Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister | Page 2

of friends and upon the community at large, that the
publishers are prevented from including with the volume a letter from
the General as the head of the Grant family, giving formal expression to
his personal interest in the undertaking.
This collection of letters will constitute a suitable companion volume to
Grant's Personal Memoirs and to the accepted biographies of the Great
Commander whose memory is honored by his fellow-citizens not only
for the patience, persistence, and skill of the leader of armies, as
evidenced in the brilliant campaigns that culminated with Vicksburg,
Missionary Ridge, and Appomattox, but for the sturdy integrity of
character, modest bearing, and sweetness of nature of the great citizen.
GEO. HAVEN PUTNAM.
NEW YORK, April 25, 1912.

ILLUSTRATIONS
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT (Frontispiece) From a photograph by
W. Kurtz, New York.
JESSE ROOT GRANT, ÆTAT. 69 Father of Ulysses Simpson Grant.
From a photograph.
MRS. HANNAH GRANT Mother of Ulysses Simpson Grant. From a
photograph by Landy, taken in Cincinnati.
FACSIMILE OF A LETTER WRITTEN BY ULYSSES SIMPSON
GRANT TO HIS FATHER
FACSIMILE OF GENERAL GRANT'S PROCLAMATION TO THE
CITIZENS OF PADUCAH

GENERAL ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT From a photograph taken
in 1865 by Gutekunst, Philadelphia.
ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT From a photograph taken during his
second term as President.

Letters of Ulysses S. Grant
[In 1843, at the age of twenty-one, Ulysses S. Grant was graduated
from West Point with the rank of brevet second lieutenant. He was
appointed to the 4th Infantry, stationed at Jefferson Barracks near St.
Louis. In May, 1844, he was ordered to the frontier of Louisiana with
the army of observation, while the annexation of Texas was pending.
The bill for the annexation of Texas was passed March 1, 1845; the war
with Mexico began in April, 1846. Grant was promoted to a
first-lieutenancy September, 1847. The Mexican War closed in 1848.
Both this war and the Civil War he characterizes in his Memoirs as
"unholy."
Soon after his return from Mexico he was married to Julia Dent. The
next six years were spent in military duty in Sacketts Harbor, New
York, Detroit, Michigan, and on the Pacific coast. He was promoted to
the captaincy of a company in 1853; but because of the inadequacy of a
captain's pay, he resigned from the army, July, 1854, and rejoined his
wife and children at St. Louis. In speaking of this period Grant says, "I
was now to commence at the age of thirty-two a new struggle for our
support."
The first chapter in this new struggle was farming. The following letter
was written to his youngest sister Mary, then sixteen years old,
afterward Mrs. M.J. Cramer. "Jennie," afterward Mrs. A.R. Corbin, was
the second sister, Virginia.]
St. Louis, Mo., August 22nd, 1857.
DEAR SISTER:

Your letter was received on last Tuesday, the only day in the week on
which we get mail, and this is the earliest opportunity I have had of
posting a letter.
I am glad to hear that mother and Jennie intend making us a visit. I
would advise them to come by the river if they prefer it. Write to me
beforehand about the time you will start, and from Louisville again,
what boat you will be on, direct to St. Louis,--not Sappington,
P.O.--and I will meet you at the river or Planter's House, or wherever
you direct.
We are all very well. Julia contemplates visiting St. Charles next
Saturday to spend a few days. She has never been ten miles from home,
except to come to the city, since her visit to Covington.
I have nothing in particular to write about. My hard work is now over
for the season with a fair prospect of being remunerated in everything
but the wheat. My wheat, which would have produced from four to five
hundred bushels with a good winter, has yielded only seventy-five. My
oats were good, and the corn, if not injured by frost this fall, will be the
best I ever raised. My potato crop bids fair to yield fifteen hundred
bushels or more. Sweet potatoes, melons and cabbages are the only
other articles I am raising for market. In fact, the oats and corn I shall
not sell.
I see I have written a part of this letter as if I intended to direct to one,
and part as if to the other of you; but you will understand it, so it makes
no difference.
Write to me soon and often. Julia wears black. I had forgotten to
answer that part of your letter.
Your affectionate Brother,
ULYSS.
P.S. Tell father that I have this moment seen Mr. Ford, just from
Sacketts Harbor, who informs me that while there he enquired of Mr.

Bagley about my business with Camp, and learns from him that the
account should