Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: been naturally enough, both in America and elsewhere, ascribed to the arrival of Buell, it is as well to make the matter clear by the narrative of General Sherman, written in 1865. This exactly confirms the assertion made by those who knew him best that Grant from the time of Fort Donclson, believed in there being always a time in every hard-fought battle when both armies being nearly exhausted, and it seeming impossible for either to do more, the one that first renews the fight will win it. Sherman writes in so admirable a spirit of candor and fairness, that his words should be read in full:— "I never was disposed, nor am I now, to question any thing done by General Buell and his array, and know that approaching our field of battle from the rear, he encountered that sickening crowd of laggards and fugitives that excited his contempt, and that of his army, who never gave full credit to those in the front line who did fight hard, and who had, at four P.m. checked the enemy, and were preparing the next day to assume the offensive. I remember the fact the better from General Grant's anecdote of his Donelson battle, which he told me then for the first time—that at a certain period of the battle he saw that either side was ready to give way, if the other showed a bold front, and he determined to do that very thing, to advance on the enemy, when, as he prognosticated, the enemy surrendered. At four P.m. of April sixth, he thought the appearances the same, and he judged, with Lewis Wallace's fresh division and such of our startled troops as had recovered their equilibrium, he would be justified in dropping the defensive and assuming the of fensive in the morning. And, I repeat, I received such orders before I knew General Buell's troops were at the river. I admit that I was glad Buell...