The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-02-12
The LITERATURE OF BATTLES
Gsu. Grant Familiar with the Plans ana
Details of Great Contests.

Details OF Great Contests.
New York Herald Intsrviewl
Grant was fond Of teasing people,
of giving nioknames and the like, re-
| sumed Dir. John Russell Young. II
/ had one among the Others. hav0
| heard him tease Sheridan, tease Sher-
man, tease anybody about him. | hava
heard him grayely argue in his own
library that Sheridan, whom he loved
like son, and whose genius he re-
garded as equal TO that of Napoleon.
had never fought battle in his life
but had hired couple of Herald re.
porterS to so with him and write IN
imaginary battles. Sheridan would
sit by, blushing like woman, but
Grant, pretending not to be aware of
his presence, wonld go on to argue in
support OF his allegation.
There is an impression that Grant
was not We'll skilled in the art of war.
and that what he did '~aS done In a sort
OF haphazaFd 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. l remember
In crossing the Pacific ocean giving
Grant Victor Hugo's novel, Les Miser-
ables, to read. He read it very slowly.
almost like man VINO is studying
rather than reading. For two or three
days we did not see him except at meals.
One evening about II o'clock, l 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 alOneP l said Yes
We'll, he said, 4 feel like walking; I
Will go and bring some cigars. He
came back with handful, which he di-
Vlded with me, and / said, do YOU
like your bookP He replied, 'Yes, very
much
Il never liked to talk with Grant
about war matters, because he had
curious aversion to it; but I 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 tho bat
tie OF Waterloo, as told by HugoP 'It is
a very fine account, he replied. Then
ne Went on to detail, in the nsI.i-o- Of
mute manner, what tho eTle e5'lLo9h u
zoo meant Heongth OF lines OF the 0p-
the gurarmies; the troops ehgaseu
srtiIIerv. infantry, cavalry; the Sact ,5
Of Nanoleon and of Wellington WnaI leu leu
u - or, Nal-Alc@s2' ;aasSJvf F60f r
asked him. 4 think, he responded, lit
was the finest planned battle O. Ma
poleon, the sost conceived battle that I
know of, end 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 num-
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 as problem in mathe-
matics Then back to the battles of
Frederick the Great, Leuthen, the cam
paigns of the Thirty Years War, back
to the campaigns of Caesar, 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 be
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 gen
eral that ever lived. 1t is the only
occasion on which l ever heard Grant
speak of the art Of war, because, as L
have said, it was subject 10 which he
had an aversion. No1 might have
known him for q year and never learn
that he had fought battle IA his life.