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

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  Speaker 1: Section five of Ulysses s grant by Owen Wister. This
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording is in the public domain. Chapter five, Part two.
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  Speaker 1: Secessions Frontier at this time was a slight curve from
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  Speaker 1: Columbus eastward and up to Bowling Green, then down to
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  Speaker 1: Cumberland Gap. It thus lapped over a little from Tennessee
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  Speaker 1: into Kentucky. Its weak point was the hole made in
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  Speaker 1: it by two rivers, the Tennessee and Cumberland, crossing it
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  Speaker 1: twelve miles apart. Two forts barred these precious highways, Henry
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  Speaker 1: and Donelson. If these two gates were knocked down, the
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  Speaker 1: Union had a clear road to the heart of the South,
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  Speaker 1: for by the Tennessee troops could travel into Alabama and
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  Speaker 1: be fed. Also. Thus, Secessions Frontier could be pushed back,
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  Speaker 1: and as it receded down along the bank of the Mississippi,
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  Speaker 1: that highway almost inevitably must open. This was clear to
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  Speaker 1: many eyes, but to mc clellan's it was not visible.
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  Speaker 1: This General in chief could see nothing beyond his own movements.
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  Speaker 1: At Saint Louis, Fremont had been succeeded by a person
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  Speaker 1: equally incapable. General Halleck was the sort of learned soldier
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  Speaker 1: who brings learning into contempt. He was full of geomany
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  Speaker 1: and empty of all power to master a situation on him. Grant,
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  Speaker 1: like others, urged the value of striking Forts Henry and Donaldson.
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  Speaker 1: But Halleck, whether under mc clellan's influence or for other reasons,
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  Speaker 1: snubbed him, and so for a while the matter rested
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  Speaker 1: at length. However, after General Thomas, near Cumberland Gap, had
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  Speaker 1: knocked the east end of Secessions frontier southward and consequently
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  Speaker 1: threatened its middle at Bowling Green, Halleck, relinquishing his notion
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  Speaker 1: that sixty thousand men were necessary, let Grant go with
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  Speaker 1: seventeen thousand and seven gunboats under commodore foot. This was
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  Speaker 1: February second. In four days, Grant had Fort Henry in
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  Speaker 1: ten More, Fort Donelson, and the gates to the rivers
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  Speaker 1: were open. Secession's frontier was crashed through from Columbus to
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  Speaker 1: Cumberland Gap and shrank many miles southward. It was quick
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  Speaker 1: and final, and Grant had thought of it and done it.
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  Speaker 1: He was indebted to nobody. His own letter about it,
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  Speaker 1: written to Washburne a month later, is like him, I
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  Speaker 1: see the credit of attacking the enemy by way of
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  Speaker 1: the Tennessee and Cumberland is variously attributed. It is little
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  Speaker 1: to talk about it being the great wisdom of any general.
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  Speaker 1: General Halleck no doubt thought of this route long ago,
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  Speaker 1: and I am sure I did. Let it be said
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  Speaker 1: that Grant's adversaries helped him greatly in dividing his thirty
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  Speaker 1: thousand men and sending but sixteen thousand to Donelson. Sidney
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  Speaker 1: Johnston made a perilous error in giving the command to
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  Speaker 1: Floyd and Pillow. He made the error worse Grant knew them,
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  Speaker 1: He struck and won. They deserted, leaving Buckner to conduct
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  Speaker 1: the surrender. The news to the Union was a breath
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  Speaker 1: of health after jaded months of sickness. Grant's words, I
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  Speaker 1: proposed to move immediately upon your works and unconditional surrender
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  Speaker 1: were like a backbone appearing in something that had begun
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  Speaker 1: to look like a jellyfish. He was now made major
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  Speaker 1: General of Volunteers. This battle, like all his others, has
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  Speaker 1: been proved a mere bungle by hostile critics. The spirit
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  Speaker 1: of these gentlemen can be given to the reader in
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  Speaker 1: a word. One of them, after exposing Grant's tactics exposes
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  Speaker 1: his English. I propose to move immediately upon your works
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  Speaker 1: would be grammar, he says, if immediately had come at
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  Speaker 1: the end. But now Grant was suddenly relieved of command
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  Speaker 1: and put in arrest. Halleck had not heard from him,
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  Speaker 1: and Halleck had heard of his leaving his post and
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  Speaker 1: going to Nashville. Grant's enemies, the contractors, had not enjoyed
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  Speaker 1: his recent suggestion to Halleck that all fraudulent contractors be
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  Speaker 1: impressed into the ranks, or still better, into the gunboat service,
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  Speaker 1: where they could have no chance of deserting. They therefore
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  Speaker 1: had surrounded Halleck with rumors entirely faults of Grant's drinking.
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  Speaker 1: Halleck had had a spy watching Grant's habits in a
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  Speaker 1: little house that was his headquarters before the surrender. He
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  Speaker 1: now never waiting to learn the cause of Grant's silence,
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  Speaker 1: which was due to interrupted communications, or Grant's reason for
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  Speaker 1: going to Nashville, which was to confer with Buell, who
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  Speaker 1: had occupied that town. Petulantly complained to Washington it was
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  Speaker 1: set right in nine days, but Halleck was afraid to
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  Speaker 1: let Grant know the hand he had had in it.
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  Speaker 1: Grant never voutsafed a syllable to the world's injurious assaults
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  Speaker 1: upon him at this hour or at any other of
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  Speaker 1: his life. But in a letter to Washburn he gives
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  Speaker 1: us a glimpse into his silent soul. There are some
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  Speaker 1: things which I wish to say to you in my
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  Speaker 1: own vindication, not that I care a straw for what
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  Speaker 1: is said individually, but because you have taken so much
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  Speaker 1: interest in my welfare. And one evening during the nine
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  Speaker 1: days Humiliation, a sword was presented to him by some officers.
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  Speaker 1: After their speech and departure. He stood looking at the
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  Speaker 1: gift in silence, where it lay before him on the
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  Speaker 1: table of the gunboat cabin. Suddenly pushing it from him,
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  Speaker 1: he exclaimed, I shall never wear a sword again, and
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  Speaker 1: turned away. Only one or two witnessed this breaking of
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  Speaker 1: the real man from the depths of his grief, and
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  Speaker 1: generally he managed to keep a face like stone. But
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  Speaker 1: upon the occasion when he learned of his friend mac
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  Speaker 1: Pherson's death, he went into his tent and wept like
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  Speaker 1: a child. At this time he walked in intimate silence
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  Speaker 1: with C. F. Smith, his West Point commandant, and his
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  Speaker 1: temporary superior now, and those who saw them say that
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  Speaker 1: Grant's manner to Smith was something of an old pupil's
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  Speaker 1: respect and something of a plain man's admiration for his
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  Speaker 1: more polished and splendid friend, while Smith, on his side,
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  Speaker 1: treated Grant as a creature whose larger dimensions he felt
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  Speaker 1: and bowed to. Some further pictures of Grant at Donelson
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  Speaker 1: show several sides of the man. On the eve of
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  Speaker 1: the surrender, Pillow had made a desperate sortie while Grant
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  Speaker 1: was conferring with Foot on his gunboat. For a while.
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  Speaker 1: It was a bad business, and when Grant returned he
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  Speaker 1: flushed at the havoc made in his absence. His reputation
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  Speaker 1: was at stake. He gathered the fragments, and before evening
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  Speaker 1: knew he was master by a shrewd inference which has
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  Speaker 1: become historic. The enemy's haversacks held three days rations. Others
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  Speaker 1: saw in this a preparation for a three days fight,
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  Speaker 1: but Grant knew it meant not fight but flight. He
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  Speaker 1: saw that morning would give him Donaldson. He wrote to Halleck,
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  Speaker 1: they will surrender tomorrow, and when asked if this was
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  Speaker 1: not a premature message, referred to the Haversacks as the
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  Speaker 1: basis of his conviction. When the surrender was arranged, one
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  Speaker 1: of the young men, the one who had spoken of geomeny,
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  Speaker 1: hoped that they would have the picturesque formalities of such occasions,
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  Speaker 1: the lowered flags and so forth. But Grant said emphatically, no,
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  Speaker 1: why humiliate a brave enemy. He inquired, We've got them,
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  Speaker 1: that's all we want. When the crestfallen, Buckner capitulated, and
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  Speaker 1: Grant found him penniless in the forlorn place. He remembered
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  Speaker 1: Buckner's friendly help when he had been penniless in New York.
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  Speaker 1: He left the officers of his own army, says Buckner
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  Speaker 1: in a speech long afterward, and followed me, with that
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  Speaker 1: modest manner, peculiar to himself, into the shadow, and there
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  Speaker 1: tendered me his purse. It seems to me, mister Chairman,
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  Speaker 1: that in the modesty of his nature, he was afraid
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  Speaker 1: the light would witness that act of generosity, and sought
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  Speaker 1: to hide it from the world. We can appreciate that, sir,
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  Speaker 1: Indeed we can, and we can appreciate Buckner's own warm
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  Speaker 1: heart whenever history gives us a glimpse of it. When
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  Speaker 1: Grant was bidding this world goodbye in patience and suffering.
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  Speaker 1: Buckner was one of the last to visit him and
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  Speaker 1: take his hand. The pen would linger over Donaldson, over
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  Speaker 1: Smith's gallantry that saved the day on the fifteenth, and
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  Speaker 1: his delightful address to the Iowa volunteers, over mclarnan's good fighting,
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  Speaker 1: and over Foot and his gunboats. About the navy, Indeed,
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  Speaker 1: a word must be said from Fort Henry, which it
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  Speaker 1: took unaided to the day when Vicksburg fell and the
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  Speaker 1: Great River rolled unvexed to the sea. The navy was
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  Speaker 1: not only illustrious and invaluable, but also it made fewer
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  Speaker 1: mistakes than the army. The names of Foot, Porter Davis,
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  Speaker 1: and Farragut let Ellots be added, too, must be spoken
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  Speaker 1: together with those of the land soldiers. As some one
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  Speaker 1: has happily said, the army and the Navy were the
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  Speaker 1: two shears of the scissors. From Donelson, Grant stepped into
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  Speaker 1: a broadening labyrinth of action. He wished at once to
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  Speaker 1: strike Polk at Columbus. Halleck prescribed caution, and Polk, unhindered,
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  Speaker 1: escaped south to Corinth, where, under Sidney Johnston, the south
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  Speaker 1: was massing all the strength it could bring. Columbus fell
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  Speaker 1: to the Union, and New Madrid and Island number ten.
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  Speaker 1: The next two barriers down the river were broken by
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  Speaker 1: Pope and Foot in March and April. On land, it
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  Speaker 1: grew plain that somewhere about Corinth the armies must try
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  Speaker 1: a big conclusion. This happened not as Grant expected. Restored
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  Speaker 1: to command, he had rejoined the army up the Tennessee River,
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  Speaker 1: and had approved wisely, according to many good opinions, the
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  Speaker 1: position at Pittsburgh, landing in the enemy's country, selected by C. F. Smith,
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  Speaker 1: But he looked for no battle, just here and here
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  Speaker 1: Sidney Johnston surprised him. On Sunday and Monday, April sixth
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  Speaker 1: and seven was fought the Battle of Shiloh, Buell arriving
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  Speaker 1: in time to reinforce Grant for Monday's fight. The words
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  Speaker 1: of Buell are the words of an embittered rival, but
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  Speaker 1: they tell the unanswerable truth. An army comprising seventy regiments
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  Speaker 1: of infantry, twenty battalions of artillery, and a sufficiency of
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  Speaker 1: cavalry lay for two weeks and more in isolated camps
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  Speaker 1: with a river in its rear, and a hostile army
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  Speaker 1: claimed to be superior in numbers twenty miles distant in
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  Speaker 1: its front, while the commander made his headquarters and passed
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  Speaker 1: his nights nine miles away on the opposite side of
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  Speaker 1: the river. It had no line or order of battle,
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  Speaker 1: no defensive works of any sort, no outposts properly speaking
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  Speaker 1: to give warning or check the advance of an enemy,
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  Speaker 1: and no recognized head During the absence of the regular commander.
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  Speaker 1: On a Sunday, the hostile force arrived and formed in
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  Speaker 1: order of battle without detection or hindrance. Within a mile
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  Speaker 1: and a half of the unguarded army advanced upon it
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  Speaker 1: the next morning, penetrated its disconnected lines. Of Grant himself
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  Speaker 1: is nothing to be said. If he could have done
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  Speaker 1: anything in the beginning. He was not on the ground
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  Speaker 1: in time, But he was one of the many there
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  Speaker 1: who would have resisted while resistance could avail. That is
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  Speaker 1: all that can be said. But it is an honorable record,
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  Speaker 1: a severe judgment, which controversy sustains and history will affirm
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  Speaker 1: inexperience is the honest explanation. Grant's fame is not helped
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  Speaker 1: by covering Shiloh and Grant's fame can stand the truth.
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  Speaker 1: So also did Napoleon lose touch of his enemy at
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  Speaker 1: Marengo through failure to use his cavalry for reconnoitering. He
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  Speaker 1: went to sleep expecting no battle in the morning, and
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  Speaker 1: in the morning he was surprised and defeated by Milus,
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  Speaker 1: as Johnston surprised and defeated Grant, reinforced by Dessay's return
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  Speaker 1: in the afternoon, he recovered himself, as Grant, reinforced by Buell,
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  Speaker 1: recovered himself. On the second day. The Union lost some
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  Speaker 1: thirteen thousand men, the South eleven thousand, and understood thereafter
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  Speaker 1: that all American blood was equally gallant, whether northern or southern.
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  Speaker 1: Grant made another mistake here, and his reasons for not
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  Speaker 1: pursuing the enemy, who had lost Sidney Johnston the first
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  Speaker 1: day are not convincing. Mister John Fiske, quoting Sherman's remark
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  Speaker 1: about it to himself, gives the human clue to this
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  Speaker 1: bad military error. I assure you, my dear fellow, we
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  Speaker 1: had had quite enough of their society for two whole days,
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  Speaker 1: and were only too glad to get rid of them
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  Speaker 1: on any terms. The writer has heard this same explanation
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  Speaker 1: from another soldier. So the enemy, now under Beauregard, fell
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  Speaker 1: back to Corinth, and with needless and pompous caution, was
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  Speaker 1: driven from there by the learned Halleck. After some weeks
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  Speaker 1: for the learned Halleck came down now and took command personally,
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  Speaker 1: and Grant was again under a cloud, a mere onlooker,
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  Speaker 1: with the sterile position of second in command. Again, as always,
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  Speaker 1: he answered no word to the furious storm of abuse
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  Speaker 1: which the country let loose upon him. To Washburn, he wrote,
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  Speaker 1: I would scorn being my own defender, except through the
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  Speaker 1: record of all my official acts. To say that I
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  Speaker 1: have not been distressed would be false. One thing I
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  Speaker 1: will assure you of. However, I cannot be driven from
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  Speaker 1: rendering the best service within my ability to suppress the
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  Speaker 1: present rebellion. And to his father, he wrote, you must
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  Speaker 1: not expel efect me to write in my own defense,
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  Speaker 1: nor to permit it from any one about me. I
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  Speaker 1: know that the feeling of the troops under my command
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  Speaker 1: is favorable to me, and so long as I continue
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  Speaker 1: to do my duty faithfully, it will remain so. I
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  Speaker 1: require no defenders. Nevertheless, his spirit was near being broken,
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  Speaker 1: He had nothing given him to do. He was in
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  Speaker 1: a sort of disgrace. There seemed no outlook. Halleck had
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  Speaker 1: removed his willing hand from the plow at Corinth. He
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  Speaker 1: had applied for a thirty day's leave when Sherman, his
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  Speaker 1: good friend, suspected that all was not well with him.
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  Speaker 1: I inquired for the general, says Sherman, and was shown
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  Speaker 1: to his tent, where I found him seated on a
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  Speaker 1: camp stool with papers on a rude camp table. I
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  Speaker 1: inquired if it were true that he was going away?
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  Speaker 1: He said yes. I then inquired the reason, and he said, Sherman,
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  Speaker 1: you know, you know that I am in the way here.
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  Speaker 1: I have stood it as long as I can, and
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  Speaker 1: can endure it no longer. I then begged him to stay,
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  Speaker 1: illustrating his case by my own before the Battle of Shiloh,
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  Speaker 1: I had been cast down by a mere newspaper assertion.
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  Speaker 1: He promised to wait. Very soon after this, I received
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  Speaker 1: a note from him saying that he would remain. Thus
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  Speaker 1: did Sherman, at the right time stretch his hand to
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  Speaker 1: Grant and help him rise from Shiloh and go on
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  Speaker 1: to Vicksburg, Chattanooga and apromatics, as Donelson so now Corinth
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  Speaker 1: opened more gates down the Mississippi Fort, Pillow, and Memphis.
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  Speaker 1: Before the first of May, Farragut and por Order had
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  Speaker 1: taken New Orleans. Vicksburg should have followed as naturally as
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  Speaker 1: the last brick in a tumbling row, But the learned
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  Speaker 1: Halleck was there to save it with his finnical and
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  Speaker 1: disastrous meddling. He had a hundred thousand men reporting for duty,
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  Speaker 1: Beauregard had half that number. He had also the moral
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  Speaker 1: impetus of victory. While the South was shaken and disconcerted
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  Speaker 1: by Shiloh and Sidney Johnston's death, the very brilliant exploits
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  Speaker 1: of Mitchell had opened the way to Chattanooga for him.
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  Speaker 1: Mobile and Vicksburg were but feebly protected. Other men had
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  Speaker 1: gathered these opportunities, which now slid away like sand through
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  Speaker 1: his inanely opened fingers. He sat cautiously down. Sent Buell
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  Speaker 1: to repair a railroad which was promptly torn up, sent
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  Speaker 1: away troops to hold unprofitable points, refused troops to fect Varrogate,
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  Speaker 1: who wished to strike Port Hudson and Vicksburg. For bad
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  Speaker 1: Pope to risk a battle on any consideration, and crowned
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  Speaker 1: his whole crass performance with the words, I think the
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  Speaker 1: enemy will continue his retreat, which is all I desire.
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  Speaker 1: The enemy immediately strengthened Port Hudson, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, and
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  Speaker 1: Halleck was made General in chief at Washington. To the
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  Speaker 1: blunders of this time may be added the vast farce
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  Speaker 1: of the Legal Tender Act, when the government, against the
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  Speaker 1: soundest advice and warning, declined to borrow money at market
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  Speaker 1: prices because this would be undignified, and issued instead pieces
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  Speaker 1: of paper which it told the world were worth a dollar,
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  Speaker 1: and presently enjoyed the dignity of having the world value
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  Speaker 1: at thirty five cents. There are blunders in eighteen sixty
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  Speaker 1: two so stultifying as to seem incredible. Had we not
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  Speaker 1: seen much the same sort of thing since, But we
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  Speaker 1: were fighting Americans, not Spaniards. Then happily Jefferson Davis made
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  Speaker 1: some blunders too, and thus Grant had only Pemberton and
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  Speaker 1: not Van Dorn to fight at Vicksburg when the time came.
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  Speaker 1: End of Chapter five, Part two