The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1884-02-09
They Pulled TOgether.

the Vicksburg campaign of 1868 are
well worth narrating here, as show
ing Sherman'S lack of the jealousy
and egotism which marred the char
acter of many of the generals of the
late war. All that rainy winter, when
the country along the Mississippi was
flooded and the army was inactive,
Gen. Grant held to a purpose, never
once divulged to any person, of send
ing the feet past the Vicksburg bat
teries when the spring opened, and
throwing his army below the town
to invest it from the south. When
fair weather came he secured the CO.
operation of Admiral Porter, and
then issued his orders to the division
commanders.
Sherman's part in the plan was to
go up the YazoO and make feint
against Haines' Bluff. When he re-
ceived his orders, he fastened to
Gen. Grants headquarters and argued
against what seemed to him very
hazardous move: He thought Grant
was placing himself in a position
where an enemy would have ma
n9uvred year to get him-a hostile
force on both sides Of him, and one of
them between him and his base of
supplies. Sherman failed to convince
Grant, who had been cut off from his
base at Oxford some months before
and had learned that he could subsist
an army upon the country. Besides.
he believed that, in the critical con-
ditiOn of opinion in the North, a
great risk ought to be taken for the
prospect of a great success. In letter
to Rawlins, Grants chief of staff,
written next day, Sherman reiterated
his objections to the plan of cam
paign. The latter was shown to Grant
and remained unanswered.
With perfect loyalty to his chief,
and without the least feeling of re-
sentiment for the rejectment of his
plan of falling back on Memphis and
operating on the line of the railroad,
Sherman carried out his part of the
campaign as zealously and energeti-
cally as though the whole scheme had
been his own, During eighteen days
! of forced marches and fighting and
forty-nine days of siege, he did not
once take off his clothes to sleep.
After Grants forces had crossed the
Big Black, Sherman was given the
lead in the advance upon Vicksburg.
The two generals rode out one morn
ing ahead of the advancing columns,
careless of the occasional bullets that
came whistling by from squads of
rebel pickets. They reached the top
Of Walnut Hill, which Pemberton,
the confederate general. had occupied
the year before, and which Sherman
had in vain assaulted from the low
land in front. There Sherman ex-
claimed with enthusiasm Grant,
this is the biggest campaign in his
tory. You ought to write a report
on it at once. Napoleon never made
a campaign like this"
A few days later, when Sherman
was holding the lines facing east from
the Big Black to Haines' Bluff, Gov
ernor Yates came down from Illinois
to visit the camps, accompanied by
all the State officers. AS Grant was
passing along the lines one day, he
came upon Sherman, whose back was
turned toward him, and who was
saying to a knot of the Illinois viSi-
tors: "This is the greatest campaign
in history, and Grant deserves all the
credit for it. l wrote him letter
before we started, in opposition to
the whole PLAN" Now the letter was
never sent to the war department,
nor made public in any way, and
Sherman need not haye mentioned
it hut he was not willing to have
any credit given to him WHICH be-
longed to Grant.-me Century,.