almost constant agony, and speechless from disease, he struggled through his daily task, and laid down his pen only four days before his death. At this time the last portrait was made of the great soldier, which appears on page 713.
On 16 June, 1885, he was removed to the Joseph W. Drexel cottage on Mount McGregor, near Saratoga, N. Y., where he passed the remaining five weeks of his life. (See illustration on page 721.) The cottage was offered by its owner as a gift to the U.S. government. As it was not accepted, Mr. Drexel keeps the cottage and its contents in the condition they were in at the time of the general's death, and will continue to do so. On Thursday, 23 July, at eight o clock in the morning, Grant passed away, surrounded by his family. The remains were taken to New York, escorted by a detachment of U.S. troops and a body of the Grand army of the republic composed of veterans of the war. A public funeral was held in New York on Saturday, 8 Aug., which was the most magnificent spectacle of the kind ever witnessed in this country. The body was deposited in a temporary tomb in Riverside park, overlooking the Hudson river, where it is proposed to erect an imposing monument, for which about $125,000 have already (June, 1887) been subscribed. In Chicago a bronze equestrian statue of the general, executed by Rebisso, will soon be erected near the centre of Lincoln park, overlooking Lake Michigan. The illustration on page 723 is a representation of the statue, and on the following page is a view of the eastern façade of the structure, designed by Whitehouse, which is surmounted by the statue. The large collection of swords, gold-headed canes, medals, rare coins, and other articles that had been presented to Gen. Grant passed into the possession of William H. Vanderbilt as security in a financial transaction shortly before the general's death. After that event Mr. Vanderbilt returned the articles to Mrs. Grant, by whom they were given to the United States government, and the entire collection is now in the National museum at Washington. Among the many portraits of the great soldier, perhaps the best are those painted by Healy for the Union league club about 1865, and another executed in Paris in 1877, now in the possession of the family, those painted in 1882 by Le Clear for the White House at Washington and the Calumet club of Chicago, and one executed by Ulke for the U. S. war department where is also to be seen a fine marble bust executed in 1872-'3, by Hiram Powers. See “Military History of Ulysses S. Grant, from April, 1861, to April, 1865,” by Adam Badeau (3 vols., New York, 1867-81); “Life and Public Services of Gen. U.S. Grant,” by James Grant Wilson (1868); revised and enlarged edition (1886); “The Ancestry of General Grant and their Contemporaries,” by Edward C. Marshall (1869); “Around the World with General Grant,” by John Russell Young (1880); and “Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant,” written by himself (2 vols., 1885-'6); also various biographies and numerous addresses, among them one by Henry Ward Beecher, delivered in Boston, 22 Oct., 1885. —
|
His wife, Julia Dent, b. in St. Louis, Mo., 26 Jan., 1826, is the daughter of Frederick and Ellen Wrenshall Dent. Her father was the son of Capt. George Dent, who led the forlorn hope at Fort Montgomery, when it was stormed by Mad Anthony Wayne. On her mother's side she was descended from John Wrenshall, who came from England to this country to escape religious intolerance, and settled in Philadelphia, Pa. At the age of ten years she was sent to Miss Moreau's boarding-school, where she remained for eight years. Soon after her return home she met Lieut. Grant, then of the 4th infantry, stationed at Jefferson barracks at St. Louis, and in the spring of 1844 became engaged to him. Their marriage, deferred by the war with Mexico, took place on 22 Aug., 1848. The first four years of her married life were spent at Detroit, Mich., and at Sackett's Harbor, N. Y., where Capt. Grant was stationed. In 1852 Mrs. Grant returned to her father's home in St. Louis, her health not being sufficiently strong to accompany her husband to California, whither his command had been ordered. Two years later he resigned from the army and joined his family in St. Louis. During the civil war Mrs. Grant passed much of the time with Gen. Grant, or near the scene of action, he sending for her whenever opportunity permitted. She was with him at City Point in the winter of 1864-'5, and accompanied him to Washington when he returned with his victorious army. She saw her husband twice inaugurated president of the United States, and was his companion in his journey around the world. She herself has said: “Having learned a lesson from her predecessor, Penelope, she accompanied her Ulysses in his wanderings around the world.” After Gen. Grant's death a bill was passed by congress giving his widow a pension of $5,000 a year. She is the fourth to whom such a pension has been granted, the others being Mrs. Tyler, Mrs. Polk, and Mrs. Garfield. Four children were born to her — three sons, Frederick Dent, Ulysses, Jr., and Jesse, and one daughter, Nellie, who, in 1874, married Algernon Sartoris, and went with him to live in England. Mrs. Grant resides in New York city, surrounded by her children and grandchildren. — Their eldest son, Frederick Dent, b. in St. Louis, Mo., 30 May, 1850, accompanied his father during the civil war, and was in five battles before he was thirteen years of age. In 1867 he entered the U. S. military academy, where he was graduated in 1871 and assigned to the 4th cavalry. During the summer of 1871 he was employed on the Union Pacific and Colorado Central railroads as an engineer. Late in 1871 he visited Europe with Gen. Sherman, and in 1872 was detailed to command the escort to the party that was making the preliminary survey for the Southern Pacific railroad. In 1873 he was assigned to the staff of Gen. Sherman as lieutenant-colonel, in which capacity he served eight years, accompanying nearly every expedition against the Indians. He was with his father in 1879 in the oriental part of the journey round the world, and in 1881 resigned his commission. During his father's illness, Col. Grant remained constantly with him and assisted somewhat in the preparation of the “Personal Memoirs.” Since Gen. Grant's death his son has had the care of his mother and her estate, residing with her.
GRASSE-TILLY, Francois Joseph Paul, count de, b. in Valette. Provence. France, in 1723; d. in Paris, 11 Jan., 1788. He entered the navy at
