Connecticut western news., 1885-04-08
THE CAREER OF GRANT.
From Humble Life to the Foremost NTil- itary Figure of the Latter Part of the Nineteenth Century.


 When the echoes of the guns that crushed the walls of Fort Sumpter twenty-four years ago rolled Northward, there lived in Galena, Iii, an ex-captain of infantry in the regular army. The ex-captain offered his services to the Government which was to reap such profit from them. They were accepted, and Captain Ulysses Simpson Grant, born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1922, graduated at West Point in 1S43 and became veteran by service under Taylor and Scott in Mexico, was appointed colonel of a newly-organized reg iment of Illinois volunteers.
 He was soon advanced to the office of briga- dier general of volunteers and assigned to the command of the forces assembled at Cairo, Ill. His important active services began R- most at once. On September S. 1861, he seized Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee, and on the 25th, Smithland, at the mouth of the Gum berland. With these two important strategic points in hand be- month later, fought the battles at Fredericktown, Mo, and Belmont, which checked the advance of General Jeff Thompson. In February, 1862, his district of command having been greatly enlarged, he made the advance ftom Paducah which led to the fall of Forts Henry and Donelson within ten days of each other.
 The capture oE Fort Donelson was the first important brilliant victory of the war. It made the victor 8 mai jor general The turning of the battle of Pittsburg Landing from Confederate victory to a Federal triumph
  wound during the war. His command of the Department of the Tennessee, upon the re- moval of General Halleck to Washington, and his defeat of General Price at Iuka, were fol- lowed by the enlargement of his department to include Vicksburg, which he made an ap- propriate present to the nation, on July 4, 1868.
 General Grants commission was now trans ferred to the regular army, and he was placed in command over the departments under Sherman, Thomas, Burnside and Hooker. The ,.rwlNk 01rNv,A the driving of Bragg from Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain and the famous battle in the clouds, made him 8 lieutenant general, the title having been revived by the same Con- gress which ordered gold medal struck in his honor and conferred on him by President Lin coin. He received his commission from the hands of the President in Washington, re- turned without delay to Tennessee, and is- sued his first general order as commander on March 12, 1864, announcing that his head quarters would be in the field or until further orders, with the army of the Potomac.
 The flankng operations having failed, the siege of Petersburg was Gen. Grants next re- sort and when it fell, on April 2d, 1865, the key of the situation was in his hands. The surrender of the army of Gen. Lee atAppomatox followed, and the Confederacy was dead and Ulysses s. Grant the hero of the day.
 At the termination of the Presidency of Andrew Johnson, he succeeded him, defeating Governor Seymour by 214 Electoral votes to 80. He was reelected in 1872 by 286 votes to Az.
 His tour of the world after his second term was such triumph as no monarch had ever enjoyed. The nations exhausted themselves in heaping honors on him. His progress was one of imperial magnifcence in the cere- monials which attended it, and kept him so prominently before the public that on his re- turn the Republican party deemed him strong enough to undertake third candidacy for the Presidency, but while evincing very great strength in the Republican National Conven- tiop. the General vas defeated.
 Thereafter General Grant became familiar figure in the business circles of New York. He was interested in certain railroad and other l financial movements, and had an office in | Wall street. His public life had left him & | reasonably wealthy man, what with his savings and the gifts of his admirers among the peo- | pie. His daughter Nellie had made marriage with wealthy English gentleman, Mir. Sar- | toris, and one of his sons had married the | daughter of California millionaire. He lived in splendid comfort, and it seemed | that his declining years were destined to be | marked by the place his active life had earned | for him when the tremendous failure of Grant | & Ward, in which bis son Ulysses was an active | and he & silent partner, brought his whole | fortune down amid the ruins.
 | The failure of Grant & Ward swallowed all his accumulations, except the $250, 900 sub | scribed for him by certain wealthy citizens, | and which was invested for his benefit beyond | the reach of disaster. Amovement was inaug- | urated in Congress to restore him to the rank | and pay in the army which he had surrendered | on his nomination for the Presidency, and carried, after much opposition, at the end of | the last session.
 In June last, while at his Long Branch cot | tage, the general had been much troubled by | a mysterious affection of the throat. A con l sultation with physician led to the applica- tion of some local remedies, and the trouble | abating, he thought no mors of it until il
 broke out with renewed violence in October.
 He consulted with Dr. Fordyce Barker, who al
 once detected symptoms of cancerous growth
 and directed him to specialist in throat dis
 eases, Dr. J. H. Douglas, of AS East 26th | street. ..ar .-.
 Dr. Douglas advised him to stop smoking | gradually, but he soon ceased it altogether
 and felt much better for it. His hip, which
 had been injured by fall on Dec 24, 1883 | had improved so much that he was able to take
 long walks. In December he took cold during
 one of the walks, and went back to Dr. Doug | las. He was then almost unable to speak and | he ate with great difficulty. The root of tho
 tongue was hardened, and there were thicl
 patches on the soft palate, accompanied by
 slight alteration. He had considerable pain
 which was relieved by application of muriatt | of cocaine and iodoform.
 | He became much better, and got along wei until in February he experienced Q serious re
 lapse. The news of his illness then became
 public, and it's progress found daily record il | Fba