The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1878-07-31
Grant at Hamburg.


A Hamburg correspondent, writing under
date of July 6, says General Grant arrived
there July 2. In conversation the general
gave his views about the American war and
its generals. Among other things he said il
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 $4,000. He says General Butler wishes
he had had ADLER subordinates, and expresses
regret that an uRlucky phrase 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 Jack
son might not have proved so effective gen.
eral later in the war, and opposed to men
like Sherman and Sheridan, when his pecu-
liar 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 a 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 imagiDa ion, 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 poor opinion. He
tells singular story of President JohDson's
desire at one time to arrest General Lee and
the other southern commanders for treason,
by way of making rebellion odious. Grant
and Seward had, il seems, the means and
good sense to oppose and defeat the
folly, and General Grant said he would
have resigned his command rather than
consent to the arrest, southern men
being sacred under their parole to
him. Rosecrans, Buckner, Mcclellan,
Buell., Stone, and Mcdowell were, he says,
mi Of - al
Using officers in 1861 He still thinks Buell.
had genius for the highest commands and
Mcdowell was q man OF great ability, and
he can not account for the ill luck of poor
Stone, which has pursued him more than
many other men who knew him as one Of
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 to 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
misrepressnted to him, so that he deter
mined to read it, pencil in hand, and publish
a reply; but he found it true book, an
honorable book, Just to all, and he approves
every word of it. Hancock, he thinks, was
one OF the ablest of our generals He did
not want to go to West Point, never liked to
command and demonstrated against the Gre
alton of the grade of lieutenant general
made for him, though he saw the necessity
for it later. He dispels some romances Of
the war, as where he says there was no bal
tie OF Lookout mountain, no action WORTHY
to be called battle. He says neither hs
Sherman nor Sheridan ever held a coancIlo'
war. He determined on his course inbri
vate, and no one knew what he was abouts1
do until orders were written out FINALLY
he speaks about his presidential career
thinks the second term was almost his due,
because he had been bitterly opposed bur
relates that he refused peremptorily third
nomination, which was urged upon him.