GRANT 



2568 



GRANT 



public appreciated its own little joke, and 

 Grant's initials, "U. S.," were said to stand 

 for "unconditional surrender." 



Although Grant was now famous, he was 

 soon in difficulty. About this time he quar- 

 reled with General Halleck, his chief, and was 

 virtually placed under arrest. He was allowed 

 to keep his command, however, and at the 

 Battle of Shiloh just managed to save his 

 army from annihilation. At Shiloh Grant dis- 

 played great bravery, but did not seem quite 

 equal to all emergencies. At any rate Halleck 

 thought so, and made Grant second in com- 

 mand of the combined armies of the Tennessee 

 and the Ohio, a nominal command which had 

 no important duties and which the army re- 

 garded as indicating that Grant was in disgrace. 

 Grant's fortunes were to sink but one step 

 lower, with the collapse of the first campaign 

 against Vicksburg, before they turned. The 

 defeats before Vicksburg in December, 1862, 

 were relatively unimportant, but they led many 

 well-intentioned persons to believe that Grant 

 was unfitted for command. There were ru- 

 mors, too, that he was frequently intoxicated, 

 and there is little doubt that he would have 

 been forced into retirement had it not been 

 for Lincoln's firm support. Lincoln seems to 

 have recognized Grant's ability at an early 

 date, and deliberately disregarded all rumors, 

 true or false, about him. On one famous occa- 

 sion, when a committee called on him to de- 

 mand Grant's removal for intoxication, Lincoln 

 jokingly asked the critics to find out what 

 brand was Grant's favorite, so that kegs of 

 it might be sent to the other Union generals. 



Lincoln's faith in Grant was finally vindi- 

 cated by the successful end of the Vicksburg 

 campaign. After the surrender of the forts on 

 July 4, 1863, Grant was made a major-general 

 in the regular army, and several months later 

 took command of a great army at Chatta- 

 nooga. In the battles around Chattanooga, in 

 November, 1863, he destroyed the foothold 

 of the Confederacy in the center and west. It 

 remained only to destroy its power in the 

 east. To this end Grant was made com- 

 mander-in-chief, with the rank of lieutenant- 

 general of all the Federal armies in the field, 

 and himself took command of the Army of 

 the Potomac. From this time to the end, the 

 war in the east was a series of almost con- 

 tinuous battle.8. Grant never relaxed his hold, 

 and in spite of occasional checks and partial 

 defeats, pursued his policy of wearing his op- 

 ponents down. His relentless campaign for 



Richmond, though carried on with a sacrifice 

 of life which would have sickened and dis- 

 heartened a less determined commander, had 

 its inevitable result in the surrender of the 

 heroic Lee at Appomattox Court House, on 

 April 9, 1865. 



His Fame as a Soldier. Grant was a great 

 commander, and few commanders of any coun- 

 try are his peers. Yet it is not fair to say 

 that Grant was a great soldier born. Per- 

 sonally courageous and daring almost to a 

 fault he was, but he learned the art of cam- 

 paigning in the bitter school of experience. 

 The buoyant, energetic Grant who fought at 

 Shiloh was not the same grim figure which led 

 the way from Vicksburg to Appomattox. After 

 all, it is immaterial whether Grant originally 

 possessed the needed qualities or whether he 

 acquired them, but the fact is that he did 

 have the energy, the judgment and singleness 

 of purpose to carry his task to its conclusion. 

 McClellan had greater finesse, Rosecrans wa.s 

 more brilliant and Buell was more exact and 

 careful, but none of these Federal generals 

 seemed to combine these qualities in the right 

 proportions. 



Peace and Politics. After the death of Lin- 

 coln, President Johnson and others in authority 

 showed a disposition to treat the Confederate 

 leaders with severity. Indictments for treason 

 were brought against Lee and several others, 

 in absolute disregard of the terms of surrender. 

 Grant protested against this breach of faith, 

 and even threatened to resign from the army 

 if the President did not heed his protest. In 

 1866 Grant, was promoted to the rank of gen- 

 eral, a grade higher than any other American 

 soldier, not excepting Washington, had held 

 before him. In 1867, after President Johnson 

 had suspended Secretary of War Stanton, Grant 

 was appointed to succeed him, but he was only 

 too glad to resign when the Senate refused to 

 confirm the President's action. His eagerness 

 to keep out of the controversy between Con- 

 gress and the President led to bitter feeling 

 between him and Johnson, and brought Grant 

 into politics in spite of himself. 



Grant had never taken any interest in poli- 

 tics; in fact, he had only voted at one Presi- 

 dential election, that of 1856, when he cast his 

 ballot for Buchanan. In 1868, politically con- 

 sidered, he was an unknown quantity. A 

 number of leading Democrats even approached 

 him with a proposal to make him- the Demo- 

 cratic nominee for President, but the effect of 

 his quarrel with Johnson had been to bring him 



