appearance at first sight is not striking. He had 
 no grand airs, no imposing appearance ; and, I confess, 
 it could not be said he was a form — 
 
 " ' Where every god did seem to set his seal 
 To give the world assurance of a man.' 
 
 He was plain, very plain ; but still something -^ 
 perhaps his plain, straightforward modesty and ear- 
 nestness — induced me to assign him a desk in the 
 executive office. In a short time, I found him to be 
 an invaluable assistant in my office and in that of 
 the adjutant-general. He was soon after assigned to 
 the command of the six camps of organization and 
 instruction which I had established in the State. 
 
 "Early in June, 1861,1 telegraphed him at Cov- 
 ington, Ky. (where he had gone on a brief visit 
 to his flither), tendering him the colonelcy of the 
 Twenty-first Regiment of Illinois Infantry, which he 
 promptly accepted ; and on the 15th of June he as- 
 sumed the command. The regiment had become 
 much demoralized from lack of discipline, and conten- 
 tion in regard to promotions. On this account, Col. 
 Grant, being under marching orders, declined railroad 
 transportation, and, for the sake of discipline, marched 
 them on foot toward the scene of operations in Mis- 
 souri ; and in a short time he had his regiment under 
 perfect control." 
 
 Upon reaching this destination, he reported to the 
 brioadier in command, and was ordered to the town 
 of Mexico, some forty miles to the north of the 
 Missouri River, where he reduced his volunteers to 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 101 
 
 slifipe, and taught them the elementary lessons of 
 battalion-drill. Mexico was in what was then called 
 the Western Department of the Army, under the 
 authority of Major-Gen. Fremont, whose extensive 
 command embraced the State of Ilhnois and all of 
 the States and Territories west of the Mississippi 
 River and east of the Rocky Mountains. 
 
 In spite of Grant's limited acquaintance with 
 political leaders, his qualifications for mihtary position 
 had reached the ears of Hon. Elihu B. Washbume, 
 who, for more than twelve years, had represented 
 the Galena district in Congress, but to whom Grant 
 at this time was personally unknown ; and upon his 
 recommendation, with the full approval of the col- 
 leagues whom he consulted. Grant was commissioned 
 by President Lincoln brigadier-general of volunteers. 
 His commission was to bear date from May, 1861 ; 
 and the first intimation or knowledge which Grant 
 received of it was through the daily newspapers. 
 As colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois, Grant had 
 been transferred from Mexico to Ironton and sub- 
 sequently to Jefferson City, ^vith no other militaiy 
 care, thus fiir, than to drill and discipline his o^vn 
 regiment, and to watch the machinations of the JVIis- 
 souri rebels and partisan gatherings, armed and un- 
 armed, in comphcity with treason. 
 
 On the 1st of September, 1861, under orders 
 from Gen. Fremont, he assumed the command of the 
 District of South-east Missouri, with headquarters at 
 Cairo, where the Ohio debouches into the Missis- 
 sippi. Rere his personal responsibility for militcinj 
 operations begins. 
 
102 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 Let the reader now take bis map in hand, and 
 trace out the geographical boundaries of " the dis- 
 trict," as I describe them, and mark with his eye some 
 of the topographical featm^es and prominent points 
 which I shall indicate. 
 
 The district embraces not only the part of Mis- 
 somi from which it takes name, but Southern Il- 
 linois, and the parts of Kentucky and Tennessee 
 of wliich the rebels shall hereafter be dispossessed. 
 The topographical features which I wish to be noted 
 are, that the JVIississippi runs through it ; and that it 
 embraces the junction of the Ohio with the Missis- 
 sippi, and the conjunction of the Tennessee and the 
 Cumberland with the Ohio. The points I would 
 have the reader notice are, that Paducali, on the 
 Ohio, lies directly at the month of the Tennessee ; 
 that Columhus, on the eastern bank of the Missis- 
 sippi, is one northern terminus of the Ohio and 
 Mobile Railroad ; that Hichman, on the same bank, 
 by means of a branch road, is another; that Belmont 
 is on the western banli of the Mississippi, directly 
 opposite to Columbus ; that Island Number Ten lies 
 farther down the Father of Rivers, and controls its 
 channel. 
 
 I must also say one word of the political status 
 of ' the district.' Illinois is loyal. Missouri is torn 
 between two hostile factions, convulsed by fraternal 
 strife and the supremacy of the loyal sentiment is far 
 from being a fact established. Tennessee is domineered 
 by rebel proclivities ; and Kentucky, while professing 
 to be in the Union, is advocating neutrality so decid- 
 edly, and is so imbued with rebel sympathy, that, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 103 
 
 in contemplation of cautious strategy, slie must be 
 regarded as an armed neutral, awaiting the turn of 
 tide against us to become an open enemy. The im- 
 portant posts Paducah, Columbus, Hickman, are all 
 within the State of Kentucky. 
 
 Behold, now, Grant at Cairo, in command, with what 
 I have delineated of his district photographed on his 
 working brain! Behold him! — West-Point educa- 
 tion, war-experience in Mexico, patriotic ardor, force, 
 impetus, fire, all melted and fused by long meditation 
 into one bolt! Behold him foreseeing effects yet 
 unborn and in the womb of their causes ! Behold 
 him — 
 
 " Lord of himself, encumbered by no creed " 
 
 of the non-coercionist, the Fabianist, the political 
 weather-watcher; yearning to do something which 
 shall crush in this district, at least, the new-spawned 
 viper. Kemember, too, that such a man, surcharged 
 with convictions, earnestness, sincerity, is held tightly 
 in leash, like a stag-hound of noble blood, by an 
 over-cautious and pragmatical major-general. It is 
 known that the rebel general, Polk, encouraged by 
 Kentuck}^ neutrality, is even now menacing with a 
 large force the points d'appui on the north-western 
 borders of the district. " What shall be done ?" asks 
 Grant of himself "What shall he do?" I ask of 
 you: "seize Paducah; it commands both the Ten- 
 nessee and the Ohio." 
 
 On the 2d of September, Grant arrived at Cairo ; 
 on the 5th, he heard of Polk's demonstration, and 
 forthwith telegraphed the fact to the Kentucky 
 
.104 LIFE OF GEl^ERAL GEAJ^T. 
 
 legislature, and to his commanding general for iru 
 structions ; saying to the latter, "I am getting ready 
 to start for Paducah ; will start at six and a half 
 o'clock : " and, later in the afternoon, " I am now ready 
 for Paducah, should not telegram arrive preventing 
 the movement." ^ He receives no reply. At early 
 dawn on the morning of the 6th of September, as 
 the rebel general, Tilghman, was drilling recruits in 
 camp at Paducah, he sees the steamer " Mound City " 
 covered with blue-coats, the stars and stripes at the 
 gaff, looming out of the fog which had settled on 
 the Ohio. He abdicates immediately, and hurries 
 off with his volunteers by railroad to the south. 
 Gen. Grant marches a detachment ashore, takes pos- 
 session of the rebel munitions of war, and proclaims, 
 among other things, "I am here to defend you 
 against the enemy, to assist the authority and 
 sovereignty of your government. / have nothing 
 to do with opinions, and shall deal only wdth armed 
 rebellion, and its aiders and abettors. You can 
 pursue your usual avocations without fear. The 
 strong arm of the government is here to protect 
 its friends and punish its enemies. Whenever it is 
 manifest that you are able to defend yourselves, 
 and maintain the authority of the government, 
 and protect the rights of loyal citizens, I shall with- 
 draw the forces under my command." ^ Gen. Grant 
 leaves a garrison at Paducah, and by twelve 
 o'clock is on his return to Cairo, where he finds 
 permission from Fremont " to move on Paducah if 
 
 1 Badeau's Military History of Grant, pp. 11, 12. 
 
 2 Rebellion Record, iii. p. 18. 
 
■^HAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 105 
 
 he fe(^ls strong enough." Having thus, self moved, 
 saved this important point and the free navigation 
 ol the Ohio, a reward of merit forthwith follows : 
 Fremont sends Gen. Smith into " the district " to take 
 command of Paducah, with orders "to report di- 
 rectly to the mc(/or-general ; " and rebukes Grant for 
 communicating with the Kentucky legislature. In 
 addition to the military fruits of this impromptu and 
 self-advised movement, the political results are not 
 to be despised ; for it instantly silences the neutral 
 minstrelsy in Kentucky, and encourages the loyal 
 party there in self-assertion and decision. I cannot 
 pass from it without noting, that, whatever else may 
 be lacking in that plain and reticent man who is 
 stationed at Cairo in command of this district, he 
 has a keen eye, a hand rather prompt in action, and 
 strategical germs in his brain which are somewhat 
 promising. 
 
 But in our survey of Grant's district, next to 
 Paducah, the eye rests on Columbus. Shall the ene- 
 my here bar the Mississippi, menace every position 
 of ours, and hold the terminus of a railroad which 
 passes through the semi-neutral States into the Gulf 
 States, intersecting every communication from here to 
 Mobile Bay ? " No," says Grant. When first ordered 
 to the district, and before he had assumed its command, 
 he urged Fremont, with all his strength, to occupy 
 Columbus and Hickman forthwith, as of vast impor- 
 tance, not only from their relation to Cairo and St. 
 Louis, but to the whole Southern Confederacy. The 
 major-general, however, was too much occupied with 
 his " body-guard," and the fascinating ceremonials of 
 
106 LIFE OF GENERAL GEAXT. 
 
 his position, to heed the advice. Before Grant ia 
 three days at Cairo, he learns, to his disgust, that both 
 Hickman and Columbus are occupied by the columns 
 of Polk. Unable to rest quietly under such a disaster, 
 ■within four days after his return from Paducah he 
 earnestly entreats permission from his commanding 
 general to drive the enemy from these towns ; but 
 no reply is vouchsafed to this request, or to any other 
 application to make movements aggressive. It is per- 
 fectly apparent that the superior intends to hold his 
 subordinate in hand, and that Grant continually 
 chafes at the bit ; but he does not fret himself into a 
 "useless heat. With his wonted composure, he adapts 
 himself to circumstances, and absorbs his mind in 
 securing, beyond peradventure, the region which 
 holds the confluence of four important rivers, from 
 any hostile enterprise. He devotes himself also to 
 organizing the volunteers at Cairo — now amounting 
 to twenty thousand.men — into brigades and divisions : 
 he teaches these heavy organizations to form line of 
 battle and to change front. These complicated ma- 
 noeuvres had been mastered but by few officers east 
 or west ; and Grant's own proficiency in them was 
 entirely due to the Mexican War. 
 
 By the first of November, it became apparent to 
 Fremont that Columbus was the fruitful source of 
 disquietude to his entire department ; and his percep- 
 tion of this truth is wonderfully quickened by the 
 fact, that it is now pouring re-enforcements into the 
 army of Price, who is confronting him in South- 
 eastern Missouri. He at length gives permission to 
 Grant to demonstrate against it. Grant immediately 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAP. ? 107 
 
 moves dovrn the river with four reo'iments of infan- 
 try, a section of artillery, a squadron of cavalry, — 
 twenty -eight hundred men in all. His object is 
 threefold, — a reconnoissance in force, a check to re- 
 enforcements, and a trial of the mettle of his raw 
 volunteers. He debarks his troops at Hunter's Point, 
 on the Missouri shore.^ 
 
 It is just daylight. He stations a battalion at some 
 distance as a reserve, and also as guard to the trans- 
 ports; and with the remainder of his command 
 advances a mile towards Belmont, where he suddenly 
 finds himself confronting a fortified camp of the ene- 
 my. What was intended for a demonstration, now 
 became an ensrag-ement. The blood of the men and 
 the ofiicers is up ; and although it is clear, that, if Bel- 
 mont is carried, it cannot be held for an instant, for 
 it is under the guns of Columbus, yet to have 
 declined an engagement would have demoralized 
 the men, and have impaired all confidence in their 
 commander. No : the time has come ; the hour is at 
 hand. For the first time, the volunteers form battle- 
 line in presence of the foe. The troops are firm but 
 all untried ; the men charged with pluck, but wild 
 as the wild ass's wildest colt; the officers are full 
 grown and stalwart in determination, but mere suck- 
 lings at the breast in war. McClernand is here to join 
 in a high debate undreamed of by the bar and hust- 
 ings ; Dougherty is here, fresh from the stump and 
 the barbecue, skilled only to lead a political Israel ; 
 Rawlins is here on the staff" of Grant, yet to serve 
 by his side in blasts to which this before him is as 
 
 1 Nov. 8, 1861. 
 
108 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the zephyr's breath to the tempest's roar, unconscious 
 now that this Belmont acorn shall branch at Vicks- 
 burg, and overshadow the Wilderness ; Logan is here, 
 his dark eye yielding fire, his swart face of more than 
 Italian beauty lighted, as it were, by a slant beam 
 from full-orbed, but yet unrisen victories. 
 
 Grant advances with the skirmishers to reconnoitre, 
 and to feel the enemy. He finds the country dotted 
 with the gnarled survivors of a forest, laid low by 
 the wear of ao-es and the more devourinii^ axe of the 
 pioneer ; and in his front one of those sloughs of de- 
 spond which cools the ardor of an excited line yearning 
 to move forward. Behind both is the enemy, neatly 
 alligned, with artillery lowering from his centre, and 
 protected by an abatis formed of the flillen mon- 
 archs of the wood ; and beyond, towering above the 
 bristling fence-work of melancholy gray, the stream- 
 ers and white minarets of the tented city; and far 
 below, seated on the mighty river, Belmont, and the 
 picturesque colonnades of the three-decked steamers ; 
 while, from the opposite bank, Columbus the Titan 
 overlooks the scene. The problem is a simple one. 
 " I must search for an opening," he says, " between 
 those sloughs, and disperse that array in front of the 
 camp." He returns to his own battle-line, and gives 
 the order to advance over the only solid approach 
 which can be found. Def)loying through this open- 
 ing, or floundering through the mire and struggling 
 with the underbrush, our battle-line steadily advances, 
 received at every step by volleys of musketry, and 
 by artillery too (for six pieces of cannon are bearing 
 on it), gallantly led by their officers: for Grant is 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL -WAll ? 109 
 
 always up with the foremost skirmishers ; and 
 McClernand and Dougherty and Logan, in advance 
 of their regiments, leading on with gesticulating 
 sword, and with appeal and exhortation, as was their 
 wont when the breastworks of the opposition were 
 to be stormed, and a hotly-contested election triumph- 
 antly carried. With much toil, with great constancj", 
 with a vast expenditure of oratorical breath, through 
 marsh, brake, brier, bullets, grape and canister, these 
 untried freemen of Illinois and Iowa charge the 
 abatis, carry the fortified camp, capture the artillery, 
 and drive the enemy to the landing below the crest. 
 Now the wildness of the troops and the verdancy of 
 the officers were conspicuously exhibited : the election 
 has been won, and an oration, of course, must ensue. 
 They are disorganized by victory. Even Badeau, in 
 his cautious and unemotional pages, asserts, " that 
 instead of pursuing the enemy, as he huddled and 
 crouched under the river's bank, they set about plun- 
 dering ; while their colonels, equally raw, shouted, and 
 made stump-speeches for the Union." Meanwhile 
 the man not particularly given to windy eloquence 
 perceives that steamers are plying between Columbus 
 and Belmont, with their triple decks crowded with 
 re-enforcing gray-jackets; and he becomes anxious to 
 return to Hunter's Point before the enemy imperti- 
 nently obtrudes upon this grand celebration. He 
 wedges his steed into the thick of the crowd, and by 
 dint of W'ill tears it asunder. He speaks in sharp, 
 curt phrase to of&cers and men, calling them by name. 
 He sets fire to the enemy's camp, the chief source of 
 this frantic inspiration, and dragoons the men into 
 
110 LIFE OF GENERAL GEAKT. 
 
 their ranks. Columbus now begins to shower shot 
 upon the ardor of tlie rejoicing crowd ; and the neces- 
 sity of discipline, and the safety there is in the serried 
 rank, becomes apparent even to the most jubilant 
 soldier. The regiments now form with alacrity, and 
 commence their return-march to the transports. 
 
 The disorsranized forces which had been hurled over 
 the crest, finding that no notice was taken of them 
 gradually formed themselves in soldierly array, and, 
 augmented by three regiments which the steamboats 
 had passed over from Columbus, were now creeping 
 along under the bank, to interpose between our troops 
 and the transports. Emerging from the trees and 
 imderbrush. Grant finds the discomfited foe again in 
 line of battle between him and Hunter's Point. The 
 troops, so ready for premature exultation, are now 
 as unnecessarily depressed, exclaiming, " We are sur- 
 rounded ! " and presuming that the sole resource is 
 surrender. It was not so with him in command. He 
 storms through the ranks, and, on a fit occasion for the 
 exercise of tongue-power, uses it with a vengeance ; 
 pealing from his merciless lips orders and imprecation 
 joined, " Charge them, boys ! we have thrashed the 
 rascals once, and can do it again." The coolness and 
 determination of the leader inspires every man in the 
 ranks with his own contempt of death ; and the waver- 
 ing line stiffens once more, and charges again with 
 redoubled impetus the outnumbering foe, which in 
 this second assault, unprotected by abatis, easily yields 
 to the steady and vigorous pressure of our re-animat- 
 ed men. For the second time, his line is broken, his 
 troops dispersed ; again he is driven in confusion over 
 
WHAT DID HE DO tSf THE CITIL WAR ? Ill 
 
 the crest, and to the river-bank. The gunboats par- 
 ticipate in the affair, and contribute to its success. 
 Grant perceives that the three-deckers are still busy 
 in crowding re-enforcements upon this bank, and that 
 there is every prospect that the enemy will rally for 
 a third attack, and therefore pushes on to the point. 
 He orders the troops to re-embark, throwing out at 
 the same time a detachment to gather up and bring 
 in the wounded, personally supervising, and aiding 
 with bis own hands, the men in this merely mechani- 
 cal em plo^'ment, passing constantly between the trans- 
 ports and the scene of the last struggle, — the incarna- 
 tion of mind brought to bear on battle. Having seen 
 the main body aboard, Grant, accompanied by a single 
 staff* officer, hastened to order in the battalion which 
 had been stationed as a reserve, and which he pre- 
 sumed to be now covering the company in the field 
 which was collecting the wounded, when he found that 
 oven these troops, participating in the general inex 
 perience, had withdrawn to the boats, without orders, 
 although they were under the protection of the con- 
 voy. Casting his eye around, he sees that the foe — 
 ao-ain rallied — is extendins: his left with the intent 
 of cutting off" the transports. Polk, with a large force, 
 is between Grant and his brigade, and is now pelting 
 with slaughtering fire the blue mass of sentient beings 
 on the steamers, — their easy target. The detachment 
 in search of the wounded, and the main body, cannot 
 both be saved ; and Grant was driven to a compromise. 
 He turns slowly, and rides unostentatiously tow^ards 
 the landing, that he may not attract rebel civilities : 
 as he approaches, he touches w^th the rowel the flank 
 
112 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of his roan, which, shdmg down the bank on its 
 haunches, as if conscious of its master's peril, trots 
 with sure foot over the gangway plank, just as it is 
 being; hauled in to move the crowded steamers out of 
 range of the rebel musketry. The gunboats now 
 steam to the rescue, taking position at the distance of 
 sixty yards from the rebel columns, and, bringing 
 their guns to bear, load the fields with swaths and 
 windrows of corpses and wounded men. 
 
 Stripped of rhetoric and romance, of the mythical 
 adventures of its unfledged heroes, of the animated 
 dialoo-ue with which sensation writers have invested 
 it, this was the whole of the battle of Belmont. I 
 give the casualties, and the numbers engaged, in a 
 note.^ Criticism assailed it at the time on the false 
 assumption that Grant intended to effect a perma- 
 nent lodgement at Belmont, and was defeated in the 
 undertaking. He would have hardly attempted such 
 a project, in the fixce of Columbus, with his twenty- 
 eight hundred men ; and it will require some impu- 
 dence to revamp this cavil now, when the orders 
 under which he acted are spread upon the record, 
 and clearly show the restricted purposes of the expe- 
 
 1 "At Belmont, Grant lost four liundred and eighty-five men in killed, 
 wounded, and missing. A hundred and twenty -five of his wounded fell into 
 the hands of the rebels. He carried oflT a hundred and seventy-five prisoners 
 and two guns, and spiked four other pieces ; three of these last were left 
 behind, beeausc drawn by hand ; and the other had an inefficient team. About 
 seven thousand rebels were engaged ; and Polk sustained a loss of six hundred 
 and forty-two men. By their own showing, the rebels had twice as many 
 troops as Grant, and lost one-third more. If any re-enforcements were to be 
 sent to Price, they were by this operation detained ; ■ and the movement of 
 Oglesby was entirely protected. The enemy also remained concentrated there- 
 after at Columbus, lest another and more serious attack should follow." — 
 Badeau's Military Histori/ of Grant. 
 
"WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 113 
 
 dition. Upon this ground, too, the rebels gazetted it 
 as one of their triumphs. The assumption is hardly 
 vindicated by their overwhelming superiority in 
 force, and by what Gen. Scott was in the habit of 
 calling the '• butcher's bill " at the foot of the page, 
 and in the face, too, of the demonstrated objects of 
 the expedition. The simple truth is, that its three- 
 fold aim was more than secured. As a reconnois- 
 sance, it disclosed that the enemy had erected river- 
 batteries at Columbus, and occupied Belmont ; as a 
 demonstration, it prevented re-enforcements from 
 being sent to Price, for Polk forthwith concentrated 
 upon Columbus, in daily expectation of a more 
 serious attack ; as a test of the troops under fire, it 
 surpassed expectations, for it taught them that nothing 
 was wanting but experience to make them as stanch 
 before the foe as Caesar's Tenth Legion, or Napoleon's 
 Old Guard. Moreover, as a lesson to Grant, it con- 
 firmed him in a maxim which became a living* force 
 during the rest of the war, and an essential part of 
 his lighting system, — " When both parties are undis- 
 ciplined, nothing is gained by a procrastinating drill, 
 because the enemy improves as fast as yourself, and 
 the manifold advantages of promptness are sacri- 
 ficed." I have seen a letter from Grant to his father, 
 penned shortly after the battle of Belmont, which 
 breathes the full spirit of Napoleon's noble utter- 
 ance, — " When soldiers have been baptized in the 
 battle-fire, they have all one rank in my eyes." 
 
 I have detailed only the operations in this district 
 which Gen. Grant himself initiated and executed. 
 The affair which I have just recounted was the last 
 
 8 
 
114 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 enterprise in which he was permitted to engage while 
 under the command of Gen. Fremont. Before con- 
 chiding this page of his biography, I have nothing to 
 add but the views which he expressed, when Gen. 
 Polk solicited an exchange of prisoners ; showing sig- 
 nally, that even at this early period, wdien the im- 
 plied recognition of belligerent rights, disguised in 
 such an overture, was not as clear to many shrewd 
 statesmen as it is at present, that Gen. Grant was 
 not to be entrapped into any subtle, metaphysical 
 net. lie declined the offer peremptorily, saying, " I 
 recognize no Southern Confederacy myself, but will 
 communicate with higher authorities for their views. 
 Should I not be sustained, I will find means of com- 
 municating with you." 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 HE BREAKS THE ENEMY'S CENTRE AT FORTS HENRY AND DONELSON. 
 [February, March, April, 1862.] 
 
 WE speedily enter upon a field of operations 
 larger in their sweep, of greater magnitude, 
 and more complicated in their varied relations, than 
 the narrow limits of the South-Eastern District of 
 Missouri will tolerate. I think that it must be ad- 
 mitted, that, thus far. Grant has brought some mind 
 to bear on war ; that he has infused some energy into 
 the service ; and that he has administered the military 
 affairs under his charge with a single eye to the good 
 of the cause, and with all the vigor which was permit- 
 ted him by his superior. It will be soon seen that 
 one act which he performed without authority con- 
 tributed largely to the first effectual blow which trea- 
 son received. 
 
 Two days after the affair at Belmont, Fremont was 
 superseded by Major-Gen. Henry W. Halleck. Some 
 changes were forthwith made in the boundaries of 
 the Western Military Department, with which this 
 biography is no further concerned than to note 
 that the jurisdiction of Halleck covers the part of 
 Kentucky west of the Cumberland ; while the part 
 of the same State east of the same river, with all of 
 Tennessee, is apportioned to the Department of Ohio, 
 
 115 
 
116 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 whicli was assigned to Brig.-Gen. Don Carlos Buell, 
 whose headquarters were at Louisville. I call atten- 
 tion to this partition of authority, because some of 
 Grant's prospective movements will carry him into 
 both of these departments. 
 
 I am obliged to say that the change of command 
 over Grant brou2;ht no changre in the unad venture us 
 system which previously prevailed in the Western 
 Department. The new commander was no more en- 
 terprising than Fremont; as much of a martinet, but 
 less of a military fop ; and persisted, like the old, in 
 the dilettante style, of dictating from the study the 
 operations of the field. Neither of them had a very 
 lively perception that this state of things under their 
 eyes was w\ar j and they had as little sympathy with 
 the temper of volunteers as if they had been born on 
 the steps of a throne, and inherited command as a 
 birthright. 
 
 Grant is still a subordinate officer merely, and can 
 only be held responsible for operations which were 
 adopted upon his suggestion, and for his mode of 
 executing the orders of his superiors. 
 
 I do not, of course, intend to intimate by this dis- 
 tinction that he is not amenable to all the articles of 
 war, and to the rules and regulations of the War De- 
 partment. I should also notice in this connection 
 that the naval service in the West, which was fast 
 rising into importance by the introduction of armored 
 vessels of light draught, which could navigate all the 
 channels and sweep all the alluvial shores, was, for 
 the purpose of securing more harmonious co-opera- 
 tion with the army, placed under the control of Hal- 
 leek. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAE ? 117 
 
 The new general confirms Grant in liis command, 
 but denominates it the District of Cairo, and disposes 
 of the conflict of authority by a special order annex- 
 ing Paducah. Grant immediately improves the an- 
 nexation by seizing Smithlands, at the mouth of the 
 Cumberland, on the Kentucky side. It clearly inti- 
 mates what is revolvinL? in his mind. 
 
 I have already said, that, from the start, Grant 
 yearns to do something; to strike stunning blows 
 and repeat, before rebeUion is resalient from the 
 shock. 
 
 It will soon appear that he was a minute-man 
 also, ready to march at the word ; and in this respect 
 a most signal exception to the dilatory generals who 
 ruled the hour. For the first two months under Hal- 
 leck, he is again kept at organization and drill ; and 
 how repulsive it is to his spirit you can learn from 
 his maxim, " No procrastinating drill when both bel- 
 ligerents are undisciplined." It was the era of everlast- 
 ing preparation, unending delays, wearisome to every 
 ardent soldier, and rasping to the public mind. " Do 
 nothing " was a power in the State under McClellan 
 the Unready. The roads of Virginia were impassable 
 to every thing, save rebel columns ; there were no 
 shoes, except on the feet of ubiquitous guerrillas ; no 
 transportation, save in the lively armies of Lee and 
 Johnson. McClellan was drilling^ around Washing-- 
 ton; Halleck was drilling around St. Louis; Buell at 
 Louisville ; and the man " who won battles in his head 
 before he won them in the field," — the man of all 
 others best fitted to educate the War Department in 
 the business of carr3'ing on war, — shut out from 
 
118 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 its councils, was drilling at Cairo ; everybody from 
 Dan to Beersheba was kept upon the drill. The exas- 
 peration of the nation at this protracted inactivity 
 in the field was only held from defiant uproar by 
 the confident assurance of Sir Oracle, " An astound- 
 ing stroke of strategy is coming, which will demolish 
 rebellion in an instant." The Republic seems to be 
 in the hands of men drowned in details, whose 
 heads were a mile from their hands; too cautious 
 themselves to move on the enemy's works, too head- 
 stronoi: to let their subordinates move. 
 
 Columbus, to which attention has been frequently 
 called, had now become a stronghold, garnished with 
 one hundred and forty guns, planted on the Father 
 of Waters, and styled impregnable. It absolutely 
 commands the Mississippi River, — God's own mag- 
 nificent road-o-ift to the nation. Behind its defences 
 lies an army of upwards of twenty thousand men, 
 which covers, as with wings, every trembling hamlet 
 in this quarter of the Confederacy. Columbus, on 
 the Mississippi, is the extreme and apparently invin- 
 cible left of the enemy's gigantic line of jDOsts, the 
 extreme right of which must be looked for some hun- 
 dred miles to the east at Bowling Green, on the Big 
 Barren River in Kentucky. Here w\as the army of 
 Johnston, second to none in the service of treason. 
 Here was the intersection of the great lines of rail- 
 road communication, reaching from Richmond to New 
 Orleans, penetrating every portion of the rebel do- 
 main, ramifying throughout Kentucky and Tennes- 
 see, — the heart, in fact, which made itself felt on every 
 acre of the Confederacy from centre to circumference. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 110 
 
 By command of these interior arteries and veins of 
 transportation, Johnston could impetuously throw his 
 myrmidons in every direction, to Richmond, before 
 McClellan could crawl to Yorktown ; to Baton Rouge, 
 almost as soon as w^e could reach it from New Or- 
 leans ; and to every intermediate post which needed 
 re-enforcement : and thus Bowling Green was at this 
 juncture an omnipresent power, clothed in terror, 
 and ridino; on the wino-s of the wind. Still farther to 
 the rio;ht of Bowlino; Green, in a mountain reg^ion 
 almost resistless in itself, was another strong army 
 under Zollicoffer, hovering over the entire region be- 
 tween Johnston's right and the western acclivity of 
 the Allearhanies. Thus one hand of Rebellion is 
 on the mountain, and the other on the Mississippi. 
 Conceive, then, a Ime one hundred and fifty miles in 
 length, resting upon the Alleghanies, extending to 
 Bowling Green, to Nashville, to Elkton, to Forts 
 Henry and Donelson, and reposing, finally, on the 
 unassailable works of Columbus ; and you will have 
 a faint idea of that stupendous range of barriers 
 which guards the northern approach to the semi- 
 neutral States. Conceive this chain of posts, an actual, 
 impenetrable, living line of armed men, and you will 
 have a vague impression of its wonderful adaptation 
 to all the purposes of war, — to assault and to de- 
 fence, to the invasion of the border, and to the pro- 
 tection of the cotton. States. 
 
 I have described, in some detail, the extremities of 
 this immense breastwork. I must now call particu- 
 lar attention to its centre. The sole natural avenue 
 of an invading army from the North into Tennessee 
 
120 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 and Kentucky, for which both belligerents are now 
 struggling, was by means of two navigable rivers, the 
 Tennessee and the Cumberland; the former intersect- 
 ing both States, and the latter penetrating both as 
 far as Nashville. As if physical geography was in com- 
 plicity with the rebel, and aiding his causes, their 
 channels converge within twelve miles of each other, 
 near the geographical centre of the two States, and 
 near the middle of the line of defence with which I 
 am now chiefly concerned. Here, at the nearest 
 points of approximation, military science has stationed 
 Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, and Fort Henry 
 on the Tennessee, strong as the genius and resources 
 of the engineer can make them, and mounted with 
 the best ordnance in the world. That I may not 
 seem to exaggerate the importance, in a military as- 
 pect, of this narrow tongue of land between these 
 converging channels, nor the strength of the sentinels 
 which had been detailed to defend it, I wish to qnote 
 from the most reliable authority npon Gen. Grant's 
 campaigns. 
 
 " Fort Henry on the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson 
 on the Cumberland, completely commanded the navi- 
 gation, and stood like great barred gateways against 
 any advance of the national armies. Their sites had 
 been selected with care ; they had been elaborately 
 fortified ; and large garrisons were stationed to defend 
 them. They covered the great railroad line of com- 
 munication from east to west, through the border 
 States; and their possession determined the fate of 
 Kentucky and Tennessee."^ 
 
 1 Badcau, p. 23. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 121 
 
 The transcendent importance of breaking this Hne 
 was recognized by the inveterate do-nothings at 
 Washington ; and various schemes for accomplishing 
 it are dreamily meandering through their dazod and 
 b<iwildered brains. McClellan was impressed with 
 the idea of attacking it in East Tennessee ; Buell was 
 aiming to cut it at Nashville, " because it is unfor- 
 tified ; " and orders issued by Halleck to Grant indi- 
 cate an inchoate attempt to storm it at Columbus: 
 but, if any systematized method was matured of de- 
 crepitating it from end to end by battering down the 
 keystone, it remains hidden in the archives of the 
 Depaitment. Now, what military officer first pro- 
 pounded the plan to charge, McDonald like, through 
 the centre, turn both wings, and crackle into atoms 
 this obdurate breakwater ai^ainst the inflowino; tides 
 of Northern loyalty ? I answer, Ulysses S. Grant; and 
 I pronounce it the grandest strategical idea which the 
 war had yet brought forth. 
 
 Forecasting early that the mouths of the Tennes- 
 see and Cumberland were, in some way, vital to the 
 rebellion-problem, he had seized the one at Paducah, 
 and the other at Smithlands. On the Gth of Janu- 
 ary, ] 8G2, he telegraphed to Halleck for permission 
 to visit headquarters, and submit to him a project for 
 capturing and holding Forts Henry and Donelson. 
 Receivings no answer, he repeated the request on the 
 20th. On the 22d, he started for Halleck's office, 
 eager to seize all chances for the national glory 
 and welfare ; and having reached it on the 23d. 
 spread before him the details of a combined army 
 and navy movement for breaking down the " barred 
 
122 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 gateway " between the Tennessee and the Cumber- 
 land. 
 
 '• Warfare is so anxious and complex a business, that, 
 against every vigorous movement, heaps of reasons 
 can forever be found ; and if a man is so cold a lover 
 of battle as to have no stronger guide than the poor 
 balance and counter-balance of the arguments and 
 counter-arguments which he addresses to his troubled 
 spiiit, his mind, driven first one way and then anoth- 
 er, will oscillate, or even revoke ; turning miserably 
 on its own axis, and making no movement straight 
 forward." ^ Such was Ilalleck's temper when Grant 
 submitted his proposal. "No reasons" in favor of 
 such a " complex business " as storming two forts 
 could move this "cold lover of battle." He finds 
 "ar^cument and counter-arorument" a2;ainst the "vis;- 
 orous movement" proposed, and silences the projector 
 "so quickly and sharply, that Grant said no more on 
 the matter, and went back to Cairo with the idea that 
 his commander thought him guilty of a great mili- 
 tary blunder." ~ But the idea will not down at his 
 bidding : it is rolling through his mind by night, and 
 growing as it rolls ; gathering round it the mighty 
 consequences dormant in its success. As Ilalleck's 
 sneers were chiefly directed against the magnitude 
 of the undertaking, he once more temptingly pre- 
 sents the bait, piecemeal, telegraphing him, on the 8th 
 of January, " With permission, I will take and hold 
 Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, and establish and hold 
 a large camp there." To make assurance doubly 
 sure, he backs up his telegram with a letter by next 
 
 1 KingsLikc's Crimean War, p. 525. 2 Badeau, p. 26. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIA'IL WAR ? 12;{ 
 
 day's mail, in which he says, " In view of the large 
 force now concentrating in this district, and the pres- 
 ent feasibility of the plan, I would respectfully sug- 
 gest the propriety of reducing Fort Henry, near the 
 Kentucky and Tennessee line, and holding the posi- 
 tion. If this is not done soon, there is but little doubt 
 that the defences both on the Tennessee and Cum- 
 berland Rivers will be materially strengthened. From 
 Fort Henry it will be easy to operate either on the 
 Cumberland (only twelve miles distant), Memphis, or 
 Columbus. It will, besides, have a moral effect upon 
 our troops to advance thence towards the rebel States. 
 The advantages of this move are as perceptible io 
 the general commanding as to myself: therefore fur- 
 ther statements are unnecessary." ^ 
 
 There was one stout old sailor and patriot who be- 
 lieved that the Rebellion was to be crushed rather by 
 earnest fighting than by political legerdemain. Grant 
 contrives to magnetize Admiral Foote with the 
 grandeur and practicability of his ideas ; and the ad- 
 miral unites with him in begging Halleck to permit 
 ^•Commanding General Grant and myself " to carry 
 and permanently occupy Fort Henry on the Tennes- 
 see; until, finally, the major-general's mind "ceases to 
 oscillate," "revoke," "turn miserably on its own 
 axis;" and his perturbed spirit finds repose by giving 
 the reluctant order, " Forward, Foote and Grant ! " 
 
 I said, half a dozen pages back, that Grant was 
 alwaj^s yearning " to do something," and also that he 
 "was a minute-man." I have proved, I think, the 
 first of these assertions : I will now prove the second. 
 
 1 Badeau, p. 27. 
 
124 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 On the 30th of January, Ilalleck gave permission 
 to attack the forts, and sent detailed instructions. 
 On the 1st of February, Grant received them ; on the 
 2d, he started from Cairo with seventeen thousand 
 men in transports ; on the 4th, he began debarkation 
 at Bailey's Ferry, three miles below Fort Henry ; and 
 b}^ eleven o'clock, on the night of the 5th, the landing 
 of his troops was completed. 
 
 On the niornino: of the 6th, the man who orio-i- 
 nated this great enterprise begins to translate his brave 
 thoughts into braver deeds. The Tennessee, upon its 
 nearest approach here to its sister stream, deflects 
 suddenly to the west, as if it is spreading an arm 
 to embrace her; and in the semicircle thus formed 
 is seated Fort Henry, holding in the grasp of a rak- 
 ing fire the channel below it, which, by this felicity 
 of position, is obliged to run perpendicular to its 
 river faces and ano;les. It is a full-bastioned field- 
 work, presenting to the channel twelve guns admir- 
 ably placed for the disturbance of an advancing fleet. 
 On a commanding eminence, about a mile from the 
 fort, was a fortified camp of the enemy, strong in nat- 
 ural position, and protected by embankments and 
 abatis, connected with rifle-pits at the prolongations 
 of the principal front. No prudent assailant can af- 
 ford to neglect these outposts; for they control the 
 road to Donelson by which re-enforcements may be 
 sent. The approaches, moreover, both to the camp 
 and the fort, are further embarrassed by creeks, which, 
 in this season of freshet, would alone almost forbid 
 an infantry attack. On the western bank of the 
 Tennessee, and diagonally opposite to Fort Henry, is 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 125 
 
 an auxiliary redan, called Fort Hieman, upon the sum- 
 mit of a bluff oveiiookino: all the defences on the 
 eastern side of the river. 
 
 These formidable works are garrisoned by twenty- 
 eight hundred men, commanded by the same Gen. 
 Tilghman who presented to Grant, at Paducah, the 
 same view which Broarlio and Soubise did to the re- 
 juicing Frederick at Rosbach. There was every rea- 
 son to anticipate a persistent and protracted resist- 
 ance at this very threshold of Grant's adventure. 
 One element essential to his success in the present 
 undertaking is, that these works shall be carried at 
 once as the base of ulterior operations ; for, so long 
 as he remains in the open field, he is liable at any 
 moment to be overwhelmed, either from Columbus, 
 Donelson, or Bowling Green. The gunboats are here 
 to co-operate, and a sudden dash is their law of action. 
 Another essential element is, that the works I have 
 delineated must be completely invested ; for they are 
 too strong to bo carried by a coup, de main, and the 
 issues at stake are too momentous to warrant any de- 
 parture from the most guarded mode of procedure.^ 
 Thus one element is clamorous for despatch ; the 
 other for delay. Grant therefore wisely determines 
 upon an immediate attack, with as perfect an invest- 
 ment as time will permit. Accordingly, on the night 
 of the 5th, Smith's brigade is thrown over the river 
 to invest Fort Heiman ; and McClernand's columns 
 are ordered to move on the morning of the 6th, and 
 occupy the road to Donelson and Dover. 
 
 1 I see by Halleck's instructions that Grant was ordered "fully to invest" 
 Fort Henry. 
 
126 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Let me now, for a moment, glance at the task im- 
 posed upon Foote, and the implements with which 
 he is furnished to accomplish it. He confronts twelve 
 pieces of rifled cannon, charged with those modern 
 projectiles which, if they can but pierce a ship's side, 
 instantly convert it either into tinder-box or steam- 
 chest. He has with him seven vessels in all ; but only 
 four of them can presume to face artillery which 
 deals in explosive shells. The Essex, Carondelet, 
 Cincinnati, and St. Louis are iron -plated on their 
 bows alone ; and each of them, of course, in paying 
 her respects to the enemy, must ride head to the 
 fort, and use only her single bow-gun, without any 
 assistance from her broadsides. It is therefore twelve 
 guns afloat against twelve guns ashore. The wooden 
 walls of the Conestoga, Tyler, and Lexington are 
 mere egg-shells in such an affray. 
 
 As Foote faces his antagonist, he perceives that 
 Panther Island, which is heavily wooded, divides the 
 river into two streams, and that the channel on his 
 left is impassable at low water, but now, at its flood, 
 that his vessels can easily ride it. The channel at 
 the right is the main one, which the fort's batteries 
 were more particularly designed to sweep. The island 
 is but a mile and a half from the fort ; and, with the 
 excejotion of the protection which it may afford, he 
 will be, for nearly three miles, in the full play of a 
 devastating fire. 
 
 After this survey, he self-communed thus : " I will 
 steer by the left channel, because it is the least ex- 
 posed ; I will ride head to the fort, because I am iron- 
 plated only on my prows ; I will move with my iron- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 127 
 
 clads abreast, because I can thus most effectually 
 employ my twelve bow-guns ; I will order my three 
 wooden ships to keep astern, under cover of the iron- 
 clads, to hug the shore for additional shelter, and 
 to shower the enemy's parapet with shrapnel and 
 grape." In conformity with these conclusions, his 
 orders are issued, and his dispositions made ; and 
 having flicetiously urged Gen. Grant to hurry up his 
 blue-coats, saying, "I shall capture the fort before 
 your land-lubbers reach it," he goes aboard the flag- 
 ship, and awaits the signal to move. Smith's brigade 
 is already in position; and, as the gunboats lift 
 anchor, McClernand's columns, to the enlivening airs 
 of their bands, step cheerfully forward. 
 
 Foote cautiously feels his way through the shallow 
 channel at the left of the island, and soon emerires 
 into the open river at the head of it, in unobstructed 
 range of Henry, a mile and a quarter on the port- 
 bow. Here the St. Louis, Cincinnati, Carondelet, 
 Essex, deploy into line in the order which I have 
 named them, from the right to the left. The wooden 
 boats, far abaft, seek every shelter which the nature 
 of the bank affords. Steadily abreast, the sturdy flo- 
 tilla advances slowly, that they may not outmarch 
 the columns of McClernand. When at a distance 
 of seventeen hundred yards, there is thunder in the 
 mountains: for the St. Louis, Cincinnati, and Ca- 
 rondelet are hurling at the fort heavy shell from their 
 eight-inch Dahlgrens; while an eighty-pound shell 
 shrieks from the pivoted monster on the St. Louis; 
 and the Lexington, Tyler, and Conestoga, from a 
 secure position, are sprinkling the battlements with 
 
128 LIFE OF GENERAL GF^AjSTT. 
 
 an iron hail, small but penetrating. The rebels are 
 not slow in responding ; and compliments are rapidly 
 interchanged between fort and fleet as the firing 
 becomes general. Disorder soon appears in the rebel 
 camp outside, quite surprising to the naval officers, 
 who had anticipated steadier nerves. At the first 
 salute of the Cincinnati, a profound sensation is 
 produced ; but, at the fourth round, a motley and 
 panic-struck rabble pour out of the intrenchments, on 
 their way to Donelson. A portion of them, blind with 
 frenzy, seize a steamboat lying in the creek, and rush 
 down the river, into the very teeth of the fleet. A 
 eingle broadside would have sunk tbem; but Foote 
 f corns such victims : he was one of those commanders 
 who do not, in the battle, forget the campaign ; he is 
 after the fort. 
 
 The troops of McClernand, which were sent on their 
 way to cut off a retreat to Donelson, held back by 
 the freshet-swollen creeks ; by the roads, which were 
 mortar-beds ; by the clay soil of the bottoms, soaked 
 both by torrents of rain and inundation, and adhesive 
 as shoemaker's wax, — had not half reached their point 
 of destination, when the first boom of the Cincinnati 
 startles them into a half-halt, only to spring forward 
 "double-quick," galvanized by the cheering sound. 
 It is the longest road they ever travelled. The detour 
 through the wood which they make, the creeks which 
 they ford, the muddy swamps they wallow through, 
 the slippery hills which they surmount, bring them 
 no nearer to the fort ; and they vow it recedes like a 
 will-o'-the-wisp. The four boats abreast falter not, 
 but advance within six hundred yards, where they 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 120 
 
 can see the smoke as it belches from the enemy's 
 muzzles, mark the gunner as he pulls the cock, and 
 the sand-bags and gabions knocked about by their 
 own fire. It was here that a twenty-four-pound shot 
 found a penetrable spot on the port-bow of the Essex, 
 and crashed through the heavy oak-casings into her 
 middle boiler. With the hiss of a loosened fiend, the 
 scalding steam displaces the harmless and impalpable 
 breath of heaven ; boiling water deluges the shrieking 
 tars, appalled by this new and frightful enemy. 
 Twenty-eight of the crew are boiled to the bone ; and 
 you may see, until to-day, the impress of the blister- 
 ing vapor on the manly free of Porter the command- 
 er. The Essex drops down the stream disabled, like 
 a spent steed struggling homeward; but, unmoved 
 by the terrible fate of their consort, the three surviv- 
 ors move steadily on, " head to the fort." Porter has 
 gone ; but Foote is still left, and Walke, Stemble, Pauld- 
 ing ; scores, too, of unchronicled and nameless he- 
 roes, — the grim gunner at the bows ; the smutched 
 powder-monkey in the magazines ; the ruddy stoker 
 and firemen in the sweltering hold ; the pilots, who, 
 with eye clear and arm steady, aim these arsenals of 
 wrath ; and hundreds of other men without a name, 
 faithful all to country, as if they were not to be soon 
 forgotten and despised, — each armed hand a legion. 
 
 "No thou^'ht of flight, 
 None of retreat ; no unbecoming deed 
 That argued fear : each on himself relied 
 As only in his arm the moment lay 
 Of victory." 
 
 The sprightly fire which this disaster evokes from 
 
130 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 the rebel batteries, and the heavy shot which now 
 frequently strike the plated pilot-houses, hardly sur- 
 prise the commodore and the pilots " into a grunt," 
 as one writer describes it. Not an inch does either 
 boat deflect from the target which all now most assidu- 
 ously address, until, at shorter range, they tear up 
 the embankment, dismantle the barbette guns, knock 
 all embrasures into one, and annihilate the cannoneers. 
 The rifled gun of the fort bursts; an eighty-pound 
 shell from the St. Louis dismounts another, kilUng 
 every gunner that served it; while the missiles from 
 the fort rebound from the iron prows like pepper- 
 corns. Such close quarters were not dreamed of in 
 Tilghman's philosophy ; and when the admiral, with 
 his invulnerable bows, runs in close enough to board 
 him, his slackening fire betrays that oscillation of 
 mind which precedes surrender. Within an hour and 
 twelve minutes from the first gun, the rebel flag is 
 down. 
 
 Neither commander anticipated so rapid a reduc- 
 tion of the forts. McClernand's columns, struggling 
 through mud-pudding of almost immeasurable depth, 
 hear the lull and the final cessation of the storm. 
 What does it mean ? have the gunboats been driven 
 baciv ? — are the questions which leap to all lips. That 
 the fortifications upon which the science and labor of 
 the South had been for months employed should 
 yield after such brief resistance, and before infantry 
 reG;iments could wade throuo'h eio-ht miles of mud, 
 is a conjecture too inconceivable to be entertained. 
 And yet a messenger comes galloping through the 
 slime with the intelligence that it is even so; and 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 131 
 
 upon his heels another miicl-bespattered scout, who 
 cries, " The rebels are forming battle-line on the hill ! " 
 and still a third, who throws up his hat with the ex- 
 ultant shout, " The rascals are running to the Cum- 
 berland ! " The fort had surrendered at discretion ; 
 the working garrison, with the general and his staff, 
 are captives. The main body, in the outworks, were 
 in full retreat before McClernand's advance cuts the 
 Donelson Road. 
 
 Napoleon once said, " If the Alps be impassable, 
 ' there shall be no Alps,' will be the order of the day." 
 If Grant could have disposed of the mud by this sum- 
 mary process, he might have reached the camp in 
 time to have grabbed the fugitives. But this w^ould 
 not have availed him, nor would a delay of the 
 attack ; for we now learn by Gen. Tilghman's report 
 to the rebel Secretary of War, that he had ordered the 
 retreat of the main body early in the morning, — not 
 by the Donelson, but by the "Stewart Road." ^ 
 
 Halleck, in the instructions which he gave Grant 
 prior to his leaving Cairo, says not a word about 
 Donelson. His directions exclusively relate to the 
 capture and security of Henry. The day after the 
 reduction. Grant pushed his cavalry to within four 
 
 1 " My infantry, artillery, and cavalry, removed, of necessity, to avoid the 
 fire of the gunboats, to the outworks, could not meet the enemy there. My 
 only chance was to delay the enemy every moment possible, and retire the con,i- 
 mand, now outside the main work, towards Fort Donelson ; resolving to suffer 
 as little loss as possible. I retained only the heavy artillery company to fiplit 
 the guns, and gave the order to commence the movement at once. . . . My 
 order being to retreat by way of Stncart Eoad. ... I ordered Col. Ileiman to 
 join his command, and keep up the retreat in good order, whilst I would fight 
 the guns as long as one was left, and sacrifice myself to save the main body of 
 my troops." — Tihjhman's Report 
 
132 LIFE OF GEXEKAL GRA^^T. 
 
 miles of the Cumbeiland ; and the telegram wliiclj 
 announces to his superior the f^iU of Henry says, " I 
 shall take and destroy Fort Donelson on the 8th." 
 And on the same afternoon he issues an order to all 
 the troops " to be ready to move at an early hour on 
 the 8th, with two days' rations in their haversacks, 
 and without encumbrances." But he was prevented 
 for three days from offensive operations, — not by the 
 roads merely, which are never impassable to Grant, 
 but by the inundation of the narrow strip of land 
 between the Tennessee and the Cumberland. During 
 these three days, Halleck is active in pushing forward 
 re-enforcements, — a duty which he ought to have per- 
 formed with vigor and alacrity ; for it was his sole 
 part, either in the design or execution, of the cam- 
 paign. His telegrams cautiously evade any recogni- 
 tion of his subordinate's intimation about the capture 
 of Donelson ; and he is so silent upon such an impor- 
 tant movement, that I should have presumed that he 
 did not know of it, if I had not seen one of his con- 
 temporary telegrams to Buell, to this effect, " Grant 
 expects to take Fort Donelson on the 8th." During 
 these three days, " big with the future," Halleck is 
 profuse with orders which relate to the defence of 
 Fort Henry, to holding it "at all hazards," to the 
 destruction of the bridges by which it may be reached, 
 to the " shovels and picks " which are on their way 
 to strengthen it, " to arranging the redan " so as to 
 resist a land-attack, to the " transfer of guns " from 
 the river to the land front, to " impress slaves if 
 necessary to secure your position ; " but not a word, 
 syllable, or hint about the advance upon Donelson. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAF. ? 133 
 
 Indeed, the orders of Halleck and those of Grant 
 during these three days ilkistrate more forcibly than 
 a " set discourse " the difference in the character of 
 these two officers. While Halleck is laying out de- 
 fensive work enough to have employed the corps at 
 Fort Henry for three months, Grant is entirely ab- 
 sorbed by the offensive. While Halleck is thinking 
 of nothing but fortifying, Grant is thinking of nothing 
 but "moving on the enemy's works." While the 
 major-general, in his study, is only concerned in the 
 protection of the fort already reduced, the brigadier- 
 general, in the field, with his eye only on the fort to 
 be won, is pushing out his cavalry to the Cumberland ; 
 ordering his troops to be ready to move ; telegraphing 
 to Foote, '-' I am only delaying for the return of the 
 gunboats;" and finally, without waiting either for 
 them or the re-enforcements on their way, oblivious 
 alike of " bridges," " redans," " water-fronts and land- 
 fronts," " shovels and picks," " slaves," Fort Henry 
 itself, on the morning of the 11th moves McCler- 
 nand's brigade four miles towards Donelson, and on 
 the morning of the 12th marches thitherward hiraself, 
 with fifteen thousand men, leaving but twenty-five 
 hundred to garrison the works on the Tennessee. By 
 noon of the same day, his squadron of cavalry drive 
 in the enemy's pickets ; and by night his skirmishers 
 envelop the works upon the Cumberland. Said I 
 not truly of Grant at Cairo, that he was a noble stag- 
 hound " in leash " ? said I not truly that he was ready 
 " to translate brave thoughts into braver deeds " ? 
 need I say more to prove that Grant was " a minute- 
 man"? 
 
134 
 
 LIFE or GENERAL GEAJSTT. 
 
 Calendar. 
 
 FEBRUARY, 
 
 1862. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Day of Month. 
 
 Day of Week. 
 
 Donelson Week. 
 
 Twelfth. 
 
 Wednesday. 
 
 Grant reaches Donelson. 
 
 Thirteenth. 
 
 Thursday. 
 
 Invested. 
 
 Fourteenth. 
 
 Friday. 
 
 Bombarded. 
 
 Fifteenth. 
 
 Saturday. 
 
 Stormed. 
 
 Sixteenth. 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 Surrendered. 
 
 Seventeenth. 
 
 Monday. 
 
 Occupied. 
 
 Eighteenth. 
 
 Tuesday. 
 
 Grant Major-General. 
 
 I shall name the day of the week only, in the jour- 
 nal which follows. 
 
 Thursday opens with good omen, clear and spar- 
 klino; ; disclosino; the nei<i:hborhood of the fort broken 
 into caiions and ravines, and bordered, near the river, 
 by half precipitous bluffs with the rugged and rocky 
 sides which the chamois loves. The country has 
 once been well-wooded, and still a narrow, semicircu- 
 lar belt of forest marks the jungle where lurk the 
 enemy's rifle-pits; but in front of it there is a wide 
 margin of broken land, cleared of the heavy timber, 
 but with the small trees, half severed at the height 
 of a man's breast, bent down outward into a rude 
 abatis, vexatious to an assailant under fire of marks- 
 men in those woods. 
 
 The day is spent in reconnoitring, and in envelop- 
 i)ig both flanks of the enemy. Gen. Smith's division 
 ■ — our extreme left — rests on Hickman's Creek, 
 
TTHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 135 
 
 which flows into the Cumberland below the enemy's 
 extreme ridit, McClernand's division is stationed 
 next, enclosing the town of Dover ; and, with his right 
 resting on the river, virtually extends our line from 
 the Cumberland at the right of the fort to the Cum- 
 berland on the left of Dover, encircling the entire 
 lines of the enemy. During the day. Grant continu- 
 ally draws these lines closer to the works, and con- 
 stantly throws out skirmishers to feel for position ; for 
 he is entirely ignorant of the topography. It is far 
 from being a dull day. Every ravine is scoured ; both 
 parties occasionally send out shells on errands of in- 
 quiry ; ^sharpshooters are searching the brushwood, 
 meeting, now and then, vigilant sharpshooters of the 
 foe; and stirring conflicts ensue, which would have 
 been named battles in our Revolutionary War. The 
 scrub-oaks ring with the crack of rifles, as bushwhack- 
 er in blue meets bushwhacker in gray. Some adven- 
 turous riflemen penetrate the jungle; and duels from 
 tree to tree test the smartness of dodgers. To enliven 
 the scene, McClernand, with three regiments, springs 
 upon a redoubt, and is thrown back w^ith a shock 
 which w^as stunning ; and the enemy, not to be out- 
 done, leaps from his lair upon the Twenty-fifth Indi- 
 ana ; and, having shocked it for an instant, is speed- 
 ily shaken off and driven to cover. This is what 
 is called " feeling the enemy ; " and on this day cost 
 the Republic three hundred men. Having overcome 
 many broken ravines and heights, the army was 
 established at night on a series of hills in genera.! 
 parallelism with the enemy's outworks, and sv/eeping 
 round them from the Cumberlnnd on his extreme 
 
136 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 right to the Cumberland on his extreme left. Nearly 
 every point of this circuit — three miles in length — 
 is within musket-range of the enemy's breastworks. 
 Upon the troops, bivouacked, with arms in their 
 hands, on open ridges in front of the foe, the ther- 
 mometer fliUs to twelve degrees above zero ; and a 
 storm of snow and hail covers them with a blanket 
 of ice. No fires can be built; for hostile pickets are 
 abroad, and scattered shots crackle along the front. 
 At midnight, the steam-whistle is heard which an- 
 nounces the arrival of Foote with iron-clads and 
 re-enforcements. Six thousand troops, under Gen. 
 Lewis Wallace, land in the morning; and Grant gives 
 them the centre, between Smith and McClernand, and 
 his line is vastly strengthened thereby. 
 
 Friday opens with the ground covered with snow, 
 and a hyperborean breeze sweeping over the desolate 
 ridges and turbid river. The nature of the opera- 
 tions 1 am to detail fortunately relieves me from a 
 technical description of one of the most thorough- 
 going works which was constructed during the civil 
 war; for the engagement which decided its fate was 
 fought outside of the intrenchments, with the excep- 
 tion of Smith's final charge on the defences of its 
 south-western angle. I am not required to speak of 
 the two unfordable creeks, now filled with back-water 
 from the Cumberland, which w^ere a secure and natu- 
 ral protection of its flanks; of line within line of 
 rifle-pits ; of intrenchments within intrenchments ; 
 of the succession of ridges crowned with cannon and 
 cloven by gulleys and ravines, each one a fortress by 
 itself; nor of the isolated redoubts planted on every 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 187 
 
 point of vantage ; nor of Donelson Itself, with its 
 bastions, curtains, and parapets, lifted above all on a 
 towering throne of defiance ; nor of the sixty-five 
 guns and twenty-one thousand desperate men ^ who 
 garrison these crests and gorges, — such, in brief, is 
 the land-side ; but I am to-day called upon to address 
 myself more particularly to its water-front. 
 
 I am steaming up the Cumberland from its mouth 
 in the Ohio to Dover in the State of Kentucky ; and, 
 as I approach the town, I should steer due south by 
 the compass, but for this sharp bend in its channel to 
 the west, which accommodates Fort Donelson with 
 such an advantageous position, that, if I do not port 
 my helm, I shall run my bows into his jaws. In tech- 
 nical language, he seizes with his guns the prolonga- 
 tion of the river. You can see what an advantage 
 Donelson has of me if I attempt to run by against his 
 will. But this is not all : the giant is seated on a 
 bluff one hundred feet in height ; irregular works are 
 around him, planted with fifteen cannon, and covering 
 a hundred acres. The hill which he domineers slopes 
 
 1 On tlie last day of the fight, Grant had twenty-seven thousand men whom 
 he could have put into action : of artillery, he had but the eight light batteries 
 which started with him from Fort Henry. The rebels surrendered sixty-four 
 guns. His entire loss during the siege was 2,041 in killed, wounded, and miss- 
 ing ; of these 425 were killed. No exact account of the rebel loss, except in 
 prisoners, can be given. Pillow reckons the rebel losses during the siege at 
 two thousand ; Grant at 2,500 Total rebel force at the commencement of the 
 siege as follows : — 
 
 Captured ' . 14,623 
 
 Escaped with Eloyd 3,000 
 
 Escaped with Forrest 1,000 
 
 Killed and wounded 2,500 
 
 Total rebel force at commencement of siege . . 21,123 
 
 — Badeau, passim. 
 12* 
 
133 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 down to the river bend, where I am obhged to turn 
 short to the right in order to pursue my voyage. 
 In this bend on the river-bank he has placed, side by 
 side, two ^ water-batteries, mounted with thirteen 
 guns at an elevation of thirty feet, whose muzzles 
 — larger than hogsheads to my excited fancy — stare 
 me right in the eye as I stand upon the upper works 
 of my steamer ; and he has so protected these bat- 
 teries with breastworks and traverses, that if, against 
 their fire, I could land five regiments on the shore, it 
 would be hard to storm them, — to say nothing of the 
 sharp rebukes which the giant himself would shower 
 upon me from his controlling seat on the bluff. 
 
 While during Thursday the army was tightening 
 around its intended victim, the Carondelet, cmant- 
 courier of the armored squadron, reaches the theatre 
 of operations, and, without waiting to take breath, 
 steams within rang-e of these water-batteries. " Head 
 to the fort," as at Henry, she hurls upwards of a hun- 
 dred terrible missiles at her antagonist, but not with 
 the decided impression of her previous performance ; 
 for she cannot give to her pivoted hundred-pounder 
 the desired elevation to reach the most impressible 
 parts of the earthworks. Through one of her for- 
 ward ports she receives a monster mass of iron, which 
 dashes with terrific force against the coal-bags encas- 
 ing her boiler, in a fell endeavor to repeat the trage- 
 dy of the Essex. Startled by the rebuke, she aban- 
 dons for a season the unequal contest. 
 
 1 The armament of the batteries consisted of eight thirty-two pounders, 
 three thirty-two pound Carronades, one eight-inch columbiad, and one rifled 
 gun of thirty-two pounds caliber. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 139 
 
 At two o'clock on Friday afternoon, the Louis- 
 ville, St. Louis, Carondelet, and Mound City form 
 the same line of battle which I described in the 
 Fort Henry afjfliir, with the Tyler, Lexington, and 
 Conestoga covered, as then, by the armadilloes in 
 front, and hugging closely the shore as they a]> 
 proach the more terrible face of Donelson. At a 
 distance of about a thousand yards, they open as be- 
 fore, and then ensues one of those sublime overtures 
 which would have inspired Beethoven when compos- 
 ing that heroic symphony which fliirly exhilarates the 
 atmosphere of dungeons with the vibrations of liberty. 
 For an hour and more, the air above the scene fairly 
 hisses with flying shell ; and the slackening fire of the 
 enemy, under short range, begins to inspire hopes of 
 liis speedy surrender. One battery is already silenced, 
 and but three guns in the other are talkative. The 
 four steamers abreast have reached within four hun- 
 dred yards, where, according to their wont, they dis- 
 charge shrapnel and canister, for the purpose of 
 disorganizing the j^ersonnel of a breastwork ; when a 
 series of untoward calamities reverses the fortunes 
 of the fight. A cone-shaped iniquity from the reb- 
 els' rifled cannon demolishes at the same time the 
 wheel-house and wheel of the Louisville. The pilot 
 forthwith seizes the supplementary rudder aft, when, 
 in a moment or two, it is also torn from his grasp by 
 an accidental shot from the Tyler. Thus dismantled 
 and unmanageable, the steamer swings round, and 
 Achilles presents a vulnerable heel to Paris, who 
 immediately pierces it with a death-dealing arrow. 
 The steering apparatus of the St. Louis is also de- 
 
140 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ranged by a sbotj and searching missiles puncture the, 
 armor of the remaining iron-clads, when the admiral, 
 with his face to the foe, and a memento of Donelson in 
 his foot, — which he will carry to the grave, — backs 
 out of the engagement, with fifty-four men killed and 
 wounded. 
 
 Before daylight, on Saturday morning, Grant ia 
 aboard the flag-ship, at the request of Foote, — who is 
 unable to walk in consequence of his wound. The 
 admiral urged him to hold Fort Donelson tightly in 
 investment, until he should go to Cairo, repair dam- 
 ages, and return with his flotilla for another bombard- 
 ment of the fort. Before daylight, on the same 
 morning, Floyd & Co. had come to the conclusion 
 that the gripe was already tight enough to be com- 
 fortable. While Grant is conferring with Foote, they 
 have massed their forces on their left, opposite 
 McArthur's brigade, — McCIernand's division holding 
 our extreme right, in close proximity to the river: 
 it was the weakest in the line, and consisted of but 
 two regiments. Next on the left was Col. Oglesby 
 with five, next to him Col. W. H. L. Wallace with 
 the same number, and both well supplied with the 
 regulation amount of artillery and cavalry. Farther 
 on to the left is Gen. Lewis Wallace's division, holdinor 
 our centre. The massed garrison of Donelson are 
 waiting for the first gray streak of dawn. They are 
 in solid columns by regiment, with company front, 
 which has some advantasjes over fio-htino; in line. 
 
 At five o'clock, from three directions at once, three 
 solid gray columns, with field batteries attached, drive 
 against McArthur's slender lines of blue; and, though 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 141 
 
 received with that long fusillade which carries havoc 
 into a columned mass of life, yet by the ascendency 
 of weight they roll up his brigade on gruff old 
 Oglesby, who has "come here for the fort, and means 
 to have it." Making:: what stand he can in ravines 
 and underbrush for an hour or more, he, at length, is 
 rolled upon W. IL L. Wallace, who, in turn, holds the 
 accumulated war for two hours upon the brink of a 
 ridge, until he is rolled upon the division of Lewis 
 Wallace, at the centre of our line. This thoughtful 
 ofiicer, after a fluctuating fight with the exultant 
 columns, at length seizes a road, which penetrates his 
 bivouac, with a stout battery, and throws out heavy 
 lines of infantry right and left athwart the enemy's 
 path. Behind it he receives all retiring regiments, 
 helpless now from want of ammunition ; and, when 
 their cartridge-boxes are refilled, he is replenished by 
 them with so much pluck and stamina that the new 
 position, not only holds the weight of the rebel column, 
 but throws it back with a demoralizing rebound. 
 The first fiery onset is followed by charges less furi- 
 ous, until, finally, a faltering and spavined jump indi- 
 cates to the eye experienced in battle that the 
 temper of the column is spoiled and its will broken. 
 Grant, upon his return from the interview with the 
 admiral, reaches his headquarters, which are at our 
 extreme left, a mile or more from where Lewis Wal- 
 lace stands, rooted to the earth like Ovid's Bacchantes, 
 which were transformed into oaks. He learns from 
 an aide who comes galloping up, that the right of his 
 line is crumbling before the massed legions of Floyd. 
 He strikes the rowel deep, and first encounters Gen, 
 
142 LIFE OF GEKEEAL GRAJ^T. 
 
 Smith. Grant is impressed at once with the idea 
 that the works in front of Smith's division have been 
 seriously depleted by the enemy for the herculean 
 labor on the left, and directs Smith to hold his entire 
 division in hand for a charge at the word. Borne 
 rapidly on by eagerness and anxiety, he soon en- 
 counters the fusritives, who are sheltering; themselves 
 behind Wallace's livinsj battlement. Grant is self- 
 restrained in the heat of conflict, and administers no 
 word of rebuke to these tremblinsi; soldiers : it is 
 sufficient for him to know that many of them have 
 had arms in their hands but for a week, and that this 
 is their first encounter with the friorhtfal realities of 
 battle. He listens to their wild talk, which narrates 
 that the whole rebel garrison is turned loose upon 
 them, and are out to " stay ; " for they have " knap- 
 sacks and haversacks with them." — " Are the haver- 
 sacks filled ? " asks the general; and forthwith a dozen, 
 belonging to prisoners, are shown him, well stufied 
 with three days' rations. Instantly, by the intuition 
 of common sense, he solves the mystery. " They are 
 not out here to stay," he thoughtfully communes with 
 himself, " but to cut their way through us to Nash- 
 ville." When, in addition, he learns from Wallace, 
 that they are not now following up with spirit the 
 presumed advantage, but are quiet and silent, he 
 quickly infers that Floyd and Pillow are the centre 
 of a depressed and drooping soldiery, like this which 
 surrounds himself; and it is intimated by an author ^ 
 wdio enjoys his confidence, that he now audibly utters 
 a maxim which saved him in another dire extremity, 
 
 1 Badeau, p. 45. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL TTAR ? 143 
 
 " When both parties are shocked, the one which first 
 attacks vigorously is sure to win." He acts like 
 liohtning upon his conviction : he clashes off an aide 
 to Foote to implore him to make a demonstration, at 
 least, with his crippled flotilla ; he re-enforces Wallace, 
 and orders him to hold his position at all hazards, and 
 to be prepared to advance in co-operation with our 
 left wing ; he commands McClernand to gather up his 
 fra<Tments, and re-extend himself to the Cumberland 
 River ; " he returns with all speed to Smith, and orders 
 the assault. I will say here, though it anticipates by 
 some hours the denouement of the drama, that his 
 request was fulfilled ; and one of the orders, at least, 
 was executed. Foote sends two of his gunboats to 
 demonstrate ao-ainst the river front. At three o'clock 
 in the afternoon, Wallace, with commendable spirit 
 and dash, storms on his right a hill, broken on its 
 side by outcropping rock, with two regiments, one 
 in column and the other in line, and establishes him- 
 self within a hundred and fifty yards of the enemy's 
 intrenchments. If Gen. McClernand ever made a 
 report of his operations on this eventful afternoon, I 
 have not been so fortunate as to find it. 
 
 There were but three professional soldiers in an 
 engagement which Grant's own guarded tongue pro- 
 nounces a " terrible conflict." One was McPherson, 
 who will yet know to — 
 
 " Open when, and when to close, the ridges 
 Of grim War." 
 
 The other was Gen. Charles F. Smith,— a West Point 
 graduate of thirty-seven years standing, who, aftei 
 
144 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 brilliant achievements in the same battles of the Mex- 
 ican War through which I have followed the rising 
 plume of Grant, won his brevet of colonel in that de- 
 cisive charge which carried the Convent of San Pablo 
 on Churubusco's immortal day. He was not only 
 seventeen years Grant's senior in age and service, but 
 had also been commandant of the Military Academy 
 when Grant was there as a cadet. Yet he yielded 
 implicitly to the sway of a junior and former pupil, 
 with the true chivalry which marks the genuine sol- 
 dier. With equal nobility of nature. Grant hesitated, 
 when first called to address his former superior in 
 mandatory tones, which the older officer perceiving, 
 with great delicacy said to his chief, " I am now a 
 subordinate, and I know a soldier's duty. I hope you 
 will feel no awkwardness about our new relations." 
 He was slightly tinged with the contempt of volun- 
 teers which characterizes the martinet, and during- his 
 command at Paducah had visited their irregularity 
 with so much severity as to provoke their, resent- 
 ment. But when they saw him in the front of bat- 
 tle, they loved him as a father, and gloried in him as 
 a leader. Kinglake's photograph of Lacy Yea and 
 his fusileers aptly illustrates the relation between 
 Gen. Smith and his Hoosiers : " Lacy Yea was so 
 rough an enforcer of discipline that he had never 
 been much liked in peace-time by those who had to 
 obey him ; but when once the Seventh Fusileers were 
 in campaign, and still more when they came to be en- 
 gaged with the enemy, they found that their chief 
 was a man who could and would seize for his resi- 
 ment all such chances of welfare and glory as might 
 come with the fortune of war." 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 145 
 
 He now selects Lanman's brio-acle as the storininir 
 party ; with the Second Iowa Regiment, formed in 
 two lines, thirty paces apart, with a front of five 
 companies each, as the point of his double-headed 
 spear. The ridges which he is to escalade are among 
 the most precipitous upon which the enemy is post- 
 ed, and are crowned with a redoubt mounted with ar- 
 tillery. The old veteran, gray with the weight of 
 fifty-seven winters, but erect as Tecumseh, stations 
 himself conspicuously on his charger between the 
 two lines and at their head. With his hat on the point 
 of his sword, he inspires the assailants with a fury 
 which is irresistible. The enemy's grape and canis- 
 ter plough through their ranks in vain; for the col- 
 umns are filled as fast as the brave fellows drop to 
 the earth, and the two lines, penetrated as one man 
 by the glorious example of their leader, charge up 
 the hill with levelled bayonets, and, without returning 
 a shot, lodge themselves in the key of the enemy's 
 position, and by one tremendous volley clear it of 
 the foe. If darkness had been warded off thirty min- 
 utes longer, Donelson would that night have been won. 
 
 Within the recesses of the fort, a scene is now 
 transpiring which must search for a parallel among 
 those barbarous nations Avhere the chief is not only 
 a leader, but a god to be saved from profane hands, 
 if necessary, by an immolation of the whole tribe. As 
 re-enforcements had been poured into the fort,"Buck- 
 ner. Pillow, and Floyd were successively sent to com- 
 mand it, each ranking his predecessor, and each re- 
 maining to serve under the new superior."^ 
 
 1 Badeau, p. 33. 
 IQ 
 
146 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 A council is in session, with Floyd presiding ; and 
 the question is, Shall we surrender ? Both the weight 
 and majority of opinions are decidedly in the affirma- 
 tive. Floyd, with that moral obliquity which was a 
 part of his nature, disclaims the obligation of an offi- 
 cer to share the fate of the private, and avows a deter- 
 mination to save himself by flight. Pillow, who had 
 seen service under better auspices, and from whom 
 both more chivalry and more stoicism might have 
 been reasonably expected, declares his intention to 
 imitate the selfishness and share the infamy of his 
 superior. Buckner, who had imbibed some little sen- 
 timent of soldierly honor in the Military Academy of 
 the acovernment which he was now in arms to de- 
 stroy, repudiates the baseness of his colleagues, and 
 announces his determination to share the captivity 
 of those who have trustingly confided to him their 
 lives and safety. By such an example he but par- 
 tially effaces an indelible stigma upon the annals of 
 a short-lived Confederacy. Permitting his fugitive 
 superiors to load two dilapidated steamers at the 
 wharves of Dover with as many as would join 
 them in this reckless abandonment, in a common 
 peril, of all the ties of comradeship, he immediately 
 forwards to Grant a flag of truce, asking for terms of 
 surrender, and receives that famous reply which has 
 been since translated into the tongue of all nations, 
 and incorporated itself into the popular vocabulary 
 as an everlasting proverb, " No terms other than an 
 unconditional and immediate surrender can be ac- 
 cepted. I propose to move immediatel}^ upon your 
 works." Gen. Buckner accepts the " ungenerous and 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 147 
 
 unchivalrous terms;" and thus the second "barred 
 gateway " of the strategic line which once stretched 
 unbroken from the Mississippi to the Alleghanies is 
 surrendered to the leader who conceived the idea that 
 cutting its centre was the only effectual way to clear 
 the prospects of the campaign and the war, and to 
 smooth the invader's path from the Ohio to the Gulf 
 
 On the day of the final action, Halleck telegraphs 
 Grant, " not to be too rash." On the day of the sur- 
 render, he recognizes the receipt of the glorious news 
 by limiting the operations of the flotilla on the Cum- 
 berland to the destruction of railroads and bridcres. 
 He congratulates Gen. Hunter, who during the siege 
 was at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, for his share in the 
 reduction of Donclson ; and recommends to the au- 
 thorities at Washington Gen. Smith for promotion, 
 because he, " when the battle was against us, turned 
 the tide, and carried tjie enemy's outworks;" but, out 
 of regard to Gen. Grant's modesty, punctiliously ab- 
 stains from all congratulations to him. Smith him- 
 self, when complimented by Buckner on the gal- 
 lantry of his charge, replies, " Yes, it was well done, 
 considering the smallness of the force that did it. No 
 congratulations are due me : I simply obeyed orders." ^ 
 The world is made up of different men. 
 
 When the news of this triumph reaches Washing- 
 ton, it finds at the head of the War Department a 
 man who was rapidly earning the antipathy of every 
 "do-nothing," civil and military, in the land, and such 
 denunciation from armed rebels as orio^inated the 
 
 1 Gen. Rawlins's Speech to the Society of the Army of the Tennessee, Nov. 
 15, 18G6. 
 
148 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 proverb, " You will always find the clubs under the 
 good apple-tree." The terms in which he expresses 
 approbation of Grant's method of dealing wdth rebel- 
 lion from this day forward becomes the universal sen- 
 timent of the loyal nation, and Grant the persona- 
 tion of unconditional and irrepressible fighting until 
 it is subjugated : "We may well rejoice at the recent 
 victories ; for they teach us that battles are to be won 
 now, and by us, in the same and only manner that 
 they were ever won by any people, or in "any age 
 since the days of Joshua, — by boldly pursuing and 
 striking the foe. What, under the blessing of Provi- 
 dence, I conceive to be the true organization of vic- 
 tory, and military combination to end this war, was 
 declared in a few words by Gen. Grant's message to 
 Gen. Buckner, 'I propose to move immediately on 
 your w^orks.' " 
 
 Exactly a week from the commencement of the 
 siege, — the last day on my calendar, — President Lin- 
 coln sent into the Senate the nomination of Ulysses 
 S. Grant for the office of Major-General of Volunteers; 
 and he was forthwith confirmed by the Senate. Be- 
 fore the additional star w^as on his own shoulder-strap, 
 he recommended Gen. Charles F. Smith for promotion 
 to the same grade. 
 
 War has been defined to be contention by force, for 
 the purpose of crij)pling or overwhelming an enemy ; 
 and, in glancing at the history of our w^ar, it seems to 
 me that we had made but little progress even in crip- 
 pling our enemy, until the inflexible will and martial 
 energies of Gen. Grant entered as an animating and 
 directing soul into the armies of the Republic. Prior 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAK ? 149 
 
 to his conspicuous appearance upon the grand arena, 
 we had met with many reverses, and a few successes ; 
 but the reverses were most depressing to the national 
 spirit, and the successes had hardly penetrated the 
 hide of the defiant monster which was confronting; us. 
 War had surged and resurged, with alternate triumph 
 and defeat, over the devoted plains of Missouri. We 
 had gained a lodgment on the coast of South Caro- 
 lina, we held the sand-spits of Hatteras, and we had 
 dearly purchased a strategical position on Roanoke 
 Island. But in neither of these aflairs had we suc- 
 ceeded in actually debilitating the enemy, and from 
 neither of these points had we been able to penetrate 
 the enemy's country much beyond the range of our 
 cannon. The reduction of Donelson was one of those 
 decided successcY which let in a glance of sunli2;ht, 
 lift the cloud of despondency, and exhilarate the heart 
 of nations. The country was jubilant to know that a 
 general was at length found who seemed to under- 
 stand what war meant, and what it did not mean, — 
 that, in his judgment, it did not mean lying in camp 
 and garrison, drilling and organizing for ever and 
 ever ; but seeking the enem}^, moving on his works, 
 pushing and pounding until he gave way. And that, 
 when he did, you were not to wait for weeks and 
 months for horses, shoes, transportation; but that you 
 were to push on with such resources as you had, hang 
 on his flanks like grim Death, and, if one expedient 
 failed, try another and another until he was utterly 
 routed and dissolved. 
 
 Thanksgiving to Almighty God was poured out 
 from a million grateful hearts for sending us in the 
 
150 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 day of our extremity a positive man, of unchallenged 
 fidelity to the cause, of faith, earnestness, and self-reli- 
 ance. The national resources instantaneously revived. 
 With renewed cheerfulness the mother gave up her 
 son to the war, the millionnaire poured his wealth into 
 the exchequer, Avhen a leader was found who did not 
 believe that the great chief of the rebel army was 
 endowed with invincible genius for command, with 
 supernatural resources in the field, — a leader who 
 feared neither his strategy in planning, nor his ubi- 
 quity in executing movements; but had the confidence 
 in himself to believe, that, by butting and hammering 
 away with mere human caution and skill and perse- 
 verance, the mightiest paladin of treason could be 
 outflanked or whipped.^ V\^hen the people began to 
 gather in the fruits of this victory, they instantly saw 
 that two rivers were opened into the very heart of the 
 semi-neutral States, and that Kentucky and Tennessee 
 were at the mercy of the invader. But, ignorant as 
 they then were of the mutual dependence of positions 
 in the same strategic series, the rapidity with which 
 fortifications dropped from the Mississippi to the Big 
 Barren Ptiver astonished them, like the work of an 
 enchanter. Bowding Green was being evacuated on 
 Saturday the 15th, while Smith was storming the 
 redoubt; on the 21st Grant pushed Gen. Smith 
 up the Cumberland, and took possession of Clarks- 
 ville, fifty miles above Donelson; on the 2od the 
 ]'ear-guard of Johnston was leaving Nashville, and 
 on the 25th it was occupied by the Union army ; on 
 
 1 Speech of Henry C. Deming in the House of Kcpresentatives on the bill 
 creating the grade of general. 
 
WHAT 'DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 151 
 
 the 27tli Polk commenced wltlidrawinof from Colum- 
 bus, and on March 3 the stars and stripes were wav- 
 ing over that stronghold. When Grant was a pleb 
 at West Point, amons: the seniors — who mio;ht have 
 been active in the hazing discipline to which I have 
 adverted — was one of the class of 1840, enrolled as 
 from the same State with Grant himself The two 
 cadets had the slight personal acquaintance which 
 under such circumstances quite usually subsists be- 
 tween members of different classes. Leaving Grant at 
 the academy, the senior had graduated three years in 
 advance, and, as he resigned his commission soon af- 
 ter the Mexican war, their intercourse had never been 
 renewed ; but promptly returning to service at the 
 outbreak of the Rebellion, under the new army organi- 
 zation which it immediately created, he held an older 
 commission as a brigadier-general, and, of course, out- 
 ranked Grant. After the latter left for the Tennessee 
 campaign, the brigade of the former was ordered to 
 Cairo ; and, by virtue of superior rank, he assumed the 
 command of the post. When from Cairo re-enforce- 
 ments were being forwarded to Grant in the field, he 
 received from his successor a note, dated Feb. 13, 
 to the following purport : " I will do every thing in 
 my power to hurry forward your re-enforcements and 
 supplies ; and, if I could be of service myself, would 
 gladly come, without making any question of rank 
 with you or Gen. Smith." The letter was signed Wil- 
 liam T. Sherman. 
 
 I have alluded to this incident of the siege of Don- 
 elson, because it was the first official communication 
 between two men hereafter destined to fill the of&ces 
 
152 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 of general and lieutenant-general of our arLiy, and 
 was the origin of a friendship, which, tried by war, 
 tried by peace, tried by both in the reciprocal rela- 
 tions of superior and inferior, tried by the excited 
 passion of wavering battle, tried by the machinations 
 of fldse friends in the field, and by political agitators 
 in the cabinet, tried by every circumstance which 
 rends feeble ties of this nature, — has never for an 
 instant wavered or been disturbed, but remains to- 
 day warm and unbroken, as if both men were supe- 
 rior to envy, jealousy, or resentment. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 HE WINS THE VICTORY OF SHILOH. 
 
 r^ ENERAL GRANT, on the 17th of February, 
 vU" under orders from Halleck, assumes the com- 
 mand of the District of Tennessee, with " Umits un- 
 defined." From the 17th to the 25th, in letters and 
 telegrams to headquarters in St. Louis, he repeatedly 
 refers all subsequent movements in the campaign to 
 his commander, and submissively solicits orders and 
 instructions. On the 25th, he writes to Halleck that 
 he intends to go to Nashville, " should there be no 
 orders to prevent it." Having waited until the 27th 
 for orders, he went to Nashville at that date, returned 
 to Donelson the 28th, and on the same day reported 
 to Halleck his visit and return. The object of the 
 jaunt was to seek an interview with Gen. Buell, in 
 order to determine the boundaries of their respect- 
 ive jurisdictions, which were left undefined in general 
 orders. 
 
 This trip to Nashville is made the pretext for an 
 open persecution on the part of Halleck, — the out- 
 cropping of an antipathy which had long slumbered in 
 the recesses of a col^l and selfish nature, and its cause 
 is the rebuke which Grant's achievements in the field 
 continually administer to the carpet-knight, his closet 
 
 1&3 
 
154 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 commander. The existence of such antiiDathy was 
 indicated by his snappish way of receiving Grant's 
 plan of the campaign against the forts, by his refu- 
 sal to recognize the movement against Donelson, by 
 sullenly withholding congratulations upon its capture, 
 by ungenerously ignoring all mention of his share in 
 the victory in his despatches to the Department, by 
 the implied censure contained in his letter to the 
 secretary of war, giving to Gen. Smith the entire 
 credit of the triumph. Proof is upon the record that 
 Grant in advance notified him of the visit ; proof is 
 upon the record that he waited two days for any 
 restraining order ; and proof is upon the record that 
 Grant daily communicated to headquarters all his 
 movements, and all the returns and reports required 
 either by special order or regulation. On the 2d of 
 March, Grant received the only order which had been 
 addressed to him by his major-general since the capit- 
 ulation of Donelson, directing him to return to Fort 
 Henry, as the more convenient base for operations 
 on the line towards Corinth. Detailed instructions 
 for an expedition in that direction accompany the 
 order. The order is forthwith executed ; and, by 
 the 4th of March, Grant is at Fort Henry with his 
 entire command, except the garrison at Donelson. 
 No complaint had reached him up to this date of any 
 dissatisfaction with his conduct or that of his troops, 
 or for any irregularity in his returns. And yet Gen. 
 Badeau spreads on his pages a letter written on the 
 3d of March by Gen. Halleck to the general-in-chief 
 at Washington, which, considering the relative posi- 
 tion of the subordinate and the superior, — the one 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 155 
 
 ftxcing all the horrors of war in the field, the other 
 beyond the reach of a hostile popgun, — will be read 
 with amazement. It is Halleck's arraignment of 
 Grant to McClellan. Such a curiosity in military 
 jurisprudence is too interesting to be omitted ; for 
 never since law martial existed was ever such a cul- 
 prit indicted by such a prosecutor before such a judge. 
 Bear in mind that it was written on the 3d of March, 
 while the air of the entire loyal North was ringing 
 with hallelujahs over the Ml of Donelson, and the 
 smoke of the storming party was but just lifting from 
 its battlements : — 
 
 "I have had no communication with Gen. Grant 
 for more than a week. He left his command without 
 my authority, and went to Nashville. His army 
 seems to be as much demoralized by the victory of 
 Fort Donelson as was that of the Potomac by the de- 
 feat of Bull Run. It is hard to censure a successful 
 general immediately after a victory, but I think he 
 richly deserves it. I can get no returns, no reports, 
 no information of any kind, from him. Satisfied with 
 his victory, he sits down and enjoys it wdthout any 
 regard to the future. I am worn out and tired by 
 this neglect and inefficiency. C. F. Smith is almost 
 the only officer equal to the emergency." 
 
 Gen. Badeau further informs us, that having, doubt- 
 less, received the requisite authority from Washing- 
 ton, the letter of March 3 was followed by this tele- 
 gram to Grant, on March 4 : — 
 
 "You ^Yill place Major-Gen. C. F. Smith in com- 
 mand of expedition, and remain yourself at Fort 
 Henry. Why do you not obey my orders to report 
 strength and position of your command?" 
 
156 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 I have not spread these documents upon this biog- 
 raphy for the purpose of dwelhng long upon this 
 disgusting specimen of ingratitude. Heaven forbid ! 
 Nor for the purpose of pointing indignation at their 
 author. The qualities which rendered him dangerous 
 in war make him harmless in peace. I shall dismiss 
 forever this malignity from these pages, after having 
 " moralized the theme " by a quotation from Sir 
 Thomas Browne's " Christian Morals," written two 
 hundred years ago, but as faithful a finger-post to 
 those bosoms which harbor the manly virtues, as 
 pointed a warning from those where the opposite 
 vices dwell, as if it had been penned with special 
 reference to the case in hand : — 
 
 " Where true fortitude dwells, loyalty, bounty, 
 friendship, and fidelity may -be found. A man may 
 confide in persons constituted for noble ends, who 
 dare do and suffer, and who have a hand to burn for 
 their country and their friend. Small and creeping 
 things are the product of petty souls. He is like to 
 be mistaken who makes choice of a covetous man for 
 a friend, or relieth upon the reed of narrow and pol- 
 troon friendship. Pitiful things are only to be found 
 in the cottage of such breasts ; but bright thoughts, 
 clear deeds, constancy, fidelity, bounty, and generous 
 honesty are the gems of noble minds." 
 
 I have transcribed these communications from the 
 pages of Badeau, and shall borrow others from the 
 same plentiful source, for the purpose of exhibiting the 
 admirable behavior of Grant under a visitation from 
 flagrant injustice in power which would have goaded 
 to wrath and violence any man who was not a serene 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? lo7 
 
 master of his passions. When I say that Washing- 
 ton's conduct during the Conway cabal was not more 
 exemphuy and dignified, I can say no more. 
 
 Grant at the time did not know the contents of 
 Halleck's despatch of March 3 to McClellan. It was 
 written with the expectation that it would be buried 
 in the archives of the general-in-chief, and at a 
 period, too, when neither conspirator nor victim ever 
 surmised, that at no distant day, to the " open, sesame," 
 of the maligned brigadier, that bureau would unfold 
 every secret, and its grim pigeon-holes surrender 
 every slanderous charge, every sly innuendo. 
 
 He bows to the behest which deprives him of com- 
 mand in the field, and sends a subordinate in his 
 place, with calm submission to Halleck, and with 
 generous congratulations to Smith, which moistens 
 the eye of his former commandant at West Point, his 
 veteran junior at Donelson. He disclaims, in a letter, 
 all intentional or actual neglect, either of orders or 
 returns. When March 9th brings from Halleck an- 
 other telegram, couched in the language of explicit 
 rebuke for disobedience to orders, irregularity of 
 reports and returns, and a defiant trip to Nashville, 
 he reiterates the assertion, "I have obeyed every 
 order, reported returns daily to your chief of stafij 
 written almost every day to yourself. Ttemove me at 
 once : I ^Yish not to impede the success of our arms. 
 My trip to Nashville was for no personal gratification, 
 but for the good of the service." And, after intimating 
 that there may be enemies between him and the 
 light of his master's countenance, he asks to be re- 
 lieved from command in this department ; thus con- 
 
158 LIFE OP GEXEEAL GEANT, 
 
 descending to explain charges of mere clerkly de- 
 linquency, invented by a general who was already 
 buried from the enemy by heaps upon heaps of 
 paper and red tape. To a rebuke three days later, 
 with the same specifications, the same austere rejoin- 
 der is returned. To an accusation imputing to him 
 the crime of justifjdng the marauding expeditions of 
 troops under him, he answers, " I have only to refer 
 you to my orders against marauding as the only 
 reply which is necessary ; " and he might have 
 added, " I sent last week to your headquarters of&cers 
 under arrest, that they might be tried by you for dis- 
 obedience to these orders." 
 
 Mollified somewhat by the exemplary patience 
 with which this subordinate meets every infamous 
 charge ; calmed by the calm temperament of the 
 accused ; softened by the soft answer which turneth 
 away wrath ; moved, it is to be hoped, by the devo- 
 tion to country and the self-abnegation of his intended 
 victim ; shrinking from driving to extremities a gen- 
 eral around whom the hearts of the nation were 
 clustering, and whose star might yet be in the ascen- 
 dant ) hesitating ere he subjected to court of inquirj^, 
 or forced to resignation, a hero in the field, upon 
 trumped-up delinquencies against the circumlocu- 
 tion office of St. Louis, — the roaring prosecutor sud- 
 denly becomes "gentle as a sucking dove," and 
 vouchsafes on the 12th of March the following 
 placebo : " You cannot be relieved of your command. 
 Instead of relieving you, I wish you, as soon as your 
 new army is in the field, to assume the connnand, and 
 lead it on to new victories." To which Grant responds, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 159 
 
 '•' After your letter, enclosing the copy of an anony- 
 mous letter upon which severe censure was based, I 
 felt as though it would be impossible for me to serve 
 longer without a court of inquiry. Your telegram 
 of yesterday, however, places such a different phase 
 upon my position that I will again assume command, 
 and give every effort to the success of our cause. 
 Under the worst circumstances, I would do the same." 
 The next day, Halleclv condescends to transmit to 
 his subordinate copies of his correspondence with the 
 War Department : — 
 
 I. Instructions from Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant- 
 general, ordering llalleck to inquire into charges 
 against Grant, of which the mquirer himself was the 
 author in his 3d of March letter. 
 
 II. Ilalleck's report that his own arraignment of 
 Grant is unfounded in flict, unworthy of farther no- 
 tice, and recommending that he resume command in 
 the field. . 
 
 Such, under our military system, are the resources 
 and subterfuges of the prejudiced superior in hunt- 
 imr down a victim. The famous letter of the 3d of 
 March was not in the batch. A year or two after- 
 wards, when research was made for it in the archives 
 of the War Department, it was found that it had been 
 abstracted from the files ; and it was only after a dili- 
 gent hunt, that Gen. Badeau succeeded in capturing 
 it. When an attempt was made to force Washington 
 to resign, by a machination even more cruel than 
 the one which was aimed at Grant, in which, too, 
 anonymous letters were a part of the vile machinerj^, 
 Mr. Everett says, " Washington bore himself, on this 
 
160 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 occasion, with his usual dignity, and allowed the par- 
 ties concerned, in the army and in Congress, to take 
 refuge in explanations, disclaimers, and apologies, by 
 which those who made them gained no credit, and 
 those who accepted them were not deceived." His- 
 tory, after all, but repeats itself j and we have here a 
 truthful delineation of Grant and his calumniators at 
 this crisis in his career. 
 
 If the reader is desirous of perusing in full the 
 correspondence of the parties, I refer him to Gen. 
 Badeau's "Military History of General Ulysses S. 
 Grant," to wdiich I am indebted for the letters and 
 telegrams which enable me to disclose the animus of 
 Halleck in this affair, and which would never have 
 seen the light but for the author's fortunate and envi- 
 able intimacy with the head of the army. I wish to 
 tender to the historian my unqualified obligations and 
 ackno wled (>;ments. 
 
 I have written the pages which relate to this con- 
 troversy with unfeigned reluctance. I am able to 
 vindicate my hero without humiliating the idol of my 
 neighbors. I have been driven into the foreiroimj; 
 narrative by actual stress of duty, which would have 
 been evaded if I could have done it without self- 
 reproach. I believe that Grant was cruelly degraded, 
 and I am bound to give the reasons of my belief. I 
 believe that he displayed, under this persecution, 
 patience, fortitude, forbearance, and genuine moral 
 lieroism ; and I am bound to tell the whys and where- 
 fores in full, and without respect to persons. I could 
 not allow the scandal, based upon a misapprehension 
 of the reasons of his temporary deposition, to pass 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? IGl 
 
 from newspaper to newspaper, from mouth to mouth, 
 without correction. I could not but exhibit the 
 serenity with which he bore the unmerited chastise- 
 ment of power. During Smith's temporar}^ com- 
 mand, Grant displays the magnanimity of " one who 
 had a hand to burn for his country and friend," and 
 evinces it by hearty co-operation and sympathy with 
 him in carrying out the purposes of his expedition. 
 Although Grant was not under arrest, there was an 
 interregnum in his authority in the field from the 
 4th to the 17th of March ; and it is important that it 
 should be noted here, for it is connected with future 
 operations which were matured by Gen. Smith prior 
 to Gen. Grant's resumption of command in the field. 
 
 On the 17th of March, reinvested with all his for- 
 mer authority, he removed his headquarters to Sa- 
 vanna, Tenn. ; and Gen. Smith was the first to con- 
 gratulate him upon the resumption of his old com- 
 mand, "from which you were so unceremoniously, 
 and, as I think, so unjustly, stricken down." 
 
 After the enemy's strategic line was cut in twain, 
 the rebels had designated the intersection of four rail- 
 roads at Corinth, in North-western Mississippi, as a 
 suitable point for the rendezvous of troops, and for 
 seizing every advantage which the fortunes of war 
 might place in their way. The expeditionary force 
 which Grant now commands had been despatched 
 towards Corinth by Halleck, on a service which is 
 consonant with his military temper and genius, — the 
 destruction of bridges and railroad connections. It 
 was held back from exposing itself to risks by those 
 
 discretionary maxims in which he delights, — "Avoid 
 11 
 
162 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 any general engagements with the enemy in strong 
 force." " It will be better to retreat than risk a 
 general battle," — which maybe read to-day in his 
 letters of instructions which authorized the expedi- 
 tion. When Grant assumes command, " Don't 
 bring on any general engagement at Paris." " If 
 the enemy appear in force, our troops must fall 
 back," are the cautionary saws which reach him from 
 St. Louis. To counteract the natural result of his 
 own imbecile policy, Halleck is now forced to order 
 up Buell, with forty thousand men, in support of 
 Grant; for, while our corps under this discreet man- 
 agement were engaged with bridge -piers and rail- 
 road ties, instead of armed legion.s, the enemy had 
 gained time to concentrate such a force at Corinth, 
 that, under less careful generalship, it was seriously 
 feared he would run jthe risk of losing some men in 
 battle by an aggressive movement. When Grant 
 reaches his headquarters, he finds the alluvial banks 
 of the Tennessee overflowed, and only such bold 
 bluffs as Savanna, Crump's, and Pittsburg Landing, 
 sufficiently raised to admit of the deployment of an 
 army. These bluffs stretch along the banks for nine 
 miles. Savanna is about four miles from Crump's, 
 and the latter five from Pittsburg Landing. Gen. 
 Smith is now in the grasp of a fatal disease, and has 
 fought his last battle ; but, while in command, he had 
 selected Shiloh as the point where the enemy should 
 be withstood. It was on the western bank of the 
 river, aud approached from the north by a ferry at 
 Pittsburg Landing ; and he had ordered Sherman's 
 and Ilurlbut's divisions over the river, to take position 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 163 
 
 there, near Shiloh Church. McClernancl's division, and 
 Smith's, now under the command of W. H. L. Wal- 
 lace, are in camp at Savanna ; and Grant immedi- 
 ately orders them to concentrate upon Sherman and 
 Hurlbut. Lewis \yallace's division is at Crump's 
 Landing, lying upon the road to Purdy, within sup- 
 porting distance of Shiloh ; and it is therefore allowed 
 to retain its station. The re-enforcements which are 
 rapidly pouring into headquarters are speedily 
 organized into a new division, which is also soon 
 ordered to the front. Grant is under positive instruc- 
 tions from Halleck, " to risk no engagement until 
 Buell arrives." He is, therefore, again "in leash," 
 waiting for Buell; and Buell's pace is snail-like, hav- 
 ing, up to April 3, been seventeen days in marching 
 ninety miles, and not yet in sight. Just as Grant was 
 preparing to remove his own headquarters to Shiloh. 
 he received from Buell a telegram dated the 4th, 
 which solicits an interview with him on the 5th; and 
 Grant is still detained at Savanna, organizing the re- 
 enforcements, and waiting for Buell. But he visited 
 the front daily; and, as the head of Buell's 'column 
 had not hove in sight by the morning of the 5th, 
 lie went, as was his wont, to Gen. Sherman's camp. 
 He finds that the enemy has made a reconnoissance 
 in force, that clouds of cavalry are hovering round, 
 that there are daily skirmishes betw^een the pickets, 
 but no apprehension of an immediate attack in any 
 mind. He returns to Savanna, and receives, late in 
 the afternoon of the Sth, a note from Sherman, 
 assuring him that no engagement is to be anticipated 
 at present. Gen. Nelson now reaches Savanna with 
 
164 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 the advanced division of Buell's army; and Grani 
 directs him to take position within five miles of 
 Pittsburg Landing, and hold his troops in hand to 
 re-enforce the corps at Shiloh. 
 
 Gen. Sherman asseverates, that in this whole 
 region of country Gen. Smith could have selected no 
 more favorable battle-field than Shiloh. Near the 
 river, the country is broken into ravines ; and, farther 
 on, covered over its entire surface with patches of 
 trees and underbrush, it stretches out nearly three 
 miles to the log-chapel which is called Shiloh. On 
 the right of the field is Snake Creek, and on the left 
 Lick Creek ; and both are seeking the Tennessee in 
 nearly parallel lines, and debouch into it with mouths 
 which are about three miles apart. The field opens 
 to the south, which is the direction of Corinth and 
 the enemy. The great advantage of the field is 
 that the creeks, still in their flood, relieve the raw 
 soldier from any real or chimerical danger upon his 
 flanks, and restrict the enemy to a direct front attack.^ 
 Sherman's division in advance holds our right 
 near Shiloh Church, resting on Owl Creek, — one of 
 the affluents of the Snake. McClernand's division, 
 somewhat retired, overlaps the left of Sherman; 
 next to him is Prentiss, in advance, and nearly on a 
 prolongation of Sherman's front. A broken brigade 
 of Stuart carries our forces to their extreme left on 
 Lick Creek. Hurlbut is massed a mile in the rear, 
 and covering the interval between Prentiss and Mc- 
 Clernand. Two miles in the rear of Sherman is 
 W. H. L. Wallace's division, professing to support 
 
 1 Gen. Sherman's letter to the editor of the United-States Service Magazine. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 165 
 
 our most advanced front. Lewis Wallace's division 
 is five miles off, at Crump's Landing, and has not yet 
 heen ordered in, because heavy masses of rebel 
 infantry are threatening the Purdy Road. We have 
 no intrenchments ; and the overflowed creeks, with 
 their precipitous banks, are our only natural cover. 
 Defending these lines, including the division of Lewis 
 Wallace, we had thirty-eight thousand men on the 
 first day of the battle. 
 
 1 have thus stationed the divisions, in accordance 
 with the maps and authorities, where the enemy 
 found our army on the morning of April 6. I confess 
 my inability to reduce these dispositions, and the re- 
 lations of these bodies to each other, into a well-or- 
 ganized battle-line. While I have been pennin- the 
 description, a side-thought has been continually whis- 
 pering in my ear, " You are describing, not an army 
 arrayed for action, but an encampment." I believe 
 this word truthfully delineates the arrangement of 
 our troops when they received the enemy at Shiloh. 
 Every division, but one, first fought at its camp ; and 
 it is mentioned as a singular exception, that Prentiss 
 received the assault upon the outside. A month 
 later, the foe would have found fortifications from the 
 Lick to the Snake. The Western troops had hith- 
 erto affected to despise the Ptoman system of fortify- 
 ing every night, and the maxim of Napoleon which 
 sanctions it; but the Shiloh lesson chastised them 
 into wisdom. The pick and the spade were after- 
 wards held in deserved respect ; and such an extrava- 
 gant re-action followed this admonition, that, within 
 a few weekS; we shall behold a hundred and twenty 
 
166 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 thousand bayonets, on this same line of operations, 
 paralyzed by overcaution in the use of these imple- 
 ments, — the fruits of victory thrown away, the intent 
 of a campaign defeated, and the enemy permitted to 
 escape, by the delays and timidity engendered by 
 excessive fortification. 
 
 The most natural apology for this disjointed line 
 is that our army was caught by a surprise ; but in no 
 strict sense is this true. The enemy was immediately 
 in our front. Wide aw^ake were both soldiers and 
 officers before the onslaught commenced. Doubled 
 were Prentiss's grand guards, and his pickets pushed 
 out a mile. Sherman was under arms. The rear 
 divisions had their horses saddled at their quarters 
 in readiness for an attack. Our outposts and skir- 
 mishers were so lively and demonstrative, " that at five 
 o'clock on the morning of April 6," as Beauregard 
 says in his report, " a reconnoitring party of the 
 enemy having become engaged with the advanced 
 pickets, the commander of the forces gave orders to 
 commence the movement." And Braxton Bragg says, 
 " The enemy did not give us time to discuss the 
 question of attack, for soon after dawn he commenced 
 a rapid musketry fire on our pickets ; " and further 
 on, " In about one mile we encountered him in strong 
 force along almost the entire line. His batteries 
 were posted on eminences, with strong infantry sup- 
 ports." This is conclusive upon the question of sur- 
 prise. 
 
 The exact truth is, that our army was on the alert, 
 but in no expectation of an engagement that morn- 
 uig, as is abundantly demonstrated by the following 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 167 
 
 note, wliicli Sherman sent to Grant, after he had re- 
 turned to Savanna, late in the afternoon of the day 
 before the battle : '* April 5. I have no doubt that 
 nothing more will occur to-day but some picket- 
 firing. The enemy is saucy, but got the worst of it 
 yesterday, and will not press our pickets far. I will 
 not be drawn out far, unless with certainty of advan- 
 tage ; and I do not apprehend any thing like an at- 
 tack upon our position." Can there be any doubt 
 that Sherman, who, be it remembered, held the most 
 advanced position, went to sleep with this conviction 
 on the night of the 5th, and woke up with it on the 
 morning of the 6th of April ? 
 
 Against these positions which I have sketched, 
 Gen. A. Sidney Johnston, Beauregard, Bragg, and 
 Polk, on Sunday, April 6, advanced with forty thou- 
 sand men. By six o'clock, the pickets are driven in ; 
 by half-past six, the skirmishers follow ; by seven, 
 Prentiss and Stuart, on the extreme left, feel the first 
 shock of battle ; " by a little after seven," Hildebrand, 
 commanding the most advanced brigade of Sherman's 
 division, beheld the enemy before him in columns of 
 regiments four deep; "at eight o'clock," says Gen. 
 Sherman, " I saw the glistening bayonets of infantry 
 to our left front, in the woods beyond Lick Creek, and 
 I became satisfied, for the first time, that the enemy 
 designed a determined attack upon our whole line." 
 McClernand pushes forward closer to Sherman ; Hurl- 
 but and W. H. L. Wallace advance their divisions to 
 the support of their companions in the front ; and the 
 battle speedily rages along the whole line, from creek 
 to creek. 
 
168 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 Poetry and painting have so idealized the appear- 
 ance and bearing of great commanders in action, that 
 the popular sentiment is apt to be disappointed if a 
 general is not always represented with a prancing 
 charger, waving plume, and the " grand air " of Wash- 
 ington in Leutze's picture, or Frederick "on the last 
 review." The difference between the ideal and the 
 real is well exemplified by David's painting of '• Na- 
 poleon crossing the Alps," representing him on a 
 charger-rampant, attempting to scale a precipice, 
 contrasted with the well-known fact, that he actually 
 crossed the mountains seated upon a mule, led by a 
 muleteei". Versifiers have represented Marlborough 
 and William " as turning thousands to flight by theii 
 single prowess, as dyeing rivers with the blood of 
 their enemies, or winning battles merely by the 
 strength of their muscle and skill in fence." Macaulay 
 intimates that such description might do when bat- 
 tles were won, as in Homer's time, by chiefs encased 
 in celestial armor, one of whom could with ease hurl 
 rocks which two sturdy hinds of a later period could 
 not lift, but that we must reject them since war has 
 become a science and a trade, and battles are won 
 not by the hand but by the head. When an officer 
 heads a forlorn hope, or a charge, it is undoubtedly 
 his duty to assume the most animating and inspiring 
 attitude ; and, if he is the man for the place, he will be 
 on the lead with waving sword, and other minister- 
 ing incitements to audacity. But a general-in-chief, 
 commanding at an engagement, heads no charges : it 
 is his duty to watch all the chances, to supervise all 
 the movements^ and^ in the " midst of confusion, up- 
 
WHAT l>iD HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 169 
 
 roar, and slaughter, examine and dispose every thing 
 with the serene wisdom of a hio-her intelHsjence." 
 His true attitude is one of intent and rapt reflection, 
 ready to move, but not on a perpetual caracole ; and 
 tragedy airs are out of place, and indicate a pre- 
 tender rather than the genuine master of battle. 
 
 Expect from Grant's extreme simplicity no such 
 grand and statuesque attitudes. It is said of Lord 
 Raglan, that, "Beyond and apart from a just contempt 
 for mere display, he had a strange hatred of the out- 
 ward signs and tokens of military energy. Versed 
 of old in real war, he knew that the clatter of a gen- 
 eral briskly galloping hither and thither with stafl' 
 and orderlies did not, of necessity, imply any mo- 
 mentous resolve, — that the aides-de-camp swiftly shot 
 off by a word, like arrows from a bow, were no sure 
 signs of despatch or decisive action." Grant likewise 
 despises all such flourish. He is neither brusque nor 
 insinuating in his address to the soldiers ; he returns 
 the salute in an off-hand way. He neither calls them 
 by name, nor makes them a speech. His bearing 
 in battle is subdued rather than excited, calm in- 
 stead of enthusiastic. He selects the stand-point 
 most serviceable for oversight. He moves where the 
 stress of battle calls him ; his attitude, the one which 
 is most comfortable ; and his manner, both to officers 
 and privates, as simple and unassuming as if he was 
 chaffering about the price of sole-leather, over the 
 counter at Galena. His dress is, habitually, more un- 
 ostentatious than his behaviour, consisting of the reg- 
 ulation undress-uniform, without sash or belt. On this 
 warm day his coat is unbuttoned. He wears a low- 
 
170 LIFE or GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 crowned felt hat, without any badge upon it of mih- 
 tary rank or distinction. 
 
 It is unquestionably true that this extreme simpli- 
 city of carriage and plainness of speech ; this absence 
 of external parade and the " grand air ; " this demean- 
 or in battle, so unemotional, so unpretending, — veiled 
 for a season, from the eye both of inferior and supe- 
 rior, the genuine military ability and force of Grant 
 as a commander. Smith and Sherman understand 
 his merits ; but his manner disguises his value from 
 such devotees to high military style, West-Point eti- 
 quette, as Halleck and Buell. They never ask his 
 opinions, they never defer to his judgments ; they re- 
 gard him as a successful blunderer. 
 
 On the morning of the 6th, Grant was breakfast- 
 ing at Savanna, — six miles in a direct line from 
 Pittsburg Landing, — and hears the first pitiless pelt- 
 ings of the comino; storm. He orders Nelson to 
 move up with his whole division to the ferry. He 
 halts at Crump's, to command Lewis Wallace to hold 
 himself in readiness for an order to advance, and by 
 eight o'clock he is on the battle-field. He moves up 
 Hurlbut and W. H. L. Wallace to the support of the 
 divisions in the front ; he sends one orderly to expe- 
 dite the movements of Nelson, another to instruct 
 Lewis Wallace to march to Shiloh by the Hamburg 
 Road, and then hastens to Sherman, who, with artil- 
 lery and musketry, is assailing thfe massed columns 
 of the foe, and stubbornly resisting his advance. 
 " Gen. Grant," says Sherman, in the letter from which 
 * I have already quoted, " visited my division in person, 
 about ten, a.m., when the battle raged fiercest. I was 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL AVAR ? 171 
 
 then on the right. After some general conversation, 
 he remarked that I was doing right in stubbornly op- 
 posing the progress of the enemy ; and, in answer to 
 my inquiry as to cartridges, told me he had anticipated 
 their want, and given orders accordingly. He then 
 said his presence was more needed over to the left." 
 Grant finds that Stuart had been swept aw^ay, and 
 that Prentiss's division had been driven from their 
 line outside of the camp, and were firmly holding a 
 position within it, when suddenly his right brigade 
 gives way in flight, and Hildebrand's, on Sherman's 
 left, sympathizing in the panic, broke also and disap- 
 peared. Prentiss still pounds and is pounded. Sher- 
 man, fertile in expedients, swings his left to the rear, 
 and by a pivoted movement, wheeling his right into 
 line with it, assumes a position perpendicular to the 
 original direction of his front. His left now connects 
 with McClernand's right; and, as the entire line is 
 being forced back, Sherman's right brigade pertina- 
 ciously clings to Owl Creek, and de'fies the persistent 
 efforts of Bragg to tear it from its hold. The weight 
 of the enemy's columns now strikes McClernand ; but, 
 sustained by Sherman's remaining brigades, they 
 imited hold for four long hours a strong line, whose 
 right clings desperately to Owl Creek, and drifts 
 obliquely towards the right flank of Hurlbut, in the 
 rear. It was here that Grant, for the second time 
 encountering Sherman, cheers and encourages him 
 by his counsels. Wallace and Nelson are expected 
 with anxious and longing hearts, but messenger after 
 messenger is sent for them in vain. They had but 
 pix miles to march. Neither appeared on the field 
 during the day. 
 
172 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Iluiibut and W. H. L. Wallace, whose divisions 
 connected McClernand's left with Prentiss, — while 
 Sherman's right was tenaciously adhering to Owl 
 Creek, and McClernand was valiantly holding the 
 ground, — were especially addressed by a concentrated 
 mass of the enemy ; and their valor in resisting at 
 this point four separate assaults saved our entire 
 army from destruction. But they are at length forced 
 to give ground, which exposed Prentiss — who was too 
 stubborn, or too slow, to participate in the movement 
 — to an attack on his flank, which resulted in the 
 capture of his division. 
 
 By four o'clock we have abandoned our camps, and 
 have been crowded slowly back to within half a mile 
 of Pittsburg Landing, and hold there with a narrower 
 front a zigzag line which still stretches from the Ten- 
 nessee to Lick Creek. Nelson has reached the ferry- 
 way on the opposite bank, the Tyler and Lex- 
 ington are patrolling the river, and Lewis "Wallace 
 is within hail on the River Road. It was here that 
 Grant had a third interview with Sherman. " About 
 five o'clock in the afternoon," says Gen. Sherman, 
 " before the sun set, Gen. Grant came again to me, 
 and, after hearing my report of matters, explained to 
 me the situation of affairs on the left, which were not 
 as favorable ; still the enemy had failed to reach the 
 landing of the boats. We agreed that the enemy 
 had expended the furore of his attack ; and we esti- 
 mated our loss, and approximated our then strength, 
 including Lewis Wallace's fresh division, expected 
 each minute. He then ordered me to get all things 
 ready, and at daylight the next day to assume the . 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 173 
 
 offensive. That was hefore Gen. Buell had arrived ; 
 but he was known to be near at hand. ... 1 remem- 
 ber the fact the better from Gen. Grant's anecdote 
 of his Donelson battle, which he told me then, for the 
 first time : that, at a certain period of the battle, he 
 saw that either side was ready to give way if the 
 other showed a bold front ; and he determined to do 
 that very thing, — to advance on the enemy, when, as 
 he prognosticated, the enemy surrendered. At four 
 in the afternoon of April 6, he thought the appear- 
 ances the same; and he judged, with Lewis Wallace's 
 fresh division, and such of our startled troops as had 
 recovered their equilibrium, he would be justified in 
 dropping the defensive, and assuming the offensive in 
 the morning. And, I repeat, I received such orders 
 before I knew Gen. Buell's troops were at the river." 
 Buell in person reaches Pittsburg Landing near the 
 close of the afternoon, and finds Grant employing his 
 cavalry squadrons, as moral suasion, to urge back to 
 the field the miserable crowd of fus-itives — six thou- 
 sand in number — who were making day hideous 
 with the piteous lamentation of cowardice and despair. 
 Buell receives Grant with chilling punctilio, which 
 recognizes the rights, but distrusts the military 
 capacit}^, of his superior. Yielding, however, to the 
 imperious necessities of the situation, he stifled his 
 chagrin, and displayed commendable alacrity in hurry- 
 ing up his lagging battalions. The only conversation 
 which occurred between them has been thus reported 
 by a biographer of Grant : " Where, if beaten, can 
 you retreat, general ? " asked Buell. " I do not 
 mean to be beaten," is Grant's sententious reply. 
 
174 LIFE OP GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 "But suppose you are defeated in spite of your 
 exertions ? " — " Well, here are the transports to carry 
 the remains of the army across the river." — "But, 
 general," urged Buell, "your whole transports cannot 
 contain even ten thousand men, and it will be impos- 
 sible for them to make more than one trip in the face 
 of the enemy." — " Well, if I am beaten," says Gen. 
 Grant, " transportation for ten thousand men will be 
 abundant; for that is more than will be left." 
 
 The creeks upon our flanks were of inestimable 
 service during the entire day. In the morning, as I 
 have said, they relieved the volunteers from all panic 
 concerning a flank attack. They converge as they 
 approach their mouths ; and, when the enemy begins 
 to press us back towards Pittsburg Landing, this nat- 
 ural relation of the creeks to each other continued to 
 accommodate our front, growing constantly narrower • 
 for we enter the wedge-shaped peninsula which they 
 form, as if it were a weir in a river. Sherman's right, 
 in the zigzag line we finally assume, was never torn 
 from its grasp upon the Snake; but the capture of 
 Prentiss, and the feebler resistance of our left, has 
 forced back this flank from the Lick to a rest upon 
 the Tennessee between the mouths of 
 the two creeks. Conceive a chain fast 
 hooked to the Snake, and stretching 
 thus, obliquely, to the Tennessee, and 
 you have our new direction. The ene- 
 my pours over the Lick ; and, as he has 
 failed to tear Sherman from the Snake, 
 he attempts to worm round our left, and, 
 getting behind him, break his hold by rapping him 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 175 
 
 over the knuckles. But here the felicities of the 
 ground again come to our relief The ravines are 
 near the river; and one of these was seized in the 
 morning by our grand siege-battery ; and, as Hurlbut 
 comes in with our pressed and fluttering left, the 
 great guns step before him, like " the big brother," 
 and shake a fist at the pursuers. Behind their stal- 
 wart guardianship, he tightens up his own columns, 
 and receives all fainting regiments from the field. Let 
 Hurlbut, in his own simple language, describe the 
 closing half-hour: " On reaching the twenty-four- 
 pounder siege-guns in battery near the river, I again 
 succeeded in forming line of battle in rear of guns ; 
 and, by direction of Major-Gen. Grant, I assumed com- 
 mand of all troops that came up. Broken regiments 
 and disordered battalions came into line gradually 
 upon my division. 
 
 "Major Cavender posted six of his twenty-pound 
 pieces on my right; and I sent my aide to establish 
 the light artillery — all that could be found — on my 
 left. Many officers and men unknown to me — and 
 whom I never desire to know — fled in confusion 
 through the line. Many gallant soldiers and brave offi- 
 cers rallied steadily on the new line. I passed to the 
 right, and found myself in communication with Gen. 
 Sherman, and received his instructions. In a short time, 
 the enemy appeared on the crest of the ridge, led by 
 the Eighteenth Louisiana, but were cut to pieces by 
 the steady and murderous fire of the artillery. Dr. 
 Corvine again took charge of one of the heavy twen- 
 ty-four-poimders ; and the line of fire of that gun was 
 the one upon which the other pieces concentrated. 
 
176 LIFE OF GEisEEAL GRANT. 
 
 Gen. Sherman's artillery also was rapidly engaged ; 
 and, after an artillery contest of some duration, the 
 enemy fell back. Capt. Gwin, of the navy, had called 
 upon me by one of his officers to mark the place the 
 gunboats might take to open their fire. I advised 
 liim to take position on the left of my camp-ground, 
 and open fire as soon as our fire was within that line. 
 He did so ; and from my own observation, and the 
 statement of prisoners, his fire was most effectual in 
 stopping the advance of the enemy on Sunday after- 
 noon and night. About dusk the firing ceased. I 
 advanced my division a hundred yards to the front, 
 threw out pickets, and officers and men bivouacked 
 in a heo vy storm of rain." 
 
 This was Beauregard's last spring ; for A. Sidney 
 Johnston lies in his own blood at the captured head- 
 quarters of McClernand. Thus fell the curtain of 
 night upon a drama which had opened with the dawn. 
 From the time that the enemy's might first fell upon 
 the reserved divisions, Hurlbut and W. H. L. Wallace 
 had fought side by side, right and left arms to each 
 other, in one of those terrific grapples which rend 
 arteries and crack muscles ; and, unless the right arm 
 had been torn from its socket, Wallace would have 
 stood by his battle-companion in the ravine. But he 
 is mortally wounded. 
 
 Gratitude unmeasured, infinite, is due to Sherman. 
 When we were crowded from the front, he clings with 
 his right hand to the Snake, with his left to McCler- 
 nand ; and he, in turn, seizes and is seized by Wallace 
 and Hurlbut, who in grim determination agonize 
 for hours, with their left flank in air. Upon the 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 177 
 
 strength of Sherman's grip, as if they were hanging 
 to each other over a precipice, the salvation of the 
 whole depends. " Tell me," says Thomas Hughes, 
 " which boat holds the most men who can do better 
 than their best at ajmich, who will risk a broken blood- 
 vessel, and I will tell you how the race will end." Sher- 
 man was such a man at the pinch of Shiloh's battle. 
 
 Before 1 was as familiar with the first day at Shiloh 
 as I have since become, I had occasion, in another place, 
 to characterize it in the following language : It was a 
 vast melee between separate regiments, brigades, and 
 divisions, each fighting on its own hook and for its 
 own position, with but little concert of action and 
 with but slight mutual support. And yet, in one 
 important respect, it contributed more to the eventual 
 success of our arms than any action in the w\ar. It 
 was the experimenium crucis which first tested the 
 respective stamina and manliness of the two belliger- 
 ents. It was the first hurling together of the two 
 people upon a large scale in a hand-to-hand fight; 
 and, when the enemy retreated from that broken and 
 gory field, he retreated wdth his arrogance tamed, 
 and his dream of invincibility dispelled forever. No 
 Southern soldier from that terrible day presumed to 
 despise again the courage, the persistence, or the 
 marksmanship of the adversary ; for there was weep- 
 ing and lamentation in ever}^ Southern home. 
 
 After the most careful study of all the reports and 
 descriptions from participants in it, on both sides, I 
 am inclined to reiterate this judgment, especially as I 
 find myself sustained by the authoritative opinion of 
 Gen. Sherman, who says, in the letter to wdiich I have 
 
 12 
 
178 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 SO frequently referred, " If there were any error m 
 putting that army on the west side of the Tennessee, 
 exposed to the superior force of the enemy, also 
 assembling, at Corinth, the mistake was not Gen. 
 Grant's. But there was no mistake. It was necessary 
 that a combat, fierce and bitter, to test the manhood 
 of the two armies, should come off; and that was as 
 good a place as any. It was not, then, a question of 
 military skill and strategy, but of courage and pluck ; 
 and I am convinced that every life lost that day to 
 us was necessary ; for otherwise, at Corinth, at Mem- 
 phis, at Vicksburg, we should have found harder 
 resistance, — had we not shown our enemies, that, 
 rude and untutored as we then were, we could fight 
 as well as they." 
 
 During the hours of the night. Gen. Grant is mak- 
 ing his dispositions for the following day in consulta- 
 tion with Buell, and with Sherman also, whose bivouac 
 they visit together in the evening. At one o'clock, 
 he orders Lewis Wallace to form his division upon 
 the right of that famous " hook " of Sherman's which 
 partially redeemed the disasters of yesterday. Upon 
 his left, in the order named, are Sherman, McCler- 
 nand, Ilurlbut, re-enforced by remnants of Prentiss 
 and W. H. L. Wallace ; in the order named, McCook, 
 Crittenden, and Nelson's divisions, embodying twenty 
 thousand fresh troops, prolonged to the extreme left 
 this magnificent battle-front. Nothing more con- 
 clusively proves the terrible ravages in the enemy's 
 ranks yesterday than one sentence from Braxton 
 Bragg's report, where he says, " Our troops, exhausted 
 by days of excessive fatigue and want of rest, with 
 
■WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 179 
 
 ranks thinned by killed, wounded, and stragglers, 
 amounting in the whole to nearly half our force, 
 fought bravely, but with the want of that animation 
 and spirit which characterized them on the preceding 
 day." Participators in both actions affirm, that the 
 struggle of to-day was feeble in comparison with 3^es- 
 terday. ' The morning opens with the ground drenched 
 with the rain of the night, but every man in both 
 armies is alert at dawn. 
 
 Nelson, obliquely advanced, is put in motion by 
 six o'clock, and at half-past six finds the enemy, and 
 drives him with ease for half an hour, when he halts, 
 that his -exposed right flank may be covered by Crit- 
 tenden's division, which is rapidly advancing. Having 
 as yet found no foe, Crittenden joins his left brigade 
 to Nelson's right, and prolongs the line for a mile. 
 Both divisions now move steadily forward against the 
 annoying fire of sharpshooters in the underwood, 
 and the volleyed fire which indicates the jregiment 
 in line ; but, as soon as they begin to feel grape and 
 canister, they again halt, under such protection as 
 the ground affords, that our field batteries may be 
 brought into commanding positions. Meanwhile 
 McCook's veteran division, splendidly alligned, having ■ 
 cleared of marksmen a coppice in its front, sweeps 
 vip with its serried line of bayonets to the right of 
 Crittenden. McClernand has not yet closed, for his 
 feeble division is already struggling against artillery. 
 
 The entire left wing of our army do not hesitate 
 to advance, although McCook's extreme right is 
 uncovered. By ten o'clock, Sherman hears to the 
 left the roar of battle, and to the right the crack of 
 
180 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 Wcallace's rifles, and, with his shattered division again 
 in array, promptly advances into a storm of bullets, 
 .supported only by a single section of artillery, drawn 
 by hand. Lewis Wallace, on • the right, having esca- 
 laded a crest in front of him, which had for an hour 
 or two contested his progress, deploys into line upon 
 its summit, and finds himself in the ftice of seemingly 
 interminable parallels of bristling infantry, supported 
 by unlimbered artillery. He falls back under cover 
 of the crest, until his own batteries can be brought 
 to bear. From right to left the embattled host now 
 confronts artillery, and along its three miles of front 
 ■1 cannonade thunders. 
 
 At this stage of the engagement, the whole line 
 ^ohering as one man, — McClernand and Hurlbut 
 being used as supports, — war presented one of those 
 phases which has fascinated with it the noblest of the 
 race. In the face of all that we can know or dream 
 of terror, the welded divisions, inspired and moved 
 by one volition, move with united and irresistible, 
 might to the accomplishment of a consummate pur- 
 pose, sublimely illustrating the superiority of the 
 soul of man to every material peril and impediment. 
 Accelerated by all the past, they seem to be fighting 
 for all the future. Impelled by causes which reach 
 back to the discovery of the continent, they are aimed 
 at effects endless in duration and immeasurable in 
 influence. 
 
 For two hours now, it is a sturdy, obstinate strviggle 
 against the infernal enginery which the destructive 
 genius of a race has perfected for the annihilation of 
 armies, planted on every crest, hid in every ravine, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 181 
 
 and masked in every wood. Nelson, flushed by the 
 easy triumph of the morning, is unexpectedly struck, 
 from a clump of heavy timber, by a furious cannon- 
 ade, and two massed columns of superior weight. His 
 own artillery is swamped at Savanna ; and, staggered 
 by this terrible shock, he yields a little, until Buell 
 hurries to his relief three well-manned batteries, and 
 then, by brigades at double-quick, swiftly clears his 
 entire front, and finds himself, at one o'clock, vexed 
 , only by a trifling fusillade. But he hears on his right 
 the tempest unarrested, unbroken, as Crittenden 
 scoops out of a gulch at his left a rebel swarm of all 
 arms ; as Rousseau's high-mettled brigade, of McCook's 
 soldierly division, clears the dreaded water-oaks of 
 the flower of Beauregard's army ; as Sherman, now 
 abreast of McCook, labors with his excitable will, all 
 nerved by the trials of Sunday, and hurls from the 
 twenty-four pounders of McArthur a withering blast 
 of death, which the enemy's battery on the left of 
 McCook, and on the right of Shiloh Church, struggle 
 in vain to endure ; as Lewis Wallace shivers the 
 parallel lines in his front, and scatters the enemy, 
 like foxes, through the undulating woods and over 
 the cornfields. 
 
 At four o'clock. Nelson is in so much tranquillity 
 that he may be fairly said to brush away with the 
 wave of his hand any pestilent fragments which buzz 
 around him. At four o'clock, Crittenden and McCook 
 have scoured every ravine, scaled every crest in their 
 front, swept every thing before them up to our ori- 
 ginal lines of Sunday morning, and are driving the 
 vanquished rebels up the Corinth Road, back to 
 
182 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 their intrenchments. At four o'clock, Gen. Sherman, 
 bleeding from three wounds, directs his drooping 
 brigades to resume their original camps. At four 
 o'clock, Wallace feels the mass in his front dissolving 
 as if from some inherent law of its own ; and, at the 
 w^ord "Forward," his Nebraska hunters advance with 
 unresisted step, goading by a devastating fire from all 
 arms a confused jumble of all arms in desperate 
 flight. From the crest of a hill, where it had been a 
 flame of fire, the Crescent Regiment of New Orleans 
 melts like a mist; the Washington Artillery, of Ma- 
 nassas renown, are essaying to lash their weary ani- 
 mals into a gallop. Beauregard darts for an instant 
 athwart Wallace's front, as if he were inciting the 
 broken fugitives to strike once more for their waning 
 invincibility ; and he hears the exulting cheer of Crit- 
 tenden and McCook, as they drive the now van- 
 quished foe through the recaptured camp of Sherman. 
 The battle of the second day was so triumphant 
 from the start, that Grant had but little to do but 
 encourage the subordinate generals and animate 
 their troops. In the course of the night which pre- 
 ceded it, he visited every division on the field, from 
 Nelson to Wallace, and gave explicit directions for 
 the operations of the morning. While at the front, 
 during the heat of the engagement, he led in person 
 an Ohio regiment which he found faltering, rallied to 
 its aid another which he found retreating, and, inspirit- 
 ing both by example and precept, carried a position 
 of no inconsiderable importance in determining the 
 fate of the day, and from which they had been pre- 
 viously repulsed. He rides along Crittenden's and 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IK THE CIVIL WAR ? 183 
 
 McCook's line, and endeavors to stimulate them into 
 a more determined pm'suit of the foe, but could 
 hardly find it in his heart to command battalions so 
 foot-sore and battled-stained to advance. He des- 
 patches Wood, — one of Buell's brigadiers who had 
 come up too late for action, — and Sherman's over- 
 worked regiments, to ascertain the direction of the 
 enemy's flight. They follow up Beauregard several 
 miles towards Corinth, discovering at every step the 
 wrecks and debris of an army, sure indications of thor- 
 ough rout and demoralization ; but the roads are too 
 heavy, and our own men too weary, to admit of any 
 thing more than a mere desultory chase. The victori- 
 ous army encamp upon the field of battle. The enemy 
 leaves behind him his dead, and a large portion of his 
 wounded.^ 
 
 The moral effects of Shiloh I have already indi- 
 cated. The military results were insignificant, be- 
 cause Halleck permitted the victory to remain iso- 
 lated. The most important lesson which it taught, 
 and the most controlling and operative of all its effects, 
 were the ideas which it planted in the mind of Grant. 
 He now displayed, for the first time, that alertness of 
 faculty which instantly follows out to its consequences 
 the teachings of a fact, and that boldness of temper 
 which adapts the policy of the future to the require- 
 ments of its decree. When Frederick the Great 
 discovered the fact, that a secret treaty subsisted 
 
 1 According to Gen. Badeau, the following are the losses of loth days : 
 Grant's loss, including that in Buell's army, was 12,217; of these, 1,700 were 
 killed, 7,495 wounded, and 3,022 missing : 2,167 of the losses were in the army 
 of the Ohio. Beauregard reported a total loss of 10,697 : 1,72S killed, 8,012 
 wounded, and 957 missing. 
 
184 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 between Austria, Russia, and Saxony to improve the 
 first fiivorable opportunity to partition the Prussian 
 dominion among these powers, he did not wait for 
 the opportunity to arrive, but in the midst of peace, 
 and without notice to any one, forthwith inundated 
 Saxony with his grenadiers ; acting with as much de- 
 cision upon the discovery of such an intention as if 
 these powers were ah^eady prepared to execute it. 
 After the occupation of Dresden, he finds in the 
 archives of Frederick Ausrustus an authenticated 
 copy of the treaty. This is called following up a 
 fact to its logical conclusions,- and governing conduct 
 conformably to their behests. The fact which the 
 battle of Shiloh disclosed to Grant was, that our ene- 
 mies, in spite of the rupture of their strategic line, the 
 capitulation of their strongholds, and the loss of the 
 semi-neutral States, evinced as much determination 
 to prosecute the war, and rallied as strong an army, 
 as if they still held all we had regained, and still 
 hugged the illusion of invincibility. The conclusion 
 to which it led was, that no eclat of victory, or 
 overthrow of cities, or occupation of States, or any 
 merely humiliating process, would of itself suppress 
 the deeply-rooted Rebellion. The practical policy 
 which it inculcated was to address future campaigns 
 to the annihilation of its armies. From henceforth 
 he determined that the former objects should only be 
 pursued in subordination to the latter; and, when 
 placed at the head of affairs, the principle which 
 Shiloh taught him was immediately promulged as 
 one of the rules which would govern his military ad- 
 nainistration. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 HE DEFENDS CORINTH, AND WINS THE BATTLE OF iUKA. 
 
 [may to DECEMBER, 1863.] 
 
 CONTEMPORARY criticism was far from doing 
 justice, either to the general or his troops, who 
 redeemed the first day's fight from ruin- irretrievable. 
 Its eye was fixed exclusively upon the six thousand 
 dastards, instead of on the thirty thousand braves. 
 It was not for a long time discovered that there was 
 pluck enough left in the survivors of Sunday's conflict 
 to renew the combat on Monday morning without 
 help from Buell. The testimony I have quoted from 
 Gen. Sherman's letter settles this question forever. 
 Buell's officers dwelt, in their reports, with more unc- 
 tion upon the mass of fugitives and cravens whom 
 they found at the landing after the stampede from 
 Prentiss's right and Sherman's left, and upon the 
 evidences of defeat strewed over the field, than upon 
 the heroism of Sherman clinging to the Snake with 
 the grip of a Hercules, to the constancy of W. H. L. 
 Wallace which death only could dishearten, the stub- 
 born fidelity with which Prentiss held on to an unten- 
 able position, the unwearisome fortitude with which 
 during the day, and especially at its close, Hurlbut 
 vanquished disaste*' 
 
 185 
 
186 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Grant was also accused by seir-sufficient critics of 
 selecting a field of battle from which there was no 
 retreat. It was not his own selection ; and, if it had 
 been, it was the best field to be found by the expe- 
 ditionary army. The malignant spirits who thrive 
 by dragging down rising names, and by degrading 
 established reputations, were busy with vile insinua- 
 tion. Success, in the malignant judgment of North- 
 ern disloyalty, was an all-sufficient calumniator ; and 
 it joined with full-mouthed bay in any hue and cry 
 raised against the victor of Donelson. This concur- 
 ring clamor of ignorance, disloyalty, and jealousy, 
 drags Halleck, for the first time and for the last, 
 from the closet to the field ; and, by superseding 
 Grant, relieves him from the responsibility, for five 
 months, of the most extravagant waste of money, 
 valor, resources, and opportunity, which the records 
 of a war prodigal in this class of expenditure present. 
 We have seen under Grant the results of expedi- 
 tious energy ; we shall see under Halleck the effects 
 of scientific procrastination. Upon the advent of 
 Halleck, Grant's participation in army counsels, or in 
 army movements, ceases as entirely as if he was 
 buried under the crimson sward of Shiloh. He was, 
 indeed, left nominally in command of the Tennessee, 
 but with no more actual control over it than a drill- 
 sergeant. 
 
 Orders were not transmitted through him, but di- 
 rectly to his subordinates ; and the army was so par- 
 celled out between Thomas and McClernand that he 
 had nobody to command in action. Regiments and 
 brigades are detached, distributed, despatched, and 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 187 
 
 regulated without his orders ; in some cases, too, 
 without his knowledge, and in others in defiance of 
 his known and expressed wishes. He was a mere 
 cipher in camp. He was never consulted about the 
 conduct of the campaign; and, the only time he vol- 
 unteered an opinion, was informed by Ilalleck, that, 
 when his advice was needed, timely notice would be 
 given him. He was so little in the confidence of the 
 major-general or of those whom he trusted, was 
 treated with so many indignities by the martinets 
 who surrounded him, that all the equanimity and 
 forbearance which Grant could summon were re- 
 quired to enable him to endure this position of une- 
 quivocal disgrace. There was no more trying period 
 in the career which we have traced from his birth to 
 the present juncture than the half-year which fol- 
 lowed the victory of Shiloh. 
 
 Halleck took command on the 10th of April, and 
 with it was initiated the reign of the pickaxe and 
 the shovel. Far be it from me to dispute the authori- 
 tative military maxims which inculcate the expedi- 
 ency of fortifying the camp ; but no war maxims are 
 of universal application, and the general must uni- 
 formly be governed by the exigences of the partic- 
 ular situation. Far be it from me to disparage in- 
 trenchments on all suitable occasions; but, if they 
 are ever out of place, it is three days after your an- 
 tagonist in the field has not only been vanquished 
 but demoralized, and all that it requires for his utter 
 annihilation is but a vigorous pursuit. What need 
 was there for Halleck, with fifty thousand heroes at 
 his beck, whose courage had been purified in such an 
 
188 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 ordeal as Sunday's, and inspired by such a victory as 
 Monday's, to sit down fortifying and intrenching in 
 the face of Beauregard with but fifteen thousand dis- 
 pirited men, his whole army organization wrecked 
 by the slaughter of officers of every grade and in 
 every department ? Napoleon might as well have in- 
 trenched on the field of Austerlitz, or Wellington on 
 the eve of Waterloo. 
 
 From the vast territory under his jurisdiction, 
 thronged with loyal millions, Halleck had succeeded 
 in rallying as superb an army of volunteers as the 
 world ever beheld. A hundred and twenty thou- 
 sand men appear on his field returns. He begins 
 his advance towards Corinth, intrenching every night 
 behind fortifications elaborate enough to stand a 
 siege, and, in a region of forest and morass, constructit 
 military roads for the forward or retrograde move- 
 ment of this immense army, and bridges, viaducts, 
 and canals, as if he were solely employed upon the 
 demonstrations of practical engineering. Meanwhile 
 Beauregard — at Corinth, which is but thirty miles 
 from Shiloh — piles, heap upon heap, fortifications 
 equally stupendous in show, but designed merely to 
 frighten an over-cautious foe, with bastions like deal, 
 curtains like canvas, wooden guns on -counterfeit 
 embankments, and painted muzzles frowning from 
 embrasures which' would be shaken to pieces by the 
 concussion of a good-sized fire-cracker. 
 
 Behind these fortifications he stood, valiant as 
 Julius Caesar, throwing his gauntlet daily to Halleck, 
 vaunting his readiness to meet him, spreading by his 
 spies exaggerated rumors of the enormous garrison 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAU ? 189 
 
 which manned them, and of his inexhaustible mili- 
 tary resources. After six weeks of such toil — on the 
 part of troops — as built the pyramids, Halleck sur- 
 mounts just fifteen of the thirty miles of interval 
 between himself and Beauregard. 
 
 On the 9th of May, as it appeared by instructions 
 to Bragg, subsequently captured, the wily Creole 
 had perfected all his plans for eluding the cum- 
 brous Brobdignag in pursuit. On the 15th of May, 
 Ilalleck sends out Gen. T. W. Sherman upon a recon- 
 noissance towards Corinth, who reports to Halleck, 
 from information obtained from prisoners, that Gen. 
 Beauregard on the 14th had issued an order, " that 
 all the property at Corinth, except the contents of the 
 knapsacks and a certain amount of provisions, should 
 be sent forthwith to Okolona." On the 20th of May, 
 Beauregard's order for evacuation is dated, and by 
 the 25th it is completed. 
 
 During this period, Halleck is prodigiously slow, 
 fortifying by night, engineering by day, and towards 
 the 29th of May, nearly seven weeks and a half after 
 the fixte of Corinth was decided by the victory of 
 Shiloh, appears before its humbug fortifications ; and 
 on the 30th of May, five days after the last rebel 
 had left them, redoubtable Halleck issues the follow- 
 ing order for battle : " There is every indication that 
 the enemy will attack our left this morning, as troops 
 have been moving in that direction for some tiuie. 
 It will be well to make preparation to send as many 
 of the reserves as can be spared, of the right wing, 
 in that direction, as soon as an attack is made in 
 force. At any rate, be prepared for an order to that 
 
190 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 effect." The anticipated engagement, I need not 
 say, did not come off. Corinth succumbed to Hal- 
 leek's irresistible array without a blow. The works 
 were a mere mockery. Unmolested, upwards of a 
 hundred leg-ions marched throutj-h the silent bastions, 
 the naked works ; and the impotence of the defences 
 convinced every old maid in the army, that a vigor- 
 ous jump would have demolished both fortifications 
 and garrison. 
 
 Beauregard's forces retreat in such a manner as 
 to invite pursuit. The roads are in fine condition. 
 Water abountls ; the rivulets ripple with seductive 
 murmur. The troops yearn for the order, " Forward!" 
 Deserters are coming in daily, reporting the inability 
 of the enemy to endure a cavalry charge. But 
 nothing can dissipate Halleck's chronic apprehension 
 of a rebel avalanche. Buell and Pope finally march 
 out in pursuit, and remain for two days in an in- 
 trenched line of battle, seventy thousand strong. 
 Beauregard eludes- all their vigilance, and by feints, 
 rear-guards, and sham attacks, dodges by unmolested. 
 Buell and Pope march back again to camp, where 
 Gen. Grant had been left, in order to humihate him. 
 The unabridged lystory of Halleck's only campaign 
 is written in an old couplet, too familiar and stale to 
 be quoted. I leave this discreditable record without 
 a comment If its parallel in imbecility is to be 
 found in the voluminous records of war, I hope the 
 instance will be presented. 
 
 The great army which Halleck had concentrated 
 for a great purpose is speedily broken into fragments. 
 Pope is sent to Virginia to conduct the campaign 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 191 
 
 which terminated with the second defeat at Bull 
 Run Halleck, his brow decked with Corinthian 
 laurel, is ordered to Washington to supersede Mc- 
 Clellan in the chief command of the army. Before 
 retiring, however, he insults Grant once more by 
 offering to one of his quartermasters the chieftain- 
 ship of the Army of the Tennessee ; but, as the 
 overture is declined, Grant is left at Corinth in 
 command of it, depleted by the withdrawal of four 
 great divisions to support the movements of Buell. 
 
 The transfer of Halleck to Washington enlarged not 
 Grant's jurisdiction, but relieved him from a minute 
 and pragmatical supervision. Heiinds himself about 
 the middle of July in supreme command at Corinth, 
 with four divisions under him, — Sherman's, Rose- 
 crans's, Ord's, and Hurlbut's. It therefore becomes 
 necessary to glance for a moment at the strategical 
 relation of his new position to the territory occupied 
 by the two belligerents. 
 
 In the first place, Corinth is on the Mobile and 
 Columbus Railroad, which he must hold from Corinth 
 to its northern terminus on the Mississippi ; because 
 Columbus is now his base of supplies. To the south 
 this road is entirely under rebel control, and therefore 
 invites hostile inroads from that direction. 
 
 In the second place, at Corinth the Mobile Road 
 intersects the Charleston and Memphis Railroad ; and 
 Grant must hold this road up to Memphis, for that 
 city is now under his command, and held by Gen. 
 Sherman. To the east, it stretches through all the 
 Gulf States, up to the very citadel of Rebellion in 
 South Carolina, and serves as the convenient channel 
 
192 LIFE OF GENERAL GEAITT. 
 
 for the influx upon him of rebel armies from that 
 direction. 
 
 In the third place, within striking distance upon 
 his left, is BoUvar, upon the Mississippi Central, which 
 penetrates the State after which it is named. I 
 should also note that Jackson, a few miles north of 
 Corinth, is at the junction of the Mississip|)i Central 
 with the Mobile and Columbus. 
 
 It is therefore apparent that Jackson and Bolivar 
 must both be occupied as the keys of Corinth, Mem- 
 phis, and Columbus, and as essential safeguards of 
 the war defensive. 
 
 With excellent judgment, the rebel authorities have 
 committed to Price and Van Dorn the control of 
 operations against Corinth ; for they were both adepts 
 in the partisan w^arfare which consists in suddenly 
 extemporizing an army, springing on the most ex- 
 posed post of a long line, and, when foiled, scattering 
 over the country, or retreating to an inaccessible wild. 
 Both know that there is no reason to fear offensive 
 movements from Grant ; for, although they may not 
 be aware of the orders which restrain him, they can 
 see with their eyes that his legs are tethered b}' 
 the exigences of his situation. The idea which most 
 vividly describes the uncomfortable quarters of 
 Grant, for the next three months, is to consider him in 
 a hornet's nest, which the venomous insects, both in- 
 side and outsidC; are endeavoring to recapture. When 
 he is unguarded, they swarm around him with stings 
 innumerable ; when he is prepared to strike, they 
 vanisii into air. After repeated petty annoyances, 
 he becomes aware, about the 1st of September, that 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIYIL WAR ? 19U 
 
 two swarms are demonstrating against him in force. 
 With the control of the Mississippi Central, Van 
 Dorn is threatening him from the south ; and Price, 
 at the east, has seized the Charleston Road at luka. 
 Grant instantly discerns his peril, and determines to 
 capture the swarm at luka, before it can form a 
 junction with the swarm from the south. He orders 
 Rosecrans to point the head of his division eastward, 
 and, stealing stealthily through the woods which 
 border the Charleston Railroad on the south, to wheel 
 suddenly to the north when he reaches the longitude 
 of luka, and, spreading his wings, seize Fulton — a 
 station on the road in the rear of luka — with the 
 one, and directly assault luka from the south with 
 the other. 
 
 Havins: started Rosecrans with nine thousand men 
 upon the execution of this manoeuvre, he ' calls in 
 Ord's division of eight thousand men, and rushes 
 them out on a railroad train to Burnsville, within 
 easy distiince, upon the east of luka, and retains the 
 empty cars there, to return this corps to Corinth in 
 case Van Dorn should attack during his absence. 
 Grant is at Burnsville, where "he can conveniently 
 supervise the intended operations of both divisions. 
 
 On the 18th he pushes forward Ord against luka; 
 because, on the 18th, Rosecrans informs him that he 
 will close upon luka from the south, and it is not until 
 midnight of the same day that he sends Grant word 
 that he is still twenty miles from luka. Grant is forced 
 by this information to suddenly change his plans, 
 and to direct Ord to withhold his assault until he hears 
 the guns of Rosecrans co-operating from the south. 
 
 13 
 
194 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Meanwhile Rosecrans has imprudently i^ermitted a 
 rebel .surgeon, by the name of Burton, to hang about 
 his headquarters and secure his confidence, who upon 
 the 19th carries to Price all the details of Rosecrans's 
 command, and also discloses the intention to capture 
 Fulton in the rebels' rear, and cut off the retreat. 
 Price, therefore, forthwith commences preparations for 
 the evacuation of luka, and, massing his forces, sallies 
 out southward, and lies in ambuscade to receive 
 Eosecrans. Late on the afternoon of the 19th, Rose- 
 crans's leading brigade is met by an ambush several 
 miles south of luka ; and for five miles its advance 
 is contested by skirmishers and sharpshooters, posted 
 in every cover. Within about two miles of luka, 
 Gen. Hamilton, who commands the advance, finds the 
 enemy's front strongly posted in a ravine, which 
 here cuts the road transversely, with a part of his 
 line also behind the crest of an adjoining hill. A sharp 
 engagement ensues, distinguished by the stubbornness 
 of our assault against heavy odds, — ensconced in a 
 natural trench, presenting but a narrow front, en- 
 tirely controlled by artillery upon the hill ; while the 
 nature of the ground permits Hamilton to use but 
 a single battery. After a determined struggle, Price 
 is driven from his position as darkness comes on ; 
 and the victors bivouac upon the battle-ground. The 
 columns which Grant directs Rosecrans to detach 
 for the purpose of striking the railroad at Fulton, 
 for reasons which were never explained, failed to 
 reach their destination. 
 
 Under the protection of the night. Price retreats 
 from the battle-field to the cars w^hich are awaiting 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 195 
 
 him upon the Charleston Road, and speedily places 
 his troops beyond reach of pursuers. The wind 
 blew strongly from the north during the afternoon ; 
 and the first information which Ord receives of the 
 action at the south was communicated to him by 
 the negroes. He immediately pushes into luka, to 
 discover that Grant's device for hiving one swarm 
 of the hornets is foiled by the neglect of an impor- 
 tant order. The result of the battle was only a 
 temporary check upon the concerted movement of 
 Price and Van Dorn ; for, by circuitous routes, — 
 always at their command, — a junction is speedily 
 effected. 
 
 On the 23d of September, Grant moves his head- 
 quarters to Jackson, the geographical centre of his 
 command. The disastrous campaigns of the east are 
 daily withdrawing detachments from his feeble force ; 
 and, early in October, he sends a telegram to Wash- 
 ington, which, coming from one habitually undemon- 
 strative and uncomplaining, indicates no small degree 
 of anxiety. " My position is precarious," he says ; 
 " but I hope to get out of it all right." At this 
 juncture, Price and Van Dorn, with an overwhelm- 
 ing array, are threatening every post under his pro- 
 tection ; and his apprehensions are the more lively 
 because he cannot divine which of all the points 
 within their reach will be the object of attack. He 
 taxes his utmost cunning to ascertain their aim, until, 
 finally, a change in their cavalry cantonment, which 
 would have been entirely unnoticed by an inexperi- 
 enced eye, reveals to him that Corinth is their quarr}^ 
 Kosecrans is forthwith directed to call in all his out- 
 
196 LIFE OF GENERAL GnAifT. 
 
 posts, and McPherson is sent to re-enforce him with 
 his brigade. Hurlbut and Ord are hurried up from 
 Bolivar, to act as emergences may require -, but, 
 before the re-enforcements reach Corinth, the enemy 
 has partially invested it. 
 
 The moment Grant was placed in command of Cor- 
 inth, he dismantled that immense range of fortifica- 
 tions which Beauregard had raised to disguise his real 
 weakness, and constructed substantial works nearer the 
 town, and capable of being defended by a small gar- 
 rison. The w^isdom of this precaution was now to be 
 demonstrated ; for Rosecrans, having been defeated in 
 an attempt to raise the investment, is assailed on the 
 4th of October by the enemy, thirty-eight thousand 
 strong. It is no mere feint upon the part of Price 
 and Van Dorn ; never did they evince more impetu- 
 osity and determination than in this struggle to tear 
 from the talons of Grant their ancient nest. They 
 charge with heavy columns, once and again and still 
 again, upon vs^orks garnished with artillery, and gar- 
 risoned by nineteen th'iusand soldiers. They storm 
 in the teeth of devastating batteries. They even pene- 
 trate the town, and shake for an instant our waver- 
 ing troops, who are speedily rallied by Rosecrans in 
 person. It was the enfilading fire of the interior 
 forts which at this crisis saved Corinth from destruc- 
 tion. McPherson arrives during the action, and, by 
 a brilliant cUtoiir, brings up his brigade on Rose- 
 crans's right ; but the elan and will of the assailants 
 are already dashed.' By eleven o'clock they are not 
 only repulsed, but in disorderly rout, and, if Rose- 
 crans had followed them with energy, would have 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 197 
 
 been exterminated. They are, however, fortunately 
 struck on the flank by Hurlbut and Ord, at the 
 Hatchie ; and the punishment which they received 
 relieved the district forever from the inroads of Price 
 and Van Dorn. 
 
 After the battle of luka and Corinth, Grant's mili- 
 tary jurisdiction was amplified by the command of 
 the Department of the Tennessee, comprehending 
 Cairo, the forts he had captured, all Kentucky and 
 Tennessee west of the Tennessee River, and Northern 
 Mississippi. His enterprising spirit immediately con- 
 ceives the idea of opening the great river by the 
 reduction of Vicksburg. As early as the 25th of 
 October, he submitted a proposition to the secretary 
 of war, which contemplated an advance upon that 
 " barred gateway " by means of the Mississippi Cen- 
 tral, with a co-operating expedition upon the Missis- 
 sippi River. The execution of this project involved 
 the abandonment of Corinth, and was, of course, too 
 repugnant to Halleck's conservative temperament to 
 receive his immediate assent; but, after various delays, 
 the plan, with some amendments, was authorized, but 
 was destined to be retarded by a complication of a 
 different nature. 
 
 The baton of a brigadier was placed in the hands 
 of John A. McClernand, as a recognition of political 
 merit and influence ; and he carried with him into the 
 field more of the tactics of the adroit politician than 
 the skilful commander. As he had found " bun- 
 combe " serviceable in a political campaign, he saw 
 no reason why it should be abjured on the military 
 arena ; and, as he had been obliged to blow his own 
 
198 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GEAi^T. 
 
 trumpet in the canvass, he did not scorn the same duty 
 in the camp. All that he knew of the art of war had 
 been learned in eighteen months, and in three en- 
 gagements. With great skill, at Belmont, he had 
 electioneered his brigade into action ; at Donelson, he 
 remained in obscurity after Pillow had rolled up his 
 division ; and at Shiloh, he had been content, during 
 the first day, to hang on the skirts of Sherman, and 
 during the second to play the conservative role of a 
 reserve. He was now, in his own judgment, capable 
 of leading an expedition, or, at all events, was tired 
 of '•' furnishing brains " to the Army of the Tennes- 
 see, and wished to be the actual, as well as the real 
 head of the concern ; nor did our experience of edu- 
 cated officers render such aspirations upon the part 
 of any military fledgling preposterous. He went to 
 Washington, and by the arts of political legerdemain, 
 of which he was a master, almost persuaded the mind 
 of the president — susceptible to such influences — 
 to install him in command, over the head of Grant. 
 It is to the credit of Halleck that in this emergency 
 he stood by his subordinate. Whatever were his 
 faults, he was too much of a soldier to permit politi- 
 cal combinations to derange the plans and control 
 the administration of the army, and he resisted the 
 present intrigue with all his might and with all his 
 resources. But, as was the wont of the president in 
 such dilemmas, he compromised the rival pretensions, 
 by refusing to interfere with the projects of Grant, 
 but authorized McClernand, when sufficient troops 
 were concentrated at Memphis for the prospective 
 operations of the commander of the district, to or- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAK ? 199 
 
 ganize an expedition against Vicksburg, and to open 
 the navigation of the Mississippi. 
 
 Grant had seized Grand Junction, which controlled 
 the Mississippi Central, while he was waiting for au- 
 thority from Washington to advance down the road ; 
 and it was not until the 12th of November that he 
 received the information that he was sufficient master 
 of his own troops to justify the undertaking, and 
 knew nothing up to this time, except by current gos- 
 sip, of any authority issued to McClernand. He im- 
 mediately puts his troops in motion, occupies Holly 
 Springs, drives Pemberton from his intrenchments 
 behind the Tallahatchie, and, having swept the Mis- 
 sissippi Central clear of all foes, down to Grenada, 
 establishes his headquarters at Oxford, twenty-eight 
 miles below Holly Springs, on the 8th of December. 
 He now finds that Pemberton is declining battle, and 
 merely luring him on to the Vicksburg intrenchments. 
 He therefore prepares forthwith to launch the river 
 expedition. It was his intention to intrust this 
 movement to Sherman alone; and from Oxford he 
 issues instructions to him — still at Memphis — "to as- 
 sume command of all troops at Memphis, and of Gen. 
 Curtis's force east of the Mississippi, and, as soon as 
 possible, move with them down the river, and, with 
 the co-operation of the gunboat fleet under the 
 command of Flag-officer Porter, proceed to the re- 
 duction of Vicksburg in such manner as circum- 
 stances and your own judgment may dictate. I will 
 hold the forces here," he adds, "in readiness to co- 
 operate with you, in such a manner as the movements 
 of the enemy may make necessary." We have here 
 
200 LIFE OF GENERAL GEA5^T. 
 
 the unabridged plan of the campaign, and the expla 
 nation of all subsequent movements up to its con- 
 clusion. 
 
 While he remains at Oxford, the telegrams of 
 Grant indicate two main causes of anxiet}', — the 
 hazard of being bereft of suppUes, which was daily 
 increased the farther he removed from his base ; and 
 the apprehension that some political appointee will 
 be foisted upon him as chief subordinate in place 
 of Sherman. The former danf>;er was to some extent 
 alleviated by establishing at Holly Springs an auxili- 
 ary depot ; but the latter was speedily realized by 
 a telegram from Halleck, which said, " It is the wish 
 of the president that Gen. McClernand's corps shall 
 constitute a part of the river expedition, and that 
 he shall have the immediate command under your 
 direction." 
 
 There is no doubt that Halleck and Grant had 
 been in hearty alliance for weeks to defeat executive 
 interference with the freedom of choice ; that the 
 former, while he was aware that the president had 
 been forced to yield to the pressure of McClernand's 
 political friends, had, with pardonable indiscretion, 
 revealed to Grant that Mr. Lincoln might indicate a 
 separate commander, adding significantly, " Sherman 
 would be my choice as chief under you;" and that 
 Grant, with more than habitual speed, had hurried 
 Sherman's preparations, that the transports might be 
 under way before any unwelcome order should be re- 
 ceived from Washington. But there is nothing to 
 do now but to bend to the mandate of the com- 
 mander-in-chief of the army and the navy; and 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 201 
 
 Grant telegraphs to McClernand, who was at Spring- 
 field, that he had been directed by the general-in- 
 chief, " to divide the force intended for the river 
 expedition into four army corps, and to assign to him 
 the command of one ; and informing him, moreover, 
 that he would find instructions at Memphis, which 
 would be turned over to him by General Sherman." 
 
 An unexpected calamity now disconcerted his own 
 co-operating movements. Grant, bear in mind, is 
 still at Oxford, twenty-four miles below Holly Springs; 
 and McPherson's brigade is on the Tallahatchie, still 
 farther in advance. Col. Murphy, of the Eighth 
 Wisconsin Volunteers, had been left in command of 
 the depot at Holly Springs, upon w4iich the army 
 relied for food and munitions of war ; and, with that 
 crassa negligentia which would raise a presumption 
 of criminal complicity with the enemy, both by 
 neglect of previous preparation for its security, and 
 by the neglect of ordinary precaution of guards and 
 outposts at the time of attack, permitted Van Dorn, 
 at the head of a mere cavalry squadron, to capture 
 this important post and to destroy all its valuable 
 stores, without even striking a blow in its defence, or 
 scarcely rising from his couch. He was cashiered for 
 the crime, which was not a tithe of his deserts. About 
 the same time, Forrest, the notorious raider of West 
 Tennessee, had broken up at Jackson the railroad to 
 Columbus ; and, by these two blows. Grant was entirely 
 cut off from his main and subsidiary base of supplies. 
 Now, if Grant had been the mere drilled tactician 
 who governs himself absolutely by military theories 
 and precedents, he would have forthwith surrendered 
 
202 LIFE or GENERAL GRAIn^T. 
 
 his army ; for theoretical starvation was the corollary 
 of these two misfortunes. The expedient of main- 
 taining an army with its regular communication 
 severed is only, with rare exceptions, resorted to 
 but by the vanquished, and is of itself a confession 
 of defeat. Grant is no slave of mihtary rule and 
 and routine He is both a practical and theoretical 
 soldier, and employs the maxims of his art only 
 when they are imperious ; but draws laws from the 
 fertility of his own invention in situations which are 
 exceptions to ordinary rules. He meets unjorece- 
 dented circumstances by unprecedented measures. 
 He has no thought of surrender, but throws himself 
 on the country for food. For more than a week, he 
 has no communication with the North ; for two weeks, 
 he is bereft of all regular supplies. Non-combatant 
 rebels may suffer, but the soldiers must be fed. He 
 subsists an army of thirty thousand men on their 
 well-stocked storehouses and granaries ; he eats out 
 of house and home fifteen square miles of country, 
 and, in the language of Mrs. Quickly to Sir John 
 Falstaff, " puts all its substance " in the consuming 
 maw of his thirty legions. In this adversity, which 
 seemed tantamount to ruin, he first conceives the 
 practicability of the " movable column " which upon 
 such a scale of grandeur was subsequently let loose 
 upon the waning Rebellion. Gen. Badeau affirms, 
 that, while discussing this campaign with Gen. Grant, 
 he had frequently heard him say, " If I had known 
 at its inception what I learned during its prosecu- 
 tion, that thirty regiments could be easily fed upon 
 the enemy's country, I would have pushed on to the 
 rear of Vicksburg, and captured the place." 
 
WHAT DID J IE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 2.0« 
 
 The experiment, however, of subsisting upon the 
 enemy was too novel at the time, and too repugnant 
 to the cautions of the miUtary. art, to justify Grant 
 in prosecuting his advance, or retaining his present 
 positions, after his communications were severed. He 
 could not incur the responsibility " of burning his 
 ships," and throwing himself into the midst of the 
 foe. He therefore retraces his march of sixty miles, 
 and estabhshes himself at Grand Junction until 
 Forrest is driven back to his hiding-place ; and, having 
 again opened connection with Columbus, he again 
 establishes his headquarters at Holly Springs, again 
 pushes on his advance to the Tallahatchie before 
 Christmas of 1862. 
 
 It has been repeatedly asked, Why did not Gen. 
 Grant confide entirely to a river movement against 
 A^icksburg ? why did he incur the risks of a land 
 approach? It is a sufficient answer to say, that, in 
 such a hazardous business as war, it is never wise to 
 invest all your fortune in a single venture ; and that 
 double expedients are frequently employed by the 
 great exemplifiers of the art, for the accomplishment 
 of the same end ; and that, if a choice was to be made 
 between the two lines of attack, military experts 
 affirm, that, even after the Holly Springs disaster, the 
 Mississippi Central was the one to which preference 
 should be given. But, in addition to this, he knew 
 that Pemberton was on the Tallahatchie at the head 
 of an army, which he preferred to encounter in the 
 open field, instead of behind the fortifications of 
 Yicksburg ; and I have already shown, that, after the 
 battle of Shiloh, it became a controlling maxim of 
 
2ft4 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 Grant's strategy to address his campaigns to the " an- 
 nihihxtion of the enemy's army," with the assured 
 prospect that every stronghold and intrenched posi- 
 tion would Ml when this feat was accomplished. In 
 this very campaign, as soon as he discovers that 
 Pemberton abandons the strong; lines behind the 
 Tallahatchie without accepting battle, he gives a 
 peremptory order to Sherman to advance by the 
 river, that the enemy, who declines to fight in the 
 field, shall not be left in immunity upon the bluffs 
 of Vicksburg. 
 
 Behold, then. Grant on the 25th of December at 
 Holly Springs, with McPherson, whose military gen- 
 ius is rapidly culminating, advanced to the line of the 
 Tallahatchie, to arrest the attention of Pemberton, 
 and divert him, if possible, from massing upon Sher- 
 man, whose expedition down the river I must now 
 briefly follow. 
 
 The rupture of communications, which happened 
 immediately after Grant had received the command 
 of the president to give to McClernand the chief 
 place under him in the control of the river move- 
 ment, although it had not prevented Grant from giv- 
 ing to McClernand the information, had prevented 
 the transmission of an order to Sherman to recog-nize 
 McClernand as his superior. For, during the period 
 of non-intercouse with Memphis, Sherman had em- 
 barked w^ith thirty thousand men, and had receiv- 
 ed aboard his transports twelve thousand more at 
 Helena, and had reached Milliken's Bend, on the 
 Arkansas shore, twenty miles above Vicksburg, the 
 day after Grant had re-occupied Holly Springs. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 205 
 
 The few lines I shall devote to Sherman's unsuc- 
 cessful assault of the 27th, 28th, and 29th of Decem- 
 ber demands from me no elaborate sketch, either of 
 the topography or defences of the rebels' strong- 
 hold. I have merely to notice, that, although the 
 Mississippi River bends sharply to the east at Vicks- 
 burg, the line of bluffs upon which it stands, and 
 which nre essential elements of its strength, do not 
 participate in the deflections of the stream, but con- 
 tinue along on their course parallel to the western 
 bank of tlie Yazoo, where they become, and are called, 
 "Walnut Hills." The Yazoo enters the Mississippi 
 River nine miles above Vicksbursf. Between the 
 Yazoo and these bluffs prolonged, there is a kind of 
 delta, half-inundated, commanded by them, penetrated 
 by bayous, besprinkled with swamps, — a tangled 
 thicket of water-loving plants, which flourish so wild- 
 ly at the mouths of tropical rivers, — where artillery 
 cannot operate at all, and infantry move only on the 
 narrow embankments, which are in these submerged 
 fields what cow-paths are in bur Northern woods. 
 
 Sherman went up the Yazoo, disembarked his troops 
 in the forlorn and dismal slough which I have just 
 etched, j)enetrated it with his infantry, against the 
 artillery on the Walnut Hills, and rifle-pits also, as he 
 approached the Vicksburg bluffs, and succeeded in 
 reaching the solid declivities of the Vicksburg hill, 
 and established himself within the rebel lines under 
 the superior fortifications upon the eminence ! Vf hat 
 more could mortal soldier do? His failure to carry 
 the town resulted from no want of men, for he could 
 not use half of his force ; from no want of batteries, 
 
206 LIFE OF GENERAL GBANT. 
 
 because he could not use tliem at all ; from no want 
 of judgment in selecting the point of attack, for he 
 chose the only point assailable ; from no want either 
 of pluck or of will, in officers or men, because they 
 achieved all that human resolution or courage can do ; 
 but simply because Vicksburg is just as impregnable 
 to mere assault as the rock of Gibraltar. The fault, 
 if any fault there be, lies at their door who expected 
 impossibilities throughout this war : the blame, if 
 blame there be, lay in that infatuation and maze of 
 the public mind, which, at this juncture of our affairs, 
 exacted from " bipeds without feathers " the feats of 
 birds. After withdrawing his column in good order 
 and in good spirits, the command of the president 
 reached Sherman, superseding him by McClernand. 
 He receives it with the serene brow of a Belisarius. 
 Although the order had been issued months prior to 
 the assault, it was construed by the charitable home- 
 guards as a rebuke to Sherman. 
 
 While the command was waiting for additional 
 orders from Grant, Sherman induced his superior, 
 McClernand, to attack Arkansas Post, far up the 
 Arkansas River. With the assistance of a bombard- 
 ment from Porter's fleet, the attack proved successful ; 
 and the fort, with five thousand prisoners and seven- 
 teen guns, capitulated. 
 
 On the 4th of January, 1862, Grant receives the 
 information of Sherman's failure to carry Vicksburg. 
 The controlling reasons which instigated the advance 
 by the Mississippi Central no longer exist. Pember- 
 ton evinces only a disposition to draw him from his 
 base ; and, as Grant moves forward, he falls back to 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 207 
 
 the safe citadel ui^on the bluffs. " His army is not to 
 be annihilated in the field," but must be captured in 
 garrison. Diversion in Sherman's favor is no longer 
 needed, for Sherman has reported that Vicksburg can 
 only be mastered by siege. Grant, therefore, gives 
 the order to withdraw from the Tallahatchie. The 
 enormous mounds of stores of every description are 
 moved with the army, and it was not until the 10th 
 of January that Grant again established hhnself at 
 Memphis. 
 
 Both the land and river expeditions are failures ! 
 Vicksburg, on the bluff, still stands in grim and ma- 
 jestic defiance of our flag, barricading the natural 
 highway to the sea of an area of territory so im- 
 mense that it can only be measured by the great 
 circles of the globe, paralyzing in a measure its fifty- 
 seven navigable tributaries, preserving the territorial 
 cohesion of the Gulf and trans-Mississippi States of 
 the Confederacy, constraining the grandest water- 
 course on the continent to be the accomplice of trea- 
 son, and forcing its mighty channel to contribute to 
 the martial and financial strength of Rebellion. In 
 this view the campaign was a fliilure, but in another 
 view it was a success. "Out of the nettle danger, we 
 plucked the flower safety." It planted the seeds of 
 victory, and pointed out the way in which it coiild be 
 won. It strangled all expedients to carry Vicksburg 
 by mere storm ; it demonstrated that the regular 
 approaches of a siege were the only road to its con- 
 quest, and inspired one man with strength and vol- 
 ume enough of will to travel that road to the end. 
 While Pemberton is jubilant over our defeat both 
 
208 LIFE OF GEXEIiAL GEANT. 
 
 upon river and upon land, the parallels, bastions, and 
 batteries which will demolish it are already erected 
 and planted in the mind of Grant. While McClernand 
 is wailing over failure, Grant is writing him, "If there 
 are men enough in the West, Vicksburg will fall." 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 I have eliminated from four operations against the 
 enemy, through which I have already traced Grant, 
 four maxims, which his experience in this war had 
 inculcated respecting the mode in which it should be 
 fought ; and, as these maxims essentiidly control and 
 illustrate his future military policy, I will here re- 
 capitulate them : — 
 
 BELMONT. 
 
 I. When both belligerents are undisciplined, noth- 
 ing is gained by a procrastinating drill ; because the 
 enemy improves as fast as yourself, and the manifold 
 advantages of promptness are sacrificed. 
 
 DONELSON AND SHILOH. 
 
 II. In a hotly-contested action, when it appears 
 that both parties are shocked, the one wdiich first at- 
 tacks vigorously is sure to win. 
 
 AFTER SHILOH. 
 
 III. Campaigns in this war should be addressed 
 chiefly to the annihilation of the enemy's army, rather 
 than to the mere capture of his strongholds, or the 
 mere occupation of his territory. 
 
 HOLLY SPRINGS. 
 
 IV. The " movable column " can be safely and 
 successfully employed. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 HE BESIEGES VICKSBURG. 
 [January to May, 1864.] 
 
 AS you descend the Mississippi from Memphis in 
 the season of the spring freshet, yon are at 
 every step impressed with the idea, that the niighty 
 stream is too big for its basin, and that its pent-np 
 current is continually struggling for relief You are 
 also seized with the thought, that the alluvial region 
 through which it flows is favoring this effort ; for it 
 has been described with poetic license, but with much 
 truth, as " neither sea nor strand." The unsubstan- 
 tial soil presents but a feeble obstacle to the tortuous 
 inclination of the torrent. It therefore winds through 
 the yielding morass wherever it listeth, abandoning 
 its old channels for new, breaking out into innumera- 
 ble side reservoirs and bayous, and, as it approaches 
 its mouth, incessantly seeking additional outlets to 
 
 the gulf 
 
 As you approach its junction with the Yazoo, you 
 become aware that the river is about to indulge in 
 one of its serpentine freaks. The channel reverses 
 its southerly course, and, turning suddenly to the 
 north-east, forms an elongated horseshoe ; and, after 
 
 14 209 
 
210 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 you have rounded the toe, and steamed about a third 
 of the way to the down-stream heel, you find on the 
 eastern bank the fortifications of Vicksburg. The 
 peninsula formed on the Louisiana shore by this 
 sharp curve is about two miles in breadth and three 
 and a half miles long. 
 
 If the topographical feature I have thus indicated 
 were the sole military advantage of Vicksburg, it 
 would be merely a favorable sight for planting a 
 water battery,- to control the river for several miles, 
 and it might be easily approached from the north, 
 and turned or captured. But it possesses two other 
 natural advantages of situation, which fairly daunt 
 the boldest engifieer who is devising approaches to 
 it from the north. The Yazoo, although contempti- 
 ble in size when contrasted with the parent stream, 
 yet belongs to the same class with the Hudson and 
 Connecticut : it not only enters the Mississippi at the 
 toe of the horse-shoe, but overspreads fifteen square 
 miles with that complicated network of mouths, 
 swamps, bayous, and jungles, which distinguish the 
 deltas of this abnormal region, and would of itself 
 constitute no contemptible obstacle to an approach 
 to Vicksburg from the north. The strongest natural 
 advantage of the place remains to be noticed. A 
 range of highlands, from two to three hundred feet 
 in height, start at Ilaine's Bluff, on the banks of the 
 Yazoo, twelve miles above Vicksburg, and, running 
 southward parallel to its channel, impinge on the 
 Mississippi at Vicksburg, hug the river bend closely 
 where the city lies, and extend to Warrenton on the 
 Mississippi, seven miles below the stronghold. For 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 211 
 
 nearly twenty miles tliey present a precipitous ridge 
 whicli commands at every point the Yazoo and the 
 Mississippi, and also affords a rugged, terraced, and 
 controlling situation for Vicksburg itself, two hundred 
 feet above the water's edge. Such are the natural 
 advantages of this " barred gateway." 
 
 What nature has left undone, to present here to 
 the assailant a task of unparalleled difficulty, the 
 genius of military art has completed. Haine's Bluff 
 and Warrenton constitute the extreme right and left 
 of the enemy's line, and are as impregnable to mere 
 assault as the principal fortress. Upon them has 
 been lavished all the ingenuity of the engineer, and 
 a superabundance of superb modern ordnance. If 
 there happens to be, at any point of this ong range 
 of ridge, a narrow strip of alluvial between the river 
 and its base, which may offer a foothold to a storm- 
 ing party, it is furnished with line within Ime of rifle- 
 pits, which render it entirely untenable. In addition 
 to the batteries on every available position upon both 
 of its expanded wings, Vicksburg itself presents to 
 the river the plunging fire of twenty-eight heavy 
 guns, posted at such a height upon the cliff that no 
 cannon afloat can be raised to a sufficient elevation 
 to disturb them ; and, that its command of the channel 
 may be absolutely despotic, a platform for a water 
 battery is placed at the base, while every terrace of 
 the facing acclivity is provided with guns to sweep 
 the river at every conceivable angle. 
 
 On the 30th of January, Grant finds himself at 
 Milliken's Bend, facing his enormous task. He has 
 with him an army of fifty thousand men, in four 
 
212 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRAiTT, 
 
 grand army corpSj commandecl respectively by Mc 
 demand, Sherman, Hurlbut, and McPherson. The 
 military characteristics of these four leaders are al- 
 ready familiar to the reader, and the qualities* 
 of their principal subordinates will appear at a 
 later period of the campaign. Hurlbut is left at 
 La Grange, with a part of his division, to protect 
 communications. 
 
 The first problem presented to Grant is to secure 
 a lodgment on the eastern acclivities in the rear of 
 Vicksburg, and we must remember that during Feb- 
 ruary and March he is solely endeavoring to accom- 
 plish this by a northern approach. I propose now to 
 describe the gigantic enterprises which he undertook 
 for the purpose of achieving this object, involving of 
 themselves an amount of labor, hardshij), and endur- 
 ance which would have daunted the most energetic 
 wdll in the world. They were of sufficient grandeur 
 to stir the mummies of the extinct race which built 
 the Pyramids, or agitate the ashes of the defunct Per- 
 sians who tunnelled Mount Athos and bridged the 
 Hellespont. They were all deeds for — 
 
 " Giants of mighty bone and bold emprise." 
 CANAL. 
 
 The first step towards the solution of the problem 
 is to remodel a physical feature of the globe itself, 
 by turning the channel of its grandest river. The 
 tendency of the Mississippi to take short cuts to the 
 Gulf suggested the undertaking; and it had been 
 commenced the previous summer by a detachment 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 213 
 
 of Gen. Butler's army, from the Department of the 
 Gulf I have already directed attention to the horse- 
 shoe bend which the channel makes in order to in- 
 vest Vicksburg vath full command of its course. The 
 scheme now in hand was to dig a canal from heel to 
 heel, convert the peninsula formed by the curve into 
 an island, and thus isolate Vicksburg, and neutralize 
 its control of the navigable current. It was more fasci- 
 natino; to the imagination of a civilian than a soldier, 
 and was prosecuted in deference to the express wishes 
 of the president, although Grant had assured Haileck, 
 early in February, that the exit of the canal into the 
 Mississippi was under the control of the Warrenton 
 Bluffs. The excavation here in the summer of 1862 
 had not penetrated through the alluvium to the crumb- 
 lino; strata of sand which underlies it, and therefore the 
 water, which passed through it with volume and force, 
 had succeeded neither in enlarging nor deepening the 
 new channel. Grant's efforts are chiefly directed to 
 remedies for this infirmity, by the use of dredging 
 machines, and the construction of what are denomi- 
 nated wings, by engineers, placed in the river above, 
 and designed to compel a greater mass of water to 
 follow the new course he was endeavoring to create. 
 Grant continues to proclaim it an abortion in all his 
 despatches to Washington. Four thousand troops, 
 with auxihary contrabands, were for six weeks em- 
 ployed upon this labor, and at one time follacious 
 hopes were entertained of its success : but the current 
 proved too mighty to be mastered by man; and on the 
 8th of March a freshet broke through the dam at its 
 mouth, and a raging torrent poured into the canal, not 
 
2U LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 to seek an outlet at its lower orifice, but to devastate 
 the levees at its side and submerge the peninsula. 
 Upon the subsidence of the flood, it could only be 
 used for the passage of small boats. Thus, after 
 human toil almost commensurate with a primordial 
 force of nature, the first expedient for reaching the 
 rear of Vicksburg is a failure. 
 
 LAKE PROVIDENCE. 
 
 Simultaneous with the prosecution of the canal 
 project, another scheme for turning the channel of 
 the Mississippi, of still grander scope and proportion, 
 was employing the superfluous troops. About thirty 
 miles above Milliken's Bend, where our army is en- 
 camped, is Lake Providence, on the Louisiana shore. 
 It is undoubtedly the relic of some antique channel 
 of the Mississippi, when upon some primitive excur- 
 sion in this direction. By means of the Baxter and 
 Macon Bayous and the Washita and Tensas Elvers^ 
 the lake communicates with the Red Kivcr, which 
 enters the Mississippi scores of miles below Vicks- 
 burg, and below Port Hudson. By this inner pas- 
 sage also, the Atchafalaya may be reached, which 
 many presume to have been the original way by 
 which the Father of Waters reached the Gulf It was 
 hoped, that, in an extremity, the whole of the Missis- 
 sippi might be turned into this abandoned bed, and 
 our transports pass below Vicksburg, in contempt of 
 its batteries, and reach the coveted rear from the 
 south. A canal was dug which turned Lake Provi- 
 dence into the bayous. McPherson's brigade was 
 employed for several weeks in opening this commu- 
 
-WHAT DJD HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 215 
 
 nication. But Baxter Bayou proved to be so encum- 
 bered with snags and timber, and so tortuous in its 
 course, that it could be made navigable only for 
 steamers of the lightest draught. This expedient for 
 gaining siege-ground to the rear of the fortifications 
 is relinquished about the same time as the canal. 
 
 THE YAZOO PASS. 
 
 Grant is still fighting Nature to reach the eastern 
 face of the stronghold. At the same time he was 
 attempting to channel across the peninsula, and to 
 open an interior avenue to the Red River by the way 
 of L;ike Providence, he detached Col. Wilson, of his 
 staff, to re-open the Yazoo Pass. A hundred miles 
 abovo Vicksburg, on the Mississippi bank of the river, 
 is Moon Lake, another of the deposits which the great 
 river has left behind in its wanderings. This lake, 
 by means of the Cold Water and the Tallahatchie, 
 which are its outlets, formed in olden time a circuit- 
 ous channel by which trading schooners sailed from 
 the Mississippi to the Yazoo. But as the inducement 
 which the lake offered to its waters to flow in this 
 direction exposed valuable plantations to inundation, 
 the State of Mississippi had built substantial levees 
 between the river and the lake. Colonel Wilson 
 blows them up by a mine, and makes a crevasse which 
 would admit the largest steamers into Moon Lake. But 
 the rebels were wide awake, and across its outlet 
 erected enormous barricades of timber ; all of which 
 with vast toil were removed by the troops, and the 
 lower Tallahatchie finally reached. A mosquito fleet, 
 escorted by two gunboats, received here forty-five 
 
216 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 hundred troops, under Gen. Eoss ; which, after a sei 
 pentine course of two hundred and fifty miles, reached 
 the town of Greenwood, where the confluence of the 
 two streams formed the Yazoo. Here Pemberton had 
 erected a fort commanding the approach, and so in- 
 trenched in bogs that to storm it is no easy task. An 
 attempt to carry it proved unavailing ; and, as re- 
 enforcements were being hurried up from Vicksburg 
 by interior lines, it was feared that Ross would be 
 captured before supports could reach him by our cir- 
 cumambient path. He eventually escaped, and this 
 project of reaching the rear of Vicksburg failed. 
 
 Steele's bayou. 
 
 Steele's Bayou and Muddy Bayou enter the Missis- 
 sippi about seven miles above the mouth of the 
 Yazoo, and communicate directly with that sub- 
 merged jungle where Sherman disembarked on the 
 27th of December for his unsuccessful assault. On 
 the 16th of March, Sherman, with a brigade of troops, 
 and Porter, with five iron-clads and four mortar-boats, 
 attempt to reach that gloomy lagoon, for the double 
 purpose of creating a diversion in favor of Ross, and 
 finding a practicable passage into the Yazoo, which 
 shall evade the batteries on Haine's Bluff. It is the 
 last expedient, at our command, for reaching dry land 
 in the rear of Vicksburg. A participator in the expe- 
 dition thus delineates one of the bayous : a narrow 
 stream, " heretofore navigable only by dug-outs, was 
 made of the width of our steamers with great labor, 
 by felling trees and sawing stumps below the surface. 
 Every foot of our way was cut and torn through a 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 217 
 
 dense forest nev<^r before traversed by steamers. I 
 never witnessed a more exciting and picturesque 
 scene than the transportation, on the last day, of the 
 Third Brigade. Crowded with men, the steamers at 
 the highest possible speed pushed through overhang- 
 ing trees and around short curves. Sometimes they 
 were wedged fast between trees ; then, sailing along 
 smoothly, a huge cypress would reach out an arm, 
 and sweep the whole length of the boats, tearing 
 guards and chimneys from the decks. The last trip 
 through the bayou was in a night pitchy dark and 
 rainy." It was like sailing through a flooded forest. 
 Porter is in advance. Audacious rebels appear in his 
 rear, and, cutting down timber on both banks, form 
 a barricade against his retreat. They force negroes, 
 at the point of the bayonet, to cut down trees on 
 both banks, and throw them over the stream to debar 
 his farther advance. In this secure trap he is ex- 
 posed to a swarm of sharpshooters in the woods, 
 but is eventually rescued by Sherman, who crowds 
 forward his brigade on coal-barges. Thus is the 
 fourth attempt to reach the rear of Vicksburg 
 defeated. 
 
 It was not until April 4, after two months of super- 
 human toil in a disgusting region of intermmable 
 swamp, unfavorable to the health, and disheartening 
 to the spirits of the men, that Grant had exhausted 
 every expedient for reaching the rear of Vicksburg 
 from the north. 
 
 The lessons of the school now abandon him : he 
 has gone the full length of their instructions. The 
 approved principles of his art now require him to 
 
218 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT, 
 
 retreat to the Tallahatchie, and renew the movement 
 of last winter by the Mississippi Central. But the 
 country can endure no retrograde step : he cannot 
 stand it himself. He determines to rise above all 
 rules and create a precedent. 
 
 grant's plan. 
 
 On the 4th of April, he sends a telegram to Hal- 
 leck, which first discloses the masterly strategical 
 manoeuvre which he eventually executes. He ex- 
 presses in plain language his determination to march 
 the main body of his army down the Louisiana shore 
 to New Carthage, below Vicksburg, and from that 
 point assail either Warrenton, or Grand Gulf, and gain 
 a foothold on the Mississippi shore from whence he 
 can reach that eastern face of Vicksburg, which has 
 so long defied his utmost ingenuity and toil. He 
 signifies at the same time the daring purpose of 
 running the gunboats and the transports through 
 the gantlets of the batteries ; for he would require 
 the gunboats in his attack upon Grand Gulf or War- 
 renton, and the transports to convey his army from 
 the Louisiana to the Mississippi shore. 
 
 Let the student of military history, if he can, 
 produce a plan of more consummate audacity, of 
 more staggering novelty. It directly invades those 
 primary principles of the military art which direct 
 you to tolerate no enemy between yourself and your 
 base of supplies. It was a voluntary surrender to 
 the foe of the position which he employs cam23aigns, 
 and exhausts all his tactics, to acquire ; and, to retain 
 which, you squander means and men, and task to 
 
■WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 219 
 
 tlieir utmost the resources of science and skill. Its 
 prosecution involved the hazardous experiment of 
 placing our army between Pemberton in Vicksburg 
 and Johnston in the interior. It indicates a genius 
 superior to all the trammels of rules, to all control 
 from precedent. 
 
 It was met with the unanimous dissent and the 
 avowed opposition of all the subordinates upon 
 whom Grant principally relied. By McPherson it 
 was considered as a fatal error, by Logan as a hair- 
 brained adventure, by Wilson as defying the estab- 
 lished principles of military science ; and all these 
 eminent leaders, in respectful language, and without 
 transcending the limits of soldierly decorum, ear- 
 nestly protested against it. Sherman, his most in- 
 timate friend, his steadfast comrade, jealous of his 
 superior's honor, proud of his reputation, confident of 
 his future renown, not only pronounced against it 
 orally, but placed in the hand of Grant's adjutant- 
 general a communication, couched of courae in 
 deferential language, but which was in fact a remon- 
 strance. The paper recommends a council of of- 
 ficers to decide on future operations. It proposes, 
 as a subfititute to Gen. Grant's project, to fall back, 
 and make the Yallabusha the base "from which to 
 operate against the points where the Mississippi 
 Central crosses Big Black, above Canton, and lastly 
 where the Vicksburg and Jackson Railroad crosses 
 the same river. The capture of Vicksburg would 
 result." It concludes in the following generous 
 strain : " I make these suggestions Avith the request 
 that Gen. Grant simply read them, and give them, 
 
220 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEAlfT. 
 
 as I know he will, a sbare of his thoughts. I would 
 prefer he sliould not answer them, but merely give 
 them as much, or as little, weight as they deserve. 
 Whatever plan of action he may adopt will receive 
 from me the same zealous co-operation and energetic 
 support as though conceived by myself " 
 
 Gen. Badeau informs us, that " Col. Rawlins handed 
 the paper to Grant without saying a word. Grant 
 read it carefully, but in silence, and, after the perusal 
 was finished, made no comment. The orders were 
 not revoked, the council of war was not called, and 
 the letter has never since been mentioned between 
 the two commanders. Its existence was not disclosed 
 by Grant until Sherman himself publicly related the 
 incident after the investment of Vicksburg, when 
 several prominent men were attributing to him the 
 conception of the campaign which resulted in open- 
 ing the Mississippi River." 
 
 This is but one instance of the greatness of soul 
 which was frequently illustrated during the long com- 
 radeship of these two distinguished men. When, but 
 a week or two afterwards. Grant is about to throw 
 himself between two armies of the enemy on the Mis- 
 sissippi shore, he wishes that Sherman shall make a 
 mere feint against Haine's Bluff, for the purpose of 
 distracting Pemberton. But he forbears to give an 
 order to Sherman ; because he fears that the country 
 will regard it as another "unlucky move" of that 
 officer, saying, in the letter which suggests the feint 
 to his honored subordinate, " I am loth to order it ; 
 because it would be so hard to make our own troops 
 to understand that only a demonstration was intended, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IK THE CIVIL WAR ? 221 
 
 and our people at home would characterize it as a 
 repulse." The generosity of Grant is met by a self- 
 abandonment upon the part of Sherman which is, 
 perhaps, even superior in its nobility ; for he forthwith 
 replies,"! believe a diversion at Haine's Bluff is proper 
 and right, and will make it, let whatever reports of 
 repulses be made." 
 
 From first to last. Grant never fails to herald 
 Sherman's illustrious deserts, while Sherman always 
 springs forward in defence of Grant's assailed reputa- 
 tion. No profane hand is lifted to pluck a laurel from 
 cither's brow without summoning the shield and the 
 spear of the other to the defence. The amiable and 
 accommodating spirit which pabses by the name of 
 friendship exists everywhere ; but thus to put aside 
 the crown of heroic deeds, and place it upon an 
 associate's head, is an example of it which can only 
 here and there be seen in lookino- down the aojes : it 
 honors our common nature. It is like that of David 
 and Jonathan, which, in the lamentation of that mon- 
 arch minstrel beloved of heaven, — every word of 
 which is swollen with a sigh and broken by a sob, — is 
 called "wonderful." A friendship thus rising into 
 that serene atmosphere, where it fulfils the precept, 
 "In honor preferring one another," only reaches its 
 plenitude of growth and perfection in the most ex- 
 alted minds. 
 
 While I was employed upon this page of my nar- 
 rative, a weekly journal of repute was placed in my 
 hands, the editor of which says, " Gen. Grant is a 
 sphinx: who can tell us how his victories were won?" 
 He wins his victories by strategical capacity, firmness, 
 
222 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT, 
 
 and pluck, — as Marlborough and Wellington did 
 theirs. These, I take it, are the qualities which initiate 
 bold campaigns, and fight out to the bitter end all the 
 battles which they require. The.'?e qualities, I maintain, 
 Grant possesses. Do you deny it ? Why, you find 
 them all here in one bunch. The firmness and pluck 
 displayed at this crisis, no one has yet been found 
 brazen enough to deny. Is the strategy in question ? 
 Whence, then, the conception of this new enterprise, 
 so vast in its prospective range, after every conceiv- 
 able plan for reaching Vicksburg had failed, if it was 
 not either an emanation of strategical genius, or the 
 result of previous strategical study and meditation ? 
 Conceived by a Napoleon, genius it would have been 
 called; by a Wellington, talent. Would any one 
 withhold from it the credit of strategy if either Scott 
 or Sherman or Sheridan had composed it ? And shall 
 this meed be refused, because it j)roceeds from a man 
 whose eye rolls " in no fine frenzy," who aspires to 
 no brilliancy or dash, who thinks more than he talks, 
 and who emerged from a leather-store to guide armies 
 and plan campaigns ? Yet these are the narrow 
 prejudices which instigate the sneer, " Grant is a 
 sphinx : who can explain how his victories were won ? " 
 implying that there is nothing in them but successful 
 blunder, or the inexplicable mystery of chance. The 
 victory of the allies at Alma has been attributed to 
 the fact, that Lord Raglan, losing himself in a kind of 
 imaginary fox-chase, finally stumbled upon a hill 
 where the battery could be placed, which decided the 
 contest along the English front. But there is too 
 much system and forethought and combination in 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 223 
 
 Grant's plan ; it involves a too long succession of self- 
 dependent steps, all pointing to one result, to be re- 
 solved by any theory of accident or chance. You 
 might as well assert that the conclusions of Eu- 
 clid are reached by chance. Yet those who deny 
 to Grant the merit of strategy must attribute the 
 capture of Vicksburg to a series of fortunate fortui- 
 ties. The successive steps which he devised to ac- 
 complish the grand result were as follows, and the 
 conclusion was an abortion if there was a failure in 
 either: 1. March the army from Milliken's Bend to 
 New Carthage. 2. Run the gunboats and transports 
 through the batteries. 3. Silence or turn Grand Gulf, 
 which also blockades the river. 4. Transfer the army 
 from the Louisiana to the Mississippi shore. 5. Fight 
 every array which presents itself between Grand Gulf 
 and Vicksburg. 6. Drive Pemberton, if not annihilated 
 in the field, behind his fortifications. 7. Besiege and 
 capture him and Vicksburg. All these separate 
 beams are to be collected in one focus, or Vicksburg 
 is lost They were collected, and Vicksburg was won. 
 Was this chance, or strategy ? 
 
 I must now direct my attention to the execution 
 of each systematized movement of this progressive 
 series : — 
 
 1. Grant marches along the, Louisiana shore to 
 New Carthage and Hard Times. The whole force 
 must be moved : not in detachments, for there is dan- 
 ger from the strong garrison at Vicksburg, as well as 
 from Dick Taylor's corps, operating in Northern 
 Louisiana ; and, therefore, a division must be moved 
 
224 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 simultaneously. Sherman is recalled from the Yazoo, 
 McPherson from Lake Providence, and Hurlbut — 
 still at Grand Junction — drained of every man he 
 can spare. The Northern waters and lakes are laid 
 under contribution for flat-boats and scows. No un- 
 travelled citizen of this hill-country can form any 
 idea of the amphibious region between Milliken's 
 Bend and New Carthage ; nor can he, of course, 
 conceive the hardships of this dreadful march, in the 
 freshet season, through that maze of bayous and 
 rivers filled with the back-water of the Mississippi, of 
 swamp-thickets alluring to the foot of the soldier, 
 but engulfing him in their treacherous depths of mud, 
 thick, adhesive, bottomless, — all constituting a dreary 
 landscape, which suggests to the imagination the 
 appearance of the new-born earth when the superin- 
 cumbent waters were first retiring, and it was not 
 yet ready for the habitation of man. The air above 
 is heavy and dismal with miasmatic vapor ; rank and 
 noxious vegetation sprouts from the ooze ; the cay 
 man crawls in the slime, and the pelican and unclean 
 buzzard flap their wings lazily over it. McClernand 
 leads the advance by what is well christened " Round- 
 way" Bayou. All the provision, ammunition, and 
 ordnance are to be dragged alternately on wheels, 
 and transported on scows, through" this forlorn tract, 
 designed for the especial dwelling-place of that species 
 of bird called " waders." The artillery wagons are at 
 the first plunge almost lost in a Serbonian bog. Grant's 
 familiarity with quartermaster's details, learned in 
 a previous war and on frontier posts, is not lost to 
 his country m this emergency; for he personally 
 
WHAT DID HE DO liT THE CIVIL WAK ? 225 
 
 supervises the forwarding of stores, — as indispensable 
 to the army as victory itself The country is already 
 sufBciently watered, but there is a constant apprehen- 
 sion that the enemy will cut the levees and deluge the 
 army. Canals, bridges, causeways, are the daily labor 
 of the floundering columns. After twenty-seven miles 
 of such a march as was never dreamed of even by 
 Alexander, McClernand's advance catch a welcome 
 glimpse of the hamlet of New Carthage, only to find 
 that its inhabitants, by cutting the levee of Bayou 
 Vidal, have covered an area of two miles with an im- 
 passable sea. Now, from every bayou on the route, 
 Grant collects the yawls and flat-boats, and forwards 
 them to McClernand's homesick men, who vividly 
 recall the log-cabin on Northern prairies, where from 
 maternal lips they first heard of Pharaoh and his 
 hosts overwhelmed with the waters of the Eed Sea. 
 The division is next ordered to Perkins's plantation, 
 twelve miles below. Four pontoons, six hundred 
 feet long, are extemporized from material at hand. 
 Water transportation is prepared ; but onlj^ a few 
 bri2:ades are moved before the retirino- freshet leaves 
 scows and flat-boats stranded in black mud. Nothing 
 remains but the old resort to wadinsj;. But all marches 
 have their end ; and the toiling troops at length emerge 
 from the lowering cypress-swamp into the dazzling 
 sunlight of Perkins's plantation, wdiere the languid 
 eye is animated by well-cultured acres rivalling in 
 verdure an English lawn, by the banana, the fig, 
 and the orange tree, bending beneath their ripening 
 load. Frames bent by an oppressive journey erect 
 themselves again, and weary lungs joyfully expand 
 
 15 
 
226 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 to drink in full draughts of air burthened with the 
 blossoms of magnolia and oleander. It is an oasis in 
 the desert. It reminds Grant of his delightful so- 
 journ in the perennial gardens of Puebla ; it recalls 
 to the revived soldier the lines which he had whis- 
 pered w^hen bidding adieu to loved ones in the frozen 
 North, — 
 
 " Know ye the land of the cedar and vine, 
 Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine ? 
 'Tis the clime of the South, 'tis the land of the Sun : 
 Can he smile on such deeds as his children have done ? " 
 
 By the 29th of April, McClernand with the Thir- 
 teenth, and McPherson with the Seventeenth Army 
 Corps, have reached Hard Times, opposite Grand Gulf 
 Sherman with the Fifteenth is still at Milliken's Bend. 
 Grant is with the advance. The first link of the 
 chain which is to bind Vicksburg has been success- 
 fully forged. 
 
 2. Grant runs the gunhoats and transports tJirouglt 
 the batteries. The transportation of supplies by the 
 labyrinth I have just described was a task of so much 
 difiiculty, that Grant determines to push three steam- 
 ers and ten barges through the gantlet immediately. 
 Seven iron-clads are promptly ordered by Commodore 
 Porter to convoy the frail and combustible flotilla. 
 The steamers detailed to tow the barges through the 
 perilous gateway are the Henry Clay, Forest City, 
 and Silver Wave, — their bulwarks lined with bales 
 of cotton and hay. It is fifteen miles in length, be- 
 set by eddies and cross-currents, and hatchelled at 
 every step by twenty-eight guns : they fairly rain 
 upon these tinder-boxes red-hot shot and incendiary 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 227 
 
 shell. Well might the crews shrink from a voyage 
 of two hours and a half through a pass like that at 
 Lodi or Areola. But, at the call, volunteers by the 
 thousand contest the honor of joining in this dance of 
 death. 
 
 The night of the 16th of April is selected for the 
 enterprise, and eleven o'clock is the hour. Grant 
 stations himself upon a transport, just above the bend, 
 to watch a passage upon which the fate of Vicksburg 
 hangs. The sun had sunk beneath the horizon with 
 a tropical glory which fairly boiled up to the zenith 
 in gold and carmine ; and early in the evening the 
 constellations had marched up the celestial concave, 
 their pomp and splendor all unveiled. A planet in 
 mid-heaven shines like a Pharos; the great watch- 
 stars, Sirius and the Pleiades, in full state, are on guard 
 to-night ; and the belt of Orion beams like the baldric 
 of an Eastern king. But, suddenly, a thin haze, ex- 
 haled from the river, dims the splendor of the vault, 
 and drops like gauze before the outlines of the frown- 
 ing ridge. At this moment Grant beholds, sombre 
 and silent, the Henry Clay with her train of barges 
 gliding into the shade profound of the Louisiana 
 shore, and hardly distinguishable from the cyj^resses 
 on the bank. He sees the Forest City and the Sil- 
 ver Wave with a similar following, noiseless, every 
 light extinguished, indistinct, shadowy as the genie 
 which rose in smoke from the jar when the seal of 
 Solomon was broken. The seven invulnerables, the 
 Benton on the lead, with fires all hidden, no treach- 
 erous spark darting from their funnels, silent as 
 phantom ships, take their appointed station between 
 
228 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEA]^T. 
 
 their convoy and the threatening highlands. He can 
 hardly suppress a shudder, as they creep stealthily 
 around the curve into full range of the deluge of 
 destruction, which an unguarded word, or the fall of 
 a handspike, may at any moment unloose. For a 
 second or two, the agony of suspense fairly strains the 
 blue blouse which covers him, as if it were " a world 
 too scant " for the strong passions within it. Will pro- 
 pitious fortune allow them to pass unnoticed ? The 
 hope is an illusion. A light is dancing along the 
 heights of Vicksburg ; a flame throws itself from the 
 summit ; another and another belches from the cliff; 
 and, rapid and more rapid, a momentary fire and roar 
 race along the beleaguered stronghold ; and the explo- 
 sive missiles dive faster and faster upon the flock 
 on the river, and his strained sight can trace their im- 
 perilled progress by the increasing intensity of the 
 storm. This nocturnal tornado reaches its height 
 when the citadel's full armament peers out into — 
 
 " The dim night haze, 
 And all gunners with sponge and rammer, 
 And all captains with cord and hammer, 
 Keep every muzzle ablaze." 
 
 In the midst of confusion worse confounded is heard 
 now the deeper bay of the heavier artillery of the gun- 
 boats, outroaring the war-dogs on the heights ; and 
 the hope which " springs eternal " begins again to de- 
 lude Grant with the idea, that the iron-clads on their 
 impenetrable sides will receive the brunt of the storm, 
 and that the " egg-shells," hidden by the smoke, will 
 steal along uninjured in the shadow of the Louisiana 
 shore. But lo ! river and ridge are instantly illumi- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 229 
 
 nated, as if the sun bad burst forth in meridian splen- 
 dor ; for from what first appears a mere ball of white 
 light a refulgent and lurid flame is born, so powerful, 
 so clear, that, where Grant stands, the shadow of his 
 hand is thrown upon the wood-work of the trans- 
 port, and, of course, it pours full-orbed radiance into 
 that convex shore where the doomed transports are 
 hiding from destruction. Beacon lights have been 
 kindled on the ridge ! at its base every house is a 
 bonfire ! Grant, however, consoles himself with the 
 thought, that, before these were lighted, the transports 
 had weathered the upper batteries, which are now 
 comparatively dumb; while Warrenton bellows with 
 all its might. But alas ! another flame begins to as- 
 cend into the murky canopy. Has Warrenton also 
 kindled its beacon ? No : for this light is soft and 
 mellow as Aurora's, and climbs slowly into the mid- 
 night air, rolling up volumes of smoke, while the 
 beacon, piercing, vivid, unclouded, darts like a pan- 
 ther through the void ; and, by lining the new flame, 
 he can see that it changes its bearing, and is palpably 
 moving down the river. There is no disguising the 
 truth that a steamer is ablaze. Sickened by the ap- 
 prehension that this mass of light is contributing to 
 the ruin of all the transports, he retires to a restless 
 pillow, as silence and darkness resume their sway 
 along the embattled bluff, and the encircling cypresses 
 bring back the echo of solitary guns. It was not 
 until noon of the next day that the joyful intelligence 
 reached him that the seven gunboats were anchored 
 below Warrenton, ready for action ; and that the Sil- 
 ver Wave and Forest Queen, though somewhat dam- 
 
230 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GKANT. 
 
 aged, could yet transfer his troops to the Mississippi 
 shore ; and that the barges, with one or two exceptions, 
 had carried their precious supphes safely through the 
 terrible ordeal. Through the timbers of the Forest 
 Queen a round shot had crashed, tearing her steering 
 apparatus into flinders, when she had been caught by a 
 gunboat, and rescued from the whirlpools which were 
 again hurrying her under the guns. The Silver 
 Wave outrode the tempest, without a wing broken or 
 a feather ruffled. The Henry Clay, crippled at the 
 uppermost battery, and becoming unmanageable, 
 turned the barges adrift ; but the Tuscumbia adroitly 
 caught the tow-line, and under her sturdy protection 
 the fragile craft rode the troubled stream to a secure 
 anchorage. But the wounded steamboat, tossed by 
 the eddies again and again, under the plunging fire 
 from the ridge, received an explosive shell in her 
 cotton-bale bulwark, and, wrapped in flame and cano- 
 pied and wreathed in angry smoke, whirled down the 
 river, lighting the landscape with a lurid and ghastly- 
 glare. On the 26th of April, five transports and six 
 barges also succeed in running the batteries. With this 
 re-enforcement of transportation and supplies. Grant 
 feels strong enough for any emergency before him. 
 And thus the second link of the chain which is to bind 
 Vicksburg is firmly welded to the first. 
 
 3. Grant turns Grand Gulf. — Reconnoissance had 
 revealed, that the only solid road by which the inte- 
 rior of Mississippi can be reached strikes the river at 
 Bruinsburg, below Grand Gulf, w^hose bold promontory 
 with thirteen heavy guns and rifle-trenches, confronts 
 the army. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 231 
 
 They must be carried, or we are no nearer Vicks- 
 burg than when we were exploring Lake Providence 
 and the Yazoo Pass. The 29th of April is assigned 
 for its bombardment. Grant orders the Thirteenth 
 Army Corps aboard the transports, to co-operate with 
 Porter's iron-clads in their assault upon the heights. 
 The Louisville, Carondelet, Mound City, and Pitts- 
 burg dash in within pistol-range of the lower bat- 
 teries, and silence them. The upper batteries defy 
 the cannonade of the Benton, Tuscumbia, and Lafay- 
 ette, and also of the combined squadron, when all 
 are rallied against them. By no change of position, 
 bv no mechanical contrivance, can the vessels lift 
 their Dahlgrens to a sufficient elevation to drive the 
 gunners from the redoubt. After a struggle of five 
 hours and more. Porter fails to silence the enemy, and 
 it would have been the desperation of madness to 
 have landed a storming party while his artillery was 
 active. 
 
 This unexpected contingency temporarily arrests 
 the organized plan : the third link cracks in the for- 
 ging. But Grant meets the dilemma with as much 
 presence of mind as if defeat at this point had been 
 anticipated from the outset. He again disembarks 
 his two army corps upon the Louisiana bank, again 
 resumes his march along its miry strand, and at night, 
 under the wings of the gunboats, again drives the 
 flotilla, still riddled by the iron hail of Vicksburg, 
 through another devastating blast from Grand Gulf 
 On the morning they drop anchor at De Shroon's 
 Point, on the western shore, three miles below the 
 promontory which had defied our armored squadron. 
 
232 LIPE OP GENEKAL GEAJS-T. 
 
 McCleriiand and McPlierson have reached the same 
 position by the land. The fractured link is replaced. 
 On this same day, Sherman, ordered b}'' Grant, has 
 led a formidable expedition up the Yazoo, and before 
 Haine's Bluff is making ostentatious reconnoissances, 
 and planting batteries, and stationing storming par- 
 ties, as if a frantic escalade was forthwith intended. 
 As soon, however.j as darkness favors the stratagem, he 
 gathers the Fifteenth Corps again into its transports, 
 disembarks it again at Milliken's Bend, and, upon 
 roads decidedly improved, is marching rapidly to 
 concentrate upon his comrades at De Shroon's. 
 
 4. Grant transfers the army to the Mississippi 
 shore. — It would be difficult to find lanojuasre to ex- 
 aggerate the unwearied industry of Grant during these 
 operations of consummate labor and difficulty which I 
 have just delineated. It is an error to suppose that 
 any great results are attained in war without the 
 most assiduous toil. No great thing is ever achieved 
 without it ; neither Nature nor the gods reward 
 either indolence or busy bustle with the attainment 
 of grand ends. There is no royal road to a great 
 success : it is mastered only by the unremitting em- 
 ployment of every means and opportunity which can 
 subserve its far-reaching plans. I have already said 
 that Gen. Grant won his victories " by strategy, reso- 
 lution, and pluck ; " let me add here, that he also 
 won them by industry, constancy, and self-confidence. 
 The tedium of that march alone, through forty miles 
 of such quagmire as troops never encountered before, 
 would have driven any military exquisite to de- 
 
■WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 233 
 
 spair. The perils of the gantlet would have been 
 to others insurmountable reasons for abandoning this 
 campaign. The battles yet before him are a war in 
 themselves ; yet never for a moment does he wilt 
 from fitigue, waver by hardship, or stand dismayed 
 before dangers. He is lifted through them all, as on 
 the wings of an eagle, by the noble prize in view. 
 During this period, so disheartening to others, his tele- 
 grams to Halleck indicate no distrust, no abated con- 
 fidence in himself; and, after he reaches De Shroon's, 
 they are in the exultant strain which conclusively 
 shows that he feels master of the situation, if he can 
 only take time by the forelock. With a load upon 
 his mind which would have unnerved any man in 
 the land but himself, he takes upon his shoulders all 
 the enormous details of chief commissary and quarter- 
 master, timing marches to supphes, transportation 
 to the exigences of the moment, watching that 
 ammunition is always at hand, and, from apparently 
 conflicting combinations, educing harmony and order. 
 He cannot disguise from himself the immense impor- 
 tance of planting his foot firmly on the Mississippi 
 shore before the enemy can concentrate upon him at 
 the land in o;. He has thrown overboard the maxim 
 " Hasten slowly ; " and " Haste before every thing " is 
 now the rule. Fearing that he had hardly transporta- 
 tion enough to perform this fourth labor with sufficient 
 expedition, he addresses to the chief quartermaster at 
 Milliken's Bend a peremptory order which has Sj^eed 
 in every syllable. " Run two more tow-boats and two 
 more barges through the blockade. Do it in forty- 
 eight hours. If the crews decline to run through, call 
 
234 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 on the commanding officers for volunteers, and dis' 
 charge the crew." He fortifies Perkins's plantation 
 with a celerity that fairly lifts the hair from McPher- 
 son's head. He directs the commissary to issue provis- 
 ions to the troops without ^'even making returns^' to 
 avoid any possible pretext for delay. He takes with 
 him no wagon nor tent, not even a blanket. He 
 waits not for horses, either for himself or his staff; 
 but animating every department with his own breath- 
 less speed, every officer with his own restless energy, 
 he leads the Thirteenth and Seventeenth Army Corps 
 to the eastern bank of the great river, and thus adds 
 an additional link to the chain. 
 
 5. Grant fights every army which appears in 
 his front between Gratid Gulf and Vickshurg. — 
 Sherman's Fifteenth Corps has not yet come up, and 
 Grant stands in the enemy's country with but thirty 
 thousand men ; with but five days' rations, and the 
 Mississippi between him and his base of supplies; 
 without tents and without a wagon. He must draw 
 food and ammunition from Milliken's Bend via, 
 Roundaway Bayou to Perkins's plantation, and 
 thence by ferriage to such point on the Mississippi 
 shore as he shall occupy. 
 
 Even in its present aspect, the campaign is of as- 
 tounding audacity. The road from Bruinsburg reach- 
 es the heights, which are but a prolongation of the 
 Vicksburg Bluffs, by a defile which can be defended 
 against an army by a few resolute foemen ; and Grant's 
 anxiety is, of course, intense to secure a lodgment 
 on the highlands. McClernand's van is at the mouth 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAU ? 235 
 
 of the defile ere his rear has landed, and late in the 
 afternoon the coveted position is secured. 
 
 The country in his front is admirably adapted to 
 defence, being a wide, waving, champaign country, 
 broken into sharp and difficult ravines, and covered 
 with trees and underbrush where it is not under cul- 
 tivation. The road to Bruinsburg is but an exten- 
 sion of the main route from Port Gibson — twelve 
 miles off — to Jackson, the capital of the State, and 
 at Port Gibson it intersects the road to Grand Gulf 
 Here Gen. Bowen is in command of the rebels ; and, as 
 soon as he discovers the intention of Grant, he sends 
 a messensrer to Vicksburo; for re-enforcements, and 
 sallies out himself with between seven and eight thou- 
 sand* men to select a position where he can arrest at 
 once the progress of his antagonist. Just in advance 
 of Port Gibson, he finds a convenient stand-point, 
 where the road presents two diverging branches, 
 which meet again at that town. At the widest point, 
 they are not more than two miles apart ; and the in- 
 terval between them is composed of sharp ravines, 
 filled with a tangled thicket of bamboo and magnolia. 
 He plants his right wing upon one, and his left upon 
 the other, to hold Grant in check, until re-enforce- 
 ments can arrive from Vicksburg. Both wings are 
 supported by artillery. 
 
 As soon as the enemy's position had been defined 
 by skirmishers, McClernand developed a line of battle, 
 faced to the rising sun, which was for some time a 
 great annoyance to his troops. He attacks upon both 
 roads, addressing himself to the enemy's left, and di- 
 recting Osterhaus against the right. The " shout of 
 
236 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 battle now begun, and rushing sound," rouses Grant, 
 at Bruinsburg, who immediately impresses a quarter- 
 master's horse, betakes himself with all speed to the 
 field, and assumes direction of the affair. Three di- 
 visions of McClernand's army corps were strenuously 
 crowding back the enemy upon the road before them ; 
 but Osterhaus was dealing with more stubbornness, 
 posted in a stronger position. The force in his front 
 held a ridge for their centre, a gulch scooped out from 
 the road for their left, and for their right a thicket- 
 defended ravine. They defy all efforts of Osterhaus 
 to dislodge them. He tussles at every available point 
 with Teutonic vim, but they will not yield. Grunt 
 gives his personal attention to this part of the field ; 
 and as McPherson is now up, with the advance of 
 the Seventeenth, he directs him to throw a brigade 
 through the ravine to the left flank of the corps which 
 is holding us in check, and he orders Osterhaus to 
 assault their front with fury. Grant supervises the 
 flank movement, and, as soon as he feels out the 
 enemy's position, charges down the ravine, through 
 bamboo and magnolia jungle; and, at the same time, 
 Osterhaus's rifles hew the centre. The combined 
 attack is completely successful, and the whole of the 
 enemy's right wing is tumbled into Port Gibson. 
 
 Meanwhile Bowen's left wing has been re-enforced 
 by three thousand men under Loring, who have 
 marched this morning twenty miles, from Vicksburg, 
 and arrive upon the field flurried and blown. Mc- 
 Clernand is somewhat supplicatory for support, al- 
 though he has as many troops as can find elbow-room, 
 and his subordinates are steadily pressing the enemy, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL "WAR ? 237 
 
 in spite of the re-animation he exhibits upon the ar- 
 rival of Loring. Grant now despatches a brigade to 
 his assistance ; but, j ust as their bayonets flash upon 
 the rebels' eye, Bowen's line, with the shout, " Feds' 
 left wing yonder ! " disappear like children of the mist. 
 Bowen made a stout and gallant defence ; but the 
 weight of our nineteen thousand was too heavy for 
 him, even with every advantage of position. The 
 pursuit is continued until dark, and prisoners are cap- 
 tured within two miles of Port Gibson.-^ The fruits 
 of this decisive victory soon appear. Port Gibson and 
 Grand Gulf are abandoned. We threaten Jackson, 
 as well as all the communications of Yicksburg. 
 
 From our front, the rebels scatter in every direction, 
 burning every bridge which they pass, and strewing 
 their retreat with unmistakable signs of demoraliza- 
 tion. Our columns crowd close on their libels; and our 
 excited troops hesitate not to work up to their waists 
 in water, that the bridges may be repaired. Within 
 two days from the action, McPherson and Logan are 
 fifteen miles from Port Gibson, pursuing the broken 
 fragments of Bowen across the Big Black. Within 
 two days from the action. Grant, with a cavalry escort 
 of twenty men, rides into Grand Gulf He finds it 
 in possession of Porter, who had occupied it in the 
 morning with a detachment of marines. He went 
 
 1 Grant captured 650 prisoners and six field-guns. Loss: 130 killed, 715 
 wounded. 
 
 Bowen reports 448 killed and wounded, and 384 missing. The absurdity of 
 this statement appears from the number of his prisoners which we had in hand. 
 He left a part of his killed and wounded upon the field ; and Grant's estimate 
 was that the enemy's loss was about equivalent to his own. We brought 
 about 19,000 men into action ; and the enemy had, with the Vicksburg re-enforce- 
 ment^ nearly 12,000, which, with his superiority of position, fully equalled us. 
 
238 LIFE OF GEKEEAIi GRA^T. 
 
 aboard one of the gunboats, and penned his deS' 
 patches to Halleck, his orders to Sherman, and to the 
 commissaries and quartermasters stretched all the 
 way from Milliken's Bend to Perkins's plantation. He 
 assures Halleck, that the road " to Vicksburg is open." 
 He urges Sherman to advance with all expedition, 
 reminding him " of the overwhelming importance 
 of celerity," and informing him that all that is need- 
 ed " is hard-tack and ammunition ; for we can sub- 
 sist our horses upon the country, and obtain con- 
 siderable supplies for our troops." To the quarter- 
 masters he says, " Hurry on the wagons and the 
 barges;" to the commissariat, " Every thing depends 
 upon the promptitude with which supplies are fur- 
 nished." The sole uncertainty, too, which had at all 
 hampered his freedom, is here dispelled ; for he finds 
 here despatches from Banks which discourage every 
 hope of mutual co-operation and support. 
 
 Grant has now, by his advanced columns and out- 
 posts, penetrated far enough into the rebel domin- 
 ions to ascertain his precise relation to their armies. 
 He is within twelve miles of Warrenton, — the extreme 
 left of the enemy's Vicksburg line. He knows that 
 within the stronghold, and on the contiguous rail- 
 roads, Pemberton has upwards of fifty thousand men. 
 He knows that within the neighborhood of Jackson, 
 fifty miles in the rear of Vicksburg, but united with 
 it by the iron horse, thirty thousand men are col- 
 lected under Gregg. He knows that his danger lies 
 in being overwhelmed by a concentration of Pem- 
 berton and Gregg. And these questions now ad- 
 dress him with an importunity which will take no 
 
WHAT DID HE DO EST THE CIVIL WAE ? 239 
 
 denial : " Shall I maintain ray elongated connection 
 with Milliken's Bend, and approach Vicksburg with 
 'regular operations,' and therefore risk a junction of 
 these two armies ? or shall I burn my ships, cut loose 
 from my base, and by a 'movable column ' demolish 
 Greari)- before he can unite with Pemberton?" He 
 is aware of all the benefits of " regular operations;" 
 he knows all the perils of the "movable column." 
 An army engaged in " regular operations " has been 
 Ukened to an engine drawing its supplies by means 
 of long pipes from a river; while the principle of 
 the " movable column " is w^ell enough compared to 
 the " simple skin full of water, which, carried on the 
 back of a camel, is the life of men passing a desert." 
 Of the advantages of the " movable column" it has 
 been truthfully said, that its means of land transpor- 
 tation are comparatively small, and may be propor- 
 tioned to the limited duration of the service which it 
 undertakes ; that it is unhampered by a line of com- 
 munication, and has nothing to do but take care of 
 itself And of its drawbacks it has been equally well 
 said, that it is fitted only for temporary use, because 
 it has no resources to rely upon, except what it 
 carries along with it ; that it incurs not only the haz- 
 ard of defeat, but of total extermination, for it has 
 left no dominion in its wake, and, if it falls back, it 
 flills into the midst of enemies havins; hold of the 
 country around, and emboldened by seeing it re- 
 treat.^ 
 
 The system of " regular approaches " to Vicksburg 
 was Grant's idea when he crossed the Mississippi; but 
 
 1 Kinglake's Crimean War, p. 439. 
 
240 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 I 
 
 he again modifies liis plan to the emergences of the 
 situation, and the imperious requirements of celerity. 
 The change encounters from his subordinates the 
 same respectful but earnest opposition with which 
 they met the new movement when it was first 
 initiated. They cite the authority of military rules 
 and traditions; they remonstrate in the name of 
 patriotism and an imperilled cause. Sherman, who is 
 on his march, and has not yet heard of the resolution 
 to act without "any base at all," is daily sending 
 telegrams which indicate his distress at the "jammed 
 and cumbered " condition of the " line of operations " 
 between Milliken's Bend and Perkins's plantation, and 
 predicts starvation if fifty thousand, men aie to be 
 fed by one circuitous and overburdened road, and is 
 beseeching Grant " to stop all the troops until he is 
 supplied with wagons." Halleck has not vouchsafed a 
 syllable of encouragement since Grant turned his face 
 to the southward. And it is fortunate for the coun- 
 try that at this juncture Grant was not in telegraphic 
 communication with AYashington ; for then he would 
 have received from Halleck the countermanding or- 
 der, "Unite with Banks between Vicksburo; and 
 Port Hudson, so as to attack these places separately 
 with the combined force." The president also was 
 hostile to the advance upon Vicksburg ; for he says, in 
 the congratulatorj^ letter which he addressed to Grant 
 upon its capture, " When you got below and took 
 Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you 
 should go down the river, and join Gen. Banks ; and 
 when you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I 
 feared it was a mistake. I now wish to make a per- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 241 
 
 sonal acknowledgment that you was right, and I was 
 wrong." For the first time since Grant enhsted in 
 the war, he is relieved from the intermeddlinf*: inter- 
 ference of bureau generals. He is now, for a short 
 time, lord of himself; and this Yicksburg campaign 
 is the first exhibition of his Untrammelled genius. 
 
 Unmoved by the ominous silence of the Govern- 
 ment, by the fliithful advice of his military counsel- 
 lors, by the entreaty of patriotic solicitude, by the 
 wxirnings of Sherman's anxiety, he adheres inflexibly 
 to his new purpose, loyal to himself and his decision. 
 
 " But he took great risks." True, my friend : war 
 is not like your safe avocation, which sedulously 
 avoids every risk which may jeopardize your per- 
 sonal safety ; but it is a business of risks. Habitually 
 governed by the adage, "Nothing venture, nothing- 
 win," its master knows Avhen great risks will yield 
 superlative returns. Grant does what you would not : 
 he turns from " dominion in his wake ; " incurs the 
 hazard, not only of "defeat, but extermination ; " and, 
 with that self-reliance which you brand as temerity, 
 places himself between two hostile armies in posses- 
 sion of railroad facilities, and stakes himself, his for- 
 tunes, and his country's cause, upon the sovereign 
 convictions of his unsupported judgment. If tlie 
 memorabilia of the race presents a more superemi- 
 nent illustration of decision of character, let it be pro- 
 duced. It would almost seem that he re^jrarded 
 Vicksburg as his foreordained prize from the begin- 
 nino; of the world. 
 
 He no'W establishes his headquarters at Harkin- 
 soii's Ferry; and while still bent upon employing 
 
 16 
 
242 LIFE or GEXEHAL GRANT. 
 
 every stratagem to delude the enemy and distract his 
 councils, by concealing his real intention, his mind 
 is possessed of a purpose which no mortal power can 
 disturb, — to march to Jackson against all odds, and 
 destroy there Pemberton's re-enforcements, and iso- 
 late Vicksburg from all communication with the Con- 
 federacy. I am writing the biography of a reticent 
 man ; and this purpose was born out of that silent 
 meditation which wiseacres sneer at as stupidity. 
 
 Prompt upon the resolve, Sherman is met at De 
 Shroon's with transports ; Blair's division is hurried 
 from Milliken's Bend ; four regiments from Hurlbut, 
 at Memphis, supply his place at Milliken's ; and Lau- 
 man's division is drawn from the remote boundaries 
 of the command. Provisions are again distributed 
 regardless of requisitions or returns. While waiting 
 for Sherman, McClernand scours the country for sup- 
 plies, and McPherson reconnoitres all the raih^oads in 
 the vicinity ; and, last but not least, the war-horses of 
 headquarters fortunately arrive at Harkinson's. 
 
 McPherson now bears our banner boldly inland, 
 to Piocky Springs on the 7th, to Utica and Auburn 
 on the 10th, and on the 11th flaunts it in front of 
 Raymond. From Cayuga, on the 11th, Grant writes 
 to llaileck, I shall communicate with Grand Gulf no 
 more ; and from here, too, he disseminates his final 
 edicts from Grand Gulf to Cairo, all enjoining a hearty 
 co-operation with the grand movement, descending 
 even to such minute particulars as, "Let no prisoners 
 be paroled until the fate of Vicksburg is decided." 
 Sherman is hurled olF on a tanu'ent to Fourteen-mile 
 Creek, threatening Black-river Bridge ; and, after 
 
•WHAT DID HE DO I^T THE CIVIL WAE ? 
 
 243 
 
 having distracted and deceived Pemberton, dashes 
 back at an acute angle, and falls into the right of his 
 file-leader, McPherson. McClernand's line of march is 
 directed to guard the ferries on the Big Black, and 
 to deploy into action on Sherman's flank. Thus om' 
 battle-line, forty-three thousand strong, with a hun- 
 dred and twenty guns, — Sherman in the centre, 
 McPherson on the right, McClernand on the left, — 
 marches from Rocky Springs to Raymond. 
 
 Calendar. 
 
 MAT, 
 
 1863. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Day of Month. 
 
 Day of Week. 
 
 Vicksburg Week. 
 
 Twelfth. 
 
 Tuesday. 
 
 Battle of Raymond. 
 
 Thirteenth. 
 
 Wednesday. 
 
 On the march. 
 
 Fourteenth. 
 
 Thursday. 
 
 Battle of Jackson. 
 
 Fifteenth. 
 
 Friday. 
 
 On the march. 
 
 Sixteenth. * 
 
 Saturday. 
 
 Battle of Champion's Hill. 
 
 Seventeenth. 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 Battle of Big Black. 
 
 Eighteenth. 
 
 Monday. 
 
 Grant on Vicksburg Bluff. 
 
 Nineteenth. 
 
 Tuesday. 
 
 Siege begins. 
 
 McPherson's army corps is in two divisions. One 
 is under Logan, who, turning with ease into a military 
 channel the genius which had charmed the popular 
 assembly,, vapidly rises into a chivalrous and accom- 
 plished general ; the other is under Crocker, of 
 whom the reticent commander-in-chief says, '•' I have 
 never known a better division leader, except Sher- 
 
244 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 man and Sheridan." Bright and early on Tuesday 
 morning, Logan is on the march, and Crocker follow- 
 ing him. Before dawn, their cavalry advance is pes- 
 tered by the fire of vedettes ; and by daylight a 
 regiment is deployed upon each side of the road, 
 with skirmishers in front to clear from the w^oods 
 flocks of rebel sharpshooters. By eleven o'clock, 
 Farnden's Creek is in our front, and sweeping both 
 bridge and road, are two batteries of artillery ; while 
 the summit of that hill upon our left flashes wdth 
 bayonets, and heavy volleys are already ringing from 
 the ravines and timber at its foot. It is Greorg-'s com- 
 mand, five thousand strong. 
 
 McPherson clears the trains from the road ; and 
 Logan spreads out his brigade into battle-line, and 
 advances it within musket-ramxe of the wooded ra- 
 vine lying along the base of the hill. It is leceived 
 with a heavy fire from the timber, but holds its ground 
 firmly. The second and third brigades close up their 
 ranks as supports of the first. Our artillery plays 
 upon the woods; the enemy's, upon our infimtry. 
 But the pressure of Logan's stanch lines does the 
 work; and, before Crocker's division reaches the field, 
 Gregg is in full retreat, and our artillery ploughing 
 through the fugitives. Pursuit is instantly made; and 
 by five o'clock we drive the enemy through Raymond, 
 and follow him up far on the road to Jackson.-^ 
 
 Deceived by Sherman's demonstration in the di- 
 rection of Vicksburg, Pemberton holds his main body 
 
 1 In the battle of Raymond we lose 69 killed, 341 woundiid, 30 missing. 
 The enemy, 100 killed, 305 wounded, 415 prisoners, two pieces of cannon, and 
 a quantity of small-arms. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 245 
 
 at Edward's Depot in battle array, and issues orders 
 to Gregg — which are constantly intercepted by our 
 scouts — to attack Grant upon the flank as soon as 
 he becomes engaged at Edward's. At this intimation, 
 McClernand quietly withdraws his pickets from Pem- 
 berton's front, and marches to Raymond. Grant on 
 Tuesday evening closes McClernand upon Sherman, 
 and both upon McPherson. The whole line is on 
 the march ; drawing rations from the flour-mills and 
 store-houses of the country, and using ambulances as 
 ammunition wagons. The rain falls in torrents from 
 Wednesday night until Thursday noon ; but no ordi- 
 nary mire, no mere slippery roads, can discourage an 
 army which has waded from Milliken's Bend to De 
 Shroon's. In close order and with elated hearts, our 
 troops easily overcome the fourteen miles between 
 Raymond and Jackson, and find time moreover to 
 dismantle railroads and telegraph poles, catching in 
 transitu upon the wires a despatch from Pemberton, 
 which proves that he is still befogged at Edward's 
 Depot. 
 
 Forthwith Sherman is aimed at Jackson by the 
 Raymond, and McPherson by the Clinton Road. Both 
 are opened to the city, where Johnston is now in 
 command, and has already ordered Pemberton to MI 
 upon the rear of Grant. Sherman and McPherson 
 have agreed upon the hour of their rendezvous at 
 Jackson. Advancing on the Clinton Road, the pickets 
 of Crocker, who is on the lead, engage the enemy 
 five miles from Jackson, and crowd back the outposts 
 upon the main defences, within two and a half miles 
 of the city. At the same hour, and at about the 
 
24G LIFE OF GENEKAl, GRAXT. 
 
 same distance from the enemy's front, Sherman, on 
 the Raymond Road, is scattering vedettes and skir 
 mishers. The Fifteenth and Seventeenth Army 
 Corps are two miles apart; but Grant is confident 
 that either is a match for Johnston's army, and there- 
 fore disdains to connect these wings. Grant is ready 
 for Johnston, strike where he will. McClernand is 
 in supporting distance, — one division at Clinton, 
 another at Mississippi Springs, a third at Raymond, 
 a fourth at Auburn. 
 
 Upon our troops in front of Jackson, just as the 
 dispositions were being made for action, the rain de- 
 scends in a deluge. No man ventured to open his 
 cartridge-box; and it was seriously feared for an hour 
 or two that the elements had taken into their own 
 hands a conflict upon which such mighty issues 
 hung. During the tornado, however, Logan brings 
 up his division as a reserve, and McPherson defines 
 the enemy's position. In his immediate front, the 
 Clinton Road passes through a field broken here and 
 there by ridges, and clumps of trees, and beyond inter- 
 sects a semi-circular ridge upon which the enemy has 
 planted two batteries, — one seizing the prolongation 
 of the road, and the other scouring the field with an 
 oblique fire. Long lines of infantry are deployed 
 behind the crest, their right protected by a grove, and 
 their left overlooking McPherson's approach through 
 the field. We form our line on both sides of the 
 road, taking every advantage of the swells and the 
 timber ; and one brigade of Logan is thrown off to 
 the left, threatening an avenue into the city from 
 Khe north-west. A Missouri battery finds a station 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL AVAR ? 247 
 
 near a cotton-gin in tlie field, and an artillery duel 
 rules the hour ; while our skirmishers advance within 
 annoying distance of the enemy's gunners, and are 
 again recalled as they begin to feel the weight of 
 Johnston's infintry. Crocker, who is holding his 
 division in hand, is not given to long ranges or tem- 
 porizing expedients : the crest, he says, must be 
 carried, or this barking of guns and chasseing of 
 skirmishers will last, till doomsday. To the whole 
 line he calls, "Charge!" and with flying colors, at 
 double-quick, his well-disciplined battalions sweep 
 through the ravine, and with level bayonets scale the 
 hill. One tremendous volley rocks and tears the well- 
 ordered ranks; but at the next second, within thirty 
 paces, it is repaid with interest, and we are on the 
 stacronered foe with cold steel. Over fences and en- 
 closures, through brushwood, brier, and brake, surges 
 and resuru;es the battle. For ten minutes there is 
 such a hand-to-hand grapple here as is seldom seen in 
 war. The enemy stands for an instant, then quivers, 
 then braces again, then wavers, and finally wilts into 
 the dissolution of chaos : our reloaded muskets have 
 only to goad a terrified flight. 
 
 Meanwhile Sherman, on the Raymond Road, brush- 
 es from his path a battery on a bridge, and, with a 
 stiff line of skirmishers, worries into their intrench- 
 ments a skittish line of infantry. The Fifteenth 
 surmounts the bridge, and emerging from the woods, 
 and deploying into line beyond the creek, finds itself 
 confronted by an ostentatious display of rifle-pits, and 
 enfiladed by a serious artillery fire. Sherman storms 
 the batteries, and captures ten pieces and a hundred 
 
248 LITE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 and fifty gunners. The enemy break from their in- 
 trenchments like schoolboys. The resistance here is a 
 mere feint. McPherson, on the Clinton Road, had 
 defeated Johnston's entire army. Before the feeble- 
 ness of the enemy's line here had revealed itselfj 
 Grant had directed a flank movement to be made 
 near the Pearl River, and had advanced in that di- 
 rection himself to supervise its execution, and, seeing 
 at a glance the barrenness of the lines, rode mto the 
 enemy's works on a canter.^ 
 
 Gen. Badeau relates a little incident which in- 
 vests Grant's entrance into Jackson with peculiar 
 interest: His son, a boy of thirteen, accompanied 
 his fatlier on the Vicksburg campaign ; and, as they 
 were riding together towards the boundaries of the 
 city, '' the boy spurred on his horse, and galloped 
 ahead of the army into the capital of Mississippi." 
 The Fifteenth and the Seventeenth, from different 
 directions, reached the court-house simultaneously. 
 Grant occupies Johnston's quarters of the previous 
 night, and sups upon the remnants of the Tuesday's 
 feast with which the rebel general was celebrating 
 the anticipated victory of Wednesday. 
 
 Sherman is left to destroy the arsenals and railroad 
 connections of Jackson ; but Grant immediately re- 
 traces his steps, wheels his army to the westward, and 
 by Friday night is concentrated at Bolton, in Pember- 
 ton's front. That distracted officer has not yet heard 
 of Grant's triumph at Jackson, and, in compliance with 
 Johnston's antiquated order, is moving to attack the 
 
 1 Wc lost in this action, 41 killed and 249 wounded. The enemy lost, in 
 killed, wounded, and prisoacrs, 845. We captured seventeen guns. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 249 
 
 national commander's rear, sublimely unconscious that 
 he has changed front, and will soon meet him face to 
 face. When Grant ascertains that the enemy, at Ed- 
 ward's Depot, is 25,000 strong, he recalls Sherman 
 from Jackson, and orders up Blair from Auburn. There 
 are three roads leadino; from Bolton to Edward's De- 
 pot, which I shall designate as the southern, central, 
 and northern. At Bolton, the northern is about two 
 miles from the central, and the central about two 
 miles from the southern ; but they converge as they 
 approximate towards Edward's Depot. 
 
 On Saturday morning, Blair and A. J. Smith move 
 on the southern, Carr and Osterhaus by the central, 
 and 1 [ovey on the northern road, where he will be 
 speedily supported by Logan and Crocker. Both 
 Smith and Osterhaus start up the enemy's pickets at 
 nearly the same moment, and before Pemberton has 
 discovered the nature of the disturbance in his front. 
 The startling revelations, however, brought in by his 
 outposts, convince him of the propriety of forming 
 line of battle and awaiting developments. Pember- 
 ton occupies a cross-road at right angles with our 
 advance, with Bowen in the centre, Stevenson on the 
 left, and Loring on the right. Stevenson occupies 
 Champion's Hill, a ridge some seventy-five feet above 
 the level of the surrounding country. Its summit is 
 as bare as the " bald head of venerable age," that the 
 action of artillery may be unrestrained ; but the ap- 
 proaches up its precipitous acclivities and over the 
 crest, except where batteries are stationed, present 
 such entanglements as ravines, timber, and under- 
 brush. His centre covers the middle road, by which 
 
250 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Osterhaus is approaching, while his right is in the 
 direct pathway of Blair and Smith. His front is four 
 miles long, and leans entirely on Champion's Hill. 
 
 Grant reaches Hovey, on the enemy's extreme left, 
 by seven and a half o'clock ; and he immediately re- 
 moves all the impediments in front of Logan's and 
 Crocker's columns. He masses Hovey into regimental 
 columns to assail the western side of the hill, and 
 forms Logan perpendicular to Hovey, that he may 
 address its northern face. 
 
 The sharp firing between Hovey's skirmishers and 
 the enemy's, which had continued during the morn- 
 ing, grew into a pitched battle by eleven o'clock. 
 McPherson has stationed two batteries which scalp the 
 crown of the hill ; and, under their support, Hovey, 
 after stubborn resistance, escalades the ridge, and car- 
 ries eleven guns and three hundred prisoners : but 
 his success merely drives the enemy six hundred 
 yards, into a natural intrenchment cut through Cham- 
 pion's Hill by the road, where, by incessant volleys, 
 they defy all efforts of Hovey to dislodge them, and 
 finally force him back, recapturing some of their lost 
 guns. Quimby's brigade is forthwith hurried up to 
 Hovey's support, and both barely hold the position 
 which has been won by a terrible sacrifice. In Hea- 
 ven's name ! where' is McClernand? Our situation is 
 too critical to be interesting, especially as the rebels 
 have rallied a storming party to capture those batter- 
 ies of McPherson, which are dealing damaging blows. 
 All hail ! Logan comes to the rescue, and scatters the 
 baffied foe with slaughter. But, during this spasm of 
 success, Hovey is again discomfited and gives ground, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAP. ? 251 
 
 resolutely figbtiDg. Where is McClernancl? He lias 
 been ordered up, and invoked by messenger after mes- 
 senger. As there is no prospect of his appearance, 
 Grant commands McPherson to swing all the troops 
 he can collect against the enemy's right, that upon this 
 hill we may not be overwhelmed by his entire line : 
 Blair and Carr and Osterhaus should have attacked 
 it an hour ago. Hovey and Quimby, relieved slightly 
 by this diversion, gain ground once more; but the 
 enemy masses upon them again, and imperils our ten- 
 ure of the hill. At this crisis, Stevenson's brigade of 
 Logan's division, animated by the persistent struggle 
 on the summit, moves forward at double-quick, and, 
 plunging through a ravine, captures a battery of seven 
 guns and hundreds of prisoners. Logan, too, has, uncon- 
 sciously to himself, fought his way around the base of 
 the hill into the enemy's rear, and stands there firmly 
 planted, between them and Edward's Depot. A panic 
 paralyzes the rebels ; and, just as they are struck by it, 
 a national battery pours on them a devastating fire. 
 Hovey and Quimby are nerved for another mighty 
 effort, and, springing forward with overwhelming elan, 
 roll the enemy from the hill. Strange as it may seem, 
 fifteen thousand American troops stood upon the very 
 edge of this combat without participating in it. The 
 country in front of the enemy's line was thickly wood- 
 ed ; and McClernand was held in check by the skir- 
 mishing outposts, without once testing the opposition 
 of the main line. While he was reconnoitring and 
 manoeuvring, the weight of the enemy was falling 
 upon McPherson and Hovey. If his division had ex- 
 hibited one tithe of the vigor of McPherson's, Pern- 
 
252 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 berton would have been forced to surrender on the 
 field. 
 
 Hovey occupied the ground he had so gloriously 
 contributed to win, and slept amid the dead, wounded, 
 and dying, — the wreck and debris of Pemberton's 
 army. The Twenty-fourth Iowa of his command is 
 called the " Methodist regiment : " the colonel and cap- 
 tains, as well as the rank and file, are of that religious 
 denomination. Not one of them had flinched in that 
 dreadful grapple on the crest ; and now, amid their 
 wounded and lifeless comrades, their enthusiasm re- 
 mains unabated ; and, during the solemn hour of the 
 night, they waft over the hill of death the exultant 
 strains of " Old Hundred," to words which offer up 
 their oblation of gratitude to the great Author of 
 victory : — 
 
 " Praise God, from whom all blessings flow ; 
 Praise him, all creatures here below ; 
 Praise him on high, ye heavenly host ; 
 Praise Father, Sou, and Holy Ghost ! " 
 
 There was not during the war a more complete and 
 overwhelming rout. The junction of Pemberton and 
 Johnston is forever postponed. The command of 
 the country and its communications is transferred to 
 Grant. The scattered armies of Mississippi are never 
 reunited; six thousand men are hors cle combat; 
 thirty guns, with colors and trophies innumerable, are 
 captured; Loring's division is cut off from the main 
 body of fugitives, never to reach Vicksburg, but, 
 roaming for weeks over the desolate and impoverished 
 region, to drag its skeleton at last into the camp of 
 Johnston. Parks of magnificent artillery are thrown 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 253 
 
 into the swamps. The road from Champion's Hill to 
 Edward's Depot is strewn with abandoned accoutre- 
 ments. Broken columns of the foe court captivity. 
 By midnight Pemberton is fifteen miles from the 
 battle-field, with a mere remnant around him. The 
 Seventeenth Corps follow the fugi.-ives for five miles. 
 Carr and Osterhaus bivouac at Edward's Depot 
 Logan reaches within three miles of the Big-Black 
 Bridge. Grant sleeps upon the porch of a rebel 
 field-hospital.^ 
 
 Before daylight on Sunday, Carr and Osterhaus are 
 again on the enemy's track. They leave behind the 
 broken hill-country, through which they have marched 
 for the last two days, and descend upon a broad and 
 open plain, which, except in its patches of forest, af- 
 fords no cover +o the enemy. Where the road joins the 
 Big Black, the river throws westward a semicircle; 
 and from near its base, above the bridge, a stagnant 
 bayou of twenty feet width emerges, and, after a cir- 
 cuit of a mile, enters the river below the bridge, serv- 
 ing as a chord to subtend the arc formed by (he 
 river. The opposite bank is a succession of ridges. 
 Behind this bayou, — the wet ditch of a regular for- 
 tification, — the rebels have raised infantry parapets 
 a mile in length, with openings for artillery. They 
 abut on the river at the north, and at the south upon 
 a cypress bank prolonged to the river. The whole 
 constitutes the most formidable tete de pont which 
 
 1 Grant's loss was four hundred and twenty-six men killed, eighteen hundred 
 and forty-two wounded, and a hundred and eighty-nine missing. The ene- 
 my's loss was between three and four thousand men in killed and wounded, and 
 nearly three thousand prisoners. A rebel pamphlet at Champion's Hill puts 
 the rebel loss at six thousand men and thirty cannon. 
 
254 LIFE OF GEKERAL GRAXT. 
 
 can be contrived. It is garrisoned by four thousand 
 men, with twenty pieces of artillery. The approach 
 is over an unprotected river-bottom, commanded by 
 the bluffs on the western bank. Pemberton holds 
 these works, awaitino- the advent of Loring-'s lost 
 corps. 
 
 McClernand develops Osterhaus's division on the 
 left of the road, and Carr's on the right, with Law- 
 ler's brigade for extremity, exhibiting a splendid bat- 
 tle-front for an engagement in the open field : but 
 such dispositions, in such an emergency as this and 
 against such an obstacle, betray a novice in military 
 matters ; for they can only provoke a futile scuffle 
 between opposing artillery and skirmishers. This 
 was the actual result in the present instance, and the 
 affray threatened to be interminably prolonged. 
 
 The day was intensely hot. Lawler, with his coat 
 off, overwhelmed with combined heat and disgust, 
 was meandering in a desultory way around the ene- 
 my's left. He happens to discover, that, by masking 
 his force in a copse near the river, he can reach a 
 position from whence a rapid spring may carry the 
 intrenchments. He acts upon the thought, and hides 
 his frontiersmen, from Iowa and Wisconsin, experi- 
 enced in Indian warflxre, under the protection of the 
 bushes. He here espies a break in the abatis with 
 which the bayou has been furnished to add to its 
 strength, and watches it from his retreat with des- 
 perate intent. As soon as he discovers that the gar- 
 rison in this part of the work is engrossed by the 
 skirmishers in front, he rouses up his brigade, watch- 
 mg for the signal, and, quicker than it takes to tell it, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 255 
 
 reaches the narrow defile through the bayou abatis. 
 He passes it four abreast, pkm;^es into the green and 
 loathsome water, and with gleaming bayonet cleaves 
 the rebel lines. Emulating his courage, and inspired 
 by his war-whoop, the brigades of Carr and Osterhaus 
 clear the intervening space, and follow in the wake 
 of Lawler. The garrison did not wait to receive 
 them, but, in Pemberton's language, " broke and lied 
 precipitately; and it soon became a mere matter of 
 sauve qui peuty 
 
 There is now a race between officers and men for 
 the bridges : the enemy on the western bank, partici- 
 pating in the panic, break them up before their com- 
 rades have secured a passage. Gen. Green and oth- 
 ers leap into the Big Black : some escape, but a large 
 number are drowned. Reariments throw down their 
 arms in the intrenchments, dreading our pursuing 
 fire J one entire brigade surrenders. Every road to 
 the stronghold is now thrown open.^ 
 
 Lawler's change was the most discomfitino; sin2:le 
 blow which was struck during the campaign. It over- 
 whelmed the rebels with a kind of superstitious fear. 
 Pemberton himself was so dazed by the exploit that he 
 was afraid that Grant would flank Vicksburg, or throw 
 a somerset over the intervening twelve miles before 
 he himself could reach it by the road, with a twelve 
 hours' start; for this was gained by the destruction of 
 the bridges. This was the last battle before the siege. 
 And thus Grant achieved the fifth labor which he 
 
 1 Grant's loss at the battle of Black-river Bridge was twenty-nine killed 
 and two hundred and forty-two wounded. The rebels never reported their loss. 
 We captured seventeen hundred and fifty-one prisoners, eighteen cannon, and 
 five stands of colors. 
 
256 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 foresaw when this campaign was maturing in his mind 
 at Milliken's Bend. 
 
 6. Grant drives Pemherton, half annihilated in 
 the field, behind the fortifications of Vickshurg. — 
 Both the Thirteenth and Seventeenth Corps imme- 
 diately transform themselves into engineers. Never 
 was there so much bridge-building in one Sunday 
 nidit. On bridores made of cotton bales, on bridg-es 
 of felled trees, bridges of railroad ties, on bridges 
 made of dilapidated cotton-gins and houses, the vic- 
 torious army crosses the Big Black, and early on 
 Monday morning are again in march for the "barred 
 gateway " of the Mississippi. 
 
 Sherman reaches Bridgeport while the action at 
 the bridge is raging, where he meets Blair with a 
 pontoon train ; and, having put to flight a squad of 
 rebels who are guarding the bank, crossed the river 
 early on Monday morning. By nine o'clock he 
 strikes the Benton Road, which is but a few miles 
 from Vicksburg. Grant joins his companion in arms 
 at the Walnut Hills. To .Sherman's lot had fallen, 
 during this brilliant campaign, more of weary march 
 than of inspiriting battle ; and his mind had nevei 
 attained to that exhilaration which is one of the fruits 
 of successful struggles upon hard-foiight fields. (Jen. 
 Badeau, who I believe was an eye-witness of th(5 
 scene, thus relates the interview between the two 
 veteran commanders : " As they rode together up the 
 farthest height, where it looks down on the Yazoo 
 River, and stood upon the very bluff from which 
 Sherman had been repulsed six months before, the 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 257 
 
 two soldiers gazed for a moment on the long-wislied- 
 for goal of the campaign, — the high dry ground on 
 the north of Vicksburg, and the base for their supplies. 
 Sherman at last turned abruptly round, and exclaimed 
 to Grant, ' Until this moment I never thought your 
 expedition a success. I never could see the end 
 clearly until now. But this is a campaign. This is 
 a success, if we never take the town.' The other, as 
 usual, smoked his cigar, and made no reply. The 
 enthusiastic subordinate had seen the dangers of this 
 venturesome campaign so vividly that his vision was 
 dimmed for beholding success until it lay revealed 
 on the banks of the Yazoo ; but then, with the mag- 
 nanimity of a noble nature, he rejoiced in the vic- 
 tories whose laurels he could not claim. His chief 
 had believed all along that he should accomplish 
 what was now performed ; and the realization of this 
 belief neither surprised nor elated the most equable 
 of commanders." 
 
 Sherman pushes his columns up the bluff By night 
 he clears the outworks of the enemy, capturing pris- 
 oners and abandoned guns, and reaches within rifle- 
 range of the principal fortifications. As McPherson 
 leads forward the Seventeenth crowned with all the 
 glory of triumph. Grant directs him to invest the 
 enemy's centre ; and McClernand, as he comes up, is 
 ordered to environ the left. And thus the sixth labor 
 is performed, which the heroic commander had im- 
 posed upon bimself and his noble army. 
 
 Through what marches, toils, batteries, battles, has 
 Gen. Grant conducted the complicated combinations 
 which plant his foot in triumph upon this coveted 
 
 17 
 
258 LIFE OP GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 spot ! Can any one reflect upon the boldness and 
 originality of the design thus far achieved without 
 conceding to him strategical capacity ? I have already 
 characterized it as of unparalleled audacity in con- 
 ception, and executed with unexampled rapidity, in 
 defiance of danger, obstacles, and labor. It has been 
 compared by some to the renowned exploit of Fred- 
 erick when he redeemed the disaster of Kolin by 
 defeating Soubise at Rosbach, and Charles of Lorraine 
 at Leuthen. Nor, as a specimen of strategy, does this 
 campaign suffer by comparison with achievements of 
 which the greatest modern master of the art of war 
 has said, '• that they were sufficient to entitle Fred- 
 erick to a place in the first rank among generals." In 
 liis second Italian camjoaign. Napoleon turned upon 
 A-lvinzi and routed him, and then upon Provera and 
 vanquished him ; and this has been likened to Grant's 
 treatment of Pemberton and Johnston : nor does he 
 suffer by the parallel. 
 
 During this entire campaign, Grant endured all the 
 privations and hardships of the humblest soldier in 
 the ranks. I have already said that he was the first 
 to land from the grim old iron-clad Benton, on the 
 Mississippi. There, at the dilapidated plantation of 
 Bruinsburg, the first man he encountered upon land- 
 ing was a loyal American of. African descent, who 
 gave him trustworthy information respecting the 
 routes into the interior. He was without a horse, 
 and followed his colored guide to the heights, in order 
 to reconnoitre the country. Many will be curious to 
 know how a major-general of the army was equij^ped 
 for the expedition, I am fortunately able to gratify 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR? 259 
 
 this curiosity. Mr. "Washburne of Illinois was with 
 Grant at the time ; and he informs us : " When he left 
 his headquarters at Perkins's plantation for this great 
 campaign, he did not take with him the trappings 
 and paraphernalia so common to many military men. 
 As all depended on quickness of movement, and as it 
 was important to be encumbered with as little bag- 
 gage as possible, he set an example to all under him. 
 He took with him neither a horse, nor an orderly, nor 
 a servant, a camp-chest, an overcoat, nor a blanket, nor 
 even a clean shirt. His entire baggage for six days 
 — I was with him at that time — was a tooth-brush. 
 He ftired like the commonest soldier in his command, 
 partaking of his rations, and sleeping upon the ground, 
 with no covering excepting the canopy of heaven. 
 How could such a soldier fail to inspire confidence in 
 an army, and to lead it to victory and to glory ? " ^ 
 
 1 Hon. Mr. Washburne's speech on the bill reviving the grade of Leutenant- 
 general. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 HE CAPTURES VICKSBURG. 
 [May 21-Oct. 3, 1863.] 
 
 "A /TR POLLARD, in his "Lost Cause," concedes 
 -l-VJL that the fate of Vicksburg was decided at 
 Champion's Hill and the Big Black, and informs us 
 that when Johnston heard of the last disaster he 
 telegraphed to his subordinate that an ultimate sur- 
 render was inevitable, and advised him to save the 
 army, at least, by an immediate evacuation. The 
 same author also furnishes us with Johnston's criti- 
 cism upon Pemberton's tactics: "Had the battle of 
 Baker's Creek not been fought, General Pemberton's 
 belief that Vicksburg was his base rendered his ruin 
 inevitable. He would still have been besieged, and 
 therefore captured. The larger force he would have 
 carried into the lines would have added to and hast- 
 ened the catastrophe. His disasters were due, not 
 merely to his entangling himself with the advancing 
 columns of a superior and unobserved enemy, but to 
 his evident determination to be besieged in Vicks- 
 burg, instead of manoeuvring to prevent a siege." 
 He also gives us a glimpse of the interior of Vicks- 
 burg on Sunday evening : The fugitive and disorderly 
 
 2C0 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 261 
 
 troops fire pouring in, and the citizens behold With 
 dismay the elated army which had marched forth to 
 fight returning a wild and blasphemous mob, over- 
 whelmed by shame and defeat. The most self- 
 possessed and temperate city would have been dis- 
 tracted by such an influx. But the normal state of 
 Yicksburg is neither cool nor sedate : it is prone to 
 chronic hysteria ; and on this occasion, so. trying to 
 the steadiest nerves, a mass of frenzied planters and 
 their families are driven into the over-crowded mad- 
 house by our advance, and the scene beggars de- 
 scription as they inflame each other's delirium by the 
 shouts, " Pemberton is a traitor ! The army has sold 
 us out ! The Yankee butchers are coming!" The only 
 sane and reliable part of the population, either mili- 
 tary or civil, were the eight thousand troops who 
 had been left behind in garrison, and Avere not yet 
 demoralized by defeat, and haunted by palpable 
 images of terror. They petition to be assigned to 
 the post of danger; they review the line of defences; 
 they restore the shivering fugitives to discipline and 
 subordination ; they re-invigorate the will and cour- 
 age of their drooping comrades ; they inspire a deter- 
 mination to yield neither to assault nor famine. 
 
 There Avas nothing to justify this unnatural alarm. 
 The towering bluff is still unrocked by the storm ; 
 still wind through it labyrinths of entangled ravines: 
 the sharp and eerrated ridges which Nature has sta- 
 tioned around its borders have not yet yielded to 
 the blast which tore up Champion's Hill; they are 
 still crowned by forts, still guarded by guns, still 
 connected by continuous intrenchments. What has 
 
262 LIFE OF GENERAL GRA:nT. 
 
 Vicksburg to fear from a mere assault ? If eight 
 miles of enveloping fortresses, but five hundred yards 
 apart, self-reliant, and supporting each other; if em- 
 bankments stretching from fortress to fortress, and 
 the whole mighty barricade extending from the river 
 on the north to the river on the south, and resting at 
 both extremities on unassailable heights ; if thv3 
 breastwork in front of the forts, and the gorges chan- 
 nelled along the declivities, so difficult and entan- 
 gled that with no enemy in front the foot-passenger 
 can only ascend them by the aid of his hands ; if an 
 abatis of trees felled outwards, and encircling the 
 whole line within these outer works; if the dense 
 forest which covers these fortified acres ; if a natu- 
 ral situation which renders all celerity of movement 
 and unity of effort upon the part of the assailants 
 impossible, — if all these advantages combined can- 
 not defend a town against any storming party, liow- 
 ever great in numbers or invincible in spirit, then its 
 garrison does not belong to the race which fought at 
 Donelson and Shiloh. In spite of his depletion in 
 the field, Pemberton, as is abundantly demonstrated 
 by the number which he surrendered, has still behind 
 these barriers upwards of thirty thousand men, and 
 more than a hundred pieces of artillery. He con- 
 fronts Sherman with eight thousand veterans under 
 Gen. Baldwin ; McPherson, with the survivors of the 
 battle-fields under Smith and Forney ; and has twelve 
 thousand left to assign to Gen. Lee, who, stationed 
 on the Warrenton Heights, is directly opposed to 
 McClernand. 
 
 The geologic features of Vicksburg reach in a 
 
WHAT DID HE DO 12^ THE CIVIL WAR ? 263 
 
 modified form the ground occupied by Grant. The 
 soil is sun-baked clay, cut up by water-courses "; it 
 has rocky upheavals, rugged chasms, both covered 
 and filled in with dense brakes of cane and willow. 
 It is only penetrated by two or three forest roads. 
 Any advance against the fortifications in a cohering 
 battle-line is altogether impracticable ; and the only 
 attack feasible is by isolated columns, precluding all 
 mutual support and co-operation. 
 
 Haine's Bluff has been evacuated, and our commu- 
 nications re-opened with Milliken's Bend by way of 
 the Yazoo, which is a great relief to an army which 
 for ten days has been without regular supplies. Por- 
 ter and his gunboats keep watch and ward of the line, 
 and patrol the Mississippi. The enemy is frugal with 
 his ammunition, and Pemberton's prohibition of skir- 
 mishing and artillery practice enables Grant to select 
 the most favorable sites for his batteries, and to force 
 pickets and sharpshooters within annoying distance 
 of the rebel cfunners. The morale of the victorious 
 army is so superb, that an assault upon Vicksburg 
 cannot be denied to its impatience, and is an indul- 
 gence needed, that it may cheerfully submit to the 
 threatened dominion of the pickaxe and the spade. 
 The lions of Cybele were not yoked until they were 
 first foiled in their spring. The behavior of the rebel 
 arm}' at Big Black, its demoralized retreat, do not 
 render preposterous sanguine expectations of the 
 capture of Vicksburg; and the number of Pember- 
 ton's forces were at this time largely under-estimated. 
 On the first day of the investment. Grant orders his 
 whole line as near to the enemy as practicable ; and, 
 
264 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT, 
 
 at a signal of three volleys from all gnns in position, 
 the whole of Sherman's front charges, for the purpose 
 of reconnoitring the ground, and testing the strength 
 of the resistance. Blair's division closes in upon the 
 foe through the chasms and jungles which I have 
 already described, reaching even the main works, 
 and planting its colors upon the counterscarp of 
 one of the irregular redoubts which crown the ridges. 
 It is occupied for the day, and sharpshooters test the 
 accuracy of their fir^ upon any rebel head which 
 rises above the parapet. At night the troops are all 
 withdrawn ; and nothing is gained by the movement, 
 except an advanced station for artillery. 
 
 The 22d of May is assigned for a general assault. 
 The leaders of army corps and divisions survey all the 
 roads and approaches from their respective fronts 
 to within musket range of the hostile works. All 
 watches are set by Gen. Grant's chronometer, that, at 
 the appointed moment, from the extreme right of 
 Gen. Sherman to the remotest left of Gen. McCler- 
 nand, the immense semicircle of twelve miles may pro- 
 ject from every point penetrating lead and iron upon 
 the hideous length of fortifications which they envelop ; 
 that, at the same second, furious columns, pointed 
 with bristling spears innumerable, and clothed in 
 thunder, by momentum irresistible may rend with 
 a crash bastion and embankment. Skirmishers and 
 sharpshooters are to accompany everv detachment ; 
 forlorn hopes with pontoons attend every party which 
 has creeks or wet ditches in its pathway; brigades 
 are to be massed into columns of such front as the 
 nature of the ground will admit ; not a musket is to 
 
WHAT DID HE DO I:N- THE CIVIL WAll ? 265 
 
 be fired until the outer works are stormed. The aid 
 of Commodore Porter is invoked ; and on the after- 
 noon of the 21st he promptly despatches three of his 
 iron-clads to euLj-acfe the water batteries on the river 
 front, and plants on the peninsula six of those im- 
 plements which are the terror of beleaguered cities, — 
 tremendous mortars, capable of throwing to a distance 
 of three miles and a half an explosive bomb of thir- 
 teen inches in diameter, and weighing two hundred 
 and fifteen pounds. 
 
 At three o'clock in the morning, around the vast 
 circumferencie of our lines, the crack of the rifle rings 
 like the first patter of a threatening tempest; the 
 cannon booms from Haine's Bluff to Warrenton ; balls 
 hurtle through the woods, and shells fly shrieking as 
 when erst was lifted that imperial ensign in Pande- 
 monium, and first were heard those deep-throated 
 
 engmes 
 
 " Whose roar 
 Embowcllcd with outrageous noise the air, 
 And all her entrails tore." 
 
 But above the astounding; base of Parrotts and field- 
 batteries is heard the deeper thunder of the mortars 
 sounding and resounding from the clifis ; and up, up, 
 with the train of a meteor, with the quaver of ten 
 thousand organs, soars the black terror a mile and a 
 half into the placid depths of air, and then, curving 
 with majestic slowness, dives faster than light into 
 the treasonable ramparts. Three, four, five, at once 
 may be counted, tracing fiery parabolas on the dark 
 background of the sky, or swooping down like an 
 eagle on its quarry. Such a bombardment was never 
 
266 LIFE OF GENEEAL GKAXT. 
 
 before heard by the astonished rebels, ^\ho now bur- 
 row in the dens and caves of the earth, and tunnel 
 those subterranean caverns which were their dwell- 
 ing-place during the siege. It is the most protracted 
 artillery-storm Avhich is endured during those terrible 
 months, continuing until eleven o'clock in the fore- 
 noon of the 22d ; and its uninterrupted devastation, 
 as well as the incessant cannonade from our batteries 
 and the fatal volleys of our sharpshooters, entirely 
 divert the attention of the garrison from our storming 
 parties, which are now forming upon every avenue. 
 
 But all this is mere prelude to the majn drama of 
 this ensanguined day. I will now pass rapidly round 
 our entire investment, from McClernand on Warren- 
 ton Heights to Sherman near Haine's Bluff on the 
 "Walnut Hills, and designate the perilous roads by 
 which each of the army corps must advance, and the 
 position of each of their heroic storming parties, that 
 you may see through what extremities of peril, and 
 by what deeds of daring, the waters of the Mississippi 
 were rescued from rebel thraldom. Before even 
 reaching McClernand's army corps, I must notice 
 that McArthur's division, which is advancing this 
 morning from the Big Black, has been met by an 
 order to move up the heights at Warrenton, and pene- 
 trate into the city as far as impediments will permit. 
 
 From McClernand's line, a ravine first presents it- 
 self, which pursues a general direction towards tliG 
 point where the Jackson Road enters Vicksburg 
 through a bastioned work ; but it is swept through its 
 •entire course, both by artillery and musketry. At 
 uine o'clock, Carr occupies the ravine with Lawler's 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? '267 
 
 brigade, — which did the deed of derrbig-do at Big- 
 Black Bridge, — and with Laiidrum's, Benton's, Bur- 
 bridge's commands. As yon advance farther to the 
 right, a gully is seen, which, affording partial cover, 
 runs within twenty yards of the nearest intrench- 
 ment ; and, at nine o'clock, this has been seized by 
 A. J. Smith's division. The cross ravines which cut 
 these two approaches are steep and rugged, but not 
 heavily timbered like those which intersect the paths 
 of McPherson and Sherman. The siege-artillery of 
 thirty-pound Parrotts is with this army corps, and in 
 this morning's duel has breached the enemy's works 
 in MoClernand's front, and silenced two of their guns. 
 The Thirteenth, in grim and desperate earnestness, 
 thus await the signal for assault. 
 
 From the woods where McPherson's army corps 
 lies, the Jackson Road emerges, and, following a mean- 
 dering path over a crest between two deep ravines, 
 strikes the rebel centre at a point where the forti- 
 fications conform to the irregularities of the cliff, 
 which is here three hundred and thirty feet above 
 the river. These lofty works, not only control the 
 Jackson Road, but hatchel it with criss-cross fires. At 
 nine o'clock, upon this perilous route, lies Leggett's 
 brigade, supported by John E. Smith's, both in regi- 
 mental columns with platoon fronts. Stevenson's 
 brigade lies in the ravines which open to the south, 
 and his battalions propose to move in battle-line. 
 This is the storming party which McPherson marshals 
 to its desperate morning task. 
 
 The Grave-yard Road emerges from the forest in 
 Sherman's front, and crossing a deep ravine, and run- 
 
268 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ning along the crown of an inferior ridge, enters the 
 gorge of a redoubt at the north-eastern angle of the 
 defences. At nine o'clock, at the head of this road, 
 where it is still covered by woods, lies Blair's divis- 
 ion, with Tattle's for a support ; and, at half a mile to 
 the left, Steele is massed, and directs his attack 
 against a battery at the mouth of a creek which en- 
 ters the Mississippi at the north-western angle of Vicks- 
 burg. But it is upon the storming party posted upon 
 the road that our interest concentrates. It consists of a 
 forlorn hope of a hundred and fifty men, furnished 
 with poles and boards for crossing the dry ditch of 
 the redoubt ; and close in their rear are the brigades 
 of Ewing, Kirby Smith, and Giles Smith. You can- 
 not look at this detachment without a premonitory 
 phudder. These are the bold men whom Sherman 
 sends on an errand of death to-day. 
 
 Yes, from right to left, before all these storming 
 parties of the three army corps, there is death in 
 every breath of air. Roads, gulley, ravine, are all 
 swept by death. Every approach but one is fairly 
 deluged with grape and canister ; and not one reaches 
 even the frowning outposts without crossing deep 
 and rugged passes, semi-precipitous both in descent 
 and ascent, and entangled with every embarrassment. 
 An assault is to be made to-day which rivals in con- 
 summate boldness any which Saragossa or Badajos 
 saw. Are these men of mere mortal mould, who for 
 flag and fatherland thus leap into the jaws of death 
 as into the open arms of Ijlooming joy ? 
 
 Grant is stationed on an eminence, near McPher- 
 pon's front, which commands a view of the operations 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? , 260 
 
 of all three of the army corps. The blast of the bugle 
 gives the preconcerted signal; and, at ten o'clock 
 precisely, along the whole line, the various storming 
 parties leap forward at double-quick. Sherman ad- . 
 vances five batteries to a ridge, which assail with 
 concentric fire the north-western redoubt. The for- 
 lorn hope, armed with rafters and planking alone, fol- 
 lowed closely by Ewing, Kirby and Giles Smith, clear 
 the intervening space, and are for a moment en- 
 gulfed bj a ravine in their front. Loaded with timber 
 and arms they plunge into its depths, and scramble 
 through the j angle up its steep ascent within eighty 
 yards of the enemy, and are now seen rushing by 
 the flank upon the nearest salient. All the cannon 
 descend upon them with a plunging fire. The ad- 
 vanced centurion staggers and wavers before the 
 storm ; but, crowded on by the heavier columns, it 
 circles round the nearest angle, directed to the gorge. 
 Instantly, within the works, line upon line of rebel 
 infantry spring to their feet, and deliver an over- 
 whelming fire, which halts and temporarily drives 
 back the pontoniers. Ewing still presses them on. 
 They fling rafters and planks over the ditch : they 
 cross it on the bastion's left, and plant their colors on 
 the slope beneath the parapet, where they are par- 
 tially screened from death. The volley of the in- 
 fantry now devours the head of Ewing's columns, and 
 hurls its broken body behind such cover as each man 
 finds for himself It next bursts upon Giles Smith, 
 and hurls him down a side ravine ; and now, culmi- 
 nating upon Kirby Smith alone, throws him over a 
 spur, where, with Ewing's remnants, he rains bullets 
 
270 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 upon the parapet, without being able to reach the 
 heavy lines of infantry which blockade the gorge. 
 Steele, on his line of attack, fares no better. The 
 wrinkled and timbered res-ion in his front breaks his 
 columns into squads. Four hundred yards of approach, 
 under the fire of concentrated batteries, converts the 
 squads into separate bushwhackers, who still face the 
 withering fire, but throw organization to the winds. 
 By two o'clock, both division leaders report to Sher- 
 man that the enemy's position is sustained by too 
 much determination to be mastered by their com- 
 mands. 
 
 There was no hope for McPherson from the start. 
 Of what avail are reo;imental columns and battalions 
 in line, where the nature of the ground instantly dis- 
 solves all banded corps into a mere mob of brave 
 men? What could columns or lines, even if they 
 moved with the precision of the parade-ground, avail 
 , against armed cliffs upwards of three hundred feet 
 high, but dash like waves against a mountainous 
 coast ? Loo;an's brio-ade succeeded in reachino; the 
 tortuous pathway between the two ravines ; but if 
 each soldier had been an invulnerable iron man, — 
 like Sir Artegal's Talus, — the columns would have 
 been battered off by the mere weight of the metal. 
 Nor did Stevenson fare better in his line approach 
 over — what it is broad irony to name " the fields." 
 He reaches the top of the slope, and presents his long 
 blue ribbon to the whirlwind of shot, when it is im- 
 mediately rent and torn into shreds and ravellings. 
 At the appointed hour McClernand's storming party 
 advance, encountering all the horrors of war on their 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAK ? 271 
 
 imperilled routes. Protected from artillery fire by 
 the gulley, Smith crowded close to the enemy's 
 breastworks, but found himself confronted by infan- 
 try parapets, which broke into fragments every col- 
 umn exposed to its fire. Lawler, followed by his 
 supports, wormed warily his way along the ravine, as 
 if he were moving upon an Indian ambush, until he 
 finally reached its debouch. His brigade, with the 
 Twenty-second Iowa, sprung, with the dash and im- 
 petuosity which disembowelled the iete de 2^oni, over 
 a rebel ditch, over a rebel breastwork ; and, as in 
 Sherman's front, a Union flag was planted on the 
 counterscarp of the redoubt. Then ensues a close 
 scrimmage with hand grenades, cold steel, and 
 with repeaters, breast to breast, head to head, the 
 rebels attempting to dispossess us of the breastw^orK ; 
 but the stout Twenty-second hold on, supported by 
 the sharpshooters in the ravines and bordering thick- 
 ets. They were joined by an Illinois regiment, which 
 placed its standard also upon the exterior slope. Bo- 
 hind this work were others which completely con- 
 trolled it; and the brave Westerners contented them- 
 selves wdth their lodgement on its face, and shot 
 every rebel wdio ventured over the parapet to seize 
 their colors, and maintained their capture with daunt- 
 less heroism during the day. Osterhaus and Hovey, 
 by independent manoeuvres, succeeded in reaching 
 within four hundred 3^ards of the intrenchment, 
 where they recoiled like the rest, but clung tena- 
 ciously to every tenable point, and fired unceasingly 
 from every cover and chasm. McArthur, too, on the 
 Warrenton Heights, bore up against a direct and en- 
 
272 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 filacling fire, bent upon entering Yicksburg ; but was 
 halted, like the rest, by a resistance which was insur- 
 mountable. 
 
 Thus, along the whole front of our investment, the 
 nature of the ground prohibited the self-sustaining 
 impetus and co-operation of organized bodies. Frag- 
 mentary detachments, though persistent in their strug- 
 gles, individual courage and adventure worthy of 
 paladins or demigods, availed naught against this 
 Gibraltai of the West. In no instance was a storming 
 party driven wilted from the field, but every attack 
 by corps was foiled. Column and line alike met the 
 shock with a terrible sacrifice of life, strewing the en- 
 emy's front with their dead and wounded, only to be 
 hurled back into the woods and ravines, broken but un- 
 dismayed. The brigades of Sherman and McClernand 
 surmounted all the disheartening obstacles of their 
 approach, planted regimental flags upon the exterior 
 slopes of fortresses, but only pierced the hide of the 
 monster, and were as far from its heart as when in 
 the morning they first poised their spears. 
 
 In its main purpose, this bloody Jay's work was a 
 failure. Grant was baffled in an undertaking which, 
 considering the comparative numbers of the assailant 
 and the assailed, was never attempted in modern 
 'warfare against fortifications of such strength. He 
 was thwarted in an adventure which Wellington him- 
 self never dared to initiate in the Peninsula cam- 
 paign, with the odds against him, and which Grant 
 would not have essayed but for the unreasonable 
 demands of popular sentiment at home. By two 
 o'clock, he had ordered both Sherman and McPlierson 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IK THE CIVIL WAK ? 273 
 
 to desist from the imprcacticable design, and along 
 their fronts the tempest was entirely lulled. 
 
 While McPherson's corps was in the red-hot fur- 
 nace of war, Grant, who was upon his lines, received 
 a uiessaGi-e from McClernand which announced that 
 he was hotly engaged, vigorously pressed, and asked 
 for a supporting charge from McPherson, and also 
 for re-enforcements. As McPherson was already at- 
 tacking the precipice in his front v/ith more than 
 mortal energy. Grant contented himself with return- 
 ing McClernand the answer, "If your advance is 
 weak, draw upon your reserves." But when Law- 
 ler's brigade had carried the slope, and set up their 
 ensign, McClernand despatched to Grant the still 
 more Hurried missive, " We are hotly engaged with 
 the enemy. We have part possession of two forts, and 
 the stars and stripes are waving over them. A vig- 
 orous push ought to be made all along the line." 
 Grant had seen the operations of McClernand's corps. 
 He had beheld the rebuff of all his organized columns, 
 and had noticed, too, the flags upon the slope, and 
 suspected that the commander of the Thirteenth was 
 GxaorircratinQ!: his success. But Grant was induced by 
 the liveliness of the message to move forward, and 
 consult McPherson, when he was met by a note from 
 McClernand, couched in stronger language, louder 
 in its vaunting tone, more earnest in pleading the 
 pressure upon all his troops, and requesting that 
 McArthur should be concentrated upon the occupied 
 fort. Grant was constrained to heed this explicit 
 and direct information from a general in the field, 
 andj with many misgivings, ordered both Sherman 
 
 18 
 
27-1 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and McPherson to renew the attack, and the latter 
 to re-enforce McClernand with a brigade. We paid 
 for the flurry and excitement of this mihtary novice — 
 foisted upon the army by pohtical machinations — with 
 hundreds of hves. Sherman pushed Mower's brigade 
 into the same blast which in the morning had deci- 
 mated Ewing's, with no other result than to prove 
 that death hath no terrors for resolute souls. McPher- 
 son again moved forward against the precipice, only 
 to duplicate his casualties ; and the brigade which he 
 sent to the support of the Thirteenth Army Corps, 
 after a march of two miles, found their own troops 
 recalled, sustained the whole brunt of battle which 
 this bombast had rekindled, and left its accomplished 
 commander, Col. Bloomer, dead in front of the re- 
 doubt which McClernand had reported as captured. 
 But McClernand was still unsatisfied. After the en- 
 gagement he issued a magniloquent "order" of 
 congratulation to the Thirteenth, and arrogated to it 
 all the achievements which partially redeemed the 
 disasters of the day, disparaged the performances of 
 the associated corps, and attacked by innuendoes 
 Grant himself This bulletin to Buncombe was pub- 
 lished, of course, by North-western papers, and, in prog- 
 ress of time, reached the commanders of the Fif- 
 teenth and Seventeenth Corps. Sherman forthwith 
 addressed to Gen. Grant a letter in which he thus 
 characterized this remarkable " order : " " The docu- 
 ment under question is not technically a letter or 
 report, and, though styled an order, is not an order. 
 It orders nothing, but is in the nature of an address 
 to soldiers, manifestly designed for publication for 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 2/0 
 
 ulterior political purposes. It perverts the truth to 
 the ends of flattery and self-glorification, and contains 
 many untruths, among which is one of monstrous 
 falsehood." McPherson wrote a letter to Gen. Grant, 
 in which he expressed his views of the order as un- 
 generous in its tenor, with insinuation and crimina- 
 tions against the other corps, at manifest variance 
 with the flicts, and says, "After a careful perusal of 
 the order, I cannot help arriving at the conclusion 
 that it was written more to influence public opinion 
 at the North, and impress the public mind with the 
 magnificent strategy, superior tactics, and brilliant 
 deeds of the major-general commanding the Thir- 
 teenth Army Corps, than to congratulate his troops 
 upon their well-merited successes. 
 
 " There is a vain-gloriousness about the order, an 
 ingenious attempt to write himself down the hero, 
 the master-mind giving life and direction to the 
 military operations in this quarter, inconsistent w^ith 
 the high-toned principle of the soldier sans peur et 
 sans reproche" 
 
 The manifesto proved more fatal at the breech 
 than at the muzzle. It was the last of a series of 
 assumptions of independence and superiority, amount- 
 ins; to insubordination, which McClernand had mani- 
 fested from the commencement of the Vicksburg 
 campaign. Its publication was in direct violation of 
 a general order, issued by the president, and which, 
 moreover, required that offenders against it should 
 be reported for dismissal. It moved even Grant's 
 placable disposition to communicate the transgression 
 of McClernand to the general-in-chief ; and the result 
 
276 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of this fortunate disobedience was an order relieving 
 McClernand of the command of the Thirteenth Army 
 Corps. 
 
 The 22d of May cost us three thousand in killed 
 and wounded. It is useless to attempt to disguise 
 the horrors of war. The aspirant of mere military 
 glory may well be appalled at the singular conjunc- 
 ture of circumstances which now induced Pemberton 
 to tender an armistice to Grant. The scantiness of 
 foragre within his lines had constrained him to turn 
 loose his half-starved mules upon our front, where 
 some had died from hunger, and some had been shot 
 by our soldiers. Our dead and wounded were scattered 
 for eiii'ht miles alon<j!; his embankments; and the 
 apprehension that a pestilence might be bred by the 
 mingled decomposition of men and mules moved 
 his pentiments of humanity to beat a parley for 
 temporary peace. The offer was gladly accepted by 
 Grant ; and while our surgeons were carefully 
 tending the wounded, and our burial parties were 
 bestowing a soldier's grave upon our noble dead, the 
 garrison were burning the carcasses of mules, and 
 tolerating the interment of the dissolving images of 
 their Maker. Hamlet is obliged to borrow the aid 
 of his imagination, and to trace the ashes of Alexan- 
 der to the bung of a beer-barrel, in order to point 
 a moral upon the vanity of human ambition ; but 
 this genuin<5 scene upon a battle-field suggests a more 
 impressive homily upon the hollow pageantries and 
 pomps of military grandeur, and responds with more 
 emphasis to the Prince of Denmark's exclamation, 
 " To what base uses may we return, Horatio ! " 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CJVIL AVAR ? 277 
 
 Neither personal cravings for military renown, nor 
 the imhallowed aspirations of national aggrandize- 
 ment, can offer the feeblest apology for such horrors : 
 the defence of a nation's life, the preservation of the 
 most beneficent Government from an anarchy more 
 terrible than war itself, can be their only justification. 
 
 The arrival of Lauman's division enabled Grant 
 to commence the siege with forty thousand men. 
 Before it had proceeded far, he was re-enforced by 
 twenty-one thousand from his own department ; and, 
 in the course of three weeks, he was made complete 
 master of the situation by the arrival of Herron's 
 army corps from Schofield's commana, and by two 
 divisions of the Ninth Army Corps under Gen. Parke, 
 swelling the aggregate of his forces to seventy five 
 thousand men. 
 
 I have already said that Sherman held the Walnut 
 Hills on our extreme right with three divisions, — 
 Tuttle's, Steele's, and Blair's ; that McPherson united 
 with Sherman's left, and with his three divisions — 
 Hovey's, McArthur's, Quimby's — extended our in- 
 vestment along the enemy's centre ; that McClernand 
 with three divisions — Smith's, Carr's, and Oster- 
 haus's — continued it to the Warrenton Heights ; and 
 I have now to add that Herron with three divisions 
 prolonged it to the Mississippi River, thus swinging 
 around Vicksburg a vast arc of twelve miles' sweep. 
 
 The main problems presented by the siege were, 
 from different points of ihis immense semicircle to 
 advance artillery ensconced in screened batteries 
 within striking distance of the enemy's works ; to 
 cover evejy approach to them from our front, that 
 
278 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the ingress cand egress of our soldiers niight not be 
 extra hazardous ; to unite these approaches by such 
 connecting parallels^ as will permit the safe inter- 
 communication of our entire army ; to place the 
 heads of columns under cover, and so near the enemy's 
 line that the interval can be passed without the 
 destruction of our men ; to protect sharpshooters so 
 close to the rebel front that they may contribute 
 their aid to all these principal objects. 
 
 In describing the assault, I have already indicated 
 the nature of the ground between us and the 
 enemy. I have directed particular attention to 
 two highways, a ravine, a gulley, a railroad, all 
 death-swept in every direction, by which the storm- 
 ing parties endeavored to reach the hostile fortresses 
 on the 22d of May. Grant cannot repeat that 
 calamitous experiment, but must accomplish his 
 object by the sure but insidious advances of a siege. 
 He therefore invokes military science to throw such 
 a shield and buckler over these perilous pathways 
 that his soldiers may march up to the enemy's guns, 
 and stare into his eyes, without being the target of 
 his shot. " Impossible ! " There is no such word as 
 " impossible " in the engineer's vocabulary ; and 
 Grant, after more than forty years' search, has not 
 yet found "can't" in his dictionary. The impos- 
 sibility will be overcome. 
 
 How shall I describe the devices by which the 
 severe task was accomplishec^ ? It would prolong this 
 volume to a folio to minutely relate them. Without 
 •lotailing the enormous labor of our troops day by 
 
 1 A wide trench for communication between the approaches of the besiegers. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IIST THE CIVIL WAR ? 279 
 
 day ; without specifying the ingenious expedients of 
 the different commanders; without journalizing the 
 peculiar toil and peril of every night and every day; 
 without following step by step the majestic advance 
 of eighty-nine batteries with their stupendous 
 accompaniments of trenches and parallels; without 
 dwelling upon the military skill and science with 
 which the enemy incessantly opposed this irresistible 
 progress, — the counter-intrenchments, cannonades, 
 pickets, sharpshooters, hand-grenades, mines, with 
 which he assailed every aggression of this strangling 
 coil upon his eight miles of fortification, — I must con- 
 tent myself with summing up in a single paragraph 
 the grand result of forty days of such labor as built 
 the Pyramids and tunnelled the Alps. Grant protects 
 these natural approaches with so much engineering 
 skill, — channeling artificial ways safe from hostile 
 fire, and in some cases roofed by gabions,^ through 
 precipitous crests, up and down the acclivities of 
 rocky ridges, through the Graveyard and Jackson 
 road-beds, along the railroad cut, the Walnut Hills, 
 the Warrenton Heights, — that on the 1st of July he 
 has in cannon-proof earth-works, within the easiest 
 range of the enemy's fortifications, two hundred and 
 twenty cannon. His saps" are within a few feet of 
 the enemy's ditch; and, at ten different points, he can 
 place under cover the heads of his divisions, within 
 an average distance of two hundred yards of the 
 rebel lines, and with means of debouching on com- 
 paratively level ground. 
 
 1 A basket made of twigs and saplings, and filled with earth, cylindrical in 
 form and open at both ends, about nine feet long by two wide ; and used to 
 shelter men from an enemy's fire. 
 
 2 A near approach to a fortified place. 
 
280 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 Nor were these the only means adopted to break 
 the barriers which held in subjection the channel of 
 the Mississippi. An annoying redan stopped the 
 progress of the sappers in Logan's front. With immense 
 labor he moles his way through the rugged earth 
 beneath it, and, from the main subterranean passage, 
 tunnels under the redan to the ri<i:ht and left, and 
 hides in these cavities twenty-two hundred pounds 
 of gunpowder. In the afternoon of the 25th of 
 June a heavy column of troops lies covered in 
 Logan's approaches, and the artillery opens from every 
 battery which bears. At three o'clock in the after- 
 noon, a vivid glare for a moment dazzles the vision : 
 an explosion which outroars the cannon jars the 
 earth. Rebel soldiers are tossed high in air ; the redan 
 is torn from its rock-bound foundations ; a crater, large 
 enough to hold two regiments, occupies its site. Our 
 columns spring forward into the chasm with the 
 Northern " cheer," and are received with the Southern 
 "yell," and, after a hand-to-hand fight, force the rebels 
 back to interior parapets, with which they had pro- 
 vided themselves in anticipation of the catastrophe. 
 For weeks the crater is the prize for which the belli- 
 gerents contend. Pemberton meets our mines with 
 countermines, and perils under the earth are as 
 common during this beleaguering month as perils 
 above it. 
 
 To Grant, the siege is forty days and nights of 
 watching and sleeplessness. While superintending all 
 these approaches, he is continually threatened by the 
 efforts of Johnston to raise the siege. It is no unrea- 
 sonable apprehension, that he may succeed in placing 
 
■WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 281 
 
 the besiegers between two hostile armies; and, while 
 meeting one in the field, Grant may be overwhelmed 
 by a sally of thirty thousand men from the strong- 
 hold. In addition to his other labors, Grant constructs 
 a vast line of countervallation from the Yazoo to the 
 Big Black, which presents to Johnston the same 
 obstacles in reaching us which we have in entering 
 Vicksburg. He fortifies Haine's Bluff, which becomes 
 now an outwo^^k of as much importance to Grant as 
 it was formerly to Pemberton. He despatches Oster- 
 haus to the teie de pont on the Big Black, and orders 
 him to hold that line against all enemies. He sends 
 Blair to scour the delta and jungles of the Yazoo, 
 that no foe may lurk in their recesses. He dis- 
 seminates orders to all the division commanders to 
 hold a part of their troops in readiness to march at 
 a moment's notice. He stimulates their vigilance 
 with an incessant stream of admonitory telegrams. 
 He sequestrates in transitu all the despatches of 
 Johnston. He instructs Sherman to attack him within 
 fifteen miles, at least, from Vicksburg. He watches 
 every courier of Pemberton with the eye of a falcon. 
 He thwarts an attempt of the garrison to escape by 
 boats. He invokes the vigilance of Commodore Por- 
 ter. B}^ a resolution which surmounts all dangers 
 which are present, by a watchfulness which meets in 
 advance all which are imminent, by providing 
 beforehand for every contingency which human pre- 
 science can anticipate, and by a presence of mind 
 which meets unforeseen contingencies as if they were 
 embraced by his original plan, by the confidence in 
 himself generated by this wakeful superintendence, 
 
282 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 — he awaits serenely the hour when the " barred gate- 
 way" of the Mississippi shall sullenly yield to his 
 ripened combinations. 
 
 While Grant is concentrating his two hundred and 
 twenty guns upon its front, and Porter's squadron is 
 thundering against its back, scantiness, famine, havoc, 
 are serviceable auxiliaries in the interior of the fortress. 
 The ammunition is so nearly exhausted that every 
 grain of powder left in our trenches is carefully gath- 
 ered up, and the cartridge-box of our dead preferred 
 to all trophies ; percussion caps only reach the garri- 
 son by smugglers, disguised in the national uniform, 
 who throw them over the trenches in canteens. Pem- 
 berton's wails to Johnston for relief are piteous to read. 
 Fodder was long since exhausted, and the war-charger 
 of the general is fed on husks. All the beef, cattle, 
 flour, tobacco, beans, held by non-combatants, have 
 been already impressed by the commissary ; and the 
 troops subsist upon half-rations, while the citizens 
 starve. Quarter-rations soon become the order of the 
 day. Mule-meat is a luxury, and they covet those 
 carcasses which were ojfFered as a placebo to the pes- 
 tilence. Round shot and shell incessantly assail the 
 town. Seven mortars by night and day drop incen- 
 diary and explosive shell into the dwellings, and the 
 unwholesome caves which they have burrowed into 
 the cliffs are the sole refuge of the inhabitants from 
 omnipresent destruction. Buildings are destroyed, 
 hospitals demolished ; the old and the infirm, the 
 women and the children, are scourged by the enraged 
 national arm, which the treasonable leaders have so 
 flagrantly provoked. 
 
•WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 283 
 
 The hope of succor from Johnston is ah'eacly a van- 
 ished illusion. Haine's Bluff is impregnable ; Big Black 
 is held by an army ; clouds of cavalry envelop the 
 country, and patrol every avenue. The war creeps 
 nearer and nearer : artillerymen are upon every crest ; 
 sharpshooters are in every ravine ; every morning 
 discloses new breastworks, and new batteries like 
 mushrooms spring up every night. The approaching 
 circles of fire, like the waves of the ocean, move those 
 in advance, and are moved by those behind; and 
 " Thus Hxr shalt thou come, and no flirther," is power- 
 less to arrest their march. The rank and file have 
 been canvassed by officers, and refuse to go out and 
 fio-ht. A definitive treaty has been ratified between 
 the rebel and national pickets at one point of the 
 line, which provides for the absolute cessation of hos- 
 tilities by night, and authorizes our sappers, without 
 even the protection of a sap-roller, to lead their ap- 
 proaches up to the angles of the redoubts. Civilities 
 are constantly interchanged between the belligerent 
 outposts. Deserters flock to our trenches. The sol- 
 diers of the two armies not only brag of their prowess, 
 and chaff each other across the parapets, but meet 
 by night, and drink at the same well of refreshing 
 water between the two lines, exchange rations and 
 quids, discuss the abilities of the two commanders, 
 wrangle and jar, but use no sharper weapon than the 
 tongue, and part as if the secret truce w^as authorized 
 by orders from their respective headquarters. 
 
 Grant wants no Daniel to inform him that the end 
 is near. He does not even wish to be befriended by 
 the torpor and irresolution of the garrison ; for he is 
 
284 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 fully prepared to enforce his claim upon Vicksburg 
 by his might. I have already recounted the progress 
 of his approaches up to the 1st of July ; by the 3d, the 
 pickaxe and the spade have spent all their strength, 
 and the cannon and the musket are about to resume 
 their undivided sway. Grant has appointed the 6th 
 of July for the assault. But what is this ? At ten 
 o'clock on the morning of the 3d, a white flag sud- 
 denly appears upon the precipice in McPherson's front, 
 heralding the approach of Gen. Bowen and Col. Mont- 
 gomery, the aide of Pemberton, with a communica- 
 tion for the general-in-chief It proposes an armistice, 
 and the appointment of three commissioners by each 
 commander to arrange terms of surrender, in order 
 to " spare the effusion of blood." Gen. Grant replies, 
 that " the ' effusion of blood ' can be ended at any 
 time you may choose, by the unconditional surrender 
 of the city and garrison. Men who have shown so 
 much endurance and courage as those now in Vicks- 
 burg will always challenge the respect of an adversary, 
 and, I can assure you, will be treated with all the re- 
 spect due to prisoners of war. I do not favor the prop- 
 osition of appointing commissioners to arrange the 
 terms of capitulation, because I have no terms other 
 than those indicated above." 
 
 Gen. Bowen and his companion were received by 
 Gen. A. J. Smith. The rebel officers expressed a strong 
 wish to see Gen. Grant ; but, when this was respect- 
 fully declined, they requested that he would appoint 
 the time and place for an interview with Pemberton. 
 To this Gen. Grant readily assented, and named three 
 o'clock in the afternoon, between McPherson's front 
 and the enemy's intrenchments. 
 
■WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE, ? 285 
 
 A sturdy old oak which had weathered the storms 
 of centuries stood upon the hillside, midway between 
 the embattled lines, with its midsummer burden of 
 leaves torn and blasted, and even its branches splin- 
 tered by passing shot. It had been appiopriately 
 selected as the place of rendezvous. The crack of the 
 rifle, the boom of the cannon, are hushed in deference 
 to a negotiation upon w^hich such weighty issues hang. 
 Soldiers of both armies swarm the confronting parapets, 
 as if they would read their fate upon the impenetrable 
 faces of the two commanders. The preconcerted gun 
 echoes and re-echoes from the cliff The day is sultry. 
 The clouds hang lowering. Not even the rustle of a leaf, 
 ror the fall of a raindrop, breaks the ominous silence 
 of the hour. The general-in-chief is already on the 
 spot, attended by McPherson, Ord, Smith, and several 
 members of his staff It is noticed, that, in honor of 
 the occasion. Grant has thrown off the blouse which 
 he habitually wore during the siege, and donned a 
 weather-stained frock-coat, decorated with the tar- 
 nished insignia of his rank ; and he even dignified 
 the ceremonious interview by wearing a regulation 
 sword, which had not appeared in public for months. 
 Gen. Pemberton presents himself, accompanied by 
 Bowen and Montgomery. The tall and lithe figure 
 of the Confederate officer is incased in a fresh suit of" 
 gray, with all the decorations of his rank. As he ai> 
 proaches, his full black beard, his bronzed complexion, 
 his regular profile, his dark locks, his deep-set black 
 eyes, with the burdened expression which they habit- 
 ually wore, arrest the earnest gaze of the spectators. 
 He was a West-Point graduate, and had risen to the 
 
286 LIFE OF GENERAL GEAKT. 
 
 rank of major in our army. He was a Northerner 
 by birth. He took chivahy by inoculation, and, of 
 course, had the disease with greater severity, revers- 
 ing the rule which governs kindred maladies. Pollard 
 describes him as " of a captious and irritable nature, a 
 narrow mind, — a slave of the forms and fuss of the 
 schools;" as "one of those men whose idea of war 
 began with a bureau of clothing and equipment, and 
 ended with a field-day and dress-parade." There was 
 sufficient hauteur in his bearing, but none of the in- 
 civility which he exhibited the next day. The two 
 generals advanced and shook hands. Pemberton im- 
 mediately asked, " What terms of capitulation will be 
 allowed me ? " — " The same," said Grant, " which I 
 expressed in my letter of this morning." — " If that is 
 your ultimatum," replied Pemberton, " the conference 
 might as well terminate, and hostilities be immediately 
 resumed." — " So be it," said Grant, and turned away. 
 Both Bowen and Montgomery were disappointed 
 at this abrupt termination of the conversation, and 
 proposed that two of the subordinates present should 
 agree upon the basis of a capitulation, and report it 
 for ratification to their respective chiefs ; and, as the 
 proposition received a tacit assent, he selected Gen. 
 A. J. Smith, and withdrew for imparlance. ' Grant and 
 Pemberton had,in the mean time, been drawn together, 
 and were promenading within two hundred yards of 
 the rebel parapet. The whole party soon rendez- 
 voused at the oak, when Bowen reported the basis, as 
 if it had received the assent of his colleague in the 
 negotiation : " Vicksburg will capitulate, on condition 
 that the garrison shall march out with the honors of 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 2S7 
 
 war, carrying with them side-arms, muskets, and field- 
 artillery, but surrendering the heavy battery guns." 
 The proposal was immediately rejected by Grant with 
 a smile of derision. It was finally agreed that the 
 armistice should continue until morning, and that in 
 the course of the evening Greant should forward to Pem- 
 berton in writing the terms of capitulation. In com- 
 pliance with this promise. Grant addressed Pemberton 
 the following communication : — 
 
 « In conformity with the agreement of this after- 
 noon, I will submit the following proposition for the 
 surrender of the city of Vicksburg, public stores, &c. 
 On your accepting the terms proposed, I will march 
 in one division, as a guard, and take possession at eight 
 o'clock to-morrow morning. As soon as paroles can 
 be made out, and signed by the officers and men, you 
 will be allowed to march out of our lines ; the officers 
 taking with them their regimental clothing, and staff*, 
 field, and cavalry officers one horse each. The rank 
 and file will be allowed all their clothing, but no other 
 property. 
 
 " If these conditions are accepted, any amount of 
 rations you may deem necessaty can be taken from 
 the stores you now have, and also the necessary cook- 
 ing utensils for preparing them ; thirty w^agons, also, 
 counting two horse or mule teams as one. You will 
 be allowed to transport such articles as cannot be 
 carried along. The same conditions wall be allowed 
 to all sick and w^ounded officers and privates as last 
 as they become able to travel. The paroles for these 
 latter must be signed, however, whilst officers are 
 present authorized to sign the roll of prisoners." 
 
288 LIFE OF GENEltAL GJIA^T. 
 
 Pemberton accepted the terms contained in the 
 foresroino; letter with these modifications : " At ten 
 o'clock in the morning to-morrow, I propose to evacu- 
 ate the works in and around Vicksburg, and to sur- 
 render the city and garrison under my command, by 
 marching out with my colors and arms, stacking them 
 in front of my present lines, after which you will 
 take possession. Officers to retain their side-arms and 
 personal property, and the rights and property of 
 citizens to be respected." Grant assented to the first 
 amendment, but said to the second, "I can make no 
 stipulations with regard to the treatment of citizens 
 and their private property. While I do not propose 
 to cause them any undue annoyance or loss, I <jannot 
 consent to leave myself under any restraint by siip- 
 ulations." 
 
 The minds of the tw^o commanders finally meet 
 upon every point, and Pemberton sends his unqualified 
 assent in the course of the night. At ten o'clock on 
 the morning of the 4th of July, along eight miles 
 of fortification, from every gorge and sally-port 
 emerge coluLins in gray, bearing the familiar arma 
 and tattered standards of an army. The officers and 
 soldiers assume a composure and indifference which 
 imperfectly hides their visible humiliation, as they 
 stack their guns and prostrate their colors before their 
 conquerors, acknowledging their defeat upon the very 
 ground which is signally the arena of the trial by 
 battle. 
 
 The soldiers in blue throng the opposite parapets, 
 tendering the homage of respectful silence to " foe- 
 men worthy of their steel," and with all feelings of 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIYIL WAE ? 289 
 
 exultation tempered by genuine sentiments of com- 
 passion. But little personal acrimony entered into 
 the struggles around Yicksburg ; and the privates of 
 the two armies had frequently met, rather as compa- 
 triots than foes. Even the inspiration of our national 
 jubilee failed to elicit from our generous troops any 
 manifestations of triumph. The motives which had 
 induced Pemberton to select this day, which in the 
 estimation of the victor added to the eclat, and of the 
 vanquished to the abasement, of the surrender, he 
 himself has assigned; justifying his choice by reasons 
 which, in the judgment of his superiors, constituted 
 the gravamen of the offence : " If it should be asked 
 why the 4th of July was selected as the day for sur- 
 render, the answer is obvious. I believed that upon 
 that day I should obtain better terms. Well aware 
 of the vanity of our foes, I knew they would attach 
 vast importance to the entrance on the 4th of July 
 into the stronghold of the great river, and that, to 
 gratify their national vanity, they would yield then 
 what could not be extorted from them at any other 
 time." 
 
 It is a wonderful illustration of the vigor and ener- 
 gy with which Grant pursued the business of crush- 
 m<r the Rebellion, that, on the first intimation of an 
 intention to surrender, he commenced issuing orders 
 to Sherman, and organizing a force for the pursuit of 
 Johnston, and the recapture of the capital of the State. 
 He paused not for rest, how^ever severe were his 
 labors ; he reposed not upon laurels, however glorious, 
 while there was still work to be done. At midnight 
 of the 3d, when he is dictating terms of capitulation 
 
 19 
 
290 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 to Pemberton, lie is writing to Sherman, " Vicksburg 
 will surrender to-night or in the morning : make your 
 calculations to attack Johnston, and destroy the north 
 road to Jackson. I have directed Steele and Ord to 
 move the moment of surrender. I want Johnston 
 broken up as effectually as possible. You can make 
 your own arrangements, and have all the troops of my 
 command, except one corps." Before Grant had actu- 
 ally entered Vicksburg, forty thousand men of his 
 army were retracing their weary footsteps to the Big 
 Black, Edward's Depot, Champion's Hill, bent on the 
 conquest of another army and another stronghold of 
 Rebellion. 
 
 Loo;an's division, which was the most advanced of 
 our army, was honored with the commission to occu- 
 py Vicksburg. But four thousand inhabitants re- 
 mained within the town ; and the ravages of war and 
 the manifest distresses of the beleaguered citizens 
 fairly moved the commiseration of soldiers who had 
 themselves endured the sufferings and hardships of 
 the march, the battles, and the siege. Grant accom- 
 panied the columns of Logan. 
 
 While I was in Washington, I had the pleasure of 
 hearing General Grant describe the meeting between 
 Pemberton and himself on this memorable occasion. 
 Immediately after listening to the account, I returned 
 to my own room, committed it to paper, and sent it 
 to my family at home. I transcribe his description 
 from my own letter, now before me: — 
 
 "While one of the Illinois regiments," he said, 
 " was raising its flag upon the court-house at Vicks- 
 burg, I deemed it but an act of courtesy to pay ray 
 
"WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 291 
 
 respects to Peraberton, and went in search of his 
 headquarters. I found him seated on the piazza of 
 a house, surrounded by his oflftcers and staff. No one 
 advanced to receive me, or recognized my presence 
 in any way. I dismounted my horse, and joined the 
 party on the porch, when Pemberton acknowledged 
 the acquaintance by a sUght nod. He offered me no 
 seat ; and I remained standing, while he and his sub- 
 ordinates were sitting. A Mississippi general finally 
 arose, and pushed towards me his chair. The day was 
 oppressively warm and dusty ; and, to relieve the con- 
 straint of the interview, I asked for a glass of water. 
 Pemberton pointed to the interior of the house ; and 
 I groped my way through it to a well in the rear, 
 where I found a negro, who drew up a bucket, and 
 tendered me a drink from a gourd. I returned to the 
 party on the piazza, and found my chair re-occnpied , 
 and, although I remained standing for twenty min- 
 utes, I was not offered a seat again ; and I left Pem- 
 berton, and went on my way. Our sole conversation 
 was about the supply of rations for his troops ; and I 
 learned then, for the first time, the number of men 
 who had surrendered, having presumed all along that 
 there were but fifteen to twenty thousand men in the 
 garrison." Can there be any doubt that Pollard is 
 correct when he describes Pemberton as having a 
 " captious and irritable nature, a narrow mind." He 
 can fawn on national vanity; he can humiliate his 
 clan by enhancing the glory of the conqueror, in 
 order to secure favorable terms of surrender; but, 
 after they have been once obtained, he can insult a 
 generous adversary, in the presence of his stafi^ while 
 
292 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GK.VNT. 
 
 lie is suppliccating him for rations for a starving army. 
 This is chivalry when it is taken by inoculation. He 
 can beg from a victor to whom he disdains to offer a 
 chair or a cup of water. 
 
 Grant reported to Halleck, that thirty-two thousand 
 troops, fifty thousand stand of arms, and a hundred 
 and seventy cannon were surrendered. An enor- 
 mous amount of ordnance and ordnance stores fell 
 into his hands. Among the prisoners were two 
 thousand one hundred and fifty-three officers, includ- 
 ing fifteen generals. When General Mack filed his 
 thirty thousand Austrians, sixteen generals, and sixty 
 cannon before Napoleon at the capitulation of Ulm, 
 Jomini represents the emperor as saying, "1 had 
 already within the last ten years gained many 
 brilliant successes ; but never had I enjoyed a 
 triumph like that of an entire army defiling before 
 me, and laying down their arms, their colors, and their 
 cannon. Placed on an eminence which commands 
 the city, and all the basin of the Danube, I could 
 contemplate at my ease the spectacle which promised 
 me such high destinies." How did Grant contemplate 
 a triumph still more gorgeous? He betrays no 
 emotion : he assumes no more airs than when he was 
 selling wood at St. Louis, and dealing in leather at 
 Galena. If modesty is a cardinal virtue, you have it 
 here, with supererogation enough to equip Bom- 
 bastes Furioso for a saintship. He narrated the 
 achievement to Halleck with an absence of parade 
 and ostentation which would hardly be credited if 
 the documents were not seen and read by all men. 
 The highest strain of exultation, in the various com- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 293 
 
 munications which he writes at this time, is reached 
 by Grant in his letter to Thomas of July 11th, in 
 which he says, "The capture of Vicksburg has proved 
 a bigger thing than I supposed it would. There 
 were over thirty thousand rebel troops still left 
 when we entered the city. The number of small- 
 arms will reach fifty thousand stand I think, and the 
 amount of ordnance and ordnance stores is enormous. 
 Since crossing the Mississippi, an army of sixty 
 thousand men has in the various battles been killed 
 and wounded, captured and scattered, so as to be lost 
 to the Confederacy ; and an armament for an army of 
 a hundred thousand men has departed from them 
 forever." 
 
 Mr. Alison, the historian of Europe, speaks cf the 
 spectacle exhibited at Ulm as "unparalleled in 
 modern warfare, and sufficient to have turned the 
 strongest head." But Ulm is no longer paramount ; 
 and the surrender of Vicksburg, which pales its 
 splendor, was the work of a head which no military 
 success can turn. England's great admiral described 
 the battle of the Nile, " not as a victory, but as a con- 
 quest." The language is singularly applicable to the 
 Vicksburg campaign. In five pitched battles, two 
 rebel armies were vanquished, in the heart of their 
 domain, in the centre of their resources. Sixty 
 thousand men were killed, wounded, and captured. 
 Armaments and munitions of war sufficient for an 
 army of a hundred thousand were among the 
 spoils. Port Hudson immediately fell, and the two 
 strongest fortified positions of treason were the first 
 fruits of this magnificent triumph. But into what 
 
294 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 depths of insignificance do even such trophies sink, 
 compared with the severance of the Confederacy, the 
 domination of the channel of the great river, the 
 unchallenged control of the empire watered by it 
 and its tributaries, — which alone would satiate any 
 thirst for military aggrandizement save that of the 
 man who "wished for another world to conquer!" 
 
 When Congress assembled, the president nominated 
 Grant as a major-general in the regular army, with a 
 commission to date from the 4tli of July, 18G3, 
 and promptly addressed to him the following auto- 
 graph letter : "I do not remember that you and I 
 ever met personally. I write this now as a grateful 
 acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service 
 you have done the country. I wish to say a word 
 further. When you first reached the vicinity of 
 Yicksburg, I thought you should do what you finally 
 did, — march the troops across the neck, run the 
 batteries with the transports, and thus go below ; and 
 I never had any faith, except a general hope that 
 you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass expedi- 
 tion, and the like, could succeed. When you got 
 below, and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, 
 I thought you should go down the river, and join 
 General Banks ; and when you turned northward, 
 east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. I 
 now wish to make a personal acknowledgment that you 
 were right and I was wrong." Vicksburg converted 
 even Halleck, He had persecuted Grant without 
 any justification, and almost driven him to resigna- 
 tion, after the victory of Donelson ; he had withheld 
 from him all commendations for his subsequent 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 295 
 
 triumphs; he h<ad treated him during the Corinth 
 campaign as a mere successful bhmderer, and had 
 such a contempt for his miHtary abilities that he would 
 have superseded him bj an unknown quartermaster, 
 who had "never set a battalion in the field," in the 
 command of the Army of the Tennessee. But even 
 Halleck bestows upon him generous praise. 
 
 In a letter acknowledging the receipt of Grant's 
 modest account of the capitulation, he says, " Your 
 report, dated July 6, of your campaign in Missis- 
 sippi, ending in the capitulation of Vicksburg, was 
 received last evenino;. Your narration of the cam- 
 paign,like the operations themselves, is brief, soldierly, 
 and in every respect creditable and satisfactory. In 
 boldness of plan, rapidity of execution, and brilliancy 
 of routes, these operations will compare most favor- 
 ably with those of Napoleon about Ulm. You and 
 your army have well deserved the gratitude of your 
 country ; and it will be the boast of your children, 
 that their fathers Avere of the heroic army which 
 re-opened the Mississippi River." 
 
 His companions in arms, who best knew by what 
 generalship Vicksburg had been won, presented to 
 him an elegant sword, with appropriate ceremonies, 
 as a permanent memorial. 
 
 The moment Sherman succeeds in vanquishing 
 Johnston, and recapturing the city of Jackson, Grant 
 aims at new conquests. He scrutinized the rebel do- 
 main for any assailable point where a lodgement would 
 be most damaging to the Rebellion. The telegram 
 which announced to Halleck Sherman's triumph car- 
 ried also an intimation from Grant, that the capture 
 
296 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEAKT. 
 
 of Mobile would strengthen all our positions in the 
 South-west, and seriously threaten Bragg, in Northern 
 Georgia. From the 18th of July to the 1st of August, 
 he is continually reminding the general-in-chief of the 
 practicability of capturing Mobile by an expedition 
 through Lake Pontchartrain ; but Halleck's policy was 
 neither bold nor comprehensive, and the Mobile plan 
 met the same cool reception with the other projects 
 which Grant had initiated. Special reasons were also 
 assigned for its rejection. The intrigues of France in 
 Mexican affairs, and rumors of negotiations between 
 England and Texas, increased the anxiety of the 
 president to place an efficient force upon our south- 
 eastern border as soon as the progress of our arms at 
 the east would justify it. 
 
 The emancipation proclamation of the president had 
 now become operative ; and Grant entered zealously 
 into the organization of the negro regiments, which 
 were at this time authorized. He expressed in de- 
 cided terms to the Confederate officers upon his bor- 
 ders that any treatment of colored troops inconsist 
 ent with the acknowledged rules and usages of war 
 would be met by prompt retaliation. He vigorously 
 opposed, in his correspondence with the heads of de- 
 partment at Washington, the plan which had been 
 adopted of opening trade with the rebellious States ; 
 contending, that, without benefiting the honest mer- 
 chant, it would encourage dishonest smugglers bound 
 by no oaths or restriction, furnish to the army articles 
 contraband of war, delay the subjection of the States, 
 and weaken the strongest motives which were leading 
 them back to their old allegiance. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 297 
 
 In the mean time, the great army which he had 
 created and discipHned, and furnished with officers of 
 unsurpassed merit, was scattered from Arkansas to 
 Chattanooga. A part of the Thirteenth Corps was sent 
 to the Department of the Gulf; a division from Hurl- 
 but and one from McPherson were despatched to re- 
 enforce Rosecrans. Grant had been instructed to 
 co-operate with Banks in the unfortunate Red-River 
 expedition ; and this constrained him to go to New 
 Orleans, to learn the precise scope and purpose of the 
 movement. He was here thrown by a vicious horse, 
 at a review ; which confined him to his bed for several 
 weeks, and disabled him from resuming his duties at 
 Vicksburg until the 2Gth of September. Upon his 
 return he found an order from Halleck, which direct- 
 ed him to send Sherman to Rosecrans. He acted 
 promptly upon the command, and had embarked Sher- 
 man's corps in transports, when the news reached him 
 that the blow which had been long anticipated had 
 descended upon Rosecrans at Chickamauga. On the 
 10th of October he received an order from the gen- 
 eral-in-chief which called him to Cairo ; and, after his 
 arrival there on the 17th, he was required to report 
 " for field operations " at Louisville. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 HE RELIEVES CHICKAMAUGA, AND WINS ITS GREAT BATTLE. ' 
 
 [OCTOBER, 1863, TO MARCH, 1864.] 
 
 ON the 17th of October, 1863, 1 find Gen. Grant 
 at Louisville, Ky., called there for an inter- 
 view with the secretary of war. Mr. Stanton im- 
 mediately invested him with the command of the Mil- 
 itary Division of the Mississippi, embracing a juris- 
 diction over all the territory between the Alleghanies 
 and the great river. The three departments — Ten- 
 nessee, which Grant commanded ; the Cumberland, 
 under Rosecrans ; and the Ohio, under Burnside — ■ 
 were thus united under one leader. The policy of 
 subjecting to one administration operations which had 
 the same essential objects, and which were upon the 
 same general theatre, that out of conflicting meas- 
 ures and independent movements order and har- 
 mony might be evoked, had been advised by Grant 
 more than a year ago ; and it was at length adopted 
 by the authorities at Washington. 
 
 Rosecrans had just fought the battle of Chickamau- 
 ga, which, after he had retired from the field, the con- 
 summate generalship of Thomas had redeemed from 
 irretrievable disaster. The situation of things at the 
 
 298 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAK ? 299 
 
 front was exceedingly critical. Rosecrans had yielded 
 to the enemy positions which were essential to the 
 security of the army ; and he was now driven into the 
 closest straits, and was meditating the evacuation of 
 a strategical position of inestimable value, and which 
 had been purchased at a fearful sacrifice. Grant, 
 though still lame from his New Orleans accident, im- 
 mediately started for the front. The first order which 
 he issued placed Thomas over Rosecrans in com- 
 mand of the Army of the Cumberland. His second 
 instructed the new commander to " hold Chattanooga 
 af all hazards ; " to which he received the memo- 
 rable reply, " I will hold it till we starve." His third 
 order placed Sherman in command of the Depart- 
 ment of the Tennessee. Grant is on his way to the 
 front by rail, but halts at one station to telegraph 
 Burnside — who is at Knoxville, where he is threat- 
 ened from the east — " to fortify his position by in- 
 trenchments ; " at another, to request Porter " to fur- 
 nish a convoy to Sherman," who is winding his way 
 up the Mississippi with his army corp^ ; and at a third, 
 to instruct the chief commissary at Nashville " to for- 
 ward supplies forthwith to Chattanooga." And thus, 
 fulminating important telegrams in every direction, 
 the indomitable man, still crippled by his fall, over 
 difficult roads, by rail, on horseback, on foot, some- 
 times borne over torrents in the arms of his compan- 
 ions, wended his way to Chattanooga, and reached 
 Thomas's headquarters on the evening of the 23d. 
 
 He found the condition of affairs sufficiently dis- 
 heartening. The straggling village of Chattanooga is 
 situated in a bend of the Tennessee. Three miles to 
 
800 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the right of the town in a south-westerly direction, 
 rising to a height of twenty-two hundred feet, i» 
 Lookout Mountain, — a rocky upheaval a mile or 
 two wide, and stretching a hundred and fifty miles 
 to the south. It presents its northern and eastern 
 front to Chattanooga ; but its western face is turned 
 towards a parallel ridge, two miles farther off, called 
 Kaccoon Mountain, with a valley between them 
 named Lookout Valley. The bases of these two 
 mountains descend to the Tennessee and command 
 its channel, which alone renders them sufficiently 
 obnoxious to an army occupying Chattanooga ; buf, 
 in addition to this, the railroad from Nashville courses 
 along the front of Raccoon Mountain, crosses Look- 
 out Valley, winds round the controlling northern 
 face of Lookout Mountain, and then enters Chatta 
 nooga. Upon the Nashville Road we depended en- 
 tirely for our supplies. Both of the mountains and 
 the valley, which thus held Chattanooga in their 
 grasp, had been yielded by Rosecrans to the enemy, 
 and were now occupied by Bragg. 
 
 Such was the unfavorable condition of things upon 
 our right. Nor was there much consolation when 
 Grant turned to his left ; for here, rising to a height 
 of four hundred feet, was Missionary Ridge, another 
 narrow upheaval of seven miles in length ; and the 
 spurs which it projected towards the river were also 
 held by Bragg, and fortified with substantial earth- 
 works. The rifle-pits and outposts of the enemy 
 reached from the base of Lookout Mountain, on the 
 right, to within a mile of the Tennessee, and from Mis- 
 sionary Ridge, on the left, to within the same distance 
 of the river. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 301 
 
 The fact stares Grant in the face that Chattanooga 
 is invested, — that our army is besieged. From Look- 
 out Mountain, Bragg throws shells into our camp; 
 from Missionary Ridge, where he is securely seated, 
 he watches all the movements of the army cooped 
 up at its foot : from the former, by appr^Jiches nearer 
 than our own, he strikes our communications with 
 Nashville; and from the latter, seriously threatens 
 those with Knoxville. Our trains, with medical stores, ■ 
 ordnance, and ammunition, are continually harassed 
 and captured by Bragg's cavalry detachments. There 
 is only powder enough in camp for a single action. 
 We are even compelled at this time to drag all 
 army stores in wagons for sixty miles, and over abom- 
 inable roads. But ten days ago, Jefferson Davis him- 
 self stands upon these surrounding summits, and casta 
 his delighted eyes upon the Chattanooga Valley, and 
 counts and measures the victims which are to smoke 
 on his altars, and exclaims exultingly, "The green 
 fields of Tennessee will shortly again be ours." So 
 sanguine of conquest was Bragg, that he affirmed in 
 his report, " that these positions, faithfully sustained, 
 insured the enemy's speedy evacuation of Chatta- 
 nooga for want of food and forage. Possessed of the 
 shortest route to his depot, and the one by which 
 re-enforcements must reach him, we held him at our 
 mercy ; and his destruction was only a question of 
 
 time." 
 
 When Grant inspected the temper and spirit of his 
 command, he found but little to relieve the gloom. 
 Chattanooga was crowded with three thousand wound- 
 ed and forty-five thousand debilitated troops. All 
 
802 LIFE OF GENERAL GEAXT 
 
 were living upon half-rations, weak from want of 
 nourishing food, without suitable raiment, wilted by 
 disaster. The soldiers were but partially protected by 
 tents from the chilling blasts and rains of autumnal 
 nights. In their front were inaccessible heights ; the 
 enemy's pickets were within speaking distance ; the 
 river was at their back ; the railroad was severed, and 
 they were thus separated from the dominion in their 
 wake. The expectation of relief was abandoned. Re- 
 enforcements would merely add to the distress of 
 hunger and the danger of starvation. There is no 
 forage : the artillery horses are sent to the rear ; mules 
 and cavalry chargers are dying daily ; and even the 
 guards and soldiers on duty are dragging round weary 
 bodies and heavier hearts upon lifeless feet, like res- 
 pited criminals awaiting the day of execution. Grant 
 can look nowhere for consolation but to the indomi- 
 table pluck of Thomas's corps, which held the left at 
 Chickamauga against the concentrated rebel hosts. 
 
 When Grant turns to his supports upon the outside, 
 he finds but little to exhilarate his spirits. Knoxville, 
 isolated from relief, is held by Burnside with a precar 
 rious tenure, which continually agitates the author- 
 ities at Washington. Squadrons of cavalry and gue- 
 rillas are between Chattanooga and Nashville. Sher- 
 man is on a hazardous march, with prolonged and im- 
 perilled communications, in the centre of a hostile 
 country. The only bright spot on Grant's whole hori- 
 zon is at Bridgeport, thirty miles to his right, where 
 the Nashville Road crosses the Tennessee, which 
 Hooker is now holding, with two veteran divisions of 
 file Army of the Potomac. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 303 
 
 The first effort to which Grant addresses his ener- 
 gies is to disembarrass his communications, and open 
 an unimpeded pathway to ammunition and rations. 
 I have already stated, that the Nashville Railroad 
 skirts the northern spurs of Raccoon and Lookout - 
 Mountains, and the deep vale, or glen, which lies be- 
 tween them. Both the valley, and the hills at its 
 mouth, are held by the flower of Bragg's army, 
 Longstreet's famous corps ; and their pickets extend 
 to the margin of the Tennessee. 
 
 Grant determined to seize Lookout Yalley and the 
 adjacent spurs, by a combined movement which pushed 
 Hooker over the Tennessee into the mouth of the 
 valley. Palmer from Chattanooga to hold the road 
 passed over by Hooker in his movement, and ensconced 
 William F. Smith in ambush on the northern bank of 
 the Tennessee, opposite Brown's Ferry, with direc- 
 tions to improve the earliest opportunity to cross the 
 river rapidly, and surprise the secondary crests at the 
 valley's debouch. The night of the 27th of October 
 was dark and foggy. Sixty pontoon boats, with 
 eighteen hundred armed men, were launched upon 
 the rapid current of the river, and were borne swiftly 
 past the pickets of Longstreet, along the spurs of 
 Lookout Mountain, around Moccasin Point, and 
 reached Brown's Ferry, where a heavy rebel volley 
 announced the movement to the camp of Longstreet. 
 The pontoons were laid ; and Smith darted from his 
 ambush across the river, forced back Longstreet's 
 outskirts from the mouth of the valley, and held the 
 adjoining hills with breastw^orks and abatis. 
 
 On the evening of the 28th, Hooker, with two divis- 
 
804 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 ions under Howard and Geary, having marched four- 
 teen miles from Bridgeport, was encamped on the 
 southern bank of the Tennessee. Howard is one mile 
 from Brown's Ferry, and Geary three miles to the south 
 of it, at Wauhatchie ; and both are plainly visible from 
 Lookout Mountain. As fast as Hooker had advanced, 
 Palmer had followed in his wake, occupying the road, 
 fortifying controlling positions on its borders, construct- 
 ing breastworks across its bed, and abatis in its deep 
 cuts. Longstreet saw at a glance that our success 
 would relieve Chattanooga from investment. At one 
 o'clock at night, he sprung upon Geary's flank at 
 Wauhatchie with the fury of a tiger. And now en- 
 sued one of the most romantic scenes of the war, — a 
 desperate struggle between well-matched troops, on 
 moon-lighted hills, down deep ravines dark at high 
 noon, the flashes of the discharges only showing foe 
 to foe, and the numberless mountain echoes beo;uilinsc 
 the ear into the belief that there was nothing in earth 
 or air but an incessant and universal fusillade. En- 
 veloped on three sides at once by a corps unaccus- 
 tomed to be foiled in its spring, Geary, though fre- 
 quently overborne, held his camp with a tenacity and 
 skill worthy of his established renown. He met the 
 charging columns with lines of bayonets, and, after a 
 three hours' conflict, repelled every attack, and drove 
 Longstreet discomfited into the recesses of the moun- 
 tain. Hooker heard the mutterings of the storm, and, 
 through blind and unfimiliar roads, moved with How- 
 ard's nearest brigades to the relief of their comrades. 
 Howard fairly felt his way ; but a blaze of musketry 
 soon illuminated his path, revealing a hill two hundred 
 
^VHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 305 
 
 feet high on which the enemy was lodged. Up its 
 accHvities his dauntless regiments charged, received 
 by yells and taunts of defiance and rending volleys 
 and blazing rifle-pits. They carried the parapet on its 
 summit by a dash with cold steel which wrung even 
 from the composed mind of Thomas this high eulo- 
 gium : '^ The bayonet charge of Howard's troops, made 
 up the side of a steep and difficult hill over two hun- 
 dred feet high, completely routing the enemy from 
 his barricades on the top, will rank among the most 
 distinguished feats of arms of this war." By four 
 o'clock on the morning of the 29th the conflict was 
 over, and Hooker's army corps securely ensconced at 
 the mouth of Lookout Valley, with Smith in posses- 
 sion of the adjacent spurs, and Palmer occupying the 
 approach. Every detachment engaged in the com- 
 bined movement has successfully accomplished its 
 allotted task. As its crowning results, the enemy 
 is put upon the defensive ; the road is free to Nash- 
 ville ; artillery horses are again seen in the streets, 
 and steamboats at the wharves, of Chattanooga ; food 
 and ammunition flow^ in ; and, with full rations, and 
 confidence in the ability of a commander who works 
 such miracles, the soldiers again assume the air and 
 bearing of conquerors. Within six days from Grant's 
 arrival, the tables are turned ! The historian of the 
 " Lost Cause " admits, that " Grant's lodgement on the 
 south side of the Tennessee was assured. He was in 
 firm possession of the new lines of communication ; 
 he had attained all the results he had anticipated ; 
 and his relief of Chattanooga was now to be taken as 
 an accomplished fact." 
 
 20 
 
306 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Fortune, it is said, always befriends those who 
 befriend themselves ; and, while Grant was thus breast- 
 ino- with determined resolution the embarrassments 
 of Chattanooga, he received assistance from an unex- 
 pected quarter. Rebel accounts of the war explain 
 many movements which were mysteries to us at the 
 time ; and we learn from these sources why Bragg, 
 when his hold upon the mountains was daily becom- 
 ing more precarious, and he was in hourly expecta- 
 tion of a battle, detached Longstreet's corps of fifteen 
 thousand men upon a Quixotic raid against Burnside, 
 in the loyal mountains of East Tennessee. Mr. Pol- 
 lard informs us to whom we were indebted for this fool- 
 hardy diversion. "President Davis," he says, "on 
 the 12th of October, visited the fields of Chickamauga. 
 He planned the expedition against Knoxville. His 
 visits to every battle-field of the Confederacy were 
 ominous. He disturbed the plans of his generals; 
 his military conceit led him into the wildest schemes ; 
 und so much did he fear that the public would not 
 ascribe to him the hoped-for results of the visionary 
 projects that his vanity invariably divulged it ; and 
 successes were foretold in public speeches with such 
 boastful plainness as to put the enemy on his guard, 
 and inform him of the general nature of the enter- 
 prise. He was in furious love with the extraordinary 
 design ; and, in a public address to the army, he could 
 not resist the temptation of announcing that ' the 
 green fields of Tennessee would shortly again be 
 theirs.' " 
 
 Grant did not believe until the 5th of November 
 lliat this strange design was actually accomplished ; 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 307 
 
 and, although his own immediate front was relieved, it 
 created apprehensions in another quarter, which were 
 more troublesome to him than all his other anxieties 
 combined. Daring this campaign, the president and 
 Halleck incessantly worried Grant with their Knox- 
 ville panic. He would have purchased Burnside's 
 safety by any personal peril : it was one of those 
 tribulations which are " new every morning, fresh 
 every evening, and repeated every moment." The 
 telegraphic wires, of which Grant's auricular nerve is 
 a mere prolongation, were surcharged with Wash- 
 ington fears for Burnside. Although unprepared for 
 battle, he determined to attack Bragg at once, with 
 the expectation that his choicest corps would be im- 
 mediately recalled from its chase after Burnside, and 
 the fears of the cabinet allayed. On the 7th of No- 
 vember he ordered Thomas to storm Missionary 
 Piidf>-e ; but that valorous chieftain, who was not easily 
 staggered by difficulties, pleaded the want of horses to 
 move his artillery, and the absolute impracticability 
 of the movement until he was supported by Sher- 
 man. Grant is obliged to yield ; but it was one of the 
 most trying periods of his life, and, for the first time 
 during his military career, I discover that his equa- 
 nimity of disposition is visibly disturbed. He is in- 
 dio-nant at Brag^sc's coolness in bearding him to the 
 face, chafed at Thomas's caution, chagrined even 
 with Sherman, who is marching with seven-league 
 boots, and wished, like Napoleon, to surmount impos- 
 sibilities by a general order. 
 
 Do not suppose that Grant's labors are bounded by 
 the Chattanooga lines. He makes his three scat- 
 
308 LIFE or GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 terecl armies one man. He concentrates the resources 
 of his vast military district, with its two hundred 
 thousand men, upon Lookout Mountain and Mis- 
 sionary Ridge. He organizes co-operating efforts 
 from Knoxville to Milliken's Bend, from the Ohio 
 to the Gulf. He collects locomotives and cars from 
 Jackson, Miss., to Chicago. A thousand steamboats 
 obey his commands to quartermasters and commis- 
 saries. His railroad repairs employ an army of opera- 
 tives. Telegrams and despatches, drawn trcrm him 
 by these details, are Grant's commentaries, — equal in 
 bulk to Ccesar's. He moves a million hands : Eastern 
 founderies blaze by day and night, Northern work- 
 shops groan, grain elevators creak from Dubuque to 
 Albany, butchers with lowing droves cover the high- 
 way and the prairie. Western lakes and rivers are 
 buffeted by fleets, great States tremble beneath the 
 tread of armed men, — the continent is laid under con- 
 tribution, that the Cumberland Mountains may bend 
 their haughty necks in obedience to the supreme law 
 of the nation. 
 
 His supervision of Sherman's march alone would 
 have established the reputation of any other man for 
 unwearisome activity. Sherman had steamed four 
 hundred miles to Memphis, and was now toiling over 
 the wearisome interval of four hundred miles which 
 divides the Mississippi from Chattanooga, through a 
 country infested with guerillas and sharpshooters, 
 which continually hung upon his flanks, severed 
 him from his base, and burned the bridges in his 
 front. Steadily and swiftly the noble corps push for- 
 ward to the relief of their commander, repairing and 
 
■WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL ^\ AE ? 309 
 
 guarding the roads in their rear, which connected 
 them with Memphis. Sherman encountered at various 
 points organized bodies of the enemy, and maintained 
 his progress by determined battles, of sufficient mag- 
 nitude to have been trumpeted as triumphs in the 
 war of 1812. 
 
 As soon, however, as Grant was seated at Chicka- 
 mauga, he began, by his telegrams, to transform Sher- 
 man's march — which had hitherto been conducted by 
 regular operations connected with a base — into the 
 nature of a movable column, and to expedite it by 
 hurrying supplies to points on its line, and by every 
 incentive which he could administer to its spirit and 
 energy. When, near the middle of October, Shei-man 
 reached Eastport on the Tennessee, he encountered 
 another formidable force of the enemy, but- found at 
 its wharves gunboats, transports, and rations, which 
 the providence of Grant had despatched from St. Louis 
 by the circuitous channels of the river, and a telegram 
 also, which said, " Increase your moving columns to 
 the greatest possible strength." Pursuing thence his 
 impeded march. Grant supervises every step, reining 
 the columns in this direction or in that, to threaten 
 Longstreet or support Burnside, urging and spur- 
 ring them, too, occasionally, that they may reach Chat- 
 tanooga at the earliest possible moment consistent 
 with the other interests they are made to subserve. 
 Watching Sherman's progress hourly. Grant feeds him 
 by telegram ; saying, for instance, to one of his chief 
 commissaries, " Sherman will reach Fayetteville to- 
 morrow without any thing to eat. See the shipping 
 commissary, and direct him to secure transportation, 
 
310 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and send a hundred thousand rations to-morrow 
 morning." When Sherman is within fifty miles of 
 Chattanooga, Grant in his behalf turns surveyor of 
 highways in Southern Tennessee and Northern Geor- 
 gia, telegraphing to his trusted comrade, " By the 
 way of New Market and Maysville, you will avoid the 
 heavy mountains,, and find abundance of forage." On 
 the 14th, Sherman has reached Bridgeport, and Grant 
 is beginning to feel relieved, wdien the Burnside 
 trouble breaks out afresh. " I fear," says Halleck, in 
 a telegram of the 16th, "he will not fight, although 
 strongly urged to do so. Unless you can give him 
 immediate assistance, he will surrender his position to 
 the enemy." Grant determined that the only efiectual 
 way to relieve Knoxville was by fighting Bragg ; and 
 when, on the 15th, Sherman entered Chattanooga, 
 accompanied by him and Thomas, Grant rode to the 
 ^ront, and there planned the movement which re- 
 deemed Burnside from peril, and enabled Sherman to 
 scourge Rebellion from Atlanta to the sea, and from 
 Savannah to the Cape Fear. The Fifteenth Army 
 Corps was still at Bridgeport ; and, although the orders 
 for battle were issued for the 17th of November, rains, 
 freshets, and pontoon entanglements postponed it 
 until the 23d. 
 
 Bragg's line extended from Lookout Mountain, 
 where his left was seated, twenty-two hundred feet 
 above the valley, and then swept in a semicircle of 
 seven miles in length, its centre and right occupying 
 the fortified crests of Missionary Ridge, four hundred 
 feet high. Grant, therefore, addressed seven miles of 
 fortifications, garrisoned by forty-five thousand vet- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IK THE CIVIL WAR? 311 
 
 eran soldiers. His own army is one vast storming 
 party ; not one effectual forward step is to be made 
 without the desperate temerity which gives to the 
 forlorn hope its name. 
 
 The succession of battles which is named after Chat- 
 tanooga lasted for three days, commencing on Mon- 
 day the 23d of November, and closing on the night 
 of Wednesday the 25th. The operations of Monday 
 were entirely confined to Thomas's corps. The attack 
 then made constituted a part of the plan of battle 
 which Grant had intended to execute on the follow- 
 ing day ; but it was expedited twenty-four hours, in 
 consequence of reliable information which had been 
 communicated to headquarters, that Bragg was evacu- 
 ating the mountains. Grant ordered Thomas to ascer- 
 tain forthwith the truth of the rumor. Thomas's 
 intrenched line confronts the centre of Missionary 
 Ridge, occupying a series of hills about a mile from 
 Chattanooga, with the highest and most commanding 
 one crowned by a redoubt called Fort Wood. The first 
 rebel line was on the fronting acclivities of Missionary 
 Ridge, and nearly a mile from the outworks of our 
 redoubt. 
 
 From all the batteries along Thomas's front, from 
 Fort Wood, and from our guns on Moccason Point, a 
 caimonade opens, echoing through the resounding 
 mountains down into the heart of Georgia ; while from 
 the crest of Missionary Ridge, and from the artillery on 
 its face, a counter-peal rolls far away into the distant 
 forests and gorges of Eastern Tennessee. Nature, in 
 all her grandeur, contributes to the moral sublimity 
 of an engagement which is to decide the destiny of 
 
312 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 the seven great States which these mountainous bat- 
 tlements overlpok. At two o'clock in the afternoon, 
 Gen. Granger's corps of the Army of the Cumber- 
 land, with its right division commanded by Wood, 
 deployed its majestic columns in front of Fort Wood. 
 Heavy divisions emerge from the intrenchment to its 
 support, — Palmer's to its right, and Baird's division en 
 echelon, with Howard's magnificent corps massed be- 
 hind the centre of Granger. For an hour or two, an 
 army of thirty, thousand men expanding into lines, 
 moving into columns with the jDrecision of a parade, 
 covering with their glittering bayonets the valley 
 far and wide, presented to the eager spectators on 
 Missionary Ridge a splendid pageant, which they 
 mistook for a review x^or were the rebels entirely 
 disinthralled when, at a signal given. Granger's mar- 
 tial corps advanced in the same superb style, and 
 with an exactness of formation which seemed but a 
 part of the grand spectacle. The pickets of the 
 enemy, however, soon discovered that no mere show 
 was intended, and scattered before the columns, which 
 speedily struck artillery and musketry volleys as 
 they entered the woods, and captured Bragg's gi-and 
 guards, and, finally, encountered the enemy's in- 
 trenched line far up on the inferior crests, which 
 proved no more impediment to the resistless advance 
 of Sheridan and Wood than the outposts which they 
 had brushed from their path. Before re-enforce- 
 ments can reach the intrenchments from the main 
 camp on the ridge. Granger's division has cleared 
 them with the bayonet. The first lines of the enemy, 
 including Orchard Knob, — a point of no small impor- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN IHE CIVIL WAIt ? 'US 
 
 tance, — are carried after a struggle of fifteen minates. 
 The advance gained is immediately fortified with 
 breastworks, and wdth artillery on controlling posi- 
 tions. Our pickets are pushed upwards on to the ridge 
 far towards the enemy's front. Howard's massed divis- 
 ion instantly expands into lines, and, unawed by the 
 artillery on the summit of the ridge, which is now 
 concentrated upon it, moves to the left of Granger, 
 and fortifies its front ; thus presenting twenty thou- 
 sand bayonets in intrenched line of battle, a mile 
 and a half nearer to the foe than was our most ad- 
 vanced post in the morning. The army is wonder- 
 fully elated by this triumph, and the brilliant man- 
 ner in which it is achieved dissipates the last remain- 
 ing vestige of the Chickamauga despondency. The 
 artillery on both sides prolong their roar far into the 
 night. 
 
 The operations of Tuesday were conducted by 
 Sherman against the enemy's right, on the northern 
 spurs of Missionary Ridge ; and by Hooker against 
 Lookc'Ut Mountain, Bragg's extreme left. Thomas, 
 on the afternoon of yesterday, had accomplished the 
 work which had been originally assigned to him for 
 this morning. Sherman, who had occupied a con- 
 cealed camp on the northern bank of the Tennessee, 
 crossed the river on Monday night. Tuesday morn- 
 ing was rainy and lowering: the summits of the 
 mountains were covered with thick veils of mist, and 
 heavy clouds dropped in drizzling rain upon the val- 
 ley. The apparition of Sherman's army looming 
 from the fog had not yet startled Bragg. By two 
 o'clock in the afternoon, the Fifteenth Corps, in three 
 
«» 
 
 314 LIFE or GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 columns, commanded by Morgan L. Smith, John E. 
 Smith, and Ewing, move forward under cover of the 
 clouds, gain the foot of the ridge, and commence 
 ascending before the movement is detected by the 
 enemy. Heavy skirmishers are in front of each col- 
 umn, and they advance rapidly up the acclivities, 
 followed by their supports. Sherman pushes three 
 brigades at double-quick to the top of the first 
 crest before Bragg is alarmed, and by three o'clock 
 reaches the position which he had been ordered to 
 capture. The enemy now opens upon him with artil- 
 lery and musketry in a futile effort to dislodge our 
 brigades, but soon retires as we also intrench and 
 place field-batteries in position. Sherman found that 
 he had only scaled a secondary ridge, and that be- 
 tween him and Tunnel Hill, where the foe was en- 
 sconced in breastwork and batteries, a rough valley 
 intervened, half a mile in width. He contemplated, 
 with grave but determined aspect, the serious ob- 
 structions before him to-morrow, and was reminded 
 of the formidable bluffs which had so long confronted 
 him from the Walnut Hills of Vicksburg. Under 
 cover of the clouds, and during the night, he em- 
 ployed heavy details in securing his position, and 
 gradually wound his intrenchments round the ridge, 
 and connected himself with Ploward on its front 
 Sherman's movements had all been concealed from 
 Grant, in the valley, by the volume of clouds which 
 hung over the mountain ; and the emotions of the 
 commander may be imagined but not described, 
 when at midnight a north wind cleared the heavens, 
 and he discovered a continuous line of camp-fires 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 315 
 
 studding the western foce of Missionary Ridge, pass- 
 ing from Sheridan's to Wood's, — Howard's, — Sher- 
 man's Hne, and sweeping around the northern face 
 until they were finally lost behind the ridge, where 
 Sherman's left brigades were bivouacked. 
 
 Lookout Mountain on Tuesday morning, like the 
 rest of the landscape, is shrouded in clouds. Hooker 
 confronts its northern projection, which presents to 
 him a wrinkled surface, with sharp crags beetling out 
 from forest and undergrowth. Half-way up, an arable 
 plateau encircles the whole mountain; and above all 
 rises a palisaded crest, some fifty feet high, which is 
 its topmost summit. Lines of earthwork surround 
 the plateau; while down the acclivity, redans, re- 
 doubts, rifle-pits, are scattered in every direction where 
 an ascent is practicable. A zigzag road climbs from 
 crest to crest, and affords some assistance to a scaling 
 part3^ 
 
 Early in the morning. Hooker has three detach- 
 ments, — Geary's, Grose's, Osterhaus's, — which have 
 all moved from different points, and now unitedly 
 attack this northern nose of Lookout. Geary is on 
 the lead, and passes unscathed the point swept by the 
 guns from the summit. Up he mounts, over ledges, 
 bowlders, stones, through forests and tangled thickets, 
 with such battalions and companies as he can hold 
 together on such wild and broken ground, using every 
 aid which the road affords, assailed from every crest 
 and brake along his pathway. He fights persistently, 
 and dislodges the detachments which oppose his 
 progress by every bush-fighting expedient which can 
 be devised. No science is needed here, but a foot 
 
316 LIFE OF GEXERAL GRANT. 
 
 which never foils, hands which at the same time can 
 chng to branches and poise muskets, an i&ar sharp 
 and detective, an eye alert and sure in its aim. Of 
 what avail are combinations in a strait where every 
 thing depends upon individual valor and discernment ? 
 Geary is, moreover, befriended by the clouds, and the 
 advantages are not all on the side of the assailed in 
 an up-hill fight. I have heard good soldiers affirm, 
 that they would choose the down-hill side, that the 
 foremost rank alone can maul you from a crest, that 
 the trees always indicate that bullets from acclivities 
 fly too high. It is full noon before Geary surmounts 
 the plateau, where are farms, cultivated fields, and 
 orchards, and a summer resort ; and where, too, the 
 enemy's works are the strongest. Grose and Oster- 
 haus are following in Geary's wake, and now Hooker's 
 line extends from the palisade rock to Chattanooga 
 Creek. The mist rolls down the mountain's side in 
 great volumes, shrouding the combatants : a flash 
 which pierces the vapor, a standard looming from 
 some lofty crest, the glimmer of a line as the fog 
 lifts for an instant, alone disclose to the rapt specta- 
 tors in the valley the surging of the fight. For two 
 hours the vivid flashes and the incessant rattle of 
 small -arms proclaim the furious strug-y-le for the 
 possession of the plateau. It is hemmed in by skir- 
 mishers, and charges and counter-charges are made, 
 and embankments stormed, in such obscurity that foe 
 stumbles upon foe. Thicker and blacker descend the 
 lowering masses from the sky, until, at two o'clock, 
 the battle is arrested by the darkness profound. As 
 Boon, however, as the clouds drop into the valley, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? S17 
 
 again the volleys rattle, again lire darts through 
 the mist, again bayonets are crossed, until finally the 
 enemy is driven to the uppermost crest. By half- 
 past five. Hooker has fortified himself in his position, 
 opened communications with Chattanooga, and re- 
 ported two thousand prisoners captured. Gen. Car- 
 lin is sent to his support, and, after contesting his 
 march with broken fragments of the enemy, joins his 
 brigade to Hooker's left. The fight, however, rages 
 during the evening. Signal-lights blaze, and flashes 
 run along the palisaded summits, which the enemy 
 still holds ; and farther down in the mist are heard 
 sputtering shots, and even the muffled sound of con- 
 tending skirmishers, and above all the rebels' defiant 
 yell. But the same clear weather at midnight which 
 discloses to Grant Sherman's position upon Missionary 
 Ridge reveals our camp-fires still steadfast on Look- 
 out's plateau, while all indications of rebel domination 
 have faded even from the crowning crest. To Grant's 
 announcement of the success of these important 
 movements the president replies, " Well done ! Many 
 thanks to all ! Remember Burnside." Halleck re- 
 sponds, " I congratulate you on the success thus fiir 
 of your plans. I fear that Burnside is hard pushed, 
 and that any further delay may prove fatal." A 
 quiet smile relaxes for a moment the habitual rigor 
 of Grant's countenance, when he thinks that his 
 astute superiors at Washington have not yet detected 
 that Thomas, Sherman, Hooker, were to-day and yes- 
 terday contributing more effectually to the deliver 
 ance of Burnside than if all their divisions had beeu 
 flying to Knoxville on the wings of the wind. As h^ 
 
318 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 glances once more on the unbroken girdle of camp- 
 fires around the Ridge, and sees Hooker's beacon still 
 blazing on the heights of Lookout, with the full 
 confidence of a victory won, he says, " The president 
 and Halleck will own it to-morrow." 
 
 Grant is thus sanguine because Hooker's success 
 this afternoon necessarily drives the enemy from 
 Lookout Mountain and the Chattanooga Valley. In 
 one respect, moreover, it essentially contributes to the 
 pre-arranged manoeuvres for to-morrow ; for it gives 
 Hooker the control of a mountain road down the 
 eastern face of Lookout, over the Chattanoog-a Creek, 
 until it penetrates the southern extremity of Mission 
 ary Ridge by the Rossville Gap. Nor has Grant less 
 occasion to exult over the easy victory of Sherman 
 this morning, which has greatly subserved the fore- 
 ordered plan of battle. 
 
 Sherman finds the secondary crest, which he has 
 won, more available as a position from which to 
 threaten than to assail the enemy's right. He scans 
 the valley before him, entangled with extraordinary 
 obstructions. His rapid eye travels up and down the 
 sides of the nearest ridge, which, whether timbered or 
 wooded, are not easily surmounted, and then dwells 
 longer than is its wont on the hill through which the 
 railroad passes, commanding the valley and inferior 
 heights with the plunging fire of its embrasured works. 
 Beyond even Tunnel Hill, a vision not apt to quail 
 perceptibly droops before the supreme crest, covered 
 with gray masses of the enemy. Nor can Sherman 
 disguise from his mind, what he cannot discern with 
 his eye, that there are gorges and involved railroad- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN" THE CIVIL WAR ? 319 
 
 cuts between himself and the fortified heights to 
 which he aspires, which may present more formidable 
 difficulties than any which he is permitted to survey. 
 But while, as a point of attack upon the enemy's 
 northern forts, the crest upon which he stands pos- 
 sesses no great merit, it is, nevertheless, of vast use 
 to Grant's ulterior designs ; for Bragg cannot afford to 
 slumber on these posts, or detach a man from these 
 garrisons, while an antagonist of Sherman's character 
 is waiting and watching for a chance to spring, es- 
 pecially when the same alert and wiry foe is within 
 striking distance of the bridge by which the railroad 
 to Cleveland and Atlanta — upon which the rebel army 
 depends for supplies — crosses the South Chickamauga 
 River. Sherman summed up the whole merits of his 
 position when he reported to Grant, " I esteem the 
 crest which I secured to-day as but of little value, but 
 made as much noise about it as possible, to alarm 
 Bragg for the safety of his right wing and the railroad 
 bridge in his rear." Grant unquestionably hoped 
 that the mere appearance of Sherman's large army 
 corps in its present position would force Bragg to 
 enfeeble his whole line, for the defence of his right. 
 
 Bragg now holds a contracted line of immense 
 strength, six miles in length, on the intrenched crest 
 of the Ridge, from Fort Breckenridge on its southern 
 gpurs — which will be addressed by Hooker — to Fort 
 Buckner on its northern front, — already addressed by 
 Sherman, — while the superior acclivities of its western 
 face are also protected by two ranges of rifle-pits. 
 Grant now develops the bold plan of battle, for which 
 the work of Monday and Tuesday was merely prelimi- 
 
S20 LIFE OF GENEKAL GRANT. 
 
 narj. He intends to attack both of the extremes 
 with so much vigor as to compel Bragg to weaken 
 his centre, and then, by an audacious charge up the 
 western face, break through the vital point which he 
 has forced the enemy to deplete. You see Sherman 
 in position for the assault upon the right; I have 
 pointed out the Rossville Road which opens Hooker's 
 path to the left; I have already exhibited Thomas's 
 corps posted on the western face of the ridge for 
 the decisive movement against the centre. If Grant 
 accomplishes these results, he virtually controls by his 
 own will the motions of his foe ; and, if there is a 
 higlier attainment of generalship than this, I have yet 
 to discover it. 
 
 AYednesday morning, the 25th of November, broke 
 clear and cold, without a cloud on the azure face of 
 heaven, or a haze in the transparent atmosphere. 
 Grant stationed himself on the elevated mound which 
 Thomas wrested from the enemy yesterday, called 
 Orchard Knob, commanding a view of a battle-field 
 of unsurpassed grandeur. Directly in his front were 
 the crags of primitive rock which elemental forces 
 had upheaved as a battlement worthy of a contest 
 between two mighty armies. The stupendous masses 
 of the Cumberland Mountains, within reach of his 
 heaviest artillery, w^ere the imposing boundary of this 
 arena of conflict upon the west. Between the two 
 ranges I have thus delineated, a knotted country, cor- 
 responding with such a setting, scathed of every ves- 
 tige of human handiwork by the footsteps of war, tolls 
 away to the south in massive hills of barrenness, 
 while the broad and rapid channel of the Tennessee 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL TVAE ? 321 
 
 winds in huge coils along the northern border. From 
 Orchard Knob, Grant sees Hooker's ten thousand, 
 clambering mountain ridges, preparing to leap into 
 the Chattanooga vallej^, and then climb again to the 
 Eossville summit; he sees Sherman, already on his 
 charger, marshalling his noble soldiery for the desper- 
 ate assault upon the right fortifications of the ridge : 
 he finds at his feet, surrounding him on every side, 
 the vigilant and eager army of Thomas, awaiting but 
 a signal — but a glance of the eye — to hurl their 
 impetuous but disciplined valor against the vital 
 centre of Bragg's intrenchments. 
 
 The sun had well risen before Sherman's bus!;le 
 sounded. He moves a deployed battle-line, whose 
 risrht almost reaches Howard's left, on the Chatta- 
 nooga front, and, encircling the entire northern face, 
 extends to Boyce's Station on the eastern acclivities. 
 This line of bayonets, thus clasping, as with a gigan- 
 tic embrace, the southernmost projection upon all 
 its sides, sweeps up grandly against the withering 
 fire of all the batteries, overwhelming the rifle-pits in 
 its unbroken advance, and, storming through the in- 
 tervening valley, scales the second ridge of the series, 
 and permanently seats itself there, and also in a 
 work which terminated the rebel line. He throws 
 off Morgan L. Smith to his left, to threaten the rail- 
 road bridge, the communications and depots of the 
 enemy. From this position Sherman was not dis- 
 lodged during the day, nor did he successfully estab- 
 lish himself beyond it. Between here and Tunnel 
 Hill was the arena of his terrible conflict. He stormed 
 up to within eighty yards of itj and surged back 
 
 21 
 
322 • LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 again disastrously ; stormed up again, and again with- 
 drew his bleeding columns, draining re-enforcements 
 from the enemy's centre at every spring, voluntarily 
 aggregating the hostile forces upon himself by re- 
 peated demonstrations both against their works and 
 their supplies, — intentionally drawing the enemy 
 hitberward, and performing in a masterly manner his 
 part of the consummate intrigue. Grant repeatedly 
 tenders re-enforcements to him ; but Sherman declines 
 them, saying that he has men enough for the allur- 
 ing and seductive role which has been assigned to 
 him to play. 
 
 While the battle is thus raging furiously in Sher- 
 man's front, Grant more than once turns his eye 
 anxiously towards Hooker, who is delaying the de- 
 nouement of this grand drama. He has descended 
 from Lookout, and entered the valley, where he finds 
 the Chattanooga Creek swollen by rains, and impas- 
 sable by artillery. Grant beholds him vigorously 
 bridging. Early in the afternoon, he sees the head of 
 his column filino; over the creek, and soon mountino* 
 the southerly acclivities of Missionary Ridge. By 
 two o'clock, he hears the thunder of Hooker's guns 
 on the enemy's fortified left, where he, like Sherman, 
 is arrested, but storms again and threatens uproari- 
 ously, demanding every battalion of the foe to with- 
 stand his impetuosity and vigor. As the afternoon 
 begins to wane, Sherman, on the right, arrays his 
 columns ostentatiously for another assault ; and Grant 
 sees that along the ridge a heavy division of the 
 enemy is hurrying towards the point threatened by 
 his favorite lieutenant. Bragg has at length been 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 323 
 
 inveigled into the precise movement which his ad- 
 versary has plotted from the commencement of the 
 engagement. The moment for which Grant has qni- 
 etly waited during the day has finally arrived. Sheri- 
 dan, Wood, Baird, are all with him on Orchard 
 Knob ; and he gives three orders, " Carry the rifle-pits ; 
 re-form ; storm the second rifle-pits and the summit." 
 Never were troops more eager for the fray. Safe in 
 their ambush, they had been for hours passive specta- 
 tors of the strucciifle, while their comrades were bleeding 
 on the perilous edge of battle. For three days they 
 had confronted the desperate task assigned to them. 
 Every soldier had cast his eyes forward upon his im- 
 perilled path; had scaled in imagination those frown- 
 inir heiirhts ; had measured the distance, and selected 
 his track, — through the open timber in front, — across 
 the unencumbered third of a mile, — the rifle-pits, — 
 the steep ascent of five hundred yards, rugged with 
 rocks, and embarrassed with timber, — the second rag- 
 ged range of rifle-pits, — and, finally, the topmost crest, 
 black with artillery. When the word "Forward!" 
 was given, the soldiers all started to their feet with 
 alacrity, and sprang to their work with the pent-up 
 fury and ardor which had been rioting in their breasts 
 since the dawn. Their disciplined alacrity preserved 
 the precision of the line through the open grove, al- 
 though the guns were belching death from the crest : 
 but, as the excited troops emerged from the timber, 
 the entire formation broke into a double-quick ; and 
 Sheridan, who was in advance, and happened to be 
 looking back, afterwards said, " I never saw such a 
 terrible sight as the mass of approaching bayonets : 
 
824 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 the men were on the run, the line had become 
 ahnost a crowd. The rebels were unable to resist 
 the effect upon their nerves of this waving, glittering 
 mass of steel." Against such an irresistible onset 
 of thirty thousand men, the rifle-pits were but bul- 
 rushes: and such was the accelerated impulse and 
 exultation of the line that Sheridan assumed the 
 responsibility of countermanding the order to " re- 
 form ; " for he saw the flags moving so triumphantly 
 towards the steep ascent which wms next to be won 
 that the assurance of victory was already glowing 
 in his heroic bosom. As that frightful mass of steel 
 comes nearer and nearer, terror' storms in front of it ; 
 for the rebels in the second range of rifle-pits pros- 
 trate themselves to the ground, burrow in the 
 trenches, and the national troops trample over 
 them like infuriated squadrons of cavalry. The vic- 
 torious line still sternly advances right into the muz- 
 zles of thirty cannon, which not only tear its face, 
 but hatchel and enfilade its flank with slaughtering 
 oTape, — right into the well-filled rifle-pits on the crest, 
 which flxirly singe it from blazing barrels, — unshaken 
 in its well-knitted combination, though furrows are 
 torn through it, and men drop from it by the hun- 
 dred, over the crest, at six points at once, on to 
 the embankment, — on to the cannon, slaying the 
 artillerymen before they can discharge their pieces, 
 and then, wheeling to the south and to the north, 
 sweeps the works in both directions with its reserved 
 fire and with the captured field-batteries which were 
 just devastating it from the blackened ridge. 
 
 Instantly the soldiers, who have hitherto maintained 
 
■WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 325 
 
 their ranks, break into scourging parties. Regiments 
 of rebels drop their arms in dismay, or cower down 
 into the intrenchments, overwhehned with unnatural 
 fear. Wherever a stubborn detachment stands, it is 
 devoured either by vollej^s or the bayonet ; and, if 
 the stricken fugitives presume to show an organized 
 front, they are dashed over the eastern brink, and 
 pelted in their descent with stones, or any other 
 weapon which fury furnishes. Hardee, with anguish 
 in his face, rushes from Fort Buckner, and attempts 
 to stem the tide of defeat by forming across the 
 rido-e the division which had been withdrawn from 
 the centre and which was yet intact; but the men 
 drop from their ranks, and throw away their guns, 
 and refuse to stand by their artillery. The shattered 
 fragments which were driven towards the point that 
 Sherman was assailing, Bragg impotently struggled 
 to rally. He advanced into the fire, and exclaimed, 
 " Here is your commander ! " and was answered by 
 the derisive shout of an absurd army catch-phrase, 
 " Here's j^our mule !" ^ 
 
 While these events were transpiring. Hooker, on 
 the left, breaks through the first rebel line. He en- 
 counters a second, which he scatters like chaff from- 
 the threshing-floor. Now commences a process so 
 fatal to a battle-line, — the rolling up of the left 
 wing upon the exultant conquerors at its centre. 
 Hooker sweeps forward on the crest, unresisted, driving 
 an entire rebel division into the arms of Thomas, and 
 capturing numerous detachments in his progress. 
 The intrenched line of Missionary Ridge, from Fort 
 
 1 Pollard, p. 457. 
 
326 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 Breckenridge to Buckner, was carried in an hour 
 from the time that Grant had ordered the charge. 
 
 The general-in-chief was on the ridge, and crowded 
 the pursuit with as much vigor as he had fought the 
 hattle. Glancing; over the western brink, and seeino; a 
 long, stragghng corps of fugitives with wagon-trains 
 and field-batteries, he launched Sheridan's division 
 upon their track. That officer clung to his prey with 
 characteristic pertinacity, and, having driven it to bay 
 upon a ridge a mile to the south of the battle-field, 
 stormed up on three sides at once, dispersed the 
 brigade,, and captured artillery, prisoners, and the 
 wagon-train. Hardly halting for breath, in the night 
 and over unfamiliar roads, he follows on to Mission 
 Mills, seven miles from the battle-field, gathering in 
 trophies, spoils, and captives on the entire route. 
 Promptly by daylight Sherman moves in pursuit 
 by the Chickamauga Station, and Hooker by the 
 Atlanta Railroad. Having given orders to Major- 
 Gen. Granger to lead his corps forthwith to the 
 rescue of Burnside, Grant accompanies Hooker's col- 
 umns, for the purpose of supervising movements of 
 80 much importance. Late in the forenoon of the 
 2Tth, Davis, who was leading Sherman's advance, 
 reached the Chickamauga depot, to discover masses 
 of Hour and meal, wagons and caissons, gun-car- 
 I'iages, pontoons, the equipage and the accumulated 
 provisions and stores of an army of fifty thousand 
 men, rolling up volumes of flame and smoke into the 
 sky. Driving the enemy from the hills in the rear 
 of the town, and following over a road strewn with 
 the wrecks and debris of a vanquished army, he 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 327 
 
 encountered the rearguard of Bragg, and, after a 
 sharp fight, scattered it in flight ; when darkness in- 
 tervened, and drove Sherman to his bivouac. Hook- 
 er had found the raih^oad bridge over the Chick- 
 amauga Creek burned, and he was dehxyed for some 
 time until his pontoons coukl be brought up. He 
 finally crossed the river, and advanced to the Chick- 
 amauga Hills, where he discovered the camp-fires 
 still blazing in the enemy's abandoned camp. At ten 
 o'clock he established here his position for the night. 
 In the course of his march, he had despatched Palm- 
 er with his brigade to Greyton, where he captured 
 guns and prisoners. At early dawn on the 27th, 
 Shermyn resumed the chase, and, having reached 
 Greyton, was joined by Palmer. The Atlanta Road 
 was already overburdened by pursuers ; and Sherman 
 deflected to the east, and destroyed the railroad be- 
 tween Cleveland and Dalton, which was a part of the 
 connection with Longstreet. While thus employed, 
 Sherman received a message from Hooker, that the 
 enemy was in his front in force. 
 
 Hooker had continued his advance the same morn- 
 ing towards Ringgold, over a road covered with 
 broken artillery vehicles, ambulances, and the aban- 
 doned accoutrements of a demoralized army. He 
 passed through the town, and found Cleburne, with a 
 strong rear-guard of Hardee's corps, posted in a 
 narrow gorge of hills, almost unassailable by its great 
 natural advantages. Hooker had in vain endeavored 
 to carry the position by storm, and was reluctantly 
 constrained to wait for his artiflery. Grant was upon 
 the ground, who, seeing Sherman moving from the 
 
328 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 east, directed him to strike Cleburne on the flank ; 
 but, before Sherman could form his line, the enem}' 
 gave way precipitately before Hooker's field-guns, 
 having withstood our assault sufficiently long to 
 secure the safety of the flying baggage-trains. At 
 one o'clock in the afternoon, Grant directed the pur- 
 suit to be discontinued, and drew back Sherman to 
 Chattanooga. He left Hooker to hold Ringgold, and 
 sent off" detachments, in various directions, to sever 
 every communication of Longstreet with his base of 
 supplies. Thus terminated the series of engagements 
 which bear the name of Chattanooga.^ Col. Parker, 
 Sachem of the Six Nations, who was with Grant as 
 aide during the pursuit of Bragg, furnishes us with 
 some graphic particulars of Grant's behavior in the 
 field. He says, " When • at Ringgold, we rode for 
 half a mile in the face of the enemy, under an inces- 
 sant fire of cannon and musketry ; nor did we ride fast, 
 but upon an ordinary trot ; and not once, do I believe, 
 did it enter the general's mind that he w\as in 
 danger. I was by his side, and watched him closely. 
 In riding that distance, we were going to the front ; 
 and I could see that he was studying the positions of 
 the two armies, and, of course, planning how to defeat 
 the enemy, who was here making a most desperate 
 
 1 Grant's losses in these battles were seven hundred and fifty-seven killed, 
 four thousand five hundred and twenty-nine wounded, and three hundred and 
 thirty missing; total, five tliousand six hundred and sixteen. Tlie enemy's 
 losses were fewer in killed and wounded, owing to the fact that he was pro- 
 tected by intrenchments, while the national soldiers were without cover. Grant 
 captured six thousand one hundred and forty-two prisoners, forty pieces of 
 artillery, sixty-nine artillery-carriages and caissons, and seven thousand stands 
 of small-arms, — by far the greatest capture, in the open field, which had bceu 
 made during the war. — Badeau's Military IHstory, p. 524. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 829 
 
 stand, and was slaughtering our men fearfully. After 
 defeating and driving the enemy here, we returned 
 to Chattanoosra. 
 
 "Another feature in Gen. Grant's personal move- 
 ments is, that he requires no escort beyond his staff, 
 so regardless of danger is he. Roads are almost use- 
 less to him ; for he takes short cuts through fields and 
 woods, and will swim his horse through almost any 
 stream that obstructs his way. Nor does it make any 
 difference to him whether he has daylight for his 
 movements ; for he will ride from breakfast until two 
 o'clock in the morning, and that, too, without eating. 
 The next day he will repeat the dose, until he fin- 
 ishes the work. Now, such things come hard upon 
 the staff; but they have learned how to bear it." 
 
 This battle of Chattanooga was a specimen of the 
 grand manoeuvring by which one general is con- 
 strained to move according to the behests of the 
 other. Even the splendid pageant presented to the 
 gaze of Bragg's soldiers on Monday, when in front of 
 our intrenchments Thomas's army of thirty thousand 
 men was deploying into line and massing into column, 
 was designed to contribute to the triumph of Wednes- 
 day ; and that it did not entirely fail in its purpose is 
 proved by a paragraph in the rebel commander's 
 report, which accounted for the overthrow of his 
 veterans, in a position " so strong that it ought to 
 have been held by a line of skirmishers against any 
 assaulting column, " ^ by saying, " They had for two 
 days confronted the enemy, marshalling his immense 
 forces in plain view, and exhibiting to their sight 
 
 ' Bragg's Report. 
 
330 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 such a superiority in numbers as may have intimidated 
 weak minds and untried soldiers." ^ 
 
 The occupation of Lookout Mountain, the demon- 
 strations of Sherman, which threatened not only the 
 right, but the supplies of the rebel army, compelled 
 — as by the command of Grant — his antagonist to 
 concentrate upon both wings ; for both were seriously 
 imperilled. The continuous pounding at the same 
 time, both by Sherman and Hooker, at his northern 
 and southern gates, constrained Bragg finally to with- 
 draw troops from the vital centre, which, with a full 
 complement of defenders, was absolutely invincible. 
 The natural strength of this part of his line was so 
 screat that Bras-o; never dreamed it was the main 
 objective point of his enemy; and, in relating our 
 decisive charge. Pollard says, "It was late in the 
 afternoon, when, with an audacity wholly unexpected, 
 Grant ordered a general advance of his line to the 
 crest of Missionary Ridge." 
 
 So completely were all these effects anticipated in 
 the preliminary orders which initiated the movement 
 of Monday and Tuesday, that they constitute a veri- 
 table record of Wednesday's performance. Chatta- 
 nooga is remarkable as a battle in which all the con- 
 certed combinations worked harmoniously : there was 
 no failure nor break in any of the successive opera- 
 tions upon which victory depended. No triumph on 
 record was more decisive. It was not only a com- 
 plete and thorough-going rout upon the field, but 
 it foiled every ambitious hope which the Confed- 
 erate leaders entertained of capturing our army at 
 
 1 Bragg's Report. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 331 
 
 Chattanooga, and carrying the war to the green acres 
 of Tennessee, — to the wheat-fields of Ohio. It sur- 
 rendered, as a strategical line, those mountains which 
 are the natural boundaries between the temperate 
 and semi-tropical States, from which we were enabled 
 to hurl expeditions to the centre and extremities of 
 Eebellion. It erected a mighty barrier between the 
 cotton States and the wheat-plains of Kentucky and 
 Tennessee, like the great river which the same sword 
 had opened between the eastern and the trans-Missis- 
 sippi domain of treason. Thus, within about a month 
 from assuming command at Chattanooga, Grant had 
 entirely redeemed the fortunes of war in the South- 
 east, and given us unchallenged and secure dominion 
 where he found disaster and impending subjugation. 
 Argument would be wasted upon a mind which can 
 resist such evidence of the ability which could accom- 
 plish such results, or which can fail to see that this 
 success was won more by the skilful dispositions of 
 the commander than by the vis inertice of numbers, 
 or can attribute to accident momentous effects which 
 are so signally due to achievement. 
 
 When Grant returned from the pursuit of Bragg, he 
 found Granger had not moved to the relief of Burn- 
 side with as much good-will and energy as was re- 
 quired by the crisis ; and the apprehensions at Wash- 
 ington induced him to send Sherman's corps, also, to 
 raise the siege of Knoxville. I do not intend to fol- 
 low these expeditions, nor to devote any time to the 
 orders which Grant daily despatched for their direc- 
 tion, nor to the success which eventually crowned 
 these movements. Such details would be merely 
 
332 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 cumulative proof of that activity and vigilance as a 
 commander of which the whole career I have already 
 detailed is a conclusive exemplification. 
 
 I wish to improve this opportunity to illustrate 
 another of his distinguished traits as a general: I 
 allude to his care and watchfulness over the sick and 
 wounded of his armies. Grant found at Chatta- 
 nooga upwards of three thousand maimed survivors 
 of the Chickamauga catastrophe ; his own victories 
 had added nearly five thousand additional inmates to 
 the hospitals; while the mere ordinary ratio of sick 
 in a population of sixty thousand would, with his 
 wounded, constitute as large a force of invalids as the 
 whole army which Scott led from Vera Cruz to 
 Mexico. I will show that Grant was not so absorbed 
 in what the French call " grand tactics," and the mul- 
 titudinous details of his vast military jurisdiction, 
 but what he could render pliant to his purpose every 
 aid and advantage which could be derived from a 
 condition of public sentiment such as never before 
 existed in the world. Our great Rebellion, which 
 stands out unique in history, furnishes more contrasts 
 than parallels. It was mor^ colossal in its proportions 
 than any other war; it was waged by millions of 
 people, suddenly summoned to the camp from every 
 avocation of peaceful life ; it raged through an im- 
 mense territory, greater than all the European States 
 which were the theatre of Frederick's, Marlborough's, 
 Napoleon's, most extensive campaigns. 
 . But in bold relief stands out this remarkable con- 
 trast with all previous wars, that never before were 
 the people of a nation so immediately concerned in 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAU ? 333 
 
 the support and direction of hostilities : it was, in 
 fact, a war accepted by the people, and maintained 
 by the people for the people. When it became una- 
 voidable, every loyal non-combatant in the nation for 
 whom the combatants were contending determined 
 that the inevitable hardships and sufferings of the 
 camp and the battle should receive every alleviation 
 which sympathy could dictate and wealth command, 
 and that the moral stamina of a nation thus turned 
 into the field should, at least, be saved in this terrible 
 contest. It was this determination which led to a 
 self-sacrifice, devotion, munificence, upon the part 
 of the citizens, which is altogether unparalleled in 
 the history of our race. There was not a loyal 
 woman in the North who did not contribute time or 
 labor or money to the success of our arms ; and even 
 little girls went from house to house collecting small 
 sums, comforts, and delicacies for the army. The 
 names of "Nimble digits," " Busy bees," "Alert" clubs, 
 will be a perpetual memento of the labors of minis- 
 tering spirits too young to understand that the agony 
 of a nation struggling for its sovereignty impressed 
 even their little feet for errands of mercy, exacted 
 for its deliverance the service even of their infantile 
 fing-ers. 
 
 But there was another class of intrepid women 
 whose adventurous disposition urged to more hazard- 
 ous enterprises, where they displayed a fortitude and 
 courage as signal as that which carried the Maid of 
 Saragossa to the battery where her lover had fi.illen, 
 to the battered wall to lead the sallying host ; as 
 noble as that which bore Grace Darling through the 
 
834 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 treacherous breakers ; the heroine of Scutari with robe 
 nnsuUied through the pestilential camp. These were 
 they who followed their husbands and brothers to the 
 field of battle and to rebel prisons ; who went down 
 into the very edge of the fight to rescue the wounded, 
 and cheer and comfort the dying with gentle minis- 
 trations ; who labored in field and city hospitals, and 
 on the dreadful hospital-boats, where the severely 
 wounded were received ; who penetrated the lines of 
 the enemy on dangerous missions ; who were angels 
 of mercy in a thousand dreadful emergencies.^ In- 
 deed, the surrender of old and young, of every age 
 and of both sexes, of all ranks, of every public place 
 and of every private retreat, to the armies who were 
 battling in the field, was a complete illustration of 
 Wordsworth's ideal picture : " When a people are 
 called suddenly to fight for their liberty, and are 
 sorely pressed upon, their best field of battle is the 
 floors upon which their children have played, the 
 chambers in which the family of each man has slept, 
 upon or under the roofs by which they have been 
 sheltered, in the gardens of their recreation, in the 
 street or in the market-place, before the altars of 
 their temples, and among their congregated dwell- 
 ings, blazing or uprooted." 
 
 But even more noticeable than this universal 
 ministration of loyal females were the great organ- 
 izations to which they so largely contributed, — the 
 Christian and Sanitary Commissions, disbursing mil- 
 lions annually for the physical relief and spiritual 
 care of the soldiers ; and which could have existed in 
 
 1 Introductioa to " Women of the War." 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR f 335 
 
 no other country upon the globe. It was these 
 institutions which, acting independent of the pur- 
 veying department and as adjuvants of the medical 
 department, without controlling or interfering in any 
 way with the arrangements of either, extorted an 
 admission from "The Edinburgh Medical Journal," 
 " that the sick and wounded soldiers of no other 
 service were so well cared for as in the federal army." 
 Grant first became acquainted with these com- 
 missions at Fort Donelson, where the number of 
 wounded was so great that all the ordinary means 
 of relief were entirely inadequate, and the Avhole 
 force of these self-organized sanitary associations were 
 called into service. He was not only influenced to 
 lend them his hearty co-operation and support from 
 sentiments of humanity, but also because the res- 
 toration of a disciplined veteran, who had been 
 baptized in battle, was of inestimable value to the 
 nation. He believed with Lander, that '■' kings play 
 at war unfairly with republics : they can only lose 
 some earth, and some creatures they value as little, 
 while republics lose in every soldier a part of them- 
 selves." The hearty aid and support which Grant 
 in his capacity of general constantly furnished to the 
 agents and delesrates of these commissions ccmstitute 
 one of the most interesting chapters in his war 
 experience. While engaged in his onerous duties at 
 Fort Donelson, he found time to write with his own 
 hand the passes which admitted the clergymen and 
 laymen sent by them through all the lines of the 
 Army of the Tennessee. At Shiloh, where their 
 services were so imperiously required by the con- 
 
336 LIFE OF GENEE^IL GRANT. 
 
 gregated wounded of both belligerents after two 
 days of battle, he not only furnished passes and 
 orders for transportation to the deputations of both 
 commissions, but he accompanied them from tent to 
 tent, and assured them " that the army felt the 
 same gratitude to them which the loyal public 
 felt for the army." When the agent of the Christian 
 Commission first appeared at Chattanooga, after 
 Grant's jurisdiction was extended over all the ter- 
 ritory between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, 
 he manifested a stromTrer interest in the alleviations 
 which these noble charities furnished to his suffering 
 soldiery. I cannot better illustrate his zeal and heart- 
 iness in this philanthropic service than by quoting 
 from the letter of one of the missionaries of the 
 Christian Commission, written during that period of 
 immense labor which Grant endured immediately 
 after assuming command at Chattanooga. The letter 
 is dated just a week previous to the battle. " I went 
 to the headquarters of the Division of Mississippi 
 this morning. With fear and trembling I appealed 
 to Gen. Grant, preparing my document carefully, and 
 making it general, so as to cover all his command. 
 I asked for five thing's : 1. An indorsement of the 
 commission by the commanding general to his of- 
 ficers, authorizing them to give all facilities not 
 inconsistent with the public service.^ 2. Passes for 
 delegates within the lines. 3. Transportation for 
 delegates and stores. 4. Use of military telegraph. 
 5. Privilege of purchasing of commissary and quar- 
 termaster's department for the use of the delegates. 
 The general received me easily ; read my papers with 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 837 
 
 attention ; said an order should be issued, covering 
 the points made, as soon as he had leisure to prepare 
 it; laid my paper on the adjutant's desk, ssxying, 
 " There is a paper to which I wish to give attention." 
 He then directed the adjutant to make out a pass 
 and free transportation for me to any part of his 
 entire command till further order, and put his 
 autograph to it. I came back all the way to our 
 quarters with my heart full of the first line of the 
 doxology in ' long metre.' " ^ It is unnecessary to 
 say that these privileges were all granted by General 
 Order No. 33 ; and the grateful agent writes in ad- 
 dition, " Gen. Grant's facihties have given us an 
 entirely new footing." 
 
 According to the testimony of the agents of the 
 commission, Grant did not restrict his sympathy for 
 the soldiers to the ofiicial aid which he furnished to 
 those who were ministering to their welfare ; but he 
 visited the cots of patients, and even sent aides and 
 ambulances to the infirm who desired a personal 
 interview with the commanding general of the departr 
 ment. A delegate writes, " An old soldier, lying on 
 his cot, bent up with rheumatism, beckoned me to his 
 side. He asked if Ulysses Grant was in Chattanooga ; 
 and, ffiving; me his name, he instructed me to tell 
 the general how he was, and that he should like to 
 come and see him as soon as he could walk. I sent 
 the name to headquarters, with the statement of the 
 soldier. An orderly came down at once to the hos- 
 pital, with the compliments of the general. He would 
 be happy to receive Private , and would send 
 
 1 Annals of the United-States Christian Commission, p. 14a. 
 22 
 
338 LIFE or GENERAL GEAKT. 
 
 an ambulance for him when he could ride. Undei 
 this treatment the stiiBfened limbs grew supple, and in 
 two days the private reported himself at the general's 
 quarters. He afterwards told me that the general 
 was very glad to see him, and that they talked over 
 old times, when they were boys, and lived in the same 
 neighborhood ; and, said he, ' The general owned up, 
 that in wrestlino- I used to throw him more than half 
 the time.'" We have also presented to us in the 
 "Annals of the Christian Commission " an inside view 
 of its famous kitchen at the Point of Rocks, which 
 represents the milder characteristics of the inflexible 
 and stern soldier who was at that time engaged in 
 prosecuting his plan of wearing out armed resistance 
 by " mere attrition : " " These kitchens were the most 
 important in the entire service. Their fame was 
 spread abroad ; and many came from far and near to 
 see for themselves whether it were true that sick and 
 wounded in a field-hospital, within range of the 
 enemy's guns, could be so well provided for, and so 
 delicately and systematically served. Gen. Grant 
 made a special visit to these kitchens, in disguise. 
 He examined the diet-lists, and stood by and saw the 
 ladies issue dinner, and then went through some of 
 the wards while the patients were eating. A soldier, 
 mistaking: him for a delesrate of the Christian Com- 
 mission, called out, ' See here. Christian, won't you 
 bring me a pair of socks ? ' The general responded, 
 ' I '11 see that you get . them,' and passed on. I had 
 often spoken to him of our work, and as often urged 
 him to visit some of our kitchens ; and I was very 
 much gratified when he told me that he had visited 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL VTAR ? 339 
 
 the kitchens at Point of Rocks, had seen the ladies 
 issue dinner, and found that the patients in that hos- 
 pital lived better than he did, and that he was very 
 much pleased." 
 
 While dwelling for a moment on the personal char- 
 acteristics of Gen. Grant, I cannot omit the evidence 
 which Gen. Badeau has furnished, that during this 
 trying year the friendship between the superior and 
 his favorite lieutenant continued warm and un- 
 broken. When Grant despatched Sherman from 
 Vicksburg to re-enforce Rosecrans, he wrote to him, 
 " I hope you will be in time to aid in giving the rebels 
 the worst, or best, thrashing they have had in this war 
 I have constantly had the feeling that I shall lose you 
 from this command entirely. Of course I do not ob- 
 ject to seeing your sphere of usefulness enlarged ; and 
 I think it should have been enlarged long ago, having 
 an eye to the public good alone. But it needs no 
 assurance from me, general, that, taking a more selfish 
 view, while I would heartily approve such a change, 
 1 would deeply regret it on my own account." When 
 Sherman received the first intimation that Grant was 
 to be appointed to the command of the Military 
 District of Mississippi, the co-adjutor wrote to his 
 chief, " Accept the command of the great army of the 
 centre ; don't hesitate. By your presence at Nash- 
 ville, you will unite all discordant elements, and im- 
 press the enemy in proportion. All success and honor 
 to you !" and added, a day or two later, "I am very 
 anxious you should go to Nashville, as foreshadowed 
 by Halleck, and, chiefly, as you can harmonize all con- 
 flicts of feeling that may exist in that vast crowd. 
 
840 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 Rosecrans, Burnside, and Sherman, with their subordi- 
 nates, would be ashamed of petty quarrels, if you 
 were behind and near them, — between them and 
 Washington. Next, the union of such armies, and 
 the direction of it, is worthy your ambition. I shall 
 await news from you with great anxiety." 
 
 Authentic anecdotes of the foregoing description 
 are exceedingly rare in Gen. Grant's career, — simply 
 because, in his social address and presentation of him- 
 self, he is an exceedingly undemonstrative man. With 
 feelings as strong and intense as ever dwelt in the 
 human bosom, the instances and the occasions upon 
 which they found utterance, either in action or speech, 
 were very infrequent. Napoleon, with his impetuous 
 disposition and voluble tongue, would fly through 
 camp and hospital with a canteen in his hand, place 
 it to the lips of the sick and the wounded, and utter 
 to a thousand men lively and pithy sentiments, which 
 became the proverbs and vocabulary of his army. 
 Sherman, with his nervous and enthusiastic tempera- 
 ment, continually betrayed his emotions in words, 
 action, and gestures. When the pontoon bridges were 
 thrown over the Tennessee at Chattanooga, Sherman 
 leaped ashore, and, seizing Gen. Howard by the hand, 
 exclaimed, "The armies of the Tennessee and the 
 Potomac are at last united." Grant, who was over- 
 burdened wnth joy at the arrival of his favorite lieu- 
 tenant, with that incomparable army corps at his back, 
 merely greets Sherman with the salutation, " Glad to 
 see you, general." There is nothing dramatic in Grant's 
 disposition or habits; and, if I should attribute to Grant 
 «iententious exclamations and histrionic action, I 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 341 
 
 should merely belie the subject of this biography, and 
 convince everybody who knows the man that I was 
 drawing upon my imagination for my facts. His 
 nature is reserved and meditative, and his habits are 
 true to his nature. Exhibitions of emotion and senti- 
 ment, which give so much liveliness to the narrative 
 of great exploits, are rare exceptions in his career. 
 The tone of his despatches to Halleck, after the most 
 exciting achievements, was his habitual tone with both 
 soldiers and officers under his command. 
 
 It is another peculiarity of Grant that he penned 
 with his own hand all his telegrams, despatches, and 
 orders, while in the service. No aide or adjutant 
 presumed to retouch or decorate them. Men most 
 skilful in composition have utterly failed to imitate 
 his style. It is straightforward, unpretending, rug- 
 ged, and energetic, like himself He habitually se- 
 lects the most convenient word or phrase, without 
 any regard to elegance, but unconsciously adopts 
 expressions of vigor and force. The letter to Gen. 
 Sherman which I have just quoted is a fair speci- 
 men ; another may be found in his letter to Gen. 
 Thomas, after the capitulation of Vicksburg, in 
 which he says, "The capture of Vicksburg has 
 proved a bigger thing than I supposed it would." 
 His letter-books, containing his despatches and com- 
 munications with subordinates, with the general-in- 
 chief, and the' V/^ar Department, are most volumi- 
 nous, and are invaluable as biographic data. They 
 constitute, in fact, Grant's own account of his own 
 campaigns. .After the siege of Knoxville was raised, 
 and Longstreet driven into the mountains for winter 
 
342 LIFE OF GENEKAL GRANT. 
 
 quarters, Grant issued a congratulatory order to his 
 three armies, which is more elaborate in composition 
 than any document which I have seen from his pen. 
 I should have presumed that it had been emended 
 by a secretary, if I had not received authentic assur- 
 ance that it was entirely his own production. It is a 
 sententious compendium of the results of the Chat- 
 tanooga campaign. I seize it with more avidity, be- 
 cause autobiographic material, in the course of this 
 volume, has but seldom lightened my labor and en- 
 lightened my judgment : — 
 
 " The genera^ commanding takes this opportunity 
 of returning his sincere thanks and congratulations 
 to the brave Armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, the 
 Tennessee, and their comrades from the Potomac, for 
 the recent splendid and decisive successes achieved 
 over the enemy. In a short time you have recovered 
 from him' the control of the Tennessee Eiver from 
 Bridgeport to Knoxville. You dislodged him from 
 his great stronghold upon Lookout Mountain, drove 
 him from Chattanooga valley, wrested from his de- 
 termined grasp the possession of Missionary Eidge, 
 repelled w^ith heavy loss to him his repeated assaults 
 upon Knoxville, forcing him to raise the siege there, 
 driving him at all points, utterly routed and discom- 
 fited, beyond the limits of the State. By your noble 
 heroism and determined courage you have most 
 effectually defeated the plans of the enemy for re- 
 gaining possession of the States of Kentucky and 
 Tennessee. 
 
 " You have secured positions from which no rebel- 
 lious power can drive or dislodge you. For aU this 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 343 
 
 the general commanding thanks you, collectively and 
 individuallj'. The loyal people of the United States 
 thank and bless yon. Their hopes and prayers for 
 your success against this unholy Kebellion are with 
 you daily. Their faith in you will not be in vain. 
 Their hopes will not be blasted. Their prayers t<' 
 Almighty God will be answered. You will go to 
 other fields of strife ; and, m ith the invincible 
 bravery and unflinching loyalty to justice and right 
 which have characterized you in the past, you will 
 prove that no enemy can withstand you, and that no 
 defences, however formidable, can check your onward 
 march." 
 
 The foresfoino; order was dated the 10th of Decern- 
 ber, 1863, and the day before the House of Repre- 
 sentatives of the Thirty-eighth Congress, then in its 
 first session, unanimously passed a joint resolution of 
 thanks to Major-Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, and the offi- 
 cers and soldiers under his command during the Re- 
 bellion, and providing that the president of the 
 United States shall cause a medal to be struck, to be 
 presented to Major-Gen. Grant in the name of the 
 people of the United States of America. The de- 
 sign of the medal was executed by Leutze. The 
 obverse presents a medallion bust of the hero, en- 
 compassed by a wreath of laurel ; underneath the 
 imaore is the name which he bears, with the dates of 
 his numerous victories, crowded into a space too 
 small even for such brief commemoration. The whole 
 is surrounded by a galaxy of stars. On the reverse 
 is an American eagle, with wings expanded for 
 flight Seated gracefully upon the bird is a draped 
 
344 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 bas-relief of Fame, with the symboKcal trumpet in 
 her right hand ; in her left is the historic scroll, with 
 the names of Grant's most memorable achievements 
 compressed upon its narrow tablets. The helmet of 
 Fame is Indianesque, adorned with feathers ; against 
 her breast leans the emblematic escutcheon of the 
 United States. A single sprig of the pine and the 
 palm, typical of the Northern and the Southern 
 States, cross each other beneath this group; and 
 above it, in a curved line, the words, "Proclaim 
 liberty throughout the land ! " The edge is sur- 
 rounded, like the obverse, with a cluster of stars, in 
 a style peculiar to the illuminated manuscripts of 
 the Byzantine period, and intended to suggest that 
 they may yet be innumerable. 
 
 At an early day in the session of this Congress, a 
 bill was offered in the House by Mr. Washburne of 
 Illinois, reviving the grade of lieutenant-general in 
 the Army of the United States. It was referred to 
 the Committee on Military Affairs, of which I hap- 
 pened to be a member. It was well understood that 
 the purpose of the bill was to promote Gen. Grant 
 to the chief command of the army. It was the 
 genuine conviction of those who supported it, that 
 he was pre-eminently qualified for this responsible 
 position, while the real animus of those of the 
 Eepublican party who opposed it was an Iionest 
 distrust of his capacity. I do not mean to intimate 
 that any such distrust was openly avowed, but found 
 more courteous expression in various arguments 
 which were devised to defeat the measure. In the 
 House Committee on Military Affairs, consisting of 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 341. 
 
 nine members, five were unconditional supporters 
 of the bill and the candidate ; three were either op- 
 posed to the principle or the man ; one preferred a 
 lieutenant-general at the head of the army instead 
 of a major-general detailed to command it, but was 
 unwilling to assume any responsibility in selecting 
 the incumbent. 
 
 Mr. Farnsworth of Illinois reported it to the 
 House on the 25th of January, 1864, with a recom- 
 mendation from the majority of the committee that 
 it should pass; but its consideration was postponed 
 for a week, on motion of Mr. Pendleton of Ohio, 
 upon the ground that it had not been printed, and 
 that members were uninformed respecting its provis- 
 ions. When it came up for action on the following 
 Monday, it Avas opposed as unnecessary for the pur- 
 pose of centralizing military authority ; because the 
 power to place any general officer in chief command 
 of the army was already conferred upoh the presi- 
 dent. It was answered to this, that the same defer- 
 ence would never be paid to, nor the same confidence 
 be manifested in, any general officer detailed for chief 
 command, that would be for a general who had won 
 supreme position by gallant and meritorious seivice 
 in front of the enemy. It was further urged in 
 opposition, that the measure was impolitic ; because 
 competition would be closed, by bestowing the chief 
 prize for martial emulation before the war was fin- 
 ished ; because, if the promotion had been made at 
 an earlier period of the war, demonstrated incapacity 
 would have been at the head of the army ; because, 
 moreover, it would withdraw from active service in 
 
346 LIFE OF GENEEAL GKANT. 
 
 the field a general who had been eminently successful 
 there, and immure him in a Washington bureau. It 
 was said, in reply to these arguments, that, while the 
 fortunes of other generals had fluctuated within a few 
 months, the star of one had been in the ascendant for 
 more than three years, and that the country could not 
 afford to dispense with tried ability in chief position 
 till the war was over. Mr. Farnsworth said, — 
 
 "We are now very near to the close of the third year of this 
 war ; and, while it is true that many generals in the army may be 
 up to-day aod down to-morrow, and that their fortunes fluctuate, 
 it is not true of the general to Avhom this legislation applies. His 
 star has been steadily rising. He has been growing greater and 
 greater day by day, rising from an obscure position, scarcely 
 known out of the county in which he resided. By his masterly 
 ability he now stands, without saying any thing to the disparage- 
 ment of other generals, head and shoulders over every other gen- 
 eral in the army of the United States. He has been tried, — tried 
 long enough ; and, if his star were to go down to-morrow, he has 
 still done enough to entitle him to this prize of which the gentle- 
 man from Ohio speaks." 
 
 Mr. Washburne said, — 
 
 " A great deal has been said as to what might have happened 
 if some such bill had passed two years ago ; that such or such a 
 man might have received the honor, and implying that the party 
 upon whom the honor may be conferred under this bill may prove 
 himself unworthy. How much, I Avould ask, is now to be re- 
 quired of a general before he can have the confidence of this 
 House? Has not Gen. Grant earned that confidence, and proved 
 himself worthy of full trust in the greatest positions ? I demand 
 to know what would have been our position as a nation, in the 
 present struggle, had it not been for the achievements of Gen. 
 Grant. "Where can you point to a series of greater triumphs 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAIl ? 347 
 
 than he has achieved, — a more complete succession of victories, 
 — which are unsurpassed in history, — and which for the brilliancy 
 of their achievement, and in furtherance of the great cause iu 
 which he has so nobly fought, have made his name and his fame 
 as lasting as the history of the nation ? " 
 
 In reference to the insinuation that the appoint- 
 ment contemplated would withdraw Gen. Grant from 
 the field, Mr. Farnsworth said, — 
 
 " In respect to the last branch of the gentleman's argument, 
 that it is not safe to take this general from the field, I have only 
 this to say : he is no carpet knight ; and it does not follow necessa- 
 rily, that, because an officer is placed in command of all the armies 
 of the United States, he is therefore to keep an office in the second 
 or third story of a building in Washington, whence he is to issue 
 his orders. I expect that the man who will be selected, iu pur- 
 suance of this act, to command the armies of the United States 
 will command them, and that in the field. "Wherever his presence 
 is most needed, there I expect he will be. When Gen. Scott 
 was commander of the Army of the United States, he did not 
 place himself in the city of Washington, and issue his orders, ia 
 time of war. He took the field, and put himself at the head of 
 the largest corps. He commanded in the field, — not in the city of 
 Washington. That I expect will be done by Whoever will be 
 selected by the president of the United States." 
 
 It was in response to this cavil, that Mr. "Wash- 
 burne stated a fact which is too remarkable an illus- 
 tration of Gen. Grant's character to be omitted in 
 any biography: — 
 
 " I have spoken of the interest I feel in this bill ; but, if I know 
 myself, it is a feeling that rises far above the considerations of 
 personal friendship which I entertain for the distinguished soldier 
 whose name has been connected with it, I am not here to speak 
 
348 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 for Gen. Grant. No man with liis consent has ever mentioned 
 his name in connection with any position. I say what I know to 
 be true, when I allege that every promotion he has received since 
 he first entered the service to put down this Rebellion was moved 
 without his knowledge or consent ; and, in regard to this very mat- 
 ter of lieutenant-general, after the bill was introduced, aud his 
 name mentioned in connection therewith, he wrote me and admon- 
 ished me that he had been highly honored already by the Govern- 
 ment, and did not ask or deserve any thing more in the shape of 
 honors or promotion ; and that a success over the enemy was 
 what he craved above every thing else ; that he only desired to 
 hold such an influence over those under his command as to use 
 them to the best advantage to secure that end. Such is the lan- 
 guage of this patriotic and single-minded soldier, ambitious only 
 of serving his country and doing his whole duty. Sir, whatever 
 this House may do, the country will do justice to Gen. Grant. 
 We can see that. I think I can appreciate that myself." 
 
 At an early period of the debate, Mr. Ross, a 
 prominent Democrat from Illinois, submitted the fol- 
 lowing amendment : " And we respectfully recom- 
 mend the appointment of Major-Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 
 for the position of lieutenant-general," which was 
 finally carried by the strong vote of a hundred 
 and eleven to nineteen. The bill reviving the grade 
 was passed the same day in the House by a vote of 
 ninety-six to forty-one. 
 
 The first section of the bill as it went into the Sen- 
 ate was as follows : — 
 
 " That the grade of lieutenant-general be, and the same is, here- 
 by revived in the Army of the United States ; and the president 
 is hereby authorized, whenever he shall deem it expedient, to ap- 
 point, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a com- 
 mander of the army, to be selected during war from among those 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 349 
 
 officers in the military service of the United States — not below 
 the grade of major-general — most distinguished for courage, 
 skill, and ability ; and who, being commissioned as lieutenant- 
 general, shall be authorized, under the direction of the president, 
 to command the armies of the United States. And we respectful- 
 ly recommend the appointment of Major-Gen. Ulysses S. Grant 
 for the position of lieutenant-general." 
 
 The Committee on Military Affiiirs in the Senate 
 proposed amendments to the section, which struck 
 out the words " commander of the army " and in- 
 serted " lieutenant-general," and struck out the words 
 " during the war," so that the clause read, — 
 
 " And the president is hereby authorized, whenever he shall 
 deem it expedient, to appoint, by and with the advice and consent 
 of the Senate, a lieutenant-general, to be selected from among 
 those officers in the military service of the United States — not below 
 the grade of major-general — most distinguished for courage, skill, 
 and ability." 
 
 Mr. Trumbull objected to the modification, and 
 said, — 
 
 " That amendment involves the whole character of the bill and 
 its importance, as it seems to me. The bill, as it came to us from 
 the House of Hepresentatives, was intended, not simply to confer 
 the honor of lieutenant-general upon the person who should be 
 selected by the president of the United States as most distinguished 
 for his courage, skill, and ability, but it was intended also, in 
 conferring this high honor upon hiixi, to give him some command 
 corresponding with the title conferred by it. If you sti'ike out 
 these words, as proposed by the Committee on Military Affiiirs, you 
 deprive the resolution of its value, so far as it is intended to place 
 the lieuteuant-freneral in command over other generals." 
 
SoO LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Mr. Nesmith, a member of the Military Committee 
 of the Senate, succinctly stated the reasons which 
 had influenced the committee in proposing the 
 amendments : — 
 
 " I differ with the senator from IlHnois in relation to the con- 
 struction that he puts on the amendment which was made in the 
 Committee on Military Affairs. I do not apprehend that it is 
 necessary in a bill creating additional rank for an army officer to 
 determine in the terms of that bill what his rights shall be as 
 a commanding officer. If a lieutenant-general is appointed, he will 
 be superior in rank to any officer that we now have in the United- 
 States army ; and, in virtue of that superiority, he will be entitled 
 to command all other officers while in service with them. The 
 bill which we passed at the last session of Congress, providing that 
 the president might select any one of two officers of the same 
 grade, serving in the same field or in the same department, and 
 place him in command of that field or department without refer- 
 ence to his relative rank with other officers of the same grade in 
 the service, does not apply to the lieutenant-general, — as there is no 
 lieutenant-general now ; and, if the rank is created, there can be 
 but one. The plain inference to my mind is, that, if a lieutenant- 
 general is created, he is the superior military officer in the gov- 
 ernment, subordinate only to the president of the United States, 
 who is commander-in-chief, and that all other officers are subor- 
 dinate to him. There is no power by law now to make him sub- 
 ordinate to any major-general, or to place him under the command 
 of any other officer. ' 
 
 " Now, sir, I am opposed to providing by law that any single in- 
 dividual shall be commander of the armies of the United States, 
 for this simple reason : the contingencies and the incidents which 
 are always occurring in war sometimes make it necessary to have 
 changes. Suppose you pass this bill with a provision that the 
 lieutenant-general shall be the commander of the armies of the 
 United States. During the recess of Congi-ess, a dozen contin- 
 gences might arise which might render it necessary that some other 
 person should have the command of the army, t^aat this officer 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 351 
 
 should be retired from active duty, or at least deprived of his com- 
 mand. I think with all these contingcnces, all these probabilities 
 likely to arise, that the president should not be deprived of the 
 discretion of determining in a time of great public danger, when 
 Congress is not in session, who should exercise that command. I 
 shall vote for no bill that provides that any particular individual 
 shall be the commander of the army of the United States for 
 these very reasons." 
 
 The first amendment was passed by a vote of 
 twenty-five to fifteen ; and a second amendment was 
 immediately offered, as follows : — 
 
 "After the word 'ability,' strike out the following words: 
 ' And Avho, being commissioned as licutenant-genei'al, shall be 
 authorized, under the direction of the president, to command the 
 armies of the United States ; and that we respectfully recommend 
 the appointment of Major-Gen. Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois for 
 the position of lieutenant-general ' ' 
 
 It was contended, in support of this amendment, 
 that it was an invasion of the prerogatives of the 
 president for Congress to designate by bill who 
 should be commander of the armies of the United 
 States, or whom he should recommend for the grade 
 of lieutenant-general. Senators who favored the 
 modification, and those who opposed it, avowed alike 
 their preference for Gen. Grant, and disclaimed any 
 intention to disparage his eminent services. Mr. 
 Howe of Wisconsin said, " I feel that the striking 
 out of this clause is really a reproach to this gallant 
 officer. I dislike extremely to see the words go out 
 of the bill." Mr. Wilson of Massachusetts, the chair- 
 man of the Senate Committee on Military Affairs, 
 said in reply to this remark, — 
 
352 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 *' I am sure, Mr. President, that the senator from "Wisconsin is 
 altogether mistaken in the views he has expressed. There is no 
 reproach intended, and there certainly is no reproach in the 
 amendments themselves. I hope that the amendments proposed 
 by the Committee on Military AiFairs will be accepted by the 
 Senate ; for the bill, as thus amended, makes a lieutenant-general 
 who commands the armies of the United States under the authority 
 of the president. Full, ample, and complete authority is given. 
 If Gen. Grant should be appointed, — and everybody knows that 
 he will be appointed — 
 
 Mr. Wilkinson. Then, why not say so? 
 
 Mr. Wilson. Why should you say so? Why is it proper for 
 the Congress of the United States to tell the president whom he 
 shall nominate? There is an impropriety in it, if not an indecency 
 in it, towa^'d the president. There is certainly an impropriety 
 toward the Senate of the United States, that is to pass upon the 
 nomination, in putting into the act a declaration that a certain man 
 is recommended for the appointment. Everybody knows that the 
 country expect^^ that Gen. Grant will be appointed. "We expect 
 it. The president expects it. The president is willing and 
 anxious to do it. He intends to do it. Then, why should we put 
 this provision iu this act? "Why not trust the president ? "Why 
 not trust the man who has stood firmly by Gen. Grant? If Gen. 
 Grant should be appointed, as he will be appointed, there will 
 be no man in America who can give an order to him but the 
 president of the United States. Gen. Halleck could not give him 
 an order : nobody could give him an order. Gen. Halleck cannot 
 command the armies with a lieutenant-g'^.neral in the field. The 
 president of the United States had no authority to make a junior 
 brigadier command a senior brigadier or v jjor general, until 
 we gave him that authority, neai'ly two years ago. Now the 
 pi'esident has authority, when officers meet in the field, to 
 designate which officer of the same rank fhall command ; but 
 he cannot make a brigadier-general comnjaud a major-general. 
 The president of the United States cannot put any major-general 
 under the command of a brigadier-general. There is no law 
 in the country authorizing him to do it. My argument is, that 
 the bill as proposed to be amended by the Military Committee 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 353 
 
 is framed in the proper manner, and uses tlie proper language. 
 By it the authority of the executive is not trenched upon ; the 
 proprieties in regard to the Senate are not interfered with ; 
 and tlie bill, in that form, makes a lieutenant-general who cannot 
 be commanded by anybody but the president. He will be the 
 commander of the army, unless the president of the United States 
 chooses to set him aside, and send him to some special command, 
 — retire him ; in other words, disgrace him. The bill as proposed 
 to be amended gives him the entire power, under the president 
 of the Uuited States, to command the armies ; and the president 
 Las not the power to put any major-general over him." 
 
 Mr. Lane of Indiana, a member of the same com- 
 mittee, said, — 
 
 " Now, sir, it does seem to me perfectly apparent that the 
 report of the Committee on Military Affairs should be adopted, 
 and that it is all that should be required. We shoidd not in 
 advance tell the president whom he shall appoint. I have no doubt 
 he will appoint Gen, Grant, and I should rejoice at the appoint- 
 ment ; but I am unwilling to pass an act of Congress recommend- 
 ing him for it. I have no doubt he will be placed by military law 
 and usage in the command of the army of the United States ; but 
 I am not willing to tie the hands of the president, and say he shall 
 not displace him the very first moment he finds him incompetent 
 to the task imposed upon him. 
 
 " I am not willing that this discussion shall assume the shape, 
 that all those who sustain the report of the committee are neces- 
 sarily opposed to Gen. Grant. There was no such feeling in 
 the committee. "We Avished to compliment Gen. Grant accord- 
 ing to the legislative precedents heretofore established. "We 
 wished to compliment Gen. Grant, always reserving our own 
 proper self-respect and the dignity of the Congress of the United 
 States." 
 
 Mr. Nesmith of the same committee said, — 
 
 " I appreciate the services of Gen. Grant. I am anxious for 
 the passage of the bill, and I am anxious that Gen. Grant 
 23 
 
354 LIFE OF GENERAL GKANT. 
 
 shall have the appointment. There is no honor that I would not 
 confer upon him, as I expect myself to vote for him for president 
 of the United States ; and, being willing to cast a vote of that kind, 
 I should not be willing to do any thing here to-day which tended 
 to degrade him. This talk about degradation is mere talk : there 
 is no point in it. The facts are, as has been ably demonstrated 
 by the senator from Indiana, that other officers who have been 
 appointed under previous acts or resolutions of Congress were 
 not designated in those acts or resolutions ; and it was not con- 
 sidered as derogating any thing from their character or their 
 reputation, because there was no such intention." 
 
 Mr. Doollttle said, — 
 
 " I, for one, feel satisfied that we shall not make a mistake if 
 we say that Ave create the office of lieutenant-general, and that 
 Gen. Grant is the man to fill it. For two years in succession 
 he has done nothing but win victory, — from the capture of Fort 
 Donelson, at Grand Gulf, on Black River, at Jackson, around 
 Vicksburg, and, last and not least, at the last battles of Chattanoo- 
 ga, where he secured, in my opinion, forever within our military 
 possession Eastern Tennessee. He has gained and earned, by two 
 years of continual success, this rank and grade ; and he is the man 
 whom the war has demonstrated to be the proper man, and which 
 all concede has demonstrated to be the proper man, to be, next to 
 the president and under the president, the commander-in-chief of 
 our armies. As a friend says, he has won seventeen battles, he 
 has captured a hundred thousand prisoners, he has taken five 
 hundred pieces of artillery, and innumerable thousands of small- 
 arms on all these fields. He has organized victory from the 
 beginning ; and I want him in a position where he can organize 
 final victory, and bring it to our armies, and put an end to this 
 Rebellion." 
 
 Mr. Johnson of Maryland said, — 
 
 " Mr. President, I do not dfeem it necessary to disclaim any 
 purpose in Avhat I have said, or in what I am about to say, to 
 disparage Gen. Grant or the president of the United States. The 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 355 
 
 former has covered himself all over with a renown which the 
 country recognizes. The latter is the president of the United 
 States, and as such is entitled to our respect ; and, whatever rights 
 may belong to him iu that capacity, it is our duty, and it should be 
 our pleasure, to recognize." 
 
 Mr. Sherman, who was opposed to all the amend- 
 ments, and wished to vote for the bill pure and 
 unadulterated, as it came from the House, said, — 
 
 " His movement up the Cumberland and Tennessee, the battles 
 at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, and afterwards the battle of 
 Shiloh, were victories of which we had no example in this war 
 before. They were victories won at a time when the whole coun- 
 try was under discouragement, when the Army of the Potomae 
 had been defeated, or lay slumbering under its new general. They 
 w^ere the first clarion notes in this Avar ; and the victory at Fort 
 Donelson has scarcely been exceeded since. 
 
 " But look a little further. In my opinion, thtre is not in our 
 history a campaign similar to that about Vicksburg. Vicksburg 
 had been assaulted by land and by water. It had been declared 
 to be impregnable. Our enemy so boasted, and consoled them- 
 selves for many losses by their new Gibraltar. The papers that 
 came back to us from Europe declared that Vicksburg was im- 
 pregnable, and no force of the United States could capture it ; and 
 yet, after discouraging failure, a grand campaign was planned by 
 Gen. Grant with his distinguished subordinates, far away from 
 Washington, without any aid or assistance whatever from Wash- 
 ington. Soon we hear, that, with the hearty and important aid of 
 the navy, he had run the gunboats by the forts, had marched his 
 army around on the left bank of the Mississippi, had crossed the 
 Mississippi, and then commenced that unparalleled campaign in 
 which, after a series of battles each one of which was a great vic- 
 tory, he finally came into the rear of Vicksburg, besieged and 
 captured it. In these successive battles and victories, he captured 
 or destroved an army greater than his own, divided in twain the 
 territory occupied by the enemy, and opened to our commerce the 
 great artery of the West. All that the most sanguine had hoped 
 
856 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GEANT. 
 
 for he had accomplished. But this was not all. Gen. Rosecrans, 
 his equal in rank and command, had been defeated at the battle 
 of Chickamauga, and his army was environed with perils and 
 difficulties. Gen. Grant was required to re-organize this army ia 
 the presence of a superior force of the enemy. He did so. He 
 melted into one grand army corps and divisions which had never 
 acted together ; he retained his position, never receding, and wait- 
 ing until Gen. Sherman led to his aid, by a march almost unex- 
 ampled in length and difficulty, a portion of his old army ; and 
 then he fought the battle of Chattanooga. It was a grand plan, 
 a poetic battle, with all the surroundings and accessories which 
 can make a battle memorable in all time. It was a battle simple 
 in its greatness and faultless in its execution. It lifted a weight 
 from the breast of a nation. But Gen. Grant did not rest here. 
 Bragg was driven out of Tennessee, but Burnside Avas besieged at 
 Knoxville. Who does not remember the anxiety felt for his fate? 
 Gen. Grant did not rest. Without delay the column that had 
 taken Missionary Ridge, and had recently left Memphis, were on 
 their way to Knoxville, and in four days had performed much the 
 most rapid march of the war, had relieved Burnside, and were 
 moving back again. 
 
 " For these victories and movements, almost without a parallel 
 iu any history, equal to any of Napoleon's, we cannot give Gen. 
 Grant a less compliment than by promoting him one degree in the 
 scale of rank. If his successes had been doubtful, if they rested 
 simply upon one battle, upon one campaign, or upon one victory, 
 I should feel very reluctant to pay him this compliment ; but such 
 is not the fact. It has been a series of victories. The number of 
 prisoners he has captured has been in excess of those captured by all 
 the other armies in the field. I believe it is stated that he has cap- 
 tured some eighty thousand or ninety thousand prisoners, — more 
 than twice as many as have been captured by all our other armies. 
 He has captured more flags, taken more guns, fought more battles, 
 and won more victories than any other general. I ask senators 
 whether they will deny him, on a vote by yeas and nays, this 
 honor, stripped of its command, and will say to him that he has 
 not yet won the title conferred upon Gen. Scott for his victories 
 in Mexico. I will no* record such a vote." 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IIST THE CIVIL WAR ? 357 
 
 Even Mr. Garrett Davis of Kentucky, from whom 
 no high-keyed approbation would be expected, con- 
 descends to say, — 
 
 " I have a high opiuioa of the military capacity of Gen. Grant, 
 but not that exalted one which some senators have avowed. 
 From the time of the capture of the post of Arkansas by his 
 army to the present, I think all his military operations have been 
 eminently successful, and have been characterized by ability, cour- 
 age, and fortitude." 
 
 Mr. Saulsbury of Delaware, when his name was 
 called to vote, said, — 
 
 " As unanimous consent was given to the senator from Mary- 
 land to make a remark, I presume the Senate will yield the same 
 privilege to me. I decline to vote on this question for this simple 
 reason, that, in my capacity as a senator, I will have nothing to 
 do with president-making." 
 
 Mr. Fessenden of Maine said, — 
 
 " Now, sir, in regard to Gen. Grant himself, for fear that I 
 may be misunderstood in any sense, I will say, that, in my judg- 
 ment, if I had the selection to-day, I would select him unquestion- 
 ably before any one in the country : he would have my vote and 
 my voice, because I believe that of all others he has most distin- 
 guished himself. Whether it is owing to great ability or to great 
 good-fortune, I cannot say. At any rate he has been successful ; 
 and in military matters success is the great test of merit, in the 
 first instance. And in the next place, from all I have heard of 
 him, I believe that he is a man of high moral qualities ; that he 
 not only has physical courage but moral courage ; that, if he had 
 been at Antietam, he would have followed the reti^eatiug army at 
 once and demolished it ; that, if he had been at Gettysburg, thu 
 army of Lee never would have crossed the river • because he would 
 not have consulted those about him, and agreed with them contrary 
 to his own opinion ; he would have acted, he would have taken the 
 responsibility. The great danger we have been in, the great 
 
858 LIFE Oi GENEEAL GEAKT. 
 
 trouble we have suffered in this country, in my judgment, is, that a 
 great many of our military men have asked themselves the ques- 
 tion how misfortune was to affect them, and whether, in case they 
 did not succeed, it would not ruin them individually. If they had 
 taken their lives, and their reputations as well as their lives, in 
 their hands, and said, ' This thing ought to be done, and I will do 
 it, thougli I perish,' we should have accomplished vastly more than 
 we have accomplished with men who have stood waiting and in- 
 quiring, wondering whether they could succeed, and judging that, 
 if they did not succeed, there would be an end of them." 
 
 The amendment was carried, and the bill was 
 passed by a vote of thirty-one to six. The House 
 disagreed in the Senate amendments, and raised a 
 committee of conference, in which the Senate joined. 
 The following was the first section, as agreed upon by 
 the conferees; and it finally became the law of the 
 land : " That the grade of lieutenant-general be, and 
 the same is, hereby revived in the army of the United 
 States ; and the president is hereby authorized, when- 
 ever he shall deem it expedient, to appoint, by and 
 with the advice and consent of the Senate, a lieuten- 
 ant-general, to be selected from among those officers 
 in the military service of the United States — not below 
 the grade of major-general — most distinguished for 
 courage, skill, and ability, who, being commissioned 
 as lieutenant-general, may be authorized, under the 
 direction and during the pleasure of the president, to 
 command the armies of the United States." 
 
 The second section of the bill, upon which there 
 had been no discussion, and no controversy be- 
 tween the houses, provided for the allowances and 
 pay of the lieutenant-general. By its provisions, his 
 receipts from all sources amounted to $1,340 per 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 359 
 
 month, or §16,080 per annum. In this smn are 
 included all rations, commutations, forage, — every 
 thing which constitutes the emoluments of lieutenant- 
 general. 
 
 The report of the conference committee was not 
 finally agreed to by the House until Feb. 2G ; and the 
 bill was signed by Mr. Lincoln on the next day. On 
 the 1st of March, the name of Ulysses S. Grant was 
 sent into- the Senate for the office of lieutenant-, 
 general ; and he was confirmed in executive session 
 the following day. 
 
 While this high debate was progressing in the halls 
 of Congress, Grant, at Chattanooga, — having dis- 
 posed of Longstreet, advanced Thomas to Dalton, and 
 rendered his own front comparatively secure, — was 
 meditating additional conquests, and had revived the 
 plan of attacking Mobile. Auxiliary to this project, 
 he had sent Sherman upon the Meridian raid, for the 
 purpose of destroying the railroad communication 
 between the Gulf States and Virginia. But, while 
 employed in organizing new victories in this direction, 
 he received on the od of March a telegram from 
 Halleck, to report to the secretary of war, at the 
 capital of the Republic, He had already received 
 information from a different source that his name 
 ■was before the Senate for the office of lieutenant- 
 general : the order from Halleck convinced him that 
 his confirmation was beyond all peradventure. 
 
 What were the emotions of this man, whom we 
 found less than three years ago in a leather-store at 
 Galena, when first assured of elevation to that exalt- 
 ed rank in the army of which but one of his country- 
 
oGO LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 men ' had been deemed worthy, and that one the 
 most illustrious the Western continent had produced, 
 — " first in war, first in peace, first in the hearts of 
 his countrymen " ? I am fortunately able to respond 
 to this question. He evinces no exultation, no pride, 
 no arrogance, but only genuine humility, conscious 
 unfitness for supreme rank, gratitude to Sherman and 
 McPherson, true nobility of soul. He receives the 
 •news of his promotion on the 3d of March. He starts 
 for Washington on the morning of the 4th; but 
 between the reception of the information and his 
 departure for the capital to wield the baton of lieuten- 
 ant-general, I learn from the pages of Gen. Badeau, 
 that, he writes the following characteristic epistle to 
 two of his comrades : it was the first letter doubtless 
 which he penned after he had heard of his nomi- 
 nation. Gen. Badeau was the messenger who bore 
 this communication to the fiivorite lieutenant : — 
 
 " Dear Sherman, — The bill reviving the grade of 
 lieutenant-general in the army has become a law, 
 and my name has been sent to the Senate for the 
 place. I now receive orders to report to Washington 
 immediately m i^ersojz; which indicates a confirma- 
 tion, or a likelihood of confirmation. I start in the 
 morning to comply with the order. 
 
 " Whilst I have been eminently successful in this 
 war, in at least gaining the confidence of the public, 
 no one feels more than I how much of this success 
 is due to the energy, skill, and the harmonious put- 
 ting forth of that energy and skill, of those whom it 
 
 1 General Scott was only lieutenant-general by brevet. 
 
WUAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 3Gl 
 
 has been my good fortune to have occupying subor- 
 dinate positions under me. 
 
 "There are many officers to whom these remarks 
 are appUcable to a greater or less degree, proportion- 
 ate to their abihty as soldiers ; but what I want is 
 to express my thanks to you and McPherson, as the 
 men to whom, above all others, I feel indebted for 
 whatever I have had of success. How far your ad- 
 vice and assistance has been of service to me, you 
 know. How far your execution of whatever has 
 been given you to do entitles you to the reward I 
 am receiving, you cannot know as well as I. I feel 
 all the gratitude this letter would express, giving it 
 the most flattering construction. 
 
 " The word t/ou I use in the plural, intending it for 
 McPherson also. I should write to him, and will 
 some day ; but, starting in the morning, I do not know 
 that I will find time just now. 
 
 " Your friend, 
 « U. S. Grant, Major-GeneraV 
 
 The same historian also furnishes us with General 
 Sherman's reply: — 
 
 "Dear General, — I have your more than kind 
 and characteristic letter of the 4th instant. I will 
 send a copy to Gen. McPherson at once. You do 
 yourself injustice, and us too much honor, in assign- 
 ing to us too large a share of the merits which have 
 led to your high advancement. I know yon approve 
 the friendship I have ever professed to you, and will 
 permit me to continue as heretofore to manifest it on 
 
362 LITE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 all proper occasions. You are now Washington's le- 
 gitimate successor, and occupy a position of almost 
 dangerous elevation ; but if you can continue, as 
 heretofore, to be yourself, — simple, honest, and un- 
 pretending, — you will enjoy through life the respect 
 and love of friends, and the homage of millions of 
 human beings that will award you a large share in 
 securing to them and their descendants a government 
 of law and stability. I repeat, you do Gen. McPher- 
 son and myself too much honor. At Belmont you 
 pianifested your traits, neither of us being near. At 
 Donelson also, you illustrated your whole charac- 
 ter : I was not near, and Gen. McPherson in too sub- 
 ordinate a caj)acity to influence you. 
 
 '•Until you had won Donelson, I confess I was- 
 almost cowed by -the terrible array of anarchical ele- 
 ments that presented * themselves at every point ; 
 but that admitted a ray of light I have followed 
 since. I believe you are as brave, patriotic, and just 
 as the great prototype Washington; as unselfish, 
 kind-hearted, and honest as a man should be ; but 
 the chief characteristic is the simple faith in success 
 you have always manifested, which I can liken to 
 nothing else than the faith a Christian has in the 
 Saviour. This faith gave you victory at Shiloh and 
 Vicksburg. Also, when 3'ou have completed your 
 best preparations, you go into battle without hesita- 
 tion, as at Chattanooga, — no doubts, no reserves ; 
 and, I tell you, it was this that made us act with con- 
 fidence. I knew, wherever I was, that you thought 
 of me ; and, if I got in a tight place, you would help 
 me out if alive. My only point of doubt was in 
 
WHAT DID nE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR? 363 
 
 your knowledge of grand strategy, and of books of 
 science and history ; but I confess your common 
 sense seems to have supphed all these. 
 
 " Now, as to the future. Don't stay in Washing- 
 ton. Come West : take to yourself the whole Missis- 
 sippi valley. Let us make it dead sure ; and, I tell 
 you, the Atlantic slopes and Pacific shore will follow 
 its destiny as sure as the limbs of a tree live or die 
 with the main trunk. We have done much, but 
 still much remains. Time, and time's influences, are 
 with us. We could almost afford to sit still, and let 
 these influences work. Here lies the seat of the 
 coming empire ; and from the West, when our task is 
 done, we will make short work of Charleston and 
 Richmond and the impoverished coast of the At- 
 lantic. Your sincere friend." 
 
 Grant's route from Chattanooga to Washington 
 was a continuous ovation. People besieged the cars 
 at every station with vociferous cheers, and in every 
 other outward form in which popular enthusiasm 
 finds utterance overwhelmed him with adulation and 
 homage. I happened to be dining at Willard's, on 
 the 8th of March, when the modest and unpretend- 
 ing recipient of such tributes from Congress and the 
 people as were never yet bestowed upon an Ameri- 
 can entered the room. It was near six o'clock : the 
 tables throughout that long hall were crowded with 
 ladies and gentlemen. As soon as Grant was recog- 
 nized, his name was announced, and he was formally 
 presented to the company by my friend Gen. More- 
 head, member of Congress from the Pittsburg dis- 
 trict. The guests all rose to their feet, the ladies 
 
864 LIFE OF GE]<rERAL GRANT. 
 
 even proffering this high compliment, and waving 
 handkerchiefs and napkins. Huzzas, vivas, bravis- 
 simas, in all tongues, impotently endeavored to ex- 
 press the nnutterable gratitude and admiration 
 which burdened every bosom. Not content with 
 the vocal tribute, some excited individuals mounted 
 chairs and tables, in contempt of all convention- 
 alities, and manifested their exaltation in jigs and 
 break-downs among crockery and viands. Upon re- 
 tiring from the dining-hall, I found the general 
 retreating np the main stairway, abashed before a 
 mob of elegantly-dressed ladies, whose admiration 
 was too bold and pronounced to be entirely agree- 
 able to a recluse, unaccustomed to be smothered in 
 roses. 
 
 Cabinet meetings in Mr. Lincoln's day were not 
 remarkable for their punctilio. His own free and 
 easy manners were a rebuff to all ceremony. He 
 was consulted once by an incoming minister, who 
 as a former member of Mr. Buchanan's cabinet 
 had been habituated to its rigid formalities, respect- 
 ing the etiquette to be observed in the cabinet 
 meetings of Mr. Lincoln. The president replied, 
 " There is no form about it : we all act pretty much 
 as we please. Seward smokes, and I tell stories." 
 When, therefore. Grant, upon the invitation of Mr. 
 Lincoln, presented himself on the morning of the 
 9th of March in the cabinet chamber of the White 
 House, he found nothing in his reception which need 
 awe or discompose a man unfamiliar with State occa- 
 sions. The president, Mr. Seward, Mr. Stanton, Mr. 
 Chase, Mr. Welles, Mr. Montgomery Blair, Mr. Bates, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 865 
 
 Gen. Halleck, Mr. Nicolay the executive secretary, 
 were in the room ; and to all of them Gen. Grant was 
 introduced for the first time, except Mr. Stanton, 
 whom he had met at Louisville prior to the Chatta- 
 nooga campaign, and Gen. Halleck, with whom he 
 was well acquainted. Gen. Grant's own party con- 
 sisted of his son, who rode into Jackson in advance 
 of our army and was with his father at Champion's 
 Hill; Mr. Washburne, member of Congress from the 
 Galena district ; Gen. Rawlins and Col. Comstock of 
 the staff. After the introduction, the president ad- 
 vanced with the commission in his hand, and read 
 from a manuscript the following address : — 
 
 "General Grant, — The nation's approbation of 
 what you have already done, and its reliance on you 
 for what remains to do, in the existing great struggle, 
 is now presented, with this commission constituting 
 you lieutenant-general of the army of the United 
 States. With this high honor devolves on you a 
 corresponding responsibility. As the country herein 
 trusts you, so under God it will sustain you. I 
 scarcely need add, that with what I here speak for 
 the country goes my own hearty personal concur 
 rence." 
 
 Receiving the commission, Gen. Grant read from 
 a manuscript the following reply : — 
 
 "Mr. President, — I accept this commission with 
 gratitude for the high honor conferred. With the 
 aid of the noble armies who have fought on so many 
 
3G6 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 battle-fields for our common comitr}^, it will be ray 
 earnest endeavor not to disappoint your expecta- 
 tions. I feel the full weight of the responsibility 
 now devolving on me. I know, that, if it is properly 
 met, it will be due to these armies, and, above all, 
 to the favor of that Providence which leads both 
 nations and men." 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 HE INVESTS PETERSBURG. 
 [May to July, 18G4.] 
 
 I BELIEVE that both the Donelson and Vicksburg 
 campaigns abundantly demonstrate, that, as a 
 strategist, Grant was superior to any general to 
 whom the chief command of our armies had hitherto 
 been intrusted. I believe that the battle of Chatta- 
 nooga, as an example of grand manoeuvring, deserv- 
 edly ranks with the greatest exploits of the greatest 
 masters of the art of war. I have quoted largely 
 from the debates in Congress upon the lieutenant- 
 general bill, for the purpose of exhibiting the esti- 
 mate of those who had watched the whole war with 
 the most intense anxiety, who were the most inter- 
 ested in decisive success, who were in some respects 
 most capable of forming a correct judgment of capac- 
 ity for superior command. I have exhibited Sher- 
 man's opinion of Grant. I have shown that Halleck, 
 who as editor of Jomini and author of a work on 
 Grand Tactics may be presumed qualified to distin- 
 guish between accident and achievement, did not hes- 
 itate to compare one of his campaigns with one of 
 the most splendid of Napoleon's. " Gen. Grant has 
 
 867 
 
368 LIFE OP GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 shown more military skill than any general upon our 
 side," was Gen. Scott's guarded indorsement at this 
 juncture. The Richmond papers spoke of Grant, as 
 "a man of far more energy and ability than any 
 who had yet commanded the Army of the Potomac ; " 
 but " that his performances would bear, no compari- 
 son to those of Gen. Lee." Pollard, who uniformly 
 degrades the exploits of Grant, concedes that " his 
 name was coupled with success ; " that '' no man will 
 deny him credit for many good qualities of heart 
 and great propriety of behavior ; " that " he had the 
 coarse, heavy obstinacy, which is often observed in 
 the western backwoodsman, as in a higher range of 
 character." 
 
 Grant possessed one qualification for the immense 
 task now committed to his hands as indispensable for 
 its successful accomplishment as the highest martial 
 ability. He was convinced that the armed resistance 
 to the laws which confronted us, both in its military 
 strength and in its animus, was War, gigantic in pro- 
 portions, infernal in temper ; and that it was only to 
 be dealt with by the uncompromising appliance of 
 all belligerent means and expedients. In this re- 
 spect he differed decidedly from McClellan, Buell, 
 Piosecrans ; and he followed this conviction out to all 
 its consequences with more strictness, and devised 
 measures more accordant to its severe requirements, 
 than either Halleck, Meade, or the president. No 
 stronger illustration of the decided spirit, the stern 
 modes, of genuine warfare can be found than in 
 one sentence which he employs to define a part 
 of his policy : " I therefore determined to hammer 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAP. ? 369 
 
 continuously against the armed force of the enemy 
 and his resources, until by mere attrition, if in 
 no other way, there should be nothing left to him 
 but an equal submission with the loyal section of 
 our common country to the Constitution and laws of 
 the land." I am not surprised that a measure so 
 viijcorous as " mere attrition " should be condemned 
 by those who were in favor of conducting the war 
 in such a mode as " to conciliate the good-will " of 
 public enemies, and upon principles of " noble mod- 
 eration." For practising the former method, Mr. 
 Pollard eulogizes Buell; and for the latter, disparages 
 Grant. If warfare was to be conducted to please your 
 enemies, both the praise and the condemnation 
 would be deserved. Grant unquestionably intended 
 to use, unscrupulously, against his armed foe the 
 vis inerike of superior numbers ; for I have j^et to 
 learn that war is a business so sure in its aims, so 
 certain of triumphs when most wisely managed, that 
 a general is justified in sacrificing any advantage he 
 may possess, and especiallj/ superiority in physical 
 force. Grant doubtless designed to carry positions 
 by assault if it was practicable, and to resort to the 
 more dilatory processes when the speediest were 
 baffled. He did not propose to indulge in a siege 
 upon principles of "noble moderation," or in manoea- 
 vres for the purpose of earning from his antagonists 
 the commendation of securing results " by intellect 
 and genius." He proposed to overcome resistance by 
 mere physical stress v*'henever it was possible, even 
 if it should evoke from the same critics the imputa- 
 tion of having a " low and gross conception of war." 
 
 24 
 
870 LIFE OF GENERAL GEAlfT. 
 
 If he had acted in this respect according to the 
 wishes of Mr. Pollard, he would have entitled himself 
 to the condemnation, even in the critic's judgment, 
 of being a mere military fop and exquisite, of haz- 
 arding success by vain aspirations ; while, from his 
 compatriots, he would have deserved the opprobrium 
 of sacrificing the national cause to personal vanity. 
 The best mode of warfare is that which soonest 
 breaks down armed resistance by the authorized 
 expedients of war. If this can be accomplished by 
 science without slaughter, it is well ; but, if in no 
 other way, let it be done by " mere attrition." 
 
 Early in the war, it had arrested Gen. Grant's 
 attention, that there was but inefficient concert 
 between our widely separated armies, and no hearty 
 co-operation in any comprehensive plan of subduing 
 the Rebellion. An operation in one part of the vast 
 field was without its correlate in another. Strategic 
 plans were without proper auxiliaries. It did not 
 escape his notice, as. the war progressed, that a vic- 
 tory in the Mississippi valley was neutralized by a 
 defeat on the Atlantic slope ; and he wisely concluded, 
 that a war must be endless, if military ascendency 
 should remain in equilibrium between reverse and 
 success. It was this inharmonious use of our mili- 
 tary preponderance which he characterized by the 
 apt metaphor, " The armies of the East and West 
 were like a balky team, no two ever pulling together." 
 The inherent weakness of our own unsystematized 
 military administration was augmented by the adroit- 
 ness of the rebels in using their interior lines of com- 
 munication to throw re-enforcements impetuously in 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 371 
 
 any direction, and concentrate superior numbers upon 
 any vital point which was seriously assailed. Grant 
 therefore adopted another fundamental maxim, when 
 promoted to chief command : " I determined to use 
 the greatest number of troops practicable against the 
 armed force of the enemy, preventing him from 
 using the same force at diflerent seasons against first 
 one and then another of our armies, and the possibili- 
 ty of repose for refitting, and producing necessary 
 supplies for carrying on resistance." For the first time 
 too, in the history of the war, he inaugurated 
 expeditions wdiich were correspondents of each other, 
 both aimed at the same time at vital points of the 
 enemy, and of sufficient magnitude to arrest the en- 
 tire rebel force in their respective fronts, — like the 
 two represented by the " On to Richmond ! " and the 
 "On to Atlanta!" battle-cries. He subserved, more- 
 over, one movement by co-operating movements, — 
 as illustrated by the relations of Sigel's operations 
 in Western Virginia, and Sheridan's in the valley of 
 the Shenandoah, to the annihilation of the principal 
 army of the Confederacy. 
 
 Important even as these vast strategical plans, were 
 some personal qualities of the new commander. I 
 have already alluded to the radical methods of war- 
 fare which, seated in his convictions, expressed his 
 views of the treatment which a rebellion so por- 
 tentous should receive ; but he possessed other char- 
 acteristics which were equally essential to the per- 
 manent triumph of our arms. Physical courage was 
 not wanting in many of our generals; but there 
 w^as a deficiency of that moral courage which dared 
 
372 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GEAKT. 
 
 to stake reputation, as well as life, upon a movement 
 sanctioned by their judgment. This Grant possessed 
 in an extraordinary degree. It was this remarkable 
 distinction of his which Mr. Fessenden commended 
 Vv^hen he said, " If he had been at Antietam, he would 
 have followed at once the retreating army and demol- 
 ished it ; if he had been at Gettj'sburg, the army of 
 Lee never would have crossed the river ; because he 
 would not have consulted with those about him, and 
 agreed with them contrary to his own judgment, 
 but would have taken the responsibility." Sherman 
 delineated the same characteristic when he said to 
 Grant, " You have always manifested a simple faith 
 in success which I can liken to nothing else than the 
 faith which a Christian has in his Saviour." 
 
 In addition to this commanding attribute, three 
 years of experience had familiarized him with the 
 organization of our army, and the qualifications of its 
 offiLcers for responsible positions. He frequently dwells 
 upon one requisite for leaders of divisions and army 
 corps, which, in his judgment, is even more essential 
 than military ability : he speaks of it as the "'harmo- 
 nious putting forth of energy and skill," as " disinterest- 
 edness" in every thing except the faithful performance 
 of duty and the success of the cause, as " unselfish 
 co-operation " with each other and the chief in the 
 execution of all necessary plans. He knew where 
 " energy and skill " resided without " the harmonious 
 j)utting it forth;" he knew where both existed together 
 in the same breast ; he knew from whom to expect 
 complete co-operation land who would withhold it ; and 
 he was, therefore, better qualified than any of his pre- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 373 
 
 decessors to select his subordinates, and to place the 
 right man in the right place. Wisdom in the choice 
 of officers appeared early under the new regwie, and 
 contributed as efficiently to the final triumph of our 
 arms as any one quality which the lieutenant-gen- 
 eral brought to the chief command. 
 
 The same three years had familiarized him also 
 with the modes and methods, with the weakness and 
 strength, of the enemy. It enabled him to read all 
 the signs, and interpret all the hieroglyphics, of the 
 battle-field. The elan which the rebels exhibit in the 
 onset, he contrives to check by corresponding dash 
 and transports in our charge, or by tenacity and 
 pluck in our endurance. He had found, too, that 
 the crisis of the battle was when both belligerents 
 were shocked, and that at such a juncture a persever- 
 ino- onslaught would determine the fortunes of the 
 day. By a practical application of these two lessons, 
 he invigorated the army in such a manner that 
 shrewd military critics forthwith prognosticated 
 triumph from the unwonted energy of our attacks, 
 — the novel vigor of our pursuit. 
 
 In order to understand what Gen. Grant accom- 
 plished after he was placed at the head of our armies, 
 it is necessary, first and foremost, to answer this ques- 
 tion, What progress had been made in subjugating 
 the Rebellion at the time the supreme direction of 
 affairs w\is committed to his hands? If I was called 
 upon to answer this question to-day, I should imme- 
 diately apply to Gen. Grant for the information. No 
 man in the land was better capable of answering 
 this question at the time ; no man can successfully 
 
3/4 LIFE OF GENERAL GEAJS^T. 
 
 impugn the correctness of the reply he has given j 
 and no man can presume to present another, when 
 his response is upon record. 
 
 When the spring campaign of 1864 opened, " the 
 Mississippi River was strongly garrisoned by Federal 
 troops, from St. Louis, Mo., to its mouth. The line 
 of the Arkansas was also held ; thus giving us armed 
 possession of all west of the Mississippi, north of that 
 stream. A few points in Southern Louisiana, not 
 remote from the river, were held by us, together 
 with a small garrison at and near the mouth of the 
 Eio Grande. All the balance of the vast territory 
 of Arkansas, Louisiana, and Texas was in the almost 
 undisputed possession of the enemy, with an army 
 of probably not less than eighty thousand eifective 
 men, that could have been brought into the field 
 had there been sufficient opposition to have brought 
 them out. The let-alone policy had demoralized this 
 force, so that probably but little more than one-half 
 of it was ever present in garrison at any one time. 
 But the one-half, or forty thousand men, with the 
 bands of guerillas scattered through Missouri, Ar- 
 kansas, and along the Mississippi River, and the dis- 
 loyal character of much of the po|)ulation, compelled 
 the use of a large number of troops to keep navi- 
 gation open on the river, and to protect the loyal 
 people to the west of it. To the east of the Missis- 
 sippi we held substantially with the line of the Ten- 
 nessee and Holston Rivers, running eastward to in- 
 clude nearly all of the State of Tennessee. South 
 of Chattanooga, a small foothold had been obtained 
 •11 Georgia, sufficient to protect East Tennessee from 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 375 
 
 incursions from the enemy's force at Dalton, Ga. 
 West Virginia was substantially within our lines. 
 Virginia — with the exception of the northern border, 
 the Potomac River, a small area about the mouth of 
 James River covered by the troops at Norfolk and 
 Fort Monroe, and the territory covered by the Army 
 of the Potomac lying along the Rapidan — was in the 
 possession of the enemy. Along the sea-coast, foot- 
 holds had been obtained at Plymouth, Washington, 
 and Newberne, in North Carolina ; Beaufort, Folly 
 and Morris Islands, Hilton Head, Fort Pulaski, and 
 Port Royal, in South Carolina; Fernandina and St. 
 Augustine, in Florida. Key West and Pensacola 
 were also in our possession, while all the important 
 ports were blockaded by the navy. 
 
 " Behind the Union hues there were many bands 
 of guerillas, and a large population disloyal to the 
 Government, making it necessary to guard every foot 
 of road or river used in supplying our armies. In 
 the South, a reign of military despotism prevailed, 
 which made every man and boy capable of bearing 
 arms a soldier ; and those who could not bear arms 
 in the field acted as provosts for collecting deserters 
 and returning them. This enabled the enemy to 
 bring almost his entire strength into the field. 
 
 " The enemy had concentrated the bulk of his forces 
 east of the Mississippi into two armies, commanded 
 by Gens. R. E. Lee and J. E. Johnston, his ablest and 
 best generals. The army commanded by Lee occu- 
 pied the south bank of the Rapidan, extending from 
 Mine Run westward, strongly intrenched, covering 
 and defending Richmond, the rebel capital, against 
 
376 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the Army of the Potomac. The army under Johnston 
 occupied a strongly intrenched position at Dalton, 
 Ga.^ covering and defending Atlanta, Ga., a place of 
 great importance as a railroad centre, against the 
 armies under Major-Gen. W. T. Sherman. In addi- 
 tion to these armies, he had a large cavalry force 
 under Forrest in North-east Mississippi, a consider- 
 able force of all arms in the Shenandoah valley, and 
 in the western part of Virginia and extreme eastern 
 part of Tennessee, and also confronting our sea-coast 
 garrisons, and holding blockaded ports where we had 
 no foothold upon land." ^ 
 
 In this situation of affairs. Grant directs Banks, 
 who was now upon the Red-river expedition, which 
 had been originated prior to the appointment of a 
 lieutenant-general, to expedite those operations, and, 
 having secured by fortifications a few points upon 
 the Mississippi, between Port Hudson and the mouth, 
 to attempt no more conquests in his neighborhood 
 except such as were necessary to hold the territory 
 already occupied by his troops, but direct his atten- 
 tion exclusively to the organization of a force for 
 the capture of Mobile. He directs Steele, who is 
 holding the Arkansas River, to advance a force to 
 the Red, and occupy Shrevesport and other points 
 which it was presumed that Banks would reduce. He 
 commits to Gen. Sherman the military district be- 
 tween the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, which 
 Grant himself had formerly administered, and or- 
 dered him to defend Tennessee and Kentucky 
 against all enemies. 
 
 1 Gen. Grant's Report to Secretary of War of July 22, 1865. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 377 
 
 Having hus provided for the security of that part 
 of the domain of Rebellion which had already been 
 partially reduced, he develops an offensive cam- 
 paign, which consists of two grand correlated move- 
 ments, addressing the two principal armies of the 
 Confedemcy and the cities which they respectively 
 cover. He instructs Gen. Sherman to move against 
 Johnston's army for the purpose of destroying it, to 
 penetrate as fiir as possible into the enemy's country, 
 and to inflict damages to the extent of his power on 
 the war resources of the Rebellion. If the enemy in 
 his front show signs of re-enforcing Lee, he directs 
 him to follow the re-enforcements up, and prevent 
 the concentration of the two armies. He orders 
 Gen. Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac, 
 to make the army of Lee his objective point, to 
 follow it up wherever it moves, and to defeat any 
 attempt on its part to miite with Johnston. 
 
 It is a great mistake to presume that the sole aim 
 of either of these movements was to capture the 
 strongholds which were protected by the armies of 
 Lee and Johnston. Complete success in such enter- 
 prises would have merely changed the theatre, with- 
 out materially reducing the strength, of war. The 
 occupation either of Richmond or Atlanta, without 
 breaking the two armies, would vanquish the shadow 
 instead of the substance of treason, — win the eclat 
 of conquest without diminishing the martial strength 
 and grandeur of the Confederacy. When we reflect 
 that the subjugation of both these armies was an 
 indispensable prerequisite to the termination of hos- 
 tiUties, we see at once the absurdity of those cavils 
 
378 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 •which suggest modes of reaching the capital with 
 out encountering the real dominion, which was posted 
 in the Wilderness. The subjection of that army was 
 more essential to peace than the reduction of its cita- 
 del ; and every shock it endured, every rebel soldier 
 in it killed or wounded, every capture which debili- 
 tated it, every diminution of its prestige and arro- 
 gance, were blows both at the heart and at the cas- 
 tle of treason. " Why not move the army in trans- 
 ports to City Point, and there secure a point dap- 
 pui ? " has been frequently asked. It is a. sufficient 
 answer to say, that we should have then encoun- 
 tered the unbroken army of Lee behind regular for- 
 tifications, devised with all the ingenuity of science, 
 instead of behind field-works in the Wilderness. 
 Grant would have then been compelled to abandon 
 his own capital to the mercy of his antagonist, or to 
 have divided and dispersed his army ; which was 
 McClellan's apology for the failure of the Peninsular 
 campaign. Whatever route was taken, Lee's army 
 must be met and defeated; whatever device or 
 stratagem was employed for surprising Richmond 
 while that army was intact would have been a mere 
 sop to Cerberus, — a sensation conquest for the 
 North, while the South was yet miHtant, and might 
 yet be triumphant in the field. Hollow and Bun- 
 combe victories were unsatisfactory to the earnest- 
 ness, and disgusting to the sincerity, of Grant. He 
 craved no triumphs which would turn to ashes in his 
 grasp. 
 
 The part of this campaign of which Lee's army, 
 and, in a contingency, Richmond, were objective 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 379 
 
 points contemplated the auxiliary co-operation of the 
 Army of the James under Butler, and the Army of 
 West Virginia under Sigel. The simultaneous ad- 
 vance of these with the Army of the Potomac was 
 pre-arranged. Grant issued the following instructions 
 to Butler: "The necessity of covering Washington 
 with the Army of the Potomac, and of covering your 
 department with your army, makes it impossihle to 
 unite these forces at the beginning of any move. I 
 propose, therefore, what comes nearest this of any 
 thing that seems practicable : The Army of the Poto- 
 mac will act from its present base, Lee's army being 
 the objective point. You will collect all the forces 
 from your command that can be spared from garrison 
 duty, to operate on the south side of James River, 
 Richmond being your objective point. 
 
 " When you are notified to move, take City Point 
 with as much force as possible. Fortify, or rather 
 intrench, at once, and concentrate all your troops for 
 the field there as rapidly as you can. From City 
 Point, directions cannot be given at this time for 
 your further movements. ^ 
 
 " The fact that has been already stated — that 
 is, that Richmond is to be your objective point, and 
 that there is to be co-operation between your force 
 and the Army of the Potomac — must be your guide. 
 This indicates the necessity of your holding close to 
 the south bank of the James River as you advance. 
 Then, should the enemy be forced into his intrench- 
 ments in Richmond, the Army of the Potomac would 
 follow, and, by means of transports, the two armies 
 would become a unit. 
 
380 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GRANT. 
 
 « All the minor details of your advance are left 
 entirely to your direction. If, however, you think it 
 practicable to use your cavalry south of you, so as to 
 cut the railroad about Hicks's Ford about the time 
 of the general advance, it would be of immense ad- 
 vantage. " 
 
 He also adds in his report, "Before giving Gen. 
 Butler his instructions, I visited him at Fort Monroe, 
 and in conversation pointed out the apparent impor- 
 tance of getting possession of Petersburg, and destroy- 
 ing railroad communication as far south as possible. 
 Believing, however, in the practicability of capturing 
 Eichmond unless it was re-enforced, I made that the 
 objective point of his operations. As the Army of 
 the Potomac was to move simultaneously with him, 
 Lee could not detach from his army with safety, and 
 the enemy did not have troops elsewhere to bring to 
 the defence of the city in time to meet a rapid move- 
 ment from the north of James River." 
 
 Grant transferred to Butler's command Gen. Wil- 
 liam F. Smith, who had earned deserved distinc- 
 tion as chief-engineer of the Army of the Cumber- 
 land. He had been recently promoted to the rank 
 of major-general, for gallant and meritorious service 
 in the Chattanooga campaign. The lieutenant-gen- 
 eral's personal knowledge of the ability of this officer 
 warranted the opinion, that no better selection of 
 chief subordinate to Gen. Butler could be made, nor 
 a more reliable coadjutor found to share with him 
 the responsible duties committed to the Army of the 
 James. Gen. Gilmore, who was unsurpassed as an 
 artillerist, was also ordered with ten thousand men to 
 re-enforce Gen. Butler. 
 
•WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 351 
 
 Grant directs Sigel to advance ten thousand men 
 to Cedar Creek in the Shenandoah valley, for the 
 purpose of blockading this oft-frequented avenue to 
 "Washington ; and to despatch seven thousand men 
 down the Tennessee Railroad, to sever tliis important 
 connection with Richmond ; and to destroy the salt- 
 works at Saltville, which were the main resource of 
 the Confederate armies for this necessary commodity. 
 
 Grant re-organized the Army of the Potomac, and 
 purged and reformed its roster of officers. It now 
 consisted of the Second, Fifth, and Sixth Corps of 
 infantry, commanded respectively by Major-Gens. 
 Hancock, Warren, and Sedgwick. The Ninth Corps, 
 under Burnside, was speedily united with it. "I 
 tried as far as possible," Grant said, " to leave Gen. 
 Meade in independent command of the Army of the 
 Potomac. My instructions for that army were all 
 through him, and were general in their nature, heav- 
 ing all the details and the execution to him." Gen. 
 Sheridan was placed at the head of its cavalry. It 
 was furnished with -a reserve park of artillery, ander 
 the direction of Brig.-Gen. Hunt, but under the 
 immediate command of Col. H. S. Benton. An 
 engineer brigade and p., pontoon-train were also at- 
 tached to it, under Major Duane. 
 
 The Army of the Potomac is now encamped on the 
 north bank of the Rapidan. As Grant looks south- 
 ward over the river, his eye first encounters the tract 
 called the Wilderness, which spreads for more than 
 twelve miles from the banks of the Rapidan to with- 
 in cannon range of Spottsylvania Court-house. It is a 
 vast unbroken hedge, seamed by deep ravines, barri- 
 
382 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 cacled by sharp ridges^ — a natural defence raised foi 
 the obstruction of armies. The primitive forests had 
 been consumed for fuel by German miners, who, in 
 the last century, worked its iron-ore beds ; more re- 
 cently it has been scoured for gold. It was now 
 densely covered by a second growth of scraggy pines, 
 hazel, and scrub-oaks, constituting a wild and tangled 
 thicket, more forbidding to array combinations than 
 a Mexican • chaparral. There are no clearings or 
 patches of cultivation for the deploy of troops. There 
 are roads from the fords of the Rapidan, which inter- 
 sect a plank road from Fredericksburg to Orange 
 Court-house, and the turnpike between the same 
 county-seats, that passes the Old Wilderness Tavern. 
 Most of its pathways, however, are cart-tracks and 
 cow-paths through the woods, the direction of which 
 is known only to the inhabitants of the region, and 
 to the enemy, who survey and study them with 
 special reference to pending operations. It is a coun- 
 try where familiarity with the course and debouch of 
 these by-paths gives an advantage, both for offence 
 and defence, which no numerical preponderance can 
 counterbalance ; where the grand tactics of the most 
 consummate masters would be of no avail, and every 
 attempt at manoeuvre upon our part involves us in 
 inextricable labyrinths, or inveigles us into lairs 
 prepared for our slaughter. I am not surprised that 
 Mr. Pollard and his sympathizers at the North resent 
 Grant's reliance upon the vis inerticG of numbers, 
 instead of " military genius " and a policy dictated 
 by "noble moderation," while endeavoring to pene- 
 trate this wilderness. 
 
■WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 383 
 
 Confronting this natural barrier, but looking to- 
 wards the north, lies the army of Lee, consisting of 
 the corps of Hill, Longstreet, Ewell, with Stuart's 
 cavalry, posted in a strong position, well protected in 
 front by elal^orate field-works, with its left flank 
 covered by the Rapidan and the mountains near 
 Orange Court-house, and its right flank guarded by 
 an intrenched line extending from Morton's Ford to 
 Mine Run. 
 
 The 4th of May was the day assigned for the 
 concerted movement of the three armies. Butler and 
 Sigel were instructed to move ; Sherman, moreover, 
 was directed to advance. Grant in person orders the 
 Army of the Potomac to pass the Rapidan, and turn 
 at Mine Run the extreme right of Lee. Before 
 dawn, Warren's army corps, followed by Sedgwick, 
 crosses the Germania Ford, and, with cavalry in 
 advance and spread upon both flanks, succeeds In 
 reaching the Old Wilderness Tavern, on the turn- 
 pike to Fredericksburg, without encountering the 
 enemy. Hancock, with the artillery reserve, crosses 
 at Ely's Ford, and, with heavy squadrons In front and 
 upon both wings, encamps for the night at Chan- 
 cellorsville on the Orange and Fredericksburg Turn- 
 pike, and within supporting distance of AYarren and 
 Sedgwick. The immense supply-train of four thou- 
 sand wagons follows Hancock. By four o'clock in 
 the afternoon of the 4th, the entire army is estab- 
 lished in its position beyond the river. " I regarded 
 it as a great success," said Grant ; '' and it removed 
 from my mind the most serious apprehension I had 
 entertained, that of crossing the river in the face of 
 
884 LITE OF GEIS^EEAL GEAIfT. 
 
 an active, large, well-appointed, and ably commanded 
 army." 
 
 It is now the foremost wish r.f his heart to jtasa 
 without molestation the intervening be't of jungle 
 between his advance and Spottsylvania Court-house. 
 It would have been in accordance with " noble moder- 
 ation " for Lee to have permitted him to do it ; but I 
 have never found the rebels practising this policy 
 (though preaching it earnestly to Grant), or sacrificing 
 any manifest advantage of warfare, for the purpose of 
 establishing a claim upon our favorable consideration. 
 From the position occupied by our army, there were 
 two roads practicable for its advance, — the Orange 
 and Fredericksburg Plank-road, and the turnpike be- 
 tween the same points. They run nearly parallel at 
 the Wilderness, separated by a distance of two miles: 
 both are convenient routes for hurrj^ing up Hancock 
 in support, if an emergency demands it. With the in- 
 tention of flanking well to the right the intrencliments 
 of Mine Run, Warren and Sedgwick are ordered to 
 march by the Orange Plank-road to Parker's Tavern, 
 five miles from their camping ground ; Hancock is in- 
 structed to bend southward on his own left; while 
 Sheridan's cavalry are to scour the country, and feel 
 for the enemy in a south-westerly direction. 
 
 While Warren and Sedgwick are on their march, 
 Gen. Meade perceives two army corps of the enemy 
 advancing upon the turnpike. There is no time to 
 deliberate, no opportunity to decline an engagement. 
 Fiiidit or flee are the sole alternatives : the evasion of 
 battle is to recross the Rapidan. Warren is immedi- 
 ntely ordered to halt his column, and to concentrate 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 385 
 
 on the turnpike, and attack the enemy; Sedgwick 
 is directed to plunge into the woods, and, by such 
 cow-paths as he can find, form on Warren's right; 
 Hancock, who is at Todd's Tavern on his southward 
 march, is commanded to face to the westward, and 
 swing in on Warren's left ; Getty's division of Sedg- 
 wick's corps is sent to the intersection of the Brock 
 and Orange Plank-road, to hold that position at all 
 hazards until Hancock comes up. 
 
 At noon Warren is formed across the turnpike, with 
 Wadsworth's division as his left wing in air, awaiting 
 the support of Hancock ; Crawford's division is in the 
 centre; Griffin's division is the right wing, with its 
 right flank also exposed ; while Sedgwick is groping his 
 way by wood-hidden by-paths to support and pro- 
 long the line. The brunt of the first day's battle is 
 endured by Warren : his army corps advances against 
 Hill and Ewell, strongly posted upon a ridge with 
 dense undergrowth, which hides their front, and 
 screens sharpshooters upon the flanks of both. The 
 Fifth Corps, with two pieces of artillery upon the pike, 
 advanced in such order as was practicable in this jun- 
 de, and assailed the Confederates with as much hero- 
 ism as if their line was visible to the eye, and could 
 be reached by our fire. The fusillades wdiich broke 
 from the forest-covered hill, and from masked infan- 
 try upon both flanks, was dreadful to endure, Init was 
 received without breaking the combination, until a 
 point was attained at last where it was able to sweep 
 the ridge with its musketry, and deliver a fire which 
 forced back in confusion a brigade of Swell's corps, 
 
 23 
 
386 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 commcanded by Gen. Jones, who was slain in an impo- 
 tent attempt to rally his broken battalions. While 
 victoriously advancing, Griffin's uncovered right flank 
 was suddenly struck by a gallant charge of the enemy, 
 of such sheer impetus that it repelled him, with the 
 loss of his two pieces of ai tillery. Our left wing was 
 more staggered by the musketry from the hill than 
 our right, and was easily driven without fracturing 
 the hue of Hill. Wadsworth was flung back with 
 such violence that his junction with Crawford was 
 severed, and the enemy dashed into the fissure, cap- 
 turing prisoners from the flank which was unprotect- 
 ed. Getty, upon his arrival at the intersection of the 
 Brock with the Orange Plank-road, found our cavalry 
 in retreat before heavy columns of infantry. He im 
 mediately deployed into line, and, by repeated volley.s, 
 arrested the onslaught in this direction. When Han- 
 cock came up at two o'clock, he formed with Getty 
 upon the left of Wadsworth. At this precise period, 
 Hill was attempting to mass his troops to overwhelm 
 Wadsworth's disordered wing. Hancock met the 
 shock of Hill's impetuous attack, and was successfully 
 forcing him back to the ridge, which served as a nat- 
 ural embankment for the foe, when Mott's division of 
 the Second Corps gave way. In vainly attempting to 
 heal the chasm. Gen. Alexander Hays was instantly 
 slain. No better commentary upon the inextricable 
 entanglements of the country is needed than the fact 
 that Sedgwick, who is no laggard when his comrades 
 are beset, is struggling all day through the woods and 
 deceptive cart-roads to form a junction with Warren's 
 right. It was not until six o'clock that he brought 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 387 
 
 the gallant and determined Sixth into line.^ Thn^ 
 ended the first day in the Wilderness, with the per- 
 sistent endeavor of Lee to arrest our advance and 
 drive us beyond the Rapidan signally defeated : we, 
 upon the other hand, were foiled in our attempt to 
 dislodge him from the position which he had assumed 
 in the morning-. 
 
 It was something to escape defeat, when assailing 
 a wily and determined adversary in ambuscade, with 
 outlets and inlets unknown to us, but which for 
 months he had been skilfully contriving for our sur- 
 prise and destruction. If there is "refinement" in 
 such a. mode of warfare, commend me to " mere attri- 
 tion." It seems to me more in consonance with bar- 
 barian than civilized methods, and undeserving the 
 eulogy of Southern historians. Numbers were as fu- 
 tile as against Indians in an impenetrable forest : not 
 a thousand of the Confederate army were seen during 
 the day. Secure intrenchments against disasters 
 encouraged desperate risks ; while nothing more em- 
 boldened sudden springs than the possession of such 
 advantages for decoy, and the manifest bewilderment 
 of our troops, entangled in a maze, and delivered 
 blindfolded to the smiter. These odds combined 
 inspirited the rebels to deeds and pranks of daring 
 
 1 My guiding authority in tlie campaign of the Wilderness is a manuscript 
 copy of Gen. Meade's report, dated "^fleadquarters Army of the Potomac, Nov. 
 1, 18G4," addressed to Lieut. -Col. T. S. Bowers, assistant adjutant-general, 
 and covering the operations of that anri}'^ from the 4th of May to the 28th of 
 October. I shall aduiit uo movement of our army into this part of my narra- 
 tive which is not sanctioned bj' his report. In regard to the enemy's move- 
 ments, I shall collate all that we have of Lee's despatches, and also Pollard's 
 account of battles in the " Lost Cause," with the manuscript report of Meade, 
 and Grant's final comprehensive report. 
 
388 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GEANT. 
 
 such as may be presumed phantoms would exhibit in 
 a charge upon visible men, — such safe audacity as the 
 Lydian Gyges displayed when rendered invisible by 
 his magical ring. 
 
 While such environments animated with super- 
 natural courage the assailed, no language can exagge- 
 rate the appalling terrors of such encounters to the 
 assailant. It was not a battle against palpable lines, 
 and columns which could be measured and weighed 
 by the eye, but against unseen lairs crowded with 
 real and chimerical peril, against spectres screened 
 from observation until their presence is declared by 
 overwhelming volleys in the bosoms of our groping 
 columns. It is a fight of the sightless against the 
 seeintr, — of an Oriental kino; anfainst ";ame inveiirled 
 into a battue pre-arranged for its slaughter, where the 
 escape of one victim is a humiliation to the hunter. 
 If there is any expedient by which such a monstrous 
 hedge can be purged of impalpable foes but by the 
 abrasion of man against man, I wish self-sufiicient 
 critics would condescend to disclose it. 
 
 It was developed on the second day ^ of the battle, 
 that, in addition to the controlling advantages I have 
 enumerated, the possession of interior lines rendered 
 the forces of the enemy suprisingly mobile, so that 
 Lee could mass upon his right, centre, and left with 
 magical celerity. The high qualities which distin- 
 guished him, and the impetuosity and daring of his 
 cohorts, were never more signally displayed than 
 upon this memorable occasion. It was met by a 
 tenacity of temper in Grant, and a pluck in his 
 
 1 Friday, May 6, 1864. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 389 
 
 troops, equally marvellous. The enemy held the 
 position of yesterday upon the ridge, screened from 
 our eyes, and moving and massing his columns in 
 concealment. Hill Vv^as upon his right; Longstreet, 
 who arrived early in the forenoon, was in his centre ; 
 and Ewell upon his left. 
 
 The Ninth Corps of our army, by a march of 
 unexampled rapidity, had reached the field ; and we 
 confronted the enemy, with Sedgwick on our right, 
 Warren, Burnside, Hancock, on the left. From dawn 
 until dark, it was upon Lee's part a succession of 
 furious and impassioned leaps, — first upon Sedgwick, 
 then upon Hancock, next upon Burnside, and finally 
 upon Sedgwick. Upon Grant's part, it was inflexible 
 resistance, and counter-charges by Hancock and 
 Burnside of most determined spirit and audacity. 
 Hancock hurled Hill from his position, carried the 
 whole Confederate front, and drove for a mile its bro- 
 ken columns, only to be tossed back by the combined 
 corps of Hill and Longstreet. While struggling at 
 this crisis to redeem the day from disaster, replenish- 
 ing with his own dauntless heroism his wavering 
 division, and in the thickest of the fire animating his 
 shrinking soldieiy, Wadsworth surrendered to an 
 imperilled country a noble life, and inscribed upon 
 her martyr-roll a spotless name. For one wild mo- 
 ment or two, it seemed as if the field was lost. 
 Burnside was hurried to the support of Hancock; 
 but the irresistible mass of Hill and Longstreet swept 
 Stevenson's brigade from Burnside's line, and through 
 the gap the exultant rebels dashed with a frenzy 
 which threatened universal discomfiture. But, fortu- 
 
890 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 nately, Hancock had rallied his brigade, and in his 
 turn struck the rebel columns upon their exposed flank, 
 and again precipitated them upon their forest fastness. 
 Longstreet "was rallying some select brigades for 
 a second assault. "As he galloped forward, Gen. 
 Jenkins spurred to his side to grasp his hand, with 
 the pleasure of an old friend ; for Longstreet had 
 but newly arrived from several months' campaign 
 in Eastern Tennessee. But hardly had the mutual 
 congratulations passed each other's lips, wdien a 
 deadly volley from Mahone's brigade, concealed in 
 bushes along the road, mistaking Longstreet, Jen- 
 kins, and the rest for a party of the flying foe, 
 was poured into them at short range. Jenkins fell 
 instantly from his horse a lifeless corpse, while Long- 
 street received a ball that entered his throat, and 
 passed out through his right shoulder. Bleeding 
 profusely, he was helped from his horse, so prostrated 
 that fears were entertained for his immediate death. 
 Placed on a litter, the wounded general was removed 
 from the field ; but, feeble though he was from the 
 loss of blood, he did not fail to lift his hat from time 
 to time as he passed down the column, in acknowl- 
 edgment of its cheers of applause and sympathy." ^ 
 The confusion caused in the ranks of the foe by this 
 disaster was seized by Burnside to charge their line 
 with such determined and successful gallantry that 
 Gen. Lee was obliged to place himself at the head of 
 a Texan brigade to repel the assault, and was only 
 prevented from doing it by the positive remon- 
 strance of the rank and file. In Sedgwick's front 
 
 1 Pollard's Lost Cause, p. 515. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 391 
 
 the battle had surged and resurged. Ewcll had 
 defeated every attempt to roll up his division, and 
 Sedgwick had defied every effort to break his line. 
 Darkness had descended upon the scene before Lee 
 expended his expiring strength by darting at vari- 
 ous points of our front, to mask Gordon's final charge 
 upon Sedgwick. Leaping unexpectedly from the 
 woods, the rebel general separated Truman Sey- 
 mour's brigade from our extreme right, and hurried 
 it into captivity, without tearing Sedgwick from his 
 rooted hold upon the earth. Night fell upon this 
 disputed field with the positions of the morning 
 unchanged. Each party could say at the close of the 
 day, " We have successfully repulsed every charge of 
 the enemy." The carnage was terrible upon both 
 sides ; but the sacrifice of blood determined one 
 important question of the conflict. Who can pound 
 the longest ? was settled upon this sanguinary day. 
 It was proved that superiority of numbers was more 
 enduring than superiority of position. The losses of 
 Lee prevented him from prolonging the contest in 
 the field, while Grant was able to endure his casu- 
 alties without relinquishing the struggle. Never in 
 the history of wars did contending causes rest more 
 decidedly upon the predominating characteristics of 
 the generals-in-chief A dexterity in handling troops 
 inferior to Lee's could not have redeemed his army 
 from irretrievable disaster; persistency less than 
 Grant's would have abandoned the Wilderness in 
 despair. It was our good fortune that the personal 
 endowments of our chief were best adapted to the 
 crisis ; for, while no skill in manoeuvring could have 
 
392 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 essentially varied the result, any vacillation of pur- 
 pose would have been the surrender of the cam- 
 paign. When genius was powerless for success, 
 defeat was arrested by will. Nor were the distin- 
 guishing merits of the two armies less conspicuously 
 exhibited. None but Northern soldiers could have 
 withstood those impetuous leaps of the fiery South- 
 rons from those terror-inspiring jungles j while North- 
 ern resolution, in a juncture so momentous, could 
 only have been resisted by the delirium of Southern 
 fury. Early the next morning/ the irrepressible 
 determination of Grant directed the renewal of the 
 desperate conflict. Hancock was immediately or- 
 dered to attack by the Orange Plank-road ; but he 
 found nothing but pickets on the battle-field of yes- 
 terday, and skirmishers only on the hotly-contested 
 ridge. Lee had retired to the intrenchments from 
 which he had emerged to assail Grant's advance, 
 when he first developed his operations in the Wil- 
 derness. "From this it was evident to my mind," 
 says Grant, " that the two days' fighting had satisfied 
 him of his inability further to maintain the contest 
 in the open field, notwithstanding his advantage of 
 position ; and that he would wait an attack behind 
 his works. I therefore determined to push on, and 
 put my whole force between him and Richmond ; 
 and orders were at once issued for a movement by 
 his right flank." The march was commenced at 
 night,^ but the necessity of moving our immense 
 train by daylight disclosed Grant's purpose to the 
 enemy. Pushing forward on two parallel roads, the 
 
 ' Saturday, May 7, 1864. 2 Saturday, May 7. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 393 
 
 two armies commenced a race towards Spottsylvania 
 Court-house ; but familiarity with the country, and 
 the command of the nearest paths, gave Lee the ad- 
 vantage in the struggle. Early in the morning/ 
 Warren, who was in advance, found Longstreet's 
 corps posted on the Brock Road, near its intersec- 
 tion with the Po, prepared to dispute the passage of 
 the river. For the first time, artillery was used in 
 the Wilderness campaign, and the guns with which 
 the (meray scoured tl>e approaches to the banks were 
 answered by counterblasts from our field-batteries. 
 Wairen immediately attacks with Robinson's divis- 
 ion, and crowds the enemy back, and secures a 
 favorable position for the overtasked Fifth near the 
 Block House. Sedgwick and Hancock, as they come 
 up, engage in the fray. A brigade of the Second 
 Corps routs the enemy, who contest the crossing of 
 Corbin's Bridge. Wilson dashes into Spottsylvania 
 Court-house at the head of his squadrons ; but, as the 
 infantry is arrested in its course, he is obliged to sur- 
 render his barren conquest. It now, for the fu'st 
 time, becomes apparent that every river, bridge-heacl, 
 ridge, ravine, on the path to the rebel capital is block- 
 aded with continuous earth-works. The heart of the 
 most intrepid soldier sinks within him as he measures 
 such a length of way, beset with such frightful perils. 
 No voice at the tiuie proposed any better path : the 
 wisdom of sagacious critics was husbanded until the 
 irrevocable step was taken, and the same disloyal 
 tongues which were then praying for the defeat of 
 
 ^ Sunday, May 8. 
 
394 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 our army are now wailing over the dreadful sacrifices 
 of the journey. 
 
 On Monday/ Grant finds himself relieved from the 
 unbroken forest of the Wilderness, but in a rolling 
 country admirably adapted for defence, with groves, 
 j)atches of timber, canons affording admirable covers, 
 strong positions for determined foes, — one of those 
 reo;ions of the earth which a Leonidas defends aacainst 
 the world. He pan now estimate with more precision 
 than before the expenses of the march ; but his cour- 
 age, according to the testimony of his military family, 
 rises with every new impediment which discloi-res 
 itself Providence graciously gave us an inflexible 
 will for insuperable obstacles. Name a predecessor 
 in command who would not have recrossed the Rap- 
 idan five days ago. 
 
 Pursuit is renewed at dawn. Sedsrwick and Warren 
 are both directed to feel for the enemy, and develop 
 the position of Hill and Ewell, who are known to be 
 in our front. While Sedgwick, with his habitual care, 
 is aiding his artillerymen in establishing a battery, 
 the gunners are annoyed by the whistling of sharp- 
 shooters' bullets from some trees in front. The old 
 soldier attempts to encourage his inexperienced com- 
 rades by assuring them that the marksmen are too 
 remote to inflict a wound ; but, as the soldiers continue 
 to dodge, he erects his own stalwart form in front of 
 the men, and, facing the woods where the sharp- 
 shooters are concealed, says, " Pshaw, boys ! they can't 
 hit 'an elephant at that distance." But he hardly 
 essays the hazardous experiment before a Minie ball 
 
 1 May 9. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL AVAK ? 395 
 
 strikes him in the face. A wreath of foam encircles 
 his lips, followed by a smile over his placid features. 
 He clasps his arms over his breast, as he falls into 
 the arms of his aide ; and it was hardly known when 
 he ceased to breathe. The army coidd lose no nobler 
 soldier : a gratefid beneficiary of the nation, reared 
 at its military school, he repaid his education by the 
 service, and finally by the sacrifice, of his life. He was 
 a jyreux chevalier of the olden time, brave as a Cid, 
 gentle and loving as a woman ; in battle, more than 
 indifferent, " for he was insensible," to danger, " daring 
 to lead where any dared to follow ; " in peace, the joy 
 and solace of brothers and sisters, nephews and 
 nieces, who fairly rioted in the affection and cheer- 
 fulness of their unmarried relative. He knew nought 
 in war but a soldier's duty. To his comrades in com- 
 mand he was the soul of honor, to the rank and file 
 the most faithful and devoted of leaders : you could 
 always find his plume in the fore-front of battle. 
 Victory perched where his banners waved. In the 
 corps which he led with so much glory, in the Army 
 of the Potomac, of which he was one of the oldest 
 officers, he had made only friends ; and he w^as fol- 
 lowed to the grave by the tears of the soldiers, the 
 lamentation of his colleagues, the sorrow of a nation.^ 
 
 ' John Sedgwick was born in Cornwall, Litchfield County, Conn., in 1817. 
 He entered the Military Academy at West Point in 1833, and graduated in 
 1837. He was a practical, as distinguished from a theoretical, soldier. During 
 the Mexican War, he participated in the action at Contreras, which routed 
 Valencia in his fortified camp, and on the same day at Churubusco. While 
 Grant was storming the tete de pont, Sedgwick was engaged in that determined 
 attack upon the right of the Convent of San Pablo. He stormed Chapultepec 
 with Quitman. In the war against the Rebellion, he first attracted the notice of 
 his countrymen in the Peninsular campaign, and was brevetted brigadier-general 
 
396 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 I shall not attempt to follow in detail the embroil- 
 ments of Tuesday and Wednesday.^ There is much in 
 them of exciting adventure, but these pages are al- 
 ready overburdened with similar incidents. I find, as 
 I proceed, that T must select for full description those 
 battles only which illustrate some new trait in Grant's 
 character, or point some moral of his life. The 
 operations on these days ^ were an uninterrupted 
 
 in the regular army for gallantry at Fair Oaks, where he is reputed to have saved 
 the day. He led a division at the battle of Antietam, remaining on the field 
 until disabled by two wounds. On liis recovery, he was appointed major- 
 general of volunteers. At Chanccllorsville, his part of the programme was 
 nobly performed. He captured Fredericksburg, but was compelled to withdraw 
 on account of the disaster of Hooker. After a march of twenty-three miles, 
 ho arrived at Gettysburg in time to participate in the victory. The command 
 of the Army of the Potomac, before and after Chancellorsville, was twice 
 offered him, but twice refused. 
 
 1 May 10 and 11. 
 
 2 Monday, May 9. — On the 9th of May, the Fifth and Sixth Corps continued 
 pressing the enemy, developing his position, and seeking points to assault. 
 During these operations the distinguished and beloved Major-Gen. Sedgwick, 
 commanding the Sixth Corps, fell, and Brig.-Gen. Morris, of the same corps, 
 was wounded. Early in the day two divisions of the Ninth Corps had been moved 
 to the Fredericksburg Eoad, and, finding the enemy on it, had driven him 
 handsomely across the Ny, losing, on the 10th, the distinguished Brig.-Gen. 
 Stevenson. In the evening the Second Corps moved up from Todd's Tavern, 
 taking position on the right of the Fifth Corps, and sending Mott's division to 
 the left of the Sixth Corps. 
 
 On this day, the 9th of May, Sheridan, with the cavalry corps, moved 
 southerly, with orders to engage the enemy's cavalry, and, after cutting the Fred- 
 ericksburg and Central Railroads, to threaten Richmond, and eventually com- 
 municate with, and draw supplies from, the forces on the James River. 
 
 On May 10th, the enemy was pressed along his whole front. Eai-ly in the 
 morning Gibbon's and Barton's divisions. Second Corps, were crossed over the 
 Ny, with a view of turning the enemy's left flank. He was found, however, so 
 strongly posted and guarded by the Ny, that these divisions were withdrawn. 
 Barlow, being in rear, was vigorously attaclied by Heth's division, whom he 
 handsomely repulsed, but, in retiring, was compelled to abandon a piece of artil- 
 lery that became jammed in some trees in a narrow road. On the withdrawal of 
 Gibbon, he, together with Birney, in conjunction with the Fifth Corps, assaulted 
 ansuccessfully the enemy's line. During this operation Brig.-Gen. Rice, of 
 
WHAT DID HE DO .IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 897 
 
 succession of brave and vigorous assaults upon the 
 fortified lines of Lee, triumphant in some particu- 
 lar instances, but indecisive in their general result. 
 Col. Upton, with defiant audacity, leads a column 
 with arms-a-port over a loopholcd breastwork, and 
 grabs nine hundred and fifty men with twelve guns, 
 of the same division which stampeded Seymour one 
 Friday evening. It was two days of assault and 
 counter-assault, — battles, in fact, larger than Sara- 
 toga or Yorktown, followed by a grand contest of the 
 embattled hosts on Wednesday afternoon, sublime 
 in magnitude and grandeur. I find nothing in this 
 general engagement which illustrates any trait of 
 Grant's character but his persistency and determina- 
 tion ; and, if that is not already established, no cumu- 
 lative proof can fortify the claim. Nor can I disguise 
 the fact, that, like the rest of the Wilderness cam- 
 paign, it was a saturnalia where slaughter and death 
 rioted in the blood of the brave, where hosts of noble 
 patriots surpassed even Roman fortitude in squander- 
 ing life for the sovereignty of the nation. The names 
 of Jxice and Stevenson follow Hays, Wadsworth, 
 Sedgwick, on the scroll of honor ; while thousands and 
 thousands of unchronicled braves embraced the grim 
 destroyer with heroism even more exalted, because 
 their self-immolation secured no everlasting remem- 
 brance. No patriot can peruse these mortuary rec- 
 
 the Fifth Corps, ever distinguished for personal gallantry, fell, mortally wound- 
 ed. Later in the evening, Upton's brigade successfully carried the enemy's line 
 in his front, capturing guns and prisoners ; but, not being supported by Mottoii 
 his left, Upton was compelled to retire after dark, abandoning the guns. IMott 
 succeeded in forming conjunction with the Ninth Corps, wlio had moved up to 
 his left from the Fredericksburg Road. — Meade's Manuscript Repent. 
 
398 LIFE OF GEXI^RAL GRANT. 
 
 orcls without anathemas deep and long at that arro- 
 gant oligarchy which embroiled contented millions 
 in civil war for the sole purpose of perpetuating its 
 tenure upon bodies and souls enslaved, — without 
 reconsecration of himself to the sacred cause of free 
 humanity, — without vowing in his heart of hearts, 
 that the blood lavished on Wilderness battle-fields 
 shall ripen into laws and institutions, which shall 
 guarantee to all children of a common Father all the 
 essential equalities which were their birthright. Glo- 
 rious martyrs ! Touch our hearts with a spark from 
 that flame which burned in your own ! inspire us with 
 your unfaltering devotion to freedom ! teach us nobly 
 to suffer, bravely to die ! ^ 
 
 Grant was pursuing a march to Richmond by a 
 series of flanking movements, for the purpose, if 
 possible, of avoiding battle. I find no fault with his 
 skilful antagonist for attempting to foil this manoeu- 
 vre ; but to accuse Grant of courting bloodshed comes 
 with bad grace from the admirers of Lee, who con- 
 stantly threw himself before the Federal general, 
 presenting to him the alternatives to move on his 
 works, or abandon the campaign. The true cause of 
 
 1 Our losses from May 5 to May 12 were 269 officers, 3,019 enlisted vzen, 
 killed ; 1,017 officers, 18,261 enlisted men, wounded; 177 officers, 6,667 enlisted 
 men, missing. During the same period we captured 7,075 of the enemy. I 
 have found no reliable estimate of the enemy's killed and wounded during the 
 same period. The statement of our own killed and wounded I transcribe from 
 Gen. Meade's manuscript report. 
 
 I was in Washington when the wounded were sent in from the Wilderness 
 battle-fields included within this period ; and the number of slightly wounded 
 men seen in the cars, in the streets, and about the Capitol, attracted univers.al 
 notice. Bush-fighting and the Indian modes of warfare were the reasons of the 
 disproportionate amount of "slightly wounded." 
 
TVHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 399 
 
 their grievance is, that Grant seized the bolder horn 
 of the dilemma, and exposed the lives of his soldiers 
 in the same manner as Lee had lavished the lives of 
 his, to establish his reputation as an invincible chief- 
 tain, and withstand for three years the Army of the 
 Potomac. I am not surprised that Confederate critics 
 lire nettled when they find that there is now a com- 
 mander of this army who is the match of their own 
 pagod in running risks for victory. I answer their de- 
 nunciation of Grant in this respect by saying that he 
 was no more prodigal of life than Lee ; and, although 
 this is a mere tu quoque response, it is all which the 
 imputation from such a source deserves. If the earth 
 works could have been carried without the loss of a 
 man. Grant would have gladly adopted the expedi- 
 ent ; if the Army of Virginia would have laid down 
 tlieir arms and submitted to the laws, he would have 
 joyfully accepted the surrender: but he was no 
 quailing temporizer, willing that treason should le- 
 main triumphant. If it was to be subdued by blood, 
 he was ready, though reluctant, to expend the pre- 
 cise amount of that priceless material which was 
 needed to reduce the martial strength and arrogant 
 temper of armed resistance into subjection to the 
 authority of the national government. 
 
 Lee still persists in refusing to be flanked, still 
 throws intrenchments in front of every flanking 
 movement, still compels Grant to assail him or re- 
 treat. Here he remains in spite of the blood of 
 Tuesday. " On Wednesday," ^ says Gen. Meade, " find- 
 ing the enemy's left so well guarded, arrangements 
 
 1 May 11. 
 
400 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 were made to attack his centre at a salient point." 
 Hancock moves that night in front of the position 
 to be assailed. Wright, now in command of the 
 Sixth Corps, Warren, Burnside, are all directed to 
 co-operate in the important movement. Between 
 Hancock and the threatened ang-le is an intervenino" 
 space of twelve hundred yards, rugged, broken, em- 
 barrassed with forests and underbrush. The mornino- 
 is lowering and rainy ; and the fog drops in thick vol- 
 umes amono^ the trees, clothed with the first folia^'O 
 of spring. It is now silent as the grave : the first feath- 
 ered warbler has not yet opened his innocent throat. 
 The devoted band of Hancock stands in two lines, 
 awaiting the signal. The divisions of Barlow and 
 Birney constitute the first ; the second is composed of 
 Gibbon und Mott. There they stand, with lips com- 
 pressed, restless eyes straining in vain to penetrate the 
 dense obscurity before them, muscles all strained, 
 nerves all girded up, and in their hearts those unutter- 
 able emotions which throng it in the presence of immi- 
 nent danger. The signal is given ; the noiseless lines, 
 with poised bayonets, cleave the encumbered interval ; 
 you can hear the cheers as the exultant soldiers beat 
 ag-ainst the salient, and finally surge over it upon the 
 siu^prised defenders. Edward Johnson is captured 
 with most of his division, as well as Stuart with two 
 brigades. Stuart and Hancock had been comrades 
 in the Federal army ; and the latter was moved by 
 a generous impulse to recognize his captive, and 
 extend to him a hand, cordially saying, " How are 
 you, Stuart?" The prisoner replied with great state- 
 liness, " I am Gen. Stuart, of the Confederate army, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL AVAR ? 401 
 
 and under the circumstances decline to take your 
 hand." — "And under other circumstances, general, 
 was the other's becoming response, " I should have 
 declined to offer it." ^ The rebel intrcnchments 
 spring to battle, and Hancock has but little time for 
 compliments. He would have perceived, if the dark- 
 ness would have permitted, that he had severed the 
 rebel centre, and nearly beaten up the quarters of 
 Gen. Lee. Hancock forthwith re-formed his division, 
 and advanced vigorously upon the enemy's second 
 line, when he is met by massed columns gathered in 
 from every side for a terrific struggle; for success 
 in his new adventure would have been the exter- 
 mination of the Army of Virginia. The ironsided 
 veterans of a hundred fio;hts struQ-orle with des- 
 peration, not only for thei;.' waning renown, but for 
 life and safety. AVarren advances to the support, 
 but Hancock is hurled • back into the captured 
 work. Wright and Burnside, inspired by Hancock's 
 example, vehemently contend to convert the advan- 
 tage into a crowning victory. The commingled roar 
 of cannonade and musketry reminds old soldiers of 
 Gettysburg, when the reserved artillery of Meade 
 and the whole rebel park join . their thunder. 
 Plancock turns the captured cannon on the rear- 
 ward lines, and for a season breaks and scatters them. 
 Lee calls in all his outposts: from woods, ravines, 
 swamps, his sturdy followers collect to redeem the 
 fortunes of the day. Five separate and determined 
 assaults, during this bloodiest of Thursdays, Lee made 
 to recover the captured salient; for five times his 
 
 i Greeley's American Conflict, vol. ii. p. 572. 
 
402 LIFE OF GEXEXAL GEANT 
 
 bleeding columns are hurled from its face, shockingly 
 torn and mangled. Bayonets are frequently inter- 
 locked : at periods the fight is hand to hand. Rival 
 colors are divided but by yards upon opposite sides 
 of the breastwork : men fight with their claws, like 
 ferocious tigers. Golgotha, Aceldama, are no names 
 to express the gory and mutilated victims which 
 upon this day alone Lee offered up to glory and re- 
 nown ; for it afterwards appeared that Hancock's hard- 
 won prize was in no way essential to the security of 
 the rebel lines. A spectator of this savage butchery 
 says, that " in the angle of death the dead and 
 wounded rebels lie literally in piles, — men in the 
 agonies of death groaning beneath the dead bodies 
 of their comrades. On an area of a few acres, in 
 the rear of their position, lie not less than a thou 
 sand rebel corpses ; many literally torn to shreds by 
 hundreds of balls, and several with bayonet thrusts 
 through and through their bodies, — pierced on the 
 very margin of the parapet which they were deter- 
 mined to retake, or perish in the attempt. The one 
 exclamation of every man who looks on the spectacle 
 is, ' God forbid that I should ever gaze upon such a 
 sight again ! '" ^ The humane Mr. Pollard, who is so 
 
 1 Mr. Swinton, who can hardly be suspected of disparaging Lee, in his work 
 of marked ability upon the " Army of the Potomac," says, " Of all the struggles 
 of the war, this was perhaps the fiercest and most deadly. Frequently, through- 
 out the conflict, so close was the contest that rival standards were planted on 
 opposite sides of the breastworks. The enemy's most savage sallies wero 
 directed to retake the famous salient, which was now become an angle of death, 
 and presented a spectacle ghastly and terrible. On the Confederate side of the 
 vrorks lay many corpses of those who had been bayoneted by Hancock's men 
 when they first leaped the intrenchsswrN. To these were constantly added 
 rhc bravest of those who, in the assaults to recapture the position, fell at the 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 403 
 
 grievously shocked at Grant's waste of life, and ig 
 constantly shedding crocodile tears over our wounded 
 soldiery, concedes that Lee's five charges were " of 
 sublime fury and terrible carnage ; " that " the dead 
 and wounded lay piled over each other, the latter 
 often underneath the former ; " and yet he has not a 
 word of rebuke to administer to the chivalrous pala- 
 din who was thus slaying hecatombs of his choicest 
 troops for a point of honor, while, in the next para- 
 graph, he berates Grant as the " Moloch of the 
 North." ^ 
 
 War is a mere accumulation of curses, and not the 
 least horrible is the one which constrains the most 
 humane leader to estimate the sacrifice of men he 
 must make by the frugality or waste, in this respect, 
 of his antagonist. And no one but an idiot can ex- 
 pect that a battle can be won or a campaign carried 
 against Robert E. Lee, without a liberality in some 
 degree commensurate with his own lavish expenditure 
 
 margin of the works, till the ground was literally covered with piles of dead, 
 and the woods in front of the salient were one hideous Golgotha." 
 
 He adds in a note, " I am aware that the language above used may resemble 
 exaggeration ; but I speak of that which I personally saw. In the vicious 
 phraseology commonly employed by those who undertake to describe military 
 operations, and especially by those who never witnessed a battle-field, ' piles 
 of dead ' figure much 'more frequently than they exist in reality. The phrase 
 is here no figure of speech, as can be attested by thousands who witnessed the 
 ghastly scene." (" Campaigns of tlie Army of the Potomac," p. 454.) The 
 same author asserts in another place, that " to be superior to your enemy at the 
 actual point of contact is a cardinal maxim of war." Lee signally neglected 
 this maxim in his attempt to retake the salient. 
 
 1 Our losses from May 12 to May 21 were 144 officers, 2,032 enlisted men, 
 killed ; 259 officers, 7,697 enlisted men, wounded ; 31 officers, 248 enlisted 
 men, missing. A large proportion of the wounded were but sl'ghtly wounded 
 they went home on furlough, and afterwards returned to their respective regi 
 ments. 
 
404 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 of the lives of his own soldiers. Unless a general 
 delivers himself bound into his hands, he must repel 
 his violence with violence as great, and the loss must 
 depend upon the length and desperation of his attack. 
 It would be wiser for the historian of "The Lost 
 Cause " either to suppress entirely his reproaches, or 
 distribute them with some slight pretence to impar- 
 tiality : it would be wisest of all for him to reserve 
 his censure until the day when preference is given to 
 those modes of warfare which please your enemy, 
 or when battles are fought with squirt-guns. The 
 slaughter of our troops, which he professes to lament, 
 lies at the door of those who rebelled against the 
 Government, and not at his who was compelled to 
 fight for its suppression according to the methods 
 which his adversary rendered imperative. It is mere 
 talk for children, to claim that this can be done with- 
 out a multitude of killed and wounded. No man 
 knows better than the critic, that " noble moderation" 
 never would have conquered the Rebellion ; and the 
 reason why he stands aghast at Grant's "' attrition " is, 
 because his warflire was as implacable and thorough- 
 going as that which the rebel chieftains initiated. 
 Lee prolonged the contest till midnight, but failed to 
 tear Hancock's hard-won- prize from his grasp. No 
 better proof that Lee was merely fighting for reputa- 
 tion, and that his lines were completely secure with- 
 out the reconquest of the salient, is needed than 
 Grant's forced admission that Hancock's " advantage 
 was not decisive ; " and Meade's no less reluctant con- 
 cession that " the enemy, failing to recover his lost 
 ground, retired into an inner and shorter line," where 
 his position remained as invulnerable as ever. 
 
VVIiAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL. WAR ? 405 
 
 I caimot dwell upon the marvellous adventures of 
 both armies between the 12th and 20th of May. I 
 cannot pause to describe how our new base of sup- 
 plies is established at Acquia Creek ; how Gen. Sheri- 
 dan with his cavalry squadron sweeps with the dev- 
 astation of a cyclone up to the very gates of Rich- 
 mond ; how Gen. Robert 0. Tyler, with his veteran 
 artillerists acting as infantry, tears our baggage-trains 
 from the famished hordes of Ewell ; how the colored 
 division of Ferrero add insult to ignominy by chas- 
 tising the hungry rebel leader on his flight ; how 
 skirmishing follows the hours, and the crack of rifles 
 tells the minutes. I cannot enumerate the success- 
 ful assaults, checks, sharp repulses, brilliant affairs, on 
 the Fredericksburg Road, the Ny, at Bowhng Green, 
 at Milford Bridge, which fairly consecrate as holy acres 
 the river-banks, highways, forests, everglades, through- 
 out the broad expanse of Spottsylvania and Caroline. 
 Neither can I dwell upon the skill with which Giant 
 planned that perilous flanking movement to the North 
 Anna ; nor upon the ability and careful husbandry of 
 troops with which Meade executed it : how it was more 
 of a race than a strategical competition ; how at the 
 outset the enemy struck an impotent blow at "Wright 
 as rear-guard ; how Lee hugged the highlands, meas- 
 m'iug our progress with an evil eye, prepared to leap 
 on the flanks of columns on the march ; how he 
 selected direct roads ; how Grant is obliged to deflect 
 far to the eastward by inferior and meandering 
 pathways. 
 
 Ravage and desolation had as yet spared the 
 delightful vales of the Old Dominion, through which 
 
406 LIFE OF GENEEiUi GRANT. 
 
 the two armies are now advancing. The beneficent 
 ministrations of Nature to Man are imsuspencled : 
 the dew, the gentle shower, the genial rays, unbind 
 the glebe ; delicate spires of wheat pierce the yield- 
 ing mould ; the clover blooms as for happy harvest- 
 homes j while over the upland and on the slope the 
 golden leaves of the corn begin to rustle in the 
 breeze, that Industry may again drive the wagon, 
 and Plenty shout again with the reapers, as if pillage 
 was unknown, and the curse on Cain revoked. The 
 diversified landscape still smiles in the sunshine, 
 still lowers beneath the passing cloud ; the birds war- 
 ble joyously in the grove ; the cicadae chirp, as usual, 
 their fated monotone ; the streams gurgle in the 
 path ; the bruised flower lifts its gentle head under 
 the hoofs of War to dispense its balmiest fragrance 
 in the air, which fierce and implacable legions are 
 breathing only for mutual havoc and slaughter. 
 The blue smoke of homesteads curls up at morn and 
 at eventide; the wondrous eyes of innocent child- 
 hood peer with unnatural awe upon the marshalled 
 hosts ; mothers hide the curly heads of babes in pal- 
 pitating bosoms; unterrified watch-dogs start up 
 rampant, and bark to arrest the mighty inroad ; the 
 fowls run fluttering as if eagles were hovering 
 over them ; swine leap from the mire, and rush for 
 their styes with sonorous grunts of terror. Sabbath 
 days drop from heaven on this crime-stained earth, 
 but bring no serenity or repose to war-tossed armies. 
 Neither can I detail how Grant's army found the 
 enemy again intrenched on the North Anna, and 
 prepared to dispute the passage ; how Griffin withf 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN IHE CIVIL WAR ? 407 
 
 stood the jfiery assault of the massed foe, and, by the 
 skill of his dispositions and the steadiness of his 
 troops, rescued the Fifth Corps from disaster irre- 
 trievable ; how we established a secure position on 
 its southern shore ; how Grant paused, pondered, 
 and studied the invulnerable works of his foe ; how 
 he found that an enormous disparity of force and an 
 immense sacrifice of life were required to wrest them 
 from his grasp ; how, under the cover of an attack, 
 Grant adroitly recrossed the North Anna, crept 
 stealthily down its northern bank, and gave a wide 
 berth to Lee, that our extended columns on the 
 march might not be exposed to a disastrous onset ; 
 how Grant again wheeled to the southward, and, on 
 Friday the 27th of May, took possession of Hanover 
 Town, within sixteen miles of Richmond, and estab- 
 lished a secure base of supplies at the historic White 
 House, on the Pamunkey. 
 
 The battles of the Wilderness could not have been 
 evaded without the surrender of the campaign. The 
 battles of Spottsylvania were, perhaps, necessary 
 to damage the personnel and break the morale of 
 the haughty enemy, and to assert our equality with 
 him in aggressive determination. But, if thv^se con- 
 siderations were not controlling, I should have pre- 
 ferred that the flanking movements which, even 
 with a shifting base, Grant executed with such mas- 
 terly skill should have been attempted before, rather 
 than after, the direct issue was tried. The maxim, 
 " Never attack a position in front when you can 
 obtain it by turning it," ^ may be overruled by the 
 
 • Imputed to Turenne by Napoleon, but doubtless his own. 
 
408 LIFE OF GENEEAIi GEANT. 
 
 higher authority of Napoleon's example in the Rus- 
 sian campaign ; but it should also be borne in mind 
 that those operations were not specimens of his best 
 style, and that the judgment of the military world 
 sanctioned his precept with more emphasis than his 
 practice. 
 
 Flankim*: movements are sometimes attended with 
 greater risks than trial by battle. No more manifest 
 advantage is craved by a wily chief, famihar with a 
 country, than the opportunity 'of striking the exposed 
 flank of an enemy upon the march. The repetition 
 of such manoeuvres is always hazardous ; for it em- 
 boldens a defensive army to address its entire skill 
 and resources to the defeat of these tactics. It must 
 not be known that they are the sole resource of the 
 invader. Grant has shown a manifest incUnation to 
 shun an engagement on the North Anna,^ and to 
 avoid sacrificing his men, if any practical alternative 
 presents itself except the abandonment of the cam- 
 paign. The time has now arrived when the sterner 
 procedures of war are imperiously required : for a 
 flanking movement to the left will carry Grant away 
 from Richmond ; and the same movement to the 
 right y/ill take him over the James, without authority 
 from Washington. When he reaches the Pamunkey, 
 he finds that Lee's corresponding retrograde was by 
 a much shorter line than our detour. A reconnois- 
 sance upon the day after our arrival discloses the 
 enemy in another intrenched position, facing to the 
 north-eastward, covering both railroads and both 
 
 ^ Our losses from May 21 to 31, including the march from Spottsyh'ania, 
 and the battles at the North Anna, amounted in the aggregate to 1,607. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 409 
 
 turnpikes to Richmond, and rendering the crossing 
 of the Chickahominy, in order to interpose between 
 Lee and the Confederate capital, a critical move- 
 ment, which even Grant's temerity cannot essay in 
 the presence of such a foe. Richmond is now the 
 objective point which Grant must pursue, in connec- 
 tion with the destruction of Lee's army ; for Butler 
 has failed to capture the capital, and the discom- 
 fiture of Sigel in the valley of the Shenandoah en- 
 ables Breckenridge to re-enforce Lee. The objects 
 of the campaign, and the necessities of the case, im- 
 peratively demand a disregard of the enemy's mani- 
 fest advantage of position, and a re-appeal to radical 
 modes of warfare. 
 
 Sheridan is promptly directed to seize Cold Harbor, 
 which is the focus of three important roads conver- 
 ging towards Richmond. He had executed the order 
 as was his wont, and was holding the position, although 
 the nearness of the rebel lines pressed him sevv.n^ely, 
 and he had called for support, which meant some- 
 thing when it came from Sheridan ; and he had been 
 ordered to "hold his position at all hazards," which 
 meant something, also, when that order was issued to 
 him. Grani calls np Gen. William F. Smith from Ber- 
 muda Hundred, where his force is now merely super- 
 numerary, and determines to assail again the enemy's 
 fortified lines. Both Warren and Smith are sent to 
 the relief of Sheridan, and dispossess the enemy of his 
 exterior works. The Federal commanders close in 
 npon Cold Harbor with all their corps. With Smith's 
 (Eighteenth) for the centre, Warren (Fifth) draws in 
 upon Smith's right, and Burnside (Ninth) upon the 
 
410 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 right of Warren ; Wright (Fifth) swings in on Smith's 
 left, and Hancock (Second) upon the left of Wright. 
 Hancock, Warren, and Burnside fought their way to 
 these positions by a series of battles. 
 
 The brunt of Cold Harbor rested upon the Eigh- 
 teenth, Fifth, and Second Corps, converted into a 
 storming party upon the intrenched positions of the 
 enemy. Burnside during the action attacked the ene- 
 my's left, and would have damaged it if the engage- 
 ment had been prolonged. The object of the battle was 
 to open a path to Richmond, and its tactics were simple. 
 I presume that no general orders were given after the 
 corps were brought into line but, "Advance, and carry 
 the enemy's works." There were no features in it 
 which distinguish it from other terrible enterprises of 
 this description. Bravery which contemns death, and 
 mutilation more horrible than death, was required 
 and exhibited by the actors in this frightful immola- 
 tion upon the nation's altar. It was commenced at 
 four o'clock on the morning of June 3. The enemy's 
 works were behind a marshy front, drenched by a re- 
 cent thunder-storm. The morning was lowery, with 
 occasional showers. The battle lasted for half an hour ; 
 but in this fiu;ment of time were condensed the ordi- 
 nary horrors of decades, and more gory and ghastly 
 minutes Can scarcely be found in the records of war. 
 With dauntless audacity, the charging line advances; 
 and moral sublimity is personified in its defiant and 
 desperate precipitation on death and carnage. The 
 roar of the instruments of slaughter is scarcely heard 
 in the heart's convulsed throbbings for the actors. 
 The first of the doubled lines of Barlow's division of 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 411 
 
 the Second Corps sprang with such supernal might 
 upon the enemy's intrenchments, in a sunken roacl, 
 that they crushed the garrison by mere weight, and 
 captured three guns and hundreds of prisoners. The 
 second line of the same division, though charging 
 with unfaltering valor, were so surpassed in energy 
 by the first, that their support was unavailing until 
 Hill massed sufficiently to dislodge the victorious as- 
 sailants;^ but, with all his accumidated strength, he 
 succeeded only in hurling Barlow a few yards, where 
 he covered his front so speedily that he defied the 
 rebels to dislodge him. 
 
 Gibbon, who stormed upon the right of Barlow, was 
 constrained to flounder through the mire, but still 
 mounted the hostile works, and planted a flag upon 
 the death-swept parapets. Eight hundred of Gibbon's 
 men were thrown back but fifteen yards, where they 
 seized the protection of a mound, and, with a heroism 
 for which human annals must be sharply searched to 
 find a parallel, held it during the livelong day, re- 
 pelling frequently attacks from all the force which 
 Lee could hurl against them, slaughtering the most 
 reckless stormers he could rally from his army, until 
 the noble legion were finally relieved by a sap run 
 out from our most advanced trench to the Thermopy- 
 Ice which had withstood the entire rebel host. De- 
 vens's and Rickett's divisions of Wright's corps 
 found themselves confronted by a pine-grove, with 
 a ploughed field two thousand yards wide for an 
 
 1 1 confess my inability to see why the Federal commanders did not mass troops 
 to sustain Barlow, even at the sacrifice of an " assault along the whole line." 
 The expediency of these modes of attack, without having a sulBclent force to 
 'iverwhclm the enemy at the point assailed, may be reasonably questioned. 
 
412 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 approach, over which they charged in the fiice of a 
 feu denfer, carrying the rifle-pits, but without piercing 
 the enemy's intreuchments. Smith's storming party, 
 staggered at the outset, were ralhed by their inflexible 
 commander, and fought with stubbornness, but with 
 no decisive advantage. 
 
 We lost upon this day thousands of brave men, 
 but secured Cold Harbor, and maintained and 
 strengthened our position. Our heroic army, by 
 these desperate assaults, which cost us so much blood, 
 so thoroughly reformed Southern opinion of Northern 
 valor, that, after the crossing of the Rapidan, the 
 Army of Virginia never met the Army of the Potomac 
 in the open field. The arrogance of those legions 
 which had for three years domineered the Atlantic 
 basin was completely tamed by this campaign ; and, 
 if they still hugged the illusion of invincibility, they 
 contented themselves with asserting it behind breast- 
 works and fortifications. In moral stamina and in 
 the 2^^esiige of victory lies, after all, the strength and 
 prowess of armies ; and, when these are destroyed, 
 the mechanical organization may remain, but the 
 soul has fled. When the principal army of the 
 Confederacy was forced to decline any gantlet 
 tendered by the Army of the Potomac, the triumph 
 of the Union was a foregone conclusion. The re- 
 siduum of valor, which, ensconced in Petersburg and 
 Richmond, prolonged the contest for months, was in- 
 sufficient to vindicate the claims of the rival Govern- 
 ment to be a military power, or to assert its dominion 
 over a single State. I believe that Gen. Grant correctly 
 described the state of Lee's army after these battles 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAE. ? 413 
 
 when he said in his report, "During three long years, 
 the Armies of the Potomac and Northern Virginia 
 had been confronting each other. In that time they 
 had fought more desperate battles than it probably 
 ever before fell to the lot of two armies to fight, 
 without materially changing the vantage-ground of 
 either. The Southern press and people, with more 
 shrewdness than was displayed in the North, finding 
 that they had failed to capture Washington and 
 march on to New York, as th^y had boasted they would 
 do, assumed that they only defended their capititl 
 and Southern territory. Hence, Antietam, Gettys- 
 burg, and all the other battles that had been fought, 
 were by them, sot down as failures on our part, and 
 victories for them. Their army believed this. It 
 produced a morale which could only be overcome 
 by desperate and continuous hard fighting. The 
 battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, 
 and Cold Harbor, bloody and terrible as they were 
 on our side, were even more damaging to the enemy, 
 and so crippled him as to make him wary ever after of 
 taking the offensive." ^ Here is a palpable weakness 
 
 * Oar losses from June I to June 10 were 144 officers, 1,561 enlisted men, 
 killed ; 421 -officers, 8,621 enlisted men, wounded ; 51 officers, 2,325 enlisted 
 men, missing, 
 
 Mr. Swinton estimates the losses of the enemy up to the battle of Cold 
 Harbor at twenty thousand. As he has communicated freely with Confederate 
 officers, his estimate is entitled to great weight. Pollard asserts, that, at tho 
 commencement of the campaign, " Lee had but forty thousand muskets." If 
 the estimates of both of these high authorities on rebel matters are coiTect, Leo 
 had lost half of his available force. 
 
 Our losses in this campaign were unquestionably heavier than those of the 
 enemy, but bis losses greater in proportion to the number engaged : the heaviest 
 item in our list of casualties is the wounded. And any one who was at Wash- 
 ington at the time knows that the city was crowded with s//(//(?/y wounded men, 
 who afterwards retunied to the field. 
 
414 ■ L.IFE OP GENEEAL GEAXT. 
 
 compared with former strength ; here is the shrinking 
 defensive instead of the bold acjsi-ressive. Who cares 
 whether it resulted from decayed moral or physical 
 vigor? Discussions upon the morale of armies al- 
 ways run into metaphysical subtleties. The dispu- 
 tants cannot agree in their definition of the word, or 
 in the precise condition of things which it compre- 
 hends ; but we all know that it requires a higher 
 order of this quality to fight uncovered than behind 
 intrenchments. When, therefore, we find that an army, 
 which in previous years has faced every odds upon 
 every field, and roamed with claims to supremacy 
 from Munson's Hill to Carlisle, now declines an en 
 gagement except behind fortifications so impregnable 
 to assault, that Grant is assailed by military critics 
 for the attempt to carry them, we must conclude 
 that either its inorah is seriously impaired, or, what 
 is equally to the purpose, that its 'personnel is efiect- 
 ually debilitated. If Grant secured either of these 
 results, he achieved no contemptible triumph. The 
 stubborn fact to which he adverts is, in my judgment, 
 more conclusive upon the question of the condition 
 of Lee's army at this time than all fine-spun theories, 
 or all testimony, however emphatic, in favor of its 
 morale, which may be gathered from Confederate 
 officers ; for, while we could not reasonably expect 
 that they would admit a damaging statement, morale 
 is so uncertain in its meaninsj and so variable a 
 quality, that they would be justified in denying 
 the want of it on particular occasions, while the 
 {general tone of their troops might have been one 
 of demoralization. An army which is habitnally dis- 
 
"WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 415 
 
 pirited, discontented, and gloomy may rise to a high 
 degree of elation on the spur of temporary success, 
 and yet be in no condition for " deeds of bold em- 
 prise." That element of morale which consists in 
 confidence in a commander never was wanting in 
 the Army of Virginia ; but I think it must be admit- 
 ted that the elements of it which constitute con- 
 fidence in victory were manifestly deficient after the 
 battles. of the Wilderness. 
 
 The shock, which had either dispirited or enfeebled 
 the rebel army, now enabled Grant to adopt and 
 execute the audacious expedient of transferring his 
 vast army to the south side of the broad current 
 of the James, in the face of an adroit adversary. 
 Why the accomplished general of Virginia, with his 
 admitted ability, did not arrest the most perilous 
 adventure in which his foe could engage, and the 
 most damaging in its results to the existence of the 
 Confederate Government, is for those admirers to 
 explain who claim that the Army of Virginia was 
 not demoralized by the remorseless battles of the 
 Wilderness. It does not do, in this era of intelligent 
 criticism, to assert " that the south side of the river 
 was the precise place where he wanted Grant;" for 
 this answer is belied by the efforts he made to dis- 
 lodge him when the position was secured, disclaimed 
 by the approved principles of the science of which 
 Lee professed to be a master, condemned by the 
 calamitous results of the change of base to that 
 cause of which he was the foremost champion. It 
 does not do to say, that " Lee was deceived ; " for 
 this is to confess that a " military genius," witb the 
 
418 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 whole population acting as his spies, is outwitted 
 in strategy by a mere "hammerer," who "never 
 manoeuvres." Mr. Pollard says, " Lee did not attack 
 Grant on his movement to the James. He was 
 probably unable to do so." What ! unable to do 
 so with an army which, according to the testi- 
 mony of Confederate officers, was " never in better 
 spirits and condition than after the battle of Cold 
 Harbor." The apology " that he had Petersburg 
 and Richmond to protect, and a force to send to 
 Lynchburg," will not relieve L<50 from the imputa- 
 tion either of incapacity or feebleness ; for how could 
 the capital, as well as all its communications and 
 outposts, have been more effectually protected than by 
 hurling " invincible veterans " upon a " mob of Nortli- 
 ern banditti," marshalled by " Thor the Barbarian," 
 when crossing the devouring waters of the James 
 on pontoons two thousand feet long, and marching 
 with exposed flank to sever the most important 
 communications of the Army of Virginia, — to smite 
 the outposts which were the key to its capital. No 
 answer can be made which is not either an impeach- 
 ment of Lee's ability as a commander, or a confes- 
 sion of the weakness of his army. I claim that 
 Gen. Grant gave the true explanation when he said, 
 " After the battles of the Wilderness, it was evident 
 that the enemy deemed H of the first importance to 
 run no risks with the army he then had. He acted 
 purely on the defensive behind breastworks, or 
 feebly on the offensive immediately in front of them, 
 and where in case of repulse he could easily re- 
 tire behind them." 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 417 
 
 The movement across the James is certainly for- 
 tunate in one respect, — it is one out of the few of 
 Grant's manoauvres which commands the unanhnons 
 approbation of military experts. I find no author, 
 entitled to any consideration, who assails it. It is 
 the sole operation of the lieutenant-general, during 
 the entire campaign, which extorts commendation 
 from the writer to whom the officers of the Army 
 of the Potomac committed their data and material 
 for the compilation of its history. I therefore select 
 the only authority at my command which I could 
 consult for an adverse opinion ; because I believe, 
 that, with Grant's adversaries, the approval of Mr. 
 Svvinton ought to be conclusive upon the military 
 soundness of any measure of Grant's which he con- 
 sents to praise. " The determination of Gen. Grant 
 to transfer the army, by a flank march, to the south 
 side of the James River, involved considerations of 
 a wholly different order from those concerned in the 
 repeated turning movements which he had made to 
 dislodge Lee from the intrenched positions held by 
 him. These were simply manoeuvres of grand tactics, 
 delicate indeed in their nature, but they did not 
 carry the army away from its line of operations, nor 
 from the defensive line as regards Washington which 
 it all the time covered. The resolution to cross the 
 James necessitated the total abandonment of that 
 system of action which aimed, while operating against 
 the enemy offensively, to directly defend the national 
 capital. Moreover, the operation was in iteslf one of 
 great delicacy, — a change of base being pronounced 
 
 27 
 
418 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 by the foremost master of war ' the ablest manoeuvre 
 taught by military art.' ^ Gen. Grant manifested as 
 much moral firmness in adopting a line of action 
 which, adverse though it was to the wishes of his 
 Government, he felt to be prescribed by the highest 
 military considerations as he showed ability in execut- 
 ing this difficult operation. The measure itself was 
 not only entirely conformable to the true principles 
 of war, but its execution reflects high credit on the 
 commander, and merits the closest study." ^ 
 
 ' Napoleon : Memoirs; vol. iii. p. 203. 
 
 2 Gen. Grant, in his repjrt, assigns the reasons •which influenced him to make 
 the movements, in the language which follows : " From the proximity of the 
 enemy to his defences around Richmond, it was impossihle by any flank move- 
 ment to interpose between him and the city. I was still in a condition to 
 either move by his left flank and invest Pdchmond from the north side, or 
 continue my move by his right flank to the south side of the James. While the 
 former might have been better as a covering for Washington, yet a full survey 
 of all the ground satisfied me that it would be impracticable to hold a line 
 north and cast of Richmond that would protect the Fredericksburg Railroad, — 
 a long, vulnerable line, which would exhaust much of our strength to guard, 
 and that would have to be protected to supply the army, and would leave open 
 to the enemy all his lines of communication on the south side of the James. 
 My idea, from the start, had been to beat Lee's army north of Richmond, if 
 possible. Then, after destroying his lines of communication north of the 
 James Rivei-, to transfer the army to the south side and besiege Lee in Rich- 
 mond, or follow him south if he should retreat. After the battle of the 
 Wilderness, it was evident that the enemy deemed it of the first importance to 
 run no risks with the army he then had. He acted purely on the defensive 
 behind breastworks, or feebly on the offensive immediately in front of them, and 
 where, in case of repulse, he could easily retire behind them. Without a greater 
 sacrifice of life than I was willing to make, all could not be accomplished that I 
 had designed north of Richmond. I therefore determined to continue to hold 
 substantially the ground we then occupied, taking advantage of any favorable 
 ciiTumstances that might present themselves, until the cavalry could be sent to 
 Charlottesville and Gordonsville to effectually break up the railroad connection 
 between Richmond and the Shenandoah valley and Lynchburg, and, when the 
 cavalry got well off^, to move the army to the south side of the James River, by 
 the enemy's right flank, where I felt I could cut off" all his sources of supply 
 except by the canal." 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 419 
 
 I think, then, unless there is a flaw in my logic, I 
 may claim for Grant a degree of proficiency in the 
 highest department of his profession, which enables 
 him "to execute with ability," according to the admis- 
 sion of the most censorious of his critics, what has 
 been pronounced by the foremost master of war 
 " the ablest manoeuvre taught by military art." 
 
 The change of base was accomplished by station- 
 ing Warren upon the New-Market Road, to threaten 
 an entrance into Richmond a outrance, and sending 
 Wilson's squadron to drive the enemy's cavalry over 
 White-Oak Swamp. Under cover of Warren's dem- 
 onstration, the remaining corps of the army marched 
 to Charles City. The Second Corps commenced cross- 
 ing on the morning of the 14th, by ferry-boats, at Wil- 
 cox's Landing. During the same forenoon, Gen. 
 Weitzel, chief engineer of Virginia and North Caroli- 
 na, had prepared at Douthard's, a short distance below 
 Hancock's point of passage, the site and abutments 
 of a bridge. At five o'clock on the afternoon of 
 the loth. Gen. Benham undertook the remarkable 
 achievement in engineering, of laying a pontoon, over 
 two thousand feet in length, from Douthard's, on the 
 north, to Windmill Point, on the south bank of a river 
 navigable by the largest ships. The bridge rested on 
 boats anchored in thirteen fathoms of water, and was 
 completed by midnight of the same day. The Sixth 
 Ninth, and Fifth Corps commenced crossing at about 
 six o'clock in the morning of the IGth. For the 
 next forty hours, a continuous stream of artillery, 
 infantry, cavalry, wagons, and three thousand head 
 
420 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 of beef cattle, passed the pontoon, without accident 
 to man or beast/ 
 
 The 15th of June was a notable day in the cam- 
 paign. Upon the use which was made of a few hours 
 towards its close depended the question whether 
 Petersburg should fall by assault or siege. During 
 
 1 The following is Gen. Bcnham's account of this notable enterprise: 
 "On tlie 13th and 14th, in accordance with an order of Gen. Grant, I had 
 sent up the pontoon rafts from Fort Monroe, under the above-named volun- 
 teer troops, not feeling then at liberty, from the previous orders of Gen. Meade, 
 to leave my other property and troops to go up myself. But about eleven, a.m., 
 on the 15th, I received the order, and was under way in half an hour, arriving 
 at the position selected at about five, p.m. There I found Gen. Meade and Gen. 
 Weitzcl ; which latter had prepared the approaches and had the abutment com- 
 menced. I was at once directly charged with the laying of the bridge, by Gen. 
 Meade, with the regulars to assist the volunteers ; and he smiled, when I told 
 him, ' I shoidd not sleep till the bridge was laid.' 
 
 " I distributed my men at once, the regulars at the east end, the volunteers 
 at the west end, and a company of volunteers to prepare a part or raft by my 
 plan of simultaneous bays. 
 
 " At about half-past ten, p.m., I received a despatch from Gen. Meade asking 
 the progress of the bridge, to which I was able to reply at once, that the last 
 boat was in position, and the raft of three boats built, ready to close the gap 
 he had ordered left for the present ; and that it was ready for completion in fif- 
 teen minutes at any time he ordered. 
 
 " The gap was closed, but the bridge was not required or used till six, a.m., 
 the next morning ; when the regulars were relieved, and the bridge continued 
 under my care, with the volunteers, who carefully watched and repaired it 
 every hour, or oftener, for the seventy-five or eighty hours it was down. 
 
 "For the next forty hours after six, a.m., of the ICth, a continuous stream 
 of wagons passed over the bridge (from four thousand to six thousand w.jgons), 
 
 some said fifty miles of wagons, — and nearly all the artillery of this army, 
 
 and by far the larger portion of the infantry, and all its cavalry present, and 
 even to its head of three thousand or more of beef cattle (the most injuriou3 
 of all), without an accident to man or beast. My officers and men ft-ere 
 scarcelv allowed any sleep during this time, nor myself as much even as four 
 hours iu the eighty hours preceding the taking up of the bridge ; for it was 
 in anxiety, not to say trembling, that I saw the destinies of this whole army 
 of our country even committed to this single frail boat-bridge, with steamers 
 and other vessels drifting against it, and with much of its planking previously 
 worn almost entirely through by careless use upon the Eappahannock ; and I 
 dared not stop the living stream of men and matter to sheathe or protect it." 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 42i 
 
 this afternoon it was only defended by a feeble band 
 of disabled and superannnated soldiers, and it is ad- 
 mitted that a prompt and vigorous attack would 
 have delivered it into our hands/ Grant has been 
 censured for delinquency at this critical juncture. 
 His own history of this crisis is as follows : " After 
 the crossing had commenced, I proceeded by a 
 steamer to Bermuda Hundred to give the necessary 
 orders for the immediate capture of Petersburg. 
 The instructions to Gen. Butler were verbal, and 
 were for him to send Gen. Smith immediately, that 
 night, with all the troops he could give him without 
 sacrificing the position he then held. I told him 
 that I would return at once to the Army of the Po- 
 tomac, hasten its crossing, and throw it forward to 
 Petersburg by divisions as rapidly as it could be 
 done ; that we could re-enforce our armies more rap- 
 idly there than the enemy could bring troops against 
 us. Gen. Smith got off as directed, and confronted 
 the enemy's pickets near Petersburg before daylight 
 next morning, but, for some reason that I have never 
 been able to satisfactorily understand, did not get 
 ready to assault his main lines until near sundown. 
 Then, with a part of his command only, he made the 
 assault, and carried the lines north-east of Petersburg 
 , from the Appomattox Ptiver, for a distance of over 
 two and a half miles, capturing fifteen pieces of 
 artillery and three hundred prisoners. This was 
 about seven, p.m. Between the line thus captured and 
 
 1 Gen. Butler writes to Gen. Grant on June 13, two days before Smith's 
 attack on Petersburg, " Tliere were this morning but about two thousand men 
 in Petersburg, partly militia." 
 
422 LIFE OF GENEEAL GKANT. 
 
 Petersburg there were no other works, and there 
 was no evidence that the enemy had re-enforced 
 Petersburg with a single brigade from any source. 
 The night was clear, — the moon shining brightly, — 
 and favorable to further operations. Gen. Hancock, 
 with two divisions of the Second Corps, reached Gen. 
 Smith just after dark, and offered the service of these 
 troops as he (Smith) might wish, waiving rank to 
 the named commander, who, he naturally supposed, 
 knew best the position of affairs, and what to do 
 with the troops. But instead of taking these troops, 
 and pushing at once into Petersburg, he requested 
 Gen. Hancock to relieve a part of his line in the cap- 
 tured works, which was done before midnight." 
 
 In accordance with these instructions. Gen. Butler 
 put Smith in motion early in the morning of the 
 15th, with his own ten thousand, re-enforced by 
 Kautz's division of cavalry and Hinks's division of 
 colored troops.^ I am convinced, by an examination 
 of the authorities, that Smith's advance was not as 
 rapid as Gen. Grant asserts. He did not reach the 
 Petersburg pickets until between ten and eleven 
 o'clock in the morning, and all his troops were not 
 deployed in action before its fortifications until noon. 
 But this is the only assertion of Gen. Grant, in the 
 paragraph I have transcribed from his report, which 
 can be successfully impugned. It remains, therefore, 
 for Gen. Smith to account for the hours between 
 meridian and seven o'clock in the evening, and to 
 show, moreover, wdiy he suspended operations during 
 
 ^ Fifteen thousand in addition to the cavalry : probably eighteen thousand 
 a all. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 423 
 
 " the night, which was clear, — the moon shining 
 brightW, — and favorable to further operations," 
 when the key to Richmond depended on the 
 promptness of his movements. It is proffered in 
 palliation of the tardiness of his arrival, that he was 
 detained until nine o'clock by some riile-pits, de- 
 fended by infmtry and a light battery, which were 
 easily carried by the colored troops. When he 
 reached Petersburg he Avas delayed by various im- 
 pediments. He had been told that " cavalry could 
 ride over the works : " but they actually consisted of 
 "redans connected by rifle-pits ;" and, when the squad- 
 rons of Kautz attempted this feat of horsemanship, 
 they were arrested by an artillery fire. Gen. Smith 
 finds, moreover, that he is bafiled whenever he at- 
 tempts to place his field-batteries in position. " Wher- 
 ever I went on the line," he says in his report, " I 
 found a heavy cross-fire of artillery from the enemy. 
 The few artillery positions I could find, I tried to 
 get our guns to open from ; but they were all driven 
 in by the superior fire of artillery from the enemy's 
 earth-works."^ After a reconnoissance, he determined 
 that an assault by column would be attended by too 
 much risk, and therefore concluded to try a line of 
 skirmishers. He did not come to this conclusion 
 until five o'clock in the afternoon, when he was 
 prevented from commencing it promptly by another 
 untoward circumstance, which he thus describes in 
 his report : " The chief of artillery had, upon his own 
 responsibility, taken his guns to the rear, and un- 
 hitched the horses to water." ^ 
 
 ' Smith's report of operations before Petersburg. ^ Idem. 
 
424 LIFE OF GENEEAIi GRANT. 
 
 He assaulted at seven o'clock in the afternoon, aa 
 Mr. Swinton describes it, " with a cloud of tirailleurs 
 advanced from the division of Hinks on the left. 
 Brooks in the centre, and Martindale on the right 
 (the rest of whose command awaited in line of battle 
 to follow up any success), and under a sharp infantry 
 fire carried the line. Brooks captured the works on 
 the salient, with several hundred prisoners, and four 
 guns, which, double-shotted with canister, had been 
 kept in waiting for the expected column of assault. 
 Hinks on the left, and Martindale on the right, fol- 
 lowed up the success, the colored troops carrying four 
 of the redoubts with their artillery." ^ Thus a " cloud of 
 tirailleurs^' — which in the vernacular means a heavy 
 line of skirmishers, — without help from the " rest of 
 the command," standing in line of battle, captured the 
 works which the formidable division of Gen. Smith, 
 re-enforced by Kautz and Hinks, had confronted, not 
 since daylight, as Gen. Grant states, but since twelve 
 o'clock meridian. With this success Gen. Smith rest- 
 ed, for reasons which he gives in his report, in the 
 following language : "We had thus broken through the 
 strong line of rebel works ; but heavy darkness was 
 upon us, and I had heard some hours before that 
 Lee's army was rapidly crossing at Drury's Bluff. I 
 deemed it wiser to hold what we had than, by at- 
 tempting to reach the bridges, to lose what we had 
 gained, and have the troops meet with a disaster. I 
 knew, also, that some portions of the Army of the Po- 
 tomac were coming to aid us, and therefore the troops 
 were placed so as to occupy the commanding positions 
 
 1 Swinton's Army of the Potomac, pp. 502, 503. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAK ? 425 
 
 and wait for daylight." ^ I presume that Gen. Smith 
 uses the word " darkness," by metonymy, for that part 
 of the twentv-four hom^s between sunset and sunrise: 
 for, although Gen. Grant's statement has been criti- 
 cally searched for flaws, no one has yet presumed to 
 controvert his assertion, that " the night was clear, — 
 the moon shining brightly, — and favorable to fur- 
 ther operations." It appears now, that Beauregard 
 was so much distressed by the progress which had 
 been made towards the capture of these fortifications, 
 that he sent to Richmond in the evening for instruc- 
 tions upon the point, whether he should abandon 
 Peteisburg or Bermuda Hundred, affirming his ina- 
 bility to hold both.^ Mr. Swinton, who has canvassed 
 the evidence bearing upon this attack with great 
 acumen, and arrived at a conclusion adverse to the 
 one I have ventured to adopt, concedes, in a note 
 which he appends to his pages, that an officer of less 
 deliberate modes of procedure would have won this 
 valuable prize. ^ 
 
 1 Smith's report of operations before Petersburg. 
 
 2 Lieut.-Col. rietchcr's War in America. He aflSrms that he obidined 
 this information from Beauregard himself. 
 
 3 Gen. Smitii might possibly have assaulted several hours before he actually 
 did, had lie clioscn to take the risk of attacking witliout reconnoissance. It is 
 likely enough that Sheridan, had he been present instead of Smith, would have 
 done so. But this involves no foundation for a charge of dereliction of duty. It 
 is only a question of choice between two different methods of action, — the 
 method which, taking great risks, may either lose greatly or greatly gain, and 
 that which works by methodical procedure. (Swinton's Army of the Potomac, 
 p. 503.) JNIr. Greeley, who says of the general tenor of his own account of the 
 Wilderness campaign, in his book on the American Conflict, that "no one 
 will accuse him [Greeley] of partiality or special admiration for Gen. Grant," 
 yet, in the part of it devoted to this attack upon Petersburg, thus speaks of 
 Smith's failure to carry the fortifications on the afternoon of the 15th : "But 
 there, though moments were inestimable. Smith paused, not assaulting till 
 ncai sundown, when part of his force was sent forward, forming a very 
 
426 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 If Gen. Grant's efforts had ended here, he should be 
 acquitted of any negligence, in making every requi- 
 site preparation for the capture of Petersburg on 
 the 15th day of June, 1864. As soon as his army 
 had commenced crossing the James, he had hastened 
 to Bermuda Hundred by steamer ; he had sent four- 
 fold odds,^ commanded by one of his ablest generals, 
 against a garrison of old men and invalids, in works 
 so indefensible, by the force which held them, that 
 " two miles and a half of the line, with fifteen cannon," 
 yielded to a " cloud of tlraiUeurs." Such an impres- 
 sion had been made upon the fortifications by a mere 
 assault of skirmishers, that Beauregard was meditat- 
 ing the surrender of Petersburg. Now the fault, if 
 fault there be, must rest with the officer who resorted 
 to methodical modes of procedure, when a vigorous 
 coup de main would have finished the business ; who 
 took the responsibility of delaying till morning, when 
 time was priceless- procrastination fatal, and success 
 depended entirely upon promptitude. 
 
 But in addition to equipping Gen. Smith fully for 
 this task, that assurance might be doubl}^ sure, 
 orders were issued to Gen. Hancock, on the evening 
 
 strong skirmish-line, »nd cleared the enemy's rifle-trenches in their front, cap- 
 turing three hundred prisoners and sixteen guns, with a loss upon our part ot 
 about six hundred. And now, though the night was clear and the moon nearly- 
 full, Smith rested till morning, after the old but not good fashion of 1861-2." 
 (American Conflict, p. 585.) Lieut.-Col. Fletcher, of the Fusileer Guards, who 
 served with the Confederate army and has written a work upon the war, al- 
 though he intimates, that, from calculations based on distances, Hancock should 
 have reached Petersburg by noon, yet says, " Had Smith pressed forward vigor- 
 ously on the 15th, the effort was not beyond his strength." 
 
 ^ Gen. Butler writes to Gen. Grant on June 15, the day of the attack, 
 " Smith must have at least fifteen thousand men with him, besides cavalry and 
 four batteries of artillery. / cannot conceive of more force being needed." 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 427 
 
 of the 14thj to advance on the morning of the 15th, 
 and take position with his army corps before the 
 fortifications of Petersburg. Hancock was authorized 
 to wait for subsistence stores from Bermuda Hun- 
 dred ; but he marched " early in the morning," with- 
 out these supplies. While pushing forward in the 
 direction of Petersburg, he was met at five o'clock in 
 the afternoon of the 15tli, with orders from Gen. Grant 
 " to move with haste to the support of Gen. Smith." 
 Hancock forthwith hurried up Birney's division of 
 the Second Corps, which reported to Smith prior 
 to the attack I have already described, and took 
 position on the left of Gen. Hinks. Soon after the 
 attack, Gen. Hancock, with the rest of the corps, 
 arrived. He communicated with Gen. Smith. He 
 waived rank in deference to that general's knowledge 
 of the situation. He was merely requested to occupy 
 with the Second Army Corps that part of the works 
 captured from the enemy. Gen. Smith was therefore 
 furnished with Birney's division previous to the time 
 when he was himself ready to make the attack ; 
 which must certainly put to rest the claim, that he 
 had not troops enough to carry the defences against 
 its feeble garrison. Hancock's entire corps was also 
 at his disposal during a moon-lighted night, which 
 was " favorable for further operations." ^ 
 
 The next morning, for which Smith had taken the 
 responsibilities of waiting, found in the lines which 
 
 ' " During this day, the 14th June, the greater portion of the Second Corps 
 •was ferried across the river. In the evening, orders were sent to Major-Gen.^ 
 Hancock to move early the next morning, and to take position in front of 
 Petersburg. He was, hoAvever, authorized to delay until the receipt of subsistence 
 stores, which, in the absence of our supply-trains, were to be sent down from 
 
428 LirE OP GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 confronted him a force of veterans whose special 
 function was the defence of redans and rifle-pits, not 
 only against a " cloud of tirailleurs^' but massed army 
 corps and armies. The works, too, which were so 
 assailable the day before, Avere strengthened by the 
 best engineering skill, by garrisons and troops with- 
 drawn from Bermuda Hundred, and by Lee's army 
 as fast as it reached them from its recent intrench- 
 ments at Cold Harbor.^ 
 
 Bermuda Hundred. Major-Gen. Hancock moved witliout the supplies, his 
 leading division under Birncy reporting to Major-Gen. W. F. Smitli about an 
 hour before tliat officer's attack on the enemy ; and, by direction of Gen. Smith, 
 Birney took position on the left of Gen. Hinks. Soon after, or about dark, 
 Major-Gen. Hancock arrived with the rest of his corps, and, on communicating 
 •with Major-Gen. Smith, was by that officer requested to place his command in a 
 part of the works captured from the enemy." — Gen. Meade's MS. Report, 
 dated Nov. 1, 1864. 
 
 Gen. Hancock telegraphed to Gen. Butler on June 15 as follows: "My 
 leading division connected with Gen. Smith aboutjive o'clock, p.m. 
 
 1 It appears that Gen. Smith's force was regarded both by Gens. Grant and 
 Butler as sufficient to capture Petersburg. It is indisputable that Hancock was 
 pushed forward to Harrison's Creek, a point within a mile of Petersburg. 
 Much stress has been laid upon the fact, that the position to which Hancock 
 was directed was not clearly marked out, and was also wrongly named upon 
 the map ; but this is immaterial, because he lost no time upon the march in 
 searcli for it, and actually, according to his own telegram to Gen. Butler, 
 supported Smith with " his leading division at five o'clock, p.m.," two hours and 
 a half before Smith himself was readj"- to make the assault. Gen. Hancock, in 
 a letter dated, " Near Petersburg, Va., 26th of June, 1864," and addressed to 
 " Brig.-Gen. S. Williams, Assistant Adjutant-General Army of the Potomac," 
 asking for an investigation of newspaper statements which implicated the 
 army corps he commanded in the failure of Gen. Smith's attack, says, " I 
 claim that if Petersburg was garrisoned at that time only, as is now believed, 
 that it should have been captured by the Eighteenth Corps, which was directed to 
 assault the town, with, I believe, fifteen thousand men, and certainly with the 
 assistance of the two divisions of the Second Corps, which I offered to Gen. Smith 
 just after dark on the 15th, — these two divisions being then massed at Bryant's 
 house, on the left and rear of Gen. Hinks's division, about one mile from Gen. 
 Smith's front line." 
 
 It therefore becomes immaterial whether Hancock was delayed or not on 
 the morning of the 15th, in waiting for rations, as he actually arrived in season 
 to support the attack of Smith. 
 
 Upon this application, which Hancock made for a court of inquiry, Gen. 
 
WHAT DID nE DO IN THE CIVIL "WAK ? 429 
 
 I have never heard it denied that Grant was re- 
 quired, both by miUtary principles and by the remark- 
 able relations of this fortress, to test in the first 
 instance the resistance of the Petersburo; intrench- 
 ments by a general assault. The temper of the 
 nation certainly never would have brooked a siege, 
 until the impracticability of capturing a toicte ou- 
 trance a prize coveted beyond its deserts had been 
 abundantly demonstrated. Although in monarchical 
 governments it may be considered a proof of militar}'' 
 rigor, and of loyalty to the art of war, to contemn 
 popular sentiment in the conduct of a campaign, in 
 a republic, — and especially in the great Rebellion, 
 which was pre-eminently the people's war, — no 
 
 Meade indorsed as follows : " Had Major-Gen. Hancock and myself been 
 apprised in time of the contemplated movement against Petersburg, and the 
 necessity of his co-operation, I am of the opinion he could have been jti.shcd 
 much earlier to the scene of operations ; but as matters occurred, and with our 
 knowledge of them, I do not see how any censure can be attached \o (ien. 
 Hancock and his corps." 
 
 If Gen. Meade wishes to remain firm in the conviction, that " he was not 
 apprised in time" of the contemplated movement against Petersburg, il will 
 not do for him to compare his recollections upon this point with that of anoiher 
 officer equally well informed. It will also remain for him to explain for what 
 pui-pose lie ordered the Second Corps to Petersburg on the evening of the 14 th ; 
 ■why, on the morning of the 15th, he hurried it on without waiting for tlie 
 wagons to come up and issue rations ; why he finally directed the Second Corjis 
 to march forthwith to Petersburg without supplies from Bermuda Hundred. 
 But Gen. Meade's knowledge, or want of knowledge, of the intended attack does 
 not relieve Gen. Smith from the onus of the faihn-e ; inasmuch as Hancock's 
 leading division, after all, reported to Gen. Smith before Smith was himself 
 ready to make the assault. Of what consequence is it that Hancock "could 
 have been pushed much earlier," when " his leading division connected with 
 Smith at five o'clock, p.m.," on the afternoon of this notable 15th of June, 
 1864? If Gen. Meade's indorsement is to be construed as accusing Gen. 
 Grant of withholding from his coadjutor timely information of this important 
 movement, it is sufficient to say that it is traversed by the recollections of 
 parties who knew all the facts of the case, and by circumstantial evidence of a 
 conclusive character. 
 
430 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 general can afford to disregard entirely the sentiment 
 of the citizens. It was proved at a severe cost in 
 the attack of the 16th, 17th, and 18th of June, that 
 with Lee's veterans in the Petersburo: works, strength- 
 ened as they had been during the interval, they could 
 resist a combined movement by the Armies of the 
 Potomac and the James. Petersburg, which might 
 have been captured the day before by one of Sher- 
 idan's assaults, was now prepared to withstand a 
 siege. The beleaguerment was commenced which 
 finally decided the fate of the Confederacy. 
 
 More of eclat than of substantial triumph would 
 have been won by the capture, at this period, of this 
 important outwork of Riclnnond. Writers are mis- 
 taken when they assume that it would have anticipat- 
 ed by ten months the surrender of Lee, and have 
 terminated hostilities by the middle of June, instead 
 of the middle of the following April. The defeat of 
 our assault was not the most unfortunate incident 
 of the struggle. It induced the rebel leaders to select 
 lineK of operations for the definite determination of 
 the issue, which were most favorable to us. No field 
 could have been chosen which provided the North 
 with a more convenient base for supplies and re-en- 
 forcftments, and where its superior resources could 
 more effectually be brought to bear upon the waning 
 Kebellion. Fortune sometimes sees flirther than mor- 
 tals who accuse her of being blind. The siege, in- 
 stead of entailing, as has been asserted, probably 
 averted, an "Iliad of woes." If the Confederate 
 capital had proved untenable at this crisis by the 
 capture of this fortress on its flank, the Army of Vir- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL WAR ? 431 
 
 ginia would have been merely transferred to the 
 mountainous interior, and a theatre of war chosen 
 where our armies would have been separated by long 
 and vulnerable communications from the source of 
 their vitality and dominion. Flagrant war might have 
 blasted this green earth for tempestuous decades; 
 far from the debatable land, peaceful vales, where 
 the bounty of nature and the handiwork of man are 
 now harmoniously blended, might have been desolated 
 by predatory inroads continued until this day ; our 
 frontiers, where every man now sits tranquilly under 
 his own vine and fig-tree, might have repeated 
 through a century of partisan strife the border his- 
 tory of England and Scotland 5 the diatribes of our 
 wranglmg Thersites might have been vindicated, the 
 vaticinations of our political Cassandra verified, by 
 the inauguration of military despotism on this repub- 
 lican soil/ 
 
 1 Our losses from June 10 to June 20 were 85 officers, 1,113 enlisted men, 
 killed; 361 officers, 6,492 enlisted men, wounded; 46 officers, 1,568 enlisted 
 men, missing. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HE RECEIVES THE SURRENDER OF LEE 
 [July, 1864 - April, 1865.] 
 
 "TTTITH the siege of Petersburg opens a new chap- 
 V Y ter in the campaign. The scope of this biogra- 
 phy does not require from me a full description of 
 the events of the beleaguerment : the limits of my 
 volume certainly forbid it. I am not writing military 
 annals, but am pursuing the question, AYhat did Grant 
 do in the civil war? for the purpose of illustrating 
 his quahties as a general. I shall therefore content 
 myself with characterizing, rather than detailing, the 
 operations from the beginning of July till the spring 
 campaign was opened, by Grant's order from City 
 Point, of the 24th of March, 1865. 
 
 Petersburg is at the head of sloop navigation on 
 the Appomatox, one of the affluents of the James, and 
 derives its military importance from being a fortress 
 advanced twenty-two miles from the flank of Eich- 
 mond, and from being the focus of all the railroads 
 from the south and south-west which converge to- 
 wards the Confederate capital, except the Danville 
 Road, which finds its terminus directly in Richmond 
 itself Both cities are in the same strategic series, 
 being, in fact, but the right and left of the same great 
 
 432 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 433 
 
 line. The bastions and connecting parapets in which 
 Richmond lies unassailable connect themselves with 
 similar defences in front of its chief dependency. 
 Petersburg not only constitutes the right of Lee's 
 fortified position, but. from its relations to the rail- 
 roads, is the chief source of subsistence and supplies to 
 the whole Army of Northern Virginia. I am not con- 
 cerned with the works of the capital, except to indi- 
 cate their connection with those of its advanced 
 stronghold, and to note that the system is of such 
 extent and magnitude that the complete investment 
 of the whole is admitted to be impracticable. 
 
 The problem of the campaign was to secure such 
 a fortified position in front of Petersburg that it must 
 either fall by the severance of its communications or 
 by assault. The accomplishment of either of these 
 results was not merely a step to the downfall of Rich- 
 mond, but the dissolution of all that remained to the 
 Confederacy in Virginia of political importance and 
 military power. The entire strength of the enemy was 
 rallied to prevent it ; the entire strength of the Union 
 army was put forth to achieve it. 
 
 By the 1st of July, Lee had perfected the fortifica- 
 tions of Petersburg. Butler, at Bermuda Hundred, 
 finds himself confronted by a line of redans, connect- 
 ed by powerful infantry parapets stretching from the 
 horseshoe bend of the James (which forms the penin- 
 sula of Dutch Gap) to the northern bank of the Ap- 
 pomattox, opposite Petersburg : these effectually se- 
 cured the Petersburg and Richmond Railroad from the 
 raids of the Army of the James. Crossing now to the 
 south side of the Appomattox, works of a similar char- 
 
 28 
 
434 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 acter commence before the right of the Army of the 
 Potomac, extend along its entire front, and, stretching 
 for beyond the Union left to Hatcher's Run, complete- 
 ly infold Petersburg on the east and south. 
 
 Grant did not design the complete investment of 
 this elongated line ; but the communications of the 
 enemy were not entirely closed, nor was the connec- 
 tion of the two cities severed, even at the final catas- 
 trophe. It was not a siege like Vicksburg ; which, it 
 will be remembered, was completely hemmed in, so 
 that a courier could not enter without encountermg 
 our works, nor the enemy leave without storming our 
 defences. The investment of Petersburg was the con- 
 troverted question between the two belligerents; and 
 Grant, at the outset, was obliged to assume a unique 
 attitude towards it, which would secure to him every 
 advantage he could compass, without a complete 
 beleaguerment. 
 
 By the time the enemy had constructed the works 
 I have described. Grant had stretched, for two miles 
 and a half, a series of redoubts connected by embank- 
 ments, and had advanced embrasured batteries for 
 storming facilities. His right was the Appomattox ; 
 and the labor of the campaign, and the war problem 
 to be solved, was to push and develop this inchoate 
 investment to the left. The relation of the Potomac 
 army to the strongholds of the enemy was not that 
 of an anaconda, but a watch-dog, attempting not to 
 strangle, but to spring on the victim. In selecting 
 this attitude. Grant was controlled by the following 
 considerations : 1. He required fortified lines which 
 could be defended by a tithe of his army, and which 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL "WAR ? 435 
 
 could relieve the great mass of it from the pent-up 
 duties of a regular siege. 2. He wished to operate 
 against the communications of the foe in two modes, 
 — either by extending his intrenched lines to the 
 left, and actually cut and hold the enemy's railroads 
 in the neighborhood of Petersburg; or to project mov- 
 able columns to a distance, for the purpose of captur- 
 ing and occupying the keys and intersections of the 
 whole system of railroads, which were too remote to be 
 reached by any prolongation of our works. 3. Grant 
 wished his army left free to seize every advantage 
 for its own welfare, or for the annoyance of the enemy, 
 which might at any moment be presented at any point 
 of the thirty or forty miles of line which Lee was 
 obliged to guard. I should note, in connection with 
 this last consideration, that, in addition to our two 
 main armies on the south side of the James, Gen. Fos- 
 ter had effected a lodgement at Deep Bottom, within 
 ten miles of Richmond, on the north bank of the same 
 river : Foster's lines were connected by pontoons with 
 Bermuda Hundred. Grant must adapt his plans to 
 the possibilities which might lie dormant in that pe- 
 culiar post. 4. He must be prepared for an assault, 
 not only on Petersburg, but also on Richmond. 
 
 A g-lance at these considerations will disclose the 
 rationale of the various movements during the sum- 
 mer, autumn, and winter which followed : it will show, 
 moreover, their relation to a systematized plan adopt- 
 ed when the investment was commenced; it will 
 relieve them from seeming confusion, and from the 
 imputation of being spasmodic, accidental, tentative. 
 
 With this guidance, turn your attention to the 
 
436 LIFE OF GEiS'EEAL GKANT. 
 
 series of engagements which were fought to extend 
 our lines over communications in the vicinage of 
 Petersburg. The nucleus from which our works grew 
 into such tremendous power and magnitude was the 
 intrenchments which we captured from the enemy by 
 our sanguinary assault: they, at first, covered only 
 the Norfolk Road, which, as a communication, was 
 comparatively worthless to the foe. Every successive 
 step towards the left was the price of blood and the 
 reward of victory. It was by what is called a " sharp 
 affiiir," that Hancock extended our lines to the Jeru- 
 salem Plank-road, and connected with Griffin, who 
 held a fortified position still firther to the left. We 
 were thus carried within three miles of that great 
 channel of communication with the fruitful region of 
 the Confederacy upon the shores of the Southern 
 Atlantic and the Gulf of Mexico. The name of the 
 Weldon Railroad has fairly become romantic, and will 
 throuQjh all time recall the ferocious encounters of 
 embattled hosts. When Warren finally intrenched 
 himself athwart it, he held his dear-earned highway 
 by repelling assaults from the select brigades of an 
 army determined to tear it from his grasp. The gap 
 between the Weldon and the Jerusalem Planli-roatl 
 was gained by a severe engagement. For the Boyd- 
 ton Plank-road, still farther to the left, which had 
 become of importance to Petersburg since the caj^)- 
 ture of the Weldon Road, another battle was fought. 
 Peeples's Farm and Poplar Spring Church recall the 
 bloody struggle of Griffin's division, and Forts Keene 
 and Wheaton are the monuments of his success. The 
 South-side Road now became the bone of contention : 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 437 
 
 two expeditions were sent to capture it ; and, although 
 the valuable prize at which they aimed eluded their 
 grasp, our lines were extended thereby to Hatcher's 
 Run. It was seven months of incessant warfare 
 which stretched our investment fifteen miles to the 
 left ; and every movement which conquered position 
 was pronounced a failure, because it did not sever a 
 railroad, or instantly demolish Petersburg. It was 
 not until February that our lines covered the enemy's 
 front. Grant was continually censured by unreason- 
 able fault-finders, because every step towards this 
 substantial advantage was not an overwhelming dis- 
 comfiture of Lee. In looking exclusively at the dis- 
 asters of the course, even reasonable men forgot that 
 the goal was reached. When we remember Five 
 Forks, we should not be unmindful that the seed of 
 that victory was planted with our redoubts and in- 
 trenchments upon Hatcher's Run. The foundations 
 of that temple of fame which subsequently rose 
 were laid by unostentatious struggles which were 
 never gazetted as triumphs; and no surer progress 
 towards the reduction of Richmond was made than 
 in those seven months wherein there was no trum- 
 peted renown. 
 
 Glance now at the enterprises which were inaugu- 
 rated to rupture and destroy those sources of supply 
 which were too remote to be reached by our invest- 
 ment. The Lynchburg, South-side, and Danville Rail- 
 roads are the sole communications of the enemy 
 which remain unclosed. Shall we suffer them to re- 
 enforce, clothe, feed, the Army of Virginia? or are 
 they of sufficient consequence to justify the risk of 
 
438 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 a movable column for their suppression? Burkes- 
 ville, some forty miles from Petersburg, is at the in- 
 tersection of these three roads. Shall Grant send a 
 force to occupy it ? or shall he sit sucking his fingers 
 at City Point, and impotently asking what shall be 
 done ? Shall he remain vacillating between different 
 expedients until inaction is as fatal as defeat? Re- 
 member, before you answer these questions, that a 
 movable column is no safe venture, that it may cost 
 lives, that you will forget all the good which was 
 aimed at in your wails over the blood which is spilled 
 and the losses which are incurred. Leaders of armies, 
 unlike deliberating critics, cannot indulge in pro- 
 longed debate or exhaustive analysis of measures: 
 an emergency arises, it must be met at once ; an 
 occasion presents itself, it must be instantly seized, or 
 lost forever. 
 
 In Grant's judgment, the juncture authorized the 
 risk ; and the cavalry of Wilson and Kautz, eight 
 thousand strong, are launched on a railroad raid. 
 Wilson strikes the Weldon Ptoad at Pieams's Station, 
 beyond where it is held by Warren, and burns the 
 depot, and dismantles a long section of the track ; he 
 repeats the experiment upon the Lynchburg Road, 
 not without a sharp encounter with the enemy ; he 
 despatches Kautz to Burkesville, and both the South- 
 side and Danville Railroads are stripped for several 
 miles. The two cavalry divisions again reunite, and 
 prosecute their work of havoc to the Roanoke Bridge, 
 where they are smitten by an overmastering force, 
 and driv&n homeward. On their retreat they are 
 tossed about, surge and resurge, like a vessel pursued 
 
"WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAB ? 489 
 
 over the ocean by hostile tempests. The foe closes 
 round them, and shows no mercy : a body of rebels 
 at Stony Creek, on the Weldon Road, shivers their 
 rigging and top-gear; betaking themselves to Reams's 
 Station, as to a friendly haven, they are unexpected- 
 ly buffeted by remorseless foes. The two divisions 
 of cavalry separate, and flee across the Nottoway; 
 hunted and persecuted, they struggle to their camp 
 by circuitous courses, with the loss of artillery and 
 cavalry, both steeds and riders broken-winded and 
 dishevelled. 
 
 Under the same category were the operations of 
 Warren, in December, upon the Weldon Road ; for, 
 although this avenue was securely held by us in the 
 neighborhood of Petersburg, the enemy were still 
 enabled to derive advantages from it, by unloading at 
 some of its "emote depots their stores, and transport- 
 ing them in wagons over the Boydton Plank-road, 
 which was still exempt from our control. It was now 
 proposed to completely destroy the road for twenty- 
 five miles to the southward. Warren's division de- 
 molished the railroad bridge over the Nottoway, 
 crossed the stream, ana tore up the track for twenty 
 miles, to the Meherrin River, where their further 
 progress was arrested by two forts, at Hickford's 
 Station. They returned to camp with but slight loss. 
 
 Akin in plan, and subserving the same general de- 
 sign, was the superb sweep of Sheridan, with ten 
 thousand sabres, up the valley of the Shenandoah. 
 He shakes off the broken fragments of Early, which 
 buzz around his flanks; gallops over Middle-Fork 
 Bridge while the enemy are striving to burn it ; clat- 
 
440 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ters through the streets of Staunton ; wheels sharply 
 forWaynesborough at the east; storms over the demor- 
 alized remnants which his old antagonist gathered into 
 Rockfish Gap ; strikes Charlottesville ; destroys tracks, 
 culverts, bridges of the Lynchburg and Richmond 
 Railroads ; dismantles the canal at Columbia ; courses 
 over the Pamunkey around the army of Lee ; arrives 
 at the White House. You may trace his vast orbit by 
 the wrecks and debris of bridges, culverts, canals, 
 tracks, trains, and engines. 
 
 Two formidable expeditions were detached from 
 the Petersburg line to develop any advantages which 
 might lie in Foster's post at Deep Bottom, on the north 
 side of the James, and but ten miles from Richmond. 
 Both of these detachments were under Hancock's di- 
 rection. The first broke the enemy's line in Foster's 
 front, with the capture of prisoners, guns, and colors. 
 It secured and occupied an advanced line, extending 
 from the James to the Long-Bridge and New-Market 
 Roads. The demonstration drew to the north of the 
 James a large part of the army of Lee : three of his 
 corps only were left to guard the Petersburg line. 
 This depletion of the fortifications was improved to 
 explode a mine which Gen. Burnside had excavated 
 under one of the enemy's batteries in his front. There 
 was a discreditable mismanagement in the execution 
 of this enterprise, and Gen. Grant characterizes it for 
 me as "a needlessly miserable affair." The second 
 expedition of Hancock to Deep Bottom, near the 
 middle of August, was also successful in the capture 
 of guns, prisoners, and colors ; but its most decisive 
 result was to develop the unassailable strength of 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 441 
 
 the enemy's fortifications in front of Foster's lines. I 
 have thus briefly indicated the rationale and result of 
 the chief operations during the summer, and winter 
 after the investment of Petersburg was commenced. 
 
 The combined expeditions of the Army of the 
 James and the Army of Western Virginia, upon 
 which Grant greatly relied when the Wilderness cam- 
 paign commenced, for reasons which it is not the 
 province of this biography to discuss, failed to realize 
 the fall measure of advantage which was antici- 
 pated from their co-operation. While the iniluence 
 of Bermuda Hundred was, at the worst, merely nega- 
 tive, the operations of SigeKand Hunter were a source 
 of incessant anxiety to Grant. The weighty contribu- 
 tion which success in the valley of the Shenandoah 
 would have brought to that imperilled march from 
 the Rapidan to the James was not felt, nntil Sheridan, 
 " by knowing his geography and fighting his men," ^ 
 closed this avenue of strength and sustenance to Kicli- 
 mond. 
 
 The corresponding movement, which was committed 
 to Sherman, was executed with an ability which has 
 filled the world with his fame. No re-enforcements 
 from that direction invigorated the Army of Virginia, 
 while into the Army of the Potomac was incessantly 
 poured the replenishment of Sherman's victories. 
 
 1 An officer of the Army of the Potomac, who was at first inclined to at- 
 tribute Sheridan's success to luck rather than merit, reversed his opinions after 
 one of the crowning victories of tlae valley, and with great frankness indicated 
 to Sheridan his former opinion and its recent changes. Sheridan rather dis- 
 claimed the complimentary part of the remark, and said, " All that a man wants 
 to do is to know his geography, and to fight his men." 
 
442 LIFE OF GENEKAL GEAI^^T. 
 
 From first to last, it was a decided auxiliary to Grant. 
 When stronghold after stronghold fell before his 
 favorite coadjutor, when vast areas of productive soil 
 were subjugated by that mighty march from Atlanta 
 to the sea, when he constantly narrowed the domain 
 from which Lee drew his supplies, and isolated Rich- 
 mond by severing intercommunication with the most 
 fruitful of its dependencies, the Confederate capital 
 began to feel the weight of the colossal combination 
 which Grant had organized for its overthrow. 
 
 The diversion- to Washington, which Lee initiated 
 for the purpose of relieving him from the pressure 
 which was closing round him, failed signally to fulfil 
 his sanguine anticipations. If he had any expecta- 
 tions that the expeditionary force of Early would 
 capture the city, it impugns his military forecast; if 
 he hoped that a menace to our capital would relax 
 the grasp of Grant, it convicts him of the folly of 
 underrating an antagonist : as an attack, or a threat, 
 it was alike fruitless of any valuable results. 
 
 The second spasmodic struggle of Lee revealed a 
 still more impoverished magazine of expedients. It 
 was an attempt of the oppressor in the agonies of 
 dissolution to invoke the aid of the oppressed. To 
 recruit the exhausted ranks of Southern armies, free- 
 dom was tendered to all fencible slaves. It is hard 
 to say whether the white oligarchy received this prof- 
 fer with the most mortification, or the abject race 
 with the most contempt. An unqualified liberation 
 at this late period would hardly have averted 
 impending doom; but qualified emancipation on 
 condition of enlistment, while it could not possibly 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAK ? 443 
 
 conciliate the slave, was to the master u manifesto 
 of desperation under the seal of the Confederate 
 Government. 
 
 The third expedient of Lee was more sagacious in 
 policy, but equally akin to despair. It was Lee's pur- 
 pose at this time to abandon the defence of the capital, 
 and, retiring in the direction of Lynchburg or Danville, 
 to impose upon the Union army another expensive 
 and prolonged campaign. Upon his muster-rolls at 
 this period were sixty thousand men ; ^ and it was 
 hoped, that, by a junction with Johnston, Sherman 
 might be overwhelmed. The project was so plausible, 
 that, at the close of the winter. Grant was more fearful 
 of the withdrawal of the rebel army than of its pro- 
 longed resistance at Petersburg. The capture of Fort 
 Stedman, which proved in the end as miserable an 
 affair to the rebels as the mine ^asco had been to us, 
 was the initiative of this measure. Lee was willing 
 to stake the cause upon this final throw. It was 
 commended by every military consideration ; but he 
 was driven from its execution, either by the clamor 
 of the Confederate journals, or "by the disapproval of 
 its political authorities. 
 
 On March 28, 1865, Grant issued from City Point 
 the memorable order which was destined to vanquish 
 
 1 " Had Lee's eflfective force (by his muster-rolls 64,000 men, but suppose 
 the number available for such a campaign but 50,000), swelled by such re-en- 
 forcements as Hardee, Beauregard, Wheeler, and Hoke might have afforded 
 him, been hurled upon Sherman, as he confidently approached Savannah, Co- 
 lumbia, or Fayetteville, it is indeed possible that the blow, so closely resembling 
 that ilealt to Cornwallis at Yorkto\vn by Washington and Rochambeau, might 
 have been effectually contested (as theirs was not) by the hurried movement 
 southward, by water, of corps after corps of the Army of the Potomac," &c.,&c. 
 — Greeki/'s American Conflict, p. 725. 
 
444 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Rebellion, and destroy the Confederacy. By its au- 
 thority, in our line of works in front of the enemy, 
 to guard them as long as the emergencies of the 
 proposed movement would require, the Ninth Army 
 Corps was stationed, and constituted the pivot upon 
 which the whole Army of the James and the Potomac, 
 with Sheridan's cavalry, was wheeled upon the vul- 
 nerable right of Lee, at the south-west of Petersburg, 
 which had been the aim of so many unsuccessful 
 adventures. It is unnecessary to describe the pre- 
 liminary marches by which the various divisions of 
 this ponderous flanking mass reached the positions 
 assigned them for the execution of this enterprise. 
 Omitting the various routes of the different corps 
 from Bermuda Hundred, from Deep Bottom, from 
 the stations and forts in front of Petersburg, I will 
 briefly delineate their positions on the morning of 
 the 30th of March. 
 
 Sheridan was in possession of Dinwiddle Court- 
 house, and constituted the extreme left of our wheel- 
 ing line ; then followed, in the order named, Warren 
 with the Fifth Corps, Humphreys now in command 
 of the Second, Ord with the Army of the James, 
 "Wright with the famous Sixth, connecting the mov- 
 ing force at Hatcher's Run with the pivot on which it 
 was to swing, — the stationary Ninth, intrenched 
 along the front of Petersburg, even to the old resting- 
 place of our right upon the Appomattox River. It 
 had been Grant's original purpose to leave Sheridan 
 foot-free, to operate upon distant lines of communica- 
 tion ; but on the evening of the 29th of April, visited 
 by a premonition that the end was near, he changed 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 445 
 
 his purpose, and sent to Sheridan the following re- 
 markable despatch: "I now feel like ending the 
 matter, if it is possible to do so, before going back. 
 I do not want you, therefore, to cut loose, and go 
 after the enemy's roads at present. In the morning- 
 push around the enemy, if you can, and get on to his 
 right rear. The movements of the enemy's cavalry 
 may, of course, modify your action. We will act all 
 together, as one army, here until it is seen what can be 
 done with the enemy." The country in front of the 
 wheeling force was covered with such entanglements 
 as forests and swamps, which our army had already 
 encountered in previous movements over this groimd. 
 Upon it, also, intrenched positions were established, 
 which Lee had drawn out from Hatcher's Run, cover- 
 ing both the Boydton-Plank and White-Oak Roads, 
 and designed also to protect the South-side Railroad, 
 which was now his main avenue of communication. 
 I should also note, that there were detached works, 
 intended to defend the intersection of five roads, at 
 Five Forks. 
 
 The movement of our heavy masses for the last 
 three days had attracted the observation of Lee, and 
 it required but little of his discernment to divine 
 that the vulnerable ris;ht was aojain to be assailed. 
 He was probably unaware how much our own lines 
 had been enfeebled by withdrawing from them this 
 immense detachment. The Confederate commander 
 was torn between two demands equally imperious, 
 — the necessity of protecting his elongated line from 
 a rupture at any point, which would have been an 
 irreparable calamity ; and the necessity of guarding 
 
446 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 liis communications from a demonstration which 
 threatened inevitable destruction to all the interests 
 committed to his charge. From Richmond to Five 
 Forks, he depleted his works down to the extreme 
 minimum required for their defence, and concen- 
 trated every available man upon the threatened 
 position. He confronts impending fate with that 
 resolution and fortitude which are the celestial ar- 
 mor of great souls in dire extremities of fortune. 
 He was conscious that but a very few hours of mili- 
 tary authority remained : he foresaw the beginning 
 of the end, but he still struggled, hero-like, with 
 accumulating ruin. During this closing scene, he 
 wielded his baton with as much serenity, and held 
 it with as firm a grasp, as if the perpetual command 
 of an irresistible army had been decreed to him 
 by fate. 
 
 A drenching rain descended on the night of the 
 29th, which was prolonged during the following day. 
 Active hostilities were pretermitted by the express 
 order of the lieutenant-general. The weather be- 
 friended Lee, enabling him to concentrate his troops 
 and complete his dispositions. 
 
 It must be remembered that Sheridan, at Dinwiddie 
 Courtrhouse, was several miles to .the left of the 
 infantry which was attempting to execute Grant's 
 order. On the morning of the 31st of March, War- 
 ren was posted to the westward of the Boydton 
 Plank-road, with his left flank exposed to one of 
 those sudden swoops which were always expected 
 from the Confederate commander when in an aggres- 
 sive temper. Humphreys, with the Second Corps, is 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 447 
 
 upon his right. In order to guard his naked left 
 from Lee's stereotyped manoeuvre, Warren had dis- 
 posed his three divisions en echelon, to meet the 
 assault from whatever direction it might come, and 
 had massed them ; because, in his judgment, that 
 disposition was preferable in this dilemma to an 
 attenuated line. Ayres, in advance, confronts the 
 White-Oak Koad ; Crawford's division is to the rear 
 and right of Ayres ; Griffin's division to the rear and 
 right of Crawford's; Humphreys, with the Second 
 Army Corps, to the right of Griffin. If I understand 
 the first movement which Warren initiated, it was 
 ^to advance his skirmishers and a brigade from the 
 woods, in order to occupy the White-Oak Road, to 
 strengthen his position, and command a view of the 
 enemy's whereabouts. While executing this move- 
 ine?-it, Lee fell upon Warren from two directions, with 
 an impetuous spring. Ayres was hurled back upon 
 Crawford, and both upon Griffin, where, owing to the 
 fortunate formation of the corps, the three divisions 
 readily combined, and presented a solid front, which 
 AOl only held, but dashed back discomfited, the rebel 
 columns. Lee was foiled in the onslaught; and, 
 with assistance from Gen. Humphreys, a vehement 
 coimter-attack was made, which drove back the ene- 
 my to the fortifications upon the White-Oak Road, 
 whence he had emerged. 
 
 Meanwhile Sheridan by skilful manoeuvres had 
 seized Five Forks, four miles to the left of the line 
 which was held by Warren. The military advantage 
 of this position was that it opened an inroad upon 
 the whole fortifications of the enemy afl far as Peters- 
 
448 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 burg, and threatened consequences whIcK miglit 
 be fatal in their character. Persisting in the expedi- 
 ents of sudden springs, which was Lee's sole hope of 
 deliverance from his present strait, he gathered his 
 forces in hand, and threw them with tremendous 
 violence upon Sheridan's cavalry at Five Forks. He 
 was more fortunate in this adventure ; for he not only 
 recaptured the strategical position which Sheridan 
 had seized, but drove him back to Dinwiddle Court- 
 house, and held him there by an intrenched battle- 
 line. When Gen. Grant consents to illustrate his own 
 character in a description of military events, I freely 
 surrender to him the pen. I think that he does so ♦ 
 in the following description of Sheridan's behavior at 
 ihifi crisis : — 
 
 " Here Gen. Sheridan displayed great generalship. 
 Instead of retreating with his whole command on the 
 main army, to tell the story of superior forces en- 
 countered, he deployed his cavalry on foot, leaving 
 only mounted men enough to take charge of the 
 horses. This compelled the enemy to deploy over a 
 vast extent of woods and broken country, and made 
 his progress slow. At this juncture he despatched to 
 me what had taken place, and that he was dropping 
 back «lowly on Dinwiddle Court-house. Gen. Mc- 
 Kenzie's cavalry and one division of the Fifth Corps 
 were immediately ordered to his assistance. Soon 
 after, receiving a report from Gen. Meade that 
 Humphreys could hold our position on the Boydton 
 Road, and that the other two divisions of the Fifth 
 Corps could go to Sheridan, they were so ordered at 
 once. Thus the operations of the day necessitated 
 
"WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 
 
 449 
 
 the sending of Warren, because of Iiis accessibility, 
 instead of Humphreys, as was intended, and pre- 
 cipitated intended movements." 
 
 Calendar. 
 
 APRIL, 
 
 1865. 
 
 REMARKS. 
 
 Day of Month. 
 
 Day of Week. 
 
 Grand Finale. 
 
 First. 
 
 Saturday. 
 
 Battle of Five Forks. 
 
 Second. 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 Lee evacuates Petersburg. 
 
 Third. 
 
 Monday. 
 
 Pursuit commenced. 
 
 Fourth. 
 
 Tuesday. 
 
 Lee struck at Jetersville. 
 
 Fifth. 
 
 Wednesday. 
 
 Chase changed to a hunt. 
 
 Sixth. 
 
 Thursday. 
 
 Ewell surrenders. 
 
 Seventh. 
 
 Friday. 
 
 Grant and Lee exchange notes. 
 
 Eighth. 
 
 Saturday. 
 
 Lee refuses to surrender. 
 
 Ninth. 
 
 Sunday. 
 
 Lee surrenders. 
 
 Ee-enforced by the Fifth Corps, Sheridan was 
 enabled to resume the aggressive on Saturday morn- 
 ino:, and fidit the most brilliant action of the war. 
 With powerfal squadrons he crowds the enemy from 
 two temporary lines, and by two o'clock drives Pick- 
 ett's and Johnson's divisions of Lee's army, into their 
 main defences at Five Forks, on the White-Oak Road. 
 He manipulates cavalry and infantry with the hand 
 of a master. While driving the enemy into their 
 works, he not only uses his cavalry as an assailing 
 force, but as an impenetrable mask, behind which 
 Warren is enabled to array his line and mass his 
 
 29 
 
450 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 columns in such a manner that their whole weio-ht 
 may fall, when the curtain is withdrawn, upon the 
 Confederate left. Still enveloping the works with 
 his cavalry, Sheridan directed Gen. Merritt to 
 manoeuvre as though he was attempting to turn the 
 enemy's right flank : he notified him that Warren 
 would deliver his blow on the left ; he ordered him 
 to sound his bugles for a charge the moment that the 
 volleys of musketry announced that the Fifth Corps 
 was engaged. He despatched McKenzie's sabres up 
 the White-Oak Eoad, to attack re-enforcements has- 
 tening from Petersburg. The subordinate executed 
 the order with the ability of his chief, and counter- 
 marched to Sheridan before Warren was ready to 
 charge. Warren, with formidable columns and lines, 
 now advances to the White-Oak Road, as if he was 
 aiming at the front of the enemy's works ; but sud- 
 denly, under cover of the cavalry, he changes flice to 
 the westward, and instantly expands a battle-line to 
 the left and rear of the astounded enemy, and per- 
 pendicular to his position. The line advances with a 
 precision and an elan which were equally splendid. 
 To meet it, Pickett and Johnson throw back their left 
 in the form of a crochet, and thus receive the vigor- 
 ous onslaught of Warren on their flank. 
 
 The Fifth Corps charge on impetuously, and, in- 
 spirited by the example of their ofhcers, double up 
 the enemy's left and centre. Prompt at the precon- 
 certed signal, Gen. Merritt responds at the right of 
 the enemy's w^orks ; and his brave cavalrymen carry 
 them at the same time that Warren is demolishing 
 the left. By blows thus harmoniously delivered, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IX THE CIVIL "WAR ? 451 
 
 fortifications three miles in length are simultaneous!}'' 
 captured, and the divisions which held them disas- 
 trously routed. Immediately the cavalry squadrons 
 scour the White-Oak Road, seizing the field-batteries 
 of Pickett, and turning them upon the fugitives. So 
 demoralized were the enemy by this overwhelming 
 defeat, that no serious stand was made after their 
 lines were mastered. Upwards of five thousand 
 prisoners fell into our hands: broken and disordered 
 fragments of these divisions were pursued long after 
 dark by Merritt and McKenzie, for a distance of six 
 miles.^ 
 
 Darkness had hardly hushed the rattle of mus- 
 ketry at Five Forks before the cannon which had 
 been mute during the day, as if hanging in rapt 
 attention upon the momentous issues of this battle, 
 now opened all their brazen throats fiom the Ap- 
 pomattox to Hatcher's Run, in one wild, universal, 
 triumphant peal of thunder. The night was hideous 
 with screeching shells, and bombs tracing net-works 
 of lurid fire over the serene azure of patient heaven. 
 It was but the prelude for a general assault by Sun- 
 day's dawn on the blackened redoubts which had so 
 long defied the majesty of the Republic. Parke con- 
 fronted intrenchments which he easily stormed ; but 
 he was halted, as by Alpine cliffs, before that grim 
 old cordon of interior earth-works, the most fossilized 
 of the whole series, which had held our army at bay 
 from the beorinnins:. Wrio;ht, with feebler defences 
 before him, rushed on with victorious and unimpeded 
 step, sweeping artillery and prisoners from the para- 
 
 i Sheridan's Report. Swintou's Army of the Potomac, pp. 507-8. 
 
452 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 pets and redans down to tlie Boydton Road ; where 
 lie was joined by a division of Ord, who had scaled 
 the earthen battlements in their front, and now 
 wheeled with Wrio-ht towards the final refuo-e of the 
 hunted foe. The only resistance which Humphreys 
 met was from one redoubt ; and, with its capture, 
 the intrenched lines, but yesterday bristling with 
 cannon and foes, wilted impotently for miles. Naught 
 remained for him to do, but to leave one division to 
 gather up the dissolving columns of the enemy 
 which remained west of Hatcher's Run, and march 
 with the other to concentrate upon Wright and Ord 
 before the most interior defences of the fortress. 
 The combined corps were arrested in their advance 
 by Fort Gregg, which was garrisoned by an intrepid 
 band of Mississippi sharpshooters, who repulsed with 
 great slaughter several fiery charges which Gibbon 
 delivered, and were not overcome until seven-eighths 
 of their battalion lay weltering in their gore. The 
 Union army was now closed upon that circumscribed 
 chain of VN^oiks from the Appomattox on the east 
 to the Appomattox on the west of Petersburg. In 
 the midst of this wreck and disaster, the spirit of 
 Lee remains undismayed. Encouraged by a small 
 re-enforcement from Longstreet, he falls upon our 
 troops wdth all his wonted fire. A commanding emi- 
 nence in the vicinity is held by the Ninth Army 
 Corps. The undaunted soul of the Confederate 
 commander can not brook its threatening presence. 
 He directs Gen. A. P. Hill, of kindred genius, to 
 gather up the broken and fainting columns for a 
 final contest. Hill storms the crest with the daunt- 
 
"WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 453 
 
 less heroism of his palmiest lioui, determined tliat 
 a corps with such traditions should expire with a 
 glory worthy of its meridian culmination. The 
 onset was so terrific that re-enforcements were re- 
 quired to resist it, and worthy of the corps leader 
 whose name had been identified from the beginning 
 with the proudest exploits of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia. It was in the last desperate charge for 
 possession of this coveted eminence that Hill was 
 slain. There was something worthy of that dis- 
 criminating Fate worshipped of yore by classic Ar- 
 gives, that the last dauntless blow should be struck by 
 Hillthatthe last height wdiich signalized the expiring 
 struggle of the beleaguering army for victory on this 
 field should be stained with the last blood of, a chief- 
 tain to whom the indomitable defence of Petersburg 
 lias assigned an imperishable name. 
 
 During this memorable Sunday morning, President 
 Lincoln was at City Point, at Grant's headquarters. 
 Jefferson Davis was attending church at Richmond. 
 While the one was disseminating through the land 
 exhilarating tidings of crowning victory, the seat of 
 the other at St. Paul's was approached by an orderly, 
 who placed in his hands this message of direful 
 import from Gen. Lee : " My lines are broken in 
 three places. Richmond must be evacuated to-night." 
 Davis w^alked down the aisle with the weight of an 
 added score of years in his gait. Words were not 
 needed ; not more clearly did trembling Belshazzar 
 read impending doom on the graven wall, than the 
 hushed congregation in the haggard countenance of 
 the chief conspirator. The inhabitants of Richmond 
 
454 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 were unprepared for this knell of death. Within 
 thirty miles of their doors, the fate both of their city 
 and Government had been decided in battle ; but all 
 information was so vigorously tabooed, that people 
 were hugging to their deluded bosoms on this bril- 
 liant sabbath morning a lying rumor which was rife 
 five days ago, that the independence of the South- 
 ern Confederacy had been established by a decisive 
 victory of Lee over the beleaguering army in a 
 night attack. The news of misfortune, we are told, 
 travels without aid of newspapers ; but even those 
 who had correctly translated the woe-begone visage 
 of Davis could not induce their incredulous neigh- 
 bors to believe that the end was near. The morning 
 had been unusually quiet upon the streets, — no 
 movement of troops, no rattling of artillery wheels ; 
 and the idea was scouted, that war with its train of 
 horror could enter this balmy air, alight on this 
 beaming landscape, and disturb the serenity of church- 
 going bells, happy homes, and cloudless skies. But, 
 as the afternoon waned, the unusual clatter of 
 wagons, pale fugitives in retreat, throngs at the Dan- 
 ville depot, boxes and trunks about the departments 
 and military headquarters, disorder and confusion 
 increasing with the minutes, convinced tl\e most 
 sceptical that a crisis was in progress. Systematic 
 individuals of regular habits rushed to the public 
 offices for intelligence : but the owl-like mystery 
 habitual to official personages was redoubled ; every 
 responsible officer was invisible ; there was a flitting 
 from room to room of messengers, too hurried to 
 i^top and speak j and, as usual in such junctures, it was 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 455 
 
 all question and no answer, all bewilderment and no 
 reliable information. What was still more ominous, 
 the cellars and garrets began to disgorge into the 
 streets the sons and daughters of Belial, scenting 
 prey from afar, and with intuitive perception of 
 approaching misrule and confusion. When a special 
 train, late in the' afternoon, bore away Jefferson 
 Davis, never more to return to his capital as presi- 
 dent, it needed no proclamation to inform the most 
 incredulous that the sceptre had passed from his 
 grasp, and that Abraham Lincoln was knocking at 
 the gate of Richmond. 
 
 In the presence of impending tumult, the wisdom 
 and decorum of Richmond was represented by its 
 city council, convened in an obscure room in the up- 
 per part of the silent and deserted capital, where a 
 half-dozen were gathered round a rude table, with 
 an "illiterate grocer" at the head of the Board. He 
 was " making his last exhibition of Southern spirit, 
 and, twenty-four hours thereafter, subscribed himself 
 to some very petty Federal officer, ' most respectfully 
 your most obedient servant.' " This select conclave 
 of the deliberation of an enlightened capital, in a 
 great misfortune, was occasionally adorned by the 
 presence of Mayor Mayo, who hurried up to it with 
 the latest news from the war department, " excited, 
 incoherent, chewing tobacco defiantly, but yet full of 
 pluck, having the mettle of the true Virginian gen- 
 tleman." The conclusion to which this council of 
 sages arrived was to maintain order in the city by 
 tw^o militia regiments, to destroy the liquor in the 
 stores and warehouses, and to establish a patrol 
 
456 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 through the night. But the militia ran through the 
 fingers of their officers ; the patrol could not be found 
 after a certain hour ; and in a short while the whole 
 city was plunged in mad confusion and indescribable 
 horrors.^ 
 
 To Ewell, as commander of the Confederate rear- 
 guard, had been assigned the stern duty of blowing 
 up the iron-clad vessels, burning the few transports 
 at the naked wharves, and the three bridges which 
 spanned the James. The Virginia, the Richmond, 
 and an iron ram exploded with a tremendous concus- 
 sion, which was the first signal to Sheridan to com- 
 mence the hunt; the burning bridge blazoned pursuit 
 on the heavens long before it was known at our 
 headquarters that Lee was a fugitive from the Peters- 
 burg lines. Ewell had also been commissioned to fire 
 the four principal tobacco depots, near the centre of 
 Richmond, in close proximity to the combustible flour- 
 mills of Gallego, and so situated that the conflagra- 
 tion of the business part of the metropolis was inevi- 
 table upon the execution of the order. In spite of 
 the remonstrance of that pattern of Virginia gentle- 
 men, Mr. Maj^o, the corps leader carried out his ruth- 
 less instructions to the letter. The flames leaped 
 from roof to roof, from warehouse to warehouse 
 around the basin, passing rapidly beyond all control 
 from street to street, continually widening the circle, 
 and spreading the area of destruction, until they had 
 consumed every bank, every auction-store, every in- 
 surance-office, nearly every commission-house, and 
 most of the fashionable stores. Hogsheads and pipes 
 
 1 Pollard is responsible for this description of the city council (p, 694). 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THjE CIVIL WAR ? 457 
 
 of liquor are drained into the street, the gutters run 
 with Bourbon, the air is stifling from its burning 
 fumes; and staggering soldiers lap the dirty rivulets, 
 or scoop up delirium with their hands. A universal 
 orgie of drunkenness and theft, of vice and crimcj 
 min2;led with the shrieks of women and the bias- 
 phemies of fiendish men, celebrates the abandon- 
 ment by military power of a city which had denied 
 the binding obligation of the highest civil law.-' 
 
 Weitzel, who was in command of our lines north 
 of the James, and watching Richmond, held high 
 carnival on this eventful Sunday night ; foi his orders 
 were to make ostentatious demonstrations of strength 
 and purpose. From all his bands, as if an army of 
 musicians were at his disposal, the melodious strains 
 of our national airs, with all their variations, were 
 wafted to the ears of the opposite intrenchments, now 
 held by the corps of Longstreet ; who also, having 
 designs of his own to conceal, fairly vied with Weit- 
 zel's musical celebration, blowing Confederate airs 
 from all the sonorous metal he could command. It 
 was not until two o'clock that the rival concerts were 
 hushed ; but Weitzel, who was under orders to storm 
 the impregnable works in his front, on Monday morn- 
 ing, still kept vigil with Shepley, his chiefof-staff 
 Suspicions had been aroused by various minute cii-^ 
 cumstances. Orders had been given to attempt the 
 capture of a picket-guard, and one was finally caught, 
 who said that he belonged to the Thirty-seventh 
 Virginia Artillery, which Shepley knew from other 
 sources of information to be posted in his front ; but 
 
 1 Pollard's Lost Cause, pp. 695, 696. 
 
458 LIFE OF G ENSEAL GRANT. 
 
 the captive was puzzled to tell where his commander 
 and regiment were at this present time. Shepley was 
 convinced by this intimation, that Longstreet, for some 
 purpose not yet apparent, was depleting his line. At 
 half-past three, a deserter was brought in to Shepley, 
 who confessed that he had been stationed on picket- 
 duty, but was not relieved at the appointed hour, 
 and, having returned to his own camp without being 
 able to find his regiment, concluded to betake him- 
 self to our lines for society. Shepley immediately 
 inferred that Richmond was being evacuated. The 
 conjecture was made a certainty at four o'clock, by a 
 negro boy, who drove to our camp in a buggy, and 
 announced it as a fact. The deafening roar of the 
 explosions was also heard, and the illuminated heav- 
 ens were visible from the watch-tower. It was im- 
 prudent to move until dawn ; for the works of the 
 enemy were intricate, and the ground in their front 
 was planted with torpedoes. Weitzel forthwith de- 
 spatched a half-company of cavalry, under Major A. 
 li Stevens of the Fourth Massachusetts, and Major 
 Graves of Weitzel's staff. The forty troopers gal- 
 loped without molestation into the Confederate capi- 
 tal, and produced some sensation, according to Pol- 
 lard, who was an eye-witness of their advent. " The 
 sun was an hour or more above the horizon, when 
 suddenly there ran up the whole length ol Main 
 Street the cry of ' Yankees ! Yankees ! ' The upper 
 part of this street was choked with crowds of pil- 
 lao-ers, — men provided with drays, others rolling bar- 
 rels up the street or bending under heavy burdens, 
 and, intermixed with them, women and children with 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE ? 459 
 
 smaller lots of plunder in bags, baskets, tubs, buckets, 
 and tin pans. As the cry of ' Yankees ! ' was raised, 
 this motle}' crowd tore up the street, cursing, scream- 
 ing, trampling upon each other, alarmed bj an ene- 
 my not yet in sight, and madly seeking to extricate 
 themselves from imaginary dangers. Presently, be- 
 yond this crowd, following up the tangled mass of 
 j)lunderers, but not pressing or interfering with them, 
 was seen a small body of Federal cavalry riding 
 steadily along. Forty Massachusetts troopers, de- 
 spatched by Gen. Weitzel to investigate the condition 
 of afflxirs, had ridden without let or hindrance into 
 Richmond. At the corner of Eleventh Street they 
 broke into a trot for the public square ; and in a few 
 moments their guidons were planted on the Capitol, 
 and fluttered there, — a strange spectacle in the early 
 mornina; li<i;ht."^ 
 
 By daylight, Weitzel put his columns in motion, 
 with Draper's colored brigade on the lead. The 
 rebels, in their haste, had forgotten to remove the red 
 flags, designed to indicate to themselves the site of 
 torpedoes ; and our troops rapidly cleared the exterior 
 defences, and marched into Richmond by the Osborn 
 Road. At six o'clock in the morning, Weitzel, with 
 his staff", galloped past the column, and entered the 
 suburbs of the burning capital, amid crumbling walls 
 and the explosion of the ordnance stores, abandoned 
 to the flames bv the Confederate rear-o-uard. The 
 officers were received with vociferous and prolonged 
 lihouts from negro throats. Presently appears the 
 leading platoons of the victorious army. The in- 
 
 1 Pollard's Lost Cause, p. 696. 
 
460 • LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 spiriting bursts of national airs strike alike the ears 
 of rejoicing freedmen and sullen traitors. The long 
 array of bayonets, and ensigns spread to the breeze, 
 passed the Exchange Hotel to the eastern slope of 
 Church Hill, down the hill, across the valley, up the 
 next slope, along the line of fire, through the curtains 
 of smoke, amid the roar of the conflagration and the 
 deafening concussion of the shells left by the retreat- 
 ing army. The national standard of the Twelfth 
 Maine Eegiment soon supplants the cavalry guidons 
 on the dome of the Capitol, and is saluted with the 
 deafening huzzas of the delivered and the deliverers. 
 There is but brief time for either parade or triumph : 
 the first duty of Weitzel is to counteract the devour- 
 ing element which the Confederate army, with shock- 
 ing inhumanity, turned loose upon the devoted city. 
 But with the miserable fire-apparatus w^hich the city 
 authorities placed at his command, the flames cannot 
 be extinguished until the mercantile heart of Rich- 
 mond is consumed. 
 
 On Monday morning, at early dawn, the advance 
 of our skirmishers upon the interior lines of Peters- 
 burg disclosed that the defenders had silently with- 
 drawn during the night. Grant organized the chase 
 with prodigious energy, and designated its lines and 
 directions with consummate skill. Now appeared the 
 vast advantage of the investment, which, at such a 
 sacrifice of blood, had been pushed around the right 
 of the enemy's intrenched line; for it cut off the 
 fugitive army from the Danville and South-side Rail- 
 road, which was Lee's sole line of retreat. He was 
 now constrained to flee by the north side of the Ap- 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 461 
 
 pomattox to Chesterfield Court-house, where he halted 
 to gather in the columns of Longstrcet from Deep 
 Bottom and Bermuda Hundred, and also the rear- 
 guard of Ewell, to which had been assigned the work 
 of havoc which I have just described. As soon as his 
 army is concentrated, the first objective of Lee is 
 Amelia Court-house ; for here Goode's Bridge spans 
 the Appomattox, and his only safety lies in reaching 
 Burksville, which is at the intersection of the Dan- 
 ville with the South-side and Lynchburg Railroad, 
 and fifty-two miles from Petersburg. If he fiiils to 
 secure this point, he is forced off from the Danville 
 Boad, and can only regain it by a long detour, which 
 will expose him to the toils of the pursuer. During 
 the night of Sunday, he had reached Chesterfield 
 Court-house, having put sixteen miles between him- 
 self and Petersburg ; and it is said that on Monday 
 morning, when Longstreet's corps came up, and he 
 was sure of being joined by Ewell, the Confederate 
 commander was in gay and exultant spirits, saying to 
 those around him, " I have got my army safe out of 
 its breastworks ; and, in order to follow me, my enemy 
 must abandon his lines, and can derive no further 
 benefit either from his railroads or the James River." ^ 
 He was unquestionably meditating a prolonged cam- 
 paign against Grant dragged from his base, — the same 
 which would have been prosecuted if Petersburg had 
 yielded to our assault last June ; the same which 
 Lee had projected during the last month of the siege. 
 During Monday, Lee marched to Amelia Court-house, 
 where he was overtaken by a calamity as fatal to his 
 
 * Swinton's Army of the Potomac, p. 606. 
 
462 LIFE OF GEKEEAL GEANT. 
 
 plans as defeat in battle. His soldiers had started 
 with but one day's rations in their haversacks ; for 
 Lee had sent orders to the chief commissary at Dan- 
 ville to rim'iip to Amelia Court-house subsistence and 
 ordnance stores for the retreating army. The loaded 
 cars had reached Amelia Station on Sunday afternoon ; 
 but here an order from Richmond reached the con- 
 ductor to bring on his train to the capital, where it 
 was needed to transport to safe quarters the personal 
 effects of the members of the Confederate cabinet. 
 The conductor, therefore, without unloading the food 
 and supplies designed for the troops, hurried his cars 
 on to Richmond, thus dashing the hopes of Lee, and 
 abandoning his army to starvation. He had counted 
 upon those tiger-like springs on detachments of 
 Grant's army, when it was broken up for the chase ; 
 but, in order to achieve this success fully, he must 
 hold his entire force in hand. But the loss of rations 
 now constrained him to break up his own army into 
 fragments, to scour the country for food. Lee was 
 therefore obliged to remain at Amelia Court-house 
 during Tuesday and Wednesday, which lost him all 
 the advantage of his sixteen-mile start, and gave an 
 opportunity to Sheridan to make up the gap, which 
 he was not slow to improve. On Monday morning, 
 Grant instantly forecast the direction, course, and 
 limitations of Lee's retreat, and made dispositions for 
 its embarrassment and arrest. Sheridan with his 
 cavalry was on Sunday night at Ford's station, on the 
 same South-side Road which Lee was attempting to 
 strike at Burksville ; while the Fifth Corps, now un- 
 der commnnd of Grifhn, was at Sutherland's, ten 
 miles from Petersburg on the same route. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL \VAE ? 4G3 
 
 Sheridan and Griffin are driven impetuously for- 
 ward south of the Appomattox, on a Ym'e parallel to 
 Lee's retreat alonii: the northern bank, with the de- 
 sign of strikins: the Danville Road below Amelia 
 Court-house, to cut off the enemy from Burksville. 
 To this force, thus set free for pursuit, Humphreys's 
 Second Corps was added, furnished with pontoons, 
 and directed to follow in the wake of Sheridan and 
 Griffin. On Monday morning, Ord, with the Army 
 of the James, was hurried down the South-side Rail- 
 road, aimed also at Burksville. Thus the two armies, 
 in three parallel lines, were wending forth to the 
 south-west, — Lee to strike the South-side Railroad at 
 Amelia Court-house for the purpose of reaching 
 Burksville ; Sheridan and Griffin to strike the same 
 road below Amelia Court-house, for the purpose of 
 cutting off Lee from Burksville ; Ord, with the Army 
 of the James, to reach Burksville, in case Lee should 
 escape from the gripe of Sheridan and Griffin. I 
 left Lee at Amelia Court-house on Tuesday ; but he 
 moved therefrom promptly in the morning, and 
 speedily struck the Danville Railroad. But the delay 
 w^as fatal. Sheridan, who is perfectly inspired by the 
 rapture of the chase, and animated with the soul of 
 all the mighty hunters from Nimrod down, strikes the 
 rowels deep into the flanks of his charger, and rushes 
 on the wings of the wind to Jetersville, where he in- 
 tercepts the vanguard of the Army of Virginia. He 
 flings intrenchments across Lee's line of retreat, and 
 challenges an engagement. He was now joined by 
 Meade, with the Second and Sixth Corps of the Army 
 of the Potomac. As the pursuers had thus placed 
 
464 LIFE OP GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 themselves across the sole path by which the game 
 can fly, it remained for the Confederate general, either 
 to double, or to break through this armed cordon and 
 still pursue his course. The former alternative was 
 adopted ; and he marched over the country for Farm- 
 ville, which is on the South-side Railroad, twenty-eight 
 miles below Jetersville, and eight miles below Burks- 
 ville, to which point pursuers and pursued were ori- 
 ginally aimed. When it was found that Lee had 
 altered the course of his flight, the direction of our 
 army was immediately changed. 
 
 The pursuit, which had hitherto assumed the chaiac- 
 ter of a race for Burksville, was now transformed into 
 a hunt, for the purpose not only of heading, but beat- 
 ing up and sna"ing the prey. The Army of the Po- 
 tomac, which is nearly all centred at Jetersville, breaks 
 into various directions. I will first follow Sheridan as 
 the most enterpnsing of the hunters. He drops his 
 infantry supports, for greater celerity of movement ; 
 but the Sixth Corps is still directed to follow, and be- 
 friend him if he encounters the enemy. He projects 
 Davis with a mounted force to Paine's Cross-roads, five 
 miles to the north-west, where he strikes a train of 
 a hundred and eighty wagons with a cavalry escort. 
 The wagons are destroyed ; five pieces of artillery 
 and a number of prisoners are captured. Growing 
 hotter and more furious as the hunt becomes entan- 
 gled, Sheridan, on Thursday morning, pounces upon 
 another Confederate wagon-train, with a formidable 
 escort both of infantry and cavalry. This is a prize 
 which excites all the fury and genius of the excited 
 leader. He orders Crook's division to assail the train, 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL YVAIl ? 465 
 
 and, if the escort proves too strong, to hang to it like 
 grim death, in order to permit another division to pass 
 beyond and assail the train still further on ; and this 
 division is, in its turn, instructed to cling \vith a 
 steady grasp, that another division may pass it, till 
 some vulnerable point is found. The result for 
 which he thus manoeuvred was attained at Sailors' 
 Creek, a small tributary to the Appomattox, where 
 Custar's division found the weak spot ; and, with the 
 assistance of his comrades, who instantly hurried to 
 his support, four hundred wagons, with sixteen pieces 
 of artillery and many prisoners, were captured. This 
 feat was hardly achieved, before Sheridan discovered 
 that Ewell's entire corps — the Confederate rear-guard 
 w^hich had burned Richmond — was follow^iftg the 
 train, and was thus cut off from its line of retreat, 
 it was too muscular for Sheridan to handle alone ; but 
 he could detain it nntil the Sixth Corps, -which was 
 following him, should bring np its infantry. With this 
 purpose, he charged Ewell, with Stagg's brigade ; and, 
 while this was in progress, the bayonets of the Sixth 
 came bristling over a neighboring crest, and the Con- 
 federates immediately commenced a retreat. Where- 
 upon one division of the Sixth Corps carried the road, 
 and put Ewell to flight ; but he continually turned 
 npon his pursuers, and delivered such destructive vol- 
 leys that another division of the Sixth Corps was 
 called in, and the advance was renewed, and the Con- 
 federates again repulsed, and driven towards Sailors' 
 Creek. The cavalry here environed them ; but Swell's 
 corps was not unmindful of its heritage of glory, and 
 resisted with a determination which staggered for an 
 
 3« 
 
4G6 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 instant the veteran line of the Sixth. But now the 
 infantry in front, and the cavalry on flank and rear, 
 simultaneously charged ; and the heroic rear-guard, 
 finding themselves surrounded, threw down their arms 
 in token of surrender. The captures included the 
 entire corps, with Lieut-Gen. Ewell and four general 
 officers. 
 
 While Sheridan has been engaged in bagging the 
 enemy's rear-guard, Lee, with the main body, has con- 
 tinued his retreat during Thursday night, and recrossed 
 to the north bank of the Appomattox by bridges in 
 tlie neighborhood of Farmville. His army now suf- 
 fered from a famine which can only be conceived by 
 those who can recall Napoleon's retreat from Moscow, 
 or, whftt is perhaps a more vivid representation than 
 this real portraiture, the imaginary description by De 
 Quincey of the dismal flight of the Tartar tribe. Men 
 by the thousand drop their arms because they are 
 too weak to carry them ; animals suffer even more 
 than men ; the grass has not yet sprouted, and bipeds 
 and quadrupeds are forced to sustain life on the buds 
 and tender branches of the trees, which are just be- 
 ginning to shoot from the parent stems. It is hard 
 to exaggerate the famished condition of the fugitive 
 army ; for the country has already been stripped by 
 war, and the clouds of our cavalry effectually debarred 
 the detours and expeditions of the foraging parties 
 of the foe. It was not until dawn on Friday that 
 the Confederate army had succeeded in again reach- 
 ing the north bank of the Appomattox. 
 
 Here, while a council of officers were deliberating 
 upon the emergencies of their situation, and had 
 
WHAT DID HE DO ' IN THE CIVIL WAU ? 467 
 
 commissioned Gen. Pendleton to recommend Gen. 
 Lee to surrender, the bugles of the hunters upon 
 their track were again .heard. I left the Second 
 Corps at Jetersville, when I turned thence in order 
 to follow the sabres of Sheridan, Humphrej^s was 
 directed to pursue, and advance towards Farmville 
 by v;ay of Deatonsville ; and, in prosecuting this 
 march, he had overtaken the Confederate rear-g-uard 
 at the high bridge over the Appomattox, six miles 
 east of Farmville, and had defeated an attempt 
 of the enemy to burn the wagon-road bridge, and 
 had there secured a crossing o\er the Appomattox, 
 which at this point was unfordable. He found now 
 the Army of Northern Virginia intrenched with bat- 
 teries on the crest of a hill, covering the stage and 
 plank road to Lynchburg. It had vigor enough 
 left to repulse an attack upon its flank ; and darkness 
 fell upon both belligerents before the assault could 
 be renewed. Durino; the nia:ht, Lee continued his 
 flight. The pursuers follow him with the dawn, 
 the Second and Sixth Corps by the north bank of 
 the Appomatox, while Sheridan dashes along by the 
 south bank, followed by Ord with the Army of the 
 James and the Fifth Corps, rallying all his vigor and 
 energy to strike the Southside Railroad at Ap- 
 pomattox Station, for the purpose of inflicting upon 
 Lee the fatal blow of closing his only outlet to 
 Lynchburg ; for his line of retreat is the narrow neck 
 of land between the James on the north and the 
 Appomattox on the south. Sheridan is thus swoop- 
 ing round his flank. Meade, with the two army corps, 
 is followinoj his track. On the evening of Saturday, 
 
468 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 after a furious ride of thirty mileSj Sheridan reaches 
 Ajopomattox Station. He captures here a third 
 wagon-train, which had been sent from Lynchburg 
 with supphes for Lee. He throws his sabres across 
 the road, five miles below Appomattox Court-house. 
 He resolves to hold his position for the night, with 
 the knowledge that the Army of the James will sup- 
 port him in the morning, while, at the same time, 
 the Army of the Potomac will strike the rear of the 
 Confederates. On Sunday morning, the hunt is so 
 closed in upon the victims that but two alternatives 
 are left to Lee, either to surrender his army, or to 
 cut his way through Sheridan's squadrons. It was 
 congenial to his nature, and worthy of his antecedents, 
 to adopt the bolder expedient. By dawn on Sunday, 
 the skeleton of the Array of Virginia is for the last 
 time drawn up in battle array, with the wrecks of 
 Gordon's battered columns for its inefficient front, 
 with all that remains of Longstreet's once puissant 
 porps for its feeble and attenuated rear ; between the 
 two is a debilitated and half-starved mass, too weak 
 and famished to bear their arms, shriek their historic 
 yell, or wave their tattered banners. Gen. Lee is- 
 sued his last battle-order to Gordon, " Cut your way 
 through at all hazards." The corps-leader attacks 
 with such impetuosity that the cavalrymen, who 
 have dismounted to receive the shock, are compelled 
 to yield the ground ; but Sheridan directs them to 
 retire slowly, delivering their effectual fire, for he 
 knew that the Army of the James was near. At 
 this critical moment, Gordon abandons hope ; for he 
 discerns the serried ranks of the infantry advancing 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 469 
 
 in powerful battle-line. The cavalry feel the pres.sure 
 upon them yielding. The foe sullenly retires. 
 Sheridan sounds his bugles to mount, and, at the 
 head of his squadrons, deploys on the enemy's left 
 flank, to charge between the front and rear of Lee's 
 depleted lines. The order " Forward ! " is on his lips, 
 when an officer with a white flag is seen advancing 
 from the hostile ranks, bearing a letter from the 
 Confederate commander. The letter to Lieut.-Gen. 
 Grant was delivered to Custar, who was in advance ; 
 and it was immediately forwarded to Sheridan, with 
 the information that the enemy wished to surrender. 
 Sheridan rode over to Appomattox Court-house, and 
 met Gordon and Wilcox of the Confederate service. 
 They requested a suspension of hostilities pending 
 negotiations for surrender between the two com- 
 manders-in-chief "I notified them," says Sheridan, 
 " that I desired to prevent the unnecessary efiusion 
 of blood ; but as there was nothing definitely settled 
 in the correspondence, and as an attack had been 
 made on my lines with the view to escape, under the 
 impression that our force was only cavalry, I must have 
 some assurance of an intended surrender. This Gen. 
 Gordon gave, by saying that there was no doubt of 
 the surrender of Gen. Lee's army. I then separated 
 from him, with an agreement to meet these officers 
 again in half an hour at Appomattox Court-house. 
 At the specified time, in company with Gen. Ord, 
 who commanded the infantry, I again met this officer, 
 also Lieut.-Gen. Longstreet, and received from them 
 the same assurance ; and hostilities ceased until the 
 an Ival of Liept.-Gen. Grant." It was hardly an hour 
 
470 LIFE OF GENEEAL GEANT. 
 
 since the order was given to Gordon, '•' Cut your way 
 through at all hazards ; " and there can be no reason 
 able doubt that the sudden change in the purpose 
 of Gen. Lee was entirely due to the appearance of 
 Ord in his front. 
 
 I have been unwilling to interrupt the narrative of 
 the chase, by giving an account of the correspondence 
 which has been passing between the two generals-in- 
 chief since Friday last. " Feeling," says Gen. Grant, 
 " that Lee's chance of escape was utterly hopeless, I 
 addressed him the following communication from 
 Farmville:" — 
 
 April 7, 1865. 
 General, — The result of the last week must convince you of 
 the hopelessness of further resistance, on the part of the Army of 
 Northern Virginia, in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard 
 it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further 
 effusion of blood by asking of you the surrender of that portion 
 of the Confederate-States army known as the Army of Northern 
 "Virginia. U. S. Grant, Lieutenant- General'. 
 
 Gen. R. E. Lee. 
 
 Early on Saturday morning, before leaving Farm- 
 ville, Grant received the following reply : — 
 
 April 7, 1865. 
 General, — I have received your note of this date. Though 
 oot entertaining the opinion you express on the hopelessness of 
 further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia, I 
 reciprocate your desire to avoid useless effusion of blood, and 
 therefore, before considering your proposition, ask the terms you 
 will offer on condition of its surrender. 
 
 R. E. Lee, General. 
 Lieut.-Gen. U. S. Grant. 
 
 In answer to this communication, Grant wrote Gen. 
 Lee as follows : — 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IK THE CIVIL WAK ? 471 
 
 April 8, 1SC5. 
 General, — Your note of last evening, in reply to mine of 
 same date, asking the condition on which I will accept the sun-cn- 
 der of the Army of Northern Virginia, is just received. In reply, 
 I would say, that, jjeace being my great desire, there is but one con- 
 dition T would insist upon ; namely, that the men and officers sur- 
 rendered shall be disqualified for taking up arms again against the 
 Government of the United States, until properly exchanged, I will 
 meet you, or will designate officers to meet any officers you may 
 name for the same purpose, at any point agreeable to you, for the 
 purpose of arranging definitely the terms upon which the surren- 
 der of the Army of Northern Virginia will be received. 
 
 U. S. GrajvT, Lieutenant- General, 
 Gen. R. E. 'Lee. 
 
 After the reception of this letter, Gen. Lee's pros- 
 pects had improved : he had beaten off Ilumphreyss 
 attempt to carry his intrenched Hues, he had left the 
 Army of the Potomac behind him by a night's march, 
 he knew nothing of Sheridan's detonr round his, fronts 
 and the vision in which he had long indulged, of a 
 campaign waged at a distance from the James, began 
 to assume the semblance of reality. Though fleeing 
 every night, and harassed by pursuit and famine, his 
 spirits had recovered their elasticity: when he in- 
 dicted the following epistle he was as sanguine and 
 determined as when he gave his final order to 
 Gordon : — 
 
 April 8, 1865. 
 General, — I received at a late hour your note of to-day. In 
 mine of yesterday I did not intend to propose the surrender of the 
 Army of Northern Virginia, but to ask the terms of your proposi- 
 tion. To be frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen to call 
 for the surrender of this army ; but, as the restoration of peace 
 should be the sole object of all, I desired to know whether your 
 proposals would lead to that end. I cannot, therefore, meet you 
 
472 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 with a view to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia ; but, as 
 
 far as your proposal may affect the Confederate-States forces under 
 
 my command, and tend to the restoration of peace, I shoukl be 
 
 pleased to meet you at ten, a.m., to-morrow, on the old stage-road 
 
 to Richmond, between the picket lines of the two armies. 
 
 R. E. Lee, General. 
 Lieut. -Gen. U. S. Grant. 
 
 To this Gen. Grant replied, — 
 
 Apkil 9, 1865. 
 
 General, — Your note of yesterday is received. I have no 
 authority to treat on the subject of peace. The meeting proposed 
 for ten, a. 51., to-day, could lead to no good. I will state, however, 
 general, that I am equally anxious for peace with yourself; and the 
 whole North entertains tlie same feeling. The terms upon which 
 peace cau be had are well imderstood. By the South laying down 
 their arms, they will hasten that most desirable event, save thou- 
 sands of human lives, and hundreds of millions of property not yet 
 destroyed. Seriously hoping that all our difficulties may be settled 
 without the loss of another life, I subscribe myself, &c., 
 
 U. S. Grant, Lieutenant- General. 
 Gen. R. E. Lee. 
 
 After transmitting this letter, Gen. Grant immedi- 
 ately started to join Sheridan's column south of Ap- 
 pomattox Court-house; for he had received a despatch 
 Prom that officer inciting him to press on with all speed, 
 that there was now no means of escape, for the enemy 
 had finally reached the " last ditch." While spurring 
 on to assume direction of affairs in front of Lee, Grant 
 received this letter from the Confederate commander, 
 which had been delivered to Custar by the flag of 
 truce : — 
 
 Apkil 9, 1865. 
 General, — I received your note of this morning on the picket 
 line, Avhither I had come to meet you, and ascertain definitely what 
 terms were embraced in your proposal of yesterday with reference 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAE, ? 473 
 
 to the surrender of this army. I uow ask an interview, in accord- 
 ance with the offer contained in your letter of yesterday for that 
 
 purpose. 
 
 R. E. Lee, General. 
 Lieut.-Gen. U. S. Grant. 
 
 Grant forthwith penned on his saddle, upon a leaf 
 torn from his tablets, the following reply : — 
 
 Apkil 9, 1865. 
 Gen. R. E. Lee, Commanding C. S. A. : — 
 
 Your noteof this date is but this moment, 11.59, A.M., received. 
 In consequence of my having passed from the Richmond and 
 Lynchburg Road to the Farmville and Lynchburg Road, I am, at 
 this writing, about four miles west of Walter's Church, and will 
 ])ush forward to the front for the purpose of meeting you. Notice 
 sent to me on this road where you wish the interview to take place 
 will meet me. Very respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 U. S. Grant, Lieutenant-General. 
 
 These notes produced the memorable interview 
 between the two commanders at the dwelling of 
 Mr. Wilmer McLean, near Appomattox Court-house. 
 Expect nothing dramatic or theatrical in this momen- 
 tous scene. I have already iterated and reiterated, 
 that there is nothing sensational in Grant's uttcsrance, 
 manners, address : he uniformly despises show and 
 parade, and dispenses with all superfluous ceremony. 
 In addition to these plain and straightforward habits, 
 which of themselves would have precluded all histri- 
 onic and pictorial effects, he was influenced by the 
 generous motive of avoiding any thing which would 
 wound the feelings, or add to the humiliation, of an 
 accomplished and honorable foe. No parade could 
 have added to the import of this thrilling interview 
 between great antagonists who had won each other's 
 
474 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 respect in protracted warfare, and who had now met 
 to sheathe the swords of more than a million warriors, 
 and pacify contending nations. 
 
 Melodramatic display, and sentimental harangues 
 and utterances, were as foreign to Gen. Lee's nature as 
 to Grant's ; and the addresses and oratorical efforts of 
 the one are hardly shorter or more sententious than 
 those of the other. One of our officers who was 
 present on this occasion says of Gen. Lee, "His 
 demeanor was that of a thoroughly possessed gentle- 
 man who had a very disagreeable duty to perform, 
 but was determined to get through it as well and as 
 soon as he could." Col. Marshall, one of his aides, 
 was the only officer who accompanied him. 
 
 Li describinsr the interview between Grant and 
 
 o 
 
 Pemberton at Vicksburg, I gave an extract from a 
 letter which I had written to my fimily, after hear- 
 ing from Gen. Grant's own lips a description of the 
 scene. On the same occasion, he sketched the meet- 
 ing between Gen. Lee and himself at the house of 
 Mr. McLean. It was owing to the courtesy of my 
 friend Mr. Paul S. Forbes of New York, that this 
 pleasure was afforded me. After the passage of the 
 bill creating the grade of general by the House of 
 Representatives, Mr. Forbes honored me with an 
 invitation to meet Gen. Grant at dinner. The party 
 consisted of Gen. Grant, Gen. Parke, Gen. Ingals, 
 and the Hon. Henry J. Raymond, Hon. John A. 
 Griswold, Mr. James Tisdale, librarian of the House, 
 Mr. Forbes, and myself With the letter before me, 
 I transcribe Gen. Grant's language, as I committed it 
 to paper after my return to my room : " I felt some 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 475 
 
 embarrassment in the prospect of meeting Gen. Lee. 
 I had not seen him since he was Gen. Scott's chief-of- 
 staffin Mexico ; and, in addition to the respect I enter- 
 tained for him, the duty which I had to perform was 
 a disagreeable one, and I wished to get through it as 
 soon as possible. When I reached Appomattox Court- 
 house, I had ridden that morning thirty-seven miles. 
 I was in my campaign clothes, covered with dust and 
 mud ; I had no sword ; I was not even well mounted, 
 for I rode (turning to Gen. Ingals, who was present) 
 one of Ingals's horses. I found Gen. Lee in a fresh 
 suit of Confederate gray, with all the insignia of his 
 rank, and at his side the splendid dress-sword which 
 had been given to him by the State of Virginia. Wo 
 shook hands. He was exceedingly courteous in his • 
 address, and we seated ourselves at a deal table 
 in Mr. McLean's front room. We talked of two 
 of the conditions of surrender, wdiich had been left 
 open by our previous correspondence, one of which 
 related to the ceremonies which were to be observed 
 on the occasion ; and when I disclaimed any desire 
 to have any parade, but said I should be con- 
 tented with the delivery of arms to my officers, and 
 with the proper signature and authentication of 
 paroles, he seemed to be greatly pleased. When I 
 yielded the other point, that the officers should retain 
 their side-arms and private baggage and horses, his 
 emotions of satisfaction were plainly visible. Wc 
 soon reduced the terms to writing. We parted with 
 the same courtesies with which we had met. It 
 seemed to me that Gen. Lee evinced a feeling of 
 satisfaction and relief when the business was finished. 
 
476 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 I immed lately mounted lugals's horse, returned to 
 Gen. Sheridan's headquarters, and did not again 
 present myself to the Confederate commander." 
 
 The documents signed at Mr. McLean's house were 
 as follows : — 
 
 Appomattox Coukt House, Va., April 9, 1865. 
 
 General, — In accordance with the substance of my letter to 
 
 you of the Sth instant, I propose to receive the surrender of the Army 
 
 of Northern Virginia on the following terms ; to wit, rolls of all the 
 
 officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to 
 
 an officer to be designated by me, the other to be retained by such 
 
 officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their 
 
 individual paroles not to take up arms against the Government of 
 
 the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or 
 
 regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their 
 
 <;;ommands. The arms, artillery, and public property to be 
 
 parked and stacked, and turned over to the officers appointed by 
 
 tne to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the 
 
 officers nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each 
 
 officer and man will be allowed to return to his home, not to be 
 
 disturbed by United-States authority so long as they observe their 
 
 paroles, and the laws in force where they may reside. 
 
 U. S. Grant, Lieutenant- General. 
 Gen. R. E. Lee. 
 
 Headquaetees Aemy of Noetheen Vieginia, April 9, 1865. 
 General, — I received your letter of this date, containing the 
 terms of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as 
 proposed by you. As they are substantially the same as those 
 expressed in your letter of the Sth instant, they are accepted. I 
 will proceed to designate the proper officers to carry the stipula- 
 tions into effect. 
 
 R. E. Lee, General. 
 Lieut.-Gen. U. S. Grant. 
 
 Thus was the act engrossed which disbanded and 
 disarmed the Army of Northern Virginia, relegated 
 
■WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 477 
 
 its veteran officers and soldiers to tlie ranks of peace- 
 ful citizens, and virtually ended hostilities, and de- 
 stroyed the Confederacy. The command of Griffin, 
 and McKenzie's cavalry, were designated to remain 
 at Appomattox Court-house until the paroles of the 
 surrendered army were complete. On the 12th of 
 April the Army of Northern Virginia marched by 
 divisions to a spot designated by the commissioners, 
 where they stacked their arms, and laid their stand- 
 ards on the earth.-^ 
 
 The critics of Grant's military methods cannot erase 
 from the record this grand result, while they call 
 upon ns to admire the exact accordance with military 
 theories of the operations of other leaders, which 
 resulted only in discomfiture and the prolongation of 
 the war. If we are compelled to choose between 
 scientific defeat and unscientific triumph, theie can 
 be no doubt to which the preference should be given 
 in this utilitarian era. After every deduction is 
 allowed from the merits of Gi\ant which criticism 
 claims, there still remains a tremendous balance in 
 his favor, for havino: subdued armed resistance to the 
 national authority. 
 
 According to the maxims of Jomini, the war of an 
 invader against a people making means of resistance 
 out of every thing, with each individual combatant 
 and non-combatant conspiring against the common 
 foe, "is so disastrous to the invader that he must 
 inevitably yield after a time ; " and he adds, that " his 
 difficulties become insurmountable, when the country 
 is difficult." Grant encounters both of the conditions 
 
 1 The commissioners of prisoners report that 27,805 were paroled. 
 
478 LIFE OF GEXEEAL GRANT. 
 
 which this accomplished theorist pronounces incom- 
 patible with triumph ; and his final success can, there- 
 fore, be only regarded as a marvellous achievement, 
 unwarranted by military principles. No country 
 ever presented greater natural obstacles than the 
 region through which the Wilderness campaign was 
 conducted ; no people were ever more universally 
 united against an invader than the population of 
 Virginia. There is not an instance, up to the final 
 overthrow of Lee, where any advantage was derived 
 from the sympathy, either of the white or the col- 
 ored residents of the country. 
 
 Superior odds in numbers and the sacrifice of life 
 were indispensable prerequisites of victory on such 
 a field and in such a warfare. It cannot be success- 
 fully claimed that the greatest warriors of the race 
 could have accomplished it with a smaller army, or 
 w^ith a less slaughter of men, considering the unsur- 
 passed prestige of the enemy at the outset, the 
 physical entanglements of the terrain, and the im- 
 provised ramparts of earth and logs behind which 
 the Confederates waged every battle in this remark- 
 able campaign. The march from the Rapidan to the 
 James was a continuous assault upon these rude 
 but strong breastworks, where veteran infantry was 
 posted, equipped with repeating arms, and rifled 
 artillery of immense range sweeping their front ; and 
 where the defender could lie in security, without real 
 or chimerical cause for alarm, awaiting the approach 
 of the assailants predestined to overthrow. Tf 
 against such advantages a temporary success was 
 gained, it only threw the enemy back a few hundred 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 479 
 
 yards, behind other defences of similar character, 
 where the assailants were again constrained to repeat 
 the same disheartening experiment. The records of 
 warfare furnish no parallel for such a campaign : we 
 can only infer the odds which would be required by 
 military rules to overcome such disadvantage of posi- 
 tion from the three-fold numerical preponderance 
 which the most adventurous masters of the art have 
 always demanded as an element of success in storm- 
 ing operations. The husbandry of troops in such 
 circumstances, against an enemy prodigal of the lives 
 of his own soldiers, would have been at once submis- 
 sion to defeat. The losses which a general was 
 justified in incurring can only be measured by a 
 calculation based upon the maximum of casualties 
 which are allotted to a storming party, multiplied 
 by the number of days in which the Army of the 
 Potomac was eni2;a<>:ed in this most terrible business 
 of their profession. It should, also be taken into the 
 account, that the losses which Grant inflicted upon 
 the foe, in delivering these expensive assaults, put an 
 end to offensive operations upon Lee's part, and re- 
 duced the suppression of the Rebellion to a mere 
 question of time. 
 
 Even those who withhold approval from Grant's 
 method of attack concede to him surpassing skill as 
 a manoeuvrer, in his various flanking movements. 
 His change of base to the south of the James was a 
 brilliant execution of the most difficult feat known to 
 the military art. No officer on record, it is univer- 
 sally admitted, ever exhibited greater persistency of 
 purpose or tenacity of will ; while both friend and foe 
 
480 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 concede that his pursuit of Lee was conducted with 
 prodigious energy and masterly skill. 
 
 It should not be forgotten, that, while Grant was 
 bearing on his shoulders the tremendous load of the 
 military operations I have just described, he was 
 supervising and directing, in addition, the movement 
 of eight hundred thousand soldiers, scattered over 
 the remainder of the immense theatre of war. While 
 handling the three armies immediately concerned in 
 the combined movement against Richmond, he must 
 take the responsibility of determining whether Sher- 
 man shall essay that unparalleled march to the sea, 
 finally advising him, after a protracted interchange of 
 telegrams, " If you are satisfied the trip to the sea- 
 coast can be made, holding the line of the Tennessee 
 firmly, you can make it." The weight of Hood's raid 
 against Thomas oppresses him as much as tho^^e 
 protracted and painful expeditions by which he was 
 prolonging to the left the investment of Petersburg. 
 The entanglements of the Fort Fisher expedition, the 
 panic at Washington caused by Early's raid ; the dis- 
 aster of Banks at the Red River ; Forrest's guerilla war- 
 fare in East Tennessee; Canby's adventure against Mo- 
 bile ; Schofield's advance into North Carolina ; Steele, 
 Rosecrans, and Curtis in the wilds of Arkansas and 
 Kansas, — constantly demand his wise and comprehen- 
 sive oversight. The greatest campaign, either of Napo- 
 leon or Frederick, never imposed upon either of those 
 foremost men in war greater care or anxiety than Gen. 
 Grant endured, while an excited nation was holding 
 him responsible for the momentous interests of his 
 own particular line of operation. 
 
WHAT DID HE DO IN THE CIVIL WAR ? 481 
 
 " What did he do in the Civil War ? " is summarily 
 answered by the headings which I have appended to 
 the chapters devoted to this part of my theme. The 
 methods which he adopted for the performance of 
 these mighty tasks are detailed in my narrative of 
 wonderful sieges, marches, and engagements : their 
 result, and contribution to the gradual overthrow of 
 the Rebellion, are succinctly summed up at the close 
 of each chapter. I do not find upon reflection, that 
 I have any thing to add to the views already ex- 
 pressed upon each of the leading exploits of Grant's 
 military career ; and, so far as I am concerned, I must 
 submit his capacity as a general to the verdict of his 
 countiymen, upon the record I have already present- 
 ed. Whatever mistakes of omission or commission 
 he might have made during the progress of the most 
 complicated and difficult martial labors, he was in no 
 instance finally baffled, but, with a spirit invincible, 
 persisted in their prosecution until all were at length 
 crowned with overwhelming triumph. No one asserts 
 that he is a military paragon. I claim for him no 
 infallibility : he himself concedes serious errors both 
 in plan and execution. No man certainly can dissent 
 from his own modest avowal, in his own simple 
 language, " All I can say is, that what I have done has 
 been done conscientiously, to the best of my ability, 
 and in what I conceived to be for the best interests 
 of the whole country," 
 
 31 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 
 [April, 1865 -December, 1867.] 
 
 MR. ROEBUCK, in his history of the Whig ad- 
 ministration of England in 1830, observes, in 
 reference to the Duke of Wellington, " No man can 
 be a great soldier unless he possess great adminis- 
 trative talent; and this talent is more lik3ly to be 
 brought forth and fostered by the business of war 
 than by the management of cases at nisi lorius ; yet, 
 because of the habit of speaking, the lawyer is deemed 
 capable of governing; while the soldier, whose life is 
 spent in action and not in talk, is considered unversed 
 in what are called the civil affairs of state." 
 
 It has always seemed to me that this remark rested 
 on sound reason. There is but little difference, 
 theoretically, between the qualities required for the 
 successful administration of civil government and 
 the successful management of an army. Both 
 governments are chiefly concerned with the execu- 
 tion of law and the control of men, not by arbitrary 
 will, but by rule and regulation; and the distinction 
 between the two is rather of form than of essence. 
 To wisely rule a state or an empire, and to trium- 
 phantly conduct a campaign, the same comprehen- 
 
 482 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 483 
 
 siveuess of view, firmness, industry, knowledge of 
 men, mastery of details, and devotion to the great 
 interests in hand, are imperatively required. 
 
 The lesson thus derived from the identity of quali- 
 ties which enter into the composition of a successful 
 ruler and a successful general is confirmed by the 
 experience of mankind from the days of Joshua and 
 David to those of Napoleon and Wellington ; from 
 which it appears that the men valiant in battle, the 
 mighty captains, the redeemers of the captivity of a 
 people, have been the renowned emperors, magis- 
 trates, ministers, and presidents in peace. No more 
 signal illustration can be found than the examples 
 of Washington and Jackson, who illustrated in civil 
 administration the same qualities which delivered 
 the country in war. The two great parties which 
 have hitherto divided the nation, have both affected 
 to be jealous of intrusting civil authority to men 
 habituated to war ; but both have cheerfully accepted 
 military candidates, and always disarmed their ap- 
 prehensions, upon the demand of party expediency. 
 A bad man, although a good general, may make a 
 bad ruler, — as a bad man, though a good lawj^er, may 
 make a bad ruler ; but it will be hard to find an in- 
 stance of a man with the public good at heart, and 
 with genuine love of country, who has not been im- 
 proved in qualifications to rule an empire or govern 
 a state b}^ experience in conducting large military 
 operations. From the time, when, as a colonel, he 
 clears his guard-house in the morning to the time 
 when, a general-in-chief, he is final arbiter on ques- 
 tions of military justice, he is continually trained 
 
484 LIFE OF GEXEP.AL GRANT. 
 
 in the government of men. From the time he 
 becomes the father of the regiment till the time 
 he conducts the most important campaign, he is en- 
 irafi-ed in themes and activities which are closely 
 analogous to those which test the capacity of civil 
 rulers. If 3'OU follow a general through protracted 
 and complicated operations, you cannot fail to dis- 
 cern that he is as much tried by army administration 
 as by sieges and engagements. 
 
 If from successful military administration in general 
 we are authorized to presume executive ability in 
 civil aifairs, the presumption is much stronger when 
 such success was won in a w\ar so unique and pe- 
 culiar as our civil war. The administration of our 
 great military districts or departments was fir from 
 being purely militaryj — civil and military functions 
 were blended in the general at their head ; the 
 qualities which equipped a civil ruler were as im- 
 periously demanded as the qualities which constitute 
 a w^arrior ; the authority exercised was partly under 
 municipal, partly under martial law : the experience 
 acquired was as serviceable for a statesman as for 
 a general. The district of South-eastern Missouri, 
 to which Grant was first assigned, embraced loyal, 
 semi-loyal, and neutral territory, — citizens who had 
 never wavered in their allegiance, armed neutrals, 
 and full-blooded rebels. To each division under his 
 jurisdiction he must apply a different code; and his 
 authority over the mixed population within it was 
 of every degree, from perfect nullity to absolute 
 dominion. In the part embraced within the State 
 of Illinois, he neither claimed nor exercised control of 
 
ADMmiSTEATIVE EXPERIENCE. 485 
 
 the citizen, but confined himself entirely to the 
 government of his own troops. In Kentucky, part 
 rebel, and part loyal, he was obliged to use the 
 nicest discrimination ; and the rule which he adopted 
 in this debatable land exemplified his wisdom as a 
 magistrate, for he enforced State law^s when they 
 were not incompatible with the constitution of the 
 United States, the law^s of Congress, or general or- 
 ders. He avoided all unnecessary interference with 
 local courts. He reserved military support until it 
 was invoked by the State magistrates. When an 
 offence was not against martial law, or committed by 
 a soldier, he uniformly remanded the criminal to the 
 civil tribunal. 
 
 The parts of Tennessee which were htld by Con- 
 federate troops, or w^ere in manifest alliance with 
 Eebellion, he was obliged to rule by that law which 
 has been correctly defined as " the will of the con- 
 queror;" but, even when governing by its mandates, 
 he was controlled by such equitable principles, and 
 exercised power with so much justice and leniency, 
 that the inhabitants themselves accepted his adminis- 
 tration as a grateful relief from the reign of anarchy 
 and violence which it effectually subverted As a 
 military governor, he is not only above fault, but 
 above suspicion. No one has accused him of any 
 unconscionable or wanton acts of malversation and 
 rapine ; no one has even intimated that ill-go tteu 
 gain has clung to his spotless palm. Extortion, em- 
 bezzlement, bribes, are not connected with the name 
 of Grant. While so many wdio served in similar 
 positions have been made the butt of warranted or 
 
486 LLFE or GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 imwananted accusation, his singular ininmnity from 
 such charges is conclusive proof that his hands were 
 clean, his proconsular career honorable, and his integ- 
 rity unimpeached. His voluminous order-books, ex- 
 tending through three years of military rule, furnish 
 abundant evidence of the consideration with which 
 he treats non-combatant rebels, and of the severity 
 with wdiich he punishes the marauding or unjustifia- 
 ble acts of his own soldiers. I also find from the 
 same record, that trial and conviction immediately 
 follow offences against these wise and humane regu 
 lations. History presents no example of a com- 
 mander, in an enemy's country, who administers mar- 
 tial law with more generosity towards the conquered, 
 or with more justice, gentleness, and forbearance. 
 Can any better criterion of administrative wisdom be 
 found than this control of rebellious and anarchical 
 communities, without cruel and sanguinary punish- 
 ments? Can there be any reasonable apprehension, 
 that, as a civil ruler, he will transcend any constitu- 
 tional limitation, when, with no restraint upon his 
 authority but his own will, and wielding in full pleni- 
 tude absolute dominion, he has uniformly governed 
 public enemies with moderation and forbearance ? 
 
 A geueral-in-chief, in hostile territories, is pre-emi- 
 nently the executive officer of that great code which 
 is known as Public Law, or the Law of Nations. A 
 civil war, as absolutely as a war inter genies, confers 
 upon the party claiming to be sovereign full belliger- 
 ent rights, and entails upon the opposite party all 
 the liabilities of a perfect war. It was for the in- 
 ♦erest of the Confederates to secure from the national 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 487 
 
 Government, through its constituted authorities, some 
 recognition of their rights as belligerents, that they 
 might command the respect of foreign nations, and 
 entitle themselves to all the ameliorating provisions 
 of the international code. Now, one step towards 
 creating a state of public war is for the insurgent 
 to obtain from the sovereign a cartel for the ex- 
 change of prisoners ; for this is an acknowledgment 
 of a belligerent right. In the operations which pre- 
 ceded the battle of Belmont, the Confederate generals 
 at Columbus had inveigled Col. W. H. L. Wallace 
 into an agreement for an exchange of prisoners ; but, 
 as this officer was merely in subordinate command, 
 the concession carried with it no implied sanction by 
 the Government. After this battle. Gen. Polk delib- 
 er.ately plotted to trepan Grant into an authoritative 
 admission of this belligerent right. He sent to him 
 a flag of truce, offering an exchange of prisoners in 
 the name of the Confederate Government. Grant 
 forthwith replied, " I can make no exchange. I 
 recognize no Southern Confederacy, but will commu- 
 nicate with higher authorities for their views." 
 
 By the international code, captives from the enemy 
 are entitled to be treated as prisoners of war. When, 
 in process of time, the national Government had so 
 far acknowledged the rebels as belligerents that an 
 exchange of prisoners was authorized, the Confederate 
 officers were required by general orders from Rich- 
 mond, to turn over to the civil courts, to be dealt with 
 according to the black code of the slave States, all 
 negroes captured in arms. Grant was not unmindful 
 in this emergency that he was chief executive of 
 
488 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 international law ;■ for he immediately informed the 
 Confederate commander in Louisiana that he should 
 require its strict observance. He wrote to him in 
 these terms, when he heard that a white captain and 
 some negro soldiers, captured at Milliken's Bend, had 
 been hung : " I feel no inclination to retaliate for the 
 offences of irresponsible persons; but, if it is the policy 
 o£ any general intrusted with the command of troops, 
 to show no quarter, or to punish with death prisoners 
 taken in battle, 1 will accept the issue. It may be, 
 you propose a different line of policy towards black 
 troops and officers commanding them to that prac- 
 tised towards white troops. If so, I can assure you 
 that these colored troops are regularly mustered into 
 the service of the United States. The Government, 
 and all officers under the Government, are bound to 
 give the same protection to these troops that they do 
 to any other troops." 
 
 It was as early as August, 18G2, nearly one month 
 before the proclamation of emancipation, that Gen. 
 Grant announced, with the foresight of a genuine 
 statesman, and in terms equally fearless and distinct, 
 that slavery must be destroyed before liberty could 
 be saved. He was at Vicksburg in this summer, upon 
 a reconnoissance, after the detachment from Gen. 
 Butler's army had abandoned the siege. The following 
 remarkable communication bears date, " Vicksburg, 
 Aug. 30, 1862," and is addressed to Hon. E. B. 
 Washburne : " The people of the North need not 
 quarrel over the institution of slavery. What Vice- 
 President Stephens acknowledges the corner-stone of 
 the Confederacy is already knocked out. Slavery is 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPEEIENCE. 489 
 
 already dead, and cannot be resurrected. It would 
 take a standing army to maintain slavery in the 
 South if we were to make peace to-day, guaranteeing 
 to the South all their former constitutional privileges. 
 I never was an Abolitionist, not even what could be 
 called anti-slavery : but I try to judge fairly and 
 honestly ; and it became patent to my mind early in 
 the Rebellion that the North and South could never 
 live at peace with each other except as one nation, 
 and that without slavery. As anxious as I am to see 
 peace established, I would not, therefore, be willing to 
 see any settlement until this question is forever 
 settled." 
 
 When Grant entered upon the administration of 
 affairs at Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, he found a 
 population of five or six thousand souls, exempt from 
 all the control of law, without courts, without magis- 
 trates, no protection to property, no security to indus- 
 try, no encouragement to trade, with none of those 
 wise provisions by which the " state's collected will," in 
 ten thousand ways, subordinates the interests of the 
 individual to the general welfare of society. If there 
 could be a resurrection from the foot of the gallows^ 
 if the victims of justice could live again and found a 
 community, they would, however loth, soon find them- 
 selves obliged to make that justice under which they 
 fell the fundamental law of the state. They would 
 discern that it was for their own interest to make 
 others respect, and they would therefore soon pay 
 some respect themselves to, the obligations of good 
 faith.^ To this city, handed over to crime and misrule, 
 
 1 Fisher Ames's Works. 
 
490 LIFE OF GEN^ERAL GRAISTT. 
 
 Grant instantly recalled long-banished justice. From 
 this chaos, he evoked law and order. He protected all 
 the employments and pursuits of the peaceful citizen. 
 He administered law between man and man, and 
 maintained the rights of property and of personal 
 security by his provost courts. Life and limb were 
 for once safe in Vicksburg. The extortion of pilots 
 had almost closed the navigation of the Mississippi 
 and its tributaries ; and he issued in general orders a 
 code for the regulation of this monopoly, which was 
 of inestimable benefit both to the government and 
 the governed. He extended, in a word, over this 
 insubordinate city the ajgis of a deliverer, rather than 
 the sword of a conqueror. 
 
 While engaged in recalling the habits and insti- 
 tutions of civilization to a neighborhood which had 
 long been the chosen haunt of vice and crime^ he 
 was invited by the secretary of the treasury to give 
 his views upon the intricate question of reopening 
 trade with the rebellious States which had been par- 
 tially subjugated. "I find," says Mr. Chase, in a 
 letter addressed to Grant at this period, " that a 
 rigorous line within districts occupied by our military 
 forces, beyond which no cotton or other produce can 
 be brought, and within which no trade can be carried 
 on, gives rise to serious, and to some apparently well- 
 founded, complaints." The secretary consulted Grant 
 upon the propriety "of substituting bonds, to be 
 given by all persons receiving trade-permits, for the 
 rigorous lines which were the boundaries of trade 
 and traffic." Grant was decidedly opposed to the 
 policy of opening trade in the manner indicated, and 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 491 
 
 responded to the project of Mr. Chase in the follow- 
 ing terms : " No matter what the restrictions thrown 
 around trade, if any whatever is allowed, it will be 
 made the means of supplying the enemy with all 
 they want. Restrictions, if lived up to, make trade 
 unprofitable ; and hence none but dishonest men go 
 into it. I will venture that no honest man has made 
 money in West Tennessee in the last year, whilst 
 many fortunes have been made there during that 
 time. The people in the Mississippi Valley are now 
 nearly subjugated. Keep trade out but for a few 
 months, and I doubt not but what the work of subju- 
 gation will be so complete, that trade can be opened 
 freely with the States of Arkansas, Louisiana, and 
 Mississippi. iVb theory of my own will ever btand 
 in the way of my executing in good faith any order 
 I may receive from those in authority over me ; but 
 my position has given me an oj)portunity of seeing 
 what could not be known by persons away from the 
 scene of war, and I venture, therefore, great caution 
 in opening trade with rebels." He adds upon the 
 same theme, in a letter to the secretary of war, 
 " If trade is opened under any general rule, all sorts 
 of dishonest men will engage in it, taking any oath 
 or obligation necessary to secure the privilege. 
 Smuggling will all at once commence, as it did at 
 Memphis, Helena, and every other place where trade 
 has been allowed within the disloyal States ; and the 
 armed enemy will be enabled to procure from North- 
 ern markets every article they require." 
 
 In the foregoing sentence (which I have italicised) 
 In the letter to Secretary Chase, the "mere warrior," 
 
492 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 from the instincts of common sense and fidelity to 
 duty, enunciates the true rule for an executive offi- 
 cer, whether civil or military. It is a rule which 
 Andrew Johnson never learned in all his varied ex- 
 perience in civil life, from village alderman to presi- 
 dent. If he had but known and heeded Grant's 
 simple maxim, he would have saved himself from 
 the obloquy of impeachment, and his country from 
 the immeasurable calamity of a chief magistrati^ 
 who arrogated the right of determining for himself 
 what laws he would execute, and what he would 
 refuse either to obey or enforce. In the assumption 
 by a State of the right to nullify a law of Congress 
 was the germ of secession, rebellion, and war : if we 
 have wrested from the president a similar usurpation 
 by the peaceful processes provided in the Constitu- 
 tion, we owe renewed thanks to the framers of that 
 instrument, who provided a mode for the deposition 
 of faithless rulers without destroying the framework 
 and foundations of government. In a crisis like that 
 which is now pending, it is a consolation to know 
 that the general of the army will be warped by " no 
 theory of my own " in the discharge of his appointed 
 duties. 
 
 The generous terms which Grant magnanimously 
 offered to Lee are now conceded to have been dictat- 
 ed by the forecast of a statesman ; for they virtually 
 disarmed the Confederacy, and were accepted by all 
 its organized forces from the Appomattox to the Rio 
 Grande. Nor was there less administrative wisdom 
 in his unostentatious mode of conducting a ceremony 
 sufficiently humiliating to a worthy foe, when unat- 
 
AD]\nNISTEATIVE EXPEBIENCE. 493 
 
 tended with those open proffers of homage, and ab- 
 ject tokens of subjugation, whioh but shghtly allevi- 
 ate to a sensitive enemy the barbarous custom of 
 passing under the j'oke. It contributed vastly to the 
 pacification of the country ; and Pollard is a truthful 
 exponent of Southern ideas when he thus speaks of 
 the behavior of Grant at this closing scene, "The 
 Pederal commander behaved with a magnanimity and 
 decorum that must ever be remembered to his credit, 
 even by those wdio disputed his reputation in other 
 respects, and denied his claims to great generalship. 
 He had with remarkable fticility accorded honorable 
 and liberal terms to the vanquished army. He did 
 nothing to dramatize the surrender; he made no 
 triumphal entry into Pdchmond ; ho avoided all those 
 displays of triumph so dear to the Northern heart ; 
 he spared every thing that might wound the feelings 
 or imply the humiliation of a vanquished foe. There 
 were no indecent exultations, no ^ sensation/ no 
 shows : he received the surrender of his adversary 
 wdth every courteous recognition due an honorable 
 enemy, and conducted the closing scenes with as 
 much simplicity as possible." ^ 
 
 The surrender of -Lee was universally regarded as 
 deliverance from war, and Grant as the deliverer. 
 Peace jubilees and solemn thanksgivings were im- 
 mediately celebrated throughout the loyal North, and 
 the name of Grant unconsciously blended in the 
 oblations which grateful hearts offered to Heaven. 
 The secretary of war forthwith issued an order to 
 the headquarters of every army and department, 
 
 1 Pollard's Lost Cause, p. 712. 
 
494 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and to every fort and arsenal in the Union, to fire a 
 salute of two hundred guns. He instantly des- 
 patched to the lieutenant-general the following tele- 
 gram : " Thanks be to Almighty God for the great 
 victory with which he has this day crowned you and 
 the gallant armies under your command ! The thanks 
 of this department, and of the Government, and of the 
 people of the United States, — their reverence and 
 honor have been deserved, — will be rendered to you, 
 and the brave and gallant officers and soldiers of your 
 army, for all time." 
 
 Seldom was such an opportunity offered to a " mere 
 warrior " for the gratification of unhallowed ambition. 
 When we consider that an aspiring commander-in- 
 chief miirht have deified himself, on an occasion which 
 elicited the unbounded enthusiasm of his country- 
 men and attracted the gaze of the civilized world, 
 and by monopolizing the nation's gratitude, and 
 humoring the antipathies of hostile sections, might 
 have indefinitely prolonged the dominion of the 
 sword, the self abnegation of Grant at this crisis rises 
 to the full height of that exalted patriotism which 
 has been exhibited only by the most illustrious of the 
 race. So upright, by universal consent, was Grant's 
 character, that, amid all the unnatural suspicion and 
 distrust bred by the feverish condition of the public 
 mind, not a man was found who could suspect him of 
 base and sinister motives. The merit of " putting aside 
 the kingly crown," for which even the Father of his 
 Country has been eulogized, was never lisped as one 
 of Grant's claims to the homage of mankind ; because 
 the idea w\^s never harbored, that a temptation to 
 
ADJUNISTEATIVE EXPERIENCE. 495 
 
 assume it could possibly enter his modest and un<am- 
 bitious soul. It seems to me, that not the least 
 conspicuous merit of the man is, that he never was 
 imagined to be guilty of the thought of selfish 
 aggrandizement. If it is not a qualification, rare as it 
 is admirable, for eminent civil position, then the moral 
 drawn from the unconscionable ambition of " mere 
 warriors" should be erased from our political 
 homilies. 
 
 Instead, however, of fortifying his power, enjoying 
 his triumph, or soliciting an ovation from his exultant 
 countrymen, he neither enters Richmond, nor looks 
 at the works which had so long withstood his com- 
 binations ; but hastens to Washington, and immures 
 himself with the secretary of war, for the purpose 
 of relieving the nation of the burden of supporting 
 the army. On the 9th, Lee surrendered ; on the 
 11th, Grant had recommended the administrative 
 measure of great significance which was promulged 
 by Mr. Stanton on the morning of the 12th. It 
 terminated drafting and recruiting for our army, as 
 well as the purchase of arms and provisions ; it an- 
 nounced that the number of our general and staff 
 officers would be speedily reduced, and all military 
 restriction on commerce and trade removed forth- 
 witli. Never in conducting a campaign, or pursuiug 
 an enemy, was the " mere warrior " more prompt 
 than in razeeing his own importance, disbanding the 
 army, and relieving the taxation of the groaning 
 country. 
 
 While Grant was enfj-aii-ed ir this noble work of 
 remanding the armed million to peaceful life, and 
 
496 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 tranquillizing an ensanguined land, he was arrested 
 by the most frightful episode in our history. He 
 was himself marked for slaughter, and assigned to 
 the daiziarer of one of that band of Thua:s who aimed 
 to arrest the operation of the Government by the 
 slaughter of all the functionaries upon whom its 
 perpetuity depended. He himself escaped from 
 death, or from a murdeious assault, by being called 
 from Washington upon the business of his command. 
 He would cheerfull}^ have given his own life in ex- 
 change for that of the guileless chief-magistrate, who 
 had l^efriended him from the outset of his military 
 career, and warded off many a venomous shaft from 
 malio;nant calumniators ; but such was not the decree 
 of Heaven. Abraham Lincoln's work was finished 
 when, unheralded and almost unattended, leading his 
 little son by the hand, he walked into the streets of 
 humiliated Richmond, tendering to the unrepentant 
 prodigals almost unconditional restoration to the/'i* 
 fathers' homes. If upon that auspicious morn the 
 crowning benediction of peace had descended upon 
 him, he might have well wished to die. What more 
 could he ask for on earth ? Assailed by the strongest 
 conspiracy that ever threatened a nation's life, after 
 a four years' struggle, his triumph over it Avas com- 
 plete and overwhelming, conquering libert}^ for a 
 class, and national existence for a people. Was not 
 this honor enough for one man ? He had survived 
 ridicule ; he had outlived detraction and abuse ; he 
 had secured the commendation of the world for 
 purity of purpose, constancy in disaster, clemency in 
 triumph, and the praise even of his armed foes for 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPEEIEKCE. 497 
 
 gentleness and mercy. In times more troubled, lie 
 had administered government with more ability than 
 Cavoiir, and war with more success than Napoleon 
 III. He had paled the glory of Hastings in pre- 
 serving an empire, and had earned comparison 
 wath Hampden for self-command, and rectitude of 
 intention ; while as the emancipator of a race he 
 stood alone in solitary glory, without a rival and 
 without a parallel. If Fame had approached him 
 with the laurels of a conqueror, if Power had offered 
 him a sceptre, and Ambition a crown, he would have 
 scorned them all. He asked* from man, he asked 
 from God, but one culminating boon, — peace, — 
 peace on the bloody waters and the blighted shore. 
 
 Alas ! such an enviable consummation to his career 
 was denied. There are mysterious conferences of 
 suspicious and guiltrladen men, ominous flittings of a 
 bat-like flock from Washington to Richmond and 
 from Richmond to Canada, midnight interviews, lurk- 
 ing spies, correspondence in cipher. A conspiracy 
 against his life has long been maturing in minds 
 capable of such things ; and, finally, the day is named, 
 the place is appointed, and the parts of the bloody 
 drama all distributed. On the evening of the 14th 
 of April, 1865, at Ford's theatre in the city of 
 Washington, the trigger of a pistol is pulled by a 
 sneaking murderer who had crept up behind him 
 all unwarned, and the report resounds through the 
 startled assembly. From the private box which 
 the president was known to occupy, an excited 
 wretch, with a swart visage torn and convulsed 
 by every passion, leaps upon the stage where he had 
 
 32 
 
498 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 last played the bloodthirsty apostate, and brandish- 
 ing a dagger in his outstretched hand, and exclaim- 
 ing, " Sic semper tyrannis," vanished into night and 
 darkness, leaving behind him horror, terror, and 
 woe. The nation stands aghast. The crime of the 
 Dark Ages has entered our history. Stealthy assas- 
 sination has broken the sasred succession of the 
 people's anointed, — the life of the best beloved 
 of presidents is oozing from a murderous wound, 
 — the soul of Abraham Lincoln is transferred from 
 earth to heaven. 
 
 At the identical moment that Booth entered the 
 theatre, the assassin Payne presented himself at the 
 door of Mr. Seward ; and, under pretence of an 
 errand from his medical adviser, forced his way to 
 the chamber entrance, where the maimed and suffer- 
 ing secretary lay confined to his couch. He was 
 confronted here by the son of Mr. Seward, who 
 vainly endeavored to shield his father from death, 
 and was felled by the butt of a pistol, which frac- 
 tured his skull. Filial piety, in the person of the 
 secretary's daughter, now interposed a brave but 
 fragile form in front of the implacable murderer ; but, 
 steeled against all pity or compunction, he threw 
 himself upon the crippled victim, and inflicted three 
 frightful stabs near the already shattered jaw of Mr. 
 Seward. Payne was now grasped by an invalid sol- 
 dier, Ptobinson by name, whom he also savagely as- 
 saulted and wounded with his blood-stained weapon ; 
 but the faithful man clung to him with supernatural 
 strength. In this interval of respite, Mr. Seward 
 su<;ceeded in throwing himself off the side of the bed 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 499 
 
 farthest from the struggling pair ; while his clanghter 
 opened the window, and shrieked " Murder ! " with a 
 frenzied voice. The porter rushed into the street 
 with the same appalling cry. The assassin, perceiv- 
 ing that a moment's delay would seal his doom, now 
 broke from the determined gripe of the heroic sol- 
 dier, and fled for his life. He was met on the first 
 flight of stairs by another son of Mr. Sew\ard, whom 
 he cleared from his path by a blow of his dagger, but 
 was ag;ain encountered in the hall bv Mr. Haskell, 
 who was in attendance on the secretary, whom he 
 also stabbed, and thus opened his path to the street, 
 where he mounted his horse, and rode unheeded into 
 the congenial blackness of night. 
 
 Within a few days the successor of Mr. Lincoln, 
 under his own sign-manual, wdth the counter-signa- 
 ture of the acting secretary of state, proclaimed to 
 the frantic nation that the infernal crimes o-f these 
 assassins had been " incited, concerted, and procured 
 by and between Jefferson Davis, late of Richmond, 
 Va., and Jacob Thompson, Clement C. Clay, Beverly 
 Tucker, George N. Sanders, W. C. Cleary, and other 
 rebels and traitors against the Government of the 
 United States, harbored in Canada." 
 
 We are concerned chiefly in this part of our theme 
 with the burst of immeasurable wrath, with the 
 implacable indignation, which this awful arraignment 
 excited against the whole of the defunct Confederacy, 
 in the breast of the. loyal millions. A yell of retalia- 
 tion broke from the outraged nation, which no pacifi- 
 cator could brave without drawing upon himself the 
 frenzy of that maddened hour. Assassination bore 
 
500 LIFE or GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 such a family likeness to the crimes in which that 
 ruffian society had indulged previous to the war, and 
 was so akin in turpitude with those which it had 
 encouraged and applauded during its continuance, 
 that, even without President Johnson's indictment, it 
 would have heen difficult to allay suspicions and pre- 
 sumptions of criminal complicity on the part of the 
 Confederate Government. The vengeance which it 
 excited fell partly upon those who had at any time 
 manifested either generosity or forbearance towards 
 these public enemies. The humane and magnanimous 
 terms of surrender which Grant had offered to the 
 Army of Northern Virginia were assailed, as having 
 encouraged the still defiant Rebellion to gather up its 
 expiring strength, and strike an assassin's blow. 
 Shall magnanimity be displayed, it was fiercely 
 asked, to this remorseless race, who follow up the 
 midnight conflagration of a crowded metropolis, the 
 introduction of pestilence into healthy Northern 
 breezes, the slow starvation of Andersouville, with 
 the foul and unnatural murder of a president who 
 was the impersonation of gentleness even to these 
 implacable foes ? 
 
 At this most inopportune epoch. Gen. Sherman ne- 
 gotiated with Gen. Johnston the basis of a general 
 peace. It was merely a skeleton memorandum, to 
 be submitted for approval to the respective Govern- 
 ments which these military diplomatists professed to 
 represent. It impliedly conceded full belligerent 
 ridits to the " organized rebellions " which constitut- 
 ed the Confederacy, and placed arms and munitions 
 of war at their capitals, and virtually acknowledged 
 the legality of their governments. It practically 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 501 
 
 abolished confiscation laws, and relieved rebels of 
 every degree, who had slaughtered our people, from 
 all pains and penalties for their crimes. It put in 
 dispute the existence of the new State of West Vir- 
 ginia, which had been recognized by every depart- 
 ment of the United-States Government. It subjected 
 loyal citizens in the insurrectionary States to debts 
 contracted for the purpose of carrying on the war. 
 It was undoubtedly inspired by the adroit politician 
 at the head of the fugitive Government, and was 
 skilfully contrived to commit our authorities to a 
 universal amnesty and act of oblivion. But, as it was 
 merely a basis, without validity until it was ratified 
 by the cabinet, and was forthwith transmitted to 
 Washhigton by Gen. Sherman, it hardly deserved the 
 importance into which it was magnified, and the 
 grave charges it incited against the distinguished 
 officer, who, with heroism unsurpassed, had sealed his 
 own devotion to the national cause by achievements 
 which were the wonder and admiration of the world. 
 In the inflamed condition of the public mind, it 
 seemed an intolerable outrage, that immunity should 
 be promised to assassins reeking with a martyr's 
 blood. The renewal of war to the knife would have 
 been more agreeable to the popular temper than any 
 pacification, however acceptable in its terms or sound 
 in its principles. Gen. Grant was forthwith des- 
 patched to the headquarters of Sherman, armed with 
 the discretionary power of relieving from command 
 the favorite lieutenant, to whom he was bound by 
 hooks of steel. It was a most delicate mission : there 
 never was a period in the career of this much endur- 
 mo" man when he was torn by such conflicting 
 
502 LIFE OF GENEKAL GEAXT. 
 
 emotions. He immediately telegraphed to Sherman 
 that the basis was rejected, and instructed him to 
 terminate the truce which had been agreed upon 
 while the submission of these propositions to the 
 Government was pending. An imbroglio seemed im- 
 minent, which might have marred the happiness for 
 life of two officers who entertained for each other 
 unqualified affection and esteem. Fortunately, John- 
 ston was in no condition to be overscrupulous respect- 
 ing the terms of surrender ; and the exacerbation of 
 the Northern mind warned him that this was no time 
 for a general pacification. On receiving Sherman's 
 despatch, which renewed hostilities, he solicited an- 
 other parley. 
 
 The cool discretion and loyal friendship of Grant 
 were now equal to the occasion. He required nothing 
 but this overture to open a clear pathway for con- 
 ducting his mission to a satisfiictory issue, without 
 sacrificing the noble friend and eminent officer whose 
 'le.^erts were pleading trumpet-tongued in his behalf, 
 .md whose unmerited obloquy would have been an 
 indelible stigma to the country, and an affront to hu- 
 manity. It required great firmness to withstand the 
 merciless exactions of the people's will in this tem- 
 porary aberration of their reason. Grant was able, 
 however, to be true to his comrade, without infidelity 
 to the country. He said nothing of the popular clam- 
 or, nothing of the unworthy suspicions of the cabinet, 
 nothing of its cruel imputations, ^ nothing of relieving 
 
 ' The nature and implications of only a part of these suspicions will be mani- 
 fest in tlie following extract from Gen. Sherman's report : — 
 
 '' Gen. Ealleck had been chief of staif of the army at Washington, in 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPElllEXCE. 503 
 
 him from command ; but urged him to meet Johnston, 
 and renew the negotiations for surrender without en- 
 tangling the future poUcy of the administration. The 
 meeting which he had advised was auspicious ; and it 
 led to the capitulation of Johnston's army upon terms 
 in substantial accord with those granted to Lee. Al- 
 though they were too generous to be palatable to the 
 feverish taste of the nation, they met with a sullen 
 acquiescence, as a relief from " the basis" which had 
 
 which capacity he must have received my official letter of April 18, wherein I 
 wrote clearly, that, if Johnston's arm"" about Greensboro' were 'pushed,' it 
 would ' disperse,' — an event I wished to prevent. Al)0ut that time he seems to 
 have been sent from Washin,2;ton to Richmond to command the new military- 
 division of the James, in assuming charge 0.=" which, on the 22d, he defines tho 
 limits of his authority to be the ' Department uf Virginia, the Army of the Po- 
 tomac, and such part of North Carolina as may not be occupied bi/ the command of 
 Major-Gen. Sherman.' (See his General Orders, No. 1.) Four days later, 
 April 26, he reports to the secretary that he has ordered Gens. Meade, Sheri- 
 dan, and Wright to invade that part of North Carolina which was occupied by 
 my command, and pay 'no regard to any truce or orders of Tiine. They 
 were ordered to ' pusfi forward, regardless of any orders save those of Lieut.- 
 Gcn. Grant, and cut off Johnston's retreat.' He knew at the time lie 
 penned tlnxt despatch, and made those orders, that Johnston was not retreating, 
 but was halted under a forty-eight hours' truce with me, and was laboring lo 
 surrender his command, and prevent its dispersion into guerilla bands ; and tl) it 
 I had on the spot a magnificent army at my command, amply sufficient for ill 
 purposes required by the occasion. 
 
 " The plan of cutting off a retreat from the direction of Burksville and Dan- 
 ville is hardly worthy one of his military education and genius. When he con- 
 templated an act so questionable as the violation of a ' truce,' made by compe- 
 tent authority, within his sphere of command, he should have gone himself, and 
 not have sent subordinates ; for he knew I was bound in honor to defend and 
 maintain my own truce and pledge of faith, even at the cost of many lives. The 
 last and most obnoxious feature of Gen. Halleck's despatch is wherein he 
 goes out of his way and advises that my subordinates. Gens. Thomas, Stone- 
 man, and Wilson, should be instructed not to obey ' Sherman's ' commands. 
 
 " This is too much ; and I turn from the subject with feelings too strong for 
 words, and merely record my belief that so much mischief was never before cni- 
 braced in so small a space as in the newspaper paragraph headed ' Sherman's 
 Truce Disregarded,' authenticated as 'official' by Mr. Secretary Stanton, and 
 published in the New- York papers of April 28." 
 
504 LIFE OF GENEEAL GRANT. 
 
 been pronounced disgraceful. In recurring to this 
 interview with Grant, Gen. Sherman says, " I glory in 
 the fjict, that, during his three days' stay with me, I 
 did not detect in his language or manner one particle 
 of abatement in the confidence, respect, and affection 
 that have existed between us throuo;hout all the 
 varied events of the past war ; and, though we have 
 honestly differed in opinion in other cases as well as 
 this, still we respected each other's honest convictions." 
 The attention of Gen. Grant was now preoccupied 
 in organizing Gen. Sheridan's expedition to the Rio 
 Grande. Its ostensible object was to quell disturb- 
 ances in Texas, where protracted war was menaced 
 by an inllammatory proclamation of E. Kirby Smith ; 
 but it was understood that the tricolor which domi- 
 neered the soil of a sister republic was there, in 
 defiance of international law, and as part of a pro- s 
 gramme which was thus boldly published in an 
 imperial manifesto : " We have an interest in the 
 Republic of the United States being powerful and 
 prosperous, but not that she should take possession 
 of the whole Gulf of Mexico, thence command the 
 Antilles as well as South America, and be the sole 
 disburser of the products of the New World." ^ 
 French dominion in Mexico was considered as a 
 mere corollary of rebellion in this country. It was 
 thought by military officers hig'h in authority, that 
 there could be no more flagrant provocation of war 
 than a bold avowal by a foreign potentate that he 
 had planted a monarchy on our borders for the j^ur- 
 pose of curtailing our growth and crippling our 
 
 ^ Napoleon's letter of instructions to Marshal Forey. 
 
ADMINISTEATIVE EXPEDIENCE. 505 
 
 commerce ; and many of them believed that Gen. 
 Sheridan's army was aimed at French usurpation in 
 Mexico. I feel assured that this was Gen. Grant's 
 own conviction ; and that he was prepared at this 
 time, as he will always be in the future, to defend 
 the Rej)ublic against foreign as well as domestic cue- 
 m'ies. Mr. Seward, however, protested against any 
 armed intervention, with his protracted diplomacy ; 
 and Sheridan's expedition suddenly dissolved, like an 
 apparition, and no one is able to explain to this day 
 why it was organized or why it was abandoned. 
 
 It was the rare felicity of Gen. Grant to issue to 
 the armies which were now returning to their homes, 
 the following valedictory order on the 2d day of June, 
 1805: — 
 
 "Soldiers of the Armies of the United States, — 
 By your patriotic devotion to your country in the 
 hour of danger and alarm, your magnificent fighting, 
 bravery, and endurance, you have maintained the 
 supremacy of the Union and the Constitution, over- 
 thrown all armed opposition to the enforcement of 
 the laws and the proclamations forever abolishing 
 slavery, — the cause and pretext of the Rebellion, 
 — and opened the way to the rightful authorities to 
 restore order, and inaugurate peace on a permanent 
 and enduring basis on every foot of American soil. 
 Your marches, sieges, and battles, in distance, dura- 
 tion, resolution, and brilliancy of results, dim the 
 lustre of the world's past military achievements, and 
 will be the patriot's precedent in defence of liberty 
 and right in all time to come. In obedience to your 
 
506 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 country's call, you left your homes and families, and 
 volunteered in her defence. Victory has crowned 
 your valor, and secured the purpose of your patriotic 
 hearts ; and, with the gratitude of your countrymen 
 and the highest honors a great and free nation can 
 accord, you will soon be permitted to return to your 
 homes and famihes, conscious of having discharged 
 the highest duty of American citizens. To achieve 
 these glorious triumphs, and secure to j^ourselves, 
 fellow-countrymen, and posterity, the blessings of 
 free institutions, tens of thousauils of your gallant 
 comrades have fallen, and sealed the priceless legacy 
 with their blood. The graves of these, a grateful 
 nation bedews with tears, honors their memories, and 
 will ever cherish and support their stricken families." 
 One month prior to this final urder, there were 
 under his command 1,034,064 soldiers. If military 
 history presents any thing so wonderful as the sudden 
 absorption, without disquietude or public tumult, of 
 this immense armed mass into the peaceful pursuits 
 of societ}^, my historical reading has not been compre- 
 hensive enough to discover it. If any instance of 
 superior rapidity in disbanding an army was ever 
 exhibited than was displayed by Gen. Grant in the 
 burdensome half-year between May and December, 
 m}^ knowledge of the annals of administrative labor 
 has not informed me of the paramount exploit. It is 
 a part of Grant's career which may not command the 
 attention of those fond of thrilling adventure ; but it 
 will hardly fail to be appreciated by those who read 
 biography for the purpose of discovering how the 
 life of a man contributes to the welfare of his coun- 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 507 
 
 try. By untiring industry, Gen. Grant succeeded in 
 mustering out 640,806 by Aug. 7, 719,338 by Aug. 
 22, 741,107 by Sept. 14, 785,205 by Oct. 15, 800,963 
 by Nov. 15, 180 5. The work was continued with 
 equal industry after this date : and on Jan. 20, 1866, 
 918,722 volunteers had been mustered out; Feb. 15, 
 952,452; March 10, 967,887; May 1, 986,782; June 
 30, 1,010,670; Nov. 1, 1,023,021, — leaving in service 
 but 11,043 white and colored volunteers. Grant 
 commenced in May, 1865, the work of discharging 
 and returning to their homes 1,034,064 volunteers; 
 and it is averred that it would have been completed 
 within three months, but for the necessity of retain- 
 ing in service a part of that force.^ 
 
 1 " The reduction of the army has been attended by a corresponding reduc- 
 tion of material and retrenchment of expenditures. The advanced depots of 
 the quartermaster's department, which had bc'en established as bases of opera- 
 tions, have been broken up, the greater part of the material sold at 
 advantageous rates, or concentrated in five principal depots and arsenals, and 
 all unnecessary employees discharged. From May 1, 1865, to Aug. 2, 186G, 
 over 207,000 horses and mules were sold for $15,269,075.54. About 4,400 
 barracks, hospitals, and other buildings have been sold during the year, for 
 $447,873.14. The sale of irregular and damaged clothing"" in store produced 
 during the fiscal year the sum of S902, 770.45. The fleet of 590 ocean trans- 
 ports in service on July 1, 1865, at a daily expense of $82,400, was reduced 
 before June 30, 1806, to 53 vessels, costing $3,000 per diem, and most of these 
 have since been discharged, — ocean transportation being now almost entirely 
 conducted by established commercial lines of steamers. Of 262 vessels which 
 had been employed in inland transportation, at an expense of $3,193,533.28 
 none were remaining in service on June 30, 1866; sales of river transports, 
 steamers, and barges, during the year, are reported as amounting to $1,152,895.92. 
 The rates of wagon transportation in the Indian country have also been re- 
 duced by fovorahlc contracts. The military railroads, which were operated 
 during the war at a total expenditure of $45,422,719.15, and which are 
 officially reported to have reached an cxtejit of 2,630^ miles, and to have 
 possessed 433 engines and 6,605 cars, have all been transferred to companies or 
 boards of public works, upon condition of the adoption of loyal organizations 
 of directors. Cash sales of railroad equipment to the amount of $3,466,739.33 
 are reported, and credit sales of $7,444,073.22 ; upon the latter there have 
 
508 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 In December, 1865, Grant made a tour of inspec- 
 tion throughout the Southern States as far as Atlanta, 
 Ga. He found upon his return that the disagreement 
 between the Thirty-ninth Congress, which had then 
 just convened, and the president was apparently irre- 
 concilable. Mr. Johnson forthwith commenced that 
 system of machination by which he has continuously 
 endeavored to commit Grant to his peculiar policy, 
 and to fill his sails with the popularity of the general- 
 in-chief Grant had throughout life avoided all politi- 
 cal entanglements : he had no political system ; he 
 had but in a solitary instance expressed by the ballot 
 his political preferences for the presidency. Since 
 the conclusion of the war, he had meditated upon no 
 scheme of reconstruction. Like many eminent states- 
 men who had made this great problem the subject of 
 speculation and study, his views of the anomalous 
 relation of the insurgent States to the Constitution 
 which they had w^aged war to destroy were exceed- 
 ingly immature. The complicated nature of this 
 question w^as not at this time apparent to the most 
 prescient mind. Grant had the vague idea which was 
 common at this period, that these rebellious States 
 should be restored to their pristine condition as 
 speedily as possible ; but what part the emancipated 
 
 been paid, principal and interest, $1,200,085.18, leaving due to the United 
 States, on June 30, 1866, principal and interest, $6,570,074.05. The military 
 tck\;:raph, which attained an extent of 15,-389 miles of lines constructed during 
 tlie period of hostilities, with a total expenditure of $3,219,400 during tlie 
 war, and $567,637 during the last fiscal year, has been discontinued, the mate- 
 rial sold and disposed of, and the employees discharged, — only a few confidential 
 operators being still retained for cipher correspondence with commanders of 
 hnjtortant districts." — Secretary of War's Report, Second Session of the Thirty' 
 ni'ilh Congress. 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 509 
 
 race were to play in reorganization, what change in 
 the ratio of representation was required by the virtual 
 abrogation of the slave basis, whether civil and polit- 
 cal rights should be granted to the freednien in 
 communities which were to be regenerated, what 
 irreversible guaranties were to be exacted from those 
 who were to return to participation in government 
 councils, were inquiries which had never engaged his 
 attention for an hour. 
 
 The actual condition of the Southern temper and 
 animufi towards the national Government was one 
 essential element in the great problem of rehabilita- 
 tion, to which special attention was now addressed. 
 Gen. Carl Schurz had been commissioned by the 
 president to visit these insurgent communities, and 
 investisfate this intricate theme. The conclusions 
 which he had reachejd were not in harmony with the 
 administrative programme of unconditional restora- 
 tion ; and the president made a request of Gen. Grant, 
 which was equivalent to a command, to express in 
 writino- the results of his observations on this tour of 
 inspection Grant drew np a report, which covers 
 precisely two pages in the Senate publication of 
 executive documents. He commences by saying that 
 he has no information to impart respecting the State 
 of Viririnia, because he hastened throuofh it without 
 conversing or meeting with any of its citizens. That 
 he spent one day in Ealeigh, one in Savannah, one in 
 Augusta, and two days in Charleston. He then 
 frankly declares the result of his mere surface exam- 
 ination of this vast and entangled inquiry : " I am 
 satisfied that the mass of thinkino; men of the Soutl 
 
510 LIFE OF GENERAL GRA^TT. 
 
 accept the present situation of affairs in good faith. 
 The questions which have heretofore divided the 
 sentiment of the people of the two sections, — sLavery 
 and State rights, or the right of a State to secede 
 from the Union, — they regard as having been settled 
 forever by the highest tribunal (arms) that man can 
 resort to. I was pleased to learn, from the leading 
 men whom I met, that they not only accepted the 
 decision arrived at as final, but now that the smoke 
 of battle has cleared away, and time has been given 
 for reflection, that this decision has been a fortunate 
 one for the whole country ; they receiving like benefits 
 from it with those who opposed them in the field and 
 in council. Four years of war, during which law was 
 executed only at the point of the bayonet through- 
 out the States in rebellion, have left the people, 
 possibly, in a condition not to yield that ready obe- 
 dience to civil authority the American people have 
 generally been in the habit of yielding. This would 
 render the presence of small garrisons throughout 
 those States necessarj^, until such time as labor returns 
 to its proper channel, and civil authority is fully es- 
 tablished. I did not meet any one, either those hold- 
 ing places under the Government or citizens of the 
 Southern States, who thinks it practicable to withdraw 
 the military from the South at present. The white 
 and the black mutually require the protection of the 
 general Government. There is such universal acqui- 
 escence in the authority of the general Government, 
 throughout the portions of country visited by me, 
 that the mere presence of a military force, without 
 regard to numbers, is sufficient to maintain order. 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIE^TCE. Ml 
 
 The good of the country, and economy, reqiure that 
 the force kept in the interior, where there are many 
 freedmen (elsewhere in the Southern States than at 
 forts upon the seacoast, no force is necessary), should 
 all be white troops. The reasons for this are obvious 
 without mentioning many of them. The presence 
 of black troops, lately slaves, demoralizes labor, both 
 by their advice, and by furnishing in their camps a 
 resort for the freedmen for long distances around. 
 White troops generally excite no opposition, jnd 
 therefore a small number of them can malntahi order 
 in a given district. Colored troops must be kept in 
 bodies sufficient to defend themselves. It is not the 
 thinking men who would use violence towards any 
 class of troops sent among them by the general Gov- 
 ernment, but the ignorant in some places might; and 
 the late slave seems to be imbued with the idea that 
 the property of his late master should by right be- 
 long to him, or at least should have no protection 
 from the colored soldier. There is danger of collis- 
 ions being brought on by such causes. 
 
 " My observations lead me to the conclusion, that 
 the citizens of the Southern States are anxious to 
 return to self-government within the Union as soon as 
 possible ; that, whilst reconstructing, they want and 
 require protection from the Government ; that they 
 are in earnest in wishing to do what they think is 
 required by the Government, not humiliating to them 
 as citizens, and that if such a course were pointed 
 out they would pursue it in good faith. It is to be 
 regretted that tiiere cannot be a greater commingling 
 at this time between the citizens of the two sections, 
 
512 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and particularly of those intrusted with the law- 
 making power." 
 
 On the second day of the first session of the Thirty- 
 ninth Congress, a bill was introduced by the Hon. 
 E. B. Washburne of Illinois, reviving the grade of 
 general in the army of the United States. Jt was 
 forthwith referred to the committee on military affairs. 
 When the bill reached our table, it was committed to 
 me by the chairman, " to examine and report." In 
 the discharge of this duty, I first formed the personal 
 acquaintance of Gen. Grant. 
 
 It was understood from the outset, that the object 
 of the bill was to recognize and reward the extraordi- 
 nary services of the Republic's most illustrious and suc- 
 cessful defender; that this was its sole merit; that 
 its advocacy must rest on this ground alone. Previ- 
 ous to reporting the bill to the House, I consulted 
 Gen. Grant upon every objection which was raised or 
 suggested in committee, and received from him satis- 
 factory explanations of the rationale and purpose of 
 the most important military movements in his career. 
 I have been guided in many of the foregoing details 
 by information which I gathered from himself in the 
 course of this investigation. I also had the aid and 
 benefit of the knowledge possessed by the staff-officers 
 who had been with him in his campaigns ; and, with 
 the assistance of maps and reports, all the battles 
 were " fought o'er again," upon which any controver- 
 sy had arisen. 
 
 In the second session of the Fifth Congress, the first 
 under the presidency of John Adams, in consequence 
 of our dissensions with the French Republic, a provis- 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPEEIEXCE. 513 
 
 ional army was authorized ; and the grade of lieuten- 
 ant-general was, for the first time in our history, 
 created, and conferred upon George Washington. It 
 was accepted by him, with the express reservation that 
 he should "not be called into the field until the army 
 w^as in a situation to require his services, or until it 
 became necessarj^ by the urgency of circumstances." ^ 
 During the recess which followed the adjournment, it 
 was understood that Gen. Washington was not entire- . 
 ly satisfied with his new rank ; because it was inferior 
 to that which he had held in the Revolutionary War, 
 when he was general and commander-in-chief In 
 deference to these scruples, the Fifth Congress, when 
 it was holding its third session, authorized the presi- 
 dent to appoint and commission an officer who should 
 be styled " General of the Armies of the United 
 States." 
 
 I have not been able to discover that the grade con- 
 templated by this act was ever filled ; and a presump- 
 tion is raised that it was not, by a return from the war 
 department in 1800, where Gen. Washington is still 
 registered as lieutenant-general, with the mournful 
 affix, "dead," — a mere formal entry, but vividly sug- 
 gesting, in connection with a name so illustrious, that 
 
 " The paths of glory load but to the gi-ave." 
 
 I find, however, in the annals of Congress for 1801, 
 that in the resolutions passed by both Houses on the 
 death of Washington, which occurred on the 14th of 
 
 ^ Washington's letter to John Adams, accepting the office of licutenant-gen- 
 •j-al, datedJuly 13, 1798. 
 33 
 
514' LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 December, 1799, and after the approval of the bill 
 creatmg the highest grade, that he is hailed as " Gen- 
 eral of the Armies of the United States," which is the 
 precise language of the statute to which I have re- 
 ferred • but it may also be explained by the title which 
 he bore in the Revolutionary \Var. Whether it was 
 ever conferred upon him or not, it is unquestionably 
 true, that, unless his death had intervened or the prep- 
 arations for a war with France had been suspended, 
 he would have been General of the Armies of the 
 United States. 
 
 AYhen I reported the bill to the House reviving the 
 grade of general, gentlemen of both political parties 
 participated in the debate, — if that may be called a 
 debate, which, from the commencement to the close 
 of the afternoon devoted to the subject, was an unin- 
 terrupted eulogy of the officer for whom the rank 
 was created. It was passed by the decided vote of 
 a hundred and sixteen to eleven ; ^ and, in the Sen- 
 
 1 Yeas — Messrs. Alley, Allison, Ames, Anderson, Baldwin, Brinks, Baxter, 
 Bcaraaii, Bidwell, Bingham, Blow, Boutwcll, Boycr, Brandegec, Bromwell, 
 Broomall, Biickland, Chanler, Reader W.Clarke, Sidney Clarke, Cobb,Conkling, 
 Cook, Cullom, Dawson, Defrees, Delano, Doming, Dixon, Dodge, Donnelly, 
 Driggs, Eckley, Eldridge, Eliot, Farquliar, Ferry, Finck, Glossbrenner, Grin- 
 ncll, Griswold, Abucr C. Harding, Hart, Henderson, Holmes, Hotchkiss, Asa- 
 hcl ^Y. Hnbbard, Chester D. Hubbard, James R. Hubbell, Hulburd, James 
 Humphrey, Ingersoll, Julian, Kasson, Kelley, Kelso, Keteham, Kuykendall, 
 * Laflln, Latham, George V. Lawrenee, William Lawrence, Lc Blond, Longvcar, 
 Lynch, jMarshall, Marston, McRuer, Miller, Morris, Myers, Nililack, Noell, 
 O'Neill, Orth, Paine, Patterson, Pcrham, Phelps, Pike, Plants, Samuel J. Ran- 
 dall, William II. Randall, Raymond, Alexander H. Rice, John II. Rice, Rogers, 
 Rollins, Ross, Rousseau, Sawyer, Schenck, Scofield, Shcllalxirger, Sitgreaves, 
 Smith, Si)alding, Stevens, Strousc, Taylor, Francis Thomas, Thornton, Trow- 
 bridge, Ujjson, Van Aernam, Burt Van Horn, Robert T. Van Horn, Warner, 
 Elihu B. Wasblfurnc, Henry 1). Washburne, Welkcr, Whaley, James F. Wil- 
 son, Wiudom, Winfield, and Wright — 116. 
 
 Nats — Messrs. Baker, Coffroth, Denison, Farnsworth, Harris, Iligby, 
 Loan, McKcc, Mcrcur, Morrill, and Stephen F. Wilson — U. 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 515 
 
 ate, the opinion in its ftivor was so nearly unanimous 
 that the yeas and nays were not demanclecl. Grant 
 was speedily nominated, confirmed, and commissioned 
 to the new grade, and enjoys the unrivalled distinction 
 of a pre-eminent rank in his profession, which no other 
 officer had attained since the Constitution was adopted. 
 I select a few paragraphs from these eulogies. 
 Among the prominent Democrats who advocated the 
 measiu'e were Mr. Finck and Mr. Le Blond of Ohio, 
 and Mr. Rogers of New Jersey. 
 
 Mr. Finck said, — 
 
 " Mr. Speaker, I had hoped that there would be no discordant 
 voice in this House upon the passage of this bill. I had trusted, 
 that, at least in reference to this testimonial of oilr regard to so 
 distinguished a character as Lieut.-Gcn. Grant, there would be but 
 one voice here among the people's repi'csentatives. 
 
 " I do not rise for the purpose of detaining the House, or saying 
 any thing in regard to the history of Gen. Grant ; for this has 
 been done fully and ably by those who have preceded me. I de- 
 sire, however, to state that I shall vote for the passage of this bill, 
 because I believe it due as a testimonial of the nation's gratitude 
 to Gen. Grant. I honor him, sir, not only for his brilliant ser- 
 vices in the field, but because of his magnanimity in the hour of 
 triumph, and his genuine modesty. He has conducted himself 
 throughout this war independent of party considerations or party 
 intri<mes, devotincr himself to the vindication of the true honor of 
 the country in maintaining the Constitution and preserving the 
 Union. I trust, sir, that, when the vote shall be taken on the 
 passage of the bill, it will be unanimous." 
 
 Mr. Le Blond said, — 
 
 " Trusting that the vote on the passage of the bill will be unani- 
 mous, or nearly so, I call for the yeas and nays." 
 
516 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Mr. Eogers said, — 
 
 " Sir, there is no man more willing than I to extend that gratitude 
 to Gen, Grant, because his heroism, his bravery, his patriotism, 
 his fortitude, and his determination, through this war, have been 
 unequalled in the history of the civilized world. But, while he has 
 shown this heroism and bravery, let us not forget the thousands 
 and hundreds of thousands of men whom he led, — of the men who 
 faced the battlements of the enemy, — of the men whose blood, whose 
 valor, and whose patriotism equally consecrated the glorious vic- 
 tories which the American army achieved during the bloody revo- 
 lution through Avhich we have just passed. It is a tribute which 
 Ave owe, not only to Gen. Grant, but to the men who followed him, 
 to those Avhom he commanded, that, while we extend to this brave 
 and illustrious general the undying gratitude of the nation, we 
 ehould at the same time extend to those brave and faithful soldiers 
 the sentiment of respect and esteem which we cherish for every 
 man who has engaged in this war for the suppression of the Re- 
 bellion. 
 
 " But, sir, Gen. Grant has that Avhich commends him to my res- 
 pect much more than many others who were engaged in the war, 
 
 I mean his Christian charity, his meekness, and his houoiable 
 
 manhood in granting to those Avhom he had subdued the rights 
 Avhich civilization demands shall be extended to an enemy that is 
 at your feet. , 
 
 " When Gen. Lee, whose ability I suppose Avill not be denied, as 
 it never has been denied by any gentleman on this floor, surren- 
 dered his sword to Gen. Grant, it was handed back to him, as a 
 manifestation of that Christian charity and goodness oi" heart which 
 should characterize a true-hearted hero when his enemy is at his 
 feet. Gen. Grant Avas ready to extend to his conquered adversary 
 those principles of civilized Avarfare Avhich our fathers extended to 
 their enemies in the bloody days of the Revolution. 
 
 " But, sir, this is no new office that is proposed to be given, if I 
 understand it. If my recollection serves me right, in reading the 
 history of this country, Gen. Washington occupied the same posi- 
 tion that Ave noAV expect to be given to Gen. Grant, or to such 
 other o-eneral as the president of the United States in his Avisdom 
 
ADMINISTEATIVE EXPERIENCE. 517 
 
 may see fit. I believe that the mantle of the illustrious Wasliing- 
 ton may well fall upon the shoulders of Gen. Grant. I believe 
 that he has walked in the footsteps of the Father of his Country, 
 and has shown an amiability of character and a tenderness of heart 
 toward his foes that Washington did to those who had given aid 
 and comfort to the followers and adherents of King George during 
 the seven years of the Revolutionary War." 
 
 Mr. Eaymond of New York said, — 
 
 " When we plunged into this great contest, it was without expe- 
 rience, without knowledge of the means and resources that we 
 could command to carry it through, without knowledge of our own 
 temper and courage to face the crisis, without compactness, or 
 solidity, or any of the elements of strength so essential to success. 
 Gen. Grant, it is not too much to say, has shown us that we pos- 
 sess them all. He has organized, disciplined, and welded them 
 all, and carried the nation successfully through its great struggle. 
 That, sir, is a service for which he will be remembered, not in this 
 land alone, but in all lands where military prowess stands fore- 
 most, as it does in every civilized nation of the world. 
 
 " For that we cannot give him too much of recognition or of 
 honor. Nor will this nation ever forget that it owes to him, in all 
 human probability, the perpetuity of the great system of govern- 
 ment which this nation was ordained to establish among the na- 
 tions of the earth, and make perpetual and paramount over them 
 all. And no Avords will sound his fitting eulogy. No words less 
 gifted than those used by the distinguished gentleman from Con- 
 necticut can properly and sufficiently describe the long career of 
 his services, the long catalogue of victories he has won, and the 
 honors he has heaped upon his native land. 
 
 " Ay, sir, unless gratitude shall foil, in coming generations noth- 
 ing shall remind us of his name that does not remind us of his 
 services ; and A\hen he shall die, and mingle his dust with the dust 
 of our common earth, he shall descend to an honored grave covered 
 with benedictions, — covered with the glorious recollections of the 
 services he has rendered, — covered with every thing that a grateful 
 people can accumulate around his memory so as to perpetuate it 
 to successive generations. This is his reward, — if there ca,n be any 
 
518 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 reward of national gratitude. This would suit, certainly, the quiel, 
 the self-depreciating modesty of his noble and heroic character. 
 And nothing more than this will be needed to satisfy him with 
 what he has done ; for he never sought any thing but the conscious- 
 ness that he was doing his duty, with all his energy and all his 
 power." 
 
 Mr. Delano of Ohio said, — 
 
 " Let the minds of members here to-day recur to the year 1864. 
 Let them remember how then the fate of this nation quivered, as 
 it were, in uncertainty and in doubt. Let them remember how 
 this man of iron will, of modest deportment, and of lion heart, 
 took these gallant soldiers, the volunteers of a free people, and 
 marched through the Wilderness with them, against the most com- 
 pact and powerful army that the Confederacy had. See him lead- 
 in": those brave men through the continuous battles of the Wilder- 
 ness to Richmond, before it and round it, imtil, as he himself said, 
 the shell of the Rebellion was crushed, and its hollowness exposed 
 to the world. And then behold this man, when Richmond had 
 surrendered, modestly refusing to go into the city with display, to 
 be there first to take possession of the citadel that had so long re- 
 sisted our conquest. Behold him, sir, allowing others to march 
 in in triumph ; because he saw that there was more work to be 
 done, and that work he was determined to pursue to its final ac- 
 complishment. 
 
 " Leaving then the empty show and the place of honor, you 
 see him giving up to subalterns the taking possession of the city 
 of Richmond, while he goes on steadfastly in pursuit of his high 
 purpose of making his work successful, and compelling the leader 
 of the armies of the Rebellion to lay down his sword before him. 
 Tiiat is one of the instances that evince the characteristics of the 
 man, and that raised him so high in the world's estimation. 
 
 " And now what do we offer him by this bill ? We offer him — 
 what I Avill not allude to, but what we have heard so well described, 
 and what has been so happily depicted by the gentleman from 
 Connecticut — we offer him a small boon. Is it in imitation of 
 aristocratic or monarchical governments that it is proposed to do 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPEJIIENCE. 519 
 
 this ? No: it is in imitation of the great Ruler of all, who be- 
 stows blessings and rewards upon the just and righteous, and 
 punishments upon the others. I am not here to-day to imitate 
 what other nations have done for their high chieftains and great 
 military men. But I desire to show my gratitude, with the grati- 
 tude of this nation, in behalf of a great and a good num. Let U3 
 do it in imitation of divine authority, and not in imitation of man. 
 Because other nations who have preceded us may have acted in 
 the right way, that affords no reason for refusing to pursue a just 
 path." 
 
 Mr. Stevens of Pennsylvania said, — 
 
 " I believe that the moral and physical courage, the patience 
 and skill, the operations in every way, which we have witnessed, 
 indicate General Grant as one of the fittest men to command a 
 great nrmy and lead it to great results. I agree with the gentle- 
 man f-om New York in being willing, not only ts> promote him to 
 this C'tlice, but, as I understood him, and I hope I do not misunder- 
 stand him, to a higher oflice, Avheuever the happy moment shall 
 arrive." ^ 
 
 1 An Act to revive the grade of General in the United-States Army. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of tJie United States 
 of America in Congress assembled, That the grade of " General of the Army of 
 the United States " be, and the same is, hereby revived ; and that the Pres- 
 ident is hereby authorized, whenever he shall deem it expedient, to appoint, by 
 and with the advice and consent of the Senate, a general of the army of the 
 United States, to be selected from among those officers in the military service 
 of the United States most distinguished for courage, skill, and ability, who, 
 being commissioned as general, may be authorized, under the direction and 
 during tlie pleasure of the President, to command the armies of the United 
 States. 
 
 Sec. 2. And be it further enacted, That the pay proper of the general shall 
 be four huudied dollars per month ; and his allowance for fuel and quarters, 
 when his headquarters are in Washington, shall be at the rate of three hundred 
 dollars per month, and his other allowances in all respects the same as are 
 allowed to die lieutenant-general by the second section of the act approved 
 February twenty-nine, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, entitled " An Act re- 
 viving the grade of Lieutonant-General in the United-States Army ; " and the 
 chief of stalf to the lieutenant-general shall be transferred, and be the chief of 
 Btaif to the general, with the rank, pay, and emoluments of a brigadier-general 
 
520 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT 
 
 During the year 1866, Gen. Grant was chiefly 
 employed in supervising the military force which 
 was stationed in the rebellious States, " to secure the 
 execution of law, and to protect life and property 
 against the acts of those who as yet will acknowl- 
 edge no law but force," as he expresses it in his 
 report. He describes in this sentence a condition of 
 afiiiirs which publicists term, " helium non cessans." 
 Tumultous whites, still inimical to the Government 
 which they had vainly essayed to destroy, lawless 
 soldiers remanded from the standards of Lee and 
 Johnston, indignant masters disgusted with the loss 
 of man-servant and maid-servant, slaves just liberat- 
 ed from hereditary bondage, were all mingled to- 
 gether in a seething mass, with no law, or institutions 
 of justice, powerful enough to control the license and 
 crime of such a reckless and turbulent horde. No 
 reconstruction laws were yet passed. The States 
 were undergoing Mr. Johnson's empirical process of 
 reorganization, and were in transition between the 
 old State constitutions and the new ; which he had 
 assumed the right of dictating, in order to harmonize 
 their governments with the amended Constitution. 
 
 in the army of the United States ; and the act approved March third, eighteen 
 hundred and sixty-five, entitled " An Act to provide for a chief of staff to the 
 Lieutenant-General commanding the Armies of the United States," is hereby 
 repealed ; and the said general may select from the regular army for service 
 upon his staff such number of aides, not exceeding six, as he may judge proper, 
 wlio during the term of such staff servicS shall each have the rank, pay, and 
 emoluments of a colonel of cavalry. And it is hereby provided, that, in lieu 
 of the staff now allowed by law to the lieutenant-general, he shall be entitled 
 to two aides and one military secretary, each to have the rank, pay, and 
 emoluments of a lieutenant-colonel of cavalry, during the term of such staff 
 service. 
 
 Approved July 25, 1866. 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. ' 52. 
 
 This vast territory of lawlessness and insubordination 
 was chiefly ruled by the commanders of the military 
 districts, who received their instructions from the 
 general-in-chief More intricate problems of admin- 
 istration are presented every month to his decision 
 than a president of the United States ordinarily 
 encounters in a four years' term. It is hard to con- 
 ceive of a government more difficult, or which would 
 more fully test the ability of a chief executive. The 
 condition of the society which he ruled during this 
 anarchical year can be seen in epitome by a few 
 extracts from the reports of his subordinates. I se- 
 lect but three out of an indefinite number, which 
 alone would swell this chapter to a wearisome length : 
 "The condition of civil affairs in Texas," says Gen. 
 Sheridan, "was anomalous, singular, and unsatisflic- 
 tory. I found the provisional governor, backed by a 
 small portion of the population, had for his standard 
 of loyalty, ' abhorrence for the Rebellion, and glory 
 in its defeat;' while his successor, as actual governor, 
 had for his standard of loyalty, ' pride in Rebellion, 
 — that it was a righteous but lost cause, being over- 
 powered by the Federal forces.' Both of these rep- 
 resentatives of the civil law, entertaining opposite 
 standards for the loyalty of their subjects, I was 
 required to support, and did it to the best of my 
 ability ; but it has been embarrassing in the extreme. 
 Gov. Hamilton, the provisional governor, was clam- 
 orous for more troops, and, in several communica- 
 tions to me, asserted, that the civil law could not be 
 carried out, that freedmen w^ould be killed, and 
 Union men driven from the State, without military 
 
522 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 support; which I gave whenever it was possible. 
 Gov. Throckmorton, the present governor, wants all 
 the troops moved from the settled portions of the 
 State ; asserting that the civil law was all right, that 
 justice would be done to freedmen, Union men, and 
 our soldiers in the courts. But justice is not done. 
 To give you an instance of this : two soldiers were 
 shot at Brenham, Tex., about two months ago ; they 
 were unarmed, and offered no provocation. The 
 grand jury could find no bill against their would-be 
 assassins, but found a bill against Brevet-Major Smith, 
 Seventeenth Infantry, for burglary, because he broke 
 into the house of some citizen in his attempt to 
 arrest these men. My own opinion is, that the trial 
 of a white man for the murder of a freedman, in 
 Texas, would be a farce ; and, in making this state- 
 ment, I make it because truth compels me, and for 
 no other reason." 
 
 " Bands of guerillas," says Gen. Jeff C. Davis, 
 reporting from the military district of Kentucky, 
 *' and ' neg;ro reorulators ' soon increased in numbers 
 and audacity ; and many lawless acts have been perpe- 
 trated by them upon the defenceless and unoffending 
 citizens, both white and black. The increase of rob- 
 bery and lawlessness, and the ineffectual measures 
 taken by the civil authorities to suppress these bands, 
 rendered it my duty to offer to the citizens more 
 protection from the military than I had before found 
 necessary. 
 
 " In Gallatin and surrounding counties, these bands 
 became so formidable and bold in committing their 
 robberies that I was compelled to send, about the 1st 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 523 
 
 September last, a company of troops to Warsaw, 
 also Bowling Green and Paducali, for the protection 
 of the people. These troops still occupy their camps 
 at these places ; and, judging from the present state 
 of affiiirs, it will be necessary to continue their pres- 
 ence there." 
 
 "Two or three weeks ago," writes Gen. D. K 
 Sickles, from the military department of the South, 
 "a party of men, disguised as blacks, went to the 
 residence of Mr. Biglow, a teacher of a school for 
 colored children in the town of Aiken, in Barnwell 
 District, displaying weapons and threatening his life. 
 They compelled him to leave the place, never to 
 return, under pain of death. Mr. Biglow was re- 
 quested to return by the post-commander, and was 
 assured of protection, but declined to do so, fearing 
 he could not, without more hazard than he was will- 
 intj- to incur, resume his avocation in Aiken. This 
 place has long been a favorite summer resort for 
 invalids, and for people of wealth and refinement in 
 the South. It is the headquarters of a military post, 
 garrisoned by Company H, Fifth United-States Caval- 
 ry. Brevet-Major Walker, United-States Army, the 
 post-commander, has exerted himself with zeal and 
 diligence to obtain sufficient testimony to justify the 
 arrest of the perpetrators of this outrage; and al- 
 though, as he reports to me, they are well known to 
 the neighborhood, and suspected by himself, it has 
 been as yet impossible to obtain reliable testimony 
 on the subject. The civil authorities have taken no 
 action in the case, so far as I am informed." 
 
 Now, how did Gen. Grant address such enormities 
 
524 LIFE OF GENERAL GEANT. 
 
 in these communities, when he was chiefly responsi- 
 ble for the maintenance of the law, and the preser- 
 vation of the peace? I can but just glance at his 
 voluminous code of edicts. By his general orders, 
 he requires all civil officers in each of these districts 
 to obey all laws for its government emanating from 
 competent authority, the proclamations of the presi- 
 dent, and the laws of Congress. He disqualifies from 
 civil office all who belong to the classes excepted 
 from amnesty, or who refuse to take and subscribe 
 the amnesty oath. He continues in operation the 
 provost courts, but confines their jurisdiction to 
 cases which concern persons of color, and abrogates 
 them altogether when such persons become legally 
 competent to sue and testify in the State courts with 
 the same rights and remedies which are accorded 
 to other persons. He issues a general order which 
 directs military officers to arrest offenders, and detain 
 them in custody, in cases where the civil authorities 
 fail, neglect, or are unable, to arrest and bring offend- 
 ers to trial. He issues another, which commands 
 military officers to pursue, and summarily punish as 
 guerillas, all armed bands and " regulators." He 
 approves, moreover, of an order issued by one of his 
 subordinates, which prohibits associations or assem- 
 blages composed of persons who served in the rebel 
 armies, and having for their object the perpetuation 
 of any military or other organization engaged in the 
 Rebellion. 
 
 With the close of the second session of the Thirty- 
 ninth Congress, a still more onerous burden was laid 
 on the Atlantean shoulders which had borne tlie weight 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 52D 
 
 of " helium jlagrans et helium non cessans." No one 
 denies that he has faithfully executed the responsible 
 duties imposed upon him by the reconstruction acts of 
 Congress. To the extent of his power he has carried 
 them out, not merely perfunctorily, but with a zealous 
 endeavor that all their provisions shftU be obeyed 
 in every particular, and that all their intermediate 
 purposes, as well as the grand object to which they are 
 addressed, shall be speedily and successfully achieved. 
 Whatever may have been his own private views, he 
 has rigidly adhered to that maxim which disclaims 
 the right of an executive officer to be warped by his 
 own personal theories in the execution of law. 
 Against the frowns of power, he has uniformly firmly 
 sustained the commanders of districts who are faith- 
 fully engaged in administering these laws. He has, 
 in my judgment, clearly proved by numerous recorded 
 acts that he is in thorough accord with those great 
 principles of equality and justice ^vhich it is the 
 design of these wise eniictments to guarantee by the 
 inviolable sanctions of organic law. He has practically 
 co-operated with Congress in launching the enfran- 
 chised Republic on a dazzling orbit of probity, justice, 
 and freedom. He has shown by a long series of 
 orders, which are more conclusive proofs of sincerity 
 than all the speeches which can be placed between 
 the covers of " The Congressional Globe," that it is 
 his firm conviction that civil rights and immunities 
 are the logical sequence of emancipation. 
 
 But if mere words are required in confirmation of 
 deeds, they may be found in his emphatic protest 
 ao-ainst the removal of an officer whose sympathy 
 
526 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 with Congressional reconstruction is beyond all dispute 
 and cavil : " I earnestly urge, in the name of a patri- 
 otic people, who have sacrificed hundreds of thou- 
 sands of loyal lives, and thousands of millions of treas- 
 lu^e, to preserve the integrity and union of this coun- 
 try, that this order be not insisted on. It is, unmis- 
 takably, the expressed wish of the country, that Gen 
 Sheridan should not be removed from his command. 
 This is a republic where the will of the people is 
 the law of the land. I beg that their voice may be 
 heard. Gen. Sheridan has performed his civil duties 
 ftiithfully and intelligentlj^ His removal will only be 
 regarded as an effort to defeat the laws of Congress. 
 It will be interpreted by the unconstructed element of 
 the South — those who did all they could to break 
 np this government by arms, and now wish to be the 
 only element consulted as to the method of restoring 
 order — as a triumph. It will embolden them to re- 
 newed oppositioii to the will of the loyal masses, 
 believing that they have the Executive with them." 
 
 He was appointed secretary of war, in pursuance 
 of a purpose wdiich began when his observations upon 
 the political status of the insurgent States were ex- 
 acted by the " request " of a commander-in-chief, which 
 was continued when he was impressed as chief sat- 
 elHte to attend the sun in its revolution round the 
 circle ; and which had for its ultimate aim the under- 
 mining of his popularity, by entangling h?m in the 
 meshes of a policy distasteful to the loyal nation. 
 When he showed that he could fliithfuUy and eco- 
 nomically administer the War Department, and, by his 
 business dexterity, was increasing rather than forfeit- 
 
ADMIXISTEATIVE EXrEPJEXCE. 527 
 
 ing the esteem of his countrymen, an attempt was 
 made to inveigle him into a violation of law, by one 
 who was afraid to assume the responsiljility himself. 
 When he proved too shrewd to be made the cat's-paw 
 of an unscrupulous superior, a question of veracity 
 was raised, which only proved that his life-long repu- 
 tation for truth was toe well established to be demol- 
 ished by discredited testimony. 
 
 Of the unsurpassed value of the services of Ulysses 
 S. Grant to the nation in its extremity of peril, of 
 his qualities as a general, of his genuine devotion to 
 the national welfare, of his unsullied patriotism, of 
 his unambitious, unaspiring, self-depreciating nature, 
 I can add nothing which will corroborate the forego- 
 ing record of his life. Nor need I repeat again, that 
 his utter want of what is called style, or dramatic 
 presentation of himself in speech or action, his free- 
 dom from affectation, his undemonstrative manner 
 and deportment, frequently hide his sterling charac- 
 teristics from the superficial observer. Judged by his 
 mere words, Grant is nothing ; judged by his actions, 
 he can make no pretensions to brilliant genius, to pro- 
 fundity of acquirement, to erudition in any depart- 
 ment of human thought. Nature endowed him with 
 strength of will, an equable temper, a sound, practical, 
 well-balanced understanding; and nurture has con- 
 tributed to develop and foster these natural endow- 
 ments. From his West-Point education, he derived 
 substantial and useful knowledge, and the edge and 
 discipline which scientific and mathematical study im- 
 parted to an intellect whose native temper was for 
 hard service rather than glittering display. His ex- 
 
528 LIFE OF GENEHAL GKAJNT. 
 
 perience in the Mexican War, in frontier life, and in 
 rough civil employment, invigorated his practical 
 resources, familiarized him with the various phases 
 of American character, and trained him in the homely 
 task of American life. His hard labor in the civil 
 war strengthened and nerved the sturdy vigor of his 
 vmderstanding and will, and endowed him with that 
 self-reliance which can only be acquired in its pleni- 
 tude by the habitual mastery of those difficulties 
 which are pronounced insurmountable. His varied 
 commerce with the world, and the vicissitudes of his 
 career, have made him thoroughly acquainted with 
 men ; and he is not easily beguiled or deceived. He 
 has that stout independence of purpose which is not 
 pliant to the purposes of others. There is in him 
 nauojht of that vacillation or oscillation which is fatal 
 to all earnest decision; but he makes up his mind 
 rapidly, and forthwith bends every energy to the ex- 
 ecution of its irreversible behests. This combination 
 of endowments, accomplishments, experience, have 
 invested him with that rare force and volume of 
 power which conquers and commands succiiss. He 
 has strength of conviction, combined with deference 
 for the popular will, and none of that inflexible self- 
 sufhciency which discards the advice and scorns the 
 opinion of others. Justice is with him a predominat- 
 ing: attribute. He is devoted to the rioht, without 
 professing any supercilious contempt for the ex- 
 pedient. He is faithful in his friendships ; sincere in 
 his professions ; superior to all envy ; generous in his 
 appreciation and commendation of others ; truthful, 
 honorable, upright, in all his dealings and converse 
 
ADMINISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 529 
 
 with his fellow-men ; and ardent and tender in his 
 domestic affections. 
 
 I have aimed to present a record of the achieve- 
 ments of Grant, that his comitrymen may therel)y 
 form an estimate of his character and capacity in tlio 
 only practicable mode. Before he can be appreciated, 
 you must be disabused of the value of words as any 
 criterion of attributes, and our American habit must 
 be reversed, of judging men by what they say, and 
 not by what they do. No public man who ever 
 lived has illustrated himself less by language, either 
 oral or written. Grant must be estimated by his 
 actions alone ; for what he says will never aid your 
 compreliension of the man. lie talks, and talks well, 
 but his conversation reveals merely the surflice 
 of his mind ; and what of genuine resource is in its 
 depths, you must investigate by the process I have 
 indicated. No one doubts that he has tenacity of will ; 
 but I defy you to hnd satisflictory proof of it in any 
 of his sayings. No one disputes his patriotism ; but 
 what ardent harangue has he ever uttered ? No one 
 fails to recognize his manly friendship for Sherman ; 
 but it is not denuonstrated by word or manner. No 
 one disbelieves in his courage ; but you will search 
 in vain to discover it from his utterances. What 
 there is in him as a warrior, you must study from 
 the way in which he translated his thoughts into 
 deeds ; for you will never learn it by his speeches. 
 What of administrative power there is in him, you 
 must learn from the record ; for you will be deceived 
 by his professions. Meeting every emergency in the 
 
 34 
 
030 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 varied control he lias exercised over turbulent States 
 and disorganized societies by the most appropriate 
 measure of redress, he yet disclaims ability to govern. 
 He is, in short, a man of action, and not of words. 
 He believes in the essential equality of all mankind, 
 and that the time is now for its embodiment into 
 government; but we must learn this from the zeal- 
 ous discharge of duties which contribute to that 
 end, instead of from any pledges which he has given, 
 or political platform which he has indorsed. He 
 believes that what is called the " policy of the nation " 
 should receive its direction and guidance from the 
 letrislative, rather than the executive branch of the 
 Government; but this is taught by his deeds, and not 
 by his declarations, unless it may be inferred from 
 the avowal, "No theory of my own will ever stand 
 in the way of executing any order I may receive 
 from those in authority over me." A comparison of 
 action with words, as a test of executive ability, recalls 
 a quaint specimen of Lord Bacon's wisdom: "The 
 speech of Themistocles the Athenian, which •was 
 haughty and arrogant in taking so much to himself, 
 had been a grave and wise observation and censure 
 applied at large to others. Desired at a feast to touch 
 a Lute, he said ' he could not fiddle, but yet he could 
 make a small town a great city.' These words (hol- 
 pen a little with a metaphor) may express two diflfer- 
 ino' abilities in those that deal in business of estate : 
 for, if a true survey be taken of counsellors and states- 
 men, there may be found (though rarely) those which 
 can make a small state great, and yet cannot fiddle ; 
 as, on the other side, there can be found a great many 
 
ADMINISTP.ATIVE EXPERIENCE. 50 1 
 
 that can fiddle very cunningly, but yet arc so far from 
 being able to make a small state great, as their gift 
 lieth the other way, — to bring a great and flourishing- 
 estate to. ruin and deca}^ And certainly those degen- 
 erate arts and shifts, whereby many counsellors ami 
 governors gain both favor with their masters and esti- 
 mation with the vulgar, deserve no better name than 
 fiddling; being things rather pleasing for the time, 
 and graceful to themselves only, than tending to the 
 weal and advancement of the state which they serve." 
 It should be remembered, in this great national 
 crisis, that the present generation is not only the heir 
 of all the past, but the guardian of all the future. 
 The time to mould the rising eras and ages of a con- 
 tinent is the time in which we are permitted to live, — 
 the time to ingraft upon imperishable laws and in- 
 stitutions the essential equality of all races and 
 colors is the present time. It is a fortunate law of 
 human progress, that the living inhabitants of every 
 • era and period, surrounded by no Chinese wall of 
 exclusiveness, can live no isolated or separate exist- 
 ence by themselves. As the past is in us and of us, 
 like oar own infiincy and childhood, so shall it and 
 we be in and of the future, — an essential part of its 
 body as well as of its spirit, — of its useful arts, handi- 
 craft, and daily life, as well as of its religion, philo- 
 sophy, literature, and civil institutions. It is a 
 weighty aphorism of Pascal, " that not only each 
 man increases daily his store of knowledge, but all 
 men united make an increasing progress in it, as the 
 universe grows older ; so that the whole succession 
 of human beings, during the entire course of the 
 
532 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ages, ought to be considered as one man, always 
 living and incessantly learning." To the abstract 
 eye there are no such divisions as past, present, and 
 future. The whole human family everywhere and 
 " everywheii " is but one great consolidated man, 
 "always living, incessantly learning." Each genera- 
 tion toils for all its successors ; and we should struo;<i;le 
 to add stores of knowledge, reforms, inventions, dis- 
 coveries, to our inheritance from the past, that the 
 patrimony of the race may go on accumulating, 
 like a mighty river, until it reaches the last gen- 
 eration, — the final heir of the perfected civilization 
 of all mankind. 
 
 Government is the corporation established to give 
 the character of identity and individuality to the 
 jJoIlUcal progression of each successive man, and 
 successive generations of men, in accordance with 
 this beneficent provision which supplements the 
 limited faculties of the individual by the infinite 
 faculties of the race. The existence of such a gov- 
 ernment here, which is the heritor of all the political 
 reforms and benefactions of the past, enforces upon 
 every generation the duty of seeing that it shall 
 incessantly rise and exalt itself as it descends the 
 ages ; that it shall gather in the liberal convictions, 
 the ameliorating spirit, of statesman after statesman, 
 generation after generation, keeping step with the 
 progress of mankind, marching to the music of en- 
 franchisement, — the vanguard always of public opin- 
 ion, — " mewmg its mighty youth," and regenerating 
 itself, as the race climbs to loftier ideals of gov- 
 ernment, and craves their embodiment. Let our 
 
ADMIXISTRATIVE EXPERIENCE. 533 
 
 republic be the perpetual reflex of man's most ex- 
 alted theories, the perpetual register of his highest 
 aspirations, the perpetual exemplar of the degree 
 of political happiness which man attains at every 
 step of his progress to complete political fruition ! 
 
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