|
On a calm day in July of 1885, Ulysses S.
Grant finally surrendered.
The battle was at Mt. McGregor, NY and the enemy that he
could not vanquish was cancer of the throat.
He fought valiantly for many months, all the while
working on his Memoirs, an effort that rescued his family
from financial bankruptcy.
A bad investment had virtually wiped the General out and
it was with stoic determination that he pursued his writing
under the encouragement of Mark Twain.
 |
| Grant writing his
memoirs at Mount McGregor |
The newspapers of the day relentlessly
covered the General’s worsening condition.
When the end finally came, the nation mourned.
Many were in a state of shock.
The general who had won the war of all wars was no
longer. Few could
believe it.
Family and friends, especially, had tried
to prepare themselves, but questions regarding the General’s
burial were still unresolved.
Where should he be buried?
Under what circumstances?
How would the nation participate?
Just hours before his death, Lt. General
Phil Sheridan and the Secretary of the Interior rode around
Washington hoping to find a suitable burial site.
Grant’s son Fred was handling most of the arrangements.
Up until that time it was customary to bury ex-Presidents
in their home state. Grant,
however, had spent time in Ohio, Missouri, Illinois, and New
York.
Soon the offers were coming in. Sheridan had found a site in Washington, D.C. while the
governor of Ohio promised a site in that state.
The mayor of New York City immediately offered a site in
one of his city parks. The
General’s wife, Julia, was attracted to New York’s offer and
expressed her desire to see Ulysses buried in Central Park.
Grant, however, had given no specific
directions regarding his burial, other than the following,
contained in a note to Fred a few weeks before his death:
“I have given you the directions about
all my affairs except my burial.
We own a burial lot in the cemetery at St. Louis and I
like that City, as it was there I married and lived for many
years and there three of my children were born.
We also have a burial lot in Galena, and I am fond of
Illinois, from which state I entered the Army at the beginning
of the war. I am
also much attached to New York, where I have made my home for
several years past, and through the generosity of whose citizens
I have been enabled to pass my last days without experiencing
the pains of pinching want.”
The Grants had lived in New York City for
several years and were comfortable there.
In addition, Julia wanted to be able to visit the
General’s grave each day.
After sons Fred and Jesse toured New York with city
officials, the family’s decision was made. The site would be Riverside Park, an area totally undeveloped
which possessed beautiful views of the Hudson River and beyond.
Until a suitable monument could be erected,
a small temporary brick vault was constructed on the site. After much pomp and ceremony, attended by hundreds of
thousands of mourners, Grant’s remains were placed inside the
unobtrusive little vault on July 18, 1885.
That same day, the city’s mayor, William
Grace, called a meeting of those interested in building a
permanent memorial for the General.
As a result, the Grant Monument Association was created
with ex-President Chester A. Arthur in charge.
They hoped to raise $500,000 through popular
subscription.
The money rolled in at first, but then
slowed to a trickle as administrators came and went and the
years passed. Thousands came to gaze at the temporary vault with casket
partially visible inside. Many
felt the General would have been opposed to the huge memorial
being proposed. Mark
Twain even suggested that Grant would be happier if the money
collected were used to build barracks for the soldiers guarding
the vault.
Still others questioned New York’s
motives. Was the
Tomb to be a monument to U.S. Grant…or to New York City?
The U.S. Senate actually passed a bill authorizing the
Army to move Grant’s remains to the National Cemetery at
Arlington. Julia
and the New York Congressional delegation would have none of it.
Finally, the Grant Monument Assn. made General Horace
Porter president. He
targeted New York City residents and finally succeeded in
brining the total collected to $600,000.
The winning entry for the memorial’s
design was finally awarded to architect John H. Duncan.
A monumental design with a conical dome rising 150 feet
above ground level, the monument took five long years to build.
Finally, in 1897, Grant’s Tomb was dedicated by William
McKinley, the last President to have served in the Union Army. In 1902, thousands visited the Tomb annually, but as the
years wore on, fewer and fewer came.
The National Park Service took over jurisdiction of the
Tomb in 1959, as attendance continued to decline.
 |
|
Grant's
Tomb during better times. |
This article first appeared in the Spring
1994 edition of the Miner's Journal.
|
