X. SHILOH, CORINTH, IUKA 57

X. VICKSBURG 65

XI. NEW RESPONSIBILITIES--CHATTANOOGA 77

XII. LIEUTENANT-GENERAL, COMMANDER OF ALL THE ARMIES 85

XIII. THE WILDERNESS AND SPOTTSYLVANIA 95

XIV. FROM SPOTTSYLVANIA TO RICHMOND 104

XV. IN WASHINGTON AMONG POLITICIANS 114

XVI. HIS FIRST ADMINISTRATION 123

XVII. HIS SECOND ADMINISTRATION 133

XVIII. THE TOUR OF THE WORLD 144

XIX. REVERSES OF FORTUNE--ILL HEALTH--HIS
LAST VICTORY--THE END 149

ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT

CHAPTER I

OUR NATIONAL MILITARY HERO

Since the end of the civil war in the United States, whoever has
occasion to name the three most distinguished representatives of our
national greatness is apt to name Washington, Lincoln, and Grant.
General Grant is now our national military hero. Of Washington it has
often been said that he was "first in war, first in peace, and first in
the hearts of his countrymen." When this eulogy was wholly just the
nation had been engaged in no war on a grander scale than the war for
independence. That war, in the numbers engaged, in the multitude and
renown of its battles, in the territory over which its campaigns were
extended, in its destruction of life and waste of property, in the
magnitude of the interests at stake (but not in the vital importance of
the issue), was far inferior to the civil war. It happens quite
naturally, as in so many other affairs in this world, that the
comparative physical magnitude of the conflicts has much influence in
moulding the popular estimate of the rank of the victorious commanders.

Those who think that in our civil war there were other officers in both
armies who were Grant's superiors in some points of generalship will
hardly dispute that, taking all in all, he was supreme among the
generals on the side of the Union. He whom Sherman, Sheridan, Thomas,
and Meade saw promoted to be their commander, not only without envy, but
with high gratification, under whom they all served with cordial
confidence and enthusiasm, cannot have been esteemed by them unfit for
the distinction. If these great soldiers then and always acclaimed him
worthy to be their le