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Master strategist of the Union Army

24 JULY 1885

ULYSSES S. GRANT, GENERAL ON the retired list of the United States Army, and eighteenth President of the United States, who died yesterday morning after a long illness at Mount M’Gregor, near Saratoga, New York, was born in the State of Ohio, at a small village called Point Pleasant, April 27, 1822. His ancestry was Scotch, and his parents were in humble circumstances. He was named Hiram Ulysses Grant, and during his infancy his parents removed to Georgetown, Ohio, where his boyhood was passed. He had but moderate opportunities for education in early life, and when 17 years of age the member of Congress from the district in which he lived appointed him a cadet at the United States’ Military Academy at West Point, New York. By a blunder his name in the appointment was written ‘Ulysses S. Grant,’ and this name he had to adopt.

He served the usual four years’ military course at the Academy without special distinction, although he showed some proficiency in mathematics, and in 1843 graduated number 21 in a class of 39. His first commission was brevet second lieutenant of infantry in the army, and he was sent to join a regiment guarding, and sometimes fighting the Indians on the Missouri frontier, where he continued for two years, when the war between the United States and Mexico began, and his regiment was sent to the Texan frontier to join the army corps then forming under the command of General Zachary Taylor, who afterwards became President of the United States. On September 30, 1845, young Grant was commissioned second lieutenant, and he entered with ardour upon the campaign of invasion of Mexico, which began the following spring. He developed fine soldierly qualities, and first saw bloodshed at the opening battle of that invasion at Palo Alto in May, 1846. He took part in all the battles of that active campaign, which included the capture of Monterey and the siege and capture of Vera Cruz.

In April, 1847, Grant was made the quartermaster of his regiment, the 4th Infantry, and he participated in the battles fought by the American troops on their victorious advance into the interior after the capture of Vera Cruz. For his gallantry at the battle of Mo lino del Rey, in September, he was made a first lieutenant on the field, and at Chapultepec, a few days later, he commanded his regiment, and did such good service that he was brevetted captain. Colonel Garland, who commanded the brigade to which his regiment was attached, called especial attention to Grant in his report describing the operations of the day, and said, ‘I must not omit to call attention to Lieutenant Grant, 4th Infantry, who acquitted himself most nobly upon several occasions under my own observation.’ The subsequent capture of the city of Mexico and the dictation of terms of peace by the victors ended the war.

When the United States troops were withdrawn, Captain Grant returned with his regiment, and was afterwards located at various posts on the Canadian border. He married in 1848, his wife being the sister of a classmate, Miss Julia T. Dent, who is still living. For several years his life was without special feature. His regiment was ordered to the Pacific coast, and he accompanied it, being for two years in California and Oregon, where he was commissioned a full captain, August 5, 1853. In July, 1854, he resigned from the army and settled at St. Louis as a farmer and real estate agent. His business talents were poor and he had ill-success, and for a few years he tried various occupations in civilian life at various places, finally going to Galena, Illinois, in 1859, to join his father, who was a tanner.

When the American civil war began, in the spring of 1861, Grant’s fortunes were at a low ebb and he was ready for almost anything that promised an improvement. The opening of the civil war found the country without an army, and the entire North aflame to raise a volunteer soldiery. The few men in different parts of the States who had been officers of the regular army, and particularly those who had seen active service in Mexico and on the frontier, at once advanced to a high place in the popular estimation, as the main reliance in officering the new force. A company of volunteer troops was formed at Galena and selected Grant for its captain. He was 39 years of age when, a day or two after the firing upon Fort Sumter, he marched his company to Springfield, the capital of Illinois, and offered his services to the Governor of the State.

The next few weeks saw a remarkable uprising, military organizations forming and drilling all over the country, and being made up into regiments and sent to the seat of war. Governor Yates selected Captain Grant as his aide-de-camp and mustering officer to organize the State troops of Illinois, and this service occupied him nearly two months. He organized 21 regiments, and on June 1, 1861, was commissioned as colonel of the 21st Illinois Regiment. During the remainder of this month he drilled his regiment, and in July crossed over the Mississippi river and was ordered to guard the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad, which crosses the northern part of the State of Missouri, and was in constant danger of destruction by guerilla raids. Promotion was rapid in the early part of the civil war, especially for veteran officers, and August found him practically in command of all the troops in Northern Missouri, a part of the force under General John Pope, and on August 23 he was made brigadier-general of volunteers, his commission being dated May 17, 1861.

The qualities of General Grant, both as a fighter and as a strategist, were early recognized, and his remarkable military career may be regarded as beginning in August, when he was sent to take command at Cairo, the point of junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. This important post was threatened by Confederates in Kentucky, and also by a disaffected element in Southern Illinois and Missouri; and a large force of Union troops was concentrated there. Grant had not been there long before he made up his mind that safety would be best assured by holding the strategic points of the Mississippi river below the Ohio river, and also those on the Kentucky shore of the latter stream. In September he seized and garrisoned Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee river, and Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland river, and thus got control of Western Kentucky. His firm, straightforward, and sententious character was shown in his proclamation to the citizens of Paducah, in which he said, ‘I have nothing to do with opinions, and shall deal only with armed rebellion and its aiders and abettors.’ Having thus cared for the Confederates on the eastern side of the Mississippi, in October he began a campaign against those on the western shore, where General Jeff Thompson had assembled a formidable force.

Grant sent out a detachment from Cairo to check their advance, which was done in a battle at Fredericktown, Missouri, and then, taking the field in person, he fought on November 7, with two brigades. the battle of Belmont, Missouri, his first contest of the war, having a horse shot under him. This movement effectually demoralized the Confederates in the southern counties of Missouri. Grant, who was in every sense a fighter, then began preparing for an active campaign further southward, and made Paducah his base.

Here he gathered a force of 15,000 men, and also assembled a fleet of western river steamboats, sheathed with iron as a bullet-proof protection, and known as ‘tin-clads.’ The enemy had strongly garrisoned posts near the boundary line between Kentucky and Tennessee, known as Forts Henry and Donelson, the former controlling the Tennessee river and the latter the Cumberland. With his troops and steamers on February 3 he left Paducah to attack them. Fort Henry was first invested, and on February 6 surrendered, its capture being mainly the work of the boats. Fort Donelson, commanded by General Buckner, made a stubborn resistance, and Grant gradually increased his force besieging it to 30,000 men, who fought a severe battle on February 15, losing 2,300 killed and wounded. The fort was shattered, and Buckner proposed that Commissioners be appointed to arrange terms of capitulation.

Grant promptly wrote in reply:– ‘No terms other than an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.’ On the 16th the fort, with its defenders, surrendered, being the first great victory that had crowned tho Union arms, which had been generally unfortunate in the campaign east of the Alleghanies. The victor at once became a national celebrity, and the sobriquet of ‘Unconditional Surrender Grant’ was given him as the popular testimony of admiration of his terse demand for the surrender that had given so much gratification. He was commissioned Major-General, dating from February 16, 1862.

Grant’s subsequent career became practically the history of the war for the suppression of the rebellion. General Halleck had been placed in general command of all the troops west of the Alleghanies, and he had been collecting a force of about 40,000 men to make an expedition up the Tennessee river, under General Smith; but soon after it started General Smith died, and the command fell upon General Grant. An attack upon Corinth, in Northern Mississippi, had been contemplated, and part of the force in anticipation of this had been lying some time at Pittsburg Landing, when at daylight on April 6 General Albert Sydney Johnston, with an overwhelming Confederate army, surprised and routed them with great loss. Grant arrived on the field in the morning and re-formed the broken lines, after which heavy reinforcements, under General Buell, were ordered up, and, arriving in the night, the battle was renewed next day; and the enemy, being defeated, withdrew behind the intrenchment at Corinth.

These were the bloodiest conflicts that had taken place down to that time, the killed and wounded numbering 12,000 in each army, and Grant being slightly wounded. The Confederates were followed to Corinth, and General Halleck arriving assumed command, and began a siege of the place. This continued several weeks, the enemy subsequently evacuating their works. Halleck was called to Washington in July, after M’Clellan’s disastrous retreat from before Richmond, and Grant was given command of the Department of West Tennessee. The country looked to him as the hero of the western active campaign, the defeats and disasters in Virginia having caused general dismay. He made his headquarters at Corinth, which was a post of strategic importance in Northern Mississippi, and for two months devoted his attention to suppressing guerrillas and spies and strengthening his force preparatory to a new campaign.

He took possession of Memphis, and severely disciplined a newspaper there which published treasonable articles. In September he sent out an expedition which attacked and defeated the Confederates under General Price at Iuka, gaining a substantial victory. In the meantime General Bragg, with another Confederate force, began pushing northwards towards the Ohio river through the country to the eastward, and the better to check this advance Grant removed his headquarters to Jackson, Tennessee, with part of his guns. He left about 20,000 men, under General Rosecrans, at Corinth, and the enemy, under Price and van Dorn, hoping to beat him in detail, attacked Corinth with 40,000 men on October 3. After a desperate battle, continuing two days, Rosecrans successfully repulsed them, while General Buell, with an auxiliary force, moved out to intercept Bragg, and forced the latter to give up his advance towards the Ohio river and retreat towards East Tennessee.

General Grant was thus left free for a march further southward, and in the middle of October his department was expanded to include Vicksburg, his troops being constituted the Thirteenth Army Corps. Vicksburg was the great Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi river, and the active and energetic commander soon conceived the idea of trying to capture it. This occupied his attention for several months. He first approached it from the north, but the enemy outmanoeuvred him, and inflicted serious losses in December by capturing and destroying much of his stores at Holly Springs, in Mississippi. He then determined to make his attack from the southward. When the severity of the winter had passed he crossed over with his army to the western bank of the Mississippi river, moved down, and re-crossed at a point below Vicksburg on April 30, 1863. Vicksburg was commanded by Pemberton, and, as soon as he divined Grant’s movement, he sent for reinforcements, which General J. Johnston tried to give him. In a series of brilliant minor engagements, Grant during the early part of May prevented this, and on May 18 he began the siege of Vicksburg. For fully a year this ‘Gibraltar’ had obstructed the navigation of the Mississippi by the Union forces, whose gun-boats had control of the river both above and below, although at Port Hudson, 120 miles further down, the Confederates were building extensive fortifications. General Pemberton had about 25,000 effective men, but was deficient in small ammunition, and had only 60 days’ rations. He contracted his lines, concentrating all his forces in the immediate defences of the town, and abandoned Haines’s Bluff. Johnston advised Pemberton to evacuate Vicksberg if the bluff was untenable, and march to the north-east, he himself moving so as to expedite a junction of their forces. Pemberton replied that it was impossible to withdraw, and that he had decided to hold Vicksburg as long as possible, conceiving it to be the most important point in the Confederacy.

Grant no sooner began the siege than he tried on May 19 to carry the place by a coup de main, but he was repulsed, and then made a regular investiture. His force was soon increased to 70,000 men, and he maintained the siege until July 3, when Pemberton sent him a note stating that he was fully able to hold his defensive position for an indefinite period, but proposing that Commissioners should be named to arrange a capitulation. Grant met Pemberton personally in the afternoon to arrange the terms, and the actual surrender followed next morning, July 4, 1863. There were 27,000 prisoners paroled altogether, of whom about 15,000 were fit for duty, the others being sick or wounded. From the time he crossed the Mississippi, Grant had lost 8,567 killed and wounded, half of them in the immediate siege. The Confederate loss during the same period was about 10,000. This victory caused a great sensation throughout the country, which had been depressed by repeated defeats in Virginia and by Lee’s march northward into Pennsylvania until checked by General Meade at Gettysburg; and Grant from that time became the great hero of the war. He had been a Major-General of Volunteers and was promoted to Major-General in the Regular Army, the highest rank he could attain as the law then existed.

General Grant was in October given the supreme command west of the mountains, his territory being called the ‘Military Division of the Mississippi,’ with departments under him, commanded respectively by Generals Sherman, Thomas, Burnside, and Hooker. After Vicksburg fell, his troops had driven Johnston’s forces eastward, and they with Bragg’s troops, which had gone into East Tennessee, began threatening Chattanooga. This picturesque town nestles among the Alleghany Mountains near the southern border of Tennessee, and Bragg occupied formidable positions nearby on Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Grant, in November, concentrated troops for the defence of Chattanooga, and on the 24th and 25th Bragg’s strongholds were carried by assault, and he abandoned that portion of the mountain district, retreating into Georgia. The Union troops pursued him some distance and then turned to relieve Burnside at Knoxville in East Tennessee, whom the Confederates had besieged, General Longstreet commanding them. These were the last active movements in the west which General Grant personally directed.

The successive failures in the east, in the campaigns made in Virginia by various generals for the capture of the Confederate capital at Richmond, caused a popular demand that the young commander who had so distinguished himself in the west should be placed in charge of what was regarded as the chief theatre of the war. When Congress convened in December, 1863, the first measure passed was a resolution ordering a gold medal to be struck for Grant, and returning thanks to him and his army. His name was on every tongue, and preparatory to giving him control of all the armies, Congress in March, 1804, created the rank of Lieutenant-General of the Army, and President Lincoln immediately appointed him. When his appointment was announced he at once went to Washington, arriving March 9, and received his commission.

He was given entire control as Commander-in-Chief of all the campaigns against the Confederacy. Never before during the war had any general in the field commanded all the Union armies. All previous generals in Virginia had been trammelled and thwarted by the powers in Washington. This political interference was thenceforward to cease; and it did cease in reality, Grant during the remaining year of the war being an autocrat whose will was the supreme law in military affairs. He returned to the west, and at Nashville, March 17, issued his order taking command, announcing that his headquarters would be in the field and with the ‘Army of the Potomac.’ He had nearly 700,000 men in active service under him.

At Nashville, in connexion with General Sherman, he planned two campaigns, east and west of the mountains. Sherman was to operate against Johnston’s forces at Atlanta, Georgia; and Meade was to move against Lee at Richmond, the latter movement being supervised by General Grant in person. Returning to the east he got his troops in readiness to advance as soon as the opening of spring permitted. The movement against Richmond began May 3, 1864, Grant crossing the Rapidan river with the Army of the Potomac, and a few days later being reinforced by Burnside’s troops, who were brought from the west, so that he had a force of nearly 150,000 men. His object was to turn Lee’s right flank by pushing through the desolate region known as the ‘Wilderness,’ and thus to place the Union army between Lee’s forces and Richmond. This quickly resulted in a bloody contest, for Lee on the 4th of May learned Grant’s movement, immediately took the offensive, and marching eastward into the ‘Wilderness’ struck Grant’s advancing forces on the flank. The region was a difficult one to move in, being filled with scrub timber and in many places an impenetrable jungle. The battle began on the 5th and, each side being reinforced, was continued on the 6th.

The fighting was almost exclusively with musketry, the nature of the ground making artillery useless. Grant’s numbers were at all points superior to Lee’s, and though the two days’ contest was generally regarded as a drawn battle Grant had secured the roads by which Lee was to pass out of the ‘Wilderness’ towards the southward, and after a day’s rest was able to resume the march towards Richmond. On the night of May 7 the Union army was put in motion towards Spottsylvania, a few miles to the south-eastward, moving in two columns. The advance was slow and difficult, being obstructed at all points by felled trees and constant skirmishes on front and flanks. Lee had evidently anticipated Grant’s movement, for he was pushing forward by a parallel road, and his advance had reached and was intrenched at Spottsylvania before Grant’s advance came up. Lee got his entire force in position there during the 8th, facing north and east. Both armies strengthened their positions on the 9th, and on the 10th Grant made a succession of attacks, losing about 5,000 men and being repulsed, the enemy having comparatively but small loss.

The battle was renewed on the 11th and again on the 12th, when, before daybreak, General Hancock. stormed and captured Lee’s outer works with 4,000 prisoners. Lee, from his inner citadel, made five unsuccessful attempts to recapture this work. Grant in the meantime made repeated attacks upon Lee’s flanks, which were repulsed, and finding the enemy’s position practically unassailable, Grant during the next week gradually developed his left flank by withdrawing troops from the right under cover of the remainder of the army. By this movement Grant hoped to outflank the Confederates, but Lee discovered the process and made similar movements to meet it, moving at the same time on a somewhat shorter line. When, on May 23, the Union army arrived at the northern bank of the North Anna river the enemy were found posted on the southern bank. Hancock on the left, and Warren leading the Union right, crossed over, the latter being furiously assailed. Warren repulsed the assault with a loss of about 350, and took 1,000 prisoners. The Union flanks held their positions, but Lee prevented their centre from crossing, and Grant, seeing the danger of his position, determined to abandon it. On the night of May 26 the Union army was withdrawn and started by a wide circuit eastward and then southward towards the Pamunkey river, one of the affluents of the York river, Lee again making a similar movement by a shorter line. This series of ‘Battles of the Wilderness,’ continuing about three weeks, were the bloodiest of the war, Grant’s losses being 41,398, while no trustworthy report was made of Lee’s losses, which estimates place at 20,000.

It was during this series of battles that Grant sent the despatch to the Government containing the famous sentence: ‘I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.’ After crossing the Pamunkey, Grant’s troops advanced to Cold Harbor, a few miles northward from Richmond, on the edge of the swamps of the Chickahominy region, where Lee’s forces were found intrenched in an impregnable position. Grant had got his army reinforced up to 150,000 men, while Lee had about 50,000. Grant determined to advance against the intrenchments, and in the grey, rainy dawn of June 3 the rush was made, the Union troops being, however, everywhere repulsed with heavy losses. A desultory contest was kept up during the day, but the attack was not renewed, Grant having lost 7,000 killed and wounded, the Confederate loss being less than half that number. For nearly two weeks the armies lay in position watching each other, when Grant made up his mind to abandon this plan of attack and to adopt a new one, by which Richmond, like Vicksburg, might be outflanked and taken from the rear.

These successive contests, which aggregated Union losses of about 55,000 men and Confederate losses of 32,000, showed the character of Grant’s military tactics. He knew that in the tottering condition of the Confederacy it must ultimately succumb to starvation and the waste of battle, and so long as men enough were given him to throw upon the enemy he would keep it up. The Government gave him everything he asked, and sent constant reinforcements to Virginia, which was then the principal theatre of the war. To prevent the Confederates from getting reinforcements, other detachments of Union troops were being advanced in the Shenandoah Valley and along the Kanawha, in West Virginia, while the Confederates west of the mountains were fully engaged in caring for Sherman’s advance to Atlanta. Grant had also hoped that General Butler, south of the James, might have captured Petersburg, so as to invest Richmond from the southern side. Butler had been foiled, however, and, crossing the James river in June, Grant personally began the siege of Petersburg.

The crossing of the James river, which was the beginning of the operations against Petersburg as directed by General Grant personally, was made upon June 12, 1864, and the army encamped at City Point, the junction of the Appomattox river with the James. Butler’s troops were at Bermuda Hundred, a peninsula formed by a bend of the James above City Point. Lee withdrew his forces into Richmond and took new positions east and south of the city, his force, with the men he found at Richmond, being about 70,000, while Grant had 100,000. Grant immediately began attacks upon the enemy’s position. On June 15 a corps of Butler’s forces made an unsuccessful assault, and on the 16th a combined attack was made by Hancock’s, Burnside’s, and Butler’s troops, which was repulsed with great slaughter. These preliminary engagements, Grant reported, had only the result that ‘the enemy was merely forced into an interior position,’ yet they cost the Union army the loss of 10,203 men. Grant then proceeded to invest Petersburg, which is about six miles south-west up the Appomattox from City Point, and the siege began on the 19th of June.

Lee, leaving about half his force at Richmond, went with the remainder to defend Petersburg, establishing strong lines around the town east, south, and south-west. Grant approached from the east, and on the 21st made a movement to seize the Weldon Railroad, which runs southward from the town. This attack, was repulsed, but Grant’s cavalry, about 8,000 strong, made an extensive raid through the country south and south-west of Petersburg for many miles, tearing up this and other railroads, so that Lee was reduced to sore straits for want of supplies. Thus matters rested during July, when Grant made a new plan. He sent a force across the James and up the eastern bank to a place called Deep Bottom, near Richmond, to threaten an attack, in the hope that Lee would withdraw part of his force from Petersburg to meet this new movement. In the meantime a mine had been dug under a fort occupying an advanced position in the Confederate defensive lines, directly behind which was Cemetery hill, the most commanding ground in Petersburg.

This mine was a gallery 520ft. long, terminating in lateral branches 40ft. long in each direction, and it was charged with 8,000 pounds of powder. General Burnside had it in charge, and if the Confederate works were blown up by the explosion other troops were disposed so as to quickly reinforce him. The Deep Bottom expedition having reached its post, the mine was exploded on July 30 about daybreak, blowing up the fort and its garrison of about 500 Confederates, belonging to a South Carolina Regiment. The explosion made a crater about 30ft.deep, 200ft. long, and 60ft. wide, and the Confederates fled from their works on either hand. The sides of the crater were rough and steep, so that they could not be mounted in military order. A single Union regiment managed to climb up, and made for Cemetery Hill; but, others not following, they faltered and finally fell back into the crater. The Confederates quickly rallied, poured in shells, and planted guns to command the approach. Four hours were spent in this ineffectual effort, and then the Union forces were withdrawn, leaving 1,900, prisoners, their entire loss being about 4,000, while the Confederates lost about 1,000.

This result was disheartening, and a long period of comparative inaction followed, Grant making movements to get possession of the railways south and west of Petersburg, which Lee steadily foiled. Butler tried to cut the Dutch Gap Canal across a narrow neck of land to divert the James, but this was also unsuccessful. Nothing of interest occurred in the autumn or winter, the two armies watching each other, although movements elsewhere were gradually enclosing the Confederacy in narrower limits, until, when spring opened and Sherman’s march from Atlanta had come out to the sea, it was practically reduced to southern Virginia and northern North Carolina. Lee and Johnston, all told, then had less than 100,000 rebels, while Grant, Sherman, and others were pressing them in all directions. Petersburg and Richmond were successfully held, but their supplies were endangered, and at times cut off.

Lee in March planned to abandon Petersburg and Richmond, and to unite with Johnston, who was on the Carolina border. Lee to facilitate his withdrawal threw an offensive movement against the Union right. On the morning of March 25, squads of Confederates announcing themselves as deserters approached the Union lines, and this being a common occurrence no suspicion was aroused. Suddenly, however, these squads overpowered the pickets, and a Confederate column 5,000 strong rushed out and seized a fort. In a few minutes the Union guns from all sides began playing upon the fort, and it was speedily retaken, less than half the Confederates being able to regain their lines. The contest extended, and the Confederates lost altogether 4,500 and the Union army 2,000. Grant then began a movement westward to turn the Confederate right, the troops being in full motion by March 29. The moving columns were about 50,000, including 10,000 cavalry under Sheridan. Lee had an intrenched line at Petersburg about 10 miles long, and leaving 10,000 men to defend it, collected all his remaining force, not 20,000 men, to oppose this flanking movement.

A furious storm next day made the roads almost impassable, but on the 31st the two forces met at Five Forks, about eight miles south-west of Petersburg, and had a severe conflict. Lee gained some advantage, and on April the 1st drove the Union advance about three miles southward to Dinwiddie. Reinforcements coming up, Sheridan, who was in command, forced the Confederates back to Five Forks and then beyond it, routing them at Hatcher’s Run and the cavalry pursuing them for miles. This broke up the two corps of Lee’s army upon which he had placed the most reliance, the Confederates losing 6,000 prisoners, besides large numbers killed and wounded. Simultaneously with this movement a heavy bombardment was made upon the works at Petersburg and a general assault was ordered on April 2, the outposts being captured. Lee that night abandoned both Petersburg and Richmond. The Confederates still had 40,000 men, but they were widely scattered and the only forlorn hope was in concentration. Before daybreak on April 3 the Confederates had all withdrawn from Petersburg, crossed the Appomattox and burnt the bridges behind them, at the same time blowing up the magazines on the whole line to Richmond. The Union troops immediately advanced, and were met by the Mayor of Petersburg, who surrendered the city. To unite their forces, Lee moved north-west from Petersburg and Longstreet south-west from Richmond, and they came together at Chesterfield. Thence they moved westward, Grant pursuing on parallel roads to the southward. Lee had ordered a provision train to meet him at Amelia, but through mistake of orders it went on to Richmond without unloading, so that when he arrived he found no rations for the famishing troops and had to halt and send out foraging parties. This delay was fatal, for Grant’s troops came up and surrounded him, so that further resistance was useless. On April 8 Grant sent Lee a message to the effect that there was no hope of any further successful resistance and demanding surrender in order to avoid further shedding of blood.

Lee replied, asking the terms upon which a surrender would be received. Grant named as the sole condition that ‘the men aud officers surrendered shall be disqualified from taking up arms again against the Government of the United States until properly discharged.’ Lee, on the 9th, met Grant near Appomattox Court-house, and the terms of surrender were agreed upon. The list of paroled prisoners was 27,805, but of these barely one third had any arms, there being only 10,000 muskets and 30 cannon found. All the rest of Lee’s army had been killed or captured, or had deserted during the operations around Richmond and Petersburg.

Thus ended the great civil war, and Grant became a hero of world-wide renown.

Grant was himself partly responsible for confusion over his names. Christened Hiram Ulysses, he wished to avoid being nick-named ‘Hug’ and so reversed the sequence on his application for West Point, but the congressman through whom the application passed mistakenly entered him as Ulysses Simpson. A fine horseman since boyhood, it was his hope to join the cavalry, in which he would doubtless have done well, as his understanding of manoeuvre and pursuit during the Civil War was to demonstrate, but lack of a cavalry vacancy resulted in him being commissioned into the 4th Infantry. His reason for leaving the army in 1854 is attributed to a rebuke for heavy drinking, through boredom, while in command of a small isolated fort on the California frontier.

There are indications of some intellectual laziness, not only in his failed business ventures but also in his conduct of set-piece battles where much careful thought is required. In fluid warfare, opportunities to exploit the enemy’s situation suggest themselves, so long as the commander has a working grasp of the ground, but frontal attacks such as he made at Corinth in 1862 and against Lee in Richmond in 1864 brought only a terrible ‘butcher’s bill’ of casualties to the Union Army. His slow and deliberate speech was consistent with his real military strength as a strategist, as was his lack of outward concern for the losses his mistakes incurred, a concern usually associated with the thinking of a tactician.

The American Civil War was the first fought in a nation-wide industrial context and Grant appreciated that from well before he became commander-in-chief of the Union armies. His strategies were designed to destroy the Confederate capability and will to continue the struggle, although the idea of Sherman’s ‘March to the Sea’ devastating the wheatlands of Georgia, came from Sherman. Grant was initially opposed to the plan and even as complete success was in prospect, urged Sherman to caution. A straight comparison between Grant and his Confederate opponent Robert E. Lee is complicated by their different troop strengths and politico-strategic objectives. Given an even contest, Lee would probably have won.