Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1878-07-28
His Story of the Rrrender OF Lee
His Estimate OF Our Great Com
mander-JeifersOn Davis Did All
that Any Man Could Do in
his Place-ShiIOh and
DOnelsOn.

From d lengthy and very interesting lette
| from the New York Heraid's correspondent
| at Hamburg, we extract the following view
OF General Grant touching the civil war ant
! the southern President aud MS generals:
TABLE-TALK MEMORANDA.
| have some memoranda of odds and end
| OF conversations Ia idle moments while wan
| dering about these old towns, and 1t seems t
| me that ! can do no better service to the his
| tOran than to throw these memoranda int
some shape. There are few men more will
| ing TO converse on any subject which h'
| knows than the general, and although hi
| fame is that of a silent man, those who know
him at all know that in reality we have few
better takers IN America. The charm of the
generals talk is that 1t Is never about any
| thing ne does not know, and what he doe,
know he knows well. He Is never yindictiyt
and never gossips, and when referring to mer
and things in the great events of his career
he Is as passlonless aud Just as a historian
He never refers to the war unless you put the
subject to him directly. | am afraid | have
been curious on this point, not that L ever
wanted to trouble General Grant, but because
the judgments and opinions OF such man
belong to history. | hope, therefore, that
what | gather up and send you from various
table talk memoranda will have a value to
the historian. l do not hope to give you the
generals exact words, although as far as
memory serves | do so. | remember, for in
stance, asking the General why he had not
invested Richmond as ne had invested Vicks-
bug and starved out Lee: ''Such a move
ment," said the general, would have
involved moving my army from the
Rapldan to Lynchburg. | considered the
plan with great care before | made the Will
derness move. | thought Of massing the
Army of the Potomac IN movable columns,
giving the men twelve days rahons, and
throwing myself between Lee and his COM
munications. If | had made this movement
successfully-if | had been as fortunate as |
was when threw my army between Penn
berton and Joe Johnston, the war would have
been over year sooner. | am not sure that
it was not the best thing to have done; it GER
taInly was the plan | should have preferred.
If had failed, however, it would have been
very serious for the country, and | did not
dare the risk. What deferred me, however.
was the fact that was new to the army, did
not have it in hand, and did not know what
could do with the generals or men. If it
had been six months later when | had the
army In hand, and knew what splendid
army 1t was, and what officers and men were
capable of doing, and could have had Sher-
man and Sheridan to assist in the movement,
| would not have hesltated for a moment"
THE WILDERNESS CAMPAIGN.
''By the way" said the general, "tAere is
one point about the campaign in the Wilder
ness worth remembering. My critics say that
| threw away one hundred thousand men IN
that campaign. This has been repeated so
often that it will soon be history. Now, my
total losses were about thirty nine thousand,
all told. Badeau's book will have the figures,
but that is about the figure; and these losses
do not mean killed, but the number of effect
i've men taken from my army by death,
wounds, capture and desertion. That move
ment cost me thirty nine thousand men, but
do not forget what it cost Lee Remember
that Lee had to fight as much as l did. He
had the advantage of being on the defensive,
which is always an advantage, and | had to
attack and attack, but every blow | struck
weakened him, and when at last he was
forced into Richmond, it was far different
army from that which menaced Washington
and invaded Maryland and Pennsylvania. 1t
was no longer an invading army. The Will
derness campaign was necessary to the de-
struotion of the Southern Confederacy. l
have always regretted the censure that I'M
Willingly came upon Butler in that campaign,
and my report was the cause | said that
the general was bottled up, and used the
phrase without meaning to annoy the general
or give his enemies a weapon. | like But
Ter, and have always found him not only, as
all the world knows, MIN OF great ability,
but patriotic man, and a man of courage,
honor and sincere convictions. Butler lacked
the technical experience of a military educa-
ton, and 1t Is very possible to be man OF
high parts and not be great general. Butler
as general was full of enterprise and re-
sources, and brave man. If | had given
him two corps commanders like Adelbert
Ames, or Schofeld, or Mackenzie, or a dozen
| could mention, he would have made fine
campaign on the James, and helped mate
rally In my plans. | have always been sorry
| did not do so. Butler is a man it is fash
ion to abuse, but he is man who has done
the country great service, and who is worthy
OF its gratitude.
THE SURRENDER OF LEE.
We were conversing one evening about
Lees surrender. The general told the story
of the memorable event. ''The night before
Lee surrendered, he said, 81 had a wretched
headache-headache to which | have been
su6Ject-nervous prostration, intense personal
suffering. But, suffer or not, | had to keep
moving. | saw clearly, especially after Sheri-
dan had cut off the escape to Danville, that
Lee must surrender or break and run into the
mountains - break In all directions and
leave US a dozen guerilla bands to
hight. My campaign was not Richmond, not
the defeat of Lee in actual fight, but to re-
move him and his army out of the contest,
and, if possible, to have him use his inhu
ence IN inducing the surrender of Johnston
and the other isolated armies. You see the
war was an enormous strain upon the &C un
try. Rich as we were, | do not now see how
we could have endured it another year, even
from financial point of view So, with
these views, | wrote Lee, and opened the cor
respondence with which the world Is famil
lar. Lee does not appear well in that cor
respondence-nOt nearly so we'll as he did in
our subsequent interviews, where his whole
bearing was that OF patriotic and gallant
soldier, concerned alone for the welfare of his
army and his State. | received word that
Lee would meet me at a point within our
lines near Sheridan's headquarters. | had to
ride quite distance through a muddy coun-
try. | remember now that | was concerned
about my personal appearance. | had an
old suit on, without my sword, and without
any distinguishing mark of rank, except the
shoulders straps Of lieutenant general on a
wooden blouse. | was splashed with mud in
my long ride. l was afraid Lee might think
| meant to show him studied discourtesy by
50 coming-at least thought so. But had
no other clothing within reach, as Lees
Il tier found me, away from my base of sup
plies. l kept on riding until | met Sheridan
The general, who was one of the heroes of
of the campaign, and whose pursuit of Lee
was perfect IN its generalship and energy, told
me where to find Lee. | remember that
Sheridan was impatient when | met HIM
ness, feared there might be plan to escape
that he had Lee at his feet, and wanted to
end the business by going in and forcing an
absolute surrender by capture. In fact, he
had his troops ready for such an assault when
Lees white flag came within his lines.
went up to the house where Lee was waiting
| found him In fine, new, splendid uniform,
which only recalled my anxiety as to my own
clothes while on my way to meet him. | ex-
pressed my regret that | was compelled to
meet him In so unceremonious a manner, and
he replied that the only suit he had availa-
bic was one which had been sent him by some
admirers in Baltimore, and which he then
wore for the first time. We spoke of old
friends In the army. | remembered having
seen Lee in Mexico. He was so much higher
in rank than myself at the time that | sup
posed he had no recollection of me. But ne said
he remembered me very well. We talked of
old times and exchanged inquiries about
friends. Lee then preached the subject OF
'our meeting. | told him my terms, and Lee,
listening attentively, asked me to write them
down. 1 took out my manifold order book
and pencil and wrote them down. General
Lee put on his glasses and read them over
The conditions gave the officers their side
arms, private horses and personal baggage
| said to Lee that l hoped and believed this
would be the close of the war; that it was
most important that the men should go home