The Richmond palladium and sun-telegram. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1907-1939, 1920-09-27

GENERAL
A failure at 80, at Al Grant was the
most successful soldier of his genera
ton. War was his element, but he
lad not suspected it. On the contrary,
he hated warfare, was bored by army
life and never read books on the mill
tary art. In the Mexican war he had
been contented to be side-tracked from
the fighting line in the Quartermaster
department. That experience inclined
him to be a contractor for supplying
bread to the army at the outset of the
Civil war when the politicians refused
to make him an officer.
The first time Grant came in sight
Of the enemy in the Civil war he
| frankly tells us that his heart jumped
into his throat. 81 had not the moral
courage" he said, ito halt and con-
! slider what to do; I kept right on
That is the whole story of how
Grant got to AppomattOx; he kept
right on. Starting without a friend
at his back, and with only long
unbroken trail Of disappointments be
hind him, he never asked for promo
ton, an assignment or a favor, yet
this unambitious man rose to be gen
eral-in-chieH.
While some of our generals, pos
ing as Napoleons, were parading. re
| viewing, polishing up brass buttons
| and patting down intrenchments
Grant went at once to taking towns
and forts, to the dismay of his arm
chair superiors. Halleck took away
his command in the midst of his vic
tories. Mcclellan even suggested his
arrest. 1t was easy for any envious
desk soldier to cast suspicion on the
personal habits of an officer who had
once been forced out of the army fol
drunkenness.
By his own admission, Sherman
| doubted at first commander who was
| ignorant of books of strategy and his
| tory. He was soon treasured by the
! discovery that Grants common sense
supplied his lack of learning. Plenty
| of generals had books, but common
| sense won because it was so uncom
mon in the Civil war.
Fighting is the simplest thing ir
the world, whether with fists or with
/ armies or with fleets. Instinct is the
| true strategist. Grants art of war was
simplicity itself: Find out where YOU
enemy is. Get at him as soon as you
can, and keep moving on"
That is it: Grant kept moving on
sometimes, alas, through slaughter
costly plumbers, bloody mistakes. Ev
erywhere his watchwords were the
! same: Il propose to fight it out or
this line if it takes all summer" He
| the sooner the terrible business wa:
! nj hlnn6Sha1
would be-
The price of victory in war always
is paid in the blood of boys. Gran
knew that the North had more boy!
| than the South, and he simply outbit
the enemy in the currency of blood.
A shudder of horror ran through
the nation at the frightful bills he
sent back from Shiloh, Vicksburg an(
the Wilderness. He was called ;
butcher His rusty private's blouse
his careless SLOUGH and his sluggish
carriage lent him an air of roughnes
at first glance. And the grim, change
less expression of his face, as ciga
in mouth, he silently looked on a
slaughter, gave an impression Of in
difference. Yet he quit the shelter o
his headquarters at Shiloh and slep
in the mud and rain to get out o
the sight and sound of the wounded
and dying.
Il would scorn being my own de
fender" Grant wrote to friend, whel
the uproar was loudest in the pres
! and in congress. He scorned the roll
all the rest of his life, never stoppin,
/ to excuse or explain or boast. Gen
eral Grant" said Lincoln, lis a copiou
| worker and fighter but very meage
| writer"
Those of his staff who once foun,
j him flung face downward on his cam
bed in speeches. agony knew tina
this man behind his front of iron wa
not tough fibred after all. There wa
>. a feminine fineness in his relation
with Sherman and Sheridan, VIII
formed with him the trinity of success
in the war. Never a shadow of jea
ousy or distrust fell between them
Such greatness as Grant had lay no
so much in his intellect as in his ma
ture, not so much in his thoughts a
in his instincts. After sternly demand
ing the unconditional surrender O
Fort Donaldson. and after it's 1900
troops had laid down their arms at hi
feet, "He left the officers of his ow
army" the Confederate commander @
the fort tells us, land followed me
with that modest manner peculiar t
himself, into the shadow, and Their
rendered me his purse. H
was afraid the light would witnes
. that act Of generosity and sought t
| hide it from the world" The two TO,
, men had been classmates at Yves
Point, and only eight years had pas:
ed since the victor had been rescue
, from want in New York by this val
|, pushed general in gray, Simon Boil
, var Buckner.
| No conqueror ever was higher sou
ed than Grant at Appomattox Sa
and depressed, as he tells us, at tn
| doa fol xaf 1rali 1x,+ l. L "a