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FROMAPKOTOGRAPH TAKEN BY?. GUTEKUNST IN 1866.
(DEM 1M. i= ©[EA5^T»

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AT THE AGE OF 44- AS KE APPEARED AFTER ThE VfAR.

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FROM A RECENT ^HOTOORAr

MEMORIAL EDITION.

A0 A ALA.N, THE N0BI,E8T AND PUKEiT OF HIS TIMES.

AS A SOLDIER, THE IDOL Ot' MILLIONS OP PEOPLE.

AS A CrriZE.V, the ORANDEST OP THE NATIOM

A New, Original and Ajthentic Record

OF THE

LIFE AND DEEDS

GI:NERAL U. S. GRANT,

CONTAININO \ FULL lllSTOaY OF HIS EARLY LIFE; IIIS RECORD AS A STIDENT
AT THE WEST POINT MILITARY ACADEMY ; HIS GALLANTRY IN THE MEXICAN

war; his Hoxo:;.vnLE career as a business man in st. loiis and

GALE.NA; his eminent services to his COfNTRY IN 01 R GREAT

CIVIL WAR ; HIS ELECTION TO THE PRESIDENCV ; lllS AIJLE AND

PATRIOTIC ADMINISTRATION; HIS TOUR AROUND THE

WORLD, WITH AN ACCOUNT OP THE GREAT HONORS

SHOWN HIM BY THE EMPERORS, KINGS AND

RULERS OF ALL NATIONS ; HIS LINGERING

SICKNESS, HEROISM IN SUFFERING,

AND HIS PATHETIC DEATH.

•

FRA:NrK: ^. burr,

OF THE IMIII.ADr.I.PIllA "TIMES."
Author .'f '• Till- n:lttlo^ of F. anklin and Cliii:kamiuiga," ' Life oC Ofrioral bo ivcr," etc., ct3.

THE RECORD OP AN HONORABLE AND BRILLIANT CAREER; A STRIKING ILLUS-
TRATION OP THE TRIUMPH OP GENIUlI UNDER FREE INSTITUTIONS.

Embellished with nearly 200 Fine Illustrations of Sci'Qes in ihc Life of the Great SoMior.

TORONTO AND WHITBY:

J. S. ROBERTSON & BROS.

57855

Entered according to Aci of Congress, in the year 1SS5, by

J. R. JONES,

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C

PREFACE.

There are many obstacles in the way of the writing
of a just history of General Grant. There are ques-
tions ^ lich are still unsettled ; disputes of time and cir-
cumstance which can still be created. Many of the
actors in the great melodrama of the Republic are yet
alive, and their recollections do not always harmonize.
As nearly as is possible, at this time, the Author has
tried to anticipate the final judgment of history.

In this book each side to the conflict has freely hon-
ored his drafts for information. The blue and the grey
tell their parallel stories in its pages. In this respect it
will be unique in war history. In this respect, too, it
will be a curious illustration of the comity now existing
between those so lately and so bitterly in arms against
each other — a comity which the funeral scenes at the
grave of the great commander emphasized.

History is impartial. There is more than one side to
the shield. The Author has recognized this, and he has
called the Confederate as well as the Federal in evidence.
The record so made up shows that the Americans who
fought against Union had much of gallantry and earnest-
ness. That they laid dovi^n much upon the altar of an
error which had become rather a habit than a conviction,
does not detract from the splendid ability and courage
which they displayed. The cause which was lost left
many graves, but that of a greet tradition was among

PREFACE.

♦ • ^ , ■

them. It was better that it should be buried. It had
been an ugly spirit making strife between the sections.

The method of the work furnishes a suggestion as to
how the history of the Civil War should be written. It
seems to the Author that, from the broader view, the
great conflict which resulted in the birth of our new
nationality can be generously treated because it fur-
nishes a tribute to the gallantry of the soldiery of both
sides — each side American. Neither has any reason
to be ashamed of the test of manhood involved.

Better than this, the career of General Grant contains
its lesson to the re-united country. It is as potent South
as North. Independent of all the angry details of the
strife, it tells its own story of the possibilities of our
citizenship. It is a great object lesson to American
youth. It is a life which proves the strength and
ensures the perpetuity of our institutions. It is a vin-
dication of all that has been claimed for the possibili-
ties of manhood in the republic.

There has been an effort in this work to present un-
prejudiced testimony and tell the story of a remarkable
career and a great war simply and impartially. Old
friends, and old foes, who are- so no longer, have joined
in the work. In no other country could such a con-
junction have been possible.

F. A. Burr.

\ ,.>.-■::

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

IN SUPRKMK COMMAND.

Grant in command of all the armies — Crossing the Rapidnn — The wrestle in
the Wilderness — Description of that wild and rrg^cd region — Hancock on
Hooker's old battle-field — Wanen's assault — Grant's famous ride to the front
— An old officer's tribute .... . . . . '49

CHAPTER H.

TIIK GRANT FAMILY.

Grant's anceMry — He comes of fighting stock —Tracing his family back eight
hundred years — They are from the sturdy yoemanry of Scotland — Matthow
Grant's arrival in tliis country — Early settlement in New England — Noah
Grant the greatgrandfather and Noah Grant the grandfather — His life in
Pennsylvania — Birth and early life of Jcsse Grant — His marriage to Hannah
Simpson — Characteristics of his parents 60

CHAPTER HI.

BIRTH AND BOYHOOD DAYS.
Grant's birthplace in Ohio — His early life and education — A plain, unassuming
boy — Not much of a student and less of a sohlier when a lad — A manly,
courageous, industrious boy, fond of horses — School-days — His appointment
to West Point — Difference between Grant and other great commanders . 68

CHAPTER IV.

WEST POINT.

Starting for West Point — Stops in Philadelphia — His associates at the Academy
— His feats of horsemanship — General Quimby's recollecti >ns of his school-
days — General Rufus Ingalls tells of " Sam Grant " — Hi w his classmates
generally regarded him 78

CHAPTER V.

FROM WEST POINT TO MEXICO.
Graduation and assignment to the Fourth Infantry — Is sent to St. Louis and
meets Miss Julia Dent — Fined several bottles of wine by Captain Buchanan
— Army-life in Louisiana — Visits the Rifle Regiment — Is a good hand at
gander-pulling^A characteristic letter — Goes to Mexico— An honorable
record in his first war 88

CHAPTER VI.

IN THE MEXICAN WAR.
To the Rio Grande — In the Mexican War — Grant's first battle under Taylor
— At Vera Cruz with Scott — Gallantry at Chapultepec — Brevetted for gallantry
— Always a good soldier — Quartermaster of his regiment — Reminiscences
of him by old comrades .- 1 02

CHAPTER VII.

TO THE WESTERN FRONTIER.

Return from the Mexican war — Stationed at Sackett's Harbor — Marriage —
Preparing for the Pacific coast — Crossing the Isthmus — Battle with cholera
— At Fort Vancouver — Speculations which ended badly — Hoes potatoes,
puts up ice, and deals in pigs and cattle — Resigns from she army . .112

CONTENTS.

CITAPTER Vlir.
FROM TIIK ARMY TO FARMINO.
Out of the army — Estimate of his cliaracter by .nn old comrade — His farm-life
near St. Louis — Hauling wooil to market — Meeting old army officers — On
the threshold of war — How he stood at the beginning — A characteristic letter 120

CHAPTER IX.

RF.TURN TO THE ARMY.

War inspires him to return to military duties — Scenes with the Governor of
Illinois — Dick Yates' first impression of Grant — Wants a place on McClellan's
staff — Is made Colonel of an unruly regiment — Marches it into Missouri —
Made Brigadier-General — Assigned to Cairo — Gram's first notable service . 136

CHAPTER X.

THE BATTLE OK BELMONT.

Grant's first battle — His feint toward Columbus — Colonels Oglesby and Logan
— Moving down the river — The location of the f^onfederate forces — Moving
to the attack — Grant's horse killed under him — A demoralized acmy — De-
stroying the camp — Retreating to the l)oats — Grant's peril and success — Tells
why he fought his first battle ... 144

CHAPTER XL

A CONFEDERATE VIEW OF HfelAIONT.

Polk and Pillow — How they fought their troops at Belmont — The story told by
a distinguished ex-Confederate — Grant's masterly tactics — Pushing Pillow to
the wall — Turning his own guns upon his demoralized troops — Fine artillery
practice — The retreat — Saving Grant's life — Safe aljoard the transports . 156

CHAPTER XTI.

FROM CAIRO TO FORT HENRY.

Grant's district enlarged — Restive under Halleck's opposition to an advance —
General Smith's expedition to Mayfield — Suffering of the new troops — The
Confederate fortresses on the Tennessee and Cumberland — " Two guns "
enough to take Fort Henry — Halleck's assent to attack it obtained — The
aiiny on transports — Commodore Foote's gunboats — The attack and the sur-
render — Grant moving on Fort Donelson ...... 163

CHAPTER XIIL

THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.
Fort Donelson — Its position on the Cumberland — The vital point of the Con-
federate line — Picks and shovels — llalieck to Grant — The march and fight —
Suffering and endurance of the troops — Grant on duty — Fears a superior
force — Foote's gallant fight— The attack on M^CIv.rrnnd — Floyd and Pillow
make a sally — (irant's coolness on the field — Turnjng defeat into victory —
General C. F. Smith's splendid charge — The surrender . . . . i

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CONFEDERATE STORY OF DONELSON.
The fall of Fort Henry — The situation at Donelson — A Confederate's graphic
story of the investment — Porter's battery — The fight on February 13th —
Indivitlual instances of gallantry — The assault on the Federal right — Striking
the Union lines — General Smith's charge — The Confederate council of war
— Floyd's escape — The surrender — Interesting details ....

191

CHAPTER XV.

THE PRICE OF SUCCF„SS.

Effect of the first victory— Halleck's fault finding— Complaints to Washington
authorities—Resumption of " bad ha])its " insinuated — Rumor made a l?asis
of complaints — Demoralization charged — "An enemy between you ai.d me "
—Grant's noble patience— His request to be relieved refused — Halleck's
halting explanation— Grant's magnanimous waiving of personal feeling

221

CONTENTS.

Grant nrrain in command-

CHAPTER XVI.

THE nATTLE OF SHILOH.

-Smith's knightly loyalty — H.illeck's orders-

-Biieir

leisurely march to Pittsburgh — Albert Sidney Johnston at Corinth — Preparing
a surprise — The Confederate march — Undiscovered in Grant's front — At-
tacking at daylight — Prentiss sustains the first shock — His raw troops give
way — Sherman's stubborn stand — Thrice drwen back — W. H. L. Wallace
slain — Sidney Johnston mortally wounded — Saved by Webster's guns —
Buell's army arrives — The second day's battle — Grant takes the offensive —
The Confederates' resistance — Retreat ordered — Results of the victory . 235

CHAPTER XVn.

CONFEDERATE VIEW OF SHILOH.

Beauregard in the West — Interview with General A. S. Johnston — The Con-
federate line of defence — Its weak points indicated — Johnston's gloom —
Beauregard concentrated at Corinth — A badly-armed force — Johnston arrives
at Corinth — He assumes command — The march to Shiloh — Tardiness of
Polk — The onset delayed — Confederate dispositions for battle — The attack
a total surprise — Sheridan's and Prentiss' resistance — The Federals driven
back thrice — Johnston's fatal wound — The Confederates' final charge —
Sleeping in the Federal camps — The second day's fight — Buell's fresh troops
— The Confederate retreat . . ....... 258

CHAPTER XVIII.

FROM SHILOH TO CORINTH.

Shiloh's lessons — Politics in war — Halleck assumes immediate command-^
Three armies concentrated — One hundred and twenty thousand men — Cam-
paign of picks and shovels — Six weeks moving fifteen miles — The investors
awaiting attack — Corinth evacuated withouw a struggle — Quaker guns — The
enemy tardily pursued — Disgust of the army — Buell sent to Chnttanooga —
Pope takes command of the Army of the Potomac — Grant left at Corinth —
The battles of luka and Corinth — Holding his own against Van Dorn and
Price — Influence regained ......... 279

CHAPTER XIX.

MOVING TOWARD VICKSBURG.

Pemberton coi.ronting Grant — Campaigning at a distance — Grant moving
down the Mississippi Central — McClernand's ambitious schemes — Moving
toward the Tallahatchie — " I can handle them without gloves " — Holly
Springs taken — Hovey's successful diversion — Abbeville evacuated — Within
eighteen miles of Grenada — Grant's communications cut — Murphy's surrender
— Living on the enemy — The campaign defeated — Grant's only retreat . . 297

CHAPTER XX.

THE APPROACH TO VICKSBURG.

Vicksbu' g's batteries — Tier after tier of heavy guns — The gunboats prepare to
run them — A brilliant war-scene — Success of the enterprise — Grant's obsta-
cles on land — Changing the face of nature — Five cross-cuts abandoned — The
army thrown below Vicksburg — A wonderful military feat — Into Mississippi
— The demonstration at Haines' Bluff — Battle of Port Gibson — Grand Gulf
evacuated — At last a base around Vicksburg 310

CHAPTER XXI.

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.
Grant's most original campaign — Cutting loose from his base — Subsisting on the
country — Bewildering manoeuvres — Pemberton's army divided — Accidental
battle at Raymond — Logan's splendid valor — Jackson invested — McPherson's
hot engagement — Jackson captured — The army turned backward — Pemberton
struck at Champion's Hill — An overwhelming defeat — Routed at Black River
Bridge — Penned up in Vicksburg — Haines' Bluff taken — The siege begun —
Sherman's doubts turned to admiration 326

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXII.

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED.

Vicksburg invested — Haines' Bluff occupied — The first assault — Union battle-
flags on the counterscarp — The assault repulsed — Second assault — The city
bombarded — Picturesque scenes— Gallant charges— Again repulsed — Grant's
army reinforced — The siege lines tight drawn — Hardships of besiegers and
besieged — ^Exploding the mines — Starving Confederates and civilians — Sur-
render proposed — The correspondence — A glorious Fourth of July — Terms
of surrender — Sherman's protest returned — The Mississippi " uuvexed to the

sea

350

CHAPTER XXIII.

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSBURG.
The importance of Vicksburg to the Confederacy — The country it commanded

Grant's forward movement — Pemberton's inability to grasp the situation —

His utter failure to make any proper resistance — Johnston fails to take active
command — Blunder after blunder — More tentative operations — The final sur-
render 376

CHAPTER XXIV.

VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA.
" The river unvexed to the sea" — Great rejoicing over Vicksburg's fall — Re-
stored to popular confidence — Success the test — Sherman pursues Johnston
— Siege of Jackson — Johnston's hasty evacuation — A march of terrible suf-
fering — Railroads and buildings destroyed — Feeding famished ir.habitants
— Supplies for Confederate wourjded — Sherman \\\ command at Vicksburg
— Grant visits New Orleans — Is seriously injured — The army scattered —
Succoring Rosecrans — Ordered to Cairo — Military division of the Missis-
sippi 403

CHAPTER XXV.

THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.
" The hardest battle of the war" — P'ought to secure Chattanooga — Preliminary
movements — Bragg's army across the river — Thomas reinforced — Loomis' ar-
tillery captured — Longstreel's arrival — His corps from Virginia — No confer-
ence between the Confederate wing commanders — Attack at daylight ordered
— The obstructions of the field — Rosecrans' dispositions — Thomas tO defend
the vital point — Resting for the fateful struggle . . . , .418

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE SECOND DAY'S FIGHT.

The commanders early astir — Rosecrans finds fault with McCook — Polk fails
to attack at daylight — Wood's terrible mistake — Longstreet's famous charge
in mass — McCook and Crittenden forced back — Thomas' splendid tenacity —
Steedman's gallant charge — Fighting for darkness — Federal retreat-r-Bragg
fails to pursue — Nearly forty thousand lost on both sides . . . .431

CHAPTER XXVII.

THE BATTLES ABOUT CHATTANOOGA.

After Chickamauga — Rosecrans' removal — Thomas in command — Grant as
commander of the western annii s — He reaches the scene of operations after
a hard ride — A half-starved army — " The gloomiest part of my life " — Plans
for relief — Plenty of rations— Preparations for the attack .... 445

. CHAPTER XXVIII.

THE BATTLE OF I.OOKOUT MOUNTAIN.

A series of sple idid manoeuvres — Hooker on the Confederate flank — Moves to
Lookout Ml ntain — The advance up the heights — Covered by the mists of
the valley — i wonderful scene in war — The battle above the fogs — The army
await tidings from the mountain — A season of dread suspense — The messen-
ger of victory . 455

'i\

COJVTEJVTS.

CHAPTER XXIX

The messenfjer of victory!!;^,^?, ^/^-^JV^ARV R'rncE.

-An .nsp.nn,. spec,acle-SuccS~ ' ']' ^"";''-^' ""^"'^-^'Jiig" ,?'"^ridge

GFvrp..^^''^^''^^^ ^"^^"^X." ■ • • • . 466
A graphic recital of a picmS^ue bauflf '" m'^^ ^^'^^ATivk.

paring for the hai^le-AT 1 'I'"~-'^'"'"g'"K the tronn- ff^P^'^^ '^^^"'^ of

CHAPTER XXX r * ' '^'^3

CHAPTER YYVTT " ' • • .481
»" to .1,. nor,l,„ 'ft„:,i™"'=«'"™""S •!.« C„„ feJe^^i'^ »' N»nbcr„

^»e or »,„„...--•,-,. i»4t;:f ss-o «;^^^^^^^^^^^^

CHAPTER XXXHI ' " • SOJ

Grant on ,he Rapidan-StS 7 '""'' ^vildekness.

daybreak aitacl- R • , f' '^'''^ '^ %'it— The fiA. J"^'S"ient of Lee-i

CHAPTER XXXIV ' ' • -5"

"''P^'.' Confederal, s.ory™ y°'l,?; •^'« "■m.dernbs.

■SpoUsZ,,?"™'' °f Gra„,_The -^'vZ.7tZ't'-i%f>J overS

. "* "t^w-^Uyuioij at
CHAPTER XXXV ' ' * -527

Lee foiled The army sa,isfi«U-l T"' ^^"'""^'^-'^Ess.

CHAPTER XXYVT * ■ • • . iii7

Nearer Richmond-Pi^i^/^J^^v.vAN,. courr-nousE

fighf-Sedj,nvick's Sh rv''"''''°"-P«^'fi^^ • ,

danger— Tnrn,n„\u'-'^"ssiinr the Po r„ , JL° ^""""es before ih*»

dravfai-U S Ian T""''^ ^-^'-Hrnc^S-r^^ '«"'ow's ^'visL!n i^'

Grant and 'Se.de'r t^i^f ^''"^^ °^ ^^-'t 's t d ''wn\°J ^'" ^"^h"
manoeuvring—GrantCH ? • ™^'^t-Crar..'s disannol?* ^"8^^ « attack—

'■■••• 544

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

HANCOCK'S FAMOUS CHAROE.

Grant plans the capture of the Confederate salient — Hancock to do the work

Plans for the assault — The midnight march — A straggling mule — Phantom

soldiers — A gloomy night — The Druid council — Massing for the assault — On
to the charge — " Let silence, dead silence, be the awful menace, and break it
only with the bayonet ! " — Pouring into the enemy's works — A hand-to-hand
conflict— Guns and prisoners— Holding the salient 557

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

CONFEDERATE LINE BROKEN.

Dispositions at Spottsylvania — How the two armies were drawn up — Lay of the
land— General Gordon's story of the engagement — Hancock's charge on the
salient — General Johnson's surprise and capture — Gordon's desperate fight
with Hancock — General Lee's sudden appearance — His anxiety — Gordon has
Lee led from the field — Trees gnawed in twain by bullets — The most terrific

battle of the war 574

CHAPTER XXXIX.

CONFEDERATES IN THE SALIENT.
General Stuart's story of Hancock's charge — The location of the salient — Re-
moving the artillery — Premonitions of battle — Asking for more artillery —
Waiting for the attack — The situation at daylight — First view of the blue
coats — Capture of the artillery — The scene in the angle — Map of the fortifi-
cations — The surrender 581

CHAPTER XL.

THE ONSET AT COLD HARBOR.

Searching for a new place to strike — Back again to familiar ground — Going to-
ward the North Anna — Sheridan's cavalry and their work — Preparing to
strike another blow at Lee — A general assnult ordered — The bloody work
of Cold Harbor — No results of importance — Between the Rapidan and J&mes 59I

CHAPTER XLI.

CONFEDERATES AT COLD HARBOR.

After spottsylvania — The wear and tear on the army — Moving to Cold Harbor
and beyond — Grant's theory of the conflict — His tenacious grip — Handling
his forces with skill — An estimate of Grant and Lee — Summing up the cam-
paign from the Rapidan to the James — The only way to whip Lee — Fright-
ful losses 603

CHAPTER XLII.

CONFEDERATE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN.

Colonel Venable's recollections — Blocking the Federals — The fight in the Wil-
derness — "Go back. General Lee!" — The terrible second day's fight —
Spottsylvania — Incidents of the struggle — The desperate slaughter — The
dying soldier — The position at North Anna — Grant crosses the river — Back
again — The march across the Peninsula — Before Petersburg . . . 609

CHAPTER XLin.

ACROSS the' JAMES RIVER.

The transfer of the army across the Potomac — Grant's grand scheme — Butler
against Petersburg — His failure to go in the movement of the 12th of June —
The alarm about Washington — Over-cautious generalship — Smith's unneces-
sary deliberation — Lee in secure possession of Petersburg .... 622

CHAPTER XLIV.

EARLY'S VALLEY CAMPAIGN.
Early's corps ordered to the Valley — Driving Hunter away — Beating Sigel —
The Sixth and Ni >oteenth corps at Washington — Early crosses the Potomac
— Lew Wallace beaten at Monocacy — Early before the Washington defences
— Driven back by the Sixth corps — Chambersburg burned — Sheridan made
commander of Shenandoah Valley forces — " Early whirling up the Valley"
— Complete success of Sheridan's Valley campaign 633

I' i

CONTENTS.

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CHAPTER XLV.

GORDON IN THE VALLEY.

Ilnnfer in Virginia — TTis move to Kanawha — The Confederife advance on
Washington — vSiieridan sent to the rescue — Gordon's story of the campaign
— Winchester — Overlooking tlie Federal camp at Cedar Creek — Tlie attack
at dawn — Defeat of the Federals — Sheridan's arrival — Defeat changed into
victory — The valley clear .......... 639

CHAPTER XLVI.

THE DEPRESSION OF 1 864.
Despondency of the American people — Ignorance of the nation about war —
Clamoring for a conclusion — The war declared a failure — " Peace at any
price" — The Northwestern conspiracy — Grant's remarkable letter to Ad-
miral Ammen-*-His thorough knowledge of the situation — Fall of Atlanta
— The cry for Sherman — The relations of the two generals . . . 645

CHAPTER XLVn.

SIDE-LIGHTS OF THE GREAT GAME.
Lee loses the Weldon Railroad — Touching Lee's lines here and there — Move-
ments north of the James — The battle of Chapin's farm — Capture of Fort
HaiTison — General Stannard's story of Grant's fearlessness in hattle — Gen-
eral Sherman's visit — Capture of Fort Steadman — Breaking Hill's lines —
President Lincoln comes to review the army and witnesses a battle — The be-
ginning of the end 654

CHAPTER XLVHL

A. H. STEPHENS AND LONGSTREET.
The Peace Commission — What Ben Hill said — Mr. Stephens' narrative — How
the commissioners met the commander — Grant's rude head-quarters — A pen-
picture of him — Interesting incidents of the meeting — Longstreet — Grant's
anxiety for peace — Lee's position in the matter 667

CHAPTER XLIX.

THE FEDERAL TROOPERS.
The spirit of the cavalry — The consolidation under Sheridan — The first raid —
The hunt for Hunter — Wilson's raid — In the Shenandoah — Sheridan's
officers — A Grant incident — Early's destruction — The move south — Five
Forks — The character of the service — The end ..... 680

CHAPTER L.

GORDON BACK WITH LEE.

Gordon ordered back to Richmond — Success uf Grant in cutting off Confeder-
ate supplies — A historical conference — Lee's profound depression — A mes- '
sage from Grant — The assault on Fort Steadman — The last desperate battle
before Petersburg is evacuated — A characteristic incident — The failure —
Gordon wounded — Death of Hill

CHAPTER LI.

THE MARCH TO THE SEA.
The armies of co-operation — The instructions to Sherman — " Penetrate the in-
terior as far as you can " — Moving on Johnston — The evacuatio.i of Dalton
— Resaca — The assault on Kenesaw — McPherson killed — Fall of Atlanta —
" Go as you propose " — The march begun — Buoyancy of the soldiers — Fright
of the inhabitants — Arrival at Milledgeville — On to Savannah — Wheeler in
the rear — At last

69s

704

How the armies were

CHAPTER LIT.

THE LAST YEAR OF STRIFE,
placed — Sheridan in the valley-

-Ord's movements—

633

Visit of President Lincoln — He sees a battle instead of a review — Sherman
arrives — His conversation with Lincoln — The understanding between them
— Another great battle certain — Lincoln desires to avoid it — Sherman returns
to North Carolina — Sheridan

717

CONTENTS.

\ ■

CHAPTER LIII.

THE ARMY BEFORE PETERSBURG.
Failure to carry Petersburg l)y assault — Despondency in the North — Enormous
death-roll — Grant farther from Richmond — President Lincoln's firm confi-
dence — His predictions — He visits City Point — Operating against the Weldon
Road — Butler's move on Deep Bottom — Battle of Reams' Station — Fitzhugh
Lee's cavalry beaten — Southside Railroad at Banksville toin up — Narrow es-
cape of the Union cavalry — The army resting — The siege begun . . 725

CHAPTER LIV.

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.
" Lee cannot feed reinforcements" — Grant has no fear of Johnston aiding Vir-
ginia — The siege train at Petersburg — Witliin short cannon range — Grant
reinforcing — Tlie Trans- Mississippi campaign discontinued — Preparing the
mine — Its frightful destructiveness — Fatal delay of the assailants — Slaughter
in the crater — The troops withdrawn — Trying to fix the responsibility — No
one to blame — The Confederate description 73 1

CHAPTER LV.

THE CONFEDERATE TROOPERS.

The peculiarity of the Confederate cavalry — Fitzhugh Lee's recollections — The
fight at Todd's Tavern — The move towards Richmond — Yellow Tavern —
General Stuart moriaiiy wounded — Major J. R. McNulty's recollections of the
affair — The fight at Five Forks — What Fitzhugh Lee advised his men — The
surrender at Farmville 754

CHAPTER LVI.

THE FLAG OF TRUCE.

The cavalrymen standing to horse — An all-night vigil — The morning of the
last day — Moving forward to the attack — The Confederate army at sunrise —
Custer in the advance — The flag of truce — A ride to the Confederate lines —
Col. Briggs' graphic description of its coming and going — Meeting Long-
street and Gordon — Custer and Sheridan 759

CHAPTER LVII.

STOPPING THE FINAL CHARGE.

Custer at Appomattox — Across Lee's line of retreat — Cavalry preparing to
charge — A brilliant morning pageant — A flag of truce — Custer's reply —
Whitlaker hunting for Lee — Longstreet and Gordon's answer — Efforts to stop
the firing — A South Carolina regiment's determination — How the surrender
was received — Elation of the Federal troops 769

CHAPTER LVHL
lee's army surrendered.
Sheridan's cavalry on the war-path — Attacking the enemy's communications —
Brilliant cavalry manoeuvres — The battles at Dinwiddie — Breaking over the
Petersburg trenches — Gallant assaults by the infantry — The lines pierced —
The battle at Five Forks — Lee's right wing turned — Confederate retreat to-
wards Petersburg — The city evacuated — Richmond falls — Lee in full retreat
— Grant pursues to intercept — Swift marching and hard fighting — Grant pro-
poses to Lee to surrender — The correspondence — Closing battles — Lee's
army surrounded — The surrender at Appomattox ..... 777

CHAPTER LIX.

THE EXPIRING GLANCES OF STRIFE.
Gordon's story of the final days — The Federal anxiety to prevent the juncture
with Johnston — The Confederate conference — The deep aversion to surrender
— One last attempt — Its failure — The flag of truce — Sheridan rides into the
Confederate Inies — Gordon saves Sheridan's life — The emotion of the Con-
federates at the surrender — Lee talks to the soldiers — His profound dejection 802

CONTENTS.

759

769

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's

777

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bon 802

CHAPTER LX.

THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR.

General Grant's indifTerence to entering Richmond — Difference between him
and otiier commanders — His interview with the Secretary of War — Goes to
Wasliin^ton — Assassination of Lincoln — Recalled to the capital — Sherman's
Protocul — (Jrant's interview with Stanlon — Admiral Ammen's recollections
— Grant's delicacy towards Sherman — The war ended .... 819

CHAPTER LXI.

THE MEXICAN PERIL.

The French attempt to establish a Mexican Empire — Grant's vigorous objections
— His letter to Johnson on the subject — Admiral Ammen's recollections of
the sitiiaiion — A query as to the strength of the navy — Seward's energetic
note — Sheridan sent to the Southwest — The French evacuate Mexican soil —
A war with France averted 837

CHAPTER LXII.

grant's troubles with JOHNSON.
He stands like a stone wall between the ex-Confederates and punishment — His
insistrince upon tiie power of his parole — An incident told by Attorney-Gen- '
eral Garland — Swinging round the circle — His disgust — The proximity of a
revolution — Grant's reply to Johnson — Sherman sent for — The effort to get
Grant to Mexico — His refusal to go — His regret at his first nomination to the
Presidency 844

CHAPTER LXni.

grant as PRESIDENT.
Grant's nomination in 1868 — The last States readmitted to the Union — " Let us
have peace " — The fifteenth amendment — Condition of the South — The Force
bill — The Republican revolt — Defeat of Greeley — The panic of 1873 — The
inflation period— ^Bill for the resumption of specie payments — The Geneva
award — The Centennial — The Electoral Commission — Review of his civil
career . . 857

CHAPTER LXIV.

grant and THE SUPREME COURT.
Grant and the judiciary — Justice Miller's recollections of him as President —
His judicial appoiiitmenis — Urant in society — An interesting companion —
His qu.dity of silence — The value of his appointments — His simplicity — An
interesting estimate of his character 873

CHAPTER LXV.
TOUCHING DIPLOMACY.
The international questions during Grant's terms — His admirable choice o a
secretary of state — Mr. Fish's recollections of his chief — His desire to con-
ciliate the South — Grant's leading traits — His trustfulness of character — His
readiness to yield to proper intiuences — Belief in Christianity — Love and ten-
derness tor his family — Who our new military leaders would be . . . 879

CHAPTER LXVL

TOUR AROUND THE WORLD.

His desire for travel — Mr. Childs' parting hospitalities — The departure — Arrival
at Liverpool — Reception in London by the Queen of England — Trip to the
continent — 'Among the working classes of Great Britain — Visit to the Paris
Exhibition — In Egypt — Sight.seeing among the ancient tombs — To the Holy
Land — In Constantinople — Grant and the Pope at Rome — Through Venice
and Milan — To Holland — Grant's historic interview with Bismarck — With
the Empror of Russia — At the Court of Vienna — Visit to King Alfonso of
SiMiin — In India, China, and Japan — Among the emperors — Homeward
lx>und — Grand ovation of welcome at San Francisco

887

CONTENTS.

965

CHAPTER LXVII.
THE CONVENTION OF 1880.
General Grant on a third term — His return from Europe — The movement for
his nomination — The acrimony aroused — The convention— Conkling's mas-
terly oration — The 306 — Garfield nominated — Blaine's State lost — Grant to
the rescue — What the result proved — An interview with the General on the
subject

CHAPTER LXVin.

MR. CHILDS' RECOLLECTIONS.

Grant's relations with Mr. Childs — No formalities between them — Early associa-
tions — Grant as an artist — A new trait in his character— !Iis friendly relations
with Confederates — What he said about Tilden— The Electoral Commission
— The discovery of his fatal illness — His smoking habits — His memory —
General reminiscences

CHAPTER LXIX.

COLONEL MCCLURE'S ESTIMATE.
The great men of the war period — Lincoln, Stevens, and Thomas — Compara-
tive estimates of the three — The Lincoln cabinet and its jealousies — General
Grant's position in history — An incident of the early days of the war —
Grant's recognition of the situation — What Stanton said , . , .995

CHAPTER LXX.

THE commander's LAST DAYS.

General Grant's last sickness — The pathos of his twilight days — His sufferings
over the failure — The beginning of tlie end — The work ujjon his book — The
coming of Nellie — His sixty-third birthday — The attack of April — Taken to
Mt. McGregor — General Buckner's visii — National grief — Reunion of the
sections — His last pathetic letter — Death 1001

975

By Henry Guy Carlton

CHAPTER LXXL

THE LAST TATTOO.

1031

INTRODUCTION.

By REV. J. P. NEWMAN, D.D.

lOOl

1031

The published life of General Grant will occupy a large
place in American literature. His forty years of obscu-
rity, his four years of wonderful military achievements,
and as many more as general of the army in times of
peace, his eight years of civil administration, his two
years of travel in many lands, his six years of retirement
from public duties, his beautiful domestic life, his unique
and glorious character, his financial misfortunes, his ter-
rible sufferings during months of sickness, his peaceful
death, his imposing funeral, and his world-wide and
enduring fame, will never fail to attract the attention and
excite the interest of his fellow-men. There is a touch
of romance in his sudden and rapid emergence from his
obscure life in Galena, to his eminence of power and
fame as commander of the largest army of modern times.
Fort Sumter fell April 13, 1861. President Lincoln called
for 75,000 troops on the 15th. Grant organized a com-
pany of volunteers in Galena, on the 19th. He offered
his services to Governor Yates, of Illinois, on the 21st,
and within thirty days thereafter he was appointed colo-
nel of the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry. On the 31st of
July he was in command at Mexico, Mo. On the 7th
of August he was made a brigadier-general. On the
1 6th of February, 1862, he was appointed a major-gene-
ral of volunteers, and on March 2d, 1864, he was com-
missioned Lieutenant - General of the Army of the

INTRODUCTION BY

United States. In vain he had written to the War
Department for permission to fight for his coun-
try in a position justified by the military education
he had received at tiie nation's expense. In vain he
went to Cincinnati to find a place on McClelian's
staff. In vain he sought the favor of Fremont and the
confidence of Halleck, yet like some majestic river,
impeded in its course, that calls upon all its tributaries
until it flows unvexed to the sea, so he gathered
strength to face all obstacles and. compel adversity to
do his bidding. In all those four years he sought no
position of power, he aspired to no rank of glory, he
was not the willing rival of any man, yet promotion, suc-
cess, pre-eminence came to him as to no other in Ameri-
can annals. And then, as by acclamation, he became
the successor of the illustrious Washington in military
rank and civil position, and thenceforth was esteemed
the pride of the army, the joy of his country and the
glory of this remarkable age.

The story of such a life will throw its charm over the
on-coming ages, and future generations will read it with
wonder and admiration. And as they read of his mighty
battles, his wonderful victories, his power over men, the
enthusiasm his presence kindled, the ovations he re-
ceived, the honor which came to him from all nations,
they will search with patient delight for the secret of his
wonderful career. And those who aid them in this
search, whether by voice or pen, by poem, oration, or
biography, will be called benefactors. And in this happy
light the author of the " Life and Deeds of General U.
S. Grant " will be regarded by the present and succeeding
generations. His task is difficult, sublime and patriotic.
He unfolds the wondrous life of the most wonderful man
of this century, and records the deeds of a soldier and

REV. /. P. NEWMAN.

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statesman, whose image on the thought and love of the
world will reappear in the ages till the end of time.
History will sustain him in this estimate of the great
hero, and thousands will read his pages with untold de-
light. His vigorous and elegant pen will give to the
public what the modesty of the departed General would
not permit him to write in his " Personal Memoirs," and
will increase the public interest therein and thus add to
the wealth of that legacy bequeathed by the ndblest of
husbands to the truest of wives. He has written of the
illustrious man, whose life and deeds are worthy of all
praise, with a devotion, admiration and enthusiasm, which
the future will verify, for the immortality of Grant's fame
is well assured. He is sublime in his isolation. He is
so truly great that it is not necessary to cast others down
from the pedestals of their well-deserved renown to find
for him a pedestal of exaltation.

Mankind will cherish his name while they continue to
love liberty, revere wisdom, esteem purity, admire' self-
abnegation, honor and patriotism. He suffers in noth-
ing by way of contrast or comparison with those
whom the nation is bound to hold in grateful remem-
brance. No one can take the place of Washington in
the affections of the American people. His high mis-
sion was to resist the tyranny of a foreign power, to
fight the battle of human rights, to achieve American
independence, to create a new nation and protect its life
by a constitution which, to-day, is the guide of all people
who assert their liberty. Grant's high mission was to
resist armed rebellion against constitutional authority,
to rescue the Union from dissolution, to re-instate the
Federal authority over all the square miles of the
national domain, to vindicate the suffrages of a free
people in their choice of President, to overthrow a con-

il-

INTRODUCTION BY

federacy founded on slavery, to elevate labor, spread
education, defend religion, promote charity and make
the American Republic a pride and joy in all coming
time. Their relative positions cannot be reversed, or
the armies they commanded, or the work they had to
accomplish. Washington's place was at the beginning
of the century ; Grant's place was at the end of the
century. As creator and saviour they clasped hands
over the stretch of a hundred years.

It is equally unnecessary and unjust to depreciate
Lincoln to exalt Grant. They supplemented each other.
One held the pen of authority, the other the sword of
execution. Both were leaders of men. Both did indis-
pensable work, which the other was in no condition to
perform. Both rose to the supremacy ordained by
Providence. Both resolved that the Union should sur-
vive and slavery die. Both shall live forever in the
heart of the American people.

If constrained to measure the true greatness of
Grant by way of parallels, we should judge him by those
heroes of the past whom the world has been taught to
esteem great. But Grant's counterpart Is more closely
found in Wellington than in any other man of renown, in
ancient or modern times. Both had quickness of percep-
tion, keenness of sagacity, marvelous self-control, and pru-
dence, promptitude and enterprise. They were men of the
sternest honesty, the strictest truthfulness and the highest
moral heroism. Neither would misrepresent to serve his
own fame. Neither would permit his troops to plunder
a captured city or an enemy's country when conquered.
Both conciliated the vanquished. Both were governed by
the highest motives. Both were firm, tranquil and stubborn
in resisting an assault, and bold, obstinate and vehement
in an attack upon the foe. They reminded us of a batter-

REV. /. ,". NEWMAN.

ing-ram that strikes straight and hard till the walls fall
before their resisdess blows. Both rose from the lowest
to the highest, — Wellington from a commissioned ensign ;
Grant from a brevet-lieutenant. Both were suspended
after a signal victory. Yet both rose to supreme com-
mand. Wellington was aided by a fortunate concurrence
of accidents. Rain and a ravine gave him Waterloo.
But there was little or no luck in Grant's life. He con-
quered by pure intellect ; by a sublime faith, by a per-
sonal prowess that- made him equal to the supreme
moment. His was not brute force. He was not a man
of happy accidents. He forced his way up through
untold odds. Too many have wrongfully regarded him
as a tenacious, persistent, plodding soldier, without the
high intellectual qualities of a great general. His
intellect has been under-rated, and largely so from his
simple manners, his plainness of speech and the direct-
ness of his actions. Only a few are capable to discern
a great mind under appearances so plain. But in calm-
ness of judgment, in quickness and accuracy of his
imagination, in vastness and tenaciousness of memory
he was superior. Reason was his dominant faculty. He
was a natural logician. He moved from premise to
conclusion, from proposition to demonstration with the
celerity of lightning. He descended to the smallest de-
tail ; he rose to the highest generalization. His under-
standing was like the tent in story — fold it and it was a
toy in the hand of a lady ; spread it, and the mighty
armies of the Republic might repose beneath its shade.
He could comprehend a continent with greater ease than
others could master an island. Underhis vast and compre-
hensive plans a continent shook beneath the tramp of
advancing armies. As out of some immense mental
reservoir there flowed a futility of resources displayed in

INTRODUCTION BY

an hundred batdes, in die greatest emergencies, and in a
three-folJ campaign, carried forward at the same time
without confusion and each the part of one stupendous
whole.

His fund of knowledge was immense. Converse
with him on any subject and he would surprise you by
an incisive remark that let in a Hood of light. He could
converse widi warriors on their battles, with statesmen
on their measures, with artists on their creations, with
artisans on their invention's with travelers on their dis-
coveries, with philosophers on their theories, with theo-
logians on their dogmas and widi Christians on their
hopes.

He was fully conversant with his own country, its
geography, its rivers, lakes and seas, its mineral and
agricultural wealth, its domestic and foreign trade, the
habits of its cosmopolitan population, its systems of
education, charity and religion. Who was bt^tter posted
than he on the intricacies and complications of the
tariff, on dutiable articles of import and export ? With
what accuracy he recalled names, dates, figures, persons
and facts. After he had returned from his circuit of
the globe he was a most intelligent, and at times, bril-
liant conversationalist on the governments, the rulers
and statesmen, the resources, the military systems, the
home and foreign policies, the literature, the social and
religious conditions of Europe, Asia and Africa. It was
this superiority of intellect, this ouickness of mind, this
vast informadon that caused our ablest citizens to defer
to his judgment and feel emlxirrassed in his presence.

The greatness of his intellect should be judged by the
obstacles he surmounted, by the vastness of the military
problems he mastered, and by the magnitude of the
results he achieved. Four months after the first gun

REV. /. P. NEWMAN. 31

was fired the Confederacy was a nation as if it had had
the grovvdi of a century. Its territory was half the size
of ancient Rome, and inhabited by miUions of wealthy, in-
telligent, warlike people. The Confederates were of
the conquering race, and commanded by the greatest
of generals. They were supplied with all the munitions
of war, supported by obedient slaves, and cheered by
the sympathy of all Europe ; yet widiin four years, from
Paducah to Richmond, that colossal power vanished from
the vision of the world, before the genius of Grant.
He mastered the deep philosophy of the relation of
means to end.

Napoleon did not comprehend his Russian and Water-
loo campaigns, as Grant did his threefold campaign,
which he outlined to Sherman, and which was justified
by the magnitude of the results. And how did he leave
the North in the final victory ? Impoverished, divided,
hopeless ? No ! Frederick left Prussia torn and poor
and all for a small strip of country. Napoleon left an
army in Egypt, wrecked an army in Russia, surrendered
Paris, left France a charnel-house and Europe a desola-
tion. But Grant left the North rich, harmonious and
powerful, with a nation redeemed. By the terms he
granted Lee he sowed the seeds of peace at Appomattox
and reaped the harvest of national union at Rive.side.

When he rose to supreme command, the nation de-
manded one dominant spirit, mighty to grasp, strong to
execute, powerful to inspire. The country was one, the
Rebellion was one and the armies of the Union should
be one ; and the general who could mold, control, inspire
an army a million strong, and make them think, feel and
fight as one man, was the desire of the Republic. To
be everywhere present at once by his spirit and orders
was in him a realized fact. His laconic order was : '*A11

.';'

INTRODUCTION BY

strike together." He imparted to all his own spirit, and
all things became possible to his faith. The nation felt
the mighty change, and the Rebellion went down beneath
the power of one master mind. He was the logician of
the war. He conquered by logic. He reasoned out his
victories. In all the annals of war there is no such
splendid reasoning on the certainty of results. Others
have conquered by the superiority of material force, but
he by the superiority of mind over mind.

But he should not be degraded to the level of those
famous heroes who fought for empire and for glory.
Lift him up to a higher pedestal, around which shall for-
ever stand Justice, and Liberty, and Peace, and Law, and
Order, and Civilization, and Religion, with chaplets in
their hands wherewith to crown him. He fought for the
right ; to end the war ; he conquered a peace. He hated
war. He looked upon it as a ghastly monster whose
march is to the music of the widow's sigh and the
orphan's cry. He loved peace and pursued it. •' Blessed
are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children
of God," was his beatitude. In his London speech in
1877, he said: "Although a soldier by education and
profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness for
war, and I have never advocated it except as a means of
peace." This was the energy of his courage.

He would not waste life and treasure to gain advan-
tages while the means were left to the enemy to regain
them. He understood the necessity of sacrifice to
achieve a greater advantage. He surrendered the lesser
to obtain the greater. He was not indifferent to the
preciousness of human life. Did he expose his troops ?
He protected them by shortening the time of the war and
by the greater vigor of his attacks. His was the arith-
metic of blood. Some Quintus Fabius Maximus would

HEV. J. P. NEWMAN,

have sacrificed a hundred thousand more men and $350,-
000,000 more treasure by the slowness of his movements
and the feebleness of his efforts. " How can I save my
country and prevent the greater effusion of blood ?" was
his supreme question ; and his supreme answer was :
*' By an energy that knows no defeat."

Such is the character of the true conqueror. Only
such live in the happy recollections of mankind. Away
with heroes without humanity! They may force our re-
spect and seduce our admiration, but they can never win
our love. God planted goodness in man as the image
of himself. Greatness should spring from goodness.
This is the price of hearts. Away with your Alexanders
and Caesars and Tamerlanes ! Let them be to our Chris-
tian civilization what the gigantic monsters of a departed
period are in zoological history — types of an inferior
age In the oncoming centuries mankind will honor only
those who drew the sword in defense of human rights and
in support of the constitutional authority. Then, All hail,
Mount Vernon ! All hail, Mount M'Gregor !

From this better nature and higher mission as a war-
rior sprang his conduct toward the vanquished. He had
no hatred in his heart. His heart was as tender as a
woman's. He was not vindictive. His holy evangel to
the nation was, " Let us have peace." Hence, toward the
close of the war, those who had fought against him saw
that there was no safety but in the arms of their conquer-
or. In his dying chamber he grasped the hand of him
whose sword was the first he had won, and said : " I have
witnessed since my sickness just what I wished to see ever
since the war — harmony and good feeling between the
sections." On holy Easter he sent forth this tender mes-
sage : " I desire the good-will of all, whether hitherto my
friends or not." His was the song of the angels:

(

INTRODUCTION BY

" On earth peace, good will toward men."
This has been the softening ministry of his sufferings
to his countrymen. God permitted him to see this
glorious consummation. Our sorrow is National in
the broadest sense. And to-day, where the magnolia
blooms and the palmetto grows, the " men in grey "
weep as over the death of their best friend. And had
he lived to see a foreign foe invade our shores. North
and South would have chosen him to lead us to defend
our liberty.

Doubtless, he will be best known in coming ages as
the foremost soldier of the Republic. Unknown gener-
ations will read his battles with wonder and admiration.
In every hamlet, in every metropolis, his martial form
will be cast in bronze and sculptured in marble. Histor-
ians will vie with each other in paying homage to his gen-
ius ; but the time will come when men everywhere will
recognize the greatness and beneficence of his adminis-
tration as President of the United States. It were a
crime against history and an injustice to his memory
were we to lose sight of the statesman amid the glory of
the warrior. Such was the magnitude of those great
measures of State, of domestic and foreign policy ; so
far-reaching their influence, so comprehensive their mis-
sion, that generations may pass from the vision of the
world ere the true and full estimate of his political worth
shall be determined. Then his Administration of eight
years will receive the calm consideration and just ap-
proval of his countrymen. When the memories of party
strife shall have been forgotten ; when the disappointed
aspirations for office shall have ceased to fester; when
the rivals for place and power are no more ; then, as
comes the sun from the mist of the morning, so shall his
Administration appear in greatest splendor. Then the

V ..

REV. J. P. NEWMAN.

>»

II his
the

historian of that calmer age will wonder how a soldier
by endowment and education, accustomed only to camp
and field, unlearned in statecraft, unfamiliar with political
science, unacquainted widi the methods of civil adminis-
tration, could have displayed such breadth of statesman-
ship in the measures which he originated and approved.

Great and beneficent as were his measures of recon-
struction, of amendments to the constitution, of finance,
of the improvement of the laboring classes, of the just
treatment of the Indians, of the elevation of the freed-
men, of the promotion of education, and of the conces-
sions he compelled foreign powers to make, yet, in the
interests of universal peace, in the ultimate recognition
of the brotherhood of nations, in the advancement of
Christian civilization in all the earth, the treaty of Wash-
ington will be esteemed of immeasurable grandeur and
beneficence, not to be estimated by millions of dollars,
but by the possibility and prophecy that all international
disputes may be adjusted by peaceful arbitration, when
" nations shall learn war no more." Such was his dream of
thefuture, expressed to the International Arbitration Union
in Birmingham, England, when he said : " Nothing would
afford me greater happiness than to know, as I believe
will be the case, that at some future day the nations of
the earth will agree upon some sort of congress which
shall take cognizance of international questions of diffi-
culty, and whose decision, will be as binding as the deci-
sion of our Supreme Court is binding upon us." \

His was the genius of common sense, enabling him to
contemplate all things in their true relations, judging
what is true, useful, proper, expedient, and to adopt the
best means to accomplish the largest ends. From this
came his seriousness, thoughtfulness, penetration, discern-
ment, firmness, enthusiasm, triumph. Wherein others

INTRODUCTION BY

dreamed of success he foresaw defeat ; when others
expected despair he discovered ground of hope. What
were contrasts to others were comparisons to him. He
often stood alone in his judgment and plans ; and it is
the enduring compliment to his practical sense that the
blunders committed by others on military and political
questions were the result of plans which never had his
approval. In war and in peace he was the wisest and
safest guide this nation has had since " the Father of his
Country " ascended to his reward.

To his clear and certain imagination the future loomed
before him clothed with the actuality of the present.
Read his military orders, and they prophesy the history
of the battles he fought. He foresaw the enemy's plans
as thouofh he had assisted at their councils of war. He
was one of those extraordinary men who, by the suprem-
acy of their wills, force all obstacles to do their bidding.
By the promptitude of his action he left no time for its
contravention. Times, places and persons he compre-
hended with mathematical accuracy. Nothing escaped
his penetration. Such was the perpetual calmness of his
intellect that he could transact the most important affairs
when the storm of battle was raging at its height.

His soul was the home of hope, sustained and cheered
by the certainties of his mind and the power of his faith.
His was the mathematical genius of a great general
rather than of a great soldier. By this endowment he
proved himself equal to the unexpected, and that with
the precision of a seer. " The race is not to the swift
nor the battle to the strong," because the unexpected
happens to every man. The grandest campaigns are
often defeats, the most brilliant plans are unconsummated,
the most wished-for opportunities are unrealized, because
baffled by the unexpected at the very moment of ex-

REV. J. P. NEWMAN.

ers
hat
He
It is
the
fical
his
and
f his.

)med
:sent.
story
plans
He
prem-

ding.
or its
mpre-

caped

of his

affairs

leered
faith,
leneral
jnt he
tt with
swift
)ected
IS are
Imated,
lecause
of ex-

pected fulfillment. But he appeared greatest in the
presence of the unforeseen. Then came an inspiration
resistless as the march of a whirlwind, as when on the
second night of the battle of the Wilderness, when he
changed the entire front of the line of battle, and quietly
said, in response to a messenger, " If Lee is in my rear, I
am in his."

In the history of a great general there come supreme
moments, when long-maturing plans are to be consum-
mated and long-deferred hopes are to be realized. Some
men can work up to that point and excite the admiration
of mankind by the care and push wherewith they move
toward the objective, but fail in the crucial moment.
The preparations of this wonderful man rarely excited
the applause of the people, because the workings of his
masterful mind were hidden beneath the silence of his
lips ; but when the supreme moment came, there came
also an intellectual elevation, an uplifting of the whole
being, a transformation of the silent, thoughtful general,
which surprised his foes and astonished his friends. He
culminated at the crisis. He was at his best when most
needed. He responded in an emergency.

He is one of the few men in history who did more
than was expected Some men excite great expectation
by the brilliancy of their preparations ; but this quiet,
meditative, undemonstrative man exceeded all expecta-
tions by doing more than he had promised, and by doing
what all others had failed to do. Others had ^one their
best with a conscientiousness worthy of all praise ; they
had worked up to their maximum strength, and accom-
plished much ; they had contributed largely to the final
victory, and shall receive well of their country. It was
no fault of theirs if nature had not endowed them for the
ultimate achievement. But this man, pre-eminent by the

INTRODUCTION BY

happy combination of both nature and Providence, rose
superior to the supreme moment, forced all things to do
his bidding, and, like another Joshua, could have com-
manded sun and moon to stand still to illuminate his
final path to victory. His latent resources seemed inex-
haustible. Was Fort Donelson esteemed impregnable ?
It yielded to his demand for an immediate and " uncon-
ditional surrender." Did Vicksburg defy his sixth plan
of capture? His seventh plan was a success. Did
Richmond hurl defiance at ail previous attempts ? His
final effort was a triumph, and over the doomed capital
of the Confederacy triumphandy floated the flag of the
Union.

Such were his untold, hidden resources of adaptation,
ever unfolding to meet the demand of new situations,
that he would have proved himself equal to any position
of trust and to any emergency that might arise.

And whether in camp or Cabinet, in private or public,
at home or abroad, how pure and commendable his moral
character ! Life in the camp has proved ruinous to the
morals of the greatest warriors. The excitement of a
life devoted to arms, the scenes of excess and plunder to
which a soldier is exposed, the absence of the restraints
of home and church, tend to the worst of passions and to
the corruption of the best morals. After five years in
camp and field he returned to his home without a stain
upon his character. Among the ancient or modern war-
riors where shall we find his superior in moral elevation?
Given to no excess himself, he sternly rebuked it in
others. He who could speak to every one according to his
station, and who could be the delightful companion of
kings and queens, of courtiers and chosen friends, never
took the name of his Creator in vain, and an impure
story never polluted his lips. He assured me, as his

HEV. J. P. NEWMAN. W

pastor, that were he disposed to swear he would be com-
pelled to pause to phrase the sentence. Such was the
purity of his thought-life that he has been seen to blush
and withdraw from the companionship of those who had
presumed to relate a salacious story in his presence.

Gentle, true, and kind, gratitude was one of the noblest
emotions of his soul. His words were few, but pregnant
with grateful recognition. To one who had been a friend
in need he declared : " I am glad to say that while there
is much unblushing wickedness in the world, yet there is
a compensating grandeur of soul. In my case I have not
found that republics are ungrateful, nor are the people."
And so he had expressed himself in his speech in New
York in 1880: "I am not one of those who cry out
against the Republic and charge it with being ungrate-
ful. I am sure that, as regards the American people as a
nation, and as individuals, I have every reason under the
sun, if any person really has, to be satisfied with their
treatment of me." When restored to the Army as Gen-
eral and retired on full pay, he was deeply touched ; and
taking the wife of his youth by the hand he read the tele-
gram which announced the fact, while, more eloquent
than words, tears of gratitude to the nation moistened
those cheeks never blanched with fear.

He followed the divine maxim : " Before honor is
humility." It is difficult to be victorious and not be
proud. Military success leaves in the mind an exquisite
pleasure, which fills and absorbs the thoughts. The con-
queror ascribes to himself superiority of capacity and
force. He crowns himself with his own hands ; he de-
crees to himself a secret triumph ; he regards as his own
the laurels others helped to gather; and when he renders
to God public thanks he mingles his vanity with his devo-
tions. But read his orders ; read the reports of his vie-

INTRODUCTION BY

tories ; read the memoirs of his life ; how he praises his
great subordinates and the Army and Navy that did the
fighting. Behold the contrast in the general orders and
reports of batdes by the first Napoleon and those by this
unpretentious conqueror. What pride and boldness in
the one ; what humility and modesty in the other. And
who, in all these four lustra since the strife was over ;
in the decade since he retired from the chair of State,
with a name great in both hemispheres, has ever heard
him speak of his deeds of valor or the success of his ad-
ministration ? " Let another praise thee, and not thine
own lips."

" In honor preferring one another," was the inspired
maxim of his life. How evident his delight in announc-
ing the triumphs of those great generals who fought under
him ! And here, let us recall the tender and constant
friendship of Grant and Sherman and Sheridan. They
were as one man. They acted without anxiety. There
was in them a concurrence of thought, motive, and aim,
born of mutual confidence. They were at once the sup-
plement and converse of each other, tj.e was profound
in reflection ; they acted by sudden illumination. He
was cool without languor ; they ardent without precipi-
tation. He was more ready to act than to speak, and
most resolute and determined when most silent; they
most eloquent in words and deeds when executing the
plans of their chief. He created in them the expectation
of something extraordinary; they sought to reach those
prodigies which crowned his life as the most consummate
General. He, by his rapid and constant efforts, won the
admiration of the world ; they rejoiced to shine in the
association of his glory. He, by the depth of his genius
and his incredible resources, rose superior to the greatest
dangers ; they, by an admirable instinct, seemed born to

REV. /. P. NEWMAN.

s his
d the
5 and
y this
;ss in
And
over ;
State,
heard
lis ad-
t thine

ispired
nounc-
tuader
onstant
They
There
id aim,
le sup-
•ofound
He

)recipi-
ik, and
they
^ng the
ictation
|h those
immate
^on the
in the
genius
greatest
Iborn to

draw fortune into their plans and force destiny itself.
What a privilege to study these men and learn from each
the esteem the other merited. But, Alas ! the trinity is
broken. Grant is dead !

Yet he was not a stoic, insensible alike to pain and
pleasure ; indifferent to public opinion or carelt!ss about
his honor or rights. He loved the praise of men when
the reward of honorable action. He was a sensitive,
high-spirited, manly man, who had the will and the
courage to contend to the last for what was his due. If
he reviled not when reviled, he accepted the divine phi-
losophy that a " soft answer turneth away wrath." If he
was patient under misrepresentation, he trusted Him
who said, " Vengeance is mine ; I will repay, saith the
Lord." Was he silent under reproach? He preferred
the greater satisfaction of the reversion of public opinion.
Only those permitted to hear the whispers of his sensi-
tive heart knew the grief and anguish he experienced
when maligned by ignorance, prejudice, and disappointed
aspirants. He had meekness, but it was not a base sur-
render, of self-respect. His indignation could burn like
a mountain on fire, but he never permitted himself to be
consumed by its volcanic eruptions. He knew his ene-
mies, and treated them with a withering silence that has
passed into a proverb. He knew his friends, and, true
to his knightly soul, supported them in "good report and
evil." But he never was the companion of bad men, and
when he discovered in a pretended friend deception or
dishonesty or immorality, he shook him off as Christ re-
jected Judas. His was the language of the Psalmist:
"In whose eyes a vile person is contemned." His pri-
vate friendships were refined, and he found his chief
delight in the society of the true, the pure, and the ele-
vated. He discerned character with the precision of a

INTRODUCTION BY

prophet. His great subordinates are in proof. His
chief associates in the affairs of State are ilhistrations.
And the marvel of the ages will be that through a long
and responsible public career he was so seldom deceived
when on the highest authority it is said: "Satan himself
is transformed into an angel of light" to deceive the very
elect. It has been the ill-fortune of the best and wisest
of men, from Moses to David, from David to Paul, from
Paul to Luther, to be deceived by pretended friends.
Csesar had his Brutus. Washington had his Arnold.
Christ had his Judas.

And the world mistakes the character of our illustrious
countryman in supposing that he was without self-appre-
ciation. He knew his power and realized his strength.
His humility was not born of self-ignorance ; his self-
abnegation was not inspired by contempt for the reward
of noble deeds. He was not indifferent to the approba-
tion of his fellow-men, nor was his ear deaf to the voice
of praise. He loved fame, but he did not seek it. He
loved power, but he did not aspire to it. He loved
wealth, but he did not covet it. He was a man with all
the passions and appetites of human nature ; and to
make him other than a well-poised, self-mastered man
would be an injustice to his memory. But he was wiser
than his celebrated conterporaries, in that he would not
suffer himself to be unmanned by popular applause, or
the exercise of power, or the possession of wealth, or
crushed by misfortune, or disheartened by suffering. In
this he was greater than the great of his own age.

He loved life and enjoyed it; he loved children and
caressed them ; he loved his family and found therein
his chief delight. He had not a taste for music, but he
had melody in his heart. He despised pretense and
show, but admired the real and beautiful. He was not

--T-I

REV. /. P. NEWJ^AN. 33

fond of books, yet by carefulness of observation, by
thoroughness of reflection, by attentiveness to the con-
versation of the well informed, by extensive travels in
many lands, by the daily study of current events, he was
the most intelligent citizen in our Republic. He was a
living encyclopaedia of facts, figures and men, and his
forthcoming memoirs will astonish the reader with his
accurate estimate of persons, the keenness of his obser-
vations and the vastness of his information.

Out of his great character came the purest motives,
as effect follows cause. He abandoned himself to his
life mission with the hope of no other reward than the
consciousness of duty done. Duty to his conscience, his
country and his God was his standard of successful
manhood. With him true greatness was that in great
actions our only care should be to perform well our part
and let glory follow virtue. He placed his fame In the
service of the State. He was never tempted by false
glory. He never acted for effect. He acted because he
could not help It. His action was spontaneous. Ambi-
tion could not corrupt his patriotism ; calumnies could
not lessen it ; discouragements could not subdue It. It
was not a sudden outburst of the Imagination, but an in-
telligent conviction. He committed all to the great
struggle to save his country. There was a time when he
preferred that his military genius should suffer momen-
tary depreciation rather than hazard the cause of the
Union by revealing the vastness of his plans, which re-
quired time to unfold. Who does not recall the time
when an ardent, patriotic people became impatient, exact-
ing, clamorous for Immediate results. But he had the
energy of silence. His self-control was equal to the im-
patience of the nation. How calm and unruffled was he I

He knew that time was an essential element In a war so
c

INTRODUCTION BY

vast and complicated. He could wait. He did wait.
And a grateful peopie bless his memory. And with a
nation redeemed, peaceful and prosperous, who does not
regret the cloud cast over him at Pittsburgh Landing, at
Vicksburgh and in the Wilderness? He made no reply.
He spoke no word of complaint. He offered no self- vin-
dication. He knew his plans, and felt assured of success.
O ! great soul, forgive our impatience ; forget our lack
of confidence ; blot from thy memory our cruel censures.
Thou wert wiser and kindlier and better than we. We
did it in the ardor of our patriotism and in our love of
liberty. And from the serene heavens into which thou
hast gone, join our song as we praise that God who gave
thee the victory and us a redeemed nation.

The martyrs of one age are the prophets of the next.
Fame succeeds defamation. Time changes all things.
Washington endured a like ordeal. His neutrality pro-
clamation touching the war between France and Hng-
kmd, and his treaty with England, gave mortal offense.
His action was denounced in Philadelphia, New York
and Boston. His mock funeral was enacted in Philadel-
phia. The treaty was burned in public squares. His
character was aspersed. He was declared destitute of
merit as a statesman. He was charged with having vio-
lated the Constitution ; with having drawn from the public
treasury for his private use, and his impeachment was
publicly suggested. Time has changed the verdict of
thf: people. He is now enthroned in the hearts of his
countrymen ; and so shall his illustrious successor for-
ever dwell in the grateful affections of the American
people.

If now we lay upon the altar of his memory, as our
votive offerings, our liberty, our wealth and our homes,
let us learn to be cautious in our decisions on the acts

REV. J. P. NEWMAN.

wait,
vith a
►es not
ing, at

reply,
elf-vin-
uccess.
ir lack
nsures.
I. We
love of
;h thou
ho gave

le next.

i things.

ity pro-
d Hng-
offense.

w York

•hiladel-

s. His

;itute of

[ing vio-

le public

lent was
prdict of
Is of his
Isor for-
[merican

as our

homes,

Ithe acts

of our public servants, and slow in our censures upon
those whom time may prove our greatest benefactors.

And where, in all the annals of our national life, shall we
find another, save the sage of Mount Vernon, who was
so truly a typical American ? Is it true that his personal
qualities were not brilliant ; that his salient points were
not conspicuous; that in running parallels between him
and other men of fame, a feeling of disappointment is
experienced because there is not on the surface some
prodigious element of power and greatness ? Yet he had
this double advantage over all the world's heroes — he
possessed the solid virtues of true greatness in a larger
degree than other men of renown, and possessed them
in greater harmony of proportions. Some heroes have
been men of singular virtue in particular lines of con-
duct. Cyrus, the son of Cambyses, was distinguished
for his moderation and courage. Aristides the Just
scorned the bribes offered by Mardonius. The patriot-
ism of Leonidas was proof against the temptation of un-
counted gold. Regulus was the soul of Roman honor,
and accepted exile and death in preference to infamy.
Marcus Aurelius Antoninus gave his royal fortune to re-
lieve the poor of his empire. Peter the Great was illus-
trious for his pride of country, and laid the foundations
of Russia's present greatness. Frederick of Prussia was
a soldier prince, the most renowned of whom history has
preserved a memorial. But this foremost American pos-
sessed all these and other virtues in happy combination,
not like single gems, brilliant by isolation, but like jewels
in a crown of glory, united by the golden band of a com-
pleter character. What humility amid such admiration !
what meekness amid such provocation ! what fidelity amid
such temptations ! what contentment amid such adver-
sity ! what sincerity amid such deception ! what " faith,

TNTROD VCTi ON B \

hope and charity" amid such suffering! Temperate
without austerity, cautious without fear, brave without
rashness, serious without melancholy, he was cheerful
without frivolity. His constancy was not obstinacy ; his
adaptation was not fickleness. His hopefulness was not
Utopian. His love of justice was equaled only by his
delight in compassion, and neither was sacrificed to the
other. His self-advancement was subordinated to the
public good. His integrity was never questioned ; his
honesty was above suspicion ; his private life and public
career were at once reputable to himself and honorable
to his country.

Are these plain, homely, solid virtues ? Yet they are
the essential elements in public usefulness and perma-
nent renown. Is it true that mankind are attracted by shin-
ing qualities and are led captive by brilliancy rather than
by solidity ? Are the masses charmed by the tears of the
Macedonian ; by the Roman crossing the Rubicon ; by the
Frenchman dispersing the National Directory? But he was
too great to be brilliant as men count brilliancy. The sword
of Orion, the clustered glories of the Pleiades, the uplifted
falchion of Perseus, are more attractive than the Polar
Star ; but of all the stellar hosts, which is more important
than that calm and steady planet to gladden the mariner
on the trackless deep ? Dewdrops sparkle in the morn-
ing sun, and the summer cloud emits its fructifying
shower, and in turn is decked with the celestial bow ; but
what are these compared with the wealth and highway of
the ocean ? In sheets of light and in bars of fire the
lightning dazzles the eye and terrifies the mind of the
beholder ; but what is the glow of the one or the sheenj
of the other to the daily sun spreading warmth and plenty
and beauty over the habitations of man ? He was the sun
of our plenty, the ocean of our wealth, and the Polar

REV. J. P. NEWMAN.

rate

lOUt

srful
; his
i not
r his
> the
) the
[; his
Dublic
)rable

iy are
)ernia-
y shin-
jr than
of the
by the
he was
sword
>pUfted
Polar
•ortant
ariner
morn-
ptifying
but
[way of
ire the
of the
sheen J
plenty
the sun
Polar

Star, shining calmly and steadily in the heavens of our
Republic.

Such a solid, sturdy character becomes our geography,
our institutions and our destiny. Self-government calls
upon the judgment to control the imagination ; to ambi-
tion to submit to queenly modesty ; to adventure to bow
to prudence ; to justice to hold in subjection political
wrong ; to virtue to dominate every vice. It seems to be
with us a national tradition that only men of solid virtues
shall be raised to supreme positions in our Republic.

Our greatest yet with least pretense,
Great in council and great in war.
Foremost captain of his time,
Rich in saving common sense.
And, as the greatest only are,
In his simplicity sublime.

As he was the typical American, so his was the typical
American home. May we lift the curtain, and look upon
the holy privacy of that once unbroken household? O!
the mutual and reciprocal love of wedded life within those
sacred precincts. Husband and wife the happy supple-
ment of each other, their characters blending in sweetest
harmony like the blended colors in the bow of promise,
fie, strength, dignity, and courage ; she, gentleness,
grace and purity. He, the Doric column to sustain ; she,
the Corinthian column to beautify. He, the oak to sup-
port ; she, the ivy to entwine. In their life of deathless
love, their happiness lay like an ocean of pearls and dia-
monds in the embrace of the future He, unhappy with-
K.MX. her presence; she, desolate without his society. She,
pure, high-minded, discriminating, ardent, loving, intelli-
gent, he confided to her his innermost soul and blessed
her with his best and unfailing love. She shared his
trials and his triumphs ; his sorrows and his joys ; his
toils and his rewards. How tender was that scene, in the

INTRODUCTION BY

early dawn of that April day, when all thought the long-
expected end had come, when he gave her his watch and
tenderly caressed her hand. It was all the great soldier
had to give the wife of his youth. And the dying hero
whispered : " I did not have you wait upon me, because
I knew it would distress you ; but now the end draws
nigh." And out from the "sweUings of Jordan" he
rushed back to the shore of life to write this tender mes-
sage to his son : " Wherever I am buried, promise me
that your mother shall be buried by my side." It is all a
wife could ask ; it is all a husband could wish.

" Lovely and pleasant in their lives, and in their death
they shall not be divided." Side by side they shall sleep
in the same tomb and she shall share with him whatever
homage future ages shall pay at his national shrine.

It was his love for her that lifted his intellect above the
ceaseless tortures of a malignant disease and threw
oblivion over the sense of excruciating pain, that he might
write his personal memoirs, that she should not want
when he was gone.

And how tender was his care. He thought not of him-
self, but of her. To his son he said : " I hope mother
will bear up bravely." To quiet her anxiety he wrote :
" Do as I do ; take it quietly. I give myself not the least
concern. If I knew the end was to be to-morrow, I would
try just as hard to get rest in the meantime." Would she
keep holy vigils through the livelong night? He wrote
her : " Go to sleep and feel happy ; that is what I want
to do, and am going to try for. I am happy when out of
pain. Consider how happy you ought to be. Good
night!"

Did she seek to divert his mind from his sufferings by
recalling the victories of the past? He replied: "This
is the anniversary of the batde of Vicksburg — that is a

REV. J. P. NEWMAN, 39

fact. I had not thought of it before- It has been an
important anniversary to us on two other occasions — one
when our only daughter was born, and subsequent to
Vicksburg, when we had a grandson born on that day."

V/as hers a laudable desire that the forthcoming me-
moirs should be inscribed to her ? Yet she surrendered
her claim to the magnanimity that inspired him to write:
" It is a great deal better that it should be dedicated as it
is. I made what reputation I have as a soldier. The
troops on both sides are yet living. As it is, the dedica-
tion is to those we fought against as well as to those we
fought with. It may serve a purpose in restoring har-
mony. If it does, it is of more importance than to gratify
a little vanity. You will die ; it is hoped the book will
live. After you and the soldiers who fought are all gone,
the dedication will have more value than now."

And such was the tenderness of his love and solicitude
for her and hers, he surprised her by a letter found after
his death. It came as a message to her from him after
he had gone. When his spirit had returned to the God
who gave it there was found secreted in his robe his last
letter to her, enveloped, sealed, and addressed. He had
written it betimes ; written it secretly, and carried the
sacred missive day after day during fourteen days, know-
ing that she would find it at last. In it he poured forth
his soul in love for her and solicitude for their children :

" Look after our dear children and direct them in the
paths of rectitude. It would distress me far more to
think that one of them could depart from an honorable,
upright and virtuous life than it would to know that they
were prostrated on a bed of sickness from which they
were never to arise alive. They have never given us any
cause for alarm on their account, and I earnestly pray
they never will. With these few injunctions and the

INTRODUCTION BY

knowledge I have of your love and affection, and of the
dutiful affection of all our children, I bid you a final fare-
well, until we meet in another and I trust, a better world.
You will find this on my person after my demise."

And who should marvel that, in a home of such parent-
age, that parental love and filial affection should reign
supreme. " Honor thy father and thy mother,' was in
perpetual obedience there. O ! what reverence for that
honored father by those devoted 3M)ns and that precious
daughter. O ! what blissful love they manifested for that
dear mother, to-day a widow. What pure delight in each
other's company ; what mutual pride in each other's fu-
ture welfare. And while all honor is due to each child
of the departed for love, devotion and anxiety, and now
for grief; yet the American people will never forget the
sleepless nights, the ceaseless vigils by day, the profound
deference, the tender caresses, the deathless love, cf his
first-born son, whose manly heart was crushod when his
father died. Such a home is worthy to be called an
American home. Give us such homes of purity, love,
and joy, and our Republic shall live forever.

If such was his character, such his life, such his home,
what were the consolations which sustained him in sick-
ness and cheered him in death? Was life to him a
" walking shadow " and death an endless dream ? Was
his calmness in suffering born of stoical philosophy, or
inspired by Christian fortitude? Were his love and
hope limited by time, or destined to live forever ? Reared
in the Methodist Episcopal Church, and baptized in his
last illness by one of her ministers, his religious nature
was sincere, calm, and steadfast. Ihe principles of
Christianity were deeply engrafted upon his spirit. Firm,
but n^/er demonstrative, he was not a man of religious
pretense. His life was his profession. He knew thai

REV. /. P. NEWMAN. 41

Christianity had nothing to gain from hfm beyond the
influence of a "well-ordered life and a godly conversa-
tion," but that he had everything to gain from the power
and promises of our Lord. More than all things else, he
was taciturn touching his religious faith and experience
— not, however, from doubt and fear, but from mental
characteristics. The keenest, closest, broadest of all
observers, he was the most silent of men. He lived
within himself. His thought-life was most intense ; his
memory and imagination were picture- galleries of the
world and libraries of treasured thought. He was a
world to himself. His most intimate friends knew him
only in part ; he was fully and best known to the wife of
his bosom and the children of his loins. To them the
man of iron will and nerve of steel was gentle, tender
and confiding, and to them he unfolded his beautiful
religious life.

On the 1 8th of April he said to me : " I believe In the
Holy Scriptures ; whoso lives by them will be benefited
thereby; men may differ as to the interpretation, which
is human ; but the Scriptures are man's best guide."
He revered their source, recognized their influence,
responded to their requisitions, trusted in their promises,
and found consolation in their hopes. His faith in God
as the Sovereign Ruler w^nd Father Almighty was simple
as a child's and mighty as a prophet's. There is an
eloquence of pathos in the opening sentence of the pre-
face to his Memoirs. He had proposed for himself other
plans of usefulness to occupy his declining years. He
would have mingled in the busy scenes of life in places
where men " most do congregate." He would have been
identified with the great enterprises of his day, to increase
a nation's wealth and power, and the glory of that city
in whose enchanting park he shall repose beneath the

INTR OD UCTION B Y

\ I

noblest monument. He would have enjoyed in domestic
and social life wealth and well-earned renown. But
Heaven decreed otherwise. " Man proposes and God
disposes." There are but few important events in the
affairs of men brought about by men of their own choice.
Such was his faith in Providence, which imparted to him
absolute power in his great mission ; and when burdened
with the gravest responsibilities, when conscious that a
nation's life had been confided to his care, when the
darkness of adversity overshadowed him, he trusted in
the Lord who is mightier than the mighty.

Doing nothing for show, yet he made public recog-
nition of God by his faithful and conscientious attendance
upon Divine worship. No public man heard more ser-
mons than he, and he was the best of hearers. Whether
in the obscurity of Galena, or in the conspicuousness
of Washington, or in the private walks of life in New
York, he was in his pew on the Lord's Day. And his
pastor was always sure of his presence on a stormy Sab-
bath. His faithful attendance at church was largely
inspired by his respect for the Sabbath day. On Mon-
day, April 20, he said to me : " I did not go riding yes-
terday, although invited and permitted by my physicians,
because it was the Lord's Day, and because I felt that if
a relapse should set in the people who are praying
for me would feel that I was not helping their faith by
riding out on Sunday." And on a Saturday night, to
divert his attention from pain and uneasiness, his eldest
son suggested some innocent diversion, but when
informed that it was near midnight, the honored father
replied : " It is too near the Sabbath to begin any diver-
sion."

He was a man of prayer. It was on Sabbath evening,
March 22, when alone with Mrs. Grant, that his pastor

REV. J. P. NEWMAN.

entered, and the General, with tenderest appreciation and
gratitude, referred to the many prayers offered for him,
and mentioned societies and little children who had prom-
ised to pray for him daily ; and then, in answer to his
minister's suggestion, that we should join that universal
prayer, he replied with emphasis, " Yes ; " and at the con-
clusion of our supplication the illustrious invalid re-
sponded, " Amen ! " That Amen, by that silent mv^n, was
more significant than volumes by others. But it was his
custom and habit to call to prayers. On March 27, late
in the evening, he requested all to enter his room for
devotions, and made a special request for the presence
of his " beloved physician," and his friend Romero. And
he said, to an honored priest of another Church : " I know
and feel very grateful to the Christian people of the land
for their prayers on my behalf There is no sect or relig-
ion as shown in the Old or New Testaments to which
this does not apply. Catholics, Protestants and Jews, and
all the good people of all nations, of all politics as well
as religions, and all nationalities, seemed to have united
in wishing or praying for my improvement. I am a great
sufferer all the time, hut the facts you have related are
compensation for much of it. All that I can do is to pray
that the prayers of ail these good people may be an-
swered so far as to have us meet in a nother and a better
world."

He was not a bigot. Bigotry was no part of his noble
and generous nature. While he demanded religion as
the safeguard of a free people, he accorded to all the
largest freedom of faith and worship. He was without
prejudice ; he claimed that public education should be
non-sectarian, but not non-religious. His Des Moines
speech on education was not against the Roman Catholic
Church, but against ignorance and superstition. The

INTRODUCTION BY

III

order issued during the war, excluding certain Jewish
traders from a given m" :ary district, did not originate
with him, but came from higher authority, and was not
against the religion of the Jews.

His was the beatitude : " Blessed is he that considereth
the poor." Strangers might regard him indifferent to
the needy, yet the poor will rise up and call him blessed.
Many were the pensioners of his kindly bounty. He
gave '* his goods to feed the poor." While President he
heard his pastor on " Active Christianity," and in the
sermon mention was made of a soldier's widow sick
and poor, and of a blind man in pressing want. He

had just reached the White House, when he sent me back

this card with the money: " Please give ^lo to the blind

man ^nd ;^io to the soldier's widow." On a Christmas

Eve he wrote me thus :

*' Executive Mansion, Dec 24, 1869.
" Dear Doctor : Please find enclosed my check for $100, for distri-
bution among the poor, and don't forget * The Ragged Schools' on
the Island. Yours truly, " U. S. Grant."

In his private, unseen life, he bore many of the fruits
of the Spirit. He loved his enemies, not as he loved his
friends, but he loved them as enemies by doing them
good as he had opportunity. He caught the spirit of the
Saviour's prayer : " Father forgive them ; they know not
what they do." There is one high in official position in
our Nation who had traduced him at the point of honor
whereat a great soldier is most sensitive, and the wrong
done was made public to the mortification of all. Grieved
at what he had done, and confined to his sick room, he
who had offended was nigh unto death. But, himself a
man of proud and sensitive spirit, he sighed for recon-
ciliation. " Would the President forgive the offense and
call on the sick?" anxiously asked interested friends,

JiEV. J. P. NEWMAN.

A suggestion from me that it would be a Christian act to
call was sufficient. The call was made ; the sick man
revived ; and old friendship was restored. And, rising to
a magnanimity worthy a saint, he would not withhold an
honor due, even from those who had done him a wrong.
Who does not regret the death of such a man ? Heaven
may be richer, but earth is poorer. On one of those
delusive April days, when hope revived in all our hearts,
I said to him : *' You are a man of Providence. God
made you the instrument to save our nation, and he may
have a great spiritual mission to accomplish by you, and
may raise you up." In the most solemn and impressive
manner, with a mind clear and a voice distinct, he replied:
•'I do not wish to proclaim it; but should He spare my
life it is my intention and resolve to throw all my
influence by ex£ nple in that direction."

He is gone, but shall death defeat a purpose so bene-
ficent ? Is he not mightier in his death than in his life ?
What home has not felt the sympathetic chord touched
by the invisible hand of his terrible but patient suffering ?
How the embers of sectional strife have died out on
the hearthstone of the nation ! How political animosities
have skulked away in shame from the peaceful spirit of
his last moments ! How sectarian prejudice shrank into
oblivion when around his couch all bowed in prayer be-
fore a universal Saviour! How the young men of the
Republic realized that life is worth living when they
felt the touch of his great soul ! How the little children
of the nation united his name with that of father and
mother in their purer prayers, and opened the tablets
of their young memories to receive the image of his
life and character ! And wherever he had touched the
circuit of the earth, there came from Japan, China and
India, from the temples of Jerusalem and the Pyramids

INTRODUCTION BY

of Egypt, from Attic Plains and ancient Troy, from the
Bosphorus and the Golden Horn, from the Danube and
Rhine, from the Seine and the Thames, and from out the
venerable walls of Westminster Abbey, the voice of
lamenting love.

When nf'ar his end he sought to cheer that precious
woman who loved him as her life : " You ought to feel
happy under any circumstances. My expected death
called forth expressions of sincerest kindness from all
people of all sections of the country. The Confederate
soldier vied with the Union soldier in sounding my praise.
The Protestant, the Catholic, and the Jew appointed days
for universal prayer in my behalf. All societies passed
resolutions of sympathy for me and petitions that I might
recover. It looked as if my sickness had had something
to do to bring about harmony between the sections. T'^*^
attention of the public has been called to your child
and they have been found to pass muster. Apparently
I have accomplished more while apparendy dying than it
falls to the lot of most men to be able to do ! " O, " let
me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be
like his ! "

And where in all the annals of the Church shall we
find a dying hour so full of divine repose? His calm
faith in a future state was undisturbed by anxious doubt.
His suffering and wasted body was but the casket for the
resplendent jewel of his soul, and when death ruthlessly
broke that precious casket an angel carried the jewel to
the skies to lay it at the Saviour's feet. In the early
light of April i st, when all thought the end was come, the
sufferer said to me : •' Doctor, I am going."

" I hope the prospect of the future is clear and bright"
was my response ; and the answer came : " Yes, O, yes ! "
Then followed a scene of infinite tenderness. The honored

REV. J. p. NEWMAN. 47

wife, the precious daughter, the devoted sons and their
wives, each in turn approacliec^ and he tenderly kissed
them. " Do you know me, darhng ? " was the loving
wife's inquiry, and he whispered back : " Certainly I do,
and bless you all in my heart." Such love melted the
marble heart of death, and the " King of Terrors " fled
affrighted. The sufferer revived. Heaven added months
to a life so dear to us all. When he had recovered suf-
ficiently, I asked him : " What was the supreme thought
on your mind when eternity seemed so near?"

" The comfort of the consciousness that I had tried to
live a good and honorable life," was the response which
revealed the hidden life of his soul. Again the angel of
death cast his shadow over the one a nation loved.
Amid the gathering gloom I said : " You have many
awaiting you on the other side."

•' I wish they would come, and not linger long," was
the answer of his Christian faith and hope. They came
at last. They came to greet him with the kiss of immor-
tality. They came to escort the conqueror over the
" last enemy " to a coronation never seen on thrones of
earthly power and glory. Who came? His martyred
friend, Lincoln ? His companion in arms, McPherson ?
His faithful Chief of Staff, Rawlins ? His great prede-
cessor In camp and Cabinet, Washington ? And did not
all who had died for Liberty come ? O I calm, brave,
heroic soul, sing thou the song of Christian triumph :
" O, death, where is thy sting, O, grave, where is thy vic-
tory ? Thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory,
through Jesus Christ, our Lord."

THE

LIFE AND DEEDS

GEN'L U. S. GRANT.

CHAPTER I.

IN SUPREME COMMAND.

Grant In command of all the armies — Crossin}^ tlie Rapidan — The wrestle in the
Wilderness — Description of that wild and ru^'ged region — Hancock on Hooker's
olil battle-field — Warren's assault — Grant's famous ride to the front — An old
officer's tribute.

" If any opportunity presents itself for pitching into
a part of Lee's army, do so without giving time for
dispositions." This order to General George G. Meade
was one of the first commands issued in a military
movement of vital moment to the nation. It was
penned one May morning in 1864, at half past eight
o'clock, just as the Army of the Potomac was cross-
ing the Rapidan river to begin a spring campaign,
with one man in command of all the armies of the
Union. New plans had been made and fresh forces
were taking the first step toward their execution. The
fate of the nation hung upon their success.

Thrice before, under as many different commanders,
had this same army pushed across this same stream
during the three years just past, only to return dis-
appointed with defeat or retreat. History does not
furnish brighter examples of heroism than it had dis-
played upon many occasions ; yet, from one cause
or another, its work had not brought decisive results.
D (4y)

Ijll

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

At the moment when this message was sent to Meade
it was entering upon a new experience, under the con-
trol of a mind and will noted for its unyielding quality.
The man whose orders it was now to obey had been
promoted to the highest rank known to the law. Before
he wrote the above order to Meade he had by wire
moved the army of Butler from Fort Fisher toward
Richmond, Sherman southward toward Georgia, and
Crook to the valley of Virginia. Thus, four strong
armies, numbering more than a quarter of a million

GRANT WRITING DESPATCH BEFORJi CROSSING THE RAl'lDAN.

of efficient troops, were at this moment marching from
'widely distant points toward a common centre in a new
scheme of co-operation and support that promised great
ihings to a nation impatient for a victory.

Never before in the history of war had one man
directed warlike operations over a broader expanse of
lerritory or held a more exalted military command. But
ihis one had earned the right to this unlimited power
in the fierce furnace of fight.

inr SUPREME COMMAND.

From Belmont, all the way southward to Chattanoog^a,
U. S. Grant had fought great battles and won important
victories. While doing these things, he also fashioned
from new levies an army of matchless soldiers. They
came, officers as well as men, from the Industrious citizens
of the West, raw volunteers, who, at the first call, shoul-
dered muskets they knew not how to use. These troops,
in learning the cruel lessons of the sword, had followed
him from Cairo to Missionary Ridge, and well understood
his relentless methods of war. The fact had also forced
itself upon the country that he did not split hairs over
questions of military etiquette or waste time in defining
the intricate theories of an armed conflict in the place
of producing evidences of his presence near the foe.
His work had furnished the testimony that when his
soldiers met the enemy the business on hand was a
fight. To reach the best of it by the easiest and most
direct means had always been his aim, and he had given
the nation results instead of excuses. This fact had
attracted the attention and purchased for him the
acclaim of the whole country. It had also bred the
belief that tenacity was his chief talent. His record
does not prove it. The campaign which began at the
June Ion of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers and ended
in the fall of Vicksburg, especially the later features of
it, were certainly strategic and bold enough to please the
most critical military scientist. Yet it is by no means the
only example of General Grant's skill in the conception
of great military movements as well as in the stroke of
the conflict ; but it is enough to prove his high quality
as a warrior. His pathway up to a full acknowledgment
of his abilities had been full of stones. Against big
odds General Grant had practically hammered himself
into the hazards of supreme command at the moment

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

i I

ihe reader is asked to begin the story of a life as full of
interest as it is of useful teachings.

The Army of the Potomac was unused to his aggres-
sive and stubborn ideas of armed strife. Whether from
political complications surrounding the situation near
Washington, or some other cause, its battles had been
a test of the courage of the troops, but never of the
enduring quality of man.

VIEW ON THE RAPIDAN RIVER.

A great general once said, "The hope and courage of
assailants are always greater than that of the assailed."
Grant, seemingly impressed with this idea,always sought
to attack rather than be attacked. When possible, the
dawn of the morning was the signal for a forward move-
ment. In other words, he was able to, and did, test to the
fullest the endurance as well as the courage of his
troops. The order to Meade started the splendid

IN SUPREME COMMAND.

soldiers of the Army of the Potomac to their first lesson
in General Grant's resolute ways of conducting a cam-
paign.

The new commander had just been informed that
Warren with the Fifth Corps had struck a part of Lee's
army. Naturally, this was notice to him that the Con-
federate chieftain was prepared for his forward move-
ment. Lee had pushed his forces out of the half-circle
in which they lay near the south bank of the Rapidan,
from Locust Grove, above Orange Court- House, to the
mouth of Mountain Run, near Ely's Ford. He intended
to whip the advancing army before it could be united
and put into position. - ., ^

General Meade was with the leading column, while
Grant was sti41 near the banks of the Rapidai. river,
waitincf for Burnside. His interest about the situa-
tion in front pressed upon him, and, leaving word for
Burnside to hurry up, he rode forward to join Meade
at his head-quarters at the old tavern just behind where
Warren was making his dispositions. It was an hour
after he reached there before two divisions of the Fifth
Corps were ready to make the attack which Meade had
ordered as soon as he received Grant's notice to begin
the battle. His forces were yet scattered, and reports
from the enemy were meagre and unsatisfactory. Little
more was known of their movements than that they had
been discovered in front in stroncr force.

The lay of the land where the Lieutenant-General was
to fight his first battle with strange troops, commanded
by officers almost unknown to him, fastened upon the
leader a perplexing responsibility and a new danger.
The Confederates were operating in a region with which
they were more or less familiar, while the Union forces
were entire strangers to its intricacies, and must hunt

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

I \

I .t

! i
i i

: 1

the enemy where cavalry and artillery were useless and
reliance could be had on the musket only. The country,
for miles about, was wild and forbidding. The ground
was rugged and uneven. The slopes were covered with
a thicR growth of scrub oaks and other varieties of
stunted trees. Hazel and other small underbrush were
woven into a bewildering network by creeping vines
and evergreens. This extensive reach of singular forest

was penetra*
ted by only two
wagon roads,
and there was
hardly a bri-
dle-path in the
whole region.
Only now and
then did a
brook or a ra-
vine break
through the
tangled under-
growth and
part the shad-
ows of the
forest enough
to let the sun-

GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. light in.

The movement of troops in this almost impenetrable
thicket was very difficult. Alignments could not be
preserved, and it was next to impossible to maintain
the formations. Fighting in this closely-twisted fastness
had to be man to man, and most of the time against an
unseen enemy. Each soldier must be guided by his
natural sagacity, for the officers were powerless so far

IN SUPREME COMMAND.

in-

as systematic direction was concerned. The region was
well named " The Wilderness," and the desperate fight
which began there on the 5th of May and lasted for two
days may well be called a grapple in the brush or a
scramble in the undergfrowth.

To keep a footing upon the important roads in this
wild region was of vital importance. Lee intended to
crowd Grant down the river before Hancock could
come up from the old Chancellorsville field, where
he had camped the night before. This purpose, on the
part of his antagonist, compelled Grant to force the
issue here. To meet the requirements of the situation,
Warren, as soon as possible, sent Griffin's and Wads-
worth's divisions with such energy against the enemy,
that Ewell, who was before him, was driven from the
field in utter confusion. But the nature of the ground
was such that supports failed to come up, and the foe,
renewing the attack in the afternoon, pushed Warren
back before nightfall to the position from which he made
the attack of the morning. Warren's assault had been
brilliantly and resolutely made, and, but for the remarka-
ble character of the field, would have been so successful
that the subsequent battles of that campaign would have
been fought upon a different line.

The news of the day's disaster fell upon Grant's ear
without in the least disturbing his equanimity. That
supreme confidence in final success that had always
characterized the Lieu tenant-General was not shaken
in this crisis, and he set about preparing for another
assault, with as much composure as though the most
ordinary work of life was being directed by him. The
day's disaster told him that Lee's whole force was now
before him. Sedgwick was still behind. Hancock had
not yet come from Todd's Tavern, where he had hsssx

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

halted, so that he could go to the support of Getty on
the Brock road or be marched to Warren's assistance,
as the exigencies of the battle might require.

Warren in person reported to General Grant the final
result of the day's fight and the general situation on the
Hne of battle. He simply asked a few questions, and
then ordered his horse, impelled by the gravity of the
situation to go to the front and make his own obser-
vations. By way of preparation, he arose and buckled
on a sword, which was notice to all who knew the habits
of the man that he regarded this as a moment of supreme
importance and one of unusual dignity. Rarely, since
he had been a general officer, had he worn side-arms,
and their presence upon this occasion was regarded as
an unerring indication of the character of his thoughts.
The act by him was more significant than words from
most men. The sword was the mute messenger of his
power and determined purpose.

It took but a moment to prepare for the ride, when
Grant and Warren gave rein to their horses and passed
out to decide what should be done in this emergency.
Only a rough country road led out to Warren's posi-
tion, and along it the two generals travelled while the
daylight was waning. The troops were scattered at
hap-hazard through the woods, and, although the rude
works of the two forces, thrown up at odd times during
the fight, were very near to each other, they were not
visible to the contending men, and about all the new
commander could do in the way of taking observations
was to make himself familiar with the unfortunate lay of
the land and the necessity of holding Warren's position.

Bent upon this, he returned to head-quarters to give
directions for Burnside to hurry up from the river and
Hancock to make all possible speed to the support of

JN SUPREME COMMAND.

Getty's division, which held the key to all the by-ways in
that wooded region. Getty had been instructed to main-
tain his position against all odds, and to do so he was
finally obliged to move out and make a fight while
Hancock was hurrying to his relief. But the Second
Corps arrived late in the afternoon, just in the nick of
time to support Getty in his assault on Hill.

While all these movements were going on, vexatious
delays were embarrassing the leader whose fate, as well
as that of his army, hung in such delicate balances that
a iiair might have turned the scale for or against him. Yet
perfect confidence in the final triumph of his plans did
not desert him, and now, after all these years, he says :
"While those were serious hours, I never once lost
faith in the troops or had a doubt of final success."
But who will measure the peril of the situation while
Grant waited for a message from the front that day.
It was Inte in the afternoon of the 5th of May before
that incessant, awful roar of musketry came with a
sullen voice to his ear, which told that a fierce battle
was on. It is unnecessary here to follow the incidents
of that terrific wrestle in the Wilderness. It began on
the 5th and ended on the 7th of May, but the first
thirty-six hours of fight traced in blood a never-dying
tribute to the valor of the American volunteer. Those
who wore the blue were as if blindfolded with brush
during all the conflic*- Those who wore the gray, with
advantages of ground and iniormation, proved them-
selves foes of the fi/st quality. The story of their clinch
and struggle in the thicket can never be pictured with
words. Most of it was hidden from the eye of any one
except individual antagonists. They simply fought until
both were worn out or dead, and when the shattered
battalions of the Army of the Potomac were drawn out

■I

I I

»? ■I

68'

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

of the woods to renew the battle at Spottsylvania the
first step toward ultimate triumph had been taken. To
be sure, Grant's first engagement below the Rapidan
was without decisive results. Yet the battle of the
Wilderness was an important victory. He had sounded
Lee's position and out-generalled him in the preliminary
manoeuvres of a great campaign. He had established
himself firmly on the south side of the river, which
was a substantial reward for his first movement. The
army which had given him such brilliant evidences of its
fighting capacity had been in the habit of retreating after
a single engagement. One of the old officers of the
Sixth Corps, twenty years later, tells this story of the
value of the Wilderness to the troops and the impres-
sion Grant made upon them.

" We were thrown across the Rapidan again in the
spring of 1864, and scarcely had our column straight-
ened out in the road to Richmond, when Lee attacked.
We had to face to the right and meet him in the dense
thickets known as the ' Wilderness.' The fighting was
desperate and deadly. There was no great advantage
for either army until Lee got on our right flank and
rear.

"This attack was made on the Sixth Corps late in
the afternoon of the 6th, and for a time there was great
confusion, and stubborn fighting. Sedgwick 'changed
front' in the face of the most determined assaults. The
old General was as cool and gave his orders as quietly
and clearly as if he had been sitting in his tent.
The movement was successfully accomplished, yet
every man of us knew that we had been cut off
from the base of supplies at Brandy Station and ex-
pected nothing but that, in the early morning we would
be fighting only for a chance to fall back again beyond

IN SUPREME COMMAND.

the Rapidan. We had got used to it and would have
retreated with no more than the usual feeling of regret.
It was then, in the gathering darkness, that I saw General
Grant, wholly undisturbed by the seeming failure of his
plans, and giving his orders without appearance of
annoyance. I set him down right there as a great
General. But, when about midnight orders came and
we moved to the left, in the direction of Richmond,
there was a scene. It flashed upon us, like lightning,
that there was to be no more 'falling back,' and the
troops broke into the wildest enthusiasm. I had been
through it all, from McClellan to Meade, and the feeling
of the army that night when they found there was to be
no more retreating, found relief in such cheers as I had
never listened to."

This veteran ofificer thus describes the victory. It
came in the confidence Grant gave his soldiers and in
the faith they gave him.

Touching thus the needle of the indicator which
points to the high degree of this great warrior's power,
just as it is within one notch of the top, it is well to stop
and look at the elements of mind and character that have
combined to make him a great Captain and an illustrious
citizen.

CHAPTER II.

TITK GRANT FAMILY.

(Irant's ancestry — Tic comes of fi^'litiiifj stock — Tracing liis family liack Roo years —
Tiicy arc from ihe sturdy yoemanry of Scotland — Matthew (Iranl's arrival in this
country — Karly settlement in New England — Noah Grant the great-grandfather
and Noah Grant the grandfather — His life in Pennsylvania — Hirth and early life
of Jesse Grant — His marriage to Hannah Simpson — Characteristics of his parents.

Fi:\v men are fitted for the highest duties of command.
From out of the crucible of fight only one officer,
from among the many, comes who possesses the force-
ful attributes necessary to the successful conduct of
war. Perfect self-poise, selfreliance and power of
decision, where human life is at stake, are rare yet
indispensable qualities in a commander. There arc
many men grand in the assault who are lost in the plan
of a campaign, or beaten by dallying with their judg-
ment.

There is a vast deal of difference between a great
soldier and a o-reat commander. Several Generals on
the Union side were doubtless General Grant's supe-
riors in what may be termed "the learning of war;"
but in the vital resources that were always proof
against defeat or demoralization. Grant was the chosen
chief among them all. It was his tireless energy,
tenacity, entire willingness to accept grave responsi-
bilities, and a sublime faith in his ability to win even
against adverse chances, that made him the leader of
great leaders. He inherited these strong qualities from
a long line of not aristocratic but substantial and useful
ancestry, whose mottoes were, " Steadfast," " Wise and

(60)

Harmless." His own I

and vvl,at l,c l,as said is r.""' '°°' *'■" """"^ "^^ ^is af ts

clfrncss and firmness.' ' '°"' <^°'"""'n«ling of ten-

I'or eight hundred years th, r i i
■" <""• own or the moX ^ " ^"'" "° ''''• "'h---
grant's ancestors h^ve n' ? "' '" "''"'' '""^■'■''''
'•'■^Vfair's ..British Anti^Z ..'TvT tf r"''"'''^' f^^^^'
('rants were Normin« V i ^ ''''"" ""finally the
William the Con" rC 'as ,1,""^ ''"^^ -Scotland'wit,
days of the Scotch monardw ^ '' '°"- '" "'« <^'''^'y
<"'• and Gregory Grant .^ ''^1^'^ "f\ '"" P--'
-Hy as the ,3th century tl^''""f "' '"^""ess as
q-l.ty of the good law offi 1 has^h T ""-" ^'°''''
fro". .trcneration to generator, T'fi P''" '""^^'^ d°«'n
y" indest represent^.": '°thel :" r'l "'=™'=^' ^^
i'le same authority as ,1 ' °'^ ^PI''>™«ox.

Mfdo-. Hill, in :2, ,ohr'r ''"""^'^ ■^'""■'' "-' at
"S'>twi„goftheSco«i i/army tT ^""^'r^'^'^-^ the
"'«" 1" Hampshire. EnS /"'''" ^''° ^ •"°""-
i-^ancis Grant;wl,o vasE ^'f"'^"-"'-C^eneral
<;■•-' of . burning mot nt v tl M" ''"• '^ '^'^^^'^ "'«
'he word selected by hrir ''^ "'°"°' "Steadfast."
before, to depicfthe ara^r r' T"' """^-'l >'--
of the Famihes of Grea V '!" ^'^"''- " Crests ■

bairn, contains twen J-one 7 "" '"'^"''•" ''^ ^air-
Grant. One of them repre S!"! T'^- "' "'^ ^'^"
fo"r peaks, each surmounted^ fl '""''""^ ^ill with
"Stand Sure, Stand Fast r'' '''T' "''''' '''e motto,
Grant had as a crest an oak ^n^^' ^"'''"'^•" ^''^^er
and the motto, .• Wise and HaT^^^T "^ -" ^'>ining

A reg,ment of Highlanders in tT <=
India was composed alm„T , , ^^P"*' '"'^bellion in
i°>ors bore the motto ^taTt °' '''"^"'^- ■''"'^ "'eir

The original home of these ,; '"' "''"- ^"-'"e."

."ft people Jies m the

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

northeast of Scotland, on the beautiful and picturesque
land that follows the course of the river Spey. The
Shires of Inverness, Moray and Banff were theirs ; a
country noted for the beauty of its scenery and its mag-
nificent forests of fir-trees. It is recorded that about
the 14th century the clan became divided, and that is
doubtless the reason why to-day there are tvo clans in
Scotland who claim ancestry with our great Captain.

The Duffs, Gordons and Stewart- Murrays, highland-
ers, assert that he is their kinsman with as much
earnestness as the more aristocratic of the clan Grant
with Lord Seafield as their chief. Each drinks his health
upon festal occasions and both do him honor with proud
respect for the manner in which he has preserved to this
generation the quality of steadfastness with which his
ancestois and theirs made the name famous in the days
when they lighted their beacon fires upon the hill-tops to
rouse the Grants for war, pressing them by this sign
that in the conflict they were to be as immovable as
the rock. There is no doubt that the remarkable
energy, the determined resolution, the perfect self-
confidence and the solid good sense of Grant came
with his Caledonian descent, all the traits of his solid an-
cestry uniting in him to produce a great commander
of men. There are authorities which deny this line-
age, and insist that he is of English Puritan origin.
But General Grant's peculiar characteristics of mind
and body seem to emphatically deny any such assump-
tion. I

His kinsfolk in the Highlands of Scotland were not
more steadfast in war and peace than those who came
to this country and planted the seed of the family in this
new land. Among the earlier settlers who found their
way from the old world to the new, ten years after the

THE GRANT FAMILY.

que
The

s; a
nag-
bout
kat is
ns in

iland-
much
Grant
health
proud
to this
ich his
le days
tops to
is sign
ble as
arkable
self-
came

olid an-
mander
is hne-
origin.
f mind
ssump-

rere not
\o came
in this
[nd their
Ifter the

landing of the Pilgrims, were Matthew Grant and his
wife. As early as 1630 this sprig from the ancient
family was planted in what are now the suburbs of
Boston. The loss of his wife and the hankering after
new lands, five years afterwards, took Matthew Grant
into what was then the wilderness of the beautiful Con-
necticut valley. His settlement was made at Windsor,
between Springfield and Hartford, and the records of
the old town attest the fact that he was a leader in the
little community. He was surveyor, town clerk and a
sort of arbitrator to settle t^e disputes among his towns-
men.

Noah and Solomon Grant, two of his sturdy descend-
ants, the first a captain and the second a lieutenant, were
killed near Oswego, N. Y., in 1756, in the French and
Indian war. From the loins of this Captain Grant
sprang another Noah Grant, the grandfather of U. S.
Grant, He fouglit gallantly in the Revolutionary war
as lieutenant at the battle of Lexington, and afterwards
as a captain of the line.

When the conrtict ended that insured our independ-
ence, the Connecticut valley had become quite a settle-
ment, and Noah, restless under the gentle yoke of
peace, took thiC Western fever and removed to West-
moreland county, Pa. On the banks of the Monon-
gahela, not far from Greensburg, he began anew, at a
time when the mineral wealth that has since made
the region famous was unknown and the business of
that now magnificent section was conducted without
money by swapping the commodities of life. Here he
married Rachael Kelly, who bore him Jesse Root Grant,
father of the subject of this memoir, and six other
children. The name of Jesse Root was given to his
favorite child by Noah Grant, in honor of one of the

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

earlier justices of the Supreme Court of Connecticut,
whom he had known in his New luigland home.

Army hfe and the habits of tiie pioneer had made
Noah Grant restless, and, after living nine years in the
Pennsylvania wilderness, he embarked with his si^.all
holdings of household goods, his wife and family,
and floated in a flat boat down the Monongahela into
the Ohio river, and landed about forty miles below
Pittsburg, at Liverpool, Ohio, where he raised his
cabin and started again. The opening of the Western
reserve for settlement, and the New England emigra-
tion that poured in, beckoned General Grant's grand-
father thither, and he took up his home at Deerfield,
in Portage county, wiicn Jesse Grant was ten years
old. Noah Grant is described as a brilliant talker, a
clear-headed, well-educated citizen, who was more inter-
esting* than provident, and fonder of the sports of the
field than the drudgery of the plow. His wife died, a
year after he had reached the reserve, and his home
was broken up, when his son Jesse was eleven years
of age. He vas then thrown upon his own resources,
n'hile the father aided his younger children by shoe-
making, and finally died at Maysville, Ky,. with his
youngest son.

After drifting about for a time, Jesse found a place
with George Todd, of Youngstown, and by him was
given a comfortable home and a fair English education
for those early days. David Todd, who was Governor
of Ohio while General Oant was fighting some of his
severest battles, was his father's playmate as early as
1808. At sixteen Jesse went back to Deerfield and
began learning to be a tanner, a trade which he finished
at Maysville, Ky., during the var of 181 2.

When Jesse Grant was twenty-one yars of age, he

THE GRANT FAMILY.

<!, he

returned to Deerfield and went Into the tanring business
for himself, and two years later moved his business to
Ravenna, where, when he was twenty-five, he was pos-
sessed of two thousand dollars and was the wealthiest
citizen of that town. He then went in search of a help-
mate, and found her in the person cf Hannah Simpson,
a Pennsylvania girl of good Scotch ancestry, whose
father had moved to Ohio two years before. They
were married, and General Grant was the fruit of this
union. Hi father and mother were noted for their
good practical sense and their devotion to their family.
The father was regarded as a strong, upright man, wim
an excellent capacity for business, and the mother as a
kind, generous, warm-hearted woman, possessing good
health and a large stock of common sense.

Thus the line of American ancestry is completed by
eight generations of sterling people, reaching from the
Puritans of New England to the famous Scotch-Irish
blood of Pennsylvania. All of it American, and all
good stock from which to expect powerful men, not
only in physique, but in mind and character.

Ahhough strong men and women do not always
hand to their offspi ^ their own quality, yet it would
have been strange indeed, if the plain, solid Grants, who
began so early to help make the history of this country,
had not produced a man truthful, courageous and well
equipped with the gifts of mind and body that would de-
velop into something great under the pressure of a crisis.

Jesse Grant and his wife were people well equipped
with the effectual forces of life. They were frugal,
industrious, well-balarvoed citizens. They accumulated
and saved. They raised their children well, and did not
neglect in the mon ^-making quality a good education.
In other words, they preserved in their own proper

• *•■••■«

i'>.

•J >•

(66)

— 1 ^

THE GRAN2' FAMILY.

persons the sterling elements of their Scotch-American
lineage, and handed it to their children. Such offspring
is seldom brilliant, in the sense in which that word is
used, but generally useful and reliable men and women.
It was the boast of the earliest Grants that they were
" steadfast," and they set up their monuments for those
that were to come after them, keeping steadily to the
fore the burning injunction that a Grant should be
"steadfast, wise and harmless." People studying the
history of the man who sprang from such an ancestry,
and who has made the name more illustrious than any
other of the long line, will observe how all these quali-
ties have united in his composition. He seems not only
to have caught the best in the parents, but to have
revived most of the striking and forceful characteristics
of his early ancestors. But ancestry and the parent-
age of famous men are not of so much importance.
Most of them feel like being judged by their own acts,
and to have their historv begfin under the shadow of
grave responsibilities. Napoleon said : " My patent of
nobility dates from the battle of Montenoite." General
Grant r ay also say that his title to the highest com-
mendation of his countrymen began with his success in
war. From this pinnacle he will be viewed not only by
this but by all succeeding generations.

: *;

CHAPTER III.

niRTH AND BOYHOOD DAYS.

Grsvnt's birthplace in Ohio — His early life anil education — A plain, unassuming boy—
Not much of a student and less of a soldier vhen a lad — A manly, courageous,
industrious boy, fond of horses- -School days — His apjwintment to West Point —
Difference between Grant and other great commanders.

Just beyond one of the sloping bends of the Ohio
the little town of Point Pleasant straggles along the
river bank. Like most villages along the Western
streams, it is not a very inviting place. Cincinnati is
twenty-five miles away, and the surrounding country is
fairly pleasant and fertile. Sixty-three years ago all this
region was little more than a wilderness. Ohio was
just being settled by Eastern people, and the primitive
conditions of that time made life in the woods any-
thing but easy. On April 27th, 1822, amidst these rude
surroundings, Hannah Simpson Grant gave birth to a
boy child, whose name and fame was destined to fill the
world. Neither then, nor as the boy grew up, did this
good woman and faithful and devoted mother have any
thought of what was in store for the boy baby of that
April morning, and it was a rich inheritance for both her
and the father to live to see and enjoy the pleasures and
honors of their son's greatness.

There was trouble in the Grant family over naming
this son. The mother, true to her Pennsylvania birth,
was anxious that he should be named after Albert Gal-
latin, who was the foremost man of his time and lived
up in that wild section of the country where Jesse Root

Grant was born. Theodore was also proposed, as was
(68)

,11 this

3 was

mitive
any-
rude
to a
U the
d this
e any
f that
h her
:s and

aminii
birth,
\t Gal-
lived
Root
IS was

(69)

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

(

Hiram, while the grandmother, who was a thoughtful
student of history, insisted on Ulysses. So, after a great
deal of discussion and deliberation, this boy was bap-
tized Hiram Ulysses Grant. Contrary to the usual
custom in the country, he was rarely ever called Hiram
or Hi Grant, as might have been expected, but was
commonly known as Ulysses. His boyhood days were
not more eventful than those of other lads similarly
situated in a new country. While his father was com-
paratively well-to-do, the comforts of a home in the
West in those days were not many, and the hardships
were numerous.

The life young Grant led was calculated to bring out
the really manly qualities of the boy. He had much
of his mother's disposition, and was quiet and reserved,
without being diffident. He was really older than his
years after he began to take any part in the affairs of
life. It is said of his mother that she was more of a
woman at seven than most girls at twenty. So is it true
of her son that he was more of a man at twelve than
most boys at twenty. He was always fond of outdoor
sports, and was industrious beyond his strength. He
learned to read before he was seven, and to ride on
horseback before he could read. He early evinced a
willingness to study, and could learn easily almost any-
thing he put his mind to. He showed more of a dis-
position for arithmetic than any other branch of study,
and was quite an adept at figures. But he was never a
hard student. ,' \ , : . ; >

There are a number of people still living who were
his early playmates. In and about Georgetown, the
village where he spent his boyhood days, there are
several men and women still following the currents of
everyday country life who knew of his comings and

BIRTH AND BOYHOOD DAYS.

goings in youth and were a part of them. Others have
gone out into the world to make name and fame.
Whether one speaks of him to the folks who still live
about the countryside, or asks of those who have
grown into our national life, the story of quiet, well-
doing, it is the same. Admiral Daniel Ammerj, now full
of years and honors, who was one of the boys with him
for some time, says: "Grant was one of the most
remarkable lads I ever knew. We grew up side by
side until I went to sea in 1836. We went riding,
fishing, swimming and playing together. His mother
was one of the most interesting and charming women
I ever knew. She was exceedingly kind, ladylike and
mild-mannered. I suspect that Grant inherited his
kindly disposition from her, for I think his father was
rather aggressive.

"As a boy. Grant was kindness itself. I never saw
him have a show of resentment, and I do not believe
that he ever felt a tinge of it. He was never rude,
oppressive or disagreeable .0 other children. He had
perfect respect for everybody's feelings and a forbear-
gince that was almost beyond Christianity.

" His family say that I once saved his life. He was
then about nine years old, and I some two years his
senior. We went fishing, one day, in a swollen stream
near our homes. While indulging in the sport he
stepped on a poplar log, which was very slippery, and
fell in. He was rather a sturdy lad, and made a vigor-
ous attempt to get out, but the rushing tide bore hin)
down stream. I ran along after him until I reached a
foothold aniong some willows. As he came by |
reached out, caught him by the cjothing and pulled him
ashore. I don't suppose I should ever have remeni-
bered the incident but that he had on a red-striped

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

' i

Marseilles waist, which was my envy and which I
thought would be totally ruined by the ducking he had
received.

"The friendship which sprang up between us then
has never dimmed. While he was growing up there
was never any evidence of the great ability that has
been drawn. upon for the good of the country during
the crisis through which we have safely passed. But in
those characteristics of kindness, self-confidence and
perfect self-possession, which I remember so well, Grant
the man is but the higher development of Grant as I
remember him in childhood."

His crowning trait as a boy was his fondness for
and mastery of horses. He drove a team and harnessed
his own animals while he was so small that he had to
clamber into the manger to pi the collars and bridles
on, and he could ride any horse brought to him. His
fame as a horseman was throughout the whole neigh-
borhood before he was twelve years of age, and every
fractious animal was brought to him to be broken. He
never pursued his penchant for gain, and an offer to
pay was always followed by a refusal to handle the
colt. Even in those early days he hated subterfuge
of any character. He was straightforward, open-
hearted, open-handed and fearless, without bravado.
He had a most equitable disposition, but would never
allow himself to be imposed upon, and was often the
champion of the rights of his young companions when
they were infringed upon by the older school-boys. It
is related of him that even in his boyhood days he
hated anything like deception. There is a story told
of him that a neighbor who once sent him on a sham
errand so that he might teach his young horse to pace,
incurred his lasting displeasure. He taught the animal,

GRANT'S UOY-IIOOD DAYS IN OHIO.

(78)

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

'I'
'^1

but finding out that he had been the butt of a trick, he
forever afterwards refused to teach a horse to pace,
although he was regarded as an expert at it. He could
ride a running horse standing upright on his back and
other equally difficult feats while yet very young.

Most of his younger days were spent in the work of
the farm, and he was a most valuable hand. He attended
the district school, and up to the time that he was
seventeen years of age got all the education he had,
except a term at the Maysville, Kentucky, Academy,
from the common country school-master. Mr. W. W.
Richeson, the teacher at the head of the Maysville school
when young Grant entered in the winter of 1836-37, is
still living, and after all these years bears this good
testimony to his character as a pupil : " In his classes he
sustained himself with credit, and his conduct and gen-
eral bearing was the lifelike miniature of General U. S.
Grant, the great soldier and statesman of the present
era. During his school days at Maysville Seminary he
ranked high in all his classes, and his deportment was
exceptionally good. The importance of order, decision
and consistency seemed to have impressed him at ^n
early age." .

Before he was twelve years of age he was so well
grounded in knowledge of the material things of this
world and so well equipped with a fair education that
he was sent to Louisville to transact business of
importance, and while yet so young he used to haul his
father's leather or wood to Cincinnati, and bring pas-
sengers back to Georgetown, to which place the family
had moved from Point Pleasant while he was yet a baby.

Stories of him when he was a lad are not numerous,
but such as there are show him to have been a self-
reliant boy, calm and inflexible under the most trying

JBJRTH AND BOYHOOD DAYS.

circumstances. It is related of him that while crossing
the Ohio river once, when twelve years of ago, with two
young ladies, the water had risen so high that his
horses were soon swimming and the wagon-body full
of water. The ladies were frightened and began
screaming for help, whereupon Ulysses, with perfect
composure, guided his horses coolly towards tlie oppo-
site shore, and turning to the women he said, "Keep
quiet, please. I'll take you through safe," and he was
as good as his word.

Much has been said and written about his life as a
tanner boy. His father relates the story that he was
never at home in the tannery, and before he vyas
fifteen years old he gave him warning that he would
never work at the business after he became of age.
He was fond of driving the team and doing the out-
side work of the leather business, and this was about
all. He never amounted to much as an inside hand.
His most earnest desire, often expressed, was to have
a thorough education and then become a planter in
the Southern States. His father, who was warmly
attached to the manly boy, and fearing that his self-
reliant quality and independent spirit would take him
away from home at an early age, interested him in the
idea of going to West Point. This young Ulysses
finally agreed to do. His father at this time was
naturally a man of position and considerable influence,
for he commanded the services of Senator Morris, and
the last official act of Thomas L. Hamer, as the Con-
gressman of the district, was to nominate Ulysses S,
Grant to the Secretary of War for the military academy,
to take the place of ^ lad who had failed to pass his
examination. .,; . •

Young Grant's life was Uius changed, at the age ol

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

i D

seventeen, when his training and general disposition
made him the superior of most boys at twenty-five.
Not that he had shown any quahty of leadership over
the lads of his own age, for he was never obtrusive
or arrogant, and such forces as he had were exer-
cised in so kindly a way that no one looked upon him
as a hero, even in the boyish sports.

Indeed he was so unassuming as to be called
"commonplace," and the lawyers, and doctors, and
store-keepers of the neighborhood wondered that some
brighter lad had not been selected to represent the
community at the national school on the Hudson. His
mother's teachings, the necessities of his hard country
life and his father's example all combined to make him
remarkably undramatic, unimaginative and genuine. In
dress, manners and aspirations he was wholly unlike
most boys with his opportunities. He was a favorite
rather than a superior among his early associates. He
evinced anything but a military spirit or inclination and
there was nought of the soldier about him.

In all this he differed very widely from any other lad
who in after years grew to be a great commander of
men. Washington, at eleven, had his miniature camp
around his Virginia home, and fought sham batdes with
his playfellows. Being educated with great care, tender-
ness and with a good deal of the aristocratic tendency,
he asserted himself the superior of his playmates and
forced* an acknowledgment of his superiority.

Napoleon began to study war as soon as he could
read, and his mother's garden was filled with fortifica-
tions and small cannon, which he fired each day as if he
were conducting a siege or fighting a battle.

Napoleon was an arrogant, restless, studious, seclusive
L/oy, who simply forced his superiority upon all who came

BIRTH AND BOYHOOD DAYS.

\x lad
;r of
jcamp
with
inder-
lency,
and

within his reach. The same warlike and arbitrary charac-
teristics were to be found in Wellington, Marlborough,
and nearly every other eminent soldier of whom the
world has knowledge. It may be that the manner in
which Grant was raised, the primitive conditions with
which he was surrounded, or the peculiar character of
our institutions which he was taught to revere as soon
as he was taught anything, may have contributed to make
him resolute, yet of simple tastes and wholly unmindful of
his own exceptional powers. Whether this or other causes
moulded him upon a very different pattern than the
others, true it is that, from among all the great captains
who have startled the world with their deeds, none
other save Grant in boyhood, or manhood for that part,
has ever shown any such quiet, even, magnanimous
and guileless disposition. At no time in his life was
he like other great warriors. Plain and unobtrusive,
yet full of determination and manly self-assertion in
every emergency while yet a boy, he simply carried
those quaUties to the fore through all his life. Even
after he grew to be the first soldier of the world it was
often said of him that in his intercourse with his lieu-
tenants his manners were so easy and his acts so un-
demonstrative that his orders seemed more like re-
quests than commands.

could

[tifica-

if he

■i:-n\-

lusive
came

tJ\J

■ "A

CHAPTER IV.

WEST POINT.

Starting for West roini -Stops in Philadelphia — His associates at the Academy—
His feats of horseman ;hip — General Quimby's recollections of his school-day!^—
General Rufus Ingalls tells of " Sam Gr&nt " — How his classmates generally
regarded him.

From the homely mode of Hving in a western villao^e to
the pomp and show of West Point must have been a
mighty change for a country lad. Yet young Grant ac-
cepted the new life so suddenly thrust upon him, and made
the best of it. No one could fathom in the round, com-
posed face of this boy the impressions that his entrance
into the military academy made upon his mind. He had
been appointed to the place by accident, and practically
against his wishes. The misgivings as to his success
were many. Not that he was unpopular at home, but
because his quiet manners and unassuming ways were
taken for a lack of ability by the more pretentious folks
found along every countryside. The preparations made
for his journey east were the talk of the village, for all
of twenty-five dollars was spent upon his outfit.

Neither the excitem.ent of getting ready nor the de-
parture disturbed the lad, who had, in the rough and
arduous life of a farm hand and helper about the tannery,
laid in a full stock of good health and rather crude ele-
ments of power that made him accept without fear what-
ever came to his lot.

A journey fr :n Ohio to New York in those early times
and by the slow vehicles dien in use was a different
matter from a railroad ride at the present day. The

t'8)

HTJSr POINT.
trip opened up to vo.inrr r ^"

'n years to come ,o save from .. , ^ "^"""fy he was
""til .he fruits of the Z^lZtr^''T' '"'^ '° -"^'e
about gathered. "^ ^ ^^^ ""^^"^ Possible were

It was in the latfr nai-f r.e -mi
from his family and toTth ^'J' ?^^' ^''« ^e parted
tary education. On the voZ.'l ''^PJ°^^'^'i his mill-
>n Philadelphia for a time t h °i ^ ^"'"^'"'y ^' ^'"PP^d
of his childhood to see ihis nice V,"' °^ "'^ ''^-'"'
settlement his mother wa,t>rf 2 f""' "'^ Q"«k-r
"P she had told them inters L^ "" ''^"'"'dren grew
'and of Penn where h r tLlf/^'f °^ '^' *'«'"'
"Pon that rich and charm J ^t.^^f *"<^ =*"" dwell.
Doylestown is the centre h1 u,^r'°"""T °'"*hich
and the revolutionary "leord of h '"',"" ^"""'^ acre,
a historic spot. Younrclt th' '"/""'"' """^ '"^'^^
the Quaker City and its su^^n i"^""*^' ^""^"^ "Pon
mingled pride a'nd wo der X »" T"' '■'=^''"^=">f
h-m that it was her ideal phcej "'""l"" ^^'^ "^"Sht
associations, and as thTLlT'ru^' '° ^^' ^°'- '''« A
dered about its curit? iTs^ e^^ '"/°'''- "--
""pressions of it after his Lt v!!L ". ■'" *"'""S '''^
neat and dean that it looked a 1?^' •" "^^ "^^P' -
fixed up for Sunday. "'""S'' " "'ere always

His relatives, two vf»i-,r ^u i v

i;^" of his first ;isr:;:7gtl tiir " ^;! "- "-..

h'm as a rather awkward foun rvtf ^"^ ''"""^
httmg clothes, and large coars7J ' "^"'"^ P'^'"- '"-
toes as at the widest^irT;; ,h "■ "' '"'°^'^ ^' '^e
about the streets and abL tht n f"" "" ^'~"ed
their brother's hat store o„ch'"'' *"'* '"'*'^=
quarters. During his years .? K .' '"■'^'=' ^'' h^ad-
them during vacaLn a„dXt°fi' '' '''^^^^ -^'"'^d

na alter h<s first term told them

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

' fl

that if he had known how strict the disciphnc was he
did not beheve he would have ever gone to the military
school. But," he added, "as I have started, I am bound
to go through."

His arrival at West Point was an incident of powerful
import to him, while it was of slight consequence to the
every day life of that institution. In those times the
southern element predominated, at least in the control
of the social life among the cadets. The lads sent there
from the South were the sons of rich and influential peo-
ple, whose money was obtained easily and spent lavishly
upon the education of their children. The opposite was
the truth in relation to the cadets from the North. Most
of them were plain, unassuming, country lads, springing
from the ordinary walks of life, generally poor in purse
and without pretensions of any sort. With this latter class
young Grant soon began his affiliations. Rufus Ingalls
was then a country boy from Maine, J. F. Quimby from
the sand-hills of New Jersey, and George Deshon from
Connecticut, and with these and other boys of like
character, young Grant soon became fast friends. He
passed the first examination, which was quite simple then,
without difficulty, and was admitted.

The Congressman who gave him the opportunity
to acquire a military education changed his name. He
made Hiram Ulysses into Ulysses S. on the appoint-
ment, and to make the record straight the boy so re-
corded his signature when he entered the academy. An
officer who evidendy knows the facts tells,the following
story :

"When young Grant reported at West Point aii a
'plebe,* it was necessary for him to report to the ad-
jutant, who is furnished with a list of all the appoint-
ments made. He was asked to sign his n?nic in fhe

Ing

id-
jnt-

BUILDINGS AND PARADE GROUND AT WEST POINT.
F (81)

LII'E OF GENERAL GRANT.

■ ?■■

-; >

::' »|

■^■;

academic register, which he did as ' Ulysses [. Grant.*
The adjutant, upon looking over his list, found Luat there
was no appointment for him, and informed him so, but
added that there was one for Ulysses S. Grant. It is
quite evident that up to this point young Grant had
not noticed the clerical error. ' The change of an initial
makes no particular difference to me; my object is to
enter the academy as a cadet,' was the quick and char-
acteristic reply of young Grant."

An effort made at the War Department to have the
initials changed to the baptismal name failed ; so the
mistake made by the Representative in Congress stood.
It is just as well, and the events of after years have
justified the foresight of the boys who soon called him
" Uncle Sam." All through his cadetship, and until he
grew well into man's estate, except when he was called
Sam Grant, he was thus known. After his career in
war began to attract attention, his earlier nickname
was changed to United States Grant.

At school, as at home, he took rather to the manly
sports than to those duties which required hard mental
work. He had no taste for society and no particular care
about his dress. If he looked respectable that was suf-
ficient, and in all the capers among the students in which
strength of character and muscle were required. Grant
was always even with the bt it of the boys; but he showed
little disposition to study harder than would keep him
up with the general average of his class.

At West Point, there is a straining among the
professors for style and show among the students.
Neatness in dress, extra care of accoutrements and
adeptness in handling arms, etc., were in those days,
as they are now, at a premium, and the boys who
dressed best, made the best show upon the parade and

WEST POINT.

)Ut

is
lad
tial
, to
tiar-

the

the
:ood.
have

him
til he
called
2er in
Lname

manly
nental
ir care
IS suf-
which
Grant
howed
him

»g

the
dents,
ts and
days,
s who
deand

took the most care in the details of a soldier's life got
as a reward a release from post duty at night, and were
given the extra position of color guard. Grant never
was on the color guard, but he was the most daring and
successful horseman of his class. When visitors were
to be entertained with the movements of the cadets,
where strength and courage had its inning. Grant was
at home.

His rude country life and his early love for horses
cropped out constandy at West Point, where he was
chief of the riding-school and always selected the fleet-
est and most vicious horse as his mount. " Old York,"
a famous animal which no other cadet except one dare
ride, was his favorite steed. Many of his classmates, now
aged and gray, and most of them full of honors, recollect
the boy as he went speeding over the riding lot at a
breakneck gait, able at any time to take the fifth bar,
which was in those days, as it is yet, deemed a marvellous
performance. No rider has as yet excelled Grant's jump
on "Old York" of five feet, six and a half inches high.
But for these feats of horsemanship and a few other ex-
ploits of rather rugged self-assertiveness which Grant
left upon the annals of West Point, little could be
written about his school life there. It was a good thing
for him and for the academy that the horsemanship
exercise was added to the cadet's discipline just as Grant
came there, for it helped to develop the manly qualities
of the lad and gave him a relief from the discipline of the
school, which was more or less irksome to him.

The class in which he graduated at about the centre
was in many respects a remarkable one. It produced
several famous officers, but none with less prominence
in the class than young Grant.

Interesting stories of his cadet days are few and far

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

between. He had for his room-mate a greater portion
of the time while he was on the Hudson his Connecticut
friend, George Deshon, a lively lad from the Nutmeg
State, who long since gave up army life to become a
Catholic priest. Deshon, as well as Generals Rosecranz,
John Newton, and quite a number of other boys were
converted to the Catholic faith by a High Church Episco-
palian named Parks. He was post chaplain and deliv-
ered a series of sermons to the cadets during Grant's
term, which savored very strongly of Catholicity. Parks
afterward changed his views, but the seed he had sown
bore its fruit in the conversion of several of the lads.
Grant and Deshon roomed together in the cockloft of the
sleeping hall, and in the unauthorized forages upon the
neighbors' orchards and melon patches always secured
their share of the good things.

The future General of the armies also made the usual
trips to Benny Havens; but, unlike very many of the
boys, he never set the rules of the school at open de-
fiance. He was very tractable, good-natured and by no
means as restless under restraint as most of the students.
Professor Ouimby, of the Rochester University, was
one of Grant's classmates and most intimate friends.
Grant made him a general officer in 1862, and gave
other evidences of his friendship for him while in the
army. When he was elected President he appointed him
United States Marshal for the Northern District of New
York. His lifetime friend bears this testimony to his
school character:

" We met at West Point as boys. Both of us were lads
from the country, and we drifted together from a sort of
fellow feeling. My relations with him whenever and wher-
ever we have met in after life have been very intimate, but
I can read his character best from our association in

fVJSST POINT.

boyhood. He was one of the purest-minded, most even-
tempered and courageous lads I ever knew. To his
friends he was perfectly transparent and to every one
wholly without <^uile. I never heard him utter a profane
or vulgar woi\. in my life. He was always a boy of a
good deal of native ability, although by no means a hard
student. While he stood about the middle of his class,
he could have graduated much higher if he had desired.
If he happened to go into the recitation room without
studying his lessons and was v .died upon to go to the
blackboard to digest an cx.VvUpU', \\v wo\ild always do
something with it. To sonu' <>\trnl ht: would show him-
self master of the subject, and would have a good opuiion
about the details of whalexer he undertook, even though
he had given it no previous study. This native ability
was always impressed upon me, as was the strength of
his character. Although we had not met for years and
I had known very little of him since the Mexican war,
when we parted, I to resume my duties as professor at
Rochester and he to go west with his command, I never
forgot the impressions his school life made upon me.

" I recollect a conversation I had widi the two leadin^r
professors of our institution immediately after the war
began which illustrates it. Dr. Anderson said to me :

" ' Quinby, who is the rising man ? Is it Halleck,
McClellan, Rosecranz ? ' and he mentioned several other
names.

" To each one I said : ' I don't think so 1 *

" • Well, who is it ? ' he said.

" 'There is a little fellow at Cairo, Illinois,' said I, 'who
I think is going to take the lead and be the man of all
others capable of saving this Union. He is an old class-
mate of mine, and I have known him from boyhood, since
he was seventeen and I was eighteen years old. He has

s;- i ■:

:•!!

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the characteristics that are going to make him a very
prominent man and the leading general, I believe, in this
war. He has got the daring, the determination and the
ability combined.' I then spoke of McClellan and other of-
ficers who were of great prominence and said: 'They are
engineers by education, and military engineering is a sci-
ence of defence rather than attack. They are too cau-
tious. Grant will conceive a plan and push forward to
its execution regardless of consequences. He is going
to fight to the end when he sees a possibility of accom-
plishing something.' Fort Donelson soon fell and Grant's
career was begun.

"It is my belief that not only the class, but most
of the professors at West Point during his school-days
had much the same estimate of him as myself."

General Rufus Ingalls, who was with Grant during his
school-days, speaks of their early life with much feeling:

"We went there," said he, "in June, 1839, ^ ^^om the
State of Maine, he from Ohio. We arrived there the
same day. We went through the academy together.
Most of the time we were in the same section. In our
studies we kept comparatively near each other. We
graduated in the same class. Most cadets do not care
much about the higher courses of engineering and math-
ematics. They are more numerous than those who do.
To graduate respectably is the general aim. In my
whole service of forty years in the army I have never
had any occasion to use the greater part of the educa-
tion I acquired at West Point. My relations with Grant
have always been familiar and cordial.

" I remember his qualities very well and the distin-
guishing features of his boyhood. He was manly,
straightforward, upright and disposed to be quiet with-
out diffidence. He was talkative enough with his friends,

listin-

lanly,

with-

tends,

WEST POINT.

but his general characteristic was one of quietness. He
never pretended to any style and never had any. He
was quite the same when a boy as a man. Everybody
had the utmost confidence in him as a young person of
integrity, modesty, self-reliance and courage. We fol-
lowed each other through the school at West Point. He
was a very moral boy. I never heard him use a profane
or ugly word in my life. I do not believe he ev< i made a
remark that might not have been rep'^ated in the pres-
ence of ladies, yet he enjoys the humorou*^ part of a
story immensely, and he can always repeat it with good
effect without using offensive language. Comparatively,
he was as good a talker when a lad as he is now
among those who gain his confidence, but he never gave
evidences of superior judgment or high attributes until
his later years. That was a reserve force. Grant and I
parted at West Point to take different paths in life. I
went into the Rifle Regiment, afterwards the Second
Dragoons, and he to the Fourth Regiment of Infantry.
When our school-days were over, if the average opinion
of the members of his class had been taken, every one
would have said : * There is Sam. Grant. He is a splen-
did fellow, a good honest man, against whom nothing
can be said and from whom everything may be ex-
pected.'"

IMAGE EVALUATION
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23 WCST MAIN STRIET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

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CHAPTER V.

FROM WEST POINT TO MEXICO.

Graduation and assignment to the Fourth Infantry — Is sent to St. Louis and meets
Miss Julia Pent — Fined several bottles of wine by Captain Buchanan — Army life
in Louisiana — Visits the Rifle Regiment — Is a good hand at gander pulling — A
characteristic letter — Goes to Mexico — An honorable record in his first war.

The qualities of mind and character which Grant's
classmates and associates say he evinced at the military
academy followed him into his army life and out of it
again. In talking with his companions his ambition
was clearly for the cavalry, but as his standing in his
class was not high enough to give him a choice, he was
assigned to the Fourth Regiment of Infantry, a splen-
did organization, in which there were some of the most
famous officers of that day. To be a captain in the
regular army was then a great honor. It took many
years to reach that position, and the commander of a
company was looked up to by the subaltern officers as a
person to be both feared and respected. The army then
numbered only about 7,000 men and one of its commis-
sions was a passport into the best society of the land.

With the lowest rank these parchments conferred
young Grant started out to make his way in the world.
On his route to the West he made another short stay
in the Quaker City. Admiral Ammen, his playmate,
who saved him from drowning when a child, speaks of
meeting him at Jones' Hotel, on Third street, then the
famous hostelry of the city. It was situated In what is
now the banking quarter.

" We talked over," says the old naval officer, "our recol*

is
1-

LIEUT. GRANT AT THE AGE OF TWENTY-TWO.

(8ft)

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

lections of the past and our hopes for the future, and I
found the young man whom I had left but a few years
before in Georgetown rather an ordinary boy, a self-re-
•liant, well-balanced, brevet Second Lieutenant of in-
fantry." ' .^

Lieutenant Grant at this time was stopping with his
kinsfolks on Fourth street, and Miss Elizabeth Hare,
one of them, who is still living a well-preserved lady
of over ninety years of age and a school-mate of his
mother's, recalls the young man and his peculiarities.

" Ulysses was always very fond of his relations," said
she, "and we regarded him as a smart boy. He was
ever cheerful and agreeable. With us he was a good
talker and told us a great deal about his life at West
Point. He often i-elated his feats of horsemanship and
his pranks with his companions. After he was through
his studies, as well as while pursuing them, he disliked to
wear his military uniform. When he graduated, and be-
fore he came to see us, he stopped in New York and
bought a suit of citizen's clothes, with the exception of a
hat. He always wore his military headgear. I remem-
ber one day my sister, with whom he was going out, said
' Ulysses, put on your military.' * No,* he replied, * I
won't make a show of myself.' "

After a short visit to his relatives in the East, he
started home to enjoy his three months* vacation before
joining his regiment.

At the academy on the Hudson he had as a class-
mate Frederick T. Dent, and with him he went to St.
Louis to spend a part of his holiday. During this visit
he met Miss Julia Dent, the sister of his host, and be-
came greatly interested in her. Duty to his parents and
a desire to renew his boyhood friendships took him to
his Ohio home to spend most of his season of rest.

tVEST POINT TO MEXICO.

1st, he

lefore

The three months given him by law after his release
from school passed rapidly, and before he had hardly
settled down to the enjoyment of country life again, he
was ordered to join his command at Jefferson Barracks,
near St. Louis. He could not have been sent to a more
delightful post. Army duty there was exceeding pleas-
ant to every one, but to Lieutenant Grant it was especially
so. Miss Dent resided only a short ride from the bar-
racks, and the young Lieutenant could frequently enjoy
his penchant for visiting her. Many of the old army
officers stationed there still recall the assiduous court he
began paying the young lady he finally married, soon
after he reported for duty.

The distinct'cns in rank in those days were much more
rigidly enforced than they are now, and some of the older
officers were very severe upon the young subalterns.

In the Fourth Infantry, when Lieutenant Grant joined
it, the officers had a general mess. It was presided over
by one of the seniors, the secretary sitting at the foot of
the table. Every thing in relation to it was conducted
upon the same arbitrary system that governed all the
different phases of army life.

When young Grant began to exercise the duties and
privileges of an officer. Captain Robert Buchanan was
President of the mess. He was regarded as a martinet,
and as being unusually severe upon the young officers.
It was a rule of the table that any one coming in after
soup had been served should be fined a bottle of wine.
After Lieutenant Grant began paying serious attentions
to Miss Dent, he would frequently get excused from the
parade, ride over to her father's house and make a call.
Naturally he was often late for dinner. Three times in
ten days he came in behind the hour and was fined. The
fourth time he arrived late. Captain Buchanan said:

LIFE OF GENEkAL GRANT.

M " Grant, you are late as usual ; anotherbottleof wine, sir."

v Grant arose quietly and replied :

r " Mr. President, I have been fined three bottles of

wine within the last ten days, and if I am fined again I

shall be obliged to repudiate." w' ^ ^ ^ i>> •. - .^i

-T The officer at the head of the table, with an evident

show of ill-temper, said: ;;;•;;■ „j. ^: ■' j r v'i • ( * - ^ •

»^ " Mr. Grant, young people should be seen and not

heard, sir." -ri * ^•■.:' -^ .•.,-f-i:M,\n!;.v^^-iJ i:t--; ^^ ..t::

V This incident, trivial as it may seem, was really one of
great import to both men. Neither of them ever forgot
it. It left no resentment in the mind of the young one,
but with Captain Buchanan it was different. Upon his
temper it planted the seeds of a dislike which finally
took Grant out of the army. -' ' -^ ' ^ ' i * f.! > t

The stay at Jefferson Barracks was long enough to
enable young Grant to win Miss Dent from many ardent
admirers, for she was very popular in the social world.
But the pending troubles with Mexico put an end to their
wooing, as the regiment was ordered South to become
a part of the army of observation that was simply to
halt on the threshold of our war with the country to the
south of us. The Fourth Regiment was stationed at
Camp Salubrity, at Natchitoches, in Louisiana, where
life was anything but dashing and the opportunities for
pleasure very meagre. The characteristic letter here
given m facsimile tells in the young Lieutenant's own
language his impressions of camp life, etc. It was writ-
ten to the mother of the boy whose failure to pass the
examination at West Point gave the writer a chance to
acquire a military education. It is creditable as show-
ing how well he kept and cared for his early friends,
and interesting as illustrating the pride they took in his
advancement. .

»•

e, sir.

les of
grain I

vident

id not

one of
forgot
g one,
on his
finally

Ugh to
ardent
world.
;o their
ecome
ply to
to the
bed at
where
les for
here
s own
s writ-
.ss the
nee to
show-
[riends,
in his

(98)

(96)

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i

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4

(96)

i i

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100

Z/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

General Rufus Ingalls gives a most interesting story
of his first meeting here with young Grant after their
parting at West Point. The recent quartermaster-gen-
eral of the army was stationed with his rifle regiment at
Fort Jessup, some twenty miles from where the Fourth
was encamped. '

"We were having high old times," says Gen. Ingalls.
"We had a set of officers, splendid fellows, but wilder
than the characters in ' Charles O'Malley,' while Twiggs,
the colonel, was away endeavoring to get his regiment
remounted and put upon a footing with the First Dra-
goons. So the scenes enacted at Fort Jessup during the
time Grant was stationed in Louisiana would make a
volume of better reading than 'Charles O'Malley/ if
we had as good an author as Lever to put them in shape.

" But when the colonel was present things were en-
tirely different. He was a very superior officer. After
the Florida war his command had been dismounted and
its designation as the Second Dragoons changed to the
Rifle Regiment. Not only Twiggs but all the officers
were dissatisfied with this, and at the time of which I
speak Twiggs was in W^ashington getting it restored
as amounted regiment, and discipline was a little lax,
but when he returned things were very soon put in good
shape.

"During the absence of which I speak, Grant wcu!d
occasionally relieve the monotony of the staid life at
Camp Salubrity by coming over and enjoying the hilarity
at Fort Jessup. I remember his first arrival. He came
in one day upon a frisky pony of very small size, and
the boys laughed at him, for he was usually in the habit
of seeking the largest and most vicious horse he could
find. At that visit we had an interesting renewal of
our early acquaintance. t" f/ •

WEST POINT TO MEXICO,

101

•

:ir
n-
at

rth

ills.
der

lent
Dra-
rthe
ke a

i'/ if
liape.

e en-
After
d and
o the
fftcers

Ihich 1
tored
e lax,
good

**The two regiments — the one to which Grant belonged
and the one in which I held a commission — remained dur-
ing 1 844 and 1845 in this dismal country, and I saw him
frequendy. He would come over and take his chance
at gander pulling, horse racing and the usual sports of
our camp, at which he was a good hand. We had some-
thing new going on every day. Our post was situated
half way between the Red and Sabine rivers, where
tliere was very little underbrush. Game was plentiful,
woodcock and large quantities of water-fowl. We
would drive deer and shoot birds as one of the fea-
tures of our recreation. Grant was not much of a shot.
He never seemed to take great interest in the sports of
the field, but could ride anything in the shape of a
horse, and was a manly, popular young officer."

iwori^.d
lllfe at
hilarity
came

le, and
habit
could
/al of

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alf

CHAPTER VI.

IN THE MEXICAN WAR.

To the Rio Grande — In the Mexican War — Grant's first battle under Taylor — At
Vera Cruz with Scott — Gallantry at Chapultepec — Breveted for gallantry — Always
a good soldier — Qi:arter-master of his regiment — Reminiscences of him by old
comrades.

Relief from the monotony of post life In Louisiana
finally came in the order to move to Corpus Christi.
To this point Lieutenant Grant went with his regiment
to watch and wait for the open declaration of war with
Mexico. During this time his attachment for the Fourth
Infantry had so grown that he would not leave it to ac-
cept a commission as full Second Lieutenant in the Sev-
enth regiment. The American army was then preparing
for its first conflict with a civilized enemy after more than
a quarter of a century of profound peace, and young
Grant preferred to engage in battle with those men with
whom he had begun his army life. The initial battles
of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, which broke the
thirty years' peace the American Republic had enjoyed,
were fought by General Taylor in 1846. In both of
them Lieutenant Grant participated and demonstrated
his soldierly attributes.

Prom Matamoras to Monterey he followed Taylor's
fortunes, and in the fight that took place under the
shadow of Saddle Mountain he was commended for his
gallantry. Several times during the battle he demon-
strated his judgment and superior courage, not more
in the fierce charge than in volunteering to make a

dangerous ride under fire in search of ammunition.

(102)

mm,

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(103)

104

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

'.■f ' I

In the movements made by General Scott for the cap-
ture of the City of Mexico, the regiment in which young
Grant was serving was withdrawn from Taylor's forces'
and sent to Scott's line. It is needless to follow in de-
tail the early military life of the man who has since be-
come such a distinguished soldier. He fought in every
battle of the war in which he first engaged, save one,
and from the start maintained his position among his
comrades as a courageous and thoughtful officer. He
was frequently mentioned for acts of heroism, and was
commended for his efficiency as quartermaster of his
regiment. Too often the early acts of a man's life are
written so as to tally with his later career. But no such
necessity exists in this case. He was distinguished above
many of the officers of his own rank. Soon after joining
General Scott he was in the siege and capture of Vera
Cruz, and the next day after it fell, April ist, 1847, ^^'^
made regimental quartermaster. This appointment gave
him some additional pay and immunity from participation
in battle. But this relief he never sought or accepted.
He was with his regiment in all engagements and shared
its fortunes. He would command a detachment, however
small, for extra service, or do any other duty he could.
Reserved as he was, this had attracted the attention of
his superior officers, and September 8th, 1847, at Molino
del Rey, he was breveted First Lieutenant *' for gallant
and meritorious services." The casualties of that fight,
however, made him a full First Lieutenant, and this honor
was not accepted. Five days later, at Chapultepec,
General Worth makes his "acknowledgments to Lieu
tenant Grant of the Foivrth infantry for distinguished
services." Captain Brooks of the Second artillery,
under whom he fouofht a fraciment of the Fourth rem-
ment, says :

IN THE MEXICAN WAR,

105

"I succeeded in reaching the fort with a few men.
Here Lieutenant U. S. Grant and a few others of the
Fourth infantry found me. By a joint movement after
an obstinate resistance the strong field-work was carried,
and the enemy's right was completely turned."

GENERAL TAYLOR.

Major Lee, in the report of his operations against the
same fortress, " makes acknowledgments to Captain
Brooks of the Second artillery, Lieutenant Grant of
the Fourth infantry, and a few men of their respective
regiments, for pushing up within short musket range of
the barrier, and turning the right flank of the enemy."

106

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Major Lee also adds : " Lieutenant Grant behaved
with distinguished gallantry on the 13th and 14th."

Colonel Garland, in his report of the same battle,
gives an account of mounting a howitzer on top of a
convent, which Lieutenant Grant and Lieutenant Lend-
rum directed, to the great annoyance of the enemy, and
Colonel Garland adds :

*• I must not omit to call attention to Lieutenant Grant,
who acquitted himself most nobly upon several occasions
under my observation."

These commendations were followed by a brevet of
captain for gallant and meritorious services. Grant's
position as a valuable soldier was now fixed not only
with those who served in the army, but with all those
with whom he had any intei'course in the outside world.
It is therefore unnecessary to go more into detail as to
his record in the succeeding battles, which ended in the
success of the American arms. Suffice it to say that he
participated in every fight to the end. When the City
of Mexico had surrendered, and some of our troops
were murdered in the streets by the lawless prisoners
whom it is said Santa Anna let loose as the American
army was marching in. Grant was in the detachment
that followed, and punished them for their crimes.
Prompt and vigorous as he had been in batde and in
all the requirements of actual service, so was he just as
humane and harmless in peace. Colonel Floyd-Jones,
who served with him in Mexico, gives these reminis-
cences of their life there :

" Yes, I was with Grant in Mexico ; belonging to the
same regiment," said the colonel. " He was a fine soldier
and a singular character, but showing in those early days
none of the superior traits that have made him famous as
a General. He was quiet and reserved, simply attended

mande
door
the pn
he was
The pr]

IN THE MEXICAN WAR.

107

to his duty without ostentation, and went into a fight
without ado. I remember one very interesting occur-
rence which happened just after we had captured the
City of Mexico. Our regiment was ordered to take
quarters at the Isabel Convent. Colonel Lee, our com-

BOMBARDMENT OF VERA CRUZ.

mander, applied for admission, but the priest shut the
door in his face. He then knocked with vigor until
the priest reappeared, when he explained to him that
he was simply obeying his orders and must come in.
The priest again shut the door rudely, whereupon Lee

108

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

I f 111

\- Iff'

f ■

ordered the pioneers forward with their axes, and they
soon made mince-meat of the obstruction. The priest
then recognizing the fruitlessness of resistance, simply
made way for our command, and we remained there
some time. Both the priest and the sisters soon recog-
nized that our presence was not only agreeable, but a
protection to them,

** Grant, being quartermaster of the regiment, was one
of the first to get on friendly terms with the priest. He
had a nephew, a bright young Mexican, who also became
attached to Grant, and used to go about with him fre-
quently. Captain, since General Prince, had a magnificent
horse which the young man was anxious to ride. Grant
had invited him to dinner one day with the promise
that he should mount the splendid American horse after
the meal. The young man was well received and
much admired by all the officers at the dinner table
that day. After a pleasant occasion, the horses were
saddled, and Grant and his companion went out for a
ride. Approaching the outskirts of the city, something
frightened the horse which the young Mexican was rid-
ing, and he ran away. The youth, losing his presence
of mind, perhaps, pulled on a single rein as the horse
was dashing down the causeway at breakneck speed,
and he jumped a wide ditch, threw the young man oft
against the trunk of a tree, killing him instantly.

"Grant immediately raised the body up and carried it
home, and bis picture of its reception by the mother was
*one of the most touching things I ever heard,' says
General Prince, in writing of the sad occurrence only
the other day. The officers all called upon the heart-
broken relatives, expressing their deep sorrow at the
accident, and at the funeral most of them attended, Grant
with the rest, kneeling and holding a candle in his hand
through the long church service.

GENERAL SCOTT ENTERING THE CITY OF MEXICO.

(109)

110

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

"Sometimes during the Mexican war he was doing
double duty as adjutant and quartermaster of the regi-
ment, and amidst the bustle of moving armies, in the heat
of an engagement or in the quiet of the camp, he was
ever the same good-natured, unenvious and resolute man.

" He had a very keen idea of the humorous, and
among his companions would talk freely and interest-
ingly. His penchant for horses was very marked.
He was one of the leaders in making a race-course for
the pastime of the officers after we had captured the
City of Mexico. He was always fond of a good anecdote,
and he frequently regaled us with tales of happenings
to him in the discharge of his duty. *' ' ' ' ^ '

"I remember one day his coming into the quarters and
telling a story to illustrate the toughness of the Mexican
burro. He said he had been out with a heavy quarter-
master's wagon to the outskirts of the city, and in com-
ing in one of the little jackasses that act as beasts of
burden in the land of Guadaloupe and Hidalgo, laden
with a quantity of stone, laid down in the road to rest. The
teamster not seeing him, the heavy army wagon passed
directly over his body. The little beast got up, shook
himself, looked around with a sort of disgusted air and
passed on as though nothing had happened."

It is hard at this distant day to gather up the inci-
dents of a young man's life before he was much more
than an ordinary character. Nor is it easy to procure
reminiscences of him forty years after the events upon ,
which they are based occurred, but it can be said of
Grant, the young soldier, that he was a thorough man,
meeting to the fullest the responsibilities of every situa-
tion in which he was. placed. As at school, so during
his early service in the army, he was liked by every one.

Lieutenant Grant was fond of the active service the

IN THE MEXICAN WAR.

Ill

inci-

lore

leu re

ipon

Mexican war imposed. He never seemed very well
contented with the humdrum of camp life in time of
peace, and the lessons of war that he learned in Mexico
were of infinite value to him in after life. He was always
a great observer and took careful note of everything of
importance that passed him. His youthful fancy that
had been stirred by the gorgeousness of General
Scott's appearance on the parade ground at West Point,
and of the magnificence of Captain C. F. Smith, com-
mandant of the school, was materially changed after the
march and fight incident to an actual conflict. He
liked General Taylor, who was directly the opposite of
Scott so far as style went. He dressed very plainly and
had very little care for the showy part of army life.
Grant followed his example. The war with Mexico, in-
significant as it now appears to us, was of great value to
the young officers who engaged in it. To none of them
was it of more import than to Lieutenant Grant. It gave
him an opportunity to make practical use of what he had
learned at West Point at a time of life when he would
never forget its teachings. He had endured the mo-
notony of camp life for two years, and he was called into
action just as he was beginning to get tired of the lazy
life of a peace footing. These facts are simply recalled
here to serve as a finger-board pointing to the after-career
of this soldier when he commanded more men than were
ever led by mortal man since fire-arms were invented. «

: , ■ . ' . , '■■'.- . . . , _., ,-- s

.»« f

•»* f *'t^

.\T

, V

CHAPTER VII. . ■

TO THE WESTERN FRONTIER.

Return from the Mexican war — Stationed at Snckett's Harbor^Marriage— Prepar«
ing for the Pacific coast — Crossing the Isthmus — Battle with cholera — At Fort
Vancouver — Speculations which ended badly — Hoes potatoes, puts up ice and
deals in nigs and cattle— Resigns from the army. i , . n . i it

The perfect peace with its rewards and responsibilities
which followed our conflict with Mexico, brought the
Fourth regiment of infantry back to its own country and
scattered it along the great lakes from Plattsburg, N. Y.,
to Green Bay, Wis. Brevet Captain Grant was stationed
at Detroit and at Madison Barracks, in Sackett's Harbor.
For a time he simply followed the humdrum duties of a
regimental quartermaster. It was while thus engaged
that he found ample time to renew his court to Miss
Julia Dent, and in August, 1848, a little more than three
months after our official settlement of the difficulties
with Mexico, he led her to the altar. The marriage
took place in St. Louis, and he returned to his army post
with his bride to enjoy the congratulations of his com-
rades and the comforts of a well-equipped station.
Finally the pleasures of camp life near home were broken
up by an order for the transfer of the regiment to the
Pacific coast. The various companies were drawn in and
sent to Governor's Island, New York, to prepare for the
long journey by water to the Isthmus, thence overland
to the Pacific, and reshipment from there northward. The
duties of a regimental quartermaster in thus preparing
for the comforts of a regiment of men for so long a
(112)

TO THE WESTERN FRONTIER.

118

journey was by no means easy, but the officers attest the
promptness and efficiency with which Lieutenant Grant
provided for all the emergencies of the transfer.

The voyafje from New York to the Isthmus was prob-
ably without any incident worthy of note, but General
Henry Wallen gives an interesting account of the trip
across the neck. He says :

"Three companies of the Fourth regiment went around
Cape Horn while the others crossed the Isthmus. Grant
was with the latter detachment. So was I. The Panama
railroad was not built then, and we went up the Chagres
river to Cruces and the regiment marched across from
there. In this journey Grant's duties became very
onerous. The ladies, wives of the officers, etc., had
been sent forward in a boat under the escort of an offi-
cer. While we were preparing to follow the report
came back that a boat had capsized and those on board
had been drowned. This naturally caused a great deal
of anxiety, and Grant, myself and my company were de-
tailed to go up the Chagres river and investigate. We
had not proceeded far, however, before we ascertained
that the boat which had turned over contained a num-
ber of citizen passengers, and we sent back the pleasing
intelligence that none of our party were injured. But
we pushed on until we reached the ladies, where Grant
in his capacity as quartermaster immediately perfected
arrangements for sending them across the Isthmus.
This had to be done on hammocks thrown on the
shoulders of men, with relays provided at convenient
distances along the two days* journey.

" Before we reached our destination on the other side

the rumor came that cholera had broken out there, and

when we arrived at Panama we found that it was true.

We were placed on the steamer * Golden Gate ' imme- '
H

^'h

SI'

114

Z/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

diately after her arrival, and that night one of my men
was taken with the cholera, and by daylight the next
morning there were several cases on board. In the
two weeks we remained in Panama Bay we lost i lo out
of 7CXD men, the deaths one day amounting to thirty-

seven.

"The doctors desired Captain Patterson, of the
'Golden Gate,' to pull up anchor and start for San
Francisco ; but he, having been in the Asiatic country
and knowing more of the peculiarities of the disease than
they, said that he would not do so, but would put every-
body on shore, fumigate his vessel, and then would
take the well and convalescent and proceed to San
Francisco. The next day we were all landed on the
island of Flamingo, and camp was established. Not a
single case occurred after we reached the land. This
proved that the captain was right ; he thoroughly dis-
infected his vessel, then started for San Francisco, and
the cholera was at an end. This Captain Patterson
whom Grant met during that trying ordeal he afterwards
made chief of the coast survey when he became Presi-
dent of the United States.

'• Grant was one of the coolest men in all these trying
emergencies I ever saw. I remember during that dismal
time in Panama bay that he, a Major Gore and myself
sat playing a friendly game of euchre, when Major Gore
suddenly dropped his hand, turned pale and said :

" • My God, I have got the cholera ! ' Grant, in the
most nonchalant way, undertook to quiet his fears by
saying: . ..-,.;;.,_ ,v.;,t ..■.-.. ..v,,. ..,, .,yj, ,,..;f-^,.:,>

" * No, major, you have only eaten something that
does not agree with you.' But the doctor was sum-
moned, and although everything possible was done. Gore
died before morning, the only officer we lost. , ^^^^

TO THE WESTERN FRONTIER.

115

tien
lext

the

out

irty-

the
San
intry
than
very-
vould
> San
n the
Not a
This
ly dis-
|o, and
arson
wards
Presi^

I in the
irs by

that

sum-

I, Gore

*' Our destination on the Pacific coast was Fort Van- '
couver in Washington Territory, about no miles from
the mouth of the Cohimbia river — a beautitui place, '
which was occupied by the Hudson Bay Company. Here ■
Lieutenant Grant continued his duties as quartermaster
for a year or more, and the service was pleasant. Our-
relations were quite intimate, and I had some very
amusing speculations with him during ;hat time.

"When we got to V^ancouver we found that Irish
potatoes were worth eight or nine dollars a bushel, so
Grant and I agreed to go into a potato speculation. We
rented a piece of ground from the Hudson Bay Company,
and as Grant had been a farmer he was to plow it, and
I was to cut and drop the potatoes ; we were to tend
them together. Our capital was joined to buy the seed,
neither of us having much money. We then v/ent to
work with a will and planted a large patch, and in the
fall reaped a rich harvest ; but when we came to gather
them, and look out for a market, it was found that every
one had raised Irish potatoes, and instead of being eight
or nine dollars a bushel they were worth nothing.
We finally had to pay som^ of the farmers to haul the
potatoes away out of a magazine that was borrowed
from the commandant of the post in which to store them.

" Grant, the present General Ingalls and myself then
went into an ice speculation, and put up loo tons of ice
on the Columbia river. We then sent a runner over
to Portland to see Captain Dall, of the Pacific Mail
Steamship Co., expecting to get him to take our ice to
San Francisco, where a fabulous price could be had for
it. He agreed to charter a brig lying at Portland, if we
would allow him to come in as fourth owner of the ice.
We consented, and he brought the brig around. The
ice was loaded aboard, and he started to tow the brig ta

116

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the ocean. When they reached the mouth of the river
the weather was so good, and such a fresh breeze was
blowing, that Dall ordered the captain to pull in his
hawser and sail down to Frisco ; but adverse winds
came on, and it was six weeks before he reached the
harbor. By that time a large quantity of ice had been
brought in from' Sitka, and when ours arrived there
was no market for it. Captain Dall took upon himself
the responsibility of sending the brig up to Sacramento,
and when she got there, there was not ice enough in her
to pay the towage from San Francisco up.

" Then Grant and I engaged in a cattle and pig specula-
tion. I went down to San Francisco to attend to the
duty of selling the animals, and Grant sent them
down to me. We continued that business until both ot
us lost all the money we had, and when I got back to
Vancouver three or four hundred dollars were yet due
him, for which I was obliged to give my note and after-
wards pay it off in instalments.

" Neither Grant nor myself ever had the slightest sug-
gestion of business talent. He was the perfect soul of
honor and truth, and believed every one as artless as him-
self. His faithfulness to friends was one of his striking
characteristics, and he was a favorite vnth everybody.

"We parted at Fort Vancouver when he was pro-
moted to a Captaincy and assigned to a distant post.
Soon after that he resigned, the duties of army life in
peace not being congenial to him, and we separated,
never to meet again until he was General-in-chief of the
armies. I never knew a stronger, better or truer man."

It has been a pleasant task to visit the veterans who
through the mist of this long time recall their early as-
sociations with the man whose career has stood the test
of time and whose earliest acts are recalled with zest by

TO THE WESTERN FRONTIER.

117

/er

vas

his

nds

the

►een

iiere

iself

^nto,

\ her

jcula-
a the
them
oth ot
ick to
;t due
after-
it sug-
>ul of
IS him-

the men who were then his companions as they have
ever since been his earnest friends.

It cannot often be said of a man that he runs in the
race of Hfe for many years without friction with only one
of the men with whom he is brought in close contact.
Yet ail those now living who know the facts of Grant's
early career in the army aver that they never knew of
his having the least unpleasantness with any one except
the officer who seemed to take a dislike to the young
Lieutenant very soon after he reported for duty at the
St. Louis barracks.

Grant is remembered during his service in the West
much as he is recalled by his school companions. He
was most interested in the manlier sports, and many of
the old officers recall him as he would go galloping at
break-neck speed, jumping the tongues of the six artil-
lery caissons in succession.

In the social life of the camp he and Rufus Ingalls
were two notable characters, and there are hundreds of
reminiscences of their odd bout at cards, where each
would play as earnestly for a stake of twenty-five cents
as they would for that many dollars.

There is no room for doubt but that Grant's promo-
tion and transfer from the genial atmosphere of Fort
Vancouver caused his retirement from the army. After
he reached a Captaincy he was assigned to a post where
his superior officer was the same Captain Buchanan
who had so ungraciously sat upon him at the mess
table in St. Louis soon after he had joined his regi-
ment. This officer made his duties at Humboldt any-
thing but pleasant, and a wish to get away from his petu-
lance and petty tyranny, as well as a longing to see his
wife and children who were in St. Louis, induced him to
resign his commission in July, 1854. - :n».:4f<nii vwy^aiv

118

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

One of the officers of the old regiment now writes thus
about his retirement : •

" I remember meeting Grant after his resignation, and
although our conversation was a short one, it left the
impression on my mind that he had become disgusted
with army life as he found it at his new post, and had
left it without giving the step careful consideration. He
spoke of his earnest longing for the quiet life of a farmer.
It was apparent to me then that his boyhood ambition
to be a tiller of the soil had returned, and, being irritated
by the petty annoyances about an unpleasant post, with a
captious commander who did not like him, he had re-
solved to return home. There was a story about charges
against him ; but, if there were any, I do not believe they
v;ould have had any such effect as to have induced him
to resign. He had no reason to care for any allegations
that could be trumped up against him by any oie. He
knew there were none that touched his moral character,
or that would have diminished confidence in his integrity
and value as an officer, which was then fully established
in all army circles. The worst charge that ever I heard
suggested would have resulted, if proven, in no incon-
venience to him. It might possibly have subjected him
to a reprimand from the colonel of the regiment, yet
even this would have taken the form of a handsome
compliment to his well-known traits of character and
conduct. I never knew a man better than I have known
Grant, and I never knew a better man."

The Fourth regiment of infantry contained the warm-
est friends Grant had among men. At Fort Vancouver
he had been one of the chiefs of an interesting circle.
General Rufus Ingalls, Commissary-General McFeely,
Generals Auger, Alvord, Prince, Wallen and a number
of other notable characters were his companions. Grant

as regimental quartermo . ,■ ""^"J^li- 119

both officers o^^.^T'T'^ V' '"^^''^ -cl Brene
ordered made in his „S " ^'"'^'''"'''^ ''O"'- In-X

^HTeroi^e--" ^^^^^:;:;-''--"^^

-p j.-o„ ':;;sr;rs:nSi §-^ ««- °- ^^e

fan (then a captain) for the .. ^^"'S^^ ^- McClel-

cfic •■aiIroad.%his offi eV":!:\°^"'- Northern Pa-
Preparations were beinTm^r', \^"--^ while the
"-t new section of the c^o.^^' '°'" *^ ^-P'°«tion of
^"e pleasant a^^n.; .• ^*

---ciatthis;o:r:rn°e":errr"' '■"■-'^'"■^ -

f . camp, the little games of cL'"' '^^' ^P°«^ of
'heir rides and hazafdrof wint /""""^ *« o^oers
Pa« of their early edca ion hL'"' ^"""^ "^^ -« a
When honors were heaped "porth""' "'''' '"°'-^°«^"-
every one regarded as the lea,t II, ,' °"" ^''°'" almost
ness under the stress of ^ ' ' '"''''>' '° «" »« to great-
forgot, in the distribulroT TP°"'Y"''^ he Lver
tnose men who were S Ll 'I *^ ''""'"«t of
-^-;;nMe.icooralonnh^--^;-:^^^^

' .''v*

I .■ -f

' 'J J £,

O, • '

■ t if *

•Jl» s .

V "M'jV.

- h.-

1 , - t •

CHAPTER VIII.

FROM THE ARMY TO FARMING.

Out of the army — Estimate of his character by an old comrade — His farm-life near
St. Louis — Hauling wood to market — Meeting old army officers — On th« threshold
of war — How he stood at the beginning — A characteristic letter.

From a captaincy in the regular army back to the
walks of an humble private citl.en was a long distance
in 1854. There were but few captains then, and a man
holding that rank was looked up to as having attained
a position in the army that was truly enviable. Many
men with far less ability than Grant would have gone out
into the business world and made their mark ; but to deal
successfully with the hurly-burly of trade a man must
not be overly nice as to methods, and must have a push
and dash that did not usually belong to the men educated
for the army. Grant's ability was not of that character,
nor had his training been of the kind that would fit a
man for a combat with people whose whole lives had
been spent in making financial headway. To be sure, he
hao always been industrious. When he hoed potatoes,
put up ice or dealt in pigs at Fort Vancouver, he was
doing his best to accumulate something ; but in every
one of these speculations he had demonstrated his lack
of business talent and his inexperience in worldly af-
fairs. He was too guileless and confiding to run a suc-
cessful race in the heat of speculation.

There an* many stories as to why he left the army,
but the preceding chapter tells the facts. There is no
doubt but that the wild life on the frontier, with few pros*

(120)

C/3

Crt

(121)

122

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

i I

'ill*-

pects of improvement, was distasteful to the man who had
found little pleasure in a soldier's career except in active
service. The routine duties of camp-life were never
tasteful to Grant, and he had been best satisfied when his
capacity had been drawn upon to the fullest, and he had
been in the heat of battle or in the midst of preparation
for war. He never seemed quite satisfied unless he was
doing something to keep his mind and body busy. One
of the old officers, who has been intimate with him all
his life, speaking of his peculiarities, says : " On drill
he made no show as a soldier and appeared to take
no interest in it, but when he was put on duty as regi-
mental quartermaster in Mexico the affairs of that posi-
tion were put through with such promptness and so sat-
isfactorily to every one as to excite wonder as to when
he attended to them, and how he learned them. The
explanation was found in the directness with which he
applied his tireless energy to his duties, and the quali-
ties of mind that made him see all the requirements
of the position in advance, and his aptness in so hand-
ling them as to give him plenty of time to be in every-
thing else that was going on."

After his resignation had been accepted he left for
St. Louis to join his wife and children and to take a new
start in life. The town, along the Mississippi, did not
then bear a very striking resemblance to the magnificent
city of the present day ; and on a small farm not very
far from its environs, which his father-in-law, Mr.
Dent, presented to his wife, Grant began life anew
at the age of thirty-five. His experience as a farmer was
as uneventful as that of most other men engaged in
a simila' avocation. He mowed, reaped, sowed and
generaUy made a full hand at all the laborious work
of the lield. He cut cord-wood, hauled it to St. Louis,

,mi'.

HOUSE WHERE GRANT WAS MARRfBU AND RESIDENCE WHEN TIMES WERE HARD.

(12)

124

Z/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

sold it for a small price, and did the best he could to get
alonsr in a roiiofh contact with the world. While a hus-
bandman he knew few people and made few acquaint-
ances. Frequently he would meet some of his old
comrades, but besides reviving with them the recollec-
tions of his early days in the army he had little recrea-
tion. He wore the garb of a farmer, and fulfilled the
duties of an agriculturist as best he could. Many of his
old officer friends, who saw him while he was making a
hard struggle to gain a living, tell of the perfect freedom
with which he spoke of his new life to friends, and the
good temper with which he accepted its responsibilities.
One of them now writes of meeting him on the steps of
the Planters' House in St. Louis, dressed in the homely
garb of a horny-handed son of toil, with pants tucked
in his boots and his blacksnake whip in his hand.

He says : " I was very glad to see him. I was just
coming out of the hotel and met him on the steps going
in. I turned to go back with him, when he said, * No, I
have only come up to market with a load of wood, and a
mutual friend telling me you were here, ' have called to
ask you to come down to the farm and spend a week
with me.' Again I invited him to my apartments in the
hotel, but he declined to go, as I supposed then on ac-
count of his rough garb. He made no other request of
me than to be his guest, and then hastened back to the
market place. In this little interview, which began and
ended on the steps of the hotel, his manner threw out
evidences of his character just as I had always seen and
read it in the army and excited my warmest admiration.
I have heard a story going the rounds that General
Sedgwick had said that I told him, at this interview.
Grant was on a spree and had requested the loan
of twenty-five cents. I desire to deny in as emphatic

FROM THE ARMY TO FARMING.

125

get

lUS-

lint-
old
[lec-
:rea-
the
»f his
ng a
;dom
1 the
lities.
ps of
Dmely
ucked

IS )ust
going
' No, 1
and a
llled to
week
in the
[on ac-
lest of
to the
n and
;W out
n and
ration,
eneral
rview,
e loan
iphatic

terms as I can that such was the fact, and it is utterly im-
possible that General Sedgwick could have made any
such statement. It is purely the creation of some per-
son's idle fancy. I recall the conversation perfecdy well
in which I related to General Sedgwick this meeting with
General Grant in 1859, and of distincdy saying that there
was no more the appearance of dissipation •'^ Grant's
face and manner than in those of a child. I recall how
Sedgwick and myself reviewed together the mighty
changes four years had brought to Grant. We con-
trasted the dress in which he had hauled his wood and
the uniform of power he was at the moment of our con-
versation entided to wear in handling the armies. Both
of us agreed that merit, not fortune, was the medium of
the phenomenon."

Professor Henry Coppee writes of meeting Captain
Grant during his farming experience, and pictures a group
composed of General Joseph J. Reynolds, General Don
Carlos Buell, Major Chapman of the cavalry. Grant and
himself at the Planters* House in St. Louis, where they
were having a pleasant reunion. Mr. Coppee describes
Grant very much as General Henry Prince has in the
above paragraph, with his coarse clothes, whip and other
accompaniments usual to a toiler. He also gives the
same account of his brown, healthy appearance, and
sober, manly bearing. . .; . > > . ;.. :

It is a common failing with humanity to gossip about
people who gain high places in the world's affairs. Then
their lives are surrounded with more or less of mystery
which only the imagination, that is always lively, can
fathom. 'Grant could not expect to be free from this
ugly penchant, but it is next to impossible for a man of
his peculiar habits of mind and body to have been very
dissipated. Men of his equitable temperajiient and wellr ,

126

LIFE 01' GENERAL GRANT.

\%\

poised elements are not apt to go to excesses of any
sort. There is no desire here to picture this hero as a
saint, or present him as an ideal man. There is no doubt
but that he was like most other men of his age. He was
fond of company and loved a reasonable amount of spor ,
but it is the steady record of his life that he never ran
toward anything like an excess. At times no doubt he
took a glass with a friend, as he loved a social game
with those who were worthy of his confidence. Men
who take a glass of wine for its social quality may some-
times take more than is good for them. This was, no
doubt, true of Captain Grant ; but in following the record
of his life among the men who have known him best
from childhood, the universal testimony is that he was
a fair, honorable and well-behaved citizen ; indeed
in most respects a model one, notwithstanding every
frailty that could truthfully be laid at his door.

The fabric of the man was never marred, and his
habits that have been commented upon were only the
safety-valve for his homely, resolute qualities which
lacked full employment.

Ill-luck in making money outside of his chosen pro-
fession as a soldier followed him from Fort Vancouver,
and after a short fight with rough farm duties he left
his acres for a settlement in St. Louis. Here he estab-
lished a real estate and collection office, but the business
was distasteful to one of his habits and inclinations, and
after a brief struggle he dropped it. He then made an
effort to be county surveyor, a position for which he was
peculiarly fitted on account of his education at West Point
and his experience in the army, but political influence
was stronger for a less competent man. A minor posi-
tion in the custom house was his next occupation. This
he held until the place was wanted for a person with

(127)

128

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

'I, I

more influence, and then he was warned off. There Is a
great deal that is manly in the fight he was then makintr
for a living, but it was wholly uninteresting and un-
eventful.

The contest in St. Louis went so dead against him
that he accepted a proposition from his father to join in
the leather business at Galena. So in the early part of
i860 he made another move, this time to the avocation
his father had taught him when a boy, before he had a
thought of learning the profession of a soldier, but rather
was filled with the dreams of a respectable education and
a planter's career. His life in Galena was not con-
spicuous. He went about his duties in a practical, com-
mon-sense way, making no stir and forming no acquaint-
ances except among those with whom he had business.
People who could get under his natural reserve liked him.
He was as popular with those who knew him in civil life
as he was with his military companions. But fev^ men
were able to reach into the sterling (|ualities of the man.
Therefore it was not unnatural that at the beginning of
the war he knew little or nothing of the leading citizens
of the place, and they knew less of him. He had never
taken any part in politics, and had never voted but once.
He had no acquaintance with the member of Congress
from his district, rnd was without those social and politi-
cal influences that favored most of the volunteer officers
who sprang to arms as soon as the boom of the guns at
Fort Sumter had awakened the land to war.

Up to this time what little part Grant had taken in
politics was on the Democratic side. He had voted
for Buchanan instead of Fremont more on account
of a lack of confidence in the Republican candidate
than a regard for the Democradc. But his political
views were known to be conservative, and in the wordy

HESIDENCE OF CAPTAIN AND MRS. GRANT NEAR ST. LOUIS.

: (i2fi)

130

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

controversies which preceded and brought on the war
he stood rather between the two parties. When the
question of fidelity to the country became the all-impor-
tant one, Grant's attitude very materially changed.
Sumter had not been fired upon before he began writ-
ing to his relatives, most of whom were Democrats, to
ascertain their position and to state his. This charac-
teristic letter to his father-in-law shows how clearly he
understood the situation. His forecast of the results of

secession is also remarkable:

Galena, April \^th, i86i.

Mr. F. Dent: Dear Sir — I have but little time to write, but as in
these exciting times we are very anxious to hear from you, and know
of no other way but by writing first to you, I must make time. We
get but little news by telegraph from St. Louis, but from all other
points of the country we are hearing a^l the time. The times are in-
deed startling; but now is the tin.e, puLicularly in the border slave
State, for men to prove their love of country. I know it is hard for
men to apparently work with the Republican party, but now all party
distinctions should be lost sight of, and every true patriot be for main-
taining the integrity of the glorious old Stars and Stripes, the Consti-
tution and the Union. The North is responding to the President's
call in such a manner that the Confederates may truly quake. I tell
you there is no mistaking the feelings of the people. The Govern-
ment can call into the field 75,000 troops, and ten or twenty times
75,000 if it should be necessary, and find the means of maintaining
them, too. It is all a mistake about the Northern pocket being so
sensitive. In times like the present no people v'f' more rp?/^y to give
their own time or of their abundant means. ' 'o impartial man can
conceal from himself the fact that in all thes"! froi:' les the Southerners
have been the aggressors, and the administration h" stood purely on
the defensive — more on the defensive than she v^ould dared to have
done, but for her consciousness of strength and the certainty of right
prevailing in the end.

The news to-day is that Virginia has gone out of the Union. But
for the influence she will have on the other border States, this is not
much to be regretted. Her position, or rather that of eastern Virginia,
has been more reprehensible from the beginning than that of South
Carolina. She o.iould be made to bear a heavy portion of the burden
of the war for her guilt.

^i&^m.

But
is not

rginia,
South

burden

■■■■:■*—

=^=^^

GRANT'S RESIDENCE AND HIS FATHER'S STORE IN GALENA, ILL.

(131)

132

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

cr<

In all this 1 can but see the doom of slavery. The Northerners do
not want, nor will they want, to interfere with the institution, but
they will refuse for all time to give it protection unless the Southerners
shall return soon to their allegiance ; and then, too, this disturbance
will give such an impetus to the production of their staple — cotton —
in other parts of the world that they can never recover the control of
the market again for that commodity. This will reduce the value
of the negroes so much that they will never be worth fighting over

again.

I have just received a letter from Fred [Frederick Dent, Jr.]. He
breathes forth the most patriotic sentiments. He is for the old flag as
long as there is a union of two States fighting under its banner, and
when they dissolve he will go it alone. This is not his language, but
it is the idea not so well expressed as he expresses it. Julia and the
children are all well and join me in love to you all. I forgot to men-
tion that Fred has another heir, with some novel name that I have
forgotten. Yours truly,

U. S. Grant.

Very soon after writing this letter Captain Grant re-
turned to Missouri and visited his friend, W. D. W.
Barnard, who now says that Mr. Dent showed him this
letter, and that they discussed it at length very soon
after it was received. He also says that when Grant
came to see him they drove over to " Wish-ton-Wish "
to have a talk with Mr. Dent. Grant had determined
to go into the war, and desired to make provision for his
family during his absence. Mr. Dent was a positive
Democrat, and was by no means satisfied with his son-
in-law's determination but Grant stated mildly but firmly ;
that he had been educated by the Government, which
was about to need the services of all its citizens, especially
those trained to military duty, and, with his wife and
children provided for, he had made up his mind. It may
be reasoned from Mr. Barnard's story that the conversa-
tion between him and his father-in-law was an earnest
one, for not until Grant was about to leave did Mr. Dent
state his conclusions. Then he remarked, after seeing

FROM THE ARMY TO FARMING.

133

that his son-in-law was determined to go to war : " Send
Julia and the children here. As you make your bed so
you must lie."

Before all this had transpired, Captain Grant had at-
tended two war meetings at Galena. At each of these
gatherings he had met more people who held a place
in the affairs of the community and had taken more of
a public part among his townsmen than during his entire
residence in Illinois. All through that section of the
State there was a strong Southern sentiment which was
decidedly adverse to war. Grant himself was In favor
of according the South its fullest rights, until it com-
mitted the overt act of rebellion. Then in an instant
he became earnestly opposed to any compromise that
did not involve th'^ submission of the South to the de-
crees of the national government.

During the first meeting he attended he had been a
great deal annoyed by the anti-war talk and the mani-
fest sentiment against stubbornly maintaining the in-
tegrity of the government.

An impassioned appeal by John A. Rawlins, who
was a Democrat, and credited with a lack of patriotism,
afforded him great satisfaction. His speech was of such
power and eloquence as to carry through an almost
hostile assemblage these resolutions proposed by Mr.
Washburne, then a member of Congress from that dis-
trict, who afterwards became famous as a political leader :

"Resolved — First — That we will support the Government of the
United States in the performance of all its constitutional duties in this
great crisis, and will assist it to maintain the integrity of the American
flag, and to defend it whenever and wherever assailed.

" Second — That we recommend the immediate formation of two mil-
itary companies in this city to respond to any call that may be made
by the governor of the State.

" Third — That we call on the Legislature, which is to assemble in
extraordinary session on the 23d instant, to make the most ample pro-

■ \ r!^\\ . , '^ •'V * ;

:t»

i< »

"ft

134

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

visions to respond to the call for troops now made or that may here-
after be made by the President of the United States.

'« Fourth — That, having lived under the stars and stripes, by the
blessing of God we propose to die under them."

Notwithstanding this emphatic declaration, there were
still plenty of objectors to any warlike demonstrations.

On the 1 8th of April, however, just the night before
Grant wrote the important letter to Mr. Dent herein
presented, a meeting was called to organize a military
company and Grant was called upon to preside. Upon
taking the chair he was much embarrassed, and said, in
tones hardly loud enough to be heard :

" Gentlemen, I thank you for honoring me with the
position of chairman of this meeting. You know the
object for which we are assembled. Men are needed to
help preserve the Union. What is your pleasure ? "

The gathering was an important one, for the founda-
tion of a military company was laid, which Captain
Grant was next day called upon to drill and a few days
thereafter to accompany to Camp Yates at Springfield.

The events of these few days made an important
turn in Grant's career. They had brought him quite
prominently before his townsmen, secured him the
friendship of the member of Congress from his district,
and made John A. Rawlins such a warm friend that
he followed his fortunes all through the conflict, to be-
come Secretary of War after his chief was chosen to
the Presidency.

Grant had about attained his thirty-nitith year and
was full of the vigor of manhood when all these
events were transpiring. He had been favored with a
strong constitution, a well-knit frame and an equable
temper that had borne the trials of army life and the
knocks of adversity only to grow stronger and better.

His latent powers of mind and body had been so
well hidden that it took time for their development.

FROM THE ARMY TO FARMING,

135

here-

ly the

weie

)nR,

efore

erein

litary

Upon

lid, in

th the
>w the
clecl to

■ •

ounda-
Zaptain
w days
ngfield.
portant
quite
im the
district,
d that
to be-
osen to

What would have been shown in many men in a
short time it took years to grow into full flower in a man
of his peculiar temperament. The struggles through
which he had safely passed increased him in mental and
moral stature. He was never known to be much of a
reader after he left the army, as he had never been a
student in it. But his mind was thoroughly practical and
fully competent to grapple with each new emergency as
it arose. His education and mode of life had been such
that he had no whims or high-flown theories, and when
the rebellion called him to help defend the government
that had educated him, he arose a splendidly equipped
man for the emergency.

^ar and
these
1 with ix
equable
and the
)etter.
)een so
lent.

'. ' > >

' i

CHAPTER IX.

RETURN TO THE ARMY.

War inspires him to return 'iO military duties — Scenes with the governor of Illinois
— Diclt Yates' first impression of Grant — Wants a place on McClellan's staff-
Is made Colonel of an unruly regiment — Marches it into Missouri — Made Brig-
adier-General — Assigned to Cairo — Grant's first notable service.

In seeking a new place in the army Captain Grant
seems to have had almost as much difficulty as in mak-
ing a success in civil life. He is said to have been the
only man in the town who possessed any military train-
ing. Yet having drilled the company composed of his
townsmen, and reported with it to the State capitol, he
was not offered the rank of captain, to which he aspired.
He was too modest to push his claims, and he lacked
friends to do it for him. Finding little interest taken in
him amidst the hurly-burly of camp-life, which was then
laying the foundation of the great body of citizen-soldiery
Illinois sent to the war, he wrote a letter to the adjutant-
general of the army offering his services and suggesting
that he might be fitted to command a regiment.

His communication to the war department was
couched in ve'"y modest language. It tendered the ser-
vices of the writer " till the close of the war, in such ca-
pacity as may be offered." This letter was never an-
swered, and Captain Grant continued to do all kinds of
military duty about the camp at Springfield and in the
adjutant-general's office. He did not even get an
humble place of this character without some difficulty.

Years after he had grown to greatness, Governor
(136)

RETURN TO THE ARMY.

137

ced
:n in
then
liery
tant-
,ting

was
ser-
ca-
an-
is of
the
kt an
xlty.
irnor

Yates gives this account of his first meeting with him.
The military affairs of the State were in much of a
mix owing to the lack of educated soldiers to direct
them. Mr. E. B. Washburne had recommended Grant
to help out of the difficulty, and he had reported for
duty.

•' In presenting himself to me," said Governor Yates,
" he made no reference to any merits. He simply said
that he had been the recipient of a military education at
West Point, and now that the country was assailed he
thought it his duty to offer his services, and that he would
esteem it a privilege to be assigned to any position where
he could be useful. I cannot now claim to myself the
credit of having seen in him the promises of great achieve-
ments, more than in many others who proposed to enter
the military service. His appearance was not striking.
He was plain, very plain ; but still something — perhaps
his plain straightforward modesty and earnestness — in-
duced me to assign him a desk in the executive office.
In a short time I found him to be an invaluable assistant
in my office and in that of the adjutant-general. He
was soon after assigned to the command of the six
camps of organization and instruction which I had
established in the State."

It was while Captain Grant was engaged in these half
clerical, half military duties that he became almost dis-
couraged about ever crettinof a chance to enter active
service. Captain John Pope, now Major-General, about
that time, in conversation with him, advised his return to
the regular army. Recognizing the value of influence,
he suggested recommendations from prominent men as
the best way to reach a commission. Grant declined to
beg for indorsements to enable him to get a chance to
fight for the country that had educated him, but instead

138

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

appealed to the adjutant-general of the army in the
letter before mentioned.

'Xbout this time he visited his father at Covington,
Ry., and there endeavored to get an audience with'
General George B. McClellan, then at Cincinnati, in the
hope of getting a place on his staff. After two or three
unsuccessful attempts to penetrate beyond the cordon of
aides-de-camp which then surrounded McClellan, he
gave up hope in that direction. Very soon afterwards
Governor Yates telegraphed him his appointment of
commander of a demoralized regiment. Grant promptly
accepted, and returned to Springfield to be commissioned
as Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois infantry.

He had finally, after many trials, obtained what seemed
the limit of his capacity as p, military leader, as he himself
estimated it in his letter to the adjutant-general of the
army. This good fortune came to him just as he had about
made up his mind to return to Galena and continue the
leather business. It was the middle of June when he
took command of the regiment, and it was not many days
thereafter before it became noted for its good order
and discipline. Being directed to go in camp with it at
Quincy, 111., he demonstrated his practical ability to
fit troops for active service by marching his com-
mand across the country, simply for the purpose of disci-
pline. While on his way he was intercepted with an
order to take his regiment to Ironton, Mo., to be
transported by boats to St. Louis. While waiting for
the steamboat he was sent to the relief of the Sixteenth
Illinois infantry, which was reported to be surrounded
by the enemy west of Palmyra. But the regiment was
again stopped before it reached its destination on account
of the change in the military situation, and for two weeks
it was scattered along the Hannibal & St. Jo Railroad,

RETURN TO THE ARMY.

139

doing guard duty, in the district commanded by John
Pope, who since his advice to Grant had been made a
bri<T^adier-general.

During this time it made one march from Salt river
to Florida, Mo., and return, in pursuit of Tom Har-
ris, who was in the vicinity with a handful of Con-
federates. It was during this march that General
Grant himself tells, in his interesting memoirs, of
approaching the spot where he expected to find his
enemy encamped, and feeling his heart rise higher and
higher until he was nearly useless from the excitement.
But his quick eye and ready perception soon made it
clear to him that he was quite as much an object of ter-
ror to the enemy as the enemy had been to him. If his
own heart went up into his throat, he argued, so did the
hearts of the men whom he fought ; and, that point once
fixed in his mind, he never again felt fear in battle.

After the return from this expedition the regiment
was sent to Ironton, Mo., and while passing through
St. Louis for that point Grant was assigned to duty as
brigadier-general of volunteers, and very soon there-
after began his real military career.

Before he had been commissioned as colonel and
while engaged in the perplexing duties of organizing
volunteers and helping to keep straight the adjutant-
general's office, he had shown such aptitude and zeal as
to gain the good will of every prominent man with
whom he had been brought in contact. So marked was
this good opinion, that, without his knowledge, Mr.
Washburne and the entire delegation presented his
abilities to the President in such a favorable light that
he was given his first star, the commission to date
from the 17th day of May, 1861, even before he had
written his letter offering his services to the government

140

LIFE OF GENERAL GR.. ..

and nearly a month before Governor Yates had made
him a colonel of an unruly regiment. He was, there-
fore, one of the first seventeen brigadiers.

General Grant's future was now in his own hands.
He had secured a place in the army practically by
accident. Men of little or no capacity for military
duty had been commissioned as colonels and generals
while he was still wishing for a commission of almost any
grade. The necessities of the service finally gave him a
colonelcy and his own capacity had won him a star.
Thirty-nine years of his life had been passed, during
which period he had shown himself competent to dis-
charge every duty that had been given him, and his mind
as well as his character had grown brighter in adversity.
Both as boy and man he had seen shallow, preten-
tious fellows rise above him, both in the shifts of the
business world and in the army, yet he had never felt
reoentment, and went alon^ his quiet way, wondering
only why the tide was a^ A him, but well thought
of by the few who knew him.

Soon after his appointment as brigadier-general he was
assigned to the command of the military district of Mis-
souri. This comprised the southeastern part of that
State, southern Illinois and all that territory in west-
ern Kentucky and Tennessee that might fall into the
hands of the Federal forces. Immediately upon his as-
signment he was ordered to report to General Fremont
at St. Louis, and such was the haste that he was sent by
special train to that city.

It is easy to imagine Grant's broad disgust at finding
that, after all the hurry, it took him twenty-four hours
to get through the lines of staff officers with which
General Fremont was surrounded.

The 1st of September found him at Cairo, just estate

RETURN TO THE ARAfY.

141

de
re-
ds,
by
ary
rals
any
m a
star,
ring
I dis-
mind
rsity.
eten-
)f the
ir felt
ering
ought

llshing his head-quarters in the muddy and unattractive
town at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
The place was filled with idle boatniL-n, and all that de-
moralization that is inseparable from war was then ap-
parent. He had about a bricrade of raw troopr;, the
conduct of wh'ch was not improved by their rougl^. sur-
roundings. Polk lay at Columbus, some twenty miles
below, with a force, while Bragg was at Bowling Green,
in easy supporting distance. Jeff Thomson was also
directing a command in southeastern Missouri. Thus
the enemy held the Mississippi below the Ohio, and
were in possession of the important water-ways of the
Tennessee and the Cumberland. The control of the
Ohio was also theirs by the seizure of Paducah, toward
which point they were tending, Polk having already be-
gun a movement in that direction.

Brigadier-General Grant saw at a glance that the
assumed neutrality of Kentucky was a fraud. It denied
admission to the Union forces and practically invited the
Confederate troops to come in and lay firm hold upon
all the strong and strategic positions in the State before
the fiction could be dispelled. The enemy had already
taken advantage of this situation by occupying Columbus,
Hickman, Bowling Green, and by building Fort Hent)
to control the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson to com-
mand the Cumberland. They only needed Paducah,
where the Tennessee empties into the Ohio, to com-
plete a strong line from the Mississippi to the Old
Dominion. They were making their dispositions to
close upon this place, when the new general reached
Cairo, looked over the map, and determined to destroy
the " neutrality " of Kentucky and keep the Ohio open, as
the beginning of a plan to reclaim all the important navi-
gable rivers in that section for military purposes.

142

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

On the 5th of September he announced his in-
tentions to General Fremont and to the Kentucky
Legislature. On the same night, without waiting for
authority from St. Louis, he started with two regiments,
a light battery and a convoy of gunboats to seize
Paducah. It fell into his hands without a fight, and after
taking possession he issued this proclamation :

" I have come among you not as an enemy, but as
your fellow-citizen ; not to maltreat or annoy you, but to
respect and enforce the rights of all loyal citizens. An
enemy, in rebellion against our common Government,
has taken possession of and planted its guns on the soil
of Kentucky, and fired upon you. Columbus and Hick-
man are in his hands. He is now moving upon your city.
I am here to defend you against this enemy, to assist the
authority and sovereignty of your government. I have
nothing to do with opinions, and shall deal only with
armed rebellion and its aiders and abettors. You can
pursue your usual avocations without fear. The strong
army of the Government is here to protect its friends
and punish its enemies. Whenever it is manifest that
you are able to defend yourselves and maintain the au-
thority of the Government and protect the rights of loyal
citizens, i shall withdraw the forces under my com-
mand."

Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland, was next
occupied, and Grant had made two important moves in
the game which he was to close and win at Donelson.

On his return to Cairo he found waiting him a severe
reprimand from Fremont for having communicated with
the Kentucky State authorities, and immediately the
control of the place he had captured was taken from him
and General C. F. Smith assigned to its command. But
General Grant had performed a great service in the

RETURN TO THE ARMY.

143

in-
icky
; for
ents,
seize
after

lit as

but to

. An

itnent,

he soil

L Hlck-

ur city.

sist the

1 have

ily with

^ou can
strong
friends

est that
the au-
of loyal
ly conv

vas next
[oves in
lelson.
ia severe
itcd with
Ltely the
from him
a But
le in the

seizure of Paducah, which the major-general over him
could not destroy with his censure. Its loss was a se-
vere blow to the Confederates, for it not only broke
their power in Kentucky, but revealed their real inten-
tions so clearly that the politicians aided by the milk-and-
water loyalists no longer dared to apologize for the Con-
federate fallacy of neutrality. To be sure the act was
violently denounced as a gross violation of the rights of
a State, and Grant was for a time on the verge of a seri-
ous difficulty for his prompt and efficient action.

It was very soon made manifest, however, that the re-
sult of his work was to give to the national forces firm
control of the Ohio river as well as an even chance for
the lower Tennessee and Cumberland. More than this,
it strengthened the hearts and hands of the loyal people
of this wavering^State and made it possible for its Leg-
islature to pass resolutions favorable to the Union cause.

To be sure, Grant had incurred Fremont's displeas-
ure, and for the next two months and a half was kept
in a strictly defensive position, while the Confederates
tightened their grip on the Mississippi and many other
points in the valley that follows this great water-way.
But by his bold movement, which was in those dallying
days a grave responsibility, he enabled the Unionists of
Kentucky to take eighty regiments of troops into the
Union army — more men than Nappleon led to Waterloo.

CHAPTER X.

THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.

Grant's first battle — His feint toward Columbus — Colonels Oglesby and Logan-
Moving down the river — The location of the Confederate forces — Moving to the
attack — Grant's horse killed under him — A demoralized army — Destroying the
camp — Retreating to the boats — Grant's peril and success — Tells why he fought
his first battle.

Great events in war often hangr upon small hinges.
Battles are frequently won or lost by an accident. It is not
always the greatest engagement that brings to the fore
the strongest qualities of a commander. Sometimes it
takes more courage, confidence, tact arid ability to fight a
small battle than a big one, and again and again a general's
future has dated from his actions in what people might call
a skirmish after the conflict in which he is making his repu-
tation is fully developed. This is true of Grant. His place
in the late war was fixed wlien his first battle was over.
To be sure he had difficulties afterward as he had had
before, but when the sun went down on the 7th of No-
vember, 1 861, he had made the first move in a campaign
that was to last for nearly two years, and finally result
in his promotion to the control of all the armies inar-
shalled for the suppression of the rebellion.

The two months' occupation of the muddy camp at
Cairo, after the seizure of Paducah, was alike irksome
to Grant and his men, who were wishing to press for-
ward to the real business of war.

The patriotic spirit that impelled the citizen to throw
do»vn the spade, stop the plough, close the shop, and
still the anvil to seize the rifle was still alive. Grant

(144)

THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.

145

Logan-—
ng to the
lying the
ne fought

ilnges.

t is not

iie fore

imes it

(fight a

^neraVs

crht call

lis repu-
is place
,s over,
lad had
of No-
Impaign
result
s inar-

[amp at

Irksome

jss for-

throw

)p, and

Grant

was not content with Fremont's inactivity, which kept
him in idleness. More than once did he suggest the
feasibility of attempting the capture of Columbus, a
most important point lying twenty miles below the
junction of the two rivers. This place was being rap-
idly converted, practically under his eye, into one of the
most formidable strongholds on the Mississippi. It was
favorably situated upon the east shore, threatening any
move on the part of the Union forces, and, naturally,
cutting off the navigation of the river.

To move upon this rapidly strengthening point was
Grant's earnest desire. A short distance below, on the
west bank, stood Belmont, where rude works had been
thrown up und/ar the protection of the guns of Colum-
bus ; from here Confederate troops and supplies were
being constantly transported. Every hour's delay seemed
to Grant time and opportunity wasted. '

On the loth of Septembeir, four days after the seizure
of Paducah, he applied to Fremont, urging an immediate
move. To this request no response was made, and the
resolute Ge leral, whose ideas of duty forced him to be-
lieve in active effort, was obliged to sit down and see
the enemy each day making Columbus stronger until
they boastingly claimed it to be the "Gibraltar of
America." Weary weeks dragged along until the newly
arriving regiments swelled Grant's command to nearly
twenty thousand undisciplined troops, mostly commanded
by officers entirely untrained in the practices of war.

The 1st of November brought him relief from the
unsatisfactory duties of camp life. Fremont ordered
"demonstrations" to be simultaneously made on both
sides of the Mississippi. His purpose was for Grant to
feel the enemy rather than to fight him ; but the subor-
dinate commander took a very different view of the sit-

It
It

146

L/F/^ OF GENERAL GRANT.

nation, and, with a rrood chance to educate his raw troops
in a fieht, he deterinin{!d to attack the Confederate force
on the west hank of the Mississippi, whicii kiy under the
frowninij j»uns of Cohmibus, a recruiting station and
d{!pot of supplies for the stronger position.

It is unnecessary to follow in full detail the dispositions
Grant made in carrying out Fremont's instructions to
make a feint against the enemy. Colonel Oglesby, who
with four regiments had been sent out to look after a
force under Jeff Thompson on the St, Francois river in
Missouri, some fifty miles northwest of Cairo, was de-
flected toward New Madritl, anil reinforced " to keep
the enemy from throwing over the river much more
force than they now have," as Grant wsaid to General
Smith. Other detachments were despatched in various
directions to make a show of attack upon several points
' to divert attention from the real object of the movement.

Grant then loaded thirty-one hundred antl fourteen
men — only a little more than three full regiments — on
transports, and taking two wooden gunboats, the
*' Tyler " and the " Lexington," as convoys, he proceeded
down the river, while General C. V . Smith was marchinjj
toward Columbus from Paducah, and several other forces
under different commanders were making play in the
direction of various other points.

A few miles below Cairo a landini^f was made to
give Polk, at Columbus, the impression that an attack
was to be made upon the Confederate " Gibraltar."
Before this the enemy had been sending troops across
the river to Belmont, for the purpose of cutting off
Oglesby. Grant, learning this, pushed across to the
west bank of the Mississippi to destroy the camp at
Belmont, disperse the enemy and prevent any attempt
to harass Oglesby or reinforce Price.

THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.

ce
lu*
nd

ins
to

vho

;r a

r in
de-

vcep

nore

ncral

rious

)olnts

mcnt.

rtecn
-on
the
leded
ching
[forces
n the

Ide to
Lttack
iltar."
Lcross
\ct off
Lo the
|mp at
tternpt

liarly in the morning on the 7tli of November, Grant' <*
little force left its transports on the Missouri side, three
miles above the point of attack, and formed for its first
battle. The two gunboats and a battalion of men
guarded the steamers while the troops marched over
the low, irregular, swampy ground, just timbered enough
to make it difficult for military movements. H(,'yond
and arcHind the woods there were broad fields of
ripened corn, where the stalks grew so rank as lo, at
times, practically hide the moving men. Grant threw

ABATIS.

his whole force forward as skirmishers, with no reserves
save the battalion left at the boats.

The point of assault lay beyond one of these corn-
fields, fully protected by the guns of Columbus, and a
strong abatis of fallen timber. If the camp was cap-
tured it could not be held, but towards it the skirmish line
led by Grant made its way, intent only on its destruction.
The Confederates met it with a stubborn resistance, and
both sides stood the clash of arms like veterans. The
natural advantages were largely in favor of the enemy.

- i.

148

Z/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

i i

' I

and many of the Union soldiers had never handled a
musket until a week before the fight. Yet they were
steady and courageous. Under the direction of a cool
head and a skilful commander they surmounted every
obstacle. Through field and marsh, over ditches and
fences, they pressed, forcing the Confederates back at
every step, until the onset became fierce and desperate.
The order for the charge finally came. They responded
with a will, rushing over the abatis, capturing guns and
prisoners, and breaking up the camp in wild confusion.

The retreating enemy was allowed to go its way to
find shelter along the river bank until reinforcements
came, while the victorious volunteers, officers as well as
men, became wild with the enthusiasm that victory
brought. Military restraint lost its grip. Officers made
patriotic stump speeches to their exultant soldiers, while
the men shouted and gave themselves up to plundering
the captured camp. Grant, cool, persisteilt and level-
headed, tried to reform his jubilant troops, but they were
beyond control, and he ordered the place fired. The
torch to tents, supplies and camp equipage soon re-
called the men to their duty, and the smoke and flames
drew the fire of the batteries at Columbus. Reinforce-
ments were also landing above and below the demoral-
ized force, which soon fell into line at the unexpected
danger of capture, and began the retreat toward the
transports.

Cheatham, with three regiments of Confederates, dis-
puted their return.

"We are cut off or surrounded" passed from lip
to lip.

Grant took in the situation without betraying the
slightest concern. One of his staff officers, greatly ex-
cited, rode up with the intelligence that he was com-

r^£ BATrZ£ OP BELMONT ,;„

P'etely hedged about with fresh C Tf'
GrantrepKed, "Ifthatk J Confederate troops,

we cut ou, w^y in." '"' *" -""^^ <^"' our ,vay out as

The calm conclusion of fl,
magic upon his subordinates nT"'"''^'' ^"^'' "^e
were immediately restored ^"'' ~"Wence

"We whipped them once- 7 A- i
a8=-n." said Grant, as he orde ' H k^ ^" <^"'' ^'^ ■''
the Confederate I-'ne a d oSrlTl"'"^'' '^^"'^^

-^ the det^hrnt'^a! .-rt"'^' T"-^ '^^' '^<^'""''.
still in danger of capture 'sf \ ^''^'' ^^''^ "P was
his command were saf^lvK , . "'^ "'^■" body of
^or those on the reldtt^g'S t^'' '^'^' ^ '°°k

He reached the crest of ah M ^ "°""-a''«-
target for a large Confedel r °'^' '° '^"'^ '"''"^^If a
*-«• But hisl-mpTe tTs^f" "°' '''^ y^^'^ ^is-
rank, and from theif loJZ ill "° 'f -^"^"^ °^ his
pered away at the transpo" sendt "'f"'' *^^ P^P"
f stray shot in his direction H;! 1^ ""'^ "°"' ""'^ 'h^n
he turned toward the boati „. °'''f^="'°"s concluded,
find them just moving oT Wn h-\^'^^'^ «-' '°
rapidly to the edo-e of the c.'^^ '"' '^°''''*^> ^e rode
lets, and slidin. down h! 'TV"'"^'' = «'" °f b"l-
of his faithful beast he iumtT.^"' °" *^ ''«""<=hes
safely among his men "' ^''' "^^ ^^n^-P'ank and was

^^Z S^^Ttte'lf 0^7" ^ ''^'P ^W could "
enemy with gjpe and calraf the'sf \' """" ""=

'or .-t was VoZltTZlZTi r ^"^ ''^^•
U-n troops were safely ou77ZTo7 :u: t'

: t

l! : !f

150

Z/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

federate guns. Then officers as well as men began exult
ing over the day's work. The loss was not very heavy
on either side. Grant had one hundred and seventy-five
prisoners and two pieces of artillery; his loss was four
hundred and eighty, while the Confederates reported six
hundred and forty killed, wounded and missing.

The real results cannot, however, be estimated by
the actual losses on either side. So far as (irant was
concerned, the war began here. The battle of Hclmont
set the gauge for a grand campaign. It was the first
trial under fire of the new General and the raw mate-
rial under him. Other brigadiers of more prominence
were contented with subordinate places in larger com-
mands, while this one was conducting independent opera-
tions in which he had beaten his enemy, destroyed his
camp, saved his troops when outnumbered, and gen-
erally showed himself to be thoroughly equipped with
that homely resourcefulness so necessary in a com-
mander. The character and action of his troops had
only brought these elements out in stronger light.

John McClernand was the only general officer he had
with him, and John A. Logan was one of the colonels
of this expedition. His regiment was among the very
foremost in the charge. It captured the enemy's artil-
lery, and Edward McCook, who was then one of its cap-
tains, but afterwards became a general, worked them
with telling effect against the enemy. In this batde
Logan set the measure of his future as one of the fore-
most volunteer officers the war developed. The next
day he commanded the force that buried the dead and
arranged for the flag of truce that followed the removal
of the wounded and the interment of those who fell.
All the officers save Grant were wholly inexperienced,
but they had behaved with such gallantry as to earn the

THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.

151

it-

vy
ve
)ur
six

by
was
\ont
first
latc-
encc
com-
pcra-
d bis

witb
com-
ls bad

le bad
Lionels
very
artil-
ts cap-
tbem
battle
fore-
next
Ld and
:moval

lo fell,
ienced,
irn the

warmest commendations from their chief. McClernand
had a horse shot under him, and Grant had his first
mount killed early in the en<raf:;;ement.

The value of the day's work to the troops was beyond
estimate ; they had learned more in the ventures of that
single day's batUe than months of preparation in camp
would have given them. Then Grant's conduct on the
batde-field, where he had to be everywhere and attend
to everything on account of the inexperience of his offi-
cers, had inspired them with a faith that was never
shaken, and which they at one time or another imparted
to the soldiers who heard their story of the batde of
Belmont.

The first truce occurred the second day after the fight.
This, on the Confederate side. General Polk commanded.
He was an Episcopal bishop, but an educated soldier
and a dignified and austere officer. The meeting between
Grant and himself was formality itself, but it resulted in
an exchange of prisoners, of which each side had about
the same number. When Grant and Polk parted the»"e
was some unfinished business, and the Confederate gen-
eral turned and said:

" General, we v»ill have another truce to-morrow at
the same hour and about the same place, and I will send
General. Cheatham in command."

" Very well," was Grant's reply.

Grant and Cheatham were comrades in the Mexican
war, and liked each other very much. The next day
when they met the coldness of the former meeting had
all disappeared. The two steamers which bore the offi-
cers representing the two forces met in the river on neu-
tral ground at the appointed hour, and were securely
lashed together. When Grant and Cheatham met it
took but a few minutes to transact the real business of

162

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the truce, and then General Grant invited his old Mexi-
can war friend and the officers accompanying him to his
boat. Here a lunch was spread and the guests were
invited to partake. This social meeting was prolonged
for several hours, while Grant and Cheatham discussed
their army life when both were engaged against a com-
mon enemy. The captain commanding the Confederate
steamboat, having an eye out for General Polk's cen-
sure, finally interrupted the pleasant occasion by calling
Colonel Porter, Cheatham's adjutant-general, out with
the suggestion :

"It's getting late, and Polk will be out of temper un-
less we get back soon."

Por*;er returned to the table and said to Cheatham :
"We must go." The Confederate general turned to
Grant and said :

*' Porter says we must be going."

" Who's Porter ? " said Grant.

" My adjutant-general," Cheatham responded, as he
rose to depart.

General Grant made no further demur, but observing
that Cheatham wore a brand-new Confederate uni-
form with the latest style of C. S. A. buttons, he said :
" Cheatham, I would like to have a memento of this oc-
casion, and I think I'll take one of those buttons."

" You are entirely welcome to it," said Cheatham.

Grant then took a knife which was handed to him, cut
a button off, and stowed it away in his vest pocket.
Cheatham then turned to the others and said : *' If any
of the rest of you want a keepsake, help youjrself."

Some of the other officers present embraced the op-
portunity, and when Cheatham took his leave very few
buttons were left on his coat. It was late in the evening
when this pleasant reunion dissolved, and Grant and

THE BATTLE OF BELMONT.

153

lexi-

> his

were

nged

issed

com-

erate

, cen-

alling

t with

»er un-

atham :
ned to

)serving
ite uni-
le said:

this oc-

»>

jiam.
I him, cut
pocket.
I "If any

llf."

the op-

irery few

I evening

[ant and

Cheatham parted, not to meet again until the deadly
clinch at Shiloh.

This is not important, but it is interesting as illustrat-
ing the kindly character of the two men and their ster-
ling friendship even when arrayed against each other in
the bitterness of war.

Long after this incident of the opening days of rebel-
lion, when great triumphs had made Grant's name a
household word, he spoke freely of his first engage-
ment. It was during the siege of Vicksburg. He sat
with General Robert McFeely and a few personal friends
in the gloaming of one of those hazy June evenings while
he was watching and waiting for its surrender.

" I had," said he, •' a brigade or two of raw troops
about Cairo. They were camped in the mud around
that river town, where there was little or no chance to
drill them. Then I concluded that the more time I spent
in trying to educate these raw volunteers the more the
Confederates were improving their men. The enemy
was better situated than I, so when Fremont gave me a
chance to make a reconnoissance, I concluded to give my
troops the experience of a fight for which they were
anxious. After I loaded them on transports and went
down the river, if I had returned without a battle they
would have been not only disappointed, but irritated at
my failure to give them a chance at the Confederates.
Those troops enlisted with the expectation of a fight,
and it would have dampened their ardor very much if
they had not been gratified. Our first attack was very
successful, but the victory was too much for the men and
they fell into disorder. The enemy being reinforced, we
had hard work to return to our transports ; but the value
of that battle to those troops was very great. This sin-
gle day's experience made them better soldiers for their

154

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

next engajrement than six months of drill would have
done. Then, too, it was valuable to me. It showed that
where only raw volunteers are to meet raw volunteers
there is nothing to be gained by delay in extensive
preparations for battle."

In this conversation General Grant, while speaking
very pleasantly of McClellan, gave it as his opinion that
he had made a serious mistake in spending so much time
in organization about Washington instead of school-
ing his soldiers before the enemy. He said the
Confederates were during this time improving their
troops just as rapidly, if not more so than he was, with
the advantage of thoroughly familiar ground. To spend
months of time in drilling men when troops of only equal
training were to be met was not time profitably spent.

The battle of Belmont, although without important
results that were apparent to the casual observer, served
to fix Grant's star as a practical warrior to peo-
ple who were watching for some general who grasped
the real spirit and purpose of the revolution. Learned
generals, men thoroughly schooled in the art of war,
had failed to impress themselves upon the country, as
expe* iCnce has demonstrated, because they applied the
arbitrary science as taught in books to the ever-changing
demands of actual warfare, of which few of them had any
practical knowledge. This one took a different turn, and
rejecting in a great degree the maxims which the school-
masters teach, applied a reliable common-sense to his
plans and purposes, which an incident will illustrate :

The next day, while Grant was treating with the Con-
federates for an exchange of pri3oners, Madison C. John-
son, a distinguished lawyer of Kentucky living at
Lexington, was in the Gait House at Louisville. About
him were a number of noted Unionists who were refu-

THE BATTLE OF BELMONT

155

nave

that

tcers

nsive

iking

1 that

\ time

chool-

d the
their

s, with

spend

yT equal

pent.

portant

served

o peo-
rasped
earned

of war,

ntry, as
ied the
mnging
lad any
irn, and
school-
to his
ate :

he Con-

C. ]ohn-

Iving at

About

re refu-

gees from their homes in different parts of the State.
To them the conflict meant a great deal. They were
scanning military operations to detect some officer who
was dealing with the rebcUion as though it were a very
serious outbreak. To these gentlemen Mr. Jolmson
gave this opinion :

"That man United States Grant is going to be a big
General in this war. He is the only officer whom I have
observed who understands that these Southern people
are mad and have got to be whipped. He is going to
turn in and do it."

Mr. Johnson now writes: "General Grant was very
freely criticised for bringing on the fight at Belmont. I,
on the contrary, saw, in that battle, and in the Federal
General who fought it, a clear indication of the salvation
of the Union, and of the General who was to achieve it.
I expressed this opinion on many occasions then. There
is not a word in the remark that I did not at that early
period of the war fully believe in with a faith unshaken
to the end."

CHAPTER XI.

A CONFEDERATE VIEW OF BELMONT.

Polk and Pillow — I low they fought their troops at Belmont — The story told by a
distinguished ex-Confederaie — Grant's masterly tactics — Pushing Pillow to the
wall — Turning his own guns upon his demoralized troops — Fine artillery prac-
tice — The retreat — Saving Grant's life — Safe aboard the <ransports.

Interesting as is the recital of the Federal story of
the battle of Belmont, the Confederate is still more ab-
sorbing. The two joined will make quite a picture of
war as it was seen and appreciated at this early stage
of the conflict. There are several witnesses still livingr
who were upon the Southern side, who can give the in-
cidents of the battle as the Confederates saw it, but of
all the list none are more competent to speak than
ex-Governor Porter, of Tennessee, now Assistant-Sec-
retary of State. He was then General Cheatham's
adjutant-general, and was by his side during all the war,
sharing the military honors of his chief in all the terrific
battles in which General Cheatham's command bore a
conspicuous part, and they were many. In the prime
of life, in the very vigor of intellectual power, with a
b-ight mind, and a high position in business and politics,
he arises splendidly equipped for the service of recount-
ing his impressions of Grant's first batde.

" General Polk was in command of that country in
which lay Columbus and Belmont. He kept a regi-
ment and two tioops of cavalry at the camp on the
Missouri side headed by Colonel Tappan, of Arkansas.
Just about the time that Grant made his landing above

(156)

A CONFEDERATE VIEW OF BELMONT. 157

told by a
3W to the
llery prac-

tory of

ore ab-

ture of

ly stage

II living

; the in-

, but 01

ak than

ant-Sec-
:atham's

Ithe war,

terrific

bore a

e prinie

with a

politics,

recount-

intry in
a regi-
on the

Irkansas.

g above

Belmont, Polk sent Pillow's division across. When
the Confederate commander received notice of Grant's
approach he had General Pillow's division under arms
with orders to join General Albert Sidney Johnston at
Bowling Green, Kentucky. Instead of making this march
they were ordered to take c( steamer, cross the river and
oppose the oncoming Union force. About the time
Grant made his formation on the Missouri side, General
Pillow had made his.

" The scouts brought the information of Grant's ap-
proach, and Polk had, as he supposed, mado ample prep-
arations for his capture when he crossed Pillow's
division. He was thoroughly informed of his enemy's
movements, and had no thought but his dispositions
had b jn well and carefully made. But Pillow had
gone into position in an exposed situation upon open
ground, and without any precaution in case of an at-
tack. A piece of woods lay between him and the point
where the Federal forces landed. Pillow was an en-
thusiastic, confident officer, who paid slight attention
to the most important measures of defence. He had a
force strong enough to have enveloped Grant and taken
his whole army. He had Beltzhoover's artillery and the
support of the guns on the Columbus side, and General
Polk had no thought but that he would destroy the
small Union contingent ; but Grant directed his troops
with consummate skill. He formed them under the shel-
ter of the woods and shot down the artillery horses, killed
the gunners, made a vigorous charge, and Pillow was
driven from his position, losing his guns and prisoners.

"Grant then showed his cool judgment and keen
foresight by directing one of his guns toward the de-
struction of our steamboats, which were the sole means
of communication with Columbus, the only point from

158

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

which reinforcements could reacii the force he had de-
moralized. Pillow was practically at his mercy, and if
he could have disabled our boats he would have punished
him as he pleased, and th.en retired at his leisure. I
have heard that Grant worked th':i gun himself in this
crisis, but, whoever it was, he must have been a trained
artilleryman, for the first three shots fired went through
our steamboat from '-/cem io stern, and another came
within an ace of exploding its boiler.

" The first thincr we knew in watchinof the battle on
the other side was our demoralized men rusiiing to-
wards the river, seeking shelter under the bank, while
Grant had turned the guns he had captured upon their
former owners, and was shelling them unmercifully, as
well as giving us an occasional shot. This was Gen-
eral Polk's first warning that there was any difficulty with
Pillow. He then ordered Cheatham to cross with one
brigade to Pillow's assistance, who by this time was
clamoring for reinforcements ; but Grant's well-directed
fire upon the steamboat rendered this extremely difficult.
Cheatham at once saw that to put a regiment on the
boat would be to lose it under the fire of Grant's artil-
lery. He ordered Captain Smith, who commanded one
of his batteries, to run his pieces down opposite where
the Federals were working our captured guns, and if
possible silence them. In the meantime Cheatham said
to Polk that he would take his staff and cross, and that
as soon as Smith silenced Grant's sfuns he should send
reinforcements as rapidly as possible. Cheatham, Major
McNairy, now of New Orleans, myself, and two couriers,
jumped on board the boat, Cheatham alone getting his
horse on. He saw that our animals were fractious under
fire, and shouted :

" * Never mind the horses ; come on without them.

^ CONFEDERATE VIEW OF BELMONT. 159

There are a hundred on the other side, running over
the field, that nobody seems to want'

'• The staff climbed on, we pushed out into the river,
and crossed above whe''e Grant held possession. Cheat-
ham jumped ashore with his horse, and ordered the de-
moralized men along the river bank to fall into line.
The staff meanwhile mounted some of the loose horses.
Under the influence of a man who seemed to know what
he was about, and have confidence in himself, the men
began to form, and in a few moments we had five or
six hundred men in line. Hearing firing to our right,
Cheatham advanced them rapidly. Before this time
Smith's battery on the Kentucky side had silenced
the captured guns Grant's men were working, and the
One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee, one of Cheat-
ham's regiments, and Blythe's Mississippi regiment,
were seen crossing. Cheatham quickly directed me to
move forward with the force he had formed at the
river bank, with instructions to attack anything I could
find, saying:

" ' I want these troops that are coming on the trans-
ports, and I will be along with them before anything
can possibly happen to you.'

" I pushed out with this command, and at some little
distance struck the Federals on the flank, and it was
.bout as ugly a little field as I ever saw during all the
war. But too much time had elapsed. The enemy eluded
us and in time reached their transports. Just about the
time that Cheatham and his staff got across, Colonel
Marks, with his regiment of Louisianians, had succeeded
in making a landing below the battery, and he, too,
marched out with orders to go to the firing. The action
of Smith's artillery, Marks* appearance, and the move-
ments we were making to get across, satisfied Grant

teo

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

that reinforcements had come, and he began to with-
draw immediately. But Marks struck his right flank,
as he began to retire, and in swinging around to
get out he exposed his left flank to the small force
Cheatham had sent out with me. He was thus struck
on both flanks. Seeing fresh troops on his right and on
his left, and the transports being loaded on the Ken-
tucky side with additional troops, it became little more
than a race between him and Cheatham as to which
should reach his transports first. When Cheatham came
up with the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth Tennessee
and Blythe's regiment his instructions from Polk were
to intercept Orant and then attack the transports.

•'When within about half a mile of the boats he
came upon a double log-house standing about a hun-
dred yards from tht road. It was then occupied by
the Federals as a hospital. At the gate he found
two Union surgeons holding two fine horses, one a
black and the other a gray. Just at this moment two
officers, one with an overcoat on and the other with his
overcoat on his arm, came out of the hospital, ran to-
wards a cornfield, jumped the fence, and disappeared
among the stalks. When they first came out, twenty or
thirty men of the One Hundred and Fifty-fourth " jn-
nessee, who were in front, cocked their guns to fire at
the fugitives running through the cornfield. Cheatham
ordered them not to open on stragglers, as his orders
were to attack the boats. The next day he met Col-
onel Hatch under a flag of truce when each party was
burying the dead. Colonel Hatch was at that time Gen-
eral Grant's quartermaster. He asked General Cheat-
ham if yesterday, when he was talking to the surgeons
at the gate in front of the hospital, he recollected see-
ing two men run out, one with his overcoat on and

A CONFEDERATE VIEW OF BELMONT. 161

with-
iiank,
nd to
. force
struck
and on
I Ken-
i more
I which
m came
messee
Ik were
s.
jats he

a hun-
ipied by
e found

the other with his overcoat on his arm. The General
replied that he did, and that one of his companies
drew their guns upon them. Colonel Hatch then told
General Cheatham that the two men who ran out were
General Grant and himself.

'• Three days afterwards, General Cheatham and Gen-
eral Grant met on a steamboat under a flag of truce for
the exchange of prisoners. General Cheatham asked
General Grant if what Colonel Hatch had told him in
recard to his beinsr one of the officers who ran out of
the hospital was true. General Grant replied that it
was. General Cheatham has ever held the opinion that
the two splendid horses the surgeons were holding be-
longed to General Grant and Colonel Hatch, and that
they had left them in their rapid flight. The g'*ay horse
fell to my lot, and I rode him until he was disabled at
Shiloh. Of course this incident was only of a moment's
duration, but undoubtedly Grant was saved from cap-
ture or his life was spared owing to our ignorance of
who he was.

"We pressed on towards the steamboats to find our-
selves unable to do very much injury after we arrived.
Grant was the last man to get aboard of the boats, and
as they steamed out into the stream our troops gave
them a few parting shots, and our part of the batde of
Belmont was over. The losses on either side were not
very great, but the moral effect to the Union troops and
to the General who commanded them was exceedingly
important. While a good many of our people pro-
claimed it a victory, because we had driven them off,
all thoughtful men on our side looked at it very much as
General Vaughan,one ofour brigadiers, did, when he said:

" * If this is a victory, I don't want to be in any more
fights where we whip them this way.'
L

162

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" Major Bob Caldwell, of the Tenth Tennessee infantry,
one of the most gallant of our soldiers, who was a mem-
ber of Congress in 1871-72, in describing the action of
his regiment, commanded by Colonel Russell, and a part
of Pillow's division, at Belmont, without intending to
accord any especial credit to General Grant, said to a
party of us the day after the battle :

" • We were ordered to advance and drive the enemy
from his advantageous position, so we charged up about
forty yards, and in a second we charged back again /'

•• The emphasis is all his own and was a true account
of the batde. I have always felt that a history of Bel-
mont was incomplete without Bob Caldwell's account of
the charge of the splendid regiment of which he was the
major.

" Last fall I related this incident to General Grant at
the meeting of the Peabody trustees. He said it was
one of the best things he had heard, and was an apt
illustration of the disposition common on both sides in
the early days of the war never to admit failure or defeat.

"In the battle of Belmont Grant handled his forces
with exceptional ability, and showed himself possessed
of courage, coolness, and plenty of soldierly resources.
There was no possible excuse for his escape, and the fact
that he came down there with his raw troops, defeated
a superior force, destroyed their camp, and retired with
the bulk of his command, set the standard of his cam-
paign upon a broad plane, and was of very great value
to him in the confidence that it gave him in himself and
in his troops in their first batde."

CHAPTER XII.

FROM CAIRO TO FORT HENRY.

Grant's district enlarged — Restive under Halleclt's opposition to an advance —
General Smith's expedition to Mayfield — Suffering of tiie new troops — The rebel
fortresses on the Tennessee and Cumberland — " Two guns" enough to take Fort
Henry — Halleck's assent to attack it oi)tained — The army on transports — Com-
modore Foote's gunboats — The attack and the surrender — Grant moving on Fort
Donelson.

The field of operations in the West now grew wider
and wider ea.ch day. New resources were demanded
and extra efforts required of all District Commanders in
looking after the new points from which the war con-
stantly blazed afresh.

Two days after the battle of Belmont, Major-General
Halleck succeeded General Fremont in command of the
Department of Missouri, which included Arkansas and
the State of Kentucky west of the Cumberland river.

Two men more directly opposite than Grant and
Halleck it would have been difficult to find. The first
restive under delay and opposition when advance was
possible and success probable ; the other hesitating,
doubting and vacillating in his military purposes.

Although second in rank among the major-generals
of the day, Halleck had been a lawyer on the Pacific
coast. He had received a thorough military education,
and in the art of defence was doubtless a valuable
soldier, but, in the rough-and-tumble demands of actual
conflict which our civil war required, he cut a sorry
figure.

He confirmed Grant in his command, enlarged it and

(168) .

164

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

called it the district of Cairo, but he kept its com-
mander, who was anxious to make movements against
the important points garrisoned by the enemy, in a
strictly defensive position for nearly two months, during
which time the Confederates were strengthening their
well-established line from Columbus on the Mississippi
to the Big Barren in central Kentucky.

The natural arteries of all the disputed territory
north of the cotton States were the Tennessee and
Cumberland rivers, and at a point where only twelve
miles of land divides the two, Fort Henry was erected,
on the Tennessee, and Fort Donelson on the Cumber-
land. These fortifications commanded the navigation
of these two streams and protected the railroad system
behind them, so vital to the movement of the enemy's
troops and supplies. Upon these important points Grant
was anxious to move, but he was held to organizing his
troops until the 6th of January, 1862, when, by McClel-
lan's direction, Halleck instructed him to send a force to
Mayfield and Murray in western Kentucky. "To pre-
vent reinforcements being sent to Buckner at Bowling
Green."

On the loth he changed his mind and telegraphed
Grant to delay the movement, but the more active com-
mander had already started the expedition, and it was
not recalled.

Two brigades under C. F. Smith, from Paducah,
as well as the 6,000 men under McClernand, which
composed the expedition, suffered frightfully from
the cold, and the only result of the movement was
to aid some operations of General Buell, in the
Department of the Cumberland, and give General
Smith the opinion that "two guns" would make short
work of Fort Henry. This judgment he communicated

FROM CAIRO TO FORT HENRY.

165

\inst
in a
irlng
their
isippi

ritory
2 and
;welve
-ected,
imber-
igation
system
nemy's
5 Grant
zing his
McClel-
force to
To pre-
;o\vhng

rraphed

Ive coni-

it was

*aducah,
•which
|ly from
lent was
in the
General
Ike short
lunicated

to General Grant, who forwarded it immediately to
Halleck and then started to St. Louis in person, to
obtain permission to move on Henry and Donelson
at once.

When he made the proposition Halleck rejected it so
petulantly as to impress him with the idea that his im-
mediate chief had regarded him as having been guilty
of a grave offence or ot suggesting a serious military
blunder.

Neither Halleck, nor any of those above him directing
military movements, ever suggested to Grant the possi-
bility of taking Forts Henry and Donelson before this
time. General C. F. Smith, who, by the way, had been
Commandant at West Point when Grant was a cadet,
had made the suggestion to him, which he had promptly
forwarded to Halleck.

The importance of the Confederate movements taking
place in Grant's district at this time so impressed him,
that, notwithstanding Halleck's rebuff, on the 28th of
January he telegraphed to that officer, " With permis-
sion I will take and hold Fort Henry, on the Tennessee,
and ei iablish and hold a large camp there."

The next day he wrote to his immediate superior the
reasons for the movement, and the advantages to be
gained by securing a foothold on the Tennessee. The
same day that Grant sent his telegram Commodore A.
H. Foote, commanding the naval forces in his depart-
ment at this time, also made the suggestion to Halleck
that Grant and himself should " have your authority to
move when necessary."

On the 30th General Halleck granted the desired
permission and issued instructions for the movement.
Seventeen thousand men were put on board transports,
and flag officer F'oote led the way with seven gunboats.

166

LIFE OF GFNERAl GRANT.

On the 4th of February General Grant landed his
forces at Bailey's Ferry, on the east bank of the Ten-
nessee, three miles below Fort Henry, and began prepa-
rations for the assault.

The weather was bad and the river so swollen as to
overflow the surrounding country. It was eleven o'clock
on the 5th before he got his troops all landed, and eleven
o'clock on the 6th before the march began. The gun-
boats moved at the same hour and before noon attacked
the works, the '* Cincinnati," Foote's flag-ship, opening
the battle.

An hour and a half later the fort surrendered, while
Grant with his land force was still marching toward
the enemy's works. General Tilghman with his staff
and sixty men had been captured, but the bulk of the
enemy's force had retreated toward Done! son. Grant
ordered his cavalry to pursue, but they could not over-
take th 1. The muddy roads, the swollen streams, and
other impediments had detained him so that the fort he
had been so anxious to capture had surrendered to
Foote, and he telegraphed to Halleck, " Fort Henry is
ours; the gunboats silenced the batteries before the
investment was completed. I shall take and destroy
Fort Donelson on the 8th."

This was the first information that Halleck had, since
this movement began, of Grant's intention to capture
the stronger fort on the Cumberland.

While the naval forces were being congratulated by
Halleck upon their brilliant achievement, Grant was
pushing his plans for the investment of Fort Donelson.

Flag-officer Foote, in his engagement with the heavy
guns of Henry, had demonstrated the value of " the
turde ironclads" for service on the Western rivers.
To be sure, the " Essex " of his fleet had been badly

FROM CAIRO TO FORT HFNRY,

16<

I his
Ten-
repa-

as to

clock

leven

I gun-

acked

)ening

, while

toward

s staff
of the
Grant

it over-

ms, and
fort he
red to
enry is
ire the
destroy

Id, since
[capture

ited by

Int was

)nelson.

heavy
lof " the

rivers,
m badly

damaged by the shot of the heavy artillery, and he had
lost twenty-nine men killed and wounded, but he had
done .1 signal service both in results and portend for the
future. General Adam Badeau, in his work on Grant,
pays this fitting tribute to the services rendered by the
Western flotilla from Fort Henry on :

'• In all the operations at the West, during the first
two years of the war, the naval forces bore a conspicu-
ous part. A new species of gunboat was improvised
for inland navigation, out of the river steamers in use
before the civil war, and whose occupation had of course
been interrupted by the breaking out of hostilities. Many
of these steamers were sheathed wit. iron, which rendered
them in a degree impervious to the heaviest Confed-
erate artillery. Other vessels, built especially for this ser-
vice, were speedily added to the Western fleet, all of them
of the lightest possible draught, as the rise and fall in all
the Western rivers frequently leaves only a few feet of
water in the channels. Thus strangely constructed, and
armored as completely as a knight of the middle ages,
manned in general by inland crews, who skilfully piloted
them through the shallow but familiar streams, and com-
manded by officers of the national navy, these irregular
flotillas were of great importance. They convoyed
transports carrying troops and stores ; they drove out
guerillas from the river banks and made the landin*^ of
forces practicable ; they covered many important move-
ments of troops on shore, which otherwise would have
been impossible ; they steamed up rivers and penetrated
regions that fancied themselves secure against invasion ;
they shared direct assaults on fortified places, and some-
times secured a victory that could not have been won
without their aid. The novelty of their appearance
added to the terror they inspired, and these iron-clad

168

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

monsters, rushing rapidly along the interior, and sweep-
ing the level shore for miles with their heavy guns, were
for a long while more dreaded by the Confederates
even than their achievements warranted."

The loss of Fort I lenry was a serious blow to the Con-
federates, although its site was badly chosen, and in
many respects it was not a fortification with which any
valuable engineer officer might be satisfied. It was, how-
ever, an important link in a chain of occupation that was
of great value, if held. Yet more than three thousand men
left it without making a stand, and the history of war
does not record the surrender of a fortified position
after so brief a resistance as that which preceded the
fall of Fort Henry. Yet Halleck kept on insisting that
Grant should sit down there, making it his base for future
operations, and instructed him to strengthen it with the
picks and shovels he would send him and the negroes
he expected him to impress.

Its surrender caused Buckner to quit Bowling Green,
where he had been since September, 1861, and to fall
back to Fort Donelson, endangering the safety of Nash-
ville and giving Grant the chance to strike the force at
Fort Donel^:>on on the flank.

'cep-
wcre
rates

Con-
nd in
:h any
;, how-
atwas
id men
of war
osition
led the
ng that
r future
bvith the
negroes

Green,
to fall
>f Nash-
Iforce at

CHAPTER XIII.

THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.

Fort Donclson — Its |>o8ition on tlie Cuml)erlan(l — The vital point of the Confed-
erate line — Picks and shovels — Ilallcck to Clranl — The march anfl fight — Suffer*
ing and cntlurancc of the troops — Grant on duty — P'ears a superior force — P'oote'i
(gallant fight — The attack on McClcrnand — Floyd and Pillow make a sally —
Grant's coolness on the field — Turning defeat into victory — General C. F. Smith's
splendid charge — The surrender.

The country was impatient for a victory. Fort Henry
had not satisfied the eager anticipations of the loyal
North. The army in the East had been dallying with
the enemy, and the half political and half social atmos-
phere which surrounded the movement of troops, espe-
cially in the East, was disappointing, even disheartening.
In the West the armies had been idle. Nowhere along
the theatre of conflict was there anything like satisfac-
tory activity, to say nothing of results. The capture of
Henry was a ray of hope. To be sure, it brushed
aside the obstructions on the Cumberland and gave the
Union forces a foothold in the interior of that region
that it was important to control. But the enemy had
not made a stand, and the clash of arms had not been
loud enough to rivet the attention of the country upon
the operations there in progress. So, important as it
was, as a link in a chain broken without a fight, it was
not significant enough, to the ordinary observer, to cause
general rejoicing. But the capture of Henry was the
second step taken by a great soldier in a great cam-
paign, and he moved on without delay to a triumph that

(169)

170

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

N III

was to Stir to the very depths the Northern pulse and
firmly establish his character as a practical soldier.

On the west bank of the Cumberland, just north of
Dover, a typical Southern village, stood Fort Donelson,
one of the most formidable works of defence erected
during the war. Its natural advantages were incompar-
able, and the most had been made of them as a barrier
to the navigation of the Cumberland and the defence
of that line behind which lay Nashville.

A series of steep hills, intercepted by dec p gorges
and rocky ravines, rose at the point where the fort
stood. The country was densely wooded, and cut up
in every direction by concealed gullies and unex-
pected obstacles to military approach. Two streams,
flowing into the Cumberland, which was daily rising
higher, formed the right and left defences of the strongly
intrenched position, three miles in length. Secondary
lines and detached works within commanded the outer
intrenchments and covered the town of Dover. Light
batteries were posted on commanding heights, as well
as along the advanced line. Giant trees had been
felled in front of the breastworks, and smaller ones
so chopped that they remained still rooted in the
ground, their bayonet-like limbs forming a seemingly
impassable abatis. Brisding above the surrounding
heights rose the main fort, from which an unobstructed
view could be had of the river and adjacent country.
No approach could be made undiscovered. Fifteen
heavy guns and two carronades defended its extent
of a hundred acres. Water batteries, sunken on the
sides of the hills looking towards the Cumberland, con-
trolled the river navigation. The fort was garrisoned
by about 21,000 men, and commanded, successively, by
Generals Pillow, Floyd and Buckner. Towards this

THE CAPTURE OE EORT DO NELSON.

171

and

Kof

Ison,

icted

ipar-

rricr

fence

- ifort
ut up
unex-
■eams,
rising
rongly
Dndary
outer
Light

stronghold Grant's conquering spirit strained, and he
carefully laid his plans for its capture.

Hallcck had no congratulatory messages to waste
upon Grant. His communication, after the fall of Fort
Henry, was addressed to Foote, to whom he said:

" I have this moment received the official report of
your capture of Fort Henry, and hasten to congratulate
you and your command for your brilliant success."

'^^:

'? , V '>,•••■: "VST

-.:^^-

/>AV'

'»ws«S.

^'^W'^rT

' ^ P'V / ','

'M«>«J .s

'iV

-^c"^

A vip:w of the country, showing fort ijonelson in the distance.

Grant's despatch announcing his intention to move
upon and " destroy " Fort Donelson was as coolly inde-
pcmdent and as individual as was Halleck's non-recogni-
tion of his (Grant's) services. It was, indeed, the first
iiKMition of Donelson between the two commanders, and
eiicitc^d no response. In other words, he ignored Grant's
tletermination, and telegraphed orders simply for de-
fence. He said :

172

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" If possible, destroy the bridges at Clarksvillc. Shovels
and picks will be sent you to strengthen Fort Henry.
The guns should be transferred so as to resist an attack
by land. The redan on the south bank should be
arranged for the same object. Some of the gunboats
from Fort Holt will be sent up. Reinforcements will
reach you daily. Hold on to Fort Henry at all hazards.
Impress slaves, if necessary, to strengthen your position
as rapidly as possible."

Grant waited neither for picks nor shovels, nor for
reinforcements. On the contrary, he did all in his power
to hasten the return of the gunboats, which had gone
up the Tennessee, and chafed at their delay. He pressed
upon Foote any steamers that might be at Cairo, and
offered, should he be deficient in men, to detach artillery
to serve on the gunboats. Fort Donelson was being
strengthened hour by hour, and Grant felt that delay
would only serve to render an assault more difficult.
Halieck's order to stop by the way, to oversee picks
and ;:hovels, which then seemed like boy's play to tlie
man whose blood had not cooled since tlie quick con-
quest of Fort Henry, now seems grimly funny. The
more serious task before him only served to heighten
his desire to undertake it, and he merely waited for the
return of the gunboats ; but it was several days before
they came.

Foote's fleet moved by the Ohio and Cumberland on
the nth, followed by transports carrying six regiments.
They were to effect a landing below T'ort Donelson, to
establish a base of supplies, and co-operate with the
force to be moved across by land.

The same day McClernand drew out his troops,
15.000 strong, from Fort Henry, with eight light Ixit-
teries accompanying. All the regiments marched with*

THE CAPTURE OF FORT DO NELSON.

out tents or baggage, for the roads were almost impas-
sable, the streams swollen, and the country under
water. The men carried forty roi'.nds of ammunition in
tlieir cartridge boxes and three days* rations in their
haversacks.

The foremost brigade moved directly forward and
waited for orders within two miles of Fort Donelson.
The main body of troops, marching by the Dover road,
the highway between the two forts, came to a halt at the
sr:ne distance, forming on the first brigade. South of

GRANTS HEAD-QUARTERS NEAR FORT DONELSON.

Donelson a force was placed to cut off retreat. By
noon Grant's army stood in full view of the Confederate
lines. The true strength of the enemy had not been
ascertained, and Grant's orders were to be given •' on
the field."

All was ready for action. Fort Donelson loomed up
panoplied for assault and defence. The Confederates
rightly estimated its value, and were bent upon holding
it. The Union troops, with Grant cool and determined
at their head, were as sure of their ability to take it.

At mid-day of the 12th Grant's advance had driven

174

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

in the enemy's pickets. The National line moved for-
ward by degrees, meeting with little opposition, until the
fortifications were invested.

The nature of the ground over which the troops ad-
vanced offered constant obstacles. It was much cut up,
and a dense growth of scrub-oak hindered the arch at
every step. The Union transports and gun-boats could
be communicated with by way of a creek, upon which
the left wing of the army rested. At this point C. H.
Smith took command, McClernand being on the right
of the National line. Grant's head-quarters were situ-
ated in a negro hut, in the rear of Smith's division.

Although all was now in readiness for the assault,
owing to the non-arrival of the gun-boats no general
movement was made, although several brisk skir-
mishes took place where attemps were made to ascer-
tain the strength of the intrenched enemy.

The Confederates remained strangely quiet during all
of Grant's preparations. Not an effort was made to
molest him, and by the 13th the Union forces occupied
a line three miles in extent, from which, if no immediate
advantage was gained, decided results were subse-
quently achieved.

The weather had turned suddenly cold, and on the
evening of the 13th a fierce rain and hail-storm set in.
The troops were drawn up in line of battle, within range
of the enemy's guns, their arms in their half-frozen
hands. Few had blankets, there was a lack of rations,
and, being unused to field hardships, many suffered in-
tensely. Indeed, some were frozen to death where they
stood. The pickets kept up an incessant firing, and the
cries and groans of the wounded mingled with the rush-
ing storm. In the gray of the morning Commodore
Foote appeared coming up the river with his fleet, and

THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.

175

d for-
til the

ps ad-
:ut up,
irch at
3 could
which
tC. H.
e right
re situ-

on.

assault,

general
sk skir-
to ascer-

uring all
made to
occupied
mediate
subse-

on the
m set in.
lin range
alf-frozcn
f rations,
ffered in-
here they

;, and the

the rush-
|mmodore

iBeet, and

the reinforcements from Fort Henry were landed, their
advance having arrived a short time before. These
were at once placed in line, Brigadier-General Lew
Wallace taking command. Grant gave him, with ad-
ditional force, *-he centre of the line.

No despatches having been received from Halleck
except orders to go on strengthening Fort Henry,
Grant sent a despatch to his chief dated: "In the field
near Fort Donelson." This was in regard to a lack of
ammunidon, and was responded to by General Cullum
from Cairo. Halleck remained mute. All day the
Confederates continued to drop shot and shell within
the Union lines, but few casualties occurred.

By three o'clock in the afternoon the six gun-boats
(four being iron-clads) attacked the fort. They ran up
within a distance of 400 yards, a storm of heavy mis-
siles pouring down upon them from the Confederate
batteries, mounted at an elevation of thirty feet above
them. One vessel was perforated with fifty-nine shots.
For miles the hail of iron could be heard as it struck
incessandy against the metal armor of the vessels — a
novel sound in warfare that added to the noisv horrors
of the conflict. One iron-clad after another succumbed to
the torrent of shot and shell, and drifted helplessly down
the river. The entire fleet was soon disabled beyond
usefulness, and Foote was obliged to withdraw from the
engagement, not, however, until he was wounded and
his fleet had done some excellent service on the water
batteries. Owing to this misfortune Grant changed his
plan of assault on the land side and remained in his
lines.

Intense suffering among the troops followed. The
Rtorm grew fiercer and the cold increased every moment.
The night of the 14th was one never to be forgotten by

176

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the raw troops, many of whom were getting their first
experience of the hardships of war. Grant, ever mind-
ful of his men, sp nt a wakeful night, sharing with
them a great deal of thf^ time the discomforts of bivouac
on the frozen ground in the storm. Whether or not he
expected to capture the Confederate stronghold on the
morrow is easy to conjecture from what followed. After
looking carefully over the situation he stopped, and on
a small bit of paper which he drew from his pocket
wrote, by the dim light of a smouldering camp fire al-
most died out, the order to Colonel PJarkland here pro-
duced in facsimile. With all the pressing demands
upon him and the terrible discomforts of the hour he
did not forget that his soldiers would be cheered by re-
ceiving from home the missives from those behind them,
who were watching with bated breath and deepening anx-
iety the result of the important movement on Donelson.

Commodore Foote, who was wounded and unable to
leave his vessel, sent for Grant, to hold a conference as
to his movements. The condition of his fleet called for
a return to Cairo for repairs.

As this determination was being reached the Confed-
erates were holding a council of war at Floyd's head-
quarters. Its conclusions led to their defeat and entirely
changed Grant's tactics. All of Floyd's subordinates
agreed to his plan of attack, which was to throw fully
half his army under Pillow and Johnson, together with
F( rrest's cavalry, upon Grant's right wing under McCler-
nand, while Buckner was to attack Wallace in the centre.
This flank and centre attack was a bold plan, for, if suc-
cessful, it would bring the whole force around Smith as
a pivot, where its defeat would be only a question of
time.

Grant's reinforcements, meantime, were rapidly coming

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(177)

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

in, and by the night of the 14th his force amounted to
22,000 men — sufficient, in his judgment, to warrant an
assault in the morning, and, as the result showed, ample
to meet the new movements decided upon in the Con-
federate council of war.

In the gray of the morning Pillow and Johnson, with
10,000 men and thirty guns, issued from behind their
intrenchments and fiercely attacked the right of Grant's
army. The new troops, under McArthur, received the
first shock, fought furiously, but were finally obliged to
retire, having lost heavily. For a time it seemed as
though the Confederate assault would be completely
successful, for some of the troops became demoralized
with the force of the onslaught and the effect il had
upon those who first received it. A portion of McCltT-
nand's division made a desperate effort to withstand the
shock and hold on until Wallace could come to their
support. But, as regiment after regiment was thrown
into confusion, it seemed as though that portion of the
line would be destroyed, and to add to the peril of the
situadon they were getting out of ammunition. The
enemy had succeeded in taking a battery from them.
Wallace's men, who had come to the rescue, endeavored
valiantly to retake the guns. They fought for hours,
and succeeded at length in checking tiie Confederate
advance. But the enemy were slowly and surely ac-
complishing their purpose to turn Grant's right wing,
and so open the way for their army, relieving themselves
from investment.

As the Confederates dealt blow after blow at Grant's
right flank the troops, who had been in a measure taken
by surprise by the unexpected assault of the enemy, were
almost thrown into confusion, and but for the coolness
of the brisrade commanders and some of the colonels

THE CAPTURE OF FORT DO NELSON.

179

d to
t an

Con-

, with

their
rant's
ed the
Ted to
tied as
ipleteiy
)ra\i/-ed

it \iad
vlcCltM-
and the

to ti^eir
thrown

n of the

a of the

n. The

im them.

lleavored
r hours,
federate
irely ac-
ht wing,
lemselves

It Grant's
lire taken
^my, were
coolness
colonels

of regiments tliere might have been a panic. Colonel
John A. Logan, then commanding the Thirty-first Illinois,
greatly distinguished himself in this crisis, and built
largely upon the foundation of his military prestige that
he laid at Belmont.

At the very height of the disorder, when the whole
right flank of the army seemed broken in pieces, he not
only helped to restore confidence among those who had
lost their heads, but by his inspiring valor practically
stayed the tide o\ defeat. Under a terrific fire he changed
the front of his regiment, with Colonel Ransom support-
ini^. and riding up ami ilown the lin^s amidst a hail of shot
and shv U gave the troops his couficS^mce by pointing to
the tlotMUg n\on and gi^ing v<'int to that famous expres-
sion which has passed into historv and verse : *' Death, but
dishvuior never!" Mis men caught his spirit and held
the enemy until new dispositions could be made.

The Confederate attack had been so vigorous, how-
ever, as to force the extreme riijht to fall l)ack and form
a new line. They faih-d to push their advantage impetu-
ously, and some Federal reinforcements came up before
they charged again. The enemy were checked but not
driven back when Buckner's force swarmed over the
rille-pits and rushed to the attack farther down the liae.
Altliough he handled his troops well they did not seem
to come up to the needs of the occasion, and, after a Ivtld
attempt to accomplish his part of the plan, Buckner was
forced to retire to his trenches.

At this time Forrest w.as threatening Grant's rear with
his cavalry, and the Union forces seemed beset on eveiy
side. The men were V>ecoming tired and disheartened.
Their ammunition had run out, and to increase the con-
fusion and crowd of stragglers a mounted officer rod-e
about shouting at the top of his voice : " We are cut to

180

LIFE OF G/uVFR.tL GRANT.

pieces." At this juncture Lo^an and other valuable
officers were wounded. Wallace, however, held his
ground firmly and formed a new line behind which
those who had borne the brunt of the fight reformed
and were supplied with ammunition. Meanwhile the
Confederates had been delayed in plundering McCler-
nand's camp, and Pillow had telegraphed to Nashville :
••On the honor of a soldier the day is ours." When he
started to attack the new line he did so very vigorously
but was repulsed, and the day not theirs.

Grant on the gunboat, whither he had gone to confer
with Commodore Foote, unaware of the extent of the
Confederate assault, was informed of the battle now at
its crisis. Galloping straight into the field, at a point
where the hardest fighting was in progress, he paused
to take in the situation. Then, with the fertile mind
of concentration and perception, he rapidly formed his
plan.

He saw that the Confederates were doggedly retiring
without pursuit; but the Union army was an inexperi-
enced one, and after long nights of suffering and
deprivation, and days of hard fighting, was much dis-
ordered. Ammunition had given out, hundreds had
fallen, and all sorts of exaggerated reports were bandied
about among the raw recruits.

•• The Confederates had knapsacks and haversacks.
Their intention was to stay out for many days fighting,"
said rumor.

"Are the haversacks filled?" inquired Grant.

Upon examination they were found to contain three
days' rations.

"Then," said the commander, "they mean to cut their
way out; they have no idea of staying here to fight us."

Looking over his disordered men, he added; "Which-

THE CAPTURE OF FORT DO NELSON.

181

uablc
d bis
which
)rnie(\
le the
cCler-
hvlUc :
hen he
Drously

, confer

of the

now at
a point
: paused
ile mind
rmed his

retiring
inexperi-
T and
uch dis-
eds had
bandied

versacks.
fighting,"

tarn

three

cut their

fight us.'*

I- "Which-

ever force first attacks now will whip, and the Con-
federates will have to be very quick if they beat us."

Puttinji^ spurs to his horse Grant rode rapidly towards
the left. I lis cool, deternuned countenance, his unflinch-
ing bearing was an inspiration to his men as he dashed
among them. He declared to the uncertain troops on
every side that the Confederates were in a desperate
condition, and were trying to cut tlutir way out. With
this assurance the courage ol the entire army rose.
Demoralized as they had been, scattered all over the
field, they instant'/ reformed and pressed forward to the
front. At Grant's earn t request a couple of gunboats
ran up the river, and threw a few shells to encourage
the troops.

The plan promptly adopted by General Grant in this
crisis will bear tli'* test of the severest military criticism.
Cieneral Wallace, who had first checked the assault of
the mominir, was now ordered to advance and retake the
lost ground, while General C. F. Smith on the left was to
storm the enemy's works in his front. In other words
Smith's comparatively fresh men were to attack the
enemy at the point where they had been most weak-
ened to reinforce the stroke against McClernand.

This assault was made under the eye and inspiring
presence of the commanding general. Smith's assault-
ing column was formed, and this splendid officer took
his position to lead the charge. Scrambling through
the dense, tangled underbrush, which impeded every
step of the way, the men fell upon the enemy and the
enemy's line was carried at the point of the bayonet.
Few charges made in the late war were better planned
or more valiandy executed than the magnificent assault
Smith made upon the Confederates that afternoon.
A terrific fire was steadily poured upon the assaulting

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THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.

183

column, as they charged up a steep hill, but as men fell
others sprang into place over their bodies, forcing their
way inside the intrenchments. Attacks meanwhile
were vigorously made by Wallace and McCIernand on
the front. They drove the enemy back into the works,
and recovered the guns taken from them earlier in the
day. The battle raged until night- fall. A half hour
more of daylight would have sufficed to carry the fort.
All rested on their arms on the frozen ground that night,
and were impatient for the first dawn of light, which
they were assured would bring success to their arms.

Day broke. It was intensely cold. Grant hastened
his preparations to storm the Confederate intrench-
ments. The troops pushed forward eagerly, when sud-
denly from the earthwork a white flag appeared. The
stronghold was ready to surrender.

The bearer of the truce brought the proposition from
Buckner for an " armistice till 1 2 o'clock, and the appoint-
ment of commissioners to settle terms of capitulation."
Floyd and Pillow had deserted him during the night,
taking off a part of their force, and there was nothing
else to do but to propose the surrender. Few ex-
amples of such perfidy and cowardice can be found in
war as the desertion of General Buckner s two superior
officers during the siege of Donelson.

This ringing response, which Grant returned to Buck-
ner, set the country aflame. It was the first really ener-
getic war-note that had been heard. It had as broad a
significance to the Union cause as to the Confederates.
Within a week it had been caught up on every tongue.
It became the inspiration of the camp as well as of the
nation. The enthusiasm by it evoked found fit expres-
sion in thousands of volunteers who hurried to the front.
The reply is here reproduced \n facsimile.

fTJ

W
Pi

c/i

(184)

is d

it w,

thei

assii

is thi

Grai

court

mane

consi(

pose

THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSON.

185

"Ungenerous and unchlvalrous," General Biickner
characterized these terms in the communication in
which he declared his readiness to surrender at dis-
cretion. General Grant seems to have attached some
force to these words of bitter chagrin, for, mounting his
horse, he rode rapidly to the place appointed for meet-
ing the Confederate commander, and assured him that
the officers would be permitted to retain their side-arms
and personal baggage, and that the conquered forces
would be treated with all the respect due them as
prisoners of war.

This courtesy was doubtless made broader from the
fact of the early associations of the two men. They
were cadets at West Point together and personal friends.
I think that Buckner belonged to the T. I. O. Society
at the military academy, of which Grant, Quinby,
Incfalls, and others were in the magfic circle of twelve
In one, as Indicated by the T. I. O. This was a singu-
lar little gathering of soldier boys, and there was a
special bond that bound them to each other. Each one
wore a ring bearing the mystic letters, and before they
parted at West Point each one pledged himself never to
part with this emblem of their regard for each other until
tliey were married; then it was to go to their wives. " It
is doubtful whether any of us kept the compact unless
it was Grant," said Quinby, in speaking of this phase of
their cadet life. But whether or not I am right in the
assumption that Buckner was one of the tw^elve, true it
is that their relations had been close at West Point, and
Grant evidently desired to show his old classmate all the
courtesy that he could consistent with the harsh de-
mands of war. Buckner evidently hoped to get some
consideration from his old classmate, but Grant's " I pro-
pose to move immediately upon your works," soon de-

186

LIl'E OF GENERAL GRANT.

stroyed any faith he might have had in the Freemasonry
of the mihtary school.

This meeting between the two officers whom the for-
tunes of war had thrown on opposite sides was very
friendly. They talked over old army matters after ar-
rantxinof the details of the surrender, and then break-
fasted together ; and, although Buckner had first regarded
Grant's terms as severe, they parted that morning with
a mutual good feeling that only ceased when the suc-
cessful general died. Buckner even when on the trans-
port with his captured men to go to his imprisonment in
the North requested Grant's presence aboard the boat,
and to all his troops spoke feelingly of his old class-
mate's magnanimity, and expressed the wish if the
fortunes of war ever threw prisoners in their hands they
would follow his generous example. Sixty-five guns,
seventeen thousand six hundred small arms, and nearly
fifteen thousand troops fell into the hands of the victors.
No account of the Confederate loss other than in captures
can be given. Grant estimated that no less than twenty-
five hundred Confederates were killed and wounded
durinor the battles.

Reinforcements had swelled Grant's forces to t'venty-
seven thousand on the morning of the surrender. He,
however, had fewer pieces of artillery than he captured.
His losses during the siege footed up two thousand and
forty-one in killed, wounded, and missing.

In the beginning of the siege he had a smaller force
than the enemy whom he had assaulted in an intrenched
position, and during his conversation with General
Buckner this fact was considered, Buckner remarking :
" If I had been in command you would not have reached
Fort Donelson so easily." Grant replied that he felt
assured that Pillow would not come out of his breast-

re,nforcemen.s had all come "p h"''^^"' ""''^ his
of Pillow was correct as ,nK ''^^" Judgment

"The Union fla/fl^ tXTn"'^ femonst^rated
opening sentence of the H.! \, ^"""^'^on " was the
Hallecks chlef-of.stafi:t GerfM 0^^^ ^^' ^""->
mander-in-chlefof the Union '^'^^lellan, then com-

of tl,e soldier who Tad Zn TT\ '"" -'^ "-ntlon
'" the last sentence of X sal '^ °''^ "'' -^""talned
"°vv firing a national salute from F ''''^''- " ^^'= «-«
Grant's late post, in honor of^, ' ^^''™' General
"^ent." The new , flashed ,h T ^'""""^ ^^'>-ve-
toxicated the loya m Ihot T"^'? *" '^"''' ^-ly 1„-
despairlng under' Lrnisll:':; ''^^ become almost
--•es, and all eyes wire turne 7^'' "^ "'" ^^^"^'•"
who alone seemed to pos es, 1 "' ''"'"' ^"-^
™pted success. Grant's nal. "'"" °'' ""''"ter-

ever his fellow-comm^derrnLreT^"^ ''>• "-"
and achievements, the voice oSuhP ''' '"'^ ^^""''-^
spoken in designating him as th " >°P'"'°" ^^'^ °«-
successes. " "" ^^ ^^ author of inspiriting

General Halleck h,A
-■"o--- On the contrary "LTI'^'^'Y"'"' '°^ the
he stronghold, he teleg^E to W f'' ""= '"^" ^^ '
by h.s coolness and bravery 1'° ^^l^T°"' " S-^'-'h,
"s, turned the tide and carrilil ''""' '^^^ ^.?ainst
Make him a major-generar S, 'i"'^'"^'^ '^"'^"^ks.
Honor him for his%ictorv an^ .K^" l^" ^ '^«'-'-°"e.
applaud." The Presid n7'a„d si '^'"'^ ^"""""y -"
;ver, won the applause J l'"'"'"^^ "^ ^^ar, how- .
^^-nt for promotion Z l^LTT ^^ "°""'"^f"?
tory reached Washincto^ V^^' "'^ "^*« of his vie!
- ^ehrua, as MaJortcelra?ofToESs".:e^-^t

i >.

188

Z/FH: OF GENERAL GRANT.

i^::

morning that Halleck's despatch, above referred to, was
received. Grant did not forget his old commander of
cadet days, but immediately recommended him for pro-
motion to the grade of major-general, and gave him un-
limited credit for the brilliant part he had taken in
winning the victory.

The victory at Donelson was a most important one.
In the whole range of warlike operations which followed
it, none surpassed it in purely military value. Besides
giving fresh heart to the Northern people, it broke the
long Confederate line in the middle, which turned both

ISLAND No. lO.

ends, and opened up a wide stretch of country to national
occupation. The Tennessee and Cumberland were now
free for the Federal advance. With the fall of Donel-
son, Nashville fell, and the Southern people were dazed
as well as alarmed at the onward progress of Grant's
command. The capital of Tennessee was a most im-
portant point, and its loss was a serious blow to the
Confederacy. Columbus on the Mississippi also became
untenable, and soon afterward was evacuated. The gar-
rison from the evacuated fort dropped down the river
and began the erection of new works at Island No. lo.
Grant's first victory, therefore, opened the Mississlnpi to

THE CAPTURE OF FORT DONELSOISr.

18«

the Arkansas line as well as the two smaller waterways so
important to Federal operations It was also important
to Grant and the country m other particulars. It brought
him into contact with General W. T. Sherman and Lieu-
tenant-Colonel James D. McPherson.

General Sherman, commanding at Paducah, his su-
perior in rank, had been most energetic and efficient in
forwarding to Grant the reinforcements which strength-
ened his army. Besides sending troops Sherman riveted
Grant's regard by tendering his personal services for the
battle without making any question of rank with either
himself or General Smith, both of whom were his juniors
in date of commission, a most exceptional proffer in
those days of petty animosities and higgling about
rank. After the fall of the stronghold Sherman
congratulated the victor warmly, and expressed hopes
of his speedy advancement. General Grant replied,
" I care nothing for promotion so long as our armies
are successful and no political appointments are made."
A warm friendship sprang up here between them which
never wavered, and into which no jealousy ever en-
tered.

McPherson had been temporarily attached to Grant's
staff as his chief engineer officer. His efficiency and
military capacity strongly impressed Grant, who suc-
cessively procured his promotion from the staff to gen-
eral of division and corps, and finally to the command
of the Army of the Tennessee, which he held when
killed before Atlanta, in 1864. In these two friendships
Grant gave ample evidence of sagacity in selecting his
prominent subordinates, which was a salient feature of
his general fitness for the supreme command. The vic-
tory of Donelson also gave Grant the confidence of
Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, an incident which

190

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

i|,

t ^ i

was of great importance in future operations west as
well as east.

The campaign which we trace to this point in this
chapter had been no less an education for Grant
than for his army. It approved his capacity for planning
military operations and for making those exact combina-
tions in marching and manoeuvring an army on which
the success of campaigns depends. It taught him reli-
ance on his ability to do what needed to be done at all
times, even to the snatching of victory from apparent
defeat. It broucfht him thorouofh knowledqre of and con-
fidence in the warlike capabilities of volunteer troops,
out of whom the campaign had forged a weapon as
keen and trustworthy as a Damascus blade. The
mutual respect thus generated between commander and
soldiers was a most important element in his subsequent
successes. The unstinted applause of his soldiers as
well as the country was now his.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE CONFEDERATE STORY OF DONELSON.

The fall of Fort Henry — The situation at Donelson — A Confederate's graphic
story of the investment — Porter's battery — The fight on February 13th — Indi-
vitlual instances of gallantry — The assault on the Federal right — Striking the
Union lines — General Smith's charge — The Confederate council of war — Floyd's
escape — The surrender — Interesting details.

It was not a great distance from Fort Henry to Don-
elson, and Grant proceeded to the investment of the
stronger fort as soon as possible. Before Halleck was
aware of his plans in detail Grant's forces had struck
the new objective point, and received the surrender of
more men than had capitulated to a commander in this
country since Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.
Captain John W. Morton, who afterwards became chief
of artillery upon the staff of Forrest, the Confederate
cavalry leader, and is remembered as one of the most
distinoruished soldiers of his rank on either side durincr
the late war, thus presents the narrative of Fort Donel-
son as it appeared to the eyes of himself and his com-
rades :

In the fall of 1861 Porter's Tennessee battery was at
Bowling Green, Ky., attached to General Buckner's di-
vision of infantry. Thomas K. Porter, its captain, had
been a lieutenant in the United States navy, and at the
breaking out of the war was only twenty-five years old.
His skill and training had made the battery famous.
His conspicuous courage, shining intelligence and ex-
perience made him a valuable exemplar for all the

(191)

192

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

\'\m

under-officers, of whom I was one, and for the men he
commanded. When the order to move to Fort Donel-
son came, the desire " to meet the enemy " was enthusi-
astic, even hilarious. This desire in after year, grew
rather out of a sense of duty than one of pleasure.

On February 6th, 1862, General Bushrod R. Johnson
commanded Fort Donelson. Fort Henry fell on that
day, and on the 9th of the same month General Pillow
succeeded Johnson. He says that at the time of his
arrival " deep gloom was hanging over the command,
and the troops were demoralized by the circumstances
attending the fall of Fort Henry and the manner of re-
tiring from that place." General Pillow announced his
accession to the command in the following order:

Special Orders No. i.
Head-quarters, Dover, Tenn., February <)th, 1862.
Brigadier-General Pillow assumes command of the forces at this
place. He relies with confidence upon the courage and fidelity of the
brave officers and men under his command to maintain the post.
Drive back the ruthless invader from our soil and again raise the Con-
federate flag over Fort Henry. He expects every man to do his duty.
With God's help we will accomplish our purpose. Our battle-cry,
•* Liberty or Death." ^

By order of Brigadier-General Pillow,

Gus. A. Henry, Jr., Assistant Adjutant- General.

Day and night General Pillow pushed the work on the
fortifications, and made all preparations, with what re-
sources were at his disposal, to meet the expected as-
sault from General Grant's forces. The map herewith
presented was made by Major M. F. Foster, after a care-
ful examination of the entire line of works and the water-
batteries. He drew it in 1878, after having gone over
the ground with ex-Governor James D. Porter and my-
self. Major Foster was formerly chief engineer officer
of Stuart's Confederate corps, and a thoroughly compe-

(198)

194

LIFE OF GENERAL GRAJS/T.

tent man tor such service. Lieutenant-Colonel J. F.
Gilmer, an able engineer officer of the old army, then
attached to the staff of Albert Sidney Johnston, located
the space to be defended.

The fort was almost quadrangular in shape, divided
into two parts by Indian creek, which was filled with an
almost impassable backwater, greatly retarding commu-
nication between Dover and the fort. Another valley
westward of Dover also offered similar hindrance to

the movement of troops
from one position to
another. The ground
between these valleys
was a rugged, hilly up-
land, covered with a
dense undergrowth, ex-
tending in a general di-
rection perpendicular to
the Cumberland river,
which swept by on the
north. The line of in-
trenchments commenc-
ed on a ridge south of
Dover near the river,
and, running over the

CAPTAIN JOHN W. MORTON. fUggcd h 1 1 1 S W e S t-

wardly for some two miles, deflected northward at the
point held by Porter's battery, and thence northwest to
Hickman's creek, a further distance of half a mile.

General Pillow described the works as consisting of
" rifle-pits and abatis for infantry, detached on the right,
but continuous on the left, with defences for light artil-
lery." The "defences for light artillery" were very
meagre. Porter, Graves and Maney had their men

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DONELSON. 195

continuously exposed when in action. The timber had
been felled south of the fort, which, with the ravines and
valleys flooded by backwater, greatly embarrassed the
niancEuvres of the Confederates within their advanced
works.

The water batteries and the fort proper were con-
structed on the bluff at the mouth of Hickman's creek,
and mounted with one ten-inch columbiad (one hundred
and twenty-eight pounder), one rifled thirty-two pounder,
eight thirty-two pounder smooth-bore, and three thirty-
two-pounder carronades; total, thirteen guns — a feeble
armament to confront the victorious and exultant flo-
tilla, composed of six gunboats, four of which were
heavily-plated iron-clads, with a combined armament of
sixty-six guns. Any one of these boats was considered
more than a match for the Confederate batteries.

The morning of the 12th of February found General
Buckner in command of the right, and General Pillow
of the left, of the Confederate army, both officers giving
their personal supervision to the construction of the
works and the assignment of the troops. Captain Por-
ter's Tennessee battery occupied the advanced salient,
sweeping the road leading to the main Fort Henry road,
flanking the intrenchments both to the right and left —
a very exposed position, as the great number of casual-
ties proved.

As the Federal forces arrived in our front they moved
with rapid but continuous steps, and wound their coils
completely around the Confederate works without re-
sistance. That day gave a little artillery practice by the
opposing batteries, and some sharp and deadly firing by
Breg's well-trained sharpshooters. No material ad-
vantage was gained by either side, except delay of work
on the Confederate trenches.

196

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

On the night of the 1 2th the air was balmy and spring-
like, the stars twinkled with unusual brightness, the moon
beamed with tranquil light upon the sleeping hosts, and
not a sound was heard save a chance shot from some
stray picket — the seemingly peaceful prelude to the
deadly strife so soon to follow.

The dawn of the 13th was ushered in by the boom of
the Federal artillery and the sharp crack of the skir-
mishers' rifles, which hastily brought the boys in gray to
their feet, provoking a spirited artillery fire all along the
front. There was a deal of coquetting along the lines
by the Federals. As early as eight o'clock the intrepid
Cook sallied forth acralnst the riirht centre with his Iowa
soldiers, but found the music and its accompaniment
from Graves' and Porter's batteries too warm for com-
fort, and soon retired behind a neighboring hill.

The enemy's artillery made an assault against the
centre of the Confederate left wing, which General
Pillow says was promptly responded to by Captain
Green's battery. For over two hours a spirited ardllery
fire was kept up along the entire line, w-hen, about
eleven o'clock, IMcClernand made a clashing assault on
the salient occupied by Maney's battery and supported
by Heiman's brigade. General McClernand says: "I
deemed the opportimity favorable for storming redan
No. 2 (Maney's position). Accordingly, Colonel W. R.
Morrison, now a distinguished Congressman, was
ordered to advance his brigade — the Seventeenth and
Forty-ninth Illinois, joined by the Forty-eighth. Colonel
Haynie, a gallant and intelligent officer, being the senior,
assumed the command. Passing down the declivity, the
assailants, pr ceded by skirmishers, moved rapidly up
the steep hi,., on the crest of which was the object of
attack. Althoufrh the small timber had been felled and

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DONELSON.

197

Interwoven with the sharpened points of brushwood ex-
tending outward, forming an ahnost impenetrable abatis,
they made their way, under a fast-increasing fire from
the enemy's Intrenchments, to a cleared space in front of
them.

At this point a heavy cross-fire of artillery and small
arms was poured upon the assailants, yet for an hour
they maintained the unequal contest, advancing close to
the intrenchments, and firing with deliberation and
effect whenever an enemy appeared. The Forty-fifth,
Colonel Smith, moved forward under a heavy fire, and,
taking position in line, the assault was renewed. *' The
brave Illinoisans were evidently badly worsted," as
General McClernand says. At this critical moment if
the enemy had been diverted by an attack on the left,
and also from the river by the gunboats, it is probable
the redan would have been taken.

General Lew Wallace says: "The battery was the
common target. Maney's gunners, in relief against the
sky, were shot down in quick succession." His first lieu-
tenant (Burns) was one of the first to suffer. His
second lieutenant (Massie) was mortally wounded.
Maney himself was hit; still he stayed and his guns con-
tinued their punishment, and still the raw Federal troops
clung to their purpose. With marvellous audacity they
pushed through the abatis, and reached a point within
forty yards of our rifle-pits. It actually looked as if the
prize was theirs, and the yell of victory was rising in
their throats.

" Suddenly the long line of yellow breastworks before
them, covering Heiman's five regiments, crackled and
turned into flame. The forlorn hope stopped — stag-
gered — braced up again — shot blindly through the
smoke of the new enemy, secure in his shelter. Thus

198

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

for fifteen minutes the IlHnoisans stood fightingf. The
time is given on the testimony of the leader himself.
Morrison was knocked out of his saddle by a musket
ball and disabled. Then the men went down the hill.
At its foot they rallied round their flags, and renewed
the assault. Pushed down again, they rallied, and a
third time climbed to the enemy. This time the battery
set fire to the dry leaves on the ground, and the heat
and smoke became stifling. It was not possible for
brave men to endure more. Slowly, sullenly, frequently
pausing to return a shot, they went back for the last
time, and in going their ears and souls were riven with
the shrieks of their wounded comrades, whom the flames
crept down upon and smothered and charred where they
lay."

Colonel John C. Brown says : " About eleven o'clock
on Thursday I discovered the enemy moving in consid-
erable force upon Colonel Heiman's centre, and before
the column came within range of Colonel Heiman's, and
indeed before it could be seen from his position, I
directed Captain Graves to open fire from all his guns,
which he did with such spirit and fatal precision that in
less than fifteen minutes the whole column staggered
and took shelter, in confusion and disorder, beyond the
summit of the hill still farther to our left, when Colonel
Heiman opened his fire upon it, and drove it beyond
his and my guns. Later in the day the enemy planted
one section of a battery on a hill almost in front of
Captain Gra^5'es and opened an enfilading fire upon the
left of my line, and at the same time a cross-fire upon
Colonel Heiman. Captain Graves, handling his favorite
rifle-piece with the same fearless coolness that charac-
terized his condujt during the entire week, in less than
ten minutes knocked one of the enemy's guns from its

young
much
batteri(
The
pleasan

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DONELSON. 199

carriage, and almost at the same moment the gallant
Porter disabled and silenced the other, while the sup-
porting infantry retreated precipitately before the storm
of grape and canister poured into their ranks from both
batteries.

" The brunt of this attack was borne by the Tenth,
Fifty-third and Forty-eighth Tennessee regiments and
Maney's battery. Colonel Ouarles' Forty-second Ten-
nessee was brought up in the nick of time, and shared
in the losses and glory of the repulse. Maney and his
men bore themselves with distinguished gallantry, and
handled their pieces, greatly exposed, with the most
commendable skill and courage."

While these assaults and sorlies were being conducted
on the centre and left of the Confederate works, General
C. F. Smith was not altogether idle on the Federal left.
He made three distinct charges upon Hanson's position,
which were pushed, as Jordan says, "with more spirit
than judgment," and were readily repulsed by Hanson's
and Palmer's regiments and Porter's battery.

Meanwhile the gunboat Carondelet, from a pro-
tected position, opened a fierce cannonade upon the
water batteries, throwing a number of shot and shell
into the Confederate works until, disabled by a well-
directed shot from Captain Ross' sixty-eight-pounder
rifle-gun, she dropped down stream. No damage was
done the fort. One of the last shots from the Caron-
delet, however, dismounted a thirty-two-pounder rifle-
gun, instantly killing Captain Joseph Dixon, a grllant
young officer and efficient engineer, who had rendered
much valuable service in the construction of the water
batteries.

The weather thus far had been unusually mild and
pleasant for the season, but on Thursday afternoon a

l-ii

200

Z/FIi OF GENERAL GRANT.

driving storm of sleet and snow set in with a keen icy
north wind, which made the cold so excessive that sol-
diers of both sides suffered intensely. The half-clad
Confederates were only kept from freezing by the con-
tinued work throughout the night, strengthening the
intrenchments. No one knows the terrible discomforts
and horrible suffering of that fearful night so well as the
hungry and exhausted soldiers of both armies.

The morning of the 14th came with two inches of
snow and a continued chilling north wind. The lines
were all readjusted. No assault was made, though a
rambling fire was kept up all along the line throughout
the day.

An incident occurred at the time which showed the
coolness of General Buckner. The general. Captain
Porter and the writer were seated on some blankets on
the declivity just in rear of Porter's battery, when a
shell from the enemy's gun exploded near by. A frag-
ment knocked off General Buckner's cap. Picking 't
up and shaking off the snow he replaced it on his head,
with as much indifference as if the: cause of its removal
had been ^ puff of wind. He did not even change his
tone of voice or the subject of conversation.

At 3 p. M. the exultant Foote steamed up defiantly,
fully expecting to crush out the Confederate batteries in
a few minutes, and pass on to further conquests ; but in
this he was doomed to disappointment. The four iron*
clads and the two gunboats bore directly down upon the
water batteries, firing with great rapidity and accuracy.

Captain Jacob Culbertson, after the death of Captain
Dixon, commanded the water batteries with efficient
assistants. General Pillow ordered the batteries to hold
their fire until the boats approached within 1,000 yards.
The gunboats opened at one and a half miles distance.

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DONELSON. 201

and advanced to within 300 yards of the batteries. At
a given signal the heavy guns opened with stunning
effect, and were soon followed by the lighter guns. The
shot and shell from the iron-clads tore up the earth-
works, which were promptly replaced by the ar-
tillerists.

The furious cannonade of the fleet, while terrific, was
harmless, though each moment it seemed that it must
sweep away gunners and batteries together. Soldiers
and generals alike looked with apprehension for the
catastrophe, when their guns should be silenced and the
fleet, steaming by, take them in reverse; still the fascina-
tion of the scene riveted to the spot as spectators
hundreds who witnessed it with breathless suspense and
anxiety. But the elevation of the batteries and the
courage and coolness of their gunners overcame all the
Federal advantajie in number and weisfht of (juns. The
bolts of their two heavy guns went crashing through
iron and massive timbers with resistless force, and scat-
tered slaughter and destmction through the fleet.

Hoppin, in his " Life of Commodore Foote," says :
" The Louisville was disabled by a shot which cut away
her rudder chains, making her totally unmanageable, so
that she drifted with the current out of action. Very soon
the St. Louis was disabled by a shot through her pilot
house, rendering her steering impossible, so that she
also floated down the river. The other two armored
vessels were terribly struck, and a rifled cannon on the
Carondelet burst, so that these two could not longer
sustain the action, and, after fighting for more than an
hour, the little fleet was forced to withdraw. The St.
Louis was struck fifty-nine times, the Louisville thirty-
six times, the Carondelet twenty-six, the Pittsburg twenty
— the four vessels receiving no less than 140 wounds.

202

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

The fleet, gatheringr itself tot^^ether and renderlnjr mutual
help to its disabled members, proceeded to Cairo to
repair damages."

Commodore Foote says : " I have commanded at the
takine of six forts and have been in several naval
enfracfements, but was never under so severe a fire
before," It is reported that the doughty commodore
wept like a child when the order to withdraw was
given.

The loss to the Federals was fifty-four killed and
wounded. The Confederate batteries were not materi-
ally injured, and not a man in them hurt. When our
troops saw the floating monsters receding, the heartiest
cheers and shouts went up, which seemed to electrify
and inspire all with the brightest hopes of ultimate
success.

There were many shining examples of personal
heroism among the officers and men of the water bat-
teries. Conspicuous among these we might mention
the daring act of Sergeant Robert Cobb, who, in the face
of the fleet, belching forth its storm of shell and grape
at point-blank range, mounted his piece to extract a
priming wire that had lodged in the vent through the
inexperience of the artillerist, who had seen but two
days' service at the guns. This gallant young gunner
was afterwards distinguished as the captain of the
famous Cobb's battery, and late chief of artillery of
Breckinridge's division.

Lieutenant George S. Martin attracted the particular
attention of the commanding general by the judgment
and energy displayed in handling his gun. The gun-
wadding having become exhausted, he tore up his coat
and used it for wadding, which enabled him to continue
the fire until the iron-clads were repulsed. This promis-

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DO NELSON. 203

\ng young officer was murdered by bushwhackers on
Sand Mountain in Alabama, while en route to join Mor-
ton's battery with Forrest's cavalry in Mississippi.

It was but natural, with the enemy repulsed at ev<^ry
point along the outer works, the hitherto invincible iron-
clads worsted and driven back, that General Pillow
should send congratulatory despatches to General
Johnston of the '* utmost confidence of success," and
state that " the men are in fine spirits." General John-
ston sent the following despatch : " If you lose the fort,
bring your troops to Nashville if possible."

As early as the morning of the 14th General Buckner '
says: "At a council of general officers it was decided
unanimously, in view of the arrival of heavy reinforce-
ments of the enemy below, to make an immediate attack
upon the right in order to open our communications
with Charlotte, in the direction of Nashville. I made
the necessary dispositions preparatory to executing the
movement, but early in the afternoon the order was
countermanded by General Floyd, who had been ordered
to Donelson by General Johnston with general com-
mand, at the instance, as I afterwards learned, of Gen-
eral Pillow, who, after drawing out his troops for the at-
tack, thought it too late for the attempt."

This statement was unquestionably correct. Though
no allusion was ever made to it by either Floyd or Pil-
low, the matter was referred to by Colonel W. E. Bald-
win, commanding brigade. Colonel Forrest, and Major
William M. Brown, Twentieth Mississippi, in their official
reports. General Floyd called a council of his general
officers on the night of the 14th, when it was unanimously
decided to attack the enemy's right at daylight. General
Buckner says: "This movement had become impera-
tively necessary in consequence of the vasdy superior

204

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

and constantly increasing force of the enemy, who had
already completely invested our position."

General Pillow says: "It was determined unanimously
to' give the enemy battle next day at daybreak, so as to
cut open a route of exit for our troops to the interior of
the country, and thus save our army."

Proper dispositions were made by General Pillow to
force the attack on the extreme left with Baldwin's brigade
and Brigadier-General Bushrod R. Johnson's division.
Johnson was directed to move out of the trenches
with his whole force, except Heiman's brigade, which
was to occupy the ditches. Head's Thirtieth Tennessee,
of this brigade, was instructed to occupy Buckner's line
of works, and move to aid Pillow on the left. General
Buckner says he was " ordered to make an attack on the
right of the enemy's centre, and if successful to cover
the retreat of the whole army, after which my division
was to act as the rear guard."

Late that night the brigade commanders repaired to
General Pillo v's head-quarters, and received specific in-
structions. Promptly at four o'clock Saturday morning
General Pillow repaired to Baldwin's position on the left,
and found that officer with his brigade in line ready to
inaugurate the attack. Owing to delay by some of the
regiments the first gun was not fired until six o'clock,
when Baldwin moved his brigade, supported by Forrest
on the left flank, upon McClernand's right, which was
in battle-line awaiting the onset. McCausland, Simon-
ton and Wharton moved out successively, and were soon
stoutly engaged with Mc Arthur's, Oglesby's and W. H. L.
Wallace's brigades, sustained by Schwartz's, McAllister's
and Dresser's batteries, combining an artillery strength
of sixteen guns well manned and in position of their own
selection.

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DO NELSON. 205

The fight was hotly contested. The Confederates,
pressing forward with great energy and vigor, were
only able to force McClernand back to the centre of
the Confederate left wing along the Wyn's Ferry road
by twelve o'clock. Up to this time there had been
many acts of superior valor by brigades, regiments and
companies ; and instances of individual hardihood and
courage were numerous in every command. The con-
testants on this part of the field were pretty evenly
matched, with the advantage possibly of a few hundred
in favor of the Federals. The idea that one Confederate
could whip five Yankees was soon dispelled. The stout,
rugged Western men, '• kindred in blood, equally emulous
of glory, and, like the Roman twins, jealous of the birth-
right of pre-eminence of valor, saw nothing in any foe
to quell the hope of final triumph."

The Twenty-sixth Tennessee and theTwentieth Missis-
sippi each took a section of artillery. Colonel John M.
Lillard was wounded early In the action, but remained
at the head of his regiment during the whole day.
Colonel Baldwin says : " It is difficult to determine which
deserves the most commendation, the regiment or its
commander." Simonton's brigade with undaunted effort
captured the first hill, which was strongly defended, and
aided materially in taking four guns of Schwartz's hard-
fought battery, though with the loss of Lieutenant-
Colonel Clough, of the Seventh Texas, and a number of
valuable officers and men. The Virginians and Kentuck-
ians vied with each other in daring deeds, and the Missis-
sippi troops were ever ready to move to the front when
ordered by their superiors. The dashing Forrest even
thus early in the war showed of what stuff he was made.
He was ever on the alert, and when the infantry was
hotly engaged he passed around the enemy's right and

206

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

swept clown upon McClcrnand's right and rear with such
force as to double W. H. L. Wallace up, and cause the
abandonment of six pieces of artillery, which were
secured, with many horses and a number of prisoners.

Buckner was not idle, although he says : " In view
of the heavy duty which I expected my division to
undergo in covering the retreat of the army, I thought
it unadvisable to attempt an assault at this time in my
front until the enemy's batteries were to s6me extent
crippled, and their supports shaken by the fire of my
artillery." Graves and a section of Porter's batteries took
position on the Wyn's Ferry road early, and engaged
the Federal artillery in a brisk artillery-duel, which
greatly aided General Bushrod Johnson's advance.
Brown's Tennessee brigade, led in person by Colonel
John C. Brown, moved to the attack upon Aurora Hollow,
the valley to the left of Heiman's position, and with the
combined and concentrated fire of Maney's, Graves' and
Porter's batteries upon the enemy's battery, which was
soon silenced, induced a rapid retreat of the Federals,
leaving a section of their artillery.

While this was going on, Roger Hanson, the hard
hitter, charged with his Second Kentucky through an
open field, and under a destructive fire, without firing a
gun, upon a superior force of the enemy. While
Hanson engaged the infantry, Forrest, who was always
on hand at the right time, charged the two pieces of
artillery, killing the gunners and recapturing some Con-
federate prisoners. General Buckner says: "While
this movement was going on I conducted one piece of
artillery under Captain Graves along the Wyn's Ferry
road, supported by the Fourteenth Mississippi, and sent
orders to the residue of Graves' and to Porter's and
Jackson's batteries, and Farquharson's Tennessee regi-

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DONELSON. 207

ment, to follow the moveniicnt with raptdity. I also sent
10 direct Hanson's regiment to rejoin me."

General Biickner pressing on, overtook the rotreatin^^
enemy in a strong position beyond the point where it
crosses the valley. Brown's brigade, coming up with
Graves' piece, soon dislodged them, driving them to the
right of the Wyn's Ferry road, leaving it entirely open.
In this position General Huckner says : " I awaited the
arrival of my artillery and reserves, either to continue
the pursuit of the enemy or to defend the position I now
held, in order that the army might pass out on the forge
road, which was now completely covered by the position
occupied by my division."

At this point of the fight General Lew Wallace writes :
"Just then General Grant rode up to where General
McClernand and I were in conversation. He was then
informed of the mishap to the First division, and that
the road to Charlotte was open to the enemy. In his
ordinary quiet voice he said, addressing himself to both
officers: 'Gentlemen, the position on the right must be
retaken,' and with that he turned and galloped off."
General Grant in returninsr from a visit to Commodore
Foote, in passing General C. F. Smith, ordered him to
hold himself in readiness to attack the Confederate right;
and, when he learned of McClernand's discomfiture on
riding to the right wing, he not only ordered General C.
F. Smith to advance upon the Confederate works but
sent word to Commodore Foote of the demoralized con-
didon of his army, and urged an immediate demonstra-
tion with the gunboats. He said: "I must order a
charge to save appearances." Two of the gunboats did
run up and at long-range throw a few shells.

In the meantime General Pillow had ordered Forrest,
with his men, to collect the captured artillery and small

y»

208

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

arms, and remove the wounded from the field. Some
five thousand stands of small arms and two hundred
prisoners had been captured. Cannonading had ceased,
and profound quiet pervaded the battle-field. Pillow,
finding himself at Hindman's position, heard of (or saw)
preparations by General C. F. Smith for an assault on
the Confederate right ; but whether he understood this
to be the purpose, or construed the movements as
signs of a fiight, was left uncertain by his language at
the time. He ordered the regiments which had been en-
ofacred to return to the trenches, and instructed Buckner
to hasten to defend the imperilled point.

Buckner, not recognizing him as a superior authorized
to change the plan of battle, or the propriety of such a
change, refused to obey ; and, after receiving reiterated
orders, started to find Floyd, who at that moment joined
him. He urged upon Floyd the necessity of carrying
out the oriojnal plan of evacuation. Floyd assented to
this view, and told Buckner to stand fast until he could
see Pillow. He then rode back and saw Pillow, and,
hearing his arguments, yielded to them. Floyd simply
says that he found the movement so nearly executed
that it was necessary to complete it. Accordingly
Buckner was recalled.

In the meantime Pillow's right brigades were retiring
to their places in the trenches, under orders from the
commander. Porter's battery, with other troops of
Buckner's command, had been halted by General Pillow
in the Wyn's Ferry road, where it crosses the trenches.
The writer was present when General Buckner returned
from the front, and, meeting General Pillow, expressed
great surprise at the change in the order of battle.
General Pillow, with some impatience, repeated his order
to General Buckner to reoccupy his original position on

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DO NELSON. 209

the right. We have again an illustration of the want of
concert of action and harmony in council which brought
about the loss of the army at Fort Donelson.

Ten fresh recfiments — over three thousand men — had
not fired a musket. It was now one o'clock. The Fed-
eral right was doubled back ; the Wyn's Ferry road
was cleared ; and, as Colonel William Preston Johnston,
in his " Life of Albert Sidney Johnston," says, " it only
remained for the Confederates to do one of two things.
The first was to seize the golden moment, and, adhering
to the original purpose and plan of the sortie, move off
rapidly by the route laid open by such strenuous efforts
and so much bloodshed ; the other depended upon the
inspiration of a master mind equal to the effort of grasp-
ing every element of the combat, and which should com-
plete the partial victory by the utter rout and destruc-
tion of the enemy. While one or the other alternative
seems to have been the only possible safe solution, the
Confederate commander tried neither. A fatal middle
policy was suddenly, but dubiously, adopted, but not
carried out. The fate which seemed always to arrest
the best endeavors of the Confederate arms and render
fruitless their victories interposed at this juncture."

The assault on Hanson's works by General Smith
did not occur until near four o'clock, and it will be re-
membered that Head's regiment alone was assigned to
protect more than half a mile of hastily constructed and
imperfect rifle-pits, with no artillery support. Hanson,
under General Pillow's direct orders, was the first of
Buckner's division to reach the assaulted line, but only
to see Lauman's Iowa and Indiana brigade safely estab-
lished in his own works. Turner, with three companies
of Head's regiment, held the works with great despera-
tion, but, overpowered by the six stout regiments led in

210

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

person by General Smith, he fell back to the crest of a
ridge some one hundred yards in the rear, where he was
reinforced by Hanson.

Brown had in the meantime partially reoccupied his
original position to the left of Hanson, and by the rapid
and galling cross-fire of the Third and Eighteenth Ten-
nessee regiments, aided by the well-directed guns of
Porter's battery, saved the line and prevented the water-
batteries from falling into the hands of the Federals that
evening. This new line was reinforced by the arrival of
Barclay's, Sugg's, Quarles' and the balance of Head's
regiments, after the forward movement of the enemy
was checked, but not before the fortunes of the day
wei'; decided. One section of Graves' battery took po-
sition at the intersection of the new with the old line,
and was, as usual, most conspicuous for its effective
service.

The writer's section of Porter's battery, which had
been delayed in reaching its original position, was
brought rapidly into action to the left of Graves, under
a he.ivy fire ; his horses were shot down, and his guns
were run into place by hand. Until dark the desperate
conflict raged. Lieutenant Hutchison, of Porter's bat-
tery, was severely shot through the neck ; Lieutenant
Culbertson, of the 5^ ime battery, was hurt ; and Captain
Thomas K. Porter, of whom it was said that he " always
directed his guns at the right time and to the right
place," was disabled by a severe and dangerous wound,
and was borne from the field.

Captain Porter's marked coolness and dash, and the
efficient and intelligent manner in which he handled his
guns, elicited the unbounded admiration of all who saw
him ; and when he was being carried bleeding from the
field he said to me, *• Don't let them have the guns,

t of a
le was

ed his
I rapid
h Ten-
uns of
\ water-
als that
rival of
Head's
enemy
the day
:ook po-
dM hne,
effective

lich had
on, was
;s, under
is guns
esperate
er's bat-
leutenant
Captain
" always
he right
wound,

and the

idled his

who saw

Ifrom the

le guns,

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DONELSON. 211

Morton," and I replied, " Not while I have one man
left," little mindful that my apprehensions would be so
nearly carried out.

My cannoneers had been greatly reduced by death,
wounds and frost-bites, until at the close of this engage-
ment I had only three men left at one gun; one of these
was wounded, and was left where he fell, we being un-
able to remove him at the moment. Pat Kine, acting
No. I, who was always at his post, threw himself in
front of me, saying, "Lieutenant ! Lieutenant ! get lower
down the hill — they will kill you ; " and actually em-
braced me, as if to shield me from the enemy's bullets.
I said, "No, Pat; let's give them one more round." He
seized his rammer-stafif, and while in the act of driving
the charge home was shot through the heart, and
dropped under his gun. How noble and grandly self-
sacrificing! — so truly characteristic of the Irish character.

Night soon closed this bloody combat. Porter's bat-
tery, from its active participation in the four days* con-
flict, its advanced and exposed position, lost eight men
killed outright and twenty-five wounded out of forty-
ei^rht officers, non-commissioned officers and men act-
ively engaged at the guns. The balance of the com-
pany were — drivers, teamsters and artificers — with the
horses protected in a ravine at some distance from the
battery.

After recovering from his wound Captain Porter was
assigned as chief of artillery to Buckner, and afterwards
to Cleburne, and was wounded at " Hoover's Gap." He
subsequently entered the Confederate navy as executive
ofificer of the Florida. After the war he commanded a
California merchant steamer, and died in 1869. Colonel
John C. Brown, commanding brigade, was always in the
thickest of the fight. Lieutenant-Colonel W. P. Moore,

212

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Thirty second Tennessee regiment, was killed while
aiding his no less worthy commander, Colonel Ed. C,
Cook, in cheering his men to the charge, as his brigade
commander so well expresses it.

The gallant Lieutenant-Colonel F. M. Gordon, com-
manding the Third Tennessee, was wounded early in
the action, when the regiment was ably led by Major N.
F. Cheairs. Captain D. F. Wade, a brave soldier and
polished gentleman, of this regiment, was severely
wounded — shot entirely through the body. Colonel
Joseph B. Palmer, commanding the Eighteenth Tennes-
see, rendered valuable assistance. The Fourteenth Mis-
sissippi regiment. Major W. L. Doss commanding, was
also attached to Brown's brigade, and assigned es-
pecially to the support of Porter's battery on the right.
Captain F. M. Rogers, of this regiment, and sixteen
others, were killed, and eighty-five wounded — which
shows it was where some of the fighting was going on.

General C. F. Smith had succeeded in carrying the
advanced line of works on the right, which General
Buckner considered "the key to the situation." General
Jordan, in his "Life of Forrest," calls the position cap-
tured " the mere narrow foothold seized on the extreme
right of the trenches." Indeed, the line lost did not ex-
tend over seven hundred yards in length, and was com-
manded by the stronger ridge, upon which the Confed-
erates established their line, connecting it with the
strong field-works, where so much time and labor had
been expended to protect the water-batteries.

The Federals had now no great advantage in securing
Hanson's intrenchments: the advantage was still with
the Confederates, from their more elevated position.
However, the want of efficiency, from physical prostra-
tion and loss by casualties of battle, was apparent,
especially in the artillery.

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DO NELSON. 213

Another council was called Saturday night, at which
it was decided to move out of the works, if not rein-
vested. I was instructed to spike my guns, which was
done, and be ready to move out with the men at twelve
o'clock at night. Rumors having reached the generals
that the Federals had reoccupied their positions, scouts
were sent out, who reported they saw no Federals — only
fires in the woods. Forrest did not believe the rein-
vestment had taken place, and obtaining permission he
despatched two trusty scouts, Adam R. Johncon and S.
H. Martin, who reported that they could find no Fed-
erals on the Wyn's Ferry road, except the wounded and
a few stragglers.

General Forrest positively asserted, from his own per-
sonal reconnoissance, that the whole force could be safely
withdrawn by the road reported as obstructed. The
reports of the generals, however, concurred in the belief
that there was a complete reinvestment of their lines,
anl, acting upon this belief, the question of surrender was
discussed.

The decision to surrender having been made, the
question arose as to who should make it. Generals
Floyd and Pillow both declared they would die before
they would surrender. General Buckner remarked
that "a capitulation would be as bitter to me as it
could be to any one, but I regard it as a necessity
of our position, and I cannot reconcile it with my sense
of duty to separate my fortunes from those of my com-
mand." General Floyd said:

" General Buckner, if I place you in command, will
you allow me to leave with such portions of my division
as can be transported in two small steamers which are
expected at daylight ? "

General Buckner replied: "Yes, provided you do
so before the enemy act upon my communications."

214

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

General Floyd said: "General Pillow, I turn over
the command."

General Pillow said : " I pass it," and Buckner as-
sumed command, sent for a bugle to sound a parley, for
pen, ink and paper, and opened negotiations for surren-
der.

It was believed that there were but two ways by
which it was possible for the army to retire. If they
went by the Wyn's Ferry road, they would be obstructed
by the enemy. If by the lower ®r Waverly Charlotte
road, they would have to wade through water waist-
deep. This the medical director stated would be death
to more than half the command on account of <^he
severity of the weather and physical prostration. Gen-
eral Buckner believed his men were so worn out by
exposure, by watching and fatigue, and so reduced in
numbers and demoralized, that he could not hold his
position half an hour against the assault which he was
satisfied would be made next morning at daylight ; that
his ammunition was nearly expended, and the men, for
several days without regular or sufficient food, were not
in condition to undertake such a battle and march as
would be involved by a successful sortie. He did not
think it justifiable to sacrifice three-fourths of the troops
to save one-fourth. General Buckner was sustained in
this view by Generals F)oyd, B. K. Johnson, Colonels
Brown, Palmer, Hanson, McCausland and others.

General Pillow did not regard the position as so des-
perate, and favored the effort to withdraw, but yielded
to a surrender not to include himself. Forrest, hearing
of the decision, declared he would not surrender. He
proposed that the bones of his men should bleach on
the surrounding hills, rather than they should be carried
north and cooped up in open prison-pens during mid-

COr^FFJ^FKATE STORY OF DONELSON. 216

wipter ; and prepared at once to collect his troops for an
immediate movement. At four o'clock Sunday morn-
ing he was ready, and, followed by five hundred officers
and men, he took the road by way of Cumberland City.
When about three-quarters of a mile out, his advance
scouts reported the enemy. In company with his
brother, Lieutenant Jeffrey Forrest, who subsequently
commanded a brigade, and was killed in a charge near
Okalona, Mississippi, they cautiously moved forward,
when the supposed battle-line proved to be only a picket
fence. General Forrest believes that this picket fence
brought about the surrender.

Forrest and his brother moved on up the ridge for
three-quarters of a mile, and found the blankets left by
his men when going into action. Riding farther along,
they came upon fires, around which Federal wounded
were gathered, and from all he could learn only a few
scattering scouts from both sides had been among them
that night. Forrest, returning to his command, took up
the line of march for Nashville, via Cumberland City,
which he reached in due time without accident. General
Floyd took his three Virginia regiments, and escaped on
the steamboats, General Pillow accompanying him.

Badeau, in his " Life of Grant," says : " Sixty-five
guns, 17,600 small arms and nearly 15,000 troops fell
into the hands of the victors." Colonel William Preston
Johnston, in his " Life of Albert Sidney Johnston,"
clearly points to this as an error when he says : " Even
including the six guns and 5,000 small arms recaptured
and the thirteen guns in the fort, the artillery would fall
a good deal short of his estimate." In fact, the Con-
federate field-artillery numbered forty-three guns, includ-
ing Stankrewviz' three pieces in the fort ; with thirteen
heavy guns in the water-batteries these would make the
total artillery fifty-six.

21G

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Badeau further says : " Rations were issued at Cairo
to 14,623 prisoners ; " to which Colonel Johnston replies:
" Very likely this was the quarter-master's return, but if
so it was based on muster-rolls, not men. The actual
number of captures did not exceed 7,000 or 8,000."

This seems to be nearest the truth when you consider
that Floyd carried off on the steamers at least 1,000 of
his own command, besides a large number detached
from other commands. No one was refused passage.
Forrest had a following of at least 500 of his own
cavalry, besides 200 of other commands, artillery and
wagon horses. The teamsters and drivers of Porter's
battery, numbering forty-two men, escaped with Forrest.
The ferry-boats were plied all night, which enabled
several hundred more to escape across the river.

Discipline was relaxed and pillage of the Confederate
camps seemed to be die order of the day, and in this
confused and demoralized state of affairs, a number
walked out of the works and made their way through
the country. The escape of General Bushrod R. John-
son was an example of this sort. General Johnson thus
explains his escape :

•' I formed no purpose or plan to escape. In the after-
noon towards sunset on the 18th of February (two days
and a half after the surrender) I walked out with a Con-
federate officer, and took my course toward the rifle-pits
on the hill formerly occupied by Colonel Heiman, and,
finding no sentinels to obstruct me, I passed on, and was
soon beyond the Federal encampment. I had taken no
part in the surrender, had received no orders or instruc-
tions from the Federal authorities, had not been recog-
nized or even been seen by any of the general officers,
had given no parole and made no promises."

From the best information from all sources the Con-

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DO NELSON. 217

federate killed amounted to 325, wounded, 1,097; total,

1442.

Return of Casualties in the Federal Army. From " War

0/ the Rebellion Official Records.'' Series II., Vol. VII.,

page 167.

Commands.

Killed.

Wounded.

Captured or
Missing.

Officers.

Enlisted
Men.

Officers.

Enlisted
Men.

Officers.

Enlisted
Men.

1st Division — McClernand

297

'38

478

1,005

797
319

3
3

180

as
18

1,552
987

. 293

2d Division — C. F. Smith

3d Division — l^w. Wallace

Grand total

a.832

231

Commodore Foote reported to the Secretary of the
Navy ten killed and forty-four wounded in his flotilla.

Brigadier-General John Buchanan Floyd was born in
Virginia in 1805; served in Congress in 1847-49;
governor of Virginia, 1850-53 ; secretary of war under
President Buchanan, 1857. He used his power in trans-
ferring arms and munitions of war to Southern arsenals,
and generally in preparing for the impending conflict
between the North and the South. He was indicted
before the grand-jury of the District of Columbia as
being privy to the withdrawal of a large amount of bonds
from the Department of the Interior, but having left
Washington was never brought to trial. This was doubt-
less his reason for declining to surrender at Fort Donel-
son.

He was a zealous sympathizer with the secession move-
ment, and resigned his secretaryship and was appointed
brigadier-general of the Confederate army. He com-
manded in West Virginia in 1861, but was unsuccessful,
and was severely criticised. While he seemed to antici-
pate General Johnston's orders to repair with his com-
mand to Fort Donelson, he evidently did not relish the

218

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

idea of being cooped up behind intrenchments. He
was bold and impetuous, and had the reputation of strong
force of character, but seemed to lose his head at Donel-
son. He displayed no firmness and, though nominally in
command, vacillated between Pillow and Buckner, and
suffered each to influence and sway him as he came
within their presence. He was brave and gallant, but a
failure as a commander when thrown upon his own re-
sources. His conduct at Donelson was severely criti-
cised by the abandoned soldiers who were sent to prison.
The action of the Confederate authorities in practically
retiring him from the army was a severe blow to his rest-
less and ambitious splilt, and this it was thought
hastened his death, which occurred about one year
afterwards.

General Pillow was a man of unbounded ambition and
conspicuous vanity ; his great energy and courage and
undoubted loyalty to the Confederate cause went a great
way toward palliating this defect in his character. There
had been an unfortunate antagonism between Buckner
and Pillow, which led to downright obstinacy and an in-
excusable conflict of action that impaired the efficiency
and paralyzed to a great extent the gallant efforts of the
troops at Donelson, The imprisoned soldiers never
ceased to censure General Pillow for not availing him-
self of the opportunity to lead them out on Saturday,
when, after so much hard fighting and bloodshed, every-
thing was so auspicious. General Pillow was also re-
tired from active command, but his indomitable energy
and ardent devotion to the cause kept him in the service,
although suffering great humiliation from imaginary in-
justice by the Confederate authorities. We cannot say,
however, that he had no cause for complaint. His great
personal sacrifices, shining military qualities, courage

CONFEDERATE STORY OF DONELSON.

219

night
year

and great energy of character demanded better treat-
ment than he received from the government. He died
in 1879.

The prevailing id'^a seemed, with General Biickncr, to
be to hold Donelson until General Albert Sidney Johnston
could reach Nashville, and then evacuate with all possi-
ble haste. General Buckner's high character and supe-
rior military training and experience would have com-
manded due deference and respect from any one else
at the supreme moment, possibly, than his senior in com-
mand, General Pillow, who could have profited by his
good judgment and advice in the evacuation of the works
on Saturday when the question of the surrender was
discussed and each of his seniors expressed a willingness
to desert the troops. When he declared that to capitu-
late, would be as bitter to him as to any one else, but
that he deemed it his duty to stay and share the fortunes
of his men, he doubly endeared himself to every sol-
dier remaining. After being exchanged in August,
1862, he commanded a division in Hardee's corps,
Bragg's Tennessee army, and as major-general he gal-
landy led the Third grand division in the engagement
at Murfreesboro, Chicamauga, and upon other hotly
contested fields, and finally surrendered with General
Kirby Smith, May 26th, 1865.

Colonels Brown, Hanson, Palmer, Baldwin and Heiman
were promoted to be brigadier-generals for their sol-
dierly conduct at Donelson, and Colonel N. B. Forrest
attracted the attention of the army by his courage, dash
and genius as a soldier, and when the last gun was fired,
in 1865, he had attained the rank of lieutenant-general.
It was the writer's privilege and pleasure after the ex-
change in 1862, though not out of his teens, to be ordered
to Forrest to share all the hardships and brilliant sue-

I \ I

r t

220

Z/J!'£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

cesses of this wonderful cavalry leader, and at the close
was chief of artillery of his corps.

It is clear, from the humiliations to which both Gen-
erals Floyd and Pillow were subjected after the capitu-
lation of Donelson, that the Confederate government
regarded them as largely responsible for the disaster.
They had not yet learned that in war red-tape is some-
times the cause o{ a military catastrophe. They would
not subordinate pride to duty, and when the climax
which their stubbornness had hastened came on, they
had not the moral courage to assume the responsibility
of the surrender. It is possible that, if the army had
been first operated in accordance with Buckner's coun-
sel, many more of the men might have been saved from
capture. The indignation of the South at the capitula-
tion was very great. The joint catastrophe of Henry
and Donelson was the first very serious set-back which
the Confederacy received.

CHAPTER XV.

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.

Effect of the first victory — Halleck's fault-findinj: — Complaints to Washington au-
thorities — Resumption of " bad habits " insinuated — Rumor made a Ijasis of
complaints — Demoralization charged — "An enemy between you and me" —
Grant's noble patience — His request to be relieved refused — Halleck's halting
explanation — Grant's magnanimous waiving of personal feeling.

After the conquest of Donelson came the arduous
and often delicate duties incident to governing the con-
quered territory. In his proclamation to Kentuckians
when his army seized Paducah he had declared him-
self and forces the defenders of the State. Kentucky
had not seceded, and the Confederates were the in-
vaders. Once across the line into Tennessee the condi-
tions were reversed. Martial law was immediately pro-
claimed, and all causes were ordered to be brought for
adjudication before such military tribunals as might be
established. The disloyal citizens, and in that part of
Tennessee there was scarcely any Union sentiment
worth mentioning, were thus made to feel the strong
arm of the military power.

War, too, was a novel thing, and victory especially had
dallied so coyly with the Union armies that the people,
panting for the substantial fruits of their self-sacrifice,
fairly lost their heads when Donelson was taken.
Civilians crowded the steamers plying up the river to
the fallen fortress. Keenly anxious to congratulate the
victors and relieve the sick and wounded, they were
stubbornly bent on carrj'ing away trophies as souvenirs
of the terrible struggle. Many had brothers, uncles,

(221)

222

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

cousins In the army, and it was difficult to convince the
minds of the noncombatants that their relatives were
no longer civilians but soldiers and subject to all the
rigors of military discipline. The general commanding
became the fruitful theme of the gossip and idle slander
of those whose relic-hunting ended in disappointment,
but who still had the means of communicating with his
immediate superior, whose despatches showed that he
was anything but friendly to the only general who seemed
to appreciate the value of the cruel but truthful maxim,
" War means fight, and fight means kill."

Almost before the guns of Donelson had grown cold
the limits of Grant's district were enlarged but not
specified, and his command designated as the Depart-
ment of West Tennessee. Without wasting time in re-
joicing over victory he set about looking for new con-
quests. As long as he remained at Donelson the busy-
bodies were not too troublesome, but necessity for
communicating with Nashville arose. General Smith,
whose command he had pushed forward to Clarks-
ville, forty miles up the Cumberland, immediately after
the victory, had received orders from General Buell to
report to him at Nashville. Grant wished to learn
whether orders from their common superior had trans-
ferred Smith's command to Buell's jurisdiction. A day
before starting he had telegraphed his superior, through
General Cullum, chief of staff, that he would start unless
he received counter orders that evening. None came,
and he pushed forward to the capital of Tennessee, which
Buell's forces had already occupied. After his departure
the busybodies caught General Halleck's ear, and found
a receptive listener. They told highly colored romances
of robbery and the destruction of captured property by
civilians and soldiers, and of the demoralization of the

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.

223

e the
were
11 the

aneler
:ment,
ith his
lat he
eemed
iiaxim,

m cold

nit not

)epart-

LC in re-

ew con-

e busy-

sity for
Smith,
Clarks-
ily after
iiell to

;o leani
.d trans-
A day
through
t unless
,e came,
e, which
eparturc
nd found
l-omances
)perty by
)n of the

conquerinj^ army incident to relaxation of discipline
after the victory. Telegraphic communications being at
that time very uncertain, and even mails liable to
detention, General Halleck had received only very
meagre reports from th(^ Army of the Tennessee. He
fired a volley of complaining orders, only one or two of
which reached Grant. There was just enough founda-
tion for the reports of marauding to give them color.

General Grant had found it necessary to issue orders
to his command repressive of such acts. He had been
compelled to take mer.su res to prevent the visiting
citizens from carrying away as trophies articles of value
in the eyes of the ov/ners. To effect this latter purpose
he had a company of troops specially detailed to search
boats about leaving, and to retake all captured property
found. Although a subject of much annoyance, General
Grant had not thought the exigency demanded any
severe measures, especially as many of the offenders
had come to the front as representatives of the sanitary
commission. It, however, was made one of the pretexts
for a series of covert attacks, which nearly effected their
apparent purpose to drive him out of the army at the
very time when the eyes of the loyal people of the
country were turned toward him as the most hopeful
defender of the nation.

A correspondence, the official record of which shows
many violations of that canon of military ethics which
entitles every soldier to be fully informed of any charges
aoainst him, was begun in the following telegram, dated
March 4th, 1862, from General Halleck, then in com-
mand at St. Louis, to General McClellan, then com-
mander-in-chief at Washington : " A rumor has just
reached me that, since the taking of Fort Donelson,
General Grant has resumed his former bad habits. If

224

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

SO it will account for his neglect of my often repeated
orders. I do not deem it advisable to arrest him at
present, but have placed General C. F. Smith in com-
mand of the Tennessee. I think Smith will restore order
and discipline."

This telegram betrays a most inexcusable want of
common courtesy, or absolute malice toward the man
about whom it was written. Men occupying such an
exalted position as Halleck had no right to make rumor
the basis of insinuations against his subordinate, and sub-
sequent events demonstrate the most remarkable shift-
ing to and fro in his evident attempt to injure the man
who had made manifest his ability to deal with the real
exigencies of war.

General Halleck in fact telegraphed General Grant,
under date of March 4th, an order to place Gtnerul
Smith in charge of the troops then being organized for
an expedition along the Tennessee river, and himself to
remain at Fort Henry. "Why do you not obey my
orders to report strength and position of your com-
mand?" the despatch concluded. In it no mention was
made of the serious insinuations against his personal
conduct which he had sent to the commander of the
army.

General Grant replied by letter from Fort Donelson,
under date of March 5th, announcing that he had
turned over the command to General Smith in accord-
ance with orders. " I had prepared a different plan," he
wrote, " intending General Smith to go to Paris and
Humboldt, while I would command the expedition upon
Eastport, Corinth and Jackson in person. ... I am not
aware of having disobeyed any orders from head-
quarters — certainly never intended such a thing. My re-
ports have been made to General Cullum, chief of staff,

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.

225

and It may be that many of them were not deemed of
sufficient importance to forward more than a telegraphic
synopsis of. In conclusion I will say that you may rely
upon my carrying out your instructions in every par-
ticular."

This letter is indorsed as received by General Halleck
March 9th.

General Grant removed his head-quarters to Fort
Henry promptly, and telegraphed to General Smith, at
Clarksville, the same day:

" By direction just received from head-quarters of de-
partment, you are to take command of the expedition
which I had designed commanding in person. You will
repair to Fort Henry with as little delay as possible."

General Smith arrived at Fort Henry on the same
day, and General Grant fully instructed him as to the
expedition which had been planned against Eastport and
Corinth. The written instructions concluded :

"Allow me to congratulate you on your richly deserved
promotion, and to assure you that no one can feel more
pleasure than myself."

The contrast between the magnanimity of Grant wel-
coming his subordinate to the command and Halleck's
persistent efforts to belittle Grant's achievements is
striking. There had always been cordial co-operation
between Grant and Smith, and the former had always
shown great deference to the officer whom he remem-
bered so well as his chief at West Point.

Serious charges containing the threat of further cir-
cumscribing the usefulness of the victor of Donelson
we''3 based on no better evidence than that contained
in a ■« anonymous letter. Halleck's ears appear to have
been open to such approaches.

Up to this time Grant was in total darkness as to the

226

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

ongin or cause of the misunderstanding at head-quarters,
of which his subsequent despatches showed that he felt
himself the victim.

On the day following, before Grant's reply, above
quoted, had reached him, General Halleck sent him the
following :

" I enclose herewith a copy of a letter addressed to
Judge Davis, President of the Western Investigating
Commission. Judge Davis says the writer is a man of
integrity and perfectly reliable. The want of order and
discipline, and the numerous irregularities in your com-
mand, since the capture of Fort Donelson, are matters
of general notoriety, and have attracted the serious at-
tention of the authorities at Washington. Unless these
things are corrected, I am directed to relieve you of the
command."

The enclosed letter referred to complaints of the
alleged appropriation of public stores and supplies cap-
tured at Fort Donelson.

On the same March 6th Halleck telegraphed Grant
as follows :

" General McClellan directs that you report to me
daily the number and positions of the forces under your
command. Your neglect of repeated orders to report
the strength of your command has created great dissat-
isfaction, and seriously interfered with military plans.
Your going to Nashville without authority, and when
your presence with your troops was of the utmost im-
portance, was a matter of very serious complaint at
Washington ; so much so that I was advised to arrest
you on your return."

This was the first hint to General Grant that his trip
to Nashville was the subject of official censure. General
Halleck implies that the complaints at that step and

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.

227

rters,
le felt

above
im the

sed to
[gating
nan of
ler and
jr corn-
matters
LOUS at-
5S these
Li of the

5 of the
lies cap-

;d Grant

it to me
ler your
|;o report
Lt dissat-
-y plans.
Ind when
Imost im-
Iplaint at
Ito arrest

his trip

General

[step and

other alleged irregularities originated in Washington.
The "War Official Records," however, contain the
following despatch from Halleck to McClellan, dated
March 3d :

" I have had no communication with General Grant
for more than a week. He left his command without
my authority and went to Nashville. His army seems
to be as much demoralized by the victory of Fort Don-
elson as was that of the Potomac by the defeat of Bull
Run. It is hard to censure a successful general imme-
diately after a victory, but I think he richly deserves it.
1 can get no returns, no reports, no information of any
kind from him. Satisfied with his victory, he sits down
and enjoys it, without any regard for the future. C. F.
Smith is almost the only officer equal tc the emer-
gency."

General McClellan's reply to this missive was dated
March 3d, 6 p. m. It reads:

"The future success of our cause demands that pro-
ceedings such as Grant's should at once be checked.
Generals must observe discipline as well as private sol-
diers. Do not hesitate to arrest him at once, if the good
of the service requires it, and place C. F. Smith in com-
mand. You are at liberty to regard this as a positive
order, if it will smooth your way."

To this despatch was added : "Approved : Edwin M.
Stanton, Secretary of War." But Mr. Stanton frequently
said that he never knew of any authority given Halleck
to arrest General Grant.

General McClellan evidently deemed Halleck's criti-
cisms of Grant's conduct worthy of transmission to the
President, for on March loth Adjutant-General Lorenzo
Thomas telegraphed General Halleck :

"It has been reported that soon after the battle of

I i

228

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Fort Donelson General Grant left his command without
leave. By direction of the President, the Secretary of
War desires you to ascertain whether General Grant
left his command at any time without proper authority,
and if so, for how long ; whether he has made to you
proper reports and returns of his force; whether he has
committed any acts which were unauthorized or not in
accordance with military subordination or propriety; and
if so, what ? "

It is evident from this despatch that Mr. Lincoln was
not willing to accept anonymous letters and camp rumors
as against General Grant's achievements. He intended
that Halleck should become responsible for his insinua-
tions or send him the evidence.

Thus Grant in the full flush of the first important suc-
cess which had crowned the Union armies, while spend-
ing his days and nights in hastening the organization of
his forces for new conquests, was made the target for
misrepresentations, of the gravamen of which he had
not been informed, but which he felt were seriously un-
dermining his usefulness. So far as Halleck's despatches
read, the faults imputed were having gon*? to Nashville
without notifying the department, and having neglected
to make proper returns of the position and condition of
his forces. His reply to these, under date of March 7th,
from Fort Henry to Halleck at St. Louis, was temperate
and dignified. It reads :

" Your despatch of yesterday just received. I did all
I could to get you returns of the strength of my com-
mand. Every move I made was reported daily to your
chief of staff, who must have failed to keep you properly
posted. I have done my very best to obey orders and
to carry out the interests of the service. If my course
is not satisfactory remove me at once. I do not wish to

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.

229

Impede In any way the success of our arms. I have
averaged writing more than once a day since leaving
Cairo, to keep you informed of my position, and it is no
fault of mine if you have not received my letters. My
vroing to Nashville was strictly intended for the good of
the service, and not to gratify any desire of my own.
Believing sincerely that I must have enemies between
you and myself, who are trying to impair my usefulness,
I respectfully ask to be relieved from further duty in the
department."

General Halleck's response bears the same date :

" You are mistaken. There is no enemy between you
and me. There is no letter of yours stating the number
and position of your command since capture of Donel-
son. General McClellan has asked for it repeatedly,
with reference to ulterior movements, but I could not
give him the information. He is out of all patience
waiting for it."

The next day, Grant's letter of the 5th having just
arrived, Halleck replied in somewhat explanatory vein,
claiming that, as he had received no returns, the fault
certainly was not his own, and that he could get no
replies to repeated telegrams.

" This certainly indicated a great want of order and
system in your command, the blame of which was partly
thrown on me, and perhaps justly, as it is the duty of
every commander to compel those under him to obey
orders and enforce discipline. Don't let such neglect
occur again, for it is equally discreditable to you and
me."

Although General Halleck refers the origin of the
complaints for wnich he calls Grant to account to Wash-
ington, the records do not contain proof that McClel-
lan was " out of all patience," or that the dissatisfaction

230

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

with Grant extended beyond the limits of his (Hal-
leck's) department.

Again, on March nth, General Grant renewed his
request to be relieved in the following- telegram : " Yours
of the 6th instant, enclosing an anonymous letter to the
Hon. David Davis, speaking of frauds committed against
the government, is just received. I refer you to my
orders to suppress marauding as the only reply neces-
sary. There is such a disposition to find fault with me
that I again ask to be relieved until I can be put right in
the estimation of those higher in authority."

General Halleck, after two days' consideration, on
March 13th, replied: "You cannot be relieved of your
command. There is no good reason for it. I am cer-
tain that all which the authorities in Washington ask is
that you enforce discipline and punish the disorderly.
The power is in your hands use it, and you will be sus-
tained by all above you. I wish you, as soon as your
new army is in the field, to assume the immediate com-
mand, and lead it on to new victories."

General Grant's reply to this, under date of March
14th, gives renewed evidence of his singleness of pur-
pose to devote himself to the good of the cause.
* After your letter enclosing copy of anonymous letter,
upon which severe censure was based, I felt as though
it would be impossible for me to serve longer without a
court of inquiry. Your telegram of yesterday, however,
places such a different phase upon my position that I
will again assume command, and give every effort to the
success of our cause. Under the worst circumstances
I would do the same.'*

General Halleck again returned to the allegations of
marauding, etc., in a letter dated March 1 7th, in which
he enclosed a letter and a slip cut from a newspaper,

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.

28t

"as a sample of what he was daily receiving in relation
to the general plunder of public property, which, it is
alleged, took place at Fort Donelson." Representations
of these robberies having been made to Washington, he
had been called on again and again to have the officers ;
and men arrested and punished. In conclusion, he
wrote: "I have directed hereafter, when any plunder
of this kind occurs, to arrest every officer in command
of the troops engaged in it."

A very singular feature of this correspondence is the
fact that the official records are silent as to any repre-
sentations of " robberies by soldiers, or neglect of offi-
cers, made to Washington," as alleged, excepting those
made by General Halleck, and quoted above. General
Grant's letter to Halleck, the last of the series, suggests
a possible explanation of the animus, the fruit of which
was the annoyance and at least temporary humiliation
of the only general officer so far developed by the grim
schooling of the war who was able to win victories. It
was written after Grant had resumed his command,
and was moulding the raw troops which had been
added — an army which was soon to win his second
great victory at Shiloh. It bears date March 24th,
and reads : " Your letter, enclosing correspondence
between yourself and Adjutant-General Thomas, is just
received. In regard to the plundering of Fort Donel-
son, it is very much overestimated by disappointed per-
sons who failed in getting off the trophies that they
gathered. My orders of the time show that I did all in
my power to prevent marauding. To execute the
orders, I kept a company on duty searching the boats
about leaving, and to bring off all captured property
found. My great difficulty was with the rush of citizens,
particularly the Sanitary Committee, who infested Don-

232

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

elson after its fall. They thought it an exceedingly hard
case that patriotic gentlemen like themselves, who had
gone to tender their services to the sick and wounded,
could not -arry off what they pleased. Most of the
wounded had reached 'lospitals before these gentlemen
reached Cairo. One of these men (a Dr. Fowler) swore
vengeance against me for the very act of preventing
trophies being carried off. How many more did the
same thing I cannot tell. My going to Nashville I did
not regard particularly as going beyond my district.
After the fall of Donelson, from information I had, I
knew the way was clear to Clarksville and Nashville.
Accordingly, I wrote to you — directed to your chief of
staff, as was all my correspondence from the time of
leaving Fort Henry until I learned you were not hearing
from me — that by Friday following the fall of Donelson I
should occupy Clarksville, and by Saturday week fol-
lowing I should be in Nashville, if not prevented by or-
ders from head-quarters of the department. During all
this time not one word was received from you, and I
accordingly occupied Clarksville on the day indicated,
and two days after I was to occupy Nashville, General
Nelson reported to me with a division of Buell's army,
they being already on transports, and knowing that
Buell's column should have arrived opposite Nashville
the day before, and having no use for those troops
myself, I ordered them immediately to Nashville.

" It is perfectly plain to me that designing enemies are
the cause of all the publications that appear, and are the
means of getting extracts sent to you. It is also a litde
remarkable that the adjutant-general should learn of my
presence in Nashville before it was known in St. Louis,
where I reported that I was going before starting.

" I do not feel that I have neglected a single duty.

THE PRICE OF SUCCESS.

233

My reports to you have averaged at least one a day
since leaving Cairo, and there has been scarcely a day
that I have not either written or telegraphed head-quar-
ters. I most fully appreciate your justness, general, in
the part you have taken, and you may rely upon me to
the utmost of my capacity for carrying out all your
orders."

Neither in this nor in any other communication does
it appear that General Grant had been apprised of the
doubts touching his personal habits suggested in the
despatches of General McClellan and Adjutant-General
Thomas. There is no hint in the record that General
Halleck ever made any investigation touching those
charges, or any report to Washington relating to them
other than his first despatch, above quoted, which seems
to have been the first step in the petty fault-finding. If
Grant had possessed the fiery, impatient spirit which
usually characterizes the owners of military qualities of
the resplendent sort he was soon to display, another
commander would probably have fought die batde of
Shiloh, and the whole character of the campaigns in the
West might have been changed, to the lasting injury of
the national cause. His eagerness to serve his country
faithfully in any capacity led him to subordinate all per-
sonal feeling, and the unpleasant episode ended with
Halleck's final report to Washington that "General
Grant had made the proper explanations."

But what can be said of Halleck, who was persistently
pouring into the ears of the national authorities the gos-
sip of the camp, the malice of disappointed people, and
the contents of anonymous communications ? Probably
the history of the war furnished no meaner example of un-
worthy dealing than that of Halleck, assisted by his chief
of staff, against General Grant. If his popularity with

234

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the nation had been less, the result would probably have
been different. He was evidently afraid to relieve him
of his command in the hour of his triumph ; but his de-
spatches were of a tenor to have inflicted lasting injury
upon a man less fortified by temper and character for
resisting such covert attacks.

General Sherman was at this time at Paducah, and
many, but not all, of these despatches passed through
his hands. He now gives the matured opinion that there
was no ground whatever for the insinuations against
General Grant. He also gives Halleck credit for acting
from honest motives in the matter. It is his opinion
that he desired to permanently supersede Grant with
General C. F. Smith, whom he regarded as the older and
better soldier.

11'^ i

CHAPTER XVI.

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

Grant ngnin in command — Smith's knightly loyalty — Ilallcck's orders — Buell's lei-
surely march to Pittsburgh — All)ert Sidney Johnston at Corinth — Preparing a sur-
prise — The Confederate march — Undiscovered in Grant's front — Attacking at
daylight — Prentiss sustains the first shock — Mis raw troops give way — Sherman's
stubborn stand — Thrice driven back — \V. 11. L. Wallace slain — Sidney Johnston
mortally wounded — Saved by Weljiitcr's guns — Buell's army arrives — The second
day's battle — Grant takes the offensive — The Confederates' desperate resistance-
Retreat ordered — Results of the victory,

A GREATER battle than Waterloo was fought at Shiloh.
To be sure, thrones were not at stake, but a territory
imperial in its extent hung upon the issue. Then, again,
it was the first great battle of a mighty revolution,
wherein the generalship as well as the courage and
endurance of the two sections of a republic were to be
put to the severest test. Patriotism was the motive
force of this conflict. Citizens of a common country
were to meet with arms in hands, unskilled, as the no-
menclature of the drill-sergeant runs. Warlike nations
create great armies as perfectly as a mechanic fashions
an engine, and keep them in constant trim for combat.
The business of war is taught as an element of educa-
tion to every subject. But on this battle-field, along the
banks of the Tennessee, men who were called only a day
before, as it were, from the plow, the loom, the counter
and the workshop, were to meet in a test of courage and
fighting quality that was equal in its breadth of demand
to anything any captain of the old world had ever made
upon his trained and experienced soldiers. The result

(235)

236

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

electrified the country, for it proved that a summons to
its unarmed citizens would at any time produce an in-
vincible army. It once and for all established the fact
that the general average of American citizenship stands
ready in all years for war.

It is not necessary, in tracing the career of a man who
grasped great events, to settle the disputes between mili-
tary men as to the details of battles. In following the
record of General Grant's life it is not especially im-
portant whether Sherman, Prentiss, or those immediately
on the line of battle, expected the enemy on the morning
of the Confederate attack or not. His head-quarters
were at Savannah, nine miles down the river, and from the
very nature of the surroundings it was the business of
those generals on the advance to keep him informed of
the condition of affairs in their front. It must be borne
in mind that he did not select the location upon which
he found the troops encamped. He had only just re-
turned to the command after Halleck's tardy justice had
relieved him of the humiliation he was subjected to after
his victory at Donelson. He was in anything but a good
physical condition to conduct the operations of a large
army. On Marc!; 1 7th, the day he arrived, he wrote Sher-
man from Savannah : " I have just arrived, and although
sick for the last two weeks, begin to feel better at the
thought of being again with the troops." While re-
maining in practical disgrace at Fort Henry he had
done everything in his power to make a success of Gen-
eral Smith's operations up the Tennessee to Eastport
and other points. Even after Halleck had notified him
that he should again take general direction of move-
ments in that section, he wrote to Smith: "I think it
exceedingly doubtful if I shall accept; certainly not
until the object of your expedition is accomplished."

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

IZl

ons to

an in-
iie fact

stands

lan who

;cn mili-

ring the

ally im-

lediately

morning

quarters

from the

ainess of

ormed of

be borne

pon which

y just re-
stice had
:d to after
)Ut a good

lof a large
irote Sher-
although
;ter at the
jWhile re-
■y he had
ss of Gen-
Eastport

,tified him
of move-
1 think it
Irtainly not

lished."

Smith's reply shows the cordial relations between
the two commanders : " I wrote you yesterday to say
how glad I was to find that you were to resume your
old command, and from which you were so unceremoni-
ously, and, as I think, so unjustly, stricken down." The
relations between Grant and Smith were peculiar. The
latter was sixty years old, and Grant could not get over
the feeling of distance between himself and the man
who had inspired him with awe at West Point. Al-
though Smith had said to him, " I am now a subordinate
and know a soldier's duty. I hope you will feel no
awkwardness about our new relations," Grant could not
without difficulty give his old commandant of school
days an order, and he was glad when Smith succeeded
him in command, although he chafed as only such an
iron nature could under Halleck's conduct toward him.
But Smith, who was a most gallant and chivalrous officer,
smoothed the way for Grant's return to the command
by the friendly letter from which the above quotation is
made.

Halleck, cautious and vacillating, had, ever since the
fall of Donelson, been sending orders to Grant to avoid
an engagement, and, almost immediately after his restora-
tion to command, directed that, " if the enemy appeared
in force, to fall back."

Smith's expedition had been without results, and he
dropped back to Pittsburgh Landing and encamped his
troops on the west bank of the Tennessee. If he had
succeeded in cutting the railroad at Eastport or at
Corinth, he was expected to return to Savannah, on
the opposite side of the river, some miles lower down,
and go into camp. But, instead, he selected the location
where the batde of Shiloh was fought, although he
established his head-quarters at Savannah.

238

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

The Tennessee at this time was overflowing its banks,
so that there were only four points where a foothold could
be obtained, and Smith selected the best, in the judgment
of leading military men who approved his choice.

Before the army lay Corinth, nineteen miles away, a
position of great importance, for it is the meeting points
for the railway system that stretches through the South
from east to west, as well as along the valley of the
Mississippi. Upon this important point the Federal
troops were preparing to advance, and the halt at Pitts-
burgh Landing was simply to gather reinforcements ami
to establish a base of supplies for the operations in that
important section of the South. The Confederates, ad-
monished of the danger to their key to the railroad
system of all that region, began rapidly concentrating
their troops at Corinth, and, while Halleck was pouring
his cautions in upon Grant, Beauregard and Sidney
Johnston were preparing to bear down upon him. At
this juncture Buell, with forty thousand men, was ordered
from Nashville to the support of Grant.

Buell's march was marked by great deliberation.
On March 20th Halleck had telegraphed Grant,
" Buell is at Columbia, and will move on Waynesboro
with three divisions." On March 27th Grant telegraphed
to Halleck, " I have no news yet of any of General
Buell's command being this side of Columbia." It was
not until April 3d that he was able to report, "A de-
spatch from the telegraphic operator is just in. He
states that General Nelson " (commanding Buell's ad-
vance) " is in sight."

It had taken the Army of the Ohio twenty days to
march ninety miles. Bridge-building and the condition
of the roads were offered as explanations of the delay.
Most valuable time, however, had been lost, and the

THE BATTLE OF SII/LOH.

nks,
ouM
nent

ay, a
loints
^outh
Df the.
-dcral
; Pitts-
ts and
in tbat
:es, ad-
aUroacl
itrating
pouring
Sidney

m. At
[ordered

deration.
Grant,
Inesboro
Tapbed
[General
It was
'A dc-
ini. He
lelVs ad-
days to
tondltion
lie delay,
and the

opportunity was afforded the enemy of assuming the
offensive and delivering a battle which, had it been
fought according to plans of time and surprise, might
have eventuated in the crushing defeat in detail of the
armies of the Tennessee and Ohio.

The first week in April, 1862, was not spent wholly in
camp and drill by Grant's army. Although unsuspecting
any attack in force, the outposts of both Sherman's and
Prentiss' divisions had had practice at picket firing and
skirmishing. An outpost had been captured by the
enemy on the evening of April 5th, and a force of parts
of two regiments sent out to retake them and drive
away the saucy Confederates had unexpectedly encoun-
tered a stronger force aided by artillery. The fact was
duly reported to General Grant by General Sherman,
but after consultation both of them agreed that the
demonstration meant no more than a reconnoissance in
force. It, however, served to redouble the vigilance of
all the commanders and contributed largely to foil the
enemy in their expectation that the onslaught of the
following morning would be a total surprise.

On the night of April 5th General Grant returned to
his head-quarters, which were still at Savannah, nine
miles down the river, expecting that General Buell, with
whom he had communicated, would have arrived, and
that the plans for an immediate advance would be
maturec'.. General Buell, however, had not arrived,
and General Grant, whose ankle had been seriously
injured by his horse falling upon him two days before,
spent a sleepless and painful night awaiting him. At
that very moment the entire Confederate army lay
within little more than fair artillery range of Sherman
and Prentiss* line, ready to pounce upon the unsuspect-
ing force at daylight. At daybreak the following morn-

240

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

'it

ing the thunder of the enemy's cannon beyond Pitts-
burgh Landing called Grant to the front, where he found
his troops slowly but surely yielding ground before the
furious onslaughts of Johnston's forces massed in three
lines of battle.

Although, as before stated, both Generals Sherman
and Prentiss had strengthened their outposts and
doubled their pickets the evening before, the Confed-
erate onset came with little less than the terrifying sur-
roundings of a thorough surprise. It was Sunday and a
beautiful morning in the early spring. The reveille had
scarcely ceased to echo through the woods and from the
surrounding hillsides when rapid picket firing apprised
Prentiss' men that their breakfast would be postponed.
The men, half dressed, snatching their arms and equip-
ments, sprang into line with the speed of veterans, to
the music of volleys oi musketry heard by them in hos-
tility for the first time. A dense line of Confederates,
commanded by General Hardee, fell upon them before
they had completed an alignment.

Regiments from Missouri, Wisconsin and Michigan
received their baptism of fire with a gallantry Uiat gave
ample promise of their achievements on subsequent
battle-fields, but were slowly forced back. They consti-
tuted Prentiss' First brigade. His Second had been
encamped nearer the Landing, and arived at the front
only in time to stay the retirement of the First to a
line in the rear of their former camp. This position
they held steadfasdy until reinforced by one of Hurlbut's
brio^ades.

The attack upon Sherman fell nearly half an hour later
than that on Prentiss. His men were better prepared,
but the troops were new and some of them gave way
under the fierce dash of the Confederates. They, how*

THE liATTLE OF SUir.OH.

241

rvrr, maintained their organizations, and were still fight-
ini; bravely when a portion of McClernand's division
arrived to support Sherman's waverint; left. General
W. H. L. Wallace's veterans of Donelson were called
into the action soon after it began, and did most efficient
service in the qrap of the line made by the rapid disor-
iranization of the men from Prentiss' right. The ground

PICKETS ON DUTY.

gained by the initial attack gave the enemy great confi-
dence. They charged the Federal lines again and again in
the teeth of a withering fire of musketry that piled the
dead and wounded in windrows. The behavior of most
of the raw trooos was heroic, but that of some of the offi-
cors was cowardly in the extreme. One colonel deliber-
ately led his rc'dment off the field and could not be
Q

'.■;?

;

242

LIFK OF GENERAL GRANT.

shiuncd into doini^ his duty. \\\ otluT instances shat
tcrcd battalions could not in: tlrivcn into lint! by tlu: most
irallaut ftforts of their otficcrs. Belon* lo a. m. it was
estimated that as many as eii^ht thousand men had
strai^i;"led from the iiekl in panic, and in a^ony of tri^ht
were seekiui;' the shelterinj^ banks ot the river and th(;
protection ol the gunboats.

GeiKM'al Grant's lirst step on hcarini;^ the firins;^ was to
aildrc'ss an order to General Nelson, commandiui; Bueil's
advance division, then just out of Savannah, direct iiiiL];^
him to transfer his troops immediately across the river lo
Pittsbursvh.* He had apprehended that an attack, if
juade, would fall upon General Lew Wallace's tlivision,
which was coverin^i;- Crump's Landing, a point some tlis-
tance from the battle field. As soon as he i)erceived the
real point of attack orders were sent to Wallace to
march his division across Snake creek and go into
action on the riirht of Sherman. Then Grant hurried to
the scene of conilict, arriving shordy after eight o'clock.
13y some mishap Wallace took the wrong road, was
forced to countermarch after findinir himself still fardier
away from the fray, and did not arrive in time to partici-
pate in the first day's struggle. But on the second he
fought his troops so well that his blunder of the first was
little more than recalled at the time. Later he was re-
garded as a most efficient officer.

Having rapidly despatched orders for the movement
of troops toward the scene of the fighting, (jencral Grant
next directed his personal efforts to any part of the line
which seemed most in need of the commander's super-
vision. He found the entire left driven back to posi-
dons some distance in the rear of those occupied in the
morning. All attempts to turn Sherman's right Hank
had been repulsed with heavy loss, but the attacks along

THK HATTIJi OF SHI I. OH.

248

K)St

was

h;u\

flight

I ihc.

as to

vcr U)
ick, il'
vision,
ne tlis-
/cd llui
lace to
ro into

ricd to
o'cUhU.

u\, was

(\irthcr

partu-i-
oiul lu-
[irst was
was ro-

)vrnv~nt
il Grant
the line
|s su\)er-
to posi-
Id in the
Iht flank.
Iks along

the whole front, kept up with unrelenting vip^or, had
forced the line rept^atedly to take up new positions
nearer Pittsburgh Lanciinj^.

GENERAL SHKRMAN.

While most of the Union troops fought with almost
unexampled heroism against great disadvantages, that
demoralizing debris that surges back from every battle-

244

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

field was increased many fold at Shiloh. What then shook
new men from their duty would have passed unheeded a
year later. But one who has never looked upon a mass
of men with guns in their hands frightened beyond con-
trol of discipline cannot form any impression of the sight
that met Grant's eyes that morning befo^'e ten o'clock,
while he was trying to bring order out of chaos and re-
assure the panic-stricken men and turn them toward the
front where their comrades were in death-struggle with
the enemy. It took an iron nerve to meet the shock that
must have greeted the commander's eye. Many men
would have lost their heads. But (irant, cool and de-
termined, sought the division commanders, cheered them
with his apparent confidence, and directed the movement
of troops withoui the slightest show of concern.

Words cannot describe nor fancy paint a picture of
the day. As hour after hour went by the fighting was
continued. The whole line was not always engaged,
but some portion of it was fighting continuously,
Through the open fields, in the woods and among
the underbrush the combat continued relentlessly. A
thicket of scrub trees was mowed down by the hail of
bullets, and as charge after charge was made back ami
forth over the field the blue and the gray lay dead
together. Probably in no battle of the war was the
immediate presence of the commander so important at
the front as in this engagement. Troops had to be
handled quickly and shifted rapidly. Time after time
Grant exposed himself to the same dangers as any
subaltern officer. To his personal gallantry was due in
a great measure the failure of the Confederates to win
a victory on the first day. To be sure, Sherman was
conspicuous for his intelligent bravery, and handled his
men with such skill and spirit as to win never-dying

THE BATTLE OE SJULOB.

245

\ mass
id con-
e sight
3' clock,
and rc>
ard the
tIc with
ock that
my men
and de-
-ed them
movement

)lcture of
hting was

laurels. The other jjeneral officers were also com-
mended for their heroism, and acts of individual courage
were almost as numerous as the men who remained and
fought. But in engagements such as Shiloh, where the
tide starts in against a general and has to be turned, the
presence and bearing of the commander is often a vital
factor in determining the result. So it was in this case.
In riding hither and thither over the field, many times in
danger of life or limb, Grant was far more than the com-
mander at a safe distance away directing the battle
through staff officers.

The temper of the Confederate commander who
operated against him can be easily gathered from the
fact that he was mortally wounded while giving to a
wavering brigade the encouragement of his inspiring
presence when they halted upon the verge of a charge.
This also is proof of the intensity of the battle from the
Confederate side, showing that all the straggling was
not from the Federal troops nor the easy tide of batde
with their enemy.

In one of the backward moves, made necessary by
the changing fortunes of the day, Prentiss did not fall
back with the others, and thus his flanks were exposed.
Into the gap the enemy poured a column, which, doubling
up his line, enabled them to capture him and twenty-two
hundred of his men. Some of the stories of the battle
published at the time, which afterward came to be re-
garded as authentic history, state that Prentiss and his
men were captured in tVair tents early in the morning,
and this was regarded as evidence of the complete sur-
prise of the Federal forces. In fact, he was captured at
5.30 p. M., after having gallantly borne the brunt of a
most unequal engagement for nearly eleven hours.

The news that General Johnston had fallen reached

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the Federal army soon alter that event occurred,
and its effect was perceived in the diminished violence
of the charges of the enemy for the time being. The
lull, however, was only the prelude to one of the mcst
desperate and sustained attacks of the day, made late
in the afternoon upon the almost disorganized left of
the Federal line. It had been forced back until it rested
upon the river near Pittsburgh Landing. Just at that
point Colonel Webster, of Grant's staff, had posted
twenty pieces of artillery, some of them of heavy calibre.
The (gunboats had taken up a position where they could
add the terrors of their heavy ordnance, and as tlie
Confederates leaped the ravine and advanced on their
final charge they were met by a paralyzing hail of heavy
missiles which sent them reeling back to the cover of the
woods and hills. This was the turning point of the
battle. Although victory seemed within their grasp,
they were too tired and disorganized to renew the charge.
Thus ended the first day at Shiloh.

General Grant, in his description of the battle of
Shiloh, published in the Century magazine, thus describes
the situation at the close of the first day's fighting :

"Extending from the top of the bluff just south of the
log-house, which stood at Pittsburgh Landing, Colonel J.
D. Webster, of my staff, had arranged twenty or more
pieces of artillery facing south or up the river. This
line of artillery was on the crest of a hill overlooking a
deep ravine opening into the Tennessee. Hurlbut, with
his division intact, was on the right of this artillery, ex-
tending west and possibly a little north. McClernand
came next in the general line looking more to the west.
His division was complete and ready for any duty.
Sherman came next, his right extending to Snake creek.
His command, like the others, was complete in its or-

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

247

irred,
)lence

The

most
e late
left of
rested
at that
posted
calibre.
y could

as the
3n their
)f heavy
:r of the
t of the
r grasp,
; charge.

>attle of
lescribes

Ing:

Ith of the

Colonel J.

or more

,r. This
looking a
jlbut, with
lillery, ex-
Iciernand

the west.

iny duty.

Lke creek.
in its or-

ganization, and ready, like its chief, for any service it
might be called upon to render. All three divisions
were, as a matter of course, more or less shattered and
deph^ted in numbers from the terrible battle of the day.
General W. H. L. Wallace had been mortally wounded
in one of the severest clashes of the day, and his
division had been thrown into disorder as much
from changes of division and brigade commanders
under heavy fire as from any other cause. It lost its
organization, and did not now occupy a place in the
Hue as a division. Prentiss' command was gone as a
division, many of its members having been killed,
wounded, or captured. But it had rendered valiant ser-
vice before its final dispersal, and had contributed a good
share to the defence of Shiloh."

Terribly as his army had suffered, General Grant did
not yet despair of victory after a night of rest and a
new day dawned. When the last Confederate charge
had spent its force, he and Sherman began an earnest
discussion of the situation. To his chief lieutenant he
expressed a perfect confidence in final success. He
stated his belief that whichever army began the attack
would win. He said to Sherman that in his opinion
when two forces had contended nearly to the point of
exhaustion, whichever first returned to the assault se-
cured an advantage. He recalled Donelson as an ex-
auiple, and then gave orders for an attack in the morn-
ing — even before he knew of the arrival of Buell's
army.

It was in this memorable interview that Sherman
became impressed with that sublime confidence and
supreme self-reliance which were so characteristic of the
quiet man who spoke with him upon the events of the day
and the prospects of the morrow. It was no wonder

I I

I'li:

('.'48'

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

249

that Sherman looked with amazement upon his com-
placency after the frightful exactions that had borne
upon him since sunrise. It was no wonder. He might
well marvel at Grant's seeming unconcern. It was dur-
ing this very talk that Sherman imbibed an honest
admiration which never ceased for the man who never
thought of defeat even in the hour of extreme peril. To
be sure, in almost every element of mind and character
Grant was wholly unlike the hero who marched to the
sea, and who on this day took his first introduction to
the trials of grave responsibilides in batde.

Almost with the cessation of the Confederate at-
tack General Lew Wallace's fresh division arrived
upon the battle-field, and the division of General Nelson
began to debark at Pittsburgh Landing. The arrival of
Buell brought a new complication. Although Grant
outranked him in fact, yet the former was in command
of a department while Grant had only a district. The
two officers met upon a transport at the landing.
Buell listened to Grant's story of the battle, summary
of Its results, and plans for attacking in the morning. He
shook his head grimly and pointed significantly to the
thousands of panic-stricken deserters and stragglers
still skulking far in the rear under the protection of
the river bank. " He evidently thought we had better
be planning a line of retreat," Grant subsequently said^
when telling the story of this conference. Before it
was concluded, however, Grant and Buell had an under-
standing, and the latter gave the necessary orders, and
by the next day his thirty thousand fresh troops were
shoulder to shoulder with the tired soldiers of the Army
of the Tennessee.

Night came on, and with it a heavy rainfall which did
not cease until daybreak. Grant tried to sleep in an old

■i i

250

Z/FF OF GENERAL GRANT.

house where the surgeons were caring for the wounded,
but the scenes there being enacted were too much for a
heart that was always touched by human suffering, hard
as it may have appeared to those who only looked at the
dead that received the grim summons while obeying his
orders. He left the place, remarking, " the cries of the
wounded are more unendurable than the fire of the
enemy," Under a tree, in a driving storm and with the
rain drenching him to the skin, he passed the night as
uncomfortably as any common soldier in the army.
Those w(:,re fearful hours of waiting and watching. On
almost every hand the cries of the wounded and dying
could be heard. The changing vicissitudes of the day
had scattered the Union and Confederate fallen over the
field in such confusion that it was impossible to distin-
guish between them. All night the moaning of the
maimed was heard above the sound of the driving storm,
which "n its way was a relief, for the suffering of wounded
men without water is always intense. Words cannot pic-
ture the singular and tragic scenes of that night while
Grant rested under a tree, anxious for daylight, to renew
the harvest of death, for his sickle had been whetted and
his arms strengthened by the arrival of new rea^ ers.

Speaking of the battle of Shiloh and this dreary night
vigil General Grant long afterward said to his lifelong
friend, General Quinby, " From the hour the first day's
fight ceased until the end, I never had a doubt of win-
ning, and I rested that night in that perfect confidence. "

The day dawned to the music of bullets. The rainlall
was subsiding, and rapid preparations were being made
for another day's grapple with the stubborn enemy. The
right of the line, as reorganized for the battle of April
7th, was held by General Lew Wallace's fresh divis-
ion. To his left were Sherman, McClernand and

THE BATTLE OF SfffLOff.

2.51

nded,
for a
, hard
at the
ng his
of the
of the
ith the
ight as
army.

g. On
i dying
the day
)ver the
o distin-
of the
g storm,
ounded
not pic-
ht while
to renew
tted and
h. ers.

ary

Hurlbut, the several divisions reinforced by as many of
the disorganized commands of Generals W. H. L. Wal-
lace and Prentiss as could be hastily reorganized. The
left of the line, filling up the gap to Lick creek, was oc-
cupied by McCook's, Nelson's and Crittenden's divisions,
of Buell's army. Losses in action and through strag-
gling had reduced Beauregard's effective force. Under

THK BATTLi; OF SHILOH- SHOWING SHII.OH CHURCH.

the hail of the gunboafs and pardy owing to the rain
these had withdrawn during the night, excepting a thin
advanced line, to the camps out of which the Federal
forces had been driven the previous morning. To Sher-
man was assigned the task cA retaking his position at
Shiloh Church, and he did it.

The Conf(«derate advance line, tired from th(^ fierce
struggle of the previous day, recoiled from th(.' first blow

li'; !■

252

/,//-7:' OF ailNERAL GRANT.

ol \\\v. now attackinL; I'\ulcral forces, struck oarly in the
niorniiiL;. Ihrir line was promptly roinlorctid, but they
(.lid not liiiht with tin; clash and determination which
marked their onsets the day before. Many tinn;s tluty
made fierce counterchars»es to rc^taki^ s^^round from which.
d\ey had been driven, but each tinu! they were forced
farther back until, one alter another, tlu; camps of the
Union forces were retaken, and as the crowninij^ woik
vSherman aj^^ain reoccui)ied his j)osition at Shiloh Church,
and held it with a i^rasp that knew no looseninij;^.

The second da)'s battle was severe; at times, but no
comjxirison to the deadly work of the iirst. While the
Confederates fouq;ht with determination iu)w and tlu n,
they had lost the [)r«,;stii^e of their first success at tlu; open-
inn of the battli! andthe\ ruslu^d to the onset without their
usual viji^or. Two or three; times there were critical mo-
ments, but they were overcome; without serious loss. In
one of them (n-ant in person led one Ohio renrimcnt anil
part of anotiier in an impetuous assault upon the enemy,
sharino^ the dan'^ers of the humblest private soldier of
the command, c )n the last day as the first he rode about
the fiekl .giving as much attention to the movememts as
possible au'l sharing in its perils. The flight diil not last
all day.

Heaurci^ard. who iuul slept in Sherman's quart(;rs on
Suiulay nis^lu. from them issueil the orditr to retreat at
two o'clock on Monthly, aiul then left. It was not a
rout, althouL;h his forces were much demoralized. Post-
\wz Hreckinridoe as a rear miard, \\v. withdrenv his forct;s
five miles beyond the line occupied 1)\' (irant before
Sunday's battle. He had failed in th*- two obj(;cts of his
campaiq-n. Crant's army had not been driven into the
Tennessee', aiitl the dreaded junction of his army with
Huell's had been accomplisiied.

rifE liATTI.E OF SlllLOir.

253

IT work
Jhunli,

hut no
Uilc tlK'
kI tlu 11,
\v. opcMi-
DUt their
tical mo-
loss. In
ncnt unci
enemy,
IcUcr ol"
Ic ahout
ntints iis
not last

The losses on hotli si(l(^s w<.m'<' hxrg^(;r in proportion
to the ninnh<rs (Migas^(Ml than those of any batthi of tiie
war. Out of tlic thirty-cit^iit thousaml men of the Army
of tli(; Tennessee, just over ten thou.sand weni killed,
wounded anil inissin<r. The losses of Huell's army
swt^lled the Junh^ral casualties to twelve thousand two
hundred and seventeen. Of the losses of the two
armies seventeen hundred w(!re killed, vawq.w thousand
four hundred and ninety-five wound(;d, and three thou-

GLNKR Al. (;kANr I.EAUlNd THE (»H1() KKtUMKNT AT SFnUJH.

sand anil twenty-two missing. IVaureq-ard's losses footed
up, aceordinrr to his own admission, ten thousand six
lumdn-'d and ninety-nin<*.

I^eaurejj^ard's arm\' made no attempt to halt nearer
than Corinth. Out of his fifty thousand troops hurled
into battle on Sunday morning, he was barely able to
assemble twenty thousand whf>n they returned to
Corinth, three days !as«^r. His dead were left on the

i«

■^

254

LIFR OF GENERAL GRANT.

I ,\\

'\ :|'ii

; t

field to be buried by the army which he had failed to de-
stroy.

The battle decided little beyond proving the splen-
did fighting qualities of the contestants. Both Grant and
Sherman have since declared that the only fighting of
the war comparable with that of Shiloh for fierceness,
determination and tenacity was that of the Wilderness.

The day after the battle Halleck arrived on the field
and assumed the active conduct of subsequent opera-
tions, which resulted in a prolonged campaign of shovels
and picks against Corinth.

Reports of the battle of Shiloh, which reached the
North through correspondents and uhe reports of sub-
ordinate officers, again obscured Grant's military fame.
Owing to Halleck's arrival and assumption of the com-
mand, he had not deemed it necessary to make any
official report, and those of his division commanders,
necessarily fragmentary and relating solely to the fight-
ing done by their own commands, were taken as con-
firmatory of the impression that the army had been
surprised the first day and was only saved from
destructive defeat by the arrival of Buell's army on the
second day. None of these Grant was ever permitted
tc see. The reports of General Buell and his sub-
ordinates made specific claim to the honor of having
retrieved an almost hopeless disaster. Grant was saitl
to have been drunk, his subordinates in most unwarlike
ease, and undiscipline had neglected the most elemen-
tary precautions which should be observed by an invad-
ing army in the presence of an enemy.

General Buell had dwelt much upon the impression
made upon him by the hopeless demoralization of the
stragglers and deserters whom he had threatened to
shell out of their hiding-place under the river banks
when he first marched to the scene of the conflict.

THE BATTLE OF SHI /OH.

255

o de-

iplen-
it and
ng of
eness,
:rness.
le field
opera-
ihovels

led the

of sub-

y fame.

iie com-

ike any

[landers,

lie fight-
as con-
Ld been

•d from
on the

lermitted
I his sub-

If having
^vas said
In warlike
elemen-
Ln invad-

ipression
bn of the
[tened to
;r banks

There always has been and always will be more or
less of controversy as to the importance of the part
taken by the Army of the Ohio in the second day's
fight. The fact that they lost something over two thou-
sand men, mostly killed and wounded, is ample testi-
mony that they took a willing hand in the engagement
after they arrived. But whether Grant would have been
driven into the Tennessee if they had not arrived is a
problem that can never be solved. He never thought
so. It ought to be glory enough for the men under
Buell to know that they did what they were ordered to
do, demonstra-
ted their sol-
dierly quality 1
and were in at
the defeat, hav-
ing a full share
of the glory of j
success. The
war lasted too
long, and the ^
men who com-
posed Buell's

army proved their heroism on so many fields that
they can well rest their reputations upon their achieve-
ments. The Army of tlie Tennessee demonstrated its
capacity by its single-handed struggle on the first day
and its fortitude on the last, and, alas, by its losses that
footed up more than ten thousand in the two days. It
is enough to say of it at Shiloh that an army gathered in
its front for the purpose of surprise made a furious rush
upon it in the gray of morning when no enemy was ex-
pected and almost overwhelmed it ; that it resisted this
furious attack, fighting from daylight to dark, contesting

BURNING HOKSLb AT SHILOII

1 !*

ict.

256

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the ground inch by inch, despite the fact that ten thou-
sand of its comrades drifted to the rear in panic and
skulked under the shelter of the river banks. The men
who sustained the brunt of the fight on the first day, as
the second, need no greater eulogy than the facts.
Those who remained in the ranks fought with as much
persistency and courage, although almost untrained in
the manual of arms, as any set of men did at any period
of the war.

There has been entirely too much feeling engendered
by the controversies which sprang up immediately after
the battle and have been kept alive ever since. Most
of Buell's army claim to have saved the day by their
timely arrival, and the Army of the Tennessee has re-
torted that had they marched as fast as they should they
would have been there before the battle beofan. Two
men rarely see things alike. Two generals are seldom
similar in their methods of march and fight. It may be
true that Buell was too slow. It is true that Grant's
army had not fortified its position or prepared the ordi-
nary means of defence, for they were expecting to make
an offensive rather than defensive campaign. But these
are small matters as compared with the general treat-
ment of the engagement and its results.

In all the discussions that have taken place in reference
to Shiloh, the personal bearing of the commander, as well
as that of nearly all the generals and most of the rank and
file, nothing has been written or said that can detract
from their achievements or glory upon that memorable
field.

It is not necessary in reviewing General Grant's ca-
reer to consider any of the disputes that have arisen in
relation to that batde. He won a victory there. He did
not expect an attack. His army was pounced upon and

THE BATTLE OF SHILOH.

'Ihl

\ thou-
lic and
he men
day, as
e facts,
as much
ained tn
ly period

gendered
,tely after
•e. Most
^ by their
ice has re-
hould tliey
ran. Two
^re seldom
It may be
tat Grant's
the ordi-
icr to make
But these
leral treat-
In reference
Ider, as well
lie rank and
jean detract
I memorable

I Grant's ca-
^e arisen in
;re. He did
sd upon and

almost overthrown before he was aware of the onset.
When he reached the field and found his army in con-
fusion he wrested victory from the jaws of defeat. This
effort called for exceptional powers, and in the emergency
he rose to the necessities of the occasion. He deserved
the thanks of his countrymen. The plain story of Shiloh
can never be improved by controversies over technical
points. The exalted heroism displayed upon that battle-
field by both sides is the common heritage of a reunited
people.

J 5

CHAPTER XVII.

CONFEDIiRATE VIEW OF SIIILOM.

DcAurcgnnl in tlip West — Interview witii Goncrnl A. S. Johnston — 'I'lie Cnnfedenitc
line of tlefenie — Its weak i)oiiits indiented — Joliii-ton's ^looni — licauie^jard
concentrated at I'orintli — A badly armed force —JoiinMon arrives at Corinlli —
He assumes eomn>an<l— Tlic march to Sliiloh — 'I"ariiii)e>.s of folk — 'llie nnsit
delayed — Omfeileratc dispositions for lialtle— The attack n total surprise--
Sheridan's and I'rentiss' resistance — The I'cderals tiriven liaek tiiriei — |.iliii
ston's fatal wound — The Confederates' linal charfjc— Slee|)ing in tlie Icdiiil
camps — The second days' lijjlit — Huell's fresh troo|)s — The Confederate retreat.

TiiK concentration of Confederate troo|)s for offensive
operations against (icneral Grant on the 'I'ennessee was
very carefully niatle. (ieneral Heau regard had left the
Army of the Potomac with great reluctance, nearly two
months before tht* battle of Shiloh, for tlu; piirpost; of
adding his experience and recognized talents to tlie
work of reoroanizin*^ and concentratinij: in tlu! West.
The disaster to Zollickoffer at Mill Spring, Ky., on
January 19th, and the threatening attitude of affairs
generally in the w'estern department, were the movinj.;
causes of Beauregard's transfer.

The Confederate line extending from Colimilnis
on the Mississippi to the Big Barren in Kentucky,
with Bowlinof Green and Columbus as the two sal-
ients, w\Ts still undisturbed when Beauregard reachcil
General Albert Sidney Johnston's headquarters at
Bowling Green on the 5th of February. Grant was
threatening from the direction of Cairo, and Buell
hovered with a much larger force than Johnston's in
the quarter of Green River, with evident designs
258

CONFEDRRA TE VIE W OF SH/L OH.

260

hi' Confeilornli'

.v; ni Curintli-

lotiU s(iri>visi--

iu tin- I'fiUial
iMlonUc retrial.

o\' offi'.nsivc

luul loit th<'
nearly two
pur\K)Si^ of
nts to the
llu! West.
JO- Kv.. on
i- of iiffairs
the movini-;

CoUimbu;>

Kentucky,

the two sal-

rard reached

dquarters at

Grant was

,, and Bw^^^
Johnston's in
dent designs

ap^ainst Nashville. At the time (icneral Orant began
his advance by way of the Tennessee River, the
Confederate force, within easy reach by rail of the
assaih'd points, was at least forty-one thousand mv.w.
(iciuTal Beauregard at once counseled (icneral Joha-
slon that the Confederate line was exceedingly faulty
and that Howling (jreen must be abandoned so soon as
Ihicll advanced, ami that Columbus was equally (exposed
to a fatal attack by land and river. I le, therefore, pro-
posed that when Grant should proceed against I'ort
Henry, all the available! Confederate force be thrown
upon him so as to overwlujlm him with decisive odds,
and then concentrate to meet Huell offensively.

(ieneral Johnston did not consent to this, and very soon
thereafter I'Ort Henry fell — the chance; to ovf-rwhelm
General Grant at I'ort Donelson was lost, and, as
(ieneral Beauregard had pointed out, Bowling Green
and Columbus dropped by their own weight.

("jeneral Beauregard went to Jackson, in West Tenn-
essee, in February, 1862, after having had an under-
standing with General Johnston that, if Doncilson fell and
Nashville was abandoned, the Confederate forces, under
his own command, were to concentrate at some central
point so as to cover the railroads from Memphis to the
Hast and North. Those under Johnston, in Middle
Tennessee, were to fall back toward Stevenson, Alabama.

As General Beauregard had forecast. Forts Henry and
Donelson scarcely caused a halt to the seventeen thou-
sand men which Grant had at first flung at these two
points in the re-entering angle of the Confederate line.
On February i8th, only the day after Beauregard
reached Jackson, General Johnston telegraphed him :
" You must now act as seems best to you. The separa-
tion of our armies is, for the present, complete."

260

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

\ %

*;$

The same night he retreated in the direction of Mur-
freesboro' on the direct road to Stevenson. He halted
his column at Murfreesboro' to pick up stragglers from
Donelson and other points, and gather in small bodies
of detached Confederate troops. The Federal army did
not occupy the capital of Tennessee before the 26th, by
which time General Johnston had a force of seventeen
thousand men near the place where the batde of Stone
River was afterwards fought.

It is difficult to describe the depression that General
Grant's successes, and the reverses to General Johns-
ton's command, produced throughout the Confederacy.
They were serious blows to our cause, breeding dissatis-
faction and distrust which almost overshadowed the joy
occasioned by successes in the East the year before.
Upon General Johnston these reverses fell with great
weight, and he felt that his mi'' iry career had been sorely
blemished by them.

While all these things were transpiring, General Beau-
regard was concentrating and organizing his forces for
the defense of Memphis and West Tennessee. During
all the time since their separation before the fall of
Donelson, he had been urging General Johnston to
abandon the idea of falling back to Stevenson, and to
join him in concentrating a large force at Corinth for
future offensive or defensive operations. Johnston was
finally led to recognize, after the fall of Nashville, that the
best move for him to make was " to co-operate or unite
with Beauregard for the defense of Memphis and the
Mississippi River," as he wrote the Confederate
Secretary of War on February 27th. A movement for
the junction of the two armies was begun on February
28th, but was not completed until March 25th, lack of
energy on the part of the Federal commander in that

CONFEDERATE VIEW OF SHILOH

rcneral
johns-
deracy.
lissatis-

quarter having made the tardy movement a possi-
bility.

While General Johnston was marchinj; toward Corinth
he was contemplating^ a defensive rather than an otfensive
campaign, and was looking for a point of concentration
fartlier south than the railroad centre to which Beaure-
gard ultimately led him. At Decatur, on March 15th,
the tendency of his mind is to be read in this despatch
to (ieneral Beauregard, " Have you had the right bank
of the Hatchee examined near Bolivar.'* I recommend
it to your attention. It has, besides other atlvantages,
that of being further from the enemy's base."

When the two generals met for the first time since the
fall of Donelson, General Johnston was much cast down.
Men of his exalted character and high degree of courage
arc most apt to feel keenly the darts of adverse criticism,
and he evidently suffered deeply, but without complaint.
Ill his first interview with General Beauregard he be-
trayed much emotion, and expressed his purpose to
place the latter in direct command of the army thus as-
sembled, to operate against Grant, reserving to himself
only the functions of departmental commander with
headquarters at or near Holly Springs, Miss.

He stated that recent events had tleprived him of
the confidence of the country, and he feared of the
army to such an extent as to impair its moral
strength if he remained in actual command of it. He
felt sure that General Beauregard, who held the coiP'
fidence of both, was better equipped to deal with the
present emergency. Profoundly touched by General
Johnston's manner and spirit, General Beauregard prompt-
ly declined to accept any such sacrifice, and urged, in-
stead, that they should unite their best energies in striking
a decisive blow at the enemy. He outlined to General

202

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Johnston the probabilities of a very successful offensive
campaign aj^^ainst Cieneral Grant, one in which the en-
thusiasm of the Southern people would be rekindled and
their good will speedily recovered. General Johnston,
touched by General Beauregard's manner and speech,
shook him warmly by the hand, saying :

" Well, be it so, General. We two together will do our
best to secure success."

The meeting was an affecting one. They parted with
the understanding that they would immediately prepare
for the offensive, with General Beauregard exercising the
actual command of the army. Shortly after this. General
Beauregard furnished me the notes for an order announc-
ing the organization, and the fact that the troops were to
be prepared for the field with the greatest possible energy.

I drew up the order which was submitted to Gene-
ral Johnston, who approved it as it was issued. This
order designated General Johnston as the general in
command, and General Beauregard as second in com-
mand. The only change made in the order from the time
General Beauregard first handed it to me until it was
signed by General Johnston, was that designating, at my
suggestion, General Braxton Bragg as chief-of-staff. In
a subsequent order I was named as the adjutant-gen-
eral of the army.

Bragg's staff position was a nominal one, given
only for the purpose of invesdng him with the right
to give orders upon the field in the name of Gene-
ral Johnston, if necessary, as was thought expedient
at the time. For the next five days after these orders
were issued. General D'^auregard was at work, day and
night, preparing the army for a forward movement. As
adjutant-general of the army thus assembled, I was spe-
cially announced chief of the department of orders, and

CONFEDERA TE VIE W OF SHIL OH.

203

all communications to or from either of the corps com-
manders, passed through my hands. Official evidence is
so abundant as to the real moving spirit of the purpose
and plan of the batde of Shiloh as to render it beyond
controversy.

The Confederate forces now brought together at
Corinth, and in that quarter, were in full spirit for a for-
ward movement. But all the troops that we could gather
for some weeks were on the ground. Further, the isolated
position of General Grant on the west bank of the Ten-
nessee, was tempting us to give him batde there. When
the sun went down on the night of April 2d, we were in
as good condition to attack as we were likely to be, while
the enemy was watching Buell's approach. The informa-
tion came through General Cheatham, who, with a division
of Polk's corps posted at Bethel, some twenty miles north
on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, had been menaced by
General Lew Wallace's division.

On learning this, General Beauregard prompdy de-
cided that the time had come to strike. His argu-
ments, added to those which I adventured in an in-
terview with General Johnston, induced that officer
to agree that the necessary orders for the advance
of the Confederate army at noon the next day should
Issue. Orders to that effect were in the hands of
Bragg, Hardee and Polk, the corps commanders, by
1.40 A.M., the morning of the march. In them was spec-
ified all details as to rations, ammunition, transportation,
baggage. The roads to be taken to the field, with all the
details of the movement of the first day, and even man-
ner of entering batde, were carefully explained to Gene-
rals '^^ragg, Polk and Hardee by General Beauregard, in
the presence of General Johnston in Beauregard's own
quarters, whither Johnston had gone soon after sunrise

264

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

on the morning of the 3d of April. This explanation
being made, the corps commanders were told to put their
respective commands in motion without delay. These
explanations, I must add, followed rigidly written notes
or memoranda previously dictated by Beauregard to one
of his aides-de-camp, and from which I formulated the
order that was published that afternoon, and which is
published among the documents of the epoch.

By midday on April 3d, the Confederate armies filled
the streets of Corinth in martial array, and marchin<r
order. Delay, caused by some misunderstanding on the
part of General Polk — with downright tardiness on the
part of others — delayed the actual start until 3 p.m. Tliis
was unfortunate for the Confederates, inasmuch as it
prevented them from reaching the battle-field until Satur-
day, April 6th, instead of Friday, as had been expected.

On the evening of April 4th, the headquarters of John-
ston, Beauregard and Bragg happened to be at Monte-
rey, eleven miles out from Corinth. Just as General
Beaurecfard and staff dismounted, a bare-headed younir
Federal major from Ohio was brought in a prisoner. He
had been captured during a heavy reconnaissance, pressed
forward from Bragg's advance almost into the enemy's
lines, very indiscreetly, inasmuch as the success of our
movement depended upon surprising our adversary.
We, however, learned from him that our approach was
wholly unexpected, and that no intrenchments whatever
had been thrown up for the protection of the Federal
encampments.

The next day the forces were so clumsily handled that
Hardee's corps, which held the first of the three lines
of battle into which our army was divided, was not in
the position prescribed for it until about 3 p.m. General
Polk also reported at about that hour that his men had

3S filled
arching
r on the
. on the
M. This
ch as it
il Satur-
xpccted.
of ]ohn-
t Montc-
Gcncral

youniT

bner. He

)rcssed

enemy'^^

s of our

versary.

ach vv^^
whatever

Federal

• 1

CONFEDERA TE VIE W OF SHJL OH.

already exhausted their five days' »*ations. Beauregard
was now forced to the conclusion, and so asserted to
Johnston, that the campaign had miscarried, inasmuch as
the unnecessary delay in marching twenty miles, together
with the other untoward circumstances recited, exclutled
the hope that the enemy could be surprised ; in fact, he
said, by tho next niorning they would be intrenched to
the very f'yt-s. He therefore recommended thc^ aban-
donment of the operation, and immediate return of the
Confederate army to Corinth.

While admitting the force of Beauregard's views. Gen-
eral Johnston, still hoping to surprise the enemy, decided
to venture the hazard of battle. The Confederate corps
commanders, therefore, were directed to advance the
next morning at dawn, and engage the enemy as early
as possible, in the order and after the manner prescribed
and explained in the special order of battle. The front
lines of the two armies were not more than two miles
apart that night, and the tattoo beaten in the Federal
camps was distinctly heard by General Mard(;e's corps,
and even at the bivouac of General Johnston. We could
follow the location of the enemy's troops, and count the
numljer of regiments, by the drumbeats at tattoo.

Tlie Confederates were astir at 3 a. m. that eventful
Sunday morning. Hastily breakfasting, they were
fornietl in lines of battle as had been prescribed, except-
\\Y^ tliat, most fortunately for Sherman, Hardee's left
tlank liad not been (extended so as to reach Owl Creek
as he had been explicitly ordered. His force numbered
over nine thousand bayonets deployed in line of battle.
vSix hundred yards rearward was Hragg's corps of nearly
eleven thousand infantry and artillery. Polk, with nine
thousand one hundred and thirty-five men, was eight hun-
dred yards yet further rearward, and after them, held in

266

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

reserve, was Breckenridge's division of six thousand four
hundred and thirty-nine bayonets. The Confederates
thus numbered thirty-five thousand three hundred and
twenty- nine infantry and artillery, and about forty-three
hundred cavalry, so poorly armed as to be of no use ex-
cept to watch the flanks for any hostile approach.

A description of the ground occupied by Grant's army
will be necessary to the comprehension of the occur-
rences and vicissitudes of the coming battle. Lick and
Owl Creeks starting on a ridge dividing the watersheds
of the Mississippi and Tennessee, running eastward
almost parallel, empty into the latter four miles apart.
The table-'and between these water courses, for a dis-
tance of five miles out from the Tennessee, is much cut
up by ravines draining generally into Owl Creek, the
hill tops rising in some places one hundred feet above
low water in the river. A primeval forest much cum-
bered with undergrowth clothed the hillsides excepting
where a few small farms \yx<\ been cleared. Several
roads traverse or cross this plateau leading toward
Pittsburg Landing.

Three brigades of Sherman's division occupied the
right of the Federal line, resting on Owl Creek. On
their left were Prentiss's division, and still further to the
left, their flank resting on Lick Creek, was Stuart's bri-
gade of Sherman's division. To Sherman's rear, within
easy supporting distance, were the veteran regiments of
McCIernand's division. Hurlburt's and W. H. L. Wal-
lace's divisions completed the Federal second line with
their extreme left, stretching nearly to Stuart's position.
Thus, the -two lines were disposed within easy support-
ing distance, and both flanks of the Union forces were
protected by t):e creeks, which, at this season, were
unfordable.

CONFEDERATE VIEW OF SHILOH.

267

t's army
e occur-
Jck and
ite.rsheds
eastward,
ics apart,
for a dis-
much cut
:reek, the
feet above
luch cum-

cxccpting
Several

ng toward

Neither Grant nor Sherman expected the attack which
burst upon the Union army that Sunday morning, just
after sunrise, as their dispatches about that time amply
show. In fact, the guns at Shiloh awoke the Federal
commander, who had slept at Savannah, nine miles away.
When his steamer came to the landing he found the
western bank of the river alive with his men who had
been routed from their tents by that early morning
attack. His whole front line was surprised and dis-
lodged and the ravines were packed with thousands of
crouching fugitives.

Aside from documentary proof, it seems difficult to
believe that either of the most trusted Federal generals
had the faintest expectation of attack, although a hostile
army, forty thousand strong, was encamped within two
miles of Sherman's headquarters. The completeabs: nee of
those ordinary precautions that hedge an army in the fieUl,
forbid us from regarding that first day's batde as other
than one of the most complete surprises ever inllicted
upon an army. Without advanced infantry pickets or
cavalry videttes, the line of brigade sentinels had barely
time to discharge their guns, when the Confederate
masses close at their heels entered the half roused en-
campments. Many officers were still asleep, while others
were eating breakfast, while their arms lay scattered in
disorder. The left of Hardee's line of attack only struck
the left brigade of Sherman's line commanded by Hilde-
brand ; but Prentiss's division received the first shock from
flank to flank. Hiklebrand's regiments swept from their
encampments scattered in confusion, and were no more
heard of as an organization on cither day of the battle.
Prentiss's division rallying was reformed on a neighbor-
ing ridge, but was forced still further back, although
fighting gallantly. Sherman's right brigade, hitherto

1.1

268

Z/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

.? ' :'

,i.i'

■SI

untouched by Hardee's line, availing diem selves of all
advantages of ground, struggled manfully to make head
against Ruggles' division of the second line, pushed
into the gap on Hardee's left. The small water course
in front of the Federal right added to the strength of
Sherman's front, affording him a converging fire upon
his assailants. Still the pressure upon him was so great
that his line was giving way, and he had lost five or six
guns before McClernand arrived to his support. Both
were pressed steadily back until they gained foothold
at cross roads in their rear, where several batteries were
favorably posted. Their new position was a thickly
wooded ridge, with a ravine in their front. There they
stood until Ruggles, reinforced, assailed them again with
such fury that they were pressed back to the new
ground, this time on a line with McClernand's camps.

When Hurlburt, informed by the uproar in his from that
he was needed, pressed forward his brigades, he met the
broken fragments of Prentiss' command which filtered
through his lines as he formed his men south of the po-
sition last taken by Sherman and McClernand. Hurl-
burt was assailed with great vigor, but his men maintained
their position with great obstinacy despite the loss
of a battery which was abandoned by his artillerists.
The Confederates here advancing in column instead
of deployed, suffered severely. Meanwhile, I^-entiss
rallying some of his men, fought them effectively on
Hurlburt's right, the two giving ground slowly under
the Southern onslaught, using numerous artillery to
stay the progress of their assailants. But at this time
the Confederates were already in possession of thoir
enemy's camps filled with equipage and baggage cs lux-
urious as ever encumbered any excepting an Oriental
army.

CONFEDERATE VIEW OF SHILOH.

2G9

of all
head
ushed
:ourse
io[th of
I upon
) areat
I or six
Both
oothold
ies were
thickly
ere they
rain with
the new

:amps.
front that
ti met the
h filtered
)f the po-
lUirl-
laintained
the loss
irtillerists.
n instead
Prentiss
ctively on
vvly under
]rtillery to
,t this time
,n of their
.(Tc i^s hix-
,a Oriental

Polk, with the third Confederate battle-line was now
engaged with Sherman. The latter fought stoutly, making
the most of the tangled ravines that <*ronted each new
position. He poured increasing volleys upon his assail-
antL , more than once checking them. But gathering fury
with each new onset, his steadfast assailants would not
be kept at bay, and with each hour drove their enemies
nearer the river. It was as late as 9 a.m. that W. H.
L.Wallace's division became involved in the battle. His
men, trained by C. F. Smith* and hardened by Donelson,
were fought with conspicuous courage, but by noon the
whole Federal line, including Stuart's brigade on the ex-
treme right, had been driven back within a mile of the
river. There the greatly intermixed commands made a
stand where the remains of their artillery were massed.

The Confederates, too, had become greatly disorgan-
ized and disarranged, owing to the nature of the ravines
and thickets through which they advanced. Although
bent upon pressing the enemy, their attacks lacked har-
monious propulsion by their corps commanders. In-
stead of occupying themselves with the concentration
and continuous projection of their men and artillery upon
the shattered Federal divisions, these officers pressed
forward personally to the "perilous edge of batde,"
leading brigades and even regiments to the charge.
They inspired them, no doubt, with their own personal
conduct, but they might have been far better employed
in gathering and throwing proper masses against their
tottering, demoralized foe.

General Johnston had repeatedly stimulated per-
sonally the onset, especially on the extreme Confed-
erate right, where a stubborn resistance was made by

'The accomplished instructor in tactics and soldiership of so many
officers on both sides on that field. T. J.

270

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Stuart's brigade — thus greatly exposing himself — as
afterwards, when he was mortally woui led. Riding
across the field at nine o'clock, aiming to join General
Johnston, I came upon many Confederate troops at a
halt ; sometimes a regiment or battery, again a brigade
and once a whole division at ordered-arms, and wholly
inactive for want of any directions or supervision from
their superior officers. With the aid of staff-ofticcTs
who had become unable to find their respective chiefs,
many such troops, by my special directions, were pressed
into action where the firing was heaviest.

At this hour of the conflict, within the hollows and on the
slopes and ridges of that circumscribed woodland, more
than si.xty thousand muskets were engaged in the dire
work of carnage. The cpntinuous rattle, roll and roar ; the
blaze of small arms, the hurtle, shriek of rifle projectiles
through the trees, the explosion of shells, the louder
discharges and reverberation of more than a hundred
cannon, the hoarse, continuous cheers and shouts of the
contestants, filled every nook of the forest with the
varied, commingled, savage clamor of the bloodiest of
modern battles. Meanwhile the sun had dissipated the
fog of the early morning and shone bright and warm
through the young spring foliage.

General Johnston who, in the early hours of the battle,
had conducted the movements against Stuart's brigade
as I have stated, ai 1 1 a.m., turned his attention to
directing Hreckenridge's division. It was while thus en-
gaged that he was mortally wounded. He had just
launched Howen's and Statham's brigades with resist-
less momentum against Hurlburt who, for three-
quarters of an hour, had checked his progress towards
the river, and succeeded in pressing him back half a
mile, but, unhappily, the Confederate corps-commander

CONFEDERATE VIEW OF SHILOH.

271

elf— as
Riding
general
ps at a
brigade
d vvl\oUy
,io» from
f- officers
ve chiefs,
e pressed

and on the
^and, more
n the dire
d roar ; the

projectih's
the louder

a hundred
iouts of the
with the
[bloodiest of

.sipated the

X andNvarm

lofthebatde.
irt's brigade
1 attention to
IhUc thus en-
He had just
with resist-
or three-
rress towards
back half ;i
U-commander

was struck with a rifle ball just below the knee. It would
seem that Johnston was unconscious of the fast bleeding
wound he had received, but when Governor Harris, his
acting aid-de-camp, returned from delivering an order, he
noticed that his chief was reeling in his saddle and about
to fall from his horse. Sustaining him in his seat while
leading him to the cover of a ravine, he reached a
wooded, secluded hollow and lifted the now unconscious
soldier to the ground, where he died without a murmur.
This was at 2.40 p.m., but the event was really not known
to the mass of the Confederate army until night.

Unaware, myself, of General Johnston's hurt, I reached
that very quarter of the field soon after he had been struck,
and found Breckenridge's division halted at ordered arms.
1 was there in search of troops with which to turn that por-
tion of the Union line which Bragg had been unsuccess-
fully endeavoring to force back. Therefore I gave the
order to General Breckenridge, in General Johnston's
name, to advance, turn and capture certain batteries, the
position of which I indicated by word and gesture.

General Breckenridge, clad in a dark jeans blouse and
surrounded by his staff, sat upon his horse more like an
equestrian statue than a living man, except for the fiery
gleam that shot from his dark eyes. Through the open
forest in his front, a Federal encampment, apparently un-
occupied, was visible. Farther on was an open field bor-
dered by a dense thicket. Through the camp and into
the field beyond his division moved in fine order. At the
center of the field a hissing stream of rifle missiles burst'
upon the Confederates, heaping the ground with dead
and wounded. There was a momentary check. Ani-
mated by their officers, they closed up their thin ranks
and moved forward pressing back the stubborn enemy.

Beauregard had meanwhile turned his attention to the

272

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

\m^

\ f

Federal center, where Wallace and Prentiss were still
disputing every foot of ground. Concentrating a pow-
erful force of artillery and infantry, the latter including
battalions of stragglers, he hurled thorn upon Wallace's
front and left the latter now exposed by McClernand s
retrograde movement — bidding them to '• go forward and
drive the enemy into the Tennessee." Wither's brigade
having forced Stuart from the position he had held so
long and stoutly, now came up opportunely and fell upon
Hurlburt's left flank which, to avoid being surrounded,
was compelled to fall back, leaving Prentiss' left flank
exposed. Wallace's men, too, were giving way ; their
commander having fallen mortally wounded. Some of
his men, however, remained with Prentiss, who found
himself enclosed on all sides. After vainly trying to extri-
cate himself, he was, at last, obliged to surrender with
about three thousand officers and men. This was at
almost six o'clock.

Colonel Webster, an officer of Grant's staff and com-
mander of an artillery regiment, observing the increas-
ing mortal peril of his people, had gathered upon the
ridge near the landing all the guns he could find, includ-
ing thirty-two, twenty-four and twenty pounders manned
by runaways from the front. The remains of field
batteries were also gathered there until at least fifty guns
were massed upon that eminence, with a field of fire
sweeping all approaches to the river. The position was
strong. Timber and undergrowth gave covert both for
the guns and their support, while a deep ravine sepa-
rated it from the table-land which it dominated. Tangled
brushwood served as a natural abatis to its steep slope
towards the Confederates. Behind this natural parapet,
interposed so fortunately for them, the entire Federal
force left after the capture of Prentiss took refuge,

CONFEDERATE VIEW OF SHILOH.

278

:re still
a pow-
cluding
Wallace's
-rnands
irard and
, brigade
t held so
fell upon
•rounded,
left flank
'ay; their
Some of
who found
ig to extri-
jnder with
lis was at

f and corn-
he increas-
upon the
find, includ-
rs manned
is of field
jt fifty guns
[field of fire
losition was
irt both for
•avine sepa-
jed. Tangled
steep slope
iral parapet,
^tire Federal
;ook refuge,

with the exception of the remains of two of Sher-
man's brigades, which had drifted off witli their gene-
ral to the immediate vicinity of the bridge across
Snake Creek, on the road nearly northward in its
course to Crun"; s Landing. Not being followed,
Sherman had established them there undisturbed,
with his rear open to retreat, in an emergency,
down the river. Meanwhile, also, or b(Torc 6 p. m.,
Ammen's brigade of Nelson's ilivision had been marched
up from Savannah, thrown across the river, and i^stab-
lished as a support to \\'(»bst«v's admirably-disposed
battery, the other supports (^f which wno n(n> energized
by the knowledge that niglu, wilh its shield of darknesi^
and ample succor, was at hauvl. At the same time, two
I-'ederal g\u\bo,\ls had UvKen a position in n bend of the
Tennessee that enabled them to enfiUulc the front of the
position, a»\d, in fact, the whole field now in possession
of the Confederates, with their heavy shot and shells, as
any map of it will show. This was the situation about
six o'clock. The sun, however, was disappearing, and
time was not left to the Confederates to concentrate and
finish decisively the work of the day. Moreover, for the
most part, they had been fighting incessantly without
food for twelve hours, and their empty caitridge-boxes
needed replenishing.

From the character of the field, the organization
of the several corps, divisions and even brigades had
become so disarranged and intermixed that none of
the divisions, and few if any of the brigades, con-
fronted this last strong Federal position which stood
between the Confederates and the river. However, a
number of desultory uncombined offensive efforts to
carry that position were essayed with unquenched brav-
ery and no small loss in killed and wounded under the
s

274

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

n i li

ilyt

showers of grape and canister from Webster's well-
planted batteries. It was, indeed, in these disjointed
charges that the greater part of the loss that day of
some of the regiments engaged in them occurred. As
was to be expected, such fragmentary fighting was as
sterile as cosdy.

In the mean time, convinced of the futility of any
attempt to prolong the combat after dark with troops
so newly raised, fatigued and broken in their organ-
ization as he knew his to be after twelve hours
of unremitting, laborious work on such a field, Beau-
regard had dispatched his aides-de-camp with orders
to the corps commanders to withdraw their men
from the fire of the Federal gun-boats, and, as far as
possible, to re-establish their shattered organizations
and otherwise prepare their commands for completinjr
the victory early the next morning. When these orders
reached the troops, barely time was left for them to find
encampments near by before pitch darkness had come
upon them, and where they slept upon their arms after
breaking their prolonged fast upon the food left by their
enemy. ,

I was, myself, at a point densely wooded, very near to
the Tennessee River, when the order to retire reached
the front. The large shells thrown from the gun-boats
were tearing and crashing in all directions through the
heavy forest at the time with a startling, rather than a
dangerous, effect. Riding leisurely rearward to where I
understood General Beauregard had established his head-
quarters near Shiloh chapel, it was my office immediately
upon dismounting to write the telegraphic report to the
Confederate authorises of the day's operadons, including
thedeath of General Johnston. It was a brief dispatch, yet
it was dark by the time it was completed.

CONFEDERATE VIEW OF SIIILOH.

275

of any

troops

organ-
i hours
I, Beau-
1 orders
eir men
IS far as
nlzatlons
)mpletin;ji
>se orders

m to find
had come
irms after

ft by their

I had received on the field by a courier from Corinth,
a telegram from Colonel Helm to General Johnston,
to the effect that his scouts in Middle Tennessee
reported that General Huell was moving; toward Deca-
tur, North Alabama, instead of upon Pittsburg Landing.
This was good news at such a time, and I handed it to
the General with pleasure which was not abated later
on that night even when my enforced guest, General
Prentiss, very confidently declared that the tables would
be turned on us the next morning b^ the arrival of
the whole of Buell's army during the night.

On the evening of the 6th, Nelson's two other brig-
ades had crossed the Tennessee. Crittenden's division,
brought up from Savannah, forcing its way through the
stragglers, had established itself by midnight a mile and
a half in advance of the line on Nelson's right. Lew
Wallace, unable to find either of two roads to the battle-
field by the thunder of a hundred cannon within six
miles of him, under the dusky shadows of night reached
a posidon to the south of Snake Creek, commanding the
bridge, and fortunately for him, near where Sherman
had rallied the fragments of his own and other divi-
sions. Rousseau's brigade also readied the field before
sunrise.

Thus twenty-five thousand fresh troops were on
hand, and ready to take the field against the victors of
the day before. To meet their onset the Confederates
had not a man who had not fought steadfastly all the
clay before. Sixty-five hundred of those who entered
the battle were killed and wounded. Thousands had
straggled. Consequendy less than twenty thousand Con-
federate infantry could answer to their names that morn-
ing. The men had slept here and there among the
encampments, wherever they could find subsistence.

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276

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Polk alone had embodied his corps in some degree, and
led it at least a mile and a-half beyond Shiloh Chapel, in
the direction of Corinth.

In haste to avenge the disaster of Sunday, Grant,
without avvaitinof the arrival of Buell's other divisions,
ordered the offensive to be assumed at dawn. Accord-
ingly, not long after 5 a.m., Nelson's division boldly
attacked his skirmishers, engaging with Forrest's cavalry,
who fell back leisurely upon their supporting infantry,
which were being formed to the rearward of the camps
they had occupied at random the night before. Gready
fatigued, and almost overcome by the lassitude which
follows every great exaltation, the battle sounds never-,
theless produced immediate reaction, and they sprang
into serried ranks with the utmost alacrity, bent upon
holding what they had won.

The attacking Federal line had a front of a mile
and a-half. By 8 o'clock Hardee had massed a
good part' of his own corps and Wither's division
of Bragg's in front of Nelson, Crittenden and Mc-
Cook. Hazen's brigade of Nelson's division pushed
forward, carried a position and a Confederate battery.
By well-timed concentration he was sent reeling back
from his prey. An obstinate struggle for the mastery of
this part of the field lasted until 1 p.m. Neither side
gained any material advantage. In Crittenden's front,
composed of his own division and several thousand of
Grant's troops under McClernand, the Confederates, at
first retiring for concentration, rebounded in turn as they
had done upon Nelson, with as much dash and ardor as
they had done the day before, and Crittenden was also
borne back.

No considerable body of troops had lodged in the
quarter of the field in front of the positions of Lew

CONFEDERATE VIEW OF SHILOH.

Ill

Wallace and the composite troops under Sherman and
Hurlburt. Their advance, therefore, was without hind-
rance until they seized upon a strong wooded ridge, with
their right resting on Owl Creek. Encouraged by the
light resistance, they undertook the offensive, but were
soon greeted by a sheet of flame and shower of bullets
under which they reeled and receded, followed nearly a
mile by their adversaries. Here they were reinforced by
McCook and resumed the offensive. The firing, Sher-
man says, was the " heaviest musketr)' " he ever heard.

Meanwhile another brigade of McCook's had joined in
the fray, and at this point nearly twenty thousand Fede-
rals were opposed to not one-half their numbers. Be-
fore such odds the impetus of the Confederate attack
was abated, yet several brilliant charges were made, one
of which General Beauregard himself led, carrying the
battle-flag of a Louisiana regiment to gratify the men.
Trabue's briorade, havinof carried an eminence near Owl
Creek, repulsed every effort to retake it, and held the
position until the final retreat was ordered.

The battle, kindled soon after daylight, had now raged
from right to left more than five hours. It was now one
o'clock, and the Confederates, despite the odds of fresh
troops constantly arrayed against them, had not really
receded from the ground upon which they had been con-
centrated when it became apparent the battle was upon
their hands. Depleted fearfully with each hour of the
combat, they were now not more than fifteen thousand
strong, or ten thousand less than the fresh troops of their
adversary. Yet at 2 p.m. Beauregard's headquarters w^re
still those from which Sherman had been driven the morn-
ing before, and all his forces were nearer the river than the
line first occupied by Sherman and Prentiss.

With such heavy odds in the balance as Buell's splen-

11^

278

LIFE OF GENERAL ^RANT.

did divisions, die fortunes of the day could not much
longer be doubtful. General Beauregard soon afterward
ordered me to select a position in the rear, and there es-
tablish a sufficient force, including artillery, independently
of those in acdon, to cover the retreat. Staff officers
were sent to each corps commander, including General
Breckenridge, with orders to retire immediately from
their present positions, but ready to face about and renew
the battle if followed too closely. Thus at 2 p.m. the
Confederate army began to leave the field, a movement
executed with the steadiness of veterans of a hundred
battles.

The Union army remained in possession of the field
wrenched from the Confederates by the arrival of Buell's
fresh and well-trained army, but their adversary carried
away thirty odd captured pieces of artillery, widi more
than twenty regimental and national flags and three
thousand prisoners.

This Confederate story of Shiloh is contributed by
General Thomas Jordan. From his position as adjutant-
general of the combined forces operating against General
Grant, it should be high authority. It is a clear account
of the two days' fighting from the Southern view. This
officer was so placed as to be thoroughly cognizant of
everything which bore on the Confederate fortunes of
the struggle, and his narrative is a very interesting one.

CHAPTER XVIII.

FROM SHILOII TO CORINTH.

Shiloh's lessons — Politics in war — Halleck assumes immediate connnand — Three
armies concentrated — One hundred and twenty thousand men — Cainpaij^n of picks
and shovels — Six weeks moving fifteen miles — The investors awaiting attack —
Corinth evacuated without a struggle — Quaker guns — The enemy tardily pursued —
Disgust of the army — Buell sent to Chattanooga— Pope takes command of the
Army of the Potomac— Grant left at Corinth— The battles of luka and Corinth —
Holding his own against Van Dorn and Price— Inlluence regained.

The victory at Shiloh was of very great moment to
the nation. It gave notice to both North and South
that the civil strife was to be something ?Tiore than a
dress parade. It was notice to those who wore the blue
and to the country behind them, that they had entered
upon a contest in which they were to meet men tho-
roughly saturated with anger, and a people back of them
prepared to make any sacrifice. It was also the first
notice of importance given to those who wore the gray
of the Unyielding stubbornness and dauntless courage
of the Northern men in battle. In other words it was
the first test of fortitude and endurance between men of
a common nationality which aroused both sides to the
fact that men of equal prowess were on either side.
This awakening was a rude shock to both contestants,
but especially to the South, and the result at Shiloh was
a source of immense discourao^ement to the Confede-
rates. They had rallied all the troops they could gather
in the West, and brought two of their most conspicuous
generals to lead them. Men in citizens' dress hastened
from the large cities to fight. The army so created and
perfectly confident, marched from Corinth, intending to

279

280

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

overwhelm Grant before Buell could make a junction
with him. The Confederates had been led to believe
that this would be comparatively an easy matter, and
when the batde opened they had no thought but that
before night they would drive Grant's endre army into
the Tennessee. The failure to do so taught them a
severe but useful lesson, which had a most depressing
effect, not only in the West and Southwest, but at Rich-
mond and throughout the Confederacy.

Shiloh, fought by Beauregard for the protection of
Corinth, the centre of the second line of defenses projec-
ted by the Confederate generals, practically gave them a
two months' respite from the hazards of batde. The
story of that conflict spread so slowly through the
North that it was weeks before it became assuredly
known that a great victory had been won, and not a
great defeat sustained. Every soldier in his home cor-
respondence described the battle as he saw it in the nar-
row scope in which he fought. Such tales of desper-
ate encounters, bloody repulses, flying regiments and
batteries, and panic-stricken men, amplified by the
damaging gossip of the camps, finding acceptance in
local newspapers, came to be regarded as the authentic
history of the dreadful struggle.

The people had not yet learned that a private soldier,
a subaltern officer, or even a brigade-commander saw
little and knew less of a great engagement. The testi-
mony that they might furnish, or any opinions they
might give in relation to movements of which they were
technically ignorant, was accepted by the loved ones at
home as true, and retailed to the neighbors. In many
instances, this misleading gossip was well-meant, but
in the case of many officers it was malicious. For in
all armed contests, where new levies are called from

FROM SJULOH TO CORINTH.

281

the ranks of citizenship to do battle, ambitious men with
strong home influences are constantly pushing them-
selves and their opinions upon every important happen-
ing of the camp. In the late civil war this was true in a
greater degree than in any other ever waged. We had
been long at peace. The average intelligence of our
army was high, and often a man in the ranks cut a wider
swath at home than the officer who commanded him.
Many of the volunteers did not at first take kindly to the
rigors of military discipline. Politics played its part in
the influences which surrounded military movements,
and the schooling of West Point was not popular, either
at home or in the army. Thus it was that the President
was besought to permanently relieve Grant from com-
i.iand and substitute some such man as McClernand,
who had some military capacity, plenty of personal bra-
very, but more vanity. Even Grant's immediate superi-
ors, although in a position to know the facts, joined in
the popular clamor, and on the day after Shiloh, Halleck
himself started for Pittsburg Landing to assume com-
mand of Grant's and Buell's united armies.

Grant had not sat down idly after the battle. Although
his men had been too tired and his battalions too shat-
tered to make any effective pursuit at the moment, he had
sent an expedition under Sherman, accompanied by gun-
boats, up the river to Eastport, which destroyed the rail-
road bridge over Big Bear Creek, thus severing direct
communications between Corinth and Richmond. This
successful expedition had not returned when Halleck
arrived,*and proceeded to place General Grant in a most
annoying position of semi-disgrace. He was nominally
second in command, but with so slight control even over
his own divisions, that during the next two months he
had little to do except condense reports and sign the

282

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

certificates of soldiers discharged for disability. His
division commanders frequently received orders direct
from Hallcck, without the courtesy of informingr him.
His position was generally regarded as one of disgrace,
but he bore the injustice of his superiors and the slight
respect of his inferiors with calm patience, working with
the single purpose of doing his best, and leaving the
result and his own justification to time.

Halleck's first step was to employ the resources of his
department in assembling an overwhelming army. Gen-
eral John Pope having won some successes in operations
against fortified positions on the Mississippi, was sum-
moned to join the armies on the Tennessee. The con-
centrated forces, now christened the " Grand Army of the
Tennessee," swelled to nearly one hundred and twenty
thousand men, was divided into corps,, commanded by
Thomas, Pope, Buell and McClernand. The first and
the last named were nominally under Grant's immediate
command, but their corps occupying respectively the
right and reserve of the investing forces, frequently re-
ceived orders and made movements of which he knew
nothing.

It is easy to recall the gossip of the camp In relation
to Grant when Pope's army arrived. The most exagger-
ated stories were afloat in relation to his past and pres-
ent ; but to the humblest soldier it was well known that
Grant was resting under a cloud, without the confidence
of his superiors or the proper respect from his sub-
ordinate generals. While recalling these facts, a still
strong disgust for General Halleck's dilatory operations is
remembered as a significant part of the prevailing senti-
ment in that whole army. Could the soldiers have chosen,
they would much have preferred to have gone on with
offensive operations under Grant, even after all the

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FROM SHILOH TO CORINTH.

283

humiliation tliat was put upon him, than to have wasted
weeks in idleness under Halleck.

The campaign of picks and shovels Vviiich Halleck in-
augurated, after having put the timid heel of his power
upon Grant, lasted for six weeks, and he doubdess lost
more men by disease while he spaded his way than would
have been killed by bullets in a direct assault upon the
enemy. Every knoll and ravine along the fifteen miles,
which brought them opposite the defenses of Corinth,
was dotted with graves.

The strategic value of Corinth to its defenders was
derived from its posidon as the crossing point of the
Mobile and Ohio and Memphis and Charleston railroads.
The village, of a few hundred inhabitants, lay upon a low
plain, but almost surrounded by ridges heavily timbered,
and approached through the ravines of valley-streams
and marshes. Every point of vantage had been fordfied
with all the engineering skill for which Beauregard was
famous, and heavy ordnance was mounted in redoubts,
covering every road.

Between April 2 2d, when Halleck's grand army of over
one hundred thousand men, resumed its advance, and
May 8th it had moved forward nine miles. This pheno-
menal tardiness was measured or brought about by no
activity of his enemy. Three days after Shiloh even the
command of Breckenridge, which had covered the retreat
of the shattered army, was behind the defenses of Co-
rinth, and only a few scattered parties of cavalry had
been left to observe the victorious Unionists, whose fail-
ure to pursue, the Confederate general could hardly
comprehend.

Day after day the invading army, after a forward
movement of a few hundred yards, went into camp, and
dropping muskets for spades, spent the remainder of the

■■■■

284

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

day throwing up great lines of breastwork or digging
elaborate rifle pits. The timidity of the commander
happily was never shared by the men, who grumbled
their dissatisfaction at being made an army of ditchers
to dig out an enemy, which even exaggerated reports
did not estimate at more than half their own number.
Still they dug on, burying by the roadside comrades
falling hourly under the deadly breath of fever. Spoil-
ing for a grapple with the enemy, whose mettle they liad
tested, the schooling of six months of active warfare had
made them too good soldiers to be disheartened even by
what seemed to them cowardice in command.

The only clashes of arms which rose to the dignity of
combats took place at Farmington on May 9th, and at
Russel's house on the extreme right of the line of invest-
ment on May 27th. General Pope, commanding the left
of the Union army, had pressed far inside the general
line of advance, and driven out Marmaduke and four
thousand Confederates left to defend Farmington. The
place was of no great advantao-e to either the besiegers
or besieged, and Halleck ordered the withdrawal of a
brigade of Pope's which had been posted in the village.
Before they could be withdrawn the enemy massed a
heavy force, and made a desperate attempt not only to
drive it out of its position, but began a movement in its
rear looking to its capture. After a brisk engagement,
the brigade was retired with insignificant loss.

The action at Russel's house was a brilliant and suc-
cessful effort by General Sherman to effect a lodgment
nearer the enemy's lines, and to drive a brigade of Con-
federates out of a log-house, from which they were able
to fire in any direction and seriously annoy the investing
army.

A sufiiclent force, personally directed by General

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FROM SHILOH TO CORINTH.

285

Sherman, under cover of a knoll, approached undiscov-
ered, and by a gallant charge ('rove the Confederates
out and pursued them closely half a mile beyond, in-
flicting heavy loss, while sustaining very little damage
themselves. Neither of these actions had evoked from
the enemy any show of purpose to oppose the siege by
counter offensive movements.

On the night of May 28th, the whisding of locomotives
along the railroads and continuous cheering by the Con-
federates convinced General Pope that the enemy was
receiving heavy reinforcements and meditated an attack
upon his front. His report to General Halleck was
followed by an order, dated May 30th, in which Halleck
announced: " There is every indication that the enemy
will attack our left this morning," and issued instructions
to the reserves to be ready to support that end of the
line. While his magnificent army was drawn up waiting
for the threatened attack, the early dawn opened upon
columns of smoke ascending from the quarters lately
occupied by the Confederates, and explosions of ammu-
nition warned the Federal general that the stronghold
was being hastily evacuated. Orders were given to ad-
vance and feel the enemy, which movement resulted in
discovering that Beauregard was retreating with all
speed southward, leaving only a few cavalry as a rear
guard to observe any possible movements in pursuit.
Beauregard, as orders discovered amply attested, had
been making preparations for the retrograde movement
since May 9th, and had only made a show of defending
Corinth, while he prepared a strong position further
south to constitute his third line of defense and withdraw
the invading army still further from its base of supplies.
Wooden guns were found mounted on many of the sup-
posed strong fortifications, and one of the most magnifi-

286

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

cent of armies, half disheartened and still more dis-
gusted, walked in and took possession. Nearly two
months had been consumed in this defensive sort of
campaign just at the season of the year when that
southern country, its roads and waters, were at tleir
very best for military operations. Nothing except the
capture of a few wooden guns, and the occupation of a
place that might have been taken at any time before,
had been accomplished.

A small Federal force, sent in pursuit of the retreat-
ing army, followed as far as Tuscumbia Bridge, which had
been burned. An effort was indeed made to pursue in
force. Nearly seventy thousand men, under Pope and
Buell, followed out of sight of the weah rear guard, mov-
ing as leisurely as possible in the direction of Booneville.
Although they found the route of the retreating army
strewn with arms, accoutrements, damaged caissons and
other evidences of a demoralized force, their march of
thirty miles in two days did not bring them near enough
the enemy to exchange picket shots. Beauregard had
escaped unhurt from an army of twice the size of his
own.

During an early portion of the investment, General
Grant, becoming satisfied that the fortifications in front
of Sherman and Thomas were defective, suggested an
assault to General Halleck. The commanding general
responded so tartly, intimating that Grant had better
reserve his opinions until they were asked for, that the
latter did not aeain obtrude his advice. After the evac-
nation he rode through the Confederate fortifications at
the point he had deemed exposed, and found his opin-
ions amply sustained. If an attack had been made ac-
cording to his suggestion no doubt was left in his mind
that it would have been successful and the long, harass-

FROM SHILOH TO CORINTFI.

287

inland deadly campaign in the Mississippi bottoms about
Vicksburg would have been avoided by the destruction
of the Confederate army right there at Corinth.

Grant had remained under a cloud during all these
operations, and, although he bore the ordeal with un-
complaining patience, there is no doubt that he contem-
plated asking at least present relief, if not retirement
from the army. General Sherman, in his memoirs, re-
lates this circumstance, confirmatory of the fact that such
was Grant's purpose. "A short time before leaving
Corinth I rode from my camp to General Halleck's
headquarters, then in tents just outside of the town. He
mentioned to me, casually, that Grant was going away
next morning. I inquired the cause, and he said that he
did not know, but that Grant had applied for a thirty days
leave, which had been given him. Of course we all
knew that he was chafing under the slights of his anom-
alous position, and I determined to see him on my way
back. His camp was a short distance off the Monterey
road, in the woods, and consisted of four or five tents,
with a sapling railing in front. As I rode up Majors
Rawlins, Lagow and Hillyer were in front of the camp
and piled up near them were the usual office and camp
chests all ready for a start in the morning. I was shown
to the General's tent, where I found him seated on a
camp-stool, with papers on a rude camp-table, assorting
letters. I asked him if it were true that he was going
away. He said * yes.' I asked the reason, and he said :
' Sherman, you know. You know that I am in the way
here. I have stood it as long as I can, and can endure
it no longer.' I inquired where he was going, and he
said • St. Louis.* I asked him if he had any business
there, and he replied * not a bit' I then begged him to
stay. Illustrating his case by my own. Before the battle

■#

288

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

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of Shiloh I had bean cast down by a mere newspaper
assertion of 'crazy;' but that a single battle had given
me new life, and now I was in high feather. I argued
with him that if he went away events would go right
along and he would be left out, whereas if he remained
some happy accident might restore him to favor and his
true place. He certainly appreciated my friendly advice
and promised to wait a while, at all events not to go
without communicating with me. Soon after I received a
note from him saying he had reconsidered his intentions
and would remain. In my reply to his note I wrote ' I am
rejoiced at your conclusion to remain, for you could not
be quiet at home a week with the armies moving, and
rest could not relieve your mind of the gnawing sensa-
tion that injustice had been done you.' " The admiration
for, confidence and loyalty to each other of Grant and
his great lieutenant form one of the most touching and
uncommon incidents of this or any other great contest.

Fort Pillow was evacuated and Memphis was aban-
doned by the Confederates as the result of a great naval
engagement on the Mississippi very soon after Beaure-
gard had been dug out of Corinth. It was June loth
when the fruitless pursuit of the retreating Confederate
army was abandoned and Halleck sat down and scat-
tered the great army gathered to no purpose. Buell,
with a battle line seventy thousand stronn;-, was sent to-
wards Chattanooga, but Bragg got there first although
he started last. Sherman was ordered to Memphis.
Pope very soon after was transferred to the Eastern
army, and Grant, with litde more than a shadow of his
old army, was left nominally in command of the District
of West Tennessee.

Even after Beauregard had escaped from Corinth, Hal-
leck was left with an army large enough to have overrun

FROM SHILOH TO CORINTH.

289

the Mississippi Valley and to have crushed any force that
could have been brought against him. It was also in
splendid trim for the capture of Vicksburg, whose fortifi-
cations, incomplete at that time, would have attracted the
attention of any general who had confidence in himself
and any considerable number of troops behind him. Any
one of half a dozen movements that frequently suggested
themselves to General Grant could have been success-
fully made, to the great benefit of the Union cause, by
that splendid array of men Kalleck had gathered and
equipped, only to move about with such caution as would
have befitted the commander of a brigade in the presence
of an overwhelming force of the enemy. But none of them
were undertaken, and, fooled by the Confederates at
Corinth, the army was broken up and began a series of
minor campaigns which were comparatively fruitless, as
measured by what might have been done.

Looking back at the condition of affairs in the Missis-
sippi valley after the evacuation of Corinth, it is easy to
see how many thousand lives and how much difficulty
might have been saved had a man been in command of
the army at that time who believed in offensive rather
than defensive movements, and would have followed up
the advantages which the battle of Shiloh and the con-
centration of troops afterwards placed in his hands. The
occupation of Corinth interrupted Confederate communi-
cations, and that was all. It never presented another
advantage, and not long after was handed over to a
small force, and the larger operations further South were
begun. The whole of June and a part of July were
frittered away by Halleck, and then he was appointed
General-in-chief of the armies and summoned to Wash-
ington. In making his preparations for leaving, he took
no account of General Grant. He offered the command

llfl

290

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

of the Army of the Tennessee to Colonel Robert Alien,
then a quartermaster on his staff, and only left Grant in
command of it because Allen declined the promotion.

General Allen himself, in July, 1866, writes this ac-
count of the tender : •• I had joined General Halleck a
short time subsequent to the fall of Corinth and was
attached to his immediate command, when he received
his appointment of General-in-chief, with orders to repair
at once to Washington. Shortly after he came to my
tent. After a somewhat protracted conversation, he
turned to me and said, * Now what can I do ior you?' I
replied that I did not know he could do anything. ' Yes,'
he rejoined, * I can give you command of this army.' I
replied, * I have not rank,' ' That,' he said, ' can be easily
obtained.' I do not remember exactly what my reply
was to this, but it was to the effect that I doubted the
expediency of such a measure, identified as I was with
the enormous business and expenditures of the quarter-
master's department, from which it was almost impracti-
cable to relieve me at this time. Other reasons were
mentioned, and he did not press the subject. It is true
that I was congratulated on the prospect of succeeding
to the command, before I had mentioned the subject of
this interview."

When Halleck could not succeed in placing a still
broader indignity upon Grant, he directed him to make
his headquarters at Corinth, and then left for Washing-
ton. Here Grant remained for two months simply
watching the enemy, keeping open his communications
with Sherman at Memphis and defending the railroads
which run in various directions from this strategic point.
Sherman was not under his command, but received his
orders direct f' om Halleck. Probably no officer of the
army ever perurmed more harassing and thankless duty

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FROM SHTLOH TO CORINTH.

291

iTian Grant did at this period. He was forced to act
upon the defensive, which, to a man of his ideas of
offensive warfare, must have been particularly annoying.
The Confederate force menacing him was fully equal to
his own in numbers, and they were constandy threatening
Corinth, Bolivarand Jackson, Tenn. He concentrated all
the forces he could spare from guarding the railroads
and rivers in his department in these three places,
then remodeled and strengthened the works about
Corinth.

While all this was going on, Halleck was having
plenty of difficulties in the East and Buell was doing no
better in the West with his magnificent army. One
general officer after another was failing to do anything
significant, and there was great despondency throughout
the country. Grant's army had been weakened to re-
enforce Buell, and in the wide theatre of defeat and
retreat, Grant was almost forgotten in Corinth, and
practically left to shift for himself

Pope had lost the second Bull Run, and the Confeder-
ates were threatening to invade Maryland, while Bragg
and Buell were on a neck and neck race to see which
would reach the Ohio first. Menaced on all sides, short
of troops, forced to a sleepless anxiety that would have
made most men petulant, Grant watched and manoeu-
vred his slender forces without a murmur and without
making the never ending demand of most generals for
more men. With an ever vigilant eye for .operations
in the field and while sorely perplexed, he discovered
that Van Dorn was sending a part of his command
under Price to re-enforce Bragg in Kentucky. He
immediately notified Halleck of this movement and also
of his intention to prevent it. He encouraged his chief,
who seemed depressed by the information, with the

I !

292

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

declaration that he could successfully resist any force
that could be brought against him.

Perhaps at no time of Grant's life did he show to bet-
ter advantage than in this campaign while in Corinth
practically ignored. Whatever he did or said was lost
sight of in the greater movements being made by Buell
in the West and Pope and McClellan in the East. Yet,
knowing that he held any command only by sufferance,
he uncomplainingly maintained his position and was con-
stantly on the lookout for the enemy in his department,
so far as they might affect the general operations of the
armies. He was loyal to Halleck, although suffering an
injustice at his hands to which few men have ever been
subjected.

The battle of luka was the result of this movement of
Price toward Bragg. Grant sent Rosecrans from his
position a few miles south of Corinth, and Ord from
Bolivar and Jackson, with the expectation of uniting the
two forces and destroying Price before Van Dorn could
attack Corinth, if he should attempt to do so.

There was some delay in Rosecrans' march. He did
not reach the vicinity of the enemy until September 19th,
and then was struck unawares some two miles from luka
where he lost a battery and some seven hundred men in
killed and wounded. The wind blowing hard had pre-
vented Ord from hearing Rosecrans' guns on the south,
which was to be his signal for attack on the north. So
darkness came on leaving Rosecrans holding his own after
a most stubborn resistance, and ready to renew the bat-
tle in the morning, with Ord fully apprised and prepared
to strike at dawn. Price finding himself between two
fires, by Grant's plan of battle, began a precipitate re-
treat during the night, and when Grant reached luka next
morning at 9 o'clock Price was so far away that he could

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FROM SHILOH TO CORINTH.

293

not be overtaken. The battle of luka, therefore, was with-
out other result than a Confederate loss of fourteen hun-
dred and the disturbance of Van Dorn's plans to reinforce
Bragg. Nevertheless it was a gallant fight, in which Rose-
crans handled his troops with great skill and bravery.
After this engagement Grant moved his headquarters to
Jackson, where he could watch the operations in his
department with greater facility. Rosecrans occupied
Corinth and Ord Bolivar. Troops were still being taken
from Grant and sent to other generals, but he did not
complain, for on October ist, he wired Halleck, "My
position is precarious, but I hope to get out of it all right."
About this time Grant discovered by the enemy's move-
ments that he was about to attack some one of the many
points he had to defend, and on October 2d a large
Confederate force under Van Dorn appeared in front
of Corinth. Rosecrans moved out to meet the ap-
proaching force, and on the third they had a severe
batde and he was driven back to his defences. Grant's
work on these fortifications was now appreciated at
its full value, for on the morning of the fourth, when
Van Dorn attacked with the prestige of success on the
first day, the fighting became furious. The forts were
the important obstacles that prevented the Confederates
from capturing that important strategic point, the railroad
centre of all that region. The morning of the fourth
opened with Price conducting operations on the right
center. Van Dorn commanded the assault upon our
left. The Confederate attack was fierce and determined,
but the Federal resistance was resolute beyond descrip-
tion. As the assailants moved forward to the attack the
light and heavy artillery mowed them down with grape
and canister. Staggered and torn, the fury of the assault
was broken for the moment, but the lull was only the

294

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

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prelude to the greater storm. Closing up and steadying
themselves, they start for the last and most determined
charge. The double-shotted guns poured down upon them
a shower of deadly missiles, and at an opportune moment
the cry of " charge ! men," rang out above the din of the
horrid strife. The Federals swarm over their works and
chase the heroic stormers, in confusion, to the woods.
Many were killed and still more were taken prisoners, but
the battle of Corinth was practically over. In the midst
of the contest McPherson came up with a brigade, and by
a brilliant movement marched from Van Dorn's rear to
Rosecrans' right, but the battle was fairly won before he
arrived. At 1 1 o'clock the Confederates were in full
retreat with a loss of more than five thousand men.

About ten miles from Corinth, on the morning of the
5th while crossing the Hatchie, the retreating force was
struck on the flank by Hurlburt and Ord and the victory
was made complete. While Grant was not in actual
command on the field at either luka or Corinth, he yet
directed the movement of the troops. He was also the
spirit and purpose of the campaign that broke the only hos-
tile force in his department, prevented the reinforcement
of Bragg and gave better tone to the general feeling
which was very much depressed by defeats elsewhere.
Yet he was given no great credit for what he had done,
but Halleck seems to have been aroused to a deofree of
respect for the good work, and soon thereafter began
sending him reinforcements. This gave him better heart.
The cloud that had hung over him so long was in a meas-
ure dispelled. Rosecrans was made a major-general and
sent away to command the army of the Cumberland, and
before October ist, Grant, ever watchful for a good place
to strike, suggested to Halleck the capture of Vicksburg,
and, let loose, he again began the real business of war.

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CHAPTER XIX.

MOVING TOWARD VICKSBURG.

P«mbert'''n confronting Grant — Campaigning at a distance — Grant moving down the
Mississippi Central— McCIernand's p/.nbitious schemes — Moving toward the Talla-
hatchie — "I can handle them without gloves" — Holly Springs taken — Hovey's
successful diversion — Abbeville evacuated — Within ei|7hteen miles of Grenada-
Grant's communications cut — Murphy's cowardly surrender — Living on the enemy
The campaign defeated — Grant's only retreat.

It took a good deal of tough grubbinor before Grant
reached a substantial foothold. His innate modesty of
demeanor and repugnance to self-assertion made his
superiors undervalue his talents. The treatment he re-
ceived at the hands of those above him bred in the
ofificers below him a feeling of slight respect. They were
taught to look upon him as a dull, good-natured man,
who had blundered into one or two successes, but was
of no particular consequence. Therefore, neither those
below nor above him paid any particular attention to his
opinions, and treated him as a man to be tolerated but
not to be feared. Perhaps this may have been the
natural consequence of the entire absence in him of
those ostentatious qualities of mind and manner that
have been conspicuous in every other great soldier since
the world began. It was up-hill business for him to
demonstrate that the highest gifts of military act and
control would fit the simple character of an unassuming
citizen. More pretentious generals, with far less ability,
crowded over the man who was, in his own homely way,
to teach military scientists that the rules of war as taught
in the books could, nearly every day, be violated with
success. It is true that mort! pretentious men, without

, .296 "■.■ '" " ■':■

MOVING TOWARD VICKSBURG.

297

a tithe of his ability, did crowd over him while he was
making these things manifest. But in time effort brought
success, and he forced all to recognize the high value of
common sense in the conduct of military operations, un-
til at last he leaped far over the trained theorists — men
" whose mitered brains could not teach and would not
learn."

The Shiloh campaign ended with the battle by which
Van Dorn was defeated in his efforts to drive Rosecrans
out of Corinth. Then, as he began to get reinforce-
ments. Grant devised the campaign i' to the interior of
Mississippi, with Vicksburg as the goal of his efforts.
Pemberton had succeeded Van Dorn in command of the
opposing forces, and was gathering all the men he could
on the Tallahatchie, at a point beyond Holly Springs,
Mississippi.

The Federal commander's general design was to
operate upon the line of the Mississippi Central Rail-
road, as far south as Grenada and Jackson, from which
point he could menace the rear of Vicksburg and com-
pel its evacuation.

On October 25th, 1862, after Pope's Second Bull Run
and McClellan's victory at Antietam, Grant assumed
command of the Department of the Tennessee, which
included all that country south of Cairo and between the
Mississippi and the Tennessee Rivers, as well as the State
of Mississippi. The very next day he proposed to begin
business by suggesting to Halleck the destruction of the
railroads centering at Corinth, and abandoning the place
for a movement down the Mississippi Central Railroad.
In closing this proposition to the General-in-Chief, he
evinced his singleness of purpose in its conclusion. ** I
am ready, however, to do with all my might whatever
you may direct, without criticism." Receiving no answer

298

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

from Halleck he began the proposed movement, and on
November 2d telegraphed him from Jackson, *' I have
commenced a movement on Grand Junction witji three
divisions from Corinth and two from BoHvar."

Pemberton's advance was at this time as far north as
Lagrange and Grand Junction, and stretched south to
his fortified position on the Tallahatchie. After Grant
had started, Halleck gave qualified approval of his plans
just as he had seized La Grange and Grand Junction.
He, however, was compelled to retain his hold on
Corinth and like points, inasmuch as the General-in-
Chief had not given permission to abandon them. On
the 8th Grant countermanded his order to Sherman for
a demonstration from Memphis, which had been a
feature in his plan of co-operation, because, as he noti-
fied his lieutenant, he felt "able to handle without
gloves" the thirty thousand of the enemy, whom he had
discovered in front of him.

As all this was transpiring new complications were fes-
tering at Washington. McClernand, who from the bcgin-
ing of his campaign under Grant at Belmont had been
restive under discipline, and clamorous for promotion,
was now in Washington seeking to supplant Grant in
the command of the Army of the Tennessee. He had
been a member of Congress before entering the army,
was a personal friend of Lincoln and possessed large influ-
ence in the West. He so impressed himself upon the
President that he obtained authority from him to raise
troops for an independent expedition, designed to open
the Mississippi river and capture Vicksburg. Halleck,
who was a thorough soldier, made a stand against McCIer-
nand's assumptions and was now for the first time since
his first relations with Grant, thoroughly aroused to his
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MOVING TOWARD VICKSBURG.

299

pendent movement in Grant's department, but was over-
ruled by the President, and McClernand left Washington
for the West in high feather.

Grant knew nothing of all this, and was preparing to
drive the enemy south of the Tallahatchie. He was expect-
\\\g reinforcements, and on the 9th telegraphed Halleck,
" If they do not come in more rapidly I will attack as I
am." The next day he wired again, " Am I to under-
stand that I lie here still, while an expedition is fitted out
from Memphis? Or do you want me to push as far south
as possible? Am I to have Sherman subject to my orders,
or is he and his force reserved for some special service ?"
Halleck now stirred by the fear of McClernand's success
with the President rises to the occasion and telegraphs
Grant, " You have command of all troops sent to your
Department, and have permission to fight the enemy
when you please." This was on the 12th, and on the
13th his cavalry entered Holly Springs, and the enemy
was driven south of the Tallahatchie. In his relief and
satisfaction at being released and given authority to
command his department as he pleased he telegraphed
Sherman, 'T have now complete control of my depart-
ment." In the same telegram he directs Sherman to
move south toward the Tallahatchie to co-operate with
him and shows his purpose by adding, "I am exceedingly
anxious to do something before the roads get bad, and
before the enemy can entrench and reinforce."

On November 29th, Grant's cavalry entered Holly
Springs, his move thither having met no opposition
worth recording. Sherman, with three divisions from
Memphis, had already reached the Tallahatchie at
Wyatt, and Grant telegraphed Halleck, '* Our troops
will be in Abbeville to-morrow or a battle will be fought."
At this time Pemberton's army occupied a strongly

I'M

800

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

fortified position near that place, and the Union com-
mander had projected a flanking movement by which he
hoped to drive out the Confederates without the loss of
life that a direct assault would entail. As part of this
general plan a division from Helena, Arkansas, had been
ordered to operate against the Mississippi Central in
Pemberton's rear. Generals Hovey and WashburiK,
who commanded this expedition, succeeded so well that,
although the damage they did to the railroad was but
slight, nevertheless, Pemberton hastily abandoned his
strong position and took up another behind the Yalla-
busha river, some miles further south. Owing to the con-
dition of the roads the forces in pursuit of his retiring
column only got near enough to him to bring on some
unimportant skirmishes.

Grant had now penetrated far into the hostile terri-
tory, and supplies for his army had to be brought over
the single line of railroad which he repaired and recon-
structed as he advanced. This necessarily made his
movements slow, but, on December 3d, he informed Ad-
miral Porter, " Our move has been successful so far as
compelling the evacuation of the Mississippi Central road
as far as Grenada." Pemberton hitherto had employed
Fabian tactics, and never made a stand that seriously de-
tained the Union army.

Grenada, although one of the objective points of the
campaign, was not reached by Grant. His education
had not attained the point of subsisting his army upon
the country through which he marched. Although he
had long contemplated this as a most efficient means of
weakening the enemy, he had not yet become convinced
that foragers could be made entirely satisfactory substi-
tutes for commissaries. Moreover, political considera-
tions forbade such despoiling of non-combatants. Al-

MOVING TOWARD VICKSBURG.

301

though all the natives, save the negroes, were bitterly
hostile, there was still much of tihe sentiment that would
treat all, save those found with arms in their hands, as
erring brethren whom it would be the height of cruelty
to despoil of their meal and bacon excepting under the
most urgent military necessity. Just this exigence arose
and altered the face of the campaign.

Pemberton's flying army had been pursued from Abbe-
ville as far as Oxford in spite of the terrible roads, and
on December 5th the Union cavalry were only eighteen
miles from Grenada. A movement down the river
against Vicksburg by the forces of Sherman and those
at Helena, Arkansas, he thought, must result in success
if he could press closely enough upon Pemberton to pre-
vent him from reinforcing that stronghold. He therefore
wired Halleck, " How far South would you like me to go ?
Would it not be well to hold the enemy south of the
Yallabusha and move a force from Helena and Memphis
on Vicksburg? With my present force it would not be
prudent to go beyond Grenada and attempt to hold
present line of communication."

Halleck gave his consent, and Sherman's three divi-
sions were sent back to Memphis with all speed, to em-
bark there for the mouth of the Yazoo, which had been
selected as the base of his operations against the great
Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi. At Helena
the expedition was reinforced by the troops there posted,
and an army of forty thousand men under command of
General Sherman was ready for its winter campaign in
the Mississippi bottoms. Grant had hoped that while he
held Pemberton pinned in his front near Grenada, Sher-
man's army would be able to take Vicksburg in the rear
and capture it without difficulty. If foiled in this by any
misadventure he could at least establish some base upon

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302

Z/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the Yazoo, from which the army campaigning in the in-
terior could be supplied to better advantage than was
offered by the long line of the Mississippi Central Rail-
road. Moreover, New Orleans had fallen, and Halleck
had promised that an army under Banks moving thence
up the river, should co-operate in the complete conquest
of the States adjac(.'nt and destruction of the Confederate
forces defendinef them.

Even as late as December 14th, Grant felt confi-
dent that his pn.-t of the grand operations would be
crowned with success. Pemberton's men, harassed in
flanks and front by the Union cavalry, were still on the
run. His last retreat, however, had been brought about
by Hovey and Washburn's raid on his communications
and base at Grenada. As soon as he felt satisfied that
their forces had returned to Helena he regained confi-
dence, and devised operations against Grant's rear and
communications, which were crowned with success
through the cowardice of a Federal colonel, R. C.
Murphy. After every advance. Grant had left adequate
forces to protect the railroad upon which he depended
for supplies.

Murphy was in command of the force which garrisoned
Holly Springs. On the morning of December 20th, a
strong force of Confederates sv/ooped down upon the
town, and Murphy surrendered without an effort to
defend his trust. The place was important, because
Grant had made it a secondary depot, and had gathered
there large quantities of commissary, quartermaster, and
ordnance stores. Every other point on the line of com-
munications was defended with success, but Murphy's
cowardice defeated the object of the campaign.

A wholly new complication* confronted the Federal
commander. He had really been provisioning his army

MOVING TOWARD VICKSBURG.

C03

from Holly Springs, and the new problem of living on
the country had to be solved at once. Fortunately, he
was in a populous district that had hitherto been spared
the waste of war. He could read the importance of the
blow in the eyes of the Mississippi gendewomen who hith-
erto glowering and sulking in distant reserve now
crowded around his headquarters and the cantonments of

grant's headquarters near vickskurg.
his troops to gloat over his speedy retreat which they
deemed assured.

" How will you feed your troops now ? " they asked
with ill-concealed triumph.

" My troops will not want as long as there is corn in
your granaries and bacon in your smoke houses," was
the quiet response.

" Hut you would not make war on non-combatants ? "
th y rejoined in dismay.

"My army must and shall live," was the firm response,

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304

Z/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

and the smiling was turned to cursing when the Federal
foragers levied requisitions wherever they could find the
needed supplies, with which the country was found to be
abundantly stocked. Still, Grant had no military prece-
dent to lead him to believe that an army could be so sub-
sisted, and he made preparations to fall back. He had
already been a full week without communication with any
of the other generals who were in charge of the co-opera-
tive movements. This circumstance, much less than any
prospective hunger of his men, led to the retrograde move-
ment which placed Grant again at La Grange. He after-
wards came to believe that if he had persisted in the origi-
nal plan of campaign despite the interruption of his com-
munications, he could have captured Vicksburg before
spring. Commanded as the Confederate army was and
disheartened by its punishing defeats every time it had
met the Army of the Tennessee, he even then felt that
its opposition was the least of the obstacles to be over-
come. The day that his advance entered the strong for-
tifications about .\bbeville on the Tallahatchie, he was
convinced that Pemberton did not mean to fight if he
could get out of it. Operating against Vicksburg by
way of Grenada and Jackson, had commended itself
to Grant because it had enabled him to fully cover
Memphis from the danger of any rapidly executed move-
ment by Bragg from Middle Tennessee and presented
in every respect the most advantageous approach to
Vicksburg.

While these events were transpiring with the land
army, Sherman had prepared for the river movement
with all possible dispatch. On the day after Murphy
disgracefully surrendered Holly Springs, a fleet of trans-
ports containing Sherman's army of forty- two thousand
men steamed down the river. He confidently expected

MOVING TOWARD VICKSBURG.

305

with the aid of Admiral Porter's gun-boats, to be able to
surprise and capture Vicksburg. Should this prove im-
practicable it was his purpose to take Haines' Bluff on
the Yazoo and make it a base not only for his own op-
erations but for the supply by way of that river of
Grant's army operating in the interior. On December
27th the army debarked at Johnson's Landing on the
Yazoo, within easy striking distance of Haines' Bluff,
which is the northern extremity of the long lines of
bUiffs upon which Vicksburg lies. Their rugged heights
were crowded with every defensive work that engineer-
ing skill could devise. Along the outer base of the hills
flowed the Cypress Bayou, a deep and muddy lagoon
which made an almost impassable ditch in front of the
defences. The fiat lands along the front were covered
with water and impracticable for infantry except along
two narrow causeways. Despite these difficulties which
prevented Sherman from using more than half his force,
the works were attacked on December 29th with such
success that his men effected a lodgment at the foot of
the bluffs. The success, however, was only temporary,
as the advanced line was speedily driven back with
heavy loss. Another attempt was made to land further
up the Yazoo, and with the aid of the gunboats attack
the extreme right of the Confederate works. If this
had been successful the object of opening the Yazoo for
the supplying of Grant's army would have been accom-
plished. A dense fog delayed the projected attack be-
fore daylight, and when it rose the garrison was found to
have been heavily reinforced and the attempt was aban-
doned. The reinforcements consisted of a portion of
Pemberton's army which had been thrown into Vicksburg
as soon as Grant's retreat to La Grange relieved from

pressure the army in his front. Thus the object of the

306

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

movement was defeated, and Sherman re-embarking his
men dropped down the Yazoo and to its mouth where
he was met by McClernand, who exhibited the orders au-
thorizing him to command the army. He had lost 1748
men in killed, wounded and missing.

This defeat was a source of great chagrin to Sherman.
It had been attended with many difficulties which had not
been foreseen. It could only have been made successful
by the success of all the co-operative movements of
which it was but a part. The others had alike failed.
Banks' promised movement up the river from New Or-
leans had been fruidess. Grant himself had made his
first retreat, not, however, from an armed enemy but
hunger. The great cbmmander had, however, no thought
of sitting down idly and reckoning his losses or the
causes of failure. His army had been more than a week
severed from all communications with the North, and not
until several days afterward did he learn the fate of the
river expedition. It was January 4th before he received
reports of the miscarriage of the attack on Haines' Bluff.
On January loth he established his headquarters at
Memphis, and calling out every resource of his depart-
ment bent all his energies to preparations for the new
campaign.

General McClernand's accession to the command of
the army in the vicinity of Vicksburg, had been the source
of much annoyance to the department commander who
had originally placed Sherman in command of the river
expedition, while himself remaining with the interior army.
Profoundly convinced of his great lieutenant's military ca-
pacity, he earnestly desired to see him enjoy the fruits of
its exercise in the wider sphere of independent command,
and generously took to himself the less conspicuous share
in the undertaking to which the co-operation of both must

MOVING TOWARD VICKSBURG.

307

contribute. Although disappointed in the outcome of the
movement, he recognized the fact that failure was due
only to miscalculation of the difficulties of the enterprise,
and was eagerly anxious that Sherman should have
opportunity to regain his somewhat faded laurels. He
had no such respect for McClernand nor confidence in
his soldierly capacity. While the citizen general pos-
sessed undoubted valor, and could be counted upon to
do his best under orders, he was often insubordinate^
placing his own opinions in opposition to his superiors in
command, besides being intensely jealous of his own re-
pute. With Sherman in command Grant would probably
have contented himself with the general direction of
operations from distant headquarters. McClernand was
already manifesting his restiveness even under superior
control, and had to be curbed at all hazards.

Immediately after the abandonment of operations on
the Yazoo. General Sherman had suggested the propriety
of an attiick upon Arkansas Post, a fortified point on the
Arkansas River, the capture of which would have a good
effect upon the troops, somewhat discouraged by their
failure at Haines' Bluff. McClernand concurred in the
move, and it was undertaken. Accordingly transports on
which the army still remained were headed up the White
River early in Jan'.iary, and by the 9th of that month had
reached a canal affording them entrance into the Arkan-
sas River, above the point to be attacked. Commodore
Porter's gunboats co-operating the combined forces in-
vested the place which surrendered on January nth, to-
gether with nearly five thousand Confederates. This
success was somewhat of a relief to the otherwise barren
results of the river expedition, but Grant nevertheless
was inclined to be displeased at first. !t had no bearing
on the general campaign, and he was ever opposed to

j 1

t I

(308)

MOVING TOWARD VICKSBURG.

309

side issues. He, however, subsequently became con-
vinced that the achievement was worth the expense.

Grant had now determined to concentrate all his
forces and make the coming campaign direct from the
Mississippi. All the forces of his department east of the
river, excepting enough to defend the line from Memphis
to Corinth, were ordered to rendezvous at Young's
Point opposite the mouth of the Yazoo. All ordnance
and other stores likely to tempt the enemy were removed
from the Tennessee side, and every effort was made to
collect as large a force as might be required for the final
conquest of Vicksburg.

The department had been temporarily increased by
the addition of as much of the territory west of the Mis-
sissippi as might be required by the plans of the cam-
paign. The forces had been previously divided into four
army corp>, commanded respectively by Major-Generals
McClernand, Sherman, Hurlburt and McPherson, and on
January 29th Grant himself arrived in person and as-
sumed the immediate command. McClernand protested
and appealed to the President, by whom he had been
assigned to conduct the expedition against Vicksburg.
His protests fell upon unheeding ears, for Grant had
been previously empowered to relieve McClernand, and
either place Sherman in command or assume it himself.
He chose the latter course to the incalculable gain of
the army and the cause.

1 :

i,t

CHAPTER XX.

THE APPROACH TO VICKSBURG.

Vicksburg's batteries — Tier after tier of heavy guns — The Gunboats prepare to run
them — A brilliant war scene — Success of the enterprise — Grant's obstacles on land-
Changing the face of nature — Five cross-cuts abandoned — The army thrown below
Vicksburg — A wonderful military feat — Into Mississippi — The demonstration at
Haines' BluflF— Battle of Port Gibson — Grand Gulf evacuated— At last a base
around Vicksburg,

The difficulties attending the approach to Vicksburg
were many. It was the citadel of Confederate power
in all the West and second only in importance to Rich-
mond. It was situated on ground easily defended, and
along a watercourse treacherous in its incursions upon
the land and easy of obstruction. The movements and
manoeuvres so far made to reach it had failed, and Grant
taking counsel of his own mind, and drawing of the place
and its surroundings a careful map, began coiisldering a
bold plan for its capture. He was lying north of it with
his command scattered along the river for many miles,
and the objective of the campaign which he began at
Belmont was still before him.

Farragut had passed the hellish fires of batteries below
New Orleans and opened the river below Vicksburg.
Commodore Davis had performed an equally important
service by running the batteries above Memphis, and only
this one point, situated in the bend of the Mississippi, dis-
puted the National control to the great highway. Grant
discussed with his subordinate commanders his plan of
campaign. It was to load provisions upon transports
arid with the help of Admiral Porter's gunboats to run
supplies enough past the batte ies that commanded the
310

THE APPROACH TO VIC KS BURG.

811

river for several miles, march his army by land on the
Louisiana shore, ferry them across the river and begin

COMMODORE FARRAGUT.

the siege. It was a bold and hazardous undertaking.
Only two officers of note, Logan and McPherson, sup-

312

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

ported the plan. Sherman opposed it as being too risky
and unmilitary. He preferred the land route by way
of Grenada and argued for its acceptance; but Grant
adopted his own idea and began preparations for the
movement.

In his conversations with Sherman upon the subject
he used that expression which has become famous, " A
general who never takes chances never accomplishes
anything." "Grant at this time," says General Robert
McFeely, upon whose authority I am now giving these
reminiscences, " was about to do one of those masterly
things, equal to the march of Napoleon across the Alps.
He assumed the responsibility with as much composure
as though he was ordering the most ordinary opera-
tion belonging to army life. I remember very dis-
tinctly his saying to Sherman, 'This army has never been
defeated and does not believe it can be. To load it
upon railroad trains or transports, and take it back to
Memphis, would have a worse effect upon it than a de-
feat. It would also have a disheartening effect upon the
country. Then to take the land route by way of Grenada
and Jackson, I would only have one chance. I must
either whip the enemy or be whipped. I could not
subsist upon that country. By going south of Vicks-
burg I will have a good chance of defeating the Con-
federates ; but if I should fail, I can move south to the
Gulf, through a country rich enough to feed my army.
But I am sure that if I can get provisions enough below
Vicksburg to feed my army for a few days, I can take the

city.'

" In providing for this feature of the expedition. Gene-
ral Grant said to me: ' McFeely, get all the transports
you can. Collect as many rations as they can carry and
we'll make the trial. Put aboard nothing but coffee,

THE APPROACH TO VICKSBURG

813

sugar, hard bread, salt and meat. If half the boats we
start run the batteries and reach a point to the south of
Vicksburg, we will have enough to live on for a few days,
and during that time can certainly provide for our
further subsistence.'

" I at once got three transports, sent them to Memphis,
took all the rations I could find there and returned. I then
loaded six transports, protected their vital pkrts with
bales of hay and cotton, and then volunteers were called
for to man them, the regular crews refusing to take
the risk. It seemed to me as though half the army
wanted to join in this hazardous undertaking ; men used
as much influence to get on this expedition as people
do now to get office. It was a singular feature of
army life to note the number of men who would volun-
teer for any movement of great hazard. Out of all the
crews of those transports only one captain stayed by his
boat. He was a gamey old fellow, and said that wherever
his boat went he was going too. Before he started he
had the pilot-house taken down. When asked why he
did that, he said, * The bullets might splinter the wood-
work and kill or wound me. If there is nothing there
but me and the wheel I'll stand a better chance for my
life.' When everything was in readiness the old fellow
took his station at the wheel and piloted his boat through
safely.

" The night before they started, some of our people
rigged up some old coal barges with piles of barrels to
represent smoke-stacks, and fires under them to make a
smoke, towed them out into the current and let them
float down the river to see how alert the Confederates
were. They opened on them every time as soon as they
came within range. This evident watchfulness increased
the dangers of the undertaking. But Grant had de-

t •

314

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

\ 1

li I

cided to make the venture, and there was no thought of
recall. At last everything was in readiness. Admiral
Porter was to lead the way with his gunboats, and the
steamers were to hug the opposite bank. I can never
forget the night when they started on their hazardous
journey. It was about lo o'clock. There was no moon,
but it was starlight. Grant and his staff took a boat
down th^ river to a bend from w^hich he could observe
their passage for some distance, and then waved them
good-bye as they floated down the current. For a few
moments all was quiet. It was the calm before the storm.
" Then came the crash of heavy guns. The Confederate
batteries had opened upon the singular fleet, and shot
fell thick and fast about it as well as about the craft on
board which General Grant watched the perilous enter-
prise. The flash of the guns in the darkness, the screech
of the iron missiles sent against the boats, the confused
noises, the splash of the shells in the water, the reports
of their explosion, were dread sounds breaking the still-
ness of that April night. The artillery fire was ter-
rific, and its lurid flames lit up the embattled face
of the hostile bluff, making clearer the outlines of the
adventurous vessels^ as they moved silently down the
stream. Then buildings on both sides of the river were
fired, and as the flames gathered violence their brighter
light still heightened the effect of the marine silhouettes
floating down the river, malring a picture that can never
be forgotten or described. It was the grandest display
of fireworks that was ever witnessed. Five of the im-
periled transports reached a point of safety south of the
city. The * Henry Clay ' was set on fire and burned to
the water's edge. It was a wonder to me that any of
them got through. But enough rations to last the army
several days had reached a place of safety, and Grant's

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316

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

most audacious move in his plan to open the Mississippi
was a success.

" Later on, when Pemberton had surrendered, Major
Watts, a commissioner for the exchange of prisoners,
fell into our hands. 1 got quite friendly with him, and
one day I asked him why it was that they allowed those
transports to get by the batteries. He said there were
two reasons for their successful passage. One was, that
they were having a big ball in Vicksburg that niglit and
many of the officers were there having a good time.
The peculiar condition of the atmosphere, however, was
the main reason for the success of the movement. It
was one of those nights common in that southern coun-
try when the atmosphere was so rare that the smoke
would not rise. Therefore, when a gun was fired, its
smoke settled right over the muzzle and after one or two
shots nothing could be seen in front. They could
hear the paddle-wheels of the steamers but could not see
anything. So all they could do was to fire at the sound.
So eager were they to discover the unseen enemy that
men were posted in front of the guns with branches of
trees, waving them frantically to drive the smoke away,
but all to no purpose, luck or Providence favored them.

" Before this movement began, Sherman was so much
opposed to it that he wrote a paper of earnest objec-
tions against it, no doubt to be on record in case of
failure. This paper was sent to Grant's headquarters in
regular order and retained by him, the General re-
marking to Sherman that ' if he did not want to go, he
should make the feint at Haines' Blufif and come down
afterward.' This was agreed to. McClernand's corps
was first sent down, McPherson followed and Sherman
was brought down after the battle of Port Gibson.

" Although Sherman Houbted the success of the under-

begj
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two

'Gc

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THE APPROACH TO VICKSBURG.

317

taking, he was just that loyal, earnest and honest that he
did everything possible to make the movement a success
from first to last. It, however, is a singular fact, as will
be seen by the history of that campaign, that, either by
accident or purposely, Sherman's corps did not partici-
pate in any of the engagements about Vicksburg until
the investment was complete — excepting a brief skirmish
below Jackson. When he stood with Grant on Walnut
Hills and saw Vicksburg in the toils, he said, ' Up to
this time I never thought this movement would succeed.
This is a success. This is a great campaign, even if we
never take the city.' From this time on the bond of
friendship between Grant and Sherman seemed to be
stronger than ever, and during the forty days' siege
they were often together under the shelter of my capa-
cious tent. In the assault and general operations of the
siesre, none were more enthusiastic or useful than the man
who began showing his single-hearted earnestness in the
war by sending reinforcements to Grant at Fort Donelson.
" Naturally, there were many amusing and interesting
incidents of the siege, but none was more striking and
illustrative of Grant's character than the one which oc-
curred on July 3d. Vicksburg had capitulated. Grant's
ambition to open the Mississippi River was now satisfied.
He had never lost sight of that objective since he began
at Belmont. That night, while Sherman was at his head-
quarters, he took from his pocket that famous paper of
objections which Sherman had filed before the campaign
began, and handed it back to him, sayings ' I do not rteed
this, and perhaps you would prefer to have it.' What a
remarkable evidence of the hearty relations between the
two men ! The important paper was destroyed.^"

' General Logan is the authority for the btatement that the paper was re-
turned. General McFee'.y did not see it handed back, but heard that it was.

318

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

The running of the batteries was the sixth of the
several plans Grant had tried. Five routes by which he
hoped to place his troops before the doomed city had
proven too difficult even for his indomitable will. The
cutting of a single mile of canal across the peninsula six
miles from the city on the Louisiana side, would iiave
provided a safe channel for -the transportation of troops
and supplies to the projected base below. The work of
cutting it was prosecuted with great vigor. A sudden
rising of the great river caused the embankments to give
way, and the waters sweeping over destroyed the labor of
weeks.

A like sudden fall in the river put an end to a scheme
thought practicable to dredge out the shallows and con-
necting links o^ a route through the bayous about Milli-
ken's Bend, through Jloundabout Bayou to the Ten.^as
river, and thence to New Carthaire, A still loni^rer route
from Lake Providence seventy-five miles above Vicks-
burg where the lake is only a mile from the Mississippi,
had also kept the engineers and diggers employed. By
cutting through the intervening mile, it was hoped that
the steamers would be able to navici^ate the lakes and
bayous to the Tensas. These water-courses, however,
proved so snake-like and difficult, that this scheme, too,
was abandoned.

Again a route was surveyed from Yazoo Pass, which
winds a very tortuous way eastward from eight miles
below Helena through Moon Lake, and thence to the
Coldwater river, a confluent of the Tallahatchie , which
is itself a branch of the Yazoo river. This route was
made the more important by the fact that the Confederates
were constructing gunboats on both the Coldwater and
Tallahatchie. A joint army and navy expedition was sent
along this route to destroy the hostile embryo gunboats.

rer,

ich
lies
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was
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(819\

320

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

and, if possible, to proceed down the Yazoo and co-operate
in a new attack on Haines' Bluff. Experienced pilots
showed the way through channels overhung with masses of
interlaced branches and vines so dense that the light wood-
work of the steamers was swept away, and the smoke-
stacks were knocked down. In the reaches which were
comparatively free from the too luxuriant swamp growth,
the transports encountered huge rafts of timber felled by
the Confederates, who, suspecting some such attempt, had
been diligent in piling up obstructions. Soldiers were
called upon to drop their arms, and, often shoulder-deep
in water, to spend hours lassoing the heavy logs and drag-
ging them out of the way. Forcing a channel through innu-
merable like obstacles, the expedition at last found itself
in the comparatively free waters of the Tallahatchie. Pro-
ceeding cautiously down its channel, they came upon Fort
Pemberton, so strongly posted at a sharp bend of the tor-
tuous river that the gunboats which tried to reduce it
were badly handled, and a light-draft iron-clad was sunk
before the naval officers declared the batteries impreg-
nable to attack from the river. Gen. Ross, who com-
manded the land forces, exhausted the resources of mili-
tary art in obtaining a foot-hold near the fort, from which
it could be assaulted or blockaded until hunger compelled
its surrender. The country surrounding it, however, had
been submerged by the winter floods until it looked like
a shallow lake, the dense forest growth furnishing a con-
tinuous abatis which could not be passed. The expedition
had penetrated two hundred and fifty miles, and McPher-
son's whole corps had been sent to Milliken's Bend to
support the pioneers, when these insuperable difficulties
compelled the abandonment of the enterprise.

All these operations were merely scouts to find some
plan of establishing a base for the supply of an army

THE APPROACH TO VICKSBURG.

321

below Vicksburg, which could be reached from St. Louis
without passing under the fire of the batteries. As one
after another proved impracticable, Grant was more than
ever convinced that the batteries must be run on the
Mississippi before he could hope to win the prize. The
various movements had had the effect of distracting the
enemy's attention from what was now to become the
immediate objective-point of the Union commander's
combinations, and his way was by that made much easier.
Farragut, with a fleet from New Orleans, had run the
batteries of Port Hudson, another Confederate Gibraltar,
nearer New Orleans, and Admiral Porter became anxious
to prove that he could succeed in doing down-stream,
what the other had accomplished against the swift current.
The "good ready" which Grant spoke about was being
hastened with all dispatch, when he was again assailed by
a fire in his rear. His army had already been four months
in the swamps, and the many-headed people began to
clamor for substantial fruits of the army's labors. For
the first time it was discovered that Grant was slow. The
various schemes by which he had tried and failed to place
his army around the city on the bluffs were voted wild
and chimerical, fit only to be classed amongst the emana-
tions of an alcoholized brain. His heroic army, forced
to resort to the spade, to keep the overflowing waters
out of their encampments, became the victims of the
dreaded malaria. Their sufferings were wildly exagger-
ated, but some foundation existed in the fact that upon
every dyke on whose higher tops alone could be found
dry ground above the overflow, were the graves of the
hundreds who had dropped their arms and shovels to
answer to the final roll-call. Pestilence had indeed
skirmished with his army, but had been defeated by that
mastery of the detail of preparation which left no e:d-

!ii

•I

S22

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

gency unprovided for. Politicians of all grades and de-
grees clamored for his removal, and half a dozen generals,
with or without their own consent, were urged upon the
President to supersede Grant. "I rather like the man; I
think we'll try him a little longer," Mr. Lincoln said.

Although well aware of this discontent with his opera-
tions in high quarters, at no time did Grant exhibit the
annoyance it must have cost him. In reply to strictures
concerning the health and discipline of his command, he
wrote on April 4th: "The discipline and health of this
army is now good, and I am satisfied that the greatest
confidence in success prevails." He was now maturing
his plans for the grand movement which was to crown
his great undertaking with success.

Nearly all the surface of Louisiana near the river was
covered with the overflow, which, in ante-war times, had
been kept out by a vast series of dykes or levees. These
had been broken for military purposes, or had beea
suffered to go down by the inhabitants, and thus was
greatly increased the difficulty of moving a force through
the Louisiana bottoms to a point from which they could
be thrown across and effect a lodgment below Vicksburg
on the Mississippi side. New Carthage, Louisiana,
seemed the best point, and Grant believed that a way
thither could be found for the troops, although the
almost bottomless quagmires were wholly impassable for
wagons. McClernand's advance pushed forward as far
as Smith's plantation, found the levee of Bayou Vidal
broken, and New Carthage for the time being an island.
Still, the bayou could be avoided by a detour of 1 2 miles.
The distance of this route between Young's Point and
New Carthage was thus Increased to thirty miles of as
boggy road as troops were ever asked to march through.
Still it was practicable, and once at New Carthage the

THE APPROACH TO VICKSBURG.

323

scouts discovered that Hard Times, on the Louisiana
Shore, above Grand Gulf, furnished great advantages
for throwing troops across the river. This, by the cir-
cuitous route made necessary by the condition of the
country, was seventy miles from Milliken's Bend. To
that point Grant ordered McClernand's and McPherson's
corps just after the success of the gunboats in passing
the batteries, as described in the beginning of this chapter*

This movement of the land forces was regarded as
most hazardous, even by some of Grant's most trusted
lieutenants. Even the fact that some boats had succeeded
in running the batteries only showed how dangerous that
undertaking was, and the storm of shot and shell they
escaped was merely proof that those who subsequently
tried it would encounter greater risks. Even General
Sherman had remonstrated with all the vigor his sense
of subordination permitted. In his opinion, it would vio-
late every known principle of military procedure, by
cutting his own communications and placing his army
just where the enemy would like to have them. Disaster,
if incurred, would be overwhelming^, and could be avoided
only by the happiest result of combinations and the speed-
iest of victories: "I make these suggestions," General
Sherman wrote, " with the request that General Grant
simply read them, and give them, as I know he will, a share
of his thoughts. I would prefer he should not answer
them, but merely give them as much or as little weight as
they deserve; whate'/er plan of action he may adopt will
receive from me the same zealous co-operation and ener-
getic support as though conceived by myself." The order,
however, was neve" revoked, and despite Sherman's fore-
bodings, the campaign opened the Mississippi River.

Six days after the lirst successful attempt to run the
batteries, a second was made. Six transports towing

824

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

twelve barges loaded with forage, and manned by eager
volunteers from the army, on the night of April 2 2d, left
the rendezvous at Young's Point. The enterprise was
attended with much more hazard than that which preceded,
for the Confederates had got the range and their heavy
missiles did great execution. Five of the boats were badly
damaged, but all but one made che run successfully and
half the forage was safely landed.

Grand Gulf, at the mouth of the Big Black River, had
been heavily fortified, and was virtually the left flank of
the defenses of Vicksburg. It stood upon the only avail-
able spot then known to Grant at which his troops could
be successfully thrown across the river, and established
with a suitable base for operations against the main objec-
tive. Admiral Porter, with his gunboats, undertook .0
silence its batteries, while McClernand's corps was to be
thrown across the river and complete its capture by
storm, if the navy proved successful. The gunboats, often
within pistol-shot of the batteries, rained shot and shell
upon them for five hours. Grant, who watched the naval
assault from a tug, becoming satisfied that its defenses
were too strong to be stormed by any land force that
could be established near it, acquiesced in Admiral
Porter's withdrawal.

It was essential to the success of these operations that
the garrison of Vicksburg should be too fully employed
in other quarters to enable them to promptly reinforce
the real point of attack. Hence, another move in the
nature of a feint upon Haines' Bluff was ordered. Sher-
man, whose corps had been left at Milliken's Bend, was
ordered to execute this movement. His bloody repulse
from those same rugged hill-sides was still fresh in the
public mind, and he well knew that although only a demon-
stration was to be made, it would be difficult to persuade

THE APPROACH TO VICKSBURG.

;:25

self-appointed critics that he had not been defeated. It
was a thankless task, but the loyal old warrior replied to
his commander, **I believe a diversion at Haines' Bluff is
proper and right, and will make it, let whatever report of
repulses be made." He accordingly moved ten regiments
up the Yazoo, and while the gunboats engaged the bat-
teries, landed his men and made dispositions as if to
attack. Reconr.oitering parties were sent out, and the
army paraded for two days out of range of the enemy's
works. Their movements proved very perplexing to the
defenders, who were reinforced in great haste. Having
accomplished his design, Sherman withdrew his forces
without the loss of a man. The enemy was thus pre-
vented from reinforcing Grand Gulf, and making head
against McClernand's advance.

The main operations were now being successfully pros-
ecuted. From information obtained from an old negro.
Grant learned that a good road ran from Bruinsburg, a
few miles below, to Port Gibson, a point which, if held by
his army, would compel the evacuation of Grand Gulf.
It took him but one day to march his army opposite, and
on April 24th the gunboats and transports ran the Grand
Gulf batteries, and all the next day were engaged in ferry-
ing McClernand's corps across. The hazard of throwing
an army across such a stream as the Mississippi, right into
the midst of a hostile army, is something that generals
have seldom attempted, even with all facilities at hand. It
was infinitely multiplied in this case by the fact: that Grant,
already seventy miles away from his base of operations,
had been able to gather barely three days' rations for his
army, and to assemble transports enough to ferry only a
few thousand men across at a time. In this, as in many
other movements, he was greatly assisted by the inefifi-
dency of his opposing commanders, who could have made

326

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

his landing in Mississippi very costly, if not impossible.
McClernani was permitted to land his men unmolested,
and they were pushed forward with all expedition to the
highlands about Port Gibson. That same evening, eight
miles from Bruinsburg, the sk' mishers of the enemy were
encountered. On April 26th, four miles further on, in the
neighborhood of Port Gibson, they were met by a strong
force of Confederates under command of Gen. Bowen.
He made a gallant stand to defend the two roads by
which the Federals were forced to advance, but his posi-
tions were yielded at the bayonet-point one after another
and by night-fall his troops were thoroughly beaten and
put to flight. Grand Gulf was evacuated next day, and
the Union forces, now numbering twenty-five thousand
men, were fully established with a river base, and ready
to be projected against the army which Grant knew was
being assembled to defend the Confederate Gibra'tar.
Delaying only long enough to concentrate his army by
bringing Sherman's corps from Milliken's Bend, and to
use every energy to gather as much supplies as possible,
he was ready a week afterward to start out on the most
original and successful campaign of the war.

1-liHk.t, '

CHAPTER XXI.

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.

Grant's most original campaign — Cutting loose from his base — Subsisting on the
country — Bewildering manoeuvres — Pemberton's army divided — Accidental battle
at Raymond — Logan's splendid valor — Jackson invested — McPherson's hot en-
gagement — Jackson captured — The army turned backward — Pemberton struck at
Champion's Hill — An overwhelming defeat — Routed at Black River Bridge —
Penned up in Vicksburg — Haines' Bluff taken — The siege begun — Sherman's
doubts turned to admiration.

"Casting the net for a haul of fortune" is the way
Napier would have spoken of the movements Grant at
this point begins. Yet no great commander has ever
covered the world with his name who has not done much
that was original and hazardous. Napoleon won much
of his distinction because he startled military critics as
well as his opponents jy doing the unexpected. Cast
iron rules arbitrarily applied to warlike operations rarely
create a pre-eminent soldier. The audacious moves in
the game of conflict win distinction for a man. They
also succeed more frequently because the other side is
kept wholly unprepared for his opponent's stroke. The
officer who fails to take chances in war, and to do things
which the strict military scientist does not foresee and ap-
prove rarely rises to the highest command. This truism
does not apply to foolhardy exploits but to the well-de-
vised movements of a commander capable of grasping
and using fresh emergencies as they arise.

The easy victory at Port Gibson and consequent evac-
uation of Grand Gulf, were most inspiring events to the
Union Army, and emboldened its commander to rudely

(327)

B28

LIl'E OF GENERAL GRANT.

It
''if

depart from the campaign contemplated m his instruc-
tions from Halleck. The general-in-chief as well as the
President had expected that Grant, if successful in effect-
ing a lodgment below Vicksburg, would merely secure
its possession and move thence to join Banks in the re-
duction of Port Hudson, thus opening the river to New
Orleans to the supplying of his army in subsequtmt
operations. The two armies united in overwhelminir
numbers could at once proceed at leisure against Vicks-
burg, if indeed, the Confederates should then deem it
worth defending. Grant, however, saw an opportunity
the daring of which dazzled his own subordinates while
it made them shudder for the success of plans which
had never before in the history of war been successfully
prosecuted. Therefore they will be here given in un-
usual detail.

The defence of the Confederate stronghold had been
intrusted to General J. C. Pemberton and an army of
nearly sixty thousand men. The larger part of this force
under Pemberton himself, lay either in Vicksburg r
across the roads and railways in its immediate vicini,^
The remainder at first commanded by General Gregg but
afterward by General Joseph E. Johnston was established
in or near Jackson, the Capital of the State, and a place
of strategic value on account of the railroads there cross-
ing. With possession of these railroads, these two armies
could readily be united in numbers sufficient to over-
whelm the forces then with Grant. The opportunity
which the Federal commander perceived and accepted
was by swift marches, the seeming foolhardiness of
which deceived his enemies, to throw himself between
these two armies, beat them in detail and so prepare the
way to a siege of the fortress which had defied him for
months.

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.

82!)

The possession of Grand Gulf was more important to
Grant from the facilities it gave him to mislead the enemy
as to his object than as a depot for the supply of his troops.
All commissary and ordnance stores had to be waggoned
across the boggy Louisiana bottoms, a distance of more
than fifty miles, and with all the means at his disposal he
could not gather rations sufficient for the support of his
troops. Here the experience gained in the campaign
toward Grenada the previous December was turned to
fullest account. The generals along his supply line were
advised to hasten forward only hard bread, coffee and
salt. He fully expected that the rich pastures of the
country through which he marched would well supply
his men with beef and bacon, and in this he was not dis-
appointed. Through all the long marches and desperate
battles of this wonderful campaign, until his army had
enveloped the city, only three days rations were issued
for five days' use. The country furnished the remainder.

Grant remained at Grand Gulf anc vicinity prei)aring
for his great undertaking until May 9th. Sherman's corps
hurried down from Milliken's Bend after the Haines*
Bluff demonstration came up with the army on the east-
ern bank of the river on May 6th, and two days after-
ward the forward movement began. The Big Black river
emptying into the Mississippi above Grand Gulf was
regarded as one of the important defences of the enemy.
McClernand's command was moved up both banks of
this river threatening a direct attack upon Vicksburg^
while the corps of McPherson marching northeastward
was approaching Raymond, the most advanced position
of the hostile army defending Jackson. Sherman's corps
advanced upon the roads leading to Edward's Station, a
point at which Grant learned Pemberton was concentra-
ting his army.

|l !

880

LIFE Oj^^ general GRANT.

These movements once begun, Grant sent his last
despatch to Halleck from Grand Gulf under date of May
nth. It announced the arrival of his advance divisions
fourteen miles out, and concluded, "As I shall commun-
icate with Grand Gulf no more, except it becomes neces-
sary to send a train with heavy escort, you may not hear
from me again for several days." In thus cutting him-
self off from his base Grant effected a purpose which had
a most important bearing upon the issue of the cam-
paign — he was beyond the reach of recall by his tiirid

superior. Halleck was
thrown into an agony of
apprehension by the re-
port of his subordinate,
and wrote hasty orders
to him to return to (jrand
Gulf and join in the cam-
paign against Port Hud-
son according to instruc-
tions. Happily the tele-
graph lines from Wash-
ington ceased at Memphis
and the recalling des-
GENERAL JOHN A. LOGAN. patch did not reach Grant

until his army had scattered opposing forces and were
besieging Vicksburg.

On May 12th the right wing of the Federal army
moved toward Raymond. About noon the advance divi-
sion commanded by General John A. Logan struck the
enemy five thousand strong, advantageously posted about
two miles south and west of Raymond. Two batteries
swept the approaching road and covered the bridge by
which the Federals must advance to the attack. Logan
added to his reputation as a fighting general by assault-

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.

331

ing at once. " That was the most desperate fighting ot
my whole army experience," Logan has since said of
this eventful fight. "Grant had not expected to encounter
the enemy then and the battle consequently was an ac-
cident. But I drove the Confederates from the field with
tremendous loss before the main army came up." The
batde in fact was an accidental encounter resulting from
the manoeuvring of McPherson's corps, the right wing,
which was demonstrating against Jackson for the pur-
pose of bewildering the enemy. " Indeed all the battles
Grant fought before the siege of Vicksburg," says Gen-
eral Logan, "were unexpected." McPherson's corps lost
five hundred and forty men killed, wounded and missing,
almost all from Logan's division. The Confederate loss
was four hundred and five killed and wounded, and four
hundred and fifteen prisoners. They lost also two can-
nons and a large number of small arms.

The enemy was followed only as far as Raymond,
which McPherson occupied that same evening. They
had fled precipitately toward Jackson, but the rugged
country much cut up with ravines and covered with
dense undergrowth forbade further pursuit.

The victory at Raymond, of which Grant received in-
formation the same night, led to an immediate change
in his plans, making certain what he had left to be de-
cided by circumstances. Knowing that Pemberton's
army was drawn up in the vicinity of Edward's Station,
on the Vicksburg and Jackson railway, he made his dis-
positions with the view of misleading that general to
believe he was to be attacked. McClernand accord-
ingly was ordered to keep up the appearance of moving
upon that point. His advance division thrown across
the Fourteen-mile creek had some skirmishing, while
his other divisions were extended to the right so as to

882

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

communicate with Sherman's corps, the centre of the
Union line at Dillon's plantation. McPherson was at
Raymond seven miles eastward of Sherman's position.

■ *\

MAJOR-GKNLRAL JAMKS B. M'PHERSON.

Grant had his head-quarters with Sherman at Dillon's.
The Union line thus lay nearly parallel with the Vicks-
burg and Jackson road about seven miles south of it,

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.

333

and extendinor from Baldwin's ferry on the Big Black to
Raymond.

The hasty retreat of the Confederates through Ray-
mond led Grant to believe that a considerable hostile
force was assembled in Jackson, which might embarrass
his operations toward Vicksburg. He promptly deter-
mined to fall upon it, and if not destroy it at least pre-
vent its junction with Pemberton. Accordingly the line
of march of McClernand's and Sherman's corps was
deflected so as to bring them within closer supporting
distance of McPherson, who was ordered to advance
upon Clinton on the Vicksburg and Jackson railroad,
with the view of preventing any co-operation between
Pemberton and the forces in Jackson, which that same
day went under the command of General Joseph E.
Johnston. On May 13th McPherson entered Clinton, de-
stroyed the railroad, and captured important despatches
from Pemberton to Gregg, whom he still believed in
command at Jackson, indicating that he was still on the
defensive, expecting attack at Edward's Station. After
completing the dismantling of the railroad tracks by
twisting rails, tearing up ties, destroyiig culverts and
telegraph poles and wires, McPherson moved on toward
Jackson ten miles eastward. He started thither in the
early dawn of May 14th. Sherman, whose corps had
occupied Raymond when McPherson moved on Clinton,
also moved igainst Jackson at the same hour. Clinton
and Raymond are equidistant from the capital of Missis-
sippi, and McPherson and Sherman had timed their
march so as to strike the doomed city from different
points at the same hour. The movement might have
been made more hazardous had Pemberton obeyed
Johnston's earnest orders to strike the Federal rear and
communications at or near Dillon's plantation, where
Grant had by this time brought McClernand's corps.

884

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Rain fell heavily on the night of May 13th, making
the roads deep and slippery, but the men marched in
excellent order and spirit, and by 9 a. m. of the 14th
Crocker with McPherson's advance division encountered
the enemy about five miles out of Jackson. Driving in
their outposts speedily Crocker followed them two miles
and a half, until the main body under Johnston's com-
mand was found posted outside the defences awaiting
attack. The regiments defeated at Raymond, the garri-
son of Jackson and some reinforcements from Georgia
and South Carolina composed the army of defence.

Sherman's corps had also encountered a small force
of infantry and artillery about five miles from Jackson
on the southern road by which he was advancing.
Although there was an interval of nearly two miles
between his left and McPherson's right, no effort to con-
nect the wings was made, anr" dispositions for immediate
attack were begun. A very heavy shower which began
at this time delayed the onset an hour and a half, but
the period was well spent by McPherson in completing his
lines. At eleven o'clock the order to advance was given.
Two batteries swept the road and open field across
which the blue line moved. Logan's and Crocker's
divisions shoulder to shoulder swept forward with
cheers, drove the enemy out of a ravine in their front
and charged gallantly after them up the hill. The Con-
federates not waiting for the full shock of the assault
hastily fled to the cover of their works. The Federals
pursued until they were halted just out of range of the
artillery mounted on the defences. Two batteries well
placed had done much execution upon the retreating
enemy.

Sherman's advance from the southwest had been
made witli similar precision and success. Skirmishers

C/)

(Si

w i

,33<-

336

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

had sent the opposing infantry to the cover of the rifle-
pits and other defences, and the Fifteenth corps, emerg-
ing from the skirting woods, found itself in front of strong
intrenchments, from which a brisk artillery fire was
directed upon the road along which it advanced. Gen-
eral Grant, who had been present all morning with
Sherman, ordfjred a detachment to be sent to the ri[;ht
to feel that flank of the defences. This movement
became merely a reconnoissance which developed the
fact that the enemy were already far advanced in their
preparations for hasty evacuation. Grant following the
detachment found his road into Jackson unobstructed,
and, accompanied by his staff and Frederick Dent Grant,
then only thirteen years old, was the first to enter the
city. After their first retirement the enemy had only
enough men left in the defences to make a show of
resistance. Johnston with the bulk of his forces was
already far on his retreat northeastward. Tutde's
troops, advancing to the rear of the Confederate artillery,
captured ten guns and one hundred and fifty artillerists.
McPherson's troops were moved into the defences
simultaneously with those of Sherman, and Crocker's
division captured seven other guns. By three o'clock
the Union flag floated over Jackson.

Johnston by reason of the swiftness of his adversary's
movement had been unable to detain them long enough
for the attack upon their rear which he had ordered
Pemberton to make. But that officer had not obeyed
orders, so the outcome was beyond Johnston's control
in any event. McPherson sent Stevenson's brigade to
cut off the Confederate retreat toward Canton, but he
moved slowly and Johnston was already out of harm's
way. The capture of Jackson cost the Union army two
hundred and ninety men in killed and wounded.

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.

837

AH but twenty-five of the casualties fell upon McPher-
son's corps. Johnston made no official report of his
losses, but McPherson estimated them at eight hundred
and forty-five in killed, wounded and missing. Seven-
teen cannon fell into the hands of the victors.

On the evening of May 14th, Grant issued his orders
to his lieutenants from the State-house in Jackson. The
next day Sherman's men were employed in destroying
the railroads twenty miles out in every direction. All
bridges, factories, arsenals and mills that could be of any
use to the enemy were burned, and the importance of
Jackson as a railroad and military centre was effectually
destroyed.

Johnston's retreat carried him only six miles toward
Canton the day of the battle. He then scattered his
forces, ordering some of them to provide for their safety
at points forty or fifty miles from Jackson, but from
which they might be concentrated about Vicksburg by
throwing them across the Black river, and, as Grant put
it, "beating us" in. The Federal army was accordingly
faced about to prevent such concentration. McPherson
was directed to march on Bolton, twenty miles west of
Jackson, and the nearest point at which Johnston could
strike the railroad. Similar orders were given Sherman
and McClernand. The command of the latter, held
in reserve during the movement upon Jackson was, so
near Bolton that his advance cavalry occupied that point
before the other troops had time to get there. Pember-
ton's whereabouts was the subject of anxious specula-
tion. If he did what was best he would mancEuvre his
forces toward the northward so as to facilitate a junction
with Jackson. At one o'clock on the 15th, however, he
moved his army out of its strong position about Ed-
ward's Station, and started to place it across Grant's
w

338

L/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

•V

rear about Dillon's plantation seven miles to the south-
ward toward Raymond. Baker's creek, however, was
so swollen by the rains that he could not cross, and he
reversed his column as it stood and started back to Ed-
ward's Station. He had just fairly begun this movement
when the skirmishers of Smith's division of McCler-
nand's corps came upon his pickets about five miles from
Edward's Station. Ignorant of the numbers of the force
harassing him Pemberton at once threw his army into
battle line with his left resting on Champion's Hill, a
wooded ridge sixty or seventy feet high, over which the
road to Edward's Station runs. The line extended
thence southward to the road from Raymond to Vicks-
burg. It was a position of great natural strength, espe-
cially about Champion's Hill, whose bald top gave a
commanding place for artillery, while its heavily timbered
and precipitous sides could be passed by hostile troops
only with extreme difficulty. The hill formed a horse-
shoe where the road disappears, which gave the Confed-
erates a position so strong, that a small force could
successfully resist much larger numbers.

After waiting some time to learn the dispositions of
McClernand, who held the left of the Federal line with
four divisions, Grant gave the order to attack, and
Logan's and Hovey's divisions were launched against
the Confederate left. Logan, sweeping around the right
heel of the horseshoe which the Confederate position
formed, speedily drove them back, two brigades of his divi-
sion pressing forward with such determination that they
captured three regiments, thirteen pieces of artillery, and
actually gained possession of the road which was Pember-
ton's only line of retreat to Edward's Station. The Con-
federates however had not been without success in op-
posing Hovey's men. As his line pressed forward they

hs of

with
and
rainst
loht
)sition
divi-
t they
•y, and
imber-
: Con-
in op-
d they

It J

\338)

840

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

i \

met a murderous fire of musketry under which they wav-
ered for a moment. They again advanced, steadily driv-
ing back the enemy six hundred yards and capturing
eleven guns and three hundred prisoners, besides gaining
the crest of the height. The road was here sunken be-
low the surface of the summit and formed a natural line
of breastworks, which the Confederates availed them-
selves of to resist with great determination further Fed-
eral advance. Under its cover they were still masters of
the declivity. Keenly alive to the importance of the point,
Pemberton hurried up reinforcements rapidly, which, ar-
riving under cover of the woods, were hurled down the
road upon Hovey's position with such vigor that he
was compelled to fall back. This he did stubbornly,
leaving several of the guns he had just before captured.
Grant who had been watching Hovey's struggles saw
that he must be aided and sent m one of Crocker's bri-
gades. This enabled Hovey to maintain his grip on the
crest but not without heavy loss.

The Confederates then made a desperate assault upon
McPherson's left, at a point where a battery was doi;ig
them great damage. They were met by one of Logan's
brigades which drove them back with heavy slaughter,
capturing many prisoners. Again the enemy was pre-
cipitated upon Hovey's left. His men, much fatigued
by three hours fighting, and with ammunition nearly ex-
hausted, fell back doggedly, and their commander sent
back an urgent request for reinforcements. Hovey again
assumed the offensive, and after a dashing charge the
artillery previously captured and abandoned were re-
captured. The Confederates, however, still fought with
determination, and the battle in that quarter was still far
from decided. It was at this juncture that Grant, seeing
Hovey's peril, recalled Logan's division just when his

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.

341

hard won success might have been further pressed to
the annihilation of Pemberton's army. Grant, in his
report of the battle, says, he would then and there have
captured the whole Confederate force if he had not then
recalled Logan's troops. Here again as at Raymond,
Logan's push and fighting quality earned him great
distinction.

Pemberton, badly beaten on his left, was still bent
upon attacking the Federal right and rear. Hoping
thus to relieve the terrible pressure from Hovey's line,
he ordered an attack where McClernand's division was
making a cautious advance. Loring's and Bowen's
were assigned by Pemberton to this task, but the former
refused to fight. When directed to move to the aid of
Stevenson he again refused. Bowen's brigades alone
were sent in to the Stevenson's assistance and they
together were pushed against Crocker and Hovey.
Although the Confederate centre, thus strengthened,
fought w5ll, the battle had already gone against them.
Under a terrific musketry fire, with all their artillery
horses killec' and their guns silenced, Stevenson's men
finally broke at 5 p. m. Bowen's division also melted
away, and the battle of Champion's Hill was won.
Pemberton's army was completely demoralized. Many
of his men had abandoned the field without orders.
Others, throwing away their arms, surrendered unasked.
The only portion of the Confederate forces which main-
tained complete organization was Loring's division,
which, lying in McClernand's front, had scarcely even
skirmished briskly, became separated from the remain-
der of the Confederate army and wandered ofif the field
in a direction opposite that of their flying comrades.
By abandoning their artillery, and under cover of dark-
ness, they made a wide detour to the southward, and

i-i

842

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

after several days succeeded in joining Johnston, who
had returned to the vicinity of Jackson, having been
beaten by Grant in his attempts to join his forces with
those of Pemberton and himself take command of the
defence of Vicksburg.

Several of McClernand's divisions, despite Grant's
urgent orders, only reached the battle-field after the re-
treat began. While the beaten and disorganized loe
were rushing headlong across his front, seeking to
escape, he imagined they were attacking and prepared
to receive instead of delivering a blow.

The remainder of the Confederate forces fled with
precipitation towards Vicksburg. McClernand's com-
paratively fresh divisions were hurried forward in pur-
suit and gathered a rich harvest of prisoners, artillery
and small arms. At nightfall the victorious troops were
within a few miles of the Big Black. Early next morn-
ing McClernand, still on the track, found the enemy
posted in considerable force on both sides of the river
in a position of sufficient strength to promise a vigorous
resistance, and the Union army was halted to make dis-
positions for another battle.

The battle of Champion's Hill or Baker's creek, as
it has been variously called, was rich in its various re-
sults. It was fought by Logan's and Crocker's divi-
sions of McPherson's corps and Hovey's of McCler-
nand's corps. Hovey, however, fought under the imme-
diate supervision and orders of General Grant himself.
That division alone lost twelve hundred in killed,
wounded and missing, or one-third of its total strenfjth.
The total Union loss was twenty-four hundred and fifty-
in killed, wounded and missing. The Confederate loss,
never officially reported, was estimated at about six
thousand, of whom about one-half were prisoners.

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.

848

Thirty pieces of artillery and large quantities of small
arms and ammunition were also captured.

On the evening of the battle of Champion's Mill, May
1 6th, Grant received Halleck's despatch ordering him to
return and co-operate with Banks against Port Hudson.
With three won battles behind him and a demoralized
enemy in his front, the recall had come too late. The
grand prize lay almost within his grasp and he pressed
forward to secure it.

During the last engagement Sherman and his corps
were in Jackson completing the destruction of its rail-
roads and factories. That evening they moved to join
the main army and at Bolton learned of the victory and
were ordered to deflect north of the road and march
upon Bridgeport, an important crossing of the Big
Black river. With this point in his control, Sherman
could turn the left flank of the enemy guarding that
river and menace Haines' Bluff, which it became de-
sirable to secure as a base of supplies. Thoroughly ap-
preciating the necessity for the swiftest moving, Sher-
man was compelled to leave behind the wounded both
at Jackson and Raymond. Surgeons heroically volun-
teered to remain with them, and ample supplies and
medical stores were left with them. Twice during the
siege Grant sent trains under escort to carry needed
hospital stores and rations to these comrades, whom the
exigencies of the campaign demanded should be left in
the hands of the enemy. These messengers of humanity
carried relief to the sick and wounded Confederates as
well as Union sufferers, for the stores were divided be-
tween them. The single pontoon train was sent to
Sherman, who pressed forward with all speed and ar-
rived at Bridgeport on the evening of the 1 7th.

Meanwhile McClernand had found the enemy massed

344

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

IHi

in a horseshoe m?.de by the Big Black river, covering
the bridge which vhey had been ordered to hold to facil-
itate the escape of Loring's division, of which Pemberton
had heard nothing since the day before. Twenty can-
non which had escaped capture were posted on the
steep western bank of the river and field-works w(;ll
placed made r»trong defences for the few brigades which
still maintained some organization. Their front was
protected by a bayou and boggy flat, which made a very
formidable wet ditch. A brisk artillery fire was direct(;d
at the enemy's position for several hours, when General
Lawler, who commanded a brigade of Carr's division
of McClernand's corps, perceived a weak spot, which he
proceeded to make the most of withoui waiting for
orders. Near the river bank, screened by a heavy
thicket, was a narrow crossing of the bayou, and on the
other side was good footing from which to take the par-
apet in flank. Detaching eleven hundred of his brigade,
while the others were supported by a front attack, he
led his forlorn hope across the open field under a heavy
fire. The point of attack was unprovided with abatis
for a space through which four men could pass abreast.
Lawler's men rushed through the gap and almost with-
out resistance the enemy were driven from the para; (.'t.
Abandoning their guns and throwing away their small
arms, they fled, panic-stricken, in a wild rush as if
to see which should reach the crossing first. In their
wild terror the bridge was fired before half had crossed.
Plunging in, some swam across, but many were drowned.
Others remained in the trenches and surrendered. Pem-
berton and the remains of his demoralized army con-
tinued their flight. At ten o'clock that night the crowd
of tired fugitives poured into Vicksburg. The victory,
which uncovered every road to the doomed city, cost

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.

845

overing

to facil-

nberton

nty can-
on the

rks w(-ll

es which

•ont was

le a very
direcU'd

1 General

\ division
which he

liting for
a heavy

nd on the

Le the par-

,s brigade,
attack, he

er a heavy

yrith abatis
ss abreast,
most with-
le para ct.
dieir small
•ush as if
In their
ad crossed.

Grant's army two hundred and sixty killed and wounded.
The enemy lost seventeen hundred and fifty-one
prisoners, eighteen cannon and five stands of colors.
Their losses in killed and wounded were small.

Bridges had to be built across the wide and deep
river, and this gave Pemberton twelve hours' rest. By
working all night several temporary but sufficient cross-
ings were constructed, and on the morning of the i8th
all three corps of the Federal army were on the west
ban!: of the Big Black river, ready to move forward and
complete the investment of the city. Although a con-
siderable force of Confederates lay opposite Bridgeport,
they decamped as soon as Sherman's advance appeared
and the pontoons were laid and the corps thrown across
without resistance.

Early on the i8th Sherman moved forward, and, seiz-
ing the Benton road, three miles and a half out of
Vicksburg, cut off the last hope of communicating with
Johnston's army. Here he halted until the other Union
commanders had filled their places in the siege line.
The army had already withdrawn from their works on
Haines' Bluff, and a force was sent to take possession of
them and open communications with the fleet.

The latter, however, had already taken peaceable pos-
session of the formidable works. The Fifteenth corps
was thrown forward and seized the Walnut Hills, at the
foot of which, on th(^ Yazoo road, was established the
base for supplying the army during the siege. McPher-
son's corps held the centre and McClernand's the left
of the line of investment. The whole army moving for-
ward was now drawn as closely around the defences of
the doomed city as prudence warranted. The; enemy,
having abandoned all outworks, all its communications
destroyed and supplies cut off, was awaiting starvation
within the interior fortifications.

346

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. \

On April 30th Grant's advancing columns were landed
at Bruinsburg. Sixty thousand men were within easy
supporting distance to oppose his march. With an
army never exceeding forty thousand he manoeuvred so
as to befog them as to his point of attack and induce
them to divide their forces. Outnumbering the detach-
ments, he beat them in detail in five several battles, captur-
ing twenty-seven heavy pieces of artillery, sixty-one field
guns and six thousand five hundred prisoners. At least
six thousand other Confederates were kHled and
wounded. Besides fighting five battles he had marched
over two hundred miles, and in twenty days had cooped
up the remnant of the opposing army in a fortress out
of which they were to come only as prisoners of war.
Starting without teams, such supplies as he obtained
were drawn from the surrounding country and carried
in wagons impressed from the hostile population with
negroes for drivers. His own losses footed up four thou-
sand, three hundred and thirty-five in killed, wounded
and missing. As Grant and Sherman stood together on
the parapet of Haines* Bluff the day of its capture, the
latter, after looking mournfully at the defences which six
months before defied his efforts to storm, turned abruptly
and said : " Until this moment, I never thought your ex-
pedition a success. I never could see the end clearly
until now. But this is a campaign ; this is a success, if
we never take the town."

And General Sherman now, in speaking to the author
of those remarkable movements which Grant conceived
and pushed against the orders of the general-in-chief,
says: "Grant's plan from the time he abandoned Hallcck's
idea of connectinir with Banks and struck out from Grand
Gulf was Napoleonic in conception and execution.
His movements were in the nature of a left wheel,

BREAKING THE RULES OF WAR.

347

.nded

easy

:h an

•ed so

nduce

etach-

:aptur-

le field

it least

d and

larched

cooped

ess out

of war.

)btained
carried

ion with

kur thou-

vounded

ether on

;ure, the
hich six
abruptly
your ex-
id clearly

[uccess, if

le author
:onceived
d-in-chief,
iHalleck's
)m Grand
ixecution.
left wheel,

so directed as to prevent a junction between Johnston
and Pemberton and at the same time take his own forces
across the Black river. All the battles that were fought
were the natural accidents of that bold plan of cam-
paign. I was not in favor of the movement from Young's
Point as Grant made it, but preferred the land route
by way of Grenada and Jackson. But all the movements
that brought us to the investment of Vicksburg were
skilfully made, and Grant was very prcud of them, as
he had a right to be. It was a bold departure from the
theory of war as laid down in the books, but as each
successive step brought us nearer and nearer to a suc-
cessful investment of the objective, doubts were merged
in admiration of th ^ man who could so confidently begin
such an undertaking, assume such responsibilities and
succeed."

In this remarkable campaign Grant shared the severest
fortunes of his soldiers. His lot was their lot. On the
floor of Congress, while the glory of Vicksburg was still
fresh in the mind of the country, Hon. E. B. Washburne
thus describes the spirit which moved the Commander
during the siege :

"When he left his head-quarters at Smith's plantation,
below Vicksburg, to enter on that great campaign, he did
not take with hir.i the trappings and paraphernalia so
common to many milita men. As all depended on
quickness of movement, and as it was important to be
encumbered with as little baggage as possible, he set an
example to all under him. He took with him neither a
horse, nor an orderly, nor a servant, a camp-chest, an
overcoat, nor a blanket, nor even a clean shirt. His en-
tire baggage for six days — I was with him at that time —
was a tooth-brush. He fared like the commonest soldier
in his command, partaking of his rations, and sleeping

m^m

848

L/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

Upon the ground with no covering excepting the canopy
of heaven. How could such a soldier fail to inspire
confidence in an army, and how could he fail to lead it to
victory and glory ? "

General Grant's constitution was a remarkable one.
He could endure great hardships. During the war he
was in the prime of life and full of vigor and strength.
This physical vitality probably assisted him greatly in
keeping his mental faculties clear for any emergency
that might arise. It also helped him to maintain his
even and unalterable composure. No officer in the
army could endure as much as he, and no soldier in the
ranks could complain of the hardship he was forced to
undergo, because the commander was quite ready to
meet the same privations.

Side-light. — The Grierson raid should not be ne-
glected in dealing with the Vicksburg campaign. It
was the most daring of the war. In its conception and
success it may be said to be without a parallel in any
war. The object was to start from La Grange, and make
a diversion in favor of the army moving on Vicksburg
Public property and railroads were to be destroyed, and
as much damage as possible done to Confederate re-
sources. Accordingly, during March, Grierson moved
on Ripley and crossed the Tallahatchie river. Detach-
ments intended to deceive the enemy were sent in sev-
eral directions. At Starksville a Confederate mail was
captured which contained important information. On
the 2 2d of March Grierson was at Louisville, and
crossed the railroad at Newton. His route lay through
Raleigh, where he cut the telegraph-wires and destroyed
the bridges on through to Union Court-House. Thence

GJlIEJiSON^S RAID,

349

:anopy
inspire
ad it to

lie one.
war he
trength.
eatly in
^ergency
itain his
r in the
er in the
ibrced to
ready to

he turned southward on his course of destruction. By
this time the Confederates had become alarmed at the
path of ruin which he was cutting before him, and gath-
ered in his rear to destroy him when he returned. He
first met them at Oskya, and broke through ; and then
by a quick turn through CHnton he reached Baton
Rouge on the ist of May. He had made a most daring
forward move direcdy into the heart of the enemy's
country, had greatly damaged his railroads and his tel-
egraph wires, and had utterly escaped punishment.

)t be ne-
laign. It
[ption and
|lel in any
and make
icksburg.
•oyed, and
Iderate re-
in moved
Detach-
;nt in sev-
mail was
^tion. On
iville, and
ly through
destroyed
Thence

CHAPTER XXII.

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED.

^^ksburg invested — Haines' Bluff occupied — The first assault — Union battle-flap
on the counterscarp — The assault repulsed — Second assault — The city bombarded
— Picturesque scenes — Gallant charges — Again repulsed — Grant's army reinforced
— The siege lines tight drawn— Hardships of besiegers and besieged — Exploding
the mines — Starving Confederates and civilians — Surrender proposed — The cor-
respondence — A glorious Fourth of July — Terms of surrender — Sherman's pro.
test returned — The Mississippi " unvexed to the sea."

In the mighty operations which General Grant con-
ducted for the openinfT of the Mississippi river to national
control none were more important, strategic or inten^st-
ing than the siege of Vicksburg. The city, sitting upon
a line of bluffs from two to three hundred feet above the
river, was well adapted for blockading the water-way and
for defence against a land attack. The broad plateau
which crowns the bluffs is four or five miles lonof and of
an average width of two miles. Mere hills of clayey
loam, the rains of ages have worn its surface into ir-
regular chasms with precipitous, often almost perpen-
dicular, sides. Forest trees, finding root in the clefts and
fissures, added to the difficulties of the climber, who
had to use his hands to aid in reaching the sum-
mits. Across the eastern front the banks of a tributary
of the great river formed the outer line of defence of
what in military parlance was the intrenched camp of
the Confederates. The northern front, where the hills
are highest and most rugged, was so heavily fortified by
nature as to make approach most difiicult. In its
southern aspect, where the plateau was flatter and more

(850)

VICKSBURG AND PORT HUDSON-SCENE OF GRANTS GREAT VICTORY.

(851)

352

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

cleared and cultivated, the resources of the enq^ineers
had been taxed to the utmost to render the field-works
impregnable. Wherever the ravines were insufificicMit
substitutes for wet ditches, trees had been felled, forming
abatis which rendered impossible unity of action in an
attacking force. Four miles of the river front were fur-
nished with numerous batteries mounted 'vith heavy
guns and innumerable rifle trenches. Such natural and
artificial defences might well revive the courage of the
panic-stricken regiments which poured into it after their
rout at the Big Black bridge.

Pemberton had left about eight thousand men to gar-
rison the fortress while he operated beyond the works.
These formed the nucleus around which he reorganized
his regiments. All told his forces numbered thirty thou-
sand, and with two hundred cannon he declared himself
ready to stand a siege. In the matter of supplies he was
not so well provided, but he reckoned upon the co-opera-
tion of Johnston's army, which he confidently expected
would be reinforced sufficiently to make an attack on
Grant's rear and enable the garrison to cut its way out,
if not actually raise the siege.

When Grant first drew his lines around the beleag-
uered city, his forces were too few for its complete in-
vestment. To the northward the blockade was indeed
unbroken, but the left of the line where McClernand's
corps was posted did not reach the river by nearly two
miles. Grant's total force which bivouacked in front
of Vicksburg on the night of May i8th numbered
thirty thousand men. They were so buoyant and eager
after the uninterrupted series of victories of the previous
twenty days that Grant believed himself justified in
attempting to carry the works by storm. He thought
that the enemy, whose demoralization could be read in

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED,

353

neers

works

ficKMU

irming
in an

re fur-
heavy

ral and
of the

er their

to gar-
1 works,
•ganized
rty thou-

himself
;s he was
:o-opera-
expected

tack on

way out,

2 beleag-
iplete in-
ts indeed
;iernand's
early two
in front
umbered
nd eager
previous
istified in
le thought
ke read in

their broad trail of abandoned arms and equipments,
would be incapable of any determined resistance. He,
moreover, underestimated their numbers, believing that
Pemberton had no more than from twelve to fifteen
thousand effective men. Accordingly the orders for
assault on the 19th were given. The corps command-
ers were called together and instructed minutely. After
skirmishing forward carefully so as to gain the most
advantageous positions possible in front of the works,
at the signal of three successive volleys from all the
artillery at precisely 2 p. m., assaulting parties were to
attack along the whole line. In order that there might
be no mistake in time, watches were set to conform to
that of the general commanding.

Sherman's skirmishing on the right gained important
ground. Blair's division was pressed close under the
works near a point upon which the artillery was playing
to prepare the way for the charge. To the Thirteenth
Regular infantry was assigned the important post of
forlorn hope. At the appointed time this regiment
forced its way gallantly through dense obstructions of
standing and fallen timber, across deep and precipitous
ravines, and finally planted its colors on the counter-
scarp. Two volunteer regiments followed them closely
in support and reached the same spot, although much
disorganized by the obstructions. There, under a hail
of leaden missiles, they maintained themselves with
gallantry, the men firing at every head that appeared
above the parapet. Although they retained their posi-
tion with the utmost determination, they were unable
to advance further and suffered very severely. The
Thirteenth regulars alone lost seventy-seven of its two
hundred and fifty officers and men, including Captain
Washington, who commanded it. Blair's and Steele's

354

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

I'M' )

1 i

division, advancing in line, had halted further away
from the hostile works, but the latter carried a number
of outworks and made a few prisoners. McPherson's
and McClernand's corps on the centre and left made
even less progress. Ransom's brigade of the former
corps indeed got close enough to make a brief but un-
availing; attack on the works in its front. The irreji^u-
larity of the ground and the numerous obstructions
prevented very close approach and night came before
they were in position to obey Grant's orders for a general
charge. Hence Blair's division was the only one which
accomplished any part of its task. It failed to make
any decided impression, although it maintained its ad-
vanced position until Sherman ordered it to withdraw
after nightfall. About the only results of the move-
ment was the general advance of the whole line of in-
vestment to positions much nearer the works, at which
the assailants were covered from the enemy's fire. Tiie
determined character of the re^ ance indicated that the
strength of the fortifications had already exerted an
inspiriting influence upon Pemberton's almost disheart-
ened men. The Union losses during the first assault,
although never officially reported, were estimated at
less than five hundred.

Although foiled, in his expectation of storming the
city, the operations were of great importance to Grant.
He now knew the character and extent of tlie defences
he had to battle with as well as the nature of the crround
he must operate upon. Advantageous positions for his
artillery were selected and the relations of the various
portions of his army were fully established and under-
stood. He determined to give his tired soldiers some
rest before again attempting to assault. He, however,
still felt that carrying the place by storm would be worth

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED.

355

away

mbtir

son's

made

Drmer

It un-

rrei^u-

ictions

before

;cneral

; which

I make

its ad-

ithdraw
move-

e of in-

it which

. The

lat the

■ted an

iishcart-
assault,
ated at

■im^

the
3 Grant,
defences
round
s for his
: various
\ under-
rs some
lowever,
Ibe Nvorth

the sacrifice of life it would entail. Johnston, gathering
the scatter<^d fragments of his army about Cantor., was
expecting reinforcements, which would enable him to
relieve his beleaguered subordinate. The vast impor-
tance the Confederate president and cabinet attached to
the stronghold led Grant to apprehend that some of
their eastern armies would be depleted to strengthen the
relieving force. In a short time Johnston might find him-
self strong enough to 'ttack him in the rear and raise
the siege. Moreover, tiie operations of the 19th con-
firmed him in the belief that a resolute and properly
supported assault from the positions then gained would
succeed, if made with vigor and co-operation.
' The 20th and 21st were spent in resting and refitting
his warworn men. Abundant supplies were landed
bodi at Chickasaw landing on the'Yazoo and at Warren-
ton on the Mississippi. On the 21st Admiral Porter at
Grant's suggestion posted the mortar fleet within easy
range and bombarded the water batteries and city for the
entire day without intermission, dismounting several guns
and killing and wounding a number of the garrison.
Grant's artillery also joined in the cannonade without
eliciting any response. Pemberton was already com-
pelled to economize his ammunition and forbade artillery
duels and picket firing. The bombardment had a very
terrifying effect upon the civilians who were compelled
to seek safety in caves dug into the hills.

On May 2 2d the second assault was made. By pre-
arrangement the gun and mortar boats opened on the
city from the river throughout the night, while all of
Grant's siege and field artillery joined in the cannonade
at daylight. The bombardment was the most terrible
of any during the siege. Throughout the dark hours
the flashes of the mortars and naval ordnance, and the long

356

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

meteor-like trails of the heavy missiles, cast a lurid glare
upon the slope of the doomed city, girdled wi(h the d(iath
dealing fire. The shriek and hurtle of descending bombs,
the incessant reports as they exploded, made an experi-
ence, the horrors of which are still fresh in the memories
of those who were in the fortress that terrible nijj^ht.
With the first streak of daylight Grant's field and siege
pieces opened. Every available cannon was brought to
bear on the works and added its noisy clamor to the
hellish scene. Sharpshooters pressing closely up under
the parapets picked off the Confederate cannoneers
whenever they tried to man their guns to reply to the
frightful storm that was poured upon the devoted city.
The bombardment was kept up until after ten o'clock
when the troops began their fateful rush.

Precisely at ten o'clock the Union line was ready for
its share in the work of carnage. Storming columns in
front of each point selected to be attacked, rushed for-
ward at the same moment. Volunteers in the advance
carried poles and boards to facilitate crossing the ditches.
Moving partially sheltered until near t!ie works it be-
came necessary to expose themselves for the final rush.
Then from every foot of the parapet double ranks of the
enemy poured in upon them a terrific fire of musketry,
while double shotted cannon mowed the assailants down.
In Sherman's front the advance column halted, wavered
and sought cover, but Ev/ing's supporting brigade still
pressed on. They leaped the ditch, climbed up the ex-
terior slope and planted their colors on the parapet. The
leaden hail poured down upon them became too hot to
bear and the brigade, breaking, burrowed into the earth
for shelter. The assault then had failed. Three hun-
dred yards to the left Ransom's men pressed gallantly
through all obstructions, only to be met with such a de-

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED.

357

structive fire that they, too, sought the protection of the
fallen timber from which they swept the hostile parapet
with their Minic bullets. No lodgment was gained any
where along Sherman's front.

McPherson was no more successful. His men in some
cases reached the parapet but with such depleted ranks,
and so galled by the Confederate fire, that they could not
maintain their places while the supporting regiments
forced their way through the obstructions. The ap-
proaches were so difficult that only a few men could be
used, while the enemy concentrating there almost wiped
out the pioneers.

In McClernand's front the assault looked more hopeful.
His artillery breached several points in the enemy's
works and temporarily silenced two of the guns. The
ground, however, was too difficult to move the attacking
columns with effective co-operation and unity. Lawler s
brigade with the same dash and vigor which won the
batde at the Black River bridge crossed the bridge and
parapet of one of the outworks. It, however, received
no assistance from its supporting troops and was unable to
penetrate further. A detachment actually got into one
of the works, but the enemy rallied and captured every
man. Thus all along the line, although made with the
utmost gallantry, the attack failed. The works were too
strong naturally and artificially to be taken by storm.
The difficulty of approaching was so great that enough
men could not possibly be projected against any point
to make successful entrance even when the parapets
were gained, while the enemy was everywhere able to
use his entire force. Regiments had planted their battle
flags all along the works, and they still waved there, those
without r id those within being unable to remove them
in the terrible leaden hail. The assault was over by

358

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

noon, and Grant who watched from a commandinor point
behind McPherson's corps saw that lie could not storm
the stronghold.

At twelve o'clock McClernand sent Grant this de-
spatch : " We are hotly engaged with the enemy. We
have part possession of two forts and the stars and stripes
are floating over them. A vigorous push ought to be
made all along the line." Grant, who had seen the repulse
of McClernand, was inclined to doubt the success claimed
and hesitated to renew the assault. Sherman, to whom
he showed the despatch, unable to believe that McCler-
nand would wilfully misstate, advised renewing the at-
tack, and the order was unwillingly givet) to assault
again at 2 p. m., unless previously countermanded.
Other despatches reiterating the claim of advantai^es
and urging general assault and reinforcements wt.re
sent by McClernand. Accordingly Quinby's division
was sent to him, and at 2 p. m. the entire Federal
lint again advanced. The second assault was made
with all the desperate determination of the first, de-
spite the terrible handling the troops then got. Breast-
ing a terrible storm of shot and shell that strewed the ap-
proaches with the dead and dying, the men again readied
the opposing parapets only to be beaten back to the
cover of the neighboring hillsides. There the storminj^
parties stayed until the friendly cover of night enabled
them to withdraw. The second assault had no odier
result than doubling the already frightful casualties.
Many valuable lives had been lost to gratify McCler-
nand's egotism. The Federals lost about three thousand
in killed and wounded. The Confederates protected by
theirfortificationslost.itisestimated, about eight hundred.

The delays and uncertainties of a siege were now
forced upon the Federal commander. Every available

.v^S ..

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED.

859

man from his department was at once hurried forward to
put him in a position to complete the investment and at
the same time hold Johnston in check on the line of the
Bi.i( Black. His army, however, was almost wholly un-
provided with material for a sicj^e and his engineer
organization was very defective. From the beginning to
the end he had no siege artillery excepting four Parrott
guns and a battery of naval guns loaned him by Admiral
Porter. He relied upon the same field cannon that he
had carried with him throughout the campaign. The re-
inforcements which reached him from first to last, con-
sisted of two divisions of the Sixteenth Army corps,
commanded by General Washburne, two divisions of the
Ninth corps, commanded by Major General Parke, and
General Herron's division from the Department of Mis-
souri. Lauman's and Herron's divisions were posted
to prolong the Federal line and complete the invest-
ment of the city to the southward. Parke's two divi-
sions were placed east of Haines' Bluff, which was forti-
fied so as to prove an effective obstacle in case Johnston
should approach by the route between the Yazoo and
Big Black rivers.

The siege was now pressed with the utmost vigor.
Forts, batteries and rifle pits were constructed along the
entire front and winding ways made to afford the men
cover in getting to and from the advanced works. The
labor in the trenches was done chiefly by negroes, who
worked cheerfully and faithfully. So close did some of
these zigzags run to the hostile works that the enemy
rolled hand grenades down the parapet upon the work-
ers. Although the engineering work was done by offi-
cers and men wholly uninstruv^ted in the art and science
of sieges, native good sense and ingenuity supplied the
place of theoretical knowledge. In all eight separate

360

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

approaches were made, two of them ending In mines.
Twelve miles of trenches and eighty-nine batteries
were constructed. In the latter were two hundred and
twenty guns, chiefly field pieces.

After the second assault the defence was very feeble.
Toward the close of the siege the enemy scarcely re-
turned the artillery fire. Their aim seemed to be to
await another assault, meanwhile losing as few men and
expending as litde ammunition as possible. At exposed
points they occasionally concentrated a heavy musketry
fire. .

General Alvin P. Hovey, whose division of the Thir-
teenth corps lay in front of one of these exposed points,
relates an incident which, as it throws some light on
Grant's insensibility to danger, is worth repeating.

" I thought Grant was somewhat of a fatalist," said
General Hovey. "While in front of Vicksburg, it was
the custom of commanding officers of divisions to visit
their works every day while their head-quarters were
securely posted in some ravine near by. On my front
it was necessary to pass througli a narrow way or val-
ley which had shrubbery on each side. This open place
was twenty-five or thirty yards wide, and in full view of
the enemy. Nobody could pass this place without a salute
from the Confederates. I never went over without put-
ting spurs to my horse and hugging his neck as closely
as possible. One morning early General Grant called
at my head-quarters and asked me to show him the con-
dition of the works in my front. When we came to the
edge of the open space I said: 'General, when I pass
over this open space the enemy always salutes me, and
I dash the horse across at full speed.'

" He replied with his characteristic terse calmness,
and deliberatelv walked his horse over. I walked over

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED.

361

also, as I was constrained to do, and we received a rat-
tling salute from the enemy. The bullets whisded
around with more familiarity than was agreeable to me,
but Grant smoked as composedly as though on dress
parade.

" The breastworks of the division I commanded then
reached within less than two hundred yards of the
enemies' ramparts. We had mined almost to their
lines, and they had run countermines on their side to
ours. We were so close to the enemy that tiie soldiers
would often place their hats on the point of a bayonet
and raise them above our breastworks to receive a
shower of bullets. Arriving at this point, Grant took
his field glass and raised his head and breast above the
level of the fortifications. I begged him not to do so.
That he was not shot was almost a 'miracle. I afterward
remonstrated with him on thus exposing himself, telling
him the loss to the country would be irreparable sliould
he fall. As I remarked before, he seemed impressed
with that thing called desdny, and carelessly said, ' O,
they can't hurt me.' "

On June 17th General Grant received from Generals
Sherman and McPherson letters calling attentioii to a
conijratulatory order issued by McClernand to his corps
on May 30th, after the second assault, which contained
insinuations against his fellow corps commanders to the
effect that the second assault had failed through lack of
co-operation on their part. Both Sherman and McPher-
son branded these insinuations as false, and asked the
commander of the army to interfere. The production
complained of had been published in northern papers,
and in fact seemed like a stump speech to the general's
political constituents at home. Through it ran a vein
of self-glorification as the inspirer, author and chief

1 :i

362

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

|.;

;:H

executor of the successes that had been achieved by the
army of the Tennessee since he joined it. Grant sent
the newspaper copy to McClernand to l^now if it were
correct, and if not, for him to send a correct copy to the
general head-quarters. McClernand sent the desired
copy and next morning Grant relieved him of the com-
mand of the Thirteenth army corps, and ordered him
home. Major-General E. O. C. Ord was appointed to
command the corps in his stead, subject to the approval
of the President.

Thus ended the trouble between Grant and his arro-
gant subordinate, which began at Cairo and had been a
source of increasing annoyance ever since. His over-
weening self-esteem led him to overrate his military tal-
ents, and he had been using his political influence, which
was great, to advance himself to high commands. In
this he succeeded so far that the President actually
assigned him to the command of what was to be an
independent expedition to capture Vicksburg and open
the Mississippi river. Fortunately Halleck shared
Grant's distrust of his vainglorious subordinate and
strengthened his hand by giving him the power to com-
mand the troops in his own department in his own way.
The latter, however, continued his insubordinate acts,
which culminated in the offensive order and his removal
from active command. Grant had been very patient with
McClernand. Besides his political influence, he possessed
bravery, and had he been content to do his duty, he would
have been spared the humiliation 'which fell upon him.
Mr. Dana, in communicating in relation to this to the War
Department, said : " My own judgment is that McCler-
nand has not the qualities necessary for a commander
even of a regiment."

After the second assault, Grant determined to wait ior

VICKSDURG SURRENDERED.

363

the prey which was certain to fall into his hands in due
time. So he settled down to begin the famous forty
days' siege which ended in the fall of the Confederate
stronghold. These days of watching and waiting were
full of important and inteicsting events, *he result of
which would fill a volume. With the explosion of mines
and the general operations incident to a siege the army
was kept actively employed.

Even before the second assault the condition of the
penned-up army and the residents of the beleaguered
city had become extremely trying. Although he had de-
clared the city provisioned for sixty days, Pemberton
already found it necessary to place his men on half
rations. Despatches which \\z sent to Johnston were
intercepted and showed that he was short of percussion
caps, but that his men were in good spirits notwithstand-
ing short rations. He earnestly urged his superior to
hasten to his relief.

On June 25th Grant fired a mine which had been
sunk under the hostile parapet in front of Ransom's
division. The mine proper, thirty-five feet in length,
with several branches, contained fifteen hundred pounds
of powder. Fuses arranged so as to fire all branches
at once were ignited at 3 p. m. A heavy cannonading
prefaced the explosion, which was successful in all
respects. Immense masses of earth shot up into the
air, and amongst the flying wreck could be seen the
bodies of the men who had garrisoned the spot. One
or two of them came down alive inside of the Federal
lines. Most of the men, however, had been removed
to the interior works in anticipation of the explosion,
so the loss of life was not as great as was expected.
The cavity produced was large enough to hold two reg-
iments, and a column of infantry concealed near by

364

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

u.tf

IB'9

ill

fflm

ruslied forward to gain possession of the breach. The
enemy met them gallantly in the crater, but after a des-
perate struggle were driven back to their '^overing
works. Thence they threw grenades and han -lighted
bombs into the midst of the troops occupying the cavity,
with such success that it was christened " the death-hole."
The ground gained, however, was held, and the opening
was used as a point from which to run other mines.

As long before as June nth Grant had told Sher-
man of his apprehensions that Johnston might collect
sufficient force to annoy him seriously, if, indeed, he did
not succeed in raising the siege. He suspected that
reinforcements would be hurried up from Braeir's
army, in which case he told Sherman that he would be
detached from the command of his corps and given
sufficient force to check any advance from that quarter.
At the same time the lines of the besieging army were
so drawn and fortified as to resist any possible attack
from the rear.

On June 27th Grant received positive information
that Johnston had crossed the Big Black and intended
to march at once upon the army besieging Vicksburg.
Sherman immediately began a defensive line of field
works from the Yazoo to the Big Black river. With a
force composed of a division from each of the army
corps he manned these works, and by strong reconnoi-
tering parties, pushed far out, effectually counteracted
Johnston's plans.

On July 1st a second mine, run from the crater made
by the first, was ready to spring. It had been better
located and th<; explosion effectually demolished the
redan of the defensive work and killed or wounded
many of those manning it. No serious attempt, how-
ever, was made to charge through the breach thus

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED,

365

made. Other mines were being sunk and exploded
daily, and the fortress was rapidly nearing its doom.

It was about the time when the siege was wellnigh
drawing to an end, that General Quinby, his classmate
and life-long friend, was going North on sick-leave.
Quinby had called to bid his commander good-bye, and
Grant had insisted upon his having lunch with him.
The two sat down, talking over the situation before
Vicksburg, when Quinby asked the question :

"Are you going tb make another assault? "

" No, sir," Grant replied. "I could capture the city
with a hard battle, but it is bound to fall into my
hands without the loss of life, and if there is any one
thing that gives me pain, it is the needless sacrifice of a
single soldier."

General Quinby describes Grant's discussion of the
destructive phase of war as very touching indeed, and
adds that no man living was easier moved by suffering
and death than Grant, but that he had that hiofh decree
of moral courage to understand that campaigns should
not be begun, any more than wars declared, without
counting the cost and being prepared to do whatever
was required to win.

Recalling again General Quinby's visit to Grant on
the day he came to bid his commander good-bye, the
simple character of the man is again illustrated :

" Grant was very shabbily clad," said General Quinby,
"having on only a rusty blouse-like coat, without orna-
ment, and a pair of flannel pants that were torn from
the ankle clear up to the knee.

"As I arose to go, I said, 'General, is there anything
I can do for you at the North ? '

"He looked down at his drawers showing through
the rent in his trousers, and said:

366

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

" 'Well, I suppose I ought to send an order for a new
suit of clothes by you.' But, after a moment's thought,
he concluded :

" • I guess it is not necessary ; my trunk will be here
in a few days, and I will find something in it.' "

One of the most important reminiscences related of
General Grant during the siege, refers to Mr. Charles
A. Dana, then Assistant Secretary of War. He was
with Grant during all these important operations, con-
stantly communicating to the War Department upon his
movements. He was an interesting figure about Gram's
head-quarters, and in the little knots of prominent offi-
cers who came there for business or to visit he was a
great deal of his time to be found. On one of those
hazy, lazy evenings in early June, in that peculiar condi-
tion of the Southern climate when the moon is softened
by the mist, there was gathered at General McFeely's
tent, under the pine awning built in front, General Grant,
General Sherman, McFherson, Mr. Dana and two or
three others. General Grant and Mr. Dana were the
chiefs of the conversation, and Grant was talking about
some experience in the Mexican war, when Mr. Dana
asked him his opinion of the sound strategy of a certain
move, when Grant replied :

" Mr. Dana, I do not believe very much in what is
called strategy. My experience and observation have
led me to the conclusion that the army capable of
holding its position longest is surest to win. I have
known two armies after a fight to march away from
each other, both believing they were whipped, while
neither one was. The general who fights with the sin-
gle purpose of maintaining his ground or advancing his
position is on the right track. I can illustrate by the
situation here. I have a line nearly twenty miles long. I

new

ht.

here

d of
arles

was
, con-
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rant's
t offt-
was a

those
condi-
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Feely's
Grant,
two or

re the
about

. Dana

certaui

Iwhat is
>n have
ible of

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lay i^om
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the sin-
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icing

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED. 367

may fi^jht any part of it any given clay without the entire
army knowing the meaning or result of the movement.
Unless I am compelled to abandon my position there is
practically nothing lost if I hold on to any given point
in the general plan. What is most useful to soldiers is
to thoroughly understand that when a position is once
taken, it is to be hel ' More battles are lost from a
faihire on the part of commanders to understand this
maxim and to impress it upon their subordinates than
from most other reasons combined."

Grant then said that there was a great deal of differ-
ence in troops; that the Confederates werr naturally
more mercurial than the Northern men; that they were
ferocious and terrible to withstand in an j\ssaviit, but
that their best work was dont» undii the impulse of a
charge rather than in the wearing and tearing duties
of a great battle \>\' of an iiwpoilant campaign.

It was during these days of anxiety wwA momentous
events that Giant appeared at his best, and Mr. Dana,
who is now the most competent witness as to the acts of
the men of that period, gives this mature judgment of
the man whose abilities he was then studying:

"My impressions of Grant at that time, and during
that whole campaign, were, that he was a man of ex-
traordinary common sense, and of sincere and unaffected
patriotism."

It is well to bear in mind that Mr. Dana was occupy-
ing,^ at this time exceedingly important relations with the
army in the Mississippi valley. The War Department
was not entirely satisfied with the terse reports General
Grant was making. His crisp messages to the seat of
ci^overnment or direct replies sent to questions asked by
the General-in-Chief were not full enough to meet the
anxiety of the authorities as to his movements. There-

\\\

368

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

fore the President and Secretary of War directed ]VIr.
Dana to remain with him and report upon military trans-
actions. General Grant spoke freely to the Assistant
Secretary of War about his plans, and in an exceptional
degree he occupied a point of observation of great value
to one whose sole business it was to learn all he possibly
could of the operations of the entire army. Mr. Dana's
directions are embodied in this telegram from Secretary
Stanton :

" You will proceed to General Grant's head-quarters,
or wherever you may best be able to accomplish the
purposes designated by this department. You will con-
sider your movements to be governed by your own dis- ,
cretion, without any restriction."

Under these directions Mr. Dana acted, and his de-
spatches in relation to the operations along the Missis-
sippi have been of great value to the writer in following
the story of the campaign.

Mr. Dana's relations with General Grant must have
been cordial, for on June 5th Secretary Stanton tele-
graphed him : " Everything in the power of this Govern-
ment will be put forth to aid General Grant. The
emergency is not underrated here. Your telegrams are
a great obligation, and are looked for with deep interest.
I cannot thank you as much as I feel for the service you
are now rendering." The despatches to which the Sec-
retary of War alluded cover a wide range of observation,
and give a clear insight into General Grant's military
character.

Long before the end of June Mr. Dana reported to
the Government that the condition of the garrison and
residents of the city was now deplorable in the extreme.
Meat had become so scarce that quarter rations of mule
flesh, with very insufificient quantities of corn meal and

vicksbuHg surrendered.

869

boan coffee, were all the soldiers got. The number of
able-bodied defenders had been gready reduced by cas-
uaiues, but even more by sickness, the result of cease-
less vififils in the trendies under a burninir sun and insuf-
licient food. The civilians were in even wor^e plight,
subjected day and ni!:;ht to the perils of a continuous
cannonade from land and water, hiding in caves to
escape the deadly missiles exploding in their streets.
On July 1st, the day of the explosion of the second
mine, Pemberton, convinced that resistance could not
be much prolonged, called a council of his generals and
asked their opinion as to the possibility of abandoning
the fortress. All decided that evacuation was impossi-
ble, and two of them recommended surrender.

Two days afterward, on July 3d, Pemberton de-
spatched the following letter to Grant.

" I have the honor to propose to you an armistice of
— hours, with a view to arranging terms for the capitu-
lation of Vicksburg. To this end, if agreeable to you,
I will appoint three commissioners, to meet a like num-
ber to be named by yourself, at such place and hour as
you may find convenient. I make this proposition to
save the further effusion of blood, which must otherwise
be shed to a frightful extent, feeling myself fully able
to maintain my position for a yet indefinite period.
This communication will be handed you, under a flag
of truce, by Major-General John S. Bowen."

Under the protection of a v/hite flag General Bowen
was admitted to the lines of General A. J. Smith about
ten o'clock in the morning. He earnesdy desired to
converse personally with Grant, but this was not permit-
ted. The Federal commander, however, indicated that
if General Pemberton desired to meet him, an interview
between the lines could be had at 3 p. m. The reply to

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370

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

■

Pemberton's letter, returned by General Bowen, was as
follows :

"Your note of this date is just received proposing an
armistice for several hours for the purpose of arranging
terms for capitulation through commissioners to be ap-
pointed, etc. The useless effusion of blood you pro-
pose stopping by this course can be ended at any time
you choose, by tiie unconditional surrender of the city
and garrison. Men who have shown so much endurance
and courage will always command the respect of an ad-
versary, and I can assure you will be treated with all the
respect due to prisoners of war. I do not favor the prop-
osition of appointing commissioners to arrange terms
of capitulation, because I have no terms other than those
indicated above."

At three o'clock a siornal orun from the Federal side, an-
swered by one from the Confederates, heralded the com-
ing of Grant and Pemberton to their fateful interview.
The Union commander was attended by Generals Ord,
McPherson, Logan and A. J. Smith, and several members
of his personal staff. Pemberton was accompanied by
General Bowen and Colonel Montgomery. They met
under the canopy of a giant oak. The spot had not
been trodden by either army during the siege. After
introduction and handshaking General Pemberton said :

" General Grant, I meet you in order to arrange terms
for the capitulation of the city of Vicksburg and its gar-
rison. What terms do you demand ? "

" Unconditional surrender," Grant replied.

"Unconditional surrender?" said Pemberton. "If
that is all, the conference can terminate at once and
hostilities be resumed immediately."

"Very well. Then you can continue the defence,"
Grant replied, coolly puffing his cigar and turning away.

"If

and

Iway.

(371)

372

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

General Bowen here proposed the retirement of the
subordinates present for consuhation about such terms
as they might submit to their chief. Grant had no ob-
jection to the subordinates consulting, but declined to be
bound by any of these proposals. The decision of the
terms he said lay with himself. General Bowen after
consultation proposed that the garrison be permitted to
march out with the honors of war, taking their arms and
field artillery. This Grant refused with a smile. After
the conference had lasted an hour Pemberton withdrew,
Grant promising to send his ultimatum by ten o'clock
that night.

Certain that Pemberton would capitulate, he turned
his attention towards the destruction of the remaining
Confederate forces in ihe State. "Make your calcula-
tions to attack Johnston, and destroy the road north of
Jackson. I have directed Steele and Ord to move as
you suggested the moment Vicksburg is surrendered.
I want Johnston broken up as effectually as possible.
You can make ycur own arrangements, and have aK the
troops in my command except one corps," he said to
Sherman. Thus, while conducting the negotiations for
the capitulation of Vicksburg, he at the same time
turned his attention to the destruction of Johnston's
army.

Grant the same afternoon summoned his generals to
a conference. With the single exception of General
Steele, they all suggested terms that he would not sanc-
tion. He wrote the following, which contains in the main
the terms afterward accepted : ,

"In conformity with the agreement of this afternoon,
I will submit the following proposition for the surrender
of the city of Vicksburg, public stores, etc. On your
accepting the terms proposed, I will march in one divis-

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED.

373*

ion as a guard and take possession at 8 a. m. to-
morrow. As soon as rolls can be made out, and paroles
sjcrned by officers and men, you will be allowed to march
out of our lines, the officers taking with them their side
arms and clothing, and the field, staff and cavalry officers
one horse each. The rank and file will be allowed all
their clothing, but no other property. If these conditions
are accepted, any amount of rations you may deem
necessary can be taken from the stores you now have,
and also the necessary cooking utensils for preparing
them. Thirty wagons also, counting two horse or mule
teams as one, will be allowed to transport such articles
as cannot be carried along. The same conditions will
be allowed to all sick and wounded officers and soldiers
as fast as they become able to travel. The paroles for
these latter must be signed, however, whilst officers are
present authorized to sign the roll of prisoners."

Pemberton, replying, asked the following modifica-
tions: "At lo A. M. to-morrow I propose to evacuate
the works in and around Vicksburg, and to surrender
the city and garrison under my command by marching
out with my colors and arms, stacking them in front of
my present lines, after which you will take possession.
Officers to retain their side arms and personal property,
and thi rights and property of citizens to be respected."

To this, which Grant received after midnight, he re-
turned immediate answer to the effect that every officer
and man must be provided with a parole signed by him-
self. It further stated: "Again I can make no stipu-
lations with regard to the treatment of citizens and
their private property. While I do not propose to
cause them any undue annoyance or loss, I cannot con-
sent to leave myself under anyrestraint by sdpulations.
... If you mean, by your proposition, for each brigade

374

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANr.

to march to the front of the lines now occupied by
it, and stack arms at lo o'clock a. m., and then return
to the inside and there remain as prisoners until prop-
erly paroled, I will make no objections to it. Should no
notification be received of your acceptance of my terms
by 9 A. M., I shall regard them as rejected, and shall
act accordingly. Should these terms be accepted, white
flags should be displayed along your lines to prevent
such of my troops as may not have been notified, from
firing upon your men."

Pemberton next morning communicated his accept-
ance of the terms proposed. At ten o'clock the garrison
marched out of the citadel they had so long defended,
stacked their arms and marched back again as prisoners
of war. Thirty-one thousand six hundred men — one
hundred and seventy-two cannon — a capture unparal-
leled in modern warfare — were the personal and material
trophies of the victory.

It was on the national holiday that Logan rode into
the city at the head of his division. General Grant and
his staff riding with him, and the battle-flag of the Forty-
fifth Illinois was thrown to the breeze over the court-
house. It was a royal celebration of the day. A great
step had been taken towards the re-establishment of
national unity, and the day and the event were in happy
harmony. But there was no undue exultation displayed
by the victors: Sadly and quietly the Confederates, who
had defended the fortress by the river for so long a time
and so gallantly, laid down their arms and their battle-
flags, and were changed from active combatants into
prisoners of war. Soon, however, the American spirit
overcame the first chagrin, and conquerors and con-
quered fraternized in the streets of the city. Indeed, it
was a marked characteristic of the war that the private

VICKSBURG SURRENDERED.

375

soldiers of both armies seemed to cherish no animosities
towards each other.

In quite striking contrast was the conduct of Pember-
ton when Ciant rode to his head -quarters. The defeated
commander added the imbeciUty of inciviiity to the list
of blunders which had been of his committing from the
time he first undertook the defence of Vicksburg. He
was disagreeable and surly in manner, and did not even
offer the Federal commander the courtesy of a chair.
But Grant was supremely indifferent to such an exhi-
bition of petty pique. He transacted his business with
Pemberton and then rode away again, quite undisturbed
by the smallness of his defeated antagonist. It was at
this interview that Grant learned, considerably to his
surprise, that instead of fifteen or twenty thousand, as
he had supposed, Pemberton had surrendered thirty-two
thousand men. That night he telegraphed the news of
his victory to Washington in a fev^ terse sentences,
wholly different from the military rodomontade which
seems to be the special weakness of commanders after
a conquest.

i: , J.

\: ?

; ( ) n

CHAPTER XXIII.

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSBURG.

The importance of Vicksburg to the Confederacy — The country it commanded- -
Grant's forward movement — I'emberton's inalnlily to grasp the situation — 11 is ullcr
failure to make any proper resistance — John.'^ton fails to take active command —
Blunder after blunder — More tentative operations — The final surrender.

General Thomas Jordan thus tells the Confederate
story of Vicksburg :

"'The city of Vicksburg was important to the Con-
federates on account of its railroad connections ; the
Vicksburg and Jackson railroad connecting it with all of
the Southern Confederacy east of the Mississippi river,
and the Vicksburg and Shreveport railroad connecting
it with all the country west of that great stream.'
Such is the brief summary made of the military value of
Vicksburg to the Confederates, by General Grant, in the
opening of his personal memoirs, contributed recently to
the Century. This, certainly, is a very meagre estimate
of the importance of a position, the loss of which
involved the complete severance of the States of the
Southern Confederacy, eastward of the Mississippi, from
those to the westward of it ; also the immediate loss of
.the States of Mississippi and Louisiana, with the early
fall of Mobile, thus exposed to be approached and
attacked from the rear. Understanding how vitally the
territorial integrity of the seceded States depended upon
the possession of such a position as that of Vicksburg,
within a fortnight after the batde of Shiloh, General
Beauregard dispatched thither his alter ego as an
engineer. Captain D. B. Harris, with written instruc-
(3.76)

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSDURG. 377

tions to carefully reconnoitre the locality, and to erect
the proper works for a garrison of about three thousand
men, and to be garrisoned chiefly with eight or ten eight-
ami ten-inch guns, and fifteen forty-two-pounders. He
also called attention to the possibility that a canal might be
cut by the enemy across the peninsula, immediately op-
posite to Vicksburg, and directed the provision of works,
looking to that contingency. He also sought to have
added to the defensive resources of the position, which the
military engineers might be able to provide, those of the
Confederate navy on the Mississippi river, including
not only the ' heaviest steam rams ' at Fort Pillow,
but a large ironclad, the Arkansas, under construction
at Memphis, which was sent, by his orders, to be finished
in the Yazoo river.

"After McClernand had secured authority from Mr.
Lincoln to raise a special command to take Vicksburg,
General Grant suddenly dropped the defensive^ policy,
which had hitherto thickly studded West Tennessee
and North Mississippi with large separate Federal com-
mands, which, in the aggregate, embraced about seventy-
four thousand rank and file, with a hundred and fifty odd
pieces of field artillery. He ordered Sherman to pro-
ceed on transports with about thirty-four thousand men,
includinof some tw-elve thousand from the Trans-
Mississippi forces, down the river from Memphis
against Vicksburg, which he was to assail from
the Yazoo river, assisted by a fleet of gun-boats
under D. D. Porter. Contemporaneously, the Federal
general was to move with forty-five thousand men by
land upon Jackson, Mississippi, to relieve Sherman of
the possibility of having to deal with any other enemy
than the comparatively small force at and near Vicks-
burg. Thus hurriedly dispatched from Memphis on

378

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the 20th, Sherman disembarked eight miles up the
Yazoo river, on the 26th of December, to undertake an
enterprise that Mr. Lincoln certainly had given into the
hands of his friend, McClernand. In order to divert
and occupy the bulk of the Confederate forces in Mis-
sissippi elsewhere than in defense of Vicksburg, General
Grant very properly, as since shown, had set in motion
some forty odd thousand men upon Jackson, leavino-,
unquestionably, at Corinth and the southward in West
Tennessee more than fifteen thousand men of all arms.
However, meanwhile, the Confederate cavalry general,
Forrest, afterwards so conspicuous a figure in the war
in the West, had suddenly made his appearance with
about two thousand men, and a horse battery of four
light guns in the quarter of Jackson, West Tennessee,
or in the very centre of the Union forces so plentifully
posted in that region. This petty force of badly-armed
(fowling-pieces, chiefly), but well-mounted, swift-mov-
ing Confederates, well acquainted with the country, was
handled with such skill, oudacity and intrepidity that
fast-flying rumor magnified it into a body of from five
to ten thousand men, or even more, with twelve pieces
of artillery, the supposed advance of Bragg's whole
army from Middle Tennessee.

** Simultaneously a body of Confederate cavalry, under
Van Dorn, moved northward around Grant's left flank,
and by a brilliantly executed cotip de main captured the
Federal chief depot of supplies at Holly Springs, with its
garrison of 3,000 men together with a large quantity of
army supplies. Thus coevally attacked in his rear at
several points, the Federal general-in-chief was led to
pause in his own offensive movement southward and
turn his attention to what was happening northward.
That is to say, he virtually felt obliged to leave Sherman's

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSDURG.

379

venture unsupported, and .herefore to fail or fall short
of its purpose, as it did. In the several efforts which
Sherman made to carry the Confederate works at Haines'
Bluff, suffice to say, he was easily buffeted back with
heavy loss. Thereupon he retired from the Yazoo river
without having made a serious effort to employ the
considerable resources at his command commensurably
with their strength, character, and military value in the
operations intrusted to him by Halleck anc Grant in
preference to McClernand chosen for the same work
by President Lincoln.

"Turning now to the Confederate situation, it is to be
related that on the 24th of November, 1862, with a
special view to the best possible emf>loyment of Con-
federate resources against their strenuous adversary in
the West, General Joseph E. Johnston was assigned to
the chief command of all the troops in the States of Ten-
nessee, Alabama, and Mississippi — that is to say, the
armies severally under Bragg, Kirby Smith and Pem-
berton. That same day Johnston pointed out to the
Confederate Secretary of War, in a personal interview,
that as the Confederate forces were then disposed,
Vicksburg was in danger of falling into the hands of the
United States.

"On the other hand, he asserted that by a proper
concentration of available resources, a materially
superior force could be collected in that quarter,
and employed in a decisive offensive operation against
General Grant, whose numbers, curiously enough,
he estimated at forty-five thousand — about the force
with which, we are told, Grant actually moved south-
ward several weeks later against Jackson. This, he
explained, made it essential to transfer, at once, the
chief part of Holmes' forces in Arkansas across to

880

LIFE OP GENERAL GRANT,

Mississippi tvo unite with those under Pemhcrton. Fur-
thermore, that in the offensive operations which should
then ensue against (irant, the army under Brai^jr,
in Middle Tennessee, must co-operate. Under evtry
aspect this was as sound as fcasil)le a plan of cam[)aii^'^n.
and itwas essentially assented to by Mr. Davis; for, ujjon
reaching Chattanooga, on the 4th of December, John-
ston found there a telegram from the Confederate War
Office to the effect that General Holmes had been
' peremptorily ordered to re-inforce Pemberton.' The
same dispatch, however, suggested that as at that time
Pemberton was being forced southward by superior
numbers, Holmes' troops might reach the scene too
late to save Vicksburg ; therefore, it was the view of
Mr. Davis that at so critical an exigency suitable rein-
forcements should be sent from Bragg's army.

"This assuredly well-grounded apprehension, with
the suggestion born of it, was met, however, by his
nothing-if-not contrarious lieutenant with the hardly
accurate assertion that Holmes' troops could be brought
across from Arkansas sooner than a similar force could
be thrown to Pemberton's aid from Murfreesboro ; a
statement to which he added the declaration that he
' would not weaken Bragg's army without express
orders to do so.' Now this was a determination reached
per saltum before he had either visited Biagg's head-
quarters or otherwise made himself acquainted with the
military situation in that immediate theatre of war.
Furthermore, this stand was taken in the face of his own
opinion, expressed in Richmond only a fortnight pre-
viously, that Vicksburg was in danger, while by a swift
concentration of Confederate resources in that quarter
Grant's army might be annihilated. Therefore, John-
ston's course, in effect, was a wholly unsound, fatal

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSBURG,

381

choice between the transient preservation of the false,
ovcr-salient, comparatively valueless position of Mur-
trccsboro (with possession of a small part of Middle
Tennessee), and the cardinal position of Vicksburg, the
loss of which n.ust carry that also of Arkansas, West
Louisiana and Texas, as well as the whole State of
Mississippi, to the Confederate States.

" Naturally most anxious for the safety of Vicksburg,
Mr. Davis, himself, hastened after Johnston to Chat-
tanoosjfa to consult with that officer as to the means for
meeting the perilous urgencies of the situation in
Mississippi, with no other result than to find him, as
always, a pessimist, and indisposed to concentrate the
resources of his own command to oppose Grant. There-
upon, the Confederate President repaired to Bragg's
headquarters, where Johnston's subordinate readily de-
cided that he could spare two divisions aggregating nine
thousand men.

" At this time the Confederate forces in Mississippi
under General Pemberton embraced a force of about
twenty-three thousand men on the line of the Talla-
hatchee river confronting Grant, then preparing to
move upon Jackson, and some seven thousand men
constituting the garrison of Vicksburg and its outposts,
with five thousand more at Port Hudson ; or, in all,
some thirty-five thousand men.

" Now, clearly, when assuming the large command de-
volved upon him, there was imposed with it upon General
Johnston the exigent duty to evoke every possible re-
source within the territorial limits assigned to his charge,
to be employed wheresoever within those limits the ex-
ertion of those resources should be productive of the
greatest military results. It was his first duty, more-
over, to decide in what quarter it was most vital to the

382

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Confederate States that an army should be concentrated
with which he could hope to meet and signally beat his
adversary. As we have seen, before leaving Richmond,
he had righdy comprehended that Vicksburg was pre-
cisely such a point ; that is, the position most in peril, and
at the same time the one upon which an army might be
readily concentrated so superior to the one that menaced
it, that the latter could be destroyed. It is true, how-
ever, that he depended for the ability to make such a
stroke upon the acquisition of a considerable force from
a source entirely outside of his own hnmediate control,
one whose timely presence he could not command and
does not appear ever to have sought to assure, even
when the Confederate President had peremptorily or-
dered its transfer to his command at his suggestion. In
this way solely did it appear to him that Vicksburg could
be saved ; that is, by troops brought from Arkansas and
added to those under Pemberton, and he obdurately
closed his judgment against the necessity for providing
any other shield to the imperiled position whose value to
the Confederate States was so great. I assert with all
confidence that, if necessary to save Vicksburg, Bragg's
whole army should have been transferred to Mississippi
and the way left open even for Rosecrans, if he chose at
that time to make the movement that he made ulti-
mately, forcing Bragg out of Middle Tennessee.

" Returning to the offensive movements of the Union
campaign, it is to be said that with the sole exception
that the capture of Vicksburg was the ultimate object,
there was no settled plan of operations. A series of
purely tentative expeditions, these random ventures
were essayed apparently with the hope that some one of
them might touch and pierce a weak spot in the Con-
federate defences. In this way three months were

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSBURG.

383

occupied, as General Grant states, *in trying to get
upon the high land, and also v/aiting for the waters of
the Mississippi, which were very high this winter, to
recede.'

"The first of these enterprises was that of cutting
the canal anticipated by Beauregard some ten months
previously, and directed to be provided against.
Probably this work was undertaken in deference to
suggestions from Washington. One or more corps
were thus employed. As early as the 2d of February,
however. Grant wrote to Halleck that he had ' lost
fait!/ in the attainment of any practical results from this
enterprise. However, he also announced his purpose
then and subsequently to push it to completion with all
available means. And in fact, for quite two months
thereafter, large detachments of his army, with gangs of
negroes and dredging-machines, were kept industriously
occupied by this labor, which the Federal general had
come to regard as of no possible worth. Moreover,
this was done in the face of military reasons that would
seem to make it incumbent upon a general in the field
to abandon such an undertaking, for already General
Grant could but see that, as located, this canal, when
completed, would debouch in the river below Vicks-
burg at a point so completely commanded from heights
on the opposite bank as to make the passage through
it impracticable. Further, the Vicksburg batteries readily
threw shells along so much of its line as made work
difficult, and drove out the dredging-machines.

"Seeing this, as Grant did early in February, it is
altogether unaccountable that he consented to keep his
men hard at work sixty days on so preposterous an
undertaking. Nature, however, intervened at length.
A flood pouring in, as might have been anticipated at

;■

884

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

that season, tore away the levees, spread over ♦.'le coun-
try far inward, submerged his encampment, drowned his
animals, swept away his delving implements, and forced
his troops to flee for their very lives.

"A most dangerous tentative operation was the at-
tempt to open Yazoo Pass, and by that way enter first
the Cold Water, next the Tallahatchee, and thus by water
'get upon the highland ' to the rear of Vicksburg above
Haines' Bluff. This involved going back to a point six
miles above Helena, and thence venture a voyage of
several hundred miles upon transports through the
mazes of the swamps and narrow streams just men-
tioned, giving the Confederates the easy opportunity to
take the expedition at great disadvantage and cut it to
pieces in detail. Void of all possibility of success from
the outset, in this extraordinary affair, four thousand
five hundred men were employed in the beginning, em-
barked on twenty transports convoyed by two ironclad
gunboats and some lighter armored craft. There were
delays and difficulties, even in finding proper light-
draught transportation for this force of four thousand
five hundred men, while it would have required two
hundred similar transports for the Federal army by that
route of approach to Vicksburg. Next a division was
ordered to follow in support, and ultimately, McPherson,
with his corps as well as a division of troops from
Memphis, as fast as transportation could be secured.

" Thus the Federal commander sought to throw litde
over a third of his army to the rear of Vicksburg, where,
had it been actually able to go in the manner attempted,
it must have been so dislocated from all possible timely
support that it must have been overwhelmed, if the
Confederat !s had at their disposition one-half of the
forces the) were credited with in tJie Federal dispatches

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSBURG.

385

at the time. As it was, the advance of this expedition,
after some delay at Helena for lack of proper transpor-
tation, surmounted a distance of two hundred and fifty
miles, when it was brought to a halt by a Confederate
fort, that easily beat off the Union ironclads.

"Of course, had the Confederate resources at the dis-
position of Pemberton, or, properly speaking, Johnston,
been handled with ordinary vigor, not a man or a vessel
would have been suffered to return to Helena from the
labyrinth into which they had been thus adventured.
Meanwhile, apprehensive of disaster. General Grant had
detached Sherman with a single division, convoyed by
another naval force under Admiral Porter, to make an
effort to enter the Yazoo below the point reached by the
other expedition, and thus 'save' or 'relieve it' This,
it was fancied, might be effected by ascending Steel's
Bayou into Black's, and thence by way of Deer Creek,
the Rolling Fork, and Sunflower. After great efforts on
the part of Porter to execute his mission, he became en-
tangled and well-nigh inextricably entrapped far short
of his destination. The Confederates as easily as ef-
fectually blocked his way with heavy fallen timber, and
were swiftly closing, in the same manner, the bayous
behind him, while the swamps and thickets around were
swarming with sharpshooters and light ordnance, to which
Porter could make no effective reply. Indeed, to so
critical a strait was the expedition finally brought that
its commander, for a time during his retreat, ' thought
of blowing up his vessels and escaping with his men
tiirough the swamps to the Mississippi.' When so
sorely imperiled, Porter called on Sherman for aid,
which was given with timely energy and by a night
march, just in time to save the Federal fleet from de-
struction, either self-inflicted or by their enemies. Any
Z

mmmtimmm

386

Z/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

one who will attentively read the contemporaneous
official dispatches of both sides cannot fail to see that
had an able soldier been in command of the Confed-
erate forces on that theatre of war, one with a rational
comprehension of the situation and of the Confederate
defensive and offensive capacities, Sherman would
neither have saved the admiral nor escaped with his own
isolated division.

" Preliminary to the movement of forces to Hard Times
on the west bank of the river below Vicksburg, seven iron-
clads led by the Benton under flag of the admiral, and
three transports with ten barges in tow, as gallantly as
successfully ran the Confederate batteries, under their
heavy fire, with the loss of but one of the transports, set
on fire by the bursting of Confederate shells. Again,
on the night of the 26th of April, six transports, towing
barges heavily loaded with forage and subsistence, made
the same venture, with the same success, and again witii
the loss of but one of the transports. ' Thus General
Grant's army had below Vicksburg, by the 27th of April,
an abundance of stores as well as boats with which
to cross the river.* Meanwhile, McClernand's and
McPherson's corps had been moving southward, — about
thirty thousand effectives. Both Sherman and Mc-
Pherson, the two ablest lieutenants of the Union
general, it seems, held well-grounded opinions adverse
to this undertaking, which are to be found loyally
expressed in a letter written by the form.er to General
Grant's chief of staff, on the 8th of April. Grant, how-
ever, proceeded to act upon his own plans in his own
way. And after an unsuccessful, ill-managed naval at-
tack on Grand Gulf on the 29th of April, Bruinsburg
was selected as the most favorable point for the descent
of his army upoi: the State of Mississippi.

CONFErERATE STORY OF VICKSBURG. 387

«* Meanwhile, Sherman, while still at Milliken's Bend,
about to follow the other two corps, had received an
intimation, not an order, that he might usefully employ
his corps for a while in a feint or diversion upon Haines'
Bluff, the scene of his former mishap. This he pro-
ceeded to do, though the real object of so ostentatious
an operation was too apparent, as the military reader
will be apt to decide, to mislead or disturb an intelligent
enemy in view of what had so recently happened there
to demonstrate the ease with which Haines' Bluff could
be held with a small force against thirty thousand men.

"It seems that only one Federal division could be
ferried at a time with the transportation disposable, while
the distance to be thus traversed was six miles. Under
such circumstances the operation was gne of extreme
hazard. The Union divisions were liable to be assailed
and destroyed in detail before adequate support could
possibly go to their assistance. This the navy could not
really avert from the nature of the landing-ground.
Twenty-four hours were occupied in the transfer of
McClernand's corps, with one of McPherson's divisions.
Moreover, the interior could only be reached after the
descent by traversing some low swampy ground for half
a mile, and thence through a defile which might easily
have been defended.

"That Pemberton was fully apprised of what was
impending is apparent from his report and dispatches
to General J. E. Johnston at Tullahoma, which clearly
show his early knowledge of the presence of a large
Federal force with ferriage facilities, first at New
Carthage and subsequently at Hard Times, plainly
with a view to offensive operations against Vicksburg.
And as only one or two points of the river-bank in that
quarter were accessible, there was little, if any, difficulty

i
I

388

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

Hi '

in meeting an offensive movement almost at the first
bound, and meeting it with a greatly superior force, for
Pemberton had about forty-five thousand men at his
disposition at Vicksburg, Jackson, Grand Gulf, and Port
Hudson, the major part of whom he could assemble with
sufficient celerity to meet his adversary's undisguised
operations and overcome him in detail. So splendid an
opportunity has rarely, if ever, been vouchsafed the
weaker of two belligerents for the signal, irreparable
defeat of the stronger, as was now given by Grant to
Pemberton. General Johnston as far away as Tulla-
homa, giving his immediate personal attention, as must
be said, rather to the secondary than to the primary or
most urgently menaced part of his rather wide field of
command, could but see the vital advantages that might
accrue to the Confederates, and the very same day (29th
April) he urged Pemberton, by telegraph, to concentrate
and attack the Federal general immediately upon his
landing. This, on the 2d of May, he repeated, as
follows : * If Grant crosses, unite all your troops to beat
him. Success will give back what was abandoned.'

** Twelve miles eastward of Bruinsburg is Port Gibson,
to which place McClernand was ordered to hasten with
his corps on the i st of May, ahead of support. Bowen,
an able, energetic soldier, had, of course, evacuated
Grand Gulf, and was found by McClernand's advance at
2 p. M. directly across its path in a strong position, three
or four miles westward of Port Gibson. Notwithstand-
ing the time thus given to the Confederates for concen-
tration, Grant inexplicably made no positive attack until
the next morning. The ground, seamed with deep
ravines, choked with brush, fallen timber, and the rank
vines of a Southern forest, was admirable for defense.
Bowen made the best of these advantages with his

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VIC KS BURG.

389

petty force, doubtless under the expectation that his
superior would soon be at hand with the mass of his army.
Small as was his force, the Confederate general held
McClernand's corps of four divisions at bay until after
mid-day. Grant being on the field, commanding in person
since lo o'clock a. m. Two of McPherson's brigades
v^ere pushed up, but one brigade of Confederates, after
a march of twenty miles that day, also opportunely rein-
forced Bowen, and enabled him to hold his adversary
in check until towards sunset, obstinately disputing, says
Badeau, ' every inch of the field.' What six thouband
Confederates at most did on that day, by virtue of the
field of batde or their ability to withstand for ten hours a
force more than thi^ee times as strong, is quite sufficient
to demonstrate what fate must have befallen Grant on
the 2d of May, 1863, had all readily available Confed-
erate resources (at least thirty-five thousand men) been
there, instead of the three brigades so well handled by
Bowen.

" Not earlier than the 2d of May did another division of
McPherson's corps succeed in getting to the east bank
of the Mississippi, and did not effect a junction with the
other until the 3d. Left without the expected support,
Bowen had now to fall back, but did so slowly, in perfect
order, after blowing up his magazines, spiking his heavy
guns, and availing himself of the great defensive facili-
ties of the country to contest the ground with signal
tenacity, as Badeau relates. Thus again was it shown
what must have happened to the Federal army had Pem-
berton been a soldier of ordinary capacity. As it was,
Bowen was able to withdraw in safety across the Big
Black on the afternoon of the 4th of May, and effect a
junction with Pemberton.

•' Grant now determined to advance upon Jackson, in

iHJ

8!)0

LIFE OF GENERAL CKANT.

order to l)cat the force presiiineil to he there heforc it
coulil effect ;i junction with Peniherton, or Penihciion
couKl march thitlier. 'I'his was to niiinh upon the sntolUr
of the two hostile forces, leavinj^ the other, known to he
at the time as strong- as his own, free to sprinj^ upon lij-,
rear, hi other words, whiU^ (Irant luul to march ii|)()n
the hypotheiiuse, IVnnherton could reach Jackson to incd
him by the t)ose or shorter line of the trianj^k:. Peinlxr
ton, on hearin*^ of such a movement, on the part of his
adversary, havinj; tek'i;raphic communications, could (.ill
tile force at Jackson to meet him as he marched out cviii
from \'icksl)ur^', and witli his whole force take up a posi-
tion upon die I'Vtleral Hank, from which he mi^ht sliikd
(irant when comi)lctely cut off from his base ; strike him
wlien entannled in a difficult, unknown, hostile duatrc
of war, and, indeetl, un^ler every possible adverse cir-
cumstance, with scarce a chance for escape from ulicr
destruction.

*' Pemberton, however, it seems, fancyini^ that (Iraiit
was really movin*^ upon the railroad at or about lul-
ward's Station, in the direction of Vicksburjj^, made some
preparation to li^ht him there. This idea was all the
better for concentration, all the more dangerous for
Grant, for it slioukl have stimulated Pemberton to draw
thither every available man, including those at Jackson,
antl from that position he would have menaced Grant's
fkmk, his rear, and his communications, had the Federal
general marched beyond Raymond towards Jackson.
Moreover, ample time was given the Confederates for
concentration by the tardy manner in which the Federal
corps were handled. Badeau characterizes Grant's
movement upon Jackson, as masterly, though very dan-
gerous, for in taking that place he destroyed the Con-
federate centre and isolated Vicksburg^. On the con-

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSJiURC.

\\\)\

traiy. I affirm that had his opponent been a ch^ar-hcadc'd
soldier, it must have turnetl out just such a seizure of
the ("ciilrc^ as that of an atlventurous lly which had pene-
trated to the centre of a spider's web ; the isohition of
Virksbur^ by that movemtMit was simply th(r isf)iation
of the spidcT, which sits cpiietly at the ver^ri; of his w(,'b,
ready to pounce upon its victim so soon as it may be-
come inextricably enmeshetl.

"Sherman havinj^ been l)roujTht across the riv(;r with
two of his (hvisions on the 6th, advanced into th(; interior
on the <Sth of May. Mcl'herson wa:- thrown forward
th(* next morninjr by the direct road to Kiiymontl ;
McClernand advanced by a widely-diver^dnj^^ line of
inarch, nearly due north, towards ICdward's Station, and
Sherman by an intermediate way throujj^h Auburn.
Dispositions more favorable than these fgr the |>urpose
of the Confederates could not well be mad(;, for
McClernand was thus exposed to be assailed in lliuik
and rear by an overwhelminji^ force from lulward's Sta-
tion before possible succor could reach him. On the
1 2th of May McPherson encountered opposition in front
of Raymond. A small brigade of Confederates stojjped
his march there for four or five hours, inflicted some loss,
and agairk demonstrated what must have come to pass
had Pemberton a little less incompetent than he |)roved
to be, been at hand with his available force. Although
a single brigade was pitted against two divisions, Grant
termed the affair at the time 'a severe fight.' The
greatest mismanagement of ample resources on the
part of Pemberton alone gave impunity and success to
all these operations of the Federal general, as must
surely be now apparent. Now there was another change
in the order of movement. McPherson, early the next
day, was thrown forward to Clinton, ten miles west of

892

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

Jackson ; Sherman moved by the direct road to Jackson,
and McClernand was drawn down from the vicinity uf
Edward's I'erry to Raymond.

•' Meanwhile, (Jeneral Johnston, who had hitherto, or
since the 22d of January, regarded himself as preveiULci
from giving his personal attention to military affairs in
Mississippi, was peremptorily ordered by the ConfedLT-
ate War Department to 'proceed at once to Mississippi
and take chief commanil of the forces there,* giving to
those in the field, as far as practicable, the encourage-
ment and benefit *of his personal direction'; and
he was to carry from Hragg's army three thousand
good troops. Though ' unfit for field services,' as he
alleges, leaving Tullahoma on the loth of May, he
reached Jackson on the 13th. His first dispatch from
that point is significant as well as characteristic, and read
between the lines must give the military student the key
to much of the otherwise bewildering history of the
Confederate defense of the Mississippi Valley after the
24th of November, 1862, when General Johnston was
placed in chief ».ommand of the several armies of (len-
erals Bragg, Pemberton, and Kirby Smith. From Jack-
son he telegraphed the Confederate War office :

" ' I arrived this evening, finding the enemy in force
between this place and General Pemberton, cutting off
the communication. I am too late.'

•'We have seen that Pemberton did nothing which
was expected of him, and so suffered Grant to scatter
four divisions around Jackson in an incoherent way.
Neither Grant's audacity nor skill in movements had
aught, manifestly, to do with Pemberton's course, which
arose simply from the fact that that officer actually did
not know what to do with an army in the face of an
enemy. I have suggested that the possible cause oi

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSBURG.

303

Grant's campaij^n mij^^ht be traced to an indisposition by
C()-<)i)cration to fall under the command of his senior,
I^anks. Oddly enouj^h, Pemberton would seem to have
been equally opposed to doinj^ anything which must
throw him directly under his superior, Johnston. Grant,
therefore, was able to force Johnston from Jackson ; but
Johnston withdrew towards the north, as he subsequently
explained, so as to maintain communication and the
means of effecting a junction with his own perplexed
lieutenant.

"Leaving Sherman to complete some havoc-work atand
around Jackson, the Federal general-in-chief now turned
McClernand and McPherson, with about thirty thousand
men, towards Vicksburg. Meanwhile, Pemberton having
done all the mischief to his side possible by his inertness, by
remaining at Vicksburg or at Edward's Station, when he
should have been operating on Grant's rear, now, on the
15th of May, with characteristic felicity in doing the
wrong thing, set his troops in motion southward, as if to
get out of Grant's way, under the pretence of striking
his enemy's communications. That he did this to avoid
collision with Grant is not our belief; it was only in
keeping with his other operations, throughout so sin-
gularly wrong-headed and favoring for his enemy.
Johnston's positive order to turn and seek to effect a
junction with him, however, overtook him on the same
day.

"Yielding transient obedience, Pemberton made a
wide detour northward. But this brought him, on the
1 6th of May, on the direct path of Grant, with the result
of the battle of Champion's Hill, or Baker's Creek.
There the position taken by the Confederate general, it
is almost needless to say, was ill chosen. Immediately at
his back was Baker's Creek, swollen and impassable except

394

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

by one ford and a bridj^^e, three miles asunder. The Con
federates numbered about twenty-three thousand m( n in
three divisions, and the Federal army was not (|uite
thirty thousand stron^i;. With the least foresight Pcm-
berton mij^ht have been equal in strenji^th to his resolute
opponent. His tactical movements in the battle were
no better than the strateijical operations which preceded
it. r'or he stood inactive, confronting for five hours a
single Federal division, before General Grant liad
brought up the rest of his forces and made the attack.

" However, there were some hours of stout fightinrr
made by the Confederate divisional and brigade com-
manders, and it is noteworthy that one of the Union divis-
ions engaged lost one-third of its men. The batde lasted
from about 1 1.30 a.m. to 4 p.m., and more than once in
parts of the field the F'ederals were in " dire need
of assistance." But by 4 p.m. the day had gone
definitively against Pemberton, who then began to re-
treat, covered by Loring's division on one flank, while
Tilghman, who had fought so brilliantly at Fort Henry,
brought up the rear on the Raymond road, until he was
slain fighting as the gallant, intelligent soldier he was.
Despite the unfavorable nature of the ground, the nar-
row ford and bridge by which the retreat had to be
made, it was successfully effected, but the battle had cost
many men and much of Pemberton's artillery.

" Loring, after having covered the retreat of Stevenson
and Bowen, found it the choice of evils forced upon him to
attempt to retreat from the field southward with his
division rather than venture the passage of Baker's
Creek when so closely pressed by the enemy, and this
feat was successfully executed in the most soldierly
manner, nevertheless, under circumstances that make it
another one of the singularities of the campaign, that he

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSIWRG. 3»5

was allowed thus to march from the field, and in a few
(Jays effect a junction with jjohnston, with seven or eight
thousand men saved from the wreck of that day's disaster.

"Passing over the unim[)ortant incidents of the two days
immediately subsequent to the batde of IJaker's Creek,
it is to be related that the Confederate commander, after
a fueble effort to avail himself of the defensive resources
in the (juarter of the Big Black, fell back within his lines
at V^icksburg on the i8th of May, leaving some eight or
ten field-guns in the hands of his persistent assailant.
The day before this, Geiieral Johnston had thus projjcrly
depicted the situation : ' If Haines' Bluff is untenable,
Vicksburg is of no value and cannot be held ; if. there-
fore, you are invested in Vicksburg you must ultimately
surrender. Under such circumstances, instead of losing
both troops and place, we must, if possible, save the
troops. If not too late, evacuate Vicksburg and its
dependencies and march to the northeast'

" Upon the receipt of these orders, Pemberton assem-
bled a council of war before which he placed them, and
invited a free expression of the opinions of his subor-
dinate generals as to the practicability of carrying them
out. In the opinion of that council, as Pemberton
wrote to Johnston, on the i8th of May, 'unanimously
expressed, it was impossible to withdraw the army from
this position with such morale and materia) as to be of
further use to the Confederacy. While the council of
war was assembled the guns of the enemy opened on
the works. ... I have decided to hold Vicksburg as
long as possible, with the firm hope that the govern-
ment may yet be able to assist me in keeping this ob-
struction to the enemy's free navigation of the
Mississippi River. I still conceive it to be the most
important point in the Confederacy.*

390

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" So far from being at that moment * the most Import-
ant point in the Confederacy,' practically Vicksburg had
lost all importance and military advantage to the Con-
federate States, and by its further occupation the navi-
gation of the river was not to be materially obstructed.
As for not being able to withdraw from the position
without so thorough a de?noralization of the garrison,
absolutely there was no rational ground for such a con-
clusion to stand upon. The Federal army at the time,
and for several weeks thereafter, was not large enough
to enable it to invest the whole Confederate position
from Haines' Bluff, on the north, around to the river's
bank south of Vicksburg. Therefore, for some days
there was left open in the latter quarter an ample gate-
way through which an energetic soldier might have
marched the greater part of an army, that afterwards
showed itself so doughty and so worth saving, whenso-
ever suffered to do so by its commander.

"It is true that the route of exit suggested by Gen-
eral Johnston, that is, towards the north-east, was closed,
as he might have anticipated, but not so towards the
south-east ; and if by that way at least twenty-five thou-
sati/i of the Confederate army were not successfully res-
cued from General Grant's clutches, it was not only be-
cause of General Pemberton's amazing incapacity for
military command, but also for the reason that General
Johnston, in view of that already clearly demonstrated
incapacity and disregard of all sound military suggestions,
failed in so pressing an exigency to take command in
person of so vital a part of the Confederate resources in
that quarter, and saw fit to leave them in hands shown
to be fatally clumsy at every critical moment of the
campaign.

•* Sherman's corps, of which only Blair's division had

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSBURG.

397

y Gen-
;losed,
■ds the
e thou-
[lly res-
nly be-
|city for
eneral
strated
lestions,
land in
lurces in
shown
of the

shared in the action of Baker's Creek, having overtaken
the main force, was thrown to the front as the Federal
army approached its long-sought prey. And to a cavalry
detachment of that corps was deputed the task of enter-
ing the deserted Confederate works at Haines' Bluff by
the rear. The works that had so easily repelled thirty odd
thousand men under Sherman, five months previously,
were now found abandoned, the guns partially disabled,
with magazines full of ammunition and a hospital full of
wounded and sick men. At the same time, the main
body of that corps was pushed forward upon Vicksburg,
General Grant riding, as we are told, with Sherman at
the head of the column.

" It was late in the afternoon of the 19th of May before
the Union army began to gather close around Vicks-
burg, where Pemberton had, as we have seen, resolved
upon being beleaguered. Built upon hills successively
rising from the river, the position was indeed a strong
one, though the lines were too greatly extended and
in parts of somewhat inferior construction. A series of
open-gorge detached works wei'e established upon all
the salient commanding points. These were connected
by lines of rifle-pits, while the ridge-slopes landward were
obstructed by fallen timber. A numerous artillery
garnished the lines, and the garrison numbered far
above thirty thousand infantry and artillery.

" Success seems to have confirmed the Federal general
in his disposition throughout the campaign to tempt
fortune without hesitation, hence, without waiting for his
whole force to reach the scene, Grant, at 2 p.m. on the
19th of May, gave orders for an immediate assault of
the Confederate position. What happened may be best
stated in the words of Badeau : ' Without any fault or
hesitation on the part of either troops or commanders.

398

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

iii;'

iiight had overtaken the National forces before they
were really in condition to obey the orders of C^rant,
except at the point where Sherman had reached the
works but failed to make any serious impression. . . .
The Fifteenth Corps was the only one able to act
vigorously ; the other two having succeeded no further
than to gain advanced positions covered from tlic fire
of the enemy.'

" Not satisfied with the results of this bloody Jtasco,
General Grant determined upon another swing of the
human hammer at his disposition, against the entrenched
Confetlerates, now that his whole force was up aijd well
in hand. This plan, as well as the manner of it, was
sett'dd at a convocation of his corps commanders on
the 20th of May, and ordered to take place on the 2 2d,
with the intermediate time for preparation ; but their
opponent also had had seventy hours to set his house
in order. The orders were to scale the Confederate
lines at a concerted moment, and without firing a gun
until the works were stormed.

•' No one, I dare say, acquainted with the dread trade
of war, who will c; "fully read either Badeau's or Sher-
man's account of this bloody operation, will say that the
dispositions of the Union army for the fearful and un-
precedented work «et for it, were such as made success
likely. The three Union corps were spread out in a
long, thin, brittle line, which was simultaneously pushed
forward against the Confederate works in the feeblest
possible order of attack. That is to say, small as were
the chances originally for success, they were thrown
away by the manner in which the attack was made.
The Federals, gallantly led by subordinates, as might
be expected, were speedily involved and terribly
slaughtered in the numerous shambles made by

CONFEDERATE STORY OF VICKSBURG.

399

gun

trade

Sher-
iat the
id un-

LICCCSS

it in a

Kished
;eblest

were
Ihrown
1 made.

might
Icrribly

le by

the converging fires from many parts of the Confed-
erate Hnes.

" However, upon the suggestion of McClernand that
certain advantages whicli he reported he had gained in
his (juarter of the assault might be ripened into victory,
— advantages, however, which, we are told, Grant really
discredited at the moment, another assault was ordered
and atlventurcd with all three corps at 3 p.m. ' It was
a re|)etition of the first, equally unsuccessful and bloody,'
is the brief chronicle given by Sherman, who omits,
however, to state that the ' butcher's bill ' of the day's
work footed up more than three thousand killed and
wounded, or ten per cent, of the Federal forces
engaged.

" From a high and commanding point, we are told, that
General Grant had been a spectator of the operations in
question, and had seen a few men (McClernand's) enter
the works, and the colors planted on the exterior slopes,
but had also seen the whole column repelled. It is
otherwise admitted that the Federal commander's posi-
tion during the first attempt to storm the works had
given him a better opportunity of seeing what was
really taking place in front of and being effected by
McClernand's corps than its commander had. That
under such circumstances and with such knowledge of
the really adverse state of affairs in that quarter the
second assault was attempted, be it noted, as late as
3 P.M., at the suggestion, however urgent, of a subor-
dinate whose military capacity had been so long dis-
credited, is another of the unaccountable incidents of
this remarkable campaign.

"Thus, by the 2 2d of June, the besieging army had
pushed their approaches — as Pemberton reported to
Johnston — within twenty-five feet of the Confederate

400

LIFE OF CEXKRAL GRANT.

• rcilaii,' and were also up very close to the works upon
the HaKlwin ferry and Jackson roails, but a|)parciuly
the rVHleral commander had been sated with assaults
by the i)ne adventured with such cost a month belorc.
Pemberton's men had now been in the trenches thirty-
lour days and nii^hts, and were living; on very 'reduced
rations.' So s^reat was the extent of the belcaj^^ucrcil
lines (about seven miles all this time) that Uieir com-
mander had not been able to relieve any part of his
men from trench service for an hour at a time.
Nevertheless, worn out by ceaseless vii^ils, attenu-
ated from insufficient, b:ul food, unsheltered from
the weather, and from a rarely interrupted storm of shot
and shell at shi^rt range, from two hundred and twenty
guns, beside a battery of heavy guns belonging ami
owned by the Navy, these thirty thousand Americans, for
thirteen days and rights longer, stood unflinchingly
ready to meet the constantly menaceil onset.

" Meantime, their adversary had been steadily plyinjj^
axe and shovel and pick, while aided by large gangs of
negroes, pressing forward numerous saps, until, by the
istof luly, in many places they had reached the Confed-
erate ditch, and 'at ten different points General Grant:
states thiit he could move under cover, to within distances
of from five to one hundred yards of the Confederates,
rnd the men of the two armies conversed across the
lines.'

"The moment for hand-to-hand fighting had about
come. There was little if any further scope for digging.
Nevertheless, though forty days previously Grant had
reported that he would take the place ' by regular ap-
proaches in about a week,' he still took six days longer
— as Badeau tells us — to prepare for the final assault.
But Pemberton at last had comprehended the hopeless-

CONFEDKRATR STORY OF VfCk'S/UrUG. 401

nessof his situation, and that hut two cotirscs wore! open
j() l,ini, — capitulation, or a reHolutc sortiti with every
man ahlc to bear a mtisknt. This very evident position
of affairs was now discussed with his division command-
ers, and a sortie was at once pronounced to be an im-
|)racliral)le enterprise in the condition of the jrarrison
after forty-seven days of such work : capitulation was
therefore determined upon as without altc^rnative.

" But on the morninjif of the 3d of July, Pemberton
hoisted the white flaj^ and asked for a commission to
arrani^^e the terms for his surrender, (teneral (irant
rofiis(;d this, but after a parley offered terms that were
not aj)proved, as he states, by all his t^eneral officers,
though he omits to tell in vvhat particular. As a whole,
those terms were as favorable; as the Conft'derates had a
right to expect of their adversary. liowen, however, sug-
gested that they should be allowed to ' march out with
the honors of war, carrying their small arms and artil-
lery' — a proposition which 'was promptly and uncere-
moniously rejected.* General Beaurf:gard had, indeed,
conceded such terms to Major Anderson at Fort Sum-
ter, in April, 1861, and allowed him to salute the United
States flag before hauling it down. Hut it was, of course,
asking too much that an army of 30,000 veterans, such as
Pemberton's, should be sent forth intact with their arms
and field artillery. Pemberton likewise l)esought a stipu-
lation that ' the rights and property of citizens be re-
spected,' and asked for certain immaterial ceremonies at
the formal act of surrender on the part of the troops.
Regarding citizens, Grant declined to make stipulations,
while disclaiming any purpose to subject them * to annoy-
ances or loss.' He acceded, however, to Pemberton's
dssire that the Confederate garrison should be formally
marched at 10 a.m., on the 4th of July, to the front of the

402

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

lines which they occupied, and there stack arms and
deposit their colors, which done, they were then to be
marched back into Vicksburg, and remain prisoners until
properly paroled. Pemberton having duly accepted these
final terms, hostilities came to an end. At the time and
in the manner stipulated, the surrender was completed,
embracing the paroling of twenty-eight thousand eij^ht
hundred and ninety-two officers and men, of whom
fifteen were general officers. One hundred and seventy-
two cannons were among the physical spoils, as well as
sixty thousand stands of arms, mainly of good quality
(much better. General Grant declares, than were the
bulk of his own arms), together with considerable ammu-
nition and ordnance stores. Thus ended in a great, far-
reaching success, rarely exceeded, or indeed, equaled in
war, a long series of operations, every one of which, as
I have shown, was but ' a wild cast of the net for for-
tune ' absolutely without a parallel in military history.
The brilliant end, however, has invested this campaign
with a splendor that jusdy belongs only to the most
masterly military operations, and, therefore, cannot be
lasting or survive that critical test to which prominent
human affairs are sure to be subjected in the course of
time."

ms and
n to be
lers until
ted these
time and
implcted,
ind ei^ht
of whom
1 seventy-
is well as
)d quality
were the
ble amnu-
great, far-
equaled in
f which, as
et for for-
ry histor)^
campaign
the most
cannot be
prominent
course of

CHAPTER XXIV.

VICKSnURG TO CHATTANOOGA.

"The river unvexed to the sea" — Great rejoicinp over Vickshurg's fall — Restored
to |)()pular confidence — Success the test— Sherman pursues Johnston — Siege of
Jackson — Johnston's hasty evacuation — A march of terrible suffering — Railroads
and buildings destroyed — Feeding famished inhabitants — Sujiplies for Confed-
erate wounded — Sherman in command at Vicksburg — Grant visits New Orleans
— Is seriously injured — The army scattered — Succoring Rosecrans — Ordered to
Cairo— Military division of the Mississippi.

Ge'ITYSBURG and Vicksburg were twin sun-bursts that
flashed through the thick clouds of national distress and
depression. With happy appropriateness, they came
upon tiie day of days to the republic. At last upon
the pedestal of much patient waiting had been reared
the statue of victory. The batde had furced into retreat
the daring feet that were invading Northern soil. The
capitulation gave the broad waters of the Mississippi
back to the country. True it is that Gettysburg did not
complete the destruction of the Confederate army which
had carried fire and sword and the sound of conflict into
a Federal State, but it crushed its power. The threat in
gray was no longer a threat, and there was much relief
when the adventurous host recrossed the Potomac. And
when Vicksburg fell the joy of the country was complete.
Here at last were substantial fruits.

At first the magnitude of the prize could scarcely be
comprehended. Grant's operations had been watched
with apprehension. The weary months of advance and
countermarch, of unceasing grapple with natural obstacles
whose difficulties the public could not adequately appre-

(403)

404

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

ciate, led to the fear that he, too, had lost the secret of
success. Even after the brilliant battles around Vicks-
burg, and his army had drawn its unyielding lines around
the city, the papers each morning of the forty days of
siege were opened with sickening dread lest some mis-
adventure had befallen him.

The city fell, and the rejoicing was equal to the occa-
sion. A hostile army of sixty thousand men had been
killed, wounded or made prisoners ; two hundred and
forty-six cannon were captured. Port Hudson, which
surrendered a week afterward, was the last point on tiie
great river which the Confederacy ruled, and thenceforth,
in President Lincoln's apt phrase, " the Mississippi went
unvexed to the sea." Public confidence, which had waned
during the seemingly fruitless months of advance, re-
turned to the man who had accomplished these great
results.

President Lincoln had been very apprehensive of the
result of the campaign about Vicksburg. Thoroughly
alive to the importance of the control of the great river
to the national cause, he had been strongly of the
opinion that the greatest of the Confederate strongholds
would never be reduced until the river thence to New
Orleans had been thoroughly cleared of hostile fortifica-
tions and troops. This accomplished, the resources of
the country in men and facilities could be directed
against the chief citadel, and its reduction speedily
brought about. Exaggerating the hazards of Grant's
bold campaigning, he never gained complete confidence
in its ultimate result until the disspatch came which pro-
claimed the victory. Then his manly, generous nature
displayed itself. Hastening to do justice to the man
whom he had almost con^e to doubt, he sent him the
following letter, under da:e of July 13th, 1863.

VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA,

405

" I do not remember that you and I ever met person-
ally. I write this now as a grateful acknowledgment
for the almost inestimable service you have done the
country. I wish to say a word further. When you first
reached the vicinity of Vicksburg, I thought you should
do what you finally did — march the troops across the
neck, run the batteries with the transports, and thus go
below ; and i never had any faith, except a general hope
that you knew better than I, that the Yazoo Pass ex-
pedition, and the like, would succeed. When you got
below and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf and vicinity, I
thought you should go down the river and join General
Banks; and when you turned northward, east of the
Bis" Black, I feared it was ci mistake. I now wish to
make a personal acknowledgment that you were right
and I was wrong."

Halleck, after grumbling a litde and objecting to the
terms which Grant had given Pemberton, finally swung
gracefully around into the tide of general congratulation,
and telegraphed the following message: "Your report,
dated July 6th, of your campaign in Mississippi ending
in the capitulation of Vicksburg, was received last eve-
ning. Your narration of the campaign, like the opera-
tions themselves, is brief, soldierly, and in every respect
creditable and satisfactory. In boldness of plan, rapidity
of execution and brilliancy of routes, these operations
will compare most favorably with those of Napoleon at
Ulm. You and your army have well deserved the grat-
itude of your country, and it will be the boast of your
children that their fathers were of the heroic army which
reopened the Mississippi river."

It is difficult to appreciate the full measure of rejoicing
which was felt at the North over this victory. It came
like a voice from heaven. There had been so much ap-

406

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

parently hopeless effort, so many weary and monotonous
days of waiting, so much sacrifice of treasure and blood
upon the ahar of what appeared to be futile endeavor,
that the final fulfilment came like a largess of fortune.
The North took fresh heart. Depression gave way to
elation. The sinking pulses of patriotism ran high
again, and the old confidence in success was renewed.
The grade of Major-General in the regular army was
conferred upon Grant. Votes of thanks rained in upon
him from all parts of the Union. Rich and costly gifts,
the expressions of the popular heart, were sent to the
victorious general. Everywhere the friends of national
unity were filled with enthusiam, while the South was
correspondingly depressed.

The time had now come when Grant's voice was
potent to advance the fortunes of those to whose co-
operation he owed a part of his wonderful triumphs.
Chief among these he ranked Sherman and McPherson.
Sherman, alert in duty and discipline, had hardly waited
to witness o'- join in the celebration of the victory. The
orders of General Grant to pursue Johnston had been
immediately obeyed, and on the 5th he was on his mis-
sion to drive the Confederates out of the State — a task
which he accomplished by forcing Johnston's retreat
from Jackson and the destruction of a vast amount of
property and railroad communications. He was back
in Vicksburg by the 25th. Under date of July 22d Grant
addressed a characteristic letter to the President recom-
mending the promotion of Sherman and McPherson to
the positions of brigadier-general in the regular army.
Throughout the war the organizations of the regular
and volunteer armies were kept distinct, and promotion
in the former was very highly prized by professional
soldiers. The reasons he gave for these promotions

VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA,

407

were, "Their great fitness for any command that it may
ever become necessary to intrust to them. Their great
purity of character and disinterestedness in the faithful
performance of their duty, and the success of every one
engaged in the great battle for the preservation of the
Union. They have honorably won this distinction upon
many well-fought battle-fields." After reciting the long
list of their distinguished services, the letter concluded :
"The promotion of such men as Sherman and McPher-
son always adds strength to our arms."

Those ofiicers received the promotion, and Grant's
recommendation of other officers for advancement in
the regular and volunteer armies also received the Presi-
dent's sanction. His army from the first had never
wavered in its confidence in him. It had cheerfully
borne the weary marches, desperate fighting, harassing
duties in the swamps — every sacrifice exacted. He had
fashioned an army that did not think it could be de-
feated. The drill had been learned on the march, and
its confidence was gained in the shock of battle. It was
a weapon the temper and quality of which he knew, for
it was his handiwork.

New duties, requiring the highest gifts of military
administration, were now exacted of the great captain.
Four States were either wholly or in part restored to
national control, and it was his task to hasten their com-
plete pacification. One of the most important questions
presented to him for solution related to the ex-slaves.
From the beginning of the struggle the negroes who
flocked to the protection of the Union armies had been
used as teamsters, laborers, or in whatever capacity
their services were of value.

In September, i86i. President Lincoln issued the grand
proclamation which declared the slaves in all States in

408

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

insurrection after January ist, 1863, "thenceforward, for-
ever free."

Turning the freedmen into soldiers was a step which
followed in immediate sequence. It was seriously op-
posed by many adherents of the national cause, who
could scarcely be reconciled to it, even as a measure of
war. In the army many men, who were none the less
citizens because they carried arms, discussed the measure
almost with violence. They had taken up their mus-
kets to defend the Union, not to free the slaves. Grant,
howe^'er, had come slowly to the opinion that valuable
material for war might be drilled out of those of them
who were willing to fight for their freedom. Months
before he had sanctioned the experiment of organizing
a heavy artillery regiment which, well officered, could
be made useful in garrisoning important points, thus
relieving white troops for active duty in the field.
General Lorenzo Thomas, adjutant-general of the army,
early in August had been sent to the Mississippi valley
to raise colored troops, and enjoyed the active co-opera-
tion of General Grant. The most annoying opposition
to this step came from the Confederates, who declared
their determination to treat negroes found with arms in
their hands as beyond the pale of civilized warfare.
Their officers would be regarded as slave-stealcrs and
they themselves would be held as runaway slaves to be
killed at sight or reduced to slavery again. But this
policy was met by one equally severe. When Grant
learned that a white captain of negro troops and
.several of his men taken prisoners at Milliken's Bend
Jiad been hung, he took stern measures to protect all
whom he commanded. To General Richard Taylor,
commanding the Confederates in Louisiana, he wrote :

" I feel no inclination to retaliate for the offences of

VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA.

409

irresponsible persons, but if it is the policy of any gen-
eral intrusted with the command of troops to show no
quarter, or to punish with death prisoners taken in bat-
tle, I will accept the issue. It may be you propose a
different line of policy toward black troops and officers
commanuing them to that practised toward white troops.
If so, I can assure you that these colored troops are
regularly mustered into the service of the United States.
The government, and all the officers under the govern-
ment, are bound to give the same protection to these
troops that they do to any other troops."

General Taylor replied that he would punish all such
acts, "disgraceful alike to humanity and the reputation
of soldiers." He, however, declared that Confederate
officers were required to turn over to the State authori-
ties all slaves captured in arms. Although, on several
occasions, bushwhackers and pardsan bodies of the
Confederates showed no quarter to negro troops falling
into their hands, in the main black soldiers received the
same treatment as their white comrades in arms, by
reason of the energetic and decisive position which
Grant had taken upon the question when it was first
sprung.

In and about an army in the field there are many
things amusing as well as tragic happening all the time.
It was a standing joke about Grant's head-quarters that
he had less to eat, less to wear, and less money than the
humblest officer about him. During all the campaign
he had not allowed cows to be taken from the inhabi-
tants, and when one was driven off" an appeal to him
would secure its return. But, by some chance, when a
good one reached the commissary or quartermaster's
department it would change color and could not be re-
cognized, therefore the men always had milk. Vicks-

mmm

410

Z/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

burg had fallen and General Grant's family came down
to visit him. The young children needed milk and the
General tried every means to procure it for them, but
failed. As a last resort he wrote the note here pro-
duced in fac-simile. It is needless to add that the chil-
dren were provided for. Colonel Markland was one
of the leaders in the mischief of the camp as well as
one of Grant's best friends, hence the note was sent to
him.

The opening of the Mississippi brought vexing
questions relating to trade with the subjugated territory.
Encouraged by the authorities at Washington a horde
of adventurers followed the army, expecting great profit
from trading in cotton and other produce. While the
army had hostile forces in its front, the control of the
traders was clearly within the functions of the com-
mander. Thanks to Grant the greater portion of the
States adjacent to the Mississippi river were now free
from active hostilities, and the cotton speculators did their
best to turn the Federal armies into mere guards to
make their trading operations safe. Secretary Salmon
P. Chase, who entertained the opinion that the danger
of the recognition of the Confederate States by Euro-
pean powers would be lessened if plenty of cotton was
sent abroad, lent his influence to the speculators. Gen-
eral Grant, however, stoutly maintained his view that if
the trade should be permitted these cormorants of com-
merce would abuse their opportunities and supply the
hostile people and armies with articles contraband of
war, to the advantage of the enemy and the prolongation
of the strife. With such an army of non-combatants spies
could easily introduce themselves within the Federal lines
and obtain information of value to the Confederates.
Moreover, such trading was likely to prove demoralizing

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VicKSBURG, Miss., 5<f//. 29M, 1863.
Col. Markland — Dear Sir: — Having exhausted every other re-
source for procuring a cow, I now send to you to get one of those at
the Quartermaster's and Commissary's quarters.

Yours truly,

U. S. Grant, Maj.-Gen.
(411)

412

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

to the army, whose officers would be exposed to the cor-
rupt solicitations of men who would gladly pay heavily
for contraband facilities. At his urgent instance severe
restrictions were thrown around the traffic which, how-
ever, subsequently grew to such formidable and demor-
alizing proportions as he had endeavored to provide
against. This happened after he had been transferred
to service in the eastern army.

Upon this point of inter-trading Assistant Secretary
of War Dana fully coincided with Grant. He had in-
vestigated the subject of cotton-trading carefully, and
declared it to be a nuisance. But when he appealed to
the commander, Grant regretfully said that he was sorry
that he did not possess the authority to stop it. When
occasion offered, however, he never lest an opportunity
to object to it, and he threw all the obstacles he could in
the way of those engaged in it. Yet his sublime sense
of subordination is shown in a clear light by the con-
cluding sentence of a letter to the government in which
he makes objection to this contraband traffic: "No
theory of my own will ever stand in the way of my ex-
ecuting in good faith any order I may receive from
those in authority over me."

Sherman's forces for enterprise against Johnston con-
sisted of forty thousand men. Moving eastward by the
same route he had travelled from Jackson six weeks
before, Sherman placed his army, almost without a
skirmish, again before the defences of that city. These
had been strengthened, and behind them Johnston lay
with four divisions of infantry and a heavy force of cavalry
and artillery. On July 9th the Union army sat down
before this stronghold. Its forces were now sufficiently
numerous to extend the investing line to the Pearl river,
both above and below the city. While regular approaches

VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA.

413

were being made Sherman sent out considerable detach-
ments to destroy the Mississippi Central Railroad on both
sides of the town. Sparing his men the unnecessary- blood-
shed of an assault the siege was without clash of arms
until the 13th, when Johnston made a sortie with some
determination, which, however, was easily repulsed.
Skirmishing continued thenceforward to the i6th, on
which night the Confederate army evacuated the city,
retreating hastily eastward. They burned all the bridges
in retiring and placed torpedoes and loaded shells in the
way of their pursuers. Their flight took them across a
stretch of ninety miles of country almost destitute of
water, and under the burning July sun. The sufferings of
his men were frightful.

On July 1 8th Sherman again entered the capital of
Mississippi, which was to experience more than its share
of the horrors of war. Great blocks of its handsome
residences were burned, while the destruction of the rail-
way was complete. The remaining inhabitants were in
a condition of most pitiable want. Their defenders had
left such of them as had not followed the retreatinof
army in absolute destitution of food. Two days were
spent in relieving their wants. In his hasty movements
toward Vicksburg two months before he had been com-
pelled to leave his sick and wounded in Jackson. These,
togcilier with increased numbers of the Confederate
disabled, were supplied with medicines and hospital deli-
cacies heretofore denied them. Leaving rations for the
distressed people and ample supplies for the hospitals,
Sherman again turned his columns toward Vicksburg,
where he arrived on July 25th, having scattered the only
coii^iderable Confederate army in that region. His loss
in the brief campaign was less than a thousand, while he
captured more than that number of prisoners.

414

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

That portion of the army which had not accompanied
Sherman had now enjoyed nearly three weeks of hard-
earned rest. Grant was again becoming anxious for a
forward movement and suggested Mobile as the next
objective. Its capture, he thought, would complete the
disruption of the eastern and western portions of the
Confederacy and would prove a deadly blow. Halleck,
however, found " reasons, which I cannot now explain,"
for moving in a different direction. The controlling
motive seems to have been the efforts of the Emperor
of the French to establish Maximilian's monarchy in
Mexico. To counteract this it was deemed desirable to
re-establish national authority in Texas, so as to leave a
heavy force on the Mexican frontier. Banks was ap-
pointed to command the army to operate against Texas,
and a division of four thousand troops was sent to him
by Grant. Schofield and five thousand others were
sent to operate against Price in Western Arkansas, and
Burnside with the Ninth corps was despatched to rein-
force Rosecrans in Middle Tennessee. The movement
of Banks was further reinforced by Ord's entire corps,
sent on August 7th, and orders were sent to Grant to
co-operate.

With the view of consulting with Banks before his
start, Grant started for New Orleans on August 30th,
leaving Sherman in command at Vicksburg. At a re-
view of the troops on September 4th Grant was thrown
from his horse and so severely injured that for twenty
days he was perfectly helpless and confined to one posi-
tion. Indeed, he did not recover so as to walk without
crutches or mount his horse without assistance until
after the battles around Chattanooga. Anxious for the
well-being of his department, Grant, carried on a
stretcher, had returned to Vicksburg, where he found

VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA.

415

orders from Halleck directing him to send all the men
he could possibly spare to the assistance of Rosecrans.
One of the chief obstacles to speedy obedience was
want of transports. Still, four days afterward, Sherman
and three divisions were on their way to Nashville.

At this time Grant wrote to Halleck, " I am just out
of bed and find that I can write only with great diffi-
culty. During the twenty days that I have been con-
fined to one position on my back, I have apparently
been in the most perfect health, but now that I am
up on crutches, I find myself very weak." He was
anxious lest the movement of Sherman's troops should
lead the enemy to movements tending to obstruct its
junction with Rosecranz. To prevent this McPherson
was ordered to make a demonstration against Jackson
and Canton, and to threaten other points f irther east.
Sherman's route was to be overland from Memphis to
Corinth, Tuscumbia and Decatur. He took up his line
of march from Memphis on October 4th, and, thanks to
McPherson's timely demonstrations, was not seriously
harassed.

At this time there was much uncertainty in the trans-
mission of reports and communications to and from
Washington. Several orders had been delayed and
movements of grave importance had been seriously
impeded. It was with a view to correct this that Grant
sent Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, of his staff, to Cairo to
communicate direct with the government. Colonel
Wilson, on arriving, found this order, which he at once
transmitted : " It is the wish of the Secretary of War
that, as soon as General Grant is able to take the field,
he will come to Cairo and report by telegraph." This
reached him on October loth, and on that day he left
with his staff and head-quarters en route for Cairo. On

416

L/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

October i6th he wired from Cairo : " I have just arrived,
and report in pursuance of your instructions of the 3cl
instant. My staff and head-quarters are with me." The
next day Halleck repHed: "You will immediately pro-
ceed to the Gait House, Louisville, Kentucky, where you
will meet an officer of the War Department, with your
orders and instructions. You will take with you your
staff, etc., for immediate operations in the field."

While on his way to Louisville, he was met at Indian-
apolis by the Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War,
who brought an order creating- the Military Divisic n of
the Mississippi, including all the territory between the
Alleghenies and the Mississippi river, excepting such as
might be occupied by Banks. It included the armies
of Burn side, Rosecrans and all the scattered forces of
the Army of the Tennessee not sent to Banks.

This wide field of operations was quite in the line of
his frequent recommendations that the entire theatre of
war as described be consolidated and placed under one
head to the end of thorough co-oper?tion. He, how-
ever, had never suggested himself as the general to
command it. There was dire need of him just then.
Rosecrans, despite his reinforcements, badly defeated
at Chickamauga, with heavy loss of men and artillery, as
well as of strategic points of gn-sat importance, was
besieged by a superior force in Chattanooga. With his
line of supplies almost destroyed, his army was in danger
of starvation. Bragg, commanding the Confederates in
front of Chattanooga, felt strong enough to detach a
heavy force under Longstreet, who had penned up Burn-
side's little army in Knoxville. The situation was a
serious one, and wild rumors of every sort were annoy-
ing the government. How the zeal and splendid military
genius of the new commander arose to the full measure

VICKSBURG TO CHATTANOOGA.

417

of his new duties will be recorded in subsequent
chapters.

In leaving the Army of the Tennessee, General Grant
did so with deep regret. To an almost literal extent, he
had made it. He had taken the scattered and undis-
ciplined forces and formed them into an army. They
had been associated with his first successes. With
splendid spirit they had supported all his plans. No
hardship, no danger, had daunted them. He was proud
of the men, and they were proud of him, and the parting
was full of mutual regret. To the end of his life the
general always thought and spoke with affection of the
Army of the Tennessee.

V5 !l

A-. ■>

1: ill

CHAPTER XXV.

THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.

•'The hardest battle of the war" — Fought to secure Chattanooga — Preliminary
movements — Bragg's army across the river — Thomas reinforced — I.oomis artillerv-
captured — Longstreet's arrival — His corps from Virginia — No conference between
the Confederate wing commanders — Attack at daylight ordered — The obstructions
of the Beld — Rosecrans' dispositions— Thomas to defend the vital point— Resting
for the fateful struggle.

In September, 1863, 125,000 men tried to shoot each
other to death from behind the trees and upon a few
open fields that skirt the banks of the sluggish Chicka-
mauga. The Indian word translated into English, means
" the river of death." The wild men who long ago named
and endowed the stream with traditions of strife little
dreamed that in the far-off future the white man would
give its banks such a baptism of blood as to attract the
attention of the world to its history, and confirm its right
to wear the title the savage gave it.

It is not necessary in a review of this, one of the
phenomenal battles of the war, to recount the important
movements of the two armies during the few days that
they were marching toward this memorable field. There
is enough to record after they met. The best military
critics do not agree as to the policy, much less the bril-
liancy, of many of the manoeuvres made by the military
leaders who commanded the opposing forces in the great
clash of arms that took place on and near the banks of
this stream. There is so much that is absorbing in a
plain story of the struggle that there is not even propri-
ety in here reviving the criminations and recriminations
that at the time so seriously disturbed the harmony, if it
418

THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.

419

did not impair the efficiency, of both armies, and since
has caused so much comment, and even harsh criticism.

It has been said that war provokes a conflict of ideas
and purposes as well as of arms. A faithful narrative of
the engagement that bears the name of this river would
seem to confirm the truth of this saying, for both Rose-
crans and Bragg, who here led two great armies into a
desperate conflict, assert that their plans miscarried, and
that their efforts did not bring decisive results, because
some subordinates failed either to understand or perform
the duties assigned them. This is generally accepted as
a fact, and it is held that the mistakes of Chickamauga,
even if dispassionately written, would add many an in-
teresting page to its history.

" Chickamauga was the hardest batde of the war to
fight, and this was the worst of batde-fields. It was a
blind rush in the woods, where each tree was contested,
and a company front could hardly be maintained. I
might say it was a tussle in the wilderness. Simply a
test of physical forces, without a chance for strategical
manoeuvre or brilliant assault," said General James Long-
street, the distinguished soldier who commanded the left
wing of the Confederate army in the engagement upon
this field. He stood by my side on the banks of the
Chickamauga just above Alexander's bridge, and as he
spoke was looking over the field again from the point
where he crossed the river the night he came from
Virginia to help Bragg fight the battle of Sunday.

"It is twenty years next September since the great
conflict here," he continued. " The field looks much as
it did then, except the growth of young saplings that
have sprung up about the old trees since those days, so
like the generation of children that have grown among
us who were then at war with each other. The forest

420

LIFK OF GENERAL GRANT.

i) !■ ! !

Still bears the marks of the bullets that then flew through
it like a hail storm, and the scars that the artillery made
are not all healed yet. Where shells or solid shot cut
the top of a tree off, the fresh branches that have
sprouted above the vvound show you how long it has
been since these messengers of destruction went flying
over these fields and crashing through this timber. The
river, fords, and all but the bridges, are the same now as
then, and scarcely a field has been cleared since I massed
my troops for the charge that broke the center of the
Federal lines on that memorable Sunday in September."

The story of this battle has often been written, but the
lights and shades have always been thrown into the nar-
rative from a one-sided glass. Here it will be the pur-
pose to try the plan of grouping the facts as they can be
gathered from the principal actors on both sides, and
then adding while on the field a story of the battle as
told by the most distinguished officer who led Confederate
troops in this action.

The movements of the two hostile armies for several
days prior to their meeting here had been directed
toward securing Chattanooga, the natural gateway to
Northern Georgia and East Tennessee. Some days
before Bragg had moved out of it for fear of being
flanked, and Rosecrans had ordered Crittenden to occupy
it while he followed Bragg into Georgia with two corps
of his army. Bragg, having drawn Rosecrans beyond
the coveted point, turned and gave battle, with the hope
of crushing him and then marching back into Chattanooga
with the prestige of a decisive victory upon his banners.
Rosecrans, having possession, hoped not only to hold the
great avenue through which the Confederacy secured
many of its supplies of coal, iron and nitre, but to finally
beat Bragg in battle. He did not, however, desire to

THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.

421

fight at the moment Bragg pressed him into an engage-
ment here.

The moves and counter-moves in this game of war
that began about the ist of September, 1863, finally
brouc^ht Rosecrans' three corps, comprising about 55,cxx)
men, on the west banlc of the Chickamauga, within easy
supporting distance of each other, on the i8th. Bragg's
army of about the same strength was nearly all concen-
trated on the opposite side of the river. Bragg began the
batdc of Chickamauga during the closing hours of Friday,
the 1 8th of September, when Forrest's cavalry, supported
by Howell's and Bledsoe's batteries from Walker's divi-
sion, crossed the river below Reed's Bridge, followed by
General W. H. T. Walker's division of Confederate
infantry. Colonel Wilder's Union brigade of mounted
infantry became sharply engaged at Alexander's Bridge
with another advancing Confederate force, and Colonel
Minty's Michigan brigade of cavalry was driven back
from Reed's Bridge "s Forrest and Walker crossed their
troops below it. The skirmishing was sharp, as Wilder
and Minty attempted to delay the advance, and finally it
approached the dignity of a combat as more troops were
crossed at the different fords and bridges along the
stream. The Confederate advance punished Minty
severely, but Wilder was more fortunate. He first helped
Minty out of his trouble, and when forced back himself
contested every foot of the way. When he rested for
the night he was so near to the Confederate lines that
it is written, " Wilder's pickets and those of the enemy
were so close that they often grasped each other's guns
in the darkness, and had a hand to hand struggle for their
possession."

The only really important result of the movements and
observations on the i8th, as well as of this opening

422

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

skirmish, was to unmask the Confederate plan to throw
a strong force upon the T^eclcral left and endeavor to
secure possession of the Lafayette road, and thus g^t
between the Union army and Chattanooga. This was
important information, as it came to the Federal com-
mander in time to enable him to reform and strencrtlun
his line of battle to successfully meet the enemy's plan of
attack. His first move was to withdraw Thomas from
the right of the line near Lee and Gordon's mills on the
Chickamauga and post him on the extreme left, the vital
point of the field. Then he sent Sheridan and Davis witii
their divisions to join Crittenden's right and complete
the line, which was much shortened by these changes.
These dispositions were all made under cover of night,
and were, as all such movements are, attended with
many interesting incidents. Thomas marched his corps
past Crittenden, whose position was not disturbed by the
transfer of the Fourteenth Corps to the extreme left.
Thomas had a long and tiresome march by Crit*^"nden's
bivouac, and then into the forest beyond. He 1 not
only to grope his way in the dark after he passed L^ritten-
den's line, but feel his front and flank with skirmishers
all the way to his new position.

Long, weary waits in the fresh, frosty night air
tempted the men to make fires in the woods of the rail
fences that followed the line on one side. While the
march was yet in progress a line of light shone along the
road, and opened a fresh danger to the weary troops.
The Confederates might observe the silent column
moving toward the left, change their plan and attack the
weaker instead of the stronger part of the line. But this
danger was only surmised, not realized.

It was a new day, say two hours till dawn, when the
toilsome march ended and Thomas* corps swung into its

THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.

423

new position and the worn men rested on their arms.
The sun rose bright and warm, and its first glances over
the hills and vales that skirt the Chickamauga found both
armies astir and preparing for batde. The Confederates
had been busy all night as well as the Federals, and
Bragg's army, excepting a portion of Hill's and Long-
street's corps, had crossed the river a*^ the several fords
and bridges in front of the Federal line, and was moving
into position shordy after daylight.

Thomas opened the battle of the 19th for the Union
side by sending Brannon with two brigades forward to
attack any small force of the enemy he could encounter.
His advance soon discovered "a small force," upon
which it made a sharp attack and drove it some distance,
when a heavy Confederate line rapidly advanced, drove
Brannon back, and about ten o'clock in the morning
struck the extreme left of Thomas' line, and soon pushed
the fighting toward the right. Rosecrans, anticipating
this movement, had ordered General McCook to send
Johnson's division to Thomas, and before it had
started Crittenden had already sent Palmer to his sup-
port. Baird, Johnson, Palmer, Van Cleve and Reynolds
were all sent forward, one after the other, to different
parts of the line to repel the determined Confederate
assault. Each in turn, although fighting stubbornly, was
driven back by the force of the attack from masses of
fresh troops that were pushed upon the Federal line.
Finally Wood's division was thrown forward into the
fight, and it was this balance that for a time turned the
scale of battle toward the Union side. It pointed in this
direction hardly long enough, however, to get steady, for
the Confederates turned upon him as upon the others
with fresh troops, and he, too, was about to be over-
whelmed, when Sheridan's division was promptly sent to

-.'-y .■>

k^ '

42i

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

his support. This movement saved Wood, but it pre-
cipitated a combat, the most serious of the day. It
brought forces into the action that, for reasons which
will appear later, fought with almost unparalleled -le-
termination. There was an old feud between them tliat
both wanted to setde here.

General Cheatham, with his famous division of Tcn-
nesseeans, had been held in reserve for an emergency
where hard work was required. When Sheridan's
troops were advanced to Wood's support, the emergency
was at hand. The Confederate commander threw
Cheatham, with his five brigades of splendid soldiers,
forward to receive the shock of battle as Sheridan came
sweeping the force from the field that had punished
Wood. When these two divisions of sturdy soldiers,
both led by hard fighters, struck there was serious woriv.
It was the first time they had met face to face since
that bloody field of Stone River, when they grappled
on the Wilkinson pike and had a terrific hand to hand
conflict, which, after varying successes, resulted in Cheat-
ham's favor. Neither had forgotten the first test of
otrength and courage, and the recollections of it nerved
them this day to desperate deeds. For nearly three
hours they fought back and forth over the ground
where they met, each in turn securing a momentary
advantage. It was five o'clock before they got tired of
pounding each other, and Cheatham reluctandy retired,
rather badly shattered, from his second meeting with
Sheridan. Cleburne, another hard fighter and capital
soldier, was, however, quickly sent to the field Cheatham
had so stubbornly contested, and he more than regained
the ground the Confederates had lost in the late after-
noon fight. Howell's battery, that had lost a gun in
Cheatham's melee with Sheridan, recovered it when
Cleburne came to the rescue.

THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.

425

<'This contest during the afternoon of the 19th," said
General Cheatham, speaking of this battle, '* was as des-
perate a fight as I ever witnessed, where fortifications
were not in dispute. It was charge and counter-charge

a stubborn conflict between brave and determined

men. I would not undertake to say what the loss was
here, but it was heavy on both sides, and the results
were not decisive for either force. I lost Preston Smith,
one of my best brigade commanders, and many good
men. I do not like to talk about the battle of Chicka-
mauga, for the victory we gained there was lost to us by
mismanagement and a failure to follow up the ad-
vantage."

The fighting had by no means been confined to the
points above described. The whole line had been seri-
ously engaged, for the Confederates early evinced a de-
termination to break the Federal front somewhere, and,
if possible, gain possession of one or more of the roads
leading toward Chattanooga. The assault was often so
determined that the line was in danger at several places.
Once the centre had been pressed so far back that
artillery shots dropped about General Rosecrans' head-
quarters, at the Widow Glen's house, and it was at
times almost within musket range of the enemy. In-
deed, it was only maintained here by pushing General
Negley rapidly forward to recover the ground from
which Van Cleve had been driven.

When the darkness of night hushed the roar of batde
it was found that amidst the varying successes and re-
verses of the day the Federal position had been well
maintained. They were still in possession of the roads
that tended toward Chattanooga, and their losses were
not more serious than those of the Confederates in
killed, wounded and missing. In other words, it was a

426

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

drawn fiorht. The Union forces had, however, surfcrcd
some severe losses. The First Michit^an Hatt( ry, tlic
famous Loomis Artillery, had been captured, and Van
Pelt, who was commandintj it, had been killed at hisir,ifis
while disputing with the Confederates for the possession
of them after they had been taken. The loss of tiiis
heretofore invincible battery was seriously felt. Otlur
guns hatl been lost, but none that were so much r(*v( rtd
as those black instruments of death that bore the naiii(>
of Loomis. It is a wonder that the losses w(*rc not
greater. The whole line had been engaged, aiul the
fighting at times had been terrific. Neither force; had
the advantage of the shelter of even temporary works.

The battle of the 19th was severe, and even desperate
at times, but was simply the introduction to the greater
tragedy of the 20th. When it closed the Federal com-
mander was not without api)rehcnsions as to his abihty
to meet the greater demands that were yet to be made
upon his army. He had captured men from Longstrcct's
corps who told exaggerated stories of reinforcements yet
coming. The single fact that Longstreet was here from
the P2ast opened the way for all sorts of conjectures as
to the force to be met on Sunday. Every command
within reach of the Federal leader that was available for
battle, except two brigades, had been actively engaged
in the first day's fight. It was well known that Braq;g
would have reinforcements for the decisive battle of the
20th. This addition to his force, whatever it was, would
not only give him the advantage of superior numbers,
but of fresh troops, that were not tired out from cither
marching or fighting. These grave considerations did
not, however, disturb the weary men, worn out with the
exacting labors of the day. They slept upon their arms
among the dead and dying without even a friendly fire

THE BATTLE OF CH/CKAMAUGA.

427

by which to cook them a bite to eat or to throw its flick-
eriii*'^ glare upon the lifeless l)odies around tllem, that
they nii,Ljht know whether they were amonfi^ corpses of
friiMuls or foes. All was silent. Not a sound broke the
stillness, save now and then a random shot or the groans
of tlu' dying. Hut the men were even too worn to heed
their appeals, and to perform many acts of kindness to
relieve; their sufferings.

Wiiile the rank and file of both armies thus rested,
ami the picket lines that stood guarding the slumbering
hosts almost touched each other, the leading Generals of
Kosecrans' army assembled at his head(piarters. The
grave situation was earnestly discussed. It was evident
to all that the fate of the army hung in the balance ; that
the battle to be fought on the morrow was to be a life
and death struggle for its safety. It is no wonder, then,
that they counselled long and carefully, and that the
commander made his dispositions with a view to save
his army from the great peril that seemed to cmcompass
it. It was not until the new day had been born that this
important council of war ended, and the Federal Gene-
rals rode away to their various commands, weighted not
only with the responsibilities that their chief had imposed
upon them, but with the anticipation of many that the
Confederates would force upon them early in the mor-

ning.

Wh.ie the Federal Generals were maturing their plans
the Confederate Commander and his Lieutenants were
not idle. They were also holding a council of war, and
discussing with each other the details of the battle they
expected to begin at daylight next morning. Bragg
does not seem to have made his dispositions? with the
same care as Rosecrans. When Longstreet arrived,
at eleven o'clock at night, the Confederate council

428

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

was over and the Generals who composed It gone. He
had no* opportunity to discuss with them the opera-
tions of the morrow and get down to a close understand-
ing of the position of the troops he was to direct and
the character of the field upon which he was expected to
fight. He met Polk on the road while he was riding to
Bragg's headquarters, but they had no time to confer,
and after exchanging the customary courtesies separated,
and never saw each other afterward. They, therefore,
fought the battle of Chickamauga, Polk commanding the
right and Longstreet the left wing of the Confederate
army, without even speaking to each other of the plan of
battle or of the disposition of the troops to meet an
emergency that might at any moment arise. This is not
a more remarkable evidence, however, than was often
furnished of the slip-shod military methods that too often
characterized some of *'ie commanders of both Confed-
erate and Federal armies during the war for the Union.

When Longstreet reached Bragg's headquarters he
was just off the cars at Ringgold, and the troops he
brought with him were following along, except three
brigades that had arrived before him, and were in the
fight of the 19th. The Confederate commander welcomed
him cordially, and at once went over with him the plan
of battle. He ou dined his dispositions as far as possible,
and stated the duties he would impose upon him in the
fast approaching conflict. They parted after a short
talk, and Longstreet rode away.

" I had no idea where I was," said General Longstreet,
speaking of this feature of his first experience in the
West. " It was bright moonlight, and I looked over the
ground as best I could. I knew nothing of the country.
All I knew about it was that it was Georgia soil."

Polk's orders were to attack at daylight, and had he

m!^

THE BATTLE OF CHICKAMAUGA.

«9

obeyed them Longstreet would have gone into the fight
in command of one wing of a great army without a chance
to post his men with an intelligent understanding of the
lay of the land, the position of the enemy or the location
of the troops he was to join. When he left Bragg he
went forward toward the position he was expected to occu-
py before day had fairly dawned, and snatched a few
minutes' sleep in the woods by the roadside.

The few hours between the councils of war at the
headquarters of the opposing forces and the beginning
of the batde were full of incidents that were both strik-
ing and interesting. The Federal pioneer corps were
busy felling trees and throwing up a few rude defenses,
that might be of some value to Thomas when the fury of
the fight broke upon him. The ground was so broken
and so heavily timbered that there was little chance for
fortifying, but what litde there was the Federal com-
manders took advantage of.

The debris that always flows from a batde-field w .s all
night long crowding toward the rear. Men sick, soldiers
wounded, stragglers, ambulance and ammunition trains
filled the road toward Chattanooga. This wreck of the
fight was a painful reminder of the exactions of war, and
the varying stories of death, disaster and success that the
demoralized mass of humanity told on its way back be-
yond the reach of bullets simply revealed the fevered
imagination of the relaters, who saw the fight from many
different points.

The field of Chickamauga is indeed a singular selection
for a battle-ground. Nearly the whole field is heavily
timbered with oak and pine, and the undergrowth is so
thick as to make it difficult to get through on horseback.
The ground is broken, especially toward Missionar)'
Ridge, into numerous hills and valleys, all heavily tim-

430

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

bered. On such a field no human eye could follow the
line of batde any distance, and such a thing as preserving
a regimental formation could not have been attempted
with success. Why it was ever selected by a General
who was picking his place to fight a decisive engagement
is still a mystery.

Bragg's line of battle and all his troops were on the
west bank of the Chickamauga on the 20th, looking to-
ward Chattanooga. It was a very dangerous position if
he had met with a reverse, for the stream was just behind
him. The river here winds a zigzag course toward the
north and east, but fortunately it played little or no part
in the great tragedy that bears its name. When General
Bragg's troops were in line of battle they were disposed
as folio ws : Right wing, Lieutenant-General Polk com-
manding — Cheatham's division of Polk's corps, Cleburne's,
Breckinridge's, Walker's and Liddell's divisions of Hill's
corps. Left wing, Lieutenant-General Longstreet com-
manding — McLaw's, Hood's, Hindman's divisions of his
own corps, and Stewart's, Preston's and Johnson's divi-
sions of Buckner's corps.

Rosecrans* dispositions were doubtless the best that
could have been made. Thomas was ordered to hold the
left at all hazards, and Rosecrans sent him word that he
would send all of McCook's and Crittenden's corps to
him if he needed them to hold his posidon. It was the
pivot that secured the main road to Chattanooga, and,
therefore, the vital point of the field. To study this
battle, then, so as to get fair light upon it, one must begin
and end with the position that Thomas, the cool, quiet,
unpretending, yet great soldier, occupied when he sat
down at the Snodgrass House and stubbornly held on to
that hill, even after nearly all the rest of the army had
been driven from the field.

CHAPTER XXVI.

THE SECOND DAY S FIGHT.

The commanders early astir — Rosecrans finds fault with McCook — Poll: fails to
attack at daylight — Wood's terrible mistake — Longstreet's famous charge in mass
—McCook and Crittenden forced back — Thomas' splendid tenacity — Steedman's
gallant charge — Fighting for darkness — Federal retreat — Bragg fails to pursue-
Nearly 40,000 lost on both sides.

Day broke on the 20th to find the hostile forces astir.
The commanders of both armies were at the front before
the gray dawn of the morning had given way to the
brighter light reflected by the rising sun. Rosecrans
rode his lines to find serious fault with the way McCook,
Wood and some others had made their dispositions. He
gave directions for such changes to be made as he
deemed best, but there was delay in executing his orders.
From early morning until full meridian the Federal leader
seems to have been kept busy with trying to correct the
misunderstandings of his subordinates, or remedy their
cross-purposes. Bragg was hardly less fortunate than
Rosecrans. He had ordered Polk to attack at daylight,
and he was himself ready at that hour to watch the shitt-
ing scenes of the fight. But full dawn grew into the
flush of day, and yet there was no sign of an assault.
Bragg fretted and fumed and sent staff officers again and
again to know why the attack had not been made. It
was not easy to find Polk. It was said that he slept be-
yond his lines and could not readily be reached. Whether
this be true or not, the General who was to begin the
attack at dawn did not get ready to drop his first shots
into the Federal line until some time after nine o'clock

431

432

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

¥..

in the morning. What a strange miscarriage of plans
and how clearly does a study of them bear evidence to
the truth of the saying that war is a series of experi-
ments ; that battles are won oftener by an accident than
by strategy or the fulfillment of matured plans.

Bragg's plan of batde depended for success on his
breaking the Federal line on the left, c'nd he seems to
have made no provision for another movement if this
failed. He directed Polk to make a determined attack
on Thomas, and as he turned his position to wheel to the
left. Each division in turn was to take up the fighting
as it followed down toward the right of the line, and as
f ach succeeded in driving the Federals it was to wheel
to the left until the Union forces were swept from the
field. Longstreet's left at Lee and Gordon's Mills was
to be the pivot jpon which this peculiar swinging move-
ment was to be made.

When Polk was finally found and his breakfast di-
gested he began his assault, in accordance with Bra[;g's
plans. He first sent Breckinridge's division against
Thomas' position, but he was forced to retire. He then
sent another and still another, and for two hours kept
pushing brigades and divisions of the best soldiers in the
Confederate army against Thomas' corps now reinforced
by some of the strongest commands in the Army of the
Cumberland. Yet the left was sorely pushed at times,
and doubtless might have been broken had Polk kept
liis force well in hand and sent it to the assault with de-
termination. But he made a sort of desultory fight. To
use a homely, but forcible, simile : " he fought like a
balky horse pulls at a load." He pushed fragments of
his command in and then withdrew them, instead of
massing his force and throwing it upon the flank he was
expected to turn. He had some of the finest soldiers in

THE SECOND DATS FIGHT.

433

the army with which to have made such an onset —
Breckinridge's, Cleburne's, Cheatham's, Walker's and
LiddcH's divisions, that had proved their fighting quali-
ties on many a field.

Both Rosecransand Bragg had all the morning been fret-
tinc»^overthe miscarriage of their plans, and been laboring
to inspire their subordinate commanders with their spirit
and purposes. Bragg got over his difficulties, however,
sooner than Rosecrans, for the Federal commander was
disturbed about his line for two hours after Polk had en-
gaged Thomas. The right and center of Rosecrans'
line seem to have become more mixed up the more he
tried to remedy it. Wood, who was a good soldier and
a stubborn fighter, appears to have been most to blame
for the disturbance, although McCook, Negley and some
others, appear to have been accused, justly or unjustly, of
a lack of promptness, or a misconception of the neces-
sities of the situation.

Polk was still hammering away at Thomas with such
leaders as Cleburne, Cheatham, Breckinridge, Walker
and Liddell, when Longstreet asked Bragg if he had not
better attack, as Polk seemed to be making no headway.
Bragg said yes, and he began massing his troops for a
desperate effort to sever the Federal lines in his front.
Polk's delay in making the attack had given Longstreet
an opportunity to ride his lines, to take a careful survey
of the field, and make his dispositions with great care.
He had his force in hand for hard work, and when it
came his turn to attack he moved his troops forward to
the assault with a thoro'igh understanding of the desper-
ate duty before him. It was unfor anate for the Federals
that Wood had withe rawn his troops from the line, leav-
ing a breach in it just as Longstreet sent his fresh and
determined soldiers forward under Hood, with orders to

434

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

push their antagonists off the field at any cost. They
went with a rush and struck the Union troops where

GENERAL JAMES LONGSTREET.

Wood had weakened the line Davis was trying to patch
up with his reserved brigade.

To attempt to describe this charge of Longstreet's and

THE SECOND DATS FIGHT,

435

its effect upon the Federal line would be like picturing a
whirlwind striking a forest and cutting a winrow through
sturdy trees.

In describing it General Longstreet said : " I moved
my troops into position for the assault with great care. I
massed five brigades in column at half distance, and sent
them forward under the leadership of Hood. In other
words, Hood led my whole force, with the exception of
Buckner's reserves, against the Federal position. I felt
great interest in winning the battle of Chickamauga. I
had promised General Lee, before leaving Virginia,
that I would do my share towards gaining a victory here,
and I never remember to have taken greater chances in
a batde than in directing this charge against Rosecrans.
He and I had graduated in the same class at West Point,
and were friends in our boyhood and early army life. He
was a good soldier and a brave man. I have read in his
report, as well as in the stories of this battle that have
been written from time to time, that my success in break-
ing his line and in driving McCook and Crittenden from
the fieM is attributed to Wood's action in withdrawing
his two brigades from the Federal line about the time I
started Hood forward to the assault."

"The success of my attack on Rosecrans did not by any
means depend upon Wood's mistake. The number of
men and the peculiar formation of the force that I sent
against the Federal line in this battle could and would
have carried any position except a strongly fortified one.
The action of his subordinates and the movement of
Wood in and out of the line may have made the victory
easier, but Rosecrans' line could never have withstood
the force of the assault I sent against it that day, no mat-
ter how well his plans had been observed or his orders
obeyed. No line of battle outside of fortifications ever

436

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

yet successfully resisted the charge of troops in such
numbers and formation. Our assaulting column was five
brigades deep, each within easy supporting distance.
Hood led them with great spirit and gallantry. If one
brigade faltered another was there to take its place. I
have been a soldier all my life; served in the Mexican
as well as in the late war, and I never yet saw a body of
soldiers not protected by fortifications that could stand
the onset of troops in formation such as Hood led against
Rosecrans* lines that September Sunday."

It was the first time ih our history as a nation that
troops in such formation had been sent against an
enemy. Hancock afterward tried it with success against
a fortified position in the angle at Spotsylvania after
Longstreet demonstrated at Chickamauga how impossible
it was for troops in the field to withstand the fury of such
an onset. Wood's action in withdrawing his force from
the line was no doubt indefensible, and other commanders
may have been to blame for defects in their line, but the
plain facts seem to be that Rosecrans had massed too
much of his force on the left under Thomas, and the
right and centre were forced to yield to the fury of such
a rush as Longstreet mnde against them. Hood, leading
five brigades of Longstreet's wing, in column by brigades
at half distance, to use a military phrase, crushed through
the Federal line shordy after noon, and beat McCook
and Crittenden before they had a chance to recover. He
followed up his advantage with great spirit, cutting the
army in two, capturing many pieces of artillery, stands of
colors and prisoners. Rosecrans, who was caught in the
wreck that flowed off the battle-field, as the Confederates
mad with the flush of success, pushed on after the demor-
alized battalions, was nearly made prisoner. He thought
he could stay the tide of defeat as he did at Murfreesboro

THE SECOND DATS FIGHT.

437

by his personal daring, but this was a different field and
here a greater peril. The more he tried to bring order
out of chaos and to rally his retreating soldiers, as the
enemy were pushing toward him, the greater the confu-
sion. It finally carried him off the field just in time to
save him from capture. He thought of making his way to
Thomas, but was so firmly caught in the debris of the bat-
tle that he found his only chance was to move with his staff
to the rear, toward Rossville, from which point he sent
word back to urge Thomas to hold on to the left if possible.

The disaster to McCook and Crittenden's corps of
Rosecrans' army was, no doubt, greatly exaggerated by
the fevered imagination of the rank and file of the shat-
tered commands. It seems to have been serious enough,
however, to be called a demoralizing defeat. Among all
the splendid officers that commanded in the two corps
that were broken not one could be found who could re-
form his lines. Sheridan did get his troops back to
Rossville in something like order, and Wilder seems to
have kept his mounted infantry in good condition, for he
secured the commendation of Thomas and the much-
coveted star for his work upon the field. His official
report furnishes a striking piece of evidence as to the
general demoralization when Longstreet cut the army in
two. It reads :

"Lieutenant-Colonel Thurston, Chief of McCook's
Staff, soon appeared, and notified me that the line to
my left was driven back and dispersed, and advised that
1 had better fall back to Lookout Mountain. I deter-
mined, however, to cut my way through and join General
Thomas, and was arranging my line for that purpose
when Charles A. Dana, Assistant Secretary of War,
came up, and said that our troops had fled in utter
panic ; that it was a worse rout than Bull Run ; that

438

LIFE OP GENERAL GRANT.

General Rosecriins was probably killed or captured, and
strongly advised me to fall back and occupy the passes
over Lookout Mountain to prevent the rebel occupancy
of them." Mr. Dana had come West representing the
V/ar Department to observe military operations on the
held. Wilder's report would seem to indicate that his
experiences here were not pleasant, while Mr. Dana fur-
nishes the best of testimony that Rosecrans was pretty
badly whipped here. The Union loss was great. The
gallant and gifted General Lytle, who wrote " I am
Dying Egypt, Dying," lost his life during the heat of
this portion of the fight.

" I caimot give a description of the field as my troops
drove McCook and Crittenden before them," General
Longs. reet said. "Those two corps were simply a
wreck. Rosecrans' whole army was saved from destruc-
tion by Bragg's failure to folkw up his advantages.
Th** fighting had been serious all the morning, but with-
out results. This break was the turning point of the
battle, and it gave us a substantial victory that Bragg
threw away by allowing Rosecrans to escape and re-
organize his army."

Rosecrans and Longstreet had been class-"iates and
friends at West Point, Longstreet had earnesdy urged
General Lee to make the campaign against his former
friend that resulted in this battle. The irony of fate was
fully exemplified in the fact that it remained for him to
first break the Federal line and to sweep Rosecrans
right and center from the field.

When Bragg planned his battle here upon the same
gauge as he did at Murfreesboro he had made no pro
visions for the changes that the tide of tlie conflict might
make in it. Therefore, Longstreet, when he had broken
the lines and swept the greater portion of Crittenden's

THE SECOND DATS FTGHT.

439

and
isses
ancy
r the
1 the
It his
la fur-
pretty
The
'1 am
leat ol

troops
jcneral

mply a
iestruc-
inta^es.
ut with-
of the
Bragg
and re-

Ltes and
y urged

former
Ifate was

him to
)secrans

le same

no pro-

ict might

broken

ttenden's

and McCook's troops through the gap in Missionary
Ridge, reversed B agg's order of battle and swung to
the right instead of the left, with the intention of en-
veloping Thomas and making the defeat of the army
complete. •

" My first thought after facing toward Thomas." said
Lono^street when speaking to me of this important phase
of the battle, " was to cease the fighting in his front,
leave a force strong enough to engage his attention,
move around to his rear, cut him off from Chattanooga,
and he would be at our mercy. I spoke of this plan to
Bragi^. He replied :

" • No, you must engage him here. I haven't a man
except yours that has any fight in him.*

"With this libel upon such ..ne soldiers as Cleburne,
Breckinridge, Cheatham, Walker and several other
generals of Polk's wing commanding in this fight he
left me. His first move seems to have been to counter-
mand my order to Wheeler to body pursue Crittenden
and McCook with his cavalry. He directed him to turn
his attention to collecting the small-arms left on the field
and driving in the stragglers. When I spoke to him
about sending the cavalry after the enemy, he said he
thought their best work was cleaning up the field."

The final move against Thomas was an important one.
He had held his position and withstood the repeated and
determined efforts of the Confederates to dislodge or
annihilate him during that entire day. Time and again,
when he was sorely pressed, he sent for reinforcements.
but they did not reach him, and for a long time after
Longstree*- had broken through the centre he was in
utter ignorance of the fate of the rest of the army. A
staff officer from one of the demoralized corps joined
him after a hazardous ride, and first told him of the dis-

440

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

aster. Still he held his ground, and fought in the des-
perate hope that some order might possibly be brought
out of the chaos and he get reinforcements. By one of
those strange accidents that ever seem inseparable from
war, his ammunition train had been sent to the rear, anj
when fresh efforts were required of his men he found
they were getting short of ammunition, and he had none
to give them.

General Gordon Granger, who was at Rossvillc with
three brigades in reserve for an emergency heard the
terrible roar of battle getting nearer and nearer as the
afternoon wore on. He was ordered to remain where
he was until sent for, but feeling there was trouble in
front, he sent Steedman forward with all possible speed
toward Thomas' position with two brigades, keeping one
at Rossville. A fresh attack had been begun upon
Thomas before Granger's troops reached the field.

Granger's two brigades reached Thomas at an oppor-
tune time. Longstreet had begun to move forward to
drive him from his position. The head of the Confederate
line, Benning's brigade, was moving through a low defile
between the hills when Granger's troops came up. Steed-
man, seeing the peril to Thomas' force if this brigade
got in, snatched the colors of a regiment and led his
brigades with a furious rush upon the Confederate ad-
vance. For a time there was a hand-to-hand conflict,
and the result hunof in the balances. At last the Con-
federate line began to waver, and finally it broke. This
movement was valuable to Thomas because it brought
him nearer to night-fall, for which he was fervendy wish-
ing. As Steedman himself expressed it : '* I .vas fightin^f
for time, but I thought the sun would never go down ; it
seemed to me as though it was hung up in the trees,"

" Steedman had but a short fight with our advance,

THE SECOND DAY'S FIGHT.

441

and his success was not important, except that It caused
a delay in the Confederate movements," continued Gen-
eral Lon<Tstreet. " We had plenty of troops to put in as
soon as vSteedman drove them back. Indeed, we were
forminc^ our whole line for a final attack while this com-
bat was going on. As soon as we could get in readiness
to advance we mov-ed forward and drove Thomas' force
from its position behind the rail defenses with compara-
tive case. We had reached the summit of the hill, almost
in sight of this point where Thomas' headquarters were,
when the gloaming thickened into the darkness, and the
Federal force melted away like a phantom.

"Just at this noment my men sent up a shout of vic-
tory, and it was taken up along the whole line and con-
tinued until the woods shook with the cheers of the men.
Cheatham, Cleburne and their commands, down on the
Lafayette road, kept up the cheering with one long con-
tinued shout. Forrest, who saw the Federals going to
the rear, went to Bragg and begged for permission to
follow the retreating army, and I sent him word that our
victory was now complete, and die fruits of it should be
rapidly gathered. He did not seem to catch the spirit of
the occasion, and as Thomas' lines faded away in the
darkness tovvird Rossville, Bragg sat down to wonder
what he had better do next.

" As devoutly as Th^/mas had wished for the sun to go
down, I asked that Sunday night for one single hour
more of daylight We would have swept Thomas from
the field, and what was simply a victory for us would
have been the destruction of the Federal army.

" Thomas was beaten, badly beaten, before the dark-
ness came and gave him a chance to slip away, and his
hanging on after the rest of the army had been driven
off is a lasting tribute to his qualities as a soldier. It

442

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

was a noble action, and his success will live in history,
as it should, as a grand accident of war."

"When I urged General Bragg to pursue and reap
the fruits of victory, he said it was too dark and danger-
ous, as the Federals had probably only withdrawn to a
new position. I visited him the morning of the 21st
about daylight, and found him still in doubt as to his
future movements. He had lost much by resting over
night, but might still have followed up his advantage with
success. He asked me what I thought he had better do.
I advised him, as he was doubtful as to the policy of fol-
lowing up Rosecrans, that he had better march toward
Nashville, threaten or destroy his line of communications
and leave the defeated army to follow him or take care
of itself. He agreed that this would be a good move, and
ordered his troops to march toward the Capitol of Ten-
nessee. The most of his command had crossed the Chick-
amauga River and was pushing toward Nashville, when
Bragg sent to me and said that he thought that it would
have a good effect upon the Southern people if it were
known that his army was marching through Chattanooga
with bands playing and banners flying in honor of the vic-
tory of Chickamauga; he, therefore, thought that he would
turn back and march upon that place. I replied that I
thought it would have a much better effect upon the South-
ern people if they knew that he was following up his
victory by a flank movement on Rosecrans, since he had
failed to crush him while his army was demoralized.

" A short time after this Bragg issued orders turning
his army toward Chattanooga, and it was not long before
he was occupying Missionary Ridge, and giving the
Federal commander an opportunity to combine all the
force he needed to attack us at a dozen different points
at the same time, if he desired, and defeat us in detail.

THE SECOND DATS FIGHT.

44)t

" It is due to the living and the dead that I should say
that General Lee was very greatly disappointed that the
result on this field was thus thrown away. He had
agreed with me that after Gettysburg there was little
hope for the Confederate cause, unless we could win a
decisive and overwhelming victory at some point. He
had finally but reluctantly abandoned his plan to move
back into Peimsylvania that fall in order to fight a great
battle in the West and try to gain the substantial success
he felt we so much needed. We won the victory here,
but reaped none of its fruits. The last chance for the
Confederacy was gone when Bragg returned toward
Chattanooga for a dress parade and then settled down
about Missionary Ridge."

This is the plain story of Chickamauga. The faithful
narrative of the war for the Union will not present the
record of a single engagement that exceeded it in the
demands it made upon the courage and endurance of the
officers and soldiers of both armies. In no single battle
of the war were the losses greater. Rosecrans lost from
his 55,000 men 16,336 in killed, wounded and missing.
Bragg in his official report made the astounding confession
that he lost two-fifths of his 70,cxx> men. His estimated
losses ar 20,950 ; nearly 40,000 men from the two armies.

General Grant was not in this ferocious clash of arms,
nor did he have aught to do with it. Yet its terrible re-
sults, the fears it bred and the intrigues and prejudices it
excited, in circles beyond his influence created new duties
and responsibilities for him. To these General Grant was
called after his campaign that opened the Mississippi,
had drawn national attention to him as a man possessing
the broadest attributes of success. Therefore, this story
of Chickamauga is important as a connecting link in the
chain of movements the result of which promoted him to
tl\e command of all the Federal armies.

*lt-

f II,

444

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Had Bragg shown the proper spirit in this campaign
it is difficult to predict how long the rebellion might have
been continued. Of course, by reason of the immense
Northern resources, the Union was bound to be eventu-
ally maintained, but the loss of life and of treasure would
unquestionably, have been vasdy greater but for the dis-
aster which befel Bragg. The most important effect of
the battle to the North was the fact it established that,
for the right conduct of the war, the armies should be
under one head. It impressed upon the authorities the
futility of a fragmentary campaign, although it was some-
time afterwards before the idea was acted upon, and
Grant was not then in the mind of the nation as the man
for general command.

I 1 lii

":v.v/x"o>

•• •• '

' A

^**

:• '. . )

CHAPTER XXVII

THE BATFLES ABOUT CHATTANOOGA.

After Chickamauga — Rosecran's removal — Thomas in command — Grant as Com-
mander of the western armies — He reaches the scene of operations after a hard
jide — A half-starved army — " The gloomiest part of my life " — Plans for relief —
rienty of rations — Preparations for the attack.

After withdrawing from the field of Chickamauga, at
the close of the second day's battle, the Army of the
Cumberland took position at the Rossville Gaps in Mis-
sionary Ridge, in the rear of the field. These were the
passes which controlled the roads to Chattanooga, the
objective of the campaign. Here the Union army
offered battle throughout the 21st of September. The
Confederates, however, did not attack. At night the
Union forces marched into Chattanooga, and on the
morning of the 2 2d its lines were firmly established
around the town. Though small bodies of Union troops
had passed into and through the city when the flanking
movement of General Rosecrans forced BrasfSf to evacu •
ate it, this was its first occupation, in a military sense,
by the Army of the Cumberland. It was both the object
and the prize of the campaign.

For years the commonly accepted theory was that
Chattanooga had been captured by General Rosecrans,
that he had marched thence in pursuit of General Bragg,
had been attacked and defeated at Chickamauga, and
driven back into Chattanooga in confusion.

Instead of this he had marched his army over three
mountain ranges and appeared far in the rear of Chat-

(446)

446

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

tanooga. Bragg was thus forced to abandon the city
and march into Georgia ; but being strongly reinforced
from Mississippi and Virginia he started back to again
interpose his army between Rosecrans and Chattanooga.
The batde of Chickamauga, which was for the posses-
sion of the roads to Chattanooga, resulted. Bragg failed
in his object, though he held the field ; Rosecrans suc-
ceeded in his because he secured the highways and passes
which controlled Chattanooga, although the issue of the
brittle had gone sadly against him.

Before noon of the 2 2d Bragg's heads of columns
appeared before that city, but the Union lines were too
well established about Rossville to justify immediate at-
tack. In addition to the protection of strong Confederate
works which Bragg had erected before his evacuation of
the place, rifle-pits and other rough field-works had
been hastily constructed by the Union forces. The
buildings outside these lines which would give shelter to
the skirmishers, or the outposts of an enemy, were fired
and destroyed. Thus was the position firmly estab-
lished.

Rosecrans' withdrawal from Lookout Mountain en-
abled Bragg to control the river line of supplies, and
seems to have determined him not to assault, but to de-
pend for final success upon the slower methods of a siege.
To aid this plan, he counted upon starvation as the most
potent factor.

In this he seemed both prudent and wise. So far as
military judgment on either side could decide, the city
could not be carried by assault. It was wisdom to conclude
that the troops which Longstreet's veterans could not
force from the unfortified ridges of Chickamauga by
most desperate and magnificent fighting could not be
driven out of their rude but substantial field-works.

THE BATTLES ABOUT CHATTANOOGA. 447

Rosecrans' army had set out on the Chickamauga
campaign with little forage, and with only twenty-five
days' rations. It reached Chattanooga with short sup-
plies. These were only slightly increased before Bragg
had closed the river, and forced the Union army to de-
pend upon what could be hauled over the sixty miles of
mountain roads from Bridgeport.

These roads were soon rendered almost impassable
by the fall rains. The team animals were so reduced,
and the time occupied in a trip so great, that the space
required for the train forage occupied half the capacity
of the wagons. It was quite impossible to supply half
rations to the army. In three weeks the men were
reduced even below that limit. Corn was taken from
the animals and given to the troops. The officers fared
worse than the men. Many ate sour pork and mouldy
bread, and at some brigade head-quarters dinners con-
sisted of cornmeal mush. Indeed, starvation seemed to
stare this gallant army in the face. Animals died by the
thousand, and those that lived were useless for real ser-
vice.

But every one who passed through this experience
knows how unjust the stories were which represented
the Army of the Cumberland as demoralized. Every
duty of troops in the face of an alert enemy was
promptly performed. Work on the fortifications was
pushed by hungry men, and it went on without halt.
Bridge and boat-building were pressed with vigor.
There was no thought of ultimate defeat in the minds
of any. The great Confederate stronghold of Chat-
tanooga, the objective of the army on two campaigns,
had been captured, and the purpose was to hold it at any
cost. There was unbounded confidence in the result,
unfaltering courage, and uncomplaining endurance.

448

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

At this juncture, while General Rosecrans was per.
fticting plans for opening the river, he was removed, and
General Thomas assigned to the command. Tiu; army
was still devoted to Rosecrans and regretted this step
against him, though it loved General Thomas, and
gloried in him as the new commander. Tiioiiias him-
self felt the injustice to Rosecrans so keenly that he
threattMied to resign, and it was with difficulty, and only
because duty overweighed his personal feelings, that he
was persuaded to reconsider his firmly expressed deter-
mination. Deep-seated prejudices at Washington,
quickened by intrigues from unexpected and supposably
friendly quarters, decided the matter, and Rosecrans was
sent to the rear.

At this juncture General Grant assumed command of
the great operations in this quarter. Immediately after
the batde of Chickamauga Halleck had ordered 1 looker,
with the Eleventh and Tw< Ah corps from the Army oi the
Potomac, to Rosecrans* relief. In seven days the head
of his columns was at Bridgeport. Ten days before
the battle of Chickamauga, Burnside had been ordered
to Rosecrans from Knoxville, but, thousfh urired in every
way, lie had utterly failed to carry out his orders. Six
days before the battle, Sherman, with troops from die
Mississippi, was ordered toward Chattanooga. But
nothing had been able to spur Burnside to action on the
one flank, and the Washington authorities had delayed
much too long in their orders for reinforcements from
the Mississippi ; but when at length a partial apprecia-
tion of the situation had taken possession of them their
actions became adequate and vigorous.

The new recrime began with General Grant command-
ing the military division of the Mississippi, and Thomas
commanding the Army of the Cumberland. Thomas

THE BATTLES ABOUT CHATTANOOGA.

449

was so designated on October 19th, and at 11 o'clock
that night Grant telegraphed him : " Hold Chattanooga
at all hazards. I will be there as soon as possible." The
reply of that grand old soldier was characteristic: "I
will hold the town until we starve." Although suffering
from a serious injury, Grant without delay started from
Louisville by rail. Arriving at Nashville he manifested
how thoroughly his mind had been engrossed with the

GENliRAL THOMAS.

details of his now widened duties by wiring Burnside at
Knoxville, " Have you tools for fortifying ? " Even the
food of the troops . laimed his attention, and on the road
he wired orders to the chief commissary to forward vege-
tables with all speed. Rosecrans, on his way north
after relief, was met at Stevenson, and in a brief inter-
view described the situation to Grant. He grasped the
salient points which needed attention with the celerity

\\\

450

LfFK OF GENERAL GRANT.

of the born ^f^(Micral. His mind seemed a map upon
which every move and obstacle was traced. At every
station where he rested for a moment he telegraphed
instructions to the important subordinates in his t^^rcat
department as he discovered some new point to ])e
reached or some new obstacle to be overcome, ihe
injury he had received in New Orleans by a fall from
his horse was still painful, and he moved about with dif-
ficulty. But his bodily infirmities did not mar the activ-
ity of his mind, and he moved into the assumption of
the greatest responsibilities yet thrown upon a Federal
commander with as perfect composure and confidence as
he had ever shown in making the simplest move in his
singular career. The weather was very bad, the roads
wretched, and sixty miles of horseback-riding lay be-
tween Bridgeport and his destination. The journey
thither was a memorable one. Rain fell in torrents.
The roads, rough at any season, were washed into deep
gullies ; but over obstacles that might have daunted a
well man Grant pushed on, being now and again lifted
from his horse and carried in the arms of his soldiers
over the most dangerous points On the night of the
23d, tired and in pain, he reached Thomas' head-
quarters.

Most of the night was spent with Thomas learnintj
the exact situation. Grant was deeply impressed with
the condition of the half-starved troops ; and it is natural
that he should at first have thought that their spirit must
be broken by their surroundings. But he knew this
indomitable army better after a few days' association and
acquaintance. The next day after his arrival active
measures to insure relief were in progress.

General Grant was very much disturbed by what he
first heard and saw at Chattanooga. Up to his death he

rilK BATTLES ABOUT CffATTANOOdA.

451

reijarcU'd his first few days in and about the beleaguered
town as the most perplexini;^ of his life. During his first
term as President he was speaking to Admiral Daniel Am-
m(Mi upon this subject, and said: "The gloomiest period
of my whole army life was just before I broke the blockade
at Chattanooga. The horses were starving and the men
were without sufficient food, yet they kept in good heart
and temper. The lack of animals and the condition of
those that still lived made it impossible for me to move
my artillery, and for the first time of my life I felt a
want of confidence in my surroundings. Until the im-

GRANTS HKAD-QUARTERS NEAR CHATTANOOGA.

portant move was made which brought in rations and
forage, I felt the gravest apprehensions as to the result."
Plans which General Rosecrans had adopted before
his removal for the opening of the river to Bridgeport,
where supplies were abundant, and which had just been
perfected by Thomas, were explained to Grant. He
promptly approved them, and orderec' their immediate
exer ition under General W. F. Smith, who had origin-
ally devised them. In three days more they had been
executed, the river line opened, the siege of Chat-
tanooga raised, and the army again had full supplies.

452

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

In order to understand this brilliant preliminary move-
ment, and to pass before the eye the scarcely parall(;led
battle pageants of the three days' fighting- before the
city, it becomes necessary to study the field.

Chattanooga at the time of the batde was a city of
about 4,000 inhabitants. It is on the south bank of the
Tennessee, and lies in a bend which opens towards the
south. The eastern and southern outskirts of the city,
through which ran the Union works, are sufficiently
elevated to command the plains and valleys in their front.
The city, now e'ktended, then stood like the stage of an
immense theatre from which the wide surroundings of
plain, the towering mountain, and the long range of
lower ridges which bounded the area of low country
were plainly visible. In a southerly direction the noted
headland of Lookout Mountain rises 1,500 feet above
the river, and though it is two miles and a quarter to its
base, and a mile farther to the foot of the precipices
which surround the siunmit, it seems to dominate both
the town and the surrounding region. From the point
of these mountain-walls nearest the city the eye on a
clear day can look into seven States. This fact, without
other description, tells of the prominence of this
mountain monarch. The narrow plateau which fonns
its summit stretches directly away from the city, so that
the sharp point of the range is presented toward the
town. The precipices which everywhere limit the
plateau are full a hundred feet in height, and from their
base the mountain slopes to the plain below are fully a
mile in descent.

Standing in the outskirts of the city and looking
eastward, Missionary Ridge rises 500 feet from the
plain. It is distant three miles from the city, and fills
the liorizon from a point near the river above the town

:•; Ki'".

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)oking
n the

k1 nils

town

0':-: ^

MAF OF CmCKAMAUGA AND CHATTANOOGA.

(453)

464

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

to where it seems to join the Lookout Range ten miles
southerly, about the battle-field of Chickamauga. Half
way between the eastern side of the city and Mis-
sionary Ridge are Orchard Knob, Indian Hill and the
adjacent low ridges, forming a natural strong line
between the main ridge and die Union works.

From the northern suburbs of the city it is nearly five
miles across the plain southeastwardly to the Rossvilk
Gap in Missionary PJdge.

From the western limits of the town the river flows
directly toward the base of Lookout, thence sweeping
under its high bluffs it nearly doubles on itself, until at
Brown's Ferry, a distance of nine miles from* the city, it
is only four miles across the neck of the bend to Chat-
tanooga. Opposite the river bluffs of Lookout is Moc-
casin Point, an elevation of equal height with these
bluffs, and from its summit the northern slope of the
mountain is everywhere visible to the base of the pali-
sades about the top.

Such is the vast natural amphitheatre within wiiioh
two armies, each in full view of the other, were to fi^ht
three battles for the mastery of this most important
stronohold of the central west.

The timber about the city and in front of the ridges
had been cut away for the use of the camps, and tlu;re
were few natural objects to obstruct the wide range of
vision from every point of the opposing lines. The
commandinof features of the whole retrion were such as
to add all that nature could give to make the approach-
ing contest one of the most remarkable in its spectacular
effects in the annals of war.

CHAPTER XXVIIl

THE BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN.

A series of splendid manoeuvres — Hooker on the Confederate flank — Moves to
Lookout Mountain — The advance up the heights — Covered by the mists of the
valley — A wonderful scene in war — The battle above the fogs — The army await
tidings from the mountain — A season of dread suspense — The messenger of

victory.

When Grant reached Chattanooga, the Army of the
Cumberland occupied the city and the worlcs in front of
it. Hoolcer, with the Eleventh and Twelfth corps, was
at Bridgeport, and along the railroad toward Nashville.
Sherman was in the region of Corinth moving east-
ward.

The first step was to open the river and obtain sup-
plies. It was well conceived and brilliantly executed.
Hooker crossed at Bridgeport to the south bank of the
river at daylight of October 27th, and at 3 p. m. had
reached Wauhatchie Valley, which runs along the west-
ern base of Lookout. At 3 o'clock the same morning
fifteen hundred men had entered pontoons at the Chat-
tanooga landing, and floated quietly under the shadows
of the northern bank past seven miles of Confederate
pickets, and, landing at daybreak on the south bank at
Brown's Ferry, had surprised the enemy's pickets and
carried the heights which commanded the ferry. A
brigade, which had marched across the narrow neck
from the city, was in waitiu'^ on the north bank. This
was ferried over, a bridge was laid, the southern heights

fortified, and, when Hooker's column arrived in the

(455)

45G

Z//^/^ OF GENERAL GRANT.

afternoon, the position was strengthened beyond the
power of the enemy to retake it. As a result, the river
was open for suppUes to within four miles of the city,
and this short gap, as has been seen, was traversed by a
road within Grant's lines.

The elation of the Union army at this success, and the
consequent pouring in of all needed supplies, was in
itself equal to heavy reinforcements. So marked was
this feeling that, ten days after opening the river. Gen-
eral Grant ordered General Thomas to attack the Con-
federate position on Missionary Ridge, without waitino-
for the arrival of Sherman, who was then at Huntsville.
It was found, however, that the artillery horses had been
so reduced that they could not effectively move the bat-
teries, and the order to attack was countermanded.

There was corresponding depression in the ranks of
the enemy. The dissatisfaction with Bragg, even before
the Union line of supplies had been wrested from him, is
well shown by the proceedings of a conference of Con-
federate officers called by President Davis a short time
before. Mr. Davis had come from Richmond, and
standing on the point of Lookout and viewing the
Union army below, had consigned it to certain over-
throw. He had then called division commanders to-
gether to soften their opposition to Bragg. His idea
seems to have been that if he should summon them to
meet him, and in the presence of General Bragg should
ask their opinions of his management, that most of them,
knowing his partiality for their commander, would com-
mit themselves to an indorsement of his acts. The
conference met one niofht at the little white farmhouse
visible from the city far up on the slope of Lookout,
and a well-known object to both armies. There were
present Mr. Davis and General Bragg, with Longstreet,

THE BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 457

Cheatham, Buckner, Breckinridge, A. P. Stewart, and
Cleburne. The President explained that he had called
those present together to ascertain their opinions of the
situation. He therefore desired to hear whether they
were satisfied with General Bragg as their com-
mander. It fell to the lot of that blunt soldier, Pat
Cleburne, as junior officer, to make first reply. He
answered promptly and plainly, to the great surprise and
chagrin of the President, that he thought General Bragg
had outlived his usefulness and should be removed.
General Longstreet indorsed this opinion. General
Buckner followed to the same effect in equally emphatic
language, and all in turn expressed similar views. Mr.
Davis adjourned the conference in haste, greatly discon-
certed that his plan of overawing the subordinate gen-
erals had signally failed. Soon after Longstreet was
sent to East Tennessee, Buckner was ordered else-
where, and Mr. Davis was from*that time the enemy of
Cleburne, and a few months later found a pretext for
severely denouncing him when, at Dalton, General
Cleburne proposed a plan of freeing all able bodied
slaves and enrolling them in the army. The above ac-
count of the conference on Lookout is given on the au-
thority of one of the most prominent officers present.
Such discontent, existing before the passage of the river
had been forced, furnishes a standard by which to meas-
ure the dissatisfaction which followed the opening of this
Union line of abundant supplies.

Still the Confederate officers did not dream that their
own position, which they might well deem impregnable,
was in any danger. They only saw that the starvation
of the Union army, which they had confidently looked
for, would not occur, and that it would not be obliged to
evacuate the place for want of supplies, in which case

|i:

458

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

.;^

they had regarded its overthrow among the mountains
as certain. They saw also that, to dislodge the Union
army and regain Chattanooga, it would ^come neces-
sary to assault the strong works of the place. It is not
strange that Bragg and his officers regarded their posi-
tion as safe against assault. Lookout Mountain was
held by two divisions. Its summit could not be scaled,
for its continuous walls of palisades assured its safety.
The long slopes of the mountain were tangled with
standing and fallen timber, strewn with immense boul-
ders, and with masses of the overhanging lecJL^es.
Through these rocks and forest obstructions lines of field-
works had been constructed half way up the mountain,
which was of itself a most formidable obstacle to a
storming pa^ty even without its artificial defences.
Heavy lines of field-works stretched eastward across
the valley from the base of Lookout to Missionary
Ridge, and thence alofig the foot of the ridge to its
northern extremity near the river. It was twelve miles
from the left of the Confederate works on the mountain
through the line just indicated to the Confederate rii^dit.
From this right the summit of the ridge was occupied
southerly to the Rossville Gap, a distance of seven
miles. The ridtje was fortified alons: its entire summit.
and a line of rifle-pits ran along its face midway between
the works at the base and those along the crest. Half
way between Missionary Ridge and the city the Con-
federates had establisli -d a strong advanced line of
field-works two miles in length. Its left rested strongly
on Orchard Knob and Indian Hill, points already men-
tioned, rising about a hundred feet from the plain. Its
right was well established behind Citico creek, a stream
which afforded excellent field defence. To defend his
position Bragg had forty-five thousand fighting nien.

THE BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 459

Such were the works which confronted the Union army,
and which General Grant proposed to take.

For his purposes he had available the Army of the
Cumberland under General George H. Thomas, which
occupied the city. General Hooker, with the Eleventh
and Twelfth corps, held Wauhatchie Valley along the
western base of Lookout, and the river about Brown's
Ferry and back to Bridgeport. General Sherman, with
the Fifteenth corps, was in march in rear of Hooker.
The troops of the latter were attached to the Army of
the Cumberland. The total of Grant's effective force
was slightly over 60,000 men.

The first plan of battle involved, as one of the early
moves an assault by Hooker on the northern slope of
Lookout, but this was changed upon the discovery that
the extremity of Missionary Ridge nearest the river was
not occupied by the enemy in force.

It was then finally decided that Hooker should remain
in Wauhatchie Valley and hold the enemy in check on
that flank, while Sherman on arrival should cross the
river to the north bank and march by roads concealed
from the view of the enemy on Lookout to North Chick-
amauga creek, which emptied into the Tennessee nearly
opposite the northern spur of Missionary Ridge.

From this point Sherman was to cross the river in
pontoons before daylight, seize the northern extremity
of the ridge and carry it thence as far as the railroad tun-
nel. The Army of the Cumberland was then to concen-
trate on its left and connect with Sherman, and, together
these forces were to move southward along the ridge
through Chattanooga valley and sweep Bragg from
his position.

The attack, according to this plan, was ordered for
Saturday, November 21st. Storms, heavy roads and

' n

460

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

successive breakings of the bridge at Brown's Ferrv pre-
vented General Sherman from reaching position at North
Chickamauga until the evening of the 23d. This neces-
sitated two postponements of the order for attack, it
also led to successive modifications of the plan of battle, re-
sulting at last in a complete change of the original plan.

In prompt adaptation to the rapidly changing features
of the situation is found one of the chief secrets of
Grant's success. The first day's battle resulted from a
reconnoissance to ascertain the truth of a report that
Bragg was withdrawing. For this purpose General
Thomas was ordered to move out of his works in front
of the city. He had become exceedingly anxious lest
the long delay after the order of battle was announced
should result in giving the enemy some knowledge of
the plan. He therefore determined to move with a force
that should impress Bragg with the idea that a battle had
begun. In fact, the move did open the battle. Moving
Sheridan's and Wood's divisions out into the plain in
front of the eastern fortifications of the city, he deployed
them toward Orchard Knob, facing the enemy's field
works, which ran as described midway between the
Union line and Missionary Ridge. Howard's corps,
which had been marched from Hooker's camp over the
bridge and into the town, to give the impression that
Sherman's troops crossing there were reinforcing the
city, was formed in rear of the left, and Baird's division
of the Army of the Cumberland in rear of the right.

The d(;ployment was so quiet a movement that the
enemy mistook it for a grand review. The Confederate
pickets leaned lazily on their muskets enjoying the scene.
The enemy's works on the heights were crowned with
spectators of this imposing parade of 20,000 soldiers
formed in full view on the plain. It was not until a

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Id with
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THE BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 461

skirmish line was suddenly thrown out from the fronts
of its solid divisions and advanced firing, followed by the
swift march of the whole mass, that the illusion was dis-
pelled, and the mighty array revealed itself as a thun-
derbolt of war. With resistless force it smote along
outposts and advanced lines, and with scarcely a break
in its magnificent lines it entered the works on the Knob
and through the plain. The enemy fought with cour-
age, but its detached forces could not hold back an army.
General Grant was delighted with his introduction t<^ the
Army of the Cumberland in fighting; trim, and, telegraph-
ing to Halleck of the result, he saul ; " \W troops moved
under fire with all the [)reciHioi\ of veteians on piratic."
Two days later, and on a largtM* scale, he saw the same
soldiers move triiunphantlv vwer the plain, with army
front and never wavering lines and solid ranks, against
the heights of Missionary Ridge. This first day's battle
gave possession of the enemy's only advanced line be-
tween the foot of the ridge and the city. It was two
miles in length, and during the night the Union troops
reversed it, protected it with artillery and made its re-
capture impossible. It was a brilliant opening of the
series of battles, and, though it involved less fighting than
the days which followed, it was in itself not only an im-
posing spectacle but a success of vast importance.

Next in the wonderful succession of battle-scenes
came Hooker's assault on Lookout Mountain.

The bridge at Brown's having broken again, and left
Osterhaus' division of Sherman's troops on the south
bank with Hooker, General Thomas obtained consent
from General Grant to make a demonstration against
Lookout. This was the second sharp departure from
the original plan. The movement was ordered for the
early morning of the 24th of November.

4G2

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

At that time Sherman was crossino^ at North Chick-
amaiiga. Soon after midnight one hundred and sixteen
pontoons filled with his troops had floated sih^ntly and
undiscovered out of the mouth of the creek and pulled
swiftly to the south bank of the Tennessee. Th(* enemy's
pickets were surprised and the landings followed rapidly.
At daylight two divisions were over and the works to
defend the bridge were well advanced.

Standing at any point of the Union lines and looking
southerly, the slopes of Lookout below the points of the
mountain were in full sight. A narrow road led over
these slopes above the river bluffs and descended on the
western side into the valley where Hooker lay. The
Confederate works were across the road, facing Hooker's
position, and extended from the river to the palisades at
the summit of the mountain a mile above. In rear of
the line of works was a farm clearing, which later in the
day revealed the battle on the mountain to the armies
about the city.

Sherman had crossed on the other flank at a point
thirteen miles away, and soon had two divisions deployed
toward Bragg's right on Missionary Ridge. The enemy's
attention was intently fixed on this threatening move-
ment, when suddenly the sound of battle under the fogs
which hunof over the mountain drew imiversal attention
to Lookout.

Hooker, under cover of the mist, had directed one
column a mile up the valley, and there, turning direcdy
against the mountain, had marched in flank till his troops
reached the base of the palisades above ; then facintf
toward the point of the mountain and moving northward
his line swept the western slope from the precipices
above to the base. In the meantime another column
well supplied with artillery was pushed close to the main

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23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 14580

(716) 872-4503

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464

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

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line of Confederate works, which faced the valley, from
which the Union lines had started. The heavy guns on
Moccasin Point, which looked from the north side of the
river upward along the northern slope of the mountain,
were manned and waited only for the opening guns of
Hooker's advance.

.The line from Wauhatchie Valley moved against the
front of the Confederate works and sharply engaged the
enemy. The guns from Moccasin Point partially enfi-
laded the Confederate right, and, as the contest became
warm, Hooker's line moving along the western slope
crushed the enemy's left flank, and with the aid of the
troops from the valley and the effective fire from the bat-
teries across the river, the enemy was driven out of his
works and pushed backward around the point of the
mountain and into full view from the; city and the plains
in front of it. All eyes in each army had long been
intently fixed on the mountain, in an attempt to fathom
the mysteries of battle which were shrouded in its fogs.
Suddenly the mists lifted and the Union line, reaching
from base to summit, was seen sweeping into view from
the western side of the mountain. The Confederate
line faced il, but was steadily retiring under the advance
of Hooker's ten thousand men and the effective shelling
from Bran nan's batteries on Moccasin Point.

At this sight which language cannot paint, the Union
army broke into unceasing cheers. Its bands, with one
accord, burst into music, and. under this wonderful in-
spiration of cheering thousands and the martial music
of a great army, those heroes on the mountain, respond-
ing with shouting that rose above the roar of their
rifles, fought on and on till the slopes of the mighty
mountain were recovered.

The summit was inaccessible on account of the pali-

THE BATTLE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 465

sades. The defending force was six brigades. The
shelter of works, and of rocks and woods was so great
that, judged by the standard of killed and wounded, the
affair scarcely arose to the dignity of a battle. But the
ground made the success achieved seem almost in-
credible, and gave the full importance of a batde to the
brilliant result It was not a •' battle above the clouds,"
as fiction relates, but a battle above the fogs.

That night the enemy withdrew from the summit of
the mountain and took position on Missionary Ridge
near Rossville.

In the afternoon, while Hooker was completing his
victory on the mountain, Sherman had advanced and
carried what had been supposed to be the northern ex-
tremity of Missionary Ridge, but finding that he had not
reached the desired point, he was obliged to wait until
the next morning to execute his appointed part of the
plan.

i i

^';ji

CHAPTER XXIX

SWEEPING MISSIONARY RIDGE.

The messenger of victory — Shifting the Confederate forces — Opening of the last
day's (ighi — The Federal dispositions — Grant and his generals on Orchard Knob
— Sherman's terrific charges — The general assault — Climbing the ridge — An in-
spiring spectacle — Success.

The third and closing day of the prolonged battle-
spectacle broke clear and calm. The camps of both
armies along the many miles of their fronts were astir
at dawn. All eyes turned upon Lookout. It was not
known as yet on the Union side, and to only a few of the
enemy, which army held the summit, and there was in-
tense anxiety to ascertain this' fact. The whole mountain
stood clearly cut against the sky, but the strongest
olasses could detect no sic^n of life aloncj the summit.
Just as the sunlight touched the highest point a small
squad of soldiers appeared there. Two armies gazed
intendy with bated breath to see what signal of triumph
or defeat this handful of men would display. As these
thousands looked, one bearing the stars and stripes
stepped out on the edge of the palisades and, showino;
its colors, waved news of victory to the Union lines and
tidings of defeat to the enemy. Fully sixty thousand
men with one accord broke into cheers, all the bands
saluted and played on, , and everywhere the cheeks of
veterans were wet with glad tears as they welcomed the
flag on the top of Lookout.

From cheers and music, enthused and nerved by both,

the Union army turned to the stern work of the day.
(466)

SWEEPING MISSIONARY RIDGE.

4G7

The two days' operations greatly simplified the situa-
tion. During the last night the six Confederate brigades
which had held Lookout withdrew through Chattanooga
Valley to Missionary Ridge, near Rossville. With them
went some other forces in the valley, and at sunrise
Bragg's whole army was concentrated on Missionary
Rid''e and in the field-works at its base, his line beinof
somcthiniif over six miles in lenijth.

Hooker followed the line of Confederate retreat from
the mountain, rebuilding bridges which had been de-
stroyed, and, driving the enemy from the works about:

MISSIONARY RIDGE FROM THE CEMF:TERY AT CHATTANOOGA.

Rossville Gap, he established himself across Missionary
Ridoe, threatenlnof Braofo-'s left.

Sherman had moved to the assault of Braofo-'s ricrht
soon after daylight. The day before, as has been seen,
he had carried what, until he occupied it, had been sup-
posed to be the north extremity of the continuous ridge.
But on reaching it, the discovery was made that a deep
valley separated this detached elevation from the main
ridge, on which Bragg had established and strongly for-
tified his riofht.

It was therefore impossible for Sherman to push his
line down to the tunnel, as was contemplated in the order

^ ji

468

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

'iff'

\ '

of battle, and he was forced to wait till daylight before
he could advance further. He moved early and with
great vigor. His lines descended to the valley wliich
lay between them and the enemy, and swarmed up the
opposite slope with the utmost courage. Under a mur-
derous fire these veterans forced their way to within a
hundred yards of the works on the crest and estabhshed
themselves. From this point, as a key, the day was
spent in a series of most heroic but unsuccessful charges.

Bragg's forces not only held the northern point of the
ridge, but there were cross ridges of sufficient length to
enable the massing of heavy forces behind the strong
works which crowned them, making the position practi-
cally impregnable from Sherman's front.

This desperate and unsuccessful fighting about the
point which Grant still held to be the pivot of the plan
of battle for the day, could be plainly seen from the cen-
tre, where Grant, Thomas, Sheridan and Granger were
gathered with their staffs. This noted company, grouped
around the commander and leader, had early taken po-
sition on Orchard Knob, which commanded a view of
the entire Confederate line. Four divisions of the Army
of the Cumberland lay in the works which ran through
Orchard Knob. Here they faced the Ridge, which was
a mile and a quarter from their front. Three brigades,
equalling one division of this army, were with Hooker,
another division had crossed with Sherman, and the entire
Eleventh corps had also been sent to him.

At 2 o'clock s?x of the thirteen divisions on the field
were operating with Sherman, and at that hour Baird was
ordered to join him from Thomas' left. But Sherman
sent word that he did not need more troops, and Baird
returned to his position. It was then 3 o'clock. Sher-
man's desperate fighting had failed to move Bragg's

DIAGRAM I.

DIAGRAMS SHOVVlNu THE POSITIONS OF THK ARMIES AT THE BATTLE

OF MISSIONARY RIDGE.

(469)

470

A/Z'/C OF GENERAL GRANT.

liil '

; rig^ht. Hooker's i^uns wcro not advancing alon^ ihc
Ridge on the enemy's left. The sun was sinkini^ toward
the \v(.'stern ranijes, and the day was passing vvidiout
final result.

Grant, therefore, quick to grasp die situation, chani:;(:(l
his plan of battle for the third time, and ordered Thomas
to move his divisions directly against Missionary Ridge.
These troops stood in line with a front of two mil(;s aiul
a half, and about a mile and a quarter from die basc^ of
the range. Johnson was on the right, Sheridan and
Wood held the ciMitre, and Baird the left,

Bragg had fifty guns on the summit, and men enough
to fill the riile-pits at the base and to line the cn;st.
Grant's directions to Thomas were to move his whole
force auainst the works at the base of the Ridi^e, and,
when carried, to reform his lines in them with a view to
carrying the top. The orders from General Thomas
which reached the left of the line, were that the move-
ment was preparatory to a general assault on the Ridge,
and that if the columns were pushed to the summit it
.would be following' his wishes. The signal for the move-
ment was to be six guns from Orchard Knob.
, Under the inspiration of two days' successes, and the
morning salute of the army to the flag on Lookout, and
chafing under the sight of Sherman's oft- repeated but
fruitless assaults, these four divisions sprang forward at
the signal along their entire front with an irresistible
force. By a gradual deployment as the columns moved,
twenty thousand men in four lines, covered by a cloud
of skirmishers, rushed at double-quick across the plain,
covering in their advance three miles of the crest. Fifty
guns rained shell upon them from the summit, and
sheeted musketry flamed in their faces as they ap-
proached the works at the base. But no earthly power

SWEEPING AflSSIONAKY RIDGE.

471

foiilil stop those vctcM'ans, and tlu; rillc-[)its were carried
ilin)iiL;lioiit their extent, eviMi •l)erorc the second Hnes
toiiKl reach theni. Tlierc was no need of lialtini; to rc-
lorin. r<^i' the Union lines were still nnbroken, and only
chcikini;' '<^ moment to take breath after their lon<j^ run
over the plain, the left centre and the left l)eii;an to storm
the KitlL;e. The rest of the line, havint^ understood the
order to be for a definite halt in the first line; of works,
stopped for a few moments, and then, foUowinc^ the con-
tagions (example on their left, also push(;d on toward the
summit. Tiie Confederates from the lower lines swarmed
up in advance of the Union trooi)s, but were followed so
closely as scarcely to allow a halt in the second line of
rillc-iHts which were established along the face of the
Rid<;(; half way to the top.

The rush over the rocks, and the tangled and broken
surface of the mountain, disarranged the storming lines,
but it seemed to be the purpose of every man to be the
lirst in the works above. 'I'he rally about the flags,
which were the constant marks of riflemen on the crest,
and the rushing forward of new men to grasp them
as color-bearer after color-bearer went down, crave a
wedge-shaped formation to every regiment. To those
who looked from the rear, the face of the Ridge for
miles was covered with these wedges of men, eacii point
marked with a flag, and each, driven by the ponderous
hammers of the battle, was cleaving a path to the smok-

mg summit.

All points about the city were crowded with spectators
of the wonderful assault. Grant and Thomas, with
many staff officers, looked on from Orchard Knob.
The heavy works about the city were dotted with artil-
lerists whose fire had ceased as the Union line ap-
proached the Confederate works. Sherman's men were

I -1 ■

472

Z/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

temporarily resting from assault on the left. The skv
was clear and every object stood out sharply defined
over the wide-extended field. Save where that storming
army was climbing intc the face of the guns, the quiet
of a beautiful autumn day rested everywhere. The
recent imposing sweep of those solid lines over the plain,
and under heavy fire, seemed but the commonplace of
battle compared with the courage of the final assault.
At no point in the long front was there either faltering
or serious check. In spite of the direct fire of many
guns, and the enfilading sweep of others pushed out on
spurs which served as natural bastions for the curtains
of the summit, the four divisions reached the crest to-
gether. Grant and Thomas counted six places where
the flags appeared simultaneously in the upper works.
Forty field guns were captured, with several thousand
prisoners. The grandest storming party of the war had
brought final victory.

The broken and fleeing enemy were pursued beyond
Ringgold, and finally took position behind Rocky Face at
Dalton, and there awaited the opening of the Adanta
campaign.

CHAPTER XXX.

GENERAL CHEATHAM S NARRATIVE.

A grnphic recital of a picturesque battle — Ikagg's mistake— The Famous Council
of War — Too much State pride — Semling Longstreet away — 'ilie battle of Look-
out Mountain — A small affair — Bringing the troops ofi' the ridge — Preparing for
the battle — A grand military display — Sherman's assault — Thomas' final victory
The " Perilous Ridge of Mission."

Perhaps the only battle of the late war that was visi-
ble to every man in the contending forces was that of
Missionary Ridge. The Union story of the spectacle
is well told in the three preceding chapters by General
H. V. Boynton. He then held a command in General
Thomas' army, and looked upon the brilliant scene
and was an actor in it. Since the war he has become a
writer of note, and he has called upon his best powers
of description in making a pen picture of the great
batde he saw and heard. Such a narrative, from such
a source, has a fitting companion in the counter story
which is here told by General B. F. Cheatham, that
sterling old warrior who was such a striking figure in the
Confederate camp and upon nearly every hard-fought
battle-field of the West.

"The battle of Missionary Ridge was one of the most
picturesque combats ever witnessed," says General
Cheatham, in speaking of that memorable engagement.
"There were no back seats in that fight. Every man
who was there on either side saw it all. On this account
more fiction has been written about it than about all the
other engagements of the war combined.

"The combat of Lookout Mountain, which preceded
it, was an insignificant affair, yet it has passed into his-

(473)

474

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

1 %*

111

a-i'

■I,

tory as one of the most fiimous l)attlcs of the kite war.
To the l^'ederals in the valley no doubt it was (|uiic
a stirrinL,'' scene, full of dramatic effects. '\\\v. sitrlu of
the soldiers contendini^ above the foL(s was a sinj.rular
spectacle to those who watch(.'d it from far below.
The Confederate position, bodi at Lookout and at
Missionary Richj^e, was a very elevated one, and military
movements on either side could be seen with L^reat
distinctness. Therefore, the operations seemed more
important to the averanrc soldier than greater contests
on other fields where the movements of troops were
more or less obstructed.

"For many reasons, then, the batUes about which you
are asking me to speak have become memorable, hi
the first place, the occupation of Mission Riilge was
one of the worst military blunders ever committed.
After Bragg had won the battle of Chickamauga, unless
he intended to follow up his advantage and crush the
Federal army, he should have returned to Dalton, or
some point to the south of him, and prepared for a tlank
movement, or some other campaign, rather than that of
settling down to the ridges about a town he had previ-
ously evacuated.

"In moving back towards Chattanooga after the
battle of Chickamauga, I marched in front by the Shal-
low Ford Road, while McLaw^s' division of Longstreet's
corps took the Rossville Pike. I reached the position
on Missionary Ridge without encountering any resist-
ance of importance. A little affair on the top of the
mountain, where two of our brigades brushed the enemy
away, was all the obstacle encountered. It was the
expectation of our army that in returning to Chatta-
nooga we were to simply bivouac for the night, and then
give battle for the possession of the town ; but instead of

GENERAL C/fEAT/IAArS NARRAT/IE. 475

that \vc settled down and allowed the enemy to recruit
his shattered battalions and brinj^ in reinforcements, and
then In-at us in detail when he j;ot ready.

" Hianj^, in lookins^ down upon the Federal forces,
sccnietl to ima<,nne that they would wait there until they
were starved into surrender. I never took any such
view of the situation and so told him. We were j^reatly
dissatisfied with this state of things, and with Braj^g'.s
I'iiiliii'e to follow up the defeat at Chickamauga and
crush Rosecrans' army. This discontent was so strong
and universal that Mr. Davis came on from Richmond
to visit our army, and look over the situation. He was
not very happy or successful in his efforts to bring about
cordial relations between Bragg and his generals.

"in the litde house on the top of the mountain where
hcad(iuarters were located, near which stands the famous
big tree, Mr. Davis called a council of war. Both house
and tree are familiar and historic objects to this day.
All the leading generals of the army were called into
council. General Bragg was present. After some pre-
liminaries we were asked for our opinions as to the
feeling of the army towards General Bragg. Also our
judgment as to his efficiency. It was a very trying posi-
tion to be placed in, but I gave it as my judgment that
he did not have the confidence of the army and should
be retired for some man who had. I think every general
at the council expressed himself with more or less decis-
ion in the same direction. Longstreet, Buckner, Breck-
inridge and Cleburne I am certain did. As may readily
be imagined, the conference was a very cold affair, and
soon broke up after this expression of opinion. The
propriety of asking our opinion of our superior officer
while he was present, was, at least, questionable.

"Shortly after that Bragg discovered that my command,

476

LTFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

composed of some eight thousand Tennesseeans, was
developing too much State pride at the expense of the
Confederacy, and he broke it up and scattered five
brigades through the army. Governor Porter, who was
then my chief of staff, and myself after that had a leave
of absence, and went South for a rest and to recruit.

"About the time we went away Longstreet's corps was
detached and sent up to East Tennessee to destroy
Burnside, Bragg'splan evidently being to wipe Burnside
out, then return Longstreet's force to Missionary Ridge
and fight at his leisure or starve the Federals into sur-
render. During the precious time he thus wasted I
was South, and only returned to my command the
day before the battle. While myself and chief of
staff were on our way to my position, we were met
by one of General Bragg' s staff officers, who asked us
to come immediately to his headquarters. We went,
and found him in a very dismal and disturbed state of
mind. He seemed much disheartened, for information
had been brought to him that Hooker had destroyed the
brigades over on Lookout Mountain, and that Stevjnson,
who occupied a still more elevated position this side on
the summit, was also in danger of capture by the enemy.
if he had not already been cut off. He asked me to go
and look over the situation, and do what was possible
in what he believed to be the crisis. He sent General
Breckinridge with me.

" Lookout Mountain was held by three brigades — one
commanded by General Walthal, of Mississippi, now-
United States Senator ; one by General Moore, and
another by General John K. Jackson, of Georgia. Ste-
venson's division of three more brigades was this side
of Lookout, on the summit of the mountain, and when 1
got over there I found out that they had not been en-

GENERAL CHEATHAM'S NARRATIVE.

477

oaged at all, and were in no danger whatever. The
battle of Lookout Mountain, therefore, was confined to
Hooker's assault upon the three brigades first mentioned,
and its only result was to retire them beyond the face of
Lookout and to capture about eight hundred of Wal-
thal's brigade without fault on the part of that gallant
soldier. The officer who commanded the right had been
careless and had allowed Hooker to get in on his flank.

" Before we arrived, Walthal had made his position
secure, but to test the matter Canty's brigade was put
in on the right and the entire force pushed forward.
Hooker was driven behind the point of Lookout Moun-
tain, and we withdrew our forces at leisure and started
them down to Missionary Ridge. At the same time
Stevenson's command was withdrawn from the summit,
the bridges across Lookout Creek were destroyed, and
we took our position on the Ridge, This is all there
was of the battle of Lookout.

" When this had been accomplished it was not too late
for Bragg to have repaired the blunder he had m^de in
occupying his present position. If then he had with-
drawn his command and gone back to Georgia, as he
did after the battle the next day, he would have saved
his army from defeat, and have been in condition to ac-
complish something. Every one else seemed to see
this situation but Bragg, who was acting entirely on his
own judgment.

" We perfectly well knew that Grant was there with
plenty of supplies and heavy reinforcements with Sher-
man at their head, and was ready to attack in the morn-
ing. Nearly every day that our forces rested there we
were getting weaker, while Grant was getting stronger.
Longstreet was away in East Tennessee, and we were
in no condition either to give or to stand battle, and it

478

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

was a surprise to every one that Bragg should Iva^P
waited for an engagement there, as but one result could
be counted upon.

" The story of the battle of Missionary Ridge, whidi
occurred the day following my experience on Lookout,
can be easily told. As I said before, it was all under the
eye. On one of those peculiarly bright^ pleasant days,
when the atmosphere is rare and objects seem much
nearer than they really are it was fought. Hardee's
corps occupied the right of the line, composed of Cle-
burne's and my divisions. A. P. Stewart's corps was
immediately on my left and Breckinridge was with him.
Bragg's dispositions for the battle were bad. Contrary
to all military rules for he had posted far below the
main force a strong picket force, with instructions not
to yield except to a line of batde. When the Federals
advanced they came, of course, in regular battle array.
Our skirmish line could m.ake no impression upon them,
and when the shock came had as much difficulty in get-
ting back to us as the Federals had in getting up to us.
This blunder cost us many men in killed, wounded and
captured.

''As I said before, the morning was bright and beauti-
ful, and the movements of the Federal troops in the
valley made a magnificent scene. Their colors Avere
flying, bands playing and muskets gleaming. The m^n
were manoeuvred as though going out for inspection and
moved with spirit and style as though on review. Every
motion of the troops could be seen. As they advc'nced
to the attack the color of their eyes and hair, and almost
the expressions of their countenances, could be discerned.

'* Grant's first stroke was to move out his forces, and
seize one or two mportant points for his ardllery. He
first advanced S erman to attack our right, where Cle-

GENERAL CHEATHAM'S NARRATIVE.

479

burne was posted. Never before did I witness such a
magnificent military display as Sherman's advance that
day. The men were in perfect condition, and went to
their work with the precision of a well-ordered machine,
and with all the pomp, show and glare of an admirably-
equipped army. The fiction that this movement on the
morning of the battle was thought by us to be a grand
review is amusing. No officer who knew anything of
war stood on that ridge and looked down upon that
array of soldiers advancing towards us \/ithout fully
understanding that combat was intended.

" Bragg, as he observed that the right was to be
assaulted, instantly transferred a large part of his force
to Cleburne, so that by the time Sherman made his rush
up the ascent Cleburne was commanding about half of
our whole force. Porter, my chief of staff, with a
field glass watching our artillery fire against Sherman's
advancing column, cried out to me :

" ' General, when a shot ploughs through their lines it
closes up again just as a gate flies to upon its hinges ! '

"Sherman's assault was splendidly planned and most
vigorously made, but time and again it failed. He could
only get so far, and then his troops recoiled under the
terrific fire from Cleburne's force and the difficulty of
reaching his position. My command was near the centre,
and all this passed before my eyes as plainly as I ever
saw anything in my life.

" While Sherman was opening the fight and failing to
make any impression upon Cleburne, Thomas lay
direcdy in front of us in the valley, with his army corps
ready for the spring. At last, finding that Sherman
could not disturb Cleburne, Thomas was put in motion
and came forward to attack Stewart on my left. He
came as Sherman did, in splendid order, his onset being

480

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

surrounded by all the magnificent military style which
so characterized Sherman's advance. He struck Deas'
Alabama brigade, which broke before his assault. The
whole left of our line, which had been weakened to resist
Sherman's attack, melted away under Thomas' assault,
and before the sun went down the battle of Missionary
Ridge was practically over.

" Bragg first withdrew the left of the line and started
it towards Georgia, instructing Hardee to withdraw Cle-
burne as soon as possible. Finally, when Stewart and
Breckinridge were well under way, Cleburne was with-
drawn, leaving my command of less than 5000 men to
hold on and move away under cover of the darkness.
I changed the front of my division on the ridge, which
compelled the Federals to change their line of battle.
Two or three times they made unsuccessful attempts
to drive us off. I was so situated upon a high ridge
that they could not flank me, and the ascent was too
steep and difficult for the men to climb. Two or
three times I made an effort to drive them off, and then
they would try to drive me off. So the combat con-
tinued back and forth for some time.

" I only had Walthal's Mississippi, Moore's Alabama
and Vaughan's Tennessee brigades with me. There
were five general officers in that little knot to command
those three brigades, from Hardee, who was Lieutenant-
General, down to the brigadiers. We held our position
until darkness came on and made it possible for us to
retire at our leisure.

"The withdrawal of my command ended the batrie of
Missionary Ridge. We marched back to Chickamauga
Station that night and bivouacked, and the next morning
started for Dalton, Ga., where we remained for the rest,
of the winter."

CHAPTER XXXI.

CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON.

After Chattanooga — Political Generals — Grant's popularity in the country — The
temptation of the Presidency — The relief of Knoxville — The Meridian raid —
Made Lieutenant-General — The correspondence between Grant and Sherman-
Grant's arrival in Washington.

The successes about Chattanooga made the anti-climax
in General Grant's career. 'They centered the gaze of the
country upon him to a greater degree than ever before.
They were an evidence of his comprehensive judgment that
was eminently effective. Against the disfavor of the
authorities, in the face of what seemed certain defeat, he
had, by the exercise of the calm yet venturesome sagacity
which now became recognized as the spirit of his opera-
tions, turned humiliation into exultation, and depression
into the greatest enthusiasm. And, when this was
followed by the relief of Knoxville and the extension
of the line of operations under Sherman towards Mobile,
the confidence of the nation in his military genius became
general and determined.

It was at this time that he was offered an opportunity
to show the singleness of purpose which was the distin-
guishing characteristic of his life. He had always been
ready to act immediately upon the orders of his supe-
riors. When they tended to humiliate him he was quietly
indifferent to the intent. Apparently his pride could be
neither hurt nor inflated. It was of the honest, manly
sort which concentrated itself upon his duties, and if he
felt satisfied with himself that was enough for him. Ficti-
tious and ephemeral slights did not in the least ruffle his
2F 481

ii 1

482

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

II '

placid equanimity. He tried to mould things as seemed
to him best, and was content to leave the results to tlie
judgments of time.

He had always felt a contempt for " political Generals."
His experience in the army had taught him that the pos-
session of political influence did not carry military sagacity
with it. He believed that promotion should be obtained
by hovering about the enemy instead of about Washinjr.
ton. He felt that a man could not be a soldier and a
politician at the same time. Before the country lay the
gigantic task of subduing a giorantic enemy. To this task
must be brought all the alertness, sagacity, patience and
concentration of which those in charge of the armies were
capable. A modification of plan, or a hesitancy of action,
for the purpose of catching the fleeting popular senti
ment of a people who were primarily ignorant of war, he
knew would be dangerous, if not fatal. He had seen the
bad effects of such a course in the past, and he was very
impatient of it. He believed that both eyes should be
concentrated on the work to be done. He knew that it
could not be done well if one eye only was on the foe
while the other was turned in anxious guze for the ap-
plause of the galleries.

Nevertheless, after Chattanooga, his name became very
frequently mentioned in connection with the Republican
nomination for the Presidency. The enemies of Mr.
Lincoln did not want him renominated, but they knew
that some man must be chosen who had been closely
connected with the great struggle, and in whom the
country trusted. The only man fit for their purpose was
Grant, and toward him they turned with their offering.
It did not cross their minds that he would refuse
to be the tool of their dislikes and ambitions. The
reward offered was glittering enough to dazzle the eyes

CHATTANOOGA TO WASHINGTON.

48i

of any man, and it seemed incredible that a soldier who
had almost risen from the ranks should decline it. Yet
decline it he did, and in a way so quiet and determined that
they saw he could not be used for their purposes. Tersely
and strongly he wrote to Admiral Ammen the remark-
able letter here produced iny^^ simile. In it he said : " I
have always thought the most slavish life any man could
lead was that of a politician. Besides, I do not believe
that any man can be successful as a soldier while he has
an anchor ahead for other advancement. . . . My only
desire will be, as it always has been, to whip out the
rebellion in the shortest way possible." This was straight
and to the point, and it was meant. The cabal was forced
to look for another candidate. Grant would not be their
weapon.

This was written three weeks before Grant was called
to the national capital to become the legitimate successor
of Washington as Lieutenant-General of the army. While
the plotting had been going on he had been quietly en-
gaged in following up the victory at Chattanooga and in
finishing up his campaign in the clean, thorough way
characteristic of him. Burnside was penned in Knoxville
and Longstreet was besieging him. The army of invest-
ment was confident and the national iioldiers, while main-
taining an intelligent and courageous defense, felt that
without succor they must succumb. Grant's first care
after the defeat of Braofof was to save Burnside, and three
columns were ordered to the rescue. Sherman had
charge of the main column, and although his soldiers were
worn out with much fighting and marching he pushed
them forward with his nervous characteristic energy.
One of Grant's dispatches containing information of the
expedition of relief had been purposely allowed to fall
into the hands of the enemy, and Longstreet determined

■i

484

t .1

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Sv V

M ^i

K *>■

485

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486

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489

i'' .:::.■ 2.^- i!\-j^'^^^\

R32

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

came himself and .^^iav^ the order to attack. I moved
out quickly, formed across Sedgwick's flank, and made
what some New York paper, i think the Herald, desio-
nated as 'a most hellish attack.' I struck Sedgwick
with all the force and vigor I could, capturing Generals
Shaler and Seymour, a great number of prisoners, and
broke the Sixth corps to pieces just as darkness put an
end to the conflict. If I had been allowed to make the
samo move in the morning I am satisfied that we should
have inflicted a great disaster upon General Grant's
army. The plan was to have each of our divisions, as
my movement should clear their front, wheel into the
column of attack, thus giving to the onset, as we swept
down Grant's flank, an increasing volume too strong to
be resisted. But, as I have said, when I was through
with Sedgwick, night put an end to the assault. It was
a great victory as far as it went, but it stooped far short
of what it might have been. It put an end to the
struggle anci changed the plans of both generals.

"All night long and early on the morning of the 7th I
was constantly getting reports of General Grant's re-
treat across the Rapidan. The same morning General
Lee came to my head-quarters and we rode over th(
field together. While we were looking at the situation
of the troops and the results of the previous night's
fighting, I said:

•' ' General Lee, how much has General Grant been
hurt on other portions of the line ? '

" ' Not very seriously,' was his reply.

•' • My scouts,' said I, ' report General Grant as re-

GORDON ON THE WILDERNESS.

533

moved
d made
i, desig-
edgwick
Generals
ers, and
1 put an
lake the
e should

Grant's
sions, as

into the
fc swept
trong to

through
It was

far short
to the

the 7th I

ant's re-
General
lover the

situation
; night's

int been

It as re-

was a man of very few worHs. Presently I renewed the
conversation, saying:

" * You say, general, your scouts report General Grant
as moving back.'

" ' Yes,' was his only response.

"'Well,' said I, 'mine make the same report. What
do you think of it ? '

" • General Grant is not moving back,' he replied.

'"Why do you think so, general ? ' said I.

" • General Grant ought not to move back, and I am
so jertain that he is not going to and that this move-
ment from the field is a mere feint, that I have had a
short road cut from this point to Spottsylvania Court-
House, to which point I think he will move next, and
you will get your command immediately in readiness
and move by that road to-night,' was his reply.

" In accordance with this order I advanced on the 7th
at dark by this newly-cut road. Very soon after reaching
Spottsylvania, the next morning, the fighting began with
Grant's advance. This demonstrated that General Lee,
who was a great military genius, knew Grant too well to
believe that he was going to abandon his purpose to take
Richmond. Anderson reached Spottsylvania before I
did and he had the same experience, except that he be-
gan the fight with Grant's advance. He had been or-
dered to bivouac and move on the morning of the 8th,
but, the woods being on fire, he started early on the
night of the 7th and beat Grant's troops into the Court-
House. Rodes, if I mistake not, was also there when

mv trr»r»r»c ctr\t \\r\ nx\A all

hr^tl

" t^r\, r>,tt€^

^ -' ^^ '

534

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

■I-!'

•• It is certain, I think, that this was General Lee's
opinion of Grant. I never heard General Lee com-
ment upon General Grant. He never did upon any-
body. But there were some commanders in the Union
army that General Lt^e did not seem to have a very
high opinion of. When they were in control of the
troops on the other side he would expose his flanks and
move around in almost any direction and in a most caro
less manner. He never did that after Grant took com
mand. He may have gathered his opinion of General
Grant's character and capacity by studying his opera-
tions in the West. It was frequently remarked by the
Confederate generals who were commanding the corps
of Lee's army, that when General Grant came East Gen-
eral Lee began a series of movements, inspections of
his position, and operated with a great deal more care
than had been his habit ; for, with all his reputation for
caution, General Lee was a very daring man. It is im-
possible to get General Lee's estimate of General
Grant except from such circumstances as I have recited,
and this furnishes a more striking evidence of his view
of the Union commander than any other circumstance
of which I have any knowledge.

fc*% ^^*^1«r %ir>^f»t^'\ r\c^ r\ f* f^^ f\w>r\

TK.

Y^.''"

al Lee's
.ee com-
)on any-
le Union
z a very
►1 of the
anks and
lOst carf>
Dok corn-
General
IS opera-
d by the
le corps
ast Gen-
ctions of
ore care
ation for
It is im-
General
e recited,
his view
instance

; from a
as near
;rness as
vantages
iking the
id at the
t the ht-

GORDON ON THE WILDERNESS.

5a5

the same relative conditions and in about the same spirit
for a renewal of hostilities.

"The Confederate army, when we entered that cam-
pai^^n, was in the highest spirits. The year previous we
had gained some important victories, which left our army
in superb fighting trim. We were better supplied with
rations, the men were in fine health and as full of ardor
at the close of the Wilderness battle as they were when
Grant crossed the Raoidan to the attack with '<?> fine an
army as was ever gathered. Nor do I think it probable
that cither General Grant or his troops were discouraged
b) the drawn combat in the woods. Both armies marched
to their new positi^ i at Spottsylvania Court-House,
after two days of fignting, as eager for batde as when
thev entered the Wilderness. General Grant's forces
had evidendy been improved by the fact that had been
made manifest to them in the Wilderness, that they were
now under a commander who had that high degree of
moral courage, as well as the tenacity, to follow his p'an
of campaign without flinching — qualities so necessary to
success."

The famous Confederate general's estimate of the
situation prior to Spottsylvania is a correct one. While
both Union troops and Confederate troops had learned
to place their opponents upon a somewhat higher plane,
neither were discouraged by he results of the Wilder-
ness fight. It had been a hard and close struggle : it
had been attended with great loss of life ; and yet it
broui^ht discouraofement to neither side. Hard as the
conflict had been, there had been gained no decisive

686

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

a price. Lee's audacity in the forward movement had
met with great opposition and it had partially succecckxl ;
but, after ail, the final result was, for the men, only a
mutual respect for each other's fighting qualities. Thfy
had made the test, hand to hand and foot to foot. Thry
had discovered that American mettle was as good no
matter on which side of the line it had been product^d.
Each felt that the final task would be the greater because
of the experience in the Wilderness.

This battle will always be unique in war history. It
will always be a cause for discussion among those who
will be future authorities on military matters. The final
judgment will probably be that it was born of shrewd
desperation on one side in a fierce struggle against tlie
inevitable.

:>.^v

CHAPTER XXXV

It
/ho
inal
iwd

tlie

OUT OF THE WILDKKNESS.

Lee foiled — The army satisfied with Grant — Mank march to S|)ottsylvania — War-
ren's night march — Miscarriage of plans — Grant's juactised ear — Pulling his army
liirouj^h itself — Sheridan's tight at Todd's tavern — llutlcr lands at City Point —
Still " On tt) Richmond."

TiiK Union scouts who went over the battle-field of
the Wilderness, Saturday, May 7th, returned with the
report that the enemy had retired. Attacked, driven
back at points, and in the end foiled, Lee had failed to
pick up the gauntlet thrown down by his new opponent,
three days before.

The army still lay facing toward Richmond, and when
Grant and his staff, between Saturday and Sunday, rode
through the bivouacs of the Second corps to fix his head-
quarters farther along on the road towards the enemy's
capital, the sleeping regiments rose from their fires to
follow him with their cheers.

Officers as well s men had but a very few days before
received him coldly, and •there was apparent a bit of
jealousy, that a Western man should be put over the tried
and trained officers of one of the proudest armies that
was ever marshalled. To be sure, its successes had not
been numerous, or its rewards great, but every man
believed implicitly in its courage and ability as well as

538

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

It again.

So too it never lost faith in its general, and
as each one failed the earnest men transferred their hope
and confidence to the next appointed to lead them.

The first two days' fight under the lieutenant-general
had served to change the tinge of disappointment, that
was manifest when he assumed command, to one of ap-
probation, if not of real satisfaction. The delicate move-
ment had begun which told both officers and men that
the army was now to go forward rather than backward.
Then the weary men notified the new commander of
their impression of him in unstinted applause. As he
turned his horse toward the Confederate capital, the
huzzahs of the Second corps were taken up along the
whole line, until the cheers of the Union men were an-
swered by the thunder of the enemy's guns.

In the movements which were to culminate in the
charge at Spottsylvania, Grant had determined lo
reverse the wings of the army. Warren, at the Wilder-
ness, was in the advance and at first on the extreme right.
At Spottsylvania he was on the left, and Hancock was on
the right. The Army of the Potomac, in short, was
pulled within itself, as a stocking is reversed by pulling
it through from the toe. While the movements of Sat-
urday and Sunday were in progress, the troops lay spread
in converging lines moving toward Spottsylvania, with
the outposts of the Second corps, drawn from General
Barlow's division, facing the rear toward the point from
which the enemy was expected. The duty had its special
peril and responsibility. The dispositions were made,
and, just at nightfall. Colonel Beaver, who was corps

officer of tV>f» Hav If'ft- hie r>iifnr>gfo onri r-r^Ac^ ¥r^ T-ror./.^^lL^

FiyjBVBTFWITT'^ ■

-r— -•— — r"

— WCS^"

'al, and
;ir hope
m.

general
:nt, that
I of ap-
e move-
len that
ckward.
nder of
As he
ital, the
)no- the
:vA-<' an-

in the
Ined 10
Iwikler-
ie right.
was OP
^rt, was

of Sat-

spread
lia, with

reneral
Int from

special
made,
Is corps

640

LIFE OF GENRRAL GRANT.

"Stuart, whose cavalry was spread out before Karly's
advance, preparini»; the way for it, had just reachrd the
picket lines of the Second corps as I rode up. l^'urioiis
liring began and the group quickly scattered. Ciencral
Hancock, with the quick imjMilse of a commander who
pushed to the front when fighting began, made ready
to ride forward. The head-quarters were all astir with
the excitement of what might be coming battle. Tlie
moment was one of all others which Lee might take
to fling his army on the exposed Second corps. Of
all the group. General Cirant was the only man un-
moved. The little incident was, in its way, an apt
comment on the wide difference between the habitual
impulses of the brilliant corps commander, and the
cool thinking of a man, chief in the art as well as the
onset of war.

" * Hold on, Hancock,' said General Grant, in that •
quiet, inflectionless tone which in every moment of ex-
citement steadied the nerves of men about him.and now
stopped the stir as he sat quietly at the foot of a tree
smokinsf.

"Listening, without moving, he said, 'That firing is
only on one side. There is nothing in it. It is simply
a ruse to conceal some movement'

"The practised ear of Grant, the extraordinary skill
with which he measured distances and interpreted the
rolling thunders of battle, I found well demonstrated
when I regained the picket line. He had accurat(;Iy
judged aright the distant firing which came rumbling
across the tree-tops from the picket line, up to the high

wi 1 r% r\ ^x*% ««v n « j^W ^1^ *-fc ^^^^ — »«^*-» r% r%.0^ rA ^^ « » ^* *■

^^^— " -*» ^**.*^ t^

■•^-U-J »»

OUT OF THE W/LDERNF.SS.

541

that •
3f ex-
now
tree

ing is
imply

skill
d the

|:rated
ratcly
ibling
2 high

falling into line and following the advancing army, each
corps marching in the rear of those left on the line,
drawing in their pickets as they departed. It was
(irant's intention to seize all the strong positions about
Si)ottsylvania, and Hancock was to follow Warren along
the Brock road. Sedgwick and lUirnside were to go
by the way of Chancellorsville and Piney Branch church,
while Sheridan was to look out for the exposed flank of
tin; moving army.

The two armies moved almost simultaneously. The
route Grant took to Spottsylvania lay through a stretch
of wild country for something more than fifteen miles.
The Confederate line of march to that place being
tonsid(;rably shorter, there must have been something
the matter with Lee's information, for on the 8th he
directed Karly, who had been placed in command of
Hill's corps, "to move by Todd's tavern," along the
iirock road to Spottsylvania Court- House, as soon as
his front was clear of the enemy. Then he telegraphed
to Richmond that Grant had abandoned his position and
was moving off toward Fredericksburg. He also notified
his Government that his advance was at Spottsylvania.
(Irant's plan was to take possession of all the strong posi-
tions about the Court-House before Lee could discover
his purpose. Sheridan's bout with Stuart Saturday after-
noon, as well as Anderson's hasty move by night to Spott-
sylvania, where he had been directed to march in the morn-
ing, thwarted his plans and imposed upon him the neces-
sity of quickly devising some new movement against his
able and stubborn adversary. This is the view Lee's de-

542

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

he would move to Spottsylvania, and that very night
ordered Gordon to move to that point and intercept
him.

The accid(-'nts of the night had been numerous.
Sheridan's cavalry had been marching and fighting con
tinuously for several days, and only closed the en^aoc-
ment at Todd's tavern on the evening of the 7th after
dark. Then orders were given for its advanct; at
daylight, Wilson to take the PVedericksburg road and
occupy the Court-House, Gregg and Merritt were also
to move at dawn, crossing the river Po ; thus securing
possession of the bridges over the TJy and Po, and
taking possession of all the avenues of approach to
Spottsylvania. But, before Sheridan's orders reached
his division commanders, Meade had at midnight sent
Gregg and Merritt, whose camp he had come upon at
Todd's tavern, in different directions, and, when Wilson,
reaching the Ny, took possession •" the bridge and
moved on to make his junction with Merritt and Gregg
at Snell's bridge, he was disturbed by heavy firing
towards Todd's tavern, and soon found himself behind
Confederate infantry. Meanwhile, Gregg was watching
the cross-roads at Parker's store, and Merritt was tangled
up with Warren's advance along the Brock road. This
unfortunate miscarriage of plans left all the approaches
to Spottsylvania open to the Confederateb, and they
crossed the Po without opposition.

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS.

543

ni^ht
erccpt

leroiis.
g con
n-aue-

h alter
icti at
ul and
re also
curini^r

o, and
ach to
eachcd
It sent
M^w at
'ilhon,
ti and

firint:^
3ehind
tchinj^-
aiii^dt'd

'rhis

oaches
1 they

ht and
)rdon's
(jreat

real situation was reported to him, he ordered a part ol
Sc<Iij^\vick's command to Wiirren's support, and finally
the whole Sixth corps, with tht* hopt; of destroying
Anderson before reinforcements could come up. There
was delay getting the troops in position, and, although
late in the afternoon there was some severe fighting, no
important results were secured, and at nightfall Lee had
(^rasped Grant's intentions, oncentratcd his army around
Spottsylvania, and tlie desperate difficulties of the W'ililer-
ness were again before the Federal commander.

Twas the afternoon of the 7th of May when (irant or-
ilered the movement that brought him about Spottsylva-
nia. But a few hours before a message from Washington
had brought intelligence that General Butler had landed
his whole force at City Point, and that General Sherman
expected to engage Johnston in the Southwest that very
day. The report that the enemy had entirely disap-
peared from his front, as well as the intelligence of
Butler's success, were the moving causes of the order for
the night's march to Spottsylvania. Sheridan's fight at
Todd's tavern in the afternoon was to open a road for
Warren's corps ; which was to take the advance, as in the
Wilderness, and it took up the line of march toward
the new position as soon as the mantle of darkness had
settled over the scene of the last three days' fighting.

It was still later when Grant reached the Brock road,
where Hancock's weary men lay. With difficulty he
picked his way among the troops whose fighting quali-
ties had so impressetl him, and who had so suddenly
shown their appreciation of his determination to "on to

T):, ,1 1 >>

CHAPTER XXXVI

AT SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT-HOUSE.

Nearer Richmond — Playing for position — Position of the two armieii before the
fight — Sedgwick's death — Crossing the Po — General Barlow's division in danger
— Turning the enemy's flanit — Hancock's description of the withdrawal— Upton'i
gallantry — Failure of Warren's and Wright's attack — (Irnnt nnd Meade review
the onset — (irant's disap|iointment — Magnificent manoeuvring — Grant'K clelermi
nation — " 1 profio^e to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."

So it happened that the Army of the Potomac had
failed, when the movements which began on Saturday
night were over, to occupy the favorable positions about
Spottsylvania. Instead, it had forced Lee from his first
position, brought him nearer Richmond, and lay an irreg-
ular crescent, about the heights around the cross-roads at
the court-house, which Stuart seized on Saturday, and Gor-
don and Anderson, of Ewell's corps, had filled with their
troops the next day. Early, at the other ond of Lee s
army, had later been swung, by the position of Hancock's
corps, from the ridge road, which ran north of the Po, to
the roads running on the ridge south, and the broad flat
plain, through which this sluggish stream ran, lay debat-
able ground between the two armies up to a wooden
bridge, where the Po turned .j flow around the heij^dits
of Spottsylvania. The bridge was held by the Confed-
erates in force, as one of the approaches to their posi-
tion. In short, two commas, mutually inverted, (o) would
give rudely the shape of the two armies. The lower

'« before the
nn ill ilanpcr
/a\ — Upton'i
caclc review
lU's (letermi-

ac had
Saturday
Ins about
his first
|an irreg-
roads at
.ncl Gor-
ith their
lot L(;e's
lancock's
ne Po, to
Iroacl fiat
,y debat-
wooden
hei^dits
Con fed-
lei r posi-
) would

.4 7' SPOTTSYLVANIA COURTHOUSE. MS

of the land was most unfavorable for a battle-field.
Lee's army occupied an elevated [)osition on the crest
of a ridge, well protected by earthworks and abatis.
Tlie country all about was heavily wooded, with here
and there a piece of low land between the two forces,
well protected with artillery. Heavy growth of tangled
underbrush added to the obstacles which lay before the
Federal approach, and in a greater degree than in the
Wilderness gave the Confederates the advantages of
position.

Monday, May 9th, was a most important day in the
history of thfj Army of the Potomac, and a deep black
line will ever be drawn around the page of history that
tells of that day's sad work. To be sure, the fighting
was not anything like as severe as that which had taken
place or was yet to come; but one man died from a gun-
shot wound whose taking off Grant felt cost him the
force of a division of his army. The work of strength-
ening the general position of the force was going on.
General John Sedgwick was with his staff along the
front of his line superintending the posting of some ar-
tillery. Now and then a stray shot from the rifle of a
sharpshooter whizzed through the air, causing some of
the men near him to shrink from the danger. He made
liglit of their fears, and with the exclamation still on his
lips, •' They can't hit an c lephant at this distance," the
bullet of a sharpshooter struck him just below the eye
on the left side of his face, killing him instantly. He
was raised up by tender hands, and with a smile upon
his countenance, discolored with lilond uuu_^a««iiik

504

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

occupation to a larger number of Federal troops than
between the James and the Potomac.

It was within easy reach of the sensitive Southern
frontier of the United States. On its extreme border
stood the city of Washington, for the protection of which
the Federal government considered no sacrifice too great.
As long as we threatened that border there would be a
concentration of the enemy's troops in its defense which
would prevent any formidable movement in other direc-
tions. We could best secure immunity from invasion
for vast stretches of Southern territory by making no
attempt of any kind to protect them. We were com-
pelled to concentrate our strength, but we also compelled
the enemy to concentrate his at the same time.

It must be remembered that the resources of the Fed-
eral government greatly exceeded those ot the Confed-
eracy. They could be lavish with that which we had to
economize. Great armies gathered along our frontier.
Nimble gunboats and powerful iron-clads swarmed in our
rivers and along our coasts. Every part of the South
felt itself exposed and in peril.

It was manifestly impossible for the Confederacy to
oppose this vast force at every point which might be as-
sailed. The fatal consequences of such an attempt had
been demonstrated as soon as military operations had
begun in 1862. Kentucky and a great part of Tennes-
see were quickly overrun. Missouri was practically lost,
New Orleans fell and General Johnston was obliged to
retire from Northern Virginia, while strong expeditions of
the enemy succeeded in establishing themselves along
our Atlantic coast. The Confederates had some troops
everywhere but not enough anywhere.

It was after this that the sensitiveness which was felt
in the North about the safety of Washington was fully

THE STRATEGIC VALUE OF RICHMOND. 505

utilized. The precautions taken for the defense of the
Federal capital were always in proportion to the anxiety
of the authorities concerning it rather than to the actual
danger of losing it. The presence of General Johnston's
army at Manassas detained that of General Mc Clellan,
nearly three times as strong, at Washington during the
autumn and winter of 1861-62. When Jackson, with a
small force, drove Banks across the Potomac, Mc Dowell
was called from Fredericksburg to oppose him and Mc
Clellan was deprived of the co-operation of that army in
his proposed attack upon Richmond. From this time
forward we availed ourselves of this trepidation about
the Federal capital, and this will be found to be a marked
feature of the operations of the Army of Northern Virr
ginia under the command of General Lee.

He resorted to this plan to compel General McClellan
to withdraw from the James after he had been dislodged
from the Chickahominy. Generals Jackson and Hill
were sent against Pope, and General Burnside, who had
been recalled to assist Mc Clellan, was forced to go to
Fredericksburg to co-operate with Pope in resisting the
Confederate advance. At the same time the troops of
D. H. Hill, which had been stationed south of the James
River, were drawn to Richmond with such forces as the
withdrawal of Burnside from North Carolina had made
available, with orders to follow the main body Northward
as soon as Mc Clellan was recalled. This completed
the concentration of the Confederate troops which re-
sulted in the formation of the powerful Army of Northern
Virginia.

The results anticipated came in rapid sequence. Mc
Clellan's army was brought to reinforce Pope ; troops
were taken from the coast of Carolina and from West
Virginia to aid in defending the Federal capital, and it

506

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

became evident that a Confederate army could not render
more efficient service and afford more complete protec-
tion to the country than by arousing the apprehensions
of the authorities at Washington for the safety of that
city.

The conclusion was a good one, for the e-xlreme sen-
sitiveness of the Federal authorities as to the safety of
Washington was of immense advantage to our cause.
It was this very sentiment, which was too strong to be
resisted, that no doubt compelled the plan of campaign
that General Grant began when he crossed the Rapidan
and continued to the end. Any other movement that he
might have made would have probably been disturbed by the
popular clamor about the safety of the national capital.

But when the presence of our army in Northern
Virginia was of advantage in many ways, it is apparent
that to enable that army to accomplish its object it needed
all the strength the Confederacy could give it. It was
near the Northern border, in the continual presence of
all the Union armies, and constantly exposed to the
attack of superior numbers. It had a gigantic task im-
posed upon it, yet valuable as Northern Virginia was to
the Confederacy, its possession came to depend entirely
upon our ability to defend Richmond. Here were estab-
lished the depots and arsenals of the army. Through
Richmond it had the chief means of access to sources of
supply further South. With Richmond, in the Federal
hands, the army on the Northern frontier could not liave
maintained itself. No other city in Virginia had railroad
facilities sufficient with friendly territory to supply the
force necessary for our operations., At the same time
the troops so supplied would have to assume all the
difficulties which the situation of Richmond imposed upon
those who undertook to defend it.

THE STRATEGIC VALUE OF RICHMOND.

507

irces of
ederal
)t have
ail road
)ly the
; tune
all the
dupon

Early in the second year of the war the Confederacy
was compelled to yield to the Federals quiet possession
of the James river, to within a few miles of Richmond.
From thenceforward it was always possible for the North
to transport troops and land them within a day's march
of the Confederate capital. The York river afforded ad-
ditional facilities to the enemy. In fact, the place upon
which so much depended was almost as accessible by
water from Northern Territory as the city of Alexandria.
Its distance from the base of, or Federal army operating
against it, gave it no advantage. Troops and supplies
could be brought almost to its gates by safe and rapid
water transportation.

A striking illustration of the disadvantages which an
army defending Richmond had to contend against was
furnished in 1864, when General Grant moved from
Culpeper Court-house to the James River. He abandoned
his communications with the Orange and Alexandria
road, but h's first halt in the Wilderness, and his next at
Spotsylvania, afforded him easy and safe access to the
Potomac River at Acquia Creek, within a few hours rail
of Washington, and by a road directly in the rear of and
covered by his army. As he advanced further south to
the Annas he had the same advantage. The Rappa-
h-v uock below Fredericksburg gave him new water
comr n: lications with his base, using Port Royal in the
rear of the army as a landing. When his third stage
brought him to Pamunkey, another and secure communi-
cation was opened at Washington by York River and the
Chesapeake Bay, and when his last march brought liim
to the James, all the Northern depots were open to him
and he was not required to detach a man for their pro-
tection. Virtually, therefore. General Lee was entirely
deprived of the advantages which generally accrue to an

608

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

opposing force when a hostile army is invading its country.
He could only oppose direct opposition to the advance
of the enemy, and this explains the bloody conflicts of the
overland campaign.

This facility of communication was the source of
numerous drawbacks in the defense of Richmond. It had
none of the advantages of an interior point, while it im-
posed upon our army, which was much the smaller, the
protection of long lines of railroad which had to be kept
open to furnish us with necessary supplies. The diffi-
culties of the defense were many. The city was exposed
and the naval supremacy of the enemy was absolute. To
a large extent, too, the necessity which existed for saving
it from capture controlled the operations of the army to
our advantage. This, added to the numbers and resources
of the enemy made the odds against us overwhelming.
Still, General Lee handled his comparatively small force
with consummate ability.

The most marked influence which the situation of
Richmond, and the necessity of providing for its defense
exerted upon the conduct of the war in Virginia, is seen
in its connections with the expeditions of the army be-
yond the Potomac. It was a saying of General Lee
that Richmond was never so safe as when its defenders
were absent. He meant that the safety of our capital
depended upon our ability to keep the enemy employed
elsewhere. Such was the policy adopted by him from
the time the army moved Northward, in 1862, until worn
out with more than two years of exhausting war, it was
forced to retire within the intrenchments of Richmond
before the great and ever-increasing numbers of the ad-
versary.

It is not the intention to trace the events of the cam-
paign beyond the Potomac. I have simply wished to

THE STRATEGIC VALUE OF RICHMOND.

509

show that the situation at Richmond was intimately con-
nected with the designs of General Lee in undertaking
all his expeditions which threatened the Northern fron-
tier. Sharpsburg and Gettysburg were included in the
design. They were part of the plan by which he sought
to defend Richmond and thereby maintain the Army of
Northern Virginia in its proximity to the enemy's
country. It is not impossible that, had the Federal ob-
jective in Virginia been a less accessible and less im-
portant place, the Confederate army might have gained
advantages which would have enabled it to take the
offensive. It is more likely, however, that the govern-
ment would have availed itself of the opportunity to re-
inforce its armies in the South and West rather than
attempt the invasion of the North. Indeed, at one time,
while the army lay on the Rapidan in 1863-64 it was in
contemplation to send General Lee himself to take com-
mand of the army in Georgia.

"The confidence of General Lee, in the belief that
Richmond could not be successfully defended except by
keeping the enemy at a distance, was maintained to the
last. When his forces were diminished and apparently
worn out he did not hesitate to send General Early on
his expedition to Maryland ; but the vast superiority of
the enemy in numbers enabled him to provide for the
defense of Washington without seriously impairing the
strength of Grant's army, and the siege of Richmond re-
mained unbroken.

"Throughout the bloody campaign Lee was over-
weighted. He had the burden of Richmond constantly
on one arm while he dealt his ponderous blows at the
Federal Government with the other. The extent and
magnitude of his services were very great. He handled
a force inferior in numbers with extraordinary skill, and

610

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

maintained a defense unparalleled in military history.
It was here that he showed himself at his greatest.
Against extraordinary obstacles, in spite of great odds,
with insufficient supplies and a virtually detached com-
mand, he made his last struggle with a courage and
sagacity which were remarkable. There was no time
after the first few months when there was any hope of a
successful termination for him. The chances were all
against him; yet he struggled on with remarkable
pertinacity and maintained himself until his lines were
hardly strong enough to be formed.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.

Grant on the Rapidan — Matched against Lee — What he thought of his army — In-
teresting reminiscences of Admiral Ammen — His judgment of Lee — Crossing
the river — The first day's fight — The fight preparations — Hancock's day-
break attack — Burnside's tardiness — The failure to mass the troops — The Con-
federate assault — Fighting flame — A desperate attack — The Confederate retreat
—The Sedgwick disaster — The two generals.

When the new Lieutenant-General decided to remain
East against the advice of his Western friends, he
accepted a great responsibility fearlessly. Personally,
he was a stranger to the situation in and about Wash-
ington. He knew nothing, excepting by hearsay,
about the political complications that surrounded the
army movements within range of the National Capi-
tal. Politicians were neither his acquaintances nor
friends. His life, as a citizen, had been too quiet
for their uses, and his life, as a soldier, had been
too busy and unobtrusive to more than attract their
attention.

The experiences of other generals with the Army of
the Potomac, for one reason or another, were not assur-
ing, yet he felt the importance of changing the order of
things, and of commanding in person the movements
ae^ainst the one adversary that seemed to defy all attacks.
He went down to the army lying about and beyond
Culpeper Court House, after having reached this de-
termination.

On his way, he met for a few moments his life-time
friend, Rufus Ingalk, who was quartermaster of the
army, and they talked over the situation. An old and

(511)

512

■■->H

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

distinguished officer of the Army of the Potomac now
writes thus of the situation when he arrived :

" We did not receive the new Commanding General
with any enthusiasm. We did not fling off our hats and
cheer as we used to when McClellan rode along the
lines. Yorktown, Williamsburg, the Chickahominy, the
Seven Days' Battle, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Chancel-
lorsville and Gettysburg had taken the gush out of us,
and we wanted to take his measure before we took any
stock in him. In fact, we were rather jealous at having
a Western man made better than our own officers. But
the campaign began, and, although Grant never spared
us, he kept rising higher and higher in our confidence,
until he won it so completely, that it has never been
and never can be shaken."

Grant's first headquarters were at Culpeper, and he
spent a little time in looking- over the army he was now
to command, and in preparing for his forward move-
ment. Immediately on the opposite side of the Rapidan
river, well fortified and putting his forces in superb shape
for the spring campaign, was General Lee, and the two
armies practically faced each other before the operations
began. It must be borne in mind that General Grant
was to open his spring campaign with a distinctive plan
of operations, in which all the armies of the Union were
to be thrown simultaneously upon the enemy in every
different military department.

He was a stranger to the Army of the Potomac.
Most of the officers he had never met, and with its
singular record of failure to make an impression upon
Lee behind it, he assumed a position that would have
made most men nervous. The officer above quoted
depicts the general sentiment of the army, although it
was faithful, willing, and even anxious to strike the

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.

51S

enemy under any leadership diat would bring success.
Of this fact General Grant thoroughly assured himself.

GENERAL GEORGE G. MICADE.

and before he issued the orders for the opening move-
ment of the long campaign that closed the war, he

had become more than satisfied with his army.
2H

614

LIFE OF G1.NERAL GRANT.

General Meade, its commander, had gained great dis-
tinction at Gettysburg, but in the months that followed it
he had not been ab' : to do anything more with his adver-
sary to attract the attention of "he country. Yet Grant.
after making a careful study oi the situation, confirmed
him in the command of the Army of the Potomac under
the new regime, and he never had cause to regret it.
YxQvci the time the army moved, all of Grant's orders to
his forces were given through Meade, and the relations
between the two Generals were exceedingly cordial.

The very day before he moved, his boyhood friend,
Rear-Admiral Daniel Ammen, had come down to visit
him by his invitation. In the morning they mounted
horses and together rode out for an inspection of the
army. Sweeping along through the well-ordered troops
towards Pony Mountain, they re«:hed an eminence from
which to the right they could look over beyond the
Rapidan. All over the intervening space between, on
this side of the river, lay the troops which were to give
battle within thirty-six hours.

" It was a pleasant morning," says Admiral Ammen,
" and the sight was inspiriting. I never saw General
Grant in better humor in my life, or knew him to speak
with more earnestness. Once there was almost enthu-
siasm in his manner. As he looked off at the army
which lay spread out before him, he said :

" ' Here is as large an army as I know how to com-
mand, under the actual surroundings of this situation.
I do not feel at liberty to say how many men I hope to
take into battle, nor do I feel like speaking of the result
of the advance ; but here is a force that, if strung out in
column in the usual order of march, with the incidental
supply trains, would reach from Culpeper to Richmond,
and the head of the force would be at the Confederate

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.

510

capital before the rear had begun to move ; but,' with
a twinkle in his eye, he added, ' I do not expect to
reach Richmond in that way, or by that order of
march.'

" I alluded to the breastworks, when he said that they
had been thrown up to occupy the men and mislead
General Lee as to his intentions. He spoke somewhat
freely to me of his opinion of General Lee, and said that
as a military genius he did not think he was the superior
of General Joseph E. Johnston ; ' but,' he added, ' Lee has
the confidence and affection not only of his entire com-
mand, but of the people behind him, and were he pos-
sessed of a far less ability than he has he would not be
an indifferent man to meet. Lee is a good man and a
fair commander, but he must have the conditions about
him favorable. The South regards everything he does
as all right, and this is a great advantage. He has not
a hostile press and a suspicious people behind him. He
holds in a greater degree than any man connected with
the rebellion the confide. ue of his section. He will
have all the support that the Confederacy can give him.
Such trust is of great assistance to a commander.'

" I asked what he thought of his chances in conflict
with Lee. His reply was :

" T can anticipate nothing. I shall do the very best
in my power to whip out the rebellion upon the plan
that I have now decided upon. My command,' said he,
'is one of the finest armies and most magnificently
equipped bodies of men that has ever been gathered
for field work, and I hope for success.'

" He expressed this opinion and confidence in his
army in a manner nearer approaching enthusiasm than
I had ever seen in him before.

" After some further general talk we rode back to

516

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

his headquarters and very soon after the army began to
move across the Rapidan. As I was taking the train
at Brandy Station, the last of it, under Burnside's com-
mand, was marching towards the scene of the contlict.
That afternoon the batde of the Wilderness began."

It seems impossible to gather Grant's judgment of
men and things except from just such incidents as Mr.
Ammen relates, but this old naval officer here furnishes
the best index yet in print of Grant's temper and
purpose as he moved his army to his first clinch with
Lee.

The Rapidan is quite a small stream, which Hows
through a very interesting part of the Old Dominion.
At several points, as it runs towards the Rappahannock
at Fredericksburg, it can be forded with little difficulty.
The army moved by the road leading to these fords.
Kelly's, Ely's, Raccoon and Germanna are the principal
ones that have become famous as associated with war
like operations. Ely's and (lermanna fords were the
principal ones used for the passage of Grant's army
towards the Wilderness.

Grant himself, with the bulk of his command, crossed
at Ely's ford, the Fifth Corps leading the advance. The
country leads up by gentle slope to a range of hills on
the opposite bank, and then stretches away for miles a
wild, wooded region, through which roads are scarce
and the movement of troops difficult. It was Grant's
plan to strike and turn the left flank of Lee's army, and
place himself between his adversary and Richmond.

Hardly had he taken up his line of march before Lee.
taking the gauge of his plan, moved his army forward
to check his advance and occupy the Brock road, the
key to all the highways in that wild region. Ew^ell, with
Heth's and Wilcox's divisions, reached the vital point of

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.

617

the field before Warren, when Warren pushed forward
with great vigor to reach the point in the woods which
would give the F'ederal army the control of the roads
running in both directions through the Wilderness. This
brought on the conflict, wliich at first turned in Warren's
favor, and it seemed as though the Union troops would
reach the desired point ; but the remarkable character of
the country that prevented reinforcements reaching
Warren in time thwarted that object, and the night of
the 5th of May came on with no particular advantage
gained on either side. This phase of the battle is
treated of fully in the opening chapter of this work.

All during the night of the 5th both sides were pre-
paring for the morrow's batde. The most unceasing
activity prevailed. Each felt the tremendous responsi-
bility involved in the storm which was to burst forth
with increased fury at daybreak. So ;reat was the
watchfulness that even the wounded could not be carried
off. Every light and every noise attracted a volley.
Both armies were at an extreme tension and the thickets
were full of spectral figures moving about with ghostly
eagerness and caution. The heavy darkness which
wrapped the maze of brush and jungle in a thick mantle
throbbed with the pulse beats of fate.

General Grant was in his tent. It was pitched in a
ravine just behind and below the post of observation he
had occupied during the day's battle. He knew that he
was only in the first chapter of the struggle, but he had
no doubts as to the results. Enveloped in his almost
stolid equanimity, he issued his orders tersely and con-
fidently for the disposition of the troops. To the
officers, to whom his manner and methods were yet new,
it seemed as if he scarcely appreciated the immense
responsibility of his situation. The inspiration of a

■\ :: ^

518

£/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

sudden offensive at dawn was still novel to them. They
had not yet learned that he dealt with the greatest of
tasks as he did with the lightest — that his self-reliance
was uniform. There was no excitement, no nervous

grant's headquarters in the wilderness.

ness, no apprehension in his deportment. The tremen-
dous issue at stake, the exceeding difficulty of the battle-
ground, the accidents which mignt enter as important
elements in the conflict, Burnside's failure to come u[)
with his corps — all these he had weighed in his mind.

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.

519

and the only expression in his face was the conscious-
ness of advantage implied by the utter absence of
anything like apprehension. He gave his orders to
Meade quietly and seemed to regard a successful issue
as a matter of course.

In dramatic silence the two armies lay. Through the
darkness beyond one line, Longstreet was marching to
a juncture with Lee, and the morrow would see a des-
perate effort to crush the national army. Through the
darkness beyond the other line Burnside was marching
to join Grant. Much depended upon the weary feet of
the tired soldiery which were sounding upon the devious
roads through the sombre night.

: Grant intended to pursue his established policy of
acLing upon the offensive, and the order went out to
attack at half past four. The lines could not be formed
by that time, however, and the hour was changed to five.
The main assault was to be made by Hancock with fully
half the army under his command. He was to attack
the front. Wadsworth was to attack the left and, if
Burnside succeeded in penetrating the Confederate
centre, he was to turn upon Lee's right and endeavor to
break it up. The instructions to Sedgwick and Warren
were to make feint attacks, to confuse the enemy as
much as possible, and prevent reinforcements from
being sent to vital points. This was the plan of the
great game of battle which was to begin with such
desperate earnestness as soon as the first faint glow of
gray streaked the Eastern sky.

At precisely five o'clock Hancock moved upon the
enemy. Longstreet had come up and was directed to
support Hill. He found some difficulty in getting into
position, and an attack on the Union right was made by
the Confederate left to give Longstreet time. This attack

520

Z/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

was the first of the day ; but, almost immediately, Han-
cock, who had not yet massed the entire force which had
been instructed to operate with him, struck the enemy
on the Orange plank road. Wadsworth followed out
his orders at the same time and assaulted Lee's right.
It was a struggle of confusions. The fighting was des-
perate at the very start. There was charge and
counter-charge at all points along the line. The Con-
federates maintained their position for a while at great
loss, but the impetuous force of the national soldiery
beat down the resistance. At last, after an hour of
carnage, the enemy's lines were broken and they fell
back into the woods. At the time, their demoralization
was complete. They had lost the first trick in the game
of battle, and Hancock found himself close upon Lee's
headquarters. Here he stopped to reform his line.

In the meantime, Longstreet had been sent to support
Hill against Hancock's terrible assaults, and he appeared
upon the field just as the Confederates broke. Instandy
an order was sent to Burnside to forward Stevenson's
division to Hancock's assistance, while he, with the other
two divisions, was to attack on the Parker's Store road.
He was to fill the gap between Warren and Hancock,
and when he reached there the attack was to be simul-
taneous all along the line.

The entire army waited for Burnside, and there was a
^ lull in the conflict until he should appear. Every moment
was of great value, because the longer the wait the more
complete would be the preparations of the enemy for the
attack. The most intense impatience was felt. Eyes
and ears were strained to their utmost for sight and
sound of the expected troops. Aides galloped back with
orders to hasten the movement, but in vain. Burnside
'U'as floundering through the thickets, and he could not

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.

621

advance with any more rapidity. The greatest appre-
hension was felt at the results of the delay. It seemed
at one time that the battle would be lost by reason of it.
Certain it is that the opportunity of crushing the enemy'j
•light was rapidly dying away. The minutes seemed
hours and the hours seemed days during this wait
which was so full of threatening to the Federal army.
Opportunity was dying in the arms of delay.

Meanwhile, Hancock had been reinforced from another
portion of the army and the battle was renewed. Long-
street struck his left in the fury of assault, and the desper-
ate turmoil again sounded its harsh note on the morning
air. The impetus of Longstreet's charge was too great
for resistance. The Fetleral advance was swept away,
and Hancock fell back to the point at which he had
entered upon the conflict in the morning. The fruits of
the early repulse were k st, but the Federals were safe
behind the breastworks along the Brock road. There
there was no assault.

There had been two hours of fighting, and it had been
of the fiercest character. Wadsworth was dead — killed
while trying to rally his men. Longstreet, severely
wounded in the midst of the battle, had been carried to
the rear. The Federals had lost their advantage of the
morning by rea^^on of Burnside's inability to come up,
and the situation was much as it had been when the
batde first began. The mettle of both sides had been
thoroughly tested. Each had met with a repulse, but
had not lost a foot in the storm and terror of the con-
test. When Longstreet was wounded, General Lee, iri
person, took command of the Confederate right, and
strove to lead it against the breastworks behind which
the Federals waited in angry restlessness. But the
movement was too desperate in its character, and the

522

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

men would not go. They fell back in sullen irregularity,
and Leasure, at Hancock's order, cleared the space in
front of the national breastworks.

At this hour neither side had gained any material ad-
vantage. Grant's plan of battle had only been partially
carried out. The fighting had been desultory instead
of in mass. There had been no general and harmoni-
ous movement upon the enemy. The thickets and
undergrowth of the Wilderness had been efficient allies
of the Southern army.

Still Burnside did not strike. He was struedin<T
through a country in which he could not, at times, see
his own command. At the best he could only grope
forward through the confusion towards the front. The
anxiety at his delay increased. No general assault
could be made until he arrived. The woods were an
abatis raised by nature, whose value the enemy fully
comprehended and used. To drive them out would
entail great loss to the national army with no corres-
ponding advantage. All that could be done now was
to wait.

It was during this critical time of suspense that the
officers of the Eastern army first began to know Grant.
The general anxiety did not effect him in the slightest
degree. No apprehension of a disastrous result seemed
to enter his mind. During the crowded hours of the
morning he had given his orders quickly and coolly,
ruling the turmoil with the will of a master. At this
time but one outlet to Washington remained open to him
— the Germanna ford. Should the Confederates get to
the rear of the main attacking column the army would
be in a trap, and its escape would almost be impossible.
Meanwhile, the Sixth Corps was in the air near the river,
and Sedgwick was ordered to protect his right with

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.

523

entrenchments. To the other officers it seemed as if the
fate of the battle was at the caprice of fortune but the
commander had provided for every emergency. His
tactics were all offensive and, should his rear be cut off,
he intended a movement between Lee and Richmond
which would draw the Confederates from the woods and
give the Union troops the full benefit of their superior
numbers. He was the master not the slave of events.

The last great struggle of the day was now to come.
The national soldiers lay in their entrenchments, watching
warily for a move on the part of the enemy. At last it
burst upon them. With impatient ardor the Confeder-
ates, still under the personal command of General Lee,
crowded to the edge of the woods and opened a fierce
and continuous fire upon Hancock's line. It did not
waver. Scarcely a hundred paces separated the foes,
and the fighting was very deadly. Behind their para-
pets the Federals poured volley after volley into Lee's
advance. For more than an hour the savage duel of
the armies continued, and then nature came again to
the assistance of the Confederates. The woods caught
fire in several places and flared to the sky. The sol-
diers were too hotly engaged in their work of death to
fight the flames and the fire spread. Trunk after trunk
was seized by the hot grasp of the conflagration, but the
armies fought on, unheedful of it. Finally the flames
darted over the space between the contending forces
and fired the Federal breastworks. Still the battle con-
tinued. It was a picture terrible in its grandeur. The
savage hate of the men below, and the savage delight
of the flames above, made a weird harmony of de-
struction. The fierce cries of the contestants, the quick,
sharp voices of the officers, the steady terror of the
musketry, the agonies of the wounded — all the confus-

524

LIFE. OF GENERAL GRANT.

ing noises which make the din of warfare — blent with
the crackling of flame-licked limbs and the crash of
charred and falling trunks.

At last the flames won. The Federals could no
longer approach their blazing parapets. Confused
and blinded, and burned by the swirling smoke and in-
creasing heat, they were forced in several places to
abandon their entrenchments. This seemed to Lee
the time for an assault ; and, dashing forward, the
Confederates reached some of the breastworks. Hut
the triumph was only for the moment. Almost as soon
as they had gained the position Carroll's brigade was
thrown upon them, and they were driven back across
the belt of fire, leaving their dead and wounded behind
them. No further assaults were made, and the day
ended just where it had begun. Hancock still held the
line he had started from in the morning.

Meanwhile, an affair was taking place near the river
where Sedgwick was entrenched, which was the cause of
much disquieting rumor. Gordon had made a sudden
attack on Sedgwick's right, turned it and captured two
general officers and several hundred prisoners. The
importance of the repulse was greatly exaggerated, and
the army was rife with rumors that Sedgwick, who
guarded the one ford, had been completely cut to
pieces. The wildest stories of the disaster were car-
ried to Grant, but he continued quite undisturbed.
He gave his orders as to what should be done to re-
pair the line if it had been as badly injured as was
reported, and then lay down and went to sleep.

No more striking illustration of his extraordinary self-
confidence could be offered than this. His army had
been fighting all day without result. True, Lee had
been constantly on the offensive, and it had succeeded

BATTLE OF THE WILDERNESS.

62,')

in preventing him from gaining any advantage, but, be-
yond this, there had been no results. The cHmax of
the struggle was the alarming report of Sedgwick's
defeat, which seemed to threaten ruin to the entire army.
But through it all he maintained his composure and, after
taking the necessary precautionary measures, he gave
himself, with serene confidence in his star, to the rest
and unconsciousness of slumber.

The battle in the Wilderness will live as long as the
world shall last, and the story of it will never be told.
Volumes could be written without depicting the move-
ments of the various organizations, or of telling the
episodes of heroic encounters that took place in those
woods. Grant himself said no such fighting had ever
been known in intensity and fierceness, except, perhaps,
at Shiloh. The record, as it has been made up l)y
historian or soldier, contains no more brilliant evidence
of the wonderful stubbornness and heroic gallantry of
the American citizen than was displayed upon the field
where Grant first tested the mettle of his new army and
at the same time the quality of the leader against him.

Two ijfiants in war had met, unlike \et alike. Two
men of remarkable self-poise, reticence, sternness and
composure were now pitted against each other in the
awful game of life and death — the game by which wars
are decided, disputed questions settled and a country first
learns the character of its citizenship and its reliability
when the sword is called upon to preserve its integrity.
And, after the first test, the question as to which was
the greater, still hung in the balance.

The reasons are plain enough. The struggle had
been upon complicated groimd. They had fought in
what was almost darkness. There had been a confusion
of men trying to slay each other in a confusion of under-

526

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

growth. As far as military genius was concerned not
very much was displayed. Lee had shown a ready
knowledge of the situation in taking advantage of the
natural abatis which were presented. In such quarters
numbers made little difference. It was rather a struf/^-
gle of individuals. Taking the battle and all its varjq.ig
incidents as a whole, it is rather a testimony of the
splendid qualities of the American soldiery than a
tribute to the abilities of the commanders. Its main
feature was the desperate fighting. On either side there
was a determination not to yield, and every point con-
tested for was held to the last. If the story of the
Wilderness furnishes a divided tribute to the generals, it
does not differ as to the courageous vigor shown by the
soldiers of both sides.

CHAPTER XXXIV

GORDON ON THE WILDERNESS.

Graphic Confederate story of Grant's first fight as Lieutenant-General— General
Gordon's description of the field — A hand-to-hand conflict — The varying
fortunes of the day — Warren's struggle with Ewell — Gordon strikes and
breaks the Sixth corps — "A hellish attack "—General Lee rides over the
field— His estimate of Grant — The movement from the field— Gordon at
Spottsylvania.

It has been the constant aim of the writer to get
within the covers of this work a chain of facts. Gossip
is not history. Camp rumors, and even the publications
about great events at the time of their occurrence, are
not always trustworthy. Years are necessary to cool the
enthusiasm a combat creates in all who take part in it.
Therefore it is that a faithful record of revolutions can-
not be made until long after the battles have been
fought, the victories won. Then, to make a satisfactory
review of the dreadful panorama of war, it is well to
present side by side the statements of the actors in the
crises. With this end in view many of the most dis-
tinguished officers who participated in the bloody actions
of the Rebellion, on the Confederate as well as on the
Union side, have been induced to contribute their re-
collections of momentous movements and engagements.
They are herein recorded as related. None will be
found of more absorbing interest than tuose furnished
by Lieutenant-General John B. Gordon, who was one
of General Lee's ablest and most trusted lieutenants.

After the war he became one of the Democratic
leaders in the United States Senate, and has, perhaps,

(627)

628

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

done more than any other Southern man to bring recon-
ciliation and peace between the North and the South.
For the material development of his section he has stood
first, and labored with a zeal and singleness of purpose
that have commanded national respect. His recollec-
tions, given in the form of a conversation with the writer,

GENERAL GORDON.

begin with this graphic story of the battle in the W^lde^
ness:

"During the winter of 1863-64 the Confederate and
Union armies were encamped on the opposite sides of
the Rapidan river for a long time," says General
Gordon. "As spring approached preparations were

GORDON ON THE WILDERNESS.

539

made for a new campaign. On one or two occasions
General Lee had almost decided to cross the stream,
take the offensive, and endeavor to turn General Grant's
flank. But before the plans for the movement had
been perfected. General Grant crossed the Rapidan
with the evident purpose of turning our flank and
throwing his force between us and Richmond, the goal
of his ambition. This movement brought on the battle
of the Wilderness.

"Our troops moved by the plank road and the old turn-
pike, two highways running down from Orange Court-
House in the direction of the Rapidan river. We col-
lided at a point just before we reached the Brock road,
and the two forces immediately began the combat.

"The meeting here can hardly be called a general
engagement. It was a series of small battles of neces-
sity on account of the nature of the ground. Artillery
could not be used with any effect, ana cavalry was use-
less except for scouting far off. It was a battle of small
arms without any imposing mancjeuvres or feeling
advances. It was an open combat, not in the sense
of being an open field, but on account of the absence
of breastworks or other protections.

"It was almost a hand-to-hand conflict, and again
and again the bayonet was used. The underbrush
was from four feet to eight feet high, often tall enough
to cover a man on horseback. It was almost impossible
to see any great distance in any direction. The lines
in moving frequently came in contact without either
force being aware of the presence o{ the other, except
as the skirmishers would tell their story of the im-
pending danger by an occasional shot. It was one
of those peculiar combats where the personal heroism
and judgment of the individual soldier had to be

530

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

relied upon. It was impossible to march a consecu
tive line. The men could not get through the brush
except by breaking line, or make headway amonjr the
stunted pine, oak, thorn bushes, and dense under-
growth that filled the place like a hedge.

"It was in such a field as this that that great clash
of small arms took place. It is easy to describe a
general engagement on such open, broad battle-ticlds
as they have in Europe, where the forces are nearly
always in sight, but in the thickets of the Wilderness
each soldier can tell a new story of the contest. On the
left of our line, where my command was engaged, th^
success was generally with us. The fighting was fully
as severe on the right, probably harder, where Long
street was. The mortality was perhaps greatest on our
left and on the Federal right.

"The battle of the Wilderness was a succession of
advances, retreats, and apparent victory on one side or
the other for two days. On the 5th the fight was less
bloody than that of the 6th, when the engagement was
terrific in its intensity and deadly in its results. In
the afternoon of the 6th the pressure upon Longstreet
was very severe and this officer was badly wounded.
In the evening of" that day Genei ,1 Lee directed that I
should make a movement by which he intended to
relieve the right of his line. On the 5th of May,
when our troops were broken on the plank road by
General Grant's advance, my command was bringing up
the rear. Ewell had been hotly engaged before I came
up and Warren had thrown his divisions upon him so
impetuously that he had lost his position. At this crisis
he came riding up to me and said :

" ' We are badly broken and the fate of the day de-
pends upon you.'

GORDON ON THE WILD EH NESS. 581

«« I formed my troops, made a countercharge, advancing
in echelon, and restored our line. During that night
of the 5th I was ordered to move my command to the
extreme left, and see that General Grant's lines did not
overlap my left.

" Early on the morning of the 6th I sent out my scouts,

GENERAL SEDGWICK.

who reported that Sedgwick's corps was lying in a body
of heavy timber and underbrush, apparently unprotected.
I reported the fact to my immediate superior, with the
request that I be allowed to attack. He did not take
my view of the situation and it was not until late in the
afternoon that I was allowed to move ; then General Lee

532

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

came himself and .^ictve the order to attack. I moved
out quickly, formed acro5>s Sedgwick's flank, and made
what some New York paper, I think the Herald, desig-
nated as *a most hellish fittack.' I struck Sedgwick
with all the force and vigor I could, capturing Generals
Shaler and Seymour, a great number of prisoners, and
broke the Sixth corps to pieces just as darkness put an
end to the conflict. If I had been allowed to make the
samo move in the morning I am satisfied that we should
have inflicted a great disaster upon General vjrant's
army. The plan was to have each of our divisions, as
my movement should clear their front, wheel into the
column of attack, thus giving to the onset, as we swept
down Grant's flank, an increasing volume too strong to
be resisted. Put, as I have said, when I was through
with Sedgwick, night put an end to the assault. It was
a great victory as far as it went, but it stooped far short
of what it might have been. It put an end to the
struggle anci changed the plans of both generals.

"All night long and early on the morning of the 7th I
was constantly getting reports of General Grant's re-
treat across the Rapidan. The same morning General
Lee came to my head-quarters and we rode over the
field together. While we were looking at the situation
of the troops and the results of the previous night's
fighting, I said:

"'General Lee, how much has General Grant been
hurt on other portions of the line?*

•* * Not very seriously,' was his reply.

"•My scouts,' said I, 'report General Grant as re-

treating.

*' ' Yes,' said he : * so do mine/

"Then for a time he remained silent, making no
comments upon what had passed or was passing. He

GORDON ON THE WILDERNESS.

533

was a man of very few words. Presently I renewed the
conversation, saying :

•' • You say, general, your scouts report General Grant
as moving back/

" • Yes,' was his only response.

"'Well,' said I, 'mine make the same report. What
do you think of it ? '

"'General Grant is not moving back,' he replied.

"'Why do you think so, general ? ' said I.

" * General Grant ought not to move back, and I am
so jertain that he is not going to and that this move-
ment from the field is a mere feint, that I have had a
short road cut from this point to Spottsylvania Court-
House, to which point I think he will move next, and
you will get your command immediately in readiness
and move by that road to-night,' was his reply.

'"If I were Grant I would move to Spottsylvania.
What he ought to do he is going to do.*

334

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

"It is certain, I think, that this was General Lee's
opinion of Grant. I never heard General Lee com-
ment upon General Grant. He never did upon any-
body. But there were some commanders in the Union
army that General Lee did not seem to have a very
high opinion of. When they were in control of the
troops on the other side he would expose his flanks and
move around in almost any direction and in a most care-
less manner. He never did that after Grant took com
mand. He may have gathered his opinion of General
Grant's character and capacity by studying his opera-
tions in the West. It was frequently remarked by the
Confederate generals who were commanding the corps
of Lee's army, that when General Grant came East Gen-
eral Lee began a series of movements, inspections of
his position, and operated with a great deal more care
than had been his habit ; for, with all his reputation for
caution, General Lee was a very daring man. It is im-
possible to get General Lee's estimate of General
Grant except from such circumstances as I have recited,
and this furnishes a more striking evidence of his view
of the Union commander than any other circumstance
of which I have any knowledge.

" Looking at it judicially and speaking of it from a
historic standpoint, I should say that we came as near
having an absolutely drawn battle in the Wilderness as
was ever known in the war. We gained advantages
here and there, and so did the Federals; but, taking the
whole of the two days' fighting, both maintained at the
end about the same positions that they did at the be-
ginning, with only inroads here and there. The gen-
eral direction of the lines was about the same on the
night of the 7th as on the 5th. When we withdrew,
fearful as tlie battle had been, both armies were in about

GORDON ON THE WILDERNESS.

585

the same relative conditions and in about the same spirit
for a renewal of hostilities.

"The Confederate army, when we entered that cam-
paign!, was in the highest spirits. The year previous we
had <rained some important victories, which left our army
in superb hghting trim. We were better supplied with
rations, the men were in fine health and as full of ardor
at the close of the Wilderness battle as they were when
Cirant crossed the Rapidan to the attack with ?.s fine an
army as was ever gathered. Nor do I think it probable
that cither General Grant or his troops were discouraged
by the drawn combat in the woods. Both armies marched
to their new posit' ' at Spottsylvania Court-House,
after two days of fignting, as eager for battle as when
they entered the Wilderness, General Grant's forces
had evidendy been improved by the fact that had been
made manifest to them in the Wilderness, that they were
now under a commander who had that high degree of
moral courage, as well as the tenacity, to follow his p-an
of campaign without flinching — qualities so necessary to
success."

The famous Confederate general's estimate of the
situation prior to Spottsylvania is a correct one. While
iK)th Union troops and Confederate troops had learned
to place their opponents upon a somewhat higher plane,
neither were discouraged b) he results of the Wilder-
ness fight. It had been a hard and close struggle ; it
had been attended with great loss of life ; and yet it
brouijfht discourasrement to neither side. Hard as the
conflict had been, there had been gained no decisive
advantage, and this was almost a victory for both con-
testants. The advance which Grant had made possible
had been dearly bought; the temporary check which the
Confederates had secured had been procured at as dear

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

a price. Lee's audacity in the forward movement had
met with great opposition and it had partially succeeded ;
but, after ail, the final result was, for the men, only a
mutual respect for each other's fighting qualities. They
had made the test, hand to hand and foot to foot. They
had discovered that American mettle was as good no
matter on which side of the line it had been produced.
Each felt that the final task would be the greater because
of the experience in the Wilderness.

This battle will always be unique in war history. It
will always be a cause for discussion among those wlio
will be future authorities on military matters. The final
judgment will probably be that it was born of shrewd
desperation on one side in a fierce struggle against tlie
inevitable.

'•• >;,

CHAPTER XXXV

OUT OF THE WILDKRNESS.

Lee foiled — The army satisfied with Grant — Mank march to Spoltsylvania — War-
ren's night march — Miscarriage of plans — Grant's |>i:ictised ear — Pulling his army
ilirouf^h itself — Sheridan's light at Todd's tavern — Uutlcr lands at City Point —
Still " On to Richmond."

Officers as well s men had but a very few days before
received him coldly, and tthere was apparent a bit of
jealousy, that a Western man should be put over the tried
and trained officers of one of the proudest armies that
was ever marshalled. To be sure, its successes had not
been numerous, or its rewards great, but every man
believed implicitly in its courage and ability as well as
in the capacity of most of its officers. Defeat never
disheartened it, and retreat never marred its confidence
in final triumph. After either it simply felt regret and
was then willing and anxious " to pick the flint and try

(537)

538

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

It again.

So too it never lost faith in its general, and
as each one failed the earnest men transferred their hope
and confidence to the next appointed to lead them.

In the movements which were to culminate in the
charge at Spottsylvania, Grant had determined to
reverse the wings of the army. Warren, at the Wilder-
ness, was in the advance and at first on the extreme rieht.
At Spottsylvania he was on the left, and Hancock was op
the right. The Army of the Potomac, in short, was
pulled within itself, as a stocking is reversed by pulling
it through from the toe. While the movements of Sat-
urday and Sunday were in progress, the troops lay spread
in converging lines moving toward Spottsylvania, with
the outposts of the Second corps, drawn from General
Barlow's division, facing the rear toward the point from
which the enemy was expected. The duty had its special
peril and responsibility. The dispositions were made,
and, just at nightfall. Colonel Beaver, who was corps
officer of the day, left his outposts and rode to Hancock's
head-quarters for his final instructions. It was growing
dark. He found there General Grant, and now gives
this interesting incident of the meeting :

FROM THE RAPIDAN TO THE JAMES,
SHOWlNi; THE WILDERNESS, CHANCELLORCVILLE, SPO'lTSYLVANIA, ETC.

(539)

540

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

'* Stuart, whose cavalry was spread out before Farly's
advance, preparint^ the way for it, liad just reached th<«
picket lines of the Second corps as I rode up. Furious
l.ring began and tiie group quickly scattered. General
Hancock, with the quick impulse of a commander who
pushed to the front when fighting began, made ready
to ride forward. The head-quarters were all astir with
the excitement of what might be coming battle. The
moment was one of all others which Lee might take
to fling his army on the exposed Second corps. Of
all the group, General Cirant was the only man un-
moved. The little incident was, in its way, an apt
comment on the wide difference between the habitual
impulses of the brilliant corps commander, and the
cool thinking of a man, chief in the art as well as the
onset of war.

" • Hold on, Hancock,' said General Grant, in that •
quiet, inrtectionless tone which in every moment of ex-
citement steadied the nerves of men about him, and now
stopped the stir as he sat quietly at the foot of a tree
smoking.

"Listening, without moving, he said, 'That firing is
only on one side. There is nothing in it. It is simply
a ruse to conceal some movement.'

"The practised ear of Grant, the extraordinary skill
with which he measured distances and interpreted the
rolling thunders of battle, I found well demonstrated
when I regained the picket line. He had accurately
judged aright the distant firing which came rumbling
across the tree-tops from the picket line, up to the high
ground on which the corps head-quarters were pitched."

The need and peril of the situation were not over until
lonsf hours after this incident. All nicrht and all of
Sunday morning the divisions of the different corps were

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS.

541

falling into line and following the advancing army, each
corps marching in the rear of those left on the line,
drawing in their pickets as they departed. It was
(irant's intention to seize all the strong positions about
Spottsylvania, and Hancock was to follow Warren along
the Brock road. Sedgwick and Hurnside were to go
by the way of Chancellorsvillc and Piney Branch church,
while Sheridan was to look out for the exposed flank of
the moving army.

The two armies moved almost simultaneously. The
route Grant took to Spottsylvania lay through a stretch
of wild country for something more than fifteen miles.
riu: Confederate line of march to that place being
considtTably shorter, there must have been something
the matter with Lee's information, for on the 8th he
(hrccted Karly, who had been placed in command of
Mill's corps, "to move by Todd's tavern," along the
Urock road to Spottsylvania Court- House, as soon as
his front was clear of the enemy. Then he telegraphed
to Richmond that Grant had abandoned his position and
was moving off toward Fredericksburg. He also notified
his Government that his advance was at Spottsylvania.
Grant's plan was to take possession of all the strong posi-
tions about the Court-House before Lee could discover
his purpose. Sheridan's bout with Stuart Saturday after-
noon, as well as Anderson's hasty move by night to Spott-
sylvania, where he had been directed to march in the morn-
ing, thwarted his plans and imposed upon him the neces-
sity of quickly devising some new movement against his
able and stubborn adversary. This is the view Lee's de-
spatches would give of his want of reliable information
as to Grant's movements. But there is good testimony
that, while he did not know Grant's purposes, he had
such a high opinion of him as a soldier that he thought

542

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

he would move to Spottsylvania, and that very night
ordered Gordon to move to that point and intercept
him.

The accidents of the night had been numerous.
Sheridan's cavalry had been marching and fighting con
tinuously for several days, and only closed the engaue-
ment at Todd's tavern on the evening of the 7th alter
dark. Then orders were given for its advanc<; at
daylight, Wilson to take the F"redericksburg road and
occupy the Court-House. Gregg and Merritt were also
to move at dawn, crossing the river Po ; thus securinir
possession of the bridges over the TJy and Po, and
taking possession of all the avenues of approach to
Spottsylvania. But, before Sheridan's orders reaclKxl
his division commanders, Meade had at midnight s<nt
Gregg and Merritt, whose camp he had come upon at
Todd's tavern, in different directions, and, when Wilson,
reaching the Ny, took possession f the bridge and
moved on to make his junction with .vierritt and Gregg
at Snell's bridge, he was disturbed by heavy firing
towards Todd's tavern, and soon found himself behind
Confederate infantry. Meanwhile, Gregg was watching
the cross-roads at Parker's store, and Merritt was tangled
up with Warren's advance along the Brock road. This
unfortunate miscarriage of plans left all the approaches
to Spottsylvania open to the Confederates, and they
crossed the Po without opposition.

Although Warren's corps had marched all night and
had had a running fight since dawn, he struck Gordon's
and Anderson's force behind breastworks with great
vigor and established his line within easy range of the
enemy. Grant took a rude breakfast by the roadside ;
then moved his head-quarters to Piney Branch church,
where Sedgwick had already arrived. As soon as the

OUT OF THE WILDERNESS.

543

real situation was reported to him, he ordered a part ol
Sc(li;wick's command to Warren's support, and finally
the whole Sixth corps, with the \\o\,>\ of destroying
Anderson before reinforcements could come up. Fhere
was delay getting the troops in position, and, although
late in the afternoon there was some severe fighting, no
important results were secured, and at nightfall Lee had
'^rasped Grant's intentions, 'oncentratcd his army around
Spottsylvania, and the desperate difficulties of the Wilder-
ness were again before the Federal commander.

'Twas the afternoon of the 7th of May when Orant or-
dered the movement that brought him about Spottsylva-
nia. But a few hours before a message from Washington
had brought intelligence that General Butler had landed
his whole force at City Point, and that General Sherman
expected to engage Johnston in the Southwest that very
day. The report that the enemy had entirely disap-
peared from his front, as well as the intelligence of
Butler's success, were the moving causes of the order for
the night's march to Spottsylvania. Sheridan's fight at
Todd's tavern in the afternoon was to open a road for
Warren's corps ; which was to take the advance, as in the
Wilderness, and it took up the line of march toward
the new position as soon as the mantle of darkness had
settled over the scene of the last three days' fighting.

It was still later when Grant reached the Brock road,
where Hancock's weary men lay. With difficulty he
picked his way among the troops whose fighting quali-
ties had so impressed him, and who had so suddenly
shown their appreciation of his determination to "on to
Richmond."

CHAPTER XXXVI

AT SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT-HOUSE.

Nearer Richmond — Playing for position — Position of the two armies before the
fight — Sedgwick's death — Crossing the Po— General Barlow's division in danger
— Turning the enemy's flank — Hancock's description of the withdrawal— Upton's
gallantry — Failure of Warren's and Wright's attack — Grant and Meade review
the onset — Grant's disappointment — Magnificent manoeuvring — Grant's determi-
nation — " I pro|iose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."

So it happened that the Army of the Potomac had
failed, when the movements which began on Saturday
night were over, to occupy the favorable positions about
Spottsylvania. Instead, it had forced Lee from his first
position, brought him nearer Richmond, and lay an irreg-
ular crescent, about the heights around the cross-roads at
the court-house, which Stuart seized on Saturday, and Gor-
don and Anderson, of Ewell's corps, had filled with their
troops the next day. Early, at the other end of Lee s
army, had later been swung, by the position of Hancock's
corps, from the ridge road, which ran north of the Po, to
the roads running on the ridge south, and the broad flat
plain, through which this sluggish stream ran, lay debat-
able ground between the two armies up to a wooden
bridge, where the Po turned .j flow around the heights
of Spottsylvania. The bridge was held by the Confed-
erates in force, as one of the approaches to their posi-
tion. In short, two commas, mutually inverted, (o) would
give rudely the shape of the two armies. The lower
comma is Lee's line, bunched at Spottsylvania, the upper
Grant's, with the Second corps at the comma head, the
Po running diagonally in the space between. The lay

(644)

AT SPOTTSYLVAN/A COURTHOUSE.

645

of the land was most unfavorable for a battle-field.
Lee's army occupied an elevated position on the crest
of a ridge, well protected by earthworks and abatis.
The country all about was heavily wooded, with here
and there a piece of low land between the two forces,
well protected with artillery. Heavy growth of tangled
underbrush added to the obstacles which lay before the
Federal approach, and in a greater degree than in the
Wilderness gave the Confederates the advantages of
position.

Monday, May 9th, was a most important day in the
history of the Army of the Potomac, and a deep black
line will ever be drawn around the page of history that
tells of that day's sad work. To be sure, the fighting
was not anything like as severe as that which had taken
place or was yet to come; but one man died from a gun-
shot wound whose taking off Grant felt cost him the
force of a division of his army. The work of strength-
ening the general position of the force was going on.
General John Sedgwick was with his staff along the
front of his line superintending the posting of some ar-
tillery. Now and then a stray shot from the rifle of a
sharpshooter whizzed through the air, causing some of
the men near him to shrink from the danger. He made
light of their fears, and with the exclamation still on his
lips, *• They can't hit an elephant at this distance," the
bullet of a sharpshooter struck him just below the eye
on the left side of his face, killing him instantly. He
was raised up by tender hands, and with a smile upon
his countenance, discolored with blood, was carried to
the rear. The news of his death spread through the
army like v\ldfire, and in every bivouac there was sor«.
rowing. In the old Sixth corps, that loved him as a
parent, and had followed him in many baptisms of fire,

546

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

there was hardly a dry eye. To Grant his loss meant a
great deal, for he was a thorough soldier and a sl^ilful
gLMieral. He was quiet, modest, generous, courageous
without bravado, and a commander equal to any emer-
gency that had ever come upon him. Although Wrin^ht,
who succeeded him, was a splendid ofificer and made
much reputation with the " old wall of iron," the corps
never lost its love for John Sedgwick, and the survivors
still revere his memory.

On the day Sedgwick died General Barlow's division
was spread across the Po, and, after what proved to be hot
fighting on Tuesday, the loth, was withdrawn with heavy

THE PLACE WHERE SEDGWICK WAS KILLED.

losses. In its relations to the general operations of the
army, this seems to have been a tentative flank movement
on the left of the Confederate position, resulting only in an
opportunity for the display of high courage by the Union
forces. This developed into an advance in force by two
divisions, which forded the Po above the wooden bridge,
and then, pushing across diagonally, reached the same
stream again below the bridge, which spanned the river
at the bend already mentioned.

The movement began at dusk, Monday evening. The
stream, a " run," with slippery, muddy banks, was waist*

AT SPOTTSYLVANIA COUJ^T-HOUSE.

547

deep, and the opposite bank was held by a force of
cavalry and li^fht artillery, distantly supported by the
intrenched force at the wooden bridge. The advance
brushed it away, however, and soon two divisions
were safely across the stream. Thus the Second corps
was established on both sides of the Po, above the
wooden bridge, with the river below the bridge — owing
to its sharp bend — directly before the Union advance.
The sharp and heavy fighting of the next day, Tuesday,
May loth, turned upon the advance in force of three
divisions of Lee's army, Field's, Mahone's, and Heth's,
upon the two brigades of Barlow's division, left when
the rest of the Second corps was withdrawn to the north
bank of the river.

The thick woods, the underbrush, narrow roads, and
tortuous paths, made advance impossible in the dark,
Monday evening. A reconnoissance at sunrise, on Tues-
day, showed that the Confederates were there in force,
;ind, instead of attacking the position in front. General
Brooke's brigade was pushed forward to attempt the
passage of the Po below the wooden bridge, while a
small detachment forded and felt the enemy's position,
which consisted of strong earthworks, occupied by artil-
lery and infantry. No crossing was made in force, and
the brigade remained until afternoon in open positions.
Meanwhile General Grant had determined to assault the
enemy's position in the centre, and wished to avoid a
q;eneral engagement on the south of the Po, at the ex-
treme right of the army of the Potomac. General Lee,
however, who appreciated the serious danger in which
this turning movement of the Second corps put his
army, detached three divisions to drive back its brigades
in the advance. Two of Hancock's divisions — Birney's
and Gibbon's — recrossed about noon. This left General

548

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

|i . n:i

1^1 .

Barlow's division to execute its retreat a little later, just
as tlie overwhelming force of the cn(^my was pushiiiir
forward to retake his position at all hazards, for he had
really turned the left of the enemy's line.

The successive steps in this retreat are thus dcscrll^cd
by General Hancock, who superintended the movmicnt
in person :

"When I directed General Barlow to commence re-
tiring- his command, be recalled Brooke's and Brown's
brigades, and formed them on the r'ght of Miles' ant!
Smyth's brigades, on a wooded crest, in the rear of the
Block House road, about one hundred paces in the ri;ar
of the line of breastworks. As soon as Brooke's and
Brown's brigades had occupied this position, Miles and
Smydi were ordered to retire to the crest in front ol our
bridges on the south side of the Po. Here they forni'd
in line of battle, throwing up hastily a liglit line of
breastworks of rails and such other materials as they
could collect on the ground. In a few minutes tluy
were prepared to resist the enemy,sh.?uld he overpower
Brooke and Brown, and attempt to carry the bridges.
I directed that all the batteries on the south side of the
liver, save Arnold's A. First Rhode Island battery,
should cross to the north bank and take position com-
mandino the bridges. These disjDOsitions had scarcely
been completed, when the enemy, having driven in tlic
skirmishers of Brooke's and Brown's brigades, pressed
forward and occupied the breastworks in front of them;
then, advancing in line of battle, supported by columns,
they attacked with great vigor and determination, hut
were met by a heavy and destructive fire, which com-
pelled them to fall back at once in confusion, with severe
losses in killed and wounded.

'* Encouraged, dcAibtless, by the withdrawal of Miles'

AT SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT- IfOUSE.

549

aid Smyth's brigades from our front line, wiiich it is
supposed they mistook for a forced retreat, tiu^y re-
formed their troops and again assaulted Brooke's and
Brown's brigades. The combat now became close and

i;i;ni:rai. w. s. hancock

bloody. The enemy, in vastly su[>erior numbers, flushed
with the anticipation of an easy victory, appeared to be
determined to crush the small force opposing them, and
pressing forward with loud yells, forced their way close

550

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Up to our lines, delivering a terrible musketry fire as
they advanced. Our brave troops again resisted their
onset with undaunted resolution ; their fire along the
whole line was so continuous and deadly that the enemy
found it impossible to withstand it, and broke again and
retreated in the wildest disorder, leaving the ground in
our front strewed with dead and wounded. During the
heat of this contest the woods on the right and rear of
our troops took fire ; the flames had now approached
close to our lines, rendering it almost impossible to
retain our position longer.

" The last bloody repulse of the enemy had quieted
them for a time, and, during this lull in the fight, General
Barlow directed Brooke and Brown to abandon their
positions and retire to the north bank of the Po — their
right and rear being enveloped in the burning wood,
their front assailed by overwhelming numbers of the
enemy. This withdrawal of the troops was attended
with great difficulty and peril ; but the movement was
commenced at once, the men displaying such coolness
and steadiness as is rarely exhibited in the presence of
dangers so appalling. It seemed, indeed, that these
gallant soldiers were devoted to destruction. The
enemy, seeing that our line was retiring, again advanced,
but was again promptly checked by our troops, who fell
back throusfh the burninsf forest with admirable order
and deliberation, though in doing so many of them were
killed and wounded — numbers of the latter perishing in
the flames. One section of Arnold's battery had been
pushed forward by Captain Arnold, during the fight, to
within a short distance of Brooke's line, where it had
done effective service. When ordered to retire, the
horses attached to one of the pieces, becoming terrified
by the fire and unmanageable, dragged the gun between

AT SPOTTSYLVANIA COURT-HOUSE.

551

two trees, where it became so firmly wedged that it
could not be moved. Every exertion was made by
Captain Arnold and some of the infantry to extricate
the gun, but without success. They were compelled to
abandon it. This was the first gun ever lost by the
Second c .ps.

" Brooke's brigade, after emerging from the wood,
had the open plain to traverse between the Block
House road and the Po. This plain was swept by the
enemy's musketry in front, and their artillery on the
heights above the Block House bridge, on the north
side of the river.

" Brown's brigade, in retiring, was compelled to pass
through the entire woods in its rear, which was burning
furiously, and, although under a heavy fire, it extricated
itself from the forest, losing very heavily in killed and
wounded."

Such was the general scope of these dangerous
movements, and while they were being made, the enemy
were pluming themselves on having driven the Federals
out of their intrenchments, and the Confederate generals
published congratulatory orders to their troops. While
all this was going on. Grant's plans for an attack in
force were beinij executed bv Warren and Wriorht.
About the only result, however, of this movement was
to engage the Confederates so as to make it possible for
Barlow to recross the Po. But later in the day Grant
decided to make a general assault, and the Fifth and
Sixth corps, together with Burnside's on the extreme
lefr were pushed vigorously forward. But at almost
every point the enemy was found to be in strong force,
and the day's results were not significant. Burnside had
pushed to within a half mile of the Court -House, but
becoming isolated from the rest of the army, he was

;,'l|

652

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

withdrawn later in the day. Colonel Upton, of fhe
Hiindred-and-tvventieth New York, led a stormini Marty
of twelve regiments of Wright's command, and aci 'eved
a success. He led his men with matchless heroism ov('r
all sorts of obstacles up a hill, breaking the enemy's linf s,
capturing a battery of artillery and a brigade of infantry.
Without stopping he pushed on until victory seemed to
be in hand ; but want of success before Warren and
Hancock forced Grant to withdraw Upton, as the l^ifih
corps was obliged to fall back after having carried the
enemy's breastwork.

The movements and countermovements of the two
armies up to this time were magnificent scenes of the
shifting uncertainties of attack and repulse. Both Grant
and Lee had lost men and disturbed plans in seeking
vantage points without accomplishing more than to make
prominent the fact that two giants in the game of ma-
noeuvre and strike were confrontini^ each other. Lee
was better satisfied than Grant. He had thwarted his
adversary's plans and secured the best in the way of
positions. Grant was seriously disappointed with the
miscarriage of his original design to secure Spottsylvania
and its advantages, as well as the inability of his forces
to make more of their onset against the enemy's better
position. His feelings may be better imagined than
described as he rode back with Meade after witnessing
the failure of his soldiers to bre?'c Lee's lines or secure
any other advantage of importance. General Bath an
gives tliis description of the terrific assault which Grant
viewed in the evening of that May day :

"The point of attack was a densely-wooded hill in
front of Warren, its crest crowned with earthworks, and
the entire front swept by cross and enfilading fires of
musket'-y and artillery. The approach was rendered

f the
party

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554

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Still more hazardous by a heavy growth of low rndar
trees, most of them dead, the long bayonet-like branclu's
of which, interlaced and pointing in all directions, pre-
sented an almost impassable barrier.

" Grant and Meade took position on an elevated pla-
teau opposite the hill to watch the battle ; but here, a^-
in the Wilderness, the woods prevented them from ob-
serving in detail the progress of the fight. All they
could discern was the wooded ridge in the background,
the swamp at its base covered with underbrush, and
nearer still the lines of the troops about to enter the
thicket. A curtain of cloud and smoke hung over the
valley, reddened by the afternoon sun, or rent by occa-
sional flashes of artillery. The shouts of command and
the cries of the wounded could be heard, until the pre-
liminary rattle of musketry rose into the roar of a general
engagement, and then came the echoes of the cheers as
the troops rushed into the charge. Across the open
plain, through reaches of wood, through depths of swamp,
the lines of the battalions struggled forward under a
fearful fire, until they were lost to view in the jungle and
the smoke of battle. Only the wounded came contin-
ually staggering out of the cloud ; then followed a few
moments of anxious expectation, of straining eyes and
ears to catch some indication of the event, while the
troops pressed on and up within the woods, until at one
or two points they mounted the enemy's breastworks.
But their greeting was too terrible; they stood for a
moment on the crest, then wavered and fell back, disor-
dered by the enfilading fire on either side. As they re-
treated the dry woods burst into a blaze, and numbers
of the wounded were burned alive. The enemy, how-
ever, made no pretence to follow, and the troo}DkS reoccu-
pied the ground they had held before the assault."

AT SPOTTSYL VAN/A COURT-HOUSE.

555

All of the following day, the nth, was one of com-
parative rest for the wearied troops, unaccustomed to
such long-continued struggles. Yet Grant kept touching
and feeling here and there, with regiments, brigades, and
divisions, Lee's whole line, until, in the afternoon, he dis-
covf'red the master-key t^ the position. This was the
point just to the right of Lee's centre, held by Ewell's
corps of hard fighters, where tiic line of earthworks
make a protruding salient like an inverted and ratlier
dt'jM'essed V.

Tiiis salient abutted on a low crest t!>At roso in an
easy slope from the stream, ami was flaukod v)n the left
front by a swampy stretch that stMinod to IvMbid the
passage of troops. Hiire Grant deltMinined to break
Lee's line, and selected 1 lancock, with the Second corps,
to do it. While the day was wne of rest to the trt>ops,
it was one of unresting activity to General Cirant, who,
by four o'clock, summoned Meade and the corps com-
manders to a conference, when he explained in full his
plans for the ensuing day, and preparations were at
once begun for the fearful struggle of the morrow.
During the whole time since leaving Culpepper, Hon.
E. B. Washburne, then a prominent representative in
Congress, had accompanied General Grant, but this
evening was just leaving for Washington. While in the
saddle and about to ride off, Mr. Washburne asked
Cfcneral Grant if he had any message to send to Presi-
dent Lincoln or the Secretary of War. Grant asked
him to wait a moment, and turning to his tent wrote the
famous despatch, of which one line electrified the
(ountry then, and is familiar now all over the world.
Tiie despatch, addressed to " Major-General Halleck,
Chief-of-Staff of the A'-my," reads as follows :

"We have now ended the sixth day of very heavy

666

LIFR OF GENERAL GRANT.

fijjhting;'. The result to this time is much in our favor,
but our losses have been heavy as well as those of the
enemy. We have lost to this time eleven general
officers killed, wounded, and missing, and probably
twenty thousand men. I think the loss of the enemy
must be greater, we having taken over four thousand
prisoners, while he has taken from us but few, except a
few stragglers. I am now sending back to Be lie Plain
all my wagons for a fresh supply of provisions and am-
munition, and PROPOSE to fight it out on this line if
IT takes all summer."

CHAPTER XXXV^I
Hancock's famous chafge.

Grant plans the capture of the Confederate salient — IlancocU to do the work —
I'laiis for the assault— The midnight march — A straggling mule — Phantom soU
diers — A gloomy nii^ht— The Druid council — Massing for the assault— ^n to the
charge — " Let silence, dead silence, be the awful menace, and hrcak it only with
the bayonet!" — Pouring into the enemy's works — A hand-to-hand co.,.,ict — (luns
and prisoners — Holding the salient.

It was Grant's plan to assault the enemy at daybreak,
and his orders were given to the corps commanders
with that end in view. To Hancock, with the Second
corps, was assigned the attack at the salient, th-; objec-
tive of the movement, and all that night was spent in
preparation. Burnside was to strike simultaneously
with Hancock's charge, so as to draw attention from the
real object of the movement.

The Ninth corps was on the left, far beyond Wright
with the Sixth corps — Warren with the Fifth being be-
yond Wright's other flank. Hancock was obliged to
move past the rear of Warren and Wright to gain the
ground in the gap of the line where his struggle was
to be.

Hancock was to move during the nisfht to his new
position, shielded by the darkness, and Grant wrote him,
" I will send one or two staff officers over to-night to
stay with Burnside, and impress him with the importance
of a prompt a7id vigorous attack!'

Mott's brigades of the corps were already on the
ground to be occupied, but early that evening Hancock
called all of his division commanders to him to explain

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558

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

in detail the plan for the morrow's battle. Later,
the division commanders, catching Hancock's dashino-
ardor, called their brigade commanders together, and
these again in turn consulted with regimental chiefs, so
that when the movement began, between nine and ten
o'clock that night, every man of responsible command,
down to the leaders of companies and batteries, knew
of the coming work and the part each was to perform
in the perilous task. It was to reach far and quickly,
and strike hard and fast when the time came. These
instructions were carried out so well that the whole world
knows now how perfect a general Grant was, and how
ably he was aided that day by the officers and men who
rushed upon the salient of Spottsylvania.

It was early on the night of the i ith of May when Han-
cock assembled his division commanders and gave them
their orders. He carefully explained the plan of attack,
and spoke with earnestness upon the minutest detail of
the march and assault. But important as was his council
with his immediate subordinates, the consultations which
followed between division and brigade, and between
brigade and regimental commanders, were no less
dramatic and significant. The night was very dark, and
the rain beat mercilessly down upon the unsheltered
troops, whether they were in the tangled forest or the
open field. It was between eight and nine o'clock when
the brigade commanders of the First division of the
Second corps were called by its commander. In a
dense and gloomy forest, in a secluded spot cleared for
the purpose. Barlow met his brigadiers — Brooke, Brown,
Miles and Smyth.

The desultory firing of the day had ceased. No
sound came from the bivouacs where the weary men
were snatching an hour's rest after the marching and

HANCOCK'S FAMOUS CHARGE.

659

fio-htinsf of the Wilderness. Barlow's division was hon-
ored with a position of great peril and importance, and
now his brigades were to be assigned to their work.
The flickering light of a lantern shed its dim, uncertain
rays over the dreary woods and on the little group
huddled together in the dismal storm to map out the
plan of the morrow's desperate business. By the lan-
tern's faint, unsteady beam, now flaring its red glare
upon a thoughtful face, almost beaten out by wind and
rain, Barlow traced upon the moistened earth the plan
of the deadly assault. It was a rude map, but the brig-
adiers followed each outline with eager eye, and when
the Druid council was over, each understood the part he
was to play, and hastened to his command to summon
his colonels to a similar council. Brooke called his
regimental commanders and gave them their instructions
for the charofe. Not a grun was to be fired in the ad-
vance. " Let silence — dead silence — be the awful men-
ace I " said Brooke, " and break it only with the bay-
onet!"

Barlow's division was to take the lead of the Second
corps in two lines of masses, Brooke's and Miles'
brigades in the front, each regiment forming double
column on the centre. The enemy lay strongly in-
trenched in his works, posted on an elevation, having
all the advantage of position. The troops moved at
about ten o'clock, and never did men start upon a march
under circumstances more dispiriting. To the inky
darkness of the night was added a chilling rain, the
more depressing because it came in the shape of a
dense searching mist that wet to the skin, and left the
men with the sensation of having been varnished with
fresh mucilage. It covered the country with a fog, and
made the woods and tangled forests through which the

560

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

march had to be made doubly dismal and difficult to
penetrate. From eleven o'clock until nearly one in the
morning the Second corps struggled over the difficult
way, led by the unsteady light of a lantern which Colonel
C. H. Morgan, Hancock's chief-of-stafif, carried in his
hand, far enough in advance of the head of the corps to
keep it from reflecting the long line of gleaming guns
which followed him. The story of that night's march
of the Second corps cannot be pictured. Silently the
men struggled on over the tangled and tortuous path,
following the glare of a candle. Now and then one
would whisper beneath his breath a word to a comrade,
or touch an elbow, to make sure he was there Not a
loud word spoken or a noise made to show that an
army corps was on its way to desperate work. At last
the silent column halted and went into line.

Many times during this weary, dangerous march
around the balance of the army, in the face of the
enemy, did the men of the Second corps give signifi-
cant evidence of that admirable spirit, discipline and
bravery, so justly the pride of its commander and so
clearly the foundation and creation of its brilliant career.
Hancock's orders were that perfect silence be main-
tained during the march. Not a loud word was to be
spoken by officer or man. The route lay within stone's-
throw of the enemy's position. A loud word, the ratde
of a camp kettle, or the shaking of a canteen might
reveal the movement and give the enemy time to pre-
pare for the attack, or, what was worse, to assault the
moving corps in column and beat it back, if not destroy
it. Everything the men carried that could make a noise
was strapped close to the body, and the column moved
as noiselessly as a well-ordered machine.
• The leading division had arrived at the point where

HANCOCK'S FAMOUS CHARGE.

5«1

it was to go into line when an incident occurred that
strikingly illustrates the wonderful discipline and self-
control of the men about to go into a battle. Colonel
W. P. Wilson, of General Hancock's staff, who was that
night guiding the Third division of the corps (Birney's),
tells the story in graphic detail. Colonel Comstock, of
Grant's staff. Colonel C. H. Morgan, Hancock's chief-of-
staff and Captains Mitchell and Wilson, aides on the
staff of the commander of the Second corps, had the
day before located the line of march and point of assault,
and of course all save Comstock played an important
part in the events of that memorable night.

Colonel Wilson's narrative p jves how deeply even
the troops were impressed with the importance of
the movement. Barlow's division was going into po-
sition and Birney's came to a halt. Suddenly, in the
dense mist, man by man, like a procession of phantoms,
the line began dissolving away down the hill, and staff
officers and regiment and company officers were at once
employed in bringing back these ghost-like fugitive?.
No sound was made, departing or returning, and it was
not long bei»jre the line was again formed as noiselessly
as it had slid away down the hill. A stray mule packed
with intrenching tools had broken away from the man
leading it while he slept. The animal was feeding about
upon the slope, the spades and picks rattled together a
bit, and the alert troops thought that the enemy had
discovered their close presence, and was advancing. Yet,
even in the demoralization of a stampede, no loud word
was spoken ; the order for silence had been so firmly
impressed on all, that even in such a moment all lips
were mute.

When the divisions of the corps got into position,

the men slept upon their arms, ready for their task.
2L

'• u

iiSi

562

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

As the hour given for the assault arrived, the men
were called to begin the most serious day's work of the
war. A dense, penetrating fog hung over the scene of
the coming battle, and Hancock held back his men until
the light grew stronger through the mist of the early
morning. At 4.35 came the order to advance, and the
troops of Barlow and Birney at once moved. Through
the only clearing between the armies, up the rugged as-
cent, facing without response a hot fire from the enemy's
picket reserve, they broke through the enemy's out-
posts and in an instant were in the rifle-pits on his skir-
mish line. Not a shot had been fired from the Union
troops. Barlow pressed on, Birney keeping pace with
him. But the men were burning with enthusiasm, im-
patient for the decisive clash. They were half way up
the slope — almost on the enemy's works, and the valiant
commander of the Second corps sat on his horse, sur-
rounded by his staff, v/atching the steady swing of the
troops up the sharp rise.

. A moment more, and, as the splendid veterans, thor-
oughly disciplined and mindful of their strict orders for
silence, poured on, still without firing a shot, swung over
the rifle-pits and skirmish line of the enemy, Hancock's
enthusiasm could no longer be repressed, and he burst
forth with '• I know they will not come back ! They will
not come back."

It was a critical moment, when a second of wavering
or break meant failure and defeat. The words ex-
pressed his grand confidence in the men he had so often
led and trusted in so well and thoroughly. Just here a
new regiment, thinking that the victory had already been
won when the rifle-pits were taken, broke into a cheer.
The fire had been lighted. The shouts ran through
regiment after regiment, until the whole force was yel

HANCOCK'S FAMOUS CHARGE.

563

ling like mad, and soon they were dashing on the enemy
at the double-quick. Down from the Confederate works
poured a galling fire of musketry and grane and canister
— a hot and deadly blast that tore great rents in the ad-
vancing ranks. Stunned by the murderous fury of the
sudden and continuous fire, the column wavered for an
instant, only to rally with louder yells and accelerated
pace for one of the bravest, bloodiest charges in the
annals of war. On they rushed, the enemy raking them
as they advanced, marking their pathway up with many
killed and wounded. But the torn ranks closed as fast
as the heroes fell, and when the crest of the slope had
been reached, two whole divisions threw themselves at
once upon the works. The pioneers had been placed
along the front of the line, axes in hand. When the abatis
was reached they quickly cut the timber away. Then the
troops dragged it aside, poured through the lanes thus
made, and, against a gallant and obstinate defence,
hurled themselves fair upon the enemy. Now began
one of the boldest and deadliest hand-to-hand combats
of the war. With sword and bayonet our troops cut
their way. With sword and bayonet and hand-spike
the Confederates replied, until, overborne by the fury of
the assault, they broke and gave up the works to Han-
cock's veterans. Old campaigners had never lookied
upon such a sight as they beheld when the enemy had
been driven out. Dead and dying were heaped in
piles.

" In one little spot," says General Brooke, upon whose
authority \d graphic details of this march and charge
are given, " I saw sixty bodies lying, every one of them
pierced with the bayonet."

Not far off a Union and a Confederate soldier strug-
gled, each with his bayonet fast in the other's body.

564

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Captain Anderson, of the Fifty-third Pennsylvania, was
felled by a Confederate cannoneer's hand-spike, and
picked up for dead, though fortunately he recovered.

General Grant, in his report of this engagement,
says :

" The eighth day of the battle closes, leaving between
three thousand and four thousand prisoners in our hands
for the day's work, including two general officers and
over thirty pieces of artillery. The enemy are obstinate,
and seem to have found their last ditch. We have lost
no organization, not even that of a company, whilst we
have destroyed and captured one division (Johnson's)
and one brigade (Dole's) and one regiment entire of the
enemy."

General Badeau, in his " Military History of Ulysses
S. Grant," says :

" During the war the Confederates never made so im-
portant and successful an assault as that of Hancock,
on the 1 2th of May. Indeed, they rarely attempted to
assault fortified works, and never captured one when
Grant was in the field."

Hancock now pays this tribute to the gallantry of the
men, and describes the pursuit after the works had been
carried :

" They rolled like an irresistible wave into the enemy's
works, tearing away what abatis there was in front of
the intrenchments with their hands, and carrying the
line at all points in a few minutes, although it was des-
perately defended. Barlow's and Birney's divisions
entered almost at the same moment, striking the
enemy's line at a sharp salient point, immediately in
front of the Lendrum House ; a fierce and bloody fight
ensued with bayonets and clubbed muskets ; it was
short, however, and resulted in the capture of nearly

HANCOCK'S FAMOUS CHARGE.

565

4,000 prisoners of Johnson's division of Ewell's corps,
twenty pieces of artillery, with horses, caissons and ma-
terial complete, several thousand stand of small arms,
and upwards of thirty colors. Among the prisoners
were Major-General Edward Johnson and Brigadier-
General George H. Stuart, of the Confederate service.
The enemy fled in great confusion and disorder, their
loss in killed and wounded being unusually great. The
interior of the intrenchments presented a terrible and
ghastly spectacle of dead, most of whom were killed by
our men with the bayonet when they penetrated the
works ; so thickly lay the dead at this point, that in
many places the bodies were touching and piled upon
each other."

After taking the works the troops could not be held
back, but pursued the fleeing enemy towards Spottsyl-
vani.a Court-House, where they encountered a second
line of formidable earthworks. The enemy, heavily re-
inforced, beat back our wearied ranks to the first line of
works, that had been so gloriously taken, and were now
held in spite of spirited efforts to dislodge them.

Summing up his report of the day's fighting, Hancock
says:

"A cold, drenching rain descended during this battle,
in which the troops were constantly under heavy and
destructive musketry fire for nearly twenty hours. Our
losses in killed and wounded were quite heavy, but we
had inflicted a signal defeat upon the enemy. Ewell's
corps of infantry was almost destroyed ; the celebrated
'Stonewall brigade' was captured nearly entire. The
losses of the enemy during the day, in killed, wounded
and captured, must have amounted to at least ten thou-
sand men."

The main works had just been taken, when a Con-

566

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

federate officer puslied through the struggling troops to
Colonel Beaver, of the One Hundred and Forty-eighth
Pennsylvania, and said :

*' I would like to surrender to an officer of rank. I
am General Stuart."

"What! " exclaimed Colonel Beaver, "are yqu 'Jeb'
Stuart?"

" No," replied the Confederate, " I am George H.
Stuart."

" I will accept your surrender. Where is your sword,

sir

;> "

"Well," answered Stuart, in a melancholy tone of
regret, not without a slight streak of the comic in it,
"you all waked us up so early this morning that I didn't
have time to get it on."

A few words passed between the officers, Beaver tell-
ing Stuart that he could not remain with him, when a
little corporal of the Irish brigade, catching the situation,
stepped up smartly, touched his hat, and said, in a full,
round, rich brogue :

" I'll take care of 'im, gineral."

" Take him to General Brooke," said Beaver.

And off the little corporal marched for the rear, proud
of his big pri?e. Brooke passed the Confederate briga-
dier along to Hancock.

Reaching the corps commander's head-quarters, Stuart
was presented to Hancock, who recognized in him an
old acquaintance. Always big-hearted, ever magnani-
mous to the fallen foe, Hancock, as gentle as he was
brave, arose to meet the prisoner, and extended his hand.

" Under the circumstances," exclaimed Stuart, drawing
back and assuming an air of great dignity, " I must
decline to give my hand."

Quick as a flash, and in tones that showed ho\y the

HANCOCK'S FAMOUS CHARGE.

667

cold rebuff had tcjched the great soldier, came the
sharp retort :

" Under any other circumstances, General Stuart, I
should not have offered mine ! "

General Ed Johnson, who was captured on another
part of the line, behaved with far more dignity, and was
seen talking with Hancock as the battle raged. Later,
he met Grant and Meade, both of whom were old West
Point friends.

Day was just dawning as the crest of the national ad-
vance broke on the Confederate works and flooded them.
The swift movement had been successful along the line
in front of General Brooke's brigade, whose commander
had sprung on the works at one end of the line, cov-
ered by the two brigades of the First division, just as
he saw one of his colonels leap on the works at the
other end. "The first I knew," says a general staff
officer who was following the line of battle just in its
rear, " was the prisoners boiling over on me, and I had
my hands full taking care of them." Success had come;
but the worst of the battle was still in the future.

Barlow's division had struck full on its centre a broad,
flat V-shaped salient, and swept over it. The flat,
open clear space behind that, turned on the instant into
a seething caldron of fighting men, was in the undis-
puted possession of the national forces. Over 12,000
men, jammed in the narrow space of a few acres, swayed
hither and thither in the wild delirium of success. For
the first and for the last time in the lone wrestle of the
Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia, an intrenched position, mounted with artillery, well
chosen, well manned and well armed, had been taken
by an assault in column. It remained to hold it.

In the swarming, struggling mass of men and officer*,

668

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

linos lost, reginKMits confused, brigades confounded, cool
heads were at work putting the command into order lor
the inevitable counter assault. The recollection of tin;
actors in the great struggle is hopelessly confused as to
its details. It is easy for witlely different conditions to
exist along the front of a long line nearly a mih; in
breadth. It appears to be unquestionable that the head-
long rush of assault swept part of the attacking force
against the inner works of the enemy half a mile dis-
tant, and equally clear that elsewhere the national forces
were held in hand, and brought into line just in the rear
of the works they had carried. It is now known that,
screened by the woods, Gordon's men were falling into
line to repel Hancock's advance, within a few mo-
ments after tlie assault. Brooke's brigade had been
the first to cross the enemy's works. To this day it is
a disputed point whether any but the first division
actually carried the works before it.

The salient carried by the national forces had been
placed where it was by the Confederate engineers, be-
cause at this point the slope which ran down to the
creek between the naked ridge on which Hancock
formed his men, and the ground rising towards Spottsyl-
vania, dipped into a low swale, which lower sank into a
narrow ravine. In the day long and even night strug-
gle that followed, this depression — slight, a mere wrinkle
on a contour map — played the part of a covered way,
and made it possible for the Union forces to hold the
point they had won.

Lee was in imminent danger. The Second corps had
cut his army in two. The joint in his harness had been
found by the keen, highly-tempered blade with which
Grant had been searching his armor for a fortnight.
If as vigorous an advance had been made by Warren on

HANCOCK'S FAMOUS CffARGE.

569

the right, and General Burnside on the left, it is difficult
to see how Lee's army could have been saved. Cut in
two at the middle, attacked at each end, it must have been
rolled a disordered, defeated mass toward Richmond.
The f)recious hours passed, but the advance which might
have turned a brilliant assault into a crowning victory
never came.

It had been part of the original plan of attack, that
the Ninth corps was to advance at the same time
that the Second did, in the darkness of gray dawn.
At his head-quarters on the bare and unprotected ridge
where he was forming his tired men after hiidnight, full
under the fire of over forty field-pieces, half of which
were in his hands by daylight, Hancock chafed away
hour by hour as the ticking field telegraph at his elbow
brought one dilatory message after another from the
head-quarters of the Ninth corps. That force had before
it a tangled chaparral of low pine and undergrowth,
offering singular difficulties for an advance. Whether
this obstacle should or should not have prevented a
headlong assault, it is not necessary here to decide. It
is enough to record the fact that before he gave the
final order for the assault, with the dark sky on his left
slowly changing as day came, General Hancock sent
General Burnside word that he should advance without
him. Day had broken, the Confederate line had been
carried and almost lost again before Burnside had
begun an advance which ceased when his troops had
tested Early's position, and the hot fire of his men, but
lasted until the Ninth corps had connected with the
Second.

How long the Second corps held the salient alone
against the assault Lee was making upon the point on
whose recapture the safety of his army hung, is still dis-

570

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

puted. The contracted limits of the salient became a
great slaughter pen, swept by one continuous blaze of
musketry. There was no room to bring in guns, and
no space to use them. The Second corps stretched first
in an irregular line across the space it had won — Mott,
Birney, Gibbon, Barlow from right to left.

Volley by volley, at point-blank range, beat back the
Confederate advance. Inch by inch the line fell back,
and it lay on the works it had won. At six o'clock a. m.
the Sixth corps brought the first aid, and then shared in
the desperate work of the day. Great trees were cut
off like reeds by the musketry fire which swept the
works back and forth like canister. The lines were
reversed, and the national forces fought on the outer
edge of the works they had won. Ammunition soon
ran low, and all day pack-mules, the ammunition cases
slung on their backs, were passing up the ravine, and
across the dip of the swale the salient had been intended
to command. By the same shelter wounded men went
to the rear, and supports and reliefs came to the front.
The presence of this natural coverod way made possible
communication with the very centre of the battle, whose
hot fire the war did not see equalled. Without it it is
hard lo see how the difficulty of supplying an advanced
line through twenty hours of continuous firing, could
have been surmounted.

" The angle," says Brigadier-General Grant, of the
Sixth corps, of the defence of the salient, " became at
once the keypoint and scene of a terrible struggle. It
was apparent that if we held it all the line to the right
would fall into our hands, and equally apparent that if
we failed to hold it, the captured lines to the left would
fall into the enemy's hands. Perhaps there was not a
more desperate struggle during the war. It was not

HANCOCK'S FAMOUS CHARGE.

571

only a desperate struggle, but it was literally a hand-to-
hand fight. Nothing but breastworks separated our
force from the enemy, and our men mounted the
works, and, with muskets rapidly handed them, kept a
continuous fire until they were shot down, when
others would take their places, and continue the deadly
work.

" Several times during the day the Confederates would
show a white flag above the works, and when our fire
slackened, jump over and surrender, and others were
crowded down to fill their places. Scores, and no doubt
hundreds of men are now living who were engaged in
that conflict, and whose recollections of it are vivid. It
was there that the somewhat celebrated tree was cut ofif
by bullets ; there that the brush and logs were cut to
pieces and whipped into basket stuff; there that fallen
men's flesh was torn from the bones, and the bones shat-
tered ; there that the Confederate ditches and cross
sections were filled with dead men several deep. It was
there that General Barlow says : * I myself saw in the
excavation on the enemy's side of the log breastworks
such a mass of the dead and wounded as I had only
seen once before, and that was in a sunken road at An-
tietam, which is still called Bloody Lane. '"

Even for a single regiment the day was crowded with
incidents. Every group that was formed under this fire
had Its casualty. During the worst fightin^g of the day,
after Brooke's brigade had been pushed to the front over
two battle lines to the Sixth corps, to hold a very im-
portant position, their ammunition ran out, and the file
closers ran back to the waiting troops behind them, and
carried cartridges up in their caps to the fighting men.
Brooke had been ordered to hold the road at all
hazards.

mmmmmmmm

!■■

572

Z/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

While the fighting was hot, and the artillery of the
Second corps, massed on the ridge from which the troops
were started, was playing over the heads of the men
in the salient on the Confederate line beyond, it was de-
termined to place two pieces at the angles of the salient,
and sweep the approaches obliquely.

" I can't take my pieces there," said the artillery offi-
cer to whom Colonel Wilson, General Hancock's aide,
came with the order; "my horses will be shot down be-
fore we get there."

" I expect you to take them up there by hand," was
the reply.

•' But the men can't under that musketry fire," pleaded
the officer.

"Then I'll get a detail from the One-hundred-and-
forty-eighth Pennsylvania lying there that will. They'll
not only get the guns up there, but work 'em," said the
aide. The detail was made up before the officer gave
way, and the pieces were started out to their post.

Through hours and hours of hard fighting the long
forenoon wore away into the afternoon. Night even
came on and still the fighting continued.

It was nine before firing ceased, it was midnight be-
fore the enemy retired. Thirty-six hours before the
troops had broken camp, after hours on the march they
had been kept waiting in the dull, soaking mist, waiting
other hours for the attack, a few hundred yards from
the enemy, at a point where every soldier felt that delay
would mean defeat. No better proof of the strain
under which the troops lay could be offered than the
fact that the dull clatter of a pack mule laden with in-
trenching tools, which strayed down the line, sent the
me a dropping singly and by squads to the rear. As the
line melted away in the dark, it was caught and brought

HANCOCK'S FAMOUS CHARGE.

573

back by its officers. Discipline was strong ; but even
discipline was not proof against the chance panics of the
darkness. The assault followed, and the long struggle
over the ground won lasted through the day. But no
great results were gained. Once more there was fail-
ure on the part of some of the corps commanders to
move rapidly and strike hard. Hancock and Wright
had done their part, but Burnside and Warren had been
too slow, and the death-struggle at Spottsylvania only
opened the way for another move.

', f

mmmm

CHAPTER XXXVIII

CONFEDERATE LINE BROKEN.

Dispositions at Spottsylvania — How the two armies were drawn up — Lay of the
land — General Gordon's story of the engagement— Hancock's charge on the
"salient" — General Johnson's surprise and capture — Gordon's desperate fight
with Hancock — General Lee's sudden appearance — His anxiety — Gordon has
Lee led from the field — Trees gnawed in twain by bullets — The most terrific
battle of the war.

The neck-and-neck race of the two armies to their
second situation was full of cross purposes to both com-
manders. There was more or less of accident in Gen-
eral Lee's reaching there before Grant's forces arrived,
and the incidents of the night march out of the Wilder-
ness to the Court-House would fill a volume. But
there is so much in the deadly encounter after the two
forces again confronted each other that the interesting
must give way to the important, and General Gordon
again, in a conversational way, takes up the Confederate
story of the engagement :

"The battle of Spottsylvania Court-House was in many
respects one of the most desperate in history. When a
faithful account of it shall be written, joining the opera-
tions of the contending forces, this fact will be made
manifest. I was commanding during this campaign a
division of Jackson's old corps, then commanded by
Ewell, afterwards by General Early and then myself.

" As I said, in speaking of the engagement in the
Wilderness, General Lee started me for the new posi-
tion on the night of the 7th, and I reached it the next
morning to engage the Union forces almost immediately.

(574)

CONFEDERATE LINE BROKEN.

575

As the troops upon either side came up they were put
into position and began throwing up temporary in-
trenchments. During all of Saturday night both armies
had been marching without any real knowledge on the
part of the other as to their opponents' movements,
except as to the general line of march. We collided in
the morning, and the lines were stretched out all day
Sunday.

" Grant still kept up his original plan of throwing his
troops around so as to get them between us and Rich-
mond, and as ours came up they too were thrown far*
ther along to the right, so as to keep our opponents
from getting nearer than ourselves to the Confederate
capital. Therefore, by necessity, the lines were formed
without any preconceived notion or selection of ground,
except that each tried to hold the local eminences here
and there as they could be reached. Circumstances
made the battle-field. The engineers could do some-
thing by way of selection, but the necessities of the
occasion put us to fighting upon ground that was not
chosen by any one. So we swept along and fought,
some places in open positions, sometimes on hills, occa-
sionally along plantations, where both lines were in full
view. At times we had plenty of spaces for artillery but
not much for cavalry.

" The left of the line, upon which my command was,
began the fight, and the first intrenchments were built
there. As Grant kept moving, Lee kept stretching
along until finally, when the lines were as nearly
matched as the disparity in numbers would permit and
breastworks were thrown up by both sides, there was a
lull in the work of preparation and we waited for the
assault. A bold movement followed, which General
Lee had thought it probable Grant would make. In-

III

576

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

1 '

Stead of pressing upon our right, which he menaced,
he impetuously attacked our left and almost turned it.
Reinforcements were brought up to the left of me to
resist that shock until my command was about the centre
of the army, when the fighting of that day ceased.

" During these preliminary movements, which lasted
from Sunday to Tuesday evening, there had been some
splendid manoeuvring between the two generals and some
severe engagements ; but Grant's attempt to break our
line was without important result. On Tuesday night,
when both armies rested upon their arms, nothing had
been accomplished except fixing the position of the con-
tending forces for a final test of strength the next day.

" In the uncertain shifting of things from the beginning
of the occupation of Spottsylvania and from the nature
of the ground a part of our line was in circular shape.
It was straight in another and half bent in still another.
Directly before the centre of my command was the
famous 'salient.' After recovering the portion of the
line that Grant had broken on the nth. General Lee
withdrew my troops and put me in reserve behind this
'salient.* My general directions were to hold myself
in readiness to go to any part of the line that was em-
barrassed.

" General Ed. Johnson's division occupied the fortified
position at the 'salient.' Early on the night of the nth
General Hancock was ordered, as I learned, by General
Grant to attack and take it. He was to make a night
march, and, coming into the open space fronting this
fortification, was to throw his whole force upon it just
at daybreak and capture it at the point of the bayonet.
General Burnside, I believe, was to engage us on
another part of the line to draw attention from this
movement. . :;

>t>-^

CONFEDERATE LINE BROKEN.

577

** This ' salient * was near the centre of our army — per-
haps a little nearer our left flank — and all that part of
our line was in the woods. Hancock moved his forces
under cover of the night, carrying nothing that would
make a noise. At daylight on the 12th of May, a rainy,
misty, drizzly morning, he massed his troops in the open-
ing and threw them with great fury upon the ' salient '
and captured it. It was then that Hancock sent his
laconic and characteristic despatch to General Grant, ' I
have used up Johnson and am going into Early.'

" I was three-quarters of a mile in rear of *^liis ' salient,'
and Hancock's movement had been so quickly and noise-
lessly made that no sound of it came to my ear. It was
simply a great rush at daybreak, with no admonitions of
its consequences. He ran over Johnson, captured his
troops and artillery, and yet there was no sound to warn
one of a battle. At the time I was lying down under a
tree with my clothes on, my horse tied close by me.
My first knowledge of what had happened came when
a private soldier of Johnson's command came running
back, out of breath, and said the whole of Johnson's com-
mand was captured.

" ' General Gordon, said he, * the Yankees will be on
you right here in a minute ; they are right here now.'

"'You must be mistaken; there has been no firing,'
I replied. - :

" • No, sir,' said he ; ' but they have captured Johnson,
taken possession of his lines and are coming right along.'

"I instantly called a staff-officer and started him out
in the direction of the ' salient ' to find out the truth of
the man's story. This staff-officer did not return. He
rode right into the Federal lines. Soon after I sent a
courier. He also was captured. Becoming apprehen-
sive, I jumped on my horse and started to move my

578

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

force, which I had at once ordered under arms, forward,
with General Robert Johnson, of North Carolina,
coinmandinjr my advance brigade. We moved in
cohnnn, with skirmishers coverino^ our front. I still did
not believe that Johnson had been captured. It was a
Htde after daylight, a dark, misty morning, with a heavy
fog setded over the whole country. As we were pass-
ing through woods we could not see any distance ahead,
and we rode against Hancock's line, with only the
skirmishers in front.

" Then came a volley from Hancock's line of battle,
which struck down Johnson, who was riding at my side.
I then had to form his brigade under fire with the Fed-
erals right upon us. Withdrawing slightly I formed the
brigade and charged Hancock's line. It was a most
critical moment. Unless we checked Hancock's men
everything was lost. The army was broken in two by
Hancock's charge. Fortunately his movement was
stayed a few moments by this desperate assault of
Johnson's brigade, which gave me time to form my
whole division for batde. Of course I was getting it in
line as rapidly as possible from the instant I struck Han-
cock's advance.

" While I was thus engaged General Lee had become
aware of the great danger to his army, and just as I was
in the act of leading the charge again he rode up and
pulled off his hat. I shall never forget his appearance
and the glow which kindled his countenance. I was
then ordering the charge when he rode to the front,
evidently with the intention of going in with us. It was
a perilous time. If Hancock could not be broken and
driven back our army would be broken in twain. Im-
pressed with the general's earnestness and his evident
purpose, I. said, loudly enough for the men to hear me:

CONFEDKRATE LINE BROKEN. 579

"'General Lee, this is no place for you. These men
have never failed ; they will not fail now.'

" With that tiiey raised a shout all alonjT^ the line :

"'General Lee, to the rear! General Lee, to the
rear ! '

" He paid no heed to their request, evidently intend-
ing to take his chances for life or death in this crisis
I directed two soldiers to take hold of his horse, one on
either side, and lead it to the rear, which was very
quickly done. I then gave die command ;

" ' Forward ! '

"The men went with a rush and with a shout that
echoes in my ears to this day; for their spirits had been
set aflame by what had occurred with General Lee.
Gradually we drove the Federals back, recaptured most
of the works and artillery, and restored the greater part
of our line. Of course the losses were very heavy on
both sides.

"Then came that desperate combat, during which the
roll of musketry did not cease, night or day, for twenty-
four hours. The carnage was simply frightful. Grant's
troops made one charge after another, and his men fell
by the hundreds and so did ours. At a point near my
line the tree stood, the stump of which is now, I believe,
in the War Department Museum in Washington as a
curiosity. It was eaten down by minie balls. It looks
as though rats had gnav/ed it off.

"After my repulse of Hancock's assault, and recovery
of the lines and artillery,, the fighting increased in fury,
so that, as before stated, the roll of musketry did not
cease for twenty-four hours. In this combat of small
arms, which, I repeat, was never equalled in our war in
the same space of ground and period of time, I think
fully half of General Lee's army participated. As soon

580

T.rFE OF OENF.RAr. (7 RANT.

as possil)l(* after Hancock's first siicc(*ss and rnpulsr,
General Lee crowded division after division into the
very small area in which we were contending to nurt
the heavy mass(;s of troops which Cieneral Grant con-
tinued to concentrate and luirl upon onr works, 'i'hey
also fought with a desperation horn of the emenrrnry.

" All throuj^h that piece of woc^ds to t!ie left of the
'salient' where my men were fij^hting, the underbrusli was
swej)t down by the bullets. ICach side fought with the;
greatest desperation, throwing up breastworks as they
slew each other. Having to build protections while
fighting, the ditches were dug on the inside; inst(\'ul
of the outside. It was raining much of the time, and
these ditches continually filled with wat(T. Again and
again along the front of my division did I see men fall
into them, and the others would step up on the dead
bodies of their comrades and fire over at the plucky
Federals coming up on the other side. Right at that
point, \n my opinion, were witnessed the most shocking;
scenes of the war. I do not think there was ever any-
thing like it anywhere : no such desperation : no such
losses. The men were fighting often on opposite sides
of the same embankment, and hundreds were shot
throuirh the head while firinof over the breastworks at
the enemy who were trying to climb over them.

" If Hancock had been reinforced at the time he cap-
tured the * salient * it is impossible to say what would
have been the result. Believing that they had finally
gained a success that they could make permanent and
destructive, the Federal troops fought like demons.
Both forces continued to contend until the troops were
literally worn out, and the battle of Spottsylvania was
only concluded when human nature had reached the
utmost limit of endurance." ^> i ?..;., ..' , , v:

chaptI':r XXXIX

CONFKDKKATKS IN TJIK SALIENT.

(icruT.il Stuart's story of Hancock's charge — The location of the Salient — Remov-
ing; the artillery — Ireinonitions of battle — Asking for more artillery — Wiiitinj; for
ihe attack — The situation at ilayliyht — First view of the blue coats — Capture of
the artillery — The scene in the angle — Map of the fortilicationB — The surrender.

WiiKN the Confederate Brigadier George H. Stuart
surrendered, his staff and most, if not all, of his
brigade were already in the hands of our success-
ful troops. Among the number was Captain J.
McHenry Howard, his inspector-general and chief of
staff. He was a careful, painstaking officer, with ex-
ceptional opportunities of knowing the movements of
the Confederate troops, and their position when the
salient at Spottsylvania was charged and captured. Be-
sides being a faithful officer and good soldier he kept,
while attached to it, a careful note of all the operations
of tiie division to which Stuart's brigade was attached
(Ed. Johnson's), and is recognized as perhaps the best
authority of any man in it as to the plans, purposes, and
movements of the immediate command with which he
served.

General Stuart so recognizes him, and has delegated to
his truste.d staff officer the duty of putting in enduring
shape herein the story of that important and brilliant "ac-
cident of w?.r," as Johnson's division and Stuart's
brigade knew and saw it. Captain Howard drew the
plan of the Confederate works and position that is here
shown and penned in the sketch in which it appears.

(581)

582

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

General Stuart indorses its accuracy, and makes it his
own. It is therefore presented as the best information
obtainable in relation to the Confederate position, plans,
and movements about the Spottsylvania salient on tlio
memorable morninnr of the 12th of May, 1864, and the
few days preceding it:

"About an hour before sunset on May 8th, 1864,
Major-General Edward Johnson's division, of Ewell's
corps, was approaching Spottsylvania Court-House. The
night before it had moved by the right flank from the
position it had occupied since the first day's battle in the
Wilderness at the Orange and Fredericksburg stone road.
The tired men had just been cheered with the prospect of
speedily going into camp, when, unexpectedly, the sound
of firing was heard to the left oblique, and news came
that Rodes' division had come into collision with the
enemy. The column was turned from the road in that
direction, and formed in line of battle in rear of Rodes,
but although under fire, it was not brought into action.

•'About dark the firing gradually ceased, both sides ap-
parently holding their positions. Then we were moved
forward so as to connect with, and extend the line
from, Rodes' right. By ten o'clock the whole division
was stretched out in position, and was ordered to throw
up breastworks. The ground was thickly wooded,
particularly on the right, which was held by Stuart's
brigade. It was also covered with low spreading
pines, almost impenetrable in places, so that it was
impossible in the darkness to make a regular line.
After many efforts the attempt to do so, or to fortify, was
abandoned for the night, and the men, exhausted from
fatigue, hunger and want of sleep, were allowed to rest.

"Shordy after daylight, May 9th, the line was connected,
and the men set to work intrenching. The enemy soon

CONFEDERATES IN THE SALIENT.

683

opened an artillery fire on our left, by which Stuart's
bri^^ath" was considerably annoy(!cl, bcin^ in a measure
enfiladed. When the breastwork of this brigade was
half completed, the engineers of the army ordered us
to abandon it, and to construct a new line running at a
riglu angle with the main front. This exposed us much
more than before to the enemy's fire, which now, pass-
ing over the heads of the brigades on our left, took us
in rear, and it was only during the intervals when the
fire slackened that we were able to do any work.

"Our works were therefore constructed for protection
from behind as well as for defence in front, and when com-
pleted consisted of a series of deep, square pits. We
had also cleared away the pines and brush for a space
in front, and made a very tolerable abatis with the inter-
laced branches. Having few tools, the labor was tedious,
and it was not until the middle of the next day. May
loth, that the works were sufficient for shelter.

"Towards evening there was some sharp firing on the
skirmish line, and the artillery opened with such violence
as to cause us some inconvenience, although I believe
there was little or no loss of life in our command.

"Just before sundown news came that a portion of
Rodes' line had been captured by a sudden assault, and
our brigade was ordered to his support in all possible
haste. The distance, by a straight line across the angle,
was only a few hundred yards. But the emergency was
great, and the head of our column was pushed on at a
double-quick, leaving the rear to follow as best it could.
In consequence the men neared the scene of action full
of ardor, but much exhausted and strung out. Several
dead bodies in blue uniform were passed, more than a
couple of hundred yards inside the line, showing that the
enemy had penetrated thus far. They were now, however,

584

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

limiting themselves to holding some two hundred yards of
the works, from which they poured an incessant fire to
their front, and up and down the line. Without waitin«T
for the rear our advance was hurriedly formed and pushed
forward. The men charged gallantly enough under a de-
structive fire, but were not strong enough to recapture the
ground. The greater part bore off to the right, reaching
works there, and again made several attempts to charge
down them, but they were so few in numbers, and met so
severe a fire, that they each time recoiled with loss, and
finally confined themselves to holding their own. In the
end other troops came up in regular order, and the
enemy were driven out — or more probably were with-
drawn. About ten o'clock we returned to our own
position. This affair convinced us of the necessity of
strengthening our line, and next morning, May nth.
the men fell to work with increased energy, particularly
on the abatis, the importance of which, in detaining and
throwing into confusion an assaulting enemy at point
blank range, they now fully appreciated.

" Before giving an account of the disaster of next
morning, it will be well to describe more minutely the
character of our line, and the disposition of the troops
behind it.

"Johnson's division was composed of four brigades,
viz. : the old ' Stonewall,' commanded by General James
A. Walker, Stafford's (Louisiana), John M. Jones' (Vir-
ginia), and George H. Stuart's (Tenth, Twenty-third and
Thirty-seventh Virginia regiments, and First and Third
North Carolina State troops). They may have averaged
eight or nine hundred men, having lost considerably
since the opening of the campaign. Jones and Staffer^*
had been killed in the first day's battle, and the brigade
of the former (a part at least) was said to be a good

CONFEDERATES IN THE SALIENT.

585

deal disheartened from its losses. The three brigades
first named held the main line on the left of, and up to,
the salient, and Stuart's was on the right, his line turning
back at an angle of ninety degrees. There was no sup-
port or continuation on Stuart's right, except a line of
skirmishers, there being a vacancy of perhaps a mile
between him and A. P. Hill's corps, or a portion of it.
There were no reserves.

"The ground in Stuart's front was densely wooded,
with marshy ravines in places; but off the salient it was
comparatively open. The point of the angle was also
on elevated ground, sloping towards the enemy, giving
the only good position for artillery along the line, and
for this reason, and because it was impossible to concen-
trate a heavy infantry fire from it, the angle was occupied
by six or eight pieces. There were also two guns in
Stuart's centre, and probably other pieces along the left
of the division.

"There had been several showers during the day,
May 1 1 th, and towards evening the atmosphere was
damp and heavy, and it began to grow foggy. A little
before, or at sunset, we were surprised to notice all the
artillery in the angle and our centre limber up and move
back. Asking an officer what this meant, he replied
he did not know except that they were ordered to the
re;ir to camp. We discussed this movement with some un*
easiness, but supposed other batteries would relieve them.

It is well known that our artillery was, at this time,
a separate organization in the army, and not under
the direction of the infantry commanders. Shortly
after dark a message came from the skirmish line that
there was, and had been for some time, a steady rum-
bling in front, indicating that a force was being massed
opposite to us or passing around to the right. Captain

■M

586

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

George Williamson, Assistant Adjutant-General, and my-
self were the only two brigade staff officers on the field.
We immediately walked out some distance to the front,
and afterwards stood for half an hour on the breastwork,
listening to the subdued roar or noise, plainly audible in
the still and heavy night air, and were convinced that an
important movement was on foot. We believed that it
meant an attack on our weak salient in the mornintr.
Having an indistinct recollection that a deserter had
passed over to the enemy shortly before, we appre-
hended that he had disclosed its defenceless condition.
So we went back and reported to General Stuart our
conclusions. He sent a despatch to Major R. W. Hunter,
Assistant Adjutant-General of the division, to this effect:

'"Major, the enemy are moving, and probably massing
in our front, and we expect to be attacked at daylight in
the morning. The artillery along our front has been all
withdrawn, by whose orders I know not, and I beg that
it be sent back immediately.* A circular was then sent
to the regimental commanders stating that we would
probably be attacked in the morning, and ordering them
to have their men in readiness in the rifle-pits half an
hour before daylight.

" The next day, when we were prisoners together,
and often afterwards. General Johnson informed me
that on receiving the despatch he immediately sent it, or
one similar, to General Ewell, commanding the corps,
urgently requesting that the artillery be returned.
General Ewell, or his staff officer^, have also told me
that he received and forwarded the despatch and request
to General Lee, whose head-quarters were not far off.

" After the war I mentioned these facts to Colonel
Charles Marshall, military secretary, who said he well
remembered the circumstances, and that General Lee,
on receiving the despatch, remarked to his staff:

ncl my-
le field,
e front,
stwork,
dible in

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lorning.
•ter had
; appre-
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5 been all

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int it,or
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I^olonel I

he well I
al Lee,

688

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" ' See, gentlemen, how difificult it is to have certain in-
formation. Here is a despatch from General Johnson,
stating that the enemy are massing in his front. At the
same time I am informed by General Early that they
are moving around our left : which am I to believe ? '
General Lee, however, ordered the artillery to be back
at daylight.

"On the 1 2th our men were in position before day-
light, and so early that a captain (Cantwell) in the Third
North Carolina afterwards told me he had made his
men draw their loads and clean their guns while wait-
ing. Owing to the fog day was late in breaking, and
for some time there was no indication of an assault. I
began to think none would be made.

•' Presently there came a sound of distant cheering just
off the salient, followed as suddenly by a deep silence, the
suspense of which was most trying, particularly as we
now eagerly looked and hoped for the arrival of our
artillery, which should have been there to open in the
direction of the cheering. Then came a few dropping
shots from that part of our picket line which was off the
angle, marking the progress and direction of the attack-
ing column. Presently a blue line appeared in our front,
on the right of the salient, and our men delivered a
volley which had the effect of making it disappear.
I do not think it • was a considerable body. It must
have missed the corner of the angle, and passed down
in front of our works inside our main picket line. At this
moment the artillery came up, rather slowly I thought,
and unlimbered. It had not time to fire a shot, except
the two pieces in our centre, which were discharged
once or may be twice. Musketry firing was now quite
heavy on our left, where Jones' brigade was, and soon
a crowd of fugitives came pouring down the line from

CONFEDERATES IN THE SALIENT.

589

the angle, showing that something must have gone
wrong in that quarter. I was at this time, and had
been, near the centre. A cloud of blue uniforms now
pressed after these, and appeared also in our front,
and filling the angle in rear. A captain in the First
North Carolina, which was on the left, afterwards in-
formed me that seeing the artillery in possession of
the enemy, he ordered his men to shoot at the horses,
which they did with effect. In our centre and on the
right we endeavored to stop the stream of fugitives, and
collected all we could in the square pits, hoping we
might be able to hold the enemy in check until troops
came from some other point to our assistance, but we
were speedily overwhelmed and made prisoners of war.

"We were passed back through and alongside of
the still swarming column of attack, which seemed
to me a dense mass in some confusion, about a hun-
dred yards in breadth. It seemed to me also that if
our artillery had been in place, it could have played with
terrible effect upon it, even by commencing to fire at the
sound of the cheering. Since the war General Collis, of the
Union army, has informed me that the attack was directed
on the angle in column of regiments in mass, but that in
matching so far over rough ground the men necessarily
got into some confusion ; that strict orders had been
given to keep silence, but that the ardor of the men
broke into huzzahs, for which censure was afterwards
passed.

" The attack was well planned and executed, but it is
a mistake to suppose, as sometimes stated, that the Con-
federates were completely surprised. The sound of the
cheering would have given ample time for us to get into
the trenches, but in fact we were before prepared, as I
have shown. It may be, as has been sometimes stated,

690

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

that some were interrupted at their breakfasts. That
meal was at that time, and generally, a scanty one with
us, perhaps corn bread and water, and often dispatched
in action.

" Having a thin line and no reserve or support
even on the right, the disaster could only have been
averted, if at all, by the services of artillery, sup-
ported by a force of infantry drawn from some other
part of the line. The artillery alone might possibly
have checked the assaulting column long enough for
such a support to come up. It would at least have in-
flicted a severe loss. The line was first broken on the
left of the angle, and Stuart's brigade was thus taken in
rear and flank."

. (

!'.

''!>;• \ ••• i .-(-.

y ■ •■'

CHAPTER XL.

THE ONSET AT COLD HARBOR.

Searching for a new place to strike — Back again to familiar ground — Going toward
the North Anna — Sheridan's cavalry and their work — Preparing to strike another
blow at Lee — A general assault ordered — The bloody work of Cold Harbor —
No results of importance — Between the Rapidan and James.

The Confederate line was broken ; the Confederate
position was not carried. Lee still held his grip on the
heights of Spottsylvania. For a week the national
forces were moved back and forth, as Grant continued
his search for another joint in the enemy's harness, and
through the week the Second corps was shifted hither
and thither, chief in the search. A new line, developed,
as usual, to the left, was made by swinging the Fifth and
Sixth corps around Burnside, and from the left of this
line General Hancock was advanced, after another
fatiguing march back of the army to see if an assault
was possible.

Woods and thickets of chaparral, another "wilder-
ness," showed that it was impossible to make an attack
from the new national left on Lee's right, and on Sun-
day, May 15th, the corps was faced about on the march
toward an attack on the left. During th^ night the
troops were swung back to their original position on
the right of Burnside. Haifa mile from the intrench-
ments, carried on the 1 2th, which were now crowned by
the artillery of the Second corps, firing over the heads
of the national advance, stretched a long line of Con-
federate works, screened by woods, protected by heavy

{691J

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692

Z/ZTi OJ^ GENERAL GRANT.

slashing and abatis, and approachable only in the open.
From sunrise until ten o'clock, through that long fore-
noon of mid-May, two brigades of the Second corps kept
pushing their way into these thickets, to come out rent
and torn, foiled but not defeated, while Warren, Wright
and Burnside stood ready to strike if there was a chance.
The ground was the same so familiar to Hancock and
Wright from the desperate work of the 12th. The
attack was at last abandoned, and, facing about for the
fourth time in the week, the Second corps was marched
to the right, where it was given a day's rest before it
started out with the army in the shifting, swinging march
from Spottsylvania to Cold Harbor, in which Grant
moved his army, corps by corps, on parallel lines, as a
draftsman shoves his hinged protractor.

It was now two days over a fortnight since Grant had
crossed the Rapidan. In that time but four nights had
passed by most of the army in unbroken sleep : the rest
had been given over to wearisome marches. The Second
corps, the hammer-head in the horrible hammering of
this fortnight, lost in all 8,218, officers and men; the
First division 3,496, almost one-half.

Weakened by these losses, wearied by these wearing
marches in mud and rain, the army, on Friday, May 20th,
fell into line at daybreak to begin the dangerous and
hazardous movements of the next fortnight, which shifted
the base of the army from the Rapidan to the James.
Grant boldly spread out his forces over a space of more
than twenty miles, reaching out to the front with the
Second corps, while the remaining corps lay grouped
around the old position to be brought up later — much
as a measuring worn stretches itself out for a new step
from a fixed point : the Second corps playing the part
of the advancing half in the air. For over a week

THE ONSET AT COLD HARBOR.

593

during this march the whole command was aware that
it was pushing alone into the enemy's country, with its
flank exposed, and its supports distant, liable any day to
feel the weight of Lee's whole army. Two days before
this march began, General Barlow's division had been
called out to aid in repelling an attack made by General
Ewell on a part of the Second corps; but this had been
repulsed by General Tyler's brigade, aided by General
Birney's division, and the First division was not callf-d

PONTOON BRIDGE AT DEEP BOTTOM.

into action. It started across the Mat river after almost
half a week's rest from actual fighting.

Barlow's division of Hancock's corps led the move-
ment, and on Monday, May 23d, had forded the Matta-
pony, and, pushing down to the North Anna river, had
stormed and carried the Confederate work covering the
bridge. Pontoons were at once laid, and at night the
Second corps lay in force on the right of the strong

V-shaped position, which commanded the bridges and

594

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

railroad junction at this point. Warren, who had marched
directly from Spottsylvania, was on the other face of this
position; but communication between the two national
wings was only possible by recrossing the river, and Burn-
side was unable to cross. It was a hazardous position, and
it is not surprising that orders to assault given early in
the day were countermanded, and strong works thrown
up instead for the protection of the corps. For two
days the army waited, facing the enemy. It was an un-
usual pause. The train of the Army of the Potomac
was an endless affair, over 4,000 wagons ; but it was
chiefly devoted to commissary stores and ammunition.

A division at "? time the national forces were started
in the night, and a strong column was well on its way
towards the Pamunkey before the new march was dis-
covered. The Sixth, the Fifth, and tho Ninth corps
were successively removed, and at last the Second
corps was withdrawn across the stream.

Here again Lee developed signs that the system of
"pushing" which the Army of the Potomac had de-
veloped under Grant, since the present campaign began,
had weakened his confidence in his own powers, ai d
led to the programme he followed to the end, of remain-
ing wholly on the defensive ; ready at all times to repel
an attack, but never assaulting in return. Grant was
clearly at such disadvantage that an opposing general
of like confidence in himself and his army, and with like
fertility of resource, should have at once assumed the
offensive, thereby, in all likelihood, seriously annoying
Grant and disarranging his plans.

For two days, May 27th and 28th, steady marching
continued: the Second corps occupying the centre ot
the advance. The Pamunkey was crossed, Brooke's
brigade of Hancock's corps was pushed to the front, in

THE ONSET AT COLD HARBOR.

695

the series of operations which brought the corps to
Cold Harbor, and each afternoon saw a hot skirmish as
the enemy's advance line was reached. His main posi-
tion was still a day's march away, and the brii^ade was
hourly moved brief distances along the line of Tolo-
potomy until the way was opened for a movement on
Cold Harbor.

To an army approaching Richmond from the north-
east, by the ferries and bridges of the Pamunkey, two
cross-roads in the flat, sandy peninsula between the
Pamunkey and the James are essential ; one is at Old
Cold Harbor, the other at New Cold Harbor. From
the last a straight tap road leads into Richmond; from
the first spread forking roads to the Pamunkey and the
James. An army which held New Cold Harbor barred
the path to the Confederate capital ; an army at Old
Cold Harbor rested on spreading roads which gave it a
base at two points on navigable rivers, at the White
House on the Pamunkey, and on the James at half a
dozen places. If Lee had secured and held Old Cold
Harbor, the plan by which Grant was aiming to bring
his army into contact with General Butler's base would
have been foiled; if Grant had seized New Cold Harbor,
the path to Richmond would have been opened a year
earlier than it was. From the North Anna to the two
Cold Harbors the Army of the Potomac and the Army
of Northern Virginia swung along for a week, neck-and-
neck, in a race for these points. Each seized the one
that was necessary to its own safety ; each missed the
point needed to balk the other. The assault at New
Cold Harbor was an attempt by sheer and furious fight-
ing, to force the advantage which march and manoeuvre
had missed. It failed at a cost of life matched by no
other fifteen minutes of four years' war.

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/,//'•/'; ^;/' o'AWAAv//. (;nant.

Satnrd.iv altcrnoon, May 2S1I1. after two days* march-
inj^ hail spread the Army of \\\v. Potomac in a coiuractcul
line alonj; tiu! south hank of tlu; raninnkcy, Sheridan's
troopers, skinnishini^ hetore the Second corps, striK k
the edi^e ot Lee's army as it svvunjj^ on a short senii
cir('l(! l)el\v(MMi tlu; I'ciUtral tr()0|)s and Richmond. Just
l)(!hind tlic droi)pini4 carbine hri' ol Sheridan's dis-
moiinted men. th<' S('cond corps was throwinj^ up in.
treiuhments in an advantaj^cous position.

To the rii^ht ol" the Second corps lay the Sixth corps,
to tiie lelt th<; Fifth, with a ^ap between, and in the nii^hl
the gap was filled by ( iiMU-ral Hurnside with the Ninili
cori)s. Siieridan found the work before him ji^rowiiiir
heavi(;r, and Brooke's brioad(« of the Second corps was
ordenul to drop its tools, and just at dusk pushed out
and swept over the enemy's rifle-pits and advanced
work. In tlu; next three days the two armies -wf^r^
brought tOL^ethtM* as the halves of a foot-rule are swmiil;
toi^ether on th(Mr hini^^ed i.i\\(\. The National and Con-
federate forces struck first at the hinii;'(N wh<M-(; Warren
lay. all the rest of the Army of the Potomac, except Bum-
side, havin<T[ been pushed to th(^ left. Th(*y met last at
the open ftwA where the Second corps marched, and this
was Cold Harbor.

The army once across the Pamunkey and established
on its souther : bank, its next effort was to extend its
line southwart' towards the James. The Second corps
marched at noon, May 29th, the next day, General Bar-
low's division in the advance, reaching southward for the
cross-roads at Old Cold Harbor that spread towards
both rivers. The order to march *' abridged the divine
service " at which the troops were gathered, and in the
Sunday afternoon, as General Hancock reports, "the
enemy's skirmish line, strongly intrenched, was hand-

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598

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

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somely carried, without much loss, by skilful nianceuvrinjr
by Brooke's brio^dc of Barlow's division."

The slow advance across the Tolopotomy continuj»d all
day, and just at dusk a brisk Confederate attack havino
fallen on Warren, Hancock was ordered aijain to attack
to relieve the Fifth corps. " Brooke's bri<;^ade, however,"
General Hancock reports, "advanced just at dark
over obstacles which would have stopped a less ener-
getic commander, and carried the enemy's advance line
of rifle-pits."

The two armies now lay in parallel lines, each front
covering an extent of about nine miles, the National
forces daily developing to the left, and the Confederate
to the right, the Second corps working along with the
rest, throwing up works almost hourly, and makmg each
day an advance which brought the two hinged lines
closer together. Sheridan at length seized Old Cold
Harbor just at dusk, May 31st, held it the next fore-
noon until the Sixth corps came to his relief, and the
next night, after a day spent in intrenching, the Second
corps started at 1 1 \\ m. to take its familiar place on
the left of the line, where the blow of the battle was to
fall.

It was a day and a night of disastrous, wearisome
delays. The day before, Warren had not attacked
when Anderson's troops filed past him on their way to
take a position before Wright. Wright had failed to push
the advantage Sheridan had gained. Smith, coming up
from Butler's army by way of the White House Landing,
had gone wandering over the dusty roatls wasting a da\ .
by a staff officer's blunder, before he found the left wing
of the army he was seeking. Another staff officer had
entangled Hancock's advance by leading ("leneral Bar-
low's division into a narrow road in the woods, where

THE ONSET AT COLD HARBOR. 599

hours were wasted before the column was extricated.
It was hoped and intended to advance the Second corps
on the enemy immediately on their arrival, but the tired,
luingry, heated troops needed rest and breakfast, and
the assault was postponed until five in the afternoon.
All the day before and during this day desultory fiohting
was in progress along the line; but as Batleau says of
the Second corps and its commander, "all but Han-
cock were slower than the lieutenant-general desired."
Tiie assault was deferred again until early the next

niornuiof.

Infore day broke a heavy rain fell. The low mists
and heavy clouds of early June still hung about the
swamps and stunted pine thickets when three corps, the
Socx)nd (Hancock's), the Sixth (Wright's) and the
Hi^lueenth (Smith's), fell into line at 4 a. m. for the
assault. Their front stretched, with intervals, over two
miles, and led up to the low rising ground on a part of
which the Army of the Potomac was stationed when Lee
attacked McClellan in the early days of the war.

()f the positions before the army little was known, save
that for three days they had been filling with Confederate
troops and artillery. The pickets of the two armies
were touching. A reconnoissance was deemetl im-
practicable ; the division commanders only knew that
they were to push forward until they struck the enemy's
works, and then carry them. The attack was a simple
brute rush in open day on 'strong works.

It cost the National forces from 12.000 to 14,000 in
killed, wounded and missino, and one-fourth of this loss
k'll on the narrow line of two divisions of the Second
corps.

Here, as at Spottsylvhnia, the Second corps was sent
in at the key-point of the position, and again I^arlow's

600

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

, ;ij|j

division led off in the grand assault. The enemy's
picket and skirmish lines were driven in, and hot work
began at once. The newest regiments, selected for their
strength, were placed in advance, and behaved like
veterans. Through the wet, high grass and brush the
lines swept steadily up the long slope, over the low
fence and over the rude works into the enemy's line.

Such a storm of shot and shell probably never
antagonized a force before in the military history of the
world ; but on the line went and swept everything before
it like the rush of pent-up waters from a mountain
stream. '

. Here it was, in the rush of the Second corps over the
salient of the Confederate works, that General John R.
Brooke, now Colonel of the Third Unite*] ^tates in-
fantry, received the almost fatal wound that kept him
from field work during the rest of the war.

Back came the enemy's lines against the advance and
drove it to the rail fence before the rush was checked,
Then, a part of Barlow's line, under Colonel Beaver,
who had succeeded Brooke in command of his
brigade, stood at bay and held the Confederates in a
fierce bayonet fight until the line was reformed, and the
ground just below the hill crest held until a rude line of
rifle-pits was extemporized. The men of that day wore
veterans of three campaigns, and did not need tlu 'd
of an engineer train of intrenching tools, but in
wonderfully brief time, with split canteens, bayonets and
bare hands, dirt was loosened and thrown up over lines of
rails until a scant shelter from unfriendly fire was
obtained.

The story of assault, of charge and countercharge
here related of the Second corps will fit, with varying
details, the situation before Wright and Smith. They

iia

THE ONSET AT COLD HARBOR.

601

made a series of brilliant charges, carried the Confede-
rate works here and there, and were forced to withstand
counter assaults of the Confederate troops. With them,
as with Hancock, the fighting was severe beyond descrip-
tion, and Cold Harbor, as a test of the courage of
Americans, was a success. In most gther respects it
was a failure. The engagement beforei Burnside and
Warren was not important, and the sad story of Cold
Harbor is best told by the frightful losses that fell upon
the Second, Sixth and Eighteenth corps.

The score of casualties rated far above any previous
experience of the Army of the Potomac. In the Second
corps alone, two general officers and seven colonels fell
within fifteen minutes; within the hour, over three
thousand men killed and wounded ; and of these, three
hundred were commissioned officers. Hancock writes
of it in his report as "a loss without a precedent," and
a few days after the battle said to an officer, when ques-
tioned as to where his corps was, " It lies buried be-
tween the Rapidan and the James."

The Confederates have always claimed a victory on
the first day of Cold Harbor, and perhaps with some
justice. They had maintained their position and in-
flicted severe damage upon the enemy. Certain it is
that the day's results contained no advantage to the
National arms, while the loss of life was extraordinary.
It told the old and well-known story of the disproportion
of loss when a protected line is assaulted. Had the
attack succeeded the advantage gained would have jus-
tified the bloodshed. Because it failed it cannot be set
down emphatically as a mistake. It was a desperate
chance in war, and, when it was taken, the commander
knew that the hope of success was a remote one. It
was ventured with the knowledge that, if the works were

602

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

captured, Lee would be placed in a position of such peril
that the fall of Richmond and the destruction of the Con-
federate army would be a matter of but a short period
of time. Surely this was something to strive for, yet
the experiment was a very tragic one.

Hancock's pathetic remark indicates how much was
paid in blood in the effort. It was simply an attempt to
overwhelm with numbers. Force alone and not gener-
alship was depended on, and the consequences were
dreadful. How far history will approve of the day's sad
story is problematical. It can only be justified by the
importance of the result aimed at. Had it succeeded,
much after loss of life would have been avoided. At
best, though, it was a hazardous effort, and one which
no other commander would have risked. It "was Grant's
practical idea of war, however, that a chance which of-
fered the slightest prospect of achieving a great and de-
sired end should be accepted. He believed that it would
be mercy at the last to push his forward movement at
almost any cost. And in the light of this theory the
story cf the bloody onset at Cold Harbor must be read.

CHAPTER XLI

CONFEDERATES AT COLD HARBOR.

AftCT Spottsylvania — The wear and tear on the array — Moving to Cold Harbor asA
beyond — Grant's theory of the conflict — His tenacious grip — Handling his forces
with skill — An estimate of Grant and Lee— Summing up the campaign from the
Rapidan to the James — The only way to whip Lee — Frightful losses.

"After the battle of Spottsylvania both sides were tired
and worn, for the hard marching and terrific fighting were
befrinninqr to tell on both officers and men. No kssen-
ing of their vigor or determination was manifest, but
wearing work and severe losses were having their effect.
Grant moved away from the Court-House, and Lee, of
course, moved about the same time, both going towards
Richmond and meeting at Cold Harbor.

" There we had a very similar conflict to the one at
Spottsylvania. It was not so much of a hand-to-hand
struggle, but it was a series of magnificent charges by
Grant's command, and severe repulses by our troops.
There was, as usual, a great deal of preliminary
manoeuvring, but after the forces got fully locked at
Cold Harbor matters became again stationary, as they
had been on all other occasions where we had met since
crossing the Rapidan. There were the usual advances
to test the strength of this or that position, and some
severe fighting at times, but the story of Cold Harbor
can be summed up in a very few words. There were no
results on either side, but I think it fair to say that
General Grant's army suffered vastly more than did
General Lee's. Hancock there, as at the * salient * at

(603)

(504

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Spottsylvania, suffered, I learn, more severely than any
corps of the Federal army. Grant gave desperate: l)aitl('
liere, and its results probably decided him to change his
base to City Point, and go south ot the James to the
investment of Petersburg.

" iM'om the time Grant crossed the Rapidan river
until the fmal capture of Richmond he actcxl sUiadily
upon one purpose : it was to put himself between
General Lee and Richmond. He moved by his left
flank all the time, and when he would overlap us a little
General Lee would move on a parallel line and con-
tinually throw his army between Grant and our capital.

"General Grant started with but one great puqjose,
and that was to break down the rebellion, and to do
that he had to take Richmond. General Lee's army
stood in his way from first to last, and he was obli^^cd
to whip that army to accomplish his object. There was
but one way to do it, and that was by the slow pound-
ing process that he first adopted and pursued so
relentlessly to the end. If he had moved south of the
James at first instead of crossing the Rapidan, he
would not have succeeded. He would have made
trouble for himself in Washington, given us an op-
portunity to destroy his base of supplies, and when
he had reached the south bank of the James he would
have found General Lee's army there to oppose iiim,
well fortified and upon ground of his own choosinfj.
Much as General Grant has been criticised for his
* campaign of attrition ' before moving to City Point, it
seems to me the only course left him, and the only way
he could have succeeded in subduing Lee. He well
understood it, assumed the responsibility, and began
that terrible wearing, tearing, tenacious series of move-
ments that weakened the Army of Northern Virginia to

CONFRDERATKS AT COLD HARBOR.

605

such a point that his change of base to the investment
of P(^tersburor was a possibiHty.

" My candid judgment of the result of that wonderful
:ami)aign from the Rapidan to the James, speaking from
a historical standpoint, is that General Grant handled
his forces widi remarkable skill, and assumed the re-
sponsibility for losses which exceeded any on record for
the number of men he was fighting. This is no reflec-
tion on General Grant's military capacity. It was a
necessity, from the character of campaign he was com-
pelled to wage. To whip General Lee's army he had
continually to assault their breastworks. Of course, he
might have kept on moving to our right until he got
near Richmond, but he would have accomplished
nothing; for wherever he had halted there he would
have found Lee's army confronting him on a line nearer
to his base of supplies, with less distance to travel, and
likely in better condition to give battle. The thing
General Grant had to do was to break down the power
between him and the Confederate capital. The only
way was to break that army. He never could have
reached Richmond except by the character of the cam-
paign he mapped out and followed.

"To be sure, the woods in front of us, whenever and
wherever we were engaged, were black with the Federal
dead, because men standing behind breastworks, with
column after column pushing against them, can shoot
them down with great celerity. Therefore, I think it true
that General Grant lost more men in that campaign from
the Rapidan to Richmond than General Lee had when
he first met him in the Wilderness. I will put that on
record as my belief, but do not give it as a historic fact.
I have frequently seen it stated, but have no means of
verifying it. My judgment is founded upon the fact that

606

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

forces behind breastworks can always check with great
slaughter forces moving to attack them. Naturally, we
made our position as strong as possible, and the slaugluer
in front was at times perfectly awful. At the • salient' at
Spottsylvania I am confident there were more dead and
wounded in my front than I had in my command.

"This is no adverse criticism of General Grant, for it
was his only way to accomplish the great object he was
seeking. Before him lay Richmond, and between him
and that city was Lee's magnificent army. Grant was
seeking to break him to pieces. To do that he must
constandy attack us in intrenched positions. We had
him at that disadvantage at every step he took. If he
had kept moving towards Richmond to save his army
he could never have whipped Lee. So he had to work
by that slow and deadly process of attrition which finally
wore and tore the force in front of iiim so that he was
able, eventually, to break through the lines and capture
the Confederate capital.

"When I say that in my judgment we killed and
wounded as many Federals as we had men in our army, it
is nothing more than to say that an army waging a war
against breastworks will necessarily suffer most if they
have equals to contend against. It is true that the Con-
federates were very desperate fighters, but there were
desperate fighters on the other side also. General
Grant was on the offensrive and General Lee on the
defensive, and Grant had nothing to do but lose his
men or quit fighting. I think this will be the historic
verdict upon the one great continuous battle that lasted
for sixty miles between the Rapidan and the James.

"In estimating General Lee and General Grant as sol-
diers, my opinion, of course, will ha^e to be taken with
just that degree of allowance which always must attadi

CONFEDERATES AT COLD HARBOR.

607

to a man who fought with one and against the other. My
partiality for General Lee was very great. I was very
devoted to him personally. I think, measuring him in
every way, he was one of the greatest commanders that
has ever appeared in war. He was a man of great
breadth of intellect. He combined all the qualities of
a c.'reat soldier. Possibly, as an executive officer on
the field of battle when conducting an engagement, in
the rapidity of movement, Jackson was his superior;
but, as a commander of forces in a great campaign, and
in dealing with all the different phases of war, I think
General Lee had no superior and few equals.

"For General Grant I think I speak the sentiment of
most of the Southern soldiers. Doubtless he was not
General Lee's equal as a scientific officer. It is also
possible that he had less native, soldierly intuition.
Doubdess he was less learned in the higher phases of
military science. In one or two particulars I think he
had the advantage of General Lee. In that fixed, un-
shaken and unshakable determination to pursue to the
bitter end, through all sorts of discouragements, and
without much reference to cost, to accomplish the object
before him, I believe he has hardly ever had a superior.

"We think in the South that if General Lee had com-
manded such an army as Grant had he would have ac-
complished more with less loss. But whether General
Lee would have faced the losses and consequences
that attended upon those operations which Grant con-
trolled, and would have persisted to the end as Grant
did, is a problem. So it is difficult to trace an analogy
between two men who were, in many respects, very
different. The great element in Grant's character
was fixing his eye upon a given point and marching to
it whatever it might cost to get there ; while Lee, from
the necessities of smaller numbers and fewer resources,

Wk\

Ill

^ j

1 ■:

'■iri

608

L/F/? OF GRNKRAL GRANT.

showed his greatness in doing great things with small
means.

The situation at the North, the division of parties and
the dispositic here and there to abandon and waver in
accordance with political necessities, made this peculiar
characteristic in Grant one of towering importance in the
conduct of a Federal campaign.

"The marked thing about General Grant was his
almost unequalled modesty of bearing. He had in the
supremest degree that self-reliance which in ordinary
men exhibits itself in personal exultation or in an effort
to aggrandize one's self. As commander, President
and citizen, his bearing was marked with a modesty
that was everywhere noted. It was an unusual thing to
find in the most conspicuous man of the age those
simple habits and that quite demeanor which would set
well upon a priest whose whole life was given to study-
ing how to conduct himself with humility.

" Yet, with all this simplicity of bearing, there was that
about him which showed that he had the consciousness
of knowing what was in him. He was a man of re-
markable common-sense, but without a particle of the
ordinary vanity of men. Everybody who talked to him
saw it, and yet, when he made up his mind that he could
accomplish a thing, there was no power on earth that
could turn him from his determination. That quality
sometimes induces persons in power to make heroes of
men when there is nothing heroic about them. This was
never true of Grant. He neither plumed himself with
his position nor upon his achievements, and never coun-
tenanced it in others. He was a heroic figure, a true
friend and an honest man, and you cannot find a Con-
federate soldier in the South who will ever speak of
Grant in any other light than with the greatest respect
and deference."

CHAPTER XLII.

. CONFEDERATE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN.

Colonel Venable's recollections — Blocking the Federals — The fight in the Wilder-
ness — " Go back, General Lee!" — The terrible second day's fight — Spottsylvania
— Incidents of the struggle — The desperate slaughter — The dying soldier — The
])osition at North Anna — Grant crosses the river — Back again — The march across
the Peninsula — Before Petersburg.

Col. Charles S. Venable, was a tried and trusted
officer upon General Lee's staff. To a very unusual
extent he possessed the confidence and esteem of the
Confederate commander. He was with him all through
the year of angry fighting between the Rapidan and the
surrender, and his reminiscences of the struggle are
graphic and interesting. Reviving his recollections from
an address delivered before the Society of the Army of
Northern Virginia years ago, he says :

"When General Lee set out from Orange Court
House, on the morning of the 4th of May, 1864, to
meet Grant in the Wilderness, he had less than twenty-
six thousand infantry in hand. The odds were startling
and the move was a bold and daring one. Grant had
more than a hundred thousand men, not including
Burnside's corps, but the audacity of Lee was not as
blind as it apparently seemed. It was inspired by a far-
seeing comprehension of the situation and showed the
highest of military genius. He simply enlisted the
Wilderness as his ally. There, in the natural entrench-
ments, the disparity in numbers would not be nearly as
marked as upon the open ground, and the battle could
be better maintained. Besides, General Lee had the
most profound confidence in his troops and their ability

20 (609)

610

LIFR OF GENERAL GRANT.

to maintain themselves against heavy odds — a confidence
which experience had vindicated.

"General Lee rode with General Hill at the head of
his column, and his presence was an inspiration to the
troops. Their love and respect for him was vc^ry great,
and they always fought better under his eye.

'* Getty's division was at the head of the Federal
advance. At Parker's Store the forces met, and the
fighting was along the plank road beyond. Hancock
had been ordered to drive the Confederates back to
Parker's Store, and he made a fierce but unsuccessful
assault to do so. It failed, however, and he was rein-
forced until he had forty thousand men before night.
The Southern troops numbered only ten thousand.
Again and again the PY'deral force was hurled against
the Confederate line with. a force that it seemed impos-
sible to resist ; but our men were firm as rocks. They
held their position with a desperate ten? ^, which was
marvelous ; and when the assaults ceased !ght o'clock
in the evening they were still steady, unbroken and
undefeated. Meanwhile, Ewell had checked Warren on
the old turnpike, and Rpsser had forced back Wilson's
cavalry on the Caparthin road.

" General Lee's daring strategy had been entirely
successful. He had checked Grant and defeated his in-
tention of turning our left at Orange Court House.
He had accepted batde at the very outset of the
Federal forward movement, and forced the enemy to a
stand-still in the Wilderness.

" On the night of the 5th, Lee sent a message to
General Longstreet instructing him to bring up his two
divisions by daybreak. Every one felt that there would
be a desperate engagement on the morrow, and all
preparations were made for it. General Lee slept on

CONFEDERATE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN, 611

the field, a few hundred yards from die line of batde of
the day.

" lietween the plank road and I^'well's x\^\X. there
was a wide unoccupied interval. It was (General Lee's
intention to relieve Hill's troops as soon as Longstreet
Giine up, and place them at this unguarded point. There
they could be readily utilized for the fij^dit should their
co-operation he necessary. Unfortunately, however,
the troops became aware of this, and they became lax in
watchfulness. As a consequence, when Hancock struck
Wilcox's division in the morning, it was not well pre-
pared for the assault. It was driven back in confusion
and disorder, but it was not in a panic as has been fre-
(jiiently asserted, nor were the men driven a mile and a
half as was reported. The truth is, that the right of
IliU'sline was forced back several hundred yards, but
some of the troops still b Id their position.

"It cannot be disguised, however, that the danger
to the army was very great. General Lee sent Colonel
W. H. Taylor, his trusted adjutant, back to order the
trains to be prepared for a movement to the rear, and
an aid was dispatched at full speed to hasten Long-
street's advance. It was not long delayed. The last
mile and a half was made at double quick, and as soon
as the reinforcements reached the field Loncrstreet beo-an
to put them in position on the right and left of the road.

" Meanwhile, the enemy on our flank were sweeping
the field to the rear of our artillery pits with a storm of
musketry fire. Here General Lee was engaged with Gen-
eral Hill in reforming some of the disordered troops of
Wilcox's division. While there Gregg's Texan brigade
came whirling by to the front in magnificent batde order.
W'hen they saw Lee they gave a hearty cheer which
seemed to inspire him. With flashing eyes he spurred

612

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

'f*,'i

his horse through an opening in the trenches, and
followed close on their line as it moved forward. The
men had advanced some distance in their charge before
they discovered that Lee was with them. When they
did, there came from the enti'*e line, as it rushed on,
the cry :

" • Go back. General Lee ! Go back ! We won't go
on unless you go back ! '

" The sensation of anxiety was very great. A ser-
geant seized his bridle rein, and General Gregg, turning
his horse towards General Lee, protested against his
advancing any further. Just then I directed his attention
to General Longstreet, whom he had been seeking, and
v/ho sat on his horse on a knoll to the right of the
Texans, and General Lee rode over towards him He
yielded, widi the greatest reluctance, to the appeals of
his men to go back. When I told General Longstreet
of the affair, he urged General Lee, with affectionate
bluntness, not to expose himself.

*' In a very short time the line was entirely reformed
and the Federals were driven to the position they had
occupie<^« at daybreak. Wilcox and Heth's division,
with confidence restored, were placed a short distance to
the left of the plank road. Very soon afterwards Gen-
eral Anderson arrived with reinforcements, and the flank
attack was immediately planned and put into execution.
Longstreet put three brigades on the right flank of the
enemy and rolled it up. At the same time he uncovered
his own front, and by a fierce assault sent Hancock's
force reeling back upon the Brock road. It was in this
engagement that Longstreet was wounded.

" On the evening of the 12th, Grant commenced his
change of base and turning operation. General An-
derson had been promoted to die command of Long-

CONFEDERATE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN 613

Street's two divisions, and General Lee, with his con-
fidence in the abiHty of his troops to resist odds, sent
Anderson to confront the Federal column at Spottsyl-
vania Court House. Stuart was also ordered to throw
his cavalry across the Brock road. When Anderson
arrived at the Court House he found Fitzhugh Lee's
division of cavalry fighdng desperately against the Fifth
Corps and Torbert's cavalry. Reinforcements of infantry
were sent to our cavalry, and the enemy immediately
stopped their advance and fell to entrenching. No
assistance was sent to the Federals, because Grant
anticipated an attack by Lee upon his rear. In the
afternoon General Lee arrived with Ewell's corps and
the line at Spottsylvania was taken up. The line was
weak on Rodes' right and at General Edward Johnson's
salient, but it was taken so that the trains could be
moved in the rear. The road there was free from
missiles. •

"The fighting in the afternoon was desperate. At
five o'clock there was a simultaneous assault. Hancock
had been repulsed by General Early in his attempt to
threaten our left and rear, while attack after attack by
the Second and Fifth Corps was beaten back by Ander-
son. When the combined movement was made, the
results were the same. The odds against us here were
very heavy, and only the steadiness and coolness of our
men could have met and repelled the onslaughts. The
soldiers would cry : ' Yonder they come, boys, with five
lines of battle ! ' Afterwards they would creep out cau-
tiously and gather up the muskets and cartridges of the
dead foe. Therefore, in subsequent attacks, our men
would be provided with several loaded muskets — an
admirable substitute for breechloaders.

" It was pitiful to see the slaughter of the brave Feder-

C!i.:

6 *•!.'

T'f

614

Z/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT,

als, who were hurled again and again against our works.
Many of the wounded lay dying near our line, and their
groans and writhing added to the horror of the scene.
I recollect one incident particularly, a bright, brave-look-
ing young fellow, a sergeant in a New York regiment,
fell not far from our breastworks shot through both
knees. For many hours he was an especial object of
sympathy to us. In his terrible misery he was seen
making vain efforts at self-destruction. Repeated
attempts were made by our men to bring him in, but
they could not. The Federal sharpshooters were very
active, and it was impossible to get to him, and we were
forced to leave him in his agony. On the nth of May,
after the Federals had withdrawn from that part of our
line, and the hail of musket balls had ceased, he was
found lying where he had fallen, and about him were the
blackened and swollen corpses of the assailants whose
sufferings had been less. His terrible fate had left no
traces or distortions of anguish behind. The boy lay
there with the fresh, fair face of one just dead.

" Rodes' line, as I have said, was one of the weak
points. On the afternoon of the loth, General Sedg-
wick succeeded in piercing it on the front where Dole's
Georgia brigade was stationed, and the lines and batter)'
fell into the Federal hands. General Lee's headquarters
that day were only a hundred and fifty yards away and
in full view. Hastily dispatching an aide to General
Johnson, on Rodes' right, he mounted his horse, and,
rode rapidly down to rally and reform the troops. Verj*
soon Rodes' troops and Gordon's division swept up, and
with a vigorous charge, recaptured the line and battery.
The preliminary advantage in this engagement was
greatly exaggerated by the Federals.

•• The next day General Grant withdrew from our left.

CONFEDERATE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN 615

Lee's instant interpretation of this move was that he was
going to swing around to turn our right, and the artil-
lery was ordered back for immediate use. That night
General Johnson heard the enemy massing in his front.
He at once asked for the return of his artillery, and for
two brigades of Early's troops. The troops he placed
in a second line at the rear of the weakest point in his
defences, but the artillery was greatly delayed. The
enemy attacked his division in great force and com-
pletely overwhelmed it. The loss in prisoners was three
thousand, and eighteen pieces of artillery were captured.

" General Lee knew nothing of this at the time of its
occurrence. It was the General's habit at the time to
leave the field at nine or ten o'clock and retire to his
tent, which was but a short distance. At three o'clock he
would breakfast.by candle-light, and then ride forward.
On this morning it was the firing which attracted his
attention, but he knew nothing of the disaster which
had occurred until he reached the front.

" Meanwhile, General Gordon had also heard the firing
and moved rapidly forward towards the salient with his
division. In the darkness he met the Federal advance
under Hancock, and was immediately fired upon. It
was not yet daylight. The woods were dense and a
drizzling rain was falling. A line of troops could not be
seen a hundred yards off, and there was much doubt
and uncertainty. General Gordon was equal to the
emergency, however. With splendid audacity he de-
ployed a brigade as skirmishers, and ordered a charge.
The Federals in front hesitated long enough to enable
him to form his main line, and he took valuable advan-
tage of the delay.

*• The Federal line on Gordon's right still pressed on
however, threatening his right rear and the left flank

616

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

s.,.

of Hill's corps in the trenches. The situation was ex-
ceedingly critical at the time, but General Lane's North
Carolina brigade came forward and checked the enemy's
advance.

•'A litde later, General Lee rode forward. General Gor-
don had arranged the left of his division to make an effort
to recapture the lines. By this time the darkness had
lifted somewhat and the dim, gray morning light struggled
through the trees. Gordon, with his colors in his hand,
was about to lead the troops to the charge when Lee
joined him. Again his men compelled him to go back
by their entreaties and expostulations, and he slowly
and reluctantly consented. Then they dashed forward
upon the enemy. The charge was resistless in its force.
The trenches on the right of the salient were recovered
and some of tie cannon recaptured. .Meanwhile Han-
cock's right was thrown completely back on that portion
of the captured line to the left of the salient by Ramseur
and Rodes, and here, in this narrow space, the fierce
combat raged all day long. Between the lines were
fourteen Confederate cannon, not yet unlimbered, which
neither side could take.

" Three hundred yards behind the captured salient
Gordon threw up entrenchments. The terrible musketry
fire which every narrator of the story of this batde
dwells upon was in full progress. From dawn until
midnight it continued. Rodes, with ten thousand men,
kept one-half of Grant's army back for eighteen houi^-.
On both sides the troops fought with the most desperate
gallantry.

" During the day General Lee again exposed himself
greatly. His position nearly all through the batde was
at a point on Heth's line to the left of Spottsylvania
Court House. Rodes had sent to him for reinforce-

CONFEDERATE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN. 617

ments, and I was ordered to guide Harris' brigade of
Mississippians from the right of ourlinetoRodes' position.
In going we passed near General Lee's position and he
rode out from the little copse and placed himself at
General Harris's side at the head of the column.
Soon the men came within range of the Federal artillery
fire. General Lee's horse reared under the fire and a
round shot passed under him very near the rider's
stirrup. The men at once halted and shouted at him to
go back. Indeed, they positively refused to advance
unless he did go back. He told them that he would go
if they would promise to retake the lines. The men
shouted in response 'We will, we will. General Lee,*
and he then rode back to his old position. This rein-
forcement saved the day for the Confederates.

'• At nightfall our line of battle still covered four of
the contested guns, but they became bogged in a swamp
and fell into the hands of the enemy. The interior line
which Gordon had thrown up was finished about ten
o'clock and at midnight our men retired behind the en-
trenchments worn out. The restoration of the batde
line after Hancock's success in the morning, and the
subsequent desperate and stubborn resistance against a
greatly superior force, make the battle one of the most
brilliant in history. On the 14th the Federals abandoned
the captured angle as it was now useless to them.
Many thousand of muskets were left by Grant in the
Wilderness and at Spottsylvania. These were collected
by our ordnance officers. One hundred and twenty-
two thousand tons of lead were also picked up and sent
to Richmond, where it was recast and fired back at the
enemy during the campaign. -

"On May 20th, Grant moved towards the North
Anna, and on the 23d he reached the north bank. Lee,

G18

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

'M,

who had been reinforced by Pickett's and Breckin-
ridge's division, was entrenchevl on the south side. Very
little effort was made to prevent the Federals from cross-
ing, but once on our side of the river it was a dif-
ferent matter. Lee's position was a very strong one.
His centre was near the river, his right reposed on the
swamps, and his left was thrown back obliquely towards
the Little river behind him. Grant found the position
too strong to be carried by assault and, on the 26th, he
withdrew back to the north side. The chronicler of the
Army of the Potomac says : ' The annals of war seldom
present a more effective checkmate than was thus given
by Lee.'

" At this time it was General Lee's policy to attack
the Federal army whenever a good opportunity afforded.
He believed that its repulses and the great loss of life
which had followed the attacks upon his entrenched lines,
had depressed and dispirited the Union troops, and that
they had not the enthusiasm to maintain a sharp assault.
But, in the midst of these operations he was taken sick
and confined to his tent. As he lay prostrate he would
often repeat, ' We must strike them a blow ; we must
never let them pass us again — we must strike them a
blow.' He had reports of all the operations still brought
to him, and issued orders to his officers, but Lee. sick
and confined to his tent, was not Lee on the batde-field.
I believe that if he had not been physically disabled, he
would have inflicted a heavy blow upon the enemy in
his march between Pamunkey and the Chickahominy.
It is idle, of course, to deal in these might-have-beens,
but there would most certainly have been some differ-
ence in the complexion of the campaign.

•* On the third of June the armies met again at Cold
Harbor. It may be worth noting that this Cold Harbor,

CONFEDERATE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN. 619

made famous by two great battles, is the old English
name for an ordinary or tavern where the traveler can
o-ct lodging without food. The victory of that day was, ,
perhaps, the easiest ever granted to Confederate arms.
It was a general assault along a front of six miles, and a
bloody repulse at all points excepting at one weak sali-
ent. There the success was but partial, and the position
was speedily regained. On the next day there was a
repetition of the painful scenes at Spottsylvania, and on
the day following, General Grant asked for a cessation
of hostilities to bury the dead. On the 12th the Fed-
eral army marched across the peninsula to the south
side of the James, and the overland campaign was ended.

•' That the morale of General Lee's army was high at
this time there can be no doubt. The strain of con-
tinuous bloody fighting at Spottsylvania had been great ;
but the campaigns of the North Anna and Chickahominy
had given the men some repose. They believed in the
success of the campaign, and were on better rations than
they had been on for a long time. The almost prodigal
charity with which several brigades contributed to the
poor of Richmond was a striking illustration of the
army's spirit during those days on the Chickahominy.
But cheerful as they were there was a sombre tint to
the soldier wit in our thinned ranks which expressed
itself in the homely phrase : 'What is the use of killing
these Yankees ? It is like killing musquitoes — two come
for every one you kill.*

"When Grant reached the James in safety after his
successful march, he did not follow McClellan's example
and repose under the shadow of his gunboats. He was
a man of action and possessed of obstinate persistency,
and he would not lie idle. Besides, he had the Wash-
ington authorities at his back and he was indifferent to

620

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

criticism at home. So he immediately moved across the
James towards Petersburg. He attacked Beauregard
on the 15th, on the Petersburg lines, with Smith's corps.
The day following he reinforced Smith and renewed
the attack, and on the 1 7th he carried the outer lines.
There Beauregard held him in check until Lee arrived
on the 1 8 th.

" It was on the 17th that the incident of the volunteer
attack upon the Bermuda Hundred lines took place. I
was an eye witness to it, and this is what occurred : By
the afternoon all the line had been retaken except a
portion in front of the clay house. The order had been
given to Generals Field and Pickett to move against
them from the lines which they held. Meanwhile,
however, the engineers had reported that the line we
had already taken was strong enough, and that it would
be a needless waste of life to attempt any more. Tlie
order not to make the attack was then issued, but
it reached only General Field in time. Pickett was
already engaged in the attack when it arrived. He at
once sent to General Gregg and urged him to go in and
protect his flank. Gregg instantly consented, but could
not wisely move until he had sent a like message to the
troops on his right. At this moment, however, Pickett's
advancing lines opened fire, and the men of the brigades
in Field's division on Gregg's right — first squads of
men and officers, then the standards, and then whole
regiments — leaped over the entrenchments and joined
in the charge without order. General Gregg and his
Texans also went forward with them, and, in a short
time, the position was ours. It was a gallant sight to
see, and a striking evidence of the high spirit of troops
who had now been fighting, for more than forty days,
a continuous strain of battles. The position was a

CONFEDERATE OVERLAND CAMPAIGN. 621

strong one, but It was only held by a few troops and our
losses were slight.

" The next day the Federals made a desperate assault
upon the interior lines of Petersburg, but they met with
a bloody repulse. Generals Lee and Beauregard were
both on the field, and the assault made no impression
upon our lines whatever, but it convinced Lee that the
time for a decisive blow had come.

'* An attack on the Federals was arranged for day-
break on the 24th. It was to begin with a heavy fire of
artillery from Archer's hill, on the north bank of the
Appomattox, enfilading the enemy's line near the river,
The infantry of Hoke's division, sustained by Field's
division, was to begin with the capture of the line next
the river, and then sweep along the line uncovering our
front, and rolling up the Federal right. If successful,
this would compel General Grant to fight at a disadvan-
tage in the open field. On the morning the attack
began very auspiciously, and the line near the river was
captured. But, through some error, the skirmishers
were not sustained, and they fell into the hands of the
enemy. The movement had failed, and was not per-
sisted in. From this date the operations partook of the
nature of a siege.'*

.-•li' .*J.<J' w ■ I \

f!1i:

'B 1

i'l^

CHAPTER XLIII.

ACROSS THE JAMES RIVER.

The transfer of the army across the Potomac — Grant's grand scheme — Butler against
Petersburg — His failure to go in the movement of the 1 2th of June — The alarm
about Washington — Over-cautious generalship — Smith's unnecessary deliberation
— Lee in secure possession of Petersburg,

The story of the transfer of the Army of the Potomac
south of the James river would be incomplete without
recital of the movements and military necessities that
led to the change of base. One of the important ele-
ments of the grand scheme of the concentration and co-
operation of all the l/nion armies, which Grant began
with his assumption of the functions of the commander-
in-chief, was the campaign mapped out for the Army of
the James. Butler, in charge of the Department of Vir-
ginia and North Carolina, commanded the various bodies
of troops that were operating along the Atlantic coast.
These were gradually concentrated until his forces in
and around Norfolk and Yorktown numbered nearly
forty thousand men. This was the Army of the James.
The impression was carefully circulated that they would
be again employed, as heretofore, in almost desultory
operations against other coast defences of the lower
Atlantic States. The possibility of their employment in
more effective warfare against either Richmond or the
Confederate armies in the field, seems not to have been
even suspected by the enemy. Nevertheless Grant had
intrusted to it one of the most important and promising
of all the enterprises of his supporting armies.

(622)

ACROSS THE JAMES RIVER.

623

The task which Grant assigned to Butler and his
army was to move by way of the south bank of the
James river against Petersburg and the southern rail-
way communications of Richmond, and, if possible, to
invest the latter city. At all events he was to prevent
the reinforcement of Lee's army from Richmond. Thus
the chief prize of the grand strategy of the armies was
left to Buder to seize, while the lieutenant-general
devoted his own energies to the more difficult work of
destroying Lee's army.

While the defences of the Confederate capital had
been made as strong as engineering skill could devise
north of the city, the defences of the railways and
approaches south, although so vitally important from
every administrative and military consideration, were
few, weak and intrusted almost wholly to local militia
and a few convalescent soldiers. Every man fit for
duty in the field, except a garrison of less than ten
thousand men, had been sent to reinforce Lee's army,
now terribly depleted by its rude shocks from Grant's
still advancing forces. Had Butler's commanders played
their part the destruction of Lee's command might have
been accomplished before either of the great armies
reached the James.

Buder, in accordance with his instructions, seized
City Point on the James as early as May 5th. He re-
ported the success of the general movement and the
results of the reconnoissances toward Petersburg, but
asked for reinforcements. Four days later he sent ex-
citing news. He had landed at Bermuda Hundred, in-
trenched where his army could defend itself against the
whole of Lee's force. Besides, he had destroyed many
miles of the railroads between Petersburg and Rich-
mond. He also reported that a large portion of Beaure-

624

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

gard's army was thus cut off from reinforcing the Con-
federate capital or Lee's army.

On the day of the terrible grapple of Grant and Lee
at Cold Harbor the former received the news of the
miscarriage of Butler's campaign. Instead of hurling
his army against the handful of home-guards defending
Petersburg, Butler had contented himself with a succes-
sion of isolated and weak attacks, which were easily
repelled. After wasting nearly two weeks in this desul-
tory campaigning he essayed to advance upon Richmond
along the James. Met at Drury's Bluff by an inferior
force hastily collected by Beauregard, and with difficulty
repulsing desperate charges made to cut him off from
the James, he had retired to his intrenchments about
Bermuda Hundred. Beauregard then felt strong enough
to send the bulk of his force to Lee, thus defeating
every object comprised in the scheme of the campaign
A handful of old men and boys, aided by a single regi-
ment of troops, had presented such a resolute front that
their assailants had been held at bay until Beauregard,
with all the men he could gather from the Atlantic coast,
reinforced by Pickett's division from Lee's army, had
assumed the off ; isive and cooped up Butler and his
men at Bermuda Hundred.

The sole result of Buder's movements was the estab-
lishment of a base on the James river at which Grant's
army could effect a junction and thence operate against
the Confederate capital from the southward.

Deeply chagrined at the ill success of the Army of the
James, Grant's plans were foiled almost as disastrously
in another direction. Sigel, having advanced fifty miles
up the Shenandoah valley, was struck by a force of
Confederates at Newmarket and badly defeated. He
had been expected to push forward as far as Staun-

ACROSS THE JAMES RIVER.

625

ton, destroy the railroad and prevent the enemy from
drawing further supplies from that still rich granary.
Instead, he was in full retreat toward Strasburg, and
the troops opposed to him were at liberty to join Lee.
Banks' campaign in northwestern Louisiana had been
a disastrous failure. Sheridan, however, had made the
raid between Lee's army and Richmond, penetrating to
the suburbs of the Confederate capital, and throwing
the heads of its executive departments into an agony
of terror. However, being without infantry support,
he would have been unable to hold the city, even had
he taken it. Sherman, too, had driven Bragg out of
Dalton by a brilliant movement. Thus the grand
scheme of co operation and concentration was success-
ful only as to his own and Sherman's armies.

The transfer of the Army of the Potomac to the south
bank of the James was now to be accomplished. The
Confederate armies had been forced so close to Rich-
mond that it was impossible by any other flanking
movement to interpose between Lee and the Confed-
erate capital. Grant was, however, in position to pass
Lee's left and invest Richmond from the north, or to
continue beyond the right, as before, and cross the
James river. Halleck urged the investment- here, but
Grant saw the impracticability of a line north and east,
and that th*^ movement to Lee's right was the only
available course. He then wrote Halleck that he
should wait until his cavalry destroyed the Virginia
Central Railway to the west, *' and when this is effected
I shall move the army to the south side of the James."

Sheridan left with two divisions on June 7th for the
north and west of Richmond, leaving Wilson's division
to cover the flanks of the army while crossing. On the
night of that day Burnside and Warren had been re-

il f

626

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

tirtd from the right, and were in full possession of the
road to the James as far down the Chickahominy as
Brittan's Bridge and Dispatch Station, on the York
River Railroad, with Wilson picketing all the fords.
Engineers were already studying the river for the best
place to cross to City Point. This was the main position
on the south side of the James, because the centring
of the railways to the west and south and from Norfolk,
at Petersburg, made tliat city on the Appomattox

VIEW OF THE CHICKAHOMINY NEAR MECHANICSVILLE.

the objective point for the continuation of the cam-
paign. With Grant at Petersburg, Lee could not re-
main a week at Richmond, or anywhere else on the
north bank of the James.

The movement was one of the most difficult and
dangerous of the whole war, yet on the night of June
1 2th it was besfun. Smith, who had been detached from
Butler after the Petersburg failure, was sent back with
his corps to City Point by water. The rest of the

the

r as

'ork

)rds.

best

ition

tring

rfolk,

attox

i cam-

not re-

on the

ult and

of June

ed from

Lck with

of the

ACROSS THE JAMES RIVER. 627

army had a march before it of thirty-four miles to the
James, thiough the difficult swamps of the Chickahom-
iny bottom, and across that treacherous river to Wil-
cox's Landing, twelve miles below City Point. The base
of supplies was removed from White House, on the
York river, to City Point, by water, one hundred and
fifty miles away. A pontoon bridge was laid across the
Chickahominy after Wilson crossed, and before dark of
the 1 3th Hancock was on the bank of the James, and
crossed the next day on transports.

Smith arrived at Bermuda Hundred on the 14th, be-
fore the pontoon bridge was laid, and at midnight the
movement of the Fifth, Sixth and Ninth corps was be
gun, and all were across before the morning of June
1 6th.

The authorities at Washington, stimulated by the
nervous fears of General Halleck, were rni:ch alarmed
at this change of base. It left nothing between Lee
and Washington, unless Hunter, who had succeeded
Sigel, in the valley, could be depended upon to hold
Lee should he attempt another movement to the North
like that of 1862 after the Peninsular campaign, and of
1863 after Chancellorsville. President Lincoln, how-
ever, who really seemed to have more military percep-
tion than half of the alleged generals about him, caught
something of Grant's idea, and telegraphed him, June
1 6th : " I begin to see it ; you will succeed. God bless
you all."

The alarmists who were close to the ear of the Pres
ident almost impressed him with their dread of the
danger to Washington in consequence of Grant's
operations. They did not perceive, as Grant did, that
the depletion of Lee's forces during the six weeks of
terrible fighting between the Rapidan and the James

f '

' !

MAP SHOWING THE I'OSIIUjN OK THE ARMIES NEAR PETERSBLKG.
(628)

FT A1.EX.HAY^

ACROSS THE JAMES RIVER. 629

rendered the Confederate commander utterly un-
able to attempt an invasion of the North. Lee's
command was weakened. The Confederate com-
mander could estimate at its true value the fatal con-
vergence of Union forces upon him. To weaken his
army for any northern enterprise would lead to his in-
evitable ruin.

While Hancock was crocsing, Grant ran up to Ber-
muda Hundred and instructed Butler as to the seizure
of Petersburg. He was directed to send forward Smith
at once on arrival, adding to his force all the troops he
could spare from the line, while Hancock and the others,
as fab. as they crossed, would move on the east bank of
the Appomattox to co-operate.

Everything now depended upon the immediate cap-
ture of Petersburg, but over-cautious generalship again
defeated Grant's plan. His orders for rapid movement
were not carried out, and the city was soon so strength-
ened by Lee's own army that it took weary months of
toil and hard fighting before the prize was won. Gen-
eral Butler gave Smith the cavalry division under Kautz,
and a division of colored troops under General Edward
Hinks, increasing his effective force to about eighteen
thou iand men. The movement was to be made against
the northeas side of the city, the line extending from
City Point to tne Norfolk Railroad — Kautz on the road,
Hinks on the right, followed by Brooks and Martin-
dale. There were not much over two thousand Con-
federates then in the city, but they were behind very
strong field-works, protected in front by well-built and
easily-defended rifle trenches. The column struck the
enemy's pickets about six o'clock in the morning, at
Baylor's farm, six miles from the city, where a battery
o[)ened. Katstz reconnoitred and formed a regiment

630

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

of dismounted cavalry, supporting a light battery. The
colored division was thrown in, and cleared the ground ;
but the advance was delayed so that it was nine o'clock
before the line moved forward, and not until ii a. m.
that the column had arrived in front of Petersburg. At
noon the whole force was up.

Smith was afflicted with excess of caution, and, finding
the works so much stronger than he expected, moved
timidly along until it was half-past one o'clock before
his line reached the point from which the assault was to
be made. His previous service proved him to be a sol-
dier of great skill and undoubted bravery, possessing
cool judgment, but here nis extreme caution had led
him to take no risk without careful reconnoissance.
Five long hours, when each moment was of supreme
importance, were spent in examining the ground, select-
ing and planting his batteries on commanding points
and forming his infantry. It was seven o'clock when he
finally assaulted, not in force, however, but with a strong
skirmish line, striking the works in front and flank, and
by dark he was in possession of the whole outer line,
two miles and a half long, with fifteen guns and half
a thousand prisoners. All that remained between him
and Petersburg was a part of Wise's brigade and a de-
feated mob of old men and boys of the local militia.
His splendid troops had assaulted and swept over one
of the strongest and best constructed lines of works
that was ever built by the Confederates. His troops were
flushed with their victory, and could easily have been
swung forward successfully even against a much larger
force. Besides, they had just been reinforced by two
divisions — Birney's and Gibbons' — of Hancock's ham-

mermg veterans.

Smith was again "cautious" and decided to wait until

ACJiOSS THE TAMES RIVER.

681

the coming day before continuing his movement. He
luid received information that the Confederates were
rapidly crossing the James at Drury's Bluff. While
this should have spurred him on to complete the advan-
tage he had gained rather than risking it by delay, he
fatally sat down, with Birney and Gib^Dons post^^d in his

GRANT'S HEAD.QUARTERS AV CITY POINT.

captured line, and at daylight next morning a Confede-
rate force had been thrown into Petersburg that lost to
Grant the possession of the town he should have cap-
tured twelve hours before.

Had Hancock assumed command on arriving, he be-
ing the senior officer, the story of the war would prob-
ably have ended with the midsummer of 1864, for
Hancock would certainly have pushed in and grasped
the advantage gained.

By daylight of June i6th the whole of the Second
corps was in line on Smith's left, and two divisions of

682

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Wright's command had been sent to strengthen Butler's
line to the north of the Appomattox. Believing that all
had gone well with his plans, General Grant had re-
mained at City Point, as being more central both to
Petersburg and Butler; but at once, on learning of
Smith's failure, he rode out to Petersburg, where he
made a personal examination and left Hancock in com-
mand until Meade's arrival. Burnside had marched all
night to the field and was posted on Hancock's left, and
Warren was on his way from the James. Burnside's
men must rest, and so the intended effort to repair
Smith's fault was deferred to 6 p. m. The assault was
made by Hancock's corps, with part of Burnside's and
Smith's, but without result, except to gain ground close
to the heavy redoubts where Lee's veterans were by this
time posted so strongly.

Early the next morning, Friday, the Fifth corps
formed on the extreme left, and at sunrise Burnside car-
ried a strong redoubt in his front. All day long the
whole line was engaged vigorously and was gradually
advanced, but no great success was attained and the
redoubt taken by Burnside was lost that night. The
same day Butler's front was assaulted and forced back,
and Wright, with two divisions, was sent to help him.
Nothing substantial was accomplished. A general
assault along Meade's front was ordered for Saturday
morning, but the Confederates had retired to an inner
and still stronger line, which was attacked at times from
morn until dark with no better results than the day be-
fore. Lee remained securely in possession of Peters-
burg. All of the operations of Friday and Saturday
were made under the personal supervision of Meade,
who rose to the occasion, and proved himself worthy
of the confidence Grant had in him.

. N '

CHAPTER XLIV.
early's valley campaign.

Early's corps ordered to the Valley — Driving Hunter away — Beating Sigcl — The
Sixth and Nineteenth Corps at Washin^jton — Early crosses the Potomac — Lew
Wallace beaten at Monocacy — Early before the Washington defences — Driven
back by the Sixth Corps — Chambersburg burned — Sheridan made commander of
Shenandoah Valley forces — "Early whirling up the Valley" — Complete success
of Sheridan's Valley campaign.

During these operations under the immediate eye of
the Great Chieftain, other matters were occurring^ that
proved the grasp he held on the whole situation. Gen-
eral Jubal A. Early, who had succeeded to the command
of Ewell's corps of Lee's army, had gone in the late
days of June and driven Hunter off to the Kanawha,
in Western Virginia. The Shenandoah Valley was left
open, and Early swept down that broad and fertile
thoroughfare to Martinsburg, overwhelming Sigel's small
force. Besides his own corps, he had the forces of
Breckinridge, Imbqden (one of the most dashing cavalry
leaders of the Confederacy), McCausland, and Vaughn.
Early's orders from Lee, on leaving to head off Hunter,
were to swing back along the east side of the Blue
Ridge and cross, if possible, the Potomac at Lcesburg.
He was given discretionary power, if he deemed best, to
go down the Valley, and he adopted this plan. He had
then, as is reported, nearly 25,000 effective men. includ-
ing ten batteries.

Reaching Winchester July 2d, Sigel was quickly
brushed away from Martinsburg, and by the 8th Early
had passed South Mountain Gap in Maryland, and was
at Frederick near the Monocacy. Grant heard of Early|s

(633)

,,„

II,

634

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

advance on July 4th. Then the idea was prevalent that
he was going into Pennsylvania. He had anticipated
this move on learning of Hunter's defeat, and ordered
that all available forces be concentrated at Washington.
The Nineteenth Corps was then arriving in Hampton

FORTIFICATIONS IN AND AROUND WASHINGTON CITY.

Roads, and was at once ordered to Baltimore. On 9th
of July, Wright, with the Sixth Corps, was sent to
Washington, arriving there in the nick of time to check
and hurl back Early's army, then within sight of the
Capitol and some of the public buildings of the city.

EARLY S VALLEY CAMPAIGN.

635

Early had defeated General Lew Wallace at the
Monocacy, and quickly marched to the works on the
north side of Washint^ton, The crisis was so urj^ent
tl.at President Lincoln telei^raphed his judgment to
(ieneral Grant, that he should leave enough men to
hold his line at Petersburg, and bring the rest with him
personally and make a vigorous effort to defeat the
enemy in the vicinity of the National Capital. Grant's
foith was so great in his lieutenants that he decided not
to go. He replied that Wright could do the work.

On the nth of July, when Early attacked Washing-
ton at Fort Stevens, a handful of men met his advance
and disputed its progress. Litde by little it was driven
back, consuming nearly the whole day in the unequal
struggle. All this time there was really no serious
bar to P2arly's entrance into the national capital. Only
a few troops and clerks from the departments with
^runs in their hands stood in his way. All wondered
why he did not enter, and the general supposition was
that he did not know the condition of the defences.
General Gordon, who was one of the leading officers of
the expedition, now says that they were fully aware of
the weakness of the defenders of the seat of govern-
ment, but that, after thoroughly canvassing the matter
in council, there were prudential reasons why they
should not capture it What these reasons were Gen-
eral Gordon does not state, but they are supposed to
relate to the fear that the troops might become unman-
ageable and excite Northern indignation to a high and
dangerous pitch by a sack of the capital, just at the
moment when the Confederacy were receiving great en-
couragement from the depression of the North — a
weakening on the part of the Unionists more valuable
to the Southern cause than a victory. When Early's

<»36

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

men had reached within short artillery ranj^e of the
I'ort, the flag of the Sixth Corps rounded the point
of the fortifications and was welcomed with hearty
cheers by the I^'ederals. Wrij^ht threw his troops
forward, and put them in line of battle as soon as
possible, and before nij^^ht fall these veterans built a wall
of threatening iron to dispute Early's advance. TIk
next day he was driven off. Wright followed him alon^
hi:> track down the Shenandoah, overtaking and punishinj^r
him severely at Snicker's Gap. Averill, who had conic
from Hunter's on the Kanawha, caught him at Win-
Chester and took many guns and prisoners. A week
later Early whirled about, and, attacking Crook and
Averill, drove them back across the Potomac, and thrust
forward McCausland with a small force of cavalry inio
Pennsylvania, where he burned Chambersburg because
that town would not "ay half a million ransom. Early.
when forced back, was gathering the vast harvests of
the rich Shenandoah V^alley and sending the much-
needed supplies to Richmond for Lee's army.

In this trial Grant's broad grasp of the situation of
affairs was well pro\ (M1, for here he was more perplexed
than at any other time. Dana, the Assistant Secretary ot
War, telegraphed him from Washington that "nothini^r
can be done here for want of a commander. General
Augur commands the defences of Washington, with ]\lc
Cook and a lot of brigadier generals under him ; Wright
commands his own corps. General (iillmore has been as-
signed to the temporary command of those troops of the
Nineteenth Corps in the city of Washington ; General
Ord to command the Eighth Corps, and cdl other troops
in the Middle Department, leavmg Wallace to command
the city alone. But there is no head to the whole, and it
seems indispensable that you should at once appoint one."

F.ARLYS VALLEY CAMP MGN. 637

It was at this time that IVesi(Jent Lincoln asked Grant
to come to Wasliin^^ton "personally," but the General-
in-Chief had Wrij^'^ht placed in ^eniTal command, rei^ard
less of the seniority of Hunter, Wallace and Aujj^ur.

Dana had also said (by direction of the Secretary of
War ) : ''Advice or sui^\i^cs(ion/roni you will not be siiffuietti.
(icneral Ifalleck zvill not give orders except as he receives
them. The President will j^ive none, and until you direct
positively and explicitly what is to be done everything''
will ^o on in the deplorable manner in which it has gone
on for the past week." Every one turned to Grant,
whose sturdy valor had impressed the country with an
unfailinji^ faith. Even when Wright was designa cd to
command. President Lincoln sent for General Hunter
and excused the order relieving him, saying that it was
only temporary, and urging him to withdraw his very
proper request to be relieved. The order assigning
Wright to command all the troops left Hunter as com-
mander of a department, with but a single company
to command.

(irant wanted the Sixth Corps back with him, and
urged that General W. B. Franklin be assigned to the
command, but antagonism was shown at Washington
against this detail.

1 he situation was imminent. Grant promptly decided
that a head was wanted in that region, and on the 2d of
August named Sheridan as Commander of the Middle
Military Division, embracing the commands of Hunter,
Crook, Averill. Wallace and Kelly. Western Mary-
land anc! Southern Pennsylvania were exposed to inva-
sion. Grant decided to look over the ground in person
before issuing any positive orders . and so, leaving City
l^oint August 4th, he went to Harper's Ferry to confer
with the commanders there.

«38

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

:i|

1*1

Sheridan relieved Hunter and with the Eighth, Sixth
and Nineteenth Corps and Torbert's and Wilson's divi-
sions of cavalry was ordered to clear the Valley of the
Shenandoah of the enemy, and destroy all supplies In:
could not use. The story of the next three months
showed how well he obeyed orders ; for, besides lus
victories, he reported that "a crow Hying over this
region would have to carry his own rations with him. "

Sheridan's operations in the valley, the battle of V\ in
Chester and of Cedar Creek, when he sent Early *' whirl-
ing up the valley," defeated and destroyed, have littK; to
do with this narrative except to show how true Grant's
judgment was in selecting his subordinate commanders.

This history is recalled simply to show how absolutely
every ofticial from the President down, leaned upon
Grant in this crisis. No one would assume any respon
sibility and the entire direction of military affairs in all
the various departments as well as about Washinj^^ton
was left to the Lieutenant-General. In this emergency,
when the war was being declared a failure, when the
enemy was hammering at the doors of the national
capital, and the heart of the North, both as to resources
and men, was sinking to the point of despair, every one
seems to have looked to this plain, unassuming man for
guitlance and protection. In this dark hour he never
flinched, and a reunited countr)^ is the result of his
manly self-confidence and firmness.

CHAPTER XLV.

GORDON IN THE VALLEY.

Hunter in Virginia — His move to Kanawha — The Confederate advance on Watha
ington — Sheridan sent to the rescue — Gordon'a slory of the campaign — Win-
chester — Overlooking the Fe<lcral camp at Cedar Creek — The attack at dawn —
Defeat of the Federals— Sheridan's arrival — Defeat changed into victory — The
vnlley clear.

Hunter had been sent on his expedition up the valley
of the Shenandoah, and for a time he completely disap-
peared as far as Grant's knowledge of his whereabouts
was concerned. There was considerable uneasjness
about him until it became known that he had gone west
toward Kanawha, and had found a position which left
him safe enough but of not much use to the national
cause. What was of more moment he had left the
valley entirely unprotected, and there was virtually a
broad, open highway to Washington for the Confederate
troops. Lee was too good a general not to see and
take advantage of such a golden opportunity. General
Early was immediately sent up the valley, and the wild-
est alarm prevailed at the national capital. The poli-
ticians, who had been giving elaborate military opinions
and meddling with ofificious ignorance in the plans of
campaigns, were suddenly startled at the prospect of
getting a little practical experience of war. A cry went
up instantly for protection ; and General Sheridan, with
the Sixth and the Nineteenth corps and his cavalry
under command of Torbett, was sent to the rescue.
General Gordon tells the Confederate story of what

liappened ;

(«89)

640

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

"As we moved off from Washington, the Sixth corps
was immediately put under Sheridan. We had a great
deal of confidence in ourselves. We had had a clear
field and the army was in good spirits. Across the
Potomac we stopped to rest and to gather forage and
food. We also did some recruiting. Sheridan attacked
us at Winchester and we were routed. It was the first
battle we lost in the valley. Indeed, before that we had
not even had a check of any kind. We had been enabled
to live off the country and to even forward supplies to
Richmond.

" When Sheridan came up in the valley our troops
were very much scattered. This, of course, because it
was more convenient to feed them in that way, and we
had not gotten well in line when we were plunged in
the midst of battle. The Federal assault was confident
and impetuous, and we were in no condition to resist it.
One division after another broke, and when the sun went
down on the evening of the 19th of September the Fed-
eral victory was complete. We had been beaten in
detail. The attack was too sudden to enable us to con-
solidate our forces and use them to the best advantage,
and we were shattered and demoralized.

" Dejected and broken we moved down the valley to
Fi*?her's Hill, where we had a very strong position.
There we 3topped and recruited and tried to repair the
damage which had been done. Our soldiers were very
much disheartened, however. The transformation from
a hopeful and advancing army to a beaten and retreating
one was too great. Three days later we were attacked
in our position and again defeated.

*• For nearly a month there was a respite, and then
came Cedar Creek. For the time being we won one of
the great victories of the war. Every detail of the move-

GORDON Iiy, THE VALLEY.

641

ment was carefully planned, and for twelve hours it was
supremely successful. I had crone the day before, Oc-
tober i8th, to the top of what is called Massanutten
mountain, where we had a signal corps stationed, and
had taken observations through the field-glasses. There
was a magnificent bird's-eye view. The Shenandoah
was the silver bai between us. On the opposite side of
the river I could distinctly see the red cuffs of the artil-
lerists. I could even count the men who were there. The
camp was splendidly exposed to me. I marked the po-
sition of the guns, and tlie pickets walking to and fro,
and observed where the cavalry was placed. It flashed
upon me instantly that the expectation of General Sher-
idan was that we would attack him on his right, which
was the only place supposed possible for the advance
of any army. His left was protected by the Shenandoah ;
at this point the mountain was very precipitous and the
river ran around it. There was no road at all and the
point was guarded only by a mere cavalry picket. I saw
our opportunity in an instant, and 1 told the officers pres-
ent that, if General Early would permit me to move my
corps (I was then commanding Ewell's corps) down to
this point, I could get around the mountain. Both sides
believed this was impossible, but I felt sure that it could
be done. My plan was to dismount our cavalry, attack
Sheridan's cavalry when dismounted and keep them
from moving. I knew that if we could do this we would
gain a great victory.

"This plan was submitted, talked over and finally sub-
stantially agreed upon. I took my command, having
ordered them to leave their canteens, sabres and every-
thing that could make a noise behind. I knew that our
only dependence was in absolute secrecy and in a com-
plete surprise. After inspecting things with my staff I

Ml'

'ill'

' ; 'I'

642

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

found I could get my men around the mountain by put-
ting them in single file. I discovered still another place
where the horses could be led, although the venture
would be exceedingly dangerous. Still the expedition
was essentially one of great peril, and more or less
danger was of little consequence.

" Early in the night I began to move my men around
the mountain. My object was to have them all ready
for in attack before daylight in the morning. The
movement took all night. All through the hours of
darkness the silent figures moved to their position near
the sleeping enemy. An entire brigade of cavalry was
moved in this way, and reached the point about an hour
and a half in advance of the men. I instructed the cav-
alry that as soon as I got ready to move they were to
proceed in my front, rush across the river, open on the
cavalry pickets and capture them if possible. If they
could not do this they were to put their horses to full
spe(^d, ride right through the Federal camp, firing their
pistols to the right and the left as they passed throuoh,
and make directly for Sheridan's head-quarters and cap-
ture him. At that time I did not know that Sheridan
was absent and Wright in command. I had selected his
house from the flags which floated from it, and the cour-
iers who were constantly going in and out. My orders
were: 'Go right through the Federal camp with your
command before daylight and right to General Sher-
idan's head-quarters. Capture him!' Before the move-
ment began we had compared watches so that the attack
might be simultaneous.

"On the morning of the 19th, just about daylight, we
fir^d three or four shots. Away the Federal pickets
went, with our cavalry brigade after them. I ruslit'd
across, wading the river, with my whole corps of infantry.

GORDON IN THE VALLEY.

643

We went with a rush and double-quick. Before start-
ing; I had selected the house on the road at which the
head of my column should stop. It was a white house
at the turn of the road further down towards the
river, and was on the Hank of the enemy's line. As
soon as I got there 1 was in position, and I had nothing
to do but to close up in front and move. Dashing for-
ward with one brigade we plunged into the enemy's
camp and found the men asleep. Many of them never
awoke in this world. We went right through them and
shot every one in flight. The cavalry had reaclu^tl the
head-quarters and General Wright barely escaped, leav-
ing his papers behind him, and they fell into our hands.
We killed and wounded between seven and eight thou-
sand of the panic-stricken and bewildered Federals and
broke two corps entirely to pieces. TIi o loss in my com-
mand was only about two hundred. By sunrise we occu-
pied the breastworks. The enemy's cavalry was forced to
retreat before Rosser, although superior to him in num-
bers. We did not press our advance. The enemy still
had the Sixth corps in reserve, but we drove it back and
captured a few of its pieces. That was the batde of
Cedar Creek, and it was a complete victory.

"But the triumph did not last. Our men were intox-
icated with their victory and were careless and out of
line. Sheridan had heard the noise 6f the conflict in
the mornintr and he came thunderintr down from Win-
Chester. He found his men scattered along the road in
terror-stricken confusion, and he compelled them to
turn about and follow him. He was a fury on horse-
back, dashing here and there among the flying soldiers,
and beating them back to the field of death which they
had quitted. Meanwhile the men who were retreating
from the front had been brought to some sort of oreler.

644

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" Then followed one of the most extraordinary rever-
sals in the history of any war. As soon as Sheridan
reached the field he re-formed his line and practised
upon us precisely the same movement which had dc
moralized his own forces in the morning. He just
moved around our Hank, swept down it and whii>j)( d
us out of existence. He broke our line all to fragments,
and routed the whole army most absolutely. It was as
thorough a defeat as 1 ever saw. The day had dawiK'd
upon victory anil exultation. It closed upon utter dis-
aster and dejection. Two distinct battles had been
fought, and in the last we lost all that we gained in the
first one and all that we had before. The reaction was
dramatic in its suddenness and completeness, and when
we left the field that evening the Confederacy had re-
tired from the Shenandoah. It was our last fight in the
valley."

CHAPTER XLVI

TTIK DKPKKS^qoN OV 1 864.

Dt-i'ondency of tlie American jjcoplc — Ignorance of the nation aboiH war — ClaiH'
orint; for a conclusion — The war declared a (aihiie — •' I'eace at any price" — 'I'he
Northwestern conspiracy -(Grant's n markahle letter to Admiral Amincn — Mis
thorough knowledge of tiie situation — I'all of Atlanta — The cry fo; Sherman —
The relations of the two generals.

The pessimism of public sentiment in tht- North
(lurinij;; 1H64 was full of serious results to the Ft^deral
army. It encouraij^ed the Confederacy, upheld the liands
of its sympatliizcTs, embarrassed the Northern com-
mandeers, and injured the national credit. The press
was voluble with absurd sujj^gestions, and the ptiople
were in a profoundly anxious state of mind. Uned-
ucated in war, ignorant of the patienct; and detail which
are necessary to the winninir of campaij^ns, the appar-
cnlly slow progress towards a conclusion consumed
thcin with nervous impatience. They were continually
clamoring for progress; but the popular idea of progress
was that it meant a rapid and dramatic succession of
battles. They could not understand that whenever a
base of supplies had been cut off from the Confederate
capital, famine had won a victory in the campaign, and
that the victories of famine prepared the way for the
victories of arms. The knowledge of the factors of final
success was not theirs. Soldiers knew, but the soldiers
were at the front. The great body of public sentiment
oersisted in its illy-based resentment, and lost courage in
Its causeless despair.

The public was very forgetful. The exultation of the

(fU5)

646

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

■*i

Southwest campaign had alread^- become a forgotten
pride. The opening of the Miss sippi, which had once
seemed so momentous, now appeared but a trivial inci-
dent of a past era. The triumphs of Sheridan in tlic
valley were bits of war-color that had faded. The
strong, steady advance across the Rapidan had lost
its glory, and was only remembered as the first step
in a policy of inexcusable delay. It was nothing that
there had been no backward steps. That was because
of "brute force" and " overwhelminir numbers" and
"unlimited supplies," and all the rest of the cant phrases
of the day. The fact stood out that Richmond had not
fallen, and the impression was general that the army lay
in a comatose condition, and did not move because it
would not move.

Many people could not understand why it would not be
the easiest thing in the world for Grant to put his army on
dress-parade some fine morning, start up the bands, un-
furl the flags, and march into the Confederate capital
and end the rebellion. It looked easy enough to those
who depended solely upon their imaginations for their
military information.

The effect of this discontent upon the armii-s was
very embarrassing. Officers hesitated to make neces-
sary movements because of the criticisms which would
follow. They ^jarec^ to attempt demonstrations which
the situation uemanded, because the voluble iiT^norance
of the stay-at-ho^ne critics would call the final retirement
of the troops a defeat and a retreat. No bettcM- illustra-
tion of this can be given than the despatch which Shor
man sent to Grant when he was ordered to demonstrate
before Haines' Hliiffs, while Grant made the real attack
on Grand Gulf. In it he explained that, although the
country would mistake his feint for an assault and look

THE DEPRESSION OF 1864.

647

upon his withdrawal as a repulse, he would trust to the
judgment of time for justice. It was this persistent
meddling which hampered our commanders sorely ; the
forgetfulness and ingratitude for what they had done,
and the impatient demand that they should commit
themselves to policies which they knew meant defeat and
ruin.

Out of this depression grew the *' peace-at-any-price "
cry. That cry was almost fatal to the cause of the Union.
A powerful political party took it up, nominated a man
who had been the great commander in the early days of
the conflict, and went before the country with the declara-
tion that the war was a failure. Even citizens who were
thoroughly in sympathy with the national idea were
affected by it, and filled with profound concern for the
final results. There was a paralysis of patriotism, and
the calls for fresh troops were unanswered.

The war had been a weary drain, and the excitement
of quick victories was necessary to sustain Northern
patience. It had not yet been educated to an apprecia-
tion of the streno'th of methodical movement, of slow
but certain progress, of wary and comprehensive war-
fare. It did not know that only the limbs of the Con-
federacy had been lopped off, and that Grant was now
eni-aued in crushinof its heart.

Nor did the North understand that its discontent was
prolonging the war by inspiring <^he Confederacy. It
could not see that, where so much had been risked, the
South would go to the extreme to obtain the great stake
for which it was fighting, and that every attack upon the
Northern commander was applause of the man who led
the Confederates. It did not see that the foreign
sympathizers of the rebellion, who had already advanced
millions to assist in disunion, would advance more and

648

LIFE OF GENFRAL GRANT.

'k^']

thus add to the fighting resources of the South, as long
as the depression of the North gave them hope of a
fortunate result.

The South was fighting for secession and slavery.
What the " peace-at-any-price-party " proposed to qrjve
them involved secession and slavery. It meant that all
the patriotism which had been displayed was a purpose-
less enthusiasm ; that all the blood that had been spilled
was a pathetic waste ; that the hands of the clock were
to be turned back to 1861 and the division of the Union be
made permanent. Noble encouracrement, this, for the
men who were dying at the front.

It is, of course, true that the general despondency was
skilfully nursed by Confederate emissaries at the North.
But they found little difficulty in convincins^ the public
that the war was being conducted upon a policy of radical
waste and inexcusable delay. It was quick to suspicion
and slow to judgment. Its impatient vociferation and
loud complaint reached Washington, and tlie authorities
who were between the armies and the public moved
about un^^asily, wagged their heads in wise confidence,
and tried to hurry that which could not be hurried. It
was a problem which could not be solved by the omis-
sion of two or three of the necessary processes.

The year grew older and the clamor grew louder.
The air was heavy with the elements of a storm. Con-
spiracy stepped from behind the mask of discontented
loyalty. Impatience at the Federal army became tiie
pretext for rendering almost open aid to the Confederacy.
Everywhere there were coldness and cabal. Emissaries
of disunion flitted througii the North, sowing the seeds
of internal dissension. Loyalty hung its head in sorrow,
while discord walked the streets with lifted brow. Tiiere
was still the silent progress at the front ; still the excited

THE DEPRESSION OF 1864.

649

denunciation in the rear ; still the nervous doubt and
apprehension at Washincrton.

At last there came almost a climax. A g^igantic con-
spiracy had been born of the opportunity presented.
A Nor'' western department of the Confederacy was
formed, with head-quarters at Chicaoo, and men were
recruited in many Northern cities to enlist in its cause.
The base of the conspiracy was the argument that the
Union was sure to be dissevered, and that contiguous
States with common inierrsts slu)uld takt- care of each
other in the crash It mvolvevl die release of th*^ Con-
federate prisoners \\\ Camp** Cii .^se m\A Douglas., and
at Johnson's island. \\\k\ the seizure ot all the national
property in the NovUuvest. The plot was ''^covered
and throttled, but so dangerous was the state of the
public mind at the time thai ev(;ry detail of the exposure
and suppression was carefully concealed. The national
government did not dare to reveal the truth.

Meanwhile Grant was investing Richmond. The
sounds of the discontent came to him, but he continued
in his purpose undisturbed and undismayed. He could
see the end that seemed so far away to the people who
had lost confidence in him, and all he wanted was the
time to carry out his plans. But he understood the sit-
uation in the rear fully and was not deceived by any of
its symptoms. How keen his analytical power was and
how fully he grasped the after-consequences of a com-
promise is shown in the following important letter to
Admiral Ammen, now for the first time given to the
public :

Head-quartrrs Army of the U. S., City Point, Va.,

August 18, 1864.
Dear Ammen :

Your letter of the 2d was duly received. I regret not having made

better progress in whipping out the rebellion, but fee) conscious of

660

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

having done the best I knew how. This army has fought desperately
since it left Culpepper and has gained this substantial advantage:
the enemy is afraid to fight it out on an open field, whilst the Army
of the Potomac feels confident of success whenever the terms are any-
thing like equal.

Several times we have had decisive victories within our grasp, but
let them, through accident or fault, slip through our hands. Our
movement from Cold Harbor to the south side of the James was
made with such celerity that before the enemy was aware of it, and
before lie got a single regiment across the river, our forces had car-
ried the fortifications east of Petersburg. There was nothing, not
even a military force, to prevent our walking in and taking possession,
and the officer charged with this work, for some unaccountable reason,
stopped at the works he had captured and gave the enemy time to get
in a garrison and intrench it.

On the 31st of July again, by a feint north of the James, we drew
most of the enemy to that side of the river, and, whilst he was there
(with my troops quietly withdrawn during the night), a mine judi-
ciously prepared was exploded, burying a battery and some three
hundred of the enemy, and making a breach in their works into
which my men marched without opposition. The enemy was com-
pletely surprised and began running in all directions. There was
nothing to prevent our men from marching directly to the high ground
in front of them, to which they had been directed to go, and then all
the enemy's fortifications would have been taken in reverse and no
stand would have been made. It is clear that, without a loss of five
hundred men, we could have had Petersburg, with all of its artillery
and many of its garrison.

But our troops stopped in the crater made by the explosion. The
enemy was given time to rally and reoccujjy his line. Then we
found, true enough, that we had the wolf by the ears. He was hard
to hold and more dangerous to let go. This was so outrageous that 1
have obtained a court of inquiry to sift the matter.

We will peg away, however, and end this matter if our people at
home will be true to themselves. If they would but reflect, every-
thing looks favorable. The South now have every man in the ranks,
including old men and little boys. They have no longer means to
replace a man who is lost, whilst, by enforcing the draft, we have
abundance of men. Give us half the men called for by the draft and
there will hardly be any resistance made. The rebellion is now fed
and sustained by the bickering and differences North. The hope of a

THE DEPRESS/ON OF 1804.

051

counter-revolution over the draft or the presidontial election keeps
them together. Then, too, they hope for the election of a peace
commission which will let them go.

A " peace at any price " is fearful to contemplate. It would he
but the beginning o*' war. The demands of tlie South would know
no limits. They would demand indemnit) lor expenses incurred in
carrying on the war ; and they would demand a treaty looking to the
return of all fugitive slaves escaping to the Northern States, and they
would keep on demanding until it would be better to be dead tluui to
suljniit longer.

My staff officers, generally, have been sick. I m'. the only one at
head-quarters who has escaped entirely ; nnd General Rawlins, Colonels
Badeau and Rowley are now absent, sick, and three otiiers of the
staff have been absent but have returned improved. The health of
the troops, however, is generally good.

I shall be glad to hear from you at all times.

Yours truly,

U. S. Grant.
Commander Daniel Ammen, U. S. Navy.

•' If the country would only reflect." But it would not
reflect. It confounded impressions with conclusions and
mistook ignorant judgments for measured opiniurib. It
looked at the campaign in detail instead of as a whole,
and vital steps were taken which it failed entirely to
comprehend.

When Atlanta fell it had a new idol. Sherman, by a
masterly campaign, had compelled the Confederates to
evacuate their stronghold. At once he was lifted to the
dangerous pedestal of popular idolatry. A cry went
up that he should supersede Grant in the command of
the armies. The victory was looked upon as an unex-
pected and isolated one, which bore in no way upon the
general plan of campaign, and the loud-voiced many
wlio, two years ago, had shouted that Sherman was
crazy, now proclaimed him the only man who could end
the rebellion.

It was a most remarkable transformation scene. The

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(716)872-4503

662

L/J^£: OF GENERAL GRANT.

fact that the investment of Richmond had prevented
reinforcements from going to Johnston, who was operat-
ing against Sherman, was not thought of, and the fact
that, after the fall of Atlanta, Sherman was, for the first
time, free to co-operate with Grant in the larger cam-
paign, was quite neglected. The greater fact that the
blows given the Confederacy in northern Georgia were
an absolutely necessary step in the progress towards the
reduction of Richmond was not understood at all. Sher-
man had shown great generalship. He had proven his
capacity to handle a very large body of troops, but he
was constantly under the eye of Grant and each com-
mander conceded the military genius of the other.
They were mutually helpful. The qualities of each
were of the marked strong type which lifted them to
the higher and manlier plane where there were no small
spites and petty jealousies, but only generous apprecia-
tion and soldierly magnanimity. Sherman wrote:
" General Grant's letter of April 4th formed the basis
of all the campaigns of the year." In a communication
to Grant he frankly and naturally said : '* I knew, wher-
ever I was, that you thought of me." The heartiest
congratulations which Sherman received on his victory
came from Grant. The folly of the North could not
come between them.

Meanwhile Grant lay before Petersburg. The clamor
in the rear did not disturb his placid temperament. He
had heard it once before, and had drowned it in the
shouts of triumph which went up when Vicksburg fell.
The politicians in Washington whispered and looked
dubious, but he cared nothing for their lugubrious time-
serving. At no time had he missed an opportunity to
express his contempt for political interference in military
affairs. Lincoln believed in him, and this was enough.

THE DEPRESSION OF 1864.

653

rer cam-

The President was his strong arm, and read the situation
thoroughly. Put for this the depression might have
reached a point which would have resulted in Grant's
removal and the indefinite prolongation of the war.

There had been mishaps and delays, but these belonged
in a campaign the object of which was so comprehensive
and final. Of ultimate success he had not the faintest
doubt. He knew that it was purely a problem in math-
ematics, and that if he worked the necessary time the
answer would be obtained. But he disliked to see the
enemy strengthened in spirit by the fears and follies ot
the North, and he said so. His self-reliance and con-
fidence were supreme. He never allowed himself to
doubt for a moment that Lee's army would escape him.
He had started in to "whip out the rebellion" — to use
his favorite expression — and he intended to do so.

And he did do so. Any other man would have been
overwhelmed by the storm behind him ; but he could see
beyond a few months, and he knew that a victory would
still it. He had no vanity to be hurt, but only his duty
to do ; and his consistent recognition of this is what kept
him from being swerved into rashness in the days when
the nation was trying to plan a campaign by caucus and
end a rebellion by stump-speeches. But never was the
cause of the Union in greater peril than during the
depression and despondency of 1864.

CHAPTER XLVII.

SIDE-LIGHTS OF THE GREAT GAME.

Lee loses the Weldon Railroad — Touching Lee's lines here and there — Movements
north of the James — The battle of Chapin's farm — Capture of Fort Harrison-
General Stannard's story of Grant's fearlessness in battle — General Sherman's
visit — Capture of Fort Steadman — Breaking Hill's lines — President Lincoln
comes to review the army and witnesses a battle — The beginning of the end.

In the early part of August the Army of the Potomac
was in front of Petersburg with many weary months of
conflict yet before it. It consisted of the Second corps,
with Hancock, who had returned ; the Fifth, still under
Warren, and the Ninth, with Parke, Burnside having
been assigned to other duty. The Eighteenth corps
had been withdrawn to Butler's lines, and two divisions
of the cavalry had gone with Sheridan to the new cam-
paign in the Shenandoah valley.

The dust at the explosion of the crater had hardly
settled back to its old bed before Grant directed Meade
to " send a corps of infantry and a couple of divisions
of cavalry" around to the left to cut again the Weldon
Railway. The Second corps did the work, for, before
the movement could be made, the necessities of the sit-
uation before Early had sent the cavalry away to Wash-
ington.

Grant had gone during the first week in August to the

Monocacy to put Sheridan formally in his new com-
mand, and returned August 9th to City Point. He at
once began a series of movements to divert Lee's
attention and keep him from sending help to Early's

(664)

SIDE-LIGHTS OF THE GREAT GAME.

655

front, and the battles at Deep Bottom and Newmarket
Heights followed, Hancock was ostentatiously placed
with his corps on transports to move down the James
the afternoon of August 13th, but when night fell the
steamers turned, and before dawn had joined Terry, of
the Tenth corps, at Deep Bottom, where, two days later,
was fought as sharp and gallant an action as any during
the war. Grant went to the field himself in this opera-
tion and directed the movements in person.

The charging was across full two miles of low, marshy
ground defended by numerous rifle trenches, fronted by
dense lines of brush, like abatis. This was carried and the
heights beyond ':wept over, before day had faded into
night. Hancock held the right and Terry was on the
left, while Kautz, of Butler's command, pushed well out,
headed by the Fourth Massachusetts, led by the gallant
Moylan. Grant had been informed that Lee had sent
three divisions away to help Early, but found from this
fight that only Kershaw's had gone, with Anderson in
charge. Others were prepared to go, but this dash
held them, and the Second corps was swung back to the
Army of the Potomac to make a movement to the left,
for Grant instinctively turned to Hancock whenever he
needed work requiring a combination of nerve, energy
and dash — so rarely found in one man ; and it is a
singular fact that Badeau, General Grant's chosert
biographer, does not find an opportunity for criticizing
Hancock, while he has more or less of fault to find with
almost every other general In the army.

By the movement on the north side of the James
Grant had attracted a large part of Lee's force there,
and now came the time to hit them hard. Warren
reached out to the left, and struck the Weldon Railroad
again, destroying half a dozen miles of track. Mahone,

656

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

who commanded a division of A. P. Hill's corps of Con-
federates, however, struck him on the flank on his thm
line, and rolled him back for a moment. Here, when
disaster seemed imminent, Warren's talent shone at
its best. Swinging round his line, he gave the Confed-
erates a thrashing that lost them for all time the posses-

GENERAL WARREN.

sion of the Weldon Railway. The Federal loss was very
heavy in prisoners, as well as the killed and wounded,
but the gain more than balanced the account. Lee
could no longer receive supplies from the south, except
by a wide detour by rail that practically cut him oft".
Hancock then, with the gallant Second corps, was

SIDE-L/GHS OF THE GREAT GAME.

657

sent flown to the left, and fought the third battle at
Ream's Station, where he met a much larger force than
he looked for, but struggled there for four days before
giving way. The Confederate force returned when he
(lid. The price paid in men was horrible, now that the
rt elder may look at it after these long years ; but the
Confederate lines were hemmed in to within three miles
of the town they were fighting so hard to hold. Very
speedily the military railway was built from City Point
around to the Weldon road. This relieved General
lni,^alls, chief quartermaster (Grant's classmate), of
nmch more than half his work of supplying the army.

Petersburg was now well-nigh besieged, and the work
of investment went on. Day in and day out guns on
(irant's front shrieked out loud inquiries to Lee that
\v ere promptly answered from the well-armed Confederate
bastions. The history of one day toid the story of each
succeeding one during the long months when the two
great chieftains confronted each other at Richmond's out-
work. Yet Grant was not idle during all that weary
time of anxiety to the impatient North and the strug-
gling Southerners.

Leaving in September but a light line along the

front of Bermuda Hundred, Grant moved Butler to

the north of the James again, with Terry and the

Tenth corps, and Ord, with the Eighteenth corps.

This was a part of Grant's plan to prevent Lee from

si-nding reinforcements to harass Sherman, who was in

the enemy's country with np communication behind him

for one hundred and fifty miles, and none in front for

three hun Ired miles, and to prevent fresh forces being

sent to Early in the valley to annoy Sheridan. Besides

this intent to help Sherman and Sheridan, the earthworks

north of the James were the only obstacles to an easy
2R

\ s'^^ll'

658

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

entry into Richinoiicl. Therefore!, Grant made his play
with two objects in view, the most important, of course,
being the capture of the Confederate capital. Ills
orders to Butler were very explicit, and after wirini^^
Sherman and Sheritlan, *' 1 will give them another shake
here before the end of the week," he notified Butler tliat
"the object of this movement is to surprise and capture
Richmond, if possible. This cannot be done if time is
given to the enemy to move forces to the north of the
river. Should the outer line be broken the troops will
push to Richmond with all promptness."

Then he ijave directions to Butler as to what he
should do in case he succeeded in trcttinij into Richmoiici.
But while he was encouramnfj him with the idea that his
army might capture the Confederate capital, he said to
Meade, ** It is hardly expected that so much can be
accomplished."

He ordered the Army of the Potomac, however, to be
ready to move in any direction at four o'clock on tlic
morning of the 29th of September, 1864, and the night
before directed that the Tenth and Eighteenth corps be
moved under cover of the darkness to the north side
of the James, to march from Deep Bottom to the attack
before dawn.

The Eighteenth corps, under Ord, with Stannartl's
division in the advance, struck the enemy at Chapin's
farm, and the seventeen regiments under command of
General Stannard fought the battle there and captured
Fort Harrison, the strongest Confederate works north
of the James river. Ord was wounded early in the ad-
vance and taken from the field, and Birney, with the
Tenth corps, which was on the right, carried the in-
trenchments on the New Market road, but halted at a
time when he should have pushed forward with renewed

SIDE-LIGHTS OF THK GREAT GAME.

659

encTLify. The only real achievement of the day there-
fore and the only result of the movement was the cap-
ture of Fort Harrison by Stannard.

The cares and responsibilities that were at that time
pressing upon Grant were somethin<r enormous. Be-
sides arranging the details of tiiis movement, Sheridan's
operations in the valley were under his scrutiny, as well
as Sherman's in the centre of the Gulf States. Con-
su'tations with Secretary Stanton in relation to the semi-
political features of the war were at this moment also
under way, yet this did not prevent the Lieutenant-
General from keeping a watchful eye over the important
movement which he had direct(;d against the fortifica-
tions in front of Richmond on the north side of the James
river. But the best witness to these operations and the
part Grant took in them is General Stannard, who led
the assaulting force :

'The battle of Chapin's Farm," says he, "was a very
severe engagement, and would have resulted in the cap-
ture of Richmond if the divisions behind me had gotten
up in time to have pushed forward our first success.
The seventeen regiments under my command had fought
a desperate battle, made a most gallant assault, and had
captured Fort Harrison, the chief fortification in front
of Richmond on that side of the James. General Ord,
my corps commander, had been wounded during the pro-
gress of the assault. My division carried the works
completely, and I was inside re-forming my force after
the charge. There was still a sprinkle of musketry
firing, but the enemy's shells were flying through the air
thick and fast. While practically the battle was on, so
far as danger was concerned, I was astonished to see
General Grant himself come right into the fort. He
rode up to me and asked for the day's results. I said :

(660)

SIDE-LIGHTS OF TlfE GREAT GAME.

ft81

'We have captured the works, taken fifteen guns,
and several hundred prisoners.'

" I stammered this out before I stopp(nl to think of
the danger General Grant was in. When 1 did gather
myself, I said :

•"General, this is no place for you. Get behind the
traverse.'

" ' W^ell, what are you doing out here ? ' was his short
reply.

" • It is my duty to be here,' 1 said ; • I am rallying my
troops after the charge.'

•' ' Well, 1 can stand it if you can,' was his calm reply.

" I insisted that he should go behind the traverse, but
it was with difficulty that I induced him to withdraw
from the front and go to a more protected place. I could
only do it then after he had mounted the works and
looked over the situation. He could see through the
smoke of the battle the church spires in Richmond, and
got a nearer view of the Confederate defences about
their capital than ever before. He finally went where
there was less danger, and began writing his despatch
to General Meade, giving what 1 had told him of the day's
work, and making an order for another advance. I re-
member that right in the midst of his writing a shell
burst almost directly over him. While every one around
him dodged and got closer under the traverse. Grant
continued his work with as much composure as though
he had been sitting a hundred miles from the battle-field.
I never saw a man in my life so utterly unconscious of
personal danger without some show of ostentation, but
Grant seemed to be perfectly composed and to take the
dangers of a battle-field as a matter of no moment. He
was the most quietly fearless man of his personal safety
1 ever saw.

662

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

••Durincr the visit he made to Fort Harrison I con-
csived that General Grant \\tAA Butler more or less re-
sponsible for the failure o^ the other troops to come to
my support. One of the first questions he asked me on
arriving inside the casement was :

"•Where is General Butler?*

" ' I don't know,' I replied.

*• • Well, hasn't he a staff-officer here with you ? *

" * No, sir,* said I ; ' there was one with me, but I have
not seen him since we crossed the river.'

" He expressed an earnest disapproval at the absence
of the commanding officer and then rode away. He:
was a man of very few words, and what he said meant
a great deal. He tried another advance, but it was
too late. Lee's reinforcements had come up and our
opportunity was lost. The next day Lee was in com-
mand in person, and they made desperate attempts to
retake the fort we had captured. I lost my arm while
defending it. During this expedition Kautz with his
cavalry on our right got within three miles of Richmond,
and generally we gave the Confederates a big scare.
We should have captured their capital. But what I
principally wanted to illustrate by this narrative was
Grant's fearlessness in battle and his plain common-
sense way of doing everything."

While Butler was still holding on north of the James,
Parke and Warren had moved down past the Union
left, and had a sharp fight at Peeble's farm, which re-
sulted in serious loss, but all these movements developed
the fact that Lee had sent no reinforcements to oppose
Sherman or Sheridan.

The loss of the Weldon road constantly worried
Lee, and he at once abandoned all attempts on the

SIDE-LIGHTS OF THE GREAT GAME. 668

Deep Bottom line, throwing his forces again to his
right, and vigorously assaulted Warren and Hancock,
but without serious efif(?ct.

So, on through September and October went the
struggle. Assault and counter-assault ; Grant gaining

604

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

inch by inch in his immediate front, while the concen-
trating armies of Sherman and Sheridan were sweeping
things before them. Sherman announced, September
4th, his capture of Atlanta, and Grant ordered a shotted
salute from every gun in his front ; Sheridan had "gone
in " in the valley and rode down from Winchester to
Cedar creek to crush all further opposition out from
Early's force. Toward the middle of October Grant
suspected Lee's intention to increase Early's force, but
checked him with a demonstration north of the James,
and in the last of that month set out with the whole of
Meade's command to feel Lee*s right.

The Confederates, on losing the Weldon road, seemed
to have concluded that all their hopes depended on
holding the Boydton plank-road, and they at once cov-
ered it with a line of works extending out from the
Petersburg right to Hatcher's run. The movement
began the morning of October 27th, and early the next
day Hancock was at Burgess' mills across Hatcher's run,
and only six miles from the Southside Railroad ; Parke
was on the right and Warren on the left, but the flank
was not reached, and, finding the enemy held such strong
advantage, the force was withdrawn after Hancock had
gallantly repelled a heavy attack on his flank.

Early in December Gregg was sent with his cavalry
to Stony creek on the Weldon road, where the Con-
federates had begun a branch road across to the South-
side road, and destroyed the buildings and material
collected, but was sharply pressed by Hampton on his
return. Other small affairs occurred ; but everything
was so quiet along the lin? that leaves of absence and
furloughs were plenty.

As the year drew near its close Sherman presented
Savannah to the grateful nation as its Christmas gift

» concen-

MAP SHOWING THE APPROACHES TO WILMINGTON, NORTH CAROLINA.

(665)

666

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

after his "grand gallop through Georgia" from Atlanta;
and, at Nashville, Thomas had hammered to fragments
all that remained of the army that Hood believed would
sweep across the Ohio to the North. General Butler
had gone to Fort Fisher to close Wilmington to the
blockade-runners, but "nobody was hurt," and a new
expedition was organized under Terry that succeeded,
in the next month, in doing the work.

CHAPTER XLVIII.

A. H. STEPHENS AND LONGSTREET.

The Peace Commission — What Ben Hill said — Mr. Stephens' narrative — How the
commissioners met the commander — Grant's rude head-quarters — A pen-picture
of him — Interesting incidents of the meeting — Longstreet — Grant's anxiety for
neace — Lee's position in the matter.

General Grant's real quality as a soldier did not
penetrate into the Confederacy so far as Richmond until
he was appointed lieutenant-general and grappled with
Lee in the Wilderness. To be sure, he had given it
some hard knocks in the West, but the general predic-
tion among Southerners was that when he came East
and met General Lee and the flower of their army there
would not be much of him. But as each successive day
passed after he crossed the Rapidan, and there was con-
stant fighting and no disposition shown to yield an inch
from the plan of campaign mapped out at the beginning,
indifference changed to interest, and interest to concern,
among the officials and statesmen gathered at the Con-
federate capital.

Before Grant was made lieutenant-general it would
have been impossible to have induced Mr, Davis to have
consented to the Peace Commission which met at Hamp-
ton Roads in 1865. But after he had pounded Lee's
army from the Rapidan to the James, changed his base
south of the last-named river, and began his investment
of Petersburg, a thorough respect for his fighting ca-
pacity induced Mr. Davis to agree to the commission

(667)

668

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

which Francis P. Blair had opened the way for by his
visit to Richmond.

Senator Ben Hill, then the leader of the Davis party in
the Confederate Senate, however, once said to the writer
that " It was not Grant's capacity as a warrior that in-
duced Mr. Davis to create the commission, but he did it
to keep Alexander H. Stephens' mouth shut." Be
that as it may, the causes which brought Mr. Stephens
inside the Federal lines at a critical moment in our na-
tional history are of little or no moment, so far as this
narrative is concerned, but his story of the meeting with
General Grant is just now of intense interest as illus-
trating a Confederate view of his character.

" Long before I was appointed as one of the commis-
sioners," said Mr. Stephens, " I had conceived a great
desire to see the new Federal commander, and when we
started for his lines on the 29th of January, one of the
greatest pleasures of the trip was the anticipation of
seeing and conversing with General Grant. Before his
promotion we had always reckoned that when General
Lee beat the Union commander in the first engagement,
as he usually did, we would have no more trouble with
him for some time. But Grant had changed all this, and
by this time had by his resolute ways and tenacious
methods of conducting his campaign enforced a whole-
some respect among us for his quality as a soldier, and
awakened a decided interest in the manner of man who
could match General Lee in tactical movements and
keep up a contest with him over a battle-field sixty miles
long.

" I had given up all idea of the success of our commis-
sion before we started, on account of the publicity that
had been given to a matter that should have been kept
the profoundest secret until the negotiations had been

A. H. STEPHENS AND LONGSTREET.

669

concluded. It was extremely cold weather for our sec-
tion of the country when we started for the Federal lines
by rail. We arrived at Petersburg in good dme and
immediately communicated our purpose and presence to
General Grant's head-quarters. We were two days in
getung a reply. Lieutenant-Colonel Hatch accompanied
the commission as its secretary, and he was constantly
endeavoring to get some information from General
Grant I remember one day of his returning to us
laughing heartily and saying that it was reported along
the line that the general was on a big spree and could
not be reached; but this we soon found to be a matter
of fiction.

"It was the 31st of January before Grant notified us
that he would communicate the fact of our presence to
Washington and advise us later.

"About four o'clock in the afternoon of the same day,
General Babcock, of General Grant's staff, arrived and
we were taken by rail to City Point. My interest in our
first interview with Grant had naturally been heightened
by the delay and the gossip of the camp. Judge Camp-
bell and Mr. Hunter, who were the other two commis-
sioners, also felt some interest, if not concern, as to the
reception that awaited us.

" It was nearly eight o'clock in the evening when we
reached our destination, and a very few moments after
we were taken direct to General Grant's head-quarters.
I was greatly surprised at finding them located in a rude
log hut, lacking adornment or any evidences of that style
and military show so generally found about the quarters
of our Confederate generals. Even before we reached
them I was struck with the fact that there seemed to be
no guards to obstruct our progress. We usually found
them three deep before we got into the presence of a

..I .-.

670

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

•i;

Confederate brigadier, but here we were able to walk
without hindrance right up to General Grant's head-
quarters.

" General Babcock was leading the way, and as he
knocked a voice inside answered :

" ' Come in.*

"We entered and found General Grant sitting alone
at a table strewn with papers. He was writing. A
common coal-oil lamp furnished a rather dim light, and
a huge wood fire blazed in an old-fashioned fireplace.
The simplicity of his dress and surroundings was the
first thing that attracted my attention. As soon as we
had reached the inside the general arose to receive us,
and without any more ceremony than he would have
given to the simplest caller, said :

"'Gentlemen, be seated.*

"The conversation between us for a time turned upon
the weather, our journey, and finally upon the object of
our visit. He talked with us with perfect freedom and
expressed himself as very anxious that our mission might
end the conflict. We sat for quite a time talking upon
various subjects, during which time officers and orderlies
were coming and going, and the general transacted his
business with each and every caller with as much facility
as though we had not been present.

" When any person would knock he would say, ' Come
in/ then conclude his business with him, and afterward
turn to us and renew the conversation. Occasionally he
would go to the door, call an orderly, and ask him if he
knew the location of such a brigade or division or corps
and despatch him with a message.

" The utter absence of style about him was a marvel
to me. He was dressed in a short frock coat without a
single insignia of military rank, and his manners were

A. If. STEPHENS AND LOyGSTREET.

671

very easy. His clear and forcible way of putting his
words and his quiet method of doing brsir.ess astonished
us all. In speaking to any one his sentences were short
and to the point, and his manner was that of a perfectly
self-possessed and eminently practical man.

" I could not help contrasting him with some of our
Confederate officers. He seemed to treat everybody
alike. In our army even General Lee in a very great
degree demanded and enforced a recognition of the
distinctions in military rank.

"We had not been long in his presence before I was
impressed, as I think all the commissioners were, with
the fact that we were dealing with a high order of man.
We found that instead of his having been on a spree, as
had been reported, that he had been for two days in
the city of Washington, which was the real cause of the
delay.

"We were naturally very much pleased with our re-
ception and gratified to find that our mission had a warm
and earnest friend in General Grant. He seemed very
anrdous for peace, and during all our stay went to a
great deal of trouble to make us comfortable, and
assumed much responsibility in bringing about the meet-
ing between President Lincoln, Mr. Seward and our-
selves.

"We spent perhaps an hour or more with him in his
quarters immediately after our arrival, during which
time it seemed to me that he had sent messages to
every division of his army. Finally, after arranging
with him the details of our movements the next day, I
suggested that if he would furnish us an orderly to
show us to our quarters we would not interrupt his
business further. He said :

" • Oh, no ! I will show you myself/

«72

£//f£: OF GENERAL GRANT.

"To our great astonishment he arose, turned down
the light in his ofiBce with the same air that a country
lawyer would when going out upon a small attachment
case, and then said :

" ' Gentlemen, we will go down to the boat.'

" He led the way, and we passed out into the dark-
ness, following him to his despatch boat, which lay in the
James river. Judge Campbell walked by his side, while
Mr. Hunter, Colonel Hatch and myself followed. It
was a very dark night, and this great soldier, command
ing nearly half a million of men, was walking alone with
us, apparently perfectly unconcerned under the pressure
of the greatest responsibility that could have been put
upon a man.

" During our walk from his head-quarters to the boat
where we were to spend the night we passed two or
three sentries. Each of them would challenge :

•• ' Halt ! Who goes there ? '

" General Grant would reply in a very quiet unde^
tone:

" 'The commanding officer, sentry/ and then we would
pass on.

" When we got aboard the boat and were ushered
into the cabin we found there fully fifty general officers,
nearly all of the corps, division and some of the brigade
commanders in General Grant's army. It just then
dawned upon me that the orderlies he was despatching
from one point to another while we were at his quarters
were for these generals. He had congregated them for
the purpose of meeting us. The whole affair had been
so quietly arranged that none of the commissioners had
imagined what was going on until we reached the cabin
and were being introduced by General Grant to his
lieutenants. After a short time devoted to pleasant

A. H, STEPHENS AND LONGSTREET.

678

led down
a country
ttachment

the dark-
1 lay in the
side, while
lowed. It
command
alone with
le pressure
^ been put

to the boat
sed two or

ige:

uiet underr

2n we

conversation among them we all sat down to a splen-
did meal which General Grant had ordered to be pre-
pared for us.

" Another surprise was in store for me here. Grant
mingled and associated with his subordinate commanders
with perfect freedom, and I was absolutely amazed at the
familiarity with which he received them all. Every
general present appeared to be on perfectly good terms
with him, and there was not the slightest evidence of
that restrain <- in his presence that was apparent among
most of ujr Confederate generals.

" He remained with us for a time, mingling in the
conversation that was going on around the table, but
finally excused himself, saying that his business de-
manded his attention, and departed entirely alone for
his head-quarters.

"I shall never forget the impressions made by his
manner and his perfect lack of personal pretension that
a man in his important position would have been justi-
fied in always having about him.

"The entertainment which he had so quietly arranged
for us lasted until a late hour, and we were very much
delighted to find in every word and act that Grant had im-
pressed his own spirit upon all of his officers and that they
were all very favorable to the success of our mission.

" The qnarters General Grant had arranged for us for
tha night were very comfortable indeed, but the next
morning there was a great deal of trouble in getting
satisfactory news from Washington — so much trouble,
indeed, that we had almost made up our minds to aban-
don the trip and return home. Doubtless we would have
done so and the Hampton Roads conference would never
have been held had it not been for General Grant
When we proposed to return he said: . ^

li
■'I

e74

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

** * No, I will take the responsibility. If I do not get
authority to send you to Hampton Roads I will send you
to some other point towards Washington, for I am very
much interested in your meeting our authorities upon
the subject of peace.'

" The next day, however, while we were still General
Grant's guests on the boat, he came down with a Ion*;
ribbon despatch in his hand and held it up to us before
he got on board the boat and said :

*' ' It is all right, gentlemen, it is all right ; you shall
go up at once.'

" He had received from Mr. Lincoln the following de-
spatch, which he handed to us as soon as he got on board :

" 'Send the three gentlemen to Fortress Monroe and tell them 1
will meet them there. A. Lincoln.'

"We were naturally very much relieved by this mes-
sage, but as the despatch had only mentioned the three
commissioners, we were anxious about Colonel Hatch,
our secretary, and at once inquired :

" 'General, what about our secretary? '

" General Grant thought a moment and then said :

" ' Well, gentlemen, we have had too much trouble in
this matter to try any experiments. The three commis
sioners will go.'

'• Turning to Colonel Hatch he said with as much con-
sideration as though he had been an officer of equal
rank:

" * Colonel, we will send these gentlemen to make
peace, and you and I will go up the river to look after
the exchange of prisoners.'

" This easy and gentlemanly disposition of a vexed
question which would have irritated most men clearly
demonstrated what a master Grant was not only of men
but of great affairs. Although our mission to Mr. Lin-

A. H. STEPHENS AND LONGSTREET.

<)75'

coin and Mr. Seward resulted in nothing, General Grant's
part of it was handled with such dignity and character
as to leave upon my mind the impression that he was a
man possessing a great practical mind. I have followed
him since through the storms of politics, frequently dif-
fering with him upon important matters ; but I have al-
ways held him to be an honest man, a true friend,
possessing a much higher character than that of a great
military leader."

After the visit of the commissioners and the failure
of their mission. General Grant's mind turned towards
making peace without more fighting ; but he did not re-
lax in his preparations for the spring campaign. He
was greatly disappointed that some agreement was not
reached at Hampton Roads that would end the war
without more bloodshed. Finally reaching the conclu-
sion that if he and General Lee could be brought into
contact something would result that would bring the
war to an end, he determined to cast an anchor in that
direction.

General Longstreet had been one of his most inti-
mate friends at West Point. He was an officer in the
same regiment during their early army life on the fron-
tier and in Mexico. To him he decided to suggest a
plan by which he and General Lee might meet and con-
verse upon the subject. Longstreet's close social rela-
tions with him and his family made the task an easy one.
Grant's wife was his kinswoman. The Southern general
had introduced them.

When the war broke out it found them on opposite
sides of the issue, but their troops never met each other
in battle except in the Wilderness on the second day's
fight. It was here that Longstreet struck Hancock so
hard and was himself wounded. Speaking of General

676 L/J'E OF GENERAL GRANT.

Grant and his association with him, General Longstreet
now says :

*• I am certain that General Grant was very anxious
for peace lon^ before it came. During the winter of
1864-65, General Orel was commanding the troops im-
mediately in my front. During the rest both arnii(;s
were having, the men were in the habit of trading with
each other various articles of food, etc. One day a lla^
of truce from Orel brought me a message. It requested
an interview for the purpose of putting an end to the
too great familiarity which had sprung up between the
soldiers of the two armies. Ord wrote me that my men
were driving a lively trade in tobacco, while his men
were doing as well with their sugar. I agreed that this
had better stop, and we had a conference, which, by the
way, was a mere incident of Ord's request. It took but
a few minutes to come to an agreement as to the barter
among the men, and then Ord stated to me the real ob-
ject of his request for an interview. "

" * General Grant,' said he, ' believes that the poli-
ticians on both sides are afraid to make a definite move
in the direction of peace. He thinks that a plan might
be agreed upon by the general officers of both armies,
which will have the effect of showing the politicians that
the men in the field are tired of carnage. It is his de-
sire to talk this matter over with General Lee, so that a
concert of action may be secured. As a beginning in
this direction, he requests that you send for Mrs. Long-
street to come and pay a visit to Mrs. Grant, who is now
with him at City Point. She may be accompanied by as
many of your officers as you desire. These officers
may move freely about in association with ours. After
her visit is at an end and she has returned to your lines,
Mrs. Grant will visit Mrs. Longstreet at your head-

A. H, STEPHENS AND LONGSTREET.

677

quarters, accompanied by a number of Federal officers.
During these meetings General Gram and General Lee
can be thrown together inadvertantly, and the subject
of peace be talked over. These consultations betwei;n
the military leaders will compel the politician? to meet
the question in the same way.'

"I stated to General Ord that I had no authority to
act in so important a matter, but that I thoroughly ap-
proved of the plan. Moreover I promised to report
the matter to Richmond and secure immediate action if
possible.

"The proposition found warm advocates in the cabi-
net. General Breckinridge, who was then Secretary of
War, was especially earnest in behalf of the effort, and
urged me to have Mrs. Longstreet to make the pro-
posed trip. She readily agreed to perform her part of
the service, and was soon prepared to start. General
Lee gave her a letter which I was to read before she
went on the mission. In that letter he asked for a di-
rect conference for the purpose of considering definite
articles of peace. As this was not in accord with Gen-
eral Grant's request, and as I knew he had no authority
to consider such articles, I went to General Lee and
urged such a modification of his letter as would give
Grant a chance to act.

•' ' No,' replied General Lee, ' I will assign none but
the real reason. I am opposed to diplomacy.'

" The letter was sent just as General Lee wrote it.
Just as I predicted. General Grant replied that he had
no authority to act in the manner proposed, and the
whole matter dropped.

" While we were waiting for General Grant's reply,
General Lee said to me : ' Unless this plan succeeds
there is nothing ahead of us but to surrender.' General

678

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Lee was right, and I did not meet General Grant that
time, as I had hoped.

• " My last meeting with him before Appomattox was
in 1858. I was in St. Louis on business and there met
a number of old army chums. It was a cold, dreary
day and a game of brag was proposed as most likely,
to recall old memories. We were one hand short when
my friend Captain Holloway went out to find some one.
He soon returned with a civilian rather poorly dressed
in the garb of a farmer. We soon recognized our old
friend Grant, who had resigned from the service a few
years before and was at the time making an unsuccess-
ful battle for existence in civil life. The next day, while
I was standing in front of the Planters' Hotel, Grant
stepped up and placed a five-dollar gold-piece in my
hand. He said it was a debt of honor from our associ-
ation in the old Texan days.

" ' I will not take it,* said 1. ' You are now out of ser-
vice and need it'

" ' But you must take it,' said Grant, determinedly

* I will not have what does not belong to me.'

" Seemg that he was thoroughly in earnest, and to
save him from mortification, I accepted it, and shaking
hands, we parted. Is it any wonder that I hoped to
meet him again after he had become a great general
and made this appeal to me to help him toward a peace-
ful settlement of the war ? ;. -- .
; " But we never met after our parting on the steps of
the Planters' Hotel in St. Louis until after the surrender.
I was one of the Confederate commissioners to arrange
the details of the capitulation. General Grant treated us
with great kindness. He acted as though nothing what-
ever had happened to mar the relations which existed
in the long-ago by the camp-fires in Texas and Mexico.

A. H. STEPHENS AND LONGSTREET.

9!9

"As we stepped aside after the formalities, he put his
arm within mine, and the first thing he said to me was—

"•Pete (my army sobriquet), let us return to the
happy old days by playing another game of brag.'

" Grant was an honest, simple man, who always did
his duty. He never schemed and was above small
things. He will stand in history as the foremost man
of his time."

So it appears that, while waging relentless war, Grant
was anxious for peace and was holding out the olive
branch to the enemy while preparing to strike them the
final blow.

i.lsii I

^;>>

's -f

:y.. *V7^.. />/.

chaptp:r XLix.

THE FEDERAL TROOPERS.

The Spirit of the Cavalry — The Consolidation under Sheridan — The First Raid —
The Hunt for Hunter — Wilson's Raid — In the Shenandoah — Sheridan's Officers —
A Grant Incident — Early's Destruction — The Move South — Five Forks — The
Character of the Service — The End.

" Keep the enemy always in sight." This was the
order which General Grant sent to Sheridan just before
he started for the Shenandoah Valley. This epitomizes
the spirit of the cavalry operations after Grant took
charge of the wider range of operations in the East.

In conducting his campaign in Virginia, he devoted
especial attention to the co-operating factors, and cavalry
was one of his strong reliances for courageous, intelligent
and ruthless, but necessary, warfare. They were every-
where. With a daring that was extraordinary, they
dashed into the enemy's country, harassed his flanks,
destroyed his bridges, flung themselves across his roads,
tore up his railroad tracks, burned his supply depots,
and tracked his armies to discover his designs. They
constituted the eye of the Federal force, of which the
main army was the brawny arm. With meteoric-like
rapidity they flashed from point to point, now attacking
greatly their superior numbers, now picking up moving
troops, now dashing upon isolated guns and carrying
them off in the very face of an annoyed and bewildered
enemy.

" Take what you need for your own consumption, and
destroy what you cannot use."

This was the substance of Grant's orders to this branch
680

THE FEDERAL TROOPERS.

681

of the service, and they were literally carried out There
was desolation, of course, but desolation is a constituent
element of war. Non-combatants had their stock driven
off and their fields laid wajte, but the supplies would go
to the enemy if not destroyed, and the time for leniency
and individual right had gone by on both sides when the
cavalry was first brought to an active realization of the
real work which it had to do. When General Grant
went to Virginia the day of sentiment in the struggle
was over. The war had been fought for three years
from a half stand-point of compromise. Now it had
reached the bloody but necessary plane of fact. Hence-
forward it meant ruin, death and flame. The rebellion
was to be crushed, and all means, however dreadful, were
to be utilized to crush it. The heroic method was the
merciful one, and there was to be no more hesitancy or
sacrifice of time in experimental policies.

On the 24th of March the cavalry of the entire Army
of the Potomac was consolidated under General Sheri-
dan, who had distinguished himself in the Southwest.
He was peculiarly fitted for the command. He was the
" rough rider " of fiction. With quick military instincts,
readiness to grasp a situation, the power of rapid exe-
cution and exceeding concentration of purpose, he was
eminently equipped for the duty which was assigned
him.

He possessed, too. General Grant's confidence in a
supreme degree, and there was never any fear that he
would embarrass the commander with doubts as to his
capacity in critical moments. Under him were General
Wilson, in command of the Third Division, General
Merritt, with the First Division, and General Gregg, with
the Second. - - - ' - <

In May, 1864, the cavalry, with the main army, lay on

,u:

J I '■:■£;;

682

L/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

the north bank of the Rapidan watching Lee, who was
encamped on the south bank. The work of the cavalry
began the day Grant crossed the river, and the battle
of horsemen was fought at Todd's Tavern. It ended on
the April morning of the next year, when Sheridan and
his full staff rode into Gordon's lines an hour or two
before the final terms of the surrender were arranged.

Sheridan moved for the protection of the flank of the
body which crossed nearest to the enemy. But, in the
wild reofion in which the first battle under Grant was
fought by the Eastern army, there was little chance for
his troopers except for scouting away from the fighting
infantry men. By reason of a conflict of orders, no
great things were accomplished until Sheridan sent
General Whittaker, of Custer's staff, to request permis-
sion to throw his force between Lee's army and Rich-
mond. Whittaker found Grant and Meade together as
he delivered his message.

" What do you think of it? " asked Grant, turning to
Meade.

"I hardly know," replied Meade doubtfully; "how is he
going to protect our wagon trains ? "

General Grant smiled, and replied. "With Sheridan
between Lee and Richmond, Jeb. Stuart will have all
that he can attend to. He will have no time to trouble
our wagon trains."

There was no more discussion. Grant gave the per-
mission Sheridan asked, and he started on his march.
He made a move as though going towards Fredericks-
burg. Then, continuing southward, he met Fitzhugh Lee

at Yellow Tavern. In the fight that followed, Stuart, the
corps commander, was mortally wounded and died the
next day. He was one of the most notable soldiers in
the Confederate service, and his loss was severely felt.

THE FEDERAL TROOPERS.

683

He was a daring military leader, and had shown much
discretion in extremely hazardous positions. He had
occupied, practically the same relation to Lee that Sheri-

GENERAL STUART.

dan did to Grant. Following up the fight, Sheridan
dashed on towards Richmond, and Custer attacked the

684

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

first line of the fortifications, capturing a section of artil-
lery. But the country about was much too warm for the
Federal cavalry and they turned back again, winding in
and out of the enemy's strongholds, and reached Haxall's,
where they rested.

The raid was one of singular boldness, and Sheridan
was admirably aided in it by the splendid services of
Generals Custer and Wilson. It was the first of the
striking and apparently reckless ventures into the Con-
federate country which afterwards became such a marked
feature of the closing campaign of the war.
f On the 17th Sheridan left Haxall's and rejoined the
main army, virtually making nis return another raid, in
which he inHicted considerable damage. At no time on the
return did the cavalry know the locations of either Lee
or Grant. In the fight at Cold Harbor, the cavalry
again did splendid service. There Wilson met Wade
Hampton and forced him to retreat, and later on in the
fight he saved Burnside from being surrounded.

Then Sheridan was sent to the relief of Hunter, whose
position was not at the time known to Grant, and about
whom there was considerable anxiety. Having pene-
trated far into the interior, he was thoroughly detached
from the main army. Sheridan was directed on the 7th
to find him, and to destroy as much as he could of the
James River Canal and the Virginia Central Railroad.

Failing to find him, he returned. Hunter, after making
his famous raid up the valley, during which his troops
had undergone such hardships as had rarely been known
in war, turned off into the Kanawha country.

Meanwhile, in the operations against the Weldon road,
General Wilson did magnificent service, although at a
heavy loss. His raid was one of the most daring of the
war. With his own division and four regiments of infantry,

THE FEDERAL TROOPERS,

685

numbering about six thousand men in all, he marched over
three hundred miles, directly into the line of the enemy, de-
stroying railroad communication with Richmond and doing
great material damage to the Confederates. He fought
almost constandy during the ten days he was out. He
was virtually surrounded, and at every turn he met the
enemy in superior force. It had been his expectation to
find Meade's left at the Weldon road, but in this he was
very startlingly disappointed, and he was compelled to
literally fight his way out. The infantry who had accom-
panied him were cut off, and he discovered that he was
in a trap.

He had accomplished the object of the raid, however,
great as the loss had been, and when he reached Cabin
Point, and went into camp in safety. General Grant
said that the damage inflicted upon the enemy was
worth the cost. Indeed, it was his opinion that if a
raid accomplished what had been intended, it must be
called successful, no matter how great the disasters
had been in loss of men. He held that it was as neces-
sary a part of war to destroy the supplies of an enemy,
to cut off his communications, and to retard his pro-
gress or retreat by burning bridges and tearing up rail-
way tracks, as it was to meet him in the open field,
and this was service for which the cavalry was especially
fitted.

The danger was always great to those employed in it,
and even with great celerity and the exercise of much sa-
gacity, the comparative loss was, whenever the conditions
were in the slightest degree unfavorable, greater than in
any other branch of the service. Yet its value to both
sides in the contest was very marked. While the two
great armies moved about slowly, watching each other
with wary eyes, the troopers of the opposing forces were

686

Z/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

carrying on a miniature campaign of their own, which was
a great deal more exciting, if not quite as massive.

While Hunter was off in the mountains of West
Virginia Early came down the Shenandoah Valley threat-
ening Washington. In the midst of the political panic
which followed, the Confederate General reached the
gates of the national capital, just as Sheridan with his
cavalry and the Sixth Corps, which had been hastily
brought up from Grant's army by boat, marched out and
repelled the further invasion of Northern soil. In follow-
ing Early up, Sheridan found himself in the beautiful
country beyond Harper's Ferry, the rugged gateway to
that fertile land lying between the Blue Ridge and the
North Mountain, and stretching away to Stanton, one
hundred and twenty-six miles to the southward.

The fighting in the valley of the Shenandoah was
somewhat a struggle of troopers. It was the granary
of the Confederacy, and Early had command of it and
was furnishing supplies to Richmond. To lay it waste
and deprive the Confederate army of this great source
of strength was of vast importance to the Federal cause.
Accordingly, the Middle Military Division was formed
and Sheridan was placed in command of it, with instruc-
tions to attack Early, destroy his army and devastate the
rich country upon which it had subsisted for so long a
time.

General Lee recognized the importance of the threat-
ened disaster, and Fitzhugh Lee's ca airy and Kershaw's
division of infantry were sent to Early's aid. Sheridan
had about eight thousand cavalry besides his infantry,
and the opposing forces were nearly equal. Early
fell bpck before the Federal troops for several days
and tnen encamped, awaiting the reinforcements which
cam(j.

THE FEDERAL TROOPERS.

687

The national cavalry, meanwhile, was doing all the
damage to the valley it could. The troopers were out
constantly, destroying crops, driving off stock and tear-
ing up track. The negroes were taken off also to pre-
vent fresh planting. Meanwhile, Grant had pushed Lee
so closely about Richmond that he felt it necessary to
recall Anderson, who had been sent to Early's assistance.

On the 3d of September Anderson started back,
but, by an error, he managed to stumble into Sheridan's
lines. The reception he received was an exceedingly
warm one. He retreated hastily towards the Opequan,
and remained there until Early came up and took him
to a place of safety across the river. On the 1 3th he
moved away finally, and Sheridan prepared to attack.

On the 19th the first assault was made near Winchester,
but the enemy was reinforced from Martinsburg, and it
failed. The broken lines were instantly reformed, how-
ever, and a new attack was made. Crook made the as-
sault on the left and forced the enemy back, and, in the
confusion, Torbett's cavalry dashed upon Early's left and
added to the demoralization. • Almost at the same time
Wilson, with his division of cavalry, pushed to the left and
gained the roads to Winchester, and a final cavalry charge
in the evening byTorbett entirely routed the panic-stricken
Confederates, who fled from the field. Early retreated
to the breast-works at Fisher's Hill, where he was sur-
prised on the 2 2d and defeated with heavy loss, and by
the 25th that portion of the Valley of Virginia was
clear.

Reinforcements were again sent to Early, and his
cavalry was placed in command of General Rosser. On
the night of the 8th of October, Torbett, in command of
the Federal troopers, struck the Confederates again,
routing them utterly, and driving them across the north

688

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

fork of the Shenandoah. Early was in despair, and in
his report to Lee he said: "The fact is that the enemy's
cavalry is so superior to ours, both in numbers and equip-
ment, that it is impossible for ours to compete with his. "

Upon his officers, Wilson, Torbett, McKenzie, Devin,
Merritt and Gregg, most of whom were young men,
General Sheridan had succeeded in impressing his own
dashing personality. They were a very strong group of
men. But Custer, particularly, seemed imbued with the
spirit which animated him. He had all the qualifications
which belong in the make-up of a successful and chivai-
ric trooper, and he held the supreme confidence of his
commander. He was always ready and he always did
his best.

Early's confidence in himself had been a fatal confi-
dence. He had feasted too long upon the milk and
honey of the Shenandoah. The apparent hesitancy of
Sheridan at the beginning of the campaign had made
him over-brave. He did not appreciate what had been
done during that time of rest. The daring move
towards Washington, up through the rich corn-fields,
almost to the threshold of the frightened capital, had
made him believe in the invincibility of his force.

Therefore, when he operated, he did so with an under-
estimate of his enemy, and the storm burst upon him
with unexpected force. Sheridan swept the valley, a
whirlwind in blue. He struck the Confederates with a
force that was irresistible. He broke and shattered his
army, and drove it, a huddled demoralization, to the
nearest place of refuge, and there he remained awaiting
assistance.

In his final effort to get out of his difficulty and crush
Sheridan he almost redeemed himself, however. The
Federal General had left for Washington. The Con-

THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY, THE SCENE OF SHERIDAN's GREAT RAID.

2r 689

690

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

federate information was that he had detached a portion
of his force. His main army was encamped on Cedar
Creek. The situation seemed a favorable one for attack.

Early had been strongly reinforced, and his new num-
bers were as great as they had been before the fignt at
Winchester or Fisher's Hill. The plans were carefully
laid. There was to be a night attack and a surprise.
The National army was to be cut off in the rear, and the
annihilation was to be complete. The keen course out-
lined just escaped success. At daylight on the 19th the
Federal left was attacked, turned and thrown into an in-
extricable confusion. The Sixth Corps, which was on the
right, was forced back, and a general retreat was or-
dered.

The expedition of Merritt and Custer prevented the
Confederate cavalry from seizing the Winchester road,
and the retreat was not cut off But the army was in
the wildest confusion, and the men were strung along
the road towards Winchester in demoralized flight.
Sheridan was at Winchester that morning on his way to
the army. He heard the booming of the artillery, and
rode rapidly in the direction of the sound. After a des-
perate ride he reached the field to help rally the mob of
fugitives that had pushed to the rear when the Federal
left was swept away. The cavalry had done splendid
service, and was threatening the enemy's left. The
Federal lines were reformed, and at three o'clock an
attack was made by the National soldiers, and Custer
turned the right flank of the enemy, and the left also
gave way. He then made a brilliant cavalry charge,
and, concentrating upon the enemy, routed him absolutely.
They fled in worse confusion than the Federals had been
in in the morning, and the Shenandoah campaign was
ended. Early had escaped from the shipwreck of Win-

THE FEDERAL TROOPERS.

fiOl

Chester upon a raft ; Cedar Creek destroyed the raft.
The troopers were his ruin.

To follow the movements of the cavalry closely would
be to follow the pathway of a streak of lightning. It
flashed suddenly into the obscurity of the unknown
country, and was lost to sight quite as suddenly. But
every bolt told. It made its stroke, and lit up the course
it had taken for future movements. It was the unex-
p(cted which always happened. It was a quick fate
which appeared, destroyed and disappeared. It \vu ; the
Argus of the army, and its hundred eyes wer^^ always
open. In the storm of general attack it was an irre-
sistible force which kept up the spirits of the army, and
imbued it with its vigorous courage and daring hopeful-
ness.

The last blow was to be struck. There was no longer
any doubt but that Richmond must fall, and the only fear
in Grant's mind was that Lee might escape to \\\t moun-
tains. All his plans were now directed to preventing
this. On the 27th of February, 1865, Sheridan left
Winchester with ten thousand cavalry, and proceeded
south, destroying bridges, tearing up tracks and ruining
the locks of the James River Canal. He reached White
House on the 19th of March and communicated with
General Grant.

Ten days afterwards Grant instructed him to "cut
loose and go over the enemy's roads." He started for
Five Forks from Dinwiddie Court-House in the mud
and the rain. He seized Five Forks, but the enemy
was reinforced and he was compelled to fall back. The
cavalry was dismounted and deployed, and the retreat
was made in a masterly way. McKenzie's division
of cavalry and one division of the Fifth Corps were
sent to his assistance by Grant, and the other division

.^y '

692

L/F£: OF GENERAL GRANT.

fsl; :

i. \

soon followed. Sheridan again took the offensive, and
progressed again to Five Forks, which the Confederates
had greatly reinforced. It was the ist of April, and
Merritt was instructed to make a feint on the Confederate
right flank while the infantry was to assault the left.
Much depended upon the result, because the defeat of
the Confederacy at Five Forks would force Lee out of
Petersburg.

It was ekpected that Custer would be attacked at
daylight, and Warren was ordered to assault in full
force. The night before had been an exceedingly anx-
ious one. Sheridan was virtually in a state of siege,
and Devin's division was ordered on the right in the
morning, while Custer was on the left. Crook was given
the care of the roads. Custer was on the Scott road
and Devin was on the main road to Five Forks. The
fighting went on on this plan until nearly sundown, but
little efffect resulted. Warren war. behind, and his delay
was embarrassing. Sheridan rode to the front himself.
Merritt's men made a break in the front lines, and the
Confederates fell back to the Forks.

Here they were struck by Griffen and the battle was
decided. The cavalry rode into their broken ranks, and
every effort to rally the Confederates was in vain. The
troopers pursued and cut them down, and six thousand
prisoners fell into the hands of the Federals. It was at
this battle that Warren was relieved on the field. There
was no doubt of his patriotism and good intent, but the
situation did not admit of investigation then. His humil-
iation was the saddest feature of the victory, and it was
undeserved.

After the failure of Lee in this movement. Grant
rested about Richmond in the calm patience of assured
power. The failing army against which his firm and

THE FEDERAL TROOPERS.

fateful operations were directed was simply a vitalized
desperation. It was at the mercy of time. It had hopes,
but the hopes were only a pathetic disbelief of the in-
evitable. The swift annoyance of the Federal cavalry
was everywhere. It Hashed upon the Confederate
flanks, it laughed past its front, it picked up the strag-
glers. It was the materialized sneer of fate at the hope-
lessness of further opposition.

The lines were closing, but, where there were gaps,
the hoof-beats of the horses were heard and the sabres
of the troopers fell. Every time they advanced far-
ther and more recklessly into the lines, the doomed
army knew that the great cordon which was to crush
it was closing more tightly and menacingly around
it. Their daring was an anticipation of the end ; an
indication and an expression of the magnificent confi-
dence that was behind it.

Grant kept Lee under siege ; the cavalry cut off the
supplies which made a prolonged resistance possible.
In the later days Lee knew, months before he sur-
rendered, that the war was ended. The cavalry had
whirled through the Shenandoah a cyclone of war,
and had left a ruined country and a shattered army
of rebellion behind it. It had throttled the last hope at
Five Forks. It had spun tlirough all the lower roads of
supply and left them barren. Wherever the Confeder-
acy turned its eyes upon some new path for escape or
succor, Sheridan dashed down it, or Wilson held it, or
the yellow locks of Custer streamed in the wind.

The man on horseback was everywhere ; across fields,
down highways, through by-paths, he was ever present.
In the rush and rout of Winchester, in the doubt and
disappointment of Cedar Creek, in the storm and terror
of Five Forks, on the road below Appomattox, the

694

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

cavalryman had been the vivid personification of defeat
to the discouraged and broken soldiery in gray. And in
the last hours, when but one chance appeared, and the
disheartened Confederates strove to make a juncture
with Johnston, the sound of the hoofs on the roads be-
yond Gordon's advance was the knell which tolled the
failure, leading the way for the lines of infantry which
were quiedy waiting for their prey.

Tired, worn out, and defeated, the Confederacy laid
down its arms, and then the rqstless men on horseback
rode quite entirely into the lines, were transformed into
very kindly American citizens, and divided their rations
with the vanquished men whose ruin they had been. In
the last doubtful moments of the strife, when no one
knev very clearly where any cue was, the roll of musk-
etry sounded from the road below Appomattox. " Thank
God, there is Sheridan ! " cried Grant The cavalry had
found and closed the final gap. Its work was well done
and when on that fateful morning the footmen after a
terrible night's march, swung into line, the rebellion was
throttled. The troopers were, as usual, the pioneers in
the final gap. Their record on the last morning was a
fitting finale to a long series of remarkable achievements
and every man from Sheridan down felt a warm glow of
satisfaction over their part in the re -toration of peace.
What was true of the cavalry that f < , J Lee's shattered
army on the morning of the 9th of iivM-, fits in a great
degree those far away from that particular field. There
is no brighter page of the history the horsemen made
than Wilson's raid South to the capture of the Con-
federate President. This was the final work of clearing
the wreck. Kilpatrick's raid on Richmond more than a
year before was a famous adventure. Averill's jump
through the Valley of Virginia, about midway in the war

THE FEDERAL TROOPERS.

695

was a severe test of the genuine quality of the cavalry.
Custer, with his troopers, was for three years a busy-
bee that stung Confederates often and hard. Other
commands of horse added their blows to the general
record of well-doing, and when it is all reckoned and
stated it will be found that the cavalry had its full share
in the glory of the war, if it did begin its best work
late.

CHAPTER L.

GORDON BACK WII H LEE.

Gordon ordered back to Richmond — Success o( Grant in cutting off Confederate
supplies — A historical conference — Lee's profound depression — A message from
Grant — The assault on Fort Steadman — The last desperate battle before Peters-
burg is evacuated — A characteristic incident —The failure — Gordon wounded
—Death of Hill.

Gordon had been sent to the valley of the Shenandoah
with Early, but that officer seemed to be the favorite
proU'.g^. of misfortune. Assistance never did him any
good. On the contrary, those who came to his aid were
generally involved in the disasters which were sure to
happen. Gordon, splendid soldier though he was, could
not escape the fatality of the connection.

After the rout at Cedar Creek Gordon was ordered by
General Lee to come to Richmond with Jackson's old
corps, the Second, and he was placed upon the extreme
right of the army. Things were in statu quo at the time,
there being little change in the relative positions of the
foes. Grant was waiting calmly and Lee was keeping
up his resistance with no hope of ultimate success.
Sheridan, meanwhile, had been scoiiring the country
with his cavalry and had ridden clear down to the fortifi-
cations about Richmond. General Gordon in the con-
versation says :

*• When i got to Petersburg I was placed on the right,
and we were in almost constant battle with varying
results. Finally, about the latter part of February, our
rations were nearly exhausted. The policy of Grant to
starve us was having its effect. Our lines of road were
in a large measure in the hands of the enemy. Thomas
696

GORDON BACK WITH LEE.

697

was on the line from Tennessee to Lynchburg, and all
the roads southward in the direction of Norfolk were in
the hands of General Grant. We still had the Weldon
line, running into North Carolina, but it required inces-
sant fighting to hold it. The men must have something
to eat, but they had to buy their food with blood.

" One dark night in March, General Lee sent for me.
His headquarters were at a little frame house in Peters-
burg, and when I rode there I found him in an extremely
melancholy mood. It was about 3 o'clock in the morn-
ing. He stood leaning against the mantel, his head
upon his hand, and his sad, thoughtful face lined with
sorrow, a pathetic type of the cause to which he had
given up the great years of his life. He was not a
man given to displaying emotion, but on this occasion
he seemed much depressed. However, when I entered,
he straightened up and asked me take a seat. He
explained that he wished to confer with me about the situa-
tion. It seemed to him most serious. Producing his re-
ports from his different commands, he laid them before me.
The showing was not an encouraging one. There were,
according to the best of my recollection, about 50,000 or
55,000 infantry in all and a very small number of cavalry —
between 12,000 and 15,000,1 think. He then said:

"'General Gordon, you know the situation of the
army so far as food and clothing are concerned.
General Hill's corps (which was nearer to Petersburg
than I was, and had less chance to gather forage from
the country around) is on one-sixth of a pound of beef
now. Six men are being fed on one ration. While I
have this mere starving remnant, I estimate General
Grant's force at 150,000 men. Besides, our men are
dying in the hospitals from very slight wounds.'

" I answered that I had just been in the hospital, and

698

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

that it was a most horrible pictiinr. Tht; men were so
emaciated ami had so nm down in physique, tliat they
could not resist anythinir. TIk] slii^htest wound would
kill a man when tjanj^rt^ne sets in.

"General Let* continuiHl satlly: 'The horses are dyintr
in the trenches, and if General (irant were to tell me tiiat
1 could move away if 1 wanted to. we could not carry off
one-half of our artillery on account of the condition of
the horses. You know how our cavalry is j)laced. Iwery
time a horse is kilh-d, I mirh^ as well have a man killed,
because I cannot rc^place the horse. Gen(M-al (irant can
mount as many men as he chooses,' (jeneral Lee con-
tinued.

'"Our men are desperate because of sheer hunj^er
anil despair. They are breakinj^ open mills and seizinir
provisions wherever they can get them. They an;
williiii; enough to fight, but, under the circumstances, we
can not hold them together viTy much longer, riic
discipline of the army is broken. Look at the general
situation : General iiarly is in the valley, with a very
small force of cavalrv. (ieneral Thomas is comino- luist
with, I suppose, abcut 30,000 men. General Hancock
is in the valley with 20,000 men, against whom I have
not a vidette. General Sherman is moving up through
North Carolina and, when he joins Schoficld, will have
from 75,000 to 100,000 men. General Johnston has
telegraphed me to this effect : * What can we do ? *

General Gordon, continuinjTf his narative, said : •'The
picture was indeed a gloomy one. All the hopes and
enthusiasm with which we entered the struggle had
ended in this. Discouraged, desperate and famishing,
fighting hopelessly against what was beyond avoidance,
we were the ghosts of the Confederacy, going through
our parts after we knew the curtain had gone down, and

GORDON BACK WfTIl LEE.

(>»9

the play was, for ail tlu.' meaning there was in it, over.
General Lee saw that I was afftictcd by the sombre pic-
ture, and he britrhtcned up a litthi :

" * By the way Cicnf^ral (iordon,' he said, 'I received a
mcssac^r from Ci(;n(!ral Grant to-day.'

" ' I low did you get that ? ' I asked.

" • Under a (lag of truce sent out to arrange an
exchange of prisoners. General Grant told the officer
who carried it to tell me that he knew what I had for
breakfast every morning. I sent back word, that there
must be some mistake about it, for he must be a man of
too much heart not to divide with me, if he really knew
what I had. Besides, I added, that I knew quito as much
about his dinner as he did about my breakfast.*

" There was silence for awhile, and then General Lee
came back to the object of the conference.

'"What. do you think ought to be done?* he asked.

'"One of two things,' I replied. 'We must either
make terms at once, and get the best we can, or we must
fight. We cannot stand here.*

"This conversation,' General Gordon continued, • led to
my transfer into Petersburg to fight, at Fort Steadman,
the last desperate attack we made there. General Lee
asked me to take command, and he moved out the other
troops and put me in with my corps. I devoted a week
to studying the lines, and then I told him that I could
ta'^e Fort Steadman by a night attack. He asked

me what i could do afterwards. I replied that I did not
know about that. I then explained my plan, which was
to concentrate a heavy force at Colquitt*s salient, which
was the salient opposite Steadman, to organize three
or four commands of a hundred men each, wiJ:h courage-
ous ofificers in charge, to lead the assault, and making a
rush across the intervening space, capture the works

7()()

riffn. Of-' Ct.Nf'NAt. iifCANT.

'■Ill

fiJi

iri'^i

Johnston in Ni>rlh liuolina iiml lij^lit SluM'inaii. Ilii'

was onr

last \\

\o\H\ m\k\ a im»si (U'sprratc oik

Neil

jcr

CicMUMal \ .vc wov \\\\sv\[' \\M very hopdnl. I)nt it was at
loast wv>ith {\\v risk, ll was the only lliiiii' bolvvccn iis
atui suri"ciuUM-,anvl <'von it it laiKnl, vvc conM not he v<ry

nuuli worso

otV.

" I i;oi n\y men ready, aiul lied a white dolh around
each ono which Mrs. ciorJon had torn into strips lor us
so that thoy would know each other in the night. I
havl twenty stalwart axeincMi with each hundred men to
cut down the abatis. They did their work well, and tlic

({oh'noN /f/ifk' wi in f.f' f<

701

nni

w;n inailr ;i»r«mM

:i|)tiir

♦ '«

I (

tr\\rr,\\

I ,;iii};lilin ;uiil 'ii^lil ImiimIkmI nr iiin'' liiin»lrr(| pri'.nm r'l,
rl»vrn |»i»'( «M nl Mrlillrry ami iiirw m'MlaiM. I lif f-nliro
Imniiif'^'* 'li'l nni lakr lnji^;»i llian Ivvrufy inimM'";, aii'l
vvr IomI itt (lir rhar^y only (uic man, wIm» was IdllrH vvilli
a l»ayni)r|. Tin' juimiiMis w«r«- st m to ihr rrar.

"'I'lu'if' \\ryr iIupj' lorl'i I>' hiri'l I'Orl Stfadiuan wliif li
(niniiiaiMlrd il. Il w;i'i al»snl(il'ly m-crq'iary lor im fo
i;;iin iIk'Iii hpldfc (laylij;lil ; IhM il wnnM liavf to \tr dnnr
l»y 'ilialc^y. Tlwy vvrif if\i|»n')Mi;il»lr lf» aRsaiill, hut
lint'' w;m a way nl' };r|iii)jf arniin«l li'liiiwl ;iti'l j;oinj; in.
'IIm- llu'cf' l"Mli('t; (il a lumdrcd mrn wrr ra( li (o rnrivo
l»;i(k ihrnujdi llif i<";«'rv'"5 which w»tp hfhiiifj I'ort
M( adman. I srh-c l«d I'nid* -; who knrw tJK' coiinfry
w'll, Mild piiL <mt' wilh ra( h cnmmand. 'I'o the jfadiiijf
(iIIk f r (»r each of the haiidn »»! one himdrf'd mrn I j;av(!
llif Mam«" ol noMH* !'«(!» ral oflKcr doinj^ duly in n)y
(loMl. My ircollfM ti<in i'i di;<l. I nanifd ouv n\ fhrm
I iciilcnanl C'ojonrl I'cnd'ij'ra -i, ol du- Onn- lliinfirrd-
iiiid-SrvcMlcrnth I'fMin'iylvania. Af any rate, xhcn' was
a I ,i(iitcnanl-( "oloiicj I'cndrrjoasf ;nnofij^ tlu»s«: who
wf'ic in my Iront, and tlicif w;i'. a (^»lonr| Som(;hody, of

(he I

ourU'fM

Ih 1 1

ravv

Artill

V.VW

I :;ai<l to one of thcs(! oIlKrr

on arr LifMit<:nant-

("oloiK'l Pcndcr^oast, of thf* Onr: llimdrcd and Srivm-
t'cnUi I'cnnsylvania. Wf arr* j^oin^( to takr that fort,
and when it is taken, yon arc to rnsh hchind tliron^di the
I'Vdcral linf:s, shonlini; that thn rchr Is havr carried 'Vf^-ry-
ihiiiL,' in front. Say that you are f aentcnant-Colonel
Pcndcr^rav.t.and that yon are orderf^d to take your re;/i-
incnt and o(:cu[)y thti fort, and then do it. .Say that you

ave no tmic

for exi)h

atlons, lait must ^^o ri^dit ahead,
rt Stcadmai
Tlicn the three commands of a hun

"We first too

by a bold dash.
;d each went back

702

LIFE OF GEM.RAL GRANT,

and throujrh the rear line. They were not stoppc^l,
except by a question as to where they were going. But
they did not take the forts. They lost their guides, who
either deserted or became frightened.and, when daylight
came, they were all captured or shot down.

•• When dawn broke, we were watching the forts anx-
iously to see if they had been taken, but the message we
got was not an agreeable one. As soon as the sun gave
its first light, the artillery was brought out on the hills be-
hind, the guns of the forts were turned loose, and the
slaughter began. We lost I think fifteen hundred mLMi
in getting back to our lines, and I was myself wounded
in the leg. Several things made the movement a fail-
ure. The select bodies failed to capture the rear forts.
General Pickett, who was to be added to my command,
failed to get there because the train broke down, and
the cavalry could not be used because of other troubles.
•' The night on which we took Fort Steadman was an
ordinary March night. There was starlight, but no
moon. Just before the charge was made, I was standitiir
on the breastworks, trying to move my own obstructions
out of the way, secresy being the essential part of the
movement, when one of theFederal pickets, very close
to us, said:

" ' Hallo, Johnny, what are you making all that noise
about ? What are you doing there ? ' "

" It disconcerted me very much. I expected that the
artillery would open on us the next moment. I had my
men on the breastworks ready for the rush. Just then a
soldier whom I had instructed to fire a musket as the
signal to dash forward came to my relief.

" ' Oh, never mind, Yank,* he said. * Lie down and go
to sleep. We are just gathering a little corn. You know
rations are mighty short over here.'

GORDON BACK WITH LEE.

703

•••All rijjht, Joiinny; go ahcatl and gather your corn/
replied the picktit ; ' I am not going to shoot.'

"Tiierc was silence for a minute, and then I gave my
order, • Fire your musket.'

"The fellow's conscience seemed to hurt him, and he
hesitated.

" • Fire your musket ! ' I repeated sternly.

'"Wake up, Yank,' he cried, 'we are going to shell
the woods,' giving the picket time to get out of the way.

"Then the onset was made. Our axemen cut down the
abatis, made of rails, wrapped with telegraph wires. We
entered the fort and captured the men asleep at the guns.

" From that time until the surrender I never had my
boots off. I was on horseback most of the day and much
of the night, until the final break-up. The fighting was
incessant from then on. Grant immediately assumed the
offensive, and finally broke through A. P. Hill's lines. The
heaviest attack was made there, and Hill was killed in
trying to stop it. They also broke through mine, but did
not get any distance in. Then our retirement began Five
Forks and Sailor's Creek were the next two battles of
significance. My command was the last to come out of
Petersbrug. I brought up the rear until the 7th, fighting
continually. We had almost nothing to eat, and I must
have lost thirty pounds in the time between the fight at
Fort Steadman and the surrender."

The attack upon Steadman illustrates the desperate
straits in which the Confederacy was. It was merely a
forlorn hope inspired by the dream of joining Johnston.
It was hard to give up after all the hardships they had
endured, and the most remote chances were taken. The
fates had ruled otherwise, however. The sands were
running out rapidly, and further resistance would be a
wanton waste of life.

CHAPTER LI.

THE MARCH TO TIIK SEA.

The armies of co-operation — The instructions to Slicrman — " Penetrate the interior
as far as you can" — Movint; on Johnston — The cvaciiation of Dalton — Resaca—
The assault on KiMU'saw -MolMicison kiih-d — !''all of Atlanta "(lo as you pro-
pose " — The march bci^un — Uuoyaniy of tiie soldiers — Krif^hl of the inhabitants-
Arrival at Milleilj»eville — On to Savannah — Wheeler in the rear — At last.

Genkrai, Grant's leading idea in accepting the com-
mand of all the forces of the United States was that it
would secure the necessary concentration of the armies
for a common aim. In the past there had been too
much hap-hazard and desultory work. The national
forces had been spendthrift of strength, and the results
reached were out of propc >n to the number of soldiers
and wealth of resources v^mployed. The lieutenant-
general felt that the surer way would be to have all the
leading-strings in his hand, and make a campaign of the
whole, instead of relying upon the unconnected efforts
of fractions. He did not contract the usefulness of his
generals in carrying out the plan, however. He simply
gave the general outline, and left them free to execute.
" So far as possible," he wrote to Meade on April 9,
1864, "all the armies are to move together and towards
a common centre." In his letter of the 4th of the same
month to General Sherman he detailed what he wanted
done. Banks was ordered to finish up his expedition to
Shreveport and move on Mobile. Gilmore was to join
Butler and operate against Richmond from the south
side of the James. Sigel and Crook were instructed to
move against the Virginia and Tennessee Railroad. The

(704)

TrrE AfAh'c// TO rill: si-:/t.

7or»

most important order was s(rnt to Sherman. It ran: "I
do not propose to lay down for you a plan of rampaic^n,
but simply to lay down the work it is desirahh; to have
done, and hiave you free to (!xecut(! it in your own way.
You I propose to move aij^ainst Johnston's army, to break
it up and g ^t into th<' int(M-ior of the encrmy's country as
far as you can, inflirtin^ all tlu; tlama^c; you can against
their war resourc(;s."

That famous military pirnic had all the elements cal-
culated to catch the popular heart. It was a darin*,^ in-
spiration, and
it was thor-
oughly s u c-
cessful. Its
moral effect
was great in
t h c North,
and it filled
the South
with gloom
and forebod-
ing. It closed
the last port f«k'i '^»^ '«>^sy.

which the national blockade could not control, a .d it
kept the Confederates so busy that they could not send
any reinforcements to Richmond. But it was not as
great in military achievement as the preliminary cam-
paign which made the marcli possible. The fighting be-
fore and immediately after the fall of Atlanta was of
much larger importance, and displayed Sherman's gene-
ralship in a far higher degree. The march to the sea
and its results were the natural sequence.

This great campaign of co-operation was opened on
the 5th day of May. Sherman had accumulated sup-

706

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

plies, and the army was lightened as much as possible.
No unnecessary baggage was allowed, and the com-
mander himself set the example of taking only what he
absolutely needed.

General Joe Johnston was at Dalton. To say that he
was one of the great Confederate chieftains would not
do him justice. He was very much more than this. His

military sa-
gacity was un-
usual. Grant
himself held
him to be the
great South-
ern general of
the war. He
combined pru-
de n c e with
daring. H e
possessed a
comprehen-
sive intelli-
gence which
did not sacri-
fice a great
stake for tran-
sitory glory.
He did not

uKNi RAi. joK JOHNSTON, "S"^ ^^^ dra-

matic effect, but for practical results. When it was neces-
sary to retreat, he did not hesitate to do so because of a
fear that his movement might be misconstrued into a de-
feat. He recognized fully that it was his part to take
rare of his army, and to use it when it could be used in a
way which would secure advantage. He was a splendid

THE MARCH TO THE SEA.

exponent of intelligent war. Thus Sherman, at the be-
ginning- of his campaign, had a man before him who was
far-seeing, cool and calculating.

The enemy were encamped in Buzzard's Roost, the
approach to Dalton, a wild gorge which was admirably
adapted for defence. The creek which ran through it
had been dammed up and tlu' roadway was covered
with the waters of an artificial lake. On the heigius on
either side the guns were placed, black and silent threats
acf'iinst intrusion.

To attack such a position would be madness, and
Sherman had no intention of doing so. He knew that
he had a large advantage in numbers, and he determined
to utilize this. McPherson was sent to the rear to cap-
ture the railroad which furnished the Confederate army
with its supplies. He had about twenty-tliree thousand
men with liim, and Hooker was close at hand to assist.
He stopped just short of Resaca, refraining from mak-
ing an attack because he believed the enemy to be too
strongly intrenched. Johnston saw that he was in a trap
and determined to get out as soon as possible. He was
not strong enough to assault, and his only object was to
act on the active-defe'isive. On the iith he evacuated
Dalton and, by a quick and exceedingly well-executed
movement, got his army into Resaca before they could
be struck in the confusion of the retreat. On the 14th
Resaca was invested and the day following there was
figiiting all around it. McPherson gained a ridge which
overlooked the town and trained his field artillery upon
the bridge across the Oostenaule, and all efforts to dr've
him away were unsuccessful. Again Johnston >var>
alert. He knew that to stay in Resaca longer wcu;d
be folly, and, on the same night, by another masterly
movement, he got his army across the river and left
Resaca clear for Federal occupation.

708

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

The Confederates retreated to Kingston, making a
show ot fighting all the way. There Johnston drew up
in hostile form, but, when the Federals came up again,
he fell back upon Cassville in splendid order, and para-
pets were thrown up. All the appearances indicated a
battle at Cassville, and Sherman brought up his availa-
ble forces, but when the day broke the wily Confederate
was nowhere to be seen. He had slipped away again
and gotten beyond the Etowah river. At Cassville
Johnston had intended to give battle and had made all
preparations, but a lack of confidence in the good faith
of his corps commanders made him change his mind.

After this avoidance Sherman found himself some
distance from his base of supplies, and he stopped where
he was for ten days. Then he moved towards Dallas,
through a wooded and mountainous country. The rain
was falling heavily and marching was very difficult. At
New Hope the enemy was found and there was a week
of strong skirmishing. Then Sherman pursued his
favorite tactics of outflanking the Confederates and they
fell back to Kenesaw. From the beginning of the cam-
paign until that time Johnston had retreated a hundn^d
miles.

It was the optimistic theory of the Confederacy that
Johnston was simply drawing Sherman on ; tliat it was
his intention to decoy him into the interior and there
crush him. But this was absurd. At Cassville John-
ston had about sixty thousand men, while Sherman had
a hundred thousand. The Confederate was too shrewd
a general to fight against such odds. He did not fight
for the sake of fighting, but because he wanted to win,
and he would not enter a battle unless he felt some
surety of a victory. He fell back before the Federal
army because he was forced to, and his retreat was

THE MARCH TO THE SEA.

709

made in good form because he had miles of fortified
positions behind him.

June had come. A rainy spell had set in and it con-
tinued with dreary persistency. There were no roads and
they had to be made for the supply trains. The enerny
occupied three hills, of which Kenesaw was the extreme,
and ten miles of irregular intrenchments were thrown
up in front of them. From their lofty perch the Con-
federates could overlook every movement made in the
Federal camp. Chance firing went on between the two
lines, and a stray shell killed General Polk, one of John-
ston's corps commanders. The Confederate line, as
formed, was too long and too much weakened, but be-
fore the 20th two of the hills had been abandoned and
Johnston had concentrated at Kenesaw.

On the 27th of June an effort was made to make a
breach in the fortified lines, but it was a failure, although
the Federals made a considerable advance and held
their ground. The intrenchments were too strong to
be carried by assault, and Sherman at once decided to
move the army to the Chattahoochee river, ten miles
below, and cut Johnston off. But the wary Confederate
could not be caught in this way. During the night he
abandoned Kenesaw and retreated to an intrenched
camp on the west bank of the Chattahoochee river.
The movement was made with great skill.

The forward advance of the Federal army had now
brought it within ten miles of Atlanta, the principal
railroad centre of that portion of the South. The
greatest alarm prevailed among the citizens. They were
surprised and starded at the close proximity of the
national troops. Johnston was warmly denounced for
not having given battle before, and a cry went up for
his removal. His friends attempted to stem the popular

710

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

clamor, but in vain, and, in the midst of it, he was re-
lieved and Hood placed in command.

Hood was put in to fight and he did fight. On the
20th of July he made his first attack on the Federal
right, but was repulsed after two hours of hard combat
Sherman at once advanced his lines much nearer At-
lanta and close to the Confederate intrenchments. Two
days later another attack was made and the battle con-
tinued all day. The brunt of it was borne by the Army
of the Tennessee. The Confederates were again re-
pulsed ; but, early in the day, General McPherson was
killed. The investment of Atlanta continued for some
days, during which time the city was shelled. Then
the Federal army moved below it to occupy the railroad.
The old tactics were again successful. Almost immedi-
ately the enemy evacuated Atlanta and General Slocum
entered it. The aggregate loss in killed, wounded
and missing during the three months' campaign was
31,687 on the Federal and 34,479 on the Confederate
side.

The fall of Atlanta was a great victory. It had been
accomplished with less loss of life than might have been
expected under the circumstances. Sherman had ad-
vanced for more than a hundred and twenty-five miles
through a thoroughly fortified country. He now held the
city which was known as the " gateway of the South,"
and whose loss to the Confederacy could hardly be over-
estimated. He had shown the best genius of general-
ship in his conduct of the campaign, and he merited the
enthusiasm with which the news of the victory was re-
ceived in the North. He struck the enemy a severe blow.

The general orders to Sherman had been to penetrate
into the interior of Georgia and inflict as much damage
as he could upon the Confederate resources, but he im-

MAP SHOWING THE ROUTE OF SHERMAN'S ARMY THROUGH SOU IH CAROLINA.

(711)

712

LIFF, OF GENERAL GRANT.

proved upon these. In his letter to Grant, on Septem-
ber 20th, he said: "The more I study the game, the
more I am convinced that it would be wrong for us to
penetrate farther into Georgia without any objective
beyond. It would not he productive of much good. I
will therefore give it as my opinion that I should keep
Hood employed and put my army in fine order for a
march on Augusta, Columbia and Charleston."

As soon as the idea of getting to the sea came into
Sherman's mind it remained there. He insisted upon it
in all his despatches, but the authorities at Washington
and General Grant were slow to acquiesce. They be-
lieved that Hood should be crushed out first, but Hood
was hard to get at. Sherman insisted that Thomas had
enough men to take care of Hood, and subsequent
events proved that he was right. It was not until No-
vember 2d that Grant telegraphed him, •' Go on as you
propose," and ten days later he was ready.

The supplies were sent to the rear, the railroad was
destroyed, the wires were cut and all communication
with the North abruptly ended. The army was purged
of sick men and non-combatants, and only the absolute
essentials were to be taken. The force aggregated
about sixty-two thousand.

On the 15th the army started. It was divided into
two columns — one moving towards Madison and the
other to follow the railroad towards Jonesboro.' The
point of junction was to be Milledgeville, a hundred
miles away. It was a glorious day. The air was brisk and
bracing and the men were in splendid spirits and impa-
tient to be off. Every one was full of hope and the
army believed that it was going to end the rebellion as
once. It had been uniformly victorious and it felt great
confidence in its prowess. It had complete trust in its

THE MARCH TO THE SEA.

7ia

commander and litde fear of Hood's columns that were
moving aimlessly far to the northwest. The able-bodied
negroes who had been allowed to accompany the expe-
dition frisked about joyously, seeing freedom in the
swinging and confident step of their blue-coated friends.

The first night was spent near Lithonia mountain.
Miles of railway had been torn up and huge fires were
built of the ties, at which the rails were heated and
twisted out of all semblance of utility. The volatile
commander was anxious that this part of the work
should be well done, and he moved about among the
men, encouraging them at their work. They were full
of the abandon of the daring move, and laughed and
jested to their hearts' content. They were buoyant and
confident. There was no thought of danger or failure,
just beyond, the mountain loomed up solemn and dig-
nified, looking down with sombre indifference upon the
scene below. In the very heart of a hostile country,
with all their communications in the rear cut off, march-
ing away from the possibility of reinforcement, they
were joyous and light-hearted.

Covington was the first town they passed through.
The negroes could hardly conceal their delight. To
them the long, dusty Columns were material evidence
that the day of Jubilee had come. They saw the procla-
mation of emancipation moving by in the careless, con-
fident soldiery. But the whites were sadly startled.
Their leaders had been very boastful in pronunciamentos,
and this was a sorry vindication of them. The invasion
was a surprise which was not kindly received.

The Federals were on the direct way to the State
capital. They had been ordered to subsist off of the
country, and they were helping themselves as they went
along. At the capital the legislature was huddled in

714

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

terror. It passed an act calling upon the people to repel
the invader, and then packed its baggage and hurried
out of the way. General Beauregard issued a procla-
mation appealing to the citizens to obstruct and destroy
all the roads, and starve the enemy out, but the procla-
mation came too late. One minor attack was made
upon the Federal right, near Griswoldville, but it was
repulsed with great slaughter.

Sherman reached Milledgeville and rested. The
State authorities had hurried out. There was nothing
to do but to take account of things and go on. So, on
the 24th, he took up the march again. Detached por-
tions of the army were attacked by Wheeler, who was
following behind with cavalry, but the fighting did not
amount to much. Kilpatrick once got too far behind
and the enemy came between him and the army, but he
cut his way through. At Reynolds* plantation there
was a sharp, heavy skirmish, but Wheeler was repulsed.
Some brisk fighting of a minor character followed after-
wards, in which Wheeler was more than worsted.

On December 3d the army reached Millen, and cut
the railway communications between Savannah and
Augusta. From this time on there was virtually no
opposition. The Confederates hovering in the rear had
become cautious, and refrained from attack. The march
was nearly at its end. The soil was sandy, and forage
was not so easy to obtain. There was a scent of salt in
the air, and a consciousness of a great feat accomplished
in the face of the leader. Five days later Savannah was
invested, communication opened with the fleet, and the
last railway cut. The march had been accomplished, the
country had been devastated, five hundred miles of rail-
way had been destroyed, and the forage had been con-
sumed on a broad swath of country at least fifty miles
across. Sherman had cut the Confederacy in two.

MAP SHOWING COUNTRY FROM NASHVILLE, TENN., TO DECATUR. ALA.

(716)

716

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Savannah did not last long. Resistance was hopeless.
On the 2 1 St Hardee moved out, and Generals Slocum
and Howard moved in. Thorough communication with
the Federal fleet in the harbor had been established be-
fore. The Confederate army had escaped, but the vic-
tory was a pronounced one. It was especially important
in its moral effect. It confirmed the deep depression
which had fallen upon the South with the capture of
Atlanta, and it encouraged the North to send forward
assistance for the accomplishment of the main work at
Richmond. Comparatively no resistance had been
offered to Sherman on his march, and yet the move-
ment was full of far-reaching consequences. It was a
victory won without the shedding of much blood, and
yet it inspired the nation more than did Vicksburg or
the fall of Atlanta. It was a stroke of genius, and its
execution was followed by results of importance.

There has been a great deal of discussion as to who
was the author of the idea which led to the march, but
the immediate credit certainly belongs to Shern an. No
sooner had he occupied Atlanta than he looked to the
east. Grant's general orders had been that he should
penetrate the interior ; but, at the time, the authorities
were afraid of Hood's operations. Sherman was not.
He believed that Thomas could take care of Hood. He
felt that at Atlanta his army would be idle, and that to
leave Georgia would have a bad effect. He saw only
one thing to do, and this was to go forward ; and in
every despatch he sent to either the commander or to
Washington he insisted upon it. And finally the answer
came, " Go as you propose." And he went. It is evi-
dent that the march to the sea was the result of condi-
tions which grew as Sherman advanced through Georgia.

CHAPTER LII.

THE LAST YEAR. OF STRIFE.

How the armies were placed — Sheridau in the valley — Ord's movements — Visit of
President Lincoln — He sees a battle instead of a review — Sherman arrives — His
conversation with Lincoln — The understanding between them — Another great
battle certain — Lincoln desires to avoid it — Sherman returns to North Carolina — ■
Sheridan.

The last year of the war opened well for the Union
forces and badly for the Confederates. Grant's grip was
every day tightening upon the waning lines of the '
enemy about Petersburg, and Sherman was resting his
army at Savannah. Sheridan was preparing for his last
move up the valley, and all the co-operating forces were
arranging for the final blow. Grant suggested to Sher-
man that he bring his forces by sea to join the main
army ; but Sherman said he preferred to march overland
through the Carolinas and would form a junction with
Grant near Burksville. Thus Lee's army would be be-
tween the upper and the nether mill-stone. This plan
was agreed upon, and the result is familiar history.

While Sherman was making ready Grant was not idle.

Late in January a movement to the left was planned,

and on the 5th of that month the Second and Fifth corps

were sent out, with Gregg's cavalry leading, to Dinwiddle

Court-House, and the next day the Sixth corps (which

had returned from the Shenandoah valley in November),

and the Ninth were also moved in reserve. Some heavy

fighting ensued, but no general engagement, and on

the 15th all was quiet again. But the Union line had

been extended further westward and now rested along

(717)

718

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the Vaughan road to the lower part of Hatcher's run,
to which point the military railway had been extended
from City Point.

Sheridan left Winchester February 27th with his
cavalry, and the third day after chased Early into his in-
trenchments at Waynesboro', and captured the whole
command — men, guns, flags and supplies. Early him-
self narrowly escaped and was -never given another im-
portant command. The next day Sheridan reachtd
Charlotteville and waited two days for his trains, while
his busy troopers destroyed the railway each side, and
then divided his command. One division reached James
river canal and destroyed its locks, while the other
column pushed to Amherst Court-House toward Lynch-
burg, and thence to New Market, where the divisions re-
united. Here, the high water prevented the crossing of
the James, so Sheridan turned eastward, and after a
brilliant march reached White House on the Pamunkey
on the 19th. In his track there had been nothing left
undestroyed that was of value to aid the Confederate
force, and Sheridan was now free to join Grant for the
last struggle.

Kancock was assigned to the middle military division
and Humphreys was commanding the Second corps,
while the cavalry was again given to Sheridan.

The end was drawing very near, and Grant's only fear
was that so skilful a soldier as Lee might make an effort
to break away and join his force with that of Johnston
in Sherman's front, when it would be easy to reach the
mountains.

With this contingency in view he prepared, on the
24th, extended orders in detail for a movement to begin
March 29th. General Ord, with three divisions of the
Army of the James, was ordered to the extreme left of

THE LAST YEAR OF STRIFE,

Ti^

the Army of the Potomac. The Ninth corps, with Parke,
was directed to hold the line of fortifications, while Sheri-
dan was to swing in advance. General Godfrey Weitzel
was left jn command of what remained of the Army of
the James.

Ord's movement to join was fixed for the 27th, bv.t
Lee precipitated matters by assuming the offensive.
Very early in the morning of the 25th, the divisions of
Gordon and Bushrod Johnson, under General Gordon,
massed quietly in front of the Ninth corps, at the re-
doubt known as Fort Steadman, and rushed just at day-
break on that work, capturing it handsomely, with the
flanking works known as batteries Nine, Ten and Eleven,
and turned the guns on the expelled men. The dash
was only excelled by Hancock's charge at Spottsylvania
salient, but Gordon failed, with all his gallantry, to hold
his prize.

The men of Wilcox's division caught themselves at
Fort Haskell, not far away, and, reforming, went back as
troops seldom go that have just met reverses. Hart-
ranft's division, also of the Ninth corps, advanced at the
same time with Wilcox, and Gordon was thrust out from
his prize to ground so swept by a cross-fire that Hart-
ranft was left with nearly two thousand prisoners. The
counter-assault had been so sudden and heavy that the
retaking was as brilliant as the first.

The whole thing was over in a brief time, but the
affair acted on Grant like a pre-arranged signal, and
Meade was instructed to send in the whole line. The
commander seemed to be as well aware as was Lee that
Gordon's movement was a sort of forlorn hope, the suc-
cess of which meant a juncture with Johnston. The
effect on the troops had been magnetic, and the pro-
posed review for which they were found preparing was

720

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

changed to the operation of a great general enga[:^e~
ment.

President Lincohi was present to witness the review,
but saw a battle and a victory, which he declared was
much better. Hill's line was broken. The beginning
of the end was started, and four days before Grant liad
planned for it.

Wright dashed in with the Sixth on Parke's left and
seized the Confederate advanced line. The Second
corps moved forward still further to the left and grasped
the picket line in front, and President Lincoln saw his
promised review after all, for as Crawford's division
trotted past io go into action, they gave him a marching
salute. The advantage rested with the Union army all
that day.

Two days later, while the arrangements were still un-
der way, .' jhcrman came to City Point from Goldsboro',
North Carolina, where his army had arrived and was
resting while being supplied, and Grant explained to
him in detail the plans he had adopted.

This was the first time that Grant had met Sherman
since he had bidden adieu to the Army of the Tennessee,
and, as may be imagin* 1, the meeting was a cordial as
well as an important one. President Lincoln was still at
City Point, and General Sherman took occasion to have
a conference with him. Speaking of that interview,
General Sherman now says :

•• From the looks of things it was very evident that
the end was near. It was also apparent that either
Grant or m.yself would have to fight at least one more
great battle. Mr. Lincoln was exceedingly anxious that
further bloodshed should be avoided if possible. He
said that he hoped that the war might end without another
battle. He continued, that what he wanted Grant and I

THE LAST YEAR OF STRIFE,

721

to do was to stop the fightinrr, send the Southern soldiers
home and get them at work as soon as possible. Mr.
Lincoln's feelings, as expressed to us at the time, were
exceedingly kindly, and they found expression in the
terms I accorded to Joe Johnston. Hi.i ideas, as out-
lined during this meeting at City Point, comprehended
the restoration of the existinjj State administrations as
governments de facto until Congress could pass upon the
question.

" His entire conversation suf^crested a broad and lib-
eral treatment of the Southern people. I said to him :

" * Mr. President, there will be no trouble about the
soldiers ; but what about the civilians ? '

" ' Oh,' he replied, ' we will leave a Wiiy open for them
to g( out.'

'* ' What about Jeff Davis and men of that character ? *
I inquired.

" He said he could not commit himself on that sub-
ject, but he felt a great deal like the man who had sworn
off drinking. A neighbor invited him to have a glass of
lemonade. A bottle of brandy stood near, and the host
suggested that a little liquor in it would not hurt. The
abstainer remarked, * No, I don't mind the liquor, if you
can slip it in unbeknownst to me.'

*' I clearly understood the application and replied,
'Very well; I think there will be no difficulty about the
restoration of peace, but we will have to have at least
another bloody battle. Both Cienerals Johnston and
l>(;e are soldiers of Superior quality and are not going
to surrender without a flight.'

"I th(.'n anticipated that Lee would try to make a
junction with Johnston and that their combined forces
would strike me about Raleigh. I had 80,000 as fine
troops as were ever marshalled, and was thoroughly able

f22

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

to repel any attack that could be made by Lee and
Johnston combined.

" Mr. Lincoln said he was glad to hear it, but wished
very much that I was back with my army in North Caro-
lina.

" I told him that no emergency could arise that Gen-
eral Schofield was not competent to meet.

" • Well/ he replied, ' that may be true, but I should
feel very much easier if you were back.'

" I told him that I intended to return that day, as soon
as my boat was ready.

" The protocol with Johnston, submitted to the govern-
ment for approval, was within range of Mr. Lincoln's
policy, as he then mapped it out to me. If there was
any change in Mr. Lincoln's plans after he communicated
them to General Grant and myself at City Point I was
not advised."

Grant and Sherman parted that day, after this inter-
view with Mr. Lincoln, and their subsequent meeting is
treated of elsewhere. Grant at once continued prepara-
tions for the spring campaign, and Sherman did the
same.

The afternoon of March 29th, Sheridan, with his
nine thousand cavalry under Crook and Merritt, had
moved past Ream's station to Dinwiddle Court
House, and Grant was at Gravelly run, whence he
wrote Sheridan not to cut loose from the army, as had
•before been intended, but to push round the enemy's
ricrht.

The next day Sheridan seized upon Five Forks,
•makiiiPf the move in a fierce storm of rain that halted
everything on wheels, and had a sharp fight. Warren
was attacked and checked and then slowly but steadily
forced back, division by division, and finally the enemy

THE LAST YEAR OF STRIFE.

723

turned his whole attention to Sheridan and forced him
back to Dinwiddie, where another battle was fought
which resulted in victory for the Union cavalrymen.
The latter at once followed up his advantage and again
advanced to Five Forks, which he held.

The Fifth corps was now added to Sheridan's imme-
diate command, this being on the ist of April. War-
ren did not satisfy his new chief and this day was
relieved on the field and Griffin succeeded in command
of the corps.

General Grant formed a very high estimate of Sheri-
dan from his operations of the past two days, and de-
clared that his conduct showed great generalship. When
he had pressed the Confederates back within their works,
he ordered Merritt to demonstrate as if to attack their
right, while he swung round with the Fifth corps and
struck the left flank and wholly crushed it, driving the
opposing lines in rout. The pursuit was kept up for
half a dozen miles, until darkness put an end to the
work of the tired troops. Between five and six thou-
sand prisoners had fallen into Sheridan's hands and the
remainder continued their flight westward.

Grant now considered Sheridan's position very haz-
ardous. The enemy might concentrate and overpower
him unless their attention was fully occupied along the
whole line. Miles, with a division of the Second corps,
was sent to his aid, and, attacking under Sheridan's di-
rection, gallantly drove the enemy back. In order fur-
ther to relieve the cavalry, Grant ordered every corps to
endeavor to pierce the enemy's lines in his front so as
to prevent Lee from further weakening his defences in
order to concentrate an overwhelming force and defeat
the flanking movement. The orders issued at this time
showed the desire of the commanding general to im-

724

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

press upon each subordinate commander the necessity
for the utmost vigor and pertinacity in their attacks.
Having instructed them thus minutely he spent the re-
mainder of the evening awaiting reports from Sheridan,
about whom his anxiety was intense.

It was at this time that Sheridan made his greatest
reputation as a co-operating commander upon whom
every dependence could be placed. He seemed to have
an anticipatory idea of every move which Grant intended,
and he showed the greatest confidence in his manner of
carrying out what he knew his chief would approve.
Perhaps the greatest part of Sheridan's army career
will be CO,' sidered that which included his operations
about Richmond in the closing days of the war.

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v" '•• '.

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CHAPTER LIII.

THE ARMY BEFORE PETERSBURG.

Failure to carry Petersburg by assault — Despondency in the North — Enormous death-
roll — Grant farther from Richmond — President Lincoln's firm confidence — His
predictions — He visits City Point — Operating against the Weldon Road — Butler's
move on Deep Bottom — Battle of Reams' Station — Fitzhugh Lee's cavalry beaten
— Southside railroad at Banksville torn up — Narrow escape of the Union cavalry —
The -rmy resting — The siege begun.

The very night of the last assault Grant expressed to
Meade his opinion that all had been done that could be
done to carry the works, and that they would thereafter
endeavor to gain advantage without assaulting fortifica-
tions. The men were wearied from their seven-weeks*
campaign of hard fighting and marching, and needed
repose. He had concluded to rest the command, " and
use the spade for their protection until a new vein can
be struck."

One unfortunate result of the failure to grasp Peters-
burg was the feeling of depression that pervaded the
North. The public did not penetrate the strategic value
and importance of the move across the James River, and
only understood that Grant had moved twenty-five miles
farther away from Richmond, and that Lee was in his
front and fortified. They believed that Grant had been
out-generaled by Lee and forced to his present position.
None realized the value of Beauregard's action to the
Confederate cause in throwing troops into Petersburg,
nor the strange failure of Smith to take what he had won.
Already the heavy losses in the almost-continuous fight-
ing from the Wilderness to this point had depressed the
public, and the corresponding losses of Lee, even while

725

720

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

he fought for the most part in intrenched positions, were
not known to the people.

The war had grown so heavy a burden, and the list of
dead and maimed roll was so large, that prayers were
offered up for the ending of the struggle, for peace ; many
wanted it at any price, so that bloodshed might cease. To
the people the possession of the Confederate capital
meant peace, and that was the goal desired ; yet here
was Grant farther from Richmond than he had been a
month before.

Many lost faith in the man of victory, who came less
than six months before from his triumphs in the West to
battle with Lee; but President Lincoln was never one of
these. He was stanch in his belief in Grant, and came
at once to the rescue. He sent an approving dispatch
to him, and on June i8th addressed a public meeting in
Philadelphia, where he said: "We are going through
with our task, so far as I am concerned, if it takes us
three years longer. I am not in the habit of making
predicdons, but I am almost tempted now to hazard one.
It is, that Grant is this morning in a position, with Meade
and Hancock, of Pennsylvania, where he will never be
dislodged by the enemy until Richmond is taken."

This, of course, was telegraphed to all quarters, and
was a great help in cheering the public heart. President
Lincoln did still more to show Grant and the country how
strong and abiding was his faith in his chief captain. On
the next Tuesday, the President visited General Grant at
City Point. During the day both rode to the front, and
visited the lines at Petersburg and Bermuda Hundred,
where they were received with great enthusiasm by the
soldiers, especially by the colored troops, who had so dis-
tinguished themselves at Cold Harbor and Petersburg.
■ The rest proposed by Grant for his men was of short

THE ARMY BEFORE PETERSBURG.

727:

duration, for he at once began operations to envelop the
enemy. Smith and the eighteenth corps wete sent back
to Butler, on the north side of the Appomattox, and
Wright's divisions returned to Meade. One of Han-
coclv's old wounds had forced him to leave the field, and
Birney was commanding the second corps. Butler ex-
tended his line to the left, so that the sixth, where Smith
had been, was relieved, and that corps, with the second
was withdrawn from
the line and moved
to the extreme left,
pointing at the seiz-
ure of the Weldon
Railroad, with the
Appomattox west of
Petersbu rrr as the ob-
jective. Brooks had
relieved Gilmore, in
command of the
Tenth corps under
Butler, and Ferraro's
division of colored ^J
troops was added to
the Ninth corps.

On the morning
that Lincoln visited
the armies the posi-
tion was: Smith was pushed across the Appomat-
tox and held the extreme right where Wright had
been, with the Fifth and Ninth corps occupying the
line of intrenchments across the City Point and Nor-
folk railways and to the Jerusalem Plank road. The
same morning Birney and Wright pushed rapidly out for
the Weldon railroad, which remained the chief artery of

PRESIDENT LINCOLN.

728

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

supply for the beleagured enemy. The second corps
movement was to connect beyond Warren with Wright,
who was expected to extend to the desired point. The
enemy detected the movement and its object, and acting
quite as rapidly the advance had only reached Davis'
farm on the Jerusalem road when it was attacked sharply
by A. P. Hill's troops and checked. The next day,
Wednesday, A. P. Hill found a fatal gap on Birney's
flank and doubled up his left forcing Barlow's division
back on Mott (Birney's) and Gibbon, but a new line
was formed and held. Thursday, Wright pushed to the
Weldon road and cut the telegraph, but hardly had he
placed three regiments in position, when Anderson's
division of Hill's corps struck them on the flank, crushing
them back with the loss of many prisoners. The
country was very much broken and difficult to move in
and was besides unknown to the Union commanders,
while the Confederates were familiar with every inch of the
ground. The possession of the road was of vital im-
portance to Lee and his blows were struck heavily and
with no uncertain hand. Here Lee for the first time
since the Wilderness abandoned his strict policy of de-
fensive fighting in works and struck quick and sharp to
save the last means of feeding his army. The Union
lines were withdrawn to the Jerusalem road. Mean-
time while Lee was so busily engaged in protecting
his right, Grant had directed Butler to throw a force
across into the low broad stretch of swale known as
Deep Bottom. This was successfully done by a brigade
of the tenth corps under General Robert S. Foster, and
a new road was opened to Richmond by the north bank,
and only fourteen miles away.

While the unsuccessful effort was being made to occupy
and hold the Weldon road, General Wilson with his div-

THE ARMY BEFORE PETERSBURG,

729

ision of cavalry, and that of Kautz's from Butler's com-
mand, moved rapidly South the morning of June 2 2d, to
Reams' Station on the Weldon road, where they destroyed
the depot and tore up a long stretch of track. Thence
moving west without delay, the command struck the
Southside railway at a point about fifteen miles west
from Petersburg, and tore up the track for twenty-two
miles near Nottaway station.

General W F. Lee, with the enemy's cavalry, was
encountered, defeated, and brushed away. Kautz was
sent on to the junction of the Southside with the
Danville road at Burksville, which he reached and
destroyed Thursday evening. That night and the
next day he tore up the track as far as Meherrin
station, where he rejoined Wilson, and the united com-
mand then destroyed the Danville road as far south as
Roanoke Bridge, where they struck the enemy posted
in force, so that he could not be dislodged. The en-
raged Confederates were gathering like wolves about
the gallant cavalrymen, and they were forced to start
rapidly back. The following Tuesday Wilson met a
large force at Stony Creek, on the Weldon road, and
after a hard fight, was forced to make a detour to Reams'
Station, which he supposed was still in Union hands.
This was a terrible mistake, for the enemy, in their efforts
to close every avenue of escape, had re-occupied that
point with a large force of infantry and cavalry. In his
efforts to escape, Wilson lost all his artillery and trains
and became separated from Kautz, who made his way
into the Union lines independently, and finally came in
himself by crossing the Nottoway River. He was in a
pitiable condition and had lost many prisoners, in addition
to his guns and wagons. He had made one of the most
magnificent raids of the war, and though almost de-

730

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

strayed himself, had succeeded in breaking the railway
communication with Richmond for several weeks. Gen-
eral Grant said: "The damage done to the enemy in
that expedition more than compensated for the loss sus-
tained."

Thus it was, that after three months of hard and almost
continuous fighting, the Army of the Potomac had reached
a point where, for a time, no more field operations were
feasible, and the siege of the great stronghold where
Lee rested must begin. The losses during the campaign
had been enorn<ous. Between sixty and seventy thou-
sand killed, wounded and missing was the number. Grant
had lost six hundred officers killed, more than two thou-
sand wounded, and three hundrtjd and fifty missing.
These were veterans, and could not be replaced readily;
brigades were in many cases commanded by majors, and
regi'^ients by lieutenants. New troops had come to re-
place the losses, but it was long before they would fill
the gap made by the death and disablement of many of
the veterans who crossed the Rapidan.

Meanwhile all had not gone well in the Valley of
Virginia. After some sharp fighting, Hunter who had
succeeded Sigel, effected a junction June 8th at Staunton
with Crook and Averill. Thence the combined force
moved to Lexington and then back to Lynchburg, which
was invested June i6th — too late. Lee's communications
being all open to the westward had enabled him to throw
about a corps of troops into Lynchburg, and Hunter was
forced to retire for safety. He had run out of ammuni-
tion, but instead of retiring along the Valley line, so as to
interpose between Lee's army and the North, he fell back
to the Kanawha River, and his troops were lost to use for
a number of weeks. , v

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CHAPTER LIV.

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

'• Lee cannot feed Reinforcements " — Grant has no Fear of Johnston Aiding
Viryiiiia —The Siege Train at Petersburg — Within Short Ginnon Range— Grant
Reinforcing — Thvr Trans- Mississippi Can>paign Discontinued — Preparing the
Mine — It^ Fri^jhtful Destructiveness — Fatal Delay of the Assailants— Slaughter in
the Crater — The Troops Withdrawn— Trying to Fix the Responsibility— No One
to Blame — The Confederate Description.

Grant at this time, while matters looked so dark to the
eyes of the loyal North telegraphed to Halleck to inform
Sherman, who was pushing through Georgia toward
Atlanta, that he might go ahead on the original plan and
to pay no attention to an effort to keep Joe Johnston from
loosening reinforcements to help Lee. He said tersely
that " Lee can not stand reinforcements, as he has all he
can do to supply the force he has here now." Lee was then
dispatching to the Confederate Secretary of War that
'• the Weldon road is constantly in danger of interruption
and trains can not be run safely." The only lines of
supply were to the westward, over the Southside and
Danville roads, which Wilson had already struck so
severely. In the mean time Grant was organizing. " The
Weldon road we can keep destroyed," he said to Halleck,
June 28th. Lee's prediction was right. He was then
in the grasp of the man who knew the art of war, — a grasp
which was never to be loosened until the end came at
Appomattox Court-House. The siege-train had arrived
at Petersburg and been placed in the rapidly-constructed
fortifications along Lee's front. And while the Union
troops were recovering from the physical exhaustion of
the strain of the past two months, Grant reported " All

731

783

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

is (luiet here now, except from our jjuns, which are firinj^'
into the liritlge at I*etersl)ur^ Ironi a distance of two
thousand yarils."

Tile position was such, however, that Lee could hold
his own with the thinnest of lines and the si('j.;e of Rich-
mond — Petersburg bein;; practically a m(*re outpost —
bade fair to be tedious, (irant informed the authorities
at Washint^ton that a larj^er than an ordinary force was
ne(!iled to successfully envelop Petersburi;. He felt sale
against Lt;e, and acting defensively against Lee and John-
ston's forces combined, but he felt that the situation called
for the concentration of all energies against the two
principal armies of the enemy. Said he, "Johnston should
be pushed in Georgia, while west of the Mississippi
[then Kirby Smith commanded the trans-Mississippi
Department] I would not attempt anything until the re-
bellion east of it is entirely subdued." General Canby
was, therefore, directed to let Kirby Smith alone, and the
Ninteenth Corps, under General Emory, was ordered to
join Grant while the Sixteenth Corps under General A.J.
Smith was sent into West Tennessee to repair the damage
done by Sturgis* defeat by Forrest, and check attempts
on Sherman's line of communication.

Immediately after setding down in Lee's front and
erecting works, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry Pleasants, of
the Forty-eighth Pennsylvania, who was a mining en-
gineer by profession, proposed a plan for mining under
the main work on Burnside's front, to blow up that
strong point, under cover of which the interior line
might be carried by a combined assault. Practical
miners in Pleasants' regiment began the work under his
supervision. Other officers in high comr and, not in-
cluding Grant, however, had little faith in the scheme,
^nd it was found so difficult to secure co-operation that

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

733

there was j^reat diffuulty in procuring ordinary working
tools. 'I'iic work was Ix'^iin June 251I1, and completed
July 2vl. I t:n days later four tons of tin; best powder
known were placed in position in i\\\^\K. magazines or
cluunbers, and the explosion fixed for 3.20 in the niorn-
•"K of July 30th. It was not until an hour later, however,
that the terrible rumbling was heard. The; assault was
to be made by the Ninth Corps, and iUirnsid(! wished to
send in l«'errero with his black division first. Meade ol>
jccted to this, and was sustained by (irant. The division
commanders finally drew lots for the lead of the assault,
(ieneral Ledlie won the lead, and was to be Hanked by
Wilcox and Potter, on the rii,du and left respectively,
while r\Trero was to follow Ledlie. Ord, who hatl suc-
ceeded Smith in command of the ICij^hteendi Corps, was
to move forward on the ri^ht, and Warren, with the
Fifth Corps, on the left. Iwery gun bearing on the im-
mediate front was to open at the instant of the explosion,
to keep the ground clear.

The Confederate garrison, under Colonel Fleming, com-
prised the Seventeenth, Eighteenth, and Twenty-second
South Carolina Regiments,and had sixteen guns in position.

An eye-witness says that " When the explosion oc-
curred, the whole works seemed to be upheaved in a
mass like a vertical cone. Dead and dying men, parts
of gun-carriages and guns, great masses of earth, pieces
of timber and debris were hurled in the air, and could be
seen by the lightning gleams of the burning powder."
Then beean the terrible noise of one hundred and ten
guns, abetted by fifty mortars, and for a moment the
whole Confederate line seemed paralyzed by the unex-
pected shock. The frightened troops of the enemy gave
way almost voluntarily to the right and left, and their
artillery was for the moment deserted and silent.

734

Z/F£ OF GENERAL GRANT.

Grant was on the ground with Meade watching for
the expected instantaneous attack that did not take
place. It was ten minutes after the shock before Ledlie's
division moved, led by the gallant Bartlett. It swept
into the big crater formed by the explosion, but went no
farther, halting there a whole hour. Meade heard of
this fatal tardiness and ordered Burnside to push for-
ward all his other troops and to call on Ord to support
his flank. Potter and Wilcox had gained their positions,
but could do but little while Ledlie blocked the way for
Ferrero, who, however, pushed his brave blacks into the
crater, where they only furnished targets for the merciless
guns cf the enemy. The scene in that crater never has,
never will be, nor can ever be faithfully described. The
Confederates had by this time roused from their stupor
and from the Cemetery Ridge in the rear and from the
right and left began pouring in a storm of shells that
pitilessly swept the whole front and made it certain
death to remain there, and to retrace their way back was
almost as bad. Mahone's Confederate troops rushed to
tne defense of their works with irresistible fury, com-
pelling Burnside, at 9 o'clock a. m., to retire. The well-
planned attack, from which so much was expected, had
miserably failed through somebody's blunder, and four
thousand and three officers and men had been uselessly
sacrificed. A court of inquiry, of which Hancock was
president, placed the principal blame of the needless
disaster on the halting of the first column in the crater.

The siege of Petersburg progressed steadily, and Lee
was given no rest nor opportunity to detach reinforce-
ments to aid any of his own lieutenants. The disaster
at the mine explosion, however, made Grant feel that
thenceforward he must thrust aside the feelinsfs of deli-
cacy that had before made him refrain from interfering

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

735

ng for
t take
.edlie's
swept
rent no
sard of
jsh for-
support
jsitions,
way for
into the
lerciless
iver has,
d. The
ir stupor
from the
iiells that
|t certain
lack was
ushed to
ry, com-
he well-
ted, had
and four
[uselessly
;ock was
needless
crater,
and Lee
einforcc-
disaster
feel that
Is ofdeli-
terfering

with Meade's direct command of the Army of the
Potomac, The court of inquiry found that no directing
head was present at the time of the mine explosion, and
that neither of the division commanders were with the
troops — Burnside was near, but failed in the emergency,
and Meade was too far away to be of any value. Burn-
side did not tell Meade of all the details of die disaster, and
was as severely censured as was Ledlie for his neglect
to be with his command while it was in action. Burnside
smoothed his hurt feelings by going away on leave, and
Parke succeeded him in command of the Ninth Corps.

A magnificent description of the explosion from the
Confederate stand-point is that of W. Gordon McCabc.
He says:

" Burnside held an advanced position, carried in the
assaults of the 17th and i8th of June, by his own troops
and Griffin's division of Warren's corps, and had suc-
ceeded in constructing a heavy line of rifle-pits, scarcely
more than one hundred yards discant from what was then
known as the Elliot Salient. Immediately in rear of this
advanced line the ground dipped suddenly and broaden-
ing out into a meadow of considerable extent, afforded
an admirable position for massing a large body of troops,
while working parties would be effectually screened from
the observation of the Confederates holding the crest
beyond.

" Now it happened that the second division of the 9th
corps guarded this position of the Federal front, and
as early as the 24th of June, Lieutenant-Colonel Henry
Pleasants, commanding the first brigade of that division,
a man of resolute energy and an accomplished mining
enirineer, proposed to his division commander that he be
allowed to run a gallery from this hollow and blow up
the hostile salient.

736

LIl'E OF GENERAL GRANT.

" Submitted to Burnside, the venture was approved,
and at twelve o'clock the next day Pleasants began
work, selecting for the service his own regiment, the
Forty-Eighth Pennsylvania, most of whom were miners
from the Schuylkill region. But though Burnside ap-
proved, the Commanding-General of the Army of the
Potomac and the military engineers regarded the scheme
from the first with ill-concealed derision. Meade and
his Chief of Engineers, Duane, declared that it was all
clap-trap and nonsense ; that the Confederates were
certain to discover the enterprise ; that working parties
would be smothered for lack of air or crushed by the
falling earth ; finally, as an unanswerable argument, diat
a mine of such length had never been excavated in mili-
tary operations.

" ' I found it impossible to get assistance from any-
body,' says Pleasants, with indignation almost pathetic;
* I had to do all the work myself.' Day after day, night
after night, toiling laboriously, he came out of the bowels
of tiie earth only to find himself in the cold shade of
official indifference ; yet the undaunted spirit of the man
refused to yield his undertaking. Mining picks were
denied him, but he straightened out his army picks and
delved on ; he could get no lumber for supports to his
gallery, but he tore down an old bridge in rear of the
lines and utilized that ; barrows were wanting, in which to
remove the earth taken from the mine, but he bound oltl
cracker boxes with hoops of iron, wrenched from the pork
barrels, and used them instead ; above all, he needed an
accurate instrument to make the necessary triangiila-
tions, and although there was a new one at army head-
quarters, he v/as forced to send to Washington for an
old-fashioned theodolite, and make that answer his pur-
pose.

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

tS7

" Despite all this and more, he persevered, working
on until the busy hammering of the Confederates over-
head, engaged in laying platforms for their guns, assured
him that he was well under the doomed salient.

" By July 23d, the mine was finished. It consisted of
a main gallery, five hundred and ten and eight-tenths feet
in length, with lateral galleries right and left, measuring
respectively thirty-eight and thirty-seven feet, and form-
ing the segment of a circle, concave to liie Confederate
lines. From mysterious paragraphs in the Northern
papers and from reports of deserters, though these last
were vague and contradictory, Lee and Beauregard
suspected that the enemy was mining in front of some
one of the three salients on Beauregard's front, and the
latter officer had, in consequence, directed counter-mines
to be sunk from all three, meanwhile constructing gorge
lines in rear, upon which the troops mit^ht retire in case
of surprise or disaster. Batteries of eight and ten inch
Coehorn mortars were also established to assure a cross
and front fire on the threatened points. But the counter-
mining on the part of the Confederates was after a time
discontinued, owing to the lack of proper tools, the inex-
perience of the troops in such work, and the arduous
nature of their service in the trenches.

'' The mine finished, official brows be an to relax, and
Pleasants asking for 1 2,000 pounds of powder, got
8000 and was thankful, together with 8000 sand-bags, to
be used in tamping. On the 27th of July, the charge,
consisting of three hundred and twenty kegs of powder,
each containing twenty-five pounds, were placed in the
mine, and before sunset of the 28th the tamping was
finished and the mine ready to be sprung.

" General Grant, meanwhile, in his eagerness for the
coveted prize so long denied him, resolved to tempt for-

738

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

i-l^.'

tune by a double throw, and not to stake his all upon the
venture of a single cast. To this end, he dispatched, on
the evening of the 26th, Hancock's corps and two
divisions of liorse under Sheridan to tlie North side of
the James, with instructions to the former to move up
rapidly next day to Chaffin's and prevent reinforcements
crossing from the South, while Sheridan, makmg a wide
sweep to the right, was to attempt from the North a
surprise of the thinly garrisoned fortifications of Richmond.
Meade was to spring the mine and assault from Burn-
side's front on the same day, General Grant stating in
the telegraphic order, with his habitual reliance on sheer
weight of numbers,

" ' Your two remaining corps, with the iSth, make you
relatively stronger against the enemy at Petersburg than
we have been since the first day.'

" But the cautious Meade replied that he could not ad-
vise an assault in the absence of the Second Corps,
while the rough treatment experienced by Sheridan indi-
cated that the Confederate capital was secure against
surprise.

" But although the movement North of the James was
not, as commonly represented, a skillful feint which de-
ceived Lee, but a real attempt to surprise Richmond,
which he thwarted by concentrating heavily on his left,
yet to parry the stroke the Confederate commander had
been compelled so to denude the Petersburg front that
there was left for its defense but four brigades of Bush-
rod Johnson's Division and the divisions of Hoke and
Mahone, which together with the artillery made up a
force of little over thirteen thousand eifective men.

*'The conjuncture was still bright with success to
the Federals, and it being now decided to spring the
mine before daylight of the 30th, Hancock's niovement

IN THE DEADLY CRATER,

739

)n the
sd, on
i two
ide of
(ve u\)
;ments
a wide
orth a
imond.
Burn-
ting in
n sheer

ike you
irg than

I not ad-
Corps,
an indi-
against

mes was
hich de-
chmond,
his left,
xler had
•ont that
,f Bush-
oke and
Ide up a
en.

Iccess to
Inng the
ovement

was treated as a feint, and that ofificer was directed on
the night of the 29th to return with all secrecy and dis-
patch to take part in the assault, while Sheridan was to
pass in rear of the army, and with the whole cavalry
corps operate towards Petersburg from the South and
West.

" On the evening of the 29th Meade issued his orders
of battle.

"As soon as it was dusk, Burnside was to mass his
troops in front of the point to be attacked, and form
them in columns of assault, taking care to remove the
abatis, so that the troops could debouch rapidly, and to
have his pioneers equipped for opening passages for the
artillery. He was to spring the mine at 3.30 a.m., and
moving rapidly through the breach, seize the crest of
Cemetery Hill, a ridge four hundred yards in rear of the
Confederate lines.

" Ord was to mass the Eighteenth Corps in rear of
the Ninth, immediately follow Burnside and support him
on the right.

" Warren was to reduce the number of men holding
his front to the minimum, concentrate heavily on the
right of his corps, and support Burnside on the left.
Hancock was to mass the Second Corps in rear of the
trenches, at that time held by Ord, and be prepared to
support the assault as events might dictate.

'• Engineer ofificers were detailed to accompany each
Corps, and the Chief Engineer was directed to park his
pontoon train at a convenient point, ready to move at a
moment's warning, for Meade, having,assured himself that
the Confederates had no second line on Cemetery- Hill,
as he had formerly supposed and as Duane had positively
reported, was now sanguine of success, and made these
preparations to meet the contingency of the meagre

740

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Confederate force retiring beyond the Appomattox and
burning the bridges ; in which event, he proposed to
push immediately across that river and Swift creek and
open -n communic ion with Butler at Bermuda Hun-
dred beforv- '^ee comd send any reinforcements from his
five divisions In. ••th of the James.

"To cover the i. sault, the Chief of Artillery was to
concentrate a heavy fre on the Confederate batteries,
commanding the salien ' and its approaches, and to this
end eighty-one heavy gu is and mortars and over eighty
light guns were placed in battery on that immediate
front. Burnside had urg ;d that Ferrero's negro division
should lead the attack, d iclaring that it was superior in
morale to the white div" i ons of his corps, but in this he
was over-ruled by M' aJe and Grant. He therefore
permitted the commanders of the white divisions to
'draw straws ' as to who should claim the perilous honor,
and, fortune favoring the Confederates, the exactiny^
duty fell to General Ledlie, an officer unfitted by nature
to conduct any enterprise requiring skill or courage.

"This settled, Burnside, in his turn, issued his orders
of assault.

" Ledlie was to push through the breach straight to
Cemetery Hill. Wilcox was to follow, and, after pass-
ing the breach, deploy on the left of the leading division
and seize the line of the Jerusalem plank road.

" Potter was to pass to the right of Ledlie and protect
his flank, while Ferrero's negro division, should Ledlie
effect a lodgment on Cemetery Hill, was to push beyond
that point and immediately assault the town.

" Long before dawn of the 30th, the troops were in
position, and at half-past three, punctually to the minute,
the mine was fired.

" Then the news passed swiftly down the lines, and the

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

741

dark columns standing in severed masses, awaited in
dread suspense the signal — knowing that death awaited
many on yonder crest, yet not animated by the stern joy
of coming fight, nor yet resolved that though death
stalked forth with horrid mien from the dreadful breach,
it should be but to great victory.

" Minute followed minute of anxious waiting — a trial
to even the most determined veterans — and now the east
was streaked with gray; yet the tender beauty of the
dim tranquillity remained unvexed of any sound of wan
save one might hear a low hum amid the darkling
swarm as grew the wonder at delay. Nor was the cause
of hindrance easy to ascertain ; for should it prove that
the fuse was still alight, burning but slowly, to enter the
mine was certain death. Thus time dragged slowly on,
telegram upon telegram of inquiry meanwhile pouring
in from Meade, who, unmindful of the dictum of Napo-
leon, ' that in assaults a general should be with his
troops,' had fixed his headquarters full a mile away.
But these were all unheeded, for Burnside knew not
vvliat to answer.

" Then it was that two brave men, whose names should
be mentioned with respect wherever courage is hon-
ored, — Lieutenant Jacob Douty, and Sergeant Henr)'
Rees.both of the Forty- eighth Pennsylvania, — volunteered
for the perilous service and entered the mine. By crawl-
ing on their hands and knees, groping in utter darkness,
they found that the fuse had gone out about fifty feet from
the mouth of the main gallery, relighted it and retired.

" ' In eleven minutes now the mine will explode,'
Pleasants reports to Burnside at thirty-three minutes
past four, and a small group of officers of the Forty-
eighth, standing upon the slope of the main parapets,
anxiously awaiting the result.

742

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" ' It lacks a minute yet,' says Pleasants, looking at his
watch.

" ' Not a second,' cried Douty, • for there she goes.'

" A slight tremor of the earth for a second, then the
rocking as of an earthquake, and with a tremendous
burst, which rent the sleeping hills beyond, a vast column
of earth and smoke shoots upward to a great height, its
dark sides flashing out sparks of fire, hangs poised for
a moment in mid-air, and then hurding downward with a
roaring sound, showers of stones, broken timbers and
blackened human limbs, subsides — the gloomy pall of
darkening smoke flushing to an angry crimson as it
floats away to meet the morning sun.

" Pleasants has done his work with terrible complete-
ness, for now the site of the Elliot Salient is marked by
a horrid chasm, one hundred and thirty-five feet in
length, ninety-seven feet in breadth and thirty feet deep ;
and its brave garrison, all asleep, save the guards,
when thus surprised by sudden death, lie buried beneath
the jagged blocks of blackened clay — in all, two hundred
and fifty-six officers and men of the Eighteenth and
Twenty-second South Carolina, two officers and twenty
men of Pegram's Petersburg Battery.

•' The dread upheaval has rent in twain Elliot's brigade,
and the men to the right and left of the huge abyss
recoil in terror and dismay. Nor shall we censure
them, for so terrible was the explosion that even the
assaulting column shrank back aghast, and nearly ten
minutes elapsed ere it could be reformed.

" Now a storm of fire bursts in red fury from the
Federal front, and in an instant all the valley between
the hostile lines lies shrouded in billowing smoke. Then
Marshall, putting himself at the head of the stormers.
sword in hand, bids his men to follow.

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

743

" But there comes no response befitting the stern gran-
deur of the scene — no trampling charge, no rolHng
drums of AusterHtz, no fierce shouts of wariike joy as
burst from the men of the ' Light Division ' when they
mounted the breach of Badajos, or from Frazier's
• Royals ' as they crowned the crimson slopes of St.
Sebastian.

•' No, none of this is here. But a straggling line of
thr men of the Second Brigade, First Division, uttering
a tnechanit al clu;er, slowly mounts the crest, passes un-
molesteil across the intervening space, and true to the
instinct losterrd by long service in the trenches,
plungoH into tho rrat«M. i ourting the friendly shelter of
it!* tTvnnl)lmg sides.

" Vv>nder lies Cem«.'tery Hil? in plain view, naked of
n\en, and, hard beyond, the brave old town, nestling
whitely in its wealth of green.

•'Silence still reigned along the Confederate lines ; yet
Ledlie's men did not advance, and now the supporting
brigade of the same division running forward over the
crest, and with an incredible folly crowding in upon
their comrades, already huddled together in the shelving
pit, all regimental and company organization was lost,
and the men speedily passed from the control of Uieir
otificers.

" If we except Elliot, who, with the remnant of hi'=; bri-
gade, was occupying the ravine to the left and rear of
the crater, no officer of rank was present on the Con-
siderate side to assume immediate direction of affairs,
and a considerable time elapsed before Beauregard and
Lee — both beyond the Appomatox — were informed by
Colonel Paul, of Beauregard's staff, of the nature and
locality of the disaster.

" But almost on the moment, John Haskell, of South

744

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Carolina, a glorious young battalion commander, whose
name will be forever associated with the artillery corps
of the Army of Northern Vin^inia, galloped to the
front, followed by two light batteries, and having dis-
posed these pieces along the Phmk road, and openc 1
Planner's light guns from the Gee House, passed to liis
left to speak a word of cheery commendation to Lamp-
kin, of his battalion, who was already annoying the
swarming masses of the enemy with his Virginia battery
of eight-inch mortars. Passing through the covered
way, Haskell sought Elliot, and pointing out to him the
defenseless position of the guns on the Plank road,
urged him to make such dispositions as would afford
them protection. Essaying this, Elliot sprang forward,
followed by a mere handful of brave fellows, but almost
on the instant fell stricken by a grievous hurt and was
borne from his last field of battle.

" The fire of the enemy's artillery was now very severe,
owing to their superior weight of metal, and the guns on
the Plank road, exposed in addition to the fire of sharp-
shooters, were suffering such loss that it was determined
to retire all but six pieces, and, as the situation seemed
rather hopeless, to call for volunteers to man these. To
Haskell's proud delight, every gun detachment volun-
teered to remain.

" Nor did the artillery to the right and left fail to bear
themselves with the resolution of men conscious that for
the time, the hope of the army was centered in their
steadiness, and that their guns alone barred the road to
Petersburg ; for, let me repeat, Cemetery Hill was naked
of men. The officers of one battery, indeed, misbehaved
but these were promptly spurned aside, and the very spoi
of their defection made glorious by the heroic conduct
of Hampton Gibbs, of the artillery, and Sam Preston,

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

745

of Wise's brigade, both of whom fell desperat(-ly wo\in-
ded. While spurrin^^ hard from the hospital, with the
f(;ver still upon him, came Hampden Cham be i lay ne, a
young artillery officer of Hill s corps who so handled
tliese abandoned <^uns that from that day the battery bore
his name, and he wore another bar upon his collar.

''Frank Huger, who, like ' Edward Dreer, of the Forty-
third,' had • seen more combats than he could count
years,* was, as always, to the fore, working as a simple
cannonier at his heated nnpoleons, chet.'ring and encour-
aging his men by joyful voice and valiant example.

"Wright, of ilalifax. opened too a withering fire from
his light guns, posted on a hill to the lef, nor could he b«;
silenced by the enemy's batteries, for his front was cov-
ered by a heavy fringe of pines ; and now the eight inch
mortars in rear of Wrli^ht, and Langhorne's ten-inch
mortars, from the Baxter road, took part in the dreadful
chorus.

•• On the Federal side, Griffin, of Potter's division, not
waiting for Wilcox, pushed forward his brigade and
gained grouiJ to the north of the crater, and Bliss's bri-
gade of the same division, coming to his support, still fur-
ther ground was gained in that direction. But his lead-
ing regiments, deflected by the hostile fire, bore to their
left and mingling with Ledlie's men swarming along the
sides of the great pit, added to the confusion. Wilcox
now threw forward a portion of his division and succeeded
in occupying about one hundred and fifty yards of the
works south of the crater, but estopped by the fire of
Chaniberlayne's guns, and, whenever occasion offered, by
the fire of the infantry, his men on the exposed flank
ijave ground, and pushing the right regiments into the
crater, the confusion grew worse confounded. Some of
the men indeed, from fear of suflbcation, had already

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TEST TARGET (MT-3)

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1.25

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Sciences

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23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y. 145*0

(716) 872-4503

L<9

746

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

emerged from the pit and spread themselves to the right
and left, but this was a matter of danger and difficulty,
for the ground was scored with covered-ways and tra-
verses, honey-combed with bomb-proofs and swept by the
artillery. Others of them pressed forward and got into
the ditch of the unfinished gorge lines, while not a few,
creeping along the glacis of the exterior line, made their
way over the parapet into the main trench. In all this,
there was much hand to hand fighting, for many men be-
longing to the dism.embered brigade still found shelter
behind traverses and bomb-proofs, and did not easily
yield.

'* Meanwhile, General Meade, 'groping in the dark,'
to use his own phrase, sent telegram upon telegram to
Burnside to know how fared the day, but received answer
to none. At fifteen minutes to six, however, one hour
after Ledlie's men had occupied the breach, an orderly
delivered to him a note in pencil, written from the crater
by Colonel Loring, Inspector-General of the Ninth Corps,
and addressed to General Burnside. This was Meade's
first information from the front and was little cheering,
for Loring stated briefiy that Ledlie's men were in con-
fusion and would not go forward.

"Ord was now directed to push forward the Eighteenth
Corps, and the following dispatch was sent to Burnside :

" * Headquarters Army of the Potomac, July 30, 1864, 6 a. m.
** * Major General Burnside :

" ' Prisoners taken say that there is no line in their rear, and that their
men were falling back when ours advanced, that none of their troops
have returned from the James. Our chance is now. Push your men
forward at all hazards, white and black, and don't lose time in ma-
king formations, but rush for the crest.

** * George G. Meade,

" ^ Major' General Commanding^

" But Ord could not advance, for the narrow debouches

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

1^1

3 Burnside :

were still choked up by the men of the Ninth Corps, and
by the wounded borne from the front, and although Burn-
side promptly transmitted the order to his subordinates,
the troops in the rear moved with reluctant steps, while
no general of division was present with those in front to
urge them forward.

" Again did Meade telegraph to Burnside. ' Every mo-
ment is most precious, the enemy are undoubtedly con-
centrating to meet you on the crest.' But not until
twenty minutes past seven did he receive a reply, and
then briefly to the effect that Burnside ' hoped to carry
the crest, but it was hard work.'

" Then Meade's patience seems fairly to have broken
down. ' What do you mean by hard work to take the
crest ? ' he asks :

*" I understand not a man has advanced beyond the enemy's line
which you occupied immediately after exploding the mine. Do you
mean to say your officers and men will not obey your orders to ad-
vance? If not, what is the obstacle? I wish to know the truth, and

desire an immediate answer.

" * George G. Meade,

*' * Major- General ' '
"To which Burnside in hot wrath, straightway replied, —

" ' Head Quarters Ninth Corps, 7-35 a. m.
" ' General Meade :

" * Your dispatch by Captain Jay, received. The main body of Gen-
eral Potter's division is beyond the Crater. I do not mean to say
that my officers and men will not obey my orders to advance. I mean
to say that it is very hard to advance to the Crest. I have never in
any report said anything different from what I conceive to be the
truth. Were it not insubordinate, I would say that the latter remark
of your note was unofficerlike and ungentlemanly.

" * A. E. Burnside,
** * Major- General.*
" Griffin, it is true, in obedience to orders to advance
straight for Cemetery Hill, had during this time attempt-
ed several charges from his position north of the crater,

. !

748

L/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

but his men displayed litde spirit, and, breaking speedily
under the fire of the artillery sought their old shelter be-
hind the traverses and covered ways. The rest of Pot-
ter's division moved out but slowly, and it was fully eight
o'clock — more than three hours after the explosion —
when Ferrero's negro division, the men beyond question,
inflamed with drink, burst from the advanced lines, cheer-
ing vehemently, passed at a double quick over the crest
under a heavy fire, and rushing with scarce a check over
the heads of the white troops in the crater, spread to their
right, capturing more than two hundred prisoners and
one stand of colors. At the same moment. Turner, of
the Tenth Corps, pushed forward a brigade over the
Ninth Corps parapets, seized the Confederate line still
further to the north, and quickly disposed of the remain-
ing brigades of his division to confirm his success.

" Now was the crisis of the day, and fortunate was it
for maiden and matron of Petersburgh, that even at this
moment there was filing into the ravine between Ceme-
tery Hill and the drunken battalions of Ferrero, a stern
array of silent men, clad in faded gray, resolved with
grim resolve to avert from the mother town a fate as
dreadful as that which marked the three days' sack of
Badajos.

" Lee, informed of the disaster at 6.10 a. m., had bidden
his aid. Colonel Charles Venable, to ride quickly to the
right of the army and bring up two brigades of Ander-
son's old division, commanded by Mahone, for time was
too precious to observe military etiquette and send the
orders through Hill. Shortly after, the General-in-Chief
reached the front in person, and all men took heart when
they descried the grave and gracious face, and ' Travel-
er ' stepping proudly as if conscious that he bore upon
his back the weight of a nation. Beauregard was al-

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

749

ready at the Gee house, a commanding position five
hundred yards in rear of the crater, and Hill had gal-
loped to the right to organize an attacking column, and
had ordered down Pegram, and even now the light bat-
teries of Brander and Kllett were rattling through the
town at a sharp trot, with cannoniers mounted, the sweet,
serene face of their boy-colonel lit up with that glow
which to his men meant hotly-impending fight.

" Venable had sped upon his mission, and found Ma-
hone's men already standing to their arms ; but the
Federals, from their lofty ' lookouts,' were busily inter-
changing signals, and to uncover such a length of
front without exciting observation, demanded the nicest
precaution. Yet was this difficulty overcome by a sim-
ple device, for the men being ordered to drop back one
by one, as if going for water, obeyed with such intelli-
gence that Warren continued to report to Meade that
not a man had left his fron t.

"Then forming in the ravine in rear, the men of the
Virginia and Georgia brigades came pressing down the
valley with swift, swinging stride, — not with the dis-
contented bearing of soldiers whose discipline alone
carries them to what they feel to be a scene of fruit-
less sacrifice, but with the glad alacrity and aggressive
ardor of men impatient for battle, and who, from long
knowledge of war, are conscious that fortune has
placed within their grasp an opportunity, which by the
magic touch of veteran steel, may be transformed to
'swift-winged victory.'

" Halting for a moment in rear of the ' Ragland
house,' Mahone bade his men strip off blankets and
knapsacks and prepare for battle.

" Then riding quickly to the front, while the troops
marched in single file along the covered way, he drew

750

Z/F£: OF GENERAL GRANT.

rein at Bushrod Johnson's headquarters, and reported in
person to Beauregard. Informed that Johnson would
assist in the attack with the outlying troops about the
crater, he rode still further to the front, dismounted, and
pushing along the covered way from the Plank Road,
came out into the ravine, in which he afterwards formed
his men. Mounting the embankment at the head of the
covered way, he descried within one hundred and sixty
yards a forest of glittering bayonets and beyond, floating
proudly from the captured works, eleven Union fla^^^s.
Estimating rapidly from the hostile colors the probable
force in his front, he at once dispatched his courier to
bring up the Alabama Brigade from the right, assuming
thereby a grave responsibility, yet was the wisdom of
the decision vindicated by the event.

*' Scarcely had the order been given, when the head of
the Virginia Brigade began to debouch from the covered-
way. Directing Colonel Weisiger, its commanding of-
ficer, to file to the right and form line of battle, Mahone
stood at the angle, speaking quietly and cheerily to the
men. Silently and quickly they moved out, and formed
with that precision dear to every soldier's eye ; the sharp-
shooters leading, followed by the Sixth, Sixteenth, Sixty-
first, Forty-first and Twelfth Virginia ; the men of Second
Manassas and Crampton's Gap !

" But one caution was given, to reserve their fire until
they reached the brink of the ditch ; but one exhortation,
that they were counted on to do this work, and do it
quickly.

" Now the leading regiment of the Georgia Brigade be-
gan to move out, when suddenly a brave Federal officer,
seizing the colors, called on his men to charge. Descry-
ing this hostile movement on the instant, Weisiger, a
veteran of stern countenance, which did not belie the

IN THE DEADLY CRATER.

751

personal intrepidity of the man, uUered to the Virginians
the single word — Forward.

" Then the sharpshooters and the men of the Sixth on
the right, running swiftly forward, for theirs was the
greater distance to traverse, the whole line sprang along
the crest, and there burst from more than eight hundred
warlike voices that fierce yell which no man ever yet
heard unmoved on the field of battle. Storms of case-
shot from the right mingled with the tempest of bullets
which smote upon them from the front, yet was there no
answering volley, for these were veterans, whose fiery
enthusiasm had been wrought to a finer temper by the
stern code of discipline, and even in the tumult the men
did not forget their orders. Still pressing forward with
steady fury, while the enemy, appalled by the inexorable
advance, gave ground, they reached the ditch of the
inner works.

" Then one volley crashed from the whole line, and
the Sixth and Sixteenth, with the sharpshooters, clutch-
ing their empty guns and redoubling their fierce cries,
leaped over the retrenched cavalier, and all down the
line the dreadful work of the bayonet began.

" How long it lasted none may say with certainty, for
in those fierce moments no man heeded time, no man
asked, no man gave quarter ; but in an incredibly brief
space, as seemed to those who looked on, the whole of
the advanced line north of the crater was retaken, the
enemy in headlong flight, while the tattered battle flags
planted along the parapets from left to right, told Lee
at the Gee house, that from this nettle danger, valor had
plucked the flower, safety for an army.

*• Redoubling the sharpshooters on his right, Mahone
kept down all fire from the crater, the vast rim of which
frowned down upon the lower line occupied by his troops.

\i\

'i'

752

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

'* And now the scene within the horrid pit was such as
might be fitly portrayed only by the pencil of Dante,
after he had trod • nine circled hell.' From the great
mortars to the right and left, huge missiles, describing
graceful curves, fell at regular intervals with dreadful
accuracy and burst upon the helpless masses huddled
together, and every explosion was followed by piteous
cries, and oftentimes the very air seemed darkened by
flying human limbs.

" Mahone's men watched with great interest this easy
method of reaching troops behind cover, and then, with
the imitative ingenuity of soldiers, gleefully gathered up
the countless muskets with bayonets fixed, which had
been abandoned by the enemy, and propelled them with
such nice skill that they came down upon Ledlie's men
• like the rain of the Norman arrows at Hastings.'

" At half-past ten, the Georgia brigade advanced and
attempted to dislodge Wilcox's men, who still held a
portion of the lines south of the crater, but so closely
was every inch of the ground searched by artillery, so
biting was the fire of musketry, that, obliquing to their
left, they sought cover behind the cavalier trench won by
the Virginia brigade, many officers and men testifying by
their blood how gallantly the venture had been essayed.

" Half an hour later the Alabamians, under Saunders,
arrived, but further attack was postponed until after i
p. M., in order to arrange for co-operation from Colquitt
on the right. Sharply to the minute agreed upon, the
assaulting line moved forward, and with such astonishing
rapidity did these glorious soldiers rush across the inter-
vening space that ere their first wild cries subsided their
battle-flags had crowned the works. The Confederate
batteries were now ordered to cease firing, and forty
volunteers were called for to assault the crater, but so

; such as
)f Dante,
:he great
[escribing
dreadful
5 huddled
»y piteous
kened by

t this easy
then, with
Lthered up
which had
them with
idlie's men
igs.'

^anced and
still held a
so closely
artillery, so
ig to their
ich won by
estifying by
en essayed,
r Saunders,
itil after i
m Colquitt
1 upon, the
astonishing
;s the inter-
isided their
onfederate
, and forty
ter, but so

IN THE DEADLY CRATER. 753

many of v)ie Alabamians offered themselves for the ser-
vice that the ordinary system of detail was necessary.
Happily before the assaulting party could be formed a
white handkerchief, made fast to a ramrod, was projected
above the edge of the crater, and, after a brief pause, a
motley mass of prisoners poured over the side and ran.
for their lives to the rear.

" In this grand assault on Lee's lines, for which Meade
had massed 65,00c troops, the enemy suffered a loss of
above 5,000 men, including 1,101 prisoners, among whom
were two brigade commanders, while vast quantities of
small arms and 21 standards fell into the hands of the
victors. Yet many brave men perished on the Confede-
rate side. Elliot's brigade lost severely in killed and
prisoners. The Virginia brigade, too, paid the price
which glory ever exacts. The Sixth carried in 98 men
and lost 88, one company — 'the dandies,' of course— -
' Old Company F,' of Norfolk, losing every man killed
or wounded.

" On the Federal side, crimination and recrimination
followed what General Grant styled 'this miserable
failure.' There was a Court of Inquiry and avast array
of dismal testimony, which disclosed the fact that of four
generals of divisions belonging to the assaulting corps,
not one had followed his men into the Confederate lines.
Nay, that the very commander of the storming division,
finding, like honest Nym, 'the humor of the breach
too hot,' was at the crisis of the fight, palpitating in a
bomb-proof, beguiling a Michigan surgeon into giving
him a drink of rum, on the plea that * he had the malaria
and had been struck by a spent ball.' Legends of a
broad antiquity, whereof, let us humbly confess, we our-
selves have heard."
2X

CHAPTER LV.

THE CONFEDERATE TR00PEK5.

The peculiarity of the Confederate cavalry — Kitzhugh Lee's recollections — The fight
at Todd's Tavern — The move towards Richmond — Yellow Tavern — General
Stuart mortally wounded — Major J. R. McNulty's recollections o\ the affair — The
fight at Five Forks — What Fitzhugh Lee advised his men — The surrender at
Farmville.

The peculiarity of the Confederate cavalry was that it
was efficient from the beginning of the war. There were
many reasons for this. In the first place every trooper
was required to furnish his own horse. This, of itself,
involved a certain property-standing at home. Then the
breeding of fine horses entirely for speed and endurance
had been a business in the South long before it attained
any importance in the North, and the general grades of
the Confederate horses were, in consequence, much higher
than those used in the Union service. Nearly every
Southerner, too, was a natural horseman, and had lived a
large portion of his life in the saddle. Besides, he had a
thorough knowledge of the country ridden over. There-
fore when the civil war was precipitated upon the country
this branch of the Confederate service entered the strife
unusually well equipped for it.

In the early years of the war, the Southern cavalry
was rather superior to that of the national army, and it
continued to maintain a high degree of excellence to the
close. Later on, however, the Federal cavalry became
educated in the dash and horsemanship necessary to suc-
cessfully compete with it.

Jeb. Stuart, Fitzhugh Lee, Rosser, Forrest, Wheeler
and others were born troopers. They had the courage
754

THE CONFEDERATE TROOPERS.

760

and the daring necessary for such service, and were pos-
sessed of a stror j order of mihtary sagacity.

General Fitzhugh Lee, who succeeded to the command
of the Confederate cavalry after the death of General
Stuart, contributes these recollections of the campaign
from the Rapidan :

" Just preceding the crossing of the river by General
(jrant, our cavalry had taken its station near Hamilton's
Crossing, about three miles from P^redericksburg. We
occupied the extreme right of the line of battle. The
occasion was a vital one, for the enemy intended an im-
portant advance. The first orders we received directed
us to move towards the fords which the Federals were
using.

"We met the advance of one of his columns a little
over half a mile beyond Todd's Tavern, and fell back
and made the fight at Todd's. The day following my
cavalry disputed the Federal advance from that point
to Spottsylvania Court-House. It was important that
Lee should secure the strategic position of Spottsylvania,
and it was my task to retard the advance of the enemy
as much as possible so that this might be accomplished.

" Just before my arrival at the Court-House, however, I
learned that it was occupied by the Federal cavalry, and,
when about making my dispositions to attack them to
secure my own rear, I found that they were retreating in
front of the Confederate infantry, which had arrived at
the same point by a different road. This offered a
chance for a fight, and the preparations were made in-
stantly. The infantry formed a line of battle, and my
cavalry was placed upon their right. Shortly afterwards
General Jeb. Stuart notified me that the Federal cavalry
was passing still further to my right and in the direction
of Beaver Dam on the Virginia Central Railway, which

li'l

756

L/FB OF GENERAL GRANT.

was one of our bases of supplies. He directed mc to
take my division and move after them, and I started out
at once and struck the road.

" The Federal column had passed about an hour before.
I followed them, until information was received that the
head of the column had turned down towards Hanover
Junction, and that the movement was in the direction of
Richmond. Immediate action was necessary. I at once
left the rear of their column, takin^r a nearer and more
direct route for Richmond, and, by rapid movement, was
enabled to get to Yellow Tavern, a point six miles from
Richmond, about an hour before they arrived there. A
line of battle was at once formed across the road to in-
tercept them, and the battle of Yellow Tavern followed.

"The Federals, I have understood, with Sheridan in
command, had three divisions of cavalry under Wilson,
Merritt and Gregg respectively. I had two brigades only
under Wickham and Lomax, with a total of seven regi-
ments — four in one brigade and three in the other. Gen-
eral Gordon, of North Carolina, with another brigade, was
in the rear of the Federals. The fighting was sharp and
ugly at Yellow Tavern, and we maintained our position
for several hours. But we were finally forced to with-
draw, which we did by moving off to one side, leaving the
Richmond road clear to Sheridan.

••The saddest incident of the batde was the killing
of General Stuart, the Confederate corps commander.
He was mortally wounded just as the Federals had
struck, in overwhelming numbers, both Lomax's and
Wickham's brigades. As they were breaking, quite a
cloud of Federals advanced with a rush to capture
our ardllery, and he, .-allying a few men, dashed up
and began firing his revolver at the rapidly approach-
ing enemy. I was on another part of the line at the

THR CONFEDERATE TROOPERS.

757

moment, but came up just as he had been shot, and
jrave directions to have him taken to tlie rear. He died
the next day, and the command of the cavalry corps
devolved on me.

" We were compelled to retreat but, still the fight did
some good. But for it I am not at all sure but that the
Federals would have succeeded in getting into Richmond.
As it was, the delay gave General Bragg, who was then
commanding the Confederate capital and its lines of de-
fenses, time to bring up troops from the other side of
Richmond so as to meet Sheridan's approach and offer
an effective bar to his further progress. "

Of the fight at Yellow Tavern, which led to the death
of General Stuart, Major J. R. McNulty, says:

" Towards noon the firing was of a desultory character,
and we had a pretty heavy skirmish. Sheridan was then
on the turnpike, and it was there that the firing continued
at intervals. Gradually the Federals worked around to
our right, and about four o'clock in the afternoon tl""^y
concentrated a very heavy force on our front. We were
lying on an old road and our Baltimore battery was
ordered in position to cover it. On our side of the road
there was an old brush fence, which iiad two gaps in it ;
one where we entered, and the other to our left and front
up nearer the turnpike.

" The enemy put into position on a high eminence six
pieces of artillery and opened on us heavily. They had
rather a plunging line of fire and succeeded in killing two
men, wounding five and disabling one gun. Immediately
after this firing ceased the column of cavalry came down
the turnpike and turned up the old road. We entered
the gap in the brush and immediately charged guns.
We got in probably two shots at the head of the
column, but the onslaught was so sudden and heavy

768

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

\H,

that it rather demoralized my men and we overshot
them.

"The enemy immediately surrounded my guns and
charged past. There was a little squad of cavalry in the
rear of the pieces and it made a countercharge and
attempted to drive the Federals back, but it was unsuc-
cessful. Finding the artillery apparently lost and our
cavalry repulsed, we came through the gap ouc on the
road. The Federals remained on the inside and followed
us along the line of the fence, firing as they followed.

" This fence was just on the crest of a hill. On the
opposite side was a piece of timber. There was quite a
descent to a branch that ran at right angles across the
road. General Jeb. Stuart had the colors of the first
Virginia Cavalry and, as the few men who had escaped
from the plateau were retreating down the road, he stood
with his horse near the edge of the branch and, in the
din and confusion, he was giving some command. I
could not hear what he said, but my impression was that
he was trying to rally the men around the colors.

" Whatever it was several of those who were mounted
halted at the branch and, in a moment. General Stuart
started with a few men up the hill, followed by perhaps
thirty or forty more. I drew my sword and, returning,
joined the party.

"When we reached the crest the timber I have re-
ferred to was discovered to be filled with the enemy, all
acting in concert with the charging column. The first
sounds that struck our ears were the cheers of the
Federals over their success in charging the guns. Just
at the crest of the hill General Stuart was shot. A very
large man named Buck Childs, belonging to a Maryland
company in the First Virginia Cavalry, caught him at
one side and a smaller man, whose name I do not know,

THE CONFEDERATE TROOPERS.

759

caught him by the other and the two led him back. My
impression is that one of his arms was broken and that
he was shot in the neck. Others said that he was shot
through the body. Some of my men, I think, assisted
him into the ambulance.

" Not more than thirty or forty men went up tlie hill.
The rest were retreating back some four or five hundred
yards from the bridge where some of the officers in
reserve had formed a line either for the purpose of pre-
venting pursuit or an attack from the rear. Stuart was
trying to rally his column to save his guns when he was
shot."

Fitzhugh Lee's story continues : " I saw very little
of the surrender. The night before, when we had
gotten very nearly to Appomattox, my cavalry was
instructed to leave the rear of the main column and
pass to the front. The Federals were then in Gen-
eral Lee's front, and I was ordered to report to
him in person. This was on the night of the 8th of
April. I came up along the road and asked where
General Lee's headquarters were. They were pointed
out to me and simple enough they were. He had no
tent. In a little cluster of pines across an open field
there was an ambulance wagon, and his bed, mattress
and blankets were on the ground. It was a cool night
and a camp fire was burning, its smoky flame casting a
weird light upon the scene about. The military chiefs of
tlie Confederacy were there and I joined them. General
Lee was dejected. He stood by the fire for a time in
profound contemplation. Then he turned to us and the
conference began which resulted in the effort to get to
Lynchburg the next morning.

" At daylight Gordon and I opened the fight. I was
on his right. At first we were pretty successful. We

760

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

drove Sheridan's cavalry out of the way and captured a
battery which we succeeded in bringing in. Then the
great, long lines of Federal infantry appeared, and I
turned and said : * The thing is up.' Gordon stopped
his advance, there was a cessation of firing, and the flag
of truce went out.

"While the conference had been in progress the night
before, I had said to General Lee: *If we surrender to-
morrow morning and I can get a chance, I would like to
get my cavalry out of the way. Each man owns his own
horse and I think he ought to be allowed to keep it.' In
the Confederate service we would not put a man in the
cavalry unless he could supply his animal. The govern-
ment would not furnish horses.

" He did not say anything one way or the other, but
he gave me to understand that, after a flag of truce went
out, things must remain in statu quo. The white flag
stopped everything. So just before the climax I took my
cavalry, moved still further to the right and formed my
men there. I told them that, as they owned their horses,
my advice to them was to keep them. I suggested that
they separate in small bodies and go home. They were
mainly from that part of the State and were familiar
with the roads. I got away with my staff and rode
clear around the lines, with the intention of joining
General Johnston. But at Farmville I surrendered.

" Of course it is impossible to depict the cavalry
operations about General Lee's army in a few pages.
Taking everything into consideration it did remarkable
service with the lack of equipment and forage witli
which it often contended.

CHAPTER LVI

THE FLAG OF TRUCE.

The cavalrymen standing to horse— An all-night vigil — The morning of the last
day — Moving forward to the attack — The Confederate army at sunrise — Custer
in the advance — The flag of truce — A ride to the Confederate lines — Col, Briggs'
graphic description of its coming and going — Meeting Longstreet and Gordon —
Custer and Sheridan.

The night of the 8th closed upon a day of hard work
and exciting events. By a forced and rapid march
Sheridan's cavalry, with Custer in the van, had placed
itself in front of the retreating Confederate army, and
by stubborn fighting until after dark had forced back
upon the main body that portion of its advanced guard
not captured. The night passed amidst distant sounds
of preparation for an early renewal of hostilities on the
morrow and the hurried march of Ord's, Griffin's and
Gibbon's infantry to support the troopers, which had
gone around the enemy.

The Seventh Michigan Cavalry, well in advance, was,
like the rest of the mounted men, held in readiness for
instant service, and Colonel George G. Briggs, its gallant
commander, here takes up the narrative of the surrender
as he saw it :

" In open order of column by squadrons we stood to
horse all night. The long hours were passed in silence, as
neither lights nor fires were permitted. The deep shadows
of the woods in which we were posted, and the chilly air
of early spring that settled around and over us, were not
calculated to inspire a sense of comfort or contentment;

(761)

762

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

II I

so amid the gloom we thought of the morrow and the
chances of battle. The gray of morning was just giving
place to the stronger light of full day when orders came
to move forward at once. Only a short distance to the
west, and almost directly in front of our former position,
a line of the enemy's skirmishers was seen advancing.
My command at once deployed and was soon hotly en-
gaged. Under the steady and rapid firing of our
' Spencers* the advance of the enemy was checked, held
for a time, and then forced slowly back.

" While the engagement was in progress I rode to the
top of a slight eminence to the front and right of my
line, and from this elevation I was enabled to see what I
took to be the entire Confederate army. It was going
into position in a sort of valley with higher land upon
either side. There seemed to be great confusion in
their midst. Squads of men were running in various
directions, and artillery, foot, and horse appeared badly
mixed up in their effort to form a line of battle.

"The scene thus presented was alike startling and
suggestive. Scattered over the plain and along the
inner sides of the bordering elevation was the army of
Lee, cut off from further retreat and hurrying its prep-
arations for defence. Its advance seemed to have been
suddenly arrested, and, recoiling from danger in front,
was moving in masses rather than by well-defined lines
or columns to different portions of the field.

"At this sight of the enemy, in apparent confusion
and without the necessary formations to repel an attack,
I instinctively took off my hat and waved it above my
head in exultation over the discovery. Here was the
opportunity for delivering a crushing and final blow to
the war, and I exclaimed aloud: 'Oh for Sheridan and
his cavalry now!*

THE FLAG OF TRUCE.

763

startling and

"Turning to observe the progress of my own com-
mand, I saw to my left and rear, as if in answer to my

CAVALRY CHARGE.

wish. General Custer's approachinq- column. Knowing
the general well, I rode with all speed to join him, and

! 1

764

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

hurriedly informed him of what I had seen, and the
splendid opportunity for a charge that at the moment
presented itself.

" Turning to his staff, he gave, in his quick, nervous
way, orders to have the command closed up and pushed
forward with all possible haste. Away dashed the offi-
cers with these orders to his brigade commanders, and
at the same time he said to me :

" ' Show me the way.'

"Custer's command on this occasion presented a most
striking and beautiful effect in color, as also in concen-
trated power for action. Following the general and his
staff, and thrown to the morning breeze, floated not less
than twenty-five rebel battle-flags captured from the
enemy within ten days. These, with division, brigade,
and regimental colors of the command, the red neckties
of the men, and the blue and yellow of their uniforms,
made a picture — as with flashing sabres they moved
into view — at once thrilling and beautiful.

" By this time the rapidly advancing column had
reached a point from which its approach could be seen
by the enemy, and while preparations were being made
to send forward a dismounted party to let down some
fences, a battery of the enemy opened fire, but the shells
passed over without damage.

" Custer, from a hasty glance of the enemy's position,
evidendy thought a better point of attack could be had
by the flank and farther on. Therefore he changed
direction and moved to the right — a movement that soon
hid his forces from the enemy and carried them by a road
or opening through a piece of woods.

" When I first met General Custer at the head of his
division I had said to him :

" ' General, if you charge the enemy I want to go in
with vou.' To which he replied, * All HHit*

THE FLAG OF TRUCE.

766

" That he would soon strike a favorable point for such
a charjje 1 felt confident, and as he moved away I rode
back to my regiment, which was still exchanging ::hots
with the enemy.

"As my command was deployed and engaged, it could
not be used to join a charge, which 1 felt certain would
soon be made. I gave it in command of the next officer
in rank, and rode rapidly away to join Custer. Before
I reached him tiiere suddenly emerged out of a piece of
woods three or four horsemen, the leader of whom was
waving a white object over his head, This was the
famous flag of truce by which the desire of General
Lee to surrender yNdisJirsl communicated to the Union
forces, and by me it was first seen.

" This flag, which terminated the civil war, was a
common towel, and is now in the possession of Mrs.
Custer, having been presented to her gallant husband
in recognition of his brilliant services, and also from the
fact that to him it was first directed.

"Halting a moment to observe this approaching squad,
I soon determined by the speed at which they were rid-
ing and the direction from which they came that their mis-
sion was one of importance. Satisfied, from my brief
observation of this party and its movements that no trick
for my capture was intended, I put spurs to my horse ar.d
dashed towards them, and was soon face to face with the
approaching party. Drawing rein for a moment, as we
neared each other, the leader hurriedly asked :

" ' Where is the general commanding ? We have de-
spatches of importance.'

" Pointing in the direction, I said :

"'General Custer is at the head of his column right
over there.'

"Changing their course to the point indicated, away

766

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

they dashed. From the rapid ridin*; I had done, the
jumping of fallen timber as well as two or three fences,
my saddle girth had become loosened, the cloth had
slipped back, and I was about to lose it. Dismounting
to adjust this difficulty, I was delayed a few minutes.

" In the meantime the party I had directed to General
Custer had reached him, and by the time I came up they
were starting to return with Custer's answer, General
Whittaker, his chief-of-staff, accompanying them.

*• Things were moving very rapidly then. What takes
much time to write occupied very little time in fact. To
arrest the further spilling of blood and prevent a collis-
ion of troops liable to occur at any moment was the
object of Lee, and this his messengers understood.
They had ridden hard with a message intended to arrest
the farther advance of the Union troops, and with equal
speed did they return with the answer.

" From General Custer I obtained permission to ac-
company this returning party, but there was no oppor-
tunity for conversation with those composing it, for it
was little less than a race, and one so hot that, with a
horse already pretty well blown from hard riding, I was
barely able to keep up. Indeed, on this occasion, and
for the reason named, I might have been called a 'rear
guard.' In explanation of my poor mount on this occa-
sion, it may be well to say that during the seven preced-
ing days I had lost three horses — killed in batde — and
thus it happened that on the morning of the 9th my
steed was not a thoroughbred. He was unequal to the
work that day given him, and" was never fit to ride
again.

" Dismounting at Lee's head-quarters, I was met by
several officers, who inquired:

^« ♦ What's up? * : . . . •

THE FLAG OF TRUCE,

767

" Stopping to make reply, I soon became an object of
interest and the centre of quite a group of anxious and
animated men, most of whom seemed unaware of what
was then transpiring. When, in answer to an inquiry as
to what the meaning oi this flag of truce was, I an-
swered, 'I think about your terms to surrender,' the
proposition was promptly rejected.

" Numerous expressions of dissent wtre made, and one
officer in particular was quite indignant — felt personally
insulted and wanted satisfaction. He was at once sup-
pressed, one of his brother officers saying to him :

"'This officer is here »nder a flag of truce, is entitled
to its protection, and you should not insult him.'

"Than the army of Lee none I believe was ever
more loyal to its chief; and from the temper and dispo-
sition of his officers even on the day of surrender I am
confident if he had directed they would have cheerfully
gone into battle to the death.

" During the short time I was observing these tilings —
say twenty minutes — officers were continually coming and
going, and several prominent generals were pointed out.
Among such as I remember were Longstreet, Hill, and
Gordon. While thus engaged, and having my attention
directed to other matters, I had not noticed the reap-
pearance of my party until after it had mounted and
was moving away. My 'Good-day, gentlemen,' and
military salute as mounting I rode away, were politely
but not very cordially returned. I did not attempt
to overtake the now rapidly riding party returning
to General Custer, but after following their course
through the enemy's lines I changed direction and rode
back to where I had left my regiment.

" Once there, I told the officers the story of my adven-
tures, and we congratulated each other upon the pros-

768

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

pect of a speedy termination of the war. The appear-
ance of the flag of truce and the request of Lee were
rapidly communicated to the army, and while It arrested
all further fighting, no one knew whether those in con-
sultation would agree or not; and so our forces were
massed, and we again stood to horse awaiting results.
All were nervous and excited. The final and ofificial
notice of the surrender was not received until about
three p. m., if I remember aright, and i:hen followed a
scene that I can no more describe than I can foreet.
The tension of a mental strain, such as those who
hourly face danger and death can only know, was sud-
denly loosened. Visions of home and loved ones ap-
peared, and joy alone dimmed many an eye, and from
lips the power of speech was often taken."

t . •"

CHAPTER LVII

STOPPING THE FINAL CHARGE.

Custer at Appomattox — Across Lee's line of retreat — Cavalry jireparing to charge
.—A brilliant morning pageant — A flag of triicc — Custer's reply — Whittaker hunt-
ing for Lee — Longstreet and Gordon's answer — EfTorts to stop the firing — A South

. Carolina regiment's determination — How the surrender was received — Elation of
the Federal troops.

The fatigues, dangers and desperate work of Sheri-
dan's cavalrymen from Five Forks to Appomattox can
never be described or appreciated by any one not a
member of that famous band of troopers. Night and
day it was on the march and in the fight, pursuing Lee's
flying columns with a relentlessness that only a vision
of the expiring fires of war could kindle.

Grant, feeling that the end was near, was constantly
filling Sheridan with enthusiasm, and he in turn was in.-
parting his impulsive spirit to Custer, Devens arid Mer-
ritt, who handled the three divisions of his command.

Only the night before the surrender Custer enveloped
Appomattox station with his famous cavalrymen, and
captured three heavily-laden railway trains of supplies
which the Confederate leader had ordered up from
Lynchburg to provision his army. He also took a supply
train of 200 wagons, twenty-five pieces of artillery in ac-
tion, and many prisoners. Then he stood his command
to horse all night to march again at daybreak. Thc^
honor of receiving the flag of truce from Lee early that
morning could not have been more fittingly conferred.
No general officer below Sheridan in all that army had

2y (769)

770

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

done more than the famous leader of the Third cavalry
division to hasten the end. General Whitaker, his chief
of-staff, whom Colonel Briggs introduces as the officer
charged by Custer with the delicate duties of deter-
mining the attitude of the Confederates in relation to
the surrender, can give the best testimony in relation
to the final scenes.

" It had been litde more than a running fight ever since
April 1st, at Five Forks," he relates, "and our hard cav-

THE LAST CAVALRY CHARGE OF THE WAR.

airy battle on the night of the 8th at Appomattox
station left the men well worn and tired ; yet their
spirits were good, and every one seemed imbued with
the faith that the war was rapidly nearing its close.
There was no extra effort asked of them that was not
promptly responded to. All night we were ready for
service at any moment, and by daylight on the morning
of the 9th were moving toward the enemy, around the

STOPPING THE FINAL CHARGE.

771

right ilank of the infantry line of battle, which had been
formed just before dayhght to reHeve the cavalry. The
infantry had been brought up by forced marching during
the night, and Sheridan was on the ground personally
directing the massing of his entire cavalry corps under
General Merritt. I don't know how it happened, unless it
was because we were first ready, that Custer's division
led again that morning. The sun was just about show-
ins: its face in the east when our column halted to close
up just after crossing a ditch. At this moment from Gen-
eral Custer's side I rode to the top of a small hill in front
of us and there I beheld the grandest scene of the war.
Gordon's final charge had just been repulsed. The two
lines were exchanging rifle shots only. The entire Con-
federate army seemed to me to be drawn up in a line of
battle upon a broad and beautiful plain, with a range of
sloping hills on either side. Artillerymen stood to their
guns, the infantry was in perfect line, with colors flying,
and all the pomp and show that one would have hardly ex-
pected to find upon the verge of a surrender. I cast my
eyes over the spirited scene for a moment, and then rode
back to Custer with all possible haste, saying :

" ' Lee's army is in line just beyond the plain in front
of us, and in full view from the crest of the hill yonder.'

" Custer's eye brightened, and he sent his aides back
with orders to close up rapidly in column by squadrons.
There was but a moment's delay, and then he rode rap-
idly forward. As soon as his practised eye took in the
situation, he moved to the right to find a more favorable
lay of the ground for a charge. Our force had hardly
come in sight before the enemy's guns opened on us and
we ran a fire of artillery, each successive battery in turn„
as we moved eastward along the line, taking a shot at
us. Yet the force following Custer moved on as his

772 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

aides carried the order for sabres to be drawn, and the
tramp of our horses and the light aitillery, six guns to
each brigade, seemed to make the very earth shake.
The Third division presented a beautiful sight; sabres
flashed in the morning sunlight, colors were flying, and
every man seemed imbued with the spirit of the occa-
sion. There were no mules or wagon trains about, and
every soldier on the field was a fighting man, feeling that
the charge Custer was preparing to make, supported by
Sheridan and the entire corps, would terminate the war,
and as it was the ambition of all to be in at the death,
there were no stragglers.

"At the very height of the military pageant, and amidst
the hurried preparations for the onset, an officer came
rapidly riding toward us just as we were beyond the
point near a skirt of the woods Custer had selected at
which to charge. He was waving about his head a flag
of truce. He rode up and asked for the commanding
officer. General Custer resi)onded, when he presentt:d
General Lee's compliments and asked for an immediate
cessation of hostilities. General Custer replied :

'• ' I am not in sole command upon this field, but will
report the request to General Sheridan, and I can only
stop the charge upon A.n announcement of an uncon-
ditional surrender.'

" The officer assured him that such was the meaning
of the truce.

"General Custer then turned to me and said :

" ' Whitaker, return with this officer and say to Gen-
eral Lee that I cannot suspend hostilities or stay this
charge without the assurance that his army is to be here
unconditionally surrendered, and get me his answer
soon as possible.'

"I started with the officer toward the Confederate

he meaning

IConfederate

STOPPING THE FINAL CHARGE. 773

generals. We hurried as fast as our horses would take us
and soon entered General Lee's line. I found the in-
fantry ready for battle, and the artillerymen standing at
their shotted guns.

" The officer with whom I was riding said nothing to
me or I to him, but as we passed through the lines the
artillerymen, seeing a Confederate and Yankee riding
together, wanted to know what was up; one soldier, I
remember, asked :

" ' What's that Yankee doing in here with his arms
on?'

" Upon our inquiry for Lee we learned that he had
gone to the rear in search of General Grant. Desiring
some assurances from tlie next in command, we struck
a road which we followed for a short distance, and came
upon General Longstreet and General Gordon on a
knoll under some large trees — there were no tents, house,
or evidences of head-quarters.

" Major R. M. Sims, of Longstreet's staff, was the
officer who bore the truce to Custer, and he now re-
ported to his chief what Custer had said. Longstreet
turned to me and stated that General Lee was not there
in person, but had gone to the rear to confer with Gen-
eral Grant. ' General,' said I, ' General Custer desires
the assurance that this truce means the surrender of this
army in order that he may be justified in stopping the
charge he is about to make. In other words, he desires
to know what is meant by asking for a suspension of
hostilities ? '

"Both Longstreet and Gordon assured me that it
meant a surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia,
and that I could so assure General Custer.

"Just at this instant I heard rapid firing in the direc-
tion where Custer was in line. General Gordon ex-

774

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

plained that it was being done under the command of a
South Carolina officer who had not yet been reached
with the order for no more firing. In Lee's haste to
leave the field for the rear is indicated a desire to get
terms from Grant before the latter knew Sheridan had
built a wall in front. It appeared that Lee started back
where he hoped to reach Grant immediately when he
knew that Gordon's charge had failed. A strong in-
fantry line across his retreat to Lynchburg forced him
to write his letter of April 9th, which did not reach
Grant in several hours, as he had swung around in
the wake of Sheridan on that thirty-seven mile flank
movement, and turned up with him in the front of Lee's
army.

" I deprecated the useless sacrifice of the lives of so
many brave men, and was told by Longstreet and
Gordon that they were and had been for several days ex-
ceedingly anxious to stop the further shedding of blood,
but that General Lee was determined to get to Lynch-
burg and would not believe it possible that we were in
his front in force. While we were talking Orel and
Chamberlain's infantry moved out from the west for
the charg< 'n line of battle in splendid order.

"The Confederate generals begged me to take the
truce, ride forward and stop it. I replied :

" ' I will -f the officer who accompanied me here will
go with me.'

*' Captain Sims now informs me that he was obliged to
go upon some other service, and Major Brown, of Long-
street's staff, was designated to take his place. I had
supposed myself correct in the belief that Captain Sims
aided me in halting the infantry, but as it is more proba-
ble that I should forget who went with me than that he
who went should forget it, of course Captain Sims is cor-

STOPPING THR FINAL CHARGE

775

rect on that point. The infantry Hne was moving for
ward as we passed through the Confederate forces and
rode out toward our advancing troops. Naturally it was
A moment of intense excitement. Unless we could soon
stop Ord's infantry, it and the Confederate force behind
us might open fire at any moment. At this juncture,
having taken the flag of truce from the officer accom-
])anying me I waved it over my head as frantically as pos-
sible, and we rode forward at a break-neck speed toward
the centre of the moving line.

" Here I found General Ord, and assured him that
Lee's army had surrendered. In an instant he passed
the news to his subordinate generals. The officer with
me returned to Longstreet's head-quarters, and our line
halted with the knowledge that their fighting days were
over. Cheer after cheer went up from the men but a
moment before advancing to the deadly charge, and the
great War was ended.

"Amidst these scenes of rejoicing, with my heart in
my mouth by reason of the excitement I had been under,
I rode off with the truce still in hand to find Custer.
I went alone at much risk of getting shot, as some South
Carolina troops did not like to stop fighting, and reach*
ing the division learned that General Custer had become
so impatient at my delay in returning and so excited
with the dramatic events then transpiring, that he bor-
rowed a white handkerchief from one of his orderlies,
and using it as a truce went in himself to try and find
General Lee.

"As soon as I had time to recover myself from the
intense strain that had been upon me, I put the Hag of
truce, which h^i..! come to Custer to announce General
Lee's surrender, and which I had used to stop Ord's ad-
vance, into the breast of my coat. Later, when General

776

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Custer returned, I cut a small piece off the towel and
handed the priceless relic to him, saying:

" * This trophy, which is the emblem of the peace you
have done so much to secure, rightfully belongs to you.'"

This, Mrs. Custer, the wife of the famous cavalry offi-
cer, has at this time. The relic and the compliment had
been magnificently earned by her gallant husband. His
services to the Union during the war had been of a very
valuable character. He was really the great cavalry-
man of the Federal armies, and will always be so re-
garded. He was as picturesque a figure as the Con-
federate cavalry officer Stuart, and there were many
points of resemblance between them. Each reached
the cavalier type of English history.

CHAPTER LVIII.

lee's army surrendered.

Sheridan's Cavalry on the War- Path — Attacking the Enemy's Communications —
Brilliant Cavalry Manoeuvres — The Battles at Dinwiddie — Breaking over the
Petersburg Trenches — Gallant Assaults by the Infantry — The Lines Pierced— The
Battle at Five Forks— Lee's Right Wing turned— Confederate Retreat toward
Petersburg — The City Evacuated— Richmond Falls— Lee in Full Retreat— Grant
Pursues to Intercept — Swift Marching and Hard Fighting — Grant proposes to
Lee to Surrender — The Correspondence — Closing Battles — Lee's Army Surrounded
— The Surrender at Appomattox.

Throughout the morning of April ist a furious bom-
bardment had been kept up along the whole line of the
Petersburg defenses. This was merely preliminary to
the general and combined onset which had been ordered
for four o'clock on April 2d. Wright's corps, which was
on the centre, struck vigorously and at the appointed
time, driving the enemy at all points and sweeping all in
his front beyond Hatcher's Run, taking many prisoners
and guns. Ord was equally successful, and the two
corps, wheeling to the right, closed upon the devoted city
as far as the Appomattox, seizing the Southside Railroad.
Parke also had captured the outer works in his front, and
the most salient and important works south of the city
were in the besieger's hands. Wright at this time was
confident that he could break through the enemy's lines,
and all the corps commanders were splendidly confident;
but Grant thought that the hour for the finishing stroke
had not yet come. Lee's army driven out of Petersburg
might all be concentrated against Sheridan and the Fifth
Corps, now several miles distant from the extreme left of
Meade's and Ord's armies. But the enemy were drivea

777

778

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

at all points. With Meade hammering at their right, and
Sheridan and the Fifth Corps riding through them on
their left, they broke in confusion and were soon stream-
ing towards Petersburg. It seemed as though the hos-
tile armies must enter the city together. Lee saw the
defeat of his army with the composure of despair. " It
has happened as 1 thought," he said; "the lines have
been stretched until they broke."

The discomfited army took refuge in the interior line
of works immediately around the city. All the outer
works had been carried, excepting Forts Gregg and
Baldwin. They lay in front of the Twenty-fourth Corps,
and it became necessary to carry them by assault. Three
brigades of Ord's were given the task The enemy
fought with determined valor, repulsmg the assaults
repeatedly, but at last the parapet was gained, and, after
fighting half an hour with clubbed muskets, the galLnt
remnant of Fort Gregg's defenders surrendered, and
Fort Baldwin was evacuated. Brief as this check was,
it gave Lee time to rally his disheartened men. Long-
street also came to the rescue, with his ten thousand
comparatively fresh troops.

Grant, after the victory at Five Forks, ordered Sheri-
dan to cross the Appomattox west of Lee's army with
the Fifth Corps and cavalry. He was strongly impressed
with the opinion that Lee would make every effort to
evacuate Petersburg, and endeavor to escape with the
remnant of his army by way of the Danville road. If he
succeeded in joining Johnston's forces, then confronting
Sherman in North Carolina, he inight keep up a desul-
tory warfare for months. With a view of preventing
Lee's escape, he ordered a furious bombardment upon
the city, and especially upon the railroad bridge, early on
the morning of April 3d. This was, in fact, kept up

LEE'S ARMY SURRENDERED.

throughout the night, and at 2 a.m. General Parke pushed
forward his skirmishers to feel the enemy. They were
opposed by a strong picket line, but by daylight he dis-
covered that the pickets were all of the enemy left in his
front. The sounds of explosions in the city were
additional indications of evacuation. Parke accordingly
pressed forward rapidly and entered the city without
resistance. Wright and Ord also advancing, soon after-
wards discovered the works in their front vacant. The
enemy had fled during the early hours of the previous
evening, and was already far on his road westward.

To President Lincoln, who was at City Point visiting
the army, Grant telegraphed : " Petersburg was evacua-
ted last night. Pursuit will be made immediately." The
President was expected to visit the lines on April 3d, and
witness the assault which Grant two days before had
confidently expected would be required before the strong-
hold was surrendered. He, however, now had no time
for mere military displays. The defenders were in full
flight, and his aim was to intercept, not merely to pursue.
The orders to the various corps were all given with this
aim. Lee was endeavoring to escape by the roads north
of the Appomattox. He hoped to be able to cross that
river some twenty miles west of Petersburg, and thence,
seizing Burksville, on the Richmond and Davnville Rail-
road, to find a way to join Johnston near the North Car-
olina line. Instead of following in the same track, Grant's
dispositions all looked to reaching Burksville first. He
knew that Sheridan was in a neck-and-neck race with the
fugitives, and felt confident that he would be able not
only to throw his cavalry across their front, but to main-
tain himself there until the remainder of the army arrived
to support him.

The entire army were in splendid trim for fast march-

780

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

\ J ■

?:i

li " '

■^Si '

ing. Every victory had been announced to them, and
their enthusiasm was wrought to such a pitch that nothing
could quench their ardor. During the following three
days they marched mile for mile with the cavalry through
muddy roads, often without their rations. There was no
enemy in sight, but they knew he was within a few miles,
making for the same point, and his reaching there first
might prolong the war indefinitely. If they got there first,
they might look for a speedy end of their hardships.
Even as they marched they were further cheered by the
news of the capture of Richmond. *' Richmond is taken,"
was shouted alonof from column to column. And cheer-
ing to the echo, the men pressed forward to catch the
Army of Northern Virginia.

The news was indeed true. On the morning of April
3d, General Weitzel, pressing forward under orders,
found no resistance to his occupation of the late Con-
federate capital. The day before, with the first news of
the breaking of Lee's lines, President Davis and his
Cabinet made haste to pack up the archives, and loading
them on a special train, and escaped. Theirs was one
of the last trains that left the city over the Danville road.
The leaders of the Confederacy had left the city to take
care of itself. Weitzel's advanced guard had encountered
nothing more terrifying than hundreds of the disreputable
classes, who had made the most of the license of anarchy
to rifle the liquor-stores and pillage the tradesmen of all
sorts. Indeed the latter, more devoted to the fortunes of
their fallen cause, had in many instances given their stocks
of goods to clothing the retreating soldiers and iiad pro-
visioned them for at least a stage or two of their flight.
The military authorities, too, had applied the torch to all
the arsenals and other military buildings. All supplies for
which they had no transportation were included in the

to them, and
n that nothing
llowing three
Lvalry through
There was no
n a few miles,
ing there first
got there first,
eir hardships.
:heered by the
lond is taken,"
. And cheer-
l to catch the

)rning of April
under orders,
the late Con-
e first news of
Davis and his
s, and loading
heirs was one
Danville road,
e city to take
,d encountered
e disreputable
se of anarchy
desmen of all
:he fortunes of
en their stocks
and iiad pro-
of their flight.
ie torch to all
11 supplies for
eluded in the

781

782

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

burning. The flames had communicated to long rows of
warehouses, and the machinery of the Fire Department
having been damaged wantonly, the city was exposed to
the horrors of a general conflagration without any organ-
ized means of fighting it. Nearly a third of Richmond was
destroyed before the flames were subdued, and General
Weitzel spent several days in reducing the turbulent
element of its demoralized population to decent respect
for law and order.

Meanwhile, the race between the hostile armies
continued. On April 4th, Sheridan's advance division
of cavalry reached Jetersville, which lies about half-way
between Burksville and the Richmond and Danville
Railroad bridge over the Appomatox. He found that
part of Lee's army had already arrived at Amelia
Court-House, a few miles nearer the river. At the tele-
graph-office in Jetersville Sheridan had found a dispatch
from Lee, not yet sent, ordering two hundred thousand
rations to be sent at once to Farmville. This was at
once evidence that he had no idea that the Union cavalry
had cut the Danville road, and that he was making
for Farmville. He was evidently under the delusion that
he was being pursued, not headed off. Sheridan had the
telegram transmitted and next day captured the trains.
The dif^culty in the way of the dashing cavalryman
was that his forces might prove too small to successfully
meet the enemy. He had only ten thousand men, and
the whole of Lee's army was at hand. A determined
attack of infantry would scatter his comparative handful
of mounted men and thus open the road for retreat to
Danville. But the Confederates, starting with but a
single day's rations, had already been nearly two days on
the road and Sheridan was across the only road by
which he could get supplies. Lee had scattered his men

LEE'S ARMY SURRENDERED.

783

through the country to forage, but two ears of corn per
man was all the impoverished region afforded. Al-
though Sheridan did not know why he was not attacked,
he lost no time in throwing up rude breastworks and
preparing to hold his position to the last. On April 5,
he discovered that the retreating army was pushing
forward toward Farmville on the Petersburg and Lynch-
burg Railroad. General Davies, with one of Sheridan's
brigades, struck the escort of a wagon-train at Painsville,
five miles from Jetersville, and swooping down, destroyed
the train, capturing many of its escort and five pieces of
artillery. Infantry sent out to relieve the escort was
also badly handled by Sheridan's men.

The occupation of Jetersville was notice to Lee that
escape by way of iBurksville was impossible. Accordingly,
on the morning of April 6th he turned the head of his weary
and disheartened army toward Farmville, seemingly hop-
ing to reach Lynchburg, disperse his regiments and
begin a partisan warfare in the mountains. The evi-
dences of the demoralization of his men were now multi-
plying hourly. The thickets were full of half-starved
stragglers, who had thrown away their weapons and
were glad to reach the Union lines and share the rations
of their late adversaries. They reported that the Con-
federates, with scarcely a show of organization, were
breaking their muskets, and burying their cannons along
the line of their flight.

Already Grant's splendid combinations had drawn the
net very close around the fugitives. There was now but
one avenue of escape open, and toward it Lee's men
hurried with all the speed their almost famished con-
dition permitted. There was just a possibility that the
ubiquitous cavalrymen had not closed up the roads along
the Appomattox running to Farmville, and at that place

784

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

he had ordered and hoped to find rations for the tem-
porary relief of his hungry comrades. Pressing forward,
he found not Sheridan, but Ord's headquarters escort
and two regiments of infantry disputing the possession
of the bridges, while the remainder of his corps was far-
ther south, sufficiendy entrenched to prevent any rupture
in his lines. As the baffled fugitives turned again north-
west, they ran against Sheridan's cavalry at Sailor's
Creek, a small southern tributary of the Appomattox.

The opposing force here being only cavalry, Lee moved
up his grim legions, hoping to brush away their light-
armed opponents. Crook, acting under Sheridan's orders,
attacked the flank of a heavily-escorted train, while Mer-
ritt, moving northwestward, placed himself across the road
by which the enemy was flying. Meanwhile, the Sixth
Corps, pressing forward on the Deatonsville road, struck
the rear and flank of Lee's tired men. Under his ad-
vance they retired hastily, but reformed across the marshy
banks of Sailor's Creek, and presented a front with some-
thing like the determination that had always characterized
the Army of Northern Virginia. As the old Sixth charged
across the swamp, driving the enemy before them, Crook's
and Merritt's men charged from the opposite hillside and
eighteen guns opened upon the demoralized men in the
middle. There was nothing to do but yield ; seven thou-
sand men and seven generals, including Ewell, surrend-
ered. Fourteen guns were captured by the cavalry. Part
of the wagon-t ain had got away, but nearly a fifth of
Lee's army laid down its arms in the open field. The
remainder of the army kept up its flight, still hoping to
reach Farmville and the coveted rations.

The Federal corps reached Farmville early the next
morning. Here, not far apart, were two bridges across
the Appomattox, and Lee strained every muscle to reach

LEE'S ARMY SUJiRENDERED.

786

them first. Humphreys had already crossed the river,
when Grant arrived and ordered Crook's cavalry to cross
at once to his support. Crook, however, encountered a
heavy force of infantry guarding trains, and charging
them gallantly, was repulsed, leaving General Gregg a
prisoner. Nevertheless, the columns of the pursuc^rs
were converging everywhere, and following the enemy
so close that the bridges fired when they crossed, were
possessed so quickly by the Union forces that they were
never wholly destroyed. A couple of hours sufficed to
repair the damage, and the troops were again at the
heels of their quarry.

Sheridan seemed to anticipate the wishes of his com-
mander. When, on the day after Sailor's Creek, it
seemed desirable to Grant to direct the cavalry farther
westward to intt rcept the fugitives, his orders found
Sheridan with the movement already half executed. He
had heard that there were eight trains of provisions at
Appomattox station, and he proposed to get there first,
and destroy them before they could refresh the men for
whom they were intended. Throughout the night of
April 6th the several corps marched on. It was nearly a
week since they made the assaults which broke the lines
at Petersburg, and from that early morning charge they
had been marched and fought nearly eighteen hours a
day, often hungry, owing to the difficulty of keeping the
trains well up during their swift movements. Sdll, they
responded to every new demand upon them with undi-
minished alacrity. They recognized this as the crisis
which, in all probability, would make further demands
upon them unnecessary.

From Farmville, on the morning of April 7th, Grant
dispatched this note to Lee :

786

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

!4 I

'^General : The results of the last week must convince you of the hope*
lessness-of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia
in this struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift the
responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surren-
der of that portion of the Confederate States Army known as the Army of
Northern Virginia."

Lee's commanders had already suggested that the
time had come when further marching and fighting was
unavailing. His .soldiers were weary, footsore and fam-
ished. For days no return of them had been made, and
his ranks were depleted by thousands of stragglers and
deserters, who, finding themselves further from their
homes, had faltered and gone back. They still had the
pugnacity of desperation, and when attacked turned upon
their assailants witli the fierce energy of a wounded and
dying beast of prey. Lee, however, did not think "the
time had come to surrender," and determined to prolong
the struggle in hopes of better terms.

On the night of April 7th he replied thus to Grant's
note of the morning:

"General : I have received your note of this day. Though rot entirely
of the opinion you express of the hopelessness of further resistance on the
pan of the Army of Northern Virginia, I reciprocate your desire to avoid
useless effusion of blood, and therefore, before considering your proposition,
ask tho terms you will offer on condition of its surrender."

Grant was still at Farmville, when this note reached
him the following morning. The days of incessant
anxiety and straining responsibility had made him so ill
that exhausted nature demanded a day of rest from
physical exertion at least. Under date of April 8th he
wrote : " Your note of last evening, in reply to mine of
same date, asking the conditions on which I will accept
tlie surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia, is just
received. In reply I would say that, peace being my
greatest desire, there is but one condition I would insist
upon, namely : that the men and officers surrendered

LEE'S ARMY SURRENDERED.

787

•a of the hope*
rthern Virginia
uty to shift the
(Tou the surren-
as the Army of

id that the
ighting was
re and fam-
n made, and
■agglers and
from their
still had the
turned upon
vounded and
)t think "the
id to prolon

us to Grant's

)ugh rot entirely

resistance on the

ur desire to avoid

your proposition,

note reached

lof incessant

ide him so ill

|of rest from

April 8th he
lly to mine of

I will accept
Irginia, is just
\ce being my

would insist
surrendered

shall be disqualified from taking up arms again against
the governmeiit of the United States, until properly ex-
changed. I will meet you, or designate officers to meet
any officers you may name for the purpose, at any point
agreeable to you, for the purpose of arranging definitely
the terms upon which the surrender of the Army of
Nortliern Virginia will be received."

Although Lee's first reply on its face looked like a
willinofness to surrender, there was no relaxation in the
military dispositions to compel that result. With Meade
north of the river on the heels of the retreating army,
and with Sheridan's cavalry, and the Sixth and Ninth
Corps in the south hurrying on toward Appomattox,
Grant felt satisfied that all doubts of the Confederate
Commander would speedily be removed. To Slieridan
he wrote : " I think Lee will surrender to-day. I addressed
him on the subject and received a reply this morning,
asking me the term:; I wanted. We will push him until
the terms are agreed upon." His dispatclies to the Presi-
dent and Secretary of War indicate his confidence that
the end was very near.

During the night of the 7t]i, Lee withdrew from the
front of the Second Corps, but by daylight the next
morning the pursuers were again on his heels. It was a
stern chase throu'dioiit the 8th. Sheridan was still uro:incf
forward his cavalry in the effort to head off the fugitives.
Custer in the advance came up with four loaded trains at
Appomattox station four miles south of the town. It
was nearly dark, but Custer throwing his men in the rear
of the trains captured them and their freight of supplies.
Destroying one and sending three of them back to Farm-
ville in charofe of train crews of volunteers from his own
command he pushed on toward the Court- House, driving
back a force of Confederate infantry, which had got

Y88

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

almost in sight of the provisions of which they were in
such dire need. As he pushed the demorahzed foe bacl<;,
he captured twenty-five pieces of artillery and a hospital
train coming up from the direction of Farmville, which was
greatly surprised to find the inevitable cavalry again in
the front. Skirmishing continued until late in the
night when they had all been driven into Appomattox
Court-House. A reconnoisance across the river de-
veloped the fact, that the whole of the remnant of Lee's
army was on the Farmville road awaiting the dawn to
continue their flight. Sheridan at once sent word to
Grant : " If General Gibbon and the Fifth Corps can get
up to-night, we will perhaps finish the job in the morning.
I do not think Lee means to surrender undl compelled
to do so." About midnight of the 8th, while resting in a
farm house unable to sleep by reason of pain and
exhaustion. Grant received the following cuaimunication
from Lee : " April 8th : I received at a late hour your
note of to-day. In mine of yesterday, I did not intend
to propose the surrender of the Army of Northern Vir-
ginia, but to ask the terms of your proposition. To be
frank, I do not think the emergency has arisen to call for
the surrender of this army: but as the restoration of
peace should be the whole object of all, I desired to know
whether your proposals would lead to that end. I cannor
therefore meet you with a view to surrender the rrmy ol
Northern Virginia : but, as far as your proposal may
affect the Confederate States forces under my vonnjir id,
I should be pleased to meet you at ten a. m., to-morrow,
on the old stage road to Richmond, between the picket.
lines of the two armies."

Controversy over the various details of such an impor
tant event naturally arises from many sources. How
many and who bore the flags of truce that were the pre-

LEE'S ARMY SURRENDERED.

789

cursors of the end of the gigantic struggle, have been
most fruitful subjects of discussion and clash of opinion.
It is certain that a flag of truce reached the Union lines
on the evening of April 8th, and Mr. C. E. Sears, now
editor of the Louisville Post, was one of the Confederate
officers who bore it. He thus describes his experiences
during that important duty as well as his observations as
an eye witness of the dramatic events which followed:

*' It was on the morning of April 8th, that a flag of
truce was sent to the enemy's lines bearing the first
letter relati;ig to a surrender from General R. E. Lee to
General Grant. Sharp skirmisliing had been going on
between our rear guard and die advanced columns of
the enemy. So closely were we pushed throughout the
day that the roadside was literally strewn with broken or
abandoned wagons, disabled artillery, camp chests and
cooking untensils. On every hand might be seen
memorials of disaster which, if not so ghastly as those
that marked the track of the Tartar tribe across the
steppes of Asia, pursued by the vengeful Kalmuck cavalry
they no less indicated the wreck of a once powerful and
victorious army.

" It was about twilight on the evening of the 8th that
an officer of General R. E. Lee's stalf rode up to General
Fitzhugh Lee and handed him a letter with instructions
that it be sent at once to the Federal lines. General
Fitzhugh Lee gave the letter to his Quartermaster, Major
Robert Mason, with the necessary instructions. Major
Mason turned to me and asked me to accompany him,
A private from one of the Virginia cavalry regiments was
detailed to bear the flag, which consisted of a very dirty
handkerchief that looked more like a black flaof than a
white one. But, tying it to a stick, we started back
along the road we had just come over. As the enemy

iii

V90

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

had pushed us hard all day, we thought his linen must be
near ours. So, after passing our pickets, we expected
evey moment to encounter them. A dense mist com-
menced falling. It became very dark. I raised my hand
before my eyes and could hardly see it. But on we rode
through the chill rain and the darkness, expecting a
volley instead of a summons to halt, as the enemy must
have anticipated some effort on the part of General Lee
and his litde army to break through and escape.

"After riding about two or three miles we heard a
tramp of troops just ahead of us. They had doubtless
caught the sound of our rattlinc; accoutrements and were
preparing to give us a bloody reception. Major Mason
spoke and told them we were under a flag of truce
'bearing a letter from Gen. R. E. Lee to Gen. Grant.'
We thought they heard him, but they either did not
hear or did not comprehend what he said. Thinking
there was no further danger, we walked our horses on
and in a moment we heard the heavy rattle of a regiment
forming across the road. I then distincdy caught the
sound of a voice saying, ' Let drive at 'em boys ; by
G — d, let 'em have it ! ' We even heard the click of
their cocking guns. But, as fortune would have it, the
order 'to let drive ' was immediately countermanded by
an officer who seemed to arrive just in time, and, being
better informed, thought it probable we were under a
flag of truce. At all events, he saved us, as we were
only thirty steps off and would have been riddled had the
line opened fire. He ordered us to dismount and advance
'one at a time.' This was done until we found ourselves
seated in a corner of the fence on the roadside. The
officers chatted pleasantly for an hour, while we waited
to get a reply to the letter. At the expiration of that
time an officer rode up with the information that General

LEE'S ARMY SURRENDERED.

791

Grant was ' on another part of the line/ and a reply
could not be sent in before next morning.

" Taking leave, we mounted and started back. It was
a dreary ride. Sometimes our horses would stumble
among the debris of a broken wagon. An obstruction
caused me once to dismount and feel my way. It was a
rifle gun, with broken wheel. It had belched forth its
last thunder against the advancing enemy, and would
soon be in their hands. We passed a strip of wood-
land. Here and there was a small camp fire, with three
or four wearied and silent forms crouching around the
blazing fagots, for the night wind was chill and damp.
They were " stragglers " — footsore, weary and hungry.
They had dragged their limbs as far as possible, and,
though they were not within our lines, they had done
their best. The spirit was stHl willing. Their faces
depicted despair. Poor atoms of suffering, they were
perhaps, thinking of their starving loved ones at home,
while they were starving here upon the wayside. These
were men, too, who had fought at Manassas and at
Spotsylvania, and whose camp fires had more than once
blazed in the foreground of Washington !

"After considerable search we found the headquarters
of Gen. R. E. Lee. They consisted of two rubbish fires
and two ambulances. As we approached the first fire
we heard the heavy and hard breathing of some one in
sleep. It was Longstreet, who still suffered from the
effects of the wound in his throat. At the other fire
Gen. R. E. Lee was lying upon an oil-cloth and a blanket.
I know not whether he was asleep, but think not. As
we approached he rose to a sitting posture, and the fire-
light fell upon his face. Never had nature and misfor-
tune combined to cast a countenance so sad and so
noble. I thought of Charles on his litter after the Rus-

792

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

sian charge at Pultowa, and Napoleon after the dreadful
day at Waterloo. 1 wished for an artist to catch the
features of that bronzed and mournful face. The iron
entered the soul of Gen Lee that night. But when such
natures fall they break into gold and diamond dust, " the
proper metal of a perfect star." A few days I was with
General Fitzhugh Lee at Saylor's creek when the enemy
interrupted our retreat and cut off our left wing. Our
cavalry had gone ahead, and we were riding to overtake
the column when we encountered the obstruction. The
fight soon raged fiercely. As soon as General Fitzhugh
Lee realized the seriousness of the situation, he ordered
me to find General R. E. Lee and advise him of it. The
enemy had taken possession of the road for some dis-
tance ahead of us, and, to escape his fire, I had to ride
through yards and fields, over ditches and fences, and
several times, when I thought I could safely turn for the
main road, I was warned by the whistle of numerous bul-
lets that his line was longer than I expected. At last I
found Gen. Lee. I hurriedly told him of the disaster at
Saylor's creek. He turned to Longstreet and said:
' General, the enemy have completely isolated our left
wing; we must go and try restore the connection.'

'• Mahone was there, looking as shriveled as a shrimp
and when he got orders to move he merely rode to the
head of the column and said, * Come on with me, m.en/
in a squeaking voice that seemed in sympathy with his
elfish figure. It was then late in the afternoon and wc
had not gone far before we met a stream of stragglers
They were the fragments of Picket's regiments. They
recognized Gen. R. E. Lee and when he said, • Men, you
must form a Hne here whether you have arms or not,'
they gathered about his horse, their faces begrimed with
the smoke of battle and their limbs wearied with the

LEE'S ARMY SURRENDERED.

793

labor of combat. But they threw up their hats and made
an effort to cheer, crying out, • Gen. Lee, we have fought
for you for four years and we are willing to fight four
more. If you say so, we will stay here and die.' General
Lee turned his face away. He could not stand the sight
of these batde-scarred heroes in despair.

"An irregular line was formed. In the valley below we
could see the dark, serried lines of Federal infantry mass-
ing like a black cloud. The sun was setting.

" On the morning of April 9th we made an effort to cut
through the lines that surrounded us. The enemy were
driven back for some distance by the ferocity of oiir
charge, but they were too heavily massed behind for us
to hope to carry out any considerable body of men. In a
short while Custer was seen riding toward us bearing a
flag of truce, his long hair streaming in the morning
wind. The letter he brought was in answer to the one
Major Mason and myself had carried to the Federal
lines the night before. We knew now what was meant.
The wagon trains and artillery were being parked. De-
sultory firing v/as heard here and there, but there was no
volley, no charging of cavalry, no cheering of voices. We
turned away. General Fitzhugh Lee and staff rode off
toward James River for the purpose of crossing and
working our way toward Johnson. At least such was my
purpose. We had gone about a mile when he turned to
me and asked where was his division. I did not know.
'Ride back, see if you can find it, and bring it in this
direction.' He was crying bitterly when he gave me
this order, and his voice was choked. We were all cry-
ing ; and there are few sights in nature more pathetic
than tears upon the face of a soldier. I rode back and
saw the infantry stacking arms. I could see no traces of
the cavalry division. I rejoined General Fitzhugh Lee.
He said : * Did you find my division ?'

.v?--'

794

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

" 'No, sir.'

" ♦ What did you see ?'

" ' The infantry were stacking arms !*

•' I could hardly speak. We saw a squadron of cavalry
on a hill in front. Thinking it was a detachment sent to
intercept us, Major Jim Breathed, commanding the horse
artillery of our division, and as gallant a soul as ever
poured out its blood on a batde-field, drew his sabre and
wanted to charge them. There were only ^x or eight of
us and it would have been folly. But he insisted, and
we drew to charge the squadron, no one expecting to
survive it It proved, however, to be Confederates.
That night we crossed James river and got the first food
and the first sleep we had for many hours."

Throughout Lee's three first replies to Grant's pro-
posals, runs a vein of disingeniousness which subsequent
events sufficienty interpreted. He was merely treating
in the hope of gaining time and outwitting his antagonist.
He had not yet despaired of getting a portion of his army
out of the toils, even if it required another clinch to be
made with all the desperation of a dying effort. It might
spare him the humiliation of surrender. Grant seems to
have fully apprehended his opponent's design. His reply
sent April 9th reads: "Your note of yesterday is re.
ceived. I have no authority to treat on the subject of
peace. The meeting proposed for 10 A. m., to-day, could
lead to no good. I will state, however, that I am equally
desirous for peace with yourself, and the whole North
entertains the same feeling. The terms upon which peace
can be had are well understood. By the South laying
down their arms they will hasten that most desirable
event, save thousands of human lives, and hundreds of
millions of property not yet destroyed. Seriously hoping
that all our difficulties may be setded without the loss of

LEE'S ARMY SURRENDERED.

795

another life, I subscribe myself, etc : U. S. Grant, l.ieu-
tenant-General." This dispatched, he hastened on to join
Sheridan.

The marching of the Union armies at this juncture,
was as glorious as any fighting they had ever done,
Ord's men had marched all but three of the twenty-four
hours before 9 o'clock, April 9th, when they reached
their appointed place in the plan of enmeshing Lee. Griffin
after a march of twenty-nine miles, reached Sheridan's
position at 6 a. m., on the morning of the ninth, just as
Lee's heavy mass of infantry were about l;o fling them-
selves upon the Union cavalry, and fight their way
through. This they must do or surrender. They had
made their onset upon Crook, who was gallantly disput-
ing every foot with his dismounted cavalry who were far
outnumbered. The troopers gave ground gradually, and
the enemy taking fresh heart gave their yell and quicken-
ing to a charging gait, redoubled their musketry volleys.
When they thought the troopers beaten, they suddenly
found themselves in contact with Gibbon's and Griffin's
men and a division of colored troops. Their charge was
stopped, their line halted. So sudden and disheartening
was this discovery that they forgot to fire and wavering,
broke to the rear. Sheridan reforming his troopers had
again moved far to the Union left, and was about giving
the order to charge when a flag of truce issued out of
the confused masses. The emergency had arisen which
demanded the surrender of the Army of Northern
Virginia.

Sheridan, riding at once to the Court-House, there
met Generals Gordon and Wilcox, who informed him
that negotiations for surrender were then in progress
between Generals Grant and Lee. The fiery cavalry-
man, suspicious lest it was merely a ruse to gain time

796

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

and pr ^ent the death-stroke which he w is prepared to
deliver, said that he. would not stay his intended charge
unless he had definite assurance that surrender was in-
tended. Gordon personally gave him this assurance, and
at a subsequent interview half an hour later General
Longstreet ■ . io declared that Lee was only awaiting thti
arrival of General Grant to make the surrender com-
plete. Accordingly there was a temporary cessation of
hostilities in that quarter.

The dispatch to the Union commander which staytxl
the Federal charge was written by General Lee on
April 9th. It ran : " I received your note of this morning
on the picket line, whither I had come to meet you, and
ascertain definitely what terms were embraced in your
proposal of yesterday with reference to the surrender of
this army. I now ask an interview, in accordance with
the offer contained in your letter of yesterday for that
purpose."

Grant, howe\rer, was then on Meade's line, and the
communication did not reach him until near noon. He
at once replied: "Your note of this date is but this
moment (11.50 a. m.) received, in consequence of my
having passed from the Richmond and Lynchburg roads
to the Farmville and Lynchburg road. I am at this
writing about four miles west of Walker's Church, and
will push forward in front for the purpose of meeting
you. Notice sent to me on this road where you wish the
interview to take place will meet me."

Colonel Babcock, of Grant's staff, carried this reply
through the enemy's lines to Lee. It was Colonel Bab-
cock who found General Lee sitting by the roadside
that has since become famous. His first anxiety was to
have the truce extended all along the Union lines, so
that no further hostilities should ensue.

LEE'S ARMY SURRENDERED.

797

Grant sought Sheridan before proceeding to this mo-
mentous interview, and learned from him iiow completely
the Confederate army was involved in the meshes. He
then rode on to the place appointed for the meeting. This
was the McLean house, which stood somewliat apart
from the remainder of the village of Appomattox. Gen-
erel Lee met his conqueror on the threshold, and con-
ducted him into a little parlor, in which were a table and
two or three chairs. Into this narrov/ apartment were
gathered besides Grant and his staff. Generals Sheridan
and Ord. General Lee was attended only by Colonel
Marshall.

The contrast between the appearance of the two com-
manding generals was most striking. General Grant, in
one of his numerous conversations with John Russell
Young, and described by the latter in his entertaining
work, "Around the World with General Grant," thus
relates this interesting incident of this famous conference:
"I received word that Lee would meet me at a point
within our lines near Sheridan's headquarters. I had to
ride quite a distance through a muddy country; and re-
member that I was concerned about my personal appear-
ance. I had an old suit on, was without my sword, and
without any distinguishing mark of rank except the
shoulder-straps of a lieutenant-general on a woolen
blouse. I was splashed with mud in my long ride, and
was afraid Lee might think I meant to show him some
discourtesy by so coming — at least I thought so. But I
had no other clothes within reach, as Lee's letter had
found me away from my base of supplies. I kept on
riding until I met Sheridan. The general, who was one
of the heroes of the campaign, and whose pursuit of Lee
was perfect in its generalship and energy, told me where
to fmd Lee. I went up to the house where Lee was

798

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

waitinii^, and found him in a fine, new, splendid ur .n,
which only recalled my anxiety as to my own clothes
wliile on my way to meet him. I expressed my regret
that I was compelled to meet him in so unceremonious a
manner, and he replied that the only suit he had avail-
able was one that had been sent him by some admirers
in Baltimore, and which he then wore for the first time."

Other circumstances in this remarkable conference
will be related more in detail in subsequent chapters.
After some brief chat upon previous army experiences,
Lee almost abrupdy adverted to the object of the inter-
view.

"I asked to see you. General Grant," he said, "to
ascertain upon what terms you would receive the sur-
render of my army." General Grant replied that officers
and men must become prisoners of war, and give up all
munitions, weapons and supplies, but that a parole would
be accepted by releasing the men upon their binding
themselves to go home and remain thero until properly
exchanged. Upon Lee's remarking tl he expected
some such terms, Grant asked,

" Do I understand that you accept these terms, Gen-
eral Lee?"

"Yes," General Lee replied, "and if you will put them
into writing I will sign them."

General Grant sat down at the litde table and wrote

the following:

"Appomattox Coukt-House, Virginia, )

April 9, 1865. )

** General: In accordance with the substance of my letter lo you of

the 8'h inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of North.

em Virginia on the following terms, to wit : Rolls of all the officers

and men to be made in duplicate, one copy to be given to an officer

to be designated by roe, the other to be retained by such officer or

officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual

paroles not to take up arms against the government of the United

LEE'S ARMY SURRENDERED.

799

States until properly exchanged ; and each company or roglmcnial
commander to sign a like parole for ihe men of their commands. The
arms, artillery and public properly to be parked and stacked, and
turned over to the offii-ers a|)pointed by me to ret eive them. Tn s
will not embrace the side arms of the offictrs, nor thtir private horses
or ba^jgage. This done, each (jffi er and man will be allowed to
return home, not to be disturbed by United S ate> authority so long
as they observe their paroles and the laws in forte wlicre they may
reside. " L). S. (J rant, Lieutenant- GrneraL"

" General R. E. Lee.

Grant handed this paper to General Lee, who read It
carefully and remarked that the terms were magnani-
mous and would have a good effect upon his army. He
remarked however that the horses of the cavalry and
artillery were the property of the men; would they be
allowed to retain them ? Grant replied, that the terms
did not allow this, but continued :

"I believe the war is now over, and that the surrender
of this army will be followed soon by that of the others.
I know that the men, and indeed tlic whole Soutli arc
impoverished. I will not change the terms of the sur-
render, but will instruct my officers who receive tlic
paroles, to allow the cavalry and artillery men to retain

their horses and take them home to work their little
farms."

Lee again remarking that thi3 clemency would have a
very happy effect, directed Colonel Marshall to write his
acceptance of the terms, which done he signed. The
followinir is the document.

"Headquarters Army of Northern Virginia, )

April 9, 1865. )

** General: I received your letter of this date containing the term
of the surrender of the Army of Northern Virginia as proposed by yon.
As they are substantially the same as those expressed in your letter of
the 8th instant, they are accepted. I will proceed to appoint the pro-
per officers to carry them into effect. "R. E. Lee, General.
*' Lieutenant-General U. S. Grant."

th)

|l"

600

L/FF. OF GENERAL GRANT.

While these conditions were being sio-ned, the Union
officers present were presented to General Lee, who
bowed to (^ach but did not shake hands. I lis final request
was for rations for iiis starvini;- men This was promptly
accorded and the necessary orders for distributinor them
given. Grant and Lee tlien rhook hands, and the latter
mounting his horse rode off to his army. The demon-
strations of his UKMi will bi^ described elsewhere, by men
who were participants in that most pathetic scene.

Grant when returning to his own lines, saw that the
artillery were preparing to fire salutes, and issued orders
to stop them at once. " The war is over," he said ; " the
rebels are our countrymen again, and the best sign of
rejoicing after the victory, will be to abstain from all
demonstrations in the field." This order was faidifully
obeyed.

Remembering that he had not yet reported the capitu-
lation to his supiuiors, Grant sitting on a stone by the
roadside wrote this dispatch on a leaf out of the note-
book of one of his aides:

" AlM'OMAT'KIX COI'RT-HOUSE, ^// /■/«), 1S65.

"Hon. Iv M. Sv xnton, Secretary t>/ liar, lP'(is/u'n^t;;/(>/t : Gcncriil

Lvjc smrcndered the Army of Northern Virginia tliis afternoon on

terms |)ropo.sod by myself. The accompanying correspondence shows

the conditions fully.

" U. S. GkANT, Lieutetiani- General.''

It was Grant's intention to set out for Washington at
once, leaving the details of the surrender and subsequent
movements to his subordinates. It was foimd however
that the Petersburg and Lynchburg railroad could be
put into condition for travel in a few hours and he con
(hided to wait for that. Grant the next day found time
to arrange a conference with his great antagonist. They
met on a hillocK between the lines and conversed long
and with animation upon the great subject of the pacifi-

LEES ARMY SURRENDERED.

801

of the noto-

cation of the country. Lee expressed the opinion that
the war was now over and slavery was dead. The South,
he thought, was prepared to acquiesce in this as the ^Con-
sequence of the triumph of the Union arms. Johnston,
he thought, would soon surrender to Sherman, and the
sooner all the armies were surrendered the better for the
Suuth. General Grant earnesdy uroed Lee to present
his views to the Confederate officials and generals, so as
to bring about the speedy pacification of the country.

On the following day. April i 2th. the Army of Northern
Virmnia stood in serried ranks for the last time. Under
the direction of the appointed commissioners they were
marched to a spot near the Court-house, where they
stacked their arms, laid down the colors and deposited
their accoutrements, and dien went to the provost mar-
shal's tent for their paroles. This completed they started
for their homes. The war, as far as VirLrinia was con-
cerned, was ended.

Grant's anxiety during the week of pursuit was intense,
and it was not until lonir after the war that he declared
how near Lee's army came to escaping w'th at least
enough organization and material to have prolonged the
war by joining Johnston. Spt'aking of this in the con-
versation with Mr. Young above quoted Gen. Grant said:
"My anxiety for some time before Richmond fell, was. that
Lee should abandon it. My pursuit of Lee was hazard-
ous and I was in a position of extreme difficulty. You
see I was marching away from my supplies while Lee
was falling back toward his supplies. If Lee had con-
tinued his flight another day I should have been com-
pelled to abandon the pursuit, fall back to Farmville,
build the railroad and feed my army. So far as supplies
were concerned. I was almost at my last gasp when the

surrender took place."
8A

mtmm

, V*iv , *■ '■•».

CHAPTER LIX.

THE EXPIRING GLANCES OF STRIFE.

Gordon's story of the final days — The Federal anxiety to prevent the juncture with
Johnston — The Confederate conference — The deep aversion to surrender — One last
attempt — Its failure — The flag of truce — Sheridan rides into the Confederate lines-
Gordon saves Sheridan's life — The emotion of the Confederates at the surrender —
Lee talks to the soldiers — His profound dejection.

The war was in its sunset. The joining lines of the
great armies of the North were choking out its waning
life. The one hope for a brief continuance lay in the
chance of a juncture with Johnston, and the well-laid
plans of the commander of the Union forces had already
destroyed the possibility of this. Nevertheless, the armies
which were still playing hide and seek in the network of
roads to the southward were not fully aware how near
the end was.

On the Federal side there was a desperate anxiety
to prevent the juncture, and upon the Confederate side
there was deep depression and little hope of escape.
With magnificent energy General Lee was striving to
avoid the closing cordon. Sheridan was not in direct
communication with Grant, while Gordon was in close
communication with Lee. To a certain extent both men
were acting independently of the main armies, although
their movements were in harmony with a concerted
plan. Added to their anxiety was the doubt as to wluit
was happening when, on the 7th of April, General Gor-
don, who had been bringing up the rear ever since tiie
retreat from Petersburg began, was now ordered to the
front. Here we quote again from General Gordon's
802

icture with
r—- One last
rate lines—
iunender—

; of the
waning
y in the
i/vell-laid
L ?1 ready
e armies
;work of
ovv near

anxiety
•ate side
escape,
[iving to
|in direct
I in close
ioth men
Llthough
mcerted
to what
Iral Gor-
iince the
:d to the
rordon's

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803

804

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

conversation, giving the thread of the narrative on the
Confederate side to the final scene :

"The day that Generals Lee and Grant began the
correspondence which led up to the surrender I was
ordered from the rear to the advance. The Federal
army was pressing us with great vigor at all points. Its
cavalry was harassing our flanks, and our line of marcli
was strewn with the broken debris of a dissolving army.
Men were falling by the way-side, — killed, wounded,
sick and starving. On the night of the 8th of April,
General Lee called a council of war at his bivouac by the
roadside. It was the last one he ever called. There
were present at this conference Generals Lee, Long-
street, Fitzhjjgh Lee, commanding the cavalry, and
myself. Most of the time General Lee stood up in front
of the blazing camp-fire, a grand figure. Longstreet sat
on a log near by, while I reclined on General Lee's pallet
spread under the tree. When General Fitzhugh Lee
came up he found a seat near me, on the commander's
blanket.

"General Lee said that he had sent for us to read to us
the correspondence which had taken place between him-
self and General Grant up to that time. It was evident that
he was discouraged, and that he recognized that we were
in the last chapter of the struggle. He talked the situa-
tion over in his quiet and dignified way, telling us plainly
that while he was very averse to surrendering the troops,
yet that our situation was such that he could not see
how it could be avoided. He intimated that he saw no
prospect of success ahead and his desire now was to avoid
any further bloodshed. It was the general impression
of all present that there was nothing but cavalry in our
front. We knew very well that Sheridan had thrown
his force across our line of march. After some delibera-

THE EXPIRING GLANCES OF STRIFE.

805

tion it was decided, as the last chance, that I should attack
the enemy the next morning, and endeavor to open the
way for our advance.

" In the very nature of things the conference was in-
tensely dramatic. None of us wanted to surrender. To
give up went bitterly against the grain. We felt that it

GEMEKAL l<llZilU(Jll LEE.

was a forlorn hope, but we all wanted to make one last
desperate effort. Surrender was one of the things that
a soldier would always feel like putting off. The assump-
tion was that if we could not break through the Federal
lines it would be time enough then to consider the ques-
tion of capitulation.

806

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

" General Lee asked me, ' Do you think you can cut
your way through ? '

" ' Yes/ said I ; ' I can force a passage against any num-
ber of cavalry,- and it was generally believed that no-
thing but cavalry was in cur front'

" Longstreet, who was in the rear, was to follow me»
keeping the artillery and our ammunition wagons be-
tween us.

" I had about eight thousand effective muskets. I do
not remember the strength of General Longstreet's force.
He was then commanding one wing of the army and I the
other. The plan agreed upon at the council was for us
to move towards Lynchburg, and from thence reach a
protected position in the mountains, from whence we
could form a junction with Johnston. We all felt that if
we could get there we could do something.

'* At daylight the next morning we were advancing, and
about six o'clock we were hotly engaged. General
Fitzhugh Lee, with his cavalry, had been sent with me for
this final attempt to break through the Federal lines,
and was placed on the right. We first encountered
Sheridan's cavalry below Appomattox Court-House, and
fought them for an hour or two, capturing two pieces of
artillery. I thought we were getting along well, and
kept sending word back to Longstreet to move for-
ward. Meanwhile the enemy were after him in the rear,
and he had to face about to fight, so that every step I
took increased the distance between us. Our advance
was proceeding so well that I was beginning to believe
that there was a good chance of our accomplishing the
object aimed at, but I soon found that I was mistaken.
While I was advancing in line, engaging the enemy at
every step, I was suddenly brought to a halt by the ap-
pearance of tremendous bodies of infantry on both my

THE EXPIRING GLANCES OF STRIFE.

807

flanks. I at once sent word to General Lee of my dis-
covery, and informed him that unless Longstreet came
up any further attempt would be futile, and only involve
an unne^f^ssary waste of life. He replied that there was
a flag of truce in existence between himself and General
Grant, and that I could take my own course about noti-
fying the officer in command of the forces in my front of
this fact. I called an officer, Colonel Green Peyton, I
think, my chief of staff", and said to him : ' Colonel, take
a flag of truce and ride to the front. Find the comman-
der, whoever he is and inform him that I have a letter
from General Lee advising me of a flag of truce between
General Grant and "himself. Deliver him this message
only, and say no more.'

'" General, we have no flag of truce,' he replied.

" • Tie your handkerchief on a stick,' I said.

" ' He answered, ' I haven't any handkerchief.'

" ' Well,' I said, ' tear your shirt.'

"' But I have no white shirt,* he exclaimed.

*• • Well,' I said, * then find a shirt. At any rate get
something and go.'

" He looked around and got something and rode away.
A cavalry officer came back with him, and we had a
remarkable conversation. He was a handsome fellow
and ver}' polite. Saluting, he said :

" ' Is this General Gordon ? I am the bearer of Gen-
eral Sheridan's compliments, and he demands your
unconditional surrendier.'

"'Well, Colonel,* (or whatever I saw his rank
was), I answered, 'you will please return my compli-
ments to General Sheridan, and say that I shall not sur-
render.'

"'Then,' he said, 'you will be annihilated in half an
hour. We have you completely surrounded.'

808

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" ' Very well, sir,' I replied. ' I am probably as well
aware of my situation as you are, but that is my
answer.'

GENERAL SHERIDAN.

" ' You don't mean tiiat ! ' he exclaimed.

" ' Yes I do, sir,' I said ; * the only thing I propose to

THE EXPIRING GLANCES OF STRIFE.

809

say is what I have already said through my staff officer —
that a flag of truce is in existence between General Lee
and General Grant. I was not going to surrender, be-
cause I knew it was coming. I was not going to let
Sheridan capture me in that way.'

" ' Then you will be annihilated,' he said, and rode
away.

" While I had been sitting there, waiting, the firing had
almost ceased. The infantry on my flanks had not
changed their position much, as they had been moving
up very slowly. I was firing artillery at the time so as
to check them. In a few minutes, Sheridan himself came
up with his staff. He was riding an immense black horse.
I will never forget how he looked with his short legs
sticking out on either side. We had very much the same
sort of parley as had occurred between the other officer
and myself. Indeed, the language was almost a literal
repetition. Finally, I said to him, 'Well, General, I hardly
think that it is worth while for us to parley. I have made
up my mind not to surrender, and I shall accept any con-
sequences which may follow this determination. I wish
simply to give you the information which was sent me by
General Lee. All I know is that ther(2 is a flag of truce
in existence, and I only know the bare fact.'

" ' Did you say that you have a letter from General
Lee ? ' he asked.

" ' I handed him the letter.

"He looked over it and said : * I suppose, then, that the
only thing we can do is t cease firing.'

" • I think ' o,' I replied.

"'He then said to me: 'If you will withdraw your
forces to a certain place, I will withdraw mine, and wait
to see what happens.'

" We got down ofif our horses, and taking a seat on the

810

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

grass, talked there for some time. In the mean time, 1 had
forgotten that, early in the morning, I had detached a
force to go back and over on the brow of a hill to pre-
vent the cavalry from coming around between Long-
street and myself. While we were sitting on the grass
I heard a roll of musketry, and looking over to where the
force had been placed, saw them firing into some cavalry
that had ridden down in that direction.

'• ' Hell, sir, what does this mean ? ' cried Sheridan.

" • I am very sorry about it,' I replied, as I explained
the circumstances, and he and I each sent an officer over
to the hill to stop the firing.

" I saved Sheridan's life that morning beyond question.
One of my sharpshooters was a sour sort of fellow, and
his only idea was that when he saw a blue coat it was his
duty to shoot at it. I had the sharpshooters around me
when Sheridan came up with the flag of truce, and I saw
this fellow draw his gun. ' What do you mean ? ' I
cried, ' this is a flag of truce.* He did not pay the
slightest attention to me and was just about firing when
I knocked up his gun and it went off, over Sheridan's
head. ' Let him stay on his own side, General,' he mut-
tered.

" General Sheridan and I sat on the ground close to
the brick house where Lee and Grant met, and in the
orchard. I had passed the house in the morning. We
chaffed each other a little in the course of the conversa-
tion. Sheridan saying : ' I believe I have had the pleasure
of meeting you before.' I replied that we had had some
little acquaintance in the valley of Virginia. He turned
the thread of the conversation to some guns he had re-
ceived in the valley. Sheridan had captured nearly all of
Early's artillery, and some more had been sent to him
from Richmond. Some wag had written with chalk on

THE EXPIRING GLANCES OF STRIFE.

811

one of these guns : ' Respectfully consigned to Major-
General Sheridan through General Karly.' Sheridan
had heard of this, and he was very much amused at it ;
but whether he ever saw such words upon a gun I do
not know. When he was through with his story, I sug-
gested that I also had two guns which I could consign
to him, and with the more grace because they had come
from him that very morning.

" Sheridan came with a full staff, and remained with me
about an hour and a half. My recollection is that we
stayed at that place until we received information that
Generals Lee and Grant had agreed. I heard afterwards
that Custer had demanded Lonjrstreet's surrender. I
have heard from three or four different sources that
Custer did ride between Longstreet and myself, but my
interview was with Sheridan. Colonel Green Peyton,
whom I sent with the flag of truce, now writes :

'* ' General Gordon directed me to ride forward and in-
form General Sheridan that there was a flag of truce out
between Generals Leeand Grant, and request atemporary
suspension of hostilities. Not having a white handkerchief,
nor even a white shirt, to wave, I was in quite a dilemma
until some officer, whose name I cannot now recall,
pulled a towel from his haversack, and suggested going
with me and using it as a flag of truce. We soon en-
countered a staff officer of General Custer, whose name
I also forget, who took us in charge. We had a long
and fruitless rid'e hunting for General Sheridan, but
finally met General Custer sweeping along a country
road at full gallop, followed by what appeared to me a
vei y large body of cavalry. He halted when he saw us,
and demanded our errand, which I briefly told him.
" Nothing but unconditional surrender," he exclaimed ;
"I am now about to surround your army." I modestly

812

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

[!■

replied that that was a matter In the hands of Generals
Lee and (jrant ; all I wished was a suspension of hostili-
ties until the question was settled. " Nothing but uncon-
ditional surrender," he again exclaimed, put spurs to his
horse, and that was the last I ever saw of Custer. There
being nothing else to do, I returned to General Gordon.
In the mean time General Sheridan had become aware of
the state of affairs, and when I got back to Gordon I
found him there with a large body of staff officers, etc.,
all mingling and talking very pleasantly.'

ilSS'i

m^^^

THE McLEAN HOUSE.

" General Gordon continues : ' After awhile General
Lee sent for General Longstreet and myself,,and told us
of the aorreement to surrender. He named three of us to
meet at the McLean house, three officers to be appointed
by General Grant, we six to agree upon the details. It had
been generally arranged between Generals Grant and Lee.
and the understanding had been reached that the officers
were to keep their side-arms, but the routine had not
yet been decided upon. Longstreet, Pendleton and my-

THE EXPFRING GLANCES OF STRIFE.

fil.*?

self were appointed for the Confederate side, and I
remember Gibbon on the Federal side because he was
a North Carolina man. We met at die McLean house
and proceeded to business. The Federals had cham-
pagne and plenty to eat, things which we had not seen
for a long time. The most striking feature of the sur-
render to me, excepting only the deep sorrow which
we felt at the failure, was the behavior of the Federal
troops. I shall never cease thinking and talking about
it. 'Ihe general disposition was to fraternize, and it was
difficult to keep the opposing soldiers apart. There was
great distress among our men, and there was hardly a
dry eye. Men hid their flags in their bosoms. But, be-
yond the patriotic emotion which the Federal soldiers
naturally felt but never showed, and the deep humiliation
of the Confederates, the men seemed to wish to mingle
with and talk to each other. The thing which touched
my heart very much at the time was the action of the
Union soldiers in opening their haversacks and dividing
their rations with the defeated. This was done inde-
pendently of the order of General Grant to feed our
men. After we had agreed to all the terms, the success-
ful commander came to the McLean house, but he had
veiy little to say. We wrote out the form of parole,
and designated the place where the men were to stack
their arms.

" I had never seen General Grant until that morning.
What impressed me most was his modest demeanor.
There was nothing in the expression of his face or in his
language or general bearing which indicated exultation
at the great victory he had won. He had no uniform on,
and sat quietly, never saying much, but very kind, very
S^entle and very unobtrusive. These characteristics I
noted in him often afterwards. For a man who reached

I i.'

LKI2 SURRENDERING TO GENERAL GRANT.

814

■y,r

THE EXPIRING GLANCES OF STRIFE.

815

such an altitude of civil and military renown his manner
was charmingly simple.

" It was a bright April day when we attempted to cut
through. I had been moving before daylight, but the
day was just breaking when 1 struck the temporary
breastworks where the two pieces of artillery which
went back to Sheridan were captured. I ran over the
breastworks in my first charge. The last stroke of the
war was that morning assault It wound up the contiict
so far as our army was concerned.

•• I rode with General Lee from the McLean house
back to his headquarters immediately after the men had
been drawn up to surrender their arms. They had
stacked their guns fc- the last time, and General Lee
was profoundly dejected. After a time of silence he said
sadly : ' It would have been better if I had fallen in one
of the last fights. I could wish that I had.'

"'You should not feel that way, General,' I expostu-
lated.

" ' But that is my feeling,' he said.

" ' The country will sustain you in what you have done,'
I said, but he shook his head and replied that the army
would, but that the country would think that he should
have done better. He believed tliat the terms of sur-
render were all that could be asked, and added that
there was nothing for us to do now but to return and
rebuild our homes. It never occurred to me at the time
that Grant came to the surrender without side-arms to
emphasize the fact that he came to offer peace to his
countrymen. I supposed it was true that he was not in
the habit of wearing side-arms, and that, in the rush
of events and the great pressure upon his time, he
liad no disposition to appear in the garb of a conqueror.
General Lee, on the contrary, out of respect to the dig-

816

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

nity of the occasion, had dressed himself in his best uni-
form."

Colonel T. H. Carter, who was Gordon's chief of
artillery, tells this incident of the day : " When General
Lee returned from his interview with General Gram, and
all was over, the men, who had stacked arms and parked
the cannon in a field to the east of the Court-House,
crowded to the road along which he was riding and
cheered him again and again. Finally, he dismounted
from his horse and, with his eyes swimming in tears, said
in substance : ' I have done what I thought best and be-
lieved to be right. Go to your homes and conduct your-
selves as good citizens and you will not be molested.'

" Old men wept like children and sobbed in an agony
of grief. I tell you this because there was a report at the
time that the cheering at Lee on his return from his in-
terview with General Grant was supposed to be the
rejoicing of the Army of Northern Virginia at the sur-
render. Nothing could be further from the truth. It
would have been an ungenerous demonstration to say
the least and they were not guilty of it. The remnant
of Lee's army had even thrown away their very blankets
and clothes to carry their muskets and ammunition, and
but for their starved and wearied condition were un-
surpassed by any troops in the world, and could be
relied upon to do anything that flesh and blood could
accomplish."

There are in these graphic recitals of the final hours
of our civil strife the saddest of pictures in all the
tragedy of war ; yet, they have their lights as well
as shades. Never before in the history of conflict
had surrendering soldiers been treated with such gen-
erosity by the victors. Nor was it a conventional gen-
erosity. It was genuinely fedt from the commander to

THE EXPJR/NG GLANCES OF STRIFE.

817

the private. The action of the men in dividing the con-
tents of their haversacks v/ith those who, but an hour
before, had been bitter foes was a great paradox which
could not have belonged to any but such a conflict in
such a country. The first hand that was stretched out
in the dawn of the new nationality contained succor and
comfort.

On the morning of the 9th of April, while General
Gordon was making the last forlorn attempt to break
through Grant's lines, General Lee and General Long-
street were together. When the information was
brougb*^ to them that Gordon was enveloped in a cloud
of infai.try, as well as cavalry, they parted — General
Lee to find General Grant and agree upon terms of
capitulation, and General Longstreet to command the
army until his return. Writing of the events of this
April morning after this long lapse of years, General
Longstreet says :

"General Lee, upon starting to see General Grant at
Appomattox, left me in charge, and forgot to inform
General Gordon, who was in our advance, of his move-
ments and purpose. Before passing to the rear of my
line, where he supposed General Grant to be, he sent a
messag':; to me informing me that he had failed to give
notice to Gene 1 Gordon, and asking me to send him
notice. Upon receiving this notice General Gordon
sent my staff officer forward to communicate the order
for the firing to cease. This, I believe, was the first flag
of truce, and was borne by an officer of my staff, though
actually sent by General Gordon.

" General Lee. on reaching my rear, sent his flag back
with a communication to General Grant. In reply he
was informed by General Meade that General Grant
had left him aad ^one around to the front. So General

818

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Lee had to ride back to the front. Passing back he
called me to ride with him. He was, of course, deeply
impressed by the situation, not to say grieved, and our
conversation partook of the feelings of our hearts in
ejaculations rather than conversation. Arriving at our
front line we dismounted to relieve our horses, whilst lie
sent his flag forward to meet General Grant. About
forty feet from the point where we stood, whilst awaiting
the return of his flag, there was an apple-tree, one of
the remnants of an old orchard. Whilst waiting Gen-
eral Lee turned to me and said that he felt apprehen-
sive that General Grant might be inclined to be severe
in his terms, after his having refused the day previous
to meet his (Grant's) summons for surrender. I replied
that I knew General Grant well enough to assure him
that he would act in this matter just as he (Lee) would
act under similar circumstances. That he would act as
his duty demanded, but would go no further.

" General Lee was disposed to dwell upon the point
of his first refusal to listen to terms as likely to provoke
harsh feelings and severe conditions. After reassuring
him as well as I could on this point, I said, ' If you find
Grant inclined to be unreasonable and determined to
humiliate us, tell him that we reject all terms and will
make our last effort as honorable as possible.*

" I think that these were the last words that passed
between us up to his mounting and riding up the hill,
with one or two of his staff, to the court-house. Upon
his return he seemed satisfied as one could be under the
circumstances, and directed me to prepare to meet the
commissioners, who were to be appointed to draw and
arrange the terms of capitulation."

CHAPTER LX.

THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR.

^enenl Grant's incSirfcrcnce to entering Richmond — DifTerence between him and
other commanders — His interview with the Secretary of War — Goes to Washing-
ton — Ai^sassination of Lincohi — Recalled to the Cajiital — Sherman's Trotocol —
Grant's interview with Stanton — Admiral Ammen's recollections — (kant's Delicacy
towards Sherman — The war ended.

Richmond was the chief prize of the war. For four
years the Confederate capital had stood, a menace
to American nationahty. Millions of money and
thousands of lives had been spent in the efforts of
Union commanders to reach and subdue it. F"rom the
earliest days of the bitter conflict the cry of the North
had been, " On to Richmond." It was the centre of the
Confederacy, and there was a passionate longing that it
should be grasped and crushed. To the popular mind
Vicksburg was an incidental ; Atlanta was but a momen-
tary encouragement ; Gettysburg was merely a desperate
trial of desperate forces, in which the F"ederal army had
b'^en victorious. None of these seemed decisive. After
tiie first flush of rejoicing, when the tidings of victory
came in, the eyes of the North would again turn with
terrible fascination to the Old Dominion city, where the
chief of the Southern armies and the chief of the Federal
armies were fighting their desperate duel to the death.

Of course, the strategic value of the place was greatly
overestimated. It was clothed in importance which did
not belong to it. Yet public sentiment, on both sides
had decided that it was the pivotal point of the conflict,
and this sentiment could not be argued down. In the
South, the determination was to protect it at all hazards.

(819)

820

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

In the North, the determination was to take it at all
hazards. And so it came about that the first public
misconception tjrew less as the war advanced. Each
section, feeling that the fall of Richmond would be
the fall of the Confederacy, concentrated its greatest
numbers at the now vital point, and when it was wrested/
from the South, the feeling was general and strong that
the rebellion had tjnded. In all ages and in all wars,
this fictitious importance has been attached to the seat
of government. To a conquering commander the cap-
sheaf of his triumph is to march through the streets
of the city upon which all eyes had been bent with
anxiety and apprehension.

General Grant did not do so. He delegated the
occupation of Richmond to a subordinate, just as he
would have delegated any other minor authority, and
General Weitzel entered the Confederate capital on
the "i^iS. of April six days before Lee surrendered,
while Grant was pursuing his adversary. He seemed
to have no curiosity to see the city whose capitulation
had been the object of his best efforts during a
year of battle and bloodshed. No thought of posing
as a victor entered his mind. He was moved by no
hunger for self-glorification. He had no aspirations for
a florid and pictorial triumph. His well-balanced nature
recognized only that a great duty had been done, and
his eyes turned naturally to the work which was still left
for him.

There is probably no parallel to this in the life of any
great commander. The entrance to a city which has
fallen after a long siege seems to round up the story of
the investment. To ride down the conquered streets,
with drums beating and flags flying, while the sullen-
eyed inhabitants look on with humiliation and dread,

THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR.

821

seems to be the natural apotheosis of a successful sic<^^e.
But General Grant had neither thou<,^ht nor inclination
for these ornamentals of triumph. After Appomattox,
he hastened to the national capital, and never, in his
after life, did he visit this dead heart of the Confederacy.

His one recollection of its appearance was confined to
the frowning fortifications which had surrounded it, and
which he had subdued. In after )'ears, General Grant,
in speaking of this, said that he did npt enter Richmond
because Mr. Lincoln had gone there, and there was no
need for him. It was his duty to go on until Lee sur-
rendered, and then to Washington, stop recruiting, and
retrench the expenses of the war, which, at the moment
of the surrender, were taxing the resources of the Gov-
ernment at the rate of four million dollars a day. His
plain, simple mind saw only the practical necessities of
the time.

On the 1 2th of April, Grant had his memr>rahle
interview with the President and the Secretary of War,
in which the details which were to take the arm)- from
its war footing were arranged. The diy following the
announcement was made, which, in twenty-four hours,
was to remove all restrictions from commerce, and stop
the recruiting of soldiers and the purchase of supplies.
These were the first definite steps towards peace. The
same day, with his wife, the victorious General hastened
to Burlington, N. J., where his children were at school.
Mis tender solicitude for his family saved his life.

That night the ominous report of John Wilkes Booth's
pistol sounded in b\ircrs Theatre. There was a sudden
bustle and a quick hurrying of feet. The dazed eyes
of the audience saw a lithe figure spring upon the stage
from the President's box, gesticulate grandiloquently
and disappear. Then the truth hissed its way into the

If)

(822)

THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR.

u
Q

55
O

a I

a.
o

•J

H
O

ears of the bewildered people. In the hour of triumph,
when the republic was gathering up the broken threads
of its unity, when the cannon were booming thei^*
boasts and the flags were rippling their exultation, when
the lost cause was lost indeed, and the union that had
been born nearly a century before had vindicated its
right to live, the bullet of a maniac struck down the
great, warm-hearted, tender man who had been raised
by the times and for the times on the Western frontier,
to be the great civil leader in the hour of the repub-
lic's peril. After the weary trials, and doubts, and
anxieties of the war had ended, when the problem of a
century had just been solved, when the republic had
established the great truth that the idea which inspired
it was greater than any section or any institution, irre-
sponsible assassination snatched the cup of fulfillment
from Lincoln's lips, and his blood climaxed the terrible
carnage of the civil strife. Death, that had claimed so
much, claimed him too, and from a vivid figure in the
hurry of events, he passed into a majestic memory. At
once the tear-dimmed eyes of the nation were turned
to Grant.

The excitement and apprehension were profound.
The Lieutenant-General, who had escaped assassination
by his absence, was instantly telegraphed for, and he
hastened back to the Capital. That day was the darkest
of his life. In his own vivid language, the rebellion
which had been put down in the field seemed to be
starting anew in the gutters. The act was so incompre-
hensible. There was nothing to be gained and much to
be lost if this sneaking figure of murder were to become
the substitute for the manly front of war. It was a piti-
ful efifort to reach the melo-dramatic, which had neither
cause nor courage behind it. It was cowardice shooting

(824)

THE CLOSLVG DAYS OF T'TE WAR.

825

down an unaniu.d man, and rorj^nnjr the name of patriot-
ism for a palliation. It is to tlv honor of AnuTica, that
it can be said that the shot sounded as harshly in the
ears of the South as it did in those of the North. The
South had fouirju for disunion, but it had contemled
openly and boldly. It had not dis^^uised its sentiments,
and it had von its spurs of manliness in defending them.
It would not round up four years of war with a moment
of assassination.

The hours after the tragedy, while the great life was
ebbing away, were sombre and disturbed ones. There
were rumors of conspiracies, and disortler, and m rder.
Instinctively the republic turned towards the great mili-
tary leader, who had been Lincoln's right hand. He
seemed to be the sturdiest oak in that forest of storm.
Thus, in the most sorrowful mood that had ever wrapi)ed
his mind in gloom. General Grant re-entered Washing-
ton. And when it was known that he was there, the
nation drew a long breath of relief, and with sad eyes
turned again to the work which was before it.

The impression which the sudden death of President
Lincoln made upon General Grant was probably the
deeper because of a reason of which he was not entirely
conscious. Both were from the West. The rugged
vigor of the frontier was in their sinews. They had the
practical force which becomes a part of men in the rougli
country which has no illusions. To an extent the same
conditions had formed them. Emergencies had devel-
oped them both. Each had grown strangely and strongly
to the staiure of new and migfhty demands. Each was a
splendid vindication of the opportunities of Ameri-
can citizenship. All through the war there seemed
to be an occult understanding between them. When
the North clamored for Grant's removal, Lincoln

820

LllUi OF GENJiI<AI. GRANT.

answered : " I rather like the man. I think I will try
him a little longer." And as Grant progressed, Lin-
coln's faith in him grew. He supported him in every
way h(* could. When there were murmurs at the appa-
rent delays in the military movements which seemed
interminahk?. the President would speak words of en-
couragement and revive the sinking national spirit. He
was the civil leader, supporting with his strong influence
the military chief of the republic. This made the
bond between them. Stranger than all is the fact that
these two citizens of one State did not meet until 1864,
and then by one of those curious incidents only possible
in American life, one was Lieutenant-General of the
armies and the other was President of the United States.
It is little wonder that the death of Lincoln affected
Grant so deeply.

The final surrenders of the detached forces of the
Confederacy were yet to be received. Sherman and
Johnston were still playing hide and seek through the pine
woods of North Carolina, and Wilson was making his
famous raid, which resulted in the capture of Jeff Davis.
Grant rested but little. He was watching the military
operations, while, at the same time, being a central
figure in the chaos that lifted Andrew Johnson into the
Presidential chair.

As early as the 5th of April Grant had put Sher-
man on his guard in relation to Lee's attempt to join
Johnston, and Sherman was even more active than ever.
On the night of the i ith, he received Grant's despatch
announcing Lee's surrender at Appomattox. On the
1 2th he announced it to his army, and the men, who had
marched more than four hundred miles through a hostile
territory, gave themselves up to rejoicing. Sherman
immediately prepared an order detailing the movements

Till'. Cl.OSIXa DAYS OF llll. WAR.

827

of his command, ami mack? rcaily to strike Johnston a
final blow. Of till-. tluMC was no need, for on the 14th
Johnston sent him a lommunication askini; a temporary

AN'mOAV lOllNSON.

suspension of hostilities lo "permit tiu* ci\il authorities
to enter into \\\v. needful arranijfements to terminate the

828

LIFK 01^ GENERAL GRANT.

existing war." Sherman replied that he was fully
empowered to make terms, and proposed, as a basis of
negodations, Grant's terms to Lee. On the i6th,
Johnston replieti that he would meet him the next day
at a point midway between his advance at Durham
and Johnston's rear at Hillsboro. On the morning of
the I /th of April Sherman ordered a locomotive and
car to convey him to Durham.

This April day was filled with mighty events for the
oreat soldier whose life for lour years had been crowded
with dramatic situations. Trom his breakfast-table,
which he left full of joy that the war was so near at an
end, he went to the train. Just as he was about to get
on, he was met by the telegraph operator, who handed
him a dispaLch, \\\ cipher, announcing the assassination
of Lincoln and the attempts upon the lives of Seward
and other men high in the national councils. In that
time of consternation and confusion, the wildest rumors
were sent out as fact, and the North was absolutely
bewildered as to wh?t might coine next. How much
more at)prehension. then, for the future must have been
felt by Sherman, cut off, as he was, from immediate
communication, and with but a skeleton of statement to
clothe with the proljabilities which suggested them-
selves. He saw instantly what an effect such a message,
coming at such a time, might have upon the army, and
the operator was imperativel)^ directed not to furnish
the dreadful tidings to any one. He did not even tell
his personal staif of the tragetly.

So the train pulled out towards the meeting with
Johnston, and the officers who accompanied the com-
mander laughed and jested, light-hearted at the culmi-
nation of all their hardships, so soon to come. They
did not know that it carried with it also a terrible secret,

THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR,

82»

and
nish
tell

and that, beside the white Hag of truce which waved
from the car, there Hoated another, black and spectra!
and sombre with foreboding. It was a strange blend-
ing of triumph and tragedy.

When the train stopped General Sherman was met
by the Confederate cavalry, who were there to escort
him to the meedng place. They went forward, and
soon the word was passed along that General Johnston
was coming. The men fell back and the two great
rivals met and shook hands. Then they rode away
together to the Bennet house, where the terms of sur-
render were to be agreed upon.

As soon as they were secluded General Sherman
showed Johnston the dispatch he had received from
Washington. Oddly as it may seem, the first one to
whom he gave the message was the man against whom
he had been fighting for so long a time. I'he effect was
electric. Beads of perspiration stood out upon John-
ston's brow and he looked inexpressibly shocked. He
saw in an instant how disastrous the assassination might
prove to the South. He felt that it would arouse
Northern sentiment to a dangerous pitch and that there
might be broad and indiscriminate reprisal. He ex-
pressed himself freely upon the act and denounced it as
a disgrace to the age, and said he hoped that General
Sherman did not hold the Conf(;deracy responsible for
it. He evidently felt very deeply on the subject.

The question of terms was then discussed. General
Sherman urged Johnston to capitulate, and told him that
it would be folly to fight any longer. Johnston con-
ceded this, but he wished to arrange terms for the sur-
render of all the Confederate armies still in the
field. It was his belief that he could get authority
which would enable him to do so. Sherman insisted

. I 'T'-

(830)

THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR.

831

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III

that he should accept the terms which Grant had
given Lee; but while Johnston acknowledged that they
were fair enough, he asked for time to communicate
with his government for the purpose of ending the war.
Finally a delay of one day was given.

That evening Sherman discussed the matter with his
general officers, and they agreed that some conclusion
should be reached. The next day Sherman and John-
ston again met. Breckinridge was present, and John-
ston stated that he had received the authority to
surrender all the armies, but that the troops felt very
uneasy about their political rights. Finally, after a long
discussion, Sherman, with a conversation he had had
with Lincoln in his mind, wrote out a pretty broad
protocol which virtually guaranteed the Confederates
their political rights. The protocol war. sent to Wash-
ington for approval and an armistice arranged until an
answer could be obtained from the capital.

General Sherman, very recently, in speaking to the
writer of this important meeting, said :

'* I had in my mind constantly during this interview,
my conversation with Mr. Lincoln, in March, at City
Point. I explained to General Johnston that it was the
desire of the Government that the men in arms who sur-
rendered should be got home and at work as soon as
possible. That there was no desire to be harsh even
with the political leaders of the Confederacy. Recalling
Mr. Lincoln's story which he told me to illustrate his
position in relation to Jeff Davis and others, I said :

*' • General, I feel justified in saying that if Jeff Davis
can escape to Charleston I will charter a steamer to
send him to Nassau.'

"Turning then to General Breckinridge, I said*.

" ' I will not be responsible for you if you remain.

832

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

You were the Vice-President and declared Mr. Lincoln
duly elected. The State of Kentucky did not secede.
Yet you cast your fortunes with the Confederacy. You
have not the merit of consistency to shield you in your
course.'

" General Breckinridge replied that he would give us
no trouble, and would find his way out of our reach
without help. He was as good as his word. He left
the country and did not return for several years."

As soon as the protocol reached Grant, he saw that
the terms which Sherman had made could not be agreed
to. He sent the paper to the Secretary of War and
urged upon him to have a cabinet meeting called at once
to discuss the matter. This was done. The meeting
was a very important one, and the protocol was rejected,
and the resumption of hostilities ordered immediately.

General Grant, recognizing the fact that Sherman had
only committed an apparent error of judgment, at once
came generously to the rescue of his subordinate. He
met the Secretary of War after he had been ordered to
go tc Sherman's army and in person assume direction of
the military operations there. The Secretary was very
angry and very unreasonable. But General Grant's
language after leaving Mr. Stanton is the best index
to what transpired. Admiral Ammen, in speaking of
it, says :

"He told me of his meeting with the Secretary, and
said : ' Ammen, absurd as it may seem to you and to
me, the Secretary of War absolutely believes that Gen-
eral Sherman and General Johnston have entered into
an agreement that seriously menaces the civil authority
of this government'

" He was then just going down, in obedience to the
orders of President Johnson, to Sherman's headquarters

THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR. 833

in Nortli Carolina. In the short time we had for con-
versation he spoke to me freely upon the subject of
Sherman's protocol and his disapproval of Stanton's
manner and suspicions. TVusr what he said to me I
feel sure in saying that he re^r.irded General Sherman's
action as a more pronounced type of his own terms to
Lee — terms intended only to assure the soldiers of the
South who surrendered that they could return home
and till their fields in all confidence. He was very much
in earnest that General Sherman should not be mis-
understood, either by the Secretary of War or the peo-
ple of the United States.

" From his conversation I felt assured that he re-
garded the liberal terms given by General Sherman
only as an earnest of the good intentions and kind
feeling of the government and the people of the North
towards those whom they had concjuered. Sherman
was accepting the surrender of all the Confederate
forces then in arms. He had absorbed his views
of the policy of the Government towards the surren-
dered forces from President Lincoln, in their interview
at City Point in March. The modification of this, which
was communicated to General Grant had not been sent
to Sherman. He therefore proceeded upon the original
understanding between the President, General Grant
and himself, and made the broader terms, which em-
braced all the Confederate soldiers then in arms.

** He had also been misled by General Weitzel's order
reconvening the Virginia Legislature and restoring its
State government, which he did not know at the time
had been disapproved, and the magnanimous terms Grant
had accorded to Lee. This, I am certain, was General
Grant's view of Sherman's action, while Stanton was
fretting and fuming and making charges against Sher-

834

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

man, which Grant did not hesitate to denounce as
infamous."

Grant hastened to Raleigh and tol Sherman as deli-
cately as he could that he could only reat for the sur-
render of the army and had no authority to arrange
matters which belonged to the civil authorities. Gen-
eral Sherman at once notified General Johnston of this,
and the Confederate commander succumbed to the
inevitable, and, on the 26th of April, surrendered his
entire army.

Grant's course throughout was that of a generous
friend. Although all the orders issued after his arrival
had to go to him for approval, Sherman still continued
in command. And, when the surrender was made.
Grant telegraphed to Washington that Johnston had
"surrendered to Sherman." At the time Johnston had
no idea that Grant was m the vicinity, as he had kept
himself secluded and done nothing whatever to show
his disapproval of Sherman's course. Whether the
protocol was too fat or too lean we will not discuss here,
but that it was made in accordance with an understand-
ing previously had with Mr. Lincoln, does not admit of
doubt.

The two main armies having surrendered, the scat-
tering detached commands this side of the Mississippi
soon accepted the terms and laid down their arms. The
President of the Confederacy was shortly thereafter
captured. The C< 'federates west of the Mississippi
also gave up the now hopeless revolt. One of the odd
coincidences of the rebellion was the fact that General
Buckner, whose surrender at Donelson had been Gen-
eral Grant's first great victory, fought the last battle of
the war.

The war was ended. There only remained to the

THE CLOSING DAYS OF THE WAR.

835

North the duty of disbanding the great armies. They
had sprung from the peaceful walks of citizenship. The
soldiers were to fade back again to material pursuits.
The muskets which they had carried for four years were
to be laid down. The single mass Was to break into
thousands of individualities. There was joy all over the
restored Union at the happy conclusion.

The armies of Meade and Sherman were called to
Washington, and there, in magnificent pageant, they
marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to be reviewed by
the President and the Secretary of War, It was a
touching and magnificent sight. The shot-torn flags,
telling in their tatters the mute story of many a hard
batthi, floated over the long lines of dusty veterans.
Men who had gone out from shop and office were
bron:!ed and burned. The lines of privation were in
their faces. They had the swinging step born of many
a weary march. Yet the recollection of all that had
been endured was lost in the joy of the home-coming.
They had marched away when the fate of the Republic
was in doubt and darkness. They were returning to
a Union which their courage had saved. They had con-
quered a great peace, and its fruits and its glories were to
be theirs and their children's for long years.

There was one incident of the day that was character-
istic. As General Sherman, at the head of his column,
rode up and took his place on the grand stand, where
the President and the Secretary of War were standing,
Sherman saluted the President and deliberately ignored
the Secretary. Stanton's harsh proclamation was still
fresh in his mind, and he resented the insult by putting
an affront upon the Secretary in the presence of the
army.

*' I wanted to show my army diat there was one man

836

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

in the country who was not afraid of Mr. Stanton," he
explained very recently, speaking to the writer of this
incident. •' Naturally 1 was indignant at the manner in
which Mr. Stanton had spoken of my terms to Johnston.
But after I had preserved my self-respect before those
splendid troops who had marched widi me from Chatta-
nooga to Washington, I renewed my relations with the
Secretary and never had any after-feeling about it."

It is perhaps well to record here that President John-
son denied all knowledge of the publication in relation
to General Sherman's terms which Mr. Stanton gave to
the public, until he saw it in print. He said to many
persons that he never affixed his signature tc the procla-
mation which expressed disapproval of Sherman's action.
It was done without his authority, although he did object
to his protocol.

For two days the review was continued, and then the
veterans again became private citizens and returned to the
avocations which they had left at the call of their country.
The complete manner in which the army was at once
blent and lost in the quieter ways of peaceful life was
striking evidence of the splendid qualities of our citizen-
ship. There is no other instance of the kind in history.

CHAPTER LXI.

THE MEXICAN TERIL.

The French attemjit to cstnlilish a Mexican Empire — ( irani'r vigoroiu; olijections —
Ili.s letter to Johnson on the siiliject — Admiral Ammcn's recolleclions of the situa-
tion- A 'juery as to the stranj^lh of the navy — Sewartl't. energetic note — Sheridan
sent to the Stuithwcsl — The I'rtnch ivacittUe Mexican soil — A war with France
averted.

General Gkant had alwiiys bt^en deeply impressed
with the danjror of the aMompI to establish Maximilian
in the Republic to the St>nth t»l vis. I he French were
still attemplinj^ tht^ir ethnt at an aboruve entipire in
Mexico, and many oi. the reckless and irresix>nsible
in the Confederate army had crossed the line. The
establishment of a monarchical power so near us and so
inimical to our institutions would present a constant
menace to the republic, and Cieneral C} rant's quick eye
had measured all the possibilities of danger. So deeply
did the situation impress itself upon his mind that he
addressed the following letter to President Johnson :

"Washington, June 19th, 1865.
"His Excellency, A. JoHNso^J,

* ' President of the United States : —

"The great interest which I feel in securing an honorable and
permanent peace whilst we still have in service a force sufficient to
insure it, and the danger and disgrace which, in my judgment,
threaten us unless positive and early measures are taken to avert
it, induces me to lay my views before you in an official form.

"In the first place, I regard the act of attempting to establish a
monarchical government on this continent in Mexico, by foreign
bayonets, as an act of hostility against the Government of the
United States. If allowed to go on until such a government is
established, I see nothing before us but a long, expensive, and

(«:{7)

838

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

bloody war ; one in which the enemies of this country will be joined
by tens of thousands of disciplined soldiers, embittered against their
government by the experience of the last four years.

"As a justihcation for open resistance to the establishment of
Maximilian's Government in Mexico, I would give the lollowing
reasons :

^^ First. — Tlie act of attempting- to establish a monarchy on this
continent was an act of known hostility to the Government of the
United States ; was protested against at the time, and would not
have been undertaken but for the great war which was raging, and
which it was supposetl by all the great powers of Euro|>e, except,
possibly, Russia, would result in the dismemberment of the country
and the overthrow of Republican institutions.

*' Second. — Every act of the Empire of Maximilian has been
hostile to the Government of the United States. Matamoras and
the whole Rio Grande, under his control, has been an open port to
those in rebellion against this Government. It is notorious, that
every article held by the rebels for export was permitted to cross
the Rio Grande, and from there go unmolested to all parts of the
world ; and they, in return, to receive, in i>ay, all articles, arms,
munitions of war, etc., they desired. Rebels, in arms, have been
allowed to take refuge on Mexican soil, protected by French
bayonets. French soldiers have fired on our men from the south
side of the river in aid of the rebellion. Officers acting under the
authority of the would-be Empire, have received arms, munitions,
and other public property from the rebels after the same has become
the property of the United States. It is now reported, and I think
there is no doubt of the truth of the report, that large, organized,
and armed bodies of rebels have gone to Mexico to join the
Imperialists.

"It is further reported, and too late we will find the report con-
firmed, that a contract or agreement has been entered into with
Duke Gwin, a traitor to his country, to invite into Mexico armed
immigrants for the purpose of wrenching from the rightful govern-
ment of that country States never controlled by the Imperialists.
It will not do to remain quiet and theorize that by showing a strict
neutrality all foreign force will be compelled to leave Mexican soil.
Rebel immigrants to Mexico will go with arms in their hands.
They will not be a burden upon the States, but, on the contrary, will
become producers, always ready, when emergency arises, to take
up their arms in defense of the cause they espouse.

THE MEXICAN PERIL.

839

" That their loaders will espouse the cause of the Empire, purely
out of hostility to this (Government, I feel there is no doubt.
There is a hojje that the rank and file may take the opposite side
if any intluence is allowed to work upon their reason ; but if a
neutrality is to be observed, whiih allows armed rebels to j^o to
Mexico, and which keej)s out all other inuin^rants, anil which,
also, iknies to the l.iberals of Mexico belligerent rij;hts — the right to
buy arms and nmnitions in foreign markets and to transport them
through friendly territory to their homes, I see i\o chance for such
influence to be brought to bear.

"What I would propose would be a solemn protest against the
establishment of a monarchical govirnnuiit in Mexico by the aid of
foreign bayonets. If the French have a ,nst claim against Mexico,
I would regard them as having triumphe<l, an<l oukl guarantee
them suitable award for their grievances. Mexico would, no doubt,
admit their claim if it diil not affect their territory or rights as a
free people. The United States could take such pletlges as would
secure her against loss. How all this could be done without
bringing on an armed contlict, others who have studied such
matters could tell better than I.

"If this course cannot be agreed upon, then I would recognize
equal belligerent rights to lx)th parties. I would interpose no
obstacle to the passage into Mexico of emigrants to that country.
I would allow either party to buy arms or anytliing we have to sell
and interpose no obstacle to their transit.

"These views have Ixien hastily drawn up, and contain but

little of what might be said on the subject treated of. If, however,

they serve to bring the matter under discussion, they will have

accomplished all that is desired.

"U. S. GRANT,

'"Lieutenant General."^

Thus, almost immediately, he displayed his power to
grasp civil questions. Me fully appreciated the relation
which a foreign monarchical institution so established
would have to this country, and he showed breadth of
judgment and keen foresight in his reasons for objec-
tion. But the government was not heartily in sympathy
with him. It did not see the danger as clearly as he did,
and its action upon the subject was not, at the first, char-

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840

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

acterized by the force and vigor which he thought were
necessary. Grant saw the necessity for acting before
the army was disbanded, and he constantly impressed
this upon a dilatory administration.

It is difficult to unravel the meshes of cabinet dis-
cussions and to pass beyond the secrecy that is ever
thrown around the consultations inside the President's
political household. Therefore it is probable that Gen-
eral Grant's controversies with Andrew Johnson and

his cabinet will
never be fully re-
vealed. They can
only be made up
from circumstances
and whatever ac-
tors in the scenes
may have said to
friends. The Mex-
ican question, which
General Grant be-
gan to press upon
the President's at-
tention almost im-
mediately after the
restoration of
peace, constantly
gave him more or
less difficulty. He
induced the President to act in a half-hearted sort of a way
upon the letter herein presented upon that subject, but it
must be remembered that Mr. Seward was then at the
head of the State Department. He was jealous of every
encroachment upon his domain, fully aware of his powers
of State craft and ever anxious and ready to use them.

HON. W. H. SEWARD.

THE MEXICAN PERIL.

841

Therefore General Grant's desire to deal sternly with
the French in Mexico was very much curbed by Mr.
Seward's position. As soon as he had written the letter
to the President, he sent to the Southwest a strong force
under Sheridan, numbering something like 70,000 men,
ostensibly after Kirby Smith, but really for the investment
of the Mexican border. He wanted it to be ready to
strike in behalf of the liberals of Mexico at the first occa-
sion. General Grant's attitude towards Mexico, and the
presence of this force, gave fresh heart to the Juarez
government, and the action he pressed upon the State
Department induced a note to be sent to the French
Emperor, protesting against the establishment of a for-
eign government on this continent.

The emperor had appointed a day for the evacuation
of Mexico, but, when the time arrived, no movement
was made, and General Grant became very much irri-
tated at the delay and began considering in his mind
new plans for forcing the imperialists to leave the
country to the south of us. Rear Admiral Daniel
Ammen thus pictures the situation at this moment:

"One morning, just after the French had failed to
evacuate Mexico in accordance with their promise, I was
with General Grant, when the subject came up for dis-
cussion. He seemed to feel very earnestly about it, and,
after stating some points, he turned to me and said :

" ' What do you think of the strength of our navy ? *

** 'The newspapers call it the strongest in the world,'
I replied ; * but this is not true. A great number of our
vessels are mere scare-crows, and we have not a great
number of real war vessels. But we have some sur-
prisingly strong patches for special work, such as the
" Monadnock " and sister vessels, that can meet success-
fully any vessel afloat.'

842

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" ' But should we have a war with France can we
control the coast of Mexico ? ' the General inquired.

"'Beyond a doubt,' was my prompt reply. 'Our
monitors have been exaggerated into sea-going vessels,
but they are defective in many points, yet they are suffi-
ciently strong, and we have enough of them to hold the
coast of Mexico against the whole French navy.'

" The General seemed gratified at what I had said,
and the tendency of his mind towards France can be
gathered from what he said to me. I have reason to
believe that the form of an ' energetic note ' was dis-
cussed in the cabinet meeting about that time, a dis-
cussion which resulted in the almost immediate
evacuation of Mexico by the French, and a few weeks
later General Grant remarked to me, with a humorous
expression, that he supposed no one was more surprised
than Mr. Seward at the result of this ' energetic note.'
The notice was so 'energetic,' and General Grant's atti-
tude made so plainly manifest to the French Govern-
ment, that the troops were withdrawn forthwith.

" General Grant had little respect for Mr. Seward's
dallying policy. He was so direct himself that he hated
the deceit of State craft, and he saw so much of it in the
councils of Andrew Johnson's administration that he
once said to me :

" ' I shall never go to see Mr. Seward again. If I do
I fear I shall learn to dislike him, and I do not wish to
hate a single human being.'

" I was living at Grant's house, and was in daily com-
munication with him at the time that he made his inquiry
as to the strength of the navy with a war with France
in view. The ' energetic note ' war. predicated upon the
question as to whether we had a force strong enough to
attack the French in Mexico and drive them out of the

THE MEXICAN PERIL.

843

country. The query had a very important bearing on
the matter. Grant was then in supreme command of
the army, ond the note had an official significance. I
am not quite certain as to the date, but I think it was
written in February following the close of the war.

" It was this action of General Grant's on behalf of
Mexico which created the strong friendship that has ever
existed between the citizens of that republic and the
dead hero. There was no one thing at the time the
Mexican question was pending about which General
Grant felt more deeply than about the attempt of the
French government to get a foothold there, and there
is no possible question but that he was constantly press-
ing upon Andre'Aj Johnson's administration an energetic
policy which would prevent a foreign government from
seizing a sister republic on this continent as the price of
a war between the sections of a country adjoining it.
With Sheridan on the border and the French govern-
ment still holding on in Mexico, there is no possible
question but that General Grant intended to destroy the
power of the imperialists in Mexico, even to the point
of rendering them military aid, and this, too, if it should
provoke a war with France."

CHAPTER LXII.

grant's troubles with JOHNSON.

He stands like a stone wall between the ex-Confederates and punishment— His in-
sistance upon the power of his parole — An incident told by Attorney-General
Garland — Swinging round the circle — His disgust — The proximity of a revolution
— Grant's reply to Johnson — Sherman sent for — The effort to get Grant to Mexico
— His refusal to go — His regret at his first nomination to the Presidency.

The troubles of Andrew Johnson's administration did
not end with the conclusion of this Mexican trouble.
Every day the breach between himself and the Republi-
can party was growing wider and wider. Angry discus-
sions in Congress followed, and for a long time grew in
intensity until almost a point of open rupture was
reached. During this time General Grant's position
was an exceedingly trying one. The President was
anxious to arrest the civil leaders of the late Confeder-
acy as well as General Lee and some of the higher
military chieftains. In this desire he was upheld by
Secretary Stanton and other members of his cabinet,
and between both the President and Secretary of War
General Grant stood in absolute opposition to any dis-
turbance of the terms of his conference with the Con-
federate soldiers. In one or two warm conferences
between himself and Secretary Stanton he boldly an-
nounced his determination to resist any effort to arrest
any of the soldiers, high or low, who carried his parole.
In behalf of those who had surrendered to him he threw
his great influence into the balances, and would have
flung his commission into the face of the administration
which sought to undo for peace all that he had accom-
plished. It was after one of these conferences that he
S44

GRANTS TROUBLES WITH JOHNSON. 845

wrote the following memorable opinion, which was in-
cluded in a letter to the Secretary of War to be trans-
initted to the President :

•' My opinion is that the officers and men paroled at
Appomattox Court House and since, upon the same
terms given to Lee, cannot be tried for treason so far as
they observe the terms of their parole. This is my
understanding. Good faith, as well as true policy, dic-
tates that we should observe the conditions of that con-
vention. Bad faith on the part of the Government of a
construction of that convention, subjecting the officers to
trial for treason, would produce a feeling of insecurity in
the minds of all the paroled officers and men. If so dis-
posed they might even regard such an infraction of
terms by the Government as an entire release from all
obligations on their part."

General Grant in this same paper notifies General Lee
that he has forwarded his application for amnesty to the
President with an earnest recommendation that it be
granted.

In November of 1865, General Grant made a tour
through the Southern States, to report on the condition
of affairs In the section lately in rebellion. He talked
with many of the prominent men of the South, and in a
brief report, made in December of the same year, he
trave his views as to what course should be taken. Thev
were in accordance with those he had constantly ex-
pressed, but in the temper of the country, it was called a
white-washing report. It was a wise, practical statement
of the situation however, and time has vindicated his
judgment.

During the year 1865 his position at the national
capital was not an enviable one. Without making any
publicity about it he was constantly clashing with Secre-

S4C

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

tary Stanton in relation to his treatment of the Con-
federate soldiers, and was in more or less difficulty with
the President in relation to various matters of the Gov-
ernment. Attorney-General Garland, in speaking to the
writer of General Grant's treatment of the South, and
of his acts of personal kindness to the Southern people,
relates the following circumstance as typical of many
similar ones during that troubled time :

" I was in Washington," said he, " on business in rela-
tion to the test oath cases before the supreme court. Mrs.
Clement C. Clay came on for the purpose of getting her
husband released from prison. He was in very bad health,
and every day's confinement was hastening his death. She
asked my opinion as to what she should do. She was a
very brilliant woman, had seen a great deal of public life
and public men, and was fully capable of holding her own
anywhere. Therefore I advised her to go and see the
President, explain the situation and ask for his release.

" She accepted my advice, drove to the White House,
and not long after returned to the hotel with her intelli-
gent face showing her success and beaming with happi-
ness. She had from the President an order for her
husband's release upon his furnishing the proper bond.
All of us shared in her pleasure. After a short time
she took a carriage and drove to the War Department,
and after some difficulty obtained access to the Secretary
of War, to whom the President's order was directed.

" She presented it, and was struck dumb to see the
Secretary crumble it in his hand, throw it into the waste
basket, and abruptly inform her that her husband could
not be released. As might have been expected, she
came to the hotel in the depth of despair. I do not
think I ever saw a person suffer more acute mental
agony tlian Mrs. Clay on her return. .

GRANTS TROUBLES WITH JOHNSON. 847

; the Con-
ificulty with
if the Gov-
iking to the
South, and
lern people,
il of many

[less in rela-
court. Mrs.
getting her
y bad health,
s death. She
She was a
of pubhc Ufe
ding her own
and see the
his release,
hite House,
her intelli-
^ with happi-
[i-der for her
iroper bond,
short time
Department,
:he Secretary
directed.

to see the
xo the waste
jsband could
xpected, she
Ir. I do not
.cute mental

"We all tried to comfort her as much as possible,
sharing, of course, in a measure, her sorrow. Finally, I
happened to think of General Grant, and remembering
that when I was in the Confederate Senate I had assisted
in making her husband a brigadier-general, I advised her
to go and see the General of the army. She thought it
would do no good, and expressed her belief that there
was no power now that could prevent her husband from
dying in prison. After a good deal of persuasion, how-
ever, she finally decided that she would go and see
General Grant. She went to his office, but not finding
him there, drove to his house. He was just preparing
to leave home, but he received her kindly and said :

'• ' What can I do for you, madam ? I am just about
leaving.'

" She told him her story, much as I have told it to you.
He called for one of his secretaries, and inquired if the
name of Brigadier-General C. C. Clay was on the roll
of Confederates surrendered at Appomattox. The
secretary consulted the records, and in a few moments
returned with the information that Clement C. Clay was
a brigadier-general in the Confederate army, and was on
the rolls of those surrendering with the Army of North-
ern Virginia. General Grant at once took a small piece
of paper and wrote :

" ' Brigadier-general Clement C. Clay is included in
the terms of General Lee's surrender at Appomattox
Court-House. He will be released upon giving the
proper bond, and I will see that this order is carried into
effect.'

" Mrs. Clay thanked the general warmly, took the
order, and came back to the hotel very much relieved.
But she was still apprehensive about her husband's
release, for Secretary Stanton yet stood in the way, I

848

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

quieted her with the assurance that she would have no
trouble with Stanton now, but with some misgivings she
again drove to the War Department, secured an audience
with the Secretary and presented General Grant's order.
The secretary glanced at it, shut his teeth together
firmly, showing his evident displeasure, and sullenly gave
the order for Mr. Clay's release, and his wife returned
to the hotel overjoyed at the result of General Grant's
kindness.

*' This is the most striking example I can give, but he
was constantly doing acts of individual kindness just like
it. In his relations with the southern people he was
always frank and honest, and the disputed questions
which arose in Arkansas he decided with satisfaction to
our people. Whenever it was possible to get the real
facts before General Grant in relation to almost any
subject, you were sure of getting a just decision."

Many instances of General Grant's differences with
Secretary Stanton and President Johnson in relation to
the treatment of southern soldiers could be cited, but
this one, told by the present attorney-general of the
United States, is significant enough to stand as the evi-
dence of General Grant's loyalty to his word, and his
kind-heartedness toward the people who had but then
just re-entered the nationality.

It was in 1866 that General Grant wrote his letter to
General Ingalls, presented elsewhere in fac-similey urg-
ing that Senator Nesmith be returned to the Senate from
Oregon. Nesmith was a democrat, but he was doing
good service for the cause of harmony, and Grant had
only this in view. He was not a partisan, but was always
a^nxious that the best interests of the country should be
first consulted.

The next summer after this occurrence President John-

ave no
lors she
jdience
i order,
osfether
ily gave
eturned
Grant's

:, but he
just Hke
he was
questions
action to
the real
nost any
n."

ices with
ilation to
:ited, but
al of the
s the evi-
t, and his
but then

letter to

tile, urg-

late from

las doing

rrant had

IS always

Ihould be

lent John-

arttrs %xmt» of \\t Slnilrt Slates,

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HD ^ 849

.^t^ 1^o^l!/^i**^L^

y- :¥

V* A-i-.*^SC^

^t*

c^n^^^^^un t^-K. t

HEAu-QuAKTni<s Akmiks of the United States,
Washington, D. C, /i^iJ. 7/A, 1866.

Dbar Ingalls ; — My office was crowded yesterday up until I left it, so that I had no chance to-
write the letter you requesied. This morning, however, I have written the enclosed to Eckersoii,
who I know, instead of to Ainsworth, who I do not know. It would really look like taking sides in
politics to write to a stranger on such a subject. That I want to avoid, and would like at the same
time to help Nesmith if what I can say will do it.

I hope sincerely that he will be returned to the U. S. Senate for another six years, because he has
been a good friend to the country without running wild after matters that can neither benefit it not
those intended to be benefited.

If the letter which I have written does not answer, send it back with suggestions.

0-/^ Yours, &c., U.S.Grant.

4 y-^^*^

lnE Unitf.d States,
^.Q,.,yeb. ^th, 1866.
Ut 1 had no chance to-
, enclosed to Eckersoi:.
look Uke taking siiles ir.
1 would hke at the same

Ix years, because he has
In neither benefit it i.oi

lestions.

U. S. Grant.

GRANT* ^ TROUBLES WITH JOHNSTON, 861

son made his famous swing around the circle. He took
as his guests General Grant and Admiral Farragut.

" In response to a telegram," says Admiral Ammen,
" I met General Grant at a station on the road, and had
quite a talk with him. He told me of the differences
between himself and the President, and I shall never
forget his expressions of disgust at the proceedings of
which he was then seemingly a part. His habit was
always one of entire composure, but on this occasion he
broke out in strong condemnation of the actions of the
President, and of the character of speech he was making
to the people who went to see him.

" I did not see him again after this expression until he
was appointed secretary of war ad interim. I was then
in Washington as his guest, and he came over to his
house almost immediately after his conference with the
President upon that subject. He said to me ;

" * I have been offered and have accepted the position
of acting secretary of war. I do this with great relur •
tance, and mainly from the conviction that if I do not
accept, some objectionable man would be appointed.
Under the present laws, the signature of the Secretary
of War can permit the treasury to be robbed of hundreds
of millions of dollars. I can at least prevent that. And
then perhaps I can do something in the way of trimming
down the expenses of the army establishment, and in
quieting the troubles which are just now agitating the
country on account of these differences between the
President and Mr. Stanton.' "

It would appear that General Grant's interest in Mexi-
can affairs kept coming back to plague him during all the
boisterous times of Johnson's administration. General
Sherman and Admiral Ammen both tell a most interesting
story. Admiral Ammen takes up the narrative by saying :

I il

852

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" While I was still the guest of General Grant at his
own house, General Sherman appeared one morning
before breakfast, when General Grant, with a twinkle in
his eye, asked :

" ' What are you doing here, Sherman ? Do you know
that under existing laws your leaving your station with-
out my authority subjects you to grave penalties ?'

" * Yes/ replied Sherman, ' that is very true; b; t I have
come on here upon a telegram from the President and
have called to see you to find out what is in the wind.'

"I never inquired of either party the status which
seemed to me to be explained by subsequent events."

Gen. Sherman now, in speaking to the writer of this
incident, says : '* I recall very clearly being called to
Washington by a telegram from President Johnson. My
headquarters were then at St. Louis, but I was down in
New Mexico among the Indians. I did not know v/hat
was going on, but I came to Washington as rapidly as
possible and immediately went to Gen. Grant's house to
find out. When we were too-ether I asked him what was
up. His reply was that lie did not know but that there
was something in the wind. He said that there was a
disposition in the cabinet to get rid of him. The propo-
sition had been made to send him to Mexico, but he had
determined not to go. He said he would stand a court-
martial first.

'* He then told me that Mr. Seward formulated some
sort of a paper which had been read and agreed upon at
a recent cabinet meeting. He remarked that he had said
at the time that he was not in the habit of receivin<r
orders from the Secretary of State, whereupon they had
said that that could be very easily remedied, that it could
be made to read as an order from the Secretary of War.
Gen. Grant then urged that it was a diplomatic mission

GRANTS TROUBLES WITH JOHNSTON.

853

and one under which he could not be sent under the law.
He said that if they wanted to send the army down there
with him at its head that was a very different thing, but
that he could not be ordered by the Secretary of War
upon any diplomatic mission.

" After this explanation I said :

" ' Well, what do they want of me ? '

" ' I do not know,' was his reply.

** After this conversation I went over immediately and
called upon the President without visiting Secretary Stan-
ton or any of the other cabinet officers. The President
told me frankly that they were going to send Lew. Camp-
bell as minister to Mexico, accredited to the Juarez gov-
ernment and that it was thought best to send Gen. Grant
along with him ; that his high position and his known
friendship for Mexico would give this act of the govern-
ment high standing and place our minister in a high posi-
tion with the government with which he was accredited.
I asked where Juarez was. The answer came that he
was either at El Paso or near Monterey. I then said :

" ' Mr. President why do you want to send Gen. Grant
upon this service ? '

" ' Well,' said the President, ' he has a great reputation
and will properly introduce our representative.'

" I said : Mr. President, this is a diplomatic mission and
Gen. Grant will not go upon it. He will disobey the
crder if it is issued.'

"The President seemed very much surprised and said
that he had very great regard for Gen. Grant, and would
not iike to do anything that was distasteful to him, yet he
thought it would be to the interest of the government if
he would go down with Mr. Campbell and present him
to the Juarez government. After some further conver-
sation I replied :

854

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" ' Well, Gen. Hancock's command extends to El Paso
and Gen. Sheridan's south of that to the gulf. Either of
them would escort our minister to Mexico to his proper
destination and present him to the government to which
he if accredited. But if it would relieve the executive of
any embarrassment, my command includes both of theirs
and I will go down myself.'

" * Very well, if you will go that settles it,' said he, * and
it will be just as well.'

" He asked me to call upon the Secretary of the Navy,
which I did, and five days later took the steamer for the
gulf Thus was the difficulty, so far as Grant was con-
cerned, bridged over, and he was kept from an open
rupture with the executive. My opinion is, they desired
to get rid of him, and keep him from being a candidate
for the Presidency. What they wanted of me in case
Grant was sent out of the country I do not know. The
discussion between President Johnson and myself never
got that far."

General Grant's differences with Andrew Johnson
were continuous without an open conflict during all of
his term as President. As the difficulties between John-
son and the President grew, General Grant was in-
formed that an arrangement was being made in Mary-
land for an organization of a force to support the
President in case there was an open rupture between
himself and Congress. He directed the officer com-
manding in Washington at the time to send a trusted
officer into Maryland to ascertain the strength of the
force and what was being done in the way of arming and
drilling it. It v/as the duty of the first officer sent to
only report as to the strength of the force, and he per-
formed hat duty ; and his present recollection is that
the miLJa force of the state did not exceed five thou-

GRANTS TROUBLES WITH JOHNSTON. 856

sand. After this officer had reported upon the strength
and location, another officer was dispatched who re-
ported upon its operations, how it was being handled, etc.
Both of the officers are still living who were sent upon
this duty. Only a day or so after the report of the
officer upon this subject, Governor Tom Swan of Mary-
land made a requisition for all the field artillery to which
the state was entitled. This requisition General Grant
pigeon-holed, and remarked to a friend, an officer of high
standing and who was sitting near :

'• I have a mind to write to the Governor of Maryland
and notify him that I am fully aware of what is going on,
and intend to keep my eye upon it."
After a moment's thought he said :
" No ; I think I had better keep still."
Only a day or two after this President Johnson came
over to his office and spent an hour talking about com-
monplace matters, but just before he started to go he
turned to General Grant and said :

" General, I am very anxious to know, in case there
should be an open rupture between myself and Con-
gress, with which side you will be found."

•* That will depend," said the General, with some ear-
nestness, " upon which is the revolutionary party."

While all this was transpiring General Grant was
made aware of the fact that in the city of Washington
there was an organization of three thousand veteran
soldiers under the command of a major-general who is
still living, and is one of the most conspicuous volunteer
officers of the late war. This organization was well
officered and ready to be armed at the declaration of
hostilities between Congress and the President. Mr.
Stanton was the master spirit of the organization, and
its purpose was to be ready to meet any emergency that

856

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

might arise. The President was commander-in-chief of
the army, and neither side was able to find out what
General Grant would do in an emergency, whether he
would obey Congress or the President. So each side
had its little hostile force prepared for the clash, and
Genera] Grant, fully aware of this state of things, stood
between the two like an impassable barrier, warning
both sides to keep the peace. It was well known that
about the time President Johnson asked General Grant
the important question above described, confidential
letters were sent by the Secretary of the Navy to leading
naval officers, several of whom are still living. The
letters asked for much the same information.

Grant regretted his first nomination to the Presidency^
I am quite sure. He would have preferred anything but
that. He accepted it because he thought it would be
advantageous to the country from the confidence which
people had in him rather than from any assumption of
ability. He said this much in his inaugural. Of course
he felt a certain amount of gratification, but he was full
of regret at having to leave the army. Still, after the
four years of agitation which had grown out of the dis-
pute between Johnson and Congress he felt that it was
his duty to do what he could to give the country a season
of peace.

The quiet confidence of his inaugural was gready
commented upon throughout the country, but it exactly
expressed his feelings. He looked without apprehension
to the future. He felt that it was sufficiently assured.
Still his mode of expression exasperated politicians.
They thought that he was too sure of himself, while the
people who knew General Grant simply read in his in-
augural an honest regard for the country and a deter-
mination to io the best he could for it.

CHAPTER LXIII.

GRANT AS PRESIDENT.

Grant's nomination in 1868 — The last States readmitted to the Union—" Let ui
have peace" — The fifteenth amendment — Condition of the South — The Force
bill — The Republican revolt — Defeat of Greeley — The panic of 1873 — The infla-
tion period — Bill for the resumption of specie payments — The Geneva award —
The Centennial — The Electoral Commission — Review of his civil career.

In 1868, while the impeachment trial of Andrew
Johnson was still in progress, General Grant was
unanimously nominated for the presidency by the Re-
publican party, assembled in national convention in the
city of Chicago. His personal desire was to remain in
his position as the active head of the armies ; but he
held himself absolutely at the call of the will of the peo-
ple, and the nomination was at once accepted. All
through his public career General Grant had conscien-
tiously met every responsibility honestly thrust upon
him, and he did not hesitate now. He believed that, to a
large extent, the exercise of the chief executive power
would enable him to complete the work he had begun
during the war, and it was his confidence in himself and
in his great experience with the people and soldiery of
the conquered section which led him to think that there
was a great task for him to accomplish in the presiden-
tial office. " Let us have peace " — the fainous closing
sentence in his letter of acceptance — was the measure
of the spirit with which he entered upon his duties.

The election was held, and he was chosen by an over-
whelming majority. He received two hundred and

(857)

if!,

858

L/FJ5 OF GENERAL GRANT.

seventeen of the electoral votes, while Seymour, his
opponent, received only seventy-seven. The country
was clearly with him, but the task ahead was not the
less a severe one. Johnson's administration had been
one of turmoil and conflict. It had aroused the bitterest
opposition in his own party. Its effect had been bad
upon the South, because it had resulted in a confusion
of politics and a vacillation of conduct not at all tending

towards the settle-
ment of the political
chaos in v/hich the
country found itself
at the close of the
war.

Grant was strong-
er than any other
man with the States
lately in rebellion,
because of the de-
cisive stand he had
taken in insisting
that the Confeder-
ate soldiers whom
he had parolled
should not be held
GENERAL J. R. HAWLEY ^x^H^ to clvil arrest

for their participation in ihe rebellion ; but even he was
regarded with suspicion. Between the surrender and
his accession to office the first flush of gratitude at the
terms which had been given to Lee's army had died
away. Delicate questions had arisen for adjudication,
and the South had grown sullen over discouraging de-
cisions. The negro was a free laborer, and it was hard
for his former master to conform to the new social sys-

tymour, his
he country
vas not the
n had been
che bitterest
d been bad
a confusion
t all tending
the settle-
the political
1 v/hich the
found itself
:lose of the

; was strong-

any other

h the States

rebellion,
of the de-
and he had
in insisting
e Confeder-
diers whom
d paroUed
not be held
) civil arrest
even he was
rrender and
:itude at the
ly had died
adjudication,
mraging de-
it was hard

social sys-

■ V

(859)

860

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

tern. The fifteenth amendment, making the late slave
a voter, had been passed, and upon the ratification of
the amendment depended the political life of the States
but recently in revolt. They must ratify it to regam
their positions in the Union, and the necessary alterna-

GRANT'S ARRIVAL AT THE WEST WING OF THE CAPITOL.

tive was a bitter one. Out of it grew a general cold-
ness and resentment in the South towards the national
government.

But Grant took the situation in his strong hand with

late slave

fication of

the States

to regain

iry alterna-

PITOL.

leral cold-
e national

>*' h\

hand with

(8G1)

862

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

confidence. From the first he had had the statesman's
idea of hew reconciliation should be secured. He in-
sisted primarily upon absolute respect and obec^ience
to the laws of the land. He was willing, within this
limit, to concede everything that could be conceded
with dignity to old growths of prejudice that could not
at once be uptorn. He wanted the South to control its
local governments as far as possible and he made ad-
vances towards ex-Confederate leaders to this end, but
the advances were not met with cordiality. The South
found it difficult to look upon the negro in his new dig-
nity as a citizen. The change was too sudden. For
generations he had been a bondman and a chattel, and
the bitterest sequence of the war was his elevation to
political equality. Planters insisted that black labor
should live in quarters as before and dine at a common
table. That what wages were earned should be paid
only at the end of a year. That the term of service
should always extend for twelve months, and that to
leave before the expiration of the term would forfeit all
that the laborer had earned during the time he had been
at work. That he be compelled to have a pass from the
planter himself before being allowed to go from one
plantation to another, and that he be debarred from
assembling for religious services unless the minister
preaching had been regularly ordained. There was lit-
tle advance upon actual slavery in this, and yet the
Southern whites firmly believed that it was necessary for
their social and commercial protection.

Congress was at work upon the question, however,
and the most important measures looking to the enforce-
ment of recognition of the new element of citizenship
were adopted in the early days of Grant's term. The
Civil Rights Bill was passed in April, 1869. In 1870

GRANT AS PRESIDENT. 863

Texas, the last of the Southern States upon the outside,
was readmitted to the Union. On the 20th of March
of the same year the announcement that the fifteenth
amendment had been ratified was made, and two months
later the enforcement act was passed. The main steps
had now been taken and the problem had to work itself
out.

How it did so is a history which does not belong here.
There was
much riot,
much blood-
shed, many
appeals for
national inter-
ference. Af-
ter the war
there had
been a consid-
erable immi-
gration to the
South from
the North,
and not all of
the new ele-
ment was of
a good qual-
ity. It in-
cluded political adventurers who went solely for pur-
poses of plunder, and these had little difiiculty in
using the newly enfranchised neo^roes as tools. They
obtained possession of many of the State governments,
and, in some cases, their conduct of affairs was infamous.
But force and malfeasance were natural outgrowths of
the existing conditions, and time was needed to allow

CHARLES SUMNER.

864 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the turhid stream to fall to its natural channel. General
Grant's part in the disturbances was that of an impartial
executive who insisted upon what was right from both
elements. As well as he could he sifted the cloud of
petitions and protests which belonged to the time, and
ruled as seemed to him just. Difficult as was his posi-
tion he maintained it with dignity and equity.

His first
term wore
on. As it
progressed
there de-
veloped
symptoms
of dissat-
is faction
among the
old party
leaders,
notably
Se nators
Schurz and
Sumner.
The mur-
murs grew
until they
became

HORACE GRKELF.Y. clamOr. A

number of Republican papers joined in the cry,
until it developed into what seemed a potent revolt
in the Republican ranks. It had no definite policy
or issue for its basis, but was founded solely upon per-
sonal opposition to General Grant. The air was dense
with slander, and vituperation took the place of argu-

r<^

General
1 impartial
from both
e cloud of
time, and
s his posi-

His first
;erm wore
)n. As it
)rogressed
here de-
veloped
symptoms
)f dissat-
s faction
imonsr the
old party
eade rs,
notably
3e nators
Schurz and
Sumner.
The mur-
murs grew
until they
became
clamor. A
the cry,
tent revolt
nite policy
upon per-
was dense
ce of argu-

< li

:' f''^

(8(55)

866 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

ment. The wildest and most reckless accusations were
made against the President. Every patriotic act of his
career was distorted into a semblance of conspiracy for
self and against the republic. There was a delirium of

GENERAL GRANT LEAVING THE WHITE HOUSE TO ATTEND
THE INAUGURATION.

detraction which has never had a parallel in the repub-
lic's history.

He was quiet through it all. The malcontents held a
convention in Cincinnati in 1872 and nominated Horace

-■■•>■ Mj'.;- ■-^■■,-,/'

ATTEND

the repub-

itents held a
lated Horace

i'i

ni it i ' I

! i >

f8f7)

868

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Greeley for the presidency. The Republican conven-
tion again met in Chicago and re-nominated General
Grant. The Democratic convention met at Baltimore
and ratified the nomination of Greeley, and the lines
were drawn. An Appomattox followed. The people
sustained Grant by an extraordinary uprising. He re-
ceived two hundred and eighty-six electoral votes to
forty-seven for the other ticket — the greatest majority
ever received by a president in later years. Greeley
died shortly after the election, and his votes in the elec-
toral college were divided among a number of persons
whose names had not been mentioned in the conflict.

General Grant's second term was an eventful one.
Scarcely had he entered upon it when the panic of 1873
burst upon the country. Speculation in railway stocks
had reached the extreme limit, and a collapse came
which beat down fictitious values almost to nothing. A
period of severe financial strain followed. In January,
1875, against fierce opposition. Congress passed the bill
requiring the resumption of specie payments on January
I, 1879. In iNOvember of the same year Vice-Presi-
dent Wilson died of paralysis at the capital. In the
year following the Centennial of the Declaration of
Independence »vas celebrated at Philadelphia, and, as
his term dwindled towards the end, the series of great
historical events was closed by the fierce contest for the
presidency between Hayes and Tilden. At one time
the dispute bade fair to involve the country in another
civil war, but the firmness of the soldier at the helm
\yas sufficient, of itself, to preserve the peace.

When he left the presidency every State was in the
Union and under a local government. The fifteenth
amendment was an established fact. The enforcement
act was in operation. The Geneva award had been

GRANT AS PRESIDENT.

869

made. The wave of inflation had been beaten back.
The resumption bill had been passed. The boundary-
line question between this country and England was
settled. The greatest and most dangerous problem
which ever arose over a presidential election had been
solved peacefully and without permanently threatening
agitation. He had gone from the army to the White
House with every issue which had arisen out of the civil
strife a living issue. When he retired all these issues
belonged to history.

His famous speech at Des Moines, Iowa, to the So-
ciety of the Army of the Tennessee shows how deeply
he felt the great questions of the republic. He said ;

"Comrades: It always affords me much gratification
to meet my old comrades in arms ten to fourteen years
ago, and to live over again in memory the trials and
hardships of those days — hardships imposed for the
preservation and perpetuation of our free institutions.
We believed then and believe now that we had a gov-
ernment worth fighting for, and, if need be, dying for.
How many of our comrades of those days paid the lat-
ter price for our preserved Union ! Let their heroism
and sacrifices be ever green in our memory. Let not
the results of their sacrifices be destroyed. The Union
and the free institutions for which they fell should be
held more dear for their sacrifices. We will not deny to
any who fought against us any privileges under the gov-
ernment which we claim for ourselves. On the con-
trary, we welcome all such who come forward in good
f^iith to help build up the waste places, and to perpetuate
our institutions against all enemies, as brothers in full
interest with us in a common heritage. But we are not
prepared to apologize for the part we took in the war.
It is to be hoped tliat like trials will never again befall

(8701

GRANT AS PRESIDENT.

871

our country. In this sentiment no class of people can
more heartily join than the soldier who submitted to the
damrcrs, trials and hardships of the camp and battle-
field, on whichever side he foug^ht.

" I do not brniL^ into this assemblai^e politics, certainly
not partisan [)olitics, but it is a fair subject for soldiers
in their deliberations to consider what may be necessary
to secure the prize for which they battle, hi a republic
like ours, where the citizen is the sovereign and the of-
ficial the servant, where no power is exercised except by
the will of the people, it is important that the sovereign
— the people — sliould possess intelligence. The free
school is the promoter of that intelligence which is to
preserve us a free nation. If we are to have another
contest in the near future of our national existence, I
predict that the dividing line will not be Mason's and
Dixon's, but between patriotism and intelligence on the
one side, and superstition, ambition and ignorance on the
other. Now, in this centennial year of our national ex-
istence, I believe it is a good time to begin the work of
strencftheninof the foundation of the house commenced
by our patriotic forefathers one hundred years ago at
Concord and Lexington. Let us all labor to add all
needful guarantees for the more perfect security of free
thought, free speech and free press, pure morals, unfet-
tered religious sentiments and of equal rights and privi-
leges to all men irrespective of nationality, color or re-
ligion. Encourage free schools, and resolve that not
one dollar of money appropriated to their support, no
matter how raised, shall be appropriated to the support
of any sectarian school. Resolve that neither the state
or nation, nor both combined, shall support institutions
of learning other than those sufficient to afford to every
child growing up in the land the opportunity of a good

872

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

common-school education, unmixed with sectarian, pagan
or atheistical tenets. Leave the matter of religion to
the family altar, the church and the private school sup-
ported entirely by private contribution. Keep the
church and state forever separate. With these safe-
guards I believe the battles which created the Army of
the Tennessee will not have been fought in vain."

Men must be judged by results, and not by partisan
and transitory prejudices. Analysis, and not impression,
is the secret of accurate history. When the future his-
torian studies calmly and impartially the story of Gen-
eral Grant's presidential terms, he will place hirr among
the great civil rulers of the nation. He made errors of
judgment in men, but never errors of judgment in
policy. In the doubtful and complicated perplexities
of his position he was uniform.ly right. He had not
sought the office, and it was in many respects distasteful
to him. He was a soldier, and not a politician. But, in
time, when his clearness of vision, honesty of purpose
and genuine spirit of nationality are more fully studied,
it will be seen that he fitted the times in the presidential
chair as well as he fitted the times in the bitter days
when he was at the head of the national army.

He entered the office with the stirring declaration,
" Let us have peace ! " In the days when inflation
seemed about to win he announced that "the national
credit must and shall be preserved." He cleared the
mists in the time of the whiskey-ring episode with the
single sentence, "Let no guilty man escape." And
when, in the last hours of his civil power, he was asked
what couise he would take as between Tilden and
Hayes, he answered, " I shall do right. Whoever is
elected will be seated." These terse, epigrammatic
sentences epitomize his presidential career.

■ ■>■

CHAPTER LXIV.

GRANT AND THE SUPREME COURT.

Grant and the judiciary — Justice Miller's recollections of him as President — His JU'
dicial appointments — Grant in society — An interesting companion — His quality
of silence — The value of his appointments — His simplicity — An interesting esti-
mate of his character.

Men under the infiuence of passion or interest often
act unwisely, and the storms of politics breed more
malice than all the tempests that sway the human mind.
Those who deal largely with money matters are espe-
^.ially apt to make reckless charges of maladministration
against the executive power when their wishes are not
complied with. So through the whole line of human
interest prejudice is awakened when success in any
given direction is not achieved. It was, therefore, not
strange that General Grant's dealings with the Supreme
Court of the United States and other judicial officers of
the government should be severely criticised and com-
mented upon ; but now that a calm judgment upon
his treatment of this branch of the government can
with propriety be invoked, it is well that what is here
presented may come from a man of the highest dis-
tinction and largest opportunities, and Justice Samuel F.
Miller is asked to speak. He was once upon the VQrgQ of
the chief-justiceship. His legal quality is of the finest, and
his testimony is of prime value as establishing the views
the judicial mind takes of the hero's relations with the
hiofhest court of law in the land.

" General Grant's conduct toward and relations with
the judicial power of the government were eminently

(873)

874

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

appropriate. He paid the Supreme Court of the
United States the full measure of respect and courtesy
that custom has prescribed since its organisation, and 1
think he was on good terms personally with all the
judges. No President was ever more considerate in
his manner of treating judicial officers than General
Grant, and the country and the Supreme Court are
under obligations to him for his judicial appointments.

*' Soon after his elevation to the Presidency Judge
Greer resigned, and he filled the vacancy by the ap-
pointment of Edwin M. Stanton. Mr. Stanton was a
very able man and lawyer, but I have always doubted
whether he would have made a very satisfactory judge.
He died soon after confirmation, and Judge Strong, of
Pennsylvania, was named in his place. Judge Bradley
was appointed soon after, and still later Judge Hunt and
Chief-Justice Waite.

" The high judicial as well as personal characler of
these men is well known, and the suggestion that any
one of them was appointed by General Grant to influence
a decision upon the legal tender act is too absurd to be
discussed. The action of the court upon that question
was one of absolute judgment. At the time the first
decision was made in the case of Hepburn against
Griswold it was. very well understood that the question
would soon again come up for consideration.

"About the time that General Grant appointed Stanton,
Strong, and Bradley, the law went into effect creating
nine Circuit Judges. Next to the Justices of the Supreme
Court these were the most important judicial offices in
the United States. I venture to say that no such nine
judges for character and ability have ever been selected
at one time by any nominating power. It is now nearly
twenty years since they were commissioned, and the

GRANT AND THE SUPREME COURT.

875

career of those men has been such as to be a most won-
derful indorsement of die capacity, skill, and fidelity
with which they were selected. The President had the
aid of Judge Hoar, who was then Attorney-General,
whose sagacity and sound judgement were invaluable ;
but the fact will stand for all time that Grant's judicial
appointments were of the very highest character.
His nomination of George H. Williams for Chief-
Justice has been much commented upon. Mr. Williams
has suffered very unjustly in public estimation. At the
time of his nomination I had known him for twenty
years very intimately, and I embrace this opportunity of
bearing my testimony to his ability as a lawyer and his
uprightness as a man. We lived together in the city of
Keokuk for several years, and I practised law before
him while he was Judge of the State Court. Although
my friends were pressing me strongly for the Chief-
Justiceship, I should have been well satisfied had Mr.
Williams been confirmed. Therefore, not only in the
nominations I have named but in the selection of Judge
Williams, General Grant in my opinion acted wisely and
for the public good.

"The social life of the National Capital, in which
General Grant moved freely, was where he was seen at
his best. He went out more than any other President
had ever done before, and I met him upon these pleas-
ant occasions, where his best characteristics were de-
veloped. He was a ready and fluent talker. I have not
met many men who, under circumstances that were cal-
culated to draw them out, could talk more agreeably,
readily, or sensibly. I have seen him sit in a room with
eight or ten gentlemen whom he knew well, and chat as
freely as among a lot of college boys. I have seen
him the centre of a brilliant company, when some man

^ ;■

876

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

whom he did not know or trust would appear, and he
would close up and say no more during the balance of
the evening. To have General Grant speak at his best
and freest, he must feel sure that his listeners were his
personal friends. I think he had the peculiarity of
silence in the presence of strangers, or among those in
whom he lacked confidence, greater than any man I ever
met. This indicated one of his strongest qualities. To
a man he personally did not know or like he was the
silent man ; but to one or many who had found their
way under his reserve he was freedom itself

*' Grant was a vigorous thinker and clear-headed man.
The extent of his information and general learning was
not as great as that of many men who attained celebrity
and exalted public station. But for vigorous common-
sense and the exercise of sound judgment on subjects
with which he was familiar I think he was excelled by
few men I ever knew. His observations on men and
things always showed a discerning, strong, well-balanced
mind. He was a great character, and I regard him as
entitled to a higher place than that of a mere mili-
tary leader. In the first place, he possessed an emi-
nently practical mind. He was doubtless less profound
than many men, but upon all subjects to which he brought
his attention, and with such elements as he had before
him upon which to make up a judgment, his action was
likely to be sound and wise. Perfect candor was one of
his striking traits of character. I do not believe he ever
attempted to deceive, simulate, or mislead in any state-
ment he had to make, public or private, and I believe
that he honestly endeavored to do what was for the
public good in the exercise of power.

** He had some of the most pleasing characteristics of
any public man this country has produced. He was less

GRANT AND THE SUPREME COURT.

i i

jealous of his rivals than any person I ever knew. He
was ready to do justice to those who might come
in competition with his reputation as a general, and I
believe that at any time he would have been willinfr to
run the risk of marring that reputation rather than en-
hance it by withholding just praise in regard to the acts
of any of his subordinates, or, indeed, of his equals.
He possessed a high degree of moral courage and
firmness, and was always prepared to follow his con-
victions to his own hazard, and often to that of his party,
by the misconstruction that might be put upon his acts.

" It is my judgment that from want of experience in
public life and in general business affairs he was often
misled by men in whom he had confidence, for when he
put his faith in an individual he relied implicidy on his
honesty. Being so thoroughly honest himself, he be-
lieved every one else to be so. This led him into errors
of administration which might have been avoided had he
sought information outside of the circle which sur-
rounded him. He had the misfortune of not havine
the ablest of cabinets, and one of the errors of his
life, and perhaps the greatest one, was the confidence
he gave to men whose only recommendation was their
wealth. But mistakes are inseparable from greatness,
and no man is so well rounded out into perfectness that
he is free from them. General Grant was a noble char-
acter, with high qualities of mind and heart, and his
name will pass into history along with the best and
bravest the world has ever produced."

This estimate of the commander comes from a judi-
cial source. It is a conservative and carefully considered
one. It deals with him not from the point of eulogy,
but from that of fact. It is a plain statement of how he
was regarded by those best situated to judge his acts.

878

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

It is too early yet to fully estimate the value of Cieri-
eral Grant's civil career. The questions \/\\\\ which he
dealt are still in the transition stage. Hut it is the best
opinion of those who have thought most deeply on
these subjects, and who have watched current history un-
fold, that he displayed a grasp of civil polity which was
extraordinary when his inexperience in civil affairs is
considered. The best tribute to the general results of
General Grant's two presidential terms is the fact that it
has not been necessary, since his incumbency, to take
any backward steps. The best judgment of the republic
has sustained his positions upon the various great ques-
tions which crowded upon his administration, and when
his civil career is fully analyzed it will prove him as
great in the cabinet as he was in the field.

CHAPTER LXV.

TOUCHING DIPLOMACY.

The international questions during Grant's terms— His admirable choice of a
secretary of state — Mr. Fish's recollections of his chief — ilia desire to conciliate
the South — Grant's leafling traits— His trustfulness of character— His readiness
to yield to proper influences— Belief in Christianity — Love and tenderness for
his family — Who our new military leaders would he.

Many international questions of high moment came
up for settlement during General Grant's Presidential
terms and the manner in which the interests of the nation
were guarded by Mr. Hamilton Fish, who was at the
head of the State department, showed a fine genius of
diplomacy. The treaty of Washington, the Geneva Tri-
bunal, the ever-present and always vexatious fisheries
question, and the tragedy of the Virginius were all of
exceedingly international delicacy, and the trained diplo-
matists of Europe found in this quiet country gentleman
an antagonist whose polished courtesy was the sheen of
a mind alert in his country's service.

In his contribution to the general understanding of
General Grant's character he is necessarily contracted
by the fact that many of the questions which held the
attention of his department are still unsettled. Diplo-
macy is a serial story whose chapters march towards
a conclusion with much deliberation, and, until the end
is reached, they are in an atmostphere of grave mys-
tery whose etiquette forbids discussion. Therefore
the estimate which Mr. Fish makes of his dead friend
and former chief must deal largely with detail which
already belongs to the nation. He was the sheet
anchor of General Grant's civil career. Essentially

879

880

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

a conservative, and a striking combination of the best
qualities of the fine old Knickerbocker type, he was
strong in his friendship and invaluable in counsel. He
had dignity, patience, the foresight of careful thought,
and a strength of character which harmonized in a strik-
ing degree with the finer traits of General Grant's own
mental and moral constitution.

General Grant ranked Mr. Fish as third in the list ol
the world's diplomats, and said : " He is such a straight-
forward, upright, able man, no head of the State Depart-
ment, in fifty years, has approached him in dignity and
capacity. Marcy, in some respects, was his equal, but
Marcy, at times, strove for effect, which Fish never did.
He was so upright that he almost leaned backward."

All through the stormy episodes of the second term
Mr. Fish stood quiet and reserved, holding the confi-
dence of the country and sustaining his chief with dioni-
fied loyalty. It is the habit of the country to form (|iiick
judgments on half information, and therefore the fihl
services of the State Department, during the period
when Mr. Fish was at its head, have never received
proper general recognition. The same sturdy common-
sense and desire to attain exact justice which ruled
General Grant's character obtained in tie treatment of
matters of international dispute, anu at no dme was the
nadonal self-respect ruffled in the slightest degree. It
was always safe in the hands of the administration.

Mr. Fish says: "The country is just beginning to ap-
preciate that General Grant was more than a militarv
man; that, as a civil officer, he had foresight and judg-
ment of the highest kind. When he said 'Let us have
peace,' he meant the phrase to its uttermost. It was
the after expression of what had always been his domi-
nant idea. He knew that the results of the war meant

TOUCHING DIPLOMACY,

881

that the people of the North and South would have to
live together under the same government, and he be-
lieved that the establishment of thoroughly amicable
relations was as much of a necessity as the arbitrament
of war had been. The first he held to be the natural
sequel of the second. The war had been prosecuted to
defend the Union and had succeeded, and he believed
that there should be re-established a Union of national
sentiment as well as a Union of law. The war M'as one
step; generous magnanimity in the treatment of the
defeated section was another step and quite as neces-
sary.

" He looked further ahead than the nation did. He
saw beyond the turmoil and the chaos which fol-
lowed the dissolution of the Confederate amiies. He
recognized the historical strength of the fact that when
General Lee surrendered he surrendered an idea as well
as an army, and with the surrender of die idea, the late
combatants again necessarily became applicants for ad-
mission at the door of nationality. In the South there
were bitter disappointment, profound depression and
discouragement, desolated homes, poverty and material
ruin. He would not add to these by a Horid and vulgar
expression of triumph. It never crossed his mind that
he had done anything but a duty which was a painful
but imperative one, and he regarded the rehabilitation of
the South as a part of the work of which its defeat had
been the beginning.

" His earliest movement inthis direcUon began with the
surrender, when he dictated the terms of Lee's capitula-
tion, and his report to the country of the condition of the
South after the war was the next. Throughout he main-
tained his consistency upon this subject. His convictions
as to the value of the policy never wavered at any time.

.882

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

and to him, more than to any other man, the growth of
good feeling between the two sections is due.
: " When he became President he recognized that the
fact that the South had been virtually debarred, since
the close of the conflict, from the civil conduct of its
affairs was a source of exasperation, and he desired to
remedy this. But the course of the Johnson administra-
tion had made Southern men cold and indifferent, and
his advances, even in the cases of Moseby and Long-
street, were not met.

" After the war, many Northern men went South to
reside. In the majority of cases they were moved
only by an honest desire to become citizens of the
states lately in rebellion, and to cast in their lots with
those with whom they had been so recently in oppo-
sition. Unfortunately, however, this new denienc of
population was not cordially received. With them had
come a class of political adventurers whose sole intent
was to speculate upon place and get rich upon the pecu-
liar condition of politics in the conquered section. Gross
wrongs were committed on both sides, and the press was
full of stories of outrage which were sometimes true
and sometimes the exaggerated injustice of a political
campaign. The South drew no distinction, however.
It confounded the men who had come to work with the
men who had come for a home, and out of this grew
a necessary policy of Federal interference which added
to the bitterness existing between the opposing ele-
ments. General Grant, as President, was always anxious
to change this order of things, and make the relations
natural and pleasant ; and I believe that the South now
fully recognizes and does justice to his motives.

" It is hard to answer a question as to what General
Grant's prominent traits were. He was a constantly

TOUCHING DIPLOMACY.

883

growing man, and he developed new and unexpected
power for every emergency. The fundamental elements
of his character were his steady determination, his serene
simplicity, his splendid force, his unwavering loyalty to
his high ideal, and his generous magnanimity. He was
a constant surprise to his friends. I think I never knew
a man with more sides to his character, and yet every new
phase was in thorough harmony with the whole. He had
strong likes and dislikes. His nature was singularly
trustful when he had given a friend his confidence, but
he would feel a vigorous energy of resentment when
that confidence was betrayed. His anger did not last
long, however, and he was always accessible to any ex-
planation. When an explanation was impossible, his
anger would cool down into contempt. He rarely kept
it alive for any long period, and was without any feelings
of revenge.

" He was an entirely unostentatious man. At no time
did he ever seem to appreciate his own greatness.
During the war his relations with the other Generals of
the army were characterized by the greatest and most un-
selfish generosity. With him the war was not a struggle for
personal glory but a definite desire to accomplish a great
national end. When Sherman accepted terms of sur-
render from Johnston, the government disapproved of
them and sent Grant to supersede him. New terms
were arranged which were more satisfactory to the
nation, and. in announcing the fact to the authorities at
Washington Grant said in his dispatch " Johnston has
surrendered to Sherman^ This is an illustration of the
generosity of his character. Selfish advantage he never
aimed for.

" During his civil career his judgment of the right
policy to be pursued in moments of doubt and emergency

884

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

was always correct. A striking example of this was his
veto of the inflation bill. The general sentiment of the
Cabinet favored the approval of the bill. The discussion
of the currency question had been a long and bitter one,
and there was a great division in the Pepublican party
as to the policy to be pursued. When the measure
came to the President for action his best judgment was
opposed to it, but the pressure brought upon him was
very great and he finally announced to the Cabinet that
he would approve it. Accordingly he prepared a messacre
in which he endeavored to give reasons for this course
and, a day or two before it was to be presented, he sent
for me and read it to me. Having done so, he re-
marked : ' The'more I have written upon this, the more I
don't like it, and I have determined to veto the bill and
am preparing a message accordingly.'

'•He had decided to rely upon his own judgment, and,
as in other great emergencies, it did not fail him. He
read his veto message to the next Cabinet meeting and
it was subsequendy sent to Congress and to the country

" His action concerning the treaty of Washington
and the Geneva tribunal furnishes two other illustra-
tions of his firmness and readiness to yield to what
he finally concluded was the better plan. When
appointments for commissioners for the treaty of

Washington were under discussion I suggested to him
the advisability of appointing a Democrat and thus pre-
vent the body from having a partisan complexion. At
the first he did not recognize the importance of this and
many of his close political friends advised him against it,
but he finally saw that it would strengthen the dignity of
the commission by making the appointments from a
national instead of a party standpoint, and Judge Nelson
was accordingly named.

TOUCHING DIPLOMACY.

885

" So in the appointment of an arbitrator to the
Geneva tribunal the logic of the situation made Mr.
Charles Francis Adams, who had been Minister to
England during the troubles which were to be arbi-
trated, the most fit man to be named. General Grant
had been greatly prejudiced against Mr. Adams, how-
ever, and he was seriously disinclined to make the
appointment. Mr. Adams was also bitterly opposed by
many prominent Republicans who were close to Grant
and the opposition was continuous and active. When
the full situation was laid before the President, and it was
explained to him that Mr. Adams had shown admirable
discretion in his conduct of the legation at London dur-
ing the war and had, at much personal trial, sustained
the dignity of the nation, he immediately recognized his
claims to the honor and Mr. Adams was sent.

" This readiness to alter a preconceived notion, when he
was satisfied that he was in error, was always a strong
trait of his character. He surrendered his prejudice
against Mr. Evarts when Evarts was appointed counsel,
in the same way.

" General Grant did not take much interest in politics
until after his election to the Presidency. Prior to that
time he had paid little or no attention to questions of gov-
ernment, but after he was elected he applied himself
carefully to the study of them. He had a quick, alert
mind, and he had the power of concentrating it upon any
subject that interested him. He had voted for Buchanan
in 1856, and after that time he seemed to take no interest
in parties or candidates until he became active in civil life
himself. He was in the habit of saying that ' his first
attempt in politics was a great failure.' He did not read
much, and he took no one as his historical model. He
wrote tersely and well, and with great fluency, but the

.■y.

886

Z/FE OF GENERAL GRANT.

faculty of public speaking did not develop in him until
after he had retired from the Presidency. To strangers,
he did not talk much, and this created the impression
that he was habitually reticent when quite the contrary-
was true. In conversation with friends whom he trusted,
he talked with the greatest freedom. He was lavish
in his expenditures, and he gave away a great deal
of money in charity. For his family, he had the most
supreme love and tenderness. He believed firmly In
Christianity, and while President attended the Metropol-
itan Church in Washington, of which Dr. Newman was
the pastor. The moral side of every question always
had its influence upon his conclusions.

"I asked him once: 'General, in case we should cret
into another war, how about our armies ? ' "

"•Well," he said, *we have the best men in the world to
lead them. No three men living are more capable of lead-
ing an army, or conducting a campaign, than the men we
have. There is a difference between fighting, and plan-
ning and conducting a campaign ; but there are no three
men living better fitted to plan a campaign, and to lead
armies, than Sherman, Sheridan and Schofield.'

" You ask : • What position will General Grant take in
the history of this country ? ' I hope that it will not be
considered irreverent to say that Washington, Lincoln
and Grant will be regarded as a political trinity — the one
the founder, the second the liberator and the third the
saviour of the United States. It is admirably illustrated
in that medallion in which they are represented as the
pater, the liberator and the salvator. The work ot each
was necessary to the completion of the whole."

CHAPTER LXVI

^5.'l \'W>\i

GRANT AROUND THE WORLD.

His desire for travel — Mr, Childs' parting hospitalities — The departure — Arrival at
Liverpool — Reception in London by the Queen of England — Trip to tlie conti
nent — Among the working classes of Great Britain — Visit to the I\iris Exhibition—
In Egypt — Sight-seeing among the ancient tombs — To the Holy Land — In Con-
staniinople — Grant and the Pope at Rome — Through Venice and Milan — To
Holland — Grant's historic interview with Bismarck — With the Emperor of Rus-
sia — At the Court of Vienna — Visit to King Alfonso of Spain — In India, China
and Japan — Among the emperors — Homeward bound — Grand ovation of welcome
at San Francisco.

No one ever accused Grant of curiosity, and yet a de-
sire to see everything f'^r himself possessed him through
life. Just as he expressed his own opinions in his own
way, so he form-ed them, and for this purpose his per-
ceptive faculties were keen, and lines of concentration
deepened between his eyes every year.

This peculiar mark gave, at times, an expression of
scrutinous intensity to his face, which, in commonplace
features, would have been misjudged as inquisitiveness.
Grant saw always for himself. Other eyes never did
for him. In the field, the council chamber, and in gen-
eral society this capacity aemonstrated itself; and once
seen, a face, a situation was never forgotten by the silent
man of memory.

To the common observer he saw nothing. The truth
is, he saw everything. Moreover, objects were limned
upon his brain with wonderful correctness. There
was no faltering in his conclusions as to what he saw.
The celerity of his mental photography was amazing,

(887.)

[-:j:

888

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

While the average observer was taking in a situation, he
had absorbed its significance, decided upon it, and was
ready for a new impression.

Perhaps this accounted, in a measure, for his accuracy
in movement upon the battle-field. Some of his hap-
piest victories were wrung, so to speak, from present
conditions of apparent failure. He swept his eyes over
the locale of vision, comprehended in a flash, and acted,
as, for instance, at Fort Donelson, where at his order the
left wing of his disordered army suddenly charged upon
the rebel works, wresting a victory out of the enemy's
victorious movement upon the right. This was the re-
sult of lightning-like perception.

" I will give my orders on the field," Grant was apt to
say. That is, he would act dependent upon his concen-
trated power of vision.

Ears he had none, so far as cultivation went ; eyes he
relied upon as his never-failing allies. To him music
was a bore. The national hymns he recognized because
they were dinned into his sense of hearing, repeated
scores of times in his own honor all over the world.
But he never could " turn a tune," and abominated tiie
oratorio and opera. Sound was neglected in favor of
sight.

Grant seldom made mistakes in his observation. Per-
ceptively he knew men and women, formed likes and
dislikes quickly, and acted understanding^ when State
and social duties devolved upon him. He was never
diffusive in thought or deed. His friendships, his tastes,
his inclinations were few and strongf. A false friend was
hardest for him to bear, because his sympathies were in-
tense, and trusting implicitly to his own judgment in
choice, falsity was unexpected. He always doubted
himself first when the hour came to doubt a friend.

AROUND THE WORLD.

889

Great and extraordinary experiences, in field and coun-
cil, naturally strengthened and developed Grant's per-
ceptive faculty, and when leisure came, after sixteen
years of ceaseless action, he was well prepared to go
abroad to observe other peoples, their institutions, and
their no\'elties.

He was as pleased in anticipation of his trip around
the world as a school-boy. He talked it over with his
friends ; he grew positively young before he sta .*ted.
He was going on a tour of simple observation, than
which nothing could have been more congenial. It had
been one of the desires of his life. He had neither
wish for nor expectation of formalities abroad ; indeed,
the unprecedented attention bestowed upon him in every
quarter of the civilized world, seemed altogether aston-
ishing to him. He said, in his own simple way, in re-
sponse to one of the first complimentary addresses of-
fered him in England :

" I know that it is my country that is honored through
me.

Much to the surprise of those who had never seen the
talkative phase of his many-sided character, he did his
duty in the uncongenial way of speech-making and social
entertainment wherever he was received ; but this was
not his motive, neither his wish, in going from home.

The parting compliments of his own country he ac-
cepted with unfeigned pleasure. Tht demonstrations of
friends seemed in keeping with his own delight in so
pleasurable a tour. They were bidding him " God-
speed " as he started on his holiday.

" On the other side," said he, " I shall give myself up
to sight-seeing."

So he sailed away with his wife and son, and a com-
pany of congenial friends ; simple man that he was in

:%■

?l B I'll!'

.?i.l St

800

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

his tastes, without even a dress-coat in which to receive
the greetings of kings and queens.

As tl J guest of George W. Childs for a week prior
to his departure f' :n Pliiladelphia, he was the recipient
of varied and dehghtful attentions. The hospitalities
of prominent citizens were showered upon him.

The Union League gave him a reception and he re-

GRANT'S RECEPTION AT THE HOUSE OF HIS FRIEND, MR. GEO. W. CHILUS.

viewed the First Regiment National Guards. At the
residence of his host the soldiers' orphans, wards of the
State, received his greeting iand advice. The old sol-
diers and sailors, many of whom followed him in the
East as well as in the West, paid their respects. Many
of the most eminent men of the nation gathered to enjoy
Mr. Childs' hospitality and say kind words of parting to

AROUND THE WcRLD.

891

the distinguished soldier and citizen. A reception at
the house of his host was the most magnificent private
entertainment ever given in the country. After a week
of pleasure and preparation the morning of departure
came, and about the board gathered distinguished men
who had been his friends and aids both in peace and
war. General Sherman, his great lieutenant in many
battles, was by his side. Ex-Secretary Hamilton, who
was equally near to him in the demands of peace made

GtN£RAL GRANT SAILING DOWN THE PELAWARli UAY.

upon him, was also there, with General Simon Cameron
and a company in perfect keeping with this notable trio.
After leaving Mr. Childs' roof-tree he became the guest
of the city, and Mayor Stokley, with the Councils and
many friends, accompanied the departing General down
the river to the Indiana. Thousands crowded the river-
banks while the Magenta was steaming down the Dela-
ware to the ship that was to bear him away. Thus
Grant took his leave of friends and country from the

i^i iM. :.i'

i'^iiii

892

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

hospitable city where "friends" dwell and many of the
best of his life's friendships were made and held.

Hard-won peace in his native land behind him, rest
and pleasure awaiting him, in vigorous health, the illus-
trious traveller gave himself up to pure enjoyment dur-
ing the trip across the Atlantic. His fellow-passengers
were amazed and delighted at his brilliant conversational
powers. He came out from behind his cloak of silence,
which he always wore in seasons of responsibility, and
was as outspoken in thought and opinion as any of
them. His friends beside him, his cigar between his
lips, with no care for the day nor the morrow, Grant
proved himself anything but the unsocial, taciturn man
the world at large believed him to be.

That the military commander, of wide renown, was
unprepared for an ovation upon landing on foreign
shores, we take his own word for, from a letter addressed
to Mr. Childs. He says :

•' But what was my surprise to find ne? all the
shipping in port at Liverpool decorated with flags of
all nations, and from the mainmast of each the flag of
the Union most conspicuous. The docks were lined
with as many of the population as could find standing-
room, and the streets leading to our hotel were
packed."

Like scenes, with more or less enthusiastic manifesta-
tions of welcome, met the would-be quiet American every
mile of his way, until the "sight-seeing," so joyously
anticipated, was merged into the disappointing state of
being seen.

In two matters connected with Grant's sojourn among
foreign nations, his countrymen found themselves hap-
pily disappointed. He suddenly developed a faculty,
almost a genius, for speech-making. He always said

AROUND THE WORLD.

893

the right thing in the right place. At home his silence
had passed into a proverb. Brief and to the point his
efforts were on all occasions, but often singularly apt and
graceful, with now and then a bit of humor cropping out,
to the delight of those who had come to believe the reti-
cent man of destiny had no fund of mirth in his nature.

It was no trifling ordeal to be called upon to respond
to the <jreat and readv intellects of the earth at a mo-
ment's notice ; but Grant bore it bravely, and did lasting
honor to his country
and countrymen, to
whom he never failed
to attribute the honors
so lavishly bestowed
upon him. Dinners —
regal, municipal, social
— dinners of every sort,
were set before the
American commander,
whose gastronomic
tastes were as simple
as a child's. Recep-
tions by the score, vis-
its of ceremony, mili-
tary and civic displays,
and every honorable
attention that could be offered to a guest, he was the
recipient of, pccepting all in a quiet, dignified manner,
responding appropriately, and remaining always the un-
pretentious republican gentleman.

In the matter of intelligently representing his country,
also, Grant will be gratefully remembered. The vast
and varied amount of information required to satisfy
foreigners of note who took occasion to interview him

AT SEA.

'in

i" . I.

894

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.'

as to the condition, resources, and prospects of the
United States, was of itself a trial to an extraordinary
brain. It is now well known no American ever went
abroad better prepared to respond to intelligent minds
in the matter of home interests. Grant had not only
fought for them, he had been all his life a close student
of agricultural and manufacturing affairs, and had made
himself familiar with all matters connected with the com-
mercial growth and welfare of his country. Received
enthusiastically by the working-classes of England, he
was able to meet them on their own ground. They
hailed him as a man of the people, and a representative
American.

Vast bodies of working-men and women demon-
strated their admiration for him, not as a great and
successful commander of armies, but as "a sincere
friend of labor." He, in return, expressed much satis-
faction in the opportunides afforded to observe for him-
self the workings of English labor systems.

Grant made the most of his golden occasions while
abroad. Wherever great statesmen were to be seen,
there inclinalion led him. His conferences with Bis-
marck and Gambetta are features for history.

He avowed himself as having been favored beyond
men, during his memorable sojourn abroad, not because
he was the guest of royal personages, but that he was
allowed the privilege of meeting with great and potent
minds.

Greatness of mere birth or place failed of impression.
Grant avoided all unnecessary display. He shrank
from military pageants devised for his pleasure, or in his
honor, escaping into the homely by-ways of foreign
places whenever he could consistently do so. "The
ordinary things I can only find out for myself," he said.

AROUND THE WORLD.

895

On a fair May morning (the 28th) the Indiana, after
a somewhat rough voyage, arrived at Liverpool. Gen-
eral Grant had proven himself a good sailor. He was
physically at his best and his spirits were undiminished.
He was all eaoferness for the continuance of his foreign
journey. At Queenstown, where a tug boarded the
steamship, a large mail awaited him, many of the letters
being from leading statesmen of England, conveying
invitations to a round of festivities in his honor. At
this point he was met
by J. Russell Young
(whose charming jour-
nalistic letters will ever
be connected with this
trip around the world)
and a deputation of
prominent citizens. At
Liverpool flags floated
from the shipping, and
the mayor waited to
extend to the illustri-
ous American the cour-
tesies of the great city,
saying : " I am proud
that it has fallen to my
lot, as chief magistrate
of Liverpool, to welcome to the shores of England so
distinguished a citizen of the United States. You have,
sir, stamped your name on the history of a world by
your brilliant career as a soldier, and still more as a
statesman in the interests of peace."

This was the first of a long series of complimentary
formalities which awaited General Grant in every im-
portant city in England.

ARRIVAL AT LIVERPOOL.

If V. ,

896

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

At Manchester the party was met by members of
Padiament and other dignitaries. Here the General
was the guest of the mayor, and every opportunity was
afforded him to inspect the celebrated manufactories of
the place, in which he evinced the keenest interest.

From city to city the journey of the would-be quiet
traveller was filled with surprises. The very unexpect-
edness of the situation was favorable to his enjoyment
of the continuous ovation. It is to be doubted if Grant
would ever have consented to such a foreign experience
had it been made known to him in advance. It was cer-
tainly a revelation to Americans at home, and has hardly,
to this day, come to be understood by many.

Immediately upon his arrival in London he met the
Prince of Wales at the Oaks at Epsom. The Duke of
Wellington entertained him at dinner at Apsley House.
Dean Stanley made known his presence in England in a
sermon in Westminster Abbey. The American minis-
ter, Mr. Pierrepont, gave a reception in his honor in
Cavendish Square, which was attended by leading rep-
resentatives of both parties. Among those present
were the Lord Chancellor, the Duke of Leeds and the
Duke of Beaufort, the Marquis of Salisbury, the Mar-
quis of Hertford, Earl Derby, Earl Shaftesbury, John
Bright, Mr. Gladstone, Lord Houghton, the Marquis of
Ripon, the Marquis of Lome and a throng of represen-
tatives of English social life. There was a dinner given
to him by Lord Caernarvon. He was presented at court.
and Queen Victoria showed him graceful attention. At
a reception given by Consul-General Badeau large num-
bers of the nobility were present and many persons of
eminence in the world of art and letters. He dined
with Lord Granville, and upon the following evening
with Sir Charles Dilke.

AROUND THE WORLD.

897

After the General's return from a visit to his daughter,
Mrs. Sartoris, at Southampton, there was a renewal of
festivities, and one of the most important events con-
nected with his visit to London took place — the confer-
ring upon him of the " freedom of the city. " No higher
honor than this remains to be proffered by this ancient
and honorable corporation. Great ceremony attends
this presentation. Hundreds of guests sat down to the

GRAM MEETING THE PRINCE OF WALES.

magnihcent banquet of the occasion. It was here, in
response to a speech of welcome, that General Grant
expressed himself in these memorable words :

" Although a soldier by education and profession, I
have never felt any sort of fondness for war, and I have
never advocated it, except as a means of peace."

Entertainments followed each other like a ceaseless

**■

r ■

I % ^.i

km.

898

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

^ \

panoramic display : a dinner at the Crystal Palace, a
dinner given by the Princess Louise and the Marquis of
Lome, at the Kensino-ton Palace, and, on the following
day, one by Mr. Morgan, the banker. Mr. Smalley, of
the New York Tribune, entertained the General at
breakfast. There were present Matthew Arnold, Rob(;rr
Browning, A. W. Kinglake, Anthony Trollope, Professor
Huxley, Thomas Hughes and other eminent and noted

persons. Lord Gran-
ville gave a dinner
at the Reform Club,
at which General
Grant said: "Never
have I lamented so
much as now my
■j poverty in phrases
— my inability to
give due expression
'^^'1^. of my affection for
'^^4 ^'^^ mother conn-
^'i^i'A try."

^^9) The General dined
\!l:,lyj with the Prince of

^ Wales at Marlbor-

■-^ ough House, and oil

the 27th of June with

GRANT'S RECEPTION AT AMERICAN LEGATION, the OueeU at Wind-

sor Castle. He met at dinner, at the Grosvenor
Hotel, many of the prominent journalists of Lomlon,
an opportunity afforded to few Americans, not of the
"ilk," and one thoroughly appreciated by the hon-
ored guest. The United Service Club gave a dinner
to the General, " to meet the officers of the army and
navy," the Duke of Cambridge presiding. An immense

AROUND THE WORLD.

899

reception took place at the American Embassy on the
4th of July, at which larjQ^e numbers of resident Ameri-

ALBERT EDWARD. PRINCE OF WALES.

cans were present, General and Mrs. Grant holding a
levee which savored of the characteristics of tbe.ir

'• : .S

\ \ ' f'

(900)

republi
tioned,
curred
tour ab
of the
and, an
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people,
provinc)

Gram
and ror
amonor

beyond

scriptior

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the spot

ation, an

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Throu

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Grant c(

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cestry, ai

bumper j

AROUND THE WORLD.

901

republican home. Beside these festal occasions men-
tioned, many others of more or less private nature oc-
curred to add to the novel brilliancy of the American's
tour abroad. From London to tne Continent every step
of the way was accompanied with welcoming honors ;
and, arriving at Brussels, the traveller was met at his
hotel by King Leopold, of Belgium, for whom he formed
the warmest friendship, and of whose character and
intellect he had the most exalted opinion.

Through Switzerland his progress was still an ovation,
during which he found time to enjoy the scenery of that
picturesque land and to observe the customs of its
people. Thence he proceeded to the war-affected
provinces of Alsace and Lorraine.

Grant was not lacking in a keen sense of the beautiful
and romantic in nature, although few persons, even
among his near friends, gave him credit for sentiment
beyond that of the natural home affections. His de-
scription, graphic and appreciative, of a certain pictur-
esque portion of East Tennesee recurs to me. Visiting
the spot afterward, his power of quick and sure observ-
ation, and his keen sense of the grand and beautiful in
landscape, were readily accorded to him who has been
rated as among the most prosaic of men.

Through Scotland, where the " freedom " of the great
cities was presented to him, and incessant attentions
pressed upon his acceptance on every hand, General
Grant continued his journey, leaving little of interest
unvisited by the way. He was the guest of the Duke
of Argyle at Inverary, where a sincere and lasting
friendship was cemented between the two remarkable
men. He visited the ancient homes of his earliest an-
cestry, and the Hicrhlanders greeted him with song and
bumper as their clansman.

I 1

i' \l^

ill

\ 'I.

b {'

902

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

In dwelling upon his tour through Great Britain.
Grant commonly spoke of his visits to the manufacturing
districts as the most significant and interesting of his
experiences. He was received enthusiastically by the
workingmen. Personally, they looked upon him as one
of themselves, and the position to which he had attained
in statesmanship and socially (an honored guest of the
aristocracy of the world) aroused their profoundest
respect and admiration for his force of character, as well
as serving to suggest a possible bond of true unity be-
tween the widely-severed classes of their own country.
At Newcastle, Sunderland, Sheffield and Birmingham,
thousands of workmen and women thronged the streets
and wharves for a glimpse of the ex-President. At
Newcastle nearly eighty thousand people were present
at an out-door demonstration. Processions, resolutions,
addresses, greeted him everywhere, as he went among
the laboring men. In an address presented him in the
name of the working-classes of Northumberland and
Durham, he was greeted in this wise :

*' In those hard-fought battles, in which your great
abilities as a soldier were displayed, you had the entire
sympathy of the working classes of England." And
also in the same address : *' Though you are skilled in
the art of war we are pleased to regard you as a man
of peace ; but the peace which commands your sym-
pathy must be founded on the eternal laws of equity
and justice. Having attested again and again your
deep solicitude for the industrial classes, and having also
nobly proclaimed the dignity of labor by breaking the
chains of the slave, you are entitled to our sincere and
unalloyed gratitude."

It is noteworthy to observe that Grant was received
by the aristocracy of England as the great military man

AROUND THE WORLD.

908

of modern times ; by the laborers of the kingdom, as
the representative of peace. A two-fold character, of
unusual and universal power.

The monarchists and imperialists of France were
pleased to be displeased with the Ex-President of the
United States. During the Franco-Prussian war his
sympathies had been defined, in so far as he guarded
watchfully, through his minister, Mr. Washburne, the in-

GRAND liOTliL-THli HKAD-QUAKTKRa i^UK AMERICANS IN PARIS

terests of the German residents intrusted to his care.
Upon his arrival In I'aris he became, naturally, the
guest of Marshal MacMahun, an event which added
fuel to the fire oi imperial feeling following a republican
victory.

There was no political significance attached to Grant's
trip abroad, but the enemies of republican government

.ji ; t

'it?,! 1; i\

904

LII'E OF GENERAL GRANT.

in France chose to consider it in that light, and even
after death lay their bit of rue upon the bier of the gn^at
General.

The American colony in Paris extended a hearty wel-
come to their illustrious compatriot. P'estivities followed
fast, one upon another ; among them a notable dinner
given by the entire colony, presided over by General
Noyes, the American minister. Here were met, amono-

GENERAL GRANT VISITS THE GARDENS OF THE PALAIS ROYAL, PARIS.

many eminent persons, Emile Girardin, Edmond About,
and Laboulaye. A superb entertainment was given by
Madame Mackay, of California, one by the aristocratic
Marquis Talleyrand-Perigord, a descendant of the great
Talleyrand, and one by M. Laugal, at which General
Grant was made acquainted with the Count of Paris.
A meeting with M. Gambetta was arranged. It was of
mutual pleasure and interest. Grant recurred to it as

AROUND THE WORLD.

vK)5

one of the important events of his visit to the old world,
speaking of the French leader as " ont; of the foremost
minds of Europe."

The party of tourists remained long enough in Paris
to ransack most of the public and many of the private
treasures of the beautiful and interesting city. Grant
was tireless in siirht-seeinp-. As one of his friends said:
" He had a persistent way of getting at things which he
was desirous of seeing."

His linguistic qualities were not largely developed ;
his life had been too busy for such accomplishments;
but he managed to make himself understood, as he had
made himself effective in greater scenes — Ijy using others
in a masterly manner. His comprehensive vision served
iiim far better than his guides.

Until he was ready to quit France, he had ncit deter-
mined to extend his tour to India, China and Japan ; but
while at Pau he received letters from General Sherman
and Rear-Admiral Ammen which determined him, from
pure personal reasons, to extend his tour. It was cur-
rent gossip at the time that this action was influenced by
the politicians who desired to keep him out of the coun-
try until just before the campaign of 1880. The auto-
graph letter here produced in fac simile shows how
groundless this assumption was.

In December the party left for the south of France,
embarking on the man-of-war Vandalia, piaceil at his
disposal by the American government.

Warn'Jy received at Naples, the trip was continued
through Italy. Every possible object of interest was
visited by the indefatigable sight-seer. He ascended
Vesuvius, and witnessed an excavation at Pompeii. The
scenery, the costumes of the people, their houses and
modes of life, even the beggars, were studied, and laid

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LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

away for future reference and interest by the man of
memory. There never lived a man who could make
himself more impersonal in studying others. Grant was
mental absorption itself; the process was a delij^ht, and
he knew well how to utilize the material absorbed. At
the stronghold of Malta, before which the Vandalia
anchored, a salute was fired, which brought on board tht^
Duke of Edinburgh. This visit was followed by an in-
vitation to his royal lii'^diness' palace ot San Antonio,

(.KNERAl, GRANT MEETINO IIIK DUKE Ol' KDINBURCiU.

where the duke and duchess received the American
party. Every possible military honor was bestowed
upon the General at this point.

Egypt was next visited. Tht; Khedive received the
party with great ceremony, a palace in Cairo was offennl
to General Grant, and a special conveyance up the Nih'
placed at his disposal.

This trip was made about the middle of January.
The party was composed di the General, Mrs. Grant

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LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

arid their youngest son Jesse, ex-Secretary Borie, of
Philadelphia, three officers of the Vandalia and the
correspondent, John Russell Young. An officer of the
Khedive's household, Sami Bey, a Circassian gentleman,
who spoke English fluently, accompanied the expedi-

GRANT'S VISIT TO THE KHEDIVE OK EGYPT.

tion : also Mr. Emile Brugsch, one of the learned
directors of the Egyptian museum.

"What a blank our trip would be without Brugsch !"
the General is reported to have exclaimed, as he stood
surveying, behind his cigar, an ancient ruin.

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814

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

To be baffled by an undecipherable inscription must
have been intolerable to Grant's persistent nature. Mr.
Brugsch knew every temple, tomb and ruin in the land,
and proved invaluable to the curious travellers. Life
for three weeks on the Nile vessel was restful as well as
novel. Nothing escaped the General's notice, and
wherever a landing was interesting and possible lu;
went ashore. At the town of Siout, the capital of Upper
Egypt, demonstrations of welcome were made, and the
vice-consul, a rich S)rian, received the party in true
Oriental fashion. An Arab entertainment was given
at his house which was attended by all the Americans,
except General Grant, in full uniform. A display of
fireworks and torches illuminated the narrow streets of
the town, and a multitude of the people followed the
vi«^itors to the river bank as they took their departure.
The next landing was at Girgel, where the General was
eager to view the temple of Abydos on the edge of the
Libyan desert. Brugsch declared this to be "the cradle.
the fountain head of all the civilization of the world."
This temple stands partly buried among the ruins of die
oldest city in Eoypt.

The town of Keneh was next visited, and the pottery
manufactories inspected. Here the General was enter-
tained by the pacha, who governs the province and lives
in oriental splendor. The cups provided for his L;uests
were said to be "of the finest porcelain, in cases of oold
and silver;" the pipes offered having " stems of amber
thickly garnished with diamonds."

The expedition continued on to Luxor, where a recep-
tion was prepared by the Arabian vice-consul. Here
the party remained several days, visiting the ancient
temples and ruins, and the famed statues of Memnon.
From there Karnak was visited, the party making thf*

AROUND THE WORLD.

915

trip on donkeys. Tlie \va11s of the famous temple of
Karnak are covered with inscriptions in hieroglyphic
language, stories of battles, and the glories of tlie king

TEMPLE OF IPSAMBUL-VISITED BY GENERAL GRANT.

Rameses, all of which Mr. Brugsch was called upon to
decipher for the General, who evinced the greatest in-
terest. At Assouan, the frontier station of Old Egypt,

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916

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the vessel was turned again toward Cairo, the travellers
landing here and there, as objects along the shore
attracted their attention, and on the 3d of February tluy
reached Memphis. Here the ruins were inspected, and
the tourists proceeded to Cairo, where friends awaited
them.

On the 15th of the following month the General
re-embarked on the Vandalia for his trip to the Holy
Land.

After a stormy passage the vessel arrived at Jaffa.
The town was decorated in honor of Grant's coming,
and the American consul received the party at his own
house. Some hours were spent in sight-seeing at this
point, and preparations were made to go to Jerusalem. A
distance of forty miles was to be travelled over, and the
only conveyances to be secured for the journey were
three springless wagons, without tops to shield the
occupants from the sun.

Grant's good nature under all difficulties passed into
a proverbial saying. He clambered — his cigar between
his teeth — into his seat, and jolted along over the
irregular roads, apparently enjoying every mile of the
way. The first stop was made at Ramleh. The rain
poured in torrents, and the travellers were glad of
shelter and supper. At seven in the morning they
were again en route for the holy city. At this point the
General was provided with a horse and managed to
make the rest of the journey in comparative comfort.

Mr. Russell Young tells us "that an escort of lepers"
insisted upon accompanying the wagons, much to the
dismay of the occupants, and they were glad to hurry
away from them.

After leaving the " plain of Sharon," the way leads
into the " country of Joshua and Samson." One of the
party describes it as follows :

AROUND THE WORLD.

917

" The road becomes rough and stony, and we who
are in the carts go bumping, thumping along over the
very worst road, perhaps, in the world. But there is no
one who, in the spare moments when he is not holding
on to the sides of the cart lest there might be too pre-

INTERIOR OF PORTICO OF THE TEMPLE AT DENDERAH, EGYPT.

cipitatc an introduction to the Holy Land, does not feel,
so strong are the memories of childhood, that it is one
of the most comfortable trips ever made. We are com-
ing into the foot-hills. We are passing into the country

of rocks. The summits of the hills Misten with the white

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918 I.iJ'Ii OJ' GENERA J. C.KAN T.

shininj^ stone, which afar off looks hkc snow. In sonic
of the valleys we note clusters of olive trees. The
fertility of I'alestine lies in liie [)lain below. Around
antl ahead is the beauty of i'alcstine — the beauty of
nature in her desolation. No houses, no farms, no trace
of civilization but the telej^raph poles. The hills have
been washed bare* by centuries of neL^lect. and tc^rraicd
slopes that were once rich with all the fruits of Palcs-
tiiu; arc* sterile and abandoned."

The General remarked that "the valley seemed the
richest he had ever seei. ; " and ne believed '* that the
plain of Sharon alone, und(T oood trovt^rnment and
tilled by such lai)or as could bi; found in AmcMica, would
raise; wheat enough to fe(?d all that portion of ilu;
Mediterranean."

The ruins of Gezer — once a royal city of Canann —
passed, most of the par'y left the wagons and proceeded
on loot, hoping to enter the city gates at sundown. Be-
yoml them, half hidden l)y tiu: mist, lay Joshua's "Valley
of Ajalon ; " they passed through the scene of the con-
flict between David and Goliath, and linally i)aused on
tile banks of the " veiy brook where David found his
pebbles for his sling." Here a line of troops was drawn
up awaiting Grant's approach — n^preseiitatives from
the consulates and from the pacha — and a throng of
Americans, all impatient, eagm- and demonstrative.

Here again, through this r<M)ion of sacretl vtMieration,
Grant's progress was an ovation. I lis dismay was im-
mense when he discovered thp.t the city of Jerusalem
could not be entered without demonstrations in his
honor. Flags were floating, inscriptions raised, and a
long line of cavalry escorted tlie dragomans of all na-
tions picturesquely attired. To the sound of martial
music and the loud acclamations of the p(!ople. General

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920

LJJ'R O/' GKAH.RAJ. URANT.

Grant cnt(*recl Jerusalem, "seated upon the; pacha's own
white Arab steed, in liousinjrs ot gold." Multitudes of
people pressed aloncr the highways to do him honor, aiul,
later, the dignitaries of the place assembled to serve him
with hospitality in true Turkish fashion.

The party were quartered at the one comfortable
hotel in Jerusalem, but the quarters were of minor im-
portance to the indefatigable sight-scers, who were con-
stantly movinir about the country from one interesting
point to another ; the General well mounted on horse-
back, Mrs. Grant satisfied with a patient, reliable
donkey.

The distinguished travellers did not escape the usual
ceremonious attentions in the Holy City ; tliese were
persistently pressed upon tliem. The pacha enter-
tained them, and insisted upon "sending his band of
fifty pieces and a large guard of honor, to be in constant
attendance." This well-meant attention the General de-
clined resolutely, but he was obliged to attend state
dinners, and accept sucli marks of hospitality as the
pacha felt inclined to bestow upon him and his party
during their brief stay.

Escaping from ceremony the visitors walked over the
sacred places within the Holy City, following, with feel-
ings of reverence, the footsteps of the Christ, by tlie
brook Kedron, to the Garden of Gethsemane " without
the gates," and up the Via Dolorosa, which leads to the
hill of Calvary.

The narrator of the party says :

"The good monks gathered some flowers for Mrs.
Grant, and for the others twigs and leaves from the
Tree of Agony " — the tree beneath which Jesus knelt
and prayed, making " holy forever the Garden of Geth-

semane.

AROUND THE WORLD.

921

Visits were made to Bethlehem. lifthany and other
places.

From Jerusalem the tourists travelled nortluvard to
Damascus, passing through Nazareth and across the
great i)lain of Esdraelon, the battle-field of Palestine.
The route lay by the Sea of (Galilee, Tiberias, Lake
Huleh, Phili[)pi and Mount Hermon. The sojourn at
Damascus was brief. By the 5th of March Constanti-
nople was reached. Here the General was formally re-
ceived by the Sultan, who e.xpressed great pleasure in
meetiu'^ the "distini^uished American." As evidence
of his cordial feeling he ordered the master of cere-
monies to present the Gen(-'ral with a pair of beautiful
Arabian horses from the imperial stables.

The writer well remembers hearing General Grant
tell of the Sultan's presentation of these animals. H<!
was sitting with General Simon Cameron, relating to
him many of the interesting incidents of his tour, when
one of the party asked him about these Arab horses.
He then spoke of their wonderful powers of endurance
and said that his attention had been attracted to them
by the ease with which they travelled long distances
with heavy loads. He had, therefore, had a great desire
to see the famous stables of the Sultan, which contained
the rarest of these horses.

••After my visit to the Sultan was over," said General
Grant, "a member of the royal household was deputed
by his majesty to show us the points of interest about
the palace and its surroundings. In due time we reached,
the royal stables where a large number of these horses
were kept, and the official of the government who was
accompanying us asked me which two of the horses in
the whole stable I liked best. I had looked them over
carefully, and my fancy had been caught by the two that

922

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

were finally sent to America. Atlcr I had expressed my
pn'fercnce, he said : ' I am directed by tht: Sultan to pre-
sent them to you.'

" I was very mnch taken aback and expressed my re-
gret at my inability to accept them, or to get iIkmii lo my
own country if I should. The Turkish official and
others acquaint(^d with the customs ot tiiat country ex-
plained to me that it would not do for me to refuse them.
It would be regarded by the Sultan as a direct and uii-
pardonabli' affront to hunself to refuse, which no ex-
planation of mme could satisfy. This being made clear,
I accepted with expressions of pK'a^ure.

"As good luck would have it, just ai that moment .ui
American vessel was in the port of Constantinople, loaded
with arms brought from the United States for 'I'urkey,
which was then engaged in war with Russia. Arranec;-
ments were made to ship these horsc^s upon that vessel.
This was done, and in due time they arrived in this coun-
try and were turiicd over to my fricMid (i(.'neral Ht^aie. "

Among the many notable visits made to the General
was that of Sir Austen Henry Layard. the British am-
bassador, famed as an arclia^ologist, as well as traveller
and diplomatist.

From Constantinopl(! the tourist proceeded to (ireece.
At Athens a grand reception awaited him. The kini^
and qu<;en gave a fete, which was attended by all the
celebrities of the country — an opportunity to study the
higher social characteristics of th(; romantic land not
lost upon the feted guest.

General Grant's visit in Rouu' occurred just after the
election of Leo XIII. The excitement consequent to
the change of pontiffs had died away, aiul tht time was
propitious for an interview with the highest dignitary of
the Catholic Church. This was accomplislu-d through

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11:11

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924

JJFh: Oh Cl.NI.NAL GRANT.

the kindness of his n^vcrencc Cardinal McCloskey, the
representative prt^latc dI \\\v- Catliolics in the United
States. (irant cxpresst'd the grcatctst satisfaction in
connection with this meetinjj;. Kinj.*" Humbert paid every
possible courtesy to his republican "uest. and, as every-
where, opportunities were prt^ssed upon him to take ad-
vantage of the pleasures and hospitalities of the city.

UL'INS i»l nil. ACKol'dl.l.s. .Villi. N> '.'ISIIKD \\\ (il.Nl K.M, (;RANT.

After visiting Venice and Milan, where tiie most llat-^
teriiig attentions were bestowed, Grant visited the l^iris
Mxhibirion. On the 7th of May the party arrived, re-
maining about three weeks — a period of constant social
festivity and unremitting sight-seeing on the part of tint
denc'ral.

A visit X) n slful Holland followed. H(Tc; the trav-

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926 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

eller, with his stolid face and manner, his en^lless clouds
of cigar smoke, his calm appreciation of the hearty aticn-
tions bestowed upon him, was a great favorite. At Am-
sterdam a magnificent banquet was given him by the
merchants of the citx'. It was attrndcd 1)\' all the di<ml-

I'klNCL mSMARCK.

taries of the city. His speeches, terse and to the point,
were pronounced models.

The important event of Grant's visit to Prussia, which
followed his departure from Holland, was his meetin'jf
with Prince Bismarck. This Statesman was among the

iv%.

AROUND THE WORLD.

927

lin;l

first of the eminent persona^^es to call upon the ex-
President. An interview between the two t;^reat men
took place on the followinir day at Bismarck Palace, the
residence of the famous diplomat. The prince m(;t
Grant upon the threshold, extondinof both hands in
hearty welcome, savin;

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INIERVILW UtTWELN OLNEKAl. ORANT ANU PRINCE IJISMAKCK.

"Glad to welcome General Grant to Germany."

The General replied :

"There is no incident in my German tour moie inter-
esting to me than this opportunity of meeting Prince
Bismarck.'

And so these two world-renowned men sat toirether

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TOWN lIAJ-1., I;ERMN— VISITKI) l.'Y GENERAL GRANT.

(92S)

AROUND THE WORLD.

929

in the library of the Prussian, an open window before
them looking into a beautiful park lending its cheerful-
ness to the informal interview. The room itself was
rich but simply furnished. Bismarck carried on his con-
versation in English, which he has mastered.

Among the complimentary expressions of Bismarck
he took occasion to present the regrets of the Emperor
of Germany, who was under his doctor's orders to see
no one. This was just after the attempt at assassination
upon the old emperor's life. " He commands me to
say," Bismarck said, " that nothing else should prevent
his seeing you."

Many questions in regard to the late American war
on the part of the prince, asseverations as to good feeling
between the two countries, interspersed with cordial
personal remarks, constituted the interview. Grant
afterward expressed himself as having experienced one
of the greatest pleasures of his life in this meeting with
the famous statesman, for whom he had so long held a
favorable opinion. Bismarck called, the day after his
interview with the General, upon Mrs. Grant.

Hospitalities of every sort were proffered the Ameri-
can in Berlin. Not a moment of his time was left un-
occupied. Physically, the subject of these attentions
seemed able to cope with a world. He grew younger
and fresher, apparently, as his romantic tour continued
through Denmark, Norway and Sweden into Russia.

At St. Petersburg his imperial highness, Alexander,
granted an audience to the General, and at the royal
meeting introduced Prince Gortschakoff, with whom
(jrant afterward held many pleasant conferences.

During the interview between the ex-president and
the emperor, the latter said, pressing the hand of his
guest warmly :

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930

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" Since the foundation of your government the rela-
tions between Russia and America have been of the
friendUest character, and as long as I live nothing shall
be spared to continue that friendship."

The General replied that although the two govern
ments were directly opposite in character, the gn-at
majority of the American people were in sympathy with
Russia, and would, he hoped, so continue.

ST. PETF.RSBITRO-REVIEW IN HONOR OF GENERAL GRANT.

All the pomp and splendor of court ceremony (so
pre-eminently maq^nificent in the Russian realm) was
heaped upon the simple, imperturbable American. It is
not chronicled of him that he ever committed -m faux pas,
or blundered into difficulty in the face of foreign custom.
Grant under all circumstances was simply natural.

The Grand Duke Alexis took occasion to pay especial
attention to the General, whose guest he was during his

AROUND THE WORLD.

981

visit to the United States. An imperial yacht was placed
at the disposal of the distinguished visitor to Russia, and
a delightful trip was made to Peterhoff — the Versailles
of St. Petersburg. A visit was also made to the Russian
man-of-war Peter the Great, where the General re-
ceived a s Uite of twenty-one guns. Every possible
social attention was paid to him during his brief stay,
the Czarowitz giving him special audience, and the
French ambassador a dinner in his honor. There was
also a review of the fire brigade ot the city for his es-
pecial benefit. Dinners, banquets and balls followed
each other in quick succesHion. as in all the great cities
through which the travelU^rs hastrwrd

On the 8th of Aui^nist the tourists procrcKled to
Moscow, the old capital of R\issia. They travell-J over
the fanunis straight line railroad, built by two Amcricar*
contractors, Messrs. Winans, of Baltimore, and Harrison,
of Philadelphia, a distance of four hundred miles. John
Russell Young says of this remarkably direct road:

" When the engineers had devised their line, with its
gradients, it had certain inclinations to the right and left,
so that the iron road should tap some of the adjacent
towns between the new and the old capitals. When
the map was shown to Nicholas he simply shook his
head." He would have no such twisting road in his
dominions ! Taking a ruler, he placed it between Mos-
cow and St. Petersburg, drew with a pen a red line as
straight as could be between the two points, remarking,
" Make your road so as to follow precisely this tracing.
A straipfht line is the shortest distance between two
points, and that is all there is about it. Good-day,
gentlemen."

The carriages used on this road are of superior
American make. One of the handsomest was placed at

(932)

jwrr^

AROUND THE WORLD.

933

the disposal of Cieneral Cirant. A large throne^ of Rus-
sian, officers and civilians, as well as Americans, were
in attendance at tiie station when the General reached
Moscow. He was trreeted with cheers and enthusiastic
demonstratioris of welcome. Every opportunity was
afforded him to see the city, which is hcaiitifuiiy ailorned
with trees and ganlens, and contains a niimb('r of mag-
nificent churches, and several gorgeous palaces. The
(ieneral remained several days sight-seeing before taking
his departure for Warsaw in Russian Poland Here the
party rested a few days before starHng for \'ienna, which
place was reached on the iStii <ii August. Minister
Kasson received the General at the station, accom|)anied
by all the secretaries and attaches of the American le-
gation. On the 20th of August there was an audience;
with his imperial highness, Francis Joseph, at the Palace
of Schoenbrunu. The following lay the C ieneral and
Mrs. Grant dined with the imperial family. On the 2 2d
a grand diplomatic dinner was gi* en by the American
minister, followed by a reception and ball. Every point
of interest was visited in the city, and the party left for
Munich, the capital of Havaria, highly delighted with
Vienna.

Several days were passed in viewing Munich and its
wonderful art treasures. A day was spent at Augsburg,
from which place the tour was continued through (Jim
into Switzerland. There was a brief sojourn at both
Schaffhausen and Zurich. From this point General
Grant proceeded to Paris by way of Lyons. At Bor-
deaux the party remained long enough to partake of its
hospitalities, which were generously proffered. One of
them said:

" Bordeaux gave us the idea of being one of the most
prosperous cities we had visited ; as the centre of a vast

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WEBSTER, N.Y. 14SS0

(716) 872-4303

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934

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

agricultural interest, controlling a product of great value,
it has done its best to take advantage of the situation,
and kept its commercial supremacy."

At Bordeaux General Grant received a message from
his majesty, the King of Spain, who was at that time with
his troops at Vit.toria. The message requested the honor
of a visit from the distinguished American traveller, and
the General prepared without delay to respond to so
high and courteous a compliment, " It was the inten-
tion of General Grant when he left Paris," says Mr,
Young in his correspondence, "to make a short visit to
the Pyrenees, and especially Pau.

" When General Grant reached Vittoria there were all
the authorities out to see him, and he was informed that

the

mornmof

Kino- Alfonso would meet him. Ten

o'clock was the hour, and the place was a small city hall
or palace, where the king resides when he comes into
his capital. At ten the General called, and was escorted
into an ante-room where were several aides and generals
in attendance. He passed into a small room, and was
greeted by the king. The room was a library, with
books and a writing-table covered with papers, as though
his majesty had been hard at work. When the Gen-
eral entered, the king gave him a seat and they entered
into conversation. There was a little fencing as to
whether the conversation should be in English or Span-
ish. The General said he knew Spanish in Mexico, but
thirty-five years had passed since it was familiar to him,
and he would not venture upon it now. The king was
anxious to speak Spanish, but English and French were
the onlv languages used. At eleven o'clock General
Grant, King Alfonso, and a splendid retinue of generals
left the king's official residence to witness the manoeuvres
which were to take place on the historic field of Vittoria,

AROUND THE WORLD.

935

where the French, under Joseph Bonaparte and Jourdan,
were finally crushed in Spain by the allies under Wel-
lington on June 21, 1813.

" King Alfonso and General Grant rode at the head
of the column, side by side, his majesty pointing out
the objects of interest to the right and the left ; and,
when the vicinity of the famous field was reached, halt-
ing for a few minutes to indicate to his guest the loca-
don of the different armies on that famous June morning.
As they proceeded thence, General Concha was called
to the side of the king and introduced to General Grant.
Several other distinguished officers were then presented.
The weather was very fine, and the scene was one of
great interest to the American visitor. General Grant
spent the day on horseback, witnessing the manoeuvres."

On the following day a grand review was held in his
honor. The king had expressed himself as very curious
to see General Grant, and was pleased that their meet-
ing had been at Vittoria. Dinners, receptions and
other social festivities were given in the General's
honor before his departure for Madrid, which occurred
on the 28th of October. At this place he was met by
our minister, James Russell Lowell, who was ac-
companied by Colonel Nolli, a Spanish officer of dis-
tinction, detailed to attend him. A dinner and recep-
tion was given to General Grant, and crowds visited him
to pay their respects. There was a dinner at the
presidency of the council, the first state dinner given
since the young queen's death. In Madrid there were
the picture galleries to be visited, the royal palace and
the royal stables, and many places of interest and
novelty to the Americans. The General had a satis-
factory interview with Castelar, whom he had expressed
himself as most eager to meet.

?■

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;W;!'

936

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

General Grant and his party visited the Palace of the
Escurial, just outside of the city. "This mammoth
edifice, second only to the pyramids of Egypt in size and
solidity, was commenced by Philip II., to fulfil a vow
made to San Lorenzo, that if the battle of St. Quentin,
which was fought on the saint's day, should result
favorably to him, he would erect a temple to his honor ;
and also to obey the injunctions of his father, the
Emperor Charles V., to construct a tomb worthy of the
roy^l family, and most magnificently did he carry out
both purposes."

From Madrid General Grant proceeded to Portugal,
where he was received by the king, Don Louis I., who
came to Lisbon to welcome him.

There was an audience at the palace, the General
and his wife meeting the king and queen. The king,
aftfc/ greeting the General in the splendid audience
chamber, led him into an inner apartment away from the
ministers and courtiers who were in attendance on the
ceremony. They had a conversation relative to Portugal
and the United States, the resources of the two
countries, and the means to promote the commercial
relations between Portugal and America.

The king invited him to go on a hunting expedition,
among the many other modes of diversion pressed upon
him, but the General was forced to plead want of time.
There were several meetings between the king and the
General, and a pleasant friendship grew up between
them. They parted with sincere regret.

From Lisbon the tourists returned to Spain, proceed-
ing directly to Cordova, and from thence to Seville.

A correspondent says : " Our stay in Seville was
marked by an incident of a personal character worthy
of veneration — the visit of General Grant to the Duke

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LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

of Montpensier. The day after General Grant arrived
in Seville the duke called on him, and the next day was
spent by the General and his party in the hospitable
halls and gardens of St. Elmo. The duke regretted
that, his house being in mourning on account of the
death of his daughter, Queen Mercedes, he could not
give General Grant a more formal welcome than a quiet
luncheon party. The duke, the duchess and their
daughter were present, and after luncheon the General
and duke sperft an hour or two strolling through the
gardens, which are among the most beautiful in Europe.
The duke spoke a great deal of his relations with
America, and especially of the part which his nephews
had played in the war against the South."

From Seville the General went directly to Cadiz. He
arrived at this point of his journey on the 6th of
December.

After visiting Gibraltar, the party returned to Spain,
thence proceeding north to Paris. Leaving Mrs. Grant
with her daughter, Mrs. Sartoris, in England, General
Grant made his trip to Ireland.

On the evening of July 2d General Grant arrived at
Dublin. He was met by the lord mayor and conducted
through every place of interest in the city. All the
dignitaries assembled to do him honor. The freedom of
the city was presented to him. All through Ireland his
appearance was the signal for general enthusiasm.
Multitudes thronged every station. All the towns were
in gala dress, and the shipping in the harbors gay with
flags.

The city authorities gave him a handsome banquet,
the lord mayor presiding. On the 4th the General
breakfasted with the Duke of Marlborough, and spent
the rest of the day strolling about Dublin. On January

AROUND THE WORLD.

939

6th, the party left for Londonderry. Here, as at
Dundalk, Armagh, Strabane and other places, large
crowds were assembled, and enthusiasm was general.
Belfast was next visited. " The reception at this place
was imposing and extraordinary. The linen and other
works had stopped work, and the workmen stood in the
rain by thousands. The platform of the station was
covered with scarlet carpet. The mayor and members
of the city council welcomed the General, who descended
from the cars amid tremendous cheers. Crowds ran
after the carriages, and afterward surrounded the hotel
where the General was entertained."

General Grant visited all the large mills and industrial
works of the city.

Every now and then the General would be greeted
by an old soldier who had fought with him in the Ameri-
can war. " I was with the South. Hurrah for Grant ! "
said a man from Ulster. Thousands of working people
stood hours in the pouring rain to get a glimpse of him.
Indeed, his lour through Ireland was one great ovation.

Returning to Dublin the General left his Irish friends,
on the 8th, reaching London on the 9th, which day was
spent as the guest of Mr. John Welsh, the American
minister.

On the 13th of January the party arrived in Paris,
where immediate preparations were made for a trip to
India. Before departing the General was entertained
by President MacMahon at a grand dinner at the Elysee.
On the 2ist he left Paris for Marseilles, to embark for
his eastern journey.

That Grant should have been received with all the
honors known to diplomatic courtesy among European
potentates is not so much to be wondered at, but that
his unofficial presence in the Orient called forth such

• 'ill

'1!

940

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

homao^e is astonisliinij^, when oik* considers the scenes
through which he passed as anything more or less than
a fairy-tale. Domiciled in gorgeous palaces, taking part

PAGODA OF CHTLLENBAUM, INDIA— VISITED EV GENERAL GRANT.

in oriental receptions, riding elephants, attending relig-
ious ceremonies, hobnobbing with barbaric princes over
strange dishes, at banquets indescribably magnificent

AROUND THE WORLD.

941

and outlandish — all this, to which were added great
military reviews and social formalities without numbers,
Grant calmly passed through during his stay in India,
treating each new experience as it it were a matter ot
course, and losing not an opportunity to add to his in-
creasing stock of information as to the world and its
devious ways.

The party for the trip to India was composed of
General Grant, Mrs. Grant, Colonel Frederick D. Grant,
Mr, A. E. Borie, Dr. Keating, of Philadelphia, a nephew
of Mr, Borie and John Russell Young.

On the 25th of January the last farewells were
spoken, and the party went aboard the government
yacht, landing at the Apollo Bunder — the spot vvht^re
the Prince of Wales landed. At Bombay General Grant
was entertained at the Government House on Malabar
Point. This point was in " other days a holy place of
the Hindoos. Here was a temple, and it was also
believed that if those who sinned made a pilgrimage to
the rocks there would be expiation or regeneration of
soul."

The party visited the Marble Rocks at Tatulpur ;
thence Allahabad and Agra, arriving at Jeypore on
the 24th.

At Jeypore he was royally entertained by the Maha-
rajah, an Indian prince of wide renown, and every
opportunity afforded him to view the country. An im-.
mense elephant was placed at his disposal, and attend-
ants by the score bidden to anticipate his every wish.

Native bands performed as he dined, and dancing-girls
were sent to divert the American mind from serious
thought. One can imagine the utterly irresponsive de-
meanor of the recipient of these playful services. But
these customs of a foreign land were to be witnessed as

^^^f

(942)

AROUND THE WORLD.

U43

a part of the programme, and the resigned spectator
laid the curious sights away in his recepr've brain for
future reference.

At Bhurtpoor the Maharajah also received General
Grant as his special guest. The British officers attached
to the court were with the prince. There was a blare
of trumpets and roll of drums, and all the ceremony
attendant upon a native prince who was in uniform and
glittering with jewels.

It would take volumes to describe this journey
through the land of ruins, tombs, and palaces. The
tourists proceeded on through Lucknow, Calcutta, Delhi
— " the city of sorrow and desolation " — through Ben-
ares, sacred to the Hindoos, as also to the Buddhists
(the city of priests), and, finally, across the Bay of Ben-
gal to Rangoon, leaving Hindostan and its customs to
come upon an entirely different people. A special in-
vitation from the King of Siam drew the illustrious
traveller to the strange city of Bangkok, sometimes
termed the " Venice of the East." Here he was re-
ceived at the palace of the " Supreme King of Siam."
Music and salvos of artillery met him as he landed, and
he was escorted into the presence of his highness by the
king's private secretary, a nobleman of iiigh rank. A
royal dinner and effusive ceremonies followed.

The tour led on to Hong-Kong, for which point Gen-
eral Grant sailed from Singapore on the 23d of April.
The usual hospitalities of a ceremonious land followed.
Thence the journey was continued to Canton, where
honors never before bestowed upon a foreigner were re-
ceived. Forts blazed a welcome, and long lines of Chi-
nese gunboats were drawn up to fire the national salute.
The celestial kingdom was enjoying a novel sensation,
and the emperor, having made a "new departure,"

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944

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

setimed bent on showing his guest every attention that
could honor and astonish a western barbarian.

A gorgeous and characteristic reception was given
by the viceroy, succeeded by entertainments of various
kinds, among tliem banquets quite as proHfic of curi-
osity as of appetite. Magnificent presents, accordirii^r
to the custom of the country, were bestowed upon
the distinguisiied traveller. At Shanghai a fete un-
paralleled in magnificence awaited him. At Tientsin
he met the famous viceroy Li Hung Chang, sometimes
called " the Bismarck of the East."

This " great viceroy took the deepest interest in the
coming of General Grant. He was of the same age as
the (ieneral. They won their victories at the same
time — the Southern rebellion ending in April, the
Taeping rebellion in July, 1865. As the viceroy said:
' General Grant and I have suppressed the two greatest
rebellions known in history.' Those who have studied
the Taeping rebellion will not think that Li Hung
Chang coupled himself with General Grant in a spirit of

boastintr.

"The General formed a high opinion of the viceroy
as a statesman of resolute and far-seein^Tf character.
This opinion was formed after many conversations —
official, ceremonial and personal."

The viceroy could think of no attention too great to
bestow upon his brother warrior. Enthusiastic demon-
strations were made upon his arrival. A royal chair,
such as is used only by emperors, bore him into the
presence of the viceroy, who stood awaiting him among
his mandarins.

It must have been a curious scene, this meeting be-
tween these two extraordinary men, types of Eastern
and Western civilization. Lonof conversations took

ition that

vas given
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: of ciiri-
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eroy said :

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Li Hunyj
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(945)

946

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

place between the statesmen during Grant's stay. The
viceroy seemed never to tire of asking questions con-
cerning the United States, and no man was better pre-
pared than the ex-President to afford information. They
parted, having formed a high mutual opinion of each
other.

To say that this unusual opportunity for exchange of
intelligent ideas concerning the two great antipodal na-
tions was merely interesting is but a half expression of
its importance. The result could be nothing less than
an advance in civilization.

From Tientsin the party proceeded to Pekin, where
Chinese attentions were lavished profusely upon the
General.

"On the 3d day of June, shortly after midday, we saw
in the distance the walls and towers of Pekin. As we
neared the city the walls loomed up and seemed harsh
and forbidding, built with care and strength as if to
defend the city. We came to a gate and were carried
through a stone arched way, and halted, so that a new
escort could join the General's party."

General Grant v/as met at Pekin by a message from
Prince Kung, saying his imperial highness would be
glad to see General Grant. The interview took place
on the following day. The prince " expected to see a
uniformed person, a man of the dragon or lion species,
who could make a great noise. What he saw was a
quiet, middle-aged gentleman in evening dress, who had
ridden a long way in the dust and sun, and who was
looking in subdued dismay at sweetmeats, dishes of
birds' nest soup, sharks' fins, roast ducks, bamboo
sprouts and a tea-pot with a hob, insipid tipple made of
rice, tasting like a remembrance of sherry, which was
poured into small silver cups. The dinner differed

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948

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

from those in Tientsin, Canton, Shanghai, in the fact
that it was more quiet. There was no display of parade,
no crowd of dusky servants and retainers hansfino-
around and looking on, as though at a comedy."

General Grant's interview with Prince Kung was a
ventilation of republican views, his highness seeming de-
sirous also of " making hay while the sun shone." He
desired to secure the General's good offices in regard to
a difficulty with Japan, adding " that he knew General
Grant would always have a vast influence upon all na-
tions." Grant responded that he was going to Japan,
and that " if the opportunity occurred of presenting the
views of China to the Japanese cabinet he would do so."
Such was the influence of the undemonstrative Amer-
ican, whose force had borne him irresistibly into the con-
fidence of the ancient and conservative nations of the
world.

The General had looked forward to his visit to the
great wall of China with curiosity and pleasure. Sailing
along the northern coast of the China sea, the end of
this wonderful structure was seen jutting out into the
water. Landing, a flight of stone steps were ascended,
and the party found themselves in a temple, from which
was enjoyed a magnificent view of the surrounding sea
and country. The General, practical always, " believed,"
as he inspected the unique work, " that the labor ex-
pended on this wall would have built every railroad in
the United States, every canal and highway and most, if
not all, of our cities."

It was late in the afternoon before the party were
again under way. Crossing the gulf, morning found the
vessel at Cheefoo, a summer resort for European resi-
dents of Shanghai and Ti' ntsin. Here a fleet of gun-
boats were awaiting the i.rrival ; flags streamed upon

A CHINESE PAGODA, AS SEEN BY GENERAL GRANT.

(949)

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?...

950

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

the warm air, native music struorcrled with American

national airs, and a thronij awaited Grant's landinf^. He

was borne in a yellow satin chair of honor, preceded
by mounted Chinese officers into the town, where a grand
reception was prepared for him. In the evening then>
was an illumination and fireworks, and a native proces-
sion followed as he took his departure. As the vessel
moved out into the stream the novel demonstration of a
midnight salute^ took place.

The Chinese gunboats thundered forth gun after gun.
The General's vessel responded, as it slowly disappeared
in the midst of dense clouds of smoke. This was Grant's
last farewell to China.

The rapidly-strengthening friendship between Japan
and the United States called forth an enthusiastic demon-
stration of welcome to the General from that country.

The party was received by a salute of twenty-one
guns. The royal barge approached, bringing to the
vessel Prince Dati, a dignitary of the very highest rank,
as representative of the emperor. He was attended
by Mr. Yoshida and the governor, all attired in the
richest of court costumes. The reception was purely
Japanese. Long lines of native troops were drawn up
along the way to the quarters prepared for the dis-
tinguished guest, and all the principal citizens of the
town came out to give him welcome. The entire
road was decorated with flags, American and Japanese,
entwined with floral arches.

After the national greeting, the foreign consuls were
presented in a body by the American consul, Mr.
Mangum. After these a delegation representing the
foreign residents of all nationalities in Nagasaki. Ad-
dresses were made, and a visit paid to the Fair, which
was in progress. The General and Mrs. Grant planted

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AROUND THE WORLD.

953

trees, by request, in the grounds. A monument is said
to be erected near in honor of the illustrious visit.

The most interesting entertainment afforded the Gen-
eral, during his stay in Nagasaki, was a dinner given
him in the style of the feudal lords of Japan. The fete

took place in an an-
cient temple over-
looking the bay, and
in every respect was
a histor;^ of ban-
quets, on:e an im-
portant part of Jap-
anese ceremonial.
There weremore than fifty courses strange to America;
and, as in th^^ days of the daimios, native music accom
panied the banquet. A revival of a peculiar custom
brought in tht daughters of the leading merchants and

GENERAL GRANT TAKING A MORNING WALK
ON BOARD THE STEAMER RICHMOND

ifi':

054

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

citizens of Nagasaki as singers. They were costumed
according to the departed days of fast-changing Japan.
The song, an original composition, was in honor of Gen-
<?ral Grant and his warrior deeds, sung in the native
tongue.

Every one of the five days spent in Nagasaki was
filled with attention and pleasure. All places of interest
were visited, the citizens vying with each other in hospi-
tality.

General Grant's visit to Sumida was most interesting,
because it enabled him to get a glimpse of Japan un-
touched by foreign habits. The bay of Sumida is not
open to the world, but, as the guest of the emperor.
Grant was cordially received. His arrival was cele-
brated by 2i fete, a Japanese breakfast and the usual
curious display of fireworks. All the town followed
him to the beach as he took his departure. The follow-
ing day he arrived at Yokohama.

The landing of Japan's distinguished guest was upon
Japanese territory . The imperial barge bore him from
the Richmond amid salutes from all the vessels in
the harbor. An eye-witness says :

"The scene was wonderfully grand — the rear of
cannon, the clouds of smoke wandering off orer the
waters ; the stately, noble vessels streaming witti flags ;
the yards manned with seamen ; the guards on deck ;
the officers in full uniform gathered on the qu?rter-deck
to salute the General as he passed ; the musi: and the
cheers which came from the Japanese and the merchant
ships ; the crowds that clustered on the wlarves ; the
city ; and, over all, a clear, mild, July day, vith grateful
breezes ruffling the sea. In waiting upon tie Admiralty
wharf were the royal personages of the Japanese empire.
After the reception the party proceeded t* Tokio. Upon

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956 LIFE Ol' GENERAL GRANT.

the arrival of the train an address of welcome was read
by the citizens, after which the General was conveyed,
in the emperor's private carriage, to his temporary resi-
dence — the emperor's summer palace of Enriokwan.

GENERAL GRANT MEETING THE EMPEROR OF JAPAN.

Dense throngs of people lined the way, music sounded,
and arches of flor. .1 welcome met the sight on every
hand.

AROUND THE WORLD.

iir>7

The General was, soon after his arrival, pfranted an
audi' nee with the emperor. The empress was with him,
the cabinet bein^;' also present. It was siii^nificant that
the emperor shook hands with General Grant, an act
of amenity hitherto unknown to the empire. A royal
address of welcome from the Emperor was read, and
responded to by the General. This was followed by a
pretty little address of greeting to Mrs. Grant from the
empress, to which the lady responded gracefully :

"I thank you very much. I have visited many coun-
tries, and have seen many beautiful places, but I have
seen none so beautiful and so charming as Japan."

" The emperor and empress have agreeable faces, the
emperor especially showing firmness and kindness.
The solemn etiquette that pervaded the audience-
chamber was peculiar, and might appear strange to those
familiar with the stately but cardial manners of a
European court. But one must remember that the
emperor holds so high and so sacred a place in the
traditions, the religion and the political system of Japan,
that even the ceremony of to-day is so far in advance
of anything of the kind ever known in Japan that it
might be called a revolution."

General and Mrs. Grant during their stay in Japan
were the recipients of many and unusual attentions
from the emperor and empress.

During the Fourth of July the General held a recep-
tion attended by all the dignitaries of the empire. The
emperor reviewed his troops for the benefit of his guest,
and at the close of the brilliant pageant received the
General and his party at dinner in the Shila palace.

Notwithstanding the torrid weather endured, cere-
monials followed fast during the travellers' sojourn in
Yokohama. The General gave several entertainments,

:* m

968

LJFK OF GhNEKAL GHAiM',

dining the native princes, the prime ministers, Japanest;
officials, and many prominent citizens.

The emperor sought a lengthy personal interview
with General Grant. After a discussion of governmen-
tal matters, the General took occasion to redeem his
promise to the Emperor of China on the question of

GENERAL GRANT VISITS THE JAPANESE POTTERY.

Loochoo. The prime minister responded that "Japan
would do what she could, without yielding her dignity,
to preserve the best relations." An interesting and in-
formal political discussion followed.

This opportunity for direct communication with the
emperor gave Grant pre-eminent advantage as a peace

AKOUAD THK WORLD.

959

maker between the Eastern countries. Without the pale
of official life, a disinterestetl adviser, and one who had
proven his own high ability to rule through war and
peace, he was urged to give expression to his views on
government policy in whatever kingdom or empire his
wandering steps led him. Japan was as eager to invoke
his good ofifices in the matter of securing the revision
of treaties which crippled her revenues in the interest
of British trade as China was in the matter of Loochoo.
Grant never sought the responsibilities which foreign
rulers strangely expected him to incur. They were
thrust upon him, giving a weighty meaning to his pleas-
ure trip, the result of which will undoubtedly bear its
fruit.

The General made a visit to the ancient shrine and
temple of Nikko. It was at this point that he met the
representatives of the Japanese Government, holding a
conference with them concerning the difficulty on the
Loochoo question. Upon separating, the commissioners,
on behalf of Japan, expressed thanks and gratitude
for his interest and advice. A number of interesting
and i\ov€\ fetes were given at Nikko. The priests of the
temple escorted the General to the end of the town.

At Nyeno a grand public festival was given in honor
of the American visitor. The emperor's presence lent
royal brilliancy to the event. It was computed that
" hundreds of thousands " lined the roadway by which
General Grant's carriage passed. This was the final
entertainment given in his honor : the highest mark of
public esteem possible.

After a short visit to Hakone, the traveller prepared
for his homeward trip. - ■

A dinner, given by Prince Uati, at Tokio, preceded
the departure ; also, several entertainments by Ameri-

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AROUND THE WORLD.

961

d Enfrlish reside

Ad.

Patterson, as a
"farewell," dined the officers of various foreign vessels
on the Richmond. In great splendor and formality
the General took his leave of the emperor. The ad-
dresses were significant and carefully prepared, and the
adieiix on both sides affectionate and sincere. The de*
parture was attended with great display and ceremony.
The demonstradons on land and sea were of the most
flattering nature. Surely never has such homage been
paid to man by the nations of the world. The tour is a
romance that will grow more astonishing with time.
Its rare significance is the drawing together of the
peoples of the earth ; its moral in the life of the man
who loved his fellowman beyond himself.

General Grant proceeded directly to San Francisco.
The reception upon his arrival is yet fresh in the re-
membrance of Americans. The city blazed with illumi-
nations, cannon reverberated along the brown hills ;
plaudits rent the air; the entire populace came out to
o-reet the returned traveller. It was a home-cominor
that can never be surpassed in true and heart-felt,
welcome.

General Grant remained for several weeks the guest
of San Francisco, receiving numerous and flattering at-
tentions. " On the 23d of September General and Mrs.
Grant were formally presented by the municipal author-
ities to the citizens of San Francisco. The ceremonies
took place at the city hall, and were elaborate and im-
posing." The General and his party made a trip to the
famous Yosemite valley, returning to San Francisco on
the 8th of October.

After violdng several western cities, where he was
handsomely entertained, the General returned to San
Francisco for his leave-taking. A magnificent banquet
was given in his honor at the Palace Hotel.

■ .1^

■6

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962

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

On the 5th of November he was enthusiastically wel-
comed by his friends in his own hc.ie at Galena, 111.
Here he enjoyed a few days' rest, starting on the 12th
for Chicago, to atteiid the reunion of the Army of the
Tennessee. Great demonstrations were made in his
honor; and on the morning of the 13th an immense re-
ception was given him by the Union Veteran Club, at
McVicker's Theatre. General Grant was welcomed
with unusual honors by the cities of Logansport, Indian-
apolis, St. Louis, Louisville, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and
Harrisburg.

"■ General Grant and his party passed the night on
board of the special train at Harrisburg. An early start
was made for PhlJidelphia, at which point the General's
journey around the world came to an end. The great
city had made the most magnificent preparations for the
reception of its distinguished guest, and there can be no
question that the reception was one of the most tre-
mendous ovations ever tendered any man in the United
States." There was a moving: column of over twelve
miles in length, which occupied six hours in passing any
given point. The city was ma^xiificently arched and
decorated, and the vast throng that welcomed him mani-
fested the heartiest cordiality. "General Grant's car-
riage was heralded blocks ahead — to the ear by the
shouts of applause, and to the eye by the waving of hats
and handkerchiefs. As his carriage reached the front
of Independence Hall, a round of applause greeted him,
the bell tolled forth a salute, and this was the signal for
a ofeneral outburst of enthusiasm all alonor the line."

The General remained tv/o weeks in Philadelphia, the
recipient of the most cordial attentions on the part of
the citizens.

General Grant continued his trip through the southern

I: 'f

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III

"111

964

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

States, finally embarking on the steamer Admiral for
Havana. At Havana he was the recipient of the hearti-
est hospitality. An official banquet was given in his
honor at the palace. Many distinguished persons were
present. / i w.; ;. :

On the 13th of February General Grant embarked
for Vera Cruz, where he was cordially received by offi-
cials and citizens. While here the General visited Mo-
lino del Rey. " It was at the portal in the surrounding
wall of these buildings that the desperate assault was
made by the Americans which drove the Mexicans out
like rats toward Chapultepec, half a mile away, and im-
mortalized the spot in our national annals. The ancient
walls plainly shovi' the marks of bullets and of cannon-
balls. A plain monument upon the crest of a hill gives
due token of the event. It was here that General Grant,
then a young lieutenant, won his captaincy." On the
20th of March General Grant bade adieu to his Mexican
friends, retracing his route homeward.

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•■■■(:;■

CHAPTER LXVII.

THE CONVENTION OF 1880.

General Grant on a third term — His return from Europe — The movement for his
nomination — The acrimony aroused — The convention — Conk ling's masterly ora-
tion — The 306 — Garfield nominated — Blaine's State lost — Grant to the rescue —
What the result proved — An interview with the General on the subject.

Towards the close of General Grant's second term as
President there were many absurd newspaper publica-
tions charging him with an ambition for another term.
Nothing could have been farther from the truth, yet per-
sistent dwelling upon the subject had almost convinced
the country that he really had longings in that direction.
Therefore, a discussion sprang up, which was idle enough,
yet which created much interest at the time. To a great
many very good yet quite mistaken people, a third term
was a Pandora's ])ox full of evils. It meant Csesarism,
and tyranny, and a life tenure of office, and a reigning
family, and self-election and a great many other similar
things. So warm did the discussion become that at last,
in reply to a letter, General Grant was led into an utter-
ance on the subject. In it he said :

" It may happen in the future history of the country
that to change an executive because he has been eight
years in office will prove unfortunate, if not disastrous.
The idea that any man could elect himself President is
preposterous. It is a reflection upon the intelligence
and patriotism of the people to suppose such a thing pos-
sible. Any man can destroy his chances for an office,
but no man can force an election, or even a nomination.
To recapitulate: I am not, nor have I ever been, a can-
didate for renomination. I would not accept a nomina-
tion if it were tendered, unless it should come under
such circumstances as to make it an imperative duty —
circumstances not likely to arise." v.

General Grant showed that he meant this thoroughly

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LIFE OF GENERAL GRAAT.

by not allowing his name to go before the national con-
vention, which met shortly after. But he also put on
record his opinion that a third term for any President, if
his re-election seemed demanded by the exigencies of the
times, would be neither alarming nor unconstitutional.
He had too much confidence in his country to be alarmed
by such a bugaboo. At the same time he felt no desire
for any further public service. To use his own language
when his second term was ended, "I feel like a boy out
of school."

When the General returned from his trip around the
world he was at the height of his popularity. His splen-
did bearing before the nations of Europe had made the
country very proud of him. He was, at the time, the
most conspicuous man in the world. He had acquired
a knowledge of international affairs under circumstances
unparalleled. He had a broad experience of his own
country behind this. He was a man singularly equipped
for the duties of the executive chair, and, irresistibly, the
eyes of the country were turned to him.

His party had a distinct reason of expediency in ask-
ing for his nomination. Every Southern State voted the
Democratic ticket and the majority of the Northern States
voted the Republican ticket. This made the political
division also a sectional division, and the best interests
of the country demanded that it should be broken up. It
placed the republic in a situation dangerously similar to
that which had preceded the Rebellion, and the national
instincts of patriotism were opposed to it. General Grant
was the only man who could accomplish the change. He
had a record of undeviating friendship for both sections,
^vhich was possessed by no other man in public life.

Out of these causes grew the movement for Grant's
re-nomination in 1880. Without his knowledge and with-
out any consultation with him, the agitation began. It
-extended rapidly until it reached formidable proportions.
It was supported by the g»*eat leaders of his party, and
it was sustained by the majority of the masses. It was
a logical idea and it grew to powerful proportions almost
in a day. .;,..,..._,. , ._ -. ,^ ' -;- -'>:.' ^.- .■

THE CONVENTION OF 1880.

967

But it had its opposition too. There were candidates
for the office who had waited long and anxiously. They
were willing to use all the weapons of politics against
the friends of General Grant, but the ordinary ones
would not do. The exploded scandals of past campaigns
could not be revamped. He had been lifted so high that
scurrility would injure those who used it. Something
new must be found.

In this situation the baseless fear of the dangfer in a
third term naturally suggested itself. It could be used ef-
fectively and under a mask of patriotism. It involved a new
experiment and republics are most conservative in their
regard for precedents and traditions. It was recruited.
The sole plan of campaign of those opposed to Grant
was to manufacture sentiment against a third term. They
worked constantly and vigorously. The campaign grew
acrid and bitter. The complexion of every delegation
was watclicd with the most intense interest. Rarely
before had the country been wrought to such a pitch of
excitement.

Meanwhile General Grant remained silent. He could
not refuse the nomination because it had not been ten-
dered him. He had already expressed himself on the
subject of a third term, and there was absolutely nothing
further for him to say. Perhaps he did have an ambition
for four more years of the Presidency. Since his last
term he had learned a great deal and he knew that he
could bring to the duties of the office a full knowledge,
which v/ould be of advantage to his country. It is prob-
able, too, that as the struggle advanced, and he saw his
motives misconstrued and a position attributed to him
which he had never held, that a ratural desire to over-
come his detractors was born in his breast. However
this may be, it is quite certain that he finally became dis-
gusted with the struggle and the morning of the meeting of
the convention, telegraphed a leading Republican, then at
Chicago, not to allow his name to go before the body.
This telegram was suppressed.

In June, i88o, the Republican National Convention
met in Chicago. It was in many respects one of the

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LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

most striking assemblages ever gathered in this country.
Never were so many party leaders brought together.
The excitement ran very high and the most intense anx-
iety was felt in the result. Conkling, Cameron and
Logan constituted the triumvirate which led the Grant
forces. His opponents were divided among different as-
pirants, of whom Blaine was the most prominent. Sher-
man, Edmunds, Washburne and Windom were also put
in nomination.

Senator Roscoe Conkling naturally was chosen to
place General Grant in nomination, and when he arose
there was the greatest enthusiasm. In his slow, meas-
ured tones he delivered the following magnificent ora-
tion :

" When asked whence comes our candidate, we say
from Appomattox. [Applause.] Obeying instructions,
I should never dare to disregard expressing also my own
firm conviction, I rise in behalf of the State of New York
to prcpose a nomination with which the country and the
Republican party can grandly win. The election before
us will be the Austerlitz of American politics. It will
decide whether, for years to come, the country shall be
Republican or Cossack. The need of the hour is a can-
didate who can carry the doubtful States, North and
South, and believing that he, more surely than any other
can, can carry New York against any opponent, and can
carry not only the North, but several States of the South.
New York is for Ulysses S. Grant. He alone of living
Republicans has carried New York as a Presidential can-
didate. Once he carried it, even according to a Demo-
cratic count, and twice he carried it by the people's votes,
and he is stronger now ; the Republican party with its
standard in his hand is stronger now than in 1868 or
1872. Never defeated in war or in peace, his name is
the most illustrious borne by living man. His services
attest his greatness, and the country knows them by
heart. His fame was born not alone of things written
and ^aid, but of the arduous greatness of things done,
and dangers and emergencies will search in vain in the
future, as they have searched in vain in the past, for

THE CONVENTION OF 1880.

969

any other on whom the Nation leans with such confi-
dence and trust. Standing on the highest eminence of
human distinction, and having filled all lands with his
renown, modest, firm, simple and self-poised, he has seen
not only the titled, but the poor and the lowly in the
uttermost ends of the earth rise and uncover before him.
He has studied the needs and the defects of many sys-
tems of Government, and he comes back a better
American than ever, with a wealth of knowledge and
experience added to the hard common sense which so
conspicuously distinguished him while the fierce light
beat upon him throughout the most eventful, trying and
perilous sixteen years of the Nation's history. Never
having had a policy to enforce against the will of the
people, he never betrayed a cause or a friend, and the
people will never betray or desert him. Vilified and
reviled, ru.thlessly aspersed by numberless presses, not
in other lands, but in his own, assaults upon him have
strengthened and seasoned his hold on the public heart.
The ammunition of calumny has all been exploded ; the
powder has all been burned once. Its force is spent, and
Grant's name will glitter as a bright and imperishable
star in the diadem of the Republic when those who have
tried to tarnish it have moldered in forgotten graves, and
their memories and epitaphs have vanished utterly ;
never elated by success, never depressed by adversity,
he has ever in peace, as in war, shown the very genius of
common sense. The terms he prescribed for Lee's sur-
render foreshadowed the wisest principles and prophe-
cies of the true reconstruction ; victor in the greatest of
modern wars, he quickly signalized his aversion to war
and his love of peace by an arbitration of international
disputes, which stands as the wisest and most majestic
example of the kind in the world's diplomacy. When
inflation at the height of its popularity and frenzy had
swept both houses of Congress, it was the veto of Grant
which, single and alone, overthrew expansion and cleared
the way for specie resumption. To him, immeasurably
more than to any other man, is due the fact that every
paper dollar is as good as gold. With him as our leader,

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970

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

we shall have no defensive campaign, no apologies or
explanations to make ; the shafts and arrows have all
been aimed at him, and they lie broken at his feet. Life,
liberty and property wi!il find a safeguard in him. V/hen
he said of die black men m Florida, ' Wherever 1 am
they may come also,' he meant that had he power to
help it, the poor dwellers in the cabins of the South
should not be driven in terror from the homes of their
childhood and the graves of their murdered dead. When
he refused to receive Dennis Kearney in California, he
meant that lawlessness and Communism, although it
should dictate laws to a whole city, everywhere would
meet a foe in him, and that popular or unpopular, he will
hew to the line of right, let the chips fly where they may.
His integrity, common sense, his courige and unequalled
experience are the qualities offered to his country. The
only argument against accepting them would amaze Solo-
mon. He thought there could be nothing new under the
sun. Having tried Grant twice and found him faithful,
we are told we must not, even after an interval of years,
trust him again. What stultification does not such a fal-
lacy involve? The American people exclude Jefferson
Uavis from public trust. Why? Because he was the
arch-traitor and would-be destroyer, and now the same
people are asked to ostracize Grar'-, and not to trust him.
Why ? Because he was the arch-preserver of his coun-
try ; because, not only in war, but afterwards twice as
Civil Magistrate, he gave his highest, noblest effort to
the Republic. Is such absurdity an electioneering juggle
or hypocrisy's masquerade ? There is no field of human
activity, responsibility or reason in whicu rational beings
object to an agent because he had been weighed in the
balance and not found wanting, and because he has un-
equalled experience, making him exceptionally competent
and fit. From the man who shoes your horse to the
lawyer who pleads your cause, the officer who manages
your railway or your mill, the doctor into whose hands
you give your life, the minister who seeks to save your
soul, what man do you reject because you have tried
him, and by his works have known him ? What makes

THE CONVENTION OF 1880.

971

;he

the Presidential ofifice an exception to all things else in the
common sense to be applied to selectng its incumbent?
Who dares to put fetters on the free choice and judgment
which is the birthright of the American people ? Can it
be said that Grant has used official place and power to
perpetuate his power? He has no place, and official
power has not been asked for him. Without patronage
or power, without telegraph wires running from his house
to this convention, without election contrivances [Cries of
• Oh ! Oh ! ' and laughter] , without effort on his part,
his name is on his country's lips, and he is struck at by
the whole Democratic party, because his nomination will
be the death-blow to Democratic success. He is struck
at by others who find offense and disqualification in the
very services he has rendered, and in the very experi-
ence he has gained. Show me a better man ; name one
and I am answered ; but do not point as a disqualifica-
tion to the very facts which make this man fit beyond all
others. Let not experience disqualify or excellence im-
peach him. There Is no third term in the case, and the
pretense will die with the political dog-days which gen-
dered it. Nobody is really worried about a third term
except those hopelessly longing for a first term, and the
dupes they have made. This Convention is master of a
supreme opportunity. It can name the next President of
the United States, and make sure of his election and his
peaceful inauguration. It can break the power which
dominates and mildews the South. It can speed the
Nation in a career of grandeur, eclipsing all past achieve-
ments. We have only to listen above the din and look
beyond the dust of an hour to behold the Republican
party advancing to victory, with its greatest Marshal at
its head. [Tremendous applause.] "

Mr. Conkling's nommating speech, unparalleled in
political oratory, was received with the wildest delight.
The great building fairly shook with the transports of
applause, and, had the balloting taken place then. Gen-
eral Grant would unquestionably have been nomina-

But it was not to be. The resources of other ambi-

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972

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

tions were too great, and the acrimony which had
grown up during the prehpiinary campaign was too
bitter. Upon the thirty-sixth ballot James A. Garfield,
of Ohio, was nominated, both the leading candidates
having been defeated. Upon the first ballot Grant
had received 305 votes. On the last he received 313.
His average vote throughout was 306. His support-
ers had never deserted their colors.

GENERAL JAMES A. GARFIELD.

The campaign opened gloomily. Mr. Garfield had
not been the choice of his party. The anti-convention
struggle had been so bitter that Republicans felt that
either Grant or Blaine should be nominated. There
were grave factional differences and both factions were
disappointed. There was apathy everywhere, and defeat
seemed inevitable. To add to the threatening aspect of

THE CONVENTION OF 1880.

973

tho situation, Mr. Blaine lost his own State, Maine, for the
first time in twenty years in a Presidential election.

This catastrophe created general alarm in the party.
It seemed to foreshadow final disast(;r, and Republicans
turned at once to G-ant. He answered immediatel\-.
Cominii; out of his retirement, he delivered his remarkahh;
speech at Warren, Ohio, which turned the tide and secured
the election of Garfield. The popular response to that
speech proved beyond peradventure that General Oant
was the choice of the masses of his party for the Presidency.

In reviewing the extraordinary contest of 1880, the
most captious critic must concede that General Grant
maintained his dignity throughout. The question of a
third term was thrust upon him by his friends. He was
in no wise responsible ibr the inception or progress of
th'j movement. It was continued absolutely without his
knowledge or consent. Yet the after-results seem to
prove that the Republican leaders who conducted it
read correctly the wishes of their party.

In this connection an utterance by General Grant, after
his return from Cuba and Mexico in 1880, may not be
uninteresting. It is the testimony of Mr. Joseph G. Brown,
the first reporter who interviewed him after the conven-
tion. He says:

" I was introduced to General Grant in a Denver and
Rio Grande train and he said : ' I have not allowed a
newspaper man to approach me since the Chicago Con-
vention. You say you don't want to interview me. You
are welcome to publish anything I say. No, I never get
tired of traveling. I see new country, new faces, new
things and learn something all the time. What are my
reflections on the Chicago Convention? I have nothing
to say about politics ; but one thing you may put in your
paper: I feel more proud of the support of that 306,
more proud of their loyalty to me, than I would have felt
had I been elected President of the United States.'

"Thus General Grant talked freely for half an hour,
when at last I asked: 'General, do you sometimes
meet an old rebel soldier of the private ranks who fought
against you in any particular battle? ' ^ , ,, , ,. :_^, .,,

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LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

" • Yes, sometimes, seldom,' and he gazed meditatively
out of the window, as he placed his cicjar between his lips.

'•'*! asked the question because I was a rebel soldier
and fought against you in the batdes of Fort Donelson
and Champion Hill.'

"The General became serious. 'I honor all Confeder-
ate soldiers as I do all brave, conscientious men. You
were not at fault ; your leaders were. They knew that a
Southern confederacy was impossible and ought not to
be. I was fighting not against the South, hut for \t. In
every battle I felt a sympathy for you, and I felt that 1
was fighting for North and South — for the whole
nation. The result of that war proves my words. Sup-
pose the South had established a confederacy ; the poor
men there would have been the menial subjects of an
oligarchy. As it was before the war, every day's labor
of the poor man was in competition with slavery, and, in
public estimation, he had little or no estate. How much
worse it would have been had you retained slavery with
a separate government! But now see the difference
From all over the South your poor young men have gone
out or stayed at home and made for themselves fortune
and fame, just as you are doing in Colorado. You find
them bankers, millionaires, famous merchants, rich
miners. Congressmen, Senators, and otherwise filling
the most important positions in the councils of the
nation. With a Southern confederacy and slavery no
such blessings could come to the poor of the South.'

" He talked at length on this subject, and in all th,at
he said there was not an unkind word toward the South-
ern people ; but that which seemed uppermost in his
mind was the desire for harmony between the sections."

That this harmony would have been quickly completed
had General Grant been elected to the Presidency in
i8iio the scenes at his funeral fully attest.

CHAPTER LXVIII.

i".t

MR. CHILDS S RECOLLECTIONS.

Grant's relations with Mr. Childs — No formalities between them — Early associations
— Grant as an artist — A new trait in his character — His friendly relations with
Confederates — What he said about Tildeii — The Electoral Commission — The
discovery of his fatal illness — His smoliing habits — Ixis memory — General rem-
iniscences.

It is not an extravagance of language to say that Mr.
George W. Childs was General Grant's most intimate
friend. A thoroughly genuine man, the generous
instincts of Mr. Childs's nature found quick companion-
ship in the plain and unassuming, yet great military
chieftain. They had so many parts in common that inti-
macy followed hard upon the heels of first acquaintance-
ship, and it grew with the years. In the days of Grant's
triumph, when the flatterers were many and obtrusive,
Mr. Childs was not among them, but, in the after twilight,
he was the friend to whom he always turned. In shine
or in shadow he was the same. He felt for the ofreat

•

leader a strong, manly, earnest regard, and the feeling
was returned. There were no formalities or pretences
between them. They met and talked as men who knew
and appreciated each other. Their friendship began
when General Grant's career was only a probability. It
continued through the years when he was the idol of the
republic. But never was it stronger than when, in the
bitterness of the last gloaming, the chieftain's eyes looked
with sad pathos through the mists of Mount McGregor,
through the half-swung curtains of the hereafter, to
where futurity stood with " present arms " to welcome
the soldier who was to pass into its mystery. Therefore
Mr. Childs's recollections of General Grant have especial
value, and the story which follows has been given by

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MR. CHILDS'S RECOLLECTIONS.

977

him for this work that it may be preserved in enduring
form. He says : . /

" General Grant and I first met after the victory of
Vicksburg, in 1863. The General and Mrs. Grant came
to Philadelphia to make arrangements to put their chil-
dren at school in Burlington, N. J. From that time our
intimacy grew until his death. There were three char-
acteristics that were prominent in his life — justice, kind-
ness and firmness. He was the most modest of men.

" Seeing him, as I did, for nearly twenty years, or such
portions of the year as he was in the country, I had
ample opportunity to notice these qualities. We lived
on adjoining properties on the same land without any
division, and I might say there never was a day when we
were at Long Branch together but what I was either in
his house or he in mine. I never saw him in the war,
and never saw him in the field. I corresponded with
;iim during that time, and every opportunity he would
get he would come on to Philadelphia for the purpose
of seeing his family, and in that way he made a great
many friends. That was as early as 1863. He always
seemed to enjoy his visits there, as they gave him rest
during the time he was in the army, and also when he
was President.

" Much has been published about General Grant, but
there are some things I have not seen stated, and one
is that he had considerable artistic taste and talent. He
painted very well. One of his paintings, twelve by
eighteen inches, he gave to his friend, Hon. A. E. Borie,
of Phil clelphia, who was secretary of the navy. That
picture ' >, I believe, the only one that he painted which
is known 'r. be in existence. Of thfe others there is no
trace. He stood very high with his professor of draw-
ing at West Point, and if he had persevered in that line
might have made a good artist. He was always apt in
mathematics at.d drawing. The picture I referred to
was of an Indiai. chief, at a trading-post in the North-
west, exchanging skins and furs with a lot of traders and
trappers. The Indian stood in the foreground, and was
tlie central object. He was a noble figure, and was well

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LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

painted and in full and correct costume. I have seen
the painting often, which has been very much admired,
and he took a good deal of pride in it himself. He gave
it to Mr. Borie, as that gentleman was, perhaps, one of
his dearest friends, and the intimacy was kept up until
the latter's death.

" General Grant was not an ardent student. Early in
life he was somewhat of a novel reader, but more latterly
he read biography and travels. He was a careful reader
and remembered everything he read, but he had nothing
which could be distinctly called literary taste. He was
a great reader of newspapers. 1 remember once his
coming down here when Sherman's work had just been
published and I asked him if he had read the work. He
said ' no,' he had not had time to read it, and one of the
persons present observed, 'Why, General, you won't
find much in it about yourself. He doesn't seem to
think you were in the war.' The General said: *I don't
know ; I have read some adverse criticisms, but I am
going to read it and judge for myself.'

" After he had read the book over carefully and atten-
tively, I asked him what he thought of it. 'Well,' he
said, ' it has done me more than justice. It has given
me more credit than I deserved. Any criticism I might
make would be that I think he has not done justice to
Logan, Blair and other volunteer generals whom he calls
political generals. These men did their duty faithfully
and I never believe in imputing motives to people.'
General Sherman had sent the proof-sheets of that por-
tion of the work relatinof to General Grant to me before
the full book was published, and asked if I had any sug-
gestions and if I thought it was just to the General. I
then told Grant that the proofs were sent to me, and I
thought as he did that General Sherman had done him
full justice. It will be seen by this that General Grant
was always magnanimous to every one he came in con-
tact with, particularly his army associates. He was a
man who rarely ever used the pronoun I in conversation
when speaking of his battles.

"There is one amusing little incident I recall, apropos

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LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

of a large, full-sized portrait of General Sherman on his
* March to the Sea,' which hanors in my hall, and which
was painted from life by Kauffmann. Sherman sits in
front of the tent in a white shirt, without coat or vest.
The picture shows a camp-fire in front, and the moon-
light in the rear of the tents. The criticism of General
Graiit when he first saw it was : ' That is all very fine.
It looks like Sherman, but he never wore a boiled shirt
there, I am sure.'

" While living in Long Branch there was hardly a Con-
federate officer that came to the place without visiting
the General. He was always glad to see them, and with
those men he invariably talked over the war. The Gen-
eral had a very high opinion of General Joe Johnston,
and always spoke of him as being one of the very best
of Southern generals, and at one of my dinners I had
the pleasure of getting Johnston, Grant and Sherman
together.

" In regard to election matters General Grant was a
very close observer and had a wonderful judgment in
regard to results. One particular case may be cited.
During the canvass of his second term (toward the latter
part) there began to be doubts throughout the country
about the election. Senator Wilson, who was then run-
ning on the ticket for vice-president, who was a man of
the people and had a good deal of experience in election
matters for forty years, made an extensive tour through
the country, and he came to my house just after the tour,
very blue. He went over the ground and showed that
the matter was in a great deal of doubt. I went to see
General Grant and I told him about this feeling, particu-
larly as coming from Senator Wilson. The General said
nothing, but he sent for a map of the United States.
He laid the map down on the table, went over it with a
pencil and said : ' We will carry this State, that State
and that State,' until he nearly covered the whole
United States. It occurred to me he might as well put
them all in, and I ventured the remonstrance : * I think
it would not be policy to talk that way ; the election now
is pretty near approaching.' When the election came

MS. CHILDS'S RECOLLECTIONS.

981

the result of it was that he carried every State that he
had predicted, and that prediction was in the face of the
feeling throughout the country that the Republican cause
was growing weaker, and in spite of the fact that the
vice-president, who was deeply interested in the election,
had visited various parts of the country, south and west,
and had come back blue and dispirited.

" He was staying with me in Philadelphia during the
canvass of the election between Tilden and Hayes, and
on the morning of the momentous day after the election,
when the returns gave Tilden a majority of all the
electors, he accompanied me to my office. In a few
moments an eminent Republican senator and one or two
other leading Republicans walked in, and they went
over the returns. These leaders, notwithstanding the
returns, said, * Hayes is elected,' an opinion in which
the others coincided. General Grant listened to them
but said nothing. After they had settled the matter in
their own minds he said: 'Gentlemen, it looks to me
as if Mr. Tilden was elected.' He afterwards sent for
me in Washington and said : * This matter is very com-
plicated, and the people will not be satisfied unless
something is done in regard to it which will look like
justice. Now,' he continued, 'I have spoken of an
Electoral Commission, and the leaders of the party are
opposed to it, which I am sorry to see. They say that
if an Electoral Commission is appointed you might as
well count in Mr. Tilden. I would sooner have Mr.
Tilden than that the Republicans should have a Presi-
dent who could be stigmatized as a fraud. If I were
Mr. Hayes I would not have it unles^ it was settled in
some way outside the Senate. This matter is opposed
by the leading Republicans in the House and Senate
and throughout the country.'

'* President Grant invited the leading Republican
senators to dine with him to meet me that day and to get
their sentiment. He said to me : ' You see the feeling
here. I find them almost universally opposed to any-
thing like an Electoral Commission.' I named a leading
Democrat in the House, who was, perhaps, one of the

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LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

most prominent men in the country, a man of great in-
Huence and of great integrity of character, whom it
would be well for General Grant to see in the matter,
and the suggestion was acted on. I sent for this gentle-
man to come to the White House and put the dilemma
to him in President Grant's name as follows: ' It is very
hard for the President and very embarrassing as to men
on his own side that this matter does not seem to find
favor with them, as well as to have Democratic opposi-
tion. Republicans think you might as well count Tilden
in, but as the feeling throughout the country demands
as honest a count of the thing as possible, this
Electoral Commission ought to be appointed.'

" The answer at once was that the Democrats would
favor it, and it was through that gentleman and General
Grant that the matter was carried through. He sent
for Mr. Conkling and said, with deep earnestness :
'This matter is a serious one and the people feel it
very deeply. I think this Electoral Commission ought
to be appointed.' Conkling answered : ' Mr. President,
Senator Morton (who was then the acknowledged leader
of the Senate) is opposed to it and opposed to your
efforts ; but if you wish the Commission carried I can
do it.* He said : * I wish it done.' Mr. Conkling took
hold of the matter and put it through. The leading
Democrat I ha^'e spoken of took the initiative in the
House and Mr. Conkling in the Senate. General
Patterson, of Philadelphia, who was an intimate friend
of President Jackson, and a life-long Democrat, was
also sent for. He had large estates in the South and
a great deal of influence with the Democrats, and
particularly with Southern Democrats. General Patter-
son then was upwards of eighty, but he came down
there and remained one or two weeks with General
Grant, working hard to accomplish the purpose in view.
After the bill had passed and was waiting for signature,
General Grant went to a State fair in Maryland the
day it should have been signed, and there was much
perturbation about it.

" I was telegraphed by those interested that General

MR. CHILDS'S RECOLLECTIONS.

983

Grant was absent, and they were anxious about the
signing. I replied they might consider the matter as
good as signed, and the General came back at night
and put his name to the document. Just before General
Grant started on his journey around the world he was
spending some days with me, and at dinner, with Mr.
A. J. Drexel, Colonel A. K. McClure and myself,
General Grant reviewed the contest for the creation of
the Electoral Commission very fully and with rare
candor, and the chief significance of his view was in the
fact, as he stated it, that he expected from the begin-
ning until the final judgment that the electoral vote of
Louisiana would be awarded to Tilden. He spoke of
South Carolina and Oregon as jusdy belonging to
Hayes; of Florida as reasonably doubtful, and of
Louisiana as for Tilden.

"General Grant acted in good faith throughout the
whole business. It has been said that the changing of
the complexion of the court threw the matter into Hayes's
hands, and, if the court had remained as it was, Tilden
would have been declared President. General Grant
was the soul of honor in this matter, and no one ever
accused him or ever hinted that he was untruthful in
any way. I, for one, don't believe that he could possi-
bly tell a lie or act deceitfully. There is another point
of politics not generally known. During Garfield's can-
vass, Garfield became very much demoralized. He said
that he not only did think that tliey would not carry
Indiana, but he was doubtful if they would carry Ohio.
During that emergency strong appeals were made to
General Grant, and he at once threw himself into the
breach. He saw his strong personal friends and told
them they must help. There was one very strong man,
a senator, whom General Grant sent for and told him
that he must turn in, and, though he first declined, at
General Grant's urofent solicitation he entered the field
and contributed handsomely to the victory. General
Grant went into the canvass with might and main. The
tide was turned, and it was through General Grant's
personal efforts, seconded by his strong personal friends,

III

984

LIFE OF GENEKAL GRANT.

who did not feel any particular interest in Garfield's
election, that he was elected.

"As to General Grant'--, third term, he never by word
or by any letter ever su^orested *^':) any one that he
would like to be nominated for a i.iird term. Neither
Mr. Conkling, General Logan nor Senator Cameron
had any assurance from him in any way that he would
like the nomination, and they proceeded in that fight with-
out any authority from him whatever. His heart was not
on a third term at all. He had had enough of politics.
After his second term he told me, ' I felt like a boy out
of school.' At first Grant intended to decline. In his con-
versation with me he said : ' It is very difficult to decline
a thing which has never been offered ; ' and when he
left this country for the West Indies I said : • General,
you leave this in the hands of your friends.' He knew
I was opposed to a third term ; and his political friends
were in favor of it, not merely as friends, but because
they thought he was the only man who could be elected.
There is not a line of his in existence where he has ever
expressed any desire to have that nomination. Towards
the last, when the canvass became very hot, I suppose
his natural feeling was that he would like to win. That
was n '.ural. But he never laid any plans. He never
encouraged or abetted anything towards a third term
movement.

" He was very magnanimous to those who differed
from him, and when I asked him what distressed him
most in his political life he said : * To be deceived by
those I trusted.' He had a good many distresses.

"Apropos of his power ofthinking and of expressing
his thoughts, he wrote with great facility and clearness.
His centennial address, at the opening of the Exhibition
in 1876, was hastily prepared at my house, and there were
only one or two corrections in the whole matter. When
he went to England he wrote me a letter of fourteen
pages, giving me an account of his reception in England.
The same post that brought that letter contained a letter
from Mr. John Walter, proprietor of the London Times,
saying that he had seen our mutual friend, General

mej

MR, CHILDS'S RECOLLECTIONS.

985

Grant, on several occasions, and wondering how he was
pleased with his reception in England. The letter which
I had received was so apropos that I telegraphed it over
that very day to the London Times — fourteen pages of
manuscript — without one word being altered, and the
London Times next morning published this letter with
an editorial. It happened that the cablegram arrived in
London the very night the General was going through
the London Times office to see the establishment. In
the letter he said ht; thought the English people admir-
able, and he was deeply sensible of the unexpected atten-
tion and kindness shown him ; the letter was written to
a friend, he not supposing that it would ever be put in
print, and not one word had to be altered. I cite this to
show General Grant's facility in writing.

" In illustration of his perception of financial matters I
remember an instance. On one of the great financial
questions before Congress he was consulting with Mr. A.
J. Drexel, of Philadelphia, whom he regarded as one of
his strongest personal friends, and the General expressed
certain views, saying that he hac contemplated writing a
message. Mr. Drexel combated his views, and the
General reconsidered the matter and wrote a veto,
showing that he was open to conviction. Here was a
matter he had considered, he thought, fully, and when
this new light was given to him by Mr. Drexel he at
once changed and wrote a veto instead of favoring it.
A great many people had an idea that General Grant
was very much set in his opinions ; but while he had his
opinions, at the same time he was always open to con-
viction. Very often in talking with him he wouldn't
make an observation, and when you had got through it
would be difficult to tell exactly whether he had grasped
the subject or not, but in a very short time, if you alluded
to the matter again, you would find that he had grasped
it thoroughly. His power of observation and mental
assimilation was remarkable. There was no nonsense
about him. He was always neat in dress, but not
fastidious. He said he got cured of his pride in regi-
mentals when he came home from West Point.

i<>i

|!5
II' 'i

98«

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

"Speaking on one or two occasions of the burial of
soldiers, he observed that his oUl chief, General Scott,
was buried at West Point, and that he would like to be
buried there also. This was several years ago and
mentioned merely in casual conversation. And I think
once or twice afterwards it might have been alluded to
incidentally.

" There was a paragraph in the newspapers recently
referring to the speech of Hon. Chauncey Depew that
Grant had saved the country twice. I don't know what
could have been meant by that paragraph. In the
Electoral Commission he saved a great deal of trouble,
but whether he saved the country or not is another
question. I don't know whether or not that could be
the implication. What I have said about the Electoral
Commission I have said of my own knowledge.

"General Grant, surrounded by those he knew well,
always did two-thirds of the talking. He was a reticent
and diffident man in general company, and it was not
until he was out of the Presidency that he became a
public speaker. He told a story that he was notified
once that he was expected to make a speech in reply to
one which was given him, and he looked it over and
wrote his answer carefully, but when he got up he was
stricken dumb. He utterly lost himself and could not
say a word. After that he did not want to hear what
was going to be said, and never prepared anything. A
gentleman told me that, in going to Liverpool and Man-
chester, a committee came down to meet him, and
brought an address of what they were going to say to
show it to him. He said, ' No, I have had one experi-
ence. I don't want to see it.' The last speech he ever
made, the last time he ever addressed the public, was
last summer, a year ago this month, at Ocean Grove.
Governor Oglesby was staying with him at his cottage,
and George H. Stuart, who was one of his earliest and
dearest friends, came up to ask him if he would not
come down to Ocean Grove, being the first time he
appeared in public since his misfortunes. He was then
lame, and was compelled to use his crutches. He found

MJi. CHILDS'S RECOLLECTIONS.

987

ten thousand people assembled. They cheered him, and
he arose to make a few remarks. After saying a few
words he utterly broke down, and the tears trickled down
his cheeks. That was the last time he ever appeared
in public.

••A year ago this month attention was first dirt :ted to
his disease. He told me he had a dryness in his throat,
and it seemed to trouble him, and whenever he ate a
peach, of which he was very fond, he always suffered
pain. I said Dr. Da Costa, one of the most eminent
physicians of the country, was coming down to spend a
few days with me. He was an old friend, and would be
glad to look into the matter. Dr. Da Costa, on arriv-
ing, went over to the General's house, examined him
carefully, gave a prescription, and asked the General
who his family physician was. General Grant said For-
dyce Barker, and he was advised to see him at once. I
could see that the General was suffering a good deal,
though uncomplaining, and durinof the summer several
times he asked me if I had seen Da Costa, and seemed
to want to know exactly what was the matter with him.
General Grant, after he got worse, said to me : ' I want
to come over and see you, and have a talk with Da
Costa.' He was not afraid of the disease after he
knew all about it, and the last time I saw him, just before
he went to Mount McGregor, he said : ' Now, Mr. Childs,
I have been twice within a half a minute of death. I
.realize it fully, and my life was only preserved by the
skill and attention of my physicians. I have told them
the next time to let me go.'

" The General had great will-power, and the determina-
tion to finish his book kept him up. He quickly made up
his mind that it was a fatal disease, but he was resolute
to live till his work was done. He said : If I had been
an ordinary man I would have been dead long ago.'

"In good health General Grant would smoke a
dozen very large, strong cigars a day ; but he could stop
smoking at any time. He told me that, towards the
latter part of last summer, he was smoking fewer and
milder cigars, perhaps two or three a day. In Feb-

i'i' X

' 1

,1.

988

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

KiiT; ■ TV?

ruary ct this last year he expected to pay me a visit.
He wrote, saying: 'The doctor will not allow me to
leave until the weather gets warmer. 1 am now quite
well in every way, except a swelling ef the tongue
above the root, and the same thing in the tonsils just
over it. It is very difficult for me to swallow enough
to maintain my strength, and nothing gives me so much
pain as to swallow water.' I asked him about that, and
he said : ' If you could imagine what molten lead would
be going down your throat, that is what I feel when I
am swallowing.' In that letter he further said, *I have
not smoked a cigar since about the 20th of November ;
for a day or two I felt as though I would like to smoke,
but after that I never thought of it.'

" I remember a year ago a number of the scien-
tists wrote that they would meet in Montreal from all
parts of the world. Sir Wm. Thomson and others
asked whether I would present them to General Grant.
Some of them had met him. Of course, I was very
glad to present them. I said to him in the morning:
* General, the scientists from Canada are coming down
here, and they are very anxious to pay their respects to
you.' 'Oh,' he replied, 'I have met some of these
people abroad • I will be very glad to see them.' They
came to my house, and we walked across the lawn to
the General's. He sat on thj piazza and could not
stand alone, but was on his crutches, and was presented
to every one of them, shaking hands with each one. He,
would say to one gentleman, ' How are you. Professor?
I met you in Liverpool ; ' and to another, 'Why, how
are you ? I met you in London,' and, * I am glad to see
you ; I met you in Manchester.' So he recognized each
of these visitors as soon as he laid eyes on them, and
they told me afterward, ' Why, I only met him casually
once with a party of people.' This power of recogni-
tion was remarkable. I asked him afterwards whether
he had lost the power. He answered, ' No, I have not
lost the power. If I fix my mind on a person I never
forget him, but I see so many that I don't always do it.'
I can illustrate an instance of his memory of persons.

MR. CHILDS'S RECOLLECTIONS.

During one of the times he was staying in Philadelphia
we were walking down Chestnut street together, and in
front of a large jeweller's establishment a lady came out
of a store and was entering her carriage. General
Grant walked up to her, shook hands with her, and put
her in the carriage. 'General, did you know that
lady ? ' ' Oh, yes,' he replied ; ' I know her.' ' Where
did you see her ? ' ' Well, I saw her a good many years
ago out in Ohio and at boarding-school. She was one
of the girls there.' ' Did you never see her before or
since?' He said, *No.' The lady was the daughter
of a very prominent Ohio man, Judge Jewett, and the
next time she saw me she said : ' I suppose you told
General Grant who I was.' I said I did not. * Why,
that is very remarkable,' she answered, in a surprised
tone ; ' I was only one of two or three hundred girls, and
I only aw him at school. I have never seen him since.'

"The man who was, perhaps, nearer to him than
any one in his cabinet was Hamilton Fish. He had
the greatest regard for the latter's judgment. It was
more than friendship — it was genuine affection between
them, and General Grant always appreciated Mr. Fish's
staying in his cabinet. Mr. Fish, if he had been gov-
erned by his own feelings, would have left the cabinet.
It was General Grant's desire to have Mr. Fish as his
successor in the Presidency.

"Apropos of the Indian matter, he told me that, as a
young lieutenant, he had been thrown among the
Ihdians, and had seen the unjust treatment they had
received at the hands of the white men. He then made
up his mind if he ever had any influence or power it
should be exercised to try to ameliorate their condition,
and the Indian Commission was his idea. He wished to
appoint the very best men in the United States. He
selected William Welsh, William E. Dodge, Felix
Bruno, of Pittsburgh, Colonel Robert Campbell, of St.
Louis, and George H. Stuart, of Philadelphia. They
were a portion of the Indian Commission which he
always endeavored to establish, and they always could
count upon him in aiding them in every possible way.

1:1

'1 51

1 SI

, !

090

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

He took the greatest interest always, and never lost
that interest. Kven to his last moments he watched the
progress of the matter, but it was a very difficult matter
to handle at any time, and then especially, as there was
a great Indian ring to break up.

•' He was of a very kindly nature, generous to a fault.
I would often remonstrate with him and say, 'General,
you can't afford to do tliis,' and I would try to keep
people away from him. In the case of one subscription,
when they wanted him to contribute to a certain matter
which I did not think he was able to do, I wouldn't let
them go near him. Some injudicious person went there
and he subscribed a thousand dollars.

"General Grant loved his family, and seemed happiest
in his home circle, surrounded by his devoted wife, their
children and grandchildren. I have never seen a case
of greater domestic happiness than existed in the Grant
family. Perfect love had indeed ' cast out all fear,' and
it was delightful to see his grandchildren romping with
him and saying just what came uppermost in their
thoughts in their childish innocency.

"General Grant always felt that he was badly treated
by Halleck, but he rarely ever spoke unkindly of any
one. In fact, 1 could hardly say he spoke unkindly, but
he did ft^el that he was not fairly treated by Halleck.
During one of my last visits to him he showed me his
army orders, which he had kept in books. He had a copy
of everything he ever did or said in regard to army matters.
He was very careful about that, as he had written all the
orders with his own hand. He pointed to one of this
large series of books and said that it was fortunate that
he had kept these things, because several of the orders
could not be found on any record at the War Depart-
ment. But during my long friendship I never heard
him more than two or three times speak unkindly of
Halleck, although he was very unjustly treated by him —
a fact which I think will be borne out by the records. I
told him of somethinof that occurred to me in connection
with one of the parties in charge of the records at
Washington. He had been a strong friend of Halleck,

MR. CH/LDS'S RECOLLECTIONS.

981

and prejudiced against General Grant in the office,
where all these things passed through his hands. But,
after twenty years of examination, he said there was not
a line relating to Grant that did not elevate him in the
minds of thinking people.

"It was through me that General Grant first came to
Long Branch. He always enjoyed being here. He was
totally unspoiled by all the honors conferred upon him.
He was simple, unaffected, and attached all the people
to him. He drove out twice a day, and knew every by-
way within twenty miles. It was his habit to drive out
every morning after breakfast for a long distance, and
then he would come home and read the papers or any
books he might have in hand. He was very careful in
answering his correspondence. Most of his letters were
begging letters of some kind or other, and I remember
an incident showing his justness and tenderness of heart.
Once he had two cases of petition. He said, ' I did
a thing to-day that gave me great pleasure. There was
a poor Irishwoman who had a boy in the army that
came down from New York and had spent all her
money. She had lost several boys in the army, and
this one she wished to get out of the service to help
support her. I gave her an order and was very glad to
do it,' but he did not add that he gave her also some
money. ' In contrast to that there was a l.idy of a very
distinguished family of New York, who came here and
wanted me to remove her son from Texas. He was an of-
ficer in the army, and I told her I could not do that. My
rich petitioner then said, " Well, could you not remove
his regiment?" at which, you can guess, I could hardly
help laughing.' Grant didn't hesitate a moment to re-
fuse a rich woman's unreasonable request, but it gave
him pleasure to grant the petition of a poor Irishwoman.

" He was very kind to the poor, and, in fact, to every-
body, especially to widows and children of army officers.
I gave him the names of quite a number of army officers'
sons for appointment in the navy or army. He said, ' I
am glad to have those. I like to appoint army and navy
men's children, because th(-y have no political infiuence.'

ii:

: 1 <l

it''

992

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

One-tenth of his appointments were the children of de-
ceased army or naval officers, young men without in-
fluence to get into West Point. There was hardly an
army man, Confederate or Union, who was not a friend
of General Grant. For General Sheridan he had an af-
fectionate regard, and I have often heard him say that he
thought him the greatest fighter that ever lived, and if
there was another war he would be the leader. He never
excited the jealousy or enmity of these people, he was so
just. When he was mistaken there was no man more
ready to acknowledge a mistake. He showed a great
tenacity in sticking to friends longer than he ought to
have done. When I spoke to him about this he would
answer, * Well, if I believed all I hear, I would believe
everybody was bad.' General Grant would say there
was nobody who came in contact with him but that he
was traduced, and secondly, he very often had to depend
upon his own judgment in the matter. One of his ex-
pressions was, ' Never desert a friend under fire.'

"General Grant rarely alluded to those who had
abused his confidence, even to his most intimate friends.
No matter how much a man had injured him, he was
wont to say that he felt to the end what he might have
felt in the outset. ,

" Grant had the greatest admiration for Joseph John-
ston, and Johnston for him ; and when it was first pro-
posed to bring up the retiring bill, Johnston, who was
then in Congress, was to take the initiative in the
matter. The passage of that bill gave great gratifica-
tion to the General. I happened to be with him on the
4th of March, and was talking with him, and said : * Gen-
eral, that bill of yours will pass to-day.* ' Mr. Childs,'
he said, 'you know that during the last day of a session
everything is in a turmoil. Such a thing cannot pos-
sibly be passed.' 'Well,' I said. ' Mr. Randall assured
me that that thing would be passed.' He answered : ' If
anybody in the world could pass that bill I think Mr.
Randall could. But I don't think it is at all likely, and I
have given up all expectation.' While I was talking
fthis was about 1 1.30 a. m.) I got a telegram from Mr.

MR. CHILDS'S RECOLLECTIONS.

993

A. J. Drexel, saying the bill had passed, and the General
seemed exceedingly gratified. I remarked, 'General,
the part that some of the men took in that matter was
not justified.' ' Oh, perhaps they thought they were
right. I have no feeling at all ; I am only grateful that
the thing has been passed,' he answered. Mrs. Grant
came in and I said, ' Mrs. Grant, we have got good news ;
the bill is passed.' She cried out, ' Hurrah ! our old com-
mander is back.' In answer to a remark tbat it would
be very good if it could be dated from the time of going
out, he said, 'Oh, no; the law is to date from the time
one accepts. In the early part of the war I saw in the
newspapers that I was appointed to a higher rank, and I
wrote on at once and accepted on the strength of the
newspaper report. In about two months' time, through
red tape, I got my appointment, but I got my pay from
the time I wrote accepting the newspaper announce-
ment, and I saved a month's pay by that.'

"As to Fitz-John Porter, I spoke to him during the
early stages of it, at a time when his mind had been pre-
judiced by some around him, and when he was very
busy. Afterwards, when he looked into the matter, he
said he was only sorry that he had so long delayed
going at the examination as he ought to have done. He
felt that if ever a man had been treated badly Porter
was. He had examined the case most carefully, gone
over every detail, and he was perfectly well satisfied that
Porter was righu He wanted to do everything in his
power to have him righted, and his only regret was that
he should have neglected so long and have allowed him
to rest under injustice.

** There are few men that would take a back track as
General Grant did so publicly, so determinedly and so
consistently right through. I had several talks with him,
and he was continually reiterating his regrets that he
had not done justice to Porter when he had the oppor-
tunity. He ran counter to a great many of his political
friends in this matter, but his mind was absolutely clear.
Not one man in a thousand would go back on his record
in such a matter, especially when he was not in accord

994

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

with the Grand Army or his strong political friends.
Grant went into the matter most carefully, and his publi-
cations show how thoroughly he examined the subject,
but he never wavered after his mind was fixed. Then
he set to work to repair the injury done Porter. If Grant
had had time to examine it while he was President he
would have carried it through. That was his great
regret. He felt that while he had power he could have
passed it and ought to have done it. When Grant took
pains and time to look into the matter no amount of
personal feeling or friendship for others would keep him
from doing the right thing. He could not be swerved
from the right.

"Another great trait of his character was his purity
in every way. I never heard him express or make an
indelicate allusion in any manner or shape. There is noth-
ing I ever heard him say that could not be repeated in
the presence of women. If a man was brought up for
an appointment, and it was shown that he was an im-
moral man, he would not appoint him, no matter how
great the pressure brought to bear upon him.

"General Grant would sit in my library with four or
five others talking freely and doing perhaps two-thirds
of the talking. Let a stranger enter whom he did not
know, and he would say nothing more during that even-
ing. Tliat was one peculiarity of his. He wouldn't
talk to people unless he understood them. At a dinner
party with a certain set that he knew all well he would
lead in the conversation, but any alien or novel element
would seal his tongue. This great shyness or reticence
sometimes, perhaps, made him misunderstood."

CHAPTER LXiX.

COLONEL MCCLURE'S ESTIMATE.

The great men of the war period — Lincoln, Stevens and Thomas — Gimparative
estimates of the three— The Lincoln cabinet and its jealousies— General Grant's
position in history — An incident of the early days of the war — Grant's recog-
nition of the situation -What Stanton said.

There are few public men whose true position in the
accepted history of the world can be defined, either
during their lives, or until the generation in which they
achieved distinction has passed away. All greatness
must be attained by sharp conflict with the prejudices,
passions and interests of others. There is no victor in
peace or in war, in the forum or field, without vanquished,
and the presence of greatness always dwarfs itself by the
inevitable presence of the infirmities which are the inher-
itance of all, and which are often least restrained in those
who overshadow others in the race of life. I can recall
but three men, of all the chieftains and civilians who shed .
the richest lustre on the annals of the history of human
achievment in our civil war, who steadily grew larger in
stature as they were more closely approached. They
were Abraham Lincoln, Thaddeus Stevens and George
H. Thomas, and the one man who never exhibited the
weaknesses common to all was General Thomas ; but
that he was not exempt from them was told in the silent
but impressive eloquence of his death.

The victor of Nashville, like the victor of Gettysburg,
fretted his great life away. Lincoln and Stevens wore their
infirmities on their sleeves, and they were as different as
their opposite characteristics of greatness, but their infirm-
ities were dwarfed, even on the closest inspection, by the
rare intellectual power which could subordinate all things
to great ends. Lincoln is secure in history as statesman,
patriot, emancipator ; Stevens is yet the ungainly statue

995

IMI

996

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

that will attain symmetry and grandeur only by the dis-
tance of the pinnacle of the temple on which time aloiio
can place him. He was the Commoner of the nation in iis
sorest trial, and in the greatest triumphs of man for man,
and that is the only position born of a free government
that favoritism or fortuitous circumstance cannot gain.
Presidents, Cabinets, Senators arc often accidents, but
the Commoner of the people in the popular branch of
the government must be single from all his fellows in
merit.

It was my fortune to know all the great actors in the
late civil war, and to see many of them in the green and
in the dry. They were much as otiier men of lesser
note \a all but their achievements, and their infirmities
were often as conspicuous as their greatness. In civil
and military circles, ambition, jealousy, intrigue and all the
passions of littleness were almost as common as in the
ward political conclave. There were generals who in some
measure share the honors of the Union arms, whom justice
would have shot by loyal platoons, and there were
statesmen whose fervency in the cause of patriotism will
be noted in history, to whom the banishment of Val-
landigham would have been less than half-way justice.
Military and political necessities saved many weak and bad
men from just obloquy, and they have forged lies which
will be crystallized into liistory.

I recall the Lincoln Cabinet as unable to meet in
full conference for weeks, because of the petty jeal-
ousies and bickerings of great men, and at a time when
they were administering the government in a practi-
cally beleaguered capital. I have heard commanders
of the Army of the Potomac and their chief lieutenants
accuse each other of incompetency and treason, and
there never was a great campaign of that army until 1864,
when there was even an approach to harmony in the
councils to which were entrusted the safety of the Re-
public. Success was made impossible by the internal
conflicts of greatness, but success came at last to the
Union arms by a harmony in authority that was enforced,
and not voluntary. The man and the occasion came

COLONEL McCLURKS ESTIMATE.

097

together; the necessity was the life of the nation that
had made ambition and interest bow before it ; the man
was Ulysses S. Grant.

General Grant's position in history can be as well de-
fined to-day by the intellijLjent observer of public events and
public sentiment as itwili b ' when all who knew his infirm-
ities shall have passed away and memory of them shall
have perished " None but himself can be his parallel."
There is no one of his fellow-chieftains within reach of
comparison.

There are those living who believe that others
could have succeeded as well or better had they reached
Grant's opportunities ; but neither the ruling sentiment
of the present nor the records of history take pause for
such remote possibilities. There is nothing successful
but success in war, and that tells the whole story. Gen-
eral Grant met the full measure of the nation's sore
necessities, and he is the only warrior who did it. His
personal weaknesses or his military errors were effaced
by Vicksburg and Appomattox, and the pages of history
will crystallize irito imperishable fame his distinction as
the first soldier of the world in his day.

Had General Grant been called to Washington in
1 86 1, or at any time before 1863, another than (irant
might have enacted the final drama that he enacted at
Appomattox. When war first appalled the country,
Grant's methods would have doomed him to dismissal
and possibly dishonor, if in command in Washington.

I can best illustrate the education that was necessary
to prepare the country for Grant's bloody campaign
from the Rapidan to Richmond by recording two ex-
pressions from General Burnside. In the fall of 1861,
General McClellan was in front of Washington, facing
Manassas, with an army of probably 150,^00 men. It
was a rare Virginia autumn, and until late in December
the roads were dry and the weather genial. There was
unusual impatience for McClellan to advance, but he
tarried until winter came.

Why he did it, and whether wisely or unwisely, I
do not discuss ; but at a social gathering at Willard's

• 5' I

998

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Hotel, late in the fall of 1861, I pressed inquiries on
the subject with earnestness upon Generals Burnside,
Heintzelman and others, to which Burnside finally made
this frank reply, — " Yes, he could march upon Manas-
sas at will and he could take Richmond, but it would
cost 10,000 lives to do it." I was appalled into si-
lence, as were all present, at the sacrifice named as
necessary to capture Riciiinond by Manassas, and the
country would then have been sickened at such a cost
for the possession of the Confederate Capital. On the
morning of the second day after the battle of Fred-
ericksburg I saw General Burnside at the War-Office,
and, in answer to my inquiry about the loss sustained by
that disastrous conflict, he answered, " Our loss, includ-
ing killed, wounded, missing and even scratched, is only
17,000."

The sacrifice of that battle shocked the country,
and did much to dispirit the loyal sentiment of the
North ; but even then the fruitless sacrifice of 1 7,000
men was not weighed for a moment against the great issue
of the Union of the States, while the sacrifice of 10,000 men
in 1861 for the capture of Richmond would liave flung the
pall of mourning and despair over the land. But after
Fredericksburg came Chancellorsville, with its greater
loss and greater defeat, and after that came Gettysburg
with more than 45.000 of blue and gray warriors strewn
upon the field, and'then, and only then, was the nation
schooled to the sacrifice necessary to call Grant and
Grant's military methods to supreme command.

When 1864 came there had been great victories in the
West, and the Father of Waters again went " un vexed
to the sea ;" but Lee's army was the heart of the rebel-
lion and it had never suffered a great defeat. Gettys-
burg stood alone as a claimed Union victory, but the
measure of that victory was not then known by the nation.
It was, in fact, the decisive battle of the war but only
the South appreciated the completeness of Meade's
triumph for his cause.

Tjie hunger-cry of the country was for peace by the
speedy destruction of Lee's army, and all questions

COLONEL McCLURES ESTIMATE.

099

of cost of life and treasure were overlooked in the
demand for a restored Union by conquered rebellion.
The occasion had fully ripened, for the man ; the man,
had fully ripened for tiie occasion, and Grant assumed
command of the army with but one purpose, and
of him was expected but one achievement, — the an-
nihilation of Lee's army, regardless of cost. Instead
of calculating^ the loss of 10,000 men as all calculated it
in 1 86 1, Grant lost more than 10,000 men in consecutive
battles day after day, and often in fruitless conflict, until
he left behind him between the Rapidan and the James,
in killed, wounded and missing, more men than Lee ever
had on his front.

But the wide, bloody gaps in his ranks were promptly
filled up, and as the dead and wounded were borne
back to Washington, other tens of thousands of fresh

warriors passed them in the march to take their vacant
places. Secretary Stanton fairly expressed the senti-
ment of the country that sustained Grant, soon after
Grant had passed the Wilderness. In discussing the
campaign with the writer, the War Minister pointed out
Grant's position on a large map and said :

" Grant is now tl ^re ; he will soon be supplied from the
James; he will have every fallen man promptly replaced;
Lee must grow weaker with every battle, and Lee's army
won't survive the campaign. Grant will have all the men
he wants without question ; he will plan and execute his
own movements without hindrance ; he is the greatest
General of the world, and he will soon give us the final
victory we should have had years ago."

Grant had grown even above Stanton's imperious com-
mand, and that was an achievement that no other com-
mander had dreamed of. He was a thoroughly trained sol-
dier. He had no taste for dress parade or for the ephemeral
fame sought by newspaper Generals; but he had the one
quality that distinguished him from all other command-
ers, — he rose to the full measure of every enlarged duty
and responsibility and fully trusted his own power to
meet their requirements.

He never lost faith in his army or in himself. He was

1000

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT,

no more self-reliant as a Brigadier than he was as Lieu-
tenant-General, and he never confessed defeat. Defeated
he was time and again, but when others would have fled
from Shiloh, or from Vicksburg, or from the Wilderness,
he had only one order — advance ! It was his matchless
pluck that saved Shiloh, that saved Vicksburg, that saved
the Wilderness campaign, that captured Lee and Rich-
mond, and he wrote a volume of history in the Wilder-
ness dispatch that only one man could have written, " I
propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."
That one brief sentence sums up the military attributes
of the man, and it tells the whole story of Grant's ever-
brightening star while others faded in strategic hesitation.
That he erred at times in his military movements is doubt-
less the truth, but he must have been more than mortal to,
have escaped mistakes. The conviction is general that he
erred at Shiloh and that he erred at Cold Harbor, but
who recalls it in analyzing him as the first soldier of the
Republic? When the nation was ready for him, he
came ; he gave the nation victory and peace, and he was
crowned in fadeless chaplets as the Chieftain of the
first government of the peoples of the earth.

CHAPTER LXX.

THE COMMANDKRS LAST DAYS.

Genera] Grant's list sickness — The pathos of his twilitrht days — I lis sufferings over
the faiUire — The be^jinniny of llie end — The work upon his i)ook — I'hc coming
of NelUe — His sixty-third birthday — The attiuk of April — I'aken to Mt.
McGregor — General Huckner's visit — National uriif — Kcuiiiuii of the sections —
His last pathetic letti-r — Death.

The rich, splendid rhythm of General Cirant's charac-
ter was never broken. The serene fortitude held to
the end. Through the profound pathos of his twilight
days, when the sombre shadow of death fell ominously
across the summer brightness, he was still the same.
Patient, with the patience of tenderness ; considerate,
with the thoughtfulness of love ; resigned, with the dig-
nity of a soldier, he turned his wasting face calmly
towards the one foe to whom he must surrender his un-
stained sword. He buoyed himself with no false hopes.
He allowed no momentary fancy of returning vigor to
blind his eyes. He knew that life lay behind him and that
the dews of the great mystery were gathering upon his
brow. The wonderful record of his career — of white-
souled patriotism, of earnest manhood, of fierce events,
of generous kindlli^.ess, of great honors — was almost
made up, and God stood with waiting pen to write Jim's.

The great commander s final days were not happy
ones. What should have been the mellow gloaming of
his great life had sharp and bitter recollections. There
was an ever-present memory in his mind of a trust that
had been betrayed. There was in his ears the sound of
the crash of a delusion that had been built upon the
sand. Back to haunt him again came the poverty, which
had lingered by his hearthstone during his youth and
early manhood. Ingratitude and dishonesty had taken
advantage of his confiding nature, and the disease that was
destroying his body was not nearly as pregnant with

1001

1002

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

suffering as the disease which was eating away his heart.
Yet he struggled under it nobly and strongly. His
magnificent sense of dui;y still ruled him. The bolt of
financial ruin tell upon him in his kter days and his first
thought was for his family. The ruin that had over-
whelmed him inchicled those whom he loved best. The
splendid sense of domestic tenderness was still para-
mount, and the last months of his life were spent in

MRS. ULYSSES S. GRANT.

writing the story of his career, that those who depended
upon him should have something for their support after
he had laid down the now heax) burden of living and
had passed into history. Never was a book written
under circumstances more pathetic. Never was there
shown a finer 'nstinct antl realization of self-sacrifice.
Never was a great life ended as greatly.

THE COMMANDER'S LAST DAYS.

1003

It was in December of 1884, that the fatal cancer
made its appearance. He w^ > placed at once under
medical treatment, and seemed to grow better. Still
his sufferings were very great. P^or a quarter of a cen-
tury he had lived under a terrible strain, and his con-
stitution had been so insidiously, but dangerously
undermined, that it could not readily throw off an attack

COL. I'RKDERirK D. '.RANT.

that might have lain donnaiit for a long time under
more fortunate circumstances. In^'n came the crash of
the failure, and mental iliscouragemcnt was added to do
its deadly work upon a failing physical vitality. Mind
was exercising its occult but mighty influence upon the
dissolution of matter. The hopelessness that would not

1004

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

resist disease but for an object was assisting the great
destroyer.

Yet he was not to pass away quickly. He had found
the object in his memoirs, and he worked away upon
them constandy. Not from any greed of gain, not from
any vanity in past achievement, but from the practical
sense of duty which was phvavs foremost in his mind.

ULYbSES S). (JKANT, Ji<.

In fighting death the d) iiiir man was also fighting want
away from the darkened and k)iicly door of the true
wife who had been at his side through all his trials and
all his triumphs. For her sake he struggled against the
inevitable, and lived on, and wrote on, when the Shadow
was dark upon the pages.

THE COMMANDER'S LAST DAYS.

1005

He was no longer the man he had been. His sturdy
frame had lost its strength. His voice had died to a
whisper. His face was emaciated, and his eyes were
sunken and dim. He was walking down the last path,
bending under the burden of a great weariness. Yet

JE.SSE K. liRANT.

his memory and .lis mind were as clear as ever. His
marvelous will was still unbroken. The soldier of many
battles was fighting his last and greatest. It was not
until his book was completed that his longing for an end
to the suffering came. And then he wrote upon his
tablets with trembling hand *• I want to go!"

■<■ \

-.V,

lOOi)

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

For nearly a year before the cancer at the root of his
tongue fully developed itself General Grant had been
virtually a cripple. He had sustained a fall on the side-
walk, in front of his house, the winter before, from the
effects of which he never recovered. His hip had been
seriously injured, and he was compelled to ^o about on
crutches. The cancer was first discovered by Dr. Da
Costa, who advised him to sec his j)hysician. Dr. Fordyce
B" ker at once. Subsequently, Drs. Shrady and Doug-
lass were called in. When the treatment first bep^an
the disease seemed to yield to it, but on May 6th, 1884,
the failure of the firm of Grant & Ward occurred, and,
after that, the General's only desire was to provide for
his family and die

The failure was a great and bitter shock to tne chief.
He had been ignorant of the affairs of the firm, and
believed that it was in the most prosperous condition.
When it closed its doors, he was consumed with the
fear that the name which he had made so great, and
which he had guarded so carefully, would be dragged
in the dust. He felt that those who had betrayed him
had used his friendship for despicable purposes, and he
was bewildered at the devious mazes into which they
had dragged him. Exceedingly sensitive to criticism
upon his motives, with a past experience of the quick
judgment of a cruel public, he feared that he might be
included in the general condemnation which followed
the fall. The fear was not realized, but it [)rcyed upon
his mind night and day. His hours were full of painful
thought. The sleep which used to come so readily to
his pillow in times of the greatest responsibility was now
no longer his friend. The splendid vitality which had
sustained him in past trials was gone. There was no
hope ahead and much anguish of brain in the present.
He was a broken old man, with little recuperative
power, and a bitter cup had been held to his lips.

It was at this time that the disease took its strong
hold. It found the advantage in his weakness and
mental depression, and pushed it with deadly effect

■A

III

W
^

1008

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

Stunned as he was, at first, by the greatness of the
calamity which had fallen upon him he did not resist.
He longed for death and its dreamless peace. The world,
outside, seemed a vague whirl of wicked suspicion and
falsity, and he wanted to get away from and out of it
to the sombre silence which would never be broken by
its murmurs.

The cloud lifted slightly, however. From every side
came condolence and sympathy. In the great darkness
of the moral tragedy he had misjudged it. He had
been " too clear in his great offices," too long in the
fierce light of public discussion, to be entirely misunder-
stood. Slander ventured not near his sick room, and
foes became friends. There came a universal reaction
of generosity and justice, which told him that the repub-
lic had not forgotten ; that it was not ungrateful. His
name was not to go into the dark shadow of the grave with
the darker shadow of dishonor upon it. In the days of
the nation's despondency he had sent to it many a mes-
sage of cheer from the battle-fields of his advancing
armies ; in the time of his own depression the old debt
was repaid with interest. Every voice was full of hope
and assurance. North and South joined to bid him be
of good cheer.

It was then that he began upon his book. The idea
grew out of the writing of a series of articles for the
Century magazine. This experience taught him that
he could still do something for the loved ones he must
leave behind him. Each day brought him warmer
greetings, and he knew that again the country was
behind him. It had not even allowed an argument upon
the subject of his connection with the ill-fated firm.
The old love for the great commander had grown
stronger in his affliction, and it was with a clearer mind
and with higher spirits that he entered upon his literary
labors. How he continued them through all the pain-
thrilled months which followed the world knows.

The winter wore away, and the first raw, gusty days
of March came. There had been intervals of exhilara-

1010

LIPE Oh GENERAL GRANT.

tion in the monotony of depression. At times he almost
believed that he would get well, but the country had
begun to understand that he was a very sick man. The
natio 1 had lost all hope in his ultimate recovery, and it
was virtually a death-watch. The pain and irritation
were always in his throat. Rest did not refresh him.
His voice had lost its tone, and was but a husky ghost
of what it had once been. The swelling at the back
part of his tongue became aggravated and his physical
torture was unceasing. Stimulants or anodynes were
constantly used. The ulceration and inflammation in-
creased. There were brief flickerings in which the
light flared brighter, but the steady tendency was towards
the socket. The slightest exposure to a draught
would bring on serious consequences and overcome the
apparent improvement which had been the slow growth
of days. ^^

Then came a fictitious revival from a gratifying cause.
There had been for some time before Congress a bill to
place General Grant on the retired list of the army with
the full pay of such rank. The session was rapidly
nearing its close, and there was much business to be dis-
posed of. Besides, the House was Democratic while the
Senate was Republican. There seemed litde hope for
the passage of the bill, yet small as the hope was it was
fully realized. The bill had passed the Senate and was
in the Democratic House. There it was in the practiced
hands of Ex-Speaker Randall, as great a parliamentar-
ian as the country ever had. Opposing interests
clamored for recognition, but Mr. Randall passed the
bill by a practically unanimous vote. It was immediately
sent to the Senate and the announcement made that
die House had concurred in the bill authorizing the
President to nominate one person as General on
the retired list of the army. A storm of applause
greeted the announcement. Then Mr. Ingalls arose
and said:

" Mr. President, the nation knows who that one person
is. I ask unanimous consent that the reference of the

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

1011

bill to the committee lie waived, and that it be now con-
sidered by the Senate."

Senator Garland, who was presidinjj^, stated that the
bill was a Senate bill, and that only the proper signatures
were necessary to make it a law.

The clerk then read President Arthur's nomination ot
General Grant to be General on the retired list, and the
President /r^ lem announced that the nomination would
be considered in open session. Then came the state-
ment in usual form :

"The question is, 'Will the Senate advise and consent
to this appointment?' All Senators in favor will say Aye."

There was a storm of ayes.

"All opposed, No."

There was dead silence.

"The ayes have it unanimously," said the president
pro tern.

The nomination was the last message sent by Presi-
dent Arthur to the Senate. President Cleveland's
signature to General Grant's commission was his first
official signature as President, except to the message
nominating the members of his cabinet.

In the family home in New York there was anxious
waiting for the tidings. General Grant did not believe
that the bill would pass. When the telegram came an-
nouncing it he was astonished and deeply gratified.
"Hurrah!" cried Mrs. Grant, "we have the old com-
mander back again." It is a striking illustration of the
General's character that of the first thousand dollars he
received from the government all but twenty-five dollars
was immediately given away.

The month of March brought him another great joy.
Nellie Grant Sartoris, his only daughter, whom he
loved with a tenderness that was womanly, had been
sent for and she hastened to her father's bedside. The
meeting between her and her father was very beautiful.
The General, who had been buoyant with hope and full
of apparent vigor when she parted from him a little
more than a year before, was now sadly changed. Sor-

• I

1012

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

row and suffering liad touched his hair and beard and
left their whiteness behind. He was pale and emaciated.
And yet, with the tender instinct which was so natural
to him, he had been tlainty with his toilet that morning,
and upon his face there was no trace of the pain which
racked his frame. The old thoughtfulness for others
was ever present. There was no querulous complain-
ing, no recitation of woes. Brightly and cheerily and
tenderly he clasped his daughter to his breast, and the
picture of the dying soldier and his bit of sunshine was
a very pathetic and a very lovely one. Of this incident
the poet wrote —

" His listening soul hears no echo of battle,

No piean of triumph nor welcome of fame.
But down through the years comes a little one's prattle,

And softly he murmurs her idolized name.
And it seems as if now at his heart she were clinging

As she clung, in those dear, distant years, to his knee;
He sees her fair face and he hears her sweet •''■nging —

Antl Nellie is coming from over the sea.

" While patriot hope stays his fullness of sorrow,

While our eyes are bedimmed and our voices arc low,
He dreams of the daughter who comes with the morrow,

Like an angel come back from the dear long ago.
Ah ! what to him now is a nature's emotion

And what for our love or our grief careth he ?
A swift-speeding ship is a.sail on the ocean

And Nellie is coming from over the sea! "

But the disease was stronger than love. It had
passed beyond the possibility of defeat by intervals of
brightness. As the month waned it took a stronger hold.
The General's feebleness increased. His periods of
depression became deeper and more profound. The
splendid fortitude was not breaking, but there was a
profound longing for the end. "Every hour is a week
of agony," he said. - • ' ^

On the morning of the second of April the Shadow
grew very dark. He was so low that his death seemed
to be a question of only a few minutes. The nation

be
S

THR COMMANDER'S LAST DAYS,

1013

was hushed and silent. It stood with unbared !)row
before what it believed to be a death bed Hut just as
life had reached the last (•l)b ii be^an to ilow again. He
grew a little better, and then a great deal better. His
magnificent constitution had made its last desperate
rally and won for the nonce. In the evening it was

l^i

MKS. SARTOKIS (NKLLIP: GKANT).

believed that he would live for some days longer. The
Shadow had again been dri^ en back.

A day or two later he aw^ >ke from a refreshing slum-
ber, and related to his physicians a dream :

"It seemed to me," said he, "as though I had been
traveling in a foreign country. I had only a single
satchel, and I was only partially clad. I found to my

1014

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

surprise that I was without any money and separated
from all my friends. While I was trav(;linijf I came to a
fence. There was a stepping stile, hut it led up to only
one side of the fence. I climbed over, however, and
then found that I had left my satchel on the other side.
I went to ^p back, but had to pay duty for each step in
the stile. Then I thought I would 'go back home and
borrow the money from Mrs. Grant. I asked her for it,
but she said she only had seventeen dollars, and that
was not enough, so just then I woke up and was very
glad."

Easter morning broke. It was a beautiful day, fresh
with the fragrance of Spring. His mind was bright,
and he seemed free from pain.' He sat in his chair at
the window while the warm fullness of the sun shed its
glory over him. There was a great longing in his heart
to go out and breathe in the sweet air, but this was no
more for him. In the afternoon he said : " I want to send
an Easter greeting to the people." At 5,15 the bulle-
tin was issued. It read :

" General Grant has just awakened from a short nap,
and expresses himself as feeling very comfortable. He
wishes it stated that he is very much touched and grate-
ful for the prayerful sympathy and interest manifested in
him by his friends and by those who heretofore have not
been regarded as such. He says : ' I desire the good
will of all whether heretofore friends or not.'

"George F. Siirady."

On April 7th there was another alarm of immediate
death by the rupture of a small throat artery, but again
he rallied, and the 27th of the month, which was his
sixty-third birthday, found him greatly improved. The
congratulations which poured in upon him were many
and warm, and In the evening he acknowledged them in
the following general telegram : ;- - • ,

" To the various army posts, societies, cities, public
schools. State corporations, and individuals. North and
South, who have been so kind as to send me congratu-

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

101")

lations on my sixty-third birthday, I wish to offer my
[grateful acivnowledgmcnts. The despatches have been
so numerous and touching in that il would have been
impossible to answer them had I been in perfect health."

He felt these tokens of popular regard very deeply.
They were soothing balm to his lacerated spirit. They
told him that the nation believed in him as never before.
In all the triumphs of his brightest days he never re-
ceived such general and hearty homage as now. The
name which he feared might be smirched shone more
clearly than ever.

The breath of Summer was hot upon the earth. The
sun beat pitilessly upon the flags of the great city, and
the stirless air was heavy with heat. Many offers of a
cooler resort h'ld been made, but Ik; at last decided to
accept the Drexel Cottage, at Mt. McGregor. On the
1 6th of June he left his house and was taken to the train.
Thousands were there to see the sad departure.
Thousands who were to look upon him in life for the
last time. His walk was a totter. The old, familiar
high hat was now so large that it rested upon his ears.
Folds of silk were about his neck to hide the swelling
upon it. His clothes were too large for his shrunken
frame. In his hand was a heavy stick, and he leaned
upon it to help himself along. It needed no physician's
eye to tell that he was walking in the valley of the shadow
of death.

Out of the station the locomotive flashed. The river
was a stretch of dancing ripples. The foliage was green
with the tenderness of Summer. Past the sand-pits of
Sing-Sing, past where the sun touched with glory the
glistening heights of Tappan Zee, into the gate of the
Highlands the train rushed. West Point ! The name
was spoken in a whisper, but the General heard it. He
looked out with sad, pensive, loving eyes. There his
great career har" been born. There had begun his su-
preme loyalty for the flag he had saved. There had
been his birth as a soldier. The past and the present
were together for one brief moment as the train rumbled

♦

K^^feif

S^ffittui

"^'^^■1

^i:^:,f-^p^^^ym'xi.

'A^o, ■.■■ih

#1 ^

iMUdyk

i^''¥

IvpS^

><^*

GENERAL (jKANT »OON AFl'EK HIS AKRiVAL AT MT. MiGREi.c )R.
(101 CO

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

1017

and roared by. With pathetic gaze the end looked
through the car windows at the beginning.

The mountains at last. There was purity in the air.
There was the rugged grandeur of nature all around.
The pine trees bowed a solemn welcome. From the
green mountains came fresh breezes to greet him. The
battle-field of Saratoga, not far away, gave the place an
historical foreground. Yet still there was a sombre tone
in all the brightness. The moody mountains seemed to
know that the hero had come among them to die. He
was not the only guest. The Shadow had come, too.

The first gush of the higher air revived him, but only
for the time. He slept peacefully, and the weariness
was not so near But the disease had taken its final
grasp, and there was no hope. He was absolutely at its
mercy. Its terrible coquetry with life could last little
longer. The victim was tired and anxious for the end.
Still he breathed more freely in the purer atmosphere.
Day after day he would sit on the veranda of the cot-
tage, his melancholy eyes turned down the valley. Vis-
itors would pass with uncovered heads. Children would
come and bring him flowers. Broken and bent and
weary, there yet floated up to him in the fastnesses the
incense of a life well lived. And yet the Shadow was
still at his side, more eager now and surer of its prey.

At last it won. The early morning iiours of the 21st
of July were cool and refreshing. There was a hint of
dread in the air. The lights at the cottage flickered and
burned dimly. Suddenly they flared up. There was a
hurrying of feet and a sound of suppressed sobs. Now
and then the harsh note of a couirh would be heard.
Still there was no unusual alann. Bitter warnings had
come before then.

The night grew on towards daybreak. The grey
gloom of dawn was on the mountains The wind rustled
down the valley in soft zephyrs. Far away outlines
were forming in the mass of darkness. The sick man
turned and asked for a light. A candle was brought,
and by its flicker lie wrote a message to his family. The

11018)

LIFE 01 GENERAL GRANT.

1019

H
'A

w
y,

u
o

X
<

physicians gathered about and gave him stimulants
Still he sank. The morning passed into the glory of
noon, and noon into the after. The family were grouped
in the darkened room in deep sorrow. The dying sol-
dier observed it, and whispered : " I do not want any
one to be distressed on my account."

KEV. J. I*, m:\vman.

Another night came. The respirations had increased
greatly, although the temperature was still normal. He
asked to be carried from his chair to his bed, and it was
done. Then the last hours of watchfulness and prayer
began. His hands and feet became cold and clammy,
and there was an icy moisture upon his brow. 'Hie pulse
was fluttering, and, at frequent intervals, would smk

1020

LIFE OF GFNFRAL GRANT.

altoq^ether at the wrist. The weakness became greater,
and restoratives had no longer any power. The Shadow
was very close now.

The day broke again, but he was unconscious. The
watchers about the bed stood in silent agony. The
weary struggle was near its end. White and gasping
he lay as the sands of life ran lower and lower. At a
little after eight they ran out entirely. The hero and
the martyr had passed out of the shadows of the present
into the sunlight of the hereafter. The flag was at half-
mast. The soldier was dead. The Shadow had con-
quered.

What more fittin<r end than those last months of
sorrow and agony patiently borne ? Never before had
the world seen such a picture of manly fortitude. The
indifference to suffering, the fight with pain until he
could finish the book which mt;ant tleath to him yet life
to his family, the great joy that went out from his broken
heart, that the North and Soudi woukl clasp hands over
his dead form. He was greater upon his death-bed than
he was at Appomattox. And still he was the same
simple, plain, honest, manly man. He who had been
shoulder to shoulder with the times through all the
turmoil of his crowded life had arisen to its supremest
emergency.

Many came to see him during his days of sickness, and
history was made near the historical chair in which
he sat. Hut of all the incidents that happened that of
the visit of General S. H. Huckner was the most striking.
They had been friends long years before. Bucknerhad
surrendered to him at Donelson — his first great victory —
and he had fought the last battle of the war. His old
rival and older friend came many miles to see the sick
commander, and their conversation was a long and con-
fidential one. In the course of it he gave General
Buckner this message to send to the nation :

" I have witnessed since mv sickness just what I wished
to see ever since th<.' war — harmony and good feelmg
between the sections. 1 h;.i\c always contended <-liat if

lUE GREAT COMMANUKK LVING IN .STATK IN THE CITY HALL, N. Y.

1021

1022

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

there had been nobody left but the soldiers we would

have had peace in a year. and are the only

two that I know who do not seem to be satisfied on ti e
Soutiiern side. We have some on ours who failed to
accomplish as much as they wished, or who did not get
warmed up in the fight until it was all over, who have not
had quite full satisfaction. The great majority, too, of
those who did not go into the war have long since grown
tired of the long controversy. We may now well look
forward to a perpetual peace at home, and a national
strength that will screen us against any foreign compli-
cation. I believe, myself, that the war was worth all it
cost us, fearful as that was. Since it was over I have
visited every State in Europe, and a number in the East.
I know, as I did not before, the value of our inheritance."

The splendid inter-sectional loyalty of the soldier
never shone more greatly than in this utterance. Peace
and harmony between the sections had always been his
hope. His broad statesmanship had ever held this to
be the one supreme question. He did not look at it
with the eyes of a time-serving politician, but with the
full gaze of a man eager for his country's welfare. It
was the first idea which came to him when the war
ended. That he had assisted in its accomplishment was
his last happy thought when death was upon him.

Immediately after his decease a guard was placed
around the cottage. The mourning was universal.
Messages of sympathy came from all portions of the
habitable globe. His words, " Let us have peace," had
been answered. The monarchs of Europe laid their
wreaths upon the tomb of the man who was a greater
monarch than them all. The generc;'.ity with which he
had ever treated the South bore rich fruit. There was
regard and regret for him for whom strife and disquiet
were no more, and thousands of ex-Confederates flocked
to his funeral. Among the pall-bearers were Generals
Johnston and Buckner. General Gordon rode second
in rank to General Hancock, who was in command of the
arrangement of the obsequies. General Fitzhugh Lee

THE COMMANDER'S LAST DAYS.

1023

Was among the mourners who followed him to the grave.
The funeral was the grandest in American history.

Riverside Park was chosen for the place of interment.
For two days the body lay in state, at the capitol at
Albany, ind then with pomp and solemnity it was taken
to New V^ork. The day was a gloomy one ntid the rain

UK. J. H. DOUGLASS.

fell almost constantly. At the City Hall the body was
again placed in state. Thousands of people visited it to
obtain a last look at the dead hero's face. All classes of
society came to see him, and it is estimated that not
fewer than a quarter of a million of people passed in
review before the casket. On the morning of the loth
of August he was buried.

1024

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

No bett(;r close for a chapter like this can be fountl
than the letter wliich General (jrant wrote; and handed
to Dr. Douti^lass twenty days l)efore his death. It is a
perfect mirror of his thouj^iululness for his family and
patriotic love for his Cv>iintry. it runs :

"1 ask you not to show this to any one, except the
physicians you consult with, until the end. Particularly
I want it kept from my iamily. If known to one man
the papers will get it aixl they (the family) will see it.
It would only distress ihem almost beyond endurance to
know it, and, by retlex, would distress me. I have not
changed my mind materially since I wrote you before in
the same strain. Now, however, I know that I gain
strength some days, but, when I do go back it is beyond
where I started to improve. I think the chances are
very decitlely in favor ol your keeping me alive until
the change of weather towards winter. Of course, there
are contingencies that might arise at any time that might
carry me off very suddenly. The most probable of these
is choking. Under the circumstances life is not worth
the living.

*T am very thankful to have been spared this long
because it has enabled me to practically complete the
work in which I take so much interest. I cannot stir up
strength enough to review it, and make additions and
subtractions that would suggest themselves to me and
are not likely to suggest themselves to others.

" Under the above circumstances I will be the happiest
the most pain I can avoid. If there is to l)e any extra-
ordinary cure, such as some people believe there is to
be. it will develop itself. I would say, therefore, to you
and your colleagues, to make me as comfortable as )ou
can. If it is within God's providence that 1 should go
now, I am ready to obey His call without a murmur. I
should prefer going now to enduring my present suffer-
ing for a single day without hope of recovery.

"As I have stated, I am thankful for the providential
extension of my time to enable me to continue my work.
I am further thankful, and in a much greater degree

THE COMMANDER'S LAST DAYS.

1025

thankful, because it has enabled me to see for myself the
happy harmony which so suddenly sprung up between
those engaged but a few short years ago in deadly con-
flict. It has been an inestimable blessing to me to hear
the kind expression towards me in person from all parts
of our country, from peopl of all nationalities, of all
religions and of no religion, of Confederates and of
National troops alike, of soldiers' organizations, oi
mechanical, scientific, religious and other societies, em-
bracing almost every citizen in the land. They have
brought joy to my heart if they have not eflectrd a * ure.
So to you and your colleagues I acknowledge my in-
debtedness for having brought me thronj^ih the valley
of the shadow of dtatn to witness these U.\u\gh.

''Mt. McGregor, N. Vjuiy .?</, /%•" " ^ ^ ^»»<ANT.

To this may be added the last lini'^ which he wrote on
matters pertaining to the war :

" I feel that \\v are on the eve of a new era, when
there is to be great harmony between the Federals and
the Confederates. I cannot stay to be a living witness
to the correctness of this prophecy, but I feel it within
me that this is to be so. The universally kind feeling
expressed for me at a time when it was supposed that
each day would prove my last seems to me the begin-
ning of the answer to ' Let us have peace.' The ex-
pressions of these kindly feelings were not restricted to
a section of the country nor to a division of the people.
They came from individual citizens of all nationalities ;
from all denominations, the Protestant, the Catholic and
the Jew, and from the various societies of the land —
scientific, educational, religious or otherwise.

" Politics did not enter into the matter at all. I am not
egotistic enough to suppose all this significance should
be given this matter because I was the object of it. But
the war between the States was a very bloody and a very
costly war. One side or the other had to yield principles
they deemed dearer than life before it could be brought

3 P*

1026

"'^T^

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

to an end. I commanded die whole of the mighty host
engaged on the victorious side. I was, no matter
whether deservedly so or not, a representer of that side
of the controversy. It is a significant and gratifying
fact that Confederates should have joined heartily in this
spontaneous move. 1 hope the good feeling inaugurated
may continue to the end."

rhe tenderness and patriotism in this is greater than
could be crowded into a hundred eulogies. It is a
glimpse at the pure, simple heart of the great soldier.

The writer has avoided, in this chapter, dwelling ujjon
General Grant's commercial troubles, as the civil trials
in the firm's cases were still in progress while the book
was in the press. It may be well to say, however, that
the united voice of the country acquitted him entirely
of all blame in the disastrous failure of Grant & Warcl.
The truth is that, while the Great Commander was a
mere child in the business world, he had a curious
delusion that he was possessed of great financiering
ability. He seems to have fallen into the hands of a lot
of sharks in New York city whose only aim was to trade
on his name, and his confidence and trust were sorely
misplaced. He and the members of his family were
financially ruined, but the betrayal was more bitter to
him than the loss of the money. This was to him
the saddest memory during his illness.

..!.;■

..**^' I i

. t

. '' \' '.

CHAPTER LXXI.

THE LAST TATTOO.

'Tis written that the dead shall rise at last
From their forgotten places and find life :
But he who loved the people in their need,
Though given back to nature, dieth not;
He shall continue with us to that day.

Great soldier who didst never break our trust
But kept it well, — if that strong hand of thine
Which led the nation upward into peace
May draw the darkness fall'n twixt us and thee, —
View these sad hosts here gathered from tin- fields
To watch thy bringing home. Pass into rest :
For thou from that high place thy worth has wrought
Above the troubles of dead time, hast seen
The last red Linber of the camp-fire quenched,
The battle-cloud blown seaward, and the land.
Whose once dividing furrows thou didst smooth,
Quiet in harvest.

Sound the last tattoo :
Roll, war drums ; colors, dip ; and ye grim throats ,

That spoke his iron menace, wake again ,

To chant a requiem to the answering hills :
Our captain sleeps.

The day broke heavy and sullen, as though the smoke
of his battles yet hung in the sky. There was a city
of black, and through a hundred miles of thoroughfare
the symbols of death fluttered and swayed. Here the
portals of a millionaire, sable and gold, with cashmere
and precious lace ; there a bit of dingy cambric dangling
from a tenement window ; arch, cornice and pillar of
great buildings veiled ; spires of marble scarfed and
hidden ; the doorways of the temple shrouded ; shops
stripped of their tinsel and thick with shadows : the
avenue heavy with streamers of gloom ; on ten thousand

nm)

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Photographic

Sciences
Corporation

23 WEST MAIN STREET

WEBSTER, N.Y, 14580

;716) 872-4503

1028

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

breasts in the hurrying crowd the badges of grief;
carriage and car, van and dray rumbling by with dusky
trappings ; in the parks the statues of great men were
enfolded ; crape on the lintels of home and the altars of
God ; everywhere the same sombre curve, or loop, or
pall, — save against the lowering sky, gray with fast
moving vapor, where glanced and rippled the glories of
our flag — thus was the great city — the million mourning
for the one.

There were sounds and sights of war. On every
side closed doors told that the wheels of commerce had
stopped. Uniformed men hurried to their armories, and
the blare of bugles and the shrill voice of the fife rose
above the roar of wheels and hurrying feet. Twenty-
four years ago the first shell from Moultrie cast just such
a cloud and awakened the same echoes. The minds of
men went back to those days of trial, saw all their terrors
and fierce glories again, and all hearts beat to that same
wild rhythm which had measured the march of millions
to the shock of arms and the judgment of the sword.

A hundred cities had sent out their peoples to witness
this last review, and to the hosts already gathered the
busy ferries and trains brought their myriads ; there
were 1,500,000 gazers in the street of his journey before
the great hour was tolled. Broadway moved like a river
into which many tributaries were poured. At first the
flow was downward and rapid, but the long channel filled
to its limit, and the incoming streams were turned back
and set like a tide to the north, where they swept up
Fifth Avenue to the Park, and thence along the winding
route to be traveled, until but one great flood of life
was at rest from where the dead lay in state, to where,
through miles of the city, the gates of Riverside were
open to receive him.

New York had never held such a crowd in density and
vastness. It was orderly, quiet, respectful ; eager to
secure a place of vantage, yet obedient to the sway of
those who guarded the dignity of the occasion. By nine
o'clock every balcony, window and door commanding the

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

1029

and
ir to
of
line
the

line of march was teeming ; the roofs and cornices
swarmed. There was not an accessible point but had its
observer : men climbed the statues in the squares ; boys
were high in the trees ; wires swayed and trembled
between poles, where perched a score of the adventurous ;
the houses of the city elsewhere were tenantless ; the
course of the pageant was choked with the people.

From the Fifth Avenue Hotel a ceaseless stream of
carriages departed, conveyingdelegates to theirappointed
places. At nine o'clock the police made a concerted
movement ; the throng, inch by inch, was forced back ;
and to the quick treble of the fife a regiment swung on
right into line and stood at parade rest. Now the last
cloud parted, and the sunlight streamed. A battery of
artillery rumbled heavily by, the gunners perched upon
the jolting caisson and the stout horses straining at their
burden ; a whirl of flashing metal and angry red, and it
had passed. Detachments of the Grand Army in sombre
garb came with the old step to the measure of muffled
drums, and were aligned upon the crape-shrouded tatters
of their flag. An aide galloped down, scabbard swinging
and aiguillette rising and falling as he rode. Then rest-
ful expectancy — the vast scene motionless save where the
trees swayed their branches in the freshening wind.

Suddenly came a bugle note of warning. The cap-
tains spoke sharply and a thousand lifted muskets glit-
tered together. Every eye turned southward.

Hancock, commanding, proud and erect as on that
deadly day at Spottsylvania. With him Wesley Merritt,
Gordon, Fitzhugh Lee, Ingalls, Porter, Rodgers, Barnum,
Stevens — w^hat a list of glories they summoned — a score
of other heroes in his train. Then from Fourteenth
street poured a ceaseless river of light and of color, at
first tremulous and soft as the rippled shining of wind-
s^vept waters, but brightening and stronger as it neared,
until a sunburst rolled by in that pageant of war. 1 he
sparkle of buckle and breastplate, the musket's blue ray,
the shimmer of helmet and scabbard, the howitzer's
burnish and the gatling's cold gleam ; masses of scarlet

1030

THE LAST TATTOO.

and yellow and blue and gray ; plume, spike and lance
head glittering in the maze ; guidon and standard glow-
ing ; a wealth of splendor poured with the dirges that
swelled from tubes of silver and of brass ; all the glory
of arms swept by. First the regular troops, many a
gray beard among them, with the swinging tread begot-
ten of years ; artillery first and the solid ranks of infantry
supporting. Then the naval brigade of white and blue,
sturdy arms and bronzed faces, dragging their cannon.
After these the troops of New York, young and with
their fields and honors before them, regiment on
regiment. The soldiers of Pennsylvania, New Jersey,
Virginia, Georgia, Connecticut and District of Columbia
followed, rivals of the best in numbers and martial
bearing. Some had seen service on long-ago fields of
glory and death, but for most part they were the youth
of the States that sent them, untried yet, but of such
stuff as those upon whom the brunt of great battles
has rested.

So went they by, division on division, in this last
review. Never since the white flag fluttered at the sur-
render, had so much of the nation's power been gathered,
but no greeting acclaimed the display, and its pomp was
unnoticed. The onward thousands and the million that ,
watched were alike silent, and no voice cheered the
favorite commands as in their holiday marches. For
two hours, to the rhythm of the dead march in Saul, the
platoons passed upward and over the hill, standard-s
shrouded, arms reversed, the saucy marker a flutter of
crape. A regiment trod by to the throb of muffled
drums, then an emptiness in the great street, every head
uncovered, and there was a hush.

The dead Conqueror.

There where the sun kissed the purple and silver that
hid him, he came, not leading, but led ; not victorious,
but himself surrendered. The Chief Magistrate and the
honored of the people hedged him about ; men whose
lives are history thronged before and after ; the great
captains he had launched like thunderbolts against the

LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

1031

foe were with him again, but the eye saw only that rev-
erent blackness which bore him as a cloud. In softest
music that went and came in whispers, the grief of the
nation was voiced, and the folds of the Hag he loved so
well were above and around him, and so onward into
the valley of the shadow he went, with the last gaze of
the peoples following till distance shut her gates upon
the view.

Now the rattle of many wheels as the carriages of
delegates and ambassadors, ministers and companions
joined the line. Then strode the comrades of his camps
and battles.

From every field of the nation's glory came these to
honor him. That gray sergeant loaded the howitzer
which the young lieutenant trained from the belfry at
Chapultepec ; that sleeve had been empty since the
recoil of the gray billows hurled upon Thomas at Chick-
amauga ; yonder a red scar burns in proud memory of
that hour at Aldie when Kilpatrick rode down with a
whirlwind of death ; that veteran limps still from
Huger's last shell at Manasses ; his companion pulled
the lanyard of Rickett's first gun ; that proud-eyed giant
planted the color on the summit at Mission Ridge ; that
drummer beat the rally on the river bank at Shiloh.
All heroes, all worthy the man.

And thus to every mind again, after many years and
for the last time, came the great war as a dream. Again
the restless contention of orators and statesmen, the
bitterness and insult, the rebuke and injury, the hot spirit
of trouble fanning the land to a blaze. Then the lower-
ing of the storm, the stealthy hum of preparation, and
the echoes and shock of Moultrie's first gun. Again
the ranks of resolute men, shoulder to shoulder, with
steadfast pace to the front. Again the wild drums beat
down the sobbing and moan of desolate homes, and the
trumpet's fierce blare directed the charge. The dust
and grime rising and shrouding the murder beneath, the
trample of hoofs, the hissing of the hail of death, the
rush to the color, the yells of the pursuer and the cries

1032

LTFE OF GENERAL GRANT.

of the helpless — these rose as phantoms and moved
again. Then somewhere from the blackness came a
flutter of white, like a dove from a thundercloud, and
men welcomed the emblem of peace. A few words
uttered, a name tremblingly traced on a scanty page,
and the tumult was hushed forever. One sword pointed
the issue, one calm will commanded the storm, and it
obeyed. All this passed in review again with this
army, and in the honors thus paid to the master in his
rest, the grave of every soldier of the cause was
remembered.

The march had reached the final camp, and the old
commander's last home was open to receive him. The
trumped shrilled out to halt, and through the ranks of
his resting soldiers, as many a time before when he had
approved them for their valor, he passed to his couch.

Then through the hush, to the God of Battles and the
God of Peace, ascended a prayer that after his vigil and
toil, his long suffering and patient endurance, this sen-
tinel might find rest.

Hark ! the low sweet notes of the last tattoo. Good-
night. Put out the lights. All's well.

Now from the mouths of a hundred guns, the red
gleam and thunder and cloud of the salute. From the
hill the angry muzzles shot their clamors and the battle
mist billowed and rolled above the spars and pennons of
the answering river. Land and sea spoke their highest
tribute. The soldier was at rest.

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