It was not until General Grant had been made Commander-in-Chief that
President Lincoln felt he had at last found a general who did not
need much advice. He was the first to recognize that Grant was a great
military leader, and when he once felt sure of this fact nothing could
shake his confidence in that general. Delegation after delegation called
at the White House and asked for Grant’s removal from the head of the
army. They accused him of being a butcher, a drunkard, a man without
sense or feeling.
President Lincoln listened to all of these attacks, but he always had
an apt answer to silence Grant’s enemies. Grant was doing what Lincoln
wanted done from the first--he was fighting and winning victories, and
victories are the only things that count in war.