Grant Under Fire

Grant Under Fire. . General-in-Chief Ulysses S. Grant hoped that his men could convert their early morning triumph at Fort Harrison into a sweeping and perhaps decisive victory. He arrived here three hours after the fort's capture to assess progress. Confederate artillery still shelled the fort intermittently. After looking around, Grant seated himself near this spot with his back to a small traverse (now gone) and began to write a dispatch to a nearby subordinate: "General Ord has carried the very strong works and some fifteen pieces of artillery, and his corps is now ready to advance in conjunction with you....push forward on the road I left you on.", "... a shell burst directly over him. Those standing about instinctively ducked their heads, but he paid no attention to the occurrence, and did not pause in his writing, or even look up." Colonel Horace Porter, of Grant's staff, (caption) , No one was here to sketch the event as it occurred, but this postwar painting depicts Grant's narrow escape at this spot, which preserved him for later duty as the nation's eighteenth president.