THE SUMMONS OF PATRIOTISM
The tide of patriotism that surged through the North after the fall of
Fort Sumter in April, 1861, lifted many strong but discouraged men out
of their plight of hard conditions and floated them on to better
fortune. Grant was one of these. At last he found reason to be glad that
he had the education and experience of a soldier.
On Monday, April 15, 1861, Galena learned that Sumter had fallen. The
next day there was a town meeting, where indignation and devotion found
utterance. Over that meeting Captain Grant was called to preside,
although few knew him. Elihu B. Washburn, the representative of the
district in Congress, and John A. Rawlins, a rude, self-educated lawyer,
who had been a farmer and a charcoal burner, made passionate, fiery
speeches on the duty of every man to stand by the flag. At the close of
that meeting Grant told his brothers that he felt that he must join the
army, and he did no more work in the shop. How clearly he perceived the
meaning of the conflict was shown in a letter to his father-in-law,
wherein he wrote: "In all this I can see but the doom of slavery."
He was offered the captaincy of the company formed in Galena, and
declined it, although he aided in organizing and drilling the men, and
accompanied them to the state capital, Springfield. As he was about
starting for home, he was asked by Governor Richard Yates to assist in
the adjutant-general's office, and soon he was given charge of mustering
in ten regiments that had been recruited in excess of the quota of the
State, under the President's first call, in preparation for possible
additional calls. His knowledge of army forms and methods was of great
service to the inexperienced state officers.
Later, but without wholly severing his connection with the office, he
returned home, and wrote a letter to the adjutant-general of the
regular army, at Washington, briefly setting forth his former service,
and very respectfully tendering his service "until the close of the war
in such capacity as may be offered," adding, that with his experience he
felt that he was "competent to command a regiment, if the President
should see fit to intrust one to him." The letter brought no reply. He
went to Cincinnati and tried, unsuccessfully, to see General McClellan,
whom he had known at West Point and in Mexico, hoping that he might be
offered a place on his staff. While he was absent Governor Yates
appointed him colonel of the Twenty-First Regiment of Illinois Infantry,
then in camp near Springfield, his commission dating from June 15. It
was a thirty-day regiment, but almost every member reënlisted for three
years, under the President's second call. Thus, two months after the
breaking out of the war, he was again a soldier with a much higher
commission than he had ever held, higher than would have come to him in
regular order had he remained in the army.
At Springfield he was in the centre of a great activity and a great
enthusiasm. He met for the first time many leading men of the State, and
became known to them. Their personality did not overwhelm him, famous
and influential as many of them were, nor did he solicit from them any
favor for himself. His desire was to be restored to the regular army
rather than to take command of volunteers. When the sought-for
opportunity did not appear, he accepted the place that was offered, a
place in which he was needed; for the first colonel, selected by the
regiment itself, had already by his conduct lost their confidence. They
exchanged him for Grant with high satisfaction.