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asked if our former kindly relations might not be restored.
I said to him that under his explanations I certainly felt greatly relieved, and I hoped that that might be the case, and would be glad that it should be so. I had had an opportunity to do a service for him, which he appreciated highly.
I was in Congress during his administration as
President, in which I gave him my hearty support; and from that time until the day of his death no word of unkind difference passed between us; and I can say without fear of contradiction, that few men possessed a greater share of his confidence, or had more personal influence with
General Grant upon public questions than I had.
Grant in his report of the operations of the armies of the
United States, dated July 22, 1865, was thoughtless enough to use a phrase — I say “thoughtless” because his explanation which I shall set out will show that it was so done — which was used more to my prejudice with the people of the country than anything else he could have said.
The following is al extract from that report:--
On the 16th (of May) the enemy attacked General Butler in his position in front of Drury's Bluff.
He was forced back or drew back into his intrenchments in the forks between the James and Appomattox Rivers.
The enemy intrenched strongly in his front which cut him off from his railroads, the city, and all that was valuable to him. His army, therefore, though in a position of great security, was as completely shut off from further operations directly against Richmond as if it had been in a bottle strongly corked.1
General Grant makes his amendment and corrections of the whole matter in his “Personal Memoirs,”
2 as follows:--
The position which General Butler had chosen between the two rivers, the James and Appomattox, was one of great natural strength, one where a large area of ground might be thoroughly enclosed by means of a single intrenched line, and that a very short one in comparison with the extent of the territory which it thoroughly protected.
His right was protected by the James River, his left by the Appomattox, and his rear by their junction — the two streams uniting near by. The bends of the two streams shortened the line that had been chosen for intrenchments, while it increased the area which the line enclosed.
