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diff --git a/28386.txt b/28386.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..19ac837 --- /dev/null +++ b/28386.txt @@ -0,0 +1,2984 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Ulysses S. Grant, by Walter Allen + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Ulysses S. Grant + +Author: Walter Allen + +Release Date: March 22, 2009 [EBook #28386] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ULYSSES S. GRANT *** + + + + +Produced by Martin Pettit and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +The Riverside Biographical Series + +NUMBER 7 + + +ULYSSES S. GRANT + +BY + +WALTER ALLEN + + * * * * * + +The Riverside Biographical Series + + +ANDREW JACKSON, by W. G. BROWN +JAMES B. EADS, by LOUIS HOW +BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, by PAUL E. MORE +PETER COOPER, by R. W. RAYMOND +THOMAS JEFFERSON, by H. C. MERWIN +WILLIAM PENN, by GEORGE HODGES +GENERAL GRANT, by WALTER ALLEN. +MERIWETHER LEWIS AND WILLIAM +CLARK, by WILLIAM R. LIGHTON. +JOHN MARSHALL, by JAMES B. THAYER. + + +Each about 100 pages, 16mo, with photogravure portrait, 75 cents; +_School Edition_, 50 cents, _net_ + +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO. + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + + * * * * * + +[Illustration: U. S. Grant] + + * * * * * + +ULYSSES S. GRANT + +BY + +WALTER ALLEN + +[Illustration: Publisher's logo] + +BOSTON AND NEW YORK + +HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY + +The Riverside Press, Cambridge + +1901 + + * * * * * + +COPYRIGHT, 1901, BY WALTER ALLEN + +ALL RIGHTS RESERVED + + * * * * * + +CONTENTS + + +CHAP. PAGE + + I. OUR NATIONAL MILITARY HERO 1 + + II. HIS ANCESTRY 5 + + III. THE PERIOD OF YOUTH 11 + + IV. HIS LIFEWORK APPOINTED 18 + + V. LOVE AND WAR 26 + + VI. YEARS OF DORMANT POWER 34 + + VII. THE SUMMONS OF PATRIOTISM 42 + + VIII. FROM SPRINGFIELD TO FORT DONELSON 46 + + IX. SHILOH, CORINTH, IUKA 57 + + X. VICKSBURG 65 + + XI. NEW RESPONSIBILITIES--CHATTANOOGA 77 + + XII. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, COMMANDER OF ALL THE ARMIES 85 + + XIII. THE WILDERNESS AND SPOTTSYLVANIA 95 + + XIV. FROM SPOTTSYLVANIA TO RICHMOND 104 + + XV. IN WASHINGTON AMONG POLITICIANS 114 + + XVI. HIS FIRST ADMINISTRATION 123 + + XVII. HIS SECOND ADMINISTRATION 133 + +XVIII. THE TOUR OF THE WORLD 144 + + XIX. REVERSES OF FORTUNE--ILL HEALTH--HIS + LAST VICTORY--THE END 149 + + + + +ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT + + + + +CHAPTER I + +OUR NATIONAL MILITARY HERO + + +Since the end of the civil war in the United States, whoever has +occasion to name the three most distinguished representatives of our +national greatness is apt to name Washington, Lincoln, and Grant. +General Grant is now our national military hero. Of Washington it has +often been said that he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in +the hearts of his countrymen." When this eulogy was wholly just the +nation had been engaged in no war on a grander scale than the war for +independence. That war, in the numbers engaged, in the multitude and +renown of its battles, in the territory over which its campaigns were +extended, in its destruction of life and waste of property, in the +magnitude of the interests at stake (but not in the vital importance of +the issue), was far inferior to the civil war. It happens quite +naturally, as in so many other affairs in this world, that the +comparative physical magnitude of the conflicts has much influence in +moulding the popular estimate of the rank of the victorious commanders. + +Those who think that in our civil war there were other officers in both +armies who were Grant's superiors in some points of generalship will +hardly dispute that, taking all in all, he was supreme among the +generals on the side of the Union. He whom Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas, +and Meade saw promoted to be their commander, not only without envy, but +with high gratification, under whom they all served with cordial +confidence and enthusiasm, cannot have been esteemed by them unfit for +the distinction. If these great soldiers then and always acclaimed him +worthy to be their leader, it is unbecoming for others, and especially +for men who are not soldiers, to contradict their judgment. + +Whether he was a greater soldier than General Robert E. Lee, the +commander-in-chief of the army of the Confederate States, is a question +on which there may always be two opinions. As time passes, and the +passions of the war expire, it may be that wise students of military +history, weighing the achievements of each under the conditions imposed, +will decide that in some respects Lee was Grant's superior in mastery of +the art of war. Whether or not this comes about, Lee can never supplant +Grant as our national military hero. He fought to destroy the Union, not +to save it, and in the end he was beaten by General Grant. However much +men may praise the personal virtues and the desperate achievements of +the great warrior of the revolt against the Union, they cannot conceal +that he was the defeated leader of a lost cause, a cause which, in the +chastened judgment of coming time, will appear to all men, as even now +it does to most dispassionate patriots, well and fortunately lost. + +In the story of Grant's life some things must be told that are not at +all heroic. Much as it might be wished that he had been what Carlyle +says a hero should be, a hero at all points, he was not a worshipful +hero. Like ourselves all, he was a combination of qualities good and not +good. The lesson and encouragement of his life are that in spite of +weaknesses which at one time seemed to have doomed him to failure and +oblivion, he so mastered himself upon opportune occasion that he was +able to prove his power to command great and intelligent armies fighting +in a right cause, to obtain the confidence of Lincoln and of his loyal +countrymen, and to secure a fame as noble and enduring as any that has +been won with the sword. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +HIS ANCESTRY + + +This hero of ours was of an excellent ancestry. Until lately, most +Americans have been careless of preserving their family records. That +they were Americans and of a respectable line, if not a distinguished +one, for two or three generations back, was as much of family history as +interested them, and all they really knew. This was especially true of +families which had emigrated from place to place as pioneers in the +settlement of the country. Family records were left behind, and in the +hard desperate work of life in a new country, where everything depended +on individual qualities, and forefathers counted for little in the +esteem of men as poor, as independent, and as aspiring as themselves, +memories faded and traditions were forgotten. It was esteemed a +condition of the equality which was the national boast that no one +should take credit to himself on account of distant ancestry. Not until +Abraham Lincoln had honored his name by his own nobility did anybody +think it worth while to inquire whether his blood was of the strain of +the New England Lincolns. + +All that was known of the Grants in Ohio was that Jesse, the father of +Ulysses, came from Pennsylvania. Jesse himself knew that his father, who +died when he was a boy, was Noah Grant, Jr., who came into Pennsylvania +from Connecticut, and he had made some further exploration of his +genealogical line. But this was more than his neighbors knew or cared to +know about the family, until a son demonstrated possession of +extraordinary qualities, which set the believers in heredity upon making +investigation. The Grants are traced back through Pennsylvania to +Connecticut, and from Connecticut to the Massachusetts Bay Colony, where +Matthew Grant lived in 1630. He is believed to have come from Scotland, +where the Grant clan has been distinguished for centuries on account of +its sturdy indomitable traits and its prowess in war. The chiefs of the +clan had armorial crests of which the conspicuous emblem was commonly a +burning mountain, and the motto some expression of unyielding firmness. +In one case it was, "Stand Fast, Craig Ellarchie!" in another, simply +"Stand Fast;" in another, "Stand Sure." Sometimes Latin equivalents were +used, as "Stabit" and "Immobile." It is said that, as late as the Sepoy +rebellion in India, there was a squadron of British troops, composed +almost entirely of Scotch Grants, who carried a banner with the motto: +"Stand Fast, Craig Ellarchie!" + +If it be true that our General Grant came from such stock, his most +notable characteristics are no mystery. It was in his blood to be what +he was. Ancestral traits reappeared in him with a vigor never excelled. +But they had not been quite dormant during the intermediate period. His +great-grandfather, Captain Noah Grant, of Windsor (now Tolland), Conn., +commanded a company of colonial militia in the French and Indian war, +and was killed in the battle of White Plains in 1776. His grandfather +Noah was a lieutenant in a company of the Connecticut militia which +marched to the succor of Massachusetts in the beginning of the +Revolution. He served, off and on, through the war. + +Regarding the circumstances of the removal to Pennsylvania little is +known. The home was in Westmoreland County, where Jesse R. Grant was +born. Soon afterwards the family went to Ohio. When Jesse was sixteen he +was sent to Maysville, Ky., and apprenticed to the tanner's trade, which +he learned thoroughly, and made the chief occupation of his life. Soon +after he reached his majority he started in business for himself in +Ravenna, Portage County, Ohio. In a short time he removed to Point +Pleasant, on the Ohio side of the Ohio River, about twenty miles above +Cincinnati. Here he lived and prospered for many years, marrying, in +1821, Hannah Simpson, daughter of a farmer of the place in good +circumstances. The Simpsons were also of Scotch ancestry, and of stout, +self-reliant, industrious, respectable character, like the Grants. Thus +in the parents of General Grant were united strains of one of the strong +races of the world,--sound in body, mind, and soul, and having in a +remarkable degree vital energy, the spirit of independence, and the +staying power which enables its possessors to work without tiring, to +endure hardships with fortitude, and to accumulate a competence by +patient thrift. This last ability General Grant lacked. + +These parents, like those of the majority of Americans of the old stock, +thought it no dishonor to toil for livelihood, cultivating their souls' +health by performance of daily duty in fidelity to God, their country, +and their home. Jesse R. Grant had slight opportunities of schooling, +but he had no contempt for knowledge. Throughout his life he was a +diligent reader of books and newspapers, and was rated a man of uncommon +intelligence and of sound judgment in business. He was an entertaining +talker, and a newspaper writer and public speaker of local celebrity. +Through his early manhood, while he lived in Ohio, he was a farmer, a +trader, a contractor for buildings and roads, as well as a tanner. When +he reached the age of sixty, having secured a comfortable competence, he +retired from active business. In his declining years he removed to +Covington, Ky., near Cincinnati. Mrs. Grant was a true helpmate, a woman +of refinement of nature, of controlling religious faith, being from her +youth an active member of the Methodist Church, of strong wifely and +maternal instincts. Her life was centred in her home and family. Both +these parents lived to rejoice in the high achievement and station of +their son Ulysses. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +THE PERIOD OF YOUTH + + +Of such ancestry General Grant was born April 27, 1822, in Point +Pleasant, Ohio, and was named Hiram Ulysses Grant. A picture of the +house in which he was born shows it to have been a small frame dwelling +of primitive character. Its roof, sloping to the road in front, inclosed +the two or three rooms that may have been above the ground floor. The +principal door was in the middle of the front, and there was one small +window on each side of it. Apparently there was a low extension in the +rear. This manner of house immediately succeeded the primal log cabins +of the Western States, and such houses have sufficed for the happy +shelter of large families of strong boys and blooming girls, as sound in +body and soul, if not so refined and variously accomplished, as are +reared in mansions of more pretension. Love, virtue, industry, and +mutual helpfulness made true homes and bred useful citizens. + +In the next year his parents removed to the village of Georgetown, Ohio, +in Brown County, where the father continued his business of tanner. +There young Grant lived until he became a cadet in the Military Academy +at West Point. His life was that of other boys of like condition, with +few uncommon incidents. Being the eldest of an increasing family, it +naturally happened that he was required to perform a share of work for +its support, and to bear responsibilities. In his early youth his +employment was in the farm work, and this he always preferred. He had a +native liking for the open air, and enjoyed the smell of furrows and +pastures and woods more than that of reeking hides in their vats. He was +fond of all animals, and especially delighted in horses, early +demonstrating a surprising power in managing them. He was locally noted +for his success in breaking colts, and as a trainer of horses to be +pacers, those having this gait being esteemed more desirable for riding, +at a time when a large part of all traveling was done on horseback. As +General Grant became famous at a comparatively early age, a large crop +of stories of his early feats in the subjection and use of horses was +cultivated by persons who knew him as a boy. Many of these, doubtless, +are entirely credible; few of them are so extraordinary that they might +not be true of any clever boy who loved horses and studied their +disposition and powers. + +He was a lad of self-reliance, fertile in resources, and of good +judgment within certain limitations. Before he was fairly in his teens +his father intrusted to him domestic and business affairs which required +him to go to the city of Cincinnati alone, a two-days' trip. His own +account of this period of his life is: "When I was seven or eight years +of age I began hauling [driving the team] all the wood used in the house +and shops.... When about eleven years old, I was strong enough to hold a +plow. From that age until seventeen, I did all the work done with +horses.... While still young, I had visited Cincinnati, forty-five +miles away, several times alone; also Maysville, Ky., often, and once +Louisville.... I did not like to work; but I did as much of it while +young as grown men can be hired to do in these days, and attended school +at the same time.... The rod was freely used there, and I was not exempt +from its influence." + +But his knowledge of horses, of timber, and of land was better than his +knowledge of men. He had no precocious "smartness," as the Yankees name +the quality which enables one person to outwit another. His credulity +was simple and unsuspecting, at least in some directions. This is +illustrated by a story which he has told himself, one which he was never +allowed to forget:-- + +"There was a Mr. Ralston, who owned a colt which I very much wanted. My +father had offered twenty dollars for it, but Ralston wanted +twenty-five. I was so anxious to have the colt that ... my father +yielded, but said twenty dollars was all the horse was worth, and told +me to offer that price. If it was not accepted, I was to offer +twenty-two and a half, and if that would not get him, to give the +twenty-five. I at once mounted a horse and went for the colt. When I got +to Mr. Ralston's house, I said to him: 'Papa says I may offer you twenty +dollars for the colt, but, if you won't take that, I am to offer +twenty-two and a half, and if you won't take that, to give you +twenty-five.'" This naive bargaining was done when he was eight years +old. Some persons have thought it betokens a defect in business acumen +which was never fully cured. + +He learned his school tasks without great effort. His parents were alive +to the advantages of education, and required him to attend all the +subscription schools kept in the town. There were no free schools there +during his youth. He was twice sent away from home to attend higher +schools. It is not recorded that he especially liked study or disliked +it. Probably he took it as a part of life, something that had to be +done, and did it. He was most apt in mathematics. When he arrived at +West Point he was able to pass the not very severe entrance examination +without trouble. He seems to have had good native powers of perception, +reasoning, and memory. What he learned he kept, but he was never an +ardent scholar. He had no enthusiasm for knowledge, nor, indeed, so far +as appears, for anything else except horses. He used to fish +occasionally, but never hunted. The sportsman's tastes were not his, nor +were his social tastes demonstrative. Possibly they may have been +restrained in some measure by his mother's strictness of religious +principles. He was neither morose nor brooding,--not a dreamer of +destiny. He yearned for no star. No instinct of his future achievements +made him peculiar among his companions or caused him to hold himself +aloof. He exhibited nothing of the young Napoleon's distemper of gnawing +pride. He was just an ordinary American boy, with rather less boyishness +and rather more sobriety than most, disposed to listen to the talk of +his elders instead of that of persons of his own age, and fond of +visiting strange places and riding and driving about the country. His +work had made him acquainted with the subjects in which grown men were +interested. The family life was serious but not severe. Obedience and +other domestic virtues were inculcated with fidelity; but he said that +he was never scolded or punished at home. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +HIS LIFEWORK APPOINTED + + +When the boy was about seventeen years old he had made up his mind upon +one matter,--he would not be a tanner for life. He told his father, +possibly in response to some suggestion that it was time for him to quit +his aimless occupations and begin his lifework, that he would work in +the shop, if he must, until he was twenty-one, but not a day longer. His +desire then was to be a farmer, or a trader, or to get an education; but +he seems to have had no definite inclination except to escape from the +disagreeable tannery. His father treated the matter judiciously, not +being disposed to force the boy to learn a business that he would not +follow. He was unable to set him up in farming. He had not much respect +for the river traders, and may have had little confidence in the boy's +ability to thrive in competitions of enterprise and greed. + +Without consulting his son, he wrote to one of the United States +Senators from Ohio, Hon. Thomas Morris, telling him that there was a +vacancy in the district's representation in West Point, and asking that +Ulysses might be appointed. He would not write to the congressman from +the district, because, although neighbors and old friends, they belonged +to different parties and had had a falling out. But the Senator turned +the letter over to the Congressman, who procured the appointment, thus +healing a breach of which both were ashamed. General Grant gives an +account of what happened when this door to an education and a life +service was opened before him. His father said to him one day: +"'Ulysses, I believe you are going to receive the appointment.' 'What +appointment?' I inquired. 'To West Point. I have applied for it.' 'But I +won't go,' I said. He said he thought I would, _and I thought so too, if +he did_." The italics are the general's. They make it plain that he did +not think it prudent to make further objection when his father had +reached a decision. + +Little did Congressman Thomas L. Hamer imagine that in doing this favor +for his friend, Jesse Grant, he was doing the one thing that would +secure remembrance of his name by coming generations. It did not +contribute to his immediate popularity among his constituents, for the +general opinion was that many brighter and more deserving boys lived in +the district, and one of them should have been preferred. Neighbors did +not hesitate to shake their heads and express the opinion that the +appointment was unwise. Not one of them had discerned any particular +promise in the boy. Nor were they unreasonable. He was without other +distinctions than of being a strong toiler, good-natured, and having a +knack with horses. He had no aspiration for the career of a soldier, in +fact never intended to stick to it. Even after entering West Point his +hope, he has said, was to be able, by reason of his education, to get "a +permanent position in some respectable college,"--to become Professor +Grant, not General Grant. + +In the course of making his appointment, his name by an accident was +permanently changed. When Congressman Hamer was asked for the full name +of his protege to be inserted in the warrant, he knew that his name was +Ulysses, and was sure there was more of it. He knew that the maiden name +of his friend's wife was Simpson. At a venture, he gave the boy's name +as Ulysses Simpson Grant. Grant found it so recorded when he reached the +school, and as he had no special fondness for the name Hiram, which was +bestowed to gratify an aged relative, he thought it not worth while to +go through a long red-tape process to correct the error. There was +another Cadet Grant, and their comrades distinguished this one by sundry +nicknames, of which "Uncle Sam" was one and "Useless" another. + +When he arrived at West Point, in July, 1839, he was not a prepossessing +figure of a young gentleman. The rusticity of his previous occupation +and breeding was upon him. Seventeen years old, hardly more than five +feet tall, but solid and muscular, with no particular charm of face or +manner, no special dignity of carriage, he was only a common sort of +pleb, modest, good-natured, respectful, companionable but sober-minded, +observant but undemonstrative, willing but not ardent, trusty but +without high ambitions,--the kind of boy who might achieve commendable +success in the academy, or might prove unequal to its requirements, +without giving cause of surprise to his associates. + +He had no difficulty in passing the examination at the end of his six +months' probationary period, which enabled him to be enrolled in the +army, and he was never really in danger of dismissal for deficient +scholarship. He seems to have made no effort for superior excellence in +scholarship, and in some studies his rank was low. Mathematics gave him +no trouble, and he says that he rarely read over any of his lessons more +than once, which is evidence that he had unusual power of concentrating +his attention, the secret of quick work in study. This power and a +faithful memory will enable any one to achieve high distinction if he is +willing to toil for it. Grant was not willing to toil for it. He gave +time to other things, not in the routine prescribed. He pursued a +generous course of reading in modern English fiction, including all the +works then published of Scott, Bulwer, Marryat, Lever, Cooper, and +Washington Irving, and much besides. + +The thing for which he was especially distinguished was, as may be +surmised, horsemanship. He was esteemed one of the best horsemen of his +time at the academy. But this, too, was easy for him. He appears to have +been on good terms with his fellows and well liked, but he was not a +leader among them. He has said that while at home he did not like to +work. It must be judged that his mind was affected by a certain +indolence, that he was capable enough when he addressed himself to any +particular task, but not self-disposed to exertion. He felt no constant, +pricking incitement to do his best; but was content to do fairly well, +as well as was necessary for the immediate occasion. One of his comrades +in the academy said in later years that he remembered him as "a very +uncle-like sort of a youth.... He exhibited but little enthusiasm in +anything." + +He was graduated in 1843, at the age of 21 years, ranking 21 in a class +of 39, a little below the middle station. He had grown 6 inches taller +while at the academy, standing 5 feet 7 inches, but weighed no more than +when he entered, 117 pounds. His physical condition had been somewhat +reduced at the end of his term by the wearing effect of a threatening +cough. It cannot be said that any one then expected him to do great +things. The characteristics of his early youth that have been set forth +were persistent. He was older, wiser, more accomplished, better +balanced, but in fundamental traits he was still the Ulysses Grant of +the farm--hardly changed at all. No more at school than at home was his +life vitiated by vices. He was neither profane nor filthy. His +temperament was cool and wholesome. He tried to learn to smoke, but was +then unable. It is remembered that during the vacation in the middle of +his course, spent at home, he steadily declined all invitations to +partake of intoxicants, the reason assigned being that he with others +had pledged themselves not to drink at all, for the sake of example and +help to one of their number whose good resolutions needed such propping. +At his graduation he was a man and a soldier. Life, with all its +attractions and opportunities, was before. Phlegmatic as he may have +been, it cannot be supposed that the future was without beckoning voices +and the rosy glamour of hope. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +LOVE AND WAR + + +He had applied for an appointment in the dragoons, the designation of +the one regiment of cavalry then a part of our army. His alternative +selection was the Fourth Infantry. To this he was attached as a brevet +second lieutenant, and after the expiration of the usual leave spent at +home, he joined his regiment at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. Duties +were not severe, and the officers entertained much company at the +barracks and gave much time to society in the neighborhood. Grant had +his saddle-horse, a gift of his father, and took his full share in the +social life. A few miles away was the home of his classmate and chum +during his last year at the academy, F. T. Dent. One of Dent's sisters +was a young lady of seventeen, educated at a St. Louis boarding school. +After she returned to her home in the late winter young Grant found the +Dent homestead more attractive than ever. + +This was the time of the agitation regarding the annexation of Texas, a +policy to which young Grant was strongly hostile. About May 1 of the +next year, 1844, some of the troops at the barracks were ordered to New +Orleans. Grant, thinking his own regiment might go soon, got a +twenty-days leave to visit his home. He had hardly arrived when by a +letter from a fellow officer he learned that the Fourth had started to +follow the Third, and that his belongings had been forwarded. It was +then that he became conscious of the real nature of his feeling for +Julia Dent. His leave required him to report to Jefferson Barracks, and +although he knew his regiment had gone, he construed the orders +literally and returned there, staying only long enough to declare his +love and learn that it was reciprocated. The secret was not made known +to the parents of the young lady until the next year, when he returned +on a furlough to see her. For three years longer they were separated, +while he was winning honor and promotion. After peace was declared, and +the regiment had returned to the States, they were married. She shared +all his vicissitudes of fortune until his death. Their life together was +one in which wifely faith and duty failed not, nor did he fail to honor +and esteem her above all women. Whatever his weaknesses, infidelity in +domestic affection was not one of them. In all relations of a personal +character he reciprocated trust with the whole tenacity of his nature. + +In Louisiana the regiment encamped on high ground near the Sabine River, +not far from the old town of Natchitoches. The camp was named Camp +Salubrity. In Grant's case, certainly, the name was justified. There he +got rid of the cough that had fastened upon him at West Point and had +caused fears that he would early fall a victim to consumption. In +Louisiana he was restored to perfect, lusty health, fit for any exertion +or privation. He was regarded as a modest and amiable lieutenant of no +great promise. The regiment was moved to Corpus Christi, a trading and +smuggling port. There the army of occupation (of Texas) was slowly +collected, consisting of about three thousand men, commanded by General +Zachary Taylor. Mexico still claimed this part of Texas, and it was +expected that our forces would be attacked. But they were not, and, as +the real purpose was to provoke attack, the army was moved to a point +opposite Matamoras on the Rio Grande, where a new camp was established +and fortified. Previous to leaving Corpus Christi, Grant had been +promoted, September 30, 1845, from brevet second lieutenant to full +second lieutenant. The advance was made in March, 1846. On the 8th of +May the battle of Palo Alto was fought, on the hither side of the Rio +Grande, in which Grant had an active part, acquitting himself with +credit. On the next day was the battle of Resaca de la Palma, in which +he was acting adjutant in place of the officer killed. One consequence +of these victories was the evacuation of Matamoras. War with Mexico +having been declared, General Taylor's army became an army of invasion. + +Volunteers for the war now began coming from the States. In August the +movement on Monterey began, and on the 19th of September, Taylor's army +was encamped before the city. The battle of Monterey was begun on the +21st, and the desperately defended city was surrendered and evacuated on +the 24th. Grant, although then doing quartermaster's duty, having his +station with the baggage train, went to the front on the first day, and +was a participant in the assault, incurring all its perils, and +volunteering for the extremely hazardous duty of a messenger between +different parts of the force. + +When General Scott arrived at the mouth of the Rio Grande, Grant's +regiment was detached from Taylor's army and joined Scott's. He was +present and participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle of Cerro +Gordo, the assault on Churubusco, the storming of Chapultepec, for which +he volunteered with a part of his company, and the battle of Molino del +Rey. Colonel Garland, commander of the brigade, in his report of the +storming of Chapultepec, said: "Lieutenant Grant, 4th Infantry, +acquitted himself most nobly upon several occasions under my own +observation." After the battle of Molino del Rey he was appointed on the +field a first lieutenant for his gallantry. For his conduct at +Chapultepec he was later brevetted a captain, to date from that battle, +September 13, 1847. He entered the city of Mexico a first lieutenant, +after having been, as he says, in all the engagements of the war +possible for any one man, in a regiment that lost more officers during +the war than it ever had present in a single engagement. + +Perhaps his most notable exploit was during the assault on the gate of +San Cosme, under command of General Worth. While reconnoitring for +position, Grant observed a church not far away, having a belfry. With +another officer and a howitzer, and men to work it, he reached the +church, and, by dismounting the gun, carried it to the belfry, where it +was mounted again but a few hundred yards from San Cosme, and did +excellent service. General Worth sent Lieutenant Pemberton (the same +who in the civil war defended Vicksburg) to bring Grant to him. The +general complimented Lieutenant Grant on the execution his gun was +doing, and ordered a captain of voltigeurs to report to him with another +gun. "I could not tell the general," says Grant, "that there was not +room enough in the steeple for another gun, because he probably would +have looked upon such a statement as a contradiction from a second +lieutenant. I took the captain with me, but did not use his gun." + +The American army entered the city of Mexico, September 14, 1847, and +this was his station until June, 1848, when the American army was +withdrawn from Mexico, peace being established. There was no more +fighting. Grant was occupied with his duties as quartermaster, and in +making excursions about the country, in which and its people he +conceived a warm interest that never changed. Upon returning to his own +country he left his regiment on a furlough of four months. His first +business was to go to St. Louis and execute his promise to marry Miss +Dent. The remainder of this honeymoon vacation was spent with his family +and friends in Ohio. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +YEARS OF DORMANT POWER + + +Although he had done excellent service, demonstrating his courage, his +good judgment, his resourcefulness, his ability in command, and in the +staff duties of quartermaster and commissary, his experience did not +kindle in him any new love for his profession, nor any ardor of military +glory. He had not revealed the possession of extraordinary talent, nor +any spark of genius. He accounted the period of great value to him in +his later life, but his heart was never enlisted in the cause for which +the war was made. His letters home declared this. When he came to write +his memoirs, speaking of the annexation of Texas, he said: "For myself I +was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war +which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger +against a weaker nation. It was an instance of a republic following the +bad example of European monarchies in not considering justice in their +desire to acquire additional territory.... The Southern rebellion was +largely the outgrowth of the Mexican war.... We got our punishment in +the most sanguinary and expensive war of modern times." + +But the Mexican war changed Grant's plan of life. While he was at +Jefferson Barracks he had applied for a place as instructor of +mathematics at West Point, and had received such encouragement that he +devoted much time to reviewing his studies and extending them, giving +more attention to history than ever before. After the war the notion of +becoming a college professor appears to have left him. He regarded +himself as bound to the service for the rest of his days. It was not so +much his choice as his lot, and he accepted it, not because he relished +it, but because he discovered no way out of it. This illustrates a +negative trait of his character remarked throughout his career. He was +never a pushing man. He had no self-seeking energy. The work that was +assigned to him he did as well as he could; but he had little art to +recommend himself in immodest ways. He had not the vanity to presume +that he would certainly succeed in strange enterprises. He shrank from +the personal hostilities of ambition. + +Then followed a long period of uneventful routine service in garrisons +at Detroit and at Sackett's Harbor, until in the summer of 1852 his +regiment was sent to the Pacific coast via the Panama route. The +crossing of the isthmus was a terrible experience, owing to the lack of +proper provision for it and to an epidemic of cholera. The delay was of +seven weeks' duration, and about one seventh of all who sailed on the +steamer from New York died on the isthmus of disease or of hardships. +Lieutenant Grant, however, had no illness, and exhibited a humane +devotion to the necessities of the unfortunate, civilians as well as +soldiers. His company was destined to Fort Vancouver, in Oregon +Territory, where he remained nearly a year, until, in order, he +received promotion to a captaincy in a company stationed at Humboldt Bay +in California. Here he remained until 1854, when he resigned from the +army, because, as he says, he saw no prospect of being able to support +his family on his pay, if he brought them--there were then two +children--from St. Louis, where Mrs. Grant had remained with her family +since he left New York. His resignation took effect, following a leave +of absence, July 31, 1854. + +There was another cause, as told in army circles, for his resignation. +He had become so addicted to drink that his resignation was required by +his commanders, who held it for a time to afford him an opportunity to +retrieve his good fame if he would; but he was unable. Through what +temptation he fell into such disgrace is not clearly known. But garrison +posts are given to indulgences which have proved too much for many an +officer, no worse than his fellows, but constitutionally unable to keep +pace with men of different temperament. It might be thought that Grant +was one unlikely to be easily affected; but the testimony of his +associates is that he was always a poor drinker, a small quantity of +liquor overcoming him. + +He was now thirty-two years old, a husband and father, discharged from +the service for which he had been educated, and without means of +livelihood. His wife fortunately owned a small farm near St. Louis, but +it was without a dwelling house. He had no means to stock it. He built a +humble house there by his own hard labor. He cut wood and drew it to St. +Louis for a market. In this way he lived for four years, when he was +incapacitated for such work by an attack of fever and ague lasting +nearly a year. There is no doubt that the veteran and his family +experienced the rigors of want in these years; no question that neither +his necessities nor his duties saved him from being sometimes overcome +by his baneful habit. + +In the fall of 1858 the farm was sold. Grant embarked in the real estate +agency business in St. Louis, and made sundry unsuccessful efforts to +get a salaried place under the city government. But his fortunes did +not improve. Finally in desperation he went in 1860 to his father for +assistance. His father had established two younger sons in a hide and +leather business in Galena, Ill. Upon consultation they agreed to employ +Ulysses as a clerk and helper, with the understanding that he should not +draw more than $800 a year. But he had debts in St. Louis, and to cancel +these almost as much more had to be supplied to him the first year. His +father has told that the advance was repaid as soon as he began earning +money in the civil war. + +In Galena he was known to but few. Ambition for acquaintance seemed to +have died in him. He was the victim of a great humiliation and was +silent. He avoided publicity. He was destitute of presumption. What +brighter hopes he cherished were due to his father's purpose to make him +a partner with his brothers. He heard Lincoln and Douglas when they +canvassed the State, and approved of the argument of the former rather +than of the other. He had voted for Buchanan in 1856, his only vote for +a President before the war. In 1860 he had not acquired a right to vote +in Illinois. + +These thirteen quiet years of Grant's life are not of account in his +public career, but they are a phase of experience that left its deep +traces in the character of the man. He was changed, and ever afterwards +there was a tinge of melancholy and a haunting shadow of dark days in +his life that could not be escaped. Nor in the pride and power of his +after success did he completely conquer the besetting weakness of his +flesh. The years from twenty-six to thirty-nine in the lives of most men +who ever amount to anything are years of steady development and +acquisition, of high endeavor, of zealous, well-ordered upward progress, +of growth in self-mastery and outward influence, of firm consolidation +of character. These conditions are not obvious in the case of General +Grant. Had he died before the summer of 1861, being nearly forty years +of age, he would have filled an obscure grave, and those to whom he was +dearest could not have esteemed his life successful, even in its humble +scope. He had not yet found his opportunity: he had not yet found +himself. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE SUMMONS OF PATRIOTISM + + +The tide of patriotism that surged through the North after the fall of +Fort Sumter in April, 1861, lifted many strong but discouraged men out +of their plight of hard conditions and floated them on to better +fortune. Grant was one of these. At last he found reason to be glad that +he had the education and experience of a soldier. + +On Monday, April 15, 1861, Galena learned that Sumter had fallen. The +next day there was a town meeting, where indignation and devotion found +utterance. Over that meeting Captain Grant was called to preside, +although few knew him. Elihu B. Washburn, the representative of the +district in Congress, and John A. Rawlins, a rude, self-educated lawyer, +who had been a farmer and a charcoal burner, made passionate, fiery +speeches on the duty of every man to stand by the flag. At the close of +that meeting Grant told his brothers that he felt that he must join the +army, and he did no more work in the shop. How clearly he perceived the +meaning of the conflict was shown in a letter to his father-in-law, +wherein he wrote: "In all this I can see but the doom of slavery." + +He was offered the captaincy of the company formed in Galena, and +declined it, although he aided in organizing and drilling the men, and +accompanied them to the state capital, Springfield. As he was about +starting for home, he was asked by Governor Richard Yates to assist in +the adjutant-general's office, and soon he was given charge of mustering +in ten regiments that had been recruited in excess of the quota of the +State, under the President's first call, in preparation for possible +additional calls. His knowledge of army forms and methods was of great +service to the inexperienced state officers. + +Later, but without wholly severing his connection with the office, he +returned home, and wrote a letter to the adjutant-general of the +regular army, at Washington, briefly setting forth his former service, +and very respectfully tendering his service "until the close of the war +in such capacity as may be offered," adding, that with his experience he +felt that he was "competent to command a regiment, if the President +should see fit to intrust one to him." The letter brought no reply. He +went to Cincinnati and tried, unsuccessfully, to see General McClellan, +whom he had known at West Point and in Mexico, hoping that he might be +offered a place on his staff. While he was absent Governor Yates +appointed him colonel of the Twenty-First Regiment of Illinois Infantry, +then in camp near Springfield, his commission dating from June 15. It +was a thirty-day regiment, but almost every member reenlisted for three +years, under the President's second call. Thus, two months after the +breaking out of the war, he was again a soldier with a much higher +commission than he had ever held, higher than would have come to him in +regular order had he remained in the army. + +At Springfield he was in the centre of a great activity and a great +enthusiasm. He met for the first time many leading men of the State, and +became known to them. Their personality did not overwhelm him, famous +and influential as many of them were, nor did he solicit from them any +favor for himself. His desire was to be restored to the regular army +rather than to take command of volunteers. When the sought-for +opportunity did not appear, he accepted the place that was offered, a +place in which he was needed; for the first colonel, selected by the +regiment itself, had already by his conduct lost their confidence. They +exchanged him for Grant with high satisfaction. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +FROM SPRINGFIELD TO FORT DONELSON + + +The regiment remained at the camp, near Springfield, until the 3d of +July, being then in a good state of discipline, and officers and men +having become acquainted with company drill. It was then ordered to +Quincy, on the Mississippi River, and Colonel Grant, for reasons of +instruction, decided to march his regiment instead of going by the +railroad. So began his advance, which ended less than four years later +at Appomattox, when he was the captain of all the victorious Union +armies,--holding a military rank none had held since Washington,--and a +sure fame with the great captains of the world's history. The details of +this wonderful progress can only be sketched in this little volume. It +was not without its periods of gloom, and doubt, and check; but, on the +whole, it was steadily on and up. + +His orders were changed at different times, until finally he was +directed to proceed with all dispatch to the relief of an Illinois +regiment, reported to be surrounded by rebels near Palmyra, Mo. Before +the place was reached, the imperiled regiment had delivered itself by +retreating. He next expected to give battle at a place near the little +town of Florida, in Missouri. As the regiment toiled over the hill +beyond which the enemy was supposed to be waiting for him, he "would +have given anything to be back in Illinois." Never having had the +responsibility of command in a fight, he really distrusted his untried +ability. When the top of the hill was reached, only a deserted camp +appeared in front. "It occurred to me at once that Harris had been as +much afraid of me as I had been of him.... From that event to the close +of the war," he says in his book, "I never experienced trepidation upon +confronting an enemy, though I always felt more or less anxiety. I never +forgot that he had as much reason to fear my forces as I had [to fear] +his." + +On August 7 he was appointed by the President a brigadier-general of +volunteers, upon the unanimous recommendation of the congressmen from +Illinois, most of whom were unknown to him. He had not won promotion by +any fighting; but generals were at that time made with haste to meet +exigent requirement, a proportional number being selected from each +loyal State. Among those whom General Grant appointed on his staff was +John A. Rawlins, the Galena lawyer, who was made adjutant-general, with +the rank of captain, and who as long as he lived continued near Grant in +some capacity, dying while serving as Secretary of War in the first term +of Grant's presidency. He was an officer of high ability and personal +loyalty. He alone had the audacity to interpose a resolute no, when his +chief was disposed to over-indulgence in liquor. He did not always +prevent him, but it is doubtful whether Grant would not have fallen by +the way without the constant, imperative watchfulness of his faithful +friend. There were times when both army and people were impatient with +him, not wholly without reason. Nothing saved him then but President +Lincoln's confidence and charity. The reply to all complaints was: "This +man fights; he cannot be spared." + +In the last days of August, having been occupied, meantime, in reducing +to order distracted and disaffected communities in Missouri, he was +assigned to command of a military district embracing all southwestern +Missouri and southern Illinois. He established his headquarters at +Cairo, early in September, and from there he promptly led an expedition +that forestalled the hostile intention of seizing Paducah, a strategical +point at the mouth of the Tennessee River. This was his first important +military movement, and it was begun upon his own initiative. His first +battle was fought at Belmont, Mo., opposite Columbus, Ky., on the +Mississippi River, on November 7, 1861. Grant, in command of a force of +about 3000 men, was demonstrating against Columbus, held by the enemy. +Learning that a force had been sent across the river to Belmont, he +disembarked his troops from their transports and attacked. The men were +under fire for the first time, but they drove the enemy and captured the +camp. They came near being cut off, however, through the inexperience +and silly recklessness of subordinate officers. By dint of hard work and +great personal risk on the part of their commander, they were got safely +away. It was an all-day struggle, during which General Grant had a horse +shot under him, and made several narrow escapes, being the last man to +reembark. The Union losses were 485 killed, wounded, and missing. The +loss of the enemy was officially reported as 632. This battle was +criticised at the time as unnecessary; but General Grant always asserted +the contrary. The enemy was prevented from detaching troops from +Columbus, and the national forces acquired a confidence in themselves +that was of great value ever afterwards. Grant's governing maxim was, to +strike the enemy whenever possible, and keep doing it. + +From the battle of Belmont until February, 1862, there was no fighting +by Grant's army. Troops were concentrated at Cairo for future +operations--not yet decided upon. Major-General H. W. Halleck superseded +General Fremont in command of the department of Missouri. Halleck was an +able man, having a high reputation as theoretical master of the art of +war, one of those who put a large part of all their energy into the +business of preparing to do some great task, only to find frequently, +when they are completely ready, that the occasion has gone by. When he +was first approached with a proposition to capture Forts Henry and +Donelson, the first on the Tennessee River, the other on the Cumberland +River, where the rivers are only a few miles apart near the southern +border of Kentucky, he thought that it would require an army of "not +less than 60,000 effective men," which could not be collected at Cairo +"before the middle or last of February." + +Early in January General Grant went to St. Louis to explain his ideas of +a campaign against these forts to Halleck, who told him his scheme was +"preposterous." On the 28th he ventured again to suggest to Halleck by +telegraph that, if permitted, he could take and hold Fort Henry on the +Tennessee. His application was seconded by flag officer Foote of the +navy, who then had command of several gunboats at Cairo. On February 1, +he received instructions to go ahead, and the expedition, all +preparations having been made beforehand, started the next day, the +gunboats and about 9000 men on transports going up the Ohio and the +Tennessee to a point a few miles below Fort Henry. After the troops were +disembarked the transports went back to Paducah for the remainder of the +force of 17,000 constituting the expeditionary army. The attack was made +on the 6th, but the garrison had evacuated, going toward Fort Donelson, +to escape the fire of the gunboats. General Tilghman, commanding the +fort, his staff, and about 120 men were captured, with many guns and a +large quantity of stores. The principal loss on the Union side was the +scalding of 29 men on the gunboat Essex by the explosion of her boiler, +pierced by a shell from the fort. + +Grant had no instructions to attack Fort Donelson, but he had none +forbidding him to do it. He straightway moved nearly his whole force +over the eleven miles of dreadful roads, and on the 12th began investing +the stronghold, an earthwork inclosing about 100 acres, with outworks on +the land and water sides, and defended by more than 20,000 men commanded +by General Floyd, who had been President Buchanan's Secretary of War. +The investing force had its right near the river above the fort. The +weather was alternately wet and freezing cold. The troops had no +shelter, and suffered greatly. On the 14th, without serious opposition, +the investment was completed. At three o'clock in the afternoon of the +14th, flag officer Foote began the attack, the fleet of gunboats +steaming up the river and firing as rapidly as possible; but several +were disabled by the enemy's fire, and all had to fall back before +nightfall. The enemy telegraphed to Richmond that a great victory had +been achieved. + +On the next day, Grant, riding several miles to the river, met Foote on +his gunboat, to which he was confined by a wound received the day +before. Returning, he found that a large force from the fort had made a +sortie upon a part of his line, but had been driven back after a severe +contest. It was found that the haversacks of the Confederates left on +the field contained three days' rations. Instantly, Grant reasoned that +the intention was not so much to drive him away as to break through his +line and escape. He ordered a division that had not been engaged to +advance at once, and before night it had established a position within +the outer lines of defense. Surrender or capture the next day was the +fate of the Confederates. + +During the night General Floyd and General Pillow, next in command, and +General Forest made their escape with about 4000 men. Before light the +next morning, General Grant received a note from General S. B. Buckner, +who was left in command of the fort, suggesting the appointment of +commissioners to agree upon terms of capitulation, and meanwhile an +armistice until noon. To this note General Grant sent the curt reply: +"No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be +accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." General +Buckner sent back word that he was compelled by circumstances "to accept +the ungenerous and unchivalrous terms" which had been proposed. + +This victory electrified the whole North, then greatly in need of cheer. +General Grant became the hero of the hour. His name was honored and his +exploit lauded from one end of the country to the other. It was not yet +a year since he had been an obscure citizen of an obscure town. Already +many regarded him as the nation's hope. A phrase from his note to +General Buckner was fitted to his initials, and he was everywhere hailed +as "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. + +In this campaign he first revealed the peculiar traits of his military +genius, clear discernment of possibilities, comprehension of the +requirements of the situation, strategical instinct, accurate estimate +of the enemy's motive and plan, sagacious promptness of action in +exigencies, staunch resolution, inspiring energy, invincible poise. For +his achievement he was promoted to be a major-general of volunteers. He +had found himself now. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SHILOH, CORINTH, IUKA + + +On the 4th of March, sixteen days after his victory, he was in disgrace. +General Halleck ordered him to turn over the command of the army to +General C. F. Smith and to remain himself at Fort Henry. This action of +Halleck was the consequence partly of accidents which had prevented +communication between them and caused Halleck to think him +insubordinate, partly of false reports to Halleck that Grant was +drinking to excess, partly of Halleck's dislike of Grant,--a +temperamental incapacity of appreciation. After Donelson he issued a +general order of congratulation of Grant and Foote for the victory, but +he sent no personal congratulations, and reported to Washington that the +victory was due to General Smith, whose promotion, not Grant's, he +recommended. As to the reports of Grant's drinking, they were +decisively contradicted by Rawlins, to whom the authorities in +Washington applied for information. He asserted that Grant had drunk no +liquor during the campaign except a little, by the surgeon's +prescription, on one occasion when attacked by ague. The fault of +failing to report his movements and to answer inquiries was later found +to be due to a telegraph operator hostile to the Union cause, who did +not forward Grant's reports to Halleck nor Halleck's orders to Grant. + +Grant's mortification was intense. Since the fall of Donelson he had +been full of activities. The enemy had fallen back, his first line being +broken, and Grant was scheming to follow up his advantage by pushing on +through Tennessee, driving the discouraged Confederate forces before +him. He had visited Nashville to confer with General Buell, who had +reached that city, and it was on his return that he received Halleck's +dispatch of removal. For several days he was in dreadful distress of +mind, and contemplated resigning his commission. It seemed as if Fate +had cut off his career just as it had gloriously begun. But he made no +public complaint. He obeyed orders and waited at Fort Henry. To some of +his friends he said that he would never wear a sword again. But on the +13th he was restored to command. Halleck became aware of the facts, and +made a report vindicating Grant's conduct, of which he sent him a copy. +It was not until after the war that Grant learned that Halleck's +previous reports had caused his degradation. + +His first battle after restoration to command was an unfortunate one in +the beginning, but was turned into a victory. He was advancing on +Corinth, Miss., a railroad centre of the Southwest, where a large +Confederate army under General Albert Sidney Johnston was collecting. +All the available Union forces in the West were gathering to meet it. +Grant had selected Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, twenty +miles from Corinth, as the place for landing his forces, and Hamburg +Landing, four miles up the river, as the starting point for Buell's +army in marching on Corinth. Buell was hastening to the rendezvous, +coming through Tennessee with a large force. On the 4th of April Grant's +horse fell while he was reconnoitring at night, and the general's leg +was badly bruised but not broken. + +Expecting to make an offensive campaign and meet the enemy at Corinth, +he had not enjoined intrenchment of the temporary camp. So great was the +confidence that Johnston would await attack that the enemy's proximity +in force was discovered too late. Johnston led his whole army out of +Corinth, and early on the morning of the 6th of April surprised +Sherman's division encamped at Shiloh, three miles from Pittsburg +Landing, attacking with a largely superior force. The battle raged all +day, with heavy losses on both sides, the Union army being gradually +forced back to Pittsburg Landing. Five divisions were engaged, three of +them composed of raw troops, and many regiments were in a demoralized +condition at night. + +On the next day the Union army, reinforced by Buell's 20,000 men, +advanced, attacking the enemy early in the morning, with furious +determination. The Confederate forces, although weakened, were +determined not to lose the advantage gained, and fought with desperate +stubbornness. But it was in vain. A necessity of vindicating their +courage was felt by officers and men of the Union Army. They had fully +recovered from the effects of the surprise, and pressed forward with +zealous assurance. Before the day was done Grant had won the field and +compelled a disorderly retreat. In this battle the commander of the +Confederate army, General Albert Sidney Johnston, was killed in the +first day's fighting, the command devolving on General G. T. Beauregard. +On the first day the Union forces on the field numbered about 33,000 +against the enemy's above 40,000. On the second day the Union forces +were superior. The Union losses in the two days were 1754 killed, 8408 +wounded, and 2885 missing; total 13,047. Beauregard reported a total +loss of 10,694, of whom 1723 were killed. General Grant says that the +Union army buried more of the enemy's dead than is here reported in +front of Sherman's and McClernand's divisions alone, and that the total +number buried was estimated at 4000. + +The battles of Shiloh and Pittsburg Landing together constitute one of +the critical conflicts of the long war. Had the Confederate success of +the first day been repeated and completed on the second day, it would +have been difficult, if not impossible, to prevent the enemy from +possessing Tennessee and a large part of Kentucky. + +After this battle General Halleck came to Pittsburg Landing and took +command of all the armies in that department. Although General Grant was +second in command, he was not in General Halleck's confidence, and was +contemptuously disregarded in the direction of affairs. Halleck +proceeded to make a safe campaign against Corinth by road-building and +parallel intrenchments. He got there and captured it, indeed, having +been a month on the way, but the rebel army, with all its equipments, +guns, and stores, had escaped beforehand. Grant's position was so +embarrassing that during Halleck's advance he made several earnest +applications to be relieved. Halleck would not let him go, apparently +thinking that he needed to be instructed by an opportunity of observing +how a great soldier made war. What Grant really learned was how not to +make war. + +After the fall of Corinth he was permitted to make his headquarters at +Memphis, while Halleck proceeded to construct defensive works on an +immense scale. But in July Halleck was appointed commander-in-chief of +all the armies, with his headquarters in Washington, and Grant returned +to Corinth. He was the ranking officer in the department, but was not +formally assigned to the command until October. The intermediate time +was spent, for the most part, in defensive operations in the enemy's +country, the great army that entered Corinth having been scattered east, +north, and west to various points. Two important battles were fought, by +one of which an attempt to retake Corinth was defeated. The other was +at Iuka, in Mississippi, where a considerable Confederate force was +defeated. + +In this period the energy and resourcefulness of General Grant were +conspicuous, although nothing that occurred added largely to his +reputation. He was, however, gathering stores of useful experience while +operating in the heart of the enemy's country, where every inhabitant, +except the negroes, was hostile. Both of the battles mentioned above +were nearly lost by failure of his subordinates to render expected +service according to orders; but he suffered no defeat. The service was +wearing, but he was equal to all demands made upon him. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +VICKSBURG + + +Vicksburg had long been the hard military problem of the Southwest. The +city, which had been made a fortress, was at the summit of a range of +high bluffs, two hundred and fifty feet above the east bank of the +Mississippi River, near the mouth of the Yazoo. It was provided with +batteries along the river front and on the bank of the Yazoo to Haines's +Bluff. A continuous line of fortifications surrounded the city on the +crest of the hill. This hill, the slopes of which were cut by deep +ravines, was difficult of ascent in any part in the face of hostile +defenders. The back country was swampy bottom land, covered with a rank +growth of timber, intersected with lagoons and almost impassable except +by a few rude roads. The opposite side of the river was an extensive +wooded morass. + +In May, 1862, flag officer Farragut, coming up the Mississippi from New +Orleans, had demanded the surrender of the city and been refused. In the +latter part of June he returned with flag officer Porter's mortar +flotilla and bombarded the city for four weeks without gaining his end. +In November, 1862, General Grant started with an army from Grand +Junction, intending to approach Vicksburg by the way of the Yazoo River +and attack it in the rear. But General Van Dorn captured Holly Springs, +his depot of supplies, and the project was abandoned. + +The narration, with any approach to completeness, of the story of the +campaign against Vicksburg would require a volume. It was a protracted, +baffling, desperate undertaking to obtain possession of the +fortifications that commanded the Mississippi River at that point. Grant +was not unaware of the magnitude of the work, nor was he eager to +attempt it under the conditions existing. He believed that, in order to +their greatest efficiency, all the armies operating between the +Alleghanies and the Mississippi should be subject to one commander, and +he made this suggestion to the War Department, at the same time +testifying his disinterestedness by declining in advance to take the +supreme command himself. His suggestion was not immediately adopted. On +the 22d of December, 1862, General Grant, whose headquarters were then +at Holly Springs, reorganized his army into four corps, the 13th, 15th, +16th, and 17th, commanded respectively by Major-Generals John A. +McClernand, William T. Sherman, S. A. Hurlbut, and J. B. McPherson. Soon +afterwards he established his headquarters at Memphis, and in January +began the move on Vicksburg, which, after immense labors and various +failures of plans, resulted in the surrender of that fortress on July 4, +1863. + +He first sent Sherman, in whose enterprise and ability to take care of +himself he had full confidence, giving him only general instructions. +Sherman landed his army on the east side of the river, above Vicksburg, +and made a direct assault, which proved unsuccessful, and he was +compelled to reembark his defeated troops. The impracticability of +successful assault on the north side was then accepted. General +McClernand's corps on the 11th of January, aided by the navy under +Admiral Porter, captured Arkansas Post on the White River, taking 6000 +prisoners, 17 guns, and a large amount of military stores. + +On the 17th, Grant went to the front and had a conference with Sherman, +McClernand, and Porter, the upshot of which was a direction to +rendezvous on the west bank in the vicinity of Vicksburg. McClernand was +disaffected, having sought at Washington the command of an expedition +against Vicksburg and been led to expect it. He wrote a letter to Grant +so insolent that the latter was advised to relieve him of all command +and send him to the rear. Instead of doing so, he gave him every +possible favor and opportunity; but months afterwards, in front of +Vicksburg, McClernand was guilty of a breach of discipline which could +not be overlooked, and he was deprived of his command. + +Throughout the war Grant was notably considerate and charitable in +respect of the mistakes and the temper of subordinates if he thought +them to be patriotic and capable. His rapid rise excited the jealousy +and personal hostility of many ambitious generals. Of this he was +conscious, but he did not suffer himself to be affected by it so long as +there was no failure in duty. The reply he made to those who asked him +to remove McClernand revealed the principle of his action: "No. I cannot +afford to quarrel with a man whom I have to command." + +The Union army, having embarked at Memphis, was landed on the west bank +of the Mississippi River, and the first work undertaken was the digging +of a canal across a peninsula that would allow passage of the transports +to the Mississippi below Vicksburg, where they could be used to ferry +the army across the river, there being higher ground south of the city +from which it could be approached more easily than from any other point. +After weeks of labor, the scheme had to be abandoned as impracticable. +Then various devices for opening and connecting bayous were tried, none +of them proving useful. The army not engaged in digging or in cutting +through obstructing timbers was encamped along the narrow levee, the +only dry land available in the season of flood. Thus three months were +seemingly wasted without result. The aspect of affairs was gloomy and +desperate. + +The North became impatient and began grumbling against the general, +doubting his ability, even clamoring for his removal. He made no reply, +nor suffered his friends to defend him. He simply worked on in silence. +Stories of his incapacity on account of drinking were rife, and it may +have been the case that under the dreary circumstances and intense +strain he did sometimes yield to this temptation. But he never yielded +his aim, never relaxed his grim purpose. Vicksburg must fall. As soon as +one plan failed of success another was put in operation. When every +scheme of getting the vessels through the by-ways failed, one thing +remained,--to send the gunboats and transports past Vicksburg by the +river, defying the frowning batteries and whatever impediments might be +met. Six gunboats and several steamers ran by the batteries on the night +of April 16th, under a tremendous fire, the river being lighted up by +burning houses on the shore. Barges and flatboats followed on other +nights. Then Grant's way to reach Vicksburg was found; but it was not an +easy one, nor unopposed. A place of landing on the east side was to be +sought. The navy failed to silence the Confederate batteries at Grand +Gulf, twenty miles below Vicksburg, so that a landing could be effected +there, and the fleet ran past it, as it had run by Vicksburg. Ten miles +farther down the river a landing place was found at Bruinsburg. By +daylight, on the 1st of May, McClernand's corps and part of McPherson's +had been ferried across, leaving behind all impedimenta, even the +officers' horses, and fighting had already begun in rear of Port Gibson, +about eight miles from the landing. The enemy made a desperate stand, +but was defeated with heavy loss. Grand Gulf was evacuated that night, +and the place became thenceforth a base of operations. Grant had +defeated the enemy's calculation by the celerity with which he had +transferred a large force. He slept on the ground with his soldiers, +without a tent or even an overcoat for covering. + +General Joseph E. Johnston had superseded General Beauregard in command +of all the Confederate forces of the Southwest. His business was to +succor General Pemberton and drive Grant back into the river. Sherman +with his corps joined Grant on the 8th. Jackson, the capital of +Mississippi, a Confederate railroad centre and depot of supplies, was +captured on the 14th, the defense being made by Johnston himself. Then +Pemberton's whole army from Vicksburg, 25,000 men, was encountered, +defeated, and forced to retire into the fortress, after losing nearly +5000 men and 18 guns. On the 18th of May Grant's army reached Vicksburg +and the actual siege began. + +Since May 1, Grant had won five hard battles, killed and wounded 5200 of +the enemy, captured 40 field guns, nearly 5000 prisoners, and a +fortified city, compelled the abandonment of Grand Gulf and Haines's +Bluff, with their 20 heavy guns, destroyed all the railroads and bridges +available by the enemy, separated their armies, which altogether +numbered 60,000 men, while his own numbered but 45,000, and had +completely invested Vicksburg. It was an astonishing exhibition of +courage, energy, and military genius, calculated to confound his critics +and reestablish him in the confidence of the people. It has been said +that there is nothing in history since Hannibal invaded Italy that is +comparable with it. + +The incidents of the siege, abounding in difficult and heroic action, +including an early unsuccessful assault, must be passed over. +Preparations had been made and directions given for a general assault on +the works on the morning of July 5. But on the 3d General Pemberton sent +out a flag of truce asking, as Buckner did at Donelson, for the +appointment of commissioners to arrange terms of capitulation. Grant +declined to appoint commissioners or to accept any terms but +unconditional surrender, with humane treatment of all prisoners of war. +He, however, offered to meet Pemberton himself, who had been at West +Point and in Mexico with him, and confer regarding details. This meeting +was held, and on the 4th of July Grant took possession of the city. The +Confederates surrendered about 30,000 men, 172 cannon, and 50,000 small +arms, besides military stores; but there was little food left. Grant's +losses during the whole campaign were 1415 killed, 7395 wounded, 453 +missing. When the paroled prisoners were ready to march out, Grant +ordered the Union soldiers "to be orderly and quiet as these prisoners +pass," and "to make no offensive remarks." + +This great victory was coincident with the repulse of Lee at Gettysburg, +and the effect of the two events was a wonderfully inspiriting influence +upon the country. President Lincoln wrote to General Grant a +characteristic letter "as a grateful acknowledgment of the almost +inestimable service you have done the country." In it he said: "I never +had any faith, except a general hope that you knew better than I, that +the Yazoo Pass expedition and the like could succeed. When you got below +and took Port Gibson, Grand Gulf, and vicinity, I thought you should go +down the river and join General Banks [besieging Port Hudson]; and when +you turned northward, east of the Big Black, I feared it was a mistake. +I now wish to make a personal acknowledgment that you were right and I +was wrong." + +Port Hudson surrendered to General Banks, to whom Grant sent +reinforcements as soon as Vicksburg fell, on the 8th of July, with +10,000 more prisoners and 50 guns. This put the Union forces in +possession of the Mississippi River all the way to the Gulf. + +Grant now appeared to the nation as the foremost hero of the war. The +disparagements and personal scandals so rife a few months before were +silenced and forgotten. He was believed to be invincible. That he never +boasted, never publicly resented criticism, never courted applause, +never quarreled with his superiors, but endured, toiled, and fought in +calm fidelity, consulting chiefly with himself, never wholly baffled, +and always triumphant in the end, had shown the nation a man of a kind +the people had longed for and in whom they proudly rejoiced. The hopes +to which Donelson had given birth were confirmed in the hero of +Vicksburg, who was straightway made a major-general in the regular army, +from which, when a first lieutenant, he had resigned nine years before. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +NEW RESPONSIBILITIES--CHATTANOOGA + + +Halleck, issuing orders from Washington, proceeded to disperse Grant's +army hither and yon as he thought fractions of it to be needed. Grant +wanted to move on Mobile from Lake Pontchartrain, but was not permitted +to do it. Having gone to New Orleans in obedience to a necessity of +conference with General Banks, he suffered a severe injury by the fall +of a fractious horse, as he was returning from a review of Banks's army. +For a long time he was unconscious. As soon as he could be moved he was +taken on a bed to a steamer. For several days after reaching Vicksburg +he was unable to leave his bed. Meantime he was repeatedly called upon +to send reinforcements to Rosecrans, in Chattanooga, to which place the +latter had retreated after the repulse of his army at Chickamauga, +September 19 and 20. On October 3, Grant was directed to go to Cairo and +report by telegraph to the Secretary of War as soon as he was able to +take the field. He started on the same day, ill as he still was. On +arriving in Cairo he was ordered to proceed to Louisville. He was met at +Indianapolis by Secretary Stanton, whom he had never before seen, and +they proceeded together. + +On the train Secretary Stanton handed him two orders, telling him to +take his choice of them. Both created the military division of the +Mississippi, including all the territory between the Alleghanies and the +Mississippi River, north of General Banks's department, and assigning +command of it to Grant. One order left the commanders of the three +departments, the Ohio, the Cumberland, and the Tennessee, as they were, +the other relieved General Rosecrans, commanding the Army of the +Cumberland, and assigned Gen. George H. Thomas to his place. General +Grant accepted the latter. This consolidation was a late compliance +with his earnest, unselfish counsel given before the Vicksburg campaign. +Its wisdom had become apparent. + +The centre of interest and anxiety now was Chattanooga, in East +Tennessee, near the border of Georgia. The Confederates had been +striving to retrieve the ground lost, since the fall of Fort Henry, by +pushing northward in this direction. Halleck's dispersion of forces had +sent Buell to this section, and Buell had been superseded by Rosecrans, +a zealous and patriotic but unfortunate commander. The repulse at +Chickamauga might have proved disastrous to his army but for the +splendid behavior of the division under General Thomas, an officer not +unlike Grant in the mould of his military talent, who there earned the +sobriquet, "The Rock of Chickamauga." + +The army of Rosecrans had been gathered again at Chattanooga, where it +was confronted by Bragg, whose force surrounded it in an irregular +semicircle from the Tennessee River to the river again, occupying +Missionary Ridge on one flank and Lookout Mountain on the other, with +its centre where these two ridges come nearly together. Chattanooga was +in the valley between, near the centre of which, behind the town, was an +elevation, Orchard Knob, held by the enemy. Bragg commanded the river +and the railroads. The route for supplies was circuitous, inadequate, +and insecure, over mountain roads that had become horrible. Horses and +mules had perished by thousands. The soldiers were on half rations. Word +came to Grant in Louisville, that Rosecrans was contemplating a retreat. +He at once issued an order assuming his new command, notified Rosecrans +that he was relieved, and instructed Thomas to hold the place at all +hazards until he reached the front. + +Still so lame that he could not walk without crutches, and had to be +carried in arms over places where it was not safe to go on horseback, he +left Louisville on the 21st of October, and reached Chattanooga on the +evening of the 23d. Then began a work of masterly activity and +preparation, in which his genius again asserted its supreme quality. +Sherman with his army was ordered to join Grant. In five days the river +road to Bridgeport was opened, the enemy being driven from the banks, +two bridges were built, and Hooker's army added to his force. The enemy, +having a much superior force, and assuming the surrender of the Army of +the Cumberland to be only a question of time and famine, sent Longstreet +with 15,000 men to reinforce the army of Johnston, holding Burnside in +Knoxville, to the relief of whom the enemy supposed Sherman to be +marching. Grant waited for Sherman, who was coming on between Longstreet +and Bragg. All general orders for the battle were prepared in advance, +except their dates. Sherman reached Chattanooga on the evening of the +15th, and with Grant inspected the field on the 16th. Sherman's army, +holding the left, was to cross to the south side of the river and assail +Missionary Ridge. Hooker, on the right, was to press through from +Lookout valley into Chattanooga valley. Thomas, in the centre, was to +press forward through the valley and strike the enemy's centre while +his wings were thus fully engaged, or as soon as Hooker's support was +available. + +The battle began on the afternoon of October 23. Orchard Knob, in the +centre of the great amphitheatre, was attacked and captured, and became +the Union headquarters. On the 24th Sherman crossed the river and +established his army, on the north end of Missionary Ridge. On the +morning of the same day Hooker assailed Lookout Mountain, and after a +long climbing fight, lasting far into the night, secured his position; +and the enemy, who had occupied the mountain, retreated across the +valley at its upper end to Missionary Ridge. Grant's forces were now in +touch from right to left. Everything so far had gone well. + +Early on the next morning Sherman opened the attack. The ridge in his +front was exceedingly favorable for defense, and during the whole night +the enemy had been at work strengthening the position. Sherman's first +assault failed, but he continued pressing the enemy with resolution, +although making little progress. From Grant's place on Orchard Knob he +watched the struggle. At three o'clock he saw Sherman's right repulsed. +Then he gave to Thomas, standing at his side, the order to advance. Six +guns were fired as a signal, and the Army of the Cumberland moved +forward in splendid array to avenge Chickamauga. The immediate purpose +was to carry the rebel rifle pits at the foot of the Ridge. This done, +the soldiers were subjected to a galling fire from the line 800 feet +above them. As by inspiration, they rushed on, climbing as they could, +by aid of rocks and bushes, and using their guns as staves. They reached +the crest and swept it in a mighty fury. It was the decisive action. All +the columns now converged on the distracted foe who fled before them. +Grant galloped to the front with all speed, urging on the pursuit and +exposing himself to every hazard of the fight. + +So Chattanooga was added to Grant's lengthening score of brilliant +victories; and again, as at Donelson and at Vicksburg, he had been the +instrument of relieving a tense oppression of anxiety that had settled +upon the nation. Sherman, with two corps, was at once sent to the relief +of Knoxville; but Longstreet, having heard of Bragg's defeat, made an +unsuccessful assault and retreated into Virginia. By the administration +in Washington, and by the people of the North, General Grant's +preeminence was conceded. His star shone brightest of all. Congress +voted a gold medal for him. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, COMMANDER OF ALL THE ARMIES + + +During the winter, after the Chattanooga victory, General Grant made his +headquarters at Nashville, and devoted himself to acquiring an intimate +knowledge of the condition of the large region now under his command, to +the reorganization of his own lines of transportation, and the +destruction of those of the enemy. He made a perilous journey to +Knoxville in the dead of winter, and a brief trip to St. Louis, on +account of the dangerous illness of his son there. On this trip he wore +citizen's clothes, traveled as quietly as possible, declined all public +honors, and made no delays. The whole route might have been a continuous +enthusiastic ovation; but he would not have it so. His work was not +done, and he sternly discountenanced all premature glorification. Too +many generals had fallen from a high estate in the popular judgment, for +him to court a similar fate. The promotions that gave him greater +opportunity of service he accepted; but he preferred to keep his capital +of popularity, whatever it might be, on deposit and accumulating while +he stuck to his unaccomplished task, instead of drawing upon it as he +went along for purposes of vanity and display. Of vulgar vanity he had +as little as any soldier in the army. + +Nashville was the base of supplies for all the operations in his +military division. Its lines of transportation had been worn out and +broken down, largely through incompetent management. He put them in +charge of new men, who reconstructed and equipped them. While engaged in +this necessary work he dispatched Sherman on an expedition through +Mississippi, which he hoped would reach Mobile; but it terminated at +Meriden, through failure of a cavalry force to join it. But it did a +work in destruction of railroads and railroad property, that inflicted +immense damage on the Confederacy. Throughout the winter Grant worked +as if his reputation was yet to be made, and to be made in that military +division. + +Meanwhile Congress and the country were pondering his deserts, and his +ability for still greater responsibilities. The result of this +deliberation was the passage of the act, approved March 1, 1864, +reestablishing the grade of lieutenant-general in the regular army. The +next day President Lincoln nominated General Grant to the rank, and the +nomination was promptly confirmed. He was ordered to Washington to +receive the supreme commission. It was his first visit to the national +capital; his first personal introduction to the President, although he +had heard him make a speech many years before; his first meeting with +the leading men in civil official life, who were sustaining the armies +and guiding the nation in its imperiled way. He came crowned with the +glory of victories second in magnitude and significance to none, since +Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Everybody desired to see him, +and to honor him. + +Yet he journeyed to Washington as simply and quietly as possible, +avoiding demonstration. He arrived on the 8th of March, and going to a +hotel waited, unrecognized, until the throng of travelers had +registered, and then wrote, simply, "U. S. Grant and son, Galena." The +next day, at 1 o'clock, he was received by President Lincoln in the +cabinet-room of the White House. There were present, by the President's +invitation, the members of the cabinet, General Halleck, and a few other +distinguished men. After introductions the President addressed him as +follows:-- + +"GENERAL GRANT,--The expression of the nation's approbation of what you +have already done, and its reliance on you for what remains to be done +in the existing great struggle, are now presented with this commission, +constituting you lieutenant-general in the army of the United States. +With the high honor, devolves on you an additional responsibility. As +the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I +scarcely need to add, that with what I here speak for the nation goes +my own hearty personal concurrence." + +General Grant made the following reply:-- + +"MR. PRESIDENT,--I accept the commission with gratitude for the high +honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so +many battlefields for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor +not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the +responsibilities now devolving upon me; and I know that if they are met, +it will be due to those armies; and, above all, to the favor of that +Providence which leads both nations and men." + +The next day he was assigned to the command of all the armies, with +headquarters in the field. He made a hurried trip to Culpeper Court +House for a conference with General Meade, commanding the Army of the +Potomac; but would not linger in Washington to be praised and feted. He +hastened back to Nashville, where, on the 17th, he issued an order +assuming command of the armies of the United States, announcing that +until further notice, his headquarters would be with the Army of the +Potomac. General Halleck was relieved from duty as general-in-chief; but +was assigned by Grant to duty in Washington, as chief-of-staff of the +army. Sherman was assigned to command the military division of the +Mississippi, which was enlarged, and McPherson took Sherman's place as +commander of the Army of the Tennessee; Thomas remaining in command of +the Army of the Cumberland. On the 23d Grant was again in Washington, +accompanied by his family and his personal staff. On the next day he +took actual command, and immediately reorganized the Army of the Potomac +in three corps,--the Second, Fifth, and Sixth,--commanded by +Major-Generals Hancock, Warren, and Sedgwick; Major-General Meade +retaining the supreme command. The cavalry was consolidated into a corps +under Sheridan. Burnside commanded the Ninth Corps, which for a brief +time acted independently. + +This crisis of Grant's life should not be passed over without allusion +to the remarkable letters that passed between Grant and Sherman before +he left Nashville to receive his new commission. Grant wrote to Sherman +as follows:-- + +"Whilst I have been eminently successful in this war, in at least +gaining the confidence of the public, no one feels more than I do how +much of this success is due to the energy, skill, and the harmonious +putting forth of that energy and skill, of those whom it has been my +good fortune to have occupying subordinate positions under me. There are +many officers to whom these remarks are applicable to a greater or less +degree, proportionate to their ability as soldiers; but what I want is +to express my thanks to you and McPherson as the men to whom, above all +others, I feel indebted for whatever I have had of success. How far your +advice and assistance have been of help to me, you know; how far your +execution of whatever has been given you to do entitles you to the +reward I am receiving you cannot know as well as I. I feel all the +gratitude this letter would express, giving it the most flattering +construction." + +Grant's modesty, generosity, and magnanimity shine in this +acknowledgment. If there were no other record illustrating these +qualities, this alone would be an irrefragable testimony to his +possession of them. There can be no appeal from its transparent, cordial +sincerity. + +Sherman's reply is too long to be quoted fully, but the parts of it that +reveal his estimate of Grant's qualities and his confidence in him are +important with reference to the purpose of this sketch:-- + +"You do yourself injustice and us too much honor in assigning to us too +large a share of the merits which have led to your high advancement.... +You are now Washington's legitimate successor, and occupy a position of +almost dangerous elevation; but if you can continue, as heretofore, to +be yourself, simple, honest, and unpretending, you will enjoy through +life the respect and love of friends, and the homage of millions of +human beings that will award you a large share in securing to them and +their descendants a government of law and stability.... I believe you +are as brave, patriotic, and just as the great prototype, Washington, as +unselfish, kind-hearted, and honest as a man should be; but the chief +characteristic is the simple faith in success you have always +manifested, which I can liken to nothing else than the faith the +Christian has in his Saviour. This faith gave you victory at Shiloh and +Vicksburg. Also, when you have completed your preparations, you go into +battle without hesitation, as at Chattanooga,--no doubts, no +answers,--and I tell you it was this that made us act with confidence. I +knew, wherever I was, that you thought of me; and if I got in a tight +place you would help me out if alive." + +He besought Grant not to stay in Washington, but to come back to the +Mississippi Valley, "the seat of coming empire, and from the West where +[when?] our task is done, we will make short work of Charleston and +Richmond and the impoverished coast of the Atlantic." But Grant was +wiser. He felt that the duty to which his new commission called him was +to try conclusions with General Lee, the most illustrious and successful +of the Confederate commanders, whom he had not yet encountered and +vanquished. His new rank gave him an authority and prestige which would +enable him, he trusted, to overcome the discouragements and discontents +of the noble Army of the Potomac, and wield its unified force with +victorious might. He knew, moreover, that the government and the people +trusted him and would sustain him, as they trusted and would sustain no +other, in a fresh and final attempt to destroy the Army of Northern +Virginia, upon which the hopes of the Confederacy were staked. Not so +much ambition as duty determined him to make his headquarters with the +Army of the Potomac. + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +THE WILDERNESS AND SPOTTSYLVANIA + + +Wherever Grant had control in the West, and in all his counsels, his +distinct purpose was to mass the Union forces and not scatter them, and +to get at the enemy. With what ideas and intention he began the new task +he set forth definitely in his report made in July, 1865. + +"From an early period in the rebellion, I had been impressed with the +idea that the active and continuous operations of all the troops that +could be brought into the field, regardless of season and weather, were +necessary to a speedy termination of the war.... I therefore determined, +first, to use the greatest number of troops practicable against the +armed force of the enemy, preventing him from using the same force at +different seasons against first one and then another of our armies, and +the possibility of repose for refitting and producing necessary +supplies for carrying on resistance; second, to hammer continuously +against the armed force of the enemy and his resources, until by mere +attrition, if in no other way, there should be nothing left to him but +an equal submission with the loyal sections of our common country to the +Constitution and laws of the land." + +Grant instructed General Butler, who had a large army at Fortress +Monroe, to make Richmond his objective point. He instructed General +Meade, commanding the Army of the Potomac, that Lee's army "would be his +objective point, and wherever Lee went he would go also." He hoped to +defeat and capture Lee, or to drive him back on Richmond, following +close and establishing a connection with Butler's army there, if Butler +had succeeded in advancing so far. Sherman was to move against +Johnston's army, and Sigel, with a strong force, was to protect West +Virginia and Pennsylvania from incursions. This, with plans for keeping +all the other armies of the Confederacy so occupied that Lee could not +draw from them, constituted the grand strategy of the campaign. + +The theatre of operations of the Army of the Potomac was a region of +country lying west of a nearly north-and-south line passing through +Richmond and Washington. It was about 120 miles long, from the Potomac +on the north to the James on the south, and from 30 to 60 miles wide, +intersected by several rivers flowing into Chesapeake Bay. The +headquarters of the Union army were at Culpeper Court House, about 70 +miles southwest of Washington, with which it was connected by railroad. +This was the starting point. Lee's army was about fifteen miles away, +with the Rapidan, a river difficult of passage, in front of it, the +foothills of the Blue Ridge on its left, and on its right a densely +wooded tract of scrub pines and various low growths, almost pathless, +known as "the Wilderness." + +Two courses were open to Grant,--to march by the right, cross the upper +fords, and attack Lee on his left flank, or march by the left, crossing +the lower fords, and making into the Wilderness. Grant chose the latter +way, as, on the whole, most favorable to keeping open communications. +For General Grant, as commander of all the armies, was bound to avoid +being shut up or leaving Washington imperiled. And it may properly be +said here that his plan contemplated leaving General Meade free in his +tactics, giving him only general directions regarding what he desired to +have accomplished, the actual fighting to be done under Meade's orders. + +The official reports to the Adjutant-General's office in Washington show +that on the 20th of April the Army of the Potomac numbered 81,864 men +present and fit for duty. Burnside's corps, which joined in the +Wilderness, added to this force 19,250 men, making a total of 101,114 +men. After the Wilderness, a division numbering 7000 or 8000 men under +General Tyler joined it. When the Chickahominy was reached, a junction +with Butler's army, 25,000 strong, was made. Lee had on the 20th of +April present for duty, armed and equipped, 53,891. A few days later he +was reinforced by Longstreet's corps, which on the date given numbered +18,387, making a total of 72,278. Grant's army outnumbered Lee's, but he +was to make an offensive campaign in the enemy's country, operating on +exterior lines, and keeping long lines of communication open. Defending +Richmond and Petersburg there were other Confederate forces, under +Beauregard, Hill, and Hoke, estimated to amount to nearly 30,000 men, +and Breckenridge commanded still another army in the Shenandoah Valley. +In Grant's command, but not of the Army of the Potomac, were the +garrison of Washington and the force in West Virginia. + +On the 3d of May the order to move was given, and at midnight the start +was made. The advance guard crossed the river before four in the morning +of the 4th, and on the morning of the 5th Grant's army, nearly a hundred +thousand strong, was disposed in the Wilderness. Lee had discovered the +movement promptly, and had moved his whole army to the right, +determined to fall upon Grant in that unfavorable place. As soon as the +Union army began a movement in the morning, it encountered the enemy, +who attacked with tremendous and confident vigor. The fighting continued +all day, with indecisive results. Early the next morning the battle was +renewed, and continued with varying fortunes, at one time one army, and +at another time the opposing army, having the advantage. There was, in +fact, a series of desperate battles between different portions of the +two armies which did not end until the night was far advanced. The +advantage, on the whole, was with the Union army. It had not been forced +back over the Rapidan. It stood fast. But it had inflicted no such +defeat on the enemy as Grant had hoped to do in the first encounter. The +losses of both sides had been very large, those of the Union Army being +3288 killed, 19,278 wounded, 6784 missing. + +The next morning it was discovered that the Confederates had retired to +their intrenchments, and were not seeking battle. Then Grant gave the +order that was decisive, and revealed to the Army of the Potomac that it +had a new spirit over it. The order was, "Forward to Spottsylvania!" No +more turning back, no more resting on a doubtful result. "Forward!" to +the finish. But Lee, controlling shorter lines, was at Spottsylvania +beforehand, and had seized the roads and fortified himself. Here again +was bloody fighting of a most determined character, lasting several +days. Here Hancock, by a daring assault, captured an angle of the +enemy's works, with a large number of guns and prisoners; and it was +held, despite the repeated endeavors of the enemy to recapture it. Here +General Sedgwick was killed. Here Upton made a famous assault on the +enemy's line and broke through it, want of timely and vigorous support +preventing this exploit from making an end of Lee's army then and there. +But the Union losses at Spottsylvania, while not so large as in the +Wilderness, were very heavy, and made a painful impression upon the +people of the North. + +Undoubtedly Grant was disappointed by the failure to vanquish his +opponent. Undoubtedly Lee was disappointed by his failure to repulse the +Union army in the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania as he had done +formerly at Chancellorsville and Fredericksburg, when it had come into +the same territory. Each had underestimated the other's quality. From +Spottsylvania, on the 11th of May, after six days of continuous +fighting, with an advance of scarcely a dozen miles, and an experience +of checks and losses that would have disheartened any one but the hero +of Vicksburg, he sent this bulletin to the War Department: "We have now +ended the sixth day of very heavy fighting. 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 11 general officers killed, +wounded, and missing, and probably 20,000 men.... I am now sending back +to Belle Plain all my wagons for a fresh supply of provisions and +ammunition, and propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all +summer." + +The indomitable spirit of the last sentence electrified the country. It +did take all summer, and all winter, too,--eleven full months from the +date of this dispatch, and more, before General Lee, driven into +Richmond, forced to evacuate the doomed city, his escape into the South +cut off, his soldiers exhausted, ragged, starving, reinforcements out of +the question, surrendered at Appomattox the Army of Northern Virginia, +the reliance of the Confederacy, to the general whom he expected to +defeat by his furious assault in the Wilderness. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +FROM SPOTTSYLVANIA TO RICHMOND + + +The story of this campaign is too long to be narrated in particular. On +both sides it is a record of magnificent valor, endurance, and +resolution, to which the world affords no parallel, when it is +remembered that the armies were recruited from the free citizenship of +the nation. As the weeks and months wore on, General's Grant's visage, +it is said, settled into an unrelaxing expression of grim resolve. He +carried the nation on his shoulders in those days. If he had wearied or +yielded, hope might have vanished. He did not yield nor faint. He +planned and toiled and fought, keeping his own counsel, bearing +patiently the disappointment, the misunderstanding, the doubt, the +criticism, the woe of millions who had no other hope but in his success +and were often on the verge of despair. He beheld his plans defeated by +the incompetence or errors of subordinates whom he trusted, and let the +blame be laid upon himself without protest or murmuring. He knew better +than any one else the terrible cost of life which his unrelenting +purpose demanded; but he knew also that the price of relenting, +involving the discouragement of failure, the cost of another campaign +after the enemy had got breath and new equipment, the possible refusal +of the North to try again, was far greater and more humiliating. Little +wonder that he was oppressed and silent and moody. Yet he ruled his own +spirit in accordance with the habit of his life. No folly or +disappointment provoked him to utter an oath. General Horace Porter, of +his staff, a member of his intimate military family, says that the +strongest expression of vexation that ever escaped his lips was: +"Confound it!" He alone had the genius to be master of the situation at +all times, and the "simple faith in success" that would not let him be +swerved from his aim. + +So he pressed on from the Wilderness to Spottsylvania, to North Anna, +to South Anna, to the Pamunky, to Cold Harbor, to the Chickahominy, +fighting and flanking all the way, until at the end of the month he had +pressed Lee back to the immediate vicinity of Richmond. The bloodiest of +all these battles was the ill-judged attack, for which Grant has been +much criticised, on the strongly intrenched rebel lines at Cold Harbor. +If he could have dislodged Lee here he could have compelled him to +retreat into the immediate fortifications of Richmond. But Lee's +position was impregnable: the assault failed. In less than an hour Grant +lost 13,000 men killed, wounded, and missing, and gained nothing +substantial. + +General Butler had signally failed to accomplish the work given him to +do. Instead of taking Petersburg, destroying the railroads connecting +Richmond with the south, and laying siege to that city, he had, after +some ineffectual manoeuvring, got his army hemmed in, "bottled up," +Grant called it, at Bermuda Hundred, where he was almost completely out +of the offensive movement for months. Sigel had been worsted in the +North, and had been relieved by Hunter, who had won measurable success +in the Shenandoah Valley. + +Grant, checked on the east and north of Richmond, crossed the +Chickahominy and the James with his whole army by a series of masterly +manoeuvres, regarding the meaning of which his opponent was brilliantly +deceived. Then followed the unsuccessful attempt to capture Petersburg +before it could be reinforced, unsuccessful by reason of the want of +persistence on the part of the general intrusted with the duty. This +failure involved a long siege of that place, which the Confederates made +impregnable to assault. A breach in the defences was made by the +explosion of a mine constructed with vast labor, but there was failure +to follow up the advantage with sufficient promptness. Here the Army of +the Potomac passed the winter, except the part of the army that was +detached to protect Washington from threatened attack, and with which +Sheridan made his great fame in the Shenandoah Valley. Meanwhile +Sherman, in the West, had taken Atlanta, and leaving Hood's army to be +taken care of by Thomas, who defeated it at Nashville, had marched +across Georgia, and was making his way through the Carolinas northward +toward Richmond, an army under Johnston disputing his way by annoyance, +impediment, and occasional battle. Another incident of the winter was +the two attempts on Fort Fisher, near Wilmington, North Carolina,--the +first, under General Butler, a failure; the second, under General Terry, +a brilliant success. All these movements were in execution of plans and +directions given by the lieutenant-general. + +It was the 29th of March when, all preparations having been made, Grant +began the final movement. He threw a large part of his army into the +region west of Petersburg and south of Richmond, and at Five Forks, four +days later, Sheridan fought a brilliant and decisive battle, which +compelled Lee to abandon both Petersburg and Richmond, and to attempt to +save his army by running away and joining Johnston. All his movements +were baffled by the eager Union generals, flushed with the consciousness +that the end was near. + +On the 7th of April Grant wrote to Lee: "I regard it as my duty to shift +from myself responsibility for any further effusion of human blood by +asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States +army, known as the Army of Northern Virginia." Lee replied at once, +asking the terms that would be offered on condition of surrender. His +letter reached Grant on the 8th, who replied: "_Peace_ being my great +desire, there is but one condition I would insist upon, namely: that the +men and officers surrendered shall be disqualified for taking up arms +again against the government of the United States until properly +exchanged." He offered to meet Lee or any officers deputed by him for +arranging definite terms. Lee replied the same evening somewhat +evasively, setting forth that he desired to treat for peace, and that +the surrender of his army would be considered as a means to that end. + +To this Grant responded on the 9th, having set his army in motion to +Appomattox Court House, that he had no authority to treat for peace; but +added some plain words to the effect that the shortest road to peace +would be surrender. Lee immediately asked for an interview. Grant +received this communication while on the road, and returned word that he +would push on and meet him wherever he might designate. When Grant +arrived at the village of Appomattox Court House he was directed to a +small house where Lee awaited him. Within a short time the conditions +were drafted by Grant and accepted by Lee, who was grateful that the +officers were permitted to keep their side-arms, and officers and men to +retain the horses which they owned and their private baggage. + +The number of men surrendered at Appomattox was 27,416. During the ten +days' previous fighting 22,079 of Lee's army had been captured, and +about 12,000 killed and wounded. It is estimated that as many as 12,000 +deserted on the road to Appomattox. From May 1, 1864, to April 9, 1865, +the Armies of the Potomac and the James took 66,512 prisoners and +captured 245 flags, 251 guns, and 22,633 stands of small arms. Their +losses from the Wilderness to Appomattox were 12,561 killed, 64,452 +wounded, and 26,988 missing, an aggregate of 104,001. + +It would be idle adulation to say that in all points during this long +conflict with Lee General Grant always did the best thing, making no +mistakes. The essential point is, and it suffices to establish, his +military fame on secure foundations, that he made no fatal mistake, that +progress toward the great result in view was constant, slower than he +expected, slower than the country expected, but finally everywhere +victorious, substantially on the lines contemplated in the beginning. +After Lee's experience in the Wilderness and at Spottsylvania he seldom +assumed the offensive against Grant. He became prudent, adopted a +defensive policy, fought behind intrenchments or just in front of +fortifications to which he could retire for safety, and waited to be +attacked. Watchful and alert as he was, he was deceived by Grant +oftener than he deceived him, and except that he managed to postpone the +end by skillful tactics, he did not challenge the military superiority +of his foe. He made Grant's victory costly and difficult, but he did not +prevent it. He retreated with desperate reluctance, but he was forced +back. He could not protect his capital; he could not save his army. When +Lee measured powers with Grant, his cause was lost. + +There are incidents of the campaign that mitigate its stern and in some +sense savage features. When the imperturbable soldier learned of the +death of his dear friend McPherson, who fell in one of Sherman's +battles, he retired to his tent and wept bitterly. When Lincoln, +visiting Grant at City Point, before the general departed on what was +expected to be the last stage of the campaign, said to him that he had +expected he would order Sherman's army to reinforce the Army of the +Potomac for the final struggle, the reply was that the Army of the +Potomac had fought the Army of Virginia through four long years, and it +would not be just to require it to share the honors of victory with any +other army. It was observed that when he bade good-by to his wife at +this departure his adieus, always affectionate, were especially tender +and lingering, as if presentiment of a crisis in his life oppressed him. +Lincoln accompanied him to the train. "The President," said Grant, after +they had parted, "is one of the few who have not attempted to extract +from me a knowledge of my movements, although he is the only one who has +a right to know them." Long before, Lincoln had written to him: "The +particulars of your campaign I neither know nor seek to know. I wish not +to intrude any restraints or constraints upon you." Grant's reply to +this confidence was: "Should my success be less than I desire or expect, +the least I can say is, the fault is not yours." These two understood +each other by a magnanimous sympathy that had no need of particular +confidences. That Lincoln respected Grant as one whom it was not +becoming for him to presume to question is in itself impressive evidence +of Grant's greatness. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +IN WASHINGTON AMONG POLITICIANS + + +Within a few weeks after the surrender of Lee, every army and fragment +of an army opposed to the Union was dissolved. But meantime Lincoln had +been assassinated, and the executive administration of the nation had +devolved upon Andrew Johnson. This wrought an immense change in the +aspect of national affairs. Lincoln was a strong, wise, conservative, +magnanimous soul. Johnson was arrogant, vain, narrow, and contentious. +Grant soon established his headquarters at the War Department, and +devoted himself with characteristic energy to the work of discharging +from the military service the great armies of volunteers no longer +needed. Their work as soldiers was gloriously complete. Within a few +months they were once more simple citizens of the Republic, following +the ways of industry and peace. The suddenness of the transformation by +which at the outbreak of hostilities hundreds of thousands of citizens +left their homes and their occupations of peace to become willing +soldiers of the Union and liberty, was paralleled by the alacrity of +their return, the moment the danger was passed, to the stations and the +manner of life they had abandoned. + +General Grant was the central figure in the national rejoicing and +pride. The desire to do him honor was universal. But he bore himself +through all with dignity and modesty, avoiding as much as he could, +without seeming inappreciation and disdain, the lavish popular applause +that greeted him on every possible occasion. In July, 1866, Congress +created the grade of general, to which he was at once promoted, thus +attaining a rank never before granted to a soldier of the United States. +His great lieutenant, Sherman, succeeded him in this office, which was +then permitted to lapse, though it was revived later as a special honor +for General Sheridan. In further token of gratitude, some of the +wealthier citizens purchased and presented to Grant a house in +Washington. Resolutions of gratitude, honorary degrees, presents of +value and significance, came to him in abundance. Through it all, he +maintained his reputation as a man of few words, devoid of ostentation, +and with no ambition to court public favor by any act of demagoguism. + +But a great and bitter trial confronted him. He had never been a +politician. Now he was caught in a maelstrom of ungenerous and malignant +politics. All his influence and effort had been addressed to promote the +calming of the passions of the war, and a reunion in fact as well as in +form. The President, professing an intention of carrying out the policy +of his predecessor, began a method of reconstructing civil governments +in the States that had seceded which produced great dissatisfaction. +Upon his own initiative, without authority of Congress, he proceeded to +encourage and abet those who were lately in arms against the Union to +make new constitutions for their States, and institute civil +governments therein, as if they alone were to be considered. The +freedmen, who had been of so great service to our armies, whom by every +requirement of honor and gratitude we were bound to protect, were left +to the hardly restricted guardianship of their former masters, who, +having no faith in their manhood or their development, devised for them +a condition with few rights or hopes, and little removed from the +slavery out of which they had been delivered. + +This policy found little favor with those in the North who had borne the +heat and burden of the war. In the elections of 1866 the people +repudiated President Johnson's policy by emphatic majorities. When the +hostile Congress met, the governments Johnson had instituted were +declared to be provisional only, and it set about the work of +reconstruction in its own way, imbedding the changed conditions, the +fruits of the war, in proposed amendments of the Constitution of the +United States, which were ultimately ratified by a sufficient number of +States to make them part of the organic frame of government of the +Republic. + +In these days of storm and stress, General Grant took neither side as a +partisan. He stuck to his professional work until he was forced to be a +participator in a political war, strange to his knowledge and his +habits. Congress directed the Southern States to be divided into five +military districts, with a military commander of each, and all +subordinate to the general of the army, who was charged with keeping the +peace, until civil governments in the States should be established by +the legislative department of national authority. + +Congress, before adjourning in 1866, passed a tenure-of-office +act,--overriding in this, as in other legislation, the President's veto. +The motive was to prevent the President from using the patronage to +strengthen his policy. This act required the President to make report to +the Senate of all removals during the recess, with his reasons therefor. +All appointments to vacancies so created were to be _ad interim_ +appointments. If the Senate disapproved of the removals, the officer +suspended at once became again the incumbent. Severe penalties were +provided for infraction of the law. During the recess the President +removed Stanton, and appointed General Grant to be Secretary of War. +Grant did not desire the office, but under advice accepted it, lest a +worse thing for the country might happen. + +Johnson hoped to win Grant to his side, and in any event to use him in +his strife with Congress to defeat the purpose of the law. While the +Senate had Stanton's case under consideration in January, 1867, Grant +was called into a cabinet meeting and questioned regarding what he would +do. He said that he was not familiar with the law, but would examine it +and notify the President. The next day he notified him that he would +obey the law. Therefore, when the Senate disapproved of the reasons +assigned for the removal of Stanton, Grant at once vacated the office, +to the intense mortification and anger of the President, who made a +public accusation that Grant had promised to stay in office and oppose +Stanton's resumption of it. + +The charge made a great scandal, but it did not seriously impair +Grant's good repute. Johnson was not believed, and the testimony of the +members of his cabinet, regarding what happened, was so conflicting that +it failed to convince anybody who did not seek to be convinced. + +There is reason to believe that Johnson never contemplated retaining +Grant in the office, except to use his name and fame to break down the +tenure-of-office act. General Grant's plain common sense delivered him +from the snare spread for him by wily and desperate politicians. On +February 3, he closed an unsatisfactory correspondence with President +Johnson, with these severe words: "I can but regard this whole business, +from the beginning to the end, as an attempt to involve me in the +resistance of law, for which you hesitated to assume the responsibility +in orders, and thus to destroy my character before the country. I am, in +a measure, confirmed in this conclusion by your recent order, directing +me to disobey orders from the Secretary of War, my superior and your +subordinate, without having countermanded his authority to issue the +orders I am to disobey." + +When Johnson was impeached by the House of representatives, General +Grant might, if he had chosen to do so, have contributed much to +embarrass the President; but he held aloof, discharging his duties as +general-in-chief with constant devotion. He was instrumental in +instituting many economies and improvements of army management. He +greatly advanced the work of reconstruction, and civil governments were +firmly established on the congressional plan in a majority of the +Southern States before he became the chosen leader of the Republican +party. + +Grant had not yet distinctly committed himself as between the Democratic +and the Republican parties, although from the time of his break with +Johnson, he was more drawn to the Republicans. So far as he had any +politics he might have been classed as a War Democrat. Had he definitely +proclaimed himself a Democrat, no doubt he could have had that party's +nomination for the presidency. He was the first citizen of the nation in +popularity, of which he had marked tokens, and of which both parties +were anxious to avail themselves. It is little wonder that he came to +think that the presidency was an honor to which he might fitly aspire, +and an office in which he could further serve his country, by promoting +good feeling between the sections. In May, 1868, he was placed in +nomination, first by a convention of Union soldiers and sailors, and +afterwards by the Republican party, in both instances by acclamation. +His Democratic opponent was Horatio Seymour, of New York. In the +election he had a popular majority of 305,456. He received 214 electoral +votes, and Seymour received 80. Three of the Southern States, not being +fully restored to the Union, had no voice in the election. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +HIS FIRST ADMINISTRATION + + +Immediately after General Grant's inauguration as President, an incident +occurred which revealed his inexperience in statesmanship. Among the +names sent to the Senate as members of the cabinet was that of Alexander +T. Stewart, of New York, the leading merchant of the country, for +Secretary of the Treasury. Grant was unaware of the existence of his +disqualification by a statute passed in 1789, on account of being +engaged in trade and commerce. His ignorance is hardly surprising in +view of the fact that the Senate confirmed the nomination without +discovering its illegality. The point was soon made, however, and the +reasonableness of the law was apparent to all except the President, who +sent a message to the Senate suggesting that Mr. Stewart be exempted +from its application to him by a joint resolution of Congress. This +breaking down of a sound principle of government for the pleasure of the +President was not favored, and George S. Boutwell of Massachusetts was +substituted, Mr. Stewart having declined, in order to relieve the +President of embarrassment. + +For the rest, the cabinet was a peculiar one. It appeared to be made up +without consultation or political sagacity, in accordance with the +personal reasons by which a general selects his staff. Elihu B. +Washburn, of Illinois, his firm congressional friend during the war, was +Secretary of State; General Jacob D. Cox, of Ohio, Secretary of the +Interior; Adolph E. Boise, of Pennsylvania, Secretary of the Navy; +General John M. Schofield, of Illinois, Secretary of War; John A. J. +Cresswell, of Maryland, Postmaster-General; and E. Rockwood Hoar, of +Massachusetts, Attorney-General. It did not long endure in this form. +Mr. Washburn was soon appointed Minister to France, and was succeeded by +Hamilton Fish, of New York, in the State Department. General Schofield +was succeeded in the War Department by General John A. Rawlins, who died +in September, and was succeeded by General William W. Belknap, of Iowa. +Mr. Boise gave way in June to George M. Robeson, of New Jersey. In July, +1870, Mr. Hoar was succeeded by A. T. Akerman, of Georgia, and he, in +December, 1871, by George H. Williams, of Oregon. General Cox resigned +in November, 1870, and was succeeded by Columbus Delano. Some of these +changes, like that of Washburn to Fish, were good ones, and many of them +were exceedingly bad ones,--men of high character and ability, like +Judge Hoar and General Cox, conscientious and faithful even to the point +of remonstrance with their headstrong chief, being succeeded by +compliant men of a distinctly lower strain. Fish and Boutwell achieved +high reputation by their conduct of their offices. The death of Rawlins +deprived the President of a wise and staunch personal friend at a time +when he was never more in need of his controlling influence. + +Early in 1871 the work of reconstruction was completed, so far as the +establishment of State governments and representation in Congress was +concerned. But later in the year, the outrages upon the colored +population in certain States were so general and cruel that Congress +passed what became known as the "Ku-Klux Act," which was followed by a +presidential proclamation exhorting to obedience of the law. On October +17, the outrages continuing, suspension of the writ of habeas corpus was +proclaimed in certain counties of South Carolina, and many offenders +were convicted in the United States courts. This severe proceeding had a +deterring influence throughout the South, which understood quite well +that General Grant was not a person to be defied with impunity. + +In 1870 he sent to the Senate a treaty that the administration had +negotiated with President Baez for the annexation of Santo Domingo as a +territory of the United States, and also one for leasing to the United +States the peninsula and bay of Samana. These treaties, it was said, +had already been ratified by a popular vote early in 1870. The scheme +precipitated a conflict that divided the Republican party into +administration and anti-administration factions, the latter being led by +Charles Sumner and Carl Schurz. Sumner had long been chairman of the +Senate committee on foreign relations, but he was degraded through the +influence of the President's friends in the Senate. Bitter personal +animosities were aroused in this contest which never were healed. It was +alleged that the sentiment of the people of Santo Domingo had not been +fairly taken, and that they were in fact opposed to annexation. A +commission composed of B. F. Wade, of Ohio, Andrew D. White, of New +York, and Samuel G. Howe, of Massachusetts, was sent on a naval vessel +to investigate the actual conditions. This committee reported in favor +of annexation; but the hostile sentiment in Congress and among the +people was so strong that the treaties were never ratified. By many it +was considered a wrong to the colored race to so extinguish the +experiment of negro self-government. Others were opposed to annexing +such a population, thinking this country already had race troubles +enough. Others regarded the whole business as a speculation of jobbers, +and the stain of jobbery then pervading government circles was so +notorious that the presumption was not without warrant. The annexation +scheme brought to a head and gave occasion for an outbreak of indignant +hostile criticism of the President and the administration. + +In this term Grant appointed the first board of civil service +commissioners, with George William Curtis at its head. The commissioners +were to inquire into the condition of the civil service and devise a +scheme to increase its efficiency. This they did; but later the +President himself balked at the enforcement of their rules, and, in +1873, Mr. Curtis resigned. + +The most conspicuous achievement of General Grant's first term was the +settlement of the controversy with Great Britain growing out of the +destruction of American commerce by Confederate States cruisers during +the war. A joint high commission of five British and five American +members met in Washington, February 17, 1871, and on May 8 a treaty was +completed and signed, providing peaceable means for a settlement of the +several questions arising out of the coast fisheries, the northwestern +boundary line, and the "Alabama Claims." The last and most important +subject was referred to an international court of arbitration, which met +at Geneva, Switzerland, and on September 14, 1872, awarded to the United +States a gross sum of $15,500,000, which was paid by Great Britain. This +was the most important international issue that had ever been settled by +voluntary submission to arbitration. It was long regarded as the +harbinger of peace between nations. + +Other important things done were the establishment of the first weather +bureau; the honorable settlement of the outrage of Spain in the case of +the Virginius, an alleged filibustering vessel which Spain seized, +executing a large part of its crew in Cuba; and the settlement of the +northwest boundary question. It should be said also that the President +made a firm stand in behalf of national financial integrity. + +But during the four years there was a steady deterioration in the tone +of official life, and a steady growth of corruption and abuses in the +administration of government. The President exhibited a strange lack of +moral perception and stamina in the sphere of politics. Unprincipled +flatterers, adventurers, and speculators gained a surprising influence +with him. His native obstinacy showed itself especially in insistence +upon his personal, ill-instructed will. He became intractable to +counsels of wisdom, and seemed to be a radically different man from the +sincere, modest soldier of the civil war. He affected the society of the +rich, whom he never before had opportunity of knowing. He accepted with +an indiscreet eagerness presents and particular favors from persons of +whose motives he should have been suspicious. Jay Gould and James Fisk +used him in preparing the conditions for the corner of the gold market +that culminated in "Black Friday." He provided fat offices for his +relatives with a liberal hand, and prostituted the civil service to +accomplish his aims and reward his supporters. + +In consequence of these things there was great disaffection in the +Republican party, which culminated in open revolt. Yet he was supported +by the majority. The Democratic party, meantime, making a virtue of +necessity, proclaimed a purpose to accept the results of the war, +including the constitutional amendments, as accomplished facts not to be +disturbed or further opposed. This made an opportunity for a union of +all elements opposed to the reelection of Grant, leading Democrats +having given assurance of support to a candidate to be nominated by what +had come to be called the "Liberal Reform" party. That party held its +convention in Cincinnati early in May, and named Horace Greeley as its +candidate, a nomination which wrecked whatever chance the party had +seemed to have. Grant was renominated by acclamation in the Republican +convention. The Democratic convention nominated Greeley on the +Cincinnati convention platform, but without enthusiasm. General Grant +was elected by a popular majority of more than three quarters of a +million, and a vote in the electoral college of 286 to 63 for all +others, the opposing vote being scattered on account of the death of Mr. +Greeley in November, soon after his mortifying defeat. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +HIS SECOND ADMINISTRATION + + +The storm of criticism and calumny through which President Grant passed +during the election canvass of 1872 had no effect to change his general +course or open his eyes to the true sentiment of the nation. Instead of +realizing that he was reelected, not because his administration was +approved, but because circumstances prevented an effective combination +of the various elements of sincere opposition, he and his friends +accepted the result as popular approbation of their past conduct and +warrant for its continuance. Things went from bad to worse with a +pell-mell rapidity that made good men shudder. + +In the four years there were but two exhibitions of conspicuously +courageous and honorable statesmanship. One was the passage of the +Resumption Act of January 14, 1875, which promised the resumption of +specie payments on January 1, 1879, and gave the Secretary of the +Treasury adequate power to make the performance of the promise possible. +This was one result of the collapse in 1873 of the enormous speculation +promoted by a fluctuating currency and fictitious values. The demand for +a currency of stable value enabled the conservative statesmen in +Congress to take this action. Grant's approval of this act and his veto +in the previous year of the "inflation bill" must always be regarded as +highly commendable public services. + +The only immediate change in the cabinet was the appointment of William +A. Richardson to succeed George S. Boutwell as Secretary of the +Treasury. Mr. Richardson had some qualifications of experience for the +place, but wanted the essential traits of firmness and high motive. In +the next year after taking office he was forced to resign, on account of +a report of the committee of ways and means condemning him for his part +in making a contract, while acting Secretary of the Treasury, with one +Sanborn, for collecting for the Treasury, on shares, taxes which it was +the business of regular officers of the government to collect. Immense +power was given by the contract, and the resources of the Treasury +Department were put at the service of a crew of irresponsible +inquisitors before whom the business community trembled. They extorted +immense sums in dishonorable ways which aroused popular resentment. The +President saw no wrong, and accepted Secretary Richardson's resignation +unwillingly, at once nominating him to be Chief Justice of the Court of +Claims, a reward for malfeasance which amazed the country, although the +administration supporters in the Senate confirmed it. + +General Benjamin H. Bristow, of Kentucky, became Secretary of the +Treasury, a man of superior ability, aggressive honesty, and moral +firmness. He quickly uncovered a mass of various wrongdoing,--the +safe-burglary frauds of the corrupt ring governing Washington, the +seal-lock frauds, the subsidy frauds, and, most formidable of all, the +frauds of the powerful whiskey ring having headquarters in St. Louis. +The administration of the Treasury Department, especially the Internal +Revenue Bureau, was permeated with corruption. The worst feature of it +all was that officers who desired to be upright found themselves +powerless against the intrigues and the potent political influence of +the rascals at the headquarters of executive authority. When the +evidence of wrongdoing accumulated by the new Secretary of the Treasury +was laid before the President he was dumfounded by its wickedness and +extent, but showed himself resolute and vigorous in supporting his able +and resourceful Secretary. The trap was sprung in May, 1875. Indictments +were found against 150 private citizens and 86 government officers, +among the latter the chief clerk in the Treasury Department, and the +President's private secretary, General O. E. Babcock. All the principal +defendants were convicted except Babcock, and he was dismissed by the +President. + +During all these proceedings, in spite of the President's professions, +the Treasury Department was beset by subtle hostile influences and +impediments. The politicians who had the President's ear made him +believe that it was the ruin of himself and his household that the +investigators sought. Only the enthusiastic popular approval of +Secretary Bristow's brave course prevented yielding to the political +backers of the corruption. When in the spring of 1876 Bristow initiated +a similar campaign against the corruptions rife on the Pacific coast, +the Secretary was overruled and the government prosecutors were +recalled. Whereupon the Secretary resigned, and no less than seven high +Treasury officials, who had been active in the crusade of reform, left +the department at the same time. Mr. Bristow was succeeded by an +honorable man,--the President had to appoint a man known to be +pure,--Lot M. Morrill, of Maine; but he was infirm, and all aggressive +reform work ceased. + +In the War Department, Secretary Belknap, sustained by the President, +stripped General Sherman of the rights and duties properly pertaining to +his rank, of which Grant himself, in the same place during Johnson's +administration, had protested against being deprived. Sherman was +subjected to such humiliations by his old commander, turned politician, +that he abandoned Washington and retired to St. Louis. Congress was a +subservient participator in this shame, repealing the law that required +all orders to the army to go through its general. But in February, 1876, +it was discovered that Belknap had been enriching himself by corrupt +partnership with contractors in his department, and he hurriedly +resigned, the President strangely accepting the resignation before +Congress could act. He was impeached, notwithstanding. He set up the +defense that being no longer an official, he could not be impeached, and +this being overruled, he was tried, but was not convicted. Of his guilt +the country had no doubt. Then Alphonso Taft, an Ohio judge, was made +Secretary of War. He was soon transferred to the Attorney-General's +office, and was succeeded by Don Cameron, already his father's +lieutenant in control of the Republican party of Pennsylvania. + +Columbus Delano, Secretary of the Interior, had so mismanaged affairs, +especially in the Indian Bureau, which teemed with flagrant abuses, that +public opinion turned against him with great force, and in 1875 he had +to abandon the office, in which he was succeeded by Zachariah Chandler, +against whom no scandalous charge was made, although he was a rank +partisan of the President. + +Marshall Jewell, of Connecticut, became Postmaster-General in 1874. He +was a successful business man, and on taking the office he declared his +purpose to conduct it on business principles. He attacked effectively a +system long in vogue known as "straw-bids" for mail-carrying contracts. +He introduced the railway post-office system, that has been of so much +use in facilitating promptness of transmitting correspondence. But he +also insisted on conducting his office with respect of its personnel as +a business man would, that is, by making appointments and promotions for +merit rather than for political influence. This was intolerable to the +spoilsmen in politics; and within two years he was summarily dismissed +in a manner as graceless and cruel as any President, no matter how +unfortunately bred, was ever guilty of. Jewell was succeeded by James N. +Tyner, an entirely complaisant official. In 1875 Congress neglected to +make any appropriation for the civil service reform commission, and its +work was suspended. + +During this time affairs in the Southern States were, as a rule, growing +worse and worse. The unreasonable arrogance and oppressive extravagance +of the freedmen where they were in control, under the leadership of +reckless carpet-baggers, and still more reckless and malicious white +natives, had produced a revulsion in the minds of all at the North who +regarded justice, honor, and honesty as essentials of good government. +There were exceptions, like oases in the desert of ignorance and vice. +The administration of Governor Chamberlain in South Carolina was an +instance of an earnest and partially successful endeavor to educe good +government from desperate conditions. The colored race abused its +privilege of the ballot with suicidal persistency. The experiment of +maintaining bad State governments by the presence and activity of +federal troops did not tend to social pacification. Reconstruction in +its earlier fruits was an obvious failure; and again, if the apparent +paradox can be understood, lawless violence began asserting itself as +the only hopeful means of preserving property, civil rights, and +civilization itself. + +During the second term the report was persistently circulated that Grant +and those who followed his star were scheming for another term, in order +to give him in civil office, as in military rank, a distinction higher +than Washington or any American had obtained. The proposal shocked the +public sense of propriety; but its treatment by those who alone could +repudiate it became ominous. The Republican State Convention of 1875 in +Pennsylvania boldly declared unalterable opposition to the third-term +idea. Grant then spoke. In a letter to the convention's chairman he +said: "Now, for the third term, I do not want it any more than I did the +first." After calling attention to the fact that the Constitution did +not forbid a third term, and that an occasion might arise when a third +term might be wisely given, he said that he was not a candidate for a +third nomination, and "would not accept it, if tendered, unless under +such circumstances as to make it an imperative duty--circumstances not +likely to arise." + +This was justly regarded as a politician's letter, and increased alarm +instead of allaying it. The national House of Representatives (which the +elections of 1874 had made a Democratic body), by a vote of 234 to 18, +passed the following resolution: "That in the opinion of this House the +precedent, established by Washington and other Presidents of the United +States after their second term, has become, by universal consent, a +part of our republican system of government, and that any departure from +this time-honored custom would be unwise, unpatriotic, and fraught with +peril to our free institutions." As 70 Republicans voted for this +resolution, it was practically the voice of both parties, and it +dispelled the spectre of "Caesarism," as the third-term idea was called. +There is reason to believe that if it had caused less alarm it would +have assumed a more substantial aspect. + +During the excited and perilous four months after the election of 1876, +when civil war and anarchy were imminent on account of the disputed +result of the people's suffrage, the conduct of the President was +admirable. He let it be understood that violence would be suppressed, +without hesitation, at any cost. He preserved the _status quo_, and +compelled peaceful patience. The condition was one which summoned into +action his genius of supreme command, and it shone with its former +splendor of authority. On the 4th of March, 1877, he became a private +citizen. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII + +THE TOUR OF THE WORLD + + +Upon leaving the presidency General Grant retained the distinction of +first citizen of the nation. There was no fame of living man that could +vie with his. His old form of modesty and simplicity was resumed. As +soon as he stepped down from the pedestal of power the criticism of duty +and the criticism of malice both ceased. A generous people was glad to +forget his errors and remember only his patriotism and his transcendent +successes in arms. Even those who had most deprecated his mistakes as a +civil magistrate were hardly sorry that he had been repeatedly rewarded +for his great services by the highest honor popular suffrage could +bestow. They were ready to believe, as, indeed, was true, that in most +of the things deserving reprobation he was the victim of his innocence +of selfish politics and his unwary friendships, of which baser men had +taken foul advantage. They were glad for his sake, as much as for their +own, that he was no longer President Grant, but again General Grant, a +title purely reminiscent and complimentary, for he was no longer an +officer of the army. With all his honors about him, he stood on the +common level of citizenship, as when he was a farmer in Missouri or a +tanner's clerk in Galena. + +There came to him then the desire to see other lands and peoples and to +meet the renowned commanders in other wars, the actors in other +statesmanship. It was determined that he should have all the +opportunities and advantages which the national prestige could command +for its foremost unofficial representative. No other American had gone +abroad whose achievements bespoke for him so respectful a welcome among +the great. Every aid was availed of to make it apparent that our nation +expected him to be entertained as its beloved hero. He sailed from +Philadelphia on May 17, 1877, and, returning, he landed in San +Francisco September 20, 1879, having made the circuit of the globe. + +Of such another progress there is no record. He visited nearly every +country of Europe, the Holy Land, Egypt, Syria, India, Burmah, China, +Siam, and Japan, being everywhere received as the guest of their rulers, +and welcomed by the chief representatives of their statesmanship, their +learning, and their social life. He was received with high courtesies by +Queen Victoria of England, President McMahon and President Grevy of +France, the emperors of Germany, Russia, and Austria, the kings of +Belgium, Italy, Holland, Sweden, and Spain, Pope Leo XIII., the Sultan +of Turkey, the Khedive of Egypt, the Duke of Wellington, Prince +Bismarck, M. Gambetta, Lord Lytton, Viceroy of India, King Thebau of +Burmah, Prince Kung of China, the Emperor of Siam, the Mikado of Japan, +and many others only less famous. With few exceptions he met under the +most favorable circumstances all persons of note in all the lands he +visited. Extraordinary pains were taken to promote the comfort of his +party, and to enable its members to see whatever was most worth seeing. + +The recipient of all this flattering attention bore himself with a +simple dignity that won the respect of the high and the low alike. He +was neither awed nor abashed among the great, nor was he haughty or +presuming among the common people. The nation at home followed his +progress with pride and gratification. When he landed in San Francisco, +he was welcomed as a favorite who had achieved new distinction for +himself and his land, and his leisurely way across the continent was +marked by a series of ovations all the way to New York. To complete his +itinerary, he soon made a tour of the West Indies and of Mexico, +visiting the scenes where he had won his first laurels, as Lieutenant +Grant, thirty years before. He was honored as the warrior whose +victories, besides uniting and exalting his native land, had delivered +Mexico from the imposition of an alien imperialism. + +Unfortunately, this revived popularity of General Grant was taken +advantage of by a faction of the Republican party to urge again his +reelection to the presidency. New York, Pennsylvania, and Illinois were +committed to his support by the influence of their powerful Republican +leaders; but not unanimously. The movement is supposed to have been +undertaken without consultation with Grant; but he did nothing to +discourage it, and to this extent he consented to it. The attempt +failed. Prudent people had no mind to have their hero's good name again +made opprobrious by fresh scandals, which they could not but dread. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX + +REVERSES OF FORTUNE--ILL HEALTH--HIS LAST VICTORY--THE END + + +General Grant now made his home in the city of New York. He was not +wealthy, and he desired to be. The only persons he seemed to envy, and +particularly to court, were those who had great possessions. He coveted +a fortune that should place his family beyond any chance of poverty. +This weakness was his undoing. He became the private partner of an +unscrupulous schemer and robber, and intrusted to him all that he had, +and more, to be adventured in speculation. His name was dishonored in +Wall Street by association with a scoundrel whom prudent financiers +distrusted and shunned. He was warned, but would not heed the warnings. +The charitable view is that he was deceived by repayments which he was +told were profits. On May 6, 1884, a crisis came and Grant was ruined. + +He gave up everything he possessed in the struggle to redeem his honor, +even the presents and trophies which had been lavishly bestowed upon +him. This savior of his country and recipient of its grateful +generosity, who was but lately the guest of the princes of the earth, +became dependent upon pitying friends for shelter and bread, until +enterprising editors of magazines began competing for contributions from +his pen. + +And, as if his misfortunes were not yet sufficiently desperate, illness +came. A malignant, incurable cancer appeared in his mouth. He stood face +to face with the last enemy, the always victorious one, and realized +that the rest of life was but a few months of increasing torture. Then +the magnificent courage of his soul asserted itself in fortitude +unequaled at Donelson, or Vicksburg, or Chattanooga, or the Wilderness. +No eye saw him quail; no ear heard him complain. + +It was suggested that if he would write a book, an autobiographical +memoir, the profit of it, doubtless, would place his family above want. +Nothing can be imagined more unacceptable to General Grant's native +disposition than the narration for the public of his own life story. But +in his circumstances, the question was not one of sentiment, but only of +duty to those who were dependent upon him. The task was undertaken +resolutely, and, in spite of physical weakness and suffering, was +carried on with as high and faithful energy as he had shown in any +campaign of the war. On March 3, 1885, he was restored to the army with +the rank of general on the retired list with full pay. He was glad; but +in his feebleness joy was as hard to bear as grief. He began failing +more rapidly. + +In June he was taken to the sweet tonic air of a cottage on Mount +McGregor, near Saratoga. Here, in pleasant weather, he could sit in the +open air and enjoy the agreeable prospect. But whether indoors or out, +he toiled at the book in every possible moment, writing with a pencil on +tablets while he had strength, then dictating in almost inaudible +whispers, little by little, to an amanuensis. So, toilsomely, through +intense suffering, sustained by indomitable will, this legacy to his +family and the world was completed to the end of the war. His last +battle was won. Four days after the victory, he died, July 23, 1885. The +book had a success beyond all sanguine expectations, and accomplished +the purpose of its author. To his countrymen it was a revelation of the +heart of the man, Ulysses Grant, in its nobility, its simplicity, and +its charity, that has endeared him beyond any knowledge afforded by the +outward manifestations of his life. + +His conversations in his last days, as reported by visitors to Mount +McGregor (among these was General Buckner, who surrendered Fort +Donelson), show a soul serene and cheerful, devoted to his country, to +humanity, and to peace. No experiences of malevolence and injury had +shaken his trust in the goodness of the great majority of mankind. + +When the great soldier died he owned no uniform in which he could be +suitably attired for the grave, no sword to be laid on his coffin. His +body lies in the magnificent tomb, erected by the voluntary +contributions of admiring citizens, the commanding attraction of a +beautiful park overlooking the broad Hudson as it sweeps past the +nation's chief city. Already this resting place has become a veritable +shrine of patriotism. Military and naval pageants make it their proper +goal, as when, after Santiago, the returning battleships moved in +stately procession up the Hudson to the tomb of our national military +hero, there to thunder forth the triumphant salute, like a summons to +his spirit to bestow an approval. + + * * * * * + +The Riverside Press + +_Electrotyped and printed by H. O. Houghton & Co. +Cambridge, Mass., U. S. A._ + + * * * * * + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Ulysses S. Grant, by Walter Allen + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ULYSSES S. 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