Let me give you one which came under my personal recollection: Some ten years ago I stopped one night at a hotel in Chicago, known as the Kuhn House. After registering, the proprietor sought me out. He had been one of Buell’s chief engineers, and upon seeing where I was from—Columbia, Tennessee—he wanted to know if the old bridge across Duck River at that point was still standing. “It was there,” he said, “that we saved Grant’s army and made him President instead of prisoner. I was given two days”—I think that is the time he stated—“to repair the bridge, the flooring of which had been torn up and the structure half burned before we reached it. But we had heard rumors of a great battle pending near Savannah and though we had received messages from General Grant saying there was no need for undue haste, we were marching for all we were worth. I felt, somehow, that great things were at stake, and I doubled my force and worked day and night completing the repairs so that the artillery might pass over in just half the time given me; and that time saved, put us in Savannah twelve hours to our good. I have often wondered what would have happened had I taken my full time to repair that old bridge over Duck River at Columbia.” Chance. Might-have-been! Tell me what they are and I will tell you what God is! Grant and Buell threshed out their differences years ago before they both passed into the shadowland, and nothing is more interesting than the grave and dignified controversy between these two men. Grant, great as he was in war, was out of his element with a pen in his hand; and in the written battle, Buell, to my mind, has worsted him. Nor was it Buell’s fault that this controversy arose. It came about from the exaggerated desire of the friends of the Army of the Tennessee to shield Grant and Sherman from the blunders they so clearly made and which should have been acknowledged by them like men, instead of trying to belittle the part that Buell played. For Buell had enough to his own credit. In his very able article in _The Century_, Buell demonstrates at least very clearly to his own mind: First. That Grant and Sherman were neglectful in preparing for this battle. Second. That Grant’s army was too badly scattered, and he, himself, too far away from the front when the battle opened. Third. That Grant and Sherman were surprised. Fourth. That they were whipped. Fifth. and (Q. E. D.) that Buell saved them. Here is Buell’s very succinct, graphic and convincing statement in the beginning of his paper and argued throughout with the greatest ability: