Omaha daily bee., 1896-11-28
CAMPAIGNING WITH GRANT
The Great Captain sketched While on
Duty in the Field.
RECoLLEcTIoNS OF GEN. HORACE PORTER
Before md After the Battle of the
wiIderncss-Thc Inevitable Cignr
md the whitlc stick
Awful Scenes.

The current number OF Century pub
fishes another installment Of General Hor-
ace porter's campaigning with Grant" II
treats OF the Battle OF the Wilderness ant
the events preceding and following that ter
ribe contest These events are eketched,
in part, as follows:
The members of the headquarters mess
soon after assembled to partake Of hasty
breakfast The general made rather sim
gular meal preparatory to so eXhausting
q day as that which was to follow He
took a cucumber, sliced 1t, poured some
vinegar over 1t, and partook of nothing
else except a cup Of strong coffee. The
first thing he did after rising from the table
was to call for a fresh supply Of cigars.
His colored servant, Bill" brought him
two dozen. After lighting one of them he
filled his pockets with the rest. He then
went over to the knoll, and began to walk
back and forth slowly upon the cleared
portion of the ridge.
AS the general felt that he could be found
more readily, and could issue his orders more
promptly, from the central point which he
had chosen for his headquarters, he re-
NAMED there almost the entire day. He
would at times walk slowly up and down,
but most of the day he sat upon the stump
of a tree or on the ground, with his back
leaning against tree The thread gloves
remained on his hands, a lighted cigar was
in his mouth almost constantly, and his
penknife was kept in active use whiting
sticks He would pick up one small twig
after another and sometimes holding the
small end away from him would rapidly
shave IL down to a point; at other times
he would turn the point toward him and
work on it as If sharpening lead pencil;
then he would grdle it, cut 1t in two, throw
1t away and begin on another. We had
long been accused of being a nation of
whi.t!ers, and this practice on the part Of
such a conspicuous representative American
seemed to give color to the charge. He
seldom INDUCED In this habit in subsequent
battles
The occupation played sad havoc with the
thread gloves, and before nightfall several
holes had been worn in them from which his
finger nails protruded After that day the
gloves disappeared, and the general there
after went without them in camp, and wore
the usual buckskn gauntlets when on horse
back. 1t was not till the Appomattox cam
paign that another pair Of thread gloves
was donned There was a mystery about
the use of those gloves which was never
entirely solved. The impression was that
Mrs. Grant had purchased them, and handed
them to the general, before he started from
Washington, and that either in Difference
to her, or because he had a notion that the
officers in the eastern armies were greater
sticklers for dress than these in the armies
of the west, he wore the gloves continuously
for the first three days of his opening cam
paign in Virginia; that is to say, as long
as they lasted under the wear and tear to
which he subjected them.
A little to the east OF the crossroads stood
the old Wilderness tavern, a deserted build
ing surrounded by a rank growth of weeds
and partly shut in by trees. A few hundred
yards to the west and in the northwest
angle formed by the two intersecting roads
was a knoll from which was second
growth of scraggy pine, scrub oak and other
timber. The knoll was high enough to af-
ford view for some little distance, but