Headquarters Army Of The Potomac, April 24, 1864.
Cram and John Cadwalader arrived yesterday afternoon. To-day
Cram went to church with me, where we heard an excellent sermon from a Mr. Adams,
a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman from New York. After church I drove Cram
and Cadwalader to Culpeper, where we paid a visit to General Grant. After
coming away, I plainly saw Cram was disappointed. Grant is not a striking man,
is very reticent, has never mixed with the world, and has but little manner,
indeed is somewhat ill at ease in the presence of strangers; hence a first
impression is never favorable. His early education was undoubtedly very slight;
in fact, I fancy his West Point course was pretty much all the education he
ever had, as since his graduation I don't believe he has read or studied any.
At the same time, he has natural qualities of a high order, and is a man whom,
the more you see and know him, the better you like him. He puts me in mind of
old Taylor, and sometimes I fancy he models himself on old Zac.
Yesterday I sent my orderly with old Baldy to Philadelphia.
He will never be fit again for hard service, and I thought he was entitled to better
care than could be given to him on the march.
I have just had a visit from a very intelligent young
Englishman, named Stanley, a son of Lord Stanley, of Alderney. He is no
relative, I believe, to the Earl of Derby, though his father is in the Ministry
as Secretary for the Colonies. He is quite young (only twenty-four) but highly
educated, very smart and clever, and full of information. He brought me a
letter from Mr. Seward, and spent a day with us seeing the army sights.
SOURCE: George Meade, The Life and Letters of George
Gordon Meade, Vol. 2, p. 191
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