e first General I've had that didn't." On another occasion
Lincoln said of Grant: "The great thing about him is his cool
persistency of purpose. He is not easily excited, and he has the grip of
a bulldog. _When he once gets his teeth in, nothing can shake him off_."

The President's satisfaction with the new commander was speedily
communicated to him in a characteristically frank manner, in a letter
dated April 30, 1864.

LIEUTENANT-GENERAL GRANT:--

Not expecting to see you before the Spring campaign opens, I wish
to express in this way my entire satisfaction with what you have
done up to this time, so far as I understand it. The particulars of
your plan I neither know nor seek to know. You are vigilant and
self-reliant; and, pleased with this, I wish not to obtrude any
restraints or constraints upon you. While I am very anxious that
any great disaster or capture of our men in great numbers shall be
avoided, I know that these points are less likely to escape your
attention than they would be mine. If there be anything wanting
which is in my power to give, do not fail to let me know it. And
now, with a brave army and a just cause, may God sustain you.

Yours very truly, A. LINCOLN.

General Grant himself wrote, on this point: "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 of 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 someone 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.... The
President told me he did not want to know what I proposed to do. But he
submitted a plan of campaign of his own which he wanted me to hear and
then do as I pleased about. He brought out a map of Virginia on which he
had evidently marked every position occupied by the Federal and
Confederate armies up to that time. He pointed out on the map two
streams which empty into the Potomac, and suggested that the army might
be move