Description:

Grant Ulysses 1822 - 1885
A fine archive which includes a pair of gloves owned & worn by Ulysses S. Grant!


A superb Grant relic, a pair of finely made white leather gloves, measuring approximately 8.5" long, believed to have been worn by Grant and given by his parents to one of their neighbors, the Metcalfe family in Covington, Kentucky. The gloves are accompanied by a large body of letters and photographs related to the family through which the gloves descended and features a letter by Grant writing on behalf of a member of the same family: an Autograph Letter Signed "U.S. Grant General," 1 page, 7.75" x 10", on "Head Quarters Armies of the United States" letterhead, Washington, September 13, 1867 to Postmaster General A. D. Randall, seeking an appointment. The archive also features carte-de-visite photographs of his parents, Jesse and Hannah Grant, as well as images of members of the Metcalfe family (including a fine cased daguerreotype); a tintype of a steamboat owned by the Metcalfe family that saw service at Vicksburg; as well as other family papers dating between 1821 and c. 1905. Overall condition ranges from very good to very fine.





To those unfamiliar with Grant's physical appearance, the gloves would appear small. Standing at five feet, seven inches, Grant was unusually slight in stature with slight, delicate hands with long, slim fingers. When he entered West Point, Grant stood only five feet, one inch—barely meeting the minimum height requirement for admission. (Fortunately he gained an additional seven inches during his studies at the academy). When Horace Porter first encountered Grant in 1863 he was, "not a little surprised to find in him a man of slim figure,slightlystooped, five feet eight inches in height, weighing only a hundred and thirty-five pounds, and of a modesty of mien and gentleness of manner which seemed to fit him more for the court than for the camp." (Horace Porter, Campaigning with Grant, 1897, p. 14).





The gloves, one of which is stamped, "8 / M / O 123" on the inside, had been housed in an envelope bearing the penciled identification: "Gloves worn by General U.S. Grant and given by his mother to my Great-grandmother Metcalfe, who had formerly lived next door to Mrs Grant on Third Street in Covington, Kentucky - Mother was born here."





"Great-grandmother Metcalfe" was Margaret Metcalfe, wife of William Metcalfe, a steamboat captain based in Covington, Kentucky. Jesse Grant moved his family from Bethel, Ohio to Covington in 1854 and established a leather goods store. Jesse Grant was an outspoken opponent of slavery and may have gravitated to the English-born Metcalfe, who may have shared his distaste for the "peculiar institution." Being a steamboat captain, plying the Ohio River as a U.S. Mail packet between Cincinnati and Maysville, Ohio, Metcalfe more than likely became associated with Jesse Grant professionally.





That connection may have helped Metcalfe with a government contract to employ his steamer for federal service. In 1863, his boat, the Caledonia, was stationed at Vicksburg, not terribly far from where Grant was headquartered. The archive includes a cased tintype photograph of the Caledonia as well as several letters written by Metcalfe during his tenure in Vicksburg. On February 17, 1863, writing opposite the "Mouth of Yazoo" on the Mississippi, Metcalfe reports that the Caledonia was being used "as a prison (or Calaboon) Boat. We have about 50 Prisoners on Board some Sesech. Some soldiers somE Steam Boat men & Several negroes." Mecalfe also describes taking a walk "down the canal (or ditch) Yesterday and took a good view of Vicksburg. It is a very pretty place. They Fire a shell one in [a] while at the men working on the canal But have not hurt any person yet…" He was unsure "when we will take Vicksburg but take it we will as Genl Grant never gives up…"





Sometime in the early 1860s, William and Margaret Metcalfe's daughter Anne married Harry Jenks, a Massachusetts native. Jenks, like his father-in-law, used his connections to the Grant family to obtain a federal job. Grant obliged and in September 1867 wrote the following to the Postmaster General:





"My father has written me a letter requesting me to ask you for the appointment of Harry Jenks of Covington, Ky, to be Route Ag[en]ts between Bowling Green Ky. And Memphis Tenn. Will[?] Simpson reigned. I take the liberty therefore of communicating this request to you and to express the hope that it may be convenient for you to make the ap[pointmen]t"





Grant's efforts were not in vain. On September 13, 1867, the Post Office Department appointed Jenks as a route agent for the rail line between Memphis and Bowling Green, according to his signed appointment contained in the archive. According to the bevy of appointments that have been attached, he enjoyed a long and varied career in the Post Office until his death early in the twentieth century.





The archive also includes letters from Anne Metcalfe, as well as other paperwork concerning the grave of Harry Jenks, genealogical notes, and other family documents and ephemera dating from 1821 through circa 1905.

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