Grant immediately started for Louisville, but was met at Indianapolis by Hon. Mr. Stanton, Secretary of War, who accompanied him on his journey.

At the Galt House, the distinguished general attracted much notice. Among the stalwart Kentuckians was one from the "rural districts," who seemed to be disappointed that he was not a giant in size.

"Is that the great Gen. Grant?" said he to a gentleman.

"Yes, sir: that is Gen. Grant."

"Well! I thought he was a large man. He would be considered a small chance of a fighter if he lived in Kentucky." The Kentuckian had not learned that generals fight battles with their brains.

CHAPTER XVIII.

G

BATTLE AT WAUHATCHIE.

EN. GRANT now found himself appointed to a department newly created, reaching from the Alleghanies to the Mississippi, and called the "Department of the Mississippi." It embraced the departments before known as the Cumberland, the Ohio, and the Tennessee. It included the States of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Northern Alabama, and North-western Georgia. It contained two hundred thousand soldiers, and stretched a thousand miles from east to west. In uniting these departments under one commander, the government was adopting the policy which Grant had always recommended, of placing the military power of the nation under one head, and not subdivided into half a dozen armies, marching and fighting each on its own plan. If half a dozen divisions, under half a dozen different generals, were to meet on any one battle-field, and all were to attack the enemy here and there, without plan, as the judgment of each prompted, it would be thought absurd, and sure to end in disaster. But the whole country was one battle-field: its armies were only divisions of one grand army, and should be subjected to one brain, and wielded by one will.

The command now tendered to Grant was the largest ever given to any officer. It was worthy of any man's ambition: it was equal to any man's abilities.

The national forces had met with a severe repulse at Chickamauga, Sept. 23, and had fallen back to Chattanooga under circumstances which caused great depression. Grant had thought it not improbable that Sherman might be called to the command of the Army of the Cumberland; and he had written to Sherman, "I have constantly had the feeling that I shall lose you from this command entirely. Of

course,

I do not object to seeing your sphere of usefulness enlarged, and think it should have been enlarged long ago, having an eye to the public good alone; but it needs no assurance from me, general, that taking a more selfish view, while I would heartily approve such a change, I would deeply regret it on my own account."

Sherman was at Memphis when he heard that Grant had been ordered North; and at once wrote him, "Accept the command of the great army of the centre: don't hesitate. By your presence at Nashville, you will unite all discordant elements, and impress the enemy in proportion. All success and honor to you!" There are noble things in human nature with all its frailties.

The government feared that Chattanooga, which was short of provisions, would be abandoned before Gen. Grant could arrive there: and he was directed to assume command at once by telegraphing to Rosecrans, Thomas, and Burnside, which he did; the former being in command at Chattanooga. The country had

yet to be studied by him, the condition of the army to be learned in detail. He gathered what he could from maps and the full statements of Mr. Stanton. But, the moment his mind began to grasp the great facts, it is curious to see how it leaped into the work; how impatient he grew to stay results until he could arrive in the midst of them. He was in the hotel at Louisville, Ky. At half-past eleven o'clock at night, he telegraphed eagerly to Gen. Thomas, "Hold Chattanooga at all hazards. I will be there as soon as possible." How noble and how gratifying the reply which was immediately flashed over the wires by Thomas, “I will hold the town till we starve"!

Early the next morning, Oct. 20, Grant started by steam, and reached Nashville at night. But, during the day, his mind had been incessantly revolving the affairs of his unseen command; and he at once telegraphed to Burnside, who was at Knoxville, Tenn., in command of the Department of the Ohio, but in circumstances creating great anxiety at Washington, "Have you tools for fortifying? Important points in East Tennessee should be put in condition to be held by the smallest number of men as soon as possible. I will be in Stevenson to-morrow night, and Chattanooga the next night."

To Admiral Porter at Cairo he telegraphed, " Gen. Sherman's advance was at Eastport on the 15th. The sooner a gunboat can be got to him, the better. Boats must now be on the way from St. Louis with supplies to go up the Tennessee for Sherman."

To Thomas, whose great difficulty of obtaining supplies he fully appreciates, he telegraphs, "Should not

large working-parties be put upon the road between Bridgeport and Chattanooga at once?" Farther on the road, at Bridgeport, he telegraphs to Nashville, "Send to the front, as speedily as possible, vegetables for the army. Beans and hominy are especially re

quired."

His restless energy was overflowing wherever on the route he could find lightning to carry his commands. Every hour, every moment, was precious. It was evidently the same man at work at the telegraph-wires, who could not find time for three days and nights to take off his clothes when starting from Bruinsburg on his Vicksburg campaign; whose orders were everywhere, in the hands of his staff, the ordnance-officers, commissaries, corps commanders,—and were everywhere obeyed. During the evening, both here and at Louisville, a large crowd gathered at the hotel, and called for a speech; but he declined. He was making more effective speeches over the wires to his generals. On his journey, he met for a few moments Gen. Rosecrans, whom he had superseded. Rosecrans was polite, and gave such information as the interview permitted of the condition of the army. At Bridgeport, Grant and his staff mounted horses. The rain poured in floods. They made their way as best they could over roads torn up by the mountain-torrents, and strewed with fragments of army-wagons, dead mules and horses. Parts of the road were so bad, that Grant, who was still lame and suffering from his injuries at New Orleans, had to be carried by some of the soldiers in their arms. But by steam-power, horse-power, and man-power, he was constantly moving, without a mo