LIFE AND SERVICES
OF
GENEBAL U. S. GBANT,
CONQUEROR OF THE REBELLION,
AND
EIGHTEENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES.
"WE HAVE WHIPPED THEM ONCE, AND I THINK WE CAN DO IT AGAIN." —Grant at Belmont.
This Life of GENERAL GRANT has been compiled from the most authentic sources, and is published
under the authority of the Republican National and Congressional Committees. The undersigned
are responsible for all statements of facts that it contains.
W. E. CIANDLER,
Secretary Republican National Committee.
T. L. TULLOCK,
Secretary Republican Congressional Commitgee.,
PHILP & SOLOMONS, WASHINGTON, D. C.
1868.




Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1868,
BY PIHILP & SOLOMONS,
In the Supreme Court of the District of Columbia.
Stereotyped
BY MCGILL & WITHEMOW,
Washington, D. C.




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
CHILDHOOD OF GRANT.
Ulysses, eldest child of Jesse R. and Hannah Grant, was born on
the 27th of April, 1822, at Point Pleasant, an obscure town in what
was then the far-western State of Ohio. His parents were well-to-do
people, furnished with as large a supply of this world's goods as any
of their neighbors, and both able and willing to afford him all the
advantages of education then attainable at so great a distance from
the Atlantic coast. His father was of direct Scottish lineage, and
although the family had been settled in America for nearly two hundred years, the most notable characteristics of the Caledonian race
had not disappeared in him, and were transmitted in a remarkable
degree of development to his illustrious son. The pertinacity of
resolve, the shrewd sagacity, the practical sense, the clear judgment,
the sustained energy which are conspicuous in the subject of this
pamphlet, are all peculiarities that may be traced to his Scottish
origin, modified of course by American influences.
The father had led an active, although not distinguished life. Born
in Pennsylvania, and left an orphan at the age of eleven years, he
emigrated from one State to another, and finally settled in Ohio. At
the time when Ulysses was born, he dealt largely in leather, owning
several tanneries. He was noted for intelligence as well as energy,
and in all his dealings with men he bore an unblemished name. The
mother also was a native of Pennsylvania, but had early removed to
the farther West, and was married in the same State where the future
general was born. Her maiden name was Simpson. The modest virtues of a Christian woman are not fit themes for public portraiture;
but it is not difficult to imagine in them the source of that purity of
character and almost child-like simplicity which are so singularly
combined in Grant with other and apparently contradictory traits.
Irving felicitously says of Washington: "Hereditary rank may be an
illusion, but hereditary virtue gives a patent of nobleness beyond all
the blazonry of the herald's college."




4                   LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
Grant was at first called Hiram Ulysses, but known always by the
second name. The low-roofed cottage in which he first saw the light
still overlooks the Ohio river and the opposite Kentucky shore, and
his earliest hours were spent almost on the boundary line afterwards
so distinctly drawn between rebellion and loyalty; in sight, indeed,
of that great theatre of war on which he was to act so prominent a
part. In 1823 his parents removed to Georgetown, Ohio, and there
the boyhood of young Grant was passed.
Like Washington, Cromwell, Wellington, and many others whose
names are world-renowned, Grant was not conspicuous in childhood
beyond his fellows. Some have thought that by the reflex light of
subsequent achievements they could discover in the traits of the boy
the germs of all that has since appeared in the man, and doubtless
those germs were all there latent, but the light and sun of circumstance had not developed them. None of his early companions saw
in him any indications of his future destiny.
WEST POINT.
At the age of seventeen, an appointment to the Military Academy
at West Point was offered to his father, in his behalf. The elder Grant
had always been interested in politics, and the Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, with whom he had had some little misunderstanding, procured
the appointment as a sort of peace-offering. Each congressional district is entitled to one representative at the Military Academy, and
the youth who had been sent the year before from the district where
Grant then lived failed to keep up with his class, and was dismissed
in consequence. The vacancy was offered to Ulysses. Had that young
predecessor been more successful, Grant might never have received a
military education, or risen to distinction in arms.
On arriving at the Academy, his name was entered as Ulysses S.
Grant. Mr. Hamer knew that he had a brother named Simpson, and
probably confounded the two names. Grant protested against the
change, but his protest did no good. He was destined to bear through
life the significant initials, although they were not given him in
baptism. His mates, when they discovered the blunder, with boyish
perversity insisted on calling him Uncle Sam, and he finally submitted
to what seemed inevitable. As Ulysses S. Grant he was commissioned
in the army; as Ulysses S. Grant he is now known to his countrymen;
as Ulysses S. Grant his name will live as long as the language.




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                     5
Four years were spent at the Academy, but Grant made no brilliant
mark there. Although a great reader, he had no fondness for study,
and manifested no early aptness for his profession, except in mathematics; this science he mastered easily.  Riding was his favorite
accomplishment, and amusement.  He was not attentive  to  the
minutiae of military etiquette required of the cadets, and though
never guilty of serious offences and far from insubordinate, was constantly undergoing petty punishments, for having a shoe untied on
parade or being late at drill. The same disregard for trivial forms
has followed him through his later military career. No officer of the
army to-day is less scrupulous in the etiquette of costume, or exacts
from his subordinates fewer of those shows of respect which are so
often paid while the reality is absent. He can indeed afford to dispense with the mere semblance of that respect which the entire army
profoundly feels for his reputation and his deeds.
Among his comrades at the Academy, Grant was popular. and most
of them now sincerely rejoice in his extraordinary success, although
it leaves them all far behind. Some of his class, however, have risen
to distinction in military and civil life. The man who graduated first
was William B. Franklin, afterwards a major general of volunteers.
Isaac F. Quimby also became a general officer during the rebellion,
and is now a professor in a university at Rochester, New York.
Among the other generals are Jos. J. Reynolds, C. C. Augur, C. S.
Hamilton, Frederick Steele, Rufus Ingalls, Moses Judah, and J. J.
Peck, all of whom served under their classmate during the war of the
rebellion.  He was twenty-first in his class at graduation, and was
made a brevet second lieutenant. The army was full at the time, and
its future commander could only be admitted as a supernumerary
officer. He was attached to the Fourth infantry.
THE MEXICAN WAR.
At this time he was twenty-one y6ars of age. His first post was
Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri, where he formed the
acquaintance of the lady who afterwards became his wife, She was
the sister of a classmate, and the daughter of Frederick Dent, Esq., a
prominent merchant of St. Louis. A few months later, the Mexican
war broke out and Grant was ordered with his regiment to Texas, to
join the army of General Taylor. While at Corpus Christi, he received
his commission of full second lieutenant in the Seventh infantry; he




6                   LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
had, however, become so attached to the Fourth, with which he had
been serving, that a request was forwarded to Washington for permission to remain with the latter regiment; and in November, 1845,
he was transferred to the Fourth infantry, in which he remained as
long as he continued in the army. He was present at the battles of
Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, and there took his first lesson in
actual war; battles which must seem to him now, with his subsequent
career, like insignificant skirmishes. More men have often been
assigned by him to a brigade than there constituted both the American and the Mexican armies.
Lieutenant Grant remained under Taylor until the capture of Monterey, assisting in that gallant achievement. His regiment was then
transferred to the army of General Scott, and participated in the siege
and capture of the renowned fortress of Vera Cruz.  Grant was now
made quartermaster of the regiment, a position which would have
honorably exempted him from exposing himself to fire, but he never
allowed an opportunity of going into action to pass unimproved. He
participated in the great march of Scott from the sea to the capital of
Mexico, was present at all the battles of that brilliant campaign, at
Chapultepec, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and at the capture of the City of Mexico. For his distinguished gallantry at Molino
del Rey he received the brevet of first lieutenant, and in the affair
which resulted in the capture of the city displayed many of the best
traits which his later history has rendered so conspicuous.
A long causeway led up from the mountain of Chapultepec to one
of the gates of the city of Mexico, but was so well defended that it
was judged more feasible to approach it by an indirect route. Worth's
division accordingly was sent by a road which entered the city from the
west; Grant was in Worth's division.
An abrupt turn in the road was defended by a parapet, with a single
embrasure, and as the advance, of which Grant was one, approached
this parapet, a raking fire of musketry made it necessary for the assailants to avail themselves of every chance for cover. Grant, however,
went alone across the space exposed to fire, and discovered an opportunity to flank the parapet. Hastening back to his men, some twenty
or thirty in number, he called out that he had found a chance to turn
the enemy's position, and asked for volunteers. Ten or a dozen soldiers jumped up at once, and were soon crawling with him behind a
stone fence, towards the place from which they were to storm the little
work; when Grant discovered Captain, now General, Horace Brooks




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  7
coming up in the same direction with a company. Brooks was a cautious soldier, and, making his way slowly along in the bottom of a
ditch; Grant at once cried out, " Captain, I've found a way to flank
the enemy;" and Brooks replied, "Well, you know the route, go on
and we will follow." So the lieutenant led, and the whole party, now
nearly fifty in number, assaulted the end of the parapet, carried it by
storm, and then took the enemy in rear. The Mexicans fled at once
from the position, no longer tenable, and the parapet was secured.
The party was now on the direct road to the Garita San Cosme, one
of the strongest entrances to the city of Mexico, whose spires were
distinctly visible. On they went, till they found their way obstructed
by another parapet, exactly like that already carried, but this one
defended by a cannon. Grant again advanced at the head of his little
column, by this time augmented to a hundred and fifty soldiers, and
the second parapet was carried. But they were at last under the guns
of the city itself, and Brooks, who assumed command by virtue of
seniority, declared that he could not hold the position long without
reinforcements. Grant was therefore sent back to General Worth to
ask for more troops. He had not been gone five minutes before the
little command was driven pell-mell from the parapet. He, however,
soon found the commanding general, and fresh troops were at once
sent forward.
A little to the right of the parapet, but still nearer to the garita, was
a church, with a steeple nearly a hundred feet high. Grant promptly
led a section of artillery towards the church through the ditches with
which the whole country is broken. He found the padre, and demanded
the keys of the sacred building, which the father was at first unwilling
to surrender, but Grant soon convinced him of the necessity of compliance. The mountain howitzer, drawn by hand, was speedily taken
to pieces, and four or five men carried it to the belfry. Grant disposed
the rest of the force around the church below so as to secure it against
easy capture, and mounted the steeple. The pieces of the howitzer
were hastily put together, and Grant himself pointed and served the
gun, which quickly drove the enemy from the parapet. The piece was
then directed on the city, and did excellent execution against the
garita. The confusion of the Mexicans, who hastened to retreat
inside the city, was plainly visible.
Worth soon perceived the shells issuing from this novel position,
and marked the effect they were doing on the enemy. He was delighted
at the sagacity and gallantry of the performance, and sent at once




8                   LIFE OF GENERAL -GI)NoT.
for Grant to congratulate him. Not only did he do this publicly, but
he placed a captain, with an entire company, under Grant's command,
and bade him return with another howitzer to his church. Grant
obeyed, and that night the Garita San Cosine surrendered. On the
morrow Mexico was in the hands of the Americans.
For this achievement, so important and so successful, which was
executed without orders by a secondlieutenant, acting as a quartermaster, who therefore had no legitimate command, but was obliged to
gather up men and weapons on the field, Grant was mentioned in all
the official reports, and received another brevet five days after the
former. One of his fellow second lieutenants in the fourth infantry
at this time, was named Abram Lincoln. He died in Florida, in 1852.
Generals McCall, Alvord, Prince, Augur, Judah, Hays, and Russell,
were also among his comrades, most of them then of higher rank than
he who has since outstripped them all.
PANAMA.
After the close of the Mexican war, Grant returned with his regiment to the United States. He married in April, 1848, and for a
while was in command of his company, first at Detroit, and afterwards
at Sackett's Harbor. In 1851 he was ordered to Oregon by way of
California. His wife was left behind. The route was by sea to the
Isthmus of Panama, but in crossing the isthmus the cholera broke out
among the passengers.
Grant was again acting as quartermaster. The railroad at this time
was completed only about thirty miles; after that the route was in
boats up the Chagres river, to the head of navigation, and from this
point about thirty miles farther by land. The troops, some seven
hundred in number, were to march from the river to the Pacific, but
the steamship company had contracted to furnish mules and other
transportation for the sick, as well as for the wives and children of
the officers and soldiers. There were, however, several hundred other
passengers besides the soldiers, and when the cholera appeared the
panic among them was great. The passengers offered higher prices
to the natives than the company had bargained to pay,-and the Indians hired to them all their mules and wagons, leaving none for the
soldiers or their families. The great body of troops at once marched
on, but Grant was left with the sick and the women and children, who
were unable to walk under the July sun of the tropics. Here he




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                    9
remained a week, amid malignant heats and pestilence and death,
taking entire command of everything, making- extraordinary efforts to
procure transportation, caring for the sick and dying, burying the
dead, controlling the half-hostile natives, and doing the work of a
dozen frightened officers. During all this week he never took his
clothes off once, and only snatched rare intervals of sleep as he lay
stretched along a bench or under a shed, exposed to the miasma of
the forest and the swamps. But he was preserved for still greater
emergencies. Neither Mexican bullets nor South American plagues
were allowed to harm the life destined thereafter to be of so much
consequence to his countrymen.
Finally, as the agents of the steamship failed entirely to do their
duty, Grant took upon himself the responsibility of making a new
contract in their name. He hired mules and wagons and litters for
the sick at prices double those which the company had agreed to pay.
He engaged natives to bury the dead, and at last took up his march
for the Pacific. About a hundred and fifty souls had been left with
him in the interior of the isthmus, half of whom perished in that
week of cholera. Grant was among the last to start from the fatal
spot, from which many officers in his situation would not have scrupled
to flee at the first appearance of the pestilence.
CIVIL LIFE.
His regiment finally arrived at Fort Dallas, Oregon, and in 1853
he received his commission of captain. He remained on the Pacific
coast till 1854, when, having served in the army eleven years, he resigned his commission and returned to St. Louis. Near this place he
owned a little farm. His means were limited, and he was accustomed
to work at the plough with his hired men, and one or two slaves, the
property of his wife. In the winter, when the cultivation of the
ground was impossible, he resorted to wood-cutting, cutting and cording the wood himself, and hauling it to market in St. Louis, a distance
of eleven miles.'His dress and appearance were that of a sturdy
woodman. He built a log-house on his farm, and lived simply, spending most of his time with his family, for his habits were domestic. He
was never so happy as when with his wife and children. He now had
three sons and a daughter.
Once in a while, on driving his cart into town, he met some old
army friends who were stationed at his former post of Jefferson Bar



10                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
racks. These were always glad to welcome him and talk over other
times, thinking it no disgrace to him that he endeavored to earn an
honest livelihood, though in a plain and humble way. Yet some of his
other and more fashionable associates sometimes turned their heads if
they saw him approaching in a woodman's blouse. The same men
since have been conspicuous in asking favors of him whom they once
were unwilling to recognize.
But with all his industry he did not succeed. He tried collecting
money, but for this he had no talent. He was too modest to thrive at
the dunning trade, and at times his circumstances were narrow indeed.
Providence was preparing him, by hardships and experiences of every
sort, to know both himself and the people whose destinies he was thereafter to guide. Had he been luxuriously bred, the traits which adverse
fortune developed might have been smothered in the hot-bed of success; the endurance, the patience, the knowledge of men, the persistency of purpose which stood this nation in so much stead in her hour
of peril, might never have ripened to their fruition in the last eight
years.
In 1859, finding that he made no progress in St. Louis, Grant
removed with his family to Galena, where his father and brothers
were engaged in the leather trade. They gave him occupation, and
here he remained nearly a year. His house was simple, like his
habits; his daily employment was trading leather, at wholesale and
retail. He seemed to have forgotten his military life and pursuits.
The title of captain, by which he still was known, hardly recalled to
him the storming of Chapultepec or the guns that he so gallantly
mounted in crazy steeples under the walls of Mexico. There was
no indication visible to any of the inhabitants of Galena which fore.
told that he should ever become the foremost man in America. No
restless ambition disturbed his spirits, no craving for fame made him
dissatisfied with obscurity. Those nearest him never suspected that
he possessed extraordinary ability. He himself never dreamed that
he was destined to great place and power. Like Washington and
Cromwell, he lived far retired from the haunts of public men, until
the needs of his time and his country called him forth.
Yet all this while he was known for practical sense, for good clear
judgment, for moderate but determined opinions, for scrupulous purity,
for staunch friendships, for all the traits that make up the character
of a man of honor. All this while he made men love him who knew
him well, and saw him so free from guile, so full of warm affection-,




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  11
All this while, unconscious to himself, he was laying the foundations
of that greatness which to-day is known in both hemispheres. This
varied experience of soldier, farmer, and trader, of northern and
southern, of eastern and western life, this frontier career, these two
years in a foreign land, this dealing with the people of Oregon and
Michigan, of New York and St. Louis and Galena, gave him a wide
and thorough sympathy with all classes of the American people;
made him, unknown to himself, a representative American. In war,
he had served under the two greatest captains that the American
army had produced during the century; he had seen the strategy of
Taylor and Scott, he had shared in the battles of each, had witnessed
marches and sieges and assaults. In peace, the leather merchant of
Galena, now thirty-nine years old, had seen and learned more of life,
had laid its lessons more to heart than many of his countrymen whose
names were then well known to fame.
He had learned patience when hope was long deferred; he had
learned courage and endurance under heavy and repeated difficulties;
he had shown that he possessed persistency of resolve and fertility
of resource; that he never despaired. If one means failed he tried
another. He had shown, above all, content under ill fortur e and with
little things, and was now ready, though he dreamed not of it, for
great achievements and extraordinary place and power. Until the
country had need of him, Providence kept him in training for the
emergencies with which he was to cope. But now the fullness of time
had arrived.
OUTBREAK OF THE WAR.
The abolition or extension of slavery was a question which had
agitated the American Union ever since that Union had existed. A
majority of the inhabitants of the South were determined that the
institution should be extended into all the territory not already
divided into States. A majority of the population of the North was
equally determined that it should be restrained within the limits of
those States where it already existed.
The Republican party was inaugurated for the express purpose of
preventing the extension of slavery, and finally succeeded in obtaining possession of the Government. Upon this event the leaders of
the South at once determined on forcible resistance. They indeed had
long meant to sever all connection with the North, and set up an independent government for themselves, but hitherto had been obliged to




12                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
veil their intentions. Now, however, they succeeded in dragging the
entire population of the South after them and with them into rebel.
lion. An armed attack was made upon a national fort in the harbor of
Charleston, South Carolina. The forces of the Government resisted,
but the rebels were successful, and Fort Sumter submitted to what
was called the Confederacy. From this moment the great mass of the
people at the North forgot all their old political differences, and set
themselves about the work of suppressing the revolt. A few traitors
lingered here and there, but they dared not openly give utterance to
their sentiments, and were lost in the mighty uprising of the nation
determined to protect its own existence. The South, on the contrary,
was all swept into the vortex of treason, and the mightiest civil war
in history was inaugurated.
Two days after the outbreak of the war, the President issued a
call for seventy-five thousand volunteer troops, and three days after
that proclamation appeared, a public meeting was held in Galena,
in response to the call; Captain Grant presided. He had never occupied a position of this character before; he was no politician, but his
former connection with the regular army gave him a fitness for the
post, and, although he had voted for Buchanan against Frkmont, in
1856, he was untainted with any secession doctrine. The attack upon
the flag under which he had fought appealed to every instinct of his
nature, every principle of his intellect, and he immediately determined
that his place was in the field. He had been educated by the country,
and felt that the country had an especial right to his services in her
hour of trial. He at once began to put his affairs in order, and in
less than a week was drilling a company of volunteers. On the 23d
of April he started with his company for Springfield, the capital of
Illinois. His services were then offered to the Governor of the State,
who at this period, when the simplest principles of military organization were unfamiliar, was glad to avail himself of the knowledge of an
old army officer. Grant served five weeks, most of the time mustering
in new troops, under the direction of the Governor. Meanwhile, he
wrote to Washington, and offered himself to the National Government in any capacity that might be desired. His letter, however,
was not answered, it was not event put on file, and the insignificant
captain received no reply. This, however, did not repel him from the
duty which he owed his country, and he went to Cincinnati, hoping
to obtain a position on the staff of Major General McClellan. He
was too modest to make an application, and nothing was offered him.




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   13
He did not even succeed in gaining access to McClellan's presence.
Still, he was resolved to enter the army, and returned to his mustering
at Springfield, where, early in June, he was offered the twenty-first
regiment of Illinois volunteers. It was a fortunate day for the
country when Governor Yates made out the commission for the man
who was fated to lead the American armies to so many victories.
Colonel Grant at once took command of his regiment, and was
stationed at first in Missouri, where he was occupied in watching
the movements of various guerrilla bands, by which that State was
infested. Shortly afterwards the Hon. E. B. Washburne suggested
his name to the President for a brigadier generalship. Mr. Washburne had long been the member of Congress from Galena, but first
made Grant's acquaintance at the public meeting held there after the
President's first call for troops. He then noticed the fervid patriotism
and prompt energy of the captain, and, seeing him again at Springfield, was again impressed with his diligence and earnestness in a
subordinate position, and, when the President asked who should be
appointed a brigadier from Illinois, Washburne suggested Colonel
Grant. On the 7th of August the new general was commissioned, to
date from May 17. He knew nothing of his promotion for some time
afterwards, till a friend called his attention to the announcement in
the newspapers. Washburne had never spoken nor written to him on
the subject, and his surprise was great to find himself a brigadier.
No promotion indeed that he ever received was suggested or procured
or expedited by any act or word of his. All his honors have come to
him unsought.
PADUCAH.
On the 1st of September, 1861, General Frdmont, his immediate
commander, created for him the district of southeast Missouri, with
headquarters at Cairo, Illinois. His duty was to protect the country
near the junction of the Ohio, Mississippi, Tennessee, an'd Kentucky
rivers. None of this region had then been formally occupied by rebel
troops; and even the national forces had not entered the State of
Kentucky, which at that time claimed to be neutral in the contest.
But it was evident that this neutrality would not long be respected by
the rebel authorities; neither was it recognized by those who fought
for the Union. Two days after Grant arrived at Cairo, he heard that
the rebel General- Polk had invaded the State, seizing two important
places on the Mississippi, and threatening Paducah at the point where




14                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
the Tennessee river empties into the Ohio. This latter place it was
important to secure, as it commanded the navigation of both streams.
Grant at once informed Fr4mont of the newsy adding, "I am getting
ready to go to Paducah. Will start at six-and-a-half o'clock." That
night he did start, having received no orders from Frdmont. He
embarked two regiments and a battery on transports, and, steaming
up the Ohio, arrived at Paducah next morning, seized the town without firing a gun, and secured this important place, which never afterwards passed out of the national possession. A rebel general officer
and his staff were in the town, making preparations for its occupancy,
but escaped by the railroad while the national troops were landing,
and a large rebel force was only sixteen miles off; but Kentucky, by
this bold stroke, was secured to the Union. The Legislature at once
declared in favor of the Government, and all talk of the secession or
neutrality of the State was abandoned. Kentucky was, indeed, a
battle-ground long and often afterwards, but its authorities from that
time were firm in their allegiance. Grant himself went back the same
day to Cairo, and found there Fr6mont's permission to take Paducah,
"if he felt strong enough."
BELMONT.
Nothing of importance occurred after this for nearly eight weeks.
Troops were added to Grant's command, and all his time was spent in
drilling and organizing them. They were of course entirely raw,
officers and men were ignorant of the very rudiments of the military
art; and Grant never worked harder in his life than in preparing these
new soldiers to take the field. Early in November he got orders from
Fremont to make a demonstration upon a little place called Belmont,
on the west bank of the Mississippi, some twenty miles below Cairo.
It had no importance in itself, for it was directly under the guns of
Columbus, a considerable work on the opposite shore. Columbus was
too strongly fortified and too largely garrisoned to allow any chance
of its capture, but rebel forces were being sent from  there into
Missouri, and annoying Frdmont's operations in that State. Grant
was accordingly instructed to move troops south from Cairo, on both
sides of the river, with a view to distract the enemy and prevent
any further crossing. The day after this order was given, however,
Fremont sent word of a rebel force in Missouri, about fifty miles
to the southwest of Cairo, and ordered Grant to intercept it. Ac



LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   15
cordingly, on the 8d of November, Grant sent three thousand men,
under Colonel Oglesby, in the direction indicated.  This delayed
the demonstration previously contemplated. But on the 5th Fr&mont again telegraphed that reinforcements were being sent from
Columbus, and directed the original demonstration to be made at once.
In obedience to this, Grant the same day despatched several regiments
to the rear of Columbus, with orders not to attack, but to keep the
enemy from throwing more force across the river, and on the 6th he
moved himself, with three thousand men on transports, down the river
towards Belmont. During the night he learned that still larger forces
had been sent by the rebels from Columbus, to interrupt the troops
that he had- ordered into Missouri three days before. This decided
him to make an absolute attack on Belmont, in order to bring back
the rebels from the interior of Missouri, and thus save the detachment
under Oglesby.  He determined to destroy or capture all the troops
at Belmont, and get off again before the rebels could reinforce.
Lainding at daybreak about three miles above Belmont, he marched
at once in the direction of the rebel camp. But the enemy soon came
out to meet him, and a desperate encounter ensued, lasting several
hours, during which Grant was in the thickest of the fight, and had
his horse shot under him. He finally drove the rebels in great confusion to their camp, which was defended by a rough abatis. This,
however, proved insufficient to stay the soldiers of the Union, and the
rebels fled in dismay to the river bank, where they were covered by
the guns of their great fort at Columbus. Grant having accomplished
his object, now strove to get his men together and return, but the
confusion consequent upon victory was too much for these raw troops.
They shouted and ran around the camps, and were utterly uncontrollable. The rebels meanwhile had begun to send reinforcements apross
the river from Columbus, and it was necessary to do something at
once. Accordingly, Grant ordered his staff officers to set the camps
on fire, and then the men returned to the ranks. They were marching back in good order to their boats when the rebel reinforcements
arrived, and, making a short cut, threw themselves directly in front of
Grant's little column. The national soldiers were at first greatly disturbed at the sight, supposing themselves cut off. One of Grant's
officers came up to him in dismay with the news that they were surrounded. But Grant remarked, calmly, "'If that is so, we must cut
our way out as we cut our way in."  The troops at once took heart,
when they found they had a leader, and Grant calling out, "We have




16                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
whipped them once, I think we can do it again," they rallied, charged,
and again dispersed the enemy, who retreated once more under cover
of the river banks.
The rebel reinforcements, however, continued to arrive in great
numbers, and Grant pushed his men on rapidly, but remained himself
farther behind, to superintend those who were gathering up the
wounded. While thus engaged he got entirely outside of his own sol.
diers, and directly in front of the third rebel line, which was now
greatly increased and advancing rapidly towards the national transports. Grant fortunately wore a private's overcoat, for the day was
cold, and the rebels did not recognize him for an officer. A rebel
general, indeed, cried out, "There, men, is a Yankee, if you want to
try your aim," but they were too eager to reach the steamers then,
and nobody aimed at Grant. He, however, saw that there was no
time to lose, and, putting spurs to his horse, rode rapidly back to
his command.
By this time the enemy had opened a heavy musketry fire, and
Grant got aboard under a storm of bullets. His men were already
on the transports before him, and at once put off. The rebels fired-,
too high, and no one was killed, while two gunboats that had acted as
a convoy for the troops opened with grape and canister, and did great
execution in the enemy's ranks. Seven thousand rebels were engaged
in this fight against Grant's three thousand, and the enemy lost six
hundred men, a third more than Grant. Grant carried off two pieces
of artillery, and nearly two hundred prisoners.
This was the first battle in which he commanded, and it illustrated
in a peculiar degree the coolness and judgment and gallantry for
which he afterwards was so remarkable. The promptness with which
he decided upon converting the demonstration into an attack, the
vigor of his movement, the equanimity with which he sustained the
spirits of his troops when they flagged under unexpected appearances
of reverse, and the steadiness with which he acted when greatly outnumbered, were all traits that foretold to those who could read them,
the ability of a great commander.
FORT HENRY
Two days after the battle-of Belmont, General Fremont was superseded by General Halleck, who made no immediate change in Grant's
command. The rebels at this time were in great strength at Colum



LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  I7
bus, holding the Mississippi river from that place downward. A line
drawn eastward from the Father of Waters at Columbus, would strike
the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers a few miles north of the boundary between Kentucky and Tennessee. Near this boundary two forts
were erected, one on each stream; that on the Tennessee was called
Fort Henry, that on the Cumberland, Fort Donelson. Still further
east, at Bowling Green, about a hundred and twenty miles from the
Mississippi, another great depot of men and arms was established by
the enemy.
These various points constituted an admirable line, stretching nearly
across the State of Kentucky, behind which rebellion was rampant
and secure, and beyond which it constantly threatened to sally against
the forces of the Government. Grant early conceived the idea of
piercing this line at its centre, by the capture of Fort Henry. He
proposed this in conversation with Halleck in January, 1862, but
received a rebuff for his pains. Notwithstanding, on the 28th of the
same month, he repeated the proposition by telegraph; "With permission, I will take and hold Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, and establish
and hold a large camp there." The next day he wrote at length,
detailing the advantages of the movement, and insisting on the necessity of prompt action, before the rebel defenses should be so strength.
ened as to become impregnable. In this application he was joined by
Commodore Foote, who commanded the naval force in the western
waters, but was under Halleck's orders. Halleck now consented to
the movement, and on the next day, February 2d, Grant started from
Cairo with seventeen hundred men on transports. Foote accompanied
him with seven gunboats. They reached a point on the Tennessee
three miles below Fort Henry on the 4th, and the troops at once
began to land. Fort Henry was on the eastern shore, and a small but
unfinished work was on the opposite bank. The two places were garrisoned by two thousand eight hundred men, under General Tilghman. The Tennessee and the Cumberland rivers are at this point
only twelve miles apart, and a direct road connected Fort Henry with
Fort Donelson.
Grant's plan was to surround Fort Henry on the land side with his
troops, so as to cut off the garrison either from reinforcements or
from any chance of escape, while Foote was to attack in front with
his gunboats. The Tennessee, however, had overflowed its banks, so
that the roads were almost impassable. Bridges were swept aivay,
and the rain was falling in torrents. Besides this, Grant had not
2




18                  LIFE..OF  byZ&I  GRANT.
steamers enough to bring all his troops from Cairo-,at once, and,
having debarked a portion, was obliged to send back his transports
for the remainder. This delayed his movements a day or two, and
the rebels availed themselves of the chance to strengthen the fort.
It was not until near midnight of the 5th that all of Grant's troops
could be got ashore.
The landing was north of the fort, and just outside of the range of
its guns. Two brigades were ordered to disembark on the western
bank, and seize the opposite work, while the remainder were to march
at eleven o'clock on the morning of the 6th, and take position east of
Fort Henry, so as to invest it, and "be ready to charge and take the
work by storm promptly on the receipt of orders."  These instructions were given out before all the troops had arrived, but it was
reported that the rebels,were reinforcing, and it was therefore necessary to be prompt.
The troops moved at the hour appointed, but they had eight miles
to march, streams to bridge, and roads to cut through the woods, the
ordinary ones having been destroyed by the freshet. Meanwhile
Foote advanced and attacked with his gunboats, and in less than an
hour and a half the fort surrendered. Only sixty men, however, were
captured, for Tilghman, the rebel commander, foreseeing the probability of not being able to hold out, had stationed the rest of the
garrison, over two thousand seven hundred strong, at the outworks,
about two miles off, and before the fight began he sent them orders
to retreat upon Fort Donelson. They obeyed, and, when Grant got
up from struggling through the swamps and mire, the main rebel force
had escaped. The fort, with seventeen heavy guns, was turned over
to him by Foote, and a detachment of cavalry was sent out at once to
pursue the retreating enemy. The rebels, however, had already got
too far for this to avail; a few prisoners and two guns were captured,
and the pursuit was abandoned.
FORT DONELSON.
The same day Grant telegraphed to Halleck, "Fort Henry is ours."
He gave, however, the credit where it was due: "The gunboats silenced
the batteries before the investment was completed." Then, with the
same atinost laughable audacity with which be had announced that
"with permission he would take and hold Fort Henry," he add.ed, "1
shall take and destroy sort Donelson on the Sth, and return to Fort




LIFE  OPe IBBRAL GRANtsZ                19
Henry."  At this time Halleek -had never mentioned the subject of
Fort Donelson to Grant, but the latter, with the clear perception and
quick decision which are so indispensable in a great soldier, at once saw
the necessity of acting before the rebels had recovered from the effect
of the blow already dealt. He therefore determined without orders.
The roads, however, again impeded. his movements. The whole
country was inundated, and Fort Henry almost an island. The troops
had to be used for a day or two in saving what had been gained from
the rapidly-rising deluge. Meanwhile Halleck forwarded reinforcements. He gave, however, no encouragement -to Grant's advance.
He countermanded nothing, it is true, but all his despatches dwelt on
the necessity of defending Fort Henry,. while all of Grant's idea was
to attack Fort Donelson. That, he thought, was the surest way toe
defend Fort Henry. While one was telegraphing about picks and
shovels on the Tennessee, the other replied by asking for heavy ordnance for the siege on the Cumberland.
The rebels now were wide awake to their danger, and, hurrying
troops to Fort Donelson; they also strained every nerve to strengthen
its defence on all sides, and succeaded in making one of the most
formidable works that had been constructed at that period of the war.
Grant, was -ready to start by the 10th, but Foote had sent some of his
gunboats up the river, and it was necessary to wait for their return..
On the 11th, however, Foote started with the fleet and all the rein.
forcements that had yet arrived from Halleck. These went around by
the Ohio and Cumberland rivers, and the same day Grant's advance
moved out in the rear of Fort Henry, three or four miles towards
Fort Donelson. On the 12th the main column, fifteen thousand
strong, was in motion. The orders were to take neither tents nor baggage, but forty rounds of ammunition per man. No rations were
furnished, except those in; haversacks, as supplies were to meet them
on their arrival at the Cumberland. Before noon they came in sight
of the enemy's lines.
The fort itself was on an eminence commanding the Cumberland,
and covered over a hundred acres. It was manned by seventeen
heavy guns. Outside of this were two strong lines of entrenchments
with abatis. These lines were admirably located on commanding
ridges, and protected by detached works; the nature of the ground
also afforded a peculiar defence to the rebels, broken as it was by
ravines and streams' and rugged hills. On each side of the rebel line
was a creek, -whose-waters were-::now- high, an4 these creeks furnished




20                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
additional defences to the besieged, whose line was nearly three miles
long, stretching from stream to stream. The garrison, nearly twentytwo thousand strong, was commanded by General Floyd, the traitorous
member of Buchanan's Cabinet, whose perfidy in civil life was destined
to be eclipsed by the baseness with which he deserted his fellow rebels
when disaster became inevitable.
Thus, with his little army, not more than two-thirds as large as the
rebel force, and with one or two light batteries, Grant marched up to
a formidable work, defended by heavy artillery and sixty-seven field
guns, as daring an attempt as is presented in the history of war. As
yet no reinforcements had arrived, and the gunboats had not appeared.
Halleck thought his subordinate was still fortifying Fort Henry, but
Grant was convinced that unless this movement were made with
promptness, Fort Donelson would not be taken at all, and he had confidence in himself and in his men. The investment was begun at
once, and by nightfall the Union left rested on the creek north of the
fort, while the right reached nearly to the stream on the south. All
the next day was spent in studying the ground and perfecting the
investment, but the attack could not begin, as neither the reinforcements nor the gunboats had arrived. The aspect of affairs was
gloomy. The besieging force, unsupported, uncovered by works, and
in front. of an army so much larger than itself, was in imminent peril.
Two or three engagements occurred along the lines, provoked without
Grant's orders, and the result of these was not encouraging. But the
enemy, fortunately, did not come out in force.
All night the cold was intense. It was February, and the ground
was covered with snow. Hail fell fast, and a more inclement storm
was never known in that latitude. The troops were without tents;
many were frozen, their rations were scanty, and the pickets were so
close to the enemy that no camp-fires could be allowed. An interchange of shots continued all night, and the groans of the wounded
were mingled with the shrieking of the wind, the whistling of bullets,
and the crash of falling trees, cut down either by the storm or the
fire of the enemy. Before daylight, however, Foote arrived with the
reinforcements and supplies-a welcome sight, indeed. The garrison
left at Fort Henry had also been ordered across by land, leaving only
a small force there. Grant's command now consisted of three divisions; McClernand had the right, Lewis Wallace the centre, and C.
F. Smith the left of his line.
At three o'clock on the afternoon of the 14th, Foote attacked the




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   21
fort with six gunboats. Grant's forces were all under arms, ready to
assault on the land side, in case of success in the water attack. But
Foote was unfortunate; two of his vessels were entirely disabled, and
two others rendered temporarily unmanageable. He himself was
wounded and obliged to withdraw. That night he requested Grant
to come aboard his flagship, and there declared that his fleet was so
much damaged as to render it necessary for him to return to Cairo
for repairs. He urged Grant not to attack in his absence, and this
indeed seemed the truest policy for the national general. It was not,
however, the policy of the enemy to allow such a course. Grant's
reinforcements were pouring in fast; his army was now equal in
numbers to the besieged, though in artillery, and of course in position it was still far inferior. While Grant was on the flagship, consulting with Foote, the rebels, too, held a council of war. They perceived that if they remained quiet they would certainly be completely
surrounded, and eventually compelled to surrender.  They determined, therefore, to mass on their left, and, coming out of their lines
on the morning of the 15th, assault Grant's right, which was his
weakest wing, not quite extending to the creek on the south side of
the fort.
They acted promptly, and at early dawn assaulted McClernand in
great numbers. The national defence was vigorous, but vain, and
McClernand was pushed back upon the centre. Lewis Wallace supported him with nearly all his force, and the battle raged heavily here
for hours. The rebels maintained the fight with artillery as well as
infantry, and in numbers decidedly superior to those engaged against
them. Grant meanwhile was on the gunboat, which he did not leave
till morning, as his interview with Foote was important and protracted.
No noise of the conflict had reached his ears, for the wind blew in an
opposite direction, and the fight was on the extreme southern point of
the entire position, while the fleet had of course withdrawn to the
north.
It was nine o'clock before Grant got ashore. As he was approaching his headquarters, he was met with news of the battle still raging.
He at once directed Smith, whose troops had not been engaged, to get
himself in readiness to attack, as this would be the quickest way to
relieve the hard-pressed forces on the right. Then riding on, he
speedily arrived at that part of the field where the fighting had been
most severe. The rebels had not succeeded in forcing their way
through, and were slowly finding a route back towards their works.




22                  LIFE OF'GNERA~iGR GANT.
The national troops had held their ground, but were very much disordered; in no condition to follow up the eriemy. They were mostly
raw, and had been taken aback by the rebel assault; especially the
news that the enemy had come out with knapsacks and haversacks
seemed to appal them. They told this to Grant: as evidence that the
rebels meant to stay outside of their works and fight for several days.
He, however, at once detected the significance of this news. "Are
the haversacks filled?" he asked. Prisonerg were examined, and the
haversacks found to contain three days' rations. "Then they mean
to cut their way out; they have no idea of staying here to fight us."
IHe saw immediately why the haversacks were filled. The plan of the
rebels to break through the investment and escape was evident to
him at-'a glance. It was also evident that if they made this plan they
must be despairing, and now, therefore, was the time to attack them.
He looked around the field, and saw both sides exhausted; either
was ready to retreat if hard pressed. This was the moment to convert battle into victory. " Whichever party first attacks now will win,"
he exclaimed, "and the rebels will have to be very quick if they beat
me." He set his staff to work to reassure the drooping spirits of the
soldiers. He told the troops himself that the attack of the morning
was the last desperate effort of the enemy to escape. He revived their
confidence and inspired their courage. The men had been disorganized and scattered all over the field, but they took new heart at this
idea, and returned at once to the ranks. Then he rode rapidly back
to the left, and ordered Smith to attack immediately and with all his
force, while the other two divisions which had been so hotly engaged
all day were to take advantage of this diversion of Smith, and recover
the advantage they had almost lost.
Smith advanced at once and with great alacrity. The ground was
exceedingly difficult, but he charged at the head of his troops, and the
effect was irresistible. He carried everything before him, penetrated
the first line of entrenchments, and secured a hill which commanded
all within; in fact, the key to the possession of the fort. The troops
on the right advanced at the same time; and as the enemy was obliged
to hurry to the defence of the point in front of Smith, Wallace and
McClernand regained their ground and the guns they had lost in the
morning. It was dark before the battle ceased, and only darkness
saved the rebels from losing their entire fort by storm. Still it was
evident to both sides that the place was won.
At daylight next morning, a white flag was sent to Grant with pro



LIPE OF G:ENERAL GRANT.                  2h'
positions for surrender. Floyd had deserted his command; Pillow,
the next in rank, had followed his example, and General S. B. Buckner was left at the head of. the rebel force. He asked for an armistice,
and the appointment of commissioners to settle terms of capitulation.
Grant, who was preparing to storm theworks, appreciated thoroughly
the situation of affairs, and replied in the well-known words: "No
terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I
propose to move immediately upon your works." Buckner had no option
and at once acquiesced. Grant, however, allowed the officers to retain
their swords, and both officers and men their personal effects. He had
no desire unnecessarily to humiliate those whom he had captured.
The same spirit which he displayed then was manifest again and again
during the war. It was his lot to receive the surrender of more and
larger forces than any other soldier of modern times.  He was always
as unconditional and determined in battle as at Donelson, and always
as magnanimous in victory, again and again extracting from the very
men whom he conquered, tributes of gratitude.  Buckner in this
instance took Grant with him to his troops, and told them of the kindness and consideration with which the rebel army had been treated
by their victor.
Grant captured at this place fifteen thousand men, seventeen thousand
muskets, and sixty-five pieces of artillery.  The rebels had lost two
thousand five hundred in killed and wounded, and nearly four thousand
escaped in steamers in the night up the river, or made their way on
horses through the swollen creek on the south of Fort Donelson.
Grant's force at the time of the surrender amounted to twenty-seven
thousand; but his reinforcements were constantly coming up for several days afterwards. His losses during the siege were four hundred
and twenty-five killed, and one thousand five hundred and sixteen
wounded and missing. The results of this achievement extended, however, far beyond the capture of men and material. The Tennessee
and Cumberland rivers were now opened to the national forces, and
two great highways unbarred, by which access to the interior of the
rebellious region was made secure. The entire States of Tennessee
and Kentucky were uncovered. Nashville, the capital of Tennessee,
surrendered to the troops of Buell, for it was now defenceless. Fort
Donelson had been its bulwark. Columbus, on the Mississippi, and
Bowling Green, a hundred miles to the east, where the rebels had
collected one of their largest armies, were turned, and both speedily
evacuaited. The country rang with applause. Grant was made a




24                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
major general of volunteers, and from this time his name has been
familiar in every household in America.
Up to the capture of Fort Donelson no very brilliant or decided
success had attended the national arms-.  Other commanders had
promised much; much had been expected from them; but nothing had
been accomplished. Suddenly this obscure soldier in the West, whose
very name was unknown to nine-tenths of his countrymen, achieved
a victory that lifted up the national heart, that inspirited the army,
that displayed ability of the highest military order, and promised further success wherever he should command. From the extreme of
depression to an elation almost without parallel, the people passed at
one bound. Had they known then, how often again this same commander was destined, in an hour of sadness and defeat, to lead their
armies to brilliant victory, and crown their hopes with more than
fruition, their gratitude would have been as boundless as his services
were destined to be unparalleled.
SHILOH.
Donelson fell on the 16th of February, 1862, and on the 1st of
March, Grant was ordered to move his entire column up the Tennessee
river, as far as Eastport, Mississippi, in order to destroy the railroad
connections at Corinth, Jackson, and Humboldt. These orders reached
him on the 2d of March, and on the 4th his army was in motion. The
same day Halleck telegraphed him to turn over the command to
C. F. Smith, one of his subordinates, and remain himself at Fort
Henry. This was in consequence of some statements made to Halleck, that Grant had neglected his duty at Fort Donelson, and overstepped it in other instances, going to Nashville without leave.
Halleck immediately telegraphed news of these acts to McClellan,
then general-in-chief at Washington, and received permission not
only to relieve Grant from duty, but to place him in arrest. A long
and animated correspondence ensued, the upshot of which was that
Halleck withdrew all his accusations, declaring to the Government
that Grant had acted entirely from praiseworthy motives, and that
all the reported irregularities had been satisfactorily explained. He
also wrote flattering letters to Grant, and restored him to his command, but failed to inform him that the trouble had originated in his
own reports to Washington.
On the 13th of March, Grant was ordered to resume his command,




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  25
and on the 17th rejoined his troops. He wrote to Sherman on that
day, "I have just arrived, and although sick for the last few weeks,
begin to feel better at the thought of being again with the troops." The
expedition under Smith had accomplished nothing, and the army was
now divided, a part being at Pittsburg Landing, on the western bank
of the Tennessee, and the remainder at Savanna, a point on the opposite shore, about nine miles lower down. The bulk of the troops were
at Pittsburg Landing, from which they threatened Corinth, the junction of two great southern railroads, one running from Memphis to
Charleston, the other from Mobile to the Ohio river. These roads
connected the most distant extremities of the rebellious region, and
it was of the highest importance to the enemy to protect them, and
to the Government to obtain possession of them.' The rebels accordingly, after their crushing defeat at Donelson, and the abandonment
of their first great line, collected a large force at Corinth, to resist
there any farther advance of Grant. Both parties bent all their
efforts to secure this point. Halleck was given command of all the
forces in Kentucky and Tennessee, as well as those in Missouri, and
sent large reinforcements to Grant, besides ordering Buell's entire
army, forty thousand strong, to move from Nashville to Grant's support.
As soon as Grant arrived at his post, he removed all his troops to
the western side of the river, at Pittsburg Landing, but remained himself for a few days at Savanna, where he could more easily superintend the organization of his daily arriving forces, and also communicate more directly with Buell, now on his way from Nashville. By
the 20th of March, Buell was at Columbia, but from that point the
roads were bad and his movements slow, and it took him seventeen
days to get to Savanna. Meanwhile, Grant had distributed his troops
into six divisions, under Generals McClernand, Smith, Wallace, Sherman, Hurlbut, and Prentiss. He was about removing his headquarters to the eastern bank of the Tennessee, when he received a message
from Buell, dated the 4th of April, stating that he would arrive on
the 5th, and requesting Grant to remain at Savanna to meet him.
With this Grant complied. Every day, however, he visited the front,
at Pittsburg Landing.
On the fourth, a serious skirmish took place between some of Sherman's troops and a body of the enemy, now known to be in large
force at Corinth, nineteen miles from the Landing. Grant rode out
to the front with Sherman after this, and they both agreed that no




26                  LI~E P 6O GENERAL GRANT.
probability of an immediate battle existed. Still Grant thought it
best to be on the alert, and made various dispositions of troops, so as
to be prepared in case of an important emergency. He instructed
division commanders to hold themselves in readiness to support each
other if attacked, and directed a sharp lookout to be kept with the
advance guards. The pickets of several divisions were doubled in
consequence, and cavalry patrols pushed out a mile and a half. On
the 5th of April, the advance division of Buell's army arrived at
Savanna, under General Nelson, and was ordered by Grant to be in
readiness to reinforce the troops on the west bank.
Meanwhile the rebel army, over forty thousand strong, under
Albert Sidney Johnson, had marched from Corinth, on the 3d of
April, intending to-attack Grant before Buell could arrive. The
roads, however, were bad, and Johnson was not ready to assault
before the 6th, which was Sunday. Grant's troops were now disposed
in two lines, the first about three miles out from the Tennessee. Two
creeks emptying into the Tennessee, formed the right and left defences
of his army. That on the right was known as Owl creek, that on the
left was called Lick creek. Sherman's division was most advanced on
the extreme right, near a meeting house called Shiloh Chapel; to his
left, but somewhat in the rear, was McClernand, then Prentiss, and
on the extreme left a detached brigade of Sherman's division. The
second line, a mile or more in rear, was composed of Smith's division
on the right, this day commanded by W. H. L. Wallace, because of
Smith's illness, and Hurlbut on the left. Lewis Wallace's division was
at Crump's Landing, about five miles to the right of Sherman, covering
an important road, by which the whole Union army might otherwise
have been turned. The two lines faced south and southwest. There
were no entrenchments. At this time, troops on neither side were
accustomed to protect themselves in the open field, but the two streams
upon which the army rested were both flooded, and the banks of Lick
creek, on the left, were extremely rugged. These served as bulwarks
for Grant.
The attack was begun at daylight, on Sherman and Prentiss's
divisions. They, however, were quite ready, the skirmishes of the
last few days having warned them of the possibility of such an event.
Prentiss formed his division outside of his campos, and there received
the assault.  Sherman too was prepared, and the whole command was
rapidly under arms. It was necessary indeed to do their utmost, for
the onslaught was fierce. There were not more than thirty-three thou



sand national troops, on the ground, Lewis Wallace being five miles off.
Grant was breakfasting at Savann-a, when he heard the earliest firing;
his horse was already saddled for him to go out in search of Buell,
but the artillery at once proclaimed a heavy engagement. He
instantly sent Word to Nelson to hurry lip his command to the river, opposite Pittsburg, and started himself by steamer for the Landing. On
the way he stopped at Crump's Landing, and in person directed Lewis
Wallace to hold himself in readiness for orders to march to Pittsburg. Grant arrived on the field at eight o'clock, and found affairs
looking black indeed. Neither Sherman nor Prentiss had been able
to hold his own. Their troops were raw, and both divisions had been
obliged to fall back. Mc  lernand, however, was moved promptly to
the support of Sherman, and Hurlbut reinforced Prentiss. W. H.
L. Wallace was also moved to support the centre of the line, and the
fight now became confused and terrific in the extreme. The country
was broken, half covered with forest, and the evolutions of troops
difficult. Sherman's left finally broke entirely, despite the desperate
exertions of its commander, and a panic ensued that spread to thousands in the national ranks. Repeated orders were sent to hurry up
the divisions of Nelson and Lewis Wallace, but those commands did
not appear. Prentiss's division became exposed, its commander
neglecting to withdraw, although the troops on each side of him were
compelled to fall back; and late in'the afternoon he was surrounded
and taken prisoner with four regiments. This calamity disheartened
many, and a crowd of fugitives, amounting to six or seven thousand,
fled from the field to the gunboats. Those who remained, however,
did their duty nobly. Grant was on every part of the field, exposing
himself to the thickest of the fire, and encouraging both men and
officers. He was struck on the ankle once, but not hurt. Sherman
and the other division commanders all displayed energy and courage.
Grant felt the greatest anxiety for the arrival of Lewis Wallace and
Nelson, and sent messenger after messenger to bring up those commanders, but neither of them arrived. Nelson had a bad road to move
over, but, although ordered to start at seven o'clock in the morning, for
some unexplained cause, he failed to do so until one in the afternoon.
After that he made all expedition. Lewis Wallace took the wrong
road, and marched in a direction that led him away from the field.
About two o'clock General Buell came on the field in person. He
had heard the cannonading, and at once set about urging on his
troops, two more divisions of which had arrived at Savanna.:He




28                    LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
reached Pittsburg at a moment when Grant happened to be at the
Landing, endeavoring to stay the tide of runaways coming in from the
front. It seemed to Buell that all was lost, and he asked Grant,
"What preparations have you made for retreating, general?"  This,
idea, however, had not presented itself to that officer, and he quietly
replied, " I hav'nt despaired of whipping them yet."  "No, of course,"
said Buell. "But, if you should be whipped, how will you get your
men across the river? These transports will not take more than ten
thousand troops."  "I f I have to retreat," replied Grant, "ten thousand will be as many as I shall need transports for."
Grant indeed always made his defence an offensive one. He was
ond of those soldiers who never despair of whipping the enemy, even
when things look most gloomy. This confidence and obstinacy combined it was that made him ready to take advantage of every chance,
and out of the very jaws of defeat to wrest victory. He believed
that in every battle the combatants reach a point when each side is
almost overcome, and the leader who then makes an almost superhuman effort is sure to turn the scales in his own favor. That effort he
was always ready to make, just when other men give up in despair.
In the blackest crisis his faculties seemed most brilliant, at the most
exhausting moment his strength was renewed with greatest vigor.
When all depended upon holding out a little longer, or upon some
wonderful inspiration that should suggest the salvation of an army,
he was sure to hold out, the inspiration never failed. He who ordinarily was almost phlegmatic, unimpassioned, what some call dull,
then was sharp, clear, decided, commanding not only men but events,
bending even the enemy to his plans, seeing what they must be doing,
and knowing what should be done to thwart them, and doing it. It
was so at Donelson, where he turned the tide of disaster into success,
divining in an instant the intention of the rebels from the apparently
trivial circumstance of the haversacks, and perceiving (not a minute
too late, as so many others do,) that the way to stem the advance on
his right was to attack furiously at the other end of the line. The
result was Smith's charge, and the capture of the fort.
So at Shiloh, where he was outnumbered; where thousands of his
men failed him; where his army was driven back by hard fighting,
driven back for hours and for miles; where Buell was thinking of
retreat, and many generals would have prepared for surrender. But,
if his troops were driven back, Grant's spirits were not; if some were
beaten, he was thinking of " whipping'em yet," and at four o'clock on




LIFE OF  GENERAL GRANT.                   29
this dreadful day, he gave orders to Sherman for an attack on the
morrow. There was a lull just then, as there had been at Donelson.
The rebels had nearly won, but jaded, exhausted, they stopped to
breathe, and Grant, before he knew of the arrival of Buell's column,
was preparing to take the initiative in the morning. For such a man,
defeat was impossible. This peculiarity extorted the warmest admiration from his great friend, Sherman,'who said, "This faith gave you
victory at Shiloh;" "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." "I tell you it was this that made us act
with confidence; 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." "Until you
had won Donelson, I was almost cowed, but that admitted a ray of
light I have followed since."
But the rebel commander was killed, and his successor, Beauregard,
lacked just this quality which distinguished Grant. He made one
last attempt to drive the national troops into the river, and failing in
this, drew off, to wait till morning. Two of Nelson's regiments, the
head of his column, came up at this juncture, but their arrival was
unknown to Beauregard; darkness came on just as they crossed the
Tennessee, and both armies slept on the field. All night long, Buell's
army continued to arrive; all night Grant was posting them. He
gave the fresh troops the extreme left, nearest the river and the bulk
of the enemy, and reformed the shattered battalions that had fought
so hard on Sunday. He visited each division commander himself, the
rain falling in torrents. The troops were drenched. The gunboats
kept up an incessant fire on the enemy, and the mingled storm of rain
and shell was as terrible as the heat of the battle of yesterday. Lewis
Wallace arrived soon after nightfall, and was given the extreme right.
At daybreak Grant attacked with vigor all along his new line.
Twenty thousand reinforcements had reached him, and the presence
of this immense addition was felt at once. It was soon evident that
the tables were turned. The rebels, so exultant the day before, were
now hard pressed themselves. All the ground, all the camps and
guns they had won, were regained. Still the fighting was desperate.
It was a great conflict between Southern impetuosity and Northern
determination. It was this on both days, but on the former day that
determination, incarnated as it was in Grant, stood up against the
odds; and on the second, the rebel impetuosity succumbed when outnumbered. About two o'clock Beauregard withdrew from the field.




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
One of the last encounters occurred as the First Ohio volunteers
were moving across a field near Grant. Another regiment near by was
hard pressed, and Grant stopped the First Ohio, and himself ordered
it to charge in support of the endangered force. He rode with it in
the line of battle, the men cheering him with enthusiasm. Both regiments were fired at the sight; they pressed on, Grant with them, drove
the rebels in their front, and seized one of the last positions yet maintained by the enemy.
The rain had again begun to fall heavily, darkness was now
approaching, the troops were frightfully'exhausted with the extraordinary efforts of the two days, but a force was sent out in pursuit of
Beauregard. He, however, had got so far that it was not judged
expedient to follow in force. Grant lost in the two days' battle one
thousand seven hundred killed, and over ten thousand wounded and
missing. Beauregard reported one thousand seven hundred and
twenty-eight killed, and nine thousand wounded and missing. And
thus the great effort of the rebels to assume the offensive at the West
was defeated; the most furious onslaught they ever made was repelled.
The loyal West was saved from invasion. The mightiest armament
the enemy had got together in that part of the theatre of war was
driven back. Beauregard telegraphed his government, "we retired
to our entrenchments at Corinth, which we can hold." On the 8th, he
asked permission from Grant to bury his dead on the field, but the
Union commander had already performed the task.
Notwithstanding the fact that Grant's unshakable steadiness and
determination had proved the salvation of his army and of the entire
West, there were not wanting those who maligned him bitterly on
account of the battle of Shiloh. At various times in his career, he,
like most other men of genius and virtue, has been the target of
bitter and violent abuse. The best patriots of the American Revolution were not exempt, Washington himself suffering' as much from
the tongues and pens of recreant countrymen as the blackest character of the day; and it was not to be supposed that Grant, now rising
rapidly to eminence and fame, could escape the penalty which great,
ness always has to pay. Envy, ingratitude, hatred, calumny, did
their worst. After the brilliant success at Donelson, symptoms of
this at once appeared. Men above and below him in military rank
sought even then to supplant him in the estimation. of the public,
attributed his triumph to others or to fortune, and charged him with
faults and vices which they hoped would obscure the lustre of his




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT                    31
deeds. The result has been shown; he was relieved from his conmmand, immediately after the most splendid victory that had then been
won by our arms. But this could not last, and he was forced back
by public opinion into the place that he had earned. After Shiloh,
however, came a still more violent outbreak. He was assailed on all
sides for his conduct in a battle where his greatest qualities were as
conspicuous as they have ever been before or since; where his owIn
personal exertions saved the nation from crushing defeat; where he
held up the drooping spirits and sustained the flagging energies of
both officers and men, under circumstances that appalled many of
the bravest hearts; where disaster seemed so inevitable that a distinguished soldier, just arriving on the field, and who had not gone
through the terrible conflict of the day, yet getting a glimpse of the
battle, inquired, at once, "What dispositions have you made for
retreat?" so unavoidable did further disaster seem; when even Sherman was surprised at being ordered to renew the fight, while thousands
of his soldiers were flying in panic, and reinforcements were yet far
off. Yet for this unconquerable spirit which enabled him to hold
those who retained heart steadily to their work, and finally gave him
victory, the hero at first received no credit. His immediate superior
sought to attribute what had been done to Sherman, wresting Grant's
own magnanimous acknowledgments of Sherman's undoubted services, into a means to injure the man who had so used those services
as to achieve success where success seemed almost unattainable; as
if, on a field where five division commanders were engaged, and Sherman never left the extreme right, he could possibly have accomplished
the whole result, which it required all the management of the five
divisions and the personal presence of a commander over all, to
achieve. Sherman himself never claimed what Halleck sought to
thrust upon him. As generously as Smith at Donelson, who said
"No congratulations are due me, I simply obeyed orders," Sherman
took pains to ascribe to his commander, the results which he knew had
been so hardly earned. Yet, after Donelson, Halleck urged the Government to promote Smith, the inferior, over Grant to a major generalcy. "Honor him for this victory."  "Make him a major general.
You can't get a better one."  "Smith turned the tide."  And after
Shiloh, he boldly declared to the Government that Sherman had
"secured the fortunes of the day."
He did more than this. He came direct to the field from Missouri,
and assumed command of the two armies, deposing Grant even from




32                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
his old command. He gave him, indeed, an ostensible position, but
contrived to make it evident to himself and all under him, that he was
in disgrace. Grant being second in rank after Halleck, was necessarily made second in command, but this was merely nominal; orders
were not sent through him, he was not informed of movements, he
was not invited to councils of war; when he did offer advice or opinion it was spurned, and his own subordinates in his very presence,
held whispered consultations from which he was excluded. This
course naturally reacted upon the country, and the land rang with
tirades against its greatest general on account of one of his greatest
deeds. He was accused of error in posting his troops on the west
bank of the river, when, in the first place, the troops were posted there
before he took command, and by that accomplished soldier C. F.
Smith; and in the second place, Grant's judgment in retaining them
there has been approved, not only by Smith and Sherman, and his
own mature; experience, but by that of all good military critics since.
He was accused of negligence in allowing himself to be surprised,
when, in fact, he had exercised unusual vigilance; getting all his
divisions in readiness, so that commanders had their horses saddled
in case of an attack, on the very morning when the battle occurred,
and his pickets were doubled and his grand guards pushed out a mile
and a half, the night before; when the rebel leader himself declared
that he encountered Grant in force at the encampments of his advanced position; and official reports show that the division commander
who was first attacked received the assault outside of his camps.
Grant naturally was mortified and indignant at the injustice which
he suffered, both from the country and his superiors. The former he
endured in silence, sure that in the end he would be righted; but
the constant humiliations to which he was subjected in camp, came
home to the soldier's heart. His little headquarters followed the
course of the army in its onward movement to Corinth, but it might
as well have been in Ohio. He repeatedly asked to be relieved from
duty, but his request was not granted, and after one indignity, more
pointed than usu'al, he was even on the brink of resigning. Sherman,
however, his tried and trusted friend, who knew how little all of this
was deserved, and was confident that the great man would yet show
to the world all the great qualities which he recognized, comforted
him and dissuaded him. It was but a momentary impulse, and Grant
determined to endure still longer "the insolence of office, and the
spurns that patient merit of the unworthy takes."




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANeT.                  3?
CORINTH.
For nearly two months after Shiloh, the army was occupied in
moving eighteen miles. Halleck's imagination was so inflamed by
what he heard of the battle of Shiloh, that he only advanced behind
breastworks, although all hissofficers and men were restless under the
unwonted restraint. The enemy made no show of opposition, but the
cautious commander could. not be persuaded to attack, although he
had been reinforced till his army was over a hundred thousand!
strong, and at least double that of the rebels. But at last he
arrived in front of Corinth, and now the soldiers were impatient for
assault. Still Halleck was afraid of being attacked. Grant went to
him one day, and suggested an offensive movement, but with no
avail; and finally, onf: the 30th of May, Corinth fell into Halleck's
hands, having been evacuated by the rebels several days before.
While Halleck had been lying idle in front of the works, the rebels.
amused him with a show of strength, and decamped with their entire.
army, stores, and ordnance. A pursuit was ordered, from which Grant
was excluded, but it was ineffectual, and terminated in a few days.
In July, Halleck was ordered to'Washington, to take command ofall the armies. Grant was next in rank in all the West, and entitled:
to command the army which Halleck left; but the old hostility still
continued, and the latter offered the command to Colonel Allen,- a
quartermaster, proposing to get the requisite rank for him  if: he
would accept the offer. Allen, however, declined the promotion, and
then only, Halleck allowed Grant to take the command which was his
by virtue of seniority, as well as services. This fact was not disclosed
to Grant. The army, however, was greatly broken up. Buell was
sent further eastj and Grant was left with not more than thirty or
forty thousand men to guard all the region from the Mississippi to
the Tennessee, and from the Ohio as far south as Corinth. As soon
as the rebels discovered' that his force was thus depleted, they made
every effort to annoy him, and his attention was devoted to defending himself in half a dozen different places at once, with an inferior
force.
IUKA.
Twenty one. mies east of Corinth, is a town called Iuka, which was,
held by national troops, but on the' 13th of September this was seized,
3




34                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
by a force of rebels under Price, and Grant at once determined to
dislodge and capture them. He collected his troops from various
parts of his command, ordering General Rosecranz to march east, on
the south side of the railroad which connects Corinth and Iuka, and
Ord on the north side. These forces were to attack Iuka simultaneously, from the different directions indicated, and Rosecranz was
especially ordered to secure the only two roads leading south, so that
no avenue of escape should be left to the rebels. Price had about
ten or twelve thousand men, Ord had eight thousand, and Rosecranz
nine thousand. Grant would therefore be able, by concentrating, to
outnumber the enemy, who, however, was superior, to either of the
national detachments. The roads were difficalt and widely separated,
and Grant remained a few miles in the rear of both divisions, so as
to be able to communicate directly with each and to control them
simultaneously. On the 18th of September, Ord was within four
miles of Iuka on the north, but Rosecranz did not succeed this day
in getting within twenty miles of the town, thus greatly disappointing
Grant. Ord was therefore instructed not to attack him, until he
heard the firing of Rosecranz's guns on the south.
It was late in the afternoon of the 19th when Rosecranz reached
Iuka, and his movements then were betrayed to the enemy by a spy.
He did not succeed in occupying more than one of the roads leading
south. The rebels learning of this, and fearing the concentration
which Grant had planned, withdrew from Ord's front, massed on the
single road by which Rosecranz was advancing, and checked the head
of his column. He fought vigorously, but was unable to make any
advance, and the battle lasted till dark. While Price was thus holding Rosecranz on one road, he sent off everything from the town by
the other, which Rosecranz had failed to occupy, and in the night the
entire rebel army withdrew. The next morning Ord and Rosecranz
marched into the town, but the enemy had escaped. Ord had not
heard any noise of the firing the day before, as the wind blew heavily
towards the south, and Rosecranz could not inform Grant of the battle
until it was over.
SECOND SIEGE OF CORINTH.
But although Grant's plan was not carried out, he yet had prevented the enemy from advancing eastward, which was very important
at that juncture. The rebels now continued the strategy which had




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   85
already occasioned him so much uneasiness. He still had not force
enough to assume the offensive, and was compelled to content himself
with discovering the plans of the rebels and merely checking their
movements. This was the more disagreeable to him, as he was unaccustomed to defensive operations. His nature always impelled him
to attack, and now that such a course was impossible, he was distressed
and annoyed. Still, he did the best practicable with the means and
opportunities at his control. He could not concentrate his troops at
any one point, lest he should leave some other place exposed to a
prompt and wary enemy; he was obliged, therefore, to hold himself
in readiness everywhere, so as to move to the quarter first threatened
or attacked. He was thus kept on the alert for several weeks, but
finally became convinced that Corinth had been selected by the rebels
for assault.
His own headquarters were at,this time at Jackson, Tennessee, a
place central to his entire command. He had previously directed that
the defences of Corinth should be carefully strengthened; indeed,
almost entirely reconstructed, and placed Rosecranz in command
there with about nineteen thousand men. He now ordered Generals
Ord and Hurlbut, with several thousand troops, to move so as to
strike the rebel column on its way to Corinth. The enemy it was
probable would move eastward on Corinth, and Ord was to come from
the north so as to attack in. flank or rear. All happened exactly as
Grant bad planned. The rebels attacked in great force on the 3d of
October, appearing on the western side of Corinth. They drove Rosecranz's forces inside the works on this day, and on the 4th attempted
to carry the town. At first they met with some success, but when
they came near the new works which had been constructed by Grant
some weeks before, their advance was checked, and finally converted
into a rout.
Now became apparent the wisdom of Grant's strategy. The fleeing
enemy suddenly came upon Ord's command, waiting for just this emergency, and another fight ensued, in which severe damage was again
inflicted on the rebels. They received severe injury on each day, but
Ord's command was much too small to do more than check them, even
defeated as they were, so they turned to another road, and escaped
with the fragments that had been saved.
The strategy of these two little battles displayed nearly the same
principles which Grant afterwards developed so brilliantly on a larger
stage. This was the first time when he had occasion to make combi



36                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
nations of troops on different fields.  Heretofore, all that had been
necessary was to bring up his men; and handle them skilfully when
they arrived in the presence of the enemy. At Donelson, it was indeed
the very genius of tactics which inspired the attack on the left, at the
critical moment, in order to relieve the hard-pressed battalions of the
right. At Belmont, it was great determination and real soldiership,
to "Cut our way out as we cut our way in." As Sherman long afterwards wrote to Grant: "At Belmont, you manifested your traits; at
Donelson, also, you illustrated your whole character;" and at Shiloh
it had been pure grit that held the enemy at bay, that would not be
conquered, and that finally took up the fight again and carried it on
to victory. But at Corinth and Iuka Grant's share was strategical;
he planned all the movements until the troops came in the presence
of the enemy; he directed the concentration, and pointed out the lines
upon which it should take place. It was generalship, not mere soldiering, that he evinced here. His intellectual, rather than his moral
qualities were called into play; and the attentive student, either of
the character of the man, or simply of military operations, will discover in this campaign the same ability, of course on a smaller scale,
that enabled him to conceive the brilliant operations at Vicksburg, to
concert and execute the complicated movements which resulted so
splendidly at Chattanooga, and afterwards to control all the armies
of the Republic with a single aim, and make the movements of hundreds of thousands of men, separated sometimes by thousands of miles,
all tend to the accomplishment of one design. The unity of purpose,
the concentration of scattered forces, the bringing to bear on a greater
body of the enemy two or three smaller forces, which in the aggregate
were larger than the entire rebel strength-this is the very essence
of generalship; this implies ability of the highest and rarest class.
These movements relieved Grant from any further necessity for acting on the defensive. The double check administered to the enemy,
although not so complete as he had designed or desired, yet drove the
rebels back, and gave him a chance to take the initiative, a part to
which his judgment and his nature always inclined. He always preferred to make his enemies fight on ground that he had selected, and
at times when he was prepared: his career always illustrated the
ancient saying: "If you are a great general, come out of your works
and fight me."  "' If you are a great general, make me come out of my
works and fight you." His plans. after this always included the operations of~ the enemy; the campaigns were fought as he wished and when




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   87
he wished, and luckily for America, they resulted as he wished. Sometimes the result was long delayed, but it never failed in the end to
realize his most sanguine expectations. But this all the world knows.
He got, however, little credit for his strategy in this campaign.
The high officers of the army could not understand how so quiet a man
could be a great one. He had not graduated near the head of his
class; how, then, could he understand military science? He made no
parade of his knowledge of books; he never compared himself with
Napoleon; he never discussed Caesar or Wellington. How, then, could
he know what it was indispensable to know? The idea of his possessing intuitive genius had not occurred to them.  They had to learn
rules and principles out of books, and could not always apply them
afterwards; how was it to be supposed that this unassuming, modest
soldier could get, out of his own brain, combinations and ideas superior
to what accomplished men had derived from long study of famous
field~ and renowned generals. But Grant, instead of being one of
those who act according to rules and precedents, belonged to the class
that invents rules and establishes precedents. He was not a student,
because he was original. Other people will have hereafter to study
his campaigns, but he acted, of his own instinct, on the self-same principles that other great conquerors discovered and applied in other
theatres. He never stopped to consider what Napoleon or Frederick
would have done, under similar circumstances, nor tried to recollect
the strategy of Ulm or the tactics of Jena. He made a new strategy
and a new tactics for himself, just as Frederick or Wellington would
have done, had they been at Donelson or Shiloh, based all the while
on the same immutable principles which are at the bottom  of all
science. He hardly knew that he did this himself; he was unconscious of his own powers. Like the countryman in the play, who had
been speaking prose without knowing it, he achieved greatness unaw::es,. He did the best he knew how, and it was the best that could
be done. He applied the highest principles of military science, just
as Shakespeare wrote Hamlet and Othello, without referring to books
or models. This is genius.
Not that he was ignorant. The fact of his graduating at West Point
is proof of his acquaintance with the technicalities of his art. But he
was riot given to relying on the past. He knew enough of the past
and of the doing of other great commanders to appreciate the fact
that they had carved out greatness by being self-reliant, by originating new ideas under new circiumstances, by casting behind them the




38                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
trammels of the schools; and the influence he received from them wa,
sufficient to make him like them in this respect. He followed their
examples by rejecting precedents and ignoring rules whenever he
thought them inapplicable. He was infused with the same spirit that
penetrated them, and by refusing to copy, he came to rival them.
OXFORD.
Immediately after the repulse of the rebel assault on Corinth, Grant
proposed to the Government that he should be allowed to move on
Vicksburg. The national forces had driven the rebels from every
important position on the Mississippi north of Vicksburg, but there
the enemy had concentrated his strength and determined to make a
stand. Grant's idea now was to move down through the State of
Mississippi, in rear of the town, and force its evacuation. Hitherto
the attempt had been to attack it in front. Not receiving any reply
to his suggestion, Grant prepared to make his campaign without
orders; but as soon as Halleck learned that his subordinate had really
started, he sent him the sanction desired.
Grant moved on the 2d of November, with thirty thousand men,
from Grand Junction, a place on the railroad which connects Corinth
and Memphis, and about half way between the eastern and western
boundaries of Mississippi. He meant to march south, along the line
of the Mississippi Central railroad; but the rebels destroyed the road
in his front as he advanced, and he was obliged to repair it while
moving, for he had no other means of supplying his troops. At this
time it was not supposed possible for an army to advance more than
two or three days beyond its base. This impossibility Grant afterwards found a means of obviating, but he learned the means from
experience; and, at the time we speak of, he had not discovered all the
advantages of a movable column, nor the practicability of subsisting
without supplies carried with him, or else drawn direct from his own
base. It was this campaign which taught him the lesson, or rather which
created the necessity that he proceeddd to supply. At first he moved
slowly, because of the delay occasioned by rebuilding bridges and
repairing roads. The enemy was immediately in his front, but made
no serious opposition. Grant was also retarded by contradictory
reports about his own command, and in fact by confused orders from
Washington.
Major General McClernand, an officer who had been promoted




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  39
direct from civil life, utterly without military talent or acquirement,
was striving to obtain the command now intrusted to Grant. He had
political influence and great ambition, and finally succeeded in procuring a part of Grant's troops. The latter heard of these machinations,
and was embarrassed in his advance by the probability of any day
hearing that he had been superseded, or at least that a part of his
command was to be taken from him at a critical moment. Halleck
was on Grant's side in this matter, and strove to prevent the injudicious interference. For a while he succeeded, and, when Grant arrived at Holly Springs, twenty-five miles from Grand Junction, the
general-in-chief dispatched, " You have command of all troops sent
to your department, and permission to fight the enemy when you
please."
Grant accordingly ordered Sherman, who was at Memphis, to move
out from that place with ten or twelve'thousand men, and join him at
Oxford, beyond the Tallahatchie, and twenty-five miles or more south
of Holly Springs. A cooperative movement was at the same time
directed by Halleck, by which a force from Arkansas was to be sent
in rear of the rebels to distract their attention from Grant. By the 5th
of December, Grant was at Oxford, the rebels having evacuated their
works on the Tallahatchie; river, and the entire Mississippi Central
road up. to that place having fallen into his hands, along with one
thousand two hundred prisoners.
The same day Halleck ordered him not to attempt to hold the country south of the Tallahatchie, but to collect twenty-five thousand
troops at Memphis, with a view to sending them down the Mississippi
to attack Vicksburg in front. Grant immediately determined to send
Sherman to command this expedition, having received the permission
to move his troops as he thought best. He accordingly dispatched
Sherman back to Memphis, from which place he was to move his command on transports to the mouth of the Yazoo river, which empties
into the Mississippi nine miles above Vicksburg. Sherman was to be
joined at this place by Admiral Porter with a fleet of gunboats, and
the two together were to provide a new base for Grant, who would
march on so as to strike the Yazoo farther up its course; or, if this
plan could not be carried out, Grant was to hold the enemy in his
front in the interior, while Sherman would attack Vicksburg.
Preparations for this combined movement were proceeding rapidly,
when Grant finally received orders to give McClernand the command
of the river expedition. This was a terrible blow to him, for neither




40                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
he, Porter, Sherman, Halleck, nor any of the prominent officei:at
the West, had any confidence in McClernand's ability. There was,
however, nothing left but to obey, and Grant:the same day wrote to
McClernand to assume command; but, before his iorders could reach,the latter, the enemy interfered. A large force from the rebel column
in Grant's front was sent to his rear, to cut his communications at several points, and to destroy his secondary base of supplies at Holly
Springs. Grant had been informed in advance, of this intention of
the rebels, and had promptly notified his subordinates in the rear, of
their danger, instructing them to hold out at all hazards. All obeyed:but one, and the enemy was repulsed at every point except at Holly
Springs, the most important of all. The officer in command there
was false to his trust, and surrendered without a fight, and the rebels
entirely destroyed the vast accumulation of stores which Grant had
collected there, as well as the railroads and bridges in the vicinity.
They were unable, however, to remain in the place. Still, the temporary capture was a great disaster; the impossibility of holding so long
and exposed a line in an enemy's country was demonstrated, and
Grant at once saw the necessity of falling back. The rebels in his'front made no offensive demonstration, but he asked permission imme"diately to assume command of the river expedition. As it was niot to
be intrusted to Sherman, he was anxious himself to direct it.
But, although he moved back to Holly Springs as rapidly as possible, it was necessary to live until the new supplies could be brought
forward, and Grant at once determined to take stores from the coun-try. This the rebels had not anticapated, and the announcement
struck them with terror. The disloyal inhabitants had been jubilant
over the interruption of Grant's communications and the destruction
of his supplies; but, when the deficiency had to be made good from
their own barns, their delight was turned to dismay. They petitioned
against this course, but in vain; Grant was compelled to subsist his
troops, and had no other resources than those he found in the country. These were abundant, and the army-livted well.
This was the lesson he learned, far more important than any results
attained by the enemy. It was this which he afterwards applied
behind Vicksburg; it was this which changed the entire character of
the war, and initiated one of the most marked peculiarities of Grant's'mode of campaigning. From  this experience he gained the idea
which was afterwards developed into some of the greatest achievetaents in military history; which afforded suggestions not only to




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   41
Grant himself, but, after he had applied them, to two of his greatest
subordinates, Sherman and Sheridan, and contributed to the success
of their most brilliant campaigns.
Meanwhile Sherman had started from Memphis before McClernand
arrived to supersede him. The delay in transmitting Grant's orders,
which had been occasioned by the break in communication, gave Sherman time to perfect his arrangements. He left Memphis with thirtythousand men, and at Helena was reinforced by twelve thousand
more. On the 2Tth of December he debarked his troops on'the south
bank of the Yazoo, near its mouth, and under convoy ~of Admiral
Porter's fleet of gunboats. A steep line of hills runs along the left
bank of the Yazoo at this place, covering Vicksburg, which itself lies
on the face of a declivitous bluff rising abruptly from the Mississippi.
These hills were all defended by batteries, and in front of the Yazoo
face, the country was cut up with swamps and creeks, sp as to be
almost impassable. Sherman nevertheless succeeded in getting his
men across this difficult ground, and assaulted the hills with great
vigor. The natural and artificial strength of the works, however, was
so great, that the attack failed, and the men withdrew to the transports, after a loss of one thousand eight hundred men in killed,
wounded, and missing.
The combined effort against Vicksburg -was thus unsuccessful at
both extremities. Grant was unable to continue his southward march
in the interior, and Sherman was repelled from the works on the Yazoo.
When the latter moved out of the Yazoo into the Mississippi, he was
met by McClernand, who at once assumed supreme command.
WEST OF VICKSBUR:G.
Grant, however, arrived at Memphis by the 10th of January, and
was now authorized by the Government either to take command of
the expedition himself, or to -appoint whomever he chose instead.'He
was determined now to throw all his forces on the river, as it was evident that he could not maintain his communications if he attempted
again to advance in the centre of the State. A much smaller force
could at any time cut his line and destroy stores that it had taken
him months to accumulate. On the 17th of January, he visited his
forces at the mouth of the Yazoo, and at once decided that the troops
must get below the city to be used effectually. He therefore set about
collecting all the men he could:spare from Kentucky and Tennessee,




42                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
and from northern Mississippi, abandoning many positions in the interior, of less importance, and began in earnest the mighty task of open,
ing the Mississippi river. At first he thought of putting Sherman in
command of the expedition, but in consideration of the fact that Sherman was junior to McClernand, he finally judged it best to obviate all
criticism, and, by virtue of his own rank, and the authority of the
President, to assume himself immediate command. This he did on
the 29th of January, 1863.
The failure of one plan never discouraged Grant. He had not been
successful in the first movements against Vicksburg, but that was
simply an incentive to him to make another effort. The same spirit
which he had manifested at Belmont when he was surrounded, at Donelson when his right was repulsed, at Shiloh when his whole army was
driven back two miles, animated him still. The very day that his
communications were cut at Holly Springs, through the cowardice or
treachery of a subordinate, he began his preparations for the cam,paign on the Mississippi. Vicksburg was the great stronghold of
rebellion at the West. It barred and commanded the great river;
when it fell, the Mississippi would be opened. As long as it stood, the
strength of the insurgents was defiant; the Northwest waswcut off from
the sea. Here, it was apparent, the struggle must be fought for the
mastery of the West.  The rebels spent their best energies in fortifying and strengthening what they called the Gibraltar of America.
They threw immense bodies of troops into the State of Mississippi, to
defend and to cover the town; they sent their best generals to comn
mand these troops; they boldly proclaimed Vicksburg to be impreg.
nable.
The town stands on the eastern bank of the Mississippi, about nine
miles south of the mouth of the Yazoo. Both rivers are circuitous in
a remarkable degree. The Mississippi turns and winds so that it runs
towards every point of the compass within a distance of twenty miles.
Just below the mouth of the Yazoo one of the most extraordinary of
these bends occurs, the river running first southeast, then northeast,
and then with a sudden curve turning to the southwest. Vicksburg
is situated just south of this last bend, on a long line of bluffs that
stretches from the Yazoo southwest for fifty miles. These hills rise
several hundred feet above the level of the stream, and reach twvo or
three miles into the interior. They are extremely rugged and precip.
itous, particularly towards the river, so that the streets in Vicksburg
are built in terraces one above the other, to the summit of the ridge.




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   43
The entire country on both banks of the Mississippi, outside of this
narrow line of hills, is one great marsh, thickly overgrown with underbrush and forest trees, and intersected with innumerable shallow
streams, a region about as unfit for offensive military operations as it
is possible to conceive. This country was now completely flooded by
the great rise in the Mississippi, and the water stood to the depth of
several feet, everywhere except on the bluffs, and along the narrow
artificial banks called levees, erected by the inhabitants to protect
their lands from the annual inundation. This year the deluge was
greater than had been known for many seasons.
The works reached south from the Yazoo to a point on the Mississippi called Warrenton, a distance of twenty miles. They were defended on the water side by twenty-eight guns, which commanded all
approach by the river. Every effort had been madb to strengthen the
fortifications. Nature herself had done her best to render Vicksburg
impregnable; these abrupt hills overlooking a flat country for miles,
the country submerged in water, a great river immediately in front of
the ridge, were -in themselves extraordinary obstacles; but when to
these were added an army of sixty thousand men, either in the town
or in the region covering it, and all available for its defence; riflepits, formidable forts, obstructions in the river, and an armament of
over two hundred cannon, the difficulties in the way of Grant seemed
almost insurmountable. To oppose them he had a force at this time
of about fifty thousand troops-the Fifteenth corps under Sherman,
-the Thirteenth under McClernand, and the Seventeenth under McPherson. Admiral Porter's cooiperating fleet of gunboats numbered
sixty vessels of all classes, carrying two hundred and eighty guns.
Not half of these, however, were retained near Vicksburg; the others
were occupied in patrolling the river to Cairo, a distance of over six
hundred miles. For Grant drew all his supplies of men, ordnance,
and rations from St. Louis and Cairo, and the river was infested with
guerrillas, who fired from the banks on every passing steamer, whenever the gunboat protection was withdrawn.
Grant's first business was to get a footing on the eastern bank of
the river, where his troops could be established on dry land; but the
rebels held every foot of tenable ground, and it was impossible to
attack them in front with any chance of success. The gunboats could
be of no assistance, for the enemy had a plunging fire, and could rake
the river in every direction, and transports could not approach close
enough to land troops, as a single shot might sink a steamer with her




-44                 LIFE -OF GENERAL GRANT.
whole freight of soldiers. A landing had already been tried by Sherman on the Yazoo, twelve miles above the town, where the line of
bluffs strikes that river at Haines' Bluff; but though conducted with
skill and gallantry, it had signally failed in January, so that it seemed
as if Grant's ordinary strategy of direct and bold attack must now be
abandoned.
The resources of his genius, however, were not limited to the expedients which he preferred. If he could not do what he desired, he
was always willing to do what he was able. The nature of the country
now suggested various schemes. First of all it was determined to dig
a canal across the peninsula formed by the bend in the river in front
of Vicksburg. The land on the opposite side runs out in the shape
of a tongue not more than a mile or two across; the plan was to cut
through this, and let the waters of the Mississippi in, so far from the
town that transports could pass through this artificial channel into the
river below Vicksburg, and land troops on the south side of the city.
The engineers hoped that the whole course of the river might be
diverted from its usual direction by this canal, or at least that sufficient water could be induced to run through, to float vessels of draught
sufficient for Grant's purposes.
Accordingly, for two months thousands of soldiers and negroes were
at work digging, in full sight of the besieged city. The troops were
encamped all along the west bank of the river immediately behind the
levees. Their tents were frequently submerged by the water, which
yet showed no appearance or:promise of subsidence, and disease made
sad havoc among the soldiers. The tedious work, however, was prosecuted till the 8th of March, the canal was almost complete, when an
additional and rapid rise in the river broke the dam near the upper
end of the canal, and an irresistible torrent poured over the whole
peninsula, broke the levee, submerged all the camps, and spread for
miles into the interior. The troops had to flee for their lives. Futile
attempts were immediately made to repair the damage, but on the 27th
of March the plan was finally abandoned, it being ascertained that the
rebels had erected new batteries, which would completely command
the southern exit from the canal, and had even already driven out the
dredg,e-boats working there.
While this stupendous endeavor toconvert one of the natural features of the continent into an engine of war was being prosecuted,
Grant was directing still another attempt, if possible more Titanic
than the other. Seventy miles above Vicksb.urg, on the west side of




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                     45
the Mississippi, is an inland lake, formed by the old bed of the river,
and a mile distant from the present channel. This is named Lake
Providence, and is connected with various streams, or bayous as they
are called in this region, which in their turn interlace and intersect,
forming an interrupted communication at last with the Tensas, and
from the Tensas with the Washita' and finally the Red river, which
itself empties into the Mississippi four hundred miles below Vicksburg.
The plan was to cut a canal a mile long, from  the Mississippi into
Lake Providence, so as to let in the waters of the great river; then
to improve the navigation of these various tortuous and shallow creeks
in the interior of Louisiana, to clear away trees, dig out swamps,
deepen channels, until an absolute water-course should be opened
into the Red river, so that the army might be moved on transports
through these bayous into the Mississippi below,, and then be able
to march up and reach Vicksburg, on the southern side.  It was, however, found impossible to procure a sufficient number of light-draught
steamers to carry an army through these shallow streams; and this
plan, which rivalled the famous boast of Xerxes, that he would march.is armies over the sea and sail them over the land, was abandoned,
about the same time with its counterpart, the canal.
NORTH OF VICKSBURG.
It was the impossibility of marching troops over thie submerged
swvamps that made Grant's principal difficulty. If it had not been for
this, he could at once have moved along the western bank; but neither
men nor artillery nor stores could be got through the inundated region;
so that still another of these extraordinary amphibious undertakings
was begun; this one on the eastern side. The Yazoo pass is a narrow
creek, three hundred miles above Vicksburg, which formerly connected AMoon lake with the Mississippi river.  The lake is similar to
Lake Providence, having been formed by the windings of the Mississippi, which every now and then deviates from its ancient course, and
leaves a bed of standing water, miles away from its more recent channel. Moon lake is connected with two or three large and navigable
streams; the Cold Water, the Tallahatchie, and the Yallabusha,
-which finally unite and form  the Yazoo.  The plan was to cut the
levee which interrupted the flow of the Mississippi into Yazoo pa ss,
and then, through these devious windings, to carry troops into the
Yazoo, to the hills above Vicksburg, and so get the army on dry land.




46                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
The scheme was prosecuted with great vigor; the streams were
deeper and wider than on the western side, and th'e plan promised
more success. But the rebels soon discovered the attempt, and hewed
large trees into the rivers to obstruct the advance. Troops on transports, under cover of gunboats, were sent into the pass, and, after
infinite trouble and delay, succeeded in removing these obstructions.
But while this was going on, the enemy set to work fortifying, and at
the junction of the two rivers which form the Yazoo, hundreds of
miles from the Mississippi, they erected a formidable work called
Fort Pemberton. Here the elements again defended treason, for the
waters were so high, and the country all around so low, that no
troops could be landed to attack the fort. The gunboats made three
attempts to silence its guns, but the tortuous character of the stream
was such that they could not approach it properly for their purposes,
and this attempt also failed. Nothing was able to pass Fort Pemberton. Grant had by this time sent several thousand men into the pass,
and was making preparations to move an entire corps in the same
direction, when the utter impracticobility of this route was demonstrated.
The rebels, however, found this out as early as he, and sent troops
in large numbers to destroy or cut off the Union force already in the
pass;. and in order to distract them from this purpose, Grant inaugurated still another movement. Nearer to Ticksburg than the Yazoo
pass, and on the same side of the river, is another intricate network
of bayous, connecting the Mississippi with the Yazoo. These creeks
are more tortuous and difficult, by far, than those which constitute
the pass; they are choked up with trees; so narrow that the branches
from each side are interlaced, and so crooked that it seemed impossible to navigate them. But Grant conferred with Admiral Porter, and,
after making a reconnoissance himself, determined to send Sherman up
this route, so as, if possible, to strike the Yazoo river below the point
where the rebel fort had been built, and thus not only extricate the
Union troops who had gone in from above, but threaten the rebel
forces in Lhe interior, who would thus be placed between two national
detach rents.
The difficulties encountered on this route, which was called the
Steele's bayou route, from one of the creeks on the way, far transcended any of those which obstructed the other expeditions. But
Sherman and Porter pushed on; the gunboats went in advance, to
force, by their heavier weight, a passage through the trees, so that




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   47
the steamers carrying troops might follow. For miles there was no
hard land where soldiers could march; and the creeks were so narrow, crooked, obstructed, and shallow, that only the very smallest
steamers, coal barges and tugs could make their way. The gunboats
thus got far ahead, and the rebels, discovering this, placed obstructions not only in front of the gunboats, but in their rear, so as to cut
them off from the troops. The sharpshooters of the enemy also annoyed Porter from the banks, and rebel artillery was placed at intervals. This threatened the absolute loss of the gunboat fleet, and
Porter sent back for Sherman to hurry to his rescue. Sherman got
the news at night, but started at once along a narrow strip of dry
land which Fortunately existed here, led his troops by lighted candles
through the canebrake, and drove away the rebel assailants.  Then,
though with infinite difficulty, the obstructions in the rear were
removed, and the gunboats set about returning; there was not room
to turn, and they had to back out for miles; but on the 27th of March
the unsuccessful expedition was back in front of Vicksburg.
Meanwhile, Grant had other enemies to contend with besides the
rebels and the elements. There were constant efforts being made to
supersede him. McClernand was still manoeuvring to obtain command of the expedition, and was constantly annoying Grant by his
insubordination and inefficiency, yet Grant was not allowed to remove
him. The country was dissatisfied with the lack of success, and the
Government was impatient. But although of course all these things
were harassing in the extreme, Grant did not allow them to interfere
with his determination or his energy. So long as he was continued in
command, he would intermit no exertion; but it was painful indeed
to feel that he was losing the confidence of the country and the Government, through the machinations of inefficient rivals and political
subordinates, at a time when he needed all the moral support that
could be bestowed. The rebels laughed with exultant glee at his
baffled schemes, and'their partisans at the North taunted him with
his failures and his slowness. But all this while he never doubted
that he should achieve success, and never failed to express this confidence to his superiors and to his own command, infusing into the
latter, at least, some of the spirit that animated and encouraged him.
EAST OF VICKSBURG.
Every plan to reach Vicksburg by water having failed, Grant finally
devised another, which depended upon the subsidence of the floods.




48                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.:
It was now April, and before long the overflow must begin to abate
in some degree. He proposed to make use of a system of bayous
starting from near the Mississippi, opposite the mouth of the Yazoo,
and running to a point below Vicksburg, on the western shore. By
this route the supplies and artillery were to be transported on steamers, while the troops could march by land. When they should arrive
below, Grant was ordered to send a corps to Banks, who was now in
New Orleans with a large army, about to attack Port Hudson, the
only other fort yet held by the rebels on the Mississippi. After Port
Hudson should be taken, the plan was for Banks to come up and
cooperate with Grant in the attack on Vicksburg.
But Grant's best officers opposed this plan. Those in *hose judgment and fidelity he had most confidence implored him not to risk
the inevitable dangers of such a campaign. Sherman especially urged
him, in conversation and in writing, not to undertake it. This scheme
would separate the army entirely from its base; Vicksburg would be
between Grant and the Government, and all his supplies. The hazard
was prodigious, for failure was utter ruin'; defeat was annihilation.
Grant knew this well, but his confidence was absolute, both in his
army and in himself; and although he asserted neither with enthusiasm, he was tenacious in his resolve. He heard all the arguments
with patience and consideration, but they did not move him a particle.
He felt that the temper of the country was despondent; no success
had occurred for many weary months; it was necessary to revive its
spirit. To make a retrograde movement, as Sherman proposed, would
elate the rebels and depress his own troops, while it would have a disastrous effect upon the courage of the North, Besides which, Grant
felt certain that he should be victorious in this - new campaign; and
though he noted all- the dangers, he calmly determined to incur them.
The orders for the movement were issued, and from that moment
Sherman's opposition ceased. He worked as hard thereafter to insure
success as he had striven before to prevent the campaign. The movement was begun on the 2d of March. The roads were intolerably
bad; bridges were broken, streams overflowed, the results of the long
inundation made the, mud deep, and the troops plodded and plunged
along. When they reached the point where they were to strike the
Mississippi, below Vicksburg, the levee was found to be broken, and
they had to be ferried for two miles.; but the labor and time consumed
in moving an entire army with all its stores in small boats, was so
great,: that a detour was made instead to a point lower down the river,




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   49
making the entire distance to march, from the point of starting, seventy miles. Just at this juncture, the river fell, and the streams by
which Grant expected to move his artillery and supplies became
unnavigable, so that all the heavy ordnance and commissary stores
had to be hauled along the miserable muddy roads.
This could not possibly be accomplished in months; and to obviate
the new difficulty, Grant now proposed a daring scheme to the naval
commander, who had been his able and faithful coadjutor ir all these
efforts.  Grant was to run three steamers and ten barges by the
Vicksburg batteries, while seven of Porter's iron-clads should engage
the rebels, covering the passage of the unarmed vessels. Porter
agreed, and on the 16th of April the attempt was made. It was a
dark night, and the gunboats led the way. Soon, however, the rebels
set fire to houses on the shore, and thus got light to direct their guns
on the passing fleet. The storm of missiles was terrific; every vessel
was struck, several were disabled, and one took fire, burning to the
water's edge. The gunboats fought the batteries manfully, and for
two hours and forty minutes this wonderful midnight battle raged.
All the population of Vicksburg came out to witness it, and the Union
troops, in their distant camps, were also spectators of the scene. But,
with a single exception, every transport and gunboat passed the ordeal;
only eight men were wounded, and the Henry Clay was the only vessel destroyed.
This part of the enterprise was so successful, that ten days afterwards, six other transports and twelve barges made a similar attempt;
one transport was sunk, but half of the barges got safely by, so that
Grant now had a good supply of provisions below Vicksburg, and Porter's seven gunboats were also there for use in any further movements. Two corps of troops had meanwhile arrived by land, and on
the 29th of April a gunboat-attack was made, at Grant's request, on a
formidable work on the eastern shore, called Grand Gulf. This place
was in reality an outwork of Vicksburg; although fifty miles below
the town, it was at the first point where there was any hard land on
which troops could be landed. The hills here are as precipitous as at
Vicksburg, and thirteen heavy guns were mounted. A gallant attempt
by Porter to silence these guns was made, but failed. Grant had his
troops on transports ready to land them, the moment the batteries were
silenced; and when the impossibility of this was discovered, he immediately went aboard Porter's flag-ship and asked him once more to run
his iron-clads by the batteries.
4




50                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
So prompt was his decision. As soon as one effort failed he had
another to try, and not waiting to deliberate, he put it at once into
execution, leaving the rebels no time to recover from the effect of the
first attack, before they must reply to the second. This wonderful
faculty of deciding promptly at the critical moment, of retaining his
heart amid what seemed irrevocable or absolute defeat, and still more
the ability to direct, and the courage andsjudgment to order, at a crisis,
no man ever possessed in a more remarkable degree. At such times,
Grant's head is always clearest; immediately after a seeming repulse,
his courage mounts highest; in the thickest gloom of what to any one
else would be irremediable disaster, his genius is most fertile, his judgment most prompt and excellent, his action most decided.
The night after the defeat before Grand Gulf, he landed his troops
again on the western shore, and marched them to a point below that
work, and out of the reach of its guns. Meanwhile the transports
ran by the batteries, while Porter again engaged the enemy, and then
himself passed below with his gunboats. During the morning, the
Thirteenth corps was once more embarked on the steamers. IReconnoissances of the eastern shore had developed the fact that there was
little hard land even yet on that bank; but in the night, a negro
brought information of a good road leading from a place called Bruinsburg, six miles below Grand Gulf, up to high ground in the interior.
To Bruinsburg, therefore, Grant moved with his advance.
Meanwhile, Sherman had been ordered to remain above, and make
an attack on the north of Vicksburg, merely to distract the attention
of the enemy from the important movements on the southern side. In
this he was assisted by the gunboat force left there by Porter, and on
the 29th and 30th, a formidable demonstration succeeded in alarming
and occupying the garrison at Vicksburg. Grant had been very unwilling to order this demonstration, because Sherman had already suffered unjustly in the estimation of the country from his former failure
in front of Vicksburg. He told Sherman of this unwillingness, and
the latter replied: "I believe a diversion at Haine's Bluff is proper
and right, and will make it, let whatever reports of repulses be made."
The magnanimity evinced in this instance by both these great soldiers, was conspicuous again and again during their career.  Grant
constantly sought to advance and promote his friend, shielding him
from unmerited obloquy, and affording him opportunities to make an
independent fame; while Sherman steadily supported his chief, never
seeking to supplant him nor assuming to rival him. Each by this




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  51
marvellously unselfish conduct, not only added a new lustre to his own
reputation, but did good service to the cause for which each was contending. Grant thus secured the complete execution of his own great
plans, while Sherman received the assistance of his friend, who never
climbed a step on the ladder of promotion, without reaching a hand to
help up the distinguished soldier who was just behind. No more admirable instance of heroic friendship can be found in the history of war.
Happy the Republic whose institutions develop such characters, and
whose greatest men throw such a reflex lustre on the institutions
which produced them!
Before beginning his march on the western bank, Grant had given
orders for a cavalry movement into the interior of Mississippi, under
Colonel Grierson. This was to start from the northern boundary of
the State, to destroy bridges, cut railroads, and, avoiding large
forces of the enemy, to do all the damage possible to the rebel communications, isolating the garrison of Vicksburg, and alarming the
inhabitants of the entire State; for the whole population of the South
was now at war. There were no able-bodied men out of the rebel
service; those who were not in the regular army were spies and partisans, and Grant in his turn determined to make war upon the people
as well as upon the armies of the South. His orders were constant
not to molest or injure women or children; not to do damage to property
without some military object; but he deliberately sought to destroy all
the military resources of the rebellion. Among these, none were
more important than supplies of food. The rebel armies were kept
up by means of the subsistence stores forwarded to them from the
interior, and Grant began now the plan of destroying those stores,
just as he would arms or ammunition. The rebels themselves chose
that the war should be a partisan one, and Grant accepted the situation; he fought the people as well as the armies of the enemy, and he
conquered them all.
This raid of Grierson's was eminently successful. It was the first
of those great expeditions which, penetrating into distant regions that
fancied themselves secure, brought home the punishment of rebellion
to the quietest hamlets; which carried destruction to the very source
and root of rebel strength; and, when combined with more terrible
attacks on the rebel armies at the front, finally produced the result at
which the nation was aiming. For, while Grant always chose to do
himself the hardest fighting, he sent one after another of his subordinates upon expeditions of this character, sometimes with regiments,




52                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
sometimes with armies, into the interior of the so-called Confederacy.
He held the monster by the throat, and sent others to give stabs to
the unprotected vitals, till finally Rebellion fell. Grierson made a
march of six hundred miles in sixteen days, producing as much
moral as purely military effect, and at the most opportune moment
for Grant's great campaign.
The Thirteenth corps, under McClernand, had the advance in crossing the Mississippi; after them came two divisions of the Seventeenth,
under McPherson. These were all landed at Bruinsburg, on the eastern shore, during the 30th of April. They were supplied with three
days' rations, which they were ordered to make last five. Neither tents
nor baggage was taken; no personal effects, even for officers, were
ferried across until all the troops were over. Grant took not even his
own horse, but borrowed one on the road from a soldier. Everything
now depended on rapidity of motion, and Admiral Porter loaned his
gunboats to ferry artillery and troops.
A road leads direct from the landing to the bluffs, a mile or two
distant, and the mten were pushed on at once in the direction of Port
Gibson, a town at the junction of the road from Bruinsburg with
another leading to Grand Gulf. The direct road leads to Jackson,
the capital of the State, fifty miles to the northwest. It was important to seize Port Gibson at once, so as to hold these various roads.
The possession of this place secured Grand Gulf, which would be cut off
entirely whenever Port Gibson fell. During the night, McClernand's
advance came in contact with the rebels a few miles from the town,
the garrison of Grand Gulf having marched promptly out to oppose
the movement of Grant. At daylight the, battle began. The rebels
were about eleven thousand strong; Grant heard the firing at the
Landing, and started at once for the front, arriving at ten o'clock.
The battle was even for several hours, the rebels having great advantages of position, but about noon McPherson's corps arrived, giving
Grant the superiority in numbers; he at once threw fresh troops both
to the right and left of McClernand, and before night the position was
completely turned, and the enemy driven in confusion to Port Gibson.
The ground was very rugged, and completely unknown to the Union
army, so that Grant was obliged to delay the pursuit until daylight,
when, on pushing into the town, it was found to be evacuated. In
this battle Grant had about nineteen thousand men engaged; he lost
over eight hundred men killed and wounded, and took six hundred and
fifty prisoners, besides killing and wounding more than as many of




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.-                  53
the enemy. His success was due entirely to the celerity and unexpected character of his movements. The enemy was admirably posted
on a steep ridge, protected by a broken country covered with tangled
vine and underbrush, and the rebels fought well. Reinforcements of
five thousand men had been ordered from Vicksburg and others from
Jackson, but they only arrived in time to share the flight.
In their retreat, they burnt the bridges over several streams, and
Grant next day was obliged to rebuild these, before he could make
any progress. But extraordinary efforts were made, the houses in the
neighborhood were torn down for timber, and officers and men worked
up to their waists in the water. In one instance, the troops arrived
at a bridge while it was still burning, and extinguished the fire. The
two corps were pushed on, that day and the next, about fifteen
miles, to the Big Black river, skirmishing with the enemy all the way.
But Grand Gulf was now uncovered, and Grant himself rode off in
that direction with a small escort. He found the town already in
possession of the naval forces, which had landed: early in the day.
The rebels had not been able to save their heavy cannon, and thirteen
pieces fell into the hands of the victors.
Grant had not been undressed since crossing the river, three days
before, and now went aboard the gunboats, where he borrowed a shirt,
and wrote'dispatches nearly all night. He ordered Sherman to move
down on the opposite side of the river and join the main army; he
informed the Government of his own movements, and gave orders to
his subordinates to forward supplies as rapidly as possible. All his
supplies, of every description, had to come seventy miles by land on
the western bank, then to be ferried across to Bruinsburg, and so
moved up to the army. Upon everybody he urged the overwhelming
importance of celerity; for as soon as the enemy should become aware
that the whole Union army was on the eastern bank, of course every
possible effort would be made to destroy it.
At Grand Gulf, Grant got word from Banks that changed the whole
character of his campaign. Heretofore he had intended to march to
Port Hudson, several hundred miles, and to join Banks in the attack
on that place; and when this was over, both armies were to move up
against Vicksburg. But Banks now sent him word that he could not
be at Port H1-uson before the 10th of May, and even after Port Hudson had fallen, he could not march to Vicksburg with more than twelve
thousand men. Thifs information decided Grant not to go to Banks
at all. He would lose more than' twelve thousand men on the march




54                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
to Port Hudson, and in the siege and probable battles there; so that
he would be no stronger on his return than now. Besides this, he
had already won a victory; he had got his arcmy on dry ground, where
he had been striving all winter to place it; he had captured Grand
Gulf, and was on the high road to Vicksburg or Jackson. He felt
the importance of seizing these advantages, and of making the most
of the moral effects of his triumph, both with his own troops and with
the enemy. Ile made up his mind that night to commence the Vicksburg campaign. It was fortunate indeed for the country that Banks
sent him the message of delay.
Vicksburg now was only twenty miles off, with one large river, the
Big Black, in the way. It was defended by fifty-two thousand men,
either in the garrison or in the interior of the State; this force was
under Pemberton. Another but smaller rebel army at Jackson, fifty
miles directly west from Vicksburg, was eventually commanded by
Jo. Johnston; at this time it amounted to ten thousand or twelve thousand men, though before the campaign terminated it was quadrupled.
To oppose these two formidable bodies of troops, Grant would have,
when Sherman should arrive, not more than thirty-five thousand men
in column, and twenty light batteries. The rebels had at least three
hundred guns. They were also on the defensive, sand in a country
with every inch of which they were familiar, and where every inhabitant was their friend, their partisan, their spy. The two rebel forces,
if combined, would certainly largely outnumber, and perhaps crush
the Union army. Instead, therefore, of moving at once against
Vicksburg, Grant determined to push directly between the two hostile
forces, separate them completely, and attack the smaller one before
the other could come to the rescue; to drive it east as far as Jackson,
where all the railroads centre by which Vicksburg was supplied; and
after destroying Johnston, and the rebel stores and communications
at Jackson, to return and capture Vicksburg at his leisure.
No more daring enterprise was ever undertaken in war. To perform it, he must abandon his base of supplies entirely; for, if he
moved east after Johnston, Pemberton would be sure to fall upon his
line of communications in rear; and to guard this line would weaken
Grant, so that he could not be strong enough for the operations he
contemplated. He therefore sent word to have the greatest possible
amount of supplies forwarded him before starting, and determined to
cut loose entirely from his base, depending on the country for all further rations and forage. A parallel feat had then never been per



LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  55
formed with a modern army. HIe gave no notice of his intention to
the Government in advance, and it was lucky that he did not, for as
soon as Halleck discovered the plan, he sent word to Grant to return;
but it was too late; the order did not reach Grant.till the campaign
was decided.
Sherman was hurried up, the greatest possible energy inculcated
upon everybody, dispositions made of the troops which were to remain
on the west side of the Mississippi and at Grand Gulf, and, on the
7th of May the venturous column started for Jackson. Meanwhile,
Grant's horses had arrived and his mess furniture. Hitherto he had
depended on the hospitality of his subordinates, not only for a horse,
but for every meal of the campaign. Sherman's corps arrived just
as the advance of the army was starting; and he was directed by
Grant to take three days' rations for men, and make them last seven.
On the 11th, Grant informed Halleck, "As I slhall communicate with
Grand Gulf no more, you may not hear from me again for several days."
This was the very day on which IHalleck sent word to Grant to return
and cooperate with Banks. The two dispatches crossed each other on
the way; but there was no telegraph communication, and each was a
week in reaching its destination.
The army moved northeast, on different but neighboring roads,
meeting no enemy in force until the 12th, when McPherson, who had
the advance on the right, fell in with a body of rebels five thousand
strong, at a place called Raymond. The main rebel force, under
Pemberton, was on the left, at Edwards's Station, on the railroad
between Vicksburg and Jackson. Grant disposed his forces so as to
threaten Pemberton, and induced that commander to remain in mass
awaiting an attack; Pemberton at the same time sent word for the
troops at Jackson to come out and assault Grant's rear. But Grant,
instead of attacking Pemberton, where the rebels were prepared in
force, sent McPherson, with a whole corps, to overwhelm the smaller
force coming up from Jackson. McPherson met the rebels at Raymond, and, outnumbering them two to one, completely routed them,
and occupied the town. This was the second victory of the campaign,
and the second time that Grant, with a force not half so large as that
of the rebels combined, was able, by the wisdom of his combinations
and the celerity of his movements, to divide and beat his enemy in
detail. Meanwhile Pemberton had been expecting the attack at
Edwards's Station. From Raymond, the rebels fled at once to Jackson, and with one of those opportune decisions which come only to




56                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
masters in war at the critical moment, Grant instantly changed his
plans. Hitherto he had meant to send only one corps to Jackson;
but this day's fight confirmed him ihi the idea that a large force was
on his right, and it was necessary to dispose of this effectually, so
that when he turned towards Vicksburg, he should leave no formidable
enemy in his rear. Large rebel reinforcements were hastening to Jackson, and he determined to destroy the troops already there before the
reinforcements should arrive in great numbers. That night he issued
orders for the three corps to start for Jackson; and on the 13th this
was done at dawn, McPherson and Sherman having the advance, on
separate roads; and McClernand following each. The same night,
General Jo. Johnston arrived at Jackson, and took command of all
the rebels in the State.  He at once sent orders for Pemberton to
come up in Grant's rear and attack the national troops, meaning with
the garrison of Jackson to cooperate in front, and thus crush Grant,
as between the upper and the nether millstone.
This was a very good plan, but Johnston had Grant to deal with,
who knew the danger of such a movement as Johnston ordered. Grant
too was never slow. He now moved his troops with great rapidity,
and on the 14th, Sherman and McPherson were in front of Jackson,
while Pemberton had not yet left Edwards's Station, twenty miles
away.
The attack was begun by McPherson at 11 o'clock, and fighting
lasted three hours, during which. McPherson drove the rebels inside
their works. Sherman was moving up on the right and south of
Jackson, Grant being with this portion of his army. Some obstacles
in front seemed important, and Grant rode to the extreme right in
person, to reconnoitre, when he found that the enemy had evacuated
the town; he rode ori, and his party was with the first to enter Jackson.
The rebels had made all their resistance in McPherson's front, and,
finding that Pemberton- had not come up to the assault, finally withdrew, while Sherman was reconnoitring and getting into position. By
three o'clock, the- two corps were in Jackson, Johnston retreating out
of the north side of the town. Seventeen cannon were ca-ptured, and
the enemy lost eight' hundred and forty-five menl in killed, wounded,
and prisoners. Grant's entire loss was less than three hundred.
Grant had now attained the object of his eastward march. It was
important at once to destroy the railroads and stores of the rebels,
and, in order to effect this, he was obliged to abandon or postpone any
pnusuit of Johnston. Twenty m:les of ralroad were aceordingly torn




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                    57
up, and the bridges burnt; all the rebel supplies, factories, and arsenals
were included in the conflagration. That night Grant slept in the quarters occupied the day before by Johnston. The reinforcements that
were coming up to- the enemy were obliged to make wide and long
detours to join their commander. But, although success had been so
marked, it was still not complete. There was yet imminent danger of
a concentration of the two rebel armies; and before night, Grant got
possession of a dispatch from Johnston to Pemberton, directing the
concentration so much to be feared.
He determined to prevent this, and accordingly, with his usual
promptitude, he that afternoon ordered McPherson to retrace his
steps, marching in the morning in the direction of Edwards's Station.
McClernand was also informed of the defeat of Johnston, and of the
danger of rebel concentration. His troops were at once faced about
in the same direction as McPherson's.'The various corps were admirably located, so as to converge on the same point, which was Bolton,
a station a few miles east of Edwards's, where Pemberton was known to
be. The men were fatigued, having been marching or fighting incessantly since the 7th, but there was no time now for rest.  Celerity of
movement won battles and saved lives. Accordingly, early on the
morning of the 15th, the two corps had turned their faces towards:
Vicksburg, and were in motion for the enemy. Sherman was to spend:
that day destroying the munitions and military resources in and
around Jackson. Before night, McPherson and McClernand were
within supporting distance of each other at Bolton, and ordered to
march in the morning for Edwards's Station; while Pemberton still
delayed, in disobedience of Johnston's orders. He did not dream'that Grant had no communications with the Mississippi, and his idea
was to march south and cut those communications. On the morning
of the 15th, he moved for this purpose southeast of Edwards's Station,away from Johnston, who had by this time been driven north from
Jackson, so that the rebels were actually moving in opposite directions, while Grant- was- converging between them; Pemberton striving
t-b cut Grant's communications with the Missi:ssippi, while Grant, who
had cut them himself nine days before, was returning tow Vicksburg,and seeking Pembertot to destroy him.
Pemberton moved' slowly, and again received positive orders from'
Johnston to join- him. Ontaghe 16th, he finally concluded t-o6 obey, and;:
reversed his column. Bttt it the night Grant had got wora of Pemir
berton's exact force  anid- position-, and: of the design to attack the'~




58                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
national rear. He instantly dispatched to Sherman to start at once
from Jackson to the support of the main army. "The fight may be
brought on at any moment; we should have every man on the field."
A national division was now coming up alone from Grand Gulf, and
this was also ordered to join the main army. "Pass your troops to
the front of your trains, and keep the ammunition in front of all
others."  He meant work.
Three roads lead to Edwards's Station from the east, and on the
northern one Grant had four divisions, under McPherson, while on
each of the others were two divisions; all these last under McClernand.
Sherman had not got up. The advance of McClernand encountered
Pemberton's skirmishers just as the reverse movement of the rebel
column began, and the enemy at once fell into an admirable position,
covering all three roads. The rebel left was on a hill called Champion's Hill, and by eleven o'clock the force under McPherson assaulted
here. Grant was with this portion of his command in person. The
rebels had twenty-five thousand men, a defensive position, and, as
usual, complete knowledge of the country, of which, of course, the
national troops were entirely ignorant. The battle raged with various
fortune for several hours; the Union soldiers gained a point on the
hill several times, but were driven back as often, and Grant sent
repeated orders to McClernand to come up to the support; but that
commander allowed an inferior force to amuse and delay him, and, in
spite of Grant's positive directions to attack, he did not obey. Finally,
Grant sent troops to the extreme rebel left and rear, and these produced such an effect that, combined with another direct attack in
front,, the enemy gave way, and the hill was carried, McClernand not
having been engaged at all. One of his divisions had been on the
right with Grant all day, and in the thickest of the fight, but those
under-McClernand's direct command were not in the battle.
The rout of the rebels was complete, and as McClernand now came
up in force, Grant sent these fresh troops in pursuit. Grant had not
had more than fifteen thousand men engaged. He lost about two
thousand four hundred men in the battle of Champion's Hill, which
was by far the hardest fought in the whole campaign. The enemy's
loss was between three thousand and four thousand killed and wounded,
and as many more prisoners, besides thirty cannon. In addition to
this, one whole division was cut off from the bulk of the rebel army in
the precipitous flight. It struggled along, making a wide detour, and
reported to Johnston several days afterwards, but Pemberton never com



LIWFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  59
manded it again. The moral effects of this victory were prodigious.
The rebel troops broke and fled in every direction; artillerymen deserted their guns in the retreat, and many of the soldiers threw away
their small arms, and gave themselves up prisoners before they were
asked. The pursuit was continued till after dark, reaching fifteen
miles. Grant himself was with the advance, and his party got so far
ahead of the main column, that they were obliged to return to a more
secure position for the night. That night Grant received Halleck's
orders to return to the Mississippi and cooperate with Banks; but the
best way to return now was to proceed in his career of victory.
It was nothing but the marvellous energy and promptness of Grant
that won this battle. Pemberton was actually moving to join Johnston when he was struck by Grant; had the national commander delayed a day, the concentration would have been effected; but it was
now forever impossible.
The next day the pursuit was pushed on; Sherman having arrived
at Bolton by the close of the 15th, he was ordered to move at once to
the right of the rest of the command. Grant reached the Big Black
river, the only one now between his army and Vicksburg, early in the
morning of the 17th, his advance having started before daylight. At
the crossing of the railroad over this river, the rebels had established
a formidable work; here the river makes a bend like a horse-shoe,
open towards the east, and the line of fortifications was across this
opening, reaching from the river above to the river again below. The
ground in front was swampy and exposed to the rebel fire, while still
beyond, on the western bank of the river, rose steep bluffs, commanding the country for miles. This point was defended by twenty cannon
and four thousand troops, who ought to have held it against direct
assault forever. But the Union troops were inspired by the long
series of successes, and the rebels were exhausted with disaster and
retreat. At the first attack, by only about eleven hundred men, the
rebels fled in dismay, abandoning all their guns, and only seeking to
reach the river. The panic spread to the troops on the opposite shore,
who set fire to the bridge, and nearly eighteen hundred prisoners, with
eighteen pieces of artillery, were captured. Grant lost only two hun.dred and fifty men, of whom but twenty-nine were killed. This of
course was only the result of the rout of the day before, for the rebels
had often and often proved themselves good enough soldiers.
But their-depression now was terrible. Many left their ranks, and
vowed they would surrender rather than fight again under Pemberton.
The people of the country joined them, and all fled pell mell into




60                  LFE OF GBEntAL ORATi.
Vieks'burg, from the eoanqueror who had won five battles in less than
twenty days, captured, six thousand five' hundred of the enemy, andt
killed and wounded six thousand more.  He had done this, after starting with an average of two days' rations, and- he had subsisted his own',
army, besides, beating two of the enemy's, and lost only seven hundred
killed and three thousand four hundred wounded.After rebuildinsg the bridges out of the wood of houses torn down
for the purpose, he pressed rapidly on, and on the' 18th of May Vicksburg was besieged. No more brilliant series, of operations is chronicled in the history of war.  For originality of conception, for daring
in execution, for admirable combinations; for strategical foresight, for
promptness in the decisions and celerity in the: movements, for completeness of success in each operation, and for the magnificent result
of all, they have no parallel except in the achievements of Napoleon.
SIEGE OF VICKSBURG..
The country around Vicksburg is broken and difficult in an extraordi.nary degree; full of rough hills and rougher ravines, with numerous creeks, running between the various heights, and a thick growth of
underbrush. or forest covering the sides of the cliffs and chasms; a
region expressly adapted for defence.  These natural advantages had'
been developed too- their utmost by the rebels, whose line of works,
located on the-mos-t salient ridges, reached entirely around the city.
Numerous detached forts were- built at intervals, and between these
stretched an uninterrupted line of' rifle-pits, not less than eight miles
long. Outside of the parapet, the enemy had formed an unusually
difficult abatis of fallen trees.  Within these lines, Pemberton had
now nearly t~hirty-five thousand men, for he was of course reinforced
by the garrison: proper, of the town.  A hundred guns at least were
also ready to repel' agssault.  Johnston, however, feared that even with
all these defences, natural and artificial, Pemberton would finally be
compelled to surrender; he therefore ordered- his subordinate to evacuate the place.  But again Grant's promptness-intervened to frustrate
the plans of his antagonist. Pemberton held a council of war on the
18th of M'ay, and while it was still deliberating, Grant took his position on the outside and invested' Vicksburg.  The Union line at first
was incomplete.  Sherman had the right, Mc'Pherson the centre, and
McClernand at this time the' extreme left; but the troops of the lastC
named officer didi mot" extend- to the Mississippi; while Sherman's
right rested on: the vey. hills from which' he had been repelled in January b'efore,




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                    a
Grant did not delay operations, but the day after arriving before
the town, he ordered an assault. With his usual tactics, he wished to
take advantage of the demoralization of the rebels, before they had
time to recover. Accordingly, on the 19th of May, all three of his
corps commanders were instructed to charge against the rebel line;
but the sight of the rebel fastness, these lofty hills shutting in Vicksburg on every hand, these hundred cannon directed against the assailants, the reinforcements of eight thousand men in garrison, and the
knowledge of the extraordinary difficulties Grant must overcome before he could carry the works, so strong by nature and by art, reanimated the defenders.  The corps of Sherman and of McPherson
pushed up close to the rebel works, but neither was able to make an
impression; and McClernand, whose troops were further from the city
than either of the others, did not get up in time to really participate
in the assault. The effort was therefore unsuccessful; no entrance
was gained; but positions close to the enemy were obtained and held,
which proved of vast importance during the siege. The prodigious
difficulties before them had not been known to the besiegers until now,
and it was evident that even all the battles and victories they had won
had not achieved the consummation at which for so many months they
had been aiming.
Grant now spent two days in resting his troops after the wonderful
campaign through which they had passed; in bringing up supplies,
from the new base which was established on the Yazoo; and in preparing for a second and more determined assault; for he was loath
to begin the tedious processes of a siege. His men, exhilarated by the
success of the brilliant campaign, were also unlikely to set to work in
in the trenches with zeal until they knew that no other means would
even yet suffice to conquer Vicksburg. After their successes at Champion's Hill and the Big Black, they thought themselves irresistible.
Besides this, Johnston's army, still near Jackson, was daily receiving
reinforcements, and would soon, perhaps, equal Grant's in numbers,
and be able to raise the siege; while, if Grant could once secure possession of the town, with the river open for communication and supplies, the national forcqs could laugh to scorn any rebel attempt to
regain it.
On the 22d of May, therefore, a second assault was ordered. It
was preceded by a vigorous bombardment both from the fleet and from
a line of a hundred cannon mounted along the hills in the interior.
Precisely at ten, the various columns moved against the rebel works.




62                    LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
The attack was made with great vigor all along the line; the men
moved by the roads when this was practicable, and elsewhere down
into the ravines and up the precipitous sides, on which the hostile fortifications awaited them. But the difficulties were insurmountable;
the assailants were exposed for a distance of several hundred yards to
the artillery and musketry fire of the besieged; they got entangled in
the brushwood; they were shot down before they could scale the hills.
Everywhere they were repelled; and although prodigies of valor had
been performed, it was all in vain. Each corps had recoiled.  The
national flag in front of each had been planted on the rebel works, and
still remained there, but the troops were unable to penetrate further,
while the rebels dared not take the flags away. The battle was over,
and no result was gained.
At this moment McClernand sent a dispatch to Grant, announcing
the capture of two forts. This message was three times repeated, and
Grant was urged to order another assault, to support the advantage
said to have been gained by McClernand. Supposing that McClernand must know when a fort was gained, Grant complied with the
request, and a second assault was ordered by Sherman's and McPherson's worn out men. This met with a similar result with the former
one; the loss of life was nearly doubled, and no more success was
attained; while it proved that McClernand had originally secured no
advantage like that which he had proclaimed. He had carried no fort,
and when the assault he requested was renewed solely to support him,
he did not himself attain any advantage beyond what the others had
already procured.
At night three thousand national soldiers had been killed or wounded; about thirty thousand had been engaged. Pemberton declared
that he had eighteen thousand five hundred men in the trenches; he
lost about one thousand soldiers in this fight. The disparity of course
was occasioned by the rebels being under cover. Shortly after this
assault, McClernand was relieved by General Ord, at the command of
Grant.
The national troops, however, although repelled, were not discouraged,'and their leader at once set about his preparations for a siege.
These operations were unintermitted for over forty days. Reinforcements were sent to Grant in large numbers, his lines were rendered
continuous, and were daily advanced further against the doomed city.
Mines were dug and sprung, and the city was completely shut off from
all supply or communication, except when an occasional rebel scout




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                     63
found his way through the Union lines. Meanwhile, Johnston also
was reinforced, till his army amounted to forty thousand men, and
moved up on Grant's rear to relieve the city. But Grant now commanded seventy thousand soldiers, half of whom he kept in the
trenches, and the other half he formed into a corps of observation
against Johnston. These built a line of works facing east, protecting
the besiegers, who were thus enclosed between two lines-one in front
and one in rear.
Towards the last of June the sufferings of the besieged became very
great. They were forced to put the men on quarter rations, and
finally, after it became apparent to Pemberton that all hope of rescue
had disappeared; when it was certain that Johnston, with his forty
thousand men, would not dare attack Grant in rear, although he would
be supported by the entire garrison in front; when neither the siege
could be raised nor the garrison escape; when the blockade by land
and river was so effectual, that attempts to build boats and cross the
Mississippi were detected; when scouts were intercepted, bringing
word to Pemberton that Johnston could do no more for him, and from
Pemberton, that his supplies of food and ammunition were both exhausted; when for forty-seven days the besiegers and besieged had
lain in the hot trenches, working, digging, mining, countermining,
assaulting, repelling, advancing, retreating, sickening, dying; those
inside almost starving, those outside often suffering from lack of
water; both sides exposed to miasma and heat, and rain, and fatigue,
and incessant danger from bursting shells and sharpshooters' rifles,
and sudden attacks by night and day-finally, the mighty siege was
about to terminate.
All this while Grant's patience had never failed him. The country
had long since become anxious and irritable; again, notwithstanding
his brilliant series of victories, there had been talk of relieving him;
but he remained calm and undisturbed.. He had a mighty fortress,
containing a hostile army, in his front, and another army at his rear,
generaled by one of the greatest soldiers of the rebellion; his approaches were slow, his assaults had been repelled; his mines had
produced no effect; the rebels seemed determined, his own men sickened and wearied under the protracted exposure of the trenches and
the fatigues of night-work in this insalubrious climate; seven weeks
had passed since he had returned from his career of triumphant battles, and still he was outside of the works which seven weeks before
he thougkht he had gained. But his confidence of success remained




64                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
undiminished; his energy never flagged. He met a rebel woman once,
while making the circuit of his lines, who asked him, with a taunt,
how long he expected to remain before Vicksburg; "I do not know
how long I shall have to wait," he replied, " but I shall stay here til
I take the town, if it takes me thirty years."  This was the spirit that
animated him, and which he was able to infuse into his soldiers, who,
despite all their toils, and hardships, and dangers, were as determined
as he, and had no thought of abandoning the enterprise, which they
had already done so much to accomplish. The spirit of their commander held officers and men steadily up to their tedious and unexciting task; this spirit finally conquered Vicksburg.
For, on the 3d of July, Pemberton made overtures to Grant, and
the same day a meeting of the two generals was held between their
lines, and in sight of both armies. It took place under an oak tree,
which has since been cut down to furnish mementoes of the occasion.
The troops for miles around hung over their parapets on either side,
watching the interview on which the destinies of the two armies depended.  But Pemberton was absurd and haughty, and refused the
simple surrender which Grant demanded. In the night, however, he
consulted with his subordinates, and came to a better mind. By morning, he had agreed to deliver up the garrison, with all its munitions,
as prisoners of war. Grant did not wish the trouble of feeding another
army, and could not, in many weeks, procure transports sufficient to
send his prisoners North; he therefore stipulated that they should be
paroled and sent into the interior, not to fight again until exchanged.
Nearly the same terms which Napoleon granted to the Austrians at
the famous surrender of Ulm.
On the 4th of July, therefore-auspicious anniversary-the capture
was consummated. Grant generously allowed the officers to retain
their swords, and both officers and men their private property; but
the muskets were all stacked by the rebels themselves outside their
works, between the lines.  It took them nearly all day to march out
of their defences, and lay down their colors and their arms, the
national army looking on.  Thirty-two thousand rebel soldiers thus
became prisoners to Grant; over two thousand one hundred of these
were officers, and among them  no fewer than fifteen generals.  One
hundred and seventy-two cannon also were surrendered.  No such capture of men and material had been made before in modern times.  The
greatest of Napoleon's triumphs pales before the achievement. General Halleck declared that the famous operations about Ulm were




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                    65
eclipsed by those which.had secured this result; and the glowing
pages of European historians, in recounting the magnificent success
of the greatest of European soldiers, do not reach the points of panegyric which simple facts declare to have been won by Grant. At
Ulm, Napoleon received the surrender of sixty pieces of cannon and
thirty thousand men. At Vicksburg, our American hero became the
master of one hundred and seventy-two hostile cannon, and thirty-two
thousand prisoners.
It required an entire week to complete the paroles; but on the 11th
of July the rebel garrison marched finally out of Vicksburg, never
to return, except as submissive citizens of the United States. On the
8th, Port Hudson, the only other point held by the enemy on the Mississipi, surrendered to General Banks; the rebel commander announcing that, as Vicksburg had fallen, he had no hope of relief, or of
successfully enduring a siege. So that the great river was once more
open in its entire length to the national flags, and the greatest bond
that held the rebellion together was broken forever.
On the very day that Grant received propositions for Pemberton's
surrender, he sent orders to Sherman to get his command in readiness
to march against Johnston's army; and on the 4th, as soon as the
capture of the town was really consummated, he sent Sherman in
pursuit of the enemy outside. Johnston, however, fell back in haste,
when he heard of the fall of Vicksburg, and a hot chase was made,
Sherman following as far as Jackson; but thence Johnson escaped
into the interior, Sherman not pursuing farther.  Great destruction
was again made of railroads and resources, at and around Jackson,
and the undisturbed possession of the State of Mississippi was thus
secured; Sherman then returned to Vicksburg, and the troops were
allowed a month or two of rest, after their long labors in the trenches
and the field.
Grant had now completely accomplished the Vicksburg campaign,
one of the most brilliant recorded in history, whether its results are
regarded, or the means by which those results were attained. He had
fought five battles, made two -assaults, and prosecuted a siege for
forty-seven days and nights. He had captured an entire army, as'
well as the most difficult and important stronghold which the rebels
then possessed in the whole theatre of war; he had opened the Mississippi river, he had taken prisoner, killed, or wounded, over fifty thousand
rebel soldiers, and captured two hundred and forty-six cannon, during
the campaign and siege. His own loss in the same time was one thou5




66                    LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
sand two hundred and forty-three killed, seven thousand and ninetyfive wounded, and five hundred and thirty-five missing; total, eight
thousand eight hundred and seventy-three. Of the wounded, more
than half returned to duty, many of them almost immediately.
The character of this campaign forever stamps the man who conceived and executed it, not only as a soldier of uncommon genius, but
as one of those great intellects which arise only once or twice in a
century. The magnificent daring of the original idea; its unlikeness to anything that had been done or planned during a generation;
the unflinching determination with which it was begun, despite the
discouragement and opposition of subordinates and superiors; the
moral courage which was required for this, at a moment when the fate
of the country almost hung on Grant's success, and his own downfall
was the certain consequence of disaster —the promptitude and the
unerring sagacity of the numerous and incalculably important decisions; the marvellous fertility of resources, and the equally marvellous
energy with which those resources were all brought into play; the
beautiful accuracy of the strategic combinations; the vigor of each
separate movement; the wisdom with which the plans of the enemy
were divined, and opposed by still more skillful ones; the unity with
which the various forces were made to act; the art with which they
were separated when necessary, yet always kept so that they could be
brought together at a critical moment; and the administrative ability
which moved, and supplied, and marched, and fought the army with
rapidity, daring, and unparalleled success-these are traits that no soldier of our time has possessed, in an equal degree, and characteristics
that in no time have been displayed by soldier or statesman without
placing their owner in the front rank for intellect and moral power.
Honors, of course, were heaped upon Grant after this unprecedented
triumph. He was made a major general in the regular army; the
President and the general-in-chief each wrote him letters of congratulation; the legislatures of various States passed resolutions of thanks;
swords were presented him; and his name passed to the head of
all the defenders of the Union. His equanimity was as great, however, in success as it had been in disaster. He felt that there was still
other work to do, and at once asked permission to make a movement
against Mobile. But this was not allowed; and, instead, a corps of his
army was taken from him and given to Banks. He felt, however,
that his subordinates had worked hard to achieve the victories which
his abilities had planned, and one of his first efforts was to secure pro



LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   67
motion for them. A long list, headed by Sherman and McPherson,
was made out, and nearly every one of his recommendations was
approved. Inl August, he went to New Orleans, to consult with Banks
about a combined movement against Mobile, which he still hoped he
could persuade the Government to allow; and while there, he was
thrown from his horse at a review, and received a hurt that lamed
him for months. For twenty days he was confined to one position,
and while thus suffering, word came to him of great apprehensions
felt by the Government for the safety of the Union army at Chattanooga.
CHATTANOOGA.
This place, on the confines of Tennessee and Northern Georgia, and
shut in by the Cumberland mountains and the Tennessee river, is
at the junction of two great railroads, one passing north and south,
the other east and west. It was parallel in military importance to
Corinth, farther west; and, since the beginning of the war, the efforts
of national commanders had been directed to secure its possession.
If this were obtained, Richmond, the rebel capital, was cut off from
all direct communication with the centre and west of the rebellious
region. In September, by a series of masterly movements, Rosecranz succeeded in driving the rebel army that defended Chattanooga
a few miles south of it, and himself stepped in to occupy the town.
But it was certain that the rebels would make a prodigious effort to
regain the prize, and Grant was directed to send all his available
force to the support of Rosecranz.
Grant did not get these orders until his return from New Orleans,
and, though still confined to his bed, at once dispatched a whole corps,
under Sherman, towards Chattanooga. All expedition was made for
the movement, but the distance was nearly a thousand miles, by the
shortest route; half of this was by the river, and transports had to
be procured; then there were four hundred miles to be marched
through a hostile country. Long before Sherman could reach Rosecranz, the latter had been attacked by a superior force and driven
into Chattanooga. The Government became greatly alarmed, and at
once sent for Grant to take command of Rosecranz's army. He
started, still a cripple, sailed up the Mississippi to Cairo, and then
went by rail to Louisville; on the way he met the Secretary of War,
and received from him an order placing him in command of all the
armies west of the Alleghanies, except those of Banks, in Louisiana




68                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
and Texas. His immediate task was to secure Chattanooga and the
army there, which was now besieged, and to relieve East Tennessee,
where Burnside also was in great straits, in command of another and
smaller army.
Government had begun to perceive the necessity of concentrating
its forces, and of having some unity in its military operations. Hitherto, the armies had acted each on its own plan, independent of every
other, and often in contradictory directions. No one had been found
able to combine the various resources and compel the different forces
to cooperate. In this emergency, Grant, the only soldier who had
met with continuous or brilliant success during the entire war, was
called upon.
He had now absolute command of two hundred thousand men; but
these were widely separated. He had a territory reaching from the
Alleghanies to the Mississippi to hold and to guard, and large hostile
armies to intercept and overthrow. At Chattanooga, the army which
Rosecranz had commanded was crowded into a small area south of
the Tennessee, and encircled by mountains, on which the rebels, so
lately victorious, were encamped; there was but one railroad line of
communication with this town, and that the enemy had just cut off; so
that the solitary route by which all supplies could reach Chattanooga
was a rugged mountain road, seventy miles long, and now almost
impassable on account of heavy rains. The army was on half rations;
ten thousand mules and horses had died of starvation, and there seemed
no possibility of rescue. Burnside was two hundred miles away, in
East Tennessee, equally isolat_ 1, though not besieged; and Sherman
was in Mississippi, with four hundred miles to march before he could
relieve Chattanooga; and even when he reached that place, unless the
enemy were driven away, he would only add to the miseries of the
Union troops, as those already there could not be supplied with either
food or ammunition. This was the condition of affairs when Grant
assumed his new command.
His first act was to place General George H. Thomas in the position
lately occupied by Rosecranz. Grant assumed command on the 19th
of October, but could not reach Chattanooga, on account of the break
in communication, until the 23d. He telegraphed Thomas, however,
on the 19th: "Hold Chattanooga at all hazards;" and Thomas replied,
" I will hold the town till we starve."  Grant went as far as Bridgeport by rail, and then took horse over the muddy mountain road. The
rain fell in torrents, and often made it impossible for riders to keep




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  V9
their seats on the precipitous mountain sides. Grant was still lame
from his fall, and had to be carried over such places in the arms of
his soldiers; but all along the route he was dispatching directions to
Thomas, ordering supplies of ordnance and provisions from the rear,
or sending messages to Burnside and to Sherman, encouraging one
and hastening the other.
He reached Chattanooga after'dark, and that night was spent in
looking over maps and studying the situation, apparently the gloomiest
one in which a commander could be placed. The town is on the south
side of the Tennessee, here very circuitous; the hills in front, not
three miles off, called Missionary Ridge, were held by the enemy,
whose line encircled Chattanooga, the rebel pickets reaching on both
sides to the river. On Grant's right, the railroad runs west for a while
and then north, to Nashville; but Lookout Mountain, two thousand
two hundred feet high, was in the hands of the rebels, and completely
commanded this railroad. Indeed, from the top of the mountain, the
enemy easily threw shells into Chattanooga. The rebel army was
greatly larger than Grant's, and elated with its victory, while the
Union troops, cooped up among the hills, with a river at their back
and no apparent means of rescue or escape, starving and nearly out
of ammunition, seemed only waiting till the enemy should choose to
demand surrender. The situation was quite as desperate as Pemberton's, on the 3d of July, at Vicksburg, for it was quite impossible to
get the Union army away through the mountains on the north side of
the Tennessee. But Pemberton was not in command at Chattanooga.
It was Grant.
Next morning he made a reconnoissance of the country in the neighborhood of Lookout Mountain, and immediately gave directions for
an aggressive movement in that direction. Portions of two corps
from the army of the Potomac had been sent by Halleck to relieve
Rosecranz, some weeks before; but these were still at Bridgeport,
sixty miles away to the west, as their presence at Chattanooga would
only serve to enhance the difficulties of supply. But Grant directed
these troops, under Hooker, to move up to the western side of Lookout
Mountain, which is only a mile or two in width, and at the same time
ordered a cooperative movement from  Chattanooga. Troops were
sent on the night of the 27th, in boats, down the Tennessee, who eluded
the rebel pickets, till they reached a point called Brown's ferry, on
the south side of the river, some nine miles below the town. Here
the; landed, seized the ferry, drove in or captured the enemy's out



70                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
guards, and maintained themselves while a bridge was laid, and a
considerable force, that had been sent on the north side of the river,
could be moved across the bridge. By ten o'clock, on the 28th, the
position was secured. On the morning of the 26th, Hooker had moved
from Bridgeport, and at six on the evening of the 28th he had marched
around the foot of Lookout Mountain without serious opposition,
secured the railroad, and connected with the force at Brown's Ferry.
The rebels, however, at once saw how important it was that this
connection should be broken; for, if Grant was able to' maintain it,
his railroad communication would be open again with the north, and
supplies of men, ammunition, and provisions could be sent him.
Accordingly, that night they attacked Hooker in force, and a severe
battle ensued, the result of which was that the enemy was driven off
in confusion, and the railroad secured to Grant. The Union troops
lost over four hundred men in killed and wounded, but the price was
not too great to pay, for it secured the army in Chattanooga.  Thus,
in five days after Grant's arrival, the railroad to Nashville was
opened, and the immediate danger repelled. Bragg, indeed, was now
on the defensive, not Grant; for Hooker's position threatened Lookout Mountain, and it was certain that as soon as supplies and
ammunition could be procured, an offensive operation would begin.
The army and the country were electrified at this immediate effect of
Grant's presence, this reversal of the entire situation; while the
rebels were chagrined in an equal degree.
Still, Grant's difficulties were gigantic. Burnside's twenty-five thousand men were a hundred miles from any navigable river by which
they could be supplied, and farther yet from a railroad; they had to
be supplied by a route over six hundred miles long; while Sherman,
in his tedious march from the Mississippi, had to be met with provisions at various points; and all these lines of supply ran through a
hostile country. Grant directed and superintended these operations
as closely as he did the tactical movements in a battle; he even
instructed Sherman what roads he should take; he sent word to
Admiral Porter to convoy the steamers that carried supplies, and that
officer, never hesitating, furnished the protection desired.
But, on the 4th of November, Bragg, feeling the necessity of doing
something to compensate for the disaster he had incurred at Brown's
Ferry, sent an entire corps, under Longstreet, into East Tennessee,
to destroy Burnside. Grant got word of the movement at once, and
his situation became vastly more complicated. If Sherman had been




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   71
up, he would have rejoiced at Bragg's movement, for he should at
once have attacked the rebels in his front, now weakened by this
abstraction. But the strength of Bragg's position, on the precipitous
ridge and on the lofty crest of Lookout, was such, that no assault
could be made until further reinforcements arrived. Meanwhile,
Burnside was in immediate peril.
Grant at once dispatched word to Sherman of this new danger, and
urged him to increased speed.  Still, Sherman's difficulties were prodig-ious; he had rivers to cross where there were no bridges, mountains to climb, enemies to meet; but, on the 13th of November, he
reached Bridgeport with his command, and was summoned at once in
person to Chattanooga. In the interim, Grant had been urging Burnside to hold out against all odds. "I do not know how to impress on
you the necessity of holding on to East Tennessee in strong enough
terms."  "It is of the most vital importance that East Tennessee
should be held."  " I can hardly conceive the necessity of retreating
from East Tennessee. If I did so at all, it would be after losing most
of the army. I will not attempt to lay out a line of retreat."  " I want
the enemy's progress retarded at every point all it can be, only giving up each place when it bedomes evident that it cannot longer be
held without endangering your force to capture."  " Can you hold
the line from Knoxville to Clinton for seven days? If so, I think the
whole Tennessee valley can be secured from present danger."
For Grant's strategy was here, on a larger scale, exactly what it
had been at Donelson. He meant to defend Burnside by attacking
Bragg. He knew well that a victorious assault on the rebel centre,
would bring back this venturesome column on the rebel right. His
defence was always an offence. He never was satisfied with standing
still to repel attack, but wanted to make a counter attack of his own,
and convert security into victory. The reasons for the extreme anxiety he felt to save East Tennessee were twofold. First, that region
was filled with a loyal population, which had suffered the cruelest tortures from the rebels until a Union army had occupied the territory;
and next, it was fertile beyond almost any portion of the South, and
would afford immense supplies to the rebel armies if it fell once more
into their hands. Besides this, it afforded a safe method of communicatioh between Bragg and Richmond. By every moral, political, and
military consideration, he was impelled, if possible, to maintain possession of East Tennessee.
But Burnside was obliged to fall back before Longstreet, although




72                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
he did not abandon Knoxville, the key-point of the country; and
Grant's anxiety became intense, lest Sherman should arrive too late.
He was once almost determined to assault before Sherman arrived, but
the lack of artillery-horses made him abandon the idea. He could
not send reinforcements to Burnside, for the enemy was directly between the two national armies; even couriers were uncertain; and
finally all communication was cut off. Still, this extraordinary man
was full of confidence. He assured the Government that Burnside
would hold out, and Sherman would arrive; that success would eventually crown his plans."
The rains, however, carried away bridges andinundated the roads,
so that it was not till the 22d of November that Grant's arrangements
were completed, and his armies in the position which he desired.
The battle-field of Chattanooga is an irregular field, with Missionary Ridge on the east and the Tennessee river on the west. On what
was Grant's left, Chickamauga creek empties into the Tennessee, and
at the extreme right is Lookout Mountain; both extremities were in
the hands of the rebels. Grant's plan was to bring Sherman along
the north side of the river, from Brown's ferry to the point opposite
Chickamauga creek, then to cross this'portion of the command so as
to form his new left; Thomas was to be the centre, and to attack Missionary Ridge directly in his front; while Hooker, on the right, would
assail and carry Lookout Mountain. Sherman's principal endeavor
was to be to reach and turn the northern extremity of Missionary
Ridge, behind which was Chickamauga Station, on the southern railroad, where Bragg's base and depot of supplies were situated; Sherman was to move up from Brown's ferry along a road concealed from
the rebels by the opposite mountains; but as Bragg seemed to be expecting an attack on his left flank, Grant ordered Sherman to confirm
this notion, by advancing one division in that direction, and building
large camp-fires there at night.
At this crisis, Grant got word that Bdirnside and Longstreet had
really begun the battle for the possession of East Tennessee, and still
Sherman was delayed by more rains, and freshets, and broken bridges.
"I have never felt," said Grant, "such restlessness before."  In consequence of these obstacles, Sherman did not arrive at his post on
the north side of the Tennessee until the 23d of November.
During the night of the 22d, however, a deserter from Bragg's army
brought news that a division of the enemy was being sent to Longstreet; and Grant had other reasons for supposing that Bragg might




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  73
be intending to fall back from Missionary Ridge. He accordingly
ordered an advance by Thomas to ascertain the truth of thin report.
It would not do to let Bragg escape, without the battle for which the
national commander had been waiting and preparing so long. Thomas
accordingly moved a whole corps forward to develop the strength of'
the enemy. The movement was measured, and the rebels so little
anticipated it, that even after the troops were in line, the rebels leaned
lazily on their muskets, mistaking the advance for a parade. They
were soon undeceived by a heavy fire of musketry, and in fifteen minutes their whole advanced line of rifle-pits was carried, and nothing
remained in the possession of the rebels west of the rifle-pits, but the
line at the foot of the ridge. Entrenchments were at once thrown up
by Grant, protecting the ground thus gained, and Thomas's whole
army was moved forward about a mile. Only one hundred men had
been killed or wounded, but over two hundred rebels were captured.
This success infused great animation into the Army of the Cumberland.
Meanwhile, Sherman was laboring up on the north bank of the Tennessee, where pontoon boats were hidden in the creeks that empty
from that side of the river; and during the night of the 23d these
were floated to the rebel picket-station, at the mouth of the Chickamauga. Troops were landed, the enemy's pickets seized, entrenchments thrown up, and by daylight eight thousand Union soldiers were
ashore. Immediately the building of the bridge began. At twenty
minutes past twelve o'clock it was complete, and at one o'clock Sherman began his march at the head of twenty thousand men for the
northern end of Missionary Ridge. He began the fight by three anda-half, pushed his troops up the hill, and before night had gained possession of an important hill, which he had supposed was the extremity
of Missionary Ridge; this, however, he discovered to be separated
from the ridge by a deep ravine, which would cost him dear to cross.
He entrenched, however, during the night, preparing for his grand
attack on the \morrow.
Thomas's command this day remained in the position that had been
gained the day before, waiting for the two wings of the grand army
to get into position for the combined effort which Grant intended to
make. Hooker, meanwhile, had moved his troops against Lookout
Mountain with energy and skill; and Bragg, who had become alarmed
at Thomas's dispositions of the day before, withdrew a portion of the
rebel force on the mountain, to reinforce his centre and right. This




74                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
rendered Hooker's task easier, and by four o'clock he had climbed the
mountain, in spite of prodigious natural difficulties, carried important
works at its base and on the side, and established important connecation with the right of Thomas's command. Thomas also connected on
his left with Sherman, so that, on the night of the 24th, Grant's line
was all advanced, and in direct communication. Battles had been
fought by the centre, and each wing; and each had been successful.
Hooker's fight had thus far been the hardest, and late in the afternoon his progress was obscured from those in the valley by heavy
clouds that settled on the mountain side, so that his troops seemed
fighting in mid-air. That night the rebels evacuated the crest of the
mountain, falling back on Bragg; and early in the morning the stars
and stripes waved on the summit of Lookout.
Grant was busy all night, sending directions to his three armies.
He directed Sherman and Hooker to advance at dawn, each attracting
as much force of the enemy as possible to one extremity, and, when
this was accomplished, Thomas was to attack the weakened centre.
Grant himself remained on a mound near Thomas's command, from
which he could watch all the evolutions in the field. He was so near
to Missionary Ridge, that when day dawned, Bragg's headquarters
could be plainly seen.
Sherman began his attack shortly after daylight.  The ground in
his front was extremely difficult, and had been strongly fortified. It
was held in great force, for it was the key-point of the field. If this
height was carried, the rebel army was cut off from its base, and from
all communication with other portions of the rebel Confederacy. Sherman assaulted with great vigor, and gained some ground; after this
he repeatedly advanced, and was more than once repelled, losing, however, none of the ground originally seized. The fight here was fierce
and stubborn, and Bragg repeatedly sent large reinforcements to maintain the position. Hooker, too, descended from Lookout Mountain
to move against Bragg's new left. The enemy, retreating from the
mountain in the night, however, had destroyed all the bridges, so that
Hooker was delayed until nearly two o'clock before he reached the
ridge. Sherman, meanwhile, was bearing the brunt of the battle; and
Grant finally, perceiving a large rebel column moving towards Sherman, determined that the hour had come for Thomas to advance.
Accordingly, he himself gave the order, and two whole corps moved
forward in one grand line against Missionary Ridge. The sight was
magnificent beyond description. Sherman fighting on the north end,




iIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  75
not five miles away, Hooker in the plain to the south, and here, at
Grant's feet, four divisions of men on the run, their bayonets glancing
in the afternoon sun. The rebels at the foot of the hill were unable
to resist the effect of this waving, glittering mass of steel; they flung
themselves in the trenches, and the national troops passed over, sending their prisoners hurriedly to the rear, across the open plain. The
order had been for the men to halt when the first line of pits was carried, and to reform before they attempted to mount the hill; but now
their blood was up, and it was impossible to restrain them. A tremendous fire of artillery poured down upon them from the ridge,
nearly five hundred feet high, and half way up was another line of
trench, from which more deadly musketry now struck down many a
gallant soldier. But the line stopped not for this; the flags went on
in advance, first one ahead and then another, and at last all along the
ridge Grant's colors were planted on the second rebel line. Still
there was another line of works on the crest, and now the ascent
became almost perpendicular. The storm of musketry and artillery
became more furious, but the men lay on their faces to avoid it, working their way thus up the front of the mountain. Steadily, rapidly,
on they pushed; reached the parapet, poured over in a perfect tide, and
carried the crest in six different places simultaneously. So instantaneous was their success, and so little anticipated, that the rebel gunners were bayoneted at their pieces, and the rebel cannon turned upon
the fugitives, enfilading the line right and left, and rendering it perfectly untenable.
The enemy was seized at once with a panic which all the exertions
of Bragg and his officers could not restrain; here and there, a slight
resistance was offered, but the great mass of the rebel army went
tumbling in confusion down the eastern side of the ridge; the national
soldiers, not even stopping to reload their pieces, but driving the
enemy with stones. At this moment, Hooker appeared on the rebel
left, and completed the rout; Bragg was obliged not only to give up
the ground in front of Thomas and Hooker, but to withdraw his right,
which still offered resistance to Sherman. Grant had ridden up at
once on the ridge to direct the pursuit, and forty pieces of artillery
were captured in the open field.  Sheridan, then a division commander
in Thomas's army, pursued for seven miles. Six thousand prisoners
were taken before morning. Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge,
and all the rifle-pits in Chattanooga valley were Grant's. The great
rebel army, that had threatened him so long, was routed and in dis



76                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
graceful flight, and early on the 26th, Sherman took possession of
Chickamauga Station.
That day and the next the pursuit was continued, Hooker in the
advance. Everywhere the road was strewn with the wrecks of the
dissolving army. On the 27th, Hooker came up with Bragg's rearguard, at a gap in the mountains, and here the enemy made his last
stand. A fight of several hours occurred, but the rebels finally withdrew, leaving the place in the hands of Grant, who now directed the
pursuit to be discontinued. It was necessary to send reinforcements
at once to Burnside.
Grant lost in this series of battles seven hundred and fifty-seven
killed, four thousand five hundred and twenty-nine wounded, and three
hundred and thirty missing; the rebels, three hundred and sixty-one
killed, two thousand one hundred and eighty wounded, and over six
thousand prisoners, besides forty cannon. Their loss in killed and
wounded was smaller, because they fought with every imaginable
advantage of cover and position. They had forty-five thousand men
engaged, and Grant had about sixty thousand; but the extraordinary
position they occupied was worth to them, according to all the rules
of the military art, five times an equal number of assailants. Bragg
said, in his official report of the fight, that the strength of the position
was such; that a line of skirmishers ought to have maintained it against
any assaulting column.
No battle was ever fought more exactly according to the plan laid
down in advance. Hooker drew attention to the right, Sherman forced
the enemy to mass in his front, just as had been designed, and Thomas
was made to attack the weakened centre at the critical moment, and
more than the results hoped for were achieved. Armies were moved
to fight this battle, from tihe Mississippi and the Potomac, and came up
in time; mountains were climbed, rivers bridged and crossed under
fire, ridges scaled, though held by hostile armies, and the enemy himself took his part in the plan exactly as had been foreseen, as if he
too had been under the orders of Grant. No prouder triumph of
military skill can be achieved than this. Three separate forces contended on the Union side; Grant's old troops from Vicksburg did the
hardest fighting under Sherman, worthy of their old renown; and,
holding the great mass of the enemy at the key-point of the battle,
made all the successes possible; Thomas's army, now directly under
the eye of Grant, rivalled the proudest achievements that his famous
veterans had ever performed; while, for the first time, soldiers from




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  77
the army of the Potomac were marshalled under the orders of him
with whose name that army's.fame was destined to be forever and so
gloriously associated.
Chattanooga secured, Chickamauga avenged, the road to Atlanta and
to the sea laid bare, Tennessee protected, Georgia and Alabama threatened-these were the results of the battle fought on the 24th, 25th,
and 26th of November, 1863. The battle of Chattanooga, however,
did not really end until the fight at Ringgold, on the 27th of November.
The same day, Grant, who had gone on with the pursuing column,
sent word to Thomas, "Direct Granger to start at once, marching as
rapidly as possible to the relief of Burnside;" for Grant's victory
would have been dearly purchased, splendid as it was, if Burnside
had been lost. Burnside was, by this time, shut up in Knoxville,
where Longstreet was besieging him with a superior force. His supplies were short, and the loyal people of the country floated stores
down the river into the town by night. Grant, as has been seen, had
repeatedly sent him word to hold out, promising support the instant that
his own still more immediate necessities would allow. The commander
did not fail to keep his word. The day after the battle of Ringgold,
he returned to Chattanooga, where he discovered that Granger had not
yet started. He therefore ordered Sherman to move as rapidly as
possible towards Knoxville, and assume command of all the forces
marching towards Burnside. The distance to Knoxville is nearly a
hundred miles; the roads were bad, the supplies scanty, bridges seven
hundred feet in length had been destroyed and must be rebuilt; yet,
on the 5th of December, Sherman was able to dispatch to Burnside,
"I can bring twenty-five thousand men into Knoxville to-morrow."
In the meantime, Burnside had repelled a furious attack of the rebel
army, and Longstreet, hearing of Bragg's disaster at Chattanooga,
and of Sherman's advance, had already abandoned the siege and
retreated in the direction of Virginia. Burnside, therefore, announced
that he needed only one corps of Sherman's force; and, satisfied that
his own approach had served to raise the siege of Knoxville, Sherman
returned to Grant.
Thus, then, after campaigns, and battles, and marches, and sieges,
was Chattanooga secured forever to the nation; Knoxville, too, was
relieved, not agaia to be endangered by rebels; and the inhabitants
of East Tennessee, who had suffered so greatly for their devotion to
the Union, were emancipated from the fear as well as the reality of
rebel rule. The great army of Bragg, so long defiant and terrible,
was separated never to be reunited, and the gateway to Georgia passed




78                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
into the possession of the soldiers of the Government, who, in their
turn, could assume the offensive, and threaten the interior of the
States so faithful to treason. The President issued a proclamation,
appointing a day of thanksgiving to God for these great benefits.
Congress voted thanks to Grant and to all under his command, and
a gold medal was presented to Grant in the name of the people of
the United States of America. The nation knew no bounds in its
gratitude to its saviour.
At this time overtures were made to Grant by prominent politicians
of both parties, who solicited him to become their candidate for the
Presidency. He, however, felt that his duty was to remain in the
field until the rebellion should be crushed, and turned a deaf ear to
the entreaties of all who approached him on this errand.
But, if he could not or would not assume the entire control of the
Government, the country was determined that to him alone should be
committed the entire charge of its military affairs. Nowhere, except
where he had commanded, had any great success attended our arms; the
gallantry of the soldiers was as conspicuous in other fields, the devotion
of the country was as earnest elsewhere, the supplies as persistent,
but everywhere else defeat or successful resistance had repelled our
advance. Grant alone had chained victory to his standards. He
alone had never been defeated. He had opened the Mississippi, the
Tennessee, and the Kentucky rivers, had captured Donelson and
Vicksburg, had secured Georgia, and annihilated three separate rebel
armies; the nation imperatively demanded that he should be placed
at the head of its soldiers.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL.
Within ten days after his victory of Chattanooga, a bill was introduced into Congress, creating a new grade in the American army, to
be conferred upon Grant. The grade was that of lieutenant general;
it had been borne by no American but Washington; and with it was
to be conferred on the successor of Washington the command of all
the armies; a command more than tenfold larger than any which the
Father of his Country ever enjoyed. This bill was passed by immense
majorities in both houses; and on the 1st of March, the President
appointed Grant to the most important position ever filled by an
American. The Presidency itself dwindled into insignificance before
this office —this absolute command of half a million of soldiers, at the
crisis of the nation's history. The day after the nomination was made,




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   79
the Senate co.nfirmed it, and Grant was notified on the 3d of March to
report in person to the Secretary of War, at Washington.  On the
4th, he started for the capital.
He had used no influence to bring about this result. One of his
biographers says: "I was with him while the bill was being debated, and spoke to him more than once on the subject. He never
manifested any anxiety or even desire for the success of the bill; nor
did he ever seem to shrink from the responsibilities it would impose
upon him. If the country chose to call him to higher spheres and
more important services, whatever ability or energy he possessed, he
was willing to devote to the task. If, on the contrary, he had been
left at the post which he then held, he would not have felt a pang
of disappointed pride." Every promotion he ever received was made
without his knowledge; and even after this bill was introduced, he
wrote to the introducer, saying that he had already been highly horiored by the Government, and did not ask or deserve anything more
in the shape of honors or promotion; that success over the enemy
was what he desired above everything else. The country, however,
did not put so low an estimate on his ability; it felt the need of his.
services in a still wider sphere, and in a more enlarged capacity than
any in which they had hitherto been displayed. The country was
grateful; but it was for its own sake, not his, that it now called
Grant tothe command of all its armies, just as it will in next November call him to the highest civil station, not in order to reward
him, but to bring "peace, and prosperity its sequence," to our distracted land.
Before starting for Washington, Grant wrote to his true and
trusted friend and coadjutor, Sherman, announcing his promotion,
and with characteristic generosity and modesty attributing to Sherman, McPherson, and "many officers" who had served under him,
much of the success which he had attained.  "What I want is," he
said, " to express my thanks to you and McPherson." "I feel all the
gratitude this letter could express, giving it the most flattering construction. The word you I use in the plural, intending it for McPherson also." Sherman wrote in reply, "You do yourself injustice, and
us too much honor, in assigning to us too large a share of the merits
which have led to your high advancement." "You are now the
legitimate successor of Washington, and occupy a position of almost
dangerous elevation; but if you can continue, as heretofore, to be
yourself-simple, honest, and unpretending-you will enjoy through




80                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
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 order." The prediction has been wonderfully verified. Even earlier than this, Sherman
had said, " You occupy a position of more power than Halleck or the
President. There are similar instances in European history, but none
in ours. Your reputation as a general is now far above that of any
man living. Let others manceuvre as they will, you will beat them, not
only in fame, but in doing good in the closing scenes of this war, when
somebody must heal and mend up the breaches made by war." This
almost seems prophetic, when we remember the marvellous influence
Grant possessed at the close of the war, and the wonderful use he
made of it, to secure magnanimous treatment of those whom his arms
had vanquished.
He reached Washington after a tour of four days, along the whole
route receiving one continued and enthusiastic ovation from his grateful countrymen. On his arrival at the capital, he went at once to pay
his respects to the President. He was discovered, however, at the
hotel, where he had registered his name as U. S. Grant, Chattanooga.
The people rose in cheers at the dining table; and, when he presented
himself. at a public levee, to the President, the throng and the enthusiasm were immense; the President was left almost unattended, while
every one crowded around the victorious hero. On the 9th of March,
Mr. Lincoln, in the presence of his Cabinet, presented to the successor
of, Washington his commission of lieutenant general, assuring him of
the nation's appreciation of what he had done, and its reliance upon
him for what remained to be done in the great struggle. "With this
high honor," he said, "devolves upon you also a corresponding responsibility; as the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will
sustain you."  A promise that the country faithfully fulfilled, and
to which it is not likely now to prove recreant. Grant replied in
simple language, befitting the dignity of the occasion, so far beyond
any eloquence but that of truth and earnestness. "I accept the commission, with gratitude for the high honor conferred. With the aid
of the noble armies that have fought in so many fields for our common
country, it will be my earnest endeavor not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the reponsibilities now devolving
on me; and I know that if they are met, it will be due to those armies,
and, above all, to the favor of that Providence which leads both nations
and men" —a Providence which did not desert him then, and will not




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  81
now. The aid, too, of those noble armies which he invoked, was not
lacking during the war, nor will it fail him in the contest in which he
is now engaged, and upon which he characteristically says he would
not have entered, had he not supposed himself again to represent those
whom he led in the great struggle for national existence. Providence
and the mass of loyal men being again on the side of Grant, he will
again trample down those same hosts in the political battle-field whom
he conquered so signally in war. For it is the same men, whether at
the South or at the North, who opposed him with arms or with slander,
while the rebellion lasted, who now wish his downfall. It is the same
men whom he will again force to unconditionally surrender.
PLAN OF CAMPAIGNS FOR 1864.
On the 17th of March, 1864, Grant assumed command of all the
armies of the United States, announcing that his headquarters would
be in the field, and, for the present, with the Army of the Potomac.
Hitherto, during the war, the commander-in-chief of the army had
remained at Washington; but Grant preferred to be present in person,
where he could direct the operations of the force whose movements
should seem most important. That force at present was the Army of
the Potomac. At the West, the Mississippi river was free again, and
the victory at Chattanooga had laid open still another path to the sea.
This path Grant himself had meant to follow, and early in January
had so announced to the Government, as well as to his own most
important subordinates. HIis plan had been to fight his way to
Atlanta, and thence to move either to Mobile or Savannah, as events
should dictate. But he now determined to turn over this operation to
Sherman, and, while he still directed that officer and all others in the
army-to command in person the force whose duty was the preservation and protection of the national capital, as well as the destruction
of the army that covered and defended Richmond. This rebel host
had long threatened Washington; it had twice invaded the loyal
States, and thus far had repelled with slaughter every attack made on
it by national commanders. Until it should be annihilated, the life of
the nation was not safe, no matter what victories were gained elsewhere. Its destruction had proven the most difficult task of all those
intrusted to UTnion generals, and this, therefore, the new commanderin-chief assigned to himself. "Like yourself," said Sherman, "you
take the biggest load."
6




82                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT
But although present with the Army of the Potomac, Grant meant
also to direct the movements of all the others.  Up to this time, to
use his own expressive simile, the armies, East and West, had acted
like a "balky team, no two ever pulling together."  The new man at
the reins meant to control the team, and drive its members all in one
direction. For this he needed a clear eye, a strong and skillful hand,
a certainty of the goal which he meant to reach, and a fearless determination to attain that goal in spite of all or any obstacles.  The rebels,
so far, had acted in unison, and many a time moved troops from a lessthreatened quarter to another more vigorously pressed; having the
inside lines, they could do this more expeditiously, and thus often
made their smaller resources in reality as available as the larger but
more widely-separated armies of the nation.  Grant determined to
put an end to all this; no longer to allow any rest to the rebels, but
to attack them everywhere, simultaneously and continuously, without
regard to seasons or weather; no longer to allow the strength of the
loyal troops to be neutralized by the defensive position and the superior skill of the enemy.
Accordingly, he issued orders for Sherman to move against ~Atlanta
and Johnston, on the very day that the Army of the Potomac, under
Meade, should commence operations against Lee; and, at the same
time, General Butler was to attack Richmond, Sigel was to move two
smaller forces into Virginia; and Banks, with all the force he could
muster, was to attack Mobile, thus threatening the rear of the rebels
in front of Sherman, and opening a way for that commander when he
should march south to the sea. This was the original plan with which
Grant set out to conquer the rebellion, after he assumed command of
of the armies of the United States. This plan was entirely his own;
no one suggested it; no one knew of it until it was conceived by him.
Even then, not a dozen men knew it, until it had absolutely been begun. Mr. Lincoln wrote to Grant, just before the armies moved, in
the following.words:
"EXECUTIVE MANSION, WASHINGTON,
"April 30, 1864.
"Lieutenant General GRANT:
"Not expecting to see you before the spring campaign opens, I wish
to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have done
up to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of your
plans I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and self




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   83
reliant, and pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any restraints or
constraints upon you. While I am very anxious that any great disaster or capture of our men in great numbers shall be avoided, I know
that these points are less likely to escape your attention'than they
would be mine. If there be anything wanting which is within my
power to give, do not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave
army and a just cause, may God sustain you.
"Yours, very truly,
" A. LINCOLN."
But Grant's plan met with an obstruction before it was fairly begun;
an obstruction that necessitated a change, or an omission rather, at
the start.  General Banks, whom Grant had ordered to attack Mobile
with fifty thousand men, had been sent, before Grant became lieutenant general, on an expedition west of the Mississippi, and up the
Red river. As soon as Grant assumed command, he sent orders for
Banks to return, abandoning this preposterous and outside enterprise,
which could do nothing towards securing the main military objects of
of the war, and was using up troops that might be so much better employed elsewhere. But before Grant's orders reached Banks, the latter had got so far into the interior of Louisiana, that it was impossible
for him to return without fighting the enemy, stirred up now by the
national advance; and the battle which ensued resulted disastrously
for Banks. His army was so broken up, that it could not be counted
on for effective operations in the grand combination of movements
which Grant had planned.'The news of this misfortune did not reach
the commander-in-chief till a short time before he was ready to move
his other armies; it was a great disappointment; but there was no
time for other arrangements, and he determined to proceed with the
rest of his plan exactly as had been proposed.
He established his headquarters at Culpeper, Virginia, in the last
days of March, 1864; and from this point sent orders to all his various commanders; to Sherman, and Sigel, and Butler, and Banks,
while Meade was only a few miles distant, and visited him daily. The
first duty of all was concentration. No troops were to be wasted
holding unimportant positions; none to be scattered over the North,
except when it was indispensable. Furloughs were revoked, officers
and men ordered to their posts; armies organized, supplied forwarded,
and when the spring rains ceased, the various forces were ready to
move.




84                 LIFE OF: GENERAL GI1ANT.
The situation at that time was as follows,: the Army of the Potomac, ninety-seven thousand strong, lay on the north bank of the
Rapidan, covering Washington and opposing Lee's army, which was
seventy-three thousand in number, and immediately south of the
Rapidan, covering and defending Richmond. Butler had a force of
nearly thirty thousand men at the mouth of the James, which he was
ordered to transport suddenly up that river, landing on the south side,
at City Point and Bermuda Hundred, and thence to move against
Richmond, at the same time that the Army of the Potomac attacked
Lee. A force nearly equal to his own opposed Butler, under Beauregard. Grant hoped either to force Lee to fall back, in order to save
Richmond, or, if the main rebel army remained to fight, near the
Rapidan, that Butler might slip in and capture the enemy's capital.
Along the northern line of Virginia, it was necessary to maintain a
Union force, in order to protect the North against invasion. These
were the troops under Sigel, ten or twelve thousand strong, but
instead of keeping them on the defensive, Grant determined to move
them to the interior of Virginia, so as to threaten the enemy in rear,
and compel him either to subtract from his main force, under Lee,
in order to guard the exposed region, or to run the risk of losing
that region altogether. Other commanders had been content with
simply holding the line of northern Virginia, but Grant converted
the troops employed for this purpose into an offensive force; not
with a view of making any one prodigious and positive effort with
them, but to threaten and confuse and worry and weaken the enemy.
About ten thousand rebels, under Breckinridge, were in Sigel's
front. Sherman, meanwhile, was at Chattanooga, with all the force
that could be accumulated there, ready to move against the main
rebel army of the West, now under Jos. E. Johnston. Sherman's
objective point was Johnston's army; this Grant directed him to follow wherever it went, to fight it whenever he could, and to advance as
far as possible into the heart of Georgia, in the direction of Atlanta,
the great railroad centre of the entire southwest. When Atlanta fell,
he was to push through to the sea, cutting the so-called Confederacy
in two once more, as Grant had done when he opened the Mississippi
river.
Grant's own objective was to be Lee's army. He was firm in the
conviction that no peace could be had, that would be stable and conducive to the happiness of the people, both North and South, until
the military power of the rebellion was entirely broken; and it was




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.'85
the military forces, rather than the fortified towns, which he made
the objects of all his campaigns. Meade was instructed that wherever
Lee went, he would go too. Gint meant to use the greatest number
of troops practicable against the armed force of the enemy; this view
he kept constantly in mind, and in this view all his orders were given,
and all his campaigns made. When he began his operations, the
rebels still held a territory over eight hundred thousand square miles
in extent, and maintained a population of nine millions in revolt. All
west and south of the Arkansas river was in their possession, and east
of the Mississippi nearly all the region south of the Tennessee. All
of Virginia south of the Rapidan, except the mouth of the James,
and thence south, all the territory of the Union, except a narrow
strip along the Atlantic coast, was also in the hands of the enemy.
To rescue this vast region, and to overcome this population and its
armies, was the herculean task undertaken by Ulysses S. Grant. No
greater was ever achieved by the most renowned soldiers in history.
The enemy was of the same race as his own troops; brave, experienced, numerous, desperate; acquainted with the country, of which
the national forces were ignorant, skillfully led, and possessing all
the immense advantages of a defensive position. But Grant did not
flinch at the prospect.
On the 4th of May, his armies were ready to move, That day
Meade crossed the Rapidan with the Army of the Potomac, moving
to the right and east of Lee, and placing himself so as to face west
and south; the same day Sherman moved out from Chattanooga against
Johnston, and Butler started for City Point, while the two forces into
which Sigel's command was divided, were also simultaneously put in
motion. A more striking instance of concert in movement was never
known in war. Here were five different armies, numbering more than
two hundred thousand men, and separated by thousands of miles, all
directed by one man, and moving on the same day. That night, after
Grant had crossed the Rapidan, he received dispatches by telegraph
from Sherman and Butler and Sigel, announcing the operations of
the day.
WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN.
Lee made no attempt to interrupt Grant's crossing, but early on the
morning of the 5th of May, he came out of his entrenchments at Mine
Run, a creek running north into the Rapidan, and attacked the Army
of the Potomac while it was getting into position. Grant put his




86                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
troops in line as quickly as possible, and the battle of the Wilderness
began. It raged all day with unequal success, and at night neither
party could claim a victory. The forest was dense and the roads narrow, and it was difficult to manoeuvre troops; indeed, no artillery at
all could be used. On the 6th, the battle was renewed with unabated
fury, and one of the most remarkable conflicts of the war ensued.
There was no cessation until night, and even after dark an attempt
was made to turn Grant's right, but failed. No decided success had
been achieved by either party, and on the 7th neither seemed inclined
to renew the fight. Lee's effort to force Grant back across the Rapidan, as Hooker and Burnside and Meade had successively been forced
before, had failed; but Grant had not been able to drive Lee from the
position first assumed; and there the great armies lay, like two wild
beasts exhausted after the terrible struggle, glaring at each other,
neither mortally wounded, each ready to spring to the defence if the
other should assail.
As it was apparent that Lee did not mean to assume the offensive
again, Grant at once issued orders for a movement to the left towards
Spottsylvania Court House, which would probably force Lee in the
same direction, for otherwise Grant could place his whole army between
the rebels and Richmond. Few other generals would have dreamed of
taking this responsibility, of advancing after so terrible a battle in
which no decisive advantage had been gained; and leaving Lee, if he
chose, to move upon Grant's rear, or even in the direction of Washington. But to return, or even to be stayed in his course, did not occur
to Grant. He would have asked nothing better than that Lee should
move North, presenting his own flank to Grant in the act; but he was
confident that too much injury had been sustained by his rebel antagonist to leave him able or willing to undertake this. With all the
grimness and determination with which he had maintained his own at
Shiloh; in the same spirit in which he had persevered at Vicksburg;
with a daring equal to that displayed at Donelson, when in the blackest
moment he ordered another charge, Grant now turned the head of his
column towards Richmond, while Lee still lay formidable in his front.
He thus not only made one of the most hazardous of military operations, a flank movement in the presence of the enemy; but, what was
of far more moment, he displayed to his own army and to Lee's the
peculiar character of his nature, which difficulties never deter nor
dangers appall; his conduct impressed the rebels so that they did not
attempt to interrupt his movement despite the opportunity, and it




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   87
inspired his own soldiers with the temper of their commander. When
he rode along their ranks at night, with his horse's head towards Richmond, all stiff with fatigue and sore with wounds as they were, they
rose from their beds on the battle-field, amid the corpses of their
slaughtered comrades, and shouted for the chief who proved to them
that the slaughter and the toil were not to be in vain. It was a pledge
to the army that they should not turn their faces away from Richmond
until it was taken; the army accepted the pledge, and their huzzas
were the endorsement they gave to their new commander. They
cheered, indeed, so loud, that the enemy thought there was another
assault, and came out to meet it. And thus Grant passed on after
the great battle of the Wilderness, tacitly promising his soldiers that
reward, which they were a year, it is true, in gaining, but which finally
came, more complete and glorious than the most sanguine had ever
dared to anticipate. This midnight ride was the fitting precursor of
Appomattox Court House. Four days after, Grant sent his famous
dispatch: "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."
It did take all summer, and all winter too, but Grant remained on the
same line, and, when that was fought out, the rebellion was ended.
The enemy, however, at once discovered the movement, and, falling
rapidly back, as Grant had supposed, reached SpottsylvaniAa before
him, which was not what he desired. But the line from Lee's army to
Spottsylvania was shorter than Grant's route by some miles. The
marching was done in the night of the 7th, and on the 8th an attack
was made by Grant at Spottsylvania. It did not succeed. On the
9th, 10th, and 11th, the Union army was constantly engaged in
manceuvring and fighting, but without result. On the 12th, a vigorous
attack was made on the rebel line, now defended by field works of
unusual strength, and at one place the 2d corps, under Hancock,
succeeded in carrying an important salient, capturing an entire division of rebel infantry and twenty pieces of artillery; the subsequent
resistance, however, was so obstinate, that even this success did not
prove decisive. The loss of life on both sides had now been large,
and Grant sent back to Washington for reinforcements, while Lee did
the same to Richmond. A week was spent in manceuvring and waiting for these fresh troops. The rebels, however, made no assault in
all this time, on Grant, contenting themselves with the defensive. On
the 19th of May, however, a rebel corps came out of its works on the
extreme right of Grant, and attacked him with great fury, but was
repulsed with immense loss. This was the last attack in force ever




88                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
made by Lee on Grant, though the war lasted ten months longer. The
battles of the Wilderness and of Spottsylvania so crippled the rebel
strength and affected the rebel spirits, that their commander never
again dared trust his troops outside of their works in any great assault.
Grant now determined to renew the tactics to which he hai resorted
after the Wilderness; and, on the night of the 21st, he began another
movement by the left flank, towards the North Anna river, with a view
again of placing himself between Lee and Richmond. Of course, he
exposed himself to the same risk of Lee getting between him and
Washington, but he always took risks; and Lee never ventured to
avail himself of the chance. As fast as Grant threatened to cut off
the rebel communications, the enemy fell back to protect them, and
thus, when Grant reached the North Anna, Lee was there before him,
having necessarily, from his position in all these movements, the
shorter line. The North Anna, however, was crossed by a portion of
Grant's army, despite severe opposition.
Meanwhile, Butler had moved promptly, on the 4th of May, siezed
City Point, at the mouth of the Appomattox river, as well as Bermuda
Hundred, on the opposite bank of that stream. His movements for
some days afterwards, however, were not productive of any result of
importance. On the 13th and 14th, he moved up to the rear of
Drury's Bluff, a fort on the south side of the James, and about seven
miles below Richmond. But the rebels had meantime collected all
their scattered forces in North and South Carolina; and, on the 16th,
they attacked Butler, and forced him back to his entrenchments
between the forks of the James and Appomattox, where he was completely safe indeed, but entirely useless for offensive operations. Lee,
in consequence, was able to reinforce his army in front of Grant with
at least a division brought from before Richmond. Sigel's operations
had also been unfortunate; he had advanced up the Valley of Virginia, as far as New Market, where he suffered a severe defeat, and
retreated behind Cedar creek. In consequence of this result, Lee
was able to bring several thousand reinforcements from the Valley of
Virginia to oppose the Army of the Potomac.
Grant, however, learning that rebel troops had been moved from
Butler's front to reinforce Lee, immediately ordered Butler to send
all his available force to the Army of the Potomac, retaining only
enough on the south side of the James to secure what had already
been gained.
-Before these reinforcements reached Grant, he had made a third




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  89
movement to the left, finding that the position of the rebels on the
North Anna was stronger than either of those they had previously
held. On the night of the 26th, the Union forces withdrew to the
north bank of the North Anna, then marched south and east, and
crossed the Pamunkey river at Hanovertown. The enemy, however,
made a corresponding movement, and, when Grant arrived at Cold
Harbor, and the Chickahominy, Lee was again in his front.
The additions to the forces on each side had brought the armies of
both Lee and Grant up to nearly the numbers with which they started
from the Rapidan, when both approached Cold Harbor, about ten
miles from Richmond. Several indecisive conflicts occurred here,
and, on the 3d of June, Grant ordered a general assault upon the
enemy's works, but met with the same result as at Spottsylvania; the
enemy, behind his bulwarks, was doubled in strength, according to all
the estimates of the military art, and the national troops were unsuccessful in the attempt to penetrate the works. This was the only
encounter of the campaign in which Grant did not inflict upon the
enemy a damage which compensated for his own. All the other battles
had resulted in what he had been striving to accomplish —in such a
terrible weakening of the enemy, that his own losses were endurable
for the sake of inflicting on the rebels what they were so much less
able'to sustain. Every battle fought thus far had tended plainly to
the complete overthrow of the rebellion. And this was what Grant
set out to accomplish. It was what none of his predecessors had succeeded in doing, in three years of effort, and loss, and failure. It
had been sadly proven in those three years that only through great
loss and effort could that result be attained; and, when he started
from the R4pidan, Grant made up his mind that only the annihilation
of Lee's army, and the exhaustion of all the rebel forces, would allow
the suppression of the rebellion. All these battles-of the Wilderness,
of Spottsylvania, and Cold Harbor-were fought and persisted in with
the intention of gradually weakening and finally destroying Lee,
They effected their purpose, at the price of precious lives, it is true,
but at that price the Union was saved, and could alone be saved; all
other means had failed; no skill had proved sufficient, no courage had
availed, until Grant came, and dealt those tremendous blows, which
were the real death blows from which the rebellion never recovered.
They did what he set out to do.
They not only depleted Lee so terribly that he never again assaulted
Grant, but they drove the rebel commander step by step from the Rap



90                 LIFE OF'GENERAL GRANT.
idan to the James, from which he never afterwards advanced except in
the direction of Appomattox Court House. Grant at Cold Harbor
was master of the region between Richmond and Washington; his
communication with the latter' city was open, while the rebels were
shut up within the doomed town, which so many of our leaders had
striven to reach in vain.
When Grant started from the Rapidan, it had been his intention to
cross the James and attack Richmond on the south side, unless he
should sooner overthrow Lee on the way. The situation of Richmond
is peculiar; it is supplied from the south by three railroads, that run,
one, the Weldon road, directly into North Carolina, and so on through
the Atlantic States; another, reaching west to Chattanooga, and connecting with the entire southwestern region of the attempted Confederacy; the third, running southwest into the interior, as far as Danville.
Grant saw, by a glance at the map, that when these railroads were in
his power, Richmond must fall. Before the campaign began, he declared
to those in his confidence, his intention to seize these.roads, as soon
as Lee should be driven into Richmond. This was now accomplished.
Lee was within ten miles of the city which he defended and Grant
besieged. Lee's army and Richmond were now become one objective
point, and Grant at once set about carrying out the secondary plan
he had formed six weeks before.
He marched his army across the James, making a fourth movement
to the left, in the very sight of the enemy, who was too weak and had
suffered too greatly to come out and obstruct the operation. Grant's
pickets were within hailing distance of Lee's; his army front was not
five hundred yards from the rebel works at Cold Harbor; but he
withdrew his forces from this close propinquity, made a fourth flank
movement in the very presence of his enemy, built bridges across the
James two thousand two hundred feet in length, and crossed his whole
army, with an immense wagon train, without the loss of a man, Lee
not daring to come out of his works once, not offering the slightest
opposition to an operation of such combined delicacy and magnitude.
No better proof of the damage the rebel commander had sustained could
be offered or required.
During this campaign, Grant had fought the battles of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna, and Cold Harbor, besides a dozen
smaller skirmishes, some of which rose to the proportions of an ordinary battle; and after each fight, he had advanced and Lee had withdrawn. While covering and protecting Washington, the Union com



LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   i91
mander had steadily proceeded from the Rapidan to the James. He
had lost, from the 5th of May to the 12th of June, six thousand killed,
twenty-six thousand wounded, and nearly seven thousand missing;
total, less than forty thousand men, of whom half eventually returned
to duty. The losses of the rebels can never be definitely known, as
so many of their records have been destroyed; but Grant captured
in this period over ten thousand of the enemy, while his own loss in
missing, as has already been stated, was less than seven thousand;
doubtless, most of these were prisoners; so that Grant took about
four thousand more prisoners than Lee. It is fair to suppose, then,
that Lee's other losses (in killed and wounded) at least equalled those
of Grant.
In comparing the losses in this campaign with those of Grant's
predecessors, it should not be forgotten, that Grant was victorious,
and the other repelled; yet Grant's entire loss was forty thousand.
In the great European battles, the losses were very much greater.
At Jena, twenty thousand Prussians and fourteen thousand French
were put hors du combat on one day; at Eylau, the losses were twentyfive thousand on one side, and thirty thousand on the other; at
Wagram, twenty-five thousand on a side; at Borodina, fifty thousand
on a side; at Leipsic, sixty thousand on one side, and forty-three thousand on the other; and at Waterloo, the French lost forty thousand,
and the allies forty-nine thousand; so that frequently, in a single
battle, as many men were killed or wounded as Grant lost in the
whole Wilderness campaign.
CO-OPERATIVE CAMPAIGNS OF GRANT.
Grant's army was now thrown rapidly-on the southern side, he still
fighting it out on the original line; for, as has been seen, all this was
in consummation of the plan he had announced to his subordinates
before he left the Rapidan. He was still following Lee and aiming
at Richmond. The James river was crossed on the 13t-h of June, 1864.
Meanwhile, Hunter, who had superseded Sigel, was sent into.the
region to the northwest of Richmond, with the idea of living off the
country there, so as to destroy its supplies, and, if possible, cut the
rebel communication with the West. By this expedition, and another
simultaneously'dispatched under Sheridan towards Staunton, Virginia,
Grant meant to act upon the principle with which he set out, of weakening the enemy in every quarter at once. While he himself should




92~~   ~       LIFE OF  UR4R     SA'ANW.
be making the main attack at the heart of the rebellion, his suho.rdinates, in every part of the theatre of war, were to exhaust, and
annoy, and tire out the rebels, to prevent them from concentrating,
or recruiting, or reinforcing, or resting, so that when the final blow
should be given at the vital part, that should indeed be the end.
In this way all the campaigns were made cooiperative'; all were subordinate to his own, the most difficult of all.  Sherman and Hunter
and Butler had all been assisting him to carry out that unity in the
movements which he had conceived, for all the while he was fighting
ILee he was directing all his subordinates.  Every day he got dispatches from Sherman and sent him orders in reply. That great soldier was accustomed to report his situation daily to his chief, 4nd ask,
"'Shall I fight to-day or to-morrow? do you want me to -move to the
right or to the left?" He knew the absolute necessity of his doing
everything so as to contribute to carry out Grant's scheme; he felt
that he was not fighting an independent campaign; that he was but part
of a great whole, which Grant was managing and controlling; and
with grand and patriotic subordination, he was content with his part,
and never interfered with Grant's views, or sought to set up for him,.
self what might perhaps have been better for his own army, but worse,
in the end, for the great result at which the chief was aiming.
This should be constantly kept in mind, in studying these campaigns.
The movements in Virginia were strictly coodperative. They, too,
were only a part; their aim and object are ob.scured, their greatness
is not sufficiently apparent, if it is forgotten that Grant was at the
same time directing operations all over the continent; that he thought
it worth while to incur great risk here, because he thus withheld the
rebels from reinforcing their armies a thousand miles away. For
Sherman was by this means. able to slowly penetrate into Georgia.
By the time Grant had crossed the James, Sherman had driven Johnston back in battle and on the march as far as Kenesaw mountain, a
distance of fifty miles, and tHunter had reached and invested Lynchburg. So all the strings pulled by the master-hand were at work;
theomplicated movements of the vast machine all went slowly but
surely on. Some delay here and there occurred; great difficulties often
stood in the way; but the work proceeded. At the end of what is
called the Wilderness Campaign, Grant had reached the James river;
the other great armies of the Republic were also penetrating to the
very interior of the rebel region; the practical cancentration that had
been aimed at was being effeeted; the'rebels were losing heart and




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.'s
men and resources, as well as ground, all of which could never be
regained; and though the price that had been paid was great, not
otherwise or cheaper could the result have been obtained.  Through
fire and blood and suffering only are nations saved. Grant had every
reason to be satisfied that his plans had proceeded thus far to their
consummation.  The enemy felt certainly that the toils were being
drawn closer on every side; that their new antagonist was a master;
that unity of action and clearness of design and energy of effort had
succeeded to distraction, and indecision, and spasmodic struggles on
the part of the Union. So far, the nation had great cause for gratitude to God and its armies, and to him who, under God, was the leader
of those armies.
Before Grant began to remove the Army of the Potomac to the
southern side of the James, he dispatched Sheridan, as has been seen,
upon another of those raiding expeditions which formed so important
a part of his plan. It was his constant aim to destroy the communications of the enemy, and this was especially necessary to be done on
the north side of Richmond, at the moment when Grant was planning
to remove his own army to the southern side. He wanted to make it
impossible for Lee either to draw any supplies of consequence from
the region north of the James, or to have such use of the railroads
running towards Washington as would enable him to threaten the
national capital. Sheridan, therefore, had been sent to destroy the
Virginia Central railroad, at the same time that Hunter had been
moved south from Winchester, on the route that Sigel had attempted
at the outset of the campaign. The region where Hunter was to operate is known as the Valley of Virginia, and is one of the most1fertile
spots in the Union. It had furnished supplies of vast importance to
the rebels all through the war, and was the only really important
source yet left open to Lee on the north side of Richmond. Grant
planned for Sheridan and Hunter to advance towards each other, from
opposite directions, doing all the destruction possible to railroads,
canals, and crops, and forming a junction in the heart of the fruitful
region. After the work laid out for them was thoroughly done, they
were to join the Army of the Potomac; either making a circuit in the
rear of Lee, or returning by Sheridan's route, as should seem most
advisable at the time.
It should be constantly borne in mind, that all these raiding movements were ventures, and looked upon as such by Grant.  They were
attempts, at great risk, to accomplish certain objects: the destruction




94                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
of certain stores, or resources, or communications; if that destruction
was consummated, even at the sacrifice of the command which accomplished it, the raid was a success. It was often worth while to pay
the price of the utter capture of a small command for the sake of
securing some definite object; just as, in the capture of a town by
assault, the forlorn hope which attacks is almost certain to be lost;
but it is better and more humane to lose a small command in a single
assault, than to waste away a large one in a protracted siege or a series
of ineffective movements. The difference is, that in these raids, the
command, if lost, was probably only captured, not killed.
These remarks have no peculiar application to the movement of
Hunter or Sheridan; neither force was captured or annihilated; each
accomplished the particular duty for which it was dispatched. Hunter drove the enemy in his front, occupied temporarily nearly all the
Valley of Virginia, fought a battle in which he carried everything, before him, while Sheridan moved up in the same direction, though from
a different starting-point, doing great damage to railroads and crops.
But Hunter thought it advisable to move westward instead of towards
Sheridan, as had been planned and ordered; so the junction was not
formed, and Sheridan, meeting with greater opposition than his force
alone was able to overcome, returned to Grant, while Hi(ntet marched
direct on Lynchburg, a place of the greatest importance in the rear of
Richmond. Lee atonce perceived the necessity of retaining Lynchburg,
and dispatched a large force, under Early, to oppose Hunter.  Grant
had not hoped that Hunter, without Sheridan, would be able to capture
Lynchburg, which, being on the Chattanooga railroad, must of necessity be vigorously defended by Lee; but Hunter had been so successful thus far, that he made the attempt. Lee, however, having, as usual,
a greatly shorter line, threw a force into Lynchburg before Hunter
reached it; and Hunter, getting short of ammunition, was obliged to
retire. He had now no choice of routes, but was obliged to return
north by way of the Kanawha valley; and this occupied him several
weeks, during which the region that it was intended he should cover
was necessarily left exposed
PETERSBURG
Unfortunately, all this happened at the very moment when Grant
was making his movement across the James. Grant, not knowing of
Hunter's change of plan, supposed of course that the latter was pro



LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  95
tecting the Shenandoah valley; and proceeded with his movement to
the south side. W. F. Smith, who was in command of the troops from
Butler's army, was moved out in the night to White House, on the
York river, where he took transports, which conveyed him by the
Chesapeake bay and James river, to City Point and Bermuda Hundred.
Butler, thus reinforced with his own troops, was to seize Petersburg,
a point in the interior lying directly on the road to Richmond. It
was impossible to advance farther up the James river than Bermuda
Hundred, on account of the elaborate defences with which that stream
was guarded. Grant, however, hoped to secure Petersburg by surprise, before the enemy could become aware of his intention or fortify
the place. Smith nroved with great secrecy and celerity, and meanwhile Grant bad directed the laying of a pontoon-bridge over the
James, by which the Army of the Potomac Was to cross. The bridge
was laid some twenty miles from Petersburg, which is on the Appomattox, about ten miles in a direct line from the James. The idea
was for Smith, who went on transports, to advance rapidly and seize
Petersburg, while the Army of the Potomac would cross by the bridge.
and march up at once to his support. Smith reached Petersburg early
on the 15th of June, but did not assault until sundown; he then
attacked with a part of his force, and carried a portion of the rebel
lines with ease, capturing fifteen cannon and three hundred prisoners
by seven o'clock p. m. Meanwhile, the advance of the Army of the
Potomac had been hurried across the James, extraordinary exertions
had been made to supply it with rations, and it was pushed rapidly
forward to the support of Smith. Hancock was in command of this
advance. He reached Petersburg before dark, and, being the senior
officer, was entitled to command. As Smith,, however, had already
gained so great advantages, Hancock waived his rank and offered his
troops to Smith, to be used as that officer should desire. Smith, however, thought he had accomplished enough, and although it was a
bright moonlight night, and there were no indications that the rebels
were reinforced, he did not push the assault. In the night the enemy
discovered Grant's withdrawal from the north side and the attack on
Petersburg, and before morning Lee was in force in front of Hancock
and Smith. Again he had the shorter line.
Grant, meanwhile, had been superintending and expediting the
crossing of the Army of the Potomac, and, early on the 16th, rode up
to Smith's lines, hoping to find him in possession of Petersburg; for
there had been ample time, opportunity, and force. But he found the




96                    LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
enemy fortifying, Smith occupying an outer line, with Lee in strength
behind the rebel works, and it was not till evening that the Army of
the Potomac was up in sufficient force to assault the now increased
strength of the enemy. Attacks were made on the 16th, 17th, and
18th, and important positions gained; but the enemy could not be
dislodged from his interior line. It was the old story over: Lee had
the advantage of the defence, he threw up his breastworks, and it
required twice as many men as Grant had to carry them.
Disappointed (through the inefficiency of Smith) in his hopes of
seizing the town, Grant now determined to envelope Petersburg, not
attacking fortifications again, but extending his line as far as possible
towards two of the railroads, so important to Richmond, and which both
passed through Petersburg.  Lee, of course, perceived this change in
Grant's tactics, and, as Hunter was at this time advancing against
Lynchburg, the rebels were able to send off a corps with safety to
repel Hunter. This accordingly was done.
But Grant was not idle, although he had determined to cease assaulting Petersburg.  His aim was to reach the South-Side road, and he
dispatched two small divisions of cavalry, under Wilson, to strike that
road at a distance of fifteen miles from Petersburg. Wilson reached
the road, and destroyed it for a distance of many miles, doing serious
damage -to the enemy's communications; but, in his return, he was
intercepted by a force sent out by Lee to pursue him. He divided his
command and endeavored to avoid the enemy, but was foiled in the
attempt, and only succeeded in rejoining the Army of the Potomac
with the loss of all his guns and trains. This expedition, however,
illustrates the remark made above in relation to raids. Though the
command suffered more than any similar expedition during the war,
the damage it inflicted on the enemy fully compensated for the loss
sustained.
Meanwhile, Grant had effected a lodgement on the north side of the
James, at a point called Deep Bottom, some miles nearer to Richmond
than City Point; and, on the 26th of July, he moved a large force to
that place, crossing the James by a pontoon-bridge above Bermuda
Hundred. The object of this move was, if possible, to cut again the
enemy's railroads on the north side; or, if it should seem more desirable, to take advantage of the withdrawal of the enemy's troops from
before Petersburg, which this demonstration on the north side would
necessitate, and explode a mine which had been dug under the rebel
lines at Petersburg. The enemy moved in so large force to oppose the




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   97
operation from Deep Bottom, that Grant at once determined to explode
the mine, and assault the works at Petersburg. He moved back a
corps of troops from the north to the south side in the night, and, on
the morning of the 30th of July, the mine was sprung, creating great
consternation in the rebel ranks, and forming a gaping crater in the
midst of their fortifications. Arrangements had been made, and
orders issued, for the troops to rush in at once after the explosion, and
this was promptly done; but those who were to push on in support
were so long in getting to the place of action, that the enemy rallied
from his surprise, and brought up forces to the defence. As the
captured line was thus rendered untenable, and of itself was of no
advantage, Grant withdrew his troops. The assault had been skillfully planned, the strategy which drew Lee to the north side of the
James was a master-piece of military genius, but the inefficiency of
one of the subordinates converted what should have been absolute
success into defeat. There was no good reason why Petersburg should
not have been carried on this day.
EARLY.
Lee was an astute soldier, and as soon as he discovered that Hunter
was retreating westward from Lynchburg, and that, in consequence, the
Shenandoah valley was left open and Washington uncovered, he deter
mined to avail himself of this opportunity. This opportunity was in
nowise created by Grant. All of that officer's plans and orders contemplated the complete protection of Washington. The overland route
from the Rapidan had been selected by him in great part with a view
to affording this protection, and the campaign of Sigel was planned
especially for this purpose, and to close the avenue which the Shenandoah valley would otherwise offer. The movements of the Wilderness
campaign, the constant retreat of Lee, and the advance of Grant after
every battle, effected this object; and, up to the moment when Grant
crossed the James, there had been no occasion for apprehension in
regard to the national capital. Nor was the movement to the south
side, as planned by Grant, at all in contravention of his original purpose. Hunter's movement up the Shenandoah, and Sheridan's cooiperative march towards Charlottesville, where the junction was to be
effected, were ordered with the express view of destroying the communications north of Richmond, and making it impossible for Lee to throw
any large force in the direction of the Potomac. But Hunter moved
7




98                   LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT
on Lexington instead of towards Charlottesville, and Sheridan's force
was too small to be risked there alone; so Sheridan, after doing a
good work of destruction, returned to Grant, while- Hunter, being
repelled from Lynchburg, and compelled to fall back westward instead
of to the north, left the route to Washington by the valley entirely
open to Lee. Hunter, it is true, had accomplished much in the valley
before he quitted it; but, upon his leaving it, the highway was clear.
Lee was too wary not to, perceive and avail himself of the chance.
Thus, before Grant could learn the fate of Hunter, the rebel chief
dispatched the corps which had been sent to the defence of Lynchburg
into the Shenandoah valley. The command, now increased, was under
Early, and moved rapidly down the valley, reaching the neighborhood
of Maryland by the 1st of July.  Great alarm was immediately felt
at the national capital. The Government had relied so exclusively on
Grant, that, he being absent in front of Petersburg, all its action
seemed paralyzed. He was urged in the most vehement manner to
move his army at once from the James back to the Potomac, and
abandon all the advantages he had gained through the two months of
fighting and marching, in order to save the capital. I-Ie, however,
had no idea of doing this. IHe felt that he had his band at the throat
of the rebellion, and he meant never to let go his grasp. He saw
how vastly more important it was for him to maintain his army at the
vital military point; and he had the genius to perceive that point, as
well as the courage to do as he thought right, in spite of entreaties
and advice from soldiers and civilians of place and reputation at the
rear.
But he still had no notion of losing Washington. He dispatched,
first one division, and then two more, of the Sixth corps, to the defence
of the region near the Potomac; he sent orders to the officials at
Washington to gather up all the forces in that neighborhood, at Baltimore, and in the garrison of the capital; and at last sent the Nineteenth
corps, which he had ordered from Banks, when he became convinced
that nothing effective against Mobile could be done with the -command
of that officer during this campaign. This corps, arriving North at
this crisis, to join the forces on the James, was immediately ordered
by Grant to Washington; so that, before the rebel force had reached
that city, the Union strength was sufficient to defend it. Reinforcements came in rapidly from these various quarters, and Grant
telegraphed for General Wright, who commanded the Sixth corps, to be
placed at the head of all the troops for the defence of Washington;




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  99
and directed that officer to move at once on the offensive against Early.
Wright obeyed promptly, and Early was driven back into the valley.
Hunter now arrived, after his circuitous return from West Virginia,
and joined Wright at the entrance of the valley; he was the ranking
officer and took command.
Thus Lee's plan of forcing Grant to abandon Richmond, for the sake
of saving Washington, was entirely defeated. It had been a skillful
move on the military chessboard, and, with many other generals to
deal with, would have succeeded; but Grant never wavered for a
moment. He had no more idea of abandoning the goal at which he
was aiming, on account of any such distraction as Early's campaign,
than he had of returning to Washington after the battle of the Wilderness. He knew what was his real object, and he suffered nothing
to divert his attention. Still, he was able to carry on a manifold
campaign. Because he chose to direct his principal strength against
a certain point, was no reason why he should not control all the subordinate movements, which were to tend to the same object, through
different channels. He could drive four-in-hand, even when the team
was "balky."
SHERIDAN
It was plain, however, at this time, that the rebels meant to continue
to threaten Washington. They had temporarily annoyed Grant by this
valley movement, and they were determined to persist in it; as, in
in consequence of the addition to their strength, which the fortifications of Petersburg afforded, they were able to afford the -subtraction
of enough men to create a serious distracting element in Grant's campaign near home. This seemed like good policy, and would have been
good, had not Grant been Grant. As it was, Lee annoyed his antagonist considerably for a while, until the Union commander became
provoked, and finally turned and dealt a blow to the rebels from which
they never recovered. The weapon with which he dealt the blow was
Sheridan.
The confusion, and mismanagement, and alarm around Washington,
during all these movements, had convinced Grant that there existed
the same necessity for one supreme commander of all the forces in the
neighborhood of the capital, which had been'felt for a chief of all the
armies, until he himself became lieutenant general. He determined
that the four departments of West Virginia, Washington, Susquehannah, and the Middle Department must be consolidated, and that a




100                 LIFE Of GENERAL GRANT.
capable soldier must be placed at the head of them, who could'be
allowed sufficient independence of action and discretion to secure success in his movements, but who at the same time must be really subordinate, and willing to make the movements of his command thoroughly
cooiperative with those more important ones of the army in front of
Lee. Grant, therefore, visited Washington in person, informed the
Government of his views, to which they immediately deferred, and
then went forward to the valley to view the situation for himself, and
determined what he wanted done, and by whom. He at once decided
that the true course was to concentrate all the troops in that region,
and push the enemy as far as possible. Ile, indeed, never believed in
remaining on the defensive. Sheridan, as commander of the cavalry
of the Army of the Potomac, had already displayed the characteristics, the splendid vigor, the persistency, the determination, the sagacity, and the moral courage which Grant required for the position he
was now creating.  He sent for Sheridan, who joined him at Mfonocacy, Maryland, and then placed in command the illustritaus soldier who
was destined to achieve immortality for himself in this new field, while
adding to the laurels already so thick on the brows of Grant. Sheridan was directed, "Concentrate all your available force; and if it is
found that the enemy has moved north of the Potomac in large force,
push North, follow him, attack him, wherever he can be found. Follow him, if driven south of the Potomac, as long as it is. safe to do so."
Two divisions of his old cavalry were sent from the Army of the Potomac, to assist in carrying out these orders; and he was informed,
"In pushing up the Shenandoah valley, it is desirable that nothing
should be left to invite the enemy to return. Take all provisions,
forage, stock, wanted for the use of your command; such as cannot be
consumed, destroy. The people should be informed that so long as
an army can subsist among them, recurrences of these raids must be
expected, and we are determined to stop them at all hazards. Bear
in mind the object is to drive the enemy south, and to do this you
want to keep him always in sight. Be guided in your course by the
course he takes."
These orders contain a synopsis of Grant's entire military policy.
They show that he believed in always taking the offensive, in concentration of troops and efforts, in ":pushing," driving, following, attacking the enemy whenever he could be found, in keeping him always in
sight; but that he was guided in his course by the course of the- en.emy-rare sagacity in a general; and that when it became necessary,




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 101
he could be stern; that he knew modern war depends as much on the
ability to supply armies as on the skill to wield them, and, in consequence, he always made war on the resources as well as on the troops
of his enemy.
Having established Sheridan in command, and given him his orders,
the lieutenant general returned to City Point, to hurry up the cavalry
which was to join the new commander. It was more than a month
before Sheridan could get his army ready to move, and the country,
not knowing the man as Grant did, got anxious. Pennsylvania and
Maryland seemed constantly threatened with invasion, and Grant paid
Sheridan another visit, not being willing to give him a positive order
to attack, until he should once more see for himself the exact situation. This Sheridan explained, announced he coull move the moment
he was ordered, and expressed every confidence of success. Grant
declares that he saw there were but two words of instruction to give
his subordinate-" Go in;' in being, in military parlance, a condensed
form for "into battle." Grant asked Sheridan if he could be ready
by Tuesday, and the latter replied, "' Before daylight on Monday."
He did promptly what he promised, and Grant declared, " The result
was such that I have never since deemed it necessary to visit General
Sheridan before giving him orders."
On the 19th of September, Sheridan attacked Early and defeated
him with heavy loss, capturing several thousand prisoners. The enemy
rallied at Fisher's Hill, and was attacked again, and again defeated
on the 20th; Sheridan pursued him with great energy. On the 9th
of October, still another battle occurred at Strasburg, when the rebels
were a third time defeated, losing eleven pieces of artillery. On the
night of the 18th, however, they returned and attacked Sheridan's
command, from which he was about twenty miles distant at the time;
the national forces were driven back with loss, but finally rallied; just
at this moment Sheridan came upon the field, arranged his lines to
receive a new attack of the enemy, and in his turn assumed the offensive, defeating the rebels with great slaughter, and the loss of their
artillery, as well as all the trophies which had been captured in the
morning. Pursuit was made to the head of the valley, and thus ended
the last attempt of the rebels to invade the North. Their force in
the valley was completely broken up, and never again assumed an
organized independent form. Grant was thus able to bring back the
Sixth corps to the Army of the Potomac, to send one division from
Sheridan to the Army of the James, and another to Sherman.




102                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
SIEGE OF PETERSBURG.
On the 13th of August, Grant, fearing that Lee, in order to sup'
port Early, might be detaching from the army defending Petersburg,
moved a large force to the north side of the James, so as to threaten
Richmond from that quarter, and compel Lee to bring back any troops
he might be sending to the valley. It was discovered that only a
single division had been sent to Early; but this movement had the
effect of drawing a large rebel force from the defences of Petersburg,
in order to resist the apprehended attack on Richmond.  Grant at
once determined to avail himself of this weakening of the rebel lines
before Petersburg, and sent the Fifth corps to seize the Weldon railroad, which, as yet, the rebels held, and by which they drew many of
their most important supplies. A fierce battle ensued, with heavy
losses on each side, but Grant gained possession of the road, and the
most furious efforts -of the enemy were insufficient to dislodge him. He
never afterwards lost his hold of that important avenue of communication between the rebel capital and the region farther South. On
the contrary, he constructed a railroad from City Point to the Weldon
road, and was thus able to transport his own supplies to the extreme
left of his now extended front.
Miles upon miles of fortifications now defended both Richmond and
Petersburg, and the besiegers themselves had erected works as strong
as those which they opposed. The extension of Grant beyond the
Weldon road forced Lee also to reach out by his own right, or Grant
would have overlapped him. This extension of Lee, it seemed, must
weaken his force on the north side of the James; so Grant, on the
29th of September, made an advance against the fortifications of Richmond. The strongest of all the defences of that city was carried by
assault, but this was only one fort among many, and no other success
was attained. The position was, however, so important and so far
advanced, that Grant determined to maintain it. Butler's entire army
was now moved to the north of the James, to remain there. Desperate
attempts were made by the rebels to dislodge him, but all failed.
Simultaneously with the capture of this position, afterwards known as
Fort Harrison, Meade made a movement on the extreme left of the
lines before Petersburg, with a view of attacking, if the enemy should
be found materially weakened by a withdrawal of troops to Butler's




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  103
front. Several fights occurred, but no result of significance, and
Meads returned.
On the 27th of October, another movement was made to the left,
with the view of ascertaining whether it would be possible to overlap
the enemy's right, and thus to reach the South-Side road, whose possession would at once secure the fall of Petersburg. This reconnoissance, however, developed the fact, that the enemy's fortifications
reached out certainly to within six miles of the South-Side road, if
not farther, and, no opening for a successful assault presenting itself,
Grant returned within his own lines.. In making the return movement, Hancock was attacked, but immediately faced his corps about
and drove the enemy, w'ith slaughter, within their works.
CO-OPERATION OF SHERMAN.
Meanwhile, another portion of Grant's great scheme was proceeding under the skillful management of Sherman. That commander was
able to prosecute his campaign without fear of interruption. He was
certain that Grant would not intermit his operations, and that no support from Lee would be allowed to come to Johnston at a critical moment. IHe himself was cooperating constantly with Grant, preventing Johnston from reinforcing Lee, and he had no fear that his commander would forget or neglect him. There was perfect harmony
between the chief and his great lieutenant. So Sherman, moving from
Chattanooga, on the 6th of May, had advanced in a series of skillful
movements, somewhat similar to those of Grant in the Wilderness.
The battles were not so fierce, the opposition not so obstinate, but the
campaign reflected immense credit on Sherman and his army; and on
the 2d of September it was crowned with success. Atlanta, the first
objective designated to Sherman by Grant, was captured, the result
of the last of a series of flank movements, which will always be memorable in military history. Johnston had at first been Sherman's antagonist, but falling into disfavor with the rebel authorities at Richmond, he had, in July, been superseded by Hood, an officer of vastly
less ability, but with a more reckless audacity. Hood assisted Sherman materially by the unskillful character of his operations.
That which afforded not only Sherman, but Thomas and even Grant,
opportunity for the conception and execution of some of their finest
designs, was a movement undertaken soon after the fall of Atlanta.
Of this movement, however, it is believed that Jefferson -Davis is
entitled to some of the credit. Sherman, having driven Hood's army




104                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
steadily back a hundred and fifty miles, and manoeuvred it out of
Atlanta, the great railroad centre in Middle Georgia, Hood now
thought that, depleted and disheartened as his soldiers were, he could
assume the offensive against the force by which he had been so often
defeated. Making a wide detour, he advanced to the right of Sherman, and moved so as to strike the railroad in rear of the Union army,
along which all its supplies were conveyed from Chattanooga. Hood's
idea evidently was to interrupt all of Sherman's communications with
the North, and thus isolate him in the interior of Georgia, and force
him into a condition similar to that of Napoleon in his retreat from
Moscow. Grant, as has been heretofore explained, had never intended
to allow Sherman to be placed in this predicament; but had intended
him, after he arrived at Atlanta, to push on still farther, cutting loose
from all communication, as Grant himself had done at Vicksburg,
and striking for the sea, either at Mobile or Savannah, as might seem
preferable. Mobile, it was expected, would be the point; and, with
this view, Grant had early ordered Banks to attack and take Mobile,
so that he might be ready to meet Sherman, when the latter pushed
on in his interior march.
As soon, however, as it was apparent to Sherman that Hood
was attempting to interrupt the railroad line between Chattanooga
and Atlanta —especially when he saw that this was to be done with
an entire army-he proposed a modification of the plan to Grant.
Grant had intended Sherman to hold the line from Chattanooga to
Atlanta, but to cut loose entirely from the latter place; Sherman
suggested the destruction of Atlanta, and the entire abandonment of
the line from Atlanta to Chattanooga. Grant thought that, in this
event, Hood would strike for the North, and that even now he was
aiming at Middle Tennessee, while Sherman "would meet none but
old men, little boys, and railroad guards in his march through
Georgia;" but Sherman was positive that Hood would be forced to
turn and follow him. He thought Thomas, who was now in command
of Tennessee, would have no important enemy there. Grant still
insisted that Hood would avail himself of Sherman's absence to attack Thomas; but, after considering the matter a day, he sent the
required permission to Sherman, determining to collect reinforcements
so rapidly for Thomas, that that officer should be able to withstand
any rebel force which might be sent against him. The Government
was strongly in doubt about this whole movement, and even after
Grout had given Sherman authority for it, the general-in-chief was




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 105
telegraphed to reconsider once more. The Administration would not
take the responsibility of prohibiting a-ny military operation that
Grant ordered, but it was anxious to show him how the movement
was regarded at Washington. Grant, however, having once determined, was firm. He believed that Sherman would meet with no
serious opposition, and that the moral effect of his march through the
interior of the enemy's country, cutting the would-be Confederacy in
two again, as had been done when the Mississippi was opened, would
be prodigious. So the orders were not revoked, and Sherman began
his preparations for the famous "march to the sea."
On the 14th of November, he had concentrated all the troops
that Grant gave him for his movement, about seventy thousand men,
at Atlanta. He would be obliged to subsist almost exclusively off of
the enemy's country during his campaign, so that even an inferior
force might compel him to head for such a point as he could reach,
instead of one that he might prefer. No definite place where he was
to come out was therefore fixed, but it was probable that it would be
at Savannah or Mobile. Atlanta and its fortifications were now destroyed, and two corps of Sherman's army being sent back to reinforce
Thomas, the railroad between Chattanooga and Atlanta was abandoned. Sherman was thus isolated, and started on his novel march.
His condition was in many respects similar to Grant's after crossing
the Mississippi, in the Vicksburg campaign, except in these two important particulars: Sherman's army was twice as large-as Grant's
had been, and Sherman had no enemy in his front,, while Grant
plunged in between two hostile armies, one of them greatly larger
than his own.
THOMAS'S CAMPAIGN.
Grant now bent all his faculties to the task of preparing Thomas
to defend himself against Hood, who, as the general-in-chief had foreseen, persisted in his northward a'nd offensive campaign into Tenneasee, leaving the South altogether open, and Sherman free to choose his
route.~ "Had I had the power to command both armies," said Grant,
"I should not have changed the orders under which Hood seemed
to be acting."  Every effort was made to reinforce Thomas before the
rebel army could reach him; troops were withdrawn from Rosecranz,
in Missouri, from A. J. Smith, who -had belonged- to the Red: river
expedition, under Banks, and recruits and men on furlough were, huaried along every railroad from the North. RBy diint of immense exer



106                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
tions Thomas was reinforced sufficiently to be out of any extraordinary
danger; and, although he fell back slowly before the advance of the
enemy, he managed to detain the rebels till the 30th of November,
at Franklin, where the main force of the Union army was posted,
under Schofield, Thomas himself having fallen back still farther, to
Nashville. Here the rebels attacked Schofield repeatedly, but were in
every instance repulsed, losing one thousand seven hundred and fifty
killed, seven hundred and two prisoners, and three thousand eight
hundred wounded. Schofield's entire loss was only two thousand
three hundred. During the night, under Thomas's orders, Schofield
fell back to Nashville.  This was solely in order to concentrate
Thomas's whole force.
On the 15th of December, Hood, having approached still nearer to
Nashville, Thomas attacked him, and, in a battle lasting two days,
defeated and drove him from the field in utter confusion. Most of the
rebel artillery, and many thousand prisoners, fell into the hands of
Thomas. The enemy retreated at once, but was closely pursued with
cavalry and infantry to the Tennessee, abandoning most of his artillery and transportation on the way. His army was almost completely
annihilated.
CO-OPERATION ALL OVER TIlE CONTINENT.
Meanwhile, a combined naval and military expedition, planned by
Grant against Fort Fisher the defence of Wilmington, at the mouth
of the Cape Fear river, after meeting with various delays and hindrances, was crowned with complete success. This was a triumph of
the utmost consequence. Wilmington was the last remaining place
on the seacoast where the blockade maintained by the navy was ineffectual, and through this port supplies of inestimable value reached
the interior. When this place was captured, the rebels were indeed
shut in from the outside world; and the ever-contracting coils seemed
folding closer and closer around the doomed and guilty disturbers of
their country's peace.
Sherman had penetrated to Savannah by Christmas day, not a fortnight after the success of Thomas at Nashville. As Grant had
foreseen, and foretold, he met no opposition of importance on the
route; no battle was fought, and, in the occasional skirmishes with a
small body of cavalry that hovered about his flanks, his outguards
lost only a few hundred men. The campaign was one great excursion.




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. I                 107
The country was found to be still abundant in supplies, though the
railroads could no longer carry its productions to the armies at the
rebel front. Sherman destroyed the railroads, the arsenals, bridges,
and crops, everywhere on the route, and marked his course with a
broad swath of ruin forty miles across. He reached the outworks of
Savannah in five weeks after he had started, captured a fort that protected it without much difficulty, and was met at Savannah by fresh
instructions from Grant, directing his future movements.
His march had been unique and interesting in the extreme. Certainly no great army ever marched before so far through an enemy's
country and encountered so little opposition.  Grant had heard of
him by spies and deserters and through the rebel newspapers. He
had been able to follow his march on the maps with very little anxiety,
and had felt not half the solicitude for Sherman that the danger in~
which Thomas had been placed occasioned. He had actually started
for Nashville, when the news of Thomas's brilliant success met him on
the way, and relieved his fears.
Thomas had so completely placed Hood's army hors du combat, that
Grant determined to find other fields of operation for his surplus
troops. Some were sent to Canby, who had superseded Banks, and
was ordered to organize the expedition against Mobile, which Grant
had contemplated the year before; Schofield, with his entire corps,
was ordered to be sent East, and the remainder of Thomas's available
command was to be collected at Eastport, on the Tennessee. Schofield's movement, in the dead of winter, was difficult and painful in
the extreme. On the 23d of January, his corps arrived at Washington, coming by rail through the snows and mountains of the Baltimore
and Ohio road; then it was dispatched to Annapolis, to wait till the
ice in Chesapeake bay would allow its transportation to the sea; for
Grant intended to send Schofield into North Carolina to coooperatewith Sherman.
The lieutenant general had at first thought to bring Sherman by
sea from Savannah to City Point, and there, with the two great armies
of the East and the West; to overwhelm the last remaining stronghold
and army of the rebellion. Orders to this effect reached Sherman
before he arrived at Savannah. He answered promptly that he had
expected to march by land through the Carolinas, and thus join
Grant, but that it would be at least six weeks after the fall of Savannah before he could reach Raleigh, in North Carolina; whereas by
sea he could join Grant by the middle of January. He, therefore,




1198               LIFE OQ GEERIAtL GRANT.
began at once his preparations to obey Grant's orders. Grant, however, had before this discovered that the difficulty of procuring ocean
transportation for a whole army would be prodigious, and he was,
besides, pleased with Sherman's confidence of being able to march
through the Carolinas.  He, therefore, dispatched directions, on the
28th of December, for Sherman to start by land without delay, and
march northward, through North and South Carolina, breaking up the
railroads everywhere.  This campaign was likely to be vastly more
difficult and hazardous than that which Sherman had already accomplished, for now he would meet an enemy. There were still hostile
troops on the seacoast south of Richmond, all of whom would be
collected to oppose him, and Grant feared lest the remnants of IIood's
army might be brought across from Mississippi, as a fo:lorn hope, in
the last battles of the rebellion.
Accordingly, Schofield, with twenty-one thousand men, was'sent to
North Carolina, and instructed to take command of twelve thousand
more, already there, at Newbern and Fort Fisher. He was then to
move into the interior of the State, striking for' Goldsboro, in order to
reach Sherman at that point, as the latter should be coming North,
and to furnish him with a new base of supplies, A vast accumulation
of stores was also directed to be ready for the Western army when it
should. reach Goldsboro.  Schofield captured Wilmington, and, after
several skirmishes, which in any other war would be called battles, he
reached a point ten miles from Cox's bridge, near Goldsboro, on the
22d of March, 1865.
Sherman left Savannah on the 1st of February, caused the evacuation of Charleston, seized Columbia, had a battle at Averysville, in
which he was successful, and another at Bentonsville, where he encountered Johnston, wb'" d been recently put in command of all the
rebels that could be collected east of the Mississippi, and who were
not under arms at Richmond. The engagement was not decisive, but
Johnson retreated, and Sherman followed, till, on the 22d of March,
he also arrived at Cox's bridge, which Schofield- reached the same
day, coming from the sea. Thus, one of the rmost wonderful pieces
of military combination that the world'has ever seen, was accomplished under the orders, and according to the plans and instructions
of Grant. A little more than four months previous, the general-iachief had taken Schofield from Sherman's mcving column, and ordered
him back to the support of Thomas, in Tennessee. At the same time
that he brought Sonofield north from Atlanta, he sent Sherman south




LIFE"' OF GENERAL GCRANT.               109
Into the inmost penetralia of the rebellion. The latter had reached
the Atlantic, and then marched north, capturing cities and fighting
enemies all through the balmy region of the Carolinas. Schofield had
fought and won the batte of Franklin, had borne a distinguished part
in the battle of Nashville, and then brought his corps through snows
and ice across the continent in mid-winter, to the Atlantic coast, sailed
to North Carolina, captured Wilmington, and advanced into the interior of the State, to rejoin and support his old commander. Between
them, they had nearly traversed the whole interior region in rebellion. Each arrived on the same day at Goldsboro, having traversed
thousands of miles. No general ever conceived or executed such a
combination as this, prior to Grant, and yet you shall hear ignorant
or hostile critics tell us that his success is owing to luck. The magnificent scale of his operations; the closeness with which he followed
and directed them all; the complicated nature of his v arious evolutions
under a dozen different commanders; the marvellous skill with which
he was able to make Sherman march south and Schofield north; to
get reinforcements to Thomas from Canby and Rosecranz, at the critical moment, so as to secure the great triumph of the battle of Nashville; to capture Fort Fisher and Wilmington, although at extraordinary
risk and after peculiar difficulties, just in time for those captures to
afford immeinse assistance to other schemes; subsequently, to bring
Sherman north and to send Schofield south; while, all the while, he
himself was holding the main force and greatest army of the rebellion,
not only at bay, but in terror for its existence-this fact alone rendering all the operations of his subordinates possible;-all this maybe
luck, but it is such luck as never followed any soldier before in history; it is such luck as it is greatly to be desired shall always attend
the armies of the Republic; it is such luck as nations have always
recognized, securing for themselves the advantages it brings, by
placing its possessors in civil as well as military power. If the same
luck will only attend the administration of President Grant, which
marked his career as general-in-chief, the country will be satisfied.
One beautiful and magnanimous trait of Grant deserves to be chronicled here. While he assigned to his subordinates all these brilliant
and important parts of his plans, and retained for himself not only
the most difficult, but the least inspiring of all, he never manifested a
particle of jealousy at the reputation which he enabled Sherman, and
Sheridan, and Thomas, and Schofield, and Terry to acquire. Not only
did he urge upon the Government the promotion of those officers, as




110                LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
well as of Meade, but he sought every other means to bring them into
notice. His wonderful sagacity was manifest in detecting not only
their ability, when nobody else perceived it, but in recognizing the
peculiar quality of each man's talent; the original genius of Sherman,
which fitted him for the great march; the brilliant vigor of Sheridan,
which enabled him to conquer Early; the splendid determination of
Thomas, which alone retarded Hood until the hour had come for his
annihilation; the sagacity of Schofield, the talent of Terry. But, more
than all this, when he had lain many weary months in front of Petersburg, making movements all of which tended gradually to his eventual
success, but none of which resulted so immediately in what the country desired as to be recognized by the country; while he was in
reality conceiving and inspiring and directing every one of his great
subordinates, he never sought to take from them an atom of their own
glory; nor even when the ignorant bestowed on the executor all the
praise, did the conceiver and controller attempt to attribute to himself his own. He was calm, patient, unselfish, magnanimous. He
was not anxious for fame, but for the salvation of the country. When
Sherman penetrated to the Atlantic coast, and accomplished his wonderful march, Grant, who had conceived the idea of that march, and
taken all of its responsibility, was still sitting quietly in front of
Petersburg; and the country rang with applause for the brilliant lieutenant, affording no share of this to the chief who had sent the lieutenant on his errand, and by his other movements, a thousand miles away,
had rendered the success of the lieutenant possible. It was even
proposed in Congress to place Sherman in the rank which Grant
enjoyed. Sherman wrote on the subject at once to Grant, saying that
the proposition was without his knowledge, and begging Grant to use
his influence against it. This, of course, Grant refused to do, and
replied to Sherman, "If you are put above me, I shall always obey
you, just as you always have me."  The history of the world may be
searched in vain to find a parallel of magnanimity, friendship, and
patriotism.
In January, 1865, foreseeing the approaching termination of the
war, and anxious to make the downfall of the rebellion complete,
Grant directed Thomas to send out several expeditions into the region
between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, in order to accomplish
the destruction of all the remaining resources and communications of
the enemy. Stoneman was sent from East Tennessee into South Carolina, to attract all attention from Sherman in his northward march,




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  ].11
and Wilson was to be ordered into central Alabama, which was now
entirely exposed and unprotected.  Canby also, who was in command
of everything in the region of the exitreme southwest. was directed to
organize an expedition against Mobile, and Sheridan received orders
to move from the valley towards Lynchburg, in the rear of Lee, so as
to destroy every possible means by which the last of the great rebel
armies could draw their supplies. Thus, from every direction, raids
were being made at and into the vitals of the rebellion, while Grant
still held the main army in his front unable to attack him, but equally
unable to move to the protection of the threatened points. His plans
had annihilated all of the resources of the enemy; his subordinates
had attacked all the important outside points, his movements had conquered all the rebel armies but one, and now he was ready to deal the
death-blow for which he and the nation had been waiting so long.
Now, at last, the country began to perceive the consummate nature of
his strategy; now it began to recognize the master in the movements
of his subordinates; now it detected the unity of his plans, discovering that Sherman and Sheridan and Schofield and Thomas were moving
towards one centre, and that that centre was Grant; that they were
all inspired by one mind, and that that mind was Grant's. The rebels,
also, too plainly saw and felt, for the first time, that they had a master; they turned and writhed, they showed a bold front, but they were
aware that the hour had come, that their schemes had been met by
counter schemes; that they were outgeneralled, outmanoeuvred, outmarched, outfought, outwitted, conquered, although the final blow was
not yet struck.
In March, Grant ordered Sherman, who had now reached Goldsboro,
to come in person to City Point, and receive verbal instructions. Before Sherman arrived, Sheridan had completely destroyed all the canals
and railroads to the northwest of Lee, and was ordered to bring his
whole force to Grant, who now directed Sherman to prevent any concentration between Lee and Johnston, and to be ready to come to the
support of Grant, if the latter should so instruct. Sherman spent a
day at City Point, and returned to his command.
On the 29th of March, Sheridan having arrived in front of Petersburg, Grant began the final campaign of the war. On the 25th,
Lee had made an assault on Grant's lines, which must have been a
mere frantic stroke, such as a dying beast gives in the arena, with no
hope of success, but simply to glut its rage. It was promptly repelled,
the enemy losing heavily in killed and wounded, and Grant capturing




112               LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
two thousand prisoners. Grant immediately took advantage of this,
and made a counter advance on the left, which was successful, nearly
a thousand more rebels being captured, and many others killed and
wounded, and a portion of Lee's line taken and held. Grant had been
extremely anxious for months lest the enemy should withdraw from
Richmond and Petersburg. He was unwilling to move in attack with
the Army of the Potomac until his great plans for the entire continent
should be further consummated; until Sherman and Schofield could
be brought so near, on their converging lines, that Lee could have no
chance of escape, even if he attempted it; but now all things were
ripened, every command was in its right place; from all directions he
had brought his armies, and, on the 29th of March, he moved.
Leaving a force of twenty or thirty thousand in the lines in front
of Petersburg and Richmond, he extended his left with the view of
overlapping the rebel right and seizing the South-Side road. His
moving force now was between ninety thousand and one hundred thousand strong. Lee still, by superhuman exertions, had collected seventy
thousand men, besides the local militia of Richmond, and the gunboat
crews on the James, which, together, amounted to at least five thousand more, and which were always put into a fight by the rebel general. Grant left so large a force in front of the rebel works, in order
that, if the enemy should be induced to come out and attack the national
column while in motion, the troops in the trenches might be pushed at
once and without further orders against the fortifications in their fronts.
Sheridan, Grant detached and sent to the extreme left, to be ready to
cut and cross the two southern railroads which Lee still retained; the
South-Side and the Danville. With the remainder of his force, Grant
then moved to the left for the last time, and began to feel the enemy.
He soon discovered that Lee was still confronting him at every point,
and conceived, therefore, that the rebel line must be weakly held. HIe
determined, in consequence, to move no farther out, but to send a
corps of infantry to Sheridan, who was still on the extreme left, so
that he might turn the enemy's right flank, while with the rest of the
force Grant would order a direct assault on the rebel line. Meantime,
Lee had not yet lost all spirit; he hoped still to gain some advantage,
under cover of which he could join Johnston, when the two armies
might perhaps be able to make a campaign against Grant's united forces
in the interior. Accordingly, one or two feeble attacks were made by
Lee, but immediately repelled with loss. In these various operations,
Sheridan was separated from Grant's left, with a view to making the




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 1I
contemplated flank attack on Lee; and the rebel commander discovering this, immediately reinforced his own right largely, and moved
against Sheridan. And now Sheridan displayed great generalship.
Instead of retreating upon Grant with his whole command, to tell the
story of having encountered superior force, he deployed his cavalry
on foot, leaving mounted men only to take charge of the horses. This
skillful ruse compelled the enemy also to deploy over a vast extent of
woods and broken country, and made his progress slow. Sheridan
now informed Grant of what had taken place, and Grant promptly
reinforced him with the Fifth corps. On the 1st of April, thus reinforced, Sheridan attacked Lee's right at Five Forks, assaulted and
carried the fortified position of the enemy, capturing all his artillery,
and between five thousand and six thousand prisoners. The defeat
was decisive. The rebels fled in every direction, and the bulk of the
force that had been in front of Sheridan never was able again to rejoin
Lee.
News of the victory reached Grant at nine o'clock in the evening.
He at once determined that the hour had come for the final assault.
Without consulting any one, he wrote a dispatch to Meade, ordering
an attack at midnight, all along the lides in front of Petersburg, which
were at least ten miles long. When one remembers the numerous
assaults upon fortified places that had been made during the war, and
their frequently disastrous results; the immense strength of the
works of Petersburg, which the rebels had now been nearly a year in
elaborating, and whose terrible excellence Grant had tested so often;
the prejudice in the country against such assaults, and the possibility
of repulse; how much was at stake at this crisis, of life and fame;
how, perhaps, the very termination of the war might depend on the
success of this assault; —the moral courage of the man who ordered it
can be better appreciated. But his courage never failed when his
judgment was decided. He had been able to wait patiently through
the long and tedious months of the siege, to withstand the impatience
of the country, the entreaties of the Government, the weariness of the
soldiers, and, perhaps, the promptings of ambition-all of which
required fortitude of the most determined sort; but now he was to
evince that species of courage which amounts to audacity, and which,
when successful, becomes sublime. As soon as he was certain of
Sheridan's complete success, he was also certain of what he himself
wanted to do. With an intuition of both intellect and of feeling, he
saw that the opportunity had arrived, and was confident that his
8




114.LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
men would be as much inspired by the victory at Five Forks as the
rebels must be disheartened. He had no fears that the famous lines
would not be carried at last. The news of Five Forks was sent all
along the army, night though it was, and preparations were made for
the assault. The corps commanders, however, could not be ready
until dawn, and it was therefore postponed to that time. Before daylight a prodigious bombardment was begun, and at four o'clock the
various columns moved to the assault. Grant's calculations were correct; the rebel works were carried in three different places. Lee's
army was cut in two or three parts; many instantly fled across the
Appomattox, while the main portion retreated into the city of Petersburg, which was still defended by an inner line. Grant got his men up
from the extended field which they now occupied, and pursued the
rebels into the town; several thousand prisoners and many guns were
taken before dark.
That night the enemy evacuated Petersburg and Richmond, flying
southwest towards Danville. So the goal that our armies had been
four years seeking to attain was won. Grant did not wait a moment,
but, without entering Richmond in person, pushed on in pursuit at daylight, on the 3d, leaving to a subordinate the glory of seizing the
capital of Virginia. The energy with which he now followed the unhappy Lee was terrific; he disposed his columns on two roads, and
marched with marvellous speed. Sheridan, Ord, Meade, vied with
each other in their efforts to overtake and annihilate the last fighting
force of the rebellion; and the men, inspired with their recent and
magnificent triumphs, murmured at no labors or dangers. Meanwhile, mindful, even at this intense crisis, of all other and coboperative
emergencies, Grant, as he was pursuing Lee, sent orders to Sherman
to push at once against Johnston, so that the war might be finished at
once. " Rebel armies," he reminded him, "are now the only strategic
points to strike at." Sheridan, with the Sixth corps, came up with
Lee, on the 6th, at Sailor's creek, struck the enemy in force, and captured sixteen pieces of artillery and seven thousand prisoners, among
whom were seven generals. Ord also engaged the enemy on this day
at Farmville. And thus the remorseless conqueror went on, pursuing and striking his enemy by turns. Every day Lee made superhuman exertions to get beyond the pursuer's reach; every day he found
himself circumvented, outmanceuvred, or beaten down again. No time,was left him to get supplies; his men were subsisting on two ears of
corn a piece per day, and the arrangements he sought to make to




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 115
procure them rations, were discovered and frustrated by Grant. A
train of cars loaded with supplies was captured by Sheridan, and a
wagon-train with rations was set on-fire by artillery.
On the 7th of April, Grant addressed a note to Lee, summoning
him to surrender; but Lee sought to gain time, either hoping yet to
reach Johnston with some fragments of his army, or at least to allow
Johnston an opportunity to escape. So he diplomatized, and was willing to make peace; but Grant was not to be outwitted, and though he
continued the correspondence, ceased not his advance or his blows.
Lee said he was not certain the emergency had arisen to call for his
surrender; whereupon Sheridan was thrown around in front of Lee,
and drove him from Appomattox, capturing twenty-five pieces of
artillery. This, probably, rendered Lee less uncertain about the
emergency. But Grant declined entirely to treat for peace; all he
wanted was surrender. He now sent the Twenty-Fourth corps, under
Ord, and the Fifth, under Griffin, to support Sheridan, thus completely
surrounding Lee, who was fairly outmarched; Sheridan was planted
square across his only road of escape. The great cavalryman at once
began to attack Lee, who, at first believing there was no infantry in
his front, endeavored to drive Sheridan away; but suddenly discovering the presence of two corps of infantry, which he had not deemed
it possible could have marched fast enough to pass his own troops
flying under the impulse of terror, he at once sent word to Sheridan
that he was negotiating with Grant.
APPOMATTOX.
On the 9th of April, Lee asked for an interview with the commander
of the Union armies, for the purpose of surrendering his forces, and
early in the afternoon of that memorable day, the two antagonists met
in a plain farm-house, between the armies which had striven against
each other so long.
Lee had a solitary staff officer with him, and with Grant were about
a dozen of his subordinates-Sheridan, Ord, and his own staff. And
then and there, and in this presence, Grant drew up the terms upon
which Lee surrendered. Grant first announced what he should dedemand, and Lee acquiesced. No one else spoke on the subject.
Grant then wrote out the stipulations; they were copied by staff ofilcers; Lee signed them, and the Army of' Northern Virginia was prisoner of war. The terms are world renowned: "Officers and men were




116                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
paroled, and allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by
United States authority so long as they observed their paroles and
the laws in force where they might reside." All arms, artillery, and
public property were to be turned over to officers appointed by Grant.
These were the stipulations, as Lee consented to them; but after he
had signified his acceptance, Grant inserted the clause that the sidearms and private horses and baggage of the officers might be retained.
Lee seemed much gratified at this magnanimity, which saved him and
his officers the peculiar humiliation of a formal surrender of their
weapons. He asked, how about the horses of the cavalry men, which
in the rebel army were the property of the private soldier? Grant
replied that these were included in the surrender. Lee looked at the
paper again, and acquiesced in Grant's interpretation.  The latter
then said, "Iwill not change the terms of the surrender, General Lee,
BUT I WILL INSTRUCT MY OFFICERS, WHO RECEIVE THE PAROLES, TO ALLOW
THE MEN TO RETAIN THEIR HORSES, AND TAKE THEM HOME TO WORK
THEIR LITTLE FARMS." Again General Lee expressed his appreciation
of the generosity of his conqueror, and declared that he thought this
liberality would have a very good effect. So the interviewmterminated.
The next day, Grant and Lee met again on horseback, in the open
air, and for two hours discussed the situation of affairs. Lee expressed a great desire for peace, believed that his surrender was the
end of the war; he acquiesced in the abolition of slavery, the return of
the seceded States, and declared his wish for harmony. Grant urged
him to use his influence to bring about such a result.  Subsequently,
on the same day, Longstreet, Gordon, Heth, Pickett, Wilcox, XW. IH. F.
Lee, and every other officer of high rank in Lee's army, came in a
body to pay their respects to Grant, and, as they themselves expressed
it, to thank him for the terms he had allowed him. All manifested
the kindest spirit. Many of Grant's officers were present at this
remarkable interview, and not a word was said on either side calculated to wound the feelings of any one present. Many of the rebels
declared how unwillingly they had entered the war; all submitted
fully to the inevitable; many expected to be exiled; none dreamed of
retaining any property; they expected all their lands to be confiscated,
and themselves to begin life all over again. As for political power, the
man who had mentioned it would have been scouted at, for insulting
them. They said they had staked all and lost, and they were grateful
to retain even their lives; while the unexampled delicacy that had
left them their swords, the pledge to a soldier of his military honor,




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 117
touched their proud hearts deeply, and they were too proud not to
acknowledge it.
Had it been in the power of the men who visited Grant at Appomattox on that day to speak for the South, none of the difficulties that
have since occurred would have disturbed this land. Grant, however,
is destined to yet another victory, over such of them as have since
returned to their ancient and defiant spirit, and over all their adherents, North and South; and after another Appomattox at the polls,
they will be as ready to accept his terms as before. And this time,
he will remain where he can administer the fruits of the victories in
the field and at the ballot-box, which he will have achieved. Knowing this, and having felt his sword, these men will remain submissive;
and, trusting again to his magnanimity, which also they experienced
before, they will not find their trust in vain. He and those whom he
represents will disarm them, and render them powerless for further
mischief to their country; but desire no spoliation, no humiliation,
no needless suffering of their foes. The results which these men
looked for at Appomattox, and which Grant there conquered by his
skill and the matchless endurance of his soldiers, will thus be secured
forever, and a true Union, under the sway of Union-loving men, perpetuated.
On the day of this wonderful meeting, Grant started for Washington. He was well aware that the war was closed. He knew
that after the surrender of Lee and the capture of Richmond, no
other rebel force would remain in arms, and he was anxious at once
to proceed to lessen the expenditures of the Government, and to muster out his soldiers. He hastened from Appomattox to City Point,
everywhere on the route the inhabitants coming out " to see the man
who had whipped Lee." Then, without even yet stopping to enter
the capital that he had conquered, or the lines that had withstood
lirm so long; without apparently a particle of the natural and pardonable self-glorification of a victor under such extraordinary circumstances, this man, as modest in triumph as he had been persistent in
difficulty, and sagacious in council, and daring in danger, went on
to Washington, to engage in the unobtrusive, but still vastly important
duties of retrenchment.
SUMMARY.
In this concluding and most glorious of all the campaigns of the
war, Grant had lost seven thousand men, in killed, wounded, and
missing. He had captured Petersburg and Richmond, and won, by




118                LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
his subordinates, the battles of Five Forks and Sailor's Creek, besides
numerous smaller ones; he had broken the lines at Petersburg in
three several places, captured twenty thousand men in actual battle,
and received the surrender of twenty-seven thousand others at Appomattox, and absolutely annihilated an army of seventy thousand soldiers. Ten thousand, at least, of Lee's army deserted on the road
from Richmond to Appomattox, and at least ten thousand more were
killed or wounded. From Lee's own field-return, now on file in the
War Office, we learn his force at the beginning of the campaign.
Such an absolute annihilation of an army never occurred before, in so
short a time, in the history of the world.
On the 29th of March, Richmond was in the possession of the rebels;
their de facto government was established and recognized over hundreds of thousands of miles; the forces of Lee lined fifty miles of
works that defended Petersburg and the capital; their greatest commander was at the head of seventy thousand veterans. In less than
two weeks, Richmond and Petersburg were captured cities, the lines
that had defended them so long were useless, except as trophies of
the humiliation of those who built them; their government, so called,
was a fugitive, with "none so poor to do it reverence;" their army
was not only defeated, but stricken out of existence; its general, and
every man under him who had not been killed, was a prisoner of war.
Twenty-seven thousand soldiers never before surrendered in the open
field, behind no works, without a siege. As purely military events,
these are unparalleled.
This last campaign was so short, that its history was hardly reported
at the time, and its results were so stupendous, that its own amazing
character has hardly yet been recognized. For splendid marching,
for repeated and victorious battles, for capture of works thought to
be impregnable, for vigor and rapidity of movement, and remorseless
energy, it will compare favorably with any achievements of ancient or
modern times.
The total loss during the entire year, among the troops immediately
under Grant, including those commanded by Butler in the first month
of the campaign, amounted to twelve thousand six hundred and
ninety-five killed, forty-seven thousand eight hundred and twentytwo wounded, and twenty thousand four hundred and ninety-eight
missing; total, eighty-two thousand seven hundred and twenty.
Against this, it is impossible to set off an exact statement of the
losses of the enemy, for no reports were ever made by the rebels
of the final battles of the war. There was no one to whom to




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   119
report. But Grant captured alone, sixty-six thousand five hundred
and twelve rebel soldiers in that time, besides the killed or wounded.
He absolutely annihilated every army opposed to him; that of Lee,
that of Early, of Beauregard, and all the forces brought from West
Virginia and North and South Carolina to reinforce Lee; leaving not
a living man at the last of all those armies who was not a prisoner.
So that, with forces not a, fourth greater than those of his antagonist,
and in spite of the enormous advantages of defensive breastworks
everywhere enjoyed by that antagonist, and which far more than
balanced Grant's superiority. in numbers, he accomplished military
results that for completeness are utterly without precedent.
RETRENCHMENT.
Thus ended the greatest civil war in history. Lee surrendered on
the 9th of April, and on the 13th Grant was back in Washington, and
at once urged upon the President and the Secretary of War that, as
the rebellion was a thing of the past, the work of cutting down' the
military expenses of the Government should begin; accordingly, on
the day of his arrival at the capital, the following announcement was
made to the country:
"'WAR DEPARTMENT, WASHINGTON,
"A pril 13, 6 P. M.
" The Department, after mature consideration and consultation with
the Lieutenant General upon the results of the recent campaign, has
come to the following determinations, which will be carried into effect
by appropriate orders, to be immediately issued:
" First, to stop all drafting and recruiting in the loyal States.
"Second, to curtail purchases for arms, ammunition, quartermaster,
and commissary supplies, and reduce the military establishment in its
several branches.
"Third, to reduce the number of general and staff officers to-the
actual necessities of the service.
"Fourth, to remove all military restrictions upon trade and'eommerce, so far as may be consistent with public safety."
ASSASSINATION OF PRESIDENT LINCOLN.
These important reductions in expenditure announced to the nattion
the absolute overthrow of the rebellion a.nd the return to: peace. Tbe




120                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
enthusiasm natural over the immense success that had been gained, at
once broke out all over the land. In Washington, a great illumination
of all the public and many private buildings took place, and on the
14th of April, the day after Grant's return, it was announced in the
public journals that he would accompany the President that evening
to Ford's Theatre; but Grant had not seen his children for several
months, and had a distaste for public demonstrations. He therefore
declined the President's invitation, and started on the evening of the
14th for Burlington, New Jersey, where his children were at school.
Thus, fortunately for America, did Providence again direct the movements of her greatest captain, and preserved him in peace, as it had
done in war, for the future emergencies which he was destined to control. That night, as is too well known in the history of the country, the
President was assassinated at the theatre. It was clearly proven, in
the proceedings of the trial, that the conspirators intended also to
take the life of him who had so recently preserved the life of the country. The crime, however, was not permitted by Heaven; the attempted
visit to Burlington took Grant unexpectedly out of the reach of the
assassin's blow. The Secretary of War at once telegraphed to the
general-in-chief, who returned the same night to Washington, having
got no farther than Philadelphia.
This extraordinary and melancholy event, and the novelty of the
arrangements which it imposed on the Government, retained Grant in
Washington for several days.  The funeral of the President took
place on the 19th of April; his successor, Andrew Johnson, having
been inaugurated immediately upon the death of Mr. Lincoln, on the
15th.
SHERMAN'S TERMS.
In obedience to Grant's order, of the 5th of April, to "push on from
where you are, and let us see if we cannot finish the job with Lee's
and Johnston's armies," Sherman had moved at once against Johnston,
who retreated rapidly before him through Raleigh, which Sherman
entered on the 13th. The day preceding, news had reached him of
the surrender of Lee. On the 14th, a correspondence was opened between Sherman and Johnston, which resulted, on the 18th, in an agreement for a suspension of hostilities, and a memorandum or basis for
peace, subject, of course, to the approval of the President. The memorandum was forwarded first to Grant, who immediately perceived that




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  121
the terms were such as the country would not consent to, as they
allowed the rebels to deposit their arms and public property in the
several State arsenals, stipulated for the recognition of the rebel State
governments by the authorities at Washington, secured to the rebels,
without exception, all their political rights and franchises, as well as
their rights of person and property, and, in fact, announced a complete and absolute amnesty, simply on condition of the disbandment
of the rebel armies, the distribution of arms, and the resumption
of peaceful pursuits by those who composed those armies Nothing
was said about the abolition of slavery, the right of secession, punishment of past treason, or security against future rebellion. Grant
forwarded the papers to the Secretary of War, and asked that a Cabinet meeting might be called at once, to determine what action should
be taken, for there was no time to lose. Grant received Sherman's
dispatches on the evening of the 20th, and the Cabinet meeting was
called before midnight. Grant was present.
The President and his Secretaries were unanimous in condemning
the action of Sherman; indeed, their language was so strong, that
Grant, while agreeing fully with them that the terms were inadmissible, yet felt it his duty to his friend to defend his conduct from the
imputations it excited. iHe declared that the services Sherman had
rendered the country for more than four years entitled him to the
most lenient judgment on his act, and proveL that whatever might be
said of his opinions, his motives were unquestioned. The President
was especially indignant at Sherman's course, and the sympathy for
rebels which it was thought to reveal.
Grant was instructed to start at once for Raleigh, and assume command in person, revoking the terms, and thereafter take whatever
action he thought fit. He started before daybreak of the 21st, and
arrived at Raleigh on the 24th. There he informed Sherman, as delicately as possible, of the disapproval of his memorandum, and directed
him to exact from Johnston the same terms which had been granted
to Lee. Sherman was thoroughly subordinate, and at once notified
Johnston that their arrangement had been disapproved; and a second
set of stipulations was drawn up, in conformity with Grant's instructions. Grant, however, magnanimously kept himself in the background; he was not present at any interview with Johnston, remaining at Raleigh while Sherman went out to the front; and his name
does not appear in the papers, except where, after the signatures of
Sherman and Johnston, he wrote, " Approved: U. S. Grant." This the




122                LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
rebel commander was not aware of, and Grant actually went back to
Washington Without Johnston's suspecting that he had been at Raleigh.
He allowed Sherman to receive the surrender, although he could, in
compliance with the especial authority and orders given him in Washington, have had the glory of accepting the capitulation of Johnston,
as well as that of Lee. What other living man would have been capable of such self-abnegation? and yet, how infinitely greater the glory
of declining! One hardly knows which to admire most, at this supreme
crisis in the history of the country and of the man —the magnanimity
manifested to his enemy at Appomattox, or the generosity displayed
to his friend at Raleigh.
Grant went immediately back to Washington, taking care everywhere to defend Sherman; throwing around his friend the shield of
his own great reputation, and assuring everybody that Sherman's loyalty was as unquestioned as his own. The indignation throughout the
land was intense, and nothing but Grant's own splendid fame, and the
persistency with which he fought for Sherman, saved that illustrious
soldier from insult, and perhaps degradation.
On the 28th of April, Grant was again at his headquarters, now
established at Washington, and the same day orders were issued for
the reduction of the forces in the field and garrison, and the expenses
of every department in the army. These orders effected an immediate
diminution of expense to the amount of hundreds of millions of
dollars.
The various expeditions of Stoneman, Wilson, and Canby had
meanwhile accomplished all that they were sent to do. There was no
force of consequence left in front of either of them. Canby took
possession of Mobile on the 11th of April, Wilson roamed unmolested
and almost unopposed through the interior of Alabama, until he was
arrested by the news of the surrender of Lee, and Stoneman had a
similar career in North Carolina. But as soon as the various rebel
forces, large or small, heard of the disasters of Johnston and Lee, and
the terms accorded to them, they also made haste to offer themselves
as candidates for the same mercy extended to their comrades. During
the month of May, the last armies of any strength left to the rebellion, those under Dick Taylor and Kirby Smith, surrendered on the
same terms, and, by the 1st of June, not an armed rebel remained in
the land.
THE COLLAPSE.
The collapse of the revolt was one of the most astounding features
connected with the war. Not a gun was fired in hostility after the




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 123
surrender of Lee. Not a soldier held out; not even a guerilla
remained in arms; none retreated to a mountain fastness; none hesitated not only to give a parole, but to volunteer an oath of allegiance
to the Government they had offended. Great part of this wonderful
acquiescence in the results of the war was owing to the magnanimity
of the terms accorded by Grant. No greater stroke of statesmanship
can be found recorded in history. Knowing, as he did, the exhausted
condition of the rebels; —aware that they could hope for no after success, and yet might prolong the fighting for a year in the interior,
with small detachments; partizan bands, holding out here and there- all
over the country; collecting together as fast as they were separated;
renewing the fight after they seemed subdued; —he determined to grant
them such terms that there would be neither object nor excuse left
them for such a course. The consummate wisdom of his conduct was
proved by the haste which the rebels made to yield everything they
had fought for. They were ready not only to give up arms, but, as
has been said, to swear fidelity to the Government. They acquiesdeed
in the abolition of slavery, they abandoned the heresy of secession,
and waited in humility to see what else their conquerors would dictate.
And they did this in excellent spirit. They said they had staked all,
and lost all; they admitted it was fair that the Government should
treat them as conquered rebels; they were thankful for their lives;
they did not know if their lands would be left them; they dreamed
not of political power; they did not hope to vote; they only asked to
be let live quietly under the flag they had outraged, and attempt in
some slight degree to build up their shattered fortunes. Many did
not scruple to say that they would be betteroff now than if the rebellion had succeeded; many openly declared they were even more-likely
to prosper than during the days when the rebellion had existed. Some
announced that they were glad that the war had ended as it did, and
were proud to be back again under the Government under which they
had been born. The greatest general of the rebellion asked for pardon.
GRATITUDE TO GRANT.
All proclaimed especially their admiration of Grant's generosity.
General Lee refused to present his petition for amnesty until he had
ascertained in advance that Grant would recommend it. Mrs. Jefferson Davis wrote to Grant, and went in person to see him, asking his
all-powerful influence to obtain a remission of some of the punishment




124                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
of her husband; and throughout the South his praises were on the
lips of his conquered foes.
If this was so at the South, the North awarded him such a unanimity
of praise and affection as no American had ever received before. Houses
were-furnished and presented to him, in Philadelphia, Washington,
and Galena; magnificent donations of money were placed at his disposal; whenever he stepped out of his house, crowds attended and
applauded him; at every public place, theatre or church, the audience
or congregation rose at his entrance. If he visited a town, the mayor
and other authorities welcomed him; cities were illuminated because
of his presence, processions were formed in his honor, and the whole
summer of 1865 was one long ovation. The nation felt that, it could
not do enough for the man who had led its armies to victory; men of
every shade of political, religious, and social opinion or position,
united in these acclamations.
But amid them all Grant preserved a modesty as remarkable as the
ability which had won them. He made a tour of several months
through the Northern States, during which probably every distinguished man in the country, besides innumerable crowds of less
illustrious, but quite as hearty and patriotic friends, combined to do
him honor; and in all this period, his quiet, unobtrusive manner, his
simplicity of speech and dress, his equanimity and modesty, were as
much admired as his deeds. To see him, one would never have suspected that the parade and celebration were on his account. He
never spoke of his achievements or his success; he never alluded to
the demonstrations in his honor; he accepted and appreciated the
kindness that was offered him, thanked the people in the simplest and
plainest terms, and won their love, where before he had only their
admiration and their gratituile.
PRESIDENTIAL RECONSTRUCTION.
So passed the summer away. Meanwhile, the President had been
endeavoring to reconstruct the Union..Upon the assassination of Mr.
Lincoln, there had beent great fears entertained by all moderate men,
that the harshness of Andrew Johnson alid his revengeful violence
towards the rebels would postpone for a long time any real harmony.
He had openly announced his belief that all traitors should be hanged,
and had threatened what severities he would use, if he were President
of the United States. Grant himself was sincerely.anxious on this




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 125
matter. The extreme violence of the President, when discussing Sherman's terms to the rebels, increased this anxiety, and at first it seemed
as if it was destined to have ample cause. The President denounced
the rebels bitterly, he refused to pardon any, he kept many civilians
imprisoned, he was determined, he said, " to render treason odious;"
he was anxious to try and to punish even those whom Grant had
paroled.
Repeatedly, when Grant was summoned to Cabinet meetings, the
President wanted to know when the time would come that Lee and
other paroled officers could be tried and punished; and Grant was
obliged to intercede and defend them. He maintained that the paroles
protected them; that they could not be tried while they obeyed the
laws and complied with the stipulations they had entered into. He
was obliged more than once to be very emphatic on this point. He
thought we had received a very good equivalent for the lives of a few
leaders, by securing all their arms and getting themselves under our
control, bound by their oaths to obey the law; and, having received
this consideration, he held that we ourselves were bound in honor to
maintain them in theirs.*
MAGNANIMITY OF GRANT.
As has been seen, Grant early recommended the pardon of General
Lee, on the ground that it would do much to secure harmony; and
favored that of General Johnston, because of the excellent tone and
spirit he had displayed. Indeed, when measures were taken by a
subordinate of the Government in Virginia, to bring General Lee to
trial, that officer at once appealed to Grant, to know if he thought
the terms at Appomattox allowed this. Grant insisted that they did
not, and so informed Lee; and went in person to the President on
the subject, besides stating his views officially and in writing; and the
proceedings were stopped. So, also, he sought to alleviate some of the
sufferings of Jefferson Davis in his prison at Fort Monroe; but in this
he was not so successful. He never lost a chance to show a magnanimous spirit to his fallen foes; and, owing to the feeling of the President, these chances were copstant and numerous. So it came about
that the South looked to Grant especially, as their guardian and protector against Andrew Johnson.
But, as time wore on, the enmity of the President towards those
who had been rebels was modified.  They made haste to subscribe
*See Grant's testimony before Judiciary Committee.




126                LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
to his terms; whatever he told them to do they did, and, pleased
with this, he flattered himself that he alone could reconstruct the
Union. He appointed governors without a shadow of law; he exacted changes in the constitutions of the seceded States; he established a policy-all without the sanction of Congress, which was not
in session, and had no power to summon itself, and which he persistently refused to call together, lest it should obstruct his policy; so
that, by the 1st of December, when Congress by law assembled, he
had built up an elaborate system of reconstruction, for which neither
the Constitution nor the laws of the land could afford a particle of
authority. It was true, the times were revolutionary, but his acts
were autocratic and still more revolutionary, subversive of every
democratic principle, assuming to himself powers more extraordinary
than any potentate in Europe ventures to-day to exercise. He could
easily have called the Congress and consulted with them, and, if they
differed with him, he was but the executive and they the legislative,
the law-making power of the Government. The Constitution itself
prescribes that the President shall simply execute the laws made by
Congress.
OPPOSITION OF CONGRESS.
But Congress met, and it was at once apparent that his scheme
was not approved by either house. He had not taken nor exacted
the guarantees which Congress insisted were necessary from those
lately in rebellion. He was willing to admit them at once to a full
share in the Government; Congress thought measures should be taken
to secure what had been won by the war. He seemed willing to withdraw the military from the South; Congress wished it to be retained.
He would permit those who had been prominent in treason to retain
that prominence in the rescued Government; Congress was unwilling
for this. He made no provision for the protection and elevation of
the emancipated millions; Congress thought this was one of the first
duties of the nation.
Grant took no part in the contest between the two divisions of the
Government. He was purely a military officer, and unwilling to
obtrude himself into civil affairs. He was anxious for perfect harmony and peace to be reestablished throughout the land, and inclined
to the most lenient treatment of the rebels, consistent with retaining
the advantages that had been so dearly bought. And although he
was not consulted in the policy originated by the President, yet, as




LIfE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 121
the latter did not choose to call Congress together, and as it was necessary to construct some system, he acquiesced when the President
enunciated his plan. But he always thought and said, that whatever
the President did must be provisional; he held that Congress, the representative of the people, must eventually decide what the law should
be, and to its decision all must bow.
GRANT'S SOUTHERN TOUR.
In November, before Congress had assembled, the President sent
Grant to make a tour through the South, and to report upon the condition of affairs. He returned in about three Weeks, having visited
Richmond, North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Tennessee. Everywhere he was received with great respect by the people whom he had
conquered. The governors and mayors instantly called to pay him
their respects, the State legislatures invited him to their chambers and
rose in form to greet him, addresses were made him, and though there
was no enthusiasm, there was a decided cordiality. In private, many
of the most prominent civilians and generals of the rebellion called on
him.
His report to the President was dated December 18, 1865. It
stated that "the mass of thinking men of the South accept the situation of affairs in good faith." Slavery and the right of secession
they had entirely abandoned; and some of their leading men even declared that the result of the war was fortunate. Grant recommended,
however, that a strong military force should still be retained at the
South, although he believed that "the citizens of that region were
anxious to return to self-government within the Union as soon as
possible."  There is no doubt that this is exactly the condition of
affairs which existed at the South at that time, and that, if.this spirit
had been fostered, the rebels would have submitted promptly to the
conditions which before long Congress imposed.
THE RUPTURE.
But in February, the quarrel between the President and Congress
came to an open breach. Grant had striven hard to prevent this; he
felt the necessity of harmony between these two branches of the Government at this important crisis, and went from one to another, using
the immense weight and influence which his achievements gave him,




128                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
to heal the discord. Many Congressmen, also, were extremely unwilling to come to a rupture with the President whom they had elected.
But Mr. Johnson was determined that his policy should prevail, and
would listen to no overtures from Congress in which this was not
stipulated.  Congress, however, especially insisted that those who had
been leaders in the rebellion should be disqualified from holding office,
and that the principle of representation in Congress from the southern
States should be changed. Hitherto, before the war, and during the
existence of slavery, members of the lower House had been chosen,
not only one for every certain number of inhabitants, but also one for
every certain number of slaves, though the slaves had no votes; so
that the vote of a white man at the South was worth nearly half as
much again as that of a white man at the North. One vote at the
South did half as much again to elect a Congressman as a vote at
the North. A white man at the South had half as much more voice
in the legislation of the country than any man at the North. This had
been tolerated heretofore because of the compromises of the Constitution, and because it had been thought better to allow this great influence to slave property rather than run the chance of civil war.
But the civil war had occurred in spite of the compromises, and the
North had won. Now, the North insisted that no black man should
be represented unless he voted. It did not insist that black men
should vote, but that-the white men of the South should not have the
power which slavery had given them, and which, by a singular effect
of the constitutional provisions, would be absolutely increased by the
results of the war' and the abolition of slavery. For, if slaves were
simply emancipated and not enfranchised, and the number of representatives was to be apportioned to the number of the population,
exactly as at the North, the white voters would of course elect a
greater number of representatives than before. Until now, it had been
arranged that to the number of free persons should be added threefifths of " all others;" but as there would no longer be these " others,"
all being free, the Southern States would actually have their representatives increased by the two-fifths, and yet the small number of
whites in the southern States would elect them all.
It was manifestly unjust that the South should gain in political
power from its evil act, and therefore, after long discussion, Congress
determined to insist, that if the entire free population of the South
was to be represented, it should all vote; that the whites should not
vote for the blacks; or, if they chose still to exclude the blacks from




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 129
voting, that their number of representatives should be diminished proportionately. In other words, that the voting population only should
be represented. This did not seem a very harsh stipulation to impose
upon a community which had rebelled against its Government, and
fought a long and bloody civil war, and been subdued-simply that in
readmission to a share in that Government, it should have no privileges
superior to those who had remained loyal, and finally had succeeded
in overthrowing the rebellion. Yet this, and the exclusion from
office of a few of those who had been most prominent in rebellion, was
all that Congress exacted.
The President, however, although he had enforced the abolition of
slavery upon-the South, absolutely ordering the States to insert it in
their constitutions, was violently opposed to this necessary corollary of
emancipation —the rearrangement of representation. He strove to form
a new party, which should maintain his policy; and political strife at
once arose all over the land. The old friends of the rebels at the
North, those who had sympathized with them during the war, who had
done all that they dared to help them, but had been obliged in some
degree to veil their sympathies —now, finding they had the President
on their side, spoke out openly, and encouraged the southerners with
hopes of better terms than Congress offered them. This aroused the
rebellious spirit which had brought on the war, and all over the South
the good feeling which, under Grant's policy had begun to grow up,
under the President's was converted into hostility. From being penitent, or at least submissive, the rebels became again blatant and
haughty.  They declared themselves proud of their treason; they
insisted upon their rights under the Constitution-they who had
trampled on the Constitution, and who a few months before had
meekly sought their pardons! The whole tone of opinion and feeling
at the South was changed, and this reacted on the North, which, seeing the ancient defiant and insulting tone resumed-of those whom
it had so recently and severely chastised — became naturally indignant.
The worst of the rebels were not content with talk, but resorted to
deeds. In the State of Texas alone, Sheridan reported, officially, to
Grant, that over seven hundred Union whites and negroes were murdered in one year, and no redress could be obtained. In no court of
a southern State could a Union man procure justice; no jury would
convict a rebel for any offence committed against a northerner or a
black; while at the same time, and in the same courts, suits were in9




180                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
stituted and decided against Union soldiers for damages done to property in the South during the war, by command of their officers. The
southern papers teemed again with abuse of northerners; insults
were offered to northern officers in southern cities by the men whom
they had conquered, and the natural result occurred. The North
resented the misuse that was made of its generosity. There were, it
is true, many southerners who were sorry to see the strife rekindled,
and who sought to control their misguided friends; but these were not
sufficient to stem the current.
GRANT'S POSITION.
Grant had watched the course of events with great concern. With
all his magnanimity, and even tenderness, for the vanquished, he had
no idea of relinquishing one iota of the results that he had attained.
As early as January, 1866, he issued an order, directing that no officer
of the army should be sued, tried, or punished in any way by a civil
court at the South for acts done during or since the rebellion.  Complaints against officers or soldiers by civilians or ex-rebels must be
lodged with their military superiors alone. Soon after this, he refused
the Governor of Alabama permission to reorganize the militia of that
State; he declared "he could not see the propriety of putting arms
into the hands of the militia, until the rights of all classes of citizens
should be perfectly secure, and the regular United States forces withdrawn."  He also attempted to restrain, or at least rebuke, the extremely offensive and seditious tone which the southern press had
begun to assume, and directed his subordinates to forward to his headquarters copies of any publications calculated to disturb the public
peace, or manifesting a revival of the old rebellious spirit. In several instances rebel newspapers of this character were suspended by
his orders. He was not among those who forgot that there had been a
tremendous rebellion and a terrible civil war. He knew too well the
cost that the country had paid to suppress that rebellion, and watched
the change in the feeling and temper of the South closely, determined
to do all in his power to avert further trouble in time. While the
rebels were repentant and submissive, and thoroughly loyal, he was
willing and anxious to do aTl in his power to win them with kindness,
to restore them to prosperity, if not to power, and to ameliorate the
miserable condition which they had brought upon themselves. But if
they proved themselves unworthy of this treatment; if they began to




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 131
boast of their treason; to annoy or distress Union men among them;
to insult the Government which had spared them; he stood ready to
administer fresh discipline as long as it was required, and to repress
sternly the incipient symptoms of relapse.
There was, however, one portion of the community whom he never
forgave, and those were the people at the North who had been false to
the country in the hour of trial; those who had sympathized with the
rebellion, who had croaked of disaster, who had rejoiced over the suocesses of treason, and done their best to dishearten the courage of the
nation, while its defenders were spilling their blood in battle. Towards
these men-the Woods, the Vallandighams, the Pendletons, the Clymers, the Seymours of the North-Grant was unrelenting. He could
hardly treat them with civility when they approached him. He could
forgive a rebel who fought with and for, as he supposed, the community in which he had been born; but these traitors, who deserted not
only their country, but their State and section too, Grant could never
pardon.
Some of them, because he had been magnaminous in victory,
thought they could win him over to them, but he repulsed their overtures with scorn. He rarely entered into politics, but declared openly
that he hoped every soldier would vote always for Union men in preference to politicians who had refused to supply men and money to
carry on the war.
THE PHILADELPHIA CONVENTION.
But the President soon fell entirely into the hands of these people;
he was surrounded by the most virulent, and this first led Grant to
abate in his intimacy with Andrew Johnson, and to lessen his confidence in the President's opinions. While the contest between the
President and Congress was at its height, a meeting of all those who
supported Mr. Johnson;s views was called at Philadelphia. This was
attended by some excellent and patriotic men, who did not see clearly
whither the views expressed by the President were carrying them;
men sincerely anxious for harmony, who did not recognize the growing revival of a treasonable spirit at the South, and who thought less
restrictive measures than those proposed by Congress would best accomplish reconstruction. But the great bulk of the men who had
supported and carried on the war held themselves aloof from this
attempt to inaugurate a new party. Even in that convention, however, such men as Vallandigham and Wood were not allowed to speak;




132                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
though in more recent conventions, the former has nominated Presidents for the party that opposed the war.
A delegation was appointed by the Philadelphia convention to present resolutions of sympathy to the President, approving of his policy,
rather than that of Congress. Mr. Johnson was extremely anxious
to gain the countenance of Grant on this occasion. Ile wanted to
throw the weight of Grant's immense popularity into the scale in his
own favor. He knew by this time that Grant was much more strongly
disposed to the Congressional scheme of reconstruction than to his
own, and that he held firmly to the belief that the Executive was
simply the instrument to carry out the laws; but he still sought to
obtain Grant's presence and tacit approval, if he could not induce
him to openly advocate the Presidential policy. Accordingly, on the
morning of the arrival at the White House of the delegation from
Philadelphia, the President sent Grant a note, requesting his presence
at the Executive Mansion, but not stating the object of the visit which
he desired. An invitation from the President is an order to a military
officer; and Grant would have considered it necessary to obey, even
had he known on what occasion his presence was desired; but of this
he was not informed. IHe went to the White House, expecting to
transact business with the President, and was ushered into thb  east
room, where he found several hundred delegates paying their respects.
The President made room for him at his side, and the delegates, after
speaking to Mr. Johnson, all turned and shook hands with Grant.
This was heralded all over the country as a proof that Grant approved
the President's course, and had taken this means of showing his
position.
CHICAGO TOUR.
Shortly afterwards, the President determined to make a tour to
Chicago, and invited Grant to accompany him. It had now become
apparent that the lines were to be drawn closely in politics, and that
for Grant to accompany Mr. Johnson on this tour would be taken as
an indication that he was a supporter of the President. Grant was
especially anxious not to be regarded as a partizan; the elections
were about to occur, and he was willing for the country to decide
which policy it would adopt. He begged the President to excuse him
from going on this trip. But Mr. Johnson repeatedly urged him to
go, and finally, as a personal matter, renewed his invitation. It would
have been very indecorous in the general-in-chief to persist in refusal,




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                    133
and, very much against his will, he accompanied Mr. Johnson on the
famous tour, which speedily became an avowed political enterprise,
and one whose results were more disastrous to its originator than any
other ever undertaken. Grant kept himself as much as possible in
the back ground, and positively refused to make any speeches, although
repeatedly called on; but, as he had foreseen, the advocates of the
President declared that his presence during the trip was positive evidence of his adherence to the Presidential policy.
In July, 1866, he was promoted to a new rank, created expressly
for him by Congress-that of General of the Army; it was the highest
ever known in the American army. The appointment was unanimously
confirmed, and the commission issued at once. It was everywhere
understood that this was done as a national and formal recognition of
his illustrious services in the field.
THE ELECTIONS-THE COUNTRY DECIDES.
In the fall of this year, the elections for the succeeding Congress
took place, the only question at issue being the policy of reconstruction. The campaign was vigorous, and the result unmistakably proclaimed the will of the people. By large majorities the country spoke
in favor of the Congressional plan. The proposed amendment to the
Constitution was submitted to the various State Legislatures at the
North, and ratified by them, and Republican members of the Fortieth
Congress were elected all over the land by increased majorities. It
was, therefore, now certain that the President's policy was unacceptable to the loyal people of the country.
GRANT'S ADVICE TO THE SOUTH.
But Mr. Johnson was still far from submitting. He had opposed
Congress, appealing to the people; but, when the people decided
against him, he was as determined as ever. Grant, however, considered that " the will of the people is the law of the land," and that it
was the duty of every executive officer not only to submit, but to
" take care that the laws be faithfully executed," no matter what his
own opinions might be of the justice or even constitutionality of those
laws. He now used every means to induce the southern people to
accept the terms of reconstruction offered them by Congress —to adopt
the constitutional amendment, and return in good faith to that Union




134                LIFE: OF GENERAL GRANT.
which they had striven so hard to overthrow. His influence with
Southerners had been great; none of distinction at this time ever was
in Washington without visiting his house or his headquarters, and to
all who came he proffered the same advice. Formal delegations from
some of the southern States were sent to the capital, to take the
opinion of public men there as to the propriety of accepting these
terms. These delegations all saw Grant, who sometimes went out of
his way to meet them, and to urge upon their members the importance
of adopting the constitutional amendment. One of these interviews
took place at the house of the Secretary of State, who was known to
be opposed to the amendment, although it had been endorsed by the
North, but who invited Grant to meet the delegation from Arkansas.
Grant went, and spoke very plainly; he told the Arkansas members
that he spoke as their friend; he assured them that the temper of the
North was such that, if these terms were rejected, still harsher ones
would be imposed. He argued, and plead, and besought them, for
their own sakes, for the sake of the entire South, for the sake of the
country, to conform to the situation, to recognize that they had been
conquered, to yield frankly, to return to the Union; and assured them
that a speedy reconciliation would ensure the lightening of all that
was really onerous in the stipulations proposed.
Many important and sensible southerners agreed with Grant that it
was the true policy of the South to submit to what it could- not avert;
but the President's influence was all thrown the other way. He
assured those who had been rebels that a change would come in the
temper of the North; he advised them not to accede to what was
demanded; he promised them his influence, and finally was able to
dissuade them from accepting the amendment. Every southern State
rejected it. Not one but regrets that fact to-day.
THE MARYLAND MATTER.
About this time, political differences occurred in the State of Maryland, which threatened to create a collision between the State authorities and those of the city of Baltimore. The Democrats, who were,
as usual, in league with those of the former rebels who still remained
blatant and defiant, appealed to the President for armed assistance,
and he made several communications to Grant, with a view of inducing
Grant to order troops into the State of Maryland. But Grant replied.
that there was neither necessity nor law for such a course. He feared




LI-FE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 185
that in the excited state of public feeling, which Mr. Johnson's course
had aroused, the use of troops would provoke bloodshed, and that this
might prove the spark of a conflagration that could not easily be suppressed. The law was positive on the subject, and the Administration
was obliged to acquiesce in Grant's interpretation. Grant addressed
the President in these words: "I cannot see the possible necessity for
calling in the aid of the military in advance of even the cause which is
to induce riot. The conviction is forced on my mind that no reason,now exists for giving or promising the military aid of the Government
to support the laws of Maryland.  The tendency of giving such aid or
promise would be to produce the very result intended to be averted. It
is a contingency I hope never to see arise in this country, while I occupy
the position of general-in-chief of the army, to have to send troops into
a State in full relations with the General Government, on the eve of an
election, to preserve the peace. If insurrection does come, the law
provides the method of calling out forces to suppress it. No such condition seems to exist now."*
But the President seemed very much chagrined that he could not
induce Grant, on his own responsibility, to make the order. He took
good care, however, to give no such directions himself. Grant went
to Baltimore in person at the critical moment, and, seeing both parties,
averted all danger, inducing them to leave the decision of their rights
to the authority of the courts.
MEXICO-ATTEMPT TO DRIVE GRANT OUT OF THE COUNTRY.
His course in this matter, however, as well as his outspoken advice
to the Arkansas delegation, had proven very plainly that he could not
be induced to do anything in favor of the President's extraordinary
views, outside of the letter of the law; and it was determined to supplant him. The Administration did not dare absolutely to remove
from office the most popular man in America, especially when the office
had been created especially for him. A plan was therefore concocted
to get Grant out of the way, and to put Sherman, who, it was hoped,
would prove more supple, in his place. Sherman had said and written
several things which the President construed into an approval of his
policy. So Grant was directed to order Sherman to Washington, but
not informed of the reason for the order.
* See Ex. Doc., No. 57, Fortieth Congress, second session, pages 63 and following.




186                LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
To fully explain the extraordinary proceedings which now took
place, it is necessary to take a retrospect. The invasion of Mexico,
by the French, during the existence of the armed rebellion, was undoubtedly undertaken in the interests of that rebellion; and when
our internal war was over, Grant, regarding the French occupation as
only a part and parcel of the rebellion, was very anxious to compel
the evacuation of Mexico. He did not think it would be necessary
to resort to arms in order to accomplish this, but he believed that a
threat of war, in case the evacuation were not immediate, would have
the desired effect.
He urged repeatedly and earnestly upon the Government, that now
was the time, while we had still hundreds of thousands of men in
arms, to say to the Emperor of the French, that we could not tolerate
the occupation of Mexico by a European power. Before our armies
were disbanded, he ordered Sheridan, with a large force, to the banks
of the Rio Grande, especially to watch the movements in Mexico, and
with the hope that he could persuade the Goverment to call peremptorily upon France to withdraw. But the Secretary of State had no
relish for such positive proceedings. They were not in accordance
with his adroit diplomacy, and the frank, outspokenness of the soldier,
was not so acceptable to the President as the wily machinations of the
veteran politician.  The President professed to wish to see the
French leave Mexico, but he never followed Grant's advice in the
matter. He never summoned France to leave, until he knew that her
troops were embarking. Still Grant kept up for two years his anxious
and earnest importunity on this subject. He spurred on the unwilling
Government, and whatever was accomplished in this matter was due,
in reality, to his pertinacity, and to the threat which the presence of
Sheridan, with an army on the Rio Grande, constantly offered to Louis
Napoleon. Besides this, Grant openly spoke in favor of his views-a
course most unusual with him-and fostered, by every means in his
power, the popular feeling against the French occupation. He constantly advised that arms should be supplied the Mexicans by our
Government; he encouraged the Mexicans whom he saw,.to hold out;
and was, by far, the most active and persistent friend of the Monroe
doctrine in America. It is not too much to assert, that it was this
unintermitted effort and influence of his, that stimulated the Government and menaced the Emperor of the French, (who was well aware
of Grant's feeling on the subject,) and that finally secured the evacuation of Mexico. But for this, the time-serving, procrastinating policy




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  137
of the Secretary of State would have lasted till now, and the Empire
of Maximilian would have still existed; the nucleus, perhaps, of a
future rebellion, as it was, both during and long after the war, the
nest of traitors and the abettor of treason.
The Administration, in its anxiety to get rid of such a loyal, lawabiding, and powerful patriot as Grant, bethought itself of Mexico,
and determined to send him thither. Knowing his profound interest
in the subject of Mexican independence, it was thought he would
bite at the bait at once; and, as the country was also well aware of
his sentiment, there would be excuse enough to veil their real motives,
and account for the exile of the greatest of our soldiers. The movement was sudden. No peculiar interest in Mexico had been manifested by the Government for months; it was known that the French
Emperor was tardily preparing to withdraw his troops; there was not
the shadow of a real cause for the proposition; but all at once, in
November, 1866, the President informed Grant that he meant to send
him to Mexico. I-e was to go, not at the head of an army, but on a
diplomatic mission, in connection with an obscure individual, one Colonel L. D. Campbell, who had recently been appointed minister to Mexico; but who, it was supposed, could not be confirmed by the Senate.
There was no special object of the mission announced; Grant was
simply to go to Mexico, and examine, as well as he could, into the
state of affairs; he was given no powers or authority, not even that
of an ordinary minister, and was not instructed or empowered either
to make demands, or to back his statements with menaces or men.
He was simply to give Lewis D. Campbell the "benefit of his advice,"
"in carrying out the instructions of the Secretary of State."*
The device was transparent to the far-seeing, honest man, and he
promptly declined to go. This was in conversation with the President. But a day or two afterwards the President returned to the
subject, and urged the embassy on Grant, saying he had sent for
Sherman to take his place in the meantime. Congress was about to
assemble, and the air was full of rumors that the President would
refuse to aknowledge the validity of Congress, and attempt to disperse
it by arms. Mr. Johnson had recently seemed to have peculiar designs
in regard to Maryland. Grant remembered all this, and again declined
to leave the country, this time in writing. After this, he was summoned
* See Ex. Dec., No. 57, Fortieth Congress, second session, House of Representatives,
page 69.




138                   LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
to a full Cabinet meeting, where his detailed instructions were read
out by.the Secretary of State, as if the objections and refusal had
been of no account. They were determined to make him go, whether
he would or not —to drive him out of the country which he had saved.
Grant was now aroused, and, before the whole Cabinet, declared his
unwillingness to leave. Whereupon the President, not answering
Grant, turned to the Attorney General, and asked him whether there
was any reason why Grant should not obey this order-whether he was
ineligible to the position in any way. Grant at once started to his
feet, and exclaimed, "I can answer that question, Mr. President,
without appealing to the Attorney General. I am an American citizen, have been guilty of no treason or other crime, and am eligible to
any civil office to which any other American is eligible. But this is a
purely civil duty, to which you would assign me, and I cannot be compelled to undertake it. Any legal military order you give me, I will
obey; but this is civil and not military, and I decline the duty. No
power on earth can force me to it." The President and his ministers
were astounded and silent, and Grant left the Cabinet-chamber.
Even after this, copies of his instructions were forwarded to him
through the Secretary of War, who was directed to request him to
proceed to Mexico. He now wrote a second letter, declining most
positively the duty assigned him. But, meanwhile, Sherman had been
sent for,.and had arrived. The country was rife with rumors of the
object of his coming; the Administration had to conjure up some
excuse for sending for him. The President, therefore, urged him to
accept the position of Secretary of War; but this Sherman peremptorily declined. So, after a day or two, Grant was directed to turn
over his instructions for the Mexican mission to Sherman, and Sherman was sent to Mexico with Campbell, while Grant was let alone.
Sherman accomplished nothing by his mission, as neither he nor any
one else expected he would; and, after a month or so, he returned.
For all that was done, he might as well have remained in St. Louis;
but it was necessary to save the credit of the Administration, and he
was made the scapegoat.
CONGRESSIONAL RECONSTRUCTION.
When it was definitely known that the terms upon which readmisfion to the Union was proffered to those who had been in rebellion had
been refused, although those terms had been submitted to the people




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  139
of the North, and by them overwhelmingly approved, Congress at
once set about the work of reconstruction, whether the southern
States agreed or not. It was not to be endured that the work for
which so many lives had been spent, so much toil, and danger, and
expense incurred, should be forfeited, because those who had caused
all this expenditure were still recusant. There was no obligation on
the loyal people to consult the rebels at all; the nation had won, and
might dispose of its own; it had chosen to be lenient, to be more than
lenient; it had taken none of the lives that were fairly forfeited; it
had confiscated no property since the close of the war; it had even
offered to allow those who had striven for its ruin, a share in the, Government; but they had refused. Now, it was determined that the
States should return, whether they wished it or no. They should be
governed, and as the loyal people desired. The whole rebellious
region was at once divided into five military districts, and military
rule declared supreme in each. The commanders had power to remove
any political officer, to set aside any State law, and were especially
enjoined to see that the justice which the State courts had persistently
denied to Union soldiers and Union men, white or black, should be
impartially administered. This condition of affairs was to last until
the States chose to return to the Union, under new and more unpalatable conditions than those which they had refused. It had become
evident that the fruits of the war could only be secured by a free
admission of the colored population to the right of suffrage. The
entire rebellious portion of the southern people were determined that
they would not submit to the terms proposed by Congress; but, by
throwing open the ballot to the negroes, a majority could be obtained
large enough to carry out the measures which the loyal people desired.
It was accordingly decreed that the colored people should vote on
equal terms with the white. The blacks had been staunchly loyal
during the war, of which they were in so large a degree the cause; and
there was no doubt that their sympathies and votes would be decidedly
with the men who had freed them; with the Government and the nation, rather than with the faction which had held them in slavery, and
warred against the country. The former rebels were still not disfranchised; with a long-suffering unparalleled in history, the Government,
justly incensed as it was at their stiffneckedness and insolent defiance
of those who had conquered them, still allowed them a voice in selecting that government and determining its policy; but it insisted that
the blacks should share in proportion to their numbers. When State




140                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
constitutions, in conformity with this condition of affairs, should be
formed by this increased voting population, presented to Congress,
and accepted by it, the military rule should cease, and the rebel States
be admitted again to an equal share in the Government.
This is, in few words, the Congressional system of reconstruction,
enacted by Congress in March, 1867; it was passed over the veto of
the President, and, because of the President's known and pronounced
opposition to it, a supervisory power over the military district commanders was given to Grant. It was even proposed to make him supreme
over the southern States, and independent of the President; but against
this he advised in the strongest manner, as subversive of'the principles of the Government; and his counsels prevailed.
GRANT'S STATESMANSHIP.
From thistime, however, he entered upon one of the most difficult
administrative positions that any soldier or civilian was ever called
upon to fill. In a condition of affairs amounting to revolution; where
an entire hostile population had to be controlled, while a recentlyenfranchised one'was to be enlightened and led upward; where the
legislative and the executive branches of the Government were at
open enmity; where the passions of a terrible civil war were yet not
subsided; where an arbitrary military rule was established under a
democratic and republican form of government; —he was placed amid
all these contending interests and passions, to balance, and soothe,
and direct, and influence all. A subordinate of the President, he was
yet in some important respects declared independent of him; and it
was made his duty by the law to carry out a policy which the President sought by every possible means to thwart and destroy..
No statesman ever had so delicate or difficult a task before. To
the performance of this task he brought great sagacity, untiring
patience, unparalleled equanimity, persistency, purity, and a desire to
do justice to all. He was able even yet to postpone the fiercest phase
of hostility that was destined to appear between the President and the
Congress; he strove to do nothing offensive to the former-to obey all
his legal orders, to show him all the respect due his office-and at the
same time to carry out the spirit of the laws, which he and every other
officer of the Government was bound to obey; to protect the white and
black Unionists at the South, while he treated rebels with miingled
leniency and justice. He was, however, convinced that since these




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   141
measures had been inaugurated by Congress, it was for the interest of
the country that they should be successfully carried out. He believed
that the old spirit of the war had revived at the South to such a degree, that strenuous repression of it was necessary. He advised the
removal from office of all persons who were not really anxious to
renew their allegiance to the flag; at the same time that he repeatedly
urged upon Congress the remission of the penalties of treason in the
case of those whose course proved that they were now really loyal.
By this spirit his whole course was guided. He had no power (except
in one or two particulars) to order the district commanders in the discharge of their civil duties, but he advised them constantly; and, with
a single exception, they always asked and took his advice as orders.
PROGRESS OF RECONSTRUCTION.
Under his wise and really pacific management, the evil spirit at the
South began to subside, murders were less common, justice was more
frequent, the rebel population itself declared its satisfaction with military rule, its preference for this to any other government.  Meanwhile, the registration of the new voters commenced, and all things
went on smoothly. It seemed as if the reconstruction measures must
succeed, and peace was to come at last to this distracted land. The
rebels, finding that Mr. Johnson was powerless and the North determined, were submitting to the inevitable.
OPPOSITION OF THE PRESIDENT.
But now the President discovered some loopholes in the law through
which he still might be able to frustrate the will of the representatives
of the people. He had been left the power to appoint the district
commanders.  He had appointed them  all —Sherida'n, Schofield,
Sickles, Pope, and Ord; all soldiers, who, before the war, were without any tinge of abolition sentiment; all men who, since the war, had
evinced the strongest sympathy with the original magnanimous policy
inaugurated by Grant. But all were men accustomed to obey the law;
all strove heartily to carry out the laws of Congress under which they
were appointed; and it was through their united endeavors, in a great
degree, that the success of the reconstruction measures seemed likely
to be ensured. The President, however, endeavored to thwart their
action, and repeatedly obliged Grant to defend them. He took the




142                LIFE -OF GENERAL~ GRANT.
position that the reconstruction acts were unconstitutional, and that,
therefore, he was not bound to obey them. Grant held that only the
Supreme Court could pronounce on this question of constitutionality
or unconstitutionality; and that, till that tribunal should pronounce,
all officers, from the President down, were bound to obey these laws.
The Attorney General gave opinions in favor of many of the President's views, especially declaring that any person at the South who
was willing to take the oath of allegiance should be registered as a
voter. Congress had expressly directed that certain classes at the
South should be excluded from the franchise. The President directed
Grant to forward this opinion to the district commanders. He obeyed,
but at the same time informed them that the law made them their own
interpreters of their powers and duties; and as thePresident did not
choose absolutely to direct him or them to act according to this opinion, they did not do so. Sheridan, who commanded the fifth military
district, consisting of the States of Louisiana and Texas, was proceeding with his work with so much vigor, that unless his efforts were
speedily arrested, it was evident he would soon succeed in bringing
those States into the Union. The President, therefore, in the summer of 1867, determined to remove Sheridan, as well as the Secretary
of War, who was the only member of his Cabinet now in harmony with
the Union sentiment of the country.
SUSPENSION OF STANTON.
The President's avowed unwillingness to conform to the measures of
Congress had been so great, that the national legislature, on adjourning in the spring, had left itself at liberty to meet again in July, if the
action of the President rendered this desirable. There was no doubt
on the subject when the time came. Congress met, and placed the
subject of reconstruction still more completely in the hands of the
General of the Army. It had been thought that Mr. Johnson would endeavor to remove Mr. Stanton, because of his sympathy with Congress,
and a law had been passed, taking from the President the power to
remove his Cabinet ministers without the consent of the Senate. The
President had vetoed the bill, but it was passed over his veto, he declaring it unconstitutional, and threatening not to obey it; and after
Congress again adjourned, he announced to Grant -his intention to
remove the Secretary of War, and to make Grant the successor of
Stanton.




LIFE OF GENER'AL GRANT.                 A14S
In this design the Government may have been actuated by a double
motive. They saw the great and increasing popularity of the generalin-chief, and, perhaps, thought, by bringing him into a political situation, to entangle him, and lessen his influence with the people, and his
probable chances as a Presidential candidate. But they were also
anxious to secure the present prestige of Grant for their own unpopular course, although they knew full well how thoroughly Grant was
in sympathy with the Congressional measures, and how many causes of
difference had arisen between him and the Administration in this matter. The people, however, were not so well apprized as they. Grant had
thought it his duty to his superior and to the country to conceal these
differences from the public. He was anxious to overcome the President's obstinacy, and still hoped to avert some of the dangers which
that obstinacy threatened to bring upon the land. Beside this, he
wanted to avoid the indecorum of a dissension with his chief before the
world. The country, therefore, was uncertain (in some degree) of
Grant's position on these subjects; although to the President and his
Cabinet, and to his subordinate officers, he had proclaimed his opinions
again and again. Now, if the President meant to avail himself of this
decent reticence which Grant had maintained, he could, by placing
the general-in-chief in his Cabinet, give to himself, before the country, the sanction of the greatest name in America. But Grant at
once protested against the removal of either Mr. Stanton or General
Sheridan. ITe did this in conversation, when the matter was originally mentioned; but, after the interview was ended, he addressed the
President a letter, marked "Private," in which he used the following
words:
" Onil the subject of the displacement of the Secretary of War: His
removal cannot be effected against his will without the consent of the
Senate. It is but a short time since the United States Senate was in
session, and why not then have asked for his removal, if desired? It
certainly was the intention of the legislative branch of the Government
to place Cabinet ministers beyond the power of executive removal,
and it is pretty well understood that, so far as Cabinet ministers are
affected by the' tenure-of-office bill,' it was intended specially to protect the Secretary of War, whom the country felt great confidence in.
The meaning of the law may be explained away by an astute lawyer,
but common sense, and the views of loyal people, will give it the effect
intended by its framers."
This delayed the President's action for a week or so; but on the 12th




144                 LXFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
of August, Mr. Johnson, acting in strict conformity with the pro.
visions of the tenure-of-office bill, suspended Mr. Stanton from office
as Secretary of War, and appointed Grant ad interim in -his stead.
He had first requested Mr. Stanton to resign; but that officer declined,
stating that grave considerations of public duty impelled him to this
course.
When the President made the order appointing Grant, the Secretary urged the latter to accept, assuring him that the interests of the
country required it. Grant was well aware that his motives would be
misconstrued by many of' his countrymen, but he felt that he might
be able, in the Cabinet, to prevent some of the other changes upon
which the President was apparently bent, and, perhaps, to avert dangers almost equal to those which the country had so recently incurred.
He had so often, and avowedly, and within the last two weeks so explicitly, and' in writing, stated to the President his views on all subjects
connected with reconstruction, that there was no disguise on his part,
nor misconception on the President's, of Grant's motives in entering the
Cabinet. From the first day till the last of his service as Secretary
of War, he maintained, openly and earnestly, the opinions and the
position which his letters of August 1st and 17th indicate. For a few
days after his entrance upon his new duties, nothing was said about
the removal of Sheridan, and Grant began to hope that the removal of
Stanton would satisfy Mr. Johnson.
REMOVAL OF SHERIDAN.
But the rebels in Louisiana urged the matter strongly, and especially
insisted that unless the President acted soon, Louisiana would be reconstructed, and Congress triumphant. On the 17th of August, therefore, without further premonition, he directed Grant to issue an order
removing Sheridan, and substituting General George I-I. Thomas in his
stead. That sturdy patriot, however, had no idea of being brought
in to obstruct the laws of the land, and wrote at once in the most
urgent terms to request not to be substituted for Sheridan. Thereupon General W. S. Hancock was appointed, and he made no difficulty
in accepting the position.
In announcing these orders' to Grant, the President invited anyremarks from the general-in-chief which he might choose to make,
and the general replied in his memorable and eloquent letter, in which
he used the following patriotic words:




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                   145
"I am pleased to avail myself of this opportunity to urge, earnestly
urge, urge in the name of a patriotic people, who have sacrificed hundreds of thousands of loyal lives, and thousands of millions of treasure,
to preserve the integrity and Union of this country, that this order be
not insisted on. It is unmistakably the expressed wish of the country
that General Sheridan should not be removed from his present 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. General Sheridan
has performed his civil duties faithfully and intelligently.  His removal will only be regarded as an effort to defeat the laws of Congress. It will be interpreted by the unreconstructed element in the
South-those who did all they could to break up the Goverment 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 renewed
opposition to the will of the loyal masses, believing that they have the
Executive with them."
A torrent of indignation broke all over the land from the friends of
the Republic at the removal of Stanton and Sheridan; and many
staunch friends of Grant did not hesitate to disapprove his course in
entering Mr. Johnson's Cabinet. They considered that this step indicated that the great soldier was in sympathy with the policy of the
President. Grant remained silent under the unmerited reproach,
calm in the consciousness of having performed his duty; and in a
short time the whole correspondence between the President, himself,
and Mr. Stanton, was given to the country, in answer to several calls
from Congress, and the position of Grant became established. To add
the peculiar duties of a Cabinet officer to those with which Grant was
already intrusted, by virtue of his position as General of the Army,
and those imposed on him by the reconstruction -laws, was to make
him almost more powerful than the President, and to oppress him with
still heavier and more complicated responsibilities than any he had
yet incurred. But he was able, with wonderful sagacity, to act so as
for a long while to seem to command the approbation of all, even of
the adherents of the President. The following extracts from his correspondence with Mr. Stanton show his relations with the man whom
he had superseded:
Grant to Stanton.
"SIR: Enclosed herewith I have the honor to transmit to you a
copy of a letter just received from the President of the United States,
10




146                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
notifying me of my assignment as Secretary of War, and directing me
to assume those duties at once. In notifying you of my acceptance,
I cannot let the opportunity pass without expressing to you my appreciation of the zeal, patriotism, firmness, and ability, with which you
have ever discharged the duties of Secretary of War."
Stanton to Grant.
*  *  "You will please accept my acknowledgment of the kind
terms in which you have notified me of your acceptance of the President's appointment, and my cordial reciprocation of the sentiments
expressed. "
GRANT AS SECRETARY OF WAR.
At the same time, Grant's letters to the President had sufficiently
explained to that functionary and to the country his sympathy with
the policy of Congress. But as he was now ad interim Secretary of
War, it was necessary for him to attend Cabinet meetings, and therefore to be present at many political discussions, for whose tendency
he had neither interest nor approbation. He therefore represented to
the President that, as he was only holding the office of Secretary of
War until another should be appointed, and that not by his own suggestion or desire, and as his legitimate position was that of General
of the Army, who might be compelled to serve under successive
Administrations, he should be excused from participation in the purely
partisan duties of a Cabinet minister. The President at first paid
no attention to his request, but subsequently Grant renewed it repeatedly, and at last was accustomed to remain at Cabinet meetings
only long enough to present his budget of papers as Secretary of
War, and transact the purely official business of his post.  He was
then in the habit of retiring. This indicated very plainly to the
President, and the other members of his Administration, that Grant
was determined not to be considered one of them in purely political
matters.
He was sometimes requested to remain, and give his opinions on
matters not strictly within his province as Secretary of War, and when
he did so, those opinions were as pronounced as possible.'The discussion of the constitutionality of the tenure-of-office bill, and other
measures connected with the reconstruction acts of Congress, was
frequent at such times, and Grant never left the President or his




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  147
Cabinet in doubt as to his position-that, until the Supreme Court
should decide upon the constitutionality of these laws, the Government was bound to carry them out in spirit and in letter to the utmost
of its ability.
RETRENCHMENT AGAIN.
But although he refrained as much as possible from participation
in the political duties often expected from a Cabinet minister, he was
earnest and energetic, from the start, in the performance of all functions pertaining legitimately to his office as Secretary of War. There
were many abuses which had crept into the administration of the
army during the protracted and costly civil war, which only an experienced army officer would be likely to recognize, and which a civilian
might naturally suppose had existed as a part of the unwritten constitution of the service. These, and all other mismanagements, whether
proceeding from neglect or downright misdoing on the part of subordinates or outsiders, Grant immediately set himself to work to correct.
Retrenchment, as usual, was the first subject to attract his attention.
The use of ambulances as carriages, at every headquarters in the army,
had entailed an immense expense, unknown before the war. This
practice was at once abolished, beginning at his own headquarters.
The bureau of rebel archives had remained separate and distinct, under
the charge of a civilian; it was transferred to the Adjutant General's
department, and the bureau for the exchange of prisoners was abol.
ished, thus relieving the Government from the expense of a large
number of clerks and civil employds. Immense quantities of stores
had accumulated in the Quartermaster's department during the war,
and had now become useless; these were directed to be sold; and the
storehouses, for which great rents had been paid, were then given up.
The volunteer officers yet remaining in the service were mustered out,
in all but a few cases, where their services still seemed indispensable.
The agency of the Freedmen's Bureau was restricted almost exclusively to officers of the army, so that the civilian employ6s were dispensed with, and the expenses of the bureau greatly reduced by this
and all other means within his control. These various retrenchments
were so important, that in his annual message to Congress, the President, no partial witness, declared that "salutary reforms have been
introduced by the Secretary ad interim, and great reductions of expenses have been effected under his administration of the War Department, to the saving of millions to the Treasury."




148                 LIFE OF GENERAL GRAfT.
In fact, the useless offices that were cut off, the sinecures that were
abolished, the extravagances that were curtailed, the system of rigid
economy that was introduced, all indicated a decided administrative
ability and honesty, that recalled the palmy days of the Republic, and
afforded a happy augury of what would occur if he, who in a subordinate
position was able to accomplish so much, should be elevated to the head
of the Government. In Grant's report, as Secretary of War, he
reduced the estimates for the expenditures of the Department in the
ensuing year so greatly, that the report was distrusted by some, and
the calculations were revised, when he brought down the estimates still
further-to twenty-seven millions of dollars; and to this estimate the
chairman of the Committee of Ways and Means (Hon. R. C. Schenck)
has given his endorsement of its accuracy.
Meanwhile, the President's opposition to Congress continued, with
all its evil results upon the country, inflaming the South with the hope
of reacquiring all their old preponderance, till the ex-rebels openly
talked of repudiating the national debt, and asserting their rights to
all that they had forfeited by their treason. The whole country was
kept in a state of agitation; business was disturbed, the finances
became involved, good feeling between North and South had almost
ceased, and, in the portion of the land where war had not raged, party
spirit rose higher, if possible, than before the war. Every step the
President took added to the excitement; every day he became more
closely allied with those who had striven to overthrow the Government. He removed, first Mr. Stanton; then General Sheridan; then
General Sickles, who was relieved by Canby; and Pope, who was
relieved by General Meade. But both of the officers whom he thus
placed in the position of district commanders at once began to carry
out the laws in the spirit in which they were conceived. Only in
General Hancock, who superseded Sheridan, did he find a solitary
instance of a soldier who had made a reputation by his efforts against
the rebellion and was willing to risk that reputation in the attempt
to restore the rebels to power.
STANTON REINSTATED.
Finally, however, Congress reassembled, and some check was pet
upon the almost unbridled movements of the President. He wasobliged, by the tenure-of-office bill, to report to the Senate, within
twenty days after its meeting, the reasons for which he had suspended




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                 149
the Secretary of War. This he did, and the Senate, on the 13th of
January, decided that the reasons were insufficient. By the express
language of the law, the moment that the Senate decided this, Mr.
Stanton was reinstated in his office. It had become evident, several
days before, that the Seriate would come to this determination, and,
as soon as Grant was convinced of this, on the 11th of January, two
days prior to the action of the Senate, he notified the President that
he could not, without violation of the law, and subjecting himself to
the penalties of fine and imprisonment, refuse to vacate the office of
Secretary of War the moment Mr. Stanton was reinstated by the
Senate.
He made this known to the President in person, as he had previously
promised to do, in case he came to such a conclusion. The President,
however, disputed Grant's views, and strove to induce him to change
his intention. A long and earnest conversation ensued, each maintaining his own opinions vigorously; finally, it became late, and the
President said he would see Grant again, to which Grant made no
reply.
The next day was Sunday, and Lieutenant General Sherman being
in town, Grant sent him to the President to urge the nomination to
the Senate of some other person as Secretary of War, so that the
Senate might act, and Mr. Stanton be relieved, and any unpleasant
imbroglio avoided. The person proposed by Grant was Ex-Governor
Cox, of Ohio, who had been a major general of volunteers during
the war, and afterwards elected Governor of Ohio by the Republican
vote, but who was now out of office. His position in politics was not
so Radical as that of many of the President's opponents, and Grant
hoped, if the President could be induced to nominate Cox, that the
Senate would confirm him, and the difficulty might be bridged over.
Sherman saw the President, urged this action upon him, and told him
Grant was in favor of it; many of the President's advisers and friends
concurred. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday passed, however, and the
President did not act. But the Senate was not so dilatory. Late on
Monday, the 13th of January, it resolved that the causes for removing Mr. Stanton were insufficient. The President, Stanton, and Grant
were officially notified of that fact during the evening. Grant was at
the President's levee that night, but had only formal, unofficial conversation with Mr. Johnson, having already notified him of what his own
action would be.
On the morning of the 14th, Mr. Stanton took possession of the




150                  LIFE OF GENERAL -GRANT.
office of Secretary of War, and Grant notified the President in writ.
ing that he had received notice of the action of the Senate, and
that his functions as Secretary of War ad interim ceased from the
moment of his receipt of the notice. The President sent Grant a
message, by the bearer of this letter, that he wanted to see him at
Cabinet meeting that day. Grant obeyed the summons, and was
addressed by the President as Mr. Secretary of War, and asked to
open his budget. He at once reminded Mr. Johnson of the notification he had given him; whereupon the President stated that Grant
had promised to hold the position of Secretary of War until displaced
by the courts, or at least to resign, so as to place the President where
he would have been had Grant never accepted the office. Amazed at
this remarkable and unlooked-for assertion, Grant repeated what had
actually taken place between himself and the President; though, to
soften the evident contradiction his statement gave to the President's
declaration, he said, alluding to an anterior conversation of himself
and the President, the President might have understood him as he
declared, namely, that Grant had promised to resign, if he did not
resist the reinstatement. Grant, however, had not only never made
such a promise, but had expressly told the President to the contrary,
three days before. His anxiety, however, not to offensively contradict the President before his Cabinet, occasioned all of the subsequent
difficulty. He was shocked and surprised at Mr. Johnson's assertions,
and this natural indignation was also perverted by his enemy into an
emotion of a very different nature, and with a very different cause.
CONTROVERSY WITH THE PRESIDENT.
The President now gave out to the public press statements of Grant's
course, which directly affected his honor; and, after submitting to this
for a day or two, the general-in-chief addressed the President a letter
on the subject, in which he complained of the "gross misrepresentations" which had been made, and asserted the facts as they have been
given above. The President, in reply, reiterated circumstantially the
charge which he had previously made in Cabinet meeting, and now
declared that, in the presence of the Cabinet, Grant had acknowledged
the truth of those charges; and that he, the President, had read the
offensive newspaper article to four of his Cabinet, who testified to the
accuracy of its statements.
Grant had no option, when thus assailed, but to defend himself.




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  151
He had been attacked anonymously and through the public press, but,
as was acknowledged, with the connivance of his superior; and when
he wrote respectfully, but earnestly, to the President, that functionary
took upon himself to endorse the most violent accusations in the newspapers against the personal honor of the General of the Army.
Grant's reputation for veracity had never been impugned before by
his bitterest enemies; the President had been frequently accused of
deviations from truth; and the subordinate, now repeating all that he
had formerly declared, reasserted the correctness of his statements in
his own former letter, "anything in the President's reply to it to the
contrary notwithstanding."  He then remarked: "And now, Mr. President, when my honor as a soldier and integrity as a man have been so
violently assailed, pardon me for saying, that I can but regard this
whole matter, from the beginning to the end, as an attempt to involve
me in the resistance of law, for which you hesitate to assume the
responsibility in orders, and thus to destroy my character before the
country. I am in a measure confirmed in this conclusion by your
recent orders, directing me to disobey orders from the Secretary of
War-my superior and your subordinate-without countermanding
his authority to issue the orders I am to disobey."  "Mr. President,
nothing less than a vindication of my personal honor and character
could have induced this correspondence on my part."
In reply to this, the President wrote another letter, to the same effect
as his earlier one, and appended to it letters of four of his Cabinet
ministers. The Secretary of the Navy, addressing Mr. Johnson,
declared that " The three points specified in that letter, giving your
recollection of his conversation, are correctly stated," which amounts
simply to a statement that the President gave his own recollection of
the conversation correctly. The Secretary of the Treasury was less
equivocal, and was not unwilling to put himself on record as saying,
"Your account of that conversation, substantially, in all important particulars, accords with my recollection of it." Neither of these personages, however, complied with the written request of the President,
"to state what was said in that conversation."  The Secretary of
State only attempted " to give the general effect of the conversation."
His statement is long, but the gist of it is contained in the following
words, referring to the President's declaration, that Grant had promised to agree to the President's wish: "General Grant did not controvert, nor can I say that he admitted, the last statement."  So, Mr.
Seward was not willing to assert what.the President had openly and.




152                  LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
repeatedly proclaimed, that Grant, before the Cabinet, had admitted
the truth of Mr. Johnson's statement. Mr. Seward also suggested
the explanation that Grant, on Monday, "did not expect the Senate to
decide so promptly as to anticipate further explanation between himself and the President." The Secretary of the Interior answered in
detail; but his statement in every important particular corroborated
Grant. He said that Grant had declared in Cabinet meeting that " he
came over on Saturday to inform the President of the change in his
views, and did so inform him, and they continued to discuss the matter
some time, and finally he left without any conclusion having been
reached, expecting to see the President again on Monday." The Postmaster General, however, unhesitatingly and in detail affirmed all that
was important in the President's letter, in direct contradiction of General Grant, Mr. Seward, and Mr. Browning.
It will thus be seen, that on the question of veracity between the
President and Grant, two of the Cabinet ministers supported the Gen-i
eral of the Army; one was non-committal; another corroborated the;
President in general terms, and only one could be found who was willing, in detail, to stake his own reputation for truth against that of.
General Grant. That man was Alexander H. Randall.
TRIUMPH OF GRANT.
The result was now before the country. An honest soldier, noted
for truth, impartiality, outspoken frankness, was pitted against a nest
of wily politicians, against whom charges of untruthfulness had often
been made before. The verdict was soon passed. Not a man in the
land in his heart believed that Grant had deceived the President, and
no one ventured to assert it except partisan maligners.
The effort to break down the man who had saved them during the
war was repelled by the people, and recoiled on those who had made
it. The animus was visible; unable to compel or induce the great
soldier to cooperate in their schemes, it was sought to destroy his fair
fame before the people, and the immense influence now shown openly
to be'cast against the policy of the President. Instead of this being
accomplished, the loyal people rallied around him at once; he was made
stronger in their hearts than ever before, and from this moment his
nomination, and consequent election to the Presidency were secure.
Mr. Johnson, by this very attack, elevated Grant higher than ever,
and made him, beyond all doubt, his own successor in the Executive
Ichair.




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  158
Those who had doubted Grant's adherence to the policy of Congress, were at once made certain, while those who were not partisans
of Congress, and yet loved and honored the pure and noble man who
had done as much for his country as even Washington, were as indignant at assaults on his honor as if their own had been attacked. To
blot Grant's name, was to tarnish the glory of the country of which
his name was now become a part. The malignity which could attempt
this, it was seen, could not consist with patriotism; and many who had
believed at least in the integrity of the President, now were made sure
that sagacity was not the only trait in which he was wofully lacking.
Grant hitherto had striven to keep aloof from politics, had taken no
position in any party. He had his own views, and never scrupled to
act on them or to express them when occasion arose, but he did this
with no view of benefiting a party, as such. As General of the Army,
he desired and hoped to act independently of every party; but it was
impossible any longer to pretend to act with the President, or to show
him any but official respect. The lines were drawn so tightly, that
whoever now was in Grant's position, necessarily drew towards him
the Republicans. Grant's views, it has been seen, had long been in
harmony with theirs, and the persistent hostility with which the President thereafter pursued him, raised him up hosts of friends among all
who detested Andrew Johnson's course.
FURTHER PERSECUTION BY THE PRESIDENT.
Having failed in his endeavor to use Grant in order to keep Mr.
Stanton out of office, the President now applied to Sherman. A second time he offered that general the position of Secretary of War,
which Sherman again peremptorily declined. The President then conferred on Sherman the brevet of General, so as to make him equal in
rank to Grant, when he might be ordered to supersede the General of
the Army. Sherman was out of Washington when his name was sent
to the Senate for confirmation, but he at once wrote and telegraphed to
Senators that he did not wish the brevet, and his own brother opposed
it in the Senate; he was accordingly not confirmed. The President
then sent in the name of General George H. Thomas for the same
brevet, but that officer also peremptorily declined to be placed in
antagonism with his chief or on the side of the President. He telegraphed promptly, declining the brevet, declaring that, under:the
circumstances, it was no compliment; thus this attempt also fell to
the ground.




154-               LIlFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
On the 12th of February, the President, still determining to bring
Sherman to Washington, and thus provoke a rivalry, if possible,
between the two greatest soldiers in the land, created a new military
division, with headquarters at Washington, and ordered Sherman to
its command. This, also, Sherman opposed with all his might, and
the President was obliged to abandon the idea, lest he might make
another enemy, for Sherman was determined not to be brought into
conflict with Grant. Thereupon, Thomas was to be brought to Washington; but, when he declined the brevet in such uncompromising
terms, he, too, was found unavailable. Still looking around for one
to use, the President now hit upon Hancock, an officer who had distinguished himself under Grant, whom Grant had expressly nominated, first, for the position of brigadier general, and subsequently to
that of major general, in the regular army; for whom the chief had
always entertained a warm regard, which was shown on every occasion and in every suitable manner.
This officer, flattered with the idea of rivalling his chief, and also
enticed by the chance, adroitly suggested, of himself becoming a
Presidential candidate, fell into the snare. When he was sent to New
Orleans to relieve Sheridan, he became the President's apt coadjutor,
the friend of the rebels, the enemy of the Union men, and of the
Congressional measures, to such an avowed extent, that a bill was
introduced into Congress for the sake of mustering him out of the
army; but Grant stepped in, with his potent influence, earnestly dissuaded Congressmen, and prevented the passage of the bill.
Hancock's salvation was thus due solely to Grant. But Hancock
persisted in a course at New Orleans that finally compelled Grant to
revoke one of his orders. This was done with all consideration for
Hancock's feelings, and is an act occurring every day in the army.
Nothing is more common than for a superior officer to countermand
the orders of his subordinate; Hancock, however, at once resented the
proceeding, and asked to be relieved. This happened in good time
for the President, who acceded to Hancock's request, and appointed
him to the command of the military division which Sherman and
Thomas had spurned. Hancock accepted it, and, being placed in apparent hostility to Grant, at once became popular with the men he had
fought during the war, and who now urged him strongly as a candidate for the Presidency; the bitterest rebels openly pressing his claims.




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                15
IMPEACHMENT.
And now came the most open and important step of the President.
In direct opposition to the law forbidding such an act, he removed
Mr. Stanton from the position of Secretary of War. The Senate
passed a resolution, by more than a two-thirds vote, declaring that
Mr., Stanton was still Secretary. The House of Representatives immediately impeached the President for the act, and he was tried before
the bar of the Senate; the only President who had ever been summoned
to this high court to answer for his acts. A large majority of the
Senate found him guilty, but the Constitution required that two-thirds
should so pronounce him, before he could be degraded from his office,
and there lacked one vote of this requisite two-thirds; so the President
remained in office.
NOMINATION OF GRANT TO THE PRESIDENCY.
Before the trial was Completed, the representatives of the National
Union Republican party met at Chicago, in convention, and the six
hundred and fifty-two delegates, on the first ballot, unanimously nominated Ulysses S. Grant as their candidate for President. There had
been no doubt for months that he would be the choice of the party,
but this extraordinary unanimity was unparalleled in the political
history of the country. The next night, an immense concourse of
people assembled at his house, the overflow filling up the streets for
a large distance outside, to congratulate him on his nomination.
Governor Boutwell, of Massachusetts, was spokesman for the assemblage, and to him Grant replied in his first political speech:
"GENTLEMEN: Being entirely unaccustomed to public speaking,
and without the desire to cultivate that power, it is impossible for me
to find appropriate language to thank you for this demonstration.
A11 that I can say is, that to whatever position I may be called by
your will, I shall endeavor to discharge its duties with fidelity and
honesty of purpose. Of my rectitude in the performance of public
duties, you will have to judge for yourselves by the record before
you."
A convention of soldiers and sailors had met at Chicago, at the
same time with the Republican convention, and the former also, with




[16                 LIt-E OF GENERAL GaRANT.
great unanimity, recommended Grant for the Presidency. On the
29th of May, a committee from this Soldiers and Sailors' Convention
presented him a formal address, to which Grant replied as follows:
" Gentlemen of the Committee of Soldiera and Sailors:
"I will say, that it was never a desire of mine to be a candidate for
any political office. It is a source of gratification to me, to feel that
I have the support of those who sustained me in the great rebellion
through which we have passed. If I did not feel I had the support of
those, I would have never consented to be a candidate. It was not a
matter of choice with me; but I hope, as I have accepted, that I will
have your aid and support, from now until November, as I had it during
the rebellion."
There is little doubt that this appeal of their old chief to the Union
soldiers of the country, will be answered as warmly at the polls as it
ever was in the field.
The same evening, Grant was formally notified, by General J. R.
Hawley, the President of the Republican convention, of his nomination as President of the United States. He replied in these words:
" Mr. President and Gentlemen of the National Union Convention:
" I will endeavor, in a very short time, to write you a letter accepting
the trust you have imposed upon me. Expressing my gratitude for the
confidence you have placed in me, I will now say but little orally, and
that is to thank you for the unanimity with which you have selected
me as a candidate for the Presidential office. I can say, in addition,
I looked on, during the progress of the proceedings at Chicago, with
a great deal of interest, and am gratified with the harmony and unanimity which seem to have governed the deliberations of the convention.
"If chosen to fill the high office for which you have selected me, I
will give to its duties the same energy, the same spirit, and the same will
that I have given to the performance of all duties which have devolved
upon me heretofore. Whether I shall be able to perform those duties
to your entire satisfaction, time will determine. You have truly said,
in the course of your address, that I shall have no policy of my own to
enforce against the will of the people."
Those who have perused this pamphlet1 will agree that no better
pledge could be alsked of Grant, than that he'will give to the duties of




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.                  15T
the Presidency the same "energy, spirit, and will" he has given to
his duties heretofore. The country desires no more. Those who have
read this pamphlet carefully, will also not be surprised at his promise
to " have no policy of his own to enforce against the will of the people."
They will have noticed how, throughout his entire career, this principle has governed him; how he has grown into his present position, and
developed into his present attitude, in strict conformity to that will;
how he was in harmony with the loyal people during the war; how he
has striven to conform to their will since; and how it is solely in obedience to their ivill, that he stands before them a candidate for the
Presidency to-day.
His letter of acceptance of the nomination is in these words:
"WASHINGTON, D. C., May 29, 1868.
" To General JOSEPH R. HAWLEY,
President of the National Union Republican Convention:.
"In formally accepting the nomination of the National Union
Republican Convention of the 21st instant, it seems proper that some
statement of views, beyond the mere acceptance of the nomination,
should be expressed. The proceedings of the convention were marked
with wisdom, moderation, and patriotism, and, I believe, express the
feelings of the great mass of those who sustained the country through
its recent trials. I endorse their resolutions. If elected to the office
of President of the United States, it will be my endeavor to administer
all the laws IN GOOD FAITH, with economy, and with the view of giving
peace, quiet, and protection everywhere. In times like the present, it
is impossible, or at least eminently improper, to lay down a policy to
be adhered to, right or wrong, through an administration of four years.
New political issues, not foreseen, are constantly arising; the views
of the public on old ones are constantly changing, and a purely
administrative officer should always be left free to execute the will of
the people. Ihave always respected that will, and always shall. Peace,
and universal prosperity, its sequence, with economy of administration, will lighten the burden of taxation, while it constantly reduces
the national debt. Let us have peace.
"With great respect, your obedient servant,
"U. S. GRANT."
The same spirit may here be traced which is apparent in the. three
speeches of the next President. Above all, a deference to the will of




158                LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
the people; a desire to be supported by those who were loyal during
the war; and an extreme anxiety for peace. Those who are truly
Republican, or truly Democratic, can agree to support him, who always
has respected, and always will respect, the popular will; those who
love their country, will sustain him whom they sustained during their
country's trials; and those, North or South, who are anxious for peace,
will find in this man's history full proof of his ability to conquer and
preserve peace, and of his abiding desire to give "peace, quiet, and
protection everywhere."
CONCLUSION.
CHARACTER AND POSITION OF GRANT THE SAME NOW AS DURING THE
WAR AND AT ITS CLOSE.
Thus, then, Ulysses S. Grant is presented to this country for its
suffrages at the approaching election. The man who entered the war
four days after the President's first proclamation for volunteers, has
not yet concluded his battle for the Union. He is opposed to-day by
the same people, at the North and at the South, who were most active
against him during the war. He is upheld by the same people who
were his most urgent supporters while he led the armed forces of the
Union. All the loudest rebels of the South are against him now; and
at the North, all who predicted and desired defeat for him while he
was in the field, predict and desire it now. Pendleton, Vallandigham,
Wood, and Seymour are on the same side still, and destined, doubtless,
to a new defeat, dealt by the same men who, at Appomattox, defeated
Seymour, and Vallandigham, and Pendleton, as well as Lee.
The soldier who led the Union armies from Belmont to Richmond,
who was so successful in every campaign, and so magnanimous after
each success, is again in the field. He has not changed because it is
a theatre for statesmanship upon which he now plays his part. His
principles have been the same in peace as in war. He is still uncompromising with his foes in battle; he spares them not till they are
conquered; he relaxes no legitimate effort now, as he did not before.
If they persist, his harshness and determination continue; his sagacity
reveals new measures, his skill devises new means, his genius works,
out a way over and beyond all obstacles, his courage is never appalled
his strategy never outwitted. The same qualities which brought him
success on every theatre of operations in the land, which enabled




LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT..159
him to conquer Floyd, and Pillow, and Beauregard, and Van Dorn,
and Price, and Johnston, and Lee, in turn-these same qualities are
exactly those which have been ripened since for civic purposes, and
are as necessary for the statesman as they were for the soldier. The
foresight, the patience, the energy, the calmness, the determination,
the ability to select and use the talent of others, to control the unwilling, to direct vast masses, to influence and overcome would-be. rivals,
to raise up hosts of adherents, the fortitude under apparent disaster,
the courage at unexpected crises, the fertility of resource, the comprehensive grasp of the situation of a continent, the equanimity under
unexampled success which the soldier has manifested, are all traits
that will be inestimable in the President.
These same traits have already been manifested in his semi-civil
position since the war. He has displayed the same inflexible purpose
against Andrew Johnson that he did against Robert E. Lee; the same
wisdom in directing the governors of military districts which he showed
when his generals were at the head of armies; the same calmness amid
difficulties at Washington as at Donelson; the same ability to thwart
the wily politicians in the Cabinet that he evinced in outmanoeuvring
Johnston and Pemberton at Vicksburg; the same devotion to duty;
the same determination to accomplish the supremacy of those who
fought for the country, mixed, all the time, with the same consideration for his adversaries, whenever they manifest a disposition to succumb. For his magnanimity at Appomattox is perfectly consistent
with his position to-day. Had the rebels remained as submissive as
they were then, had they not found injudicious friends-or, rather,
interested and crafty allies-at the North, to incite in them a different
spirit, and proffer them aid and counsel, Grant would still be willing
to display the same generosity as then; but it must be a generosity
which is based on the suppression of treason and the spirit which animated it. When treason lifts its banner again; when it proclaims
that the rebellion was just, and glories in it; when its northern friends
strive to commit the country to the ineffable disgrace of repudiating
the debts incurred to put down rebellion; when rebels are welcomed,
not as repentant and returning prodigals, but as gallant and glorious
soldiers, whose sole achievements were aimed at the life of their country-then Grant is found just where he stood during the war —just
where he stood at its close-at the head of all who maintain the
supremacy of the Government, and inflexibly opposed to all who
oppose it.




160                LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.
That this is the present position of the country needs no proof.
When Horatio Seymour leads the hosts antagonistic to U. S. Grant,
and is nominated at the urgent solicitation of Pendleton and Vallandigham, while his warmest supporters are Forrest and Wade Hampton,
there can be no doubt. The people who pronounced the war a failure
in'1864, not long before the surrender of every armed rebel in the
land, have held another convention, in which they assailed the soldier
who received those surrenders. Need more be stated? Does any patriotic man hesitate on which side to ally himself? Does any sensible
man doubt that the result will be another victory by the same leader
over the same enemy, as complete as that of Vicksburg, of Chattanooga, or of Appomattox Court House?