Stories of Later American History Part 27

[Ill.u.s.tration: General and Mrs. Grant with Their Son at City Point, Virginia.]

Vicksburg was so strongly defended that the Confederates believed that it could not be taken. A resolute effort to capture it was made by General Grant in 1863. After a brilliant campaign of strategy, by which he got around the defenses, he laid siege to the city itself. For seven weeks the Confederate army held out. During that time the people of Vicksburg sought refuge from the enemy's sh.e.l.ls in caves and cellars, their only food at times consisting of rats and mule flesh. But on July 4, 1863, the day after General Lee's defeat at Gettysburg, Vicksburg surrendered to General Grant. Four days later Port Hudson, some distance below, was captured, and thus the last stronghold of the Mississippi came under control of the North.

General Grant had become the hero of the Northern army. His success was in no small measure due to his dogged perseverance. While his army was laying siege to Vicksburg, a Confederate woman, at whose door he stopped to ask for a drink of water, inquired whether he expected ever to capture Vicksburg. "Certainly," he replied. "But when?" was the next question.

Quickly came the answer: "I cannot tell exactly when I shall take the town, but _I mean to stay here till I do, if it takes me thirty years_."

General Grant having by his capture of Vicksburg won the confidence of the people, President Lincoln, in 1864, put him in command of all the Union armies of the East and the West. In presenting the new commission, Lincoln addressed him in these words: "As the country herein trusts you, so, under G.o.d, it will sustain you."

WILLIAM TEc.u.mSEH SHERMAN

In the spring of that year the Confederates had two large armies in the field. One of them, under General Lee, was defending Richmond. The other, under General Joseph E. Johnston, was in Tennessee, defending the Confederate cause in that region. General Grant's plan was to send General Sherman, in whom he had great confidence, against General Johnston, with orders to capture Atlanta, which was now the workshop and storehouse of the Confederacy. Grant himself was to march against Lee and capture Richmond. The two great watchwords were: "On to Atlanta!" and "On to Richmond!"

[Ill.u.s.tration: William Tec.u.mseh Sherman.]

Early in May both Grant and Sherman began their campaigns. Starting from Chattanooga, in Tennessee, Sherman began to crowd Johnston toward Atlanta.

In order to keep his line of supplies open from Nashville Sherman kept his army close to the railroad, and to hinder him as much as possible, the Confederates sent back bodies of troops to the rear of the Union army to tear up the railroads. But so quickly were they rebuilt by Sherman's men that the Confederates used to say: "Sherman must carry a railroad on his back." His advance was slow but steady, and on September 2 he captured Atlanta.

A little later Sherman started on his famous march "From Atlanta to the Sea," with the purpose of weakening the Confederate armies by destroying their supplies and their railroads in Southern Georgia. His army marched in four columns, covering a belt of territory sixty miles wide. Four days before Christmas he captured Savannah and sent to President Lincoln the famous telegram: "I beg to present you, as a Christmas gift, the city of Savannah, with one hundred and fifty guns and plenty of ammunition; also about twenty-five thousand bales of cotton." Sherman's "March to the Sea"

was a wonderful achievement.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sherman's March to the Sea.]

Let us make the acquaintance of this remarkable man. He was at this time forty-four. Standing six feet high, with muscles of iron and a military bearing, he gave the impression of having great physical endurance. And no matter whether he was exposed to drenching rain, bitter cold, or burning heat, he never gave signs of fatigue. Many nights he slept only three or four hours, but he was able to fall asleep easily almost anywhere he happened to be, whether lying upon the wet ground or on a hard floor, or even amid the din and roar of muskets and cannon.

In battle he could not sit calmly smoking and looking on, like General Grant. He was too much excited to sit still, and his face reflected his thoughts. Yet his mind was clear and his decisions were rapid.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Route of Sherman's March to the Sea.]

His soldiers admired him and gave him their unbounded confidence. One of his staff said of him while they were on the "March to the Sea": "The army has such an abiding faith in its leader that it will go wherever he leads." At Savannah the soldiers would proudly remark as their general rode by: "There goes the old man. All's right."

During the trying experience of this famous march, Sherman's face grew anxious and care-worn. But behind the care-worn face there were kind and tender feelings, especially for the young. Little children would show their trust in him by clasping him about his knees or by nestling in his arms. While he was in Savannah, large groups of children made a playground of the general's headquarters and private room, the doors of which were never closed to them.

While General Sherman, in Georgia, was pushing his army "On to Atlanta"

and "On to the Sea," Grant was trying to defeat Lee and capture Richmond.

With these aims in view, Grant crossed the Rapidan River and entered the wilderness in direct line for Richmond. Here fighting was stern business.

The woods were so gloomy and the underbrush was so thick that the men could not see one another twenty feet away.

Lee's army furiously contested every foot of the advance. In the terrible battles that followed Grant lost heavily, but he pressed doggedly on, writing to President Lincoln his stubborn resolve: "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer."

It did take all summer and longer. Moreover, Grant found that he could not possibly capture Richmond from the north. So he crossed the James River and attacked the city from the south. Yet when autumn ended Lee was still holding out, and Grant's army settled down for the winter.

PHILIP H. SHERIDAN

At this time one of Grant's most skilful generals and ablest helpers was Philip H. Sheridan, who was a brilliant cavalry leader. As a boy he had a strong liking for books, and especially those which told of war and the lives of daring men. When he read of their brave deeds perhaps he dreamed of the days when he might be a great soldier.

At the time when he came into most prominent notice--in the summer and autumn of 1864--he was only thirty-three years old. He was short, and as he weighed but one hundred and fifteen pounds, he was not at all impressive in appearance, except in the heat of battle, when his personality was commanding and inspiring.

[Ill.u.s.tration: Philip H. Sheridan.]

No matter how trying the situation might be, he never lost self-control and was always kind and friendly toward those working with him. But perhaps his finest quality was a stern devotion to duty. He said, in effect: "In all the various positions I have held, my sole aim has ever been to be the best officer I could and let the future take care of itself." Such a man, whether civilian or soldier, is a true patriot.

It was early in August, 1864, that General Grant placed Sheridan in command of the Union army in the Shenandoah valley, with orders to drive the enemy out and destroy their food supplies.

Sheridan entered the valley from the north, destroyed large quant.i.ties of supplies, and after some fighting went into camp on the north side of Cedar Creek, in October. A few days later he was called to Washington.

Returning on the eighteenth, he stayed overnight at Winchester, about fourteen miles from Cedar Creek.

About six o'clock the next morning, a picket on duty reported to him before he was up that cannon were being fired in the direction of Cedar Creek. At first Sheridan paid little attention. Then he began to be disturbed. He writes: "I tried to go to sleep again, but grew so restless that I could not and soon got up and dressed myself." Eating a hurried breakfast, he mounted his splendid coal-black steed, Rienzi, and started for the battle-field of Cedar Creek, where his army was. This was the ride that afterward became famous as "Sheridan's Ride."

[Ill.u.s.tration: Sheridan Rallying His Troops.]

As he rode forward he could hear the booming of cannon. Then he saw a part of his army in full retreat, and fugitives told him that a battle had been fought against General Early's Confederates and everything lost.

With two aides and twenty men the gallant Sheridan dashed forward to the front as fast as his foaming steed could carry him. On meeting a retreating officer who said, "The army is whipped," Sheridan replied: "You are, but the army isn't."

As he pushed ahead he said to his soldiers: "If I had been with you this morning this disaster would not have happened. We must face the other way.

We must go back and recover our camp."

As soon as his troops caught sight of "Little Phil," as they liked to call him, they threw their hats into the air and, with enthusiastic cheers, shouldered their muskets and faced about. Sheridan brought order out of confusion and in the battle that followed drove Early's army from the field in utter rout.

Great was the rejoicing in the North over this victory, and Sheridan himself was raised to the rank of major-general.

This victory was largely due to Sheridan's magnetic influence over his men. The following incident ill.u.s.trates this remarkable power of "Little Phil": At the battle of Five Forks, which took place near Richmond the next spring (1865), a wounded soldier in the line of battle near Sheridan stumbled and was falling behind his regiment. But when Sheridan cried out, "Never mind, my man; there's no harm done!" the soldier, although with a bullet in his brain, went forward with his fighting comrades till he fell dead.

TWO GREAT GENERALS

Let us now return to Grant. After remaining near Petersburg all winter, in the spring of 1865 he pressed so hard upon the Confederate army that Lee had to leave Richmond and move rapidly westward in order to escape capture. For a week Grant closely followed Lee's troops, who were almost starving; all they had to eat was parched corn and green shoots of trees, and the outlook was so dark that many had deserted and started for home.

[Ill.u.s.tration: The McLean House, Where Lee Surrendered.]

There was but one thing left for Lee to do. That was to give up the struggle, for he knew the Southern cause was hopeless. An interview, therefore, was arranged with Grant. It was held on Sunday morning, April 9, in a house standing in the little village of Appomattox Court House.

Grant writes in his "Personal Memoirs": "I was without a sword, as I usually was when on horse-back on the field, and wore a soldier's blouse for a coat, with the shoulder-straps of my rank to indicate to the army who I was.... General Lee was dressed in a full uniform, which was entirely new, and was wearing a sword of considerable value--very likely the sword which had been presented by the State of Virginia.... In my rough travelling suit, the uniform of a private with the straps of a lieutenant-general, I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so handsomely dressed, six feet tall, and of faultless form."

[Ill.u.s.tration: The Country Around Washington and Richmond.]

The result of the interview was the surrender of General Lee and his army.

When this took place General Grant showed clearly his great kindness of heart and his delicate feeling. He issued orders that all the Confederates who owned horses and mules should be allowed to take them home. "They will need them for the spring ploughing," he said. He also had abundant food at once sent to the hungry Confederate soldiers. Never did General Grant appear more truly great than on the occasion of Lee's surrender.

He was indeed a remarkable man in many ways. While in the army he seemed to have wonderful powers of endurance. He said of himself: "Whether I slept on the ground or in a tent, whether I slept one hour or ten in the twenty-four, whether I had one meal or three, or none, made no difference.

I would lie down and sleep in the rain without caring." This, as you remember, he did at Pittsburg Landing.

Yet his appearance did not indicate robust health. He was only five feet eight inches tall, round-shouldered, and not at all military in bearing or walk. But his brown hair, blue eyes, and musical voice gave a pleasing impression. He was of a sunny disposition and of singularly pure mind.

Never in his life was he known to speak an unclean word or tell an objectionable story. In manner he was quiet and simple, and yet he was always ready for the severest ordeal he might have to face.

While the two great commanders, Grant and Lee, were much unlike in personal appearance, they had certain qualities in common, for they were both simple-hearted and frank and men of deep and tender feelings.