Lutheran Heritage to host presentation on Grant, Tower Rock

The Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum will host a very fitting presentation.
The center will host Missouri Humanities for its Forged in Missouri: Ulysses S. Grant and the Show-Me State presentation.
The event will be hosted at the center on September 11 at 4 p.m. as Gregory Wolk will present a vivid portrait of the early days of the Civil War and explains how Grant’s experiences in Missouri impacted his rise to fame as a soldier. Wolk is described as an “expert” on Grant. The event in Altenburg is connected to an exhibit that is in Cape Girardeau.
“There is so much local history, both in Missouri and nationally about Grant that he is such an interesting person to learn about.” Lutheran Heritage Center Director Carla Grebing said.
Born Hiram Ulysses Grant, in Point Pleasant, Ohio, the future General-in-Chief’s name was changed due to a clerical error during his first days at the United States Military Academy at West Point.  To his friends, however, he was known simply as “Sam.”  After a stint as a cadet, he graduated twenty-first out of the thirty-nine cadets in class of 1843.  Yet despite his less than exemplary school record, he performed well as a captain during the Mexican War (1846-1848), winning two citations for gallantry and one for meritorious conduct.  Only when the fighting stopped and Grant was assigned duties at remote posts far from his wife and family he resigned in 1854
Grant spent the next six years in St. Louis with his wife, Julia Dent Grant. After several short-lived pursuits, including a brief episode as a farmer, he moved to Galena, Illinois to be a clerk in his family’s store. When the Civil War began in 1861, he jumped at the chance to volunteer for military service in the Union army. His first command was as the colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry, but he was quickly promoted to brigadier general in July 1861, and in September was given command of the District of Southeast Missouri.

In March 1864, President Lincoln elevated Grant to the rank of lieutenant general, and named him general-in-chief of the Armies of the United States. Making his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, Grant was determined to defeat Robert E. Lee and his  Army of Northern Virginia at any cost.  Though plagued by reticent subordinates, petty squabbles between generals and horrific casualties, the Federal host beat Lee from the Rapidan River to the James in what one participant would later describe as «unspoken, unspeakable history.»  The battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor and the subsequent siege of Petersburg effectively destroyed the rebel army, leading to the fall of Richmond and Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House.  Though Grant’s forces had been depleted by more than half during the last year of the war, it was Lee who surrendered in 1865.
After the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson named Grant Secretary of War over the newly reunited nation. In 1868, running against Johnson, Ulysses S. Grant was elected 18th President of the United States.
The presentation will also bring to light a local landmark.
Known now as “Tower Rock,” it was familiar to native peoples and European adventurers for centuries, including Marquette and Joliet, Lewis and Clark, and, well, Union General Ulysses S. Grant. When Grant was President, the Corps of Engineers proposed to blast it out of the river to aid river navigation, but the Commander in Chief intervened on March 4, 1871 to spare it.
The presentation will be free of charge and open to the public.
“It is great to have such a quality presentation and speaker come to Altenburg,” Grebing said. “I’m excited to bring things like this to Perry County.”