door was opened, and out sprang a dashing officer. He inquired if that dripping, unostentatious man was General Grant. The latter replied in the affirmative. The officer added, that he wished to see the General on business. แ Come, walk with me," answered General Grant. There was no other way to do. Into the mud went the polished boots; and unprotected from the rain, the gay uniform was worn, till, like a peacock after a tempest has beaten down its plumage and besprinkled it with dirt, the officer stole back to the carriage with soaked, saturated apparel, and drooping feather. The parting counsel of his commander to set an example of a more becoming style of living, was thus enforced by a baptism into the new order of things he was not likely to forget. The nation, inspirited by the grand successes of the Lieutenant-General, held breath in view of the great and decisive crisis reached. Three years of bloody war, which it was supposed three months would close, had left their mournful record. The strain to supply "the sinews of war" had been increasing every year.. Men and money had been given lavishly. Great victories had been won. Still, the army which we first confronted on the "sacred soil of Virginia," and the capital of the growingly desperate "Confederacy," were apparently stronger than ever. It was no vainglorious nor ordinary act, to step forth into such a condition of affairs, the master-spirit of the vast and momentous issue. But the time of renewed and costly activity has come. God's finger has, it seems, designated the man for the hour and the work. We find another good story, which sounds like the General. A visitor to the army called upon him, one morning, and found the General sitting in his tent, smok ing, and talking to one of his staff officers. The stranger approached the chieftain, and inquired of him as follows: "General, if you flank Lee, and get between him and Richmond, will you not uncover Washington, and leave it a prey to the enemy?" General Grant, discharging a cloud of smoke from his mouth, indifferently replied: "Yes, I reckon so." The stranger, encouraged by a reply, propounded question No. 2: "General, do you not think Lee can detach sufficient force from his army to reënforce Beauregard and overwhelm Butler ?" "Not a doubt of it," replied the General. Becoming fortified by his success, the stranger propounded question No. 3, as follows: "General, is there not danger that General Johnston may come up and reenforce Lee, so that the latter will swing round and cut off your communications, and seize your supplies?” "Very likely," was the cool reply of the General, and he knocked the ashes from the end of his cigar. The stranger, horrified at the awful fate about to befall General Grant and his army, made his exit, and hastened to Washington to communicate the news. A Galena neighbor, who visited New York about this time, seemed utterly confounded with the sudden growth of his neighbor, the tanner. He couldn't account for it, for he was not a marked man in his home, and nobody supposed him a great man. He seldom talked, asked no advice, gave none to any one, but always did what he agreed to, and at the time. |