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I enjoy reading the political discussions that have been posted recently,but would like to know if anyone could elaborate on Grant's last days.
I know he was writiing his memoirs and was losing alot of weight due to cancer. I was wondering how long before his death in 1885 that he actually found out that he did indeed have cancer and given the state of medical technology what kind of treatment the doctors may have tried.
Did many friends visit him? I appreciate any insight that you could share with me.
The page is quite large and has many catagories to include his last days. I am sure you will find the information you are looking for.
Unionblue
__________________ "The American people and the Government at Washington may refuse to recognize it for a time but the inexorable logic of events will force it upon them in the end; that the war now being waged in this land is a war for and against slavery." Frederick Douglass
"Loyalty to our ancestors does not include loyalty to their mistakes." George Santayana
Actually, PBS in the Greater Philadelphia area just ran an excellent 2 hour special on Grant.
Apparently he developed cancer of the tongue with metastisis and died within three months of initial diagnosis.
He was in dire straits for money and mostly dictated his memoirs to a newspaper man in Ohio.
His autobiography was very successful and gave Julia financial security.
He was visited by Gen. Sherman often and I do believe both Sherman and Gen. Joe Johnston,CSA were pallbearers.
Cancer of the tongue causes throat swelling and eventual pneumonia which is what caused Grant's death.
As it happens, I visited the cottage where Grant spent his final days just a couple of weeks ago.
The cottage is located on what is now the grounds of a prison in Wilton, NY, just north of Saratoga Springs. One thing about going there to visit - you do not have to worry about anything happening to your car, because the security is excellent.
Originally, the cottage was built as a small hotel. The owner, hearing about Grant's illness, offered it to him and his wife as a place to get out of New York City. Grant spent about the last month and a half or two months of his life there.
An informative little tour of the cottage is available. You get to see a few of the interior rooms, including the room in which Grant died and was first laid in state. They still have on display one of the flower arrangements from his funeral - all dried out, of course, but the word "Peace" is still visible.
They also show you his favorite spot to sit on the porch. Visitors are allowed to sit in a chair there. It is not, of course, the actual chair Grant sat in, but it is in the actual spot.
After visiting the cottage, you can walk down the trail to a scenic overlook. You can see for a good number of miles and, if you can manage to block out the enormous Target warehouse and the equally enormous Ace Hardware warehouse at the foot of the mountain, you can imagine yourself seeing pretty much the same view Grant saw. It's a nice walk down the trail, but you will do some huffing and puffing on the way back up.
Our guide told us that, the day after Grant finally finished writing his memoirs, he was taken to the lookout point in a wheeled conveyance. For some reason, when he was ready to come back, there was a pile of dirt or stones or something blocking the path, and his servant couldn't manage to push the wheeled conveyance over the obstacle with Grant in it. So Grant had to get out and walk up the hill to get around the obstacle. Though it wasn't a terribly long distance he had to walk, the exertion seemed to do him in, as he declined rapidly thereafter and died a few days later.
The cottage is worth a visit if anyone is in the Albany/Saratoga Springs area. You can get there by following I-87 (the Northway) to exit 16, and the route from the exit to the cottage is well marked. The cottage is open Wednesday through Sundays from 10-4, Memorial Day through Labor Day. After Labor Day, it's open only on Saturdays and Sundays until the second weekend in October.
For those who like horse racing, the big thoroughbred meet in Saratoga Springs starts around late July and concludes around the end of August. For those who don't like horse racing, that's not the time you want to try to find a place to stay in Saratoga Springs (the local hotels and motels really jack up their prices during that time period). Better to either come at a different time or stay someplace a little ****her away.
Thanks for the tip, Hoosier. I lived in Saratoga Springs for a short time back in the seventies while in the Navy, but didn't even know at the time that the cottage was near by. I've since wanted to go back for a visit.
Thanks Gary_g and Hoosier enjoyed reading your posts.I read on that Grant site that he was eating peaches when he first started having the throat pain.He did seem very brave in his last days as his bout with cancer was going on.
I guess all of cigars he smoked is possibly a link to the throat cancer,but again amazing he got the memoirs finished and kept plugging away to do it.He was a great man.
We often forget that when General Grant was diagnosed with cancer in the fall of 1884, he was the most popular man in America. Wherever he went, thousands gathered, cheered and applauded. Women ripped buttons off his jacket for souvenirs, kissed him and threw flowers. Even in the South, Grant was admired for his evenhanded management of the surrender at Appomattox and unlike Sherman was never abused or mocked. His illness, therefore, caused a national shock that riveted all across the land.
When the news of his cancer was reported, journalists rushed to stand vigil outside his brownstone in New York. They peered in windows, hid behind hedges, and duly noted every famous visitor who walked up the path. Every day, thousands of ordinary people gathered along the sidewalk and on the lawn to pay their respects, a silent, watching, occasionally sobbing crowd of onlookers who cherished him as the savior of the union. “Virtually confined to his room during his stay in Sixty-sixth Street, General Grant would sometimes realize the irksomeness of his condition, and strive to amuse himself by walking from one apartment to the other, playing solitaire by his open fire, viewing the watching crowds on the street below, or welcoming some of the many friends who came to sympathize with him. Occasionally a parading regiment would halt opposite the house and present arms, whereupon he would appear at his window and modestly and sadly acknowledge the salute.” [Dr. Shrady, Attending Physician]
The NY papers carried daily bulletins on his progress, “March 27, 1885 -- General Grant had another good day yesterday. It was passed much as he had passed Wednesday. He got up early, dozed during the morning and went riding in the afternoon. He enjoyed continuous sleep, after retiring on Wednesday night, until 4 o'clock yesterday morning, catching short naps after that until 7 o'clock, when he started the day with a cup of coffee.” [NY Times]
Grant began writing his Memoirs that Fall in order to leave a financial legacy to his family. The family was broke having lost everything in the failure of Grant & Ward and this was his only way of rebuilding the family’s bank account. Sam Clemmons who had become an admirer and friend recognized a best seller and gave Grant a lucrative contract for the publishing rights.
The task of writing was labor intensive and required exhausting research. Adam Badeau a former aid and his son Fred Grant were kept busy checking facts and searching out details. For a couple of weeks he dictated to a secretary, but when he lost the power of speech, he went back to writing in longhand. The original manuscripts are in the Library of Congress and show the disintegration of his handwriting as the disease progressed, but also show few deletions or additions.
As summer with its oppressive heat overtook the crowded city, it was decided that Grant should be removed to a cottage at Mount McGregor, New York, in the Adirondacks. The cooling breezes and quiet serenity were a welcome relief to both the family members and to the ailing General. The crowds followed, however and the vigil continued. “July 18, 1885 -- Mild, sunny weather and cheering news from General Grant's cottage have made the day one of rare charm and interest at this spot. By mid-morning many lady visitors were scattered over there grounds in shy groups. The train also deposited over 200 visitors from Saratoga. As they came up the hill, many branching of towards the cottage, the waiting ramblers in the woods joined them and soon converged on the hotel porch.” [NY Times]
Mostly silent, the passersby would often stop to wave to the General as he sat on the front porch often with Julia or other family members. Usually he would tip his hat and smile before returning to his writing pad, but upon occasion someone caught his interest. Children were his weakness and he could seldom resist a child. While visiting the cottage Dr. Shrady reported, “. . . his attention was directed to a little three-year-old girl who was standing in front of the crowd, and quite near the porch. The child smiled and waved her hand toward the General, whereupon he beckoned her to come to him. When lifted on the platform of the porch, she appeared to be bewildered, but soon recovered her smile when the General very tenderly shook her hand and lovingly smoothed her curly head.”
As the end came, Grant suffered greatly. Losing weight rapidly, he became a skeleton and had lost the ability to speak. He was reduced to scribbling notes for all his communications. “On one occasion when a larger crowd than usual had assembled, he appeared quite responsive to their sympathy, and taking his ever-ready pad he wrote: ‘The people are very considerate. But to pass my time pleasantly, I should like to be able to talk to them.” [Dr. Shrady]
General Ulysses S. Grant finally passed away on July 23, 1885 one week after completing Vol. 2 of his Memoirs. His funeral was one of the largest in US history. It began on August 4 with a service at Mt. McGregor as a memorial service was being held in Westminster Abbey. The coffin was then taken by special train to Albany, the tracks along the route lined with mourners who stood quietly and bowed their heads as the train passed. After laying in state, the coffin was removed to NYC for a formal and public service where Confederates and Union soldiers gathered to pay their respects.
All across the nation, newspapers were filled with glowing obituaries. Below the Mason-Dixon Line editors were just as expansive as their northern counterparts.
Savannah, GA, The Morning News: The news of Gen. Grant’s death will be read with profound sorrow in this country and with deep regret throughout the civilized world. Gen. Grant was a great soldier. . . . His magnanimity at the Appomattox surrender showed that he was as generous as he was brave.
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Mobile, AL, The Register: He is gone. The grave closes over a brave soldier, a man whose impulses, had they been properly directed, (I assume southward), would have made him the foremost man of his times. The South unites with the North in paying tribute to his memory. He saved the Union. For this triumph – and time has shown it to be a triumph for the South as well as the North – he is entitled to and will receive the grateful tribute of the millions who in the course of time will crowd this continent with a hundred Imperial Sates and spread to the world the blessing of republican freedom.
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Richmond VA, The Dispatch: He is not only one of the immortals, but he is one of them by right. He was an Agamemnon – a “King of Men.”
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Charleston SC, The News and Courier: The North had no thought save of the man of Appomattox and the South had no thought save of him who told the worn and ragged Confederate soldiers of Lee’s army that they must take their horses home with them, . . . . .There is peace throughout the land – peace in the North and peace in the South. The country is one again in heart, and thought and hope. . . . In this time of peace there is naught but regard and regret for him for whom strife and disquiet are no more.
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Louisville KY, The Commercial: The greatest soldier since the day of Napoleon is dead.
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New Orleans, The Picayune: Brethren of the North and South let us join mournful hands together around that newly opened grave . . .
New Orleans, The Chronicle: A united country mourns an honored son. His private virtues were equal to his patriotism and military genius.
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Galveston, TX, The Evening Tribune: Those of the gray who had fought against him are earnest in their sorrow that a gallant soldier has gone to his long resting-place.
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