The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-05-11
WOMEN ASPEACEMAKERS
GRANTS PROPOSAL FOR VISITS
BETWEEN WIVES.

Grants Proposition That the Two
Women Should Bring Him and Gen.
Lee Together for an Informal Talk
Months Before Appomattox.
From the NeU York Press
GAINESVILLE, GA, May 1.-Only one Of
Gen. Lees first lieutenants still liyes-Gen.
James 8. Longstreet. He was a leader
even before the confederacy, fought in Sc
cession's mightiest battles and held high
command until its death, making war grand
and awful by turns, with wonderful strokes.
The mystery of his lifelong friendship with
Gen. Grant. which was interrupted, but did
not mar, has never been understood.
Gainesville is small but typical southern
town in Georgia, about sixty miles from
Atlanta on the Richmond ahd Danville rail
road. Here In quiet home among the
scenes he has known so long and loved so
we'll Gen. Longstreet is serenely waiting for
the "last tattoo" The brilliant whirlwind
of battle, Gen. Gordon, who followed Stone
wall jackson to the command of a wing of
the army of Northern Virginia, is
making history in the United States SEN
ate, after having been conspicuous figure
in the public affairs Of Georgia and the ma
tlon for more than quarter Of q century.
Beauregard is now, as he has been for years :,
taking life easy at New Orleans, while Jubal
Early is fighting his battles over again at
Lynchburg, in the Old Dominion.
WONDERFUL MAN.
Without touching upon the deeds and
gifts of others of note, conspicuous in the
south, past or present, it can be said that
"Old Pete,n as his soldier and army friends
always affectionally called Longstreet, is
the foremost figure still living of that
wonderful group of commanders who stood
next to Gen. Lee. when the armed contro-
versy between the states first began in
earnest. and men educated to the profession
were needed for grave emergency.
Gen. James Longstreet is a striking per-
sonality. Those forceful elements of mind
aud body which have ever made him a
marked man are not wanting now, and in
these days " Zen the sun of his life is slant
ing down the hill, he is an interesting figure
as when dealing with weighty matters in
peace and war. II his sandy whiskers
have whitened, the burrows along his strong
features grown deeper, and his hair thinned
with age, he still remains the same manner
of man as the days of yore and historical
character of the present. reminding one of
LoDgfellow's famous lines:
Brown as berry is he, like an oak that is Gov
cred with snowfiakes.
To look at the stern old soldier now, oriin
fact at any time during the twenty years
his acquaintance has been mine, one would
hardly read in his composition a heart full
Of tenderness guided and guarded by an
iron will. But tap at his mind always
brings up wonderful memories of the past,
in which romance, tragedy and rough ex-
periences are so knit together in and by his
acts that the national record is incomplete
without the story Of his achievements.
A GREAT STORY.
"Why were Gen. Grant and Gen. Long
street such friendsP' asks one who cannot
discover the reason why the confederate
general took his place by the side of his old
comrade when the conflict ended in which
each had dealt the other hard blows.
1t does not take long to answer the ques-
ton, and it makes great story. Grant and
Longstreet first met when they were young
men. They were officers of the old Fourth
Infantry, regiment which gave many dis
tinguished soldiers to the army in later
years. They were in the Mexican war
together and almost from their graduation
kept in touch of each other, whether in the
frolics of boYhood or the duties of middle
life. When the responsibilities Of revolution
came in which they parted company and
dealt each other harsh blows in the pestle
Of war, they never forgot the old days.
In their later career all that is strong and
tender between brave men and women
Joined. by accident the threads of their lives
ever duplicate it on the mimic stage. Two
noble wives appear as the central figures of
the first and last acts. AT an army post at
Detroit after the Mexican war the scenes
begin. They end in the spring of 1865 about
Petersburg, Va.
TWO WOMEN AS PEACEMAKERs.
In those idle and peaceful days which
followed graduation at West Point army
duties were pleasant rather than exacting,
and time hung lightly enough to make social
life about post very attractive IL was in
those halcyon days that the friendship be-
tween Grant and Longstreet began, which
was afterward drawn upon by the great
union commander in his attempts to bring
peace to the country months before the cy-
clone OF conflict knocked the life out of the
confederacy and left politicians to wrangle
over details for restoring the union that
bred no end of trouble
Gen. Grants idea was an inspiration,
The attempt was bold enough to be start
ling even now, but it gives another evil
dence of the wonderful soldiers courage
and faith in his Judgment. The peace con-
ference at Hampton Roads had failed.
President Lincoln had returned to Wash
ington and the southern commissioners had
gone to their homes. The union commander
had set great store upon the result of this
meeting and was much depressed as he saw
the prospects for an early peace vanish.
But the man of many resources did not
spend time in regrets. He very soon turned
his mind in the direction Of arranging.a
military conference between himself and
Gen. Lee in the hopes of reaching some
terms for the cessation OF hostilities that
would be so fair to both sections that the
politicians would be forced by public senti-
ment to accept them as the basis of peace
full settlement of the war.
The task was a difficult and delicate one,
and could only be accomplished by indi-
rection. Gen. Grant instinctively turned
toward Gen. Longstreet for aid to ac-
complish it. The confederate general had
been near him when he married Miss Dent
and took up his residence as post
quartermaster at the City Of the Straits.
In the whirl of those days Grant and his
young wife and Longstreet and his bride
were prominent and interesting figures. To
restore the old time relations between the
two wives, who were as fast friends as
their husbands, would be TO open the door
for a social communion between military
spirits that might lead to good results il not
solve the problem in the head and heart OF
the union leader.
A FLAG OF TRUCE.
Both armies were facing each other in
winter ouarters Mrs Grant was with her