Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1891-06-13

of the time. "You know the object for
which we are assembled. Men are needed
to preserve the union. What Is your pleas.
urel" He organized and drilled that com.
pany and led IL to the governor at Spring
| field. BY that march Galena lost citizen
and the republic found It's savior.
While others were enlisting for briet
periods, he besought the adjutant general
to assign him to duty for the war, but the
war department had forgotten him. lic
struggled for days 20 work through the
brilliant staff into the presence of General
Mcclellan, but the young dandies scorn.
fully and successfully barred his way. II
was soon seen that the obscure military
clerk in the office of the governor of ILL
nos was capable where all the rest were
ignorant, and that under his firm and con-
tident hand order was evolved out of chaos
and raw recruits disciplined into soldiers.
Though he was unknown and unnamed to
the public, the executive recognized in him
the organizing brain of the military forces
of the state. To N reluctant president
and hostile secretary, the Illinois delega-
tion said, where most of the appointments
are experiments, try Captain Grant as one
Of your brigadier generals" Thus the
commonwealth which had so hotly pressed
Lincoln for the chief magistracy of the re.
public assumed the responsibility for
Grant as commander of the army.
/ These marvellous men were the products
Of that characteristic intuition of the west
which quickly discerns merit and then
confidently proclaims its faith Education
and experience make old and crowded
communities aversc To leadership unless
il has been trained and tested. They ac.
cept nothing outside the record. The fact
that the conditions are new and the
emergency greater than the schools have
provided for are stronger reasons for Sc.
lccting only the men who have approx.
/ imately demonstrated their ability. For
all the ordinary emergencies of life the
Tfule is excellent But IL sometimes hap.
pens that the captain who has successfully
weathered a hundred gales is saved from
! shipwrcck in n hurricane, by the genius
of n subordinate. IL is not that the unedu-
Gated and unframed can, by any natural
endowment, be fitted for command. Lin.
coin as n statesman had studied politics
ON the stump and in congress, and Grant
as n soldier had learned war at West
Point and in Mexico. The opportunity
had not come TO either to stand before the
country with Seward. Sumner and Chase
or with Scott, Halleck and Mcclellan.
The east, following the traditions and
practice of the centuries, presented tried
and famous statesmen at the Chicago con.
vention, and saw the army of the Potomac
led to defeat and disaster for years by ad.
mirable officers who were unequal TO the
supreme peTllS bl tHe gigantic
forces upon a vast erena. The west gave
TO the country for president the rail split
ter of the Ohio, and, TO lead its forces In
the field, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan.
Grants career will be the paradox OF
history. Parallels cannot be drawn fol
him with the great captains of the world
Historians, by common consent, place
Alexander the Great, Hannibal, Julius
Caesar and Napoleon Bonaparte in the
front rank. But each of them had learned
the art of war by continued service and
unequaled opportunities and displayed the
most brilliant qualities ut every period oI
their achievements Hannibal and Caesar
had won universal fame in the thirties
Alexander died at 33, grieving because he
had no more worlds to conquer, and Napo
leon, at 81 was master of Europe. Blu,
Grant, at 40, was an obscure leather mer
chant in Galena. AS cadet at West Point
he had risen only just above the middle oi
his class. As a subaltern on the frontiei
and in Mexico he had done no more than
perform his duty with the courage and
capacity of the average West Pointer. He
had pursued agriculture with his custom
airy conscientious care and industry He
was not afraid to do the work of the farm
himself nor ashamed to ride into st. Louis
upon the load of wood which he was tC
SELL or to pile IL up for his customer and
yet almost any farmer in Missouri was
more successful. Clients failed TO retain
him as surveyor, his real estate Office
had to be closed, and he was not factor
in the tanners firm
But the moment that the greatest re-
spbnsibilities were thrust upon him, and
the fate of his country rested upon his
shoulders, this indifferent farmer, bust.
hgure of the century. The reserve powers
of a dominant intellect, which ordinary
affairs could not move, came into action
4 A mighty mind. which God had kept fol
Y the hour of supreme danger to the republic
\ graspcd the scattered elements of strength
solidifed them into a resistless force anC
| organized victory. He divined the pur
poses cf the enemy as well as he knew his
| own plans. His brain became clearer, his
| strategy more perfect, and his confidenc,
| in himself more serene rs his power in
creased He could lead the assault a
| Donelson, or the folorn hope at Shiloh, ol
maneuver his forces with exquisite skill
! and rare originality of resources at Vicks
burg, as the best of brigade or corps com
manders, or before Richmond, calmly con
| ducta campaign covering a continent, anC
| many armies with consummate general
ship. At the critical hour during the bat
tie of Sedan when the German emperol
and Bismarck were anxiously waiting the
result, and watching their silent general
an officer rode up and announced that TIVE
|
opposite directions had met at certain
| hour. The movement closed in the French
and ended the war. Won Moltke simply
! said, "rhe calculation was correct.
| Grant had not the scientific training ant
wonderful staff of the Prussian field mar
shal, but he possessed in the highest de
gree the same clear vision and accurat,
reasoning. The calculation was always
correct and the victory sure.
| The mantle of prophecv no longer de
| pends upon successor and the divin,
purpose is not revealed TO mortals. Their,
exists, however, in every age masterfu
men, who are masterful because they SET
with clear vision the course of events ant
| fearlessly act upon the forecast. BY this
| faculty the statesman saves his country
from disaster or lifts it TO the pinnacle o.
power, the soldier plucks victory from de
| feat, and the man of affairs astonishes the
world by the magnitude and success o.
| his operations. 1t was pre-eminently
Grants gift. Four days after the frs
shot was fired mt Fort Sumter he wrote
| from Galena q letter to his father-in-law
predicting the uprising of the north and
| the fall of slavery. Others saw only tn,
commercial spirit of the free states; he
! far in advance of the public men of the
\ time, OWNED that superb patriotism whicl
/ inspired millions to leave the farm and tn,
! family, their business and their homes Il
save the union. While statesmen of al
parties were temporizing and compromis
/ ing with the slave power, this silent think
er, in the rear ranks of the people, pierced
| with undimmed eyes the veil which had
clouded the vision of the nation for q
hundred years. His calm Judgment com
pretended the forces in the conflict, and
! that their collision would break and pulv
erise the shackles of the slave. Wher
taking observations, while standing with
his staff ON a hill within short range oi
Fort Donelson, he said: Don't be afraid
gentlemen; Pillow, who commands there
never fired at anything" His assault
would have been rashness except that hs
knew Pillow and Floyd, and they both raj
] away and left the besieged to their fate
Fat Shiloh, when oil his assistants
had failed or despaired, he turnet
the worst of disasters into one o.
the most significant OF triumphs.
His plans did not contemplate defeat
The movement he always made was 'ad
vance" The order he always gave wa,
/ Forward" When Buell told him that tn,
transports o. Pittsburg Landing would No
carry away one-third of his force Gran
said: IF that becomes necessary they viii
hold all there are left" His Vicksbur,
campaign was against all the teachings o
the military schools and the unanimou
opinions of his councils of war. A veteran
stratcgist cried i'm indignant remonstrance
"You will cut loose from your base of sup
plies, and that is contrary to all the rules