Ulysses S. Grant Association

October 21, 2013

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

Please join us for the 52nd annual meeting of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, which will be held in St. Louis, Missouri, May 2-4, 2014. It will take place in the St. Louis area where Julia Dent Grant spent her childhood at White Haven and where Ulysses and Julia lived prior to Grant’s involvement in the Civil War. We are looking forward to an exciting weekend of programs, tours, and speakers. Our hosts are the professionals of the National Park Service.

Registration will open Friday afternoon 1-5 pm, May 2 at the Holiday Inn, our headquarters hotel. A printed guide will be available to those who would like to do some sightseeing on their own. Friday evening, we will attend a reception, a living history performance, and a tour, all at beautiful White Haven. We will then proceed to “Sam’s” Steakhouse for dinner in their private dining room. (Busses will be available to take us to all the annual meeting’s formal sessions and dinners.)

Saturday’s exciting agenda begins in the morning with a trip to the new Civil War Museum at Jefferson Barracks. This installation was a major military center in the pre-Civil War years, and it was here that Grant served immediately after graduating from West Point. In the afternoon, after a lunch at one of St. Louis’s leading eateries, we will bus to the St. Louis Public Library to hear our own Dr. John F. Marszalek speak at a Civil War symposium to which we are all invited. The day will conclude with a riverboat cruise dinner on the Mississippi River, where historian Edwina Campbell will speak about the Grants’ post-presidency world tour.

Sunday at 7:30 AM, the USGA board will have its meeting at White Haven. During the board meeting, other interested members may participate in a 5k round trip walk/run from White Haven to a historic African American cemetery. Once there, they may participate in a program about the cemetery, if they choose. Following the Board Meeting and the walk/run, there will be the USGA General Meeting, which will conclude the annual meeting’s events.

Our hotel headquarters will be the Holiday Inn St. Louis SW – Route 66, located at 10709 Watson Rd. To make a reservation, call 1-800-972-3145. The hotel is 15 miles from the Lambert-St. Louis International Airport and near White Haven. Be sure to mention the Grant Association meeting to receive the special group rate of $89.00 plus tax. This rate includes a complimentary breakfast. Rooms are guaranteed until April 2, 2014. After that date the hotel will honor the special rate, but will not guarantee room availability.

You can register for the meeting on our website: www.usgrantlibrary.org. New this year is the option to pay online with a credit card and an early bird, regular, and late registration fee schedule. The fee schedule for the meeting is listed below (registration and payment):

Early Bird: Through January 15: $225 per member and $225 per guest/$325 non-member
Regular: January 16-April 15: $250 per member and $250 per guest/$350 non-member
Late: After April 15: $275 per member and $275 per guest/$375 non-member

We are also instituting a new schedule for refunds for those unable to come because of some unforeseen situation. A full refund will be provided for anyone cancelling before April 15, 2014. Beginning April 16, the refund will be one half the appropriate registration fee.

Please feel free to contact me, at mhenderson@library.msstate.edu, if we can provide any further information.

Dr. Marszalek joins me in a cordial invitation to attend what promises to be an exciting weekend.

Cordially,
Meg Henderson

For more information about membership, write to Dr. Marszalek at the address above, e-mail him at jmarszalek@library.msstate.edu, or call (662) 325-4552.