Ulysses S. Grant. CHAPTER VII. HIS MILITARY CAREER. Early New England Ancestry-" Blood will tell"-Birth of Ulysses-Boyhood-Life at West Point-His Part in the Mexican War-A Brilliant Record-Twice Brevetted for Bravery and Efficiency in Battle-Becomes a Captain and A. Q. M.-Marries and Resigns-An Uneventful Interval-The Long Roll Sounds Again. It is not proposed in this book to give anything beyond a brief outline of the personal history of General Grant, since an elaborate work of the sort, though, perhaps, not out of place here, has been rendered almost supererogatory by the score or more of biographies of Grant which have already been issued from the press. Aiming at nothing more than a compilation, but desiring to make that compilation as just as possible, the writer inquired of the illustrious subject of all these memoirs which was the most worthy of confidence. The President replied that he had examined but two or three, and that they were by no means trustworthy; and he specified one-the most popular of all, probablyas being particularly inaccurate. In view of this it becomes especially desirable to obtain facts for the following pages from original sources, as far as possible; and this has been done. GRANT'S ANCESTRY. Ulysses S. Grant, the seventeenth President of the United States of America, has at the writing of this, but lately completed his fiftieth year, having been born on the 27th of April, 1822. Perhaps it is not necessary to say anything about the family of President Grant, as the Opposition press has kept that subject well before the public since his inauguration. Nevertheless, it will be interesting to genealogists, and those who believe strongly in hereditary qualities, to learn that the ancestors of the President were sturdy, plain, New England people. His father, Jesse Root Grant, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania; but his father, and all his ancestors back to Samuel, son of Matthew Grant, one of the early Puritan emigrants, were born in Massachusetts or Connecticut. Matthew Grant, of the seventh generation from Ulysses, came to America from Plymouth, England, in the "Mary and John," in May, 1630, and settled in Dorchester, Mass. The heads of the third, fourth and fifth generations following Matthew were each named Noah Grant, and were born in Windsor and Tolland, Connecticut. The second Noah Grant was a famous captain in the French and Indian War, and would, doubtless, have appeared conspicuously among the heroes of the Revolution, had he not fallen by an Indian's bullet, while out scouting, in 1756. His son Noah served through the War for Independence, having enlisted at the first call. Of this Noah, the President's father, Jesse Root Grant, is the oldest son. He was born, as above remarked, in Westmoreland county, Penn. (twenty miles above Pittsburgh, on the Monongahela), on the 23d of January, 1794. The old man is still hale at 78 years, and able to discharge the duties of the postoffice at Covington, Kentucky, a city of 30,000 inhabitants, on the Ohio, opposite Cincinnati. Apprenticed when sixteen years old, to an Ohio tanner, whose trade he learned, Jesse Grant took up his residence, shortly after coming of age, at Point Pleasant, Clermont county, Ohio. Here, in 1821, he married Hannah Simpson, a woman who contributed to the conjugal capital stock of qualities a large degree of piety, firmness, and strength of character; her husband contributing plentiful vitality, quickness of discernment, and that general cleverness which takes a man along well through the world and keeps him on good terms with his fellow men; these, combined with an unswerving integrity and independence of habits which never left him, no matter in what emergency. THE BOY GRANT. Of this marriage, contracted in June, 1821, was born, on the 27th of April, 1822, Ulysses Grant, Un whose name, reckoning according to the wideness of its celebrity, stands third in the long list of statesmen, generals, and philosophers which our country is able to boast. It is not proper to attempt in this sketch a detailed account of the boyhood life of Grant, which has already become familiar to millions of readers through the efforts of his many biographers. Suffice it to say that he soon developed several noticeable qualities-physical courage, self-possession, honesty, and modesty; one particular talent-that of horsemanship, which he possessed to a remarkable degree; and one special passion—a dislike to tannery work. He was not lazy, however, nor yet untractable; nor had he any vices which his father ever discovered. One fact which the old man recalls with satisfaction, was the boy's freedom from the taint of profane or intemperate language. A CADET AT WEST POINT. By the time he had arrived at the age of sixteen, Ulysses had acquired at the common school of Pleasant Point the rudiments of a common school education, and had read the Life of Washington, but not many other books. Fortunately for the American Union (as it has turned out since,) Jesse Grant knew a member of Congress well enough to secure the appointment of his boy to the West Point Military Academy-subject, of course, to the prescribed examination. It was while passing through the hands of this Congressman, and through |