Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-10-30

bOth sides, nearly million died in the
war OF emancipation
The number must be largely sweled if
we add all who died at home, of sickness
and wounds received in the campaign.
The Secretary of War, in his report
dated November -, 1865, makes the fol
lowing remarks, which show more than
anything else the spirit animating the
people of the loyal States con several
occasions, when troops were promptly
needed to avert impending disaster, wig
OrOuS eXertiOn brought them into the
field from remote States with incredible
speed. Official reports show that after
the disasters on the Peninsula, in 1862,
over 50, 600 troops were enlisted. organized,
armed, equipped, and sent into the field
in less than month. 10000 troops have
repeatedly gone to the field within four
weeks. 10000 infantry were sent to the
armies from the five States of Ohio, In
diana, Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin,, with
| in twenty days When Lees army sur
rendered, thousands of recruits were
pouring in and men were discharged from
recruiting stations and rendezvous III
every State"
Into this sulphrous storm of war Grant
entered almost unknown. II was with
difficulty that he could obtain a command.
Once set forward, DOnelson, Shiloh, Nicks-
burg, Chicamauga, The Wilderness,
Spotsylvania, Petersburg, AppomattoX,
these were his footsteps. In four years he
had risen, without political favor, from
the bottom to the very highest command
not second to any living commander in
all the world
His plans were large, his uudiscouragcd
will was patient to obduracy. He was
not fighting for reputation, nor for the
display of generalship, nor for future
Presidency. lie had but one motive, and
that as intense as life itSelf-the subjuga-
ton of the rebellion and the restoration
of the broken Union. He embodied the
feelings of the common people. He was
their perfect representative. The war
was waged for the maintenance of the
Union, the suppression of armed resist
ance, and, at length, for the eradication
of slavery. Every step, from Donelson to
AppOmattOX, eVinced with increasing in
| tenslty 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 II tranquil mind, neither de
pressed by disasters, nor clated by success.
Gentle of heart, familiar with all, never
Boosting, always modest--Graut came of
the old selt-cOntained stock, men of Il sim
pie force of being, which allied his genius
| to the great elemental forces of nature,
silent invisible, irresistible. When his
work was done. aud the defeat of Confed-
crate armies was final, tins dreadful man
of blood was tender toward his late ad-
versarleS as II woman toward her son.
lie imposed no Illuminating conditions,
spared the feelings of his antagonists,
sent home the disbanded Southern men
with food and with horses for working
/ their crops, and when Il reVengeful spirit
III the Executive chair showed itself, and
threatened the chief Southern Generals,
Grant, with holy indignation, interposed
himself, and compelled his superior to re
lnqulsh his rash purpose
There have been men-there are vet
for stupidity is long -lived-who regard
Grant as only Il man of luck. Surely he
was Is it not luck through such an ances-
try to have had conferred upon him such
body, such disposition, such greatness
OF soul, such patriotism unallOyed by am
bition such military genius, such an in
domltable Will, and such Il capacity for
handling the largest armies of any are ?
For four years and more this man of
continuous luck, across il rugged CONT
nent, in the face of armies of men as
brave as his own. commanded by gene
rails of extraordinary ability, performed
every function of strategy in grand war.
| which Jomini attributes to Napoleon and
/ his greatest marshals, and Napier to Wei
| lingtOn. Whether Grant could have con
Quoted successful retreat will never be
known. lie was never defeated.
Grant has been severely criticised for
the waste of life. War is not created for
the purpose Of saving life, but by noble
spending of blood to save the Commons
wealth. The great end which he achieved
would have been cheaply gained, at double
the expense.
was styled the butcher.
But we are not TO forget the circum-
stances under which the conduct of the
last great campaign was committed to
him. For four years the heroic and pa
tlent army of the Potomac had squander-
ed blood ana treasure without measure.
and mad gained not II step With gene
rails many, eXcellently skilled in logistcs,
skilltul in everything but success, they
fought and retreated; they dug, they
WadcG, obey advanced and ret Gated. They
went down to Richmond and looked upon
il, and came back to defend Washing
ton
Their victories We're fruitless. Ante
tam was ably fought, but weakly follow
ed up. Gettysburg, with hideOus slaugh.
ter, sent Lee back unpUrsucd, unlestOy-
ed, though he waited three or four DAYS
helpless, coOped-up and surely doomed
had Sheridan or Grant been in Meade
place.
The army of the Potomac needed Il gen
ertl who knew how to employ their SPLEEN
did bravery, their all-enduring pluck
They had danced long enough they had
led otf-changed partners chassed--thel
had gone into campaigns with slow and
solemn music, but returned with quick
steps. They seemed DESTROYS of making
war so as not to cXasperate the South.
DO not men know that nothing spend,
life faster than untighting war ? Disease
is more deadly than the bullet. In al
the war, but one out of every forty tive
that died were slain by the bullet, and
one out of every thirteen by disease
6OOO,O 900 men passed through the hosp
tails during the war over three million
with malarial diseases.
1t seemed doubtful whether the govern
ment was putting down rebellion OF
whether Lee was putting down the gov
ernment An eminent critic says "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
admitted, so far impaired the morale OF
the Union forces, that while courage was
nowhere wanting, self-confidence had
been seriously diminished. This was es
pecially true of the devoted end decima-
ted army of the Potomac, whose com
| manderS, after the first battle of Bul