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15th (search for this): chapter 5
hairman, that in the modesty of his nature he was afraid the light would witness that act of generosity, and sought to hide it from the world. We can appreciate that, sir. Indeed, we can; and we can appreciate Buckner's own warm heart whenever history gives us a glimpse of it. When Grant was bidding this world good-by in patience and suffering, Buckner was one of the last to visit him, and take his hand. The pen would linger over Donelson; over Smith's gallantry that saved the day on the 15th, and his delightful address to the Iowa volunteers; over McClernand's good fighting, and over Foote and his gunboats. About the navy, indeed, a word must be said. From Fort Henry, which it took unaided, to the day when Vicksburg fell and the great river rolled unvexed to the sea, the navy was not only illustrious and invaluable, but also it made fewer mistakes than the army. The names of Foote, Porter, Davis, and Farragut (let Ellett's be added too) must be spoken together with those of th
23rd (search for this): chapter 5
river to view the best place for the intended bridge to open a better avenue of supplies. Rosecrans stopped at the hospital. When Smith reported from his inspection of the shore down the river, he found the general relieved by Grant, and Thomas in his place. Next day Grant, still very lame, began his journey from Louisville to Chattanooga. By train, on horseback through the washed-out mountains, and carried in dangerous places because of his injury, he reached Chattanooga the night of the 23d, wet, dirty, and well, as Dana's literary pen wrote Stanton. And forthwith order began to shape itself from formlessness. Grant's enemies say he had nothing to do with it, that it would have come without him. To this there is a sufficient answer: it did come with him. Guessing what might have been helps history no better than the post mortem cures the patient. And, in truth, these critics are preposterous. Earth has not anything more childish than a military man airing a grievance. Tha
27th (search for this): chapter 5
t he had to say. He ordered up Sherman from Corinth where Halleck's railroad-building was delaying that general. He sent reassuring messages to Halleck about Burnside, who was threatened in East Tennessee. As we think of him during these days, reeling off orders and pulling the scattered shreds of mismanagement together, he seems like a quietly spinning dynamo which, silent and unnoticed, in a small house, supplies the current that drives a great system of moving wheels. At midnight on the 27th General Smith began, and at ten next morning brilliantly finished, his opening of the new road. It was the first stroke of salvation for Chattanooga. That night the enemy under Longstreet fought Hooker on Lookout Mountain to retrieve this loss, but failed. The dynamo continued steadily spinning destruction for Bragg, who now did a foolish thing. He sent twenty thousand men away under Longstreet to attack Burnside. At this, Grant nearly did a foolish thing himself. He ordered an assault.
February (search for this): chapter 5
ere being wrung. Side failures did nothing to obscure the looming end. The great blows of Sherman, Sheridan, and Thomas sent their shocks to the heart of Secession; and at the heart sat Grant, holding Lee tight in Richmond. It is recorded of his ceaseless work at this period, that on one day he wrote forty-two important despatches. This winter was a time of thought for the weary, disenchanted Southern people and a time of desperation on the part of their political misleaders. In early February some of these had, in good faith, visited Grant to talk of peace, which talk he had tactfully evaded, while showing them all hospitality at his headquarters. With tact still greater he had persuaded Lincoln to come and see them himself instead of sending Seward as an emissary. But this ended in nothing, save that Grant's character and kindness won the high admiration of the Confederate vice-president, Stephens, who wrote: He is one of the most remarkable men I ever met. He does not seem t
February 2nd (search for this): chapter 5
ng Forts Henry and Donelson. But Halleck, whether under McClellan's influence or for other reasons, snubbed him; and so for a while the matter rested. At length, however, after General Thomas near Cumberland Gap had knocked the east end of Secession's frontier southward, and consequently threatened its middle at Bowling Green, Halleck, relinquishing his notion that sixty thousand men were necessary, let Grant go with seventeen thousand, and seven gunboats under Commodore Foote. This was February 2. In four days, Grant had Fort Henry. In ten more, Fort Donelson and the gates to the rivers were open. Secession's frontier was crashed through from Columbus to Cumberland Gap, and shrank many miles southward. It was quick and final; and Grant had thought of it, and done it. He was indebted to nobody. His own letter about it, written to Washburne a month later, is like him: I see the credit of attacking the enemy by the way of the Tennessee and Cumberland is variously attributed. It
March (search for this): chapter 5
some one has happily said, the army and the navy were the two shears of the scissors. From Donelson, Grant stepped into a broadening labyrinth of action. He wished at once to strike Polk at Columbus. Halleck prescribed caution; and Polk, unhindered, escaped south to Corinth, where under Sidney Johnston the South was massing all the strength it could bring. Columbus fell to the Union; and New Madrid and Island No.10, the next two barriers down the river, were broken by Pope and Foote in March and April. On land it grew plain that somewhere about Corinth the armies must try a big conclusion. This happened not as Grant expected. Restored to command, he had rejoined the army up the Tennessee River, and had approved — wisely, according to many good opinions — the position at Pittsburg Landing in the enemy's country, selected by C. F. Smith. But he looked for no battle just here. And here Sidney Johnston surprised him. On Sunday and Monday, April 6 and 7, was fought the battle of
March 29th (search for this): chapter 5
detail far from his base. Few could have believed him. But the soldiers, ragged and starved, followed and fought under their beloved Lee across the rainy fields of Virginia. No successes now changed a muscle of Grant's impassive face. Nothing but the capture of prisoners wakened visible elation in him. Each prisoner meant one enemy less to fight, one more life saved from fruitless sacrifice. Of his thoughts, only his actions show anything. When leaving headquarters at City Point on March 29 for this last struggle, he bade his wife good-by with more than his daily tenderness, which was always great. He kissed her again and again at the door, as though their next meeting might never be, or would not be until after much had happened. Then Lincoln walked to the train with him, said, God bless you all! with an unsteady voice, and they moved away to begin the taking of Richmond. The President, said Grant, is one of the few who have not attempted to extract from me a knowledge of
April (search for this): chapter 5
he allowed the pilot Meade full charge of this. We may feel sure that Grant underrated Lee at the beginning. He had encountered no such genius in the West. His remark that the Army of the Potomac had never been fought up its full capacity indicates that he expected quicker results than he got. And the famous sentence from his letter near Spottsylvania on May 11, I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer, plainly shows brief anticipations. It took until the following April. And in his own report one reads between the lines something like an apology for these terrible battles. He says: Whether they might have been better in conception and execution is for the people who mourn the loss of friends fallen, and who have to pay the pecuniary cost, to say. All I can say is that what I have done has been done conscientiously, to the best of my ability, and in what I conceived to be for the best interests of the whole country. His conception was to hammer continuous
April 3rd (search for this): chapter 5
nd his associates, not a group of patriots, but a heartless, selfish, unscrupulous gang of intriguers. They began to go home from the army. There was no pay and no food for those who devotedly remained faithful to Lee. Grant was closing in. On April 3 Lee had to break cover, and retreat from Richmond. Davis fled southward; and, even while flying, and with full knowledge of the crumbling house, he made another speech, to lure, if possible, more victims to the slaughter. We have now entered u seemed hitched. Whatever they separately did,--and they were doing something during every hour,--the fierce white light of Sheridan's genius beats upon the whole; and his deeds against the enemy are like stroke of lightning. On the morning of April 3 Lincoln came to Grant in captured Petersburg, and shook his hand and poured out his thanks a long while. He said this was something like his expectations, only that he had imagined Sherman would have been brought from the South to share in it.
April 5th (search for this): chapter 5
Lee must be headed off, and compelled to fight again. Newhall, of Sheridan's staff, writes: All along the road were evidences of the demoralisation of the enemy. Flankers and scouting parties of cavalry were continually bringing in scores of prisoners from the woods on either side,--prisoners who would throw down their arms at the sight of blue uniforms and request to be captured. The steadfast women who begged them to turn back and face us again had been laughed to scorn. At dark on April 5 word came from Sheridan to Grant: I wish you were here. I see no escape for General Lee. Grant called for his horse, and rode through the night to Sheridan and Meade. And on the next day at Sailor's Creek the clouds sank lower round Lee. Again Grant's actions reveal his thoughts. On Friday, April 7, he wrote Lee: The last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance. I regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood by
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