Grant as a soldier and statesman: being a succinct history of his military and civil career

II Isis

1 III

III dd*

GEANT

SOLDIER AND STATESMAN:

SUCCINCT HISTORY

MILITARY AND CIVIL CAREER.

BY EDWARD HOWLAND.

: u

" Our chief of men, who through a eload

Not of war only, but detractions rude,

Guided by faith and matchless fortitude,

To peace and truth thy glorious way hast plough'd.

Yet much remains ,

To conquer still ; Race hath her victories No less renown'd than War."

HARTFORD:

J. B. BURR & COMPANY.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18G8, by J. B. BURR & COMPANY, In the Clerk's Office of the United States, for the District of Connecticut

TO ^

IVE. H.

"WHOSE DAILY LIFE AND

CONVERSATION

DEMONSTRATE THE TRUTHS OF THE

PHILOSOPHY OF FREEDOM,

I DEDICATE THIS

BOOK.

PEEFAOE.

It is the duty of every American to consider well the part his country is called upon to take in the great question of the development of the human race.

The discovery of this continent at the end of the fifteenth century confirmed the new theories of the physical formation of the earth, and gave an impetus to the study of physical science, which since that day has characterized the tendency of the thought of the civilized world. Again, early in the seventeenth century, America by affording an asylum for those desiring religious freedom, set an example to the world, the influence of which is still at work. Yet again, in the eighteenth century, this country, by realizing after an eight years' struggle the theory of a democratic form of government, held up before the world an example of the benefits of political freedom, which has had such an influence, that now in Europe even the most despotically inclined ruler claims only a constitutional right to his position.

The divine right of kings has become as great an absurdity as the dogma that the earth is flat, or that religious persecution is the best means for spreading the reign of the Prince of Peace.

Thus three times in the three centuries which have elapsed since the modern world obtained a knowledge of America, she has influenced the thought of the world, and always in the direction of freedom. Nor is her task wholly completed. It remains for her now, in the nineteenth century, to continue leading the van of the army of jT PREFACE.

progress towards the realization of freedom in every interest of life. The struggle of the civil Avar through which we have just passed, has, by the abolition of slavery, secured the basis for the freedom of labor. But the work is not yet wholly done. The contest has been transferred from the field of battle to the field of politics.

As after the struggle of 1776, it was found that the constancy and caution of Washington which led us successfully through the war, were equally needed in organizing the results of victory, so now it will be found that the persistent self-reliance, the singleness of purpose, the fertility of resources, the application of common sense to action, which characterized General Grant, are the qualities now needed to organize in every interest of life the principles of freedom which the war vindicated, and which form the basis of our nationality.

To show his fitness to direct the energies of this country towards the farther spread of the democratic idea, is the purpose for which this book is written. However imperfect and incomplete it may be, its faults may be excused in consideration of its purpose. If it can in any way, aid in calling our attention to the noble destiny of tin- nation, and to General Grant as an able leader of our exertions to attain it, then it will not have been written in vain.

To those of my personal friends who aided me in its preparation, and to those whom I can not thus qualify, but who have also kindly assisted me, I would here take the opportunity of returning my vrarmesl thanks.

New York, 18G8.

Chapter XXIII

The results of the surrender of Vicksburg— Preparing for further service — The final capture of Jackson, 216

CHAPTER XXIV. capture of Mobile— Visits New Orleans— Meets with a severe i i.i -The position of Rosecrans at Chattanooga— Grants' department enlarged, 232

CONTENTS. IX

CHAPTER XXV. pagk.

The condition at Chattanoga — The means taken to improve it — The result

of a week's work, , 240

CHAPTER XXVI.

Burnside's position — Sherman's arrival — The army preparing for actively

offensive measures — The battle of Chattanooga, 254

CHAPTER XXVII.

The relief of Burnside — Longstreet's attack on Knoxville — He is allowed

to fall back unpursued, 271

CHAPTER XXVIII.

Plans for the next campaign — Shermau's expedition — Grant visits St.

Louis — His speeches there, 278

CHAPTER XXIX.

The extra military duties of the department and the means taken to perforin them, 286

CHAPTER XXX.

The grade of Lieutenant General revived — Grant selected to fill it — Correspondence between Grant and Sherman — Visits Washington and receives his commission, 293

CHAPTER XXXI.

A review of the situation — Headquarters in the field — The new campaign— The Army of the Potomac crosses the Rapidan, 303

CHAPTER XXXII.

The campaign commenced — The battje of the Wilderness, 311

CHAPTER XXXIII.

The first of the series of flank movements— The battle of Spotsylvania

Courthouse, 316

CHAPTER XXXIV.

The co-operative movements in the Shenandoah valley, and south of the

James, 319

CHAPTER XXXV.

Another flank movement — The position on the North Anna, 325

CHAPTER XXXVI.

The battle of Cold Harbor— The movement to the south side of the James, 330

X CONTENTS.

CHAPTER XXXVII. page.

The position before Petersburg — The attempts to capture this city, . . 341

CHAPTER XXXVIII.

The mine, aud why it failed, 346

CHAPTER XXXIX.

Operations in the Shenandoah valley — Early's advance against Washington, 354

CHAPTER XL.

The siege of Petersburg — The active operations of the Army of the

Potomac during the summer and winter months, 363

CHAPTER XLI.

Operations elsewhere in the field — Sherman on his march to the Sea —

Thomas at Nashville — The attack on Fort Fisher — Sheridan on a raid, 372

CHAPTER XLII.

The opening of the last campaign — Petersburg and Richmond evacuated, 384

CHAPTER XLIII.

The pursuit — The surrender of Lee — End of the ten day's campaign, . 398

CHAPTER XLIV.

The surrender of Johnston — The disbanding of all armed organized op-

position to the government, 415

CHAPTER XLV.

Grant in a new field — nis course as commander of the armies in the matter of reconstruction 423

CHAPTER XL VI.

t of what has been done during the war— The army returning to the pursuits of peace, 427

CHAPTER XLVII.

The first year of reconstruction, and Grant's course as head of the military ithority— His answer to General Lee's petition for pardon— The testimonials given him by the people 433

CHAPTER XLVHI. 1 I year of reconstruction— The block in the administration of

Grant's position and action, 445

CONTENTS. XI

CHAPTER XLIX.

The divergence between the President and Congress — Grant's position in

this contest, 448

CHAPTER L.

Personal appearance and characteristics, 461

Appendix

PAGE.

I. The Capture of Fort Donelson — General Grant's Report, . ... 467

Rebel Reports, 469

II. Letter from General Sherman concerning the battle of Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing, 477

III. Extracts from the remarks of Hon. E. B. Washburne, of Illinois, made in the House of Representatives, May 2d, 1862, 481

IV. An estimate of the number of men in Pemberton's command during

and before the siege of Vicksburg, 487

V. Report of Lieutenant General Grant, 1864-5, 488

VI. Grant's Report as Secretary of War ad interim and General United States Army for 1867, 564

VH. Correspondence between General Grant and the President concerning Mr. Stanton's Reinstatement as Secretary of War. 604

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. Portrait of Grant, Frontispiece

2. The House in wnicn Guant was born —

From a Drawing by Granville Perkins, . . . To face page 17

3. The Surrender of Fort Donelson —

From a Drawing by George G. White, ...."" " 64

4. Grant and Sherman at TnE battle of Shiloh —

From a Drawing by Albert Berghaus, ...."" " 78

5. Grant and his Staff entering Jackson, Mississippi —

From a Drawing by Albert Berghaus, ...."" " 175

0. The Surrender of Vicksburg —

From a Drawing by G. G.White, " " " 206

7. < ! RANT RECEIVING HIS COMMISSION AS LlEUT. GENERAL

Prom a Drawing by Albert Berghaus, . ...""" 301

8. Sheridan's Ride at Winchester —

li "in a Drawing by Albert Berghaus, . . . . " " " 361

9. The Surrender of Lee, 409

•

GRANT

AS A SOLDIER AND A STATESMAN.

Chapter I. Introductory. — The Situation

The history of a nation's great men is a history of the nation itself, since great men are possible only as they are the expression of a nation's great thoughts. They are the mouthpieces of their age, and give utterance, either in word or deed, to the collective spirit of their times. The history, therefore, of the growth of humanity is found in the history of the succession of great men, who have in turn been the result of this growth, and have aided in its development. The calmness and moderation of Washington, while serving to guide and direct the enthusiasm of the youthful nation who accepted him as their head, was an indication and a result of these qualities in the people. It was a new thing in the history of the world, that a nation should rebel in order to maintain a philosophic principle. Up to this time revolutions had been caused by abuses which had assumed such monstrous

proportions as to become unbearable ; the people had

(ii)

risen in the desperation of despair ; but the American colonies, accustomed through generations to their own self-government, rebelled against the assumption of a right upon the part of the mother country to impose upon them taxation without representation. It was not a question of pounds to be paid, but of principles to be maintained. It was not a question of money to be saved, but of the majesty of self-government.

It is so also with the great man whose life forms the theme of these pages. His comprehensiveness of conception, his versatility of resource, his promptness of execution, are the fitting expression of a nation, which in less than a century has developed the railroad, the steamboat, and the telegraph as they are to be found nowhere else in the world ; whose cities, situated where, within the compass of a single life, the wild beast roamed the trackless forest unharmed, now count their inhabitants by the hundreds of thousands ; whose commerce scatters its white sails over every navigable sea of the earth's surface ; whose energies and conquests have always been devoted to the increase and spread of industry and peace, of the dignity and majesty of productive labor, instead of the hollow glory of some ruling monarch ; of a nation whose mission is to vindicate the freedom of republicanism, and not the constraint of despotism; whose wealth lies not in its few royal residences, but in its millions of homes; whose glory lies not in the tinsel splendor of a court,, but in t^ic well-being of its citizens; whose rule of conduct is not based upon the whims and fancies of a few, but results from the free development of the many.

In honoring the man who in his life and deeds makes these qualities manifest, we are therefore honoring ourselves, and proclaiming to the world the best convictions of our national life.

It will be well, perhaps, before entering immediately upon the facts in General Grant's career, to take a hasty glance at the condition of affairs which led to the crisis that furnished the fit field for the display of his great qualities as a military leader and a statesman.

The founders of our government had intended to establish a Republic, and hoped that they had succeeded in doing so. Unfortunately, however, they had left slavery undisturbed ; and in the course of time, the culture of cotton having made this system of labor appear profitable, it had grown with the growth of the country, and finally threatened to rule it entirely in its own interests. It was intrenched behind the conventions of habit, of prejudice, of the rights of property, of the constitution, of respect for law, and the theory of state rights. Never in our history did it show so bold, and apparently so strong, a front. The press of the country, almost without exception, advocated its right to exist where it was. The journals which denied this right were so few in number, and so powerless in influence, that they counted for nothing in moulding public opinion. The clergy of the country were, in the enormous majority, engaged in advocating its right to maintain its position, on Bible grounds, as well as those of expediency. So strong was public opinion in this direction, that even the Republican party designed only to stop its extension : they were content with this.

But a nation grows as surely as the individuals that compose it grow. Its sentiments, its feelings, its opinions are matured by events, as those of the youth become manly by his increase in years. As men, we must morally either advance or retrograde. To remain stationary is to stagnate, and stagnation implies putrefaction and decay. As the particles composing our physical being are in a constant state of change, the old and worn-out portions being rejected and replaced by new, so is it with our mental condition : the habits of thought which once were new, become, in their turn, effete and worn out, and must be replaced by new. A man might as well hope to be physically well and in robust health without an active circulation of the blood, as hope to be mentally robust without a correspondingly active circulation in his thoughts. The vivifying streams which the pulsations of the great heart of mankind keep constantly in circulation, must be allowed to flow freely, and perform their destined office of change and renewal, or sickness, decay, and death are the result. There is a moral aneurism of nations, as there is a physical aneurism for the individual.

Slavery was like a- bandage tied tight about the body politic, preventing the free circulation of ideas, of thought, of labor. The doctors all stood by, saying that the patient must rest quiet ; that it was impossible he could be in a better condition ; and had almost persuaded him that they were right. The real history of the secession conspiracy cannot be yet written. The leaders have not yet confessed; and until they do, it will always remain a mystery how the South was precipitated into so foolish, so reckless, and so criminal a revolution. But they took the step, and with the cannon shots against Fort Sumter, the whole loyal population of the North and West rose like a giant roused from a drugged sleep. At first we seemed almost helpless. Treachery had been actively at work. Those whom we had trusted, to whom we had delegated our affairs, had proved meanly derelict. We found our army scattered and in the control of traitors. Our navy was dispersed all over fehe world. Our finances were disorganized. The public positions of trust had been used by their occupants for private speculation. The nation and the Executive knew not whom to trust. The time had come for the new birth of the nation; and the American people seemed as helpless as a new-born babe. The strength and endurance of republicanism was put to the extremest test, and most nobly and completely has the principle of self-government vindicated itself. No greater crisis could ever arise in any nation's history, and no nation could ever meet it more promptly and fully than we have done.

Of the disasters which at first attended our military operations it is needless to say more than a word. Bull Run was a providential defeat. If we had been victorious then, slavery would have been left undisturbed. It required disaster to awake us thoroughly from the apathy with which we had so long regarded this system of organized injustice. The attention of .the North was for a long time concentrated principally upon the operations of the army of the Potomac. It was the nearest scene of operations, and we had been 2 too long accustomed to take party and sectional views of our interests. The idea of the national unity, of the oneness of this nation, of the identity of its interests, had hardly yet been practically demonstrated with such force as to become a universally received truth. The conduct of the war and its results have made this truth more impressive and more generally accepted. Our first success began at the West, under the direction of the hero of these memoirs, who was finally, after organizing success with our armies from the Ohio to the Gulf, to complete the work with the army of the Potomac, and by leading them to the crowning victory, redeem the continued course of disaster which for years had appeared to be the inevitable lot of this noble, courageous, indomitable, persistent body of soldiers.

Let us examine the causes which influenced the development of this soldier and statesman, whose influence, in turn, upon the future of this country, time alone will enable us to fully comprehend.

Chapter II. Grant's Early Life.— West Point

In a small, one-story cottage, still standing in Clermont Comity, Ohio, on the banks of the river, and commanding a view of the stream and the opposite shore of the State of Kentucky, on the 27th day of April, 1822, a child was born, who is now known to the world as Ulysses Simpson Grant. He was at first christened Hiram Ulysses ; but on going to West Point, his cadet warrant was made out, by accident, in the name of Ulysses Sidney, which name he took, and retained during his education, chansring; it, on his g-raduation, to Ulysses Simpson, in honor of his mother, whose maiden name he thus assumed.

His father's name is Jesse R Grant, a descendant of a Scottish family, two brothers of which emigrated to this country in the early part of the eighteenth century, while we were . still colonies of Great Britain. One of these brothers settled in New Jersey, and the other in Canada.

Jesse R Grant was a descendant of the settler in New Jersey, and was born in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, in 1794. When eleven years old, his father having died, he was apprenticed to a tanner. Subsequently, with his mother and the rest of the family, he removed from Pennsylvania to Kentucky, and then to Ohio. This portion of the country was then still partially in the possession of the Indians, and in an unsettled state, so that, after several changes, he finally settled at Point Pleasant, in Clermont County, where, in June, 1821, he married Hannah Simpson.

Hannah Simpson was the daughter of John Simpson, and was born in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, but removed with her family, in 1818, to Clermont County, Ohio.

Grant's parents were married in June, 1821, and ten months after, he was born as their first child. His father was an upright, hard-working, energetic, and honest man, while his mother was a kind-hearted and devoted woman.

As a boy, Grant was robust, strong, and cool, as he has since shown himself; but though many stories are now told of his boyhood, which display his sturdiness, and quickness of resource under difficulties, they are hardly of enough importance to be repeated here. There is a constant tendency to discover -in a great injurs youth the germ of the qualities which in after life have made him distinguished ; but almost all such discoveries are accessories after the fact. To be childish in childhood is the best prognostic that the boy* will be manly when he reaches man's estate; but in Grant's case, the only distinctive quality he appears to have manifested as a boy,and which appears distinctive in his after career, is a want of ambition. Whatever be had to do, he did thoroughly and well, but without any apparent ulterior design. Fortunately for his country, this habit appears to have grown with his growth and strengthened with his strength.

His education, like that of most boys whose lot places them in such an unsettled condition of society, was quite limited. There was too much hard and practical work to do, in conquering the soil and wresting from it the means of living by labor, to give him leisure for the luxuries of learning. He had to help his 'father, and so could attend the village school only during the winter months. Of these limited advantages he made, however, the best and fullest use, learning thoroughly whatever he did learn, and acquiring — what is of the greatest advantage — a habit of application and a desire for further knowledge.

When a young man he desired to go to West Point. It was known that at this national school education wras not only gratuitous, but that the student, during his course, was supported well, and also paid regularly more than enough for his dress, &c, and that, when he graduated and had served his term of enlistment, the field was open for him either to remain in the army, or else, with the prestige which the graduation gave him, to interest himself in the industrial and engineering pursuits, which made the demand for competent men inexhaustible. The whole country was to be surveyed and improved ; its roads and bridges were to be built ; while the schools, which could prepare men for superintending and directing these works, were rarer even than now.

Such an opportunity was too good to be lost without a trial ; and so application was made successfully to the Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, who represented the congressional district in which Grant resided, and who gave him the appointment The preliminary examination at West Point is quite simple : reading, writing, spelling, arithmetic through decimal fractions, are all that is required ; and Grant, having passed safely through this ordeal, was admitted a cadet on the 1st of July, 1839, being then seventeen years old.

At West Point he was no more distinguished than during his boyhood. He went through the whole course respectably. From September to June the cadets live in barracks, studying, riding, and fencing in the riding-school, and drilling in the open air when the afternoons are fine. From June to September they live in camp, being regularly drilled, and studying pyroteclmy and civil engineering.

In his studies Grant suffered in competition with the members of his class, from his want of early preparation. The class numbered over one hundred in 1839, when appointed, and of these only thirty-nine graduated in 1843. In this list Grant stood the twenty-first. Among his classmates were William B. Franklin, who stood at the head of the class ; Eoswell S. Ripley, who fired with increased rapidity upon Fort Sumter, while it was on fire and the garrison were attempting to extinguish the flames; Rufus Ingalls, subsequently the Quartermaster-General of the army of the Potomac ; Franklin Gardner, the rebel general who surrendered Port Hudson to Banks, and others.

Henry Coppee, Esq., who was with Grant at West Point for mo years, gives the following account of him while there : —

" I remember him as a plain, common-sense, straightforward youth ; quiet, rather of the old-head-on-young-shoulders order ; shunning notoriety ; quite contented, while others were grumbling ; taking to his military duties in a very business-like manner ; not a prominent man in the corps, but respected by all, and very popular with his friends. His sobriquet of Uncle /Sam was given to him there, where every good fellow has a nickname, from these very qualities; indeed, he was a very uncle-like sort of a youth. He was then and always an excellent horseman, and his picture rises before me as I write, in the old, torn coat, obsolescent leather gigtop, loose riding pantaloons, with spurs buckled over them, going with his clanking sabre to the drill hall. He exhibited but little enthusiasm in anything : his best standing was in the mathematical branches, and their application to tactics and military engineering.

" If we again dwell upon the fact that no one, even of his most intimate friends, dreamed of a great future for him, it is to add that, looking back now, we must confess that the possession of many excellent qualities, and the entire absence of all low and mean ones, establish a logical sequence from first to last, and illustrate, in a novel manner, the poet's fancy about

' The baby figures of the giant mass Of things to come at large.' "

On leaving West Point, Grant entered the army as brevet Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry, and commenced his army life, which we will describe in the next chapter, after noticing the fact that the education of West Point, though it was strictly a national one, did not, as we see, inculcate such ideas of loyalty as prevented those who were indebted to the nation for its benefits from turning traitorously upon it in its hour of need.

Nor can this charge be brought against West Point alone. It applies with equal force to all the institutions of learning in the country; and the reason is very evident. In none of them has proper attention been paid to the study of our own history, our own institutions, our own national spirit. The nationality of America has had a growth as definite, if not as ex tended, as that of any nation of antiquity or of modern times. Even its literature — for we have a literature, though most of our educated men are unaware of the fact — has had a regular growth.

The democratic idea, which was the culmination of the great eighteenth century, and which is destined to change all our social relations, as here in this country, of all the world, it has substituted a representative government for the monarchical system which Europe inherited from the barbarism of the feudal ages, — the democratic idea leads to the unity of mankind. In political economy its culmination is the harmony of interests; in industry it leads to the abolition of all monopolies, the freedom of labor, the cultivation of the productive arts, and their union with science. In government it leads to peace instead of war; and in modern Europe, despite the obstacles in its path, spread by the various dynastic interests, we see its effects in a united Italy, a united Germany, and in the growing impatience of public opinion with the narrowness of national prejudices; in social life it leads to the freedom of the individual guaranteed by the law, which is the expression of the public interest as best understood by the community, and as we see, in our own times, has changed (lie whole tone of criminal legislation, has emancipated class after class from their legal disabilities, and proved that the strength, the wealth, the happi- ■ and the intelligence of a nation are in direct proportion to the freedom enjoyed by its population.

Here, in our own country, which in its theory of government realizes more fully than any other country this democratic idea, we find that the attention of our educated youth is turned, during the period they pass under the guidance of our "institutions of learning," to the study of every other subject but this, which is the all-important one. No wonder, then, that when the crisis came, many of those who had been educated for the nation, at the public expense, turned against it. They could quote glibly examples from Greece and Rome in their justification, but were wholly unaware of the new spirit and tendency of thought which separates the new from the old world, by a gulf wider than the ocean, or the ages which roll between us and them.

Had the tone of thought been turned in this direction, which is truly national and American, by our thinkers and teachers, slavery would have faded from the South, despite the adventitious aid it derived from the culture of cotton, as it did from the North, by a process similar to that which has modified the barbarous brutality of our penal codes; and the war would have become impossible for want of a moving cause.

Let us hope, however, that the lesson it has taught us of the power of ideas may not be lost ; and that our education may become national and American in fact as well as in word, that our youth who enjoy its training may become impressed with the majesty and solemnity of the position America has to assume in the world's history, and be able to lead rightly those who look naturally to them for guidance, instead of being themselves only fit food for demagogues.

Chapter III. The Mexican War, — Resigns Erom The Army. - Civil

LIFE.

The graduates from West Point are attached to regiments, in the order of their merit, as supernumerary officers, to wait in turn for vacancies. Grant, according to this custom, was made a brevet Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry, and began his service on the 1st of July, 1843. His regiment was then at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri. The next summer it was moved to Natchitoches, Louisiana, and the next year, 1845, was sent to Corpus Christi, to w atch the Mexican army then gathering on the frontier. In September of this year he was made a full Second Lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment, but made an application to the War Department to remain with the Fourth, which was granted.