Litchfield enquirer., 1878-06-06
[General Grant, Herald Interview.l The Relative Power of Ethe NorthSan South.

South.
 ''There is another point" said the general, sthat these historians omit. It is said that we overwhelmed the south. In foreign journals and foreign assemblies it is put this way, that we overran the south with the scum of the worId-with hirelings and Hessians. No one would do more honor to the foreigners who came into our ranks than myself. They were brave men and earned our gratitude. But so far from Our armies being foreign question If more than three per cent. were aliens. Yet have no doubt many well informed authors will tell you that there were only three per cent. Americans This is the way public opin- ion was made during the wa, and thls IS, the way history is made now. We never over whelmed the south, and l am only sorry we could not have done so and ended the war and it's miseries. What we won from the south we won by hard fighting, and the odds, when there were odds, were never decisive We had to fight the southern states. They were a unit and we were divided. Every able bodi- ed male in the south from fourteen to sixty was in the army, Of was supposed to be there We had to depend upon volunteers and the conscription. The south had 4,OOO, GOO of me- groes. These negros kept the farms, protect cd the families, supported the armies, and were really reserve force, most important reserve fierce in a fighting nation. Those A. OOO. 900 of negroes did work that white men would have been compelled to do. Yet they never counted in any summary of the force of the south. They are forgotten as Ii they HeV- CT had existed, and yet they kept the acres green and the harvests growing while the white men were in the war. Men, women and chil- dred went into the fields. The south was real Iv an organized army During the war in the south all progress, all industry came to a halt and nothing was allowed to interfere with the war. Even now the south suffers from war stagnation, from war paralysis. In the north industry was never more brisk; all the arts of peace were cherished society mov- ed on; inventions were discovered the gen. ius of the country was as keen as ever. We. supported an army aud blockading fleet. We never Jagged in eur industry. We kept our place as a manufacturing commercial people. Cities like Chicago, New York, San Francisco, grew and grew, while Savannah and New Or leans and Charleston ianguished. We not on- ly sustained our part in the war, but all that was required for peace In spite ot all the drain upon the resources of the north we were more prosperous, more powerfub more respect ed and feared by the nations than waen the war broke out Remember, as have said, that we had by no means a united north, while the south was a Hnit. We had to send troops to suppress riots in New " ptk ;yweel had ene- mics in our midst. In Levery northern stste' there was a strong party against the war; al ways rejoicing over disaster, always voting to paraIyZe our forces-ready for any concession or surrender. This party vas strePgIn every state-strong enough to carry states Ike lndl- ana, Pennsylvania and New York during the war Nothing but Morton's courage saved It from making Indiana a rebel state, like Ken lucky. This was the party that voted the war was failure at the time Sherman was setting out on his march to the sea- at the very time when that great general and his great army were about to cover our arms with impersha- ble renown. You can imagine the eject such a resolution must have had upon the enthusl- asm of an army, for it is mistake to imagine that such things did not affect an army. They did affect it as l know well. During our war there was scarcely wind that came from the north, from our homes that did not come la den with calumny and disparasement: The southern generals were models of chlyalry and valor-our generals were venal incompetent, and coarse. I am speaking now of our own people, of writers and speakers who were loy- al and to a certain extent republican. Every thing thing that our armies did was wrong; could have been done much better. Every thing that our opponents did was perfect Lee was demigod, Jackson was demigod, while our generals were brutal butchers. 50 it was Tn Europe. WItn lew exceptions ncFo duo there the public opinion of, the world was against the North, and our own friends at home would often grow nervous and fault finding with the army. You can not read fife of jour nals in England of that time that did net con tain some horrible calumny about men in the army, and copied from our own journals. If we wen battle like Shiloh, for instance +ene of the most useful victories of the war, one of the most important in its results-our own papers set to work to belittle the victory and give the enemy as much advantage as possible. These were essential elements in a war like ours-the war of free people I do not~re- cite these things to complain especially. l have nothing to complain about. The more fees we conquered the more important was our victory. Having conquered it is not for us to say anything unkind or in disparagement or our enemies. That is not my purpose. l merely mentioned these points in general way, as points which our historians overlook, and which show that the north and south were not as unequal in force as alleged-that the south had advantages which we never possess sed-and that if we had larger population than the south to draw from, there were prob ably as many living under our protection whose hearts were with the rebellion as there were in the Confectionery itself"
 There has probably never been, in the his.