The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1902-03-07

campaign.

campaign.
l have said that Mcclellan would
have made one of the most successful
Confederate generals because of the
different conditions Had Grant been
a Confederate soldier he would pro-
bahly have developed into great lieu
tenant of the type of Stonewall Jack
son, but had he been in command of a
Confederate army his aggressive quail
ties would not have prevented him
from fighting against odds and advan-
tages, and he would have been failure.
The one soldier of the two armies who
had the best mingling of aggressive
and defensive qualities in military
campaigns was General Lee. Grant
was pre- emniently the aggressive chief
tain of the war, and all the conditions
of the conflict were in his favor. 1t
was the policy Of the Confederates to
exhaust and discourage the North by
avoiding decisive battle, and when
fighting to fight under the greatest
possible advantages, but after two
years of war, when the country was
prepared to accept the fearful sacrifice
necessary to triumph over the Con-
federate armies, Grant was the logical
leader, and he was much more than a
mere stubborn fighter. He was a
great general, and he fought from the
start on different theory from that of
Mcclellan.
Mcclellan planned the capture of
Richmond and other leading strategic
points in the Confederacy, but Grant
had only one objective point in all his
campaigns, and that was the Confede-
rate army. He captured Richmond
and never entered it, even after the
surrender of Lee. His campaign in
Mississippi, when he whirled his army
around to jackson and defeated John
son in the open field to prevent the
union of the Confederate forces, was
one of the boldest and grandest stra'e-
gic movements of the war, and his
triumph at Chattanooga, with Hooker's
romanti, battle above the clouds on
Lookout Mountain, fully prepared the
country to accept him as commander
in-chief, and not only to accept him,
but to allow him to fight it out in his
own way.
1t was then well understood that
there must be great sacrifices of life;
that overwhelming armies must be
sent against the Confederates; that
battle must be given wherever they
could be found, and that the ranks of
Grants army should be filled. He
thus accepted his commission as lieu
tenant general in March, 1864, with the
government and the people fully pre-
pared to believe in him and to sustain
him. He knew that he outnumbered
Lee nearly two to one, and he march
ed directly for Lees army, fought the
desperate end bloody battles in the
wilderness which would have deposed
Union general in disgrace two years
before because Of the terrible sacrifice
of life, but the only word that came
from Grant on that appalling battle
field Was: 81 propose to fight it out
on this line if it takes all summer"
Sadly as the country grieved over its
fallen soldiers in the Wilderness, it
saw in Grants dispatch the assurance
that Lees army would certainly be
destroyed. 1t was the most destruc-
time campaign of the war, but, whether
wisely or unwisely, Grant never de-
parted from his purpose to fight the
enemy wherever he was found. Had
he failed in his campaign he would
have been severely criticised and hope
lessly condemned, but after year of
terrible suspense he closed the war at
Appomattox, and the surrender of Lee
effaced every error of the aggressive
warrior and made him accepted by the
country and the world as the Great
Captain of the Age Washington
Post.
A poetical traveller, stopping at a
Georgia inn, dismounted from his
horse and called to the landlord, who
was lounging on the veranda:
"Wrinkled 'ostler, grim and thin,
Here is custom come your way,
Take my brute and lead him in
Stuff his ribs with mouldy hay9
off you say that ag'in," said the
landlord, "I'll lamm you side the head
with this hickory. Thar's a niggar
here to look after the hoross!''
"My good man. exclaimed the
traveller, II meant no offence. was
only quoting Tennyson to YOU"
"Hang Tennyson" exclaimed the
landlord, "an' tell him | said so. Nei-
ther him nor you can make stable
boy O me!'