acted as mustering officer until, being commissioned colonel of the Twenty-
first Illinois Volunteers, he took the field. His first great victory was the
capture of Fort Donelson with 15,000 prisoners.
When asked by the
Confederate general what terms of surrender was expected his answer was,
"No terms other than an unconditional and immediate surrender can be
accepted. I propose to move upon your works at once." The fall of Fort
Donelson and the capture of its garrison being the first substantial victory
that had crowned the Union cause, together with the above described
answer to General Buckner, brought the name of General Grant prominently
before the country.
Pittsburgh Landing followed and then
Grant determined to take
Vicksburg. All his generals declared the plan he proposed unmilitary and
impossible, but after several unsuccessful attempts the Gibraltar of the
Mississippi was captured, and this time 27,000 prisoners taken. Now came
the battle of Chattanooga. General Halleck in speaking of this battle said:
"Considering the strength of the rebel position, and the difficulty of
storming his intrenchments, the battle of Chattanooga must be considered
the most remarkable in history. Indeed it is so. After Grant had turned the
Confederate right flank, Sherman was intercepted between Longstreet and
Bragg, thus cutting Longstreet entirely out, and preventing another junction
being possible. Resolutions of thanks were passed in Ohio and New York,
and Congress created Grant a Lieutenant-General, a commission which had
been held by no one since General Scott resigned. Indeed, if ever a General
deserved honor,
Grant had won it; he had opened the Mississippi to
navigation, and had captured nearly 100,000 prisoners and arms."
He was now commander of all the Federal forces. He at once inaugurated
two campaigns to be carried on at once. One under Sherman, against
Atlanta commanded by the skillful rebel General Johnson; the other under
Meade, directed against Lee and the Confederate capitol. Sherman
advanced upon Atlanta, and the success of his famous march to the sea is
well-known.
The capture of Lee was a far more difficult undertaking. After various
flanking movements and costly assaults,
the problem of taking Lee
narrowed itself down to a siege of Petersburg. Grant perceived that his only
hope lie in literally starving the Confederate army out by cutting off all
resources as far as practicable. Lee attempted to draw off attention toward
Washington, but General Sheridan drove Early out of the Shenandoah
Valley, devastating the country to such an extent that it was impossible to
forage an army there should Lee attempt such a maneuver again. Time wore
away, and on the 9th of April, 1865, Grant captured the Confederate army
under Lee, thus virtually ending the war.
On July 25, 1866, he was made general of the United States army; the
rank having been created for him, he was the first to hold it. At the next
Republican Convention, Grant was nominated
for President on the first
ballot, and was elected over Seymour, and was re-elected a second term by
an increased majority.
When his public services were finished he started in company with his
wife, son Jesse, and a few friends. They set sail from Philadelphia on the
17th of May, 1877. They visited nearly all the countries of Europe, and part
of those of Africa and Asia. On this trip the Grant party were the guests of
nearly all the crowned heads of those foreign countries, everywhere
receiving the most exalted honors it has ever been the pleasure of an
American to enjoy, and on his return to the United States they were the
recipients of an ovation in many of the principal cities of this country.
His success seems to have been the outgrowth of hard study and ability to
perform the most exhaustive labor without fatigue. The scenes of his later
days were clouded with the intrigues of a stock gambler, but the stain that
the Grant-Ward failure seemed likely to throw on the spotless reputation of
General Grant was wiped away when the facts were brought to light, and a
new lustre was added to his fame by the self-sacrifice
shown in the final
settlement.
General Grant proved to be a writer of no low order, and his
autobiography is a very readable book. On July 23rd, 1885, the General
surrendered to a loathsome cancer, and the testimonials of devotion shown
the honored dead; and the bereaved family throughout the civilized world,
