Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-07-24


and using il for personal ends.
GENERAL DABNEY II. MAURY.
met with Grant Ia Monterey, where
he was serving as lieutenant and quarter
master Of the Fourth infantry. lie was
well esteemed as good fellow, with
good sense, selfreliant, no bad habits,
and shrewd judge Of horse-hesh. lie
remained in the service until about
1889, when he resigned his commits
sion, and thenceforth until the war be-
tween the States his life was one Of
the most depressing nature-a constant
struggle with narrow means and his be-
setting sin. But never was he charged
with intentional wrong, and when the
war burst upon the country he stepped
at once into prominent position in the
western armies, and such retrieyal Of
destiny as he wrought during the en-
suing four years has never been known.
Grants first military operations at
Belmont were not regarded as auspi-
cious Of a brilliant future. But the
capture Of Fort Donelson was mastery,
and lent brightness to his prospects
never to be dimmed by his misfortunes
at Shiloh, where, but for the death of
Sidney Johnston and the timely succor
Of Buel, Grant and army would have
been destroyed.
His next campaign was in North Mis-
sissippi during the fall and winter OF
1862. II opened with the quasi victory
over Price at Iuka, followed two weeks
later by the repulse at Corinth of Van
Dorm by Rosecrans.
But, through Grants inaction, the
advantages of these successes we're en-
tirely lost. Van Dorn's brilliant dash
on Grants depot at Holly Springs COM
PEELED him TO retreat out Of the State.
and, together with Sherman's incompe-
tent conduct at Chickasaw Bluff. de-
stroyed the whole Of the grand combi-
nation which would have cleared the
State Of Mississippi Of Confederate
! forces.
Notwithstanding all Of these failures
Mr.. Lincoln recognized in him the quail
ties for ultimate success, and gave him
another and greater army. with which,
in July, 1863, be captured Vicksburg.
as Sherman should have done on Christ
mas-day, 1862.
Thenceforth Grants career was OF
grand events. At Missionary Ridge he
swept Bragg army away, and went at
once to the command of the Army of
| the Potomac.
lie was the seventh commander Of
that army, and although the Army Of
Northern Virginia under Lee punished
the Army of the Potomac more Sc
yerely under Grant than under any Of
his predecessors, he held it in the pre-
sence of his victorious adversary, and
handled it in difficult country in a
manner which has ranked him with the
great commanders of modern wars.
In the whole course Of his career no
act or word of personal injury or in
suit to women, to prisoners, or any un-
happy victims of the cruelties of war
has ever been attributed to him.
And his bold interposition in behalf
of Lee, and his resistance of the pur-
pose of his Government to disregard
the paroles he had given. restrained the
ferOcity Of the non-combatants of the
North and showed Grant worthy of his
great career.
Had he died then how happy 'twould
have been for his fame and for the dig
nifty OF his country
'TiS impossible to estimate the inca
pacity and evil of his civil administra-
ton. They are known to the world.
They make US lament and wonder that
capacities so good, with opportunities
so great, should have wrought so much
evil and reached so sad conclusion.
HON. J. L. NJ. CURRY.
Ny personal acquaintance with Gen.
eral Grant began with my connection
with the Peabody Education Fund, four
years ago. His fidelity to the duties
of the trust, his deep interest in the
cause Of education at the South, his
earnest advocacy of " national aid" and
his thoughtful suggestions as to the
wisest administration of the fund, i'm
pressed me very favorably.
The pleasant social intercourse of the
trustees at their regular meetings fur
nishes favorable opportunities for see
ing some Of our greatest men when
they are not exposed to public gaze,
and when the real man is exhibited to
eyes partial and uncritical. On these
occasions General Grant seemed to me
to have a natural reserve, and not to be
habitually communicative. At times,
when the topic Of conversation, gene
rally introduced by others, interested
him, he talked well. His language was
perspicuOus. direct, and forclble. AS
much travel, high positions, and wide
acquaintance with men had given him
unprecedented means Of observation.
he was full Of curious and valuable in
formation, and his conversation was
marked by clear ness, shrewdnsss, and
intelligence. He possessed keen sense
Of humor, and some of his reminis-
cences of camp-life and foreign travel
were narrated amusingly.
have rarely enjoyed a conversation
more than one in which General Grant
was the chief talker, when he had Occa-
sion to speak of Mexico, her resources
and possibilities, and the need Of a
closer union Of trade and good feeling
between the adjacent republics.
To those Of US whom General Grant
opposed and conquered in the late war
between the States it was pleasant to
hear Of his frequent acts OF personal
kindness to Confederates, and rejOiced
at the late action of Congress in recog-
milton Of his services as we'll as at the
numerous expressions of goodwill and
sympathy from the South that reached
and cheered him in his last days.
GENERAL WILLIAM b. TALIAFERRO.
The civil war in America will occupy
large space in the history Of the
world, not only in view of the vast
armies brought into the field, the Won
derfal development of resources, the
new and mighty engines of destruction
in ordnance and in ships to which it
oaxs birth and the immense thaatre of