Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1885-08-21
Genera Grants Preface

~ p1lC
affairs of mea Brought about by their
w choice. : -. 81
Although frequently urgedb by friends
to write myimemoirs / had determined
never to do SO, nor to write anything for
publications At'the age of NEARLY sixty
two | received an iniurysfrom Il fall.
which confined me closely tb,the house
while it did not apparently affect my
general heath. This madSaastudy a
pleasant pastime. shortly after, the
rascality OF a business partnerdevelop-
ed itself by the announcement of a fail
ure. This wastfollowed soon after by
universal depression OF all securities.
which seemed to threaten the extinc-
tion Of a good part of fhe'income still
retained, and for which, am indebted
to the kindly acts Of friends. At this
j%uncture the edi1or Of She Century Mag
azine asked meto write a few articles
for him. I consented for the money it
gave; for at that mohent'T was living
upon borrowed money. The work l
found congenial, and | determined to
continue it. The event is an import
ant one for me, for good Of evil; Ihope
for the former.
In preparing these volumes for the
public, l have entered upon the task
with the sincere desire to avoid doing
injustice to any one, whether on the
national or confederate side, other than
the unavoidable injustice of not maxi
ing mention often where special men,
ton is due. There must be many err
ors of omission in this work, because
the subject Is too largeito be treated of
in two volumes in such a way as to do
justice 80 all the officers and men en-
gagged. Theretwere thousands of in
stances, during the rebellion, of indi-
vidual, company, regimental, and brig
ade deeds Of heroish witch deserve
special mention and ale not here allud-
ed to- .%Thastroops engaged in them
will have to look to the detailed re-
ports Of their individual commanders
for the full history Of those deeds.
The first volume, as well as a portion
of the second, was written before l had
reason to suppose I was in a critical
condition of health. Later, l was re-
duced almost to the point of death, and
it became impossible for me to attend
to anything for weeks. l have howev-
er, regained somewhat of my strength
and am able, often, to devote as many
hours a day as a person should devote
to such work. l would have more hope
Of satisfying the expectation Of the
public if I could have allowed myself
more time. / have used my best eff
forts, with the aid Of my eldest son, f.
D. Grant, assisted by bis brothers, to
verify from the records every state
ment of Facts given The comments
are my own, and show how 1 saw the
matters treated of, whether others saw
them in the same light or not.
With these remarks / present these
volumes to the public, asking no favor,
but hoping they will meet the approx
al Of the reader. U. S. GRANT.
Mount McGregor, N. Y, July 1, 1885.
New York Tribune.
influence Of Tree Planting on Climate.
Sioux City Journal: The Omaha
Herald and the Lincoln journal claim
that it is demonstrable that Nebraska
has pushed its arabic boundary hun
dreds of miles westward by tree cul-
ture. No doubt there is suggestion of
truth in this statement of far wider ap-
pllcation than to Nebraska. The ex-
tent to which tree culture on the prai-
ries of the west and northwest has
been carried is not fully realized, and
it's influence as a climatic condition I'M
derestimated. The description of the
plains west of the Missouri as the
great American desert by the explorers
who first visited that region was not
all fiction by any means. There was
more fact than fancy in that designa-
ton, before the settlement and cultiva-
ton of the vast country east OF it had
transformed the very face Of the earth.
Nothing is more certain than that the
peopling by a civilized race and the
cultivation of the great interior of the
continent have within the last half
century wrought almost a complete
change in its climate, and that through
this change, one Of its incidents being
artificial forestry, the arabic boundary
has been pushed far westward. Re-
corded observations demonstrate that
in Nebraska aud Kansas rainfall has
been materially increased. 1t is only
within very recent years that serious
attention has been given to the infu-
.ence Of tree planting and other artif-
cial causes upon climate and particu-
larry upon moisture. AS a result of
the patent connection between the two.
there has been a decided impetus to
tree planting, and that movement is