him, and cut his visit short. The regiment remained there a year. In June, 1845, it moved to a point four miles below New Orleans, near the old Jackson battle ground. There it remained till August, when it went forward to Corpus Christi, Texas. In October Grant was made regular second-lieutenant. In March, 1846, the force at Corpus Christi was ordered to move forward to the Rio Grande. On the second of May it was in the battle of Palo Alto (high timber), near the Rio Grande, under General Taylor. The next day the battle of Resaca de la Palma (grove of palms) was fought. In both of these battles Grant's regiment was in active work. Nine days after, General Taylor with his force crossed the Rio Grande and took possession of Matamoras.

Grant's regiment moved on with the army and fought in the battle of Monterey. It was here where Grant did the fierce riding through shot and shell for ammunition. He had been made quartermaster; and losing several officers, he was made adjutant. Grant's regiment was in the battles of Buena Vista and Puebla. It led in the skirmishes of Contreras and San Antonio and in the battle of Cherubusco. At Chepultepec he was so conspicuous that he was breveted, then promoted to a first-lieutenancy. The army moved upon the city of Mexico and the next morning it surrendered and the war was over. It cost us twenty-five thousand men. It was some months before the army returned, but as soon as possible our lieutenant visited Miss Dent and his parents in Ohio.

GRANT'S MARRIAGE.

On the twenty-second of August, 1848, at the Dent residence on Fourth street, St. Louis, Lieutenant Ulysses S. Grant and Miss Julia B. Dent, were married. After the visitings and pleasurings of such occasions were over, they went to the head quarters of his regiment, at Detroit. He was soon ordered to Sackett's Harbor, New York, where he and his wife spent the winter, returning to Detroit in the spring, and setting up housekeeping in such a moderate way as he was able.

In 1850, they broke up housekeeping and Mrs. Grant went to

her father.

The next season the regiment was ordered to Sackett's Harbor, and the next to California. Here he was promoted to a captaincy, giving up the quarter-master's duties, which he had performed for some years. At Fort Humboldt, two hundred and forty miles north of San Francisco, where he was stationed, he found little to occupy his mind. His family was in St. Louis. He was lonely, and little interested in anything about him, and in this low state of mind he took to drink to drown his melancholy moods. At Sackett's Harbor he was a member of the Sons of Temperance and the Odd Fellows. No fraternities of this kind were here; no help from wife and children, for he now had two children, cheered him; no society guarded him. This lonely, far-off fort, offered the only enemy he did not resist with force and success. On this battlefield he was beaten. It was the misfortune of his life. It was an evil habit sooner taken on than put off. It followed him wherever he went and for some years produced failure in whatever he attempted, and put him among a class of associates and into places that did not belong to him.

Rumor came to his ears that he was likely to be displaced, or reprimanded if he did not reform; and so he at once sent in his resignation, remarking to a friend: "Whoever hears of me in ten years will hear of a well-to-do old Missouri farmer." He started at once for New York, and reaching Governors Island, forlorn and penniless; some brother officers gave him money and sympathy, both of which were equally needed now in his illfortune. He went to Sackett's Harbor to find the former sutler of his regiment, to whom, in the days of better fortune, he had lent sixteen hundred dollars, whom he found, but without the disposition, or the money to pay him. He returned to New York again, penniless and crest-fallen. Evil days had come upon him. He was out of the army, without employment, in disgrace and destitution. Like other prodigals, he thought of his father, and wrote to him. In answer, his brother Simpson came to his relief with the old home love, and money to take him to his wife and children, at her father's in St. Louis. After a visit there he went with his family to his father's, now at Covington,

Kentucky, where he remained for several months.

He was

now thirty-two years old and in this sad plight-a dependent on his and his wife's parents in consequence of his drunken habits.

CAPTAIN GRANT A FARMER.

There seemed nothing else to be done but to go to Whitehaven, at Gravois (gravel) creek, ten miles out the Gravois road at St. Louis, and take up farming on sixty acres of the old Dent farm, which her father had given to Mrs. Grant. So, to her old birthplace they went, and put up a log cabin, and set up for farmers. He named the place "Hardscrabble." The writer of this sketch lived five years three miles out on the Gravios road, and often heard of "Hardscrabble" farther out, but little thought of its owner as the future president of the republic. Mrs. Grant had three or four slaves, but her husband knew little how to work them to advantage. Hauling wood to St. Louis, was an important item in the business of the new farmer. This seemed like his boyhood's employment returned under new circumstances. He drove a good team; but his evil habit, if the reports of the neighbors are reliable, drove him sometimes on his return from the city. Though it seems that he fought against this evil habit, refusing to drink with army friends, as some of them report. It was the old story, a hard fight and often worsted.

GRANT A REAL ESTATE AGENT.

January 1, 1859, Captain Grant entered into partnership with Harry Boggs, who had married a niece of the Dent family. He rented Hardscrabble the next spring and hired a house in the city. He then sold his farm and bought in the city, but he found the scrabble quite as hard in the city as on the farm. In less than a year the firm dissolved. He then obtained a temporary position in the custom house, but in a month the collector died, and he was out again. Nothing opening, and having four children to care for, he went again to his father. His father had set up Ulysses' two brothers, Simpson and Orvill, in the tanning business, in Galena, Illinois. He referred the case of

Ulysses to them, and they proposed to give him employment at six hundred dollars a year; so, in March, 1860, he and his family went to Galena.

GRANT A CLERK IN GALENA.

He set up housekeeping in a prudent way. His clerkship was a general one. He had not yet developed the business faculty. He was better at telling stories than making bargains. His income did not meet his expenses. Hardscrabble had come with him. His brothers raised his salary to eight hundred dollars. With this he did better, and had begun to be more hopeful of a fair living. His father had got reasonably wealthy; the brothers had a good start; he hoped for a partnership soon.

THE OPENING REBELLION.

The presidential campaign of 1860 came on. Grant had never voted but once; that was against Fremont, and for Buchanan. He was ashamed of Buchanan. He had been a democrat in a quiet way, though his father and brothers had become enthusiastic republicans. He heard Douglas, and was dissatisfied with him. He was not a voter in Illinois, though he had began to feel much sympathy for the republicans, and when Lincoln was elected joined with his brothers in a celebration at their store.

When the war broke out he presided at the first meeting to raise a company of soldiers, yet another man was made captain. A neighbor took Elihu B. Washburne, member of Congress from that district, in to see Captain Grant. He invited him to go to Springfield with him in a few days. After much delay and confusion Governor Yates took him into his office to do the military part of the business. He soon brought order out of confusion. He was self-distrusting, and asked for no position, yet he wanted One of the clerks from the Galena store was one day in the Governor's office, and he asked: "What kind of a man is this Captain Grant; he seems anxious to serve, though reluctant to take any high position." The clerk replied: "The way to deal with him is to ask no questions, but order him, and he will

one.

obey." Just then a regiment from Decatur was disorderly and out with its colonel. The governor appointed Grant its colonel and ordered him at once to the command. Out of the confusion he soon brought order. In a few days Grant and his regiment were ordered to Missouri. He marched his regiment across the country for discipline.

In July Congress met. A delegation met to arrange army matters. E. B. Washburne urged Grant for a brigadier. Among some forty candidates he was the only one who received every

vote.

BRIGADIER-GENERAL GRANT.

Colonel Grant at once accepted the new position, and soon was in southern Missouri, holding in check the armed and unarmed rebels. Learning of rebels centering at Paducah, Kentucky, he proceeded, without orders, to possess the town and capture a great amount of military stores. He was thus soon in the heart of the enemy's country and in possession of this strategic point on the Ohio, and at the mouth of the Tennessee river. He soon had a staff of intelligent and patriotic

men.

He was restive for action, and after too much waiting he received orders from Fremont to head off the rebels at Columbus, below Cairo, from reinforcing Price in Missouri. At once, he started a division down the west side of the Mississippi to Belmont, opposite Columbus, one down the east side in the rear of Columbus, and went himself down the river with three thousand men. At Belmont he had a sharp and victorious fight with the rebel detachment there, and returned to Cairo.

Here much delay occurred. Fremont was removed and Halleck put in his place, and army movements rested for a time. Sixty-five miles up the Tennessee was the rebel Fort Henry, and a few miles southeast on the Cumberland, Fort Donelson. Grant was anxious to capture these forts. Halleck put him off, and even censured him for interference. On the first of February, 1862, Grant received permission to proceed against Fort Henry. Commodore Foote was nearly ready, and they were