Ulysses S. Grant Association

3 November 2009

Dear Members and Friends of the Ulysses S. Grant Association,

I invite you to attend our annual meeting, scheduled from May 2-4, 2010, on the campus of MSU. We have planned an exciting program, which will begin on Sunday, May 2 between one and five PM with registration, a tour of the Mitchell Memorial Library, and a tour of a new Civil War Artillery Museum in Starkville. At 7:30 PM, we will enjoy dinner in the Grisham Room of the Mitchell Memorial Library where our main speaker will be National Park Service historian Pam SanFilippo, whom many of you know as the historian at the Ulysses S. Grant Historic Site in St. Louis. The title of her presentation is “White Knight and Drunken Butcher: Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant in American Memory.” On Monday we will take a bus trip to Vicksburg, Mississippi where we will receive a specially escorted tour of the Vicksburg National Military Park led by the National Park Service historian Terry Winschel, one of the nation’s leading Civil War scholars. We will also visit the site of the Cairo, the river boat lifted from the waters of the Yazoo River where it sank during the war. Dr. David Slay, another NPS historian and the individual who did the index for Volume 31 of The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, will speak to us at the Cairo site. We will also visit several other places in Vicksburg associated with General Grant. That evening, at dinner in Vicksburg at the Duff Green ante-bellum mansion, we will hear from Dr. Tamara Smith, a former assistant editor of the Grant Papers who will speak to us on “More Than Brothers: Ulysses S. Grant and James B. McPherson.” On Tuesday morning, the meeting of the Board of Directors will take place, and we will have a discussion panel consisting of published historians who will also be available for a book signing. We will adjourn around 10:30 AM, but we will have opportunities, for those who have the time, to visit a variety of interesting areas of the Mississippi State University campus and surrounding community.

Starkville and Mississippi State University have Delta Airlines (and Northwest Airlines) air service from Memphis and Atlanta into the Golden Triangle Regional Airport (Columbus) GTR. One can also reach here through airports at Jackson, Mississippi (2 hours away by car); Memphis (three hours away by car); Birmingham, Alabama (three hours away by car) and Tupelo, Mississippi (one hour away by car). All these airports are busy, so I urge you to make your flight plans early.

The headquarters hotel will once again be the Hampton Inn in Starkville. We have reserved a limited block of rooms at $104 a night plus tax, and this includes an excellent breakfast. Make your reservations EARLY and be sure to mention the Grant Association to receive the special rate. The direct local telephone contact for the Starkville Hampton Inn is 662-324-1333. You may also go to www.hamptoninn.com and type in UGA to receive the special rate for the Starkville hotel.

Please feel free to contact me at johnmarsz@yahoo.com or 662-325-4552 if I can provide any further information.

Cordially,

John F. Marszalek