356 



GRANT 



GRANTOWN 



where he fought a battle, capturing the enemy's 

 entire line, and driving him out of Tennessee. In 

 March 1864 Grant, having previously been made a 

 major-general in the regular army for his victory at 

 Vicksburg, was promoted to the grade of lieutenant- 

 general, and assigned to the command of all the 

 armies of the United States, with his headquarters 

 with the army of the Potomac. His plan of cam- 

 paign was to concentrate all the national forces 

 into several distinct armies, which should operate 

 simultaneously against the enemy, Sherman moving 

 toward Atlanta, while Grant himself accompanied 

 the army of the Potomac against Richmond. Dur- 

 ing the night of May 4 the latter crossed the Rapi- 

 dan, encountered General R. E. Lee in the Wilder- 

 ness, and fought a desperate three days' battle, one 

 of the fiercest of modern times. Grant moved for- 

 ward on the 7th, and fought again at Spottsylvania 

 Courthouse on the 10th, and still again on the 

 12th, on which occasion he captured an entire 

 division of the Confederate army. The smoke of 

 battle hung over the mighty hosts for six days, 

 while the North remained in a state of suspense 

 bordering upon agony; but on the llth Grant wrote 

 to Washington, ' I propose to fight it out on this 

 line, if it takes all summer.' Thus, fighting and 

 flanking, ever pursuing the offensive, and daily draw- 

 ing nearer to Richmond, he at length drove the 

 enemy within the defences of that city, and there 

 held him in a vice, while he left to his lieutenants 

 Sherman, Sheridan, and Thomas a harvest of 

 laurels by active movements and successful battles. 

 On March 29, 1865, there began a week's hard fight- 

 ing, at the close of which Lee surrendered his entire 

 army at Appomattox Courthouse, April 9, receiving 

 from his victor most generous terms. The fall of 

 Richmond substantially ended the war, and Grant 

 returned to Washington to prepare his report of the 

 operations of the armies of the United States from 

 the date of his appointment to command the same, 

 and to muster out nearly a million of troops that 

 the country no longer required. 



In July 1866 Grant was advanced to the grade of 

 full general, and in May 1868 he was nominated for 

 the presidency by the Republican convention, and 

 in the following November was elected. Out of the 

 294 electoral votes Grant received 214, and Horatio 

 Seymour, the Democratic candidate, 80. He was 

 again elected to the presidency in November 1872, 

 thus filling the office of chief -magistrate for eight 

 years. Among the most important events of his 

 administration were the adoption in 1869 of the 

 fifteenth amendment to the constitution, which 

 guaranteed the right of suffrage without regard to 

 race, colour, or previous condition of servitude ; and 

 the peaceful settlement of the ' Alabama Claims ' 

 (see ALABAMA). After retiring from the presi- 

 dency, General Grant spent two years in foreign 

 travel, receiving unusual attentions from the 

 rulers of the various countries which he visited 

 in his tour round the world. In June 1880 his 

 name was again presented to a Republican con- 

 vention, but, chiefly owing to a traditional senti- 

 ment against a third term of the presidency, the 

 nomination was given to James A. Garfield. In 

 1881 Grant purchased a house in New York, where 

 he afterwards passed his winters, while his summers 

 were spent in his seaside cottage at Long Branch, 

 New Jersey. Finding himself unable with his in- 

 come to properly maintain his family, he became a 

 partner in a banking-house in which one of his sons 

 and others were interested, bearing the name of 

 Grant and Ward, and invested all his available 

 capital in the business, but taking no part in the 

 affairs of the firm, which were left almost entirely 

 in the hands of the junior partner. In May 1884 

 the house, without warning, suspended, and it was 

 then discovered that two of the partners had robbed 



the general and his family of all they possessed. 

 Until this time Grant had refused all solicitations 

 to write the history of his military career ; but 

 now, finding himself bankrupt, and with the hope 

 of providing for his family, he began the prepara- 

 tion of his personal memoirs. The contract with 

 his publishers was made February 27, 1885, and 

 the work appeared about a year later. In the 

 summer of 1884 he complained of a soreness in his 

 throat, and an examination detected the presence 

 of cancer at the root of the tongue. The sym- 

 pathies of the nation were now aroused, and on 

 March 4, 1885, congress passed a bill creating him 

 a general on the retired list, thus restoring him to 

 his former rank in the army, which he had lost on 

 accepting the presidency. It may be doubted if 

 since the world began any book has been written 

 under similar conditions ; the dying soldier, suffer- 

 ing constant and at times the severest agony, yet 

 struggled on successfully, completing his literary 

 labours only four days before his death at Mount 

 McGregor, near Saratoga, N. Y. , July 23, 1885. His 

 remains were interred on Augusts with great pomp 

 in Riverside Park, New York City, overlooking the 

 Hudson ; President Harrison laid, April 27, 1892, the 

 cornerstone of his costly tomb. Of the many lives 

 of Grant, the most valuable is his own Personal 

 Memoirs (2 vols. 1885-86). 



(rant ham. a market-town of Lincolnshire, on 

 the left bank of the Witham, 25 miles SSW. of 

 Lincoln, and 105 NNW. of London. It lies on 

 the ancient Ermine Street, and is an important 

 junction on the Great Northern Railway ; whilst a 

 canal (1793), 30 miles long, connects it with the 

 Trent near Nottingham. High over the red-tiled 

 brick houses soars the noble gray spire (278 feet 

 high) of St Wolfran's Church, which, in style 

 mainly Early English of the 13th century, has 

 been finely restored by the late Sir G. G. Scott 

 since 1865. An Eleanor cross was demolished in 

 1645, and a castle has left no trace ; but the quaint 

 Angel Inn is still standing, in which Richard 111. 

 signed Buckingham's death-warrant. Of King 

 John, too, Grantham has memories, and of Olive 

 Cromwell, who here on 13th May 1643 won his first 

 success ; but the town's greatest glory is Sir Isaac 

 Newton, who during 1655-56 idled, fought, and 

 rose to be head-boy -in its grammar-school. A 

 bronze statue of him by Theed was erected in 1858. 

 The said school was founded by Bishop Fox in 

 1528, re-endowed by Edward VI. in 1553, and 

 reconstituted in 1876. The manufacture of agri- 

 cultural implements, malting, and brick-making 

 are the chief industries. Grantham was incor- 

 porated by Edward IV. in 1463, and from then till 

 1885 returned two members to parliament a 

 number reduced now to one. The borough boundary 

 was largely extended in 1879. Pop. ( 1851 ) 10,873 ; 

 (1871) 13,250; (1881) 17,345, of whom 16,886 were 

 within the municipal borough; (1891) 17,170. See 

 the local histories of Turner (1806), Marrat ( 1816), 

 and Street ( 1 857 ). 



Grant Land, a North Polar region, lying north 

 of Grinnell Land, between 81 and 83 N. lat., dis- 

 covered by Hayes, Hall, and Nares in 1875, and 

 partly explored by Nares, who wintered on its 

 coasts, in the most northerly latitude ( 82 27' ) in 

 which the winter has been passed by any ship. 



GrailtOIl, a harbour on the Firth of Forth, 3 

 miles NNW. of Edinburgh. It was constructed 

 by the Duke of Buccleuch in 1835-45 at a coat of 

 nearly a quarter of a million. 



Grant own. a village of Elginshire, | mile from 

 the Spey's left bank, and 142 miles by rail N. by W. 

 of Edinburgh. Founded in 1776, and created a 

 police-burgh in 1890, it is a popular holiday resort. 

 Pop. 1374. 



