Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1868-06-11

we take it, is now reversed by tn
court Of final appeal not by dwarf
ing the reputation Of Sherman
which suffers no just abatement, bn
by the expansion into grander pro
portions Of that Of Grant.
Grant stands pre- eminent among
all the generals who have led ou
armies in the late war, in that h,
has exhibited the utmost strength
of will of which the highest type o
manhood is capable. The defence'
of Vicksburg and the defences o.
Richmond were both deemed i'm
pregnable, and were defended with
a proportionable confidence and OBJ.
stinacy; but they both yielded, at
last, to Grants matchless persist.
ence and unequaled strategy. And,
in both cases, he not only took the
long-contested positions, but com
PEELED the surrender OF the whole
force defending them. Nothing
could be more clean and complete,
even in imagination, than General
Grants mastery execution. He
did not merely, in each case, ac-
quire a position which was the key
of a wider theatre Of operations; he
did not merely beat or disable the
opposing force; he left no frag-
ment of it in existence, except as
prisoners of war subject to his dis
posal.
If anybody is so obtuse or so
wrong-hcaded as to see nothing
great in General Grant b@yond his
marvellous tenacity of will, let that
doubter explain, if he can, how it
has happened that, since Grant rose
to high command, this quality has
always been exerted in conspicuous
energy precisely at the point on
which everything in his whole
sphere Of operations hinged. There
has been no display Of great quail
ties on small occasions; no expen-
diture Of herculean effort to accom-
plish objects not of the first magni-
sude. 1t is only a very clear sight
ed and very comprehensive mind
that could always thus have laid
the whole emphasis Of an indomita-
BILE soul so precisely on the emphat-
ic place. How, if he be not a Cen
eral of the first order of intellect,
as well as of the most heroic deter
mination, does it happen that, in
assigning great and brilliant parts
to his subordinate commanders, he
never, when the results of his STRAIT
egy were fully inf lded, appeared
in the picture except as the central
figure? However it may seem
Turing the progress of one of his
great combined campaigns, it al
ways turns out at last when it reach
IS that completeness and finish in
which he contrives to have his
end, that we see him
in the foreground, and that
.he grouping is always such that
he glory of the other Generals in
stead of eclipsing his own gives it
lustre. 1t is this sure
less of judgment which sees pre-
'isely where lies the turning point;
which sees precisely what are the
objects that justify the utmost
tretch of persistence; it is this
hility to take in the whole field of
Jew in just perspective and due
ubordination of parts, that is the
mark of superior mind. General
irant has taken out of the hands
f all critics the question whether
belongs to him. He has won his
reatest triumph over the most
killful and accomplished General
II the other side; over a General
,ho foiled him long enough to
rove his great mastery of the art
f war; and the completeness of
hose defeat is a testimony to '
rants genius such as a victory !
yer any other General of the Con- I
,deracy, or an earlier victory over t
zee himself could not have given. |
.pply to General Grant what test I
on will measure him by the mag !
itude of the obstacles he has sur t
ounted, by the value of the posi- q
ons he has gained, by the fame of i
le antagonist over whom he has /
by the achievements of e
is most illustrious workers, by p
lie sureness with which he directs d
Is indomitable energy to the vital
pint which is the key of vast field
operations, or by that supreme L
st of consummate ability, the alb "
,lute completeness Of his results, s.
Id he vindicated his claim to stand u
ext after Napoleon and Yelling n
IN, among the greatest soldiers of y
lis century, if not on level with u
Ie latter. u
"A correspondent who has re, d.
.ntly visited Andersonville ceme- t.
ry, says; ia