FOR FLAG AND COUNTRY.
Ulysses S. Grant--Recruits from all Classes--Senator Garfield appointed
Colonel Of a Regiment--Asking for Guidance.
The Union was saved, but the struggle was not over. During the earlier
years of the war the strong men of the North had been slowly coming to
the front. One of these was a stubborn, silent soldier named Grant,
who, after an early training as a military cadet, and some experience
in the Mexican war, had settled down to a clerkship in a leather shop
in Illinois.
When war broke out, Ulysses S. Grant recruited a regiment of Illinois
men, of which he was made commander, and then entered upon that
military career which at length ranked him among the two or three
greatest soldiers of the age, and finally placed him in the
presidential chair.
To General Grant more than to any man belongs the honour of the triumph
of the Federal armies. But Grant was strong because of the innate
nobleness of the men he commanded, and the magnificent steadfastness of
the people who supported him. That support was given with a liberal
hand. Probably never since the days when the people of Israel stripped
themselves of their jewels to build the tabernacle, did a nation
contribute of their treasures so eagerly and whole-heartedly as the
American nation at this crisis.
Private individuals subscribed vast sums of money, teachers of schools
voluntarily gave up a fixed proportion of their salary, churches and
societies made regular collections, farmers carried their produce into
the camps, and women devoted their skill to nursing the sick and
wounded.
The highest honour that men could claim was to serve in the ranks of
the army; and rich and poor alike shouldered the musket and slept side
by side upon the field of battle.
On one occasion the money which was needed for the pay of a New England
regiment was delayed, and it was feared that the families of the
soldiers, as well as the soldiers themselves, might in consequence be
placed in distress. Elias Howe, the inventor of the sewing-machine,
who was serving as a private in the ranks, stepped forward, pulled out
his cheque-book, and wrote on the spot a cheque for 20,000 pounds,
which he handed to his colonel for the use of his comrades.
The army was composed not only of the strongest, but also of the
noblest men of the nation. Ministers led their congregations into
battle. Teachers gathered their young men together, and went with them
to fight for the country; and among the first of these, James Garfield,
the young principal of the Hiram Institute, marched at the head of a
hundred students of his college, and with their help gained the
earliest victory of the Federal army.
When Fort Sumter fell, Lincoln, as we have seen, appealed at once for
75,000 volunteers. The call, which was read in the various States, was
heard in the Senate of Ohio, of which Garfield was a member. The
moment that the President's message had been read, Garfield rose to his
feet, and moved that Ohio should contribute 20,000 men and about a
million of money to the war. The motion was received and passed with
the heartiest approval, and the young Senator was at once appointed to
serve in the new army.
He raised two regiments, of one of which he was made colonel. This was
work in which he had had no previous experience; yet he soon proved
himself a master of the business. Commander, officers, and privates
were all alike, raw recruits; but Garfield soon drilled both himself
and his men into shape.
As a skilled carpenter, he could handle a workman's tools. He made a
number of models and blocks, and with these he studied the art of war.
Then he taught his officers as he used to teach his classes; and so, by
sticking to his old principles of "thorough," he soon produced a
regiment second to none in the Northern army. Garfield's duty in the
first place was to help to keep the State of Kentucky out of the hands
of the Confederates. At Middle Creek on January 10th, and again on the
17th at Prestonburg, he defeated General Marshall. In his regiment he
had a number of his own Hiram boys, over whom he watched as an elder
brother. The affection of the young men for their friend and teacher
was unbounded, and with him to lead them there were few perils from
which they shrank.
Garfield had not taken up the trade of a soldier for pleasure or for
personal ambition, but out of a stern sense of duty. Brave and
resolute as he was, he was still more remarkable for the genuine
kindness and even tenderness of his nature. Before going into the war,
he was deeply concerned for his mother and for his wife and child. If
his life were taken, there was no provision for these dear ones. The
night, therefore, he volunteered, he took his mother's Bible and sat
down to read, determined to let the voice of God speak to him on this
momentous matter.
He had not long to wait. As he read and meditated, he could hear one
solemn voice speaking all the time in his heart, like the voice which
fell upon the ear of the Hebrew captain, bidding him go forward to
fight, as he said, for his country and for human right.