The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1885-08-01 00:00:00

DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT:\

General Grant died at eight minutes after eight
o'clock on the morning of the 23rd July inNewYork,
being surrounded by all the members of his family.
His end was peaceful and painless. The city bells
were tolled, and the flags flying at half-mast.
Universal sorrow is expressed at the death of the
General.

The bereaved family have received expressions of
sympathy from all quarters and all classes. Pt esident
Cleveland and the Governors of the several States
sent telegrams of sympathy to Mrs. Grant, and the
various municipal bodies and State Legislatures
passed resolutions of condolence, adjourning imme-
diately afterwards in token of respect fai• the deceased
General.

President Cleveland issued a proclamation in which
he recounts General Grant's services to his country,
and orders the public buildings to be draped with
mourning for 30 days, and to be closed on the day of
the funeral. The President further directed that
appropriate naval and military honours be paid to
the deceased. The Government of New York State
issued a similar proclamation.
General Grant was born at Point Pleasant, in Ohio,
on April 27, 1822, and was the eighteenth President
of the United States of America. He graduated
from the Military Academy at West Point in 1843,
received his commission as second lieutenant in 1845,
and served in the Mexican campaign under Generals
Taylor and Scott. In 1852 he was ordered to Oregon,
and in August, 1853, became captain. He resigned
his commission in July, 1854, and after a residence of
four or five years in St. Louis, removed in 1859 to
Galena, Illinois, where he engaged in business with
his father and brothers. From this privacy he was
drawn out by the Civil War, and having acted
first as aide-de-camp to the Governor of Illinois
in 1861, and afterwards as Colonel of the 21st
Illinois -Volunteers, was made a Brigadier-General
in July, 1861. While in command in Cairo he
secured Paducah, and with it Kentucky. In Novem-
ber, 1831, he fought the battle of Belmont, and in
January, 1862,:condueted a reconnaissance to the rear
of Columbus. Fort Henry fell February 6, and ten
days after Fort Donaldson surrendered to him un-
conditionally, being followed by the evacuation of
Columbus and Bowling Green. He was made com-
mander of the district of West Tennessee, and his
forces advanced up that river to Pittsburg Landing,
and fought, April 6 and 7, the battle of Shiloh, at
which the Confederate General A. S. Johnston lost
his life. He was second in command to General
Halleck during the siege of Corinth, and when the
latter was ordered to Washington, Grant was ap-
pointed to take command of the Department of
Tennessee. He captured Vicksburg, on the Missis-
sippi, July 4, 1863, and after the partial defeat of the
Union troops, under General Rosencrans, at Chicka-
mauga, Tennessee, in September, he was assigned to
the command of the largely reinforced army, and in
November defeated Geperal Bragg, at Chattanaoga,
close by. In March, 1864, President Lincoln appointed
him Lieutenant-General, and conferred on him the
powers of General-in-Chief of the vast armies of
the field. Invested with this authority, and hav-
ing reorganised the Army of the East, and arranged
with General W. T. Sherman, the Commander of the
Army of the West, to move against General J. E.
Johnston, at the same time that he moved against
General Lee, he prepared for a vigorous and pro-
tracted campaign. The two armies moved early in
May, and after a series of hard-fought betties, alter-
nating with repeated flanking movements which the
skill and tact of General Lee rendered abortive,
General Grant crossed the James River, between
the 12th and 15th of June, 1864, and proceeded
to lay siege to Richmond and Petersburg from the
north and north-east, while a very considerable
army was cutting off their supplies and destroying
their railroads at the south and south-west. At
length one railroad after another having been cut,
and the two cities of Richmond and Petersburg
reduced to great straits, while the army of General
Lee was rapidly-diminishing, the last line was broken
on April 2, 1865, and Lee and the remnant of his
army fled westwai d, pursued by Grant. On the
9th of April, 1865, Leo surrendered with his entire
command to Grant at Appomattox Court House,
Virginia. The surrender of the other armies in
North Carolina, Alabama, and Texas followed soon
after, and the war ended. After its close the grati-
tude of the people to General Grant found expression
in numerous and valuable gifts. On ily 25, 1866,
Congress having created the grade of General of the
Army, hitherto unknown in the army of the United
States, he was commissioned General the same day,
and Major-General Sherman promoted to be Lieu-
tenant-General. During the difficulties of President
Johnson with his Cabinet General Grant served for a
short time as Secretary of War ad interim, August,
1867, to February, 1868. He was elected President
in November, 1868, receiving 214 out of 294 electoral
, votes of the 26 States then recognised as belonging to
the Union. He was inaugurated March 4,1869. His
administration was, upon the whole, satisfactory; and
in 1872 he was nominated for a second term of four
years by the Republican National Convention. But
in the meanwhile dissatisfaction had grown up among
some prominent members of the Republican party.
These, taking the name er "Liberal Republicans,"
nominated fel- President Mr. Horace Greely, the
editor of the New York Trzbune. The Democratic
National Convention also nominated Mr. Greely,
although he had always been a strong opponent of
the Democratic party. At the Presidential election
held in November, 1872, Grant received 268 electoral
votes and Greely 80, though his popular majority was
only 762,991 out of a total vote cast of 6,431,149.
Mr. Greely died November 29, 1872, just after the
result of the election was evident. During the second
administration of President Grant grave difficulties
arose, growing mainly out of financial questions and
the disturbed condition of the South. The elections
held in the autumn of 1874 resulted generally in
favour of the Democratic party, who secured a
• majority in the Cong:essional House of Representa-
tives, which convened in December, 1875, while the
hitherto large Republican majority in the Senate was
greatly diminished. Though a number of the leaders,
and a considerable portion of the Republican party
desired his renomination in 1876, public opinion in
advance of the Convention was so emphatic against
violating the well-settled limitation to two terms,
that his name was not formally present. Imme-
diately upon the expiration of his term of
office, March 4, 1877, he set out upon an
extensive tour round the world, which lasted
until the spring of 1880. Though no longer anything
more than a private citizen of the Republic, he was
everywhere received with the utmost consideration
and -distinction due to the eminent civil and military
positions he had held. At the Republican National
Convention of 1880 his political adherents once more
endeavoured to secure his nomination, claiming that
the custom established by Washington applied only to
three consecutive terms, and hence would not be
violated if the nomination were again given to General
Grant after a break in the continuity of his office.
They did not succeed, however, and the nomination
was given to Mr. Garfield. Since his return from
Europe, General Grant has resided chiefly in New
York City.