e war was ended. Grant had been engaged in all
the battles near the Rio Grande, and in most of them from Vera Cruz to
the City of Mexico, and he had won the brevet rank of captain for his
gallantry.

After the ratification of the treaty of peace, by which California was
acquired, the army evacuated Mexico, and Captain Grant was sent to New
York with his regiment. Its companies were separated and sent to
various military stations. After serving at Detroit and Sackett's
Harbor, the Fourth Infantry was sent to Oregon in 1851, the discovery
of gold in California having attracted an immense immigration to the
shores of the Pacific. The battalion of which Grant's company was a
part was stationed at Fort Dallas, and had some experience in Indian
warfare. In 1848 he had been married to Miss Dent; but in the wilds of
Oregon he was separated from his family. There was nothing there to
satisfy his reasonable ambition, no hope of rising in his profession,
and he became discontented. In 1853 he was commissioned as a full
captain; but this did not reconcile him to his situation, and he
resigned his position in the army to enter upon an untried life as a
civilian.

Grant was now thirty-two years of age; he had a wife and two children,
and it was necessary for him to provide for their support. His first
choice of an occupation had been that of a farmer, and he went back to
that in the present emergency. His wife owned a farm about nine miles
from St. Louis, and Grant located himself there. He built a house upon
it of hewn logs, working upon it with his own hands. He was not a
"gentleman farmer" in any sense, for he drove one of his teams with
wood to the city. He wore an old felt hat, a seedy blouse, and tucked
his trousers' legs into the tops of his boots. His habits were very
simple, and the lack of means compelled him to live on the most
economical scale.

The retired captain was not successful as a farmer; but he was known
as an honest, upright man, faithful in all his obligations. In his
need of a remunerative occupation he applied for the position of city
engineer in St. Louis; but he failed to obtain it. As a real estate
agent and as a collector he was equally unsuccessful, and his fortunes
were at a very low ebb. He obtained a place in the custom-house, but
at the end of two months the death of the collector compelled him to
retire. But while fortune seemed to have completely deserted him,
subjecting him to the fate of thou