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Show The AHa-California of the 18th inst. is authority for this: General McClellan told this to Governor VanZandt, of Rhode Island, last Bummer "I knew Grant very well at West Point. Upon my appointment as Commander of the Army of the Pomotao, I left headquarters and went to Washington to confer with the President Pres-ident and with the Secretary of War, and was absent more than a week. During that absence General Grant left Galena and came to my headquarters, he afterwards informed in-formed me, for the purpose of asking me either for an appointment on my staff or, failing in that, a ' contract to supply the army with certain necessaries, out of which he could make a livelihood. He remained there several days awaiting my return, until he received a telegram from Senator Yates, of Ulinoss, requesting him to xciuiu luiuieuiaieiy, as ne naa secured him a commission as captain of a company of . Illinois soldiers. He left immediately without with-out seeing me, and we didn't meet again for a long time. If I had been at my headquarters headquar-ters I would have cheerfully given him an appointment on my staff, and, with his well-known well-known loyalty and devotion to any one who befriended him, he would have adhered to my fortunes and would have gone down with me, and the world would never have known what a great general he was." As General McClellan says, had Grant received an appointment on his staff the fate which overtook McClellan would also have overtaken Grant. |