Crawford avalanche. (Grayling, Mich.) 1879-19??, 1885-08-06
"REMINISCENCES OF GRANT.
Gen. Horace Porter's Recollections.
Mount MacGreQor special.l

the bond Of affection between her and her
late husband. They we're 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 ever knew. l was with
him for nine consecutive years, never leay-
ing his side but for few hours at q time,
and never knew him to be angry The
nearest approach to it was once when he
saw teamster numerically beating poor
horse. The General dashed up to him and
said: You scoundrel! you ought to be
ashamed of yourself. The teamster made
some impertinent 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 midest
form of an imprecation. which is most
unusual thing in the free-and- easy atmos-
phere of army life. This same happy dis
position was one of tho reasons why oil
those who were Immediately about / i'm,
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 to drive the bearse at the
Generals funeral. l don't know where the
General got Albert, but it was before he was
made President the first time. Gen. Grant
was pre- eminently a 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 comirg 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 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 involuntarily
move when bullets whistle by his ear, but
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' 8
command driven back. Gen. Grant coolly
and swiftly gave his orders, moving thou
sands of - men here and thousands
there. It 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 dc. SO, and
WI laan@ s.eass1e-.~a 4 A-sy-~ -~to-vv GER
tain points, and asked him to write them
down when he had thought them over, he
would say: 1 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 interiine-
alton would be required. He wrote his
message vetoing the imitation of the cur
rency in Just this way. He sat down at
little round table in bis bedroom and
wrote Iapidly on until he had fin
lshed, 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
common blue army blouse and a slouch
hat. He had two horses, one called jeff
Davis and the other Cincinnati. JEFF Davis
was captured down on Davis plantation, /
believe. It was a brown pony, and very
easy-riding animal. Gen. Grant rode this
horse when 1 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, cawled
through the abattis, and pushed on 10 the
extreme front. Gen. Grant was one of the
best horsemen l 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 he did, and drove the horse over
the course, getting out Of him the second
fastest time he had ever made. He had n
strong, friendly way of handling q horse
that at once won his confidence, Just as a
little child feels confidence in the nurse
who holds him gently and securely"
Grant at vicksburg = His Kindness to
Those About Him.
lDr. Il. A. Duncan, in Louisville Courier
Journal
"How did General Grant appear before
Vicksburg?"
AS plain as an old stove. II was hard
TO make the new troops believe that il was
him as he rode over the field He wore a
common soldiers blouse frizzled out at the
bottom, and cavalry pants stuffed in his
boots. He wore low-crowned, black hat.
without so much as gold cord. The sim
plest Major Generals straps were the only
thing about his dress that told his rank. |
He always rode splendid horse, however.
md the trappings of the steed were always |
IN full uniform. But that was due TO his |
orderly more than anything else. He de- |
lighted in good horse. He usually kept |
six OF them on hand--two or three in the /
ield ut the same time. His fayorite war |
horse was of the noted Lexington of Ken
lucky stock, and think he called him Lex-
ngton."
Was the General a luxurious liverp"
by no means. He enjoyed a good meal
Is much as any one. but never complained
'f what was set before him. He would
nave been satisfied withs hard-tack and
'ow- belly. He did not drink a drop of
iquor during the siege of Vicksburg. He
lad promised General Rawlins, afterward
his Chief Of Staff aud Secretary of War. at
shiloh, 10 abstain. He never broke over
'ut once from that day to the close of the
var, and that was accidental. A BANQUET
vas given to him and General Banks after
he fall of Vicksburg. at New Orleans. and
n the conviviality Of the hour he took
ew glasses of wine"
How did the General treat those about
limp"
With the greatest kindness and respect.