Adam Badeau, Military history of Ulysses S. Grant from April 1861 to April 1865. Volume 1

[294] wherever he met the foe; in both, this was accomplished by a celerity which left the enemy no time to recover from the effect of one blow before another fell; in both, the rapidity of the marching, and the unexpected novelty of the combinations, made the strategy more important than the fighting; in both, the results were still more remarkable than the manner of the achievements. Napoleon secured Genoa, and divided the kingdom of Sardinia from the Austrian alliance; while he created a new base for the splendid operations which speedily followed in Parma and Lombardy. Grant, besides the immediate successes of the campaign itself, won Vicksburg, opened the Mississippi river, and dealt the rebellion a blow from which it was destined never to recover.

Grant's disadvantages were enhanced by his unfamiliarity with the country, and by the broken, rugged nature of the hills, which gave the rebels innumerable and splendid opportunities for defence, of which they never failed to avail themselves. Every hillside was a fortification, every creek a ditch, every forest an abatis. Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, Champion's hill, and the Big Black—each battle illustrates this, and added to the losses and difficulties of the national commander. But Napoleon had more mobile and better-trained troops to contend with, and found the fastnesses of the Appenines as difficult as the ravines of Mississippi were to the American; so that their difficulties were probably equalized. Finally, although Napoleon had conquered a kingdom when he ended the campaign, he had still other states to master, which it took him a whole year to subdue; while Grant, too, was only ready to begin a