OF THE SADDLE AND SIRLOIN CLUB 197 
AN AMERICAN ULYSSES 
77. Doggedness and persistence characterized the career and 
life of ULyssEs S. Grant. The son of a tanner, he was born at 
Point Pleasant, Ohio, April 27, 1822. As a youth he preferred 
the out-of-doors and instead of following his father in the tanning 
business, conducted the family farm, did teaming, and at intervals 
maintained a livery business between neighboring towns. He 
attended the village school and was given one year in the academy 
at Maysville, Ky. Ambitious to receive a higher training, he 
secured an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy. He 
proved to be a good mathematician and an excellent horseman, 
but only an average student. Following graduation he was bre- 
vetted and later commissioned a second lieutenant, which rank 
he held at the opening of the Mexican War. He volunteered to 
perform a hazardous messenger mission through the Mexican lines 
to bring up ammunition, which act, coupled with bravery in 
action, resulted in his promotion to first lieutenant. 
Following the war he was stationed at various places, but 
found the army life on the Pacific coast so uncongenial, that in 
spite of a promotion to captaincy, he resigned in 1854 and re- 
turned to civil life. In order to reach home he was forced to 
borrow $50 from his classmate, S. B. BucKNER, and it is related 
that after the fall of Fort Donelson and the surrender of GENERAL 
Buckner, GENERAL GRANT returned the courtesy of carfare home. 
Civil endeavors proved successful, and the opening of the War of 
Secession found him, after various misadventures, COLONEL of 
the 21st Illinois infantry. 
In August, 1861, he was made a brigadier general of volun- 
teers, his commission being dated back three months. He was 
assigned to the command of the district of Southeastern Missouri 
with headquarters at Cairo, Ill. In a series of actions, (Paducah, 
(Ky.), Belmont, (Mo.), Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Corinth, 
Pittsburg Landing, Shiloh, Vicksburg and some minor contests), 
