CHAPTER VI.

WRITES TO HIS FATHER.

UR

young

hero entered deeply into all the patri

otic associations connected with West Point. He remembered it as the spot that the Revolutionary traitor to his country, Benedict Arnold, attempted basely to betray into the hands of our foreign invaders. In looking over this remarkable place, he mentions, in a letter to his father, some of the impressions it made on his mind:

"I find much here," he wrote, "that makes me love my dear native land more than ever. I am happy in the fact that this stronghold of nature is safely in the hands of the United States. Do you know, father, that it is called the Gibraltar of America? I think that is a very proper name for it. The hills are so different from those we have in our part of Ohio! They come down steep to the water's edge; and the points of land shut in so close from one bank of the river to the other, that, when you are below, you can hardly see the way up; and, when you are above it is hard to see the way down. The cliffs rise one above another to towering heights, all scarred with ragged rocks, and crowned on their wild summits with lofty trees. It seems

as if the foot of man could never get to the tops, the paths are so full of masses of shattered precipices that lie strewn about in chaotic confusion. I have found my way to the .highest peak, however; and was well repaid for my struggle by the view of the noble Hudson beneath my feet, and the distant Catskill Mountains above my head. The highlands here are splendid to behold; and the opening prospects of the east and west shores of the river, with their shady groves, their smiling farms and dotted towns, are beautiful indeed. The steamers and vessels are seen busily passing to and fro in the majestic stream; and, close down by the shore, the pennon of the railway train is fluttering in the breeze. I catch a far-off glimpse of the hills in Connecticut and Massachusetts, resting, like battle-smoked war-shields, against the sky. The rich pastures of Orange County, New York, skirted with herds of cattle, spread out like a pictured carpet before me; and over all bend the arching heavens, where the rifted clouds march on like the squadrons of an army.

"As I return from my walk, refreshed by the exercise, inspirited by the grand and varied scenery, and better prepared for my studies, I pass by the cemetery of the academy, where some of our cherished dead repose. Here is the monument erected by our grateful country to the bravo hero, Kosciusko, who fell on the field of battle, on American soil, fighting for the liberties of mankind. You remember, father, the line that is recorded of him, –

'And Freedom shrieked when Kosciusko fell.'

"I am rendered serious by the impressions that crowd upon me here at West Point. My thoughts are frequently occupied with the hatred I am made to feel toward traitors

WRITES TO HIS FATHER.

45

to my country, as I look around me on the memorials that remain of the black-hearted treason of Arnold. I am full of a conviction of scorn and contempt, which my young and inexperienced pen is unable to write in this letter, toward the conduct of any man, who, at any time, could strike at the liberties of such a nation as ours. If ever men should be found in our Union base enough to make the attempt to do this; if, like Arnold, they should secretly seek to sell our national inheritance for the mess of pottage of wealth, or power, or section, - West Point sternly reminds me what you, my father, would have your son do. As I stand here in this national fort, a student of arms under our country's flag, I know full well how you would have me act in such an emergency. I trust my future conduct, in such an hour, would prove worthy the patriotic instructions you have given.

"Yours obediently,

"ULYSSES SIDNEY GRANT."

It was in this spirit he grew up a West-Point cadet. There were some in the academy who stood before him in the routine of studies, some who could repeat more of the classics than he could, some who might compose more polished essays; but there was not one in all those ranks of the nation's students who understood better than he and the whys and the wherefores of all important matters of learning and discipline. He learned, and, what is even better, he retained, all that he needed to know of the substantial, solid, practical rudiments of a military education.

His aim was not ornament and parade, but practice and success.

mind and body of

There was no more

The severe tests put to the Ulysses were just what he liked. "can't" in his dictionary at West Point than there was at the little country school near the tannery in Ohio. His progress was steady, persevering, sure. If he took a seat nominally below some of the other cadets, it was a good one, a safe one; and he held on to it.

Would you like to know, boys, what the principal studies of Ulysses then were? The Major has the pleasure to inform you. They were, generally, mathematics, grammar, composition, declamation, the Latin and French languages, geography, gunnery, engineering, and the use of the rifle and the sabre. A part of the time, the cadets are marched off in squads, with tents, where they are formed into camps, and live on the field. Here he ranked as a battalion private. But he who had passed through the privations of a tanner-boy on the prairies of the West was fully equal to all the duties of the open camp. He wrote his father on the subject that he liked this active life well: it was freedom; it was nature; it was the development of his manhood. In the exercise of the soldier, among the clear breezes of West Point, his books and studies became parts of his recreations. He learned to do his duty because it was commanded in the regulations. The inconveniences incident to the tented field but whetted his

HOW AND WHAT HE STUDIED.

47

young appetite for more intellectual pursuits. He never regarded that as a drudgery which he performed as a duty.

Ulysses was now in his eighteenth year. He had been one year a cadet at West Point, and continued to progress steadily. In the spring of 1840, the authorities were so pleased with his course that they promoted him into the third class. There was no outside influence brought to bear to advance him. He went forward on his own merits, and these alone. This is always the best way, in the end, for every young man. It teaches him to depend on himself in after-life. If misfortune comes upon him suddenly, he is not at a loss what to do, as some boys are who have been petted and flattered along all the way. When they grow up to be men, unused to trials, they are helpless and useless when the winds blow and the rains beat upon them.

The young cadet now ranked in the battalion as a corporal. His studies were proportionately advanced, so that he engaged in the higher mathematics; such as geometry, trigonometry, algebra, and conic sections. These brought his best powers into play, as they will bring those of every student. He added to them other parts of the French language, drawing plans of engines, machinery, ordnance, and fortifications, and a regular practice for nearly six months in the special duties of a cavalry soldier. render him complete in horsemanship.

This was to

As it was at