The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-10-30

nation, or feigning TO do 80, would have
! shown his own personality in the matter, and
! humilisted the noble but misiudging soldier.
Still another illustration of this sublime reti-
cence IN action was afforded by personal
conversation between the Great Captain and
the writer of this article soon after the close
Of the war. Among other things sald, we
asked the General the queston;-"hoW did
you feel during the dreadful days OF the pat
| lies of the Wilderness, when your men were
falling in such vast numbers and the ground
before you was contested with such stubborn
ness ?" After pause, the sole answer wa:
az felt that we had to go to Richmond"
| The reply seemed to ignore philosophy, if not
generalship, and yet it contained the quintes-
! sence of both philosophy and generalship. IL
proved that he had fxed beyond the posi-
bility of change or of doubt, the aim and end
OF the campaign; that there was no provision
for failure nor conception of its possibility,
and that all parts of the campaign, all plans,
all means were portions of the one pathway to
Richmond.
That this wonderful power OF self-abnega-
ton, ard OF excluding from his mind all but
the one great object, lay at the root Of Grants
success, we do not doubt. We admit he is
military genius-one of the most daring aud
profound of all history. His military learn
ing may be inferior to HcClellan's, and to that
of fifty others; but it is the characteristic Of
genius to transcend the schools, and TO 60
straight to its mark, in ignorance or in con.
tempt OF the old pains. Without attempting
| TO de 6ne that subtle something called genius,
which hides itself in the very tissue Of Its own
creations, in the case of Grant it is clear to us
that bis genius wrought in the overthrow OF
the Rebellion by means of his power of self
restraint and concentration. The essential
condition of the success of his genius was that
he should resolutely shut ont everything ex-
traneous and sink himself SO deeply in his
own thoughts and abide so steadily in them,
that his whole plan, with the various aspects
and possibilities of the situation, might be-
come, not transient vision, but as it were,
picture in oil, in which he foresaw what he
and We afteIward saw.
This peculiar power revealed itself in other
forms, quite as essential as the power itself.
Every citizen knows only too well how the
cause OF the Union suffered in the early part
OF the war from dissensiOns among the chiefs
of the armies. Some Of the generals seemed
quite as hostile to their brother officers as to
the Rebels themselves. Many a battle was
| lost by this contem ptible httleues5. No chief
had as yet appeared whose geaius was COM
mandipg or whose spirit was assimilatipg.
A man was wanting large enough to see that
one brain, however grand was not
sufficient for the terrible emergency;
man with insight into men sufficient to
enable him to make the best selection OF
commanders; man not afraid to choose the
best, when they were found, lest they should
be rivals; and, in word, a man generous
enough, and magnetic enough, and powerful
enough to fuse into unity with himself, aud
around himself, and one with another the
commanders SO selected. Grant precisely met
this want. He harmonZed and united the
military intellect OF the nation. Uader him
and Sherman and Thomas and Sheridan, and
their numerous ana able subordinates, the
campaign became one. Grant gave the outline
his mind aud heart inspired it-but gene
GDniIinO w ui IN hA in
diyiduality OF each Of his lieutenants. Be-
tween him and his chief captains, history
records no shadow of jealousy, no moment
even OF coldness. He found the heads of the
army in deadly wrangle, and made them a
harmonious family; and, to this day, he and
| Sherman and Thomas and Sheridan are united
like Damon" and "Pythias.' AS their lame
! is one, so their hearts are one.
During their campaign, there came time
UgSe %aSR SHa1 Ts aGd LIS pasnoa tn was even
more wonderful than his successes. There he
sat during the long winter, and the nation
wat ched and waited in breathless suspense.
TO many he seemed to have reached the end
of his string and to be doing nothing but
smoke. Sherman was marching from Eennss-
see to the ocean. Atlanta, Savannah, Charles
ton fell; the world resouuded with Sherman's
reDown. He was said to be greater than
Grant. Thomas was winning laurels in the
West, and Sheridan was appropriating the
hearts of the people by his exploits i'll the
valley of the Shenandoah, Whst terrible
thing it is to an ambitious soldier to be forgot,
ten ! to stand on the loftiest emnen"e OF COM
mand, aud yet to see his laurels gliding, in pop
ular estimation, from his own broWs to those
of his lieutenants There are generals we
know of who, in Grants position at that time,
would have gone stark mad. They would
have rushed down South and snatched the
reins of the war-chariOt from Sherman, or
taken possession OF SheTidan's charger in the
Valley, or of Thomas position in the West,
or all three by turns, SO as to have their names
in print, and to keep in advance of their too
aspiring and too successful subordnates. But
there sat Grant before Richmond, not green or
livid with jealousy, but radiant with Joy.
Sherman and Sheridan and Thomas were his
own boys; their victories belonged TO the firm,
and the grateful praises of the people, falling
on the heads of his generals, were beautifully
completed by those OF the man sitting idle
before Richmond. But the Great Captain was
in at the death. AppOmattoX, with Grant pre-
siding, finished the rising climax of victories,
and the long pursued game fell at last into
the bag OF the chief hunter.
The war has now been over for several
years, and Grant, the sort of stuff out of whom
the Old World civilizations make emperOrs
and autOcrats, still continues one of the most
modest and simple OF men. Indeed, it might
be doubted whether thorough examination
of our whole population would not result in
declaring Grant to be the most notable exam
pie of modesty in the nation.
And now, deficient as Grant may be in the
! lighter elements of popularity, it is clear that
he YNDc oil he and I.,,