Adam Badeau, Grant in peace: from Appomattox to Mount McGregor, a personal memoir

[13] Richmond by his side, and was present at the fall of Petersburg and the surrender of Lee. During the next four years, those of the administration of Andrew Johnson, I was his confidential secretary and aide-de-camp. I opened all his letters, answered many that were seen by no other man, and necessarily knew his opinions on most subjects closely and intimately. Wherever he went at this time I accompanied him. In his tour through the South after the close of the war, in his visit to Canada, his journey over the entire North, which was one long triumphal procession; his stay at his little Galena home; during the stormy days of Reconstruction and the struggle between Congress and the President; at the time of the removal of Stanton; the impeachment of Johnson; the attempt to send General Grant out of the country; in the Presidential campaign of 1868; down to the preparations for his first administration, I was constantly in his society and confidence.

Enjoying these opportunities for knowing the man, and engaged at the time in writing his military history, I naturally took to studying his peculiar characteristics. For a long while he was just as much of an enigma to me as to the rest of the world. The apparent absence of vanity, of ambition, of pride in his success, of selfishness, was so complete and so unusual in a man who had achieved such success, that I could not at first comprehend him. I soon, however, grew into a profound affection for him, which, enhanced by my admiration for his achievements, became the paramount feeling of my life. All my object and ambition were to help build up or illustrate his fame.

He appreciated this regard and, I thought, returned it with a warmth that he did not often display. He allowed me to say things to him that few men say to each other, and at last he permitted me to see beneath the veil that concealed the mystery from mankind. I found him a man like other men, with feelings as profound as those of the most