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<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>ULYSSES S. GRANT</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Class of 1843</strong></p>
<p style="text-align: center;"><strong>Died 1885-07-23</strong></p>
<p>Ulysses S. Grant was born April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio. He came from Puritan stock, a strong element as to numbers, hardihood and force of character, of the early English colonists in North America, and, later, of the settlers north of the Ohio River. His Memoirs told by himself set forth his early life succinctly, with rare frankness, and apparently without concealment. The narrative, in style and text, is clear and direct to its purpose, and cannot fail to please all classes of readers. It portrays an ingenuous boyhood and the riper years of a man without guile, reflecting throughout his native simplicity and unselfishness. It reads as though it were a story told to his familiar friends, so easy-flowing is its language, so clearly-defined its thought. The man himself, in all his unity and directness, seems impressed upon this last great work of his life. In the range of autobiographies can one be found, not excepting that of Benjamin Franklin, so frank, unpretentious and charmingly natural? Grant in his youth was physically active, and mentally so within his prescribed limits.</p>
<p>The training imposed by his position developed his native good sense and self-reliance, but did not stimulate his mental activities in the wider fields of study, nor awaken ambition to become a scholar. Though schools of a high order were not at his command, we are not to infer that his preliminary education was deficient, for he was quick of apprehension, learned easily, and held fast to his mental acquisitions by force of his strong memory. So it is probable that he was quite as well grounded in elementary knowledge as boys of his own age not specially trained for a college course. Passing without difficulty, the prescribed examination for admission at the West Point Military Academy, he was fairly proficient in his studies through his four years of cadet life. Yet, though possessing undoubted capacity to excel, he did not evince that strong desire to attain high class standing which incites to severe and persistent application. To the more solid and scientific branches of study, as mathematics and physics, for which he had a liking, he applied himself more diligently than to the lighter studies of the academic course.</p>
<p>Grant's intimate associates at West Point were well aware that he was not putting forth his strength, and he admits this frankly in his Memoirs. The stimulus of ambition seems to have been lacking, otherwise one so mentally strong would not have been content with medium success among his classmates. Grant was graduated at the United States Military Academy with the class of 1843. He served in the Mexican War, on the Rio Grande and Vera Cruz lines of operations, efficiently and gallantly, showing in a marked manner his daring at Monterey, and his coolness and prompt action at the attack along the San Cosme route to the Mexican Capital, by which he won the distinction of two brevets. Still, he was not distinguished above his comrades generally, for the armies of invasion were bravely and marvelously well officered. Having reached the grade of Captain, Grant resigned his commission in the United States Army in 1854.</p>
<p>So the war of the rebellion found him a citizen eager to give his military training and his experience as a soldier, with all their possibilities, to the service of his country; for he was one of those who, from the outset, believed in the perpetuity of the Union, in spite of the vast show of strength and the magnitude of the secession movement. Having no acquaintance with the officials of his State, Grant was compelled to start in the war as a Captain. But the native force of the man was so apparent, upon whatever duty ordered, that he soon won a Colonel's commission, and, with little delay, that of Brigadier-General of Volunteers. His early services in Missouri showed energy and good sense, which soon brought order from the midst of discord. Transferred to the important command of the District of Cairo, his military intelligence at once prompted the seizure of Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee, which, by his celerity of movement, he accomplished, anticipating the enemy by only a few hours. Later he showed the same readiness to assume responsibility and fearlessness as a commander in his dash upon Belmont, made to test his troops rather than to obtain any permanent success.</p>
<p>Whether General Halleck intended to open his spring campaign on the Mississippi, or on the Tennessee, there can be no doubt that Generals C. F. Smith and Grant independently saw the feasibility of an attack by the latter river upon Forts Henry and Hindman, the capture of which would break the Confederate line in Kentucky; and that General Grant urged it upon his chief in person and by letter. It was probably the earnest recommendation of General Schuyler Hamilton that induced General Halleck to assign Grant to command this expedition, soon after ordered, in preference to General Smith, whose soldierly qualities he highly appreciated. The selection of Grant proved a happy one. From the commencement of the campaign he exhibited the boldness of a veteran commander. As soon as Fort Henry had yielded to Commodore Foote's gunboats, Grant, reporting his movement but not waiting for orders, turned eastward and reconnoitered Fort Donelson. Bringing forward his troops, he beleaguered the enemy, superior in numbers and protected by double lines.</p>
<p>It is not too much to say that this confident and audacious march imposed upon his opponents and held them in check, until the arrival of reinforcements enabled Grant to take the offensive opportunely and at the decisive point, and thus to capture the Confederate army, about one-third of General Sydney Johnston's command in Kentucky; a feat of arms that attracted attention in all parts of the country to this rising soldier of the West. Though General Halleck deserves great credit for his prompt and timely support to Grant in this short campaign, its success was due to the boldness of the latter, aided by General C. F. Smith, and the good conduct of his men. It was his foresight and celerity of movement that prevented the escape of the defenders of Fort Donelson. Thus far the National forces had obtained brilliant results in the West. Thomas had defeated Zollicoffer at Mill Springs; Foote had taken Fort Henry, and Grant had captured Fort Donelson, causing the Confederate line to give way at all points, the flight of Johnston's army, and the evacuation of Nashville.</p>
<p>The forces which, after some delay, were sent up the Tennessee under the immediate command of General C. F. Smith, were joined by General Grant at Savannah on or about the I7th of March. Unfortunately the country too soon lost the services of that gallant and distinguished soldier, General Smith, by death after a short illness. In the meanwhile General Johnston's scattered forces were enabled to unite at Corinth unopposed, a concentration which resulted in the Battles of Shiloh. The first day's battle, of April 6, 1862, viewed dispassionately, impresses me as being the first grand clash of arms of the war, surpassing any that had preceded it in numbers actually in conflict, fierceness of onslaughts, losses in killed and wounded-about one-fifth part of each command-and in the duration of the contest, from sunrise until sunset.</p>
<p>Though the Confederates claimed a partial victory, inasmuch as they had forced the Union army back nearly two miles in a twelve hours' fight, they were completely exhausted, as is shown by their own confession that their last attack was made by an "attenuated line, without spirit, and failed in effect." General Beauregard knew when he gave orders for the withdrawal of his forces, before the sun went down, that his army had spent its force, and that the battle, as to its purpose of defeating and routing General Grant's forces, had proved a costly failure. His testimony on those points reads as follows: "But the victory was not wholly ours. It was far from being "gained when General Johnston fell; it was not completely gained in "spite of all that was accomplished after his death. Straggling, which "had begun before noon, now (late in the afternoon) assumed fearful "proportions. And worse than straggling, the men in front were absolutely outdone by need of food, and by fatigue.</p>
<p>To deny this is either to confess utter ignorance of what took place on the battlefield of Shiloh, or to show wanton intent to subvert the truth." Of the last attack he writes: "It was desultory, without spirit or ardor, and failed in effect." That "before the order for cessation of hostilities was received by corps commanders the contest had virtually ceased in the greater part of the field." That his officers were well aware that "though masters of the field, our victory had been incomplete." General Chambers, in his official report, doubtless referring to his own command, on the right, says: "Our men continued to fight until night closed the hostilities on both sides.</p>
<p>They were too much exhausted to storm the batteries on the hill." Colonel Urquart, a staff officer, makes the following statement: "When the order (to fall back) was given, the plain truth must be told, that our troops at the front were but a thin line of exhausted men, who were making no headway, and were glad to receive orders to fall back." In what consisted this incomplete victory, claimed by the Confederate commander, other than this, that he had gained ground with fearful losses, which, with the depletion of his ranks from other causes, left him impotent to make any further headway, and caused the order to be given for his troops to fall back before his last futile attack was made? General Bragg is reported to have said of the Confederate soldiers: "They had done all they would do and had better be withdrawn." Both commanders admit fearful straggling, which only adds to the magnificent conduct of those who stood fast by their flags, fighting all day long in spite of the great slaughter. There was no panic except among the stragglers. When such result ensues, as it does at times with veteran soldiers, resistance ends and defeat and rout are inevitable.</p>
<p>General Grant, who was on the battle line the greater portion of the day, visiting, advising, and directing his different division commanders, knew better than any other one man all the phases of this fierce struggle. He says that both armies made a gallant fight, but that the enemy, even before his last feeble attack, had spent his force, and in his Memoirs asserts that "Shiloh was the severest-fought battle of the war in the West;" but that "the Confederate claimants for superiority in strategy, in generalship, in dash and in prowess, are not so unjust to the Union troops as many Northern writers." That "this battle has been, perhaps, less understood, or, to state the case more correctly, more persistently misunderstood than any other engagement between National and Confederate troops during the entire rebellion." With five-sixths of his army, inferior in numbers to the enemy, General Grant resisted his fierce attacks through the entire day without being defeated, so it is a fair assumption that with the whole he would have repelled him long before night, and turned him back.</p>
<p>That General Beauregard's army lost its boldness and prestige before night on the 6th is inferred from the fact that its last attempt availed nothing, that it fell back about two miles and waited to be attacked on the 7th, although not aware of the presence of General Buell's army until it appeared before him. To admit that General Ammen's brigade helped repel the last feeble attempt of the enemy's right on the evening of the 6th, or to admit that General Grant, even with General Wallace's fresh division, could not have successfully attacked the enemy on the 7th, does not take away one iota from the credit of those soldiers who made so splendid a fight on the 6th, thereby saving their country from a dread catastrophe, nor would it add in the least to the excellent conduct of the Army of the Cumberland on the 7th. Each must be measured by what it accomplished. On many battlefields, separately or in concert, from Shiloh to the end of the war, they performed brilliant services, that won the thanks of the Nation. Though not the purpose of this obituary to follow closely General Grant's military career, it can scarcely be out of place to notice its more prominent characteristics.</p>
<p>His campaign, which resulted in the capture of Vicksburg, evinced those masterly qualities that combine to make the great soldier. Whether we call his military combinations strategy, or the intuitions of that common sense which rises to the grade of wisdom, he seems to have seized, with a clear mental grasp, the problem before him, and to have wrought it out with a bold daring, that now, after the lapse of years, appears even more marvelous than when executed. In fact, there are few campaigns of historical record that equal it in skillful combinations, in boldness and grand courage. From that time General Grant's fame as a great soldier was established, and he became the most prominent General of the North. After the Battle of Chattanooga he was summoned to Washington, commissioned a Lieutenant-General of the United States army, and placed in command of all forces engaged in crushing the rebellion, from the Atlantic to our western limits. While in the West almost universal success had attended our arms, in the East the Army of the Potomac, after three years' experience, with varying fortunes, had gained little or no territory.</p>
<p>The problem before General Grant was a comprehensive one, embracing the whole conduct of the war. He formed his plans rapidly and made them known to General Sherman in his letter of April 4, 1864. In making Lee's and Johnston's armies the main points of attack they agreed with General Halleck's opinion expressed in his communication to General Grant of March 17, 1864. General Lee, with a strong veteran army in its fastnesses, barred the route to Richmond. To leave this army in the vicinity of Washington, and to attempt the transfer of the Army of the Potomac to the James River, with a view to the capture of the Confederate Capital, at that time thoroughly fortified, was not only an extremely questionable policy, but it seemed more than probable that it could not have been successfully accomplished, for the problem had changed its essential features since 1862, when Johnston's command was too feeble, in the face of McClellan's great superiority of numbers, to attempt other movement than by a hasty retreat to secure the safety of Richmond.</p>
<p>In 1864 Lee's army, strong in its leader, in experienced officers, well-filled ranks, and in its prestige, stood as the representative force of the Confederacy. It forced the policy of the administration, making itself the objective of the war, at least in the East. To attack this army in its strongholds, in tangled woods traversed by numerous streams, with the hope of defeating it, or possibly, at best, of breaking its force and prestige by thrusting it back more or less crippled, a task necessitated by its great strength and by the threatening position it maintained, required not merely outnumbering forces, but above all a leader possessed of a bold unflinching nature, coolness and self-reliance, and a persistent courage rising above all doubt and fear into the confidence of an unfaltering faith. Such was Grant, who boldly took upon himself this responsible task. On the 1st of May 1864, he initiated that remarkable campaign which ended, after the lapse of nearly a year, in the surrender of Lee's army, the backbone of the Confederacy.</p>
<p>Restrained by the magnitude of his command, comprising many new soldiers, by the necessity of drawing supplies by wagons from depots more or less distant as he advanced, by the lack of roads and open country for freedom and celerity of movement, cramped on his left by wide rivers, and impeded in front by lesser streams, often thwarted by his wary and powerful opponent under cover for the most part of field lines or natural obstructions, never losing his self-possession or his grand courage, manoeuvring and fighting, against all obstacles, he forced his way, step by step, to the very outskirts of the Confederate Capital. Thence by a skillful, rapid, and daring movement, he withdrew his army as it were from under the guns of his adversary, and threw his advanced corps across the James, with the intention of seizing Petersburg, feebly occupied at that time, but was prevented from so doing by some unaccountable misconception of orders. This serious failure forced his army away from the Appomatox, lengthened its lines and weakened its position, checked its movement for a time, and made its task more difficult.</p>
<p>But it failed either to discourage or divert him from his resolute purpose, to beleaguer his opponent, to stretch his arms around him to the full extent of their reach, with a hold never to be relaxed until its end was attained. Both armies, by their long struggle, had become too much reduced to dare any very bold enterprise. But the prestige and confidence of the Confederacy and of its main support, Lee's army, had been rudely shaken by this long-continued and severe shock of arms, soon to be followed by heavy blows in other quarters, as the fall of Atlanta and Mobile, the annihilation of the Army of the Shenandoah, and the crushing defeat of Hood near Nashville. Meanwhile Grant with patience bided his time, strengthening his position, extending his reach to the Weldon Road, and tightening his grasp upon the foe for the final struggle. It came on the 1st of April 1865, with the capture of Five Forks turning the enemy's right, followed by a successful assault upon the depleted lines of Petersburg, and the flight of Lee's army.</p>
<p>After the Battle of Sailor's Creek the Confederate commander finding himself anticipated on his lines of retreat, and that further resistance would be but useless bloodshed, accepted General Grant's generous terms and surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia on the 9th of April, at Appomatox Court House. Thus had the man been found, after long waiting, with patient resolution and unflinching courage, to drive the lion from his lair, crippled and maimed beyond the power of longer resistance. Thus was the Confederacy stamped out, as it stood embodied in that grand army, which, for three years with unsurpassed bravery under its great commander General Lee had maintained its position with a bold and imposing front. And now the silent inflexible hero, who never lost a battle, and whose three years' success had saved the Union, dropped his iron mask and revealed his kind, gentle nature in his magnanimity to his fallen foe, an act which was acknowledged by all as most seemly and graceful.</p>
<p>In this tribute to General Grant and his brave army, in their magnificent and triumphant struggle against the central power of the Confederacy, full credit should be given to those co-ordinate campaigns so successfully executed, without a single failure, at Fort Fisher, in the Shenandoah Valley, near Nashville and Mobile, and above all, in that brilliant "March to the Sea," which, starting from Chattanooga and sweeping away all opposition, captured Atlanta and Savannah, to meet its final success with the surrender of Johnston's army in North Carolina. They were only surpassed by the greater magnitude and grandeur of the central triumph. From the beginning to the end of his military career General Grant was wonderfully successful, for the simple reason that he possessed those pre-eminent qualities that force success. Let those who would seek for faults in his grand campaigns, through information attained in subsequent years, remember that afterthought is not forethought. They cannot hurt his fame, for it stands upon an imperishable foundation, like a house built upon a rock, against which in vain the winds may blow, and the rains beat, and the floods come.</p>
<p>Previous to this period of our country's history the rank of General had been conferred only upon Washington. At the end of our Civil War, that grade was revived and given to Grant as an acknowledgement of his great services in preserving the union of the States. At the head of the United States army he performed the duties of his high position in his accustomed quiet, undemonstrative, but effective way. His wise counsel prevented an excessive increase to the regular forces at the end of the war, so strongly urged by many, for his good sense taught him that the country would not tolerate a large standing army in time of peace. Called to the exalted position of President of the United States, he made an effort to conciliate the South through the aid of some of its prominent men, but, with two or three exceptions, they ignored his wishes, preferring fealty to party to every other consideration. Still, his influence was for good in restraining the excesses of party spirit through the period in which the nation was recovering from the dire calamities of a stupendous war, and reconstructing its recovered territories.</p>
<p>By the judicious use of his veto he saved the country from being overflooded by a paper currency, and forced the early resumption of specie payment. Honest in purpose, just as he had tried to be generous, wishing the good of all, he could not escape the shafts of political rancour, but, like Washington, was a much-abused man. No one occupying the most exalted station within the nation's gift, however worthy and pure his character, can avoid the "slings and arrows" of party strife;-the greed of power and place does not stop to weigh its acts in the scales of justice. In the simplicity and sincerity of his nature, Grant would not desire indiscriminate praise, nor would he claim for his public acts entire immunity from error, for "to err is human." But his judgment and his intuitions were, for the most part, in accord with the right, and he was true to his sense of duty, and, taking into view the difficulties of his position growing out of the troublous period from which the country was emerging, his administration will compare favorably with those of his predecessors.</p>
<p>But it is as one of the greatest soldiers of the nineteenth century that his fame will be worldwide, overshadowing his civic career. At intervals in the world's history men have come to the front, outstripping their contemporaries so far in the arts and in science, or as leaders in those grand life dramas which convulse nations, as to be called "Great." Their power seems a gift of nature, genius, inspiration, because it is exceptional. In whatever field manifested, this seeming gift is probably but the heritage of pre-existent mental combinations and developments, although influences not traceable produce at times phenomenal men. Grant undoubtedly possessed mental attributes of a high order. Their wonderful manifestation so early in the war, marks him with the many as a phenomenal man. Yet it is doubtful if his reserve power was ever fully comprehended. General Franklin, his classmate, says that he never culminated. Though scarcely traceable in his youth, his strength as put forth later in life, must have been to a great extent a germ of the past, phenomenal in its development only. Crises may mold, but they do not create heroic natures. Iron only can be tempered into steel.</p>
<p>Grant possessed that high order of common sense which means wisdom, an unfailing memory, a mental concentration so intense as to pierce through and beyond all difficulties that arose in his pathway, with promptness of thought and action, allied to an indomitable will and unflinching courage, all elements of a great soldier. No danger, however portentous, could shake his iron nerve, his dauntless heart. As General Sherman said of him, he feared neither what was before him, nor what was beyond his view. With experience he became more and more conscious of his power, more self-possessed and self-reliant, with a broader vision, which subordinated his mental grasp to his will, leaving his brain to act normally in all emergencies. No obstacles could withstand his untiring persistence of purpose. He put his hand to the plough, never to look back. While others were striving for fame, his inspiration was a grand sense of duty, and fame came unsought. Grant patterned after no man. He was a model unto himself. So he stands alone in his grandeur, like a Pyramid in the desert, or like Egypt's Sphinx, a grand human head with a lion's heart.</p>
<p>To his other characteristics was added faith, superior to all doubt or fear. To this trait, quite as much as to any other, was due that steadfastness of purpose which endured unto the end. No great leader fails of this high moral attribute. Success is the bright crown of Faith. Doubt and distrust Build not to Fame. Their baseless shaft Falls to the dust. Through years of discouraging opposition it held the immortal Genoese fast to his grand idea, in the midst of a doubting world, until his prophetic prescience was revealed as a reality in the discovery of a new continent. Grant's faith was no idle dream of hope, but rather the fruition of relentless energy in his great work, resting upon an unfaltering trust in Providence, in the right of the cause which he defended, and in himself. And so he won success; but cared little for the triumph, except as it brought peace and rest to his country out of the discordant elements of fratricidal war. A prominent southern gentleman told me that he was once asked this question; "Who in your opinion was the greatest development of the war;" to which he answered, Grant; and I think so too was the reply of his friend.</p>
<p>And can any candid unprejudiced person to-day, reading the wonderful career of that brilliant soldier, as told by himself, in his plain unpretentious way, fail to reach the same conclusion? General Grant in high place retained his natural, unassuming manners; a marked example of great force combined with simplicity of character. By nature tender hearted, his sympathies were quickly touched, and his generosity shown by benevolences quite up to his means. A Christian by early training, he stood fast to his faith until the end. In August 1848, Grant was married to Miss Julia Dent, a sister of a classmate at West Point, and daughter of a planter residing near Saint Louis, Missouri. It proved a very suitable and happy union. By his side she made the journey of his life with unwavering trust, exemplifying those qualities that adorn the true womanly character in that beautiful relation, life companionship. Unostentatious in his prosperity, devoted in his hours of trial, when disease and suffering clouded the remnant of his days, with the loving gentleness of her youth, she was the ministering angel by his couch until death.</p>
<p>So the sympathies of all true women and brave men went forth to her in the hour of her greatest sorrow. In December 1883, General Grant was seriously hurt by a fall, producing a shock to his nervous system from which he recovered very slowly. To this were added in the following spring, as the result of his unsuspicious, trusting nature, the catastrophe of financial ruin, and before the summer had passed, an incipient throat trouble, which, lightly heeded at the time, developed during the winter months alarming symptoms indicative of incurable disease. While suffering from these complications, mental and physical, he occupied his time in writing his personal Memoirs, with the hope that they might prove a valuable legacy to his family. At this last great work of his life, with unsurpassed patience and heroic fortitude, he endured the pains of his distressing disease, toiling day by day with wonderful energy, even after his strength was fast wasting away, and the light of life seemed to flicker in its socket.</p>
<p>Without reference to the circumstances under which these Memoirs were written, they cannot fail to increase our respect and admiration for the man, and our appreciation, not only of his military career, but also of his wondrous facility as a writer. That they were written in so brief a period, and in part under severe physical suffering, and finished while the shadows of death were closing around him, proves intellectual strength far surpassing the preconceived opinions of those who were aware of his great reserve power. In fact this work is a surprising effort of mental concentration and rapid vigorous thought, so clearly conceived that its expression in language flows uninterruptedly as light from its source. His brain admitted no confusion of ideas, so there could be no confusion in his style, which simply was the written words of his clear thinking.</p>
<p>Grant's excellent common sense was shown in this, that he wrote for the public the prominent features of an interesting life, not a military treatise crammed with war maxims readily obtained from textbooks, nor filled with strictures upon campaigns and officers, which would only have aroused a spirit of enmity and bitter criticism; and so fair-minded readers the world over find his narrative simply charming. I have scarcely heard one voice dissentient to the general verdict of unqualified praise bestowed upon these Memoirs. It is a high compliment, this terse remark by a friend of mine, "Grant was a writer by instinct." A few months before his death General Grant was reappointed into the army of the United States, with the rank of General, retired from active service. It was a graceful testimonial to this illustrious soldier, whose life was going out in pain and sorrow, and in unison with the abounding sympathies of the nation, then flowing towards him in all directions, with beautiful tributes of respect and friendship, of devotion and affection, which gladdened his heart, and smoothed his way down into the dark shadows of the Valley of Death.</p>
<p>In the last stage of his disease, by the kindness of his friend, Mr. Drexel, and with the hope of at least procuring for him quiet and rest, he was moved to Mount McGregor, where, in the pure air of that mountain region, he lived about two months, becoming weaker daily, until July 23, 1885, when, with an abiding trust, at peace with all, forgiving as he hoped to be forgiven, he fell into that last sleep from which the "Archangel's trump, not Glory's, shall awake him." Then arose that memorable cry, Grant is dead, which with lightning speed made the circuit of the globe, conveying to the civilized world the sad intelligence that the great soldier of the Western Hemisphere had passed from life. The nation to whose harmonious union he gave his last thoughts and prayers, with all possible grandeur of ceremony, bore his mortal mold to its final resting place at River Side Park, by the Hudson-a hallowed spot, consecrated by a hero's dust.</p>
<p>Never before had New York witnessed so grand a spectacle as that gathering of people from the length and breadth of our land, to follow the mortal remains of General Grant to his tomb, nor in the history of our country has eulogy, in prose and verse, given to fame a more world-wide, more memorable name. Though no monument can reach to the height of his great services, it would be an appropriate act of the nation, which he raised to honor, in grateful tribute to his memory, to mark his resting-place on the banks of the Hudson with an enduring monument; plain, solid, but grand, as was the man himself; at whose base pilgrims shall come year after year to lay their votive offerings. For to this man, more than to any other, we owe it that our land is to-day a unit; that sixty millions of people are living together in peace and harmony under the same flag, ample to cover and shield them all.</p>
<p>The time will come when the people throughout this land will cherish, alike with grateful feelings, the memories of those three illustrious men, who stand as landmarks in our history; of Washington, the Father of his Country; of Lincoln, the Liberator, who widened the base of our political structure, and made it more enduring; of Grant, the Preserver of the Union.</p>
<p>IN MEMORY OF GENERAL GRANT.</p>
<p>Dust unto dust! Earth back to earth! The great the lowly's doom from birth. Though love did crave For him life's boon, Death came to free From its long-lingering agony His Spirit brave.</p>
<p>A weeping Nation's mournful train, To music of his requiem strain And cannon's boom, Waits to move on, in solemn pace, With the dead Hero to his place Of rest-the tomb.</p>
<p>Thou silent man, of iron nerve! Danger nor doubt thy will could swerve On battle field. Dauntless thy heart, thy faith sublime; Strong above strong men of thy time, Ne'er could'st thou yield.</p>
<p>On whom repose the sacred trust, To guard this famous soldier's dust? Where rest the brave; Hallowed the spot, and consecrate- A Hero's mold honors the State That holds his grave.</p>
<p>His grand deeds built so high his fame- A signal light-few now dare claim To be his peer. Yet meekly were his honors worn, And bravely hath his great heart borne Its trials here.</p>
<p>No monument can reach his fame, Nor lustre add to his loved name, Honored and great. Through ages in unbroken line, Pilgrims will seek the warrior's shrine Who saved the State.</p>
<p>And linger by his sacred tomb, When Spring has decked the turf with bloom Of many a flower, Blossoming above his hallowed dust, Who faithful stood to every trust Till the last hour.</p>
<p>Of the great names on history's page, Renowned in an illustrious age, Our Union claims, From North to South, from sea to sea, This Hero's, as one of its three Immortal names!</p>
<p>One did create, one liberate, The third from death hath saved the State. Illustrious men! Their names adorn Freedom's proud Fane, O'er which our Old Flag, freed from stain, Waves whole again.</p>
<p>Z. B. TOWER, Bvt. Maj.-Gen. U.S. Army.</p>
<p><a href="https://usmalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/aogreunion/id/10583">https://usmalibrary.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/aogreunion/id/10583</a></p>
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