is victory at Columbus won him the rank of brigadier-general. On
the 10th of February, 1862, he was made major-general; on the 23d of
March, 1864, he was made lieutenant-general of the armies of the United
States. It was one long uninterrupted series of victories, for it has
been said that it will never be known if Grant could conduct a retreat,
because he never was defeated. From the beginning his supreme qualities
as a military commander were fully evidenced.

Columbus was called the Gibraltar of the Mississippi. Halleck had
ordered Grant to feel the strength of the enemy. But Grant was
resourceful, fertile in expedients, a believer in offensive tactics.
Hurling his forces upon Columbus, he won a signal victory. At Fort
Donelson, Grant showed his iron endurance and untiring patience. When it
came to the critical hour of the assault, a cold sleet-storm fell upon
his army; the ground was a sheet of glass, the trees encased in ice.
Grant himself spent half the night under a tree, standing upright,
receiving reports and working out his plans. When a spy brought word
that the Confederates had packed their knapsacks with three days'
rations, Grant said: "They are preparing to retreat; we must assault the
works," and, despite the storm, made an immediate attack. When Halleck
received the news of the fall of Fort Donelson, in announcing the
victory to Washington he did not even mention the name of Grant, but
asked Lincoln to promote Smith, a subordinate commander.

Later, in 1863, after months of siege by river and by land, came the
capture of Vicksburg, coincident with the Battle of Gettysburg, that was
the high-water mark of the war. The announcement of these two victories,
on July 4, 1863, intoxicated the North with joy.

By this time Grant's name was upon all lips, and he stood forth the one
general fitted for command of all the armies--in the West, in the South,
and on the Potomac. Just as some men have the gift of inventing, the
gift of singing, the gift of carving, so Grant had the gift of strategy.
One glance, and Grant had the whole situation in hand--the weak points
to be attacked, the weak points of his own position to be safeguarded,
the danger point for the enemy. Obedient himself, he expected instant
obedience from others. Willing to risk his own life, he expected the
same self-sacrifice on the part of his fellow officers. One biographer
calls him "a master quartermaster," telling us that he knew how to feed
a