ON
March 8, 1864, a rainy Tues-
day, President and Mrs. Lin-
coln held a reception at the White House in
Washington. This in itself was not unusual;
such events were weekly occurrences. What
made this reception different was that, as
announced earlier in the National Repub-
lican Newspaper, Maj. Gen. Ulysses S.
Grant was to be the guest of honor.
The general had arrived in the nation’s
capital that afternoon after being sum-
moned by Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.
Grant had spent the last several days on a
train transporting him to Washington from
his military headquarters in Nashville. He
was accompanied by two staff officers,
Brig. Gen. John A. Rawlins and Lt. Col.Cyrus B. Comstock, and his 14-year-old-
son, Fred. An official delegation was sup-
posed to meet Grant upon his arrival but
somehow failed to do so. While the two
staff officers went directly to the War
Department to report that Grant was in
town, the general and his son walked to
Willard’s Hotel, two blocks from the White
House, to inquire about lodgings.
Willard’s was the best known hotel in the
city. It was normal to see civilian and mili-
tary celebrities conducting government
business in the hotel lobby and bar. So many
high-ranking Army officers had frequented
the place during the past three years that the
nondescript, soft-spoken Grant appeared to
be just another dime-a-dozen general trav-
eling through Washington on his way home
or back to the front. One regular at the
hotel described Grant as having the look
“of a man who did, or once did, take a lit-tle too much to drink.” The registration
clerk must have had the same impression.
When the general, who was wearing a plain
linen duster that hid his uniform, inquired
about the availability of accommodations,
the clerk replied with patronizing indiffer-
ence. He offered Grant a cramped room on
the top floor. Grant said that would be fine
and signed the register.
The clerk’s demeanor changed in an
instant when he glanced at the signature
written on the hotel register: “U.S. Grant
and Son, Galena, Illinois.” The clerk sud-
denly realized that the dusty general who
appeared so seedy to one onlooker was the
most successful Union battlefield com-
mander in the war. Hotel managementhastily offered the new arrival the bridal
suite on the second floor, and the clerk per-
sonally carried the Grants’ bags up to their
lodgings for them.
Coming back down to the dining room,
Grant caused a stir as people began to
look his way and whisper excitedly to one
another, “There’s Grant!” Some stood up
and hammered on tables, shouting,
“Grant, Grant, Grant!” The call went up:
“Three cheers for Grant!” Grant rose,
fumbled with his napkin, and humbly
bowed to all points of the compass.
Unable to eat because so many people
were swarming around him vying for his
attention, Grant and his son left the din-ing hall and returned to their room.
By this point in the war, every endeavor
Grant had undertaken—from Belmont,
Missouri, to Forts Henry and Donelson,
Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga—had
ended in victory. The recent improbable tri-
umph at Chattanooga had prompted the
New York Heraldto proclaim, “Grant is
one of the greatest soldiers of the age, with-
out an equal in the list of generals now
alive.” The cover of the February 6 issue of
Harper’s Weeklyfeatured an elaborate
Thomas Nast illustration showing the fig-
ure of Columbia pinning a gold medal on
the general’s chest, accompanied by the
simple inscription, “Thanks to Grant.”
National politicians were not far behind inrecognizing Grant’s value. When Congress
convened in December 1863, the House of
Representatives issued a unanimous procla-
mation thanking Grant and his Army of the
Tennessee for their recent victories and call-
ing for a gold medal to be struck in the gen-
eral’s honor; the Senate added its endorse-
ment. On December 7, Grant’s longtime
political patron, Illinois Congressman Elihu
B. Washburne, announced that he would
introduce a bill authorizing the president to
revive the rank of lieutenant general. Every-
one understood that Grant was the only can-
didate for the post. When some in the House
counseled waiting until the war was over
before bestowing the honor, Washburne
thundered, “I want it conferred now!”
Washburne’s words silenced any further
opposition.
When Washburne informed Grant of his
scheme, Grant responded to his politicalIn early March 1864, a physically unprepossessing Union general arrived in
Washington for a meeting with President Abraham Lincoln. For both the
general—Ulysses S. Grant—and the president, the meeting would prove epochal.
BY ARNOLD BLUMBERG
This sensitively done painting by Swedish illustra-
tor Thure de Thulstrup captures the essential
Everyman quality of Ulysses S. Grant, even when
he was wearing the three stars of a lieutenant
general in the United States Army.CWQ-EW16 Grant Takes DC_Layout 1 10/22/15 1:07 PM Page 13