dee's
tactics and a familiarity with the "school of the soldier" and "school
of the company" which proved very useful. Most of the summer was given
up to drilling the officers and men in one of the companies of the
Twenty-first Michigan infantry, which was in camp near the town, fitting
for the field. The officers were new to the business, without training
or experience, as volunteer officers were apt to be, and gladly availed
themselves of my help, which was freely given. I was offered a
commission as first lieutenant in that regiment, but my ambition was to
go in the cavalry and it was soon to be gratified.

Late in the month of August my father, coming home from Grand Rapids,
met an old friend on the train who told him of Congressman Kellogg's
arrival in that place and what his mission was. I wanted to be a second
lieutenant and told my father that I preferred that to higher rank in
the infantry. So, the next day, he went down to see the Congressman. His
application for my appointment was heartily seconded by a number of
influential men in the "Valley City," who knew nothing of me, but did it
through their friendship for my father, whom they had known for many
years as one of the most energetic and honorable business men in the
Grand River valley. From 1848, he had been a familiar figure in
lumbering circles and during that period there had been no year when,
from May 1 till snow flew, his fleets of rafts of pine lumber were not
running over the dam at Grand Rapids. With the business men along the
river his relations had been close and friendly. They were, therefore,
not reluctant to do him a favor. Among these I will mention but two,
though there were many others who were equally zealous in the matter.

Wilder D. Foster and Amos Rathbun were two of the best known men in the
metropolis of western Michigan. Mr. Foster was a hardware merchant who
had built up a splendid business from small beginnings in the pioneer
days. He succeeded Thomas White Ferry in the United States Congress,
after Mr. Ferry had been elected to the Senate. Mr. Rathbun, "Uncle
Amos" he was called, was a capitalist who had much to do with the
development of the gypsum or "plaster" industry in his section of the
state. Their influence with Mr. Kellogg was potent, and my father
obtained more than he asked for. He came home with a conditional
appointment which ran thus:

"Headquarters 6th Regt. of Mich. Cavalry.
Grand Rapids, Aug. 28,