competent to command a regiment, if the President in his judgment should see fit to entrust me with one. Since the first call of the President I have been serving on the staff of the Governor of this State, rendering such aid as I could in the organization of our State militia, and am still engaged in that capacity. A letter addressed to me at Springfield will reach me. I am very respectfully, Your obedient servant, No reply to this letter was ever received. U. S. GRANT." About the 10th of June, Governor Yates tendered him the colonelcy of the regiment at Mattoon, which he had mustered into the State service the 15th of May, and which was afterwards accepted by the government as the 21st Illinois infantry. Captain Grant accepted the appointment, was commissioned on the 15th of June, and on the 16th assumed command of it. This regiment had been commanded during its thirty days' enlistment by Colonel Goode, an ex-Captain of the Mexican War. His habits were bad, and his inefficiency had not only proved a serious detriment to the enlisted men, but made him unpopular with its officers. Before the end of the thirty days it became evident that the regiment would not re-enlist for three years under the 300,000 call, with him as Colonel. The officers therefore united in a petition to Governor Yates for the appointment of Captain Grant, whose acquaintance they had made when he was a mustering officer, as Colonel. On the strength of this petition, the appointment was made. On the 15th of June its term of service under the State expired, and from that date to the 28th of the month, it was neither in the State nor Government service. The men were in citizen's dress and only partly armed. Its drill and discipline having been neglected, it devolved on its new commander to raise its esprit de corps, and make it what it became within the next two months, one of the most efficient regiments of its age in the Western army. The material of the regiment was exceptionally good. General Grant, when alluding to it at a later date, said, "My regiment was composed in large part of young men of as good social position as any in their section of the country. It embraced the sons of farmers, lawyers, physicians, politicians, merchants, bankers and ministers, and some men of maturer years who had filled such positions themselves." Colonel Grant joined his regiment at Camp Yates near Springfield, where it was quartered and where it remained until after it had been mustered into the Government service by Captain Pitcher of the regular army, on the 28th of June. It is well known that Colonel Grant at this time was a poor man, having been unfortunate in every enterprise he had undertaken since leaving the Army, and the question with him was how to get the money to buy himself a uniform, horse and equipment. He wrote to his father at Galena explaining the situation, and asking him for the loan of $400 to buy the outfit. His father, who had often before aided him, for some reason declined to help him now. The junior member of the firm of J. R. Grant & Co., Mr. E. A. Collins, an anti-war Democrat, who had a fondness for the Captain, learning of the father's refusal, quietly sent him a draft for the amount needed. General Grant in after years took special pains to show his appreciation of the generous act by bestowing on the two sons of his friend, both of whom were successful business men, and thoroughly loyal to the government, substantial favors. The 21st Regiment having been ordered to Quincy, its Colonel, for the purpose of discipline and speedy efficiency, decided to march it across the country instead of transporting it by rail. On the third of July the march was commenced from Camp Yates, and continued to a point a few miles beyond the Illinois River, where orders were received changing its destination to Ironton, Mo., to be transported thither by steamer as far as St. Louis, and from thence by rail to its destination. It returned to Naples on the river and awaited transportation. The steamer having been detained by grounding on a sand-bar, the regiment was hurriedly transported by rail to Palmyra, Mo., via Quincy, where it soon began active service by successfully fighting organized bodies of the enemy and the bushwhackers of that region. Just before leaving Illinois, Colonel Grant bought his celebrated horse "Claybank " (dubbed by his regiment "Old Yellow "), so well known to the Army of the Tennessee in after years. Soon after reaching Missouri he provided himself with a uniform. Prior to that time he had worn nothing to distinguish him from the men in the ranks, except an old cavalry sabre he had obtained from the arsenal at Springfield. Here his men were uniformed and armed with Belgian muskets. I will digress to say that in the latter part of the month of July President Lincoln sent a circular letter to the Illinois members of Congress, stating that it had been decided to appoint seven brigadier-generals for the State, and requesting them to agree upon and recommend for appointment seven names. Colonel Grant was named by the member from the First Congressional District, Hon. E. B. Washburne, and received the unanimous vote of the delegation, the only one of the number so favored. He was appointed the sixth of August, and his commission was dated the seventeenth of May, 1861. I have in this brief narrative given numerous incidents connected with the history of this most remarkable man, from the time he presided over a war meeting at Galena six days after the firing on Fort Sumter, until soon after he had assumed the command of the 21st Regiment Illinois Infantry. It is worthy of note, as showing the singular and admirable character of this truly great man, that amid all the disappointments, discouragements and failures to obtain some suitable appointment in the volunteer service, or to get into some position where he could make himself useful to his country in its time of need, he was ever patient and uncomplaining; not inordinately ambitious, and, apparently forgetful of himself, he thought only of his country, and how he could best serve it. In this he showed himself a true American citizen, a pure patriot, and a noble, unselfish man. Soon after General Grant had received his commission as BrigadierGeneral he was placed in command of the District of Southeast Missouri by General Fremont, who commanded the Department of the Missouri. His district comprised Southeast Missouri, Southern Illinois, and a portion of West Kentucky, with headquarters at Cairo. About the 1st of September, General Grant learned that a force of Confederates was moving rapidly on Paducah, Ky., to occupy it. It was a point of strategic importance, as it commanded the mouth of the Tennessee River. General Grant informed General Fremont by telegraph of the situation, and asked permission to move on Paducah at once. Receiving no reply, on his own responsibility he started by steamer with two regiments of infantry and a battery of light artillery, and on the early morning of the sixth of September reached Paducah, and occupied it only six or eight hours in advance of the enemy. He fought the battle of Belmont on the 7th of November, and although not a decided Union victory, the result proved of great advantage to the Union cause in the Southwest. Soon after this he was assigned to the new District of Cairo, to include, in addition to his old district, the territory lying on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. A few days after the occupancy of Paducah, Brigadier-General Charles F. Smith reported to General Grant for assignment to duty, and was placed in command of the post of Paducah and the territory lying south and east on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers. This officer had close relations with General Grant for the next six months. He was one of the oldest and most accomplished officers of the regular army. He was a splendid looking soldier, tall, slender and straight, with close cut gray hair and a heavy white moustache. He was the embodiment of the ideal soldier, and his appearance on the field was always the signal for cheers by the soldiery under him. I knew him well, and appreciated his soldierly qualities. I served directly under him in the fall and early winter of 1861, when I commanded the post of Smithland, twelve miles above Paducah, and was engaged in constructing, under engineers, fortifications to command the mouth of the Cumberland River. I saw him often when he visited the Post to consult with the engineers, and to inspect their work. General Grant in his Memoirs thus alludes to him: "His personal courage was unquestioned, his judgment and professional acquirements were unsurpassed, and he had the confidence of those he commanded, as well as those over him." ROGERS PARK, ILL. AUGUSTUS L. CHETLAIN, (Read before the Illinois Logal Legion.) (To be continued.) T PUSH-MA-TA-HA, CHOCTAW WARRIOR. HE Mississippi Department of Archives and History has just added to its valuable collection of historical relics a fine portrait of Push-ma-ta-ha, the Chotaw warrior. Push-ma-ta-ha was a notable character in Mississippi's early history. He was an Indian of somewhat remarkable personality, and the following sketch of his life, in which especial effort is made to separate the veritable from the merely legendary in anecdote and description, may be of interest to many. He was born about 1764, in east Mississippi, near the Noxubee River. Little or no record of his family survives. Only is it of record that he had one sister who in maturity lived in Newton County, whose name was Na-ho-ti-ma ("She who makes and gives things"), and whose son, Oklahoma (“the beautiful one ") succeeded Push-ma-ta-ha as mingo, or chief (and whose name is preserved to history through being chosen as the name of the newest of the Territories. No other Indian has ever had a like distinction). This fact is presumptive evidence that the latter was born of a line of chiefs, though some writers have asserted that he was of plebeian stock. Of the youth of Pushmataha (the hyphen of aboriginal custom is not imperative in historical writing) nothing is known, beyond the fact that he was of valorous ambition, and was on the warpath before he was out of his 'teens. The story of his Mexican exploits belongs in time to a few years after this. It tells how he went to Mexico, and how by night and alone he entered a village of the Toraque Indians, killed seven men and set fire to a number of tents, and escaped unharmed. Also how he then headed an expedition against the Toraquas, and in a bloody fight in which he was victorious, gained eight scalps. But this story, though characteristic of Pushmataha's boasted exploits, is ignored by the more reliable historians, and we must pass it by as probably mythical. This is unfortunate, as it would serve to partly fill quite a gap in his life, concerning which no record exists, to wit, the fifteen years or more |