Owen Wister, Ulysses S. Grant

But now Grant was suddenly relieved of command, and put in arrest! Halleck had not heard from him; and Halleck had heard of his leaving his post and going to Nashville. Grant's enemies, the contractors, had not enjoyed his recent suggestion to Halleck that “all fraudulent contractors be impressed into the ranks, or, still better, into the gunboat service, where they could have no chance of deserting.” They therefore had surrounded Halleck with rumours, entirely false, of Grant's drinking. Halleck had had a spy watching Grant's habits in a little house that was his headquarters before the surrender. He now, never waiting to learn the cause of Grant's silence (which was due to interrupted communications) or Grant's reason for going to Nashville (which was to confer with Buell, who had occupied