Grant's stay in Cairo explained

To the editor:

A recent Speak Out comment raised what appears to be a controversy over the headquarters of Gen. U.S. Grant during the six months his troops were in Cairo, Ill., during the Civil War. I can straighten this out.

Officially (which means written on official government stationery), Grant's headquarters was the Halliday Hotel. The federal government had reserved two floors for Grant and his officers. One of Grant's officers was Col. Ely Parker, a Seneca Indian. Because of this, the innkeeper refused to give Parker a room. This infuriated Grant so much that he and his officers left, never to use the two floors. Grant then made 609 1/2 Ohio his headquarters.

To get even with the innkeeper's attitude, Grant did no release the two floors back to the hotel. Thus, the hotel lost six months of pay for those rooms.

This and other details can be found in the book, "The Indian's General," which I wrote.

MAUREEN HUGHES, Penfield, Ill.