Ohio History Journal

ULYSSES S. GRANT.

A CHARACTERIZATION SKETCH.

 

BY JOHN BEATTY.

There is more than a grain of truth underlying the notion

that what the world calls greatness in men is the outgrowth

of accident rather than of any exceptional physical moral or

intellectual excellence. Nobody certainly can win victories

and gain martial renown who lives in a period of profound

peace. In civil life, however, it may be said that by change

of scene or of occupation, men can seek congenial or profitable

employment and thus shape their careers to suit them; but

this freedom of action is often restricted to very narrow limits.

What chance is there for one thrown by accident and fixed

by duty to an environment of sterile ridges, to become a

wealthy and successful farmer? He cannot remove to more

fertile regions, for he is held to the place of his birth at

first by poverty or by filial love, and ultimately by fatherly

care for his family. He may have abundant energy but it is

frittered away in unproductive toil. He may have high ambi-

tion, but for this there is no proper field of action and no en-

couragement. He may be endowed with exceptional courage;

but this simply prompts him to contend more resolutely with

the obstacles around him. He may be possessed of all the qual-

ities which ennoble the soul, but these render him only the

more devoted to those whom nature has confided to his care.

A great civil commotion, involving the honor of the state and

the liberties of its people might, perhaps, justify a disregard

of lesser obligations, and multiply his opportunities; but, for-

tunately for mankind such disturbances are infrequent, and

when they do occur accident and not merit is still too often

the controlling factor. The truth is that men, in one respect

at least, are so much like beans that when thoroughly shaken

the smaller are as likely to come uppermost as the larger.

(232)

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Ulysses S. Grant.              233

 

General Grant in the preface to his personal memoirs

affirmed "that there are but few important events in the

affairs of men brought about by their own choice." Was his

own life an illustration of the truth of this statement? In

other words, was Grant's career the result of pre-eminent

skill, or of unprecedented luck? Or was there in his case

such a combination of fair ability and extraordinary good

fortune as the world had rarely, if ever, before witnessed?

This suggests in part, at least, the subject to which I propose

to invite attention.

It is safe to assert in the outset that in the year 1839,

there were at least ten thousand boys in Ohio of suitable age

and education who would have been glad to enter the Military

School at West Point. Of this large number, however, there

were but few to whom the opportunity was presented. Among

the few thus favored was Ulysses S. Grant. The favor was

accorded to him by chance, and accepted reluctantly. If there

had been a competitive examination for the place, as is now

the custom, it is not at all probable he would have been ap-

pointed, for besides disliking the position, and hence eager

to avoid it, he was never particularly studious, and not ex-

ceptionally bright as a scholar. Had he been left to make

his own choice of a pursuit in life we have his word for it he

would not have chosen that of arms. So that circumstances

conspired against his own will to thrust him where he had no

desire to be. The circumstances-the independent, outside

forces, which drove him unwillingly to the Military Academy,

and so started him upon his soldier life, may be briefly sum-

med up as follows: The son of Dr. Bailey having been sent

to West Point from the Brown-Clermont congressional dis-

trict, failed to pass the preliminary examination. As a favor

to a most estimable father, however, the young man was given

a year for further preparation, and then re-appointed; but

for some reason he was finally dismissed. Father Grant, hear-

ing accidentally of young Bailey's failure long before it was

known to the public, and before there was any competition

for the place, wrote to Senator Morris in his son's behalf; the

Senator wrote to Thomas L. Hamer, then a representative

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234      Oh's Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

in Congress, and Hamer recommended the appointment. One

element in the series of happenings which led to this selection

was the fact that young Bailey's father was a near neighbor

of the elder Grant, and hence the latter had an opportunity

not enjoyed by the people of the congressional district gen-

erally, to hear of the young man's dismissal. Of the opportu-

nity thus afforded he availed himself by making early appli-

cation for the place.

The fact that young Grant went reluctantly to the Mili-

tary Academy has been alluded to, but his own confession

emphasizes this phase of the subject, for he states that after

loitering in Philadelphia and other cities, and thus gratify-

ing a desire to see the world, natural to all boys, he hoped an

accident would occur to make his immediate return to George-

town imperative. But, fortunately, no accident did occur,

and he entered the Military School for which he had set out.

While there, however, he longed to be away, and pursued his

studies with a half-heartedness which left him at the close of

his term twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine, or a little below

the average.

Having graduated and donned the uniform of a lieutenant

he began to feel more interest in his profession. He tells us,

however, it was never his intention to remain long in the

army, but to prepare himself for a professorship in some col-

lege. It is more than probable his acquaintance with Miss

Julia Dent, which began not long after his graduation, aug-

mented his military ardor somewhat, and rendered him at

least solicitous that so long as he remained in the army she

should have no reason to be ashamed of him.

His service in Mexico we would probably have known

little or nothing of, if it had not been for his subsequent prom-

inence. He evidently deported himself, however, with more

than ordinary skill and courage during that war, but with

no approximation to the brilliancy displayed, during the last

year of the rebellion, by Custer, Wilson, and other young

graduates of the Military Academy. In brief, in Mexico he

proved himself rather more than a fair lieutenant of the reg-

ular army, but not an exceptionally great one.

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Ulysses S. Grant.               235

 

His promotion to a captaincy and his resignation from

the army were followed by his return to St. Louis, and his res-

idence on the Dent farm. The years spent here were years

of comparative, if not absolute failure, so far as the accu-

mulation of property was concerned, and yet in other respects

they may have been of the most improving character, for the

discipline which poverty affords, severe though it may be,

is as a rule most salutary. It dissipates a multitude of decep-

tive and harmful illusions. It teaches that nine-tenths of our

desires are for things which may be readily dispensed with,

and that our actual needs are few. In brief, it impresses

upon the soldier the important fact that it is not well to en-

cumber himself with too much baggage, and that comfort may

be secured, and health and vigor maintained with plain food,

in plain quarters, and in close contact with the rougher phases

of nature. While near St. Louis his efforts to obtain an un-

important office did not meet with success. The co-partner-

ship which he formed for the purchase and sale of real estate

led to no good results. The business in which he engaged

of hauling wood from his wife's farm to the St. Louis market

was far from lucrative, and his residence in a log cabin not

what his previous life had fitted him to accept with cheer-

fulness. He was graduated from the most important school

of the country; had been a captain in the regular army, and

an officer in the Mexican war; these facts and the high social

position of the Dents would, let his occupation be what it

might, give him a respectable standing among gentlemen,

and free access to the best society; but all this failed to help

him with the pushing, scheming throng of business men who

were seeking assistants to carry on the enterprises of a grow-

ing city. What a man had been and had done were as nothing

to them; what he was and could do were alone important.

They had no use for Grant, and there was, therefore, no open-

ing for him at St. Louis, no prospect of bettering a fortune

which he thought needed mending to be endurable.

Let us pause a moment to speculate on the condition

and prospects of the man as we find them now. He evidently

desired to remain in St. Louis. It was his wife's home. He

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236      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

had settled there intending to make it his permanent abode.

Suppose fortune had at this time treated him more kindly,

and helped him to a profitable occupation. What then would

have been his probable future? That he would have gone

into the army again is perhaps certain; but in what capacity

would he have gone? What local rivalries would he have

encountered in his first aspirations for a comparatively high

command? To what places, obscure and unimportant, or

otherwise, would he have been sent? To say his career would

not have been materially different from what it was, is to

affirm that a shot fired from St. Louis would hit the same tar-

get as if projected from Galena. In the latter case we know

the bull's eye was struck; would it have been in the other?

The point, however, I desire to emphasize is that he was

coerced by what he regarded as untoward circumstances to

abandon St. Louis and seek a humble position at Galena.

Father Grant at this period, evidently considered Ulysses the

least hopeful of his sons, for he tells us that when Ulysses

came to him for assistance and advice he "referred him to

Simpson," Ulysses' brother, "and Simpson sent him to the

Galena store to stay until something might turn up in his

favor, and told him he must confine his wants within $800

a year," and "that if that would not support him he must draw

what it lacked from the rent of his house and the hire of his

negroes in St. Louis."

It may be inferred from Father Grant's statement with

respect to the condition of his son's affairs at this time that

through his wife Ulysses had become the owner of a few

negroes, and as these sable children of God had not been ed-

ucated at West Point it was the opinion of the Grant family

that they were not only competent to make a living for them-

selves, but to contribute something to Ulysses' support. It

would, of course, be a great pleasure to these humble toilers

to be permitted to help sustain a white man who had been

educated at the expense of the government to such an extent

that he could not maintain himself.

Ulysses was content to accept the place offered to him

by his brother Simpson, and to agree to the terms prescribed

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Ulysses S. Grant.               237

 

The position and the salary were not suggestive of a life of

elegance and leisure, but Ulysses within the past few years

had lived in a log cabin, carried his grist to the neighborhood

mill on horseback, chatted with the miller while it was being

ground, and in many other ways become accustomed to

homely surroundings and a life of exceeding plainness. The

$800, therefore, which his brother Simpson stipulated as the

limit of his annual expenditures may, when contrasted with

his recent income, have seemed to him munificent. It can

be safely conjectured, at any rate, that Father Grant, some

years prior to the period of which we write, had reached the

melancholy conclusion that Ulysses was not at all likely to

become rich or add luster to the family name. It would have

been better, he doubtless thought, to have kept the lad at

home, and trained him up to some useful occupation like the

leather trade, than to have sent him off to a military school

with a view to making him a soldier.

Grant's removal to Galena, unpromising as it seemed,

was one of the fortunate incidents of his life. It made him a

fellow townsman of Elihu B. Washburne. This not only led

to his early appointment to the position of brigadier-general,

but secured to him an influential and zealous friend in Con-

gress and at the Executive Mansion. Washburne, although

opposed to the expenditure of public money for the improve-

ment of other states and sections, was always heartily in favor

of an appropriation for his own district, and never neglected

his constituents. He, therefore, defended Grant, the Galena

General, against adverse criticism, magnified his achieve-

ments, and insisted upon broadening his field of operations.

It is impossible for either president or secretary to know, in

ever so slight a degree, all the officers of a great army, and it

is not at all unusual for those in power to gratify distinguished

senators and representatives by the promotion of friends or

relatives in whom they manifest a special and somewhat per-

sistent interest. Whole families may be mentioned who have

been indebted to personal and political influence for their

advancement. On the other hand, multitudes of scholarly

men, men of rare ability, wealth and high social standing,

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238      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

have patiently and bravely served as privates, in the rear rank,

or plodded through the war as company officers, without the

slightest recognition, and almost without reward. Unfortun-

ately for them, they had no active and influential friends at

the place where appointments were made and commissions

issued.

For eleven months Grant served as a clerk in a leather

store. To one of his age, education and antecedents his posi-

tion and surroundings were not at all flattering, and his future,

so far as men could judge of it by ordinary tokens, not lumin-

ous with encouragement. He was in April, 1861, just thirty-

nine years old. He had passed the romantic and experimental

period of young manhood, and was just entering upon the era

of solid conservatism, which may be expected to continue for

at least ten or fifteen years, no whit impaired by the depress-

ing shadows which gather and thicken with the decline of

life.  The war struck him at the right age. There were a

few younger men, during the last year of the Rebellion when

the confederacy was on crutches, who achieved phenomenal

success. But these formed the exception, not the rule. The

men in high command who filled their positions the most

ably ranged in age from forty to fifty. This is true not only

of those educated at West Point, but of those who entered

the army from civil life. Thomas, when the war began, was

forty-five; Sherman, forty-one; Rosecrans, forty-two; Meade,

forty-five; Buell, forty-three. The last person here named

is popularly counted least of all, but I apprehend unjustly so.

The misfortune which led to his practical retirement from the

army in 1862, was one for which he was by no means wholly

to blame. It came, however, at a time when the howling

dervishes of political life must be placated by a sacrifice, and

he was consequently offered up.

Grant, I repeat, was of proper age to commend him for

positions of responsibility. Had he been ten years younger

he would at that time have been regarded as unfit for high

command. Had he been fifteen years older he would probably

have been considered too old for active work in the field, and

hence assigned to a post or fortification. He was, however,

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Ulysses S. Grant.              239

 

in no haste to enter the army. Though a comparative stranger

in Galena, it was nevertheless known to many that he was

educated at West Point, and had been an officer in the Mexi-

can war. When the first meeting was held to obtain volun-

teers in response to the President's call for troops, Grant, by

reason of the facts alluded to, was asked to preside. He tells

us that "with much embarrassment and some prompting he

made out to announce the object of the meeting." Elihu B.

Washburne and John A. Rawlins made speeches; a company

was raised, but Grant declined the captaincy of it. Here was

an opportunity for him to resume his old position as the com-

mander of a company; but he was in no haste. Had he been

thoroughly imbued with and aroused by that spirit of patriot-

ism which, at this time, was convulsing the north, he would

have seized this early opportunity to enter the service of the

government which had educated him; but he did not. He took

hold of the Galena company, however, divided it into squads

and superintended their drill, and subsequently accompanied

the soldiers to Springfield, the capital of the state. Here he

met Governor Yates, and for a time accepted service in the Adju-

tant-General's office. Here he also met General John Pope.

He had been with Pope at West Point, and also in the Mex-

ican war. Pope suggested that he ought to go into the United

States service; the answer was that he "intended to do so, if

there was a war." But he was evidently in no hurry. Some

days after his conversation with Pope, to-wit, on May

2₄th, 1861, he offered his services to the government by letter,

coupling the offer with the suggestion that in view of his age

and length of service he felt himself competent to command

a regiment. But this letter was pigeon-holed at the war de-

partment, and neither responded to nor brought to light again

until after the war was ended. In 1861 it was the letter of an

obscure and inconsequential personage; but in 1865-6, when it

was recovered and the dust wiped from its folds it was found

to be the letter of the foremost general of the continent. How

long Grant would have waited for a reply to his proffer of

service and remained a helper in a leather store, or a clerk in

the Adjutant-General's department of Illinois, had not an

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240       Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

unforseen and most unusual incident occurred, must remain

forever a matter of conjecture. We know enough by this

time, however, to know that his patriotism was of the deliber-

ate kind, which did not propose either to surrender uncondi-

tionally to the public demand for soldiers, or to move on the

enemy's works until he had obtained what he wanted; and

what he wanted was a regiment. If people generally who

were apparently as well educated and well situated as him-

self, had waited until they got a regiment before entering the

service, there would have been precious few soldiers in the

field in 1861, and probably no war. But finally a contingency

arose which rendered an answer to his letter of May 2₄th, a

matter of indifference to him. As was the custom of the early

volunteer regiments, the officers of the Twenty-first Illinois

Infantry were selected by the men. Had this regiment ad-

hered to its first choice, whether good, bad or indifferent, as

most regiments did, Grant would have had still further time

for deliberation, and just what the upshot of his career would

in that case have been, nobody can tell. But the boys of the

Twenty-first, during a few weeks in camp, became so well

acquainted with the colonel they had selected that they knew

they did not want him; and, moreover, resolved they would

not have him, and positively declined to march a foot under

his leadership. Here was an exigency not provided for in

any of the military books then in use. But it was, neverthe-

less, promptly met by Governor Yates. He at once discharged

the duly elected colonel of the Twenty-first regiment and ap-

pointed Grant in his stead. Still the boys of the Twenty-first

were not satisfied. They had not been sworn into the United

States service, and could not be without their consent. Here,

then was another contingency which must be provided for

before Grant could go to the war as a colonel. Fortunately

another accident came speedily to his help. John Alexander

McClernand and John A. Logan visited Springfield and asked

permission to address his regiment. Grant hesitated, for at

the time he was somewhat doubtful of Logan's loyalty to the

cause; but he finally consented, and after the speeches had

been delivered the boys were not only ready to enlist for any

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Ulysses S. Grant.               241

length of time, but to go anywhere with anybody. They

were, therefore, at once sworn in as United States soldiers,

and Grant had his regiment.

Soon after he had conducted his regiment to the field,

President Lincoln requested the Illinois congressional dele-

gation to name some citizens or soldiers of the state for the

position of brigadier-general, and very much to Grant's sur-

prise, and to his gratification, doubtless, his own name headed

the list. His commission was issued in August, but dated

back to May 17th. He had thus far rendered no service to

warrant such promotion, and in fact was not in the service

May 17th, the date from which he took rank; but Mr. Elihu

B. Washburne, who was at that time, and for many years

thereafter, a man of great influence in Washington, took in-

terest enough in the matter to see that one of his own towns-

men obtained timely recognition. Grant was thus indebted

to his accidental residence in Galena for the rank which en-

abled him to assume leadership in whatever military enter-

prise took place around him. He had certainly done nothing

in August, 1861, to entitle him to promotion. Up to this

date he had neither met nor seen an enemy; and, according

to his own admission, had not yet fully succeeded in familiar-

izing himself with Hardee's tactics, a system of company and

battalion drill, which since the Mexican war had been substi-

tuted for Scott's. Six months later his promotion under such

circumstances would have been regarded as inexcusable favor-

itism. Still that was the initiatory period of the war. Leaders

were indispensable, and hence his appointment, even in the

absence of any action on his own part to warrant it, was jus-

tifiable. It must be admitted, however, that it was a blind

shot on the part of the government; but it must be conceded

also, that it was the best it ever succeeded in making under

similar conditions.

When his appointment as brigadier-general had been con-

firmed, he at once proceeded to the selection of his staff. In

doing this he tells us he took Lieutenant Lagow of his old

regiment, the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry; Hillyer, a young

lawyer, of St. Louis, and John A. Rawlins, of Galena. The

16 -Vol. XI

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242      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

two former were not good selections, but the latter person,

if we may judge, not by what Grant says of him, for he is

somewhat reticent on the subject, but by current report and

unimpeachable testimony, was preeminently qualified for the

place assigned him. Indeed, it has not been difficult to find

sensible, reliable and disinterested army officers bold enough

to insist that Rawlins was, during the entire war, Grant's

good angel, and that without his active and intelligent co-op-

oration and support, the success which the latter achieved

would have been impossible.

Grant was especially fortunate, also, in being ordered to

Cairo. The place turned out to be an important one for the

assemblage and distribution of troops, and in a few months

a considerable army gathered around him. Up to November

1st, the sixth month of the war, however, he had done noth-

ing to demonstrate his fitness for a high command, and yet

at this date he tells us he had under him not fewer than

20,000 men.

Grant's early education and experience had, to some ex-

tent, fitted him for independent command, and the manage-

ment of important expeditions.  He had in boyhood been

accorded by his parents much liberty in thought and action.

He was, like most boys, particularly fond of horses, and in

this manly inclination had been fully indulged. He felt at

liberty even when a lad to buy and trade and sell, assured that

even his mistakes in this line would not elicit undue censure.

The pride of ownership was thus not only stimulated, but the

pride of usership, if such a word is allowable, was encouraged.

He felt free to ride his own colts twenty or thirty miles, or

more, in this direction and in that, to visit uncles, aunts and

cousins of a somewhat numerous and scattered family. He

had thus early in life become accustomed to "going it alone."

He tells us that while quite young he visited Cincinnati, forty-

five miles away, several times; also Maysville, Kentucky,

often, and once Louisville. He had also gone in a two-horse

carriage to Chillicothe, about seventy miles, with a neigh-

bor's family, and returned alone. He had gone once in a like

manner to Flat Rock, Kentucky, above seventy miles away.

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Ulysses S. Grant.                243

 

On this latter occasion he was fifteen years of age, and traded

one of his carriage horses for a fine saddle horse which had

never worn a collar, but which, with much difficulty, and not

a little danger, he succeeded in taking home.

West Point had doubtless conferred many favors on him.

It brought him into close relationship with officers of the reg-

ular army, and thus enabled him to form an approximately

correct estimate of their ability. Then again, it made him

familiar with the best models of military correspondence, and

the best forms of office reports, and taught him the special as

well as general duties of all officers, whether at posts or in the

field. But it may, after all, with good reason, be doubted

whether this school life contributed one-half as much to his

subsequent success as the early habit, which, by the indul-

gence of his parents he acquired, of thinking and acting for

himself, and of making solitary expeditions to comparatively

distant places. This was well calculated to develop that feel-

ing of self reliance so essential to an independent commander.

But there was another element in the man's nature which

contributed more to his military success than even his West

Point education, or his early acquired habit of following the

bent of his own inclinations. He had been reared in a pioneer

settlement, where fact and fancy - the real and unreal - oc-

cupied the mind in about the same relative proportions that

the forest and cleared fields did the landscape.  There were

innumerable signs and omens current, which the half ed-

ucated people of the backwoods accepted as guides in their

daily walk and conversation, or as indications of success or

failure. To see the new moon over the left shoulder, or per-

haps through brush, was a sure suggestion of coming mis-

fortune, and hence filled the heart with despondency, and

rendered all effort feeble and indecisive. To see it over the

right shoulder and without any intervening object to obstruct

the vision, was a happy omen, and gave to the beholder cour-

age, by assuring him of success. There were countless other

signs equally potent for good or ill, with their restricting or en-

larging influence upon human acts. The accidental upsetting

of the salt cellar at the family table, had its dire significance,

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244      Ohio Arch. and His. Society Publications.

 

for it presaged a quarrel. There were signs for the coming of

a hungry guest, for weddings, for deaths, and for all other

calamities or blessings of which the mind can readily con-

ceive, and among others was the superstitious belief that if

you started for a place you must go to it, let the obstructions

be what they might. Grant says: "One of my superstitions

had always been when I started to go anywhere, or do any-

thing, not to turn back, or stop until the thing intended was

accomplished. I had frequently started to go to places where

I had never been, and to which I did not know the way, de-

pending upon making inquiry on the road, and if I got past

the place without knowing it, instead of turning back, I would

go on until a road was found turning in the right direction,

take that and come in by the other side."

That this superstition was an important element in

Grant's character cannot be doubted. It held him with the

tenacity of a vise to any purpose upon which he had resolved.

Having set his face in one direction he must follow it unde-

viatingly to the end, unless, by chance, he failed to recognize

the place he started for when he got to it, and so passed it by;

then, in that case, instead of turning squarely around and

going to it by the easiest and shortest route, he must travel

on "until a road was found turning in the right direction, take

that and come in by the other side." That this, in a general

way, was foolishness, pure and simple, will be admitted with-

out argument. To a prudent, thoughtful, intelligent pains-

taking military chieftain, however, it was a thing of inestima-

ble value. After his plans had been carefully prepared, and

he committed to a line of action, this superstition admitted of

neither reconsideration nor withdrawal, and rendered him res-

olute, pertinacious, unyielding and invincible. Had more of

our generals been dominated by it there would have been less

counter-marching, sturdier fighting and more decisive victories.

But besides his early acquired habit of "going it alone;"

his military training at West Point, and the superstition which

would not permit him to turn back when once started upon

an expedition, he had other important elements of strength as

a soldier.

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Ulysses S. Grant.               245

 

1. His habitual reticence rendered him slow to commit

himself in words to any line of action; led him to sift the

opinions of those around him before expressing his own, and

left him free to accept, combine and enforce such views as he

deemed most feasible.

2. His natural obstinacy kept him steady and unvacil-

lating amid a multitude of disagreeing counselors, and

prompted him to adhere to any opinion he had expressed, or

any work he had undertaken.

3. His stoical temperament rendered him popular with

the authorities at Washington, for it deterred him from an-

noying them with complaints of inadequate support or tardy

recognition.

Obstinacy is a somewhat common attribute of man; the

stoicism, however, which prompts him to endure disappoint-

ment and misfortune in dignified silence may be counted

among the rare human virtues; and in this country reticence

is phenomenal. It is the custom here to speak first and think

afterwards, and our thoughts and acts are therefore too often

diverted from the true line by attempts to justify unpremedi-

tated utterances. The position assigned Grant in his class at

the time of his graduation probably indicates very nearly the

intellectual standing to which he was subsequently entitled

among educated gentlemen of the army and in civil life. He

was not a genius in war, but simply a sledge-hammer fighter

-a sort of military pugilist, who, like Sampson, sometimes

struck blindly, but always with all the strength he had. From

Belmont to Appomattox he never won an advantage over the

enemy except when in command of superior numbers. He

will in history take rank with the resolute warriors of the

world; but whether the ultimate verdict here referred to will

assign him to a higher place among martial leaders than the

positions to be severally awarded by the same authority to

Thomas, Rosecrans, Sherman, Meade, Hancock and Sheridan,

is a question about which there are already many conflicting

opinions, and one which, owing to existing political prejudices

and personal preferences, it will be impossible for our country-

men at the present day to accurately determine.

• 14