Produced by William Fishburne and Jenny Francisco
ON THE TRAIL OF GRANT AND LEE
By Frederick Trevor Hill
To Howard Ogden Wood, Jr.
Forward
During the early years of the Civil War someone tauntingly asked Mr.
Charles Francis Adams, the United States Minister to England, what he
thought of the brilliant victories which the confederate armies were
then gaining in the field. "I think they have been won by my fellow
countrymen," was the quiet answer.
Almost half a century has passed since that reproof was uttered, but
its full force is only just beginning to be understood. For nearly fifty
years the story of the Civil War has been twisted to suit local pride or
prejudice in various parts of the Union, with the result that much which
passes for American history is not history at all, and whatever else it
may be, it is certainly not American.
Assuredly, the day has now arrived when such historical "make-believes"
should be discountenanced, both in the North and in the South. Americans
of the present and the coming generations are entitled to take a common
pride in whatever lent nobility to the fraternal strife of the sixties,
and to gather equal inspiration from every achievement that reflected
credit on American manhood during those years when the existence of the
Union was at stake. Until this is rendered possible by the elimination
of error and falsehood, the sacrifices of the Civil War will, to a large
extent, have been endured in vain.
In some respects this result has already been realized. Lincoln is no
longer a local hero. He is a national heritage. To distort or belittle
the characters of other men who strove to the end that their land "might
have a new birth of freedom," is to deprive the younger generations of
part of their birthright. They are entitled to the facts from which
to form a just estimate of the lives of all such men, regardless of
uniforms.
It is in this spirit that the strangely interwoven trials of Grant and
Lee are followed in these pages. Both were Americans, and widely as they
differed in opinions, tastes and sympathies, each exhibited qualities
of mind and character which should appeal to all their fellow countrymen
and make them proud of the land that gave them birth. Neither man, in
his life, posed before the public as a hero, and the writer has made no
attempt to place either of them on a pedestal. Theirs is a very human
story, requiring neither color nor concealment, but illustrating a
high development of those traits that make for manhood and national
greatness.
The writer hereby acknowledges his indebtedness to all those historians
whose scholarly research has made it possible to trace the careers of
these two great commanders with confidence in the accuracy of the facts
presented. Where equally high authorities have differed he has been
guided by those who, in his judgment, have displayed the most scrupulous
impartiality, and wherever possible he has availed himself of official
records and documents.
The generous service rendered by Mr. Samuel Palmer Griffin in testing
the vast record upon which these pages are based, his exhaustive
research and scientific analysis of the facts, have given whatever of
authority may be claimed for the text, and of this the writer hereby
makes grateful acknowledgment. To Mr. Arthur Becher he is likewise
indebted for his careful studies at West Point and elsewhere which have
resulted in illustrations conforming to history.
Frederick Trevor Hill.
New York, September, 1911.
Contents
Chapter
I.--Three Civil Wars . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
II.--Washington and Lee . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
III.--Lee at West Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
IV.--The Boyhood of Grant . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
V.--Grant at West Point . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
VI.--Lieutenant Grant Under Fire . . . . . . . . 35
VII.--Captain Lee at the Front . . . . . . . . . . 44
VIII.--Colonel Lee After the Mexican War . . . . . 52
IX.--Captain Grant in a Hard Fight . . . . . . . 59
X.--Grant's Difficulties in Securing a Command . 67
XI.--Lee at the Parting of the Ways . . . . . . . 75
XII.--Opening Moves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
XIII.--Grant's First Success . . . . . . . . . . . 93
XIV.--The Battle of Shiloh . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
XV.--Lee in the Saddle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
XVI.--A Game of Strategy . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
XVII.--Lee and the Invasion of Maryland . . . . . . 133
XVIII.--The Battle of Antietam or Sharpsburg . . . . 141
XIX.--Lee Against Burnside and Hooker . . . . . . 148
XX.--In the Hour of Triumph . . . . . . . . . . . 163
XXI.--Grant at Vicksburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . 171
XXII.--The Battle of Gettysburg . . . . . . . . . . 180
XXIII.--In the Face of Disaster . . . . . . . . . . 193
XXIV.--The Rescue of Two Armies . . . . . . . . . . 201
XXV.--Lieutenant-General Grant . . . . . . . . . . 213
XXVI.--A Duel to the Death . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
XXVII.--Check and Countercheck . . . . . . . . . . . 238
XXVIII.--The Beginning of the End . . . . . . . . . . 248
XXIX.--At Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256
XXX.--The Surrender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
XXXI.--Lee's Years of Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . 280
XXXII.--The Head of the Nation . . . . . . . . . . . 294
List of Illustrations
Illustrations in Color
Grant running the gauntlet of the Mexicans at Monterey
in riding to the relief of his comrades . . Frontispiece
September 23, 1846.
Lee with Mrs. Lewis (Nellie Custis) applying to General
Andrew Jackson to aid in securing his cadetship at
West Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1825.
Grant on his horse, "York," making exhibition jump in
the Riding Academy at West Point . . . . . . . . . . 32
June, 1843.
Lee sending the Rockbridge battery into action for the
second time at Antietam or Sharpsburg . . . . . . . 144
September 17, 1862.
Lee rallying his troops at the Battle of the
Wilderness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232
May 6, 1864.
Grant at the entrenchments before Petersburg . . . . . 260
March, 1865.
Illustrations in the Text
Signature of Grant on reporting at West Point . . . . 25
(From the original records of the U. S. Military
Academy.)
First signature of Grant as U. S. Grant . . . . . . . 27
(From the original records of the U.S. Military
Academy.)
Grant's letter demanding unconditional surrender of
forces at Fort Donnelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Diagram map (not drawn to scale) showing strategy of
the opening of the Battle of Chancellorsville, May
1 and 2, 1863 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Diagram map (not drawn to scale) showing Grant's series
of movements by the left flank from the Wilderness
to Petersburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Facsimile of telegraphic message drafted by Lieutenant-
General Grant, announcing Lee's surrender, May 9,
1865 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Lee's letter of August 3, 1866, acknowledging receipt of
the extension of his furlough . . . . . . . . . . . 283
Chapter I. -- Three Civil Wars
England was an uncomfortable place to live in during the reign of
Charles the First. Almost from the moment that that ill-fated monarch
ascended the throne he began quarreling with Parliament; and when he
decided to dismiss its members and make himself the supreme ruler of
the land, he practically forced his subjects into a revolution.
Twelve feverish years followed--years of discontent, indignation and
passion--which arrayed the Cavaliers, who supported the King, against
the Roundheads, who upheld Parliament, and finally flung them at each
other's throats to drench the soil of England with their blood.
Meanwhile, the gathering storm of civil war caused many a resident of
the British Isles to seek peace and security across the seas, and among
those who turned toward America were Mathew Grant and Richard Lee. It is
not probable that either of these men had ever heard of the other, for
they came from widely separated parts of the kingdom and were even more
effectually divided by the walls of caste. There is no positive proof
that Mathew Grant (whose people probably came from Scotland) was a
Roundhead, but he was a man of humble origin who would naturally have
favored the Parliamentary or popular party, while Richard Lee, whose
ancestors had fought at Hastings and in the Crusades, is known to have
been an ardent Cavalier, devoted to the King. But whether their opinions
on politics differed or agreed, it was apparently the conflict between
the King and Parliament that drove them from England. In any event
they arrived in America at almost the same moment; Grant reaching
Massachusetts in 1630, the year after King Charles dismissed his
Parliament, and Lee visiting Virginia about this time to prepare for his
permanent residence in the Dominion which began when actual hostilities
opened in the mother land.
The trails of Grant and Lee, therefore, first approach each other from
out of the smoke of a civil war. This is a strangely significant fact,
but it might be regarded merely as a curious coincidence were it not for
other and stranger events which seem to suggest that the hand of Fate
was guiding the destinies of these two men.
Mathew Grant originally settled in Massachusetts but he soon moved to
Connecticut, where he became clerk of the town of Windsor and official
surveyor of the whole colony--a position which he held for many years.
Meanwhile Richard Lee became the Colonial Secretary and a member of
the King's Privy Council in Virginia, and thenceforward the name of his
family is closely associated with the history of that colony.
Lee bore the title of colonel, but it was to statesmanship and not to
military achievements that he and his early descendants owed their fame;
while the family of Grant, the surveyor, sought glory at the cannon's
mouth, two of its members fighting and dying for their country as
officers in the French and Indian war of 1756. In that very year,
however, a military genius was born to the Virginia family in the person
of Harry Lee, whose brilliant cavalry exploits were to make him known to
history as "Light Horse Harry." But before his great career began, the
house of Grant was represented in the Revolution, for Captain Noah Grant
of Connecticut drew his sword in defense of the colonies at the outbreak
of hostilities, taking part in the battle of Bunker Hill; and from that
time forward he and "Light Horse Harry" served in the Continental army
under Washington until Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown.
Here the trails of the two families, AGAIN DRAWN TOGETHER BY A CIVIL
STRIFE, merge for an historic moment and then cross; that of the
Grants turning toward the West, and that of the Lees keeping within the
confines of Virginia.
It was in 1799 that Captain Noah Grant migrated to Ohio, and during the
same year Henry Lee delivered the memorial address upon the death of
Washington, coining the immortal phrase "first in war, first in peace
and first in the hearts of his countrymen."
Ulysses Grant, the Commander of the Union forces in the Civil War, was
the grandson of Captain Grant, who served with "Light Horse Harry" Lee
during the Revolution; and Robert Lee, the Confederate General, was
"Light Horse Harry's" son.
Thus, for the THIRD time in two and a half centuries, a civil conflict
between men of the English-speaking race blazed the trails of Grant and
Lee.