LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, COMMANDER OF ALL THE ARMIES
During the winter, after the Chattanooga victory, General Grant made his
headquarters at Nashville, and devoted himself to acquiring an intimate
knowledge of the condition of the large region now under his command, to
the reorganization of his own lines of transportation, and the
destruction of those of the enemy. He made a perilous journey to
Knoxville in the dead of winter, and a brief trip to St. Louis, on
account of the dangerous illness of his son there. On this trip he wore
citizen's clothes, traveled as quietly as possible, declined all public
honors, and made no delays. The whole route might have been a continuous
enthusiastic ovation; but he would not have it so. His work was not
done, and he sternly discountenanced all premature glorification. Too
many generals had fallen from a high estate in the popular judgment, for
him to court a similar fate. The promotions that gave him greater
opportunity of service he accepted; but he preferred to keep his capital
of popularity, whatever it might be, on deposit and accumulating while
he stuck to his unaccomplished task, instead of drawing upon it as he
went along for purposes of vanity and display. Of vulgar vanity he had
as little as any soldier in the army.
Nashville was the base of supplies for all the operations in his
military division. Its lines of transportation had been worn out and
broken down, largely through incompetent management. He put them in
charge of new men, who reconstructed and equipped them. While engaged in
this necessary work he dispatched Sherman on an expedition through
Mississippi, which he hoped would reach Mobile; but it terminated at
Meriden, through failure of a cavalry force to join it. But it did a
work in destruction of railroads and railroad property, that inflicted
immense damage on the Confederacy. Throughout the winter Grant worked
as if his reputation was yet to be made, and to be made in that military
division.
Meanwhile Congress and the country were pondering his deserts, and his
ability for still greater responsibilities. The result of this
deliberation was the passage of the act, approved March 1, 1864,
reëstablishing the grade of lieutenant-general in the regular army. The
next day President Lincoln nominated General Grant to the rank, and the
nomination was promptly confirmed. He was ordered to Washington to
receive the supreme commission. It was his first visit to the national
capital; his first personal introduction to the President, although he
had heard him make a speech many years before; his first meeting with
the leading men in civil official life, who were sustaining the armies
and guiding the nation in its imperiled way. He came crowned with the
glory of victories second in magnitude and significance to none, since
Wellington defeated Napoleon at Waterloo. Everybody desired to see him,
and to honor him.
Yet he journeyed to Washington as simply and quietly as possible,
avoiding demonstration. He arrived on the 8th of March, and going to a
hotel waited, unrecognized, until the throng of travelers had
registered, and then wrote, simply, "U. S. Grant and son, Galena." The
next day, at 1 o'clock, he was received by President Lincoln in the
cabinet-room of the White House. There were present, by the President's
invitation, the members of the cabinet, General Halleck, and a few other
distinguished men. After introductions the President addressed him as
follows:--
"GENERAL GRANT,--The expression of the nation's approbation of what you
have already done, and its reliance on you for what remains to be done
in the existing great struggle, are now presented with this commission,
constituting you lieutenant-general in the army of the United States.
With the high honor, devolves on you an additional responsibility. As
the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will sustain you. I
scarcely need to add, that with what I here speak for the nation goes
my own hearty personal concurrence."
General Grant made the following reply:--
"MR. PRESIDENT,--I accept the commission with gratitude for the high
honor conferred. With the aid of the noble armies that have fought on so
many battlefields for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor
not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full weight of the
responsibilities now devolving upon me; and I know that if they are met,
it will be due to those armies; and, above all, to the favor of that
Providence which leads both nations and men."
The next day he was assigned to the command of all the armies, with
headquarters in the field. He made a hurried trip to Culpeper Court
House for a conference with General Meade, commanding the Army of the
Potomac; but would not linger in Washington to be praised and fêted. He
hastened back to Nashville, where, on the 17th, he issued an order
assuming command of the armies of the United States, announcing that
until further notice, his headquarters would be with the Army of the
Potomac. General Halleck was relieved from duty as general-in-chief; but
was assigned by Grant to duty in Washington, as chief-of-staff of the
army. Sherman was assigned to command the military division of the
Mississippi, which was enlarged, and McPherson took Sherman's place as
commander of the Army of the Tennessee; Thomas remaining in command of
the Army of the Cumberland. On the 23d Grant was again in Washington,
accompanied by his family and his personal staff. On the next day he
took actual command, and immediately reorganized the Army of the Potomac
in three corps,--the Second, Fifth, and Sixth,--commanded by
Major-Generals Hancock, Warren, and Sedgwick; Major-General Meade
retaining the supreme command. The cavalry was consolidated into a corps
under Sheridan. Burnside commanded the Ninth Corps, which for a brief
time acted independently.
This crisis of Grant's life should not be passed over without allusion
to the remarkable letters that passed between Grant and Sherman before
he left Nashville to receive his new commission. Grant wrote to Sherman
as follows:--
"Whilst I have been eminently successful in this war, in at least
gaining the confidence of the public, no one feels more than I do how
much of this success is due to the energy, skill, and the harmonious
putting forth of that energy and skill, of those whom it has been my
good fortune to have occupying subordinate positions under me. There are
many officers to whom these remarks are applicable to a greater or less
degree, proportionate to their ability as soldiers; but what I want is
to express my thanks to you and McPherson as the men to whom, above all
others, I feel indebted for whatever I have had of success. How far your
advice and assistance have been of help to me, you know; how far your
execution of whatever has been given you to do entitles you to the
reward I am receiving you cannot know as well as I. I feel all the
gratitude this letter would express, giving it the most flattering
construction."
Grant's modesty, generosity, and magnanimity shine in this
acknowledgment. If there were no other record illustrating these
qualities, this alone would be an irrefragable testimony to his
possession of them. There can be no appeal from its transparent, cordial
sincerity.
Sherman's reply is too long to be quoted fully, but the parts of it that
reveal his estimate of Grant's qualities and his confidence in him are
important with reference to the purpose of this sketch:--
"You do yourself injustice and us too much honor in assigning to us too
large a share of the merits which have led to your high advancement....
You are now Washington's legitimate successor, and occupy a position of
almost dangerous elevation; but if you can continue, as heretofore, to
be yourself, simple, honest, and unpretending, you will enjoy through
life the respect and love of friends, and the homage of millions of
human beings that will award you a large share in securing to them and
their descendants a government of law and stability.... I believe you
are as brave, patriotic, and just as the great prototype, Washington, as
unselfish, kind-hearted, and honest as a man should be; but the chief
characteristic is the simple faith in success you have always
manifested, which I can liken to nothing else than the faith the
Christian has in his Saviour. This faith gave you victory at Shiloh and
Vicksburg. Also, when you have completed your preparations, you go into
battle without hesitation, as at Chattanooga,--no doubts, no
answers,--and I tell you it was this that made us act with confidence. I
knew, wherever I was, that you thought of me; and if I got in a tight
place you would help me out if alive."
He besought Grant not to stay in Washington, but to come back to the
Mississippi Valley, "the seat of coming empire, and from the West where
[when?] our task is done, we will make short work of Charleston and
Richmond and the impoverished coast of the Atlantic." But Grant was
wiser. He felt that the duty to which his new commission called him was
to try conclusions with General Lee, the most illustrious and successful
of the Confederate commanders, whom he had not yet encountered and
vanquished. His new rank gave him an authority and prestige which would
enable him, he trusted, to overcome the discouragements and discontents
of the noble Army of the Potomac, and wield its unified force with
victorious might. He knew, moreover, that the government and the people
trusted him and would sustain him, as they trusted and would sustain no
other, in a fresh and final attempt to destroy the Army of Northern
Virginia, upon which the hopes of the Confederacy were staked. Not so
much ambition as duty determined him to make his headquarters with the
Army of the Potomac.