Those in Command – Officers of the Civil War by Jennifer Thompson

1. Quill and Musket Lecturer Series Those in Command – Officers of the Civil Warby Jennifer Thompson

2. Thomas Wentworth Higginson wrote: “The first essential for military authority lies in the lower of command, – a power which it is useless to analyze, for it is felt instinctively, and it is seen in its results….The criticism habitually made upon our army by foreign observers at the beginning of the war continues still to be made, though in a rather less degree, – that the soldiers are relatively superior to the officers, so that the officers lead, perhaps, but do not command them. The reason is plain. Three years are not long enough to overcome the settled habits of twenty years. The weak point of our volunteer service invariably lies here, that the soldier, in nine cases out of ten, utterly detests being commanded, while the officer, in his turn, equally shrinks from commanding….In many cases there is really no more difference between officers and men, in education or in breeding, than if the one class were chosen by lot from the other; all are from the same neighborhood, all will return to the same civil pursuits side by side; every officer knows that in a little while each soldier will again become his client or his customer, his constituent or his rival. Shall he risk offending him for life in order to carry out some hobby of stricter discipline? …

3. …Without discipline an army is a mob, and the larger the worse; without rations the men are empty uniforms; without ammunition they might as well have no guns; without shoes they might almost as well have no legs. And it is in the practical application of all these matters that the superiority of the regular officer is apt to be shown….The officer makes the command, as surely as, in educational matters, the teacher makes the school….The difference in material is nothing, – white or black, German or Irish; so potent is military machinery that an officer who knows his business can made good soldiers out of almost anything, give him but a fair chance.” (Commager, 326-330)

4. Elisha Hunt Rhodes, near Falmouth, VA, wrote on December 31, 1862: “One year ago tonight I was an enlisted man and stood cap in hand asking for a furlough. Tonight I am an officer and men ask the same favor of me. It seems to me right that officers should rise from the ranks, for only such can sympathize with the private soldiers.” (Rhodes, 85) • Frank Haskell wrote: “Promotion must come to me, because I deserve it, and not because I ask for it, - or it comes not at all. I desire promotion – am ambitious – as much as any man, - but I value my own self respect, above all promotions and the gratification of all ambitions, - and this I shall endeavor to preserve at all hazards….If I can get a Colonelcy, well: - if not, then I shall do as I have done, attend right along to my duties, on the field or elsewhere as long as I am able, - and let results, and promotions go as they will, - and thank Heaven that I am not a politician.” (Byrne & Weaver, 237-238)

5. George B. McClellan Library of Congress

6. Carl Schurz wrote: “People came from afar to see him at the head of a brilliant staff…to which princes and counts from abroad were attached, galloping from camp to camp, and holding reviews and inspections. He was the ‘young Napoleon,’ the pet of the nation. The soldiers adored him, and the commanding officers were attached to him with warm personal devotion.” (Smith, 143) • Charles Francis Adams wrote to his father: “McClellan has the complete confidence of the people, government securities are rising, confederates are being ground to atoms by the very weight of their defensive preparations.” (Smith, 144)

7. Elisha Hunt Rhodes wrote in his diary on April 15, 1862: “General George B. McClellan paid our Regiment a visit today and was well received by Rhode Island cheers and music by the band. He rode in front of our line, took off his hat and said: ‘Good night my lads; we will find out what is in front of us and then go at them.’ The General is very popular with the troops, and we expect great things from him.” (Rhodes, 54-55) • On October 8, 1862, Rhodes wrote: “General McClellan is popular with the Army, and we feel that he has not had a fair chance.” He added a note in 1885. “Since I wrote the above as a boy, I have changed my mind in regard to Gen. McClellan. I now honestly believe that while he was a good organizer of Armies, yet he lacked the skill to plan campaigns or handle large bodies of troops.” (Rhodes, 76)

8. Thomas Jonathan “Stonewall” Jackson Library of Congress

9. Jackson lived by these mottoes: • “Sacrifice your life rather than your word.” • “Resolve to perform what you ought.” • “You may be what you resolve to be.” • “Do your duty and leave the rest to God.” (Cook, 24, 32) • As a boy, Jackson attended Broad Run Baptist Church and a Methodist church in Weston. He studied Catholicism while in Mexico. He was saved and baptized in April of 1849 at St. John’s Episcopal Church. In 1855, Jackson joined the Presbyterian church in Lexington. • In 1852, Jackson wrote to his Aunt, Mrs. Alfred Neale: “The subject of becoming a herald of the Cross has often seriously engaged my attention, and I regard it as the most noble of all professions. I should not be surprised were I to die upon a foreign field clad in ministerial armor. What could be more glorious!” (Cook, 31-32)

10. Lieutenant Henry Kyd Douglas wrote: “General Lee was the handsomest man I ever saw. John C. Breckinridge was a model of manly beauty, John B. Gordan, a picture for the sculptor, and Joe Johnston looked every inch a soldier. None of these things could be said of Jackson.” (Clark, 18) • Jackson wrote to his sister: “My afflictions…I believe were decreed by Heaven’s Sovereign….I believed that God would restore me to perfect health, and such continues to be my belief.” (Clark, 24) • Judith McGuire wrote in her journal: “The good, the great, the glorious Stonewall Jackson is numbered with the dead! ...Perhaps we have trusted too much to an arm of flesh; for he was the nation’s idol. His soldiers almost worshipped him, and it may be that God has therefore removed him….His body was carried by yesterday, in a car, to Richmond. Almost every lady in Ashland visited the car, with a wreath or a cross of the most beautiful flowers, as a tribute to the illustrious dead.” (Gallman, 300)

11. William Tecumseh Sherman Library of Congress

12. A reporter stated: “When I first saw him in Missouri…his eye had a half-wild expression, probably the result of excessive smoking….Sherman was never without a cigar….He looks rather like an anxious man of business than an ideal soldier, suggesting the exchange and not the camp. Sometimes he works for twenty consecutive hours. He sleeps little; nor do the most powerful opiates relieve his terrible cerebral excitement.” (Williams, 48) • An officer stated: “If I were to write a dozen pages I could not tell you a tenth part of what he said, for he talked incessantly and more rapidly than any man I ever saw. General Sherman is the most American man I ever saw, tall and lank, with hair like thatch, which he rubs up with his hands….It would be easier to say what he did not talk about than what he did….At his departure I felt it a relief and experienced almost an exhaustion after the excitement of his vigorous presence.” (Williams, 49-50)

13. Col. Bowman stated after the battle of Shiloh: “There was not a commanding general on the field who did not rely on Sherman, and look to him as our chief hope; and there is no question that but for him our army would have been destroyed. He rode from place to place, directing his men; he selected from time to time the positions for his artillery; he dismounted and managed the guns; he sent suggestions to commanders of divisions; he inspired everybody with confidence; and yet it never occurred to him that he had accomplished any thing worthy of remark.” (Brockett, 99) • Grant praised Sherman at Pittsburgh Landing in a letter to his wife: “In Gen. Sherman the country has an able and gallant defender and your husband a true friend.” (Glatthaar, 142) • Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter viewed Sherman at Vicksburg as: “every inch a soldier, and has the confidence of his men” (Glatthaar, 170)

14. James McPherson Library of Congress

15. McPherson was the highest ranking Union officer killed in the Civil War. An Arkansas captain pretended to surrender. McPherson saluted him, turned and rode to the rear. The Captain ordered his men to “Shoot him!” As McPherson bent down to avoid overhanging limbs, he was shot in the lower back. The bullet traveled up to his heart. His orderly responded to that Captain: “Sir it is General McPherson. You have killed the best man in our army.” Conf. Gen Hood responded: “No soldier fell in the enemy’s ranks whose death caused me equal regret.” (McDonough & Jones, 228, 229, 239) • Horace Porter wrote: “His death will be a terrible loss to Sherman, for I know that he will feel it as keenly as I. McPherson was beloved by everybody in the service, both by those above him and by those below him.” (Porter, 245)

16. Sherman wrote in his Memoirs: “…McPherson’s horse came back, bleeding, wounded, and riderless….Within an hour an ambulance came in…bearing McPherson’s body….McPherson must have died in a few seconds after being hit…On further inquiry I learned that his body must have been in possession of the enemy some minutes, during which time it was rifled of the pocket-book, and I was much concerned lest the letter I had written him that morning should have fallen into the hands of some one who could read and understand its meaning. Fortunately the spot in the woods where McPherson was shot was regained by our troops in a few minutes, and the pocket-book found in the haversack of a prisoner of war captured at the time, and it and its contents were secured by one of McPherson’s staff.” (Sherman, 77-78)

17. Sherman responded: “I expected something to happen to Grant and me; either the rebels or the newspapers would kill us both, and I looked to McPherson as the man to follow us and finish the war.” (McDonough & Jones, 230) • “As Sherman looked at the body of his friend, he said sadly, ‘Have the body carried to Marietta, and I will see that it is taken back to his home in Ohio.’ As he covered the coffin with his country’s flag, in a voice scarcely audible, he said, ‘Better start at once and drive carefully.’” (Merrill, 254)

18. Sherman wrote in his Memoirs: “I ordered Captains Steele and Gile to carry the body to Marietta. They reached that place the same night, and, on application, I ordered his personal staff to go on and escort the body to his home, in Clyde, Ohio, where it was received with great honor, and it is now buried in a small cemetery, close by his mother’s house, which cemetery is composed in part of the family orchard, in which he used to play when a boy. The foundation is ready laid for the equestrian monument now in progress, under the auspices of the Society of the Army of Tennessee.” (Sherman, 77-78)

19. McPherson was engaged to Emily Hoffman of Baltimore. Her family was pro-Southern. McPherson had been on his way home to marry her, when he was recalled to join Sherman on his Atlanta campaign. “…when the telegram reached Baltimore Emily Hoffman overheard a member of her family say: ‘I have the most wonderful news – McPherson is dead.’ The young woman went to her room, closed the curtains, and spoke to no one for a year.” Emily wore black the rest of her life and never married. She used to visit his grave at Clyde, Ohio. (McDonough & Jones, 230; tour guide at McPherson’s boyhood home) • John McElroy wrote: “The Rebel papers exulted without stint over what they termed ‘a glorious victory.’ They were particularly jubilant over the death of McPherson, who, they claimed, was the brain and guiding hand of Sherman’s army.” (McElroy, 140)

20. James Ewell Brown “JEB” Stuart Library of Congress

21. Henry Kyd Douglas wrote: “This peerless Chief of Cavalry, never quiet, never depressed, whistling on the battlefield, singing in camp, laughing and dancing in the parlor, when he approached our Quarters was generally heard afar off….Take him all in all – capacity, daring, skill, swiftness, élan – America never produced Stuart’s equal as a cavalry commander. I am not forgetful of Nathan Bedford Forrest, and Philip Sheridan, and Wade Hampton, and others, but there was but one Jeb Stuart!” (Douglas, 193-194) • Stuart was shot at Yellow Tavern, Virginia on May 11, 1864: “The surgeon, Dr. J.B. Fontaine, must have realized, after examination of the wound, that Stuart had been shot through the abdomen, probably through the liver, and that the prognosis was hopeless. After some argument, Jeb agreed to take some whiskey as a stimulant and, once again in command, he repeated substantially to the men gathered around him what he had said to the fugitives: ‘Go back to the front, I will be well taken care of. I want you to do your duty to your country as I always have through my life.’ These words were his farewell to the field….

22. …[next day] In moments of relief from paroxysms of pain, Stuart asked Henry McClellan what was happening. McClellan told how the Richmond garrison and the cavalry corps were seeking to trap the enemy. ‘God grant that they may be successful,’ Stuart answered with his old eagerness. Then he checked himself and said with a sigh, ‘But I must be prepared for another world.’ To the next visitor, an anxious President Davis, he said in an even voice that he was ‘willing to die if God and my country think I have fulfilled my destiny and done my duty.’…[later that afternoon] He roused himself to ask Dr. Brewer whether he would survive the night. The physician answered honestly that death was near. Stuart nodded as if he had received an order to go forward: ‘I am resigned if it be God’s will….’ When it became apparent, after 7 o’clock, that his end was at hand, two ministers came to his bedside. At his request they prayed and then they sang the hymn he asked, ‘Rock of Ages, cleft for me.’ He turned his head toward Dr. Brewer. ‘I am going fast now,’ he whispered, ‘I am resigned; God’s will be done.’ Then, in spirit, he rode off to New Adventure.” (Freeman, 690-691)

23. John Singleton Mosby Library of Congress

24. John Munson described him as: “the shock was something considerable. I beheld a small, plainly attired man, fair of complexion, slight but wiry, standing with his arms behind his back, talking quietly to one of his men. A military belt girded his waist, from which hung two Colt’s army pistols. The visions of splendor and magnificence that had filled my mind swept away. The total absence of visible might, the lack of swagger, the quiet demeanor of the man, all contributed to my astonishment and chagrin. He did not even strut.” (Wert, 31-32) • James Williamson described him as: “I could scarcely believe, …that the slight figure before me could be that of the man who had won such military fame by his daring…. I often watched him, … as he would stand intently gazing at a man – staring as though he were reading him through with those eyes, like a book.” (Wert, 31, 32)

25. William Nelson Pendleton Library of Congress

26. Pendleton wrote why he joined the army: “To take part in the dreadful work of death is to me the severest trial of my life. Loving peace, praying for peace, preaching peace from the bottom of my heart, I find myself, in the very name of the Prince of Peace, obliged to see my own dear country subdued, disgraced, ruined, and my wife and daughters exposed to brutal outrage worse than death, or to fight side by side with my only son, my son-in-law, my brothers, and dearest friends of every grade, in defense of our hearthstones. Do you blame me?” (Baehr & Wales, 125) • He wrote to his 80-year-old aunt about the peace he felt in battle: “You wish to know the state of my mind in prospect of the bloody conflict impending. Of course, I feel the hazard, but have very little shrinking. God can cover my head as He has done before. If He sees fit to have my days cut short and your hearts smitten by such an affliction, He can make it work for good to us all, and will, I am persuaded.” (Baehr & Wales, 126)

27. He wrote to his daughter about war: “When I contemplate my own part in the struggle here my feelings are solemn, yet trustful and hopeful. He who notes the fall of the sparrow holds in His hands my life on the battlefield as everywhere else. And I desire, harder though it then be, to realize this when the shells crash and the bullets whiz within a hair’s-breadth as when is quiet and peace around me. It is a strange position for a servant of the Prince of Peace and a minister of the Gospel of Peace. But as I do not delight in war, and would not hurt the hair of the head of any human being save under conviction of public duty; as by prayer, pleadings, and expostulations. I have earnestly tried for peace, so I trust the blessing of the peace-maker will not be denied me, though as a soldier of the Cross I follow the example of old Abraham in endeavoring to defend my kindred against cruel outrage….

28. …[The Lord] knows how truly I mourn over the wrongs which have compelled the best people of the South to resolve on resistance unto death, and how painful to me the alternative of seeing all that I most value on earth desolated…. He sees that I desire in all sincerity to be a faithful soldier of the Cross, while trying also to be a useful soldier of a much-wronged country. And He graciously accepts, I trust, my unworthy services, whatever error, whatever sin be chargeable against me in this as in other portions of my life. The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin.” (Baehr & Wales, 126-127) • Pendleton, Longstreet and Gordon were the 3 Confederate commissioners chosen to arrange the surrender at Appomattox.

29. Joshua Chamberlain Library of Congress

30. Chamberlain described why he joined the military, instead of continuing as a college professor: “I have always been interested in military matters, and what I do not know in that line, I know how to learn. But, I fear, this war, so costly of blood and treasure, will not cease until men of the North are willing to leave good positions, and sacrifice the deepest personal interests, to rescue our Country from desolation, and defend the national existence against treachery at home and jealousy abroad. This war must be ended, with a swift and strong hand; and every man ought to come forward, and ask to be placed at his proper post.” (Baehr & Wales, 3) • He sent this message to wife when severely injured at Petersburg: “My darling wife I am lying mortally wounded the doctors think, but my mind & heart are at peace Jesus Christ is my all-sufficient savior. I go to him. God bless & keep & comfort you, precious one, you have been a precious wife to me. To know & love you makes death & life beautiful…Oh how happy to feel yourself forgiven.” (Baehr & Wales, 4)

31. He survived his injuries and was awarded a Medal of Honor for his role at Gettysburg (defending Little Round Top) – and gave this tribute at Gettysburg in 1889: “In great deeds something abides. On great fields something stays. Forms change and pass; bodies disappear; but spirits linger, to consecrate ground for the vision-place of souls. And reverent men and women from afar, and generations that know us not and that we know not of, heart-drawn to see where and by whom great things were suffered and done for them, shall come to this deathless field, to ponder and dream; and lo! the shadow of a mighty presence shall wrap them in its bosom, and the power of the vision pass into their souls. This is the great reward of service. To live, far out and on, in the life of others; this is the mystery of the Christ – to give life’s best for such high sake that it shall be found again unto life eternal.” (Baehr & Wales, 4)

32. Robert E. Lee Library of Congress

33. John H. Worsham wrote: “I was standing at the door of our headquarters in Richmond about the middle of April, 1861, when my attention was attracted by a man approaching; he wore a military uniform. It was not the uniform that attracted my attention but the man himself. He was tall and straight, and I thought the handsomest specimen of manhood I had ever seen, both in face and figure. He made such an impression that as he came opposite me I could not keep from looking at him, and when he had passed my eyes still followed him, until I actually stepped outside of the door in order to keep him in sight. About an hour later he returned up the street and went into the Spottswood Hotel. I followed and asked some friend if he could tell me who that splendid looking man was. He informed me that it was Colonel Robert E. Lee….In our advance to attack McClellan at Cold Harbor in 1862, after passing through the woods and reaching a field, the first man we saw was our beloved general on his gray horse, and although he was at some distance, we recognized him at once….

34. The last time I saw him he was at Spottsylvania C.H., the day our corps left to head Grant off at Hanover Junction. He appeared to me the same ideal man, except that his hair had become almost white and the dark mustache of my first acquaintance was exchanged for a full beard of gray. As our column approached him, an old private stepped out of ranks and advanced to Gen. Lee. They shook hands like acquaintances and entered into a lively conversation. As I moved on I looked back, and the old man had his gun in one hand and the other hand on Traveler’s neck, still talking. It was such scenes as that, that made Gen. Lee so popular. He believed in his men and thought they could do anything that mortals could do. His men worshipped him, and I think the greatest man the world ever saw was Robert E. Lee.” (Worsham, 299-300) • Stonewall Jackson said: “Lee is a phenomenon – the only man I would follow blindfolded.” (Hendrickson, 59)

35. Grant wrote about Lee: “General Lee…was a very highly estimated man in the Confederate army and States….His praise was sounded throughout the entire North after every action he was engaged in…To be extolled by the entire press of the South after every engagement, and by a portion of the press North with equal vehemence, was calculated to give him the entire confidence of his troops and to make him feared by his antagonists.”(Hendrickson, 62) • General Evander M. Law wrote: “Calm, dignified, and commanding in his bearing, a countenance strikingly benevolent and self-possessed, a clear, honest eye that could look friend or enemy in the face; clean-shaven, except a closely-trimmed mustache which gave a touch of firmness to the well-shaped mouth; simply and neatly dressed in the uniform of his rank, felt hat, and top boots reaching to the knee; sitting his horse as if his home was in the saddle; such was Robert E. Lee as he appeared when he assumed command of the army of ‘Northern Virginia’ in the early days of June, 1862, never to relinquish it for a day, until its colors were furled for ever in Appomattox.” (Commager, 119)

36. Major Cooke wrote: “The needs of our men worried him more than the chances of battle. Every day regiments were on the move to keep up with Grant’s changes of force. It was not unusual to see our commander sitting erect on his horse watching the ranks as a father might have done. His face bore an expression that I cannot describe. No man that I have ever seen had General Lee’s soft, luminous eyes, inexpressibly kind. Every one of those ragged, shoeless soldiers was dear to him. He used to say he was always ashamed of them, except upon the field of battle.” (Hendrickson, 90) • At Marye’s Heights, Lee said to Longstreet, “It is a good thing that war is so terrible; or we would grow too fond of it.” He wrote to his wife on Christmas 1862 after eating dinner with Jackson: “But what a cruel thing is war; to separate and destroy families and friends, and mar the purest joys and happiness God has granted us in this world; to fill our hearts with hatred instead of love for our neighbors, and to devastate the fair face of this beautiful world! I pray that, on this day when only peace and good-will are preached to mankind, better thoughts may fill the hearts of our enemies and turn them to peace…My heart bleeds at the death of every one of our gallant men.” (Baehr & Wales, 98)

37. Lee sent this dispatch regarding Davis’s national day of fasting and prayer in 1863: “Soldiers! Let us humble ourselves before the Lord, our God, asking through Christ, the forgiveness of our sins, beseeching the aid of the God of our forefathers in the defense of our homes and our liberties, thanking him for his past blessings, and imploring their continuance upon our cause and our people. Knowing that intercessory prayer is our mightiest weapon and the supreme call for all Christians today, I pleadingly urge our people everywhere to pray. Believing that prayer is the greatest contribution that our people can made in this critical hour, I humbly urge that we take time to pray – to really pray. Let there be prayer at sunup, at noonday, at midnight – all through the day. Let us pray for our children, our youth, our aged, our pastors, our homes. Let us pray for our churches. Let us pray for ourselves, that we not lose the word ‘concern’ out of our Christian vocabulary. Let us pray for our nation. Let us pray for those who have never known Jesus Christ and redeeming love, for moral forces everywhere, for our national leaders. Let prayer be our passion. Let prayer be our practice.” (Baehr & Wales, 100)

38. Ulysses Simpson Grant Library of Congress

39. Grant described how he learned the lesson of moral courage as colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois, when they were ordered to find Tom Harris’s rebel guerrilla outfit in Missouri and attack it in July 1861: “My sensations as we approached what I supposed might be a ‘field of battle’ were anything but agreeable. I had been in all the engagements in Mexico that it was possible for one person to be in; but not in command. If some one else had been colonel and I had been lieutenant-colonel I do not think I would have felt any trepidation….As we approached the brow of the hill from which it was expected we could see Harris’ camp, and possibly find his men formed ready to meet us, my heart kept getting higher and higher until it felt to me as though it was in my throat.” They found the camp abandoned. “My heart resumed its place. It occurred to me at once that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him. This was a view of the question I had never taken before; but it was one I never forgot afterwards. From that event to the close of the war, I never experienced trepidation upon confronting an enemy, though I always felt more or less anxiety. I never forgot that he had as much reason to fear my forces as I had his. The lesson was valuable.” (McPherson, 166-169)

40. Lincoln wrote to Burnside in July 1863: “General Grant is a copious worker and fighter…but a meager writer or telegrapher.” (Hawkins, 43-44) • Rice C. Bull wrote in his diary: “On October 21st while we were camped at a railroad station I saw General Grant for the first time; he was on his way to take command of the Armies that were gathered there. His train stopped for some time to meet a train coming from the south. When it was known he was on the train the men grouped around his car and began to cheer. After a little time he came out on the platform leaning on the two crutches, for he could not walk; he had been thrown from his horse a few weeks before and was badly hurt. He wore an army slouch hat with bronze cord around it, quite a long military coat, unbuttoned, no sword or belt, and there was nothing to indicate his rank. His appearance would have attracted no attention had he not been General Grant. When the boys called for a speech he bowed and said nothing. He could not lift his hat, as was usual for the officers to do, since both his hands grasped his crutches. After bowing for a short time he went back to his chair in the car. It was while in this painful condition that he planned and fought the battles of Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain, a campaign among the most successful of his career.” (Bauer, 96)

41. In 1864, Elisha Hunt Rhodes wrote: “Yesterday the 18th, the 6th Corps was reviewed by Lieut. Gen. U.S. Grant…General Grant is a short thick set man and rode his horse like a bag of meal. I was a little disappointed in the appearance, but I like the look of his eye. He was more plainly dressed than any other General on the field.” (Rhodes, 133-134) • A Confederate colonel wrote in a June 7 letter: “From first to last, Grant has shown great skill and prudence, combined with remorseless persistency and brutality. He is a scientific Goth…destroying the country as he goes and delivering the people over to starvation…[whereas] Lee is almost unapproachable, and yet no man is more simple or less ostentatious, hating all pretension. It would be impossible for an officer to be more reverenced, admired and respected. He eats the rations of the soldier and quarters alone in his tent. Without parade, haughtiness or assumption…he is worthy of the cause he represents and the army he commands…[yet] Lee has at least met with a foeman who matches his steel….Each guards himself perfectly and gives his blow with a precise eye and cool and sanguinary nerve.” (Hendrickson, 39)

42. Sherman wrote in a letter to Grant: “I believe you are as brave, patriotic, and just as the great prototype Washington – as unselfish, kind-hearted, and honest as a man should be – but the chief characteristic is the simple faith in success you have always manifested….This faith gave you victory at Shiloh and Vicksburg. Also, when you have completed your best preparations, you go into battle without hesitation…no doubts, no reserves; and I tell you, it was this that made us act with confidence.” (Hendrickson, 39) • Mary Chestnut, wrote in her diary: “He [Grant] is their right man, a bull-headed Suvorov…He fights to win that chap does. He is not distracted by a thousand side issues; he does not see them. He is narrow and sure – sees only in a straight line…from a battle in the gutter, he goes straight up….If General Lee had Grant’s resources he would have [already] bagged the last Yankee, or have had them all safe back in Massachusetts.” (Hendrickson, 39-40)

43. On one Fourth of July, Grant said: “We should have been unworthy of our country and the American name had we not made every sacrifice to save the Union. What saved the Union was the coming forward of the young men of the Nation. They came from their homes and fields, as in the time of the Revolution, giving everything to the country. To their devotion we owe the salvation of the Union. The humblest soldier who carried a musket is entitled to as much credit for the result of the war as those in command. So long as our young men are animated by this spirit there will be no fear for the Union.” (Davis, 362)

44. General Grant – the Hero of the War Poem by George Moses Horton (1797? – 1883?) • “Brave Grant, thou hero of the war, • Thou art the emblem of the morning star, • Transpiring from the East to banish fear, • Revolving o’er a servile Hemisphere, • At large thou hast sustained the chief command • And at whose order all must rise and stand, • To hold position in the field is thine, • To sink in darkness or to rise and shine.

45. Thou art the leader of the Fed’ral band, • To send them at thy pleasure through the land, • Whose martial soldiers never did recoil • Nor fail in any place to take the spoil, • Thus organized was all the army firm, • And led unwavering to their lawful term, • Never repulsed or made to shrink with fear, • Advancing in their cause so truly dear. • The love of Union burned in every heart, • Which led them true and faithful from the start, • Whether upon water or on land, • They all obeyed their marshal’s strict command, • By him the regiments were all surveyed, • His trumpet voice was by the whole obeyed, • His order right was every line to form, • And all be well prepared to front the storm.

46. Ye Southern gentlemen must grant him praise, • Nor on the flag of Union fail to gaze; • Ye ladies of the South forego the prize, • Our chief commander here to recognize, • From him the stream of general orders flow, • And every chief on him some praise bestow, • The well-known victor of the mighty cause • Demands from every voice a loud applause. • What more has great Napoleon ever done, • Though many battles in his course he won? • What more has Alexander e’er achieved, • Who left depopulated cities grieved? • To him we dedicate the whole in song, • The verses from our pen to him belong, • To him the Union banners are unfurled, • The star of peace the standard of the world.” (Marius, 258-260)

47. To learn more: • To learn more about those in command, read: • Partners in Command: The Relationships Between Leaders in the Civil War by Joseph Glatthaar • Why did some command relationships work better than others?

48. Sources: • Baehr, Ted and Susan Wales, eds. Faith in God and Generals. Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 2003. • Bauer, K. Jack, ed. Soldiering: The Civil War Diary of Rice C. Bull, 123rd New York Volunteer Infantry. San Rafael, CA: Presidio Press, 1977. • Brockett, Linus Pierpont. Our Great Captains: Grant, Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, and Farragut. New York: Charles B. Richardson, 1865. • Byrne, Frank L. and Andrew T. Weaver, eds. Haskell of Gettysburg: His Life and Civil War Papers. Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 1989. • Clark, Champ. Decoying the Yanks: Jackson’s Valley Campaign. Alexandria: Time-Life Books, 1984. • Commager, Henry Steele, ed. The Civil War Archive: The History of the Civil War in Documents. New York: Black Dog & Leventhal Publishers, 2000.

49. Cook, Roy Bird. Thomas J. Jackson: A God-Fearing Soldier of the CSA. Cincinnati: C.J. Krehbiel Company, 1961. • Davis, Washington. Camp-fire Chats of the Civil War. Chicago: A.B. Gehman, 1887. • Douglas, Henry Kyd. I Rode With Stonewall. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1968. • Freeman, Douglas S. Lee’s Lieutenants: A Study in Command. New York: Touchstone, 1998. • Gallman, Matthew, ed. The Civil War Chronicle. New York: Gramercy Books, 2000. • Glatthaar, Joseph T. Partners in Command: The Relationships Between Leaders in the Civil War. New York: The Free Press, 1994. • Hawkins, J. Donald, ed. Famous Statements, Speeches & Stories of Abraham Lincoln. Palm Beach Gardens, FL: John Donald Hawkins, 1991. • Hendrickson, Robert. The Road to Appomattox. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1998.

50. Marius, Richard, ed. The Columbia Book of Civil War Poetry. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. • McDonough, James Lee and James Pickett Jones. War So Terrible: Sherman and Atlanta. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1987. • McElroy, John. Andersonville: A Story of Rebel Military Prisons. Greenwich, CT: Fawcett Publications, Inc., 1962. • McPherson, James M. Drawn With the Sword. New York: Oxford University Press, 1996. • Merrill, James M. William Tecumseh Sherman. Chicago: Rand McNally & Company, 1971. • Porter, Horace. Campaigning with Grant. New York: The Century Co., 1897. Reprint. Alexandria: Time-Life Books, Inc., 1981. • Rhodes, Robert Hunt, ed. All For Union: The Civil War Diary and Letters of Elisha Hunt Rhodes. New York: Vintage Books, 1985.