The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-09 00:00:00

GENERAL GRANT'S LETTER TO MS

FATHER.

A letter has been published, written by General
Grant to his father during the Vicksburg campaign.
The letter is a striking expression of the General's
character, and is worth—when the circumstances are
understood under which it was written—a great
many speeches and eulogies. The New York.
Nation says that justice has not been done to this
very remarkable part of Grant's life. He was then
a comparatively obscure man ; he was fighting in
an unknown and most difficult country ; his most
" trusted military friend and coadjutor, Sherman, bad
very strongly expostulated with him as to the plan
of campaign which he had resolved upon, and, when
the expostulation did not shake Grant's purpose, had
written out and tendered his resignation ; Mr. Lincoln
had written to him to tell him he was mistaken in
his strategy— and that meant, that all Mr. Lin-
coln's military advisers thought him mistaken,
and that the commander-in-chief gave him a
chance to withdraw his army before it should
become necessary to remove him from com-
mand ; the press was raving about his manifest
incompetency. But he made no reply to the let-
ter, for writing which,Mr. Lincoln afterwards apolo-
gized. He put Sherman's resignation in his pocket
without forwarding it, and afterwards, when Vicks-
burg was taken, gave it back to him. Sherman
tells the story. He made no public justification
of himself till he telegraphed that Pemberton bad
surrendered; and but for this letter to his father,
which by the way he requested should be burnt, we
should not have known of his magnificent exercise
of moral courage, and how much it cost him."
We are curious, adds the Nation, to see the
men who, as members of Grant's Cabinet,
are going to mike him a mere tool and puppet.
The New York Sun points out what it considers
to be mistakes into which the Nation falls. The first
is that General Sherman tendered his resignation
as described, as he on the contrary said he would
execute zealously any portion of the plan assigned
to him though he did not approve it. The next is
that Mr. Lincoln condemned his strategy, as, like
Sherman, he merely preferred another mode of at-
tack. The paper returned to General Sherman
after the fall of Vicksburg was not his resignation,
but a simple argument of his against Grant's plan.
The subject of interest, however, is independent of
these small matters of dispute. Grant's position
when he wrote the following letter was, on the
whole, accurately stated by the Nation, and it
shows that he can hold so tenaciously to his plans
that it is earnestly to be hoped that he may form
good ones, and not follow the illustrious example
of the retiring President :
" MILLIKEN'S BEND, LOUISIANA,
April 21, 1863.
" Dear Father—Your letter of the 7th of April
has just this day reached me. I hasten to answer
your interrogations. When I left Memphis, with
my past experience, I prohibited trade -helot
Helena. Trade to that point had previously been
opened by the Treasury Department. I give no
permits to buy cotton, and if I find any one en-
gaged in the business I send them out of the De-
partment and seize their cotton for the Government.
I have given a few families permission to leave the
country and to take with them so far as Mempbs
their cotton. In doing this I have been deceived
by unprincipled speculators, who have successfully
smuggled themselves along with the army in spite
of orders prohibiting them, and have been com-
pelled to suspend this favour to persons anxious to
get out of Dixie.

ic I understand that Government has adopted
some plan to regulate getting the cotton out of the
country. I do not know what plan they have
adopted, but am satisfied that any that can be
adopted, except for Government to take the cotton
themselves, and rule out speculators altogether,
will be a bad one. I feel all army followers who
are engaged in speculating off the misfortunes of
their country, and really aiding the enemy more
than they possibly could do by open treason,
should be drafted at once and put in the first for-
lorn hope.
" I move my head-quarters to New Carthage
to-morrow. This whole country is under water,
except strips of land behind the leeves, along
the river and bayous, and makes operations
almost impossible. I struck upon a plan which
I thought would give me a foothold on the
east bank of the Mississippi before the enemy
could offer any great resistance. But the diffi"
culty of the last one and a half miles next te
Carthage makes it so tedious that the enemy can-
not fail to discover my plans. lam doing mY
best, and am full of hope for complete success•
Time has been consumed, but it was absolutely
impossible to avoid it. An attack upon the rebel
works at any time since I arrived here must in-
evitably have resulted in the loss of a large portion
of my army, if not in an entire defeat. There were
but two points of land, Haines Bluff and Vieks"
burg itself, out of water at any place from which
troops could march. These are thoroughly ford'
fied, and it would be folly to attack them as long
as there is a prospect of turning their position•
I never expect to have an army under my corn;
mand whipped unless it is very badly whipped and
can't help it, but I have no idea of being driven to
do a desperate or foolish act by the howling°
of the press. It is painful to me, as a matter
of course, to see the course pursued by some el
the papers. But there is no one less disturbed by
them than myself. I have never sought a large COre"
mand, and have no ambitious ends to accomplish'
Were it not for the very natural desire of proving
myself equal to anything expected of me, and the
evidence my removal would afford that I was net
thought equal to it, I would gladly accept a leg;
responsible position. I have no desire to be an
object of envy or jealousy, nor to have this Wet
continue. I want, and will do my part toward it/
to put down the rebellion in the shortest possible
time, without expecting or desiring any other re-
cognition than a quiet approval of my course.
" I beg that you will destroy this letter ; at least
do not show it.

" Julia and the children are here, but will go lIP
by the first good boat. I sent for her t come dovOi
and get instructions about some business I want
attended to, and see no immediate prospect of
at-
tending to myself. " ULYSSES.'

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