On the Trail of Grant and Lee by Frederick Trevor Hill
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Frederick Trevor Hill >> On the Trail of Grant and Lee
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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 Page
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.
Chapter II
Washington and Lee
"Wakefield," Westmoreland County, Virginia, was the birthplace of
Washington, and at Stratford in the same county and state, only
a few miles from Wakefield, Robert Edward Lee was born on January
19, 1807. Seventy-five years had intervened between those events
but, except in the matter of population, Westmoreland County remained
much the same as it had been during Washington's youth. Indians,
it is true, no longer lurked in he surrounding forests or paddled
the broad Potomac in their frail canoes, but the life had much of
the same freedom and charm which had endeared it to Washington.
All the streams and woods and haunts which he had known and loved
were known and loved by Lee, not only for their own sake, but because
they were associated with the memory of the great Commander-in-Chief
who had been his father's dearest friend.
It would have been surprising, under such circumstances, if Washington
had not been Lee's hero, but he was more than a hero to the boy.
From his father's lips he had learned to know him, not merely as
a famous personage of history, but as a man and a leader of men.
Indeed, his influence and example were those of a living presence
in the household of "Light Horse Harry;" and thus to young Lee
he early became the ideal of manhood upon which, consciously or
unconsciously, he molded his own character and life. But quite
apart from this, the careers of these two great Virginians were
astonishingly alike.
Washington's father had been married twice, and so had Lee's; each
was a son of the second marriage, and each had a number of brothers
and sisters. Washington lost his father when he was only eleven
years old, and Lee was exactly the same age when his father died.
Mrs. Washington had almost the entire care of her son during his
early years, and Lee was under the sole guidance of his mother until
he had almost grown to manhood. Washington repaid his mother's
devotion by caring for her and her affairs with notable fidelity,
and Lee's tenderness and consideration for his mother were such that
she was accustomed to remark that he was both a son and a daughter
to her.
Washington's ancestors were notable, if not distinguished, people
in England; while Lee could trace his descent, through his father,
to Lancelot Lee, who fought at the battle of Hastings, and through
his mother to Robert the Bruce of Scotland. Neither man, however,
prided himself in the least on his ancestry. Indeed, neither of
them knew anything of his family history until his own achievements
brought the facts to light.
Washington was a born and bred country boy and so was Lee. Both
delighted in outdoor life, loving horses and animals of all kinds
and each was noted for his skillful riding in a region which was
famous for its horsemanship. There was, however, a vast difference
between Washington's education and that of Lee. The Virginian schools
were very rudimentary in Washington's day; but Lee attended two
excellent institutions of learning, where he had every opportunity,
and of this he availed himself, displaying much the same thoroughness
that characterized Washington's work, and the same manly modesty
about any success that he achieved.
By reason of his father's death and other circumstances Washington
was burdened with responsibility long before he arrived at manhood,
making him far more reserved and serious-minded than most school
boys. This was precisely the case with Lee, for his father's
death, the ill health of his mother and the care of younger children
virtually made him the head of the family, so that he became unusually
mature and self-contained at an early age. Neither boy, however,
held aloof from the sports and pastimes of his schoolmates and
both were regarded as quiet, manly fellows, with no nonsense about
them, and with those qualities of leadership that made each in turn
the great military leader of his age.
Never has history recorded a stranger similarity in the circumstances
surrounding the youth of two famous men, but the facts which linked
their careers in later years are even stranger still.
Chapter III
Lee at West Point
As his school days drew to a close, it became necessary for Lee to
determine his future calling. But the choice of a career, often so
perplexing to young men, presented no difficulty to "Light Horse
Harry's" son. He had apparently always intended to become a soldier
and no other thought had seemingly ever occurred to any member of
his family. Appointments to the United States Military Academy
were far more a matter of favor than they are to-day, and young
Lee, accompanied by Mrs. Lewis (better known as Nellie Custis, the
belle of Mount Vernon and Washington's favorite grandchild), sought
the assistance of General Andrew Jackson. Rough "Old Hickory" was
not the easiest sort of person to approach with a request of any
kind and, doubtless, his young visitor had grave misgivings as to
the manner in which his application would be received. But Jackson,
the hero of the battle of New Orleans in the War of 1812, only
needed to be told that his caller was "Light Horse Harry's" son to
proffer assistance; and in his nineteenth year, the boy left home
for the first time in his life to enroll himself as a cadet at West
Point.
Very few young men enter that institution so well prepared for military
life as was Lee, for he had been accustomed to responsibility and
had thoroughly mastered the art of self-control many years before
he stepped within its walls. He was neither a prig nor a "grind,"
but he regarded his cadetship as part of the life work which he
had voluntarily chosen, and he had no inclination to let pleasure
interfere with it. With his comrades he was companionable,
entering into all their pastimes with zest and spirit, but he let
it be understood, without much talk, that attention to duty was a
principle with him and his serious purpose soon won respect.
Rigid discipline was then, as it is to-day, strictly enforced at
West Point, and demerits were freely inflicted upon cadets for even
the slightest infraction of the rules. Indeed, the regulations
were so severe that it was almost impossible for a cadet to avoid
making at least a few slips at some time during his career. But
Lee accomplished the impossible, for not once throughout his entire
four years did he incur even a single demerit--a record that still
remains practically unique in the history of West Point. This and
his good scholarship won him high rank; first, as cadet officer of
his class, and finally, as adjutant of the whole battalion, the
most coveted honor of the Academy, from which he graduated in 1829,
standing second in a class of forty-six.
Men of the highest rating at West Point may choose whatever arm
of the service they prefer, and Lee, selecting the Engineer Corps,
was appointed a second lieutenant and assigned to fortification
work at Hampton Roads, in his twenty-second year. The work there
was not hard but it was dull. There was absolutely no opportunity
to distinguish oneself in any way, and time hung heavy on most of
the officers' hands. But Lee was in his native state and not far
from his home, where he spent most of his spare time until his mother
died. Camp and garrison life had very little charm for him, but
he was socially inclined and, renewing his acquaintance with his
boyhood friends, he was soon in demand at all the dances and country
houses at which the young people of the neighborhood assembled.
Among the many homes that welcomed him at this time was that of
Mr. George Washington Parke Custis (Washington's adopted grandson),
whose beautiful estate known as "Arlington" lay within a short
distance of Alexandria, where Lee had lived for many years. Here
he had, during his school days, met the daughter of the house and,
their boy-and-girl friendship culminating in an engagement shortly
after his return from West Point, he and Mary Custis were married
in his twenty-fifth year. Lee thus became related by marriage to
Washington, and another link was formed in the strange chain of
circumstances which unite their careers.
A more ideal marriage than that of these two young people cannot be
imagined. Simple in their tastes and of home-loving dispositions,
they would have been well content to settle down quietly to country
life in their beloved Virginia, surrounded by their family and
friends. But the duties of an army officer did not admit of this,
and after a few years' service as assistant to the chief engineer
of the army in Washington, Lee was ordered to take charge of
the improvements of the Mississippi River at St. Louis, where, in
the face of violent opposition from the inhabitants, he performed
such valuable service that in 1839 he was offered the position of
instructor at West Point. This, however, he declined, and in 1842
he was entrusted with the task of improving the defenses of New
York harbor and moved with his family to Fort Hamilton, where he
remained for several years. Meanwhile, he had been successively
promoted to a first lieutenancy and a captaincy, and in his
thirty-eighth year he was appointed one of the visitors to West
Point, whose duty it was to inspect the Academy and report at stated
intervals on its condition. This appointment, insignificant in
itself, is notable because it marks the point at which the trails
of Grant and Lee first approach each other, for at the time that
Captain Lee was serving as an official visitor, Ulysses Grant was
attempting to secure an assistant professorship at West Point.
Chapter IV
The Boyhood of Grant
Deerfield, Ohio, was not a place of any importance when Captain Noah
Grant of Bunker Hill fame arrived there from the East. Indeed, it
was not then much more than a spot on the map and it has ever won
any great renown. Yet in this tiny Ohio village there lived at one
and the same time Owen Brown, the father of John Brown, who virtually
began the Civil War, and Jesse Grant, the father of Ulysses Grant,
who practically brought it to a close.
It is certainly strange that these two men should, with all the
world to choose from, have chanced upon the same obscure little
village, but it is still stranger that one of them should have become
the employer of the other and that they should both have lived in
the very same house. Such, however, is the fact, for when Jesse
Grant first began to earn his living as a tanner, he worked for
and boarded with Owen Brown, little dreaming that his son and his
employer's son would some day shake the world.
It was not at Deerfield, however, but at Point Pleasant, Ohio,
that Jesse Grant's distinguished son was born on April 27, 1822, in
a cottage not much larger than the cabin in which Abraham Lincoln
first saw the light. Mr. and Mrs. Grant and other members of
their family differed among themselves as to what the boy should
be called, but they settled the question by each writing his or
her favorite name on a slip of paper and then depositing all the
slips in a hat, with the understanding that the child should receive
the first two names drawn from that receptacle. This resulted in
the selection of Hiram and Ulysses, and the boy was accordingly
called Hiram Ulysses Grant until the United States government
re-christened him in a curious fashion many years later. To his
immediate family, however, he was always known as Ulysses, which
his playmates soon twisted into the nickname "Useless," more or
less good-naturedly applied.
Grant's father moved to Georgetown, Ohio, soon after his son's
birth, and there his boyhood days were passed. The place was not
at that time much more than a frontier village and its inhabitants
were mostly pioneers--not the adventurous, exploring pioneers who
discover new countries, but the hardy advance-guard of civilization,
who clear the forests and transform the wilderness into farming
land. Naturally, there was no culture and very little education
among these people. They were a sturdy, self-respecting, hard-working
lot, of whom every man was the equal of every other, and to whom
riches and poverty were alike unknown. In a community of this sort
there was, of course, no pampering of the children, and if there
had been, Grant's parents would probably have been the last to
indulge in it. His father, Jesse Grant, was a stern and very busy
man who had neither the time nor the inclination to coddle the boy,
and his mother, absorbed in her household duties and the care of a
numerous family, gave him only such attention as was necessary to
keep him in good health. Young Ulysses was, therefore, left to
his own devices almost as soon as he could toddle, and he quickly
became self-reliant to a degree that alarmed the neighbors. Indeed,
some of them rushed into the house one morning shouting that the
boy was out in the barn swinging himself on the farm horses' tails
and in momentary danger of being kicked to pieces; but Mrs. Grant
received the announcement with perfect calmness, feeling sure that
Ulysses would not amuse himself in that way unless he knew the
animals thoroughly understood what he was doing.
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