Browsing named entities in Owen Wister, Ulysses S. Grant. You can also browse the collection for Robert E. Lee or search for Robert E. Lee in all documents.

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Owen Wister, Ulysses S. Grant, II. (search)
ught of himself and forgot his country, while Grant thought of his country and forgot himself. Out of this very contrast a bright light falls, and we begin to see Grant. Writing intemperately, his friends explain him as a sort of Napoleon ; his enemies, as a dull blunderer, accidentally reaping the glory which other people sowed. These extremes meet in error. We have not produced a Napoleon, and military talents of greater brilliancy than Grant's fought on both sides. Purely as captains, Lee, Jackson, Sherman, Thomas, if not others, are likely to stand higher; while Sheridan during his brief opportunity proved such a thunderbolt that, did history know men by their promise instead of by their fruits, he might outshine the whole company, and rank with Charles of Sweden or Conde. Yet Grant sits above and apart. Is this accident? Is it accident that at the beginning of a certain four years this middle-aged man should be nobody, and at the end should be the one commander out of a
Owen Wister, Ulysses S. Grant, III. (search)
e art of war, war for war's sake, struck no spark in Grant. But he brought to its practice a sagacity and a grip of such dimensions as (after some experience) to serve as the equivalents of genius and instruction. This is sometimes cited to point the demagogic moral that education is un-American. Ben Butler in his book says: Grant evidently did not get enough of West Point in him to hurt him any. . . . All the graduates in the higher ranks in their classes never came to anything. Now Robert E. Lee graduated second. It took four years and some half-dozen generals to beat him. But Butler's book would be a joke, were it not a stench. When Grant was near seventeen he told his father that he would never do a day's work at tanning after twenty-one. The sensible Jesse saw no success for him there, if his heart was not in it, and, asking what would he like, was told farming or trading or to get an education. He had no farm to give his son nor money to send him to college, and but a
Owen Wister, Ulysses S. Grant, V. (search)
ame. On the day before, the noble and defeated Lee was saying to a Confederate brother, Never mindn April, 1861. Richmond was still to be taken, Lee still to be crushed. Three years, six generals These awful battles add not to Grant's, but to Lee's reputation. On his side, Lee evidently und front, forever called back for greater speed. Lee must not escape to Danville. Lee must be headeto Cornwallis, as Horace Porter reminds us. But Lee would himself go through with whatever had to coing this, and hurrying forward to the meeting, Lee some six miles away lay waiting. Stretched on n silence, and in silence also rode away. When Lee reached his army, the faithful men swarmed aroualed on that day we know now from him: What General Lee's feelings were I do not know. But my own, Grant who shrank from the point. He talked to Lee about Mexico and old times, and how good peace m to work their little farms. To this nobility Lee's own responded. This will have the best possi[37 more...]
Owen Wister, Ulysses S. Grant, VI. (search)
to know how he could have learned statesmanship, in our gratitude we twice gave him the greatest gift we have. Before this happened, his straightforward goodness and the power that he had did much to heal the scars of war. Andrew Johnson wanted Lee tried for treason, and Grant stopped it by threatening to resign his commission. In those days the Southern General Taylor writes of him: He came frequently to see me, was full of kindness, and anxious to promote my wishes. His action had endearistrust for politics and politicians, with which and whom he intended to have nothing to do. Certainly, Johnson did not better Grant's opinion of politicians — nor did those men who now led the South far and wide astray from the noble spirit of Lee at Appomattox. Their continued malignity lost them a great chance, and cost the South dear. Following their manifesto at Richmond, already quoted, they now met each step of clemency with a temper which is completely heralded in the words of Henr
Owen Wister, Ulysses S. Grant, Bibliography. (search)
nd compactly authentic or remunerative have been marked with a star. Works of controversy are not included. Several volumes, once conspicuous, are omitted because of their present trifling value. It is impracticable to enumerate many documents,--Sumner's speeches, for example,--essential though they be to the student. I. Grant and his campaigns. By Henry Coppee. (New York, 1866: Charles B. Richardson.) By far the best of the early military biographies. II. With General Sheridan in Lee's last campaign. By a staff officer [F. C. Newhall]. (Philadelphia, 1866: J. B. Lippincott Company.) The most vivid story of the cavalry battles yet told. III.* personal history of Ulysses S. Grant. By Albert D. Richardson. （Hartford, Conn., 1868: American Publishing Company.) Full of anecdote and interest. On the whole, better than either its contemporaries or its followers. IV. Military history of Ulysses S. Grant. By Adam Badeau. (New York, 1868-81: D. Appleton & Co.) A pompou