, 1885-10-13
THE LITERATURE OF BATrLea
Gen. Grant Familiar with tho Plan. and
neta l. OF Great Contests
New YORK H.r ,d Iutarvtau


Gen. Grant Familiar with the Plan. and
neta Is OF Great Contests
New York Herald Interview
Grant was fond of teasing people
Of giving nicknames and tho like. " re-
sumed Mr.. John Russell Young II
had one among the Others. have
heard him tease Sheridan, tease Shcr-
man, tease anybody about him. | have
heard him grayely argue in his own
library that sheridan, whom he loved
like a son, and whose genius he re-
gardel as equal TO that of Napoleon.
had never fought a battle in his life,
but had hired a couple of Herald re-
Porters to go with him and write up
imaginary battles. Sheridan would
sit 10y, flushing like IA woman, but
Grant, pretending not to be aware OF
his presence, would go on TO argue in
support Of his allegation.
There is an impression thai Grant
was not well skilled in the art of war.
and that what he did WAS done ia a sort
Of haphalard way that his plans and
actions were governed by common sense,
but that what is known as the high art Of
war was unknown to kim. ! happen to
know how untrue this is. | remember
in crossing the Pacific ocean giving
Grant Victor Hugo's novel, Les Miser
ables, to read. He read il very slowly,
almost like a man who is studying
rather than reading. For two or three
days we did not see hi n except at meals.
One evening, about IL O'Clock, | was
walking along the deck Just before re-
firing when Grants door-he had a
deck cabin-opened and he came out
and said, All alonef | said Yes.
Well, he said, Il feel like walking; |
will 20 and bring some cigars. He
came back with a handful, which he di-
vided with me, and | said, DO you
like your bookf He replied, yes, very
much
81 never liked to talk with Grant
about war matters, because he had a
curious aversion to it; but was anxious
to know what he thought of Hugo's ac-
count of the battle of Waterloo, which is
a famous passage in his novel. So said
General, what do you think of the bat
tie Of Waterloo, as told by Hugo 1T is
a very fine account, he replied. Then
he went on to detail, in the most mi
mute manner, what the battle of Wster-
loo meant lie went into the caliber Of
the guns, the length of lines of the op-
posing armies; the troops engaged =
artillery, infantry. cavalry the tactics
of Napoleon and Of Wellington; whatled
to the attack on Napoleon 5 part and the
the defeat by Wellington.
what do you think of Waterloo l
asked him. Il think, he responded, 1T
was the finest planned battle of Ma
poleon, the best conceived battle that /
know Of, and nothing but Providence
being against him defeated him From
this, walking up and down the deck,
Grant went on to describe all of Ma
poleon's campaigns, from Marengo
down TO Leipsic, speaking of each battle
in the most minute manner-the mum
Der of men engaged on either side, even
the range of their guns and the tactics
Of both sides; why victory came and
why defeat came, as thoroughly
learned a a problem in mathe-
mates. Then back to the battles Of
Frederick the Great, Leuthen, the cam
paigns of the Thirty Years War, back
to the campaigns of Cesar, and always
illustrating as he talked, the progress
and change in the art of war, and how
machinery, pro,ectiles and improve.
ments in arms had made what would DO
a great victory for Napoleon almost i'm.
possible now. 1t simply meant this,
that Gen. Grant, with his marvellous
memory, had not forgotten his West
Point education. In addition TO his
great common sense he knew the les
sons of war as completely as any gem
oral that eyer lived. 1t is the only
occasion on which | eyer heard Grant
speak of the art of war, because, as |
have said, it was a subject TO which he
had an aversion You might have
known him for a year and never learn
that he had fought a battle in his life. a"