cular task, but not self-disposed to exertion. He felt no constant,
pricking incitement to do his best; but was content to do fairly well,
as well as was necessary for the immediate occasion. One of his comrades
in the academy said in later years that he remembered him as "a very
uncle-like sort of a youth.... He exhibited but little enthusiasm in
anything."

He was graduated in 1843, at the age of 21 years, ranking 21 in a class
of 39, a little below the middle station. He had grown 6 inches taller
while at the academy, standing 5 feet 7 inches, but weighed no more than
when he entered, 117 pounds. His physical condition had been somewhat
reduced at the end of his term by the wearing effect of a threatening
cough. It cannot be said that any one then expected him to do great
things. The characteristics of his early youth that have been set forth
were persistent. He was older, wiser, more accomplished, better
balanced, but in fundamental traits he was still the Ulysses Grant of
the farm--hardly changed at all. No more at school than at home was his
life vitiated by vices. He was neither profane nor filthy. His
temperament was cool and wholesome. He tried to learn to smoke, but was
then unable. It is remembered that during the vacation in the middle of
his course, spent at home, he steadily declined all invitations to
partake of intoxicants, the reason assigned being that he with others
had pledged themselves not to drink at all, for the sake of example and
help to one of their number whose good resolutions needed such propping.
At his graduation he was a man and a soldier. Life, with all its
attractions and opportunities, was before. Phlegmatic as he may have
been, it cannot be supposed that the future was without beckoning voices
and the rosy glamour of hope.

CHAPTER V

LOVE AND WAR

He had applied for an appointment in the dragoons, the designation of
the one regiment of cavalry then a part of our army. His alternative
selection was the Fourth Infantry. To this he was attached as a brevet
second lieutenant, and after the expiration of the usual leave spent at
home, he joined his regiment at Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis. Duties
were not severe, and the officers entertained much company at the
barracks and gave much time to society in the neighborhood. Grant had
his saddle-horse, a gift of his father, and took his full share in the
social life. A few miles away was the home of his classmate and chum
during