[pg. 25] AN INCIDENT OF VICKSBURG *** Included in the collection of comments on his grandfather gathered by Major General Ulysses S. Grant 3rd is an account which originated with the wife of Confederate Brigadier General Thomas Pleasant Dockery. The son of an Arkansas planter instrumental in constructing the first railroad in the state, Dockery entered the Confederate army as a colonel of Arkansas infantry. He commanded a brigade of Vicksburg where he was captured and later fought in Arkansas. Mrs.

[pg. 13] GENERAL GRANT AT THE “CAREY VESPERS” *** Those who knew Grant well often spoke of him as a gifted conversationalist, thus mystifying those who knew only his brief public speeches and laconic official communications. It was apparently true, Nonetheless, that when Grant was with a congenial group he did most of the talking, by mutual consent. One such congenial group gathered in Philadelphia on June 25, 1865, to meet Grant at the home of the respected economist, Henry C. Carey.

[pg. 7] GENERAL GRANT AND GENERAL PRENTISS *** As soon as the Civil War began, Governor Richard Yates of Illinois realized both the strategic importance and the vulnerability of the southern tip of his state. The earliest Illinois volunteers were sent to Cairo, at the confluence of the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers, under the command of Benjamin H. Prentiss, a lawyer from Quincy and Mexican War veteran, who was appointed a colonel. When more troops arrived in Cairo, including full regiments commanded by colonels, Yates advanced Prentiss to brigadier general.

ADAM BADEAU ON APPOMATTOX *** In late 1862, Lieutenant Colonel James Harrison Wilson was assigned to General Grant’s staff as topographical engineer. An 1860 West Point graduate, Wilson already had considerable staff experience with Generals Thomas W. Sherman, David Hunter, and George B. McClellan. In time he found that both John A. Rawlins, Grant’s chief of staff, and Grant himself were not entirely satisfied with current staff personnel.