346 SOLDIERS AND SAILORS was carried, though the assailing force lost one-fourth of its number in the as- sault. Second Lieutenant Grant behaved with distinguished gallantry," is the official report of his conduct. Though custom and the precedents of the service permitted the quartermaster to remain at a safe distance from actual fighting in charge of the baggage trains. Grant never availed himself of this immunity from personal peril, but retained his place with the regiment. When the strong places which defended the city fell, Scott and his army marched into the capital. The Mexican forces fled, and the United States flag floated over the " Halls of the Montezumas." The country was conquered, and the 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 com- pany 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 Ore- gon he was separated from his family. There was nothing there to satisfy his rea- sonable 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 oc- cupation 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, ana 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 remunera- tive 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 un- successful, 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, sub- jecting him to the fate of thousands of others in the struggle to live and care for his family, it was more propitious to his father, who was in comparatively easy
