Grant's Reply to Buckner

The surrender of Ft. Donelson in February 1862 propelled U.S. Grant from obscurity to a commander of note in the Union army, a career that would ultimately put him in the White House. When Brig. Gen. Simon Bolivar Buckner, Confederate commander of the fort, sent a note to Grant requesting the terms of surrender, Grant -- famously, as it would turn out -- replied:

Sir: Yours of this date proposing Armistice, and appointment of Commissioners, to settle terms of Capitulation is just received. No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.

I am Sir: very respectfully

Your obedient servant
U.S. Grant

Church of the Presidents, Long Branch, NJ

St. John's in Washington DC, conveniently located on Lafayette Square near the White House, is often called the "Church of the Presidents" because each president since James Monroe has attended services there. But there's another "Church of the Presidents," St. James Chapel in Long Branch, NJ.

Long before it was the setting of tawdry television show, the Jersey Shore was a place for the wealthy to escape pre-air conditioning summertime heat, and no fewer than six sitting presidents vacationed there -- Hayes, Garfield, Arthur, Benjamin Harrison, McKinley and Wilson -- while Ulysses S. Grant visited after he was president. The unfortunate President Garfield, who had been to the Jersey Shore with his ill wife shortly before he was shot in Washington, was taken to Long Branch in the vain hope that we would recover, but instead he died there.

All seven of the aforementioned presidents attended services at St. James Chapel, a branch of St. James Episcopal Church in the western part of Long Branch. That church wasn't convenient enough for the likes of George Pullman, so in the late 1870s, he and two other Gilded Age millionaires paid for the construction of the chapel, which was closer to their vacation homes. The New York firm of Potter and Robertson designed the small chapel in a pseudo-Tudor style popular at the time, and it has remain essentially unaltered since 1895.

Photo courtesy the Long Branch Historical Museum Association.

Long Branch faded as a vacation destination after World War I, and in the 1950s, the chapel was deconsecrated. Local residents Edgar Dinkelspiel and Bernard Sandler saved the structure from demolition, and it became the home of Long Branch Historical Museum in 1955. Among other artifacts on display were President Grant's gun cabinet and game table, and the flag placed over President Garfield's casket during services conducted by the Long Branch Masonic Lodge.

Currently the site is closed to the public while undergoing much-needed restoration work. Recently the Long Branch Historical Museum Association completed the restoration and repair of the masonry that comprises the lower exterior walls of the Church of the Presidents. Much work remains to be done, however, and the association is currently accepting tax-deductible donations for the project.

More information about the Church of the Presidents in Long Branch, and the effort to restore it, is at the association's web site.

July 23, 1885: U.S. Grant Dies

Cancer caught up with Ulysses S. Grant in the summer of 1885, famously dying just after completing his memoirs, which are considered one of the finest of that genre. Another, more visible, monument to the life of Grant is in New York City -- officially the General Grant National Memorial, popularly Grant's Tomb.

"[Grant] was laid to rest in New York City on August 8th," notes the National Park Service. "Approximately 90,000 people from around the country and the world donated a total of over $600,000 towards construction of his tomb, the largest public fundraising effort ever at that time. Designed by architect John Duncan, the granite and marble structure was completed in 1897 and remains the largest mausoleum in North America. Over one million people attended the parade and dedication ceremony of Grant's Tomb, on April 27, 1897."

President McKinley led the event, held on what would have been Grant's 75th birthday. For the occasion, verse by Walt Whitman eulogizing Grant was read:

As one by one withdraw the lofty actors
From that great play on history's stage eterne
That lurid, partial act of War and peace -- of old and new contenting,
Fought out through wrath, fears, dark dismays, and many a long suspense;
All past -- and since, in countless graves receding, mellowing,
Victor's and vanquish'd -- Lincoln's and Lee's -- now thou with them,
Man of the mighty days -- and equal to the days!
Thou from the prairies! -- tangled and many-vein'd and hard has been thy part,
To admiration has it been enacted!

May 10, 1872:Woodhull for President

In 1872, President Grant was re-nominated (no surprise there) by the Republican Party , which dominated national affairs, and the Democrats nominated Horace Greeley, who had no realistic chance of election, and who died a few weeks after the popular vote in any case.

But as with every presidential election, there was a raft of smaller-party candidates in the running, such as the Liberal Republican Party (a Republican splinter), the Independent Liberal Republican Party (a splinter of that splinter), the Straight-Out Democratic Party (yet another splinter), the Prohibition Party (its first foray nationally), the Labor Reform Party and the People's Party, also known as the Equal Rights Party, which, on May 10, 1872, nominated Victoria Woodhull for president.

Who? A largely forgotten woman clearly ahead of her time (the link also includes her '72 campaign song). She was first woman ever nominated for president, but not the last.

April 27, 1822:US Grant's Birthday

Soldier, successful military strategist, commander of the Union forces that subdued the Confederacy, and lackluster president, US Grant was also, to his credit, a world traveler. After his presidency was over, he and his wife went on a world tour that lasted more than two years. Starting with the British Isles, they visited many parts of Europe as far east as Russia, then Egypt and the Holy Land, and then various parts of Asia, including Burma, Siam, China and Japan. It was a highly unusual itinerary for the time, even among those who could afford such an extended trip.

Naturally, the Grants were no ordinary tourists, nor even the American equivalent of grand tour travelers. They met royalty and other heads of state, attended functions in their honor, and attracted crowds of people at parades and other events. Newspapers back home covered their movements in detail, and the public read with fascination.

Grant's love of travel ran deep and, according to his Personal Memoirs was in fact one of the reasons he went to West Point. "Besides the argument used by my father in favor of my going to West Point -- that 'he thought I would go'--there was another very strong inducement. I had always a great desire to travel. I was already the best-traveled boy in Georgetown [Ohio]..."

A short description of the Grant's world tour is here, at the American Experience web site.

April 9, 1865:Grant and Lee at Appomattox

General Horace Porter described the scene at Wilmer McLean's home that day:

"We entered, and found General Grant sitting at a marble-topped table in the center of the room, and Lee sitting beside a small oval table near the front window, in the corner opposite to the door by which we entered, and facing General Grant. We walked in softly and ranged ourselves quietly about the sides of the room, very much as people enter a sick-chamber when they expect to find the patient dangerously ill.

"The contrast between the two commanders was striking, and could not fail to attract marked attention they sat ten feet apart facing each other. General Grant, then nearly forty-three years of age, was five feet eight inches in height, with shoulders slightly stooped. His hair and full beard were a nut-brown, without a trace of gray in them. He had on a single-breasted blouse, made of dark-blue flannel, unbuttoned in front, and showing a waistcoat underneath. He wore an ordinary pair of top-boots, with his trousers inside, and was without spurs. The boots and portions of his clothes were spattered with mud. He had no sword, and a pair of shoulder-straps was all there was about him to designate his rank. In fact, aside from these, his uniform was that of a private soldier.

"Lee, on the other hand, was fully six feet in height, and quite erect for one of his age, for he was Grant's senior by sixteen years. His hair and full beard were silver-gray, and quite thick, except that the hair had become a little thin in the front. He wore a new uniform of Confederate gray, buttoned up to the throat, and at his side he carried a long sword of exceedingly fine workmanship, the hilt studded with jewels. His top-boots were comparatively new, and seemed to have on them some ornamental stitching of red silk. Like his uniform, they were singularly clean, and but little travel-stained. On the boots were handsome spurs, with large rowels. A felt hat, which in color matched pretty closely that of his uniform, and a pair of long buckskin gauntlets lay beside him on the table.

"General Grant began the conversation by saying 'I met you once before, General Lee, while we were serving in Mexico, when you came over from General Scott's headquarters to visit Garland's brigade, to which I then belonged. I have always remembered your appearance, and I think I should have recognized you anywhere.'

" 'Yes,' replied General Lee, 'I know I met you on that occasion, and I have often thought of it and tried to recollect how you looked, but I have never been able to recall a single feature.' "

February 14, 1891: William Tecumseh Sherman Dies

Sherman was never president of the United States, though a good many Republicans in the 1884 thought he would have made a fine candidate for that office. He had retired the year before as commanding general of the United States Army and was still a household name -- and at least in the North, admired for his part in the war.

Sherman was having none of it. Perhaps it was because he'd seen how vexed his former commander US Grant had been by the presidency. More likely, a visceral dislike of politics kicked in at the idea of running for president. In any case, he answered the suggestion that he run with the definitive statement of a non-candidate, one that echoes down the century and more since then: "If drafted, I will not run; if nominated, I will not accept; if elected, I will not serve."

Instead, he lived in retirement in New York City until his death, attending the theater, painting, making dinner speeches when he was a mind to. As for the election of 1884, James G. Blaine, former senator and secretary of state, was the Republican nominee. President Arthur, who had succeeded to the office after the assassination of James Garfield in 1881, chose not to seek the nomination either, probably because of illness. The Democrats nominated Grover Cleveland, the governor of New York, who won in a tight race against Blaine.