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them of a fulsome congratulatory order published by General McClernand to the 13th Corps, which did great injustice to the other troops engaged in the campaign.
This order had been sent north and published, and now papers containing it had reached our camps.
The order had not been heard of by me; I at once wrote to McClernand, directing him to send me a copy of this order.
He did so, and I at once relieved him from the command of the 13th Army Corps.
The publication of his order in the press was in violation of War Department orders, and also of mine.
The newspaper press is apt to appear to an American, even more than to an Englishman, as part of the order of nature, and contending with it seems like contending with destiny.
Grant had governing instincts.
“I always admired the
South, as bad as I thought their cause, for the boldness with which they silenced all opposition and all croaking by press or by individuals within their control.”
His instincts would have led him to follow this example.
But since he could do nothing against the newspaper nuisance, and was himself the chief sufferer by it, he bore it with his native philosophy:
Visitors to the camps went home with dismal
