Sword and Pen Part 27

It has been truly said of him that no general ever stamped his own peculiar character upon an army more emphatically than did Grant upon the Army of the Tennessee. It was the only large organization which, as a whole, never suffered a defeat during the war. It was noted for its marvelous persistence--its determined fighting qualities--and had the reputation of being sure to win any battle that lasted over a day, no matter what the odds against it. It was at Grant's recommendation that a united command was concentrated in the Mississippi Valley--which concentration has since been acknowledged to have been the basis of all our subsequent victories.

"Generosity, mildness and kind-heartedness, shone as conspicuously in Grant's character as his firmness and great generalship. Simplicity of manner and kindness of heart are always characteristic of the true hero.

'The bravest are the tenderest, The loving are the daring.'

"The rapid and bold descent upon Fort Donelson, the unconquerable determination exhibited at Shiloh, the brilliant capture of Vicksburg, and the high military science displayed at Chattanooga Valley, Look-out Mountain, and Missionary Ridge--these have never been surpa.s.sed in military history, in splendor of execution, or judiciousness of combination."...

For brevity and comprehensiveness we commend the following unique paragraph on the genealogy of his subject:

"The great-grandfather of Ulysses was Captain Noah Grant, who was killed at the battle of White Plains, during the French and Indian wars, in 1776. His grandfather, Noah Grant, Jr., fought at Lexington as lieutenant of militia, and afterwards, during the Revolution. His father, Jesse, emigrated from Pennsylvania to Ohio, and was married at Point Pleasant, Ohio, June, 1821, to Hannah Simpson, whose father was also from the Keystone State. Ulysses was born the following year, April twenty-seventh, 1822."

We quote again from the sketch of Grant:

"On the sixth of February the brilliant reduction of Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, was accomplished by Foote, and Fort Donelson, twelve miles distant, was next in line. Grant and Foote were co-operating by land and water; but Foote did not meet here with the same success that attended him at Fort Henry. It was the fifteenth of February, and Grant had spent two or three days in making an investment of the high and wooded bluff from which frowned the guns of Donelson. Before daybreak, on the fifteenth, he had gone on board the flag-ship of Foote, in consultation as to the time and manner of attack, when the enemy swept from their works and fell upon the Union lines with tremendous force. The fighting became furious at once, and for some time the battle-line swayed to and fro, between victory and defeat. It was desperate work; brigades and regiments were repulsed and by turns advanced--the brave commands disputing every inch of the rocky and difficult battle-field. When Grant reached the scene it was 'to find his right thrown back, ammunition exhausted, and the ranks in confusion.' With quick inspiration he took in the situation at a glance, comprehended that the enemy had exhausted his greatest strength, and ordered an immediate attack by the left on the Confederate works in front. General Smith was in command of this portion of the army, and had not actively partic.i.p.ated in the conflict.

He therefore brought fresh troops to the a.s.sault. McClernand was also ordered to reform his shattered ranks and advance. The combined forces charged with splendid valor up the rocky steeps, in the blaze of a withering fire poured down upon them from the fort. They did not falter for a single instant, but reaching the summit, swept over and into the Confederate works with ringing cheers. On the next morning a white flag was seen flying from the fort, and under its protection, proposals for an armistice were sent in. Grant replied that unconditional surrender, and that immediately, must be made, or he would move on their works at once. Thereupon, Buckner, who was in command, surrendered the fort with its thirteen thousand men. This splendid victory blazoned the name of Grant all over the country, and he immediately became the people's hero."

"His next achievement, the capture of Vicksburg, was wonderful indeed.

Its natural strength of position on a high bluff, one hundred feet above the water level, added to the formidable array of defences which bristled defiance to all foes, made Vicksburg a very citadel of power, and the fifty thousand men stationed there under Pemberton and Price did not lessen the difficulties to be overcome. A fort, mounting eight guns, sentineled the approach to the city from beneath, while the heights above were guarded by a three-banked battery. Eight miles of batteries lined the sh.o.r.e above and below Vicksburg. Grant made several fruitless attempts to get to the rear of the city by digging ca.n.a.ls across the strip of land on which it stood, and making an inland route; but each one, after herculean labor, had been abandoned. He now decided on the bold enterprise of running the gauntlet of these batteries with his transports. This desperate feat was successfully accomplished; but before he could land his troops at Grand Gulf, which he had selected as his starting-point, it was necessary to run its batteries as he had those of Vicksburg, land his troops farther down the river, and capture the place by hard fighting. He waited for nothing. Hurrying forward the moment he touched land, his object was to take Grand Gulf before the enemy could reinforce it.... After conquering Grand Gulf, where he expected Banks to join him, he was confronted with the refusal of that general to co-operate with him. In this dilemma nothing but a master-stroke of genius could wring success from the materials of defeat. He saw what was before him, and with true inspiration became the master of circ.u.mstances. At the head of his brave command he pushed inland, aiming to crush the enemy 'in detail before he could concentrate his forces.' By a rapid series of brilliant marches, battles and victories, Grant had, at last, on the nineteenth of May, succeeded in completely investing Vicksburg. The whole plan from its outset was brilliant to an extraordinary degree, and the tireless persistence and energy shown in its accomplishment, stamped this man as a very Gibraltar of military genius.

"An a.s.sault on the enemy's works at first, had proven a failure, and now the wonderful siege began. For forty-six days the digging and mining went patiently forward, while screaming sh.e.l.ls and booming shot produced a reign of terror in the city, until at last, Pemberton could hold out no longer and surrendered his starving garrison to the superior prowess and strategy of Grant. It was the morning of the fourth of July when our troops took possession of Vicksburg, and ran up the stars and stripes from the top of the court-house. The soldiers, standing beneath it, sang 'Rally round the Flag,' and Grant became more than ever the popular hero. On the thirteenth of July, Lincoln wrote him a letter of 'grateful acknowledgment for the almost inestimable service' he had rendered the country. In September he was placed in command of the 'Departments of the Ohio, of the c.u.mberland, and of the Tennessee, const.i.tuting the Military Division of the Mississippi.'

"Grant a.s.sumed the duties of his high office [the lieutenant-generalship of the army] without flourish of any sort, and proceeded to inaugurate the successive steps of his last great campaign. The military resources which centered in his hand were stupendous, but had they fallen under the control of a man less great than he, their very immensity would have rendered them powerless. The splendid army of the Potomac was on the move by May third, and the last march to Richmond had begun. Then came the three-days' battle of the Wilderness, on the south bank of the Rapidan, b.l.o.o.d.y and terrible and strange, during which some of our troops were fighting continuously for forty-eight hours; and following close after came also Spottsylvania, which was the result of an endeavor to cut off Lee's retreat. This, too, was a desperate conflict, where precious blood flowed in rivers. Then followed the race between the two opposing armies, for the North Anna. After crossing this river, and finding the Confederates occupying a fortified position on the South Anna, Grant 'swung his army around to the Pamunky, and pitched his head-quarters at Hanover Court House,' These masterly flank movements, in which he manoeuvred his vast army with such ease, exhibited his marvelous genius in stronger light than ever before. From the Pamunky he advanced to the Chickahominy, and, after the battle of Cold Harbor, made a rapid but quiet change of front on the night of the twelfth of June, and two days afterwards crossed the James and advanced against Petersburg and Richmond. The attack, at first a success, failed through a blunder, not Grant's; and then began the long siege which ended at last in the evacuation of Petersburg and Richmond. Nowhere was the joy more heartfelt over these results than among the released captives of Libby Prison.

"Lee made a desperate endeavor to escape the 'manifest destiny' that pursued him, and led his army a 'race for life.' But Grant, close on his track, environed him on all sides, and the surrender at Appomattox became inevitable. When, at the final scene, Lee presented his sword to Grant, the great general handed it back to him, saying, 'it could not be worn by a braver man.'"

We present the reader with the following extracts from the sketch of General Sheridan. It will be observed that the author is extremely happy in the selection of his subjects, his aim evidently being to include those only whose reputation for heroism is unquestioned and national.

"Sheridan is probably the most intense type of 'soldiership' brought to light by the last war. Nor can any other war furnish an individual example that will surpa.s.s him in fiery concentration. In battle he is the very soul of vehement action--the incarnate wrath of the storm. No historian can ever portray the man so truly as did the remarkable victory of Cedar Creek--a result solely of his extraordinary power. The marvelous will-force with which he could hurl himself in the front of battle, and infuse his own spirit of unconquerable daring into the ranks, is phenomenal, to say the least."

"When Grant became Lieutenant-General, Sheridan was given the command of the cavalry of the army of the Potomac, and all his subsequent movements evinced wonderful daring, skill and energy. No trust committed to his charge was ever misplaced, no matter what its magnitude or importance.

"When the Confederate Generals Ewell and Early were sent into the Shenandoah Valley, and went so far north as to threaten Washington, Grant consolidated the four military divisions of the Susquehanna, Washington, Monongahela and West Virginia, into the 'army of the Shenandoah,' and placed Sheridan in command. He defeated Early at Opequan, September nineteenth--for which he was made brigadier-general of the United States army; defeated him again at Fisher's Hill on the twenty-second, and on October the nineteenth occurred the battle of Cedar Creek.

"The position of Sheridan's army at this time was along the crest of three hills, 'each one a little back of the other,' The army of West Virginia, under Crook, held the first hill; the second was occupied by the Nineteenth Corps, under Emory, and the Sixth Corps, with Torbet's cavalry covering its right flank, held the third elevation. Early, marching his army in five columns, crossed the mountains and forded the north branch of the Shenandoah River, at midnight, on the eighteenth. He knew that Sheridan had gone up to Washington, and wanted to take advantage of his absence to surprise the unsuspecting camp. The march was conducted so noiselessly that, though he skirted the borders of our position for miles, nothing came to the ears of our pickets, save in a few instances where a heavy m.u.f.fled tramp was heard, but disregarded as of no consequence.

"The gray gloom of early morning hovered over the camp, when a reconnoitring force from Crook's army was preparing to go out. Suddenly, a wild yell burst through the fog which hid from view the Confederate army. A withering musketry fire and the clash of arms quickly followed.

Before our surprised and panic-stricken troops could be formed in battle-array, the enemy were upon them, and after a short and sharp encounter, the army of Western Virginia was thrown into utter rout--a ma.s.s of fugitives flying before the pursuing foe back towards the second hill where the Nineteenth Corps was encamped.

"The Nineteenth Corps attempted to arrest the Confederate advance, but the enemy getting in our rear and enfilading us with our captured batteries, the troops broke ranks and fell back in confusion towards the encampment of the Sixth Corps, on the third hill in the rear.

"Sheridan, meantime, was at Winchester, where he had arrived the night before, intending to go on to Cedar Creek the next morning. As he sipped his coffee at breakfast he did not for an instant dream of the terrible rout and disaster hovering at that moment over his army. When he rode out of Winchester the vibrations of the ground under the heavy discharges of artillery in the distance gave the first intimations of danger. But he was not yet alarmed, knowing the security of his position. As he went onward, however, the thunder of the cannon deepened, and then the terrible truth flashed upon him. He dashed spurs into his horse and was soon tearing madly along the road, far ahead of his escort.

"For five anxious hours the desperate struggle had gone on, when Sheridan arrived on the field, encountering first the stream of fugitives surging northward. They turned about as they saw their invincible leader flying towards the front, and even the wounded along the roadside cheered him as he pa.s.sed. Swinging his cap over his head, he shouted: 'Face the other way, boys!--face the other way! We are going back to our camps! We are going to lick them out of their boots!'

"It was about ten o'clock when, with his horse covered with foam, he galloped up to the front. Immediately, under his quick commands, the broken ranks were reformed, and when the Confederates made their next grand charge across the fields the terrific repulse that met and hurled them back showed the turn of the tide, and compelled them to relinquish the offensive. For two hours Sheridan rode back and forth along the line, seeming to be everywhere at once, infusing into the men his own daring courage and enthusiasm. Shouts and cheers followed him; and though the tired soldiers had been fighting for five long hours and had eaten nothing since the night before, his presence was both food and inspiration, and everything seemed to be forgotten in an all-controlling impulse to follow their glorious leader to victory.

"Early retired his troops a short distance after their repulse, and began throwing up breastworks. But the intrepid Sheridan had no notion of allowing him to retain that position. He meant to regain Cedar Creek and rout the enemy. At half-past three a bold charge was made. An awful musketry and artillery fire was poured into the advancing Union columns, and, at first, the lines broke and fell back; but Sheridan rose at once to the needs of the crisis, and with superhuman efforts restored order and resumed the advance. Then came 'the long-drawn yell of our charge,'

and 'everything on the first line, the stone walls, the tangled wood, the advanced crest, and half-finished breastworks, had been carried.'

"The panic-stricken enemy was sent flying in utter rout through Middletown, through Strasburg, through Fisher's Hill, and to Woodstock, sixteen miles beyond. Early was thus effectually driven out of the Shenandoah Valley, and permanently crippled.

"This wonderful victory, due to Sheridan's personal presence alone, put a crown on his head which few warriors could pluck from the heights of Fame."

"On March the fourth, 1869, he received the promotion of lieutenant-general, and was appointed to the command of the Division of the Missouri, of the Platte, and of Texas, with head-quarters at Chicago."

The name of Kilpatrick kindles enthusiasm in the breast of every cavalryman of the late war, and our author, having served under him, has sketched his life, _con amore_, in vivid and thrilling language, and with a keen appreciation of his great merits as a cavalry leader. The following extract will confirm our view:

"Like the French Murat, Kilpatrick seems to have been born to become a very demi-G.o.d of cavalry. Daringly heroic on the field, he displayed a supreme genius for war, especially for that department of the service whose alarum cry is, 'To horse!' and whose sweeping squadrons, with wild clatter of hoofs, seem to the fervid imagination to be making a race for glory, even though it be through the gates of death.

"It is quite in keeping with everything about Kilpatrick that he should choose the cavalry as a vehicle for his high ambition and n.o.ble patriotism. Such energies as his could scarcely be content with less dash or less brilliance of action. The beginning of his war career was one of romance, and his previous life indicated an unusual range of abilities. He first figures as the boy-orator, speaking in favor of a Congressional candidate, with all the fresh warmth and enthusiasm of his young nature. Then we see him as cadet at West Point, from which he graduates fifteenth in his cla.s.s and is given the honor of valedictorian. The day of graduation is hastened a few months by the startling guns of Sumter, which proclaim treason rampant, and fire all loyal b.r.e.a.s.t.s with a desire to rush to the rescue of their country's beloved flag. The impatience and enthusiasm of Kilpatrick could not be restrained, and through his influence a pet.i.tion was signed by thirty-seven of his cla.s.s to be allowed to graduate at once and go to the front. The request was granted, and that day was one of especial significance at West Point. It was also one of equal significance in his life; for the little chapel, where had rung out the words of his farewell address, also witnessed the sacred ceremony of his marriage with the lady of his love, and on that evening the young soldier and his bride took the train for Washington and the front. We know little of the bride except that she was enshrined in her husband's heart, and that her name--'Alice'--was inscribed on the silken banner under which he fought, and so gloriously led his troopers to victory and renown. No one can tell how much that name may have had to do with his future marvelous success. To natures like his, the magic of a name thus loved, fluttering aloft in the smoke of battle, becomes talismanic, and inspires almost superhuman heroism."

"When McDowell marched to Falmouth, he was once more at the front, and, in conjunction with Colonel Bayard and the First Pennsylvania Cavalry, made a brilliant night-attack on Falmouth Heights, routing Lee's cavalry and capturing the place. For this dashing achievement Kilpatrick received the thanks of the commanding general. Afterwards, under Pope's command, he made his first famous raid in breaking up 'Stonewall'

Jackson's line of communication with Richmond from Gordonsville in the Shenandoah Valley, over the Virginia Central Railway. At Beaver Dam, Frederick's Hall, and Hanover Junction, he burned the stations, destroyed the tracks, and daringly attacked the enemy wherever he could find him. These events took place during July and August, 1862, and the boldness of the operations, in the very heart of the enemy's country, filled the North with Kilpatrick's fame....

"When Hooker was placed at the head of the Army of the Potomac, the cavalry was reorganized under Stoneman as chief, and that general, in the following campaign, a.s.signed to Kilpatrick the work of destroying the railroad and bridges over the Chickahominy. Four hundred and fifty men were given him for the work; but with this small force he brought to the difficult mission his usual skill, and, avoiding large forces of the enemy, raided to within two miles of Richmond, where he captured 'Lieutenant Brown, aide-de-camp to General Winder, and eleven men within the fortifications.' He says: 'I then pa.s.sed down to the left to the Meadow Bridge on the Chickahominy, which I burned, ran a train of cars into the river, retired to Hanover-town on the Peninsula, crossed just in time to check the advance of a pursuing cavalry force, burned a train of thirty wagons loaded with bacon, captured thirteen prisoners, and encamped for the night five miles from the river,' This was the manner of his conquering quest, until on the seventh he again struck the Union lines at Gloucester Point, having made a march of about 'two hundred miles in less than five days, and captured and paroled over eight hundred prisoners.' In the accomplishment of this splendid feat he lost only one officer and thirty-seven men.

"At Chancellorsville, when Lee came into Maryland and ma.s.sed his cavalry at Beverly Ford, Pleasonton was sent forward on a reconnaissance, and met the enemy in battle at Brandy Station. This is renowned as the greatest cavalry battle of the war. General Gregg arrived upon the field at half-past ten in the morning, and though his n.o.ble squadrons fought well and bravely, these columns were rolled back, and for a moment, all seemed lost, and overwhelmed by the superior numbers of the foe. But at this crisis, Kilpatrick, posted on a slight rise of ground, unrolled his battle-flag to the breeze, and his bugles sounded the charge. He had under his command, the Harris Light, Tenth New York, and First Maine.

The formation for an onset was quickly made, and the disciplined squadrons of these three regiments were hurled upon the enemy. But the Tenth New York recoiled before the murderous fire of the enemy's carbines. So did the Harris Light. Kilpatrick was maddened at the sight.

He rushed to the head of the First Maine regiment, shouting, 'Men of Maine, you must save the day!' Under the impulse of this enthusiasm, they became altogether resistless, and in conjunction with the reformed squadrons of the two other regiments, swept the enemy before them, and plucked victory, with glorious valor, from the very jaws of defeat. On the next day Kilpatrick was made brigadier-general."

Having presented extracts from "Heroes of Three Wars," and ventured to express, incidentally and briefly our own humble opinion of the merits of this work, we will now, in confirmation of our judgment, give some reviews of the Press--a few out of many. Throughout the North the work was hailed with not a little enthusiasm, by soldiers and civilians alike--as a work of decided literary merit, and one written in a fair, truthful, and loyal spirit, replete with much valuable historical information of a character not otherwise easily attainable, and calculated to accomplish much good among the rising generation.

The Boston _Transcript_ says:

"The bivouac, the march, the hand-to-hand conflict with bristling steel, the head-long charge, the ignominious retreat, and the battle-field after the b.l.o.o.d.y a.s.sault, with its dead and wounded heroes, are all excellently portrayed, and with an ease and vigor of style that lend a peculiar charm to the book, and rivet the attention of the reader from cover to cover. It is really refreshing to meet with such a work as this in these degenerate days of namby-pamby novels, so enervating to mind and morals.

Captain Glazier's work elevates the ideas, and infuses a spirit of commendable patriotism into the young mind, by showing the youth of the country how n.o.bly men could die for the principles they cherished and the land they loved."

The Chicago _Inter-Ocean_ writes as follows: