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CHAPTER X.

U. S. GRANT.

THE LIEUTENANT-GENERAL-BIRTH-AT WEST POINT-HIS ACADEMIC COURSE-GRAI)UATION HIS CLASS-MATES-BREVET 2D LIEUTENANT TO MEXICAN BORDER-FULL COMMISSION AS 2D LIEUTENANT-PALO ALTO-RESECA DE LA PALMA-ALONG THE RIO GRANDE-MONTEREY-MOLINO DEL REY-PROMOTED-BREVET DECLINED-CHEPULTEPEC-NOTICED IN REPORTS-CAPTAIN'S BREVET-FULL COMMISSION AS 1ST LIEUTENANT TO OREGON-COMMISSIONED CAPTAIN-RESIGNATION-ST. LOUISGALENA-CONVERSATION WITH REV. MR. VINCENT-GOVERNOR YATES' ACCOUNT-IN COMMAND AT MEXICO-AT CAIRO-SEIZES PADUCAH AND SMITHLAND-THE BATTLE OF BELMONT-Loss-FOUKE AND WRIGHT-ILLINOIS REGIMENTS-GUNBOATS-HAL

LECK-GRANT'S DISTRICT-NEW CAMPAIGN-MAJOR-GENERAL-PROMOTION-ELEMENTS OF SUCCESS.

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[ENCEFORWARD, through two years, the soldiers of Illinois are so intimately associated with one man, about whom they group as a center, that a brief sketch of his life and military career will enable the reader better to understand their shifting move

ments.

It is the fortune of Illinois to have given the nation its chief magistrate, and also to see one of its quiet, unobtrusive citizens rise from Colonel commanding the 21st Regiment to the high grade of Lieutenant-General, commanding all the armies of the United States. Ulysses S. Grant was born in Clermont Co., Ohio, April 27, 1822. In 1839, at the age of seventeen, through the kindness of Gen. T. L. Hamer, he was admitted to the Military Academy at West Point, passing a thorough examination, and was admitted into the fourth class, his studies consisting of mathematics, English grammar, including etymological and rhetorical exercises, composition, declamation, the geography of the United States, the French language and the use of small arms. In 1840 he was advanced to the third class, ranking as corporal in the cadet battalion, study

ing the higher mathematics, French, drawing, and for sixteen weeks the duties of a cavalry soldier. In 1841 he passed into the 2d class with the rank of sergeant of cadets, with a higher and more laborious range of studies, gaining steadily, if not rapidly, and never falling back. In 1842 he entered the first and final class, ranking as a commissioned officer. He pursued the study of civil and military engineering, ethics, constitutional, international and military law, mineralogy, geology and Spanish, these latter extra to the regular curriculum. He also received instruction in ordnance, gunnery and cavalry tactics, and "acquired a practical knowledge of the use of the rifled musket, the field-piece, mortar, seige and sea-coast guns, small-sword and bayonet, as well as of the construction of field works, and the fabrication of all munitions and materiel of war. He graduated on the 30th of June, 1843, standing No. 21, in a class of thirty-nine. Standing first was William B. Franklin, of Pennsylvania, Major-General U. S. Volunteers, commander of Nineteenth Army Corps, &c.

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The names of the next three are not now on the U. S. Army List. Wm. F. Reynolds graduated fifth. He was appointed an aid on the staff of Gen. Fremont, when that officer commanded the Mountain Department, and held the rank of Colonel.

The sixth, Isaac F. Quinby. He entered the artillery service, and was, for a time, professor at West Point, but had, before the rebellion, gone into civil life. He entered the service for the Union at the head of a New York Regiment, and became a Brigadier in the Army of the Potomac.

Roswell S. Ripley graduated seventh. He entered the rebel service and his name stands henceforth in the dishonored list of traitors. John James Peck, the eighth, entered the artillery service. He became Major-General of Volunteers, commander of the District of North Carolina, &c.

John P. Johnson, a gallant artillery Lieutenant, who fell bravely at Contreras, Mexico, was ninth.

Major-General Joseph Jones Reynolds, of Indiana, tenth, attained eminence as a Professor of Science. He served with distinction

* Larke's Biography.

HIS FELLOW GRADUATES.

175

through the war in Mexico; became Major-General of Volunteers, and was killed at the battle of Gettysburg, July 1, 1863.

Col. James Allen Hardie, Assistant Adjutant-General of the Army of the Potomac, was eleventh.

Henry F. Clarke graduated twelfth, entered artillery service, gained brevets in Mexico, became Chief Commissary of the Army of the Potomac, and received the rank of Colonel.

The next was Lieutenant Booker, who died in the service at San Antonio, Texas.

The fourteenth was the traitor Samuel G. French, who deserted his country and flag without even the poor apology of Southern birth, being a native of New Jersey. He is Major-General C. S. A.

The fifteenth, Lieutenant Theo. F. Chadbourne, was killed at the battle of Resaca de la Palma, May 9, 1846, bravely distinguishing himself.

The sixteenth was Christopher C. Augar, U. S. Major-General of Volunteers.

The seventeenth was F. Gardner, another northern ingrate, who, born in New York and educated by the Republic, entered the service of the rebels. He became Major-General C. S. A., and won his notoriety by the surrender of Port Hudson.

The next was Lieutenant George Stevens, drowned at the passage of the Rio Grande, May 18, 1846.

The next, Edm. B. Holloway, of Kentucky, breveted at Contreras, Captain in the U. S. A. At the beginning of the rebellion, he resigned his commission and went to the rebels.

The twentieth, Lieutenant Lewis Neill, who died in service at Ft. Croghan, Texas, Jan. 13, 1850.

Twenty-first, ULYSSES S. Grant.

Twenty-second, Joseph H. Potter, at the commencement of war was Captain in the Regular Army, and became Colonel of Volunteers, retaining his regular rank.

Twenty-third, Lieutenant Robert Hazlitt, killed at the storming of Monterey, September 21, 1846.

Twenty-fourth, Lieutenant Edw. Howe, died in the service at Fort Leavenworth, March 31, 1850.

Next was Lafayette Boyer Wood, of Virginia, not in service.

Twenty-sixth, Major-General Charles S. Hamilton, U. S. Vol

unteers.

Next, Wm. K. Van Bokkelen, of New York, cashiered for rebel proclivities May 8, 1861.

The next two were A. St. Armaud Crozet, who had resigned several years before the war; Lieutenant Charles E. James, who died at Sonora, California, June 8, 1849.

Major-General Fred. Steele, U. S. Volunteers, was thirtieth on the list. He was recently relieved from the command of the Army of Arkansas.

The thirty-first was Captain Henry R. Selden, of the Fifth U. S. Infantry.

General Rufus Ingalls, Quartermaster-General of the Army of the Potomac, stood next, followed in order by Major Fred. T. Dent, Fourth U. S. Infantry, and Major J. C. McFarran, Quartermaster's Department.

The thirty-fifth was Brigadier-General Henry Moses Judah, who commanded a division of the 23d Army Corps.

The remaining four are out of the service. They are Norman Elting, Cave J. Houts, Charles G. Merchant and George B. McClellan.

It is not always that brilliancy in early scholarship makes its way to high success in life's practical duties. There are seniors of General Grant who may have been elated with their higher honors at graduation, who are now proud to serve under their slower but persistent junior.

On the first of July, the second day of his graduation, he received the brevet of 2d Lieutenant. The country was happily at peace, and he was attached as supernumerary Lieut. to the Fourth Regiment U. S. Infantry then stationed in Missouri. The trouble with Mexico continuing, his regiment was ordered to join the army of occupation concentrating under General Taylor in the borders of Mexico, and was stationed at Corpus Christi, where he received the grade of full 2d Lieutenant, dated from September 30, 1845, and was assigned to the Seventh U. S. Infantry. Upon personal solicitation he was permitted to remain with the Fourth. The 8th of May 1846, he participated in the Battle of Palo Alto, and on the 9th in

VINCENT'S REMINISCENCE.

177

that of Resaca de la Palma, and in the subsequent operations of General Taylor along the Rio Grande. On the 23d of September he participated in successful operations against Monterey. The Fourth was transferred to the immediate command of General Scott, and participated in the successful siege of Vera Cruz. The Lieutenant was appointed Quartermaster of his regiment, a position he held until the occupation of the city of Mexico. At the battle of Melino del Rey, September 8, 1857, his bravery was so conspicuous that he was made a 1st Lieutenant on the field. The Senate attempted to ratify this as a mere brevet, which was promptly declined by the young officer. His gallant bearing at Chepultepec is specially noted in the reports of his superiors, and for it he received the brevet of captain in the Regular Army, to date from the 13th day of the battle, which was confirmed. He received his commission as full 1st Lieutenant three days later, which he accepted, holding his prior brevet rank of captain.

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Returning to the States his regiment was broken into battalions and he, with one of them, occupied a northern boundary fort. In 1850 or 1851 it was ordered to Oregon with head-quarters for a time at Dallas. While there he received his full promotion to Captain of Infantry, dating from August, 1853. Shortly after he was attached to the army of the West, but subsequently resigned his commission and entered civil life on the 31st of July, 1854. Having married Miss Dent, of St. Louis, he settled near that city and devoted himself to farming.

In 1859 his father, brothers and himself opened a leather store in the city of Galena, Illinois, where he pursued a profitable business life until the rebellion, when he hastened to tender his services to the country from which he had received his education, though fifteen years of service might well be held to have cancelled that obligation.

The Rev. Jno. H. Vincent, at that time pastor of the Methodist Episcopal Church in Galena, the worship of which Captain Grant regularly attended, has given the writer the following incident:

Having occasion to visit Dubuque on an exchange, he breakfasted on Sabbath morning at the Julian House, and found there his parishioner, the captain. Breakfast over, the captain and the pastor

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