General interest: Grant Symposium draws standing-room-only crowd

Nearly 100 people crowded into Heritage Hall in Cape Girardeau on Tuesday to hear a succession of speakers talk about the life and times of U.S. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant.

Stephen N. Limbaugh Jr., a federal judge and Civil War buff, said he was shocked to see the standing-room-only crowd.

"This is an overwhelming turnout," said Limbaugh, who serves on the local Kellerman Foundation for Historic Preservation which hosted the fourth annual symposium.

"I swear, we thought we would have 15 to 20 people," he told those gathered for the start of the U.S. Grant Symposium & Exhibition.

Speaker Frank Nickell, former director of the Center for Regional History at Southeast Missouri State University and director of the Kellerman Foundation, said Grant is "one of the most controversial and intriguing individuals in American history."

Cathy Barton and Dava Para perform "Civil War Music of the Western Border" on Tuesday at Ivers Square in Cape Girardeau.Fred Lynch

It's ironic Grant could have such success as a Union general but later "could do so poorly" as the nation's 18th president, Nickell said.

"As president, he became the tool of scheming friends and politicians," he told the crowd.

Growing up in Illinois, Nickell said he was unable to reconcile the two Grants.

"I could never get the real Grant to stand up," he said.

Grant consistently has ranked near the bottom among U.S. presidents. But Nickell said "Grant's image is changing, and he is rising rapidly."

The celebrated general's Civil War career was launched in Cape Girardeau, where he assumed command of Union troops in Southeast Missouri and Southern Illinois in 1861, Nickell said.

"This is where he gained command and control," he said.

Grant established headquarters in Cape Girardeau for a brief time before moving his command to Cairo, Illinois.

Grant boarded in the St. Charles Hotel in downtown Cape Girardeau.

He occupied an office in the Common Pleas Courthouse from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2, 1861.

Nickell said Cape Girardeau at the time was defended by four forts.

"It was one of the most fortified cities," he said.

A brigadier general at the time, Grant and another brigadier general, Benjamin Prentiss, met in Cape Girardeau and argued over who was in command.

Prentiss, who brought along troops attired in black and white prison uniforms obtained in Jefferson City, ended up returning to St. Louis.

"Grant took the Army and went south to victory and the presidency," Nickell said.

Grant, who struggled at various jobs in St. Louis and Galena, Illinois, before the war, always had "a favorable comment" about Southeast Missouri, Nickell said.

The general referred to the St. Charles Hotel, razed in 1967, as a "quiet, nice hotel."

Limbaugh remarked later he remembered the hotel as a child.

"I wish it was here so we could walk over there," Limbaugh said.

Nickell said Grant "was not a screamer or yeller. He was quiet. He was tough. He was fair."

In addition to Nickell, the symposium featured presentations by three others, including acclaimed Grant biographer Ronald C. White Jr., who delivered the keynote address.

Cathy Barton and Dave Para played Civil War-era music in Ivers Square outside the Common Pleas Courthouse before White's speech.

The symposium coincided with an exhibition of Grant memorabilia, obtained by California collector Candace Scott and owned by Cape Girardeau businessman Earl Norman, as well as from the Ulysses S. Grant Association at Mississippi State University.

Limbaugh said the exhibition, which includes an early 20th-century scrapbook of newspaper clippings featuring Grant as well as rare busts of the general and president, will remain on display at Heritage Hall through Thanksgiving.

mbliss@semissourian.com

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