Friday, November 09, 2007
GRANT MEMOIRS - 3
CHARACTER AND SINGLE-MINDED FOCUS ON A GOAL - 2
Then there were those who exemplified a weakness of character that deterred them from their goal. The pitfalls were usually some form of pride.
General Buell refused an assignment to duty because it would have placed him under Sherman and Canby whom he had outranked at one time. Grant commented, "The worst excuse a soldier can make for declining service is that he once ranked the commander he is ordered to report to."
It is known that Jefferson Davis had hoped to command the southern armies and considered himself a military strategist. Grant refers to one military move that was supposedly made due to Davis' insistence and commented, "On several occasions during the war he came to the relief of the Union army by means of his superior military genius." (emphasis in the original)
And there was Braxton Bragg who was quarrelsome and always looking for some slight or infringement on his rights and authority. "On one occasion...he was himself commanding one of the companies and at the same time acting as post quartermaster and commissary....As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermaster--himself--for something he wanted.
"As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for doing so. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right.
"So Bragg then referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post who responded, 'Mr. Bragg, you have quarrelled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarrelling with yourself!'"
Then there were those who exemplified a weakness of character that deterred them from their goal. The pitfalls were usually some form of pride.
General Buell refused an assignment to duty because it would have placed him under Sherman and Canby whom he had outranked at one time. Grant commented, "The worst excuse a soldier can make for declining service is that he once ranked the commander he is ordered to report to."
It is known that Jefferson Davis had hoped to command the southern armies and considered himself a military strategist. Grant refers to one military move that was supposedly made due to Davis' insistence and commented, "On several occasions during the war he came to the relief of the Union army by means of his superior military genius." (emphasis in the original)
And there was Braxton Bragg who was quarrelsome and always looking for some slight or infringement on his rights and authority. "On one occasion...he was himself commanding one of the companies and at the same time acting as post quartermaster and commissary....As commander of the company he made a requisition upon the quartermaster--himself--for something he wanted.
"As quartermaster he declined to fill the requisition, and endorsed on the back of it his reasons for doing so. As company commander he responded to this, urging that his requisition called for nothing but what he was entitled to, and that it was the duty of the quartermaster to fill it. As quartermaster he still persisted that he was right.
"So Bragg then referred the whole matter to the commanding officer of the post who responded, 'Mr. Bragg, you have quarrelled with every officer in the army, and now you are quarrelling with yourself!'"
