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Full Title
The Life of Gen. U.S. Grant / by W. A. Peters
Author
Peters, W. A.
Date Added
9 January 2014
Format
Journal
Language
English
Publish Date
1886-09-15
Publisher
New York : F.M. Lupton
Series
Leisure Hour Library > New Series, v. 1, no. 112
Source
Dime Novel and Popular Literature
Alternate Title
Leisure Hour Library, New Series, v. 1, no. 112, September 15, 1886. Representative men of New York. Life of General U.S. Grant.
Topic
Dime novels > Specimens. Vanderbilt, William H. > (William Henry), > 1821-1885. Field, Cyrus W. > (Cyrus West), > 1819-1892. Beecher, Henry Ward, > 1813-1887. Talmage, T. De Witt > (Thomas De Witt), > 1832-1902. Leslie, Frank, > 1821-1880. Dana, Charles A. > (Charles Anderson), > 1819-1897. Gould, Jay, > 1836-1892. New York (State) > Biography. Generals > United States > Biography. Grant, Ulysses S. > (Ulysses Simpson), > 1822-1885.
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THE LIFE OF GEN. U. S. GRANT.
8th of July that rebel stronghold surrendered with 10,000 pris-
oners and 50 guns.
Thus were a series of smaller victories added to the brilliant
conquest of Vicksburg, to the great discomfiture of the rebels
and the depression of their cause. This successful campaign
, raised the fame of Grant above all the envious falsehoods and
villainous influences that had been brought to bear against
him. He had proven himself the military superior not only of
the rebel generals, but also of his enemies among the officers of
our own army, and yet without pride or retaliation he pushed
ahead and gave his noble services to the cause he so clearly
loved.
After the fall of Vicksburg, President Lincoln and the Secre-
tary of War so fully appreciated the ability of Grant that he
was made Major-General in the regular army, which outranks
3 Major-General of volunteers.
In September General Grant was thrown from his horse in
New Orleans, and for nearly three weeks was connned to his bed.
During this time the Union forces, under Rosecrans, received
the well-remembered defeat at Cliickamauga. Bragg’s forces
having been weakened by detachments being sent to other
points, and Rosecrans feeling sure of success, pressed on after
Bragg, who retreated through Chattanooga until he received
the reinforcements of Buckner’s, Longstreet‘s and Polk’s com-
mands. Then, with an army of eighty thousand men. he
turned upon Rosecrans and almost crushed his army at Chick-
amauga, inflicting a loss of sixteen thousand men, killed,
Wounded and missing, and besieging Rosecrans in Chattanooga,
where he was in the most critical situation.
General Grant, as soon as he learned of thedisnster at Chicka-
mauga and the dangerous position of Rosecrans, relieved
him of the command and General Thomas was appointed in
his place, with instructions telegraphed to hold Chattanooga
at all hazards until reinforcements could reach him. The
reply of Thomas was brief and business-likc: “ lVe’l1 hold the
town till we starve.” General Grant immediately set out for
Chattanooga, and reached it on the 23d of October, when he
commenced his plans of operation at once by opening a line of
communication for reinforcements and supplies. General Sher-
man was ordered forward with all possible speed, and by a
forced march, under the greatest diiliculties of bad roads and
Hooded streams, that faithful warrior hurried forward his
troops to reinforce Chattanooga.
As soon as Sherman arrived General Grant was ready for
offensive operations. He sent General Sherman, on the night
of the 23d of November, across tlu: Tcllnossec River to hold a
position ready for attack upon Missionary Ridge. On the 24th
General Hooker stormed Lookout Mountain and swept the
rebels in the greatest disorder from their position. The next
day the entire army charged the rebels in one of the most ter-
rific battles of the War, and when night came the rebels had
been swept from every point, and in a wild rout they were flee-
ing toward Atlanta with Gcneral Grant in pursuit, and the
road strewn with everything that they could cast away in their
wild rush for life and liberty.
Thus again did General Grant turn into a glorious victory the
impending defeat and surrender which had hung over the
besieged army at Chattanooga. The successful management
of this battle is one of the most remarkable events in history,
and its result Was to drive back the rebels from Kentucky and
Tennessee and prepare the Union army for finally breaking the
back of the rebellion in Georgia.
The news of the great victory created the wildest enthusiasm
for General Grant throughout the country, and on the 4th of
February, 1864, a bill was passed in Congress reviving the grade
of Lieutenant-General in the army. and calling General Grant
to the command of all the armies of the United States. This
at once relieved him from subjection to inefficient superiors
and placed him in supreme command, subject only to the Pres-
ident. The bill was approved by Mr. Lincoln on the 1st of
March, and on the 9th General Grant received his commis-
lion.
General Grant at once decided to end the Rebellion on the
banks of the Potomac, and began reorganizing the army and
concentrating a great force in the East, knowing that the rebels
would be compelled to withdraw or decrease their troops at all
other points to defend Richmond and support Lee, thus leaving
the VVest and South at the mercy of Sherman, Thomas, McPher-
son and similar able and faithful generals.
As soon as General Grant began to develop his plans all roads
seemed to lead to the Potomac, and from every direction the
martial tread of armies was heard. After locating and instruct-
ing his generals of the Eastern army, he gave to General Sher-
man a. grand expedition, which only Grant and Sherman
were capable of accomplishing, that of cutting the Confeder-
acy in two, and breaking the back of the Rebellion by that
daring march from Atlanta to the sea.
For the first time in the history of the war the control of
the army and its military movements were in the hands of the
two military giants of the country, and the result was soon to
be what might have taken place two years earlier under their
control-the end of the War. Lee had defeated every other
General of the Army of the Potomac who had confronted him,
and General Grant knew that the war would only end with the
overthrow of the military leader of the Rebellion. The time had
come for his defeat, and no one knew it so well as Grant. The
following ideas, expressed in one of his reports as Lieuten-
ant-General, are worthy of the genius of Napoleon:
“ From an early period in the Rebellion I had been impressed with the
idea that active and continuous operations of all the troops that could be
brought into the field, regardless of season and weather, were necessaiu to
it speedy termination of the war. The resources of the enemy and his
numerical strength were very inferior to ours , but, as an oEset to this, we
had a vr.st territory, with apopulation hostile to the Government. to gar-
rison, and long lines of river and railroad communications to protect. to
enable us to supply the operating armies.
“ The armies in the East and West acted independently and without con-
C"-'”'llke 5 balk)’ ‘C3111: 0“ 1W0 9V1"-1' D‘-llling together-enabling the enemy to
use to great advantage his interior lines of communication for transporting
1I‘00l>-“ 90111 (‘ESE to West, reinforcing the army most vigorously pressed and
to furlougli large numbers during seasons of inactivity on our part, to go to
their homes and do the work of providing for the support of their armies.
It was a question whether our numerical strength and resources were not
piicpge than balanced by these disadvantages and the enemy's superior posi-
" From the first I was firm in the conviction that no peace could be had
that could be stable and conducive to the happiness of the people both North
and South until the military power of the.rebellion was entirely broken up.
. I us“-’r9f‘p“"" d"‘“"mlm’d- 131“. to use the greatest number oi’ troops prac-
ticable against the armed force of the enemy, preventing him from using
the same force at different seasons against first one and then another of mu‘
armies, and the possibility -of repose for refitting and producing: ..u,.5Sm.y
supplies for carrying on resistance ; secondly, to hammer continuously against
the armed force of the enemy and his resources, until, by mere attrition. if
lll-X10 other way, there should be nothing left to him but an equal submission
“W” ‘ha 10.V8l 530110113 of our common country to the Constitution and laws
of the land.
H k .
camT1:’i5‘"' V‘9“(5l1““V‘f be?“ k"Pl5 00113’-‘fully in mind, and orders given and
' p ans nm e o carry them out. VV nether they might have been bemu-
in conception and execution is for the people, who mourn the loss of friends
fallen, and who have to pay the pecuniary cost, to say. All that I can say is
that what I have done has been done conscientiously, to the best of my
ability and in what 1 conceived to be for the best interggtg of the whole
country "
R“1Yl“g“mP1f'Clt1Y 0Y1 Shermnnls ability to sweep irresistibly
fhrougll G901‘F;13- 30 Savannah and thence nortlixvard, destr0V-
mg Tallroildss devastating the country, capturing Cliarlestoii.
Columbia and other rebel strongholds, General Grant began his
preparations.
.0“ the 3d of M35‘: 1334, at midnight, General Grant moved
his whole army and crossed the Rapidan before daylight, Push.
mg on toward Spottsylvania his army swept through the
VS ilderness, and hedisposed his troops in position to prevent
every possible surprise.
Lee, in his perfect coniidence secured by all previous experi.
ence with the Army of the Potomac, determined to fall upon
Gm“ by 5‘11‘P1'i59u End. by cutting his army in two sweep him
from the field. On the morning of the 5th Lee suddenly ap-