“natural qualities of a high order”
150 years ago today General Meade provided another balanced assessment of his new boss.
From The Life and Letters of George Gordon Meade … (page 191):
HEADQUARTERS ARMY OF THE POTOMAC, April 24, 1864.
Cram and John Cadwalader arrived yesterday afternoon. To-day Cram went to church with me, where we heard an excellent from a Mr. Adams, a distinguished Presbyterian clergyman from New York. After church I drove Cram and Cadwalader to Culpeper, where we paid a visit to General Grant. After coming away, I plainly saw that Cram was disappointed. Grant is not a striking man, is very reticent, has never mixed with the world, and has but little manner, indeed is somewhat ill at ease in the presence of strangers; His early education was undoubtedly very slight; in fact, I fancy his West Point course was pretty much all the education he ever had, as since his graduation I don’t believe he has read or studied any. At the same time, he has natural qualities of a high order, and is a man whom, the more you see and know him, the better you like him. He puts me in mind of old Taylor, and sometimes I fancy he models himself on old Zac.
Yesterday I sent my orderly with Old Baldy to Philadelphia. He will never be fit again for hard service, and I thought he was entitled to better care than could be given to him on the march. …
Well, there is evidence that Old Baldy was with General Meade on the upcoming march.
Cram was probably Mrs. Meade’s brother-in-law.
