The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1886-10-28
U, S, GRANT AND ROBERT E. LEE
A Comparison, by Northern Soldier.
Southern Bivouac for October.

Southern Bivouac for October.
Plutarcb, after writing the lives Of two
parsons like Agesilaus and Pompey, or
Ari'tidos and the elder Cato, says the
next thing is to compare them and bring
together he points in which they chiefly
disagree.
While Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson
Davis, on account of the official positions
they held, as we'll as by reason of their
great ability and force of character, will,
doubtless, for all time occupy the most
prominent place in the political history
of America for the four years covered by
the civil war, it is equally certain that
| u. S. Grant and Robert E. Lee will
always be recognized as the most distin.
guished of the great captains whose
achievements and failures constitute the
military history of the most formidable
unsuccessful rebellion on record.
Though both of them were trained in
the same military school, belonged to the
same army, and served in the only war
in which their country was engaged dur.
ing their lives prior 10 the war of the
Rebellion, yet in respect Of lineage, fami'
ly associations, and surroundings they
were not all alike. While it is true that
Grants name is one of most honorable
in Scottish history, it is equally true that
his own family had no public record, his
father being a tradesman and bis ancestry
undistinguished, almost unknown.
Of Lee, on the contrary, it is truly
said, there has been no American whose
name and family have been more illus
trious. From the time of Charles the
First, when his ancestor, Richard Lee,
came to America and became the secreta-
~ of the commonwealth under Sir
William Berkeley, Governor, there has
been no period in the two centuries and
8 half since in which the Lees have not
been among the most distinguished citi-
zens Of Virginia. A Lee was the first
native governor of the commonwealth
Lee moved the adoption in the Colonial
Convention of the Declaration Of Inde'
pendence; Lee, by the unanimous vote
of Congress, delivered the funeral eulogy
upon Washington and uttered the forever
memorable words, sublimely comprehen-
sive of the highest human greatness,
"First in war, first in peace, first in the
hearts of his countrymen."
The general moral maxim, de m,ortuis
nil nisi 6onun,-of the dead speak only
praise-has no rightful place in history,
and, moreover, has no need to be observed
even by the panegyrist of either Grant or
Lee.
| There has been as yet no critical or
even impartial biography written of
either of them. In reading some of those
extant, we are reminded of Plutsrch's
comment upon Xenophon's account of
the victories of Agesilaus "Xenophon
has the privilege allowed him that he
may write or speak what be pleases in
favor of his heroes"
1t has often been asserted by intelligent
men, soldiers, aud civilians, who knew
him we'll, and were familiar with his
military career, that Grant was not a
man of high endowments, and that his
military renown, upon which bis subse.
luent political eminence mainly rested,
was largely due to accident; that the
ILLNESS of General Smith before the bat
lie of Shiloh prevented him from taking
command in the place of General Grant,
who had been relieved by order of Gener-
III Halleck. But it is equally probable
That, but for the shell that crippled
Johnston at Seven Pines, Lee would not
have the place in history he will now
s,lways hold.
It NAV be true that there was nothing
| in Grants known character and antece-
dents upon which to rest q prophecy OF
lis future renown. Yet from absolute
cbscurity, in single year by his own
acts. he rose above all the generals in the
Western Union Armies, and from en-
unknown clerk in country store, in
three years he made himself the most
conspicuous military figure in the whole
world; a soldier commanding large
armies and infinitely more powerful in
obstructive force than the armies of Alex
ander Ceaser, and Napoleon combined.
| After all the truest psychometerst to meas.
ure military genius are the standards
taken from the enemy. Yet all soldiers
know how much there is 10 war, espec.
| ially as applied to officers, Of what we
call luck; and it cannot be denied that,
| in some respects, Grants career furnishes
remarkable illustration of this truth.
His fame began with Donelson yet
the completeness of his victory there was
equally to his credit and to the dlscredlt
OF the enemy, for, had Stopewall Jackson
commanded in place of Buckner, no one
believes that Donelson would not have
been either evacuated or defended.
Moreover, had Shiloh been Grants
first battle it would have been his last |;
for it was the reputation of Donelson
that carried him over the disaster at Shi'
lob. a commander, who, knowing he is
liable to be attacked by an equal if not
superior foe before reinforcements shall
reach him, and yet who neglects to
| intrench, and thereby suffers terrible and
unnecessary loss in repulsipg the enemy,
could hardly trust to such victory for
promotion or even for justification. But
General Smith was too old and i'll to be
ambitious for the highest command
Sherman, Sheridan, Mcpherson, and Lo-
gan were yet undistinguished and Wash.
burn, who had the ear of the President,
| insisted that Grant, so far as we could
iulge, was after all the best General we
had. Yet, had the result at Shiloh been
what it might have been under a more
yigilant commander, it would have
inspired such confidence both in the
country and army that a year and q
quarter would not have elapsed between
Shiloh and Vicksburg.
For in that year, with over two hun
dred thousand men in the Western
armies, the best equipped and as brave
as any commander could desire, we had
,omplished nothing. The men, as
always, did good fighting at CoriDth
and fuka, but seemingly 10 no purpose.
The press of the country blamed the
government for failure in the field, and
demanded the appointment of competent
commanders, and insisted that the army
should go ahead and conquer the Rebel
lion. The Western farmers knew their
boys would fight if they bad a chance,
and win if ably commanded. But the
government did not know whom to trust,
and dare not command the army to
advance. But Grant feared the guns that
lined the shore at Vicksburg. Precious
months were spent in trying to dig that
canal, that hoated gold up to near three
hundred, but would not float the troops
past the batteries. Finally, the country
toll.od On loud and threateninply that he