On this date 155 years ago....

A major general of average height and stocky build entered the main lobby of the famous Willard Hotel in downtown Washington D.C. that late afternoon. Approaching the counter with his young son in tow, the general asked if the hotel had any rooms available. The clerk at the counter looked at the general before him. His unkempt uniform and faded stars, his mud-stained trousers and boots, all gave the clerk a picture of a man who did not belong in this hotel. Not only that, the clerk needed to only go into the neighboring parlor, throw a rock, and hit a man of equivalent field rank.

Unimpressed with this man, the clerk said that all of their guest rooms were full but that one of their upper rooms in the attic was available for rent. The general nodded his approval and stated to the clerk that those particular accommodations would suffice. Laughing inwardly at this country bumpkin of a general, the clerk asked him to sign his name into the guest book. The general obliged.

When the clerk turned the guest book around to glance at the man's name, his face turned a shade of different colors all at once. There on the guest book, written quite legibly, were the words, "U.S. Grant & son." The clerk immediately looked up at Grant, then back down at the page, then announced quite cheerfully: "The presidential suite is ready for you, General Grant!"

So...it was on this date in 1864 that Ulysses S. Grant arrived in Washington D.C. to accept the position of General-in-Chief of all Union Armies. Within a matter of days, he would be promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General - the first U.S. commander to hold that rank since George Washington. And within just two months, he and Robert E. Lee would be fighting in northern Virginia in a campaign that can only be described as the birth of modern warfare.

And it was all set in motion.....155 years ago today.