Charles Francis Adams to his son
London, June 24, 1864
General Grant shows one great quality of a commander. He makes himself felt by his enemy as well as by his own troops. This is one of the most important elements of success in warfare. The imagination has a vast power in upholding human force, or in knocking it away. The self reliance of the slaveholding rebel is the secret of the amount of his resistance thus far. He began the war with a full conviction that he was more than a match for half a dozen northern men. And in many instances that conviction acting against a feebler will made him what he thought himself. The progress of the war has done a good deal to correct these impressions. General Grant appears to be setting them right. The moment the rebel becomes convinced he has to do with a will stronger than his own, he will knock under, and not before. I have watched with a great deal of interest the gradual modifications in the tone of the Richmond newspapers since the first of May. Then, it was the most implicit faith in Lee’s power to drive any force of ours, however large, back to Washington. Now, it has got to the suggestion of prayers in their churches for the salvation of their Capital. The only cause of this change of tone is General Grant. If he will go on in the same line for a while longer, there is no telling what may be the state of mind to which he will bring them. Perhaps it might even get to that condition which marked the commander at Vicksburg on or about the early part of last July.
You ask me what has become of my affair. I have already hinted to you the result in a former letter. The party concerned failed from sheer blundering. Instead of abiding by the understanding as distinctly defined before your departure, he rushed into a position decidedly at variance with it, thus compelling a resort to measures on the part of the government which have, for the time at least, put an end to all progress. The party has now returned here without having ever reached his true destination. Events may yet favor the development of his scheme. At present I see no prospect of its turning up.
We are not without stirring events on this side too. The first is the naval conflict between the notorious Alabama and our steamer the Kearsarge. Practically this was a trial of skill between English guns and training, and American. If so, the result tells a singular tale. The Alabama fired more guns and oftener, within very short range. The Kearsarge did less but brought more to pass. Meanwhile our English friends are trying to make a hero of Captain Semmes. The animus of these people is not equivocal. . . .
