again,
shed the blue coat, got some hot water off the stove and went and
washed his hands, using a cake of brown soap, then came back and went
to whittling again, and all without a word to anybody. That was my
first look at Grant, and look at him now!"

But in all likelihood there would not have been another chance to
"look" at him, had not the great Civil War broken out. It was to prove
in his case that what seemed failure was merely lack of opportunity.

When South Carolina seceded and the call for troops came, the
stoop-shouldered clerk in the hide store began to straighten up. The
call to arms put new life in his blood. He felt his old confidence
returning. He refused a local captaincy, after he had demonstrated
what he could do in drilling recruits, saying: "I have been in the
military service fourteen years, and think I am competent to command a
regiment."

He went to Springfield, Illinois, and offered his services, and after
some delay was given a desk in the adjutant-general's office. It was
not long before he proved his efficiency, and his advice was sought
more and more by the Governor, in organizing the State Guards. When
the 21st regiment was mustered into service, he was made its colonel.
He had put his foot on the first rung of the ladder of success.

The 21st, like other bodies of volunteers, was a loosely-knit, unruly
set of men. They took military life as a huge picnic, but speedily got
over that attitude--under Grant. On their first long hike, it is said
that their canteens were filled with whiskey, instead of water--until
Grant went through on a personal tour of inspection, and ordered every
canteen emptied out on the ground. The way he took hold of that
regiment and licked it into shape opened the eyes of Governor Yates and
his staff. In two months it was the best drilled regiment in the
State; and when President Lincoln wrote to the Governor asking
suggestions for promotions, Grant's name headed the list. He was made
a Brigadier-General.

The story of the Civil War and Grant's great part therein belong to a
longer chronicle than this. Step by step this stern, quiet soldier
fought his way up, winning his country's battles and his own as well.
In the full tide of war he found himself--and better still his country
discovered him. He was never after to prove recreant to his trust.

"We will fight it out along this line if it takes all summer," is one
of his typical remarks, and one