officer, and admired him to such a degree that they
re-enlisted for three years.

While Colonel Grant was at Caseyville it was reported that Quincy, on
the Mississippi, was menaced by rebel guerillas from Missouri, and he
was ordered to the exposed point. In the absence of transportation he
marched his regiment one hundred and twenty miles of the distance.
From this point his command was sent into Missouri, where the
discipline and the morals of the body were improved by quiet and
judicious measures. Guarding railroads was the service in which the
regiment was employed; and when serving with other commands Grant was
the acting brigadier-general, though he was ranked by all the other
colonels.

In July of the opening year of the war Grant became a
brigadier-general of volunteers. The appointment was obtained by Mr.
Washburn, who had befriended him before. The Western Department was at
this time under the command of General Fremont. Grant's district was a
part of Missouri, with Western Kentucky and Tennessee, and he
established his head-quarters at Cairo, a point of the utmost military
importance as a depot of supplies and a gunboat rendezvous. Kentucky
had proclaimed a suspicious neutrality, and near Cairo, on the other
side of the river, were the three termini of a railroad from the
South. A Confederate force seized two of them, and Grant hastened to
secure Paducah, the third. The enemy hurriedly retired as he landed
his force, and Grant issued a temperate and judicious proclamation,
for he was on the soil of the enemy. He had acted without orders from
his superior, and returning to Cairo after an absence of less than a
day, he found Fremont's order, already executed, awaiting him. He also
took possession of Smithland, at the mouth of the Cumberland River.

With a force of 3,100 men General Grant made an incursion into
Missouri to break up a rebel camp at Belmont, where he fought his
first battle in the Rebellion. He had accomplished his purpose, when
the enemy was reinforced from Columbus, on the other side of the
river, and though he brought off his command in safety he narrowly
escaped capture himself. Fremont was superseded by Halleck, and for
the next two months Grant was employed in organizing and drilling
troops. Columbus, with 140 cannon and full of men and material, closed
the Mississippi. The Confederate line of defence against the invasion
of the South extended from this point across the country, includin