William A. Crafts, Life of Ulysses S. Grant: His Boyhood, Campaigns, and Services, Military and Civil.

[160] sent him to the Shenandoah to defeat Early, and to Five Forks to break through Lee's lines. Thomas, McPherson, and others, were in like manner indebted to Grant for promotion and opportunities; and each of them was trusted and assigned to difficult duties, because of his intuitive knowledge of their ability and fitness for the work demanded of them. So, also, his staff has always been composed of men admirably qualified for their respective duties, and who performed them with the same quiet energy which characterized their chief. This power to discern the character and ability of others, and to make a wise selection of agents, is one of the essential traits of a genius for command and for administration; and it is one as important for complete success in civil affairs as in military. Should General Grant be called to the higher position to which the people wish to promote him, the country has reason to feel assured that his wise choice of counsellors and executive officers will secure the most honest, faithful, and successful administration that has been vouchsafed to the country for many years.

His tenacity of purpose is another trait which has been illustrated through his whole career, and which is so prominent in the foregoing narrative of each of his campaigns, that it is needless to do more than allude to it here. Happily, in Grant persistency is united with patriotism, honesty of purpose, and sound judgment, which give it direction and exalt its character.

Allied to this is his firmness, which, being entirely free from conceit, never degenerates into obstinacy, although Mrs. Grant says “Mr. Grant is a very obstinate ”