The President wrote to General Grant a few months
before the war's end: 'Please read and answer this letter as though I were not
President, but only a friend. My son, now in his twenty-second year, having
graduated at Harvard, wishes to see something of the war before it ends. I do
not wish to put him in the ranks, nor yet to give him a commission, to which
those who have already served long, are better entitled, and better qualified
to hold. Could he, without embarrassment to you, or detriment to the service,
go into your military family with some nominal rank, I, and not the public,
furnishing his necessary means? If no, say so without the least hesitation,
because I am as anxious, and as deeply interested, that you shall not be
encumbered as you can be yourself.' Grant replied that he would be glad to have
his son 'in my military family in the manner you propose.’
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