GRANT AND THE CHILD.

Tuapeka Times, Volume XVIII, Issue 1166, 29 July 1885, Page 3

GRANT AND THE CHILD.

"At the surrender of Lee," said a surgeon at Erie, Pa., in the hearing of a " Dispatch " reporter recently, " I was serving as medical director of the second division of the Twenty-fifth Army Corps. After the surrender the division was ordered to join the balance of the corps near Petersburg, and we left Appomattox Courthouse on the 11th of April, following the South Side Eailroad. The General commanding directed me to take an orderly and proceed to Prospect Station, and there select a camping ground for the division and also a place to pitch our headquarters tent. I proceeded as directed, and after selecting a suitable camping ground, crossed the fields to a large white house near the station. As I rode up to the gate a most venerable and noble-looking gentleman of probably sixty-five years came to the front gate, and I asked him if he would have any objection to our pitching headquarters in his yard. He said : ' I should be very glad to have you do it, as it will be a protection against the vandalism of the stragglers of the army.' He asked me to come in, but I told him I would prefer a seat on the verandah. Finding him to be a Methodist minister and a most polished gentleman, I became interested in him and we began at once to discuss the unfortunate division of the church in 1844, and then I switched off on to the war.

"I asked if he had seen G-rant. 4 Yes,' said he, 'my house was full of generals last night. There were Sheridan, Humphreys, Custer, Ord, and quite a number of others, and they were a lively set, and full of fun, and all wer6 quite jolly, with the exception of one officer, whom I noticed sitting in a corner smoking and taking but little part in the sports in which the rest were engaged. They all went out of the house but this solitary, silent man ; and as I was going out he asked me where the pump was as he would like to get a drink. On offering to get him some water he said ' No, sir, I am younger than you. I will go myself; ' and as I passed out he came up behind me. When in about the middle of the hall my little grand-daughter came running toward me ; but the silent, man, spreading out both arms, caught her, and, taking her up, fairly smothered her with kisses, saying ' this reminds me of my little girl at home, and makes me homesick.' To the question: 'Where is your home ?' he replied ' Galena, 111., out I have my family at City Point and am anxious to get back to them.' I said, 'Will you permit me to ask your name, sir?' 'Certainly; my name is Grant.' 'Grant!' exclaimed I ; ' General Grant ?' and I stood awestricken and paralysed with astonishment, while my heart went out after this man. I thought to myself, here is a man whose name is now in the mouth of man, woman, and child throughout the civilised world, and yet withal he exhibits no emotion, and seems unconcerned and unmoved until the little child reminds him of his loved ones at home ; and I fairly broke down, as General Grant had been pictured out to us as a bloody butcher, and I looked for a man looking as savage as a Comanche Indian." — " Pittsburg Dispatch." '