Birmingham state herald., 1896-11-01
GRANT IN WAR TIMES.
PERSONAL APPEARANCE OF THE
 COMMANDER OF THE ARMY.
Counterfeit Presentments of Him Were Widely Circulated at First-His
 Clear and Musical Voice.


 A description of General Grants per
 sonal appearance at this important
 period of his career may not be out or place here, particularly as up to that time
 the public had received such erroneous
 impressions of him. There were then few
 correct portraits of him in circulation.
 Some of the earliest pictures purporting
 to be photographs of him had been man
 ufactured when he was at the distant
 front, never stopping in one place long
 enough to be focused" Nothing daunt-
 ed, the practisers of that art which is the
 chief solace of the vain had photograph
 ed burly beef contractor, and spread
 the pictures broadcast as representing
 the determined, but rather robust, fea-
 lures of the coming hero, and 1t was some
 time before the real photographs which
 followed were believed to be genuine.
 False impressions of him were derived,
 too, from the fact that he had come forth
 from a country leather store, and was
 famous chiefly for striking sledge-ham- mer blows in the field, and conducting re-
 lentless pursuits of his foes through the
 swamps of the southwest. He was DIG
 tured in the popular mind as strlo1ns
 about in the most approved swash-
 buckler style of melodrama. Many Of us
 were not little surprised to find in him
 a man of slim figure, slightly stopped, feet inches in height, weighing only l5o
 
 gentleness of manner which seemed to ht him more for the court than for the camp. His eyes were dark gray, and were the most expressive of his features. Like nearly all men who speak little, he was good listener; but his face gave little indi- cation of his thoughts and it was the ex- pression of his eyes which furnished about the only response to the speaker who conversed with him. When he was about to say anything amusing, there o1u a fprpQntth1p tvVi nklp in his eyes before he began to speak and ne often laughed heartily at witty remark or humorous incident.
 His mouth like Washingtors, was or the letter-box shape, the contact of the lips forming a nearly horizontal line. This feature was of a pattern in strlklng contrast with that of Napoleon, who had bow mouth, which looked as if 1t had been modelled after a front view of his cooked hat. The f1rmness with which the generals square-shaped jaws were set when his features were in repose was highly expressive of his force of charac- ter and the strength of his will-power. His hair and beard were of a chestnut brown color. The beard was worn full. no part of the face being shaved, but, | like the hair was always kept closely and neatly trimmed. Like Cromwell, Lincoln and several other great men in history, he had wart on his cheek. In his case it was small, and located on the right side just above the line of the beard. His | face was not perfectly symmetrical, the left eye being a little lower than the right. His brow was high, broad and rather square, and was creased with sev- | eral horizontal wrinkles, which helped to l emphasize the serious and somewhat | careworn look which was never absent | from his countenance This expression. ! however, was in no wise an indication of | his nature, which was always buoyant, ! cheerful and hopeful. His voice was ex- | ceedingly musical, and one of the clear | est in sound and most distinct in utter | ance that have ever heard. It had | singular power of penetration, and sen | tences spoken by him in an ordinary tone | in camp could be heard at a distance which was surprising. M
 His gait in walking might have been | called decidedly unmilitary. He never carried his body erect, and having no ear l for music or rhythm, he never kept step | to the airs played by the bands. no mat ter how vigorously the bass drums em- phasized the accent. When walking in company there was no attempt to keep step with others. In conversing he usual ly employed only two gestures; one was the stroking of his chin beard with his left hand, the other was the raising and lowering of his right hand, and resting 1t at intervals upon his knee or a table, the hand being held with the fingers close to- gether and the knuckles bent, so that the back of the hand and fingers formed right angle. When not pressed by any matter of importance he was often slow in his movements, but when reused to &C., tivity he was quick in every motion, and worked with marvellous rapidfty. He was civil to all who came in contact with him and never attempted to snub any one, or treat anybody with less consideration on account of his inferiority in rank. With him there was none of the puppyism SO often bred by power. and none of the dogmatism which Samuel Johnson char acterized as puppyism grown to maturity. -"Campaigning with Grant," by Gen. Horace Porter, in the November Gen. tury.