Evening journal., 1915-09-14
New News Of Yesterday
Why Grant Declined a
Captaincy
By Holland.

I sbent an afternoon in the spring
Of 1897 with the late Gen. A. L. Chet-
iain. then of. Chicago. whose career as
,n officer in the civil war was bril-
liant and who. after Gen Grant be
came President, served for several
Years as United States consul at Brus-
sells. Belgium. I was especially in
terested in Gen. Chetlain's description
of the manner in which the first
volunteer company of Galena. H..
was organized Immediately after
President Lincoln's call in April 1861
for $4,000 volunteers This interest
was justified by the fact that the only
trained soldier in Galena at that time
was a man who was then a clerk in
a leather store, but had been some
wears earlier an officer in the United
States army whose name was U. >.
Grant I had been informed by John
N Francis. formerly our minister TO
Austria and a personal friend OF Gen.
Chetlain. that an intimacy had been
established at Galena between Chet-
. lain and Grant. both being at that time
Young business men of that town Mr..
Francis said to me that / would ind
Cen. Chetlain willing 10 tell me some
81 his recollections Of Grant and
esrcciallv Of the organization OF the
orst volunteer company at Galena-
Cen Chetlain was as cordial rs
7fr Francis had intimated he would
be. He said 20 me;
Cant. Grant would have been unani-
raouslv chosen captain of the hrst
rompanv Of volunteers organized az
0alena only a few days after Lincoln
issued his proclamation. ] said TO
him that 10 a man the members OF
that company would vote for him as
captain. I don't know what our COM
pany would have done had it not been
Cor Grant. Every day he took the
snen out into an open lot and drilled
Them and ] think he was the only
man Of Calena who could have done
that There wasn't a member Of the
company who was living after the
war who did not vividly recall his
drillmaster as well as his utter un-
Consciousness of what was In store
ror him. Not one of them dreamed
that the drillmaster. the leather clerk,
cant. Grant, was to be the great gen
e~al upon the Union side and after
ward President of the United States.
Grant was a splendid drillmaster,
and I doubt if any volunteer COM
pany went to Springfield, the capital
of Illinois. to be mustered in that was
better drilled than our Galena COM
many had been under Grant. Grant
told me that while he appreciated the
courtesy of the volunteers in asking
him to become captain of the COM
pany he could not think of accepting
II. When it became known that this
decision was irrevocable the company
elected me captain II was not unt.l
sometime after, when I was a room
-,ate OF Grant at the hotel in Spring
Told, that he told me why he had de-
lined the captaincy of our company
rIe said that in view of the fact that
fe had been a captain in the regular
army he thought he was entitled tc
appointment as colonel of a regiment
end he intimated to me that if he
could be colonel of a regiment M;
military ambitions would be justified
II was not until some weeks after We
went to Springfield-for Grant wen
with the company TO the capital
that he received appointment a:
colonel of the Illinois regiment. Th'
world knows his career after that.