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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.
U S Grant, Memoirs, on the anxiety that he felt prior to his first possible engagement as Regiment Commander during the Civil War
I saw an open
field, in our possession on the second day, over which the Confederates had made repeated charges the day before, so covered with dead that it would have been possible to walk across the clearing, in any direction,
stepping on dead bodies, without a foot touching the ground.
U S Grant, Memoirs, the battle of Shiloh
The enemy fought bravely, but they had started out to defeat and destroy an army and capture a
position. They failed in both, with very heavy loss in killed and wounded, and must have gone back discouraged and convinced that the "Yankee" was not an enemy to be despised.
U S Grant, Memoirs, the battle of Shiloh
I always admired the South, as bad as I thought their cause, for the boldness with which they silenced all opposition and all croaking, by press or by individuals,
within their control. War at all times, whether a civil war between sections of a common country or between nations, ought to be avoided, if possible with honor. But, once entered into, it is too much
for human nature to tolerate an enemy within their ranks to give aid and comfort to the armies of the opposing section or nation.
U S Grant, Memoirs
While a battle is raging one can see his enemy mowed
down by the thousand, or the ten thousand, with great composure; but after the battle these scenes are distressing, and one is naturally disposed to do as much to alleviate the suffering of an enemy as a friend.
U S Grant, Memoirs, following the Battle of Champion's Hill
During the siege there had been a good deal of friendly sparring between the soldiers of the two armies, on picket and where the lines were close
together. All rebels were known as "Johnnies," all Union troops as "Yanks." Often "Johnny" would call: "Well, Yank, when are you coming into town?" The
reply was sometimes: "We propose to celebrate the 4th of July there." Sometimes it would be: "We always treat our prisoners with kindness and do not want to hurt them;" or, "We
are holding you as prisoners of war while you are feeding yourselves." The garrison, from the commanding general down, undoubtedly expected an assault on the fourth. They knew from the temper of
their men it would be successful when made; and that would be a greater humiliation than to surrender. Besides it would be attended with severe loss to them.
U S Grant, Memoirs, the Siege of Vicksburg
At the appointed hour the garrison of Vicksburg marched out of their works and formed line in front, stacked arms and marched back in good order. Our whole army present witnessed this scene without
cheering. Logan's division, which had approached nearest the rebel works, was the first to march in; and the flag of one of the regiments of his division was soon floating over the court-house. Our
soldiers were no sooner inside the lines than the two armies began to fraternize. Our men had had full rations from the time the siege commenced, to the close. The enemy had been suffering, particularly
towards the last. I myself saw our men taking bread from their haversacks and giving it to the enemy they had so recently been engaged in starving out. It was accepted with avidity and with thanks.
U S Grant, Memoirs, the Siege of Vicksburg
I now telegraphed to Washington: "The fight to-day progressed favorably. Sherman carried the end of Missionary Ridge, and his right is now at the
tunnel, and his left at Chickamauga Creek. Troops from Lookout Valley carried the point of the mountain, and now hold the eastern slope and a point high up. Hooker reports two thousand prisoners taken, besides
which a small number have fallen into our hands from Missionary Ridge." The next day the President replied: "Your dispatches as to fighting on Monday and Tuesday are here. Well
done. Many thanks to all. Remember Burnside."
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, the Battle of Lookout Mountain
The victory at Chattanooga was won against great odds, considering the advantage the
enemy had of position, and was accomplished more easily than was expected by reason of Bragg's making several grave mistakes: first, in sending away his ablest corps commander with over twenty thousand troops;
second, in sending away a division of troops on the eve of battle; third, in placing so much of a force on the plain in front of his impregnable position.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, the Battle of Chattanooga
If the same license had been allowed the people and press in the South that was allowed in the North, Chattanooga would probably have been the last battle fought for the preservation of the Union.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, the Battle of Chattanooga
It is men who wait to be selected, and not those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs
The
worst excuse a soldier can make for declining service is that he once ranked the commander he is ordered to report to.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, on the offer to Buell of a command under Sherman, which he declined
because he was senior in rank
In my first interview with Mr. Lincoln alone he stated to me that he had never professed to be a military man or to know how campaigns should be conducted, and never wanted to
interfere in them: but that procrastination on the part of commanders, and the pressure from the people at the North and Congress, WHICH WAS ALWAYS WITH HIM, forced him into issuing his series of
"Military Orders"--one, two, three, etc. He did not know but they were all wrong, and did know that some of them were. All he wanted or had ever wanted was some one who would take the
responsibility and act, and call on him for all the assistance needed, pledging himself to use all the power of the government in rendering such assistance. Assuring him that I would do the best I could with
the means at hand, and avoid as far as possible annoying him or the War Department, our first interview ended.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs
Johnston's tactics in this campaign do not seem to have met with much
favor, either in the eyes of the administration at Richmond, or of the people of that section of the South in which he was commanding. The very fact of a change of commanders being ordered under such
circumstances was an indication of a change of policy, and that now they would become the aggressors--the very thing our troops wanted. For my own part, I think that Johnston's tactics were right. Anything that
could have prolonged the war a year beyond the time that it did finally close, would probably have exhausted the North to such an extent that they might then have abandoned the contest and agreed to a separation.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, Sherman's march to Atlanta
Lee massed heavily from his left flank on the broken point of his line. Five times during the day he assaulted furiously, but without dislodging our
troops from their new position. His losses must have been fearful. Sometimes the belligerents would be separated by but a few feet. In one place a tree, eighteen inches in diameter, was cut
entirely down by musket balls. All the trees between the lines were very much cut to pieces by artillery and musketry.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, the Battle of Spotsylvania
I was seated at the time on
the porch of a fine plantation house waiting for Burnside's corps to pass. Meade and his staff, besides my own staff, were with me. The lady of the house, a Mrs. Tyler, and an elderly lady, were
present. Burnside seeing us, came up on the porch, his big spurs and saber rattling as he walked. He touched his hat politely to the ladies, and remarked that he supposed they had never seen so many
"live Yankees" before in their lives. The elderly lady spoke up promptly saying, "Oh yes, I have; many more." "Where?" said Burnside. "In Richmond."
Prisoners, of course, was understood.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, marching on Richmond on the 24th of May 1864
The effort was a stupendous failure. It cost us about four thousand men, mostly, however,
captured; and all due to inefficiency on the part of the corps commander and the incompetency of the division commander who was sent to lead the assault.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, the Battle of the Crater
On more than one occasion in these engagements General R. B. Hayes, who succeeded me as President of the United States, bore a very honorable part. His conduct on the field was marked by conspicuous gallantry
as well as the display of qualities of a higher order than that of mere personal daring. This might well have been expected of one who could write at the time he is said to have done so: "Any
officer fit for duty who at this crisis would abandon his post to electioneer for a seat in Congress, ought to be scalped." Having entered the army as a Major of Volunteers at the beginning of the war,
General Hayes attained by meritorious service the rank of Brevet Major-General before its close.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, on General Rutherford B. Hayes during Sheridan's 1864 Valley Campaign
Sherman's
army, after all the depletions, numbered about sixty thousand effective men. All weak men had been left to hold the rear, and those remaining were not only well men, but strong and hardy, so that he had sixty
thousand as good soldiers as ever trod the earth; better than any European soldiers, because they not only worked like a machine but the machine thought. European armies know very little what they are fighting for,
and care less.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, Sherman's march to the sea
The skill of these men, called by themselves and the army "bummers," in collecting their loads and getting back to their
respective commands, was marvellous. When they started out in the morning, they were always on foot; but scarcely one of them returned in the evening without being mounted on a horse or mule. These would be
turned in for the general use of the army, and the next day these men would start out afoot and return again in the evening mounted.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, on the men in Sherman's army tasked to gather
supplies from the Georgia countryside
General Sherman's movement from Chattanooga to Atlanta was prompt, skilful, and brilliant. The history of his flank movements and battles during that memorable
campaign will ever be read with an interest unsurpassed by anything in history.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs
The question of who devised the plan of march from Atlanta to Savannah is easily answered: it
was clearly Sherman, and to him also belongs the credit of its brilliant execution.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs
South Carolina had done so much to prepare the public mind of the South for secession, and had
been so active in precipitating the decision of the question before the South was fully prepared to meet it, that there was, at that time, a feeling throughout the North and also largely entertained by people of the
South, that the State of South Carolina, and Charleston, the hot-bed of secession in particular, ought to have a heavy hand laid upon them.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, on Sherman's decision to bypass Charleston, South Carolina
The men of both Lee's and Johnston's armies were, like their brethren of the North, as brave as men can be; but no man is
so brave that he may not meet such defeats and disasters as to discourage him and dampen his ardor for any cause, no matter how just he deems it.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, on the condition of the Confederate armies in March 1865
He always showed a generous and kindly spirit toward the Southern people, and I never heard him abuse an enemy. Some of
the cruel things said about President Lincoln, particularly in the North, used to pierce him to the heart; but never in my presence did he evince a revengeful disposition.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, on President Abraham Lincoln near the end of the Civil War
I did not have artillery brought up, because I was sure Lee was trying to make his escape, and I wanted to push immediately
in pursuit. At all events I had not the heart to turn the artillery upon such a mass of defeated and fleeing men, and I hoped to capture them soon.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, the capture of Petersburg, Virginia
The result of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this
struggle. I feel that it is so, and regard it as my duty to shift from myself the responsibility of any further effusion of blood, by asking of you the surrender of that portion of the Confederate States army
known as the Army of Northern Virginia.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, letter from General Grant to General Lee dated April 7, 1865
Although Sheridan had been marching all day, his troops moved with alacrity
and without any straggling. They began to see the end of what they had been fighting four years for. Nothing seemed to fatigue them. They were ready to move without rations and travel without rest
until the end. Straggling had entirely ceased, and every man was now a rival for the front. The infantry marched about as rapidly as the cavalry could.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, on Sheridan's army on April 8, 1865
What General Lee's feelings were I do not know. As he was a man of much dignity, with an impassible face, it was impossible to say whether
he felt inwardly glad that the end had finally come, or felt sad over the result, and was too manly to show it. Whatever his feelings, they were entirely concealed from my observation; but my own feelings, which had
been quite jubilant on the receipt of his letter, were sad and depressed. I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for
a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse. I do not question, however, the sincerity of the great mass of those
who were opposed to us.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, General Grant's meeting with General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865
General Lee was dressed in a full uniform which was entirely
new, and was wearing a sword of considerable value, very likely the sword which had been presented by the State of Virginia; at all events, it was an entirely different sword from the one that would ordinarily be
worn in the field. In my rough traveling suit, the uniform of a private with the straps of a lieutenant-general, I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so handsomely dressed, six feet high and of
faultless form. But this was not a matter that I thought of until afterwards.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, General Grant's meeting with General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865
GEN:
In accordance with the substance of my letter to you of the 8th inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of N. Va. on the following terms, to wit: Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in
duplicate. One copy to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by such officer or officers as you may designate. The officers to give their individual paroles not to take up
arms against the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the men of their commands. The arms, artillery and public property to
be parked and stacked, and turned over to the officer appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer
and man will be allowed to return to their homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs,
surrender terms written by General Grant at Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865
No conversation, not one word, passed between General Lee and myself, either about private property, side arms, or kindred
subjects. He appeared to have no objections to the terms first proposed; or if he had a point to make against them he wished to wait until they were in writing to make it. When he read over that part of
the terms about side arms, horses and private property of the officers, he remarked, with some feeling, I thought, that this would have a happy effect upon his army.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, on the surrender
terms written by General Grant at Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865
Lee and I then separated as cordially as we had met, he returning to his own lines, and all went into bivouac for the night at Appomattox.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, surrender at Appomattox Court House April 9, 1865
When news of the surrender first reached our lines our men commenced firing a salute of a hundred guns in honor of the
victory. I at once sent word, however, to have it stopped. The Confederates were now our prisoners, and we did not want to exult over their downfall.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs
Sherman's army
made a different appearance from that of the Army of the Potomac. The latter had been operating where they received directly from the North full supplies of food and clothing regularly: the review of
this army therefore was the review of a body of 65,000 well-drilled, well-disciplined and orderly soldiers inured to hardship and fit for any duty, but without the experience of gathering their own food and supplies
in an enemy's country, and of being ever on the watch. Sherman's army was not so well-dressed as the Army of the Potomac, but their marching could not be excelled; they gave the appearance of men who had been
thoroughly drilled to endure hardships, either by long and continuous marches or through exposure to any climate, without the ordinary shelter of a camp.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs, the Grand Review, Washington, DC, May 24th 1865
This war was a fearful lesson, and should teach us the necessity of avoiding wars in the future.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs
To maintain peace in the future it is necessary to be prepared for war.
Ulysses S Grant, Memoirs
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