The Grant who Parker encountered there was not the victorious general or the president-to-be.

He was a man who had resigned his army commission under circumstances that involved, at minimum, heavy drinking and possibly a more serious breach of conduct, who had failed at farming and real estate, and who was keeping himself financially afloat by working in his family’s business.

Parker was the more professionally successful man at that point — an experienced engineer with government contracts and an established reputation.

Their friendship was genuine in ways that went beyond professional utility.