The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1889-08-28
THE LITERATURE OF BATTLES
Gen. Grant Familiar with the Plans and
Details of Great Contests.


New York Herald Interview
"Grant was fond of teasing people,
of giving nicknames and the like, re-
sumed Mr. John Russell Young 81
had one among the others. / have
man, tease anybody about him. l have
heard him graVely 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-
rorters to go with him and write up
imaginary battles. Sheridan would
sit by, blushing like a 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 that Grant
was not well skilled in the art of war,
and that what he did 'vas done in sort
of haphazard way; th&t his plans and
actions were governed by common sense,
but that what is known as the high art of
war was unknown to kim. l 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 it very slowly,
almost like man who 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 aloneY l said yes
well, he said, 4 feel like walking;
will go and bring some cigars He
came back with a handful, which he di-
vided with me, and l said, DO you
like your book" He replied, yes, very
much
81 never liked to talk with Grant
about war matters, because he had
curious aversion to it; but was anxious
to know what he thought of Hugo's ac-
count of the battle of Waterloo, which is
famous passage in his novel. So said:
General, what do you think of the bat
BE of Waterloo, as told by Hugop 1T is
a very fine account, he replied Then
he went on to detail, in the most mi
mute manner, what the battle of Water
zoo meant. He 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; what led
to the attack on Napoleon part and the
the defeat by Wellington.
"'What do you think of Waterloo l
asked him. 4 think, he responded, 1T
was the finest planned battle of Ma
poleon, the best conceived battle that
know of, Ind 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 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 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
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. It is the only
occasion on which I ever heard Grant
speak of the art of war, because, as I
have said, it was subject to which he
had an aversion. YoH might have
known him for year and never learn
that he had fought battle in his life. -