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Table of Contents:
Chapter
47
: freedmen's aid societies and an act of congress creating a Bureau of refugees, freedmen and abandoned lands
Chapter
55
:
first
appropriation by congress for the bureau; the reconstruction Act,
March
2
,
1867
; increase of educational work
Chapter
60
: opposition to Bureau and reconstruction work became personal; the
Congregational Church of
Washington
Chapter
62
: life in
Washington, D. C.
,
1866
to
1874
; assigned to duty in regular army as commander,
Department of the Columbia
Chapter
63
: in the
Northwest
, among the
Indians
; trip to
Alaska
; life in
Portland, Ore.
;
1874
to
1881
Chapter
64
: superintendent of the
United States military Academy
; commanding
Department of the Platte
,
Omaha, Neb.
Chapter
68
:
French
army maneuvers,
1884
; promotion to
Major General
,
United States army
,
San Francisco
1886
-
88
[510] our minister, my friend, General Lew Wallace, whom I longed to see. From his rooms in the suburb of Therapia we went across the Bosphorus to see where Xenophon encamped his 10,000. We enjoyed Robert College and all it represented. When I addressed the students there, perhaps two hundred of them, from Bulgaria and other states, I naturally inquired, “How many can understand me in English?” Nine tenths of the young men immediately responded by holding up their hands. It was during this visit with General Wallace that he told me that he had written “Ben-Hur” before he went to Palestine, and that he had his book with him on his first visit to consult and see how near he had come to veritable descriptions of places in the Holy Lands. The Sultan of Turkey invited Admiral Baldwin and his officers, also myself and son, to dine at the palace with him. General Wallace went with us and introduced us to his majesty. When we were seated at the table, the Sultan at one end and his two sons at the other, the guests were distributed so that the members of the cabinet and chief officers of the Turkish army and navy should sit between any two of the guests. It was to be a dinner to the army and navy of the United States. I had on my left the Minister of War and on my right some other cabinet official. Neither of them could speak English or French, but they smiled upon me and kindly helped me at table. The young princes were near me. I was told that they were good French scholars, but they did not venture to talk except in monosyllables. The richness of the plate and the multitude of courses it would take an observant news correspondent or an American lady to describe. After dinner we passed into a long hall,
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