Lincoln, the unknown

186•LINCOLN THE UNKNOWNGrant held that the quick way and the only way to end thewar was to keep on killing Lee's men until Lee surrendered.What if two Northern soldiers were shot for every one theSouth lost? Grant could make up the wastage, but Lee couldn't.So Grant kept on blasting and snooting and slaying.In six weeks he lost 54,926 men—as many as Lee had in hisentire army.In one hour at Cold Harbor he lost seven thousand—a thousandmore than had been killed on both sides in three days duringthe Battle of Gettysburg.And what advantage was achieved by thisghastly loss?We shall let Grant himself answer the question: "None whatever."That was his estimate.The attack at Cold Harbor was the most tragic blunder of hiscareer.Such slaughter was more than human nerves and humanbodies could endure. It broke the morale of the troops; the rankand file of the army were on the verge of mutiny, and theofficers themselves were ready to rebel."For thirty-six days now," said one of Grant's corps commanders,"there has been one unbroken funeral procession pastme.Lincoln, broken-hearted though he was, realized that therewas nothing to do but keep on. He telegraphed Grant to "holdon with a bull dog grip and chew and choke." Then he issueda call for half a million more men, to serve from one to threeyears.The call staggered the country. The nation was plunged intoan abyss of despair."Everything now is darkness and doubt and discouragement,"one of Lincoln's secretaries recorded in his diary.On July 2 Congress adopted a resolution that sounded likethe lamentations of one of the Hebrew prophets of the OldTestament. It requested the citizens to "confess and repent oftheir manifold sins, implore the compassion and forgiveness ofthe Almighty, and beseech him as the Supreme Ruler of theworld not to destroy us as a people."Lincoln was being cursed now almost as violently in theNorth as in the South. He was denounced as a usurper, a traitor,a tyrant, a fiend, a monster, "a bloody butcher shouting war tothe knife and knife to the hilt, and crying for more victims forhis slaughter pens."