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[143] of whom Grant was always one. The only symptom of anxiety he displayed under the tremendous cares imposed upon him was wakefulness. He never wanted to go to his camp bed. His immediate aides-de-camp discovered this, and as he was willing to sit under the cold clear sky and stars till three and four o'clock, wearing them all out, they at last agreed among themselves to wait up with him in turn. He never knew of this, but we often bargained with each other for an hour or two of rest. Many of these nights can I remember, during that long winter at City Point, when every one was asleep but the commander of the armies and his single officer. If the weather was inclement, we bore it as long as we could outside, and then sought shelter in his cabin. How confidential and intimate his conversation could at such times become, only those thrown closely with him knew. His recollections of the past, the stories of his great battles and campaigns, the personal incidents of Vicksburg, and Donalson, and Chattanooga, and Shiloh; the details of his earlier career; his belief in the ultimate success of our cause; his prediction of events—all were clearly told in terse and often eloquent language; with every now and then a pregnant utterance that showed his appreciation of individual character or close sympathy with men in masses, the native strength of his intellect, or the keen penetration of his judgment.

It was then I learned to know him best and like him most; then I understood that he was really of the Homeric type; the sort of man that many in our modern artificial civilization fail to recognize. Because he was not great in the way they thought

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