History, Natural History & the Arts
This week on The Historians Podcast, the guest is Ben Kemp from Grant Cottage in Wilton, Saratoga County, New York, where Civil War general and President Ulysses S. Grant died.
Friends, including Mark Twain, arranged for Grant and his family to live in the cottage for the last weeks of his life. Grant was dying from throat cancer and had lost his family’s money in a fraudulent scheme. [Read more…] about Grant Cottage’s Ben Kemp on the Historians Podcast
For about a week in 1871, New Yorkers were in a quandary about Thanksgiving. On October 25, New York Governor John T. Hoffman designated Thursday, November 23 as Thanksgiving Day for the state. In his Thanksgiving Day proclamation, the Tammany Hall Democrat urged New Yorkers to spend time on that day to declare “their gratitude to God for all his mercies” and to “remember especially the poor.”
On October 28, President Ulysses S. Grant recommended that the nation observe Thanksgiving a week after the New York Thanksgiving, on Thursday November 30. In his proclamation, the Republican chief executive called for Americans to “make the usual acknowledgments to Almighty God for the blessings he has conferred on them” and ask “His protection and kindness for their less fortunate brethren.”
What was a conscientious, holiday-minded New Yorker supposed to do? Observe the Democratic Thanksgiving on November 23, or the Republican Thanksgiving on November 30, or both? [Read more…] about The Two Thanksgivings of 1871
During his lifetime Ulysses S. Grant watched technology change the world around him. Significant advancements in travel, communications, energy production, and medical science during his life would lead to his recognition of the vital importance technology played in the pursuit of progress. Grant was intrigued by and supported innovations in technology as a military commander and President. [Read more…] about Ulysses S. Grant & Modern Technological Innovations
The trip to Mount McGregor was set, if the hospice patient had enough strength to make the journey.
“If the present favorable conditions are maintained, General Grant will travel to Mount McGregor Tuesday, June 23rd,” The Morning Star of Glens reported on June 8th, 1885. “President Rutter, of the New York Central and Hudson Railroad, has placed its special car at General Grant’s disposal for the use of the general and his family on the trip. The car will be attached to a morning express train from the Grand Central depot.” [Read more…] about Ulysses S. Grant’s Summer at Mount McGregor
On July 23, 1885, at 8:08 am, Ulysses S. Grant lost his final battle, dying from cancer of the throat and tongue. He died on Mt. McGregor in Saratoga County, in Drexel’s Cottage (now known as Grant Cottage) where Grant and his family spent the last 5½ weeks.
Grant’s doctors felt it was best he leave New York City for the summer to get away from the oppressive heat and pollution of the city and find a place with cool clean air due to his illness. [Read more…] about Ulysses S. Grant’s Final Battles at Mt McGregor
This week on The Historians Podcast, former Capital Region television personality Tim Welch discusses Grant Cottage in northern Saratoga County where Ulysses S. Grant died after finishing his memoirs of the Civil War. Welch is president of Friends of Grant Cottage. The historic site has opened for the season. [Read more…] about Ulysses S. Grant’s Cottage in Saratoga County (Podcast)
This special two-part episode of the Capital District Civil War Round Table features historians Joan Waugh, Daniel T. Davis, Gary Gallagher, Chris Mackowksi, and Paul Kahan talking about the history and memory of Ulysses S. Grant‘s military leadership, his drinking, his presidency, and the Lost Cause interpretations of the Civil War that marred Grant’s reputation. [Read more…] about Ulysses S. Grant: In Life and Death (Podcast)
The cottage rests on a quiet and forested hilltop just outside of Saratoga Springs. Visitors need to pass through the barren entrance to a one-time correctional facility, an intimidating experience to say the least. Once through the abandoned guard station, and up the winding rough road, the ground levels out with the neat building on the left.
To the right, a trail to the stunning view of the Adirondacks to the north, the Green Mountains of Vermont to the east, and the Catskills to the south. On a blistering, hot day in July 1885, General and President Ulysses S. Grant was brought by wheelchair to this very spot, cancer was eating away his throat, and he had just completed a 300,000-plus word memoir, and knew death was near. [Read more…] about Ulysses S. Grant in New York: Civil War General, President