Ulysses S. Grant Association

October 15, 2014

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

Please join us for the 53rd annual meeting of the Ulysses S. Grant Association, which will be held in Chattanooga, Tennessee May 15-17, 2015. We are looking forward to an exciting weekend of programs, tours, and speakers. The meeting will take place in the area where General Grant won one of the victories that ensured the Federal control of the Western Theater and propelled him into the commanding generalship over the entire Union Army.

Registration will open Friday afternoon 2-4 pm, May 15 at the Chattanooga Choo Choo, 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 host a cash bar reception and a living history performance.  We will then proceed to one of the area’s leading restaurants for dinner in their private dining room. (Busses will be available to take us to all the annual meeting’s formal sessions and dinners.)  Our speaker will be Sam Elliott, a former president of the Tennessee Bar Association and a leading Civil War historian.  He will speak about “A Confederate Perspective on Ulysses S. Grant.”  The prestigious John Y. Simon Award will be presented at this dinner too.

Saturday’s exciting agenda begins in the morning with a tour of “Grant in Chattanooga,” led by Jim Ogden, one of the best known National Park Service historians in the nation.  We will have lunch and discuss the morning program in an area restaurant.  In the afternoon at the Choo Choo, we will enjoy a panel on the history of USGA, moderated by Dr. Joe Prezio, hearing from some of our long-time leaders: Harriet Simon, Jim Bultema, and Frank Williams.

The second panel of the afternoon will consider “What Happens in the Grant Presidential Library?”  Meg Henderson and one of our editors, David Nolen, will provide the answer to that question in words and pictures.  That evening, we will have dinner at a leading Chattanooga restaurant and hear Dr. Timothy Smith, one of the nation’s leading young historians.  He will speak on “U.S. Grant as a Military Leader.”

Sunday, May 17, at 8:00 AM, the USGA board of directors will have its meeting at the Choo Choo (USGA members are welcome to attend).  Following the board meeting, there will be the USGA general members meeting.

Our hotel headquarters will be the famous Chattanooga Choo Choo Hotel, 1400 Market Street, Chattanooga, TN 37402. To receive the special group rate of $105 plus tax, please use the code UGHA15. Rooms are guaranteed until April 2, 2015. The telephone number is (1-800) 872-2529. The Choo Choo also offers guests free parking and free shuttle transportation to and from the Chattanooga Airport. To reserve the shuttle, call (423) 266-5000 at least 24 hours prior to your flight.

You may register for the meeting on our website: www.usgrantlibrary.org. Once again, we offer 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

For any registrant unable to come because of some unforeseen situation, a full refund will be provided for anyone cancelling before April 15, 2015. Beginning April 16, the refund will be one half the appropriate registration fee.

Please feel free to contact Meg Henderson at mhenderson@library.msstate.edu for any further information.

We look forward to seeing you in May.

John F. Marszalek
Executive Director and Managing Editor