set his face against “elegant pastimes”
Many of the articles in the Seneca Falls public library notebook of Civil War clippings have the month and year handwritten in ink on them. The following has the complete date. From a Seneca County, New York newspaper on March 31, 1864:
An official order condensing the Army of the Potomac into three corps, and relieving certain General, seems to indicate that the long silence on the Rapidan may very soon be broken. Gen. Grant has set his face against reviews, soirees, and other elegant pastimes, and his initiatory steps clearly indicate that he supposes armies created for fighting and not for holiday parades and dancing.
As Shelby Foote recounted[1], there was some concern that the lion might succumb to the dangers of being lionized:
[Crowds cheered Grant at every railroad station as he traveled from Cincinnati to Washington, D.C. in late March]
Nor was there any slackening of the adulation at the end of the line. “General Grant is all the rage,” [William T.] Sherman heard from his senator brother John the following week. “He is subjected to the disgusting but dangerous process of being lionized. He is followed by crowds, and is cheered everywhere.” The senator was worried about the effect all this might have on the man at whom it was directed. “While he must despise the fickle fools who run after him, he, like most others, may be spoiled by this excess of flattery. He may be so elated as to forget the uncertain tenure upon which he holds and stakes his really well-earned laurels.” Sherman, though he was pleased to note that his brother added: “He is plain and modest, and so far bears himself well,” was quick to jump to his friend’s defense, wherein he coupled praise with an admonition. “Grant is as good a leader as we can find,” he replied. “He has honesty, simplicity of character, singleness of purpose, and no hope or claim to usurp civil power. His character, more than his genius, will reconcile armies and attach the people. Let him alone. Don’t disgust him by flattery or importunity. Let him alone.”
Civil War Daily Gazette has explained that General Meade actually implemented the corps consolidation.
Gen. George G. Meade and staff near Brandy Station, March 1864
- [1]Foote, Shelby. The Civil War, A Narrative. Vol. 3. Red River to Appomattox. New York: Random House, 1986. Print. page 21.↩
