The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1878-07-24
GRANT AT HAMBURG.
He Fights His Battles Ger Again, and
Reviews Both Armies.
National Associated Press to the Star.

National Associated Press to the Star.
New YORK, July PA Hamburg cores
pondent, writing under date of July 9th,
says Ex-President Grant arrived there July
I'd. In a conversation the General gave his
views about the American war and its Gen
erals Among other things he said if he
had known the soldiers and Generals of the
Potomac army better he would have pre-
ferred to invest Lee in Richmond from
Lynchburg or the land side, as he invested
Pemberton in Vicksburg.
He says his total loss in the Wilderness
campaign amounted to only thirty-nine
thousand men. He says General Butler
wishes he had had ADLER subordinates, and
expresses regret that an unlucky phase in
his official reports should have annoyed
Butler. He. thinks Jefferson Davis did all
he could for the Confederacy, and did not
deserve the harsh criticism he got. He
| thinks Stonewall Jackson might not have
proved so effective General later in the
war and opposed to men like Sherman and
Sheridan, when his peculiar tactics would
have failed.
He seems to think Lee not so great as his
reputation, speaking of him, of course, as a
soldier and not as man. He was never so
uneasy when in front of Lee as some of our
other commanders, and he describes him as
a man of slow mind, without imag ination,
and of grave dignity of demeanor General
Joe Johnston, in his opinion, was the
ablest commander on the Southern side.
OF Bragg he appears to have but a poor
opinion. He tells singular story of Presi-
dent Johnson's desire at one time to arrest
General Lee and the other Southern COM
manders for treason by way of making re-
bellion odious. Grant and Seward had, it
| hn Il ID To
and defeat the folly, and General Grant
says he would have resigned his command
rather than consent to the arrest, Southern
men being sacred under their parole to
him.
Rosecranz, Buckner Mcclellan, Buell.,
Stone and Mcdowell were, he says, in the
opinion of the old army, most promising
officers in 1861. He still thinks Buell. had
genius for the highest commands and Nc,
Dowell was a man of great ability, and he
can not account for the ill-luck of pool
Stone, which has pursued him more thar
many other men who knew him as one oi
the most highly cultivated officers in the
old army and one of its best soldiers. Sher
man and Sheridan he praises without stint
and relates an odd story of his first meeting
with the latter when Sheridan, who was
then Colonel of regiment, was rude tC
him.
Sherman, he says is not only one of the
best men living but one of the greatest We
have in our history, and he gives various
accounts of how Sherman's narrative of the
war was misrepresented to him, so that ht
determined to read it, pencil in hand, anc
publish reply; but he found it tru,
book, an honorable book, just to all, and hi
, approves every word of it.
Hancock he thinks was one of the ables
of our Generals. He did not want to go t.
} West Point, never liked to command, ant
, demonstrated against the creation of tn
grade of Lieutenant General made for him
though he saw the necessity for it later.
He dispels some romances of the war a
where he says there was no battle of Look
out Mountain, no action worthy to be callet
a battle. He says neither he, Sherman o
Sheridan ever held council of war. HI
determined on his course in private, and NJ
one knew what he was about to do unit
, orders were written out. Finally he speak
about his Presidential career, thinks tn
second term was almost his due, because h
had been bitterly opposed, but relates tina
he refused peremptorily third nomina
ton, which was urged upon him.