CHAPTER XXIII. ELSEWHERE IN THE FIELD. THE MISSISSIPPI.-BANKS.-STEELE.-ROSECRANS.-OUR FORCE COMPARED WITH THE SHERMAN'S EXPEDITION TO MERIDIAN.-THOMAS MOVES UPON DALTON. -SEYMOUR AT OLUSTEE.-ONE HEAD NEEDED.-No POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS. REBELS. Ir becomes us now to take a rapid glance at the general situation of affairs in other parts of the theatre of war. The Mississippi River had been fortified in numerous positions with heavy guns, and garrisoned principally by negro troops, from Cairo to Forts St. Philip and Jackson, below New Orleans. General Banks had his headquarters in New Orleans, and had detachments at Brashear City and Brownsville. General Steele had a considerable army at Little Rock, Arkansas, and General Rosecrans commanded the Department of the Missouri. We had eight hundred thousand men in the field, and to oppose these the rebels, now everywhere acting on the defensive, numbered half that force. The command of Lee, including Longstreet, and the troops in West Virginia and North Carolina, was a hundred and twelve thousand strong. The army which Grant had beaten at Chattanooga had been confided to General Johnston, and was upwards of fifty thousand strong. This included the garrison of Mobile, and the force with which Bishop Polk encountered Sherman's march to Meridian. SHERMAN'S EXPEDITIONS. We must recur for a moment to Sherman. After he had given relief to Knoxville his troops were returned to Chattanooga, and then stationed from Scottsboro', Alabama, along the Memphis Railroad to Huntsville. Towards the end of January, Sherman was ordered to Vicksburg, to command an expedition to the southeast. He moved from Vicksburg with McPherson's (Seventeenth) corps, in light marching order, to Morton, and thence to Meridian. He had collected a large cavalry force at Memphis, which was to start on the 1st of February, and join him at Meridian. Met, but not impeded, by the enemy, who were easily driven away from Champion Hill, Clinton, and Jackson, he moved forward to Meridian. Hurlbut had followed in rear of McPherson with the Sixteenth Corps, and the two corps had united at Jackson and marched together. The advance of this movable column into the enemy's country promised great results. Mobile was in terror, and a pathway to the Gulf seemed open, but it was all shipwrecked by a want of co-operation on the part of the cavalry. General W. S. Smith was to have started on the 1st of February, but did not until the 11th, and the rebel General Polk was rapidly collecting his forces with a good proportion of cavalry, which could only be met by cavalry; and ours failed to appear. The great railway centre of Meridian was destroyed, with the track running to Quitman, to Lauderdale Springs, and to Cuba Station. On the 25th of February, General Sherman returned to Vicksburg. In front of Charleston, the condition of affairs remained unchanged. An expedition made by General Thomas, under Grant's order from Chattanooga, upon Dalton, was abandoned without results. Foster had relieved Burnside in the command at Knoxville immediately after the siege was raised, but did not long retain the command. Schofield, who had relieved General Foster, had moved upon Longstreet, and reconnoitred his position. On the 20th of February, General Seymour, in command in Florida, had met with a serious reverse at Olustee. The army of the Potomac, under General Meade, was posted near Culpepper Courthouse from December, 1863, to May, 1864; and although cavalry reconnoissances were constantly made, and skirmishes were the order of the day, no great movements were undertaken within these periods by that army. Such was, very briefly, the condition of affairs;—a military labyrinth, requiring one head to control, and one initiated mind to thread out, its intricate combinations. As the need became manifest, all eyes turned to Grant, and, by the unanimous consent of Government and people, he was exalted to the perilous and responsible position. A new grade of lieutenantgeneral was created for him, and with it a new labor, which, like those of Hercules, carried with it increased difficulty of achievement. There were many who, carried away by enthusiasm, were disposed to offer him as a candidate for the presidency. But the most thoughtful preferred his services in the field; and he himself discountenanced such approaches, feeling that his great mission was to finish the war, and having in this so magnificent a scope for a patriot's ambition, that he would rather lose than gain by political preferment. We are reminded of the opinion expressed by Paul Louis Courier, concerning Napoleon's desire to be emperor: "Etre Bonaparte est se faire, sire; il aspire à déscendre." So, had Grant, with the weight and the glories of the giant campaign before him, been beguiled by visions of the White House and the presidency, he would have aspired to descend. But he did not. Foiling the politicians that approached him with a pleasantry, he declared that when the war was over he would offer himself as a candidate to be mayor of Galena, and, if elected, would have the sidewalk put in order between his house and the depot. He has not had a single political thought during his career. 17 CHAPTER XXIV. THE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL RETROSPECT AND PROSPECT. GRANT LIEUTENANT-GENERAL.-ARRIVES AT WASHINGTON.-RECOGNIZED AT WIL- ON the 2d of March, 1864, Grant was confirmed by the United States Senate, in executive session, as LieutenantGeneral in the Army of the United States. This put him over all our other generals, but did not, without a special order, make him commander-in-chief of our armies. At five o'clock on the afternoon of Tuesday, the 8th, he arrived in Washington to receive his commission. He seated himself, unnoticed, at the dinner-table of Willard's Hotel; but being discovered by a gentleman who had seen him in New-Orleans-for his face was not even then familiar to Washington people-he was brought to his feet by the cry that "the hero of Vicksburg was in the room," and by a storm of cheers which might well bewilder so modest a man. In the evening he attended the President's levee, where he was the observed of all observers. On the afternoon of the 9th, at one o'clock, he was received by the President in the cabinet chamber, and was presented with the commission. In any one of the old European monarchies, the presentation would have been made among the grandest surroundings. In ancient Rome, it would have been inaugurated by a triumph like that in which Titus joined his father after the famous capture of Jerusalem. But the scene was more in keeping with our republican manners and the still undecided issues of the war. It was no time for pageants: there was no brilliant gathering, no splendid staff. There were the President and his entire cabinet; General Halleck, the retiring commander-in-chief; General Rawlins, Grant's chief of staff; Colonel Comstock, his chief engineer; Mr. Nicolay, the President's private secretary; and the Honorable Owen Lovejoy, of Illinois. It was eminently proper that one other person should be present, and that was the general's eldest son, a fine boy of fourteen, the inheritor of his father's glory, and who, with such an example and such training, may well be incited to a life of usefulness, and perhaps fame. When General Grant entered the executive chamber he was cordially received by the President, and presented to the cabinet. Mr. Lincoln then addressed him in the following words: "GENERAL GRANT-The nation's appreciation of what you have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to be done in the existing great struggle, are now presented with this commission, constituting you Lieutenant-General in the Army of the United States. With this high honor devolves upon you also a corresponding responsibility. As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I scarcely need to add, that, with what I here speak for the nation, goes my own hearty personal concurrence." For once in his life, and we believe for the only time, the General could not refuse to make a speech; but what he said was very brief, and to the point. The words, which have a peculiar significance in the light of the great events which have since transpired, were these : "MR. PRESIDENT-I accept the commission, with gratitude for the high honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so many fields for our common |