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MAJOR- GENERAL
U. S. GRANT.
WE publish herewith a portrait of
the hero of the day, MAJOR- GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT, Commander of the Army at
Vicksburg.
General Grant was
born at Point Pleasant, Clairmont Co., Ohio, on
27th April, 1822, and is consequently forty-one years of age. He entered West
Point in 1839, and graduated in 1843, with Franklin, Reynolds, Steele, etc.
Having entered the Fourth Infantry, he obtained his full commission at Corpus
Christi in 1845, and served at all the battles under Taylor. His regiment
subsequently joined General Scott, and young Grant figured conspicuously at all
the battles of the old hero's campaign. For Moline del Re he got a brevet of
First Lieutenant, and for Chapultepec one of Captain. He subsequently obtained
his full rank as Captain, and accompanied his regiment to Oregon. In 1854 he
resigned his commission, and took up his residence at Galena, Illinois.
On the outbreak of the rebellion
he tendered his services to Governor Yates, and was shortly afterward appointed
Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois. On 17th May, 1861, he was commissioned a
Brigadier-General. and filled various commands in Missouri and the vicinity.
After the
capture of Fort Henry, February 6, 1862, a new
district was created, under the denomination of the District of West Tennessee,
and General Grant was assigned by General Halleck to the command of it on the
14th of that month. He was in command of the Union forces at
Fort Donelson from February 13 to 16, 1862, and
his noted correspondence with General Buckner gained him the sobriquet of
Unconditional Surrender Grant, answering to his initials of U. S. Grant. For the
success of that action he was created a Major-General of Volunteers, dating from
February 16, 1862.
After a few days he was again
ordered into the field, and the manner in which he conducted the action at
Shiloh, April 6 and 7, 1862, raised him still
higher in public estimation.
He was second in command to
General Halleck at the noted siege of Corinth,
in May, 1862; and when General Halleck was ordered to Washington, General Grant
was placed in command of the
Department of Tennessee,
embracing all the country west of the Tennessee River, and on both shores of the
Mississippi River, from Corinth to Louisiana. He was now placed in command of
the Thirteenth Army Corps, and his troops fought the famous battles of I-u-k-a
and Corinth, although General Grant did not command in person, being at Jackson,
Tennessee, his head-quarters. In December, 1862, he removed his head-quarters to
Holly Springs; and on the 22d of that month, his forces having been greatly
increased, he divided them into four corps, viz.: the Thirteenth, Fifteenth,
Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Corps of the United States Army.
After the attack and failure of
General Sherman at Vicksburg, December 27,
1862, a regular plan of operations had to be worked out, and many schemes were
planned and attempted to get into the rear of the rebel strong-hold, either from
above or below, among which may be particularized the
Yazoo Pass expedition, the Big Sunflower
expedition, the
Vicksburg Canal, the
Lake Providence Canal and Great Union River,
and several others; but the one that has most successfully contributed to the
grand result was the moving down of his troops overland by way of the Louisiana
shore, running transports and gun-boats past the Vicksburg batteries, and so
carrying the men across the Mississippi to Bruinsberg and landing them under
cover of the gun-boats. These manoeuvres have each taken up time, but, with the
exception of the last, were mere feints to draw off the attention of the rebels
from his main movement. With three out of his four corps of troops he has
advanced into the heart of a rebel State, taken its capital, and beaten the
rebels in four pitched battles. The Herald says: General Grant is a modest,
unassuming man, and on first taking command was regarded as a curiosity by the
soldiers on account of his plainness of dress in comparison with the young and
new-fledged colonels and less advanced officers, and particularly a shocking bad
stove-pipe hat, which he wore for a long time before donning a military tile.
The General is a man of business, and very popular with the troops. a He appears
about forty-five years of age, sandy complexion, reddish beard, medium height,
pleasant, twinkling eyes, and he weighs about one hundred and seventy pounds. He
smokes (Next Page)
MAJOR-GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT,
U.S.A.-[PHOTOGRAPHED BY BRADY.]
GOVERNOR ANDREW G. CURTIN, OF PENNSYLVANIA.-[SEE
PAGE 362.]
CLEMENT L. VALLANDIGHAM.-PHOTOGRAPHED BY
BRADY.-[SEE PAGE 362.]
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