The Shasta courier., 1865-12-16
Grant and sherman from an English
Point of View.

year--a little yeur-ago, part of the
BRUSH public was invited by its teachers to
believe that the American civil war was over.
The two great armies IF the North were Said
to be ruined. General Grant, without n plan.
but with Il demoralized mob of armed men.
was pictured as foundering in the mud of
the James river whence he would find it
hard to escape Lee, even with The loss of his
stores and artillery. General Sherman
taxing been drawn away from his base by
johnston, and being unable 10 hold Atlanta
in the face of IIood, was described as break
ing up his camp and flying towards the sea,
in the hope. unlikely to be fulfilled, of fud
ing shelter from the enemy in his ships.
Men who felt no oDjec ion to the rise of u
slave empire. and women who admired the
chivalry of Prest n Brooks, we've incted by
their teachers to kill the fitted calf and sub
scribe to the Confederate loan. Some peo-
jocose, and Chapel Courts rejoiced. Money
poured in, and the prospects Of the cotton
loan improved Yet TO soldiers who paid Il
fair attention to events it was already clear
that the South was broken, and that its
submission was but a question of details and
of days. Lee was Licked fast in Richmond
just as Floyd had been ciored in Fort Donel-
son and Pemberlon in Vicksburg, with no
avenue of escape left open to him but such
a- led to capture and defeat. Sherman had
split the Confederacy in two halves, sepa-
rating Lee and his supplies, and parayzing
Hood.
Or course the critics who praised about
Grant being without ii plan, and of Sherman
being drawn into trap, knew little { these
great Captains; not even the facts of heir
campaigns during the war. A soldier who
| had studied the strategy which led to the
capture OF Donelsnn a:Id Nicksburg, would
have 'ound nothing to perpleX him in
Grants approaches toward Rchmond. =
Ulysses Grant is a man of genius; a soldier
Of new ideas one who will be found to have
contributed fresh materials t. the art of war
With him siege is campaign. Instead of
driving off the covering army from a fort Or
city, as old rules Insisted must be DONE be
fore commencing operations against it, Grant
manoeuvers to keep the covering army near
him. TO throw it within the lines. to compel
it to take part in the defense and fall
when the beIeagured fortress falls. This
plan has the disadvantage of making siege
appear long, perplexIng critics who cannot
see that the close Of the siege is to be. under
this new system, he close Of the campaign
AT Dehelson. at Vicksburg, Grants plan
was carried out in each the covering army
fell With the fortress, and in each the blow
was final The fail of Fort D0nelson ami
us cuyeflDs army pat an end to the war il
Kentucky and Western Tennessee; the fall
of Nicksnurg and its covering army opened
the river Mississippi, never to be closed
again by the Southern guns. Each cam
p,ign was final: not only sweeping away
H. Eoil
stores, guns, clotaing, ammunition. but
crushing III the catastrophe al sparks IF
rebelliouS fire. Where Grant had once been
WAS found imp ,ssihie to raise a second
rebel corps. The fighting spirit was sub
dued. Aud that which had been done bv
Grant in the States of Tennessee and Missis-
sippi, was now being done by him, on a
larger scale and with stronger enemy, in
Virginia; and being done in precisely the
same manner and with precisely The same
object. Grant had to weaken the Confed
e~ate army, shut 1t up within the lines of
Richmond and Petersburg, and cempel it to
surrender when the capi al fell.
IIence,the battles which he fought on the
way to York river; hence his refusal to as
saut the lines on his first approach lie
was making a campaign, not simply con-
ducting Il siege. Davis had boa~ted that the
would be maintained in Virginia alone
for twenty years after Richm nd fell but
like nlanv. other critics be made the mistake
of misuuder> funding Grant. This captain
knew his object and the means by which lie
could gain it. Richmond without Lee would
have given him little; Richmond and Lee
IL ng together would give him everyth
he waHted-vietorv, Union, peace In spite
of military and civil critics his plans we're
c. cowned with magnificent success Tie
war was finished at blow, and the surren
der of Pemberton was justified in the surren-
der of Lee.
Sherman when we came to know him at
al, was me respects better comprehend
ed by the critics than Grant had been--
After Savannah fell into his power all non
sense about his being drawn from his base
and flying TO his ships died out among US
The Horse Guards began to study his re
markabe march and the Duke of Cam
bridge went to preside at a meeting oi .hs .i.e
United Services 10 ilea7 an explanation of it
in detail From that day forward, simply
because we began 10 know him. Sherman
became our hero Of the war London Athen
eun,, September 30h