VENTURESOME GRANT

Taranaki Daily News, 5 August 1937, Page 11

VENTURESOME GRANT

CIVIL WAR IN UNITED STATES. NEVER AN ARMCHAIR FIGHTER. General - U. S. Grant,' who was born 115 years ago, was not an armchair fighter during any part of his military life, writes Charles Smutney in thc Chicago Tribune. He barely escaped death or capture on several occasions, so close was his contact with vhe Confederates throughout the civil war. Brigadier-General Grant brought on the battle of Belmont in November, 1861, to test his inexperienced volunteers. Side-wheelers brought his boys down the Mississippi from Cairo, Illinois..They disembarked north of the Confederate camp and after four hours of fierce skirmishing drove the southerners out. Grant's raw troops believed the excitement was over for the day and began a trophy hunt through the enemy camp. The Con-

federates returned, surprised them, and pursued them back to the waiting river boats. The, northerners clambered on their transports in fairly good order. The boats already were pushing off when Grant on horseback, coat-tails flying, slid his horse down the almost perpendicular bank and trotted over the outflung gang plank to the deck, with the southerners fifty yards behind. Entering the captain's room, Grant threw himself on a sofa. Restlessly he stood up again. A few seconds later a Confederate bullet drilled the cabin wall and plunged through the' length of the sofa. Seven months later Grant would have been a more desirable prize. He had taken Forts Henry and Donelson and had won the battle of Shiloh under a handicap. A major-general now, he removed his headquarters to Memphis. June 23, 1862, hot and sunny, found Grant jogging along within twenty miles of the city with a small cavalry escort. A Dr. Smith, ; a southern sympathiser, informed the Confederate" General W. H. Jackson of Grant's passing. Jackson followed but gave up the chase after estimating that Grant's start had put him beyond reach. Grant and his party at that moment were lolling in thei shade of a grove three-quarters of a mile up the road. . . At Chattanooga Creek more than a year later Gant, scouting alone, came upon a lone soldier drawing water. He questioned the .man, who politely informed Grant that he was of the Confederate General Longstreet's corps. This corps wore a blue uniform. This man may not have recognised Grant. If he did he may have been overawed. He might have changed the. history of the United States. The Southern Colonel John S. Mosby, raiding behind the Federal lines early in May of 1864, sighted blue-coated cavalry and simultaheously a Washingtonbound. railroad train. Should he stop and destroy the train or engage the cavalry? The bluecoats bolted. Mosby pursued, and the train made its stop at Warrington Junction