Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1878-08-29
JOE HOOKER.

: JOE HOOKER.
| ats Criticisns or a Neec York Tribune
! Correspondent, 2e,l. Grant aNd Gen
| Sherman.
TO the Editor of the New York Tribune:
MARrHA's VINEYARD, Mass, Aug IT,
My attention has just been called to an
article III your paper, over the name of Will
liam F. &. Shanks, in regard to the battle Of
Lookout Mountain. After the lapse of sc
much time since the battle was fought (i1
ever am sorry he seems to have forgotten
some of the circumstances necessary to q
correct understanding of the fight, ard
, have only a moment to call your attention to
few of his more prominent omissions in
his narrative, but will refer you for fuller
details to my report Of the bettle-noW on
| file in the war department you de-
| sire to inform yourself further on the sub
>ject. On the whole, however, | cannot do
less than to thank Mr.. Shanks for the kind
ness Ill his motives in espousing the contro-
versy Gen. Grant has thought proper to
open with me- and my command
in regard to the fight. The
interview said to have been held with that
gentleman by a correspondent of the Herald
have always seriously doubted and shall
continue to do so until more fully confirmed
respecting it. Interviewers have of late dis
played so much cunning and mischief
making in the practice of their pursuits
that think my incredulity will not appear
strange to you. Gen. Grant has held such
high positions that l am unwilling to be-
| ~ Io ~;l,1 l,4
himself, or on the troops that. served him
with all the ardor and devotion of their ma
lures, as he seems to have done, and which
can account for in no other way than that he
was in his cups, or that the prospect of a
I third term had crazed his brain. OF course,
Gen. Grant will never be charged with
having written or spoken the substance of
| the interview as reported to us, for that is
| foreign to his style, for any one who has
either read or listened to him can readily dis
! cover. strongly suspect that the inter-
| viewer was "coached - by another officer of
the army of high rank, whose peculiar mode
of warfare for some time past has been OF
| this covert character.
] But before calling your attention to some
| of what l consider inaccuracies in Mr..
Shanks' letter, may premise briefly by say
! ing that it was not the intention of the gen.
eral-in chief for any part of the Army of the
Potomac to take a leading role in the opera
tons around Chattanooga, which fact was
not aware of until my command was divided
and the Eleventh corps of it sent across the
| Tennessee to reinforce Gen. Sherman, who,
! ing on the opposite extremity of the enemy's
line; and then you will see by my report that
| I applied to 60 with the Eleventh corps, as
they we're going into battle.
Subsequently the river got up, carried
away the driftwood, and broke the bridges
| before all of Sherman's army had crossed,
and then it was determined and not till then,
that I might make. with one division of the
Twelfth corps and two divisions of other
armies, demonstration on Lookout Noun
tain. Gen. Grant had previously communi-
Gated a design to attack Lookout Mountain,
but, after division of my command,
it is clear and satisfactory that his original
design had been abandoned, and it was only
! through the intervention of Divine Provi-
dence that an opportunity was presented me
! for attack. Thus, you see, imam often pro-
poses but God disposes:"
I DID attack and carried Lookout Noun
| tain, and this was the first assurance to Gen.
Grant that he was to be successful in all his
operations around Chattanooga, although
|
| of successes which were never realized.
Captain Van Horns history of the Army
of the Cumberland will present you with all
of the facts, and know them to be facts,
Gen. Grant or General anybody else to the
contrary Notwithstanding.
Gen. Grant, as well as some other officers
high in rank, is famous for after-thoughts. as
| you will find on critical examination. We
| had, and presume still have, rings in the
army as we'll as out of it.
| l have not written so much about the
| fight at Lookout since the war as T now
have, as I am anxious that you should know
all the facts. My fight at Lookout might
have equaled Gen. Grants in the Wilderness
had chosen to advance in front on the enc
my behind their intrenchments, which
seemed to be his favorite mode, but which
his whole army revolted at Cold Harbor.
But had no particular desire to be consid-
cred butcher in my mode of making war.
! Sometimel do hope that = committee of
intelligent and fearless Congressman may
be appointed to investigate this subject and
report not only on this battle, but Shiloh,
the losses in the Wilderness, ETC., etc., as in
no other way can the truth of history be
made out.
Gen. Ingalls,, Grants own quartermaster
!
ton for sc, 900 men to go North between the
| Rapidan and the James rivers, and, of course,
this number could not embrace all the cas-
| ualties.
| If Gen. Grant expects to reach the third
term by the circulation of such imposing and
| ab0minable statements. I am inclined to
think that he will find it rough travelling be-
| fore he reaches halfway there. But you
may feel assured that these are not his state
ments. Some one is ''bulldozing" him, the
same as was the case among the politicians
while he was administering the government
as President,
You probably saw an account of an inter-
view with me at Saratoga, in which Ignored
the war; Gen. Grant, and pretty much every
thing else. i had learned early in life that
the best mode of fighting the devil was with
his own weapons. 49,.
But, before writing more, let us turn to
Mr.. Shanks' letter. Not a man of Howard's
command was in the fight at Lookout Noun
tain, and, if had advanced in front at the
base of the mountain, might have lost half
of my command, and in the end have been
successful. II was under the influence OF
my success, too, that Thomas, command
made it's glorious assault on Mission Ridge,
as they had all been witnesses of our achieve
| ueuta OIL t1e 14tu dnO Aotu, iWuAAo LILO army
on Gran: 3 left had accomplished nothing it
was sent to do. j. Yours, as ever, 'i
J. HOOKER, Major General.
| 4 Family Pot:
l. = (San francisco Post.
/ Mr.. George Bulstrode, of Walla- Walla,
bought q handsome lion cub from a me-
nagerie than was sold out by the sheriff near
that place, ns'menageries frequently are, and
soon had the emblem of royalty quite do
meshcated He called it Azariah K. Body,
after particular friend: of his, and took
great interest in is httenish garnbols. He
was often remonatra ted with for keeping a
pet that might in time become. dangerous,
but invariably replied that he loved animals,
and that he knew what he was about. When
| the creature had grown to be about as big as