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N the first day of June, 1884, General Grant's physical condition, as well as his financial situation, was deplorable. He was still lame from the effects of a fall suffered some months before; he was sixty-two years of age, without a profession, and unfitted for business, both by ill health and by education. Having been an actor in more dramatic events than any other American that ever lived; having been Lieutenant-General of the United States Armies, and for two terms President of the United States, it now seemed as if nothing more remained for him but to slowly slip down into the decrepitude, comparative obscurity, and despair of an idle old age. This feeling, as much as any other cause, sapped his vitality and his resolution. He saw nothing more for him to do. A special fund donated to him by citizens of New York and invested in stock of the Wabash Railroad was decreasing in value, and seemed likely to decrease further. He was threatened with actual need. His fellow citizens were harshly critical, and he was charged with bringing the whole of his financial trouble upon himself by undue greed. It was a time which taxed his resources to the utmost.

Before the failure of the firm of Grant and Ward, which occurred in May, 1884, the editors of the "Century Magazine" had approached Grant with a proposal to write an article on the battle of Shiloh, which was still being hotly contested on writing-tables North and South. But the old general was as little inclined to write as to make a speech, and bluntly refused to undertake the task.

But now the conditions had changed; and when, after the Grant and Ward failure, the editors again approached him, he consented. He began at once an article on Shiloh. He had always held in reverence commanders like Halleck and McClellan, who