Sherman was put in command at Chattanooga, with orders to march upon Atlanta. He took command himself in Virginia, with Richmond for his goal. On May 3 the advance began. There was no going around by water now; his course lay straight forward over all obstacles of men and nature. In General Lee he had an opponent such as he had not yet met, and nothing but the policy of "hammering away" would answer. On May 5 and 6 was fought the terrible battle of the Wilderness. As Grant could not drive Lee from his ground, he marched around his flank and went on, leaving Lee to do what he pleased. Lee faced him again at Spottsylvania and here fighting continued, with intervals of cessation, for five days, a whole Confederate division being captured on the 12th. "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer," read Grant's famous telegram. Thus it went on, a second flank movement and a battle at North Anna; a third flank movement and a battle at Cold Harbor, in which Grant's men were terribly slaughtered. But still he went straight on, crossed the James River on June 14 and 15, and began the long-continued siege of Petersburg. He might fairly have been called "Grant the Hammerer." "The great thing about Grant," said the President, "is his cool persistency. He is not easily excited and has the grip of a bulldog when he once gets his teeth in; nothing can shake him off." 99 "I think there is no doubt that Grant is retreating,' said General Gordon to Lee, during a pause in the battle of the Wilderness. "You are mistaken," said Lee, shaking his head. "Grant is not a retreating man." There were no wasted days in the siege of Peters burg. Lee tried his old tactics of a threatening move upon Washington, but Grant sent Sheridan to deal with Early and kept on. Not only "all summer," but all winter and into the next spring, the siege continued. At length, on the 1st of April, 1865, the steady pressure won. The fort at Five Forks was taken, with five thousand prisoners. On the 2d the works of Petersburg gave way and other thousands were taken. That night Lee began his last retreat. On the 7th he was rounded up at Appomattox. On the 9th he surrendered. The war was at an end and Grant was hailed as the great hero of the North. A noble-hearted man, he proved a generous victor. Officers and men of the Confederate army were paroled, the officers being allowed to retain their side arms, baggage and horses, and the cavalry, with generous consideration, being given their horses, that they might use them for the spring plowing. "The United States does not need the horses," said Grant, " and these men, most of whom are small farmers, do." They had ceased to fight; they needed to live; every man who claimed to own a horse or mule was allowed to take it and no questions were asked. Whatever we may say or think about the ethics of war, a great soldier is always the world's hero, and such was General Grant-the more so as he had fought, not for ambition and power, but to preserve the unity of a great country. Such proved to be the case when he made the tour of the world in 1877, his journey being a continual ovation of the nations from its start to its close. In 1866 Congress revived the grade of "general of the army" and Grant was appointed to that high position. He served as secretary of war for a few months in 1867 under President Johnson, and in 1868 was nominated as the Republican candidate for President. The last words of his letter accepting this nomination were, "Let us have peace," and this phrase became the watchword of the campaign. He was elected by two hundred and fourteen against eighty electoral votes. In 1872 he was again a candidate, and this time received two hundred and eighty-six against sixty-three electoral votes. Grant was a soldier, not a statesman, and like the great soldiers who had been elected to the Presidency before him there were mistakes in his administration. His loyalty to his friends made him refuse to believe anything that was said against them and some shrewd and dishonest politicians traded upon this and brought his management of affairs into disrepute. His trust in his friends led to serious personal disaster in his later life. After his two years' triumphal journey round the world, where people flocked to see and honor him as if he had been a Napoleon or a Cæsar, he settled in New York, and at the solicitation of his son joined the brokerage firm of Ward & Fisk and put all his savings into it. Grant's trust in his partners was such that he paid no attention to their operations. The business seemed so prosperous and such glowing statements were made that he grew to believe himself worth a million dollars. A sudden exposure came in May, 1884. Ward absconded and the business proved to be ruined. Grant had been used as a decoy by the swindler. Only a few days before, at Ward's suggestion, he had borrowed one hundred thousand dollars from William H. Vanderbilt. All was gone, his money, his house, and, as he thought, his honor. But it was soon proved |