New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1885-12-02

mounted my horse and rode in the direction % n,
charge. and saw no more Of the officer wb u tns
cred the dispatch; think not even To tbis oerW
The first dispatch which Grant received fro,.' A..
Government after the news of the surrenasr -
Vicksbure, was complaint from Halleck about tb.
disposition of the prisoners.
General Grants action after the yictorv wa.
characteristic. Having cleaned up about yick..
burg he says, and captured routed ali regular
Confederate forces for more than hundred Miles
in aldirectons felt that the troops that had dor.
so much should be aOed to do more before the enemv
could recover from the blow he had received. and
while important points might be captured withopt
hloodshed" He urged an expedition against
Mobile, which could then have been easily taken
and from Mobile operations could have been effect.
lively directed against Bragg. Halleck. however
refused. The Yicksburg army was practicable
broken up; and once more the victor was thrown
upon the defensive. Here the first volume end.
The book is so moderate in tone that the severity
of some Of its criticisms may not be at once apnre
ciated 1t is in fact the most damaging commentary
upon the management of our military affairs at tina
West that has been published, the most
damaging not only on account of the source from
which il comes, but from the precision with which
its keen shafts aimed. So far as we have
notced the Secretary of War is never mentioned
and the references to the President are always
cordial and respectful. General Halleck was tho
responsible mischief-maker
General Grants estimates of other commanders
are never unknd. His attachment to Sherman
shines forth repeatedly, and IN bis eagerness to
illustrate the hgh-mlndedness of his comrade he il
perpetually and unconsciOusly exhibiting his own
The relation between these two great generals is
one of the finest things In military biography OF
his other subordnates at the West, Grant COM
mends most highly Logan, Croker and Ransom.
Logan and Croker were fit for independents
commands:
General +. P. Blair joined me at Millikens Bend.
a full-hedged general, without having served in
lower grade He commanded q division in the
campaign. | had known Blair in Missouri where
had voted against him IN 1853, when he ran for
Congress- knew him a frank. positive and
generous man, true to his friends even to a fault,
but always leader. i dreaded his coming: [
knew from experience that il more difficult 10
command two generals desiring 20 be leaders than
it was 70 command one army Oticered lntelligently
aud with subOrdnatiOn. Ii affords me the greatest
pleasure to record now my agreeable disappoint-
ment In respest TO his character. There was no
man Drawer than he. nor was there any who Obeyed
all orders of his superior In rank with more un-
questioning alacrity. He was one man as
soldier, another as a politician
Admiral Porter receives several handsome
tributes, and Grants references to the Navy, with
which he 20 often had to cooperate. are invariably
nattering. He says little Of the Confederate
generals except Floyd and Pillow. for whom he had
a contempt, and Albert Sidney Johnston. whom
he pronounces overrated. He thinks that Johnston
was vacillating and uncertain, and that be was
greatly to blame for leaving post like Fort DON
eson in the hands of generals like Floyd and
Pillow