The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-11-13
General Grant on. Flank Movements.

General Grant on Flank Movements.
From the ". y Sun.
All great commanders have been cele-
brated for some salient point in their charac-
ters. General Grant is famous for his flank
movements.
AT Fort Donelson, where he first rose to
fame, he moved upon the enemy's works by
the right flank. Having been successful in
this, he took that line for awhile, and so, in
his final campaign to conquer Vicksburg, he
crossed the Mississippi by the right flank,
while Admiral Porter ran the river batteries
with the fleet, amid the blazing tempest OF
shot and shells that illpmined the heavens.
Then Grant reorossed the river and by a
series of celebrated battles, all fought by the
right flank, reached the rear of the Rebel
stronghold, which, by dogged obstinacy, he
at length subdued, and split the Confederaoy
in twain.
He subsequently signalized his commission
as Lieutenant-General by right flank attack
on the Rebel intrenchments at Chattanooga,
won glorious victory, avenged the disaster
OF Chickamauga relieved Burnside in East
Tennessee, drove Bragg pell- into Geor-
gia, and opened the gates for Sherman's grand
march to the sea.
In the spring of 1864, when placed in COM
mand of all the armies, with headquarters in
the saddle, he crossed the Rapida an with the
oft batiled but never routed Army of the Po-
Wilderness, and thence fought it out on that
line, always moving by the right flank, till,
nearly one year afterwards, he received the
sword Of Lee at Appomattox Court House.
These successful flank movements un-
doubtedly entitle General Grant to all his re-
putation as soldier; but they pale when
compared with his strategy as a politician, as
for example,
While in the War Department, he baflsd
Johnson's attempt to draw him into collision
with Congress and the Courts by refusing to
hold on as Secretary in violation of law aud
obstinately declining Johnson's generous offer
TO 90 to Jail in his stead.
During the heat of the late canvass, he
escaped from the disagreeable importantly OF
hungry partisans, and the offensive odor of
torchlght professions, by retreat to the rural
shades of Galena, where he enjoyed repose and
his cigar without molestation.
The election being over, he returned to
Washington by well-executed tlank-move-
msnt, wherein he foiled an army of Office
seekers, bursting with rhetorical effusions, all
along the route, and avoided being
smothered by reception of ofice-holders at
the capital, by going through on the night
train.
He found awaiting his arrival a bushel or
two of written recommendations of Jones,
Smith, Brown, Robinson, Dee, and Roe to
every place which will be at his disposal on
and after the 4th of March next; and here
he committed his first mistake. He ordered
the whole lot to be thrown into the fire. He
should have sent them, as he ought also to
send the bales which are yet to be heaped
upon him, to No. 20 Ann steet, in this city,
be sold for waste paper, and the proceeds
devoted towards the liquidation Of the public
debt.
Not quite appreciatipg the significance of the
holocaust, the cormorants who feed on official
garbage at the national metropolis waited
upon him Tuesday evening with their votive
congratulations, and insisted on torchlighting
him through the dirty streets of Washington.
With grim smile, he told them to 'tske
every thing for granted" politely bowed the
committee to the door, and quietly went to
bed.
May he be as uniformly successful in his
flank movements during the eight years to
come as he was throug hout the tour years Of
the war