General Sherman's Friendship--His Death--General Grant's Recognition
of Services--His Great Trait, Moral and Intellectual Honesty--His
Confidence in Himself--Grant, Like Lincoln, a Typical American--On
the Retired List of the Army--Conclusion.
General Sherman never failed to manifest his generous appreciation
of my services as one of his trusted lieutenants, from the time we
met in the field until he retired from command of the army. Our
long-standing friendship increased till the time of his death.
While I was in command of the army, General Sherman never came to
Washington without coming very promptly to see me at headquarters,
not waiting for a first visit from his junior in rank. Of course
this great and cordial courtesy was very promptly returned. Upon
the occasions of these visits at the office, the general would sit
a long time, talking in his inimitably charming manner with me and
the staff officers who came in with their morning business. Then
he would insist upon my going with him to call upon the President,
a formality which was demanded by his high sense of the respect
due from him and me together, as past and present commanding
generals, to the commander-in-chief. This high regard for military
courtesy which was a characteristic of General Sherman, though he
seemed comparatively indifferent to any lack of it toward himself,
well merits the imitation of all military men.
The last of those visits occurred a very short time before the
general's death. He was then well aware of the weakness which so
soon proved fatal to him, and submitted like a child while I wrapped
him up before going over to the White House. Upon my suggestion
of the necessity of caution, he said "Yes," and gripping his hand
near his chest, added "It will catch me like that some time, and
I will be gone." Yet General Sherman preferred the life in New
York which was so congenial to him, rather than seek to prolong
his days in a milder climate.
We laid him by the side of his wife, that highest type of the
Christian woman, wife, and mother. Who can ever forget that touching
scene by the grave in St. Louis? The brave young priest, the very
image in character, even more than in face, of his great father,
standing alone, without another of the priests of his church, and
daring, without ecclesiastical sanction or support, to perform the
service for the dead prescribed by his church for those who "die
in the Lord." "Worthy son of a noble sire!" What man dares to
pass judgment upon him who so mightily helped to save his country
from ruin, and to strike the shackles from millions of slaves, or
to say that he was not worthy to be numbered among those to whom
the Divine Master has said, "Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one
of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me"?
The subject of this volume being limited to events of which I have
had personal knowledge, and it never having been my good fortune
to serve in the field with General Grant, it would be inappropriate
to make herein any general comments about his military operations.
But I cannot close this account of events so closely connected with
my own official life without making acknowledgment of my obligations
to that great-hearted man for the justice, kindness, and generosity
which he invariably manifested toward me whenever occasion offered.
GENERAL GRANT'S RECOGNITION OF SERVICES
It was General Grant whose voluntary application, in the winter of
1863-4, relieved me from the disagreeable controversy with partizan
politicians in Missouri, and gave me command of an army in the
field. It was upon his recommendation that my services in that
command were recognized by promotion from the grade of captain to
that of brigadier-general in the regular army and brevet major-
general for services in the battle of Franklin. It was Grant who,
upon my suggestion, ordered me, with the Twenty-third Corps, from
Tennessee to North Carolina, to take part in the closing operations
of the war, instead of leaving me where nothing important remained
to be done. It was he who paid me the high compliment of selecting
me to conduct the operations which might be necessary to enforce
the Monroe doctrine against the French army which had invaded
Mexico. It was he who firmly sustained me in saving the people of
Virginia from the worst effects of the congressional reconstruction
laws. It was he who greeted me most cordially as Secretary of War
in 1868, and expressed a desire that I might hold that office under
his own administration. And, finally, it was he who promoted me
to the rank of major-general in the regular army, the next day
after his inauguration as President.
It was a great disappointment to me to find only casual mention of
my name in General Grant's "Memoirs." But I was not only consoled,
but moved to deep emotion when told by his worthy son, Colonel
Frederick Dent Grant, that his father had not ceased up to the last
day of his life to cherish the same kind feeling he had always
manifested toward me, and that one of his last fruitless efforts,
when he could no longer speak, was to put on paper some legible
words mentioning my name.
General Sherman wrote that he could not understand Grant, and
doubted if Grant understood himself. A very distinguished statesman,
whose name I need not mention, said to me that, in his opinion,
there was nothing special in Grant to understand. Others have
varied widely in their estimates of that extraordinary character.
Yet I believe its most extraordinary quality was its extreme
simplicity--so extreme that many have entirely overlooked it in
their search for some deeply hidden secret to account for so great
a character, unmindful of the general fact that simplicity is one
of the most prominent attributes of greatness.
The greatest of all the traits of Grant's character was that which
lay always on the surface, visible to all who had eyes to see it.
That was his moral and intellectual integrity, sincerity, veracity,
and justice. He was incapable of any attempt to deceive anybody,
except for a legitimate purpose, as in military strategy; and,
above all, he was incapable of deceiving himself. He possessed
that rarest of all human faculties, the power of a perfectly accurate
estimate of himself, uninfluenced by pride, ambition, flattery, or
self-interest. Grant was very far from being a modest man, as the
word modest is generally understood. His just self-esteem was as
far above modesty as it was above flattery. The highest encomiums
were accepted for what he believed them to be worth. They did not
disturb his equilibrium in the slightest degree.
GRANT'S CONFIDENCE IN HIMSELF
While Grant knew his own merits as well as anybody did, he also
knew his own imperfections, and estimated them at their real value.
For example, his inability to speak in public, which produced the
impression of extreme modesty or diffidence, he accepted simply as
a fact in his nature which was of little or no consequence, and
which he did not even care to conceal. He would not for many years
even take the trouble to jot down a few words in advance, so as to
be able to say something when called upon. Indeed, I believed he
would have regarded it as an unworthy attempt to appear in a false
light if he had made preparations in advance for an "extemporaneous"
speech. Even when he did in later years write some notes on the
back of a dinner-card, he would take care to let everybody see that
he had done so by holding the card in plain view while he read his
little speech. After telling a story in which the facts had been
modified somewhat to give the greater effect, which no one could
enjoy more than he did, Grant would take care to explain exactly
in what respects he had altered the facts for the purpose of
increasing the interest in his story, so that he might not leave
any wrong impression.
When Grant's attention was called to any mistake he had committed,
he would see and admit it as quickly and unreservedly as if it had
been made by anybody else, and with a smile which expressed the
exact opposite of that feeling which most men are apt to show under
like circumstances. His love of truth and justice was so far above
all personal considerations that he showed unmistakable evidence
of gratification when any error into which he might have fallen
was corrected. The fact that he had made a mistake and that is
was plainly pointed out to him did not produce the slightest
unpleasant impression, while the further fact that no harm had
resulted from his mistake gave him real pleasure. In Grant's
judgment, no case in which any wrong had been done could possibly
be regarded as finally settled until that wrong was righted; and
if he himself had been, in any sense, a party to that wrong, he
was the more earnest in his desire to see justice done. While he
thus showed a total absence of any false pride of opinion or of
knowledge, no man could be firmer than he in adherence to his mature
judgment, or more earnest in his determination, on proper occasions,
to make it understood that his opinion was his own, and not borrowed
from anybody else. His pride in his own mature opinion was very
great; in that he was as far as possible from being a modest man.
This absolute confidence in his own judgment upon any subject which
he had mastered, and the moral courage to take upon himself alone
the highest responsibility, and to demand full authority and freedom
to act according to his own judgment, without interference from
anybody, added to his accurate estimate of his own ability and his
clear perception of the necessity for undivided authority and
responsibility in the conduct of military operations, and in all
that concerns the efficiency of armies in time of war, constituted
the foundation of that very great character.
When summoned to Washington to take command of all the armies, with
the rank of lieutenant-general, he determined, before he reached
the capital, that he would not accept the command under any other
conditions than those above stated. His sense of honor and of
loyalty to the country would not permit him to consent to be placed
in a false position,--one in which he could not perform the service
which the country had been led to expect from him,--and he had the
courage to say so in unqualified terms.
These are the traits of character which made Grant a very great
man--the only man of our time, so far as can be known, who possessed
both the character and the military ability which were, under the
circumstances, indispensable in the commander of the armies which
were to suppress the great rebellion.
It has been said that Grant, like Lincoln, was a typical American,
and for that reason was most beloved and respected by the people.
That is true of the statesman and of the soldier, as well as of
the people, if it is meant that they were the highest type, that
ideal which commands the respect and admiration of the highest and
best in a man's nature, however far he may know it to be above
himself. The soldiers and the people saw in Grant or in Lincoln,
not one of themselves, not a plain man of the people, nor yet some
superior being whom they could not understand, but the personification
of their highest ideal of a citizen, soldier, or statesman, a man
whose greatness they could see and understand as plainly as anything
else under the sun. And there was no more mystery about it all in
fact than there was in the popular mind.
Matchless courage and composure in the midst of the most trying
events of battle, magnanimity in the hour of victory, and moral
courage to compel all others to respect his plighted faith toward
those who had surrendered to him, were the crowning glories of
Grant's great and noble character.
CONCLUSION
On September 29, 1895, came the hour when I had done, however
imperfectly, all the duty my country required of me, and I was
placed on the retired list of the army. Having been, at appropriate
periods in my official career, by the unsolicited action of my
official superiors, justly and generously rewarded for all my public
services, and having been at the head of the army several years,
near the close of the period fixed by law for active military
service I was made the grateful recipient of the highest honor
which the government of my country can confer upon a soldier,
namely, that of appointment to a higher grade under a special act
of Congress. My public life was, in the main, a stormy one, as
this volume has, perhaps too fully, shown. Many times I felt keenly
the injustice of those who did not appreciate the sincerity of my
purpose to do, to the best of my ability, what the government
desired of me, with little or no regard for my own personal opinions
or ambitions. But I can now concede to nearly all those who so
bitterly opposed me the same patriotic motives which I know inspired
my own conduct; and I would be unworthy of my birthright as an
American citizen if I did not feel grateful to my countrymen and
to our government for all the kindness they have shown me.
THE END.
INDEX [omitted]
End of Project Gutenberg's Forty-Six Years in the Army, by John M. Schofield