Juniata sentinel. [volume] (Mifflintown, Pa.) 1846-1873, 1870-11-02
ID '4RExaRxABbEI DRBAMs..s


sd On board the Steam bOat. on tia refnrn
of President Grantdfrom his Grip into
Connecticut 10 celebrate ths Fourth 81
July Of 1870 the conversation ( Of himself
and several Of the ddiiaStipligsuisshed ilisu party
turned to the subjecte Of dzesmsas Agen.
,leman asked PEesi5apti Grant il helhad
noticed the pubhshidu statement, copied
from an English sdpaper, r,b1that Charles
Dickens had given Secretary ST War
Stanton as authority for the fact that
Mr., Lincoln. at one Of the Cabinet meet,
ipgs, had told a. dream of 1his own.
which subsequently held no little sis.
nifcance as bearing upon hi.9a.sassina!-
tion.. 20 b9soqnIoo ,iaiIisiu bIidT sJ3 III
"Yees." said the President, II read the
article, and was much interrssted in it.
Mr. Lincoln was undoubtedly a dreamer,
aud from the circumstances told blythe
English paper 81 should judge that he
was believer ID them BY the way, |
have had some strsngs dreams dreams Of ny
own. l had several, when, IL was, han1
mering away at VicksAhrg,ithat 1 shall
never forpet.r s-yfaswT -yIuowT
By this time the, attention Of, ths
whole company was drawn raewHnbt to ths remarks rea a4s
of the Presidsat. .i9i1tsiu diri- eif nj
y"Relate them.r said every oneasi'GDo7
President IS Grant smdhA, and thsn
:, b.
sa'u ,amoo T. .isiq diao7aS sdi al ,
"WhenII I undertook, this "trip to, spend
the Fourth of July with the good people
of Connecticut, did expect to be called
upon for a speech, but scarcely forHmy
dreams" VI" '''''' " ''>i y go -
Give us the dreams urged an ex-
Governor. Z lsviIU ,1stssourI 10 yfTaoa
The dreams !-,he1e dreams y cried
all 1saoqlroo .3oiIisiu din-I sdi nj
Thus besou gilt, The President remark
We'll, you shall have them l meyer
told them before TO any one but Mrs:
Grant, but. l confess that it made great
impression upon me. 'tIuh a5sd ssH mT
The distinguished company now dis
posed themselves about the President in
a manner which would best enable them
to hear What he,was aboutto saysd n
"As preIude.Hs said the President,
Il must give iyou little war history.
On the I'd Of February. 1868, l estab-
lished my headquarters at Yioung's
Point, on the Mississippi, a short dis
tance above the, city of Vicksburg. My
army was already there, and at Mill
ken's Bend. Sherman had met with
his repulse at vicksbdrg,' and ]. was
about to try other plans, to. take the
place, without which iin our possession,
the war could not heeended .l'5lbsd 40
IL had several phus;;i cont inued the
President, .ewhich + tried One after
another, they. all failed. When I tried
canal across the peninsula opposite
Vieksburs, to take my1fopces below the
city out of reaclI Of it's guns, and crosa
over, food came ana drowned Us out
Then ] tried the same thing through
the bayous and rivers back in the Leu-
isiana swanps, when "a fall in the rive,
broke up fnycplan?' After a third defeat
in making a water-route, sent a naval
expedition to penetrate the iYl,sazoo iYl,sazoo Pass,
aud then NY thsn swamps landnsiveri 10
reach the rear of the Gonfedsase works
north Of Vicksburg. "a THIS was a failure
ahif 80 was another BY way .ds The Big
.SunAower river. For ., nearly four
months. Il had been = assaultiasi the
stronghold in somei mode iotsothsr, and
Ishal aeconphshed nothing ,Af Of
you viii remember t6e effect Of these
defeats upon the PUBLIC mind I Well, to
go baek.a ittle-wheno I started on my
campaign against Vicksbdrg,i I had
thought slightly ovef another plap, but,
in truth, i. was 50 = wild and rash Il that I
hardly dared to, seriously reflect upon it.
But strange so rebate. that during the
long time thst Ii5was trying my other
experiments, I = Kept dreaming aB6nt
this one. I never once dreamed Of q
canalVor my naval expedition, but sal
ways Of this one daring plan OfIwhieh
l sometimes thought At len 9Th these
dreams, and nothing, else. induced me
to lo0k oyer the maps /, and see if there there
was not some elements llof good iu7this
wild plan. / confess that while to the
soldier, seeking 1fame'it looked brilliant
in the extreme, still to a general having
an army to care for, it. appeared like
sending them to destruction D. J. turned
from the maps and continued my digging
But this one was a war in which only
lighting could win, This was my con,
isg vietion BY day, as saw maare ~ and more
clearly the failure tof our work 6i1saak-
ing new water routes. ? srtfb nit wasvmy
dream as oftenss'Af caught a few hoars
sleep 1t seemed to take possession Of
me. The more 1 thought about !: and
studied itYat this Ctime, the more be-
came convinced that it was the only
feasible plan. But | knewlshat my gen.
erals wtoaid d'nosp approve ITO AT length,
hoy.yo. .,brD:ttod e. o. ill.,, .,J