The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1885-08-06
"REMINISCENCES OF GRANT.
Gen. Horace Porter's Recolicctions.
Mount MacGregor special


late husband. They were always together.
except when the General was in the field.
aud there always existed between them the
utmost harmony.
Speaking of Gen. Grants disposition,
Gen. Porter said: 1t was one Of the hap
piest dispositions 1 ever knew. 1 was with
him for nine consecutive years, never leav-
ing his side but for few hours at a time,
and never knew him TO be angry. The
nearest approach to it was once when he
saw a teamster numerically beating poor
horse. The General dashed up TO him and
said: You scoundrel! You ought 30 be
ashamed OF yourself. The teamster made
some impairment reply, and the General
ordered him tied up by the hands. Gen.
Grant never in his life uttered an oath.
never heard him even utter the mildest
form of an imprecation. which is a most
unusual thing in the free and easy atmos-
phere of army life. This same happy dis
position was one OF the reasons why all
those who were Immediately about Lin.
from the humblest dependent up, were so
devotedly attached to him. An instance of
this Is shown In the case of Albert Haw-
kins, the coal black coachman, who has
asked permission 10 drive the bearse at the
Generals funeral. don't know where the
General got Albert, but it was before he was
made President the first time. Gen. Grant
was re-eminently man of the people.
His heart warmed to them, and he liked
| to mingle in throngs In his journeys by
rail he loved to leave his private car and go
out into the smoker and sit down in the
seat with somebody and chat. Yet he
| could very effectually crush undue famil-
iarity. remember once coming up with
him from Long Branch. We were in the
smoking car and rough looking fellow
who sat in the seat in front of US glanced
! around and recognized the General. Tip
! ping wink to those about him, he turned
around to the General, and said: Say,
Cap, give us a light, will ye? Gen. Grant
looked calmly over him with that imper-
turbable face of his, and then, taking out
his match box he handed the man two
matches. There was that about this sim
! pie little action which definitely checked
any further advances, and the man who
had tried it, from that time on, was very
much interested in the passing landscape.
Il never in my life saw but one man SO
cool under fire as was Gen. Grant" con-
tinued Gen. Porter, "and that was bugler
in the Fourth Cavalry. Both the General
and this man could look right in the face
of the heaviest fire without even so much
as winking. Not one man out of thousands
can be found who will not inyoluntariy
Gen. Grant never moved q muscle He
was also wonderfully ready man. l re-
member that second days fight at the Will
derness, when in the evening word came in
that Shaler had been captured, that Sey-
mour had been captured, and Sedgwick' s
command driven back. Gen. Grant coolly
and swiftly gave his orders, moving thou
sands of men here and thousands
there 1t was as though he had known
the situation for days instead of a few
minutes. and was basing his movements
on carefully matured plans. He was also
equally quick in expressing his opinions
when suddenly called upon to do so, and
when people requested his views on GER
tain points, and asked him to write them
down when he had thought them over, he
would say: L can write them down now
for you. Then he would take pen and
paper, and quickly write page after page so
clearly and concisely that not an interline-
alton would be required. He wrote his
message vetoing the imitation of the cur
rency in just this way. He sat down at a
little round table in his bed room and
wrote rapidly on until he had fin
ished, and the message contained one of
the most exhaustive analyses of our cur
rency system that have ever been pub
lished
In the field the General usually wore a
common blue army blouse and SLOUGH
hat. He had two horses, one called jeff
Davis and the other Cincinnati. jeff Davis
was captured down on Davis plantation, !
believe. 1t was brown pony, and q very
easy riding animal. Gen. Grant rode this
horse when / accompanied him to the
front at the time the mine was exploded in
front of Petersburg. There was some
bungling about the work, and the Gen
eral pushed on to the front. The men
did not recognize him as he hurried
through their ranks Dismounting from his
horse, he leaped over the works, cmwled
through the abattis, and pushed on TO the
extreme front. Gen. Grant was one of the
best horsemen | ever saw. He could ride
easily on any horse, no matter how awk-
ward his gait was, and he had the knack of
getting out of his horse all there was In
him, too. l remember once when Mr..
Bonner asked him If he did not want to
drive one of his horses. The General re-
piled that ne did, and drove the horse over
the course. getting out of him the second
fastest time he had ever made. He had a
strong, friendly way of handling horse
that at once won his confidence, just as n
little child feels confidence in the nurse
who holds him gently and securely"
Grant at viclssburg - His Kindness to
Those About Him.
lDr. Z. A. Duncan, in Louisville Courier
Journal
"How did General Grant appear before
Vicksburg2'
AS plain as an old stove. It was hard
to make the new troops believe that it was
him as he rode over the field. He wore q
common soldiers blouse frizzled out at the
bottom, and cavalry pants stuffed in his
boots. He wore a low-crowned, black hat,
plest Major Generals straps were the only