Crummer, Wilbur. With Grant at Fort Donelson, Shiloh and Vicksburg. Oak Park, IL, EC Crummer & Co., 1915

Wilbur F. Crummer

Crummer was a native of Galena, Illinois, and a Union enlisted man with the 45th Illinois Infantry during the Civil War.

Orators, author and statesman have spoken and written about the great General so much it would seem as though there was nothing more to say. However, as one who followed him through numerous battles during the Civil War and who, at the close of the war, became a resident of Galena, Illinois and became personally acquainted with him, and attended the same church as the General, I feel I have the right to note down a few words of appreciate for the man I knew.

For four years, just after the close of the are, I was in employ of Col. W. R. Rowley, who had been one of the close family of staff of General Grant during the early part of the war. Colonel Rowley and myself naturally had many conversations over the incidents of certain battled and about General Grant. During the war and after, the enemies of Grant circulated many stories about his being drunk on this and that occasion. If I wanted to stir Colonel Rowley up into a fighting mood, I would ask him, "Colonel, how about this new yarn of Grant being drunk at Shiloh when the battle commenced?" The question was the spark that exploded the magazine of wrath and Rowley would reply, "All a damned lie. Wasn't I there with him all the time; don't I know? When will all the damned liars get through telling their damned lies about Grant?" And then I would chuckle to myself and say, "Them's my sentiments too."

It has been said of General John A. Rawlins (chief of Grant's chaff) that he would use more cuss words than any many in the army. General Grant never used cuss words, but he loved Rowley and Rawlins, notwithstanding their habit of emphasizing their remarks sometimes with cuss words. Grant loved his friends and was always true to them. Grant wouldn't lie; even in small matters he insisted that the truth be spoken. It is related of him that, after he became President, some one called to see him. One of the cabinet officers directed the servant to say to the caller that the President was not in. "No," said the General; "tell him no such thing. I don't lie myself, and I don't want my servants to lie for me."

A great man who was associated with him said to me: "He was the most absolutely truthful man I ever met in all my experiences." Another man who knew him well said of General Grant: "He hated two classes of men- liars and cowards."

After his first nomination for the Presidency, he was with is at Galena during the campaign, and had you seen the General moving around so quietly and unostentatiously among his neighbors and friends, you would have wondered that it could be the man who had just been declared the greatest military hero of the age, and who was soon to be head of the nation. Upon his return from the trip 'round the world, the General and family took up their abode in Galena. The city again welcomed him to his old home amid the plaudits of thousands that came from near and far to pay their respect to the modest, silent man known the world over. He led a quiet, unobtrusive, simple life here like his neighbors. We loved him as a neighbor and as a citizen. We said among ourselves, "Grant's head is the same size it was before the war."

He has been called "the silent man." Yes, he was rather guarded in his talks among men generally, but I want to say (for I have listened to him), that when among friends and neighbors, if you could get him started, he was one of the most entertaining talkers I ever listened to..

We, the humble neighbors of Galena, who knew the General so well, love to think of the home life of this great man. One characteristic of his life is not generally known and I make bold to set it down in type that all the world may know it. General Grant was a lover of his wife all through his married life. A little secret of the home life of this devoted man was known among the women of Galena, for they would tell their husbands what a lover General Grant was, and to prove it they would tell us that the General laced his wife's shoes for her. When the General and Mrs. Grant were in Europe they paid a visit to the tomb of Ferdinand and Isabella. The thought of the ashes of the royal couple sleeping side by side through the centuries appealed to the devoted husband and, turning to his wife, he said, "Julia, this is the way we should lie in death."