Stop 1: The Main Rotunda
Hello, and welcome to the General Grant National Memorial! The soaring rotunda you are currently standing in is the main space of the tomb of Ulysses S. Grant. Ulysses S. Grant was easily the most famous American at the end of his life due to his Civil War service and two-term presidency following the Civil War. When he died of throat cancer in 1885, he was mourned all over the world, and this monument was built with money donated from people and organizations to honor him. If you step up to the ledge in the center of the rotunda, you will see below you the polished red sarcophagi of Ulysses S. Grant and Julia D. Grant, who was his wife of 37 years. Both Grant and Julia’s primary consideration in picking a burial place was that they’d be laid to rest side by side as you see them today. The inspiration for the form of the sunken crypt area below you was Napoleon’s tomb in Paris, as the architect of Grant’s tomb wanted to create a tomb of unmistakably military character. If you look up from the sunken crypt, above you are four roughly triangular sections of roofs supporting the dome, each covered in classically styled women bearing various symbols. These triangular sections of the roof are called pendentives and the symbolism on each triangle represents a different period of Grant’s life. When looking at the door through which you entered, the pendentive on the left with the tree of life at its center, is meant to represent Grant’s birth. Going counterclockwise in order, the next pendentive represents Grant’s military career, civil career, and death, respectively. Below the dome. The half moon shaped mosaics in half-moon shapes are called lunettes and they depict various scenes from the Civil War. An eastern Lunette is depicted on horseback, at the siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in 1863. Easily Grant’s most studies military campaign to date, Vicksburg was the final Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River, until it surrendered to Grant. On July 4th, 1863, one day after the final day of the Battle of Gettysburg. In the western lunette opposite, Grant stands with a cane next to General George Thomas, at the battle of Chattanooga in southeastern Tennessee. Chattanooga was the final major engagement of the year 1863 and afterwards Grant would be promoted to be the commander of all American forces for the rest of the Civil War. And in the northern alcove we see Grant at the end of the Civil War, accepting Lee’s surrender at Appomattox in 1865. When you are ready to continue the tour, head to the left of the Appomattox mosaic to enter the western trophy room.
Stop 2: The Western Trophy Room
As you enter the small side room on the western side of the mausoleum, you’ll be greeted by two things: a large central case containing flags and a mural that runs the edge of the room, that depicts the northern battles of the Civil War. The large flag case in the center of the room contains replicas of various flags from the Civil War. The original flags that these are replicating were donated to the Tomb by the regiments that carried them during the war at the dedication of this building in 1897. But by the time that the National Park Service got here in the late 1950’s, the originals were in less than ideal shape. So replicas have been placed here in their stead. The collection here collects mainly national colors of various regiments, with a few regimental flags mixed in. National colors consisted of the American flag, with generally few changes, with the regiment’s name emblazoned on them. With the regimental flags, artistic designs were specific to the regiment. Both types of flags would help both soldiers and commanders better understand what was happening through the smoke of battle. The mural on the walls of this trophy room depict the best known battles of the war, from Gettysburg all the way on the top, to Appomatox, west of Virginia, where Grant accepted Lee’s surrender at the end of the war. Battles denoted with stars are battles where Grant himself was present. You can feel free to continue looking around, and when you are finished here, you can exit the room and turn to your left and head towards the stairs, heading down the stairs to continue with this tour.
Stop 3: The Crypt Level
As you head down the stairs at the back of the tomb, you are entering the crypt level of the building. A circular walkway around the Grants’ sarcophagi, this area would have been crowded in the years after the Grants’ deaths with mourners who had come to pay their respects to the Grants. For the decade following its construction in 1897, this building was the most visited in New York City, with around 500,000 visitors per year, it was more heavily trafficked than the Statue of Liberty. The visitors came from both the north and the south as Grant was looked on fondly in both halves of the formerly divided nation. In fact, at his funeral, two of his pall bearers were Confederate generals, Simon Boulevard Jr, and Joe Johnston. And memorial services were held throughout the South at the time of Grant’s death. Around the edge of the crypt walkway are statues of five generals closely associated with Grant, primarily towards the end of the Civil War. If we move to the right going counterclockwise from the base of the stairs, we will provide some information on each of the men depicted. The first statue you will come to is Philip Sheridan, known affectionately as “Little Phil.” Sheridan was part of the younger generation of officers who joined the army after the Mexican American war had concluded but he rose quickly to become the most important cavalry officer in the Union army during the Civil War. Sheridan met Grant during the war, and they would remain close for the rest of Grant’s life. Sheridan would be one of the pall bearers at Grant’s funeral. Continuing to follow the circle, you come to James “Birds Eye” McPherson, another younger officer who met Grant for the first time during the Civil War. Grant and McPherson bonded quickly. Eventually McPherson became one of his most trusted subordinates when Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General in the beginning of 1864, he pulled both Sherman and McPherson up in his wake, but McPherson did not enjoy his new position for long. He is the only member of the five who was killed in action during the war. He was killed in the battle of Atlanta, at the age of 35. Both Grant and Sherman wept when they heard the news, not only for the loss of such a bright young commander, but for the loss of a friend. Directly opposite the stairs is William Sherman. He is easily the most famous member of the five today. A similar age to Grant, being only two years older, but had a very different early military experience than Grant. He was sent to Florida during the Seminole wars to participate in the removal of the Seminole Tribe, which he describes as a great “pity” and while Grant and many others were serving in Mexico, Sherman was instead sent to administer the captured territory of California. During the civil war, Sherman and Grant would form a powerful bond that would survive the tribulation of war and the years beyond. Sherman was a steadfast subordinate to Grant, and in the instrumental to the war in his own right, in his own campaigns in Georgia and the Carolinas. Sherman and Grant would remain close after the war, and he would be the lead Pall Bearer during the funeral. One of the most touching scenes from Grant’s funeral involves Sherman. After he had laid Grant’s coffin in his temporary tomb, he stepped out onto the plaza and ordered Taps to be played. The thousands of people in attendance then watched as William Tecumseh Sherman stood at rigid attention, convulsively sobbing for the loss of his friend. Edward Ord is perhaps the most obscure of all the men depicted here at modern times. He was older than both Grant and Sherman, having been in 1818, in Maryland. Ord, before the Civil War, largely served as an engineer and an artillery officer, serving both in the Seminole war, and in California during the Mexican-American war, just like Sherman. Ord’s moment in the sun came at the end of the American Civil War when he was assigned command of the army of the James during the Appomattox campaign. On April 9, 1865, Ord led an overnight forced march to relieve Sheridan’s cavalry that had managed to get in front of Lee’s army. Sherman described Ord’s move as one of the key causes of Lee’s surrender. Ord’s modern-day recognition, however, is limited to Fort Ord, a long-defunct standing army base located in the Monterey Bay area of California. The deactivated base is now being environmentally restored as Fort Ord National Monument. Our final statue is of George Thomas, a general with perhaps the best collection of military nicknames of any of the men depicted here, known variously as “Pap”, “Old Slow Trot Thomas”, and perhaps the best two nicknames of the Civil War, “The Sledge of Nashville” and “The Rock of “Chickamauga”. Thomas may be relatively obscure today, but as these names indicate, he was quite famous during the Civil War. Grant and Thomas were never friends, but Grant clearly respected his abilities, describing him in his memoirs as “one of the best defensive generals on either side of the conflict.” Thomas was only in charge of two battles over the course of the war, Mill Springs and Nashville, but both were decisive Union victories. Thomas died only a few years after the war in 1870. He refused to write a memoir in that time, and actually destroyed his own correspondence, saying he would not want his personal life hawked in front of the eyes of the curious, which is perhaps part of why he’s so obscure today. Despite being a native Virginian, he’s not buried in Virginia, but instead, buried here in the state of New York. Thomas is buried with military honors in Troy, New York, just outside of Albany. Both Grant, who was the president at the time, and Sherman, the head of the army, in attendance at his funeral, but none of Thomas’ Virginian family were at attendance at his funeral. These are the five men that the Grant Monument Association decided to have stand as sentinels over Grant’s final resting place. Once you have finished looking around or exploring this space, you can head up the stairs and take a left towards the trophy room on the east side of the building to continue the tour. Stop 4: Eastern Trophy Room
The Eastern Trophy Room is very similar to the Western Trophy Room in that it is set up with flags in the central case and a map adorning the wall. Of note in the flags in this case is Grant’s Headquarters flag from the army of the Tennessee, which is directly in front of you, slightly to the right when you come through the door. It’s adorned with a cartridge box which is center. The map on the wall of this room shows the southern theater of the Civil War. On the left side of the room, you’ll see the site of Grant’s most studied military campaign at Vicksburg, Mississippi, and on the right-hand side of the map, you’ll see Fort Sumpter, where the rebels began the war by firing on Federal Troops there. When you have finished exploring this room, you can head back out the door, and head back to the entrance of the mausoleum, where just to the left of the door, you will see a flag in a display case, and our tour will conclude there.
Stop 5: Entrance to Mausoleum
The Flag in the display case just on the left of the main mausoleum door is the only original Civil War flag still in this building. The 11th Indiana Volunteers, the unit that carried this flag, served with Grant for about a year and a half. From his early victories at Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson in 1862, until the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863. That being said, this flag is almost certainly from after the period when the unit served directly under Grant. The way we can tell this is from the number of stars. This flag has 35 stars, which tells us that it is from after West Virginia has been added as a state. West Virginia’s star was added to the flag on July 4, 1863, the same day that the city of Vicksburg surrendered. Thus it is unlikely that they acquired this flag before Grant departed the army to head east to help in the battle of Chattanooga later that same year. At this point we’ve reached the end of our guided tour. Thank you for visiting General Grant National Memorial. We hope you have a great rest of your day.
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Last updated: February 24, 2024