The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1895-09-17
Interesting Address by Col. Frederick
Army Of the Tennessee.
BOLD PLAN OF CAMPAIGN
THAT RESULTED IN THE sURREN.
DER OF LEE AT APPOMAT-rox.
How the Great Commander Would
Have Narrated the story Had His
Life Been Spared Longer.

session
Army OF the Tennessee began here at 10
o'clock this morning with an unusually
large attendance. Over one hundred Off
GERS of high rank were registered. The
| morning session was devoted 10 reports
and routine business. In the AFTERNOON the
distinguished visitors and their ladies at
tended a reception at Fort Thomas, in Ken
lucky, rendered by Commandant Cochran
and other army officers. The battalion drill
was followed by luncheon, at which many
ladies from Cincinnati. Newport and Cow
ington assisted.
The event OF the day was the meeting in
Odd Fellows Temple. Tonight Governor
Mckinley delivered an eloquent welcome for
the State of Ohio. Ex-Congressman John
A Caldwell, Mayor OF Cincinnati, spoke the
welcome for the Queen City. The president,
General Grenville NJ Dodge. responded for
the society, after which Col. Frederick d.
Grant made the Grafton OF the evening.
He said:
When informed, last year, that you had
elected me to be the orator for the twenty
seventh annual reunion of the Army of the
Tennessee / felt-knowing that / was not
a speaker-that could not accept the honor
you wished TO confer upon me; but remen-
bering that you were old friends and COM
rades of my dear father, aud that you had
been through sufferings and triumphs with
ambitions and glories, feel emboldened to
come before you tonight his son, and
talk TO you a little about the story of the
last year Of the war, as know it appeared
to General Grant, your comrade and first
commander.
Since L have had the honor of acting as
one OF the commissioners of police in New
York city, several newspapers have said,
complainingly, that / wished to infuse too
much military spirit into the police force
there, and that L should remember that it
was guard Of peace that Is really needed,
and not one of war 1t is true that 1 do
not object to little martial spirit among
policemen, knowing that gentleness, kind
ness and peacefulness are always to be
found in the hearts of the bravest soldiers.
All the world knows how you, the noble
soldiers of the Army of the Tennessee,
after laboriously working your way into
Vicksburg and enduring the fatigues and
trials Of that long campaign and siege,
entered as victors at last-not to triumph
cruelty over your defeated enemies. but to
divide your rations with them, as with brave
fellow-soldiers and TO extend to them all
Il have all the more courage in speaking
TO you, because / experienced much kind
ness at your hands, when lad of thirteen
years or age, l was with you during the
siege of Vicksburg, probably very much in
the way, although you. busy In the great
sideration.
II propose to give you a sketch of General
Grants own plan of campaign and to de-
scribe the order in which he would have
narrated the story in the second volume of
his memoirs, had he been able to use his
voice in debating during the last month of
his life, or had his life been spared few
weeks longer. I know we'll his intentions in
this regard, as / was with him constantly
during his last illness, when he wrote his
books. In thus outlining the story of the
campaign of the years 1S64-65 / will en-
deavor to exhibit the movements of the
armies as they appeared from the COM
mander's Headquarters, whence orders were
issued that should move them all as parts
of one grand military scheme.
GRANTS INTERVIEW WITH LINCOLN.
Upon being appointed lieutenant general,
and having assumed command OF all the
armies in the field General Grant had an
interview with President Lincoln, during
which interview Mr.. Lincoln stated that
procrastination the part of the COM
mander and the pressure from the people
of the North and from Congress had
forced him into issuing his series Of mil
itary orders, some of which he knew were
wrong and all of which may have been
wrong: that all he rthe PresidenD wanted,
or had ever wanted. was some one who
would take the responsibility of action, and
sns Mua ca mpSn fnr hm es as ,ne OF
needed; the President pledging himself to
use the full powers Of the government in
rendering all assistance possible. General
Grant assured the President that he would
do the best he could with the means at
hand, and would far as possible, avoid
annoying the administration with unnec-
His first work was to inaugurate a plan
Of campaign for all the armies. Upon ex-
1t will be seen that at an early period he
had been impressed with the idea that
active and continued operations or all the
regardless of season or weather, were nec-
essary for speedy termination of the
war; war; that It. the he srperior eri strength and re,
neutralized by tle great advantage the
Confederates had in their interior lines
little or no force to guard while the Union
troops were operating in hostile country
and the lines of supplies had to be guard
ed se During ring the first % three years Of the the
war the various armies had acted Ainde-
pendently-a condition that had enabled
the enemy TO- reinforce each point Of at
tack by drawing troops from points of in
activity. Having this in view, General
Grant planned to move all the armies at
once. He looked upon the Army of the
James as the left wing the Army of the
Potomac as the center, and the troops op-
Grating under General Sherman. of which
portant part, as the right wing, all other
troops being considered as cooperative
columns. He believed that by moving the
number of troops practicable would be
brought against the armed forces of the
enemy, and would prevent them from using
Union army first at one point and then
at another, and that. by continuously ham,
mering against their armies he could de-
stroy both them and their sources of sup
ITO carry out this idea orders were sent
TO the various comrianders-on the 2d of
April to Butler, on the 4th to Sherman and
on the 9Th to Meade In all these orders
the same general ideas were expressed To
Butler he wrote: You will collect all the
force from your command that can be
spared from garrison duty TO operate on the
south side of the James river Richmond
being your objective point
ITO Sherman he wrote: 1T is my design,
IL the enemy keep quiet and allow me take
the initiative in the spring campaign TO
work all the parts of the ar1..y together,
and somewhat toward common center
You 1 propose to move against Johnston's
army, to break 1T UP. and TO get into the
interior OF the enemy's country as far a $
you can, inficting all the damage You can |
against their war resources
ITO Meade he wrote: Lees army will be |
your objective point. Wherever Lee goes
there you will go also.'
Thus IL will be seen that General Grant's
plan with reference to the movements of
the Army OF the Potomac was simply that
of Napoleon in the Russian campaign. while
his plan In reference to the whole army
allies In their campaign against France in
1S13-4
THE SITUATION.
When these movements began the sstua-
ton was about as follows: In tno posses