Our Standard-Bearer by Oliver Optic — Read

General Grant gained no immediate credit for his brilliant action at Belmont. The objects of the movement were not understood, and as the victorious army did not retain the position it had won, the general public regarded it as a defeat. The balance of injury was against the rebels, and in favor of the national arms. Grant gained all, and more than all, he intended. He had no occasion to be forgiven for Belmont. It was his first battle in the Rebellion, and the first of the unbroken line of victories he achieved which gladdened the heart of the nation from time to time.

Grant was always generous, even to magnanimity. His report of the battle bestows the warmest praise upon those who deserved it. There was none of that petty, sixpenny jealousy in his composition which belittled some other able generals, and which in a few instances seriously interfered with the progress of the Union arms. He had no occasion to decry others in order to magnify himself. He was willing to let his fame take care of itself. He did everything for the cause, nothing at all for himself. He was too magnanimous to mention the indiscretions of the officers who, through lack of experience, imperilled the day, for they were errors of the head, and not of the heart.