Smyrna times., 1865-12-13
New Points In Grants Report.

y win reference to the report of General
Urant which accompanied the President mes
sage, we prefer to set before our readers that
which is new in the Generals narrative rotb"-
than to republish the whole of t. cont,;n;no
as 1t does, so much that is well known When
he took command of all the forces as General
IN Chle1, ne found the armies of the East and
the West acting without concert, and. "6kn
a balky team, no two ever pulling together -
This gave the enemy the great ADVANTAGE of
using the same force, at different seasons against
nrst one and then the other of our armies. or
else OF withdrawing one or other to obtain rest
ms ms he determined to stop, by keeping both
OF the great armies Of the enemy emploved All
the tlme and then, as he says. to t'hammcr
continuously against them with the greatest
possible number of troops he could procure
until there should be nothing left to the enemy
out SUBMISSION. Here we have the whole Sc.
cret of his " strategy"
a little way further on in the report we learn
that General Grant, before starting acros, the
liapldan, IN his Richmond campaign, made
known his purpose to put the Army of the Po-
,olnac ON the south side of the James river If
he could not beat Lee without going there, -
This revelation ovcrthrows all the ncw,paprr
argumentatlonS that has been iniulged in, on
the theory that he never deSi1nei to 90 there
at all, but was forced off his line
ne next hing that attracts attention is the
following h1nd@ome tribute to General Meade.
| may here state that, commanding all the
armle> aa dlt, tried, as far as possible to
leave 'Tenera Meade III independent command
OF the army Of the Potomac The campaigns
that followed proved to be the right man in thc
right place. Ills commanding always in the
presence OF an officer superior to him in rank
has drawn from him much Of that attention
that his zeal and ability entitle him to. anl
which he would not otherwise have received
Here, again, is disastrous defeat to the
newspapers, and particularly to those which
supposed that, because they kept General
Meade 5 name out of their columns, the world
would never know that he was the able ami
successful commander Of the army Of the Poto-
mac
1t is easy enough, however, to perceive
which of the army commanders had the entire
confidence of General Grant. Thus he speaks
III the same hearty terms Of Sheridan He
made Sheridan visit before the great cam !
palgn of the latter in the Shenandoah Valley. |
as he wished to see the positions and surroun |
dlngs himself. But he was so well satisfied |
with what Sheridan placed before him that he |
saw that but ttCO 'cOr(S of instruction were ne
ceSsary and those two were 90 on Gene
raj Grant says he never deemed it necessary
to visit Sheridan again before giving him Or
dcrS.
VI Sherman movement from Chattanooga
to Atlanta he says that it was prompt, skill |
tul and brilliant, and that the history ofhis |
flank movements and battles during that memo |
rable campaign will ever be read with an inter
est unsurpassed by anything in history" We |
learn from this report also that Shcrman's
. march to the sea was not a result of Hood ; |
nank movement from Atlanta, as was univer-
sally believed at the time, but that he had
planned 1t deliberately and laid the general f4a.
lures of it before General Grant, more than
two months before he moved, and more than
one month before Hood started on his fatal
tramp to Tennessee. We learn, too, that Grant
had doubts about the movement, but finally
yielded his consent
1t now appears also that General Grant was
very anxious about the cautious proceedings
OF General Thomas previous to the battle Of
Nashville, but he now says that " the final de-
feat OF Hood was 50 complete as to vindicate
the Judgment of that distinguished officer
lGeneral Thomas. He speaks warmly Of
General Schoheld, giving him the credit Of in
thctlng fatal blow to Hood before the battle
Of Nashville. 1t is in a far different strain
that he speaks Of General Butler.
In the course of the narrative we find two
illustrations Of the damage done by indiscreet
publications Ofarmy movements. While speak
ing OF the preparations for the expedition
against Fort Fisher, Gen. Grant says, that
through the "imprudence Of the press the
enemy was warned, and the sailing of the feet
had to be postponed. The other case worked
to our advantage for General Grant says that
he learned all about the plans of the enemy
through the speech that Jefferson Davis made
At Macon, Georgia, in the fall of 1864, and
which was fully reported in the southen press.
VIRTUE Irs Own REWARD The last joke
It the expense. of the French Society for the
Protection of Animals is to the following eff
tect:-
A countryman, armed with an immense club,
presents himself before the President of the
Society, and claims the first prize He is ask
ed to describe the act OF humanity on which he
Ound his claim. g | saved the life of wolf"