Granting you some trivia

          Remember the old joke, the one where you ask who is buried in Grant’s tomb?

          Don’t worry about trick questions here. The answer is simple: Grant.

          But you can win a lot of bets by asking who Grant’s pallbearers were.

          The answer in a moment, but first a dose of context.

          The American Civil War did not end when Ulysses Simpson Grant, the head of all United States forces in the final months of the war, forced Robert E. Lee to surrender the Army of Northern Virginia in April of 1865. Other Confederate forces were still in the field elsewhere and it took a while longer for those Confederate armies to give up.

          But when Grant dictated the terms of surrender to Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia, Grant also dictated to his government what the terms of surrender should be.

          Confederate soldiers who swore an oath of allegiance to the United States were paroled and those who had horses with them at the time of surrender were allowed to take their horses home in order to help with the spring planting.

          The terms Grant gave Lee’s men were in line with the thinking of Abraham Lincoln but not in line with many members of Congress nor with Andrew Johnson, the man who succeeded Lincoln as president after Lincoln was assassinated. Still, Grant’s prestige was enough to make the terms stand up.

          Grant understood that our nation needed to begin heeling at war’s end. The iron stamp of revenge, if stomped on the states that stood in rebellion, would do more harm than good, Grant indicated.

          Grant was right.

          When Grant died a little more than 20 years after Lee’s surrender, Grant’s funeral was one of the biggest events in Washington D.C. history. According to a reprint of a story which appeared in the New York Times on July 30, 1885 that this blogger found online this week, Grant’s widow asked President Cleveland to appoint the pallbearers for her husband’s funeral.

          Predictably, the list included former U.S. generals William T. Sherman and Philip Sheridan, two U.S. Navy admirals and some civilians.

          Less predictably, the list of Grant’s pallbearers also included former Confederate generals Simon B. Buckner and Joseph Johnston.

          Go figure.

          Thanks for reading.