The Portland daily press., 1868-01-17
DAILY PRESS.
ND.
Friday Morning, January IT, 1868.
Grnni's Military Career.
POR1IAND

the military career of General Grant, from
the beginning to the close of the war, was in
preparation by member of his personal staff,
has been for some time known to the public,
and the appearance OF the work has been
looked forward to with much interest. Th,
first volume is now before us, and we propose
to give our readers such a general idea of its
contents as our limited space will allow.
1t is fortunate for an author undertaking a
work so important and involving so much
labor as this, that his subject is one in which
| interest is already excited,-he has not TO
awaken it. Colonel Badeau can be sure be-
fore hand that he will have for his readers
nearly every man, woman and child i'm the
country; and the certainty of such an audi
ence for what he has TO say may well prove
powerful stimulus to his efforts The field,
TOO, on which be enters is wholly his own
no one else has given us anything which even
deserves mention as a complete and trust
worthy record OF the extraordinary military
career OF General Grant; and conseuuently
| the present work supplies an actual and rec
| o3nized Want. The author is well fitted for
his task, and has enjoyed unusual facilities in
| its prosecution. A soldier as well as schol-
| ar. trained to active service in the field, and
familiar with the details of military opera
| tions, he has also for several years been init
mately associated with the General as one of
| his personal staff, and has had free access to
| all documents in the possession of the General
| himself, and of the Government, with entire
| discretion as to the use which he should see
| nit to make of his material. In his preface he
thus sets forth with true sodierly directness
the claims of his book to the confidence and
attention OF the public:
| The fact that became member of General
| Grants personal staff before he assumed COM
| mand of the armies of the United States, and
that l have since remained with him, is the
voucher that offer for the correctness of this
history. have not meant to state one fact,
| unless it came under my own personal OBJ
servation. or has been told me by the General
| OF the army, or one of his important officers,
| or unless know it from official papers. When
| | deviate from this rule, make the deviation
| known.
| The portion of the narrative embraced in the
| present volume includes the whole Of Grants
military operations in the West, and events
| up to the period of his assumption of the rank
OF Lieutenant-General, and of the command
Of all the armies of the United States.
Colonel Badeau does no more than touch
upon the early and private life of his subject.
He writes strictly en- militaire, and even his
| army life before the war is disposed of in
single page. In 1860 he was in the leather
| business with his a.her and brother in Gale
ma, Illinois. Colonel Badeau says:
Thus, when the civil war broke out, Grant
| was private citizen, earning his bread in an
| Insignificant inland town, He was of simple
habits and tastes, without influence, and un-
| ambitious. Having never been brought in
| contact with men of eminence, he had no per-
| sonal knowledge of great affairs. He had
| nev + commanded more than COMPANY of
soldiers, and although he had served under
| both Scott and Taylor, it was as a subaltern,
and without any opportunity of intercourse
| with those commanders. He had never voted
for President but once; he knew nc. .polit-
clans, for his acquaintance was limited to ar
| my officers and western traders; even in the
town where he lived, he had not met the MEM
| Der OF Congress who represented the district
| for nine successive years, and who afterwards
became one OF his most intimate personal
friends. Of his four children, the eldest was
eleven years DID, He lived in little house at
the top of one of the picturesque hills on
| which GaleDa. is built, and went daily to the
! warehouse of his father and brother where
leather was sold by the wholesale and retail.
| He was thirty-nine years of age before his
countrymen became acquainted with his
name.
When Sumter fell he, wrote to the adju-
tant general of the army, stating that he had
received military education at the public ex-
| pense, and offering his services in any capac-
| ity in which he could be of use. No notice
was taken of the offer; but remaining at
| Springfield he gave such efficient aid In the
organization of the State troops as brought
him to the notice of Governor Yates, who Of
fered him the 21st. Regiment of Illinois
Infantry. Col. Badeau here mentions a fact
which will be new to most readers, and which
In view OF subsequent events is curious Be-
fore receiving his Colonelcy, Grant went to
Cincinnati where General Mcclellan, an old
army comrade, was in command of the Ohio
volunteers His moCesty forbade him 10
make any application, but he hoped that Nc
Ciellan might offer him place on his staff
He called twice at head quarters, but did not
see the General and SO returned without men
tioning his aspirations. First assigned to
General Hope, commanding the district of
North Missouri, he received his commission
as Brigadier-General of Volunteers on the 7th
OF August, 1861. For this promotion he was
primarily indebted to Congressman E. B.
Washburne, with whom he had never exchanc-
ed a word until after the fall of Sumter, but
who has since been among the closest and
stanchest of his friends.
Grants first command was of the District
Of .
Illinois, Kentucky and Tennessee-with head
quarters at Cairo. His first act was to defy
the insolent neutrality" of Kentucky by seiz-
ing Paducah; and then and there he began
that system of framing his own plans, and
steadily pushing forward TO their accomplish
ment,-save when withheld by orders from
his superiors-which was to carry him through
he war. The battle of Belmont, which Col.
Badeau shows to have been greatly msunder-
stood, but which fully answered its strategic
purpose, afforded an example of his peculiar
traits. His raw forces, flushed by the ir first
success became unmanageable, and instead of
pursuing the enemy took to plundering, while
the Colonies, equally raw, shouted and made
stump speeches for the Union. With much
trouble Grant got them in hand, and as they
were returning to their Transports they were
intercepted and attacked. There was coniii-
sion, and the cry rose "We are surrounded"
Nv ELL" said Grant, " f that is so we must cut
our way out as we cut our way in The
men were brave enough but it had not occur
red to them before that time that being sur
rounded there was anything to do but to
surrender.
Halleck now superseded Fremontm the
command of the Department of the West,
and an extremely interesting portion of the
volume sets forth very clearly the relations
subsisting between the former and Grant.
According to the account of Col. Badeau,
who seems to bring facts for the support of
all his statements, Halleck appears constantly
to have claimed the right to dictate all move
ments, even the smallest, Of his subordinates.
throughout his vast command. His orders
leave the responsibility of failure entirely
with his generals, while in case of SUCCESS he
is not slow to claim the credit for the plan
He never was ready to order any forward
movement, and constantly withheld the more
active impulses of his subordnates. Grant,
in particular, seems to have been repeatedly
snubbed by him. When, on various coca