Grant in characteristic pose, with his staff in 1864. The indifferent attitude of the general-in-chief is most characteristic. Grant had begun the investment of Petersburg when this photograph was taken. Around him are the men who had followed him faithfully through the faith-shaking campaigns of the Wilderness. He never made known his plans for an advance to anyone, but his calm confidence communicated itself to all who listened to him. In the most critical moments he manifested no perceptible anxiety, but gave his orders with coolness and deliberation. General Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio, in 1823. He was graduated at West Point in 1843. He served gallantly under General Scott in the Mexican War. Resigning from the army in 1854 he went into business, but was never successful. In 1861 he was appointed brigadier-general of Illinois volunteers, and was placed in command at Cairo. He won several brilliant victories in the West, and in 1864 he succeeded General Halleck as commander-in-chief of the Union armies. His series of battles against Lee and his siege of Petersburg led to the surrender of the army of northern Virginia. He was elected to the Presidency in 1868, and served two terms. He died in 1885.
From the painting, 1790 by John Trumbull in the City Hall, New York. George Washington was born in 1732, the year the colony of Georgia was established. From the time he was twenty-one years of age practically until his death, he was closely associated with the history of the country. His ambition had been to hold a commission in the British army, but when the break with the mother country came, he stood by his native Virginia. Washington was tall and muscular; he was an excellent marksman, a fine swordsman and horseman. He was a man of great personal courage, and he possessed a rugged honesty and a devoted unselfishness which endeared him to all men. While riding about his plantation he was caught in a rain and hail storm, and took a cold, which resulted in his death on December 14, 1799.