66

We call on General Grant - Reticent, patient, and persistent - We put ourselves on short Rations" of Talk with him-Stories of his Intemperance foul Calumnies - His chivalric Defence of General Sherman-Am entrusted with a Variety of Errands to him-My Decision concerning them-Second call alone on General Grant- "The Gibraltar of America"-The General is very accessible-Not hedged about by Formalities-The most bashful Man I had ever encountered-"I will let you know Tomorrow"-Discharges twenty-one invalid Soldiers, and gives me Transportation for them- One dies in Memphis - Another dies in Chicago, almost Home.

AVING reached Young's Point, our first

movement was to call on General Grant, to present our letters of introduction and endorsement. Our letters of endorsement were from the Secretary of War, the Governors of Illinois and Wisconsin, and our letters of introduction from Dr. Bellows, the President of the United States Sanitary Commission. Two or three of us, who had wished to be prepared for any special emergency that might arise, had obtained letters of recommendation from personal friends of General Grant. His headquarters were on the Magnolia, where we found him domiciled, unsurrounded by any

GENERAL GRANT NOT GARRULOUS.

309

circumstance of pomp or state. All of us who called upon him were as well bestowed in our sanitary boat Omaha, as he, and had in our quarters as much style and luxury.

Our interview was a brief one, and, on the part of the General, laconic. We talked; he listened, and appeared to approve our errand. For, as we rose to go, he inquired if he could aid us in our work. Calling one of his staff officers, and presenting him to us, he requested him to see that any help we might require in the way of escort, passes, ambulances, transportation, etc., was promptly furnished. He regretted, at the same time, that he had not a tug to put at our service, to take us from point to point on the river. The Fanny Ogden, he continued, was his despatch boat, and the swiftest boat in the Western service. It would be running back and forth continually, and whenever it went in a direction that corresponded with our movements we were heartily welcome to its transportation.

This interview decided two points which had been discussed among ourselves and others. One was, that General Grant was not a garrulous man; and the other, that he was not intemperate. All the way down from Chicago, we had heard continually of General Grant's sayings, as well as his doings. We were told that he had said "he would take Vicksburg in so many days, if it cost him three fourths of his army"; that "he would turn the waters of the Mississippi, and leave Vicksburg high and dry, a mile and a half inland," with other like nonsense, which, at that time, did not seem nonsense to the anxious people at home, who neither understood Grant nor the colossal work on his hands.

310

GENERAL GRANT NOT INTEMPERATE.

Our faith in all this twaddle had been somewhat feeble, to be sure; but, as we went out from our first audience with the General, we utterly renounced all credence in its verity. In the first five minutes of our interview, we learned, by some sort of spiritual telegraphy, that reticence, patience, and persistence were the dominant traits of General Grant. We had had familiar and unconventional interviews with other officers we had met, had asked questions and given opinions, had gossiped and joked and "played the agreeable" with them. But we would as soon have undertaken a tête-à-tête with the Sphinx itself as with this quiet, repressed, reluctant, undemonstrative man; and we should have succeeded as well with one as with the other. We instinctively put ourselves on "short rations" of talk with him, and so compressed the porosities of language that no one of us will ever have to give account of "idle words" used on that occasion.

Neither was General Grant a drunkard, — that was immediately apparent to us. This conviction gave us such joy, that, had we been younger, we should all, men and women alike, have tossed our hats in air and hurrahed. As it was, we looked each other in the face, and said heartily, "Thank God!" and breathed more freely. We had seen enough, in our progress down the river, at the different headquarters where we had called, to render us anxious beyond measure lest our brave army should be jeopardized, if not our holy cause itself, by the intemperance of its commanders. But the clear eye, clean skin, firm flesh, and steady nerves of General Grant gave the lie to the universal calumnies, then current, concerning his intemperate habits and those of the

GENERAL SHERMAN DISCUSSED.

311

oicers of his staff. Our eyes had become practised in reading the diagnosis of drunkenness.

There were ladies in our party who both played the piano, and sang, very charmingly. One evening, we accepted an invitation from General Grant's Chief-of-Staff to pass an hour or two on board the Magnolia. Our host informed us that "there was a very good piano at General Grant's headquarters, and that he was very fond of music." After an hour of music, we drifted into a conversation upon various topics, until finally General Sherman became the subject of discussion. I observed now that General Grant listened intently.

General Sherman, at that time, was under a cloud. With the right wing of the Army of the Tennessee, thirty thousand strong, he had passed down the Mississippi and up the Yazoo to Johnston's Landing, where he made an assault on the well-manned fortifications and batteries which defended Vicksburg on the north. Abundant and efficient co-operation was promised him, and he hoped to develop some weak point in the enemy's defences, which extended fifteen miles, from Haines' Bluff to Vicksburg. Then it was believed he could fight his way along the heights into the city.

But for various reasons he failed to receive the support which was promised, while the difficulties growing out of the topography of the abominable country were almost insurmountable. He was repulsed with great slaughter, losing over two thousand men, while the enemy reported a loss of only sixty-three killed. Burying his dead under a flag of truce, General Sherman re-embarked his men for Young's Point and Secretary Halleck ordered

312 "THE GREATEST SOLDIER IN THE WORLD."

General John A. McClernand of Illinois to supersede him.

Immediately General Sherman fell in public estimation. The Northern press was very decided in condemnation of his generalship; and as we went down the river, we had heard this condemnation reiterated and emphasized by men in all positions, many of whom declared the General insane. Some of this gossip was repeated in the conversation that took place on the Magnolia, one of the company remarking that "it was very evident that General Sherman had been much overrated in the past."

"You are mis"General Sher

This brought out General Grant. taken, sir!" he said, very quietly. man cannot be overrated. He is the greatest soldier of the world; and if the Duke of Wellington were alive, I would not rank him second even to him."

"The country will place you before General Sherman in soldierly ability," replied some one present. "It will never assent to the statement that General Sherman is entitled to the first place, not even when you make it."

"The country does General Sherman great injustice, at present," was General Grant's reply. “I am not his superior as a soldier. If I surpass him anywhere, it may be in the planning of a campaign. But of what value are the best planned campaigns, if there are not great soldiers like General Sherman to execute them?" And he spoke with the warmth of friendship, and as one jealous of the honor of a brother soldier. Subsequent events have justified this estimate of General Sherman, and demonstrated the impossibility of creating jealousy or antagonism between these two great men.