The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-08-17

derived from the great European campaigns. yet
he never wasted time in trying to fit European
square neg into An American round hole.
The importance of CELEBRITY IN action was
ALWAYS uppermost in his mind There was
spur in the heel of every order he sent. No one
could feed fight more rapidly, that is, rush
fresh troops promptly to the spot where they
were needed. Every point gained tena-
eiously held. and the enemy never recaptured an
important position which had once been wrested
General Sherman once made very fair criti
eism when he said, in his graphic way and with
his crisp style of expression: Grant always
seemed pretty certain to win when he went into
o fight with anything like equal numbers
peleve one great reason why he was so much
more successful than others was that while they
were thinking so much about what the enemy
was going to do Grant was thinking all the time
about what he was going TO do himself"
1t is not little singular that the Generals
character should have borne so high tone
throughout his life, when it Is remembered how
he had to encounter the rough and tumble Of
frontier camps and pass through so many vcis-
STUDIES Of life calculated to blunt the morals and
weaken the finer sensibilities. In the sixty
three years of his career an oath never passed
MS lips and an obscene word was never uttered
by him. dis nearest approach to an impreca-
ton was ''ccnfound it," Once, when recalling
this fact and remarkin9 unon it 10 him he said
II never learned to swear. When a boy seemed
TO have an aversion to it, and when man / saw
swearing helps to arouse mems ire and when
people get into a passion their adversaries who
keep cool always get the better Of them His
example IN this respect quoted by a
member of the Christian commission to a team
ster in the army of the Potomac, in the hope of
Iessening the volume Of oaths with which he was
italiczing his language, and upon which he
seemed to be placing his main reliance in NOV
ing his mule team out of mud hole. His only
reply was, Then thar's one thing certain-the
Old man never druV mules"
The absolute truthfulness OF his nature was
manifested In the most unmportant as we'll az
the most important statements In relating
even the most trivial incident, if he found he
had made mistake in a name or place, he
would go back and correct it with the utmost
PARTICULARLY as if he had been testifyng to it
under OATH This habit frequently COM
mented upon by those about him. who were often
amused by the painstakiug manner in which he
insisted upon stating little occurrences with all
the accuracy Of a translator of the new version
Of the scriptures.
Death had no more terrors for him on his bed
of suffering than on the field of battle where he
had so often faced it, In one of the last inter
views the writer had with him, he said cit is
not death | fear" And then setting mis- lips
firmly in the old time fashion as when he cave
orders in the field he added: Il feared
that. fear only the sufferings may still have
to go through. My only wish now is that the
end may come quick"
A friend one day said to him. General, there
are many good friends who will be very sad to
have you leave them"
He replied: There are just as many waiting
&c meet the other side"
He had always looked upon the bright side of
life He was almost the only one who could say,
as he often said. in philosophizing upon the
pains and pleasures of this world, that there was
not day of his life which he would not like to
live over again. He might have said this even
down to the beginning of his final sufferings had
it not been for the constituencies scoundrels who
in the last year of his life. robbed him and his
children of their properly, and labored TO ter
nish his fair name by trying to couple it with
that of rascals; who devised schemes unsur-
passed in the annals of knavery to lure him into
correspondence that might be so tortured as to
serve their unworthy purposes; who played upon
the kindly sentiments of a man whose heart
knew guile, and overshadowed with grief the
last year of a singuiarly happy life and great
historic career