single engagement.

Perhaps his most notable exploit was during the assault on the gate of
San Cosme, under command of General Worth. While reconnoitring for
position, Grant observed a church not far away, having a belfry. With
another officer and a howitzer, and men to work it, he reached the
church, and, by dismounting the gun, carried it to the belfry, where it
was mounted again but a few hundred yards from San Cosme, and did
excellent service. General Worth sent Lieutenant Pemberton (the same
who in the civil war defended Vicksburg) to bring Grant to him. The
general complimented Lieutenant Grant on the execution his gun was
doing, and ordered a captain of voltigeurs to report to him with another
gun. "I could not tell the general," says Grant, "that there was not
room enough in the steeple for another gun, because he probably would
have looked upon such a statement as a contradiction from a second
lieutenant. I took the captain with me, but did not use his gun."

The American army entered the city of Mexico, September 14, 1847, and
this was his station until June, 1848, when the American army was
withdrawn from Mexico, peace being established. There was no more
fighting. Grant was occupied with his duties as quartermaster, and in
making excursions about the country, in which and its people he
conceived a warm interest that never changed. Upon returning to his own
country he left his regiment on a furlough of four months. His first
business was to go to St. Louis and execute his promise to marry Miss
Dent. The remainder of this honeymoon vacation was spent with his family
and friends in Ohio.

CHAPTER VI

YEARS OF DORMANT POWER

Although he had done excellent service, demonstrating his courage, his
good judgment, his resourcefulness, his ability in command, and in the
staff duties of quartermaster and commissary, his experience did not
kindle in him any new love for his profession, nor any ardor of military
glory. He had not revealed the possession of extraordinary talent, nor
any spark of genius. He accounted the period of great value to him in
his later life, but his heart was never enlisted in the cause for which
the war was made. His letters home declared this. When he came to write
his memoirs, speaking of the annexation of Texas, he said: "For myself I
was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war
which resulted as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger
against a we