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[samgrant]

Where did this quote come from?

" 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."

 

[cindyscoops]

Lee's comment on Grant

Looks like you got it from here: http://www.sacklunch.net/biography/G/UlyssesSGrant.html

 

[ole]

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

 

[samgrant]

Looks like you got it from here: http://www.sacklunch.net/biography/G/UlyssesSGrant.html

Welcome back!

 

[oneplez]

Lee meets Grant

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.'"

http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/appomatx.htm

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.

http://blueandgraytrail.com/event/Surrender_at_Appomattox


Don

 

[ole]

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

 

[samgrant]

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.