_Wherein Captain Galligasken discourses upon the breaking out of
the Rebellion, and describes the noble and modest Behavior of the
illustrious Soldier._
Until Treason opened its treacherous batteries on Fort Sumter, Grant
had been a Democrat. His sympathies, though he seldom expressed himself
on political topics, were with the conservative party. Abolition and
abolitionists, as such, had no place in his regard, and the Republican
party he viewed with all the disfavor of a sturdy Democrat. His father
had been a Democrat before him, and so far as he had any political
associations, they were of this faith.
In those months of dire forebodings, of anxious waiting, and of
fruitless attempts to patch up a compromise, which intervened
between the election of Lincoln in November and the breaking out of
hostilities, Grant had been in favor of conceding to the South all
its rights, even as they were interpreted by a Democrat who lived and
breathed and had his being in compromise. It cannot be said or thought
that the illustrious soldier embarked in an anti-slavery war. The
terrible conflict was precipitated by the madness of the South in
opening its guns upon a national fort.
For months the country had been waiting with breathless interest
for the issue of the political complications which grew out of the
secession of South Carolina and the states which followed her reckless
example. Patriots north and patriots south were not willing to believe
that the horrors of civil war were to be enacted in the land they
loved. Even the "fire-eaters" of the South, while they looked daggers,
used none. There was no spirit of prophecy in the country which foresaw
the stupendous conflict that ensued. Men hoped and believed that some
happy event would turn aside the impending storm. The South expected
that its noisy bluster and its parade of arms would intimidate the
North; and the cooler North thought that the hot blood of the South
would cool itself in the lapse of time. Both were mistaken.
The fiery Southrons ostentatiously made their preparations for a
conflict which they did not believe would take place, and the North, if
not unmoved, yet exercised a degree of forbearance which appeared like
indifference, in the face of this parade of hostile demonstrations.
The government was paralyzed by the unwonted situation; but it did
not raise a finger to disturb or check the hostile operations of the
rebels. The constitution and the laws were set at nought; forts,
arsenals, and dock-yards were seized; the nation's property was
plundered, and its honored flag insulted and trailed in the dust; but
the sword of justice still rested in its scabbard. Southern fanatics
howled, stormed, and blustered; yet the government only waited--waited
till the fiery zeal of the South appeared to be in danger of wasting
itself before the purposes of its leaders were accomplished.
It was necessary that something should be done to "fire the Southern
heart," and rekindle the enthusiasm of the people, which was waxing
cold under the forbearance of an insulted government. Fort Sumter
was bombarded; lines of batteries encircling the devoted work poured
in their rain of shot and shell, and battered down the walls of the
fortress, defended by only a handful of men. Skilful officers, educated
at the public expense to defend the government against which they were
now raising their parricidal hands, conducted the cowardly enterprise,
with the flower of Southern chivalry gathered in thousands under their
command, to a successful issue. The triumph was theirs, the glory and
the endless shame in one foul deed.
The South sang the pæan of victory, achieved with an odds of a hundred
to one in its favor, and the Southern heart was fired. By the same
deed another heart was fired. The North rose as one man to resent the
base outrage, the cowardly assault. The last moment when compromise
was possible, passed away with the report of the first gun aimed at
Sumter. That gun awoke the slumbering North, and in every peaceful
hamlet the drum-beat of preparation sounded, beginning on the St. Croix
and ending far west of the Mississippi. The news that the first blow
had been struck flashed through the land, silent between hope and fear,
and kindled an enthusiasm which had no bound or limit. Traitors north
and traitors south were marked men from that thrilling hour. There was
no voice but for the nation's honor and the nation's defence, in the
onslaught of a treacherous foe.
For years the military spirit in the people had been repressed and
discouraged. The soldier was regarded as an obsolete necessity, and the
profession of arms had become absolutely disreputable in many parts of
the country. Except here and there one who had served in the Mexican
war, and a superannuated veteran of 1812, there was not a soldier in
the land who had any experience of actual warfare. Half a century had
elapsed since the fact of war in their own midst had been realized by
the people, and all their traditions were of peace and prosperity.
But in spite of their peaceful antecedents, in spite of the seeming
indifference with which they had regarded the gathering storm, they
flew to arms. Without any concert of action, without any startling
proclamations to rouse their sleeping energies, they rallied beneath
the banner of the country, and the spectacle of a united North was
held up to the view of the astonished South. The proclamation of the
president calling for seventy-five thousand men--an unheard-of army
within our peaceful borders--immediately followed the tidings of the
shock of actual conflict. The government had come out of its lethargy
with the people, and both were in hearty sympathy.
To Galena came the tidings from Fort Sumter, and to Galena came the
proclamation of President Lincoln. We were thrilled by the treacherous
deed of those who were henceforth to be our foes. We were thrilled by
the note of preparation which sounded at the same time. Our hearts beat
the quickstep which was reverberating through the entire North, and
from the depths of our souls we thanked the patriot president for his
prompt and decided action. With an indignation which was characteristic
of the man, Captain Grant read the newspaper which contained the story
of the nation's dishonor. The lines which delineate on his face the
force of his will seemed to deepen as he realized the fact that the
first blow had actually been struck. In that cowardly army which had
rained shot and shell upon a little worn-out band of regular soldiers
for thirty-three hours were some of his classmates and companions in
arms on the bloody fields of Mexico. They had been friends, but now
they were enemies.
There was no halting or hesitation in the man. The blows which battered
down Sumter reached his great heart. His country was in peril, and
his patriotic soul responded to the call for her defence. He made no
noisy demonstrations, but calmly and resolutely fixed his purpose and
declared his intentions. There was no foam or fury in his manner;
nothing was said and nothing was done to create a sensation, though the
man who had won laurels in the hard-fought battles of Mexico might have
been excused, on such an occasion, for a little display or a little
pomposity; but that was not Grant. Actuated only by a sense of duty
to his country, and not at all by a desire to serve himself or to win
the honors of the profession he had first chosen, he was as gentle and
modest as the humblest civilian.
The soldier, especially the trained and experienced soldier, was a
mighty man in those days. The whole country was rising in arms, and
his influence was potent. The nation wanted him, and his profession,
maligned and treated with contempt before, suddenly elevated him above
the sphere of politicians and statesmen. Grant was a soldier, and the
fact that he was a graduate of West Point, and had seen service in
the field, made him a man to whom others looked up with respect and
admiration in the new dispensation which necessity preached to the
people.
I dwell with pride and pleasure upon the deportment of Captain Grant at
this exciting period. To me there was something sublime in his absolute
self-negation. His antecedents, his military record, entitled him to a
high position in the volunteer army which was then gathering. It would
not have been immodest for him to write to the governor of Illinois,
asking a position as a major general in the mustering host. He did
nothing of the kind; he asked for no position. He did not thrust his
rank in the regular army, which he had earned by hard fighting, into
the faces of civil or military officials. He claimed nothing.
"Uncle Sam has educated me for the army," said he to a friend. "Though
I have served him through one war, I do not feel that I have yet
repaid the debt. I am still ready to discharge my obligations. I shall
therefore buckle on my sword, and see Uncle Sam through this war, too."
The obligation could not be forgotten, for Grant never permitted the
remembrance of a favor to be obliterated from his heart; but high above
even this sacred duty was that which he owed to his stricken country,
then writhing in the gripe of the monster of Treason. The purpose
which gave to the United States the greatest commander the world has
ever seen was formed; but he did not blow a trumpet before him in the
streets of Galena, and say to the people, "Lo, here I am, a soldier
trained to arms and fit to be your chief. Behold me--a hero from
Monterey and Chapultepec. Make me your leader, and send me to battle at
the head of your men, and I will win great victories for you."
Not thus spoke Grant: save in the privacy of his narrow social circle,
he spoke not at all; and even when his mighty prowess and his brilliant
victories had made him famous, the people came to the shop windows of
Grant & Sons to ascertain which of the firm was so effectually tanning
rebel hides, so little was he known, and so little had he paraded
himself before the citizens of the place.
Though like him I had been to West Point; though like him I had seen
the glories of Palo Alto, Resaca, Monterey, and the fourteen battles
of Scott from Vera Cruz to Chapultepec; though like him I had retired
from the army,--I could not regard myself as of so little consequence
as he did. I felt that nothing less than the commission of a brigadier
would be a proper appreciation of my record and my profession. I am
sorry to be obliged to confess that I placed myself where the gaze of
the multitude might rest upon me; but alas! they did not see me. I was
not the providential man of the Great Rebellion, and the microscopes of
the people failed to bring me into view. But my own position enables
me to see more clearly that of the illustrious soldier of whose deeds I
am the admiring chronicler.
Grant exhibited no ambitious spirit--he was at work for the nation, not
for himself. He said nothing in public--the people of Galena hardly
knew the sound of his voice; but there, in the streets of his town,
he raised the standard of the loyal cause, and invited the hardy and
patriotic men of the place to rally for its defence. In less than a
week after the news from Fort Sumter had arrived, he was drilling a
company; but he did not claim even the rank to which he had risen in
the regular army, the cause, and not himself, being still uppermost in
his thought.
The company proposed to elect him to this highest office within their
gift. Doubtless he would have accepted the position, but a gentleman
with more ardent aspirations for military glory frankly acknowledged
his desire to obtain this place; and Grant declined the honor. He
stepped out of the way to accommodate another, but he consented to
go with the company to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. He was
accompanied on his journey by the Hon. E. B. Washburn, who introduced
him to Governor Yates. The chief magistrate did not appear at first to
be profoundly impressed by the captain, and did not take much notice of
him.
Grant was determined to use a laboring oar in the work before the
loyal country, and he wrote to the adjutant general of the army at
Washington. He did not apply for a position as brigadier, but simply
stated that he had been educated at the public expense at West Point;
and as the country was in peril, he considered it his duty to place
whatever skill and experience he had acquired at the disposal of
the government, offering his services in any capacity in which they
might be needed. This modest offer brought no response from the War
Department.
While Grant was waiting for the moving of the waters, he visited
Cincinnati, where McClellan, who had been appointed a major general
of volunteers by the governor of Ohio, was organizing his forces. The
"Little Napoleon" of the first years of the rebellion had served with
Grant in Mexico, and they had become acquainted there. Both were in
Worth's brigade at the siege of Vera Cruz, and both had been honorably
mentioned for gallant conduct at Chapultepec and El Molino del Rey.
Grant was seeking a position in which he could make himself useful to
the country. He twice called at the headquarters of General McClellan,
but failed to see him on either occasion. He thought it possible that
his old comrade in arms might offer him a place on his staff, which
appears to have been the highest aspiration of the great commander at
this time. Failing to see McClellan, he returned to Springfield.
While he was waiting at the capital, Governor Yates sent for him, and
wished to inquire whether he knew how many men belonged in a company,
how many companies in a regiment, and what officers were required in
such an organization--questions which seemed to have been especially
perplexing to the earnest and loyal chief magistrate of the state.
Grant assured him that he understood all about such matters; that
he had been educated at West Point, and had served eleven years in
the regular army. This straight-forward reply helped the governor out
of his annoying dilemma, and Grant was invited to take a seat at the
capital and officiate as adjutant general, in which capacity he served
for several weeks during the hurry of sending off the troops, rendering
the most valuable assistance from his familiarity with the details of
military organizations.
Though the future hero had made no parade of himself or his
accomplishments, several regiments desired to elect him as their
colonel; but for reasons of his own, which do not appear,--though I
suspect that his military prejudice against electing officers was the
strongest one,--he declined all these overtures. One who knew him
better than others suggested to the governor that he should appoint him
to some regiment, without previously consulting him. The suggestion was
acted upon, and Captain Grant was appointed colonel of the Twenty-first
Regiment of Infantry. The commission was promptly accepted, and Colonel
Grant hastened to Mattoon, where the regiment was in camp, and assumed
the command.