_Wherein Captain Galligasken follows the illustrious Soldier to
West Point, and dilates admiringly upon the many excellent Traits
of Character which the Hero exhibited there._
Tanning, even with oak bark, and the strong stimulus of the paternal
example, had no charms to young Grant. Though it was a very honorable
and useful occupation, he was remorselessly opposed to it; not because
he was a dandy, and it soiled his hands, nor because he was fastidious,
and the odor was unpleasant, but because he had no taste for the trade.
It presented nothing but the dull routine of a mechanical employment,
with no difficulties to be overcome, and with no variety to enliven it.
Whenever his father suggested that they should grind bark, he would
start for the village without a word of reply, and hire a boy to take
his place in the tannery, while he earned the money to pay him in some
more congenial way.
Grant and his father appear to have agreed remarkably, notwithstanding
their dissimilarity of tastes on the subject of tanning. The giant
will was under judicious control, and was not exerted in opposition
to the paternal inclination. He seems to have been obedient to his
parents, even while his own wishes and tastes were in violent antipathy
to theirs. On one occasion, when there was a scarcity of hands in the
tannery, his father told him he must have his help in the beam-room.
He obeyed, and went to work, but not without renewedly expressing his
dislike of the business. He told his father that he would work at it,
if he wished him to do so, until he was of age, but not a day after
that time.
This important period was the turning-point in the career of the
young man, and the country is indebted to Mr. Grant for his judicious
handling of the difficulty before him. He did not blindly and wilfully
oppose the boy's inclination, even after he had voluntarily signified
his intention to be guided by his father's wishes, at the expense of
his own individual tastes. Perhaps, in my unbounded admiration for the
man, I am hasty in catching at analogies; but I cannot help seeing the
germ of another soldierly attribute in the disposition which young
Grant displayed on this occasion--the quality of obedience, without
which the soldier is nothing. Though possessed of a mighty will, Grant
has never been known to disobey the lawful commands of his superior,
however disagreeable they were to him.
Mr. Grant fully realized that it was time for his son to have some
definite views in regard to the future; and instead of compelling the
boy to bend his back over the beam in the tannery, against his settled
inclination, he simply replied to his complaint that he did not wish
him to follow the business if he did not like it, and could not choose
it as his permanent occupation. The worthy patriarch was prudent in
his treatment of the case, I repeat; and though I am not old enough to
entitle my words to be regarded as the oracles of a sage, I commend his
example to the attention of all ambitious parents who expect their sons
to become great generals or presidents.
The father asked the discontented youth what employment he thought he
would like. Ulysses evidently had not considered this grave matter in
all its bearings, for he was not prepared to mention the particular
calling which would suit him best, though he indicated three things,
each as dissimilar to the others as it could be.
He would like to be a farmer; a "down-the-river trader," or "to get
an education." It was not convenient to establish him as a tiller of
the soil; and his father apparently regarded being a "down-the-river
trader" as a disreputable occupation--probably as something akin to a
Yankee pedler who sells wooden nutmegs; and the money it would cost
to give him a liberal education could not readily be spared from the
tannery, which, in former days, kept the larger portion of its capital
soaking in the vats for months. But the question was a serious one, and
though it could not be realized at that time, the welfare of a great
nation, as well as the destiny of an unformed youth, rested upon the
issue.
Who shall say that an inspiration higher than his own thought did not
suggest to the anxious father the idea of sending his son to West
Point? It was a happy solution of the problem; and what was better
still, it suited the boy "first rate." The idea was promptly followed
up. Mr. Grant wrote to the Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, the representative
in Congress of the district in which he resided. The letter reached
the member only on the day before his term of office expired, when
his right to nominate a cadet to the Military Academy would cease.
Fortunately the mail was faithful to its sacred duty on this occasion,
and bore the missive to its destination in season to save Grant from
becoming a farmer or a "down-the-river trader," and in season to have
him appointed, not alone as a cadet, but as the savior of the nation;
for that nomination was the germ of the event which gave us the man
that crushed the Rebellion.
As I think of the condition of my country when the rising sun of
Grant's genius pointed him out to the people as the only fit leader
for the armies of the Union, I tremble to think of the results which
must have followed a single day's delay of that momentous letter! The
providential man was providentially guided to his brilliant destiny.
The bugbear of an examination for admission to West Point, though
it then included only reading, writing, spelling, and arithmetic to
decimal fractions, had more terrors to the young aspirant for military
honors than the capers of a three-year-old colt. He was not prepared
by any special training for such an ordeal; and a young man, who had
previously been appointed by Mr. Hamer, had twice failed to pass, his
ill success keeping the place open for Grant. The opportunities of the
newly-appointed cadet had been very limited, and it would hardly have
been to his discredit if he had failed to come up to the requirements
of the institution. But he did not fail; with all his concentrated
energy of purpose guiding and strengthening him, he could not fail;
and on the 1st of July, 1839, at the age of seventeen, Grant was duly
admitted to the Military Academy to prepare himself for the glorious
future which God and his country had in store for him. And then
"The great Ulysses reached his native shore,"
and entered upon the career of which we have not yet seen the full
fruition.
"What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet;" and
Grant by any other name would have fought and conquered just as well;
but it was only by a singular accident that the newspapers have had
the opportunity to make such a varied play upon the initials of his
name, which in themselves were sufficiently suggestive to excite the
attention of the specials as far back as the victory at Fort Donelson.
U.S. Grant demanding and insisting upon unconditional surrender after
a savage fight of three days was certainly a coincidence worthy of
remark. Perhaps, after the momentous and prolonged discussion in regard
to the baby's name soon after Grant was born, it was a great pity, when
one had been selected, that it did not "stick" to the end; but it was
doomed to be reconstructed, apparently that the initials might have a
suggestive and patriotic significance.
His father, mother, grandfather, and grandmother, discussed the
important matter, and he was called Hiram Ulysses. Hiram was his
grandfather's proposition, simply because it was a pretty name, in his
opinion. His mother's step-mother appears to have dabbled in classic
lore, and to have read the Odyssey. She had a warm admiration for the
hero of that remarkable tale, and insisted that the infant should
have the name of Ulysses. As in the eternal fitness of things, this
was an appropriate name, posterity will commend the taste, if not the
prescience, of the venerable lady.
In making the nomination, Mr. Hamer sent in the name of "Ulysses S.
Grant," confounding his name with that of the applicant's brother and
mother. While at West Point the interloping S. stood for Sidney. Grant
made two attempts to have the matter set right, but the Fates were
against him. It seemed to be foreordained that the United States and
himself should be so far synonymous as to be designated in the same
manner; and he accepted his "manifest destiny," only causing the S. to
stand for Simpson, in honor of his mother, instead of for Sidney.
Mr. Hamer, who had conferred so distinguished a favor upon Grant and
the nation in nominating him to a cadetship, did not live to realize
the magnitude of the service he had rendered to his country and the
applicant. In the Mexican war he went into the army himself, as did
not a few of the politicians of the country. He distinguished himself
at Monterey, but finally succumbed to the treacherous climate of the
low lands. Grant was his nurse and his friend in his final sickness,
and rendered to him the last kind offices of the living to the dead.
The illustrious soldier was always faithful in his friendships, never
forgetting a favor or forsaking a friend.
As there is "one glory of the sun, and another of the stars," it was
not appointed unto Grant to be everything that is grand in humanity.
Indeed, the very grandeur of the man consists in the harmonious
development of all his faculties, rather than in the striking
preëminence of a few, towering in lofty sublimity at the expense of
all the others. He is not lacking in any essential quality of a great
man, and his greatness is a combination of all the noble traits of
character, instead of the morbid development of a few. He was not a
great scholar. It was not his ambition or his destiny to be a Newton, a
Humboldt, a Milton, or an Irving. The elements of a brilliant scholar
would have shut him out from the distinction he has achieved.
Grant's previous intellectual training had not prepared him to rival
in scholarship those in his class who had been over the course before.
The district school in a country town had been the limit of his
advantages. The class which commenced the course with him was composed
of eighty-seven members, only thirty-nine of whom were graduated. The
routine and discipline of the institution are exacting and severe;
and it is very much to any young man's credit that he goes through at
all. The statistics show that the cadets fall out by the wayside, as
the lines draw taut upon them. A majority of Grant's class went by
the board, and No. 39--the lowest in rank who was graduated--seems to
have been a better fellow than forty-eight others who "caved in," some
of them, doubtless, from weakness of body, but most of them for the
want of pluck. But Grant was not the unhappy No. 39, who by contrast
appears in an unpleasant position at the foot of the class, though,
as I have shown, he was really a plucky fellow. Grant was graduated
the twenty-first in his class, which is certainly a very creditable
position.
I confess my surprise, when I consider the fact that Grant's
attainments, when he entered the Military Academy, were hardly up to
those of the ordinary second class in our grammar schools, while some
of his classmates were graduates of colleges, and most of them had
been over a part of the regular course before,--I confess my surprise
that he was not No. 39, instead of No. 21. In spite of the giant will,
and his developed pluck, it is a miracle that he was not of the number
of those who fell out of the class during the four years' course.
Certainly it is vastly more to his credit to have been able to graduate
at all, than for many of the happy score who stood above to win their
high rank. To have outdone eighteen of his companions in that unequal
race was worthy the energy and perseverance of the man.
He went through the entire course of his class, for no option was then
allowed to the cadets in the choice of studies. He exhibited himself
to the best advantage in the mathematics, and in the departments of
tactics and engineering obtained his highest marks in these branches,
thus early developing his military mind.
At West Point I had a warm admiration for Grant, though none of us were
wise enough to predict his brilliant future. I am astonished that we
did not, for the Grant of to-day was the Grant of West Point. He was
the same modest, anti-sensational, unenthusiastic being that he is now.
He was the boldest and apparently most reckless rider in the ring; but
he always came out right then as now. He was not a dandy in any sense
of the word; and though he appeared to have no regard for the elegance
of his attire, he was always scrupulously neat, and paid a proper
respect to the amenities of society in his personal appearance. He
effectually dodged that period in the life of a young man when dress is
the most important subject of consideration.
I could not help admiring the embryo general, for though he did not
court popularity, and seemed to be entirely indifferent to it, he was
one of the most popular of the cadets. The qualities of his mind and
heart were of the highest order, and no student was able to point to
a low or mean trait in his character. Bold, daring, and energetic,
without the slightest display, without even uttering a boast, or
exhibiting a particle of egotism, what wonder that he was the idol of
his fellow-students!
"Methinks Ulysses strikes my wondering eyes!"
He never betrayed a trust reposed in him by friend or foe, was careful
of the rights of others, and his word was as good as his bond. He was
utterly forgetful of himself, never seeming to be conscious that he was
of any particular consequence to others. In a word, he was then, as he
is now, an honest, honorable man, true to himself, true to others. The
sum of human greatness in personal character can include nothing more.
I say that he was careful of the rights of others. While I shall have
occasion to demonstrate this trait in his character,--which is really
one of the most noble and beautiful that can adorn the human mind,--on
a larger scale in the course of this true narrative, let me say that
it was the foundation of his popularity at West Point. He was never
concerned in the disgraceful practice of "hazing," which can amuse only
a mean, low, and tyrannical character. When he went to West Point he
carried a letter of introduction to a cadet, who explained to him some
of the tricks of the institution played off upon new-comers. On the
first night a young gentleman entered his room and informed him that
it was customary to assign a lesson of twenty pages, to be committed
to memory while the student was nervous under the excitement of his
admission, to test his firmness and energy. Grant assured the assumed
officer that it was all right, turned over and went to sleep, while his
roommate labored all night over the bogus task.
Grant's initials suggested for him the name of "Uncle Sam" at West
Point; but his sober, steady demeanor, which gave him a sort of
my-uncle bearing and dignity, was quite as much implicated in the
nickname as the accidental letters that preceded his patronymic. He was
a good fellow, by the popular vote of his companions; and none but such
were entitled to the distinction of a nickname.
Having completed his four years' course, he was graduated in 1843,
at the age of twenty-one. He was appointed to the Fourth Regiment of
Infantry, with the brevet rank of second lieutenant.