The Yale expositor. (Yale, St. Clair County, Mich.) 1894-current, 1914-05-28
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grew chilly. At this juncture when things
seemed about as hopeless they could be,
Grants father offered him job Of clerk in his
leather and saddlery store at Gaena, the wages
to be $50 month He glad to accept it.
The year 1860 found Grant keeping the books
in the saddery store. Everybody looked upon
him as failure in life, and it is likely that he
himself shared this opinion But soon afterward,
when the war broke out, he was led to hope that
1t might offer him opportunity. His first
effort in this direction was to urge relative to
furnish the small amount Of money necessary for
starting business Of selling bread to the mill
tary camp near ST. Louis Meeting with a re-
fusal he went to Springfield, ILL.,. and asked Gov
ernor Yates to give him employment in some
capacity, it mattered not what The governor
did not look upon his application with much
favor, but finally directed that he be hired at SO
a day to do odd jobs at Camp Yates
Little as he could have imagined it, however,
a new day was about to dawn upon the fortunes
Of Captain Grant he then called There
in camp at Mattoon a very unruly regiment
of volunteers, the Twenty-frst Illinois infantry,
which seemed likely to be disbanded because Of
it's unwiingness to submit to discipline. Grant
after ALL West Pointer, and any real knowl
edge of military matters just then at a high
premium. He was asked il he cared to under
take the job of commanding the regiment in ques
ton, and promptly accepted the offer, becoming
its colonel.
1t did not take him long to get the regiment
into shape. Anybody who attempted to dispute
his authority was sorry for it, In July he
had orders to transfer his command to Alton
The regiment refused to ride the freight cars
provided for its transportation. and he made the
march all the way He would not even al
low them to get aboard freight train when one
came along.
Modesty was always a marked trait of this
military commander When, some time before
the events just narrated, friend urged him to
apply for the colonelcy of regiment, he said:
Few are able to command 1000 soldiers,
and sure am not one of those" And yet
the day was TO arrive before very long when he
would command million men. When asked,
three years later, What sort of is
Grant," Abraham Lincoln replied: "He is the
quietest little fellow you ever saw He makes
the least fuss of any you ever knew. l be-
lieve two three times he has been in this
room quite while before | knew he here.
It's about so all around The only evidence you
have that he's in any place is that he makes
things git! Wherever he is he makes things
move"
In later years, particularly after he became
president Grant careful about his attire, but
during the Civil war he preserved that indiffer-
to costume which had marked him while at
West Point In the Vicksburg campaign he wore,
in place of the usual military hat and gold cord.
an old battered "stovepipe," such the average
private soldier in his army would not have picked
up in the street. In his mouth was always a
black cigar and he seemed to be perpetually
smoking. friend of his in excuse. said such
a stovepipe Grants should be allowed to
smoke"
j. r. Ringwalt, author of the Anecdotes OF
General Grant" says that he was wounded,
though he constantly and recklessly exposed
himself He was not merely brave, but insensi-
BILE to danger. or his war horse, Cncinnatus, he
was devotedy fond On one occasion, while rid
ing through piece of woods in Virginia during
a brisk engagement he and Colonel Dent were
obliged to a brook at place where the
fire Of the enemy was concentrated and MUIR
derous. piece Of telegraph wire had got twist