Portrait and biographical album of Ingham and Livingston counties, Michigan, containing biographical sketches of prominent and representative citizens of the counties ... the governors of the state and of all the presidents of the United States.

E/AI-FIGHTHENTH PRESIDENT.~~SIDIVT

87

EIG_ _IEEN _ J'RzgS1DSNT.

S'S - 0 71.W ^ -T LYSSES S. GRANT, the
^-[ i i hteeighteenth President of the, [ I: 1 ai/~ United States, was born on
l.,Jl_ the 29th of April, I822, of
c o, Christian parents, in a humble
- home, at Point Pleasant, on the
banks of the Ohio. Shortly after
rj l' his father moved to George.
K @ town, Brown Co., O. In this re'i /)]r mote frontier hamlet, Ulysses
J / received a common-school education. 'At the age of seventeen, in the year 1839, he entered
the Military Academy at West
[ Point. Here he was regarded as a
solid, sensible young mat of fair abilities, and of
sturdy, honest character. He took respectable rank
as a scholar. In June, I843, he graduated, about the
middle in his class, and was sent as lieutenant of infantry to one of the distant military posts in the Misscuri Territory. Two years he past in these dreary
solitudes, watching the vagabond and exasperating
Indians.
The war with Mexico came. Lieut. Grant was
sent with his regiment to Corpus Christi. His first
battle was at Palo Alto. There was no chance here
for the exhibition of either skill or heroism, nor at
Resaca de la Palma, his second battle. At the battle
Df Monterey, his third engagement, it is said that
he performed a signal service of daring and skillful
horsemanship. His brigade had exhausted its ammunition. A messenger must be sent for more, along
a route exposed to the bullets of the foe. Lieut.
Grant, adopting an expedient learned of the Indians,
grasped the mane of his horse, and hanging upon one
side of the aniral, ran the gauntlet in entire safety.

From Monterey he was sent, with the fourth infantry,
to aid Gen. Scott, at the siege of Vera Cruz. In
preparation for the march to the city of Mexico, he
was appointed quartermaster of his regiment. At the
battle of Molino del Rey, he was promoted to a
first lieutenancy, and was brevetted captain at Chapultepec.
At the close of the Mexican War, Capt. Grant returned with his regiment to New York, and was again
sent to one of the military posts on the frontier. The
discovery of gold in California causing an immense
tide of emigration to flow to the Pacific shores, Capt.
Grant was sent with a battalion to Fort Dallas, in
Oregon, for the protection of the interests of the immigrants. Life was wearisome in those wilds. Capt.
Grant resigned his commission and returned to the
States; and having married, entered upon the cultivation of a small farm near St. Louis, Mo. He had but
little skill as a farmer. Finding his toil not remunerative, he turned to mercantile life, entering into
the leather business, with a younger brother, at Galena, I11. This was in the year I860. As the tidings
of the rebels firing on Fort Sumpter reached the ears
of Capt. Grant in his counting-room, he said,"Uncle Sam has educated me for the army: though
I have served him through one war, I do not feel that
I have yet repaid the debt. I am still ready to discharge
my obligations. I shall therefore buckle on my sword
and see Uncle Sam through this war too."
He went into the streets, raised a company of volunteers, and led them as their captain to Springfield,
the capital of the State. where their services were
offered to Gov. Yates. The Governor, impressed by
the zeal and straightforward executive ability of Capt.
Grant, gave him a desk in his office, to assist in the
volunteer organization that was being formed in the
State in behalf of the Government. On the i5th of