A Note From Bob
The clerk from Galena
Thursday. In the spring of 1861, a failed farmer was clerking in his father's leather goods store in Galena, Illinois. Four years later he commanded every Union army in the field and accepted Robert E. Lee's surrender. And on this very day in 1885, the nation stopped to mourn him. No American ever rose from deeper obscurity to greater heights, and few reputations have been argued over longer. Ulysses S. Grant is today's featured quiz. Pour the coffee.
Trivia Question of the Day
The disputed presidential election of 1876 was settled by an informal bargain that put Rutherford B. Hayes in the White House. What did Southern Democrats receive in return?
The answer is at the bottom of this email.
Today's Featured Quiz
Ulysses S. Grant
The general who saved the Union and the president whose White House was rocked by scandal. From a store counter in Galena to command of the entire Union war effort, few American lives have swung so far between triumph and trouble. 15 questions.
The Answer
The withdrawal of federal troops from the South
The Compromise of 1877 pulled the last federal soldiers out of Louisiana and South Carolina, closing the book on Reconstruction. For the twelve years before that, Union generals held remarkable authority over the former Confederacy, serving as military governors of the very states they had recently fought. Those men, and how they used that power, fill today's second quiz.
On This Day
On this day in 1885, Ulysses S. Grant died at Mount McGregor, New York, just days after finishing his memoirs. Racing throat cancer to the final page, he wrote to the very end so his family would be provided for, and the book became one of the great bestsellers of the century. The generals who served beside him faced their own trials after the war: keeping the peace in the defeated South. Test yourself with 15 questions on the Reconstruction Era Generals.
Stay
Curious.
Bob
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