CHAPTER XXIV.
Wherein Captain Galligasken has something more to say about the glorious Campaign of Chattanooga, and illustrates some of the personal Characteristics of the illustrious Soldier.
In one month from the time of his arrival at Chattanooga, Grant had swept the rebels from the positions they occupied—had achieved a success which the enemy had believed was impossible. A woman, whose home was on the plateau of Missionary Ridge, said to one of our officers, after the battle had been fought, "Before you all came up here, I asked General Bragg, 'What are you going to do with me?' He replied, 'Lord, madam, the Yankees will never dare to come up here.' But it was not fifteen minutes before you were all around here."
I have not the slightest doubt that Bragg was as confident of his safety up to the moment his line was broken as he was of his own existence. Relying on the immense natural advantages of his position, which had been fortified to the extent of human skill, he believed it was as impossible to move his army as it was to move the mountain itself. And it was not a merely blind confidence; for if a man ever had occasion to congratulate himself upon the security of his troops, Bragg had.
Grant's plan for the battle, which was strictly followed out, from beginning to end, in all its details, was a masterpiece of military skill and combination. Without this the brilliant, daring, and resolute assault must have ended in total failure. But it is equally certain that the splendid plan would have failed without the gallant fighting. In fact, Grant commanded both armies on that day, for Bragg was obliged to follow out the results of Grant's combinations.
The battle had continued for three days, extending over an area thirteen miles in length, to say nothing of its perpendicular ascent. Two of the three subordinate commanders who directed operations under him were of his own choosing; and Hooker, without being selected by him, was a man after his own heart, so far, at least, as his promptness and his fighting inclinations were concerned. Yet it is marvellous that nothing went wrong on those eventful days; that all minor difficulties were overcome, and the operations brought into such glorious harmony; but this is as much due to Grant's genius and foresight as the plan itself. He had skilfully and prudently weighed the conditions of success, and while the men fought well, and the generals obeyed their orders, there was no chance for failure.
Even General Halleck, who had no partiality for the hero, and no confidence in him which had not been secured by Grant's wonderful successes, became enthusiastic over this battle. "Considering the strength of the rebel position and the difficulty of storming his intrenchments," said the careful general-in-chief, "the battle of Chattanooga must be considered as one of the most remarkable in history. Not only did the officers and men exhibit great skill and daring in their operations in the field, but the highest praise is also due to the commanding general for his admirable dispositions for dislodging the enemy from a position apparently impregnable. Moreover, by turning his right flank and throwing him back upon Ringgold and Dalton, Sherman's forces were interposed between Bragg and Longstreet, so as to prevent any possibility of their forming a junction."
Halleck was a cautious man, and in no danger of exaggerating the merits of Grant's deeds, so that the non-military public may receive his opinion without any grains of allowance. In the theory of warfare, in his complete knowledge and appreciation of the principles of strategy, however he may have failed in the practical application of the science in the field, the general-in-chief had no superior. He was a writer of no little celebrity, before the war, on military subjects, and is amply competent to pronounce a safe opinion. When a man of his calibre, therefore, steps out of the sphere of the Rebellion for a comparison, and pronounces the battle of Chattanooga "one of the most remarkable in history," the general public, unlearned in the mysteries of military science, may justifiably deduce from his statement the belief that General Grant is one of the most remarkable soldiers the world has ever seen.
History is but little more than a record of wars, battles, and sieges. The characters who figure the most extensively in its chronicles are the warriors of all ages. How stands Grant among them? He has captured more guns and more prisoners than any general in the whole history of the world! The campaign and siege of Vicksburg is without a parallel in the annals of any nation under the sun! Until the American Rebellion Napoleon was the greatest general the world had ever seen. Grant has paled even his star; for Grant has no Waterloo, no disastrous retreat, like that from Russia, in his record.
Not alone in the grandeur of his position as a military genius is Grant great. In his sterling goodness, in his modesty, in his magnanimity, in his perception of character, in his quiet winning way, in his sublime confidence in himself, in his Christian forbearance, in his absolute self-negation, and in his unselfish love of country, he is a great man, even without the laurel of victory upon his brow. When I see him, crippled in body, weakened and physically broken down by long confinement to his bed, hastening on his crutches to the most desperate scene which the annals of this terrible war present; hurrying with the laurel of Vicksburg and Donelson on his brow, without a thought that he was imperilling his splendid reputation in an almost hopeless venture; speeding through tempest and desolation, not at the head of his war-worn and victorious veterans, but alone, to a stricken, half-starved, beleaguered position, from whose overlooking environments the cunning foe was gazing down, while they waited for famine and death to do their certain work; when I see him thus staking his all,—for his all, in a worldly sense, was his brilliant fame,—sacrificing ease, comfort, health, exposing his very life, to save the army, to save Chattanooga, to save the cause,—I can not but ask, What other man has done so much? What other man could, or would?
One of his biographers has said that Grant went to Chattanooga with the reënforcements for which Rosecrans had vainly pleaded; that he went with two armies to the relief of the town. There was time enough, after Grant arrived, to have fought half a dozen battles before even the moral support of either of these forces was available for the relief of the army of the Cumberland. Sherman was struggling through a hostile country, battling with swollen rivers, broken roads, and the storms and tempests of November, a hundred miles away. Hooker was not in a position to lift a finger till the genius of Grant opened the way for his movement. Bragg might have swooped down from his mountain holds and stormed the intrenchments with an overwhelming force at any hour of the day or the night. We only wondered that he did not do it. But he held Lookout Valley, held the river, held the railroad above and below the town, and nothing but his perfect assurance that neither Hooker nor Sherman could get into Chattanooga before the garrison would be starved out prevented him from doing so. No! Grant fought the rebels alone during those five days—the darkest and most perilous in his career. If he had been beaten in the end, if Chattanooga had fallen before either of the two armies arrived, he would still have been entitled to the credit of his most heroic and self-sacrificing conduct.
I repeat, it is not alone the brilliant lustre of his military deeds which calls forth our admiration: his patriotism, his unselfish devotion to the cause, entitle him to the highest place in the regards of the American people.
Occasionally, in the current newspapers of the day, during the Rebellion, we read the astounding statement that General Fitzfizzle was under fire; that a shell exploded on the side of the river where he was; that his staff besought him not to expose his precious person to the deadly projectiles of the enemy. We are sensationally informed that General Fitzfizzle told his officers to retire to a safe place if they were afraid. General Fitzfizzle had evidently screwed his courage up to the sticking point, and during the long period of three whole minutes he was exposed to the bullets of the enemy—until, indeed, his presence was elsewhere required. We tender to General Fitzfizzle the homage of our grateful admiration. We feel that he was a brave man, for he has exposed his corpus to the bullet of the foe. But what has he done for three minutes more than Private McMullen and Corporal Mullinstock have done during the entire battle? Is it heralded in the newspapers that by an effort he has exhibited the mere brute courage which has distinguished thousands of humble privates whose names will never be printed?
It does not appear from any record that Grant ever uttered a sensational remark on the field. The terrible earnestness of the man admitted of no side talk, no silly affectation, no ridiculous farce which could point a paragraph in the papers. He was always in the battle, and always a part of the battle. He chose the position best suited to his purpose for observing the movements of the contending armies. It mattered not whether it was exposed to the enemy's fire or not; he never considered that question. I am not aware that he ever recklessly exposed himself without need, and certainly he never sought a place of safety during the battle. It does not appear that he considered the question of personal safety at all. He was where his presence was required, without regard to peril.
At Belmont he was with the skirmishers in the front line of battle, the first to go on the field, and the last to leave it. At Shiloh he led charge after charge, and was in the thickest of the fight. Hundreds of men behind him, and all around him, fell. He never required an escort, but rode, with his staff, into the hottest of the fight. So continually exposed was he, that the whole army wondered he was not killed. At Ringgold, in the pursuit of Bragg's fleeing army, he rode for half a mile, at a moderate trot, through a storm of shot and shell. He was not thinking of danger—only of the enemy's positions. He was studying the battle, in that moment which would have tried the souls of common men. There was no consciousness at any time on his face that he was doing "a big thing." He was simply in earnest, completely absorbed in the progress of the battle. Where necessity required him to go, he went; if there was a direct road, by that; if not, over the fields, through the woods, swimming his horse through any stream that lay in his path.
He did everything with all his might, as if in literal obedience to the Scripture injunction; and though not physically a powerful man, he seemed to be superior to fatigue, hunger, cold, and all the ills to which human flesh is subject. He would ride from breakfast time till two o'clock the next morning without tasting food, and continue this severe exertion until his work was finished—till victory had crowned his operations. He could wear out his staff, who were compelled to attend him, but he did not wear out himself. He was an earnest man, and through the might of his earnestness, he conquered all obstacles, and triumphed over every disadvantage. It was not luck, it was not good fortune, that gave him the battle; it was genius, fortified by hard, persistent labor. If he beat down greater obstacles than any other man, it was because he studied deeper, worked harder, and fought longer than any other.
Grant's task was not yet finished. Burnside was still in peril, a hundred miles away. Granger was sent forward to his assistance, but his movements were too laggard to satisfy the impatience of the heroic chief, and Sherman was started on the war path to supersede him. The army of the Ohio had been hemmed in at Knoxville, and its situation was hazardous in the extreme, though Burnside was fully equal to the emergency. He had only twelve days' provisions left, but he manfully stood his ground. Grant had given him the most effectual relief in driving Bragg away from the valley.
At the time of sending Sherman up the Tennessee, Grant forwarded a despatch in duplicate to Kingston, one copy of which was for Burnside, and the other was intended for, and fell into the hands of, the enemy. Longstreet received his copy; but, before it fell into his hands, he learned that Bragg had fallen back. He therefore determined to attack Knoxville without delay. Fort Sanders, the principal defence of the place, was assaulted, and a fierce struggle ensued, but the rebels were defeated.
After the battle, Longstreet received the despatch which Grant had written for his edification. Finding that Sherman was in the vicinity, he had not a moment to lose, and started in full retreat for Virginia. Burnside and Sherman conferred together in regard to the situation. Longstreet was pursued, but the force was insufficient, and the chase was abandoned. Burnside did not fully appreciate the situation, and sent Sherman back to Chattanooga, retaining only Granger's command. Longstreet was a very able general, and took prompt advantage of the mistake of his antagonist. Finding nothing but a small cavalry force behind him, he turned, defeated it, and marched back into East Tennessee, establishing himself at Russellville for the winter, where the country afforded abundant supplies. If Grant's orders to Burnside had been fully apprehended and carried out, this mortifying result could not have transpired. But the winter had set in, and military operations in that mountain region were impracticable.
The termination of the event was simply mortifying: it in no way affected the grand result of the Chattanooga campaign, which had been victorious in all its details. On the 10th of December, after the enemy had been driven from his strongholds, Grant issued his congratulatory order to the three armies under his command, which has such a ring of true steel in it, that I cannot help holding it up to the admiration of my sympathizing reader.
"Headquarters Military Division of the}
Mississippi, in the Field,}
Chattanooga, Tenn., Dec. 10, 1863.}
"The general commanding takes this opportunity of returning his sincere thanks and congratulations to the brave armies of the Cumberland, the Ohio, the Tennessee, and their comrades from the Potomac, for the recent splendid and decisive successes achieved over the enemy. In a short time you have recovered from him the control of the Tennessee River from Bridgeport to Knoxville. You dislodged him from his great stronghold upon Lookout Mountain, drove him from Chattanooga Valley, wrested from his determined grasp the possession of Missionary Ridge, repelled, with heavy loss to him, his repeated assaults upon Knoxville, forcing him to raise the siege there, driving him at all points, utterly routed and discomfited, beyond the limits of the state. By your noble heroism and determined courage you have most effectually defeated the plans of the enemy for regaining possession of the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. You have secured positions from which no rebellious power can drive or dislodge you. For all this the general commanding thanks you collectively and individually. The loyal people of the United States thank and bless you. Their hopes and prayers for your success against this unholy Rebellion are with you daily. Their faith in you will not be in vain. Their hopes will not be blasted.
Their prayers to Almighty God will be answered. You will yet go to other fields of strife; and, with the invincible bravery and unflinching loyalty to justice and right which have characterized you in the past, you will prove that no enemy can withstand you, and that no defences, however formidable, can check your onward march.
By order of Major General U.S. Grant."
This came from the "silent man," who simply never talks without having something to say; but his pen speaks and reveals the man in all the towering grandeur of his lofty patriotism and sublime devotion. In this paper he tells the soldiers what they have done, not what he has done himself. President Lincoln promptly congratulated the general, and all under his command, on the decisive victory, and expressed his profoundest gratitude for the skill, courage, and perseverance with which the work had been accomplished.
Soon after the assembling of Congress, while the brilliant events I have written down were still fresh in the minds of the people, both houses passed a resolution to this effect: "That the thanks of Congress be, and they are hereby, presented to Major General Ulysses S. Grant, and through him to the officers and soldiers who have fought under his command during this Rebellion, for their gallantry and good conduct in the battles in which they have been engaged; and that the President of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be presented to Major General Grant."
These victories were so important, and had such a decided influence upon the destinies of the nation, that the hearts of the people were filled with gratitude. The president appointed a day of thanksgiving, and Grant was renewedly hailed as the savior of the country.
He was not dazzled by the elevated position he had achieved. Not a vain-glorious remark escaped his lips; not a particle of vanity was apparent in his looks or his manner. Neither the victories he had won, nor the spontaneous homage of the people, turned his thought from the cause to himself. Early in December, as soon as the campaign was fairly closed, and in the very despatch in which he announced the final results, he renewed his proposition for an expedition against Mobile. He does not ask to go home and receive the plaudits of his fellow-citizens; he does not hint at a moment of respite to enjoy the laurels he had won; he does not even require time to rest his weary frame, and recover entirely from his injuries. He is ready to organize immediately an attack upon Mobile. He mentions his route, and proposes to take it or invest it before the end of the next month. He was still in earnest, but the government were not prepared to authorize the movement.
Burnside had been superseded at Knoxville by Foster, and Grant visited his headquarters to prepare for a movement against Longstreet as soon as the season would permit. Foster was soon relieved at his own request, on account of an old wound, and General Schofield, at Grant's request, was appointed in his place. Sherman was sent to Vicksburg, where he organized the celebrated Meridian expedition, and early in February it started. The rebels were driven out of Mississippi, and its whole railroad system was destroyed or deranged so that it was useless to the Confederacy. The army marched four hundred miles in less than a month, fed upon the country, and returned in better condition than when it started.
In January Grant obtained permission of the War Department to visit St. Louis, where his son was dangerously sick. He travelled without show or parade, and few, if any, found out who he was. At the hotel, on his arrival, he registered his name as "U.S. Grant, Chattanooga;" but the news of his coming soon spread, and he was tendered a public reception and dinner. His son being much better, he accepted the invitation. His speech at the dinner was a line and a half in length. In the evening he was serenaded, and his speech was two lines and a half in length. He had never made a speech, and never intended to do so. The multitude shouted for a speech. "Tell them you can fight for them, but cannot talk to them—do tell them this," pleaded an earnest friend at his side. "I must get some one else to say that for me," replied the general. Of Grant's "silence," I shall have the honor to speak in another place.
During the winter, Grant attended to all the vast details of his large department, and put everything in condition for an early renewal of the contest in the spring, and on the 3d of March he was ordered to Washington.