The Washington herald., 1915-09-14
HISTORY BUILDERS.
Why Grant Declined a Captaincy.
Written expressly for The Washington Hersld.)
by DIR. f. J. EDWARDS.

lNntten expressly Tor The Washington HeraldD
BY DIR. f. }. EDWARDS.
I spent an afternoon in the spring
of 1897 with the late Gen. A. L. Chet-
lain. then of Chicago. whose career as
an officer in the civil war was bril-
liant and who. after Gen. Grant became
President. served for several years as
United States consul at Brussels. Bel
GUM. 1 was especially interested in
ner in which the first volunteer COM
pany of Galiena. Ill. was organized
| Immediately after President Lincoln s
call in April. 1861. for $4,000 volun-
I teers. 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 years earlier an
officer in the United States army
whose name was u. S. Grant. 1 had
| been informed by John NJ. Francis.
formerly our minister to Austria and
a personal friend of Gen. Chetlain.
| that an intimacy had been established
at Galena between Chetlain and Grant,
both being at that time young busi-
ness men of that town. Mr. Francis
| said to me that 1 would find Gen.
| Chetlain willing to tell me some of
his recollections of Grant and especi-
| ally of the organization of the first
| volunteer company at Galena.
Gen. Chetlain was as cordial as Mr..
| Francis had intimated he would be.
He said to me:
Capt. Grant would have been unani-
mously chosen captain of the first
company of volunteers organized at
Galena only a few days after Lincoln
issued his proclama ton. / said to him
that to a man the members of that
company would vote for him as cap
| tain. l don't know what our company
| would have done had it not been for
Grant. Every day he took the men
out into an open lot and drilled them
and 1 think he was the only man of
Galena who could have done that.
There wasn't member of the COM
pany who was living after the war
who did not vividly recall his drill
master as we'll as his utter uncon-
sciousness of what was in store for
him. Not one of them dreamed that
the drillmaster. the leather clerk. Capt.
Grant, was to be the great general
upon the Union side and afterward
President of the United States.
Grant was a splendid drillmaster.
and 1 doubt if any volunteer company
/ "tnt u thu topitdA Va
Illinois. to be mustered in that was
| better drilled than our Galena COM
pany had been unde- Grant. Grant
| told me that while he appreciated the
courtesy of the volunteers in asking
| him to become captain of the company
he could not think of accepting it.
When II became known that this de-
cision was irrevocabl the company
elected me captain. 1t was not until
sometime after. when 1 was a room
mate Of Grant at the hotel in Spring
| field, that he told me why he had de-
clined the captaincy of our company.
| He said that in view of the fact that
| he had been a captain in the regular
| army he thought he was entitled to
| appointment as colonel of a regiment.
and he intimated to me that II he
| could be colonel of a regiment his
military ambitions would be justified.
1t was not until some weeks after we
went to Springfield-for Grant went
with the company to the capital
that he received appointment as
colonel of the Illinois regiment. The
world knows his career after that
| Tomorrow DIR. Edwards Will tell OF
| AN Upright Government Contractor.
/ (Ccpjght. l9is, BY L. J. Edwards Al rights re-
| sevedl