GRANT IN A GREAT CAMPAIGN.
THE INVESTMENT AND CAPTURE OF VICKSBURG.
By Hamlin Garland,
Author of "Main-travelled Roads," "Prairie Folks," etc.
THE battle of Shiloh was a great victory, but it did not ring over the North with the same joyous clamor which followed upon Donelson. The holiday element had passed out of the war. There was an end of talk about "the boastful Southron." It was apparent that he could fight under leadership such as he had in Albert Sidney Johnston. The desolation of homes was terrible. Long lists of the dead filled the newspapers, and long trains wound and jolted their slow way to the North and to the South, carrying the wounded to their homes.
The nation was appalled, and, naturally, a large part of the bitterness and hate of war fell upon Grant. He had risen so suddenly to national fame that his private life and character were dark with mystery. Few knew how kind and gentle he really was, and a tumult of abuse arose. He was execrated as a man careless of human lives. He was accused of negligence and drunkenness, and of being unjustifiably off the field of battle. Great pressure was at once brought to bear on the Pesident to have him relieved from duty. Lincoln listened patiently to all that men had to say pro and con; then, with a long sigh, he said: "I can't spare Grant; he fights!"
General Halleck, "cautiously energetic one," now took the field in person, and Grant became for the time little more than a spectator. Though nominally second in command, he had, in reality, almost no command at all. He was forced to trail after Halleck in the most humiliating of positions. Every suggestion he made to his chief was treated with contempt. The staff officers, taking their cue from Halleck, turned their backs when he came near. Orders to his troops were sent over his head, and movements were ordered in his department without consulting him or even notifying him. These things became unendurable at last, and in a letter stating his position, Grant asked to be relieved from duty altogether, or to have his command defined.
To this General Halleck replied in diplomatic and soothing words, saying: "You have precisely the position to which your rank entitles you," and disclaimed any attempt to injure Grant's feelings.
For six weeks, in hesitating timidity, General Halleck held his immense host in check before a retreating foe. When the truth could no longer be concealed, he ordered an advance on Corinth, and found an empty city. Lincoln, sorely disappointed with Pope in the Eastern campaign, now looked toward Halleck. Lee threatened Maryland. A panic set in at Washington, and on the 10th of July Halleck received an order to proceed to the capital.
Thus Grant was once more in command of his department, but under discouraging conditions. Buell's army had returned to Kentucky, and his own forces were heavily depleted. During July and August he could do nothing more than guard his lines. He held his command but insecurely, and felt that he might be removed at any moment. He was ordered to be in readiness to reinforce Buell, and had no freedom of action, though liable at any time to attack on his attenuated lines.
Through weeks of weary waiting he endured in silence, watching Generals Price and Van Dorn, and knowing well he had but inadequate movable force to send against an enemy. But when the enemy attacked, in September, he fought skillfully, and won the battle of Iuka. A little later General Van Dorn, seeing the Union army weakened still further by the transfer of General Thomas to Buell's command, assaulted Corinth. Grant's headquarters were at Jackson, Tennessee, at this time, but he directed the battle, which was a marked and decisive defeat of the Confederates. Again, at the first opportunity, he had cheered the nation with a victory.
At this point General John A. McClernand appeared as a disturbing factor. He had been restive under Grant's command
