 A modern view of the historic Gettysburg Train Station (Melissa Reiling, Wikimedia Commons) | As the clock atop the Adams County courthouse struck 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, June 20, 1867, a steam engine chugged into the Gettysburg Train Station, just north of the town’s central square. Gettysburgians were alive with excitement at the news of the locomotive’s arrival on this “interesting day,” noted a reporter for the borough’s Republican newspaper, the Star & Sentinel. “At an early hour, flags were flung to the breeze, the streets were lighted up with strangers and the busy crowd teemed with expectation,” the paper continued. “Visitors came in from all parts of the county, and many from neighboring counties to see the great Captain of the age”—Ulysses S. Grant. |
Four years earlier, Gettysburg experienced its most tragic, yet by far its most noteworthy, event: a three-day battle, fought on July 1-3, 1863, that resulted in more than 50,000 casualties. The engagement marked a turning point in the American Civil War’s theater of conflict raging east of the Appalachian Mountains, and quickly became the nation’s most famous battle.
Yet the United States armies’ most celebrated soldier—Grant—was not present at that occasion. Rather, he was a thousand miles away, laying siege to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Seven months later, on March 9, 1864, Grant was promoted to command all U.S. forces, and obtained the rank of lieutenant general; with the addition of a third star to his epaulettes, Grant had earned a rank previously held only by George Washington. A little more than one year later in the spring of 1865, Grant led the Army of the Potomac to victory against Robert E. Lee’s dilapidated ranks, effectively ending the Confederate rebellion.
Yet the United States armies’ most celebrated soldier—Grant—was not present at that occasion. Rather, he was a thousand miles away, laying siege to Vicksburg, Mississippi. Seven months later, on March 9, 1864, Grant was promoted to command all U.S. forces, and obtained the rank of lieutenant general; with the addition of a third star to his epaulettes, Grant had earned a rank previously held only by George Washington. A little more than one year later in the spring of 1865, Grant led the Army of the Potomac to victory against Robert E. Lee’s dilapidated ranks, effectively ending the Confederate rebellion.
| Despite the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln in April 1865, and the war’s subsequent conclusion in May, Grant remained general-in-chief (earning a fourth star in the process), and oversaw operations throughout the former Confederacy during the early years of postwar Reconstruction. Notwithstanding his apparent opposition to both wings of the Republican Party—the anti-civil rights platform of President Andrew Johnson on the one hand, and the congressional Radicals on the other—Grant continued to dutifully fulfill his obligations throughout 1865, 1866, and 1867, and kept a close eye on insurrectionary and racial tensions throughout the South. With his long list of civic and military responsibilities taking up the vast majority of his time and attention, June 1867 marked Grant’s first opportunity to visit the ground around Gettysburg which had been dedicated, consecrated, and hallowed by the Union dead—and the illustrious words of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address on Nov. 19, 1863—four years earlier. |  An etching of Ulysses S. Grant drawn in 1867 by William Augustus (Wikimedia Commons) |
Upon leaving the railroad station early in the evening on June 20, Grant trekked south along Carlisle Street to meet his welcoming party, which greeted him at the McClellan Hotel and Tavern (also known as the Franklin House) on the northeast corner of the town square (the modern site of the Gettysburg Hotel). There, hours after “a large crowd of citizens” had assembled, as reported by The New York Times, Grant was welcomed by several prominent individuals.
 John W. Geary (Wikimedia Commons) | Aside from Grant, the most notable person present was Pennsylvania Gov. John White Geary, who was himself a veteran of the Battle of Gettysburg, having served as a major general in command of a Union Twelfth Corps division at Culp’s Hill. Geary, declared the Star & Sentinel, was a “worthy Soldier who so faithfully and fearlessly discharges the high duties of the Executive Office in our State.” In addition to Grant and Geary, others present at the hotel included Isaac B. Gara, deputy secretary of Pennsylvania; J. Robley Dunglinson, Geary’s private secretary; members of the Committee of Arrangement of the Board of Commissioners of Gettysburg’s Soldiers’ National Cemetery; and “several ladies,” according to the Star & Sentinel. |
Like Lincoln four years earlier, Grant lodged at the home of local attorney David Wills, who had collaborated with Pennsylvania’s wartime governor, Andrew Curtin, in establishing Soldiers’ National Cemetery, a burial ground for the remains of 3,500 Union soldiers killed at Gettysburg. Unlike Lincoln’s visit (and, for that matter, many other famous figures’ visits to the battlefield), Grant did not deliver a public address, much to the chagrin of those in attendance.
| “As the party reached the street, they were loudly cheered by the large crowd who had gathered…,” reported the Star & Sentinel. “So great was the anxiety of the crowd that they immediately called out Gen. GRANT and Gov. GEARY who were introduced to large numbers in attendance.” “Gen. GRANT adroitly avoided making a speech,” noted a reporter for The New York Times, while Geary “made an appropriate speech.” Likewise, added the Star & Sentinel, Grant “refused to speak,” though Geary “responded in some happy remarks which were well received.” “Some regret was felt as this failure to speak…,” the Star & Sentinel observed. But, the reporter conceded, “General GRANT is a man of deed, rather than word, and the American people must become accustomed, and reconciled, to this peculiarity.” |  On the left side of this mid-20th-century postcard depicting the town square is the Gettysburg Hotel, which was the site of the McClellan Hotel and Tavern, or Franklin House, in the 1860s. On the right side of the image is the Wills House, where Grant stayed in 1867, like Lincoln had four years earlier (L.E. Smith/Boston Public Library Tichnor Brothers Collection, Wikimedia Commons). |
After supper and “a reception,” Grant and company mounted horses and traveled west of town to see the fields where the first day of battle had raged on July 1, 1863. According to an “incident” recorded several decades later by then-14-year-old Gettysburg resident Charles McCurdy, while “General Grant…and his party…were standing on the Chambersburg pike just over Seminary ridge,” a stagecoach carrying mail stopped in front of the Mary Thompson house, which had served as General Lee’s headquarters during the battle. When the driver—who, according to McCurdy’s recollection, was “probably drunk”—approached Grant’s group, he “ordered them roughly to get out of his way, and not to obstruct the progress of the United States mail!”
From the first day’s battlefield, Grant’s party “rode out to Cemetery Hill,” according to the Star & Sentinel. There, reported The New York Times, “the party visited the battle-field and cemetery, and on their return partook of an entertainment given to them by the Commissioners.”
Throughout his battlefield tour, Grant was joined by several Civil War veteran officers, including Geary; Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford, who commanded the Fifth Corps division of Pennsylvania Reserves during the Battle of Gettysburg; and Bvt. Brig. Gen. Horace Porter, a Medal of Honor recipient and Grant’s aide-de-camp.
The following morning, June 21, the assemblage completed “their examination of the entire field,” reported the Star & Sentinel, though no definitive route or itinerary appears to exist. Sometime that day (or perhaps the evening before), Grant, Geary, Crawford, and Porter posed for an image captured by Gettysburg photographer C.J. Tyson in front of the National Soldiers’ Homestead Orphanage on Baltimore Street. On either side of the generals, dozens of children are visible; all of them lost their fathers and were made orphans by the cruel hand of civil war.
From the first day’s battlefield, Grant’s party “rode out to Cemetery Hill,” according to the Star & Sentinel. There, reported The New York Times, “the party visited the battle-field and cemetery, and on their return partook of an entertainment given to them by the Commissioners.”
Throughout his battlefield tour, Grant was joined by several Civil War veteran officers, including Geary; Maj. Gen. Samuel W. Crawford, who commanded the Fifth Corps division of Pennsylvania Reserves during the Battle of Gettysburg; and Bvt. Brig. Gen. Horace Porter, a Medal of Honor recipient and Grant’s aide-de-camp.
The following morning, June 21, the assemblage completed “their examination of the entire field,” reported the Star & Sentinel, though no definitive route or itinerary appears to exist. Sometime that day (or perhaps the evening before), Grant, Geary, Crawford, and Porter posed for an image captured by Gettysburg photographer C.J. Tyson in front of the National Soldiers’ Homestead Orphanage on Baltimore Street. On either side of the generals, dozens of children are visible; all of them lost their fathers and were made orphans by the cruel hand of civil war.
Flanked by orphans on both sides, Grant and his guests stand at the center of this image photographed by C.J. Tyson at the Orphans' Homestead on East Cemetery Hill. From left to right: John W. Geary, wearing a suit and top hat; Samuel W. Crawford, wearing an officer's uniform and slouch hat; Grant, wearing an officer's uniform and slouch hat, with his left hand holding his lapel; and Horace Porter, separated from the other three and wearing an officer's uniform and kepi (Library of Congress).
Later that evening, the Star & Sentinel described, “an impromptu entertainment was given” Grant and company “at the Franklin House by the Commissioners of the Cemetery.” Shortly thereafter, Grant boarded a train and departed for Washington, D.C., while Geary made the short 35-mile journey back to the Pennsylvania capital at Harrisburg.
Despite its brevity, Grant’s presence in Gettysburg over roughly 24 hours made an indelible impression upon the town and its people for some time.
“The occasion was one of great interest,” opined the Star & Sentinel, “as it enabled all our citizens to see the great soldier who had the honor of giving the last deadly blow to the Rebellion, and whose name is enwrapped with the whole history of the war.” In turn, the paper added, Grant “expressed great gratification at his visit.”
Despite its brevity, Grant’s presence in Gettysburg over roughly 24 hours made an indelible impression upon the town and its people for some time.
“The occasion was one of great interest,” opined the Star & Sentinel, “as it enabled all our citizens to see the great soldier who had the honor of giving the last deadly blow to the Rebellion, and whose name is enwrapped with the whole history of the war.” In turn, the paper added, Grant “expressed great gratification at his visit.”
 Throughout the fall of 1868, the "Star & Sentinel" published a series of endorsements, in the form of articles and images, in support of the Grant-Colfax ticket. This flier adorned the front page of the Oct. 30 edition of the paper (Google News Archive). | Though Grant reportedly expressed interest in attending the dedication ceremony for Soldiers’ National Monument—which was slated to be completed and unveiled on July 4, 1868—the project was eventually pushed back one year, to the summer of 1869. Unfortunately, due to a conflicting schedule for Grant that summer—who, as of March 1869, became the nation’s 18th president—he did not return to Gettysburg. Appropriately, however, Grant and his running mate, Schuyler Colfax, received the hearty presidential endorsement of the Star & Sentinel in 1868. In its Oct. 9 issue, the paper opined that Grant and his associates “are honest men and will carry out Republican principles….Union men of Adams County, think over this matter, and talk about it to your Democratic neighbors.” |
In the aftermath of the news that Grant successfully won the presidency in the November election that year, the paper announced “a grand TORCHLIGHT PROCESSION AND ILLUMINATION, IN GETTYSBURG,” where “friends of GRANT & COLFAX will celebrate the great popular triumph….The GRANT & COLFAX Clubs…of various districts in Adams County are expected to participate,—Let the people rejoice—the Republic lives!”
Additionally, the Star and Sentinel declared Grant’s and Colfax’s electoral victory the “Victory of Justice and Right!”; “A Second Appomattox!”; the “Surrender of the Rebel Army North & South!”; “Reconstruction Vindicated!”; and “The Second Rebellion Closed!”
“THE great Presidential struggle has ended in a glorious triumph of Republican principles and a complete crushing out of the new Rebellion,” the Star & Sentinel concluded. “Treason has met its second Appomattox. The men who saved the Republic are determined to rule it, while Rebels and Rebel sympathizers take back seats.”
Grant, “the great Captain of the age,” was now the great president of the land, and Gettysburg—his host a summer earlier—was indeed proud.
Additionally, the Star and Sentinel declared Grant’s and Colfax’s electoral victory the “Victory of Justice and Right!”; “A Second Appomattox!”; the “Surrender of the Rebel Army North & South!”; “Reconstruction Vindicated!”; and “The Second Rebellion Closed!”
“THE great Presidential struggle has ended in a glorious triumph of Republican principles and a complete crushing out of the new Rebellion,” the Star & Sentinel concluded. “Treason has met its second Appomattox. The men who saved the Republic are determined to rule it, while Rebels and Rebel sympathizers take back seats.”
Grant, “the great Captain of the age,” was now the great president of the land, and Gettysburg—his host a summer earlier—was indeed proud.
| Interestingly enough, it is worth noting that just one day prior to Grant’s arrival, the Star & Sentinel reported on a recent Gettysburg visit by Schuyler Colfax, who was the wartime speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, and would eventually become vice president in the Grant administration in 1869. In a letter to the New York Independent, Colfax wrote that during his battlefield tour he “felt an indescribable sadness stealing over me” as he “stood on the ground sanctified by the patriot blood that had flowed here so freely to save our imperiled land from destruction.” |  Schuyler Colfax (Wikimedia Commons) |
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