Fremont journal. [volume] (Fremont, Sandusky County [Ohio]) 1853-1866, 1866-06-01
AN HOUR WITH GEN. GRANT


His Opinions on Writers, Fighters, and
-'tle1 ~ sORtherners. 70. tiiit
We give below full account of an interview
of the editor of the Lewiston (Me.) journal
20 wAsHISGroS, May ia, lS65.-We had the
good fortune yesterday 10 meet General Grant
at the studio of Names gifted artist, Simmons.
aud spent an hour in conversation, with the
Lieutenant General while he was giving Mr.
Simmons the benefit of asitting. As' every
thing coming from the General who led our ar
snies to victory over rebellion, is of interest to
the public, and particularly SO at this time when
his name is mentioned in connection with The
next Presidency, we propose to give our readers
brief resume Of Grants conversation. 'a.
The General who was dressed in a plain
black civilian suit had hardly removed his
hat from his head before he took cigar from
his pocket. lighted it and began to puff out
wreaths of smoke. "I am breaking off from
smoking remarked Grant. when / was in
the field | smoked eighteen or twenty cigars "a
day, but now / smoke only nine or tent Seat
ing himself and turning towards the clay model
Of himself, which the artist was building up
Grant remarked "If you had been at Vicks-
burg when we were before that city you would
not have wanted for mud. This naturally op-
ened the way to a conversation on the events Of,
The war, which we improved
y Referring to the long struggle for the posses
sion of Vicksburg, he said be felt sure of that
city the moment he had affected landing be-
low. ar then clearly saw every STEP" he re-
marked, "but didn't think the rebels would
be such fools as to shnt up thirty thousand
troops there for me to capture Grant seemed
10 regard the series of battles which relieved
Chattanooga and put that important strategic
point securely in our possession, as one of the
most satisfactory Of his achievements, 10 pure
military point of view. Pittsburg Landing he
regarded an an important victory, and although
he blamed the officers commanding the out
posts for their negligence in allowing surprise,
yet he claimed that the battle did very much to
dampsn the ardor and break down the arrogance
VI tne repel. I'll trsl- aar .gaf- --G tsi
q GENERAL GRANT ON Mr.. swINToN's S HISTORY.
The conversation turned to the Virginia cam
psigns of 1864, and IS. q notice, remarked
General Grant, that Mr.. Swinton has published
aihistory of the campaigns in the Old Domin-
ION, in which he takes the ground that gained
nothing, but, on the contrary lost many Yalua-
BILE lives uselessly, by moving my army from
the RRpidan direct to Richmond, rather than
by taking it around by water to the Peninsula,
as Mr.. Mcclellan did. This observed the
General sis a revival of the exploded theory
(referriRg TO the Mcclellan policy of subdu- |
ing the rebellion by peace measures A balfl
million troops might have been kept within |
sight Of Washington till doonlsday, and the re- |
bellion would have hourished more and more |
vigorously day by day. Fighting, hard knocks |
only could accomplish the work. The rebel |
lion must be overcome, if overcome at all. by |
force; its resources destroyed; its fighting ma
terial obliterated, before peace could be OBJ |
tanned.
snow, p remarked the General, as he took an |
other puff at his cigar, will ANYBODY tell me |
what could be gained by moving my army by |
water hundred miles further away from nv |
base than was necessary to meet the foe against |
which my blows must he directed? And then |
by marching overland could keep nv whole |
force together and protect Washington at the |
same time, whereas, had l moved by water to |
the Peninsula before Lees army had been Grip |
pied, should have been obliged to leave large |
force behind to guard against raids on Wash |
ington. 1t seemed to me, - added the General |
TO be the simplest military truism to fight an |
enemy as near as possible to our base + .
THE BATTLES OF THE WILDERNESS. E,
In response to an allusion TO the CHARGE that
little was accomplished by the tremendous loss
of life from the Wilderness TO the James, Grant
remarked that he had little patience with those
grJImblers who expected that the rebellion
could be put down without the loss of life. The
problem given was to destroy the fighting ma
terial of the COnfederacy, and that could only
be done by sacrifice Of life on our side. Ii
was the constant pounding which we gave Lees
army from the Rapidan to The James that made
possible the victories Of April, 1865. In all
the battles Of 1864, except at Coal Harbor, our
loss was inferior 10 that of the enemy: and
great as were those losses, yet they were not
only necessary to secure the final result, but
even less than what they would have been BY
disease had we resOrted to the Ohickahominy
warfare and the consequent proloDgation of the
war.
THE VIRGINIA FAILURES:
',"There were but two failures in the, Virginia
campaign OF "a which aught to have been sue
% capture Petersburg when we crossed ,be
James, and afterwards at the mine explosion. =
slunders, and especially failure to move with