GRANT, ULYSSES S. (His MILITARY CAREER.) 



421 



ers, latent defects in hull or machinery. Goods 

 delivered on the quay are considered as taken 

 onboard as far as the ship-owner's responsi- 

 bility is concerned. In adjusting claims for 

 short delivery the market price at the port of 

 destination on the day of arrival is taken as 

 the measure. No goods can be abandoned for 

 freight, except liquids. 



GRANT, UL1SSES S., eighteenth President of 

 the United States, born at Point Pleasant, Cler- 

 mont County, O., April 27, 1822 ; died on Mount 

 McGregor, near Saratoga, N. Y., July 23, 1885. 

 He was of Scotch ancestry, but his family had 

 been American in all its branches for eight 

 generations. He was a descendant of Mathew 

 Grant, who arrived at Dorchester, Mass., in 

 May, 1630. His father was Jesse R. Grant, 

 and his mother Hannah Simpson. They were 

 married in June, 1821, in Clermont County, O. 

 Ulysses, the oldest of six children, spent his 

 boyhood in assisting his father on the farm, a 

 work more congenial to his tastes than work- 

 ing in the tannery of which his father was 

 proprietor. He attended the village schools, 

 and in the spring of 1839 was appointed to a 

 cadetship in the Military Academy at West 

 Point, by Hon. Thomas L. Hamer, M. C. The 

 name given him at birth was Hiram Ulysses, 

 but he was always called by his middle name. 

 Mr. Hamer, thinking this his first name, and 

 that his middle name was probably that of his 

 mother's family, inserted in the official appoint- 

 ment the name of Ulysses S. The officials at 

 West Point were notified by Cadet Grant of 

 the error, but they did not feel authorized to 

 correct it, and it was acquiesced in and became 

 the name by which he was always known. 



His Military Career. As a student, Grant 

 showed the greatest proficiency in mathemat- 

 ics, but he gained a fair standing in most of 

 his studies. At cavalry-drill he proved himself 

 the best horseman in his class. He was grad- 

 uated in 1843, standing twenty-first in a class 

 of thirty-nine. He was commissioned, on 

 graduation, as a brevet second lieutenant, and 

 was attached to the Fourth Infantry and as- 

 signed to duty at Jefferson Barracks, on the 

 Mississippi, near St. Louis. In May, 1844, he 

 accompanied his regiment to Camp Salubrity, 

 in Louisiana. He was commissioned a second 

 lieutenant in September, 1845. That month 

 he went with his regiment to Corpus Christi, 

 now in Texas, to join the army of occupation, 

 under command of Gen. Zachary Taylor, upon 

 the outbreak of the Mexican War. 



He participated in the battle of Palo Alto, 

 May 8, 1846 ; and in that of Resaca de la Palma, 

 May 9, he commanded his company. On Aug. 

 19 he started with the army for Monterey, 

 Mexico, which was reached on Sept. 19. He 

 had been appointed regimental quartermaster 

 of the Fourth Infantry, and was placed in 

 charge of the wagons and pack-train on this 

 march. During the assault of the 21st on 

 Black Fort, one of the works protecting Mon- 

 terey, instead of remaining in camp in charge 



of the quartermaster's stores, he charged with 

 his regiment, on horseback, being almost the 

 only officer in the regiment that was mounted 

 in this assault. The adjutant was killed in the 

 charge, and Lieut. Grant was designated to 

 take his place. On the 23d, when the troops 

 had gained a position in the city of Monterey, 

 a volunteer was called for, to make his way to 

 the rear under a heavy fire to order up ammu- 

 nition, and Lieut. Grant volunteered, ran the 

 gantlet in safety, and successfully accomplished 

 the mission. Garland's brigade, to which the 

 Fourth Infantry belonged, was transferred 

 from Twiggs's to Worth's division, and ordered 

 back to the mouth of the Rio Grande, where 

 it embarked for Vera Cruz, to join the army 

 under Gen. Scott. It landed near that city on 

 March 9, 1847, and the investment was imme- 

 diately begun. Lieut. Grant served with his 

 regiment during the siege, until the capture of 

 the place, March 29, 1847. On April 13 his 

 division began its march from Yera Cruz to- 

 ward the city of Mexico ; and he participated in 

 the battle of Cerro Gordo, April 17 and 18. The 

 troops entered Pueblo on May 15, and Lieut. 

 Grant was there ordered to take charge of a 

 large train of wagons, with an escort of fewer 

 than a thousand men, to obtain forage. He 

 made a two days' march, and procured the 

 necessary supplies. He participated in the 

 capture of San Antonio and the battle of 

 Churubusco, Aug. 20, and the battle of Molino 

 del Rey, Sept. 8, 1847. In the latter engage- 

 ment he was with the first troops that entered 

 the Mills. Seeing some of the enemy on the top 

 of a building, he took a few men, climbed to the 

 roof, received the surrender of six officers, and 

 occupied the position. For this service he was 

 brevetted a first lieutenant. He was engaged 

 in the storming of Chapultepec on Sept. 13, 

 distinguished himself by conspicuous services, 

 was highly commended in the reports of his 

 superior officers, and was brevetted captain. 

 While the troops were advancing against the 

 city of Mexico on the 14th, observing a church 

 from the top of which he believed the enemy 

 could be dislodged from a defensive work, he 

 called for volunteers, and, with twelve men 

 of the Fourth Infantry, who were afterward 

 joined by a detachment of artillery, he made a 

 flank movement, gained the church, mounted 

 a howitzer in the belfry, and used it with such 

 effect that Gen. Worth sent for him and com- 

 plimented him in person. He entered the city 

 of Mexico with the army, Sept. 14, and a few 

 days after was promoted to be first lieutenant. 

 He remained with the army in the city of Mexico 

 till the withdrawal of the troops in the summer 

 of 1848, and then accompanied his regiment to 

 Pascagoula, Miss. He there obtained leave of 

 absence and went to St. Louis, where, on Aug. 

 22, 1848, he married Miss Julia T. Dent. He was 

 soon afterward ordered to Sackett's Harbor, 

 N. Y., and in April following to Detroit, Mich. 

 In the spring of 1851 he was again transferred to 

 Sackett's Harbor, and on July 5, 1852, he sailed 



