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THE 
 
 LIFE AND TRAVELS 
 
 OF 
 
 GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 This work is designed to furnish a complete account of the life and 
 remarkable public career of General Grant, and to take the reader with 
 him in his celebrated tour around the world. To look in upon the 
 splendors of royal courts to which he was everywhere so 
 cordially welcomed to view at leisure the greatest won 
 ders and richest beaulies of foreign lands to witness 
 the higli honors paid to this representative of the 
 United States of America, etc., etc., etc., etc. 
 BY 
 
 HON. J. T. HEADLEY, \* 7 / 
 
 Author of "Napoleon and his Marshals," " Washington and his Generals, 11 " Sherman 
 
 and his Campaigns" " Farragut and our Naval Commanders," "Sacred 
 
 Mountains" "Achievements of Sanley" etc., etc. 
 
 PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 HTTBBARD BROS., PHILADELPHIA, PA. ; SPBINGFIELD, MASS.; 
 
 CHICAGO, ILL.; CINCINNATI, OHIO: THOMAS PROTIIERO, EMPORIA, 
 
 KANSAS? A. L. BANCROFT & CO., SAW FRANCISCO, 
 
 CAI* : W. H. THOMPSON <fc CO., BOSTON, MASS. 
 
 1879. 
 

 
 COPYRIGHTED, 
 ACCORDING TO ACT OF CONGRESS, 
 
 WIHTIWO HOUM. 
 
13 dcteu>| g 
 
 put? 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 present work has been undertaken in the belief that a great 
 -L number of General Grant s friends desire to have his life, from his 
 boyhood up to the present time, in a cheap and compact form. The 
 people have a right to be informed of the principal events in the life 
 of a man to whom they are indebted for so much, and whom they 
 elected to be their Chief Magistrate. But this they cannot be 
 unless these events are put in a shape that places them within their 
 reach. The costly work, entitled "Around the World with Grant," 
 got up with so much elegance and taste, was not intended for the 
 great mass of the people, but for the select few who can indulge in 
 such luxuries. Leaving all such works to those who can afford it, 
 the great reading public desire, and are entitled to have, a careful 
 account, and within reasonable limits, of all the things they wish to 
 know about the foremost American of the age. In giving this, I have 
 been compelled, in a part of the work, to use, to a certain extent, the 
 letters of the Herald s correspondent. The first portion, however, is 
 taken up with Grant s remarkable career as a military man and 
 statesman, to which he only incidentally alludes. He, moreover, did 
 not accompany him in his European travels till the better part of them 
 was finished ; hence, I am indebted for my material for that portion 
 to foreign newspapers, and letter-writers, and my own notes of travel 
 in places which he visited, not to this correspondent. 
 
 In the Orient, however, I am indebted to those letters for nearly 
 everything relating to General Grant personally; but his tour was such a 
 hasty one, that, under any circumstances, he could get only a partial 
 glimpse of important places, and could but omit many objects that 
 give to them their attraction ; but this view was restricted still more, 
 
v jj[ PREFACE. 
 
 greatly to his regret and that of his friends, by so much of that 
 limited time being taken up with public receptions, and dinners, and 
 fetes, which he was compelled in courtesy to attend. Hence, the 
 correspondent has felt it to be his duty to fill up what was lacking 
 in personal observation, by resorting to the descriptions of other 
 travelers, in order that the reader may get an intelligent idea of 
 those places which he visited. 
 
 This was eminently proper and right, and I have taken the same 
 liberty, and used freely the information I have collected from other 
 travelers, and from the notes of friends. 
 
 Thus it will be seen that we occupy entirely different fields in part, 
 and where we work the same, do it in a different manner. There 
 is room and demand for both works, for, as we said, they appeal 
 to an entirely different class of purchasers, and, in a great measure, 
 to a different class of readers. 
 
 J. T. HEADLEY. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I LIFE. 
 
 Future greatness not always foreshadowed in the child Circumstances make 
 men Grant as a boy Anecdotes of him They illustrate the future man 
 Learns the tanner s trade Early self-reliance Confidence of his father in 
 him Outwits a horse-dealer Prediction of a phrenologist Grows up a 
 rough, uneducated youth Dissatisfied with his condition Obtains a cadet- 
 ship at West Point 23 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 His disadvantages as a cadet Career at West Point False stories of him 
 First year Second year Third year Popular with the cadets Graduates 
 No. 21 Made second lieutenant Sent to Missouri To Louisiana Accom 
 panies the army, under Taylor, to Texas Grant s first battle The flying 
 artillery War with Mexico Grant s regiment joins Scott s army at Vera 
 Cruz Made quarter-master of his regiment His bravery at Molino del Rey 
 Promoted on the spot Gallantry at Chapultepec Breveted captain Returns 
 home Married to Miss Dent Sent to Sackett s Harbor To California 
 To Oregon Dull life Resigns his commission Turns farmer Draws 
 wood to St. Louis to sell Collector of debts Anecdote of him A curious 
 meeting and reminiscence Becomes a partner of his father in the leather 
 business in Toledo- Apparently settled for life 33 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Outbreak of the civil war Grant offers his services to the government, which are 
 not accepted Tries to get on McClellan s staff Serves on Governor Yates s 
 staff Refuses to be brigadier-general Made colonel An amusing anecdote 
 Placed over Southern Missouri Proclamation to the citizens of Paducah 
 Answer to Polk, who proposes an exchange of prisoners Expedition against 
 Columbus Battle of Belmont Grant has ahorse killed under- him Letter to 
 hi* father Congratulates his troops The Cairo expedition Forbids the plun 
 dering of private property 45 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Grant asks leave to attack Fort Henry An expedition organized against it 
 Foote captures it with his gun-boats before Grant s arrival Great triumph 
 Grant resolves to move against Fort Donelson Description of the fort 
 Suffering of the soldiers from cold Foote attacks the fort Terrible artil 
 lery fight The gun-boats beaten off and Foote wounded Grant left alone 
 The enemy resolves to cut his way out A desperate assault McClernand 
 driven back Reinforced Grant hurries to the rescue Desperate assault of 
 Smith His gallantry The victory The night Singular scene in the fort 
 Escape of the rebel commanders The Sabbath morning A flag of truce 
 The surrender The army congratulated A scene of terror at Nashville 
 Results of the victory Grant congratulated and made major-general Hal- 
 leek s shameful persecution and falsehood Is compelled to back down 
 Grant given his old command The arrny at Pittsburgh Landing $8 
 
 ix 
 
x TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BATTLE OF SHILOH. 
 
 Position of the two armies Great carelessness The sudden attack The Union 
 forces beaten back Prisoners and cannon taken Grant hurries to the field 
 A disheartening spectacle Arrival of Buell A gloomy prospect Firing of 
 the gun-boats A halt ordered A terrible night The next morning The 
 enemy forced back Gallant act of Grant Correspondence between Beaure- 
 gard and Grant The field of battle next day Burial of the dead Grant 
 in disgrace Charges against him Ilalleck takes command in person His 
 slow progress Contemptuous treatment of Grant His failure Attempts to 
 deprive Grant of his command entirely His restoration His order Threats 
 against him Rosencranz at luka and Corinth 75 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Vicksburg impregnable Grant and Halleck Grant nearly superseded by 
 McClernand Cut off from his base of supplies A useful lesson not taught 
 in the schools Grant resolves to take Vicksburg Unhealthy encampment 
 Enlarging an old canal Grant has no confidence in it A government 
 scheme A disaster The enemy jubilant A new plan Its failure A third 
 plan to get in rear of Vicksburg Wilson s expedition Hard work A 
 second failure A fourth expedition, commanded by Admiral Porter, to get 
 around Vicksburg Grant s last desperate resolve Opposed by Sherman 
 Refuses to call a council of war Grand self-reliance Running the batte 
 ries A fearful spectacle The batteries passed McClernand s strange inac 
 tion A beautiful plantation becomes a scene of ruin Grant assumes com 
 mand of the advance 92 
 
 CHAPTER \ T II. 
 
 The great campaign begun Cuts loose from everything Attack on Grand 
 Gulf First failure The batteries run A lucky incident Across the river 
 at last Battle of Port Gibson Grand Gulf evacuated Grant s fate now in 
 his own hands He stands alone Sublime self-reliance His rapid orders 
 A gloomy prospect Turns his back on the Mississippi Consternation at 
 Washington A stirring proclamation Pushes rapidly inland Places him 
 self between two armies Cuts loose from his base of supplies Swift 
 orders McPherson moves inland Battle of Raymond Moves on Jackson 
 Battle Grant and his little son first enter the city The railroads destroyed 
 The enemy outwitted by his rapid movements A fortunate discovery A 
 perilous position Pemberton surprised Battle of Champion Hill The 
 pursuit Grant passes the night amid the rebel wounded and dying Battle 
 of Black River Gallantry of General Lawler The rebels driven into the 
 river Pemberton takes refuge in Vicksburg Grant s advance Vicksburg 
 invested Sherman s conference The work of twenty days m 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Description of the works at Vicksburg The assault The repulse Prepara 
 tions for a second assault A terrific spectacle The army hurled back a 
 second time Dead and wounded Grant prepares for a regular siege- 
 Grant s multiplied duties His foresight Progress of the siege Famine in 
 the place Friendly meeting of the outposts of the two armies Terrible ex 
 plosion of a mine Bravery of the troops Pemberton proposes an armistice 
 The two generals meet Grant refuses the terms proposed Calls a council 
 of his officers Rejects their decision Dictates his own terms The sur- 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. X J 
 
 render Greatness of the victory Meeting of Grant and Pemberton Rude- 
 ness of the latter Grant visits the fleet Great enthusiasm Sends Sherman 
 against Jackson Honors conferred on Grant Rejoicing of the people 134 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Grant and the colored troops Wishes to move on Mobile Strange opposition 
 of Lincoln and Halleck Grant in New Orleans Thrown from his horse 
 and disabled Placed over the whole valley of the Mississippi Ordered to 
 Chattanooga Puts Thomas in place of Rosencranz His dispatch to the 
 former The answer Starts for Chattanooga Terrible roads His arrival 
 in a rain-storm Sad condition of the army Communication opened with 
 Nashville The aspect of affairs changed Burnside at Knoxville threat 
 ened Sherman s march Grant s exckement Importance of holding Chat 
 tanooga^ Anxious for Burnside Arrival of Sherman The battle-field sur 
 veyed Painful delays Grant impatient Description of the battle-field 
 Sherman and Hooker The night before the battle Final charge The 
 pursuit Sherman sent to relieve Burnside Grant congratulates the army 149 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Grant made lieutenant-general His letter to Sherman The reply of the 
 latter Grant called to Washington Meets the president and cabinet Lin 
 coln s address on giving him his commission Grant s reply A striking 
 contrast Honors fairly won The vast field of operations before him His 
 first object Grant and Halleck contrasted Grant s illustration of how the 
 war had been carried on His own plan of prosecuting it His directions to 
 Sherman The difficulties in carrying out his plan Final determination 
 Public expectation The army stuck in the mud General disappointment 
 Lee sees the gathering storm and appoints a day of fasting and prayer in his 
 army Strength of the opposing forces * 176 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The grand army starts for Richmond An imposing spectacle Grant s plan 
 Lee s watchfulness Crossing the Rapidan Encamped on the border of the 
 wilderness Lee s skillful plan of attack The battle of the wilderness 
 Description of the wilderness Grant and Lee both reinforced The field of 
 death The night Second day s battle Second night Grant and staff 
 sleep on the field Lee retires behind his works Grant attempts to reach 
 Spottsylvania Swift marching Lee reaches it first Warren s attack Han 
 cock s splendid assault 4,000 prisoners taken Grant again foiled Changes 
 his base March to North Anna Lee reaches it first March to Chicka- 
 hominy Battle of Cold Harbor Desperate fighting Beaten back March 
 to the James River Attack on Petersburg Its failure Review of the cam 
 paign 187 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE SIEGE OF RICHMOND. 
 
 Grant attempts to destroy the railroads leading into Richmond Disasters in 
 the Shenandoah Valley Alarm at Washington Firmness of the president- 
 Unpleasant position of Grant His letter to Washburne A bold but needed 
 measure Opposes Sheridan s wish to bring on a decisive battle Visits him 
 in person Consents Defeat of Early Sheridan s army surprised and de 
 feated Rallied by him and led to victory A daring attempt to cut off 
 
x jj TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Grant s supplies A lucky accident Sherman s success McPherson s 
 death Gram s grief when he heard of it His letter to the grandmother- 
 Sherman s plan to march to the Atlantic Grant s opinion of it His wonder 
 ful forecast Grant anxious to have Thomas attack Wood The latter 
 
 Delays His victory over him Sherman in Savannah Proposes to march 
 
 north and join Grant His request finally granted Scott s anaconda Ex 
 pedition against Mobile The army no longer "a balky team" Raid of 
 Sheridan Consternation at Richmond Dangers thicken around Lee 204 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Letter from the President Grant s reply Visit of the President and Sher 
 man Grant s orders to Sherman His great fear that Lee will try to escape 
 Furious attack of Lee Temporary success Sheridan sent to cut off Lee s 
 supplies Orders countermanded, and a final battle resolved upon Victory 
 at Five Forks Lee s feelings Final assault The Rebel works carried 
 Ignorance of the disaster in Richmond Sabbath in the Capital Davis 
 receives the news while in church His feelings A quiet scene Spread of 
 the news Excitement and terror of the people Scene in the Council-cham 
 ber Lawless violence in the streets A frightful spectacle Playing of the 
 regimental bands The city on fire The scene in the morning Forty 
 Union troopers enter it Terror of the people Description by a lady The 
 retreat and pursuit The last hope The end come Meeting of Grant and 
 Lee The surrender A momentous Palm Sunday Public rejoicing Last 
 grand review of the army PEACE 219 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Grant s views of reconstruction Protects Lee Secures the pardon of Rebels 
 Reception in New Yprk Visits the Sanitary Fair at Chicago Enthusiasm 
 of the people Grant s speech Given an ovation in New York Visits the 
 South Reception in Charleston Reception by the leather dealers of New 
 York Presents given him Appointed Secretary of War, ad interim His 
 great ability His resignation Assailed by the President Rebukes Han 
 cock for placing the military over the civil authority of New Orleans Is 
 elected President Difficulties of his position His freedom from all desire 
 to retaliate on the South His honesty and firmness Civil service reform 
 The St. Domingo affair Placing the troops in Louisiana Moving troops 
 toward Washington when the Electoral Commission met His own declara 
 tion of honesty of purpose Difficulty with Spain Alabama Claims His 
 last advice to the country Refuses to run for a third term 236 
 
 CHAPTER I.-TRAVELS. 
 
 General Grant resolves to visit Europe and obtain rest England discusses how 
 to receive him His departure The voyage A deputation from Ireland 
 waits on him His reception at Liverpool His reception by the Mayor Ex 
 amines the docks and visits other principal places of interest Lunches with 
 the mayor and goes to Manchester His reception His first long speech 
 Tour of the place Enthusiasm of the people Factory girls honoring him 
 Reception at Leicestershire At Bedford Arrival in London Introduction 
 to the Prince of Wales The Duke of Wellington gives him a banquet An 
 unceremonious reception by the Prince of Wales Civilities of the queen 
 Description of entertainments by ladies Private letter of Grant The free 
 dom of the city of London given him His speech A private dinner Fire 
 works Humor of Grant Banquet by Trinity College Visits the queen at 
 Windsor Castle Receives a deputation of workingmen A banquet at the 
 United Service Club Din.ier at Liverpool 3 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. x [[[ 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A run to the Continent Reception at Ostend Visits Ghent Arrives at 
 Brussels The king of Belgium calls on him Gives him a banquet Goes 
 to Cologne A sail up the Rhine The castellated Rhine Wiesbaden 
 Humorous description of its hot springs Frankfort-on-the-Main Ham 
 burg Les Bains The Roman camp Opening a grave 2000 years old 
 Dinner of the grand duke The black forest Baden Switzerland Inter- 
 lachen Geneva Lays the corner-stone of a church Grant s speech at 
 lunch The vale of Chamouni The Alps The Simplon pass Reception 
 at Lake Maggiore Speech Visits northern Italy Resting at Ragatz 
 Alsace and Lorraine Visits Scotland Presented with the freedom of the 
 city of Edinburgh His speech Visits celebrated spots The Tay bridge 
 His opinion of hand-shaking Visits the Duke of Sutherland Reception 
 at Thurso Castle Glasgow presents him with the freedom of the city 
 Interesting ceremonies The home of Burns Guest of the Duke of Argyle - 
 Pleasant intercourse 4! 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Grant visits the manufacturing and rural districts of England Grand ovation 
 on Newcastle Moor An English description of Grant He visits Sunder- 
 land Sheffield His opinion on free trade A great iron plate rolled in his 
 presence Description of it Visits Shakespeare s home and Anne Hathaway s 
 cottage, Leamington Reception in Burmingham Grant s speech Visits 
 Brighton One side of England that Grant did not see Its suffering 
 masses 60 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Grant visits Paris Calls on MacMahon The American colony He makes 
 his home with it Sight-seeing A dinner and brilliant reception by the 
 American minister Interviewed by a French reporter Dinner by the 
 American residents Time passing pleasantly Brilliant fete given by Mrs. 
 Mackay Paris never gayer Grant embarks for the Mediterranean Gib 
 raltar Africa The Bay of Naples Cold weather Castle of San Martin 
 Ascent of Vesuvius 7 5 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 General Grant starts for Egypt Enters on new scenes Alexandria His re 
 ception Meets Stanley Wanders through the city His photograph taken 
 Starts for Cairo Meets old West Point schoolmates Interview with the 
 Khedive The pyramids Up the Nile Run aground Life on the river 
 Meeting of friends Siout Dinner at the consul s American missionaries 
 
 . Sweet repose Girgel and friends Abydos A poor horse Arab boys 
 
 and donkeys The journey The ruins Their antiquity Digging for the 
 tomb of a god Grant climbs to the sitting-room of King Menes Dinner in 
 the ruins no 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Ancient Thebes The wonder of the world Luxor Reception of Grant 
 A sombre view A Yankee manufacturing relics for sale English barbar 
 ism The temple The statue of Memnon Donkey boys and water girls 
 Mrs. Grant s interference to protect the latter The singing statue The 
 temple of Medeemet Grant a nimble climber The king s private room 
 A lunch in the ruined sanctuary Mrs. Grant s vain attempt to pay off the 
 water girls A state dinner Jesse Grant teaches the minstrels Karnae 
 The great temple A wilderness of ruins Grant and his party photographed 
 among them Grant a fast traveler Kench Home-life of the people 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 A stupid interview with the pasha Visit to the German consul A beautiful 
 description of daily life Anonan Nubia A coal-black governor in Parisian 
 coslume Mrs. Grant bargains for some ostrich feathers A curious scene 
 A visit to Philadelphia A noble horse Philadelphia Oziris and Isis 
 Egyptian mythology The return Memphis Cairo 132 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Grant starts for Jerusalem Jaffa The house of Simon the tanner Plain of 
 Sharon An uncomfortable night Grant in the rain Kiyath Jearim 
 Jerusalem A public reception Grant s disappointment Too much atten 
 tion The road to Mount Calvary Garden of Gethsemane Bethany 
 Jacob s well Nazareth Damascus A second paradise Visits Constanti 
 nople Mr. Layard s reception Mosque of St. Sophia Achmet Dogs of 
 the city Sera Scutari A wonderful history The sultan presents Grant 
 two beautiful Arab steeds Golden Horn Greece Reception by the king 
 Beautiful women Athens Its sights and mins The Acropolis Illumina 
 tion of the Parthenon in honor of Grant A grand spectacle Battle 
 fields Grant starts for Rome 16* 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 In Rome Grant visits the Colosseum View from its top The ancient capi 
 tal St. Peter s Sight-seeing Private invitations Dines with the king 
 Receired by the Pope The road to Florence Florence Uffizi Palace 
 The Pitti Gallery Ducal Palace Character of the people A convenient 
 custom Pisa Venice Its origin Its gondolas Bridges Pleasant sights 
 Gondola sailing The arsenal Journey to Milan The city Its wonder 
 ful Cathedral Painting of the Lord s Supper Starts for Paris A great 
 change The National Exhibition Starts for Northern Europe Holland 
 The Hague A grand review Lunches with the king s uncle Rotter 
 dam Amsterdam A magnificent dinner by the leading merchants The 
 great ship canal Starts for Berlin 192 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Grant at Berlin Calls on Gortschakoff The European Congress Calls on Bis 
 marck The interview A talk about Sheridan Interchange of views about 
 the attempt to assassinate the emperor Grant s opinion of Communism prin 
 ciples, and the way he would deal with assassins Dinner of the American 
 minister Review of the Prussian army in a rain-storm Grant s opinion of 
 the bayonet as a weapon Lunch with Prince Hohenzollern Dinner with 
 Bismarck Interesting conversation 219 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Grant at Hamburg The city Waited upon by the Senate A trip on the 
 Elbe A quiet Fourth of July dinner Speech of Grant Dinner of the 
 merchant princes Attends the races Copenhagen Enthusiastic reception 
 at Guttenbcrg Christiania Strong drink of Norway and Sweden A primi 
 tive journey into the Northern country A jolly ride Peasant life Invited 
 by King Oscar to the royal palace Stockholm Peasants of Dalecarlia 231 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Grant starts for Spain Biarritz San Sebastian Tolosa Journey to Vittoria 
 Interview with Castclar Vittoria Interview with the king A frank con- 
 Tersation Approach to Madrid The royal palace The Escurial Grant 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. xv 
 
 witnesses the attempt to assassinate Alfonso Portugal The royal family 
 The king s father s second wife a Bostonian lady Interview with 
 the king Visits Don Fernando s Palace at Cintra The king an au 
 thor Offers Grant the Grand Cross of the Tower, and Sword of 
 Cordova Its great Cathedral Seville Its gay people Their loose morals 
 The Alcazar Government tobacco factory A contrast The Exchange 
 The Cathedral Sherry-wine Cadiz Its beautiful women Gibraltar Lord 
 Napier s hospitality Review of troops Gibraltar as the key to the Mediter 
 ranean Visits Pau Asked to take part in a fox-hunt A public dinner 
 Returns to England Visits Ireland Reception at Dublin Given the free 
 dom of the city A grand banquet Grant s speech Insolence of Cork 
 Visits Derby Enthusiasm of the people Visits Belfast His reception 
 Sees but one side of Ireland. 257 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Grant starts for India Crossing the desert by railroad Suez on the Red Sea 
 Aden On the Indian Ocean The voyage Reception in Bombay Descrip 
 tion of the people Servants the Parsees Burning the dead Hospital for 
 animals Public dinners A visit to the Parsee school Grant views Bombay 
 Cave of Elephanta Reception of the Parsees Journey to Agra Bhurtpoor 
 The mahrajah Grant lodged in an old palace Jumping men Agra 
 - Pearl mosque The Taj The most beautiful building in the world Its ap 
 pearance by moonlight A farewell dinner Departure for Delhi Re 
 ceived by troops under arms Description of Delhi A ride through it The 
 tomb of Hameyun Delhi in the mutiny Heroic deeds The Prince of 
 Wales visit Palace of the Grand Mogul His throne The Peacock Throne.. 281 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Visit to Jeypoor School of industry Visits the tigers The royal stables 
 The palace Audience of the mahrajah A Nautch dance A game of 
 billiards with the mahrajah An Oriental leave-taking Col. Grant has a 
 boar hunt Lucknow Cawnpoor A horrible massacre A ghastly specta 
 cle A fearful oath of vengeance Havelock relieves the garrison at Luck- 
 now A touching scene Allahabad, the city of God Pilgrims bathing 
 Benares the holy city A strange stroll through it Funeral pyres Hindoo- 
 ism The three capitals of India Reception at Calcutta A picnic on the 
 Hoogly The scavengers of Calcutta Original mode of sprinkling streets 
 Burham Reception at Rangoon The great Pagoda Character of the king 
 Hindoo caste Buddhism Elephants loading and unloading vessels 
 Rangoon 313 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Grant visits Siam An insignificant kingdom Letter from the king to General 
 Grant The Gulf of Siam Anniversary of the surrender of Lee Sleeping 
 on deck A surprise Vexatious delay at the mouth of the port A misera 
 ble night The king s representative comes on board The royal letter A 
 narrow escape The sail to Bangkok Appearance of the city and river 
 The Great Pagoda Reception Interview with the regent Audience with 
 the second and first kings A state dinner The king expresses a warm friend 
 ship for General Grant Description of the city Religion of the Siamese 
 A descriptive letter An account by an American traveler Siamese climate, 
 and scenery, and people Its grand Pagoda Wealth of Siam Ceremonies 
 attending child-birth and marriage Cremation of a royal personage Influ 
 ence of missionaries 355 
 
xv i TABLE OF CONTEXTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Reception at Penang Grant s views of Chinese emigration Starts for Canton 
 Arrival at Canton Visit to the viceroy A Chinese proclamation The 
 American king Is carried in a green chair to the prince regent s The pro 
 cession and the crowd Its striking appearanceOpinions of the American 
 barbarians The reception The departure Curious names of the streets A 
 lunch with the missionaries A state dinner at the viceroy s Macao Grotto 
 of Camoens Return to Hong Kong Swattow A curious present Amoy 
 Reception there Interview with the British Minister to Peking Reception 
 on board an American vessel Letters from the king of Siam The viceroy 
 King of the Sandwich Islands Reception in Shanghai Torchlight proces 
 sion Traveling in wheelbarrows Tien-tsin Up the river to Peking Hong 
 Chow Grant Carried to Peking in an imperial chair Entrance to Peking 
 
 Card of the prince regent 3^9 
 
 * 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 A visit to the prince regent An interesting interview The English Univer 
 sity Address of a Chinese youth in English The prince regent returns 
 Grant s visit Is asked to mediate between China and Japan A striking 
 
 ?icture Description of the city Returns to Tien-tsin Visit of the viceroy 
 )iscusses with Grant the Chinese question Japan and the Loochoo Islands 
 Grant s views of the Presidency A parting dinner A radical innovation 
 The final departure and leave-taking A impressive scene The last words 
 of Grant 4" 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Grant determines to visit the Great Wall of China Various plans of going 
 Resolves to take the trip by sea Takes the " Richmond" First sight of the 
 Wall Its appearance Return trip Reception at Chefoo Entrance to 
 Nagasaki Grand reception The jinrikshaw A State dinner Speech of 
 General Grant The citizens give him a grand dinner after the fashion of the 
 old Damios A curious bill of fare Fire-works and illumination Singing 
 girls The scenery Drive home 459 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Tokio or Yedo Landing in Vokohama Arrival at Tokio Address to General 
 Grant His response A refinement of courtesy The Fourth of July the day 
 he was received by the emperor Drive to the Imperial Palace Description 
 of it Japanese cabinet The emperor and empress General Grant s reply 
 Address of the empress to Mrs. Grant The latter s response Fourth of July 
 celebration Speech of Mr. Uingham Reply of General Grant Illumina 
 tion Review of the Japanese army An Imperial breakfast A private in 
 terview between Grant and the emperor 481 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The home set apart for General Grant Description of the palace Its gardens 
 Grant s daily life here Palace economies Summer houses Courtesies 
 and ceremonies An earthquake Introduction of the cholera The em 
 peror takes breakfast with General Grant Talk about Japan A representa 
 tive government European policy in the East Statesmanlike views of 
 Grant--The questions of Foo-Choo Education in Japan Grant as a peace 
 maker... 502 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS. v ; 
 
 A. Vll 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Mode of traveling in Japan A ride through the city A trip into the interior 
 Colossal image of Buddha Fleet two-legged horses Tea-house The royal 
 road to Japan A new mode of transportation Description of the people 
 Fusiyama A queer ride through the streets of Tokio Great changes in 
 Japan in the last quarter of a century Extent of the empire Customs of 
 the people Honest beggars America cannot keep out of the Eastern 
 question $18 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 General Grant resolves to leave Japan Where shall he go ? Plans proposed 
 Preparing for home Purchasing souvenirs Custom-House apprehensions 
 Homesickness General Grant and Mr. Iwakura Politics Memoirs of the 
 beautiful Memories of the ancient days Working in clay An earthquake. 532 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A dinner with the prime minister A Japanese dinner Farewell hospitalities 
 Martial songs Dinner with Prince Dati Trip to his house A pleasant 
 time American hospitalities Grand party at the consulate Taking leave 
 of the mikado The audience of leave Address of General Grant, and the 
 emperor s reply Mrs. Grant and the empress Mr. Bingham thanks the mi 
 kado The last night in Tokio Last conversations Farewell to Tokio 
 Farewell to Japan Parting adieus 552 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Grand reception of General Grant at San Francisco Magnificent display An 
 exciting scene Ovation at the hotel Reception of the citizens at the mayor s 
 office Visits the Produce Exchange Lunches with General McDowell 
 Reception of a Chinese deputation Grant s speech Reception at Oakland 
 Attends the fair at Santa Clara His reception 579 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Frontispiece, Portrait of General Grant, Steel. 
 
 Home of Grant s Childhood Full Page 28 
 
 Fort Sumter 46 
 
 General George B. McClellan 47 
 
 Pontoon Bridge at Paducah 51 
 
 Transports for Landing Troops 52 
 
 Abatis 53 
 
 Andrew H. Foote 59 
 
 Foote s Flotilla 59 
 
 Interior of Fort Henry 60 
 
 Grant s Head-Quarters 63 
 
 Water Battery 65 
 
 Surrender of Fort Donelson Full Page 70 
 
 Pittsburgh Landing 76 
 
 Shiloh Meeting-House 76 
 
 Grant and Sherman at Shiloh Full Page 78 
 
 Pickets on Duty 83 
 
 Removing the Wounded 86 
 
 Corinth after the Evacuation 88 
 
 View Showing the Site of the Canal 94 
 
 Dredging Machine 95 
 
 Removing Obstructions 99 
 
 The Carondelet , 101 
 
 Battle-Ground near Jackson 122 
 
 Rifle-Pits 123 
 
 Grant Entering the Capital of Mississippi Full Page 125 
 
 Grant s Head-Quarters at Vicksburg 136 
 
 Cave-Life in Vicksburg 140 
 
 The Surrender 6f Vicksburg Full Page 143 
 
 Monument at Vicksburg 144 
 
 George H. Thomas 152 
 
 Head-Quarters of Thomas 154 
 
 Block-House at Chattanooga 158 
 
 Missionary Ridge 162 
 
 Slope of Lookout Mountain 164 
 
 Redoubt on Lookout Mountain 165 
 
 Philip H. Sheridan 171 
 
 Grant s Head-Quarters at Chattanooga 174 
 
 Winfield Scott 176 
 
 xviii 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 A.1A. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Grant Receiving his Commission as Lieutenant- General .................. Full Page 179 
 
 General George G. Meade ................................................................... 18}. 
 
 General Robert E. Lee ......................................................................... 189 
 
 Grant s Head-Quarters in the Wilderness ............................................... 196 
 
 Sheridan s Ride at Winchester ................................................ 1-ull Page 211 
 
 Interior of Fort Steadman .................................................................... 220 
 
 The Surrender of Lee ..................................................... ........ Full Page 232 
 
 Grant Medals ..................................................................................... 233 
 
 Andrew Johnson. ............................................................................. 240 
 
 Senate Chamber ................................................................................. 24 1 
 
 The Prince of Wales .......................................................................... 10 
 
 Westminster Abbey ................................................................. Full Page 1 4 
 
 Presenting the Freedom of London ............................................ Full Page 19 
 
 Banquet with the Lord Mayor ..................................... , ............. Full Page 25 
 
 Interior of Trinity College ................................................................... 27 
 
 Prince Albert Memorial ........................................................... ///// Page 28 
 
 General Grant entertained by Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle ........ / //// Page 31 
 
 Throne Room .................................................................................... 34 
 
 Buckingham Palace ............................................................... Full Page 35 
 
 Epping Forest ................................................................................... 37 
 
 Horticultural Garden ........................................................ ..... Full Page 39 
 
 Coblentz. .......................................................................................... 42 
 
 On the Rhine ................................................................................ 43 
 
 Ancient Castle ........................................ ....................................... 44 
 
 Deserted Castle .................................................................................. 44 
 
 Alpine Peaks ................................................................................... 48 
 
 Peasant Life in Switzerland. .................................................... Full Page 49 
 
 Village among the Alps,, ........................ ............................................. 5 
 
 Rural Scene in Italy .......................................................... .................. 5 2 
 
 Edinburgh Castle ................................................................................ 54 
 
 Costume of Scotch Highlander .............................................................. 58 
 
 Oxford as you approach ........................................................................ 64 
 
 Anne Hathaway s Cottage .................................................................... 65 
 
 Warwick Castle ................................................................................... 66 
 
 Penhurst Church ................................................................................. 67 
 
 English Mill ...................................................................................... 68 
 
 Briggate the Five Points of London ................................. .................... 7 2 
 
 Marshal McMahon .............................................................................. /6 
 
 Garden of the Tuilleries ......................................... .............................. 77 
 
 Place de la Concorde .......................................................................... 7^ 
 
 Pont des Arts ..................................................................................... 80 
 
 Versailles ......................................................................... ..... Full Page Si 
 
 The Petit Trianon ............................................................. . .................. 82 
 
 Temple of Love ................................................................................ 82 
 
 The Queen s Swiss Cottage ................................................................... 83 
 
 The Farm-House .............................................................................. 84 
 
 The Dairy ......................................................................................... 84 
 
 The Gallery of Malmaison ..................................... ............................... 85 
 
 Bed-Chamber of Josephine ................................................................... 86 
 
 Tomb of Napoleon ............................................................................. 9 2 
 
 Palace of the Luxembourg .................................................................... 93 
 
 Tower of St. Jacques .......................................................................... 94 
 
 Crater of Vesuvius .............................................................................. 9 5 
 
 Pompeiian Ruins ....................................... . ...................................... Io:) 
 
 House of Diomede.... ............................................................... Io1 
 
xx LIST OF JL L US TRA TIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Forum of Justice 102 
 
 Stromboli 107 
 
 Malta full Page 108 
 
 Bas-Relief of Cleopatra in 
 
 Irrigating Machine on the Nile 116 
 
 Pyramid and Sphinx Full Page 1 17 
 
 The Queen s Chamber 1 18 
 
 Interior of the Pyramid 119 
 
 The Arab Captain 1 20 
 
 A Nile Dahabeeah 122 
 
 Hassan 126 
 
 Thebes , Full Page 133 
 
 View of the Ruins 134 
 
 Ruined Temple 1 35 
 
 Ruined Gateway at Karnac 136 
 
 Entrance to the Temple 137 
 
 Statues of Memnon 140 
 
 Avenue of Sphinxes 143 
 
 Egyptians of the Better Class 147 
 
 Palm-Tree 150 
 
 Head of First Cataract 154 
 
 Egyptian Lady 155 
 
 Alexandria 163 
 
 View of Jerusalem Full Page 1 66 
 
 Modern Bethlehemites Full Page 169 
 
 Church of the Holy Sepulchre 1 70 
 
 Gethsemane 171 
 
 Bethany 172 
 
 Nazareth 175 
 
 Mosque of St. Sophia 179 
 
 Interior of Mosque of St. Sophia 180 
 
 Sultan s new Palace 182 
 
 Grant s Arabian Stallions, presented by the Sultan of Turkey Full Page 183 
 
 Marble Staircase in the Palace 185 
 
 The Golden Horn 187 
 
 The Parthenon Full Page 188 
 
 Rome Full Page 193 
 
 Pamfili Doria Villa Fuii Page 195 
 
 Palace of the Caesars 196 
 
 Guid o s Beatrice de Cenci 1 98 
 
 Florence Full Page 199 
 
 Venus de Medici Full Page 201 
 
 An Italian Garden Full Page 204 
 
 Rialto Bridge 205 
 
 Pisa Full Page 207 
 
 Venice Full Page 209 
 
 Ferro Palace Full Page 21 1 
 
 Milan Full Page 213 
 
 Emperor of Germany : 220 
 
 Interview with Prince Bismarck 221 
 
 Prince Von Otto Bismarck 224 
 
 Prince Gortschakoff. 240 
 
 Winter Palace of the Imperial Family Full Page 242 
 
 Art Gallery, St. Petersburg Full Page 245 
 
 Chateau De Peterhoff. Full Page 247 
 
 Russian Post- House 248 
 
 Russian Peasants 249 
 
 View of the Kremlin 250 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wine- Press ........................................................................................ 255 
 
 Court of Lyons, Alhambra Palace ........................................................... 264 
 
 A Moorish Lady .................................................................... Full Page 206 
 
 Rural Festivities ................................................................................ 269 
 
 Grafton Street, Dublin ........................................................................... 274 
 
 Banqueting- Room ............................................................................ 275 
 
 Custom-House, Dublin ......................................................................... 277 
 
 Parsee of Bombay ............................................................................ 286 
 
 Hindoo Temple ......................... . ......... ................................... Full Page 289 
 
 Sacred Cow of India ........................................................................... 290 
 
 Town Hall, Bombay .......................................................................... 291 
 
 Cave of Elephanta ................................................................. Full Page 295 
 
 Agra ........................ ........................................................................ 298 
 
 The Marble Palace ............................................................................. 299 
 
 The Taj Mahal ....................................................................... Full Page 301 
 
 Interior of the Taj The Tombs ........................................................... 303 
 
 Main Entrance to Delhi ..................................................................... 306 
 
 The Kootub Minor ................................................................. Full Page 307 
 
 Indian Porter ................................................................................... 309 
 
 Indian Soldier ................................ ................................................... 311 
 
 NautchGirl ...................................................................................... 316 
 
 Indian Musicians ................................................................... Full Page 3 1 7 
 
 Mahrajah of Benares ......................................................................... 318 
 
 Buddhist Garden .................................................................... Full Page 32 1 
 
 A Harem Scene ................................................................................. 325 
 
 Memorial Chapel ................................................................... Full Page 326 
 
 Sedan Chair ..................................................................................... 331 
 
 Goddess Kali ................................................................................. 332 
 
 Scenes on the Ganges .......................................................................... 333 
 
 Buddhist Funeral Urn .......................................................................... 334 
 
 Buddhist Car of Juggernaut ................................................................ 336 
 
 Banyan, or Sacred Tree of India ............................................................ 339 
 
 Surf at Madras .................................................................................. 341 
 
 Rangoon .......................................................................................... 342 
 
 View of the PagodasEagle Hill ............................................ Full Page 345 
 
 Cenotaph Memorial to the dead ............................................................. 349 
 
 Temple of 500 Gods ......................................................................... 350 
 
 Type of the Lower Class .......................................... ........................... 352 
 
 View of Bangkok ............................................................................. 361 
 
 Present Second King ................................................ ......................... 370 
 
 Reigning First King ........................................................................... 370 
 
 A Son of the First King ........ ......................................................... 371 
 
 The Great Tower ....... ................. ........................................... l-ull Page 379 
 
 A few of the Sons of the late First King ............................................... 382 
 
 Building for Incremation of a Royal Personage .......................... Full Page 384 
 
 Grant carried in the Royal Chair Eight bearers ........................... Full Page 393 
 
 Chinese Smoking-Room .................................................................... 396 
 
 Illuminations ....................................................................................... 400 
 
 Custom-House, Shanghai .......................................................... /// Page 402 
 
 Chinese Punishment ............................................................................ 403 
 
 Tien-tsin ............................................................................................ 404 
 
 Chinese Teacher in winter costume ...... .................................................... 420 
 
 Chinese Play ......................................................................................... 434 
 
 Chinese Soldiers ................................................................................... 436 
 
 Chinese Image of Bud ......................................................................... 437 
 
 Chinese Bonze (Priest) .......................................................................... 438 
 
 Chinese Fruit Seller .................................................................. Full Page 439 
 
 Interpreter ........................................................................................ 441 
 
xx |[ LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Chinese Fishing 443 
 
 Chinese Sale of Prayers 453 
 
 Gong in a Chinese Temple 455 
 
 Chinese Trading Junk 461 
 
 Grand Canal, Yedo Full Page 483 
 
 Royal Carriage Japan 487 
 
 Japanese Soldiers 488 
 
 Japanese House of the Better Class Full Page 519 
 
 Japanese Street 520 
 
 Japanese Bed 524 
 
 High Priest 535 
 
 Native of Nagasaki 553 
 
 Japanese Minister s Dinner 554 
 
 Japanese Musicians 561 
 
 The "City of Tokio" entering the Golden Gate Full Page 583 
 
 .Grand Reception at San Francisco Full Page 587 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FUTURE GREATNESS NOT ALWAYS FORESHADOWED IN THE CHILD CIRCUMSTANCES 
 MAKE MEN GRANT AS A BOY ANECDOTES OF HIM THEY ILLUSTRATE THE 
 FUTURE MAN LEARNS THE TANNER S TRADE EARLY SELF-RELIANCE CONFI 
 DENCE OF HIS FATHER IN HIM OUTWITS A HORSE-DEALER PREDICTION OF A 
 PHRENOLOGIST GROWS UP A ROUGH, UNEDUCATED YOUTH DISSATISFIED WITH 
 HIS CONDITION OBTAINS A CADETSHIP AT WEST POINT. 
 
 A LTHOUGH we are always more or less desirous 
 / \ to know something of the childhood of a great 
 T 1 man, researches in that direction are, for the 
 
 most part, barren of any valuable results. It is true, 
 that a great scholar, or man of science, or an inventor, 
 is generally more or less foreshadowed in his boyhood. 
 Peculiar natural gifts must come with our birth, and will 
 develop themselves in some form even in early life, 
 although they are much enlarged and strengthened by 
 active use. But the greatness that is developed by 
 circumstances will never be known unless those peculiar 
 circumstances arise. There are many men who live and 
 die in obscurity that would have made greater rulers and 
 kings than most of those who have become more or less 
 famous. But for our Revolutionary War, Washington 
 might have been only a county judge, and, perhaps, gover 
 nor of his State, and yet in those offices exhibited no more 
 capacity than a hundred others whose names are forgot 
 ten. This was the case with Grant ; under the ordinary 
 stimulants to action, and occupied with the common 
 duties of life, pursuing its monotonous avocations, he 
 would not have distinguished himself; nay, would have 
 been, in fact, outdistanced by men of small abilities and 
 
2 . LIFE OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 weak intellectual force. There are many better farmers 
 than he was, his father was a better tanner and 
 business man. But for our civil war, Grant would not 
 only have been unheard of out of the limited circle of his 
 acquaintance, but doubtless have lived and died as 
 rather a medium man, with but little aptitude for busi 
 ness. It is true, there are certain mental and moral 
 characteristics that exhibit themselves early, and cling to 
 a man through life. A noble spirit, a love of truth and 
 uprightness, great stubbornness and tenacity of purpose 
 that characterize the man are generally exhibited in the 
 boy. Great cruelty, a revengeful temper and a low, 
 mean spirit, if exhibited in mature life, can be traced 
 more or less distinctly in the boy. So Grant s firmness of 
 purpose and stubborn will, and determination that noth 
 ing could shake, which constituted such an important ele 
 ment in his military success, cropped out frequently in 
 his childhood. The dogged perseverance with which he 
 pursued a difficult task, when a child, and which was, 
 perhaps, called obstinacy, showed itself when confronted 
 by impregnable heights and surrounded with difficulties 
 that seemed insurmountable. But the military skill 
 which enabled him to win battles, achieve astonishing 
 victories, was not born with him, it was the result of edu 
 cation, not only in the school, but in the field; not merely 
 by study, but by large and varied experience. It is true 
 that a weak man, or one of ordinary capacity, could never 
 by either process have become the great leader that he 
 was. 
 
 A strong character and great mental capacity must 
 be the basis of great achievements, but both may exist 
 without any circumstances to develop them, or call 
 them into activity. Great geniuses, whether in song or 
 action, are like comets in our system, only occasional 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 visitants, and seem almost incapable of making mis 
 takes. They apparently are moved by inspiration, and 
 act and feel as if they were under some invisible 
 power, and fulfilling some peculiar destiny ; and such 
 indeed is the fact they are the children of fate. But 
 Grant was not one of these. A strong man by nature, 
 he had to be educated up to his greatness nay, 
 had to learn by failures how to win ultimate success. 
 So true is this, that we find that both he and Sherman, 
 who, at the close of the war, stood up as our foremost 
 generals, came very near being removed from com 
 mand for their mistakes, or at least, want of success. In 
 fact, the latter was removed from the department of 
 Kentucky as a sort of half-crazy man, while the Gov 
 ernment was determined to consign Grant to disgrace, 
 and would have done so, but for the strenuous, per 
 sistent efforts of a single friend, Mr. Washburne. The 
 
 o 
 
 one who conducted the triumphant march to the sea, 
 and the one who received the sword of the commander- 
 in-chief of the rebel army, were, at one time, apparently 
 doomed to occupy a very insignificant position in that 
 mighty struggle. 
 
 Very little is definitely known of Grant s ancestry, 
 though since he became renowned, a great deal of tra 
 dition has been manufactured. He was of Scotch de 
 scent, though little is known of the family beyond his 
 great-grandfather. He settled in Westmoreland County, 
 Pennsylvania, in 1 794, where the father of Ulysses was 
 born, and subsequently emigrated to Ohio, which was 
 then a western frontier. Here he soon died, leaving 
 seven children penniless in the world. The father of 
 Ulysses was at this time but eleven years of age. When 
 sixteen, he was apprenticed to a half-brother, in Mays- 
 ville, Kentucky, to learn the tanner s trade. Having 
 
26 
 
 LIFE OF GEXEKAL GRANT. 
 
 served out his time, he went back to Ohio and set up 
 business for himself in Ravenna, Portage County. Shortly 
 after, he married Hannah Simpson, who had emigrated 
 from his native county in Pennsylvania. Ulysses was 
 their first child,- and was born on the 2/th day of April, 
 1822. The mother was a stria Methodist, and trained 
 the child to respect the truths of religion, and practice 
 its virtues, and he grew up truthful, upright and indus 
 trious. His father being poor, as soon as Ulysses was 
 able to help him, he was put to work, to the neglect 
 of his education. At the early age of eight, he was 
 taught to drive a team, and at ten was accustomed to 
 drive one from Georgetown to which place his father 
 had removed to Cincinnati, a distance of forty miles, 
 and bring back a load. 
 
 This shows that he was not a common boy, and must 
 have been previously mature, for great as the needs of his 
 father were, he would not have trusted a child of ordinary 
 intelligence and judgment with such responsibility. It w^as, 
 however, a good training for the future general. Nothing 
 could better have taught him that self-reliance which after 
 wards stood him in such good stead. Still this mere lad, 
 not yet old enough to do without the good-night kiss of 
 his mother, as she heard his simple prayer before going 
 to sleep, presents a striking picture, seated on his lumber 
 wagon, toiling slowly over the rough roads and through 
 the sparse settlements or long stretches of woods. A boy 
 of ten taking care of himself and team in the busy town, 
 and stopping all night at the lonely wayside inn, must 
 have been an unaccustomed sight, even to rough frontiers 
 men, familiar as they were to the exposures and dangers 
 of border life. He was very fond of horses, and hence 
 became accustomed to manage them early, an attachment 
 that still continues. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. o j 
 
 Many stories are told of his boyhood, which may or may 
 not be apocryphal, more or less illustrative of the charac 
 teristics which he afterwards exhibited. One told of him by 
 his early companions has, as the French say, a Vrazsem.- 
 blance, an air of truth about it, that inclines one to accept 
 it as true from its internal evidence alone. His father had 
 seen a horse which he wished to purchase, but could not 
 agree with the owner about the price. Finally he con 
 cluded he must have it, and sent Ulysses after it, with 
 instructions to offer fifty dollars for it, and if the man would 
 not take that sum, offer him fifty-five and at last sixty, 
 rather than come away without it. With these instructions 
 the boy departed on his mission. On telling the owner 
 of the horse his errand, the man asked him how much his 
 father said he should give for the horse. The lad frankly 
 told him his instructions. The owner chuckled at the 
 greenness of the boy, and of course told him very emphati 
 cally that he could not have the horse one cent less than 
 sixty dollars. He had reckoned on the simplicity of the 
 unsophisticated diplomist a little too much, for the latter 
 replied, that though his father had instructed him respect 
 ing the price as he had told him, yet he, himself, had made 
 up his mind, on seeing the horse, that he was not worth 
 over fifty, and would give but that amount. The astonished 
 owner seeing th^t the boy had made up his mind and was 
 going away without the horse, actually sold it to him for 
 fifty dollars. Now this little anecdote illustrates admirably 
 both the education and shrewdness of the boy. His mother 
 had taught him never to tell a lie, and so when the man 
 asked him what his father had said he should give for the 
 horse, he told the exact truth in a straightforward manner, 
 but as to being caught in a trap for his honesty was quite 
 another thing, and that readiness of resource and sagacity 
 in getting out of a difficulty which afterwards served him 
 
2 3 ^ 7/ * OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 .,:-; 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2g 
 
 so well, enabled him to turn the tables on the man who was 
 congratulating himself on the ease with which he had come 
 around the inexperienced youth. 
 
 The father gives the following anecdote that illustrates 
 strikingly not only the boy s ability, but the father s confi 
 dence in it, to take care of himself when but twelve years 
 old. He says: 
 
 "It was necessary for me to have a deposition taken 
 once, to be used in a law-suit in which I was engaged in 
 the State of Connecticut. I had written more than once 
 about it to my lawyers, but could not get the business 
 done. I can do it, said Ulysses. So I sent him on the 
 errand alone. Before he started, I gave him an open letter 
 that he might show the captain of the boat, or any one 
 else, if he should have occasion, stating that he was my 
 son, and was going down to Louisville on my business. 
 Going down, he happened to meet a neighbor with whom 
 he was acquainted; so he had no occasion to use the letter. 
 But when he came on board a boat, to return, the captain 
 asked him who he was. He told him ; but the captain an 
 swered, I cannot take you ; you may be running away. 
 Ulysses then produced my letter, which put everything 
 right ; and the captain not only treated him with great kind 
 ness, but took so much interest in him as to invite him to 
 go as far as Maysville with him, where he had relatives 
 living, free of expense. He brought back the deposition 
 with him, and that enabled me to succeed in making a 
 satisfactory adjustment of my suit." 
 
 It would seem very extraordinary to send a lad only 
 twelve years of age on such business at all, but to send 
 him to another State, to find his way by railroad and 
 steamboat, as best he could, would be foolhardiness, un 
 der any circumstances, except that the boy had previously 
 shown himself to be an uncommon child. No wonder, 
 
~ LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 traveling alone so young, he was suspected by the cap 
 tain of being a runaway. His mother s lap seemed a 
 more appropriate place for him than the crowded deck of 
 a steamboat. 
 
 Again, the father says : " I will relate another circum 
 stance which I have never mentioned before, which you 
 may use as you think proper. He was always regarded 
 as extremely apt in figures. When he was ten years old 
 a distinguished phrenologist came along and stayed 
 several days in the place. He was frequently asked to 
 examine heads blindfolded. Among others, Ulysses was 
 placed in the chair. The phrenologist felt his head for 
 several minutes without saying anything; at length a 
 noted doctor asked him if the boy had a capacity for 
 mathematics. The phrenologist, after some further ex 
 amination, said : * You need not be surprised if you see 
 this boy fill the Presidential chair. 
 
 Of course, the prophecy was as valueless as the fond 
 anticipations of a mother ; the incident is mentioned sim 
 ply to show that the boy, uneducated, uncouth as he was, 
 possessed mental characteristics of such an extraordinary 
 kind as to make him a marked child. 
 
 In those early days he exhibited another trait, which 
 shone out most conspicuously in his public career as a 
 general, viz., the apparent unconsciousness that he was 
 unable to do anything he once set about. To begin a 
 thing with him makes sure the end. If he starts he ex 
 pects to go through. The idea of trying, and if the 
 obstacles are too great and seems insurmountable, 
 retire, never enters his head. He exhibited this trait at 
 Shiloh, and though terribly beaten the first day, he in 
 tended, even if Buell had not arrived, to fight the victo 
 rious army the next. Such a man, if ever beaten, 
 will be beaten terribly. Nothing but his total destruction 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ~ r 
 
 will secure his defeat. This peculiarity was exhibited in 
 early life. His father sent him, one day, with a team in 
 the woods to bring back some pieces of timber, supposing 
 there were men at work there, who would help him load. 
 But, on his arrival they were gone. The natural, usual 
 course would have been to return and report the state of 
 the case. But, having been sent for the timber, it never 
 occurred to him that he was to go back without it. So, 
 after contemplating the job for awhile, he set about ac 
 complishing it. A half-fallen tree lay near, making an 
 inclined plane. Up this he succeeded in rolling the 
 heavy sticks, leaving the ends projecting over. Backing 
 his team up under these, he fastened them with a chain 
 to the wagon, and so hauled them on it, one by one, and 
 returned home with his load. This is, perhaps, the most 
 prominent characteristic of Grant, running through all 
 his life, and is often mistakenly called obstinacy. The 
 determination to resist to the last is one thing ; to refuse 
 to see insurmountable obstacles is entirely another. One 
 man looks on the barriers that oppose his progress, and 
 while coolly measuring their magnitude, resolves to over 
 come them ; the other fixes his eye on the object beyond, 
 and not stopping to survey what lies in his path, moves 
 intrepidly, confidently forward to reach it. 
 
 Between driving a team and helping his father in the 
 tan-yard, the boy grew up into the broad-shouldered 
 youth. The demands for his labor left him scant time to 
 acquire knowledge, and fate seemed to have destined him 
 to become a tanner, nothing more. Still, his father was 
 not satisfied that this promising son should not have a 
 wider field for his abilities, which he felt to be of no 
 common kind, while the latter had determined, sooner or 
 later, to launch out into the great world around him. 
 But the father did not feel able to give him an cduca- 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 tion, and seeing that he had a decided taste for military 
 life, resolved to try and get him entered at West Point. 
 He therefore applied to Mr. Morris, a member of Con 
 gress from his district, to obtain the appointment. But 
 he had already given the single place that he was 
 allowed to control to another, but added that Mr. Ha- 
 mer had a vacancy in his congressional district. The 
 father applied to him, who, to the great joy of both, gave 
 it to Ulysses. He had a brother named Simpson the 
 family name of his mother and, somehow, Mr. Hamer 
 got the idea that this was the middle name of Ulysses ; 
 so, when he sent on the name, he gave it as Ulysses S. 
 Grant, and it was so entered on the books, and so it 
 stood, despite all the efforts of the cadet, after he had 
 entered, to get it changed, and so it will go down to 
 posterity, the initials being made to stand, according to 
 the whim of each, for Uncle Sam, United States, or Un 
 conditional Surrender Grant. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ~ ., 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 HIS DISADVANTAGES AS A CADET CAREER AT WEST POINT FALSE STORIES OF HTM 
 FIRST YEAR SECOND YEAR THIRD YEAR POPULAR WITH THE CADETS GRADU 
 ATES NO._2I MADE SECOND LIEUTENANT SENT TO MISSOURI TO LOUISIANA 
 ACCOMPANIES THE ARMY, UNDER TAYLOR, TO TEXAS GRANT S FIRST BATTLE 
 THE FLYING ARTILLERY WAR WITH MEXICO GRANT S REGIMENT JOINS SCOTT S 
 ARMY AT VERA CRUZ MADE QUARTERMASTER OF HIS REGIMENT HIS BRAVERY 
 AT MOLINO DEL KEY PROMOTED ON THE SPOT GALLANTRY AT CHAPULTEPEC 
 BREVETED CAPTAIN RETURNS HOME MARRIED TO MISS DENT SENT TO SACK- 
 ETT S HARBOR TO CALIFORNIA TO OREGON DULL LIFE RESIGNS HIS COMMIS 
 SION TURNS FARMER DRAWS WOOD TO ST. LOUIS TO SELL COLLECTOR OF DEBTS 
 ANECDOTE OF HIM A CURIOUS MEETING AND REMINISCENCE BECOMES A PART 
 NER OF HIS FATHER IN THE LEATHER BUSINESS IN TOLEDO APPARENTLY SETTLED 
 FOR LIFE. 
 
 HE entered West Point in 1839, at seventeen years 
 of age. Young, awkward, ignorant, accustomed 
 to the rude surroundings of a Western home, it 
 was a sudden change to be thrown into the show and 
 glitter of the National Academy, and into the companion 
 ship of a hundred young men, many of them belonging 
 to the wealthiest, most aristocratic families of the South. 
 But worse than all without the preparation that is now 
 demanded, and far behind most of his class in every 
 branch of study that was to be pursued, he felt that it 
 was to be a long and terrible struggle to overtake them 
 so as to come out in any way near them at the end of 
 the race. He labored under terrible disadvantages. It 
 is said at sea that "a stern chase is a long one," and so 
 it is in any college to overtake and keep up with classes 
 that start at least a year ahead. This is forgotten when 
 pointing to the name of Grant, so low down on the list of 
 graduates. It is a wonder that he did not share the fate 
 3 
 
~ - LIFE OF GENERAL CRAXT. 
 
 of so many who were in advance of him at the outset, and 
 be put back year after year. That he overtook those so 
 far ahead of him and held his own, so as to stand as 
 average among those who finally received their diplomas, 
 showed uncommon perseverance and ability. So young 
 as he was, being but seventeen, and so ignorant, too, 
 it seemed inevitable that he should not have been 
 put back a year. Had he been, his start would have then 
 been even, and his grade in the final examination proved 
 a fair test. If it had not been for his natural taste for 
 mathematics, this probably would have been his fate. His 
 facility in mastering this important branch of the studies 
 pursued there, doubtless alone saved him from it, which in 
 his case would have been no disgrace. We say in his 
 case, because it ought not to have been expected that a 
 mere ignorant Western lad of seventeen, whose prepara 
 tion for the studies of the military academy had been of 
 the most meagre kind, should hold his own with educated 
 young men, and his seniors in years. Although he main 
 tained his position, he did not seem to do it by hard labor, 
 for he had the same credit at the Point for indolence he 
 has ever had since. He took things apparently as easy 
 and with as little concern, afterward, when the fate of a 
 hundred thousand men, and his own life and that of his 
 country hung on his actions and fidelity to his great trusts. 
 Many stories have been put in circulation respecting his 
 cadet life, which are pure fabrications. Among other 
 things, it is related that his patience having become ex 
 hausted by the persistent fagging of the older students, 
 he flogged both the captain and lieutenant of a squad and 
 dared all the rest to come out singly and fight him, after 
 which he was let alone. The simple truth is, probably no 
 cadet ever passed a more monotonous life than he did at 
 West Point. Careless and rather slovenly in his dress, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 O J 
 
 indolent in his manner, and of imperturbable good nature, 
 he would quietly smoke his pipe, quite indifferent to those 
 things which greatly excited some of his comrades. He 
 was rather a favorite, from his easy, good-natured dispo 
 sition, and suffered very little annoyance. But with all his 
 apparent indifference, he was a hard student, as he was 
 compelled to be, or be left behind in the examination at the 
 close of the year. This is evident, from the fact that a large 
 number of his class were dropped, and had to commence 
 over again, while he passed, and entered with the success 
 ful ones on his second year. Each year his studies were 
 of a higher grade. He perfected himself in horseman 
 ship, so that it was almost impossible to unseat him. In 
 the second year he was made sergeant of battalion. In 
 the examination at the close of it, more of his class were 
 dropped, so that when he entered on his third year, but a 
 little more than half of the original number with which he 
 started on his course remained. In the last year he was 
 promoted to the position of officer of cadets, and was very 
 popular with his comrades, for although strict in the 
 enforcement of discipline, he exhibited none of the petty 
 importance so common to young officers when first placed 
 over others, and the moment that the duties were over, 
 he was the same genial companion as ever. At the close 
 of the year he graduated honorably, though not like the 
 man he loved best in the world, McPherson, at the head 
 of his class. He stood No. 21, which in a class of thirty- 
 eight placed him at about the average. Breveted as 
 second lieutenant in the fourth regiment, he joined it in 
 Missouri. Its main duty was to look after the Indians on 
 the frontier. The next year the regiment was ordered to 
 the Red River, in Louisiana, where there was nothing to do 
 but go through with the monotonous duties of camp life, 
 such as inspection, drill and parade. Soon, however, came 
 
3 6 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 rumors of difficulties with Mexico that portended open 
 war. Grant and his fellow-officers took little interest in 
 the diplomatic contest of the two governments, and still 
 less in the fierce political discussions in the newspapers 
 as to the real object of the war into which the nation 
 was every day more rapidly drifting. The prospect of 
 active service, of distinction in his profession, occupied all 
 his thoughts, and left no room for political discussions. 
 At length General Taylor was ordered to Texas to guard 
 the frontier, and took possession of Corpus Christi as a 
 base of operations. Here Grant received his commis 
 sion as full second lieutenant. Conflicts were constantly 
 occurring between separate bands of Mexicans and Ameri 
 cans, till at length a large force of Mexicans marched on 
 Fort Brown and besieged it. Taylor, on hearing of it at 
 Point Isabel, where he was encamped, determined at once 
 to relieve the garrison. This, of course, made open war 
 inevitable. He found, however, that the Mexicans had 
 anticipated him and thrown heavy bodies of troops between 
 him and the fort. 
 
 They were drawn up on the open plains of Palo Alto, 
 and here Grant saw for the first time a hostile force in 
 battle array. Its lines extended as though to enfold and 
 crush the compact little force, with all its trains and cattle 
 marching slowly forward. The bugles rang out, the 
 bands played, and banners waved in the sunlight, and 
 then came the crash of artillery, and the cannon-balls went 
 plowing up the earth in every direction. It was almost 
 wholly an artillery fight, and here Grant had a practical 
 demonstration of what a fearful arm Napoleon had made 
 of the flying artillery. The pieces would be in battery 
 firing with frightful rapidity, and before the smoke had 
 cleared away, the horses would be hitched to them, and 
 sweeping at a tearing gallop to another part of the field, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ->, 
 
 where danger threatened, and quick as thought be un- 
 limbered and again cutting the hostile lines into frag 
 ments. So rapid were their evolutions, that a Mexican 
 commander said afterward, that he thought we had fifty 
 pieces of artillery on the field. Grant watched the close 
 practice of the guns and got a practical lesson of the 
 efficiency of this arm of service which he never forgot. 
 
 The enemy at last, no longer able to stand the scorch 
 ing fire, retreated, and took position again at Resaca de 
 la Palma and a second battle was fought, when the enemy 
 fled in disorder across the river, and the victorious little 
 army took up its line of march for Fort Brown. When 
 they came in sight of it, the ramparts were manned, and 
 they were received with shouts, and hurras, and strains 
 of martial music. The fort having been relieved, Taylor 
 marched up the Rio Grande, and finally crossed the river, 
 and In the fall moved on Monterey, which the Mexicans 
 had strongly fortified. Notwithstanding the strength of 
 the place and the disparity of numbers, Taylor determined 
 to attack it, and after a most determined fight took it. 
 
 Hitherto all the hostilities had been carried on from 
 the general orders of the two governments to the re 
 spective armies to protect the frontier, which seemed to 
 have no definite boundary, but formal war was now 
 declared, and it was determined to carry it into the heart 
 of the enemy s country. Scott, the Commander-in-Chief, 
 was ordered to repair with the army to Vera Cruz, and 
 after capturing it, march inland to the capital, and there 
 dictate terms of peace. 
 
 After he had affected a landing, feeling the need of 
 more troops and thinking that the Texas frontier would 
 be comparatively quiet while the great struggle was 
 going on at Vera Cruz, he ordered a part of Taylor s 
 army to join him before that city. Among these regi- 
 
3 8 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ments was the fourth, to which Grant belonged. He 
 now entered on a w r ider field of operations, under one 
 of the ablest generals of his time, to learn the art of war 
 on the field of battle and see how splendid strategy could 
 practically win battles before they were fought. 
 
 After the capitulation of Vera Cruz, Scott started for the 
 interior, and Grant wasappointed quartermaster of his regi 
 ment. This appointmentwould seem to shutout all chances 
 of distinguishing himself in the field, but besides the duties 
 of this position, he acted as staff officer to his general. 
 
 But, in the long marches and fights that followed, he 
 seemed to bear no important part till they came near the 
 City of Mexico. The battle of Molino del Rey was 
 fought on the 8th of September, 1847, an< ^ was one f 
 the hottest and deadliest of the whole campaign, and 
 here Grant first comes to view, and he bore himself with 
 such cool courage, and moved so steadily on the enemy s 
 batteries, that he was promoted on the spot to first lieu 
 tenant, to date from the day of battle. But he had no 
 friends at court, and Congress did not confirm it. 
 
 To one who saw him act like a common gunner on 
 that clay, and carry his piece up to the very breastworks 
 amid a shower of balls, this neglect would appear unac 
 countable ; but to one who understands how promotions 
 are secured at Washington, there is nothing strange 
 about it. 
 
 At the battle of Chapultepec, that followed, and opened 
 the road to the very gates of the city, he distinguished him 
 self still more. In the early morning s advance up the 
 long slope to the castle walls, Grant forgot that he was a 
 member of the staff, and found himself among his own 
 soldiers. Midway on this terrible march a redoubt had 
 been thrown up between two ravines, which swept the 
 advancing columns with a withering fire. Its position 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. - 
 
 made it very difficult to approach it by any flank move 
 ment, but it must be carried to give the swiftly-advancin^ 
 columns room. The battalion ordered to take it faced the 
 deadly guns with unflinching courage, but their ranks were 
 rapidly thinning, when Captain Brooks, with a section 
 of the Second Artillery, and Grant, with a few of his sol 
 diers, which he hurriedly rallied, wheeled quickly to the 
 left and poured in such a close and deadly fire on the 
 enemy s flank, that they were thrown into confusion, and 
 turning, fled into the castle. It was gallantly done. 
 
 Major Lee, who commanded the Fourth Infantry, said 
 in his report : " At the first barrier the enemy was in 
 strong force, which rendered it necessary to advance with 
 great caution. This was done, and when the head of the 
 battalion was within short musket-range of the barrier, 
 Lieutenant Grant, Fourth Infantry, and Captain Brooks, 
 Second Artillery, with a few men of their respective regi 
 ments, by a handsome movement to the left, turned the 
 right flank of the enemy, and the barrier was carried." 
 He says, further on : "Second Lieutenant Grant behaved 
 with distinguished gallantry on the i3th and I4th." 
 
 General Garland, after speaking of this same gallant 
 affair, says : " I must not omit to call attention to Lieu 
 tenant Grant, Fourth Infantry, who acquitted himself 
 most nobly upon several occasions, under my own ob 
 servation/ 
 
 From this time until the Stars and Stripes waved above 
 the proud towers of Mexico, he led his men into the 
 thickest of the fight. For his gallant conduct at Chapul- 
 tepec, he was breveted captain, and soon after his tardy 
 commission of full first lieutenant was received. 
 
 He had now gone through an important training to 
 help fit him for the great responsibilities of which he 
 little then dreamed. McClellan, in the same school, laid 
 
, o LIFE OF GENERAL GRAN1. 
 
 the foundation for his after renown, and Lee received 
 also lessons in the art of war, by which he was enabled to 
 accomplish so much at the head of the rebel armies. 
 
 The \var was now over, articles of peace were soon 
 signed, and the victorious troops took their way leisurely 
 back to the coast and embarked for home the volun 
 teers to disband and melt again into the mass of citizens, 
 while the regular army was scattered to the various posts 
 of the general government. Grant s regiment was sent 
 to Detroit, and he soon after married Miss Dent, daughter 
 of a merchant of St. Louis. He obtained a short furlough 
 and then rejoined his regiment, which was transferred to 
 Sackett s Harbor, on the northern frontier of New York 
 State. The sudden rise of California rendered the pres 
 ence of troops there necessary, arid Grant s regiment was 
 ordered thither. Soon after a battalion was ordered to 
 Oregon, then the most remote point on our extended 
 frontier, and for a time he was stationed at Fort Dallas. 
 Nothing could be more dreary than his life on this outmost 
 verge of civilization. This, if possible, was rendered doubly 
 so by its contrast with his active life in the field during the 
 war with Mexico. It was the same miserable dull routine 
 of military formalities, without benefit, and without excite 
 ment. Besides, he w r as so shut off from the outside world, 
 that the amusement of books and society were denied 
 him. More than all, it was a life of simple imprisonment 
 to his wife, and he felt it his duty not to require her to 
 share such a miserable existence with him, and yet the 
 only choice was this, or a separation for an indefinite time. 
 Added to this was the fact that the preferments for gallant 
 services, as obtained through political influence during the 
 Mexican war, had more than filled every present vacancy 
 and anticipated all possible ones for years to come, so 
 that any advancement on his part was out of the question 
 
LIFE CF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 for a long indefinite time, and with such a discouraging, 
 miserable prospect ahead, he determined to resign and 
 try his fortunes in civil life. How much his wife, and 
 through her his father-in-law, had to do with this we are not 
 told, but doubtless much. He had entered West Point 
 in 1839, and now in 1854, fifteen years later, he sent in 
 his resignation. Eleven of these years he had spent in 
 active service, quite long enough, he very reasonbly con 
 cluded, to pay the Government for four years of education 
 at its expense. He was not alone in this determination ; 
 such men as Slocum, McClellan, and a score of others, 
 seeing no prospect of active service, and in fact of doing 
 nothing but drawing their pay, resigned, and engaged in 
 other pursuits, in which there was a chance of earning a 
 competency. Although Grant had been accustomed in 
 early life to rough contact with the world, he had entered 
 on his military course so young that he had acquired but 
 little knowledge of business, and that little had wholly dis 
 appeared in the practice of the duties of his profession, 
 which wholly unfitted him for ordinary commercial pur 
 suits. Having, with much misgivings and heartfelt regrets, 
 left the army in which he had won distinction, and the 
 profession he had expected to follow for life, he settled 
 down on a little farm near St. Louis. 
 
 The change from a soldier s life, in which he had grown 
 up to manhood, to that of a small country farmer was 
 very great and offered, one would think, very little ad 
 vantages above those of a frontier military post, while the 
 pay was far more uncertain. Still it was a very happy one 
 for his wife, who was near her home and friends where she 
 could enjoy the society of those among whom she had grown 
 up. His farming did not seem to prosper much, for his 
 crops were not enough to keep the farm going, so he hauled 
 wood in winter into Corondelet, and sold it by the cord. 
 
OF GEXH.KAL GRAXT. 
 
 Men were still living 1 after he became President who 
 could remember the short, square farmer with his felt hat, 
 coarse blouse and pantaloons tucked into his boots, who 
 used to unload his wood at their doors, and with his money 
 in his pocket, drive away. But even this was not suffi 
 cient to support him comfortably, and so he became collec 
 tor of other people s debts. But he was such a poor hand 
 at dunning, and so readily believed the story of any one 
 who appealed to his sympathies that his commissions 
 for collections were very scanty, and, on the whole, there 
 seemed a poor lookout for him. Still he had an office 
 in St. Louis, and got on after a fashion. This he let out 
 one day accidentally. 
 
 A grand reception was given him once in a city 
 in New York State, when he was President, and while 
 the long line of carriages was stopped a few min 
 utes in a common street, where the cortege from the 
 boat started, a man, bare-headed and in a dirty linen 
 coat, rushed out of a saloon, and reaching his hand over 
 the side of the carriage, exclaimed : " How do you do, 
 General? how do you do?" The President shook it 
 mechanically, in the meantime scanning the man s features 
 very closely, but apparently could not recall him. But 
 just as the carriage passed on, he exclaimed, " Oh, that 
 man kept the best oysters in St. Louis. I used often to 
 stop there on my way to the office, to get a plate." 
 
 The following anecdote illustrates his mode of life at that 
 time. It is related by one familiar with it. The writer says: 
 
 " It is well known that when he resided in Missouri, he 
 was very poor, and lived in a small, uncomfortable house, 
 cultivating a farm of a few acres. His chief income was 
 derived by hauling wood to the city of St. Louis. He 
 used to supply Hon. Henry T. Blow, of that city, with his 
 fuel. Mr. Blow was elected to the Thirty-ninth Con- 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 T"J 
 
 press, and on one occasion went with his wife to one of 
 General Grant s popular receptions. Mrs. Blow won 
 dered if General Grant would recognize her as an old 
 friend or acquaintance, under the different circumstances 
 of their relative situations in life. Well, Mrs. Blow had 
 not been long at the General s before he came to her and 
 said : Mrs. Blow, I remember you well. What great 
 changes have taken place since we last met! Yes, 
 General/ said Mrs. B., * the war is over. I did not mean 
 that/ he replied ; I mean with myself. Do you recollect 
 when I used to supply your husband with wood, and pile 
 it myself, and measure it, too, and go to his office for my 
 pay? Oh, yes, General, your face was familiar in those 
 days/ Mrs. Blow, those were happy days ; for I was 
 doing the best I could to support my family. 
 
 But, whether dissatisfied with this uncertain, and not 
 very remunerative, mode of life, or impelled by the offer of 
 his father to enter into partnership with him in the leather 
 trade, we are not informed, but he gave up his farm and 
 removed to Galena, and soon there stood over a modest 
 store the sign, " GRANT & SON, LEATHER-DEALERS." We 
 are told that he was not a very active partner, and did 
 not make many sales by the way he extolled his goods or 
 pressed customers. He was better fitted for a sleeping 
 partner. At all events, he now seemed fixed for life. 
 He was to be a leather-dealer, nothing else. The firm 
 was prosperous, and, to all appearances, he would, at his 
 father s death, succeed to the business and acquire a 
 competence and live comfortably, respected by his 
 neighbors for his probity and good sense, and at last be 
 gathered to his fathers in peace. A naturally indolent, 
 inert man, it took a good deal to rouse him to any deter 
 mined effort. His repugnance to politics, and utter de 
 testation of the low tricks of politicians, rendered it im- 
 
LIFE OF GEXERAL GRANT. 
 
 44 
 
 possible for him to succeed in political life, and there 
 being no other road open to distinction, he would have 
 been compelled to jog- along in the beaten road of his 
 business to the end ; and yet, perhaps, would have passed 
 and ended his life quite as successfully, so far as securing 
 happiness the great end of life is concerned. But fate 
 was weaving a different destiny for him a destiny that 
 he in his wildest dreams could never have anticipated. 
 The elements were gathering for an explosion, that would 
 arouse even his inert nature to the highest pitch of ex 
 citement, and call forth all the great latent powers that 
 had lain dormant so lone. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 45 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 OUTBREAK OF THE CIVIL WAR GRANT OFFERS HIS SERVICES TO THE GOVERN 
 MENT, WHICH ARE NOT ACCEPTED TRIES TO GET ON M CLELLAN S STAFF 
 
 SERVES ON GOVERNOR YATES S STAFF REFUSES TO BE BRIGADIER-GENERAL 
 MADE COLONEL AN AMUSING ANECDOTE PLACED OVER SOUTHERN MISSOURI 
 PROCLAMATION TO THE CITIZENS OF PADUCAH ANSWER TO POLK, WHO PRO 
 POSES AN EXCHANGE OF PRISONERS EXPEDITION AGAINST COLUMBUS BATTLE 
 OF BELMONT GRANT HAS A HORSE KILLED UNDER HIM LETTER TO HIS 
 FATHER CONGRATULATES HIS TROOPS THE CAIRO EXPEDITION FORBIDS THE 
 PLUNDERING OF PRIVATE PROPERTY. 
 
 CIVIL war broke like a sudden thunder-clap on the 
 astonished nation. The people at the North did 
 not believe that the sectional strife that was wa^ed 
 
 o 
 
 so hotly could culminate in so great a catastrophe. To 
 them it seemed impossible that such madness could take 
 possession of the South. Its possibility was ridiculed ; 
 even when it commenced it was regarded as a sudden 
 ebullition that would soon subside. But to the student 
 of history it was no surprise nay, it was known to be 
 inevitable, unless all past history was false in its teach 
 ings, and the men of to-day were totally different from 
 all former generations. It was one of the most remark 
 able features of the times, that all past experience was 
 utterly ignored as a guide to the present, and that we 
 were to be an exception to all nations and govern 
 ments. 
 
 Grant, though keeping aloof from politics, was not an 
 indifferent spectator of the growing hostility between the 
 North and South, nor without his fears of the result, and 
 believing that the election of Lincoln would intensify this 
 hostility and increase the danger, voted against him. 
 
, LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Having done this, he considered his whole duty in the 
 premises done, and awaited the result. 
 
 As the difficulties deepened his anxiety increased, and 
 when at last the news came of the fall of Fort Sumter, 
 and the lowering of the flag he had so often marched 
 under to victory, his strong nature was stirred to its pro- 
 foundest depths, and he threw up his business at once 
 and offered his sword and life to his country. He 
 
 FORT SUMTER. 
 
 then wrote to the Adjutant-General offering his services, 
 but received no answer. Hearing that McClellan had 
 been appointed Major-General of the Ohio Volunteers, he 
 called on him, in Cincinnati, to get an appointment on his 
 staff. Not finding him in, he called again. Seeing crowds 
 of applicants besieging his head-quarters, he, with his 
 usual modesty, retired altogether. In this case the ordi- 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 47 
 
 nary rule was reversed, that perseverance is the only way 
 to success. Had he elbowed his way among the crowd, 
 and at last secured an interview with McClellan, the latter 
 would, doubtless, have rejoiced to get so old an army 
 friend, and so brave and good a soldier on his staff. Grant, 
 in that case, would have 
 attached himself to his 
 fortunes and shared his 
 misfortunes. His failure 
 was his salvation. Gove- 
 nor Yates, of his State, 
 hearing of him incident 
 ally, put him on his staff 
 as Adjutant, to assist him 
 in arranging the quota of 
 the State. In this service 
 he acquitted himself so 
 well that when Lincoln 
 sent on to the Governor to forward two names from the 
 State for the position of Brigadier-General, the latter pro 
 posed to Grant to send his on. But he declined, saying he 
 preferred to earn his promotion. He, however, accepted 
 the colonelcy of the Twenty-first Regiment, which its 
 own colonel could not manage, and was assigned to 
 Pope s Department of Northern Missouri, and sent to 
 guard the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. 
 
 On the 7th of August of this year, 1861, he received 
 his appointment of Brigadier-General. For this he was 
 indebted to his fellow- townsman, E. B. Washburne, who 
 remained his steadfast friend forever after, and saved him, 
 while member of Congress, from being removed from 
 his command. Afterwards Grant sent him to represent 
 his country as Minister to France. Grant was now sent 
 to Southern Missouri to repel a threatened invasion 
 
 GENERAL GEORGE B. McCLELLAN. 
 
4 3 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of it by the notorious Jeff. Thompson. It was a long and 
 tedious march, and during its course the following inci 
 dent occurred, quite illustrative of his character. It is 
 thus related by a member of his staff: 
 
 44 When Grant was a brigadier in South-east Missouri, 
 he commanded an expedition against the rebels under 
 Jeff. Thompson in North-east Arkansas. The distance 
 from the starting point of the expedition to the supposed 
 rendezvous of the rebels was about- one hundred and ten 
 miles, and the greater portion of the route lay through a 
 howling wilderness. The imaginary suffering that our 
 soldiers endured during the first two days of their march 
 was enormous. It was impossible to steal or confiscate 
 uncultivated real estate, and not a hog, or a chicken, or an 
 ear of corn was anyv/here to be seen. On the third day, 
 however, affairs looked more hopeful, for a few small 
 specks of ground in a state of partial cultivation were here 
 and there visible. On that day Lieutenant Wickfield, of 
 an Indiana cavalry regiment, commanded the advance 
 guard, consisting of eight mounted men. About noon he 
 came up to a small farm-house, from the outward appear 
 ance of which, he judged there might be something fit to 
 eat inside. He halted his command, dismounted, and 
 with two second lieutenants entered the dwelling. He 
 knew that Grant s incipient form had already gone out 
 through all that country, and it seemed to him that by rep 
 resenting himself to be the General he might obtain the 
 best the house afforded. So assuming a very imperative 
 demeanor, he accosted the inmates of the house and told 
 them he must have something for himself and staff to eat. 
 They desired to know who he was, and he told them that 
 he was Brigadier-General Grant. At the sound of that 
 name, they all flew around with alarming alacrity and 
 served up about all they had in the house, taking great 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 49 
 
 pains all the while to make loud professions of loyalty. 
 The lieutenants ate as much as they could of the not over- 
 sumptuous meal, but which was nevertheless good for 
 that country, and demanded what was to pay. Nothing, 
 and they went on their way rejoicing. 
 
 " In the meantime General Grant, who had halted his 
 army a few miles further back for a brief resting spell, 
 came in sight of, and was rather favorably impressed 
 with the appearance of this same house. Riding up to 
 the fence in front of the door, he desired to know if they 
 would cook him a meal. 
 
 " No/ said a female, in a gruff voice ; * General Grant 
 and his staff have just been here, and eaten everything 
 in the house except one pumpkin-pie. 
 
 " Humph, murmured Grant ; * what is your name ? 
 
 " Selvidge, replied the woman. 
 
 " Casting a half dollar in at the door, he asked if she 
 would keep that pie till he sent an officer for it ; to which 
 she replied that she would. 
 
 "That evening, after the camping-ground had been 
 selected, the various regiments were notified that there 
 would be a grand parade at half-past six, for orders. 
 Officers would see that all their men turned out, etc. 
 
 " In five minutes the camp was in a perfect uproar, and 
 filled with all sorts of rumors. Some thought the enemy 
 were upon them, it being so unusual to have parades when 
 on a march. 
 
 " At half-past six the parade was formed, ten columns 
 deep and nearly a quarter of a mile in length. 
 
 "Both officers and men were amazed at this unusual 
 parade after such a long and weary march, and wondered 
 what it portended, when the Assistant Adjutant-General 
 rode in front of the lines and, in a grave, loud and clear 
 voice, read the following order : 
 
-Q LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 "HEAD-QUARTERS, ARMY IN THE FIELD. 
 " SPECIAL ORDER NO. . 
 
 "Lieutenant Wickfield, of the Indiana Cavalry, having on this day 
 eaten everything in Mrs. Selvidge s house, at the crossing of the 
 Trenton and Pocahontas and Black River and Cape Girardeau roads, 
 except one pumpkin-pie, Lieutenant Wickfield is hereby ordered to 
 return with an escort of one hundred cavalry and eat that pie also. 
 
 "U. S. GRANT, 
 
 " Brigadier-General Commanding." 
 
 It is impossible to describe the effect the reading of this 
 order had on the troops. Every one was expecting to hear 
 some momentous announcement, and hence, listened with 
 eager attention, and when it was finished looked at each 
 other in utter bewilderment and asked, what did it 
 mean. 
 
 The parade was over, and the moment they dispersed, 
 each one sought an explanation of the strange affair. 
 It soon leaked out, and by the time the crest-fallen lieu 
 tenant was ready with his escort to leave camp, it was in 
 a perfect uproar, and peals of laughter followed him as 
 he defiled along the road on his way back to eat that 
 pie. Grant made no explanation of his conduct, followed 
 it with no reprimand. The order carried its own lesson, 
 administered its own rebuke, and each one knew that it 
 would not be a safe business to pass himself off for the 
 General-in-Chief, much less forage in his name for his 
 own benefit When the lieutenant returned to camp, late 
 in the evening, he was glad to escape to his tent to avoid 
 the numberless questions and jokes about that pumpkin- 
 pie. 
 
 Fremont having been put over the department in the 
 place of Pope, he placed Southern Missouri under Grant, 
 together with the borders of Tennessee and Kentucky. 
 The latter had established his head-quarters at Cairo. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 He was now in a delicate position. Kentucky had pub 
 licly announced her neutrality, thereby forbidding the 
 military occupation of any of her territory. Yet the 
 rebels held both Hickman and Columbus on the Missis 
 sippi, and Bowling Green in the centre of the State, and 
 Grant felt it necessary under these circumstances that he 
 should occupy Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee 
 
 PONTOON BRIDGE AT PADUCAH. 
 
 and commanding the navigation of both it and the Ohio. 
 He felt that this too must be done at once, or it would 
 fall into the hands of the enemy ; and so, without waiting 
 instructions from Fremont, he simply notified the Gov- 
 enor of his intentions and dispatched troops by steamer 
 to take possession of the place. 
 
 In order, however, to render the act as little offensive as 
 possible, he issued the following order : 
 
 PADUCAH, KY., September 6tb, 1861. 
 To the Citizens of Paducah: 
 
 I am come among you, not as an enemy, but as your fellow-citizen. 
 Not to maltreat you, nor annoy you, but to respect and enforce the 
 rights of all loyal citizens. An enemy in rebellion against our com 
 mon Government has taken possession of, and planted his guns upon 
 the soil of Kentucky, and fired upon you. Columbus and Hickman 
 
52 l IF] : OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 are in his hands. He is moving upon your city. I am here lo defend 
 you against this enemy, to assist the authority and sovereignty of your 
 Government. I have nothing fo do with opinions, and shall deal only 
 with armed rebellion, and its aiders and abettors. You can pursue 
 your usual avocations without fear. The strong arm of the Govern 
 ment is here to protect its friends and punish its enemies. Whenever 
 it is manifest that you are able to defend yourselves, and maintain the 
 authority of the Government, and protect the rights of loyal citizens, 
 I shall withdraw the forces under my command. 
 
 U. S. GRANT, 
 
 Brigadier-General Commanding. 
 
 The Legislature remonstrated against the act, as an 
 invasion of State Rights, and a correspondence between 
 the Governor and Grant followed. The latter defended 
 his course and held the post. Soon after, Polk sent him 
 a letter proposing an exchange of prisoners, to which 
 Grant replied that he could recognize no rebel authority, 
 and could do nothing about it till he received instructions 
 from his superiors. 
 
 - 
 
 TRANSPORT FOR LANDING TROOPS. 
 
 Columbus, just below the mouth of the Ohio, was the 
 highest point on the Mississippi occupied by the enemy, 
 and the whole country north of it, bordering on the river, 
 were clamorous for its capture, and Fremont, hearing 
 that troops were about to proceed from it to help Price 
 in Missouri, directed Grant to threaten it, in order to 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 53 
 
 prevent the movement. The latter was not strong enough 
 to attack the place, but he thought that he could break up 
 the camp of rendezvous at Belmont, directly opposite it, 
 on the other side of the river. In order to distract the 
 attention of the garrison, he dispatched two small forces 
 to make demonstrations against the place from different 
 directions, while he, on the evening of November 6th, 
 embarked nearly three thousand men in transports, and 
 moved quietly down to within ten miles of Columbus, and 
 tied up to the Kentucky shore. Two gun-boats, the Tyler 
 
 ABATIS. 
 
 and Lexington, accompanied them. The next morning 
 at daylight they cast loose and floated down till almost 
 within range of the guns of the fort, when they were 
 swiftly towed over to the Missouri shore, and the troops 
 landed. The cannon were pulled up the bank, and the 
 columns started forward. 
 
 While Colonel Buford was detached to the right 
 to move down on the enemy s camp, Grant moved 
 directly forward till he came near the abatis, which 
 
54 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GKANT. 
 
 consisted of great piles of trees that had been felled, 
 with their tops and limbs pointed outward and sharp 
 ened, making a tough net-work, through which troops, 
 if they forced their way at all, would have to do it 
 very slowly, and exposed all the time to a galling fire. 
 In order to divert the fire of the guns of the fort from 
 the troops, now in plain sight of the garrison, the two 
 gun-boats advanced and attacked it. Grant and Mc- 
 Clernand led in person the volunteers into the fire, and 
 began to work their way onward. The garrison in the 
 fort seeing what was going on ceased to fire on the gun 
 boats and sent shot and shell into Grant s advancing 
 columns. The troops were raw he had to set them an 
 example of daring, and therefore threw himself into the 
 thickest of the fight. The bullets whistled around him 
 so thickly that it seemed impossible that he should not 
 be struck, and at length his horse sunk under him, and 
 he strode on foot at the head of his column. The new 
 troops, under fire for the first time, and tangled in the 
 fallen trees, began to show signs of discouragement, 
 when a loud volley at the right showed that Buford was 
 charging home on the enemy s rear. A loud hurra 
 greeted the welcome sound, and the now thoroughly 
 excited soldiers rushed on, and in a few minutes the 
 astonished rebels found themselves about to be inclosed 
 in a net, and broke for the woods, leaving tents and bag 
 gage behind. The victorious troops met in the open 
 space, and made the air ring with their shouts. Grant 
 ordered the torch to be applied to them, and in five 
 minutes a sheet of flame wrapped the encampment, and 
 a cloud of black smoke rolled heavenward. The gar 
 rison across the river, in Columbus, enraged at the sight, 
 turned all their guns upon it, and shot and shell fell like 
 hail on the spot. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 J J 
 
 Grant, seeing that the place could not be held under 
 such a destructive fire, gave the order to fall back to the 
 boats. But the retrograde movement had hardly com 
 menced, when an officer dashed up to him and reported 
 that the enemy had thrown a heavy force between him 
 and the river, and his retreat was cut off. Exhibiting no 
 surprise at the exciting news, he said, simply: "Well, if 
 that is so, we must cut our way out, as we cut our way 
 in." Coming in sight of the enemy, an officer expressed 
 some fears about their being able to reach the river, and 
 Grant replied in the same quiet, curt, confident manner : 
 "We have whipped them once, and we can whip them 
 again," and ordering the artillery to the front to clear a 
 path, he moved straight for his transports, and reaching 
 them, embarked hi troops. In this short, fierce en 
 counter he lost nearly three hundred men, while the 
 enemy lost nearly double that number. Grant was de 
 lighted with the conduct of these new levies, as is shown 
 in the following short order, issued after the battle : 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS DISTRICT, S. C., Mo., j 
 CAIRO, November 8th, 1861. j 
 
 The General commanding this Military District returns his thanks 
 to the troops under his command at the battle of Belmont on yesterday. 
 
 It has been his fortune to have been in all the battles fought in 
 Mexico by Generals Scott and Taylor, except Buena Vista, and he 
 never saw one more hotly contested, or where the troops behaved 
 with more gallantry. 
 
 Such courage will insure victory wherever our flag may be borne 
 and protected by such a class of men. To the brave men who fell, 
 the sympathy of the country is due, and will be manifested in a 
 
 manner unmistakable. 
 
 U. S. GRANT, 
 
 Brigadier-General Commanding. 
 
 Although the victory was complete, the apparent barren 
 ness of results, deprived it of all eclat, and the public 
 
-5 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 expressed disappointment rather than pleasure over it. 
 It was thought that the object of the expedition was to 
 take Columbus, when it turned out that only a camp had 
 been carried and immediately after abandoned to be 
 occupied as before, while nearly three hundred men had 
 been sacrificed. It was shown afterwards, however, that 
 he simply executed the order of his superior, and accom 
 plished all that had been expected of him. 
 
 It is pleasant to record, as illustrative of the man, that 
 one of his first acts after the battle, was to write a full 
 account of it to his father, closing with the following 
 paragraph: 
 
 " There was no hasty retreating or running away. 
 Taking into account the object of the expedition, the 
 victory was complete. It has given confidence in the 
 officers and men of this command, that will enable us to 
 lead them in any future action without fear of the result. 
 General McClernand (who, by the way, acted with great 
 coolness and courage throughout) and myself each had 
 our horses shot under us. Most of the field-officers met 
 with the same loss, besides one-third of them being them 
 selves killed or wounded. As near as can be ascertained, 
 our loss was about two hundred and fifty killed and 
 wounded." 
 
 Four days after this battle, Halleck was put over the 
 Western Department in place of Fremont, and Grant s 
 district, under the name of the Cairo district, included all 
 the Southern part of Illinois, that portion of Kentucky 
 west of the Cumberland River, and the southern counties 
 of Missouri. 
 
 The battle took place in November, and he remained 
 comparatively idle till midwinter, when, under the orders 
 of Halleck, the "Cairo Expedition," as it was called, took 
 place. Great mystery was observed in regard to it. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. r 7 
 
 )/ 
 
 Nineteen regiments of infantry and six of cavalry, with 
 five batteries, struck into the interior of the State, designed 
 as it was supposed to attack Columbus, but it returned as 
 quietly as it departed the only achievement accomplished 
 being the march of McClernand with 5,000 men over ice 
 and snow and through mud for seventy-five miles, while 
 the cavalry marched one hundred and forty. The object 
 it is said was to keep the enemy from sending reinforce 
 ments to Bowling Green. But how a march through the 
 country and back again without establishing and holding 
 any posts accomplished this, does not appear. The only 
 notable thing about it is the order of Grant, which, after 
 giving the needed military instructions, refers to the habit 
 of many of the Union troops of abusing the inhabitants 
 of the country through which they passed, and wantonly 
 destroying their property. He says : 
 
 " It is ordered that the severest punishment be inflicted 
 upon every soldier who is guilty of taking or destroying 
 private property, and any commissioned officer guilty of 
 like conduct, or of countenancing it, shall be deprived of 
 his sword, and expelled from the army, not to be per 
 mitted to return," etc. 
 
 His conduct in this respect stands out in bright contrast 
 to that of many of the Union officers, who, looking on 
 every man, woman and child in the seceded States as a 
 rebel, considered the confiscation of property and abuse 
 of all as pure patriotism. 
 
-g LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GRANT ASKS LEAVE TO ATTACK FORT HENRY AN EXPEDITION ORGANIZED 
 AGAINST IT FOOTE CAPTURES IT WITH HIS GUN- BOATS BEFORE GRANT S AR 
 RIVAL GREAT TRIUMPH GRANT RESOLVES TO MOVE AGAINST FORT DONELSON 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE FORT SUFFERING OF THE SOLDIERS FROM COLD FOOTE 
 
 ATTACKS THE FORT TERRIBLE ARTILLERY FIGHT THE GUN-BOATS BEATEN OFF 
 AND FOOTE WOUNDED GRANT LEFT ALONE THE ENEMY RESOLVES TO CUT 
 HIS WAY OUT A DESPERATE ASSAULT M CLERNAND DRIVEN BACK REIN 
 FORCED GRANT HURRIES TO THE RESCUE DESPERATE ASSAULT OF SMITH HIS 
 
 GALLANTRY THE VICTORY THE NIGHT SINGULAR SCENE IN THE FORT ESCAPE 
 
 OF THE REBEL COMMANDERS THE SABBATH MORNINC A FLAG OF TRUCE THE 
 
 SURRENDER THE ARMY CONGRATULATED A SCENE OF TERROR AT NASHVILLE 
 RESULTS OF THE VICTORY GRANT CONGRATULATED AND MADE MAJOR-GENERAL 
 
 HALLECK S SHAMEFUL PERSECUTION AND FALSEHOOD is COMPELLED TO BACK 
 
 DOWN GRANT GIVEN HIS OLD COMMAND THE ARMY AT PITTSBURGH LANDING. 
 
 GRANT having learned that Fort Henry, on the 
 Tennessee, was but slightly defended, and could 
 be easily captured, asked Halleck for permission 
 to organize an expedition against it. The latter, how 
 ever, treated the proposal with contempt. But he soon 
 learned that the Government had determined to attack 
 not only this post, but also Fort Donelson, on the 
 Cumberland, the capture of which would not only open 
 the road to Nashville and break the line of defense of 
 the rebels running from Columbus to Richmond, but also 
 completely flank Columbus. 
 
 Although Sherman, in his memoirs, gives the credit of 
 originating the plan for the capture of these forts to 
 Halleck, he was, in fact, opposed to it. That plan had 
 been discussed and maps made of the country early in 
 the winter, in Washington, and Buell had been consulted 
 upon the subject before he started West. 
 
 Foote, in the meantime, had been building a flotilla on 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 59 
 
 the Ohio, to be ready to move against Fort Columbus in 
 
 the spring. This plan was now abandoned, and he was 
 
 directed to move up the 
 
 river with his gun-boats and 
 
 attack the fort in front, while 
 
 Grant marched by land and 
 
 attacked it in the rear. 
 
 Foote set sail on the 6th 
 of February, and laying his 
 vessels alongside of the fort, 
 opened fire upon it, while 
 Grant marched his troops 
 inland. But the recent rains 
 had made the roads so muddy 
 that his progress was slow. ANDREW H. FOOTE. 
 
 The heavy boom of Foote s guns echoing over the woods 
 awakened the most intense anxiety, and he urged on his 
 troops to their utmost speed. But while he was thus 
 toiling forward the cannonading suddenly ceased. Sur- 
 
 FOOTE S FLOTILLA. 
 
 prised at this, and fearing that the gun-boats had been 
 beaten off, he sent forward an officer to ascertain the 
 truth. He soon came galloping back, saying that our 
 flag was flying above the fort. As the announcement 
 
6o 
 
 LIFE OF GEXERAL GRANT. 
 
 passed down the lines cheer after cheer made the welkin 
 ring. Grant, with his staff, immediately spurred forward, 
 and in a half an hour dashed into the fort. Tighman, 
 with only sixty men, were found in the place, the rest 
 having escaped and gone over to reinforce Fort Donel- 
 son, on the Cumberland. 
 
 Against this Grant now proposed to move. It was a 
 bold and daring attempt, for, added to the strong works 
 that had been thrown up there, and the heavy batteries 
 defending them, its garrison of over twenty thousand men, 
 was equal in number to the whole of Grant s army. The 
 
 INTERIOR OF FORT HENRY. 
 
 co-operation of the gun-boats, however, was expected to 
 make up for any deficiency of numbers. 
 
 The fort stood near the river and its heavy guns com 
 pletely swept the stream for a long distance. Back of it 
 rose a series of hills, some of them a hundred feet high 
 and very steep, which were crowned with strong works, 
 the advance to which was obstructed, not only by the 
 ruggedness of the ascent and broken character of the 
 ground, but by long rows of trees which had been felled 
 point downward and piled on top of each other. Foote, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 61 
 
 who was to co-o-erate with him, did not arrive till after 
 he reached it. 
 
 The night before his arrival (the I3th) was intensely 
 cold, the thermometer reaching only ten degrees above 
 zero. The soldiers, most of them, were without tents or 
 blankets, and lay down on the frozen ground to get such 
 rest as they could. There had been more or less skir 
 mishing between the advanced posts and many killed and 
 wounded. The moans of the latter, lying uncared for, 
 loaded the wintry air, and added to the suffering and ter 
 rors of the night. The next morning Foote advanced to 
 the attack, moving his gun-boats to within three hundred 
 yards of the fort and opened his broadsides. This fear 
 fully close range made the artillery fight the fiercest that 
 had yet occurred during the war. The sound of the 
 heavy shot striking on the iron sheathing, sounded like 
 the blows of a thousand hammers smiting as many anvils. 
 The gun-boats suffered terribly under this desolating fire, 
 and one after another became crippled. At length a rifled 
 cannon burst aboard one of the ships, doing great damage. 
 The Commodore was wounded and fifty-four men killed 
 and wounded, and the vessels so damaged that in an hour 
 and a half, Foote was compelled to withdraw from the 
 fight. From that moment the gun-boats were useless to 
 Grant, and his situation became critical, and he surveyed 
 with no little anxiety the task before him and the formid 
 able obstacles that he now, unaided, must overcome. 
 
 Not only had scientific engineering made the best use 
 of the broken nature of the ground, but two streams, one 
 on either side, flowed into the river, rendering a flank 
 movement almost impossible. 
 
 Grant now resolved to invest the place so that the gar 
 rison could not escape, when he made his final assault, 
 which he determined should be successful. 
 
62 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 McClernand with three brigades was sent to the south 
 to rest on the river, or as near it as the flooded ground 
 would permit, to prevent escape in that direction ; 
 while General Smith did the same thing with his division 
 below the fort. The rest of the army stretched in a semi 
 circle two miles long, between these two divisions around 
 the works, thus inclosing them. Floyd commanded the 
 fort, with Buckner and Pillow under him. 
 
 Finding themselves thus cooped up, they held a coun 
 cil of war and decided that it would not clo to sit down 
 and wait till Foote repaired his boats; in short, it was 
 plain the^ had got to cut their way out or be starved into 
 a surrender. They had depended on the river for sup 
 plies, but this was cut off, or soon would be, while they 
 could not forage through Grant s lines. They therefore 
 determined to throw themselves in one desperate assault 
 on McClernand s lines, cutting their way out, and retreat 
 south to Nashville. Saturday morning was fixed upon as 
 the time to make the attempt. 
 
 Fortune seemed to favor them, for Grant on that criti 
 cal morning was on board the flag-ship, consulting with 
 Foote respecting their future movements. The rebel 
 plan was to have the real attack on McClernand s division 
 to open the way to the south, while a feigned one should 
 be directed against the centre to distract attention and 
 prevent reinforcements being sent to McClernand. 
 
 Pillow, at the head of several thousand troops, and 
 preceded by three batteries, moved without beat of drum 
 quietly out of the works, and fell like an avalanche on 
 McClernand s division. Unfortunately, it had erected no 
 breastworks, while the broken country, covered with 
 woods and underbrush, made it impossible to detect the 
 movements of the enemy. Wallace was posted next to 
 McClernand, on a high riclge, and when the fierce can- 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 nonade burst upon his ears he did not know what it 
 meant. McClernand, after bearing up awhile against 
 the overwhelming force, at last sent off a staff officer in 
 desperate haste to him for help. But Wallace s orders 
 were to hold the position he occupied, and he hurried off 
 in officer to head-quarters for instructions from Grant. 
 
 GRANT S HEAD-QUARTERS. 
 
 But the latter had gone to see Foote, so the messenger 
 kept on to the river. 
 
 McClernand, wondering why Wallace did not send 
 help, dispatched another officer in hot haste with a still 
 more urgent request for immediate help, or he would be 
 overwhelmed. Wallace sat on his horse listening with a 
 beating heart to the loud explosions that incessantly 
 burst out of the woods, and seeing, by the receding thun 
 der, that McClernand s right flank was turned, could wait 
 no londer to hear from Grant, and hurried off Croft with 
 a brigade to his help. The next moment a crowd of 
 flying fugitives burst into view, while an officer dashed 
 by, on a headlong gallop, crying: "We are all cut to 
 pieces." Croft at once moved forward and formed a 
 new line of battle with his troops, behind which the fugi 
 tives could rally. He was scarcely in position before the 
 excited, victorious enemy was upon him. But he met the 
 
6 4 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 shock firmly, and a terrible conflict ensued. Hand-to- 
 hand fights over batteries, shouts and curses, mingled 
 with the perpetual crash of small arms and thunder 
 bursts of artillery, great columns of smoke rolling up 
 the wintry heavens, crowds of fugitives filling the roads 
 and dotting the fields, made that February morning as 
 wild a morning as the sun ever shone upon. 
 
 Grant, on board of Foote s flag-vessel, was startled by 
 the early cannonading that shook the river, and hastened 
 ashore, and mounting his horse rode back toward the 
 lines. While pressing forward he suddenly saw an 
 officer tearing down the road toward him. His message 
 was brief and startling enough. But Grant, instead of 
 being alarmed at the state of things reported to him, 
 told General Smith, commanding the division that rested 
 on the river below the fort, to prepare for a general 
 assault of the enemy s works, and galloped on toward 
 the spot where the heavy thunder of cannon and rolling 
 volleys of musketry told that a doubtful combat was 
 raging. As he approached the scene of conflict he saw 
 the field covered with flying men, his line of battle dis 
 ordered, his best troops demoralized, the field covered 
 with the dead and wounded, ammunition gone, and 
 no longer a steadfast front of battle presented to the 
 enemy. 
 
 To an ordinary commander this disordered, frightful 
 state of things would have suggested an immediate re 
 treat, but to him it suggested anything else. Although 
 the confusion was frightful and the demoralization of the 
 forces apparently complete, yet to his practiced ear it was 
 plain that the enemy had exhausted his strength, delivered 
 his strongest and last blow, and with the sudden inspira 
 tion of true military genius, he saw that the moment had 
 arrived not to retreat, but to assume a bold offensive, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ^ 
 
 and instead of moving forward to the right to restore 
 order and organize a broken army, he galloped back to 
 Smith down the river and ordered him to move at once 
 on the enemy s works in front of him. 
 
 With that sudden inspiration that has won so many 
 battles, he perceived that the enemy had concentrated all 
 his force on McClernand s division to the south, and 
 hence was weak at this point down the river. 
 
 But in the meantime to make this sudden movement 
 more successful, he ordered McClernand to reorganize 
 his disordered columns and resume the offensive, and 
 
 
 WATER LATTERY. 
 
 marchinpf back over the field covered with his own dead 
 
 o 
 
 and wounded, move boldly on the enemy s works. Wal 
 lace was directed to command the assaulting columns, 
 and told the two brigades that composed them, that des 
 perate work was before them. The ringing cheer that 
 responded to this announcement assured him that he 
 need have no fear of them, and they started on a run for 
 5 
 
55 LIFE OF GENERAL CRAN1. 
 
 the works from which they had in the morning been 
 rolled back with such slaughter. 
 
 In the meantime, Smith down the river was in motion. 
 Right in front of him was an isolated hill crowned with a 
 heavy battery and strongly intrenched. Its natural 
 formation and position made it a key to the fort. Once 
 occupied by the Union forces and planted with Union 
 batteries, the fort was wholly uncovered, and shot and 
 shell could, be rained into it with such destructive effecc, 
 that no troops could maintain their position there. To 
 carry this, therefore, was the great object. If accom 
 plished, the fate of the fort was decided. Smith saw 
 clearly the situation and understood perfectly what the 
 result would be if that hill was taken and held, and he 
 determined to carry it if human daring could do it. 
 Ordering a body of troops to the right, as though the 
 ascent was to be made there, he took three picked regi 
 ments, the Second and Seventh Iowa and Fifty-seventh 
 Indiana, and forming them into a storming column and 
 riding to their head, gave the order to advance. 
 
 There was to be no firing till the last moment. Any 
 delay was defeat, and riding at their head with his cap lifted 
 on his sword, that was to be like the white plume of Henry 
 of Navarre, the oriflamme of that day, he pressed straight 
 up the heights the brave column taking the deso 
 lating fire that smote it without flinching and without 
 wavering. Closing the rent ranks, the living stepping 
 where the dead fell, they strained forward until the sum 
 mit was at last reached ; and then, for the first time, the 
 gleaming barrels were brought to a level and a sheet of 
 fire swept over the intrenchments, and the next moment, 
 with a loud and ringing cheer, they sprang upon the ram 
 parts, and rolled like a sudden inundation over them, 
 and before the smoke of their deadly volley had fairly 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ( - 
 
 cleared away, the Stars and Stripes were fluttering- upon 
 them, while shout after shout went up from the blood 
 stained summit, sending dismay into the fort below. 
 
 Darkness now fell on the field, and the uproar and 
 tumult that had lasted from early dawn ceased, and the 
 silence that rested on the leafless wood was broken only 
 by the groans of the wounded and the heavy rumbling 
 of ambulances over the frozen field. Smith and his 
 gallant troops lay down beside their arms on the frozen 
 ground, now crimsoned with blood, while Grant snatched 
 a few hours of repose in a negro hut near by. All awaited 
 anxiously the dawning of the next morning, for they well 
 knew it would bring the decisive hour. 
 
 But while quiet reigned in the encampment a singular 
 scene was passing in the fort. Floyd had summoned 
 his officers to a council of war. Buckner, an accom 
 plished officer, whose troops would be the first to feel 
 the fire of Smith s guns, declared that he could not hold 
 out a half an hour after the attack commenced. Floyd 
 then said he should leave his troops to their fate and 
 escape ; Pillow said he should go too, and so the chivalrous 
 commander-in-chief turned over the command to Pillow, 
 who, in turn, transferred it to Buckner. The former then 
 took two steamers, and as many men as could be crowded 
 into them, and amid the cursing and jeers of officers and 
 men, steamed off for Nashville. Pillow escaped on a 
 hand flat, while Colonel Forest, with his cavalry, forded 
 the wintry stream and made off after them. It was 
 intensely cold, and many were frozen to death. In all, 
 about three thousand got off. 
 
 The roll of the drum, in the morning, called the tired 
 sleepers from their frozen bed, and to the right and left 
 preparations began for the final assault. It was a sub 
 lime spectacle to see those raw recruits, most of them 
 
53 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 just from their comfortable homes, after three clays 
 exposure to cold, and snow, and storm, without fire or 
 shelter, and the last day to the fierce onsets of the enemy, 
 on this cold Sabbath morning, take their places sternly 
 in the ranks, ready to make the last desperate assault on 
 the enemy s works. But just before the order to move 
 was given there arose out of the enemy s works the shrill 
 notes of a bugle, and then a white flag waved above 
 them. Instead of the deadly encounter and the desperate 
 struggle, there was the sign of bloodless victory. As the 
 troops caught sight of it there went up a long, loud 
 cheer that, taken up regiment by regiment, traveled along 
 the lines till, for two miles, the wintry heavens rung with 
 glad echoes, more exulting and joyful than the sound of 
 Sabbath bells pealing far away over the land. In a short 
 time an officer from Buckner arrived with proposals for 
 an armistice to settle the terms of capitulation. But 
 Grant wanted no armistice. He knew his advantage ; 
 besides, his blood was up, for more than two thousand of 
 his brave soldiers had been stretched upon the frozen 
 field, and he replied: "No terms but unconditional and 
 immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move 
 immediately upon your works" 
 
 Buckner saw that postponement or arrangements of 
 any kind to lessen his mortification was out of the ques 
 tion, and he hastened to send back the following mes 
 sage: 
 
 "The disposition of the forces under my command, 
 incident to the change of commanders, and the over 
 whelming force under your command, notwithstanding 
 the brilliant success of the Confederate arms yesterday, 
 compel me to accept the ungenerous and unchivalric 
 terms you propose." 
 
 Grant did not trouble himself about the "chivalry" of 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. fa 
 
 the matter, but mounted his horse and rocle direct to the 
 head-quarters of Buckner, and told him that he had no 
 desire to humiliate his troops, and that the officers might 
 retain their side-arms and personal baggage, but that all 
 the public property must be turned over to the Govern 
 ment. Grant and Buckner had been schoolmates at West 
 Point and comrades in the army, and the formalities of the 
 capitulation being settled, were once more on their old 
 friendly footing. Nearly fifteen thousand prisoners fell 
 into our hands, which, with twenty-five hundred killed 
 and wounded, and the four thousand or five thousand 
 that escaped, made the garrison, as before stated, oyer 
 twenty thousand strong. 
 
 Grant, when he started for the fort, had about the same 
 number, but reinforcements kept arriving rapidly, so that 
 on this Sabbath morning he could have put 27,000 men 
 in the field. But he had only eight light batteries with him 
 when he started from Fort Henry, while sixty-five guns 
 defended the rebel works which fell into our hands. It 
 was a great victory, and won without the aid of the gun 
 boats, against terrible odds, by the valor of our troops 
 alone. It was the first real success of the war, and elec 
 trified the nation, and letters of congratulation came 
 pouring in to Grant. He himself felt elated, and issued 
 the following spirited order to the army : 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS, DISTRICT OF WEST TENNESSEE, ) 
 FORT DONELSON, February xyth, 1862. j 
 
 The General commanding takes great pleasure in congratulating 
 the troops of this command for the triumph over rebellion gained by 
 their valor, on the i3th, i4th and I5lh instant. 
 
 For four successive nights, without shelter, during the most in 
 clement weather known in this latitude, they faced an enemy in large 
 force, in a position chosen by himself. Though strongly fortified by 
 nature, all the additional safeguards suggested by science were added. 
 Without a murmur this was borne, prepared at all times to receive an 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
LII-E OF GENERAL GRANT. j { 
 
 attack, and with continuous skirmishing by day, resulting ultimately 
 in forcing the enemy to surrender without condition. 
 
 The victory achieved is not only great in the effect it will have in 
 breaking down rebellion, but has secured the greatest number of 
 prisoners of war ever taken in any battle on this continent. 
 
 Fort Donelson will hereafter be marked in capitals on the map of 
 our united country, and the men who fought the battle will live in the 
 memory of a grateful people. By order, 
 
 U. S. GRANT, 
 
 Brigadier-General Commanding. 
 
 The capture of the fort left an open road to Nashville, 
 and the announcement of its capture fell like a thunder 
 bolt on the astonished citizens. The last news that 
 reached the city promised victory, and hence the utter 
 defeat was the more appalling. The church bells that 
 morning^sounded more joyful than usual over the antici 
 pated triumph, and worshipers thronged the sanctuary 
 with glad and thankful hearts. But the day closed in 
 gloom and darkness, and terror seized the inhabitants. 
 Excited men rushed hither and thither, carts and wagons 
 were loaded with furniture, and such as could, fled south 
 ward as though the approach of the Union troops was to 
 be the signal of a general massacre. All law and order 
 disappeared, and an indiscriminate pillage commenced ; 
 and for twenty-four hours the city was given over to a 
 wild and lawless mob. Not only did Nashville and 
 Bowling Green two great rebel centres fall with Fort 
 Donelson, but Columbus, that great stronghold, became 
 uncovered and indefensible, and thus the long line of de 
 fense, stretching from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, was 
 broken through, and the series of conquests started that, 
 ended in the capture of Vicksburg and the entire over 
 throw of the rebel army west of the Alleghanies. 
 
 We said that congratulatory letters were poured into 
 General Grant for this great victory, but none came from 
 
2 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 his commander, Halleck. This man, who was never any 
 thing but a martinet, not only refrained from compliment 
 ing him, but from some unaccountable freak of temper 
 attempted to destroy his reputation. He telegraphed to 
 Washington: "Smith, by his coolness and bravery at Fort. 
 Donelson, when the battle was against us, turned the 
 tide and carried the enemy s outworks. Make him a 
 Major-General. You can t get a better one. Honor him 
 for the victory, and the whole country will applaud." The 
 Secretary of War, however, took a different view of the 
 matter, and instead, recommended Grant for this grade, 
 and the Senate confirmed -it the same day that Halleck s 
 telegram was dated. Nor did his petty jealousy and 
 hostility end here. On the 3d of March, without a syllable 
 of previous explanation or intimation to Grant, Halleck 
 sent the following dispatch to the General-in-Chie f, at 
 Washington: "I have had no communication with Gen 
 eral Grant for more than a week. He left his command 
 without my authority, and went to Nashville. His army 
 seems to be as much demoralized by the victory of Fort 
 Donelson as was that of the Potomac by the defeat of 
 Bull Run. It is hard to censure a successful general im 
 mediately after a victory, but I think he richly deserves it. 
 I can get no returns, no reports, no information of any 
 kind from him. Satisfied with his victory 7 , he sits down 
 and enjoys it, without any regard to the future. I am 
 worn out and tired by this neglect and inefficiency. C. 
 F. Smith is almost the only officer equal to the emer 
 gency." The next day, having probably received au 
 thority from Washington, he telegraphed to Grant : 
 " You will place Major-General C. F. Smith in command 
 of expedition, and remain yourself at Fort Henry. Why 
 do you not obey my orders to report strength and posi 
 tion of your command ?" 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ~ , 
 
 Grant replied on the 5th : " Your dispatch of yesterday 
 is just received. Troops will be sent under command of 
 Major-General Smith, as directed. I had prepared a dif 
 ferent plan, intending- General Smith to command the 
 forces which should go to Paris and Humboldt, while I 
 would command the expedition upon Eastport, Corinth 
 and Jackson, in person. ... I am not aware of ever 
 having disobeyed any order from your head-quarters 
 certainly never intended such a thing. I have reported 
 almost daily the condition of my command, and reported 
 
 every position occupied In conclusion, I will say 
 
 that you may rely on my carrying out your instructions 
 in every particular to the best of my ability." 
 
 A few days later Halleck sent the following astound 
 ing dispatch to Grant : 
 
 " General McClellan directs that you report to me 
 daily the number and position of the forces under your 
 command. Your neglect of repeated orders to report 
 the strength of your command has created great dissatis 
 faction, and seriously interfered with military plans. 
 Your going to Nashville without authority, and when 
 your presence with your troops was of the utmost im 
 portance, was a matter of very serious complaint at 
 Washington, so much so that I was advised to arrest you 
 on your return." 
 
 In reply, Grant vindicated his course, denied every one 
 of the allegations of Halleck, and finally said : " There 
 is such a disposition to find fault with me, that I again ask 
 to be relieved from duty until I can be placed right in the 
 estimation of those higher in authority." 
 
 But Halleck now found that in his jealousy; envy or 
 childish petulance, he had gone too far, for when he 
 received explicit orders from Washington to state fully 
 in detail and definitely the crimes of which Grant had 
 
*j. LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 been guilty, he backed down, and wrote to the Govern 
 ment that Grant had satisfactorily explained everything. 
 There is great reason to believe that the statement 
 that McClellan had ordered him to be put under arrest 
 was a pure fabrication, for no such order was ever on file 
 in the War Department, and Stanton declared he had 
 never heard of such an order being given. How far he 
 might have carried this contemptible persecution, had he 
 not received orders to put his complaints in the form of 
 open charges, and the declaration of Grant that he should 
 demand a court-martial, it is impossible to say. But it 
 was evident, from the complete change of tone toward 
 Grant, and flattering declaration in a letter, which he now 
 wrote him, that he could not dispense with his valuable 
 services in the field, that he was extremely anxious to 
 hush the matter up. A court-martial would have placed 
 him in such a light that public indignation would have 
 demanded his own removal. To have attempted to dis 
 grace the first general who had won the first great vic 
 tory could not but react on him. Halleck s representa 
 tion to the Government stopped further inquiries from 
 that source, while his apologetic, and flattering, and dis 
 simulating letters to Grant made the latter recall his 
 request to be relieved from duty till his case could be 
 investigated by the proper authorities, and on the 1 7th 
 he was given again his old command, and took up his 
 head-quarters at Savannah. From here he wrote to 
 Sherman, saying: "I have just arrived, and although 
 sick for the last two weeks, begin to feel better at the 
 thought of being again with my troops." 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 / 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 BATTLE OF SIIILOH. 
 
 POSITION OF THE TWO ARMIES GREAT CARELESSNESS THE SUDDEN ATTACK THE 
 UNION FORCES BEATEN BACK PRISONERS AND CANNON TAKEN GRANT HURRIES TO 
 THE FIELD A DISHEARTENING SPECTACLE ARRIVAL OF BUELL A GLOOMY PROS 
 PECT FIRING OF THE GUN-BOATS A HALT ORDERED A TERRIBLE NIGHT THR 
 NEXT MORNING THE ENEMY FORCED BACK GALLANT ACT OF GRANT CORRES 
 PONDENCE BETWEEN BEAUREGARD AND GRANT THE FIELD OF BATTLE NEXT DAY 
 BURIAL OF THE DEAD GRANT IN DISGRACE CHARGES AGAINST HIM HALLECK 
 TAKES COMMAND IN PERSON HIS SLOW PROGRESS CONTEMPTUOUS TREATMENT OF 
 GRANT HIS FAILURE ATTEMPTS TO DEPRIVE GRANT OF HIS COMMAND ENTIRELY 
 HIS RESTORATION HIS ORDER THREATS AGAINST HIM ROSENCRANZ AT IUKA 
 AND CORINTH, 
 
 TKE rebel forces being concentrated at Corinth 
 and the Union forces posted at Pittsburgh Land 
 ing, the opposing armies were in such close prox 
 imity that either side could bring on a battle in a few 
 hours. Buell, with his division, was marching across 
 the country from Nashville to join Grant, who was 
 ordered by Halleck to avoid an engagement till he came 
 up. His arrival being almost hourly expected, the dif 
 ferent divisions, that were some three miles out from the 
 river, threw up no breastworks, did not even take the 
 precaution to fell trees in front of their positions. The 
 ground had been admirably selected, and, with proper 
 defenses in front, could have been held against a vastly 
 superior* force. Two creeks, about three miles apart, 
 emptied into the river at nearly right angles with it, which 
 protected the right and left wings of the army. About 
 three miles out, another, called Owl Creek, flowed north, 
 emptying into Snake Creek, which protected the right 
 
76 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 flank. Behind this, a large part of the army was stationed. 
 As it was heavily flooded, it furnished for a large part oi 
 
 PITTSBURGH LANDING. 
 
 the interval between the two creeks an admirable defense 
 in front. The other creeks also being flooded, made a 
 flank movement exceedingly difficult, and necessitated 
 a front attack. Sherman was the 
 farthest out, and was located near a 
 a log church, known as the " Shi- 
 loh Meeting-house/ his division 
 stretching directly across the road. 
 Next came McClernand, and then 
 Prentiss and Hurlbert, and last Wai- 
 ; - lace to the right of Sherman, in all 
 35,000 men. Such was the position on Sunday morning, 
 the 6th of April. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Grant, seven miles away, at Savannah, was prepar 
 ing to ride out in the country and meet and hurry up 
 Buell s troops, when his ear was greeted by a tremendous 
 burst of artillery the shock had come. General Albert 
 Sydney Johnston, in command of the rebel forces, 40,000 
 strong, had left Corinth three days before without the 
 knowledge of our generals, and at daybreak fell with the 
 suddenness of a thunderbolt upon our extended lines. 
 The first blow fell on Prentiss and scattered his men like 
 chaff. In a short time he was surrounded, and, with 
 3,000 men, surrendered. Sherman caught it next, and 
 his raw troops recoiled before the furious onset. Other 
 divisions were brought up, and gallant stands were made 
 and heroic fighting done, but our whole line was pushed 
 back and ready to rend asunder. 
 
 Grant, who at first thought that the firing was between 
 some skirmishing parties, soon found, by the rapid, and 
 continuous, and heavy roar of artillery, that the two 
 armies were engaged, hastened to a steamboat and hur 
 ried up to the field. As he drew near the landing the 
 roll of artillery and crash of small arms, evidently drawing 
 near the river, filled him with the deepest anxiety. As he 
 spurred up the bank the crowd of fugitives swarming the 
 road confirmed his worst fears his army was being 
 forced back toward the river. Instantly sending off an 
 aid to Crump s Landing, five miles distant, to hurry up 
 Wallace s division, and another across the river to Nel 
 son, commanding Buell s advance, to march with all 
 speed, he rode into the midst of the fight. Patches of 
 wood here and there shut out portions of the field, and he 
 could judge of the condition of things only by reports, 
 and these were confused and contradictory. The truth 
 was there was no plan of battle, it was simply a des 
 perate effort to keep from being overwhelmed. 
 
78 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 2 
 
 BIW - W 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j~ 
 
 The enemy pressed their advantage so furiously that 
 the line was steadily forced back, while the ground was 
 strewn with the dead and wounded. They had taken a 
 great number of prisoners, captured three batteries and 
 carried three encampments with all they contained, before 
 eleven o clock. At this rate, by sundown, Grant s army 
 would entirely disappear. He saw the peril, and dis 
 patched officers off after Buell s division, with the most 
 urgent request to hurry its march. Boats were already 
 on the other side of the rivet to ferry over the troops, 
 toward which his eyes constantly turned with painful 
 solicitude. To add to his anxiety, Wallace s division at 
 Crump s Landing, although in full hearing of the terrific 
 cannonading, strangely lost its way and never reached 
 the battle-field at all. Noon came, and still no reinforce 
 ments arrived, and the conflict raging as furious as ever, 
 and the bleeding and decimated line still reeling back 
 toward the river. Grant and his officers made almost 
 superhuman efforts to hold their ground till help should 
 arrive, for if once crowded to the bank of the river the 
 fate of the army was sealed. Johnston in the meantime 
 had fallen, and Beauregard assumed command, and swore 
 that his steed should drink that ni^ht of the waters of the 
 
 o 
 
 Tennessee. This boast, to all human appearance, would 
 prove true. Buell s troops were not in sight, and it was 
 plain they could not arrive to take part in that day s 
 battle, and as the sun slowly moved down the western 
 sky, the prospect grew gloomier and gloomier. There 
 seemed to be but one hope left that w r hen the exultant 
 foe got near the river, where, under ordinary circum 
 stances, the long and bitter conflict would end, the two 
 gun-boats with their heavy metal might arrest him. 
 
 But in the meantime Buell had arrived at Savannah, 
 Grant s head-quarters, and there hearing of his departure 
 
So 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRA.\ 
 
 for Pittsburgh Landing- and that a great battle was 
 on there , hurried down the river. As he landed and 
 spurred up the bluff, the sight that met his gaze was ap 
 palling. There seemed nothing but a broken, fugitive 
 army, whose only safety lay in getting across the river, 
 and he asked Grant what provisions he had made for the 
 transport of his army. The latter replied: "None; I 
 don t despair of whipping them yet" He calculated that 
 the stubborn resistance that the enemy had met with had 
 nearly exhausted his energy, and the time was near at 
 hand when, the force of the blow being spent, he could 
 rally his troops and assume the offensive. If the troops 
 had all been like him, this would have been possible he 
 could never be demoralized by reverses, could never 
 reach a point when he could not turn and fight, but he 
 was dreadfully mistaken, if he supposed he could ever rally 
 these raw, undisciplined and thoroughly whipped troops 
 into any effort beyond dogged resistance for self-preser 
 vation. As the sun went down over the western forest, and 
 evening drew on, it seemed that the last hope was gone. 
 Buell was in despair, for it apparently needed but 
 one more effort of the enemy and die army would stand 
 uncovered on the banks of the river, with nothing left to 
 do but surrender. But at this critical moment the gun 
 boats began to heave their enormous shells into the rebel 
 ranks, while Webster, gathering together some heavy 
 guns, established a semicircular battery that opened with 
 such a horrible fire on the enemy, that their onward 
 movement was arrested. 
 
 This sudden volcano opening in the faces of the 
 thoroughly exhausted troops, which had now been fight 
 ing without a moment s rest since daybreak, and the 
 horrible screech of the shells from the gun-boats, the 
 unearthly sound of which produced greater terror than 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. g r 
 
 damage, caused Beauregard to order a halt till morning. 
 There can be little doubt but that one supreme effort at 
 this moment would have hurled the Union army into the 
 Tennessee. Whether they were capable of making it is 
 very doubtful, especially as both Grant and Beauregard 
 said afterward they were not. Southern writers have 
 blamed the latter for halting as he did ; but human effort 
 has its limit, beyond which, no matter how great the stake 
 at issue, it cannot go. The extent of human endurance 
 is a very important factor in any calculation of results to 
 be accomplished, and yet the last one ever considered by 
 mere spectators, who see only what momentous conse 
 quences are depending on one more great effort. Both 
 armies, in the long, incessant, tremendous struggle of 
 that day had done their utmost, and were glad to lie 
 down on the field where the last onset was made and the 
 last shot fired, to rest. No attempt was made to care for 
 the wounded. They lay by thousands along the road, in 
 the fields and scattered through the woods, loading the 
 air with their moans and cries for help, while around and 
 above them shrieked and burst the ponderous shells from 
 the gun-boats, making the night hideous and setting the 
 woods on fire, that blazed up in the darkness like a great 
 funeral pyre, and added tenfold wildness to the scene. 
 Added to all, the wind arose, fanning the flames into 
 greater fury, and at length the rain came down in tor 
 rents, drenching the dead, and dying, and sleeping soldiers 
 alike. To the wounded, burning with thirst, it was a 
 great boon. The agony of the mighty multitudes that 
 lay gasping and dying on the bloody, trampled field all 
 that night, none but the God who witnessed it will ever 
 know. Amid this driving storm Grant rode from divi 
 sion to division, visiting the several commanders and 
 giving orders to commence the battle at daybreak, and 
 6 
 
g LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 leaving no reserves, throw their whole weight on the 
 enemy. 
 
 About midnight he rode back to the landing, drenched 
 to the skin, and stretching himself on the ground, with a 
 stump for a pillow, sought a few hours rest. 
 
 Nelson s division had been ferried over the river before 
 the battle ceased the night before, and taken up a posi 
 tion to aid the hard-pressed army. All night long Buell s 
 troops were being ferried across, and before daylight at 
 least twenty thousand fresh and well-disciplined troops 
 formed a new line of battle in front of Grant s shattered 
 army. The losses on both sides the day before had been 
 frightful, so that Beauregard, out of the 40,000 with which 
 he commenced the attack the previous morning, could 
 bring but 20,000 into the field, while Grant s own force 
 was still less. 
 
 The storm had broken with the night, and the April 
 morning dawned sweet and tranquil, but the trampled 
 ground was wet and miry and the woods dripping with 
 rain-drops. Soon the sharp rattle of musketry from the 
 skirmish lines told that the fierce conflict of the day before 
 was begun again. Then the heavy roll of artillery shook 
 the banks of the Tennessee, and the order forward rang 
 along the lines. The long, swinging, confident tread of 
 Buell s soldiers was in marked contrast to the irregular 
 marching of Grant s troops, and the steady ranks moved 
 with the precision of soldiers on parade into the enemy s 
 fire. Beauregard strove desperately not to lose the 
 results of the great victory he had gained, and his troops 
 seconded his efforts gallantly. It was hard to give up 
 what had been won with such terrible sacrifice of life and 
 blood. But they could, after the disastrous losses of the 
 day before, bring into the field but little more than half 
 as many men as Grant, a large portion of whom were 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 8 
 
 comparatively fresh. Buell handled his troops splendidly, 
 and the three miles of our encampment that had been 
 swept with such a storm the day before were steadily 
 recovered, and the enemy was pressed so hard that he 
 at length turned and retreated to Corinth. Grant wished 
 to press after in hot pursuit, but Buell said that his troops 
 had made a forced march the day before and most of them 
 been all night in crossing the river, and were too jaded 
 to chase a flying enemy, and the recall was sounded and 
 the tired columns prepared to bivouac for the night. 
 
 9 
 
 PICKETS ON DUTY. 
 
 Grant watched the progress of the battle with the 
 deepest anxiety, and, stung by the punishment he had 
 received the day before, strove desperately to break the 
 enemy s lines and close the day s victory with a rout. 
 But the rebel troops were handled with so much skill 
 and fought so stubbornly, that though overwhelmed 
 by our fire and forced to yield, they fell back step by 1 
 step. 
 
8 4 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 " Near the close of the day, Grant met the First Ohio 
 Regiment marching toward the northern part of the field, 
 and immediately in front of a position which it was im 
 portant to take at that particular juncture ; another regi 
 ment to the left was fighting hard, but about to yield 
 had, in fact, given way. Grant saw the emergency, and 
 instantly halted the passing force on the brow of a hill, 
 the enemy lying in a wood at its base ; he changed the 
 direction of the First Ohio, ancf himself ordered it to 
 charge, in support of the yielding battalion. The men 
 recognized their leader, and obeyed with enthusiasm, and 
 Grant rode along with them in the line of battle, as much 
 exposed as any private in the ranks. The retreating 
 troops on the left took courage at this sight ; they stopped 
 their backward movement, closed up their wavering ranks 
 with cheers, and the two regiments swept the enemy at 
 once from the coveted spot, thus capturing one of the last 
 important positions in the battle of Shiloh."* 
 
 It seems to be a standing rule among military men 
 never to admit they are fairly whipped in a straightfor 
 ward, manly way ; but there are always some unforeseen, 
 unexpected circumstances that compel them to yield 
 what was not legitimately won. So Beauregarcl, the 
 next day, wishing to bury his dead, thought fit to accom 
 pany his request to do so with an intimation that he did 
 not yield the battle-field from necessity, but from pru 
 dence. This is his letter to Grant : 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS, ARMY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, | 
 Monday, April 8th, 1862. j 
 
 SIR: At the close of the conflict yesterday, my forces being ex 
 hausted by the extraordinary length of time during which they were 
 engaged with yours on that and the preceding day, and it being appa 
 rent that you had received and were still receiving reinforcements, I 
 
 * Colonel Baleau. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. g - 
 
 felt it my duty to withdraw my troops from the immediate scene of 
 conflict. 
 
 Under these circumstances, in accordance with usages of war, I shall 
 transmit this under a flag of truce, to ask permission to send amounted 
 party to the battle-field of Shiloh, for the purpose of giving decent 
 interment to my dead. 
 
 Certain gentlemen wishing to avail themselves of this to remove 
 the remains of their sons and friends, I must request for them the 
 privilege of accompanying the burial party; and in this connection, 
 I deem it proper to say, I am only asking what I have extended to 
 your own countrymen, under similar circumstances. 
 General, respectfully, your obedient servant, 
 
 G. T. BEAUREGARD, 
 
 General Commanding. 
 
 To Major-General U. S. GRANT, commanding United States forces near Pittsburgh, 
 Ten n. 
 
 To this Grant replied in a short note, saying, that 
 owing to the extreme warm weather, he had the clay be 
 fore detailed a heavy force to bury the dead of both 
 armies, hence there was no reason for granting his 
 request, and closing with, "I shall always be glad to 
 extend any courtesy consistent with duty, and especially 
 so when dictated by humanity." 
 
 The burial of the dead was toilsome work, and to those 
 volunteers, fresh from their peaceful vocations, a sad one. 
 They lay by thousands over the trampled ground, the two 
 uniforms in " about equal proportion here the bodies 
 lying in line where they fell in the ranks, and there in 
 heaps where there had been a desperate struggle over a 
 battery, while among them were scattered thousands of 
 wounded, unable to move. It was a ghastly spectacle, 
 and contrasted strongly with the sublime heroism and 
 gallantry of the day before. Our loss was the greatest, 
 being a little over twelve thousand, while that of the 
 enemy was not quite eleven thousand. This was a large 
 proportion for both armies, and shows that the fighting 
 
6 LIFE OF GENERAL CKAA T. 
 
 was close and desperate, more so than in almost any 
 battle during the war. 
 
 The shouts with which the first news of the repulse of 
 
 the enemy was received 
 was soon changed into bit 
 ter recriminations. It was 
 a barren victory, nay, al 
 most a disastrous defeat, 
 [ said the press, and not 
 || only was Grant s military 
 but personal character as 
 sailed. It was asserted 
 that he was intoxicated on 
 the field, and unfit to com- 
 
 mand the army. The West was especially loud in its 
 outcry, and Congressmen and politicians urged the Presi 
 dent to remove him from command, and but for the noble 
 and determined defense of him by Washburne, their re 
 quest would have been granted and this hero of the war 
 been heard of no more. As it was, though left nominally 
 in command of the West District of Tennessee, his 
 army was broken up into the right wing, commanded by- 
 Thomas and McClernand, and hence, under their orders, 
 which were often sent to Grant s subordinates instead of 
 to him, thus ignoring him altogether. But the latter 
 uttered no complaint, leaving it to time to set things 
 right. 
 
 Halleck now took the field in person, determined to 
 show both Grant and the country how war should be 
 conducted, and began to advance toward Corinth. He 
 had under him 120,000 soldiers. Had Grant been at 
 the head of this mighty army, he would have been in 
 Corinth in a week, while it took Halleck six weeks to go 
 fifteen miles. Grant, in the meanwhile, took little part in 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. o^ 
 
 H/ 
 
 what was going- on. His position in the army was a 
 painful one, for he knew he was regarded by the officers 
 as in disgrace. He felt it deeply, but uttered no com 
 plaint, performing whatever duties were imposed on him 
 with promptness, yet with a heavy heart. But he clearly 
 foresaw that Halleck s mode of conducting a campaign 
 would never end the war. He built defenses only to 
 leave them, evidently intending to dig his way into 
 Corinth. Grant, as well as the commanding officers, 
 chafed under this tardy advance, believing that Beaure- 
 gard would take advantage of his dilatory movement to 
 evacuate the place and carry off every thing of value with 
 him. He, however, kept silent, except in a single in 
 stance, when the probability of Beauregard s evacuating 
 Corinth was under discussion at Halleck s head-quarters. 
 He had carefully noted the movements and position of 
 the enemy, and remarked that he believed if a vigorous 
 attack was made on the extreme right of the enemy s 
 line, it could be easily carried, when the victorious 
 columns could wheel to the left and sweep the entire 
 works. But Halleck ridiculed the idea, and very haugh 
 tily intimated that it would be time for him to give his 
 opinion when asked to do so. Grant, after that, said no 
 more, but quietly looked on while Halleck should exhibit 
 to the world what a martinet he was. At length, on the 
 30th of May, he announced that the enemy was about 
 to attack the left, and the vast army was drawn up in 
 line of battle, and waited in silence for the momentous 
 assault, but none came. At last, on closer inspection, it 
 was discovered that the imposing works were empty of 
 both men and guns, and the disgusted army marched 
 into the quiet little town and took possession of it. 
 Grant immediately rode over to the point where he told 
 Halleck an assault could be successfully made and found 
 
88 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL UK ANT. 
 
 his conjectures true. The works were weak there, and 
 could have been easily carried and Beauregard s army 
 demolished. 
 
 Halleck had built miles of roads and intrenchments to 
 avoid being- surprised by Beau regard, and was surprised 
 most of all to find that he never intended to attack him, 
 but when the proper time came, quietly to retire. Thus 
 this mighty movement, which was to wipe out the re 
 membrance of Shiloh and overthrow the rebel army, 
 turned out a miserable farce, and the great army wa:; 
 broken up and distributed to different points. 
 
 In July, Halleck was called to Washington as com- 
 
 CORINTH AFTER THE EVACUATION. 
 
 mander-in-chief of all the armies, to repeat on a grander 
 scale the blunders which, it seems, recommended him to 
 the Government for that responsible position. 
 
 He signaled his departure by offering to Colonel Allen, 
 a quartermaster, the command of the Army of Tennessee, 
 in place of Grant, but he had the good sense to refuse it. 
 It was a fitting close to his total failure as commander of 
 the Western District to attempt still further to degrade 
 the only man who had redeemed his administration of 
 affairs from utter contempt. A kind Providence pre 
 vented him from further efforts to check the upward 
 career of a man who was soon to occupy his place and 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. gg 
 
 shed lustre on the country that delighted to do him 
 honor. 
 
 Grant retained his command, and established his head 
 quarters at Corinth, where, for two months, he was occu 
 pied entirely in protecting the railroad running from that 
 place to Bolivar and Columbus. He issued an order 
 while here to employ fugitive slaves, that were constantly 
 escaping to his lines, in any way in which they could be 
 made useful. 
 
 Memphis being captured by our gun-boats, fell under 
 his command, and the inhabitants, by maintaining a con 
 stant communication with the Confederates, kept them 
 informed of all his movements. This at last became so 
 intolerable that he issued the following order : 
 
 The families now residing in the city of Memphis of the following 
 persons, are required to move south beyond the lines within five days 
 of the date hereof: 
 
 First. All persons holding commissions in the so-called Confederate 
 army, or who have voluntarily enlisted in said army, or who accom 
 pany and are connected with the same. 
 
 Second. All persons holding office under or in the employ of the so- 
 called Confederate Government. 
 
 Third. All persons holding State, county or municipal orifices, who 
 claim allegiance to said so-called Confederate Government, and who 
 have abandoned their families and gone South. 
 
 Safe conduct will be given to the parties hereby required to leave, 
 upon application to the Provost-Marshal of Memphis. 
 
 By command of Major-General GRANT. 
 
 But that it might not act oppressively on innocent per 
 sons, he directed that all those should be exempt from the 
 sweeping effect of this order who would sign a paper 
 stating that they never had given, and never would, 
 while he occupied Memphis, give any information or 
 encouragement to the Confederate army, or in any way 
 conspire against the Federal Government. He also 
 
~~ LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 9 
 
 suspended for awhile the Avalanche, for its treasonable 
 course. This order awakened the deepest indignation, 
 and all sorts of threats were made against him, of which 
 the following is a fair sample : 
 
 U. S. GRANT: Sir We have seen your infamous and fiendish 
 proclamation. It is characteristic of your infernal policy. 
 We had hoped that this war would be conducted upon the princi 
 ples recognized by civilized nations. But you have seen fit to ignore 
 all the rules of civilized warfare, and resort to means which ought 
 to and would make half-civilized nations blush. If you attempt to 
 carry out your threat against the property of citizens, we will make 
 you rue the day you issued your dastardly proclamation. If we can t 
 act on the principle of lex talionis, in regard to private property, we 
 will visit summary vengeance upon your men. You call us guerrillas, 
 which you know is false. We are recognized by our Government; 
 and it was us who attacked your wagons at Morning Sun. We have 
 twenty-three men of yours, and, as soon as you carry out your thrqat 
 against the citizens of the vicinity of Morning Sun, your Hessians will 
 pay for it. You shall conduct this war upon proper principles. We 
 intend to force you to do it. If you intend to make this a war of ex 
 termination, you will please inform us of it at the earliest convenience. 
 We are ready, and more than willing, to raise the "black flag." 
 There are 2,000 partisans who have sworn to retaliate. If you do not 
 retract your proclamation, you may expect to have scenes of the most 
 bloody character. We all remember the manner in which your vandal 
 soldiers put to death Mr. Owens, of Missouri. Henceforth our motto 
 shall be, Blood for blood, and blood for property. We intend, by the 
 help of God, to hang on the outskirts of your rabble, like lightning 
 around the edge of a cloud. 
 
 We don t intend this as a threat, but simply as a warning of what 
 we intend to do in case you pursue your disgraceful and nefarious 
 policy toward our citizens, as marked out in your letter of recent 
 date, Respectfully, 
 
 GEO. R. MERRITT. 
 
 He strengthened the works around Corinth, which, at 
 a later day saved it from being captured when occupied 
 by Rosencranz, and made his own head-quarters at 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRAKT. gi 
 
 Jackson. In the meantime Price and Van Dorn kept him 
 constantly on the alert, the former having pounced sud 
 denly upon luka and captured it before Murphy, in com 
 mand there, could offer any resistance. Rosencranz and 
 Ord were sent out against them with some eight thousand 
 men, but owing to the information given the rebel leaders 
 by Confederate spies, they failed to inflict any heavy 
 damage on the enemy, and the army of Price, that Grant 
 felt confident of destroying, got off with little loss. They 
 afterward formed a junction of their forces, and attacked 
 Rosencranz on the 3d of October. Although the latter 
 had only about half the force of the enemy, he not only 
 resisted all their efforts to take Corinth, which Grant s 
 precaution had rendered almost invulnerable, but were 
 so broken and shattered, that they ceased to cause him 
 anxiety. 
 
 Seeing his department relieved from all immediate 
 danger, and having received large reinforcements, he now 
 planned a campaign against Vicksburg to reduce it. 
 This was an herculean task, and if once accomplished, 
 would be the most decisive blow yet struck against the 
 Confederacy. 
 
Q2 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 VICKSBURG IMPREGNABLE GRANT AND HALLECK GRANT NEARLY SUPERSEDED BY 
 M CLERNAND CUT OFF FROM HIS BASE OF SUPPLIES A USEFUL LESSON NOT 
 TAUGHT IN THE SCHOOLS GRANT RESOLVES TO TAKE VICKSBURG UNHEALTHY 
 ENCAMPMENT ENLARGING AN OLD CANAL GRANT HAS NO CONFIDENCE IN IT 
 A GOVERNMENT SCHEME A DISASTER THE ENEMY JUUILANT A NEW PLAN 
 ITS FAILURE A THIRD PLAN TO GET IN REAR OF VICKSP.URG WILSON S EXPEDI 
 TION HARD WORK A SECOND FAILURE A FOURTH EXPEDITION, COMMANDED 
 BY ADMIRAL PORTER, TO Gi:T AROUND VICKSBURG GRANT S LAST DESPERATE 
 RESOLVE OPPOSED BY SHERMAN REFUSES TO CALL A COUNCIL OF WAR GRAND 
 SELF-RELIANCE RUNNING THE BATTERIES A FEARFUL SPECTACLE THE BAT 
 TERIES PASSED M CLERNAND S STRANGE INACTION A BEAUTIFUL PLANTATION 
 
 BECOMES A SCENE OF RUIN GRANT ASSUMES COMMAND OF THE ADVANCE. 
 
 VICKSBURG not only prevented the navigation of 
 the Mississippi by our vessels, but it connected 
 the South with its great source of supplies. While 
 the Confederacy had free access to Texas it could always 
 obtain beef to feed its armies, though all its ports were 
 blockaded. 
 
 After the fall of New Orleans, Farragut endeavored to 
 reduce this stronghold, but could not succeed, and its 
 naturally strong position, on a high bluff, had been ren 
 dered well-nigh impregnable by formidable works and 
 powerful batteries. A canal had been cut around the 
 city in order to turn the waters of the Mississippi into it, 
 and so leave the place inland, but had failed. 
 
 Grant was now receiving reinforcements, and he only 
 waited permission from head-quarters to start an advance 
 against this stronghold. Messages were constantly pass 
 ing between him and Halleck, and many difficulties had 
 to be overcome. The latter, however, did one good thing 
 at this time that should go far to atone for much of his 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ~~ 
 
 conduct in the past. McClernand, ambitious of a general 
 command, and wielding much political influence, had pre 
 vailed on Lincoln to promise to put him at the head of 
 the Western army, but Halleck stubbornly resisted, and 
 it was through his efforts alone Grant was left in chief 
 command. 
 
 While things were in this unsettled condition Grant 
 met with a disaster which at first threatened serious con 
 sequences. His secondary base of supplies at Holly 
 Spring was captured, with all its stores for the army, by 
 Van Dorn, which left him shut up in the enemy s coun 
 try, and it was some time before he could open his com 
 munications again. It, however, taught him one lesson 
 which was of incalculable service to him, and one that 
 had never been taught him before, viz., that an army 
 could live in that section of the country without commu 
 nication with its base of supplies. That it was safe for 
 an army of 30,000 men to cut loose from its base and 
 live off the country while marching and fighting, had never 
 been taught him at West Point, yet it was a lesson he 
 learned now, and acted on afterward, or Vicksburg would 
 not have been taken. It is true he plundered barns and 
 storehouses, so that the people suffered, but the army 
 lived. 
 
 Vicksburg, as stated before, was situated on a high 
 bluff so high that the gun-boats were useless against it, 
 while the shore opposite was so low that the guns of th<? 
 place completely commanded it, so that no works could 
 be erected there, hence it could be reduced only by get 
 ting in its rear and attacking it from the land side. 
 Sherman, with a strong force, undertook to carry the; 
 works that defended it on the north, at Haines s Bluff, but 
 was driven back with heavy loss. 
 
 The ridge on which Vicksburg stands, extends twelve 
 
94 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 miles north to the Yazoo, where it abruptly terminates in 
 Haines s Bluff. He found that the works erected here, 
 with the natural formation of the ground, made it impreg- 
 nable, while if it were carried, the whole twelve miles 
 from there to Vicksburg was strongly fortified. Grant, 
 his army now swelled to 50,000 men, pitched his encamp- , 
 ment at Young s Point and Milliken s Bend, and began 
 that series of movements which finally ended in the fall 
 of Vicksburg. The location was unhealthy, and rendered 
 still more so by heavy rains, which submerged the encamp 
 ment, and diseases of various kinds set in w r hich took off 
 a great number, and rendered others unfit for service. 
 
 VIEW SHOWING THE SITE OF THE CANAL. 
 
 His first attempt to get below Vicksburg was by 
 enlarging the old canal cut by General Williams, 
 Bientioned above, and turn the Mississippi into it. 
 McClernand began its enlargement on the 2Oth of Janu 
 ary. This was, however, not Grant s plan, but one 
 adopted at Washington, and greatly admired by Lincoln. 
 Four thousand men were set to work, but at the end of a 
 fortnight he reported to Halleck that it never would suc 
 ceed, saying, in his blunt, concise way: "The canal is at 
 right angles with the thread of the current at both ends, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and both ends are in an eddy, the lower coming out un 
 der bluffs completely commanding it. Warrenton, a few 
 miles below, is capable of as strong a defense as Vicks- 
 burg, and the enemy seeing us at work here have turned 
 their attention to that point." This simple statement was 
 enough to show the impracticability of the scheme. But 
 the Government persisted in the undertaking, so improve 
 ments were made, and for two months the work went 
 steadily on. At last it seemed as if Grant s prognostica 
 tions were about to prove false. 
 
 The dredging machines worked satisfactorily, so that 
 the canal which, owing to the character of the soil, had 
 reached a depth of only six feet, was now deepened, and it 
 looked as if the dam at its mouth on the Mississippi to 
 the north might in a few days 
 be removed and the water let 
 in and a new channel made for 
 the river, which would leave 
 
 Vicksburg, with all its works ftiMiSFW^S X ill 
 and strong batteries, inland. 
 
 But at this critical moment, 
 when everything seemed to be 
 
 working favorably, the river from heavy rains above 
 began to rise, and increasing every hour, at length pressed 
 with its accumulated waters so heavily on the dam, which 
 kept the canal dry for the workmen, that it suddenly gave 
 way, and the water which they soon hoped to let in, came in 
 of its own accord and with such a rush and power, that it 
 lifted the workmen bodily out of the channel and hurled 
 them on dry land and carried horses and implements 
 away to be submerged or lost. 
 
 This sudden eruption of the river, instead of widening 
 and deepening the canal, broke through its dykes and 
 flooded the whole country around, and in a few hours ren- 
 
9 6 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 dered the labor of weeks totally useless. In fact, the canal 
 from the first was a failure, for the batteries at Vicksburg 
 so enfiladed it that the moment large bodies of troops 
 attempted to pass through, their destructive fire would 
 have annihilated them. The enemy laughed at these 
 splendid exhibitions of strategy, and said they hoped the 
 Yankees in future would not attempt to disturb the 
 natural features of the globe, while Grant chafed at this 
 waste of time and effort. 
 
 Another plan was now adopted, which seemed more 
 feasible. About a mile west of the Mississippi, at this 
 point, lies Lake Providence, which is a portion of the old 
 bed of the Mississippi, long since abandoned by this 
 capricious river. Grant thought that by cutting a canal 
 to this he might restore the river to its old course, or at 
 least, a portion of it. As this lake connected with two 
 bayous, which, in turn, connected with the Tensas, Washita 
 and Red Rivers, he might in this way open a route for 
 transports of light draft, through which they could pass 
 and reach the Mississippi again below, and thus put him 
 self in connection with Banks, whose objective point was 
 Port Hudson, and after co-operating with him in the re 
 duction of the place, the two armies might move together 
 acrainst Vicksbunr So the levee was cut and the canal 
 
 o o 
 
 dug, and the water passed through into the lake satis 
 factorily. But the two bayous beyond were so choked 
 with fallen timber and overhanging trees that it was 
 found impossible to make a channel for the heavy trans 
 ports. It was thought, both North and South, that this 
 diversion of the Mississippi might change its course so en 
 tirely that it would flow west of New Orleans, and leave 
 that city an inland town. 
 
 Grant, however, did not share in these chimerical ex 
 pectations, he believed that Vicksburg, if ever taken, must 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 97 
 
 be won by hard fighting alone ; still, he kept the men at 
 work to gratify the strategists at Washington, meaning, 
 so soon as the water subsided, to take his own course 
 and carry out his own plan, which always was, " to move 
 on the enemy s works." But, while he was busy in dig- 
 ,ging these ditches, he sent Lieutenant-Colonel Wilson, of 
 his staff, to organize an expedition to open the Yazoo 
 Pass, in order to destroy the enemy s boats on the Yazoo 
 River, above Raines s Bluff. This pass is crooked, and 
 though only some seventy feet wide, is half as many feet 
 deep, arid runs from the Mississippi into Moon Lake, also 
 a former bed of the river on the east side. Thence it 
 flows eastward fifteen miles, and connects with the Cold- 
 water River, which, after a course of fifty miles, empties 
 into the Tallahatchie. The latter pursues a winding 
 course for fifty miles more, and then joins the Yallabusha, 
 the two forming the Yazoo, 1 1 5 miles below. This route 
 had in former times been used by light-draft boats, but, 
 as in high-water times, it caused often an overflow of the 
 plantations in its course, the State of Mississippi had 
 closed up the entrance to the pass, and so shut off the 
 river. This dam or levee Wilson, in accordance with 
 Grant s instructions, removed, by exploding a mine under 
 it, and the water resumed its old course, making a chan 
 nel deep enough to let the largest steamers pass through 
 to Moon Lake, a mile distant. But the rebels, aware of 
 what was going on, began to fell trees in the outlet of 
 the lake for four miles down, making such an entangle 
 ment that it required the greatest effort to clear it away. 
 Men, in parties of 500, relieved each other in cutting 
 away and hauling ashore the huge trees that filled the 
 stream, and lay across each other in every conceivable 
 form. But the herculean work was finally accomplished, 
 and a passage cleared to the Coldwater. And, although 
 7 
 
9 8 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the enemy erected works below to arrest the passage of 
 the boats, a way was opened at last to the Tallahatchie, 
 and General Ross, with twenty-two transports, preceded 
 by two iron-clad gun-boats, and a mosquito fleet, as it 
 was called, of light-armored craft, was ordered to move 
 down this pass. This fleet entered the pass on the 
 24th of February, and reached the Coldwater, twenty-five 
 miles distant, on the 2d of March. An almost unbroken 
 forest now lined the stream till it reached the lower 
 Tallahatchie, 250 miles distant. This lonely, gloomy 
 passage through the primeval forest was, on account 
 of the flooded banks which kept off all assailants, made 
 without the loss of a man. The whole distance passed 
 now was 250 miles, and Wilson reported that the route 
 to the rear of Vicksburg was practicable, and Grant 
 determined to avail himself of it. But it was a tremen 
 dous undertaking for by this route he would be com 
 pelled to transport his entire army 900 miles with all 
 its equipage. It is not necessary to go into all the details 
 of this complicated movement. The rebels built forts 
 along the route, hurried up troops to harass the expedi 
 tion, and at last threatened to* hem in and destroy it 
 altogether, and it was at last abandoned, for the time 
 being, to give place to a third expedition which was to 
 leave the Yazoo below Raines s Bluff and proceeding to 
 Steele s Bayou, keep on through Black Bayou to Deer 
 Creek, and thence to Rolling Fork, and on to the Sun 
 flower River, and down it to the Yazoo again, and so get 
 around Raines s Bluff. The naval force, composed of four 
 gun-boats, four mortar-boats and four tugs, were under 
 the command of Admiral Porter. The difficulties of the 
 route may be imagined when it is stated that one day, for 
 twenty-four consecutive hours, the progress of the boats 
 was at the average rate of fifty rods an hour. In the 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 best places, so obstructed was the stream, that Porter 
 with the utmost exertion could make but half a mile an 
 hour. But with the perseverance that is characteristic of 
 him, he kept pushing" on until he got within seven miles 
 of the Rolling Fork, which would give him a free course 
 to the Yazoo. 
 
 This flotilla, moving through the green fields and verdant 
 plantations, seemed a strange vision to the inhabitants of 
 the quiet interior, who hitherto had seen nothing of the 
 
 REMOVING OBSTRUCTIONS 
 
 war that was desolating other parts of the land, and they 
 flocked along the shores, whites and negroes together, to 
 gaze on it. 
 
 The rebels, however, soon understood the object 
 of the movement, and negroes were set to work to 
 cut down trees on the banks, which, falling across the 
 stream, would arrest Porter s progress. He, however, 
 pushed on, his men chopping or sawing the trees in two, 
 until he at last got within three miles of the Rolling Fork, 
 
JQO LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 where he saw smoke rising up from the woods in advance. 
 Sending on scouts, he learned that the enemy was land 
 ing troops at the junction to stop his progress. He im 
 mediately dispatched a force to hold Rolling Fork till he 
 could come up. He says : " After working all night and 
 clearing out the obstructions, which were terrible, we 
 succeeded in getting within 500 yards of the end of this 
 troublesome creek, and had only two or three large trees 
 to remove and one apparently short and easy line of 
 willows to work through. The men being much worn 
 out, we rested at sunset. In the morning we commenced 
 with renewed vigor to work ahead through the willows, 
 but our passage was very slow. ... In the mean 
 time the enemy had collected and landed about five hun 
 dred men and seven pieces of artillery (from twenty to 
 thirty-pounders), which were firing on our field-pieces 
 from time to time, the latter not having range enough to 
 reach them in return. 
 
 " I was also informed that the enemy were cutting 
 dov/n trees in our rear, to prevent communication by 
 water, and also prevent our escape ; this looked unpleas 
 ant. I knew that 5,000 had embarked at Haines s 
 Bluff for this place, immediately they heard we were at 
 tempting to go through that way, and, as our troops had 
 not come up, I considered it unwise to risk the least 
 thing ; at all events, never to let my communication be 
 closed behind me. I was somewhat strengthened in my 
 determination to advance no further until reinforced by 
 land forces, when the enemy, at sunset, opened on us a 
 cross-fire with six or seven rifled guns, planted some 
 where off in the woods, where we could see nothing but 
 the smoke. It did not take us long to dislodge them, 
 though, a large part of the crew being on shore at the time, 
 we coulcl not fire over them, or until they got on board. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 1 01 
 
 I saw at once the difficulties we had to encounter, with a 
 constant fire on our working parties, and no prospect at 
 present of the troops getting along. I had received a 
 letter from General Sherman informing me of the diffi 
 culties in getting forward his men ; he doing his utmost, 
 I knew, to expedite matters. 
 
 " The news of the felling trees in our rear was brouo-ht 
 in frequently by negroes, who were pressed into the ser 
 vice for cutting them, and I hesitated no longer about 
 what to clo. We dropped down again, unshipped our 
 rudders, and let the vessels rebound from tree to tree. 
 As we left, 
 the enemy 
 took posses 
 sion of the In 
 dian mound, 
 and in the 
 morning be 
 gan firing on 
 the * Caron- 
 delet, Lieu 
 tenant Mur 
 phy, and the Cincinnati, Lieutenant Bache. These two 
 ships soon silenced the batteries, and we were no longer 
 annoyed. 
 
 " The sharpshooters hung about us, firing from behind 
 trees and rifle-pits, but with due precaution we had very 
 few hurt only five wounded by rifle-balls and they 
 were hit by being imprudent. 
 
 " On the 2 1 st, we fell in with Colonel Smith, command 
 ing Eighth Missouri, and other parts of regiments. We 
 were quite pleased to see him, as I never knew before 
 how much the comfort and safety of iron-clads, situated 
 as we were, depended on soldiers. I had already sent 
 
 THE CARONDELET. 
 
IO2 Z/tf OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 out behind a force of 300 men to stop the felling- of trees 
 in our rear, which Colonel Smith now took charge of. 
 
 " The enemy had already felled over forty heavy trees, 
 which Lieutenant-Commander Owen, in the Louisville, 
 working night and day, cleared away almost fast enough 
 to permit us to meet with no delay. 
 
 " Colonel Smith s force was not large enough to justify 
 my making- another effort to get through ; we had no artil 
 lery, and would frequently have to use the vessels in fol 
 lowing the roads." 
 
 The next day they came to a bend in the river, where 
 the trees had been felled across it in such a manner as to 
 make a matted mass, and it seemed impossible to force 
 a way through. But the " Louisville" went to work at it, 
 when the enemy, with artillery, appeared. Porter opened 
 on them with his guns, which scattered them, and he was 
 troubled no more. Sherman s advancing forces were now 
 met, but it was plain that nothing would be gained by re 
 tracing his steps, and the expedition returned to its start 
 ing point, after having worked its tedious way for 140 
 miles through the country, dotted with plantations and 
 covered with forests. 
 
 Grant had now tested every route that could be tried 
 to get behind Vicksburg, from the north, and the whole 
 end and aim of the campaign must be given up, un 
 less he took the bold and desperate course of running 
 the batteries with his transports, and marching his army 
 inland, meet them below, cross the river and fight his way 
 to the rear of Vicksburg and besiege it. 
 
 It was a terrible risk to run, but something must be 
 done. The country and the Government had become 
 very impatient. Clamors were raised everywhere against 
 Grant s slowness ; the old rumors about his personal 
 character were revived ; his soldiers were said to be 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 dying of swamp fevers and dysenteries, in the morasses 
 around Vicksburg ; he was pronounced utterly destitute 
 of genius or energy; his repeatedly baffled schemes de 
 clared to emanate from a brain unfitted for such trials ; 
 his persistency was clogged obstinacy, his patience was 
 sluggish dullness. McClernand, and Hunter, and Fre 
 mont, and McClellan were spoken of as his successors ; 
 senators and governors went to Vicksburg, and from 
 Vicksburg to Washington, to work for his removal. 
 McClernand s machinations at this time came very near 
 succeeding. His advocates were never so earnest nor 
 so hopeful, while some of Grant s best friends failed him 
 at the critical moment. But the President said : " I rather 
 like the man ; I think we ll try him a little longer."* But 
 for this persistency, Grant would undoubtedly have been 
 relieved, and McClernand put in command of the expedi 
 tion against Vicksburg. Grant was aware of all these 
 efforts to supplant him, and of the probability of their 
 success. His anxieties as a commander were of course 
 enhanced by the near prospect of his removal. 
 
 Still patient and thoughtful, he was buoyed up with a 
 strange confidence of success. At this critical period in 
 his career he seemed to have had as much faith in his 
 star as did Napoleon, and having settled on his course, 
 he wrote the following letter to Halleck, giving his plan, 
 and at once began to summon his energies and concen 
 trate his forces for a final effort. In this letter he says : 
 
 "There is a system of bayous running from Milliken s 
 Bend, also from near the river at this point" (Young s 
 
 * A Congressman, who had been one of Grant s warmest friends, was found want 
 ing at this juncture. He went to the President without being sent for, and declared 
 that the emergencies of the country seemed to demand another commander before 
 Vicksburg. To him Mr. Lincoln replied : " I rather like the man. I think we ll 
 try him a little longer." 
 
1 04 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Point), "that are navigable for large and small steamers, 
 passing around by Richmond to New Carthage. There 
 is also a good wagon-road from Milliken s Bend to New 
 Carthage. The dredges are now engaged cutting a 
 canal from here into these bayous. I am having all the 
 empty coal-boats and other barges prepared for carrying 
 troops and artillery, and have written to Colonel Allen 
 for some more, and also for six tugs to tow them. With 
 them it would be easy to carry supplies to New Carthage, 
 and any point south of that. 
 
 " My expectation is for some of the naval fleet to run 
 the batteries at Vicksburg, \\4iilst the army moves through 
 by this new route. Once there, I will move to Warren- 
 ton or Grand Gulf, probably the latter. From either of 
 these points there are good roads to Jackson and the 
 Black River bridge, without crossing Black River. I will 
 keep my army together, and see to it that I am not cut 
 off from my supplies, or beat in any other way than a 
 fair fight." 
 
 A member of his staff says : " When the idea became 
 known to those in his intimacy, to his staff, and to his 
 corps commanders, it seemed to them full of danger. To 
 move his army below Vicksburg was to separate it from 
 the North, and from all its supplies ; to throw \vhat 
 seemed an insurmountable obstacle between himself and 
 his own base ; to cut his own communications, and place 
 his army exactly where it is the whole object and aim of 
 war to get the enemy. In a word, it was to hazard every 
 thing, for if failure came, it was sure to be overwhelming ; 
 only the most complete and speedy victory could insure 
 him against absolute annihilation. These considerations 
 were urged upon Grant by the most accomplished soldiers 
 of his command ; those who have since acquired reputa 
 tions of the most brilliant character, strove to divert their 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 chief from what they considered this fatal error. Sher 
 man, McPherson, Logan, Wilson, all opposed his plan 
 all of course within the proper limits of soldiery subordi 
 nation, but all with energy. 
 
 " Even after the orders for the movement had been 
 issued, Sherman rode up to Grant s head-quarters and 
 proposed his plan. He asserted, emphatically, that the 
 only way to take Vicksburg was from the north, selecting 
 some high ground on the Mississippi for a base. Grant 
 replied that such a plan would require him to go back to 
 Memphis. Exactly so, said Sherman, that is what I 
 mean ; and he developed the reasons, which seemed to 
 him unanswerable, in favor of such a course. Grant, 
 however, believed that a retrogade movement, even if 
 temporary, would be disastrous to the country, which was 
 in no temper to endure another reverse ; he was deter 
 mined to take no step backward, and so declared. " :: 
 
 Sherman then drew up a formal paper, going over the 
 detail s of the plan, and showing its temerity, designed, 
 doubtless, not only to deter Grant from his undertaking, 
 but, in case of disastrous failure, which he believed to be 
 inevitable, to place himself right before the country. Raw- 
 lins handed this paper to Grant without any comment, 
 and the latter read it without making any remark, nor 
 did he in any way indicate to Sherman that he had ever 
 received it. Nothing can illustrate more strikingly the 
 strong self-reliance of this strangely-silent man more than 
 his conduct on this occasion. Sherman was his dearest, 
 most trusted friend, and acknowledged by all to be his 
 superior in military science, yet he never even answered 
 this letter or referred to it in any way. 
 
 Nothing excites our admiration more than to see him 
 thus stand all alone enemies without and friends within, 
 
 * General Badeau. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 keeping aloof while he gazes thoughtfully, sternly, down 
 the fearful abyss into which he has determined to cast 
 himself and his 50,000 men. 
 
 To what a sublime height must he have reached, to be 
 so completely above all surrounding influences of every 
 kind ! How clear and penetrating the glance that could 
 see light beyond the darkness that bounded the vision 
 of all others, even the most clear-sighted. Self-poised, 
 self-sustained, equal in himself alone to the great crisis he 
 had reached, he rises before us like some grand column, 
 resting firm on its foundation by mere weight alone. 
 " Call a council of officers before deciding on so hazard 
 ous a step," said the sagacious, true-hearted Sherman 
 but he wanted no council his determination was unalter 
 ably taken, and nothing but positive orders from Govern 
 ment could change it, and when one remembers how near 
 
 o 
 
 those orders came to be issued he is appalled. 
 
 Grant having got everything ready, started his army. 
 This was marched inland to New Carthage and Perkins, 
 below Vicksburg, a distance of some forty miles. But he 
 must have transports and barges to take them across the 
 river to the Vicksburg side, and these he proposed to run 
 the batteries. Three steamers, having in tow ten barges 
 loaded with rations and forage, were got ready. But the 
 undertaking was so desperate, that only two of the steam 
 boat masters and the crew of one transport would remain 
 with their vessels, and Grant called for volunteers. The 
 soldiers, weary with their long inaction or useless toil in 
 digging their way inland, were so excited over the pros 
 pect of something decisive being done, that volunteers 
 enough came forward to man a hundred steamers. 
 
 The vessels were therefore easily manned. The 
 steamers, protected by bales of cotton and wet hay, took 
 the barges in tow, while Porter, with seven iron-clads, got 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ready to engage the batteries while they attempted to 
 run this gauntlet of twenty-eight guns that commanded 
 the river for over fifteen miles. It was a terrible under 
 taking indeed, to human appearance, a hopeless one. 
 How could those frail wooden structures be towed for an 
 hour and a half through such a storm of shot and shell 
 as would be rained on them ? Says Badeau 
 
 "The night of the i6th of April was selected for the 
 undertaking. There was no moon, and by ten o clock 
 all was ready. One after another, and as silently as pos 
 sible, the venturous fleet steamed down the river to the 
 bend. From this point they proceeded more leisurely, 
 drifting with the current, the gun-boats in advance. 
 Porter led the way, on the Benton, and reached the first 
 batteries without being discovered; but, at sixteen minutes 
 past eleven, the artillery opened from the bluffs ; the 
 admiral at once responding with a rapid fire." 
 
 The night was dark, and to light up the river so that 
 the vessels could be revealed to the gunners on shore, 
 the houses on the banks were set on fire and shed a 
 baleful glare on the water and on the slowly-passing 
 vessels, and lighting up the city so that those on board 
 could see the soldiers hurrying along the streets and 
 working the guns. At half-past twelve they were directly 
 opposite the Court-house, when the fire became terrific, 
 and shot and shell crashed through the pilot-houses, and 
 engine-rooms, and sides of the vessels, making wild work, 
 while Porter s heavy guns replied, till shore and river 
 shook with the heavy thunder. The barges were now 
 cut loose, and left to drift down stream and shift for 
 themselves. The "Forest Queen" was disabled and floated 
 (helplessly with the current. The "Henry Clay," having a 
 barge filled with soldiers in tow, was soon in a sinking 
 condition and cut loose. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Badeau, who stood by Grant s side in a boat, around 
 which shot and shell fell like hail, and watched with him 
 this terrific scene, says : 
 
 "The light streamed up from the blazing hull of the 
 Henry Clay, and threw into strong relief against the 
 shadows of night the other transports, and the gun 
 boats at their fiery work. The currents were strong, 
 and dangerous eddies delayed the vessels ; the lights 
 glaring in every direction, and the smoke enveloping the 
 squadron, confused the pilots ; the bulwarks, even of the 
 iron-clads, were crushed ; and the uproar of artillery, 
 re-echoing from the hills, was incessant. One of the 
 heaviest guns of the enemy was seen to burst in the 
 streets of Vicksburg, and the whole population was awake 
 and out of doors, watching the scene on which its des 
 tinies depended. , For two hours and forty minutes, the 
 fleets were under fire. But, at last, the transports and 
 the gun-boats had all got out of range, the blazing 
 beacons on the hills and on the stream burned low, the 
 array of batteries belching flame and noise from the 
 embattled bluffs had ceased their utterance, and silence 
 and darkness resumed their sway over the beleaguered 
 city, and the swamps and rivers that encircle Vicksburg. 
 
 Although boats and barges were badly damaged, not a 
 soul was killed. This was doubtless owing to the fact 
 that no one was required to be exposed except the few 
 necessary to manage the gun-boats, eight of whom were 
 wounded. 
 
 McClernand, in command of the advance division, 
 which had arrived at New Carthage, below, heard the 
 terrible cannonade up the river, and Baited anxiously to 
 see if any of the transports had run with safety that 
 terrble gauntlet of fire, but saw only burning fragments 
 of the " Henry Clay," and the barge that had been cut 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. IQ 
 
 loose, come floating down, while an old rebel, on whose 
 estate McClernand s head-quarters were established, was 
 jubilant at what he supposed the defeat of the Yankees. 
 " Where are your gun-boats now?" he exclaimed ; " Vicks- 
 burg has put an end to them all ;" and the National 
 officers feared lest his elation might prove well-founded. 
 By daylight, however, the wrecks had all passed by; and, 
 after awhile a gun-boat appeared below the bend; and 
 then, a transport ; then, one after another, the whole fleet 
 of iron-clads and army steamers hove in sight, from their 
 perilous passage. The "Yankees" now had their turn of 
 rejoicing, and thanked the rebel for teaching them the 
 word. "Where are our gun-boats now?" they said. 
 " Did Vicksburg put an end to them all ?" But the old 
 man was too much exasperated at the National success 
 to endure the taunts he had himself provoked, and rushed 
 away in a rage. The next day he set fire to his own 
 house, rather than allow it to shelter his enemies. 
 
 His plantation was one of the loveliest in Louisiana ; 
 high enough to be secure from inundation, it overlooked 
 the meanderings of the Mississippi for nearly fifty miles; 
 wide savannas teemed with the wealth of the corn and 
 the cotton-plant, while the spacious lawns were clad in all 
 the charms of precocious summer in this balmy clime. 
 Japan plums and fig-trees grew in the open air, and 
 groves of magnolia and oleander bloomed. The softness 
 of the atmosphere, redolent with unfamiliar fragrance, 
 and the aspect of the landscape, brilliant with blossoms 
 and verdure, enchanted the soldiers. " Here, at last," 
 they cried, "we have found the sunny South." But deso 
 lation and destruction soon changed this fair scene into a 
 desert. In a few hours a blackened pile was all that re 
 mained of the stately mansion ; the venerable trees in 
 which it was embosomed were hewn down for fire-wood, 
 
I I o LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and the secluded fields were speedily transformed into a 
 confused and bustling bivouac. But McClernand, who 
 had been given the post of honor, by leading the advance, 
 seemed under some perverse influence, and did not take 
 advantage of the successful passage of the transports to 
 seize at once Grand Gulf, on the opposite side of the 
 river, and secure it as a base. 
 
 Porter was distressed at the delay, and wrote to Sher 
 man begging him to urge Grant to come down in person 
 at once. The latter was at the time suffering severely 
 from boils, but the moment he received the message he 
 mounted his horse and rode forty miles to Perkins s 
 Landing, and there found that the information he had 
 received was true, and saw at once that he must take 
 command of the advance in person, or all would be lost; 
 in fact, become both quartermaster and commissary, and 
 superintend and direct everything, if he expected to win 
 in the hazardous enterprise in which he was now fairly 
 embarked. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. - j 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE GREAT CAMPAIGN BEGUN CUTS LOOSE FROM EVERYTHING ATTACK ON GRAND 
 GULF FIRST FAILURE THE BATTERIES RUN A LUCKY INCIDENT ACROSS THE 
 
 RIVER AT LAST BATTLE OF PORT GIBSON GRAND GULF EVACUATED GRANT S 
 
 FATE NOW IN HIS OWN HANDS HE STANDS ALONE SUBLIME SELF-RELIANCE 
 
 HIS RAPID ORDERS A GLOOMY PROSPECT TURNS HIS BACK ON THE MISSISSIPPI 
 
 CONSTERNATION AT WASHINGTON A STIRRING PROCLAMATION PUSHES RAPIDLY 
 INLAND PLACES HIMSELF BETWEEN TWO ARMIES CUTS LOOSE FROM HIS BASE OF 
 
 SUPPLIES SWIFT ORDERS M PHERSON MOVES INLAND BATTLE OF RAYMOND 
 
 MOVES ON JACKSON BATTLE GRANT AND HIS LITTLE SON FIRST ENTER THE CITY 
 THE RAILROADS DESTROYED THE ENEMY OUTWITTED BY HIS RAPID MOVEMENTS 
 
 A FORTUNATE DISCOVERY A PERILOUS POSITION PEMBERTO*N SURPRISED 
 
 BATTLE OF CHAMPION HILL THE PURSUIT GRANT PASSES THE NIGHT AMID THE 
 REBEL WOUNDED AND DYING BATTLE OF BLACK RIVER GALLANTRY OF GENERAL 
 
 LOWLER THE REBELS DRIVEN INTO THE RIVER PEMBERTON TAKES REFUGE IN 
 VICKSBURG GRANT S ADVANCE VICKSBURG INVESTED SHERMAN S CONFERENCE 
 
 THE WORK OF TWENTY DAYS. 
 
 GRANT had now practically, like Cortez, burned 
 his ships behind him to prevent the possibility of 
 retreat, and yet he himself does not seem to com 
 prehend fully the work he is to perform. He is hampered 
 by the instructions from Washington to co-operate with 
 Banks at Port Hudson, either to help him reduce the 
 place, or in case of its early fall, obtain from him re 
 inforcements for his own army. But events were mark 
 ing out his course for him and shaping his destiny. 
 
 He had expected McClernand to occupy Grand Gulf, 
 below Carthage, but he not having done this, the army 
 was marched down to Hard Times, fifty miles below. 
 Grand Gulf had been fortified in anticipation of some such 
 movement as this, and must now be taken before the 
 troops could be landed on the east side of the river. 
 Porter undertook to do this with his iron-clads, but though 
 
OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 he carried his vessels to within pistol-shot of the batteries, 
 they were too elevated to be silenced, and he was com 
 pelled to withdraw ; while Grant, standing on a boat a 
 short distance off, watching the battle, saw with disap 
 pointment this first, and it might be, fatal failure. He at 
 once signaled the flag-ship, and Porter coming up, he 
 told him to run the batteries while he marched the army 
 farther down the river. In the meantime he had the 
 opposite shore carefully reconnoitered to find a place for 
 landing his troops, but the country was so inundated that 
 it seemed impossible, even if he reached the eastern bank, 
 to march inland. But fortune at length favored him a 
 negro told him that from Bruinsburg, six miles below 
 Grand Gulf, a good dry road led to Port Gibson, twelve 
 miles in the interior and on high ground. He determined 
 at once to cross there. In the meantime, in obedience 
 to his orders, Sherman, still up the river, was making a 
 demonstration on Haines s Bluff, to distract the enemy 
 and direct his attention from the real point of attack on 
 the south. 
 
 Grant at length, after prodigious effort, got his army 
 across the river and started for Port Gibson, and 
 McClernand, with his division, was dispatched to Grand 
 Gulf, to attack it in the rear. Bowen, the commander of 
 the garrison, did not wait to be attacked, but pushed 
 boldly out and gave battle at Port Gibson. After a long 
 and severe fight, he was soon compelled to retreat, and 
 Grand Gulf was evacuated. Grant was at last where he 
 could make a decided move, and Banks and Port Hudson 
 were at once abandoned. He was also where dispatches 
 from Washington could not reach him until too late to 
 
 o 
 
 change his plans. He stood a free man, free to make or 
 mar his fortune, to win an imperishable name or sink 
 himself and army in irretrievable ruin. He had put him- 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. , l ~ 
 
 o 
 
 self in a position that most men would have shrunk from 
 taking, and where all the rules of military science con 
 demned him for placing himself. He had acted against 
 the wishes of the Government against the advice of his 
 best friends against the opinion of the ablest generals of 
 the army. He had done what no sane man, in the estima 
 tion of the ablest tactician, would have done. 
 
 But there he was, with 50,000 troops in his hands, for 
 whom he was responsible. But it was exactly this state 
 of things that was needed to bring out the great qualities 
 of Grant. His sluggish, inert nature needed just this 
 kind of stimulus to wake it up, and it was now thoroughly 
 aroused, and he struck right and left with an energy and 
 power that astonished both friends and foes. His orders 
 flew like lightning, while he seemed to forget that he 
 needed either sleep or food. He was in a hostile country 
 with slender connection with any supplies, and armies all 
 around him, while he knew that one day s delay or one 
 lost battle would be his ruin. 
 
 Says his aid : " Grant had not been abed, nor had off his 
 clothes, sfnce leaving Bruinsburg, three days before, and 
 went aboard one of the gun-boats, where he borrowed a 
 change of linen, and wrote dispatches till midnight. He 
 sent long letters to Halleck, announcing the success of 
 his operations, and detailing the movement against Grand 
 Gulf, the march to the interior, and the battle of Port 
 Gibson. Sherman, now on the march from Milliken s 
 Bend, was informed : * My base is now at this place, and 
 in executing your orders for joining me you will govern 
 yourself accordingly. . . . Logan is now on the main 
 road from here to Jackson, and McPherson, closely fol 
 lowed by McClernand, on the branch of the same road 
 from Willow Springs. . . . The road to Vicksburg is 
 open 
 
! j ^ LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 "It had already become apparent that the country 
 would supply all the forage required for an active cam 
 paign, as well as the necessary beef ; all other supplies 
 would have to be drawn from Milliken s Bend, a long and 
 precarious route; but Grant declared: I have every 
 confidence of succeeding in doing it. Accordingly he 
 wrote that night to Sullivan, who commanded the district 
 between Milliken s Bend and Smith s plantation : You 
 will give special attention to the matter of shortening the 
 line of land transportation from above Vicksburg to the 
 steamers below. As soon as the river has fallen suffi 
 ciently, you will have a road constructed from Young s 
 Point to a landing just below Warrenton, and dispose of 
 your troops accordingly. Everything depends upon the 
 promptitude with which our supplies are forwarded. To 
 Sherman he said : I wish you to collect a train of 1 20 
 wagons at Milliken s Bend and Perkins s plantation, 
 send them to Grand Gulf, and there load them with 
 rations, as follows : 100,000 pounds of bacon, the balance, 
 coffee, sugar, salt and hard bread. For your own use 
 on the march from Grand Gulf, you will draw five days 
 rations, and see that they last five days. It is unnecessary 
 for me to remind you of the overwhelming import 
 ance of celerity. . . . All we want now are men, ammu 
 nition and hard bread ; we can subsist our horses 
 on the country, and obtain considerable supplies for our 
 troops. " 
 
 Having abandoned all thought of Port Hudson and 
 Banks, and certain that no orders could reach him from 
 Washington till too late to change his plans, he fixed his 
 eye steadily on Vicksburg, and resolved to take it or 
 perish. Although he had found no one to uphold him in 
 his bold undertaking, or share with him the terrible re 
 sponsibility he had assumed now that he was wholly 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 committed, all seemed to catch his enthusiasm and second 
 his efforts. Still, it was not a flattering prospect that 
 stretched out before him. Pemberton, with an army 
 equal to his own, was behind the strong works of Vicks- 
 burg, while another army was in the field, of whose 
 strength he was ignorant. This last he must fight and 
 destroy before he advanced on Vicksburg. Cutting 
 loose from his base, he at midnight, on the 3d of May, 
 turned his back on the Mississippi, and with his gallant 
 army well in hand, pushed for the interior. His whole 
 personal baggage consisted of a tooth-brush. 
 
 Sherman, who had been ordered up, was amazed at the 
 state of things that met him as he crossed the river, and 
 began to follow Grant s line of march. His urgent orders 
 had produced what seemed to him inextricable confusion, 
 and he wrote to Grant, saying: "Stop all troops till your 
 army is partially supplied with wagons, and then act as 
 quick as possible. For this road will be jammed, as sure 
 as life, if you attempt to supply 50,000 men by one single 
 road." 
 
 To this Grant replied : " I do not calculate upon the 
 possibility of supplying the army with full rations from 
 Grand Gulf. I know it will be impossible without con 
 structing additional roads. What I do expect, however, 
 is to get up what rations of hard bread, coffee and salt 
 we can, and make the country furnish the balance. We 
 started from Bruinsburg with an average of about two 
 days rations, and received no more from our own sup 
 plies for some days ; abundance was found in the mean 
 time. Some corn-meal, bacon and vegetables were found, 
 and an abundance of beef and mutton. A delay would 
 give the enemy time to reinforce and fortify. If Blair 
 was up now, I believe we could be in Vicksburg in seven 
 days. The command here has an average of about three 
 
j j 5 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 days rations, which could be made to last that time. You 
 are in a country where the troops have already lived off 
 the people for some days, and may find provisions more 
 scarce ; but, as we get upon new soil, they are more 
 abundant, particularly in corn and cattle. Bring Blair s 
 two brigades up as soon as possible. . . ." 
 
 He had now over forty thousand men in motion, with 
 a train of artillery numbering 120 guns. Halleck had 
 sent orders for him to co-operate with Banks, while Grant 
 had telegraphed : " I shall communicate with Grand Gulf 
 no more." 
 
 When it was at last known at Washington what he had 
 done, Halleck and the President were both astounded, and 
 all men familiar with military movements considered him 
 a lost man and the army doomed. Swift marching and 
 constant victories alone could save him. No man was 
 more aware than he of the perilous position in which he 
 had placed himself, but he felt no hesitation or regret. 
 He was thoroughly aroused, and looked his situation un 
 dauntedly in the face. The following order shows the 
 spirit that animated him, while it stirred his brave army 
 like a bugle call : 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS ARMY OF THE TENNESSEE, IN THE FIELD, \ 
 HANKINSON S FERRY, May yth. j 
 
 Soldiers of the Army of Tejincssec : 
 
 Once more I thank you for adding another victory to the long list 
 of those previously won by your valor and endurance. The triumph 
 gained over the enemy near Port Gibson, on the ist, was one of the 
 most important of the war. The capture of five cannon and more 
 than one thousand prisoners, the possession of Grand Gulf, and a firm 
 foothold on the highlands between the Big Black and Bayou Pierre, 
 from whence we threaten the whole line of the enemy, are among the 
 fruits of this brilliant achievement. The march from Milliken s Bend 
 to the point opposite Grand Gulf, was made in stormy weather, over 
 the worst of roads. Bridges and ferries had to be constructed. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. T l M 
 
 Moving by night as well as by day, with labor incessant, and extraor 
 dinary privations, endured by men and officers, such as have been 
 Barely paralleled in any campaign, not a murmur or complaint has 
 been uttered. A few days continuance of the same zeal and con 
 stancy will secure to this army crowning victories over the rebellion. 
 
 More difficulties and privations are before us ; let us endure them 
 manfully. Other battles are to be fought ; let us fight them bravely. 
 A grateful country will rejoice at our success, and history will record 
 it with immortal honor. 
 
 U. S. GRANT, 
 
 Brigadier-General Commanding. 
 
 McPherson was now pushed inland, to the north and 
 east, in search of a rebel force, intended to co-operate 
 with Pemberton, and crush Grant between their two 
 armies. It would not do to wait till this happened. He 
 knew that Pemberton, with 50,000 men, was in Vicks 
 burg, while along the Vicksburg and Jackson Railroad, 
 another force he knew was collecting to the north and 
 east, but of its strength he could learn nothing. Now 
 his bold plan was to push between these two armies and 
 crush the latter, and moving on to Jackson, at the junc 
 tion of the railroads, that supplied Vicksburg, destroy 
 them, and then turn round and attack Pemberton. But 
 if he waited till all his supplies were across the river and 
 up, it would be too late to do this, the junction would be 
 effected, and he be vastly outnumbered in a country of 
 which he knew comparatively nothing. 
 
 In this dilemma, he took the hazardous, daring resolu 
 tion to cut off from his base entirely, and gathering up 
 what portion of the army had crossed the river and was 
 within reach, march forward and live off the country. By 
 most military men this would be looked upon as almost 
 certain destruction ; for, independent of the danger of 
 being attacked, both in front and rear at the same time, 
 and crushed between them, he left Pemberton free to cut 
 
j j g LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 off his connection with the Mississippi altogether, and 
 leave him isolated in the heart of the enemy s country. 
 This was taking one of those terrible risks which success 
 alone can justify, but if successful, lifts a man to the 
 highest point of military genius, while defeat ruins him 
 forever. A single defeat, nay, a drawn battle or a little 
 delay, and the whole plan would have fallen through, 
 which "meant that in all probability the whole Union army 
 would have been captured. 
 
 Grant knew that if he telegraphed his contemplated 
 movement to Washington, he would have been peremp 
 torily ordered to abandon it. In fact, his orders were to 
 co-operate with Banks farther down the river, laying 
 siege to Port Hudson. Halleck, having got some hint of 
 this bold movement, had telegraphed him not to make it; 
 but communication was already cut off, and the order 
 never reached him till too late to be obeyed. Some 
 of his best generals declared that to take only three 
 days rations as he had, and cut loose from his supplies, 
 and throw himself between two armies, when nothing but 
 swift marching and constant victories could save him, was 
 contrary to all military rules, and, in their opinion, could 
 be justified only on the ground that it was the last chance 
 of saving himself and army from impending destruction. 
 There is something Napoleonic in this falling back on 
 his own genius and resting on himself alone. 
 
 But having once determined on his course, his natural 
 sluggish nature suddenly awakened into the most in 
 tense action ever)- nerve was strung to its utmost 
 tension, and disencumbering himself of all baggage, he 
 stripped for the race. His orders now flew rapidly on 
 every side. To Sherman, who had left Blair s division 
 at Milliken s Bend, to guard that place, he wrote: 
 " Order forward immediately your remaining division, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. x j 
 
 leaving only two regiments (to guard Richmond), as re 
 quired in previous orders. Have all the men leave the 
 west bank of the river, with three days rations in haver 
 sacks, and make all possible dispatch to Grand Gulf." 
 In order that Blair might be brought forward, Hurlbut, 
 who was still at Memphis, was directed to order four 
 regiments of his command to Milliken s Bend, " with the 
 utmost dispatch." "Take them from the troops most con 
 venient to transportation." On the 5th, Grant also 
 ordered Hurlbut to "send Lauman s division to Milliken s 
 Bend, to be forwarded to this army with as little delay as 
 practicable. . . . Let them move by brigades, as fast as 
 transportation can be got. . . . This order for Lauman s 
 division is in addition to the four regiments ordered a few 
 days since." 
 
 The commissary of subsistence at Grand Gulf was 
 instructed : " You will load all teams presenting them 
 selves for rations with promptness and dispatch, regard 
 less of requisitions or provision returns. There must be 
 no delay on account of either lack of energy or formality." 
 To an officer of his staff, who had been left at Grand 
 Gulf to hurry up supplies and superintend transporta 
 tion, Grant wrote : " See that the commissary at Grand 
 Gulf loads all the wagons presenting themselves for 
 stores, with great promptness. Issue any order in my 
 name that may be necessary to secure the greatest 
 promptness in this respect. . . . Every day s delay is 
 worth two thousand men to the enemy." 
 
 To McClernand he sent : " There will be no general 
 movement of the troops before the cool of the evening, 
 if at all to-day. You can therefore collect for your com 
 mand such supplies as the country affords. Reconnoitre 
 the Jackson road, and ascertain if the enemy has retreated 
 in that direction, and if so, whether any considerable por- 
 
120 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 tion of them." And to McPherson, on the same day: "I 
 wish you would have a reconnoissance made of the roads 
 near the river, up and down." 
 
 McPherson at once moved forward. The same day 
 he wrote to McClernand : " Move your command to 
 morrow on the telegraph road to Five-mile Creek. 
 Have all the lateral roads leading from line of march 
 carefully examined to facilitate communication with the 
 other corps in case of necessity." All these orders were 
 to merely start his march, and they show how broad and 
 comprehensive the plan adopted was. 
 
 On the loth, however, the head-quarters were re 
 moved to Cayuga, eight miles beyond Rocky Springs, 
 and, in accordance with the plan already described, 
 McPherson moved to the north and east of the rest 
 of the army ; Sherman had the centre, while McCler 
 nand, further west, kept one division as far to the left 
 as the Big Black River, and, in his turn, was ordered 
 to watch the ferries, and thus secure the rear against 
 Pemberton. Grant s position now was with the centre, 
 Sherman s corps. He had at this time about forty-three 
 thousand men in motion, besides an artillery force of 
 one hundred and twenty guns ; but these numbers in 
 clude Blair s division, as well as McArthur s, of the 
 Seventeenth corps, neither of which had yet crossed 
 the river. The column absolutely in march on the east 
 side of the Mississippi, on the loth of May, did not num 
 ber more than thirty-five thousand men, and twenty light 
 batteries. 
 
 "When I crossed the Mississippi River," said Grant, 
 "the means of ferriage were so limited, and time so 
 important, that I started without teams, and an average 
 
 of two days rations in the haversacks We picked 
 
 up all the teams in the country and free Africans to drive 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. l l 
 
 them. Forage and meat were found in great abundance 
 throughout the country." 
 
 On the 1 1 th of May, Grant finally wrote to Halleck, 
 from Cayuga : " My forces will be this evening as far 
 advanced toward Jackson as Fourteen-mile Creek, the 
 left near Black River, and extending in a line as nearly 
 cast and west as they can get without bringing on a 
 battle. As I shall communicate with Grand Gulf no 
 more, except it becomes necessary to send a train 
 with heavy escort, you may not hear from me again for 
 several days." Singularly enough, this was the date of 
 Halleck s dispatch to Grant, to return and co-operate with 
 Banks. While the General-in-Chief, at Washington, was 
 issuing his orders forbidding the campaign, Grant, of 
 course in ignorance of these commands, sent word to his 
 superior: "I shall communicate with Grand Gulf no 
 more." 
 
 On the same day, he ordered McPherson, who was 
 now beyond Utica: "Move your command to-night to 
 the next cross-roads, if there is water, and to-morrow 
 with all activity, into Raymond. . . . We must fight the 
 enemy before our rations fail, and we are equally bound 
 to make our rations last as long as possible. Upon one 
 occasion you made two days rations last seven. We 
 may have to do the same thing again. . . . Sherman is 
 now moving out on the Auburn and Raymond road, and 
 will reach Fourteen-mile Creek to-night. When you 
 arrive at Raymond, he will be in close supporting dis 
 tance. I shall move McClernand to Fourteen-mile Creek 
 early to-morrow, so that he will occupy a place on Sher 
 man s left. . . ." 
 
 On the 1 2th, McPherson came up with the enemy, 
 5,000 strong, two miles from Raymond. The greater 
 portion had taken position on a hill to the left of the 
 
122 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 road, and in the woods and ravines at its base in front. 
 At two o clock the attack was made, and the enemy 
 were soon compelled to retreat, when the pursuit com 
 menced, and the rebels were chased through the place 
 and kept on toward Jackson, the capital of the State, 
 where Johnston commanded, and where he was waiting 
 for reinforcements. His force numbered about six thou 
 sand men, a part of whom were fugitives from the battle 
 field of Raymond. Orders were immediately issued to 
 McPherson, Sherman and McClernand to move on Jack 
 son. Here, again, Grant s celerity of movement saved 
 
 
 vu- - 
 
 .Ai t yj? -<^S!s^ 
 BATTLE-GROUND, NEAR JACKSON. 
 
 him, doubtless, a heavy battle, for reinforcements were 
 on the way to Jackson of over 20,000, of which 10,000 
 were expected to be there in two days. 
 
 Jackson was strongly fortified, and had Johnston been 
 able to bring up these reinforcements, he could, behind 
 his strong works, have given Grant a great deal of trouble 
 and caused him much delay, which would insure defeat. 
 All this time, Pemberton lay at Fort Edward station, wait 
 ing for Grant to attack him. He was completely deceived 
 by the presence of the enemy s forces in front, never 
 dreaming that Grant, with three divisions, was crushing 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 by his rapid blows, Gregg and Johnston, and moving on 
 the capital of the State. 
 
 As Grant, with his three tired columns, pressed forward, 
 the rain came down in torrents, rendering the roads slip 
 pery, but the troops were kept at the top of their speed, 
 for he had determined to attack Jackson at daybreak 
 next morning. Staggering along the heavy road, McPher- 
 son did not arrive before the breastworks that stood 
 outside of the town, till ten o clock. His troops were 
 drenched to the skin, but 
 fresh in daring and pur 
 pose. As he formed his 
 line of battle, he rode 
 along its front on his 
 splendid black charger, 
 which was always a con 
 spicuous object on the 
 field, and roused his 
 troops by a few stirring 
 words which he knew so 
 well how to utter. The 
 
 artillery opened a deadly fire on the works for awhile, 
 and then he gave the order to his impatient troops 
 to charge. Steadily and silently they moved forward to 
 the sound of the bugle, till within thirty yards of the 
 works, when they poured in a deadly fire, and, with a 
 loud cheer, sprang forward. Over the ramparts they 
 went, like an inundation, driving the enemy before them, 
 who fled to the intrenchments and rifle-pits immediately 
 around the city, and attacked them there. Sherman was, 
 at this time, advancing along another road, and Grant 
 had been with him all the morning, and as they now came 
 within sight of the intrenchments that presented a for 
 midable appearance, he directed the former to send a 
 
j . LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 reconnoitering party to the extreme right to see if they 
 could not be flanked in that direction. 
 
 The party not returning promptly, and Sherman being 
 still detained, Grant rode to the right himself, escorted 
 only by his staff, and found a clear road into Jackson. 
 The enemy had evacuated the town, and Grant, with his 
 party of about a dozen officers, was the first to enter the 
 works. His son, a lad of thirteen years, accompanied 
 him on this campaign, and as they rode up to the limits 
 of the town, the boy spurred on his horse and galloped 
 ahead of the army into the capital of Mississippi. This 
 boy had been with him from the outset of the campaign, 
 sharing the father s hardships, and fatigues, and expo 
 sures. 
 
 Johnston, in this battle, lost seventy cannon and over 
 eight hundred men. Grant slept that night in the house 
 that Johnston had occupied, and it was evident that the 
 latter and his friends had had a good time of it, and had 
 never dreamed they would be compelled to vacate it so 
 soon. Grant called his corps-commanders together that 
 afternoon, and gave them their several orders. Sherman 
 was directed to the work of destruction of the railroad, 
 and this was his order : 
 
 Designate a brigade from your command to guard the city. Collect 
 stores and forage, and collect all public property of the enemy. The 
 division from which such brigade may be selected will be the last to 
 leave the city. You will direct them, therefore, to commence imme 
 diately the effectual destruction of the river railroad bridge, and the 
 road as far east as practicable, as well as north and south. The Fourth 
 Iowa Cavalry and a brigade of infantry should be sent east of the 
 river, with instructions for the cavalry to go on east as far as possible. 
 Troops going east of the river should burn all C. S. A. cotton and 
 btores they find. 
 
 Johnston marched six miles out of the city and en- 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 125 
 
I2 (5 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 camped on the Canton road, and sent out forces to pre 
 vent Grant from foraging to the north and east. He 
 also sent a dispatch to Pemberton, announcing to that 
 bewildered commander the fall o Jackson, and saying that 
 as soon as all the reinforcements came up the forces must 
 be united and Grant beaten. He also inquired if Grant 
 " could supply himself from the Mississippi. Can you 
 not cut him off from his supplies ; and, above all, should he 
 be compelled to fall back for want of supplies, beat him." 
 
 Neither of them knew that Grant had cut himself from 
 his supplies more than a week before, and had been sub 
 sisting on the country. 
 
 Grant now saw that the first thing the enemy would 
 attempt to do would be to concentrate his forces, and he 
 received positive information that Johnston had ordered 
 Pemberton to attack his rear. He, therefore, turned 
 quickly on his heel and moved with his usual promptness 
 to frustrate the enemy s design. The rains were constant, 
 flooding the roads and making the marching heavy, but 
 Grant had infused his own spirit into the soldiers, 
 and they seemed, like him, impervious to fatigues. His 
 orders now flew with the same rapidity they did when he 
 first started inland, and the various corps and divisions 
 were urged along* the muddy roads, lifting, by main 
 strength, the artillery and baggage-wagons out of the 
 deep holes. 
 
 Pemberton concluded that, instead of attacking Grant, 
 as Johnston had ordered him to do, he had better cut his 
 communication with the Mississippi, so that the extra 
 ordinary exhibition was seen of Pemberton marching 
 south, Johnston north and Gregg east, while Grant was 
 rapidly converging his columns, like the rays of a fan, be 
 tween them, ready to strike with his whole force the first 
 one he should encounter. Pemberton, being at length 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. T _ 
 
 ordered, peremptorily, by Johnston, to join him at Clin 
 ton, countermarched, and he moved back again toward 
 Edward s station, and taking the Brownsville road, 
 marched north to Clinton. 
 
 About five o clock in the morning, two men who had 
 passed through Pemberton s army the night before, were 
 brought into Grant s head-quarters, at Clinton. He was 
 awakened at once to receive them. They told him that 
 Pemberton was only fifteen or eighteen miles distant, 
 with eighty regiments *of infantry and ten batteries of 
 artillery. This was sudden and startling news, and he 
 sent the following order to Sherman, at Jackson, where 
 he intended to have him remain a short time longer. 
 
 " Start one of your divisions on the road at once with 
 their ammunition-wagons, and direct the general com 
 manding the division to move with all possible speed, 
 until he comes up with our rear, beyond Bolton. It is im 
 portant that the greatest celerity should be shown in car 
 rying out this movement, as I have evidence that the 
 entire force of the enemy was at Edward s depot, at 
 seven P. M. last night, and was still advancing. The 
 fight may, therefore, be brought on at any moment; we 
 should have every man in the field." 
 
 In an hour after the messenger s arrival, his columns 
 were on the march. To Blair, he wrote to push forward 
 his division in the direction of Edward s station, with all 
 dispatch: "The enemy have moved out to Edward s sta 
 tion, and are still pushing on to attack us with all their 
 force. Push your troops on in that direction as rapidly 
 as possible. If you are already on the Bolton road, con 
 tinue so; but if you still have a choice of roads, take the 
 one leading to Edward s depot. Pass your troops to the 
 front of your train, except a rear-guard, and keep the 
 ammunition-wagons in front of all other -s" This last 
 
j 2 g LIFE CF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 injunction was very necessary, as Blair was obliged to 
 reverse his command, which would bring the wagon - 
 trains in front. 
 
 Grant had need now to put forth his almost superhu 
 man energies. The tables had suddenly been turned upon 
 him. Before he had concentrated his troops his enemy 
 had wheeled about and was advancing to crush him. 
 With 25,000 men, Pemberton was within a day s march 
 of him, and he knew it only by the merest accident. Two 
 laborers on the railroad, moved by some strange impulse, 
 came into camp and gave him this startling information. 
 It will be a miracle if he can get his army well in hand 
 before two armies will be on him one in front and one 
 in the rear. But he had no intention of waiting for this 
 calamity to overtake him. There were three roads lead 
 ing to Edward s Station. Hovey was ordered to move on 
 the northern one ; Carr and Osterhaus on the middle ; 
 McClernand directed to put A. J. Smith and Blair on the 
 southern, while Sherman was to come by a forced march 
 from Jackson. 
 
 The advance came within about five miles from the 
 station, when they met Pemberton s skirmishers on the 
 southern road, preceding the advance of the rebel army, 
 which had began its reverse movement to crush Grant. 
 This entirely altered the aspect of affairs. Instead of 
 attacking Grant, a battle was to be thrown on him there, 
 with Johnston out of the fight. At first he could not be 
 lieve that Grant s army was so near him, and kept 
 moving forward ; but, soon finding his mistake, he or 
 dered a line of battle to be formed with his left resting 
 
 o 
 
 on a wooded hill, sixty feet high, with precipitous sides 
 covered by a forest, while the top was bald, giving him a 
 commanding position for the artillery. The line was 
 about four miles long, and strongly posted. Hovey was 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j 
 
 soon engaged with the enemy, but Grant refused to give 
 orders for a general attack till McClernand should arrive. 
 The latter not making his appearance, Grant sent back 
 an officer after him to urge him on with all speed, but he 
 did not come, and his dilatoriness threatened to decide 
 the fate of the battle against him. The latter saw 
 that McClernand s unaccountable delay compelled him, 
 in the midst of the fight, to change the whole plan of 
 battle. 
 
 Hovey had pushed the rebels so hard right in their 
 most vital, strongest position, that they hurried up rein 
 forcements, and after a desperate resistance on his part, 
 he was compelled to fall back. Grant, who was standing 
 on the first spur of the hill, under fire, with his little boy, 
 thirteen years old, beside him, found that he must win 
 the battle without McClernand, and hurried up reinforce 
 ments to Hovey, who again recovered his lost ground: 
 and he kept reinforcing him, and though for a time vic 
 tory hung in the balance, Hovey and Crocker, covered 
 by the fire of the artillery, charged like a storm on the 
 rebel lines, and though the enemy bore up bravely for 
 awhile, at length gave way, and our weary soldiers 
 mounted the heights with a cheer, and the battle of 
 Champion s Hill was won, and the road to Vicksburg 
 opened. 
 
 Grant had two narrow escapes here. But for the ac 
 cidental information of two Southern laborers, a battle 
 would have been unexpectedly thrown on him, the results 
 of which must have been doubtful. And when, by his 
 promptness and ability, he at length had the position in 
 his own hand, the delay of McClernand nearly ruined him, 
 for it kept out of the battle 1 5,000 men. Our loss in this 
 battle was about twenty-four hundred men, or more than 
 a seventh of all engaged ; that of the enemy, all told, full 
 9 
 
j - o LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 six thousand men and eleven pieces of artillery, besides 
 a whole division, which was cut off in the pursuit, and 
 made its escape to Johnston. 
 
 The pursuit was kept up till after dark, and Grant and 
 his staff got ahead of the army, and were compelled to 
 retrace their steps, and finally stopped at a house for the 
 night, which had been used as a rebel hospital during the 
 battle, and was now filled with the wounded and dying, 
 so that they \vere compelled to stretch themselves on the 
 porch and snatch such repose as they could amid the 
 groans of the sufferers that resounded through the rooms 
 during the live-long night. 
 
 Sherman had evacuated Jackson by noon of the i6th, 
 paroling his prisoners and leaving his wounded, on ac 
 count of the haste of the movement. He marched twenty 
 miles, reaching Bolton with his entire command the same 
 day, and was that night informed of the victory of Cham 
 pion s Hill, and ordered to turn his corps northward to 
 Bridgeport, and press forward without delay. His rear 
 guard arrived at Bolton at 2 A. M., on the morning of the 
 1 7th, and the same troops started for Bridgeport at four 
 and a half. 
 
 The next morning early, Grant started a column in 
 pursuit of Pemberton, to harass him in his flight. After a 
 march of some six miles they came up with him, strongly 
 posted on both sides of Big Black River. The latter did 
 not expect to win a victory at this point with his de 
 moralized army, but he hoped to delay his pursurers till 
 Loring should have time to come up with his division, 
 that was cut off at Champion s Hill. He could get no 
 
 tidings of him, and did not know that he was making his 
 , & . *> 
 
 way to Johnston. 
 
 McClernand found the enemy resting on the river, 
 with a bayou running in a semicircle in front of them, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j . l 
 
 the banks piled with brush-wood. Scarcely had the 
 artillery opened, when General Lawler, finding an open 
 ing in the brush-wood wide enough for four men to pass 
 abreast, rallied a few men, and with his coat off, led 
 them to the opening. Dashing through it with a cheer, 
 they reached the bank, and flinging their blankets and 
 haversacks on the ground, plunged into the water, and 
 were over the ditch before the astonished enemy could 
 recover their senses at the unexpected apparition. The 
 troops, hearing the cheers of Lawler s men, sent up a 
 loud cheer in return and started on a run to the ditch, 
 but found no enemy. Pushing across, a scene of inde 
 scribable confusion met their view. The rebels had 
 abandoned their guns and were hurrying to the bridge. 
 Those who first got over it spread such a panic among 
 those stationed on the farther shore that they set fire to 
 it before half were across. Those left behind were now 
 cut off from the rest of the army, and became frantic 
 with fear and ran to and fro like men distracted. Many 
 flinging aw r ay their muskets, plunged into the turbid 
 stream and attempted to swim over, and soon the surface 
 was black with heads of officers and men, mingled in 
 wild confusion. Ever and anon a poor wretch would 
 fling up his hands with a cry of despair, and sink out of 
 sight. Among the lost was General Greene. One entire 
 brigade, however, surrendered. Over seventeen hun 
 dred prisoners, eighteen . cannon and five stands of 
 colors were the trophies of this short struggle. 
 
 Pemberton, dismayed and confused by the suddenness 
 of Grant s movements and his strange, unbroken success, 
 now started, with his army, which had become almost a 
 mob, for Vicksburg, filled with alarm, lest his enemy, by 
 a flank movement, should get there first. If Grant s 
 pontoons had been up, so that he could immediately have 
 
j ~ 2 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 crossed his army, there is but little doubt that he could 
 have marched that night into the place on the heels of 
 the demoralized enemy. He immediately set to work to 
 make bridges, while he hurried up his pontoons. Dry 
 timber, taken wherever it could be found, cotton-gins or 
 farm-houses were seized and converted into floating 
 bridges. One was built of cotton-bales, fastened to 
 gether and covered w r ith planks everything that Yankee 
 ingenuity could devise was used to get the army across 
 the river. They worked all night, and by eight o clock 
 next morning, the iSth of May, two corps were over and 
 marching on Vicksburg. Sherman at once pushed his 
 column northward till he struck the Yazoo, a few miles 
 a bove Vicksburo-, and cut off the rebel forts there from 
 
 o 7 
 
 the city. 
 
 Grant was with Sherman when his column struck the 
 Walnut Hills. As they rode together up the farthest 
 height, where it looks down on the Yazoo River, and 
 stood upon the very bluff from which Sherman had been 
 repulsed six months before, the two soldiers gazed for a 
 moment on the long-wished-for goal of the campaign 
 the high dry ground on the north of Vicksburg and the 
 base for their supplies. Sherman at last turned abruptly 
 round, and exclaimed to Grant: "Until this moment, I 
 never thought your expedition a success. I never could 
 see the end clearly until now. But this is a campaign ; 
 this is a success, if we never take the town." The other, 
 as usual, smoked his cigar and made no reply. 
 
 The various columns now took up their several posi 
 tions, and Vicksburg was at last invested, and Grant s 
 arms thrown around it in no maiden s embrace. 
 
 It was just twenty days since the campaign began. In 
 that time Grant had marched more than two hundred 
 miles, beaten two armies in five several battles, captured 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. l - ., 
 
 twenty-seven heavy cannon and sixty-one pieces of field- 
 artillery, taken 6,500 prisoners, and killed and wounded 
 at least six thousand rebels more. He had forced the 
 evacuation of Grand Gulf, seized the capital of the State, 
 destroyed the railroads at Jackson for a distance of 
 more than thirty miles, and invested the principal rebel 
 stronghold on the Mississippi River. Separating forces 
 twice as numerous as his own, he had beaten first, at 
 Port Gibson, a portion of Pemberton s army ; then, at 
 Raymond and Jackson, the troops under Johnston s im 
 mediate command; and again, at Champion s Hill and 
 the Big Black River, the whole force that Pemberton 
 dared take outside of the works of Vicksburg. Starting 
 without teams, and with an average of two days rations 
 in haversacks, he had picked up wagons in the country, 
 and subsisted principally on forage and rations that he 
 found on the road. Only five days rations had been 
 issued in the twenty days, yet neither suffering nor com 
 plaint was witnessed in the command. His losses were 
 698 killed, 3,407 wounded, and 230 missing in all, 4,335.* 
 In viewing these astonishing victories, Grant could 
 now have issued a proclamation to the army that 
 would have been a mere repetition of the famous one 
 Napoleon issued to the army after his first great Italian 
 campaign. 
 
 * General Badeau. 
 
j ^ . LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE WORKS AT VICKSBURG THE ASSAULT THE REPULSE PREPA 
 RATIONS FOR A SECOND ASSAULT A TERRIFIC SPECTACLE THE ARMY HURLED 
 BACK A SECOND TIME DEAD AND WOUNDED GRANT PREPARES FOR A REGULAR 
 
 SIEGE GRANT S MULTIPLIED DUTIES HJS FORESIGHT PROGRESS OF THE SIEGE 
 
 FAMINE IN THE PLACE FRIENDLY MEETING OF THE OUTPOSTS OF THE TWO 
 ARMIES TERRIBLE EXPLOSION OF A MINE BRAVERY OF THE TROOPS PEMBER- 
 
 TON PROPOSES AN ARMISTICE THE TWO GENERALS MEET GRANT REFUSES THE 
 
 TERMS PROPOSED CALLS A COUNCIL OF HIS OFFICERS REJECTS THIER DECISION 
 DICTATES HIS OWN TERMS THE SURRENDER GREATNESS OF THE VICTORY 
 MEETING OF GRANT AND PEMBERTON RUDENESS OF THE LATTER GRANT VISITS 
 THE FLEET GREAT ENTHUSIASM SENDS SHERMAN AGAINST JACKSON HONORS 
 CONFERRED ON GRANT REJOICING OF THE PEOPLE. 
 
 THE following" is a description of Vicksburg as 
 Grant now found it, and it must be confessed, a 
 more formidable undertaking than the capture of 
 it by assault can hardly be conceived. The bluffs on 
 which it stands run back nearly two miles into the in 
 terior. These were now lined with troops, covered with 
 intrenchments, manned by powerful batteries, and seamed 
 with almost perpendicular ravines in front. The whole 
 line was between seven and eight miles long", while the 
 river front was protected by powerful batteries. "It con 
 sisted of a series of detached works on prominent 
 and commanding points, connected by a continuous 
 line of trench or rifle-pit. The works were necessarily 
 irregular, from the shape of the ridges on which they 
 were situated, and, in only one instance, closed at the 
 gorge. They were placed at distances of from seventy- 
 five to five hundred yards from each other. The connect 
 ing rifle-pit was simple, and generally about breast-high. 
 The ravines were the only ditches, except in front of the 
 detached works, but no others were needed, trees being 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 felled in front of the whole line, and forming, in many 
 places, entanglements which, under fire, were absolutely 
 impassable. In military parlance, Vicksburg was rather 
 an intrenched camp than a fortified place, owing much of 
 its extraordinary strength to the difficult nature of the 
 ground, which rendered rapidity of movement and unity 
 of effort in an assault, impossible. 
 
 " North of the Jackson roacl, the hills are higher, and 
 covered with a denser growth of timber, and here, in 
 consequence, the enemy had been able to make his line 
 exceedingly strong and difficult of approach. But, from 
 the Jackson road to the river, on the south, the country 
 was cleared and cultivated ; the ridges also were lower, 
 and the slopes more gentle, though the ground was still 
 rough and entirely unfitted for any united tactical move 
 ment. What the enemy lacked on this side, in natural 
 defenses, he had supplied by giving increased strength to 
 his works. The whole aspect of the rugged fastness, 
 bristling with bayonets, and crowned with artillery that 
 swept the narrow defiles in every direction, was calculated 
 to inspire new courge in those who came thronging into 
 its recesses and behind its bulwarks, from their succession 
 of disasters in the open field. Here, too, were at least 
 eight thousand fresh troops, who as yet had suffered 
 none of the demoralization of defeat ; and, with his 30,000 
 men, and nearly two hundred cannon, the rebel leader 
 thought himself well able to stand a siege. If he had 
 supplies enough to feed his army, he could surely hold out 
 till another force, under Johnston, could be collected for 
 his relief."* 
 
 Such was the formidable nature of this position, and yet 
 Grant proposed to carry it by storm, before a single 
 breach had been made in it a feat we apprehend never 
 
 * General Badeau. 
 
136 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 before attempted in modern warfare. On the very first 
 day of the investment, the igth of May, Grant ordered 
 his corps commanders to " push forward carefully, and 
 gain positions as close as possible to the enemy s works, 
 until two o clock p. M.; at that hour they will fire three 
 volleys of artillery from all the pieces in position. This will 
 be the signal for a general charge along the whole line." 
 Across deep gullies, over steep hills and wooded 
 cliffs and rugged chasms, ground so broken and rough, 
 that a single traveler would find it hard work to 
 
 GRANT S HEAD-QUARTERS AT VICKSBURG. 
 
 make his way, the troops were to move on the flaming 
 hell that awaited them. They, elated with their recent 
 success, were eager for the attack, and the bugles rang out 
 and the artillery opened, and under its tremendous fire 
 they moved resolutely forward. 
 
 It is needless to speak of the movements of the differ 
 ent columns, the bravery of the troops or of the 
 gallantry and daring of regiments, officers or men. The 
 great army surged up against the impregnable works as 
 the sea surges against the rocks and was beaten back 
 as the waves recoil from the impassible barriers that meet 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. T -~ 
 
 them. Nothing daunted, Grant determined, three days 
 after, to make another attempt to take the place by storm. 
 The preparations for this were on a more extended scale, 
 and Porter was to assist on the river side with his gun 
 boats. All the corps commanders set their time-pieces by 
 Grant s watch, so that the assault should be simultaneous. 
 He himself took a prominent position, from which he 
 could see most of the advancing columns. At the ap 
 pointed hour, while the earth shook to the thunder of 
 artillery, and a cloud of sulphurous smoke hung over the 
 bluffs of Vicksburg, the mighty army hurled itself in 
 one impetuous, terrific onset upon the place. Deeds of 
 unparalleled valor were performed, transient successes 
 gained, but the assault proved a complete failure, and 
 the bleeding line swung slowly back to its original posi 
 tion ; but, oh, how many brave men it had left behind. 
 
 The ravines, and hillsides, and gullies were heaped 
 with the slain, among which lay the wounded, filling the 
 night air with groans, and laments, and piercing cries for 
 water. Grant had hurled 30,000 men on the rebel works, 
 one-tenth of whom he left behind. He had not gained 
 one foot of ground, and inflicted but little loss on the 
 enemy, covered as they were by their works. 
 
 Much has been written and many reasons given for 
 this assault. But of all those adduced in its favor, they 
 seem to us to justify the first one rather than it. The 
 hope of overcoming easily a demoralized army, the dis 
 satisfaction of the people with long sieges, etc., may 
 be sufficient to have induced Grant to make the first 
 attempt. But that had revealed no weakness in the 
 enemy s defenses, opened up no salient point, while it 
 had encouraged the besieged, and given them back their 
 lost confidence. No impression had been made on any 
 portion of the rebel works, nothing accomplished to 
 
138 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 justify any hope of success, which, if obtained at all, must 
 be by some unexpected piece of luck ; in short, depended 
 altogether on " something turning up." 
 
 Grant had the reputation of " moving at once on the 
 enemy s works/ but this is not always wise, and only 
 sacrifices brave men in vain. He had now to come down 
 to the much-despised spade, with more than three thou 
 sand men less than before to help him use it, and he pre 
 pared for a regular siege, and called for reinforcements, 
 telling Hurlburt and Prentiss to send forward " every 
 available man that could possibly be spared." "The 
 siege of Vicksburg," he says, " is going to occupy time, 
 contrary to my expectations when I arrived near it. To 
 watch the enemy, and to prevent him from collecting 
 a force outside, near enough to attack my rear, I require 
 a large cavalry force. Contract everything on the line 
 of the route from Memphis to Corinth, and keep your 
 cavalry well out south of there; by this means, you ought 
 to be able to send here quite a large force." 
 
 Grant had now about forty thousand men fit for duty, 
 and on the 23d, orders were given for the axe and the 
 shovel to supplant the bayonet. The hot season was at 
 hand, the troops had already endured many hardships, 
 they were almost altogether unprovided with siege ma 
 terial, so that the difficulties before the national army 
 were not only formidable, but peculiar. The engineer 
 organization was especially defective ; there were no 
 engineer troops in the entire command, and only four 
 engineer officers, while twenty would have found ample 
 opportunity for all their skill. Several pioneer com 
 panies of volunteers were, however, used for engineering 
 purposes, and although raw at first, became effective 
 before the close of the siege. There were no permanent 
 depots of siege material ; spades and picks were kept at 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 I o9 
 
 the steamboat landing, on the Yazoo, and in the camps 
 . near the trenches ; gabions and fascines were made as 
 they were needed, by the pioneer companies, or by details 
 of troops from the line. Grant s artillery was simply 
 that used during the campaign, with the addition of a 
 battery of naval guns of larger calibre, loaned him by 
 Admiral Porte.r. There was nothing like a siege train in 
 all the West no light mortars, and very few s4ege-how- 
 itzers nearer than Washington ; and there was not time 
 to send to northern arsenals for supplies. With such 
 material and means the siege of Vicksburg was begun. 
 
 Being between two armies, and knowing that reinforce 
 ments would be hurried up to the neighborhood of Vicks 
 burg from every quarter by the enemy, he had to provide 
 against contingencies arising on every side of him. Por 
 ter was asked to occupy Haines s Bluff, which had been 
 abandoned with all its artillery, with his marines and sail 
 ors, till troops could be got up from the north to hold it. 
 He had also to erect works in his rear, to provide against 
 an attack from Johnston in that direction. His utmost en 
 ergies were, therefore, called into activity to guard against 
 the thousand dangers that might arise in the long siege be 
 fore him. But all this time, with such material as he had, he 
 pressed the siege on. Covered ways, trenches, parallels, 
 saps and mines were constructed, sharpshooters placed 
 so as to pick off any of the enemy that showed their 
 heads above the parapets, a tower built, from the top of 
 which he could overlook everything, while Porter kept 
 thundering on the water-batteries in front. Having no 
 iron mortars, wooden ones were made, bound firmly with 
 iron hoops, which threw shells into the city. Amid this 
 constant uproar and tumult the underground work went 
 noiselessly on, and Grant slowly dug his way under the 
 town. By the last of June he had 220 guns in position, 
 
140 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 although there was but one heavy battery, and this had 
 been landed from the gun-boats, and \vas served by 
 sailors. Grant began his approaches 600 yards distant 
 from the rebel works, and by the last of June had got 
 within 200. 
 
 While all this outside thundering and underground 
 digging was going on, food grew scarcer ^nd scarcer in 
 the doomed place. Grant had cut off its supplies till the 
 tired troops were put on half rations. Pemberton, seeing 
 that he was being slowly starved out, sent pressing re 
 quests to Johnston to relieve him, but Sherman was look 
 ing after him, and all his messages fell into Grant s hands. 
 Says Badeau : 
 
 CAVE LIFE IN VICKSBURG. 
 
 " The prices of food in the town had, by this time, risen 
 enormously. Flour was five dollars a pound, or a thou 
 sand dollars a barrel (rebel money) ; meal was one hun 
 dred and forty dollars a bushel ; molasses, ten and twelve 
 dollars a gallon ; and beef (very often oxen killed by the 
 national shells and picked up by the butchers) was sold 
 at two dollars and two dollars and a half, by the pound. 
 Mule-meat sold at a dollar a pound, and was in great 
 demand. Many families of wealth had eaten the last 
 
- LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 141 
 
 mouthful of food they possessed, and the poorer class of 
 non-combatants was on the verge of starvation. There was 
 scarcely a building that had not been struck by shells, and 
 many were entirely demolished. A number of women 
 and children had been killed or wounded by mortar-shells, 
 or balls; and, all who did not remain in the damp caves 
 of the hillsides, were in danger. Even the hospitals where 
 the wounded lay were sometimes struck, for it was found 
 impossible to prevent occasional shells falling on the build 
 ings, which of course would have been sacred from an 
 intentional fire. 
 
 "Fodder was exhausted, and the horses were compelled 
 to subsist wholly on corn-tops, the corn being all ground 
 into meal for the soldiers." 
 
 The pickets often would meet and converse pleasantly 
 together, the Union men always bragging they could 
 starve the rebels out in the end. A favorite meeting-place 
 was a house between the lines to which there was a well. 
 Thither after dark both parties would repair for water, 
 which was scarce, and have long discussions about the 
 war. 
 
 At length the end approached. A mine was pushed 
 far in, and from it three branch mines were run, in each 
 of which were placed 500 pounds of powder and 700 in 
 the centre, in all, over a ton of powder. The 25th of 
 June was fixed for exploding the whole. 
 
 The fuse train being ignited, it went fizzing and pop 
 ping through the zigzag line of trenches, until for a 
 moment it vanished. Its disappearance was quickly suc 
 ceeded by the explosion, and the mine was sprung. So 
 terrible a spectacle is seldom witnessed. Dust, dirt, 
 smoke, gabions, stockades, timber, gun-carriages, logs 
 in fact, everything connected with the fort rose hundreds 
 of feet into the air, as if vomited forth from a volcano. 
 
T . . LIPE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 142 
 
 The rebel troops were expecting an explosion and had 
 left the spot a few, however, remained and were blown 
 into the air two coming 1 down alive within our lines. A 
 crater was made large enough to hold two regiments, and 
 our troops rushed boldly into it. But they were so ex 
 posed, the enemy occupying higher ground, that it seemed 
 madness to attempt to hold it. Shells fell almost momen 
 tarily into it, and with such deadly effect, that the soldiers 
 called it the " death hole." But they grimly held it all 
 night, and in the morning commenced covering them 
 selves, and were soon protected. From this time on the 
 work progressed more rapidly. New mines were con 
 structed and exploded the circle of fire grew steadily 
 narrower, new batteries were erected commanding the 
 the interior, famine increased, and everything indicated 
 that the time for a last deadly assault was close at hand. 
 
 At length, on the ist of July, Pemberton called a coun 
 cil of officers to discuss what should be done. The con 
 clusion was reached that they must surrender. "Ac 
 cordingly, on the 3d, he sent to Grant an officer proposing 
 an armistice. After some little correspondence it was 
 agreed that Pemberton and Grant should meet, for Grant 
 had demanded an unconditional surrender of the place, 
 to which Pemberton objected." 
 
 The two commanders met under a tree* on a hillside, 
 within 200 feet of the rebel line. The works on both 
 sides w r ere crowded with unarmed men, lying on their 
 faces, or hanging over the parapet, and looking eagerly 
 on. The day was sultry; there was no rain, but the 
 
 * The monument shown in the engraving was of white-veined marble, about 
 twelve feet high, and was erected on the very spot where stood the live-oak tree 
 under which these two chiefs met on this ever-to-be-remembered occasion. It was, 
 however, so mutilated by relic-seekers, that it was removed in 1866, and replaced 
 by an immense cannon, surmounted by a huge shell. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
144 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 clouds hung- heavily down, as if to watch the interview. 
 The loud-mouthed cannon held their peace, and the 
 strange cessation of artillery and musketry-fire made the 
 silence oppressive. The two generals shook hands, and 
 Pemberton inquired what terms of capitulation would be 
 allowed him. Grant replied, those that had been ex 
 pressed in his letter of 
 the morning ; where 
 upon Pemberton haugh 
 tily declared, if this were 
 all, the conference might 
 terminate, and hostilities 
 be resumed immediate 
 ly. " Very well," said 
 Grant, and turned away. 
 Two of the subordinates 
 then proposed to consult 
 together. Grant said he 
 had no objection, but 
 would not promise to be 
 bound by their conclu 
 sions. They stepped one 
 side, while he and Pem 
 berton walked up and 
 down, conversing. The propositions agreed upon Grant 
 refused to entertain, and mounting his horse, rode back 
 to his lines. He promised, however, not to resume hos 
 tilities until he had sent to Pemberton, that night, his last 
 terms in detail. He called a council of his officers, and 
 submitted Pemberton s proposition, and asked their ad 
 vice. After a long consultation, they drew up terms 
 which they deemed proper to be offered on the one hand 
 and accepted on the other. But Grant, acting inde 
 pendent in this matter, as he had from the beginning, 
 
 MONUMENT AT VICKSBURG. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 T 45 
 
 refused to accept them, and sent instead the followino- : 
 " In conformity with the agreement of this afternoon, I 
 will submit the following propositions for the surrender 
 of Vicksburg. On your accepting the terms proposed, I 
 will march in one division as a guard, and take possession 
 at eight A. M. to-morrow. As soon as rolls can be made 
 out, and paroles signed by officers and men, you will be 
 allowed to march out of our lines, the officers taking with 
 them their side-arms and clothing, and the field, staff and 
 cavalry officers one horse each. The rank and file will 
 be allowed all their clothing, but no other property. If 
 these conditions are accepted, any amount of rations you 
 may deem necessary can be taken from the stores you 
 now have, and also the necessary cooking utensils for 
 preparing them. Thirty wagons, also, counting two- 
 horse or mule teams as one, will be allowed to transport 
 such articles as cannot be carried along. The same con 
 ditions will be allowed to all sick and wounded officers 
 and soldiers as fast as they become able to travel. The 
 paroles for these latter must be signed, however, whilst 
 officers are present authorized to sign the roll of pris 
 oners." 
 
 Pemberton, after some hesitation, consented to this 
 arrangement, for he knew that he could get no better 
 terms. Grant, convinced that he must surrender, with that 
 promptness which was one secret of his success, instantly 
 dispatched Sherman back over the route on which he had 
 come from Jackson, to disperse Johnston, whom he knew, 
 with reinforcements, was on his way to Vicksburg. 
 
 At ten o clock on Saturday, the 4th of July, the garri 
 son of Vicksburg marched out of their works and stacked 
 their arms, 31,600 men, among whom were 2,053 officers, 
 fifteen of them generals. One hundred and seventy-two 
 cannon fell into our hands. Where does military history 
 
 10 
 
T 45 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 furnish a parallel to this in the number of men and guns 
 surrendered at one time? Napoleon s famous capture 
 of Ulm does not equal it 
 
 I have given a description of the interview between 
 Grant and his staff, and Pemberton and his chief officers in a 
 more extended work, and can do no better than repeat it. 
 
 Pemberton, at this time, was at Forney s head-quarters, 
 a stone house built on the outskirts of the city, with wide 
 verandas, and almost hid among the tropicaj trees. 
 Seated in a damask cushioned rocking-chair, he sat with 
 his head bent as if lost in sad reflections, while pride and 
 mortification seemed struggling for the mastery in his 
 swarthy face. Tall, with black eyes and hair, and a full 
 flowing beard, he was a conspicuous object on the veran 
 da, which was filled with officers. It was a hot day, and 
 the doors and windows were all open to let in a little air, 
 through which also stole the triumphant strains of the dis 
 tant regimental bands. Grant with his staff trotted lei 
 surely toward this house, and dismounting, stepped on to 
 the piazza, and advanced toward the rebel general. All 
 looked up as he entered, and could scarce restrain their 
 surprise, when instead of a tall and commanding form, 
 clad in the rich uniform befitting so grand an occasion, 
 they saw before them a man of small stature, thick-set, 
 and round-shouldered, dressed in a plain suit of blue 
 flannel, and with nothing to distinguish his rank but two 
 stars on his shoulders. Pemberton received his saluta 
 tions coldly, and had not the civility to rise and offer him 
 a chair. His officers were all seated on the piazza, but 
 accepting their commander s conduct as the rule of polite 
 ness, not one of them offered Grant a seat. Not even the 
 sword at their side, which he in his generosity allowed 
 them to retain, could prompt them to common civility. 
 Among those officers it is hard to believe that there was 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j.^ 
 
 not many who were ashamed of this want of courtesy, 
 and persisted in it only because the sullen demeanor and 
 discourteous tone of their chief made them feel that any 
 other course would be displeasing to him. 
 
 Thus for five minutes the conqueror stood conversing 
 with his prisoner seated in his richly-cushioned rocking- 
 chair. This shameful spectacle was at length more than 
 the gentlemanly feelings of one of the officers present 
 could endure, and he rose and offered Grant a seat. The 
 latter, however, occupied it but a few minutes, when feel 
 ing very thirsty from his hot and dusty ride, he asked for 
 a drink of water. Not one offered to get it or ordered a 
 servant to do so ; instead, he was cavalierly told that he 
 would find some inside of the house. Passing within, he 
 groped around, and at last came across a negro, who 
 brought him a glass. Grant then returned to the piazza, 
 and finding his seat had been taken in his absence, again 
 stood and conversed for nearly a half an hour with his 
 rude captive. 
 
 Grant then visited the flag-ship of Admiral Porter. He 
 was received with thundering salutes, dipping of flags 
 and rousinof cheers. The two heroes and their officers 
 
 o 
 
 talked long and animatedly together over the great 
 victory. At dark, Grant returned on shore. In a week 
 the paroles were completed, and on July i ith, at a half an 
 hour before noon, the rebel garrison took up its line of 
 march. As they reached the fortifications, each man s 
 name was called and checked off on the rolls. National 
 troops were placed as guards on both sides of the road, 
 for some distance beyond the intrenchments ; and, in all 
 the bitterness of defeat, the prisoners marched by. All 
 that had heretofore passed was as nothing to this. Amid 
 the thickest storm of battle, there had always been 
 the expectation of succor or success ; while they lay on 
 
g LIFE CF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the weary picket, or in the hot trenches, they had still 
 hoped on, though hope was long deferred. But now all 
 hope was gone ; the rebel yell of defiance, so often raised 
 in battle, opposed to the national cheer, might not be 
 heard ; their willing hands no longer grasped familiar 
 weapons ; the standards, under which they had fought 
 so proudly, were in the keeping of their conquerors. 
 Large tear-drops fell on many a weather-beaten face, 
 and ever and anon they paused, and, turning back, 
 took one last look at the city they had striven so hard 
 to retain.* The national army gazed on in silence ; 
 proud as was the sight to them, exultant as were the 
 emotions with which they contemplated a spectacle 
 that repaid them a thousand-fold for all their toils, and 
 wounds, and sufferings, they yet could not but pity 
 the humiliation of their foes. No insulting taunt was 
 heard, no cheer of triumph nor mocking cannon saluted 
 the ears of the prisoners. Silently and sadly they moved 
 on, and in a few hours, were free from the taint of treason. 
 
 Sherman, when he reached Jackson, found Johnston 
 there and too strongly entrenched and reinforced to be 
 attacked, and so he carried out Grant s orders to de 
 stroy all railroads and cut off all supplies, and in the end 
 the rebel general was compelled to withdraw and 
 retreat under cover of darkness. Sherman did not deem 
 it wise to pursue, and so, after accomplishing the mission 
 he was sent to perform, rejoined the army. 
 
 The President wrote a private letter to Grant, con 
 fessing that he himself had thought his course in starting 
 on this campaign was wrong, and he now wished to ac 
 knowledge his mistake. He was immediately made major- 
 general, and votes of thanks were passed all over the 
 country, and costly gifts made him. It had been a great 
 triumph, and it filled the country with joy and confidence. 
 
 *Col. Badeau. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 GRANT AND THE COLORED TROOPS WISHES TO MOVE ON MOBILE STRANGE OPPO. 
 SITION OF LINCOLN AND HALLECK GRANT IN NEW ORLEANS THROWN FROM HIS 
 HORSE AND DISABLED PLACED OVER THE WHOLE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI 
 ORDERED TO CHATTANOOGA PUTS THOMAS IN PLACE OF ROSENCRANZ HIS DIS 
 PATCH TO THE FORMER THE ANSWER STARTS FOT CHATTANOOGA TERRIBLE 
 ROADS HIS ARRIVAL IN A RAIN-STORM SAD CONDITION OF THE ARMY COMMU 
 NICATION OPENED WITH NASHVILLE THE ASPECT OF AFFAIRS CHANGED BURN- 
 SIDE AT KNOXVILLE THREATENED SHERMAN S MARCH GRANT S EXCITEMENT 
 
 IMPORTANCE OF HOLDING CHATTANOOGA ANXIOUS FOR BURNSIDE ARRIVAL OF 
 
 SHERMAN THE BATTLE-FIELD SURVEYED PAINFUL DELAYS GRANT IMPATIENT 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE BATTLE-FIELD SHERMAN AND HOOKER THE NIGHT 
 BEFORE THE BATTLE FINAL CHARGE THE PURSUIT SHERMAN SENT TO RELIEVE 
 BURNSIDE GRANT CONGRATULATES THE ARMY. 
 
 THE President having issued a proclamation eman 
 cipating the slaves, he was very anxious to incor 
 porate them into the army, and had sanguine 
 expectations of the great influence they would have in 
 killing the rebellion. Grant, who before the war was 
 strongly opposed to all abolition movements, was thought 
 by many would hesitate to favor this wish, so far as his 
 own army was concerned. But he was too good a soldier 
 not to obey his Government, and though he did not share 
 in the President s opinion of the effect it would have on 
 the war he entered into his plans cheerfully nay he went 
 further, and espoused the cause of the black man with an 
 ardor and energy that had its effect in the South-west. 
 Hearing that the negroes when captured were not treated 
 as prisoners of war, but as robbers, he wrote the follow 
 ing letter to General Taylor, son of the former President, 
 and commanding in Texas: 
 
T - Q LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 "I feel no inclination," he said, "to retaliate for the offen 
 ses of irresponsible persons, but, if it is the policy of any 
 general intrusted with the command of troops to show no 
 quarter, or to punish with death prisoners taken in battle, 
 I will accept the issue. It may be you propose a different 
 line of policy toward black troops and officers command 
 ing them to that practiced toward white troops. If so, 
 I can assure you that these colored troops are regularly 
 mustered into the service of the United States. The 
 Government, and all officers under the Government, are 
 bound to give the same protection to these troops that 
 they do to any other troops." 
 
 To this Taylor replied, that he would punish all such 
 acts of violence, but he was required to turn over colored 
 troops captured to the civil government. 
 
 The opening of the Mississippi, which had been closed 
 so long to the North-west, caused the people of that sec 
 tion to wish to reopen trade also, with the South. Chase, 
 Secretary of the Treasury, being a Western man, naturally 
 sympathized with this feeling. 
 
 But Grant strongly opposed this measure as pernicious 
 in its effects, but he was overruled, and permission v;as 
 granted, and the South was flooded with smugglers, ped 
 dlers and adventurers, just as he had predicted. At this 
 time he strongly urged on the Government the propriety 
 of letting him move on Mobile. This Halleck opposed, but 
 he returned again and again to it, saying : " I am confident 
 that Mobile could now be taken, with comparatively a small 
 force. At least, a demonstration in that direction would 
 either result in the abandonment of the city, or force the 
 enemy to weaken Bragg s army to hold it." On the 3oth, 
 he once more urged: " I regret that I have not got a 
 movable force with which to attack Mobile or the river 
 above. As I am situated, however, I must be content 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j - 1 
 
 with guarding territory already taken from the enemy. I 
 do not say this complainingly, but simply regret that ad 
 vantage cannot be taken of so fine an opportunity of 
 dealing the enemy a heavy blow." But Halleck and 
 Lincoln both opposed him, and nothing was done. 
 
 Time, however, which " sets all things even," com 
 pelled Lincoln at length to put him where he asked no 
 permission to act as he wished, and Halleck, where he 
 could no longer interfere with his movements. So in 
 stead of being allowed to push on his astonishing victo 
 ries, his troops were taken from him to reinforce Banks 
 and Rosencranz the latter, being hard pushed at 
 Chattanooga. Finding himself in this condition, yet 
 anxious to help on the cause of the Union in every 
 way in his power, he set off for New Orleans to visit 
 Banks before he left for Texas, and see how he could 
 aid him. 
 
 While in the city at a review of the troops, he was 
 thrown from his horse. He was a splendid horse 
 man no man having a firmer seat in the saddle than 
 he but in an unguarded moment he was hurled to the 
 ground, and so severely injured that he was compelled to 
 lie in one position for twenty days, and did not 
 return to Vicksburg till the i6th of September. Even 
 then, he was carried on his couch, and compelled 
 to keep his bed until the 25th, when he was able to move 
 about on crutches. In the meantime, Halleck was tele 
 graphing to him to send all his available force to Rosen 
 cranz. This was done, and he at once set his troops in 
 motion, though he had no faith in the propriety of 
 the orders of his chief. Things were getting in terrible 
 confusion for Rosencranz was soon terribly whipped 
 on the Chickamauga River, and but for Thomas, would 
 have lost the army. It was plain that the clear head 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and prompt arm of Grant was needed there, and on 
 the 3d of October, he received the following dispatch. 
 The Secretary of War had finally got waked up to the 
 blundering of the Commander-in-Chief. 
 
 " It is the wish of the Secretary of War that, as soon as 
 General Grant is able to take the field, he will come to 
 Cairo, and report by telegraph." Grant replied from 
 Columbus, Kentucky: "Your dispatch from Cario of the 
 3d, directing me to report from Cairo, was received at 
 11.30, on the loth. Left the same day with staff and 
 
 head-quarters, and am 
 here, en route for Cario." 
 At Indianapolis, he 
 was met by the Secre 
 tary of War, who 
 brought with him an or 
 der creating for him a 
 new command the 
 Military Division of the 
 Mississippi ; this was to 
 include all the territory 
 between the Alleghanies 
 and the Mississippi 
 River,excepting Banks s 
 District: viz., three departments of the Tennessee, the 
 Cumberland and the Ohio. At this time Rosencranz 
 was in command of the Department of the Cumberland, 
 and Burnside of that of the Ohio. 
 
 The Government would not give him permission to go 
 to Mobile ; and now it puts him in command of the whole 
 Valley of the Mississippi. 
 
 Grant at once hurried to Nashville, to try to save the 
 army cooped up in Chattanooga, and was given permis 
 sion to choose which should take charge of the army 
 
 GEORGE H. THOMAS. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j ,- ~ 
 
 under him Thomas or Rosencranz. It did not take 
 him long to decide between the man who had disap 
 pointed him at Corinth and the " rock of Chickamauga," 
 and he immediately sent an order to Chattanooga placing 
 Thomas in chief command, and on the iQth started 
 himself, by rail, for the same place, for he had received 
 a startling dispatch from Washington that it was in 
 immediate danger of being surrendered, and he tele 
 graphed to Thomas : " Hold Chattanooga at all hazards, 
 I will be there as soon as possible /" and there flashed 
 back over the wires, from this " noblest Roman of them 
 all :" " / will hold the town till I starve" This was enough 
 
 o 
 
 to hear from the " rock of Chickamauga," and he knew, 
 when he arrived that, though he might find a dead, it 
 would not be a captive army. At Nashville he dispatched 
 orders to the right and left throughout his vast depart 
 ment, and among them one that illustrates his great 
 foresight, viz., to Admiral Porter to get a gun-boat to 
 Sherman, on the Tennessee, who was pressing, with his 
 usual tirelessness and terrible energy toward Chatta 
 nooga. 
 
 At Nashville he and his party took horse, for Grant, 
 though still on crutches, was able to ride on horseback. 
 But the roads were in a horrible condition, on account of 
 the recent rains, which sent torrents down the mountain 
 side, often a foot deep. Gloomy rocks darkened above 
 and deep chasms opened below, while all along the road, 
 which was almost impassable, the slippery ground was 
 strewn with the wrecks of wagons and carcasses of ani 
 mals, left there in the effort to get provisions to the 
 starving garrison. Where it was unsafe to go mounted, 
 the escort led their horses, while the soldiers carried 
 Grant tenderly in their arms over the rough and dangerous 
 place. The last day before reaching Chattanooga a pour- 
 
154 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 
 ing rain set in, drenching the weary party. At last, just at 
 dark, they saw the twinkling camp-fires in the valley, and 
 those also blazing up from all the heights that surrounded 
 it where lay the enemy. They were hungry, wet and 
 cold, and as they passed through the street in the lashing 
 rain, every one they met wore a gloomy aspect, as though 
 all hope had left them. And no wonder, for they were 
 weakened by want of food, hemmed in on every side, 
 with no way of escape, while their artillery was useless 
 for \vant of horses. It seemed a mockery, in this condi 
 tion of things, to 
 send more soldiers 
 to help consume 
 their scanty rations. 
 Grant at once 
 proceeded to 
 Thomas s head 
 quarters, and at 
 half-past nine tele 
 graphed to Wash 
 ington that he had 
 just arrived. He learned that Hooker, who had re 
 cently come on by rail from the Army of the Potomac, 
 had been ordered by Thomas to concentrate his force at 
 Bridgeport. 
 
 The next day the two commanders rode out together 
 to take a view of the situation. The lookout was gloomy 
 enough, for the enemy occupied all the heights, and did 
 not at once precipitate themselves on the weak and 
 starving garrison, because famine was doing the work 
 of destruction for them. 
 
 The first thing to be done was to open up the natural 
 route to Nashville, by which supplies could be obtained 
 to feed the starving army. Thomas had already, with 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS OF THOMAS. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. l - - 
 
 the arrival of troops from the east, devised a plan to do 
 this, which Grant at once adopted, and by a series of 
 brilliant movements and a complete surprise succeeded, 
 and there was no longer any fear of starvation. Thus, 
 in five days after Grant s arrival, the aspect of things had 
 entirely changed. Instead of a starving army, which 
 must, in a very short time, succumb to hunger, he saw 
 one able to be supplied with food to any amount. It 
 was no longer a dispirited army, one momentarily dread 
 ing an attack, but one full of courage, and waiting only 
 to be completely prepared to move on the foe. 
 
 This was a complete surprise to Bragg. A short time 
 before, Jefferson Davis had visited his head-quarters, and 
 from the encampment, on the heights, looked down on 
 the cooped-up army of Rosencranz, and saw with de 
 light, as he thought, that there would soon be a partial 
 recompense for the dreadful loss at Vicksburg. 
 
 As soon as Bragg saw how the tables were turned 
 upon him, he directed his attention to Burnside, shut up 
 a hundred miles away in Knoxville, East Tennessee, and 
 determined to capture him before Grant could be ready 
 to attack him. The latter knew this, but could do noth 
 ing to prevent any movement in that direction, and 
 became intensely anxious to see the head of Sherman s 
 indomitable columns. Halleck had ordered him to repair 
 bridges as he advanced. Grant now ordered him to 
 leave them alone and strip for the race. Sherman gladly 
 obeyed, and though he had steamed 400 miles, and was 
 now required to make a march of 400 more across the 
 country, yet he started on the long journey as though it 
 were but a day s march. 
 
 Hearing that Bragg had dispatched one of his best 
 generals, Longstreet, against Burnside, Grant s anxiety 
 to move against Missionary Ridge, and thus compel him 
 
156 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 to return, was almost overwhelming. This was increased 
 by dispatches from Washington urging him to do some 
 thing to save Burnside, whose destruction, unless he did, 
 would be inevitable. Grant at once sent orders to 
 him to hold on, and at the same time to Sherman to 
 hurry forward. His impatience at his own compelled in 
 activity threatened to leap over all bounds, and he at 
 length ordered Thomas, on the 7th, to make an attack, 
 saying : " It should not be delayed later than till to 
 morrow morning." But the latter had said again and 
 arain that nothing could be done till horses were ob- 
 obtained. " But/ said Grant, " the news is of such a 
 nature, that it becomes an imperative duty for your force 
 to draw the attention of the enemy from Burnside to your 
 own front. I deem the best movement against the 
 enemy to be an attack on the northern end of Missionary 
 Ridge, with all the force you can bring to bear against 
 it ; and, when that is carried, to threaten, and even at 
 tack, if possible, the enemy s line of communication be 
 tween Dalton and Cleveland. Rations should be ready 
 to issue a sufficiency to last four days, the moment Mis 
 sionary Ridge is in our possession ; rations to be carried 
 in haversacks. Where there are not horses to move the 
 artillery, mules must be taken from the teams, or horses 
 from ambulances ; or, if necessary, officers dismounted^ 
 and their horses taken." 
 
 But Thomas was immovable. He well knew that to 
 carry out that order would simply be an attempt to fight 
 a desperate battle without cannon. Grant chafed like a 
 wild animal in chains. He could not help Burnside ; he 
 could not attack Bragg ; in fact, he could do nothing till 
 Sherman came up, and that noble officer was doing all 
 that human nature could do to reach him. His men were 
 getting exhausted ; many of them had worn out their 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT, T - 
 
 J 5/ 
 
 shoes, and were marching barefooted along- the now dusty 
 and now slippery highways. It was a time of tremendous 
 excitement. Two entire corps had been hurried from 
 the Potomac by steam, and had to be provided for as 
 they could. Two hundred thousand soldiers were con 
 centrating from the east and the west, either in motion for 
 this one battle-field, or guarding its approaches, or bring 
 ing up supplies, or waiting anxiously for those who were, 
 with them, to fight the battle of Chattanooga. And over 
 all these preparations, and all these armies, the spirit of 
 one man was dominant. 
 
 Grant was in a very trying position, for the eyes of the 
 whole country were upon him, and the Government 
 waited with the intensest anxiety every dispatch from 
 him. It was not merely the army at Chattanooga that 
 was to be saved, but a strategic point of the utmost im 
 portance. Great railway lines converged here, stretching 
 east and west, and connecting these two sections of the 
 Confederacy, furnishing it interior lines, on which it could 
 transport troops from one threatened point to another, 
 and thus, with but half the number of men that we had, 
 could concentrate an equal number at a given point, 
 where otherwise we should have a superior force. It, 
 therefore, must not fall, if human courage and skill could 
 save it, and it was very plain that if two such men as Grant 
 and Thomas could not do it, it could not be saved at all. 
 His dispatches to Burnside, at Knoxville, at this time, 
 reveal his anxiety for that commander, and at the same 
 time show that his whole nature was strung up to the in- 
 tensest point, causing his mind to work with a rapidity 
 and power seldom exhibited. 
 
 On the night of the I4th, Sherman took a boat at 
 Bridgeport and reached Chattanooga the next day, and 
 reported to Grant. The greeting between these two 
 
158 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 
 comrades, and heroes, and friends, was most cordial. 
 Grant, as he listened to the recital of his long and tedious 
 march, and the deplorable state that his troops were in, 
 but ready to obey his orders to the last, not only felt 
 drawn nearer to the gallant soldiers, but felt also a mighty 
 load lifted from his heart, and that he could breathe free 
 again. The time for action had at last come. Grant 
 then went over the situation of the rebel army, delineated 
 clearly his plan of attack, and told him what his own 
 position and duty were to be on the day of battle. The 
 
 next day the two rode 
 over the ground to 
 gether, accompanied 
 | by Thomas and other 
 officers, and finally 
 p ascended the hills on 
 the north bank of the 
 Tennessee, from 
 which, spread out like 
 a map, the whole crest 
 of Missionary Ridge, 
 up to the point Sher 
 man was told, he was 
 expected to take, and hold, and fortify, preparatory 
 to the grand assault. That group presented a pictur 
 esque spectacle, as they stood on that naked hill-top and 
 pointed out the distant camp of the enemy, reposing 
 along the silent mountains, which the sun, just then break 
 ing through the mist that had shrouded them, revealed, like 
 a beautiful picture, the white tents standing out against 
 the blue sky, and the standards waving above them. 
 They were too distant to hear the strains of music that 
 floated along the crest, and it was a peaceful, quiet scene, 
 so tranquil and beautiful, that the imagination could not 
 
 BLOCK-HOUSE AT CHATTANOOGA. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j - 
 
 conceive that it so soon would be transformed into one of 
 passion, and blood, and death, and terror inconceivable. 
 Sherman gazed long and intently on it ; not for its beauty 
 or the terrible change that was so soon to come over it, 
 but with the eye of the soldier, noting each point in its 
 relation to the plan of battle, that had been described to 
 him, but gazed longest and most earnestly on that spot 
 where he and his brave troops were expected to per 
 form so important a part in the coming decisive strug 
 gle. He thought long and intently over it as they de 
 scended the hill and returned to head-quarters. 
 
 Sherman had left his hard-pressed, weary and half- 
 shoeless, yet noble army, at Bridgeport, and he felt they 
 needed rest, but the sad spectacle that had met his eyes 
 at Chattanooga made him forget the long and desperate 
 march of 400 miles, and he knew that no time was to be 
 lost. He started back for Bridgeport in a row-boat, and 
 every hour being big with fate, urged the men to spare 
 no exertion ; and, as the row was long and tedious, he 
 took the oars from time to time himself, to relieve the 
 men, and one of the foremost generals of the army bent 
 to the oars while his crew rested. Reaching Bridgeport, 
 he at once set his army in motion. Meanwhile, Grant 
 gave orders to Thomas to be ready on Saturday morn 
 ing to attack Missionary Ridge, giving a clear outline of 
 the plan on which it was to be conducted. These in 
 structions he sent down the river to meet Sherman on 
 the march. This general was urging on his troops, but 
 the bridge at Brown s Ferry was frail, and the columns 
 had to march over it carefully, or it would break down 
 entirely, while the roads leading from it were terribly cut 
 up, besides being incumbered with the wagons of other 
 troops stationed along the way, so that the march was ne 
 cessarily slow, and he did not reach Hooker down at Look- 
 
1 6o 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 out Mountain till the afternoon of the 2Oth. To his dis 
 may he received here Grant s orders to attack the enemy 
 at daybreak next morning. This, of course, was impossi 
 ble, and he telegraphed Grant so. Again this impatient 
 man was compelled to retract his orders. Before, it was 
 Thomas that disappointed him, and now it was his favorite 
 general, and he telegraphed to Halleck : " I ordered an 
 attack here two weeks ago, but it was impossible to move 
 artillery ;" and, now, Thomas had to borrow teams from 
 Sherman, in order to move a portion of his artillery to 
 the places where it was to be used. Sherman had used 
 almost superhuman efforts to get up, and still was de 
 layed ; and Thomas could take only about one gun with 
 each battery. "I have never felt," he says, "such restless 
 ness before, as I have at the fixed and immovable condi 
 tion of the Army of the Cumberland." 
 
 This usually reticent, self-restrained man had been the 
 prey of the keenest anxiety, lest Burnside should sur 
 render before he could strike a blow for him ; and, 
 thwarted in his plans by circumstances over which he 
 had no control, he at last bursts out, and betrays his 
 feelings : " / have never felt such restlessness before He 
 now wrote to Sherman : " To-morrow morning I had at 
 first set for your attack, but I now see it cannot be made 
 then ; but can you not get up for the following morning. 
 .... Every effort must be made to get up in time to 
 attack on Sunday morning." But again fate interposed, 
 as if to overtake and baffle this man, to whom every day 
 seemed a battle lost, for a heavy rain-storm set in that 
 afternoon, and came clown in torrents all night and all 
 next day. But Sherman put his troops in motion, and 
 the Second Division, at Bridgeport, began to cross the 
 pontoon bridge at Brown s Ferry, but it broke down 
 again and again, and had to be repaired. All day long, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ^ 
 
 and all through the gloomy night, the tired, drenched 
 soldiers were kept at work ; but, when at last over, the 
 rain had rendered the roads so muddy that the artillery was 
 moved with great difficulty, and blows of whips, and loud 
 hallooing, and cursing were mingled with the stern, sharp 
 orders of the officers. It was plain that the battle could 
 not come off on that Sabbath day. His patience was be 
 ing tried to the utmost. To make matters worse, a mes- 
 senger.brought the news that Bragg was about to retreat, 
 and get off scatheless, after all. Grant believed it, be 
 cause it seemed to be corroborated by a letter he had 
 received from Bragg, requesting him to remove all non- 
 combatants from Chattanooga, as he was about to com 
 mence bombarding the place. He thought this was a 
 mere trick to cover up his movements, as he did not 
 believe that he would thus notify him beforehand of his 
 purpose. But, whatever Bragg s motives were, he had no 
 thought of retreating. 
 
 The following is a description of the battle-field by an 
 officer of Grant s staff, Col. Badeau : 
 
 "Four streams empty into the Tennessee, near Chat 
 tanooga, bounding and dividing what was destined to be 
 the battle-field. Missionary Ridge runs nearly north and 
 south, and these various currents, breaking through 
 its gorges or those of Lookout Mountain, flow north and 
 west. 
 
 "Thomas s line, in front of Chattanooga, reached from 
 the Chattanooga Creek to the Citico, and was about a 
 mile out from the town. Twenty-two heavy guns were 
 in position along this line. The rebel pickets in front 
 of Fort Wood came into close contact with the national 
 out-guards, and nearly a mile beyond them, was the 
 first rebel line." 
 
 On the 23d, Grant ordered Thomas to make a re 
 
 TT 
 
j 5 2 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 connoissance in force, in front of him, and feel the enemy, 
 and see if it were true that he was retreating. It was 
 a beautiful day, for the fog, that all the morning had 
 stretched along the river and filled all the valley and 
 shut out the opposing armies, now lifted and rolled 
 away in heavy masses, revealing the camps above and 
 below to each other. It was like the sudden lifting of 
 a mighty curtain on some vast stage on which were 
 50,000 actors, with all the accessories in scenery of 
 mountain ridges, and deep valleys, and white tents, and 
 waving banners, and glistening bayonets, and roll of 
 
 
 MISSIONAPY RIDGE. 
 
 drums, and shouts of bugles. The enemy looked down 
 from his sunny heights with more curiosity than sur 
 prise, as Thomas s forces, with the precision of men in 
 a review, moved out on the open field toward the base 
 of the mountain. They thought it was a mere parade 
 till their steady advance dispelled the illusion, when in 
 an instant, valley and mountain rung with the loud ex 
 plosions of artillery. Then followed the rolling volleys of 
 musketry as the troops entered the line of pickets. These 
 were swept back, and the steady columns, entering a 
 strip of woods, fell on the first range of rifle-pits and 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ^ 
 
 carried them before the enemy were aware of their 
 danger, and two hundred men were captured and sent 
 back. 
 
 In fifteen minutes the rebels had abandoned their 
 whole advanced line, and everything was swept clear to 
 the foot of the mountain, except a few rifle-pits directly 
 at its base. Within this space so quickly captured was a 
 mound called "Orchard Knoll," which, with other points, 
 were at once fortified preparatory to the grand movement 
 the next day. Thus 20,000 men were a mile in advance of 
 their former position, in complete line of battle. All 
 this time Sherman was getting into his position on Bragg s 
 extreme right. The army, however, had been so ma 
 neuvered as to make Bragg think that the main attack 
 was to be on his extreme left. To confirm this delusion, 
 Sherman passed behind hills near the shore, till he 
 reached Chickamauga Creek, above Chattanooga. To be 
 in readiness for the troops when they arrived, 1 1 6 pon 
 toons had been floated down the night before, and con 
 cealed in North Chickamauga Creek, from which they 
 were to be floated down to the Tennessee when wanted. 
 
 Says Badeau: "Before midnight of the 23d of Novem 
 ber, the pontoons were loaded with thirty armed men 
 each ; and at two o clock on the morning of the 24th, the 
 whole fleet, carrying Giles Smith s brigade, pushed care 
 fully out of the North Chickamauga, and then dropped 
 silently down the Tennessee. So perfect were the 
 arrangements, that even the national pickets along the 
 bank of the river did not know when the boats had 
 passed. Floating quietly by the rebel sentinels, before 
 daylight they reached their destination, a point just above 
 the mouth of the South Chickamauga. A small force then 
 jumped ashore, and advancing rapidly, captured the 
 enemy s out-guard, twenty in number, before the rebels 
 
164 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 
 
 were aware of the presence of a foe. Smith then pushed 
 rapidly below the mouth of the Chickamauga, disem 
 barked the rest of his brigade, and dispatched the pon 
 toons back for other loads." 
 
 By daylight 8,000 men were across and had intrenched 
 themselves on the south bank of the river. At daybreak 
 they began to throw the bridge across the river, 1,400 
 
 feet wide at this 
 point, in ordi 
 nary times, and 
 now swelled by 
 the recent rains, 
 m u c h wider. 
 While it was 
 building, eighty 
 boats, each car 
 rying some forty 
 soldiers, were 
 passing rapidly 
 from shore t o 
 r shore. By noon 
 the bridge was 
 completed, and 
 the artillery 
 went rumbling 
 over the sway 
 ing structure, 
 followed by a 
 long line of cavalry. At one o clock, Sherman took up his 
 march from the bank a light drizzling rain falling at the 
 time helping to conceal his movements. By half-past 
 three he had pushed up the hill he was to start from 
 next morning, and fall on Bragg s right. To his surprise 
 he found, after reaching it, that Missionary Ridge was 
 
 SLOPE OF LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 65 
 
 not continuous with it but that he would be compelled to 
 cross a deep gorge before he could make a lodgment on 
 the ridge proper. This took from his achievement half 
 its value, and showed plainly that the work before him 
 was more formidable than he supposed. 
 
 While he was thus maneuvering to get a position 
 from which to move on the enemy, Hooker was doing 
 the same thing down the river to attack his left. To 
 effect this, he must fight his way up Lookout Mountain, 
 at the foot of which were the enemy s pickets, while 
 
 REDOUBT ON LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN. 
 
 his main force was posted in a hollow half way to the 
 summit that was crowned with three hostile brigades. 
 Earth-works, redoubts and rifle-pits were scattered all 
 along its sides. About seven thousand men defended 
 this craggy, heavily-wooded mountain. But Hooker 
 forced his way over all these obstacles, fighting every 
 inch of ground, and steadily advanced foot by foot up 
 the precipitous sides. Clouds hung around the summit 
 Xvhen he began his ascent, which settled lower and lower 
 till at length they enfolded his columns, so that the 
 lookers on in the valley below could trace his progress 
 only by the sharp rattle of musketry or flashes of fire 
 
j 6 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 through the openings made by the explosions of artillery. 
 Now and then, the cloud, rent and torn by the vol 
 cano raging in its bosom, would part and then long 
 lines of glittering bayonets would flash in the sunlight 
 and standards wave, showing where the fight was going 
 on. At four o clock, a dispatch arrived from Hooker, 
 saying he had won the plateau and made his lie 2 im 
 pregnable, and that his guns commanded the enemy s 
 defenses. 
 
 With Sherman on the left, Hooker on the right, and 
 Thomas in the centre ready to move in one mighty 
 tide on the foe, it was clear that the next day would 
 witness wild work. Night came down, and signal lights 
 waving from isolated peaks, and now and then scatter 
 ing discharges of musketry, or a sudden flash of fire 
 through the gloom, told Bragg too well what was before 
 him. He would now have given a year of his life to 
 have had Longstreet back again. But it was too late 
 the coming shock must be met as best it could. In 
 Chattanooga, all was expectation and excitement. For 
 awhile shouts and yells of defiance, and cries of suf 
 fering came down from the mountain sides, and then 
 all was still, and the two hosts sank to their slumbers, 
 all save the sentinels, pacing their steady rounds. But 
 there was little sleep for Grant and his brave officers 
 that night. At midnight, Sherman received his order 
 from him to attack at daybreak. 
 
 It was a night of intense anxiety to him. Though he 
 felt confident of victory, there were too many hazards in 
 battle not to cause the deepest solicitude, especially when 
 the fate of another army besides his own hung on the 
 issue. While he sat alone, at midnight, writing out his 
 last orders, and absorbed in thought, the bright, round 
 moon, that had struggled up over Missionary Ridge amid 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 heavy clouds, now broke forth, making the camp-fires 
 pale and the white tents whiter, and throwing deep 
 shadows over the valley below. In its mild splendor it 
 looked down on the sleeping hosts, with their drooping 
 standards, and the river murmuring by, turning this 
 slumbering hell into a scene of quiet. Nature has no 
 sympathy with the passions that " mark the earth with 
 ruin." During the night the wind changed to the north 
 west, dispersing the fog and clouds that had for some days 
 obscured the mountains, and the sun arose over Mission 
 ary Ridge bright and clear. Not a cloud was in the sky, 
 and the great battle-field was spread out to view like a 
 map. Sherman was on the ridge, to the left, where it 
 pressed on the river Hooker to the right, on the same 
 ridge, where it approached the river below Chattanooga ; 
 in the centre of this amphitheatre, on Orchard Knoll, 
 Grant, Thomas, and other generals, with their brilliant 
 staffs, stood gazing on the scene, while on the highest 
 point could be seen Bragg s head-quarters altogether, 
 presenting one of the most imposing spectacles the sun 
 ever shone upon. 
 
 Sherman had received orders to attack at dawn of 
 day, yet he could not get ready to do so, though he was 
 in the saddle before daylight, and, with his staff, riding 
 over the broken ground, to examine its nature and 
 decide on his mode of attack. But, soon after the sun 
 had lighted this wondrous scene, the bugles rang out 
 through the clear, cold air, " forward," and Sherman 
 moved down the hill he occupied, and crossing the valley, 
 ascended the opposite slope and carried with a rush a 
 secondary ridge, and drew up within eighty yards of the 
 rebel intrenchments. Here a desperate fight ensued. 
 Ground was taken and lost, but no further advantage 
 was gained. Bragg knew he must hold this point, or all 
 
1 68 
 
 7,7/7: CF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 was lost, for once in Sherman s possession, he would be 
 cut off from all his supplies ; and so the battle raged 
 here hour after hour with desperate fury. 
 
 It was understood that Thomas was to attack the 
 centre simultaneous with his advance, but it was not 
 clone. He could see from his position the amphitheatre 
 in which Thomas had massed his forces, but could detect 
 no movement hear no thunder of battle. Thus the 
 struggle went on, until at last Bragg saw a movement of 
 Thomas, which indicated that Sherman was to be heavily 
 reinforced, and he hurried off troops to the threatened 
 point. This was at three o clock, and Sherman says : 
 "I saw column after column of the enemy streaming to 
 ward me gun after gun pouring its concentric shot on 
 us from every hill and spur that gave a view of any part 
 of the ground held by us ;" but still the attack of Thomas 
 was unaccountably delayed, and he felt that he could not 
 much longer stand this accumulation of force against 
 him. Grant, too, was anxious, because he could get no 
 tidings from Hooker, whose appearance on the ridge to 
 his right was to be the signal of attack. The latter was 
 delayed in building a bridge across Chattanooga Creek. 
 At length Grant received a dispatch from him that he 
 was now clear, and was advancing full on the enemy. 
 
 Then Grant gave the order to advance, and the bugles 
 rang out. The men, 20,000 of them, had stood under 
 arms all day listening to the roar of battle till they were 
 excited almost beyond discipline, and the stirring bugle- 
 note, " forward," went through them like a stream of 
 electricity, and every man s eye gleamed and every hand 
 clutched the musket with a fiercer grasp. The order 
 was to carry the rifle-pits at the foot of the ridge, and 
 then reform the lines before attempting to ascend the 
 mountain. First, they moved across the open plain with 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 169 
 
 a firm and steady step, from four to nine hundred yards, 
 to the first rifle-pits. From thence was an ascent of 500 
 yards to the top of the ridge, which was covered with 
 fallen trees. As they advanced a plunging and terrible 
 fire of artillery fell upon them ; but they did not heed it, 
 but taking up the double-quick, ran over the intervening 
 space and dashed on the rifle-pits. Not a shot was fired, 
 but with their bayonets at charge, and gleaming in the 
 afternoon sun, that now shone full in the enemy s face, 
 they moved like one mighty wave on the foe, their eyes 
 blazing with excitement and determination. The sight of 
 this long row of glistening steel, coming on with the 
 swiftness of a crested billow, was something terrible to 
 behold, and seemed to paralyze the enemy, for they fell 
 prostrate in their trenches and let the glittering tide roll 
 over them. In a twinkling a thousand prisoners were 
 seized and hurried back to the rear. 
 
 Now was the time and now came the order to halt and 
 form line, but you might as well have halted the wild 
 winds, or wilder sea. Their blood was up, and they went 
 on as heedless of the iron storm that was rained upon 
 them as though the ponderous shot and shell were only 
 snow-flakes. The programme was now entirely changed, 
 and there was to be no halt, no reforming of the lines 
 the troops were to have it all their own way. 
 
 As Thomas looked on the desperate struggle, he 
 turned to Grant, and said : " I fear, General, they will 
 never get up." " Give em time, General," he replied, 
 " give em time." " It was terrible to witness the fire of 
 canister, grape and musketry that smote the column, a 
 thousand torrents of fire poured over its brink, and rushed 
 together to its base. But the line moves on and up. 
 They cannot dash up that rugged acclivity. They dash 
 out a little way, and then slacken ; they creep up, hand 
 
j ~ Q JJI-E OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 over hand, loading and firing, and wavering and halting, 
 from the first line of works to the second ; they burst into 
 a charge with a cheer, and go over it. Sheets of flame bap 
 tize them ; plunging shot tear away comrades on left and 
 right ; it is no longer shoulder to shoulder ; it is God for 
 us all ! Under tree-trunks, among rocks, stumbling over 
 the dead, struggling with the living, facing the steady fire 
 of 8,000 infantry poured down upon their heads as if it 
 were the old historic curse from Heaven, they wrestle with 
 the ridge. Ten, fifteen, twenty minutes go by, like a re 
 luctant century. The batteries roll like a drum. Between 
 the second and last lines of rebel works is the torrid zone 
 of the battle. The hill sways up like a wall before them, 
 at an angle of forty-five degrees, but our brave moun 
 taineers are clambering steadily on up upward still !" 
 It was a strange and thrilling sight to see the banners 
 of the different regiments alternately advancing, now one, 
 now another, farther up the heights. As fast as one 
 standard-bearer fell another would seize the colors and 
 press on. In one case, five color-bearers were shot down 
 one after another. But, at last, the 1 flashing tide reached 
 the crest and rolled over it just as the sun was stooping 
 over Lookout Mountain, flooding the bloody heights with 
 its departing glory. Then there arose a shout from the 
 valley below, like the sound of the distant ocean, and 
 Grant, with a sigh of relief, felt that the red field was 
 won, and putting spurs to his horse, galloped up the 
 height. But the scene on the narrow plateau can never 
 be described. "As the blue-coats surged over its edge, 
 cheer on cheer rang like bells through the valley of the 
 Chickamauga. Men flung themselves exhausted upon 
 the ground. They laughed, and wept, and shook hands, 
 and embraced, turned round, and did all four over again. 
 It was as wild as a carnival. Granger was received with 
 
Lit E OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 171 
 
 a shout. Soldiers/ he said, you ought to be court- 
 martialed, every man of you ! I ordered you to take the 
 rifle-pits, and you scaled the mountain ! while his 
 cheeks were wet with tears as honest as the blood that 
 reddened all the route." 
 
 Bragg and his officers tried to bear up against the 
 reversed tide of battle, and form a second line of de 
 fenses, but in vain, and the disorderly retreat continued. 
 Sheridan, with his usual impetuosity, pressed the enemy 
 and hastened his flight. After following about a mile, he 
 came upon a hill, around which the road wound. On the 
 top of it Bragg had 
 planted a strong bat 
 tery, protected by in 
 fantry, which opened a 
 fierce fire upon him. 
 But Sheridan pressed 
 on, and reaching its 
 base, he sent a strong 
 force up the steep 
 ascent, and two regi 
 ments to flank it on 
 both sides. It was now 
 dark, and just as one 
 of those regiments 
 
 reached the crest of the hill the moon rose from behind 
 it, and the column, with bayonets and banners, stood out 
 in black relief against the silver orb. Hooker, too, was 
 in full pursuit, till darkness at length ended it. 
 
 In the morning the pursuit recommenced. Sherman 
 moved forward from his position, and came upon the 
 depot of the enemy, and found that they had made it a 
 scene of desolation. A wide area of smouldering ma 
 terial and columns of smoke met his view. 
 
 & == 
 
 PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ," Corn-meal and corn in huge burning piles, broken 
 wagons, abandoned caissons and guns, burned carriages, 
 pieces of pontoons, and all manner of things, burned and 
 broken." But the running fight that followed till the 
 enemy was driven out of Tennesse, it is useless to 
 describe. 
 
 Grant s dispatch to Washington, announcing the vic 
 tory, is a model of terseness and modesty. He says : 
 
 Although the battle lasted from early dawn till dark this evening, I 
 believe I am not premature in announcing a complete victory over 
 Bragg. 
 
 Lookout Mountain top, all the rifle-pits in Chattanooga Valley, and 
 Missionary Ridge entire, have been carried, and are now held by us. 
 I have no idea of finding Bragg here to-morrow. 
 
 U. S. GRANT, 
 
 Major- General. 
 
 This was certainly a very moderate announcement of 
 a victory, in which he had taken over five thousand pris 
 oners, forty pieces of artillery, sixty-nine artillery car 
 riages and caissons, and 7,000 stand of small arms. His 
 loss, in killed and wounded, was heavier than that of the 
 enemy, because the latter were under cover, and suffered 
 very little till they took to flight. 
 
 Lincoln wrote Grant a private letter, in which he says: 
 "I wish to tender you and all under your command, my 
 more than thanks my profoundest gratitude for the 
 skill, courage and perseverance which you and they, over 
 so great difficulties, have accomplished their object. God 
 bless you all." But Grant s work was not yet done, 
 Knoxville was in imminent danger of falling into Long- 
 street s hands, and though his absence from the battle was 
 such a grevious loss to Bragg, yet if the former could cap 
 ture Burnside s army, it would be some compensation for 
 his own defeat. This would certainly be the result, unless 
 
LIFR OF GENERAL GRANT. T - ^ 
 
 I /J 
 
 aid speedily reached Knoxville. Grant, before he had 
 finished the pursuit of Bragg, had ordered Granger to 
 proceed thither with all possible dispatch. On his return, 
 he found him not yet gone. Though feeling it was a hard 
 thing to call on the overtasked yet indomitable Sherman 
 to march to Knoxville, yet he saw he must do it, and 
 he did. 
 
 At the same time, he sent a dispatch to Burnside, a 
 copy of which he directed should be allowed to fall into 
 the hands of the enemy, so that it should have a double 
 effect encourage Burnside and frighten Longstreet. "I 
 congratulate you," it read, "on the tenacity with which 
 you have thus far held out against vastly superior forces. 
 Do not be forced into a surrender by short rations. Take 
 all the citizens have, to enable you to hold out yet a few 
 days longer. As soon as you are relieved from the 
 presence of the enemy, you can replace to them every 
 thing taken from them. Within a few days you will be 
 relieved. There are now three columns in motion for 
 your relief. One, from here, moving up the south bank 
 of the river, under Sherman ; one from Decherd, under 
 Elliott, and one from Cumberland gap, under Foster. 
 These three columns will be able to crush Longstreet s 
 forces, or drive them from the valley, and must all of 
 them be within twenty-four hours march of you, by the 
 time this reaches you, supposing you to get it on Tues 
 day, the ist instant." 
 
 Sherman, though he cared little for himself, felt that it 
 was making a terrible demand on his brave troops. 
 Before they had fairly rested after almost a forced march 
 of 400 miles, and after fighting from morning till night, 
 and pursuing the enemy two days, they were now required 
 to make another forced march of another hundred miles. 
 
 There was not a corps in that army on whom this tre- 
 
174 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 mendous work should not have rightfully been put sooner 
 than on Sherman s. But the exigencies were great ordi 
 nary expedition and ordinary marching would not do. 
 Time was everything. One day s delay might settle the 
 destiny of Burnside s army. Sherman knew all this, and 
 made no remonstrance, while his brave troops uttered 
 no murmurs, but leader and men stripped themselves 
 
 for the race, and 
 the swiftly-mov 
 ing columns and 
 their long lines 
 of glittering bay 
 onets quickly dis 
 appeared along 
 the road to 
 Knoxville.When 
 Grant saw them 
 depart, he knew 
 if human endurance and human courage could save 
 Knoxville and Burnside, they would be saved. And 
 they were saved. Longstreet when he heard of Sher 
 man s approach, raised the siege and retreated eastward. 
 Grant might well issue the following congratulatory 
 address to the army : 
 
 HEAD-QUARTERS, MILITARY DIVISION OF THE MISSISSIPPI, ") 
 IN THE FIELD, CHATTANOOGA, TENN., 
 
 December, loth, 1863. j 
 
 The General commanding takes this opportunity of returning his 
 sincere thanks and congratulations to the brave armies of the Cum 
 berland, the Ohio, the Tennessee, and their comrades from the Poto 
 mac, for the recent splendid and decisive successes achieved over the 
 enemy. In a short time you have recovered from him the control of 
 the Tennessee River, from Bridgeport to Knoxville. You dislodged 
 him from his great stronghold upon Lookout Mountain, drove him 
 from Chattanooga Valley, wrested from his determined grasp the 
 
 GRANT S HEAD-QUARTERS AT CHATTANOOGA. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. x 7 r 
 
 possession of Missionary Ridge, repelled with heavy loss to him his 
 repeated assaults upon Knoxville, forcing him to raise the siege there, 
 driving him at all points, utterly routed and discomfited, beyond the 
 limits of the State. By your noble heroism and determined courage, 
 you have most effectually defeated the plans of the enemy for regain 
 ing possession of the States of Kentucky and Tennessee. You have 
 secured positions from which no rebellious power can drive or dis 
 lodge you. For all this, the General commanding thanks you col 
 lectively and individually. The loyal people of the United States 
 thank and bless you. Their hopes and prayers for your success against 
 this unholy rebellion are with you daily. Their faith in you will not 
 be in vain. Their hopes will not be blasted. Their prayers to 
 Almighty God will be answered. You will yet go to other fields of 
 strife; and with the invincible bravery and unflinching loyalty to 
 justice and right, which have characterized you in the past, you will 
 prove that no enemy can withstand you, and that no defenses, how 
 ever formidable, can check your onward march. 
 
 By order, Major-General U. S. GRANT. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 GRANT MADE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL HIS LETTER TO SHERMAN THE REPLY OF 
 
 THE LATTER GRANT CALLED TO WASHINGTON MEETS THE PRESIDENT AND 
 
 CABINET LINCOLN S ADDRESS ON GIVING HIM HIS COMMISSION GRANT S 
 REPLY A STRIKING CONTRAST HONORS FAIRLY WON THE VAST FIELD OF 
 OPERATIONS BEFORE HIM HIS FIRST OBJECT GRANT AND HALLECK CONTRASTED 
 GRANT S ILLUSTRATION OF HOW THE WAR HAD BEEN CARRIED ON HIS OWN 
 
 PLAN OF PROSECUTING IT HIS DIRECTIONS TO SHERMAN THE DIFFICULTIES IN 
 CARRYING OUT HIS PLAN FINAL DETERMINATION PUBLIC EXPECTATION THE 
 ARMY STUCK IN THE MUD GENERAL DISAPPOINTMENT I KE SEES THE GATHER 
 ING STORM, AND APPOINTS A DAY OF FASTING AND PRAYER IN HIS ARMY 
 STRENGTH OF THE OPPOSING FORCES. 
 
 WHILE these brilliant victories west were fast 
 clearing the Valley of the Mississippi of rebel 
 armies, no progress seemed to be made east. 
 We had had Bull Run, Seven Pines, Fredericksburg, An- 
 
 tietam, Chancellorsville 
 and Gettysburg, yet \ve 
 had barely held our own, 
 not taken the first step to 
 ward crushing the armies 
 of the Confederacy, and k 
 was thought to be high time 
 that a man who could strike 
 such deadly blows as Grant 
 should come east; nay, 
 more, have complete con- 
 
 WIXFIELD SCOTT tro ^ ^ t ^ ie Union armies, 
 
 whose brave soldiers had 
 
 so long been the sport of ambitious politicians or weak 
 commanders, and that the grade of lieutenant-general 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j ^ - 
 
 should be revived and conferred on him. This had never 
 been held in the United States except by Washington 
 and Scott, but it was now restored by act of Congress, 
 and Grant nominated for the position and confirmed. On 
 the very day he received his high commission, Grant 
 wrote the following admirable letter to Sherman : 
 
 DEAR SHERMAN : The bill reviving the grade of lieutenant-general 
 in the army has become a law, and my name has been sent to the 
 Senate for the place. I now receive orders to report to Washington 
 immediately, in person, which indicates a confirmation, or a likelihood 
 of confirmation. I start in the morning to comply with the order. 
 
 Whilst I have been eminently successful in this war, in at least 
 gaining the confidence of the public, no one feels more than I how 
 much of this success is due to the energy, skill and the harmonious 
 putting forth of that energy and skill of those whom it has been my 
 good fortune to have occupying subordinate positions under me. 
 
 There are many officers to whom these remarks are applicable to a 
 greater or less degree, proportionate to their abilities as soldiers; but 
 what I want is, to express my thanks to you and McPherson, as the 
 men to whom, above all others, I feel indebted for whatever I have 
 had of success. 
 
 How far your advice and assistance have been of help to me, you 
 know. How far your execution of whatever has been given to you to 
 do, entitles you to the reward I am receiving, you cannot know as 
 well as I. 
 
 I feel all the gratitude this letter would express, giving it the most 
 flattering construction. 
 
 The word you I use in the plural, intending it for McPherson also. 
 I should write to him, and will some day, but starting in the morning, 
 I do not know that I will find time just now. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 U. S. GRANT, 
 
 Major-General. 
 
 To this Sherman returned a long, frank and friendly 
 letter, in which the two following remarkable sentences 
 occur: 
 
 " I believe you are as brave patriotic and just as the 
 
 12 
 
178 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 great prototype Washington as unselfish, kind-hearted 
 and honest as a man should be but the chief character 
 istic is the simple faith in success you have always mani 
 fested, which I can liken to nothing else than the faith a 
 Christian has in the Saviour. 
 
 " My only point of doubt was, in your knowledge of 
 grand strategy, and of books of science and history, but 
 I confess, your common sense seems to have supplied all 
 these." 
 
 Summoned to Washington, he arrived there on the 
 8th of March, a stranger to the place and almost every 
 one in it. At one o clock the next day, he was formally 
 received by the President in the cabinet-chamber. On the 
 one side were the President and his entire Cabinet with 
 Halleck, General-in-Chief; on the other, General Grant 
 with his two staff officers and the boy who had ridden by 
 his side through all the terrible campaign of Vicksburg, 
 holding the father by the hand. The President, after 
 introducing him to the members of his cabinet, stepped 
 forward and said : 
 
 "General Grant, the nation s appreciation of what you 
 have done, and its reliance upon you for what remains to 
 be done in the existing great struggle, are now presented, 
 with this commission constituting you lieutenant-general 
 in the Army of the United States. With this high honor 
 devolves upon you, also, a corresponding responsibility. 
 As the country herein trusts you, so, under God, it will 
 sustain you. I scarcely need add, that, with what I here 
 speak for the country, goes my own hearty personal con 
 
 currence." 
 
 To which Grant replied as follows : 
 
 "Mr. President: I accept this commission with grati 
 tude for the high honor conferred. With the aid of the 
 noble armies who have fought on so many battle-fields 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 179 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 for our common country, it will be my earnest endeavor 
 not to disappoint your expectations. I feel the full 
 weight of the responsibility now devolving 1 on me. I 
 know that, if it is properly met, it will be due to these 
 armies ; and, above all, to the favor of that Providence 
 which leads both nations and men." 
 
 Nothing can be more simple and noble than these 
 words. He is not made dizzy by this sudden elevation 
 to the most exalted position that could exist in the army. 
 He utters no boasts, makes no display. Modest and 
 simple as when a few years ago he sought a position on 
 McClellan s staff, he says, whatever success he may achieve 
 will be due to our "noble armies," and the God of armies. 
 What a contrast between this day and the time a few 
 years before, when this Government that now looks to 
 him for salvation did not deign even to answer his letter, 
 offering it his services. 
 
 Then it did not want his sword now it trusts its very 
 existence to it. He did not, like so many of our new-fledged 
 generals, owe his elevation to political influences, or that 
 most miserable demand of a fair division of the high 
 positions in the armies by the separate States, but to 
 his own ability and success. He had fought his way 
 up to his exalted position and was placed there to please 
 no party or set of men, but to save the country. The 
 people were well-nigh worn out with the squabbles at 
 Washington, and the puerile weakness the Government 
 exhibited. But exalted as the position was, it had no 
 allurements to compensate for the terrible responsi 
 bilities it entailed. As from it he cast his eyes around 
 him, what a spectacle met his gaze. Never before had 
 one commander surveyed so vast a field of operations, and 
 looked over such a mighty array, subject to his single con 
 trol. From the Potomac to the Rio Grande, for 5,000 miles, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j g l 
 
 arose the smoke of camp-fires, and stood embattled hosts 
 awaiting his bidding. To aid him in the gigantic task 
 before him, 600 vessels of war lined the rivers and 
 darkened the coast for 2,500 miles, while 4,000 cannon 
 lay ready to open at his command. 
 
 The height of power to which he had so suddenly at 
 tained, would have made a less strong head dizzy. It, 
 however, produced no change in him. Volunteering no 
 promises, indulging in no vain glory, he quietly surveys 
 the vast field before him speaking confidently, but only 
 in subordination to the Being who lifts up and pulls down 
 as He pleases. 
 
 The work to be done was plain enough. These vari 
 ous and widely-scattered armies must be wielded like a 
 single engine, and brought to bear with their united force 
 on the central, vital portion of the Confederacy, and 
 crush it to atoms. 
 
 The first object was to get the military affairs out of 
 the entanglement into which Halleck had plunged them 
 as quickly as possible. The two men were as opposite 
 in their ideas of how the war should be carried on as they 
 were in how a battle should be fought. One was for 
 cutting off the tail first, and then the claws, and so work 
 by regular, safe approaches up to the head the other, 
 for a close and deadly interlock, in which the life of one 
 or the other should go out before it should unloose. One 
 wished to carry on the war by operating with different 
 armies on separate points the other, for concentrating 
 them all on one vital point. Like Napoleon, Grant had 
 no idea of winter quarters, or the proper season for car 
 rying on a campaign. When .once his blows began to 
 fall, he proposed they should never cease falling until the 
 object was ground to powder. " To hammer," he said, 
 "continuously against the armed force of the enemy 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 until by the mere attrition of the lesser with the larger 
 body, the former should be worn out" He illustrated 
 the way in which the war had been carried on by one of 
 those homely similes suggested to him by his early life as 
 a teamster West. He said " the armies in the East and 
 West acted independently and without concert, like a 
 balky team, no two ever pulling together, enabling the 
 enemy to use to great advantage his interior lines of 
 communication for transporting troops from east to 
 west, reinforcing the army most vigorously pressed ; and 
 to furlough large numbers during seasons of inactivity on 
 our part, to go to their homes and do the work of pro 
 viding for the support of their armies, so that it was a 
 question whether our numerical strength and resources 
 were not more than balanced by these disadvantages and 
 the enemy s superior position." 
 
 Entertaining such views, he said that it should be of 
 the first importance " to bring the greatest number of 
 troops practicable against the armed force of the enemy, 
 and prevent him from using the same force at different 
 seasons against first one and then another of our armies, 
 and the possibility of repose for refitting and producing 
 necessary supplies for carrying on resistance." 
 
 This plan was very simple, and commended itself to 
 common sense as well as to military science. But the 
 question was how to carry it out. Nearly all of Arkan 
 sas, Louisiana and Texas were held by the enemy, and, 
 together, they could bring some eighty thousand men into 
 the field, and what should be done with them. General 
 Grant thought that the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers 
 being in our possession, and thoroughly garrisoned, they 
 would remain at home, and so might be left out of the 
 general calculation. East of the Mississippi he had made 
 such wild work with the rebel armies, that we held every- 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 thing down to the State of Georgia, west of the Allegha- 
 nies up to the river. Besides our scattered forces, we 
 had three great armies in the field, with which to carry 
 out a great plan, having a common point, toward which 
 everything should work. That of Banks, up the Red 
 River ; of Sherman, who had succeeded Grant at Chatta 
 nooga, and of Meade, in Virginia. The former, Grant, 
 the moment he became lieutenant-general, allowed but 
 fifteen days to accomplish his projected campaign in 
 Texas ; and if not successful in that time, to abandon it. 
 
 The three great vital points against which simultaneous 
 movements should be made, he considered to be Rich 
 mond, Atlanta and Mobile. He must operate against 
 Richmond ; Sherman against Atlanta, and Banks against 
 Mobile. The latter, with its river piercing far into the 
 interior ; Atlanta, the focus of so many railroads, and 
 Richmond, the heart of the Confederacy, once ours, the 
 rebellion was over. 
 
 It soon became apparent that Banks could not be used 
 against Mobile, and that point had to be left out for the 
 present, and he determined to gather and hurl all his 
 mighty forces on the two former places he to direct the 
 one, and Sherman the other ; and the two armies of Lee 
 and Johnston, one on the Rapidan, and the other at Dai- 
 ton, were to be assailed with all the strength and deter 
 mination in his power. 
 
 Thus it will be easily seen, by referring to the map, 
 that Grant s plan contemplated at the outset to narrow 
 down the Confederacy to Virginia and the Southern At 
 lantic States, for, if Sherman alone was successful, Missis 
 sippi, Alabama and a great portion of Georgia and Florida 
 must be left out of account by the Confederacy in estimat 
 ing the amount of supplies and number of men it could 
 bring into the field, while, if he succeeded in forcing Lee 
 
i8 4 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 from Richmond, the whole active rebel force in the field 
 would be crowded up into the south-west corner of the 
 Union States. Sherman understood this plan thoroughly, 
 and approved of it. The great thing to be guarded against, 
 was the transmission of troops of one of those rebel 
 armies from one point to another through their interior 
 lines of railroad so rapidly, that at some critical 
 moment it would be able to present an overwhelming 
 
 force against one or the 
 other of ours. So while 
 Grant, havingperfect con 
 fidence in Sherman s abil 
 ity to take care of himself, 
 did not hamper him with 
 any particular instruc 
 tions, but simply told him 
 to take Atlanta and push 
 into the interior as far as he 
 could, he yet impressed on 
 
 GENERAL MEADS. hmi the vl ^ importance 
 
 of not letting Johnston get away from him and join Lee, 
 but carefully watch every movement and hang relentlessly 
 on his track, while he promised to hold Lee so firmly, that 
 he would not dare to succor Johnston. 
 
 Meade was to command the army of the Potomac under 
 Grant personally, and "wherever Lee went to follow 
 him." The plan was very simple, to gather his forces 
 together and hurl them on Lee, but how to get them 
 together was the difficulty. Butler had an army under 
 him at Fortress Monroe, and Grant did not dare to order 
 it up to the Potomac, for it would leave that whole depart 
 ment open to the enemy, while he did not dare to take 
 his own army to him, for it would leave Washington un 
 covered. In this dilemma he determined that both armies 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 185 
 
 should move simultaneously Butler on Richmond up the 
 James, and he on it over Lee s army. The letter was at 
 this time encamped on the Rapidan, south-west from 
 Washington and nearly west from Fredericksburg. Two 
 courses lay open to Grant, either of which was preferable 
 to the attempt to attack Lee behind his strong works on 
 the farther bank of this stream one was to go round him 
 to the west, which would compel him to fall back on Rich 
 mond and render it impossible for him to make a raid on 
 the north. But Grant said, "if we took this route, all we 
 did would have to be done while the rations we started 
 with held out ; besides, it separated us from Butler, so 
 that he could not be directed how to co-operate. If we 
 took the other route, Brandy Station could be used as a 
 base of supplies until another was secured on the York 
 or James Rivers." 
 
 He therefore decided to advance by Lee s right, and 
 so take the lower route. But this again would leave 
 the Shenandoah Valley open, down which Lee could 
 move and cross over to Maryland and threaten the 
 capital long before Grant could get within striking dis 
 tance of Richmond, and he would therefore have to turn 
 back or go on only to find that he and Lee had changed 
 capitals a trade not at all to our advantage. To guard 
 against this, General* Siegel was placed in the valley, 
 with a strong force, but which took just so much from 
 the movable army. Still this was the best that could 
 be done, and the gathering of the forces and material 
 during the winter made the land tremble. Grant had 
 determined to move with the opening of spring, and 
 the whole country was on the tiptoe of expectation. No 
 such mighty force had hitherto been gathered under 
 one man s hand, and it was expected, when it moved, 
 it would crush everything before it. 
 
i86 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 At last, spring came, but the army did not move. 
 April, with its sunshine, came, and yet it remained mo 
 tionless, and the anxious inquiry was on every lip, why is 
 this unaccountable delay ? The old answer came back, 
 "The army is stuck in the mud." This had been for 
 years the explanation of every delay the reason for the 
 tardy marching of relieving columns, by which victory 
 was lost, till the country listened to it with unbelief and 
 disgust. Yet, it was nevertheless true. Grant found 
 that Virginian mud was no myth. After the heavy spring 
 rains, the long supply trains and artillery-carriages could 
 be no more moved over those roads than they could over 
 miles and miles of freshly-plowed fields, on which the 
 rain had been falling for a week. 
 
 Lee knew the preparations that had been going on 
 against him, and the fearful odds he was destined to op 
 pose, and turning from human weakness to the Almighty 
 strength, he ordered a day of fasting and prayer to be 
 observed throughout his army, and the aid of that strength 
 invoked. The chaplains of the several regiments per 
 formed divine services in each, and a deep and solemn 
 feeling pervaded the entire army. In the meantime he 
 strengthened his w r orks along the stream, and kept a 
 watchful eye on his powerful foe. He might well be 
 anxious, for the Army of the Potomac, with Burnside s 
 Ninth Corps to support it, made a movable column of 
 about one hundred and forty thousand men, which, with 
 the reserve he had to draw on, would swell it to a 
 quarter of a million ; while, all told, Lee had not sixty- 
 thousand men in the field, with which to meet this tre 
 mendous, well-disciplined, thoroughly appointed host. 
 He saw there was no hope for him but to fight behind 
 intrenchments, or on ground where superiority of num 
 bers would give no advantage. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 187 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE GRAND ARMY STARTS FOR RICHMOND AN IMPOSING SPECTACLE GRANT S 
 
 PLAN LEE S WATCHFULNESS CROSSING THE RAPIDAN ENCAMPED ON THE BUR- 
 D:-:R OF THE WILDERNESS LEE S SKILLFUL PLAN OF ATTACK THE BATTLE OF 
 
 THE WILDERNESS DESCRIPTION OF THE WILDERNESS GRANT AND LEE BOTH 
 REINFORCED THE FIELD OF DEATH THE NIGHT SECOND DAY S BATTLE 
 SECOND NIGHT GRANT AND STAFF SLEEP ON THE FIELD LEE RETIRES BEHIND 
 HIS WORKS GRANT ATTEMPTS TO REACH SPOTTSYLVANIA SWIFT MARCHING- 
 LEE REACHES IT FIRST WARREN S ATTACK HANCOCK S SPLENDID ASSAULT 
 FOUR THOUSAND PRISONERS TAKEN GRANT AGAIN FOILED CHANGES HIS BASE 
 MARCH TO NORTH ANNA LEE REACHES IT FIRST MAR :H TO CHICKAHOMINY 
 BATTLE OF COLD HARBOR DESPERATE FIGHTING BEATEN BACK MARCH TO 
 THE JAMES RIVER ATTACK ON PETERSBURG ITS FAILURE REVIEW OF THE 
 CAMPAIGN. 
 
 THE 4th of May was fixed on which to put this 
 mighty host in motion. It was a magnificent 
 spectacle as it swept across the country. Sheri 
 dan, with his cavalry, rode in advance, followed by a 
 train of 4,000 covered wagons, that stretched along the 
 road farther than the eye could see. Column after 
 column, with the brilliant array of mounted officers, 
 followed after in seemingly endless procession, while 
 successive bands of music swept by, filling the air with 
 martial strains, and losing themselves in the distance, 
 only to be followed by others, and standards rose and 
 fell, and solid lines of glittering steel wound among the 
 fields and flashed back in the morning sun. 
 
 Lee s line extended for eight miles along the Rapidan, 
 with strong earth-works erected at all the fords, for he 
 did not know at what point Grant would cross. He 
 knew that his tactics were different from those of the 
 
1 88 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 generals who had preceded him, and that his maxim was 
 to move immediately on the enemy s works ; yet he did 
 not believe he would act on this now, but attempt to out 
 flank him, and thus force him out of his works and com 
 pel him to give battle in the open field, where superior 
 numbers would soon decide the contest. But he did not 
 know which flank he would attempt to turn, and he there 
 fore kept a vigilant corps of observation both up and 
 down the river, who were ever on the alert, and had their 
 spies in every direction, so that it was impossible that he 
 should not be informed almost instantly by established 
 signals along the heights the moment Grant moved. 
 Everything was ready to start at a moment s notice, and 
 he held his army in hand like a hound in the leash. The 
 massive columns of Grant were, therefore, scarcely in 
 motion before he was informed of it. 
 
 Halleck, when occupying the position of general-in- 
 chief, never left Washington, but received and sent dis 
 patches from his office. This was proper, for it was indis 
 pensable that there should be a common centre to which 
 all information from the various quarters should come, 
 and from which to every part of the country instructions 
 could be sent. The various exigencies arising in different 
 sections of the country kept messages and orders flying 
 day and night. Hence, Grant s place was at the capital, 
 and he remained in it till the last moment, leaving the 
 army under the direct control of Meade. But at this 
 great, decisive moment, on which the fate of the war was 
 to turn, he left the capital, with directions to have dis 
 patches of importance follow him, hastened to the head 
 of the army, to be present at the battle that he felt would 
 fellow the first attempt to march on Richmond. He knew 
 perfectly well he had a different foe to meet than any he 
 had dealt with hitherto, and one who would take swift 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 189 
 
 advantage of the first blunder that was committed. 
 The army was divided into three corps and were to 
 cross at two fords about six miles apart. Hancock com 
 manding the second, and Warren the fifth, crossed at 
 Ely s ford, while Sedgewick crossed at Germania, farther 
 up stream. All day long infantry, cavalry and wagon- 
 trains went splashing through the Rapidan, and by night 
 all were over, when Grant and Meade with their staffs 
 came riding up. The first great step was taken the 
 river was crossed and without loss one more step and 
 he would be where he could strike a blow that would 
 make the Confederacy reel. Unfortunately, in order to 
 avoid having a battle 
 thrown on him while en 
 gaged in the difficult move 
 ment of passing a river, he 
 had selected a spot to 
 cross, where from the far 
 ther banks stretched a 
 tangled wilderness. On 
 
 o 
 
 the edge of this, the tired 
 army lay down that night 
 to sleep, having made a 
 march of twelve miles. 
 A few miles the next morn 
 ing would place it toward Gordonsville, where he would 
 be between Lee and Richmond. 
 
 Grant felt relieved, and now almost sure of success. 
 Lee had been made fully aware of Grant s movements, 
 but instead, of retreating, as it was supposed he would do, 
 he took the bold, daring resolution of breaking into a 
 furious offensive, and with less than half the number of 
 his enemy attack him. As Bonaparte at Arcola, when he 
 found himself with 1 5,000 men confronted by 30,000 Aus- 
 
 GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 trians, chose two causeways running across a marsh as the 
 field of battle, where numbers availed but little, and every 
 thing depended on the strength of the heads of column, so 
 here Lee chose two roads leading through this wilderness 
 for the same reason to meet his overwhelming foe. 
 
 Two roads crossed the Wilderness in the direction that 
 Grant was marching, while from Orange Court-House 
 two parallel roads a short distance apart, one a plank- 
 road and the other a turnpike, crossed these former at 
 right angles. Down these roads, as soon as he saw 
 Grant s movement and knew its direction, Lee sent oft 
 Hill and Ewell, who encamped in the Wilderness the 
 same night that Grant did. At the same time he sent to 
 Longstreet at Gordonsville, thirteen miles distant, to move 
 up and attack the Union army in front, while he thus fell 
 on it in flank. Where the turnpike intersected the road 
 along which Warren, commanding the fifth corps, was 
 marching, Ewell was stationed. At six o clock in the 
 morning, Warren put his columns in motion two pieces 
 of artillery proceeding along the road in advance, while 
 the infantry, in extended lines on either side, worked their 
 way through the forest. 
 
 Suddenly they came upon Johnson s divison, the ad 
 vance of Swell s corps, blocking the road and filling the 
 forest on both sides. The two guns were quickly un- 
 limbered and began to pour in a rapid fire. The infantry 
 pressed after, and were met by a terrible fire, which they 
 took without shrinking and never stopped till they got 
 within close range, when they delivered a murderous 
 volley. The rebels gave way before it, but rallied by 
 their officers came on in. such a headlong charge, that our 
 troops recoiled, leaving the guns in the hands of the 
 enemy, which they turned on us, and pressing on drove 
 the troops back a mile, waking the morning echoes of the 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. IQI 
 
 woods with yells and cries and volleys of musketry. In 
 the meantime the same fate awaited Sedgewick, advancing 
 by another road, and the battle of the Wilderness was 
 fairly opened. Grant received the startling news with no 
 outward mark of excitement, yet he saw at a glance the 
 gravity of the situation. In marching order in the heart 
 of a wilderness, of which he was comparatively ignorant, 
 but which was well known to his adversary, where his 
 splendid artillery and cavalry would be useless, he must 
 fight his first great and decisive battle. But he resolved 
 not to be hurled back like Hooker, though a trap had been 
 unexpectedly sprung upon him. At first, the dispatches 
 came back thick and fast that Lee had not massed his 
 army in this wilderness to bring on a battle there, but 
 that it was only a small force sent in to delay and deceive 
 him, while the main army effected its retreat. 
 
 Grant, however, could not be deceived, he saw through 
 the bold and masterly plan of Lee, and ordering the strag 
 gling divisions to close up, he mounted his horse,, and 
 with Meade, spurred on to the " Old Wilderness. Tavern." 
 It did not seem possible to Meade that Lee,, instead of 
 retiring to a secure position and awaiting an attack, 
 would dare, with his comparatively little army, cut loose 
 from everything and swoop down on him in this, bold and 
 daring manner. But, as Grant sat on his horse- beside 
 this desolate looking building, listening to the steady and 
 ever-increasing uproar in front, he knew thatit was so and 
 right there, where his superior numbers cumbered rather 
 than helped him, he must fight it out with his adroit enemy. 
 It was an unexpected exigency into which he was thrown, 
 and one that his prompt and ready skill could not help 
 him out of. There was no chance to maneuver, no room 
 for his artillery to work effectively, except in the road 
 it was to be more like an Indian fight: than a mighty 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 battle. He at once arrested the march and formed his 
 lines as best he could. f 
 
 Hancock, who had crossed with the Fifth Corps below, 
 was now ten miles distant, and officers were hurried off 
 to order him to close up, and soon the battle was at its 
 height. The roads were blocked with artillery and in 
 fantry ; the woods were alive with men, while incessant 
 flashes lit up the open spaces. There was not a breath 
 of wind, and the smoke settled down among the trees, 
 half concealing the combatants, out of which arose shouts, 
 and yells, and bugle blasts. 
 
 Grant all the time remained at the Old Tavern, listen 
 ing to the uproar, and receiving dispatches, and giving 
 orders. At the rear, along the road and winding amid 
 die trees, litters were seen moving in an endless caval 
 cade, showing what deadly work was going on in front. 
 All day long this strange fight went on, turning this sweet 
 spring morning and these fragrant woods into a scene of 
 violence and horror indescribable. When night came 
 down, and darkness wrapped the forest, Grant found him 
 self almost on the very spot where the battle opened in 
 the morning. He had gained nothing, though his loss had 
 been frightful, and the bleeding army lay down on their 
 arms to rest in the midst of this desolation, while the 
 tranquil stars came out one after another, till the sparkling 
 dome of heaven bent soft and sweet above the field cum 
 bered with the dead. Everywhere beneath the scraggly 
 pines, in the open spaces, on piles of brush, they lay as 
 thick as the leaves strewed the spot in autumn. An eye 
 witness says : 
 
 " Maneuvering here had been out of the question, and 
 only Indian tactics told. The troops could only receive 
 direction by a point of the compass ; for, not only were 
 the lines of battle entirely hidden from the sight of the 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j - 
 
 commander, but no officer could see ten files on each 
 side of him. Artillery was wholly ruled out of use, the 
 
 massive concentration of 300 guns stood silent 
 
 Cavalry was still more useless. But in that horrid thicket 
 there lurked 200,000 men, and through it lurid fires 
 played ; and, though no array of battle could be seen, 
 there came out of it the crackle and roll of musketry, 
 like the noisy boiling of some hell-caldron, that told the 
 dread story of death. Such was the battle of the Wil 
 derness." 
 
 Nothing had been gained, and though the country had 
 been thoroughly reconnoitered by parties while the bat 
 tle was raging, Grant saw nothing before him the next 
 day but the same stand-up fight, in which the only ques 
 tion would be, who would shoot down the most before 
 nightfall. But, whatever the conditions of the fight might 
 be, he was determined to see who could stand pounding 
 longest. 
 
 Longstreet, for whom Lee had sent in such hot haste, 
 got within ten miles of the battle-field in the middle of 
 the afternoon ; but owing to the density of the forest and 
 the peculiar state of the atmosphere, did not hear the 
 tremendous cannonading in advance, and was ignorant 
 that a battle was raging so near him. At midnight, how 
 ever, an aid dashed up to his head-quarters with the news 
 and with the order to march at once to the battle-field. 
 At two o clock he was on the march. 
 
 The two armies had lain down in ranks as they stood, 
 ready to repel a night attack, while the pickets, stretched 
 for miles through the woods, watched every movement 
 of the adversary. With the first gray streak of dawn the 
 rattling drum and sharp blasts of the bugle brought the 
 tired soldier to his feet, and breakfastless and weary he 
 moved again into the storm of fire. 
 
j g , LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Just previous to the opening of the fight, Longstreet 
 approached the battle-field, when Hill began to retire his 
 exhausted troops to make way for him. At this critical 
 juncture Grant fell upon him with such irresistible 
 fury that the advance column was driven back, and Lee 
 saw with alarm the disordered ranks come pouring 
 through the woods toward where he stood. But the rest 
 of Longstreet s division coming up at this moment, ar 
 rested the disorder and restored the fight. It had been 
 evidently Grant s design, by this determined and per 
 sistent attack on Lee s right, to get between him and 
 Richmond ; and he doubtless would have succeeded, but 
 for the arrival of Longstreet s force, of which he knew 
 nothing. But Lee, now thoroughly aroused to his dan 
 ger, put forth superhuman efforts, and fell on our columns 
 in such wild, headlong fury, that they were forced back 
 nearly a mile along the road. 
 
 In case such a crisis as this should occur, Grant when 
 he crossed the Rapidan dispatched an officer to Burnside, 
 thirty miles distant, encamped at the crossing of the 
 Rappahannock River, by the Alexandria railroad, ordering 
 him to put his corps in motion, and march as swiftly as 
 possible. The columns were at once started forward, and 
 though the country over which they were compelled to 
 march was rough, and they had to cross two rivers, they 
 at this critical juncture arrived on the field with banners 
 waving and bands playing, and were received with deaf 
 ening shouts. "Considering," said Grant, afterwards, " that 
 a large proportion, probably two-thirds of his command, 
 was composed of raw troops unaccustomed to marches, 
 and carrying the accoutrements of a soldier, this was a re 
 markable march." Thus both armies being reinforced, the 
 deliberate slaughter of the day before went on. There, 
 in the depths of those ravines, under the shadows of those 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j - 
 
 ^s v) 
 
 trees, entangled in that brushwood, is no pomp of war, no 
 fluttering of banners in an unhindered breeze, no solid 
 tramp of marching battalions, no splendid strategy of the 
 field Napoleon loved to fight on. There a Saturnalia, 
 gloomy, hideous, desperate, rages confined. The metallic, 
 hollow crack of musketry is like the clanking of great 
 chains about the damned that sullen yell of the enemy, a 
 fiendish protest of defiance." 
 
 And so the weary day wore on backward and forward, 
 through the brushes and woods, the lines swayed as each 
 in turn obtained a temporary advantage. Since early in 
 the morning, when Grant came so near turning Lee s 
 right wing, no real advantage had been gained by either 
 side, and when night closed on the contending armies, he 
 found himself just where he was the day before, and the 
 weary troops sunk to rest, with the dead and dying all 
 around them and loading the night air with their groans 
 and cries. This could not last much longer. There had 
 been now two days of incessant fighting, while many of the 
 troops had not even tasted food the whole time. Grant had 
 gained nothing, and seemed checkmated here at the outset. 
 Lee, up to this time, had been acting boldly on the offensive, 
 but now he was so thoroughly exhausted, that he took ref 
 uge behind his works. Grant ascertained this, next morn 
 ing, and hesitated a moment what to do, but considering 
 how much his troops had undergone, he decided that it 
 would not do to require them to carry them by storm, and 
 so he resolved to make a swift march to the left and get 
 round Lee at Spottsylvania. But they were too tired to 
 attempt to do this at once, and he let them rest till night, 
 when the march could be made more secretly, and soon the 
 ground was covered with sleeping forms. Grant himself, 
 who had been wrought up to the most intense excitement 
 during these two days, followed their example, and throw- 
 
196 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ing himself on the ground at the foot of a tree, one leg of his 
 trousers slipped above his boots, his hands limp, his coat 
 in confusion, his sword equipments sprawling on the 
 ground ; not even the weight of sleep erasing that per 
 sistent expression of the lip which held a constant prom 
 ise of something to be done." 
 
 That night he began his march for Spottsylvania. The 
 waning moon hung low in the western horizon. As soon as 
 
 she disappeared 
 behind the forest, 
 Warren started, 
 leading the ad 
 vance, as he had 
 in crossing the 
 R a p i d a n . The 
 manner in which 
 he met the first 
 shock in the Wil- 
 derness, gave 
 Grant assurance 
 that he could be 
 trusted in leading 
 this important 
 movement. 
 
 That part of the 
 
 GRANT S HEAD-QUARTERS IN THE WILDERNESS. Qrrnw nnt marrVi 
 
 cLllliy 11UL lUcllCll" 
 
 ing, was slumbering by fires, waiting for the signal to 
 move. Lee, whose very life depended on being kept in 
 formed of Grant s movements, was so keenly on the 
 watch, that he knew of this one within an hour after it 
 commenced, and hurried off troops by a shorter route to 
 the threatened point. Warren moved rapidly, urging the 
 men to their utmost speed, and so did Lee, his troops 
 they at one time going two miles on a trot and having 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. j 7 
 
 less distance to traverse than the former, reached Spott- 
 sylvania first, and were received with cheers by the handful 
 that occupied the works. Warren, however, without any 
 delay advanced to the attack, and carried the first line of 
 breastworks, but was driven back with the loss of 1,500 
 men, and Lee was safe. 
 
 The next day Sheridan started on his raid to break 
 up Lee s communications with Richmond. Two days 
 now passed in maneuvering and fighting, without any de 
 cisive results. But, having got everything ready, Grant 
 determined " to move on the enemy s works," and did so 
 with a determination and power that threatened to over 
 come all opposition. But, protected by their strong de 
 fenses, they held their ground, and one of the most 
 bloody hand-to-hand conflicts of the war followed. 
 
 Hancock, before daylight, in the gray dawn, led his 
 assaulting columns in dead silence straight on the ram 
 parts, which crowding over the wide ditch at the base, 
 poured like a breaking wave over the works, and falling 
 on the astonished enemy, drove him back for nearly a 
 mile. Aroused at the sudden disaster, Lee hurried up 
 supports, and reforming the lines, hurled them with 
 desperate fury on Hancock. Again driven back, he 
 again rallied, and five times in succession fell like a fall 
 ing rock on Hancock. All day long the battle raged 
 here with a ferocity and fury seldom witnessed. So close 
 and deadly was the struggle that the hostile colors would 
 be planted on the opposite side of the same ramparts, 
 and the men fight across the same parapet till the ground 
 was heaped with the dead, friend and foe together " in 
 one red burial blent." Hancock took 4,000 prisoners 
 and thirty guns, but he could do nothing more, and Grant 
 had to abandon the attempt to carry the works. 
 
 Grant now found himself again foiled, but, instead of be- 
 
198 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ing disheartened, his determination grew stronger, and he 
 said he would " fi<iht it out on that line if it took all sum- 
 
 o 
 
 mer." Government liked the resolute spirit he exhibited, 
 but when he asked for reinforcements, it was filled with 
 anxiety. Heretofore the fear to leave Washington ex 
 posed had caused it to cripple every commander in the 
 field, but it did not dare refuse Grant the troops he asked 
 for. If it became necessary to empty the garrisons, they 
 must be emptied it was a last throw, and if Grant failed, 
 the war might as well be abandoned ; and reinforcements 
 were therefore hurried on to him. 
 
 The sacrifice of human life had been fearful. As he 
 turned away from the impregnable works of Spottsylva- 
 nia his army wasyfrr/^ thoiisand less than when he crossed 
 the Rapidan, only a few days before. One could not but 
 ask, Where will all this end ? No advantage had been 
 gained, and the enemy had not lost half that number. 
 
 But Grant would not turn back dark as the prospect 
 was, he determined still to make another effort to force 
 his skillful, adroit enemy into the open field. While the 
 reinforcements were coming up, he changed his base of 
 supplies to Fredericksburg. This took two weeks, and 
 then he made another desperate effort to get around 
 Lee. Taking a wide semicircle he started for the North 
 Anna River, which, if he could reach, or even approach 
 before Lee was aware of his intentions, he \vould place 
 himself between him and Richmond. In order to delude 
 the rebel commander, his right wing, near the works, 
 marched back toward the Wilderness, and then wheeling, 
 came down behind the main army. W r hen well under 
 way, the corps next to it did the same thing, and so on 
 till the entire army was marching swiftly toward the 
 North Anna the right wing having become the left, and 
 the left the right. Had the armies had equal distances 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 to march, this ruse would have succeeded, and Grant 
 obtained sufficient start to have reached the river first 
 But Lee, who watched every movement with the eye of a 
 lynx, soon detected this countermarch, and intuitively 
 discovering its object, immediately put his columns in 
 motion, and marching swiftly, reached the threatened 
 point first. 
 
 When Grant arrived he found the works that had been 
 erected there, in anticipation of such a movement, stronger 
 than those at Spottsylvania. The truth was, that Rich 
 mond had been threatened so long that every strategic 
 point had been fortified in the strongest possible manner. 
 
 There was some fighting, but no general assault, and 
 Grant was again compelled to retire from before the rebel 
 works, and try some new method to get to Richmond. 
 He now marched his army to Cold Harbor, on the 
 Chickahominy, reaching it on the 28th, where he was 
 only fifteen miles from the rebel capital. His lines ex 
 tended from Bethesda to Cold Harbor, a distance of eight 
 miles. He was now on McClellan s old ground, and un 
 less he entered Richmond here, he would have to follow 
 that general s course, and swing his army around to the 
 James River, and establish a new base. But the works 
 here were stronger than at North Anna or Spottsylvania, 
 and he was in a painful dilemma. The whole country 
 had expected him to march into Richmond over the rebel 
 army ; and now, after his fearful losses, to abandon the 
 plan in which he had such confidence, was very hard. 
 He saw it would be a most desperate act to try to carry 
 these strong works by assault, and yet it seemed equally 
 disastrous not to make the attempt, so, notwithstanding 
 the fearful odds against him, he resolved to hurl his vast 
 army in one tremendous onset upon them, hoping against 
 hope, that fortune or accident might favor him ; for, to 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 his military eye, there seemed scarcely a chance of suc 
 cess. Several days were spent in examining the position, 
 and massing his troops at the proper points, during which 
 more or less fighting was done. 
 
 On the 3d of June, everything that human forethought 
 could provide having been done, the signal was given, 
 and with banners streaming, the long and glittering line 
 steadily advanced over the open ground full on the enemy s 
 works, bristling with cannon. The moment they began 
 to move the artillery opened, and the iron storm tore 
 through the ranks with frightful slaughter. But the 
 breaches in this living wall were filled as fast as made, and 
 the unswerving line swept up to the very base of the 
 works and for five dreadful hours it thundered, and 
 flamed, and volleyed there till nothing human could stand 
 it longer, and the bugles sounded the retreat, leaving the 
 blue-coats lying in rows and heaps at the very base of 
 the works. No impression had been made on the 
 enemy s strong lines of defense, and now the question 
 arose, What next can be done ? Grant felt that he had 
 dealt his heaviest blows, put forth his greatest endeavors 
 and sacrificed life without stint, to get around Lee or 
 over him to Richmond, but had failed. Shall he try as 
 he did at Vicksburg, a second assault? It was a gloomy 
 night, after the battle, and one filled with anxious thought 
 to him. He had disappointed the Government and the 
 country, and the consciousness of it weighed heavily on his 
 heart. He rode alonof the lines nextmornin^and conversed 
 
 o o 
 
 with the corps commanders, to ascertain their views about 
 a second assault. There was no mistaking the feeling in 
 the army. All felt that to storm those works again 
 would be madness. Thirteen thousand soldiers had 
 fallen, and no impression on them had been made, and 
 such would be the sad result of a second attempt. The 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2QI 
 
 country expected him to show something besides heaps 
 of the dead, and hospitals filled with the wounded, 
 and he knew it. As he surveyed the gloomy prospect, 
 he saw that one of two things must now be done return 
 to the Potomac or change his base to the James River as 
 McClellan did in similar circumstances. 
 
 In the meantime the dead that lay in such ghastly rows 
 must buried, or in this June sun, they would soon become 
 festering heaps, and Grant sent a message to Lee pro 
 posing that each party might, on notification to the other, 
 bury its dead. Lee replied that he would prefer that 
 this should be done under a flag of truce, to which Grant 
 assented, and soon the white flag was seen fluttering 
 where our standards had so recently proudly waved in 
 the summer breeze, and before night the field in front of 
 those deadly breastworks was dotted thick with spots of 
 fresh earth, showing where the brave lay, uncoffined and 
 unknown, no more to start at the pealing drum or bugle 
 blast. 
 
 Grant now determined to swing his army across to the 
 James River almost in the path taken by McClellan. He 
 had a larger army than the latter to handle, and it was to 
 be moved under the watchful and practiced eye of Lee. 
 On the 1 2th of June, after having thrown up strong 
 works to protect his flanks, he concentrated his lines and 
 marched away from the Chickahominy. That same day, 
 his immense trains were sent across the country to the 
 James. Two days after, Hancock was crossing the James 
 by ferry at Wilcox Landing, and the Sixth Corps a little 
 lower down. This long march of fifty-five miles, which 
 cost McClellan so much hard fiofhtinor was made without 
 
 o o 
 
 molestation. Butler had started at the same time Grant 
 did to take Petersburg, but failed. Grant hoped by this 
 sudden movement to surprise and capture it, and did 
 
2Q2 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 carry some of the outer works by assault, but failed to 
 penetrate the defenses. He saw now why Lee allowed 
 him to make that march of over fifty miles unmolested. 
 The latter was perfectly willing the Union army should 
 be carried to that remote point twenty miles or more from 
 Richmond, to which it was a mere outpost. 
 
 Grant had tried every means to get a battle out of Lee 
 on something like equal terms but had failed, and now 
 the musket must give way to the spade. 
 
 The Confederate government profiting by the lesson of 
 the past two years had so fortified every approach to their 
 capital that it could not be taken by assault. It must 
 fall, if fall at all, after a regular siege. This campaign 
 has been much criticised, and the question often sneer- 
 ingly asked, If the Army of the Potomac was to be 
 carried to the James River at all, why not do it by water, 
 without loss of life, as McClellan did, instead of by land, 
 as Grant did, with a loss of full sixty thousand men, or a 
 number equal to Lee s entire army? The answer to this 
 is, that this campaign was a repetition of McClellan s as 
 near as the changed circumstances would allow it to be. 
 The only difference is, the latter went to Fortress Mon 
 roe to command in person, leaving McDowell to co-ope 
 rate with him from near Washington. 
 
 Grant ordered Butler to proceed from Fortress Mon 
 roe, with an army of thirty thousand men, while he, in 
 stead of McDowell, moved from the north. Again Butler 
 got bottled up at Bermuda Hundred and could not move, 
 while against the earnest remonstrance of the former, the 
 Government at Washington would not let McDowell move 
 at all. The result was the same failure in both cases. 
 Again the Government would not reinforce McClellan when 
 on the James, and let him carry out his plans against Rich 
 mond, while it did reinforce Grant and leave him to carry 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 out his plans. The terrible slaughter that followed was 
 not the fault of Grant, but of the powers at Washington, 
 who, by their repeated blunders, had made the original 
 and only plan of taking Richmond, which at the outset 
 was feasible, impossible without this terrible sacrifice of 
 life. The Government had given the Confederacy time 
 to fortify the road to their capital from Washington, so 
 strongly that unless Lee s army could be outflanked and 
 forced from their works, he had got to be fought behind 
 them every step of the way. 
 
 In all governments except pure despotisms, personal 
 ambition and politics have so much to do with a war, 
 especially in the- appointment of leaders, that blunders 
 innumerable, as well as disasters, are sure to follow. A 
 republic most of all is sure to suffer in this way and cer 
 tainly ours proved no exception. 
 
 It was owing alone to the cabals at Washington and 
 the control of military measures by politicians, that now, 
 in June, 1864, the Army of the Potomac was outwardly 
 in the same position, in regard to Richmond, as it was in 
 June, 1862, and the words of Burnside when recalled to 
 Fredericksburg, after he had started to join McClellan, 
 proved prophetic when he said, " If I am ordered back 
 now, all this will have to be done over again 
 
204 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE SIEGE OF RICHMOND. 
 
 GRANT ATTEMPTS TO DESTROY THE RAILROADS LEADING INTO RICHMOND DIS 
 ASTERS IN THE SHENANDOAH VALLEY ALARM AT WASHINGTON FIRMNESS OF 
 THE PRESIDENT UNPLEASANT POSITION OF GRANT HIS LETTER TO WASHBURNE 
 
 A BOLD BUT NEEDED MEASURE OPPOSES SHERIDAN S WISH TO BRING ON A 
 
 DECISIVE BATTLE VISITS HIM IN PERSON CONSENTS DEFEAT OF EARLY 
 
 SHERIDAN S ARMY SURPRISED AND DEFEATED RALLIED BY HIM AND LED TO 
 VICTORY A DARING ATTEMPT TO CUT OFF GRANT S SUPPLIES A LUCKY ACCIDENT 
 SHERMAN S SUCCESS M PHERSON S DEATH GRANT S GRIEF WHEN HE HEARD 
 OF IT LETTER TO THE GRANDMOTHER SHERMAN S PLAN TO MARCH TO THE 
 ATLANTIC GRANT S OPINION OF IT HIS WONDERFUL FORECAST GRANT ANX 
 IOUS TO HAVE THOMAS ATTACK WOOD THE LATTER DELAYS HIS VICTORY OVER 
 
 HIM SHERMAN IN SAVANNAH PROPOSES TO MARCH NORTH AND JOIN GRANT 
 HIS REQUEST FINALLY GRANTED SCOTT S ANACONDA EXPEDITION AGAINST 
 MOBILE THE ARMY NO LONGER "A BALKY TEAM" RAID OF SHERIDAN CON 
 STERNATION AT RICHMOND DANGERS THICKEN AROUND LEE. 
 
 GRANT, after some of the most desperate fighting 
 on record and the most persistent efforts to force 
 his way to Richmond, found that he must now 
 sit down to a regular siege of the place, or rather of 
 Petersburg, twenty-five miles from it. He had tried to 
 carry this outpost of the capital by assault, and not only 
 failed but ascertained enough of the strength of the 
 works which were not composed of one line, but of suc 
 cessive lines, to know they were impregnable to any out 
 ward attack. His great object in attempting to take the 
 place, was to get possession of the various lines of rail 
 roads that led through it from the south, by which Rich 
 mond was supplied. In the meantime, he sent Wilson 
 with a large body of cavalry to cut the railroads south, 
 which was the next best thing. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2Q - 
 
 Hunter, who had superseded Siegel, whom Grant left to 
 protect the Shenandoah but had signally failed, was or 
 dered to advance toward Lynchburg and break up the 
 railroad running through Staunton, while another force 
 was sent north of the James River to cut the railroad 
 "from near Richmond to the Anna River." If he could 
 not take Petersburg by assault, he would by cutting off 
 all supplies, reduce it by starvation, as he did Vicksburg. 
 His blows now fell right and left without cessation, and 
 Lee met a raid on his communications in one direction 
 only to be called to protect them in another. 
 
 But fate seemed to have been against Grant from first 
 to last of this terrible campaign, and now at last, when 
 he seemed to be settled down to the work of reducing 
 Richmond by the slow process of starvation, his whole 
 plan threatened to come to nought, through the failure of 
 Hunter, who had succeeded Siegel in the Shenandoah 
 
 O 
 
 Valley. According to instructions from Grant, he pro 
 ceeded up and laid siege to Lynchburg. This threat 
 ened to cut off Lee from the west. But he was com 
 pelled, from want of ammunition, to raise it, and then 
 being forced to return by the Kanawha, he left the She 
 nandoah Valley unprotected. Taking advantage of this, 
 Lee sent Early with a strong force down it, which, cross 
 ing the Potomac into Maryland, threatened Baltimore and 
 Washington. 
 
 His advance spread the wildest terror on every side, 
 and dispatches were hurried off one after another to Grant, 
 while the President was begged and intreated to recall him 
 from before Petersburg. But this he stubbornly re 
 fused to do. The clamor of politicians had made him 
 recall the army under McClellan the same clamor and 
 personal rivalry and ambition had made him place 
 Hooker over the army, and when the safety of the Capi- 
 
2o6 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 tal demanded the recall of McClellan, compelled him to 
 put Burnside in his place, and then superseded him by 
 Pope, and at last put Meade over this grand army whose 
 patience the Government seemed determined to weary 
 out. But Lincoln had yielded as far as he intended to. 
 He had changed and changed, but the military position 
 around Washington remained unchanged. He had at 
 last found a man who had no politics and no political 
 aspirations who believed in only one thing, beating the 
 rebel armies, and he had beaten them as no other general 
 had done, so he wisely concluded that if victory could not 
 be won under Grant, it could not be won at all. The 
 struggle might as well be abandoned and a hollow peace 
 patched up. He therefore put his foot firmly down, and 
 said he should leave the whole matter to General Grant. 
 If he wanted to come back he could if he chose to stay 
 where he was he should stay, and so he told Grant him 
 self. The latter immediately dispatched the Sixth Corps 
 by water to Washington, which, with the Ninteenth Corps 
 just arrived from New Orleans, speedily sent Early back 
 over the Potomac, and up the Shenandoah Valley. 
 This was a bold move to draw Grant from before Rich 
 mond, and in the earlier part of the war would have suc 
 ceeded. But Lincoln had made up his mind that he had 
 had enough of interfering with military movements. 
 The army was now in the hands of a man in whom he 
 had complete confidence whom, he believed, could save 
 the Union if it could be saved at all. Still it must be con 
 fessed, it looked as if Grant s campaign was going to prove 
 a stupendous failure, and he was flooded with letters from 
 distinguished men, all over the country, and harassed with 
 visits from members of Congress, who anxiously inquired 
 what he proposed to do, what were his chances of suc 
 cess, etc. But he maintained his serenity and was not 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 contaminated by the general alarm. Notwithstanding his 
 repeated failures and heavy losses, he believed that he had 
 got his hand on the throat of the rebellion, and he never 
 meant to loosen his grasp. Lee might out-maneuver him, 
 but he could not unlock that deadly grip. His only fear 
 was, that his delay in forcing the war to an end as he had 
 anticipated would give politicians ground to act upon, 
 and interfere with his plans. Though he maintained 
 great reticence toward them, he opened his heart to his 
 true and staunch friend, Mr. Washburne, in a letter in 
 which he says : 
 
 "The rebels have now in their ranks their last man. 
 The little boys and old men are guarding prisoners, 
 guarding railroad bridges, and forming a good part of 
 their garrisons or intrenched positions. A man lost by 
 them cannot be replaced. They have robbed the cradle 
 and the grave equally to get their present force. Be 
 sides what they lose in frequent skirmishes and battles, 
 they are now losing from desertions and other causes, at 
 least one regiment per day. With this drain upon them, 
 the end is not far distant, if we will only be true to our 
 selves. Their only hope now is in a divided North. 
 This might give them reinforcements from Tennessee, Ken 
 tucky, Maryland and Missouri, while it would weaken us." 
 
 But one thing he saw must be done, though it was a 
 bold act to do it. That which was the curse of McClel- 
 lan s campaign was hampering and endangering his. 
 When McClellan started for Richmond, the Army of the 
 Potomac embraced all the troops near Washington, and 
 were all under his direct control, and he expected they 
 would remain so. If he had anticipated their withdrawal 
 from his command, he would not have started for Rich 
 mond. But he had hardly reached Fortress Monroe when 
 the Rappahannock, Shenandoah and Mountain Depart- 
 
LIFE CF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ments were created, the commanders of which reported 
 to the Secretary of War, instead of to him ; and, worse 
 than this, at the very moment when he needed them 
 most, and expected their co-operation they were removed 
 from his command entirely, and thus ensued his failure. 
 
 Grant was not in this position, for, as lieutenant-gene 
 ral, he could make departments himself. But the same 
 difficulty about the appointments of commanding-generals 
 existed that caused their original creation. They were 
 made to gratify politicians and Governors of States, who 
 wanted a fair partition of the honors, there being more 
 aspirants for distinction than places for them. For the 
 same reason it was necessary they should continue. But 
 Grant resolved that they should be broken up, no mat 
 ter whom it might offend. It would seem a small matter to 
 do this, but it required more courage than to storm a 
 battery. 
 
 But Grant having made up his mind and selected 
 his men, he went on to Washington. He visited Hunter 
 in person and after inquiring into the state of affairs, 
 ordered him to concentrate all his forces at Harper s 
 Ferry. As soon as he saw the troops in motion, 
 he telegraphed to Sheridan to come on and take com 
 mand of the army; and Washington, Susquehanna and 
 Mobile Departments were all put under his control. On 
 the 6th of August, he returned to City Point, feeling that 
 the day of blunders in the Shenandoah Valley was over. 
 He had got the right man in the right place, and could 
 disencumber himself of affairs around Washington, while 
 Sheridan would make short work with politicians who 
 undertook to interfere with him. Still feeling how im 
 portant it was to his operations around Richmond, that 
 no defeat should occur here preferring that things should 
 remain safe, he opposed the wish of Sheridan to bring 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT, 2Q 
 
 on a decisive action at once with Early. But this dar 
 ing general was so persistent in his request, and so 
 confident of success, that Grant at last resolved to go on 
 himself and view matters, and have a talk with him. It 
 was all important that Lee should not succeed in his 
 plan to draw him away from Richmond. Early by his 
 defeat of Hunter, had already compelled him to send 
 away one corps and perhaps but for the timely arrival of 
 the Nineteenth from New Orleans, he would have had to 
 send two. And now a decisive defeat of Sheridan would 
 require a still further depletion of his army a depletion 
 so great, that it would give Lee an advantage over him 
 before Richmond, that would be dangerous. He had 
 much rather nothing should be done than risk this. But 
 after talking with Sheridan, and obtaining his views, he 
 said: 
 
 " Go in F I asked him if he could get out his teams 
 and supplies in time to make an attack on the ensuing 
 Tuesday morning. His reply was, that he could, before 
 daylight Monday morning. He was off promptly to time, 
 and I may add, that the result was such that I have never 
 since deemed it necessary to visit General Sheridan 
 before giving him orders." 
 
 Before he had reached City Point again, Sheridan had 
 sent Early, " whirling through Winchester." This de 
 cisive victory relieved Grant from a load of anxiety, for 
 he felt he could safely leave matters around Wash 
 ington to the care of Sheridan. Besides the tables were 
 completely turned on Lee. Instead of compelling Grant 
 to send reinforcements to defend Washington, he was 
 obliged to send reinforcements to Early. Strengthened by 
 these, this general determined to retrieve his lost ground, 
 and carry out the object for which he had been sent into 
 the valley of the Shenandoah, and on the i Qth of October, 
 
2IO LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 surprised Sheridan s army at night while he was in 
 Washington, and routed it. 
 
 The astounding news met him at Winchester on his 
 return, when putting spurs to his horse, he galloped for 
 ward, and dashing amid his disordered troops, by his gal 
 lant bearing and language, rallied them, and leading them 
 back on the excited, yelling victors, scattered them like a 
 whirlwind and drove them from the valley forever. 
 
 This settled the fate of Richmond, and Lee could no 
 longer attempt to draw Grant away from his deadly pur 
 pose. He knew now that the battle had to be fought out 
 there, and as he looked on his diminished numbers and 
 the tens of thousands pouring into Grant s army, he saw 
 the handwriting on the wall. 
 
 Grant now attempted to get around Lee s right flank 
 far enough to cut the South Side railroad an important 
 line of communication between Richmond and the South. 
 On the 2 /th of October, he dispatched a force composed 
 of Warren s Corps and two divisions of the Fifth Corps 
 headed by a strong body of cavalry, to force Hatcher s 
 Run, where Lee had strongly intrenched a part of his 
 army to prevent this very movement. Warren and Han 
 cock who commanded this force were successful, and got 
 within six miles of the road, when Lee pounced upon 
 them. A bloody battle followed, and Grant, finding that 
 Lee had anticipated this movement so well, ordered the 
 troops to return and the important work was not accom 
 plished. Ever planning some new scheme, and as often 
 as an attempt failed in one direction, threatening some 
 new point, thus keeping Lee ever on the move he now 
 ordered Butler to make a demonstration against the 
 enemy on the north side of the James River, but nothing 
 came of it. 
 
 " From this time forward," says Grant, " the operations 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 21 I 
 
2 i 2 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 in front of Petersburg and Richmond, until the spring 
 campaign of 1865, were confined to the defense and ex 
 tension of our lines, and to offensive movements for 
 crippling the lines of communication, and to prevent his 
 detaching any considerable force to send south." By 
 midwinter his lines reached Hatcher s Run, while the 
 Weldon Railroad was destroyed for many miles. But 
 Lee was no less active than Grant, and during the winter 
 organized an expedition that, but for an accident, would 
 have had serious results, in fact, might have ended in the 
 surrender of Grant s army. Finding that he could not 
 release Grant s grasp on Richmond by operations in the 
 Shenandoah Valley, he formed a no less daring plan than 
 to cut off his army from its supplies. City Point, on the 
 river, once taken, and occupied and held, not a pound of 
 food could have been got to Grant s army, and Lee de 
 termined to seize it. Three iron-clads, three wooden ves 
 sels and a flotilla of torpedo-boats, started on the night 
 of the 24th of January for this point, while an over 
 whelming force was massed north of the river to make 
 an assault on the troops stationed there as soon as City 
 Point was reached. 
 
 Grant had nothing on shore or on the water to resist this 
 naval force, and it came sweeping down in the darkness 
 with irresistible strength. Providentially the iron-clads got 
 aground and the whole thing fell through. A committee 
 of investigation was appointed as soon as this was known, 
 and it was the unanimous report that if those vessels had 
 not got aground Grant would have been compelled to 
 raise the siege of Richmond, to say nothing of more dis 
 astrous results. Grant alone, thought the disaster would 
 not have been so fatal,- as he believed he could have 
 made his provisions hold out till the communications 
 were reopened by the government vessels ; that is, he 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 : - 
 
 could not himself have done it he would have had to 
 depend solely on outside help. It was a narrow escape, 
 and the report of the investigating committee was never 
 published, as the Government did not wish it to be known 
 what a stupendous blunder it had been guilty of, for it was 
 the navy s duty to protect this important point, not Grant s. 
 
 But while Grant had failed in carrying out his part in 
 the great campaign, and had not taken Richmond, Sher 
 man had succeeded in performing his part and had taken 
 Atlanta. Grant s orders were for him to halt there, but 
 Hood after being defeated, had gone north into Tennessee, 
 in order to draw Sherman back from the south, but the 
 latter could not be moved from his purpose any more 
 than Grant, and let him go, feeling that he would have to 
 turn back at last. 
 
 But Grant s gratification at Sherman s success was 
 marred by the news that it was purchased at the cost of 
 McPherson s death, his dearest friend. When it reached 
 him he burst into tears. This strong, iron-nerved man who 
 had faced death a hundred times without flinching, and 
 seen men fall by thousands at his side, completely broke 
 down when told that McPherson was dead, and exclaimed, 
 " The country has lost one of its best soldiers, and I have 
 lost my best friend." His heart-broken sorrow reminds 
 one of the anguish of Napoleon when he heard Duroc 
 was killed. Retiring to his tent he sat alone wrapt in 
 grief, while the band, finding no other way to express 
 their sympathy, came and played mournful dirges before 
 its door. McPherson s grandmother, eighty-seven years 
 old, who had loved him with all her heart, ever since the 
 gallant knight was a gallant boy, when told that Grant 
 wept at the news of his death wrote him a letter, to which 
 he returned a noble, sympathetic answer, concluding with, 
 " Your bereavement is great, but cannot exceed mine.." 
 
2 j * LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Sherman, finding that Hood had gone to Tennessee, 
 conceived the daring plan of crossing the country to the 
 Atlantic Ocean and capturmg Savannah. Though so 
 much better versed in military science than Grant, the 
 latter had taught him one lesson not found in his books, 
 viz. : that a great army could live without a base of sup 
 plies. He had seen it done while fighting his way to 
 Vicksburg, and he now proposed to try it himself, and 
 wrote to Grant asking permission to do so. The latter 
 replied asking him if it did not look as if " Hood was 
 going to attempt the invasion of Middle Tennessee, 
 using the Mobile and Ohio, Memphis and Charleston 
 roads, to supply his base on the Tennessee River, about 
 Florence or Decatur. If he does this he ought to be met 
 and prevented from getting north of the Tennessee 
 River. If you were to cut loose I do not believe you 
 would meet Hood s army, but would be bushwhacked by 
 all the old men, little boys, and such railroad guards as 
 are still left at home. Hood would probably strike for 
 Nashville, thinking that by going north he could inflict 
 greater damage upon us than we could upon the rebels 
 by going south. If there is any way of getting at Hood s 
 army I would prefer that, but I must trust to your own 
 judgment." 
 
 Hood afterward followed the exact course here traced 
 out by Grant, and it shows how wonderful his forecast 
 was. But Sherman, who was on the ground, and ought 
 to have known best, did not agree with him, and replied : 
 " Hood may turn into Kentucky and Tennessee." 
 
 The sequel showed that Grant was right and Sherman 
 wrong, and that his plan was unquestionably the safest 
 and best, if any other commander than Thomas had been 
 left to take care of Hood. He, however, finally gave his 
 consent in the following dispatch : " Your dispatch of to- 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 j - 
 
 day received. If you are satisfied, the trip to the sea- 
 coast can be made holding the line of the Tennessee 
 River firmly, you may make it, destroying" all the railroads 
 south of Dalton or Chattanooga as you think best." 
 
 But Grant knew Thomas, and that when Hood fell on 
 the " rock of Chickamauga," he would be shattered to 
 pieces, and said, when the dispatch reached him, that 
 Hood had gone north, "he is going to his certain doom 
 
 This autumn of 1864 was crowded with startling 
 events, which marked the speedy downfall of the Con 
 federacy. While Grant was effecting comparatively 
 nothing before Richmond, Sheridan had cleared the Val 
 ley of the Shenandoah, and relieved Washington, Penn 
 sylvania and Maryland from all fear; Sherman had taken 
 Atlanta, and Hood was before Nashville, ready to receive 
 his death-blow. But, while Grant placed the utmost con 
 fidence in Thomas, he was very anxious to have Hood 
 defeated at once, especially as he heard that the latter 
 had sent a body of cavalry across the Cumberland into 
 Kentucky, and he said : " I feared he would cross his 
 whole army, and give us great trouble here." He there 
 fore telegraphed to Thomas to attack Hood at once, but 
 the latter was in want of cavalry, which he must have ; 
 for, as he intended to defeat Hood, he would need it to 
 pursue him, or it would be but half a victory, and so he 
 did not stir. 
 
 After waiting some days, Grant telegraphed again, and 
 Thomas answered that he was not ready to move, but 
 fearing the reason would leak out, did not give it. A 
 third time Grant telegraphed him, urging him more em 
 phatically to attack Hood immediately. Thomas still 
 demanded delay, but said that if he was not satisfied with 
 his conduct, he had better put some one else in his place. 
 But Grant never entertained such a thought; he had 
 
2 j 5 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 as much faith in Thomas as in himself, but he was so 
 anxious that he could not rest, and seeing that telegraph 
 ing produced no effect, he left his army and started West 
 in person, to see what was the matter. Reaching Wash 
 ington, he was met with the glorious news that Hood was 
 totally defeated, and he stopped in his journey, saying, 
 " All my apprehensions are dispelled," and returned to 
 Petersburg. 
 
 Sherman in the meantime was traversing the Southern 
 States and soon the city of Savannah was sent to Lincoln 
 as a Christmas present. Grant sent a dispatch to him 
 here directing him, " that after establishing a base on the 
 sea-coast, with necessary garrisons to include all his 
 artillery and cavalry, to come by water to City Point with 
 the balance of his command." 
 
 With Sherman s army added to his own, he knew he 
 could outflank Lee and end the long struggle for Rich 
 mond. But it was found difficult to get transports suffi 
 cient to bring north so large an army, and that it would 
 take at least two months time to get them on, and he 
 told him to stay where he was and operate in that region. 
 Hood having been totally routed, Grant thought he could 
 use the troops now set free in the west, to effect quicker 
 his purpose of capturing Richmond, and Schofield, with 
 2 1, ocx) men was ordered east, while he directed Thomas 
 to send Stoneman with a heavy force of cavalry across 
 the mountains into South Carolina. The " Anaconda" of 
 General Scott, about which so much ridicule had been 
 made, was proving to be a veritable monster, and its im 
 mense coils were steadily closing around his doomed 
 victim. 
 
 In the meantime Sherman, who had no idea of resting 
 comparatively inactive in Savannah, wrote to Grant, giv 
 ing a sketch of his plan to march inland north, cutting off 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2l j 
 
 Charleston and all the Atlantic sea-ports and join him 
 before Richmond and finish the war with a clap of 
 thunder. Grant was at first startled at the bold propo 
 sition, but its very boldness pleased him, and he 
 sent back word to carry out his own plans, and the army 
 that had marched from "Atlanta to the sea," now took up its 
 conquering march northward. While he was thus concen 
 trating his own forces for a final struggle, Grant saw that 
 it was important that he should keep those of his enemy 
 divided so relieving Banks and putting Canby in his 
 place, he ordered him to organize an expedition against 
 Mobile, a favorite project of his, as we have seen after 
 the capture of Vicksburg. This would prevent the 
 Southern troops from being sent north to Lee. This, he 
 wrote to Thomas, " will attract all the attention of the 
 enemy, and leave an advance from your standpoint easy. 
 I think it advisable, therefore," he said, "that you prepare 
 as much of a cavalry force as you can spare, and hold it 
 in readiness to go South." He designed to have this 
 force push deep into Alabama, destroying the rebel com 
 munications, and dispersing and capturing detached 
 bodies of the enemy. Grant had his mighty team well in 
 hand now, and the western teamster was handling it with 
 consummate skill. He had winnowed out the inefficent and 
 impracticable and unfit commanders, so that he knew it 
 would prove no "balky team" but pull together, and with 
 a power that nothing could withstand. 
 
 Sheridan having cleaned out the valley of the Shenan- 
 doah, was now free to move, and Grant ordered him to 
 push on to Lynchburg, and after destroying the railroad 
 and canal there, march south near the base of the moun 
 tains, where the streams were narrow, and endeavor to 
 reach Sherman moving north. This bold rider started 
 with 27,000 cavalry, on the 24th of February, but 
 
2 j g LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 on reaching the James River, he found the enemy had 
 burned the bridges over it, so that he could not get across. 
 He, therefore, moved down the north bank of the river 
 toward Richmond. The sudden appearance of this 
 heavy force caused the wildest consternation in the capi 
 tal, and troops were hurried out, and every preparation 
 made to meet the new invasion. But Sheridan swept 
 swiftly around the city and striking the Chickahominy, 
 kept on and reached the White House in safety, where 
 he quietly rested awhile, and then crossing the James 
 River, joined Grant. 
 
 Everything was now moving toward the army of the 
 Potomac as a grand centre, and it was a question of a 
 few weeks at the farthest, when those forces should close 
 in around Richmond. Lee, cooped up in the city, looked 
 on this gathering of the elements with a sinking heart. 
 The entire horizon was getting black as midnight, and it 
 thundered all around the heavens. His last effort to 
 force Grant to withdraw his army from before him, had 
 been made. No troops but those of Johnson that con 
 fronted Sherman could be brought to his aid, and he was 
 like a scorpion girt with fire, and could only turn and 
 turn as the devouring element every moment raged 
 nearer. He saw that nothing but a miracle could save 
 him, and all he could do was to delay the final hour and 
 then fall, sword in hand. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 tETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT GRANT S REPLY VISIT OF THE PRESIDENT AND 
 SHERMAN GRANT S ORDERS TO SHERMAN HIS GREAT FEAR THAT LEE WILL TRY 
 TO ESCAPE FURIOUS ATTACK OF LEE TEMPORARY SUCCESS SHERIDAN SENT TO 
 CUT OFF LEE S SUPPLIES ORDERS COUNTERMANDED, AND A FINAL BATTLE RE 
 SOLVED UPON VICTORY AT FIVE FORKS LEE S FEELINGS FINAL ASSAULT THE 
 REBEL WORKS CARRIED IGNORANCE OF T,HE DISASTER IN RICHMOND SABBATH 
 IN THE CAPITAL DAVIS RECEIVES THE NEWS WHILE IN CHURCH HIS FEELINGS 
 A QUIET SCENE SPREAD OF THE NEWS EXCITEMENT AND TERROR OF THE 
 PEOPLE SCENE IN THE COUNCIL-CHAMBER LAWLESS VIOLENCE IN THE STREETS 
 A FRIGHTFUL SPECTACLE PLAYING OF THE REGIMENTAL BANDS THE CITY 
 
 ON FIRE THE SCENE IN THE MORNING FORTY UNION TROOPERS ENTER IT 
 
 TERROR OF THE PEOPLE DESCRIPTION BY A LADY THE RETREAT AND PURSUIT 
 THE LAST HOPE THE END COME MEETING OF GRANT AND LEE THE SUR 
 RENDER A MOMENTOUS PALM SUNDAY PUBLIC REJOICING LAST GRAND RE 
 VIEW OF THE ARMY PEACE. 
 
 WHILE thus, in the early spring, Grant was pre 
 paring for his final move, he received a letter 
 from the President, closing with : " If there 
 be anything wanting which is within my power to give, do 
 not fail to let me know it. And now, with a brave army 
 and a just cause, may God sustain you." 
 
 Immediately after this, the President unexpectedly 
 visited him, and how much of his plans he then disclosed 
 is not told us, but Lincoln went away satisfied that the 
 end was near. Sherman, who had reached Goldsboro, 
 also came on to visit him and consult with him respecting 
 the last great moves on the mighty chess-board, where 
 the stake was the Republic. 
 
 Grant, in a few words, explained the position, and told 
 him what to do. The latter hurried back, while Grant 
 issued his orders for the army to move. His only fear 
 
22O 
 
 LIfE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 was that so skillful a man as Lee, when he saw this slow 
 but sure gathering of the elements around him, would 
 escape before all the gaps between the widely-separated 
 forces could be closed up. He could not imagine that a 
 general who had shown so much acuteness and fore 
 sight in thwarting all his endeavors to outwit him, 
 should remain cooped up in Richmond till escape would 
 be hopeless. He had, he said, spent days of anxiety lest 
 each morning should bring the report that the enemy had 
 retreated the night before, and taking up some new posi- 
 
 ^ 7 ^ v ^ tion, which 
 
 would re 
 quire him to 
 organize a n 
 entirely new 
 campaign. 
 
 But Lee 
 saw clearly 
 that if he 
 could not de 
 fend himself 
 
 INTERIOR OF FORT STEADMAN. t h C T 6 h 6 
 
 could nowhere nay, if the truth was known, he was 
 perfectly aware that the inevitable end was near and it 
 might as well come there as anywhere. Grant s order to 
 Meade to march was dated the 24th of March, and to his 
 amazement, the very next day, Lee, without waiting to 
 repel an attack, broke into a furious offensive and dashed 
 with such fury on the lines south of the Appomattox 
 River, that he actually broke through and carried Fort 
 Steadman and turned its guns on its defenders. But the 
 flanks held firm and reserves being brought up it was 
 retaken, and the enemy s own picket-line captured and 
 held, despite all Lee s efforts to get possession of it again. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2/>I 
 
 Whether Lee ordered this insane attack is not known, 
 but one thing was evident, the prospect of any success 
 was not sufficient to risk the loss of three or four thou 
 sand men, which at this juncture he could not spare. Four 
 days after Sheridan moved off to execute the task as 
 signed him, and cut off Lee s supplies. But when he re 
 ported that night that he was at Dinwiddie Court-House, 
 with the Fifth and Sixth Corps well up, Grant changed 
 his mind and sent a dispatch to him that he felt like end 
 ing the matter then and there, and to abandon his raid 
 and push on around the enemy to the rear to co-operate 
 with him, while he moved on the rebel works in front. 
 But two days of incessant rain now set in, making the 
 roads almost impassable for artillery. But Sheridan 
 next day, moved forward to the neighborhood of Five 
 Forks, where he found the enemy strongly posted. Lee 
 had been informed of this movement and endeavored 
 to thwart it, but Sheridan and Warren, on the ist of 
 April, captured the position, with 5,000 men and all the 
 artillery, while the remainder, instead of falling back on 
 Richmond, fled westward in every direction, thus lessen 
 ing materially Lee s force at this most critical juncture. 
 He was thunderstruck when the news of this disaster 
 reached him, and saw, with a sinking heart, his right wing 
 absolutely wrenched from him. For the first time, he 
 uttered words of complaint, and said that the next time 
 the troops were to be taken into action he would lead 
 them in person, and peremptorily ordered all the strag 
 glers on the field to be put under arrest. Says a Con 
 federate writer: "Grant celebrated the victory of Five 
 Forks and performed the prelude of what was yet to come, 
 by a fierce and continuous bombardment along his lines 
 in front of Petersburg. Every piece of artillery in the 
 thickly-studded forts, batteries and mortar-beds, joined in 
 
222 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the prodigious clamor reports savagely, terrifically 
 crashing through the streets and lanes of Petersburg 
 echoed upward. It appeared as if fiends of the air were 
 engaged in the sulphurous conflict. 
 
 At dawn Grant prepared for the assault. The bugles 
 sounded, and Wright and Ord moved steadily forward, 
 and after a short struggle, carried the works before them. 
 Park and Gibbon did the same, but there were inner 
 works to which the defeated enemy retired and renewed 
 the conflict. Around Fort Gregg a terrific struggle took 
 place, and cries and yells, mingled with the incessant 
 crash of musketry, and it seemed as if all the fiends of 
 the lower region were engaged in a mad combat amid the 
 sulphurous cloud of their own pit. But, reserves coming 
 up, the works were at last carried, though the dead lay in 
 heaps upon and within them. Lee now formed a second 
 line of defense, but it was only to gain time, not with any 
 hope of retrieving himself. 
 
 While the fate of Richmond was thus being fast settled, 
 its inhabitants were wholly unconscious of it. It is true, 
 they knew there had been heavy fighting, but Petersburg 
 was twenty miles distant, and Five Forks probably still 
 further, so all this tumult and strife, in which their fate 
 was so deeply involved, did not reach them. An occa 
 sional explosion would travel like distant thunder along 
 the sky, but all the reports that reached the capital were 
 favorable. In fact, it was reported that Lee had won a 
 great victory. 
 
 It was the Sabbath day, and the church-bells called, as 
 usual, the inhabitants to the house of worship, and Davis, 
 among the rest, and all was peaceful and quiet, as the 
 Sabbath should be. In the midst of the service, a mes 
 senger approached the pew in which the Confederate 
 President sat, and handed him a slip of paper. It was 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 from the War Department, containing a dispatch from 
 Lee, to have everything ready for the evacuation of 
 Richmond by eight o clock at night. Had a thunderbolt 
 fallen at his feet from a cloudless sky, he could not have 
 been more appalled. Crushing back the emotions of his 
 heart, he rose and left the church. To that congregation 
 it appeared as if the President had received only some 
 important war news to him it was a dagger-stroke that 
 pierced his very heart. 
 
 Somehow, after church, the news was whispered abroad 
 but scarcely any one believed it. " One could see the 
 quiet streets stretching away unmolested by any signs of 
 war ; across the James the landscape glistened in the 
 sun everything that met the eye spoke of peace. There 
 were few people in the streets, and no vehicles disturbed 
 the quiet of the Sabbath the sound of the church-going 
 bells rose into the cloudless sky, and floated on the blue 
 tide of the beautiful day," but soon the fearful tidings 
 received corroboration ; vehicles began to clatter along the 
 streets ; cheeks grew pale and tremulous ; lips whispered 
 fearful words. The excitement deepened every hour, 
 till the streets were jammed with frightened people, and 
 the quiet Sabbath became a scene of the wildest excite 
 ment and terror. 
 
 "Army wagons, loaded with boxes and trunks, drove 
 furiously toward the Danville depot ; pale women and 
 ragged children streamed after, going they knew not 
 whither; excited men filled the air with blasphemies, while 
 the more desperate surged up around the commissary 
 depots, awaiting the signal for pillage. There was no 
 order no attempt on the part of any one to enforce it." 
 
 But while the official acts of the dying Confederacy 
 were pitiful in the extreme, the actions of the people in the 
 public streets were both degrading and frightful., Both the 
 
224 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 civil and military power had ceased to exist, and lawless 
 violence took their place, and soon the streets were in an 
 uproar, and man s worst passions held high carnival there. 
 As the Sabbath evening came on, instead of the sound of 
 the church-going bells, there arose in the air a confused 
 murmur of voices, and the little restraint that had held 
 back the crowd during the day, disappeared with the 
 darkness, and the excited, maddened throng rushed on the 
 warehouses, burst them open and scattered the goods 
 over the pavements, and broke into the liquor saloons, and 
 what spirits they did not drink, they poured out into the 
 streets, till the gutters ran with it like water, while men 
 reeled along uttering oaths and imprecations, that, mingled 
 with the cries of terror and distress, made that Sabbath 
 night a pandemonium. To add still greater terror to 
 this wild scene, General Ewell, commanding the rear 
 guard of the retreating army, ordered the iron-clads 
 in the river to be blown up. The city shook under the 
 terrific explosions, and before the frightened inhabitants 
 had time to recover from the earthquake shock, the 
 three bridges that spanned the stream were ablaze, rib 
 bing the darkness with their long lines of flame. The 
 next moment, four huge tobacco warehouses were 
 wrapped in fire, shooting murky clouds of smoke and fiery 
 sparks into the heavens. The neighboring houses caught 
 fire ; and the conflagration passing all control, raged un 
 checked along the streets, and roared like the ocean over 
 the abandoned city. As the light fell on the terror- 
 stricken or ferocious faces of the yelling crowd, it seemed 
 as if the infernal depths had vomited up its inhabitants. 
 In strange contrast to this appalling scene, and hence 
 enhancing it, and rendering it more unearthly, stirring 
 strains of music filled all the air on the outskirts of the 
 tity. Weitzel, who was in command on the north side of 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 D 
 
 the James River, was directed by Grant to make as much 
 demonstration as possible to distract the enemy, and so 
 as night came on, he set all his regimental bands playing. 
 Ewell, who was watching him, followed his example, and 
 band answered band through the darkness, which was made 
 horrible by the lurid sky over the burning city in the dis 
 tance. At midnight, Ewell ordered his bands to cease play 
 ing, and quietly withdrew and followed after Lee s fleeing 
 army. But the conflagration went on, the flames roaring 
 unchecked along the empty blocks, till the heavens were 
 blotted out by the canopy of whirling, falling cinders. 
 When morning dawned, its light fell on a city smoulder 
 ing in ashes and crowds of people crouching in the open 
 squares and under pieces of scattered furniture. Richmond 
 that awful morning presented a wild and fearful spectacle. 
 Yesterday the streets were thronged with men and 
 women wending their way to the house of worship 
 to-day a maddened crowd moved amid its smoking ruins. 
 
 Weitzel, early in the morning, learned that the city had 
 been evacuated, and when the sun was about an hour 
 high, forty troopers, whom he had sent to reconnoitre, 
 came clattering through the streets. Suddenly the cry of 
 "the Yankees are come!" ran like wild-fire from mouth 
 to mouth, and the terrified crowd threw down the plunder 
 which they were attempting to carry away, and rushing on 
 and over each other, with oaths and savage shouts, fled in 
 every direction. "These forty horsemen," wrote a woman, 
 " walked their horses till they reached the corner of 
 Eleventh Street, when they broke into a trot for the 
 Public Square, and riding straight up to the- Capitol 
 planted their guidons on its top, where they fluttered 
 proudly in the breeze. A few hours later, the heads of 
 Weitzel s columns appeared in the streets." 
 
 Meanwhile the conflagration raged with unchecked 
 
LIFE OF GENERA L GRANT. 
 
 fury. The entire business part of the city was on fire- 
 stores, warehouses, manufactories, mills, depots and 
 bridges, covering acres of ground, were in flames, while 
 the continuous thunder of exploding shells added ten-fold 
 to the horrors of the scene. All during the forenoon 
 flame, and smoke, and showers of blazing sparks filled 
 the air, spreading still further the destruction, until every 
 bank, every auction store, every insurance office, nearly 
 every commission house, and most of the fashionable 
 stores, were a heap of smouldering ruins. The atmos 
 phere was so choking, that " men, women and children 
 crowded into the square of the capital for a breath of 
 pure air; and one traversed the green slopes blinded by 
 cinders and struggling for breath." 
 
 While desolation and terror were thus walking the 
 streets of the fallen capital, Lee s army was streaming 
 through the country, the long trains of baggage-wagons 
 thundering after it, straining every nerve to reach Dan 
 ville, nearly one hundred and seventy miles distant, from 
 whence it could join Johnston, near Raleigh. This was 
 Lee s last hope, and a desperate one it was, with nothing 
 beyond but a hopeless battle. 
 
 Grant discovered his object, and sending Sheridan on 
 to break down bridges and harass his flank, followed with 
 the main army. Lee was on the north side and Grant on 
 the south side of the Appomattox River, when the for 
 mer commenced the long and desperate race for Dan 
 ville. 
 
 Burke s Station, where Lee proposed to strike the Dan 
 ville Railroad, was fifty-five miles from Richmond, and 
 both armies put forth almost superhuman energies to 
 reach it first. If Lee did, his escape from immediate sur 
 render was almost assured ; if Grant did, he was lost. 
 The troops, on one side, goaded on by desperation, on 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the other, urged by the prospect of a speedy, crowning 
 victory, pressed on night and day toward this goal. Grant 
 reached it first, and Lee, with a sinking heart, saw his last 
 hope cut off. It was true, he might reach Lynchburg and 
 escape to the mountains, and thus avoid the mortification 
 of a surrender, but even this poor consolation was denied 
 him. His discouraged army was becoming demoralized, 
 wagons choked the road, oaths, curses and whipping 
 failed to rouse up the tired mules to greater effort, while 
 the blaze of ammunition-wagons and their loud explo 
 sions, fired to prevent them falling into the hands of the 
 enemy, filled the soldiers with despair, and they made 
 scarcely more than a mile an hour. Constant collisions 
 were taking place, and the army was so harassed that, 
 though Lee started on Sunday night, he did not reach 
 Farmville, seventy miles from Richmond, till Friday night. 
 The day before Sheridan cut off Ewell s corps of 9,000 
 men and captured it, with fifteen pieces of artillery and 
 six miles of baggage-wagons. As a slight offset to this, 
 Lee captured on this day some two hundred Uni on pris 
 oners, in an engagement at the Appomattox bridge. 
 
 Lee now headed directly for Lynchburg, in the hope of 
 reaching a point where he could move around the front 
 of our left wing, and escape toward Danville by a road 
 which runs directly south from a point about twenty 
 miles east of Lynchburg. But his rear and flanks were so 
 sorely pressed that he was compelled to skirmish nearly 
 every step, and to destroy or abandon an immense 
 amount of property, while Sheridan was rapidly shooting 
 ahead of him. 
 
 Grant having received a dispatch from the latter re 
 questing his presence, mounted and hurried to the front. 
 On the 5th, he had written to Sherman, saying: "Sheri 
 dan is up with Lee, and reports all that is left horse, 
 
22 g LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 foot and dragoons at 20,000 men, much demoralized. 
 We hope to reduce this number one-half. I shall push 
 on to Burkesville, and if a stand is made at Danville, will, 
 in a very few days, go there. If you can do so, push on 
 from where you are, and let us see if we cannot finish the 
 job with Lee s and Johnston s armies." 
 
 He was finishing it fast. He had said, when he left 
 the Rapidan, that he should follow Lee wherever he went, 
 and he was keeping his word. 
 
 The pursuit was now kept up, but at last Lee turned 
 off the main road, and the army toiled all day along wood 
 roads and paths, winding through thickets unmolested. 
 It was a dreary march, and men and animals, worn down, 
 dragged themselves wearily along. The next morning 
 they struck the main road, and taking courage, marched 
 quite rapidly till dark, and encamped in the neighboring 
 fields. That night Lee held a consultation with his 
 officers, as to the best course to be pursued. It was a 
 gloomy council, and its deliberations were hurried by the 
 boom of Sheridan s cannon in front, showing that the 
 way was hopelessly blocked. The end was reached. 
 
 Grant, knowing how hopeless was Lee s condition, sent 
 him a dispatch from Farmville demanding the surrender 
 of his army, on the ground that to hold out longer was 
 an " useless effusion of blood." Lee replied the same 
 day, repudiating the insinuation that his case was hope 
 less, but concluded with asking the "terms he would offer." 
 The next day Grant returned an answer, saying: "Peace 
 being my first desire, there is but one condition that I 
 insist upon, that the men surrendered shall be disqualified 
 from taking up arms against the United States Govern 
 ment until properly exchanged." 
 
 Lee in reply, denied that he proposed to surrender his 
 army, but to ask his terms, saying: "to be frank, I 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 do not think the emergency has arisen to call for the 
 surrender ." This may have been "frank" enough, but 
 it was not true, for at this time he had not more 
 than ten thousand men, with muskets in their hands, 
 to resist Grant s magnificent army. In proof of His hope 
 less condition, he proposed to meet Grant next day at 10 
 o clock, and talk over the matter. The next day Grant 
 sent an answer, saying that he did not receive his letter 
 till 1 1 .50, but would immediately push forward to the front 
 to meet him. This dispatch arrived just in time to prevent 
 an attack of Sheridan s cavalry. The bugles were ready 
 to sound the charge, when a flag of truce raised in front 
 of Gordon s troops prevented it. The final correspond 
 ence then took place. 
 
 APPOMATTOX COURT-HOUSE, April 9th, 1865. 
 General R. E. Lee, Commanding C. S. A. 
 
 In accordance with the substance of my letters to you of the 8th 
 inst., I propose to receive the surrender of the Army of Northern 
 Virginia on the following terms, to wit : 
 
 Rolls of all the officers and men to be made in duplicate, one copy 
 to be given to an officer designated by me, the other to be retained by 
 such officers as you may designate. 
 
 The officers to give their individual paroles not to take arms against 
 the Government of the United States until properly exchanged, and 
 each company or regimental commander sign a like parole for the 
 men of their commands. 
 
 The arms, artillery and public property to be parked and stacked 
 and turned over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. 
 
 This will not embrace the side-arms of the officers, nor their private 
 horses or baggage. 
 
 This done, each officer and man will be allowed to return to their 
 homes, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they 
 observe their parole and the laws in force where they reside. 
 
 Very respectfully, 
 
 U. S. GRANT, Lieutenant-General. 
 
^ o LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Lee replied, saying, that he accepted these terms, and 
 that he would designate the proper officers to carry the 
 stipulations into effect. 
 
 Lee, at this time, was sitting under an apple-tree, ac 
 companied only by a single staff officer, absorbed in 
 deep thought, when Colonel Babcock, of Grant s staff, 
 rode up and saluted him, and reported that General 
 Grant was riding along that road a little way behind and 
 would soon come up. Lee at once told his aid to find a 
 proper place to receive him. The latter, seeing a man 
 passing by, asked if there was a house near. The man 
 pointed to an empty house near by partly in ruins. But 
 Lee refusing to receive Grant in such a desolate-looking 
 building, the man offered his own farm-house, a little way 
 off. Thither Lee proceeded, and soon Grant, accompa 
 nied by his staff and several generals among them, 
 Sheridan rode up. These two heroes, who last had 
 seen each other on the battle-fields of Mexico when 
 fighting under one flag, met with the frankness and infor 
 mality of old acquaintances. Lee wore his sword, but 
 Grant was without his, and observing that the former 
 noticed it, said : " I must apologize, General, for not 
 wearing my sword, it had gone off with my baggage 
 when I received your note." Lee bowed and at once in 
 troduced the subject which had brought them together, 
 and asked Grant to state in writing the terms on which 
 he proposed the army of Northern Virginia should sur 
 render. Grant sat down by a table and wrote the terms 
 as given in the above letter. He then handed it to Lee 
 who, after reading it carefully, asked what he meant by 
 " private horses," as most of the cavalrymen owned their 
 horses. The latter replied that they must be turned over 
 to the Government. Lee acknowledged the justice of 
 this, when Grant said that he would " instruct his officers 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. ~ T 
 
 231 
 
 to let those men who owned their horses retain them, as 
 they would need them to till their farms." With what an 
 instinctive impulse this trained and renowned warrior 
 turns to the arts of peace and his imagination brings up 
 the quiet fields tilled by. those men hardened in the rough 
 experience of war. 
 
 While this document was being copied, the two gene 
 rals conversed familiarly about West Point times and old 
 army friends. At length, alluding to the business before 
 them, Lee said he had two or three thousand Federal 
 prisoners and was afraid he had not rations sufficient to 
 supply them. Sheridan, who overheard the remark, re 
 plied : " I have rations for 20,000 men." The document 
 being copied, Colonel Marshall began his reply with " I 
 have the honor to reply to your communication," etc. 
 Lee scratched it all out, and in a clear, soldierly hand 
 wrote : " General, I have received your letter of this date, 
 containing the terms of the surrender of the army of 
 Northern Virginia, as proposed by you ; as they are sub 
 stantially the same as those expressed in your letter of 
 the 8th inst., they are accepted. I will proceed to desig 
 nate the proper officers to carry the stipulations into 
 effect." 
 
 Thus ended the interview between the two great lead 
 ers in this most memorable civil war of modern times. 
 
 While this momentous event was transpiring, all over 
 the land the people were quietly gathering to their places 
 of worship, little thinking what was taking place on this 
 Palm Sunday in a quiet farm-house in Western Virginia. 
 That solitary building by the wayside is a subject for a 
 great painting. 
 
 Three days after, the rebel army was drawn up as for a 
 parade and marched to a spot near the Court-House and 
 stacked their arms and piled together their flags. Their 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 233 
 
 arms they had carried so long were useless now, and the 
 flags they had followed with such brave devotion would 
 never again float over them in battle. Reduced by 
 straggling and prisoners, only about twenty-five thou 
 sand remained of whom not more than half had arms to 
 lay down. 
 
 Grant, with true delicacy of feelings, refused to be 
 present at the terrible humiliation of his foe, as recorded 
 above. Governed by the same feelings, he made no vic 
 torious entrance into the Confederate capital. Simple 
 
 and unostentatious he avoided all pomp and display, and 
 acted like one who had done any ordinary work which 
 had been assigned him. Having seen the soldiers he 
 had conquered scattered to their desolate homes, he de 
 parted for Washington, and on the I4th he attended a 
 Cabinet meeting, and was received with warm acknowl 
 edgments by Mr. Lincoln, whose heart was bounding 
 with joy at the certainty of a speedy peace. The news 
 had spread over the wires to the remotest section of the 
 country, and bells rang and cannons thundered out their 
 joy, and flags waved, and one long, loud shout rocked 
 the land from one end to the other. Peace, blessed 
 
o-/ LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 peace had returned, and the national heart bounded with 
 joy. 
 
 The surrender of Johnston to Sherman quickly fol 
 lowed. That same week Mobile fell, and when the news 
 reached Texas, General Taylor surrendered his army, 
 and the mighty structure of the Confederacy, that for four 
 years had withstood the colossal power of the North, was 
 a thing of the past. While the soldiers that had fought 
 so bravely to sustain it, returned sad, dispirited and 
 ruined to their homes, those of the Union before they 
 melted again into the common mass of citizens, was to have 
 a clay of triumph. Starting homeward, the army slowly 
 traversed again the ground over which it had fought its 
 way to the capital, and at last assembled in Washington. 
 Here a grand review was ordered. Grant, with the 
 President and Cabinet, and Foreign Ministers, looked for 
 the last time at the bronzed veterans whom he so often 
 led to battle. For two days the mighty columns, filling 
 Pennsylvania Avenue from limit to limit, moved past their 
 chieftain, as he stood with uncovered head, and received 
 their salutes. Standards that had been carried through 
 the storm of battle at Donelson,and Shiloh, and Vicksburg, 
 and Missionary Ridge, and in every fight from the Rapi- 
 dan to the Appomattox, dipped in succession as the regi 
 ments that bore them marched by, the air resounded with 
 the music of the bands, and the very houses shook 
 with shouts to the chief. Grant s heart swelled with 
 honest pride as the strong legions he had led to victor} 
 defiled past him, yet it \vas sad, with the memory of the 
 gallant dead that were not there, but sleeping peacefully 
 in their unknown graves on the fields of their fame, and 
 with the reflection that this was a last farewell to those 
 whom he had borne on his great heart so long. Yet 
 emotions of joy swelled over all, that peace had returned, 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 . - 
 
 and the country was relieved from the curse and ravages 
 of war. He had been trained for war, and had won the 
 proud distinction he enjoyed, through war, yet peace was 
 the desire of his heart, and that he had secured it, was 
 his greatest glory. 
 
36 
 
 LIJ-K OF GENEKAL GA ANT. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 GRANT S VIEWS OF RECONSTRUCTION PROTECTS LEE SECURES THE PARDON OF 
 REBELS RECEPTION IN NEW YORK VISITS THE SANITARY FAIR AT CHICAGO 
 ENTHUSIASM OF THE PEOPLE GRANT S SPEECH GIVEN AN OVATION IN NEW 
 YORK VISITS THE SOUTH RECEPTION IN CHARLESTON RECEPTION BY THE 
 LEATHER DEALERS OF NEW YORK PRESENTS GIVEN HIM APPOINTED SECRE 
 TARY OF WAR, AD INTERIM HIS GREAT ABILITY HIS RESIGNATION ASSAILED 
 BY THE PRESIDENT REBUKES HANCOCK FOR PLACING THE MILITARY OVER THE 
 CIVIL AUTHORITY OF NEW ORLEANS IS ELECTED PRESIDENT DIFFICULTIES 
 OF HIS POSITION HIS FREEDOM FROM ALL DESIRE TO RETALIATE ON THE 
 SOUTH HIS HONESTY AND FIRMNESS CIVIL SERVICE REFORM THE ST. DO 
 MINGO AFFAIR PLACING OF TROOPS IN LOUISIANA MOVING TROOPS TOWARD 
 WASHINGTON WHEN THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION MET HIS OWN DECLARA 
 TION OF HONESTY OF PURPOSE DIFFICULTY WITH SPAIN ALABAMA CLAIMS 
 HIS LAST ADVICE TO THE COUNTRY REFUSES TO RUN FOR A THIRD TERM. 
 
 THE war being closed, the Government undertook 
 at once the difficult task of reconstruction. Had 
 this been left solely to Grant the difficulties that 
 followed would have been avoided. Like Lincoln, he 
 was free from that animosity that characterized the reign 
 ing" party in Congress. He was fully conscious of the 
 great wrong that had been committed, and the terrible 
 punishment which the South deserved for having drenched 
 the land in blood and covered it with mourning, but he 
 saw clearly that if the Union he had so nobly fought tg 
 preserve would be one in reality and not merely in name, 
 hate and revenge must have no place in the policy to be 
 adopted that every act should lend to efface, not to in 
 tensify the bitterness engendered by the war. But he 
 was powerless to act, except as General-in-Chief, and 
 Lincoln, who shared his nobleness of heart and possessed 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 also his clear-sightedness, being murdered, the feelings 
 of the North, even of those who had been kindly disposed, 
 were turned into gall and wormwood. The act of one 
 madman was construed into that of the entire South, and 
 Congress seemed determined to make the breach be 
 tween the two sections wider even than the war had 
 made it. 
 
 When, under the influence of the excited state of feeling 
 arising out of the horrible tragedy, an indictment of trea 
 son was found against Lee, like a true soldier, who will 
 no sooner allow his honor than his sword to be tarnished, 
 he promptly interposed, saying, that it was contrary to 
 the express stipulations of the surrender at Appomattox 
 Court-House, which declared that none of those who had 
 laid down their arms were to be molested so long as 
 their conduct was peaceable and orderly. So when the 
 President consulted him on his amnesty proclamation, 
 Grant was entirely opposed to that provision which ex 
 cluded from its benefits all officers from a brigadier- 
 
 o 
 
 general up. He said that those, of whatever grade, who 
 had belonged to the regulararmy,and hence been educated 
 by the General Government, should be excluded ; but he 
 could see neither the propriety nor justice of excluding a 
 volunteer, who by his bravery and talents had risen to 
 the rank of general, and yet pardoning one who, though 
 he tried, failed to get higher than a major or colonel. 
 Every man of common sense will acknowledge that he 
 was right. 
 
 Johnson consulted him much respecting the course he 
 should pursue toward the rebel States. Congress was 
 for stringent military rule, while Grant, though a military 
 man, and hence would naturally favor this view, strenu 
 ously opposed it, believing that it was far better that civil 
 government should resume its functions everywhere, even 
 
238 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 though it did not work wholly satisfactorily at first. He de 
 sired to see the last vestige of rule by force disappear. 
 
 The enemies he had fought so hard to overcome were 
 aware of his magnanimity, and many of the prominent 
 rebels who were excluded in the amnesty proclamation 
 applied to him for pardon and were scarcely ever refused, 
 and as it turned out in after investigation, he did not 
 make a single mistake. The estimation in which he was 
 held by the people was evinced by the enthusiasm with 
 which he was received wherever he went. In New 
 York they crowded by tens of thousands to shake his 
 hand. A presidential tour being made to Illinois to in 
 augurate a monument to Douglas, he accompanied it, 
 and such was the desire to see him and do him honor, 
 that the President was almost forgotten. Having accepted 
 an invitation to visit the last Sanitary Fair, at Chicago, 
 the whole country far and near became moved with sud 
 den excitement and the people flocked in crowds to the 
 city on the day he was expected to arrive. 
 
 "Union Hall" was packed with 10,000 people, when, 
 heralded by a salute of a hundred cannon, and escorted 
 by General Hooker, the honorary president of the fair, 
 and other distinguished men, he entered the door-way. 
 The moment he appeared, a choir selected for the pur 
 pose, struck up " The Red, White and Blue." But the 
 pealing melody had hardly commenced when it was 
 drowned, lost in the enthusiastic, wild hurras that shook 
 the building cheer following cheer, like successive bil 
 lows ; while long lines of waving handkerchiefs and bright 
 eyes gleamed above the dark mass, like sunlight on the 
 waves. As the tumult subsided, Grant stepped forward, 
 but before he could open his lips the building again shook 
 with the thunders of applause. He gazed calmly on the 
 excited, mighty multitude, and as soon as there came a 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 lull in the storm, said : " Ladies and gentlemen, as I 
 never make a speech myself, I will ask Governor Yates 
 to return the thanks I should fail to express." As he 
 finished these few words, the applause that broke forth 
 was deafening, and shout after shout went from the ex 
 cited thousands. 
 
 Grant, after his return from the West, remained some 
 time at Washington, when he again visited New York 
 and was given a splendid reception at the Fifth Avenue 
 Hotel. It was an ovation tendered him by the citizens of 
 the great metropolis for the services he had rendered the 
 country. 
 
 On his return to the capital, he determined to visit the 
 South in person and ascertain for himself the actual con 
 dition of things, so that his action as General-in-Chief 
 could be more intelligent and just. He arrived in 
 Charleston on the ist of December, 1866, and was re 
 ceived with enthusiasm. The Union League, composed 
 of colored men, turned out in a body and gave him a 
 torch-light procession and a serenade. In his report, he 
 gave some sensible advice as to the manner of working 
 the Freedmen s Bureau, which shows how practical all 
 his views were. 
 
 In the month of February he visited New York again, 
 and was given a reception by the leather dealers, in the 
 warerooms of Messrs. Armstrong & Sons, in Ferry Street. 
 The rooms were handsomely decorated, and Grant s 
 presence was the signal for an outburst of enthusiasm. 
 In reply to loud and repeated calls for a speech, he said : 
 " Gentlemen, you know I never make speeches. I am 
 happy to meet my old friends of the leather trade." 
 
 During this visit a purse of $100,000 was made up for 
 him by the citizens of New York. Previous to this Phila 
 delphia had given him $30,000 ; Galena, a house and fur- 
 
2 4 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 niture, and Boston a library. If he had been an English 
 man, and rendered such services to his country as he had 
 to the Union, he would have been given twice as much, 
 and an estate and title besides. 
 
 During this year Grant had issued several orders tend 
 ing to the settlement of affairs South. The grade of 
 general had been created in the army, and he had been 
 appointed to it, and his vast powers clearly set forth. 
 
 The next year, 1867, the hostility existing between 
 President Johnson and the Senate took an active form, 
 
 and in August the former 
 dismissed Mr. Stan ton, 
 Secretary of War, and ap 
 pointed Grant in his place, 
 ad interim. A law had 
 been passed, called the 
 Tenure of Office Bill, by 
 which the President could 
 no more remove, than ap 
 point without the sanction 
 of the Senate. It was done 
 on purpose to curtail John 
 son s power, and he knew 
 it. Determined to resist this innovation, as he considered 
 it, of his constitutional rights, he, while Congress was not 
 in session, removed Stanton. Grant, though opposed to 
 the President s course, assumed the position, and showed 
 at once his administrative force and great power of or 
 ganization. Though knowing that his position was a 
 temporary one, he did not content himself with seeing 
 that things were kept right in the channels in which they 
 were moving, but he began at once the work of retrench 
 ment, so much needed in the heavily-burdened state, 
 and cut down with his pruning-knife the expenses of 
 
 ANDREW JOHNSON. 
 
LIFF OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 
 
 Government millions of dollars. It, however, turned out 
 that he was not appointed to the office of Secretary of 
 War for his great ability and honesty, but for political 
 purposes. The President and Senate being" at open war, 
 the latter took up the removal of Stanton as a personal 
 affair, and so, when it assembled in the winter, it refused 
 
 SENATE-CHAMBER. 
 
 to sanction it, and Grant at once resigned his posi 
 tion. 
 
 Because Johnson s act was a declaration of open war 
 with the Senate, the Republican press looked upon Grant s 
 acceptance of the office as taking sides with him, and 
 charged him with all kinds of base motives. He, 
 however, made no defense, but quietly devoted himself 
 to his duties till the Senate met, and reinstated Stanton, 
 when he promptly resigned. 
 
 It was the President s turn now to assail him, and he 
 openly charged him with violating his word, declaring 
 
 that he had promised to hold on to his place, and compel 
 16 
 
2 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Stanton to resort to the courts for redress, and thus 
 bring the Tenure of Office Bill into the Supreme Court 
 and test its constitutionality. Grant, in reply, denied that 
 he had ever promised to retain his position against the 
 action of the Senate. The controversy now became a 
 personal one, and was carried on, on the part of the 
 President, with great persistency and vindictiveness. He 
 summoned his entire cabinet as witnesses to prove that 
 Grant had broken his word, but did not succeed in his 
 object. The public, however, took very little interest in 
 the controversy, for it was evident that the whole thing 
 was an attempt to make Grant a political cat s-paw, and 
 that when he found it out, he had a perfect right to refuse 
 to be so used. That he himself so regarded it, is evident 
 from the following language in his letter that he wrote to 
 the President : " When my honor as a soldier and in 
 tegrity as a man have been so violently assailed, pardon 
 me for saying that I can but regard this whole matter, 
 from beginning to end, as an attempt to involve me in 
 the resistance of law, for which you hesitated to assume 
 the responsibility, and thus -to destroy my character be 
 fore the country. I am, in a measure, confirmed in this 
 conclusion by your recent orders directing me to disobey 
 orders from the Secretary of War, my superior and your 
 subordinate." 
 
 A great deal of fault was found with Grant for his re 
 fusal to sustain Hancock, whom the President had put over 
 the military department of Louisiana. Hancock had in 
 terfered with the election of a recorder in the city, assert 
 ing that the appointment belonged to the military comman 
 der. Grant was averse to have the military authority 
 assert supremacy over the civil unless it was absolutely 
 necessary. In this case he did not think so, and in his 
 dispatch to Hancock he gives his reasons, going over all 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the facts and law in the case, and concludes : " On as 
 suming command of the district, you announced in 
 General Order, No. 40, of November 29th, 1867, that it 
 was your purpose to preserve peace and quiet in your 
 command, and that as a means to this great end you re 
 garded the maintenance of the civil authorities in the 
 faithful execution of the laws as the most efficient under 
 existing circumstances ; also, that when the civil authori 
 ties are ready and willing to perform their duties the 
 military power should cease to lead, and the civil admin 
 istration resume its natural and rightful dominion. Under 
 this statement of facts, the City Council of New Orleans 
 might reasonably have presumed it to be their right and 
 duty, especially under the order of the Court, and your 
 Order, No. 40, to fill the vacancy in the office of Recor 
 der, as it appears they did from your report of this case, 
 dated February i5th, 1868. The same facts, too, in con 
 nection with the printed report of their proceedings, em 
 braced in your report of February I5th, preclude the 
 presumption of any intended contempt of the military 
 authority by the members of the City Council." 
 
 He here at the very outset proclaims his views on the 
 interference of the military in civil affairs where it can 
 possibly be avoided, and yet he was constantly accused 
 of doing right the reverse. He always maintained that 
 the military was not designed, and should not be used to 
 dominate and control civil authority, but to uphold and 
 protect it. 
 
 As Johnson s term drew to a close, who should 
 be the next President became the absorbing topic, 
 and it was soon evident that Grant would be the candi 
 date of one of the parties, and his democratic proclivities 
 before the war seemed to render it probable that he 
 would be that of the Democrats. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Instead of this, however, he received the nomination of 
 the Republicans, which was carried by acclamation, and in 
 the next November, 1868, was elected by an overwhelm 
 ing majority. It is not our purpose to go into a detailed 
 history of the eight years of his administration, for it 
 would involve the history of political parties and, indeed, 
 of the whole country during one of the most eventful 
 periods of its existence, and would require a separate 
 volume. Besides, there is very little that is personal in 
 it. His duties as President were, in the main, those that 
 belong to all presidents, such as reporting the state of 
 the country, making appointments, receiving foreign em 
 bassies and suggesting various minor reforms in the gov 
 ernment, etc., etc. 
 
 He was called to the presidency at a most trying time, 
 and we doubt whether there was another man in the 
 country who could have carried us through that period as 
 successfully as he did. The attempt to impeach Johnson 
 out of mere personal and political hate, shows what tem 
 per possessed the majority of Congress, and a similar 
 fate would have awaited any man less firm, and popular, 
 and determined than Grant. \Three hostile forces con 
 fronted him at the outset the humbled, and angry, and 
 rebellious South, the Democratic party at the North, and 
 the radical leaders of his own party o These latter did 
 not wish for a restoration of the Union any more than 
 the South did, except so far as subjugation meant union. 
 They desired vassalage, not brotherhood. But Grant 
 wished all personal hatred and animosities laid aside 
 the past to be wiped out and the welfare of the country 
 the whole country the only object to be sought after. 
 VAs President, he determined to treat his former enemies 
 /with the same magnanimity that he did as General in the 
 
 /field. He would not even listen to arguments for this or 
 L 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 that measure that looked only to party success.j As he 
 said himself there was scarcely a man in the country so 
 completely untrained in political life as he. Under any 
 circumstances he could not but sometimes err in judg 
 ment in such an untried field, but how much more diffi 
 cult to always act wisely when everything- was in chaos 
 around him and the bitterest passions raged on every 
 side. The South would not believe that he could be 
 just the Democratic party were equally skeptical as to 
 his sincerity and integrity so long as he represented a 
 party that they believed to be the very embodiment of 
 corruption and falsehood, while the leaders in both houses 
 of Congress did not share his patriotic feelings and were 
 continually urging him to use the strong hand of military 
 power, and let all efforts at reconciliation be deferred till 
 the South exhibited a better spirit. 
 
 ( Amid these distracting elements and hostile forces, 
 Grant stood almost alone with nothing to fall back on 
 but his own honesty of purpose, strong patriotism and 
 indomitable will. That any course he might adopt would 
 be severely criticised and denounced was inevitable. He 
 knew it, and knew, too, that his administration was to be 
 a stormy one and full of anxiety and trouble, but he ad 
 dressed himself to the task before him with the same 
 settled, unalterable purpose that he did to carry out the 
 plan of a campaign in the fielcU The work of reconstruc 
 tion and of bringing back the hostile States into a true, 
 not nominal reunion, was a herculean work and would 
 test any man s powers and try his integrity to the utmost, 
 yet it was a work that had got to be done, or all the sac 
 rifice of men and money would have been in vain. 
 There is something wonderful and grand in his perfect 
 freedom from all animosity, while those who surrounded 
 him were full of the bitterest hate. How he acquitted 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 himself, future history will relate. Not till this genera 
 tion, with its strifes and passions, has passed away can 
 that history be written, but when it is, we venture to say- 
 that Grant will stand out as one of the purest-minded 
 and most patriotic presidents we have had since the time 
 of Washington. Added to the bitterness of feeling that 
 existed, not only rendering a fair judgment and just 
 criticism impossible, but thwarting his best intentions and 
 distracting the minds of the people and paralyzing indus 
 try, the country was overwhelmed with debt and bur 
 dened with a taxation almost unbearable, while the cur 
 rency was vacillating and unsound. Added to all this, 
 distress and panic seized the business and commercial 
 world and everything became paralyzed, and a deep 
 gloom settled on the nation and there seemed no end to 
 the widespread ruin that prevailed on every side. 
 
 Amid all this hostile feeling, and the conflicting plans 
 for relief, with the currency depressed and business at a 
 stand-still, he never deviated from the path he had marked 
 out for himself. Although he has been bitterly assailed 
 and denounced, and all manner of epithets heaped upon 
 him, such as tyrant, drunkard, dishonest, and accused of 
 being governed wholly by selfish aims, how few of his 
 actions can his enemies to-day point out as worthy of 
 condemnation. 
 
 As we said, it would be impossible, in our brief space, 
 to go into a history of his administration, nor would it 
 interest the reader, and we therefore propose to take up 
 only those measures that particularly characterized it, and 
 which drew down on him the special criticism and de 
 nunciations of his adversaries. 
 
 One of the first measures he proposed, and which was 
 greatly needed, civil service reform, caused him to be 
 attacked vehemently, as though he were responsible for 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 ,,- 
 
 every error that those appointed to carry it out commit 
 ted. All that he could do was, with the assistance of the 
 best, advice he could command, select the best men to 
 carry out the much-needed reforms. That they some 
 times made mistakes, and were governed by political 
 prejudices, ought not to be charged to him. He de 
 parted from the usual course of presidents in selecting 
 men of no political ambition and held in high esteem for 
 their integrity, to see that rights of the Indians were 
 secured. If those men failed in many instances, so would 
 any man have failed, and any measure, to a greater or 
 less extent. That his efforts were in the right direction, 
 and were wisely and honestly put forth, none can deny. 
 
 Again, he was bitterly assailed for trying to annex St. 
 Domingo. This republic sent in a formal petition to be 
 taken under the protection of our Government ; in other 
 words, to be annexed. Grant had no desire to have it 
 done. But being pressed to do something he sent his 
 own agents to the island to investigate the state of affairs. 
 On their report, which was favorable, he submitted a 
 treaty to the Senate and then, to furnish them all the 
 facts in the case, he sent a commission, composed of men 
 in whom the public had confidence and among them Fred. 
 Douglas, so that every side should be heard, and they 
 reported unanimously in favor of annexation. How 
 could he, after this, do otherwise than recommend it. 
 Sumner who voted to pay $71,000,000 for Alaska, and 
 wanted to pay an equal sum for St. Thomas, opposed it 
 ostensibly as a statesman, but really to pay off a personal 
 grudge. This is not the place to discuss whether this 
 particular island at this particular time was desirable, we 
 wish to say only that the United States should have some 
 foothold in the West Indies, and Grant s desire to obtain 
 one, shpwed him to be a true statesman. This group of 
 
248 
 
 LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 inlands lie almost within gun-shot of our shore, and com 
 mand all the trade that passes through the Gulf of Mexico 
 to our possessions on the Pacific coast, and yet we have 
 not a port there w r e can call our own, while England, 
 France and Spain, and even little Denmark have whole 
 islands of their own, and England a naval station. That 
 Grant should wish to secure for his country one harbor 
 there, when it could be got for nothing, was right and 
 patriotic, and the time will undoubtedly come when we 
 shall regret that political and personal animosity frustra 
 ted the President s policy. 
 
 Another measure which called forth the loudest 
 denunciations of the political party opposed to him, 
 was the quartering of the United States troops in 
 New Orleans. It was a very bad thing, no doubt, 
 but how could the President refuse to send them? 
 The Constitution expressly requires him to do so when 
 ever the -governor of a State asks for them to put down 
 riotous acts that he is unable to suppress. The Gov 
 ernor of Louisiana, in the strength of this provision of 
 the Constitution, made a formal application for troops to 
 help him to protect himself and the Legislature from mob 
 violence. I know the answer to this is the Governor was 
 elected by fraud, in fact, was not the rightful Governor. 
 All that may be true, but the President is not allowed to 
 decide on elections. The de facto Governor, Legislature 
 and the Supreme Court he is bound to recognize, until 
 the case is decided by Congress. It is not for him to say 
 whether a decision of the Supreme Court is right or 
 wrong. If he had a right to decide on the legality of the 
 election in Louisiana, he has a right to do the same in 
 New York, and in every State in the Union. The as 
 sumption of any such power would be to make himself 
 dictator, and render all elections and courts a mere farce. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 He told Congress to decide this vexed question so that 
 he could recall the troops, and declared that he could not 
 do so till they did. To have done otherwise, he would 
 have been false to his oath of office. The fault lay in 
 Congress, which was determined that he should keep the 
 troops there though it knew they were upholding a 
 fraudulent government. The President s duty is to put 
 down riots and violence, and protect legislatures and 
 courts, not decide on their legality. So there was a great 
 outcry against him when he began to move troops toward 
 Washington at the time of the electoral commission. 
 
 o 
 
 This it was his duty to clo, if he feared there would be an 
 outbreak and a resort to violence. That he meant to 
 overawe Congress or any part of it, or in any way inter 
 fere with the decision of the presidential election, is pure 
 assumption, without any proof to sustain it. Not one of 
 those acts that called out at the time such virulent attacks 
 and abuse, can be condemned by a man of upright 
 judgment, when viewed dispassionately. That he never 
 erred in judgment as to the best way to accomplish his 
 object, no one will pretend, but there is not a particle of 
 evidence to show that he was governed by dishonest and 
 selfish motives. The selections of men for office were not 
 always wise, nay, sometimes reprehensible, and not fit to 
 be made. We believe he spoke the simple truth, when 
 in his last message he says, that though he does not claim 
 for himself freedom from errors of judgment, he does 
 claim that in every instance he has acted from a conscien 
 tious desire to do what was ri^ht and constitutional, and 
 
 o 
 
 .vithin the law and for the very best interest of the 
 people. He urged on Congress to ignore the past in 
 its legislation and address itself only to the future, and 
 recommended a general amnesty to the South, so that all 
 could hold office. The bitter legislation against those 
 
2 r O LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 who had fought in the rebellion he deplored, and worked 
 honestly to have the country restored to peace, harmony 
 and prosperity. 
 
 When a Spanish man-of-war fired into an American 
 vessel, and the people were clamorous for summary pun 
 ishment for the indignity, he did not share in the excite 
 ment that prevailed, but managed sp wisely that ample 
 redress was made and another war prevented. So, too, 
 while sympathizing with the revolutionary Cubans who 
 were struggling for independence, he steadily refused to 
 recognize it officially, believing that it would bring on a 
 war with Spain, which, in our then state of affairs, would 
 be a great national calamity. So, too, in settling the 
 Alabama claims, the trouble that was anticipated with 
 England was avoided, and it is to the glory of his admin 
 istration that it set the noble example of two great 
 nations settling a point of controversy between them by 
 peaceful arbitration. In every thing he sunk the military 
 man and deplored any measure that looked like resort 
 to arms, though that had been the profession by which he 
 rose to renown and to power. 
 
 The great Centennial at Philadelphia will be another 
 conspicuous land-mark in the future history of his admin 
 istration. Although by his strong arm the rebellion was 
 crushed out, the vanquished leaders of it are to-day loud 
 in their praises of his magnaminity and justice, and accord 
 him greater honor than his political opponents at the 
 North. 
 
 He closes his public career with advice to the nation 
 full of sound sense and practical wisdom. He says in 
 his message : 
 
 ist. That the States should be required to furnish good 
 common school education to all, and that the attendance 
 of children should be compulsory. 
 
LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 - j 
 
 2d. No sectarian tenets should be taught in any school 
 and, after 1890, all persons that cannot read and write 
 shall cease to be voters. 
 
 3d. Church and State should be declared forever sepa 
 rate and distinct, while perfect freedom should be secured 
 to all sects. 
 
 4th. Laws should be enacted to return to sound cur 
 rency. 
 
 Much is embraced in these lew short sentences they 
 furnish the very foundation of a firm and prosperous 
 State, and should be engraved on the heart of a nation. 
 If this advice had been acted upon from the commence 
 ment of the Government, this great republic would have 
 a much longer lease of life than it now seems to possess. 
 
 At the close of his second presidential term, many 
 leading men in the nation thought that the country could 
 not yet dispense with his services, and he was asked to be 
 a candidate for a third term. Though there was no con 
 stitutional objection to this* all precedent was against it, 
 and he firmly refused to let his name be used, saying that 
 he thought it would be establishing a bad precedent and 
 be an unwise invasion of a time-honored custom. 
 
 The Roman Senate when it wished to do honor to one 
 of the benefactors of the nation, voted that he " deserves 
 well of his country It is high praise and no man of any 
 party could refuse to indorse this vote for General Grant. 
 
TRAVELS OF GEN L GRANT. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT RESOLVES TO VISIT EUROPE AND OBTAIN REST ENGLAND DISCUSSES 
 HOW TO RECEIVE HIM HIS DEPARTURE THE VOYAGE A DEPUTATION FROM 
 IRELAND WAITS ON HIM HIS RECEPTION AT LIVERPOOL HIS RECEPTION BY THE 
 MAYOR EXAMINES THE DOCKS AND VISITS OTHER PRINCIPAL PLACES OF INTEREST 
 LUNCHES WITH THE MAYOR AND GOES TO MANCHESTER HIS RECEPTION HIS 
 FIRST LONG SPEECH TOUR OF THE PLACE ENTHUSIASM OF THE PEOPLE FAC 
 TORY GIRLS HONORING HIM RECEPTION AT LEICESTERSHIRE AT BEDFORD AR 
 RIVAL IN LONDON INTRODUCTION TO THE PRINCE OF WALES THE DUKE OF 
 WELLINGTON GIVES HIM A BANQUET AN UNCEREMONIOUS RECEPTION BY THE 
 PRINCE OF WALES CIVILITIES OF THE QUEEN DESCRIPTION OF ENTERTAINMENTS 
 BY LADIES PRIVATE LETTER OF GRANT THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY OF LONDON 
 GIVEN HIM HIS SPEECH A PRIVATE DINNER FIRE-WORKS HUMOR OF GRANT 
 BANQUET BY TRINITY COLLEGE VISITS THE QUEEN AT WINDSOR CASTLE RE 
 CEIVES A DEPUTATION OF WORKINGMEN A BANQUET AT THE UNITED SERVICE 
 CLUB DINNER AT LIVERPOOL. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT, having finished eight years 
 of public life as President, and sixteen altogether 
 since he entered the army at the commencement 
 of the war, felt the need of relaxation and complete free 
 dom from all care, in order to recruit his energies, that 
 had been so severely taxed for so long a time. To ac 
 complish this, he determined to visit, as he had long 
 desired to do, the Old World, study its governments, 
 and see their practical operations for himself, and enjoy 
 the freedom and rest which travel gives to the overtasked 
 mind. 
 
 When this determination was made public, a govern 
 ment vessel, the " Indiana," was placed at his disposal, 
 without limit as to time. This announcement awakened 
 the liveliest interest in England, where he was first to 
 land, and it was agitated in all the papers whether the 
 courtesies tendered him should be those accorded to a 
 
4 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 sovereign ruler or a private citizen. Van Buren and 
 Fillmore had both been received simply as distinguished 
 American citizens. At length, Lord Beaconsfield an 
 nounced that he should be received as a sovereign. The 
 Times devoted a leader to the manner of his reception, 
 while other papers discussed the point of etiquette 
 whether on his arrival he should call first on the Duke 
 of Cambridge, the Field-Marshal, Commander-in-Chief, 
 or the first visit should be paid by the latter. Grant, 
 however, felt very little concern about such matters, 
 being quite content to be let alone and travel without 
 restraint. 
 
 On May i yth, the day fixed for his departure, after a 
 breakfast given him by Mr. Childs, General Grant and 
 party, accompanied by several distinguished gentlemen, 
 passed down the Delaware to embark on board the ship, 
 heralded all the way by shouting crowds, that lined the 
 banks, waving handkerchiefs and banners. 
 
 A lunch was served on board the " Magenta," at which, 
 toasts were given and speeches made. In reply to an ad 
 dress by Mayor Stokley, Grant was much overcome, and 
 said that he was wholly inadequate to properly respond 
 to all the kind words that had been uttered. At 2.40 the 
 "Indiana" was boarded thirty-five miles from Philadelphia, 
 and a salute of twenty-one guns fired, when, amid deafen 
 ing cheers and the blowing of whistles, she steamed away, 
 with her prow turned oceanward. 
 
 The voyage of eleven days was rough and stormy, 
 which affected all the party, to a greater or less extent, ex 
 cept Grant himself, who was as impervious to the ocean 
 as he was to the storms of war. Smoking and chatting 
 with the passengers, and joining in all their amusements, 
 he was a general favorite. A gale was blowing as the 
 vessel approached Oueenstown, and a heavy sea running. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 J 
 
 Grant was leaning over the taffrail smoking his cigar 
 and watching the waves, when a steamer from Cork, 
 with a large deputation aboard, steered alongside to 
 tender him the hospitalities of the city. They were 
 received on board and conducted to the captain s cabin, 
 where a formal reception took place, and a flattering 
 speech was made to the ex-President and renowned 
 military chieftain. A cordial invitation was extended to 
 him to visit Ireland, promising him a warm and enthusi 
 astic reception in all its cities. The latter thanked them 
 in a short speech, and though declining their invitation 
 to visit Ireland then, promised to do so in a short time. 
 The deputation then steamed away toward Liverpool, 
 sending back cheers over the water as they departed. 
 
 The "Indiana" kept on her way and reached Liverpool 
 harbor in the afternoon. She was covered with flags, 
 and all the flags in port, of every nationality, were flung 
 to the breeze, presenting a magnificent spectacle, while 
 cheer after cheer from the thousands that crowded the 
 wharves, rolled over the water. Grant, with uncovered 
 head, acknowledged the honor paid him. As he stepped 
 on the pier with the wife of the consul-general, of 
 London, on his arm, the ground fairly shook to the deaf 
 ening shouts that rent the air. 
 
 A cordon of police immediately closed around him,, 
 while the mayor of the city advanced, reading an address , 
 of welcome, to which Grant replied in a few fitting 
 words. 
 
 The crowd which surged around and expected to see 
 a man adorned with all the trappings with which European 
 royalty is decorated on great occasions, were disappointed 
 in seeing only a short, plain man, dressed in ordinary 
 civilian s dress. He and his wife then entered the mayor s 
 state carriage, and drove to the Adelphi hotel, followed 
 17 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 by a long- line of carnages and a cheering crowd. The 
 English papers in announcing his arrival, loaded him with 
 compliments, and his military deeds were referred to in 
 terms of the highest praise. The next morning he took a 
 carriage and made the tour of Liverpool, visiting all its 
 principal objects of interest, and calling on the mayor. 
 He then drove to the docks, which he examined with 
 great minuteness and contrasted them with the shabby 
 appearance of those in New York. 
 
 About one o clock he returned to the town hall, to 
 lunch with the mayor. To the toast proposed by the 
 latter in his honor, he said a few words expressing his 
 gratification at the good feeling existing between the two 
 countries, and in turn proposed the health of the mayor, 
 mayoress and ladies of Liverpool. 
 
 The next day he started for Manchester, where similar 
 honors and demonstrations awaited him. The mayor 
 read an address, to which Grant replied in the longest 
 one he had ever made, and which was received with un 
 bounded applause. He had listened to the compliments 
 of the mayor and Kis expressions of good-will toward 
 this country, with as much composure and apparent in 
 difference to the fact that he was the target of 10,000 
 eyes, as if he had been smoking his cigar in his own 
 head-quarters, and when it was ended, arose and said in 
 a clear and distinct voice : 
 
 " It is scarcely possible for me to give utterance to 
 the feelings evoked by my reception upon your soil 
 from the moment of my arrival in Liverpool, where 
 I have passed a couple of days, until the present moment. 
 After the scene which I have witnessed in your streets, 
 the elements of greatness, as manifested in your public 
 and industrial buildings, I may be allowed to say that no 
 person could be the recipient of the honor and attention 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. - 
 
 you have bestowed upon me without the profoundest 
 feeling. Such have been incited in me, and I find myself 
 inadequate to their proper expression. It was my origi 
 nal purpose on my arrival in Liverpool to hasten to Lon 
 don, and from thence proceed to visit the various points 
 of interest in the country. Among these I have regarded 
 Manchester as the most important. [Hear.] As I have 
 been aware for years of the great amount of your manu 
 factures, many of which find their ultimate destination in 
 my own country, so I am aware that the sentiments of 
 the great mass of the people of Manchester went out in 
 sympathy to. that country during the mighty struggle in 
 which it fell to my lot to take some humble part. The 
 expressions of the people of Manchester at the time of 
 our great trial incited within the breasts of my country 
 men a feeling of friendship toward them distinct from that 
 felt toward all England, and in that spirit I accept, on the 
 part of my country, the compliments paid me as its rep 
 resentative, and thank you." 
 
 Luncheon followed, at which, in a reply to a toast of 
 the mayor, he said with a smile, "that Englishmen had got 
 more and longer speeches out of him than his own country 
 men, but they were poorer simply because they were 
 longer than he was accustomed to make." 
 
 Mr. Jacob Bright, M. P., being called on for a speech, 
 said: "No guest so distinguished has ever before visited 
 Manchester. General Grant is a brave soldier and he has 
 pursued a generous, pacific policy toward the enemies he 
 had conquered. He should be honored and beloved, and 
 deserved the hearty reception he would certainly receive 
 throughout the realm." Mr. Bright touched upon free 
 trade, and said, "he hoped and belieyed that the time would 
 come when a free interchange of products would take place 
 between the two great nations of common kindred." 
 
g TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 After the banquet, General Grant was introduced to 
 the assemblage, and a general handshaking followed. In 
 the evening he visited the Theatre Royal, and afterward 
 attended for a short time at the Princess Theatre, where he 
 saw the actor J. L. Toole. His reception at both places 
 was very enthusiastic. 
 
 The next morning he arose early, and accompanied by 
 several members of the Common Council, made a tour of 
 the place and out to the chief manufacturing district, be 
 ing followed by cheers whenever recognized by the people. 
 In the afternoon he departed for the London station, ac 
 companied by the mayor and his wife, and. other distin 
 guished personages, at which, to his surprise, he saw a vast 
 crowd of factory girls assembled in their working-dresses, 
 who sent up a loud huzza as he appeared. Entering the 
 drawing-room car, he had hardly taken his seat when the 
 bell rung, and the lightning-train moved out of the sta 
 tion, followed by thundering cheers, and sped through the 
 country, while cultivated fields, huge black chimneys of 
 factories and smiling farms seemed to flit by him like 
 shadows. 
 
 The first stopping-place was Leicestershire, and as the 
 train glided up to the station, he saw it hung all over 
 with bunting, the doorway being crowned with the flags 
 of England and America, intertwined and hanging in 
 graceful festoons down the sides. As it stopped, rich 
 bouquets to Mr. and Mrs. Grant were sent in by the 
 ladies that crowded the platforms. Here, as at Liverpool 
 and Manchester, the mayor and Common Council met 
 him with an address of welcome, and offering the hospi 
 talities of the town. Grant replied in his usual manner, 
 and remarked on the antiquity of the town, its foundation 
 by King Lear, and as the resting-place of the bones of 
 Richard III, the hero of Bosworth Eield. The mayor, in 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 9 
 
 return, expressed the wish that he would visit them again, 
 and go over these old landmarks of the place, to which 
 Grant replied that he hoped to have that pleasure at 
 some future time. Lunch was then served, and a general 
 introduction took place. The party then re-entered the 
 car, the signal was given, and the train moved out and 
 again flew over the country to Bedford, where the same 
 ceremonies were performed, the mayor calling him the 
 "Hannibal of the American armies," and praying that he 
 might long live to enjoy the honors and rewards which 
 would be heaped upon him. Grant, in reply, asked to be 
 excused from making a speech, and caused much merri 
 ment by hinting at the propriety of doing as many others 
 did in various positions in life, obtain a substitute to 
 do his speaking. Flowers and flags were also in abund 
 ance here, amid which were interspersed mottoes refer 
 ring to some of his renowned battle-fields. 
 
 At the terminus of the Midland Railroad St. Pancras 
 station he was met by Mr. Pierrepont, our Minister to 
 England. Entering his carnage, he was driven to the 
 residence of the latter, in London. The next day the 
 Prince of Wales was introduced to him at the Epsom 
 races. 
 
 He now entered on a week of extraordinary festivities, 
 such as were never before got up to any one but a 
 crowned head. Occupying no longer an official position, 
 being nothing more than a simple American citizen, they 
 were a remarkable exhibition of honor to the man. 
 
 The Duke of Wellington gave him a grand banquet at 
 the Apsley House. The guests were Mrs. and General 
 Grant, Count and Countess Gleichen, Lord and Lady 
 Abercromby, Lord and Lady Churchill, Marquises 
 Tweeddale, Sligo and Ailesbury, Earl Roden, Viscount 
 Torrington, Lords George Paget, Calthorpe, Hough ton, 
 
10 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Strathnairn, the Marchioness of Hertford^ Countess of 
 Hardwicke, Countess of Bradford, Lady Wellesley, Lady 
 Emily Peel and Lady Skelmersdale, Miss Wellesley and 
 
 THE PRINCE OF WALES. 
 
 a number of others well known to the London world of 
 hiofh social life. 
 
 o 
 
 The banquet was served up in the famous Waterloo 
 Chamber, where the old Iron Duke loved to meet the 
 war generals of 1815, on the iSth of June, every year, 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. J x 
 
 and celebrate the anniversary of the great battle which 
 forever closed the fortunes of Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 Here, overlooking Hyde Park, and within view of his 
 own statue, at the entrance to the park, at Hyde Park 
 corner, the old duke presided over the annual banquet, 
 reviewing the events of the momentous times when the 
 supremacy of Great Britain was hanging in the balance, 
 with strong probabilities of the scale turning against her. 
 The Waterloo Chamber has been closed a good deal 
 since the death of Arthur Wellesley, for the present duke 
 and duchess have spent most of their time, when in Eng 
 land, at the lovely estate in Winchelsea, which was pre 
 sented to the eminent soldier by the crown after the close 
 of the great European wars. This chamber was hung 
 with celebrated paintings, some of them commemorating 
 great events in the Iron Duke s life, and among them a 
 life-size portrait of Napoleon, whom he overthrew at 
 Waterloo. 
 
 It was a dramatic incident that the conqueror of Lee 
 should meet in this revered chamber the descendant of 
 the conqueror of Napoleon the Great. General Grant 
 was given precedence in the honors of the evening, 
 escorting the Duchess of Wellington to supper, and 
 afterward escorting her to the reception, at which were 
 present the Duke and Duchess of Cleveland, the Duke 
 and Duchess of Sutherland, the Duke and Duchess 
 of Manchester, and many of those already mentioned 
 above. No speeches were made, and the brilliant, gor 
 geous affair passed in 1 stately quietness. It was such a 
 sight as the tanner-boy had hitherto only dreamed of, 
 and would have turned a less well-balanced head than 
 his. 
 
 The next day the Prince of Wales gave him a private 
 audience at Marlborough House, introducing him in a 
 
12 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 familiar, home-like manner to the various members of his 
 household. The queen waived the usual necessary cere 
 monies of presentation to court, and extended to him and 
 his wife invitations to all the court entertainments. This 
 was an almost unprecedented honor. There is something 
 almost appalling" in the following list of engagements 
 which General Grant made at this time : 
 
 June 3. Visit to Westminster 
 Abbey. 
 
 June 5. A reception given by 
 Minister Pierrepont to the Min 
 istry and foreign ambassadors. 
 
 June 6. Dine with Earl Carnar 
 von. 
 
 June 6. Evening. Attend royal 
 concert at Buckingham Palace. 
 
 June 7. Dine with Lord Hough- 
 ton. 
 
 June 8. Dine with the Duke of 
 Devonshire. 
 
 June 9. Dine with the Marquis 
 of Hertford. 
 
 June 9. Attend a reception at 
 the Hertford mansion. 
 
 June ii. Dinner given by his 
 daughter, Mrs. Sartoris. 
 
 June 12. Attend Ascot races. 
 
 June 13. Remain at the Sarto 
 ris family house in the country. 
 
 June 14. Remain at the Sarto 
 ris family house in the country. 
 
 June 15. Attend at Guildhall to 
 receive the freedom of the city of 
 
 London and attend the banquet 
 given in his honor the same even 
 ing by the Lord Mayor. 
 
 June 1 6. Dine with the Prin 
 cess Louise at Kensington Pal 
 ace. 
 
 June 1 8. Dine with the Earl o 
 Beaconsfield and members of the 
 Cabinet in Downing Street. 
 
 June 20. Dine with the Mar 
 quis of Hertford. 
 
 June 20. Evening. Attend the 
 Queen s ball at Buckingham Pal 
 ace. 
 
 June 21. Dine with the Prince 
 of Wales at Mr. Pierrepont s resi 
 dence. 
 
 June 23. Dine with the Prince 
 of Wales, probably at Marlborough 
 House, 
 
 June 26. Dine with the Duke 
 of Cambridge at Pierrepont s. 
 
 June 27. Dine with Lord Derby. 
 
 June 27. Evening. Attend con 
 cert given by the Queen at Buck 
 ingham Palace. 
 
 General Grant was asked at a supper, what was the 
 comparison between English racing, as he had seen it on 
 the day of the Oaks at Epsom, and the races in America. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 He said, with a smile, "There is an impression abroad 
 that I am a great horse racer, fond of horses and know 
 all about races ; but, on the contrary, I really know noth 
 ing of racing, having seen only two races one at Cincin 
 nati in 1865, and at the opening of Jerome Park in 1867. 
 I feel, therefore, that I am not qualified to judge of the 
 comparison. Thus far I like London very much. I have, 
 however, accepted so many engagements that I shall be 
 compelled to alter my plans and remain here until the 
 2;th, when I shall visit Ireland." 
 
 He attended service at Westminster Abbey, on which 
 occasion, an eloquent sermon was preached by Dean 
 Stanley, who took as his text Genesis xxvii, 38 : "And 
 Esau said unto his father, hast thou but one blessing, my 
 father ? Bless me, even me, also, O my father ! And 
 Esau lifted up his voice, and wept." In the course of his 
 sermon he alluded to ex-President Grant, saying, "that in 
 the midst of the congregation there was one of the chief- 
 cst citizens of the United States, who had just laid down 
 the sceptre of the American Commonwealth, who by his 
 military prowess and generous treatment of his comrades 
 and adversaries had restored unity to his country. We 
 welcome him as a sign and pledge that the two great 
 kindred nations are one in heart and are equally at home 
 under this paternal roof. Both regard with reverential 
 affection this ancient cradle of their common life." 
 
 A lady, writing from London, says of Grant s reception 
 in England at this time: 
 
 "The world moves! Whatever England s feelings may 
 be toward America, to General Grant, the head of the 
 conquering American army, she is now in the highest 
 degree friendly. Thus far the journey of the hero of 
 Appomattox has been as triumphant as Sherman s march 
 to the sea. Pro-slavery Liverpool from the top of its 
 
WESTMINSTER ABBEY. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j - 
 
 cotton bales welcomed, with civic honors, the man who 
 made cotton bales scarce in that port some twelve to 
 fifteen years ago. Manchester burst into enthusiasm 
 over the gallant American soldier, who stopped the whir 
 ring and clicking music of her cotton jennies during the 
 same period. When entering the theatre there the per 
 formance paused for the moment, the orchestra struck up 
 * Hail Columbia, and the operatives in the gallery, many 
 of whom had gone on short commons during the rebellion, 
 cheered vociferously. So much for the blessed operation 
 in England of that law of change which is the law of 
 Nature. 
 
 "In honoring Grant the English feel that they are hon 
 oring the most distinguished citizen of the United States. 
 
 o o 
 
 Thus it comes about that society is preparing to kill the 
 fatted calf in his honor, and several other emblematic 
 abnormally adipose animals besides. The Prince of Wales 
 gives a dinner in his honor on the 2istinst. The queen 
 returns to Windsor next week from her Highland refuge 
 at Balmoral, and will show the ex-President some royal 
 hospitality." 
 
 The crowd of carriages, the brilliantly-lighted rooms, 
 the array of distinguished noblemen and soldiers, the glit 
 ter of diamonds and display of costly dresses, made these 
 public receptions scenes of dazzling splendor. An 
 American lady, who was present, thus describes the re 
 ception at the American Minister s house, in which the 
 simple American citizen, dressed in plain clothes, was the 
 central figure : 
 
 " Our road is through the quiet of great West End 
 squares and long, silent streets, where the rich and the 
 puissant abide in palatial homes. We find ourselves in 
 St. James s, and at last the carriage turns into the great 
 quadrangle of Cavendish Square, with its railed-in patch 
 
i6 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of verdure in the centre and towering mansions on the 
 four sides. All this is dimly seen now, for the night has 
 wrapped the square in shadows, save where ruby gleams 
 of subdued brightness stream through the closely-drawn 
 scarlet silk curtains of the grand old mansion, wherein 
 dwells Minister Pierrepont. 
 
 "There is a line of carriages before the door, each 
 quickly depositing its load of beauty and distinction, and 
 driving away. A solid framework has been built over 
 the pavement, supporting an awning. The entire path 
 way is covered with scarlet carpet. A number of defer 
 ential link-bearers, wearing scarlet tunics, move about 
 opening carriage-doors and turning on the light of bull s- 
 eyes or square, old-fashioned lanterns, so that no tiny 
 foot in satin shoon shall make a false step. 
 
 " Beyond in the street, and lining the portal on each side 
 as closely as the special policemen on duty would allow, 
 are massed in groups detachments of England s poor and 
 hungry, to get a glimpse of the fairy-land, wherein abide 
 riches, beauty, high birth and distinction won by sword, 
 pen or pencil. We have, as we pass in, but a glance, 
 alas ! for those in the street, with the officious policemen 
 pushing them back into the shadows beyond ; but I can 
 hear one ask an officer, as he recedes : 
 
 " W ichis im! 
 
 <"Oo? (gruffly). 
 
 " Graunt. 
 
 " E s hin a hour. 
 
 "Wide stood the hospitable doors, inside of which, 
 ranged on either side of the hallway, stood statuesquely 
 or bowed obsequiously to welcome and direct the guests, 
 a gorgeous army of footmen in liveries of blue and gold, 
 and showing in silken hose those wondrous padded calves 
 at which jocund Thackeray laughed, and whose fair pro- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 portions whimsical Leech so often depicted in Punch. 
 The second glance, after entering the doors, brings 
 to the eye a beautiful vision of rich colors, and to the 
 sense the perfumes of a thousand flowers. Flowers 
 everywhere ! From ground to roof, peeping in clusters of 
 brilliant blooms from amid cool frameworks of rich greens, 
 they glow in the mellow light of the chandeliers like gems, 
 until their fragrance seems a thing almost palpable. 
 Amid the surging crowd of guests, some in gay military 
 or diplomatic uniform, Grant is the central figure, con 
 trasting strangely, by his plain dress and unassuming 
 manner, with the brilliant, dazzling display around him. 
 Every one remarks how well he looks. Surrounded by 
 fine specimens of English manhood, through whose sturdy 
 veins courses the bluest blood, the robust form and rosy 
 face of Grant are conspicuous in their healthy appear 
 ance." 
 
 The following private letter, written by him at this time 
 to Mr. Childs, will be read with interest, as showing how 
 he was affected by all this display, and the manner in which 
 he had been everywhere received : 
 
 LONDON, Eng., June ipth, 1877. 
 
 My Dear Mr. Childs : After an unusually stormy passage for any 
 season of the year and continuous seasickness generally among the pas 
 sengers, after the second day out, we reached Liverpool Monday after 
 noon, the 28th of May. Jessie and I proved to be among the few 
 good sailors. Neither of us felt a moment s uneasiness during the 
 voyage. 
 
 I had proposed to leave Liverpool immediately on arrival and pro 
 ceed to London, where I knew our Minister had made arrangements 
 for a formal reception, and had accepted for me a few invitations of 
 courtesy, but what was my surprise to find nearly all the shipping in 
 port at Liverpool decorated with flags of all nations, and from the 
 mainmast of each the flag of the Union was most conspicuous. 
 
 The docks were lined with as many of the population as could find 
 
i8 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 standing-room, and the streets to the hotel where it was understood 
 my party would stop were packed. The demonstration was, to all 
 appearances, as hearty and as enthusiastic as in Philadelphia on our 
 departure. 
 
 The mayor was present with his state carriage to convey us to the 
 hotel, and after that to his beautiful country residence, some six miles 
 out, where we were entertained at dinner with a small party cf gentle 
 men, and remained over night. The following day a large party was 
 given at the official residence of the mayor, in the city, at which there 
 were some one hundred and fifty of the distinguished citizens and 
 officials of the corporation present. Pressing invitations were sent 
 from most of the cities of the kingdom to have me visit them. I 
 accepted for a day at Manchester, and stopped a few moments at 
 Leicester, and at one other place. The same hearty welcome was 
 shown at each place, as you have, no doubt, seen. 
 
 The press of the country has been exceedingly kind and courteous. 
 So far I have not been permitted to travel in a regular train, much less 
 in a common car. The Midland road, which penetrates a great por 
 tion of the island, including Wales and Scotland, have extended to 
 me the courtesy of their road and a Pullman car to take me wherever 
 I wish to go during the whole of my stay in England. We arrived in 
 London on Monday evening, the 3oth of May, when I found our 
 Minister had accepted engagements for me up to the 2yth of June, 
 having but a few spare days in the interval. 
 
 On Saturday last we dined with the Duke of Wellington, and last 
 night the formal reception at Judge Pierrepont s was held. It was a 
 great success, most brilliant in the numbers, rank and attire of the 
 audience, and was graced by the presence of every American in the city, 
 who had called on the Minister or left a card for me. I doubt whether 
 London has ever seen a private house so elaborately or tastefully deco 
 rated as was our American Minister s last night. I am deeply indebted 
 to him for the pains he has taken to make my stay pleasant, and the 
 attentions extended to our country. I appreciate the fact, and am 
 proud of it, that the attentions I am receiving are intended more for 
 our country than for me personally. I love to see our country honored 
 and respected abroad, and I am proud to believe that it is by most all 
 nations, and by some even loved. It has always been my desire to 
 see all jealousy between England and the United States abated and 
 every sore healed. Together they are more powerful for the spread of 
 commerce and civilization than all others combined, and can do more 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 r 
 
 to remove causes of wars by creating moral interests that would be 
 so much endangered by war. 
 
 I have written very hastily and a good deal at length, but I trust 
 this will not bore you. Had I written for publication, I should have 
 taken more pains. 
 
 U. S. GRANT. 
 
 But perhaps the most stately and imposing of all the 
 ceremonies got up in his honor, was that in which the 
 freedom of the city of London was conferred on him. 
 
 "This is the highest honor that can be paid by this 
 ancient and renowned corporation. The freedom of the 
 city was presented in a gold casket. The obverse cen 
 tral panel contains a view of the Capitol at Washington, 
 and on the right and left are the General s monogram 
 and the arms of the Lord Mayor. On the reverse side 
 is a view of the entrance to the Guildhall and an inscrip 
 tion. At the end are two figures, also in gold, represent 
 ing the city of London and the Republic of the United 
 States. These figures bear enameled shields. At the 
 
 o 
 
 corners are double columns, laurel-wreathed, with corn 
 and cotton, and on the cover a cornucopia, as a 
 compliment to the fertility and prosperity of the United 
 States. The cover is surmounted by the arms of the 
 city of London, and in the decorations are interwoven 
 the rose, the shamrock and the thistle. The casket is 
 supported by American eagles in gold, standing on a 
 velvet plinth decorated with stars and stripes. 
 
 " The ceremonies attending the presentation of the 
 freedom of the city of London are stately and unique. 
 Guildhall, one of the most ancient and picturesque build 
 ings in the city, was specially prepared for the occasion, 
 and 800 guests were invited to the banquet, a considera 
 ble proportion of them being ladies. There were the 
 members of the Corporation, the American Minister, the 
 
22 TRAVELS OF GENERAL CRAKT. 
 
 Chancellor of the Exchequer, members of Parliament 
 and representatives of the American colony resident in 
 London. On arriving at the Guildhall the General was 
 received by a deputation of four aldermen, with the chair 
 man and four members of the City Lands Committee, 
 including the mover and seconder of the resolution pre 
 senting the freedom. This deputation conducted the 
 General to his place in the Common Council on the left- 
 hand of the Lord Mayor. The passage leading to the 
 library was guarded by a detachment of the London 
 Brigade. * The routine of business being over the Cham 
 berlain arose and addressed General Grant in quite a 
 lengthy speech, in which he spoke of the two countries, 
 of Grant s military achievements and the distinguished 
 position he had held as President of a great Republic, and 
 expressed the wish that he might enjoy his visit and 
 closed, Nothing now remains, General, but that I should 
 present you an illuminated copy of the resolutions of this 
 honorable Court, for which, an appropriate casket is in 
 the course of preparation, and in conclusion offer you, in 
 the name of the honorable Court, the right hand of fellow 
 ship as a citizen of London. To this Grant replied : 
 1 It is a matter of some regret to me that I have 
 never cultivated the art of public speaking, which might 
 have enabled me to express in suitable terms my grati 
 tude for the compliment which has been paid to my 
 countrymen and myself on this occasion. Were I in the 
 habit of speaking in public, I should claim the right to 
 express my opinion, and what I believe will be the opinion 
 of my countrymen when the proceedings of this clay shall 
 have been telegraphed to them. For myself, I have been 
 very much surprised at my reception at all places since the 
 day I landed at Liverpool up to my appearance in this 
 
 * John Russcl Young. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 . 
 
 the greatest city in the world. It was entirely unexpected, 
 and it is particularly gratifying to me. I believe 
 that this honor is intended quite as much for the country 
 which I have had the opportunity of serving in different 
 capacities, as for myself, and I am glad that this is so, 
 because I want to see the happiest relations existing, not 
 only between the United States and Great Britain, but 
 also between the United States and all other nations. 
 Although a soldier by education and profession, I have 
 never felt any sort of fondness of war, and I have never 
 advocated it except as a means of peace. I hope that we 
 shall always settle our differences in all future negotiations 
 as amicably as we did in a recent instance. I believe 
 that settlement has had a happy effect on both countries, 
 and that from month to month, and year to year, the tie 
 of common civilization and common blood is getting 
 stronger between the two countries. My Lord Mayor, 
 ladies, and gentlemen, I again thank you for the honor 
 you have done me and my country to-day. 
 
 Grant then subscribed his name to the roll, containing 
 a list of all the honorary freemen. A lunch was then 
 served, at which the Lord Mayor proposed the health of 
 General Grant to which the latter made the following 
 happy reply : " My Lord Mayor and Gentlemen : Habits 
 formed in early life and early education press upon us as 
 we grow older. I was brought up a soldier not to 
 talking. I am not aware that I ever fought two battles 
 on the same day in the same place, and that I should be 
 called upon to make two speeches on the same day under 
 the same roof is beyond my understanding." 
 
 He seemed to be in a peculiarly genial humor this day, 
 for a little later at a rather private dinner given in the 
 Crystal Palace, Mr. Hughes, in proposing the health of 
 
 General Grant intimated that no speeches were required. 
 18 
 
2 4 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 The latter slowly arose and said: "Nevertheless I must 
 express the gratification it gives me to hear my health 
 proposed in such words, by Tom Brown of Rugby. " In 
 the evening a grand display of fireworks was given, in 
 which one of the pieces was an excellent likeness of him 
 self drawn in blazing lines against the sky. Grant looked 
 at it without changing a muscle or uttering a word, but 
 as it faded slowly away, and the Capitol rose in blazing 
 outlines in its place, flashing, burning in mid-heaven, he 
 quietly turned to Lady Ripon, sitting beside him, and 
 said with a smile: "They have burnt me in effigy and 
 now they are burning the Capitol." 
 
 On the 25th, he attended a banquet given by the cor 
 poration of Trinity College, at which the Prince of Wales 
 presided. The guests were some of the most distin 
 guished men of England. The prince made a speech, in 
 which he complimented Grant highly, and said it gave 
 him and the queen the greatest pleasure to see him the 
 guest of the country. The Earl of Carnarvon toasted 
 him, and said they delighted to honor their distin 
 guished guest, not merely for the high position he had 
 held, but because he represented the good-will and affec 
 tion that ought to subsist between the two countries. 
 
 Grant replied in a happy speech, in which he said that 
 he had been more impressed than on any other occasion. 
 He thought that there would be no speeches or toasts, 
 and was surprised to find both. He thanked the Prince 
 of Wales for his remarks, and drew a contrast between 
 the politics of the, two nations, and said that he would 
 imitate the chaplain who had made a short speech. He 
 uttered not a word too much or too little, and showed 
 himself a better representative of the nation than many 
 of those who prided themselves on their oratorical 
 powers. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 ^ 
 
 But the crowning- event of his visit to England was his 
 reception by the queen, at Windsor Castle. The details 
 
 INTERIOR OF TRINITY COLLEGE. 
 
 of this visit have not been made public, as it is an old 
 custom to treat everything as sacred that transpires 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 THE ALBERT MEMORIAL. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2() 
 
 within the palace. The following, however, constituted 
 the outward ceremonies of this very ceremonial affair : 
 
 Dinner was served in the (oak) room, according 1 to 
 custom, which reserves St. George s Hall for State baiv 
 quets. The party was small, because etiquette requires 
 that the queen shall converse with every guest. 
 
 The introductions were made as follows: Minister 
 Pierrepont, advancing, introduced General Grant ; then 
 Lord Derby stepped forward with Mrs. Grant. The 
 queen shook hands with them, while the ladies in waiting 
 simply bowed. 
 
 This formality at an end, the gentlemen led the way to 
 the Oak Room. The queen sat at the head of the table. 
 On her right were respectively Prince Leopold, Princess 
 Christian and General Grant ; on her left Prince Chris 
 tian, Princess Beatrice and Minister Pierrepont. Then 
 came the Duchess of Wellington, Lord Elphinstone and 
 Mrs. Pierrepont ; Lord Derby and Mrs. Grant ; the 
 Duchess of Roxburgh and Lord Biddulph ; the Countess 
 of Derby and Jesse Grant. 
 
 During dinner the band of the Grenadier Guards, 
 under Dan Godfrey, played in the quadrangle. The 
 enjoyment of the party was unconstrained, the queen 
 taking a prominent part in the lively conversation, during 
 which all kinds of topics were discussed, American and 
 English, political and social. The Princess Beatrice is a 
 brilliant conversationalist, and she was particularly inter 
 esting on many American social topics, which she thor 
 oughly understood. 
 
 Most of the ladies were all dressed in black with white 
 trimmings, owing to the deaths recently of the Queen of 
 Holland and the Duke of Hesse Darmstadt. The queen 
 was attired in a similar style, but her toilet comprised a 
 very magnificent array of diamonds. 
 
3o TRA VLLS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 After dinner the queen s party proceeded to the cor 
 ridor for the purpose of enabling" the visitors to examine 
 it more closely. Here they met another party from the 
 Octagon, and a lively conversation ensued, during which 
 Her Majesty talked with every person present. 
 
 At about ten o clock Her Majesty shook hands and 
 retired. 
 
 In the evening, Grant and Minister Pierrepont played 
 whist with the Duchess of Wellington and Roxburgh, the 
 ex-President and Minister both playing badly. 
 
 The next clay a deputation of forty men, each repre 
 senting a different trade, and representing altogether 
 about one million English workingmen, waited on ex- 
 President Grant, at Consul-General Badeau s house, and 
 presented him an address, welcoming him to England, 
 and assuring him of their good wishes and deep regard 
 for the welfare and progress of America, where British 
 workmen had always found a welcome. Impromptu 
 speeches were then made by various members of the 
 deputation, all of which were extremely cordial. 
 
 eral Grant replied as follows: "In the name of my 
 country, I thank you for the address you have presented 
 to me. I feel it a great compliment paid my Government 
 and one to me personally. Since my arrival on British 
 soil I have received grea^attentions, which were intended, 
 I feel sure, in the same way for my country. I have had 
 ovations, free hand-shakings, presentations from different 
 classes, from the Government, from the controlling authori 
 ties of cities, and have been received in the cities by the 
 populace, but there has been no reception which I am 
 prouder of than this to-day. I recognize the fact that 
 whatever there is of greatness in the United States, as 
 indeed in any other country, is due to labor. - The laborer 
 is the author of all greatness and wealth. Without labor 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 33 
 
 there would be no government or no leading class or 
 nothing to preserve. With us labor is regarded as highly 
 respectable. When it is not so regarded it is because 
 r.:an dishonors labor. We recognize that labor dishonors 
 
 o 
 
 no man, and no matter what a man s occupation is, he is 
 eligible to fill any post in the gift of the people ; his occu 
 pation is not considered in selecting whether as a law 
 maker or as an executor of the law. Now, gentlemen, in 
 conclusion, all I can do is to renew my thanks for the 
 address, and repeat what I have s aid before, that I have 
 received nothing from any class since my arrival which has 
 given me more pleasure." After the speech there was an 
 informal exchange of courtesies and the deputation then 
 withdrew. 
 
 In the evening he attended a banquet given him by the 
 "United Service Club," presided over by the Duke of 
 Cambridge, in which the latter toasted him in a short 
 speech. Grant s reply was briefer still. In all these 
 royal and princely entertainments he never lost his 
 Amercian simplicity, or indulged in fulsome laudations of 
 the aristocracy or of English institutions. 
 
 Natural, easy, and always remembering he was the 
 representative of his country, he played his part in the 
 palaces of England as well as he had on the battle-fields 
 of his country. But it is useless to describe all the din 
 ner parties he attended. The invitation to the renowned 
 Buckingham Palace, the city residence of the queen, was 
 a special honor. But it required a constitution of iron 
 to long keep up this round of receptions, and dinners, and 
 fetes, and he, without regret, saw the time draw near when 
 he should take his departure and put an end to these 
 regal entertainments. 
 
 I have made no allusion to the sight-seeing done by 
 Grant while in London, for it would be as tiresome as a 
 
34 
 
 TRAVELS OF (il-.XI .RAL GRANT. 
 
 table of statistics. The vicinity and suburbs of the city 
 are well worth a visit Epping Forest, so renowned of 
 old and still furnishing grand woodland views ; Richmond 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 37 
 
 Park ; Greenwich ; Crystal Palace, at Sydenham, crowded 
 with its objects of interest ; Kensington, with its horticul 
 tural garden, and many other places. Within the city, 
 
-,g TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 probably the three buildings most attractive are the 
 British Museum, the Tower, and Westminster Abbey, on 
 which volumes might be written. 
 
 Grant, it will be remembered, when he landed at Liver 
 pool, promised the mayor that he would accept an invita 
 tion to dinner given by the city. This, after some other 
 entertainments similar to those we have chronicled, he 
 put down for the 28th. Some two hundred and fifty 
 guests sat down to the richly-loaded table. After dinner 
 the mayor proposed the health of General Grant in a 
 toast to which, after the band had played "Hail Columbia," 
 the latter relied : 
 
 " MR. MAYOR AND GENTLEMEN : You have alluded to 
 the hearty reception given to me on my first landing on 
 the soil of Great Britain, and the expectations of the 
 mayor that this reception would be equaled throughout 
 the island have been more than realized. It has been far 
 beyond anything I could have expected." (Cheers.) "I 
 am a soldier, and the gentlemen here beside me know 
 that a soldier must die. I have been a President, but we 
 know that the term of the presidency expires, and when 
 it has expired he is no more than a dead soldier." 
 (Laughter and cheers.) " But, gentlemen, I have met 
 with a reception that would have done honor to any 
 living person." (Cheers.) " I feel, however, that the 
 compliment has been paid, net to me, but to my country. 
 I cannot help but at this moment being highly pleased at 
 the good feeling and good sentiment which now exist be 
 tween the two peoples who of all others should be good 
 friends. We are of one kindred, of one blood, of one 
 language, and of one civilization, though in some respects 
 we believe that we, being younger, surpass the mother 
 country." (Laughter.) " You have made improvements 
 on the soil and the surface of the earth which we have 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 39 
 
o TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 not yet clone, but which we do not believe will take us as 
 long as it took you." (Laughter and applause.) " 1 
 heard some military remarks which impressed me a little 
 at the time I am not quite sure whether they were in 
 favor of the volunteers or against them. I can only say 
 from my own observation that you have as many troops 
 at Aldershott as we have in the whole of our regular 
 
 o 
 
 army, notwithstanding we have many thousands of miles 
 of frontier to guard and hostile Indians to control. But 
 if it became necessary to raise a volunteer force, I do 
 not think we could do better than follow your example. 
 General Fairchild and myself are examples of volunteers 
 who came forward when their assistance was necessary, 
 and I have no doubt that if you ever needed such ser 
 vices you would have support from your reserve forces 
 and volunteers, far more effective than you can conceive." 
 (Cheers.) 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 \ RUN TO THE CONTINENT RECEPTION AT OSTEND VISITS GHENT ARRIVES AT 
 BRUSSELS THE KING OF BELGIUM CALLS ON HIM GIVES HIM A BANQUET GOES 
 TO COLOGNE A SAIL UP THE RHINE THE CASTELLATED RHINE WIESBADEN 
 HUMOROUS DESCRIPTION OF ITS HOT SPRINGS FRANKFORT-ON-THE-MAIN HAM 
 BURG LES BAINS THE ROMAN CAMP OPENING A GRAVE TWO THOUSAND YEARS 
 OLD DINNER OF THE GRAND DUKE THE BLACK FOREST BADEN SWITZERLAND 
 INTERLACHEN GENEVA LAYS THE CORNER-STONE OF A CHURCH GRANT S 
 SPEECH AT LUNCH TH^VALE OF CHAMOUNI THE ALPS THE SIMPLON PASS 
 RECEPTION AT LAKE MAGGIORE SPEECH VISITS NORTHERN ITALY RESTING AT 
 RAGATZ ALSACE AND LORAINE VISITS SCOTLAND ^RESENTED WITH THE FREE 
 DOM OF THE CITY OF EDINBURGH HIS SPEECH VISITS CELEBRATED SPOTS THE 
 TAY BRIDGE HIS OPINION OF HAND-SHAKINGVISITS THE DUKE OF SUTHER 
 LAND RECEPTION AT THURSO CASTLE GLASGOW PRESENTS HIM WITH THE 
 FREEDOM OF THE CITY INTERESTING CEREMONIES THE HOME OF BURNS 
 GUEST OF THE DUKE OF ARGYLE PLEASANT INTERCOURSE. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT, after the feverish excitement 
 attendant on the continual round of public fetes 
 and receptions, and the constant strain on his 
 physical strength, resolved to go where he could enjoy a 
 little repose and secure that rest which he had sought by 
 going abroad, and which it seemed destined he should not 
 obtain. He therefore turned his steps toward the Con 
 tinent to rest for awhile amid the sublime scenery of the 
 Alps. 
 
 Having celebrated the Fourth of July in a dinner at 
 our Minister s, accompanied by his wife and son, and 
 General Badeau, he left London for Ostend. On his 
 arrival there he found the royal car awaiting him, to 
 transport him to Brussels. So, after receiving the con 
 gratulations of the municipal authorities, he next morning 
 started for the Belgium capital. Stopping for awhile at 
 
42 TRA I EI-S OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the ancient town of Ghent to visit the various points and 
 objects of interest in it, he proceeded to Brussels, where 
 he arrived Friday evening, at six o clock. 
 
 The next morning, after paying a visit to our Minister, 
 Mr. Merrill, he visited the Hotel de Ville, and added his 
 name to the list of famous men who have inscribed their 
 names in the " Book of Gold," as it is called. The next 
 day the king called on him, at his hotel, and conversed 
 
 
 COBLEXT7. 
 
 with him for some time. The day after, Grant returned 
 the visit, and in the evening attended a banquet, given in 
 his honor by His Majesty. 
 
 Tired of banqueting, he, the next day> July pth, left for 
 Cologne, in the king s railway carriage, where, as usual, 
 the authorities waited on him! He visited the famous 
 ^cathedral, which, after being left unfinished for centuries, 
 now, for the first time, reveals the great and grand de 
 sign of the architect. Making the most of his time, he. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 43 
 
 the next forenoon, took a sail up the Rhine as far as 
 Coblentz, where 
 
 " The castled-crag of Drachenfcls 
 
 Frowns over the wide and winding Rhine, 
 "Whose breast of waters boldly swells 
 
 Between the banks which bear the vine; 
 And hills all rich with blossomed trees, 
 
 And fields which promise corn and wine, 
 And scattered cities crowning these, 
 
 Whose far white walls alon^ them shine." 
 
 Castles line 
 the shore, vine-jj 
 yards deck the 
 rocky slopes, 
 mountains jostle 
 mountains, each 
 crowned with 
 hoary ruins tow 
 ering one after 
 another, while 
 the Rhine flows 
 at their base, 
 not in a broad, 
 straight current 
 like the Hudson, 
 but in wide, 
 graceful curves 
 as it speeds 
 toward the sea. 
 For sixty miles 
 from Coblentz to 
 M aye nee the 
 river is lined 
 with ruined 
 castles perched 
 
 ON THE RHINE. 
 
 on almost inaccessible heights. Be- 
 
44 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 tween are dismantled convents and churches, sweet 
 villages and smiling* vineyards, making this portion of 
 the river, called 
 the Castellated 
 Rhine, beautiful "^3 
 beyond descrip 
 tion. Added to 
 this there is some 
 wild legend at- ANCIENT CASTLE. 
 
 tached to all these old castles, once occupied by 
 lawless barons who took toll of all passers-by on the 
 river. Around their crumblingwalls have rung the clash of 
 arms, and in their dungeon cells the brave and beautiful 
 have languished. 
 
 o 
 
 fV- 
 
 DESERTED CASTLE. 
 
 " Beneath those battlements, within these walls 
 
 Power dwelt amidst her passions; in proud state 
 Each robber chief upheld his armed halls, 
 Doing his evil will, nor less elate 
 Than mightier heroes of a later date." 
 
 At Mayence, Grant left the river and went over to Wies 
 baden, once the Saratoga of Germany, in whose luxurious 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. .* 
 
 gambling-rooms fair ladies and proud men often spent 
 nights in maddening excitement of "rouge ct noir" and 
 where many who sat down at evening rolling in wealth, the 
 next morning found themselves paupers. The great 
 curiosity of the place is the hot springs, around which 
 every morning crowds may be seen gathered, swinging 
 their glasses in the air to cool the water sufficiently to be 
 drank. It tastes for all the world like chicken broth. 
 Sir Francis Head said, after visiting them, " If I were to 
 say while drinking the water, one hears in one s ears the 
 cackling of hens, and that one sees feathers flying before 
 one s eyes, I should certainly greatly exaggerate ; but 
 when I declare that it exactly resembles very hot chicken 
 broth, I only say what De Granville said, and what in fact 
 everybody says respecting it, and certainly I do wonder 
 why the common people should be at the inconvenience 
 of making bad soup when they can get much better from 
 nature s great stock-pot, the Kochbrunnen at Wiesbaden. 
 At all periods of the year, summer and winter, the tem 
 perature of this broth remains the same ; and when one 
 remembers that it has been bubbling out of the ground 
 and boiling over in the very same state certainly from 
 the time of the Romans, and probably from the time of 
 the flood, it is really astonishing what a most wonderful 
 apparatus there must exist below, what an inexhaustible 
 stock of provisions to insure such an everlasting supply 
 of broth, always formed of the eight or ten ingredients^ 
 always salted to exactly the same degree, and always 
 served up at exactly the same heat. 
 
 One would think that some of the particles in the recipe 
 would be exhausted; in short, to speak metaphorically, 
 that at last the chickens would be boiled to rags, or that 
 the fire would go out for want of coals, but the oftener 
 one reflects on this sort of subjects, the oftener the old- 
 
4 6 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 fashioned observation is forced upon the mind, that 
 let a man go where he will Omnipotence is never 
 from view." This water, like that of most mineral springs, 
 is good for everything; for those too fat and those too 
 lean, for those too hot and those too cold, for all ages 
 and conditions and sexes. 
 
 The next day the party went to Frankfort-on-the-Main, 
 where Grant was received with acclamations by the people, 
 and a public dinner and ball given in his honor by the 
 American residents of the place. In the morning he went 
 to Hamburg les Bains, where a committee of Americans 
 received him, and thence drove to Salburg to visit the re 
 nowned Roman camp there, which covers 700 acres. It is 
 under the charge of the Prussian Government, and in honor 
 of Grant s visit, Professor Jacobi and Captain Fischer, who 
 have the care of it, opened one of the graves, more than 
 two hundred of which have been opened since the camp 
 was discovered, a hundred and fifty years ago. Nothing 
 but the ashes of a Roman soldier was found in this one, 
 where he had reposed for nearly two thousand years. 
 They then drove back to Hamburg to dinner, during which, 
 the Grand Duke s band played for them. After dinner, 
 Grant with his party, strolled through the beautiful gardens 
 of the Kursaal, with its fountains which sparkled and 
 flashed jn the brilliant lights that illuminated every part of 
 it. At eleven, he returned to Frankfort, having crowded 
 much sight-seeing into a single day. He remained here 
 visiting some of the famous vast wine cellars, and the next 
 day, on Sunday, left for Heidelburg. After a brief visit 
 to its University, he went to the Black Forest, made 
 famous in Napoleon s campaigns, and then to Baden, the 
 present chief watering-place of Germany, and till lately, 
 the most noted resort of respectable gamblers in the world. 
 He was everywhere received with distinction. He now 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 47 
 
 turned his steps toward Switzerland, in whose cool 
 retreats he could rest from the fervid heats of the latter 
 part of July. 
 
 At Lucerne and Berne the people flocked to see him, 
 and the town authorities gave him public welcome. At 
 last he seemed to get out of the great toiling, busy world, 
 when he entered the secluded little valley of Interlachen, 
 resting at the very feet of the snow-clad Jaugfrau, tower 
 ing nearly fourteen thousand feet into the heavens a 
 form of beauty, as well as awful majesty. By very con 
 trast it makes the sweet valley lying unconscious at its base 
 sweeter still, and a day in it amid its lovely shaded walks, 
 when just out of the great world, is like a day in Para 
 dise. Grant and his party enjoyed it as those only who 
 are w r eary of endless ceremony can enjoy it. 
 
 On the 26th of July, he arrived at Geneva, lying at the 
 foot of the classic Lake Leman, whose blue waters 
 Byron s song has rendered immortal. Here the same 
 public honors awaited him that had been accorded him 
 ever since he first set foot on the shores of the 
 Old World. It would be a mere repetition to speak 
 of them, or to give the addresses always delivered 
 on such occasions. One incident quite out of the 
 ordinary routine, occurred here during his visit that 
 gave it a peculiar interest. An Episcopal church, to be 
 built on a site given by an American citizen, was just 
 having its foundations laid, and General Grant was asked 
 to lay the corner-stone. There was a quiet gathering of the 
 American citizens at the Hotel Beau Rivage, and headed 
 by several Protestant clergymen, they formed a procession 
 and marched to the place. After prayer, music and an 
 address, a box, containing various American and Swiss pa 
 pers and coins, was placed under the foundation, and 
 Grant struck the stone with a mallet and declared it well 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 , 
 
 laid in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Ghost. 
 After this there was a lunch, at which addresses were de 
 livered and thanks paid to Grant. The latter replied in 
 a short speech, saying : " I have never felt myself more 
 happy than among- this assembly of fellow-republicans 
 of America and Switzerland. I have long had a desire 
 
 to visit the city 
 where the Ala 
 bama claims 
 were settled 
 without the ef 
 fusion of blood, 
 and where the 
 principle of in 
 ternational arbi 
 tration was es 
 tablished, and 
 which I hope 
 will be resorted 
 to by other na 
 tion s, and be 
 the means of 
 continuing 
 peace to all 
 mankind." 
 
 From Geneva 
 he went first to 
 the vale of 
 Chamouni, lying at the foot of Mont Blanc and amid the 
 most sublime scenery of the Alps. A night in this 
 secluded valley, sleeping amid such gigantic forms of na 
 ture, is one to be remembered forever. The mighty 
 shadows that fall over it give it a sombre aspect which even 
 the moon and stars cannot change, and the awful solitude 
 
 ALPINE PEAKS. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 49 
 
^o TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 seems deeper from the sound at long intervals of falling 
 avalanches in the far-off abysses. There is something weird, 
 too, in the smooth, round top of Mont Blanc, lifting itself 
 nearly three miles into the heavens till the stars seem to 
 rest upon it. It stands silent and grand, while all around, 
 splintered pinnacles, inaccessible crags and precipices are 
 piled in wild confusion. 
 
 The feeling of strangeness is not lessened by the 
 dawn, for with the first streak of light there steals through 
 
 A VILLAGE AMONG THE ALPS. 
 
 the valley the mellow sounds of the Alpine horn as the 
 shepherd leads his goats to their mountain pasturage. 
 
 As it was too late in the season for the party to go into 
 Southern Italy, where the month of August is the most 
 deadly of all the year to travelers, it was resolved to visit 
 its northern portions and if possible, at some future time 
 go to Rome and Naples. Having chosen the Simplon 
 Pass, their road lay through the Valais, along the beauti 
 ful shores of the Rhone iust before it enters Lake Lcman, 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. - t 
 
 that has been made classic by Voltaire, Rosseau, Byron 
 and others. Picturesque hamlets and villages cluster 
 along its banks, and the white walls of the castle of Chil- 
 lon are reflected in its blue waters. 
 
 " Lake Leman lies by Chillon s walls 
 A thousand feet in depth below 
 Its massive waters meet and flow, 
 This much the fathom line was sent 
 From Chillon s snow-white battlement." 
 
 The highway over the Simplon, a mountain over 10,000 
 feet high, is a monument at once of skillful engineering 
 and of Napoleon s genius. It is thirty-six miles long and 
 twenty-five feet wide the entire length. It took six years 
 to complete it, although 30,000 men were employed in 
 its construction. 
 
 The colossal nature of the work may be imagined 
 when it is stated that six hundred and eleven bridges, 
 some spanning fearful abysses were erected ten galle 
 ries through the solid rock, and twenty houses of refuge; 
 while though mounting 1 to the region of eternal snow, its 
 
 o> o o 
 
 average slope is only a fraction over an inch a foot. After 
 leaving the Rhone at Brieg, the road plunges at once 
 into the heart of the Alps ; now skirting fearful abysses^ 
 now crawling beneath gleaming glaciers, and now enter 
 ing covered ways built to protect the travelers from de 
 scending avalanches, and again shooting out on a bold 
 spur, revealing sweet pasturages and smiling villages, and 
 the winding Rhone spread out like a map below. When 
 near the top you turn, and looking straight down through 
 a terrific gorge, see a village in the valley of the 
 Rhone that seems only a good rifle-shot from where you 
 stand. On inquiring its name, you are told it is Brieg, 
 that you left hours ago, and which, by the road you have 
 come, is nearly twenty miles distant. The summit of the 
 
j 2 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 pass is a dreary field of snow and ice, girded round with 
 drearier rocks. Here at the hospice the traveler is glad 
 to rest and refresh himself with the bread and wine of 
 fered by the kind-hearted monks, and watch the gambols 
 of the Saint Bernard dogs, so well known for the skill 
 and courage they show in rescuing travelers from the 
 snow. The descent on the other side is still more grand 
 and awful, especially the gorge of Gonda, with its gallery 
 nearly six hundred feet long, cut through the solid rock, 
 while perpendicular precipices seem to reach the clouds 
 
 RURAL SCENE IN ITALY. 
 
 above, and descend to unfathomed abysses below. The 
 railroad which passes through a tunnel miles in length be 
 neath this summit, piercing the highest point, if possible 
 exhibits a still more daring feat of engineering than the 
 highway, and whether creeping under the overhang 
 ing cliffs, or leaping the awful chasms, fills the traveler 
 with feelings of awe, and sometimes of terror. Both 
 God and man have wrought here on a wondrous scale. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 \j 
 
 Arriving at Lake Maggiore, on the farther side, Grant 
 found the inhabitants waiting to receive him. He was sere 
 naded at his hotel, and in the evening a concert was given, 
 followed by a display of fire-works that was grand and 
 imposing, from the surrounding s:enery, which they 
 lighted up ; the towering snow-clad Alps on one side, and 
 Lake Maggiore with the Borromean Islands on the other. 
 
 An address was made by the mayor and an officer 
 who had served under Garibaldi. Grant replied through 
 an interpreter, saying he felt grateful for the reception 
 given him; praised the people whom he had seen; spoke 
 in admiration of the sublime and beautiful scenes that 
 had met his eye at every turn, and concluded with the 
 declaration, " there is one Italian whose hand I wish 
 especially to shake, and that man is Garibaldi." This 
 was received with tremendous applause by the people. 
 
 The same attention was shown him in his rapid tour 
 through Northern Italy. We .say rapid, for on the i4th of 
 August, he was back in Switzerland, resting in the quiet 
 little village of Ragatz on the Tamina, where it enters the 
 Rhine, and where he passed some days to enjoy its repose 
 and the baths, for which it is celebrated. From thence he 
 descended the Rhine again, and visited Alsace and Lor 
 raine, which have been the fields on which so many battles 
 have been fought for twenty centuries, and lately made 
 still more famous for the part they bore in the tremen 
 dous struggle between France and Germany, and whose 
 present condition enlists so deeply the sympathy of the 
 world. 
 
 He, however, made a short stay here, and proceeded 
 at once to ^Scotland to make the visit which he had 
 promised. Of course, the same public demonstrations 
 were made here that had been made everywhere. 
 
 The freedom of the city of Edinburgh was presented to 
 
54 
 
 TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 him by Lord Provost Sir James Falshaw, in Free Assembly 
 Hall. Two thousand persons were present. In reply to 
 
 S*wwSa , , . 
 
 
 EDINBURGH CASTLE. 
 
 the Lord Provost s speech, General Grant said: 
 
 "I am so filled with emotion that I scarcely know how 
 
IRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. - - 
 
 D j 
 
 to thank you for the honor conferred upon me by making 
 me a burgess of this ancient city of Edinburgh. I feel 
 that it is a great compliment to me and to my country. 
 Had I the proper eloquence I might dwell somewhat on 
 the history of the great men you have produced, on the 
 numerous citizens of this city and Scotland that have 
 gone to America, and the record they have made. We 
 are proud of Scotsmen as citizens of America. They 
 make good citizens of our country, and they find it profit 
 able to themselves. I again thank you for the honor you 
 have conferred upon me." 
 
 Three cheers were then given for the youngest 
 burgess. 
 
 A round of visits and entertainments followed so alike 
 in character to each other, and to those he had previously 
 received in England, that it would be monotonous to 
 describe them. Of course, he visited all the chief places 
 of public interest in and around Edinburgh the Com 
 mercial Bank ; Walter Scott s birthplace ; the Castle of 
 Holyrood ; the Palace where Queen Mary lived, and 
 the room from which Rizzio, her youthful lover was 
 dragged and murdered ; the house where John Knox, 
 the great preacher, lived; Arthur s seat, etc. In the even 
 ing the Lord Provost gave him a dinner of state, and on 
 Saturday he visited the famous Tay Bridge, the follow 
 ing long account of which appeared in the Scottish 
 papers. On their way the party visited a training-ship, 
 containing 350 boys. The terms on which they are re 
 ceived, and the education and discipline they undergo, 
 are very much like those of our own school-ship. 
 
 " From the training-ship they embarked, with the boy- 
 band on board the tug, and went to the Tay Bridge. 
 Here the engineer, for the contractors, Mr. A. Grothe, 
 narrated in detail the principal points connected with the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 erection of the structure, and expressed great pleasure 
 that General Grant should appear just as the bridge was 
 finished completely enough to cross, and the rails were 
 nearly all laid. The last supporting column had been 
 set up the day before. Here the General and party were 
 handsomely entertained at lunch by the Tay Bridge 
 people. General Grant, being something of an educated 
 engineer, desired to go out upon the bridge, so the whole 
 party were put into a workman s car and taken across. 
 The Tay Bridge is the longest in the world. It is not as 
 elaborate or expensive as the St. Louis bridge, only 
 longer. It extends two miles over water, and a quarter 
 of a mile over land. The object of its construction \vas 
 to avoid the frequent and sometimes very severe storms 
 encountered by passengers over the North British Rail 
 road, as well as to lessen the running time and increase 
 the capacity for traffic over the railroad. At present the 
 running time is three, and sometimes as much as four 
 and five hours between Edinburgh and Dundee, thirty 
 miles. The passengers are obliged to change cars twice 
 once when they cross the Frith of Forth, and once 
 when they cross the River Tay. These and the storms 
 that beat in from the German Ocean are great incon 
 veniences and annoyances to the traveler. The Tay 
 Bridge is expected soon to remove one great obstacle, 
 and in five years the bridge in course of construction by 
 the same railroad company will remove the other. The 
 Tay Bridge was commenced July 22cl, 1871. It consists 
 of eighty-five spans, varying in length from sixty-seven 
 to two hundred and forty-five feet. Of the latter dimen 
 sions there are thirteen, which are eighty-eight feet above 
 high w r ater. The rise and fall of tide varies from twelve 
 to seventeen feet. In appearance the bridge is light and 
 graceful, and, view r ed from a distance, it looks too light 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 / 
 
 for its purpose, but when inspected closely it is found 
 firm enough for any load that can be taken over it, even 
 in the most violent gale. It cost $1,500,000. It is not 
 covered or ornamented at all." 
 
 On the train, while passing from one place to another 
 around Edinburgh, a friend asked Grant if he did not 
 tire of so much hand-shaking. " Yes," he said, " I was 
 under the impression that there was no such custom here; 
 but in England the habit is as strong as in America. I 
 think hand-shaking a great nuisance, and it should be 
 abolished. In 1865 it was awful with me; I thought I 
 could hardly survive the task. It not only makes the 
 right arm sore, but it shocks the whole system and unfits 
 a man for writing or attending to other duties. It de 
 moralizes >the entire nervous and muscular system. 
 None but a strong man could go through as much of it 
 as I did in 1865. If Mr. Tilden, who, you know, is old 
 and not very strong, had been elected, he would have 
 been obliged to decline the hand-shaking business to a 
 great extent, because I don t think his system would bear 
 the strain of the amount of it that would have been ex 
 pected of him. The most laborious and injurious hand 
 shaking is where you stand on an elevation and reach 
 down. A man cannot stand much of that." 
 
 On Tuesday, the 4th of September, he visited the 
 Duke of Sutherland, at Dunrobin, and spoke warmly of 
 the manner of his reception, and expressed great pleas 
 ure at the information the duke gave him of agricult 
 ural affairs in Scotland, and of the way he managed his 
 own vast estates. He afterward attended the horticult 
 ural fair at Dornock, and the nex.t day, accompanied by 
 the duke, went to Thurso Castle, where he was met by 
 a volunteer guard, and an address was presented by the 
 town authorities. The same formalities occurred at In- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 verness, which he next visited, in which the provost said 
 that the Highlanders had a claim upon him, as a well- 
 known Highland clan bore that name. At Elgin and Wick 
 public receptions and addresses were gone through. 
 
 On the 1 3th of September, he arrived at Glasgow and 
 was presented with the freedom of the city. A formal 
 
 and compliment 
 ary address was 
 made to him, in 
 which he was 
 called the Wel 
 lington of Amer 
 ica, and highly 
 praised for his 
 ready forgive 
 ness of the 
 Southern people 
 and his freedom 
 from all those 
 petty feelings of 
 vengeance 
 which diso-raced 
 
 o 
 
 so many North- 
 crn political 
 leaders. In con 
 clusion, he was 
 formally re 
 ceived as a bur 
 gess and guild 
 brother of the 
 city and royal 
 burgh of Glasgow. He followed in a short address, in 
 which, after thanking the Common Council and express 
 ing his gratification at the manner in which he had been 
 
 COSTUME OF SJOTCH HIGHLANDER. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. eg 
 
 everywhere received, said jocularly : " I find that I am 
 being made so much a citizen of Scotland it will be a 
 serious question where I shall go to vote." This sally 
 was received with uproarious laughter and applause. 
 
 The next day he visited Ayr, the home of Burns, and 
 then made a rapid tour of the country in the neighbor 
 hood of Loch Lomond, and thence to Inverary, where he 
 was the guest of the Duke of Argyle, who was the un 
 swerving friend of the North during our civil war. This 
 created a common bond of sympathy between the two 
 and made their intercourse exceedingly pleasant and 
 familiar, which left a lasting impression on General 
 Grant. 
 
<3o TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 \ 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GRANT VISITS THE MANUFACTURING AND RURAL DISTRICTS OF ENGLAND GRAND 
 OVATION ON NEWCASTLE MOOR AN ENGLISH DESCRIPTION OF GRANT HE 
 VISITS SUNDERLAND, SHEFFIELD HIS OPINION ON FREE TRADE A GREAT IRON 
 PLATE ROLLED IN HIS PRESENCE DESCRIPTION OF IT VISITS SHAKESPEARE S 
 HOME AND ANNE HATHAWAY S COTTAGE, LEAMINGTON RECEPTION IN BIRMING 
 HAM GRANT S SPEECH VISITS BRIGHTON ONE SIDE OF ENGLAND THAT GRANT 
 
 DID NOT SEE ITS SUFFERING MASSES. 
 
 GRANT having visited mos-t of the chief cities of 
 England, now returned thither to get some knowl 
 edge of its rural and manufacturing districts. 
 Hearing of his expected visit to their region, the work- 
 ingmen of Northumberland and Durham determined to 
 give him a grand ovation on the town moor of New 
 castle, on Saturday afternoon, the 22d of September. 
 
 Twenty-two trade societies participated in a procession, 
 which occupied twenty minutes in passing a given point. 
 The number of persons present on the moor was esti 
 mated at from forty to fifty thousand. The demonstra 
 tion has no precedent since the great political meetings 
 at the time of the Reform Agitation. Mr. Thomas Burt, 
 member of Parliament for Morpeth, presented an eulo 
 gistic address to General Grant, who said he thanked the 
 workingmen for their very welcome address, and thought 
 this reception was the most honorable he could meet 
 with. 
 
 Alluding to what Mr. Burt had said concerning the 
 late civil war, General Grant declared he had always 
 been an advocate of peace, but when war was declared, 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. fa 
 
 he went to the war for the cause which he believed to be 
 right, and fought to his best ability to secure peace and 
 safety to his nation. In regard to the relations between 
 America and England, the General said that friendship 
 now existed between the two countries, which he fully 
 believed was increasing, and which would, in common 
 with industry and civilization, increase in the future. 
 
 On the same day the mayor and Town Council of 
 Gateshead presented the ex-President with a congratu 
 latory address. General Grant expressed pleasure at 
 his enthusiastic reception in all the towns of the north of 
 England, and said he was glad the good feeling between 
 England and America was warmer to-day than it had 
 ever been. 
 
 A banquet was given in honor of him, in the evening, 
 by the Mayor of Newcastle. In response to a toast to 
 his health, the General said his reception in Newcastle 
 exceeded anything he had expected, and had been the 
 warmest and best he had had or could have had. 
 
 The- Chronicle, after speaking of the immense throng, 
 and the banners, and bands, and rush, and roar of the 
 mighty multitude, in their efforts to get a look at General 
 Grant, thus describes his appearance : " Looking as much 
 like an ordinary Tyneside skipper as possible, open- 
 browed, firm-faced, blunt, bluff, and honest, and unas 
 suming, everybody at once settled in his own mind that 
 the General would do." 
 
 The cheers became warmer and warmer as that quiet, 
 strong, thoroughly British face grew upon them, and as 
 they increased, General Grant, who at first merely 
 touched his hat to the multitude, bared his head as an 
 unmistakable everybody-joins-in-it hurra roared out from 
 fifty thousand throats, and rattled up to the astonished 
 birds circling overhead. Referring to his speech it says : 
 
 20 
 
5 2 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 "The vast concourse, still rushing up from the turnpike, 
 and which now musters at least eighty to a hundred 
 thousand, estimate the unheard speech after their own 
 thoughts, and applaud every now and again with might 
 and main. When the General finishes, everybody who 
 has not yet shouted feels it incumbent to begin at once, 
 and those who have bellowed themselves hoarse make 
 themselves still hoarser in their endeavors to come up to 
 the demands of the situation. Hats are waved with a 
 self-sacrificing obliviousness to the affection subsisting 
 between crown and brim which is beautiful to witness. 
 And right in the centre of the crowd, little shining rivu 
 lets glistening on his ebony cheeks, and his face glowing 
 with intense excitement, the whole soul within him shin 
 ing out through his sable skin like a red-hot furnace seen 
 through a dark curtain, stands a negro, devouring Grant 
 with a gaze of such fervid admiration, and respect and 
 gratitude that it flashes out the secret of the great liber 
 ator s popularity." 
 
 In the evening there was the usual banquet with toasts 
 and speeches, and an exceptional long address by Mr. 
 Cowen, member of Parliament, in which he discussed the 
 war, the Pilgrim Fathers, and our literary men. On the 
 24th Grant went to Sunderland by invitation to lay the 
 corner-stone of a new museum about to be erected 
 there, where there was also a procession of workingmen 
 and various benevolent societies, with addresses and a 
 luncheon with toasts and more addresses, followed in the 
 evening by a display of fire-works. The next day he 
 visited the glass-works of Hartley & Co., and the day 
 after went to Sheffield, and was received by the alder 
 men and councilors in great state ; the former being 
 dressed in scarlet, and the latter in purple. In reply to 
 the mayor s address, Grant spoke of the reputation of 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. ^ 
 
 Sheffield manufactures over the world, and said, " I think 
 the first penknife I ever owned, away out in the western 
 part of Ohio, was marked Sheffield. I do not know 
 whether it was counterfeit or not, but it gave them a good 
 market." In the manufacturing districts the question of 
 free trade is paramount, and the speaker and the banners 
 could not help alluding to it. Grant in reply said : " In 
 the matter of free trade, I would hardly be able to speak 
 upon that subject without some preparation. It must be 
 recollected, however, that the country which I had at one 
 time the honor of representing, has gone through a great 
 war and contracted a great debt in suppressing a rebel 
 lion. That makes it necessary to raise a large amount 
 to support the running expenses of the Government, and 
 to pay the interest on the debt which is owing in foreign 
 countries to a very large extent. It is impossible to raise 
 these revenues from internal sources. The protective 
 tariff is a matter scarcely heard of now in the United 
 States, though it was a common subject of talk years 
 ago. The reason it is scarcely mentioned now is that the 
 revenue from imports is regarded simply as one of the 
 means of raising the necessary money to pay the interest 
 upon the national debt and the other expenses incident 
 to the carrying on of the Government, and if we were to 
 abolish the revenue from imports, the foreign bondhold 
 ers would very soon cry out against us because we failed 
 to pay the interest on the bonds which they hold." 
 (Laughter.) "We get along rapidly enough in that di 
 rection, and we will compete with you in your manufac 
 tures in the markets of the world." 
 
 On the 27th, he visited the cutlery works of Rogers & 
 Sons, and thence went to the Cyclops Iron and Steel 
 Works, where an iron frame plate for locomotives was 
 rolled in his presence. He mounted a platform where 
 
TRAl ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 he could get a good view of the gigantic operations. 
 The plate was for an Austrian ship-of-war, and the mass 
 
 OXFORD AS YOU APPROACH. 
 
 of iron to compose it when put into the furnace, weighed 
 twenty-six tons. Said the Sheffield Telegraph: 
 
 "On the furnace doors being opened, only those whose 
 eyes are accustomed to the scene could view anything 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 r 
 
 within it beyond a white mass of burning material. A 
 
 crane traveling overhead, however, carried a pair of huge 
 
 tongs to the mouth of the furnace ; they were thrust 
 
 within it, and with the help of the engines the heap of 
 
 seething metal was drawn forth upon an iron lurry. The 
 
 heat in the mill was now tremendous, and the majority of 
 
 the strangers were endeavoring to shield their eyes from 
 
 theblindingglare 
 
 of the material, 
 
 and at the same 
 
 time seeking to 
 
 protect their 
 
 faces from t h e 
 
 heat. The lurry 
 
 was hastened to 
 
 the rolls, and at 
 
 the first passage 
 
 a shower of fire 
 
 was ejected as 
 
 the iron ran 
 
 through ; at the 
 
 same time the 
 
 dross running 
 
 from the sides 
 
 of the plate as 
 
 whey does from a 
 
 cheese. In eight 
 
 minutes, after 
 
 being several times passed and repassed through the 
 
 gigantic rolls, the operation was concluded. As the 
 
 General left the mill he was again heartily cheered." 
 
 A banquet in the famous Hall of the Cutlers Company 
 
 followed at which the toasts and speeches were a 
 
 repetition of those in other places. The next morn- 
 
 ANNE HATHAWAY S COTTAOT.. 
 
66 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 Pullman palace car, where he 
 to Shakespeare s home, Strat- 
 
 ing Grant went in his 
 had passed the night, 
 ford-upon-Avon. 
 
 Oxford, to which he had been invited, lies near the route, 
 and is distinguished for the beauty and magnificence of its 
 buildings, and its University, consisting of twenty colleges, 
 of which Trinity is one, and five halls. Here he visited the 
 
 WARWICK CASTLE. 
 
 church where the great delineator of human nature lies 
 buried ; looked on the Avon, along whose banks the poet 
 had wandered in strange musings, and stood in the gram 
 mar school room where the precious youth obtained his 
 scanty education. As he left the latter, he asked a holi 
 day for the school assembled there, which was granted. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. fa 
 
 He also drove over to Shotley to see the cottage of 
 Anne Hathaway, that Shakespeare s love has made 
 immortal. The next day he and his party went to Leam 
 ington, the pleasantest of all the fashionable watering- 
 places of England. London and Liverpool having set 
 the example of a public reception, every town and hamlet 
 of England had to follow their example, much to the dis 
 comfort and annoyance of Grant. It was well enough in 
 the great cities, but to have the mayor and common 
 council of every provincial town get up a display, and 
 
 PENHURST CHURCH. 
 
 make speeches, and talk bombastic nonsense, was tedious 
 in the extreme. 
 
 It was but seven miles from here to Kenilworth Castle, 
 made immortal by Walter Scott, and but two to War 
 wick Castle, its turrets and battlements rising out of a sea 
 of green foliage, one of the finest in England, and cele 
 brated for its armory. 
 
 Grant now took a tour through the Midland counties 
 to get an idea of the agricultural condition of England. 
 The gently rolling ground, separated by green hedges 
 and cultivated like a garden, presented a striking con- 
 
68 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 trast to our agricultural districts. Nothing can be more 
 charming than the rural districts of England they must 
 be seen not described and Grant enjoyed them keenly. 
 Everything is different from ours. There are no new 
 wooden churches as here, but old stone ones, half hid 
 among the trees, covered withjvy. All are different, but 
 Penhurst Church perhaps represents as fairly as any one 
 die great proportion of them. 
 
 ENGLISH MILL. 
 
 So with everything else. Fresh mills with their rough 
 dams are nowhere found as in our country, but old, 
 quaint structures, with surroundings that make them 
 picturesque. 
 
 This pleasant trip was succeeded by a rest with his 
 daughter at Southampton, but on the 1 6th of October 
 he redeemed his promise, made some time previous, to pay 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. fo 
 
 a visit to Birmingham. The reception and ceremonies 
 were like all others with one exception, an address by 
 Mr. A. O Neill in behalf of the international arbitration 
 union, in which allusion was made to Grant s efforts 
 to see that the rights of the Indians were secured. Grant 
 in reply gave utterance to the following noble senti 
 ments : 
 
 " MEMBERS OF THE MIDLAND INTERNATIONAL ARBITRA 
 TION UNION : I thank you for your address. It is one 
 that gives me very little to reply to, more than to ex 
 press my thanks. Though I have followed a military 
 life for the better part of my years, there was never a 
 day of my life when I was not in favor of peace on any 
 terms that were honorable. It has been my misfortune 
 to be engaged in more battles than any other general on 
 the other side of the Atlantic ; but there was never a 
 time during my command when I would not have gladly 
 chosen some settlement by reason rather than by the 
 sword. I am conscientiously, and have been from the 
 beginning, an advocate of what the society represented 
 by you, gentlemen, is seeking to carry out ; and nothing 
 would afford me greater happiness than to know, as I 
 believe will be the case, that, at some future day, the 
 nations of the earth will agree upon some sort of con 
 gress, which shall take cognizance of international ques 
 tions of difficulty, and whose decisions will be as binding 
 as the decision of our Supreme Court is binding on us. 
 It is a dream of mine that some such solution may be 
 found, for all questions of difficulty that may arise be 
 tween different nations. In one of the addresses, I have 
 forgotten which, reference was made to the dismissal of 
 the army to the pursuits of peaceful industry. I would 
 gladly see the millions of men who are now supported 
 by the industry of the nations return to industrial pur- 
 
y o TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 suits, and thus become self-sustaining, and take off the 
 tax upon labor which is now levied for their support." 
 
 After an inspection of the elaborate works and exqui 
 site specimens of manufacture, the invariable lunch, with 
 toasts and speeches, followed. 
 
 Grant now returned to London, and for a time passed 
 a more quiet life, but in December he made a promised 
 visit to Brighton, the most famous watering-place in 
 England, and containing the largest aquarium in the 
 world. 
 
 He now proposed to close up his journeys in England, 
 and pay his long-deferred visit to France, deferred on 
 account of the political agitations in Paris, in which the 
 question of a republic entered so largely. 
 
 But, though he had seen so much of England, he 
 had seen only one side of it, aristocracy and royalty, 
 represented by Windsor Castle and Blenheim House. 
 The other and most important to one who would really 
 understand that monarchy, and be able to form a correct 
 judgment regarding the working of its political system 
 and the stability of its institutions, he did not see. He 
 saw royalty, and aristocracy, and wealth, and distinguished 
 men, but not that vast half-starved and ignorant class 
 that form half of the English population. He saw the 
 great manufactories and their wealthy proprietprs, but 
 not the dirty hovels and their half-starved inmates. He 
 saw the workingmen assembled by thousands in their gala- 
 dress, but not their families living on a few pence a week. 
 He was told of the vast amount of coal produced in cer 
 tain districts, but was not told of the suffering, and crime, 
 and ignorance its production entailed. He should have 
 descended into the coal-pits, where the half-naked children 
 and youths, of both sexes, live no better than swine, and 
 witnessed a condition of things to which the former state 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of slavery at the South was luxury. He was drawn 
 through magnificent parks without thinking that only 
 
~ 2 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 about thirty thousand men owned the greater part of the 
 land of England, of which hundreds of thousands of acres 
 was as useless to the starving people as though it were 
 an unbroken wilderness. He saw magnificent churches 
 and cathedrals, but not the want and suffering produced 
 by maintaining them. The people are taxed to death to 
 support the state, and beggared to support the church. 
 
 BRIGGATE THE FIVE- POINTS OF LONDON. 
 
 It was a magnificent country to ride through, but where 
 were the school-houses of New England ? 
 
 One day devoted to the reading of the reports of the 
 various commissioners appointed by Parliament to in 
 vestigate the condition of the people in regard to educa 
 tion in the manufacturing districts and those working in 
 the collieries, would make all this magnificent display a 
 shameless mockery, and it would require an effort not to 
 believe he was reading the description of a barbaric peo- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. ,-- 
 
 pie, and he would wonder not that chartism once made 
 this strong monarchy reel, but that the people do not at 
 once rise and overthrow it. 
 
 Ruskin says, "Though England is deafened with spin 
 ning-wheels, her people have no clothes ; though she is 
 black with digging coal, her people have no fuel, and 
 they die of cold ; and though she has sold her soul for 
 gain, they die of hunger." This picture is drawn with 
 very few lines, but how terrible it is. In reading the 
 magnificent displays and lavish expenditures that have 
 characterized Grant s receptions, one can hardly believe 
 it to be true but, alas, it is ! 
 
 It staggers one, to hear a member of Parliament declare 
 on the floor, that out of 5,242 persons he visited in a 
 single country town to ascertain their condition, 136 were 
 subsisting upon six-pence a head per week, 291 on ten and 
 a half-pence, 500 on one shilling, 4,859 on one shilling 
 and six-pence, 1,500 on one shilling and nine-pence, 812 
 on two shillings and two-pence, so that the poorest had 
 less than one penny a day to live on, while the best had 
 but about three-pence half-penny. This state of desti 
 tution he said was not confined to one section, but it pre 
 vailed all through the country. Five-sixths of the total 
 number mentioned, had scarcely a blanket to cover them; 
 eighty-five families were sleeping on chaff beds and wood 
 shavings. This is a mere specimen of a score of such 
 statements that might be given. Said Sidney Smith: 
 "There is, no doubt, more misery and acute suffering 
 among the mass of the people of England, than there is 
 in any kingdom of the world, but then they are the great, 
 unwashed, dirty, disagreeable, importunate persons. 
 There are thousands homeless, houseless, breadless, 
 friendless, without shelter, raiment or hope in the world; 
 millions uneducated, only half-fed, driven to crime and 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 every species of vice, which ignorance and destitution 
 bring* in their train to an extent entirely unknown to the 
 less enlighted, the less free, the less favored, and the less 
 powerful kingdoms of Europe." Said the Quarterly 
 Review, "In the road which the English laborer must 
 travel, the poor-house is the last stage on the way to the 
 grave." The bare statistics, as they have appeared from 
 time to time in official reports, furnish the sadest reading 
 under the sun. Hence we say that one side of England, 
 and that the most important one, Grant in traveling 
 through it never saw. And yet the unseen, uncounted, 
 half-starved, desperate masses are vet to settle the des 
 tiny of this proud Empire. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 (i&ANT VISITS PARIS CALLS ON M MAHON THE AMERICAN COLONY HE MAKES HIS 
 HOME WITH IT SIGHT-SEEING A DINNER BRILLIANT RECEPTION BY THE 
 
 AMERICAN MINISTER INTERVIEWED BY A FRENCH REPORTER DINNER BY THE 
 
 AMERICAN RESIDENTS TIME PASSING PLEASANTLY BRILLIANT FETE GIVEN BY 
 MRS. MACKAY PARIS NEVER GAYER GRANT EMBARKS FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN 
 GIBRALTAR AFRICA THE BAY OF NAPLES COLD WEATHER CASTLE OF SAN 
 MARTIN ASCENT OF VESUVIUS. 
 
 FRANCE having gone through her struggle, and 
 rejoicing in a republican victory, the time seemed 
 appropriate for Grant to make his long contem 
 plated visit to Paris, where he arrived on the 24th of Oc 
 tober, accompanied by his wife and son. The yacht 
 " Victoria," in which he sailed, landed at Boulogne, where 
 the authorities formally received him and welcomed him 
 to the shores of France. After a pleasant conversation 
 with a member of the French Senate, who entered rather 
 largely into the peculiar phases of French politics, Grant 
 took the train for the metropolis. On the way the Gene 
 ral studied closely the scenery through which he passed 
 along the route, noted the principal industrial sections, 
 and especially observed the wonderful agricultural re 
 sources of the country. He spoke a great deal about 
 the financial policy at home, declaring emphatically on 
 the silver question, saying he was bitterly opposed to the 
 demonetization scheme, which was only another phase of 
 repudiation. He next talked about the war, the relations 
 of the United States with Mexico and St. Domingo. 
 
 Our Minister, Mr. Noyes, and a few distinguished 
 American gentlemen, received him at the station, and as 
 
^ TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 soon as he entered the saloon, richly carpeted for the 
 occasion, he was loudly cheered. They then drove to 
 the Hotel Bristol, where apartments had been provided 
 
 MARSHAL McMAHON. 
 
 for him. After dinner he smoked his cigar, as usual, and 
 retired early to bed. 
 
 The next day dawned dismally, for the rain was coming 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 77 
 
 down in torrents. It did not prevent, however, distin 
 guished Americans and Frenchmen from calling, and it 
 was a succession of carriages from an early hour till noon. 
 At two o clock, Grant, with his wife and son, accom 
 panied by Mr. Noyes and the secretary of legation, called 
 on General McMahon, who, with the Duchess of Magen 
 ta, received them cordially. A frank, cordial, informal 
 conversation between these two distinguished military 
 
 GARDEN OF THE TUILERIES. 
 
 chieftains followed. At its close, McMahon invited him 
 to dine with him at the Elysee on the following Thurs 
 day. 
 
 The Americans in Paris form a colony, of which the 
 minister is the centre. A history of its doings and mode 
 of passing time is quite curious, but out of place here. 
 This colony took possession of Grant during the month 
 he remained in Paris. That he should have made his 
 social home, while in the city, with it, was most natural. 
 In England he met everywhere his mother-tongue, and 
 
 21 
 
~g TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 in all public ovations and banquets he not only heard it 
 spoken, but he could reply in it, while here all this was 
 reversed. Formal state receptions can be conducted 
 very well through interpreters, but dinner-parties, ban 
 quets, or anything that partakes of a social character 
 cannot. Hence, General Grant s life outside of these 
 few public ceremonies, was confined to his intercourse 
 with this "American Colony" and sight-seeing, of which 
 the latter was by far the most important. 
 
 PLACE DE LA CONCORDE. 
 
 But to follow him in this, and describe what he saw,, 
 would be simply to republish a hand-book. The Palace 
 of the Tuileries almost destroyed in the communist war, 
 and now decreed by the Government to be pulled entirely 
 down the garden in front, the Place de Concorde, the 
 Champs Elysee, Arc de Triumph, stretching from east to 
 west in the heart of Paris, form the most remarkable 
 features of the city. The Palace of the Tuileries, now in 
 ruins, for a long time the home of the kings of France, 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. ^ 
 
 and the city residence of Napoleon, was about one thou 
 sand feet in length and faced the garden of the same 
 length, but more than twice as broad. From the terrace 
 on the west end you look westward on the Place de la 
 Concorde, separating it from the Champs Elysee. This is 
 750 by 525 feet, and in its centre now stands the obelisk 
 of Luxor, a present from the Pasha of Egypt. 
 
 On this spot stood the guillotine during the great 
 French revolution, on which perished Louis XVI and 
 Marie Antoinette, the Duke of Orleans, Josephine s first 
 husband, Beauhamais, and finally Robespierre himself 
 besides nearly three thousand persons of more or less 
 distinction, both men and women. Looking still west, the 
 eye travels down the Champs Elysee, the most charming 
 spot in the world, its drives, and avenues, and groves 
 stretching for a mile and a quarter to the Triumphal Arc 
 de 1 Etoile, springing with its white arch 150 feet above 
 the sea of green foliage the whole distance gay with 
 equipages and laughing people. It was built by Napo 
 leon to commemorate his victories, and is one of the 
 largest triumphal arches in the world. Twelve grand 
 boulevards start from here and traverse Paris ; also, com 
 mences here the Avenue de I lmperatrice, 1,300 yards 
 long and 1,000 wide, leading into the Bois de Boulogne, 
 the most magnificent park in the world four miles long 
 and two broad, with artificial lakes and islands, hippo 
 drome and race course. Here can be seen, any pleasant 
 day, the most splendid equipages of Paris. And then there 
 comes the Alle Long Champe, and Theatre des Fleurs, 
 where ballets are performed, and the scenery is all real, 
 water, trees, sky and grottoes. To start from the 
 Tuileries and pass westward as we have described is an 
 episode in one s life, and he gets an idea of what gay, 
 wealthy, tasteful Paris is, more than in any other way. 
 
So 
 
 TRATELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Paris being cut in twain by the Seine, as London is by 
 the Thames, is spanned by twenty-seven bridges, connect 
 ing the two sections, and though those in both cities are 
 beautiful, the tasteful designs and light airy character of 
 those of Paris show the difference between the cities of 
 one country and the other. Among those spanning the 
 Seine the Pont des Arts is one of the most light and airy, 
 
 PONT DES ARTS. 
 
 being reserved for foot passengers alone. It consists of 
 eight arches, 141 yards in length by thirty-three feet 
 broad. Among the many palaces of France, that of 
 Versailles is the most noted and the most historic, al 
 though it does not belong to Paris proper, being twelve 
 miles distant from the city. It is impossible to give in a 
 brief space a description of this palace, or rather of what 
 it contains. Its seven miles of rooms and galleries, filled 
 with works of art, is a day s work to walk through, while 
 an account of what they contain would fill a volume. 
 
JRATKLS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 81 
 
82 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 But there is one gallery that would naturally interest 
 Grant more than any other the Grandes Galerie des Bat- 
 
 THE PETIT TRIANON. 
 
 tailes, which is 400 feet long, and devoted to pictures repre 
 senting- the great battles of France for the last i ,400 years. 
 
 lEMPLE OF LOVE. 
 
 The paintings that adorn it are a history in themselves. 
 The great and little Trianon and gardens attached to 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. g ^ 
 
 them are very beautiful. Everywhere are lovely walks, 
 parterres of flowers, vases, colonnades, fountains, statues, 
 groves and beautiful avenues, bordered with long lines of 
 evergreen trees, forced by the pruning knife to grow into 
 fantastic shapes. Marie Antoinette is especially associated 
 with these gardens, having added greatly to their beauty. 
 Whether as the humiliated wife, the triumphant mother 
 or the unpopular queen, she was always the presiding 
 genius of this Eden in the garden of Versailles. In the 
 
 THE QUEEN S SWISS COTTAGE. 
 
 garden of the Little Trianon she built the Temple of 
 Love and numerous rustic cottages. The charming Swiss 
 cottage, built for herself on the border of the lake, being 
 the prettiest of them all. 
 
 The entrance to the cottage was decorated with rare 
 shrubs in boxes and climbing flowers. Inside the cottage 
 everything was complete for carrying out the role of 
 peasants, in which the queen and her ladies often in 
 dulged. Outside nothing was lacking ; it had its farm- 
 
TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 house, its sheepfold, its dairy, in white marble, and little 
 barns for storing- the harvest, etc. This miniature farm, 
 
 THE FARM-HOUSE. 
 
 however, could not be called a profitable investment, for 
 the cows, hens and pigeons were entertained in a style 
 
 HK DAIRY. 
 
 of luxury that made the milk more costly than cham 
 pagne, and an egg worth its weight in silver. 
 
7RA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. g - 
 
 The palace was the royal residence till the Tuileries 
 was built, and has been the scene of more gayety and 
 more vice and witnessed more terrible scenes, probably, 
 than any other palace in the world. 
 
 Malmaison, also out of Paris, being ten miles distant, 
 was a place to interest such a man as Grant, for it was 
 not only the favorite residence of Josephine, but here 
 Napoleon planned some of his greatest battles, and here 
 he remained five days after his last abdication. 
 
 THE GALLERY OF MALMAISON. 
 
 But we cannot enumerate all the objects of interest 
 that invited and received his attention in Paris. Even 
 such an inveterate sight-seer as he will get tired after 
 awhile and seek rest. The arches, and domes, and 
 towers, and churches, and gardens the palace of the 
 Corps Legislative, with its council chamber the gay 
 boulevards, and restaurants, and theatres, and amuse 
 ments of every kind combine to make Paris the gayest 
 city in the world. 
 
 He enjoyed this sight-seeing all the more that his life 
 
86 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 in this gay metropolis was, in reality, more quiet than 
 it had been for a long time. Of course there were 
 public dinners, receptions and banquets. The dinner 
 given by President McMahon passed off like all other 
 public dinners. The one given by the American minister, 
 Mr. Noyes, was a very recherche affair and drew together 
 many of the most distinguished men of Paris. 
 
 BED-CHAMBER OF JOSEPHINE. 
 
 The reception in the evening was still more brilliant, 
 and President McMahon was among the guests, and 
 remained a long while beside General Grant, indeed, 
 receiving with him the members of the diplomatic corps 
 and state officials. 
 
 The ex-President did not escape the ubiquitous inter 
 viewer by being in Paris, and speaking only English. 
 The following account of an interview is from the pen of 
 one attached to the well-known paper, The Figaro: 
 
 " The American General, who has been the guest of 
 Paris for the past two days, is generally considered the 
 most taciturn man in the world. To him Count Von 
 
TRA VELS OF GENE! AL GRANT Q ^ 
 
 7 
 
 Moltke, whom the Germans call the Great Silent, is quite 
 a talker, since they often get from him speeches of fifty 
 or sixty lines, while the longest speech which Grant is 
 ever remembered to have made was that pronounced the 
 day after he was first nominated President of the United 
 States. Here it is in all its simplicity. The General 
 appeared upon the balcony of the hotel where he was 
 staying. Below, in the street, more than ten thousand 
 persons were awaiting a speech. Reluctantly removing 
 the cigar he was smoking, and raising it slightly between 
 the first and second fingers of his right hand, he said : 
 
 * Gentlemen, I am very glad to see you. Then he made 
 a bow, as much as to say, I hope you will not expect any 
 thing more from me now. On another occasion he found 
 the means of being even more concise. One of his sol 
 dier friends, who is said to be almost as reserved as him 
 self, was commissioned to present the General with an 
 elegantly-engraved gold cup, in the name of the soldiers 
 who had served under him. The warrior was introduced 
 into the Grant household, bearing the cup in question. 
 He quietly placed the cup upon a sideboard, remarking : 
 
 * That s the cup/ The President looked at it in a dreamy 
 sort of a way, and after the lapse of a few seconds, re 
 plied : * Thank you. Then he offered his companion in 
 arms a cigar. The two veterans sat down, and, facing 
 each other, smoked away in silence, while the deputation 
 of soldiers waited in vain outside for the speech which is 
 usual on such occasions. 
 
 " I was aware that the General was of this peculiar 
 turn, and I was not a little exercised concerning the kind 
 of interview I was to have in response to my application 
 of Thursday night, which he consented to with the best 
 grace imaginable. 
 
 "The General s courier, M. Jacques Hartog, a very 
 
38 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 pleasant and agreeable young man, introduced me. Gen 
 eral Grant was sitting near the corner of the fireplace. 
 Facing him, upon a large divan, sat Mrs. Grant and her 
 son. The latter is a young man of twenty to twenty-five 
 years, having almost as meditative and reflective an air 
 as his father. He is, I am told, a great mathematician. 
 The General arose and extended to me his hand. The 
 physiognomy of the brave General, to whom I had the 
 honor to be presented, was very curious to observe. I 
 do not think, for example, that there is upon earth any 
 being whatever who, under whatever circumstances, could 
 flatter himself as having seen made upon this enigmatic 
 figure, the shortest, the slightest, the most momentary 
 impression. We Frenchmen possess, in order to char 
 acterize this kind of figure, a word which I would not 
 employ if I thought it would constitute a want of respect, 
 this is tcte de bois wooden head. Ulysses Grant pos 
 sesses this peculiarity in the highest degree, that which, 
 after all, is perhaps a quality and a resource for a soldier 
 or a statesman. I know, through a friend of the General, 
 that this phenomenal imperturbability is never relaxed, 
 even for a second, even in circumstances the most grave 
 and perilous. This friend has seen him under fire, 
 mounted on his grizzly mare, as celebrated in America as 
 the white horse of Napoleon has been in France, and 
 there was always the same figure, impassible, indifferent. 
 During a series of battles, which lasted for ten or twelve 
 days, and which cost the Federals nearly sixty thousand 
 men, Grant slept at night, after having smoked an enor 
 mous number of cigars, for eight hours at a time, as 
 peaceably as an infant, rose in the morning and dressed, 
 then began to give his orders about in the same way a 
 city merchant arranges his bills. Never have circum 
 stances more grave, never has heavier responsibility rested 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. gg 
 
 upon a man than General Grant has experienced, yet a 
 word of anxiety, trouble or discouragement was never 
 known to escape him. They called Wellington the Iron 
 Duke. The Americans might well have entitled Ulysses 
 S. Grant the Steel General. As I saw him at the Hotel 
 Bristol, and much as he must have been fatigued by his 
 journey, General Grant had the appearance of a man still 
 very vigorous. His shoulders are massive, broad, and 
 his body has a marked tendency to embonpoint. The 
 General, moreover, gives a very good account of himself, 
 for he said laughingly to a friend yesterday, that he con 
 gratulated himself on not having changed for ten years. 
 * Yes, and I have gained forty-five pounds in weight. 
 His beard, which is closely cropped, has commenced to 
 turn gray. His hair is perfectly black. His complexion, 
 slightly bronzed, gives the General a Germanic aspect, 
 although he comes of pure American stock. 
 
 " The conversation commenced in English about Paris, 
 which the General now visits for the first time in his life. 
 I inquired what his first impression was. He replied to 
 me, with much good sense and precision, to the effect that 
 he was unable to form an opinion, as he had ridden from 
 the railroad depot {gare) to the hotel in a covered car 
 riage, and was unable to see anything but the cushions 
 in the vehicle. 
 
 " But, General, have you not paid a visit to Marshal 
 McMahon ? How did you find our President ? 
 
 " We were unable to comprehend each other. 
 
 " How was that ? I said with astonishment. 
 
 " Simple enough. I didn t understand a word oi 
 French; the Marshal does t know a word of English. 
 He bowed to me; I bowed to him. He extended his hand 
 to me ; I extended mine to him. Then all was over. 
 
 " Then the interview only lasted a minute. 
 
g O TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 k< * No, I remained a few minutes to speak with Mme. 
 McMahon, and I was delighted, for she speaks English 
 admirably. I was, indeed, astonished that a French lady 
 should speak so beautifully. The Marshal has a fine 
 mein, and has the air of an honest man/ 
 
 "As it seemed to me the General was in good humor, 
 and in a vein for talking, I risked, without great hopes of 
 success, however, a question on politics as follows : Gen 
 eral, as you have been, like our Marshal, President of a 
 Republic, and you have been in an analogous situation to 
 his that is to say, at variance with the legislative power, 
 I am sure the public would be curious to know your 
 opinion upon the present crisis. 
 
 "The General, at this question, which I confess having 
 put with temerity, had what I will call a time of silence. 
 He did not express the slightest astonishment, and, in 
 the same tone as before, looking continually at the 
 carpet, said: I am not a Frenchman; I am an American, 
 and, as the Atlantic separates us, I have not studied the 
 question in any such way that I should dare to give my 
 opinion on it. 
 
 " I then recalled to mind what had been told me of 
 the manner in which Grant acted with reporters in 
 America when he was in power. He received them 
 whenever they wished ; then, \vhen they broached poli 
 tics he drew cigars from his pocket, offering one to 
 his interlocutor, and then commenced to smoke in silence. 
 To get a word out of him after this, there was but one 
 means left; speak to him about his horses. I therefore 
 (somewhat changing the tactics of the Americans) quitted 
 the domain of politics by asking the General if he pro 
 posed staying long in Paris. If this horrible rain con 
 tinues/ said he, I shall leave forthwith. If not I shall 
 remain here during the whole of the month of November/ 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. T 
 
 "Another silence. Then he continued: I have always 
 been very curious to know France, and Paris especially. 
 The impression I had coming from Boulogne was that it 
 was a fine country, well cultivated and had a happy air. 
 
 "Another silence. The railroads of France are much 
 better than ours. The service is made with more pre 
 caution, and the roads are well built/ Then the General 
 recounted some details concerning his journeys in Eng 
 land, and upon the enthusiastic and sympathetic recep 
 tion he had received. He seemed to have great pleasure 
 in recalling these facts. I do not think it of sufficient 
 interest to reproduce these remarks for the French public. 
 After having seen Paris, said he, I shall go to Spain, 
 Italy and Egypt, where I hope to pass the greater part 
 of the winter. 
 
 " The conversation lasted about fifteen minutes, and 
 comprised the pauses of this great taciturn. I thought 
 that this was a great deal, and* that already I had 
 occasioned the General to expend a good many words, 
 so I took my leave, thanking him for the condescen 
 sion with which he entertained me." 
 
 Another banquet almost, if not quite equal in extrava 
 gant display and in the distinguished guests attending it, 
 was that given by the American residents of Paris. 
 Toasts were given and several speeches made, a lengthy 
 one by Mr. Noyes, highly eulogistic of General Grant, 
 to which the latter replied in a few brief words of thanks, 
 and two others by Marquis de Lafayette and Rocham- 
 beau both descendants of those distinguished French 
 men who bore so conspicuous a part in our Revolution 
 ary War. 
 
 Grant, on this occasion, was dressed in full uniform 
 and having on his famous Galena sword with the names 
 of all the battles on it in which he was engaged from 
 
9 2 
 
 TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Palo Alto to Chattanooga the hilt being incrusted with 
 diamonds. 
 
 His time passed very pleasantly in the gay French 
 capital. To-day he would call on Prince Orloff, to-mor 
 row on a rich banker, or be invited out to dinner, while 
 the sights to be seen were almost endless. In the morn 
 ing he usually visited the Herald bureau, where he 
 would sit for an hour and smolce while reading the news 
 papers. If not engaged to make or receive some formal 
 call, he would visit the Tuileries and stroll through its 
 
 galleries rich in 
 paintings, or 
 visit the great 
 Sevres man 
 ufactory. It 
 was with singu 
 lar feelings he 
 stood in the 
 Hotel des In- 
 valides, built for 
 the worn-out 
 soldiers of 
 France, and 
 gazed on the 
 tomb of Napoleon, surmounted by his cocked hat and 
 sword, worn at Eylau. It might well remind him of the 
 vanity of all earthly greatness. A drive through the Bois 
 de Boulogne, or along the Champs Elysee and under the 
 Arc de Triomphe would make any day seem bright. 
 
 The Louvre, with its garnered works of art, and the 
 Luxembourg, across the Seine, built by Maria de Medicis, 
 with its gallery of art and gilded salons, had for him the 
 deepest interest, while those localities that told of revo 
 lution moved him more than written history. The Tower 
 
 TOMB OF NAPOLEON. 
 
TRA VE LS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 93 
 
 of St. Jacques is one of its monuments, being all that is 
 left of the church torn clown by the mob. He was de 
 lighted with the view of Paris from the heights of Mont- 
 martre. 
 
 One of the most select dinners and brilliant fetes 
 got up for him in Paris, was given by Mrs. Mackay, wife 
 of " Bonanza," as she was called, from the enormous 
 wealth of her husband, who owns some of the richest 
 
 PALACE OF THE LUXEMBOURG. 
 
 mines in California. The house where the affair took 
 place cost 1,500,000 francs, and the furniture 500,000 
 francs. It looks out upon the Place cl Etoile, and is a 
 splendid residence. The garden was brilliantly illumi 
 nated and decorated with national fla^s, and with em- 
 
 o 
 
 blems set in thousands of gas jets. The orchestra, con 
 sisting of thirty-six musicians, was stationed on a pavilion 
 built out from the house in front of the Rue Tilsit. A 
 dozen footmen, in liveries of crimson and gold, lined the 
 
 22 
 
94 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 entrance and stairway. The carriages occupied the cause 
 way in front. The vestibule, staircase and passage-ways 
 were profusely decorated with flags and beautiful flowers. 
 The rooms were magnificent. Everything that money 
 could supply and elegant taste select was there to add to 
 the beauty and impressiveness of the scene. Indeed, 
 
 nothing was omit 
 ted that boundless 
 wealth could sup 
 ply to make it the 
 most magnificent 
 . - \/% jj event of the season. 
 JZJ* I A SUCC ession of 
 more brilliant din 
 ners and fetes 
 never took place in 
 gay and brilliant 
 Paris than was got 
 
 up in honor of the 
 distinguished 
 
 TOWER OF ST. JACQUES. 
 
 steamer 
 his use, 
 cember. 
 
 American. The 
 farewell dinner was 
 given by an emi 
 nent banker. 
 
 r^-, A 
 
 The American 
 
 detailed by our Government for 
 the Ith of De 
 
 "Vandalia," 
 
 arrived at Ville-Franche on 
 Grant, with his wife and son, went on board, 
 and as the steamer slowly moved away, all the Ameri 
 can ships in the harbor greeted him with cheers. As 
 they entered the Straits of Gibraltar, Grant looked with 
 profound interest *>n the grim, old fortress, tunneled 
 out of the solid rock, rising almost fifteen hundred feet 
 into the air. It was a history in itself, with the low-lying 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 .7J 
 
 and gray shores of Africa on the one side, and the lofty 
 summits of the Grenadian Mountains on the other. The 
 stout ship went bowling along over the blue waves of the 
 Mediterranean, and on the morning of the i ;th came in 
 sight of the Bay of Naples, with Mount Vesuvius in the 
 background, sending its tall column of smoke silently 
 toward heaven. 
 
 The Bay of Naples is celebrated the world over for its 
 beauty, but that beauty is seen from the shore more than 
 from the sea. It is true, the islands at its entrance are 
 very beautiful, and so is the semicircular sweep of the 
 shore, with the background of St. Elmo and Vesuvius. 
 
 At the time the " Vandalia" arrived, the weather should 
 have been like ours in early October, before the foliage 
 has changed, but, unfortunately, it was cold and cheerless. 
 The old phrase, "Vedi Napoli e poi moir" "See Na 
 ples, and then die" did not seem very appropriate, as 
 Grant buttoned his coat around him, and his wife gath 
 ered her wraps about her, as they entered the boat and 
 were rowed ashore. 
 
 Determined to lose no time, he had thus hastened 
 ashore before the authorities knew of his arrival, to have 
 a quiet drive through the city. Accompanied by his wife, 
 he climbed to the Castle of San Martin, now a museum, 
 with barracks attached. They spent nearly an hour in 
 examining the various curiosities, in which Mrs. Grant 
 seemed to take more interest than the General ; so little, 
 in fact, did he think of the collections, that when the guide 
 showed him the portrait of the man who gave the collec 
 tion to Naples, he dryly remarked, in English: "Well, if 
 I had a museum like this, I would give it to Naples, or 
 anybody who would take it." But the view from this 
 elevated position was worth the trouble of the ascent. 
 Below lay Naples, with its beautiful sea line ; beyond 
 
g6 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the bay, with Capri and Ischia slumbering in the 
 blue waters, while inland rose Vesuvius, with its ever 
 lasting plume of smoke swaying in the wind. The chill 
 air, however, robbed the scenery of half its charms ; but, 
 in compensation, reduced the number of beggars, by 
 keeping them on the sunny side of the walls, protected 
 from the wind. 
 
 Returning to the ship, the party contented themselves 
 
 with looking at Vesuvius through a spy-Mass and read- 
 
 EFTLIMft 
 
 CRATER OF VESUVIUS. 
 
 ing themselves up as to the best and most economical 
 manner of spending their time to see the most of Naples 
 and its objects of interest in the few days they could give 
 to it. Grant decided that, first of all, they should ascend 
 Vesuvius, and gave his orders for an early start next 
 day. But, alas, his arrival had been announced, and the 
 forenoon was spent in receiving officials in clashing uni 
 forms, so that it was late before he could set out. 
 
 Taking a carriage they rattled out of the city, along a 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. Q7 
 
 perfect road, passing and meeting donkeys with their 
 loads and all sorts of vehicles, conspicuous among them 
 the two-wheeled platform a sort of a truck, drawn by a 
 donkey, and loaded with a half a dozen laughing, chatting 
 Italians. Passing through Portici, where is the royal 
 palace, which Murat, while king of Naples, fitted up with 
 great splendor, they hastened on, and at length arrived 
 at the place where horses and donkeys are taken for the 
 ascent. Here a scrambling and quarreling among the 
 numerous guides commenced, each extolling the merits 
 of his donkey or horse, while beggars, swarming like the 
 locusts of Egypt, helped to swell the Babel. At last they 
 got mounted and began the long and toilsome ascent. The 
 animal that Grant bestrode was not one he would pick 
 out for a Vicksburgh campaign, still as he could do no 
 better, he had to be content. His experience of Italian 
 beggars had been very limited, but here it was to be en 
 larged to a degree that he did not anticipate. He inno 
 cently thought by laying in a large stock of small coin, he 
 could easily satisfy their importunities, and be left alone. 
 He had to learn, however, that generosity, instead of 
 lessening their number, increased it fourfold., A reputa 
 tion for open-handedness in Naples is fatal to all comfort. 
 Scatter your coin among a half a dozen to get rid of 
 their importunity, and in fifteen minutes you will have a 
 dozen screaming bundles of rags after you, rolling in the 
 dirt to attract your attention, or yelling " per carita." 
 Satisfy these, and in fifteen minutes more you will have 
 two dozen, and so on, till their number will be legion. 
 If General Grant had stayed a month in Naples and gone 
 on in the liberal way he began here at the base of Mount 
 Vesuvius, at the end of that time he would have had a 
 procession at his heels every time he stepped out of his 
 hotel large enough for a king s escort, but of a kind that 
 
9 8 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 would have astonished the beholder. He now soon found 
 his stock of coin exhausted, and began to borrow of his 
 companions, but it would have taken the bank of England 
 to have stopped the clamor. 
 
 The ascent of the mountain is for some time gradual, 
 the road passing through vineyards from which the wine 
 called Lachryma Christi (tears of Christ) is made. But 
 the scene gradually grew drearier until they came to the 
 region of pure lava, where the imagination begins to have 
 conceptions of the scenes that have passed here. There 
 spreads, black, barren and rough, the motionless stream 
 of lava just as it cooled in its slow and troubled march 
 for the sea. Here it met an obstacle, and rose into a 
 barrier; there it fell off into ridges, that cracked and 
 broke into fragments till the whole inclined plane that 
 spreads off from the base of the mighty pyramid that in 
 closes the crater appears as if the earth had been vio 
 lently shaken till all the large loose portions had risen to 
 the surface. Sometimes you can trace for some distance 
 a sort of circular wall of cooled lava, behind which the 
 red-hot stream had gathered and glowed like a brow of 
 wrath. Through this barren tract the road was a narrow 
 path that looked as if it might lead to the gates of death. 
 As the eye wanders over this dreary, desolate tract, it in 
 voluntary looks up to see its end, when it encounters the 
 column of smoke steadily ascending from the barren 
 peak, telling in language more emphatic than words, of 
 the slumbering power that wrought this wild ruin. The 
 party toiled slowly on through this dreary region until 
 they came to the Hermitage, as it is called, where they 
 halted for lunch. Grant had started with the intention of 
 climbing the last peak to the crater and look down into 
 its sulphurous depths, but the formal calls on shipboard 
 had delayed his departure till now it was getting late in 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the afternoon, while the cold wind from this altitude 
 pierced to the very bones, and he had to be content with 
 a view of the beautiful landscape below him instead of 
 gazing down into the bowels of the earth; and what a 
 panorama presented itself. At their feet slept the city of 
 Naples, with its palaces and towers, basking in the sun 
 shine, while far inland, till the eye grew dim with the pros 
 pect, swept away the whole campagna felice, " happy 
 country," dotted with villages, fields and vineyards with 
 out end. To crown all, there spread the beautiful Bay of 
 Naples, with the blue islands of Capri and Ischia and the 
 bluer waters of the Mediterranean, stretching away till 
 sea and sky melted together on the far-off horizon. 
 
 It was dark when the carriage containing the party 
 rolled again through the streets of Naples down to the 
 bay, where the lights of the ship welcomed them to rest 
 and food once more. 
 
 The next day, the General visited the ruins of Pompeii, 
 twelve miles from the city. The road passes through 
 Torre del Greco and the ancient Oplante by houses of 
 the poor furnishing sights to be found nowhere else in 
 the world. Here would sit a row of ragged, dirty women 
 so engaged in looking at heads that the passing of the 
 equipage did not arrest them ; there an urchin sitting on 
 the ground with his head between the knees of a woman 
 busy with his head, and behind her a third performing the 
 same kind service for her a laughable yet disgusting 
 -picture. In another direction would stand a man with a 
 plate in one hand, while from the other lifted over his 
 head, which was thrown back to a horizontal position, 
 hung long strings of macaroni, that disappeared down 
 his neck like young snakes in the throat of their mother. 
 The streets of Torre del Greco were cut through lava 
 that once rolled over the town, and houses were built on 
 
100 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 it looking- black and fresh as if it had not been cooled for 
 more than a month. 
 
 At length the "city of the dead" was reached where a 
 guide met them, who spoke English and informed Grant 
 that he had acted as a guide to Sheridan when he visited 
 Pompeii; moreover, was a soldier himself; all of which 
 important information had, of course, its due effect on 
 Grant. Pompeii is not dug" out of the ground below the 
 
 POMPEIIAN 
 
 surface like Herculaneum, but is excavated from the side 
 of a hill composed of the ashes and cinders that buried 
 it, and you enter it as you would a walled town, with the 
 sky bending over you. But to go into all the details of 
 a visit and enumerate the various objects that arrest the 
 attention, would be only a thrice-told tale. There is the 
 house of the rich aristocrat Diomede, with its many pillars, 
 mosaic floor, and damp, dark wine-cellar, where the bones 
 
TRAVELS OF 
 
 of his family were found, who had fled there for safety 
 from the storm of ashes and fire that was falling on the 
 
 o 
 
 doomed city. There against the side of the wall, amid 
 the earthen jars, was the shape of the breast and head and 
 outstretched arms of a woman, who had fallen against it 
 in helpless terror. Nothing remained but the bones and 
 jewels to tell the story of her sufferings and death 
 agony. 
 
 You leave this strange house, and wander amid the 
 crumbling and broken fragments of what was once a 
 great city. You 
 follow the wheel- 
 worn streets the 
 ruts in the stones 
 cut there by the 
 gay chariots when 
 Christ was walking 
 by the Sea of Gal 
 ilee, and see where 
 there were baths, 
 and dressing, and 
 dining-rooms, and 
 work-shops where 
 the livinof multi- 
 
 o 
 
 tude had moved, 
 and luxuriated, 
 and toiled. There 
 were tombs that 
 
 were themselves entombed; rooms for washing the 
 dead where the living were suddenly buried, un 
 washed and uncoffined ; beer-shops with the marks 
 of the tumblers still fresh on the marble counter; 
 mill-stones that still turned to the hand as they turned 
 2,000 years ago. There, too, were the brothel, and theatre, 
 
 HOUSE OF DIOMEDE. 
 
OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and dancing-hall, conspicuous to-day as they were 
 then. There, too, stands a tavern with the rings yet 
 entire, to which the horses were fastened, and where 
 the bones of a mother and three children were found 
 locked in each other s arms. Temples \vere overthrown 
 with their altars, on which smoked the sacrifices to the 
 gods to whom they prayed in vain. Columns fallen 
 across each other in the courts, just as that wild hurricane 
 
 THE FORUM OF JUSTICE. 
 
 had left them, pieces of the architrave blocking up the 
 entrances they had surmounted, told how fierce the shock 
 and wild the overthrow had been. 
 
 Here stands the house of a wealthy poet with the gar 
 nished apartments forming in their silence a part in a 
 greater drama than he had ever conceived ; there the 
 palace of a rich man with mosaic floors representing 
 battle scenes, precious stones imbedded in the pave- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ments of the long corridors, attesting the unbounded 
 wealth of the owner. 
 
 There, too, stood the Temple of Eupiles, the Court of 
 Justice, the Forum and the Market-place, everything 
 belonging to a great and opulent city but the inhabitants. 
 ^Streets and buildings were alike empty, and the stillness 
 that reigns falls like a shadow on the spirit. Standing 
 outside the view is perhaps still more impressive. You 
 look back on the disentombed city, and beyond it on Vesu 
 vius, standing solemn, grand and lonely, sending up its 
 steady column of smoke, a perpetual tombstone over 
 the dead at its feet. You can see the track of the lava 
 in its wild and fiery march for the sea, and imagine just 
 how the cloud of ashes and cinders rose from the summit 
 and came flying toward the terror-stricken city. Foot 
 after foot it piled itself in the streets, over the thresholds 
 and above the windows, till it reached twenty or thirty 
 feet above the tops of the houses, and the gay and pleas 
 ure-loving and licentious city lay buried as century after 
 century rolled by, till nearly seventeen hundred years 
 rolled away before the first opening was made into the 
 hill that covered it. 
 
 Outside is the amphitheatre, large enough to hold fif 
 teen or twenty thousand spectators. Here were the 
 lion s dens bordering the area where gladiatorial shows 
 were exhibited. Some have thought that the people were 
 assembled here at the overthrow of the city, but this 
 . could not be ; the inhabitants of a city so dissolute and 
 careless as this could not gather to a place of amuse 
 ment when such dire portents were in the air for days 
 before the eruption. Spectres seemed to line the moun 
 tains as the mist boiled up from its trembling sides, and 
 ii; reeled above the sea of fire that was boiling under, 
 struggling for freedom. It was no time for amusement, 
 
j o . TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 but for consternation and terror, and thousands sought 
 safety in flight. 
 
 It is customary for the Italian authorities when a very 
 distinguished man visits Pompeii, to have a house dug 
 open, which ever afterward bears his name. An order 
 was therefore given to have one exhumed for Grant. 
 Chairs were brought for him and his wife, and some of the 
 officers of the " Vandalia," and the solemn work commenced. 
 But nothing of importance was discovered ; the bones of 
 no inmate rewarded the toil of the workmen; two or three 
 bronze ornaments and a loaf of bread wrapped in a cloth 
 and a few fragments of something that could not be made 
 out, were all that was found. The officer who had con 
 ducted the excavation, proposed to open another, but one 
 of the officers of the "Vandalia," who was both tired and 
 hungry, said he thought it would be better to excavate a 
 beefsteak. 
 
 Grant, who all this time had been quietly smoking his 
 cigar while the workmen uncovered the house, agreed 
 with him, and thanking the director for his courtesy, 
 adjourned outside to a restaurant, and Pompeii and its 
 solemn ruins were forgotten in the comforts of a modern 
 dinner. 
 
 Grant s visit was a flying one, and eml ra:ed as little of 
 Southern Italy as his one over the Alps to Northern 
 Italy did of that section of this most renowned penin 
 sula of the world. He did not go to Paestum and its 
 ruined temples, among the most ancient and myste 
 rious that still stand on the earth ; nor to Baiae, on 
 the other side of Naples, made immortal by Virgil, 
 and was once the resort of the poets, philosophers 
 and emperors of Rome, in their leisure hours, and 
 even now is covered with ruined temples, dedicated 
 to Venus, Apollo, Mercury, Diana, etc., to say nothing 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of the historic harbor of Msesenum, nor did he follow 
 the usual route of travelers that land at Naples, and 
 go back to Rome, the mother of empires and early 
 civilization, whose very ruins are grander than modern 
 art. This was reserved until he returned from Pales 
 tine. 
 
 He tarried only between three and four days in Na 
 ples, and then took ship for Palermo, and landed on the 
 23d of December, when the city was gay and jubilant in 
 preparations for Christmas festivals. The next day a 
 delegation from American vessels in port waited on him 
 to pay their respects. It was a gay morning, such as no 
 one sees except in sunny Italy. The city seemed filled 
 with bells, whose merry peels rung over the bay till the 
 whole atmosphere was filled with sweet chimes, and 
 everywhere and around the ship multitudinous voices 
 seemed to be shouting a merry Christmas. The sound 
 fell on the ears of Grant and his party as some sweet 
 memory, half-sad, half-joyful, comes back on the heart, 
 and the thoughts of home brought to each face an ex 
 pression that seemed vibrating between a smile and a 
 tear. 
 
 At noon the prefect came on board and was saluted 
 with fifteen guns. He remained only a few minutes to 
 tender to Grant the hospitalities of the town ; but the 
 latter had had enough of ceremony and wished quiet, and 
 so declined them with thanks. In the afternoon he went 
 ashore with the captain, and sauntered about the town 
 for three or four hours, seeing the sights and enjoying 
 the gayety and abandon of the people. It was not a 
 sunny Italian day, for the capricious rains came down 
 in short, sudden showers, but he did not seem to notice 
 them, and continued his walk without even raising his 
 umbrella. 
 
I0 5 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 The Christmas dinner aboard ship, given by the 
 ward room officers, was, perhaps, the most home-like and 
 enjoyable thing to Grant than anything that had occurred 
 since he left his native shores. The vessel was gay with 
 evergreens, and as Grant sat down surrounded in this 
 strange land by only his countrymen, all his reserve 
 seemed to forsake him, and he gave himself up like a 
 boy to the abandon and enjoyment of the day. Said 
 Young, who was present, "As he sat under the green 
 boughs of the Christmas decoration, the centre of our 
 merry company, it seemed as if he were as young as any 
 of the mess, a much younger man by far than our junior 
 Dannenhower, who looks grave and serious enough to 
 command all the fleets in the world. Mrs. Grant was in 
 capital health and spirits, and quite enchanted the mess 
 by telling them, in the earliest hour of the conversation, 
 that she already felt when she came back to the Van- 
 clalia from some errand on shore as if she were coming 
 home. I wish I could lift the veil far enough to show 
 you how much the kind, considerate, ever-womanly and 
 ever-cheerful nature of Mrs. Grant has won upon us all ; 
 but I must not invade the privacy of the domestic circle. 
 She was the queen of the feast, and we gave her queenly 
 honor." 
 
 There were no speeches, but a quiet home-like 
 dinner, followed by a stroll on deck, with cigars, to look 
 on the fire-works that were set off on the various ships 
 in the harbor. 
 
 Since Garibaldi overthrew the Bourbon King of 
 Naples, and the unification of Italy, Sicily has felt the 
 spirit of the age, and various modern improvements have 
 been made, and among them the laying out of several 
 new avenues, one of which bears the name of Lincoln. 
 A stroll through the streets of Palermo, is full of interest 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 107 
 
 from the associations that are awakened, though no very 
 striking objects present themselves. Grant s visit was 
 very short, for the anchors were weighed next day, and 
 the " Vandalia s " prow turned for Malta. Next morning 
 they passed Stromboli, but it was so enveloped in rain 
 and mist that only its dim outline could be seen. Through 
 the narrow Straits of Messina, past Scylla and Charybdis, 
 
 STROMBOLI. 
 
 the terror of the ancients, and past Messina, sleeping 
 white and beautiful on the margin of the sea, past Rhe- 
 gium, the same Rhegium to which Paul said, " we fetched 
 a compass and came ;" last of all past Etna, rising nearly 
 11,000 feet out of the blue sea, its summit covered with 
 snow, all day long in sight, and standing silent and grand 
 in the cloudless sky, they kept on through the Mediterra 
 nean. 
 
 Malta was reached on the 28th, one of the strongholds 
 of which, with Gibraltar, gives England such a preponder- 
 
loS 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j c ~ 
 
 ance of power in the Mediterranean. The vessel swung 
 to her moorings alongside an huge iron-clad of the British 
 navy, and fired her salute of twenty-one guns, which were 
 no sooner answered than the Duke of Edinburgh, com 
 manding it, presented himself. 
 
 Grant received him courteously, and after presenting 
 the gentlemen standing by his. side, led the way to the 
 cabin, where they engaged in conversation for nearly an 
 hour. On leaving, the duke invited General Grant and 
 his family to his palace, at San Antonio, some four miles 
 from town. They accepted the invitation, and drove out 
 to it under a glowing sun Luncheon and a stroll 
 through the orange groves followed. 
 
 Grant next visited the governor, and was received in 
 state, a regiment of soldiers being drawn up in front of 
 the palace, to do him honor. Then came a state dinner, 
 after which all went to the opera, the orchestra playing 
 the "Star Spangled Banner" as the General entered the 
 door, the music almost drowned by the thundering cheers 
 with which he was received. Invitations crowded on 
 Grant here, but he declined them all, and spent the time 
 in strolling about the place. The day after he embarked 
 on the " Vandalia," which once more turned her prow sea 
 ward, and amid the music of the bands on board the 
 "Triton" playing our national airs, passed out of the 
 
 harbor and took her leave of Malta. 
 
 i 
 
 23 
 
j Q TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT STARTS FOR EGYPT ENTERS ON NEW SCENES ALEXANDRIA HIS 
 RECEPTION MEETS STANLEY WANDERS THROUGH THE CITY HIS PHOTOGRAPH 
 TAKEN STARTS FOR CAIRO MEETS OLD WEST POINT SCHOOLMATES INTERVIEW 
 WITH THE KHEDIVE THE PYRAMIDS UP THE NILE RUN AGROUND LIFE ON 
 THE RIVER MEETING OF FRIENDS SIOUT DINNER AT THE CONSUL S AMERICAN 
 MISSIONARIES SWEET REPOSE GIRGEL AND FRIF.NDS ABYDOS A P^OR HORSE 
 ARAB BOYS AND DONKEYS THE JOURNEY THE RUINS THEIR ANTIQUITY 
 DIGGING FOR THE TOMB OF A GOD GRANT CLIMBS TO THE SI ITING-ROOM OF KING 
 MENES DINNER- IN THE RUINS. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT had now cut loose from 
 Western civilization to enter on that of the 
 Orient, with different scenes, different nation 
 alities and different social and political systems. His 
 voyage through the Mediterranean had awakened entirely 
 newer feelings than those he had experienced in the 
 capitals of Europe. Africa, with its ancient history, its 
 modern barbarism and desert wastes, were on one side 
 the shores of the grandest empire of the world, with it? 
 remarkable military history; and Greece, the home of 
 heroes and the fine arts, and so long the centre of refine 
 ment and literature, on the other. This inland sea washed 
 lands laden with grander associations and more beautiful 
 memories than those of any other portion of the civilized 
 world, and finally laved the shores of the Holy Land. 
 
 As he approached the low-lying coast of Egypt, with 
 out a single hill or elevation on which the eye could rest, 
 he felt that he was entering on an entirely new world. 
 As the vessel neared the narrow, intricate channel lead 
 ing to the port of Alexandria, a crowd in boats gathered 
 
TRAVELS OP GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Ill 
 
 around the vessel, yelling and shouting in their strange 
 dialect. 
 
 It was with strange feelings that he first set foot on 
 shore at Alexandria, 
 and remembered that 
 he was in the land of 
 the Pharaohs, out of 
 which the mighty host 
 of the Israelites moved 
 with Moses at their 
 
 gv bt=- 
 
 head, guided by a pil 
 lar of fire and cloud; 
 the land of the pyra 
 mids monuments of 
 the oldest civilization 
 of the world. Every 
 thing was now changed 
 climate, the aspect 
 of nature, the people, 
 the very animals were 
 all different, and the 
 mind, with one bound, 
 leaped from the pal 
 aces and splendor of 
 European courts to 
 vast, untrodden des 
 erts and grand, myste 
 rious views. Instead of 
 elegant carnages, cam 
 els in caravans were 
 slowly moving through 
 the streets, bound for 
 the desert plains. Cleopatra s Needle and Pompey s 
 Pillar pointed not only heavenward, but far back into 
 
 BAS-RELIEF OF CLEOPATRA. 
 
T r 2 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the ages. Grant, however, had but little time for reflec 
 tion. His arrival was expected, and the American con 
 sul, and vice-consul, and governor, together with all the 
 missionaries, came on board before he landed, and as 
 each was saluted according to his official rank, the roar 
 of guns for a long time prevented all conversation. The 
 governor, in the name of the khedive, offered him a 
 palace in Cairo and a special steamer to take him up the 
 Nile, and departed. 
 
 That very afternoon Grant returned the official visit, 
 and landed amid the thunder of guns, while the crew 
 of the " Vandalia" manned the yards, and rent the air 
 with hurras, which were answered back by all the 
 Egyptian vessels in port. A guard of honor received him 
 and conducted him to the pasha s palace. Led into 
 a spacious apartment they were seated according to their 
 rank on divans, while the pasha offered them, with great 
 dignity, cigarettes. Grant, who was ever ready to smoke, 
 would have preferred a substantial cigar, but was not unwil 
 ling to take these as a substitute. In the intervals of 
 puffing out the smoke, a conversation of mutual compli 
 ments was carried on the pasha complimenting Grant, 
 and the latter, the land of Egypt. A short time being 
 spent in this way, a servant entered, bearing little porce 
 lain cups about the size of an egg, in beautiful filigree 
 cases, and containing a hot drink spiced with cinnamon. 
 This being drunk, conversation was resumed the pasha 
 speaking with Oriental dignity and slowness, and Grant 
 replying with his usual taciturnity; it was not very bril 
 liant or animated, and probably about as little was said in 
 the following five minutes, as ever passed between two 
 men who wished to be particularly polite and entertaining. 
 
 The ceremony being over, Grant and his party arose 
 and filed slowly and solemnly down the stairs, saluted by 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. , T ^ 
 
 1 l o 
 
 the servants, and the visit was over, much to the relief of 
 the distinguished guest, to whom the whole thing had 
 been a serious farce. At evening, Grant and his wife 
 dined with the vice-consul, and there met the African 
 traveler Stanley, fresh from his wondrous journey across 
 the " Dark Continent." Grant had sent to have him 
 come on board the "Vandalia," but the latter did not 
 receive the letter. The two had a long and interesting 
 conversation, and Grant listened with the deepest interest 
 to the account of his wonderful discoveries. To a toast 
 that was given him he replied in a neat speech, in which 
 he said it was the proudest moment of his life to find 
 himself seated beside the distinguished guest of the 
 evening. The next morning he continued his journey 
 to England to report in person the result of his great 
 expedition. Dinner over, the General returned on board 
 the vessel and passed the night. The next day, Sunday, 
 he proposed to take a quiet stroll through the town, like 
 any other private traveler and, unobserved, study the 
 character and manners of the people as well as get an 
 idea of the place. Free from continental, formalities he 
 wandered hither and thither as his fancy led him, till 
 he was lost in a labyrinth of streets. This was his con 
 stant custom in traveling, and is the best way to get a 
 thorough knowledge of any city. He wandered as far 
 as Cleopatra s Needle, and after viewing the graceful 
 shaft, returned to luncheon. The next day was a quiet 
 one on board ship. Being requested to sit for his photo 
 graph, he seated himself on deck surrounded by his 
 family, with the officers of the ship on either side, and 
 was thus taken, the picture to be kept by the latter as a 
 memento of the occasion. The next day, he started for 
 Cairo. It formerly took three days to reach it from Alex 
 andria, but now, by rail, the distance can be made in four 
 
T l , TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 hours. A special train was placed at his disposal, and 
 accompanied by the principal officers of the " Vandalia," 
 wound along- the Nile and soon came in sight of the 
 pyramids, rising solemn and grand in the distance, those 
 massive, mysterious creations of the ancient Egyptian 
 kings. Mrs. Grant seemed filled with the romance of 
 the scenery and the objects they passed, while he studied 
 the country closely and remarked in a very matter-of-fact 
 way : " That some portions of it resembled very much our 
 Western prairie." Imagination was almost entirely left 
 out in his composition, and he looks at everything in a 
 plain, practical manner. 
 
 As the train entered the station at Cairo at 3 o clock, 
 Grant found a carpet-way laid for him to walk upon, 
 while a guard with a group of cavaliers stood ready to 
 receive him. As Grant cast his eye over them he recog 
 nized under their Oriental costume and Egyptian uniform 
 old army friends, and he exclaimed : " There is Loring 
 whom I have not seen for thirty years there is Stone 
 who must have been dyeing his hair to make it so white." 
 He knew that they were high officers in the khedive s 
 army, and was expecting to meet them, though it was 
 hardly probable he would, after such a lapse of time and 
 in such a strange uniform, recognize them. 
 
 Stone, who received such harsh criticism for the affair 
 at Ball s Bluff, stood high in the khedive s estimation and 
 in his army, and he now entered the car as his repre 
 sentative, to welcome Grant to Egypt. The meeting was 
 a strange one in that far-off land, but Grant was glad to 
 speak to this foreign representative in his own tongue 
 and talk something besides what court etiquette de 
 manded. Loring was a rebel officer, and had fought 
 Grant in the recent civil war, but the latter, glad to see a 
 familiar face, forgot all that and shook him warmly by 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j T r 
 
 the hand. They had been West Point boys together 
 and this meeting, almost under the shadow of the pyra 
 mids, could not be otherwise than a pleasant and cordial 
 one. 
 
 The consul-general gave a dinner, at which the usual 
 toasts and speeches were made. A formal call was now 
 made on the khedive, which he returned the next day. 
 The General received him, accompanied by his secretary 
 of foreign affairs, and welcomed him in the grand saloon, 
 where Mr. Grant also received His Highness. The 
 officers of the "Vandalia" were present, and their 
 striking uniforms, the picturesque costumes of the khe 
 dive and his attendants, and the splendid, stately decora 
 tions of the room in which they assembled, made" the 
 group imposing. In the course of this conversation 
 General Grant spoke of General Stone, now chief of staff 
 to the khedive. He said he had known General Stone 
 from boyhood, and did not think he had his superior in 
 our army ; that he was a loyal and able man, and he was 
 pleased to see him holding so important a command. The 
 khedive said he was very much pleased with General 
 Stone, that he found him a most useful and a most able 
 man, especially fitted to organize troops, and had made 
 him a member of his privy council. At the close of the 
 interview General Grant escorted the khedive to his 
 carriage. Official calls were then made upon the two 
 sons of the khedive, who at once returned the calls, and 
 so ended the official duties. 
 
 Though Cairo had its objects of interest, they were of 
 little consequence compared to those which the banks of 
 the Nile furnish. Still, it will well repay the traveler for 
 a sojourn of many days. It is a gay and bright city, and 
 the new quarters occupied by foreigners are handsomely 
 built, and make it resemble a European city. The climate 
 
n6 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 is delightful, while the great number of foreigners one 
 meets at the " New Hotel" makes him feel as if he were 
 at Saratoga or Newport. The streets are picturesque, 
 and filled with fine horses, and carriages, and diminutive 
 monkeys, and sober camels all equally at home, as they 
 bear their respective burdens to their destinations. You 
 cannot stir a step without being hailed by a sharp little 
 boy, asking if you don t want a donkey. If he happens 
 to know that you are an American, he will say that he 
 has a capital one, and that his name is " Yankee Doodle." 
 The traveler can hardly believe, as he walks the solid 
 streets and sees the massive buildings that every stone 
 
 IRRIGATING MACHI 
 
 and brick of which the gay city is built was brought there 
 on the backs of donkeys and camels. 
 
 But the greatest sight in the neighborhood of Cairo is 
 the pyramids, only eight miles distant. Though the time 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
n8 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of their erection is lost in the dim ages of antiquity, they 
 are a marvel and a mystery to-day, and will be to the end 
 of time. One is overawed as he looks at that of Cheops, 
 
 which Herodotus says it took 
 1 20,000 men twenty years to build, 
 and which is so massive that its 
 base covers eleven acres, while its 
 top rises nearly five hundred feet 
 into the heavens. By whom and 
 for w r hat purpose these heavy 
 structures were built, at such an 
 enormous expense of time and 
 labor, is only conjecture. One 
 gets some idea of the enormous 
 mass of stone in this great pyra 
 mid, when it is stated that there is 
 enough stone in it to lay a wall a 
 foot and a half broad and ten feet 
 high around all England, a dis 
 tance of 883 miles. They were 
 built before Moses was born, nay, 
 before Jacob came down into 
 Egypt; and Joseph, doubtless, 
 showed them to his brethren as one 
 of the wonders of that land, over 
 which he was ruler, second only to 
 the king. The summit of Cheops 
 is a platform about thirty feet 
 square, from which is seen a 
 splendid view of the surrounding 
 country. Before you is the Nile, which can be traced for 
 miles, winding its way through a carpet of verdure, on 
 which are scattered numerous villages, with Cairo and 
 its minarets in the distance. The entrance to this, the 
 
 Gallery leading to the chamber 
 of the Ouecn. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 largest of the three pyramids, is on the northern side, 
 from which you make a sharp descent through a long gal 
 lery, until you reach a massive block of granite obstruct 
 ing the passage. Up one side of 
 this you are helped by the guides 
 and then continue through an 
 other gallery, rising at about an 
 angle of twenty-five degrees. 
 The length of this passage is 
 about one hundred and twenty- 
 five feet, the end of which is much 
 enlarged and divided into two 
 galleries, on one side of which is 
 a large opening called the well. 
 This was formerly a gallery com 
 municating with a lower corridor, 
 but it is now practically closed. 
 Of the two galleries just men 
 tioned, the first leads to what is 
 called the chamber of the Queen, 
 and the second is the Grand gal 
 lery, which rises to the centre of 
 the pyramid, until it reaches a ves 
 tibule leading to the chamber of 
 the Sarcophagus. Here the royal 
 remains were deposited in a sarco 
 phagus of red granite, part of 
 which still remains, the remainder 
 having been chipped off piece by 
 piece and carried away as relics, 
 so that it is fast disappearing, and probably in time, not 
 even a fragment will be left to mark where the royal re 
 mains were placed. But while this change is going on 
 in the inside, the outside ever remains the same. Centu- 
 
 Grand Gallery. 
 
120 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ries have rolled over them, leaving no mark of their slow 
 passage. Nations and dynasties, and generations of men 
 have come and gone, the very face of the earth under 
 gone a change, yet there these mountains of stone 
 stand, and will stand, till time shall be no longer. 
 
 UP THE NILE. 
 
 Grant, having determined to ascend the Nile as far as 
 the first cataract, 
 and visit the an 
 cient ruins near its 
 banks, the khedive 
 placed a steamer at 
 his disposal, and 
 sent Mr. Brugseh, 
 one of the Direct 
 ors of the Egyp 
 tian Museum, and 
 hence knew all that 
 can be told about 
 Egyptian antiqui 
 ties, to accompany 
 him. Three offi 
 cers of the " Vanda- 
 lia" also joined the 
 party, together with 
 the consul-general 
 and his attendant, 
 Hassan. As they 
 embarked on the 
 steamer and mov 
 
 ing out into the stream, many friends came on board to 
 see them off, bringing bouquets of flowers for Mrs. 
 
 THE ARAB CAPTAIN. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 121 
 
 Grant. While preparations were being made to start, 
 Grant sat in one corner of the cabin talking with Stone 
 and Loring about old times in the army, and the officers 
 v/ho had become famous. At length, all being ready, 
 adieus were made and the steamer shot away up the 
 turbid Nile. It was the i6th of January, but a summer 
 air was around them and a summer sky above them. 
 The Arab captain sits in the middle of the boat and 
 shouts to the steersman or two men who lean over the 
 prow and strike their poles down to sound the depth, 
 and shcut back. A pilot is of no use, for the ever-shift 
 ing bed of the stream allows no permanent channel to be 
 cut. It was a strange and dreary sail up this mysterious 
 river, whose waters bathe ruins that are almost coeval 
 with man. For two or three hours the boat glided along, 
 while the passengers gazed on the low, green banks that 
 swept rapidly by, when suddenly the wheels stopped. 
 They first thought that some disaster had happened, but 
 shipwreck on the Nile is not a very dangerous thing. 
 They had only run aground. This got to be of such 
 common occurrence, that it served hardly to break up 
 the monotony of the voyage. 
 
 When evening came, or soon after sunset, the captain 
 having selected the spot to tie up for the night, ran the 
 boat ashore, when the crew landed and driving posts into 
 the soft clay, tied up. As if by magic a group of 
 Bedouins appeared on the bank, and having gathered 
 together a heap of combustible matter, set fire to it and 
 squatting on the ground, kept watch till morning, or pre 
 tended to. It was all the same, as they got the same pay. 
 The days and nights that followed were a repetition of 
 this first, except when Grant wished to visit a ruin they 
 were passing, when the boat was run ashore. Each one 
 breakfasted when he liked, except when some object of 
 
122 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 interest was to be visited. Grant is early astir, and if any 
 one wishes to accompany him he must be on time. He 
 waits for no one, but with his Indian helmet on, wrapped 
 
 in silk to protect him from the heat of the sun, he starts 
 at the appointed hour. But when nothing is to be seen, 
 all lounge lazily on deck, or lean over the sides of the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. l 2 , 
 
 vessel and watch the polemen sounding the bottom, or 
 young Grant firing at a wandering crane or pelican, 
 when his father dryly suggests that he had better go 
 ashore and fire at the poor camel toiling along the bank 
 under his heavy load. Sometimes he sits for a long time 
 wrapped in silence, the rest following his example, and 
 then again, as his mind wanders back to the past, he 
 begins to talk on some subject or event connected with the 
 war or his administration, when all listen with eager 
 attention. Sometimes Brugseh descants on the antiquities 
 of Egypt till his listeners catch his enthusiasm. One 
 day a dahabeeah, the regular Nile boat, hove in sight, and 
 overhauling it they found on board a friend of Grant, Mr. 
 Drexel. Other friends were met on their way back to 
 the living world, all full of anxious inquiries as to what 
 had happened since they left the land of railroads, and 
 steamboats, and newspapers. They thus passed idly up 
 the river, and the morning of the iQth, just three days 
 after they started, came to the town of Siout, or Assiout, 
 as some call it. We have a vice-consul there, aad tokens 
 of their coming had been sent, as could be seen by the 
 flags which decorated the bank, and the crowd on the 
 shore. Siout is the capital of Upper Egypt, and is a city 
 of 25,000 inhabitants. The city is some distance back 
 from the river, and grew into importance as the depot of 
 much of the caravan trade from Darfour. Upon arriving, 
 the vice-consul and his son came on board and were pre 
 sented to the General. Congratulations were exchanged. 
 The name of the consul here is Wasif el Hayat. 
 
 They rode into the town and through the bazaars. All 
 the town seemed to know of their coming, for wherever 
 they went, crowds swarmed around them, and they had 
 to force their donkeys through masses of Arabs and 
 Egyptians of all ages and conditions, some almost naked 
 
124 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GKAXT. 
 
 crowds crying for baksheesh or pressing articles of mer 
 chandise upon them. The bazaars are narrow covered 
 ways, covered with matting 1 or loose boards, enough to 
 break the force of the sun. The stores are little cubby 
 holes of rooms, in front of which the trader sits and calls 
 upon you to buy. The town had some fine houses and 
 mosques, but in the main it was like all towns in Upper 
 Egypt, a collection of mud hovels. They rode beyond 
 the town to the tombs built in the sand, and climbed the 
 limestone rock on donkeys. This was the first evidence 
 of the manner of sepulture in the olden time. These 
 desert rocks of limestone were tunneled and made into 
 rooms, and here the mummied dead found rest. The 
 chambers appointed for them were large and spacious, 
 according to the means of the deceased. In some they 
 entered there was a chamber, an antechamber, and some- 
 times connecting chambers. There were inscriptions on 
 the walls but they had been defaced. 
 
 The American consul invited the party to his house. 
 As they approached the building, lanterns lined the streets, 
 with servants in the invervals, holding up blazing torches, 
 while a transparency was over the door, with the words : 
 " Welcome, General Grant." As they passed in the court 
 yard rockets and colored lights lit up the scene, while the 
 way into the house was covered with gorgeous carpets 
 and rugs. At the door the consul met the General in 
 true Oriental style, kissing his hands as he clasped them, 
 and then touching his own heart, lips and brow. They here 
 met also the governor and Rev. L. R. Alexander, one of 
 the professors in the missionary college, under charge of 
 the United Presbyterian Church. A sumptuous dinner 
 followed, of some twenty courses. At the close the son 
 of the consul proposed the health of General Grant in a 
 a toast, and in clear, good English, pronounced a glowing 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j 2 - 
 
 eulogy on America, closing with one on Grant. The 
 latter made a short reply, saying that nothing in his 
 whole trip had so impressed him as this generous, unex 
 pected welcome in Egypt. Coffee, conversation and 
 cigars followed, and Mrs. Grant had a long and pleasant 
 chat with the young wife of Mr. Alexander about home 
 and home friends. As evening drew on, the company 
 separated with mutual expressions of pleasure at the 
 interview, and Grant and his party mounted and rode 
 through the glooming to the boat on the Nile, accom 
 panied by torch-bearers, over the desolate plain. A 
 bright moon was sailing through the cloudless heavens, 
 lighting up the surrounding landscape, and adding still 
 more to the dreariness and strangeness of the scene. 
 
 This lazy life on the Nile was the first real rest of any 
 length that Grant had enjoyed, for the ceaseless round of 
 entertainments, speeches and hand-shakings had been 
 almost as great a strain on him as his public life at home. 
 But here it was a complete abandonment of all care and 
 thought. The monotonous ripple of the water against 
 the boat, the balmy air, the quiet, drowsy shores, all 
 tended to lull the feelings into repose, while the strange 
 and new objects around him, and stranger language, 
 removed him far off from all the exciting topics that had 
 so long occupied him. Their very memory seemed like 
 a dream, and he abandoned himself without restraint to 
 the quieting influence around him. The occasional 
 monuments of the past, rising out of the desert, served 
 only to deepen the dream, and remove still farther all 
 those things that had burdened his mind. 
 
 There was one thing whose enjoyment never ceased, 
 the beauty of the atmosphere and the sky. Before sun 
 rise you hear the ropes released from the shore strug 
 gling back to the ship. You see the torches flashing up 
 24 
 
126 
 
 rXA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and down the bank, noting the preparations for de 
 parture, and you have only to open your eyes to see the 
 heavens in all their glory, the stars and constellations to 
 see them again, as it were, embossed on the dark, brown 
 river. You hear the cries of the sailors at their posts 
 and answering cries from the shore, and the boat pulls 
 herself together like a 
 strong man gathering for 
 a race, and you are away. 
 
 On the 2 i st, they 
 hauled up to the bank at 
 the town of Giegel, where 
 they found Admiral 
 Steedman and Mr. Davis, 
 of Boston, whose daha- 
 beeah was fast aground. 
 A pleasant interview fol 
 lowed, and the evening 
 was wearing away in 
 mutual inquiries and 
 reminiscences of home, 
 when the admiral s drag 
 oman entered and re 
 ported the river was 
 rising, and they must 
 take advantage of it to get afloat, and they hurried away. 
 
 The party was to start from here early next morning 
 to visit Abydos, "the cradle, the fountain-head of all 
 civilization," whose first king, Mendez, reigned 4,500 
 years before Christ, or hundreds of years before Abraham 
 came to Egypt. It was quite a long ride to the ruins, 
 and the orders had been given to be ready at eight 
 o clock. Grant was first on deck, followed soon after by 
 his wife, while the rest straggled up not more than half 
 
 HASSAN. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. x 2 ^ 
 
 awake. But as the General waits for no one, he went 
 ashore prompt on time, and the loiterers were compelled 
 to hurry after him, some of them with their half-eaten 
 breakfast in their hands, which they nibbled as they hur 
 ried up the bank. A crowd of Arabs and donkeys 
 awaited them, the former making a perfect babel with 
 their vociferous cries as each extolled the peculiar and 
 excellent qualities of his own diminutive animal, often so 
 small, that a good-sized man on the back of one could 
 almost touch the ground with his feet. Hassan managed 
 the selection, which at last was completed, and the party 
 prepared to set out, while two camels, loaded with refresh 
 ments for a breakfast in the ruined temple, went ahead. 
 The pasha had provided Grant with a horse, but so poor 
 a one, and with such a shambling gait, that he was half 
 inclined to be rude enough to decline the courtesy and 
 take instead a lively little donkey. 
 
 Each person had two Arabs as an escort, one on each 
 side of him, whose chief employment was to whisper, and 
 talk, and soundly thrash by turns the donkey the travelers 
 bestrode. Mrs. Grant would not stand this and o.rdered 
 a halt, when she told the astonished Arabs they must stop 
 beating the donkeys, accompanying the orders with the 
 most terrible threat she could utter to the poor wretches, 
 viz., that unless they did, they should have no baksheesh 
 not a farthing at the end of the journey. This was 
 effectual, but they compensated themselves by keeping up 
 a running fire of conversation with the travelers, the 
 burden of which was, as far as it was intelligible, " Good 
 donkey," "Good morning," "Yankee Doodle," and utter 
 ing their own names. In the intervals they would try to 
 drive a trade with fragments of mummy cloth or mum 
 mies, which they had stolen from the tombs. Their 
 donkeys were named, for the time being, according to the 
 
r2 g TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 nationality of the rider, hence, " Yankee Doodle," was the 
 popular name among these. Over the cracked and bar 
 ren land that was baked and parched, because the Nile 
 had failed to overflow its banks this year, over burning 
 sands, dry irrigating ditches and along roads that looked 
 as if they had not been mended since the time of Moses, 
 they pushed their way. They were in the land of the 
 sun, and soon his rays came down with scorching power. 
 Each one had provided himself with a head covering or 
 protection to suit his fancy, and padded straw hats, 
 helmets covered with silk, etc., gave them a picturesque 
 yet odd look as they straggled through the country. 
 If a donkey fell into a hole, all the rider had to do was 
 to walk off over his head and let him help himself up. 
 
 At last the ancient temple was reached, and they dis 
 mounted and entered. Brugseh was now in his element, 
 and he discoursed eloquently of this ancient ruin. He 
 said that although India and China pretended to go far 
 ther back than this temple, it was only in tradition, and 
 therefore not reliable, but here were monuments that 
 could not lie, and there could be no doubt that right 
 here under their feet once flowed the fountain of civiliza 
 tion which has enriched tin j world. Engraved on stones 
 are the names of seventy-: ax kings, reaching back from 
 Lethi, who built this temple, 1400 years before Christ, to 
 3,000 years farther back in the ages. Here on a stone 
 dug up only a little over ten years ago from the sand, 
 is cut in clear, distinct characters, what makes a continu 
 ous history of Egypt, from this time till Moses, corroborat 
 ing where there is any connection with it the sacred 
 account. They wandered over the buried city which the 
 khedive was excavating, and saw from the ruins, that it 
 had been built on a grand, magnificent scale. But the 
 most remarkable thing about these excavations is the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. l 
 
 search after the tomb of the god Osiris, who, by Egyp 
 tian tradition from time immemorial, was buried here. 
 The discovery of the burial-place of a god, would, under 
 any circumstances, be an event of great importance, and 
 to suppose it possible, raises a laugh in a modern, prac 
 tical man. But when it is remembered that the Cru 
 saders shed oceans of blood to rescue the tomb of the 
 Saviour of mankind from the hands of the infidel, and that 
 to-day to save the tomb of Mahomet from desecration, the 
 plains of Asia would swarm with more than a million of 
 men devoted to death, it should not seem so strange that 
 the Egyptians desire with irrepressible longings to find 
 where is the sepulchre of their god Osiris. But how 
 they should give such a definite character to this god, 
 who was once torn to pieces and went through so many 
 changes and is so intimately connected with Isis, it is 
 difficult to perceive, and we are inclined to doubt whether 
 such a learned man as Brugseh did not give an undue 
 prominence to this project of his patron the khedive. 
 He may be mistaken, too, in making these inscriptions so 
 much more veritable history than tradition. How does 
 he know that the monarch who traced the dynasty to 
 which he belonged to such remote antiquity did not put 
 on imperishable stone tradition and only tradition? What 
 he calls reliable record, viz., tradition on stone, may be 
 
 no more reliable than oral tradition. One tiling, however, 
 
 ^> 
 
 is certain, that this city had passed its glory before Thebes 
 had an existence, and that the sand that covers it, 
 covers the dynasties that reach back almost to the flood- 
 covers the earliest human civilization, and a portion of 
 the most important part of human history. 
 
 " There had been some trouble in the neighborhood 
 riots, arising out of the bad Nile and taxes. So, a guard 
 was given the party, consisting of one soldier, whom they 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 called Boss Tweed. He was a fat and ragged fellow, with 
 a jolly face. It was quite a walk to the ruins, which was over 
 hills and ridges of burning sand. The courier went to the 
 village to see if the camels had come bearing the luncheon 
 a subject that was of more value to his practical mind 
 than the tomb of a dethroned deity. It was an interesting 
 walk, as it was the first real glimpse of the desert and of 
 an ancient city. The General and the reporter found 
 themselves together climbing the highest of the mounds. 
 It was rather an effort to keep their footing on the slip 
 pery sand. Beneath was one excavation forty or fifty 
 feet deep. You could see the remnants of an old house 
 or old tomb ; millions of fragments of broken pottery all 
 around. You could see the strata that age after age had 
 heaped upon the buried city. The desert had slowly 
 been creeping over it, and in some of the strata were 
 marks of the Nile. For years, for thousands of years, 
 this mass, which the workmen had torn with their spades, 
 had been gathering. The city was really a city of tombs. 
 In the ancient days the devout Egyptian craved burial 
 near the tomb of Osiris, and so for centuries their re 
 mains were brought to Abydos from all parts of Egypt. 
 This fact gives special value to the excavations, as it gave 
 9, special solemnity to the view. As they stood on the ele 
 vation, talking about Egypt and the impressions made 
 upon them by the journey, the scene was very striking. 
 There was the ruined temple ; here were the gaping 
 excavations filled with bricks and pottery. Just beyond 
 were rolling plains of shining sand shining, burning 
 sand and as the shrinking eye followed the plain and 
 searched the hills there was no sign of life, nothing 
 except, perhaps, some careering hawk hurrying to the 
 river. It was the apotheosis of death and ruin, a fit 
 mantle for the sepulchred city below." 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 From the contemplation of these hoary ruins, and the 
 grave and solemn thoughts they inspired, they come 
 down to a very practical employment. The correspond 
 ent says : " We were now told that the camels had come 
 and the luncheon was ready. We sat around our modest 
 table and feasted feasted in the temple sacred to the 
 memory of Osiris, and built by the pious munificence of 
 Sethi, the king who rests with God. After an hour s rest 
 we went back again very much as we came, and pro 
 ceeded on our way to the ruins of the ancient city of 
 Thebes." 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 ANCIENT THEBES THE WONDER OF THE WORLD LUXOR RECEPTION OF GRANT 
 A SOMBRE VIEW A YANKEE MANUFACTURING RELICS FOR SALE ENGLISH BAR 
 BARISM THE TEMPLE THE STATUE OF MEMNON DONKEY BOYS AND WATER 
 GIRLS MRS. GRANT S INTERFERENCE TO PROTECT THE LATTER HIE SINGING 
 STATUE THE TEMPLE OF MEDCEMET GRANT A NIMBLE CLIMBER THE KING S 
 PRIVATE ROOM A LUNCH IN THE RUINED SANCTUARY MRS. GRANT S VAIN 
 ATTEMPT TO PAY OFF THE WATER GIRLS A STATE DINNER JESSE GRANT 
 TEACHES THE MINSTRELS KARNAC THE GREAT TEMPLE A WILDERNESS OF 
 RUINS GRANT AND HIS PARTY PHOTOGRAPHED AMONG THEM GRANT A FAST 
 TRAVELER KENCH HOME-LIFE OF THE PEOPLE A STUPID INTERVIEW WITH 
 THE PASHA VISIT TO THE GERMAN CONSUL A BEAUTIFUL DESCRIPTION OF 
 DAILY LIFE ANONAN NUBIA A COAL-BLACK GOVERNOR IN PARISIAN COSTUME 
 MRS. GRANT BARGAINS FOR SOME OSTRICH FEATHERS A CURIOUS SCENE A 
 VISIT TO PHILADELPHIA A NOBLE HORSE PHILADELPHIA OZIRIS AND ISIS 
 EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY THE RETURN MEMPHIS CAIRO. 
 
 THE next morning the steamer was untied from 
 the bank, and kept on up the river toward the 
 ancient city of Thebes, once the wonder of the 
 world. If Homer can be relied on as an historian, it once 
 covered both sides of the Nile, had a hundred gates and 
 contained 300,000 inhabitants. Here was the Temple of 
 Memnon and the colossal statue of the same name. 
 
 Dr. Pocock, in speaking of Thebes, says : " That ven 
 erable city, the date of whose destruction is older than 
 the foundation of other cities, and the extent of whose 
 ruins and the immensity of whose colossal fragments still 
 offer so many astonishing objects, that one is riveted to 
 the spot, unable to decide whither to direct his steps or 
 fix his attention. And no wonder, for they extend along 
 
I 
 133 
 
134 
 
 TRA I E LS OF G l:\KK. 1 1. (/A 1 . 1 XT. 
 
 the Nile for eight miles on both sides, reaching" back to 
 the mountains, both east and west, making a circuit 
 twenty-seven miles wide. History has no record of this 
 marvelous city, whose ruined architecture puts to shame 
 the ghest triumphs of modern art. Its glories live in 
 poetry and fiction, that have survived the work of human 
 hands, and they would be regarded as merely the creation 
 of the imagination, did not the ruins remain to show that 
 the brightest flights of fancy fall far short of the reality. 
 
 VIEW OF THE RUINS. 
 
 The mighty city has crumbled to ashes, and where once 
 gorgeous equipages, and a gay and busy population 
 thronged the streets, are now only a few scattered vil 
 lages, consisting of miserable huts, built in the courts of 
 the old magnificent temples, presenting a sad commen 
 tary on the improvement of the present over-past ages. 
 As the boat moved slowly toward the site of this ancient 
 city, nothing but distant, low, brown mountains, and 
 parched fields, and patches of desert sand, met the eye, 
 and the question arose, " where is Thebes ?" At length 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 135 
 
 two lonely columns rose beside a clump of trees, outlined 
 in the clear air against the blue sky, they were the 
 colossal statues of Memnon, reared long" before Moses 
 was born. But as they move on, mile after mile of mag 
 nificent portals, adorned with beautiful sculpture, forests 
 of columns and long avenues of colossal statues greet the 
 eyes, filling the beholder with wonder at the enormous 
 wealth, power and grandeur of a people and a civilization 
 
 RUINED TEMPLE. 
 
 that lived before present history began. Passing Karnac, 
 the largest temple found in Egypt, they went on about a 
 quarter of -a mile to the village of Luxor, groveling 
 amid the grand and mighty ruins of the ancient Luxor. 
 They discover that they are expected, for from a stone 
 building are flying the American and Brazilian flags, 
 raised by the respective consuls who live in this modern 
 capital of Upper Egypt. There were five or six Nile 
 
36 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 
 GATEWAY AT RARNAC. 
 
 boats in the river, which also had their little flags out, 
 while to complete this imoosing reception in this ancient 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 glory of the world, two soldiers on the roof fired a half 
 a dozen shots from their muskets, as a salute. The plank 
 was then run ashore, and the vice-consul and governor 
 came aboard and welcomed General Grant to the city. 
 A lunch at the consulate followed, and then all mounted to 
 the roof to look over the site of the ancient city. The 
 sun was stooping low over the western desert, and all 
 that could be seen was a narrow valley between two 
 brown hills, a few dirty villages, and here and there a 
 colossal ruin, throwing its long and silent shadow over 
 the buried city and the mouldering generations of un 
 known ages. 
 
 4& 
 
 -y^r.-i-^ 
 
 ENTRANCE TO THE TEMPLE. 
 
 Sauntering about the town, they were shown a house 
 where an American lived for fifteen years, making not 
 wooden nutmegs, nor wooden clocks, but mummy-lids, 
 hieroglyphic inscriptions, idols and relics of all kinds to 
 suit the purchaser, which now, doubtless, adorn many a 
 private collection, and are looked upon with wonder by 
 the curious, as genuine relics of the past. 
 
 The chief object of interest here is the temple, which is 
 now desecrated by Arab cottages, and worse than all, by 
 
1-8 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the English consulate, put up here in one of the grandest 
 ruins in the world, defacing and disgracing it. This is a 
 fair sample of English barbarism throughout the East. 
 Anything English is sacred, whether it be a work of 
 modern art, ancient ruins, social customs or political 
 rights, while all these in other nations are totally dis 
 regarded. If perchance some ancient relic is looked 
 upon as valuable, it is- appropriated, so that what of an 
 tiquity England wants she seizes, and what she does not 
 want to transport home she considers so much useless 
 rubbish. 
 
 This temple is not so large as the one at Carnac, but 
 of superior architecture and in a better state of preserva 
 tion. The entrance to it is most imposing, with its col 
 umns of rose-colored granite rising 100 feet into the 
 air. Sculptures cover one of the wings, representing 
 a great victory gained by the ancient Egyptians, consist 
 ing of 1,500 human figures, 500 on foot, and 1,000 in 
 chariots. 
 
 In the morning, after Grant s arrival, it was determined 
 to visit the statues of Memnon. The party consisted of fif 
 teen, properly, but with the donkey-boys and water-girls, 
 and a sheik and several soldiers, it was swelled when it 
 left the farther bank of the river to quite a caravan. 
 Grant, standing on Orchard Knoll, in Chattanooga, with 
 three armies awaiting his bidding for the decisive hour, 
 and then carrying Missionary Ridge amid shouts, and 
 yells, and torrents of blood, and Grant heading a train of 
 miniature donkeys, slowly wandering over the desert 
 plain in search of a ruin, presented as wide a contrast as 
 a western town and Thebes, the glory of Egypt. 
 
 At first all the romance and sentiment these great sur 
 roundings awakened were taken away by the screams of 
 the donkey-boys and the importunities of the water-girls 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j ,, Q 
 
 oy 
 
 running beside the animals. Hassan, at last, began to 
 lay about among the latter with a whip, which aroused all 
 the American woman in Mrs. Grant, and she summarily 
 ordered Hassan before her and peremptorily forbade him 
 beating the girls. He, in reply, assured her that he did 
 not intend to hurt them he wished solely to frighten 
 them. But the way they laughed at and eluded him 
 showed that he did not even do this. It was, however, 
 all arranged on a strictly business basis, which Mrs. 
 Grant had come to understand perfectly well. She told 
 Hassan to inform the water-girls, and donkey-boys, and 
 peddlers of relics, that if they did not keep behind and out 
 of the way they would, at the close of the day, receive 
 no baksheesh. This was the strongest kind of moral sua 
 sion and Hassan s whip after that was not called into 
 requisition. Still, woman like, every now and then a 
 dusky maiden, under the pretense of offering water, 
 would steal up to the side of one of the travelers and 
 press a bargain in such a way that there was no re 
 sisting her. 
 
 In this matter of fact, unromantic, unsentimental way 
 they came to Memnon. It was a terrible leap, from these 
 modern ragged Arabs to these statues, clad with the 
 mouldering garments of centuries and believe in the his 
 tory attached to them. But their solemn aspect, as they 
 stood in their lonely silence and grandeur, were sufficient 
 to drive away all skepticism and make them forget don 
 key-boys, water-maidens and covetous, fawning Arabs 
 alike. It is true but little was left of these historic 
 statues without a history. It is not worth while to trace 
 the fabulous career of Memnon amid the mythology of 
 the ancients. Of the two statues erected to his memory, 
 one, it is said, uttered a joyful sound when the sun arose 
 and threw his first beams upon it and sung a mournful 
 
t . Q TRAVELS Or GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 refrain when it set. How much truth is mixed with this 
 tradition it is impossible to say, but it is not probable that 
 
 
 such a strange story should have been a pure invention 
 and, as such, traveled down through the centuries. It is 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 141 
 
 far more likely that by some curious mechanism or con 
 trivance, for which the Egyptians from the remotest ages 
 have been remarkable, so much so that even in the time 
 of Moses they were able to imitate miracles and perform 
 all sorts of magical wonders, they made the top of 
 this great statue an ^Eolian harp, a musical instrument of 
 some sort, that played when the sunbeams first struck it 
 and last left it. It is far more easy to believe this than 
 that the whole story is a pure fiction. 
 
 The statue is now a solitary monolith, only some fifty 
 feet high the base being partly buried in the earth. It 
 is over eighteen feet across the shoulders, and sixteen 
 feet and a half from the top of the shoulder to the elbow. 
 Not all the convulsions that have shaken the earth, and 
 overturned and buried cities, have been able to overthrow 
 this wonderful statue. It is true the lips, if they ever 
 spoke, are now mute, and the strange strains that from 
 its top came and went w r ith the god of day are heard no 
 more. Yet its silence is more moving than song, and a 
 voice from the dim mysterious past comes down to us far 
 more eloquent than words, and says things of deeper im 
 port than it then did as a god to the superstitious people. 
 After riding round and round it to take in its vast dimen 
 sions, and resting for half an hour under its shade, that 
 was like resting under the shadow of the centuries, the 
 party struck across the country, to visit the temple of 
 Medinet Haboo. Their road lay through ruins, each one 
 a history irt itself, and reached at length this temple which, 
 containing the rooms in which the great Rameses 
 lived, brought the remote past nearer, for they re 
 vealed somewhat the home-life of the ancient kings. 
 Still, climbing up the ruined stairways of stone, and 
 wandering through vast and desolate chambers that had 
 not been occupied for more than two thousand years, 
 25 
 
142 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 gave a poor idea of how kings lived in the time of Moses. 
 It looked as if none but a sailor could climb to the king s 
 private chamber, but Grant mounted the steep and rug 
 ged ascent, with the nimbleness of youth, and was rewarded 
 by seeing the picture of the king himself, sitting in his own 
 room, as he sat thousands of years ago, and playing a 
 game of draughts, with a lady who is holding a lotus 
 flower to his nose. This quiet domestic scene caused the 
 imagination to leap at a single bound over the interven 
 ing ages and look with a familiar eye on the home-life of 
 the Pharaohs. 
 
 At length, weary with their long climbing, they went 
 down to the ancient sanctuary, and there, where men and 
 women had worshiped thousands of years ago, eat their 
 luncheon as unconcernedly as though in a western 
 forest. As they left the ruins they came upon the don 
 key-boys and girls bearing water to drink, and ragged 
 relic-sellers, importunate as ever, who, forming in the 
 same procession that they did in the morning, followed 
 them back to the river. Here Mrs. Grant, in the kind 
 ness of her heart, called all the water-maidens around 
 her to distribute baksheesh among them. She little 
 dreamed what an uproar she was going to raise. All 
 attempts to preserve order and distribute her small coin 
 equitably was out of the question. They rushed upon 
 her and screamed, and almost rolled over each other as 
 they reached out toward her purse. The confusion did 
 not lessen as each received her portion, but gVew louder, 
 for the more they got the more they clamored, until at last 
 she had to give it up, and turn her purse over to Has 
 san. In a few minutes order was restored, and the dis 
 tribution went on quietly thanks to the eloquence and 
 argumentative force of Hassan s stout stick, the blows of 
 which fell around him thick and fast. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 143 
 
 Returning to Luxor, Grant at first determined not to 
 go to the state dinner, to which he had been invited, and 
 sent his regrets, for he was tired and dusty, and needed 
 rest. But the Arab vice-consul felt so bad about it, and 
 especially so as it was well known that he had not refused 
 the invitations of other vice-consuls of Egypt, that he 
 changed his mind and went. Some of his retinue being 
 in full uniform, however, received all the attention on 
 the way meant for him, for it never occurred to these 
 simple creatures that the short, plain man, in plain 
 clothes, could be the " King of America." 
 
 AVENUE OF SPHINXES. 
 
 It was a sumptuous dinner, course following course, 
 only to be taken away untasted. Music in the mean 
 while floated through the hall,, from Arab minstrels, who 
 showed considerable skill. The leader, a blind man, had 
 an instrument resembling a violin, made of the cocoa- 
 nut shell, which he placed on the ground, and played 
 with a bow. But whether he played love songs or re 
 cited narratives, there was always the same sad refrain 
 which winds up all the music of the children of the desert 
 a sort of echo of their sad life. Jesse Grant endea- 
 
T 44 OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 vored to teach them some modern airs, and among them 
 the " Marseillaise/ but the stirring, rousing strains of this 
 martial air found no echo in their bosoms, and hence no 
 expression in their instruments. 
 
 The next morning they visited Karnac, only about a 
 mile and a half distant, on the same side of the river with 
 Luxor. These, the greatest and most magnificent ruins 
 of Egypt cannot be properly seen in one day, but must 
 be visited again and again before the imagination can 
 begin to conceive or the mind embrace their vastness 
 and beauty. 
 
 The chief temple, standing about a half a mile from 
 the river, is 370 feet broad and 50 feet deep, with a tower 
 140 feet high. An avenue 200 feet long, lined with 
 statues and sphinxes, led up to the main entrance, which 
 conducts you to a court 275 feet by 329. Of the ap 
 proach to this great temple, the Howadji says : "The great 
 temple fronted the westward. The eye follows the line 
 of the great central building, the nucleus of all the rest, 
 backward to the desert. It is lost in the masses of 
 sand-buried foundations and prostrate walls which sur 
 round it. Separate pylons fronting , the four winds 
 stand shattered and submerged. Sharply two obelisks 
 pierce the blue air. The northern gateway stands lofty 
 and alone, its neighboring walls leveled and buried. 
 The eastern gate, toward the desert, was never com 
 pleted. It is only half-covered with sculptures. The 
 blank death of the desert lies gray beyond it. Karnac 
 has grim delight in that neighboring grimness. From 
 each gate, but the desert one, stretched an avenue of 
 sphinxes, southward to Luxor, northward to a raised 
 platform on the hills, westward to the river. Through 
 the great western gateway across the court, with one 
 solitary column erect over its fallen peers, which lie their 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. l . ~ 
 
 length, shattered from their bases in regular rows, as if 
 they had been piles of millstones carefully upset, we enter 
 the great hall of Karnac ; shall I say the grandest ruin 
 in the world. A hundred and thirty-four columns, thirty 
 feet in circumference, rise in silent majesty around you, 
 speaking of a wondrous past, on which the light of his 
 tory will never shine." 
 
 But mere statistics and figures give no conception of 
 these vast ruins ; they cannot be described, they must be 
 seen to be felt it is a wilderness of architecture and art 
 which the ages have heaped together. 
 
 After wandering hour after hour amid the gorgeous 
 desolation, where ruined colonnades, half-buried statues, 
 sculptured walls and prostrate columns, meet the eye at 
 every step till it becomes wearied and the heart over 
 whelmed, they sat down in the shade of a column to rest. 
 A carpet was spread over a sculptured fragment for Mrs. 
 Grant and, while luncheon was being prepared, they all 
 had their photographs taken sitting in one group. Grant 
 was taken with his pith helmet on swathed in silk, giving 
 but a partial view of his face ; Mrs. Grant near him 
 turning from the sun ; Jesse holding an Arab child, and 
 the others, each in his own costume and in such attitude 
 as he chose. 
 
 Grant made no stay amid these ancient ruins. A fast 
 traveler, he paused nowhere only long enough to get a 
 general impression of the objects he visited. He traveled 
 neither as an antiquarian, poet or historian, but to see 
 the most that could be seen in a given time. In Europe, 
 he studied carefully the workings of the different political 
 systems as compared with our own, but soon as he cut 
 loose from western civilization the different governments 
 required no study to understand them. Semi-barbarism 
 is the same the world over. 
 
146 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 So he made but this one flying visit to Karnac and 
 then went steaming up the Nile again. Stopping where 
 the fancy took him, he kept on toward the first cata 
 ract, where the journey was to terminate One of the 
 places they stopped to see was the town of Keneh, about 
 a mile from the shore. Having tied up to the bank, they 
 took donkeys, which were already there the owners 
 having seen the smoke of the steamer in the distance and 
 rode over the barren plain. It was a year of " bad Nile," 
 its annual overflow not having occurred, so that otherwise 
 fruitful fields were parched and desolate a sad picture 
 that foreshadowed a picture still more sad, of people suf 
 fering from famine. The sand blew across the road as 
 the travelers pushed on toward the place unannounced. 
 Not having been expected, they wandered around at will 
 and saw more of the real life of Egypt than ever before. 
 They saw women grinding corn just as they arc described 
 grinding it in the Bible ; potters at work making pottery as 
 they did in the time of Jeremiah indeed, all seemed 
 primeval and unchanged since the days of the patriarchs. 
 
 A few coin would give them free entrance into the 
 private houses, and they saw in the only way it can be 
 seen, the real home-life of the people ; after all, of vastly 
 more consequence than the magnificent ruins in the 
 sombre shadow of which they live. The following ac 
 count of one house they visited, of which all the others 
 are but duplicates, will give a better idea of life in Upper 
 Egypt tnan anything else. 
 
 "The house was a collection of rooms ; the walls made 
 of dried mud and bricks. It was one story high, thatched 
 with straw. The floor was the ground. The walls were 
 clay. In one room was the donkey, in another the cow 
 a queer kind of buffalo cow, that looked up at us as we 
 went in. In another room slept the members of the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j ,~ 
 
 EGYPTIANS OF THE BETTER CLASS. 
 
 family. There was neither bed, nor chair, nor table. 
 They slept on the ground or on palm leaves, like the 
 
148 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 donkey. They sat on the ground for meals, and ate out 
 of the same dish. The woman was sitting over a fire, 
 on which she was roasting some kind of grain. The 
 children were sprawling about her. The woman was a 
 Copt, and not doomed to Moslem seclusion. The father 
 stood at the door, grinning and waiting for baksheesh. 
 The welcome was as cordial as possible, but I suppose 
 there were not a thousand slaves in the South, who were 
 not better housed than these free Egyptian citizens. 
 Their life was virtually that of a savage, but they all 
 seemed happy and cheerful enough. In this land, Nature 
 is the friend of the poor. You can sleep on the ground 
 every night of the year secure from rain. You can array 
 yourself in the scantiest of raiment, free from cold. You 
 can live on dates and sugar cane, and, as far as the mere 
 ailments that come from want and miser} with us are 
 concerned, they are not known in Egypt. The people 
 are well made, well formed, with unusual powers of en 
 durance, and naturally light. I would like to see any of 
 our laboring men at home, run up and down the Pyramid 
 of Cheops in eight minutes, as I saw an Arab do for a 
 franc. And we have no damsels among our own dear, 
 tender, lovely maidens at home, who could run at your 
 donkey s side for miles and miles, balancing a pitcher of 
 water on their heads, and showing no signs of fatigue." 
 
 But this free, unfettered and satisfactory way of seeing 
 the common life of the people, was brought to an end by 
 a messenger from the pasha (for this little town had also 
 its pasha), who had heard of Grant s arrival, and sent to 
 invite him to come to the palace. The General was 
 vexed at this interruption of one of those strolls which 
 were his delight, but in his good nature he could not re 
 fuse the invitation, and so took his way to the palace. 
 The pasha, like all Orientals, was entirely unaccustomed 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. T .- 
 
 to the American direct, rapid way of doing business, and. 
 found his guest at his door before he was prepared to 
 receive him. The result was, that Grant had to wait 
 some time for his host to appear. It was annoying to be 
 compelled to sit on a divan waiting the appearance of 
 this petty mayor of a barbaric town, but he bore it 
 patiently, and at last the pasha appeared in full uniform 
 as a general, a stout, gray-mustached, good-looking man. 
 The usual compliments were exchanged through an 
 interpreter, when, in the same formal way, the pasha told 
 Grant what he already knew, that the weather was rather 
 indifferent. The latter, to vary this conversation, which was 
 doubly stupid from having to be interpreted, while the two 
 looked unmeaningly at each other, expressed his regret 
 that the people were suffering from the "bad Nile," 
 and hoped for a change. When this was translated with 
 becoming formality and gravity, the pasha threw up his 
 eyes sanctimoniously, and replied with true Mohammedan 
 philosophy, "If God wills it, and may He will it." Grant 
 having had enough of this useless ceremony, proposed to 
 continue his walk, when the pasha offered to accompany 
 him, and they sallied forth together. On their way they 
 called on the German consul, because they could not 
 help it, as he waylaid them and insisted on their being his 
 guests. He lived in quite magnificent style for this part 
 of the world, and gave them coffee in porcelain cups in 
 cases of silver and gold, and pipes with amber stems, 
 flashing with diamonds. These two visits of ceremony 
 used up the time, and the party rode back through a 
 storm of sand to the boat the General on one of the 
 pasha s donkeys. 
 
 Resuming their dreamy journey, they pushed on up 
 the historic river now past old ruins and now date and 
 palm-trees on the shore the same bright sky overhead 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and clear atmosphere around them, bringing distant ob 
 jects near, while morning and evening seemed to rival 
 each other in beauty. The description of one day will 
 give a vivid description of all the charming days that 
 made up this delightful journey. 
 
 "The clouds had 
 been following us all 
 the afternoon, throw 
 ing their fleecy can 
 opy over the plains 
 of Thebes. Not 
 ominous, black 
 clouds, big with rain 
 and thunder and 
 bringing awe, but 
 light, trailing clouds, 
 hanging over the 
 heavens like gossa 
 mer. There was the 
 desert, coming 
 almost down to the 
 river grudging the 
 Nile even the strip 
 of green which 
 marked the line of 
 the telegraph. There 
 was the desert vast, 
 wide, barren with 
 no vestige of life 
 beyond a belated 
 peasant driving his camel, or a flock of birds hurry 
 ing as we came. So the clouds were a comfort, 
 and we watched them at their play, grateful for 
 anything that took our thoughts from the scene of 
 
 PALM TREE. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. l ~ l 
 
 endless and irretrievable desolation. Then as the sun 
 went down there came the struggle between coming 
 night and the stern, burning majesty of the eternal mon 
 arch of nature. The pearls and grays became crimson 
 and saffron. The sun shot forth his power in a sunburst 
 of light. There were ridges of crimson and gold, lumin 
 ous and flashing that it might almost seem to burn and 
 hiss like flames in the forge. Then came the tranquil 
 blue blue of every shade every conceivable tint of 
 blue from that which Murillo threw into the eyes of the 
 wonder-stricken Madonna in the supreme moment of her 
 joy, to the deep violet blue, which tells of the passion, the 
 patriotism and the revenge of Judith. The struggle still 
 went on, but the victory was not with the sun, and it only 
 remained for him to die as became a great king. The 
 palm grew dim in the shadows. The flaming tints of 
 crimson, and scarlet, and gold became brown and dark. 
 The desert flushed with purple with the purple of 
 wine and it seemed as if old Egypt s kings spoke from 
 the desert that was once their throne, proclaiming 
 their sovereignty. All that was left was the green 
 that had become black, and the desert that had become 
 black, and the glorious sky above, with the glory of 
 conquering night ; and about us this land of eternal sum 
 mer, beautiful even in death beautiful with the beauty 
 of death." 
 
 Asswan, the frontier station of old Egypt, and the 
 boundary of Nubia, and the goal of their journey, was 
 at last reached. It is a pretty town of about four thou 
 sand inhabitants. Its governor, though coal-black, was 
 dressed in the latest Parisian fashion, furnishing a striking 
 contrast to th Arabian officers heretofore met with. 
 He, however, seemed uneasy in his dress, as though un 
 familiar with it. He received the General with great 
 
j 2 2 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 courtesy, and the usual salutations followed. This place 
 was formerly a quarry and furnished stones for many of 
 the obelisks, temples and tombs now in ruins. It is 580 
 miles from Cairo and 730 from the Mediterranean, and is 
 the neatest-looking town they saw in the whole distance. 
 Asswan, the Greek Syene, being at the head of navi 
 gation proper of the Nile, is a great depot for the com 
 merce of the tropics ; and donkeys, driven by naked boys, 
 laden with tropical fruits, and camels with their heavy 
 burdens, throng the place. The bazaars furnish a great 
 variety of objects of interest to the European, but Mrs. 
 Grant was drawn thither by the ostrich feathers which, 
 obtained from the wild bird, are much finer than those 
 plucked from the tame birds in South Africa. She had 
 seen the filth, and raggedness, and want of the Egyp 
 tians had learned from bitter experience how pertina 
 cious young Arabs were for baksheesh, and she was 
 now to see how an Oriental can drive a bargain. Select- 
 
 o 
 
 ing a bunch she told Hassan to ask the price. Twenty- 
 four dollars (our money). "Twenty-four dollars!" re 
 peats Hassan in a rage and tossing back the feathers 
 contemptuously to the seller. " But," said Mrs. Grant, 
 picking up the feathers and remembering what a price 
 they would bring in New York, " I don t think this such 
 an exorbitant price, for they are very fine feathers be 
 sides the man looks poor and probably sells but few 
 feathers and has a family to support," and so on. But 
 Hassan has a character to support, also, and that would 
 be ruined if he allowed one of these Arab Jews to cheat 
 him, and tells her that they always ask two prices, though 
 never expecting to get only the lowest and often not that. 
 Hassan at once strikes an attitude and harangues the 
 crowd, appealing to them if this is not an attempt to 
 rob; and grows wrathy and eloquent together. The man 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j r >, 
 
 replies in the same strain, and a war of words ensues. 
 Finally, in a pause, this son of the desert puts on a 
 gracious air and, in a tone of great respect, asks, " What 
 would the gracious lady give ?" " Four Napoleons," is 
 the answer. The merchant looks up, his face expressing 
 mingled grief and astonishment. He snatches away the 
 feathers, strikes an attitude, and then pours forth a tor 
 rent of eloquence over their beauty. He holds them up 
 to the light and exclaims, " See how they shine, behold 
 their tints white, gray and black !" He waves them up 
 and down like a plume and bursts forth, " Such feathers 
 were never seen in Asswan ; if they came from the far 
 desert, they would be cheap at a hundred Napoleons." 
 Pausing to take breath he looks around in triumph on 
 his audience and with a mute appeal to them if it is not so. 
 
 Mrs. Grant is convinced that the man is really in 
 earnest, and suggests that they had better look else 
 where. " No, no," said Hassan ; " wait a little, and he 
 will take the four Napoleons." It is his turn, and the 
 feathers are denounced in good, strong Arabic, as a 
 fraud, hardly fit to give away, and much better can be 
 got for less than four Napoleons. And so the war of 
 words goes on, until Hassan at last tells Mrs. Grant that 
 she can have the feathers for four Napoleons. The mo 
 ney is paid over, and the party take their leave, satisfied 
 with their experience in driving a bargain with an 
 Egytian merchant. 
 
 Philse, lying just above the first cataract, is a small 
 island on the Nile, about four hundred yards long, and 
 some five miles from Asswan or Syene. While pre 
 paring to start, the governor came, bringing a letter of 
 welcome from Gordon, who was placed over the vast ter 
 ritory conquered by Baker, and held for the khedive, in 
 order to put a stop to the slave trade from the interior 
 
154 
 
 TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and promote commerce in the tropics. Grant was in high 
 spirits ; for, instead of having a miserable donkey to be 
 stride, the governor had provided him with a beautiful Ara 
 bian steed, beautiful even here, where the horse reaches 
 such perfection. He scans his points with the air 
 of a connoisseur, hardly looking at the gorgeous trap 
 ping that bedeck the high-spirited animal. As he vaulted 
 to the saddle and felt the lithe motion beneath him his 
 
 HEAD OF FIRST CATARACT. 
 
 eyes sparkled, and for the time he forgot Philae in the 
 noble steed he bestrode. 
 
 Sami Bey, one of his retinue, became very anxious 
 about the safety of the General, as the animal began to 
 prance beneath him, and expressed his fears. But Grant, 
 who feels once more at home, smiles good-naturedly, and 
 says : " If I can mount a horse, I can ride him, and all the 
 attendants can do, is to keep away." 
 
 As the procession passed on they soon crossed the line 
 into Nubia, when a sudden change appeared in the in 
 habitants. The veil which the Egyptian women wear was 
 thrown aside, and instead of the brown skin and straight 
 hair of the Arab, there appeared the pure African, with 
 woolly hair. The women sat and spun in the shade, while 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 155 
 
 the children, stark naked, played around. Says the elo 
 quent Howadji:* " Girdled with the shining Nile, Philae is 
 an austere beauty. Isis, like it, sits solemn-browed, col 
 umn crushing* column, pylons yet erect and whole sides 
 of temple courts yet standing with perfect pillars, huge, 
 dreary, wherein grandeur is yet grand. It is strange to 
 see human traces so lovely in a spot so lonely. Seen 
 from the shore, a band of goldenest green surrounds the 
 island. The steep bank is lithe with lupin and flowering 
 weeds, palms are tangled, 
 as they spring, with vines 
 and creepers, dragon- 
 flies float sparkling all 
 over it, and being the 
 sole verdure in that 
 desolation, the shores of 
 Philae are gracious as 
 the blue sky after storms. 
 Its surface is a mass of 
 ruin. But the great 
 temple of Isis yet stands, 
 although it is shattered, 
 and a small Hypethral 
 temple overhangs the 
 river. It is not inartic 
 ulate ruin, but while 
 whole walls and architraves remain, several build 
 ings are shattered and their fallen walls are blended. 
 Philae was the holy land of Egypt. Thither sailed pro 
 cessions of higher purposes in barques more gorgeous 
 than now sail the river, and deep down, gazing in the 
 moonlit Nile, the poet shall see the vanished splendor 
 of a vanished race, centering solemnly here like priestly 
 
 *Mr. Curtis. 
 
 EGYPTIAN LADY 
 
156 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 pomp around an altar. Hither, bearing gifts, came kneel - 
 ing Magi, before they repaired to the Bethlehem manger. 
 And kings not forgotten of fame unkinged themselves 
 before a kinglier. For the island was dedicated to 
 Osiris, the great god of the Egyptians, who were not 
 idolaters as far as appears, but regarded Osiris as the in 
 carnation of the goodness of the unalterable God of gods. 
 
 " Isis was the daughter of Time, and the wife and sister 
 of Osiris. Hermes was their child, and they are the 
 Trinity of Philae. Osiris and Isis finally judged the dead, 
 and were the best beloved god of the ancients, and the best 
 known of the moderns. Very beautiful is Isis in all Egyp 
 tian sculptures. Tenderly tranquil her large, generous 
 features, gracious her full-lipped mouth, divine the dignity 
 of her mien. In the groups of fierce fighters, and priests, 
 and beasts, and bird-headed gods that people the walls, her 
 aspect is always serene and solacing, the type of the fem 
 inine principle in the beast and bird chaos of the world. 
 
 " The ruins are stately and imposing, and one range of 
 thirty columns yet remain. The capitals, as usual, are of 
 different flowers. The lotus ceacia, and others, are 
 wreathed round and among them. You will be grave at 
 Philae, but with a gravity graver than that of sentiment, 
 for it is the deadness of the death of the land that you will 
 feel. The ruins will be to you the remains of the golden 
 age of Egypt, for hither came Thales, Solon, Pythagoras, 
 Therodotus and Plato, and from the teachers of Moses 
 learned the most mystic secrets of human thought. 
 Ptolemy and Cleopatra walked these terraces and sought 
 shelter from this same sun, in the shade of these same 
 columns ; dreamed over the calm river, at sunset ; by moon 
 light drained their diamond-ringed goblet of life and love, 
 then, embalmed in sweet spices, were laid dreamless in 
 beautiful tombs." 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j -* 
 
 This is a view of Philae, as seen by a poet and dreamer, 
 and yet, perhaps the truest view. We give another, by 
 the writer of Grant s travels, who accompanied him, which 
 exhibits in a striking manner the different views taken by 
 
 o J 
 
 a poet and a matter-of-fact correspondent of the press. 
 One describes things as the imagination paints or recalls 
 them ; the other, as the practical man, or, in other words, 
 as the modern newspaper editor looks upon them. Wide 
 apart as they are, yet both are true, and both have a les 
 son equally valuable. The newspaper correspondent says : 
 " Philae is not specially interesting" as a temple, after 
 you have seen Thebes and Abydos. I can think of noth 
 ing useful to say about it except that as a ruin it is pic 
 turesque. Nature comes as an aid. The temples we 
 have been visiting have been mainly in the sand, on the 
 desert. But here we are in volcanic regions. Around 
 us are piles of granite rock.- The island is green, and the 
 date palms salute us as we pass. There are flowers, and, 
 instead of bulging and sliding through sand, we step trip 
 pingly over stones and turf. In the sanctuary we note 
 three young Germans eating lunch. We pass to the 
 other bank to see the cataract. This is one of the fea 
 tures of the Nile. The river here spreads into various 
 channels and runs over rocks. One channel is used 
 for vessels ascending the stream, the other for vessels 
 descending the stream. The one before us is not more 
 than a quarter of a mile long. The river is narrow, 
 the banks are steep, and the stream rolls and dashes like 
 a sea, the waves lashing the banks and roaring. I should 
 call the cataract simply a narrow, heavy sea. The danger 
 in navigating is from the rocks and being dashed against 
 the banks. It is a relief, fresh from 500 miles of easy, 
 placid sailing, the river as smooth as a pond, to see it in 
 
 this angry mood. While we are here, we note men 
 26 
 
153 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 swimming" toward us, each man on a log 1 , with a garment 
 tied to the head. They are natives, who propose to run 
 the rapids for our amusement. They swim, or rather, 
 hold on to a log, and propel themselves into the current. 
 It is hazardous enough, for the current sweeps like a tor 
 rent, and the least want of nerve would dash the swimmer 
 against the rocks. But they go through bravely enough 
 and come out into the smooth water below. Each swim 
 mer, carrying his log on his shoulder and drawing 1 his 
 single garment around his shivering loins, comes for 
 baksheesh. Hassan makes the payments, but the crowd 
 becomes so clamorous and aggressive, and would proba 
 bly carry off Hassan, bag and all, but for the governor, 
 who restores order with his stick. We return to our 
 donkeys, having had an interesting but rather \vearying 
 day. And in the morning, before we are up, our boat 
 has turned its prow, and we are going home." 
 
 On their way back, they stopped at Siout, where two 
 missionaries came on board and told them the news. 
 They learned that since they had been cut off from the 
 world, Russia had taken Adrianople ; Derby had re 
 signed, and England was to go into the European con 
 ference, ready for war. " I begin to think," said Grant, 
 when he heard it, " that England may go in." As he ex 
 pected to visit Turkey soon, some one remarked, that he 
 might offer the sultan his services. " No," he replied, "I 
 have done all the fighting I care to do, and the only 
 country I shall fight for, is the United States." At last 
 they came in sight of the minarets of Cairo, when they 
 stopped to visit Memphis, the last royal residence of 
 genuine Egypt, the abode of the Pharaohs, where Abra 
 ham took Sarah, and the king fell in love with her. But 
 the magnificent city has long since crumbled to dust, and 
 even its ruins have almost entirely disappeared. But 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. T CQ 
 
 lately, under the direction of the khedive, excavations 
 have been made, and the tombs of the sacred bulls have 
 been discovered. 
 
 " It was believed in the Egyptian mythology, that the god 
 Osiris came to earth, and allowed himself to be put to 
 death, in order that the souls of the people might be 
 saved. After his death there was a resurrection, and the 
 immortal part of him passed into a bull called Apis. 
 The bull could only be known by certain signs written in 
 the sacred books, and kept by tradition. These signs were 
 known to the priests. When they found the calf bearing 
 these marks, he was fed for four months on milk, in a 
 house facing the rising sun. He was then brought to 
 Memphis and lodged in a palace, and worshiped with 
 divine honors. The people came to him as an oracle. 
 When he passed through the town, he was escorted with 
 pomp, children singing hymns in his honor. The greatest 
 care was taken of his life. At the end of twenty-five 
 years, unless natural causes intervened, the reign of Apis 
 came to an end. Another calf was found, bearing the 
 sacred signs. The bull was marched to the fountain of 
 the priests and drowned with ceremony. He was em 
 balmed and buried in the tombs, which we visited at 
 Memphis. The ride to Memphis was a pleasant one, a 
 part of it being through the desert. We passed close to 
 the pyramid of Memphis, which is only an irregular, zig 
 zag mass of stones. Brugsch tells us it is very old, but 
 with no especial historical value. The ruins of Memphis 
 are two or three tombs, and the serapeum or mausoleum 
 of the sacred bulls. One of the tombs was opened, 
 and we went through it, noting as we had so often before 
 the minuteness and care of the decoration. There were 
 other tombs, but to prevent the modern travelers from 
 breaking them to pieces, they were covered with sand. 
 
! 60 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 What a comment upon our civilization, that Egypt can 
 only preserve her tombs and monuments from Christian 
 vandals by burying them ! 
 
 " We entered a long arched passage, with parallel pas 
 sages. Candles had been placed at various points. On 
 each side of this passage, were the tombs. Each tomb 
 was in its alcove. The bull was placed in a huge granite 
 sarcophagus, the surface finely polished, and covered 
 with inscriptions. These coffins were stupendous, and it 
 is a marvel how such a mass of granite could have been 
 moved through this narrow channel, and into these 
 arches. We lit a magnesium wire, and examined one or 
 two very carefully. The tombs had all been violated by 
 the early conquerors, Persians and Arabs, to find gold 
 and silver. In most cases, the cover had been shoved 
 aside enough to allow a man to enter. In others, the 
 sides had been broken in. The inside was so large, that 
 four of our party climbed up a ladder and descended. 
 There was room for three or four more. There were 
 tombs enough to show that the bull had been worshiped 
 for centuries." 
 
 As they steamed down to Cairo, Grant regretted that 
 his visit had been so hurried, but it was too late to make 
 any change in his plans. Here the khedive met him 
 again, and took him a drive around the city, in which a 
 pleasant conversation was carried on about the voyage 
 up the Nile, and various topics connected with the future 
 of Egypt. Grant little dreamed then, that before he had 
 finished his tour around the world, his distinguished host 
 would be compelled to abdicate his throne, and be 
 shorn of his power. 
 
 Grant, having handsomely rewarded the captain of the 
 steamer, and given presents to all the crew and at 
 tendants, bade good-bye forever to the boat in which he 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 had spent so many pleasant days, and prepared to join 
 the " Vandalia " at Alexandria, and turn his face toward 
 Jerusalem. 
 
IO2 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BRANT STARTS FOR JERUSALEM JAFFA THE HOUSE OF SIMON THE TANNER PLAIN 
 OF SHARON AN UNCOMFORTABLE NIGHT GRANT IN THE RAIN KIRJATH JEARIM 
 JERUSALEM A PUBLIC RECEPTION GRANT S DISAPPOINTMENT TOO MUCH AT 
 TENTION THE ROAD TO MOUNT CALVARY GARDEN OF GETHSEMANE BETHANY 
 JACOB S WELL NAZARETH DAMASCUS A SECOND PARADISE VISITS CONSTAN 
 TINOPLE MR. LAYARD S RECEPTION MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA ACHMET DOGS OF 
 THE CITY SERA SCUTARI A WONDERFUL HISTORY THE SULTAN PRESENTS 
 
 GRANT TWO BEAUTIFUL ARAB STEEDS GOLDEN HORN GREECE RECEPTION BY 
 
 THE KING BEAUTIFUL WOMEN ATHENS ITS SIGHTS AND RUINS THE ACRO 
 POLIS ILLUMINATION OF THE PARTHENON IN HONOR OF GRANT A GRAND 
 SPECTACLE BATTLE FIELDS GRANT STARTS FOR ROME. 
 
 AFTER a month s sojourn on the little steamer of 
 the Khedive of Egypt, Grant felt almost as if he 
 were at home, when he found himself once more 
 on the good steamer " Vandalia." As they steamed out of 
 Alexandria, and were once more afloat on the broad Medi 
 terranean, it seemed as if they had entered a new world. 
 The sea that had hitherto proved stormy, was now calm 
 and beautiful, and it was like moving over a lake, as they 
 steered for the Holy Land. But all this beauty vanished 
 as they entered the dilapidated port of Jaffa the Joppa of 
 the Bible, and the old port of Jerusalem, where the cedars, 
 and gold, and precious stones were landed for the Tem 
 ple of Solomon. They scrambled up the steep banks, 
 1 50 feet high, through a crowd of shouting, filthy Arabs, 
 and passing along the dirtiest street in the world, at 
 length reached the vice-consul s house. 
 
 A feeble attempt was made to honor his arrival by 
 erecting a little archway of flowers over the road, sur 
 mounted by the inscription, "Welcome to General Grant." 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 I6 3 
 
 It was a laughable contrast to the brilliant receptions that 
 had hitherto marked his journey, but quite as acceptable. 
 This was a forbidding and matter-of-fact entrance enough 
 to the Holy Land; 
 and, but for the 
 Jerusalem in ad 
 vance, would 
 have been suffi 
 cient to dampen 
 the most ardent 
 imagination. 
 
 Grant, whose 
 time was limited, 
 always seized the . 
 first opportunity 
 to become ac 
 quainted with 
 every place he 
 visited, and at 
 once set out to 
 find the house of 
 " Simon the tan 
 ner, by the sea 
 side," made im 
 mortal by having 
 been once occu 
 pied by Peter. 
 The miserable 
 town was soon 
 exhausted of all 
 its sights worth 
 seeing, and the party prepared to set off for Jerusalem. 
 Part of the officers of the "Vandalia" determined to ac 
 company them. Three clumsy, open wagons were pro- 
 
1 64 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 vided, each drawn by three horses abreast, into which they 
 mounted, and at four o clock in the afternoon, drove out 
 of the place, stared at by a gaping crowd, and began to 
 cross the Plain of Sharon, decked with lilies and orange- 
 groves, ladened with yellow fruit, and almond-trees, just 
 coming into bloom. It was a pleasing contrast to the 
 burning desert-sands of Egypt, which they had just left. 
 Even the rain, which was steadily falling, could not darken 
 the beautiful panorama that spread out before them. Be 
 sides, they were in the Holy Land, and bound for Jerusa 
 lem, around which clustered such thrilling associations. 
 
 At sunset they reached Ramleh, and put up for the 
 night in a miserable inn that reminded Grant of some of 
 his head-quarters during his campaign at Vicksburg. 
 The party huddled together in a large room, which com 
 bined dining-room, parlor and kitchen all in one the 
 servants eating in one corner, while eggs were frying in 
 another. Here they sat till the captain returned from 
 his required, though unwilling call on the governor, when 
 they all went to bed, or rather to sleep, in one room, the 
 four beds in it "having such a suspicious look that the 
 benches along the walls were preferred to them. The 
 arrangement was to start at six o clock in the morning, and 
 General Grant, who was always ready to march, was the 
 first up. Mounting their rough wagons, th^v pushed on for 
 Jerusalem, only some twenty miles distant All now was 
 excitement and expectation, for far away, the blue moun 
 tains of Judea stretched along the horizon. The rain was 
 still falling, and Grant, who had been able to find a horse, 
 "rode unprotected through it. One of the party offered 
 him an umbrella, but he declined it, as well as the proposi 
 tion to wrap a handkerchief around his neck, declaring 
 that it was nothing but a mist, and galloped ahead. Says 
 Mr. Young: 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. T 65 
 
 " The road becomes rough and stony, and the carts go 
 bumping, thumping, dumping along, over the very 
 worst road, perhaps, in the world. But there is not one 
 who, in the spare moments when he is not holding on to 
 the sides of the cart lest there might be too precipitate an 
 introduction to the Holy Land, does not feel that it is one 
 of the most agreeable and most comfortable trips ever 
 made. The summits of the hills glisten with the white* 
 shining stone, which afar off looks like snow. In some 
 of the valleys are clusters of olive-trees. The fertility of 
 Palestine lies in the plain below. Around and ahead is 
 the beauty of Palestine the beauty of Nature in her 
 desolation no houses, no farms, no trace of civilization 
 but the telegraph poles. Now and then a swinging line 
 of camels comes shambling along, led by a Bedouin." 
 
 Still pressing on in the rain, they pass the ruins of Gezr,. 
 and at intervals an abandoned stone guard-house, the 
 soldiers having been called away to fight the Russians. 
 At eleven o clock they stopped to lunch. It was a misera 
 ble lonely building they were shown . into, and a damp 
 chamber, where, on a primitive pine table, they spread the 
 lunch, which they luckily had carried with them. Having 
 finished their hasty repast, they pushed on over hills that 
 kept growing higher and along roads that became 
 rougher some walking, preferring it to the bumping 
 and thumping of the rude wagons. A little way off stood 
 Kirjath Jearim, where the ark rested for twenty years, and 
 beyond, the Valley of Ajalon, where the sun stood still to 
 let Joshua conquer in a greater battle than Grant ever 
 fought. Then came the deep valley through which runs 
 a rapid brook, where David killed Goliath, and with stones 
 enough in it to have supplied the slings of a hundred 
 thousand Davids. 
 
 At last, but one series of heights separated them from 
 
1 66 
 
 TRAl ELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 I6 7 
 
 Jerusalem, on the summit of which the Crusaders caught 
 the first sight of the Holy City and fell on their faces and 
 wept, while like the murmur of the sea swelling into the 
 thunder-sound of billows breaking on the shore, went up 
 the mighty shout, " Jerusalem ! Jerusalem !" Just then a 
 horseman was seen galloping toward them, and pulling 
 rein beside General Grant informed him that a public re 
 ception awaited him. His face darkened, for he had 
 hoped to be left alone to his own thoughts when he en 
 tered the Holy City. But it could not be helped a body 
 of cavalry was now seen approaching, with deputations 
 from Greeks, and Jews, and Armenians, and Americans 
 a veritable " army with banners." Horses had also been 
 sent forward, and among them the pasha s own white 
 Arab steed, with housings of gold ; so, instead of passing 
 on up the heights and gazing down on Jerusalem with 
 the silent devotion of a pilgrim to the Holy Land, Grant 
 was compelled to stop and have coffee and cigars, and 
 change all this dreamy excitement and anxious longing 
 into a most matter-of-fact affair. 
 
 They rode about a mile through a suburb, the highway 
 lined with people. " The General passes on, with bared 
 head, for on both sides the assembled multitude do him 
 honor. They see through the mist a mass of domes and 
 towers, and the heart beats quickly, for they know they 
 are the domes and towers of Jerusalem. There are 
 ranks of soldiers drawn in line, the soldiers presenting 
 arms, the band playing, the colors falling. They passed 
 through a narrow gate, the gate that Tancred forced with 
 his Crusaders, and under the walls of the Tower of David, 
 and the flag that floats from the pole on the consulate 
 tells them that their journey is at an end and that they 
 are within the walls of Jerusalem." 
 
 But, not thus, with trumpets braying, and banners 
 
I 68 TKA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 floating, and the rabble shouting, would one with common 
 feelings of devotion or common sensibilities wish for the 
 first time to enter the Holy City, but silent and solemn, 
 and with " shoes from off his feet." Barbaric music and 
 infidel shouts are a poor compensation for the solemn 
 memories and overwhelming emotions that should fill the 
 heart and subdue the whole being at such a time. And 
 so did Grant feel it. To him, who for the first time gazed 
 on the towers and domes of that Zion of old and where in 
 later days Jesus of Nazareth walked, all this was a most 
 miserable farce. But this was not all, visits of ceremony 
 must be paid before he could visit one sacred spot the con 
 suls came with complimentary speeches the bishops and 
 patriarchs came and blessed the General and his house, 
 and, to crown all, the pasha offered him his band of fifty 
 pieces, to remain with him and amuse him with their bar 
 baric music. One would rather never see Jerusalem if 
 he were to be surrounded with such display and in the 
 midst of such tumult, and so Grant thought. He did not 
 wish to offend the pasha, who meant only kindness by 
 his offer, and he compromised the matter by accepting 
 the offer of the band for an hour in the evening when he 
 dined, and dispensed with their presence the rest of the 
 time. Having intended to stay in Jerusalem but three 
 days, all ceremonies interfered with his time and hence 
 lessened his enjoyment. He, however, dined with the 
 pasha, who treated him with great kindness. In the 
 morning, he, with his wife and American friends, stole 
 away and took the road up which Christ toiled bearing 
 His own cross on His way to Calvary. Although tradi 
 tion, by pointing out every step of the way and marking 
 it with some relic, sadly shakes one s faith, yet he cannot 
 doubt that it is the road His weary feet trod that on that 
 hardened way He sunk under His cross up that hill He 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 169 
 
 MODERN BETHLEHEMITES. 
 
T y O TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 toiled, followed by the shouting rabble, while His mother 
 with other holy women stood afar off and wept, and there 
 was the very spot on which the Lord of Glory died for 
 On this spot stands the Church of the Holy Sep- 
 
 man. 
 
 CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE. 
 
 ulchre the most interesting of all the holy places cov 
 ering, as is generally believed, both the place of cruci 
 fixion and the place of Christ s burial. The flippant 
 young Syrian who led the way the ragged beggars 
 
TRAl KLS OF GENERAL GRANT. l j l 
 
 crowding after, asking for alms the monuments of super 
 stition on either side, could not obscure all this. The pre 
 tended locality pointed out where He first sunk under the 
 cross and where He addressed the women, and the spot 
 where He fell the second time, and the very place where 
 Veronica wiped the blood from His brow with the napkin, 
 and the corner of the house where He paused in agony, 
 and the dent in the rock made by His hand as He leaned 
 
 GETHSEMANE. 
 
 wearily against it, and the corner where Simon of Cyrene 
 took the cross and bore it on, and the hovel of the beg 
 gar who asked for alms these and other fabled spots 
 that throw a suspicion over the whole, cannot change the 
 face of nature and destroy faith in that. Mount Calvary 
 still stands as it stood 1 800 years ago ; the same sky 
 bends over it, and right there on that summit rung out 
 the bitter cry, " My God ! my God ! why hast thou for 
 saken me ?" and there, too, fell in calm, low accents, " It 
 
172 
 
 TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 is finished !" All the fables invented to make the scene 
 more real cannot change the Mount of Suffering-. 
 
 All these little accessories supplied by superstition 
 were passed unheeded by General Grant. But when in 
 the Garden of Gethsemane, where his Lord and the 
 Lord of all mankind prayed in agony till the blood fell in 
 great drops to the ground, he was shown the olive-trees 
 under which He knelt in prayer alone, he said he could 
 
 BETHANY. 
 
 believe it, for their appearance showed, from what he had 
 seen of trees in California, they could easily be 1800 
 years old. The pictures and the fabled spots that disfigured 
 and Ix-littled the Via Dolorosa, and all the traditions that 
 distroyed instead of strengthened faith, could not change 
 these gnarled and twisted olive-trees that bore silent tes 
 timony to their age, and said by their hoary trunks in 
 language more impressive than words, "we witnessed 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 1 73 
 
 the agony that the sins of the world wrung from the 
 heart of the Son of God, till there burst in the midnight 
 air, Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me! 
 Oh, what a burlesque it was when the monk who accom 
 panied them, gathered flowers from the tree of agony 
 and presented them to Mrs. Grant, and twigs for the 
 General, to be kept as mementos of that awful place. 
 Every spot was holy ground, for the footsteps of the Son 
 of God hallowed all the way and it needed not man s 
 invention to increase its sanctity. If superstition would 
 only leave Mount Olivet, the Garden of Gethsemane and 
 Mount Calvary alone, in their naked simplicity, how sub 
 lime they would look. After they had visited these con 
 secrated spots, says the writer accompanying Grant : 
 
 " We kept on over the hill, over a fearful road, to the 
 village of Bethany. It was here that Jesus lived when 
 He preached in Jerusalem. Here was Lazarus, His 
 friend, whom He called from the tomb. Here lived 
 Martha and Mary, whom Jesus loved Martha who served 
 Him at supper and Mary who chose the better part. We 
 ride under the overhanging ruins of the dwelling in which 
 Jesus found home, shelter, friendship, love ; where He 
 came for peace after the hard day s work in Jerusalem. 
 We walk around Bethany which is only a collection of 
 ruins and hovels passing over the graveyard where 
 Lazarus was buried. We continue along the road that 
 leads to Jerusalem again, not over the mountain, but the 
 one sloping near its base. It was over this road that 
 Jesus rode when He entered Jerusalem on an ass. We 
 are told also that here it was that David passed in sorrow 
 when pursued by the ungrateful Absalom. But our 
 thoughts are not with David, and we pause at the 
 head of the hill, where Jerusalem comes in view. It was 
 
 here that Jesus wept over Jerusalem and prophesied its 
 27 
 
7 _ TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 1 /4 
 
 destruction, and we can well imagine the beauty of the 
 fair city as it nestled on the hillside the temple dazzling 
 all eyes with its glory, while its battlements and walls 
 attested its strength and power. Then we kept on down 
 the Valley of Jehoshaphat and over the brook and around 
 the city to another entrance called the Damascus Gate. 
 It was only from thence a short walk to our hotel. The 
 walk had been a weary one, but no one felt weariness, 
 for every memory it awakened was a memory of the 
 noblest moments in our lives, and every step we had 
 taken had been over hallowed ground." 
 
 There was one more spot that Grant felt he must visit 
 before he left the Holy Land, and that was Nazareth, the 
 home of the Saviour s childhood. As he set out on his 
 journey, all the representatives of Jerusalem turned out 
 to pay their respects and bid him good-bye. The little 
 party gave their last look to the Holy City, as they 
 turned their faces toward Shiloh, and traveled along the 
 road once trod by prophets, and on through Nablous, 
 where was Jacob s well, on which Jesus sat and spoke 
 to the woman of Samaria of that water of which if a man 
 drinks, he shall never thirst. 
 
 Scarcely halting here, he kept on through Nain, and 
 through the same streets the funeral procession passed, 
 carrying a bier on which lay the only son of his mother, 
 and she a widow, and where it stopped at the bidding of 
 the voice which even the winds and waves obeyed, and 
 at whose word the dead arose a living man. Through 
 Endor he passed so rapidly that it came and went 
 almost like the ghost of Samuel, called up by the witch 
 at the bidding of Saul, and at last, weary and jaded, 
 looked down on Nazareth, sleeping amid the rich foliage 
 of Palestine. The road leading down to it was so steep 
 that most of the party dismounted and walked, leading 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 7 
 
 their horses. There humble Nazareth stood, just as it 
 did when Jesus was a child, and there were the same 
 streets His little feet trod, as he walked with His mother 
 to the Synagogue. As one looks on the quiet houses 
 and the people coming and going on their daily business, 
 it seems impossible that the youthful Christ grew up 
 amid these very scenes. It is difficult to imagine that 
 here, in. this humble, remote village, amid such a popula- 
 
 -7. 
 
 NAZARETH. 
 
 tion, the Prince of Peace, the mighty Redeemer, lived and 
 played as a boy. All the objects, all the scenery and occu 
 pations of men are so common and familiar, that it is hard 
 to associate them with such solemn, awful events as have 
 made them immortal. Tradition here, as everywhere 
 else, have created spots that have no existence except 
 in tradition. 
 
 You are shown where the virgin lived, and a cave in 
 
;6 
 
 TRAl ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 which Christ hid Himself once from his persecutors; but 
 of these, Grant, like every intelligent traveler, made little 
 account it was enough that he was in Nazareth. 
 
 The delay here was short, for the travelers were 
 bound for Damascus, and pushed on. Although, as they 
 wound over the hills, they were no longer reminded at 
 every step that they were treading on ground hallowed 
 by the footsteps of the Son of God, yet they knew they 
 were passing along a road that Saul traveled when he 
 was arrested by the blinding light and voice from 
 Heaven. At last they reached the heights that over 
 look Damascus, and what a glorious scene of beauty 
 burst upon them. This city, so old that Abraham speaks 
 of it, lies in a plain nearly eighty miles in circumference, 
 the whole a perfect garden in its cultivation. A sparkling 
 stream, the " Golden River," flows through it, while the 
 houses of the city stand amid a wealth of foliage of date 
 and palm-trees, and beautiful gardens. The picture it 
 presents in the full spring-time, smiling there under the 
 sun and sky of Palestine, is indescribably beautiful. It is 
 said that the Mohammedan prophet, when he came in 
 sight of it, was so enraptured, that he stopped, and said, 
 that as man could enter only one paradise, he would 
 turn back from this one to secure the other, and did. 
 
 Slowly the travelers wound down into this ancient city, 
 through which still stretches, as it did 1800 years ago, the 
 street " Straight," where the blind Saul put up, to whom 
 Ananias was directed to go and restore his sight again. 
 As Grant and his companions rode through the streets, 
 the beauty of the city as seen from a distance departed, 
 for the houses in the main were shabby-looking, though 
 inside they were adorned with all that wealth can supply. 
 There are very few objects of interest to be seen in this 
 city, around which history gathers so much of greatness 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j^ 
 
 and grandeur. There is the* castle, about three-quarters 
 of a mile in circumference, a hospital and, chief of all, the 
 mosque of Omeiyades with its three minarets, beautiful 
 specimens of Oriental architecture, representing the 
 Pagan, Saracenic and Christian styles. Its marble floor 
 is covered with Persian rugs, and beautiful marbles adorn 
 its walls, while tradition says the head of John the Bap 
 tist, inclosed in a golden casket, is built into its founda 
 tions. Its chief attraction, however, is that it presents to 
 the traveler a true Oriental mart, as it has existed for ages, 
 unchanged. It is untraversed by railroads and modern 
 improvements in the way of transportation, and great 
 caravans come and go as they did a thousand years ago. 
 
 Fifteen hundred camels, guarded by a small army of 
 soldiers, wind their way into the city at stated intervals 
 from Bagdad, and similar numbers from other points. 
 Cotton clothes, handkerchiefs, slippers, copper kettles, 
 horse-shoe nails, tobacco pipes, spiceries, shawls and the 
 rich fabrics of Surat are brought through Bagdad, and 
 other articles from Tripoli, and cotton stuffs, leather, 
 soap, etc., are received in exchange, so that this ancient 
 inland city presents a busy scene. Unchanged by the 
 changing world around it, it is purely an Oriental city of 
 the past centuries. 
 
 Nearly a hundred and forty miles from Jerusalem, its 
 nearly a quarter of a million of people live on as their 
 ancestors have done from time immemorial, and are to 
 day the same people, with the same customs and habits 
 that existed when Saul went there to persecute the 
 Christians, and there is about as much friendship now 
 between Moslems and Christians as there was then be 
 tween Jews and Christians. 
 
 Grant made a short stay in the ancient city, which was 
 not so removed from the outside world that his fame had 
 
j- TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 not reached them, for wild Arab chieftains came from a 
 long distance to see the great warrior of, to them, an 
 almost fabled land. 
 
 He now turned his footsteps toward Bey rout, where 
 the " Vandalia" awaited his arrival. Embarking here, he 
 directed his course to Constantinople. Fortunately, he 
 arrived there after the war with Russia had closed and a 
 treaty had been signed, 
 
 TURKEY. 
 
 IT w r as the 5th of March when he entered Stamboul. 
 Received as usual, by our diplomatic representatives 
 here, he was immediately waited upon by the Amer 
 icans stopping in the city. Fortunately, the peculiar 
 situation of the sultan at this time prevented him from 
 making a military display such as had invariably been 
 gotten up to welcome General Grant much to the latter s 
 delight, for they had become extremely irksome to him. 
 Among the most pleasant of the visits to General Grant, 
 was the one made by the British minister, Mr. Layard, 
 the renowned explorer of Nineveh, who afterwards gave 
 him a grand reception, which was attended by both native 
 and foreign officials in full court-dress, and which made a 
 brilliant assemblage. 
 
 o 
 
 The time of General Grant s visit was the most dis 
 agreeable month of the year, in Turkey, for it rains and 
 snows by turns, while to complete the disagreeableness of 
 the climate, a cold fog blows up from the Black Sea, 
 against the penetrating power of which ordinary clothing 
 furnishes no protection. Even those scavengers of the 
 city, the ownerless dogs, seemed to feel the influence of 
 the weather and skulked about with less ferocious as 
 pects. 
 
 The history of this city is too well known to be re 
 peated here. The number of public buildings to be seen 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 179 
 
 is not large. There are the palaces of the sultans, 
 among them the palace of the last sultan, and numberless 
 mosques, more or less imposing. The Mosque of St. 
 Sophia, built originally as a Christian church, by Justinian, 
 is the most remarkable one, costing, it is said, $3,000,000, 
 which in our time and country, would be near $20,000,000. 
 It is in the form of a cross, 269 feet in length by 143 feet 
 in breadth, and surmounted by a flattened dome, rising 
 1 80 feet above the ground. There are, besides, several 
 
 MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA. 
 
 cupolas and four minarets, added by the Turks, making 
 in all a very imposing pile. Within, rise large columns 
 from a floor of variegated marble, and magnificent bronze 
 gates extend themselves. Near it is the beautiful Mosque 
 of Achmet, with its six minarets. Grant, in wandering 
 through these, saw scattered around silent worshipers 
 seemingly devout and sincere as Christians in a Christian 
 church. One of the objects that peculiarly attract for 
 eigners, is the bazaars, where every imaginable article 
 
i So 
 
 7RA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 from every portion of the globe can be found, and where 
 all the life and activity of the city is concentrated, for the 
 narrow streets seem deserted compared to the throngs 
 that congregate here. Although it had not yet re 
 covered from the gloom cast over it by the war, still the 
 cafes and restaurants of the city, thronged by natives and 
 foreigners, presented an animated appearance. The war 
 was a great topic of conversation, and General Grant 
 and the American war, with its armaments and guns, be- 
 
 INTERIOR OF MOSQUE OF ST. SOPHIA. 
 
 came a subject of discussion wherever he appeared. 
 One of the chief features of Constantinople viz.: the 
 cemeteries Grant did not visit, owing to the stormy 
 weather. For the same reason, the Bosporus, with its 
 light caiques and beautiful shores, possessed little at 
 traction. Women waddling along, veiled up to their 
 eyes, met him at every turn. The dogs, gaunt and 
 hungry, roam at will, though each community is con 
 fined to its own ward, and if a daring cur ventures into 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. j g j 
 
 the domains of another, he is quickly hustled out like an 
 unregistered voter. After sunset, stillness like midnight 
 in any other city, settles on the streets. 
 
 General Grant made the tour of sight-seeing in rather 
 a dreary manner, owing to the cold, damp and stormy 
 weather. Many of the invitations extended to him he 
 was compelled to decline, as he could give only a few 
 days to the place. He took long walks through Pera, 
 the European portion of the capital, situated on the oppo 
 site side of the port, the inhabitants of which consider 
 themselves quite apart from the Turks, though composed 
 of natives of almost every other civilized nation in Europe. 
 
 Although the confusion and anxieties attending the 
 close of the war prevented the sultan from showing that 
 attention that he otherwise would have done, he directed 
 the master of ceremonies to present the General with an 
 Arab horse from the imperial stables. Accordingly a 
 number were led out, and one out of the 570 which com 
 posed the imperial stud, was chosen and set aside for him. 
 A second was afterward selected, and the two transferred 
 to the care of the American Legation, by whom they 
 were dispatched to the United States. One is a 
 dappled gray of fair size, and having all the traits 
 characteristic of the Arabian blood small, well-set, 
 restless ears, wide, pink nostrils, and large, soft eyes> 
 waving mane, and long tail reaching almost to the ground, 
 and a skin of such delicacy that the stroke of a lady s 
 whip is sufficient to draw blood. The other stallion has 
 all these points. He is an iron gray, with a white star 
 on his forehead and white hind feet. When the long 
 forelock falls over his forehead the large black eyes have 
 all the expression of a Bedouin woman s. Their gait is 
 perfect, be it either the rapid walk, the long, swinging trot 
 or the tireless, stretching gallop, while a rein of one 
 
1 82 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 thread of silk is enough to guide their delicate mouth. 
 Let one of these Arabs in the mad rush of a charge or a 
 flight lose his rider, and that instant the docile steed will 
 stop as though turned to stone. These horses are of the 
 famous Saktan race, the purest Arabian blood, only found 
 in and near Bagdad. The dapple gray is appropriately 
 named Djeytan (the Panther) and the iron gray Missirli 
 (The One from Cairo), which cognomen he derives from 
 having been bought at Cairo, though foaled at Bagdad. 
 
 SULTAN S NEW PALACE. 
 
 But it would take a much longer time than Grant had to 
 spare to see all this wonderful city, which contains, with its 
 beautiful suburbs and all, nearly eight hundred thousand 
 inhabitants. One of these, Scutari, the great rendezvous 
 of the caravans from Asia, built on several hills, with its 
 mosques, minarets and palaces, and the sultan s new pal 
 ace, deserves an article by itself. A sail round the "Golden 
 Horn," as the port is called, is a delightful trip and the 
 
i. il 1 ,,, .1 ... , . IV J 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 185 
 
 view from the Seraglio worth seeing in any other sea 
 son of the year, except in early spring. On this account 
 Grant kept away from the water whose shores form one 
 of the chief pictures in the many that surround Stam- 
 boul. A volume might be written on this wonderful city, 
 founded by Constantine in the year 338, on the ruins of 
 Byzentium, which he overthrew, and named by him. It 
 has been besieged 
 twenty- four times, 
 and the inhabitants 
 were thrown into 
 the wildest consterna 
 tion a few weeks be 
 fore Grant s arrival, 
 lest the Russian ar 
 mies pressing toward 
 it, should lay siege to 
 it for the twenty-fifth 
 time. Formerly, it 
 was defended by 
 strong walls and for 
 tresses, but these, es 
 pecially from the land 
 side, are in a dilapi 
 dated condition, and 
 could offer no long 
 resistance to a for 
 midable army with heavy siege guns. Its long siege and 
 final overthrow by the Crusaders is one of the most stir 
 ring events in human history, and there is not a great city 
 now standing on the earth around which clusters such 
 stirring events and which has played such an important 
 part in the history of the race. 
 
 Grant, having finished his hasty visit, took his depar- 
 
 MARBLE STAIR-CASE IN THE PALACE. 
 
jg^ TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ture for Greece. Bidding" adieu to the host of friends 
 assembled to shake his hand for the last time and bid 
 him God speed, he sailed out of the Golden Horn and 
 through the far-famed Straits of Dardanelles, and steered 
 for the Piraeus, some six miles from Athens. 
 
 GREECE. 
 
 Arriving here, he took the railroad for this ancient seat 
 of learning, passing the whole distance through vine 
 yards, olive-yards and fig plantations. Modernized, and 
 with its ancient glory all gone, still 
 
 " Cold is the heart, fair Greece ! that looks on thee, 
 Nor feels as lovers o er the dust they loved." 
 
 General John Meredith Read, our Minister at Athens, 
 and American travelers, were there to welcome him. 
 The usual invitations to dinners and fetes succeeded, 
 most of which he was compelled, for want of time, to 
 decline. The king and queen gave him a grand recep 
 tion, at which all the foreign representatives and distin 
 guished men of the city were present. Never in the 
 palaces of England or Paris did he see such graceful 
 costumes or such beautiful women, for, though the ancient 
 type of beauty, which has been fixed forever in marble by 
 Grecian art, has changed, the classic lines remain which 
 distinguish Grecian ladies from those of all other lands. 
 Grant was the centre of this galaxy of beauty, and com 
 pliments were showered on him from every side. 
 
 While the people of Athens retain much of their ancient 
 beauty, they never for a moment forget their ancient 
 glory. Even the modern streets that have been laid out 
 bear the names of Minerva, ^Eolus and Hermes, which 
 bring back the days of old. 
 
 Athens is situated in a most beautiful plain, with ridges 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAA T T. 
 
 187 
 
 rising here and there, on one of which is built the Acro 
 polis or citadel, surmounted by the world-renowned Par 
 thenon, built of 
 white marble, 220 
 feet in length and 
 one hundred feet 
 in breadth. This 
 hill and its grand 
 and almost per 
 fect ruin, rose be 
 fore Grant which 
 ever way he turn 
 ed, and had he had 
 his own way, not 
 many hours would 
 have passed be 
 fore his feet had 
 pressed it. But 
 he was requested 
 to delay his visit 
 until preparations 
 could be made by 
 the Government 
 to illuminate it, as 
 it is occasionally 
 done to very dis 
 tinguished nation- 
 a 1 guests. It 
 would have been 
 much better to 
 have waited till 
 God illuminated 
 the glorious ruin by the silvery light of the moon. 
 But there were other places to visit Mars Hill, with 
 
iSS 
 
 TRAl ELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 l8 9 
 
 the Areopagus on its summit, where Paul delivered 
 his eloquent sermon to the wondering- Athenians, who at 
 last had heard "some new thing" worthy of their 
 philosophic minds, and the Erectheum, ninety feet in 
 length ; the Propylaea ; the Temple of Theseus, with its 
 thirty-four Doric columns, standing as they stood a thou 
 sand years ago ; the Prison of Socrates ; the Temple and 
 Theatre of Bacchus ; Grotto of Apollo and Pan, and 
 numberless other places, made classic by early history, 
 art and mythology. 
 
 Just outside of the city rise sixteen Corinthian columns, 
 sixty feet high, on a raised platform the remains of the 
 Temple of Jupiter Olympus. There was enough to 
 occupy every moment of Grant s time, and he made 
 good use of it. 
 
 At length the evening for the grand illumination of the 
 Parthenon came, and Grant, with a large escort, rode up 
 the steep sides of the Acropolis. The once grand and 
 beautiful Temple of Minerva stood before him, its mag 
 nificent ruins outlined against the darkening sky. Two 
 hundred and seventeen feet long, ninety-eight broad and 
 sixty-five feet high, with its columns, and colonnades, and 
 statues, and gold, it was once the admiration, as its ruins 
 now are the wonder of the world. 
 
 Grant sat in the gathering gloom and gazed long and 
 intently upon it, while the ages rolled back and brought 
 up the past with its glory, when those broken pavements 
 resounded with the feet and voices of worshipers, and 
 that whole hill-top was crowded with structures on which 
 were lavished all that art and wealth could bestow. 
 While he stood gazing, absorbed with the feelings that 
 magnificent ruin always excites in the beholder, it sud 
 denly blazed up with a thousand Bengal fires till broken 
 wall and column seemed to waver to and fro in the daz- 
 
jOO TRAVELS OF GENERAL GKAXT. 
 
 zling light, as they were drawn in lines of fire against 
 the dark background of the sky. The jutting walls and 
 columns in the foreground were ablaze with light, and 
 contrasted weirdly with the darkness of the deep recesses 
 in the distance. Ruined architecture and broken cornices 
 stood out in the darkness, revealing every crack which 
 time had made and every fracture in the fluted columns, 
 till the whole magnificent structure seemed an airy vision. 
 Ever and anon new fires were kindled in some remote 
 nook or corner, producing new effects. It was doubtless 
 a magnificent spectacle as an exhibition of fireworks, but 
 the Parthenon was no place for them. They would have 
 been equally superb at a funeral and quite as appropriate. 
 It was wholly in keeping with this pyrotechnic display, 
 that out of the blazing structure should come the sound 
 of laughter as those who helped to get up the show 
 laughed and chatted together. It, however, furnished a 
 fair representation of modern, frivolous Greece, in con 
 trast with the earnest, thoughtful Greece of old. 
 
 The mighty past rises suddenly before one at every 
 step in Athens, for you walk where Demosthenes, and 
 Socrates, and Plato walked, and Pericles, and Lycurges, 
 and Alcibiades lived, and Homer sang, and art in ruin is 
 greater than modern art in its perfection. 
 
 Grant, after exhausting Athens proper, rode over the 
 country to visit some of the famous battle-fields of 
 Greece, to Thermopylae, where Leoniclas and his Spartan 
 band set an example to patriotic heroes for all time, to 
 where the mountains look on Marathon Bay and Mara 
 thon on the sea, and he could say: 
 
 "Where er \ve tread tis haunted, holy ground, 
 No earth of thine is lost in vulgar mould, 
 But one vast realm of wonder spreads around, 
 And all the Muses tales seem truly told 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. T T 
 
 Till the sense aches with gazing to behold 
 The scenes our earliest dreams have dwelt upon : 
 
 Each hill and dale, each deepening glen and wold 
 Defies the power which crushed thy temples gone ; 
 Age shakes Athen s towers but spares gray Marathon." 
 
 But this visit, so full of glorious memories and so re 
 plete with enjoyment to the eyes as well as to the heart 
 and soul, at length drew to a close, and Grant, bidding 
 his friends a warm adieu, joined once more his ship and 
 turned his course toward Italy, to see what he had passed 
 by on his former visits, and long before he reached Rome 
 the mighty dome of St. Peter s, towering in the heavens, 
 told him where lay the Imperial City. 
 28 
 
TRATELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 IN ROME GRANT VISITS THE COLOSSEUM VIEW FROM ITS TOP THE ANCIENT < \! I- 
 TAL ST. PETER S SIGHT-SEEING PRIVATE INVITATIONS DINES WITH THE 
 KING RECEIVED BY THE POPE THE ROAD TO FLORENCE FLORENCE UI I !7.[ 
 PALACE THE PITTI GALLERY DUCAL PALACE CHARACTER OF THE PEOPI I A. 
 CONVENIENT CUSTOM PISA VENICE ITS ORIGIN ITS GONDOLAS BRIDGES 
 PLEASANT SIGHTS GONDOLA SAILING THE ARSENAL JOURNEY TO MILAN THE 
 CITY ITS WONDERFUL CATHEDRAL PAINTING OF THE LORD S SUPPER STARTS 
 FOR PARIS A GREAT CHANGE THE NATIONAL EXHIBITION STARTS FOR NORTH 
 ERN EUROPE HOLLAND THE HAGUE A GRAND REVIEW LUNCHES WITH THE 
 KING S UNCLE ROTTERDAM AMSTERDAM A MAGNIFICENT DINNER BY THE 
 LEADING MERCHANTS THE GREAT SHIP CANAL STARTS FOR BERLIN. 
 
 IMMEDIATELY on Grant s arrival, the aid-de-camp 
 to the king called on him, and soon after Cardinal 
 McCloskey, and every facility offered him by both 
 church and state to see all that the city contained worth 
 seeing. One enters Rome for the first time with strange 
 
 o o 
 
 feelings, for his feet press the dust of a dead empire the 
 grandest the world has ever seen. The modern houses 
 that inclose the ancient ruins gives vividness to the pic 
 ture, and makes the past more real. 
 
 One of the first objects that General Grant sought out 
 was the Colosseum, one of the grandest ruins in the 
 world, and once capable of seating 30,000 people. Its 
 only dome is the sky, and the spectacle, when these seats, 
 rising in circular rows one above another, were filled, 
 must have been an imposing one. As you stand in the 
 vast area, which, with the building, covers five acres, and 
 look up on these ruined seats and remember that when: 
 you stand stood, and fought, and dird gladiators, "butch 
 ered to make a Roman holiday," the imagination is 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 111! 
 
 193 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 overwhelmed at the strange and mighty past that rises 
 before it. From the vast concourse Roman applause has 
 thundered, and "hie habet" been shouted clown to tin- 
 spot your feet press as the blood spouted from the poor 
 wretch s heart. Oh, what wild heart-breakings had that 
 arena seen ! From its ruined top old Rome lies all around 
 you; the Basilica of Constantine, the Capitoline Hill, tin- 
 Roman Forum, the Arch of Titus, the hill where stood 
 the Palace of the Caesars, and where long since 
 
 " The barbarian has stabled his steed," 
 
 while far away stretches the Campagna, with its long lines 
 of ancient aqueducts that supplied the imperial city with 
 water. 
 
 Grant and his party drove over the old Rome that 
 lies without the modern walls, reminded at every step 
 of what Rome was in its glory. Tombs, and ancient 
 baths, and fragments of temples, and broken columns 
 are scattered around, attesting the grandeur of the 
 imperial city, of which the present one is a mere frac 
 tion. Looking on such past greatness and power, tin.: 
 traveler recalls the words of the poet as he mused over 
 the same desolation : 
 
 " Such is the moral of all human tales, 
 
 Tis but the same rehearsal of the past 
 First freedom, then glory; when that fails, 
 Wealth, vice, corruption, barbarism at last. 
 And history, with all her volumes vast, 
 Hath but one page." 
 
 Among the many beautiful villas, both in and around 
 the city, that of the Villa Pamphilla Doria is one of tin- 
 most extensive and beautiful, the grounds of which an- 
 over four miles in circumference. But nothing of old 
 Rome interests the traveler more than the ancient capi- 
 
TRA rELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 195 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 196 
 
 tol. A noble flight of steps brings you to the top of 
 the Capitoline Hill, the buildings on which were designed 
 by Michael Angelo. They stand in the form of a paral 
 
 lelogram, with the main flight of steps at one end. At 
 the bottom of the steps is the old Roman mile-stone, that 
 marked the first mile of the Appian way. At the top are 
 two statues of Castor and Pollux standing beside their 
 
l^RAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 horses ; in the centre of the parallelogram is the bronze 
 equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, the only one that 
 has been handed down from antiquity. It was once 
 covered with gold. When it stood in front of the Late- 
 ran, it was an important object in the festivities that 
 celebrated Rienzi s elevation to the rank of tribune. 
 Amid the rejoicings of that memorable day wine was 
 made to run out of one nostril and water out of the other. 
 
 At the farther end stands " the Palace of the Senators," 
 while the two side palaces are filled with busts, statues 
 and paintings, and among them the bronze wolf, " the 
 thunder-stricken nurse of Rome," which, whether ever 
 struck by lightning or not, has one leg partly melted off. 
 Here, too, is the famous Dying Gladiator, one of the finest 
 statues of antiquity. 
 
 What a sudden change in the feelings it creates to step 
 from this grand and suggestive monument of the past into 
 the great structure of modern Rome, St. Peter s. As you 
 go over the Tiber past the Castle of St. Angelo, you 
 suddenly find yourself in front of the magnificent structure. 
 In the centre of the noble area an ancient obelisk arises 
 amid sparkling fountains, while a fourfold colonnade, 
 surmounted by 192 statues, sweeps down in two great 
 semicircles toward you. Ascending the magnificent 
 flight of steps, Grant entered the main body of the 
 church, and stood awe-struck, not only at the vast ampli 
 tude around him, but the stupendous columns and the 
 wealth of statuary that lean out on every side, as if art 
 had exhausted itself in adorning this great temple. The 
 men and women look like insects creeping over the floor, 
 and are almost lost in the vastness of the encircling space. 
 As you approach the bronze canopy and gaze up into the 
 solemn dome of mosaics circling away four hundred feet 
 into the heavens, you exclaim : " It is enough." But all 
 
198 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT 
 
 description is powerless to give any adequate conception 
 of this wonderful building. There is no need of giving 
 dimensions, it is necessary only to say that you could pile 
 twelve Trinity churches into it, and have considerable 
 room left to walk about in. You could put two of them 
 
 under the dome, and 
 leave the nave and both 
 side-aisles unoccupied. 
 Rome is full of ob 
 jects of curiosity and 
 mementos of ancient 
 glory, which Grant 
 visited, among them 
 the works of Michael 
 Angelo, Raphael, Gui- 
 do, Correggio and other 
 great artists, which are 
 gathered here. It was 
 one continual round of 
 sight-seeing, and Grant 
 is a tireless sight-seer. 
 Tli ere was no end to 
 the invitations he re 
 ceived to visit private 
 museums, nor were 
 
 public honors wanting. King Humbert gave a magni 
 ficent dinner to him, at which the chief dignitaries of the 
 city were present. The Pope also gave him an audience 
 and treated him with the marked courtesy due to so dis 
 tinguished a man. 
 
 The time which Grant devoted to Rome was too short 
 to allow him to fully appreciate it. In such a hurried 
 visit, the vast number of objects of interest are so crowded 
 together that one can carry away distinct impression^ <>t 
 
 GUIDO S BEATRICE L)nCEXCi. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 199 
 
 
2QO TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 but very few. A whole winter is short enough to see it 
 properly. The road from here to Florence runs through 
 a beautiful country, and fields festooned with grape vines 
 and vineyards, and orange, and lemon, and olive groves 
 come and go on the sight till at last the sweet Vale of Arno 
 is reached, and the garden of Italy, with its world-renowned 
 dome bursts on the view. There are but few buildings 
 in the city to attract especially the traveler, and it is re 
 nowned almost entirely for the grand works of art that 
 are collected here, and which must be seen, not described. 
 Grant s first visit was to the Uffizi Palace, and the mo 
 ment he struck the outer gallery he entered a world ot 
 art. But the gem of the palace is the Tribune, a circular 
 room in which are gathered some of the finest efforts of 
 human genius. Here stands the Venus de Medici, 
 Titian s Venus, and in another gallery is Titian s Flora, 
 and Raphael s Fornarino ; but it is useless to name even 
 the artists whose works, famous throughout the world, 
 adorn its walls. The Pitti gallery in the Ducal Palace, 
 which he next visited, contains, perhaps, as a whole, the 
 finest collection of paintings in the world, and weeks 
 could be spent here, each day revealing some new beauty 
 and awakening a new delight. In the cabinet of antique 
 bronzes is an eagle of the Twenty-fourth Roman Legion, 
 that long ago, when Rome was in her glory, soared amid 
 the din and smoke of battle. 
 
 Florence he found very different from Rome in the 
 character of its people. The ruins of the latter city seem 
 to have subdued the feelings, and but little of that light- 
 heartedness which distinguishes the Italians is found there. 
 Here there are no ruins, but instead flowers on even- 
 side, and works of art ; and the inhabitants seem to 
 catch the spirit of their cheerful surroundings and laugh 
 and chat with the merriment of children. 
 
VENUS rE MEDICI. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. - 
 
 The custom here of putting a marble tablet over the 
 door where some distinguished character has lived or 
 died saves one a world of trouble, and as you pass along 
 you see where Dante was born, Corinne lived, and 
 Americus Vespucius made it his home. Of all these 
 monuments of men that once lived here, none has greater 
 attractions than Galileo s tower and the house in which 
 the great astronomer lived. The Duomo Baptistry and 
 Campanille are worth going a long way to see, but it is 
 wearisome to describe them. From the wonderful cupola 
 of the former, Michael Angelo took his design for the 
 dome of St. Peter s. The prettiest view of Florence is 
 from Fiesole, perched on a hill-top, from whence you look 
 down on the gardens of Florence and the rich vale of the 
 Arno, through which the river winds in sparkling, graceful 
 curves. The Cascine is the " Central Park " of Florence 
 and, like it, toward evening is thronged with carriages and 
 filled with gay talkers. 
 
 The King of Italy having taken up his first residence 
 here, it was supposed that he intended to make it the 
 permanent capital of Italy, and vast improvements were 
 commenced involving great expense, which has made it 
 more like an American city in one respect than any other 
 in Italy in its public debt. Grant lost the imposing 
 ceremonies of Holy week at Rome, which were close at 
 hand, and stayed here only long enough to see the com 
 mencement of them at the Duoma. 
 
 From here it is a short run to Pisa, once the rival of Flo 
 rence, now dilapidated and forlorn, and worth visiting only 
 for the imposing group of buildings composed of the 
 Duomo Baptistry, Campo Santo and leaning tower the 
 Campo Santo and sacred field being composed of dirt 
 brought from the Holy Land. Grant received from the 
 authorities and distinguished men of Florence the atten- 
 
204 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 AN ITALIAN GARDEN. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 205 
 
 tion bestowed on him everywhere, while the Americans, 
 v. ho are always found here in great numbers, crowded 
 around him with delight, and when he left for Venice 
 gathered around the depot, and as the train moved out 
 sent up cheer after cheer. Nothing can be pleasanter 
 than to travel through Italy in the spring of the year, for 
 the country is like a continuous garden, in which peasants, 
 male and female, are at work in picturesque costumes. 
 The air is soft and balmy, the sky blue as sapphire and 
 seems to bend - -; 
 
 in joy over all 
 this beauty, and 
 one feels it a 
 luxury merely 
 to live. 
 
 When the 
 Huns and 
 Lombards 
 overrun the 
 Roman empire, 
 some six hun- 
 dred years 
 after Christ, the 
 inhabitants o f 
 Northern Italy 
 took refuge 
 
 on a vast collection of little islands, separated from 
 the main-land by a narrow arm of the sea, and 
 there founded Venice. How many of these islands 
 there are it is hard to say, some making the number 
 seventy-two and others ninety. They are connected by 
 450 bridges, the largest of which, is the famous 
 Rialto, consisting of a single arch 187 feet long. 
 Hence its streets are canals, and its coaches gondolas 
 
 RIALTO BRIDGE. 
 
OQ 6 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and boats. It became a great maritime power, and accu- 
 mulated vast wealth in the time of the Crusades. It is 
 filled with magnificent churches and palaces, many of 
 them fast sinking to ruin. It was the 23d of April when 
 Grant crossed the great bridge connecting the city with 
 the main, and entered it, where he was received in 
 state by the authorities and welcomed heartily by all the 
 Americans stopping there. After the formal reception 
 and congratulatory speeches were over, which were be 
 coming a dreadful bore, Grant drove to his hotel and 
 passed the evening in looking out upon the water and 
 boats gliding by filled with gay and merry passengers, 
 mingled with whose laughter would ever and anon come 
 snatches of song. The glancing lights, the gloomy, 
 shadowy palaces and the starry sky overhead made a pic 
 turesque scene there on the Adriatic. There are many 
 things worth seeing in Venice, but nothing so attractive 
 and curious as Venice itself. There are many piazzas or 
 places in Venice, but only one, St. Mark s, which deserves 
 the name. This is surrounded by arcades and orna 
 mented with two lofty columns. Here, too, stands the 
 famous Church of St. Mark s, where tradition says the 
 bones of Mark the Evangelist rest. The church is of 
 the Byzantine style and ornamented inside with all the 
 magnificence of Oriental taste and wealth. Grant and his 
 party spent much of their time in the gondolas, sailing up 
 and down the streets and under the countless bridges 
 that span them at every turn, among which was the 
 Bridge of Sighs, where one stands, 
 
 " With a prison and a palace on each hand. 
 
 They visited the Arsenal, built on an island and sur 
 rounded by high walls and towers, in which, in her 
 days of maritime greatness, Venice had everything 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 209 
 
2 T o TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 necessary to fit out a fleet docks, magazines, manufacto 
 ries of cordage and sails, magazines, cannon foundries and 
 forges. The city has a strange and eventful history, and 
 though its commerce seems to be reviving, the days of its 
 commercial greatness are gone forever. There are many 
 objects of beauty in the city, but nothing is so pleasant 
 as to glide along the water between the houses and 
 palaces, and see the gay boat-loads and receive the greet 
 ing of passers-by, and Grant enjoyed it much the three 
 days he remained here. 
 
 As usual, the Americans assembled to bid him good 
 bye, and wafted their good wishes after him, as he started 
 for Milan, and passing through the country, now clothed 
 in its richest green, next day arrived in the city, where 
 he was received by the authorities with the usual for 
 malities and complimentary speeches. 
 
 There was nothing in Milan to detain Grant long. 
 The Marengo Gate is beautiful, but especially interest 
 ing from the battle once fought near by, which it is 
 designed to commemorate, and so are the Place d Armes 
 and the promenade ; but the chief attraction is the Cathe 
 dral, next to St. Peter s the most imposing religious 
 edifice in the world. It is a Gothic structure, built of 
 pure white marble, which, in the sunlight, shines with 
 dazzling splendor. Its foundations were laid 500 years 
 ago, and while its vast dimensions astonish the beholder, 
 he is lost in admiration of the exquisite perfection of the 
 work ; 4,000 statues adorn the exterior alone, requiring an 
 expenditure of labor and money almost incalculable. If 
 the exterior amazes you, the elaborate interior, resting 
 on fifty-two marble columns, charms you. 
 
 To get the full effect of this wonderful cathedral, one 
 needs to go there at vespers, and standing under the lofty 
 nave, amid that wilderness of white columns, watch the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 21 I 
 
 FERRO PA LACK. 
 
2 I 2 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT 
 
 evening sunbeams streaming- through the windows of 
 stained glass, and listen to the pealing organ as the 
 solemn notes steal out under the lofty arches and die 
 away in the distant shadows. 
 
 In Milan is the original, world-renowned painting of 
 Leonardo da Vinci, representing the Lord s Supper. 
 But it is fading away in the dampness of the atmosphere, 
 and its original beauty is now best seen in the copies and 
 engravings which are everywhere to be found. 
 
 Grant s stay in Milan was short, for he was in a hurry 
 to reach Paris, as the World s Exhibition was to open in 
 a few days. Everything was now to be changed, and he 
 was to pass at a single bound from ancient civilization 
 to modern the Parthenon was to give place to the 
 buildings for the exhibition of modern industry; statues 
 and paintings of ravishing beauty to * McCormick s 
 reapers ; the columns of Karnac to improved pumps, and 
 the Bridge of Sighs to designs of railroad bridges, and 
 ancient sepulchres to modern engines, and the silent 
 world of the past to the din, and hurry, and clangor, and 
 excitement of the present. 
 
 His journey to Paris was evidently heralded ; for, at 
 all the stations the officials were ready to offer him every 
 civility and furnish him the best carriages, and he was 
 whirled on to the French capital surrounded with every 
 comfort a traveler could desire. 
 
 He arrived there on the 7th and was immediately 
 waited on by Mr. McCormick, the American commis 
 sioner for the great exhibition, and asked to name a day 
 when it would be convenient for him to visit it. He men 
 tioned Saturday and on that day he, with a large party 
 of friends, made the tour of the different departments, 
 everywhere treated with marked distinction, and in the 
 American department greeted with enthusiasm by his 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 I 5 
 
 countrymen, who were proud of their representative 
 man. Paris was full of Americans who vied with each 
 other to show him attention, and he was overwhelmed 
 with invitations. Among other things, to show their ad 
 miration for him, they planned a magnificent 4th of July 
 fete in the Bois de Boulogne, at which he should be the 
 honored guest. But that was nearly six weeks ahead, 
 and he could not spend all that intermediate time in Paris. 
 A few days sufficed to see all he wished to see in the ex 
 hibition, while he did not care to revisit the great points 
 of interest he saw a few months before. Much less did 
 he desire to spend the time in a constant round of dinners 
 and fetes. He longed once more to be in the open coun 
 try and on the wing, for there was more rest in that than 
 in the gay dissipation of Paris, and he started for the 
 northern countries of Europe. He first went to Holland, 
 the country of unbroken platitude. The green fields of 
 spring and sight of peasants in picturesque costumes 
 along the road and at work were a relief after the bustle, 
 and turmoil, and excitement of the French capital. But 
 the country is flat and interesting chiefly in that it lies 
 below the sea at high tide. It is everywhere hemmed in by 
 dykes, which should they ever give way would submerge 
 farms, towns, cities and men alike, and prove a second 
 deluge to the inhabitants. It is crossed by canals to 
 carry off the superfluous water, which are also used as 
 means of communication by neat little boats that are con 
 stantly traversing them. Of course, these dykes are 
 closely watched for any incipient leak, for the least aper 
 ture, if allowed to remain unstopped for a short time, 
 would, by the tremendous pressure from without, soon be 
 come a huge rent, through which the water would rush 
 with such fury as to defy all resistance. Doubtless, a 
 great calamity will happen here some day, but the inhabi- 
 
2 j TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 tants, born and reared there generation after generation 
 below the sea level, live as careless and merry as those 
 at the foot of Vesuvius and Etna. 
 
 The engineering work by which these lakes and sub 
 merged lands were pumped dry, after the dykes were 
 built, is something wonderful, as is the present effort to 
 drain its great inland sea. 
 
 The people are thrifty and neat, and take pride in their 
 cattle. The lands that have been reclaimed from the sea 
 are very rich and fertile, yielding abundant pasturage. 
 Apparently insignificant as Holland is in size, it has a 
 history of which it may be proud. 
 
 Grant did not stop on the way, but speeding on over 
 the monotonous level, at length reached the Hague, the 
 residence of the court. Here, as everywhere else, for 
 malities had to be gone through with and fetes given, to 
 show in what estimation the distinguished guest was held. 
 Among others, a grand review was got up the last thing 
 he could wish, for the inside of a single farm-house would 
 have been a far more welcome spectacle. Prince Freder 
 ick, the king s uncle, has a superb country-seat a mile and 
 a half from the city, to which he invited General Grant, and 
 gave him an elaborate luncheon. The museum, in which 
 arc many pictures of the great masters, was the chief 
 attraction to Grant here. That visited, there was not 
 much to delay him. Invitations came pouring in from 
 other cities, but he declined them, and having paid a visit 
 of ceremony to the court, he left for Rotterdam, where he 
 found that a great many Americans had taken up their 
 residence. Here was found the true Dutchman exhibit 
 ing both the phlegm and enterprise of the Dutch nation. 
 
 This famous seaport is triangular in shape, the longest 
 side being about a mile and a half, and is surrounded 
 with water, and intersected by canals large enough to re- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 I 7 
 
 ceive ships, so that it presents a complete intermingling of 
 masts and houses, much as New York would, if at inter 
 vals ship-canals were cut from the East to the North Rivers, 
 and filled with vessels. But to have these spanned with 
 draw-bridges, constantly cutting off foot-passengers and 
 vehicles, would not be borne as patiently by the Yankee 
 as it is by the Dutchman. 
 
 The streets are quite picturesque, and where the old 
 houses are painted all sorts of bright colors, have an odd 
 look. Grant visited some of the churches, but lingered 
 the longest in the museum, famous for its fine col 
 lection of paintings. The burgomaster gave him a 
 grand dinner, in which the toasts and speeches abounded 
 with good feeling toward the United States. Grant and 
 the genuine Dutchman are alike in one thing which 
 should create a bond of sympathy between them both 
 like to smoke much and talk little. 
 
 From here the journey to Amsterdam was a short one, 
 though it showed what the result would be if the Zuyder 
 Zee should once break through the barriers that shut it 
 out from all those fair farms and peaceful villages. The 
 ground on which the city stands is so low that most of the 
 houses are built on piles the noble building, the Stadt 
 House, 282 feet along, standing on 13,659 piles. The 
 borders of the city on the land side form a large semi 
 circle. Within this are several smaller semicircles of 
 canals, one within the other, each growing shorter as they 
 open in the Amstel or Wye River. The leading mer 
 chants of the city gave the General a sumptuous dinner, 
 with the ever-monotonous yet ever-repeated toasts and 
 speeches, a fashion that will probably never grow old. 
 He examined with great interest the ship canal that con 
 nects Amsterdam directly with the North Sea. Before 
 this was built, vessels had to unload in order to enter the 
 
2 i g TRA l~ELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 harbor. It is fifty miles long and over one hundred and 
 twenty-four feet broad at the surface. The high tides of 
 the sea supply it with water, so that its only locks are 
 tide-locks at each extremity. It is wide enough for two 
 frigates to pass each other. A grand collation was given 
 Grant on his visit, by one of the directors. A short trip was 
 made to Haarlem, and to the church of St. Bavon, where 
 one of the grandest organs in the world was played in 
 his honor, and then he started for Berlin. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 j Q 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 c,RANT AT BERLIN CALLS ON GORTSCHAKOFF THE EUROPEAN CONGRESS CALLS 
 ON BISMARCK THE INTERVIEW A TALK ABOUT SHERIDAN INTERCHANGE OF 
 VIEWS ABOU1 THE ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE THE EMPEROR GRANT S OPINION 
 OF COMMUNISM PRINCIPLES AND THE WAY HE WOULD DEAL WITH ASSASSINS 
 DINNER OF THE AMERICAN MINISTER REVIEW OF THE PRUSSIAN ARMY IN A 
 RAIN-STORM GRANT S OPINION OF THE BAYONET AS A WEAPON LUNCH WITH 
 PRINCE HOHENZOLLERN DINNER WITH BISMARCK INTERESTING CONVERSA 
 TION. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT had given a fortnight to Hol 
 land, more time than he probably would, had it 
 not been for the attempt to assassinate the Em 
 peror of Germany and the consequent uncertainty for a 
 time whether the shock to his system would prove fatal. 
 When all danger was passed, he at once started for 
 Berlin, and reached it on the 26th of June. Mr. Taylor, 
 our minister, escorted him to the city, having gone sixty 
 miles to Stendahl to meet him. True to his plan of 
 travel, he, as he always did, when he could break away 
 from the ceremonies of a public reception, started off in 
 the evening for a quiet stroll among the people, who saw 
 in him only a common stranger. This course he pursued 
 every day while he stayed now leisurely walking along 
 the great promenade Unterden-Linden, and now pene 
 trating to the remotest streets, to observe the manners 
 and customs, and learn the character of the common peo 
 ple, as they exhibited themselves in their every-day life. 
 He called on General Gortschakoff, because he was so ill 
 with the gout that he could not call on him. 
 The famous European Congress, on the affairs of Tur- 
 
S20 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 key, was in session here at this time, with many of the 
 members of which he interchanged calls, as old acquaint 
 ances made in his travels in Europe. Among the first 
 callers was Prince Bismarck, who, not finding him in, left 
 his card, and called the second time with like ill-success. 
 
 EMPEROR OF GERMANY. 
 
 Grant then sent a note, saying that he would call on the 
 prince at any hour he would name. The latter appointed 
 that afternoon at four o clock. 
 
 A few minutes before the time, Grant slowly sauntered 
 through the Frederick Place, and walked quietly into the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 221 
 
 court-yard of the palace. The sentinel had been told of his 
 expected arrival, and seeing the group of strangers, natu 
 rally inferred that he must be among them and presented 
 arms. But a look of astonishment was on his face when 
 he saw no carriage or liveried servants, only a plainly- 
 dressed and ordinary-looking man, walking leisurely 
 across the court-yard, smoking a cigar. Surely this can 
 not be the ex-President of the United States, and one of 
 
 INTERVIEW WITH PRINCE BISMARCK. 
 
 the most renowned generals of the a^e. It was a new reve- 
 
 o o 
 
 lation to him. Grant carelessly threw away the stump of 
 his cigar as he answered the salute and advanced to the 
 door. Suddenly two servants fling open the door and 
 he passes into the spacious marble hall. The next mo 
 ment the renowned prince, who is really emperor of Ger 
 many, comes forward in a free and easy manner, with both 
 
222 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 hands extended to meet him. His hair is almost white, and 
 there is a look of weariness on his lion-like face, which 
 reveals in every line the sagacious, intrepid and right 
 kingly man. As he seizes Grant by the hand he says in 
 a frank, cordial tone, " Glad to welcome General Grant 
 to Germany." The latter replied, that nothing in his 
 German tour had given him so much pleasure as to meet 
 him. Bismarck said he was surprised to see him so 
 young a man, but on comparing their ages, it was found 
 that he was but seven years younger than the prince. 
 " This," remarked the latter, laughing, " shows the advan 
 tage of a military life, for here you have the frame of a 
 young man, while I feel like an old man." Grant smiled 
 and replied, that he had arrived at that period of life 
 when no greater compliment could be paid him than to 
 say he looked like a young man. By this time Bismarck 
 had led him to a chair in his private study or library, that 
 looked out on a beautiful park. One of the first ques 
 tions of the prince was about General Sheridan, saying, 
 "the General and I were fellow-campaigners in France, and 
 we became great friends." Grant replied, that he had re 
 ceived letters from him recently, and that he was quite well. 
 " Sheridan," said the prince, " seemed to be a man of 
 great ability." " Yes," answered Grant, " I regard Sheri 
 dan not only as one of the great soldiers of our war, but 
 as one of the great soldiers of the world as a man who is 
 fit for the highest command No better general than Sheri 
 dan ever lived." " I observed," said Bismarck, " that he had 
 a wonderful quick eye. On one occasion, I remember, the 
 emperor and his staff took up a position to observe a 
 battle. The emperor himself was never near enough to 
 the front, was always impatient to be as near the fighting 
 as possible. Well, said Sheridan to me as we rode 
 along, we shall never stay here, the enemy will in a short 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 time make this so untenable that we shall all be leaving 
 in a hurry. Then while the men are advancing they will 
 see us retreating. Sure enough, in an hour or so the 
 cannon-shot began to plunge this way and that way, and 
 we saw we must leave. It was difficult to move the em 
 peror, however; but we all had to go, and," said the 
 prince, with a hearty laugh, " we went rapidly. Sheridan 
 had seen it from the beginning. I wish I had so quick 
 an eye." 
 
 The conversation then turned on the Congress in ses 
 sion in the city, when Bismarck remarked that he was 
 sorry his necessary attendance on it prevented him from 
 showing him around Berlin. He told him, also, that the 
 emperor was sorry that he could not see him, as the 
 doctors had peremptorily forbidden him to see any one. 
 Grant expressed his regret that he could not have that 
 honor, but regretted still more the cause of it, and hoped 
 he would entirely recover. Bismarck remarked : " You 
 know he is a very old man." "That," replied Grant, 
 " adds to the horror one feels for the crime." Bismarck 
 then spoke of the emperor, his kindliness of heart, and 
 winning and generous disposition, expressing his wonder 
 that any one should desire to take his life. Grant said 
 it was the same with Lincoln one of the kindest-hearted 
 men that ever lived, yet killed by an assassin, and added 
 that the influence which aimed at the emperor s life was 
 an influence that would destroy all government, all order, 
 all society, republics and empires. 
 
 " In America," he said, " some of our people are, as I 
 see from the papers, anxious about it. There is only one 
 way to deal with it, and that is by the severest methods. 
 I don t see why a man who commits a crime like this, a 
 crime that not only aims at an old man s life, a ruler s 
 life, but shocks the world, should not meet with the severest 
 
22 * TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 punishment. In fact," continued the General, "although 
 at home there is a strong sentiment against the death 
 penalty, and it is a sentiment which one naturally 
 respects, I am not sure but it should be made more severe 
 rather than less severe. Something is due to the 
 
 PRINCE VON OTTO BISMARCK. 
 
 offended as well as -the offender, especially where the 
 offended is slain." 
 
 " That," said the prince, " is entirely my view. My con 
 victions are so strong that I resigned the government of 
 Alsace because I was required to commute sentences of 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 capital nature. I could not do it in justice to my con 
 science. You see, this kind old gentleman, that emperor 
 whom these very people have tried to kill, is so gentle 
 that he will never confirm a death sentence. Can you 
 think of anything so strange that a sovereign, whose ten 
 derness of heart has practically abolished the death pun 
 ishment, should be the victim of assassination, or 
 attempted assassination ? That is the fact. Well, I have 
 never agreed with the emperor on this point, and in 
 Alsace, when I found that as chancellor I had to approve 
 all commutations of the death sentence I resigned. In 
 Prussia that is the work of the minister of justice ; in Alsace, 
 it devolved upon me. I felt, as the French say, that some 
 thing was due to justice, and if crimes like these are 
 rampant they must be severely punished." 
 
 To which, Grant, in his usual quiet, undemonstrative 
 way, replied : " All you can do with such people is to kill 
 them." A sentiment to which, as Carlyle says, your 
 "rose-water" philosophy gentlemen will object, but one 
 to which every careful reader of history will say amen. 
 
 As was most natural, Bismarck assented to this, and 
 then remarked that the emperor was especially sorry 
 that he could not in person show General Grant a review, 
 and that the crown prince would give him one. " But," 
 said the prince, "the old gentleman is so much of a 
 soldier and so fond of his army that nothing would give 
 him more pleasure than to display it to so great a soldier 
 as yourself." 
 
 Grant accepted the crown prince s invitation to a 
 review for next morning, but with a smile continued : 
 " The truth is, I am more of a farmer than a soldier. I 
 take little or no interest in military affairs, and although I 
 entered the army thirty-five years ago and have been in 
 two wars, in Mexico as a young lieutenant, and later, I 
 
22 6 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 never went into the army without regret and never re 
 tired without pleasure." 
 
 " You are so happily placed," said the prince, " in 
 America that you need fear no wars. What always 
 seemed so sad to me about your last great war was, that 
 you were fighting your own people. That is always so 
 terrible in wars, so very hard." 
 
 " But it had to be done," said the General. 
 
 " Yes," said the prince, " you had to save the Union 
 just as we had to save Germany." 
 
 " Not only to save the Union, but destroy slavery," 
 answered the General. 
 
 " I suppose, however, the Union was the real senti 
 ment, the dominant sentiment," said the prince. 
 
 " In the beginning, yes," said the General ; " but as 
 soon as slavery fired upon the flag it was felt, we all felt, 
 even those who did not object to slaves, that slavery 
 must be destroyed. We felt that it was a stain to the 
 Union that men should be bought and sold like^cattle." 
 
 Our Minister, Bayard Taylor, gave a public dinner to 
 Grant, at which the usual toasts and mutual compliments 
 were given, and was altogether a pleasant affair. But the 
 subsequent review of the Prussian army was not quite so 
 agreeable. It had been arranged to take place at half- 
 past seven in the morning. Unfortunately the day was 
 ushered in with a pouring rain, and some one suggested 
 that it should be postponed. But Grant, though so 
 hoarse that he could scarcely speak, and totally unfit to 
 be exposed to such weather, would not hear of it, as the 
 troops were already in motion. 
 
 The place selected was the Tempelhof, a large open 
 field outside of Berlin. When General Grant drove on 
 the ground in a palace carriage he was met by the 
 general commanding the Berlin troops, and a large staff. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 227 
 
 A horse was in waiting for him, but he was suffering so much 
 from a cold and chill, that he would not mount. The 
 rain kept pouring down while the wind swept in fierce 
 gusts over the field, driving it into the carriage of General 
 Grant with such fury, that he was in a short time com 
 pletely drenched. The brilliant pageant soon became 
 dismally sombre, and all wished it was well over, but 
 still cavalry, infantry and artillery moved on amid the 
 storm, while the bursts of music made miserable harmony 
 with the .wild howl of the wind and the roar of the lashing 
 rain. A sham fight with all the movements of a real 
 battle, skirmish line, and flank attack was gone through 
 with amid the wildest shouts and cheers. 
 
 Grant complimented the troops, but said he questioned 
 very much whether in modern war the sabre or bayonet 
 was of much use, for they added to the weight which the 
 soldier had to carry, and so far impaired his efficiency. 
 He thought that pistols in the hands of the soldiers would 
 be far more effective than bayonets when they came to 
 close quarters. Major Ingil, who accompanied him, said 
 he could not agree with him, and cited instances in which 
 the bayonet had decided the victory. Grant replied that 
 was true, but the instances were so rare that they could 
 not furnish a rule ; and, for his part, he would take away 
 the bayonet as so much useless weight, and let the sol 
 diers use the butt-end of their muskets instead. 
 
 After the sham fight there was a grand review, and the 
 dripping army, infantry, cavalry and artillery defiled be 
 fore Grant, who stood with uncovered head, the rain 
 beating pitilessly upon it. It was very beautiful and 
 grand, no doubt, but the rain destroyed the effect, and 
 both Grant and the soldiers were glad when each were 
 permitted to seek shelter from it. 
 
 They then drove to the military hospital, and after- 
 
228 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 wards to the quarters of a cavalry regiment, commanded 
 by the Prince of Hohenzollern, where lunch was served, 
 toasts drank and speeches made ; but, as they had to be 
 made through an interpreter, they lost much of their 
 point and interest. 
 
 The lunch over, Grant returned to his hotel, at which 
 Bismarck soon after called on him, when the former pre 
 sented him to his wife. The prince speaking English 
 well, a pleasant conversation followed, and at two o clock 
 he took his leave, saying that he must go to the Congress. 
 The next day he invited General Grant and his wife to 
 dinner, where they met many distinguished guests. After 
 it was over all retired to an ante-chamber, overlooking a 
 beautiful park, and while Mrs. Grant and the princess 
 had a quiet tete-a-tete, Bismarck and Grant sat down by a 
 window together and had a long conversation, Grant, in 
 the meantime, puffing his cigar, while Bismarck betook 
 himself to his pipe, saying that the doctors had forbidden 
 him to smoke cigars. 
 
 The following sketch of this interview we quote entire 
 from the pen of a correspondent : 
 
 " If I had any skill in drawing, I should like to sketch 
 the scene between Grant and Bismarck. The chancellor 
 I came near saying the old chancellor, but I was think 
 ing of his grave and wan face, and forgetting that he is a 
 young man, as chancellors go had lying stretched before 
 him, one faithful friend, a black Danish dog of the hound 
 species. This dog has made a place for himself in the 
 affections of Berlin. He has full run of the palace, and 
 took as much pains as the prince to make himself agree 
 able to his guests. He and the prince are inseparable 
 companions, and there is a story that^when Prince Gort- 
 schakoff came one day to see Bismarck, the dog made an 
 anti-Russian demonstration against the Russian s legs. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 229 
 
 All Berlin laughed over the story, which is too good to 
 be denied. But on this occasion the Danish hound was 
 in the most gracious mood. 
 
 "The General and the prince talked mainly upon the 
 resources of the two countries. The contrast between 
 the two faces was a study ; for I take it, no two faces, of 
 this generation, at least, have been more widely drawn. 
 In expression, Bismarck has what might be called an 
 intense face, a moving, restless eye, that might flame in 
 an instant. His conversation is irregular, rapid and au 
 dacious, with gleams of humor, saying the oddest and frank 
 est things, and enjoying anything that amuses him so 
 much that frequently he will not, cannot finish the sen 
 tence for laughing. Grant, whose enjoyment of humor 
 is keen, never passes beyond a smile. In conversation 
 he talks his theme directly out with care, avoiding no 
 detail, correcting himself if he slips in a detail, exceedingly 
 accurate in statement, and who always talks well, because 
 he never talks about what he does not know. You note, 
 in comparing the two faces, how much more youth there 
 is in that of Grant than of Bismarck. Grant s face was 
 tired enough a year ago, when he came here fresh from 
 that witches dame of an Electoral Commission ; it had 
 that weary look which you see in Bismarck s, but it has 
 gone, and of the two men, you would certainly deem 
 Grant the junior by twenty years. 
 
 " Mr. Taylor, the American Minister, was evidently 
 impressed with the historical value of the meeting of 
 Grant and Bismark. He remembered a German custom 
 that you can never cement a friendship without a glass of 
 old-fashioned schnapps. There was a bottle of a famous 
 schnapps cordial among other bottles. I am afraid to 
 say how old it was, and the minister said, General, no 
 
 patriotic German will believe that there can ever b^ 
 30 
 
230 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 lasting 1 friendship between Germany and the United 
 States, unless yourself and the prince pledge eternal 
 amity between all Germans and Americans, over a glass 
 of this schnapps. The prince laughed, and thanked the 
 minister for the suggestion. The schnapps was poured 
 out, the General and prince touched glasses, the vows 
 were exchanged in hearty fashion, and the prince, rising, 
 led Mrs Grant through the hall." 
 
 Perhaps there was no interview held by General Grant 
 with a distinguished public personage, so free from all 
 formality and restraint, as this. Mrs. Grant s intercourse 
 with Bismarck s wife was equally unrestrained. 
 
 Although the Congress being in session and many 
 distinguished personages were in the city, it did not seem 
 to lessen the attention paid to the great American. In 
 vitations were pressed upon him, many of which he was 
 compelled to decline. The Americans in the city, like 
 those in Paris, hoped to get up a grand Fourth of July 
 celebration, at which the presence of Grant would be 
 secured, and thus give it great eclat. 
 
TRAVELS OP GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 GRANT AT HAMBURG THE CITY WAITED UPON BY THE SENATE A TRIP ON THE 
 ELBE A QUIET FOURTH OF JULY DINNER SPEECH OF GRANT DINNER OF THE 
 MERCHANT PRINCES ATTENDS THE RACES COPENHAGEN ENTHUSIASTIC RE 
 CEPTION AT GUTTENBERG CHRISTIANIA STRONG DRINK OF NORWAY AND SWE 
 DEN A PRIMITIVE JOURNEY INTO THE NORTHERN COUNTRY A JOLLY RIDE 
 PEASANT LIFE INVITED BY KING OSCAR TO THE ROYAL PALACE STOCKHOLM 
 PEASANTS OF DALKCARLIA. 
 
 BUT this was not to his taste, and he slipped down to 
 Hamburg, on the Elbe, and passed the day there in a 
 quiet, informal way. The distance from Berlin is 
 about one hundred and seventy miles and the road passes 
 through a rather uninteresting country. He reached Ham 
 burg on the 2d of July, and the entrance into the busy, 
 bustling, thriving town, with its omnibuses, and hacks, and 
 trucks, was like one into an American city. There was no 
 display here or formal ceremonies on his arrival, and he 
 drove to the consul s house and had a quiet dinner. Then 
 came the inevitable cigar and a stroll through the irregu 
 lar but perfectly clean and orderly streets. Hamburg, it 
 is well known, was one of the free cities of the old Han- 
 seatic confederation, and is governed by four burgomasters 
 and twenty-four councilors, and, though belonging to the 
 German Empire, still enjoys many of its ancient muni 
 cipal rights and privileges. 
 
 In the morning, a deputation from the senate waited on 
 General Grant and taking him in a small steamer showed 
 him the docks and basins, etc., of the harbor, and ran a 
 short distance up and down the Elbe. Although the trip 
 
2^2 TRATELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ^ O ** 
 
 was a pleasant one, much of its beauty was marred by 
 the low-lying clouds and the down-pouring rain. In the 
 evening, the senate gave him a dinner at the Zoological 
 Gardens, where the usual complimentary toasts were 
 given and speeches made. 
 
 The next day was the 4th of July, and early in the 
 morning a Prussian band serenaded the General at his 
 hotel. He afterward drove out to the country residence 
 of the vice-consul, and spent the afternoon in strolling- 
 through the woods and talking with Americans who had 
 come out there to meet him and have a quiet dinner with 
 him at a country hotel near by. There was about thirty 
 guests in all, and it was a thoroughly American dinner 
 and enjoyed greatly by the General, who felt more at 
 home than he had for a long time. The consul, Mr. 
 Wilson, presided, and in giving the toast to Grant, spoke 
 of him as having saved the country. The latter replied 
 to it in the following happy manner : 
 
 "MR. CONSUL AND FRIENDS: I am much obliged to you 
 for the kind manner in which you drink my health. I 
 share with you in all the pleasure and gratitude which 
 Americans so far from home should feel on this anniver 
 sary. But I must dissent from one remark of our consul 
 to die effect that I saved the country during the recent 
 war. If our country could be saved or ruined by the 
 efforts of any one man we should not have a country, and 
 we should not be now celebrating our Fourth of July. 
 There are many men who would have done far better 
 than I did under the circumstances in which I found 
 myself during the war. If I had never held command ; 
 if I had fallen ; if all our generals had fallen, there were 
 ten thousand behind us who would have done our work 
 just as well, who would have followed the contest to the 
 end and never surrendered the Union. Therefore, it is a 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 2 -, 
 
 mistake and a reflection upon the people to attribute to 
 me, or to any number of us who held high commands, 
 the salvation of the Union. We did our work as well 
 as we could, and so did hundreds of thousands of 
 others. We deserve no credit for it, for we should have 
 been unworthy of our country and of the American name 
 if we had not made every sacrifice to save the Union. 
 What saved the Union was the coming forward of the 
 young men of the nation. They came from their homes 
 and fields, as they did in the time of the Revolution, giving 
 everything to the country. To their devotion we owe the 
 salvation of the Union. The humblest soldier who car 
 ried a musket is entitled to as much credit for the results 
 of the war as those who were in command. So long as 
 our young men are animated by this spirit there will be 
 no fear for the Union." 
 
 Some dancing followed, and then he drove to the rail 
 way station, greeted w r ith fire-works in the woods along 
 the route. 
 
 The next day, Baron Von Ohlenclorf, one* of the mer 
 chant princes of the city, gave him a luncheon, at which 
 the Prussian Minister was present, and the leading 
 wealthy merchants of Hamburg. Afterwards, much 
 against Grant s wishes, he v/as taken in a pouring rain to 
 see the races, but did not remain long, and returned to 
 his hotel. 
 
 There are some old, quaint buildings in Hamburg, but 
 nothing of particular interest to detain the traveler long. 
 The chief attraction is its clean, bright streets, and its 
 society, and mode of living, and general appearance, and 
 thrift of the place evidently, a pleasant place to live in. 
 
 The next day Grant and his party left for Copenhagen, 
 noted for its fine squares, fine houses and handsome men 
 and women. Canals are here, as in Amsterdam and 
 
2 ^ 4 7*^ F^ZS <?/ GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Hamburg, in the very heart of the city, in which vessels 
 are moored. Situated on the Island of Zealand, it is sur 
 rounded by water. It is the capital of the smallest of the 
 European kingdoms, yet has a history equal in import 
 ance to the largest. 
 
 The genius of Thorwaldsen pervades Copenhagen, and 
 his works are seen in the churches, and in the museum 
 named after him, in which are gathered 300 of his works. 
 It has also large libraries, a splendid university, a fine 
 arsenal, and an ethnographic museum, in which are gath 
 ered antiquities of all ages, even those showing the cus 
 toms and manners of men living before history began. 
 The Palace of Fredericksberg is an imposing building, 
 standing in the middle of a grand park, a short distance 
 from the city. 
 
 Grant, however, stayed here only long enough to get 
 a bird s-eye view of the people, and bidding his friends 
 a hearty adieu, took a steamer, and crossing the Callegat 
 Sound, entered the port of Gottenburg amid the waving 
 of flags from every ship and shallop in it. He had ex 
 pected to post on to Christiania, but the reception of this 
 once decayed but now thriving town of 40,00x3 souls was 
 so enthusiastic, that he was persuaded to stay over the 
 day and visit the. various portions of the city and receive 
 the honors that were waiting to be paid him. 
 
 The next morning he started for Christiania, the capital 
 of Norway, and noticed with peculiar pleasure that the 
 peasants along the way had decorated their rural homes 
 with flags, in expectation of his coming. Ten thousand 
 people were assembled on the quay to receive him, while 
 flags waved, and cheer after cheer from these hardy sons 
 of the North made the welkin ring. This was no formal 
 ceremonious reception by king or municipal authorities, 
 but the spontaneous greeting of the people. Grant was 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 - * 
 
 taken by surprise by it, and even his imperturbable face 
 worked with the emotions that filled his heart. 
 
 Christiania is beautifully situated on the water, and this 
 day when the sky was clear, the air fresh, and white caps 
 were dancing over the glittering Fjord, presented a 
 charming appearance. The moment a man enters Nor 
 way, he enters a land of strong drink. It is a little sin 
 gular, that the farther you go toward the equator, the 
 milder the stimulating drinks that are used, and the 
 nearer you approach the Arctic regions, the stronger they 
 become. Here they drink before eating a fiery liquor 
 called corn brandy, to whet their appetites, and after it is 
 over, to digest their food, and enough of it to upset the 
 strongest American head, but the effects of which this 
 cold northern blood is able to resist. The people are 
 frugal and honest, and altogether a sturdy race. Modern 
 civilizatio n and modern improvements have not wliolly 
 removed the traits of the old Norsemen, Goths and 
 Huns, that once overrun and changed Southern Europe. 
 They do not change their customs easily, and heat their 
 houses to-day, as they did a long time ago, with porcelain 
 stoves, fed by pine and birch wood. The history of 
 Sweden and Norway are blended, and of great interest to 
 the student, but far too extended to be entered on here. 
 
 Charles XII and Gustavus Vasa are immortal names 
 in military history, while in daring explorations by sea 
 these northern nations took the lead. But Grant had 
 little time and inclination to trouble himself about the 
 past of these old Norsemen, he wanted to look on the 
 present. Of course there was -more or less interest at 
 tached to the public building, library, university, etc., of 
 Christiania, but these were soon exhausted, and a project 
 entirely new, and which was to furnish one of the most 
 pleasant episodes in Grant s tour around the world, was 
 
2^6 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 here set on foot nothing more or less than an inland 
 trip northward toward the land of the reindeer and the 
 Laps. Here there were no railroads or royal convey 
 ances, not even stage coaches. Up through the peasant 
 land, the rural districts, and over the rough and hilly 
 roads, the mode of traveling was primitive, and if Gen 
 eral Grant and his party wanted to get out of conven 
 tional life and see the Norseman in his mountain home, 
 and picturesque valleys, and pastoral independent life, 
 he must betake himself to it, because on the route he pro 
 posed to take there were but two modes of conveyance, 
 or rather we should say, so far as comfort was concerned, 
 but one. This was essentially an American sulky that is, 
 a clumsy, heavy one, with the seat sunk farther down 
 between the wheels than ours, a little frame behind 
 attached to the axle-tree for the baggage, that must not be 
 more than a good-sized hand trunk, on which a boy or 
 girl having charge of this one horse or pony could set, 
 and take care of it, sulky, team, and driver and all. There 
 is another mode of conveyance something like an Eng 
 lish " scat-cart," which some of the travelers preferred 
 for several Americans had joined the party that is, pre 
 ferred for the first few miles only, and hence does not 
 need a description. A pony, not a horse, is attached to 
 these sulkies and the passenger drives. One can imagine 
 with such rattle-traps for conveyances, what a comical 
 spectacle Grant and his party presented as they started 
 on their northern inland tour. State ceremonies, royal 
 carriages, deafening salutes, dazzling equipages, stately 
 dinners, formal speeches and bands of music were 
 exchanged for a free, wild rattlc-to-bang drive through 
 the country of Norway. It does not require any 
 stretch of the imagination to conceive the jolly appear 
 ance of this crowd of onc-horsc, or rather one-pony 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 237 
 
 vehicles, scurrying over the hills and through the pic 
 turesque valleys of Norway. It was a merry, jolly ride, in 
 which there was racing and laughter, and jesting without 
 end. General Grant, in a low two-wheeled vehicle, drawn 
 by a small pony, with a little boy clinging like grim death 
 to the seat, behind him, and rattling at the rate of five 
 miles an hour over the stony roads, and up and down the 
 steep hills of Norway, was somewhat of a contrast to 
 the tame, dignified personage in Windsor Palace or 
 Bismarck s carriage, yet to him a most pleasant one. 
 It was thoroughly an American party, and altogether 
 formed a sort of helter-skelter caravan, as they scurried 
 through the country. 
 
 Here and there the party was known, as the news of 
 their journey had preceded them, and peasant girls were 
 dressed out in their gayest costumes, bringing mountain 
 strawberries and wild flowers to sell. In others, the men 
 and women, unconscious of the presence of distinguished 
 strangers, were busy at work in the fields men and 
 women alike, with their scythes and rakes, gathering in 
 the fragrant hay. Rugged mountains, with here and there 
 an opening between, revealing the sparkling waves of the 
 North Sea, came and went, their bare, solemn tops 
 contrasting strangely with the waving fields at their base, 
 
 o o J o 
 
 while over all bent the clear Northern summer sky, and 
 all around was the fresh and invigorating air. Past the 
 rude dwellings of the peasants, past quiet hamlets and 
 rustic churches, with their simple graveyards, the party 
 sped on, enjoying every mile and every hour of this new, 
 fresh life. 
 
 To Grant, wearied with formal receptions, ceremonies, 
 dinners and monotonous reviews, it was like an escapade 
 from school. He would like to have gone on in this ex 
 hilarating atmosphere, with this fresh life about him, 
 
233 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 to the land of the Laps and the reindeer, but he had, 
 with military precision, mapped out his journey and fixed 
 the time for his arrival in St. Petersburg, and so was 
 compelled to turn about and direct his course back to 
 Christiania. 
 
 Norway is a great resort for English sportsmen, espe 
 cially for those who like salmon-fishing, and Grant en 
 countered many of these, who invited him to join them, 
 but he declined, knowing as little about fishing as he did 
 about music. 
 
 King Oscar invited him to the royal palace, and those 
 formal visits of ceremony which had come to be as 
 regular as a bill of fare at a restaurant, were gone through 
 with, and then he started by rail for Stockholm, the capi 
 tal of Sweden. All along the route it was known that 
 General Grant was on board, and hence everywhere 
 there were displays of flags, and in some of the villages 
 triumphal arches, bearing on them, " Welcome to General 
 Grant," while the country people thronged the depots to 
 get a glimpse of the great American chieftain. 
 
 It was night, even in these long days of this northern 
 latitude, before the train reached the capital, for they do 
 not run here with lightning-like speed as they do in 
 America and England. But the road being superbly laid 
 and the cars admirably fitted up for comfort, this could 
 be dispensed with, especially as it gave the General a 
 better opportunity to see the country through which they 
 passed. The city, handsome in itself, appears still more 
 beautiful from its situation on three islands, or, perhaps, 
 more accurately stated, with its suburbs on seven, which 
 rise irregularly from the water. Built like Venice, on the 
 water, it is connected by a great number of bridges. 
 Looking down on it from the higher grounds, land and 
 water are blent and tall ships are seen sailing among 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 7O 
 
 church spires and houses, while, in the distance, mountain 
 summits roll along" the sky, furnishing a grand back 
 ground to the whole. A busy population throng the 
 streets, and one is struck with the number of beautiful 
 women and their graceful walk. Stockholm has its 
 palaces, museums, libraries, etc., which interest more or 
 less the traveler. In the National Museum are many 
 relics that stir the heart with the memories they awaken, 
 and among them the blood-stained clothes of the great 
 Gustavus Adolphus, which he wore on the fatal field of 
 Lutzen, and the hat of Charles XII, which he wore 
 at Frederickshall when, as he was leaning" against a 
 
 o o 
 
 parapet, a cannon-ball crashed through his head. They 
 found him dead in the same position in which he was 
 standing when the ball struck him his hand on his 
 sword. The royal palace, with its lower portion of pol 
 ished granite, and its upper of brick, stuccoed, is a superb 
 structure and is considered second to none in Europe, 
 unless it is Versailles. One of the sights peculiar to 
 Stockholm is the women from Dalecarlia, who come down 
 from their mountain homes to earn money for a future 
 dowry, when they shall return to their native villages to 
 be married. Like the peasantry in the Neapolitan king 
 dom, they delight in costumes of various bright colors 
 a scarlet petticoat, green or blue jacket, red stockings, 
 and some coquettish head-dress. In Italy, however, they 
 present a more picturesque appearance than here, as they 
 work in the green fields between the rows of grain, while 
 in Stockholm they do the common work of men in the 
 streets, even mixing mortar, turning themselves into hod- 
 carriers tending the masons on the houses. The king- 
 extended to Grant royal hospitalities, and everything was 
 done to make his short stay in the capital pleasant. He, 
 however, soon exhausted its special objects of interest 
 
240 
 
 TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and took boat for St. Petersburg, 400 miles distant across 
 the Baltic. As the boat entered Cronstadt, the forts that 
 frown about it thundered forth a salute, while the vessels 
 
 PRINCE GORTSCHAKOFF, 
 
 of war hung out their flags. The reception on shore was 
 short, and then Grant and his party embarked on board 
 a steamboat and steamed up the Neva to St. Petersburg*, 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 ,j 
 
 one of the grandest cities of Europe. On their arrival, 
 they were met by our minister, Mr. Stoughton, and soon 
 after Prince Gortschakoff and other officers of the court 
 called on him and welcomed him in the name of the emper 
 or, and fixed an audience with the latter for the next day. 
 
 At the appointed hour Grant drove to the palace, and 
 was received by the emperor with great cordiality, who 
 conversed some time with his guest, and seemed particu 
 larly interested in our Indians, both as to their treatment 
 by the Government, and their probable destiny. The 
 interview being ended, the emperor accompanied Gen 
 eral Grant to the door, and spoke of the friendly rela 
 tions that had always existed between Russia and 
 America, adding, "and as long as I live nothing shall be 
 spared to continue this friendship." Grant replied in 
 suitable terms, saying, that although the two Govern 
 ments were unlike, the American people were in sympa 
 thy with Russia, and he trusted always would be. 
 
 The Grand Duke Alexis called on him, notwithstanding 
 the slight the newspapers pretended the President put on 
 him when in this country, and inquired about the manner 
 of Custer s death, whom he knew and admired. The 
 longest interview was with Prince Gortschakoff, the two 
 chatting and smoking together like old acquaintances, 
 discussing European and American politics by turns, the 
 General giving him much new information about the 
 latter. It is a little singular, that the greatest despotism 
 on earth, and the greatest republic, should be on more 
 cordial terms of friendship with each other than with 
 those countries most like them in their political systems. 
 Gortschakoff is now over eighty years old, a time of life 
 when an American disappears from public affairs, and yet 
 his mind is keen and active as that of Bismarck s himself. 
 
 St. Petersburg, as we said, is a magnificent city, with the 
 
2 4 2 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 ,^ 
 
 Neva running through it and supplying it with pure water. 
 Both banks are lined with palaces, and churches, and 
 towers glittering with gold, and beautiful gardens. The 
 imperial gardens are on its banks, from which you have 
 an extended view of the stream winding through this 
 gorgeous frame-work. It is vain to attempt to describe 
 the beauty and grandeur that meets one as he walks the 
 spacious streets. The most splendid churches are St. Isaac s 
 and our Lady of Kazan the latter, which is dedicated to 
 the great Russian saint, is a massive structure, its nave 
 and cupola resting on fifty-six granite columns, with 
 bronze capitals. The floor is of different kinds of mar 
 ble, the steps to the choir of porphyry, with a silver balus 
 trade. There is not space to speak of the towers of the 
 admiralty, and of the fortress covered with plates of pure 
 gold. The Winter Palace of the emperor is an imposing 
 pile of buildings, with its suites of halls filled with 
 marbles, precious stones, pictures and works of art. 
 Some idea of this most magnificent palace in the world 
 may be formed when it is remembered that in the winter 
 it is occupied by 6,ooc people belonging to the emperor s 
 household. Adjoining it 5 and connected by galleries, is 
 the Hermitage, built by Catherine as a place to retire 
 from public business, and where in the coldest weather 
 reigns perpetual spring. We will not attempt to describe 
 "the marble palace/ nor that of Prince Labanoff, noi Alex 
 ander s obelisks and the equestrian statue of Peter the 
 Great which adorn its open squares, nor the public institu 
 tions, theatres, etc. The drosky, the cab of St. Petersburg, 
 is one of the distinguishing features of the city, and is 
 seen at every turn, those of the officers going at Jehu 
 speed along the streets. 
 
 The emperor placed his yacht at Grant s disposal, and 
 he made a trip in it to Peterhof, some fifteen miles out of 
 
2 * TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 the city, which bears the same relation to St. Petersburg 
 that Versailles does to Paris. But the description of 
 palaces becomes as monotonous and wearisome as see 
 ing them. They differ very little from each other, ex 
 cept in the amount of wealth lavished upon them use 
 less as residences mere monuments of kingly extrava 
 gance, built out of the money rung by taxes from the 
 toiling millions. When one remembers how much depri 
 vation and want these costly piles have produced, and 
 goes from their gilded halls to the pinched, hard-working 
 masses, he does not wonder at Communism or Nihilism, 
 and feels that some day the oppressed and suffering mil 
 lions will make a bonfire of them. A visit was made to 
 the Russian man-of-war, " Peter the Great," and Grant 
 was received with a. salute of twenty-one guns, while the 
 band struck up national airs. He then kept on down the 
 beautiful Neva to Cronstadt and sailed through the 
 Russian fleet. Each vessel, as he approached, run up the 
 Stars and Stripes the sailors manned the yards till the 
 rigging was black with men, sending cheer after cheer 
 over the water. It was a spirited, animated scene. This 
 magnificent city with its palaces and churches, is built on 
 a swamp ; its very foundations, like those of Cairo, being 
 brought from a distance. Of course, it is flat and the 
 spacious streets run on a dead level. Nevskoi Prospekt 
 is Broadway and Fifth Avenue combined elegant shops 
 and palatial residences succeeding each other, while the 
 sidewalks are thronged with fashionable ladies and 
 gentlemen. General Grant enjoyed his drives through 
 the capital more than his visits to palaces. But the 
 English quay is the fashionable part of St. Petersburg, 
 and here the houses resemble palaces. It is a very 
 religious city, if one can judge by the number of churches 
 and the worshipers that throng them, and though the 
 
( 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 247 
 
248 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 national religion is Greek, there are vast numbers of Jews, 
 Mohammedans and Christians in it. St. Petersburg-, how 
 ever, to be seen in all its glory, should be visited in 
 winter when the Neva is frozen over and sledges with 
 
 o 
 
 costly robes fill the streets. Having seen the finest 
 churches, and visited its chief public buildings, and enjoyed 
 the hospitality of the city, Grant bade his many friends 
 adieu and started for Moscow, lying some four hundred 
 miles distant almost in a straight line. 
 
 o 
 
 The railroad between St. Petersburg and Moscow 
 
 RUSSIAN POST-HOUSE. 
 
 was built by two American engineers, named Winans 
 and Wilson. They laid it out at first as they would one 
 in this country, so as to take in the principal places on 
 the way, for the double purpose of benefiting the people 
 and increasing/ the traffic. But, when the plan was shown 
 the emperor, he drew a straight line between the two 
 cities, and said: "Lay out the road on that line," and 
 they did so. Cuts, and chasms, and hills were of no ac 
 count to the imperial will. 
 
 This single anecdote illustrates strikingly the difference 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 249 
 
 between a republic and a despotism. In the former, a road 
 is built to accommodate the people, in the latter to please 
 the monarch. The road is well built and admirably 
 equipped, but it runs through a desolate, forbidding 
 country, where the larch and the birch-trees alternating, 
 are the most conspicuous objects on the vast plains. The 
 rate of speed is fixed at thirty miles an hour, so that the 
 running time from St. Petersburg to Moscow is but little 
 over thirteen hours ; 
 yet it was ordered 
 that, including stop 
 pages, twenty hours 
 should be allowed for 
 the train that carried 
 General Grant, thus 
 allowing some seven 
 hours to rest and eat. 
 What would the 
 Americans say, if five 
 hours were allowed 
 for stoppages between 
 Albany and Buffalo ; 
 and, yet, who will as 
 sert that the Russian 
 mode of traveling is 
 
 o 
 
 not more sensible than 
 ours. There the train 
 
 waits for the passengers to take a quiet breakfast and 
 dinner without hurry or anxiety, and they are made 
 thoroughly comfortable. Here a man stows away his 
 , food a good deal as a farmer loads his hay-cart in a 
 thunder-storm, and thus injures his health, and loses the 
 pleasure of a quiet dinner and the comfort of good diges 
 tion. 
 
 RUSSIAN PEASANTS. 
 
250 
 
 77?^ VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 The country presented a striking contrast to one stretch 
 ing" between two great cities in this country, and resembled 
 a prairie more than anything else. The condition of the 
 ignorant, stolid peasantry seems but little improved by 
 their emancipation from serfdom. The women do most 
 of the work in the fields, keeping up a low chant as they 
 toil at the scanty crop, and present a sorry contrast to 
 the magnificent palaces of the capital. 
 
 The stations are about the pnly comfortable-looking 
 
 VIEW OF THE KREMLIN. 
 
 buildings on the road till you get near Moscow, where 
 the country becomes thickly populated, and cottages, and 
 gardens, and pleasure-grounds enliven the landscape. A 
 crowd at the depot awaited the train, and greeted its 
 arrival with cheers, while officials pressed forward to pay 
 their respects to the distinguished traveler. 
 
 This ancient capital is built on a spacious plan, gardens 
 and grounds separating the houses; which resemble cot 
 tages, from out of which in the centre of the city rises the 
 towers of the world-renowned Kremlin. As one looks 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 at this pleasant, well-built city, the mind involuntarily 
 turns back to the memorable year of 1812, when Napo 
 leon entered it with 1 50,000 men, and took up his abode 
 in this stately pile, only to be soon driven out by the all- 
 devouring flames, and recalls the sublimity and terror of 
 that great sacrifice by which the people arrested the con 
 queror and turned his victory into the most disastrous 
 defeat the world has ever witnessed. 
 
 As he stood, on that terrible night three miles off, in a 
 building whose walls and windows were so hot from the 
 wild conflagration that he could not bear his hands on 
 them, he saw his army and his empire fading from view. 
 Here he was to winter, and then march on the Russian 
 capital, but now, advance was impossible, with winter so 
 near, and retreat only was left, but what a retreat ! What 
 a picture it was that this mighty genius was looking at 
 that nip^ht, through the hot windows on the conflaora- 
 
 o o o 
 
 tion that was in the end to wrap and engulf his fortunes. 
 Still the awful destiny which this sublime act of self- 
 sacrifice involved, could not make the victor forget the 
 grandeur of the scene, and he says: "// was the spectacle of 
 a sea and billows of fire, and sky, and clouds of flame, 
 mountains of red, rolling flame, like immense waves of the 
 sea, alternately bursting forth and elevating themselves to 
 skies of fire, and then sinking into oceans of flame below. 
 Oh ! it was the most grand, the most sublime, the most 
 terrific sight the world ever beheld 
 
 The mighty army of 600,000 men that had crossed the 
 Nieman, a few months before, disappeared like the mist 
 of the morning, and the star of Napoleon s destiny, that 
 no cloud could dim, sunk to gleam but once more before 
 it disappeared forever. Amid the devastating flame that 
 laid Moscow in ashes, the Kremlin stood unmoved. 
 The attempt to blow it up, when it was seen the fire had 
 
252 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 spared it, proved abortive, and it stands to-day, nearly all 
 there is remaining of Moscow s ancient greatness, though 
 in nine years after the city s destruction all signs of her 
 misfortune had disappeared. This citadel embraces about 
 two miles in circumference, and within its wall are palaces, 
 cathedrals and churches, the arsenal and treasury, mon 
 asteries, museums and buildings of various kinds, the 
 attempt to describe which, only bewilders one. But the 
 crowning glory is the Tower of Ivan Veliki, 250 feet 
 high, with its forty bells of various sizes that fill, when set 
 going, the surrounding country with their clang. 
 
 The largest weighs sixty tons, but vast as are its 
 dimensions, it is a mere steamboat bell, compared to the 
 one standing at the foot of the tower, on which it once 
 swung, and with its iron tongue spoke with a voice that 
 made the massive structure tremble. Its supports having 
 been burned away by a fire, it fell to the earth and was 
 cracked, so that its thunderous tone will be no more 
 heard. It remained buried in the earth where it fell a 
 hundred years, and then was raised and placed on a 
 granite pedestal, the monarch of all bells that ever were 
 cast. It is over twenty-five feet high and sixty-seven feet 
 in circumference, and weighs 400,000 pounds, and is now 
 used as a chapel. What it must have cost, one can 
 imagine when it is stated that the mere material alone 
 of which it is made is worth nearly $2,000,000. 
 
 From the top of the Kremlin 160 cupolas and towers 
 can be counted. In the arch of the St. Nicholas gate is 
 a picture of St. Nicholas, which is said to possess miracu 
 lous power. Princes and peasants alike take off their 
 hats as they pass under it, and so must you. 
 
 On the principal street of the city, and along it, are the 
 finest buildings and shops, and the palaces of the nobility. 
 The promenades and drives are fine. The carriage most 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 ei 
 
 used is a four-wheeled wagon, without springs, to which 
 a horse is hitched in shafts, with one horse on each side 
 of him. Over the middle one is a high yoke, to which 
 bells are attached. The horse in the shafts trots, making 
 the bells jingle, while the outside ones gallop. 
 
 The Chinese town, as it is called, is a vast expanse of 
 shops, the owners of which usually seem more interested 
 in a game of draughts than in selling goods. 
 
 The four days that Grant had given to Moscow passed 
 pleasantly. A drive to the emperor s villa, at Sparrow 
 Hill, from which you see the city spread out like a pano 
 rama, and strolling through the markets, and visiting 
 churches, and watching the daily flow of life through the 
 streets, filled up all the short time he had to spare. He 
 now started for Warsaw, the capital of Poland that was. 
 The distance is 600 miles, but the road goes through an 
 uninteresting country, save that it presented, with its 
 hamlets, and houses, and people, a new phase of life. 
 
 Hardly halting here, he kept on to Vienna, where he 
 arrived at night, on the i8th of August, and found all 
 the members of the embassy and many American citizens 
 waiting at the station to receive him. 
 
 The next day, Count Andrassy, the First Minister of 
 the Council, with many leading men, met him by appoint 
 ment at the American Legation. In the evening, he 
 dined with the count, and on the 2oth had an audience 
 with the king, at the Palace of Schoenbrunn, and on the 
 following day, with his wife, dined with him and the em 
 press. The next day the American minister gave a 
 diplomatic dinner, which was attended by all the minis 
 ters of foreign nations, and was followed in the evening 
 by a grand ball. 
 
 Vienna is a fresh, bright city, with magnificent streets, 
 lined with as splendid stores as those of Paris. The 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Stephenplatz was visited, where are the Church of St. 
 Stephen s and the Archbishop s Palace. The bell of the 
 Cathedral was cast from 180 cannon, taken from the 
 Turks, and weighs 40,000 pounds. Half way up the 
 tower a watchman always stands with a telescope in his 
 hand, to give the alarm of fire. From the top a superb 
 view of the city is had. Palaces and churches, museums 
 of natural history, and imperial royal picture gallery and 
 arsenal, by turns received Grant s attention. The pic 
 ture gallery is very* extensive, and contains many paint 
 ings by the great masters. 
 
 The environs of the city furnish also many attractions, 
 among others Baden, fourteen miles distant, famous for 
 its baths, which Grant visited. So many invitations were 
 showered on him here that he overstayed the time which 
 he had allotted to his visit, and for once he ordered a halt 
 in his military march through Europe. It was short, 
 however, and he was soon off for Munich, called the 
 Athens of Germany. It is a quaint-looking city, priding 
 itself chiefly on its magnificent street, called the Ludxvig 
 Strasse, and its famous beer, of which, in Bavaria, there 
 are 10,000 manufacturers, in a population of less than 
 5,000,000. Ten thousand breweries in New York would 
 be considered a rather large allowance by the temperance 
 people of the. State, yet you may here travel for days and 
 not see a tipsy man. 
 
 Munich contains many monuments, chief of which is 
 the bronze statue of Bavaria, sixty feet high, and stand 
 ing on a granite pedestal thirty feet high. Its public 
 library, next to that of Paris, is the largest in the world, 
 containing 800,000 volumes and 33,000 manuscripts, be 
 sides 300,000 engravings. Munich is a fine city, and, with 
 the exception of Florence and Madrid, contains the finest 
 collection of works of art in the world. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 255 
 
 Bound for Switzerland, Grant stopped only long 
 enough to get a general impression of it, and kept on to 
 Augsburg, and thence to Ulm, where Mack, in 1805, sur 
 rendered the entire army to Napoleon. Halleck com 
 pared Grant s Vicksburg campaign to this one of 
 Napoleon s against Ulm, but we see only small resem 
 blance. It was more like that great commander s first 
 Italian campaign. 
 
 At last they reached Schaffhausen, where Grant had 
 been before, and so made no stay, but crossing this por 
 tion of Switzerland, entered 
 France near Besancon, noted 
 for its watches. At the close 
 of the third day he reached 
 Lyons, known chiefly for its 
 silk manufactories. Long 
 columns of black smoke 
 rising from tall chimneys 
 told them before they reached 
 it, of St. Etienne, the Sheffield WINE-PRESS. 
 
 of France, and was the first great French manufacturing 
 town Grant had ever visited. A short halt was made at 
 the Vichy Springs, and then the party sped on through 
 various towns, making a short stop at Perigueux, where 
 monuments are erected to Fenelon and Montaigne. 
 There was not much, however, to interest the traveler 
 on this route, until they reached the wine country, on 
 their way to Bordeaux. Rich cultivated fields, green 
 hill-tops crowned with vineyards, happy-looking homes j 
 gay parties dancing on the village green in their light 
 costumes, on some fete, came and went in bright succession, 
 making the journey one of the most pleasant and agree 
 able he had yet taken. Like the peasants of Naples, the 
 country people delight in costumes in which caps, and 
 
256 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 bodices, and skirts are all of different colors, and present 
 a gay appearance as they contrast with the green foliage 
 of the vineyards, amid which they chatter and laugh as 
 though they had never heard of care. It takes about 
 fifteen men and women together, to tend two and a half 
 acres of vineyard, and bring the grapes to the press and 
 prepare the wine. The pressing is very like that of an 
 old-fashioned cider-press in our country. Everywhere 
 wine was urged on our travelers, always accompanied 
 with the declaration that it was harmless as water, and if 
 Grant had sampled all that he was asked to, he would 
 have been a second Bacchus, before he reached Bordeaux. 
 This city is situated on the Garonne, which is here 2,600 
 feet broad, and sixty feet deep, and lined with quays, 
 three miles long. It is famous for its wines, of which, 
 England and Russia take the greater part of the best 
 quality ; Paris and Holland the second and third, and the 
 United States, the third and fourth and fifth qualities, 
 though .the latter gets some of the best. Grant visited 
 the vast wine-cellars and brandy store-houses, with much 
 interest. There are some fine churches in Bordeaux, 
 and the Exchange, Archiepiscopal Palace and theatres 
 are good specimens of modern style of architecture. The 
 inhabitants are very proud of their principal street, the 
 Chapeaux Rouge. The hospitalities of the city were 
 enjoyed by General Grant, but he could not prolong his 
 stay, for a letter reached him here from King Alfonso of 
 Spain, inviting him to make him a visit. 
 
TRAVELS OF CENEKAL GRANT. 257 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 GRANT STARTS FOR SPAIN BIARRITZ SAN SEBASTIAN TOLOSA JOURNEY TO VIT- 
 TORIA INTERVIEW WITH CASTELAR VITTORIA INTERVIEW WITH THE KING--* 
 
 A FRANK CONVERSATION APPROACH TO MADRID THE ROYAL PALACE THE 
 
 ESCURIAL GRANT WITNESSES THE ATTEMPT TO ASSASSINATE ALFONSO PORTUGAL 
 
 THE ROYAL FAMILY THE KING S FATHER S SECOND WIFE A BOSTONIAN LADY 
 INTERVIEW WITH THE KING VISITS DON FERNANDO S PALACE AT CINTRA THE 
 KING AN AUTHOR OFFERS GRANT THE GRAND CROSS OF THE TOWER, AND SWORD 
 OF CORDOVA ITS GREAT CATHEDRAL SEVILLE ITS GAY PEOPLE THEIR LOOSE 
 MORALS THE ALCAZAR GOVERNMENT TOBACCO FACTORY A CONTRAST THE 
 EXCHANGE THE CATHEDRAL SHERRY WINE CADIZ ITS BEAUTIFUL WOMEN 
 GIBRALTAR LORD NAPIER S HOSPITALITY REVIEW OF TROOPS GIBRALTAR AS 
 THE KEY TO THE MEDITERRANEAN VISITS PAU ASKED TO TAKE PART IN A FOX 
 HUNT A PUBLIC DINNER RETURNS TO ENGLAND VISITS IRELAND RECEPTION 
 
 AT DUBLIN GIVEN THE FREEDOM OF THE CITY A GRAND BANQUET GRANT S 
 SPEECH INSOLENCE OF CORK VISITS DERBY ENTHUSIASM OF THE PEOPLE- 
 VISITS BELFAST HIS RECEPTION SEES BUT ONE SIDE OF IRELAND. 
 
 HE started immediately, stopping on his way at 
 Biarritz, beautifully situated on the Bay of Bis 
 cay. It is famous chiefly for having 1 been chosen 
 by the late French emperor as a seaside residence, and 
 where he built him a house. It was a favorite resort of 
 Eugenie in her girlish days, and the place was selected 
 to please her. The quaint costumes of the people and 
 their peculiar habits interested Grant more than anything 
 else in his short stop. 
 
 As the train, next day, drew up to the station at Irun, 
 just over the borders, draped with flags, a general of the 
 king met Grant and welcomed him in the name of His 
 Majesty, saying that he was directed by him to place a 
 special carriage at his disposal. It was accepted with 
 thanks, and the train kept on to San Sebastian, whose 
 
258 
 
 TRA rELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 walls have again and again been reddened with human 
 blood during the Napoleonic wars. Here Grant was 
 presented to the town officials, and then sped on toward 
 Tolosa. As he approached the station, a squad of sol 
 diers presented arms, and then the train kept on, winding 
 in and out among the hills. At length it left the defiles 
 through which it had crept its way, and skirting the side 
 of a great hill, with the peaks of the Pyrenees in full view, 
 passed the summit, and dashing down the farther side, 
 exchanged the wild scenery of the mountains for smiling 
 villages and cultivated fields that stretch on to Vittoria. 
 
 At a station near the city Grant was waited upon by- 
 several officers of high rank, sent to conduct him to the 
 king, who was several miles in advance, at Vittoria. Al 
 fonso solved the vexed question respecting the rank and 
 character in which Grant should be received, by directing 
 that he should be received as a captain-general of the 
 Spanish army. The latter, hearing that ex-President 
 Castelar was on the platform, about to start for San Se 
 bastian, sent word that he would like to know him. Cas 
 telar came at once, and a short, but interesting conversa 
 tion followed. The former thanked him for his friendship 
 for the United States and his noble sympathy with the 
 North during the rebellion, and said there was no man in 
 Spain he was more desirous of seeing. His short presi 
 dency of Spain was a stormy one, but by his firm hand 
 and masterly eloquence, maintained the integrity of the 
 Spanish Government, though he had not the sympathy of 
 a European nation, and was confronted by both Carlism 
 and Communists north and south. With a promise to 
 see each other again at Madrid, the two ex-presidents 
 parted, and the trains sped onward. 
 
 As the party entered Vittoria, a rain was falling, but 
 the town having been turned into a camp, the whole 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 259 
 
 space in front of the hotel at which Grant put up was filled 
 with booths and alive with dealers, mostly women in quaint 
 basque costumes. All the officials were ready to receive 
 him, who informed him that the king would see him next 
 morning. Accordingly, the next morning he entered the 
 modest little palace, where His Majesty resided when in 
 the place, and was escorted into an ante-room filled with 
 officers of high grade, and then passed into a library, 
 where the king awaited him. 
 
 As he advanced to greet him, Grant saw before him a 
 fair-faced youth, only twenty years of age, with a downy 
 mustache and a frank, open, almost boyish way with 
 him. Yet withal, there was a certain dignity in his man 
 ner as he led Grant to a seat, and said how glad he was 
 to see him, and that he felt honored that he should come 
 to Vittoria, as otherwise he would have missed his visit. 
 He had read all about him he said, both as a great Gene 
 ral and President, and admired him greatly and had been 
 very curious to see him. Grant expressed his thanks, 
 complimented him in turn, and spoke of the sympathy the 
 death of his wife created in America. The king" said he 
 
 o 
 
 had seen this in the American newspapers, and had been 
 deeply touched by it. His marriage, he said, had been 
 one of love entirely, for he and the queen had been en 
 gaged ever since he was fifteen years old. They had 
 been very happy together, and she had helped him bear 
 the burdens of his kingly office, which were extremely 
 irksome to him. Grant replied that the eight years of 
 his Presidency had been the most harassing and weary 
 ones of his whole life. The young king said, while his 
 wife lived, he found in her a solace to all his cares, but 
 now as she was .gone, his only comfort and relief was to 
 be actively engaged the whole time in labor. The inter 
 view was characterized by the utmost frankness on the 
 
2 5o TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 part of the young" king, who seemed glad to find one to 
 whom he could open his whole heart. The fair-browed 
 youth of twenty and the gray veteran of fifty-six, pre-, 
 sen ted a striking contrast, yet a pleasing picture, as they 
 sat side by side in that home-like library. 
 
 From Vittoria Grant went direct to Madrid, the ap 
 proach to which is forbidding and gloomy. Being situ 
 ated on a high, barren plain destitute of trees, its suburbs 
 have a dreary, desolate look. Among its objects of 
 interest is the royal palace, an immense pile of buildings, 
 470 feet square, and i oo feet high, and occupying, with 
 its gardens, nearly eighty acres. Its ceilings are magni 
 ficently frescoed, and the throne-room is gorgeous. 
 Adjoining it, is the royal coach-house, containing 125 
 carriages of every size, pattern and color, from Queen 
 Joan s carved carriage, 350 years old, to the trotting 
 wagon of New York. On the southern side is the 
 armory, the most interesting one in the world. But the 
 only real gr^at attraction is the royal picture gallery, 
 500 feet long. The catalogue alone, of all the great 
 paintings gathered here, amazes one, while it would take 
 weeks to see them properly. Many of its public build 
 ings and palaces are very fine, but its public promenade 
 will not compare with Central Park. Mr. Lowell, our 
 minister, gave General Grant the usual public dinner. 
 
 He visited the "eighth wonder of the world, "the Escurial 
 Palace, which takes about an hour and a half to reach, 
 over a rough, stony road. It was built by Philip II, for 
 a convent, but was occupied by him as a palace till his 
 death. It cannot be described, one can only say it is 700 
 feet long and 564 broad, and built of solid granite, and 
 took twenty years to finish it. It stands on an eminence 
 2,700 feet above the level of the sea, commanding a wide 
 prospect. The chapel is plain, solemn and sombre, 325 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 6l 
 
 feet long, 270 feet wide and 330 high. The royal tomb 
 is gorgeous deyond description. You descend to it by 
 marble steps, while the walls beside you and the ceiling 
 above you are jasper. The walls surrounding the tomb, 
 which is thirty-eight feet high, are of jasper, porphyry and 
 precious marbles. The four rooms which used to be 
 occupied by Queen Isabella, in summer, though small, 
 cost a million and a half of dollars. After wandering 
 through it and mounting to the top for the wonderful view 
 it commands, Grant returned to Madrid. 
 
 A day or two after occurred the most noticeable inci 
 dent of his visit the attempted assassination of the king 
 while a royal procession was passing through the city. 
 Grant was standing, at the time, at the window of his 
 hotel, looking across the great plaza, watching the pro 
 gress of the cavalcade, when he saw the smoke of a pistol 
 in the crowd and the confusion that followed as soon as 
 it was learned that the king had been fired at. He had 
 already booked himself for Lisbon by the night train 
 which left at seven o clock, and hence could not in person 
 present his congratulations to the king on his narrow es 
 cape, and express that sympathy which he felt. But to 
 the minister of state, Senor Silvera, who, notwithstanding, 
 the excitement attending the attempt to assassinate the 
 king, with true Castillian courtesy accompanied him to 
 the railway station, he expressed his regrets that he could 
 not call in person on the king, but requested him to con 
 vey to him his sincere congratulations that he had es 
 caped the assassin s bullet. He then entered the train 
 and sped off for Portugal. 
 
 The king, Don Luis, is forty years old, and is second 
 cousin to the Prince of Wales, while the queen is the 
 youngest sister of the king of Italy. His father s second 
 wife was a Bostonian lady, and though her marriage with 
 
262 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the royal family was not recognized, she is treated with 
 great honor. She was a singer and came to sing in Lis 
 bon, where Don Fernando fell in love with her and mar 
 ried her. She is called the Countess d Edla, and is 
 much respected by all. She escorted Grant through the 
 halls of the palace and seemed exceedingly gratified that 
 she could pay such attention to one of her own country 
 men. 
 
 The kincf, on learning that General Grant had arrived 
 
 o o 
 
 in Lisbon, came to the city to meet him, and at once gave 
 him and his wife an audience at the palace. The king, 
 after greeting the General in the splendid audience 
 chamber, led him into an inner apartment, away from 
 the ministers and courtiers who were in attendance on 
 the ceremony. They had a long conversation relative 
 to Portugal and the United States, the resources of the 
 two countries and the means to promote the commercial 
 relations between them. The next evening there was 
 a dinner at the palace in honor of the General, the minis 
 ters and the leading men of the court being in attendance. 
 The king conversed with the General about other themes, 
 and wanted him to go with him and shoot. It seems the 
 king is a famous shot. But the General s arrangements 
 left him no time to accept this courtesy. 
 
 Lisbon is not a very attractive place, though it has a 
 superb situation. It stands on several low hills, almost 
 every one of which is crowned with a convent or church 
 that looks like a palace, while the cathedral, of Moorish 
 architecture, is well worth a visit. It has some fine 
 squares and streets, though, as a rule, the latter are nar 
 row, crooked and dirty. 
 
 Don Fernando talked to Grant about California and 
 the Pacific coast, and said he should like to visit it, and 
 finally gave him a warm invitation to visit his palace at 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 263 
 
 Cintra, some fifteen miles from Lisbon. He gladly ac 
 cepted it, for it is one of the sights especially worth see 
 ing in Portugal, while the drive to it is delightful. The 
 interior of the palace is not unlike that of many others, 
 but the outside effect, and the view from the top are 
 wonderful. It is built on the summit of a rocky, isolated 
 hill, 3,000 feet high. From its base, the descent to the 
 village is gradual, and passes all the way through exquis 
 ite gardens. On the other side you look from the dizzy 
 height, almost sheer clown to trees and rocks piled at the 
 bottom in chaotic confusion. Beyond, the chasm slopes 
 up green, rich fields, while beyond lie the Torres Vedras, 
 and still farther is the blue sea, stretching away till it 
 melts in the distant horizon. The Tagus winds at your 
 feet toward the ocean, through forests and hills, while 
 palaces, and fields, and gardens dot the landscape. 
 Having feasted on this glorious landscape, Grant 
 and his party mounted their donkeys, and rode through 
 the woods and gardens, to Montserrat, where the 
 Englishman, Beckford, built a magnificent chateau, but 
 which is now owned by a wealthy English merchant 
 named Cook. The grounds are unequaled, and the view 
 from the chateau almost as fine as that from Cintra. 
 The old Alhambra of the Moors also claimed a visit. 
 All day long Grant and his party wandered amid the 
 beauty of the place, strolled through the village, and finally, 
 tired and hungry, sat down to dinner at a hotel. As the 
 evening sun sunk behind the western sea, they resumed 
 their carriages, and drove back to Lisbon to attend a re 
 ception at the king s. The king, it seems, is quite a liter 
 ary man, having translated "Hamlet," the "Merchant of 
 Venice" and "Richard III," into Portuguese, and was then 
 engaged on "Othello." If he succeeds in rendering ef 
 fectively the plays of this great English dramatist into 
 32 
 
264 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 L 
 
 his own language, he \vill do what no Frenchman has 
 been able to do. He presented Grant with his " Hamlet," 
 and offered to present him also the grand cross of the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 265 
 
 "Tower and Sword/ to show his appreciation of the 
 honor he had conferred on him by this visit. The latter 
 thanked him, but declined it, on the ground of there being 
 a law against officials receiving decorations, and though 
 he was not one now, having been President, he had 
 rather not receive it, but said he appreciated the compli 
 ment, and would always remember it with gratitude. 
 
 One of the principal sights of Lisbon is the great 
 aqueduct, that crosses the valley north-east of the city, 
 bringing water like the old Roman aqueduct, some twenty 
 miles distant into it. 
 
 Grant next started for Cordova, which he reached after 
 a long and tedious ride, late in the evening in a pouring 
 rain, and took up his quarters in an indifferent Spanish 
 inn. But no time was to be lost for sight-seeing, and 
 after a rest he went to the theatre, and then took a stroll 
 through the streets, to witness the people in their every 
 day dress. It is beautifully situated on the Guadalquivir, 
 but it is now a dark and gloomy town, with narrow, dirty 
 streets, and having no important public buildings or 
 squares, and little to detain the traveler. 
 
 It is famous as being the old Moorish capital, when it 
 contained 200 mosques, and palaces without end. It still 
 has its magnificent cathedral, built when the Arabs ruled 
 Spain, and which is 540 feet long and 387 broad, and di 
 vided by 450 pillars into 1 7 aisles lengthwise and 27 trans 
 verse ones. It is eighty miles from here to Seville, the 
 capital of Andalusia, famed for its beautiful women. The 
 distance is made in five hours, at the rate of sixteen miles 
 an hour. 
 
 Seville might be called the Naples of Spain, both for 
 its lovely climate and the gayety of its people. The sun 
 shines here every day in the year, and its air is soft and! 
 voluptuous as its women. 
 
MOORISH I.ADT 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 6/ 
 
 . 
 
 "The feast, the revel here abounds, 
 And young-eyed lewdness walks her midnight rounds." 
 
 It is a disgrace for a married woman to have no 
 lover but her husband. It is noted, also, for its deli 
 cious oranges. Bull-fights are one of the chief amuse 
 ments of the people. The women of Andalusia have 
 always been celebrated alike for their large, dark, pas 
 sionate eyes, their voluptuous forms and loose morals. 
 When it was the capital of Spain, a more gay and disso 
 lute city was not to be found on the continent. But 
 Seville is in the past. Still it abounds with evidences of 
 its former greatness and is a place of importance, con 
 taining over one hundred and fifty thousand inhabitants. 
 The most remarkable building in it is the Alcazar, a 
 palace once the residence of the Moorish and Catholic 
 kings of Spain. Twenty-four arches lead into a court 
 ninety feet long and seventy wide, paved with marble. 
 In olden times, a hundred of the most beautiful virgins of 
 Seville were brought into this court every year to become 
 the wives of the monarch for a short time, and then be 
 married off to his officers of state. These old Moorish 
 palaces are not so interesting from the wealth that has 
 been lavished on them or their beauty, except so far as 
 they exhibit the rich old Moorish architecture and orna 
 mentation, but from the associations connected with them. 
 Here, for instance, are the apartments of Charles V- 
 here, the room in which Don Pedro murdered Abu Said 
 for the splendid jewels in his possession, one of which he 
 gave to the Black Prince, and is now one of the richest 
 jewels in the English crown in another, Don Pedro s 
 brother was stabbed to death. But the room in which 
 the children of Moorish kings played, and the apartments 
 of queens, and splendid halls, possess but little interest 
 compared with the private chapel of Ferdinand and Isa- 
 
2 58 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 bella, where the latter received Columbus. Here stood 
 the great explorer, with map in hand, and begged to be 
 allowed to find a new world, and here that world s repre 
 sentative now stood, while his imagination traveled back 
 over the centuries to that interview on which such mighty 
 destinies hung. But what a change comes over one as 
 he leaves this old palace, and in a few steps finds himself 
 in the great government tobacco factory it is like drop 
 ping from the clouds to the ground. The building is 
 spacious, but has no Moorish architecture or romantic 
 associations. It is 660 feet long and 525 wide. Although 
 100 beautiful virgins do not enter its spacious rooms 
 as they used to enter the old Moorish palace near by, 
 you will find congregated there 5,000 young girls, all in 
 one room, working at tobacco, many of them beautiful 
 enough to sit to a Murillo, and keeping up a clatter as 
 constant and loud as the machinery of a cotton-mill and 
 making more scandal with their tongues than cigars and 
 cigarettes with their nimble fingers. Near this is the 
 Exchange, a beautiful building, but interesting chiefly be 
 cause it contains all the archives of Spanish South 
 America and correspondence of Cortez and Pizarro, to 
 gether with their portraits. 
 
 The Cathedral is one of the finest in Spain, 582 feet 
 long and 420 wide, standing on a raised platform, with a 
 court 150 feet wide. Here are fin^ paintings, among 
 them several masterpieces of Murillo. It contains thirty- 
 seven chapels, on which is lavished untold wealth. One 
 could spend days here looking at the superb paintings 
 alone. The favorite promenade is along the banks of 
 the Guadalquivir, and with its charming walks and drives, 
 and horticultural and botanical gardens, is a charming 
 spot, made still more charming by the delicious climate. 
 
 It is ninety-four miles from here to Cadiz by way of 
 
7RA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 269 
 
 Xeres, where sherry wine is made to the enormous 
 amount of 400,000 pipes a year the vineyards bearing 
 
 RURAL FESTIVITIES. 
 
 the grapes that produce it, embracing 800,000 acres. The 
 road to Cadiz lies along the banks of the Guadalquivir, 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and passes vineyards, and towns, and beautiful Andalu- 
 sian peasants, the whole way, and finally crosses the 
 narrow isthmus which connects the city with the main 
 land. It is almost an island with the sea washing it on all 
 sides, except where the narrow tongue of land suspends 
 it to the shore. It is believed to be the oldest city in 
 Europe, being founded 1,100 years before Christ. But 
 it is the verdict of all travelers that there are few sights 
 to be seen in Cadiz after you have seen its beautiful 
 women. 
 
 " Prometheus like, from heaven she stole 
 
 The fire that through those silken lashes 
 In darkest glances seems to roll, 
 
 From eyes that cannot hide their flashes. 
 And as along her bosom steal 
 
 In lengthened flow her raven tresses, 
 You d swear each clustering lock could feel, 
 
 And curled to give her neck caresses." 
 
 From Cadiz Grant went to Gibraltar, where the first 
 tiling that greeted his eye was the American flag, flying 
 from one of our men-of-war in the harbor a flaof so dear 
 
 o 
 
 to him. At first it could not be easily distinguished, amid 
 the crowd of vessels, but as soon as it was, he ordered 
 the " Vandalia" to steam around it to greet it as an old 
 friend. The yards were manned, and rousing American 
 cheers were sent over the water. Captain Robeson 
 then came on board and took him on shore, where the 
 American consul and two officers of Lord Napier s staff 
 were waiting to welcome him in the name of the general 
 commanding. 
 
 A high sea was running at the time, and the spray 
 of the waves dashed over them as they pulled toward the 
 wharf. A guard of honor upon it presented arms as 
 Grant landed, who drove at once to the house of 
 the American consul. Lord Napier had sent before an 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 271 
 
 invitation for him to dinner on the evening of his arrival, 
 and so at seven o clock, he went to the palace of the 
 governor, and was most hospitably and courteously re 
 ceived. Lord Napier had expressed a great desire to 
 see Grant, and already they had a sort of acquaintance, 
 for the former, who commanded and brought to such a 
 successful issue the campaign against Abyssinia, had sent 
 him King Theodore s Bible. His short stay was filled up 
 with a series of dinners to-day he was at one given at the 
 governor s palace, to-morrow at the mess of the royal 
 artillery, and the next day at the consul s. Besides, Lord 
 Napier gave him a private dinner in his honor, in fact, he 
 spent most of his time while in Gibraltar in his company, 
 either in a review of the troops, or galloping along the 
 beach and over the hills. In the review of the troops, 
 Grant rode to the field in the company of Lord Napier, 
 while his wife, with the ladies of the consul s family, took 
 up their stations at the reviewing post. The bands played 
 American airs as a special honor to Grant, and the 
 troops behaved uncommonly well, in honor, Lord Napier 
 declared, of General Grant. The latter in reply said: 
 "I have seen most of the troops of Europe ; they all 
 seemed good ; I liked the Germans very much, and the 
 Spaniards only wanted good officers, so far as I could 
 see, to bring them up to the highest standard ; but these 
 have something about them I suppose it is their Saxon 
 blood which none of the rest possess ; they have the 
 swing of conquest." 
 
 There is really nothing to see in Gibraltar but the 
 rocky fortress, and when one has rode through the long 
 galleries cut out of the solid rock, and examined the case- 
 mated batteries, he has seen everything. The tenacity 
 with which England holds on to this fortress on Spanish 
 territory, which is so irritating to the Spanish govern- 
 
272 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ment, is one of the most striking illustrations of "red 
 tapcism" in Europe. An idea once lodged in a European 
 head, cannot be eradicated "without a surgical operation." 
 Gibraltar is the gateway to the Mediterranean, says 
 England, and must be held at all hazards, for the sake 
 of our East India possessions, and this assertion which 
 being a fact once, she insists on being a fact still, when it is 
 the most transparent delusion that ever took possession 
 of a sensible government. Suppose England possessed 
 the fortifications at Ceuta, in Africa opposite, of what 
 earthly use could both be in defending the entrance to 
 the Mediterranean in these days of steam navigation. 
 The straits here are thirteen miles wide, and a hundred 
 steamers, moving independent of winds or currents, could 
 take the centre, and be six miles and a half from each 
 fortress, and pass and repass them without having the 
 paint on their hulls disturbed by the batteries. 
 
 Grant now turned his footsteps back toward England. 
 He had intended to visit Pau, a great watering-place in 
 France, just over the boundaries of Spain, at the foot of 
 the Pyrenees, in his southward journey, but he could not 
 do so and be at Vittoria in time to meet King Alfonso, 
 and so he deferred it till his return. It is simply a water 
 ing-place, noted for its delicious air, and is frequented 
 mostly by English and Americans. He dropped in upon 
 it quite unexpectedly, and spent a few pleasant days 
 there, most of the time walking on the grand promenade 
 in front of the hotel, alone or with his wife, from which 
 he had a superb view of the Pyrenees, rising grand 
 and solemn high into the heavens, and rolling its blue 
 and lofty summits like billows along the southern 
 horizon. 
 
 Mr. Douglas, an American, gave him a magnificent 
 dinner, at the close of which he toasted General Grant as 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. The latter, in reply,. 
 said as he never succeeded in making speeches, he should 
 not try now, but would justify the epithet of Mr. Douglas, 
 by making an unconditional surrender, which sally was 
 received with laughter and cheers. 
 
 An English earl was here, who kept two packs of fox 
 hounds, and a hunt was got up in Grant s honor, and he 
 invited to take part in it. But he declined, saying : " I 
 would not care to jump all those ditches and fences, but 
 I suppose if I was in the hunt I could not resist the 
 temptation. When I was younger I used to go out of 
 my way for the purpose of finding a bit of a wall or fence, 
 merely for the pleasure of jumping it. I do not know 
 how it would be now, crossing the country. I suppose I 
 would go with the rest/ He was interested in the intel 
 ligence shown by the horses, who, before leaping a fence, 
 would look over and see what was beyond. It was a 
 sensible decision, for he was not sure of his mount, and if 
 his horse had come down at a five-barred gate, although 
 he might have escaped without a broken neck, a bloody 
 nose and a black-and-blue eye at the next grand reception 
 would not have added to the dignity of the ex-President. 
 He now kept on to Paris, where he stayed only long 
 enough to dine with President McMahon, and then crossed 
 over to England. 
 
 Leaving his wife with her daughter, Mrs. Sartoris, at 
 Southampton, he made a short run over to Ireland, to 
 redeem his promise given to the committee which met him 
 at Queenstown, on his first arrival in Europe. Going by 
 the mail route, via Holyhead and Kingstown, he reached 
 Dublin on January 3d, and went to his hotel. On 
 arriving at the mayor s official residence, he was cheered 
 by a large crowd that had gathered to greet the 
 illustrious ex-President. The lord mayor, in presenting 
 
2 74 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 the freedom of the city, referred to the cordiality always 
 existing between America and Ireland, and hoped that in 
 America General Grant would do everything he could to 
 help a people who sympathize with every American 
 movement. The parchment, on which was engrossed the 
 freedom of the city, was inclosed in an ancient carved bog- 
 oak casket. 
 
 Grant in a short speech expressed his appreciation of 
 
 GRAFTOX STREET, DUBLIN. 
 
 the honor conferred on him in being made a citizen of 
 Ireland. He then visited the Royal Irish Academy, in 
 Kildare Street, in company with Lord Mayor Barrington. 
 Here, after some time spent in inspecting the treasures of 
 ancient Irish art in gold, silver and bronze, Saint Patrick s 
 bell, and sacred cross, and O Donnell s casque, the party 
 went to the building that was the old Parliament House. 
 It is now the Bank of Ireland. Trinity College was then 
 visited. The party was received by the Provost and 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 Fellows and escorted through the library, chapel and 
 halls of this venerable and majestic pile. 
 
 General Grant drove to the viceregal lodge of the 
 Duke of Marlborough, Phoenix Park, early in the after- 
 
 BANQUETING-ROOM. 
 
 noon, where he had dejeuner with the viceroy. He 
 afterward visited the Zoological Gardens, then returned 
 to his hotel, where he rested a couple of hours. 
 
 In the eveninga grand banquet was given at the Mansion 
 House. The company rose and gave the Irish welcome 
 when the General s name was proposed. The latter 
 made in response the longest speech of his life, speaking 
 in a clear voice and being listened to with rapt attention. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 He referred to himself as now a fellow-citizen of Dublin, 
 and intimated, amid much laughter and cheering, that he 
 might return to Dublin one day and run against Barring- 
 ton for Mayor and Butt for Parliament. He warned 
 those gentlemen that he was generally a troublesome 
 candidate. Then, passing to serious matters, said : 
 
 "We have heard some words spoken about our coun 
 try my country before I was naturalized in another. 
 [Laughter.] We have a very great country, a prosperous 
 country, with room for a great many people. We have 
 been suffering for some years from very great oppression. 
 The world has felt it. [Hear, hear.] There is no 
 question about the fact that when you have forty-five 
 millions of consumers such as we are, and when they are 
 made to feel poverty then the whole world must feel it. 
 [Applause.] You have had here great prosperity 
 because of our great extravagance and our great mis 
 fortunes. We had a war which drew into it almost every 
 man who could bear arms. When that great conflict 
 was going on we were spending one thousand million 
 dollars a year more than we were producing, and Europe 
 got every dollar of it. It made for you a false pros 
 perity. You were getting our bonds and promises to 
 pay. You were cashing them yourselves. That made 
 great prosperity and made producers beyond the real 
 necessities of the world at peace. But we finally got 
 through that great conflict, and with an inflated currency 
 which was far below the specie you use here. It made 
 our people still more extravagant. Our speculations 
 were going on, and we still continued to spend three 
 or four hundred millions of money per year more than 
 we were producing. 
 
 "We paid it back to you for your labor and manufac 
 tures, and it made you apparently and really prosperous. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 277 
 
 We, on the other hand, were getting really poor, but, 
 being honest, however, we came to the day of solid, 
 honest payment. We came down to the necessity of 
 selling more than we bought. Now we have turned the 
 corner. We have had our days of depression ; yours is 
 just coming on. I hope it is nearly over. [Hear, hear.] 
 Our prosperity is commencing, and as we become pros 
 perous, you will, too [applause] because we become 
 increased consumers of your products as well as our own. 
 
 CUSTOM-HOUSE, DUBLIN. 
 
 I think it safe to say that the United States, with a few 
 years more such prosperity, will consume as much more 
 as they did. Two distinguished men have alluded to this 
 subject one was the President of the United States, and 
 he said that the prosperity of the United States would be 
 felt to the bounds of the civilized world. [Applause.] 
 The other was Lord Beaconsfield, the most far-seeing 
 man, the one who seems to me to see as far into the 
 
278 TRA} ELS OF GENERAL CRAXT. 
 
 future as any man I know [applause] and he says the 
 same as President Hayes." 
 
 In the meantime, the city of Cork had made itself the 
 laughing-stock of the world. Mr. Richmond, the United 
 States consul there, addressed a letter to the Council an 
 nouncing that General Grant would probably arrive in 
 Cork within a few days. Mr. Tracy, a Nationalist, pro 
 posed at the Council meeting that the letter should simply 
 be marked " read," and that no action should be taken. 
 There was much silly debate afterwards, and it was re 
 solved not to receive Grant with any honors, on account 
 of his anti-Catholic feelings. All the world mi^ht honor 
 
 o o 
 
 Grant, but little Cork was too grand and conscientious 
 to do so. Well, Cork made itself immortal, and Grant 
 did not see this second wonder of the world. 
 
 On Monday morning, January 6th, he started for Deny. 
 A storm of snow, and sleet, and rain set in, making the 
 day dreary ; yet, at all the stations crowds were as 
 sembled, who cheered him, and, Irish like, pressed into 
 the carriage to shake hands with him. 
 
 He reached Derry at two o clock, and was received 
 cordially by the mayor. At three o clock, in a pouring 
 rain, he drove in state to the Town Hall, making his way 
 v ith difficulty through the crowd that blocked his passage. 
 The mayor and Common Council received him in their 
 robes, and read an address, to which he responded briefly. 
 In the evening he attended a banquet given in his honor. 
 
 The next morning he started for Belfast in another 
 cold storm. On the way he was greeted at all the sta 
 tions with unbounded enthusiasm, the people everywhere 
 seeming determined to make up for the unprovoked insult 
 given him by Cork. 
 
 The train reached Belfast station at half-past two 
 o clock, where the reception accorded him was imposing 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 279 
 
 and extraordinary. The linen and other mills had 
 stopped work, and the workmen stood out in the rain in 
 thousands. The platform of the station was covered 
 with scarlet carpet. The mayor and members of the City 
 Council welcomed him as he descended from the car amid 
 tremendous cheers. Crowds ran after the carriages con 
 taining the city authorities and their illustrious guest, and 
 afterward surrounded the hotel where the General was 
 being entertained in true Irish hospitality. The public 
 buildings were draped with American and English colors, 
 and in a few instances with Orange flags. Luncheon 
 was served at four o clock, and the crowd with undaunted 
 valor remained outside amid a heavy snow-storm and 
 cheered at intervals, The feature of the luncheon was 
 the presence of the Roman Catholic bishop of the dio 
 cese, who was given the post of honor. The luncheon- 
 party numbered 1 70 the mayor said he could have had 
 5,000. The Belfast speakers made cordial allusions to 
 many people in America, and were anxious to have 
 Grant declare himself in favor of free trade, but he, in 
 his reply, made no allusions to the subject, to the disap 
 pointment of many of those present. 
 
 Though Grant had seen the chief cities of Ireland, he 
 had not seen what constitutes its great attraction its 
 picturesque lakes and the wild scenery of its rugged sea- 
 coast. Nor had he seen the poverty, and want, and suf 
 ferings of the people, caused by the long, cruel, tyranni 
 cal oppression of the English Government. He heard 
 the cheers of the workingmen, but not their groans, and 
 little dreamed, while feasting at the banquets given him, 
 of the starvation and want that existed in the bog huts of 
 the peasantry. The sufferings of Ireland, growing out 
 of the English and Irish connection, have never yet been 
 fully recorded, and their history once truthfully written 
 33 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 would be the saddest in the world. To one at all 
 familiar with it, the festivities in honor of Grant seem like 
 wedding bells ringing over a grave. The millions of im 
 poverished Irishmen crowding and overcrowding our 
 shores to escape starvation at home attest the injustice 
 and oppression that have turned one of the most beauti 
 ful and fertile islands on the globe into the abode of 
 want, and poverty, and woe. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 2 8l 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 GRANT STARTS FOR INDIA CROSSING THE DESERT LY RAILROAD SUEZ ON THE 
 
 RED SEA ADEN ON THE INDIAN OCEAN THE VOYAGE RECEPTION IN BOMBAY 
 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE PEOPLE SERVANTS THE PARSEES BURNING THE DEAD 
 
 HOSPITAL FOR ANIMALS PUBLIC DINNERS A VISIT TO THE PARSEE SCHOOL 
 GRANT VIEWS BOMBAY CAVE OF THE ELEPHANTS RECEPTION OF THE PARSEES 
 JOURNEY TO AGRA BHURTPOOR THE MAHRAJAH GRANT LODGED IN AN OLD 
 
 PALACE JUMPING MEN AGRA PEARL MOSQUE THE TAJ THE MOST BEAUTIFUL 
 
 BUILDING IN THE WORLD ITS APPEARANCE BY MOONLIGHT A FAREWELL DIN 
 NER DEPARTURE FOR DELHI RECEIVED BY TROOPS UNDER ARMS DESCRIPTION 
 OF DELHI A RIDE THROUGH IT THE TOMB OF HAMEYUN DELHI IN THE 
 
 MUTINY HEROIC DEEDS THE PRINCE OF WALES VISIT PALACE OF THE GRAND 
 
 MOGUL HIS THRONE THE PEACOCK THRONE. 
 
 GRANT, after his return from Ireland, in January, 
 having learned that the American man-of-war 
 "Richmond," which was to carry him to India, had 
 not left the United States, he determined not to wait for it, 
 for he was told that it was not safe to be in India after the 
 first of April, and if he wished to see it at all, he must 
 be off at once. He therefore engaged passage in a French 
 steamer bound from Marseilles to Alexandria. 
 
 The party had changed somewhat, and now consisted 
 of General Grant and his wife, Colonel Frederick 
 D. Grant, Mr. Borie and Dr. Keating, of Philadel 
 phia, together with Mr. Young, the correspondent 
 of the Herald. They set sail the 24th of January, 
 at noon. Stopping for a few hours in Naples, they pro 
 ceeded over their old route on their way to Egypt the 
 year before, and on the seventh da^ dropped anchor just 
 outside of the harbor of Alexandria. The next morning 
 they hurried to the train, and \vere soon speeding across 
 the desert toward the Red Sea, a short time since crossed 
 
2 g 2 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 only by caravans of camels. Now the shrieking locomo 
 tive drags the heavy train over it, while the tall masts of 
 ships are photographed against the burning sky as they 
 slowly sail across the sandy plains in the great Suez 
 Canal. A crowd of donkeys and dirty Arab boys were 
 waiting at the station, and our travelers as soon as they 
 alighted were besieged as one is at a steamboat landing 
 in New York, with offers to carry baggage. It is a long 
 and tedious walk through a sandy lane to the hotel in 
 Suez. To their great disappointment, the steamer that 
 \vas to take them to India had not got through the canal, 
 and might be blocked up in it for forty-eight hours. In 
 despair for something to do to kill time, they mounted 
 donkeys and perambulated the town all the morning. 
 Noon came, and still no ship, and they were at loss what 
 to do next, when to their great relief, her tall masts 
 loomed over the desert, and soon she glided into port. 
 The baggage was now hurried on board, and by eight 
 o clock the great engine began to throb, and they knew that 
 they were off for India. Wearisome clays and hot nights 
 followed. For a long time the land kept in sight, the 
 low burning coast of Egypt on the one side, and the lofty 
 summits of Mount Sinai on the other, seeming, as they 
 rose so still and solemn in the blue sky, a fitting place 
 for the footstool of God as He descended amid thunder- 
 ings and lightnings to talk with man. 
 
 Why the sea is called the Red Sea, no one could de 
 cide, but they found it to be a hot one, midwinter though 
 it was, and it grew hotter every day. The wind blowing 
 from the scorching sands, heats not only the air, but the 
 water, so that it becomes a serious impediment to the 
 condensation of steam. Our travelers, each with his 
 peculiar head-dress on, to protect him from the sun, pre 
 sented a picturesque and yet odd appearance, as they sat 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 283 
 
 scattered around in the coolest places they could find 
 some reading, some dozing, and others conversing. M.r. 
 Borie was disgusted, and told the Herald correspondent 
 to write him down a donkey for coming to such a place 
 at his time of life. A part of the time Grant was reading 
 up India and mapping out his course of travel. 
 
 On Sunday the Episcopal service was read, which 
 varied the monotony, and at last they passed the Island 
 of Perim, and soon after reached Aden, the barren, for 
 tified rock which commands the entrance to the sea, as 
 Gibraltar does that of the Mediterranean. 
 
 If it was hot before, it was blistering here in this ex 
 tinct crater, in which the volcano, when it subsided, ap 
 parently left all its heat behind. They barely touched 
 here, but stayed long enough to hear of the resignation 
 of Marshal McMahon, and other events, which put them 
 in communication again with the outer world, and gave 
 them new themes to talk about. 
 
 As the steamer pushed off into the Indian Ocean, she 
 left the hot air of the desert behind her, and though the 
 light breezes gave little help to her progress, they made 
 life more endurable. 
 
 The sea was a dead calm on the morning of the 1 3th of 
 February, when the travelers from the deck of the " Vene- 
 tia," looking eastward, and shading their eyes with their 
 hands, saw the towers and minarets of Bombay. Grant 
 had supposed that at last he was reaching a port without 
 being announced. The public ovations had at first 
 wearied him, then palled on him, until at last they seemed 
 like an evil shadow, ever following him and interfering 
 with and breaking up his plans and defeating the very 
 object for which he traveled, and he congratulated him 
 self that his arrival in India, since his departure had been 
 so sudden, would not be known, and for once he would 
 
284 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 be left to enjoy himself like an ordinary traveler. But he 
 was doomed to disappointment, for the ships in the har 
 bor were dressed with flags, and at the wharf was a large 
 crowd soldiers, natives, Europeans. As they passed the 
 English flag-ship a boat came alongside with an officer 
 representing Admiral Corbett, welcoming the General to 
 India. In a few minutes came another boat bearing Cap 
 tain Frith, the military aid to Sir Richard Temple, Gov 
 ernor of the Presidency of Bombay. Captain Frith bore 
 a letter from the governor welcoming the General to 
 Bombay, and offering him the use of the Government 
 House at Malabar Point. Captain Frith expressed the 
 regret of Sir Richard that he could not be in Bombay to 
 meet General Grant, but duties connected with the Afghan 
 war kept him in Sind. The consul, Mr. Farnham, also 
 came with a delegation of American residents and wel 
 comed the General and party. 
 
 As he ascended the steps, he was met by Brigadier- 
 General Aitcheson, commanding the forces, and other 
 officers and dignitaries. The volunteers presented arms, 
 the band played our national air, and the General, amid 
 loud cheers from the Europeans present, walked slowly 
 with uncovered head to the state carriage. Accompanied 
 by Captain Frith, who represented the governor, and at 
 tended by an escort of native cavalry, the General and 
 party made off to Malabar Point. 
 
 Grant had now entered on an entirely new life, and 
 was to see man under an entirely new aspect. If Con 
 stantinople seemed strange, and Egypt stranger still, he 
 was to find India strangest of all. The streets of Bom 
 bay swarm with life, but the people are not like any race 
 seen before. They are not white, nor black, nor red, but 
 are of a dark-brown color, the effect of which is the 
 greater, as they are generally clad in the garments which 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 285 
 
 nature gives them. The laboring class go half naked, or 
 more than half. It is only the house-servants that wear 
 anything that can be called a costume. The coolies, or 
 common laborers, have only a strip of cloth around their 
 loins, which they wear for decency, for in this climate they 
 scarcely need any garment for warmth. One thing which is 
 never omitted is the turban, or in its place a thick blanket, 
 to shield the head from the direct rays of the sun. But 
 there is nothing to hide the swarthy breast or limbs. 
 Those of a better condition, who do put on clothing, show 
 the Oriental fondness for gorgeous apparel by having 
 the richest silk turbans and flowing robes. The women 
 
 o 
 
 find a way to show their feminine vanity, being tricked 
 out in many colors, dark red, crimson and scarlet, with 
 yellow, and orange, and green, and blue the mingling 
 of which produces a strange effect as one rides through 
 the bazaars and crowded streets, which gleam with all the 
 colors of the rainbow. The effect of this tawdry finery 
 is heightened by the gewgaws which depend from differ 
 ent parts of their persons. Earrings are not sufficiently 
 conspicuous for a Hindoo damsel, who has a ring of gold 
 and pearl hung in her nose ; which is considered a great 
 addition to female beauty. Heavy bracelets of silver also 
 adorn her wrists and ankles. Almost every woman who 
 shows herself in the street, though of the lowest condi 
 tion, and barefoot, still gratifies her pride by huge silver 
 anklets clasping her naked feet. 
 
 But these Asiatic faces, strange as they are, would not 
 be unattractive but for artificial disfigurements if men 
 did not chew the betel nut, which turns the lips to a bril 
 liant red, and did not have their foreheads striped with 
 coarse pigments, which a**e the badges of their different 
 castes ! 
 
 Imagine a whole city crowded with dark-skinned 
 
286 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 & 
 
 and women thus dressed or not dressed half naked on 
 the one hand, 
 01 bedizened 
 like harlequins 
 on the other, 
 walking about, 
 o r perchance 
 riding in little ^ 
 
 carriages j^MjM^x,, ^<63Sj? 
 drawn by oxen : sjSJ^fr ^iSff^S^ 
 a small breed 
 that trot off al 
 most as fast as 
 the donkeys in 
 Cairo and 
 one gets a faint 
 idea of the pic- 
 turesqueness 
 of the streets 
 in Bombay. 
 
 But there is 
 one thing that 
 simply aston 
 ishes one, and 
 that is the 
 number of ser 
 vants that arc ,. r< 
 ^l \ 
 waiting to at- <i * 
 
 tend to your \> 
 wants. You 
 cannot move 
 without meet 
 ing one with 
 his salaam. They start up from every quarter, pounce 
 
 PARSEE OF BOMBAY. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 28; 
 
 on you at every corner, meet you in every passage 
 way, till you are dismayed at the amount of Orien 
 tal attentions that you receive. This universal obse 
 quiousness is not confined to distinguished officials or 
 great men, but is shown to all travelers. Hence, to 
 General Grant this servile -attention was simply over 
 whelming. 
 
 As he went over to the post, one morning, to mail 
 some letters, like any other American, a small procession 
 accompanied him on his return. A scarlet servant ran 
 ahead to announce him, while a whole bevy followed 
 after. This is a perpetual annoyance, because it inter 
 feres so much with a man s freedom of action. It makes 
 him feel as if he was under some sort of police surveil 
 lance. Still, life passed away very pleasantly with Grant 
 and his party in their sumptuous apartrnents in the Gov 
 ernment House on Malabar Point, with the sea stretching 
 away in the blue distance. Everything in Bombay was 
 new and strange. The Parsee, with his high hat, and his 
 children gay in green and scarlet costumes, and the tur- 
 baned Hindoo, seem like another race of men to the 
 plain, practical American. 
 
 Here alone, in all India, is found the fire-worshiping 
 Parsee, Morning and evening they turn to the rising and 
 setting sun, and lifting their hats from their heads, raise 
 their hands as if in prayer. A revolting application of 
 their principles is seen in their mode of disposing of the 
 dead. They cannot burn them, as do the Hindoos, lest 
 the touch of death should pollute the flames ; nor can 
 they bury them in the earth, nor in the sea, for earth, and 
 water, and air are all alike sacred. They, therefore, ex 
 pose the bodies of their dead to be devoured by birds of 
 the air. Outside of Bombay, on Malabar Hill, are three 
 or four circular towers called The Towers of Silence, 
 
288 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 which are inclosed by a high wall, to keep observers at a 
 distance. When a Parsee dies, his body is conveyed to 
 the gates, and there received by the priests, by whom it 
 is exposed on gratings constructed for the purpose. 
 
 Near at hand, perched in groves of palms, are the 
 vultures. As soon as a funeral procession approaches, 
 they scent their prey, and begin to circle in the air ; and 
 no sooner is a body uncovered, and left by the attendants, 
 than a cloud of black wings settles down upon it, and a 
 hundred horned beaks are tearing at the flesh. Such 
 are their numbers and voracity, that in a few minutes, 
 every particle is stripped from the bones, which are then 
 slid down an inclined plane into a deep pit, where they 
 mingle with common clay. 
 
 Compared with this, the Hindoo mode of disposing of 
 the dead, by burning, seems almost like Christian burial. 
 
 It is a part of the Hindoo religion to be clean. Hence, 
 almost every temple has a bath within it. Indeed, in 
 passing along the streets, people, unembarrassed by your 
 presence, are seen washing themselves, some almost 
 naked. 
 
 The religious ideas of the Hindoos show themselves in 
 other ways, which at least challenge our respect for their 
 consistency. In their eyes* all life is sacred, the life of 
 beast and bird, nay, of reptile and insect, as well as of 
 man. To carry out this idea they have established a 
 hospital for animals, which is one of the institutions of 
 Bombay. It is on a very extensive scale, and presents a 
 spectacle such as can be seen nowhere else in the world. 
 Here, in an inclosure covering many acres, in sheds, or 
 stables, or in the open grounds, as may best promote 
 their recovery, are gathered the lame, the halt, and the 
 blind, not of the human species, but of the animal world 
 cattle and horses, sheep and goats, dogs and cats, rabbits 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 289 
 
290 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and monkeys, and beasts and birds of every description. 
 Even poor little monkeys forget to be merry, and look very 
 solemn as they sit on their perch. The cows, sacred as they 
 are, are not beyond the power of disease, and have a 
 most woe-begone look. Long rows of stables are filled 
 
 SACRED COW OF INDIA. 
 
 with broken-down horses, spavined and ring-boned, with 
 ribs sticking out of their sides, or huge sores on their 
 flanks, dripping with blood. In one pen you will see a num 
 ber of kittens, that mew and cry for their mothers. The 
 Hindoos send out carts at night and pick them up wher 
 ever they have been cast into the street. Rabbits, whom 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 2 9 I 
 
 no man would own, have here a snug warren made for 
 them, and creep in and out with a feeling of safety and 
 comfort. In a large inclosure will be found some hun 
 dred dogs, more wretched-looking than the dogs of Con 
 stantinople "whelps and curs of low degree." 
 
 The spectacle thus presented, is half touching and half 
 ludicrous. One cannot but respect the Hindoo s regard 
 for life, as a thing not to be lightly and wantonly de 
 stroyed. And yet they carry it to an extent that is absurd. 
 They will not take the life of animals for food, nor even 
 of creatures that are annoying or dangerous to them 
 selves. * 
 
 General Grant here, as everywhere else, was so cum- 
 
 TOWN HALL, BOMBAY. 
 
 bered by ceremonies, and his time so much occupied with 
 public dinners and receptions, that he could not see half 
 as much of Bombay as he wished. One might live a 
 year in this country with his time taken up in this way, 
 and know but little about it. Take, for instance, the fol 
 lowing employment of two days : Friday evening he at 
 tended the ball of the Volunteer corps, which, of course, 
 was a brilliant affair. Next morning he visited a rich 
 
 * Dr. Field. 
 
2Q2 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Parsee merchant, and was received with great cordiality, 
 he and his party being decorated by the host with 
 wreaths of jessamine flowers. In the afternoon he drove 
 to the Byculia Club, where he lunched, and then looked at 
 the races. In the evening, he went to a state dinner at 
 the Government House, where there were forty-eight 
 guests. He was toasted, and made a speech, in which 
 he said that he was carrying out a wish he had long en 
 tertained, of visiting India. He was grateful for the 
 kind manner in which he had been received, and ex 
 pressed the wish that he might, in America, have the 
 pleasure in the future of returning the hospitality. 
 After dinner the guests strolled out on the veranda, 
 smoking and chatting, and looking off on the ocean beat 
 ing \vkh a heavy monotonous roar at their feet. 
 
 The next day, he visited the Parsee school, and Mrs. 
 Grant the missions. At four, he went on board the Brit 
 ish flag-ship, to make a visit of ceremony to Admiral 
 Corbett. On his return, he visited the University, and 
 in the evening attended another state dinner. This was 
 succeeded by a levee of the leading native merchants and 
 citizens of the city, which was to wind up his visit to 
 Bombay, one of the greatest commercial emporiums of 
 the East. The island on which it is built is eight miles 
 long, and covered with country seats, and teems with a 
 population of more than half a million. 
 
 The week Grant passed in Bombay was almost like 
 one passed at home, for he was surrounded with English- 
 speaking people and had free access to a club where 
 English and American newspapers were to be found. 
 The windows of the Government House in which he lived 
 overlooked a race-course, where swift horses were con 
 stantly being exercised, while the teeming wharves made 
 the city look like a European port. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 One clay, an Englishman remarked : " It is odd that 
 Bombay and General Grant should be face to face, for 
 the General ruined Bombay." Then came the story of 
 the cotton mania which raged during the American war. 
 The cessation of the cotton supply of the United States 
 threw England back upon India and Egypt. The year 
 before our war, Bombay exported about $2 6,000,000 
 worth of cotton. During the war the average yearly ex 
 port was over $100,000,000. Here was a gain to Bom 
 bay, in four years, of $350,000,000, and this sudden ad 
 dition to the wealth of the city engendered every form of 
 speculation. Six hundred per cent, was a fair return for 
 one s investments in those days. If Lee and Grant had 
 fought a twenty years campaign this might have con 
 tinued. But, in the spring of 1865, a telegram came an 
 nouncing that Lee had surrendered, and Bombay col 
 lapsed. The companies went to the wall. A firm of 
 Parsee merchants failed for $15,000,000, and before the 
 end of the year there was not one company remaining of 
 the hundred which had arisen during the war. And all 
 coming from a telegram which, on the afternoon of April 
 9th, 1865, General Grant, sitting on a stone by the way 
 side of Appomattox, wrote in pencil in his memorandum 
 book "The army of Northern Virginia surrendered to 
 me this afternoon." 
 
 One of the last sights of Bombay that Grant visited 
 was the caves of the elephants. The island on which 
 they are found is seven miles from the city, and takes its 
 name from the gigantic statue of an elephant that once 
 stood on its shores. Landing, you find yourself at the 
 foot of a rocky hill, which, mounted by several hundred 
 steps, brings you to the entrance of a gigantic cave 
 or cavern, cut into the hill-side, with a lofty ceiling, pil 
 lared like a temple. The main hall, as it might be 
 
294 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 called, runs back a hundred and thirty feet into the 
 solid rock. 
 
 At the end of the great hall are the objects of worship 
 in three colossal images of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. 
 This is the Hindoo Trinity, and the constant recurrence 
 of these figures in their mythology 7 shows how the idea 
 of a Trinity pervaded other ancient religions besides our 
 own. It is a question for scholars, whence came the 
 original conception of this three-fold personality in the 
 Divine Being. The age of this place of worship is not 
 known. 
 
 A farewell dinner was given at the Government House, 
 and was a brilliant affair, but so much like all others of a 
 similar character, that we need not describe it, nor the 
 formal reception of the Parsees, w r ho, with Hindoo and 
 native officers in full uniform, were, one after another, in 
 troduced to Grant. The next day, Tuesday, he bade 
 farewell to hospitable Bombay, and took the train for Agra. 
 
 To break up this long journey, a stop over for a day 
 was made at Bhurtpoor, to visit the ruins of Futtehpoor, 
 at Sikra. 
 
 As the train sped northward, now crossing broad 
 plains, and now slowly ascending the Ghaut Mountains, 
 every variety of scenery presented itself. In these long 
 stretches, of course, hundreds of villages were passed, but 
 these do not attract the eye nor form a feature in the 
 landscape, for the low mud hovels of which they are com 
 posed hardly rise above the level of the plain. There is 
 no church-spire to be seen rising, as from a New England 
 village, nor even the dome or minaret of a mosque, for 
 you are not yet in the Mohammedan part of India. 
 
 One feature there is which relieves the monotony the 
 railway stations are the prettiest out of England. Sim 
 ply, but tastefully built, they are covered with vines and 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 flowers, which with irrigation easily grow in this climate 
 in the open air at all seasons of the year. The railway 
 administration has offered prizes for the embellishment of 
 stations, so that the natives, who are fond of flowers, and 
 who are thus tempted by the hope of reward, plant roses 
 and trail vines everywhere, so that the eye is relieved 
 from the glare of the barren plain by resting on a mass 
 of flowers and verdure. 
 
 The ride was long and tedious, but at last Bhurtpoor 
 rose to view, a most welcome sight. The mahrajah of 
 this petty province, of less than two hundred thousand 
 square miles, with a population of 749,000, prepared to 
 receive Grant with as much distinction as the Queen of 
 England or the King of Siam. As the latter arrived, 
 dusty, and hot, and tired, at the station, he was greeted 
 with the sound of trumpets and roll of drums. 
 
 The mahrajah, a young man of about thirty years 
 of age, met him with a brilliant retinue. His regal look, 
 stern, haughty face and graceful bearing, gave him a 
 striking appearance. Not deigning to smile in his 
 haughty courtesy, he led the way to his forbidding, un 
 comfortable palace, where breakfast was served in state, 
 and the usual extravagant ceremonies that characterize 
 Oriental hospitality were gone through with. The whole 
 place is a mass of ruins ; the palace itself being given 
 over to picnic parties and visitors. General Grant and 
 his wife occupied the ruin known as the Birtral House, a 
 two-story ruin, built entirely of stone, and carefully and 
 elaborately ornamented. It might have once been a 
 harem or anything else, so far as tradition goes, nor did 
 it matter so far as present comfort was concerned. 
 
 Provisions had been sent forward for them, and they 
 passed the night in this lugubrious place, cheered by the 
 cries of jackals and hyenas. 
 34 
 
TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 The next morning they set out to view the ruins, which 
 embraced an area of seven miles in circumference. A 
 
 description of them would be unintelligible to the reader, 
 for they were a riddle to the travelers. One mosque, a 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 299 
 
 noble, imposing ruin, its principal gateway, it is said, 
 being the finest in India, well repaid a visit. But the 
 guides could give no information respecting its history. 
 They were solicitous to show them a tank, into which 
 men jumped from a wall eighty feet high, and it was pro 
 posed that they should go and see the men jump. But 
 Grant refused, saying he did not wish to see any such 
 dangerous experiments. The rest, however, went. Leap- 
 
 1 
 
 THE MARBLE PALACE. 
 
 inj into the air, the men manage to keep erect, and 
 come down feet foremost, in safety. 
 
 The next day, Grant and his party took the train for 
 Agra, the heart of the once great Mogul empire, where 
 he was received in an imposing manner. The glory of 
 Agra dates from the reign of Akbar the Great, but 
 it departed with the king of Delhi, the last royal de 
 scendant, who. being compromised in the great mutiny, 
 
3QO TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ended his life as a state prisoner. It is impossible to fully 
 describe the various structures that once made it so 
 famous. There stands the palace, built of pure white 
 marble, the walls and domes glittering in the sun, and on 
 going through it, you pass over tessellated pavements 
 into apartments rich in mosaics and precious stones, and 
 look through windows half closed by screens of marble 
 so exquisitely carved, as to look like lace-work. 
 
 The pearl mosque is equally beautiful, of which Bishop 
 Heber said: "This spotless sanctuary, showing such a 
 pure spirit of adoration, made me, a Christian, feel hum 
 bled, when I considered that no architect of our religion 
 had ever been able to produce anything equal to this 
 temple of Allah." 
 
 But the Taj, said to be the most beautiful building in 
 the world, was the great object of interest in Agra. 
 It was late on Sunday afternoon, when, having for an 
 escort the English Judge Keene, they drove over to it. 
 It was built as a tomb by the Emperor Shah Jehar, the 
 orandson of Akbar, for his wife, whom he loved with 
 
 o 
 
 an idolatrous affection. He had promised her, on her 
 death-bed, to erect to her memory such a mausoleum as 
 the world had never before seen. He kept his word, 
 and if the costliness and beauty of the tomb is a true 
 indication of the strength of his love, it was like that of 
 Jonathan for David, "passing the love of woman." It 
 cost, it is stated, exclusive of labor, $15,000,000. To-day, 
 with paid labor, it would cost $50,000,000. In this 
 country it could not have been built for probably twice 
 this sum. It is impossible to describe it like St. Peter s 
 it must seen to be appreciated. 
 
 It stands on the banks of the Jumna, a mile below the 
 fort at Agra. As you approach it, it is not exposed 
 abruptly to view, but is surrounded by a garden. You 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 301 
 
302 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 enter under a lofty gateway, and before you is an avenue 
 of cypresses a third of a mile long-, whose dark foliage is 
 a setting for a form of dazzling whiteness at the end. 
 That is the Taj. It stands, not on the level of your eye, 
 but on a double terrace ; the first, of red sandstone, 
 twenty feet high, and a thousand feet broad ; at the ex 
 tremities of which stand two mosques, of the same dark 
 stone, facing each other. Midway between rises the 
 second terrace of marble, fifteen feet high, and three 
 hundred feet square, on the corners of which stand four 
 marble minarets. In the centre of all, thus " reared in 
 air," stands the Taj. It is built of marble no other 
 material than this of pure and stainless white were fit for 
 a purpose so sacred. It is a hundred and fifty feet 
 square (or rather it is eight-sided, since the corners are 
 truncated), and surmounted by a dome, which rises 
 nearly two hundred feet above the pavement below. 
 
 It is built, from foundation-stone to its lofty top, of the 
 purest marble, which, from its whiteness, looks as if but 
 just quarried. But that which distinguishes it from all 
 other buildings, and gives it a rare and ideal beauty, is 
 the union of majesty and grace. This is the peculiar 
 effect of Saracenic architecture. The slender columns, 
 the springing arches, the swelling domes, the tall minarets, 
 all combine to give an impression of airy lightness, which 
 is not destroyed even when the foundations arc laid with 
 massive solidity. But it is in the finish of their struc 
 tures that they excelled all the world. Bishop Heber 
 said truly: "They built like Titans and finished like 
 jewelers." Within, beneath this pure white lofty dome, 
 in marble tombs that are almost transparent, set with 
 precious stones and covered with a tracery of vines and 
 flowers, sleep the Mogul emperor and his wife. 
 
 A visit to it, as to the Colosseum at Rome, by moonlight 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 33 
 
 is deemed necessary to comprehend its true beauty, and 
 as Grant and his party at night made a second visit, stand 
 ing in silence with the moonbeams flooding it, it seemed 
 like the creation of a dream, so white, soft and ethereal 
 did it lift itself there on the banks of the Jumna "a 
 night-blooming cereus rising slowly in the moonlight" 
 
 INTERIOR OF THE TAJ THE TOMBS. 
 
 Under the centre of the dome, which is fifty-eight feet 
 in diameter, and eighty feet in height, stands the two 
 tombs, inclosed by a screen of trellis-work of white mar 
 ble a chcf-d oeitvre of elegance in Indian art. These, 
 
304 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 however, as is usual in Indian sepulchres, are not the true 
 tombs ; the bodies being placed in a vault level with the 
 surface of the ground beneath plainer tombstones placed 
 exactly underneath those in the hall above. The light to this 
 hall is admitted only through double screens of white mar 
 ble trellis-work of the most exquisite design, and no words 
 can express the chastened beauty of this chamber, seen in 
 the soft gloom of the subdued light, which reaches it through 
 the distant and half-closed openings that surround it. 
 
 The visit to Agra concluded in a dinner given by the 
 Agra Club, at which the mahrajah, a young prince six 
 teen years of age, who, under* the tutelage* of the British 
 Government, has learned to speak English fluently, pre 
 sided. The province over which he rules contains a 
 population of a half a million, and yields about the same 
 number of dollars in revenue. The usual toasts at din 
 ner were given and the usual speeches made. After 
 ward, the General and prince played a game of billiards, 
 in which the former was beaten. A company of native 
 players then gathered on the veranda and told stories 
 for Grant s amusement, and gave charades and comedies 
 much after the fashion of Judy and Punch. The adieus 
 were at last spoken and Grant and his party prepared to 
 start for Delhi. 
 
 The next morning, before the dawn of day, while the 
 stars were still burning in the clear sky, they drove to 
 the railroad station. As they drew near it, the word of 
 military command rang sharply out, the bands struck up 
 a martial air, colors drooped and the rattle of arms was 
 heard as they came to a present, while die cannon thun 
 dered out their salute. All their friends in Agra were 
 there awaiting them, and cheered them as the train rolled 
 out of the station. They reached Delhi weary and fagged 
 out, desiring rest and quiet ; but here, as everywhere 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 305 
 
 else, there was the formal reception by the troops. The 
 General and his wife then drove to Ludlow Castle, the 
 residence of Colonel Young, the commanding officer, 
 while the rest of the party took up their quarters near 
 the railway station. 
 
 Delhi is a beautiful city in its general appearance, and 
 the houses of the wealthy and of Englishmen are spa 
 ciously built, to get air, but those of many of the natives 
 are huddled close together in small houses, and rude 
 caves and huts of mud and stones. Thus beautiful roads, 
 gardens and pleasure-grounds contrast with squalor, 
 poverty and ignorance. Says a friend who visited it just 
 prior to Grant : 
 
 " Delhi is the Rome of the old Mogul empire. Agra 
 was the capital in the time of Akbar, but Delhi is an 
 older city. It had a history before the Moguls. It is 
 said to have been destroyed and rebuilt seven times, and 
 thus is overspread with the ashes of many civilizations. 
 Its very ruins attest its ancient greatness. The plain 
 around Delhi is like the Campagna around Rome cov 
 ered with the remains of palaces and mosques, towers 
 and tombs, which give credit to the historical statement 
 that the city was once thirty miles in circuit, and had 
 2,000,000 inhabitants. 
 
 " Though not a tenth of old Delhi in size, it has to-day 
 over one hundred and sixty thousand inhabitants. It is 
 surrounded by walls seven miles in extent. You enter 
 under lofty arched gateways, and find yourselves in the 
 midst of a picturesque population, representing all the 
 races of Southern and Central Asia. The city is much 
 gayer than Agra. Its shops are rich in Indian jewelry, 
 which is manufactured here, and in Cashmere shawls 
 and other Oriental fabrics ; and in walking through the 
 Chandney Chook, the Broadway of Delhi, one might 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 imagine himself in the bazaars of Cairo or Constanti 
 nople. 
 
 "The fort is very like that of Agra, being built of the 
 same red sandstone, but much larger, and incloses a 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRAN7 
 
 307 
 
 KOOTUB MINOR. 
 
3Oo TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 palace which Bishop Heber thought superior to the 
 Kremlin. In the hall of audience, which still remains, stood 
 the famous Peacock Throne, which is estimated to have 
 been worth $30,000,000. Here the Great Mogul lived in 
 a magnificence till then unknown even in Oriental courts." 
 
 o 
 
 After a ride through it with Grant, the writer says : 
 " There are few cities in the world which have had a 
 more varied and more splendid career than Delhi. After 
 you pass from the English section a ride through Delhi is 
 sad. You go through miles of ruins the ruins of many 
 wars and dynasties, from what was destroyed by the 
 Turk in the twelfth century to what was destroyed by 
 the Englishman in the nineteenth. The suburbs of Jerusa 
 lem are sad enough, but there you have only the memo 
 ries, x the words of prophecy, and the history of destruc 
 tion. Time has covered or dispersed the ruins. But 
 Time has not been able to do so with the ruins of Delhi. 
 From the Cashmere Gate, for a ride of eleven miles, your 
 road is through monumental ruins. Among these stands 
 the Kootub Minar, claimed to be the highest pillar in the 
 world, built of red sandstone, fluted and divided into five 
 stages or stories, the base of each ornamented with a pro 
 jecting gallery and balustrade. Tombs, temples, mauso 
 leums, mosques in all directions. The horizon is studded 
 with minarets and domes, all abandoned and many in 
 
 ruins." 
 
 Everywhere are the evidences of a great civilization in 
 former times, "Ruins, miles of ruins, on which the vul 
 tures only perch." The sand covers a greater part of 
 the ruins of Egypt, but here they lie upon the surface, 
 columns piled upon columns mosque and palaces 
 blended together in one great wreck. Here where 
 now dwell scarcely a quarter of a million of people, 
 2,000,000 once lived and toiled. As you walk the streets 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 strange 
 
 ights meet you at every step ; ox-carts go 
 lumbering by, taking the place of omnibuses in modern 
 cities, the driver sitting on the tongue of the vehicle, and 
 urging the great unwieldy animals into a gallop by 
 twisting their tails ; burden-bearers stagger along under 
 weights that would crush an American porter ; women 
 carrying water in stone jugs on their heads, as in the time 
 of Abraham, meet and pass you without turning to look 
 at you, while monkeys run 
 up the walls and stare and 
 chatter at you. The tomb 
 of Hamayun, vast in its 
 ruins, incloses eighteen 
 tombs, in which were laid 
 himself and five of the royal 
 line, together with eleven 
 friends and state officers. 
 But a greater event than the 
 burial of a king gives interest 
 to the place it is the tomb 
 of a dynasty brought to a 
 close in the great mutiny of 
 1857. At Meirut, thirty miles 
 off, the Sepoys rose upon 
 their officers and massacred 
 them, and all the Europeans and women in the fort, and 
 then rushed upon Delhi to rouse the inhabitants to join 
 them. Yells and shouts rent the air, and soon the 
 streets ran with blood. One brave officer shut himself 
 up in the garrison, and when the mutineers, yelling 
 with rage, poured around it, and were about to burst 
 open the gates, fired the magazine, and blew him 
 self and a thousand natives into the air. The few troops 
 finding themselves cut off from the fort and powerless 
 
 INDIAN PORTER. 
 
3IO TRATELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 against the thousands crowding the streets and rending 
 the air with threats of vengeance, fled through the Cash 
 mere Gate. At a safe distance they rallied, and gathering 
 what reinforcements they could, intrenched themselves 
 and held out through the summer, and in September, 
 with 7,000 men, determined to storm the city held by 
 60,000 native troops. 
 
 Planting their guns on the ridge, a mile or two distant, 
 they threw shells into the town, and as their fire took 
 effect, they advanced their lines nearer and nearer. But 
 they did not advance unopposed. Many of the Sepoys 
 were practiced artillerists and answered back with fatal 
 aim. Still, though the English ranks were thinned, they 
 kept pushing on ; they came nearer and nearer, and the 
 roar of their guns was louder and louder. Approaching 
 the walls at one point, they wished to blow up the Cash 
 mere Gate. It was a desperate undertaking. But when 
 was English courage known to fail ? A dozen men were 
 
 o o> 
 
 detailed for the attempt. Four natives carried bags of 
 powder on their shoulders, but as they drew within rifle 
 range, English soldiers stepped up to take their places, 
 for they would not expose their native allies to a danger 
 which they were ready to encounter themselves. The 
 very daring of the movement for an instant bewildered 
 the enemy. The Sepoys within saw these men coming 
 up to the gate, but thinking perhaps that they were 
 deserters, did not fire upon them, and it was not till 
 they darted back again that they saw the design. Then 
 came the moment of danger, when the mine was to be 
 fired. A sergeant advanced quickly, but fell mortally 
 wounded ; a second sprang to the post, but was shot 
 dead ; the third succeeded, but fell wounded ; the fourth 
 rushed forward, and seeing the train lighted, sprang 
 into the moat, the bullets whizzed over him, and the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 next instant a tremendous explosion threw the heavy 
 wall into the air. 
 
 Delhi was won, and the king 1 fled for safety to this 
 tomb, and was captured, though surrounded by thousands 
 of his troops, by Captain Hodson, with fifty native cavalry. 
 
 But Delhi is now a quiet and loyal city. Here, forty 
 regiments, native and English, were mustered to receive 
 the Prince of Wales. There was the superb Sikh cavalry 
 and the heavy artillery drawn 
 by elephants which, as they 
 dragged the heavy pieces up 
 before the prince, trumpeted 
 him a salute. 
 
 One of the sights well worth 
 the traveler s visit is the pal 
 ace of the Grand Mogul, 
 where he dwelt in the time of 
 his power and glory. Grant 
 was taken there and found it 
 was now used as a fort for the 
 defense of the city, shorn of 
 all its ancient glory. 
 
 They were shown, also, the 
 throne of this great monarch. 
 They mounted by a nar 
 row stair-way, their guide 
 constantly warning them against stumbling. But when 
 they reached it, they found nothing left of its former 
 magnificence a marble platform, nothing more, remained 
 to tell what it once was. This was so high, that a man 
 cannot reach it with his hands. From it, however, 
 a vast open plain could be seen, on which an army 
 might maneuver, and the sport of fighting elephants 
 be witnessed by the king. During the brief time 
 
 INDIAN SOLDIER. 
 
312 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 that Grant occupied it, he saw beneath him instead of 
 all this Oriental display, only groups of English soldiers, 
 lounging about, who saluted him and stared at him and 
 the officers in attendance. From this hall of general 
 audience, he went to that of special audience. The 
 former was once beautifully inlaid with mosaics, but after 
 its capture, these were torn away by a British officer who 
 had the fragments made up into fancy articles, which 
 he sold to purchasers, realizing from the vandal act 
 ome $2,500. This hall of special audience was famous 
 for containing the "Peacock Throne," but nothing except 
 its site remains. It is said to have cost $30,000,000. 
 
 Mr. Beresford, in his book on Delhi, says it was called 
 the Peacock Throne " from its having the figures of two 
 peacocks standing behind it, their tails expanded, and the 
 whole so inlaid with sapphires, rubies, emeralds, pearls 
 and other precious stones of appropriate colors, as to 
 represent life. The throne itself was six feet long by 
 -four feet broad. It stood on six massive feet, which, 
 with the body, were of solid gold inlaid with rubies, 
 emeralds and diamonds. It was supported by a canopy 
 of gold, upheld by twelve pillars, all richly emblazoned 
 with costly gems and a fringe of pearls ornamented the 
 borders of the canopy. On the other side of the throne 
 stood umbrellas, one of the Oriental emblems of royalty. 
 They were formed of crimson velvet richly embroidered 
 and fringed with pearls. The handles were eight feet 
 high, of solid gold and studded with diamonds." The 
 ceiling of this hall was of solid silver. But the Persians, 
 Mahrattas and English have plundered it by turns, till 
 nothing remains. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 VISIT TO JEYPOOR SCHOOL OF INDUSTRY VISITS THE TIGERS THE ROYAL STABLES 
 THE PALACE AUDIENCE OF THE MAHRAJAH A NAUTCH DANCE A GAME OF 
 BILLIARDS WITH THE MAHRAJAH AN ORIENTAL LEAVE-TAKING COL. GRANT- 
 HAS A BOAR HUNT LUCKNOW CAWNPOOR A HORRIBLE MASSACRE A GHASTLY 
 SPECTACLE A FEARFUL OATH OF VENGEANCE HAVELOCK RELIEVES THE GARRISON 
 AT LUCKNOW A TOUCHING SCENE ALLAHABAD, THE CITY OF GOD PILGRIMS 
 BATHING BENARES, THE HOLY CITY A STRANGE STROLL THROUGH IT FUNERAL 
 PYRES HINDOOISM THE THREE CAPITALS OF INDIA RECEPTION AT CALCUTTA 
 A PICNI3 ON THE HOOGLY THE SCAVENGERS OF CALCUTTA ORIGINAL MODE OF 
 SPRINKLING STREETS BURMAH RECEPTION AT RANGOON THE GREAT PAGODA- 
 CHARACTER OF THE KING HINDOO CASTE BUDDHISM ELEPHANTS LOADING AND 
 UNLOADING VESSELS RANGOON. 
 
 JEYPOOR lay on Grant s route to Delhi, but he did 
 not stop to visit it, and now returned to see its sights. 
 There is a school of arts and industry here, which 
 interested him much, as in traveling he is constantly ask 
 ing after the industrial resources of the country. Old 
 palaces and past glories attract him less than a new plow, 
 or any new implement of industry that shows the influ 
 ence of modern civilization and ideas on these worn-out 
 countries. This school, however, is devoted mostly to 
 the education of the natives into greater perfection in the 
 manufacture of enameled jewelry, for which Jeypoor is 
 specially celebrated. He went to the collection of 
 tigers, and saw a half dozen brutes, each of whom had a 
 history. Two or three were man-eaters. One enormous 
 creature had killed twenty-five men before he was taken, 
 and he lay in his cage quite comfortable and sleek. 
 Another was in a high temper, and roared and jumped 
 35 
 
^ j M TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and beat the bars of his cage. On returning to the resi 
 dency they found a group of servants from the palace on 
 the veranda, each carrying a tray laden with sweetmeats 
 and nuts, oranges and other fruits. This was an offering 
 from the prince, and it was necessary that the General 
 should touch some of the fruit and taste it and say how 
 much he was indebted to His Highness for the remem 
 brance. Then the servants marched back to the palace. 
 The mahrajah sent word that he would receive General 
 Grant at five. The mahrajah is a pious prince, a de 
 votee and almost an ascetic. He gives seven hours a 
 day to devotions, and partakes only of one meal a day. 
 When he is through with his prayers he plays billiards. He 
 is the husband of ten wives. His tenth wife was married 
 to him a few weeks ago, which he took not because he 
 wanted her, for he thought he had enough, but as even 
 single marriages are made in Christian monarchies from 
 political considerations alone. 
 
 They drove to the palace at four o clock, and were 
 shown the royal stables. There were some fine horses 
 and exhibitions of horsemanship which astonished even 
 the General. They were shown the astronomical build 
 ings of Jai Singh II, which were on a large scale and 
 accurately graded. They climbed to the top of the 
 palace and had a fine view of Jeypoor. The palace itself 
 embraces one-sixth of the city, and there are 10,000 
 people within its walls beggars, soldiers, priests, poli 
 ticians, all manner of human beings who live on the 
 royal bounty. The town looked picturesque and cool in 
 the shadows of the descending sun. They visited the 
 quarters devoted to the household. All was dead. 
 Every part of the palace swarmed with life except this. 
 Word had been sent to the household that profane eyes 
 would soon be gazing from the towers, and the ladies 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. ~ T <- 
 
 went into seclusion. They strolled from building to build 
 ing through reception-rooms, working-rooms, billiard- 
 rooms, high-walled, far apart with stone walls and gar 
 dens all around ; space, air and sunshine. His Highness 
 had arisen this morning earlier than usual, to have his 
 prayers finished in time to meet the General. At five, pre 
 cisely, Grant and his party entered the court-yard leading 
 to the reception hall. The mahrajah came slowly down 
 the steps with a serious, preoccupied air, not as an old 
 man, but as one who was too weary with a day s labors to 
 make any effort, and shook hands with the General and 
 Mrs. Grant. He accompanied the General to a seat of 
 honor and sat down at his side. On the side of the 
 General sat the members of his party ; on the side of the 
 mahrajah the members of his cabinet. Dr. Handley 
 acted as interpreter. The prince said Jeypoor was hon 
 ored in seeing the face of the great American ruler, whose 
 fame had reached Hindostan. The General said he had 
 enjoyed his visit, that he was pleased and surprised with 
 the prosperity of the people, and that he should have felt 
 he had lost a great deal if he had come to India and not 
 
 o 
 
 have seen Jeypoor. The mahrajah expressed regret 
 that the General made so short a stay. The General 
 answered that he came to India late and was rather 
 pressed for time, from the fact that he wished to see the 
 viceroy before he left Calcutta, and to that end had pro 
 mised to be in Calcutta on March loth. 
 
 His Highness then made a gesture and a troop of 
 dancing girls came into the court-yard. One of the fea 
 tures of a visit to Jeypoor is what is called the Nautch. 
 The Nautch is a sacred affair, danced by Hindoo girls of 
 a low caste, in the presence of the idols in the palace 
 temple. A group of girls came trooping in, under the 
 leadership of an old fellow with a long beard and a hard 
 
,16 
 
 TKA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 expression of face, who might have been the original of 
 Dickens Fagin. The girls wore heavy garments embroi 
 dered, the skirts composed of many folds, covered with 
 gold braid. They had ornaments on their heads and 
 jewels in the side of the nose. They had plain faces and 
 carried out the theory of caste, if there be anything in 
 
 such a theory, in the 
 contrast between 
 their features and 
 the delicate, sharply 
 cut lines of the 
 higher class Brah 
 mins and the other 
 castes who sur- 
 ^ rounded the prince. 
 The girls formed in 
 two lines, a third 
 line was composed 
 of four musicians, 
 who performed a 
 low, growling kind 
 of music on un 
 earthly instruments. 
 The dance had no 
 value in it, either as 
 an expression of har 
 mony, grace or mo 
 tion. What it may have been as an act of devotion ac 
 cording to the Hindoo faith it is impossible to say. One 
 of the girls would advance a step or two and then turn 
 around. Another would go through the same. This 
 went down the double line, the instruments keeping up 
 their constant din. The Nautch dance is meaningless. 
 It is not even improper. It is attended by no excitement, 
 
 :RL. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 no manifestations of religious feeling. A group of coarse, 
 ill-formed women stood in the lines, walked and twisted 
 about, breaking now and then into a chorus, which added 
 to the din of the instruments. This was the famous Nautch 
 dance, to be seen in Jeypoor with amazement, and to re 
 member as one of the sights in India. Either as an 
 amusement or a religious ceremony it had no value. 
 The mahrajah and his court looked on as gloomy as 
 
 ravens, while the Gene 
 ral wore that resigned 
 expression resignation 
 tinted with despair 
 familiar to those of his 
 Washington friends who 
 had seen him listen to 
 an address from the 
 Women s Rights Asso- 
 
 o 
 
 ciation or receive a dele 
 gation oT Sioux chiefs. 
 Still the whole scene 
 was striking, and 
 |f strange, and purely Ori- 
 * ental. Near the solemn- 
 looking prince stood his 
 equally solemn-looking 
 falconer with the falcon perched on his wrist, and on the 
 other side the prime minister in long, flowing, embroidered 
 robes, tall and lank, with the keen expression of a Jew on 
 his face. Next to him sat the prime minister, a chief of 
 the Brahmins, and consequently a most holy man and 
 keeper of the mahrajah s conscience. He eats opium, 
 as many high and holy men do in India, and you see that 
 his fingers twitch restlessly. He is the favorite Brahmin 
 and conscience keeper of the mahrajah, receives large 
 
 F BENARES. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 3*9 
 
 revenues from the temples, lives in a palace and is a 
 member of the king s council. The mahrajah sits as it 
 were soused back into his chair, his eyes covered with 
 heavy silver-mounted spectacles, very tired and bored, 
 looking at the Nautch girls as though they were a million 
 of miles away. He has been praying all day and has had 
 no dinner. 
 
 General Grant formed one of this stolid group, re 
 signed and patient, but still wondering when this stupid 
 dance would come to an end. At length, as the shadows 
 of evening began to fall, the prime minister made a sign, 
 and the dance stopped, and the girls vanished, and the 
 mahrajah led the way into the drawing-room, and thence 
 into the billiard-room. 
 
 The mahrajah plays billiards when he is not at prayers, 
 and was anxious to have a game with the General. The 
 latter played in an indiscriminate, promiscuous manner, 
 and made some wonderful shots in the way of missing 
 balls he intended to strike. Mr. Borie, whose interest in 
 the General s fortunes extends to billiards, began to 
 deplore those eccentric experiments, when the General 
 said he had not played billiards for thirty years. The 
 mahrajah tried to lose the game, and said to one of his 
 attendants that he was anxious to show the General that 
 delicate mark of hospitality, but he couldn t succeed. 
 
 A stroll through the beautiful gardens, with their rich 
 beds of flowers and choice trees, followed, a nd the prince, 
 with pride, pointed to the towers of his palace, gleaming 
 in the rays of the setting sun. As night came on a cool 
 ing breeze stole through the perfumed bowers, com 
 pleting, with its fragrance, this thoroughly Oriental scene, 
 made, if possible, still more beautiful by the dancing of 
 innumerable lights and torches which the servants 
 brought in to relieve the darkness 
 
32O TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Then came the leave-taking", solemn, as all such cere 
 monies are in the East. Repairing to the hall, now 
 ablaze with light, an attendant entered bearing- a tray 
 filled with wreaths of the rose and jessamine. "The mah- 
 rajah, taking two of these wreaths, put them on the 
 neck of the General. He did the same to Mrs. Grant 
 and all the members of the party. Then taking 1 a string 
 of gold and silken cord, he placed that on Mrs. Grant as 
 a special honor. The General, who was instructed by 
 the English resident, took four wreaths and put them on 
 the neck of the jnahrajah, who pressed his hands and 
 bowed his thanks. Another servant came, bearing a 
 small cup of gold and gems containing ottar of roses. 
 The mahrajah, putting some of the perfume on his fin 
 gers, transferred it to Mrs. Grant s handkerchief. With 
 another portion he passed his hands along the General s 
 breast and shoulders. This was done to each of the 
 party. The General then taking the perfume passed his 
 hands over the mahrajah s shoulders, and so concluded 
 the ceremony, which, in all royal interviews in the East, 
 is supposed to mean a lasting friendship. Then the 
 prince, taking General Grant s hand in his own, led him 
 from the hall, across the garden and to the gateway of 
 his palace, holding his hand all the time." The carriages 
 were waiting, and the prince took his leave, saying how 
 much he was honored by the General s visit. The cav 
 alry escort formed in line, the guard presented arms, and 
 they drove at a full gallop home. And so ended one of 
 the most interesting and eventful days in Grant s visit to 
 India. 
 
 But the mahrajah s hospitality did not end here ; he 
 had some fine jungles in his district, and proposed to get 
 up a tiger hunt for his distinguished guest. But this re 
 quired two or three days preparation, and, as Grant 
 
iARDEN. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 325 
 
 could not spare the time, it was given up. But Colonel 
 Grant was resolved to have a taste of India sport, and so 
 a boar hunt was ordered, and with sixteen horsemen, two 
 camels, two bullock-carts and the beaters, he started out 
 
 A HAREM SCENE TEA DRINKING. 
 
 at six o clock in the morning on a grand hunt. Two pigs 
 were started, both of which the colonel succeeded in 
 spearing. It was then proposed to go after antelope, as 
 it was not yet noon. 
 
326 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Harems are common here among the wealthy mahrajahs, 
 nearly the same as in most Eastern countries where poly 
 gamy and concubinage are permitted or practiced. In 
 many places, however, the women are allowed the society 
 of their own sex, with far less restraint than is ordinarily 
 supposed, and they are prone to display before their vis 
 iting friends, with a great deal of pride, the wealth and 
 ornaments which have been given them. 
 
 The colonel was driven in one of the ox-carts within 
 fair range of a buck, and brought him down. Satisfied 
 with two pairs of boars tusks and the horns of an ante 
 lope, as trophies, the colonel returned from his first hunt 
 in India. The mahrajah said that if the General would 
 remain two or three days, he would show him what his 
 jungles could produce in the way of tigers, bears and 
 leopards. Grant thanked him for his courtesy, but said 
 that he could not spare the time. The Prince of Wales 
 and Duke of Edinburgh, who had preceded him but a 
 short time, had more taste for such sport, and made 
 themselves quite famous as hunters. 
 
 Before making the long stretch of journey south 
 to Calcutta, Grant determined to cross over the country 
 and visit Lucknow, situated on a branch of the Ganges, 
 a spot so memorable in the history of the great mutiny 
 of 1857 and 59, and where such heroic deeds were per 
 formed.- This is not the place to enter into the history of 
 that mutiny. The brave Havelock marched to Cawnpoor, 
 to relieve the 200 men, women and children held there as 
 prisoners ; and their horrible massacre, while his guns 
 were thundering on the walls of the city, have become a 
 terrible part of that history. The spectacle that met his 
 gaze as he marched into the abandoned place and entered 
 the room where they were kept, froze his blood with 
 horror. The pavement was swimming in blood, amid 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 3-7 
 
 *This spot is one of the most pathetic in India, and, to quote the words of the 
 legend around the shrine, will forever be " Sacred to the perpetual memory of a 
 great company of Christian people, chiefly women and children," who lie beneath. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 which floated torn fragments of ladies and children s 
 dresses, and long crimson tresses, while in the adjoining 
 apartments, now empty, the blood stood an inch deep, in 
 which were swimming ladies hats, collars, back-combs, 
 and portions of their underdress, and children s socks 
 and frills, while all around were the marks of bullets, and 
 on the wooden pillars deep gashes, from which hung long 
 tresses of hair, carried there by the cruel sword, when it 
 cleft the flowing crown of woman. The mother, in the 
 fullness of her prime, the accomplished maiden, in her 
 beauty and bloom, and the babe in its budding loveliness, 
 had shrieked and died there together, butchered and 
 hacked like wild beasts. In one apartment a row of 
 women s shoes and gaiters were carefully placed along 
 the wall, filled with bleeding feet, and on the other side, 
 a row of children s shoes, filled with children s feet, all 
 arranged with devilish care and accuracy. But where 
 were the dead ? was the cry, almost the shriek of all. 
 In passing out of the building they saw arms and legs 
 sticking out of a well, and drawing nearer, found it full 
 of dead bodies. Stripped of their clothing, those 200 
 women and children had been pitched, the living on the 
 dead, into this well, till it was filled from bottom to top. 
 Oh, what a sight for brave men to look upon. They had 
 faced the deadly battery without flinching, and trocl, with 
 out a nerve quivering, the battle-field heaped with the 
 slain, but at this sight they broke down, and wept like 
 children. But tears soon gave way to oaths of ven 
 geance, deep and terrible. As the Highlanders came to 
 one of General Wheeler s dead daughters tied naked to 
 the ground, having been subjected to treatment worse 
 than death, they sat down, and cutting off her hair, divided 
 it with pale countenances and wrathful eyes between them. 
 Each one then slowly counted the number of threads he 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 had, ana with a solemn, fearful oatn swore, that for each 
 hair one man should die. An oath he more than kept. 
 No wonder the Government has reared a monument on 
 this spot, and laid out a memorial garden, while over the 
 fatal well stands an angel, in marble, having in his hand 
 the palm leaves of victory. From this place Havelock 
 led his men to the relief of the garrison at Lucknow, 
 whom the natives had doomed to a similar fate. 
 
 The account of the long siege, the prolonged suffering 
 and heroic endurance of that garrison, will never grow 
 old while the human heart heaves with sympathy. 
 Havelock s desperate struggle onward; his advances, and 
 retreats to Cawnpoor, and last terrible charge through 
 the streets of Lucknow, and the wild rapturous meeting 
 of the deliverers and delivered; the thrilling cheers 
 rising over the shouts of the combatants and the roar of 
 cannon; the shrill notes of the bag-pipes of the High 
 landers, playing "the Campbell s are coming," (aye, 
 coming over the dead and dying to the rescue), fulfilling 
 their dreadful oath, all conspire to make that spot dear 
 to every true-hearted man. 
 
 Grant, as he stood on the ruins of the old residency, in 
 which the garrison was shut up, and looked off on the city, 
 could see the course Havelock took in his last desperate 
 march, as he forced his way through fire and blood to its 
 relief, and feel as all brave hearts feel at the deeds of 
 brave men. The next place of importance going south 
 was Allahabad "the city of God," standing at the junction 
 of the two sacred rivers, the Jumna and the Ganges, 
 and regarded by all Hindoos as one of the holiest 
 places in the world, and hence, the religious re 
 sort to it from far and near, who come to bathe where 
 these holy waters meet, and thus wash away their sins. 
 
 On the 1 2th of January, it is said, that sometimes 
 
330 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 2,000,000 are assembled here, their white tents covering 
 the vast plain for miles. Some come on their hands and 
 knees, others drag themselves along on their bellies, 
 while others still, travel for days, measuring their length 
 like a measuring-worm. The Brahmins keep up these 
 festivals on account of the money it puts in their pockets, 
 for each pilgrim has to pay a tax before he is allowed to 
 bathe in the sacred water. It is one of the most aston 
 ishing sights in the world, to behold these infatuated men 
 and women crowd by tens of thousands into the water. 
 After the religious services are performed, and they are 
 cleansed from all sin, they begin to practice anew all 
 sorts of wickednesses, apparently to be ready for another 
 pilgrimage, and another cleansing. From here, it is about 
 seventy miles to Benares, the sacred city, par excellence 
 of the Hindoos. 
 
 As Grant arrived at the station, he found a guard 
 of honor awaiting him, who received him with a blare 
 of trumpets. Accompanied by the leading officials, he 
 walked down the line of the military with uncovered 
 head and entered a carriage, and was driven to the house 
 of the English commissioner. The night was clear, and 
 the full moon filled the whole dome of heaven with its 
 light, but its beams paled before the glare of lamps and 
 torches that lined the way. The blending of uniforms, 
 the British officers in scarlet, the native princes in rich 
 and flowing garments blazing with gems ; on one side 
 the line of armed men, on the other a curious crowd of 
 Indians all combined to make the scene Oriental and 
 vivid. 
 
 Benares is a city of priests, and out of a population of 
 less than two hundred thousand, there are about twenty- 
 five thousand Brahmins, who really govern the city, 
 owning all its temples, shrines, wells and streams, while 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 33* 
 
 it is said there are one thousand four hundred and fifty- 
 four Hindoo temples. 
 
 When the Mohammedans conquered India, they en 
 deavored to drive Hindooism out of the country, but this 
 holy place still remains to be reverenced by all good 
 Hindoos. The Hindoo is a pantheist, and worships God 
 in animals of various kinds, not excepting the monkey, 
 a whole tribe having a temple to itself in the city. 
 
 The streets are so narrow that only in the widest can 
 
 SEDAN CHAIR. 
 
 even an elephant make his way. They are alleys nar 
 row alleys, not streets and as you thread your way 
 through them you feel as if the town were one house, the 
 chambers only separated by narrow passages. The ab 
 sence of carriages makes it a silent town as silent as 
 Venice and all you hear is the chattering of pilgrims 
 
332 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 moving from shrine to shrine. Many of the alleys are 
 so narrow that two cannot walk abreast. The commis 
 sioner, Mr. Daniels, had provided sedan chairs for the 
 party to make the tour of the city. These chairs were 
 heavy, ornamented with gold and brass, mounted on 
 poles and carried on the shoulders of four bearers. 
 When the party 
 came to the outskirts 
 of the town, they 
 found chair-bearers 
 were waiting for 
 them, and the Gene 
 ral was told that he 
 might take his place. 
 But the idea of 
 swinging in a gaudy 
 chair from a pole, 
 with attendants be 
 fore and behind call 
 ing upon the people 
 to make way, was 
 too much for him. 
 He preferred to 
 
 walk. Mrs. Grant l^g^^ffl^^ 
 was put in one chair, "" 
 
 , r - , ~ . . GODDESS KALI. 
 
 and Mr. Bone in 
 
 another. The General and the rest of the party went 
 ahead on foot, the former unnoticed, Mr. Borie, in the 
 sedan chair, having a venerable appearance, being re 
 garded as the great man. 
 
 As they threaded their way through the alleys and 
 past the shrines that met them at every turn, the city 
 seemed to be at prayer. They entered a temple and 
 saw beggars all around them. On the walls for the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL. CRAXT. 
 
 333 
 
334 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 temple is open monkeys are perching, chattering and 
 skipping. Around the walls of the inclosure are stalls, 
 with cows and calves. These are sacred held in rever 
 ence by the pilgrims, who feed, and caress, and adore 
 them. One or two are monstrous births, and they are 
 specially adored. The animals move about among the 
 worshipers, quite tame, somewhat arrogant. Mrs. Grant 
 was wearing a garland of flowers, which a child who sup 
 plied flowers to the worshipers had thrown over her 
 neck. One of the animals seeing the flowers, and know 
 ing them to be sav- 
 ory,made a rush for 
 the garland, and be 
 fore any one could 
 interfere, was 
 munching and tear- 
 incr it in a deliberate 
 
 o 
 
 manner. One of 
 the police came to 
 the rescue, but it 
 was only after a 
 struggle that the 
 cow could be per 
 suaded to abandon 
 her meal. In the 
 centre was a hideous idol, before which a Brahmin was 
 muttering a prayer. 
 
 After they had visited several of the temples, they went 
 to the observatory of Raja Jai Singh, built at the close of 
 the seventeenth century, and looking down from its bat- 1 
 dements, saw the sacred river shining in the morning sun; 
 the teeming, busy hive of temples and shrines, from which 
 the hum of worship seems to arise ; masses of pilgrims 
 sluggishly moving toward the river to plunge into its holy 
 
 BUDDHIST FUNERAL URN. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. -~- 
 
 waters and be cleansed of sin. They were pointed out 
 the site of the holy well of Manikarnaki, dug by the god 
 Vishnu, consecrated by the god Mahadeva, whose waters 
 will wash away any sin and make the body pure. From 
 here they went down to the water, and, on board of a 
 steam launch, slowly steamed under the banks, and the 
 view of the city as seen from the boat was one of the 
 most striking the world can afford. Although the day 
 was not far advanced, the sun was out in all its power. 
 Here was the burning Ghat, the spot where the bodies of 
 the Hindoos are burned. No office is so sacred to the 
 dead as to burn his body on the banks of the Ganges. 
 
 As they slowly steamed along, a funeral procession was 
 seen bearing a body to the funeral pyre. Several slabs 
 were set around the burning Ghat, in memory of widows 
 who had burned themselves on that spot in honor of their 
 husbands, according to the old rite of suttee. They 
 passed the temple of the Lord Tavaka, the special god 
 who breathes such a charm into the ear of the dying that 
 the departing soul goes into eternal bliss ; also, the tem 
 ple built in honor of the two feet of Vishnu, and which 
 are worshiped with divine honors. They saw the Ghats 
 or steps erected by Sindia, an Indian prince, built in heavy 
 masonry, but broken, as by an earthquake, and slowly 
 going to ruin ; and the lofty mosque of Aurungzebe, nota 
 ble only for its two minarets, which, rising to 1 50 feet, are 
 the highest objects in Benares, and are a landmark for 
 miles and miles. Shrines and temples are passed without 
 number, the mere recital of whose names and attributes 
 would fill several pages. All this is lost in the general 
 effect of the city, as seen from the river. 
 
 Benares sits on the sacred river, an emblem of the 
 strange religion which has made it a holy city, and there 
 is solemnity in the thought that for ages she has kept her 
 
336 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 place on the Ganges ; that for ages her shrines have 
 been holy to millions of men ; that for ages the wisest, and 
 purest, and best of the Indian race. have wandered as pil 
 grims through her narrow streets, and plunged them 
 selves as penitents into the waters to wash away their 
 sins. 
 
 Perhaps some one asks what is Hindooism or Brahmin- 
 ism, which is the faith, more or less modified, of more than 
 
 BUDDHIST CAR OF JUGGERNAUT. 
 
 half the human family. Practically it is idolatry and 
 pantheism combined, exhibiting many revolting and dis 
 gusting features, among which the most revolting are the 
 burning of widows on the funeral pyre with their dead 
 husbands, and the throwing of one s self, who is cursed 
 with an incurable disease, under the car of Juggernaut, 
 to be crushed to a jelly, and come out in the next sphere 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 337 
 
 sound and perfect in body, and the casting of children by 
 mothers into the Ganges, to propitiate their god. These, 
 however, will soon, under the influence of civilization and 
 the Christian religion, be remembered only as things of the 
 past. The philosophy of Hindooism is, that out of mil 
 lions of ages, after a million births, following each other 
 in long succession, at last man is cast upon the earth, but 
 only as a bird of passage, darting swiftly through life, 
 and then, in an endless transmigration of souls, passing 
 through other stages of being, till he is absorbed in the 
 Eternal All. Thus does man find his way at last back to 
 God, as the drop of water, caught up by the sun, lifted 
 into the cloud, descends in the rain, trickles in streams 
 down the mountain side, and finds its way back to the 
 ocean. So does the human soul complete the endless 
 cycle of existence, coming from God and returning to 
 God, to be swallowed up and lost in that boundless sea. 
 It is a twenty-four hours ride from Benares to Cal 
 cutta, with scarcely a single object of interest on the 
 route. The land is poorly cultivated, while no forests re 
 lieve the monotony of the vast plain of the Ganges. 
 Camels yoked to the plow like oxen, and elephants work 
 ing in the fields with the sagacity of their farmer owners, 
 it is true, was a novelty. Grant arrived in Calcutta in 
 the morning, and was received by the American consul 
 with a guard of honor from the viceroy, and driven to 
 the Government House in a state carriage. India has 
 three capitals, Delhi, where once reigned the great 
 Mogul, and is the centre of the Mohammedan faith ; 
 Benares, the Mecca of the Hindoos, and Calcutta, the 
 capital of the modern British Empire. The Empire of 
 India extends over a number of provinces, including 
 1,500,000 square miles, and 200,000,000 of people, and 
 is governed by the viceroy, who lives in Calcutta. For two 
 
338 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 centuries it was ruled by the East India Company for its 
 own benefit, and crimes, and cruelty, and lust, make that 
 long period a dark spot on the British escutcheon. Cal 
 cutta is called in the East the city of palaces, but it hardly 
 deserves the name, though many fine modern buildings 
 adorn it, such as the government house, town hall, court 
 house, currency office, custom-house, post-office, Dal- 
 housie Institute, St. Paul s Cathedral, etc., etc. 
 
 The annual convocation for conferring degrees of the 
 University, took place while General Grant was in Cal 
 cutta, and he, accompanied by Sir Ashley Eden, Lieuten- 
 ant-Governor of Bengal, and Sir Alexander Arbuthnot, 
 the Vice-Chancellor, attended the convocation. The 
 General and the Bishop of Calcutta sat on the Vice- 
 Chancellor s right, and Sir Ashley Eden on his left. De 
 grees were conferred upon students from the various 
 colleges throughout India, and the Vice-Chancellor made 
 a speech, which contained some interesting references to 
 education in India. 
 
 He then complimented Grant, and held him up to the 
 students as an illustration of what perseverance and 
 tenacity of purpose could accomplish. The viceroy, 
 Lord Lytton, had delayed his annual hegira to the Hima 
 laya Mountains in order to receive Grant. It must be 
 remembered that the viceroy goes every year to Simla, 
 on the first range of the Himalaya Mountains, 1,200 
 miles distant, for the sake of the air. A similar custom 
 here would take our seat of government for that length 
 of time into the Rocky Mountains. Lord Lytton had 
 once been attached to the British legation at Washington, 
 under his uncle Bulwer^ and hence he and Grant had 
 much to talk about in common. In the evening, there 
 was the inevitable state dinner, with toasts and speeches. 
 The next day, an excursion was made up the Hoogly 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 339 
 
 twelve miles, to the viceroy s country seat at Barrackpore. 
 At the last moment, the viceroy found he could not go, 
 and deputized Sir Ashley Eden to act in his place. The 
 party was small but select that assembled at noon on 
 board the viceroy s yacht and began to ascend the river. 
 Landing in a burning sun, they had a long walk to a 
 marquee tent, pitched under a banyan tree, where a 
 
 BANYAN, OR SACRED TREE OF INDIA. 
 
 band was playing and servants preparing luncheon. 
 They returned in the evening just in time to be dressed 
 for a state dinner. When the dinner was over and Lord 
 Lytton escorted Mrs. Grant to the reception-room, the 
 halls were filled with a brilliant and picturesque assembly. 
 A company of native gentlemen looks like a fancy dress 
 ball. There is no rule governing their costumes. They 
 are as free to choose the color and texture of their gar- 
 
340 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL CRAXT, 
 
 ments as ladies at home. They were in loose gowns of 
 cool, flexible stuffs, that seemed to play and dally with the 
 heat, and as they streamed about in their airy, flowing, 
 fleecy gowns, they looked more sensible than we civilians 
 in our black evening dress, or the officers girded to the 
 throat with scarlet cloth and braid. 
 
 Among other distinguished guests was the young 
 prince of Burmah and his wife, who had fled, it was said, 
 to Calcutta to escape being put to death by the king, who 
 was murdering his relatives. The viceroy was now 
 obliged to leave for the mountains, but previous to his 
 departure, he had a long and most friendly interview with 
 Grant. 
 
 There is one thing in Calcutta that strikes a stranger 
 as very peculiar, and that is. the way the streets are 
 cleaned of garbage. After midnight, jackals have the run 
 of the city, and their cries, half human and half wild- 
 animal, make the night hideous, yet the inhabitants do 
 not mind it. With the early dawn they skulk away into 
 sewers and dark recesses. They have an original way 
 of watering the streets as well as cleaning them here. A 
 goat-skin filled with water and left open at the neck is 
 suspended by a strap over the neck of a coolie, who 
 walks along and with his hand dexterously squirts the 
 water right and left, and as many men are employed, 
 the work is well done. 
 
 A dispatch was received in Calcutta by General Grant 
 saying that the "Richmond," which he had been expecting 
 at Galle, had not passed the Suez Canal. All his plans 
 in visiting Asia had been based upon the move 
 ments of the "Richmond," and the hope that she would be 
 at some point on the Indian coast by the time he reached 
 Calcutta. Under this impression he had accepted invita 
 tions to visit Ceylon and Madras, and was planning an 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 341 
 
 expedition into the Dutch islands. This news led to a 
 sudden and complete change in his plans, and he resolved 
 to leave India and move on to China in the first steamer. 
 Out of this resolution came the visit to Burmah, a country 
 that had not otherwise been in his programme. He left 
 Calcutta at midnight, in order to catch the tides in the 
 Hoogly, on board the steamer "Simla," of the British India 
 
 SURF AT MADRAS. 
 
 Navigation Company. The "Simla" was pleasant and 
 comfortable, and the run across the Bay of Bengal was 
 over a summer sea, The nights were so warm that it 
 was impossible to sleep in the cabins, and they found as 
 good accommodations as they could lying about the deck. 
 They sailed up the river to Rangoon and arrived at 
 the wharf about noon. A fierce sun was blazing, and the 
 
34 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 whole landscape seemed baked, so stern was the heat. 
 Rangoon is the principal city of Burmah, and seen from 
 the wharf is a low-lying, straggling town. Two British 
 
 men-of-war were in the harbor, who manned their yards 
 in honor of the General. All the vessels in the stream 
 were dressed, and the jaunty little "Simla" steamed with 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 flags. The landing was covered with scarlet cloth, and 
 the American and British standards were blended. All 
 the town seemed to be out, and the river bank was 
 lined with the multitude, who looked on in their passive, 
 Oriental fashion at the pageant. As soon as our boat 
 came to the wharf, Mr. Aitcheson, the commissioner, 
 came on board, accompanied by Mr. Leishmann, the 
 American vice-consul, and bade the General welcome 
 to Burmah. On landing, the General was presented to 
 the leading citizens and officials and the officers of the 
 men-of-war. The guard of honor presented arms and 
 then all drove away to the Government House, a pretty, 
 commodious bungalow in the suburbs, buried among 
 trees. 
 
 The Burmese look like Chinese, and the women are 
 not shut up as in India, but walk the streets like men. The 
 great object of curiosity in Rangoon is the Great Pagoda. 
 It stands on a hill, or rocky ledge, which overlooks the 
 city of Rangoon and the Valley of the Irrawaddy. It is 
 approached by a long flight of steps, which is occupied 
 by peddlers, lepers and blind men, who stretch out their 
 hands to ask for alms of those who mount the sacred hill 
 to pray. "The Pagoda is a colossal structure, with a 
 broad base like a pyramid, though round in shape, slop 
 ing upward to a slender cone, which tapers at last to a 
 sort of spire over three hundred feet high, and as the 
 whole, from base to pinnacle, is covered with gold-leaf, it 
 presents a very dazzling appearance, when it reflects the 
 rays of the sun. A pagoda is always a solid mass of 
 masonry, with no inner place of worship not even a 
 shrine, or a chamber like that in the heart of the Great 
 Pyramid. The tall spire has for its extreme point what 
 architects call a finial a kind of umbrella, which the 
 Burmese call a htee, made of a series of iron rings 
 
344 "RAVELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 gilded, from which hang many little silver and brass bells, 
 which, swinging to-and-fro with every passing breeze, 
 give forth a dripping musical sound. The Buddhist idea 
 of prayer is not limited to human speech ; it may be ex 
 pressed by an offering of flowers, or the tinkling of a bell. 
 It is at least a pretty fancy, which leads them to suspend 
 on every point and pinnacle of their pagodas these tiny 
 bells, whose soft, aerial chimes sound sweetly in the air, and 
 floating upward, fill the ear of heaven with a constant 
 melody. Besides the Great Pagoda, there are other 
 smaller pagodas, one of which has lately been decorated 
 with a magnificent htee, presented by a rich timber 
 merchant of Maulmain." 
 
 The growth of Burmah, and especially the position of 
 Rangoon as a commercial centre, made a deep impres 
 sion upon General Grant, who found no part of his visit 
 to Asia so interesting as the study of the resources of 
 these countries and the possibilities of advancing Ameri 
 can commerce. There is no subject, he thinks, more 
 worthy of our attention as a nation than the develop 
 ment of this commerce in the East. 
 
 The capital of Burmah is Mandalay, the most misera 
 ble mass of habitations that ever assumed to be called a 
 city. There are no roads, no carriages, no horses, only 
 a few bullock carts. Yet the lord of this capital thinks it 
 a great metropolis, and himself a great sovereign, and no 
 one about him dares tell him to the contrary. He is an 
 absolute despot, and has the power of life and death, 
 which he exercises on any who excite his displeasure. 
 He has but to speak a word or raise a hand, and the 
 object of his wrath is led to execution. Suspicion makes 
 him cruel, and death is sometimes inflicted by torture or 
 crucifixion. Yet he is a very religious man in his way 
 and very orthodox. To an English gentleman that was 
 
I 
 
 I .IRD S-KYF. VIK\V <>K PA< .< >I > \- 
 
E HILL MADRAS PRESIDENCY. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 349 
 
 presented to him, he said : " The English are a great 
 people, but what a pity that they have no religion." The 
 religion of Burmah is Buddhism, the faith of the teeming 
 millions of Eastern Asia. It would require a volume to 
 describe fully the different religions of this vast continent. 
 Mohammedans the first Grant had encountered believe 
 in one God, like the ancient Jews, and hence are not 
 
 CENOTAPH MEMORIAL TO THE DEAD. 
 
 idolaters. The Hindoos are both Pantheists and idola 
 ters their idols being uncouth monsters, while the 
 various forms of human sacrifices render their religion 
 something more than a foolish superstition it is a 
 revolting crime. But neither the one nor the other pre 
 sents such an irresistible barrier to Christianity as caste. 
 The Hindoos are divided into four castes : 
 
350 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 351 
 
 i st. The Brahmins, who are chief of all created be 
 ings, teachers and priests for all others. 
 
 2d. The military class, forming the executive, or those 
 who administer the laws, as drawn up and interpreted by 
 the Brahmins. 
 
 3d. The mercantile class. 
 
 4th. The servile class. 
 
 These distinctions are hereditary, descending from father 
 to son, and no one can either go higher or descend lower. 
 It has its rules, fixed as the laws of the Medes and Per 
 sians, one of which is, no one of a higher caste can eat 
 or drink with one belonging to a lower. If he does, he 
 becomes an outcast, despised by all. The poorest 
 Brahmin would consider himself defiled for all time were 
 he to eat with the Emperor of Russia, and the Governor- 
 General of India could not find the veriest beggar to ac 
 cept his hospitality. 
 
 Under such a social system, it can be easily seen what 
 difficulties the missionaries have to encounter. It is said 
 that railroads are doing more to break down caste than 
 anything else. The Hindoos find it pretty hard to travel 
 on them without eating and drinking with strangers. 
 
 Grant was now to see the workings of the third great 
 religion of the East, viz., Buddhism. The Buddhists have 
 their decalogue, or rather pentalogue, there being five 
 commandments in their code instead of ten, which 
 correspond in the main to the last five of those given to 
 Moses. It was founded by Sakya Muni, who started 
 with the bold idea that man, by virtue and holiness, may 
 make himself God. His teachings form a commendable 
 code of moral laws. Of course, these have been changed 
 by expounders, and a thousand excrescences fixed on this 
 once simple faith. 
 
 There is no hereditary priestly class in Buddhism, and 
 
352 
 
 TRAVELS OP GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 no caste. The priests do not marry, and deny themselves 
 all pleasures of the sense, live a monastic life, dress in 
 yellow gowns (yellow being a sacred color), shave their 
 heads and beards and walk barefooted. They live in 
 common, eat in common. When they sleep, it is in a sit 
 ting posture. They go to church, pray, chant hymns, 
 make offerings to their gods principal among them a 
 statue of Buddha sometimes alone, sometimes with his 
 disciples. "The statue of Buddha holds the same position 
 
 "TYPE OF THE LOWER CLASS. 
 
 in the temples of his faith that the statue of our Saviour 
 holds in the Catholic churches. The priests go in pro 
 cession. They chant hymns and prayers, and burn incense. 
 They carry strings of beads like the rosary, which they 
 count and fumble as they say their prayers. There is no 
 single solemn ceremony like the sacrifice of the mass. 
 Priests and people kneel before the images, surrounded 
 with blazing wax lights, the air heavy with incense. They 
 pray kneeling, with clasped, uplifted hands. Sometimes 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. + .,- 
 
 3o3 
 
 they hold in their hands a rose, or a morsel of rice, or a 
 fragment of bread, as an offering. During their prayers 
 they frequently bend their bodies so that the face touches 
 the ground. There are convents for women. The 
 temples are places of rest and refuge. Hither come the 
 unfortunate, the poor, the needy, the halt and blind, the 
 belated traveler. All are received, and all are given food 
 and alms. As you walk into the temples it is generally 
 through a lane of unfortunates, in all stages of squalor 
 and wretchedness, abandoned by the world. Trays or 
 basins of iron are stretched along the road, in which at 
 tendants pour uncooked rice. Animal life is held sacred, 
 and a Buddhist temple looks like a barnyard, a village 
 pound and a church combined. Cows, parrots, monkeys, 
 dogs, beggars, children, priests, sight-seers, devotees all 
 mingle and blend on a footing of friendliness, the animals 
 fearing no harm, the men meaning none. A Buddhist 
 priest will not kill an animal. His sacrifices do not in 
 volve bloodshed. Before he sits on the ground he will 
 carefully brush it, lest he might unwittingly crush an ant 
 or a worm. This respect for animal life is so strong that 
 some priests will wear a gauze cloth over mouth and 
 nostrils, lest they inadvertently inhale some of the smaller 
 insects which live in the air." 
 
 One of the curiosities of Burmah is the manner in 
 which elephants take the place of machinery in loading 
 and unloading on the wharves. In the timber-yards, both 
 at Rangoon and Maulmain, all the heavy work of drawing 
 and piling the logs is done by them. In one yard there 
 were seven elephants, five of which were at work. Their 
 wonderful strength came into play in moving huge pieces 
 of timber. A male elephant would stoop down, and run 
 his tusks under a log and throw his trunk over it, and 
 
 walk off with it as lightly as a gentleman would balance 
 37 
 
354 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 his bamboo cane on the tip of his finger. Placing it on 
 the pile, he would measure it with his eye, and if it pro 
 jected too far at either end, would walk up to it, and with 
 a gentle push or pull, make the pile even. If a still 
 heavier log needed to be moved on the ground to some 
 part of the yard, the mahout, sitting on the elephant s 
 head, would tell him what to do, and the great creature 
 seemed to have a perfect understanding of his master s 
 will. He would put out his enormous foot, and push it 
 along; or he would bend his head, and crouching half 
 way to the ground, and doubling up his trunk in front, 
 throw his whole weight against it, and thus, like a ram, 
 would "butt" the log into its place ; or if it needed to be 
 taken a greater distance, he would put a chain around it, 
 and drag it off behind him. He always knows when 
 Sunday comes, and takes his holiday. 
 
 The run down the coast of Burmah and through the 
 Straits of Malacca to Singapore was a pleasant one. 
 This is an English colony, situated on an island of the 
 same name, just at the extremity and close to the Malacca 
 peninsula. It is the touching-place of all steamers going 
 eastward and westward, and here General Grant was to 
 take one and proceed to China. Instead of, however, 
 going on direct, he determined to make a flying visit to 
 Siam. 
 
7RA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 355 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 GRANT VISITS SIAM AN INSIGNIFICANT KINGDOM LETTER FROM THE KING TO 
 GENERAL GRANT THE GULF OF SIAM ANNIVERSARY OF THE SURRENDER OF 
 LEE SLEEPING ON DECK A SURPRISE VEXATIOUS DELAY AT THE MOUTH OF THE 
 
 PORT A MISERABLE NIGHT THE KING S REPRESENTATIVE COMES ON BOARD 
 
 THE ROYAL LETTER A NARROW ESCAPE THE SAIL TO BANGKOK APPEARANCE 
 OF THE CITY AND RIVER THE GREAT PAGODA RECEPTION INTERVIEW WITH 
 THE REGENT AUDIENCE WITH THE SECOND AND FIRST KING A STATE DIN 
 NER THE KING EXPRESSES A WARM FRIENDSHIP FOR GENERAL GRANT 
 DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY RELIGION OF THE SIAMESE A DESCRIPTIVE 
 LETTER AN ACCOUNT BY AN AMERICAN TRAVELER SIAMESE CLIMATE, AND 
 SCENERY, AND PEOPLE ITS GRAND PAGODA WEALTH OF SIAM CEREMONIES 
 ATTENDING CHILD-BIRTH AND MARRIAGE CREMATION OF A ROYAL PERSONAGE 
 INFLUENCE OF MISSIONARIES. 
 
 IT was a singular whim of Grant s, crowded as he was 
 for time, and with such important points to visit, that 
 he should have turned aside to visit the kingdom of 
 Siam, containing only 190,000 square miles, and with a 
 population probably not half as great as that of New 
 York, and that mixed up of three nationalities, without 
 literature, or even a respectable language ; without a 
 history, except that it rose into existence about six hun 
 dred years after Christ, and was allowed to live, because 
 it would be a worthless accession. But, as Burns says, 
 " a man s a man for a that," so a king is a king for a 
 that. The King of Siam evidently thought so, and con 
 sidered it would be a sad depreciation of its dignity if the 
 ex-President of the United States and the greatest mili 
 tary chieftain of the Western World should visit the 
 great empires of the East and pass his kingdom by. It 
 would not look well in future history to see it recorded 
 how this monarch and that emperor received and feted 
 
356 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the distinguished traveler, and no mention made of the 
 honors paid him by the King of Siam, and he therefore 
 addressed the following letter to General Grant: 
 
 THE GRAND PALACE, BANGKOK, 4th February, 1879. 
 My Dear Sir: Having heard from my Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs, on the authority of the United States Consul, that you are 
 expected in Singapore on your way to Bangkok, I beg to express the 
 pleasure I shall have in making your acquaintance. Possibly you may 
 arrive in Bangkok during my absence at my country residence, Bang 
 Pa In. In which case a steamer will be placed at your disposal to 
 bring you to me. On arrival, I beg you to communicate with His 
 Excellency, my Minister for Foreign Affairs, who will arrange for 
 your reception and entertainment. 
 
 Yours, very truly, 
 
 CHULAHLONGKORN, R. S. 
 To General GRANT, late President of the United States. 
 
 The letter of the king, which he had taken the trouble 
 to send all the way to Singapore, added to the opinion 
 expressed by the General, that when people really go 
 around the world they might as well see what is to be 
 seen, decided the visit to Siam. A dispatch had been 
 received from Captain Benham, commanding the " Rich 
 mond," that he would be at Galle on the I2th, which 
 would enable him to reach Singapore about the time that 
 he returned from Siam. 
 
 And so it was decided to go to Siam, and on the 9th 
 of April, General Grant and his party embarked at Singa 
 pore on board the little steamer " Kong Lee," and started 
 for the Gulf of Siam. This is a pretty body of water, 
 studded with green islands, but a very capricious, stormy 
 one. Violent winds sweep over it, often rendering its 
 navigation disagreeable, if not dangerous. It proved so 
 on this occasion, and violent squalls arose, which knocked 
 the little steamboat around in a most inconsiderate man- 
 
TRA I- ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 357 
 
 ner. It had rained when they left Singapore, but the sea 
 was comparatively calm. It was supposed it would take 
 about four days to run to Bangkok, its capital. The 
 first night at sea was calm and beautiful, and the stars, 
 with the great constellation of the Southern Cross* came 
 out in brilliant splendor, and the party, seated on deck, 
 gazed in silent admiration on the sparkling dome that 
 bent so brightly above them. 
 
 Suddenly some one remembered that it was the anni 
 versary of the surrender of Lee. Fourteen years ago that 
 night Grant sat with Lee s letter in his hand, asking him 
 on what conditions he would receive the surrender of the 
 army under his command. What a contrast between 
 that night and this. Then, with a mighty army at his 
 back, and the fate of a great nation in his hands, he 
 pondered on the act that was to end the most fearful re 
 bellion the world ever witnessed, and place him among 
 the great military chieftains of the world and render his 
 name illustrious forever. To-night, with a few friends 
 around him, he was sitting quietly on the deck of a steam 
 boat, gliding over the waters of the Indian Ocean and 
 smoking his cigar, oblivious of all but the glorious 
 heavens above him. 
 
 Mr. Borie having intimated that he contemplated visit 
 ing Australia, New Zealand and New Guinea, and spend 
 ing the winter in the Pacific Ocean, Grant very gravely 
 argued the question with him, and showed how unwise 
 such a course would.be. And so, as they gently rocked 
 over the star-lit deep, the hours wore on till the time for 
 retiring came. But the night was warm and the air soft 
 and delicious, and they concluded to sleep on deck. Mr. 
 Borie attempted to open a curious machine, intended for 
 a bed, made by a prisoner in the Rangoon jail, while the 
 servants brought up ordinary mattresses and placed them 
 
358 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 in a corner, or against a coil of rope, or anywhere they 
 could conveniently lie, for the rest of the party. Grant 
 and his wife lay down near the wheel, while another stowed 
 himself away under the binnacles, and a third in the gang 
 way. 43ut sleeping on deck, though very pleasant in the 
 Bay of Bengal, is a very different thing in the Gulf of 
 Siam, for it is often interfered with by a change of 
 weather. It proved so in this case, for soon after mid 
 night a man aroused them with the news that it was going 
 to rain. They woke up to find a total change in the 
 aspect of the heavens. The stars were gone and, in their 
 place, a black, ominous-looking cloud covered the sky, while 
 here and there scattering drops of rain foretold an ap 
 proaching storm. Mrs. Grant hurried into the cabin, fol 
 lowed soon after by the General and the whole party. 
 The captain, after scanning the sky, said it would not 
 rain, it was only wind, and most of the party stretched 
 themselves on deck again, laughing at those who had 
 fled to the cabin at the first alarm. Their laugh, how 
 ever, was of short duration, for in a few minutes the 
 rain came down in torrents, and so suddenly, that to 
 escape it, they had to leave beds, blankets and every 
 thing, and run for the cabin, but even then they did not 
 reach it till they were well drenched. Each succeeding 
 night was but a repetition of this first one in the fore part 
 of the evening cool, refreshing breezes, making it de 
 lightful on deck, followed by a down-pour that drove 
 all into the cabin, till the trip to Siam was universally 
 voted a bore. At length, at ten o clock in the morning, 
 they came to the mouth and the bar of the port, where 
 they expected to meet a tug to take them ashore. But 
 no tug came, and hour after hour they waited in vain. 
 It turned out, that having made a remarkably quick trip, 
 nobody was expecting them. The whole day passed idly 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 waiting, and evening came, and still no steamer appeared. 
 Night came down, and the lights gleamed from the 
 shore, and their patience became exhausted. But, at 
 nine o clock, a pilot came on board, and, as the tide was 
 near its full, ordered the anchor up, intending to cross 
 the bar and be up to Bangkok in the cool of the morning. 
 But, after floundering about for an hour, the anchor was 
 again dropped. Grant heard the heavy plunge into the 
 water with feelings of disappointment, and the party 
 wished Siam was in another hemisphere. 
 
 The pilot had lost his way in the darkness, and was 
 rapidly going straight on shore, when the captain luckily 
 perceived it, and ordered the anchor down. To make 
 their misery complete, the rain came down in torrents, 
 the wind arose, sending the waves over the little craft and 
 down into the main cabin, which, with the rain, so deluged 
 it and the berths that all had to be huddled into the little 
 cabin and pass the night as they best could. The hours 
 wore wearily away and morning dawned, and every eye 
 was strained shoreward to see if the royal yacht was 
 coming down. Soon she appeared, with the American 
 flag at the fore and the royal colors of Siam at the main, 
 and anchored near the steamer. A boat soon came along 
 side with the American consul on board and a represent 
 ative and aid of the king. The latter, after being pre 
 sented to Grant, by the consul, handed him the following 
 letter in a yellow satin envelope : 
 
 THE GRAND PALACE, BANGKOK, April nth, 1879. 
 Sir : I have very great pleasure in welcoming you to Siam. It is, 
 I am informed, your pleasure that your reception should be a private 
 one; but you must permit me to show, as far as I can, the high esteem 
 in which I hold the most eminent citizen of that great nation which 
 has been so friendly to Siam, and sokii.d and just in all its intercourse 
 with the nations of the far East. 
 
360 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 That you may be near me during your stay, I have commanded my 
 brother, His Royal Highness the Celestial Prince Bhanurangsi Swang- 
 wongse, to prepare rooms for you and your party in the Saranrom 
 Palace, close to my palace, and I most cordially invite you, Mrs. 
 Grant and your party at once to take up your residence there, and my 
 brother will represent me as your host. 
 
 Your friend, 
 
 CHULAHLONGKORN, R. S. 
 
 His Excellency General GRANT, late President of the United States. 
 
 After this was read and interpreted to General Grant, 
 he and his party went on board the yacht in a pouring 
 rain, with the sea rurming so high and fierce that the boat, 
 as it approached the vessel, dashed against the paddle- 
 wheels, which were in motion. One of them struck the 
 boat and bore it under in spite of the struggles of the 
 boatmen to extricate it, and threatened, momentarily, to 
 go over and pitch all into the turbulent waves, where it 
 would have been little less than a miracle if some had 
 not perished. At length, however, it was pushed clear 
 of the wheel and righted, and Grant and his party, 
 drenched w r ith the rain, were taken on board. They con 
 gratulated each other on their narrow escape and com 
 plimented Mrs. Grant highly on her courage and cool 
 behavior, when every moment they expected to be up 
 set in the angry sea, and beaten beneath the water by the 
 paddles. Fate evidently frowned on the trip to Siam. 
 The yacht at once got under way up the river, stopping 
 at Paknam long enough to send a message to the king, 
 at Bangkok, that General Grant was coming. The 
 miserable town was composed of huts, built of bamboo, 
 with a foundation of logs, to avoid the water, which often 
 overflows the banks of the river and floods all the country 
 round, so that the people are compelled to move about in 
 boats. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 361 
 
 The distance from the sea to Bangkok is some thirty 
 miles, but the sail up it was very monotonous, for the 
 rain came down in such torrents as to blot out the 
 shore most of the time, making" the voyage dreary and 
 long. The banks appeared to be low and bushy, and hang 
 down into the water, as they do in the marshy regions of 
 the South. The rain lulled as they approached Bangkok, 
 which they reached late in the afternoon. Stopping a few 
 
 VIEW OF BANGKOK. 
 
 minutes before the house of the consul, they kept on for 
 two or three miles till they came in front of the Interna 
 tional Court-house. 
 
 Bangkok lies on both sides of the river, and they 
 steamed on between the two rows of huts and houses till 
 they seemed endless, and were almost ready to believe 
 the statement of the natives, that the city contained a haJi 
 
3 62 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 a million of inhabitants. There seemed to have been no 
 idea of similarity in architecture, for every style of build 
 ing lined the shore, while large boats were plying about 
 in every direction, not rowed, but paddled by the natives, 
 keeping time to a short, loud shout of "Wall-wall 1" 
 There were houses, too, built on rafts and moored to the 
 shore, most of them stores, filled with their peculiar wares, 
 on the floors of which the merchant was squatted, leisurely 
 smoking his pipe of opium, with no clothing on him but a 
 pair of loose-fitting trousers. They presented a strange 
 and uncouth sight, and seemed close akin to barbarians. 
 Great, clumsy junks were lying here and there at anchor, 
 with two great eyes in their prows, to let them see their 
 way on the sea the natives believing that they are as 
 necessary to a ship as to a man. 
 
 At four o clock Grant embarked in the royal gondola, 
 "seven fathoms long," and was slowly pulled to shore. 
 The guard presented arms, the cavalry escort wheeled into 
 line, the band played " Hail Columbia." " On ascending 
 the stairs, Mr. Alabaster, the royal interpreter, Captain 
 Bush, an English officer, commanding the Siamese Navy, 
 and a brilliant retinue were in waiting. The Foreign 
 Minister advanced and welcomed the General to Siam, 
 and presented him to the other members of the suite. 
 Then entering carriages, the General and party were 
 driven to the Palace of Hwang Saranrom, the home of 
 His Royal Highness the Celestial Prince. As they drove 
 past the barracks the artillery were drawn up in battery 
 and the cannon rolled out a salute of twenty-one guns. 
 On reaching the palace a guard was drawn up and 
 another band played the American national air. At the 
 gate of the palace Phra Sri Dhammason, of the foreign 
 ofnce, met the General and escorted him to the door of 
 the palace. Here he was met by the king s private sec- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 363 
 
 retary, and a nobleman of rank corresponding to that of 
 an English earl. At the head of the marble steps was 
 His Royal Highness the Celestial Prince, wearing the 
 decorations of the Siamese orders of nobility, surrounded 
 by other princes of a lesser rank and the members of his 
 household. Advancing, he shook hands with the General, 
 and offering his arm to Mrs. Grant, led the party to the 
 grand audience-chamber. Here all the party were pre 
 sented to the prince, and there was a short conversation. 
 The celestial prince is a young man, about twenty, with a 
 clear, expressive face, who speaks English fairly well, but, 
 during the interview, spoke Siamese, through Mr. Ala 
 baster, who acted as interpreter. The prince lamented 
 the weather, which was untimely and severe. However, 
 it would be a blessing to the country and the people, and 
 His Royal Highness added a compliment that was Orien 
 tal in its delicacy, when he said that the blessing of the 
 rain was a blessing which General Grant had brought 
 with him to Siam. The prince then said that this palace 
 was the General s home, and he had been commanded by 
 the king, his brother, to say that anything in the kingdom 
 that would contribute to the happiness, comfort or the 
 honor of General Grant was at his disposal. The prince 
 entered into conversation with Mrs. Grant and the mem 
 bers of the General s party. The General expressed 
 himself delighted with the cordiality of his welcome, and 
 said he had been anxious to see Siam, and he would have 
 regretted his inability to do so. The prince offered his 
 arm to Mrs. Grant, and escorted her and the General to 
 their apartments." 
 
 In the evening Grant dined with the celestial prince in 
 a quiet way, when the lengthy programme, mentioned 
 above, was submitted to him, that he might know before 
 hand all the honors that awaited him, and prepare himself 
 
364 T R ATE LS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 accordingly. The list was a most formidable one, and 
 Grant, on the plea that he was not on his own ship, and 
 hence could not command his own time, said that he must 
 return to Singapore by the mail steamer, which sailed on 
 Friday, thus giving only five days in Siam, and so some 
 dinners were dispensed with and two or three days sight 
 seeing crowded into one. The truth was, that he had got 
 enough of Siam before he landed, and after the magnifi 
 cent ovation he had received in England and on the Con 
 tinent, the ostentatious display of this king of a potato- 
 patch was irksome. Besides, it rained incessantly, so 
 that the water streamed into the court-yard and beat into 
 the windows of the palace set apart for his occupancy. 
 
 A visit was made to the regent, the conveyance being 
 a gondola, furnished after the Venitian fashion, which, 
 after passing up one canal after another at this time 
 empty of all trading craft, by order of the king at 
 length reached the palace, where the old regent, covered 
 with decorations, was waiting to receive him. He ad 
 vanced, shook hands with the General, and, taking his 
 hand, led him up-stairs to the audience-room of the 
 palace. A guard of honor presented arms, the band 
 played the "Star Spangled Banner," which was the first 
 time they had heard that air in the East, all the other 
 bands they had encountered laboring under the delusion 
 that our national air was " Hail Columbia." As the 
 General does not know the one tune from the other it 
 never made much difference so far as he was concerned. 
 The regent led the party into his audience-hall, and 
 placed General Grant on his right side while the rest 
 were all ranged about him on chairs. An audience with 
 an Eastern prince is a serious and a solemn matter. " It 
 reminded me somewhat of the Friends meetings I used 
 to attend in Philadelphia years and years ago," says Mr. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 365 
 
 Young, "when the brethren were in meditation and wait 
 ing for the influence of the Holy Spirit." The Siamese 
 is a grave person. He shows you honor by speaking 
 slowly, saying little and making pauses between his 
 speeches. He eschews rapid and flippant speech, and a 
 gay, easy talker would give offense. I need not say that 
 this custom placed the General in an advantageous posi 
 tion. After you take your seat servants begin to float 
 around. They bring you tea in small china cups tea of 
 a delicate and pure flavor, and unlike our own attempts 
 in that direction. They bring you cigars, and in the 
 tobacco way we noted a cigarette with a leaf made out of 
 the banana plant, which felt like velvet between the lips, 
 and is an improvement in the tobacco way which even the 
 ripe culture of America on the tobacco question could 
 with advantage accept. In Siam you can smoke in every 
 place and before every presence, except in the presence 
 of the king another custom which, I need hardly add, 
 gave the General an advantage.- The regent, after some 
 meditation, spoke of the great pleasure it had given him 
 to meet General Grant in Siam. He had long known 
 and valued the friendship of the United States, and he 
 was sensible of the good that had been done to Siam by 
 the counsel and the enterprise of the Americans who had 
 lived there. 
 
 The General thanked the regent, and was glad to know 
 that his country was so much esteemed in the East. 
 There was a pause and a cup of the enticing tea and 
 some remarks on the weather. The General expressed 
 a desire to know whether the unusual rain would affect 
 the crops throughout the country. The regent said 
 there was no such apprehension, and there was another 
 pause, while the velvet-coated cigarettes and cigars passed 
 into general circulation. The General spoke of the 
 
3 66 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 value to Siam of closer relations with nations of the 
 outer world, and that from all their resources any e^xten- 
 sion of relations with other nations would be a gain to 
 them. His Highness listened to this speech as Mr. 
 Chandler translated it in a slow, deliberate way, standing 
 in front of the regent and intoning it almost as though 
 it were a lesson from the morning service. Then there 
 was another pause, and some of us took more comfort 
 out of the tea. Then the regent responded : " Siam," 
 he said, "was a peculiar country. It was away from 
 sympathy and communion with the greater nations. It 
 was not in one of the great highways of commerce. Its 
 people were not warlike nor aggressive. It had no desire 
 to share in the strifes and wars of other nations. It ex 
 isted by the friendship of the great powers. His policy 
 had always been to cultivate that friendship, to do nothing 
 to offend any foreign power, to avoid controversy or 
 pretext for intervention by making every concession." 
 
 He added that this course was not the result of timidity 
 but policy, and Siam was not so advanced, he said, as 
 some nations, but she had her own ideas, etc. 
 
 This was all very stately and dignified, and it is pleas 
 ant to know that Siam wanted to be on friendly terms 
 with us, and not mix herself up in our affairs, yet there 
 was something farcical about it, since Siam might declare 
 war against us and we hardly know it. 
 
 The interview with the second king was a mere repe 
 tition of this. Last of all came the audience with the 
 real king. 
 
 " His Majesty the first king of Siam and absolute sov 
 ereign is named Chulahlongkorn. This, at least, is the 
 name which he attaches to the royal signet. His name 
 as given in the books is Phrabat Somdetch Phra Para- 
 mendo Mahah Chulah-long-korn Klow. On the after- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 noon of April i4th, at three o clock, General Grant and 
 party had their audience with the real king of Siam. The 
 General and party went in state carriages and at the 
 door of the palace was met by an officer. Troops were 
 drawn up all the way from the gate to the door of the 
 audience-hall, and it was quite a walk before, having 
 passed temples, shrines, outhouses, pavilions and statelier 
 mansions, they came to the door of a modest building and 
 were met by aids of the king. A wide pair of marble 
 steps led to the audience-room and on each side of the 
 steps were pots with blooming flowers and rare shrubs. 
 The band in the court-yard played the national air, and 
 as the General came to the head of the stairs the king, 
 who was waiting and wore a magnificent jeweled decora 
 tion, advanced and shook the hands of the General in the 
 warmest manner. Then, shaking hands with Mrs. Grant, 
 he offered her his arm, and walked into the audience-hall. 
 The audience-hall is composed of two large, gorgeously- 
 decorated saloons, that would not be out of place in any 
 palace. The decorations were French, and reminded you 
 of the Louvre. In the first hall was a series of busts of 
 contemporary sovereigns and rulers of States. The place 
 of honor was given to the bust of General Grant, a work 
 of art in dark bronze which did not look much like the 
 General, and seems to have been made by a French or 
 English artist from photographs. From here the king 
 passed on to a smaller room beautifully furnished in yel 
 low satin. Here the king took a scat on a sofa, with 
 Mrs. Grant and the General on either side, the members 
 of the party on chairs near him, officers of the Court in 
 the background standing, and servants at the doors kneel 
 ing in attitudes of submission. 
 
 "The king is a spare young man, active and nervous in 
 his movements, with a fuH, clear, almost glittering black 
 
->68 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 o 
 
 eye, which moved about restlessly from one side to the 
 other, and while he talked his fingers seemed to be keep 
 ing unconscious time to the musical measures. When 
 any of his Court approached him or were addressed by 
 him they responded by a gesture or salute of adoration. 
 Everything about the king betokened a high and quick 
 intelligence, and although the audience was a formal one 
 and the conversation did not go beyond words of courtesy 
 and welcome from the king to the General and his party, 
 he gave one the impression of a resolute and able man, full 
 of resources and quite equal to the cares of his station." 
 
 The audience at an end, the king led Mrs. Grant and the 
 General to the head of the stairs, and they took their leave. 
 
 "You are told that Bangkok is the Venice of the East, 
 which means that it is a city of canals. When the tides 
 are high you go in all directions in boats. Your Broad 
 way is a canal. You go shopping in a boat. You 
 stroll in your covered gondola lying prone on your 
 back, sheltered from the sun, dozing the fierce, warm 
 hours away, while your boatmen and other boatmen pass 
 ing and repassing shout their plaintive * Wah-wah. You 
 see the house of the Foreign Minister, a palace with a 
 terrace, a veranda and a covered way sloping toward the 
 river. You see a mass of towers and roofs surrounded 
 by a wall. This is the palace of the first king, the 
 supreme king, of Siam. Beyond is another mass of 
 towers and roofs where resides the second king. Happy 
 Siam has two sovereigns a first king who does every 
 thing, whose power is absolute, and a second king who 
 does nothing except draw a large income. This second 
 king, oddly enough, is named George Washington, hav 
 ing been so named by his father, who admired Americans. 
 Finally they come to the royal landing and we note that 
 die banks are lined with soldiers." 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 The father did not name his son after our illustrious 
 Washington thoughtlessly or ignorantly, as a savage 
 might do who had simply heard the name, for he was 
 not only an intelligent but educated man. An American 
 visited Siam during the administration of Buchanan, when 
 this George Washington was a young prince, and was 
 accompanied by him in his presentation to the father, and 
 says he was received with courtly politeness. 
 
 "He spoke good English," he says, "and spoke it 
 fluently, and knew how, with gentlemanly tact, to put his 
 visitor straightway at his ease. It was hard to believe," 
 he says, "that I was in a remote and almost unknown cor 
 ner of the Old World, and not in the New. The conver 
 sation was such as might take place between two gentle 
 men in a New York parlor. On every side were evidences 
 of an intelligent and cultivated taste. The room in which 
 we sat was decorated with engravings, maps, busts, 
 statuettes. The book-cases were filled with well-selected 
 volumes, handsomely bound. There were, I remember, 
 various encyclopaedias and scientific works. There was 
 the Abbottsford edition of the Waverly Novels, and a bust 
 of the great Sir Walter overhead. There were two copies 
 of Webster s quarto dictionary, unabridged. Moreover, 
 the king called my particular attention to these two 
 volumes, and said : I like it very much ; I think it the 
 best dictionary, better than any English. He had his 
 army, distinct from the first king s soldiers, disciplined 
 and drilled according to European tactics. Their orders 
 were given in English, and were obeyed with great 
 alacrity." 
 
 "Captain Foote commanded our national vessel, then 
 visiting the port, and he became very much attached to 
 him, and when he heard of his promotion to admiral, 
 wrote him a long, friendly letter, and though we were 
 
3/o 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ignorant of the character and people of Siam, he was 
 
 thoroughly posted with regard to ours." 
 
 The king had thought 
 much of this visit of 
 General Grant, and the 
 mostcareful preparations 
 were made to receive 
 him. In order that these 
 should be complete and 
 carried out in all their 
 details, he had a long pro 
 gramme printed and 
 given to the appropriate 
 officers for their guid 
 ance. 
 
 When General Grant 
 inquired about the indus 
 trial resources of Siam, 
 and spoke of the system 
 of education in our coun 
 try, and suggested that it 
 would be a good plan to 
 send some of his young 
 men to America, as other 
 nations had done, to be 
 educated, the king re 
 plied that he had intend 
 ed to do so, but circum 
 stances had prevented, 
 etc., etc. 
 
 The next morning the 
 REIGNING FIRST KINK. king gave a State dinner. 
 
 The service was silver, the prevailing designs of it 
 
 being the three-headed elephant, which belongs to the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 371 
 
 arms of Siam. It cost $50,000 in England. After sitting 
 three hours at the table, there came a pause, and then 
 a signal. The king 
 then arose and made 
 an address in Siamese, 
 that was afterward in 
 terpreted, in which he 
 expressed his pleasure 
 at seeing General 
 Grant, and passing a 
 high compliment on 
 him, proposed his 
 health. Grant, in re 
 ply, said, in a clear, 
 distinct voice : 
 
 " Your Majesty, La 
 dies and Gentlemen: 
 I am very much 
 obliged to Your Ma 
 jesty for the kind and 
 complimentary man 
 ner in which you have 
 welcomed me to Siam. 
 I am glad that it has 
 been my good fortune 
 to visit this country 
 and to thank Your 
 Majesty in person for 
 your letters inviting 
 me to Siam, and to 
 see with my own eyes 
 your country and your 
 
 people. I feel that it A SON OF THE F1RST 
 
 would have been a misfortune if the programme of my jour- 
 
372 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ney had not inciuchd Siam. I have now been absent from 
 home nearly two years, and during that time I have seen 
 every capital and nearly every large city in Europe, as well 
 as the principal cities in India, Burmah and the Malay Penin 
 sula. I have seen nothing that has interested me more than 
 Siam, and every hour of my visit here has been agree 
 able and instructive. For the welcome I have received 
 from Your Majesty, the princes and members of the 
 Siamese government, and the people generally, I am very 
 grateful. I accept it, not as personal to myself alone, but 
 as a mark of the friendship felt for my country by Your 
 Majesty and the people of Siam. I am glad to see that 
 feeling, because I believe that the best interests of the 
 two countries can be benefited by nothing so much as 
 the establishment of the most cordial relations between 
 them. On my return to America I shall do what I can 
 to cement those relations. I hope that in America we shall 
 see more of the Siamese, that we shall have embassies 
 and diplomatic relations, that our commerce and manu 
 factures will increase with Siam, and that your young 
 men will visit our country and attend our colleges as they 
 now go to colleges in Germany and England. I can 
 assure them all a kind reception, and I feel that the visits 
 would be interesting and advantageous. I again thank 
 Your Majesty for the splendid hospitality which has been 
 shown to myself and my party, and I trust that your 
 reign will be happy and prosperous, and that Siam will 
 continue to advance in the arts of civilization." 
 
 General Grant, after a pause, then rose and said: "I 
 hope you will allow me to ask you to drink to the health 
 of His Majesty the King of Siam. I am honored by 
 the opportunity of proposing that toast in his own capi 
 tal and his own palace, and of saying how much I have 
 been impressed with his enlightened rule. I now ask 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 373 
 
 you to drink the health of His Majesty, the king, and 
 prosperity and peace to the people of Siam." 
 
 This toast was drunk with cheers, the company rising 
 and the band playing the national air of Siam. The king 
 then led the way to the upper audience chamber, the 
 saloon of the statues. Here ensued a long conversation 
 between the king and the General and the various mem 
 bers of the party. Mrs. Grant, in the inner room, had a 
 conversation with the queen, who had not been at table. 
 In conversing with the General the king became warm 
 and almost affectionate. He was proud of having made 
 the acquaintance of the General and he wanted to 
 know more of the American people. He wished Amer 
 icans to know that he was a friend of their country. As 
 to the General himself, the king hoped when the General 
 returned to the United States that he would write the 
 king and allow the king to write to him, and always be 
 his friend and correspondent. The General said he 
 would always remember his visit to Siam ; that it would 
 afford, him pleasure to know that he was the friend of 
 the king; that he would write to the king and always be 
 glad to hear from him, and if he ever could be of service 
 to the king it would be a pleasure. 
 
 An American gentleman visited Siam just previous to 
 Grant, and gives in a letter a very interesting account 
 of what he saw. He says: 
 
 "The government of Siam is a monarchy and the king 
 is called the Sacred Lord of Heads, possessor of 
 all, and all property, as well as life, is at the will of 
 the king ; but kings have found that it is not quite safe 
 to be altogether arbitrary, and within a few years im 
 portant concessions have been made, and now all im 
 portant laws are submitted to a council of the first- 
 class, known as a phraya. 
 
374 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 "The government is quite unique in many respects. 
 There is a second king 1 , who has a separate palace, 
 seraglio, officers, retainers, as well as soldiers, very 
 little inferior to the establishment of the first king. 
 The second king does not seem to take any part in 
 the government, but acts as a counselor only, and is 
 in no sense a co-ruler, and never becomes the successor. 
 His opinion and sanction are sought in all important 
 questions of state .policy. 
 
 "The queen must be a native, and of royal blood. She 
 is supreme among hundreds of others. She has her own 
 court, in which the princesses appear. She has a great 
 number of female guards, who are in uniform and wear 
 arms. Her court is composed of about five thousand, 
 and by royal authority entirely subject to her control. 
 The queen never becomes regent, or takes any part 
 in the political affairs of the country, but she is treated 
 with the highest deference, and her opinion frequently 
 has great weight. 
 
 "There are. more than a hundred temples in the city, 
 some of which are small and plain, but some are grand 
 almost beyond description. They are ornamented with 
 statues and gilded in the richest manner. The floor 
 of the principal one is covered with mats of silver, and 
 contains relics that are considered of fabulous worth 
 and are worshiped by thousands. One temple con 
 tains a jasper statue of Buddha ; one contains an im 
 mense statue and ancient idol, 167 feet high, in the 
 human form. The toes of this idol are three feet long, 
 and the whole idol is covered with gold. This great 
 idol has a magnificent temple erected and maintained 
 expressly for it. It is a place where millions have 
 bowed down and worshiped, and where multitudes 
 still worship. In all these temples there are daily 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 offerings of incense, with thousands prostrated, offer 
 ing prayer. It is a vast expenditure of time and means, 
 but these people in their ignorance regard these offer 
 ings as Very meritorious. They feel the need of cleans 
 ing, and display a zeal and sacrifice to accomplish 
 their end that Christians would do well to imitate in 
 extending the truth. 
 
 "These people not only worship idols and gods, but 
 they worship animals, especially elephants. The white 
 elephant is the emblem of the kingdom of Sia m and it is 
 the special object of worship. The famous white ele 
 phant that has been worshiped for more than one hun 
 dred years, recently died in the great temple in this city. 
 The elephant had a splendid palace, with a gold vessel 
 from which he took his meals, and a harness ornamented 
 with jewels and diamonds. At the funeral of this ele 
 phant over one hundred Buddhist priests officiated at the 
 ceremony. The three live white elephants led the way. 
 Thirty vessels were employed in the ceremony, and the 
 king, with his high nobles, received the mortal remains 
 of the dead elephant. The 60,000 floating houses were 
 adorned with flags, symbolical of the interesting scenes. 
 It was a grand display over a dead idol." 
 
 Grant s short stay in Siam and so much of the brief 
 period he remained there, being necessarily devoted to 
 public receptions and fetes, he could see little of the 
 people, or learn much of their peculiar customs. This 
 small kingdom has had formerly but little intercourse 
 with the outside world, and but little has been known 
 of it till recently. Its history has been nevertheless 
 an eventful one, and the rebellions, and revolutions, and 
 changes of dynasties in it have been accompanied by 
 some of the greatest atrocities and the most inhuman 
 cruelty that disgrace humanity. Its wars have been 
 
376 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 confined to a small territory, but have been none the 
 less barbarous. 
 
 Its history may be divided into Old and New Siam, the 
 latter, dating* from the introduction of eastern civilization, 
 may be fixed in a general way at 1854. Great changes 
 have been wrought since then, and among the causes 
 that have produced them, may be placed not least the 
 influence of Christian missionaries. It is true that the 
 new, commenced, commercially, from the treaties made 
 at this date between Siam on the one side and Great 
 Britain and the United States on the other. But after 
 all, the change must, in the main, be attributed to that 
 great movement which unlocked the whole Oriental 
 world, and made China and Japan like newly-dis 
 covered countries to the civilized world. Siam, like 
 these two countries had, till then, been never explored, 
 but since that time travelers have visited almost every 
 portion of it. As we said, Grant s short visit allowed 
 him to see very little except the life of royal and dis 
 tinguished personages, which is as different from that of 
 the mass of the people as if they were types of different 
 civilizations. Till recently, the dress of the people was 
 simply a piece of linen tied around the middle of the 
 body, and there was no traveling in Bangkok except 
 by water. Now, carriages have been introduced, yet, 
 outside of the palaces, the customs and habits are those 
 of a semi-barbarous people. Still there is a charm about 
 Siam which every traveler feels. 
 
 Says one: "There is enough to see in Siam, if only it 
 could be described. But nothing is harder than to con 
 vey in words the indescribable charm of tropical life and 
 scenery ; and it was in this, in great measure, that the 
 enjoyment of my month in Bangkok consisted. Always, 
 behind the events which occupied us day by day, and 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 behind the men and things with which we had to do, was 
 the pervading- charm of tropical nature of soft warm sky, 
 with floating fleecy clouds, and infinite depths of blue 
 beyond them ; of golden sunlight flooding everything by 
 day ; and when the day dies its sudden death, of mellow 
 moonlight, as if from a perennial harvest moon ; and of 
 stars, that do not glitter with a hard and pointed radiance, 
 as here, but melt through the mild air with glory in which 
 there is never any thought of twinkling. Always there 
 was the teeming life of land and sea, of jungle and of 
 river ; and the varying influence of fruitful nature, capti 
 vating every sense with sweet allurement." 
 
 Speaking of the wonderful pagoda, some two hundred 
 feet high, he says that every inch of its irregular surface 
 glitters with ornaments. Curiously wrought into it are 
 forms of men, and birds, and grotesque beasts, that seem, 
 with outstretched hands and claws, to hold it up. Two- 
 thirds of the way from the base stand four white elephants, 
 wrought in shining porcelain, facing one each way toward 
 four points of the compass. From the rounded summit 
 rises, like a needle, a sharp spire. This was the temple 
 tower, and all over the magnificent pile, from the tip of 
 the highest needle to the base, from every prominent 
 angle and projection, there were hanging sweet-toned 
 bells, with little gilded fans attached to their tongues ; so 
 swinging that they were vocal in the slightest breeze. 
 Here was where the music came from. Even as I stood 
 and looked, I caught the breezes at it. Coming from the 
 unseen distance, rippling the smooth surface of the swift 
 river, where busy oars and carved or gilded prows of 
 many boats were flashing in the sun, sweeping with 
 pleasant whispers through the varied richness of the 
 tropical foliage, stealing the perfume of its blossoms and 
 the odor of its fruits, they caught the shining bells of this 
 
378 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 great tower, and tossed the music out of them. Was it 
 some dream of Oriental beauty that would presently 
 vanish ? 
 
 But the exterior was nothing 1 to the interior, on which 
 untold wealth was lavished. There are long corridors 
 of marble shafts, white walls, with gilded eaves and 
 cornices, arched, lined with gold, doors of ebony, pearly 
 gates of iridescent beauty. It is true, you will find also 
 a great clumsy image, without form or proportion, but 
 the decorations are the finest specimens of art, of which 
 the Western world might be proucl. 
 
 " Of course/ says a traveler, " where so much wealth 
 is lavished on the public buildings, there must be great 
 resources to draw from ; and, indeed, the mineral wealth 
 of the country appears at almost every turn. Precious 
 stones and the precious metals seem as frequent as the 
 fire-flies in the jungle. Sometimes, as in the silver cur 
 rency, there is an absence of all workmanship ; the coin 
 age being little lumps of silver, rudely rolled together in 
 a mass and stamped. But sometimes, as in the teapots, 
 betel-nut boxes, cigar-holders, with which the noblemen 
 are provided when they go abroad, you will see work 
 manship of no mean skill. Often these vessels are 
 elegantly wrought. Sometimes they are studded with 
 jewels; sometimes they are beautifully enameled in 
 divers colors. Once I called upon a noble, who brought 
 out a large assortment of uncut stones some of them of 
 great value and passed them to me as one would a 
 snuff-box, not content till I had helped myself. More 
 than once I have seen children of the nobles with no 
 covering at all, except the strings of jeweled gold that 
 hung, in barbarous opulence, upon their necks and shoul 
 ders ; but there was wealth enough in these to fit the 
 little fellows with a very large assortment of most fash- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 379 
 
 
 THE GREAT TOWER. 
 
380 TRAVELS OF GEXERAL GRANT. 
 
 ionable and Christian apparel, even at the ruinous rate of 
 tailors prices at the present day. To go about among 
 these urchins, and among the houses of the nobles and 
 the king s palaces, gives one the half-bewildered and 
 half-covetous feeling that it gives to be conducted by 
 polite but scrutinizing attendants through a mint. Surely, 
 we had come at last to 
 
 " Where the gorgeous East, with richest hand, 
 Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold. 
 
 " Of course, of all this wealth the king s share was the 
 lion s share. 
 
 "Then, as for vegetable wealth, I do not know that 
 there is anywhere a richer valley in the world than the 
 valley of the Meinam. All the productions of the teem 
 ing 1 tropics may grow luxuriantly here. There was rice 
 enough in Siam, the year before my visit, to feed the 
 native population, and to supply the failure of the rice 
 crop in southern China, preventing thus the havoc of a 
 famine in that crowded empire, and making fortunes for 
 the merchants who were prompt enough to carry it from 
 Bangkok to Canton. Cotton grows freely beneath that 
 burning sky. Sugar, pepper, and all spices may be had 
 with easy cultivation. There is gutta-percha in the 
 forests. There are dye-stuffs and medicines in the jun 
 gles. The painter gets his gamboge, as its name implies, 
 from Cambodia, which is tributary to their majesties of 
 Bangkok. As for the fruits, I cannot number them nor 
 describe them. The mangostene, most delicate and most 
 rare of them all, grows only in Siam, and in the lands 
 adjacent to the Straits of Sunda and Malacca. Some 
 things we may have which Siam cannot have, but the 
 mangostene is her peculiar glory, and she will not 
 lend it." 
 
 The people though not free from the bias of a half- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 savage people, are in the main, kind and inoffensive 
 parents are very fond of their children and indulgent to 
 them. Nature is so bountiful, that it requires but little 
 labor to furnish the necessaries of life, while their scanty 
 clothing costs them comparatively nothing, and hence 
 they are naturally indolent. 
 
 They are neither industrious or economical, but are free 
 from the treacherous, murderous character of their neigh 
 bors the Malays. They are not destitute of acuteness 
 and wit, as their national proverbs show. Take for ex 
 ample the following : 
 
 " When you go into a wood, do not forget your wood- 
 knife. 
 
 "An elephant though he has four legs may slip ; and a 
 doctor is not always right. 
 
 "Go up by land, you meet a tiger; go down by water, 
 you meet a crocodile. 
 
 "If a dog bite you, clo not bite him again." 
 
 Between the luxury and splendor of the king s court 
 and the poverty of the common people, there is of course 
 the greatest and most painful contrast. The palaces of 
 the first and second kings are filled with whatever the 
 wealth and power of their owners can procure. The 
 hovels of the common peasants are bare and comfortless, 
 the furniture consisting only of a few coarse vessels of 
 earthenware or wicker-work, and a mat or two spread 
 upon the floor. 
 
 Peculiar ceremonies attend child-birth, marriages and 
 deaths. There is one custom pertaining to the former 
 that is strangley persisted in, though often attended with 
 fatal results. As soon as a child is born, the mother is 
 placed near a large fire to which she is exposed for weeks, 
 almost literally roasted, and all the while suffering in 
 tensely. Marriages take place early, so that there is 
 
3 82 
 
 TRATELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 sometimes five generations gathered around the head 01 
 a family. A traveler inquiring of the first king how 
 many children he had, replied : " I had twelve before I 
 entered the priesthood, and eleven since I came to the 
 throne." 
 
 When a person dies, the whole family the moment th* 
 breath leaves die body, break out into piercing shrieks 
 and lamentations, while they fling themselves at the feet 
 
 A FEW 
 
 THE SONS OF TIIK LATE FIRST KING. 
 
 of the dead and kiss them, and utter tender reproaches 
 against themselves. The body is placed in a coffin cov 
 ered with gilded paper. After a day or two, the coffin is 
 removed, not through the door, but through an open 
 ing specially made in the wall, and is escorted thrice 
 round the house at full speed, in order that the dead, 
 forgetting the way through which he has passed, may not 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 return to molest the living. The coffin is then taken to a 
 large barge, and placed on a platform, surmounted by a 
 dais, to the sound of melancholy music. The relations 
 and friends, in small boats, accompany the barge to the 
 temple where the body is to be burnt. Being arrived, the 
 coffin is opened and delivered to the officials charged with 
 the cremation the corpse having in his mouth a silver 
 tical, less than seventy-five cents, to defray the expenses. 
 The face of the corpse is then washed with cocoanut milk. 
 It is then placed on the pile and the fire is kindled. 
 When the combustion is over, the principal bones are 
 collected by the relatives and placed in an urn. The 
 garb of mourning is white, and is accompanied by the 
 shaving of the head. When a member of the royal family 
 dies, the funeral ceremonies are of a national character. 
 Those at the cremation of the first king, a few years ago, 
 are thus described by Sir John Browning. 
 
 "The building of the men or temple, in which the 
 burning was to take place, occupied four months ; during 
 the whole of which time between three and four hundred 
 men were constantly engaged. The whole of it was 
 executed under the personal superintendence of the 
 Kalahome. . 
 
 " It would be difficult to imagine a more beautiful ob 
 ject than this temple was, when seen from the opposite 
 side of the river. The style of architecture was similar 
 to that of the other temples in Siam ; the roof rising in 
 the centre, and thence running down in a series of gables, 
 terminating in curved points. The roof was covered 
 entirely with scarlet and gold, whilst the lower part of 
 the building was blue, with stars of gold. Below, the 
 temple had four entrances leading directly to the pyre ; 
 upon each side, as you entered, were placed magnificent 
 mirrors, which reflected the whole interior of the building. 
 
334 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 BUILDING FOR 1NCRLMA11UN OF A RuYAL PERSONAGE. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 385 
 
 which was decorated with blue and gold, in the same 
 manner as the exterior. From the roof depended im 
 mense chandeliers, which at night increased the effect 
 beyond description. Sixteen large columns, running 
 from north to south, supported the roof. The entire 
 height of the building must have been 1 20 feet, its length 
 about fifty feet, and breadth forty feet. In the centre 
 was a raised platform, about seven feet high, which was 
 the place upon which the urn containing the body was to 
 be placed ; upon each side of this were stairs covered 
 with scarlet and gold cloth. 
 
 " This building stood in the centre of a piece of ground 
 of about two acres extent, the whole of which ground was 
 covered over with close rattan-work, in order that visitors 
 might not wet their feet, the ground being very muddy. 
 
 " This ground was inclosed by a wall, along the inside 
 of which myriads of lamps were disposed, rendering the 
 night as light as the day. The whole of the grounds be 
 longing to the adjoining temple contained nothing but 
 tents, under which Siamese plays were performed by 
 dancing-girls during the day ; during the night transpa 
 rencies were in vogue. Along the bank of the river, 
 Chinese and Siamese plays (performed by men) were in 
 great force ; and, to judge by the frequent cheering of 
 the populace, no small talent was shown by the per 
 formers, which talent in Siam consists entirely in ob 
 scenity and vulgarity. 
 
 " All approaches were blocked up long before daylight 
 each morning by hundreds nay, thousands of boats of 
 every description in Siam, sampans, mapet, ma k eng, ma 
 guen, etc., etc.; these were filled with presents of white 
 cloth, no other presents being accepted or offered during 
 a funeral. How many ship-loads of fine shirting were 
 presented during those few days it is impossible to say." 
 39. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Imposing ceremonies attended placing the urn in the 
 building, where it remained for two days. The exterior 
 covering of this was of the finest gold, elegantly carved and 
 studded with innumerable diamonds, and was about five 
 feet high and two feet in diameter. On the day of burn 
 ing, this exterior covering is taken off, disclosing a brass 
 urn containing the body which rested on cross-bars at the 
 bottom. Beneath were all kinds of odoriferous gums. 
 
 "The first king having distributed yellow cloths to an 
 indefinite quantity of priests, ascended the steps which 
 led to the pyre, holding in his hand a lighted candle, and 
 set fire to the inflammable materials beneath the body. 
 After him came the second king, who placed a bundle of 
 candles in the flames ; then followed the priests, then the 
 princes, and lastly, the relations and friends of the de 
 ceased. The flames rose constantly above the vase, but 
 there was no unpleasant smell. 
 
 "His Majesty, after all had thrown in their candles, 
 returned to his seat, where he distributed to the Euro- 
 peans a certain number of limes, each containing a gold 
 ring or a small piece of money; then he commenced 
 scrambling the limes, and seemed to take particular 
 pleasure in just throwing them between the princes and 
 the missionaries, in order that they might meet together 
 in the tug of war. 
 
 " The next day, the bones were taken out and dis 
 tributed amongst his relations ; and this closed the cere 
 monies. During the whole time, the river each night 
 was covered with fireworks; and in Siam the pyrotechnic 
 art is far from being despicable." 
 
 There is much to interest the traveler in this small^ 
 isolated kingdom, which has been thrown open to mis 
 sionaries. The history of missionary enterprise in this 
 country must be studied in order to get a proper concep- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 387 
 
 tion of its present condition. It is true, very few of the 
 Siamese have been converted the converts being most 
 of them Chinese. It is a little singular, that while reli 
 gion has made slow progress, it has done wonders in 
 advancing the civilization of the people, especially that of 
 the nobles. 
 
 Says an observant traveler: "There can be little 
 doubt with those who take a truly philosophical view of 
 the future of Siam, and still less with those who take a 
 religious view of it, that this advancement in civilization 
 must open the way for religious enlightenment as well. 
 Thus far there has come only the knowledge which 
 puffeth up. And how much it puffeth up, is evident 
 from the pedantic documents which used to issue from 
 the facile pen of his majesty, the late first king. A little 
 more slowly, but none the less surely, there must come 
 as well that Christian charity which * buildeth up. So, 
 every time the spicy breezes/ sweeping across the busy 
 river, wake the music of the innumerable pagoda bells, 
 they ring prophetic of the better day. Wiser and broader 
 views of missionary labor will, no doubt, prevail in time, 
 and increasing experience will suggest more practical and 
 efficient methods. But the faith and patience of the 
 zealous men and women who have labored now for forty 
 years in the name and in the spirit of Christ, has not been 
 and shall not be in vain. Those golden bells, swinging 
 over the high roofs of splendid temples, and of stately 
 palaces, over palm and banyan, and shining river and 
 crowded city, shall more and more 
 
 Ring out the darkness of the land 
 Ring in the Christ that is to be. 
 
 Even if the work of the missionaries should cease to-day, 
 the results accomplished would be of immense and per- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 manent value. They have introduced Christian science. 
 They have made a beginning of Christian literature, by 
 the translation of the Scriptures. They have awakened 
 an insatiable appetite for Christian civilization. And the 
 end is not yet." 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 339 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 RECEPTION AT PENANG GRANT S VIEWS OF CHINESE EMIGRATION STARTS FOR CAN 
 TON ARRIVAL AT CANTON VISIT TO THE VICEROY A CHINESE PROCLAMATION 
 THE AMERICAN KING IS CARRIED IN A GREEN CHAIR TO THE PRINCE REGENT S 
 THE PROCESSION AND THE CROWD ITS STRIKING APPEARANCE OPINIONS OF THE 
 AMERICAN BARBARIANS THE RECEPTION THE DEPARTURE CURIOUS NAMES OF 
 THE STREETS A LUNCH WITH THE MISSIONARIES A STATE DINNER AT THE VICE 
 ROY S MACAO GROTTO OF CAMOENS RETURN TO HONG KONG SWATOW A 
 CURIOUS PRESENT AMOY RECEPTION THERE INTERVIEW WITH THE BRITISH 
 MINISTER TO PEKING RECEPTION ON BOARD AN AMERICAN VESSEL LETTERS 
 FROM THE KING OF SIAM THE VICEROY AND KING OF THE SANDWICH ISLANDS 
 RECEPTION IN SHANGHAI TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION TRAVELING IN WHEELBAR 
 ROWS TIENSTEIN UP THE RIVER TO PEKING HONG CHOW GRANT CARRIED TO 
 
 PEKING IN AN IMPERIAL CHAIR ENTRANCE TO PEKING CARD OF THE FRINGE 
 
 REGENT. 
 
 AFTER Grant s return to Singapore he prepared 
 at once to prosecute his journey to China. He 
 was aware that the Chinese question in America 
 would be pressed on him, for he had a premonition of it 
 at Penang, as he came down the Straits of Molacca. 
 Stopping at this place for a day and a half a reception 
 was given him in the Town Hall with the usual address 
 and reply. At the close a deputation of Chinese mer 
 chants waited on him with another address, beautifully 
 illuminated on silk, in which, after complimenting him, 
 they referred to the laws passed against the Chinese by 
 Congress, and expressed the hope that he would use his 
 influence to have them abrogated. Grant in reply, said 
 that he knew nothing about the bill referred to, as it had 
 been passed since he left the United States. He would 
 not discuss the question then of Chinese emigration but 
 
390 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 said the Chinese did not come to the United States as 
 the people of other nations of their own free will, to 
 enjoy the benefits and the protection of the American 
 Government, to have the benefit of their industry, and 
 accept the responsibilities as well as the benefits of resi 
 dence in America but as dependants, slaves of com 
 panies who brought them as merchandise, held them in 
 practical bondage and enjoyed the fruits of their labor. 
 As a consequence the Chinamen in America was not a 
 member of our society, on the same footing with other races, 
 entitled to all the benefits of our laws, with chances for 
 improvement and prosperity, but the slave of a company. 
 He felt sure that the Chinese gentlemen who had hon 
 ored him with this address and who represented the 
 flourishing Chinese community of Penang would agree 
 with him that emigration to the United States under 
 those circumstances was not an advantage to us, and 
 was a wrong to the people who came under such degrad 
 ing conditions. 
 
 He took the steamer "Ashuelot" for Canton, which 
 lies on the Pearl River, some ninety miles from Hong 
 Kong, its real port at the mouth. 
 
 As they approached the Bogne forts, guarding the nar 
 rowest part of the river, the guns thundered forth their 
 salute, and a boat came alongside with mandarins, who 
 brought cards from the viceroy, the Tartar general com 
 manding the forces, and other officials. A gun-boat met 
 them to escort them to the city, and with the American flag 
 at the fore, followed them all the way, while the forts, which 
 they passed, fired salutes, and the troops in them paraded 
 with gay-colored flags which made the whole route like 
 an ovation. 
 
 It was nine o clock before the lights of Canton were 
 seen in advance. As the ship cast anchor, all the gun- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. ~ j. 
 
 boats in the river burned blue lights and fired rockets, 
 while the landing was decorated with Chinese lanterns. 
 The American and French consuls and others came on 
 board to welcome Grant, and expressed their regret 
 that he had not arrived earlier, as the whole town had 
 been at the landing all the afternoon waiting to greet 
 him, but had now gone home to dinner. The next morn 
 ing salutes were exchanged between our vessel and a 
 Chinese gun-boat, the latter firing twenty-one guns, the 
 first time such a salute had ever been fired, and was in 
 tended as an especial compliment to the great American. 
 
 Grant remained at the consul s next day to receive 
 calls, while Mrs. Grant and others of the party strolled 
 through the streets to examine the shops, filled with 
 the curious wares of the Chinese. As Grant was neither 
 a king nor president, there was some doubt as to whether 
 he or the viceroy should call first. The former solved 
 the difficult question by saying that he would call on the 
 viceroy whenever he would receive him. The latter ap 
 pointed two o clock, and sent word that as it was the cus 
 tom when the emperor visited the city to have all the 
 streets cleared and houses closed and the way lined with 
 soldiers, he would order the same to be done when he 
 passed through it. Grant replied that he preferred to 
 see the people and would be better pleased to have no 
 such order issued. The viceroy, however, issued a 
 placard proclaiming that the American was coming to do 
 him honor, and they must all honor him. These placards, 
 instead of being posted up, were hawked about the 
 streets like newspapers. One, issued before Grant s ar 
 rival, began thus : 
 
 " We have just heard that the king of America, being 
 on friendly terms with China, will leave America early in 
 the third month, bringing with him a suite of officers, etc., 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 all complete on board the ship. It is said that he is 
 bringing 1 a large number of rare presents with him, and 
 that he will be here in Canton about the 6th or Qth of 
 May." 
 
 Then followed an account of the proceedings which would 
 probably take place on his arrival. Crowds gathered in the 
 gardens of the consulate waiting for the procession that 
 was to escort the " American king." All the officers of the 
 American vessel came, of course, in full uniform, blazing 
 in gold, and the Chinese stared first at one and then at 
 die other, to ascertain which was the " king," while the 
 "king" was all the while sitting on the piazza in a gray 
 summer coat and white hat, quietly smoking his cigar 
 entirely overlooked by the gaping crowd, % which could 
 recognize no rank unless by showy and rich trappings. 
 
 As the hour approached, the crowd grew larger and 
 larger and the excitement increased. A Tartar officer 
 arrived on horseback with a detachment of soldiers, who 
 formed under the trees and kept the crowd back. Then 
 came the chairs and the chair-bearers, for in Canton you 
 must ride in chairs and be borne on the shoulders of 
 men. Rank is shown by the color of the chair and the 
 number of attendants. The General s chair was a stately 
 affair. On the top was a silver globe. The color was 
 green, a color highly esteemed in China, and next in rank 
 to yellow, which is sacred and consecrated to the em 
 peror, who alone can ride in a yellow chair. The chair 
 itself is almost as large as an old-fashioned watch-box, 
 and is sheltered with green blinds. It swings on long 
 bamboo poles and is borne by eight men. 
 
 At last they got under way. First rode the Tartar 
 officer on a small gray pony, Then came the shouting 
 guard. Then General Grant in his chair of state. The 
 General wore evening dress, which was a disappointment 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 393 
 
^Q 4 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 to the Chinese, who, now being able to pin him down be 
 cause of the chair in which he rode, expected to see him 
 a blaze of diamonds, and embroidery, and peacock fea 
 thers. The streets were thronged with the people to 
 witness the procession, their number amounting to 
 200,000; not noisy and clamorous, like an American 
 crowd, but silent, motionless and staring. It was three 
 miles to the vice-regal palace, and as the coolies who 
 carried the chair walked slow through the mighty con 
 course, Grant was an hour in reaching it, moving all the 
 way through a sea of sober human faces. It was not 
 only a novel mode of traveling to him, but a strange and 
 novel sight. 
 
 The general impression of this Chinese multitude, of 
 the thousands of faces that passed before him, that 
 steaming afternoon, was of a higher and more intellec 
 tual cast than the same multitude in a European race. 
 There were not the strength, the purpose, the rugged 
 mastering quality which strikes you in a throng of Ger 
 mans or Englishmen, not the buoyant cheerfulness, 
 sometimes rough and noisy, which marks a European 
 crowd. The repose was unnatural. Our mobs have 
 life, animation, and a crowd in Trafalgar Square or Cen 
 tral Park will become picturesque and animated. In 
 Canton the mob mi^ht have been statues as inanimate as 
 
 o 
 
 the gilded ones in their temples. This repose, this si 
 lence, this wondering, inquiring gaze, without a touch of 
 enthusiasm, became almost painful. But there were 
 faces now and then seen that were startling in their 
 beauty. There were no bearded men, and the absence 
 of. this badge of manhood gave the crowd an expression 
 of effeminacy of \veakness. The young men were, as 
 a general thing, handsome, especially those of rank, who 
 were known by their buttons, and who gazed upon the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 O;/ J 
 
 barbarians with a supercilious and contemptuous expres 
 sion, very much as young men of the same class would 
 regard Sitting Bull or Red Cloud from a club window, as 
 the Indian chiefs went in procession along Fifth Avenue. 
 
 They were received with music, and the firing of can 
 non, and the beating of drums, simply because the vice 
 roy was in a gracious mood and deigned to give the bar 
 barian a sight of imperial Chinese splendor. But the 
 booming guns, the increasing crowds, the renewed lines 
 of soldiery; the sons of mandarins, the viceroy s guard, 
 under trees, and the open, shaded inclosure into which 
 the party were borne by the staggering, panting chair- 
 bearers, announce that they are at the palace of the vice 
 roy. The viceroy himself, surrounded by all the great 
 officers of his court, was waiting at the door. As General 
 Grant advanced, accompanied by the consul, the viceroy 
 stepped forward and met him with a gesture of welcome. 
 He wore the mandarin s hat, and the pink button, and 
 flowing robes of silk, the breast and back embroidered a 
 good deal like the sacrificial robes of an archbishop at 
 high mass. 
 
 Having introduced his various officials, he led Grant 
 into another room, where tea was served in small china 
 cups. After conversing with his distinguished guest 
 some fifteen minutes, he led the way into another room 
 opening on a garden filled with soldiers, where tables 
 were spread with sweetmeats, almonds, ginger, cocoanuts 
 and cups of tea and wine. A host of attendants ap 
 peared, who piled the plates with silver and ivory chop 
 sticks, in the place of knives and forks, which were about 
 the size of knitting needles. The viceroy, with his chop 
 sticks helped the General. This is true Chinese hospi 
 tality. Then followed wine, in which each guest was 
 pledged individually. Tea came at last, showing that the 
 
196 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 visit was over, and they arose and left the mandarins 
 with heads bent as if in devotion, and arms extended and 
 entered their chairs, and soon disappeared amid the 
 foliage. It had been a weary, exciting day to Grant, and 
 
 CHINESE SMOKING-ROOM. 
 
 he was glad to be once more back to the consulate and 
 his cigar. 
 
 As he had set apart only four days for this visit, these 
 public ceremonies took up so much of his time that he 
 had but little to devote to sight-seeing, nor was there 
 much to see, except this strange people, with their 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. _ 
 
 397 
 
 strange civilization. The streets are narrow and com 
 mon, but they have high-sounding names the Broadway 
 of Canton, being called "Benevolena;" others are named, 
 "Peace," "Bright Cloud," "Longevity," "Early-bestowed 
 Blessings," "Everlasting Love," "One Hundred Grand 
 sons," "One Thousand Grandsons," "Five Happinesses," 
 "Refreshing Breezes," "Accumulated Blessings," "Nine 
 fold Brightness," etc., etc. All the shops have little 
 shrines near the door dedicated to Tsia Skin, or the God 
 of Wealth, to whom the shopkeepers offer their prayers 
 every day, in which they have many imitators in our own 
 cities. There is no end to the temples and pagodas, but 
 they are not so fine as those of Japan, though there is 
 one of the "Five Hundred Gods," they possess but little 
 attraction. 
 
 The consul gave a lunch to which all the missionaries 
 were invited, and it seemed quite like a home dinner. In 
 the evening, Grant and his party went to dine with the 
 viceroy in state. It proved a wearisome affair, and as 
 the party had no taste for bird s nest soup, fried shark- 
 fins, fishes brains, whales sinews, fishes maws, and all 
 sorts of fungi stewed together; although some of the 
 dishes cost fifteen or twenty dollars apiece, and it was 
 not very appetizing. At the close, the viceroy bade 
 Grant farewell. 
 
 Grant visited Macao on his return, a Portuguese town, 
 having been occupied by them more than three hundred 
 years ago, so that the inhabitants are a mixture of Chinese 
 and Portuguese. It is handsomely situated, and looks 
 from the sea like an Italian city on an Italian bay; but all 
 of interest to Grant here was the "grotto" and tomb of 
 the poet Camoen. The governor was too sick to see 
 him, and he strolled about the town for awhile, looking at 
 the strange people with their strange customs, and then 
 
^o TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 JV^ 
 
 returned to the " Ashuelot," and with a salute from the 
 Portuguese fort, steamed out of the beautiful bay. 
 
 He now returned to Hong Kong, to be present at a 
 garden party, got up in his honor, and which was to be a 
 brilliant affair. But a heavy rain set in, and it had to be 
 given up, as Grant could not wait, on account of other 
 engagements. He therefore spent Sunday quietly with 
 the governor. 
 
 In the morning, before he left, he was waited upon by 
 a Chinese deputation, with an address complimenting 
 him and expressing their gratification at having seen him, 
 to which he replied in a few fitting words. He then, ac 
 companied by the governor and some friends, was carried 
 in a chair to the wharf, where a guard of honor and all 
 the foreign residents awaited him, and who, as he stepped 
 into the launch, sent up loud cheers. The English gov 
 ernor accompanied him on board, who, when he took 
 his leave, was saluted with seventeen guns. The steamer 
 then turned her bow north, and hastened by a monsoon 
 that was blowing, sped rapidly along the coast toward 
 cooler latitudes. 
 
 On the 1 3th, they reached Swatow, another of the 
 ports thrown open to foreigners. It is pleasantly situ 
 ated on the river Flan, and the view on approaching it 
 is beautiful and striking. There is nothing here to see, 
 but Grant landed and strolled an hour through the streets, 
 followed by a dirty, gaping crowd. The Chinese gover 
 nor, however, called on him, and saying it was the custom, 
 in making calls, to bring a present, and as nothing was 
 more useful than food, he had brought a live sheep, six 
 live chickens, six ducks and four hams. Grant could not 
 do otherwise than accept them, but handed them over to 
 the servants, which made a feast for them. 
 
 Steaming out of port to the thunder of cannon, they 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 kept on to Amoy, another of the ports opened to foreign 
 trade. It is situated on an island some forty miles in 
 circumference, on the Dragon River, and has a picturesque 
 appearance as one approaches it. In addition to the 
 salute from the batteries here, came a more welcome one 
 from an American man-of-war in port. Landing, Grant 
 and his party strolled through the dirty streets, and then 
 returned to the vice-consul s to lunch. All the consuls 
 and the commanders of the American vessels were 
 present, together with Sir Thomas Wade, the English 
 minister, on his way to Peking, with whom Grant had a 
 long talk about China. At five o clock he went aboard 
 the American man-of-war " Bangor," to attend a recep 
 tion. The vessel was decorated in the most gay and 
 tasteful manner, in honor of the guest. An hour later 
 he was on board his own vessel, which, as the sun was 
 going over the western hills, steamed down the river. 
 
 In the meantime, Grant s old friend, the king of Siam, 
 had not forgotten him, and he now received a letter from 
 
 o 
 
 him, in which he regretted that he had not been able to 
 
 o 
 
 do more to honor him, but hoped he would not forget 
 him, saying, that he should write him from time to time. 
 Grant replied that everything that could be desired had 
 been done for him, and that the recollection of his visit 
 was very pleasant, and that he should always be glad to 
 hear from him. He received also a letter from Kalakaua, 
 king of the Sandwich Islands, inviting him to make him a 
 visit, on his return across the Pacific Ocean. To this 
 Grant replied that it would give him great pleasure to do 
 so, but that he could not decide till he reached Japan and 
 learnt about the running of the steamers. The viceroy 
 of Canton also wrote him, expressing his gratifica 
 tion at having seen him, and wished him a prosperous 
 journey. 
 
4OO 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 The following paragraph in it, was the most important, 
 especially to Mrs. Grant. 
 
 " I have ventured to send a few trifles to your honored 
 wife, which I hope she will be so kind as to accept." 
 
 ILLUMINATIONS. 
 
 On the 1 7th the vessel steamed into the port of Shang- 
 hia, which is composed of two cities the old, a walled 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 401 
 
 one, in which the Chinese, some one hundred and forty- 
 six thousand in number dwell, and the new one occupied 
 by less than two thousand foreigners. On approaching 
 the forts, the customary salutes were fired, and soon the 
 " Monneacy," an American man-of-war in port, clad in bun 
 ting from stem to stern, steamed alongside, with a commit 
 tee of citizens on board to welcome General Grant. A 
 lunch was served, and then the vessel slowly steamed up 
 toward the city, and when it neared the shipping, the various 
 men-of-war in the harbor had their yards manned, and 
 fired salutes, while the merchantmen, gay with bunting ) 
 sent loud cheers over the water. It was a gay and beau 
 tiful sight, and Grant enjoyed it much, as he stood on the 
 quarter-deck and bowed his thanks. The landing was 
 lined with 100,000 Chinese, not cheering, but quiet and 
 silent as usual. Stepping into the barge of the man-of- 
 war, Grant was rowed to land, amid the thunder of can 
 non, and conducted to a large store-house, decorated for 
 the occasion, and was received by the chairman of the 
 municipal council, accompanied by mandarins of high 
 rank, who presented him to the Chinese governor. The 
 usual complimentary speeches followed, when Grant was 
 escorted to a carriage, which was to convey him to the 
 consul. But the horses, frightened by the crowd, and 
 music, and cheers, and firing of cannon, became restive, 
 and finally refused to go, when they were taken out, and 
 the volunteer guard that had escorted him, seized the 
 carriage and drew it, amid cheers to the consulate s, a 
 mile distant. 
 
 The next day, Sunday, was passed quietly, Grant and 
 his party attending service at the Cathedral. Monday he 
 dined with the consul, and afterward went to the house 
 of Mr. Cameron, of the Hong-Kong and Shanghai bank, 
 to witness the torchlight procession and illumination, got 
 
 40 
 
4 02 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 up in his honor. All Shanghai was out of doors, and it 
 was a display worth seeing, for the Chinese excel in get 
 ting up fire-works, I^and and water, houses and ships, 
 sea and sky, were in a continual blaze of variegated lights, 
 falling on a hundred thousand sober, upturned faces. 
 There were all kinds of fancy pieces, and transparencies, 
 and mottoes, among which was one "Washington, Lin- 
 
 CHINESE PUNISHMENT. 
 
 coin and Grant, three Immortal Americans !" Grant rode 
 along the river front, which was bright as day, to view 
 them, and at ten o clock returned to the house of the 
 consul, and reviewed the torchlight procession, while the 
 bands played American airs, among which were the fa 
 miliar strains of "John Brown" and the "March through 
 Georgia." It was midnight when Grant drove back to 
 
404 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the consulate s, to end one of the most remarkable clays 
 of his Oriental tour. 
 
 Shanghai being one of the ports opened to foreigners, 
 by the treaty of 1842, has since that time sprung into 
 commercial importance. The "bund" or quay stretches 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 405 
 
 for nearly two miles along the river, and- serves not only 
 for commerce, but for a promenade and drive, and on it 
 are the finest buildings of the city. The old city is 
 exceedingly filthy, and no kind of vehicle can be used in 
 its streets, which are scarce seven feet wide. In the new 
 city foreigners are carried about in the customary chair 
 of the East, but the natives travel in wheelbarrows only. 
 The wheel is larger than in our barrows, and hence, runs 
 easier. When there are two passengers of equal weight it 
 is not a bad mode of slow travel, but when one is fat, and 
 the other lean, the pusher has to tip the barrow on one 
 side to keep the balance, which is not so pleasant, and 
 gives an odd look to the whole concern. 
 
 The Chinese population is nearly a million, and during 
 the rebellion, was twice that number. Police stations are 
 situated at intervals, where criminals are undergoing 
 different degrees of punishment some confined in cages 
 are jeered and mocked by the passers-by others wear 
 immense collars, made of two wide boards others still 
 stand with their heads protruding out of the tops of cages, 
 made too high to let them sit down and too low to stand 
 up straight, and so in a half-crouching position they 
 remain days and nights. But the sights of the city are 
 not many and soon exhausted. 
 
 General Grant was now bound for Peking, the great 
 city, not only of China, but of the Eastern World and 
 one which, from its interior location, has felt less the in 
 fluence of foreign innovation in its customs and views, 
 than any other Chinese city of importance. Tien-tsin is 
 its port, near the mouth of the Peiho River, which by the 
 channel is 1 80 miles distant from Peking, though straight 
 across the country, not more than eighty. The river, like 
 the Mississippi, runs through a low country, with muddy 
 banks, and winding in and out, varying in width from 
 
406 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 twenty to one hundred feet, and from ten inches to sixty 
 feet in depth. 
 
 Of course, the "Ashuelot," though especially built for 
 shallow rivers, could not go up such a stream. On horse 
 back was the quickest way to reach Peking, but this was 
 impracticable to Mrs. Grant. The cart, a clumsy vehicle, 
 was the next best way of traveling, and Mr. Holcomb 
 went in one to prepare the legation for General Grant s 
 arrival, but the latter and his party concluded to go by 
 boat. A hundred and eighty miles was a long pull, and 
 involved weary days and nights, but there seemed no 
 other way to see Peking. 
 
 General Grant s boat was what is called a mandarin s 
 boat a large, clumsy contrivance, that looked, as it tow 
 ered over the remainder of the fleet, like Noah s ark. 
 It had been cleaned up and freshened, and was roomy. 
 There was two bedrooms, a small dining-room, and in 
 the stern what seemed to be a Chinese laundry house, 
 three stories high. The other boats were small, plain 
 shells, divided into two rooms and covered over. The 
 rear of the boat was given to the boatmen, the front to 
 the passengers. In this front room was a raised plat 
 form of plain pine boards, wide enough for two to sleep. 
 There was room for a chair and a couple of tables. 
 There was a special cooking-boat for Grant, that kept in 
 the rear, and was pulled up alongside at meal-times. 
 
 He expected to get away at daybreak, and was up and 
 ready to start, but you can no more hurry a Chinaman 
 than you can a Nile boatman, and it was noon before 
 they were off. Pushing their way through a wilderness 
 of junks, the little fleet finally got into clear water, and 
 began slowly to stem the sluggish current. Sometimes, 
 when the wind was fair, they moved by sail, and if the 
 boat run into the mud-bank the boatmen would go 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ashore and push it clear, and if it got aground heave it 
 off; and when the wind died away resort to their ples. 
 By having relays it was arranged, much to the disgust of 
 the boatmen, to travel night and day, but whenever the 
 admiral who had charge of the fleet lay down to take a 
 nap, the boatmen did the same, and the boats came to a 
 stand-still. 
 
 It was a tedious way of traveling, especially as the 
 shores offered little to attract the eye. Through fields of 
 waving wheat, and rice, and green meadows, and orchards^ 
 they moved slowly on with a monotonous sameness, that 
 was extremely irksome to such a rapid traveler as Grant. 
 He would relieve the tedium by now and then going 
 ashore and taking a stretch through the meadows. The 
 shallow river was very winding, and often by striking 
 across a bend he could get ahead of the boat. 
 
 During the day it was not only hot but dusty, while 
 the nights were so cool that they had to keep shut up in 
 their cages. Whenever the admiral waked up before the 
 boatmen did and found the fleet at anchor, there was a 
 storm of imprecation, and the latter would be immedi 
 ately put to their task, towing the boat along the bank 
 with the rope over their shoulders, while he trudged be 
 hind with a cudgel, calling them all sorts of hard names 
 in choice Chinese. Mrs. Grant, while the others yawned 
 and grumbled, and said many uncomplimentary things 
 about Peking, kept cheerful, and declared it was only a 
 picnic party taking a pleasant trip. To kill the time, 
 when it was not too hot, visits would be interchanged 
 between the boats. Sometimes the monotony was re 
 lieved by a fierce squall that could be seen coming over 
 the bending grass and trees, and then all was hurry and 
 confusion in getting the broad sail down. When the 
 wind was fair the boatmen would doze and the admiral 
 
4o3 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 try to amuse his distinguished guest by marvelous stories 
 of his life. Once a sudden squall sent one of the boats 
 on its beam s end, which horrified the admiral and he de 
 clared that he would have the boatman s head cut off for 
 his negligence, or at least would give him 200 lashes. 
 The passengers interfered and said that as nobody was 
 hurt or even wet, he ought to let the poor fellow off, but 
 all they could do was to reduce the 200 lashes to 20, 
 which the unlucky fellow had to receive on his bare back, 
 while he lay stretched full length on the earth, one man 
 holding down his head, and another his feet. When it 
 was over he knelt before the mandarin, thanking him for 
 his mercy, and returned to his boat. Grant s boat was a 
 half a mile ahead and he knew nothing of the matter, or 
 the punishment would not have been inflicted. Thus 
 poling, and sailing, and towing by turns, the little fleet 
 crept on day and night, during which time the General 
 smoked almost incessantly. Whether listening to the 
 admiral s stories, or to snatches of old familiar songs, 
 sang by some of the party as they assembled on his boat 
 at night, bringing back thoughts of their far distant home, 
 the cigar always held its prominent place in the pro 
 gramme. 
 
 At last, on the morning of the third day of this weari 
 some journey, they landed at the village of Tung Chow, 
 where traveling by water was to end. It was early in 
 the morning but the bank was lined with curious China 
 men, chattering and wondering. 
 
 The naval officers sat down to their breakfast, and 
 as they removed the slats in their boats, to let in the 
 morning air, the whole operation of breakfast was wit 
 nessed by the people of the town. They gathered in 
 front and looked on in wonder, the crowd growing denser 
 and denser, more and more eager and amused. The 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 409 
 
 knives, the forks, the spoons, the three officers perform 
 ing on eggs and coffee, and eating from plates without 
 chop-sticks, instead of gobbling rice out of the same 
 bowl all this was the strangest sight ever seen in the 
 ancient and conservative town of Tung Chow. 
 
 Prince Hung, the prince regent, had sent down an 
 escort to convey Grant and his party into Peking, bringing 
 chairs, and horses, and donkeys, and mule-litters for the 
 baggage. Grant was carried in an imperial chair by 
 eight bearers, and took the lead, escorted by Tartar 
 troops. As the procession moved off, all the town turned 
 out of doors and stared at the sight never before seen 
 of a barbarian carried in an imperial chair. Through an 
 uninteresting country, past villages that poured out their 
 inhabitants to gaze on them, and followed by naked chil 
 dren running and begging, the party moved slowly on. 
 They were five hours making the journey, so that it was 
 after midday when the walls and towers of Peking rose in 
 sight. As the procession passed through a stone arch 
 way it halted for a new escort. This quickly arriving it 
 moved on through ihe lanes called streets, enveloped in 
 a cloud of dust kicked up by the escort. At last, to their 
 great joy, they saw the American flag waving over the 
 legation, and knew that rest and comfort were near. 
 Here, shut out from the street by a wall, amid books and 
 flowers, Grant could enjoy his cigar without disturbance. 
 In the evening the Americans residing in the city called 
 on him, and Dr. Martin, president of the Chinese English 
 University, read a long address of welcome, to which 
 Grant replied in a pleasant, conversational tone, thanking 
 them all for the honor they had done him. The members 
 of the Cabinet had previously called on him, accon> 
 panied by the military and civil governors of Peking. 
 The prince regent sent his card and said that His Imperial 
 
41 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Highness had charged him to present him all kind wishes 
 and to express the hope that his trip to China had been 
 pleasant. This was very gracious on the part of His 
 Imperial Highness, seeing that he was a child only seven 
 years old. 
 
 fcrf- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. . j j 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 & VISIT TO THE PRINCE REGENT AN INTERESTING INTERVIEW THE ENGLISH 
 UNIVERSITY ADDRESS OF A CHINESE YOUTH IN ENGLISH THE PRINCE REGENT 
 
 RETURNS GRANT S VISIT is ASKED TO MEDIATE BETWEEN CHINA AND JAPAN A 
 
 STRIKING PICTURE DESCRIPTION OF THE CITY RETURNS TO TIEN-TSIN VISIT OF 
 THE VICEROY DISCUSSES WITH GRANT THE CHINESE QUESTION JAPAN AND THE 
 LOOCHOO ISLANDS GRANT S VIEWS OF THE PRESIDENCY A PARTING DINNER 
 A RADICAL INNOVATION THE FINAL DEPARTURE AND LEAVE-TAKING AN IM 
 PRESSIVE SCENE THE LAST WORDS OF GRANT. 
 
 GRANT did not request an audience with the 
 emperor, having no desire, as he told the 
 Chinese minister in Paris, to see or converse 
 with a mere boy. The next day he called on the prince 
 regent, and was received by him in a large, plainly-fur 
 nished room, in the centre of which was a table loaded 
 with Chinese food. Sitting down to this, the prince gave 
 Grant the post of honor, on his left hand. He then took 
 up the cards of those composing Grant s suite and asked 
 the rank and position of each one. He inquired what 
 Colonel Grant s uniform meant, as he saw his father had 
 none. He then asked if he was married and had children. 
 Being told that he had one, a daughter, he replied: 
 "What a pity!" 
 
 " In China, female children do not count in the sum of 
 human happiness, and when the prince expressed his 
 regret at the existence of the General s granddaughter, 
 he was saying the most polite thing he knew. The prince 
 was polite to the naval officers, inquiring the special rank 
 of each, and saying that they must be anxious to return 
 home. It was a matter of surprise, of courteous surprise 
 
. I2 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and congratulation on the part of the prince, that the 
 writer had seen so many countries as the companion of 
 the General, and he said that no doubt I had found things 
 much different elsewhere from what I saw in China. 
 Beyond these phrases, the manner of which was as 
 perfect as if it had been learned in Versailles under 
 Louis XIV, the conversation was wholly with General 
 Grant. 
 
 " The prince returned to his perusal of the face of the 
 General as though it were an unlearned lesson. He 
 expected a uniformed person, a man of the dragon or 
 lion species who could make a great noise. What he 
 saw was a quiet, middle-aged gentleman in evening dress 
 who had ridden a long way in the dust and sun, and who 
 was looking in subdued dismay at servants who swarmed 
 around him with dishes of soups and sweatmeats, dishes 
 of bird s-nest soup, shark s fins, roast ducks, bamboo 
 sprouts, and a tea-pot with a hot, insipid tipple made of 
 rice, tasting like a remembrance of sherry, which was 
 poured into small silver cups. We were none of us 
 hungry. We had had luncheon, and we were on the 
 programme for a special banquet in the evening. Here 
 was a profuse and sumptuous entertainment. The din 
 ner differed from those in Tien-tsin, Canton and Shanghai, 
 in the fact that it was more quiet ; there was no display 
 or parade, no crowd of dusky servants and retainers 
 hanging around and looking on as though at a comedy. 
 I didn t think the prince himself cared much about eating, 
 because he merely dawdled over the bird s-nest soup and 
 did not touch the shark s fins. Nor, in fact, did any of 
 the ministers, except one, who, in default of our remem 
 bering his Chinese name and rank, one of the party 
 called Ben Butler. The dinner, as far as the General 
 was concerned, soon merged into a cigar, and the prince 
 
GENERAL U. S. GRANT. . l - 
 
 toyed with the dishes as they came and went, and 
 smoked his pipe. 
 
 "As princes go I suppose few are more celebrated than 
 Prince Kung. He is a prince of the imperial house of 
 China, brother of a late emperor and uncle of the present. 
 He wore no distinguishing button on his hat, imperial 
 princes being of a rank so exalted that even the highest 
 honor known to Chinese nobility is too low for them. In 
 place of the latter he wore a small knot of dark red silk 
 braid, sewed together so as to resemble a crown. His 
 costume was of the ordinary Chinese, plainer if anything 
 than the official s. His girdle was trimmed with yellow, 
 and there were yellow fringes and tassels attached to his 
 pipe, his fan and pockets. Yellow is the imperial color, 
 and the trimming was a mark of princely rank. In ap 
 pearance the prince is of middle stature, with a sharp, 
 narrow face, a high forehead made more prominent by 
 the Chinese custom of shaving the forehead and a chang- 
 ing, evanescent expression of countenance. He has 
 been at the head of the Chinese Government since the 
 English invasion and the burning of the Summer Palace. 
 He was the only prince who remained at his post at that 
 time, and consequently when the peace came it devolved 
 upon him to make it. This negotiation gave him a Euro 
 pean celebrity and a knowledge of Europeans that was 
 of advantage. European powers have preferred to keep 
 in power a prince with whom they have made treaties 
 before. In the politics of China, Prince Kung has shown 
 courage and ability. When the emperor, his brother, died 
 in 1861, a council was formed composed of princes and 
 noblemen of high rank. This council claimed to sit by 
 the will of the deceased emperor. The inspiring element 
 was hostility to foreigners. Between this regency and 
 the prince there was war. The emperor was a child 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 his own nephew; just as the present emperor is a child. 
 Suddenly a decree coming from the child emperor was 
 read, dismissing the regency, making the dowager em 
 press, regent, and giving the power to Prince Kung. 
 
 "This decree Prince Kung enforced with vigor, deci 
 sion and success. He arrested the leading members of 
 the regency, charged them with having forged the will 
 under which they claimed the regency and sentenced 
 three of them to death. Two of the regents were per 
 mitted to commit suicide, but the other was beheaded. 
 From that day, under the empresses, Prince Kung has 
 been the ruler of China." 
 
 The following is the substance of an interview with 
 this remarkable man: 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I have long desired to visit China, but 
 have been too busy to do so before. I have been received 
 at every point of the trip with the greatest kindness, and 
 I want to thank your Imperial Highness for the manner 
 in which the Chinese authorities have welcomed me. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG When we heard of your comincr we 
 
 J o 
 
 were glad. We have long known and watched your 
 course, and we have always been friends with America. 
 America has never sought to oppress China, and we 
 value very much the friendship of your country and 
 people. The viceroy, at Tien-tsin, wrote of your visit to 
 him. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I had a very pleasant visit to the 
 viceroy. He was anxious for me to visit Peking and see 
 you. I do not wish to leave Peking without saying how 
 much America values the prosperity of China. As I said 
 to the viceroy, that prosperity will be greatly aided by 
 the development of the country. 
 
 ONE OF THI: MINISTERS We know some of the wonder 
 ful things your railways have done. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. . T - 
 
 PRINCE KUNG I suppose your railways and roads have 
 been a long time building ? 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I am old enough almost old 
 enough to remember when the first railway was built 
 in the United States, and now we have 80,000 miles I 
 do not know how many miles there are under construc 
 tion ; but, notwithstanding the arrest of our industries by 
 the war and the recent depression of trade, we have con 
 tinued to build railways. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG Are your railways owned by the 
 State ? 
 
 GENERAL GRANT It is not our policy to build roads by 
 the State. The State guaranteed the building of the 
 great road across the continent ; but this work is the re 
 sult of private energy and private capital. To it we owe 
 a great part of our material prosperity. It is difficult to 
 say where we would be now in the rank of nations but 
 for our railway system. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG China is not insensible to what has 
 been done by other nations. 
 
 A MINISTER China is a conservative country, an old 
 empire governed by many traditions, and with a vast 
 population. The policy of China is not to move without 
 deliberation. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT The value of railroads is to dissemi 
 nate a nation s wealth and enable her to concentrate and 
 use her strength. We have a country as large as China 
 I am not sure about the figures excluding Alaska, but I 
 think practically as large. We can cross it in seven days 
 by special trains, or in an emergency in much less time. 
 We can throw the strength of the nation upon any re 
 quired point in a short time. That makes us as strong 
 in one place as another. It leaves us no vulnerable 
 points. We cannot be sieged, broken up and destroyed 
 
416 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 in detail as has happened to other large nations. That, 
 however, is not the greatest advantage. The wealth and 
 industry of the country are utilized. A man s industry 
 in interior States becomes valuable because it can reach 
 a market. Otherwise his industry would be confined 
 necessarily to his means of subsistence. He would not 
 enjoy the benefits enjoyed by his more favored fellow- 
 citizens on the ocean or on the large rivers in communi 
 cation with the markets of the world. This adds to the 
 revenue of the country. 
 
 A MINISTER That is a great advantage. China sees 
 these things and wants to clo them in time. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG If the world considers how much China 
 has advanced in a few. years it will not be impatient. I 
 believe our relative progress has been greater than that 
 of most nations. There has been no retrocession, and of 
 course we have to consider many things that are not 
 familiar to those who clo not know China. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I think that progress in China should 
 come from inside, from her own people. I am clear on 
 that point. If her own people cannot do it will never be 
 done. You do not want the foreigner to come in and 
 put you in debt by lending you money and then taking 
 your country 7 . That is not the progress that benefits 
 mankind, and we desire no progress either for ourselves 
 or for China that is not a benefit to mankind. 
 
 The ministers all cordially assented to this proposition 
 with apparent alacrity. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT For that reason I know of nothing 
 better than to send your young men to our schools. We 
 have as good schools as there are in the world, where 
 young men can learn every branch of science and art. 
 These schools will enable your young men to compare 
 the youngest civilization in the world with the oldest, and 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. , ! - 
 
 I can assure them of the kindest treatment, not only from 
 our teachers but from the people. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG We have now some students in your 
 American colleges. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT Yes, I believe there are some at the 
 college where one of my sons studied, Harvard. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG We propose to send others to your schools 
 and European schools, so long as the results are satisfac 
 tory. What they learn there they will apply at home. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I understand China has vast mineral 
 resources. The viceroy at Tien-tsin told me of large coal 
 fields as yet undeveloped. If this is so, the wealth of 
 such a deposit is incalculable and would be so especially 
 in the East. America and England have received enor- 
 
 o 
 
 mous advantages from coal and iron. I would not dare 
 to say how much Pennsylvania, one of our States, has 
 earned from her coal and iron. And the material great 
 ness of England, which, after all, underlies her moral 
 greatness, comes from her coal and iron. But your coal 
 will be of no use unless you can bring it to a market, and 
 that will require railroads. 
 
 "The allusion to the influence the development of the 
 coal and iron interests of England had upon her great 
 ness seemed to impress the ministers, especially the Sec 
 retary of the Treasury, who repeated the statement, and 
 entered into conversation with one of his colleagues on 
 
 o 
 
 the subject. Prince Kung said nothing, but smoked his 
 pipe and delved into the bird s-nest soup. The dishes 
 for our repast came in an appalling fashion came by 
 dozens all manner of the odd dishes which China has 
 contributed to the gastronomy of the age. I am afraid 
 Prince Kung was more interested in the success of his 
 dinner, than in the material prosperity of the nation, and 
 
 with the refinement of politeness characteristic of the 
 40 
 
^jg TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Chinese kept piling the General s plate with meats and 
 sweatmeats, until there was enough before him to garnish 
 a Christmas tree. The General, however, had taken 
 refuge in a cigar, and was beyond temptation. You see 
 there is time for a good many things in a Chinese inter 
 view. What I have written may seem a short conversa 
 tion. But it was really a long conversation. In the first 
 place it was a deliberate, slow conversation. There was 
 a reserve upon the part of the Chinese. They were 
 curious and polite. They had heard a great deal about 
 the General s coming. It had been talked over for weeks 
 in the Yamen. He was the most distinguished stranger 
 that had ever visited China. He had been the head of 
 the American Government, -and it was a surprise that no 
 amount of discussion could appease, that having been 
 the head of the Government he should now come with all 
 the honors his own Government could give him. I am 
 afraid, also, the want of a uniform had its influence upon 
 the imagination of the Yamen, so that our interview 
 never lost its character of a surprise. General Grant, on 
 his part was anxious to do what he could to induce the 
 Chinese to come more and more within the limits of 
 European civilization. He had spoken in this sense to 
 the viceroy in Canton, to the viceroy in Tien-tsin, who 
 may be called the Wellington of China, and to all the of 
 ficials with whom he had come in relation. I do not sup 
 pose that he would have cared about it, or that he would 
 have allowed his visit to go beyond mere study and curi 
 osity, had he not seen that opportunities had fallen to 
 him such as had fallen to no other stranger who had ever 
 come to China. There was every disposition on the part 
 of the Chinese to be courteous to General Grant. But 
 they are a polite people, and courtesy requires no effort 
 and amounts to little. But the action of the naval au- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. * l ~ 
 
 thorities, of the diplomatic and consular authorities, the 
 respect paid him by foreign representives, the extraordi 
 nary demonstration in Shanghai, all contributed to invest 
 the coming of the General with a meaning that the Chi 
 nese could, not overlook. General Grant felt, not alone 
 as an American, but as a representative of the advanced 
 civilization of the world, that this opportunity, like what 
 fell to him in Siam, was really a duty, and this accounts 
 for the earnestness with which he pressed upon Prince 
 Kung and the Yamen, the necessity of Chinese pro 
 gress. 
 
 "Prince Kung did not enter with enthusiasm into the talk 
 about material progress. It seemed as if the subject 
 bored him. But Prince Kung lives in the centre of politi 
 cal intrigue. He is the head of the government the 
 regent brother of one emperor and uncle of another, 
 the ruling member of the ruling house. The burning 
 question in Chinese politics is the influence of the for 
 eigner. Parties divide on this question as at home they 
 used to divide on the question of slavery, and when it 
 comes up, as it is always coming, Chinamen show temper, 
 as at home, an average statesman of either party would 
 show temper if you pressed him closely on the currency 
 question or State rights. Prince Kung is as far advanced 
 on the subject as you could expect from a Tartar states 
 man who had never seen the sea or a ship, who had 
 always lived in China and nearly always in a palace 
 who belonged to an alien governing race which held 
 China by force and prestige, and who had behind him his 
 own Tartar class, who oppose all European customs. He 
 could not go as far as Li-Hung Chang, the viceroy at 
 Tien-tsin ; but the viceroy has had more opportunities of 
 seeing the world, and of knowing what good would come 
 to China from a progressive policy. The talk about the 
 
420 
 
 TRAl LLS 02 GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHINESE TEACHER IN WINTER COSTUME. 
 
 , improvement of 
 I China, there- 
 I fore, at this inter 
 view, was mainly 
 on the part of 
 l General Grant, 
 i The part of the 
 c o n v e r sation 
 which impressed 
 Prince Kung 
 most was the 
 suggestion that 
 real progress in 
 China, to be per- 
 manent, must 
 come from the 
 inside from the 
 
 .people them- 
 
 -N\^ r L 
 
 selves. A re 
 mark of this kind, 
 so unlike the ob 
 servations gene 
 rally addressed 
 I to Orientals by 
 
 J 
 
 the outside world, 
 was calculated to 
 
 % 
 
 make, as it did, a 
 deep impression. 
 " We could not 
 remain long 
 enough in the 
 Yamen to finish 
 the dinner, as we 
 had an engage 
 ment to visit the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAAT, 
 
 421 
 
 college for the teaching of an English education to young 
 Chinese. This institution is under the direction of Dr. 
 Martin, an American, and the buildings adjoin the Ya- 
 men. Consequently, on taking leave of the prince, who 
 said he would call and see the General at the legation, 
 we walked a few steps and were escorted into the class 
 room of the college. Dr. Martin presented General 
 Grant to the students and professors, and one of the 
 students read the following address : 
 
 o 
 
 " GENERAL U. S. GRANT, EX-PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED 
 STATES: Sir We have long heard your name, but 
 never dreamed that we would have an opportunity to 
 look on your face. Formerly the people of your South 
 ern States rebeled against your Government, and nearly 
 obtained possession of the land, but through your ability 
 in leading the national forces the rebel chief was cap 
 tured and the country tranquilized. Having commanded 
 a million of men and survived a hundred battles, your 
 merit was recognized as the highest in your own land, 
 and your name became known in every quarter of the 
 globe. Raised to the presidency by the voice of a grate 
 ful people, you laid aside the arts of war and sought only 
 to achieve the victories of peace. The people enjoyed 
 tranquility, commerce flourished, manufactures revived, 
 and the whole nation became daily more wealthy and 
 powerful. Your achievements as a civil ruler are equally 
 great with your military triumphs. Now that you have 
 resigned the presidency, you employ your leisure in visit 
 ing different parts of the world, and the people of all na 
 tions and all ranks welcome your arrival. It requires a 
 fame like yours to produce effects like these. We, the 
 students of this college, are very limited in our attain 
 ments, but all men love the wise and respect the virtuous. 
 We, therefore, feel honored by this opportunity of stand- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ing in your presence. It is our sincere hope that another 
 term of the presidency may come to you, not only that 
 your own nation may be benefited, but that our country 
 men resident in America may enjoy the blessings of your 
 protection. 
 
 " WANG FENGTSAR, Tutor in Mathematics. 
 
 " WEN Hsu, TiUor in English. 
 
 " NA SAN, Tutor in English. 
 
 " On behalf of the Students of the Tunguon College. 
 "Kwang Sii, 5 y. 4 m. 16 d. June 5th, 1879. 
 
 " The General, in response, said : 
 
 " GENTLEMEN : I am much obliged to you for your 
 welcome, and for the compliments you pay me. I am 
 glad to meet you, and to see in the capital of this vast 
 and ancient empire ?n institution of learning based upon 
 English principles, and in which you can learn the 
 English language. I have been struck with nothing so 
 much in my tour around the world as with the fact that 
 the progress of civilization of our modern civilization 
 is marked by the progress of the English tongue. I re 
 joice in that fact, and I rejoice in your efforts to attain a 
 knowledge of English speech and all that such a knowl 
 edge must convey. You have my warmest wishes for 
 your success in this and in all your undertakings, and my 
 renewed thanks for the honor you have shown me. 
 
 " Prince Kung was punctual in his return of the call of 
 General Grant. He came to the legation in his chair, and 
 was received by General Grant in the parlors of the lega 
 tion. Several officers from the Richmond happened to 
 be in Peking on a holiday, and the General invited them, 
 as well as the officers of the Ashuelot/ who were at the 
 legation, to receive the prince. Among these officers 
 were Lieutenant Sperry, Lieutenant Patch and Master 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. , 
 
 Macrae. As all the officers were in full uniform, the re 
 ception of the prince became almost an imposing affair. 
 The prince was accompanied by the grand secretaries, 
 and as soon as he was presented to the members of the 
 General s party, he was led into the dining-room, and we 
 all sat around a table and were given tea, and sweet 
 meats, and champagne. 
 
 " During this visit there occurred a remarkable conver 
 sation, which may not be without its effect on the politics 
 of the East. The general features of this conversation, 
 so far as they referred to general questions, I noted 
 down and send you : 
 
 PRINCE KUNG I am delighted to see you again, and 
 hope you have enjoyed your visit to Peking. It is a pity 
 that you have had such warm weather, for, in this season 
 Peking is always trying. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I have found it warmer than in the 
 tropics, where we expected, of course, much warmer 
 weather than in this high latitude. I presume, however, 
 that you leave Peking when the warm season sets in, and 
 go to the sea-shore or the hills. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG No ; I remain here all the year round. 
 The business of the empire requires constant attention, 
 and can only be attended to at the capital. We manage, 
 however, to transact all of our important business early 
 in the morning. The hours before dawn are our important 
 hours. I rise at two o clock in the morning. At the same 
 time we have business that often carries us late into the 
 afternoon. 
 
 " Mr. Holcomb explained that all the audiences with 
 the emperor, or rather, with the empress dowagers, who 
 acted in the name of the young emperor, took place be 
 fore dawn, or about dawn, and that this was the most im 
 portant part of the prince s duties. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I want to thank you and the Yamen 
 for the handsome presents you sent to Mrs. Grant. It 
 was a delicate and unexpected attention, and Mrs. Grant 
 desires me to express her thanks. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG We did not wish you to leave China 
 without one or two souvenirs of the country, representing 
 those branches of industry and art in which our people 
 have won distinction. Our regret is that your stay is so 
 brief that we could not send Mrs. Grant something 1 worthy 
 of her acceptance and worthy to be given to one held in 
 such high honor by China as yourself. I hope you will 
 also prolong your stay. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I would be happy to remain longer 
 in China ; but the weather is so oppressive that I have 
 been compelled to abandon many of the excursions I 
 proposed to myself when coming to Peking, and I have 
 made engagements with the Japanese Government to be 
 in Japan at a certain time. I hear that arrangements 
 have been made in Japan consequent upon my coming, and 
 I do not wish to cause the authorities any inconvenience. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG How long do you propose to remain in 
 Japan ? 
 
 GENERAL GRANT That will depend upon what is to be 
 seen ; but I hardly think more than a month. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG You have been in China a month, I 
 think. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT More than a month already ; and by 
 the time I leave it will be a good deal more than a month. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG I suppose you will stay some time in 
 Tien-tsin ? 
 
 GENERAL GRANT Two or three days. I have made 
 engagements for two days, and have promised the viceroy 
 to meet him on my return That engagement also com 
 pels me to leave Peking. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. A 2 c 
 
 PRINCE KUNG I am sorry you leave so soon for other 
 reasons. We are very anxious to have you with us be 
 cause China has never been honored before with the 
 presence of so illustrious a guest, and, apart from the 
 personal desire of all connected with the government to 
 do honor to one so well known in China, we wish to 
 show our kind feelings to the people of America in hon 
 oring one who has been the head of America. China 
 has always been treated well by your country, and never 
 more so than under your administration. We can never 
 forget the services rendered to us by Mr. Burlingame. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT The policy of America in dealing 
 with foreign powers is one of justice. We believe that 
 fair play, consideration for the rights of others, and re 
 spect for international law will always command the 
 respect of nations and lead to peace. I know of no other 
 consideration that enters into our foreign relations. 
 There is no temptation to the United States to adven 
 tures outside of our own country. Even in the countries 
 contiguous to our own we have no foreign policy except 
 so far as it secures our own protection from foreign in 
 terferences. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG There is one question about which I 
 am anxious to confer with you. The viceroy of Tien-tsin 
 writes us that he has mentioned it to you. And if we 
 could secure your good offices, or your advice, it would 
 be a great benefit, not only to us, but to all nations, and 
 especially in the East. I refer to the question now pend 
 ing between China and Japan. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT In reference to the trouble in the 
 Loochoo Islands ? 
 
 PRINCE KUNG Yes; about the sovereignty of Loo 
 choo and the attempt of the Japanese to extinguish a 
 kingdom which has always been friendly and whose sov- 
 
42 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ereign has always paid us tribute, not only the present 
 sovereign, but his ancestors for centuries. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT The viceroy spoke to me on the 
 subject and has promised to renew the subject on my 
 return to Tien-tsin. Beyond the casual references of the 
 viceroy in the course of conversations on the occasion of 
 interviews that were confined mainly to ceremonies, I am 
 entirely ignorant of the questions. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG We all feel a great delicacy in referring 
 to this or any other matter of business on the occasion 
 of your visit to Peking a visit that we know to be one of 
 pleasure and that should not be troubled by business. 
 I should not have ventured upon such a liberty if I had 
 not been informed by the viceroy of the kind manner in 
 which you received his allusions to the matter and your 
 known devotion to peace and justice. I feel that I should 
 apologize even for the reference I have made, which I 
 would not have ventured upon but for the report of the 
 viceroy and our conviction that one who has had so high 
 a place in determining the affairs of the world can have 
 no higher interest than furthering peace and justice. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I told the viceroy that anything I 
 could do in the interest of peace was my duty and my 
 pleasure. I can conceive of no higher office for any man. 
 But I am not in office. I am merely a private citizen, 
 journeying about like others, with no share in the gov 
 ernment and no power. The government has given me 
 a ship of war whenever I can use it without interfering 
 with its duties, but that is all. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG I quite understand that, and this led to 
 the expression of my regret at entering upon the subject. 
 But we all know how vast your influence must be, not 
 only upon your people at home, but upon all nations who 
 know what you have done, and who know that whatever 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 427 
 
 question you considered would be considered with patience 
 and wisdom and a desire for justice and peace. You are 
 going* to Japan as the guest of the people and the em 
 peror, and will have opportunities of presenting our views 
 to the Emperor of Japan and of showing him that we 
 have no policy but justice. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT Yes, I am going to Japan as the 
 guest of the emperor and nation 
 
 PRINCE KUNG That affords us the opportunity that 
 we cannot overlook. The viceroy writes us that he has 
 prepared a statement of the whole case, drawn from the 
 records of our empire, and he will put you in possession 
 of all the facts from our point of view. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT The king of the Loochoo Islands 
 has, I believe, paid tribute to China as well as Japan ? 
 
 PRINCE KUNG For generations. I do not know how 
 long with Japan, but for generations Loochoo has recog 
 nized the sovereignty of China. Not alone during the 
 present, but in the time of the Ming emperors, the 
 dynasty that preceded our own, this recognition was un 
 challenged, and Loochoo became as well known as an 
 independent power in the East owing allegiance only to 
 our emperor as any other part of our dominions. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT Has Japan made her claim upon 
 Loochoo, a subject of negotiation with China? Has she 
 ever presented your government with her view of her 
 claim to the islands ? 
 
 PRINCE KUNG Japan has a minister in Peking. He 
 came here some time since amid circumstances of osten 
 tation, and great importance was attached to his coming. 
 There was a great deal said about it at the time, and it 
 was said that the interchange of ministers would be of 
 much importance to both nations. We sent a minister 
 to Japan, an able and prudent man, who is there now. 
 
428 
 
 TEA VLLS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 This showed our desire to reciprocate. We supposed, 
 of course, that when the Japanese minister came there 
 would be a complete explanation and understanding* in 
 Loochoo. We welcomed his coming in this spirit and in 
 the interest of peace. When he came to the Yamen, and 
 we brought up Loochoo, he knew nothing about the sub 
 ject, nothing about the wishes or the attitude of his gov 
 ernment. We naturally inquired, what brought him 
 here as minister ? of what use was a minister if he could 
 not transact business of such vital consequence to both 
 nations and to the peace of the world. He said he had 
 certain matters connected with the trade of the two 
 countries to discuss something of that kinfl. It seemed 
 almost trifling with us to say so. When we presented 
 our case he said that anything we would write or say he 
 would transmit to his government no more. He was 
 only a post-office. When our minister in Japan pre 
 sented the subject to the authorities he had no better 
 satisfaction, and was so dissatisfied that he wrote to us 
 asking permission to request his passports and withdraw. 
 But we told him to wait and be patient and do nothing 
 to lead to war, or that might be construed as seeking 
 war on our part. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT Any course short of national humil 
 iation or national destruction is better than war. War in 
 itself is so great a calamity, that it should only be in 
 voked when there is no way of saving a nation from a 
 greater. War, especially in the East, and between two 
 countries like Japan and China, would be a misfortune 
 a great misfortune. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG A great misfortune to the outside and 
 neutral powers as well. War in the East would be a 
 heavy blow to the trade upon which other nations so 
 much depend. That is one reason why China asks your 
 
 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 good offices, and hopes for those of your government 
 and of your minister to Japan. We have been told of 
 the kind disposition of Mr. Bingham toward us. Our 
 minister has told us of that; and one reason why we kept 
 our minister in Japan under circumstances which would 
 have justified another power in withdrawing him, was be 
 cause we knew of Mr. Bingham s sentiments, and were 
 awaiting his return. It is because such a war as Japan 
 seems disposed to force on China would be peculiarly 
 distressing to foreign powers that we have asked them 
 to interfere. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT How far have the Japanese gone in 
 Loochoo ? 
 
 PRINCE KUNG The king of the islands has been taken 
 to Japan and deposed. The sovereignty has been extin 
 guished. A Japanese official has been set up. We have 
 made a study of international law as written by your 
 English and American authors, whose text-books are in 
 Chinese. If there is any force in the principles of inter 
 national law as recognized by your nations, the extinction 
 of the Loochoo sovereignty is a wrong, and one that 
 other nations should consider. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT It would seem to be a high-handed 
 proceeding to arrest a ruler and take him out of the 
 country, unless there is war, or some grave provocation. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG If there was provocation, if Japan has 
 suffered any wrong in Loochoo that justified extreme 
 action, why does not her ambassador at our court, or 
 their own minister at home in dealing with our embassy 
 give us an explanation ? China is a peaceful nation. 
 Her policy has been peace. No nation will make more 
 sacrifices for peace, but forbearance cannot be used to 
 our injury, to the humiliation of the emperor and a viola 
 tion of our rights. On this subject we feel strongly,, and 
 
430 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 when the viceroy wrote the emperor from Tien-tsin that 
 he had spoken to you on the subject, and that you might 
 be induced to use your good offices with Japan, and with 
 your offices your great name and authority, w r e rejoiced 
 in what may be a means of escaping from a responsibility 
 which no nation would deplore more than myself. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT As I said before, my position here 
 and my position at home are not such as to give any 
 assurance that my good offices would be of any value. 
 Here I am a traveler, seeing sights, and looking at new 
 manners and customs. At home I am simply a private 
 citizen, with no voice in the councils of the government 
 and no right to speak for the government. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG [with a smile] We have a proverb in 
 Chinese that "No business is business" in other words, 
 that real affairs, great affairs, are more frequently trans 
 acted informally, when persons meet, as we are meeting 
 now, over a table of entertainment for social and friendly 
 conversation, than in solemn business sessions at the 
 Yamen. I value the opportunities of this conversation, 
 even in a business sense, more than I could any con 
 versation with ambassadors. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I am much complimented by the 
 confidence you express, and in that expressed by the 
 viceroy. It would afford me the greatest pleasure I 
 know of no pleasure that could be greater to be the 
 means, by any counsel or effort of mine, in preserving 
 peace, and especially between two nations in which I feel 
 so deep an interest as I do in China and Japan. I know 
 nothing about this Loochoo business except what I have 
 heard from the viceroy and yourself, and an occasional 
 scrap in the newspapers, to which I paid little attention, 
 as I had no interest in it. I know nothing of the merits 
 of the case. I am going to Japan, and I shall take plea- 
 
TRAVELS OP GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 sure in informing myself on the subject in conversing 
 with the Japanese authorities. I have no idea what their 
 argument is. They, of course, have an argument. I do 
 not suppose that the rulers are inspired by a desire to 
 wantonly injure China. I will acquaint myself with the 
 Chinese side of the case, as Your Imperial Highness and 
 the viceroy have presented it, and promise to present it. 
 I will do what I can to learn the Japanese side. Then, if 
 I can in conversation with the Japanese authorities do 
 anything that will be a service to the cause of peace, you 
 may depend upon my good offices. But, as I have said, 
 I have no knowledge on the subject and no idea what 
 opinion I may entertain when I have studied it. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG We are profoundly grateful for this 
 promise. China is quite content to rest her case with 
 your decision, given, as we know it will be, after care and 
 with wisdom and justice. If the Japanese Government 
 will meet us in this spirit all will be well. I shall send 
 orders to our minister in Japan to wait upon you as soon 
 as you reach Japan and to speak with you on the subject. 
 Your willingness to do this will be a new claim to the re 
 spect in which you are held in China, and be a continu 
 ance of that friendship shown to us by the United States, 
 and especially by Mr. Burlingame, whose death we all 
 deplored and whose name is venerated in China. 
 
 An allusion was made to the convention between 
 Great Britain and America on the Alabama question 
 the arbitration and the settlement of a matter that might 
 have embroiled the two countries. This was explained 
 to His Imperial Highness as a precedent that it would be 
 well to follow now. The prince was thoroughly familiar 
 with the Alabama negotiations. 
 
 o 
 
 GENERAL GRANT An arbitration between nations may 
 not satisfy either party at the time. But it satisfies the 
 
.-,, TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 conscience of the world, ancl must commend itself more 
 and more as a means of adjusting disputes. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG The policy of China is one of reliance 
 upon justice. We are willing to have any settlement 
 that is honorable and that will be considered by other 
 nations as honorable to us. We desire no advantage 
 over Japan. But, at the same time, we are resolved to 
 submit to no wrong from Japan. On that point there 
 is but one opinion in our government. It is the opinion 
 of the viceroy, one of the great officers of the empire, 
 and, like yourself, not only a great soldier, but an advo 
 cate always of a peaceful policy, of concession, compro 
 mise and conciliation. It is my own opinion, and I have 
 always, as one largely concerned in the affairs of the em 
 pire and knowing what war entails, been in favor of 
 peace. It is the opinion of the Yamen. I do not know 
 of any dissentient among those who serve the throne. 
 Our opinion is that we cannot, under any circumstances, 
 submit to die claims of Japan. We cannot consent to 
 the extinction of a sovereignty, of an independence that 
 has existed for so long a time under our protection. If 
 Japan insists upon her present position there must be 
 war. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT What action on the part of Japan 
 would satisfy China ? 
 
 PRINCE KUNG We would be satisfied with the situa 
 tion as it was. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT That is to say, Loochoo paying trib 
 ute to Japan and China. 
 
 PRINCE KUNG We do not concern ourselves with what 
 tribute the king of Loochoo pays to Japan or any other 
 power. W T e never have done so, and although there is 
 every reason why an empire should not allow other na 
 tions to exact tribute from its vassals, we are content 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. , ~ - 
 
 W th things as they have been, not only under the dynasty 
 of my own ancestors and family, but under the dynasty 
 of the Mings. We desire Japan to restore the king she 
 has captured and taken away, to withdraw her troops 
 from Loochoo and abandon her claims to exclusive sover 
 eignty over the island. This is our position, other ques 
 tions are open to negotiation and debate. This is not 
 open, because it is a question of the integrity of the em 
 pire. And the justice of our position will be felt by any 
 one who studies the case and compares the violence and 
 aggression of Japan with the patience and moderation of 
 China. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT I shall certainly see the viceroy on 
 my return to Tien-tsin and converse with him, and read 
 the documents I understand he is preparing. I shall also 
 when I meet the Japanese authorities do what I can to 
 learn their case. If I can be of any service in adjusting 
 the question and securing peace I shall be rejoiced, and 
 it will be no less a cause of rejoicing if in doing so I can 
 be of any service to China, or be enabled to show my 
 appreciation of the great honor she has shown to me 
 during my visit and of the unvarying friendship she has 
 shown our country. 
 
 "The prince spoke during this interview with great 
 animation. His voice is low and soft, and his gesticula 
 tions more those of an Italian than a Chinaman. At the 
 pauses in the conversation, while Mr. Holcomb was in 
 terpreting into English what had been said in Chinese, 
 the attendant would hand the prince his pipe, and, lean 
 ing back in his chair, he would take two or three whiffs. 
 Sometimes a thought would occur to him, and he would 
 again break into the translation, with a rapid and nervous 
 expression. When he spoke of China s resolve to de 
 fend her sovereignty, he showed emotion, something ex- 
 
 41 
 
434 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 traordinary in an Oriental, and mastering himself with a 
 sudden wrench, as though he were seizing the reins oj an 
 
 CHINESE PLAY. 
 
 escaping steed, apologized for the impulse, and went on 
 with the conversation. A^ain, at the close of a rather 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 long speech, he said to the minister who sat next to him, 
 with a smile as he took his pipe: Mr. Holcomb will 
 never remember that much long enough to translate it, 
 a doubt which amused the other ministers greatly. What 
 impressed me in the conversation of Prince Kung, in 
 distinction from other Oriental princes and statesmen 
 whom I have seen, was its picturesqueness. It was the 
 animated talk of a man of the world an astute man, 
 swayed by his feelings, carried along by his will. An 
 Indian, or a Moslem prince, some of our friends in Hin- 
 dostan or Egypt, sat like expressions of fate, and drifted 
 through a conversation without a change of countenance. 
 You felt before you were through with the conversation 
 almost as if you had been looking at some of the stone 
 faces in the recesses of Dendorah or the Elephanta caves. 
 "The prince s face lit up with the varying moods of his 
 mind. As he spoke he fanned himself, for the day was 
 cruelly warm, and when any point interested him he would 
 press his fan close upon the arm of the General and bend 
 half-closed, inquiring, resolute eyes upon the General s 
 face. He had a gesture or an expression that reminded 
 me of Edwin Booth, in the performance of lago, in the 
 famous third act of Othello, where the ancient has set 
 his poison to work on the Moor. There is a resemblance 
 between the prince and Mr. Booth in form, manner and 
 bearing, to which the flowing robes, looking theatrical in 
 our eyes, may have added, that occurred to some of us 
 as we listened to one of the most important conversations 
 that ever took place between a foreigner and a prince of 
 the imperial house of China. I have written down this 
 conversation at length, so far as I can remember it, and 
 have tried to give you some idea of the accessories, be 
 cause of the historical value of the scene. I speak of 
 its historical value not as expressing my own opinions, 
 
436 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 
 
 for opinions of mine on such a subject would have no value, 
 but those of men who know China well and have lived 
 here for years. General Grant s visit/ said one of these 
 to me to-day, has done more to break down the great 
 
 CHINESE SOLDIERS. 
 
 wall between her civilization and that of the outer world 
 than all that has ever been done by diplomacy. 
 
 "The prince, when he had finished his conversation drew 
 toward him a glass of champagne, and addressing Mr. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 437 
 
 Holcomb, said he wished to again express to General 
 Grant the honor felt by the Chinese Government at hav 
 ing received this visit. He made special inquiries as to 
 when the General would leave, the hour of his departure, 
 the ways and periods of his journey. He asked whether 
 there was anything wanting to complete the happiness of 
 
 \ 
 
 CHINESE IMAGE OF BUD. 
 
 the General or show the honor in which he had been 
 held by China. In taking his leave he wished to drink 
 especially the health of General Grant, to wish him a 
 prosperous voyage, and long and honorable years on his 
 return home. This sentiment the General returned, and 
 rising, led the way to the door, where the chair of the 
 
438 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 -prince and the bearers were in waiting. The other minis 
 ters accompanied the prince, and on taking leave saluted 
 the General in the ceremonious Chinese style. The 
 prince entered his chair and was snatched up and carried 
 
 CHINESE BONZE (PRIEST). 
 
 away by his bearers, the guards hurriedly mounting and 
 riding after." 
 
 There is very little to see in Peking but the vast city 
 itself, which is, in reality, divided into two the Chinese 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 439 
 
 i 
 
 "V H : c v\ o 
 
 CHINESE FRUIT SELLER. 
 
TRAVELS OF GF.KER.4T. GR.4HT. 
 
 and Tartar both surrounded by a wall. That of the 
 latter is lofty, and so thick that twelve horsemen can ride 
 abreast on the top. It has nine gates, with lofty towers 
 above them nine stories high, pierced with port-holes, 
 for the soldiers, while other towers occur at regular 
 intervals. The two form an exact square, and are, to 
 gether, eighteen miles in circumference. The streets are 
 straight, the principal one i 20 feet wide and three miles 
 long, and lined with shops. But the most remarkable 
 thing about them is the vast multitude of men that pour 
 along them in a continuous stream. The city is a vast 
 human hive, and one wonders where all the people come 
 from, and what supports them. The houses are low, with 
 no superfluous apartments. One is devoted to sleeping, 
 and is hiled with beds for all the members of the family, 
 separated only by mats suspended from the ceiling. It 
 has thirty-three temples, besides eight public altars of 
 heaven and earth, on the former of which the emperor 
 sacrifices in winter, and on the other in summer. 
 
 The short time allotted to Peking having expired, 
 Grant returned to Ticn-tsin as he came, and was glad 
 when the long, monotonous journey was over. Here he 
 was called on by the viceroy in state, to whom the prince 
 regent had written a letter of instructions. He came 
 with a small army in his train, with banners, and gongs, 
 and drums, and was received with salvos of artillery and 
 strains of martial music, furnished by the ship. A vast 
 crowd followed him as he was borne up the steps of the 
 consul s house to the veranda, where Grant was await 
 ing- him. 
 
 o 
 
 As the former stepped out of his chair, Grant advanced 
 and welcomed him, and led the way into a room where 
 tea and sweetmeats, after the Chinese fashion, were in 
 readiness. The services of an interpreter were soon 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 441 
 
 brought into requisition, and the viceroy at once entered 
 on the Chinese question in California. Grant explained 
 
 INTERPRETER. 
 
 it at great length, going over the whole ground, and sta 
 ting all the embarrassments that the United States Govern- 
 
442 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ment labored under in regard to it. The viceroy said 
 that they had never lost their confidence in American 
 justice, and if there was any grievance respecting 
 Chinese emigration that the Chinese Government could 
 
 D 
 
 redress, it would be glad to do so, and added that he did 
 not wish the people to emigrate, and if he had his own 
 way would stop it. The whole question, Grant said, was 
 surrounded with difficulties, but that if emigration could 
 be stopped for five years, he thought the question would 
 solve itself. One thing, however, was necessary China 
 must stop the slavery system, so that emigration from 
 their country should be like that from other foreign coun 
 tries, free. The viceroy inquired also very particularly 
 about our torpedo system, saying: "that he had given 
 much attention to torpedo defenses, and watched with in 
 terest all the developments of the science in other nations. 
 He looked to America s important discoveries, and hoped 
 some time to see China avail herself of the services of 
 competent Americans. 
 
 "General Grant said that in this, as in other matters of 
 the greatest importance to the welfare of China, much ad 
 vantage would be gained by the advice and aid of 
 Americans, and of skilled men from other nations. Since 
 he came to China, he had learned a great many things 
 about China in the way of the resources of the country, 
 that interested him. There seemed to be no end of the 
 resources of China, and it was a mistake in the authori 
 ties not to avail themselves of modern knowledge. 
 
 o 
 
 "The viceroy said that he had given much thought to 
 the development of the country. He had opportunities 
 of seeing the advantages of outside aid not enjoyed by 
 others who had not been so much in relations with for 
 eigners. There was an apprehension of foreign ideas^ 
 and foreign aid, which he did not share. This came also 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 443 
 
 from the conservatism of the people, and the fact that the 
 Government had to consider the peculiar conditions of 
 
 CHINESE FISHING. 
 
 empire, the vast population, and the existence of tradi 
 tions and customs that had grown for centuries. 
 
 "General Grant said that he had no confidence in any 
 development or progress that did not come from the 
 
444 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 people themselves. No other would be sound. But in 
 the matter of famines, of which he had heard so many 
 distressing stories since he came to China, it would be a 
 blessing to the people to have railway communications. 
 In America, there could be no famine such as had re 
 cently been seen in China, unless, as was hardly possible 
 in so vast a territory, the famine became general. If the 
 crops failed in one State, supplies could be brought from 
 others at a little extra expense in money and time. \Ye 
 could send wheat, for instance, from one end of the coun 
 try to another in a few clays. The, same in case of inva 
 sion. The resources of the country in men and arms 
 could be massed in a short time, at any menaced point. 
 That gave a nation a great advantage. So in mineral 
 resources. The coal and iron of America, upon which 
 so much of the wealth of the nation depends ; the gold 
 and silver of the Pacific, which had played so great a part 
 in the welfare of the world, would be valueless without 
 railways. 
 
 "This led to a long conversation, in which the viceroy 
 went over many of the points embraced in his talk with 
 Prince Rung. The viceroy said he was anxious to see China 
 introduce railways and telegraphs. Already he had a 
 telegraph of his own from the forts at the mouth of the 
 river to Tien-tsin. He would be glad also to have small 
 steamers on the Pehio River. He was sorry his opinions 
 on this were not shared by some of his colleagues. But 
 in time he hoped wiser opinions would prevail. 
 
 "The viceroy then referred to the questions at issue 
 between China and Japan, as to the occupation of the 
 Loochoo Islands by the latter power. Turning to a 
 secretary he produced several maps and books some in 
 Chinese and some in Japan on a large scale. The books 
 were copies of the treaties between the Chinese Empire 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. , , - 
 
 445 
 
 and other governments, in English and Chinese. The 
 viceroy began the conversation by saying that he had 
 received a letter from Prince Kung, asking him to lay 
 before the General the Chinese side of the Loochoo dis 
 cussion. Prince Kung had also written him of General 
 Grant s willingness to look into the question and give his 
 good offices to China. 
 
 " General Grant said that he had said to His Imperial 
 Highness that he was only a private citizen at home, with 
 no authority to enter into negotiations or to speak for 
 the government. Mr. Seward and Mr. Bingham, who 
 were ministers to the respective governments of China 
 and Japan, had only returned from home, and they may 
 have instructions from the administration. At the same 
 time, if any advice or aid he could give could serve the 
 cause of peace, he would be glad. He had a horror of 
 war, and there could be no greater calamity, both to 
 Japan and China, than war. He believed where there 
 was an honest difference of opinion between two countries 
 wisdom and patience could always adjust it. 
 
 "The viceroy said he knew that the General was not a 
 diplomatist nor an official. But for this purpose he might 
 say that neither was he an official. When he heard that 
 the General was coming to China his heart was glad, 
 for he felt that he could talk to him about Loochoo. If 
 the General chose to speak on the subject he would speak 
 with* an authority greater than that of any diplomatist. 
 There were men to whose words nations would listen, 
 and the General was one of those men. His own gov 
 ernment was willing to put its case unreservedly in 
 his hands, and as he was going to see the mikado, a word 
 from him to that sovereign might serve the cause of 
 peace and justice. 
 
 " The General said if he could ever speak words with 
 
446 
 
 TKA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 such a result he would not hesitate to speak them. As 
 to the Loochoo question, he knew nothing beyond what 
 he had heard from Prince Rung. He might add that 
 since seeing Prince Kung he had conversed with Mr. 
 Seward and others and had heard their opinions. But he 
 felt that he knew only the Chinese case, or at least a hur 
 ried statement of the case, and he had no idea what his 
 view might be when he conversed with the Japanese. 
 
 " The viceroy opened a volume in Chinese, containing 
 the treaties, and read from an early treaty made when 
 Mr. dishing was minister, in which the United States 
 held herself ready to offer her good services between 
 China and other powers in the event of any question 
 arising. He asked whether the General did not think 
 that the difference with Japan about Loochoo did not 
 come within the limits of the treaty. 
 
 " General Grant read over the clause and said he 
 thought it did. 
 
 " The viceroy then read from the Burlingame Treaty 
 assurances of the same character. He read from a treaty 
 between China and Japan engagements on the part of 
 the two countries not to invade the territory of the 
 others. He pointed out the existence of a treaty between 
 the United States and the Loochoo Islands, showing that 
 the American Government dealt with the Loochoo kin^r 
 
 o 
 
 as an independent power. He then called the attention 
 of the General to the international law on the subject, 
 and held that the course of Japan was one that called for 
 the intervention of outside powers. Otherwise there was 
 no use of that international law which foreign nations 
 
 o 
 
 were always quoting to China. 
 
 " General Grant said the argument seemed to be 
 sound, but it belonged to diplomacy. From the fact that 
 the viceroy quoted a treaty in which the United States 
 

 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 acknowledged the Loochoo Islands as an independent 
 power he supposed that China, in dealing with Japan, was 
 also willing to regard them as an independent power. 
 
 " The viceroy said as an independent power, certainly. 
 But to be entirely accurate Loochoo should be described 
 as a semi-dependent power. China had never exercised 
 sovereignty over the islands, and did not press that claim. 
 But China was as much concerned in the maintenance of 
 the independence of a power holding toward her coasts 
 the relations of Loochoo as in the integrity of her inland 
 territory. As a matter of fact, because of the great pow 
 ers allowed by China always to her provinces .and de 
 pendencies the emperors had never exercised the rights 
 of sovereignty over Loochoo. As a matter of law and 
 right, however, the right was never alienated, and the 
 sovereigns of Loochoo always respected it by paying 
 tribute to China until Japan came in and forbade the 
 tribute. 
 
 "General Grant asked if the sovereigns did not also pay 
 tribute to Japan. 
 
 THE VICEROY In this way* Before the revolution in 
 Japan, and the consolidation of the power of the princes 
 into the imperial power, the feudal lords had great au 
 thority. They did as they pleased. Perhaps none of 
 these lords were more powerful than the Satsuma princes. 
 These princes occupied the islands of Japan nearest to 
 Loochoo. To protect themselves from the raids and 
 exactions of the Satsuma princes the Loochoo people 
 paid tribute only to the princes, never to Japan. Well, 
 when the revolution came, and the powers of the princes 
 were absorbed, the emperor claimed that the payment of 
 tribute to the princes was recognition of the sovereignty 
 of Japan. That is the only claim that the Japanese have 
 ever made. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT And in the meantime tribute has 
 been paid to China. 
 
 THE VICEROY In the meantime and for centuries 
 before. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT What was the nature of this tribute ? 
 
 THE VICEROY Nominal. The Loochoo kings always 
 received more from the emperor than they gave. For 
 centuries this has gone on. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT Did the Loochoo people have any 
 advantages from this relation that made them willing 
 tribute payers ? 
 
 THE VICEROY They always valued the relation with 
 China and we gave them special trade facilities. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT Have you any idea as to the feeling 
 of the people on the subject? 
 
 THE VICEROY They prefer the Chinese connection 
 infinitely prefer the mild and friendly relations that have 
 subsisted for so many centuries to the destruction of their 
 government. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT Is the sovereign a native ? 
 
 THE VICEROY He is a native. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT Does China claim the people or any 
 portion of the people as of her own race ? 
 
 THE VICEROY The people of Loochoo are not China 
 men, but we have an important part of the population. 
 It came in this way. During the Ming dynasty the em 
 perors came to know of the islands, and thought it would be 
 well to civilize them. Thirty or forty Chinese families, with 
 different surnames good families were selected and 
 sent to Loochoo to civilize the islands. Their descendants 
 are in Loochoo now. Consequently we have a special 
 claim over them. 
 
 " General Grant asked what was the progress of the 
 negotiations between China and Japan on the subject. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAA 7 T. A Ar . 
 
 449 
 
 The viceroy answered that there were no negotia 
 tions. The Japanese sent troops to the islands and for 
 bade the payment of any more tribute to China. They 
 then commanded the king to abandon his government 
 and repair to Japan. The king was ill and said he could 
 not go to Japan. He was told that unless he was better 
 in a certain time, eighty days I think, he would be taken. 
 He was so taken. Representations were made to 
 Peking. We addressed remonstrances to the Japanese. 
 No response was made. Our minister was treated in a 
 manner that none but a people as patient as ours and as 
 averse to difficulties with other nations would tolerate. 
 Then we addressed the Japanese minister in Peking. He 
 had no instructions, no advice, no information. Japan 
 has treated the whole question as an accomplished fact, 
 as something dene, an accident about which we had noth 
 ing to say. A governor was appointed. Loochoo was 
 made an integral part of the Japanese Empire, and unless 
 something is done to restore things to their former posi 
 tion the world would see the extinction of a nation with 
 which other nations had made treaties for no fault of its 
 own, and not as an act of war. If that could be done of 
 what value is international law ? 
 
 "General Grant thought it was unfortunate that there 
 should have been no negotiations, so that some thread 
 could be found which could be taken up and pursued to 
 a harmonious and honorable result. 
 
 THE VICEROY We have strained every effort to open 
 negotiations. Apart from the feeling of wounded honor 
 in the Chinese mind at the sudden extinction of a nation 
 that has been friendly and tributary there are other 
 reasons. If you look at the map you will find that the 
 Loochoo Islands block the coast of China, that they spread 
 
 between our shores and the Pacific Ocean, and virtually 
 42 
 
, :- TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 command all the channels of our commerce. Such a 
 command in the hands of a power like Japan is a menace 
 to our commerce. At any time it may be interrupted. 
 Then the Loochoo Islands come close to Formosa. We 
 have already had trouble about Formosa. The posses 
 sion of Loochoo brings Japan within a step of Formosa, 
 which is but a step from our coasts. These are considera 
 tions that, of course, concern China more than the other 
 powers, but when you add them to our unquestioned 
 rights under treaty law and international law, they will 
 explain our own feeling, and especially what you heard 
 from Prince Kung in Peking. 
 
 "General Grant asked if, in the absence of negotia 
 tions, the viceroy was in possession of any unofficial 
 information as to the views of the Japanese Government. 
 
 "The viceroy said from all he could learn, the mikado 
 was not in favor of any policy like that shown in the oc 
 cupation of Loochoo. But there was a party among 
 them men like the princes of Satsuma who were urging 
 the Japanese to annexation. His own belief was that 
 if the foreign powers were to strengthen the mikado in 
 resisting the wishes of this party, its influence would die 
 out, and the Loochoo Islands be restored. 
 
 "General Grant wished to know if the viceroy had had 
 any expression from the foreign powers. 
 
 "The viceroy said he believed that Mr. Bingham, the 
 American minister, was friendly to the views of China. 
 He supposed so, at least, from the anxiety in Peking to 
 have Mr. Bingham return to Japan. Of the wishes of 
 the other powers he had no information beyond rumor. 
 
 "General Grant felt certain that Mr. Bingham would 
 consider the matter. He (Mr. Bingham) had just re 
 turned from home, and no doubt had been in conference 
 with Mr. Evarts. He would see Mr. Bingham as soon 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. . r T 
 
 TJ i 
 
 as he reached Japan, and learn all the facts. He did not 
 know what he could do, or how far he would go until he 
 saw Mr. Bingham. 
 
 "The viceroy asked if the General found on reaching 
 Japan, that Mr. Bingham had given no attention to the 
 subject, or had formed opinions hostile to negotiation, he 
 would then pursue the matter. 
 
 "The General said the viceroy was supposing a condi 
 tion of things that could not exist. Mr. Bingham was an 
 able man, one who had had large experience in affairs at 
 home a conspicuous lawyer, especially fitted in every 
 way to enter into the consideration of a question resting, 
 as this appeared to rest, on treaty and international law. 
 
 "The viceroy still pressed the point, and asked whether 
 the indifference of the minister, which he only spoke of 
 as a possible thing, would prevent the General s giving 
 these good offices requested by Prince Kung. 
 
 "General Grant said, of course, if he found that so 
 important a question had been overlooked by the minis 
 ter, and if it was in a position where he, as a private gen 
 tleman, could aid the cause of peace, he would do all he 
 could. But he had every confidence in Mr. Bingham. 
 
 "The viceroy said this confidence was shared by the 
 Chinese. But Prince Kung and himself laid especial 
 stress upon the name and influence of the General. The 
 Loochoo question could not be considered as within 
 the range of diplomatic action. The Japanese had not 
 allowed it a diplomatic standing. Consequently there 
 was no chance of reaching a solution by the ordinary 
 methods of diplomacy. How can you talk to ministers 
 and governments about matters which they will not dis 
 cuss? But when a man like General Grant comes to 
 China and Japan he comes with an authority which gives 
 him power to make peace. In the interest of peace China 
 
45 2 
 
 T/:ATJ-:LS OF GEXERAL GRAXT. 
 
 asks the General to interest himself. China cannot con 
 sent to the position Japan has taken. On that point 
 there is no indecision in the councils of the government. 
 The viceroy had no fear of Japan or of the consequences 
 of any conflict which Japan would force upon China. 
 
 " General Grant said his hope and belief were that the 
 difficulty would end peacefully and honorably. He ap 
 preciated the compliment paid him by the Chinese Govern 
 ment. The viceroy and Prince Rung" overrated his power, 
 but not his wish, to preserve peace, and especially to pre 
 vent such a deplorable thing as a war between China and 
 Japan. When he reached Japan he would confer with Mr. 
 Bingham and see how the matter stood. He would study 
 the Japanese case as carefully as he proposed studying 
 the Chinese case. He would, if possible, confer with the 
 Japanese authorities. What his opinion would be when 
 he heard both sides he could not anticipate. If the ques 
 tion took such a shape that, with advantage to the cause 
 of peace and without interfering with the wishes of his 
 own government, he could advise or aid in a solution, he 
 he would be happy, and, as he remarked to Prince Kung, 
 this happiness would not be diminished if in doing so his 
 action did not disappoint the Chinese Government." 
 
 The viceroy expressed his gratitude for all the kind 
 things he had said, and remarked that when he became 
 president again he hoped he would not forget them. 
 
 To this, Grant replied that he had no desire to be 
 president again ; the office imposed heavy burdens, and 
 it should now be filled by some other man who by his 
 services was entitled to it. In conclusion, the viceroy re 
 ferred to the proposed grand reception of him in Cali 
 fornia, to which Grant replied that he hoped it would be 
 abandoned, and he would like to time his arrival to avoid 
 it. It was a long and interesting conversation ; consist- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 453 
 
 ing on the viceroy s side of questions, and on the part of 
 Grant of imparting information respecting our own 
 
 civilization and giving him good advice as to the future 
 policy in regard to China. 
 
,r , TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 The " Richmond " had arrived at the mouth of the 
 Pelho River awaiting Grant s return, and he now pre 
 pared to leave Tien-tsin where, notwithstanding the hot 
 weather, the time had passed pleasantly, for the viceroy 
 left nothing undone to make his stay agreeable. But the 
 crowning act of his hospitality was such a radical innova 
 tion of Chinese custom, that fifty years ago it would have 
 been thought sufficient to create a rebellion. This was 
 
 o 
 
 no less than giving a farewell dinner to Mrs. Grant, to 
 which the ladies of the American colony were invited to 
 meet her. This was verily a tumbling down of the 
 Chinese wall. It was a wonderful step in advanced 
 civilization, and foreshadowed greater reforms than any 
 imperial edict. 
 
 "You must remember the position in which woman is 
 held in China her seclusion, her withdrawal from affairs, 
 from social life ; her relation to a society which acknowl 
 edges polygamy and the widest freedom of divorce to 
 understand how radical a thing it was for the viceroy to 
 throw open the doors of his house and bring the foreign 
 barbarian to his hearth-stone. This dinner was arranged 
 for our last night in Tien-tsin, and in honor of Mrs. Grant. 
 The principal European ladies in the colony were invited. 
 Some of these ladies had lived in Tien-tsin for years and 
 had never seen the wife of the viceroy had never seen 
 him except through the blinds of the window of his chair. 
 The announcement that the viceroy had really invited 
 Mrs. Grant to meet his wife, and European ladies to be 
 in the company was even a more transcendent event than 
 the presence of General Grant or the arrival of the band. 
 Society rang with a discussion of the question which, 
 sincn Mother Eve introduced it to the attention of her 
 husband, has been the absorbing theme of civilization 
 what shall we wear? I have heard many expositions on 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. , ^ - 
 
 this theme, but in Tien-tsin it was new and important 
 Should the ladies go in simple Spartan style in muslin 
 and dimity, severely plain and colorless, trusting alone 
 to their graces and charms, and thus show their Chinese 
 sister the beauty that exists in beauty unadorned, or 
 should they go in all their glory, with gems, and silks, and 
 satins, and the latest development of French genius in 
 
 GONG IN A CHINESE TEMPLE. 
 
 the arrangement of their hair ? It was really an import 
 ant question, and not without a bearing, some of us 
 thought, on the domestic peace of the viceroy. The 
 arguments on either side were conducted with ability, and 
 I lament my inability to do them justice, and hand them 
 over to the consideration of American ladies at home. 
 But that is a world in which I have always been as the 
 
456 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 blind, and I listened to various phases of the discussion 
 in a helpless mood, and tried to follow it in vain. It 
 passed beyond me and entered into the sphere of 
 metaphysics, and became a moral, spiritual, almost a 
 theological theme, and was decided finally in favor of the 
 resources of civilization. The ladies went in all the glory 
 of French fashion and taste. 
 
 "The ladies came back from the vice-regal dinner about 
 eleven at night, and General Grant and party went im 
 mediately on board the Ashuelot. There we spoke our 
 farewells to our kind friends and said our good-bye as 
 lovers are said to prefer doing under the stars. Our visit 
 had been so pleasant, there had been so much grace, and 
 courtesy, and consideration in our reception, that it was 
 with sincere regret that we said farewell. The viceroy had 
 sent word that he would not take his leave of General 
 Grant until we were on the border of his dominions and out 
 at sea. He had gone ahead on his yacht, and with a fleet 
 of gun-boats, would await us at the mouth of the river and 
 accompany the General on board of the * Richmond. We 
 left our mooring at three in the morning, and were 
 awakened by the thunder of the guns from the forts. 
 Orders had been given that the forts should fire 
 salutes as the General passed, that the troops should 
 parade and the vessels dress with flags. The day was 
 warm and clear, and there was Oriental splendor in the 
 scene as we slowly moved along the narrow stream and 
 saw the people hurrying from the villages to the river 
 side, and the smoke that came from the embrasures, and 
 the clumsy, stolid junks teeming with sight-seers, the lines 
 of soldiery and the many-colored pennants fluttering in 
 the air. The river widened as we came to the sea, and 
 about eleven o clock we came to the vice-regal fleet at 
 anchor under the guns of the Waku forts. As we passed, 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. .** 
 
 every vessel manned yards, and all their guns and all the 
 guns from the forts thundered a farewell. Two or three 
 miles out we saw the tapering masts of the Richmond/ 
 which, after so long" a chase, had at last found General 
 Grant. The Ashuelot answered the salute and steamed 
 over the bar at half speed, so as to allow the viceroy s 
 fleet to join us. The bar was crossed and the blue sea 
 welcomed us and we kept on direct toward the Rich 
 mond. In a short time the white smoke was seen leap 
 ing from her deck. The sailors rushed up the sides and 
 we swung around amid the thunder of her guns. Then 
 Captain Benham came on board and was presented to 
 General Grant. The Chinese fleet came to an anchor, and 
 at noon, precisely, General Grant passed over the side 
 of the * Ashuelot/ On reaching the Richmond/ the 
 General was received by another salute, all the officers 
 being on deck in full uniform. The American ensign 
 was run up at the fore and another salute was fired, the 
 Chinese vessels joining in. 
 
 " After the General had been received, the barge was 
 sent to the viceroy s boat, and in a few minutes was seen 
 returning with Li-Hung Chang, followed by other boats 
 carrying the high officers of his government. General 
 Grant received the viceroy, and again the yards were 
 manned and a salute of nineteen guns was fired. The 
 viceroy and his suite were shown into the cabin. Tea 
 was served, and Li-Hung Chang having expressed a de 
 sire to see the vessel he was taken into every part, gave 
 its whole arrangement, and especially the guns, a minute 
 inspection. This lasted for an hour, and the viceroy re 
 turned to the cabin to take his leave. He seemed loth 
 to go, and remained in conversation for some time. 
 General Grant expressed his deep sense of the honor 
 which had been done him, his pleasure at having met the 
 
453 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 viceroy. He urged the viceroy to make a visit to the 
 United States, and in a few earnest phrases repeated his 
 hope that the statesmen of China would persevere in a 
 policy which brought them nearer to our civilization a 
 policy that would give new greatness to China, enable 
 them to control the fearful famines that devastated China 
 and secure the nation s independence. He repeated his 
 belief that there could be no true independence unless 
 China availed herself of the agencies which gave prestige 
 to other nations and with which she had been so largely 
 endowed by Providence. The viceroy was friendly, 
 almost affectionate. He hoped that General Grant would 
 not forget him ; that he would like to meet the General 
 now and then, and if China needed the General s counsel 
 he would send it. He feared he could not visit foreign 
 lands and regretted that he had not done so in 
 earlier years. He spoke of the friendship of the United 
 States as dear to China, and again commended to the 
 General and the American people the Chinese who had 
 gone to America. It made his heart sore to hear of their 
 ill-usage, and he depended upon the justice and honor of 
 our Government for their protection. He again alluded 
 to the Loochoo question with Japan, and begged General 
 Grant would speak to the Japanese emperor, and in se 
 curing justice remove a cloud from Asia which threw an 
 ominous shadow over the East. The General bade the 
 viceroy farewell, and said he would not forget what had 
 been said, and that he would always think of the viceroy 
 with friendship and esteem. So we parted, Li-Hung 
 Chang departing amid the roar of our cannon and the 
 manning of the yards, while the Richmond slowly- 
 pushed her prow into the rippling waves and steamed 
 along toward Japan." 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 GRANT DETERMINES TO VISIT THE GREAT WALL OF CHINA VARIOUS PLANS OF GOING 
 RESOLVES TO TAKE THE TRIP BY SEA TAKES THE "RICHMOND" FIRST 
 SIGHT OF THE WALL ITS APPEARANCE RETURN TRIP RECEPTION AT CHEFOO 
 ENTRANCE TO NAGASAKI GRAND RECEPTION THE JINRIKSHAW A STATE DIN 
 NER SPEECH OF GENERAL GRANT THE CITIZENS GIVE HIM A GRAND DINNER 
 AFTER THE FASHION OF THE OLD DAMIOS A CURIOUS BILL OF FARE FIRE 
 WORKS AND ILLUMINATION SINGING GIRLS THE SCENERY DRIVE HOME. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT had planned a trip to the 
 Great Wall of China while in Pekin, and Mr. 
 Holcombe had made all the arrangements. The 
 Chinese Government had, with ready courtesy, given or 
 ders as to his treatment by the way, and the important 
 question as to how to go, had formed a living theme of 
 talk amid the depressing days of midsummer weather at 
 the Legation. " You can go on horseback or on donkeys, 
 or in a cart, or in a mule litter, and when," says Mr. 
 Young, "we had nothing else to do, we went over the 
 merits and demerits of each form of conveyance. Our 
 old friend from the Nile the donkey whose achieve 
 ments gave us an exalted idea of his patience and endur 
 ance, would have won the preference, but for the condition 
 of the roads, which seem not to have been mended since 
 the Tartar invasion. Mr. Holcombe told me he had 
 traveled all through Northern China, and in every form 
 of conveyance, and that he found the most comfort in the 
 mule litter. I noticed, however, that much residence in 
 China, leads one to have moderate ideas on the question 
 of comfort, and so long as you can get on you are con 
 tent. Some of my rides in China were over roads and 
 
460 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 under circumstances that would have filled me with a 
 sense of wrong at home, and inspired me to write to the 
 newspapers, and denounce the authorities. But it was 
 what I expected to find in China, and, suppose one was 
 thumped about and bounced and jostled, it is a small 
 matter, especially when you are going around the world. 
 The mule litter is swung on poles, and carried by two 
 mules, one going ahead, the other behind. It is long 
 enough to enable you to recline. You creep in and 
 huddle up, and your mules dawdle away with you. Some 
 how it gave the impression of going to your own funeral. 
 The ordinary cart of the country, without springs, or 
 seats, or cushions, in which you sit with your legs curled 
 up, or dangling over the sides, is torture. If we had 
 made the trip we should have walked most of the way, 
 and had the carts and litters for smooth roads, and 
 fatigue, and other emergencies. The more the journey 
 was considered the less attractive it became. We were 
 under the cruel stress of unusually warm weather. The 
 thermometer was wandering about above the hundred 
 degree mark. To go at all we should have to travel at 
 night, and rest during the day. This consideration de 
 cided General Grant. His journey would be not alone 
 to see the Great Wall, but the people in the interior, and 
 especially to have a glimpse of Tartary. Travel by 
 night would prevent this, and so we gave up the journey." 
 "But," says the correspondent, "to come to China and 
 not see the Great Wall, would have subjected us to ad 
 verse criticism for the remainder of our lives. Conse 
 quently there was a relief to our susceptibilities, when we 
 were told that the Great Wall came to an end on the 
 seacoast on our way to Chefoo, and, with a favoring sea ? 
 we could run up and go on shore. This was resolved 
 upon, and as soon as the viceroy left us, the Richmond 1 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 461 
 
 steamed slowly up the coast, the Ashuelot going direct 
 to Chefoo. The contrast between the * Richmond and 
 the modest little Ashuelot, was marked, and we had a 
 sense of abundant space, of roominess, of opportunities 
 for walkino-. But the Ashuelot is a well-commanded 
 
 > 
 
 ship, and we left her with pleasant memories, and it was 
 not without a regret that we saw General Grant s flag 
 hauled down. It was our good fortune to have a smooth 
 sea, and when the morning came, we found ourselves 
 
 steaming slowly 
 along, the shores of 
 Northern China lin 
 ing the horizon. 
 Navigation in the 
 China seas is always 
 a problem, and the 
 coast past which we 
 were sailing is badly 
 surveyed. As a gen 
 eral thing, so care 
 fully has science 
 mapped and tracked 
 the ocean, that you 
 have only to seek 
 counsel from a vagrant, wandering star, and you will be 
 able to tell to the minute when some hill or promontory 
 will rise out of the waves. There was no such comfort on 
 the China coast, and the Richmond had to feel her 
 way, to grope along the coast, and find the Great Wall 
 as best we could. Fortunately the day was mild and clear, 
 and we could steam close to shore. All the morning 
 we sailed, watching the shore ; the brown, receding hills ; 
 the leaping, jutting masses of rock ; the bits of greenery 
 that seemed to rejoice in the sun ; the fishing villages in 
 
 CHINESE TRADING JUNK. 
 
462 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 houses of clay that run toward the shore. It was a 
 lonely sea. Heretofore, in our cruise on the China coast, 
 we had been burdened with company. The coasting- 
 track is so large that junks were always in sight, junks 
 and fishing boats, and all manner of strange, clumsy 
 craft. If you are used to travel on the vast seas, where 
 a sail a week is a rapture, this presence of many ships is 
 a consolation. It takes away the selfishness of sea life, 
 and makes you think that you are a part of the real 
 world. But it is at the same time a trial to the sailor. 
 The junk is an awkward, stupid trap, and always crossing 
 your bows, or edging up against you. The Chinaman 
 thinks it good luck to cross your bows, and if he can do 
 so with a narrow shave, just giving you a clip with his 
 rudder as he passes, he has had a joyous adventure. 
 While creeping up the China coast we were always on 
 the watch for junks, but never ran one down. It was 
 trying, however, to naval patience, and we found it so 
 much better to be alone on the sea and look for our Great 
 Wall as well as we could, undisturbed by the heedless- 
 ness of Chinese mariners. 
 
 "About two o clock in the afternoon, Lieutenant Sperry, 
 the navigator, had an experience that must have reminded 
 him of Columbus discovering America. He had found 
 the Great Wall. By carefully looking through the glasses, 
 in time we saw it a thick, brown, irregular line, that 
 crumbled into the sea. We steamed toward the beach, 
 and so gracious was the weather that we were able to 
 anchor within a mile of shore. All the boats were let 
 down, and as many as could be spared from the vessel 
 went ashore the captain, the officers, sailors in their blue, 
 tidy uniforms, and an especial sailor with a pot of white 
 paint to inscribe the fact that the Richmond had visited 
 the Great Wall. The Great Wall is the only monument 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 463 
 
 I have seen which could be improved by modern sacri 
 lege, and which could be painted over and plastered 
 without compunctions of conscience. From what I read 
 of this stupendous achievement, it was built under the 
 reign of a Chinese emperor who flourished two centuries 
 before Christ. This emperor was disturbed by the .con 
 stant invasion of the Tartars, a hardy nomadic race, who 
 came from the hills of Mongolia and plundered his peo 
 ple, who were, indeed, afterward to come, if only the em 
 peror could have opened the book of fate and known, 
 and rule the country and found the dynasty which exists 
 after a fashion still. So His Majesty resolved to build a 
 wall which should forever protect his empire from the 
 invader. The wall was built : and so well was it done 
 that here we come, wanderers from the antipodes, twenty 
 centuries after, and find it still a substantial, imposing, but 
 in the light of modern science a useless wall. It is 1,250 
 miles in length, and it is only when you consider that dis 
 tance and the incredible amount of labor it imposed that 
 the magnitude of the work breaks upon you. 
 
 " Landing on a smooth, pebbly beach, studded with 
 shells, we found a small village and saw the villagers 
 grinding corn. The children, a few beggars and a blind 
 person came to welcome us. The end of the wall which 
 juts into the sea has been beaten by the waves into a 
 ragged, shapeless condition. There was an easy ascent, 
 however, up stone steps. At the top there was a small 
 temple, evidently given to pious uses still, for there was a 
 keeper, who dickered about letting us in, and the walls 
 seemed to be in order, clean and painted. The wall at 
 the site of the temple was seventy-five or a hundred feet 
 wide, but this was only a special width to accommodate 
 the temple and present an imposing presence to the 
 sea. Its average width at the surface is from twenty to 
 
464 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 twenty-five feet, varying at the base from forty feet to a 
 hundred. It is made of stone and brick, and, considering 
 that twenty centuries have been testing its workmanship, 
 the work was well done. 
 
 " As a mere wall there is nothing imposing about the 
 Great Wall of China. It is interesting because it illus 
 trates the greatness of this wonderful empire in by-gone 
 ages, which could have constructed such a work over 
 mountains, across rivers and chasms, and through tangled 
 wildernesses. The late Mr. Seward said that the labor 
 which had builded the Great Wall would have built the 
 Pacific railways. General Grant thought that Mr. Seward 
 had underrated its extent. I believe, he said, * that the 
 labor expended on this wall could have built every rail 
 road in the United States, every canal and highway, and 
 most if not all of our cities. The story is that millions 
 were employed on the wall ; that the work lasted for ten 
 years. We walked about on the top and studied its sim 
 ple, massive workmanship, and looked upon the plains of 
 Mongolia, over which the dreaded Tartar came. On one 
 side of the wall was China, on the other Mongolia. We 
 were at the furthest end of our journey, and every step 
 now would be toward home. There was something like 
 a farewell in the feeling with which we looked upon the 
 cold land of mystery which swept on toward the north 
 cold and barren even under the warm sunshine. There 
 was something like a welcome in the waves as we again 
 greeted them and knew that the sea upon which we are 
 again venturing with the confidence that comes from lojig 
 and friendly association would carry us home to America, 
 and lighten even that journey with a glimpse of the land 
 of the rising sun. 
 
 " At five in the afternoon we were under way. The 
 ocean was smooth and settled into a dead calm a bless- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 465 
 
 ing- not always vouchsafed in the China seas. We ran 
 along all night across the gulf, and early in the morning 
 found ourselves at Chefoo. Judge Denny had gone 
 ahead, Chefoo being within his consular jurisdiction, to 
 see that all preparations were made for the reception of 
 General Grant. Chefoo is a port, a summer watering- 
 place for the European residents of Shanghai and Tient 
 sin. It is situated on the northern side of the Shantung 
 promontory, in latitude 3 7 3 5 5 6" north and longitude 124 
 22 33" east. Chefoo does not present an interesting ap 
 pearance from the sea. The hills rise and form a mod 
 erate background to the horizon, and on the hill was a 
 group of commodious houses, showing that the European 
 had put his foot here and was seeking the summer winds. 
 Chefoo was opened for trade in 1861, as one of the 
 results of the French and English expedition against 
 Pekin. The province of Shantung, of which Chefoo is 
 the open port, was for a long time one of the out-of-the- 
 way provinces of China. It is famous for its climate. 
 The health-seeking foreigner has discovered the dryness 
 of its atmosphere, the cool breezes which temper the 
 pitiless summer rays the firm, bracing winds, which 
 bring strength with the winter. As Europeans come 
 more and more to China, Chefoo grows in value, and in 
 addition there is a trade especially in the bean pancake 
 which gives it a mercantile vitality. The bean pancake 
 is used as a fertilizer all over China, and is made by 
 throwing peas into a trough and crushing them under a 
 heavy stone wheel. The oil is pressed out, and what re 
 mains goes into the fields to give new life to the wheat 
 and tea. You can have an idea of the extent of trade 
 when you know that in 1877 tne amount of beans and of 
 bean cake exported was more than a hundred million 
 pounds. There is a good trade in cotton, and the posi- 
 44 
 
465 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 tion which the town holds toward Japan, Corea and the 
 Pacific setdements of the Russian Empire, insure Chefoo 
 a commercial prominence on the China seas. In winter, 
 when the Peicho River is frozen and communication with 
 Pekin is interrupted, Chefoo assumes new importance as 
 the seaport of Northern China. 
 
 " At midnight, General Grant and party, accompanied 
 by Captain Benham, returned on board the Richmond. 
 There was one incident on the return of a novel and pic 
 turesque character. According 1 to the regulations of the 
 American navy, no salutes can be fired by men-of-war 
 after the sun goes down. But the Richmond was to 
 sail as soon as the General embarked, and before the sun 
 arose would be out at sea. So the Chinese gun- boats 
 sent word that they would fire twenty-one guns as Gen 
 eral Grant passed in his barge. The announcement 
 caused some consternation in the well-ordered minds of 
 our naval friends, and there was a grave discussion as to 
 what regulations permitted under the circumstances. It 
 would be rude to China not to return her salute. There 
 were especial reasons for going out of the way to recog 
 nize any honor shown us by the Chinese. Our mission 
 in those lands, so far as it was a mission, was one of peace, 
 and courtesy, and good-will. Captain Benham, with the 
 ready ability and common sense which as a naval officer 
 he possesses in an eminent degree, decided that the 
 courtesy should be honored and answered gun for gun, 
 and that in so doing he would be carrying out in spirit at 
 least the regulations which should govern a naval com 
 mander. So it came to pass that Lieutenant-commander 
 Clarke found himself performing a duty which I suppose 
 never before devolved upon a naval officer, holding a 
 midnight watch with the gun crew at quarters, ready for 
 the signal which was to justify him in startling the repose 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 467 
 
 of nature on sea and shore with the hoarse and lurid 
 menace of his guns. General Grant s launch had hardly 
 moved before the Chinese gun-boats thundered forth, gun 
 after gun, their terrifying compliment. These boats have 
 no saluting batteries, and as the guns fired were of heavy 
 calibre the effect of the fire was startling and sublime. 
 The General s launch slowly steamed on, the smoke of 
 the guns rolling along the surface of the waves and cloud 
 ing the stars. When the last gun was fired there was a 
 pause, and far off in the darkness our vessel, like a phan 
 tom ship, silent and brooding, suddenly took life and a 
 bolt of fire came from her bows, followed swiftly by the 
 sullen roar of the guns. A salute of cannon under any 
 circumstances is an imposing sight. There is so much 
 sincerity in the voice of a cannon that you listen to it as 
 the voice of truth. The power it embodies is pitiless and 
 awful, and felt at night, amid the solemn silence of the 
 universe, it becomes indescribably grand. I have seen 
 few things more impressive and thrilling than the mid 
 night salute fired at Chefoo in honor of General Grant. 
 " So it came to pass that at midnight, in fire and flame 
 the angry echoes leaping from shore to shore, and from 
 hill to hill, and over the tranquil waters of a whispering 
 sea we said farewell to China. Farewell, and again 
 farewell to the land of poetry and romance, antiquity and 
 dreams, of so much capacity, of so little promise, whose 
 civilization is in some things a wonder to us and in others 
 a reproach. We are but as children in the presence of 
 an empire, whose population is ten times as large as ours, 
 whose dominions are more extensive, whose records have 
 gone back unbroked and unquestioned to the ages of our 
 mythology, whose influence has been felt in every part of 
 the world, whose religion, and culture, and achievements 
 excite the admiration of the learned, and whose conserva- 
 
468 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 tism has stood the shock and solicitation of every age. 
 Ancient, vast, unyielding, impenetrable, China sits en 
 throned in the solitude of Asia, remembering that she 
 was in her splendor before the Roman empire was born, 
 and that her power has survived the mutations of every 
 age. What is her power to-day ? That is the question 
 of the nineteenth century, and it is a question which can 
 not be asked too seriously. 
 
 "There was no special incident in our run from China. 
 On the morning of the 2ist of June, we found ourselves 
 threading our way through beautiful islands and rocks, 
 rich with green, that stood like sentinels in the sea, and 
 hills on which were trees and gardens, and high, com 
 manding cliffs, covered with green and smooth, tranquil 
 waters, into the bay of Nagasaki. Nagasaki ranks 
 among the beautiful harbors in the world. But the beauty 
 that welcomed us had the endearing quality that it re 
 minded us of home. All these weeks we had been in 
 the land of the palm, and we were now again in the land 
 of the pine. We had seen nature in luxuriant moods, 
 running into riotous forms, strange and rank. We were 
 
 o > 
 
 weary of the cocoanut and the brown, parched soil, of 
 the skies of fire, and forests with wild and creeping 
 things. It had become so oppressive that when our 
 course turned toward the north, there was great joy. 
 
 "The Richmond steamed between the hills and came 
 to an anchorage. It was the early morning, and over the 
 water were shadows of cool, inviting green. Nagasaki, 
 nestling on her hillsides, looked cozy and beautiful, and, 
 it being our first glimpse of a Japanese town, we studied 
 it through our glasses, studied every feature the 
 scenery, the picturesque attributes of the city, the ter 
 raced hills that rose beyond, every rood under cultiva 
 tion; the quaint, curious houses; the multitudes of flags 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 409 
 
 which showed that the town knew of our coming, and 
 was preparing to do us honor. We noted, also, that the 
 wharves were lined with a multitude, and that the avail 
 able population were waiting to see the guest whom their 
 nation honors, and who is known in common speech as 
 the American Mikado. Then the Richmond ran up the 
 Japanese standard and fired twenty-one guns in honor of 
 Japan. The forts answered the salute. Then the Japan 
 ese gun-boats and the forts displayed the American 
 ensign, and fired a salute of twenty-one guns in honor of 
 General Grant. Mr. W. P. Mangum, our consul, and 
 his wife came on board. In a short time the Japanese 
 barge was seen coming, with Prince Dati and Mr. 
 Yoshida and the govenor, all in the splendor of court 
 uniforms. These officials were received with due honors, 
 and escorted to the cabin. Prince Dati said that he had 
 been commanded by the emperor to meet General Grant 
 on his landing, to welcome him in the name of His Ma 
 jesty, and to attend upon him as the emperor s personal 
 representative so long as the General remained in Japan. 
 The value of this compliment can be understood when 
 you know that Prince Dati is one of the highest noble 
 men in Japan. 
 
 "At one o clock on the 2ist of June, General Grant, ac 
 companied by Prince Dati, Mr. Yoshida and the governor, 
 landed in Nagasaki. The Japanese man-of-war Kango, 
 commanded by Captain Zto, had been sent down to Na 
 gasaki to welcome the General The landing took place 
 in the Japanese barge. 
 
 " From the time that General Grant came into the wa 
 ters of Japan it was the intention of the government that 
 he should be the nation s guest. As soon as the General 
 stepped into the barge the Japanese vessels and the bat 
 teries on shore thundered out their welcome, the yards of 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the vessels were manned, and as the barge moved slowly 
 along the crews of the ships in the harbor cheered. It 
 was over a mile from the Richmond to the shore. The 
 landing-place had been arranged not in the foreign sec 
 tion nor the Dutch concession, carrying out the intention 
 of having the reception entirely Japanese. Lines of 
 troops were formed, the steps were covered with red 
 cloth, and every space, and standing-spot, and coigne of 
 vantage, was covered with people. The General s boat 
 touched the shore, and with Mrs. Grant on his arm, and 
 followed by the colonel, the Japanese officials and the 
 members of his party, he slowly walked up the platform, 
 bowing to the multitude who made this obeisance in his 
 honor. There is something strange in the grave decorum 
 of an Oriental crowd strange to us who remember the 
 rintnno- cheer and the electric hurra of Saxon lands. 
 
 o o 
 
 The principal citizens of Nagasaki came forward and 
 were presented, and after a few minutes pause our party 
 stepped, into jinrickshaws and were taken to our 
 quarters. 
 
 "The jinrickshaw is the common vehicle of Japan. It is 
 built on the principle of a child s perambulator or an in 
 valid s chair, except that it is much lighter. Two men go 
 ahead and pull and one behind pushes. But this only on 
 occasions of ceremony. One man is quite able to manage 
 a jinrickshaw. Those used by the General had been sent 
 down from Tokio from the palace. Our quarters in Na 
 gasaki had been prepared in the Japanese town. A 
 building used for a female normal school had been pre 
 pared. It was a half mile from the landing, and the 
 whole road had been decorated with flags, American and 
 Japanese entwined, with arches of green boughs and 
 flowers. Both sides of the road were lined with people, 
 who bowed low to the General as he passed. On reach- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 1 ^ t 
 
 47 1 
 
 ing our residence, the Japanese officials of the town were 
 all presented. Then came the foreign consuls in a body, 
 who were presented by the American consul, Mr. Man- 
 gum. After this came the officers of the Japanese ves 
 sels, all in uniform. Then came a delegation represent 
 ing the foreign residents of all nationalities in Nagasaki, 
 who asked to present an address." 
 
 This, like all others, was very complimentary, for which 
 Grant returned his thanks, and expressed his gratification 
 at being able to visit Japan. The governor of the 
 province gave a state dinner, got up in French style, and 
 welcomed General Grant in a very neat speech, which 
 was made in Japanese. 
 
 This address was spoken in Japanese. At its close, an 
 interpreter, who stood behind His Excellency during its 
 delivery, advanced and read the above translation. When 
 the governor finished, General Grant arose, and said : 
 
 " YOUR EXCELLENCY, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : You 
 have here to-night several Americans who have the talent 
 of speech, and who could make an eloquent response to 
 the address in which my health is proposed. I have no 
 such gift, and I never lamented its absence more than 
 now, when there is so much that I want to say about your 
 country, your people and your progress. I have not been 
 an inattentive observer of that progress, and in America 
 we have been favored with accounts of it from my distin 
 guished friend, whem you all know as the friend of Japan, 
 and whom it was my privilege to send as minister I mean 
 Judge Bingham. The spirit which has actuated the mis 
 sion of Judge Bingham the spirit of sympathy, support 
 and conciliation not only expressed my own sentiments, 
 but those of America. America has much to eain in the 
 
 o 
 
 East no nation has greater interests but America has 
 nothing to gain except what comes from the cheerful ac- 
 
.72 
 
 TRAVELS OF GEXERAL GRANT. 
 
 quiescence of the Eastern people and insures them as 
 much benefit as it does us. I should be ashamed of my 
 country if its relations with other nations, and especially 
 with these ancient and most interesting empires in the 
 East, were based upon any other idea. We have rejoiced 
 over your progress. We have watched you step by step. 
 We have followed the unfolding of your old civilization 
 and its absorbing the new. You have had our profound 
 sympathy in that work, our sympathy in the troubles 
 which came with it, and our friendship. I hope it may 
 continue that it may long continue. As I have said, 
 America has great interests in the East. She is your 
 next neighbor. She is more affected by the Eastern 
 populations than any other Power. She can never be 
 insensible to what is doing here. Whatever her influence 
 may be, I am proud to think that it has always been ex 
 erted in behalf of justice and kindness. No nation needs 
 from the outside Powers justice and kindness more than 
 Japan, because the work that has made such marvelous 
 progress in the past few years is a work in which we are 
 deeply concerned, in the success of which we see a new 
 era in civilization and which we should encourage. I do 
 not know, gentlemen, that I can say anything more than 
 this in response to the kind words of the governor. 
 Judge Bingham can speak with much more eloquence and 
 much more authority as our minister. But I could not 
 allow the occasion to pass without saying how deeply 
 I sympathized with Japan in her efforts to advance, 
 and how much those efforts were appreciated in 
 America. In that spirit I ask you to unite with me in 
 a sentiment : The prosperity and the independence of 
 Japan. " 
 
 General Grant, a few minutes later, arose and said that 
 he wished to propose another toast a personal one 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 47 3 
 
 the drinking of which would be a great pleasure to him. 
 This was the health of Judge Bingham, the American 
 minister to Japan. He had appointed the judge minister, 
 and he was glad to know that the confidence expressed 
 in that appointment had been confirmed by the admiration 
 and respect of the Japanese people. When a minister 
 serves his own country as well as Judge Bingham has 
 served America, and in doing so wins the esteem of the 
 authorities and the people to whom he is accredited, he 
 has achieved the highest success in diplomacy. The 
 Japanese minister, in a short speech, corroborated what 
 Grant had said about Mr. Bingham, which courtesy the 
 latter acknowledged in a few appropriate words. 
 
 A day or two after, the citizens, not the officials of Na 
 gasaki, gave General Grant a dinner, not a Parisian one, 
 but such as the old Damios were accustomed to give. 
 An old temple in the heart of the city was selected as a 
 dining-hall, and about twenty guests sat down to the vari 
 ous tables for every person had a table to himself. The 
 merchants who gave the dinner differed from Americans 
 in this respect -instead of being important personages 
 at the feast they waited on the tables, assisted by a small 
 army of attendants dressed in the old costume of the 
 Japanese. 
 
 The bill of fare was almost a volume, and embraced 
 over fifty courses. The wine was served in unglazed 
 porcelain wine cups, on white wooden stands. The appe 
 tite was pampered in the beginning with dried fish, edible 
 seaweeds and isinglass, in something of the Scandinavian 
 style, except that the attempt did not take the form of 
 brandy and raw fish. The first serious dish was com 
 posed of crane, seaweed, moss, rice-bread and potatoes ? 
 which they picked over in a curious way as*though they 
 
474 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 were at an auction sale of remnants, anxious to rummage 
 out a bargain. The soup when it first came for it came 
 many times was an honest soup of fish, like a delicate 
 fish chowder. Then came strange dishes, as ragout and 
 as soup in bewildering confusion. The first was called 
 namasu and embodied fish, clams, chestnuts, rock mush 
 rooms and ginger. Then, in various combinations, the 
 following: Duck, truffles, turnips, dried bonito, melons, 
 pressed salt, aromatic shrubs, snipe, egg-plant, jelly, 
 boiled rice, snapper, shrimp, potatoes, mushroom, cab 
 bage, lassfish, orange flowers, powdered fish, flavored 
 with plum juice and walnuts, raw carp sliced, mashed 
 fish, baked fish, isinglass, fish boiled with pickled beans, 
 wine and rice again. This all came in the first course, 
 and as a finale to the course, there was a sweetmeat com 
 posed of white and red bean jelly-cake and boiled black 
 mushroom. "With this came powdered tea, which had a 
 green, monitory look, and suggested your earliest ex 
 periences in medicine. 
 
 It would be a mistake to suppose that this constituted 
 the bill of fare of this extraordinary dinner it embraced 
 only the first course, out of twenty. When it was 
 finished, two of the merchants came forward and read a 
 complimentary address. Grant, in his short reply, after 
 returning the compliments offered him, said that he took 
 the dinner as a compliment coming, as it did, from the 
 citizens of Nagasaki, entirely unofficial. " That," said he, 
 " I take as an especial compliment, for while I am deeply 
 gratified for all that your Government is doing to render 
 my trip here agreeable and instructive, I have a peculiar 
 pleasure in meeting those who are not in authority, who 
 are the citizens of the country. I shall take away from 
 Nagasaki the most grateful remembrances of your hospi 
 tality and the most pleasant recollections of the place." 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. ,-^ 
 
 This short speech-making being ended, they sat down to 
 the second course, if possible, more complicated and ex 
 traordinary than the first, winding up with powdered tea 
 and sweetmeats, composed of white and red bean jelly- 
 cake and boiled black mushrooms. Human capacity has 
 its limit, and is about the same in a king as a peasant, and 
 it seemed to have reached its limit here when this second 
 course was finished. A little time was needed to settle 
 both before the third was entered upon, and all arose and 
 sauntered out of doors, where they could look down 
 upon the bay and the enfolding hills, over which the 
 sweet and placid night was drawing its curtains. Grant 
 could here enjoy the beautiful scene and his cigar at the 
 same time. 
 
 A trailing line of mist rises from the town and slowly 
 floats along the hillside, veiling the beauty upon which 
 you have been dwelling all the afternoon. The green 
 becomes gray, and on the tops there are purple shadows, 
 and the shining waters of the bay become opaque. The 
 ships swing at anchor, and you can see above the trim 
 masts and primset spars of the "Richmond, the colors of 
 America. The noble ship had sought a shelter near the 
 further shore, and as you look a light ascends the rigging 
 and gave token that those in command were setting the 
 watches for the night. Nearer us, distinguishable from 
 her white wheelhouse, rode the "Ashuelot," while ships of 
 other lands doted the bay. As you look, a ball of fire 
 shoots into the air and hangs pendant for a moment, and 
 explodes into a mass of shooting, corruscating stars, and 
 you know that our friends in the town are rejoicing over 
 the presence of General Grant. From the other hills a 
 flame breaks out and struggles a few moments, and be 
 comes a steady asserting flame, and you know that this 
 is a bonfire, and that the people have buildecl it to show 
 
476 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 their joy. Other bonfires creep out of the blackness, for 
 while you have been looking, night has come, and reigns 
 over hill, and valley, and sea, and green has become black. 
 Lines of light streak the town, and you see various dec 
 orations in lanterns, forming quaint shapes. One shapes 
 itself into the flag of America, another into the flag of 
 Japan, another into a triangle, another into a Japanese 
 word the word in red lanterns, surrounded by a border 
 of white lanterns and Mr. Yoshiclo translates the word 
 to mean a sentiment in honor of General Grant. These 
 lights in curious forms shoot up in all parts of the town, 
 and you know that Nagasaki is illuminated, and that 
 while here in this venerable temple the merchants have 
 assembled to give us entertainment, the inhabitants are 
 answering their hospitality with blazing tokens of appro 
 val. -As you look below, on the streets around the temple, 
 you see the crowd bearing lanterns, chattering, wonder 
 ing, looking on, taking what comfort they can out of the 
 festival in honor of the stranger within their gates. But 
 the feast is not over and this quiet night scene must be 
 abandoned for the dinner-table; candles have been 
 brought into the old temple and placed on a pedestal 
 before each table, while the walls have been draped 
 during this hour s recess with rich silks, embroidered 
 with gold and silver, and covered with curious legends of 
 Japan. 
 
 The guests were scarcely seated, each at his own table, 
 before the merchant hosts came in, bringing meats. 
 They first advanced to the centre of the room to Grant, 
 and, kneeling, pressed their foreheads to the floor, and 
 then the course begins. There is no bread nor cham 
 pagne to help a man along with this second course; in 
 stead, a liquor made of rice, which was poured out of a 
 tea-pot into shallow lacquered saucers and drank like tea 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAN7\ .*>- 
 
 in an old New England town. A soup composed of 
 carp, and mushrooms, and aromatic herbs, comes in, but 
 it is too late for soup to any but a Japanese, whose diges 
 tive organs seem made of an entirely different material 
 from those of an American. Fish comes next, showing 
 evidently that the dinner, so far as an American under 
 stands dinner, has got to be all gone over again. Then 
 came sky-lark prepared with wheat-flour cake and gruel. 
 Soup of buckwheat and egg-plant followed these. Grant 
 looks at it, pushes it aside, and lights a cigar. This is a 
 dish he understands and is not afraid of, and enjoys it as 
 he looks out and sees the heavens ablaze with rockets, 
 weaving their fiery net-work of white, red and blue over 
 the summer sky. Now comes in a dish composed of sea 
 fish, garnished with a sort of mushroon, the roots of the 
 lily and pumpkin stems flavored, if it can be called fla 
 voring, with arrow-root and horse-radish. Grant s 
 investigations of these new dishes he keeps to himself 
 and eats what he likes, and makes up for all deficiencies 
 in a cigar. 
 
 More than four hours had now passed in trying to dis 
 pose of this Japanese dinner, when, to vary the entertain 
 ment, music was introduced. First came three girls, 
 daughters of the merchants who have given the dinner, 
 dressed in blue silk gowns, white collars and heavily- 
 brocaded pearl-colored sashes, and play, the chief instru 
 ment being a sort of harpsichord. It is an overture, after 
 which fourteen maidens enter, similarly dressed, and 
 ranging themselves under the rich tapestry, play also, 
 and sing in a monotonous tone, the song being carried 
 forward bv a solo singer, the rest coming in at the chorus. 
 It is an original song, composed for the occasion, the 
 theme being the glory of America and General Grant. 
 When it was finished, twelve dancing-girls entered, clad 
 
4j3 TRAVELS OF GENERAL CRAXT. 
 
 in crimson dresses, something like pantaloons, with 
 trains attached, which trip them as they walked. But the 
 director kept on his hands and knees, taking care that 
 they did not entangle the legs while the dancers attended 
 to their steps and graceful evolutions. After dancing 
 this sort of minuet, accompanied by a monotonous, low 
 thrumming upon the instruments, they filed out and a new 
 set entered, wearing masks resembling a large doll s face, 
 and carrying rattles and fans the latter being used to 
 keep time with. These were followed by four other per 
 formers in blue robes, trimmed with gold, and carrying 
 long wands, entwined in gold and red, from which fell 
 festoons of pink blosoms, and danced a pantomime. All 
 this time the music kept playing no particular tune, yet 
 all the same to Grant, who knew little of music except 
 bugle-calls on the field of battle. The pantomime over, 
 eight children, hardly big enough to walk, toddled in, 
 dressed in white, embroidered in green and red, who went 
 through with a dance, mingled with contortions supposed 
 to resemble a dragon at play. But the feast was not 
 over. Another course now came in. First came ser 
 vants, bearing two trees, one of the pine, the other of the 
 plum. The plum-tree was in full blossom. One of these 
 was set on a small table in front of Mrs. Grant, the other 
 in front of the General. Another decoration was a cherry- 
 tree, surmounting a large basin, in which were living 
 carp fish. The carp has an important position in the 
 legends of Japan. It is the emblem of ambition and 
 resolution. 
 
 But the description of this strange dinner in this old 
 temple becomes as monotonous as the dinner itself, and 
 how monotonous that must have been may be inferred 
 from the single fact, that seven different kinds of soup 
 were served, while in this country, it is considered ill-bred 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 479 
 
 to ask for even a second help of one soup. But dinners 
 vary in different parts of the world, and one is reminded 
 of the old Latin proverb, "degustibus nilest disputandum" 
 for it becomes evident there can be no disputing of tastes 
 in this world. Seven soups and twenty courses of food> 
 with any quantity of rice liquor, one would think was 
 enough. But the end was not yet. Fried snapper, a 
 fish that has already been served up in a half a dozen 
 different ways, with shrimps, eggs, egg-plants, mashed 
 turnips come on, followed by five dishes of "shimedai," 
 composed of strange ingredients, like the broth in the 
 witches cauldron. The last crowning glory of the feast 
 was four dishes of sashimi, the striking delectable feature 
 of which was, live fish brought in and sliced, and served 
 while frisking about in the dish. After six or seven hours 
 spent in trying to make away with what ought to have 
 produced the Asiatic cholera, and which one wonders, as 
 he goes over the bill of fare, is not a permanent national 
 disease, the feast wound up with pears prepared with 
 horse-radish, and wheat-flour cake, and powdered ice. 
 The Japanese are not a large people, not nearly as large 
 as they ought to be if they can spend seven hours in 
 loading away such an astonishing amount of freight as 
 this bill of fare includes. But it must not be supposed 
 that General Grant quietly sat all this out, nibbling at the 
 dishes or progging them to find what they were made of, 
 for though he is called a stolid and imperturbable man, 
 he is anything but a patient one. It is true his impatience 
 does not exhibit itself in fretfulness of words and manner, 
 but in quietly removing the cause and of taking himself 
 out of the way of it. So, here long, ago he had left his 
 table vacant, and retired to the hill-top, on which the 
 temple stood, and with his cigar to soothe him, sat looking 
 placidly off upon the slumbering sea, thinking, perhaps, 
 
i ; 
 
 TRAVELS OF GEXERAL CRAX7. 
 
 of the strange scenes around him, and through which he 
 was passing, or the stirring events of his past life, or 
 dreaming of some quiet home in the future in his native 
 land. 
 
 "All this time the music is in full flow, and the lights of 
 the town grow brighter with the shades of darkening 
 night, and some of the company have long since taken 
 refuge from the dinner in cigars, and over the low brick 
 wall and in the recesses of the temple grounds, crowds 
 begin to cluster and form, and below, at the foot of the 
 steps, the crowd grows larger and larger, and you hear 
 the buzz of the throng and the clinking of the lanterns of 
 the chair-bearers, for the whole town was in festive mood, 
 and high up in our open temple on our hillside we have 
 become a show for the town. Well, that is only a small 
 return for the measureless hospitality we have enjoyed, 
 and if we can gratify an innocent curiosity, let us think of 
 so much pleasure given in our way through the world. 
 As we drove home through the illuminated town, brilliant 
 with lanterns, and fire-works, and arches, and bonfires, it 
 was felt that we had been honored by an entertainment 
 such as we may never again expect to see." 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 48 I 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 TOKIO OR YEDO LANDING IN YOKOHAMA -ARRIVAL AT TOKIO ADDRESS TO GEN 
 ERAL GRANT HIS RESPONSE A REFINEMENT OF COURTESY THE FOURTH OP 
 JULY THE DAY HE WAS RECEIVED BY THE EMPEROR DRIVE TO THE IMPERIAL 
 PALACE DESCRIPTION OF IT JAPANESE CABINET THE EMPEROR AND EMPRESS 
 ADDRESS OF THE EMPEROR GENERAL GRANT S REPLY ADDRESS OF THE EMPRESS 
 TO MRS. GRANT THE LATTER s RESPONSE FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION 
 SPEECH OF MR. BINGHAM REPLY OF GENERAL GRANT ILLUMINATION REVIEW 
 OF THE JAPANESE ARMY AN IMPERIAL BREAKFAST A PRIVATE INTERVIEW 
 BETWEEN GRANT AND THE EMPEROR. 
 
 BUT the great event in General Grant s visit to 
 Japan was his reception at the capital, Tokio, as it 
 is now called, but better known as Yedo, and in 
 the old geographies, Jeddo. -It lies at the head of the 
 bay of the same name, and about twenty miles from 
 Yokohama, the chief port of Japan. The scene which 
 the harbor presented on the day of Grant s arrival, was 
 one of the most brilliant ever witnessed. 
 
 " The day was clear and warm a home July day tem 
 pered with the breezes of the sea. There were men-of- 
 war of various nations in the harbor, and as the exact 
 hour of the General s coming was known, everybody was 
 on the lookout. At ten o clock our Japanese convoy 
 passed ahead and entered the harbor. At half-past ten 
 the Richmond steamed slowly in, followed by the 
 Ashuelot. As soon as the Monongahela* made out 
 our flag, and especially the flag at the fore, which denoted 
 the General s presence, her guns rolled out a salute. 
 For a half hour the bay rang with the roar of cannon and 
 
 was clouded with smoke. The Richmond fired a salu .e 
 45 
 
482 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 to the flag- of Japan. The Japanese vessels, the French, 
 the Russian, all fired gun after gun. Then came the 
 official visits. Admiral Patterson and staff, the admirals 
 and commanding officers of other fleets, Consul-General 
 Van Burcn, officers of the Japanese navy, blazing in uni 
 form ; the officers of the Richmond were all in full 
 uniform, and for an hour the deck of the flag-ship was a 
 blaze of color and decoration. General Grant received 
 the various dignitaries on the deck as they arrived. 
 
 "It was arranged that General Grant should land at 
 noon. The foreign residents were anxious that the land 
 ing should be on the foreign concession, but the Japanese 
 preferred that it should be in their own part of the city. 
 At noon the imperial barge and the s^eam launch came 
 alongside the Richmond. General Grant, accompanied 
 by Mrs. Grant, his son, Prince Dat$, Judge Bingham, Mr. 
 Yoshida, Captain Benham Commander Johnson, Lieu 
 tenant Stevens, Dr. Bransford, Lieutenant May and Pay 
 master Thomson the naval officers specially detailed to 
 accompany him passed over the side and went on the 
 bar^e. As soon as General Grant entered the ban^c 
 
 O C> 
 
 the * Richmond manned yards and fired a salute. In an 
 instant, as if by magic, the Japanese, the French, the 
 Russians, manned yards and fired salutes. The German 
 ship hoisted the imperial standard, and the English vessel 
 dressed ship. Amid the roar of cannon and the waving 
 of flags the General s boat slowly moved to the shore. As 
 he passed each of the saluting ships the General took oft 
 his hat and bowed, while the guards presented arms and 
 the bands played the American national air. The scene 
 was wonderfully grand the roar of the cannon, the 
 clouds of smoke wandering off over the waters the: 
 stately noble vessels streaming with flags the yards 
 manned with seamen the guards on deck the officers 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 483 
 
g TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 in full uniform gathered on the quarterdeck to salute the 
 General as he passed the music and the cheers which 
 came from the Japanese and the merchant ships the 
 crowds that clustered on the wharves the city, and over 
 all, a clear, mild July day, with grateful breezes ruffling 
 the sea. 
 
 "It was rather a long way to the Admiralty pier, but at 
 half-past twelve the General s boat came to the wharf. 
 There in waiting were the princes, ministers and the 
 high officials of the Japanese government. As the Gen 
 eral landed, the Japanese band played the American airs 
 and Iwakura, one of the prime ministers and perhaps the 
 foremost statesman in Japan, advanced and shook his 
 hands. The General had known Iwakura in America, 
 and the greeting was that of old friends. There were 
 also Ito, Inomoto and Tereshima, also members of the 
 Cabinet ; two princes of the imperial family and a retinue 
 of officials." Mr. Yoshida presented the General and 
 party to the Japanese, and a few moments were spent in 
 conversation. Day fire-works were sent off at the moment 
 of the landing representations of the American and 
 Japanese flags entwined. That, however, is the legend 
 that greets you at every door-sill the two flags entwined. 
 The General and party, accompanied by the ministers 
 and officials and the naval officers drove to the railway 
 station. There was a special train in waiting, and at a 
 quarter past one the party started for Tokio. 
 
 "The ride to Tokio, the capital of Japan, was a little less 
 than an hour, over a smooth road, and through a pleas 
 ant, well-cultivated and apparently prosperous country. 
 Our train being special, made no stoppage, but I observed 
 as we passed the stations that they were clean and neat, 
 and that the people had assembled to wave flags and 
 bow as we whirled past. About two o clock our train 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. . o - 
 
 entered the station. A large crowd was in waiting, 
 mainly the merchants and principal citizens of Tokio. 
 As the General descended from the train a committee of 
 the citizens advanced and asked to read an address. 
 The following was then read in Japanese by Mr. Fukuchi^ 
 and in English by Dr. McCartee: 
 
 " SiR: On behalf of the people of Tokio, we beg to 
 congratulate you on your safe arrival. How you crushed 
 a rebellion and afterward ruled a nation in peace and 
 righteousness is known over the whole world, and there 
 is not a man in Japan who does not admire your high 
 character and illustrious career. Although the great 
 Pacific Ocean stretches for thousands of miles between 
 your country and ours, your people are our next neigh 
 bors in the East, and, as it was chiefly through your in 
 itiative that we entered upon those relations, and that 
 commerce with foreigners which have now attained such 
 
 o 
 
 a flourishing condition, our countrymen have always cher 
 ished a good feeling for your people and look upon them 
 more than on any other foreign nation as their true 
 friends. Moreover, it was during the happy times of 
 your presidency that the two countries became more 
 closely acquainted and connected, and almost every im 
 provement that has been made in our country may be 
 traced to the example and lessons received from yours. 
 For years past not only our minister, but any one of our 
 countrymen who went to your country, was received with 
 hospitality and courtesy. It is therefore impossible that 
 our countrymen should now forbear from giving expres 
 sion to their gratification and gratitude. 
 
 "Your visit to our shores is one of those rare events 
 that happen once in a thousand years. The citizens of 
 Tokio consider it a great honor that they have been 
 afforded the opportunity of receiving you as their guest, 
 
,0* TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 4^>o 
 
 and they cherish the hope that this event will still more 
 cement the friendship between the two nations in the 
 future. We now offer you a hearty and respectful wel 
 come. 
 
 " THE TOKIO RECEPTION COMMITTEE. 
 * The jd July, 187$: 
 
 "General Grant said: 
 
 " GENTLEMEN : I am very much obliged for this kind re 
 ception, and especially for your address. It affords me 
 great pleasure to visit Tokio. I have been some days in 
 Japan, having seen several points of interest in the in 
 terior and on the inland sea. I have been gratified to 
 witness the prosperity and advancement of which I had 
 heard so much, and in which my countrymen have taken 
 so deep an interest. I am pleased to hear your kind ex 
 pressions toward the United States. We have no senti 
 ment there that is not friendly to Japan, that does not 
 wish her prosperity and independence, and a continuance 
 on her part of her noble policy. The knowledge that 
 your country is prosperous and advancing is most grati 
 fying to the people of the United States. It is my sincere 
 wish that this friendship may never be broken. For this 
 kind welcome to the capital of Japan I am again very 
 much obliged. 
 
 " At the close of the address, the General was led to his 
 carnage the private carriage of the emperor. As he 
 stepped out, several Japanese officials met him ; among 
 others was His Excellency J. Pope Hennessy, the British 
 Governor of Hong Kong, whose guest the General had 
 been. The General shook hands warmly with the 
 governor, who said he came as a British subject to be 
 among those who welcomed General Grant to Japan. 
 The General s carriage drove slowly in, surrounded by 
 cavalry, through lines of infantry presenting arms, through 
 
TRA VJLLS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 487 
 
 a dense mass of people, under an arch of flowers and 
 evergreens, until amid the flourish of trumpets and the 
 beating of drums, he descended at the house that had 
 been prepared for his reception the emperor s summer 
 palace of Eurio Kwan. 
 
 "The Japanese, with a refinement of courtesy quite 
 French in its way, were solicitous that General Grant 
 should not have any special honors in Japan until he had 
 
 ROYAL CARRIAGE JAPAN. 
 
 seen the emperor. It was felt that as the General was 
 the guest of the nation he should be welcomed to the 
 nation by its chief. They were also anxious that the re 
 ception should take place on the Fourth of July. Their 
 imaginations had been impressed by the poetry of the 
 idea of a reception to one who had been the head of the 
 American nation, on the anniversary of American inde 
 pendence. But we discovered, as soon as we had left 
 
4 88 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Nagasaki, that our visit to Tokio was timed for the 3d of 
 July, and for the reception at the palace on the Fourth. 
 The hour was fixed at two o clock. 
 
 "The day was very warm, although in our palace on the 
 sea we have whatever breeze may be wandering over the 
 Pacific Ocean. General Grant invited some of his naval 
 friends to accompany him, and in answer to this invita 
 tion, Rear Admiral Patterson came, attended by Pay In- 
 
 JAPANESE SOLDIERS. 
 
 spector Thornton and Lieutenant Davenport, of his staff; 
 Captain A. E. K. Banham, commanding the Richmond; 
 Captain Fitzhugh, commanding the Monongahela ; 
 Commander Johnson, commanding the Ashuelot; Lieu 
 tenant Springer and Lieutenant Kellogg. At half-past 
 one Mr. Bingham, our minister, arrived, and the party 
 immediately drove to the palace. The home of the em 
 peror is a long distance from the home of the General. 
 
TJKA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 489 
 
 The old palace was destroyed by fire, and Japan has had 
 so many things to do, that she has not built a new one. 
 The road to the palace was through the section of Tokio, 
 where the old Daimios lived when they ruled Japan as 
 feudal lords, and made their occasional visits to the capi 
 tal. There seems to have been a good deal of Highland 
 freedom in the manners of the old princes. Their town 
 houses were really fortifications. A space was inclosed 
 with walls, and against these walls chambers were built 
 rude chambers, like winter quarters for an army. In 
 these winter quarters lived the retainers, the swordsmen 
 and soldiers. In the centre of the inclosure, was the 
 home of the lord himself, who lived in the midst of his 
 people, like a general in camp, anxious to fight some 
 body, and disappointed if he returned to his home with 
 out a fight. A lord with hot-tempered followers, who 
 had come from the restraints and amenities of home, to 
 have a good time at the capital, and give the boys a 
 chance to distinguish themselves and see the world, would 
 not be a welcome neighbor. And as there were a great 
 many such lords, and each had his army and his town 
 fortress, the Daimio quarter became an important part of 
 the capital. Some of the houses were more imposing 
 than the palace notably the house of the prince of 
 Satsuma. There was an imposing gate, elaborately but 
 tressed and strengthened, that looked quite Gothic in its 
 rude splendor. These Daimio houses have been taken 
 by the government for schools, for public offices, for vari 
 ous useful purposes. The Daimios no longer come with 
 armies, and build camps and terrorize over their neighbors 
 and rivals." 
 
 Grant s party drove through the Daimios quarter and 
 through the gates of the city. The first impression of 
 Tokio is that it is a city of walls and canals. The walls 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 are crude and solid, protected by moats. In the days of 
 pikemen and sword-bearers there could not have been a 
 more effective defense Even now it would require an 
 effort for even a German army to enter through these 
 walls. They go back many generations. In these lands 
 nothing is worth recording that is not a thousand years 
 old. Passing under the walls of an inclosure, which was 
 called a castle, they crossed another bridge, and came to 
 a modest arched gateway, which did not look nearly as 
 imposing as the entrance to the palace formerly occupied 
 by the great Prince Satsuma. Soldiers were drawn up, 
 and the band played " Hail Columbia." The carriages 
 drove on past one or two modest buildings, and drew up 
 in front of another modest building, on the steps of which 
 the minister, Iwakura, was standing. The General and 
 party descended, and were cordially welcomed and 
 escorted up a narrow stairway into an anteroom. 
 
 When you have seen most of the available palaces in 
 the world, from the glorious home of Aurungzebe to the 
 depressing, mighty cloister of the Escurial, you are sure 
 to have preconceived notions of what a palace should be, 
 and to expect something unique and grand in the home 
 of the long-hidden and sacred majesty of Japan. 
 
 The home of the emperor was as simple as that of a 
 country gentleman at home. In fact, many country gen 
 tlemen with felicitous investments in petroleum and silver, 
 would disdain the home of a prince who claims direct 
 descent from Heaven, and whose line extends far beyond 
 the Christian era. What marked the house was its sim 
 plicity and taste. You look for splendor, for the grand 
 at least, the grandiose for some royal whim like the holy 
 palace near thq Escurial, which cost millions, or like Ver 
 sailles, whose cost is among the eternal mysteries. Here 
 you are in a suite of plain rooms, the ceilings of wood, 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the walls decorated with natural scenery the furniture 
 sufficient, but not crowded and exquisite in style and 
 finish. There is no pretence of architectural emotion. 
 The rooms are large, airy, with a sense of summer about 
 them, which grows stronger as one looks out of the win 
 dow and down the avenues of trees. The grounds are 
 spacious and fine, even for Japan, and His Majesty, who 
 rarely goes outside of his palace grounds, takes what re 
 creation he needs within the walls. 
 
 "The palace is a low building, one, or at most, two 
 stories in height. They do not build high walls in Japan, 
 and especially in Tokio, where earthquakes are ordinary 
 incidents, and the first question to consider in building 
 up is how far you can fall. We enter a room where all 
 the ministers are assembled. The Japanese Cabinet is 
 a famous body, and tested by laws of physiognomy would 
 compare with that of any cabinet I have seen. The 
 prime minister is a striking character. He is small, 
 slender, with an almost girl-like figure, delicate, clean 
 cut, winning features, a face that might be that of a boy 
 of twenty or a man of fifty. The prime minister re 
 minded me of Alexander H. Stephens in his frail, slender 
 frame, but it bloomed with health and lacked the sad, 
 pathetic lines which tell of the years of suffering which 
 Stephens has endured, The other ministers looked like 
 strong, able men. Iwakura has a striking face, with lines 
 showing firmness and decision, and you saw the scar 
 which marked the attempt of the assassin to cut him 
 down and slay him, as Okubo, the greatest of Japanese 
 statesmen was slain not many months ago. That assas 
 sination made as deep an impression in Japan as the 
 killing of Lincoln did in America. We saw the spot 
 where the murder was done on our way to the palace, 
 and my Japanese friend who pointed it out, spoke in low 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 tones of sorrow and affection, and said the crime there 
 committed had been an irreparable loss to Japan. 
 
 "A lord in waiting, heavily braided, with a uniform that 
 Louis XIV would not have disliked in Versailles, comes 
 softly in and makes a signal, leading the way. The Gen 
 eral, and Mrs. Grant escorted by Mr. Bingham, and our 
 retinue followed. The General and the minister were in 
 evening dress. The naval officers were in full uniform, 
 Colonel Grant wearing the uniform of lieutenant-colonel. 
 We walked along a short passage and entered another 
 room, at the farther end of which were standing the em 
 peror and the empress. Two ladies in waiting were near 
 them in a sitting, what appeared to be a crouching, atti 
 tude. Two other princesses were standing. These 
 were the only occupants of the room. Our party slowly 
 advanced, the Japanese making a profound obesiance, 
 bending the head almost to a right angle with the body. 
 The royal princes formed in line near the emperor, 
 along with the princesses. The emperor stood quite 
 motionless, apparently unobservant or unconscious of the 
 homage that was paid him. He is a young man with a 
 slender figure, taller than the average Japanese and of 
 about the middle height, according to our ideas. He has 
 a striking face, with a mouth and lips that remind you 
 something of the traditional mouth of the Hapsburg 
 family. The forehead is full and narrow, the hair and 
 the light mustache and beard intensely black. The color 
 of the hair darkens what otherwise might pass for a 
 swarthy countenance at home. The face expressed no 
 feeling whatever, and but for the dark, glowing eye, 
 which was bent full upon the General, you might have 
 taken the imperial group for statues. The empress, at 
 his side, wore the Japanese costume, rich and plain. Her 
 face was very white, and her form slender and almost 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 child-like. Her hair was combed plainly and braided 
 with a gold arrow. The emperor and empress have 
 agreeable faces, the emperor especially showing firmness 
 and kindness. The solemn etiquette that pervaded the 
 audience chamber was peculiar, and might appear strange 
 to those familiar with the stately but cordial manners of 
 a European court. But one must remember that the 
 emperor holds so high and so sacred a place in the tra 
 ditions, the religion and the political system of Japan that 
 even the ceremony of to-day is so far in advance of any 
 thing of the kind ever known in Japan that it might be 
 called a revolution. The emperor, for instance, as our 
 group was formed, advanced and shook hands with the 
 General." 
 
 Says the correspondent : "That seems a trivial thing to 
 write about, but such an incident was never known in the 
 history of Japanese majesty. Many of these details ma) 
 appear small, but we are in the presence of an old and 
 romantic civilization, slowly giving way to the fierce, 
 feverish pressure of European ideas, and you can only 
 note the change in those incidents which would be un 
 noticed in other lands. The incident of the emperor of 
 Japan advancing toward General Grant and shaking 
 hands, becomes a historic event of consequence, and as 
 such I note it. The manner of the emperor was con 
 strained, almost awkward, the manner of a man doing a 
 thing for the first time, and trying to do it as well as pos 
 sible. After he had shaken hands with the General, he 
 returned to his place, and stood with his hand resting on 
 his sword, looking on at the brilliant, embroidered, gilded 
 company, as though unconscious of their presence. Mr. 
 Bingham advanced and bowed, and received just the 
 faintest nod in recognition. The other members of the 
 party were each presented by the minister, and each 
 
*Q . TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 one standing about a dozen feet from the emperor, stood 
 and bowed. Then the General and Mrs. Grant were 
 presented to the princesses, each party bowing to the 
 / other in silence./ The emperor then made a signal to one 
 of the noblemen, who advanced. The emperor spoke to 
 him for a few moments in a low tone, the nobleman 
 standing with bowed head. When the emperor had fin 
 ished, the nobleman advanced to the General, and said he 
 was commanded by His Majesty to read him the follow 
 ing address: 
 
 "Your name has been known to us for a long time, 
 and we are highly gratified to see you. While holding 
 the high office of President of the United States, you 
 extended toward our countrymen especial kindness and 
 courtesy. When our ambassador, Iwakura, visited the 
 United States, he received the greatest kindness from 
 you. The kindness thus shown by you has always been 
 remembered by us. In your travels around the world, 
 you have reached this country, and our people of all 
 classes feel gratified and happy to receive you. We 
 trust that during your sojourn in our country, you may 
 find much to enjoy. It gives me sincere pleasure to re 
 ceive you, and we are especially gratified that we have 
 been able to do so on the anniversary of American inde 
 pendence. We congratulate you, also, on the occasion/ 
 
 "This address was read in English. At its close Gen 
 eral Grant said : 
 
 " YOUR. MAJESTY I am very grateful for the welcome 
 you accord me here to-day, and for the great kindness 
 with which I have been received, ever since I came to 
 Japan, by your government and your people. I recog 
 nize in this a feeling of friendship toward my country. I 
 can assure you that this feeling is reciprocated by tin- 
 United States; that our people, without regard to part) , 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 take the deepest interest in all that concerns Japan, and 
 have the warmest wishes for her welfare. I am happy to 
 be able to express that sentiment. America is your next 
 neighbor, and will always give Japan sympathy and sup^ 
 port in her efforts to advance. I again thank Your Ma 
 jesty for your hospitality, and wish you a long and happy 
 reign, and for your people prosperity and independence. 
 
 "At the conclusion of this address, which was extem 
 pore, the lord advanced, and translated it to His Majesty 
 Then the emperor made a sign, and said a few words to 
 the nobleman. He came to the side of Mrs. Grant and 
 said the empress had commanded him to translate the 
 following address : 
 
 " I congratulate you upon your safe arrival after your 
 long journey. I presume you have seen very many interest 
 ing places. I fear you will find many things uncomfort 
 able here, because the customs of the country are so 
 different from other countries. I hope you will prolong 
 your stay in Japan, and that the present w r arm days may 
 occasion you no inconvenience. 
 
 "Mrs. Grant, pausing a moment, said in a low, conver 
 sational tone of voice, with animation and feeling : 
 
 " I thank you very much. I have visited many coun 
 tries, and have seen many beautiful places, but I have 
 seen none so beautiful or so charming as Japan. 
 
 "All day during the Fourth, visitors poured in on the 
 General. The reception of so many distinguished states 
 men and officials, reminded one of state occasions at the 
 White House. Princes of the Imperial family, prin 
 cesses, the members of the cabinet, and citizens, and high 
 officials, naval officers, ministers and consuls, all came ; 
 and carnages were constantly coming and going. In the 
 evening there was a party at one of the summer gardens, 
 given by the American residents, in honor of the Fourth 
 
496 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of July. The General arrived at half-past eight, and was 
 presented to the American residents by Mr. Bingham, 
 the minister. At the close of the presentation, Mr. Bing 
 ham made a brief, but singularly eloquent address. 
 Standing in front of the General, and speaking in a low, 
 measured tone of voice, scarcely above conversational 
 pitch, the minister, after words of welcome, said . 
 
 " In common with all Americans we are not unmindful 
 that in the supreme moment of our national trials, when 
 our heavens were filled with darkness, and our habitations 
 were filled with dead, you stood with our defenders in the 
 forefront of the conflict and with them, amid the con 
 suming fires of battle, achieved the victory which brought 
 deliverance to our imperilled country. To found a great 
 commonwealth or to save from overthrow a great com 
 monwealth already founded, is considered to be the 
 greatest of human achievements. If it was not your 
 good fortune to aid Washington, first of Americans and 
 foremost of men, and his peerless associates in founding 
 the Republic ; it was given to you above all others to aid 
 in the no less honorable work of saving the Republic from 
 overthrow. Mr. Bingham continued his speech, saying : 
 Now that the sickle has fallen from the pale hand of 
 Death on the field of mortal combat, and the places which 
 but yesterday were blackened and blasted by war have 
 grown green and beautiful under the hand of peaceful 
 toil ; now that the Republic, one and undivided, is 
 covered with the greatness of justice, protecting each by 
 the combined power of all men of every land and every 
 tongue the world, appreciating the fact that your civic 
 and military services largely contributed to these results, 
 so essential not only to the interests of our own country, 
 but to the interests of the human race, have accorded to 
 you such honors as never before within the range of 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. . >- 
 
 authentic history have been given to a living, untitled and 
 unofficial person. I may venture to say that this grate 
 ful recognition of your services will not be limited to the 
 present generation or the present age,, but will continue 
 through all the ages. In conclusion; I beg leave again to 
 bid you welcome to Japan, and to express the wish that 
 in health and prosperity you may return to your native 
 land, the land which we all love so well. 
 
 "In response, General Grant said; 
 
 " LADIES AND GENTLEMEN : I am unable to answer the 
 eloquent speech of Judge Bingham, as it is in so many 
 senses personal to myself. I can only thank him for his 
 too flattering allusions to me personally and the duty de 
 volving on me during the late war. We had a great war. 
 We had a trial that summoned forth the energies and 
 
 o 
 
 patriotism of all our people in the army alone over a 
 million. In awarding credit for. the success that crowned 
 those efforts there is not one in that million, not one 
 among the living or the dead, who did not do his share 
 as I did mine, and who does not deserve as much credit. 
 It fell to my lot to command the armies. There were 
 many others who could have commanded the armies bet 
 ter. But I did my best, and we all did our best, and in 
 the fact that it was a struggle on the part of the people 
 for the Union, for the country, for a country for them 
 selves and their children, we have the best assurances of 
 peace and the best reason for gratification over the re 
 sult. We are strong and free because the people made 
 us so. I trust we may long continue so. I think we have 
 no issues, no questions that need give us embarrassment. 
 I look forward to peace, to generations of peace, and 
 with peace prosperity. I never felt more confident of the 
 future of our country. It is a great country a great 
 blessing to us and we cannot be too proud of it, too 
 45 
 
498 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 zealous for its honor, too anxious to develop its resources, 
 and make it not only a home for our children, but for the 
 worthy people of other lands. I am glad to meet you 
 here, and ! trust that your labors will be prosperous, and 
 that you will return home in health and happiness. I 
 trust we may all meet again at home and be able to cele 
 brate our Fourth of July as pleasantly as we do to-night. 
 
 "Dr. McCartee, who presided, made a short address, 
 proposing as a toast, The day we celebrate. To this 
 General Van Buren made a patriotic and ringing response, 
 making amusing references to Fourth of July celebra 
 tions at home, and paying a tribute to the character and 
 military career of General Grant. General Van Buren s 
 address was loudly applauded, as were also other speeches 
 of a patriotic character. There were fire-works and feast 
 ing, and after the General and Mrs. Grant retired, which 
 they did at midnight, there was dancing. It was well on 
 to the morning before the members of the American 
 colony in Tokio grew weary of celebrating the anniver 
 sary of our Declaration of Independence. 
 
 " The morning of the 7th of July was set apart by the 
 emperor for a review of the troops. Japan has made im 
 portant advances in the military art. One of the effects 
 of the revolution which brought the mikado out of his 
 retirement as spiritual chief of the nation, and proclaimed 
 him the absolute temporal sovereign, was the employ 
 ment of foreign officers to drill and instruct the troops, 
 teach them European tactics and organize an army. It 
 is a question whether a revolution which brings a nation 
 out of a condition of dormant peace, in which Japan ex 
 isted for so many centuries, so far as the outer world is 
 concerned, into line with the great military nations, is a 
 step in the path of progress. But an army in Japan was 
 necessary to support the central power, suppress the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Daimios clans, whose strifes kept the land in a fever, and 
 insure some degree of respect from the outside world. 
 It is the painful fact in this glorious nineteenth century, 
 which has done so much to elevate and strengthen, and 
 so on, that no advancement is sure without gunpowder. 
 The glorious march of our civilization has been through 
 battle-smoke, and when Japan threw off the repose and 
 dream-life of centuries, and came into the wakeful, vigi 
 lant, active world, she saw that she must arm, just as 
 China begins to see that she must arm. The mili 
 tary side of Japanese civilization does not interest me, 
 and I went to the review with a feeling that I was to see 
 an incongruous thing, something that did not belong to 
 Japan, that was out of place amid so much beauty and 
 art. The Japanese themselves think so, but Europe is 
 here with a mailed hand, and Japan must mail her own, 
 or be crushed in the grasp. 
 
 " The Emperor of Japan is fond of his army, and was 
 more anxious to show it to General Grant than any other 
 institution in the empire. Great preparations had been 
 made to have it in readiness, and all Tokio was out to 
 see the pageant. The review of the army by the em 
 peror in itself is an event that causes a sensation. But 
 the review of the army by the emperor and the General 
 was an event which had no precedent in Japanese history. 
 The hour for the review was nine, and at half-past eight 
 the clatter of horsemen and the sound of bugles was 
 heard in the palace grounds. In a few moments the em 
 peror s state carriage drove up, the drivers in scarlet 
 livery and the panels decorated with the imperial flower, 
 the chrysanthemum. General Grant entered, accom 
 panied by Prince Dati, and the cavalry formed a hollow- 
 square, and our procession moved on to the field at a 
 slow. pace. A drive of twenty minutes brought us to the 
 
-OO TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 parade-ground, a large, jopen plain, the soldiers in line, 
 and behind the soldiers a dense mass of people men, 
 women and children. As the General s procession slowly 
 turned into the parade-ground, a group of Japanese 
 officers rode up and saluted, the band played * Hail Co 
 lumbia, and the soldiers presented arms. Two tents had 
 been arranged for the reception of the guests. In the 
 larger of the two we found assembled officers of state, 
 representatives of foreign powers, Governor Hennessy, 
 of Hong Kong, all in bright, glowing uniforms. The 
 smaller tent was for the emperor. When the General 
 dismounted he was met by the minister of war, and 
 escorted into the- smaller tent. In a few minutes the 
 trumpets gave token that the emperor was coming, and 
 the band played the Japanese national air. His Majesty 
 was in a state carriage, surrounded with horsemen and 
 accompanied by one of his cabinet. As the emperor 
 drove up to the tent, General Grant advanced to the car 
 riage-steps and shook hands with him, and they entered 
 and remained a few minutes in conversation. 
 
 " At the close of the review General Grant and party 
 drove off the ground in state, and were taken to the 
 Shila Palace. This palace is near the sea, and as the 
 grounds are beautiful and attractive, it was thought best 
 that the breakfast to be given to General Grant by His 
 Majesty should take place here. The emperor received 
 the General and party in a large, plainly-furnished room, 
 and led the way to another room, where the table was set. 
 The decorations of the table were sumptuous and royal. 
 General Grant sat on one side of the emperor, whose 
 place was in the centre. Opposite was Mrs. Grant, who 
 sat next to Prince Arinagawa, the nearest relative to the 
 emperor and the commander-in-chief of the army." 
 
 A large number of distinguished men and officials* we re 
 
7 RAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. - QI 
 
 \J 
 
 also guests. "General Saigo, Minister of War; Vice- 
 Admiral Kawamusa, Minister of Marine ; Mr. Inonye, 
 Minister of Public Works ; Mr. Tokadaifi, Minister of the 
 Imperial Household; Mr. Mori, Vice-Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs ; Mr. Yoshida, Envoy to the United States ; Mr. 
 Sagi, Vice-Minister of the Imperial Household ; Mr. 
 Yoshie, Chief Chamberlain ; Mr. Bojo, Master of Cere 
 monies ; Prince Hachisuka, Prince Dati, Mr. Insanmi 
 Naboshima, Mr. Bingham and Mrs. Bingham ; Ho-a-Chang, 
 the Chinese Minister; Mr. Mariano Alvaray, Spanish 
 Charge d Affaires ; Baron Rozen, Russian Charge d 
 Affaires ; M. de Balloy, French Charge d Affaires ; Gov 
 ernor Pope Hennessyand Mrs. Hennessy. 
 
 "The emperor conversed a great deal with General 
 Grant through Mr. Yoshida and also Governor Hennessy. 
 His Majesty expressed a desire to have a private and 
 friendly conference with the General, which it was ar 
 ranged should take place after the General s return from 
 Nikko. The feast lasted for a couple of hours, and the 
 view from the table was charming. Beneath the window 
 was a lake, and the banks were bordered with grass and 
 trees. Cool winds came from the sea, and, although in 
 the heart of a great capital, we were as secluded as in a 
 forest. At the close of the breakfast cigars were brought 
 and the company adjourned to another room. Mrs. 
 Grant had a long conversation with the princesses, and 
 was charmed with their grace, their accomplishments, 
 their simplicity and their quiet, refined Oriental beauty. 
 At three o clock the imperial party withdrew and .we 
 drove home to our palace by the sea." 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE HOME SET APART FOR GENERAL GRANT DESCRIPTION OF THE PALACE ITS 
 GARDENS GRANT S DAILY LIFE HERE PALACE ECONOMIES SUMMER-HOUSES 
 COURTESIES AND CEREMONIES AN EARTHQUAKE INTRODUCTION OF THE 
 CHOLERA THE EMPEROR TAKES BREAKFAST WITH GENERAL GRANT TALK 
 ABOUT JAPAN A REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT EUROPEAN POLICY IN THE 
 EAST STATESMANLIKE VIEWS OF GRANT THE QUESTIONS OF FOO-CHOO EDU 
 CATION IN JAPAN GRANT AS A PEACE-MAKER. 
 
 THE palace of Enriokwan, which the emperor had 
 set apart for General Grant during his stay in the 
 imperial capital, was one of the homes of the 
 tycoon, but now belongs to the emperor, and yet has 
 nothing of Oriental magnificence about it. 
 
 o o 
 
 "You approach the grounds over a dusty road that 
 runs by the side of a canal. The canal is sometimes in 
 an oozing condition, and boats are held in the mud. You 
 cross a bridge and enter a low gateway, and, going a 
 a few paces, enter another gateway. Here is a guard 
 house, with soldiers on guard and lolling about on benches 
 waiting for the bugle to summon them to offices of cere 
 mony. There is a good deal of ceremony in Enriokwan, 
 with the constant coming and going of great people, and 
 no sound is more familiar than the sound of the bugle. 
 You pass the guard-house and go down a pebbled way to 
 a low, one-story building, with wings. This is the Palace 
 of Enriokwan. Over the door is the crysanthemum, the 
 emperor s special flower. 
 
 "The main building is a series of reception-rooms, in 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 503 
 
 various styles of decoration, notably Japanese, There 
 are eight different rooms in all, in any one of which you 
 may receive your friends. General Grant uses the small 
 room to the left of the hall as you enter. On ceremonial 
 occasions he uses the main saloon, which extends, one- 
 half the length of the palace. Here a hundred people 
 could be entertained with ease. This room is a beautiful 
 specimen of Japanese decorative art, and you never be 
 come so familiar with it that there are not constant sur 
 prises in the way of color or form of design. Each of the 
 rooms is decorated differently from the others. The 
 apartments of General Grant and party are in one wing, 
 the dining-room, billiard-room and the apartments of the 
 Japanese officials in attendance in the other wing. 
 Around the palace is a veranda, with growing flowers in 
 profusion and swinging lanterns. The beauty of the 
 palace is not in its architecture, which is plain and inex 
 pressive, but in the taste which marks the most minute 
 detail of decoration and in the arrangement of the 
 grounds. 
 
 "Enriokwan is an island. On one side is a canal and 
 embanked walls, on the other side the ocean. Although 
 in an ancient and populous city, surrounded by a teeming, 
 busy metropolis you feel as you pass into Enriokwan that 
 that you are as secure as in a fortress and as secluded as 
 in a forest. The grounds are large and remarkable for 
 the beauty and finish of the landscape gardening. In 
 the art of gardening, Japan Excels the world, and I have 
 seen no more attractive specimen than the grounds of 
 Enriokwan. Roads, flower-beds, lakes, bridges, artificial 7 , 
 mounds, creeks overhung with sedgy overgrowths, lawns,, 
 boats, bowers, over which vines are trailing, summer- 
 houses, all combine to give comfort to Enriokwan. If 
 you sit on this veranda, under the columns where the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 General sits every evening, you look out upon a ripe and 
 perfect landscape, dowered with green. If you walk 
 into the grounds a few minutes you pass a gate an 
 inner gate, which is locked at night and come to a 
 lake, on the banks of which is a Japanese summer- 
 Jiouse. The lake is artificial and fed from the sea. You 
 cross a bridge and come to another summer-house. Here 
 are two boats tied up, with the imperial crysanthemum 
 emblazoned on their bows. These are the private boats 
 of the emperor, and if you care for a pull you can 
 row across and lose yourself in one of the creeks. 
 You ascend a grassy mound, however, not more than 
 forty feet high. Steps are cut in die side of the mound, 
 and when you reach the summit you see beneath you 
 the waves and before you the ocean. The sea at this 
 point forms a bay. When the tides are down and the 
 waves are calm you see fishermen wading about seek 
 ing shells and shell-fish. When the tides are up the 
 boats sail near the shore, and sometimes as you are 
 strolling under the trees you look up and see through 
 the foliage a sail float past you, firm and steady and 
 bending to the breeze. 
 
 "What impresses you as you look at Enriokwan 
 from the summit of your mound, is its complete seclu 
 sion. The tycoons, when they came to rest and breathe 
 a summer air tempered by the sea, evidently wished 
 to be away from the world, and here they could lead 
 a sheltered life. It is a place for contemplation and 
 repose. You can walk about in the grounds until you 
 are weary, and if you take pleasure in grasses and 
 shrubbery and wonderful old trees, gnarled and bend 
 ing under the burden of immemorial years, every step 
 will be full of interest. You can climb your mound 
 and commence with the sea the ships going and com- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ing, the fishermen on the beach, the waves that sweep 
 on and on. If you want to fish, you will find poetry 
 of fishing 1 in Enriokwan, for servants float about you 
 and bait your hook and guard what you catch, and 
 you have no work or trouble or worms to finger, no 
 scales to pick from your hands. If you care to read 
 or write, you can find seclusion in one of the summer- 
 houses. If it is evening, after dinner, you can come 
 and smoke or wander around under the trees and look 
 at the effect of the moonlight on the sea or the lake. 
 Whatever you do or wherever you go you have over 
 you the sense of protection. Our hosts are so kind that 
 we cannot leave the palace without an escort. You stroll 
 off with a naval friend from one of the ships to show the 
 grounds or hear the last gossip from the hospitable ward 
 rooms of the Ashuelot or Richmond. Behind you 
 comes a couple of servants, who seem to rise out of the 
 ground as it were. They come unbidden and carry trays 
 bearing water and wine or cigars. 
 
 " If you go into into one of the summer-houses they 
 stand on guard, and if you go on the lake they await 
 your return. The sense of being always under observa 
 tion was at first oppressive. You felt that you were 
 giving trouble. You did not want to have the responsi 
 bility of dragging other people after you. You especially, 
 did not care about the trays laden with wine. But the 
 custom belongs to Enriokwan, and in time you become 
 used to it and unconscious of your retinues. 
 
 " You wonder at the number of servants about you 
 servants for everything. There, for instance, is a gar 
 dener working over a tree. The tree is one of the dwarf 
 species that you see in Japan one of the eccentricities 
 of landscape gardening and this gardener files and clips 
 and adorns his tree as carefully as a lapidary burnishing 
 
506 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 a gem. * There has been work enough done on that 
 tree/ said the General, since I have been here to raise 
 all the food a small family would require during the win 
 ter. Labor, the General thinks, is too good a thing to 
 be misapplied, and when the result of the labor is a plum- 
 tree that you could put on your dinner-table, or a peach- 
 tree in fruition that might go into a water-goblet, he is 
 apt to regard it as misapplied. Here are a dozen men 
 in blue cotton dress working at a lawn. I suppose in a 
 week they would do as much as a handy Yankee boy 
 could achieve in a morning with a lawn mower. Your 
 Japanese workman sits down over his meadow, or his 
 flower-bed, or his bit of road, as though it were a web of 
 silk he was embroidering. Other men in blue are fishing. 
 The waters of the lake come in with the tides, and the 
 fish that come do not return, and much of our food is 
 found here. The sprinkling of the lawns and the roads 
 is always a serious task and takes quite an army for a 
 good part of the afternoon. One of the necessities of 
 palace economy is that you have ten times as many 
 about you to do service as you want, and ways must be 
 found to keep them busy. 
 
 " The summer-houses by the lake are worthy of study. 
 Japan has taught the world the beauty of clean, fine 
 grained natural wood and the fallacy of glass and paint. 
 I am writing these lines in one of these houses the first 
 you meet as you come to the lake. Nothing could be 
 more simple and at the same time more tasteful. It is 
 one room, with grooves for a partition should you wish 
 to make it two rooms. The floor is covered with a fine, 
 closely-woven mat of bamboo strips. Over the mat is 
 thrown a rug, in which black and brown predominate. 
 The walls looking out to the lake are a series of frames 
 that can be taken out lattice work of small squares, 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 covered with paper. The ceiling is plain, unvarnished 
 wood. There are a few shelves, with vases, blue and 
 white pottery, containing growing plants and flowers. 
 There are two tables, and their only furniture a large box 
 of gilded lacquer, for stationery, and a smaller one, con 
 taining cigars. These boxes are of exquisite workman 
 ship, and the gold chrysanthemum indicates the imperial 
 ownership. I have described this house in detail because 
 it is a type of all the houses that I have seen in the palace 
 grounds, not only at Enriokwan but elsewhere in Japan. 
 It shows taste and economy. Everything about it is 
 wholesome and clean, the workmanship true and minute, 
 with no tawdry appliances to distract or offend the eye. 
 
 " Our life in Enriokwan is very quiet. The weather 
 has been such that going out during the day is a discom 
 fort. During the day there are ceremonies, calls from 
 Japanese and foreign officials, papers to read, visits to 
 make. If the evening is free the General has a dinner 
 party sometimes small, sometimes large. To-night it 
 will be the royal princes, to-morrow the prime ministers, 
 on other evenings other Japanese of rank and station. 
 Sometimes we have Admiral Patterson or officers from 
 the fleet. Sometimes Mr. Bingham and his family. 
 Governor Hennessy, the British Governor of Hong 
 Kong has been here during a part of our stay. General 
 Grant was the guest of the governor during his residence 
 in Hong Kong and formed a high opinion of the gov 
 ernor s genius and character. The governor is a frequent 
 visitor at Enriokwhan, and no man is more welcome to 
 the General. Prince Dati, Mr. Yoshida and some other 
 Japanese officials live at Enriokwan and form a part of our 
 family. They represent the emperor and remain with the 
 General to serve him and make his stay as pleasant as 
 possible. Nothing could be more considerate or cour- 
 
508 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 teous or hospitable than the kindness of our Japanese 
 friends. Sometimes we have merchants from the bazaars 
 with all kinds of curious and useful things to sell. 
 
 " Sometimes a fancy for curiosities takes possession of 
 some of the party, and the result is an afternoon s prowl 
 about the shops in Tokio, and the purchase of a sword, or 
 a spear, or a bow and arrows. The bazaars of Tokio 
 teem with beautiful works of arc, and the temptation to 
 go back laden with achievements in porcelain and lacquer 
 is too great to be resisted, unless your will is under the 
 control of material influences too sordid to be dwelt upon. 
 Sometimes we have special and unique excitements, such 
 as was vouchsafed to us a few evenings since. Our party 
 was at dinner an informal dinner with no guests ex 
 cept our Japanese friends and Governor Hennessy. 
 While dining there was a sligh*. thunder-storm, which 
 gave some life to the baked and burning atmosphere. 
 Suddenly we heard an unusual noise a noise like the 
 rattling of plates in a pantry. The lanterns vibrated, and 
 there was a tremulous movement of the water and wine 
 in our glasses. I do not think we should have regarded 
 it as anything else than an effect of the thunder-storm, 
 but for Governor Hennessy. That/ he said, is an 
 earthquake. While he spoke the phenomenon was re 
 peated, and we plainly distinguished the shock." 
 
 The cholera had been introduced into Japan by a Ger 
 man- ship, whose commander insisted on coming into port 
 with the disease on board against the remonstance of the 
 Japanese Government. The captain declared that under 
 the treaty made with the foreign powers the latter alone 
 could decide as to what vessel should enter a Japanese 
 port, and sailed in and sent the cholera ashore to deci 
 mate the population. 
 
 When the Japanese authorities, indignant and grieved 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 at the outrage, asked Grant what they ought to have 
 done, after their remonstrance was treated with such 
 contempt, he replied : " You ought to have fired on the 
 vessel;" and every American will say that in that answer 
 he represented the American people. Of course, this 
 epidemic raging through the islands, restricted Grant s 
 movements, and he kept very quiet at Enriokwan, which 
 the emperor had set apart for his special residence while he 
 remained at the capital, and yet every day had its amuse 
 ments and receptions, and the correspondent says : 
 
 "We read, and write, and walk about the grounds, 
 and fish, and set up late at nights on the veranda, talking 
 about home, about the East, about our travels, about 
 Japan. Japan itself grows upon us more and more, as a 
 most interesting study. The opportunities for studying 
 the country, its policy, the aims of its rulers, its govern 
 ment and its diplomacy, have been very great. In this 
 palace which I have been describing, there took place 
 yesterday, one of the most important events in the 
 modern history of Japan a long personal interview be 
 tween General Grant and the emperor. The circum 
 stance that an ex-President of the United States should 
 converse with the chief of a friendly nation, is not in it 
 self an important event. But when you consider the 
 position of the emperor among his subjects, the traditions 
 of his house and his throne, you will see the value of this 
 meeting, and the revolution it makes in the history of Japan. 
 The imperial family is, in descent, the most ancient in 
 the world. It goes back in direct line to six hundred and 
 sixty years before Christ. For more than twenty-five 
 centuries, this line has continued unbroken, and the 
 present sovereign is the one hundred and twenty-third of 
 his line. The position of mikado has always been unique 
 in Japan. For centuries the emperors lived in seclu- 
 
c j o IRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 sion at Kiyoto. The mikado was a holy being. No one 
 was allowed to look upon his face. He had no family 
 name, because his dynasty being unending he needed 
 none. During his life he was revered as a god. When 
 he died he was translated into the celestial presence. 
 Within ten years it was not proper that even his sacred 
 name should be spoken. That is now permitted, but 
 even now you cannot buy a photograph of the mikado. 
 It is not proper that his subjects should look upon his 
 face. When he first received a foreign ambassador (in 
 1868), his prime minister knelt at his side, while his no 
 bles sat around on mats where they could not see him. 
 
 "The first audience of General Grant with the em 
 peror, on the Fourth of July, was stately and formal. 
 The emperor, before our return from Nikko, sent a mes 
 sage to the General that he desired to see him informally. 
 Many little courtesies had been exchanged between the 
 empress and Mrs. Grant, and the emperor himself, 
 through his noblemen and ministers, kept a constant 
 watch over the General s comfort. General Grant re 
 turned answer that he was entirely at the pleasure of His 
 Majesty. It was arranged, consequently, that on the 
 loth of August, the emperor would come to the palace of 
 Enriokwan. 
 
 "The day was very warm, and at half-past ten a mes 
 sage came that the emperor had arrived, and was await 
 ing the General in the little summer-house on the banks 
 of the lake. The General, accompanied by Colonel 
 Grant, Prince Dati, Mr. Yoshida and the writer, left the 
 palace and proceeded to the summer-house. Colonel 
 Grant wore the uniform of his rank. The remainder of 
 the party were in morning costume. We passed under 
 the trees, and toward the bridge. The imperial carriage 
 had been hauled up under the shade of the trees,, and the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. - T ^ 
 
 horses taken out. The guards, attendants, cavalrymen, 
 who had accompanied the sovereign, were all seeking the 
 shelter of the grove. We crossed the bridge and en 
 tered the summer-house. Preparations had been made 
 for the emperor, but they were very simple. Porcelain 
 flower-pots, with flowers, and ferns, and shrubbery, were 
 scattered about the room. One or two screens had been 
 introduced. In the centre of the room was a table, with 
 chairs around it. Behind one of the screens was another 
 table, near the window, which looked into the lake. As 
 the General entered, the prime minister and the minister 
 of the imperial household advanced, and welcomed him. 
 Then, after a pause, we passed behind the screen, and 
 were in the presence of the emperor. His Majesty was 
 standing before the table in undress uniform, wearing 
 only the ribbon of his order. General Grant advanced, 
 and the emperor shook hands with him. To the rest of 
 the party, he simply bowed, Mr. Yoshida acted as inter 
 preter. There was a pause, when the emperor said: 
 
 " * I have heard of many of the things you have said to 
 my ministers in reference to Japan. You have seen the 
 country and the people. I am anxious to speak with you 
 on these subjects, and am scrry I have not had an oppor 
 tunity earlier/ 
 
 " General Grant said he was entirely at the service of 
 the emperor, and was glad indeed to see him and thank 
 His Majesty for all^ the kindness he had received in Japan. 
 He might say that no one outside of Japan had a higher 
 interest in the country or a more sincere friendship for 
 its people. 
 
 "A question was asked which brought up the subject 
 now paramount in political discussions in Japan the 
 granting of an assembly and legislative functions to the 
 people. 
 
t- j 2 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 " General Grant said that this question seemed to be 
 the only one about which there was much feeling in Japan, 
 the only one he had observed. It was a question to be 
 considered with great care. No one could doubt that 
 governments became stronger and nations more pros 
 perous as they became representative of the people. 
 This was also true of monarchies, and no monarchs were 
 as strong as those who depended upon a parliament. 
 No one could doubt that a legislative system would be 
 an advantage to Japan, but the question of when and 
 how to grant it would require careful consideration. 
 That needed a clearer knowledge of the country than he 
 had time to acquire. It should be remembered that 
 rights of this kind rights of suffrage and representation 
 once given could not be withdrawn. They should be 
 given gradually. An elective assembly, to meet in 
 Tokio, and discuss all questions with the ministry might 
 be an advantage. Such an assembly should not have 
 legislative power at the outset. This seemed to the 
 General to be the first step. The rest would come as a 
 result of the admirable system of education which he saw 
 in Japan. 
 
 "An expression of gratification at the treaty between 
 Japan and the United States, which gave Japan the right 
 to manage her own commerce, led to a conversation 
 about foreign policy in Asia. Nothing, said the Gen 
 eral, has been of more interest to me than the study of 
 the growth of European and foreign influence in Asia. 
 When I was in India I saw what England had done with 
 that empire. I think the British rule is for the advantage 
 of the Indian people. I do not see what could take the 
 place of British power but anarchy. There were some 
 things to regret, perhaps, but a great deal to admire in 
 the manner in which India was governed. But since 1 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. - j 
 
 left India I have seen things that made my blood boil, in 
 the way the European powers attempt to degrade the 
 Asiatic nations. I would not believe such a policy pos 
 sible. It seems to have no other aim than the extinction 
 of the independence of the Asiatic nations. On that sub 
 ject I feel strongly, and in all that I have written to 
 friends at home I have spoken strongly. I feel so about 
 Japan and China. It seems incredible that rights which 
 at home we regard as essential to our independence and 
 to our national existence, which no European nation, no 
 matter how small, would surrender, are denied to China 
 and Japan. Among these rights there is none so im 
 portant as the right to control commerce. A nation s 
 life may often depend upon her commerce, and she is 
 entitled to all the profit that can come out of it. Japan 
 especially seems to me in a position where the control of 
 her commerce would enable her statesmen to relieve the 
 people of one great burden the land tax. The effect 
 of so great a tax is to impoverish the people and limit 
 agriculture. When the farmer must give a half of his 
 crop for taxes he is not apt to raise more than will keep 
 him alive. If the land tax could be lessened I have no 
 doubt that agriculture would increase in Japan, and the 
 increase would make the people richer, make them buy 
 and consume more, and thus in the end benefit com 
 merce as well. It seems to me that if the commerce of 
 Japan were made -to yield its proportion of the revenue, 
 as the commerce of England, and France, and the United 
 States, this tax could be lessened. I am glad the Ameri 
 can Government made the treaty. I hope other powers 
 will assent to it. But whether or. not, I think I know the 
 American people well enough to say that they have, with 
 out distinction of party, the warmest wish for the inde 
 pendence of Japan. We have great interests in the Pa- 
 46 
 
- j , TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 cific, but we have none that are inconsistent with the 
 independence of these nations. 
 
 " Another subject which arose in the course of the 
 conversation was national indebtedness. General Grant 
 said that there was nothing which Japan should avoid 
 more strenuously than incurring debts to European na 
 tions. So long as the government borrowed from its 
 own people it was well. But loans from foreign powers 
 were always attended with danger and humiliation. 
 Japan could not go into a European money-market and 
 make a loan that would be of an advantage to her. The 
 experience of Egypt was a lesson. Egypt was allowed 
 to borrow to the right and left, to incur an enormous 
 debt. The result is that Egypt has been made a de 
 pendency of her creditors. Turkey owed much of her 
 trouble to the same cause. A country like Japan has all 
 the money she wants for her own affairs, and any attempt 
 to bring her into indebtedness to foreign powers would 
 only be to lead her into the abyss into which Egypt has 
 fallen. 
 
 " The General spoke to the emperor on this question 
 with great earnestness. When he had concluded he said 
 there was another matter about which he had an equal 
 concern. When he was in China he had been requested by 
 the prince regent and the viceroy of Tientsin to use his 
 good offices with the Japanese Government on the ques 
 tion of Loochoo. The matter was one about which he 
 would rather not have troubled himself, as it belonged to 
 diplomacy and governments, and he was not a diploma 
 tist and not in government. At the same time he could 
 not ignore a request made in the interest of peace. The 
 General said he had read with great care and had heard 
 with attention all the arguments on the Loochoo ques 
 tion from the Chinese and Japanese sides. As to the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT - , - 
 
 merits of the controversy, it would be hardly becoming 
 in him to express an opinion. He recognized the diffi 
 culties that surrounded Japan. But China evidently felt 
 hurt and sore. She felt that she had not received the 
 consideration due to her. It seemed to the General that 
 His Majesty should strive to remove that feeling", even if 
 in doing so it was necessary to make sacrifices. The 
 General was thoroughly satisfied that China and Japan 
 should make such sacrifices as would settle all questions 
 between them, and become friends and allies, without 
 consultation with foreign powers. He had urged this 
 upon the Chinese Government, and he was glad to have 
 the opportunity of saying the same to the emperor. 
 China and Japan are now the only two countries left in 
 the great East of any power or resources of people to 
 become great that are even partially independent of 
 European dictation and laws. The General wished to 
 see them both advance to entire independence, with the 
 power to maintain it. Japan is rapidly approaching such 
 a position, and China had the ability and the intelligence 
 to do the same thing. 
 
 "The prime minister said that Japan felt the most 
 friendly feelings toward China, and valued the friendship 
 of that nation very highly, and would do what she could 
 without yielding her dignity to preserve the best relations. 
 
 " General Grant said he could not speak too earnestly 
 to the emperor on this subject, because he felt earnestly. 
 He knew of nothing that would give him greater pleasure 
 than to be able to leave Japan, as he would in a very 
 short time, feeling that between China and Japan there 
 was entire friendship. Other counsels would he given to 
 His Majesty, because there were powerful influences in 
 the East fanning trouble between China and Japan. One 
 could not fail to see these influences, and the General 
 
~ j 6 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 said he was profoundly convinced that any concession to 
 them that would bring about war would bring unspeak 
 able calamities to China and Japan. Such a war would 
 bring in foreign nations, who would end it to suit them 
 selves. The history of European diplomacy in the East 
 was unmistakable on that point. What China and Japan 
 should do is to come together without foreign interven 
 tion, talk over Loochoo and other subjects, and come to 
 a complete and friendly understanding. They should do 
 it between themselves, as no foreign power can do them 
 any good. 
 
 "General Grant spoke to His Majesty about the 
 pleasure he had received from studying the educational 
 institutions in Japan. He was surprised and pleased at 
 the standing of jhese schools. He did not think there 
 was a better school in the world than the Tokio school of 
 engineering. He was glad to see the interest given to 
 the study of English. He approved of the bringing for 
 ward the young Japanese as teachers. In time Japan 
 would be able "o do without foreign teachers ; but 
 changes should not be made too rapidly. It would be a 
 pity to lose the services of the men who had created 
 these schools. The men in the service of the Japanese 
 Government seemed to be, as far as he could learn, able 
 and efficient. 
 
 " I have given you the essential points of a conversa 
 tion that lasted for two hours. General Grant said he 
 would leave Japan with the wannest feelings of friendship 
 toward the emperor and the people. He would never 
 cease to feel a deep interest in their fortunes. He 
 thanked the emperor for his princely hospitality. Taking 
 his leave, the General and party strolled back to the 
 palace, and His Majesty drove away to his own home, in 
 a distant part of the city. 
 
TRA VELS OP GENERAL GRANT. - 
 
 / 
 
 " In my letter from Nikko, I told of the conference that 
 had taken place between General Grant and the Japanese 
 ministers on the Loochoo case. I gave you also a com 
 plete history of the Japanese and Chinese versions of the 
 difficulty. Minister Ito promised to present the views of 
 the General to the Cabinet, and have a further conference 
 with him. 
 
 "Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Icrakura, the junior prime 
 minister; Mr. Okuma, the finance minister; Mr. Ito, the 
 home minister, and Mr. Yoshida, the Japanese minister 
 to Washington, came to the Palace of Enriokwan and had 
 a lonsf conference with the General. Colonel Grant and 
 
 o 
 
 the writer were present. The details of this conversa 
 tion it is not thought advisable to print. The conference 
 was long and interesting, and will be continued on the 
 return of General Grant from Hakone, where he goes in 
 the morning. There is, perhaps, no harm in my saying 
 that General Grant, while fully sensible of the embarrass 
 ment surrounding the question, was hopeful of a peaceful 
 solution. If war should come, it would be the result of 
 intrigues of foreign powers. Americans, I think, will be 
 glad to know that the General has used his great name 
 and vast authority with both Chinese and Japanese to 
 circumvent these intrigues and bring China and Japan to 
 a good understanding. He has labored for this on every 
 occasion and with unpausing zeal, and has received from 
 Mr. Bingham, our minister, a hearty and sincere support." 
 
518 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GltANT. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 MODE OF TRAVELING IN JAPAN A RIDE THROUGH THE CITY A TRIP INTO THE 
 INTERIOR COLOSSAL IMAGEOP liUDDHA FLEET TWO-LEGGED HORSES TEA-HOL ;E 
 THE ROYAL ROAD OF JAPAN A NEW MODE OF TRANSPORTATION DESCRIPTION 
 
 OF THE PEOPLE FUSIYAMA A QUEER RIDE THROUGH THE STREETS OF TOKIO 
 
 GREAT CHANGES IN JAPAN IN THE LAST QUARTER OF A CENTURY EXTENT OF THE 
 
 EMPIRE CUSTOMS OF THE PEOPLE HONEST BEGGARS AMERICA CANNOT KEEP 
 
 OUT OF THE EASTERN QUESTION. 
 
 THOUGH they do not travel in wheelbarrows in 
 Japan they have a mode of transportation quite 
 as original, the jinrikshaw, referred to in the last 
 chapter. This is a carriage drawn by man-power alone, 
 and is exactly like a perambulator, or baby-carriage en 
 larged, except it has two shafts like those of a one-horse 
 wagon, into which a coolie inserts himself and starts off. 
 Says one, who traveled into the interior in one of these 
 strange vehicles : 
 
 " When one takes his seat in it he cannot help feeling at 
 first as if he were a big baby, whom his nurse had tucked 
 up and was taking out for an airing. But one need not 
 be afraid of it, lest he break down the carriage, or tire 
 out the steed that draws it. No matter how great your 
 excellency may be, the stout fellow will take up the thills, 
 standing where the pony or the donkey ought to be, and 
 trot off with you at a good pace, making about four miles 
 an hour. At first the impression was irresistibly ludicrous, 
 and we laughed at ourselves to see what a ridiculous 
 figure we cut. Indeed we did not quite recover our 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 519 
 
520 
 
 TKA YELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 sobriety during- the three weeks that we were in Japan. 
 But after all it is a very convenient way of getting about, 
 and one at least is satisfied that his horses will not run 
 away, though he must not be too sure of that, for I some 
 times felt, especially when going down hill, that they had 
 got loose, and would land me with a broken head at the 
 bottom. 
 
 " In one of these we made the round ot the city. We 
 first visited what is called the Summer Palace, though it 
 is not a palace at all, but only a park, to which the mi 
 kado comes once in a while to take his royal pleasure. 
 
 JAPANESE STREET. 
 
 There are a few rest-houses scattered about, where one, 
 whether king or commoner, might find repose; or stroll 
 ing under the shade of trees, and looking off upon the 
 tranquil sea. Next we rode to the Tombs of the Tycoons, 
 where, under gilded shrines, beneath temples and pago- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT c 2 I 
 
 das, sleep the royal dead. The grounds are large and 
 the temples exquisitely finished, with the fine lacquer 
 work for which the Japanese are famous; so that we had 
 to take off our shoes, and step very softly over the 
 polished floors. Riding on through endless streets, our 
 friends took us to a hill, ascended by a long flight of 
 steps, on the top of which, in an open space, stood a 
 temple, an arbor and a tea-house. This point commands 
 an extensive view of Yedo. It is a city of magnificent 
 distances, spreading out for miles on every side; and 
 yet, except for its extent, it is not at all imposing, for it is, 
 like Canton, a mere wilderness of houses, relieved by no 
 architectural magnificence not a single lofty tower or 
 dome rising above the dead level. But, unlike Canton, 
 the city has very broad streets, sometimes crossed by a 
 river or a canal, spanned by high, arched bridges. The 
 principal business street is much wider than Broadway, 
 but it has not a shop along its whole extent that would 
 make any show even in the Bowery/ The houses are 
 built only one-story high, because of earthquakes which 
 are frequent in Japan, caused, as the people believe, by a 
 huge fish which lies under the island, and that shakes it 
 whenever he tosses his head or lashes his tail. 
 
 " A week s excursion into the interior gave a new phase 
 of Japanese life. Our way wound through a succession of 
 valleys, rich with fields of rice and barley, while along the 
 roads shrubberies, which at home are cultivated with great 
 care, grew in wild confusion the visteria,the honeysuckle, 
 and the eglantine. The succession of hill and valley gave 
 to the country a variety and beauty, which, with the high 
 state of cultivation, reminded us of Java. As we mounted 
 the hills we had glimpses of the sea, for we were skirting 
 along the Bay of Yedo. After a few miles we came to an 
 enchanting spot, which bears the ambitious title of the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Plains of Heaven, yet which is not heaven, and is not 
 even a plain but a rolling- country, in which hill and 
 valley are mingled together, with the purple mountains 
 as a background on one side and the blue waters on the 
 other. 
 
 " As we rode along, I thought how significant was the 
 simple fact of such an excursion as this in a country, 
 where a few years ago no foreigner s life was safe. On 
 this very road, less than ten years since, an Englishman 
 was cut down for no other crime than that of being a 
 foreigner, and getting in the way of the high Daimio who 
 was passing. And now we jogged along as quietly, and 
 with as little apprehension, as if we were riding through 
 the villages of New England. 
 
 "On our way lies a town which once bore a great 
 name, Kamakura, where nine centuries ago lived the 
 great Yoritomo, the Napoleon of his day, the founder of 
 the military rule in the person of the shogun (or tycoon, 
 a title but lately assumed), as distinguished from that 01 
 the mikado. Here he made his capital, which was after 
 wards removed, and about three hundred years since 
 fixed in Yedo ; and Kamakura is left, like other decayed 
 capitals, to live on the recollections of its former great 
 ness. But no change can take away its natural beauty, 
 in its sheltered valley near the sea. 
 
 " A mile beyond, we came to the colossal image of Dai- 
 Buts, or Great Buddha. It is of bronze, and though in a 
 sitting posture, is forty-four feet high. The hands are 
 crossed upon the knees. We crawled up into his lap, 
 and five of us sat side by side on his thumbs. We even 
 went inside, and climbed up into his head, and proved by 
 inspection that these idols, however colossal and imposing 
 without, are empty within. There are no brains within 
 their brazen skulls. The expression of the face is the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 same as in all statues of Buddha : that of repose pas 
 sive, motionless as of one who had passed through the 
 struggles of life, and attained to Nirvana, the state of 
 perfect calm, which is the perfection of heavenly beatitude. 
 
 " It was now getting toward sunset, and we had still 
 five or six miles to go before we reached our resting- 
 place for the night. As this was the last stage in the 
 journey, our fleet coursers seemed resolved to show us 
 what they could do. They had cast off all their garments, 
 except a cloth around their loins, and straw sandals on 
 their feet, so that they were stripped like Roman gladi 
 ators, and they put forth a speed as if racing in the arena. 
 A connoisseur would admire their splendid physique. 
 Their bodies were tattooed, like South Sea Islanders, 
 which set out in bolder relief, as in savage warriors, their 
 muscular development their broad chests and brawny 
 limbs. With no stricture of garments to bind them, their 
 limbs were left free for motion. It was a study to see 
 how they held themselves erect. With heads and chests 
 thrown back, they balanced themselves perfectly. The 
 weight of the carriage seemed nothing to them ; they had 
 only to keep in motion, and it followed. Thus we came 
 rushing into the streets of Fujisawa, and drew up before 
 the tea-house, where lodgings had been ordered for the 
 night. The whole family turned out to meet us, the 
 women falling on their knees, and bowing their heads till 
 they touched the floor, in homage to the greatness of 
 their guests. 
 
 " And now came our first experience of a Japanese tea 
 house.* This is like a baby-house. It is small, built en 
 tirely of wood, with sliding partitions, which can be drawn 
 like screens, to inclose any space and make it into a 
 room. These partitions are of paper, so that, of course, 
 
 *Br. Field. 
 
524 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 the chambers are not very private. The same mate- 
 
 n 
 
 windows, and an 
 swers very well 
 as it softens the 
 light like ground 
 glass. The bed 
 rooms are very 
 small, but scru 
 pulously clean 
 and covered with 
 wadded matting, 
 on which we lie 
 down to sleep. 
 
 "The next 
 morning, as we 
 started on our 
 
 journey, we came 
 upon the Tokai- 
 do, the royal road 
 of Japan, built 
 hundreds of 
 years ago from 
 Yedo or Tokio to 
 Kioto, to connect 
 the political with 
 the spiritual capi 
 tal, the residence 
 of the tycoon 
 with that of the 
 mikado. It ex 
 hibits a good deal 
 of skill in engi 
 neering and is lined with gigantic cedars that give it a 
 
 JAPANESE BED. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. roc? 
 
 magnificent appearance. Along this the Damios used to 
 come in state to pay their homage to the tycoon at 
 Yedo. 
 
 "At Odawara," says our traveler, " we dismissed our 
 men, as we had to try another mode of transportation ; 
 for though we still kept the Tokaido, it ascends the 
 mountains so steeply that it is impassable for anything 
 on wheels, and we had to exchange \hejinrikskaw for the 
 kago a kind of basket made of bamboo, in which a man 
 is doubled up and packed like a bundle, and so carried 
 on men s shoulders. It would not answer badly if he 
 had neither head nor legs. But his head is always 
 knocking against the ridge-pole, and his legs have to be 
 twisted under him, or tied up in a bow-knot. Th^s is 
 the way in which criminals are carried to execution in 
 China ; but for one who has any further use for his limbs, 
 it is not altogether agreeable. I lay passive for awhile, 
 feeling as if I had been packed and salted down in a 
 pork-barrel. Then I began to wriggle, and thrust out 
 my head on one side and the other, and at last had to 
 confess, like the Irishman who was offered the privilege 
 of working his passage on a canal-boat and was set to 
 leading a horse, that if it were not for the honor of the 
 thing, I had as lief walk/ So I crawled out and unrolled 
 myself, to see if my limbs were still there, for they were 
 so benumbed that I was hardly conscious of their exist 
 ence, and then straightening myself out, and taking a 
 long bamboo reed, which is light and strong, lithe and 
 springy, for an alpenstock, I started off with my com 
 panions. We all soon recovered our spirits, and 
 
 Walked in glory and in joy 
 Along the mountain side, 
 
 till at nightfall we halted in the village of Hakone, a 
 
- 2 /5 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 
 
 mountain retreat much resorted to by foreigners from 
 Yedo and Yokohama. 
 
 "One cannot go anywhere in Japan without receiving a 
 visit from the people, who, being of a thrifty turn, seize the 
 occasion of a stranger s presence to drive a little trade. 
 The skill of the Japanese is quite marvelous in certain 
 directions. They make everything in petto, in miniature, 
 the smallest earthenware ; the tiniest cups and saucers. 
 In these mountain villages they work, like the Swiss, in 
 woodenware, and make exquisite and dainty little boxes 
 and bureaus, as if for dolls, yet with complete sets of 
 drawers, which could not but take the fancy of one who 
 had little people at home waiting for presents. Besides 
 the temptation of such trinkets, who could resist the in 
 sinuating manner of the women who brought them ? 
 The Japanese women are not pretty. They might be, 
 were it not for their odious fashions. We have seen 
 faces that would be quite handsome if left in their native, 
 unadorned beauty. But fashion rules the world in Japan 
 as in Paris. As soon as a woman is married, her eye 
 brows are shaved off, and her teeth blackened, so that 
 she cannot open her mouth without showing a row of 
 ebony instead of ivory, which disfigures faces that would 
 be otherwise quite winning. It says a good deal for their 
 address, that with such a feature to repel, they can still 
 be attractive. This is owing wholly to their manners. 
 The Japanese men and women are a light-hearted race, 
 and captivate by their gayety and friendliness. The 
 women were always in a merry mood. As soon as they 
 entered the room, before even a word was spoken, they 
 began to giggle, as if our appearance were very funny, 
 or as if this were the quickest way to be on good terms 
 with us. The effect was irresistible. I defy the soberest 
 man to resist it, for as soon as your visitor laughs, you 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. > - 27 
 
 begin to laugh from sympathy; and when you have got 
 into a hearty laugh together, you are already acquainted, 
 and in friendly relations, and the work of buying and 
 selling goes on easily. They took us captive in a few 
 minutes. We purchased sparingly, thinking of our long 
 journey; but our English friends bought right and left, 
 till the next day they had to load two pack-horses with 
 boxes to be carried over the mountains to Yokohama. 
 
 "The next day was to bring the consummation of our 
 journey, for then we were to go up into a mountain and 
 see the glory of the Lord. A few miles distant is the 
 summit of Otometoge, from which one obtains a view of 
 Fusiyama, looking full in his awful face. We started with 
 misgivings, for it had been raining, and the clouds still 
 hung low upon the mountains. Our way led through 
 hamlets clustered together in a narrow pass, like Alpine 
 villages. As we wound up the ascent, we often stopped 
 to look back at the valley below, from which rose the 
 murmur of rushing waters, while the sides of the moun 
 tains were clothed with forests. These rich landscapes 
 gave such enchantment to the scene as repaid us for all 
 our weariness. At two o clock we reached the top, and 
 rushed to the brow to catch the vision of Fusiyama, but 
 only to be disappointed. The mountain was there, but 
 clouds covered his hoary head. In vain we watched and 
 waited; still the monarch hid his face. Clouds were 
 round about the throne. The lower ranges stood in full 
 outline, but the heaven-piercing dome, or pyramid of 
 snow, was wrapped in its misty shroud. That for which 
 we had traveled seventy miles, we could not see at last." 
 
 On his return to Odawara, where he again took to the 
 baby-carriage, he says : 
 
 " Once more I was surprised and delighted at the 
 agility and swiftness of the men who drew our jinrik- 
 
523 
 
 7RA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 shaws. As we had but twenty-three miles to go in the 
 afternoon, we took it easily, and gave them first only a gen 
 tle trot of five miles to get their limbs a little supple, and 
 then stopped for tiffin. Some of the men had on a loose 
 jacket when we started, besides the girdle about the loins. 
 This they took off and wrung out, for they were dripping 
 with sweat, and wiped their brawny chests and limbs, and 
 then took their chop-sticks and applied themselves to their 
 rice, while we went up-stairs in the tea-house, and had our 
 soup and other dishes served to us, sitting on the floor 
 like Turks, and then stretched ourselves on the mats, 
 weary with our morning s walk, and even with the motion 
 of riding. While we were trying to get a little rest our 
 men talked and laughed in the court below as if it were 
 child s play to take us over the road. As we resumed 
 our places and turned out of the yard, I had the curiosity 
 to time their speed. I had a couple of athletic fellows, 
 who thought me a mere feather in weight, and made me 
 spin like a top as they bowled along. They started off 
 at an easy trot, which they kept up, without breaking, 
 mile after mile. I did not need to crack the whip, but at 
 the word, away they flew through villages and over the 
 open country, never stopping, but when they came to 
 slightly rising ground, rushing up like mettlesome horses, 
 and down at full speed. Thus they kept on, and never 
 drew rein till they came to the bank of a river, which had 
 to be crossed in a boat. I took out my watch. It was 
 an hour and a quarter, and they had come seven miles 
 and a half! This was doing pretty well. Of course they 
 could not keep this up all day ; yet they will go thirty 
 miles from sunrise to sunset, and even forty, if spurred 
 to it by a little extra pay. Sometimes, indeed, they go 
 even at a still greater speed for a short distance. The 
 first evening, as we came into Fujisawa, I do not doubt 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 that the last fifteen minutes they were going at a speed 
 of ten miles an hour, for they came in on a run. This is 
 magnificent, but I cannot think it very healthful exercise. 
 
 "In our second excursion about the city, as we had long 
 distances to traverse, we took two prancing bucks to 
 ttfajinrikshaWy who ran us such a rig through the streets 
 of Yedo as made us think of John Gilpin when he rode 
 to London town. The fellows were like wild colts, so 
 full of life that they had to kick it off at the heels. Some 
 times one pulled in front while the other pushed behind, 
 but more often they went tandem, the one in advance 
 drawing by a cord over his shoulder. The leader was so 
 full of spring that he fairly bounded over the ground, 
 and if we came to a little elevation, or arched bridge, he 
 sprang into the air like a catamount, while his fellow 
 behind, though a little more stiff, as a * wheel-horse ought 
 to be, bore himself proudly, tossing up his head, and 
 throwing out his chest, and never lagged for an instant. 
 
 C was delighted, nothing could go too fast for her ; 
 
 but whether it was fear for my character or for my head, 
 I had serious apprehension that I should be smashed 
 like Chinese crockery, and poked my steeds in the rear 
 with my umbrella, to signify that I was entirely satisfied 
 with their performances and that they need not go any 
 faster. * 
 
 No nation in the world has undergone such a transfer- 
 
 o 
 
 mation in so short a time as Japan. It is only about twenty- 
 five years ago when Commodore Perry anchored his 
 fleet in the bay where no foreign ship was allowed to 
 anchor. Now you can sit in the windows of the Grand 
 Hotel, and see the bay covered with foreign shipping. 
 Japanese young men are educated abroad, and return 
 and walk the streets in European dress, and eat with 
 knives and forks instead of chop-sticks. A university for 
 47 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 young ladies has been established under the patronage 
 of the empress, in which American teachers are employed. 
 As America opened Japan, it is fitting that the emperor 
 should consult much an American like General Grant as 
 to his future policy. It has a poulation of 20,000,000 and 
 the empire, embracing four large islands and nearly four 
 thousand smaller ones, has an area of 190,000 square 
 miles. 
 
 Some of their customs are peculiar. They wear sandals 
 instead of shoes, which are held to the foot by a cord 
 passing between the first and second toes so that they can 
 be slipped on or off without effort. They wear no stockings, 
 yet they are afraid as chickens of getting their feet wet, 
 and are so fearful of a sprinkle of rain that they always 
 carry umbrellas with them. You will see scores of people 
 almost entirely naked, with high sandals or pattens on and 
 an umbrella over their heads so as not to be touched with 
 water. In the use of the plane and saw they draw them 
 toward them, instead of pushing them as we do. In 
 stabling their horses they tie them with their heads toward 
 the door, so that they approach them in front instead of 
 from behind a good example to follow. The Japanese 
 are very fond of painting, though they seem to have no 
 idea of perspective. The beggars form a distinct pro 
 fession and, as beggars go, are fairly honest. You will 
 sometimes see in the front of a shop forty or fifty coppers, 
 hanging on as many nails, so that the beggars can help 
 themselves without disturbing the proprietor. They never 
 abuse this confidence by taking more than one, which is 
 the ordinary alms. 
 
 The sudden unveiling of this Eastern Empire at the 
 same time that our government extended itself to the 
 Pacific, thus bringing the two countries into juxtaposition, 
 is one of those unexpected results that are never antici- 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. - ^ r 
 
 pated, and the results of which no man can foretell. If 
 the last twenty years are to be taken as a gauge for the 
 future, the next twenty will find us, notwithstanding the 
 famous Monroe doctrine, mixed up inextricably with the 
 Eastern question. The foresight and calculation of diplo 
 matists will disappear before the march of events. Grant, 
 in the interest he has taken and the prominent part he 
 has played, in his short visit, in the politics of China and 
 Japan, is representing, in our opinion, more vital interests 
 more vital to this country than he or any one else 
 dreams of. That the United States will one of these days 
 have a word, and a most important one, to say in the 
 Chinese and Japan seas, where England has hitherto been 
 chief spokesman, we think no careful spectator of the 
 events of the last few years will doubt. The Monroe 
 doctrine is right in theory, but commerce will in the end 
 upset it, for interfering with foreign governments will be 
 the inevitable consequence of taking care of our own 
 interests and rights in the East. 
 
TRAVELS Oi GJiXURAL GRANT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 GENERAL GRANT RESOLVES TO LEAVE JAPAN WHERE SHALL HE GO? PLANS PRO 
 POSED PREPARING FOR HOME PURCHASING SOUVENIRS CUSTOM-HOUSE APPR: 
 
 H ENSIGNS HOMESICKNESS GENERAL GRANT AND MR. IWAKURA POLITICO 
 MEMOIRS OF THE BEAUTIFUL MEMORIES OF THE ANCIENT DAYS WORKING IN 
 CLAY AN EARTHQUAKE. 
 
 WE had already stayed longer in the country 
 than we had intended, but life was pleasant 
 in Tokio, and every day seemed to open a 
 new scene of beauty and interest, and we felt ourselves 
 yielding to the fascinations of this winning civilization. 
 The hospitality of our hosts seemed to grow in grace and 
 consideration, showing no sign of weariness. We be 
 came attached to our palace-home of Euriokwan, and 
 began to feel acquainted with the rooms, the curious 
 figures on the walls, the odd freaks in the \yayofgarden- 
 ing, the rustic bridges, the quaint and clean little sum 
 mer-houses, where we could sit in the afternoon and feel 
 breezes from the sea. The weather felt unusually warm, 
 and with the heat came the pestilence ; and, although in 
 Euriokwan we were not conscious of its presence, and 
 felt safe under the sheltering influence of the ocean, yet 
 it saddened the community and seemed to rest upon the 
 capital like a cloud, and we sorrowed with our friends. 
 There were trips to Yokohama, where our naval ships 
 were at anchor, and Yokohama itself was well worth 
 seeing, as an evidence of what the European had done in 
 making a trading camp on the shores of Asia. For, 
 after all, these Eastern European cities are but trading 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 camps, and remind you in many ways of the shifting 
 towns in Kansas and Nebraska during the growing rail 
 way days. Now that the time was coming when we were 
 to leave Japan, there were discussions as to where we 
 should go discussions in which our good friend Admiral 
 Patterson took a leading part. 
 
 " The General did not care to go home ; or, perhaps, it 
 would be more accurate to say that he did not like to 
 leave anything unseen in Asia and the Pacific. As you 
 may, perhaps, have inferred from what I have written, 
 General Grant has become profoundly interested in these 
 lands and in the political problems their future involves. 
 I question if any one can see much of Asia without feel 
 ing that the politics of China and Japan must some day 
 become a paramount consideration for Americans. We 
 have discussed various routes that would bring us home 
 at Christmas or early in the spring. There is the Amoor 
 region, with a glance at Russian Siberia. This trip we 
 had almost resolved upon, but the temptations of Japan 
 have carried us beyond the time when we should go to 
 the North. Then it is the typhoon season, and typhoons 
 come sometimes unannounced in a whirl, and whatever 
 virtues our men-of-war possess, as typhoon ships they 
 lack experience. There is Australia, with the exhibition 
 under way, and some of our naval friends sketch a most 
 attractive programme that would take us to Melbourne, 
 and Sydney, and Valparasio, and Callao, and in time to San 
 Francisco. There is our visit to the King of the Sand 
 wich Islands a promised visit and this is finally resolved 
 upon. Admiral Patterson offers the Monongahela/ which 
 is under orders to return to America. To sail on the 
 Monongahela, however, would involve two or three 
 weeks longer in Japan, and so for the present we cannot 
 go to Honolulu. Our Japanese friends invent all kinds 
 
c ^. TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of schemes to detain us, and Mr. Yoshida is fruitful in 
 suggestions as to excursions to Kobe, Kioto, Hakodadi, 
 Osaka and other places famous in the history of Japan, 
 which the cholera had hitherto prevented us from seeing. 
 The cholera is everywhere, and precaution can no longer 
 avail. What with the friendly solicitations of the admiral 
 on the one side, and the Japanese on the other, it is diffi 
 cult to make up our minds to go home. That, however, 
 at the end of our debates, appears to be our only 
 course; and when it is found that we cannot leave for 
 Honolulu much before October, it is resolved to sail for 
 California in the first steamer that leaves. 
 
 "When it was finally determined to return, it was sur 
 prising to see how much we had to do. There was the 
 gathering together of the odds and ends of a long jour 
 ney the bundling up for home. Sticks from Malacca, 
 fragments of gauze from Dalhi, brass work from Benares, 
 bits of crockery from Peking what you call your 
 things assume a consequence that their importance 
 does not justify. When I started on my journey around 
 the world, one of the pleasures that I set apart for my 
 self, was that I would not buy anything; that I should not 
 burden my mind with curiosities, nor allow any of the 
 porcelain or ivory manias to afflict me. There seemed 
 to be among many friends so much useful energy gone 
 to waste on crockery and bronze, that I resolved to make 
 a merit of my own self-denial, and bring bring back from 
 the East only a flush of radiant memories. But no vir 
 tue, however robust, can stand the temptations of Canton 
 and Yokohama, and I found myself taking an interest in 
 things like other people, and going into silk shops and 
 fumbling the light and airy stuffs, which the genius of the 
 East has fashioned for woman s adornment, and studying 
 out the beauty of a saucer or a vase. And although I 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 535 
 
 clung to my resolution valiantly, things began to accu 
 mulate, and the great question of our latter days in Japan^ 
 was what should we do with them, and, moreover, what 
 
536 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 would the collector at the California Custom-House do 
 with them? I never knew that there was so much to in 
 terest you in the revenue laws, until I began to look up 
 the duties on a bit of old blue. If any of my readers 
 do not know what "old blue means, I would advise them 
 never to learn. I happened at times to be the companion 
 of an honored friend, who has mastered the curio ques 
 tion ; who knew bronze and ivory, silk, and clay, and iron, 
 and whose amusement was to run away from the hospi 
 talities of his Japanese hosts, and lose himself in a 
 suburb of Tokio, and prowl from shop to shop. You 
 see/ he would say, by doing this, we get away from the 
 range of the globe trotters, who ruin the market, and 
 give the people false ideas as to prices, and degrade the 
 taste of the sellers. Here we are in old Japan, and I 
 never pay more than one dollar for anything. These 
 were interesting expeditions. We would dive into the 
 oddest out-of-the-way places in Tokio, and the people 
 would assemble from the neighborhood, and while we 
 were digging out some fragment of bronze or iron, or 
 testing the temper of some poor, dismantled Samauri s 
 sword, a wondering crowd would gather men, women 
 and children who stood, and watched, and chattered, 
 and when we went our way, followed after, until we began 
 to feel like street preachers. In one of these excursions 
 I came to know the mystery of old blue. It seems that 
 I made a confession that I knew nothing about old blue; 
 that I never saw any that I could remember ; that I took 
 a great deal for granted in the crockery question ; and 
 when my friends, who had manias on the subject, gave 
 way to their emotions, I allowed them to run on, thinking 
 of other things. What ! never have seen old bluxi ? 
 was the response. Then you don t know the beauty that 
 the Chinese have been able to throw over their clay. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. r ~ n 
 
 537 
 
 There is no old blue in Japan. There is none worth hav 
 ing in China later than the Ming dynasty. There is a 
 kind of blue called hawthorn blue, which is the rage in 
 London, and they say has sent its victims to the insane 
 asylum. There is a blue called blue after the rain, in 
 which the artist catches the peculiar color of the clouds 
 after a shower a color that is not known in modern art. 
 It is gone a lost art gone with so many of the curious 
 and wonderful things which the generations take with 
 them as they sweep on and on. When the Mings ruled 
 China, this art and other arts flourished, but since the 
 Tartars came, the ambition to excel has died out. Some 
 how art will only flourish under freedom. If you want to 
 be sure of your old blue, you must see that it has the 
 mark of the Ming dynasty. 
 
 "The result of this conversation was that I found my 
 self the possessor of a bit of * old blue, which came with 
 the kind wishes of my friend, and which I shall treasure 
 for the giver. It is a small vase of white porcelain, with 
 blue figures traced upon it, types of Chinese life and 
 character. On the bottom is the mark of the Ming 
 dynasty. General Grant has thrown a good deal of sus 
 picion upon one s enthusiasm for the antique by circum 
 stantial narratives of a certain factory which flourishes in 
 Newark, N. J., whose owners declare large dividends a 
 factory devoted to the manufacture of curios, where they 
 make antique and modern works of art, especially old 
 blue, and hawthorn blue, and blue after the rain, and 
 mark them with the Ming dynasty. But I believe in my 
 vase. I certainly believe in the reverent and friendly 
 spirit that sent it to my table ; and although if I were 
 buying old blue from my own unaided experience I 
 would not give a large sum for such a vase, I know that 
 it is the result of my ignorance, and that I really have a 
 
533 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 treasure, something that the Chinese artisan labored over 
 with loving hand in the days of the Mings, before the 
 Tartar came to harden and desolate his land, and I ideal 
 ize it in various ways, and think myself into the belief 
 that it has a poetic beauty of its own. And this leads 
 me back to the revenue laws, and to wonder whether 
 Mr. Merritt will put the poetic value upon the vase, or 
 assess it at my own estimate of its worth. As I was 
 saying, I never knew how much there was to interest you 
 in the revenue laws until I began to look over my things/ 
 and wonder what they will cost in New York. As to 
 taking them to California, no one would dream of it. 
 You hear terrible stories of the California Custom- 
 House ; how the officers rummage your trunks and break 
 your vases, and make you pay a double valuation, and 
 have no respect for your word or even your oath ; and 
 how one independent American with a temper easily 
 heated took a Satsuma vase, a lovely work that cost him 
 $500, and dashed it to pieces before the eyfcs of the ex 
 ciseman rather than be taxed for more than its value. I 
 am afraid this is not a true story, but hope it is, as I like 
 to read of anything original or eccentric, and you hear 
 so many stories of revenue exactions that you become a 
 free trader. You think about your things, and talk 
 about them so much that they assume princely propor 
 tions, and you begin to feel like a collector, that you have 
 exhausted the bazaars of the East and that you have 
 rare possessions, and not, as happens to me, only a few 
 odds and ends that have, as it were, trickled in upon you 
 as you wandered along, and will have no value when 
 they reach home but the value of the memories that sur 
 round them. 
 
 " After mature deliberation and taking everybody s 
 advice and on this subject everybody is anxious to 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 advise you I concluded to send my * things home by 
 the way of the Suez Canal direct to New York, and to 
 go to California in light marching order, and when the 
 excisemen came down upon me for curios, show them 
 only my clothes and a few volumes of useful information. 
 Somehow, even after the question had been settled and 
 was out of your mind, there was an irresistible fascina 
 tion in talking about your * things. I suppose the real 
 reason was that the talk about the things led in an indi 
 rect way to a talk about home, and that we were all of us 
 just a little homesick, more than we would care to admit. 
 I have observed that people are apt to treat homesickness 
 as they would a love affair. They like to talk about such 
 emotions in other people but not in themselves. Take our 
 naval friends, for instance, who have been on this station for 
 some time. You never saw so much fortitude ! Home 
 away with such a sentiment it is not home but * duty 
 which animates a sailor, and since duty commits them 
 to the Asiatic coast, why of course ! But I observed all 
 the same that when the mail day grew near, and it was time 
 for the steamers to come in from the seas, that a strange 
 interest took possession of our naval friends, and you 
 heard only prayers for good weather and impatience 
 at the slow, lingering hours. Our naval friends are the 
 most patient of men. Weather, climate, pestilence it 
 makes very little difference whether the winds blow high 
 or blow low, so that the mails come in. I fancied that we 
 talked about our things, because it led to talk about 
 home and what people would say, and how affairs had 
 changed in our absence. We are none of us willing to 
 confess to a homesick feeling, except the colonel, who has 
 been avowedly homesick ever since we left Singapore, and 
 has announced that his travels are at an end, except over 
 the road that leads by the shortest and most direct route to 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 General Sheridan s head-quarters in Chicago. I am sure 
 that not all the old blue made, either in China under the 
 Ming dynasty, or in General Grant s Newark curio 
 manufactory, would keep our gallant comrade over 
 another steamer from the performance of his duties at 
 the head-quarters of the Military Division of the Missouri. 
 As we are all going home together it makes little differ 
 ence, and I only allude to the colonel s military enthusi 
 asm because I like to see such a spirit among the young 
 officers in our army, and to hold it up for public notice 
 and commendation. 
 
 " Our last days in Japan were crowded with incidents 
 of a personal and public character. I use the word per 
 sonal to describe events that did not find their way into 
 the newspapers nor belong to public receptions. There 
 were constant visits to the General from members of the 
 cabinet from Mr. Iwakura, especially, who came to talk 
 about public affairs. There were conferences on the Loo- 
 choo question, when General Grant used his best efforts 
 to bring China and Japan to a good understanding. 
 What the effect of these conversations will be, history 
 alone can tell ; but I may add that the counsel which the 
 General has given in conversations with Mr. Iwakura and 
 the ministry, he has also given in writing, and very ear 
 nestly, to Prince Kung and Li-Hung Chang. Since hear 
 ing both sides of the Loochoo question the Japanese 
 case and the Chinese case General Grant has felt him 
 self in a position to speak with more precision than 
 when, in China, he heard only the Chinese story. Other 
 questions arose questions connected with the industrial 
 and agricultural advancement of Japan. The General 
 pointed out to his Japanese friends the large area offer- 
 tile land awaiting cultivation, and how much might be 
 added to the wealth and revenues of the country if the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. r . l 
 
 people were induced to develop the whole territory. 
 This leads to a discussion of the land tax, so heavy a 
 burden to the people, and which the government is com 
 pelled to impose for revenue. If, instead of taxes on 
 land, the authorities could levy a tariff for revenue such 
 a tariff as we see in Germany and France then the tax 
 on land could be abated. This led up to the revision of 
 the treaties, the absorbing question in Japanese politics, 
 and which is no further advanced than it was when Mr. 
 Iwakura went to the treaty powers on his mission many 
 years ago. The General has always given the same 
 advice on the treaty question. One of the odd phases 
 of the English policy in the East is, that while England 
 allows her own colonies to do as they please in tariffs, to 
 have free trade or protection, she insists that Japan and 
 China shall arrange their imposts and tariffs solely with 
 the view of helping English trade. In other words, Japan, 
 an independent power, is under a duress that Canada or 
 Australia would never accept. This anomalous condition 
 of affairs will exist so long as the treaty remains, and 
 England has never shown an inclination to consent to any 
 abrogation of her paramount rights under the treaty. 
 General Grant s advice has been that Japan should make 
 a statement of her case to the world. She should show 
 the circumstances under which this treaty was made 
 how her ignorance was used to put her in an unfortunate 
 and humiliating position. She should recall her own ex 
 traordinary progress in accepting and absorbing the 
 modern civilization ; that in doing this she has opened 
 her empire to modern enterprise and shown the best evi 
 dence of her desire to be friendly with the world. She 
 should recount the disadvantages under which this treaty 
 places her not alone moral, but material, crippling and 
 limiting her resources. She should announce that the 
 
542 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 treaty was at an end, but that she was prepared to sign 
 the most favorable conventions that could be devised, 
 provided the treaty powers recognized her sovereign 
 independent rights. She should at the same time pro 
 claim her tariff, open her ports and the interior of her 
 country, welcome foreign capital, foreign immigration, 
 foreign labor, and assert her sovereignty. The objection 
 to this in the minds of the Japanese is that fleets may 
 come, and the English may bombard Tokio as they did 
 Simonoseki. 
 
 " If there is one thing more certain than another, 
 reasoned the General, it is that England is in no humor 
 to make war upon Japan for a tariff. I do not believe 
 that under any circumstances Lord Beaconsfield would 
 consent to such an enterprise. He has had two wars, 
 neither of which have commended themselves to the 
 English people. An Englishman does not value the 
 glory that comes from Afghan and Zulu campaigns. To 
 add to these a demonstration against Japan because she 
 had resolved to submit no longer to a condition border 
 ing on slavery, would arouse against Lord Beaconsfield 
 a feeling at home that would cost him his government. 
 Just now/ the General advised, is the best time. Lord 
 Beaconsfield must soon go to the people. His parlia 
 ment is coming to an end, and even if he had adventur 
 ous spirits in his cabinet or in the diplomatic service dis 
 posed to push Japan, he would be compelled to control 
 them. Japan has a great many friends in England who 
 are even now making her cause their own, and who 
 would support her when she was right. More than all, 
 there is a widespread desire for justice and fair play in 
 England to which the Eastern nations, and especially 
 Japan, need never appeal in vain. Japan has peculiar 
 claims upon the sympathy and respect of mankind, and 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 JT-O 
 
 if she would assert her sovereign rights, she would find 
 that her cause met the approval of mankind/ 
 
 "Time will show how far this clear and firm advice 
 will be accepted by the Japanese. While a good deal of 
 politics was talked in these last days between the Gen 
 eral and the rulers of Japan, there were other and more 
 pleasant occupations. Attached to the palace was a 
 billiard-room, and here every morning would come trades 
 men from the bazaars of Tokio with cloths, and armor, 
 and swords, and all manner of curious things to sell or 
 to show. The hour after breakfast was our hour of 
 temptation. This/ said the emotional young lady as 
 she moved away from the piano, while Moore was singing 
 one of his love songs, * this is not for the good of my 
 soul/ I used to think of this story when I went into the 
 billiard-room after breakfast to see the fresh invoices 
 from the bazaars. What a world of art, and of beauty, 
 and of taste, has been created by the genius of Japan ! 
 Here is a scroll of silk on which the artist, with a few 
 daring lines, has drawn a history or a poem. Here is a 
 morsel of bronze not much larger than a dollar. It was 
 formerly a sword ornament and looks like a trifle until 
 you closely examine it and see the fine touches a sun 
 rise, a volcano, a flight of storks in the air, sea or stream, 
 all told on the smallest space, with touches of silver or 
 gold. Sometimes we had collections of toys and dolls, 
 for Japan is the paradise of children, and in nothing does 
 the genius of the people assert itself with more sincerity 
 than in devising pleasures for the little people. 
 
 "There is something tangible in Japanese toys. The 
 monkeys have real hair, and you can wool the dogs 
 about, and worry the cats without seeing them unravel 
 over the nursery floor. And the dolls ! You take an 
 assortment of babies at home, and they seem to have 
 
- , , TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 544 
 
 been cast in the same mould. They look alike, they have 
 no expression the faces are dead, dull, flabby ; it will be 
 a mercy if they have noses or ears ; and the only way 
 the boys can be told from the girls, is by the way the 
 hair is parted. But what can you expect from a mighty 
 people, thinking of canals and railways? The genius of 
 America does not run to dolls, but to manifest destiny 
 and bonanza mines. The Japanese artist makes a doll 
 as though he loved it, and when he is through with the 
 toy, it is not alone a toy, but a story, or it may be a poem; 
 something to come home to the baby heart, to have joys 
 and sorrows, to be loved with the passionate love of in 
 nocence and childhood. Those were, indeed, our hours 
 of temptation, those after-breakfast hours in the billiard- 
 room at Euriokwan. Especially in the matter of swords! 
 There is no place in the world where you can buy such 
 beautiful swords as in Japan. Until within the last few 
 years, every gentleman s retainer carried two swords a 
 long and a short one. These weapons were the mark of 
 his rank his badge of gentle life. He took pride in his 
 swords, and aimed to have them of the keenest temper, 
 and most exquisite adornment. But in the hour of 
 change, came a decree forbidding the wearing of the 
 swords, suppressing the two-sworded men, the Sumauri, 
 as they are called, as a class. So all that was left for the 
 abolished Sumauri, was to carry their sworcls to the ba 
 zaars and turn them into rice and fish. Consequently 
 the bazaars are now overstocked with swords and spears 
 of the finest workmanship, with scabbards of lacquer 
 and bronze, ingeniously worked in silver and gold. I 
 have looked at innumerable specimens, and never found 
 two alike. Each separate weapon seemed to be the ex 
 pression of an idea, and you never ceased to marvel at 
 the endless variety and sweep of the decorative art. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 "You felt also if you bought one of the swords that 
 you were investing in the antiquity and chivalry of Japan. 
 The two-sworded men arc now as other people, and wear 
 plain clothes and work for their living and use civil 
 language, which was not always their custom when Sir 
 Rutherford Alcock flourished. And yet, now that noth 
 ing is left of the poor Samauri but their swords, which 
 litter the bazaars and over which you haggle and chaffer, 
 trying to cheapen the weapon that for generations, per 
 haps, was the heirloom and the pride of a gentleman s 
 family now that the Samauri no longer infest the streets 
 to worry British ministers and foreign merchants I am 
 disposed to think kindly of them, and not feel as harshly 
 as Sir Rutherford s narrative would justify me in doing. 
 It is rather a pity, said Sir Harry Parkes, the British 
 minister, one day to the w r riter, that the Samauri were 
 abolished. They included in their ranks men of culture 
 and valor. They were the middle class or one might 
 say the martial class and were a kind of backbone to 
 the social system. Some of the old Samauri now hold 
 high places. I do not think they did any harm, and the 
 country would have been stronger with them. I quote 
 this indulgent opinion of the British minister in justice to 
 the memory of the Samauri, and rather as an offset to the 
 unfavorable impression given of their character by Sir 
 Harry s predecessor. Mr. Senaul was in Japan when 
 the Samauri class were in power, and at the crisis of tho 
 revolution which was to destroy their power, and he noted 
 that, while there was abroad a warlike, turbulent body of 
 men, he did not see one act of rudeness nor hear one 
 word of ill-temper. I take it one never feels more gener 
 ous toward his friends, more disposed to do them justice 
 and see the real virtues in their character, than when he 
 is attending a bankruptcy or executor s sale of their effects 
 48 
 
546 
 
 TRAVELS OF GEXERAL GRAXT. 
 
 and possessing himself of their household gods for about 
 one-fourth their value. It awakens the hidden springs 
 of benevolence in your nature, and as I marvel at the 
 finish of these Samauri swords I think of all the kind 
 things possible about the poor, shorn gentlemen who once 
 bore them. One advantage about the sword-market in 
 Japan is that swords are cheaper than they will ever be 
 again, and they make capital presents. That is one of 
 the problems of travel to find something unique and 
 valuable that you can buy cheap. What a pity it is 
 that you cannot make presents on the principle that Eng 
 land governs India by prestige. When some maharajah 
 gives the Prince of Wales a diamond aigrette for his wife, 
 the prince knows he cannot give diamonds in return. 
 So the maharajah is declared to be a loyal and deserving 
 prince and has two guns added to his salute. The prince 
 has the diamonds and the maharajah the guns, and both 
 are satisfied, the Indian more especially. Now, if a 
 traveler could only give his friends his good intentions 
 and have them accepted at their par value, what a relief 
 it would be, and what trouble it would save you in wonder 
 ing how so and so would be pleased with this or that, and 
 what heart burnings would be avoided when the various 
 idols of your existence came in after days to compare 
 your offerings and sit in judgment upon your affection. 
 
 "But while we had our hours of temptation in the 
 billiard-room, and strucrcrles with conscience the extent 
 
 t>o 
 
 of which, I am afraid, so far as some of us are concerned, 
 will never be known until the time comethwhen all things 
 must appear we had hours of instruction. Our hosts 
 were ever thinking of some new employment for each 
 new day. We grew tired in time of the public institu 
 tions, which are a good deal the same the world over, 
 .and after we had recovered from our wonder at seeing 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 547 
 
 Japan schools and work-shops like those we left behind 
 us, they had no more interest than schools and work 
 shops generally. The heat of the weather made going 
 about oppressive, and even the sea lost its freshness, and 
 when the tides went down and the breeze was from the 
 land the effect of the water was to increase the heat. Our 
 interest in earthquakes was always fresh, and whenever 
 the atmosphere assumed certain conditions our Japanese 
 friends would tell us that we might expect a shock. In 
 Japan the earthquake is as common a phenomena as 
 thunder-storms at home in midsummer, although there 
 are no laws that govern their approach. I have told you 
 of one experienced when we were all at dinner, and when 
 we owed it to Governor Hennessy that we discovered 
 there had been an earthquake. On that day it had 
 rained, and all that I remember specially was that in 
 walking about the grounds before dinner the air seemed 
 to be heavy and the sea was sluggish. A few mornings 
 before we left Euriokwan there was another experience. 
 Our hosts had sent us some workers in pottery to show 
 us the skill of the Japenese in a department of art in 
 which they have no superiors. One of the famous pot 
 ters had expressed a desire to show the General his 
 work. After breakfast we found the artisans arranged 
 in the large drawing-room. There was the chief worker, 
 a solemn middle-aged person, who wore spectacles. He 
 was dressed in his gala apparel, and when we came into 
 the room went down on his face in Japanese style. There 
 were three assistants. One worked the wheel. Another 
 baked the clay. A third made himself generally useful. 
 The chief of the party was a painter. We saw all the 
 processes of the manufacture, the inert lump of clay 
 going around and around, and shaping itself under the 
 true, nimble fingers of the workmen into cups, and vases, 
 
tj4.8 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and bowls. There is something fascinating in the labors 
 of the wheel, the work is so thoroughly the artisan s own, 
 for when he begins he has only a lump of mud and when 
 he ends his creation may be the envy of a throne- 
 room. 
 
 44 It seems almost like a Providence this taking the dust of 
 the valley and creating it for the work is creation and 
 we are reminded of Providence in remembering that 
 when the Greater of all fashioned His supreme work it 
 was made of clay. The decoration of the clay was inter 
 esting, requiring a quick, firm stroke. We were re 
 quested to write something on the clay before it went 
 into the furnace. General Grant gave his autograph and 
 the rest of us inscriptions written as well as we could 
 write with a soft, yielding brush. After the inscriptions 
 had been written the cups were washed in a white sub 
 stance and hurried into the furnace. When they came 
 out the fire had evaporated the coating and turned into 
 a gloss the tints of our writing and the painters colors 
 had changed, and our inscriptions were fastened in deep 
 and lasting brown 
 
 "It was while we were watching the potters over their 
 clay, and in conversation with a Japanese citizen, who 
 spoke English, and came as interpreter about the pro 
 gress of the special industry in Tokio, that we heard a 
 noise, as though the joists and wooden work of the house 
 were being twisted, or as if some one were walking on 
 the floor above, with a heavy step. But there was no 
 second floor in Euriakwan, and I suppose the incident 
 would have passed without notice, if our Japanese friend 
 had not said, there is an earthquake. While he spoke 
 we paused, and again heard the wrenching of the joists, 
 and the jingling of the glass in the swinging chandelier. 
 This was all that we noted. We walked out on the porch 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 and looked at the foliage, and toward the sea, but al 
 though observation and imagination were attuned, we 
 saw nothing" but an unusual deadness in the air. which we 
 
 o 
 
 might have seen on Broadway on a midsummer day. 
 These were our only earthquake experiences in Japan. 
 I have noted them, because an earthquake is always an 
 interesting subject, and because I was impressed with the 
 indifference shown by our Japanese friends toward this 
 supreme and awful manifestation of the power of nature. 
 This comes from the fact that earthquakes are rarely 
 severe in Japan. History tells of a fearful disaster, even 
 here, in imperial Tokio, not many years since. 
 
 "In conversing with some of our naval friends, who 
 had been in the West Indies, and seen our tropical 
 American earthquakes, I discovered that they did not 
 share the indifference of the Japanese toward the earth 
 quake. They felt toward it as experienced mariners 
 toward the sea the more they saw of its power the more 
 they held it in awe. I was told that the prudent thing to 
 do when you hear the tremor of the earthquake, is to 
 rush out into the open air, and there remain until the 
 second shock spends its force. The earthquakes come 
 in twos, and generally give you warning. The houses in 
 Japan, however, seem to have been built for the fire and 
 the -earthquake. They are put together in a loose, elas 
 tic manner, of light woods, so as to stand a great deal of 
 shaking. Even if they fell they would not do much 
 harm. As to fires, the custom is to have in each block of 
 houses one small fireproof building whither, in a case of 
 need, all in the neighborhood can hurry with their special 
 treasures. If Tokio were to burn what you would see 
 \vould be a wilderness of ruins, with fireproof buildings 
 at regular stations, containing the essential wealth of the 
 town. If the resident can afford it, he has his own spc- 
 
550 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 cial fireproof building". But this is a luxury only enjoyed 
 by the rich. 
 
 "There were dinners andfe/es, and many quiet, pleasant 
 parties during our last days at Euriokwan. The British 
 minister, Sir Harry Parkes, proposed an entertainment, 
 but we were about to sail, and every night and every day 
 we were engaged, and the General was compelled to de 
 cline Sir Harry s hospitality. There was a luncheon with 
 Mr. House, the editor of the Tokio Times, in a pretty 
 little house near the American legation, looking out on 
 the sea. I had known House years ago, more years I 
 am afraid than I care to remember, when he was among 
 the most brilliant of a noted group of young men, who 
 were then making their way in the world through the 
 attractive but not always fruitful fields of journalism. I 
 was glad to see him again, and although time had lain 
 his hand upon him, as I fear it had upon both of us, and 
 there was the suggestion of middle age, and care, and 
 labor, in his features, it had not dimmed the buoyancy, 
 the grace and the genius that made him in our early New 
 York times attractive and envied among men. House, 
 even in those days it was before the rebellion ; Heaven > 
 help us ! ages, and ages ago ! felt a singular interest in 
 Japan. He had fallen under the influence of Hildreth, 
 who had made Japan a study and gave us a look too wise 
 and true to be forgotten, as I am afraid it is. He became 
 familiar with the embassy, the tycoon s embassy, in 1860, 
 and his interest in Japan deepened, and everybody was 
 surprised when they heard that he had left a career of 
 promise and renown to seek his love in the far East. 
 Since then, House has given himself to Japan with a 
 spirit that I might call the missionary spirit of self-abne 
 gation. He has fought her battles. He has defended 
 her name. He has endeavored to win her a place among 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 53.1 
 
 the nations. He has accepted contumely and misrepre 
 sentation in her cause, for I found how quickly you find 
 it out! that if you take sides with the Eastern nations 
 in this far East you bring upon you the rancor of the 
 foreigners. You are as much an outlaw as Wendell 
 Phillips in anti-slavery days was an outlaw in Beacon 
 Street. You are not respectable. You arc against the 
 interests of your own country. You are anxious to see 
 Japan close up again, and the foreigners driven into the 
 sea. You are bribed, bought, corrupted. You are pos 
 sessed of the devil. But House has held his place and 
 made his fight, and still makes it with all the brilliancy 
 of old days, and his name is a power in Japan. I have 
 ventured upon this allusion to his career, becaue I hap 
 pen to know a great deal about it, and I am glad to honor, 
 especially in my own craft, what seems to be a lofty and 
 self-denying spirit. And certainly nothing but that self- 
 denial which love alone can inspire would have induced 
 House to surrender the career he was enjoying when I 
 knew him in New York to bury himself in Japan." 
 
r r 2 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 J J 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 A DINNER WITH THE PRIME MINISTER A JAPANESE DINNER FAREWELL HOSPI 
 TALITIES MARTIAL SONGS DINNER WITH PRINCE DATI TRIP TO HIS HOUSE 
 A PLEASANT TIME AMERICAN HOSPITALITIES GRAND PARTY AT THE CONSULATE 
 TAKING LEAVE OF THE MIKADO THE AUDIENCE OF LEAVE ADDRESS OF 
 GZNERAL GRANT, AND THE EMPEROR S REPLY MRS. GRANT AND THE EMPRESS 
 MR. BINGHAM THANKS THE MIKADO THE LAST NIGHT IN TOKIO LAST CONVER 
 SATIONS FAREWELL TO TOKIO FAREWEL TO JAPAN PARTING ADIEUS. 
 
 " A MONO the most pleasing incidents of our last 
 
 / \ days in Tokio was a dinner with Sanjo, the prime 
 
 * -*- minister, who entertained us in Parisian style, 
 
 everything- being as we would have found it on the 
 
 Champs Elysees the perfection of French decoration in 
 
 the appointments of the house, and of French taste in the 
 
 appointments of the table. 
 
 " Mr. Mori, who was formerly Japanese minister to the 
 United States, and is now vice-minister for foreign affairs, 
 and one of the strong and rising men in the empire, gave 
 a dinner and a reception. Here the General met most 
 of the men noted in literary and scientific pursuits. Mr. 
 Terashima, the foreign minister, also gave a dinner, which 
 was Parisian in its appointments. Mr. Yoshida enter 
 tained a portion of our party the General not being able 
 to attend in Japanese style. Among the guests were 
 Saigo, Ito and Kawamura, of the cabinet, and our good 
 friends and daily companions, Tateno and Ishibashi, of 
 the emperor s household, who have been sent by His 
 Majesty to attend upon the General and give him the 
 advantage of their knowledge of English. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 553 
 
 " We had had a stately Japanese dinner in Nagasaki, 
 when we were entertained after the manner of the old 
 Daimios, but with Mr. Yoshida we dined as we would 
 have dined with any Japanese gentleman of distinction if 
 we had been asked to his house in a social way. Mr. 
 Yoshida lives some distance from Euriokwan, in one of a 
 group of houses built on a ridge overlooking the sea, on 
 the road toward Yokohama. There are grounds where 
 the master of the house in 
 dulges a fancy for garden 
 ing, a fancy which in no 
 place do you see it so per 
 fect as in Japan. The gar 
 dener in Japan is a poet. 
 He loves his trees, and 
 shrubs, and flowers, and 
 brings about results in 
 his treatment of them that 
 show new possibilities and 
 a new power of expression 
 in nature. 
 
 " Mr. Yoshida had a few 
 lanterns among his trees, 
 but beyond this modest bit 
 of decoration, just a touch of 
 color to light up the caverns of the night there was no 
 display. Dinner was served in Japanese style. Our 
 host wore Japanese costume, and the room in which we 
 dined was open on three sides, and looked out on the 
 gardens. When you enter a Japanese house you are ex 
 pected to take off your shoes. This is not alone a mark 
 of courtesy, but of cleanliness. The floors are spotless 
 and covered with a fine matting, which w r ould crack 
 under the grinding edges of your European shoes. We 
 
 NATIVE OF NAGASAKI. 
 
554 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 took off our shoes and stretched ourselves on the floor, 
 
 and partook of 
 our food from 
 small tables a 
 few inches high. 
 The tables were 
 of lacquer, and 
 the dishes were 
 mainly of lacquer. 
 There is no plan, 
 no form, in a Ja 
 panese dinner, 
 simply to dine 
 with comfort. O f 
 the quality of 
 the food I have 
 not confidence 
 enough in my 
 judgment to give 
 an opinion. Din- 
 ing has always 
 appeared to be 
 one of the misfor 
 tunes that came 
 with Adam s fall, 
 and I have never 
 been able to think 
 of it with enthu 
 siasm. I know 
 that this is a pain 
 ful confession, the 
 display of igno- 
 ranee and want 
 
 of taste, but it cannot be helped. I gave myself seriously 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 555 
 
 to my dinner, because I am fond of Mr. Yoshida, and 
 wanted to pay him the compliment of enjoying his gra 
 cious and refined hospitality. Then I thought that it 
 \vould be some thin of that I mio;ht want to write about. 
 
 o o 
 
 But the dinner was beyond me. I cannot say that 
 I disliked it, and I liked it about as well as nineteen 
 out of twenty of the dinners you have in New York. 
 
 "It was picturesque and pleasing, and in all its ap 
 pointments so unlike anything in our close and compact 
 way of living that you felt somehow that you were having 
 a good time ; you felt like laughing, and if you gave way 
 to your impulse it would have been to roll about on the 
 floor in the delight and abandon of boyhood. If you did 
 not want to eat you could smoke, and if not to smoke to 
 drink and there was drinking, smoking and eating all 
 the time. Your attendants were maidens, comely and 
 fair, who knelt in the middle of the floor and watched you 
 with amusing features, fanning you and noiselessly slip 
 ping away your dishes and bringing new ones. They 
 were so modest, so graceful, that you became uncon 
 scious of their presence. They became, as it were, one 
 of the decorations of the dinner. They watched the 
 guests and followed their wishes, as far as comfort was 
 concerned. Beyond that I saw no word or glance of 
 recognition. At home your servants are personages 
 with all the attributes of human nature, and sometimes 
 in a form so aggravated that they become a serious care, 
 and you dine under fear in the presence of some oppres 
 sive responsibility. But our maidens might have been 
 sprites, they were so far from us, and at the same time 
 their grace and quickness made the mechanism of our 
 .dinner smooth and noiseless. 
 
 " I have been trying to think of something concerning 
 this dinner that would be regarded as useful information. I 
 
556 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 ;im conscious of the absence of that quality in all that I have 
 written about Japan. I would give the world if I could 
 only tell you how some of the soups were made and how the 
 ragouts were seasoned. But if I had been told I never 
 would have remembered and would have certainly written 
 it wrong, and so I am compelled to fall back upon my im 
 pression. My main impression was that we were having 
 a good time, that we were amusing ourselves, playing, 
 romping not dining. I have never been upon the stage, 
 but I can fancy that if I had taken part in a comedy I 
 should have had the same sensations with which I enjoyed 
 Mr. Yoshida s dinner that I was having a merry time 
 and giving others a merry time. To chat and listen, to 
 lie prone on the floor and see the red lanterns among the 
 trees, to see the universe beyond, the calm and infinite 
 stars, to run into light and airy talk about music, and 
 books, and songs, and folk lore, to hear our friends tell 
 us of the martial songs of Japan, and chant for us some 
 of their stirring strains; to try and tell them something 
 of our own martial songs, what our soldier boys sang 
 during the war ; to note the energy and conscientious 
 desire to please and give instruction with which the colonel 
 sang John Brown, and Sherman s March Through 
 Georgia, and Johnny Comes Marching Home these 
 are the impressions I recall. Neither the colonel nor 
 myself know anything about the words or music of these 
 songs, nor about music in general, and would have given 
 a large part of our fortunes if for that evening at least 
 we had had any musical faculty. But what could we do ? 
 Our friends were curious on the subject and there was no 
 way of changing the theme, and we told them all we knew 
 who John Brown was and what Sherman marched for, 
 and who Johnny was supposed to be. There was a line 
 in the Sherman song something about the soldiers 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRAXT. 557 
 
 marching off with the turkey gobblers which amused our 
 friends, although it was difficult to explain to them the 
 exact meaning of the word gobblers. The colonel s 
 singing was mainly in heroic measure, and his tunes 
 seemed to run into the same key; but our friends were 
 interested, and in this fashion the evening passed on. A 
 good deal of the pleasure of the evening, no doubt, came 
 from the fact that we were all friends, good friends, anx 
 ious to please and be in each other s society. That would 
 add grace to a dinner of pottage and herbs, and when at 
 last the inevitable hour came it was late before we accepted 
 it, and when our carriage drove up to take us home we 
 took our leave of our host and of our Japanese friends 
 with regret, and the feeling that we had enjoyed our 
 evening as much as any we had spent in Japan. 
 
 "Another dinner, worth noting, for it was the last ex 
 pression of Japanese hospitality, was the entertainment 
 given to General Grant by Prince Dati. When the 
 Richmond arrived in the Bay of Nagasaki, and the 
 Japanese authorities came on board to welcome General 
 Grant to the empire, Prince Dati was at their head as the 
 emperor s personal representative. From that time 
 during our stay Prince Dati has been always with us. 
 The prince is about sixty years of age. Under the old 
 regime he was a Daimo, or feudal lord, of ancient family, 
 who had the power of life and death over his retainers. 
 When the change came, and the power of the lords was 
 absorbed by the mikado, and many of their rights and 
 emoluments taken away, most of the Daimios went into 
 retirement. Some came to Tokio, others remained at 
 their country homes. The great princes, like Satsuma, 
 have ever since only given the government a sullen, 
 reserved obedience. You do not feel them in State 
 affairs. You do not see them. The authorities do not 
 
553 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 have the prestige of their influence and authority. They 
 are names in Japan, possible centres of rebellion, while 
 the forces of the State are in the hands of men \vho, a 
 few years ago, were their armor bearers and Samauri. 
 The Daimios appear to accept the revolution and give 
 allegiance to the present government of the mikado, but 
 their acceptance is not hearty. Some of them, however, 
 regard the revolution as an incident that could not. be 
 helped, as the triumph of the mikado over the tycoon, 
 and altogether a benefit to the nation. Among these is 
 Prince Dati. His position in Japan is something like that 
 of one of the old-fashioned tory country lords in England 
 after the Hanoverian accession. His office in the State 
 is personal to the emperor. We have all become attached 
 to Prince Dati, and it seems appropriate that our last 
 festival in Japan should be as the guest of one who has 
 been with us in daily companionship. The prince had 
 intended to entertain us in his principal town-house, the 
 one nearest Euriokwan, but the cholera broke out in the 
 vicinity and the prince invited us to another of his houses 
 in the suburbs of Tokio. 
 
 u We went by water, embarking from the sea-wall in 
 front of Euriokwan. The sea was running briskly at the 
 time we started, and there was a little trouble in going 
 on board the imperial barge which had been sent to con 
 vey us. We turned into the river, passing the commo 
 dious grounds of the American legation, its flag weather 
 worn and shorn ; passing the European settlement, which 
 looked a little like a well-to-do Connecticut town, noting 
 the little missionary churches surmounted by the cross, 
 and on for an hour or so, past tea-houses and ships and 
 under bridges, and watching the shadows descend over 
 the city. It is hard to realize that Tokio is a city one 
 of the greatest cities of the world. It looks like a series 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. ^ 
 
 of villages, with bits of green, and open spaces, and in 
 closed grounds, breaking up the continuity of the town. 
 There is no special character to Tokio, no one tract to 
 seize upon and remember, except that the aspect is that 
 of repose. The banks of the river are low and sedgy, at 
 some points a marsh. When we came to the house of 
 the prince, we found that he had built a causeway of 
 bamboo through the marsh out into the river. His house 
 was decorated with lanterns. As we walked along the 
 causeway all the neighborhood seemed to be out in a 
 dense crowd, waiting to see the General. Our evening 
 with the prince was very pleasant. He lives in palatial 
 style. He has many children, and children s children 
 have come to bless his declining years. He took an ap 
 parent pride in presenting us to the various members of 
 his family. Our dinner was served partly in European, 
 partly in Japanese style. There were chairs, a table, 
 knives, forks, napkins, bread and champagne. This was 
 European. There were chop-sticks, seaweed jellies, raw 
 fish, soups of fish and salvi. This was Japanese. There 
 was as a surprise, a special compliment to our nation 
 a surprise that came in the middle of the feast a dish of 
 baked pork and beans, which would have done honor to 
 Boston. Who inspired this dish and who composed i: 
 are mysteries. It came into our dinner in a friendly way, 
 and was so well meant and implied such an earnest desire 
 to please on the part of the host that it becarhe idyllic, 
 and conveyed a meaning that I venture to say was never 
 expressed by a dish of pork and beans since the May 
 flower came to our shores. The dinner over and we 
 sat on the porch and looked out on the river. In the 
 courtyard there were jugglers who performed tricks nota 
 ble for dexterity, such as making a fan go around the 
 edge of an umbrella and keeping a bevy of balls in the 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 air on the wing like birds. Then we returned home, part 
 of the way by the river, and, as the night had fallen in 
 the meantime and the sea was too high for us to venture 
 out in the boats, the remainder in carriages. 
 
 " Our last Japanese entertainment was that of Prince 
 Dati. There were others from Americans. Admiral 
 Patterson gave a dinner on board his flagship, the * Rich 
 mond, at which were present officers from our various 
 ships, the Japanese admiral, the minister and the consul- 
 general. The dinner was served on deck and our naval 
 friends gave us another idea of the architectural triumphs 
 possible in a skillful management of flags. We had the 
 band, which the lovers of musical art at home will be glad 
 to know is improving, although it has not mastered 
 4 Lohengrin. Lieutenant-Commander Clark, however, to 
 whose musical enthusiasm the band owes so much, in 
 formed me in confidence that if there was any virtue left 
 in the articles of war he would have his musicians go 
 through the Wedding March at least before the cruise 
 was over. The dinner with the admiral was quite a family 
 affair, for the officers had been our shipmates and we 
 knew their nicknames, and the admiral himself had won 
 our friendship and respect by his patience, his care, his 
 courtesy, his untiring efforts to make General Grant s 
 visit to Japan as pleasant as possible. When the rain 
 began to fall and ooze through the bunting and drip over 
 the food it added to the heartiness of the dinner, for a 
 little discomfort like that was a small matter and only 
 showed how much we were at home, and that we were 
 resolved to enjoy ourselves, no matter what the winds or 
 waves might say. When the consul-general came he 
 brought with him rumors of a typhoon that was coming 
 up the coast and might break on us at any moment and 
 carry us all out to sea. This gave a new zest to our 
 
TRAVELS Of GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 561 
 
 dinner, but the typhoon broke on Tokio, turning aside 
 from our feast, and when we returned on shore at mid 
 night the rain was over and the sea was smooth. There 
 
 60 
 
562 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 was a garden party at the consulate, brilliant and thronged, 
 said by the Yokohama press to be the most successful 
 fete of the kind ever given in the foreign settlement. 
 The consular building in Yohohama is a capacious and 
 stately building, standing in the centre of a large square. 
 It opens on the main street. The offices are in the lower 
 floor the jail is an adjoining building. The building and 
 the grounds were illuminated with lanterns festoons of 
 lanterns dangling from the windows and the balconies 
 running in lines to the gate and swaying aloft to the cross- 
 trees of the flagstaff. A special tent had been erected 
 on the lawn and the band from the Richmond* was 
 present. The evening was clear and beautiful and every 
 body came, the representatives of the foreign colony, of 
 the consular and diplomatic bodies, of the local govern 
 ment, officers of our navy, w r ith Admiral Patterson at the 
 head, members of the cabinet and high officials of the 
 Japanese Government. There was dancing, and during 
 the supper, which took place in the tent, there was a 
 speech from Consul-General Van Buren, in honor of 
 General Grant, in which he alluded to the approaching 
 departure of the General for home, and wishing him and 
 the rest of the party a prosperous and successful voyage. 
 To this General Grant made a brief response, and the 
 entertainment went on, far beyond midnight and into the 
 morning hours. 
 
 "On Saturday General Grant took his leave of the 
 emperor. An audience of leave is always a solemn 
 ceremony, and the court of Japan pays due respect to 
 splendor and state. A farewell to the mikado meant more 
 in the eyes of General Grant, than if it had been the or 
 dinary leave-taking of a monarch who had shown him 
 hospitality. He had received attentions from the sover 
 eign and people, such as had never been given. He had 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 563 
 
 been honored, not alone in his own person, but as the 
 representative of his country. His visit had this political 
 significance, that the Japanese Government intended by 
 the honors they paid him, to show the value they gave to 
 American friendship, and their gratitude. In many ways 
 the visit of the General had taken a wide range, and 
 what he would say to the emperor would have great im 
 portance, because every word he uttered would be 
 weighed in every Japanese household. General Grant s 
 habit in answering speeches and addresses is to speak at 
 the moment, without previous thought or preparation. 
 
 "On several occasions, when bodies of people made 
 addresses to him, they sent copies in advance, so that he 
 might read them, and prepare a response. But he al 
 ways declined these courtesies, saying that he would wait 
 until he heard the addresses in public, and his best re 
 sponse would be what came to him on the instant. This 
 was so particularly at Penang, when the Chinese came to 
 him with an address, which opened up the most delicate 
 issue of American politics, the Chinese question. A 
 copy of this address had been sent to the Government 
 House for him to look over, but he declined, and his first 
 knowledge of the address which propounded the whole 
 Chinese problem, was when the blue-buttoned mandarin 
 stood before him reading it. 
 
 "The response was one of the General s longest and 
 most important speeches, and was made at once in a 
 quiet, conversational tone. The farewell to the emperor 
 was so important, however, that the General did what he 
 has not done before during our journey. He wrote out 
 in advance the speech he proposed making to His Ma 
 jesty. I mention this circumstance, simply because the 
 incident is an exceptional one, and because it showed 
 General Grant s anxiety to say to the emperor and the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 people of Japan, what would be most becoming in return 
 for their kindness, and what would best conduce to good 
 relations between the two nations. 
 
 "At two in the afternoon the sound of the bugles and 
 the tramp of the horsemen announced the arrival of the 
 escort that was to accompany us to the imperial palace. 
 Mr. Bingham arrived shortly after, looking well, but a 
 little sad over the circumstance that the ceremony in 
 which he was about to officiate, was the close of an event 
 which had been to him the source of unusual pleasure 
 the visit of General Grant to Japan. Prince Dati and 
 Mr. Yoshida were also in readiness, and a few minutes 
 after two of the state carriages came. General and Mrs. 
 Grant rode in the first carriage, Mr. Bingham, accom 
 panied by Prince Dati and Mr. Yoshida, in the second ; 
 Colonel Grant and the writer in the third. Colonel 
 Grant wore his uniform, the others evening dress. The 
 cavalry surrounded our carriages, and we rode off at a 
 slow pace. The road was long, the weather hard and 
 dry, the heat pitiless. On reaching the palace, infantry 
 received the General with military honors. 
 
 "The prime minister, accompanied by the ministers for 
 the household and foreign affairs, were waiting at the 
 door when our party arrived. The princes of the impe 
 rial family were present. The meeting was not so stately 
 and formal as when we came to greet the emperor, and 
 have an audience of welcome. Then all the cabinet were 
 present, blazing in uniforms and decorations. Then we 
 were strangers, now we are friends. On entering the 
 audience chamber the same plain and severely-furnished 
 room in which we had been received the emperor and 
 empress advanced and shook hands with the General and 
 Mrs. Grant. The emperor is not what you would call a 
 graceful man, and his manners are those of an anxious 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 565 
 
 person not precisely at his ease wishing to please and 
 make no mistake. But on this farewell audience he 
 seemed more easy and natural than when we had seen 
 him before. After the salute of the emperor, there was 
 a moment s pause. General Grant then took out of his 
 pocket his speech, and read it as follows : 
 
 " YouR MAJESTY I come to take my leave and to 
 thank you, the officers of your government and the peo 
 ple of Japan for the great hospitality and kindness I have 
 received at the hands of all during my most pleasant 
 visit to this country. I have now been two months in 
 Tokio and the surrounding neighborhood, and two pre 
 vious weeks in the more southerly part of the country. 
 It affords me great satisfaction to say that during all this 
 stay and all my visiting, I have not witnessed one dis 
 courtesy toward myself nor a single unpleasant sight. 
 Everywhere there seems to be the greatest contentment 
 among the people ; and while no signs of great individ 
 ual wealth exist, no absolute poverty is visible. This is 
 in striking and pleasing contrast with almost every other 
 country I have visited. I leave Japan greatly impressed 
 with the possibilities and probabilities of her future. She 
 has a fertile soil, one-half of it not yet cultivated to man s 
 use, great undeveloped mineral resources, numerous and 
 fine harbors, an extensive seacoast abounding in fish of 
 an almost endless variety, and, above all, an industrious, 
 ingenious, contented and frugal population. With all 
 these nothing is wanted to insure great progress except 
 wise direction by the government, peace at home and 
 abroad, and non-interference in the internal and domestic 
 affairs of the country by the outside nations. It is the 
 sincere desire of your guest to see Japan realize all pos 
 sible strength and greatness, to see her as independent 
 of foreign rule or dictation as any Western nation now 
 
r5 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 is, and to see affairs so directed by her as to command 
 the respect of the civilized world. In saying this I believe 
 I reflect the sentiments of the great majority of my 
 countrymen. I now take my leave without expectation 
 of ever again having the opportunity of visiting Japan, 
 but with the assurance that pleasant recollections of my 
 present visit will not vanish while my life lasts. That 
 Your Majesty may long reign over a prosperous and 
 contented people, and enjoy every blessing is my sincere 
 prayer. 
 
 "When General Grant had finished, Mr. Ishibashi, the 
 interpreter, read a Japanese translation. The emperor 
 bowed, and taking from an attendant a scroll on which 
 was written in Japanese letters his own address, read as 
 follows : 
 
 " Your visit has given us so much satisfaction and 
 pleasure that we can only lament that the time for your 
 departure has come. We regret also that the heat of 
 the season and the presence of the epidemic have pre 
 vented several of your proposed visits to different places. 
 In the meantime, however, we have greatly enjoyed the 
 pleasure of frequent interviews with you ; and the cordial 
 expressions which you have just addressed to us in tak 
 ing your leave have given us great additional satisfaction. 
 America and Japan being near neighbors, separated by 
 an ocean only, will become more and more closely con 
 nected with each other as time goes on. It is gratifying 
 to feel assured that your visit to our empire, which 
 enabled us to form very pleasant personal acquaintance 
 with each other, will facilitate and strengthen the friendly 
 relations that have heretofore happily existed between 
 the two countries. And now we cordially wish you a 
 safe and pleasant voyage home, and that you will on your 
 return home find your nation in peace and prosperity, 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. -7 
 
 and that you and your family may enjoy long life and 
 happiness. 
 
 "His Majesty read his speech in a clear, pleasant voice. 
 Mr. Ishibashi at the close also read a translation. Then 
 the empress, addressing herself to Mrs. Grant, said she 
 rejoiced to see the General and party in Japan, but she 
 was afraid the unusual heat and the pestilence had pre 
 vented them from enjoying her visit. Mrs. Grant said 
 that her visit to Japan had more than realized her antici 
 pations ; that she had enjoyed every hour of her stay in 
 this most beautiful country, and that she hoped she might 
 have in her American home, at some early day, an 
 opportunity of acknowledging and returning the hos 
 pitality she had received in Japan. 
 
 "The emperor then addressed Mr. Bingham, our min 
 ister, hoping he was well and expressing his pleasure at 
 seeing him again. Mr. Bingham advanced and said: 
 
 "T thank Your Majesty for your kind inquiry. I 
 desire, on behalf of the President of the United States 
 and of the Government and people I represent, to ex 
 press our profound appreciation of the kindness and the 
 honor shown by Your Majesty and your people to our 
 illustrious citizen/ 
 
 "His Majesty expressed his pleasure at the speech 
 of Mr. Bingham, the audience came to an end, and we 
 drove back to our home at Euriokwan. 
 
 " The audience with the emperor was the end of all fes 
 tivities ; for, after taking leave of the head of the nation, 
 it would not have been becoming in others to offer enter 
 tainments. Sunday passed quietly, friends coming and 
 going all day. Monday was spent in Yokohama making 
 ready for embarking. The steamer, which w r as to sail on 
 Tuesday, was compelled to await another day. On 
 Tuesday the General invited Admiral Patterson, Captain 
 
568 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Benham, Commander Boyd and Commander Johnson, 
 commanding- respectively the American men-of-war * Rich 
 mond, Ranger and Ashuelot ; Mr. Bingham, General 
 Van Buren and other members of the Japanese Cabinet 
 with the ladies of their familes, to dinner, our last dinner 
 in Japan. In the evening was a reception, or rather what 
 grew into a reception, the coming of all our friends 
 Japanese, American and European to say good-bye. The 
 trees in the park were hung with lanterns, and fire-works 
 were displayed, furnished by the committee of the citizens 
 of Tokio. There was the band from the War Depart 
 ment. The night was one of rare beauty, and during the 
 whole evening the parlors of the palace were thronged. 
 There were the princes and princesses of the imperial 
 family, the members of the cabinet, the high officers of 
 the army and navy, Japanese citizens, ministers and con 
 suls. The American naval officers from four ships, the 
 * Monongahcla having come in from Hakodadi, were in 
 full force, and their uniforms gave color to what was in 
 other respects a brilliant and glittering throng. It was a 
 suggestive, almost a historic assembly. There were the 
 princes and rulers of Japan. Sanjo, the prime minister, 
 with his fine, frail, almost womanly face, his frame like 
 that of a stripling, was in conversation with Iwakura, the 
 junior premier, whose strong, severe, almost classical 
 features are softened by the lines of suffering which tell 
 of ever-present pain. In one room Ito sits in eager talk 
 with Okuma, the finance minister, with his Hamlet-face 
 and eyes of speculation. Okuma does not speak Eng 
 lish, but Ito gives you a hearty American greeting. Mrs. 
 Grant is sitting on the piazza, where the fire-works can 
 be seen, and around are Japanese and American ladies. 
 Mr. Bingham, whose keen face grows gentler with the 
 frosty tints of age, is in talk with Sir Harry Parker, tht: 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 569 
 
 British minister, a lithe, active, nervous, middle-aged gen 
 tleman, with open, clear-cut Saxon features, the merriest, 
 most amusing, most affable gentleman present, knowing 
 everybody, talking to everybody. One would not think, 
 
 JAPANESE MORMON. 
 
 as you followed his light banter and easy, rippling ways, 
 that his hand was the hand of iron, and that his policy 
 was the personification of all that was hard and stern in 
 the policy of England. This genial, laughing, plump 
 
j. j Q TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 Chinese mandarin, with his button of high rank, who ad 
 vances with clasped hands to salute the General, is Ho, 
 the Chinese ambassador, an intelligent gentleman, with 
 whom I have had many instructive talks about China. 
 His Excellency is anxious about the Loochoo question, 
 and, when he has spoken with the General, advances and 
 opens the theme, and hopes the good offices of the 
 General will go as far as his good wishes would have 
 them. Commander Johnson we are all especially glad to 
 see, because he has just recovered from an illness that 
 threatened his life, and shows traces of disease in his 
 pale face and dented eyes. Captain Benham feels sad 
 over the General s departure, and has been expressing 
 his disappointment at not being able to take us to Aus 
 tralia. House comes in and joins an American group 
 Dr. McCartee, E. T. Sheppard and General Van Buren. 
 McCartee is the foreign secretary of the Chinese em 
 bassy, an honorable and scholarly man, who has been 
 more than a generation in the East, and now that three 
 score years have been vouchsafed to him, feels like going 
 home. Few men have led a more modest and at the 
 same time more useful life than Dr. McCartee, and the 
 esteem in which he is held shows how much the Eastern 
 people desire to honor Americans who command their 
 respect. Mr. Sheppard, formerly an American consul at 
 Tien-tsin, now holding a high and confidential place in the 
 Japanese service, is a young man of ability, but does not 
 propose to remain in Japan much longer. He has a 
 Spanish castle in California, and means to go and live 
 there before he has quite fallen under the fascinations of 
 Eastern life. 
 
 " This man, with the swarthy features and full, blazing 
 eyes, who greets you with cordial, laughing courtesy, and 
 who reminds you a great deal in his manners and features 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of General Sheridan, is the secretary of war, the famous 
 General Saigo, who commanded the Japanese expedition 
 to Formosa. The general is brother of that still more 
 famous Saigo a great name and a great character 
 who threw away his life in that mad and miserable Sat- 
 suma rebellion. What freaks fate plays with us all ! It 
 was foreordained that this Saigo should be secretary of 
 war, and, directing the troops of the government, while 
 the other Saigo, blood of his blood, brother and friend, 
 should be in arms against the government. General 
 Saigo is in conversation with Colonel Grant, with whom 
 he has become most friendly, and the colonel is telling 
 how a soldier lives on the plains, and what a good time 
 Saigo, and the other friends who form the group, would 
 have if they came to America and allowed him to be 
 their host and escort in Montana. The other friends are 
 notable men. The one with the striking features a 
 thin face that reminds you of the portraits of Moltke, a 
 serious, resolute face that mocks the restless, dare-devil 
 eye is Admiral Kawamura, the head of the navy, famous 
 for his courage, about which you hear romantic stories. 
 Inemoto, who is near him, is secretary of the navy. It 
 shows the clemency of Japan when you remember that 
 Inemoto was the leader of a rebellion against the govern 
 ment in whose cabinet he now holds a seat. He owes 
 his life, his pardon and his advancement largely to the 
 devotion and wisdom of one of the generals who defeated 
 him. That officer is now at his side listening to the 
 colonel s narrative General Kuroda, minister of coloniza 
 tion. Kuroda looks like a trooper. In another group 
 you see Yoshida, with his handsome, enthusiastic face, 
 and Mori, who looks as if he had just left a cloister, and 
 Wyeno, fresh from England, where he has been minister, 
 whose wife, one of the beauties of Japan, is one of the belles 
 
- - 2 TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of the evening*, Inouye, minister for public works all 
 noted men, and, as I have had occasion to observe before, 
 all young men. The men here to-night have made the new 
 Japan, and as you pick them out, one after the other, you 
 see that they are young, with the fire, the force and the 
 sincerity of youth. The only ones in the groups who appear 
 to be over forty are Sanjo and Iwakura. Sanjo has never 
 put any force upon the government, his mission has been 
 to use his high rank and lofty station to smooth, and recon 
 cile, and conciliate. As for Iwakura, although he did more 
 
 o 
 
 than any one else at the time, they say that he has ceased 
 to lock kindly upon the changes, that his heart yearns for 
 old Japan, and that his eyes are turned with affection and 
 sorrow toward the lamented and irrecoverable past. 
 
 "" One of the princes is off with the naval officers, and 
 is challenging Captain Benham and the officers to drink 
 champagne. But the captain has more confidence in the 
 water than the wine, and is trying to induce the prince to 
 come and sec him once more on his ship. This prince 
 and the captain have become great friends the prince 
 saying 1 that Benham is his elder brother. You may not 
 have observed that amono- our naval officers are the lads 
 
 o 
 
 of the fleet, midshipmen and cadets. It is not customary 
 for the young men to be included in official invitations. 
 That privilege belongs to higher rank. The young men, 
 however, are here to-night. I may as well say, because 
 Mrs. Grant invited them to come specially and see her. 
 She wanted to have the boys present, for she has boys of 
 her own, and knows that boys enjoy fire-works, and music, 
 and high society, beauty and conversation, and like to 
 show their uniforms as much as the captains and admirals, 
 which they will be some clay. So the boys are here, and 
 float about Mrs. Grant in a kind of filial way, and have 
 voted her as a patron saint of every steerage in the navy. 
 
TRA VELS OF GEA^ERAL GRANT. - - - 
 
 And, supper coming, groups go in various directions 
 some with Mrs. Grant and the ladies to one room where 
 there are ices and delicate refreshments, and some, espe 
 cially the Americans, with Saigo, and Kawamura, and 
 Prince Dati, to drink a joyous toast, a friendly farewell 
 bumper to the colonel before he sails home. And this 
 special fragment of the company becomes a kind of 
 maelstrom, especially fatal to naval men and Americans 
 who are sooner or later drawn into its eddy. But the 
 maelstrom is away in one of the wings of the palace. In 
 the drawing-rooms friends come and go come and go, 
 and give their wishes to the General and all of us, and 
 wander about to see the decorations of our unique and 
 most interesting dwelling, or more likely go out under 
 the trees to feel the cool night air as it comes in from the 
 ocean and note the variegated lanterns as they illuminate 
 the landscape, or watch the masses of fire, and flame, and 
 colors that flash against the dense and glowing sky, and 
 shadow it with a beauty that may be seen from afar 
 from all of Tokio, from the villages around, from the 
 ships that sail the seas. Midnight had passed before our 
 fete was ended, before the last carriage had driven away, 
 and walking through the empty saloons the General and 
 one or two friends sat down on the piazza to smoke a 
 cigar and have a last look at the beauty of Euriokwan, 
 the beauty that never was so attractive as when we saw 
 it for the last time under the midnight stars. 
 
 " We were up and stirring in time, but our impedimenta 
 was on board the steamer, and there was really nothing 
 to do but breakfast and departure. The day of our leav 
 ing Japan was clear and beautiful, and, as the hour for 
 our going was early, the morning shadows made the air 
 grateful. While we were at breakfast the cavalry came 
 trooping into the grounds, and we could hear the notes 
 
- ~* TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 of the bugle and the word of command. Officials, minis 
 ters and other friends came in to accompany the General. 
 Shortly after eight the state carriages came. We drove 
 slowly away, the cavalry forming around us, the infantry 
 presenting arms. We looked back and took our farewell 
 of Euriokwan, where we had passed so many happy 
 hours. It was like leaving an old home. The servants 
 swarmed on the veranda, and we felt sorry to leave be 
 hind us people so faithful and obliging. General Grant s 
 departure from his Tokio residence was attended with as 
 much ceremony as his arrival. Troops formed in double 
 line from the door of the palace along the whole line of 
 our route, even to the railway station. Military officers 
 of high rank rode with the cavalry as a guard of honor. 
 The crowd was enormous, and increased as we came to 
 the railway. The station had been cleared and additional 
 troops were posted to keep the multitude out of the way. 
 On entering the station the band played * Hail Columbia/ 
 and we found our Japanese and American friends pres 
 ent, some to say farewell, but most of them to go with 
 us as far as Yokohama. The committee of citizens who 
 had received us were drawn up in line in evening cos 
 tume. The General shook hands with the members and 
 thanked them for their hospitality. Mr. Iwakura escorted 
 Mrs. Grant to the imperial car. Here were Mrs. Mori, 
 Mrs. Yoshida and other ladies. The Chinese minister 
 came just as we were leaving, and our train, which was a 
 long one, was filled with friends who meant to see us 
 embark. At twenty-five minutes past eight the train 
 pushed out from Tokio, the troops presenting arms, the 
 band playing our national air, the people waving their 
 farewell, while the General stood on the platform and 
 bowed his acknowledgments. Our engine was draped 
 with the American and Japanese flags. Our train was a 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. **]* 
 
 special one, and stopped at none of the intermediate 
 stations. But as we whirled past each station we ob 
 served the crowds assembled to have a last glimpse of 
 the General. As we passed Kanagawa and came in 
 sight of Yokohama Bay we saw the ships dressed from 
 stem to stern with streamers, flags and emblems. When 
 we entered the Yokohama station the crowd was 
 apparently as large as what we had left in the capital. 
 There were troops presenting arms, a band to play Hail 
 Columbia/ and the governor to welcome us. 
 
 "The merchants and principal citizens, in European 
 evening dress, stood in line. The governor escorted Mrs. 
 Grant to her carriage, and we drove to the admiralty 
 wharf. The road was decorated with Japanese and 
 American flags, and when we came to the admiralty there 
 was a display of what are called day fire-works, an ex 
 quisite combination of gray and blue, of colors that do 
 not war with the sun, spreading over the sky gossamer 
 shapes, delicate tints, showers of pearl-like spray. There 
 in waiting, we found the Consul-General, Admiral Pat 
 terson, Captain Benham, Captain Fitzhugh, Commander 
 Boyd and Commander Johnson, who had come to escort 
 the General on board his steamer. The admiral was ac 
 companied by Lieutenants Wainwright and Davenport 
 of his staff. We remained at the admiralty several min 
 utes, while light refreshments were served. The Gen 
 eral then went on the admiralty barge, Mrs. Grant being 
 escorted by Admiral Kawamura, and amid the noise of 
 the exploding fire-works and strains of the naval band, 
 we pushed off. In the barge with the General and party, 
 were Sanjo, Iwakura, the members of the cabinet, Prince 
 Dati, Mr. Yoshida and Mr. Bingham. The admiral, with 
 his officers, followed after in the barge of the Richmond. 
 We came alongside of the steamer, and were received 
 
576 
 
 TRA I ELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 by Commodore Maury, who began at once to prepare for 
 sea. During the few minutes that were left for farewells 
 the deck of the City of Tokio formed a brilliant sight. 
 Boats from the four men-of-war came laden with our 
 naval officers, in their full uniforms to. say good-bye. 
 All of them were friends, many of them had been ship 
 mates and companions, and the hour of separation 
 brought so many memories of the country, the kindness, 
 the consideration, the goodfellowship they had shown us, 
 that we felt as if we were leaving friends. Steamtugs 
 brought from Yokohama other friends. House had come 
 down from Tokio to say farewell, and to see the last of a 
 demonstration, that to him, as an American, was more 
 gratifying" and extraordinary than anything he had seen 
 during his long stay in Japan. 
 
 41 In saying farewell to our Japanese friends, to those 
 who had been our special hosts, General Grant expressed 
 his gratitude and his friendship. But mere words, how 
 ever warmly spoken, could only give faint expression to 
 the feelings with which we took leave of many of those 
 who had come to the steamer to pay us parting courtesy. 
 These gentlemen were not alone princes rulers of an 
 empire, noblemen of rank and lineage, ministers of a 
 sovereign whose guests we had been but friends. And 
 in saying farewell to them we said farewell to so many 
 and so much, to a country where every hour of our stay 
 had a special value, to a civilization which had profoundly 
 impressed us and which awakened new ideas of what Japan 
 had been, of her real place in the world and of what her 
 place might be if stronger nations shared her generosity 
 or justice. We had been strangely won by Japan, and 
 our last view of it was a scene of beauty. Yokohama 
 n< ->iled. on her shore, against which the waters of the 
 sea were idly rolling. Her hills were dowered with 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. *** 
 
 577 
 
 foliage, and here and there were houses, and groves, and 
 flag-staffs, sentinels of the outside world which had made 
 this city their encampment. In the far distance, breaking 
 through the clouds, so faint at first that you had to look 
 closely to make sure that you were not deceived by the 
 mists, Fusiyama towered into the blue and bending skies. 
 Around us were men-of-war shimmering in the sunshine, 
 so it seemed, with their multitudinous flags. There was 
 the hurry, the nervous bustle and excitement, the glow of 
 energy and feeling which always mark the last moments 
 of a steamer about to sail. Our naval friends went back 
 to their ships. Our Yokohama friends went off in their 
 tugs, and the last w r e saw of General Van Buren was a 
 distant and vanishing figure in a state of pantomime, as 
 though he were delivering a Fourth of July oration. I 
 presume he was cheering. Then our Japanese friends 
 took leave, and went on board their steam launch to 
 accompany us a part of our journey. The Japanese man- 
 of-war has her anchor up, slowly steaming, ready to carry 
 us out to sea. The last line that binds us to our anchor 
 age is thrown off, and the huge steamer moves slowly 
 through the shipping. We pass the Richmond near 
 enough to recognize our friends on the quarter-deck 
 the admiral and his officers. You hear a shrill word of 
 command, and seamen go scampering up the rigging 
 to man the yards. The guns roll out a salute. We pass 
 the Ashuelot/ and her guns take up the iron chorus. 
 We pass the Monongahela, so close almost that we could 
 converse with Captain Fitzhugh and the gentlemen who 
 are waving us farewell. Her guns thunder good-bye, 
 and over the bay the smoke floats in waves floats on 
 toward Fusiyama. We hear the cheers from the Ranger. 
 Very soon all that we see of our vessels are faint and 
 distant phantoms, and all that we see of Yokohama is a 
 5 1 
 
573 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 line of gay and green. We are fast speeding on toward 
 California. For an hour or so, the Japanese man-of-war, 
 the same which met us at Nagasaki and came with us 
 through the Inland Sea, keeps us company. The Japan 
 ese cabinet are on board. We see the smoke break 
 from her ports and we hurry to the side of our vessel to 
 wave farewell farewell to so many friends, so many 
 friends kind and true. This is farewell at last, our final 
 token of good-will from Japan. The man-of-war fires 
 twenty-one guns. The Japanese sailors swarm on the 
 rigging and give hearty cheers. Our steamer answers by 
 blowing her steam whistle. The man-of-war turns slowly 
 around and steams back to Yokohama. Very soon she 
 also becomes a phantom, vanishing over the horizon. 
 Then, gathering herself like one who knows of a long 
 and stern task to do, our steamer breasts the sea with an 
 earnest will for California and for home." 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL CXAXT. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 HRAND RECEPTION OF GENERAL GRANT AT SAN FRANCISCO MAGNIFICENT DISPLAY 
 AN EXCITING SCENE OVATION AT THE HOTEL RECEPTION OF THE CITIZENS AT 
 THE MAYOR S OFFICE VISITS THE PRODUCE EXCHANGE LUNCHES WITH GENERAL 
 M DOWELL RECEPTION OF A CHINESE DEPUTATION GRANT S SPEECH RECEP 
 TION AT OAKLAND ATTENDS THE FAIR AT SANTA CLARA HIS RECEPTION. 
 
 IF General Grant s reception abroad had exceeded in 
 magnificence and splendor Any ever before extended 
 to an American, his welcome home surpassed in en 
 thusiasm that ever before exhibited by the American peo 
 ple to one of their fellow-citizens. His voyage home had 
 been quiet, and he was wholly unprepared for the un 
 paralleled demonstration that awaited him. 
 
 The strain of anxiety in looking for three days for the 
 " Tokio," in which he had embarked, reached its utmost 
 tension on Saturday, September 2Oth. The continuous 
 waving of flags across the streets, the fading of floral 
 decorations and the complete stand-still of all business 
 had become wearisome and painful. It had been ar 
 ranged that the bell of the Merchants Exchange should 
 ring as soon as the telegraph signaled that the steamer 
 " Tokio" was in sight. All the morning crowds had hur ^ 
 around the harbor and filled all the streets an idle, waiting 
 throng but there was no sign of the steamer. The day 
 wore slowly on, every ear turned to catch the first clang 
 of the bell ; but noon came and went, and yet the iron 
 tongue that was to send such a wave of excitement over 
 the city hung silent and motionless. At last, at half-past 
 three, it spoke, its loud clang passing through the city 
 
580 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 like an electric shock, transforming the quiet population, 
 in a moment, into a surging, shouting multitude. Bells 
 began to ring, steam-whistles to scream, and the thunder 
 of cannon to reverberate over the hills and harbor. 
 Thousands of men, women and children, on foot, in car 
 riages and on horseback, began to pour out in the direc 
 tion of Presidio Heights, Point Lobos, Telegraph Hill 
 and every other eminence in the vicinity, eager to catch 
 the first glance of the incoming ship bearing the guest 
 for whose reception so great preparations had been 
 made, and whose arrival had been so anxiously antici 
 pated. Crowds hurried toward the wharves where the 
 steamers and yachts that were to take part in the nautical 
 pageant were lying. 
 
 At the moment the alarm, giving notice of the ap 
 proach of the "City of Tokio" was struck, the executive 
 committee, having charge of the demonstration, were in 
 session at the Palace Hotel, warmly discussing the ques 
 tion of carrying out the programme to-morrow in case 
 of the steamer s arrival in time, or deferring it until 
 Monday. The first stroke of the bell ended the discus 
 sion. It was three-quarters of an hour later than the 
 limit that had been previously determined upon, but it 
 was at once resolved to carry out die demonstration im 
 mediately. 
 
 Immediately on receipt of the intelligence that the 
 steamer "City of Tokio" was nearing port, the reception 
 committee, consisting of Frank M. Pixley, ex-Senator 
 Cole, General Miller and R. B. Cornwall, repaired to the 
 tug " Millen Griffith," lying, with steam up, at the Pacific 
 Mail dock, and at once started to meet the incoming 
 steamer. The " Millen Griffith " stood well out to sea, 
 and several miles outside the Heads, met the " City of 
 Tokio " coming in. The tug drew alongside, and the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 581 
 
 executive committee, quarantine officer, and customs of 
 ficials and a number of representatives of the press 
 boarded the steamer. No ceremony was observed, ex 
 cept a general shaking of hands, and after the committee 
 had announced the object of their visit, and informed 
 General Grant of the reception prepared for him, the 
 conversation became general as the " City of Tokio " 
 continued on her course. Soon after the government 
 steamer " McPherson," came alongside, and Major Gen 
 eral McDowell, commanding the Division of the Pacific, 
 accompanied by his staff, boarded the " Tokio," and re 
 joined his old comrade in arms. 
 
 While this was transpiring, the general committee of 
 arrangements, with several thousand invited guests, as 
 sembled on board the large side-wheel Pacific Mail 
 steamer, " China," and a number of smaller steamers, 
 while tugs took squadrons of the San Francisco and Pa 
 cific Yacht clubs in tow, and started down the channel. 
 
 In the meantime it seemed as though the whole pop 
 ulation of the city men, women and children had sought 
 positions from which a view of the naval pageant could 
 be obtained. Every eminence commanding the channel 
 was black with assembled thousands. Telegraph Hill 
 was a living mass of human bodies, and the heights be 
 yond Presidio, the Clay Street Hill, the sea wall at North 
 Point, and every pier head were covered with spectators. 
 
 The sun was declining in the west as the steamers and 
 yachts, gay with bunting, moved down the channel. Low 
 clouds hung along the western horizon. Mount Tamau- 
 lipas and the distant mountains, north of the bay, were 
 veiled in a mist, and Mission Hill and the seaward heights 
 of the peninsula were shrouded in a fog. But the chan 
 nel was unobstructed, and the bold outlines of the Golden 
 Gate rose sharply against the sky, while the bay itself, 
 
582 
 
 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT, 
 
 with the islands and shores of Alameda and Contra Costa, 
 was bathed in sunlight. From every flag-staff in the city 
 flags were flying, and the shipping along the city front 
 was brilliantly decked with ensigns, festooned flags and 
 streamers. The impatient crowds that covered the hill 
 tops, stood straining their eyes to catch the first glimpse 
 of the "Tokio." A hundred times the cry was raised, 
 " There she comes," as chance arrivals came in view be 
 tween the Heads. 
 
 It was half-past five o clock when a puff .of white smoke 
 from seaward, from off the earthworks back of and above 
 Fort Point, and the booming of a heavy gun announced 
 that the steamer was near at hand. Another and another 
 followed in rapid succession. Fort Point next joined in 
 the cannonade, firing with both casemate and barbette 
 guns, and the battery at Lime Point added its thunders 
 to the voice of welcome. In a few moments the entrance 
 to the harbor was veiled in wreaths of smoke, and as the 
 batteries of Angel Island, Black Point and Alcatraz 
 opened fire in succession, the whole channel was soon 
 shrouded in clouds from their rapid discharges. For 
 some time the position of the approaching ship could not 
 be discovered ; but shortly before six o clock the outlines 
 of the huge hull of the " City of Tokio " loomed through 
 the obscurity of smoke and rapidly approaching shades 
 of evening lit up by the flashes of guns, and in a few 
 moments she glided into full view, surrounded by a fleet 
 of steamers and tugs, gay with flags and crowded with 
 guests, while the yacht squadron brought up the rear, 
 festooned from deck to truck with brilliant bunting. 
 Cheer after cheer burst from the assembled thousands as 
 the vessels slowly rounded Telegraph Mill, and were 
 taken up by the crowds on the wharves and rolled around 
 the city front, hats and handkerchiefs being waved in the 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 585 
 
 air. The United States steamer " Monterey," lying in the 
 stream, added the roar of her guns to the general wel 
 come, and the screaming of hundreds of steam-whistles 
 announced that the " City of Tokio " had reached her 
 anchorage. 
 
 The crowds that had assembled on the hills and along 
 the city now, with a common impulse, began to pour 
 along toward the ferry landing at the foot of Market 
 Street, where General Grant was to land. The sidewalks 
 were blocked with hurrying pedestrians and the streets 
 with carriages conveying the committees. The steamers 
 and yachts made haste to land their passengers, and in a 
 few minutes the vicinity of the ferry landing was literally 
 jammed with people, extending for blocks along Market 
 Street and the water front just in front of the landing, 
 the entrances to which were closed and guarded. A 
 space was cleared by the police and marshals into which 
 hundreds of carriages for use of the guests were crowded, 
 and outside of that space line after line of troops and 
 civic organizations were ranged, while the outside con 
 stantly increasing throng surged and pressed, excited 
 and enthusiastic, cheering at intervals, and waiting im 
 patiently for a first glimpse at the city s honored guest. 
 Within the gates of the ferry-house were assembled the 
 gentlemen charged with the duty of the immediate re 
 ception of General Grant, the Board of Supervisors 
 ranged on the left of the gangway, and Governor Irwin 
 and staff, and the executive committee, consisting of Gov 
 ernor-elect Perkins, W. H. L. Barnes, Samuel Wilson, 
 William T. Coleman, Tiburcio Parrott, J. P. Jackson, 
 John McComb, John Rosenfeld, Clans Spreckels, John 
 H. Wise, W. W. Montegu, occupied the right, Mayor 
 Bryant taking his position about half way down the centre 
 of the gangway. 
 
5 86 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 This greeting and the preparations made to receive 
 him as he approached the city affected him deeply, and, 
 reticent and undemonstrative as he is, his countenance 
 showed an appreciation of the ovation so grand and spon 
 taneous, and, his taciturnity overcame, he talked freely 
 to those beside him, expressing his appreciation of the 
 kindness of his fellow-citizens in welcoming him home 
 again in such a brilliant manner. 
 
 It was after dark when he landed, which interfered much 
 with carrying out in full the programme that had been 
 marked out. After the mayor had welcomed him in a 
 brief address, to which the former replied still more 
 briefly, the gates were thrown open and the procession 
 formed in line and moved up Market Street. As the 
 carriage containing General Grant made its appearance 
 cheer after cheer went up from thousands of throats, while 
 the surging crowd pressed forward and swayed from side 
 to side in its efforts to obtain a passing glance of the 
 familiar lineaments of the Great Captain. 
 
 Amid the tremendous cheering of the crowd, discharges 
 of cannon, ringing of bells and screaming of whistles, 
 the procession moved slowly on. Bonfires blazed out at 
 the street corners, illuminations lit up every window and 
 the glare of Roman candles and electric lights made the 
 broad thoroughfare as bright as day. Under a contin 
 uous archway of flags, banners, festoons and draperies the 
 procession moved up Market Street to Montgomery and 
 turned down the latter street. Crowds blocked the side 
 walk; cheer after cheer rolled along the whole line of 
 march and almost drowned the martial strains of the 
 numerous bands. Broad ensigns tossed in the night wind, 
 glowing with the light of fire, and the glare of rockets and 
 fire-works. A light mist hovering over the city reflected 
 the light of the fire-works and illuminations until the 
 
TRAVELS Oi- GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 589 
 
 heavens seemed ablaze. Continuing the march the pro 
 cession moved through Montgomery Avenue and then to 
 Kearney Street. Here, if possible, the crowds were still 
 more dense and enthusiastic, and the display of fire-works, 
 electric lights, lime lights and every conceivable means of 
 illumination increased the brilliancy. On arriving at 
 Market Street the procession moved up a few blocks 
 and countermached to the Palace Hotel. Here a mag 
 nificent arch, forty feet in height, spanned New Mont 
 gomery Street, blazoned with the national colors and 
 bearing the inscription : 
 
 "WELCOME TO GRANT." 
 
 At this point the carnage containing the General was 
 drawn up, while the procession marched in review, cheer 
 after cheer rending the air as division after division 
 passed by. At the conclusion of the review the various 
 organizations were dismissed, and General Grant was 
 conducted to his quarters in the Palace Hotel, which had 
 been especially prepared and furnished for his reception. 
 
 As he approached the Palace Hotel, where apartments 
 had been secured for him, the scene was one^of surpass 
 ing beauty. Electric lights and 500 gas jets lit up the vast 
 interior with a brilliant glow, and the dense throngs that 
 packed the court and filled the spacious balconies and 
 corridors surged to and fro in anxious expectancy of the 
 coming- guest, whom the packed streets had detained. 
 
 At ten o clock the wide doors were thrown open, and 
 a barouche containing General Grant was driven within 
 the building. He immediately dismounted, and crowding 
 his way through the packed mass of human beings, was 
 
cg TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 hurried to his room. As he alighted, Mme. Fabbri and a 
 chorus of 560 voices opened from one of the balconies 
 with an ode of welcome. 
 
 The crowd rushed after General Grant when he dis 
 mounted, leaving the singers for a moment almost with 
 out an audience, but being stopped in their mad chase by a 
 force of police, who blocked the way, they returned to the 
 court, being reassured by the announcement that the 
 General would appear on one of the balconies after he 
 had time to take off his overcoat. 
 
 After a chorus was rendered, in response to repeated 
 calls, he appeared on the balcony of the fourth floor and 
 bowed to the shouting crowd, immediately retiring. Still 
 the enthusiastic populace thronged the court and refused 
 to leave. Finally Mayor Bryant appeared and announced 
 that as soon as the General had finished his dinner he 
 would show himself. In a few minutes General Grant 
 appeared amid deafening and long-continued shouts. 
 Mayor Bryant called the crowd to order, and the Gen 
 eral, mounting a chair, which was passed over the heads 
 of the surrounding crowd, was again greeted with a suc 
 cession of cheers. 
 
 When the noise subsided he addressed them as fol 
 lows : 
 
 " FELLOW-CITIZENS OF SAN FRANCISCO : After twenty- 
 five years absence I am glad to meet you and assure 
 you of my cordial thanks for the kind greeting you have 
 given me. I shall stay in your city long enough to greet 
 you more fully." 
 
 The General then withdrew amid prolonged and tre 
 mendous cheering, and the crowd at length reluctantly 
 scattered. 
 
 The next day, Sunday, he passed at his hotel, but he 
 could not escape the throng of visitors that besieged his 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 hotel, and he held a sort of levee all day. Two clays after 
 he was formally presented to the citizens of San Francisco 
 in the mayor s office, which was used as a reception-room. 
 It was handsomely draped with flags, and before noon 
 the crowd began to assemble in front of it, and shortly 
 after the passage, steps and every point of advantage 
 were thronged with people. At the Market Street side 
 of the building there was also a large crowd awaiting 
 the arrival of the veterans to fire salutes from the sand 
 lots. As the hour for the reception approached, the 
 crowd grew denser, filling up the corridors and entrances 
 of the building. A squad of thirty policemen was de 
 tailed to keep the passages open. At a quarter to one 
 the veterans Federal and Confederate arrived upon the 
 sand lots, taking up a position near Market Street. The 
 first gun was fired at ten minutes to one, the other thirty- 
 seven guns succeeding each other at intervals of one 
 minute. The people massed along the line of Market 
 Street. After the salute the veterans fell into line, entered 
 the corridor, and marching" down its length, counter 
 marched and took up a position, awaiting the arrival of 
 the General. A few minutes later the ex-President and 
 party arrived at the McAllister Street entrance and were 
 greeted with cheers. The windows of the houses opposite 
 and the house-tops were crowded with people, who 
 waved handkerchiefs and sent up cheer after cheer as the 
 party alighted. As the General proceeded along the 
 pavement, escorted by the mayor, the enthusiasm broke 
 out afresh along the corridor. Running from the lower 
 entrance to the mayor s office were ranged the veterans, 
 posted in two lines. Their commander, Colonel Lyons, 
 stepped forward as General Grant and the mayor reached 
 the corridor, and said: "Now, boys, three cheers for your 
 old commander!" The veterans responded with enthusi- 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 astic hurras. The party then proceeded to the mayor s 
 office, where a committee of ladies were waiting to re 
 ceive Mrs. Grant and assist her. Mrs. Grant did not 
 arrive until some time after the General, who took up his 
 position in the centre of the room. The south-east 
 corner of the room was assigned to the ladies. 
 
 Directions were then issued to admit the multitude. 
 After a few of the the invited guests had been presented 
 to the General the crowd filed in, shook hands with the 
 city s guests, and passed out at the Market Street entrance 
 after presentation to Mrs. Grant. All the afternoon a 
 constant stream of visitors poured through the apartments, 
 and all were greeted with a hearty shake of the hand, 
 the General not adopting the suggestion of the mayor 
 that hand-shaking might be dispensed with on account of 
 the great rush, and expressing his opinion that he could 
 "fight it out on that line." 
 
 General Grant visited the Produce Exchange on the 
 24th of September, and witnessed a grand display of 
 cereals of the Pacific coast, which no city in the world 
 could probably excel. He was much gratified at the ex 
 hibition and expressed, in a few words, his congratulations. 
 After that, accompanied by General McDowell, a gov 
 ernment tug conveyed him to all the forts in the bay, 
 where he was received with military honors. Upon land 
 ing at Black Point, General McDowell s head-quarters, 
 the party was greeted by a salute, and the troops were 
 drawn up in line to receive General Grant at Gen 
 eral McDowell s residence. A collation was prepared, 
 and a formal reception tendered to the distinguished 
 guest. Among the prominent citizens present were 
 Governor Irwin and Governor-elect Perkins, ex-Governor 
 Stanford, ex-Governor Low, Senator Booth, Senator Sha 
 ron, ex-Senator Stewart, Justice S. J. Field, Judge Ogden 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. r ^- 
 
 593 
 
 Hoffman, D. O. Mills, and other distinguished citizens, 
 generally accompanied by their ladies. 
 
 Before the reception began, the General was visited by 
 the chief representatives of the Chinese community, 
 headed by their counsel and the Chinese Vice-Consul, 
 who read the following congratulatory welcome : 
 
 " GENERAL We feel deeply gratified that we were per 
 mitted to meet you face to face, and express to you how 
 sincerely we appreciate the fact that you have visited our 
 country, and consulted with its rulers, and become 
 familiar with the important features of both government 
 and people. It gives unbounded pleasure to learn that 
 you received a warm welcome, commensurate with the 
 high esteem your noble deeds fully entitled you to at the 
 hands of the Chinese authorities and people. Let us 
 hope that your visit will have a tendency to bring the 
 people of the oldest and youngest nations in still closer 
 friendly and commercial relations. The Chinese of Cali 
 fornia join with your countrymen in the acclaim, Wel 
 come home/ and add the sentiments that you may live long, 
 and, like the great Washington, be first in war, first in 
 peace and first in the hearts of your countrymen." 
 
 To this was added by the dignitaries : " To GENERAL 
 GRANT We join our voices to prolong the pean which 
 has girdled the earth, wafted over seas and continents. 
 Praises to the warrior and statesman most graciously 
 presented by the Chinese of California." 
 
 The General replied : " GENTLEMEN I am very glad to 
 meet the representatives of the Chinese community and 
 receive this address. I have, as you say, just returned 
 from a visit to your country. It was a most interesting 
 visit, one that I shall always remember, and especially be 
 cause of the kindness and hospitality shown, me by the 
 people and the authorities of China. For that I am 
 
eg 4 TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 grateful and glad of an opportunity of expressing 1 that 
 gratitude so soon after my arrival at home. I hope that 
 the remark you made about China breaking down the 
 seclusion in which she has been shrouded for ages will 
 prove true in all senses, and that China will continue to 
 draw near to her the sympathy and the trade of the 
 civilized world. The future of China will largely depend 
 upon her policy in this respect. A liberal policy will en 
 large your commerce and confer great commercial ad 
 vantages upon the outside world. I hope that America 
 will have a large share in this. Again I thank you." 
 
 After presenting the address, Colonel Bee said that 
 Mrs. Grant had done more to break down the spirit of 
 domestic exclusiveness that reigned in China than the 
 warrior had done, by the honors shown her in Tien-tsin. 
 He begged that she would accept a small casket of ivory 
 as a memento of the occasion. The reception lasted till 
 six o clock, the party returned to the city, and in the 
 evening attended Baldwin s Theatre. 
 
 The authorities of Oakland having invited General 
 
 o- 
 
 Grant to visit their place, he appointed the 25th. About 
 eleven o clock the boat left the wharf at San Francisco, 
 having on board the General, Mayor Bryant, the Japan 
 ese consul and several distinguished citizens, together 
 with the Oakland committee. 
 
 As the boat approached the Oakland wharf a salute of 
 twenty-one guns was fired, under the direction of the 
 citizen committee. The wharf and the vessels lying along 
 side were gayly decorated. A large banner, on which 
 was inscribed the word " Welcome," was hung across the 
 entrance to the wharf. The party was met at the boat 
 by Mayor Andrus and the city officials. 
 
 The visit having been announced beforehand, brought 
 
 O !> 
 
 an immense crowd, not from San Francisco alone, but 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 from Alameda, Santa Clara and Contra Costa Counties. 
 Trains and ferry steamers from every quarter were 
 crowded, and an hour before noon there were fully a 
 hundred thousand people in the city, sixty thousand more 
 than the regular population. When the General landed 
 at the foot of Broadway there was a general ringing of 
 bells and blowing of whistles. The magnificent principal 
 avenue of the city was crowded with pedestrians. Nu 
 merous country wagons also, bearing loa/is of grangers, 
 filled the causeways. The decorations were fully as 
 elaborate as those of San Francisco, and had the additional 
 advantage of the reception occurring by daylight. 
 
 The procession was marked by the usual character 
 istics of such displays. The local police force was at the 
 head, followed by infantry, dragoons, civic societies and 
 invited guests in carriages. By far the most touching 
 and pleasing feature was the ovation from the school 
 children. The procession passed through Fourteenth 
 Street, where, opposite the City Hall, nearly five thou 
 sand school children were assembled on either side of the 
 street. The procession halted, and General Grant 
 alighted from his carriage and passed, arm in arm with 
 the president of the board of school directors, with bared 
 head, down one .Side of the street, returning on the oppo 
 site side to his carriage. The children cheered, waved 
 their tiny Banners and strewed his path with flowers, and, 
 as he passed, showered bouquets upon him in profusion. 
 The. General bowed and smiled as he passed along, while 
 among the elder spectators there were not wanting 
 evidences of emotion. After this demonstration the 
 General joined the procession and proceeded to the 
 pavilion, where he received the people. Mrs. Grant re 
 ceived the ladies at Tubbs Hotel. 
 
TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 An address of welcome was delivered by the mayor, 
 as follows : 
 
 " GENERAL GRANT Your merited ovations have en 
 circled the world. They have been as grand and varied 
 as the nations that have offered them, and yet among 
 them all there has been no more honest, sincere and 
 cordial welcome than the city of Oakland now extends to 
 you. This is pre-eminently a city of homes and of families, 
 of husbands anc 1 wives, of parents and children, of churches 
 and schools. T^ ^re is no tie more sacred than that of 
 family. At the family altar the fires of liberty are first 
 kindled, and there patriotism is born. Love of home, of 
 kindred and of country is the source and foundation of 
 our welcome to you, defender of our firesides and families." 
 
 The mayor than handed the General a roll contain 
 ing resolutions of greetings, adopted by the city author 
 ities. The General was then conducted to a carriage in 
 waiting. Carriages with the city council, citizen s com 
 mittee, board of supervisors, and citizens followed. When 
 all was in readiness, the carriage containing General 
 Grant and Mayor Andrus filed through the gates and 
 passed -the line of companies on review until it reached 
 the head of the procession. 
 
 Suspended across the avenue, where the chijdren were 
 gathered, were three banners, the first inscribed, " Wel 
 come to General Grant, the City s Guest." TI:? second 
 contained this quotation from General Grant s Dc5 
 Moines speech : "The free school is the promoter of 
 that intelligence which is to preserve us a free nation." 
 In the third was the motto, "We strew these roses beneath 
 the feet of him who saved us from defeat." 
 
 After dinner, at Tubb s Hotel, General Grant addressed 
 the throng, as follows : 
 
 " GENTLEMEN OF THE Two ARMIES AND NAVIES I am 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 very proud of the welcome you have given me to-day. 
 I am particularly happy to see the good-will and cordiality 
 existing between the soldiers of the two armies, and I 
 have an abiding faith that this good feeling will always 
 exist. Thus united we have nothing to fear from any 
 nation in the world. I am satisfied from my travels in 
 foreign lands, that no country will wish to meet us as a 
 united people. They will be perfectly willing to do us jus 
 tice without an appeal to arms, and as that is all that 
 Americans want, I am confident that our country has a 
 long career of peace and prosperity before her." 
 
 Soon after the speech the General took the cars at 
 Brooklyn station to return to the city. While waiting a 
 few minutes for the train an immense crowd gathered 
 round, anxious to get a last glimpse at the city s guest, 
 and a number of ladies made their way through all ob 
 structions to take him by the hand. A little girl who 
 could not succeed in reaching him, on account of the 
 crowd, was lifted above the heads of the people and 
 passed along to the General, who took her in his arms 
 and kissed her, amid the tumultuous cheers of the sur 
 rounding thousands. 
 
 A large number of citizens accompanied the party to 
 t?he wharf, taking leave of the General as he embarked 
 on the ferry to the city. 
 
 Dennis Kearney called at the Palace Hotel and sent up 
 his card to General Grant, but the General declined to 
 receive him. 
 
 The annual fair of Santa Clara County was being held 
 at this time and the authorities invited him to attend. 
 
 The hour of departure was fixed at a quarter to eleven, 
 A. M., but, through some misunderstanding, Grant and 
 his party did not arrive at the station until some time 
 after, but, being accorded the right of way, they were 
 
598 
 
 TRA VELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 hurried onward at the rate of sixty-two miles an hour. 
 At every station along" the route citizens were assem 
 bled in their holiday attire to honor the General, but they 
 could get only a glimpse of the passing train, much to 
 their disappointment and the General s regret. 
 
 The reception at this place was warm and enthusiastic, 
 and as the city is built on a fine level valley, with very 
 \vide streets, the procession and decorated buildings 
 made a magnificent picture. The school children had an 
 excellent opportunity for singing their hymns and throw 
 ing bouquets at the General, who seemed to enjoy the 
 proceeding very much. After passing through the city 
 the General and party was driven to the fair-grounds 
 with carriages, omnibuses, pedestrians, equestrians ac 
 companying them en route. The General and party were 
 assigned places on the Judge s stand, and before them 
 passed horses and cattle on exhibition, forming a mag 
 nificent display. 
 
 After the races, a reception followed, and a grand ban 
 quet. The address of Mayor Archer was full of telling 
 points, and as he is a Democrat of the family of Virginia 
 Archers, and during the war a Southern sympathizer, it 
 was more appreciated. The carriage in which rode the 
 General and the mayor, was drawn by four magnificent 
 gray horses, which were furnished by Captian Maddox, 
 formerly a Confederate officer under Forrest. On this 
 occasion, as in San Francisco, the Confederate and Union 
 soldiers of the war were united in the procession. There 
 were 30,00x3 people assembled to greet the General, 
 many of whom had come a distance of sixty miles. 
 
 In the evening the General was entertained by a num 
 ber of prominent citizens at a banquet at the Auzerais 
 House, and returned to San Francisco at half-past eleven 
 o clock. 
 
TRAVELS OF GENERAL GRANT. 
 
 And here we take leave of the hero who not by words, 
 but stern deeds, saved the Union, won the highest 
 honor in the gift of the American people, and who, in 
 the course of this most memorable journey on record, 
 has been covered with glory by all the nations of the 
 earth. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 Life, . 251 pages. 
 
 Travels, . . 599 " 
 
 Total, . . 850 " 
 
FOURTEEN DAY US., 
 
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