Happy Saturday and Happy New Year!
I appreciate all of you who continue to read these posts despite most of them being random thoughts I have throughout the week. If there is any topic you wish to discuss or interpret, please feel free to let me know. I am anxious for Liberty to play Buffalo in their bowl game today, but we will see how it turns out. Liberty also plays Middle Tennessee in basketball today. They just started conference play, and I hope they get to twenty wins this season.
As I continued reviewing some primary sources, I came across Oliver O. Howard’s autobiography. He took part in the Chattanooga Campaign, holding command of the Eleventh Corps. He took part in significant engagements during the campaign, including the Battle of Wauhatchie and Lookout Mountain. His writing indicates that he was very religious and trusted more in his faith than himself, and he would say the same about Grant. There was one opinion of his that really struck me. Howard wrote in great depth about the loss at the Battle of Chickamauga and how the Army of the Cumberland was essentially besieged in Chattanooga. Plans were drawn up by Rosecrans and Thomas to relieve the besieged city, but Rosecrans was relieved of command, and Thomas was put in his place by the new district army commander, Ulysses Grant. Howard noticed a stark difference when Grant arrived despite his broken leg and poor ability to get around, “At last we were escaping from this dangerous soil… it was at least a change.”
Grant may not have been the one to devise the plans to open the cracker line or supply lines into Chattanooga, but he was open to the ideas of others, particularly those of William “Baldy” Smith. He was impressed and wanted this work to continue. So, why should Grant be credited for this change? Howard understood this. He believed that when Grant arrived, he “struck blows of a persistent faith.” Watching Grant and Sherman interact, laugh, and smile, Howard's faith in their perilous position was restored. Equally impressive was Grant’s approach to his subordinates, as Howard noted, “Grant’s ability to gain the upper hand over his generals without pretension or assumption then became apparent.” Grant never pretended to know more than others or acted in ways that benefited him, but always for the ultimate victory over the enemy. Even Howard, years later, acknowledged that “[Grant] relied…on Providence more than simply on himself.”
There are too many instances in history when generals arrived in a desperate situation only to be swayed by the low morale of the army or change plans based on their ego. Grant understood and knew a good plan when he heard one. He never had to say much unless it was to make small changes to ensure success. Grant gained respect from his soldiers not by pomp and circumstance but by humility and quietness. At Chattanooga, this is precisely what the three Union armies needed. There was already too much competition between the Army of the Potomac, the Army of the Cumberland, and the Army of Tennessee. Grant somehow got all three of these armies working like a well-oiled machine that overcame the rough defenses and saved Tennessee.
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