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" Lee asked: "Is that the "Sam" Grant that was in the Fourth at Chepultepec?" He was told it was the same. "I remember him," said Lee. "A very quiet fellow, but he seemed to have a good deal in him, and I"m afraid he's got it yet."
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"It was a very peculiar time." - Franklin D. Cossitt
Ancestors in USA Army: 6th IA Inf, 11th IL Cav, 1st AL Cav; 122nd NY Inf; 6th MI Cav; 35th MA Inf; 100th IL Inf; 1st CO Inf/Cav; 22nd IN Inf
Nice post, Cindy, thanks. But now I have a question for everyone. Didn't Lee say, at Appomattox, something to the effect that he couldn't recall having met Grant in Mexico? One of these two accounts is fanciful. Which?
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Nice post, Cindy, thanks. But now I have a question for everyone. Didn't Lee say, at Appomattox, something to the effect that he couldn't recall having met Grant in Mexico? One of these two accounts is fanciful. Which?
Ole
General Grant began the conversation by saying 'I met you once before, General Lee, while we were serving in Mexico, when you came over from General Scott's headquarters to visit Garland's brigade, to which I then belonged. I have always remembered your appearance, and I think I should have recognized you anywhere.'
'Yes,' replied General Lee, 'I know I met you on that occasion, and I have often thought of it and tried to recollect how you looked, but I have never been able to recall a single feature.'"
Grant began the conversation, "I have met you once before..." when the Virginian was General Winfield Scott's chief-of-staff during the Mexican War. Grant continued, "...but I would not expect a superior officer of your rank to remember it." Lee acknowledge meeting Grant, "I remember meeting you..." but admitted that he had not been able to remember much about his opponent. They recalled, almost fondly, the times serving under General Scott, the Virginian whose blueprint for Union victory became Grant's battleplan.
Thanks, Don. That clears it up. But it still seems a bit incongruous that on one hand, Lee couldn't recollect a single feature of how Grant looked, but recalled that Grant "seemed to have a good deal in him."
Ole
__________________ I never knew a man who wished to be himself a slave. Consider if you know any good thing that no man desires for himself. A. Lincoln
Well, Grant may have been either cleanshaven at that time, or perhaps, as described in 1861, when he first commanded rough Illiniois recruits, a long beard without a moustache.
Probably the former.
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"It was a very peculiar time." - Franklin D. Cossitt
Ancestors in USA Army: 6th IA Inf, 11th IL Cav, 1st AL Cav; 122nd NY Inf; 6th MI Cav; 35th MA Inf; 100th IL Inf; 1st CO Inf/Cav; 22nd IN Inf