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04 - Ulysses S. Grant by Owen Wister · Ulysses S. Grant

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  Speaker 1: Section four of Ulysses S. Grant by Owen Wister. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain, Chapter five, part one.
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  Speaker 1: On Friday April twelfth, eighteen sixty one, news reached Galena
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  Speaker 1: that South Carolina had fired upon Fort Sumter. On Monday
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  Speaker 1: came tidings of its capture. On Tuesday, there was a
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  Speaker 1: town meeting with a slippery mare. But two spirits of
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  Speaker 1: a different quality spoke out. Washburn said, any man who
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  Speaker 1: will try to stir party prejudices at such a time
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  Speaker 1: as this is a traitor. Rawlins ended his fervent speech,
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  Speaker 1: we will stand by the flag of our country and
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  Speaker 1: appeal to the God of battles. These two names must
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  Speaker 1: always be joined with Grant's fortunes, and this was the
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  Speaker 1: first night of their common cause. Washburn in Congress became
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  Speaker 1: Grant's good angel against the public, and Rawlins in Grant's
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  Speaker 1: tent was his good angel against temptation. John A. Rawlins
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  Speaker 1: farmer charcoal burner, self educated lawyer, Swarthy rough hewn passionate.
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  Speaker 1: As mister Garland writes of him in later years, Grant said,
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  Speaker 1: I always disliked to hear anybody swear, except Rawlin's it
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  Speaker 1: was over Grant's whisky that many of these oaths were raised.
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  Speaker 1: And though we have heard much about the glasses which
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  Speaker 1: he drank, we shall never know the tale of those
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  Speaker 1: which he escaped drinking. Thanks to his friend, Grant kept
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  Speaker 1: Rawlins close to him throughout the war and after it,
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  Speaker 1: as long as he lived. His loss was sorrowful and irreparable.
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  Speaker 1: At the end of the town meeting, Grant told his
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  Speaker 1: brother that he thought he ought to go in to
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  Speaker 1: the service. On Thursday, he found himself chairman of a
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  Speaker 1: meeting to raise volunteers. After his first few words of embarrassment,
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  Speaker 1: he made himself plain enough, though an abolitionist by no means,
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  Speaker 1: he says in a letter to his father in law,
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  Speaker 1: at this time in all this I can see but
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  Speaker 1: the doom of slavery. Believing he could better serve his
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  Speaker 1: state at Springfield, he declined the captaincy of a volunteer company,
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  Speaker 1: but helped them form and drill, and went with them
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  Speaker 1: to Springfield on the same train. But though Washburn's belief
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  Speaker 1: in him was already considerable, his influence for a while
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  Speaker 1: wrought nothing in the chaos of intrigues and appointments. As
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  Speaker 1: the French Colonel Zabed vividly describes this period in our country.
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  Speaker 1: Never were commanders of such high rank created with more
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  Speaker 1: rapidity and less discernment. Those who had some knowledge of
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  Speaker 1: the art of war as well as those who were
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  Speaker 1: ignorant of its first principles. Well educated and intelligent men,
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  Speaker 1: together with men totally illiterate and vulgar, all received their
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  Speaker 1: stars with an equal facility, and all alike believed themselves
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  Speaker 1: capable of leading to victory. Nor is this a supercilious
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  Speaker 1: European view. When the baggage animals were starving at Chattanooga,
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  Speaker 1: Lincoln complained, I can make a brigadier general any day
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  Speaker 1: I like. But these mules cost a hundred and fifty
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  Speaker 1: dollars apiece. In the vast shuffle and ferment, then how
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  Speaker 1: should poor silent, unshowy Grant not be lost? The marvel
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  Speaker 1: is that he was found so soon. It all seems
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  Speaker 1: as casual as fate tired of waiting. Though Washburn counseled patients,
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  Speaker 1: he was about to return to Gallena when he was
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  Speaker 1: taken into the Adjunant General's office, and for a while
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  Speaker 1: he sat in a corner filling blanks with such ease
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  Speaker 1: and naturalness that nobody noticed. It was well done. Next
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  Speaker 1: he was sent for a few days to Camp Yates
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  Speaker 1: while the commandant was absent. Force was felt in him here,
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  Speaker 1: and he was one of the five officers appointed to
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  Speaker 1: muster in ten regiments at Matoon. It was called Camp Grant.
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  Speaker 1: But none of this led to anything. He wrote to
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  Speaker 1: his father, I might have got the colonelcy of a regiment, possibly,
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  Speaker 1: but I was perfectly sick of the political wire pulling
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  Speaker 1: for all these commissions and would not engage in it.
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  Speaker 1: While mustering, he had a few idle days to wait, and,
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  Speaker 1: finding himself near Saint Louis, waited there. The town was
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  Speaker 1: a pot of conspiracy. Clayborne Jackson, the governor, with a
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  Speaker 1: Union mask gone, was stealing troops and arms for secession.
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  Speaker 1: Francis Blair and Nathaniel Lyon, two most competent patriots, watched
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  Speaker 1: him through his mask. At the right moment they captured
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  Speaker 1: his entire camp. A rebel flag which had been flying
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  Speaker 1: in Saint Louis, then came down to stay down. Grant
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  Speaker 1: looked on at this, and, presently entering a street car,
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  Speaker 1: was addressed by a youth in words that may be
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  Speaker 1: dwelt upon the mouth of Ireland, never uttered a bull
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  Speaker 1: more perfect secession, never drew its own portrait with a
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  Speaker 1: straighter stroke. The profound self contradiction between the youth's two
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  Speaker 1: sentences has placed him in history. Things have come to
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  Speaker 1: a damned pretty pass, said he, when a free people
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  Speaker 1: can't choose their own flag where I came from. If
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  Speaker 1: a man dares to say a word in favor of
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  Speaker 1: the Union, we hang him to a limb of the
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  Speaker 1: first tree we come to. In Grant's reply, the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of the Union is likewise drawn. After all, we are
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  Speaker 1: not so intolerant in Saint Louis as we might be.
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  Speaker 1: I have not seen a single rebel hung yet, nor
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  Speaker 1: heard of one. There are plenty of them who ought
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  Speaker 1: to be. However, he next wrote from home to Washington,
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  Speaker 1: offering his services, and with some hesitation, saying that he
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  Speaker 1: felt himself competent to command a regiment. No answer came.
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  Speaker 1: He went to Cincinnati to see General mc clellan, but
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  Speaker 1: failing twice, gave this up too. Of his enforced idleness,
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  Speaker 1: he writes May thirty, during the six days I have
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  Speaker 1: been at home, I have felt all the time as
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  Speaker 1: if a duty was being neglected. That was paramount to
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  Speaker 1: any other duty I ever owed. But now the troops
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  Speaker 1: of the twenty first Illinois had become insubordinate. It was
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  Speaker 1: a regiment which he had mustered at matoon, and it
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  Speaker 1: would appear that the officers, dissatisfied with their colonel, had
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  Speaker 1: spoken to the governor of Grant. The governor seems to
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  Speaker 1: have been puzzled. Meeting a book keeper from the Gallinas store,
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  Speaker 1: he said, of what kind of a man is this,
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  Speaker 1: Captain Grant. He declined my offer to recommend him to
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  Speaker 1: Washington for a brigadier generalship, saying it in want office
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  Speaker 1: till he had earned it. And the bookkeeper replied, ask
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  Speaker 1: him no questions, but simply order him to duty. On
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  Speaker 1: the day when through a friend's offices, Grant had received
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  Speaker 1: the commission of colonel of an Ohio regiment, Governor Yates
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  Speaker 1: telegraphed him his appointment as colonel of the twenty first Illinois,
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  Speaker 1: and this he chose and went to Springfield. There is
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  Speaker 1: a story that he was introduced to his command by
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  Speaker 1: two orators, who both burst into eloquence and rhapsodized for
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  Speaker 1: some time. His turn came, and much was expected from him.
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  Speaker 1: But his speech was this, men, go to your quarters.
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  Speaker 1: They presently discovered that they had a colonel, although the
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  Speaker 1: colonel had no uniform, being obliged to go home and
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  Speaker 1: borrow three hundred dollars to buy him horse and equipments.
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  Speaker 1: This regiment had volunteered for thirty days, but after listening
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  Speaker 1: to mclernand's and Logan's patriotic addresses, Grant relates that they
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  Speaker 1: entered the United States service. Almost to a man, he
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  Speaker 1: does not say that a month later in Missouri, when
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  Speaker 1: these same men, whom he had severely disciplined, heard that
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  Speaker 1: he was likely to be promoted, they requested to be
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  Speaker 1: attached to his command. He wrote his father this, but
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  Speaker 1: he adds that he does not wish it read to
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  Speaker 1: the others, for I very much dislike speaking of myself.
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  Speaker 1: His men did not know his feelings. As he drew
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  Speaker 1: near what he thought was to be his first engagement,
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  Speaker 1: he writes, as we approached the brow of the hill,
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  Speaker 1: from which it was expected we would see Harris's camp
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  Speaker 1: and possibly find his men ready to meet us, my
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  Speaker 1: heart kept getting higher and higher, until it felt to
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  Speaker 1: me as though it was in my throat. But the
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  Speaker 1: troops were gone, my heart resumed its place. It occurred
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  Speaker 1: to me that Harris had been as much afraid of
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  Speaker 1: me as I had been of him. From that event
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  Speaker 1: to the close of the war, I never experienced trepidation
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  Speaker 1: upon confronting an enemy, though I always felt more or
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  Speaker 1: less anxiety. The lesson was valuable. Not much happened to
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  Speaker 1: Grant and Missouri, and he took occasion to rub up
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  Speaker 1: his tactics. I do not believe he says that the
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  Speaker 1: officers of the regiment ever discovered that I had never
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  Speaker 1: studied the tactics that I used. Very likely the officers
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  Speaker 1: did not. But at Shiloh the enemy discovered that no
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  Speaker 1: earthworks had been thrown up. Somewhat later than this, Missouri time,
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  Speaker 1: a young associate of Grant's, who perhaps plumed himself a
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  Speaker 1: little upon his military reading, asked the general something about
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  Speaker 1: Yeomeny's book. Grant replied, with a tinge of impatience, that
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  Speaker 1: he had read Geomeny without much attention, and then he added,
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  Speaker 1: the art of war is simple enough. Find out where
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  Speaker 1: your enemy is, get at him as soon as you can,
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  Speaker 1: strike at him, as hard as you can and as
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  Speaker 1: often as you can, and keep moving on. In this
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  Speaker 1: compact summary speak the master mind. But the enemy got
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  Speaker 1: at Grant at Shiloh, and a little Germany would have
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  Speaker 1: helped there. Before the Battle of the Wilderness, he is
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  Speaker 1: said to have exclaimed to me, Oh, I never maneuver,
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  Speaker 1: And it is said that his library contained not a
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  Speaker 1: single military work. Grant's master mind undoubtedly did learn as
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  Speaker 1: he went on. But if books had taught him more
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  Speaker 1: of the experience of the world's generals, he would not
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  Speaker 1: have had to acquire so much himself at the cost
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  Speaker 1: of thousands of lives. Sherman's own letter to Grant March tenth,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty four hints this, but with the indulgent voice
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  Speaker 1: of friendship. My only points of doubt were as to
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  Speaker 1: your knowledge of grand strategy and of books of science
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  Speaker 1: and history. But I confess your common sense seems to
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  Speaker 1: have supplied all this. There seems no doubt that Grant
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  Speaker 1: possessed grand strategy, and none that his tactics remained weak
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  Speaker 1: to the end. Common sense, indeed, was his great weapon,
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  Speaker 1: and with this finally came the power of grasping a
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  Speaker 1: vast conflict of simultaneous facts and instantly forming the right
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  Speaker 1: judgment of what he must do. Those who saw him
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  Speaker 1: for the first time must have been amazed to learn
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  Speaker 1: the story of the thirteen Torpid years. He supervised, the rations,
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  Speaker 1: the equipment, the transportation. There was not a material need
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  Speaker 1: or detail that he did not thoroughly foresee and attend to.
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  Speaker 1: An officer serving under him, wrote back to Gallina, this
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  Speaker 1: man is the pure gold. As the stress of experience
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  Speaker 1: and responsibility roused him more and more, his brain took
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  Speaker 1: in his command like a great multiplication table, from the
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  Speaker 1: efficiency of the private as a unit, how much he
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  Speaker 1: must eat, how far he could march, what load he
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  Speaker 1: could carry, He reckoned and combined, and so knew what
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  Speaker 1: aggressive strength he had or should want at any given time,
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  Speaker 1: expressed so to speak, in foot pounds of soldiers. Upon
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  Speaker 1: this material side, the Mexican War was a great help
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  Speaker 1: to him. And upon quite another side, he has the
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  Speaker 1: following to say, all the older officers who became conspicuous
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  Speaker 1: in the rebellion I had also served with and known
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  Speaker 1: in Mexico. The acquaintance thus formed was of immense service
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  Speaker 1: to me in the war of the rebellion. I mean
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  Speaker 1: what I learned of the characters of those to whom
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  Speaker 1: I was afterwards opposed. The natural disposition of most people
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  Speaker 1: is to clothe the commander of a large army whom
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  Speaker 1: they do not know, with almost suit super human abilities.
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  Speaker 1: A large part of the National Army, for instance, and
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  Speaker 1: most of the press of the country, clothed General Lee
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  Speaker 1: with just such qualities. But I had known him personally
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  Speaker 1: and knew that he was mortal, and it was just
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  Speaker 1: as well that I felt this at this early time. However,
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  Speaker 1: Grant thought the war would be of short duration, and
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  Speaker 1: Lee was a long way from his presentiments. On August seventh,
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  Speaker 1: eighteen sixty one, while still in southeastern Missouri, he was
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  Speaker 1: made brigadier general, to his own great surprise of his
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  Speaker 1: methods of discipline. Soon after this appointment, a singular story
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  Speaker 1: is told. The command was marching and food was scarce.
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  Speaker 1: A lieutenant with an advanced guard reached a farmhouse, and,
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  Speaker 1: upon informing its mistress that he was General Grant and
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  Speaker 1: was hungry, received a precipitate and copious mess, and went
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  Speaker 1: on much comforted. Presently, Grant himself rode to the same
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  Speaker 1: door and asked for food. General Grant has just left here,
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  Speaker 1: he was told, and has eaten everything. Um, said Grant,
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  Speaker 1: everything a pie did remain, and for this the General
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  Speaker 1: gave the woman fifty cents, requesting her to keep it
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  Speaker 1: until called for Riding on to camp, he ordered grand
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  Speaker 1: parade at once, and to the astonished assembly, the acting
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  Speaker 1: Assistant Adjutant General read the following order. Lieutenant W of
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  Speaker 1: the Indiana Cavalry, having on this day eaten everything in
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  Speaker 1: Missus Salvage's house at the crossing of the Ironton and
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  Speaker 1: Pocahontas and Black River and Cape Girardeau roads, except one
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  Speaker 1: pumpkin pie. Lieutenant W is hereby ordered to return with
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  Speaker 1: an s scort of one hundred cavalry and eat that pie. Also,
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  Speaker 1: whether authentic or not, the story is very like Grant
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  Speaker 1: in several ways. The lieutenant could have been, with propriety
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  Speaker 1: severely punished for personating his commander. This method, however, achieved
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  Speaker 1: its purpose thoroughly. On the other hand, it may be
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  Speaker 1: doubted if General Lee would have chosen it. There is
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  Speaker 1: great difference between native refinement, which Grant had and good taste,
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  Speaker 1: which he had not. Insubordination, however, whether in men or officers,
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  Speaker 1: was neither the only nor the chief trouble which met
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  Speaker 1: the new brigadier general. It was something moreover with which
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  Speaker 1: he could cope so well that he was steadily gaining
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  Speaker 1: not only the obedience but the regard of his command.
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  Speaker 1: Another thing there was against which he was quite powerless.
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  Speaker 1: His wherey quartermasterly eye watched a ring of contractors in
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  Speaker 1: Saint Louis too closely for their convenience. They could do
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  Speaker 1: what they liked with the feudal Fremont now in command
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  Speaker 1: of the department. But Grant spoiled their plans, and they
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  Speaker 1: accordingly revived the story of his drinking by order of
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  Speaker 1: his surgeon. He had taken some whisky, and that was
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  Speaker 1: the whole of it. But it was enough. General Prentiss,
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  Speaker 1: a little jealous about rank, departed from Grant's jurisdiction, saying
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  Speaker 1: I will not serve under a drunkard. The slander reached
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  Speaker 1: Washburn through the newspapers, and he, his faith in Grant,
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  Speaker 1: already great but not yet impregnable, as it soon became,
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  Speaker 1: wrote to Rawlins. Rawlins answered, explaining that the surgeon had
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  Speaker 1: prescribed whisky for an attack of agu and added that
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  Speaker 1: much as he loved Grant, he loved his country more,
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  Speaker 1: and if at any time from any cause he should
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  Speaker 1: see his chief unfit for the position he occupied, he
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  Speaker 1: should deem it his duty to report the fact at
• 18:10
  Speaker 1: once before mailing the letter, continues Richardson. He handed it
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  Speaker 1: to Grant, the general, who had suffered keenly from these reports,
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  Speaker 1: read it with such feeling, and said emphatically, yes, that's right,
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  Speaker 1: exactly right. Send it by all means. It is a
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  Speaker 1: creditable story to every one except Prentice and the contractors.
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  Speaker 1: And it reveals rawlins in a bright light. No wonder
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  Speaker 1: Grant let him swear whenever he wanted. For a little
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: while Grant was ordered about hither and thither in Missouri.
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  Speaker 1: But there is nothing decisive to record until soon after
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: being assigned the command of the District of Southeast Missouri,
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: he took up his headquarters at Caro on September four.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Here he stands upon the threshold of his fame. So
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  Speaker 1: unpretending a figure does he make that a first sight
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  Speaker 1: of him perplexes and discourages each newcomer. Twelve weeks ago
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  Speaker 1: he had been nothing. Then he was made a colonel.
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  Speaker 1: Now he was a brigadier general of volunteers. One summer
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  Speaker 1: had done this, but it had done as much for
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  Speaker 1: half a hundred others. So here was quite a large
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  Speaker 1: company with even chances. But chance and the man are
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  Speaker 1: rare comrades. Like many, he had expected this war to
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: be a smaller thing than our campaign in Mexico. That
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: was twenty six months, its losses about a thousand lives
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  Speaker 1: a month, Its cost one hundred and sixty million. The
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  Speaker 1: rebellion lasted forty eight months. It was a battle ground
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  Speaker 1: somewhat larger than England, Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, Spain and
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  Speaker 1: Portugal put together. There were eighteen hundred and eighty two
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  Speaker 1: fights where at least one regiment was engaged, and certain
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  Speaker 1: battles where some hundred and fifty thousand men were engaged.
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  Speaker 1: The losses in its four years came to seven hundred
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  Speaker 1: lives a day. The cost of it was three billion,
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  Speaker 1: four hundred million, or about two and a half million
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  Speaker 1: dollars a day. Mister Saintsbury, the eminent English critic, has
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  Speaker 1: called this a parochial disturbance. Wolsey, the conspicuous English general,
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  Speaker 1: has said that an army of fifty thousand trained soldiers
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: could have ended the matter in six months. But this
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: military man at that time had not suppressed the Boers.
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: Such utterances are, of course merely the voice of English petulance.
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  Speaker 1: That our house, when divided against itself, did not fall united.
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  Speaker 1: We were a disagreeable competitor for England. Moreover, the Union's
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: triumph might affect England's getting southern cotton. It was feared,
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: And in Lord Russell's evasions over the Declaration of Paris,
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: and in the sailing of the Alabama, and in the
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: welcome which London gave Benjamin of Davis's cabinet when he
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: came there to live after the war, England's hostile undertone
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  Speaker 1: to the Union speaks out plainly. We had friends there,
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  Speaker 1: the Prince Consort and through him the Queen John Bright
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  Speaker 1: and the Manchester Men. But the rank and file of
• 21:43
  Speaker 1: the aristocracy were full of virtuous rage at our presuming
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  Speaker 1: to be a great nation. No more than grant does
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Jefferson Davis seem to have looked for a grave struggle.
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  Speaker 1: He and the few leaders who took the South into
• 21:58
  Speaker 1: secession managed to make it believe that one Southerner was
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  Speaker 1: equal to five Yankees. And Davis made a speech in
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: which he announced that he was ready to drink every
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  Speaker 1: drop of blood shed south of Mason and Dixon's line.
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: This line across our country was quite seriously thought by
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  Speaker 1: secessionists to divide all Americans geographically into heroes and cowards.
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  Speaker 1: This tribomania was very naturally heightened by the performances of
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: Generals Butler and Shank, and the rout of bull Run.
• 22:36
  Speaker 1: In the east. The Union cause looked dark enough when
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: light unexpectedly came from the west. General Grant stands the
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: central figure in that light. To follow him, a survey
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: of the country must be taken through the gallant Lion
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  Speaker 1: and Blair and Curtis and Pope. Secession presently lost Missouri.
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  Speaker 1: This may safe Illinois across the river for all east
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  Speaker 1: from there was Union to the Atlantic, but just south
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  Speaker 1: came doubtful Kentucky, and south of that was Confederate Tennessee,
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  Speaker 1: and from there to the Gulf and east and west
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  Speaker 1: was all secession. Kentucky then was the first point after
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  Speaker 1: that the Great River, the Highway, whose gates were closed,
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  Speaker 1: and which ran between the banks of Secession all the
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: way to New Orleans and the Gulf. Now Kentucky, like Missouri,
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: had loyal citizens, but a secession governor, and it was
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: the part of the South to secure this state if possible.
• 23:43
  Speaker 1: But no sooner did General Polk, with that aim move
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: upon Columbus on the river, thus threatening Caro, than Grant
• 23:51
  Speaker 1: secured Caro himself. The Mississippi was closed from Columbus down.
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: If Polk should get Paducah, the Ohio would be locked
• 24:01
  Speaker 1: up too. Grant saw this and telegraphing the futile Fremont.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: I am nearly ready to go to Paducah, and shall start,
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: should not a telegram arrive preventing the movement, waited until
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: night and went. He took Paducah without firing a gun.
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: Through his prompt sagacity, the Ohio was locked against Polk.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: He now wanted to keep moving according to his view
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: of war, but Fremont could not see that Columbus should
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: be taken, and Polk was allowed to fortify there and
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: to send some forces against a Union command in Missouri.
• 24:40
  Speaker 1: On November five, Grant wrote to C. S. Smith, who
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: was holding the mouth of the Cumberland, the principal point
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: to gain is to prevent the enemy from sending a
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: force in the rear of those now out of his command. Accordingly,
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: two days after Grant steamed down the river in the morning,
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: upon on Belmont on the west bank, and retreated up
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: the river again. In the evening. He had surprised and
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: destroyed the enemy's camp, but Polk crossed with reinforcements from Columbus, and,
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: regaining the field, drove him from it with a loss
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: of five hundred men. Grant was the last on the transport,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: riding his horse aboard on a plank pushed out for him.
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: In his plain dress, he looked like a private. There's
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: a Yankee if he'll want a shot, said Polk to
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: his men, But they busy firing at the crowded boats.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: Thought one shabby soldier, too poor a mark. Belmont was
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: a defeat, but one of those which are successes, just
• 25:45
  Speaker 1: as there are victories which are failures. It accomplished its object.
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: Polk did not send the troops into Missouri as he intended.
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: He kept them at hand against further surprises. End of
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: Chapter five, Part one,