Dionatas Ulises de Oliveira MeneguettiBiblio.com
Grant, Ulysses S; Philip H SheridanBiblio.com
Ulysses S. Grant and Philip H. Sheridan Signed Willard’s Hotel Menu.
1865réf. 146517Washington D.C. May 10 1865. Rare historical daily menu from the prestigious Willard's Hotel in Washington D.C. dating to the very day that Confederate President Jefferson Davis was captured. One page double-sided signed inside by Ulysses S. Grant and Philip Sheridan "U. S. Grant Lt. Gen. U.S.A." and "Phil. H. Sheridan Maj. Genl. U.S.A." In fine condition with intersecting folds. Double-matted and framed with an engraved plaque and a window at the rear revealing the front of the menu. The entire piece measures 16 inches by 16 inches. This rare and unique historical document was obtained by the father of New York journalist Edward Page Mitchell who was in the Willard Hotel when the signatures were obtained. Mitchell documented the entire event in his 1924 book 'Memoirs of an Editor: Fifty Years of American Journalism.' The story which can be found on pages 31 and 32 reads: "Several times in the old Willard and many times in its grandiose successor as through a lens at focus I got close-up figures of great personages of the Civil War and of national politics. Of the Willard memories that persist in outstanding two more shall here suffice. Three years after the first visit I went back to that hotel in tow of my father the indefatigable collector of autographs coins memorabilia curios of all sorts. Something of that propensity must have been inherited by me but nothing of his systematic thoroughness in the practice. This sojourn at the inn of Messrs. Sykes Chadwick & Co. occurred a few weeks after the culminating events of the war and a few weeks before the grand review in Washington of the victorious armies. Sheridan's cavalry had rejoined Meade's army south of the James. Jefferson Davis had been captured by his pursuers under General James H. Wilson. Grant with the instinctive delicacy of a gentleman had delegated to General Joshua L. Chamberlain of Maine the honor of receiving Lee's surrender. The commander-in-chief was at the capital established in Halleck's old office in the War Department. Willard's was crowded with officers of the high command. I saw Grant there and Sheridan; the third of the great triad of military success General William Tecumseh Sherman of the march to the sea is not identified in my recollection of the assembled leaders. Immense was my father's satisfaction when he procured a dinner menu for Wednesday May 10 1865 setting forth in bronze ink the chef's programme for the day beginning with cove-plant oysters and promising the guests in a queer blending of good English and indifferent near-French such things as 'Fillet de Boeuf pique' and 'Assorted Vegetables' down to 'Petit pastry au Gelee' and coffee; the entire prospectus being displayed under the more or less mysterious legend 'Still so Gently.' But what gave interest and value in my father's eyes to this menu was its joint indorsement in close juxtaposition on a blank space opposite the 'Epigramme d'Agneau' and the 'Assorted Vegetables' by 'U. S. Grant Lt. Gen. U.S.A.' in acutely angular autograph and 'Phil. H. Sheridan Maj. Gen. U.S.A.' in the sprawling scrawl or scrawling sprawl characteristic of that dashing soldier's chirography." unknown
Raptis Rare Books · États-Unis9 200,00 $US≈ 8 203,30 €
