LOVE AND WAR
He had applied for an appointment in the dragoons, the designation of
the one regiment of cavalry then a part of our army. His alternative
selection was the Fourth Infantry. To this he was attached as a brevet
second lieutenant, and after the expiration of the usual leave spent at
home, he joined his regiment at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. Duties
were not severe, and the officers entertained much company at the
barracks and gave much time to society in the neighborhood. Grant had
his saddle-horse, a gift of his father, and took his full share in the
social life. A few miles away was the home of his classmate and chum
during his last year at the academy, F. T. Dent. One of Dent's sisters
was a young lady of seventeen, educated at a St. Louis boarding school.
After she returned to her home in the late winter young Grant found the
Dent homestead more attractive than ever.
This was the time of the agitation regarding the annexation of Texas, a
policy to which young Grant was strongly hostile. About May 1 of the
next year, 1844, some of the troops at the barracks were ordered to New
Orleans. Grant, thinking his own regiment might go soon, got a
twenty-days leave to visit his home. He had hardly arrived when by a
letter from a fellow officer he learned that the Fourth had started to
follow the Third, and that his belongings had been forwarded. It was
then that he became conscious of the real nature of his feeling for
Julia Dent. His leave required him to report to Jefferson Barracks, and
although he knew his regiment had gone, he construed the orders
literally and returned there, staying only long enough to declare his
love and learn that it was reciprocated. The secret was not made known
to the parents of the young lady until the next year, when he returned
on a furlough to see her. For three years longer they were separated,
while he was winning honor and promotion. After peace was declared, and
the regiment had returned to the States, they were married. She shared
all his vicissitudes of fortune until his death. Their life together was
one in which wifely faith and duty failed not, nor did he fail to honor
and esteem her above all women. Whatever his weaknesses, infidelity in
domestic affection was not one of them. In all relations of a personal
character he reciprocated trust with the whole tenacity of his nature.
In Louisiana the regiment encamped on high ground near the Sabine River,
not far from the old town of Natchitoches. The camp was named Camp
Salubrity. In Grant's case, certainly, the name was justified. There he
got rid of the cough that had fastened upon him at West Point and had
caused fears that he would early fall a victim to consumption. In
Louisiana he was restored to perfect, lusty health, fit for any exertion
or privation. He was regarded as a modest and amiable lieutenant of no
great promise. The regiment was moved to Corpus Christi, a trading and
smuggling port. There the army of occupation (of Texas) was slowly
collected, consisting of about three thousand men, commanded by General
Zachary Taylor. Mexico still claimed this part of Texas, and it was
expected that our forces would be attacked. But they were not, and, as
the real purpose was to provoke attack, the army was moved to a point
opposite Matamoras on the Rio Grande, where a new camp was established
and fortified. Previous to leaving Corpus Christi, Grant had been
promoted, September 30, 1845, from brevet second lieutenant to full
second lieutenant. The advance was made in March, 1846. On the 8th of
May the battle of Palo Alto was fought, on the hither side of the Rio
Grande, in which Grant had an active part, acquitting himself with
credit. On the next day was the battle of Resaca de la Palma, in which
he was acting adjutant in place of the officer killed. One consequence
of these victories was the evacuation of Matamoras. War with Mexico
having been declared, General Taylor's army became an army of invasion.
Volunteers for the war now began coming from the States. In August the
movement on Monterey began, and on the 19th of September, Taylor's army
was encamped before the city. The battle of Monterey was begun on the
21st, and the desperately defended city was surrendered and evacuated on
the 24th. Grant, although then doing quartermaster's duty, having his
station with the baggage train, went to the front on the first day, and
was a participant in the assault, incurring all its perils, and
volunteering for the extremely hazardous duty of a messenger between
different parts of the force.
When General Scott arrived at the mouth of the Rio Grande, Grant's
regiment was detached from Taylor's army and joined Scott's. He was
present and participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle of Cerro
Gordo, the assault on Churubusco, the storming of Chapultepec, for which
he volunteered with a part of his company, and the battle of Molino del
Rey. Colonel Garland, commander of the brigade, in his report of the
storming of Chapultepec, said: "Lieutenant Grant, 4th Infantry,
acquitted himself most nobly upon several occasions under my own
observation." After the battle of Molino del Rey he was appointed on the
field a first lieutenant for his gallantry. For his conduct at
Chapultepec he was later brevetted a captain, to date from that battle,
September 13, 1847. He entered the city of Mexico a first lieutenant,
after having been, as he says, in all the engagements of the war
possible for any one man, in a regiment that lost more officers during
the war than it ever had present in a single engagement.
Perhaps his most notable exploit was during the assault on the gate of
San Cosme, under command of General Worth. While reconnoitring for
position, Grant observed a church not far away, having a belfry. With
another officer and a howitzer, and men to work it, he reached the
church, and, by dismounting the gun, carried it to the belfry, where it
was mounted again but a few hundred yards from San Cosme, and did
excellent service. General Worth sent Lieutenant Pemberton (the same
who in the civil war defended Vicksburg) to bring Grant to him. The
general complimented Lieutenant Grant on the execution his gun was
doing, and ordered a captain of voltigeurs to report to him with another
gun. "I could not tell the general," says Grant, "that there was not
room enough in the steeple for another gun, because he probably would
have looked upon such a statement as a contradiction from a second
lieutenant. I took the captain with me, but did not use his gun."
The American army entered the city of Mexico, September 14, 1847, and
this was his station until June, 1848, when the American army was
withdrawn from Mexico, peace being established. There was no more
fighting. Grant was occupied with his duties as quartermaster, and in
making excursions about the country, in which and its people he
conceived a warm interest that never changed. Upon returning to his own
country he left his regiment on a furlough of four months. His first
business was to go to St. Louis and execute his promise to marry Miss
Dent. The remainder of this honeymoon vacation was spent with his family
and friends in Ohio.