The Portland daily press., 1865-04-19
Wednesday Morning, April 10, 1866.
[From the Evening Post.l
The Career Of General Grant.

Va ~
1t has doubtless occurred to many Of our
readers, as a singular and what some would
cali Providenfial occurrences. that in this
great war OF the people against an aristocra-
cy conspicuously boastful of its blood birth
and gentle breeding, the popular side has been
conducted to successful issue by leaders who
themselves belong TO what Mr. Lincoln called
. .splain people,' and what Englishmen writing
about us ignorantly call s,the peasant Glass;
We have no peasant class in the free States:
but Mr.. Lincoln and General Grant are both
the SONS OF ssplain people p both, in their
youth. at least. labored with their hands for
bread and neither had any OF those adyan
tages of birth. or poweriul family Influence
or GREAT estate. which. in the South as in En-
rope. served men as lever for their personal
agrandizement. st.89
General Grant, who entered the war as Colo
mel of an Illinois regiment, has shown. in ev-
erv position which he has held, genuine great
ness OF character. as well as extraordinary
military genius. He became Colonel of a regi-
men6 which was about to disband because the
man conld not agree with their officers: but
in lass than a month he had mazda this regi
rnent the hest in point of discipline and char
aeter which the State of Illinois has sent out.
His unobtrusiye but marked ability caused his
promotion 10 The grade of Brigadier-General:
and atter file hattie of Relmout-which sery-
DrGVH0JllQ
of Price ia southern Missouri by troops from
t,olumbns-he conceived the first of those
brilliant camnaipns az which military histori
ans will write with delight.
The rebeis held Columbus. on the Mississip
n; and Bowling Green. in central Kentucky.
and from these points threatened at once ST.
Iouis and Cincinnati Grant quietly and secret
ly collected strong force near Snithland, and
snddenlv noinced down first unon Fort Han.
~ and ihen NM, Fort Doneison. IN these
two nlaces he cantured a rebel army. with ali
ito art;Ilarv and material-but this was the
Ieast Of the trnits of his well-censdered STRAIT
ag,, s,r tha eantnra If Fort Doneson nroduc-
ed The nrecinitate evacuation Of Kentucky
and half of Tennessee by the enemy. who did
not ston until he reached Corinth. retreatine
a distance Of over threa hundred miles with
ont another battle.
Next came the great battle of Shiloh. Tn
that sherman was Grants chief lieutenant
and fine two men tested each others Qualities
IN tho most avtrerns trial II which either had
haan aynosed That battle was one of the
sstnrn;ng oo;nts,, Of the war n has haen. told
MS that Grant came into the Headquarters on
the evanino If the FIRST davis hattie. when In
anv INIT The most heroic shirts fortune seemed
to have deserted rs and said ouietlv. "Well
4. oentlemen.' If was tough WORK to.day--bnt
we'll heat them to-morrow.n
Disnlacad Inv Ruell Grant uttered NO word
>of comnlaint-no newsnaner 5corresnondent
oven coinnlained for him: but he went ouietly
on in his annoi,,ted Mace. we NAV snnnose
that the slow. timid. and unmiEtarv policv
which marked The long siege of Corinth must
often have chafad his shirt. vet one of his
nerits il 10 submit r., his sunerjors cheerfully
doing his own work without stopping to cues
tion or rectifv the work Of Others I; and even
while IGNORANCE or malice traduced his char
acter. and belittled his services giving his best
ability 10 the furtherance of the plans of the
hour. Fortunately we had in the War De-
nartment man of insight and decisiveness.
who very soon saw the value of Grant, and
nut it to use. The long and almost impracti-
cable campaign against Vicksbnrg was sub.
mitted to his direction, and led to as brilliant
a series OF operations as the greatest general
of modern DAYS ever conceived or executed.
Vicksburg was the second OF Grants fruit
full victories A rebel army, with all It's arms
and materials. surrendered TO him but this
material gain was the least of the fruits OF his
success; for, as the capture of Fort Donelson
expelled the rebel forces, without another
blow from Kentucky and the greater part of
Tennessee-from a region of country nearly
as great as the island Of Great Britain, and
third greater than England aone--so the cap
ture OF Vicksburg reopened the great Missis-
sippi to navigation, and drove the enemy from
the larger part of the State of Mississippi
Chattanooga came next. "Hold fast; do
not give up Chattanooga if you starve," she
telegraphed General Thomas, upon whose suf-
fering army Bragg looked down from the
heights opposite as his certain prey. A single
battle again decided the campaign, relieved
Chattanooga and drove Bragg out of East
Tennessee and into Georgia. He did not this
time capture the forces of the enemy, owing
partly to the difficult nature OF the pursuit
amid the in.ractable mountains, and partly to
the pursuit exhibited by one or two of his
subordinates. But of the battles fought on
Loo&out Mountain and Missionary Ridge,
history records no parallel for sublimity OF
daring aud picturesqueness of effect, while
the consequences which were the division OF
the Coniederacy into two parts, were inesti-
mabIe in their Importance.
At last Grant was drawn eastward, to COM
mand all the armies of the nation. We have
not forgotten the misgivings with which the
public heard of this transfer to comprehen-
sive field of duty, and more exacting trials
Would he not be spoiled by promotion, or ru'
ined as so many before him had been, by the
difficulties of the operations in Virginia
Above all, would he not be sacrificed by the
chickering's of the Potomac generals /?
Such were the questions asked on every
hand. The Lieutenant General, however,
needed them not, and went on his way as
taciturn, as SILENT as self concentrated, as te-
nacious and indomitable as the Brigadier and
Major General had been. He made no speech
on his way to the last he did not address
the troops living at winter quarters at Culpep
per; but he took hold of his work at once aud
bv the handle. Under his ewes the campaign
which began last May has been uninterrupted
ly successful. His first blow at Lee, in those