per. "He was
never too anxious," wrote Chaplain Eaton, who, having been set by him in
charge of the negro refugees with his army, had excellent means of
judging, "never too preoccupied with the great problems that beset him,
to take a sincere and humane interest in the welfare of the most
subordinate labourer dependent upon him." And he had delicacy of feeling
in other ways. Once in the crowd at some hotel, in which he mingled an
undistinguished figure, an old officer under him tried on a lecherous
story for the entertainment of the General, who did not look the sort of
man to resent it; Grant, who did not wish to set down an older man
roughly, and had no ready phrases, but had, as it happens, a sensitive
skin, was observed to blush to the roots of his hair in exquisite
discomfort. It would be easy to multiply little recorded traits of this
somewhat unexpected kind, which give grace to the memory of his
determination in a duty which became very grim.

The simplicity of character as well as manner which endeared him to a few
close associates was probably a very poor equipment for the Presidency,
which, from that very simplicity, he afterwards treated as his due; and
Grant presented in some ways as great a contrast as can be imagined to
the large and complex mind of Lincoln. But he was the man that Lincoln
had yearned for. Whatever degree of military skill may be ascribed to
him, he had in the fullest measure the moral attributes of a commander.
The sense that the war could be put through and must be put through
possessed his soul. He was insusceptible to personal danger--at least,
so observers said, though he himself told a different story--and he
taught himself to keep a quiet mind in the presence of losses, rout in
battle, or failure in a campaign. It was said that he never troubled
himself with fancies as to what the enemy might be doing, and he
confessed to having constantly told himself that the enemy was as much
afraid of him as he of the enemy. His military talent was doubled in
efficacy by his indomitable constancy. In one sense, moreover, and that
a wholly good sense, he was a political general; for he had constantly
before his mind the aims of the Government which employed him, perceiving
early that there were only two possible ends to the war, the complete
subjugation of the South or the complete failure of the Union; perceiving
also that there was no danger of exhausting the resources of the North
a