August 7, 1865
“Hey, Charley.”
Brigadier General Edwin Gray Lee extended his hand to the young man at the table in front of him in the posh dining room of the Riverton Hotel in Quebec Province, British Canada. Newspapers across Canada heralded the arrival of the American Lieutenant General U. S. Grant, Union victor of the War of Rebellion, “one of the most remarkable men in North America,” in Montreal on a state visit.
The youth stood, clasped Lee’s hand, and shook it earnestly. He was six feet three inches in height, with chestnut hair and a non-matching moustache, set off by a pair of wire-rim spectacles. The hair was dyed and the moustache a mite ragged. The eyeglasses were fake. Had anyone seen the man with his natural sandy hair and usual goatee or Napoleon whiskers under his chin,
