| Show I THE UREAT GRANT I In celebiatlon of Gen Grants birthday 1 birth-day a dinner was given at tho Waldorf I Astoria and there was a menu booklet I I I which contained among other things quotations from some of Grants correspondence cor-respondence with his wife Ono of these makes clear some things which have always been obscure In history It was written under date of March 28 1S62 It Is well known that Gen Hajleck who was In chief command practically suspended Gen f Crint for i I a long time and as the capacity of the J i I two men has been more and more studied the wonder has Increased But It seems HallecUs complaint was that ho could not hwar from Grant It was I on the 16th of February i that Grant won the victory at Fort Doralson captured cap-tured 11623 mon CD cannon and 17600 small arms All OW i crcdlt of the achievement belonged to him It was only on Grantri request thaj I h half In I protest IJallepJc pprmitteJ J the expedition r expedi-tion against Forts HenJY and Donol l son and there has always been a sua t V > < l I f I piclon that Halleck did not like the Cam which Grant instantly won by those two achievements Immediately after for some reason communications between Granl 1 and HaUcck were interrupted inter-rupted and in this letter to Mrs Grant the General said I All the Onmlors you have seen npalnst rno Originated away from where I was I The only foundation was from the foci I that I VIK ordered to remain at Fort Henry and pond lh expedition under MoJCon Smith This was ordered been be-en UHC Gen Ilnllcck received no report from mo for nearly two weeks after tho fall of Fort Donelson The same occurred with me 1 rocelwd nothing from him The consequence was I apparently totally disregarded Ills order The fact wns ho WAR ordering me every day to rcport tho condition Of my command I was not receiving tho orders but knowing my dutlon was reporting dally and when anything occurred to make IL necessary two or three times a dny When I waN ordered to mnln behind It Wlt4 the cause of much astonishment among the troops of my command and also < nppoInlment I never allowed a word oC contradiction to go out from my headquarters You riced not tear but I whnt I will como out triumphantly I am i pulling no wires sia political Generals do j I I to advance myself I have no future nm I billon Jiy object IM to carry on my part I of this war successfully and I nm per 1 I I fcctly willing tliat others may make all tho glory they can out of iL ULTS I Those few lines show how vastly greater Grant was than all the other men around him It Is a fact that after af-ter he had been practically suspended when refercncd was made to the matter mat-ter he merely said It was a soldiers duty to obey arid If there was no room l In the army for more officers there was ample room In the ranks by which he meant of course that he had enlisted enlist-ed for the war and that If he ccjuld I not serve as a commander he would asa as-a private Still he was not deceived He felt It In his bones that they would want him as they did He was too I big to be Jealous of any one He was too magnanimous to resent even the shortcomings of those whose hearts he believed were all right Thus when before I fore VIcksburg the Impetuous Sherman i wrote the War department that VIcksburg I VIcks-burg could not be taken that everything every-thing was all wrong Grant treated him just the same gave him his full confidence con-fidence and trust because he knew that In the presence of the enemy he I could always rely on Tecumseh Sherman Sher-man But when VIcksburg finally fell he handed the letter which had been sent back to him by tho War department depart-ment to Sherman remarking that he did not believe that Sherman would I care to have that letter circulating I around the country And It was that I I characteristic In him knowing the absolute ab-solute Integrity of his own soul and knowing as he believed he did the I needs of the country which made him so uttcny nespiso Charles sumner and I Carl Schurz |
