U.S. GRANT

Since our country is in the midst of another general election year, we've been looking through some of the Bullis books about past elections. This week, we focused on:

A New, Original and Authentic Record of the Life and Deeds of

General U.S. Grant

By Frank A. Burr

Published by H.B. Graves, Rochester N.Y., 1885

Included in the text is an account of Ulysses S. Grant's election to the presidency.  At their May, 1868 national convention, the Republicans  unanimously selected Grant as their candidate for the presidency. The 1868 election was the first following the Civil War and this nation was still in recovery from that devastating event.  The Republican party supported the Reconstruction plan set up following that war, while the Democratic party generally opposed the plan.  Grant's victory resulted in the original Reconstruction plan being implemented. (And one result of this was Congress's ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, a/k/a the right to vote.)

Can books about past elections give us some perspective on the current campaign? We suggest that they can. Author Frank Burr's book is available for your use, during regular library hours.

THIS WEEK IN HISTORY

Two items grabbed our attention this week when we looked over one of those "this week in history" lists:

1. On July 27, 1866: "Cyrus W. Field finished laying out the first successful underwater telegraph cable between North American and Europe (a previous cable in 1858 burned out after only a few weeks' use)."

and

2. On July 25, 1866: "Ulysses S. Grant was named General of the Army of the United States."


We searched the Bullis archives for information on both these subjects and came up with nothing on the first (but we're still looking!) and lots of stuff on the second.

Here's what we found when we did a search on General Grant.  There are six books on the subject in the collection.  All of them are worth our time to at least scan through, and some of them warrant a serious read. Here's a list and we offer it to you for your reference and consideration for further reading:


Military History of Ulysses S. Grant: from April, 1861 to April, 1865, by Adam Badeau, published by D. Appleton in 1881.

The Travels of General Grant, by Joel Tyler Headley, published by New World Publishing, in 1881.

A New, Original and Authentic Record of the Life and Deeds of General Ulysses S. Grant, by Frank A. Burr, published by H. B. Graves in 1885.

The Life of Ulysses S. Grant: General of the Armies of the United States, by James Harrison Wilson, published by Gurdon Bill & Co., in 1868.

Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant,  by Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) Grant, published by C. O. Webster & Co. in 1885-86.

A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant: with a portrait and sketch of Schuyler Colfax, by Albert D. Richardson, published by American Publishing Co. in 1868.

You'll find  maps, facsimilies, prints, and illustrations in these books. And a lot of good reading. Enjoy.


(P.S. Why is there a sketch of Schuyler Colfax included in the last book listed above? Who was he?)