en based. But when a wholly new
problem was presented to them, they had no conception of the right
mode of solving it. The plan of one great campaign was based
absolutely upon the best-approved method of capturing a certain
place, without any reference to what damage might or might not be
done to the opposing army in that operation. The plan of another
great campaign had for its sole object the conquest and permanent
occupation of a great territory, and was so conducted as to avoid
the possibility of seriously hurting the enemy in that operation.
Yet the theory upon which this last plan was based, as well as the
first, governed the policy of the government more than two years.

GENERAL GRANT WITHOUT MILITARY BOOKS

It was not until Grant took command of "all the armies" that the
true strategic principle governed the general military policy. In
this connection, the story told by Grant himself about his military
studies is very instructive. When asked by the representative of
some friends who wished to present him a library for his new house
in Washington, what military books he then had, so that they might
not duplicate them, he replied that he did not have any military
books, and never had any, except the West-Point text-books. No
doubt Grant might have profited from some additional study, but
none at all was far better than so much as to have dwarfed his mind
into that of an imitator of former commanders.

The development of great military ability in Grant, as the result
of his own experience and independent thought,--that is, the
independent development of his own native military genius,--is by
far the most interesting part of his history.

In short, the great lesson taught by our own experience is that
elementary military training should be universal, because every
young man may be called upon the perform the duties of a soldier;
that general military reading, and habits of independent thought
upon all great military subjects, should be cultivated by all who
aspire to any high place in life, because they may be called upon
to discharge the highest possible duties of good citizens in peace
or in war, namely, those connected with the national defense; that
due preparation for defense ought to be made without delay, and
the requisite means kept always ready; and, above all, that the
best method of making the quickest possible effective use of those
means ought to be full