Some Hidden Thunder (U.S. Grant Mysteries) by Jeffrey Marks

Author:Jeffrey Marks [Marks, Jeffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2012-06-24T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Grant found Julia and her father, Colonel Dent, sitting in the hotel lobby chatting and laughing. The light tinkle of Julia’s laughter could still make him smile after all these years. She had leaned in toward her father, who seemed to be spinning some yarn.

Grant steeled himself for the encounter. Julia was inordinately fond of her father, and if possible, even more so since the death of her mother before the war. She looked up to her father, and the self-appointed colonel adored her in return.

His feelings for Grant were another matter entirely. The man had wanted his daughter to marry better than an Army man and the son of a tanner, even though Grant had roomed with Julia’s brother at West Point and Jesse Grant had made a fortune in the leather industry. The Dents fancied themselves as a step above the Grants.

One can harbor a sentiment; it’s another thing to declare those feelings in public. Dent, on more than one occasion, had denigrated his son-in-law in public. The world knew Colonel Dent’s views on Grant. He’d deeded some of the 950 acres that made up White Haven to the Grants in hopes of setting them up as farmers, but their farm hadn’t made a profit. How ironic it was that Grant had just paid the taxes on all of White Haven this summer, six years after they’d moved to Galena to live off the beneficence of his own father.

His father was glad to lure his son away from the slave-owning, illiterate Dent. Jesse Grant was as radical in his anti-slavery views as Dent was in his pro-slavery views. The elder Grant was fond of telling how he’d apprenticed in the tanner trade with the Brown family, the same Browns who’d begat John, whose body was now a’moldering in the grave. Jesse’s wealth had increased during the war, almost in proportion to the decline of the Dents. Now the roles were reversed, and he and Julia found themselves supporting the old colonel.

Not that Dent would notice a thing like that. He hadn’t been grateful enough to keep his views on slavery to himself, and the man was becoming an embarrassment to Grant as the Radical Republicans in Washington heard rumors of Dent’s Southern sympathies. They brooked no dissent, and Andy Johnson was about to learn that lesson the hard way.

Even worse, Grant could not deny the stories. Dent had owned probably more slaves than any other landowner in the St. Louis area. At times, the count came near two score. Julia had owned four of her own that she declared she couldn’t do without. They had all been manumitted with the end of the war.

The matter of slavery had become a personal matter between the men. Dent had sympathized with the Rebel cause and had flown into a rage when he heard that Grant and his own son had joined the Union Army. Things had grown so testy that Dent had threatened to shoot Grant with no more feeling than a rabbit if the man stepped foot on White Haven.

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