About Grant

From AN INTRODUCTORY WORD.
A Life of Grant tells us, that, when, a boy twelve years of age, he was driving in Kentucky a pair of horses attached to a light wagon in which were two young women. In crossing White Oak Creek, the back-water of the Ohio had so swollen the stream, that the party found itself afloat in the middle of the flood. The women became alarmed, and shouted vigorously for assistance.
The boy, in perfect self-possession, said, "Keep quiet: I'll take you through safe."
He did so; and from that time on he was conspicuous for coolness, judgment, and signal readiness in emergency.
The first battle of significance fought in the great American civil conflict, of sufficient importance to change public opinion here and elsewhere, was won by him when thirty-nine years of age.
This victory, following as it did a prolonged season of almost uninterrupted disaster to our arms, introduced to the world this principal hero of the war of the Rebellion, one of the very few who have rendered illustrious the nineteenth century.
To show his important share in the momentous events through which the nation has passed since 1861, and to present some of the reasons why millions of the American citizens whose fidelity to the flag never faltered regard him as the true leader in the grave emergency depending on the election of 1880, this book is written about Grant.