On the Trail of Grant and Lee | Page 5

. . . . . . . . 201 XXV.--Lieutenant-General Grant . . . . . . . . . . 213 XXVI.--A Duel to the Death . . . . . . . . . . . . 224 XXVII.--Check and Countercheck . . . . . . . . . . . 238 XXVIII.--The Beginning of the End . . . . . . . . . . 248 XXIX.--At Bay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 256 XXX.--The Surrender . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269 XXXI.--Lee's Years of Peace . . . . . . . . . . . . 280 XXXII.--The Head of the Nation . . . . . . . . . . . 294

List of Illustrations

Illustrations in Color
Grant running the gauntlet of the Mexicans at Monterey in riding to the relief of his comrades . . Frontispiece September 23, 1846.
Lee with Mrs. Lewis (Nellie Custis) applying to General Andrew Jackson to aid in securing his cadetship at West Point . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 1825.
Grant on his horse, "York," making exhibition jump in the Riding Academy at West Point . . . . . . . . . . 32 June, 1843.
Lee sending the Rockbridge battery into action for the second time at Antietam or Sharpsburg . . . . . . . 144 September 17, 1862.
Lee rallying his troops at the Battle of the Wilderness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 232 May 6, 1864.
Grant at the entrenchments before Petersburg . . . . . 260 March, 1865.
Illustrations in the Text
Signature of Grant on reporting at West Point . . . . 25 (From the original records of the U. S. Military Academy.)
First signature of Grant as U. S. Grant . . . . . . . 27 (From the original records of the U.S. Military Academy.)
Grant's letter demanding unconditional surrender of forces at Fort Donnelson . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Diagram map (not drawn to scale) showing strategy of the opening of the Battle of Chancellorsville, May 1 and 2, 1863 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
Diagram map (not drawn to scale) showing Grant's series of movements by the left flank from the Wilderness to Petersburg . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
Facsimile of telegraphic message drafted by Lieutenant- General Grant, announcing Lee's surrender, May 9, 1865 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 275
Lee's letter of August 3, 1866, acknowledging receipt of the extension of his furlough . . . . . . . . . . . 283


Chapter I

Three Civil Wars
England was an uncomfortable place to live in during the reign of Charles the First. Almost from the moment that that ill-fated monarch ascended the throne he began quarreling with Parliament; and when he decided to dismiss its members and make himself the supreme ruler of the land, he practically forced his subjects into a revolution. Twelve feverish years followed--years of discontent, indignation and passion--which arrayed the Cavaliers, who supported the King, against the Roundheads, who upheld Parliament, and finally flung them at each other's throats to drench the soil of England with their blood.
Meanwhile, the gathering storm of civil war caused many a resident of the British Isles to seek peace and security across the seas, and among those who turned toward America were Mathew Grant and Richard Lee. It is not probable that either of these men had ever heard of the other, for they came from widely separated parts of the kingdom and were even more effectually divided by the walls of caste. There is no positive proof that Mathew Grant (whose people probably came from Scotland) was a Roundhead, but he was a man of humble origin who would naturally have favored the Parliamentary or popular party, while Richard Lee, whose ancestors had fought at Hastings and in the Crusades, is known to have been an ardent Cavalier, devoted to the King. But whether their opinions on politics differed or agreed, it was apparently the conflict between the King and Parliament that drove them from England. In any event they arrived in America at almost the same moment; Grant reaching Massachusetts in 1630, the year after