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THE CLASSMATES OF GRANT.

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He afterward became a brigadier-general in the Army of the Potomac.

Roswell S. Ripley, the author of "The War with Mexico," graduated seventh; but his name does not now appear in the official Army Register of the United States, as he had attached himself to the rebel cause.

The next graduate was John James Peck, who entered the artillery service, and was, on January 1, 1864, the commander of the district of and army in North Carolina, which then formed a portion of General Butler's Department.

John P. Johnstone, the daring artillery lieutenant who fell gallantly at Contreras, Mexico, was the next graduate.

General Joseph Jones Reynolds was the next in grade. This officer had gained great credit while in the army, as a professor of sciences; but had resigned some time when the Rebellion broke out. He was, however, in 1861, again brought forward as a general of three months volunteers, under General McClellan, in Western Virginia; was afterward commissioned by the President; and latterly became attached to the Army of the Cumberland. He served on the staff of the general commanding that army, with the rank of major-general, until General Grant assumed command of the military division embracing the Departments of Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland, when he was transferred to New Orleans.

The eleventh graduate was James Allen Hardie, who, during the war of the Rebellion, became an assistant adjutant-general of the Army of the Potomac, with the rank of colonel.

Henry F. Clarke graduated twelfth, entered the artillery service, gained brevets in Mexico, and became chief commissary of the Army of the Potomac, during the war of the Rebellion, with the rank of colonel.

Lieutenant Booker, the next in grade, died while in service at San Antonio, Texas, on June 26, 1849.

The fourteenth graduate might have been a prominent officer of the U. S. army, had he not deserted the cause of his country, and attached himself to the rebels. He had

not even the excuse of "going with his State," for he was a native of New Jersey, and was appointed to the army from that State. His name is Samuel G. French, majorgeneral of the rebel army.

The next graduate was Lieutenant Theodore L. Chadbourne, who was killed in the battle of Resaca de la Palma, on May 9, 1846, after distinguishing himself for his bravery at the head of his command.

Christopher Colon Augur, one of the commanders of the Department of Washington, and major-general of volunteers, was the next in grade.

We now come to another renegade. Franklin Gardner, a native of New York, and an appointee from the State of Iowa, graduated seventeenth in General Grant's class. At the time of the Rebellion he deserted the cause of the United States and joined the rebels. He was disgracefully dropped from the rolls of the U. S. army, on May 7, 1861, became a major-general in the rebel service, and had to surrender his garrison at Port Hudson, July 9, 1863, through the reduction of Vicksburg by his junior graduate, U. S. Grant.

Lieutenant George Stevens, who was drowned in the passage of the Rio Grande, May 18, 1846, was the next graduate.

The nineteenth graduate was Edward B. Holloway, of Kentucky, who obtained a brevet at Contreras, and was a captain of infantry in the U. S. regular army at the commencement of the Rebellion. Although his State remained in the Union, he threw up his commission on May 14, 1861,

and joined the rebels.

The graduate that immediately preceded General Grant was Lieutenant Lewis Neill, who died on January 13, 1850, while in service at Fort Croghan, Texas.

Joseph H. Potter, of New Hampshire, graduated next after the hero of Vicksburg. During the war of the Rebellion he became a colonel of volunteers, retaining his rank as captain in the regular army.

Lieutenant Robert Hazlitt, who was killed in the storming of Monterey, September 21, 1846, and Lieutenant Edwin Howe, who died while in service at Fort

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Leavenworth, March 31, 1850, were the next two gradu

ates.

Lafayette Boyer Wood, of Virginia, was the twenty: fifth graduate. He is no longer connected with the service, having resigned several years before the Rebellion.

The next graduate was Charles S. Hamilton, who for some time commanded, as major-general of volunteers, a district under General Grant, who at that time was chief of the Department of the Tennessee.

Captain Wm. K. Van Bokkelen, of New York, who was cashiered for rebel proclivities, on May 8, 1861, was the next graduate, and was followed by Alfred St. Amand Crozet, of New York, who had resigned the service several years before the breaking out of the civil war, and Lieutenant Charles E. James, who died at Sonoma, California, on June 8, 1849.

The thirtieth graduate was the gallant General Frederick Steele, who participated in the Vicksburg and Mississippi campaigns, as division and corps commander under General Grant, and afterward commanded the Army of Arkansas.

The next graduate was Captain Henry R. Seldon, of Vermont, and of the Fifth U. S. Infantry.

General Rufus Ingalls, quartermaster-general of the Army of the Potomac, graduated No. 32, and entered the mounted rifle regiment, but was found more valuable in the Quartermaster's Department, in which he held the rank of major from January 12, 1862, with a local rank of brigadier-general of volunteers, from May 23, 1863.

Major Frederick T. Dent, of the Fourth U. S. Infantry, and Major J. C. McFerran, of the Quartermaster's Department, were the next two graduates.

The thirty-fifth graduate was General Henry Moses Judah, who commanded a division of the Twenty-third Army Corps during its operations after the rebel cavalry general, John H. Morgan, and in East Tennessee, during the fall of 1863.

The remaining four graduates were Norman Elting, who resigned the service October 29, 1846; Cave J. Couts, who was a member of the State Constitutional Convention

of California during the year 1839; Charles G. Merchant, of New York; and George C. McClelland, of Pennsylvania, no one of whom is now connected with the United States service.

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It is very interesting to look over the above list, and see how the twenty-first graduate has outstripped all his seniors in grade, showing plainly that true talent will ultimately make its way, no matter how modest the possessor may be, and notwithstanding all the opposition that may be placed in its way by others. It will be seen that General Grant now commands a larger force and a greater extent of country than all his thirty-eight classmates put together, and has risen higher in the military scale than any in his class, notwithstanding the fact that he did not seem to possess the same amount of apparent dashing ability.

His pertinacity of character-his stubborn perseverance, even in the midst of disappointments, which overcame adverse circumstances-has characterized the whole of his life, both civil and military.

Four long years of study and drill had passed, and the educated young man looked out upon a life of service and honor. The army of the United States was scattered through the land, doing little besides occupying forts as garrisons, guarding the frontier wherever threatened by troublesome Indians, and superintending the opening of military roads through the wilderness. Vacancies in command did not often occur, and the new graduates must be content with the honorary titles of command. Grant was, therefore, breveted second-lieutenant of the Fourth Regular Infantry, July 1, 1843, the day succeeding his graduation, performing the duties of a private soldier. He joined his regiment, stationed at Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, and with it went on the occasional expeditions into the wild country lying back of the settlements scattered along the great rivers, to protect the defenseless inhabitants from the incursions of their savage neighbors. The succeeding spring he was removed with his regiment up the Red River, in Louisiana.

While in this part of the West, Lieutenant Grant

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assisted his military companions in superintending the opening up of the country, as well as in maintaining the peace and safety of those who had settled and were settling in that region.

How much of blood and treasure has been lavished on our Indian borders! Nor is the hatred of the aborigines toward the white man strange to one who knows the history of robbery, treaty-breaking, and manifold abuses to which they have been subjected. And here we must add a part of an eloquent address from Bishop Whipple, of the West, in the hall of the University of Philadelphia, when a delegation of Sioux sat by his side on the platform. All hearts were thrilled by the strong, Christian, yet indignant appeal of the bishop. He said:

"There were periods in every man's history, when events operating upon his mind would give him a deeper sense of God's providence. The wrongs of the red men are forming a bitter portion of the cup of anguish that God is holding to the lips of this nation. Day by day, these men redeemed by the blood of Christ are sinking into graves dug by the white men. To hold out words of cheer, and to extend acts of comfort to these hapless, unfortunate people, constitute a mission of divinest mercy. To teach these men religion, with its blessings and its glories, has been, and is now, the task of the ministry of Christ. There are strange facts connected with the Indian country. The North American Indian is the only heathen on the face of the earth who is not an idolator. They always recognize with reverence the name and power of the Great Spirit.

"The testimony of every man who ever knew the nature of the Indians before they were brought into relation with the Government, is that the red men never dealt in double-dealing. General Sibley, who for a long time was the frontier agent, says he never locked his house at night, and that at times when he had twenty thousand dollars in silver in his house, he had often come down stairs and found twelve or fifteen Indians grouped in the lower rooms. Yet never was his house violated, and never was a theft committed. The Maiden Feast, a festival

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