Bio of GRANT, General Lewis A. (b.1829 d.1918), Hennepin Co., MN
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EXTRACTED FROM: History of Minneapolis, Gateway to the Northwest; 
Chicago-Minneapolis, The S J Clarke Publishing Co, 1923; Edited by: Rev. 
Marion Daniel Shutter, D.D., LL.D.; Volume I - Shutter (Historical); 
volume II - Biographical; volume III - Biographical

GENERAL LEWIS A. GRANT - Vol III, pg 432-434
The history of General Lewis A. Grant finds an honored place in the annals of
Minneapolis by reason of the important part which he played in both local and
national history. He was born at Winhall Hollow, near North Londonderry,
Vermont, January 17, 1829, his parents being James and Betsy (Wyman) Grant, who
removed from Wrentham, Massachusetts, to the Green Mountain state in pioneer
times. The father was a son of Joseph Grant, Jr., who was born in 1734 and died
in 1816. The mother was a daughter of David Wyman, a Revolutionary war soldier.
James Grant was born in 1772 and died in 1856.
Lewis A. Grant, the youngest of ten children, spent his boyhood on a farm to the
age of seventeen, when he became a district school teacher. Later he attended
Chester Academy and taught school for several years in New Jersey and near
Boston, studying law at the same time. He was admitted to the bar of Suffolk
county and to the bar of Vermont in May, 1855, and became a partner of the law
firm of Stoughton & Grant of Bellows Falls, Vermont. When America became
involved in Civil war Lewis A. Grant joined the Fifth Vermont Infantry with the
rank of major, and in September of the same year, 1861, was promoted to
lieutenant colonel, while soon afterward he took command of the regiment, being
advanced to the rank of colonel on September 16, 1862. In February, 1863, he
took com­mand of a brigade and was commissioned brigadier general April 27,
1864. For more than two years he commanded the famous "Old Vermont Brigade,"
recognized throughout the Army of the Potomac as one of its greatest fighting
units. As commander of this brigade and as commander of a division General Grant
fought in all the important engagements of the Army of the Potomac. In a
memorial prepared by the commandery of the Loyal Legion, of which he was a
member, it was said: "His service was principally with the Army of the Potomac
and he participated in all the battles of that army, showing very unusual
soldierly qualities, and it is no laudation to say that he had no superior in
that army or in any other army as a brigade or division commander. During the
draft riots in New York he was ordered there to restore order and was afterward
ordered to the Army of the Shenandoah under General Sheridan. In this army he
won renown that will endure as long as history records the battles of
Charlestown, Virginia, August 21, 1864; Winchester, Virginia, Sepfember 19,
1864; Fisher's .Hill, Virginia, September 21, 1864; Cedar Creek, Virginia,
October 19, 1864. It is no exaggeration to say that Sheridan's Ride of twenty
miles, made famous by T. Buchanan Read, would have been entirely fruitless had
it not been for the masterly efforts of Companion Grant. His one division was
the only part of the army found intact when Sheridan appeared and it had not
only met and repulsed the attack of every soldier in Early's army on that
eventful day, but was in solid battle array and ready for anything in the way of
a fight and did, in fact, render splendid service after Sheridan took up the
offensive. Again at Petersburg, later in the war, he distinguished himself by
breaking the rebel lines at that stronghold after months of the best efforts of
others to accomplish that desired end. He was wounded at that time and had been
previously wounded at Fredericksburg, December 14, 1862. At the close of the war
and after he had been mustered out of the service he declined an appointment in
the regular army as lieutenant colonel of the Thirty-sixth Infantry. During the
Harrison administration, 1889 to 1893, he served his country most honorably as
assistant secretary of war. He was for many years a member of this commandery
and served one term as its commander, and no one who ever knew him in civil life
will ever forget his delightful, gentle, loving personality, always excessively
modest as to his own exceptionally grand record in the Civil war. He always
enjoyed discussion of the battles of that contest, and his greatest enjoyment
was in meeting with his comrades of 1861 to 1865." He was awarded a medal of
honor by congress for distinguished gallantry under fire at the battle of Salem
Heights, Virginia, May 3, 1863; and he was commissioned brevet major general on
October 19, 1864, for "Gallant and meritorious service in the campaign before
Richmond, Virginia, and in the Shenandoah valley."
A notable climax to his military service was rendered at the final siege of
Petersburg, before Richmond, Virginia, April 2, 1865. General Merritt Barber in
his report of the assault on Petersburg under date of November 4, 1892, said:
"As the sun rose on that April morning it glistened and danced upon the
burnished muskets of those twenty-five hundred Vermonters, a hedge of steel
manned by intelligence, standing shoulder to shoulder, seven lines deep, upon
the hill crest which had been an hour before the rebel General Heath's
headquarters. To the right of them and to the left of them the cannon roared and
thundered in con­tinuing conflict, glittering bayonets formed over them a halo
of glory for this their last and most brilliant achievement during the War of
the Rebellion. General L. A. Grant was wounded in the head, but he participated
actively and efficiently in the crowning success of that occasion, and is
entitled to the full credit of the success of the operations, at least up to the
time when the brigade stood in full array upon the hill crest inside the enemy's
lines. The succeeding events of that day were in connection with entire corps,
but the principal event, the assault and penetration of the Petersburg lines,
was primarily due to the genius of General L. A. Grant, supported by the Vermont
Brigade."
At the close of the war General Grant was offered a high command in the regular
army but declined, preferring civil life. He was assistant secretary of war
during the Harrison administration and during a considerable portion of that
time was acting secretary of war. In his eightieth year General Grant was
honored by the state of Vermont in being invited by the joint session of the
general assembly to visit the state as its guest, an invitation which he
accepted. A special committee of the United States senate in a report of January
14, 1907, stated that "General Lewis A. Grant was one of the most distinguished
soldiers of the war and his military services were conspicuously valuable."
In 1857 General Grant was married to S. Augusta Hartwell of Harvard,
Massa­chusetts, who died in 1859, survived by a daughter, now Mrs. George W.
Stone. In 1863 General Grant wedded Mary Helen Pierce of Hartland, Vermont, a
daughter of Captain Alfred Pierce and a granddaughter of Captain John Pierce of
Chesterfield, New Hampshire, who served in the Revolutionary war and who was a
cousin of President Franklin Pierce. Mrs. Grant now lives in Minneapolis. Her
two sons are Dr. Ulysses S. Grant, dean of the department of liberal arts in
North­western University at Evanston, Illinois; and Captain Colfax Grant, an
attorney residing in Minneapolis.
Following the war General Grant had a successful business career in Des Moines
and in Minneapolis and in the latter city passed away March 20, 1918, in his
ninetieth year. He attended the reunion of both Union and Confederate survivors
of the battle of Gettysburg, arranged by the government, being one of the few
surviving officers of that great conflict. He was appointed by Governor Eberhart
as chairman of the Gettysburg commission, having in charge the matter of
assembling the survivors of the battle of Gettysburg to attend that memorable
reunion. General Grant was a member of Morgan Post, G. A. R., of which he at one
time served as commander and was also identified with the Minnesota Commandery
of the Loyal Legion, of which he was at one time chief executive officer. He
frequently served as orator on public occasions, especially in connection with
Memorial day exercises and ofttimes was called upon to deliver public addresses
through­out the state. He belonged to Gethsemane church and was a member of its
vestry for a number of years. He was a great student of the Bible and of history
and had a large library. He traveled extensively in this country and in Europe
and afterward issued a volume concerning his European travels. He also wrote
many short articles on various subjects for magazines. When he was serving as
assistant secretary of war there was a movement to abolish Fort Snelling and
many minor forts in the West, but General Grant labored for the retention of
Fort Snelling as a permanent post and its development into greater importance.
In a memorial to him it was said: "A man of splendid physical form and bearing,
he was noticeably big and great in any assembly of men and was highly honored
not only by his comrades of the Civil war but equally so by citizens of
Minneapolis, where he lived so many years in close and helpful touch with all
civil affairs. A great soldier, a courtly Christian gentleman, a devoted husband
and father, an exemplary citizen in every sense of the word, his passing over to
the other side has left in sorrow at the parting hosts of loyal friends in all
parts of our land."