same space of time-has never been recorded in modern history. The march of Grant from Cairo to Richmond is without a parallel. To picture it forth, not in the visions of fancy, but in the soberest and truest colors of history, will require all the abilities of the most accomplished historian. I propose only to tell the story of that drama in such simple language and in such outline sketches as will give the reader a clear idea of what was done without being confused by terms and details not generally understood. I write for the common reader an account of great events, which is true, reliable, accurate, and to which he may refer for much of the history of these times. Fortunately for the truth of history in our day, the press records every thing. Every fact, every man, every plan, every movement, every opinion and event of our last great conflict are embodied by the press and perpetuated for the use of the historian. With such materials we may be dull, but we must be true. I shall avail myself of all these materials; and however brief I may be, or however inadequate the life of any one man is to represent the acts and movements of a great people, yet, so far as I take the scenes of that movement, and so far as I represent them, I shall make the picture true and faithful. My part is humble, and the story but one chapter in history, but it shall be just and accurate. CINCINNATI, 1868. EWD. D. MANSFIELD. LIFE OF GENERAL GRANT. CHAPTER I. ANCESTRY-PARENTAGE-BIRTH-SCHOOL-BOY DAYS-OCCUPA TION-HORSEMANSHIP-AT WEST POINT-DESCRIPTION BY A COMRADE. THE HE life of an eminent public man is a page in his country's history. God has so made us, that no man lives only to himself. We are interwoven one with another. We are particles in a great wholeunits in immense numbers; but not particles without cohesion, nor units without magnitude. Do what we will, whether small or great, we do make part of the public body; we have an influence, whether we choose or not, and can not get rid of it. But, if one of us comes to be a leader; to be commander of an army; to be chief magistrate of the Republic; to be eminent in science, or, to be illustrious in letters-that makes us, not a small, but a large particle in the body-politic; not of slight, but of immense influence in directing events, in forming opinions, and in shaping the course of affairs. Such is the position of General Ulysses S. GRANT. It matters not whether we think his fame and success are the sole result of unprecedented merit or not-it is enough that he has them; it is enough that Divine Providence, which overrules all human events, has permitted him to acquire such fame and success, and that he thus occupies a large space in public affairs, and is looked up to by multitudes as one of the principal leaders in one of the most powerful nations of the earth. This calls our attention to him, and leads us to trace out, as far as we can, his manner of life and his public career. ULYSSES S. GRANT was, as the name implies, of Scotch extraction. The first ancestor we hear of as native to this country was Noah Grant, born in Windsor, Hartford county, Connecticut.' He was a captain in the King's service, and killed at White Plains, 1756. Noah Grant, son of Captain Grant, was also born in Connecticut. He was a lieutenant at the battle of Lexington, and served through the whole Revolutionary war. It seems that after the war was ended, this Noah Grant, in 1789, emigrated from Connecticut to Western Pennsylvania; and we find that Jesse R. Grant, the father of Ulysses, was born in Westmoreland county, in January, 1794.2 This Noah Grant was a man of education and property, but, we are informed by his son, died poor. In 1799 he took his family from Westmoreland into that part of Ohio now Columbiana county. Ohio was then part of the North-Western Territory, and it was four 1 Jesse Grant's Letters to the New York Ledger. 1 2 Idem. |