The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1897-04-28
had deserved and earned their lasting

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gratitude.
A generation after the last and most
eminent of his military achievements
finds the heart Of the Nation beating as
warmly for the great and magnanimous
leader Of the armies that saved the
Union as on the day when he received
the surrender of Lee. During these
years the American people have been
acquiring truer and higher apprecia-
ton of the unreasonable value OF his
varied services, better understanding
of the unselishness Of his nature, the
purity of his patriotism and the great
ness of his character. With the reced-
ing years his fame is growing brighter,
and with every fresh development of
his life his name grows dearer TO his
countrymen and is spoken by them
with tenderer accents and increasing
generation. Like ga gem Of purest
ray serene -, his character is enduring
the polishings of the great lapidary,
Time.
The sun of the genius that was des-
tined to deliver the Great Republic
from destruction, and illumine the
darkened minds of the prophets that
were foretelling the collapse of the ex-
pertinent of free government, rose on
the horizon Of the Nations hopes at Don
elson. There was made the first terse
expression and the first development
of the aggressive spirit before which
the Confederacy was to go down: mo
terms except an unconditional and i'm
mediate surrender can be accepted. i
propose to move Immediately upon
your works" These words and the
brilliant victory of which they were the
prelude, electrified the North.
The savior of the Union had come,
and the keynote of the war for its
preservation had been sounded. In
those phrases alone were fleets and ar
mics. Shiloh, Vicksburgh, Chatta.
nooga, with the gTories of Missionary
Ridge and the romance of Lookout
Mountain, marked the ascent of the
sun of Donelson, which passed stead
tasty up the heavens through the
smoke of the Wilderness, the tempest
of Spottsylvania, above all the storms
of the most tempestuous period of the
war, till in md.heaven it hung over
the peaceful scene at Appomattox.
The final test of Grants ability as a
commander had been successfully en-
dured. He had met the Confederate
commander who had repeatedly rolled
back the Union armies on Washington
and had twice fought great battles on
the soil of states north of the Potomac.
He had put Lee on the defensive,
driven him to the cover of his fortifca-
tons and had finally conquered him
and compelled him to surrender the
army that had been the main prop of
the Confederacy. In the march from
the Rapidan he had frequently tempted
the Confederate commander to come
out from his intrenchments, but all in
vitations to fight in the open were
prudently declined. The series of
flank movements from the Wilderness
to Spottsylvania, from the latter place
to the North Anna, thence to Cold
Harbor, and finally the transference of
the army to the south of the James,
planned in the secrecy of his own mind,
confded to the trusted few of his lieu
tenants, and executed without dis
covery by his opponent, are regarded
by competent military critics as among
the most brilliant and remarkable
achievements in military history.
Where every one else had failed, Gen
eral Grant succeeded, and post .facto
criticism has never been able to de:
tract from the merit or dim the glory of
his success. To complete the estimate
of the quality of General Grants work
in the series of movements from the
Rapidan to Richmond and to Appo-
mattox, and to understand the hercu-
lean nature of his task, it must be con-
sidered that he was, during the period
of those operations, commander-in-
chief of all the armies of the Union,
and was directing upon the Confeder-
acy the concerted advance of million
armed men, along line of some $500
miles in extent. His task has not only
no parallel in history, but no appreci-
able approach to parallel.
There is one glory of Grant as a
soldier, and another gloryas man, and
the latter glory lights and adorns his
military fame. There was the man
pure in mind and heart, free from
grossness, patient, forbearing, modest
to fault, slow to wrath, just in his
judgments, unmindful of his own fame
and rewards, but watchful that those
serving under him should have the
recognition due to faithful aud merito-
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