Grant and Lincoln's invitation

[loetar44]

It is characteristic of premonitions that those who experience them cannot tell why they have feelings of these usually unpleasant “forewarnings.” Ulysses Grant (see Grant, Papers, vol 5, p, 7) say that his wife Julia had premonitions that Richmond had fallen. And when you read “The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant)” by Julia Dent Grant p. 154 – 157, she tells about the unpleasant feeling she had after she received Mary’s invitation, the unpleasant feeling that something threatening was approaching and that she had a chance to avoid it by leaving Washington at once. Nothing about an “Ord’s incident”. I do not say that I believe in a “sixth sense”, but I won’t rule out that Julia’s unpleasant feeling about something bad going to happen was the real cause of Grant's hasty departure from Washington. That’s why I think Julia’s own words are very interesting (attached). It starts with “We retired at a late hour”. That was April 13, when the Grants returned from a reception at the Stantons and after seeing the illumination of the town.

           

In “The General’s Wife, The Life of Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant” by Ishbel Ross, Emma Dent Casey tells that Julia had had one of her premonitory dreams of disaster for
that night (April 14). Remember Lincoln had had one too, presaging his own death.

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