Grant's World Tour

Grant's World Tour

Never had an U.S. citizen been so enthusiastically welcomed and showered with honor in these countries. Never had a citizen been embraced by so many common folks, aristocrats, kings and queens and prominent leaders of the world. The person I am speaking of is one and the only, Ulysses S. Grant, who attracted all walks of life, cutting across continents, countries, color, race and creed.

Today, with the advent modern invention such as jet planes, travelling around the world is not a big deal. But when we talk about the nineteen century, travelling around the world is a big deal.

Citizen Grant left Philadelphia and first arrived at Queenstown, Ireland. At Liverpool, the mayor and the people welcomed Grant. The year was 1877, when Grant finished his two terms Presidency, free from reading memos and writing dispatches, he had time to take a well-deserved vacation to Europe. Grant and his family left Philadelphia by ship, The Indiana, and crossed the Atlantic. At Manchester, workers emptied their factories and flocked to see Grant, jam-packing the square. A photograph showing the crowd spoke it all. In London, the Prince of Wales greeted him. The Duke of Wellington dined with Grant at Apsley House. The American consul general, General Badeau, his former aide, gave Grant a grand reception. Queen Victoria invited the General to dine at Windsor Castle. In Brussels, Belgium, King Leopold hosted Grant's party royally and sent his Belgian King's railroad car to take Grant sightseeing, visiting cathedrals and toured along the Rhine. The General returned to Scotland and visited Granttown, home of Clan Grant. Grant wished "that at some future time the nations of the earth would agree on some sort of Congress which shall take cognizance of international questions of difficulty -------" Some 70 years later, the United Nation was created, but Grant thought of it 70 years earlier. The General went to France. Gen. Torbert, then, aide-de-camp of the French Marshal MacMahon, greeted his former boss General Grant. Torbert served under Gen. Sheridan and Grant in the Civil War. They visited Paris and Versailles. Next, they went to Italy to see Pompeii, Palermo and Naples.

Grant's party headed for Egypt on board Vandalia. They visited Alexandria, Cairo and sailed along the Nile. Grant met some American Generals, then, serving the Khedive's Egyptian Army. Grant recognized the Confederate Major General, William W. Loring, whom he had not seen for thirty years. This was the same Loring who gave Gen. Lee grief in western Virginia, and who annoyed Gen. Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley. Confederate Major Gen. Henry Hopkins Sibley of New Mexico and Red River valley fame/misfortune was there, and so as Union Brig. Gen. Charles Stone of Ball's Bluff's misfortune, was there too. Confederate Brigadier General Raleigh Colston became paralyzed from the waist down when a camel fell on him. Union brevet Brigadier General William Dye also served in the Land of the Pharaohs. Grant's family saw many bazaars when they visited Aswan, Memphis and Thebes. Then, they proceeded to Damascus and Beirut. At Athens, Greece, the King and Queen greeted Grant with honor and visit the Parthenon. Then Grant went to Florence, Venice, Milan, Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam. The party went to Germany. Chancellor Bismarck welcomed Grant in Berlin. The German were surprised that Grant declined their offer of a full military honor, for they didn't know that Grant disliked pomp and ceremony but valued man with genuine strategic ability. They toured the major battlefield of the 1870 Franco-Prussian war. The next destination brought them to Scandinavia, Denmark, Norway and Sweden. From Stockholm they proceeded to St. Petersburg, Russia, and met Czar Alexander. In Moscow, the broad-gauge railroad was constructed under the supervision of a commission of railroad engineers headed by Colonel George Whistler (West Point class of 1819), whose son was the famous American oil-painting artist James McNeill Whistler, who attended West Point (1851 to 1854) but didn't graduate. James McNeill Whistler was born in Lowell and grew up in Massachusetts. Col. George Whistle at one time commanded the 4th Infantry, which Grant served during the Mexican War. From Moscow to Warsaw and Vienna, Emperor Francis Joseph dined with Grant. After that, the party went to see Spain and Portugal. Julia Grant decided to visit their daughter Nellie, who married Mr. Sartoris, in Ireland. Grant was received enthusiastically by the common folks whom many of them were veterans of the Civil War, fighting on both North and South.

From Suez through the Red Sea, the party reached Aden, and continued to Bombay, India. The Governor played host and related a story that Grant had (indirectly) ruined Bombay. During the Civil War, the cotton from the South could not be shipped abroad in sufficient quantities and that resulted India exported $100,000,000 in cotton. The great addition to the city's wealth created every form of speculation in Future Market. Bombay was the most prosperous city of the world in 1864. When the news of Lee's surrender on April 9, 1865 reached Bombay, its prosperity collapsed. Consequently, panic and bankruptcy followed and affected many investors. They toured the Taj Mahal, the Ganges and many other interesting places. Next they went to Rangoon, Burma. The party continued to Penang, Malacca and Singapore in Malaya. They visited the maharajah in Johore. The King of Siam (Thailand) invited them and treated them as royalty. When they passed by an artillery barrack, the battery fired a 21-guns salute to welcome them. They went to Saigon and then took a ship to Hong Kong.

Could you guess who was waiting to see Grant in Hong Kong? Sometime facts are stranger than fiction. It was Col. John Singleton Mosby, the head of the Confederate "Mosby's Ranger," the famous Grey Ghost, and the archenemy of the Army of the Potomac. The Union tried to hunt him down from 1863 to 1865 but totally failed. As an American consul stationed in Hong Kong, Mosby welcomed Grant. They became friends after the war. From Hong Kong, Grant went to Macao, Canton, Amoy, Shanghai, Woosung, Tientsin and Peking. At Tientsin, Grant met Gen. Lee, i.e., Gen. Hung-Chang Lee, who helped to suppress the Taiping (Peace) Rebellion (1850 to 1864); contemporaneous to Grant's suppressing the Confederate's rebellion. Lee was a lieutenant of Gen. Kwok-fan Tsang who commanded the Government's army. The American Civil War caused about 600,000 casualties, whereas in the Taiping Rebellion, 20,000,000 people died. In America, when the rebels surrendered, Grant let them go home, whereas in China, when the rebels were compelled to surrender, their heads got cut off and nobody was spared. Both commanders had a lot in common and exchanged war stories. They went to see the Forbidden City (the Palace) and the Great Wall. The General commented on the tour in China. Grant said, "My own visit has ------- been under the most favorable circumstances for seeing the people and studying their institutions. My impression is a very favorable one. The Chinese are enduring, patient to the last degree, industrious, and ------ they are the mechanics, market gardeners, stevedores, small traders, servants, and in all callings that contribute to material progress."

Grant's Party boarded the ship Richmond and headed to Japan, visited Nagasaki and Tokyo. The Emperor and Empress of Japan welcome Grant in their Palace. Emperor Mutsuhito told Grant that Grant was well known to the Japanese, first, as a General, and later, as U.S. President who treated the Japanese with kindness. They had pleasant conversations and sightseeing. After staying in Japan for two months, they took a long voyage to San Francisco, in 9/1879.

From San Francisco, they visited Lake Tahoe, Yosemite Valley, Carson City, Cheyenne, Omaha, and finally Galena, the hometown he once lived just prior the Civil War. Next, they traveled to Chicago and to Philadelphia, completing the around the world trip. (Credit goes to U.S. Grant III on U.S. Grant. Also used several reference books, Newspapers.)(1998)

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Author and Webmaster, Gordon Kwok (gordonkwok@aol.com)

March 2, 2001