The tri-weekly standard. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1866-1868, 1868-01-04
GENERAL GRANT.

from Colonel Adam Badeau's Military
Career of General Grant," soon to be pub
lished:
Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on the 9th
of April, 1922, at Point Pleasant, Clermont
county, Ohio. His father was of Scotch de-
scent, and a dealer in leather. Ulysses was
the eldest of six children He entered the
Military Academy at West Point at the age
of seventeen, the Congressman who procured
his appointment giving his name by mistake
as Ulysses S. Grant. Simpson was the
maiden name of his mother. and was also
borne by one of his younger brothers; this
doubtless occasioned the error. Young
Grant applied to the authorities at West
Point and the Secretary of War to have the
blunder corrected, but the request was I'M
noticed his comrades at once adopted the
initial U. S. in his behalf, and christened
him Uncle Sam--a nickname that he never
lost in the army; and when he graduated
in 1843, twenty first in a class of thirty-nine,
his commission of brevet second lieutenant
and his diploma both styled him Ulysses s.
Grant, by which name he has since been
known.
His regiment was the 4th infantry; he re-
malued In the army eleven years; was enga-
ged in every battle of the Mexican war. ex-
cept Buena Vista, receiving two brevets for
gallantry, and was afterward stationed at
various posts on the Canadian frontier, and
finally in California and Oregon. In 184S
he married Julia T. Dent, eldest daughter of
Frederick Dent, a merchant of st. Louis :;
and in 1854, having reached the grade of
captain, he resigned his commission in the
army, and removed to Gravel, near ST. Louis,
where he owned and worked farm After
wards, in 1860, he entered the leather trade
with his father and brother, in Galena, H.
linois
Thus, when the civil war broke out, Grant
was private citizen, earning his bread in
an insignificant inland town. He was of
simple habits and tastes, without influence,
and unambitious. Having never been
brought in contact with men of eminence,
he had no personal knowledge of great af-
fairs. He had never commanded more than
company of soldiers, and, although he had
served under both Scott and Taylor, it was
as subaltern, and without any opportuni-
ty of intercourse with those commanders
He had never voted for President but once
he knew no politicians, for his acquaintance
was limited to army officers and Western
traders even IN the town where he lived he
had not met the member of Congress who
represented the district for nine successive
years, and WHO atterward became one of his
most intimate personal friends Of his four
children, the eldest was eleven Years old
He lived in little house at the top of one
of the picturesque hills on which Galena is
built, and went daily to the warehouse of
his father and brother, where leather was
sold by the wholesale and RETAIL He was
thirty-nine years of age before his country
men became acquainted with his name
Fort Sumpter fell on the 18th of April,
tha
made on the 10Th. On the 10Th Grant was
drilling a company of volunteers at Galena
and four days afterward went with it to
Springfield, the capital of Illinois. From
there he wrote TO the adjutant general of the
army, offering his services to the government
in any capacity in whice he could he of use.
The letter was not deemed of such lmpor-
lance as to preserve it. 1t stated that Grant
had received a military education at the pub
lie expense, and now that the country was
in danger he thought it his duty to place at
the disposal of the authorities whatever
skill or experience he had acquired He re-
celved no reply; but remaining at SPRING
field, his military knowledge made him of
service in the organization of the volunteer
troops of the State; and at the end of five
weeks the Governor, Richard Yates, offered
him the 21st regiment of infantry
Before receiving his colonelcy Grant went
to Cincinnati to visit Major General McClel-
Ian, then in command of Ohio Volunteers
The two had known each other in the old
army, and although Grant had no intention
of making any application, he still hoped
that Mcclellan might offer him place on
his staff. He went twice to hcadqurters,
but did not find Mcclellan there and return
eel to Illinois without mentioning his aspira-
tiOns to any one
On the 25th of February Grant was assi.n,-
ed to the new military district of West Zen
nessee, with limits not defined" and Brig
adler General William T. Sherman to the
command of the district of Cairo. Sherman
had been at West Point with Grant. but
graduated three years earlier, and they had
not since been intimate their first official
intercourse occurred during the siege of Fort
Donelson, when Sherman forwarded troops
and supplies to Grant with extraordinary
dispatch. Sherman was the senior, but on
the 18th Of February he wrote: Il will do
everything IN my power to hurry forward
your relntorcements and supplies, and if
could be OF service myself would gladly
come without making any question of rank
with you or Gen. Smith,
After the fall of Fort Donelson Sherman
congratulated Grant warmly on his success.
and Grant replied: s. feel under MANY OBJ.
legations to you for the kind terms of your
letter, and hope that, should an opportunity
occur, you will earn for yourself that pro-
motion which you are kind enough to say
belongs to me. 1 care nothing for promo
ton SO long as our arms are successful, and
no political appointments are made"
This was the beginning of friendship des-
tined thereafter never to fag-to stand the
test of apparent rivalry and public censure,
to remain firm under trials such as few
were ever subjected to. to be-
come warmer often as it was sought to be
interrupted, and in hours of extraordinary
anxiety and responsibility and care to afford
a solace and support that were never lack
ing when the need arose.
The greatest snow storm recorded in
Russia occurred on the steppes of Kirgheez,
in Siberia, in 1927, destroying 285 900
horses, 3O,400 cattle, 100000 sheep and
10000 camels. The greatest recorded in
England is that of 1914, in which forty-
eight hours the snow fell so furiousty that
drifts of sixteen, twenty, and even twenty
four feet. were recorded in various places.
In the south of Scotland in 1920 there were
thirteen drifty days, which killed nine
enthS of all the sheen On Eskdale Moor |