In the first year of his presidency, Ulysses S. Grant took a brief vacation trip to White Sulphur Springs stopping overnight in Staunton at the American Hotel. When the news of his arrival spread, a music band that had previously served as Stonewall Jackson’s headquarters band assembled at the station opposite his Hotel room and serenaded Grant. Grant came out on hotel balcony and acknowledged the band by raising his hat. The incident was one of the first public acts of reconciliation after the American Civil War.
