Year: 1868

my hands were full and everything
was more or less disorganized.


had no time to observe him and he


was never forward to speak After
ward / put him in the Adjutant


Generals office, and although we


did not know it particularly at the
time, we have found since that he
laid the foundation there ofwhat is
now, probably, the best Adiutant
Generals office in the United States.
Before the war it was nothing.
During all this time Grant was sell
dom in my mind. l had too much
to do to keep personal watch over
every officer in the State and did
not look out particularly for the
Coming Man. But Grant made no
mistakes, and l saw that his West
Point knowledge was useful to u.s.


Near by Springfield, there was a
large camp. termed Came Yates,
containing twenty thousand perhaps.
1t was a source of annoyance to me-
I could not find any body to keep
the men subject and see that they
were made clean, properly fed. and
taught the germs of organization. /
sent Grant out there and pretty
soon complaint ceased Then /
sent him on a tour to various camps
through the State, but still I had no
command to give him under the
arbitrary system of giving only
those places who had raised organ,
izations. He went away, at last, to
visit Covington, Kentucky, where his
father lived. ] did not like to- see
our Illinois boys enter the service
of another Commonwealth, and /
found chance directly to displace
Colonel, or rather to send him to
a different command, and then I
telegraphed to Grant. & sa- s7s=a


"Will you take command of the
.--th regiment !? Answer. aa1,e =.


Grant replied fstsss -5@ : - 'i=-
i II will start Immediately


Hz- ~ fs u. S. GRANT As


He arrived promptly and took the
position Still, I had no exalted
expectations Of him. He was not a
brisk, nervous, attractive man. His
face and figure were not so striking
that anybody could pick him out of
q troop, like Saul, and he did not
say enough to interest me. Out of
2S2 Colonels that commissioned /
thought it as probable that 2S1 Of
them would become famous as
Grant.


He did one thing, however, which
l have since thought was significant
of his future good sense and enter
prise. His regiment was the most
demoralized one that we had in Hi
nois. It had become insnbordinate
and allowed to go to seed. Grant
started the process of breaking it in
by compelling it to march across
the State to Missouri, and he was
the first of our CoIonels who had
economy and pluck enough to save
us the delay and expense of railway
transportation in this manner. In
this march he stepped stragling and
orchard robbing by "a device origi-
nal, good -humored and effective.
He made every straggler carry a
fence rail in line, and as the march
itself was tolerably laborious the
fence rail did its work. He made
a fire fighting regimentof those men,


After speaking on many other
trivial matters Governor Yates said
in conclusion: s....-.+ -.


"Hero- worshippers viii be disap-
pointed ia Grant. I don't take it
to be any stolidness of. mine that
failed to perceive. genius in him.
else did. His genius is not
ostentatious nor dramatic. It is the
genius of accomplishment that he
has. When his work is done there
it is, done, and there, is the man,
except for the work ordinary as be-
fore. I don't make up for this er-
ror of perception by visiting the
General twice as much now as before.
But in the light Of his achievements
I feel the same confidence and salts
faction in him that all the people
feel. The Democrats feel it too
He has no enemies in our State but
political ones, and one or two per-
sonal ones, like McClernand. We
will elect him with ease -