CHAPTER III. ARMY LIFE AND RETIREMENT FROM SERVICE. BREVET SECOND-LIEUTENANT FOURTH INFANTRY.-GOES TO CORPUS CHRISTI.-AT PALO ALTO AND RESACA DE LA PALMA.-AT MONTEREY.-AT VERA CRUZ.-REGIMENTAL QUARTERMASTER.-FIGHTS AT MOLINO AND CHAPULTEPEC.-MENTIONED IN REPORTS AND BREVETTED CAPTAIN.-AT CLOSE OF WAR SENT TO THE NORTHERN FRONTIER.-MARRIES.-OFF TO OREGON.-HARD WORK.-LEATHER-DEALER. On the 1st of July, 1843, Grant began his army service as brevet second-lieutenant in the Fourth Infantry. The explanation of this is, that there being no vacancy in the infantry arm, all graduated cadets are thus attached, in the order of merit, to regiments, as supernumerary officers, each to await a vacancy in his turn. The regiment was then at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Missouri; but, in the summer of 1844, it was removed to Natchitoches, Louisiana, and as the Mexican plot thickened, in 1845, it was sent to Corpus Christi, to watch the Mexican army then concentrating upon the frontier. Grant was made a full second-lieutenant in the Seventh Regiment, on the 30th of September, 1845. But he had formed an attachment for the Fourth, and applied to remain in it this was granted by the War Department. He was fortunate enough to be at Palo Alto and Resaca, May 6 and 7, 1846-the trial fights of the American army against a civilized enemy, after thirty years of peace; and he participated in the bloody battle of Monterey, September 23, 1846. His regiment was soon after called away from General Taylor's command, to join General Scott in his splendid campaign from Vera Cruz to Mexico, two hundred and seventy-two miles in the heart of the enemy's country. He was at the siege and capture of Vera Cruz, March 29, 1847; and on April 1, preparatory to the advance, he was appointed regimental quarter master, a post which he held during the remainder of the war. It is a position requiring system and patience, and drawing a small additional pay; it is usually conferred upon some solid, energetic, painstaking officer, not necessarily one remarkable for dash and valor. Being in charge of the regimental equipage and trains, the quartermaster may, without impropriety, remain with these during actual battle, as we have known many to do. It is therefore recorded, as greatly to the praise of Grant, that he always joined his regiment in battle, and shared their fighting. At Molino del Rey, September 8, 1847, he was distinguished, and was brevetted firstlieutenant for his services. This brevet, however, owing to the fact of his becoming a full first-lieutenant by the casualties of that battle, he declined. At Chapultepec, September 13, 1847, Grant joined, with a few of his men, some detachments of the Second Artillery, under Captain Horace Brooks, in an attack on the enemy's breastworks, served a mountain howitzer and hastened the enemy's retreat, and "acquitted himself most nobly under the observation" of his regimental, brigade, and division commanders.* For this action Grant received the brevet of captain for "gallant and meritorious conduct," awarded in 1849, but not confirmed until 1850. His first-lieutenancy dated from September 16, 1847. It must not be supposed that these services during the Mexican war are now dressed up to assimilate with his after-career. He was really distinguished in that war above most of those of his own rank.† * See General Worth's, Lieutenant-Colonel Garland's, and Major Francis Lee's reports of that battle. During our residence at the capital I heard a "horse-story” about Grant which has not appeared in the books, but which is, at least, true. He was an admirable horseman, and had a very spirited horse. A Mexican gentleman, with whom he was upon friendly terms, asked the loan of his horse. Grant said afterwards, "I was afraid he could not ride him, and yet I knew if I said a word to that effect, the suspicious Spanish nature would think I did not wish to lend him." The result was, that the Mexican mounted him, was thrown before he had gone two blocks, and killed on the spot. Upon the close of the war by the treaty promulgated in April, 1848, the Fourth Infantry was sent first to New York, and then to the Northern frontier, and for some time Grant served in the command of his company, first at Detroit, and then at Sackett's Harbor. In August, 1848, he married Miss Dent, sister of his classmate, Frederick J. Dent, who resided in St. Louis. Incident to the acquisition of California and the wonderful discoveries of gold, troops were more necessary on our Western coast than elsewhere, to protect the emigrants and the new Pacific settlements from the depredations of the Indians. The Fourth Infantry was therefore ordered to Oregon, in the autumn of 1851, and one battalion, with which brevet Captain Grant was serving, was ordered to Fort Dallas, where he saw some service against the Indians. After a two years' absence from his family, and with but little prospect of promotion in those "dull and piping times of peace," Grant having been promoted to a full captaincy in August, 1853, resigned his commission in July 31, 1854, and set forth to commence life anew as a citizen. That he tried many shifts does not betoken a fickle or volatile nature, but simply the invention which is born of necessity. As a small farmer, near St. Louis, and a dealer in wood, he made a precarious living as a money collector he did no more, having neither the nature to bully nor the meanness to wheedle the debtors. He could not "Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee, That thrift may follow fawning." * I visited St. Louis at this time, and remember with pleasure, that Grant, in his farmer rig, whip in hand, came to see me at the hotel, where were Joseph J. Reynolds, then professor, now major-general, General (then Major) D. C. Buell, and Major Chapman of the cavalry. If Grant had ever used spirits, as is not unlikely, I distinctly remember that, upon the proposal being made to drink, Grant said, "I will go in and look at you, for I never drink any thing;" and the other officers who saw him frequently, afterwards told me that he drank nothing but water. He is said also to have played the auctioneer; but in this branch, unless he made longer speeches than he has since done, he could achieve no success. In 1859 he entered into partnership with his father, who had been prosperous in the tanning business, in a new leather and saddlery store in Galena, Illinois. Here, in a place which had a growing trade with Wisconsin, Iowa, and Minnesota, the industry, good sense, and honesty of Grant did at length achieve a certain and honorable success, and, had the rebellion not broken out, he would have had a local reputation in the firm of Grant & Son, as an admirable judge of leather, perhaps mayor of Galena, with a thoroughly well-mended sidewalk, visited always with pleasure by his old army friends travelling westward, but never heard of by the public. His greatest success had been achieved in the army; his Mexican experience gave glimpses of a future in that line; he needed only opportunity, and he was to have it abundantly. Here, then, we mark a new epoch in his life-a sudden plunge, unexpected and unheralded— "The torrent's smoothness ere it dash below." CHAPTER IV. BELMONT. EFFECT OF THE NEWS ON GRANT.-A DEMOCRAT BEFORE THE WAR.-AN UNQUALIFIED WAR-MAN NOW.-RAISES A COMPANY.-ADJUTANT-GENERAL AND MUSTERING OFFICER.— COLONEL OF THE TWENTY-FIRST ILLINOIS.-MARCHES.-ACTING BRIGADIEr at Cairo. -The value OF CAIRO.-THE REBEL STRATEGY.-EXPEDITION TO BELMONT.-FREMONT'S ORDERS.-POLK AT COLUMBUS.-THE BATTLE.-SUCCESS.-ENEMY RE-ENFORCED. GRANT WITHDRAWS.-COMMENTS. Ir may be easily conceived how the treachery of Southern IT leaders, the secession of South Carolina, and the bombardment of Fort Sumter affected Grant. A decided Democrat before the war, he had, in his limited sphere, been in favor of conceding to the South all its rights, perhaps more; but when the struggle actually began, his patriotism and military ardor were aroused together. As a patriot, he was determined to support his Government and uphold his flag; and as a soldier, he saw opening before him a career of distinction for which he had been educated, and in which he had already, in some degree, distinguished himself. In May he raised a company in his own neighborhood, and marched with it to Springfield, the place of rendezvous. It was not long before Governor Yates, to whom he had been recommended by a member of Congress from his State, made use of Grant's experience in organizing the State troops. He was appointed adjutantgeneral of the State, and proceeded to the difficult task of mustering the three-months' men, which, amid much confusion, he accomplished by his indefatigable energy. While on a brief visit to his father, at Covington, Kentucky, Grant received a commission from the governor as colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Volunteers, three-months' men. They subsequently enlisted, owing to their confidence in him, one |