One of the Most Moving Stories of Heroism

Horace Porter painstakingly described General Grant’s gut-wrenching realization that as he moved through the ranks the evening before another assault at Richmond, he noticed the men were sewing on their jackets, not something normally exercised in unison. Soon he realized, they were calmly writing their names and home addresses and stitching them to the backs of their coats so that their bodies might be identified the next day and their families might learn of their fate. paraphrased from the “Passing of the Armies" by Gen Joshua Chamberlain