The Indianapolis journal., 1903-05-03

| killed in the action at Bull Run July q,
| 1861. The other two passed through the
CielIan unscathed. but on Aug. S. 1862, sec
/ ond fell at Cedar mountain, hardly dozen
miles from Harrison Terrelfs birthplace.
The faithful servant searched out their
| dead bodies among the killed and wounded
| and gave them decent burial.
The survivor of this remarkable trio was
| more fortunate. With him Harrison made
| all the campaigns Of the Army OF Northern
Virginia. He trudged the toilsome journey
| to disastrous Gettysburg and back across
| the Potomac; was in the Wilderness. where
| the Western commander first appeared upon
| the Eastern theater of war TO pit nlmseiI
against Lee: heard the cannon and mus
kerry of Spottsylvania and Cold HarDor;
saw the weary siege of Petersburg. finally
| TO surrender with his master at Appomat-
| tox, where was made secure the great fame
| of his future patron and friend, General
| Grant.
The surviving master and servant severed
| their relations at Appomattox, though Har-
|. rison often saw his old employer after the
| war, now fallen into needy circumstances.
SOUGHT HIS PARENTS.
Harrison, now twenty-five, had had
world of experience under greatly changed
| conditions but he was adrift without pros
| pect of employment. He naturally first bent
his course to Orange county, where had
dwelt his family and friends. But here,
meanwhile. had occurred one of the great
| tragedies incident to slavery. Both his IA
| ther and mother had been sold down
| South" not to the same master, but ruth
| lessly parted, the father going TO a South
| Carolina planter and the mother to one OF
| the great Mississippi cotton plantations.
He mustered up a little capital, and for
| two years industriously traversed the Or
ange county roads a small huckster OF
| farm produce But participa ton in the STIR
ring scenes of the preceding ten years had
| united Harrison for this tame rural exist
ence. In 1861 he visited Washington In quest
4 of emDlOVment professional servant,
| in which he was successful. But after
| few months, longing to see his old mother,
| he went down into Mississippi and hunted
! her up. Here the enterprising fellow be-
came a cotton speculator in a way, buying
and selling it by the bale, and so prosper
| Gus, too. that he would have remained in
that region permanently had he not been
driven out by the yellow fever.
Returning to Washington in 1868. he en-
| tered the service of the late. George w.
| Riggs of the widely known banking house
| of Riggs & Corcoran, and was soon pro-
| NOTED to butler of the old Riggs mansion,
at No. 1917 street. He was the directing
servant of the Riggs family for twelve
years. The Riggses entertained great
DEAL and. as this period covered the eight
| years of President Grants administration,
| he often had the pleasure of serving the
general. In those days he was also detailed
as an expert to assist at the White House
| receptions and dinner parties. Not only In
| dinner-giving circles, but among clubmen
and diners-out Harrison was soon recog
nized as a superior man for house func-
house servant. Many fashionable and
| wealthy families, not only in Washington,
but in Philadelphia and New York. and even
| farther abroad, made him tempting offers
| to leave the employment of the Riggses. but
| he steadily declined to quit their service.
| But after the senior Mr.. Riggss death, in
| 1880, a new condition was created.
EMPLOYED BY GENERAL GRANT.
Harrison had. fortunately. fallen under the
personal notice of General Grant on divers
occasions at the White House. In $780, after
the Grants had settled down in New York.
the general telegraphed over an offer to
Harrison to become his butler. While the
younger Riggses desired him to remain
with them, they were willing to defer to
/ General Grants wishes If Harrison desired
/ TO go. He decided to go, and soon after
| reported for duty to the Grants. who were
| then temporarily living at New York
| hotel. Not long after, however, General
| Grant moved into the house at No. East
| Sixty-sixth street. Harrison became prac-
| tically steward of the establishment, hav-
ing charge of all its internal operations
/ except the laundry work. AS the domestic
| chief of staff of the most conspicuous fig
| ure in America Harrison was now an impor-
| tant parsonage. But he assumed no airs"
/ his circumspection in dealing with the
| cial side Of the generals affairs, his general
| discretion and modesty, and above all, his
| reliability, so won upon General Grant that
Harrison was soon trusted implicitly with
| the most confidential and important con-
/ Germs.
| The accidental injury sustained by Gen
| Grant in 1888, before alluded to, entirely
| changed Harrisons relations in the Grant
| household. He became the personal at
| tendant of the general. The latter, in his
| numerous goings and comings, needed a
| strong arm to lean upon, and the robust
| and discreet Harrison was exactly the man
he wanted. Wherever General Grant went
| Harrison Terrell went also. In this rela-
4 ton Harrison naturally became cognizant
of every detail of the mysterious Grant &
Ward partnership, and was spectator of
| the events connected with the sensational
failure that followed. With folded arms
| he was standing respectfully behind Gen.
! Grants chair in old Commodore Wander
| financier handed the Napoleonic soldier the
| celebrated check for $15O,OOO which ternpor-
arily bridged the chasm caused by the ras-
| cal Wards defalcations.
Harrison was the first person to take
heed of the generals throat trouble and
the victims earliest complaints of the queer
difficulty.
HEARD ANNOUNCEMENT OF FATE.
He was with General Grant when the
experts discovered that this throat trouble
was the incipient advance of the fell de-
stroyer cancer, and remembers the steady
nerve his chief showed when told that, al
though his present pain could be largely
assuaged. death must be the inevitable re-
suit. and one not long to be delayed. Har-
| touched the dead body OF General Grant.
| Harrison unobrrusively heard the first ne
gotiations, and participated in the family
joy which they caused, by which General
| Grant, after his means of livelihood had
| been swept away, entered upon a literary
history of some of his campaigns as a
means of keeping the wolf from the door
| Incidentally, too. he was a witness of all
| the conferences and verbal agreements be-
| tween Grant and Badeau concerning the
latter's part in certain of the generals lit
| erary productions upon which Badeau lent
| his aid. About these there was disagree
| fnent and much contention between the
| Grants and Badeau after General Grants
| death.
Meantime Harrison himself had married
and raised large family Of his own, which
had remained in Washington while he was
| with the Grants. Upon the generals death
| he concluded to return home But he re-
| manned at Mount McGregor until some time
| in December. 1885, in charge of the house
and family effects. Mrs. Grant very much
| desired him to remain with them i'm New
/ York. but after good deal of hard think
| ing Harrison adhered to his resolution to
| return home. He had. In fact, determined
/ to try another kind of employment-to seek
| a government appointment.
| He was not long baked of his purpose
| Through the prompt interposition of Cen
| John A. Logan he was given temporary
=