I had always heard that Ulysses S. Grant was invited to accompany Abraham Lincoln to Ford’s Theater on April 14, 1865 to see the play Our American Cousin. Grant declined. Lincoln was, of course assonated there. I also knew that Grant was travelling to Jersey to stay at a vacation home that night, although I did not know where the home was.
In November I did some research and found out that Grant Vacation Home still exists. After the war, Grant would stay on the Jersey Shore, but during the war, he would stay in Burlington, a small city along the Delaware River. The site is marked with an historical marker, but it is privately owned and it not open to the public. When I went by, it appeared that the owners were not adverse to people taking photographs as long as you respect their property rights. The city has built a small pathway alongside the house so you can see the rear of the house and the backyard where the Grant family could relax.
The home is located at 309 Wood St., Burlington, N.J.
Grant received word while en route by train to his home in Burlington that Lincoln had been shot. Most historians believe that John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators had intended to kill Lincoln, Grant, Secretary of State William Seward, and Vice President Andrew Johnson, essentially wiping out much of the command of the Federal government. Seward was attacked and nearly died, but Grant and Johnson avoided the assassins’ plot. A man tried to barge into Grant’s car, but he was stopped because the conductor had locked the door. We do not know if the man was part of the plot. Grant later wrote; “I received an anonymous letter from a man, saying he had been detailed to kill me, that he rode on my train as far as Havre de Grace, and as my car was locked he could not get in. He thanked God he had failed.”
While the house was never really Grant’s “Home,” it did provide a home to his wife Julia and their four children. Grant visited them and stayed at the house when he could get a break. It was a relatively new house, having been built in 1856. The Grant family moved in during 1864 after Grant left his army behind in Tennessee and transferred to Washington.
In addition to the historical marker, the house itself has a sign identifying it as “Home of General Ulysses S. Grant.”
Local lore says that Grant stood on the balcony pictured below to tell the townspeople that Lincoln had been shot.
Grant told a reporter about that night:
I arrived in Washington on the 13th. I was busy sending out orders to stop recruiting, the purchase of supplies, and to muster out the army. Lincoln had promised to go to the theater, and wanted me to go with him. While I was with the President, a note came from Mrs. Grant saying she must leave Washington that night. She wanted to go to Burlington to see our children. . . . I was glad to have the note, as I did not want to go to the theater. So I made my excuse to Lincoln, and at the proper hour we started for the train. As we were driving along Pennsylvania Avenue, a horseman drove past us on a gallop, and back again around our carriage, looking into it. Mrs. Grant said, ‘There is the man who sat near us at lunch to-day, with some other men, and tried to overhear our conversation. He was so rude that we left the dining-room. Here he is now riding after us.’ I thought it was only curiosity, but learned afterward that the horseman was Booth. It seems I was to have been attacked, and Mrs. Grant’s sudden resolve to leave deranged the plan. A few days later I received an anonymous letter from a man, saying he had been detailed to kill me, that he rode on my train as far as Havre de Grace, and as my car was locked he could not get in. He thanked God he had failed. I remember the conductor locked our car, but how true the letter was I cannot say. I learned of the assassination as I was passing through Philadelphia. I turned around, took a special train, and came on to Washington. It was the gloomiest day of my life.” [Grant, Ulysses S.. The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (The Annotated Books) (p. 899). Liveright. Kindle Edition quoting from Around the World with General Grant by John Russel Young 2:355–56.]
Some say that Julia did not want to go to the theater because she did not want to be with Mary Todd Lincoln. However, Julia had asked to go back to New Jersey before the Grant’s received an invite from Lincoln to go to Ford’s Theater. Grant had just returned from the Appomattox Campaign and receiving the surrender of Robert E. Lee and Julia wanted to give her children a time with their father without the war hanging heavy over them.
Here is Julia’s recollection of that day:
“As soon as I received the invitation to go with Mrs Lincoln, I dispatched a note to General Grant entreating him to go home that evening; that I did not want to go to the theater; that he must take me home. I not only wrote him but sent three of the staff officers who called to pay their respects to me to urge the General to go home that night. I do not know what possessed me to take such a freak but go home I felt I must. The General sent me word to have my trunks ready and for Jesse and me to have our luncheon, and, if he could be in time, we would take the late afternoon train for Philadelphia.”
Burlington is a very historic place to visit today. It is a small city with only 9,743 people living in it. That is not much bigger than it was in 1860 when 5,174 folks lived there. Burlington was established by Quackers in 1678. In the late 1790s the Quakers became increasingly anti-slavery and by the 1840s many families gave shelter to runaway slaves escaping on the Underground Railroad.
In the photo below you can see the side of the house.
Below is the view of the from the side.
Below shows the backyard where the Grant family could take their leisure.
The house is still in good shape and well-maintained. It was November when I visited and there were a lot of unraked leaves!
Here is an early 20th Century photo of the house.
The houses down the street from the Grant Home are mainly from the Civil War Era with urban townhouses predominating.
Of course, I stopped by on a rainy day!
Here are houses right across from the Grant House.
