William A. Crafts, Life of Ulysses S. Grant: His Boyhood, Campaigns, and Services, Military and Civil.

[93] served under him. General Halleck, whom by his new appointment he superseded, and who was at first slow to acknowledge Grant's merits, sincerely congratulated him on this recognition of his distinguished and meritorious services. General Meade, also, and other prominent officers of the eastern army, recognized his ability, and entertained nothing but respect for the man who by his merits alone had attained to such distinguished honor, and who so modestly wore it.

Grant arrived at Washington on the 8th of March, accompanied by two or three members of his staff and his eldest son, and almost an entire stranger in the city. Quietly entering his name on the register at Willard's Hotel, he modestly took his place among strangers at the table, with his boy, evidently seeking to avoid rather than to court public recognition. The crowd of guests did not see in the unassuming officer, who had come without any heralding, the man who had just been appointed to the highest military rank. But he was at last recognized by one gentleman, and the news passing rapidly through the company, he was greeted With enthusiastic cheers. That evening he attended the President's levee, and there he was the object of more striking demonstrations of enthusiasm, in which the President himself heartily joined. The victorious general who captured Donelson, defeated the rebels at Shiloh, made the brilliant and successful campaign of Vicksburg, and drove Bragg's legions from before Chattanooga, could not escape the grateful plaudits of the people, nor, as the newly-appointed Lieutenant General, fail to receive the most cordial tokens of the confidence and hopes which he inspired.