The Portland daily press., 1894-05-09

l
| the details and intricacies of that stu
| pendous plan which devolved on him
alone to carry out the solution of that
mighty problem the key to which lay in
his right hand that held the fateful PEN
| Gil!
"Yesl Grant knew precisely what he
was about, and he knew, moreover, that
a cool head and we'll balanced mind were
all essential to the great work in hand.
"A NO AFTER Ind gazed, with strange
fascination. at the quiet, placid, sell
| possessed ngure through the remainder of
that awful day, verltable rock amid the
pillows and tempest of death, I reached
as a positive conclusion verdict which l
have never had cause to modify in all
THESE intervening years. 1t was this:
That, all in all, General Grant was
the greatest. most wonderful man this
| century has producedi
Inc horse which Grant rode to and from
the scene of Lees surrender belonged to
MS lsuarsermaster General, the late Ru-
fus ingalls,, native of Denmark, Maine,
ms West Point classmate, comrade in the
mexican war, and intimate confidential
friend. From the time they were gradu-
ated from West Point, in '43, to the last
sad scene in the life OF the great COM
mander at MT. Gregor, Grant and ingalls,
IN tastes, confidence and friendship, were
a modern edition of Damon and Pythias.
Concerning this momenbous Appomattox
Trip, the following anecdote is told by a
mem ber.of Grants staff:
On the arrival of the commander and
staff at headquarters. following the
capItulation, Grant seated himself in
'front.' of the tent, and we all gathers
around him, curious to hear what his
first comments would be upon the crown
ing event of his life. But our expecta-
tons were doomed to disappointment,
for he appeared to have dismissed the
whole subject from his mind, and turn
ing to General Ingalls,, his first words
were:
"Ingalls. do you remember that old
white mule that So-and-So used to ride
when we were IN the city Of Mexico?"
why, perfectly said ingalls,, who
was then in a mood to remember the
exact number of hairs in the mules tail
if it would have helped to make matters
agreea BILE. And then the General-in-
chief went on to recall the antics of that
animal during an excursion to Popocata-
petl.
Grant, though appreciative of humor,
rarely attempted. the role of humorist.
He was too matter-of-fact too thorough
ly permeated with hard-pan common
sense, to don the ,jester's cap and bells,
or even invade that realm of pleasantly
in which noted and equally dignifed
men have been wont to stray. Yet once
upon time he essayed joke upon Chief
Quartermaster ingalls,. But in this little
tilt he was, however, vanquished.
1t was in the spring of.1s64, just about
one year before the fall of Richmond,
that Grant and group of his officers
were seated one evening by the cheerful
blaze of a huge camp fire. All at once
Grant. who had been seemingly absorbed
some minutes in silent meditation,
turned quickly to his Quartermaster
(yauara1 pnintipn fa 4
which had accompanied the latter
through many a campaign, and which
now lay at his masters feet snoozing
away as quietly as though wars and
rumors of wars were unknown, loosely
asked:
II say, ingalls,, do you intend taking
that dog along with you into Rich
mond?n
z "Yes. certainly" was the quick re-
Spouse. why not?"-he belongs to
mighty long-lived breed"
A roar of laughter followed this sally.
and for once at least the face of the grim
commander relaxed into a broad smile.
sAside from General Grants mental
endowments ne possessed notable ply
steal attribute,n remarked DR.. Milbrey
Green, OF Columbus Avenue, Boston,
who as Major had brilliant war record.
This was his remarkab BILE power of di-
gestion, of which I personally had an
opportunity to know. 1t was on the
occasion Of his presidential visit to Bos-
ton. was member of the Loyal Lee
gion, and we, in turn with the city gov
eminent and two other representative
bodies, gave him a sgrand banquet. He
attended the four banquets, and though
they were only four hours apart the
President not only partook of each, but
made hearty square meal every time,
partaking -of variety of dishes. In
foa f 1n o{r IL
with an evidently keen relish. Our feast
was the last one of the day-somewhat
latish in the evening-and as sat where
had good view of our illustrious
guest, l couldn't help noticing what
hearty meal he made.n Andryet Grant
was no glutton he simply ate what his
nature craved and what his digestive
great strength of will, and early in the
war had shown by his own self denial in
another line, that he who subdues self
is greater than he who taketh a CITY,
Unlike Napoleon, who always claimed
he lost the battle of Leipsic by hastily
eating a hearty dinner, causing indiges-
ton and thereby clogging his mind SO
details of the fight, Grant never was
handicapped by what in most men
would have been over-eaJng. His diges-
ton was phenomenally perfect, hence
he was enabled to keep unruff1ed under
all circumstances SO far as his stomach
and liver were concerned.
The Gaiena folks all liked Captain
Grant as he was familialry termed by
his old neigh bors."
The speaker was the late Prof, VIM.
d. Cunning, scientist, a"geologist, author
and lecturer. He was taking a summer
vacation in my home town, Bridgton.
Me-, and as we two strolled leisureIy
out from the main village one lovely
moonlight evening, l a deeply interested
listener and occasional questioner. his
talk drifted from geology to Galena. by
analogous, as we'll as alliterative, sue
cession.
"You see." he continued, "when Grant |
was at the zenith Of his fame. I was
passing a few weeks at Galena. in the |
employ of the State as an expert in a |
geological matter. This gave me fine
to converse with Grants old |
neigh bors and townspeople about their
fellow citizen. All those
who had long known him spoke of him |
in affectionate terms, and Of course the |
whole community were proud to claim |
him as their own.
From them learned that Just prior |
to the beginning of the war Capt. Grant |
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