St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1885-08-06
General STANDARDS Reminiscent
ces of General Grant.

SOo Va
Gen. Stannard was recently Gale,
:, upon by a representative of the Bur
lingtOn Free Press, and in answer t,
inquiries he related the following in
teresting "reminiscences of Gen. Grant
The first time | ever saw Gen. Gran
was in the spring of 1864, l think
:. about the last of April and just pre-
vi0us to the opening of his great cam
paign with the army of the Potomac
1 was on my way from New York t,
. join my command and upon reaching
Washington Gen. Grant was pointed
out to me. | had heard of his unas
Stunning appearance, but | was wholly
unprepared to find in him man OF
such plalDness Of dress and of such {
retiring disposition. He struck me al
being the most excessively modest
man l had ever seen. Unlike mos
army officers his dress indicated not
the least degree of fondness for militia
~ display, and but for the three stars
on the shoulder Indicative of his rank
Que would have selected almost any
other soldier as the commanding gen
eral i'll preference to him. What i'm
pressed me most of all at the time,
|
but npon becoming acquainted with
him afterward my views i'll regard to
that quality of the General were en-
tirely changed.
The next time that ! saw Gen. Grant
was on the field at Cold HarbOr, where
an incident occurred that led to our
more intimate acquaintance. The two
armies lay very near to each other and
N hAa al .tpt.ar af % la
| points nearest to the enemy. | was
sitting III my tent one day when Gen
erals Grant and Meade, who were in
speeding the lines, rode through my
command with their staffs, directly in
| the direction of the enemy. l recog-
| nized them and, calling to them, warn
ed them of their danger, when they
stopped. In five minutes they would
have been upon Lees advanced line.
We talked IL few minutes when they
turned and went to the rear.
The next time that ! saw him was at
Fort Harrison, after my command had
captured that position i'll the battle of
Chapln's farm. General Grant and his
staff rode up to the works to learn the
result of the victory. The position we
occupied was within range of the rebel
gunbOats and the shells were flying
thick and fast. Regardless of the
clOseness with which they whistled by
us he sat down upon pile of planks
and began noting down the details of
the fight. | suggested that he had bet
ter go behind the traverse of the works
for better protection, to which he re-
piled "Well General | guess | can
stand it if you can" He was not at all
inclined to accept my suggestion, but
urged him so hard that he finally did
so. Up TO this time | had found him
taciturn ; but ut this time and ever af-
ter whenever | met him he was most
social and his forte seemed to be in
conversation. After that saw a great
deal of him, especially during the win
ter of 90 90, and | always found him
the same pleasant and agreeable
man.
After the war l was stationed at
Baltimore, where an incident occurred
that showed how una>suming General
Grant was. | had been expecting IL
visit from the General and had order
ell rooms for him at the Utah house.
When he arrived at the hotel | was
sitting in the back parlOr, and none of
the attendants or guests recognized
him. He went to the office and regis
tered, and the clerk taking no notice
of his name, assigned him to Il small,
tucked up room at the top of the build
ing. When he learned the location of
his room the General made not the
slightest remOnstrance, but started
'i"f1',. %tt"ndGlnt to his room, when
generals back was towards inc .Tha
recognized him and soon had matters
arranged rs they should be. AS soon
us 1t became known that Gen. Grant
was present the hotel was thrOnged
with people anxious to see the hero of |
and l presume to say
that l introduced five hundred people |
to him. Finally the General began to
grow tired and he said to me, ''Come.
let's get out of this in some
way" assented and we separated,
ne going ont the back entrance and
he side entrance. | met him at the
ear OF the hotel and he suggested that
We go to the stable to see the team
hat lie had driven from Washington,
distance of forty miles in two and
hree- quarters hours. We did SO and
was greatly impressed with his great j
ondness for good horses. He had the
cam brought out and he examined
hem to See if they had been properly
AIKEN care of and inquired carefully :
fter the manner in which they were I
ed. We then sat down in the Office
1 the stable for u chat, but had hardly r
OF seated when it became noiset :
bout that Gen. Grant was at the sta )
les and every available space around !;
here was Immediately occupied bv
le curious crowd. We had to get out "
that and L got an army officer to a
IKE the general to the Union Club d
)Oms, where he obtained some much
eeded rest. In all of this he mani
'sted the greatest dislike for any pub 7
demonstration, although showing ~
ne greatest consideration for the peo-
lie, who pressed about to see him. d
In the fall of 1865, shortly after the .
me the commission was appointed to :,
cate the Soldiers Home, the COM u
Isslon, of which | was member. -
ct at the Smithsonian Institute to +
Ike steps to get the matter under -
ay- While waiting for several MEM IL
RS OF the commission to arrive Sec "
tary Stanton started discussion as 70
the comparison between General a.
5a gft and md b mn{ysef as regards SIZE
eseht insisted that General Grant al
:. WINE OChefs argued a.
az enjoyed that distinction. FL oil
ny To settle the matter the clerk of 81
institute was asked to get IA rule. ne
upon measuring we were found to IN
exactly of height, there being not Al
least fraction of difference between gu
The discussion then turned upon SCI
!, comparative weights. We went itS
n the clerk and were weighed. and Tel
general tipped the beam at lust a RAJ
ma more than / did Soon after les
L he began to grow stOuter. His gri
ulders were broad and his cI,. de