Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1868-06-06
NEW SERIES, VOL. 4, NO. 80.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
GRANT--.COLFAx.
Noble Record of their Livcs--T'he
!Ien Deserving OF Loyal Mems
support.


support
Ulysses 8. Grant was born April 81, 1922,
at Point Pleasant, Clermont county, Ohio.
Like Lincoln, his early intellectual advan.
tages we're of the most ordinary kind, but
he was enabled to educate himself sufficient.
ly to enter the Military Academy at West
Point, to which he was fortunate in procu
ring cadetsbip, though at the expense Of
his name, Hiram Ulysses, which was given
him in infancy for the one which he has be.
come known all over the world. If the
clerical blunder which inscribed him Ulysses
8. could not be erased from the records of
the Academy, neither can that name be
blotted from the scroll of honorable history.
He graduated in ls43, and was brevetted
Second Lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry.
He served through the Mexican war, receiv.
ing brevets of First Lieutenant and Captain,
for meritorious conduct at the battles of
Molina del Rey and Chepultepec, After
the war with Mexico he continued in the
army for few years, and while serving in
Oregon, in 1852, was promoted to a cap.
fancy. The next year he resigned, going
into business at st. Louis, and in 1859 he
removed to Galena, ILL.,, where he was con-
Quoting an extensive tannery when tho late
war broke out. Captain Grant was among
the first to offer his services to the govern
ment, and wai given command of a regi-
ment by the Governor of Illinois, with
which he went into active service in Mis-
souri. It was not long until he was appoint
ed Brigadier. General of Volunteers (Au.
gust, 1851, and assigned TO the command Of
the District of Cairo.
The unfortunate battle of Bull Run and
the varying fortunes iE the South west, had
a depressing effect upon the country, aud
the people were willing to take leader on
trust if he would only come heralded with a
victory, however Insignificant. Rich Noun
tain gave Mcclellan command of the armies
of the United States the unfortunate ex-
pedition to Belmont doomed Grant to com.
parative obscurity at Cairo, until near the
close of the first year of the war. Then the
brilliant victories of Fort Donelson and
Pittsburg Landing, the first of any signii-
canoe gained by Union army, could do
but little for him, and while the former made
him Major General, the latter deprived him
of a command. All eyes were turned to-
ward the Grand Army of the Potomac, in
anticipation of the great things it would ac-
complsh when its leader chose to move
upon Lee at Manassas; and decisive actions
upon the Cumberland and the Tennessee
were not considered, while people were
amused with promises never to be realized,
and kept in constant expectation by assu
RANGES that all was quiet along lines little
nearer home.
It were useless to attempt description
OF these actions now, but when Grant COM
pleted victory that had begun as defeat,
by leading in person a charge of six regi
ments, he showed that General might pro-
mise little and yet accomplish much. Soon
after he had worsted the ablest Rebel leader
in the South, who was killed in that fierce
engagement at Shiloh Church, Halleck as
sumed command in the Southwest, and the
victor was rewarded for his two successes
by subsequent neglect until September, 1862.
He was then appointed TO the command of
the Army of West Tennessee his force con-
sttuting the Thirteenth Army Corps, and
fixed his headquarters at Jackson, in that
State. In the meantime Mcclellan had been
driven from before Richmond. Pope had
been defeated at the second battle of Bull
Run, and an uncertain victory at Antietam
had closed the career of General who was
called to the head of the army in the fervor
of popular enthusiasm, and had been re-
stored to command in a moment of popular
despair.
During the dark and terrible winter that
followed, the Army Of the Potomac, under
its successive commanders, lay on the banks
of the Rappahannock, and fought the ill
fated battles of Fredericksburg and Chan
cellorsville, while Grant and Sherman were
quietly working out their plans on the Mis-
sissippi and the Yazoo. When Lee moved
northward, in the spring and summer of
1868, and Meade was enabled to gain his
great victory at atGettysburg, the capitulation
of Pemberton added Vioksburg to Gettys
burg in the associations connected with the
everglorious Fourth of July. In detailing
the appointments of Major-Generals which
had been made in the regular army, Grant
once modestly said AFTER the capitula
tion of Vicksburg was added" as if him
self unconscious of the importance of an
event that had given the army leader who
makes him to day the candidate of the great
Republican party for President, an office
which he would not desire were not the
people intent on giving him this last mark
of their confidence and esteem.
One who was within the Rebel lines du-
ring the invasion Of Pennsylvania in 1868,
was told by an arrogant Southerner, whose
deserted home was near the spot where
Grants army lay, that the dark and fetid
waters of the Yazoo would destroy bis men,
even IL there were no intrenched enemy in
front to pick them off In detail. But the
same fash of the lightning that brought
the news of Meades victory at Gettysburg
brought word of Pemberton's defeat at
Vicksburg. As reward for this victory,
Grant, in his own modest words, was added
to the Major Generals already appointed for
the regular army, but unlike the time when
he was commissioned q Major General of
Volunteers, no fortune now could doom him
to inactivity. Before he was ordered to as.
sumo command at Chattanooga, after the
unfortunate battle of Chickamauga, Presi.
dent Lincoln wrote him characteristic let
ter. 1t was dated July 13, 1868, and was as
follows:-
"ny Dear General II do not remember
that you and l ever met personally. Iwrite
this now as grateful acknowledgment for
the almost inestimable service you have
done the country. l wish to say q word
further. When you first reached the vicini-
ty of Vicksburg, thought you should do
what you finally did-march the troops
across the neck, run the batteries with the
transports, and thus 60 below, and never
had any faith, except q general hope that
you knew better than I, that the Yazoo ex-
pedition and the like could succeed. When