The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-10-23


in every State
Into this suiphurous storm of war Grant entered
almost unknown. 1t was with difficulty that he
could obtain command Once set forward,
Donelson Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chickamauga, the
Wilderness. Spottsylvania. Petersburg. Apponat
tox. these were his footsteps. In four years he
had risen. without political favor, from the bot
tom to the very highest commandment second
to any living commander in all the world.
His plans were large, his undiscouraged will
was patient to obduracy He was not fighting
for reputation, nor for the display of generalship
nor for future presidency. He had but one mo
tive. and that as intense as life itself-the sub
jugation of the Rebellion and the restoration Of
the broken Union. He embodied the feelings of
the common people He was their perfect rep
resentative The was vaged for the main
tenance of the Union, the suppression of armed
resistance. and. at length. for the eradication of
slavery. Every step, from Donelson TO Apo
mattox, eylnced with increasing intensity this
his one terrible purpose. He never wavered,
turned aside or dallied. He waded through blood
to the horses brides.
In all this career he never lost courage or
equanmity. With million men, for whose
movements he was responsible he yet carried a
tranquil mind, neither depressed by disasters
nor eiated by success. Gentle of heart familiar
with all, never boasting, always modest-Grant
came of that old selfcontaped stock men Of a
simple force of being which allied genius to the
great elemental forces of nature, silent, invisible,
defeat of the confeder rate armies was final. this
dreadful man of blood was tender toward his
late adversarles as a woman toward her son. He
imposed no humiliating conditions. spared the
feelings of his antagonists. sent home the dis
banded Southern men with food and with horses
for working their crops, and when q revengeful
cpirlt In the executive chair showed itself and
threatened the chief Southern generals, Grant.
with holy Indignation. interposed himself and
compelled his superior to relinquish his rash
purpose
There have been men-there are yet-for
stupidity is long-lved-who regard Grant as
only man of luck. Surely he was! Is it not
luck through such an ancestry TO have had con-
ferred upon him such body. such disposition,
such greatness of soul, such patriotism unalloyed
by ambition, such military genius, such ndom
liable will. and such acapacity for handling the
largest armies Of any age2
For four years and more this man Of continu
Gus luck, across a rugged continent, in the face
of armies of men as brave as his own. command
ed by generals of extraordinary ability, per
formed every function of strategy in grand war,
which Jomini attributes to Napoleon and his
greatest marshals, and Napier to Washington.
Whether Grant could have conducted success
full retreat will never be known. He was never
defeated.
Grant has been severely criticised for the
waste of life War is not created for the pur-
pose of saving life, but by a noble spending of
blood to save the commonwealth. The great end
gained at double the expense.
After the battle of the Wilderness he was
styled the butcher"
But we not to forget the circumstances I'M
der which the conduct of the last great campaign
was committed to him. For four years the heroic
and patient Army of tbs Potomac had squandered
blood and treasure without measure, and had
gained not STEP With generals many, excel
lently skilled in logistics, skiful in everything
but success, they fought and reated; they dug,
they waded. they advanced and retreated. They
went down to Richmond and looked upon it, and
came back to defend Washington.
Their victories were fruitess. Antietam was
ably fought, but weakly followed up. Get
tysburg, with hideous slaughter. sent Lee back
unpursued, undestroyed, though he waited three
or four days, helpless. cooped up and surely
doomed, had Sheridan or Grant been in Meade's
place.
The Army of the Potomac needed general
who knew how to employ their splendid bravery.
their all enduring pluck. They had danced long
enough; they had led of-changed partners
chased; they had gone into campaigns with slow
and solemn music. but returned with quick
steps. They seemed DESTROYS Of making war SO
as not to exasperate the South.
Do not men know that nothing spends life
faster than untghtlng war2 Disease is more
deadly than the bullet. Ia all the war. but
out of every forty two that died was slain by the
bullet. and one out of every thirteen by disease.
Six million men passed through the hospitals
during the war, over three millions with malarial
diseases
1t seemed doubtful whether the government
was putting down rebellion or whether Lee was
putting down the government An eminent
critic says: 1.-The fire and passion, downright
earnestness and self-abandon that the South
threw into the struggle at the outset and main
tanned for two full years. had, it must be ad
mitted, SO far impaired the morale of the Union
forces. that while courage was nowhere wanting.
self-conhdence had been seriously diminished.
This was especially true of the devoted and deci-
mated Army of the Potomac. whose commander,
after the first battle of Bull Run, always ap-
peared to be afraid of exasperating the enemy.
Driving Lee to extremities was the one thing
that they were all loath to do They would fight
to the last drop of blood to defend Washington,
to hold their own, to preserve the Union, but to
corner the enemy, to drive him to desperation,
to make him shed the last drop of his own blood,
was the one thing they would not do, and no
amount of urging could make them do it. 1t
was this arriere pensee that held the hand of
Mcclellan and of Meade after Antietam and Get
tysburg. Both of these engagements were vic
tories for the Army of the Potomac, and both
were robbed OF their fruits by a lurking fear of
the lion at bay They are 'shooing' the enemy
out of Maryland" said Lincoln with his peculiar
aptness and LONELINESS.
When Grant came to the Army of the Poto-
mac he reversed the methods of all who pre-
ceded him. Drawer soldiers never were, and
valiant commanders: but the generals had not
learned the art of fighting with deadly intent.
Peace is very good for peace, but war is organ
lied rage 1t means destruction or 1t means
nothing
AT the battle of the Wilderness, Grant stripped
his commssary train of its guards to fill gap in
the line of battle. When expostuated with for
exposing his army to the loss of all its provis
ions, his reply was:
when this army is whipped, it will not want
any provisions
All summer, all the autumn, all the winter,
all the spring, and early summer again. he
hammered Lee, with blow on blow until, at
Appomattox, the great, but not greatest, South
ern general went to the ground.
Grant was great fighter, but not a fighter
only.
His mind took in the whole field of war-as
wide and complex as any that ever NAPOLEON
knew. He combined in his plans the operations
of three armies. and for the first time in the
war the whole OF Union forces were acting in
concert
He had the patience Of Fate, and the force of
Thor. If he neglected the rules of war as at