A Yankee general who could exploit the odds in his favor
sung a fainter praise down South (1864 image on 1902 book)
From the Richmond Daily Dispatch August 14, 1863:
Gen Grant.
Military merit is so rare among the Yankee Generals that we are not at all surprised by the excessive laudations poured upon the head of Gen. Grant. Nor shall we so far imitate the Yankees as to endeavor to underrate Gen. Grant because he is our enemy. We look upon him as one of the best of the Yankee Generals, though that does not prove him a Napoleon, or even Wellington. He is active, persevering, and brave, but we have yet to see any proof that he possesses the military genius of the great Confederate leader. There is this marked distinction between the long caresser of magnificent victories achieved by the Confederates in the East and the various successes of the Federal in the West: our battles were won by inferior numbers against tremendous odds — Grant’s always by tremendous odds against inferior numbers. It is needless to say which required the best generalship.
Nor have we ever put much faith in the Western notion that the Western Yankees are much superior to the rank and file of their Eastern army. There were plenty of the Western Yankees in the Federal army about Richmond, and they fought no better than the Eastern men, and could run, when necessary, quite as fast.
We have full faith in the superiority of our Generals, of our soldiers,–the best soldiers the world has ever seen,–and, above all, in that Providence which always decides the fate of battles, which has constantly rescued us at all vital points and in every decisive emergency, and which never deserts those who do not first desert themselves.
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