Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1885-04-04
COL. MARKLAND.s RECOLLECTION
Memories OF Grant n q school BOY and
a. = Military Leader.


Col. A. ri. MARYLAND, OF this city. was school,
mate OF Gen. Grant at the Maysville, KY, acad-
envy, and during the war had direction OF the
mail service OF Gen. Grants army; SO he was
thrown into contact with Gen. Grant at two
most interesting periods OF his life. Speaking
of Grant as a boy, he said, "My home was at
Maysville, KY, and young Grant came there
boy oftwelve or thirteen TO attend the academy.
He lived with his aunt in Maysville. and was a
very quiet. retiring and studious boy. AS re-
member him he was little chubby fellow.
with round, freckled face and sandy hair. He
was good-natured boy, and went by the name
OF Lyss.' Shortly after he left school he went
TO West Point, and from that time did not
meet him again until I'm the fall OF 1851"
MAN WHO NEVER swoRE.
"Gen. Grant never swore," said Col. Mark
land, 'and in my long connection with him
have never heard him utter a profane word. 1
nave been with him on many occasions I'm
which, perhaps, the use OF profanity would have
been pardonable. I have Heard him tell in So
ways used, but in retelling them he would not
quote the oaths. He was freer nom using I'M
any one have ever known. And the chief mis-
fortunes OF his life have arisen from his mis-
placed confidence in his iellow-man. Speaking
OF profanity. remember one or two occasions
on which Grant should have sworn, and think
would have sworn If he could. One was while
we were at loung's Point. with headquarters
on the steamboat Magnolia. Two OF the staff
ofhcers mad been sent north under orders leav-
ing their rooms on the boat vacant. Gen. Grant
invited two officers ON board one night for com
sultation. During the consultation a violent
transform came up. and Gen. Grant asked these
Officers To remain on board over night, saving
that he had two rooms and that il would be
more pleasant for them To stay there than TO GO
10 their camp in the storm. The time for retir-
ing arrived and the officers were shown to their
rooms. When the doors were opened however
II was found that the he Is were occupied by the
colored servants OF the officers who We're alb
sent. Gen. Grant was very angry, hut his indig-
nation did not find vent in oaths; he merely or
dered these servants out on shore into the rain,
ana in short time. his Indignation having
cooled, he sent an orderly TO tell them they
could come back upon The boat"
HE WAS NEVER SURPRISED.
When asked IL Gen. Grant was not surprised
at shiloh, Col. MARYLAND said Il state with pos
prised. No man ever saw Gen. Grant speak or
ac; as If he We're surprised. His staff officers
would try TO see if they could not get him TO ex-
hibit surprise or establishment at some OF their
stories or by eNtravagant statements. They
never succeeded. When every one else was
surprised he never gave any indication
that the matter of the surprise was not
particularly familiar 10 him. In the most
most self-possessed. On one occasion 900 tons
of powder in a barge lying at the waters edge i'm
the James river, Immediately opposite Grants
headquarters at City Point, was exploded by an
internal machine OF the confederates, blowing
the bodies of men and mules and the debris OF
the quartermasters department into his camp,
SO that the air thick with smoke and fall
ing bodies, and every one was frightened. Grant
able gravity ne said TO a staff officer: 'Babcock
go out and see what is the matter Nothing
ever disturbed Grants equanimity. He never
lost his head. You might tell him the most
startling news in regard TO the enemy, but his
face would never indicate that IL was news 10
him. If he was ignorant of a matter about
which you were talking he would drawyou out
in such quiet way that you would never
imagine that the whole matter was not perfectly
familiar TO him.
GEN. GRANTS KINDNESS AND PoLITENEss.
Col. Markland's war memories, jotted down
Grant, the following: One OF the very marked
features of Gen. Grants life in the field was
that no one ever came to his quarters on legiti-
mate business or was brought there prisoner
who was not kindly and CONSIDERABLY treated.
He was punctiiious in having all persons who
| came properly to his quarters politely treated
and would not tolerate il in Others. No officer
in the army ever lived more plainly than Gen
Grant, and none was more willing to divide
what he had. After a successful battle he never
exhibited the slightest boastfu feeling. TIC
have seen him and heard him talk one would
have supposed that he had had nothing 90 dc
with the battle ii it were not for the orders he
was debating for the future movements of the
army or for the burial of the dead or for the
caring for the sick and wounded"
A MEETING BETWEEN GEN. GRANT AND HIS
OLD TEACHER.
Col. MARYLAND has received from his old pre-
ceptor, w. w. RicheSon, a letter, in which,
speaking of Gen. Grant, he says:
at was a very great pleasure 10 me, through
the kindness of Mr.. Haldeman, to have met
Gen. Grant when he was the honored guest Of
Louisville. He 0eemed gratified to meet Ele,
referred to his old schoolmates with kind re.
membrance and exhibited great pleasure In
hearing from them. On Mr.. Haldeman's jocu.
| lar remark that he believed the great hero ofso
many victories had once been whipped, mean.
ing at school, the general eyed me attentively
| until assured him that remembered no such
occasion, when he replied Nor do ], sir. While
at the Maysville academy, but at Georgetown,
Ohio, they performed that part of my educa-
ton When asked by one of the invited guests
if the games OF cards in the different countries
he had visited were similar TO the games played
in the United States, looking fiNedly at me. ne
made the curt reply: The professor never
taught me cards. No other reference was made
IN ga ards