After Mr. Hunter had posed with Stonewall Jackson and General Lee, we went in search of the man whom we thought was portraying General Ulysses S. Grant. My friend and Mr. Hunter and I kept going to different tents and asking where General Grant was. It might have been a good clue when more than one person answered that they didn't know if General Grant was there. Nevertheless.
Finally we located our guy. I remember that the youngster who portrayed a Union bagpipe player was hanging out at this tent, too. (The bagpipe player was notable during the battle because he kept playing on and on.)
Our Union general was amenable to posing with Mr. Hunter, so we took this very serious photo first. Then I think we went to take a group photo with my friend and I in the shot, too. The bagpipe player had trouble working my camera, so as I wrestled with the camera, my friend talked some more to the general. She mentioned that she'd been reading the Autobiography of Mark Twain recently, and how Mark Twain had talked about his time working with Ulysses S. Grant on Grant's memoirs. There was a pause. A long pause. And then our general said, "I'm not General Grant. I'm General George H. Thomas." !!!!!
Not only was this fellow portraying General George Henry Thomas, aka the Rock of Chickamauga, aka the Sledge of Nashville, aka Slow Trot Thomas. This fellow in the General Thomas costume was descended from General George Henry Thomas. Um, faux pas!
August 2001
