ry. We removed to Illinois in June, 1843, and,
after a short stay in Bristol, my father made a new home for his
family in Freeport, where he began his missionary work by founding
the First Baptist Church of that place.

In all my childhood and youth I had what I regard as the best
possible opportunities for education, in excellent public schools
where the rudiments of English were taught with great thoroughness,
and in a fair amount of all kinds of manly sports, and in hard
work, mainly on the farm and in building a new home, which left no
time and little inclination for any kind of mischief. At sixteen
years of age I spent three months in surveying public lands in the
wilds of northern Wisconsin, and at seventeen taught district school
in the little town of Oneco. By that time I had chosen the law as
my profession, and was working hard to complete the preparatory
studies at my own expense.

APPOINTMENT TO WEST POINT

The winter's school term in Oneco having closed early in the spring
of 1849, I returned to Freeport and resumed my struggle with Latin.
Then an unforseen event turned the course of my life. The young
man who had been appointed to West Point from our district only a
year or two before had failed to continue his course in the Military
Academy. Thus a vacancy occurred just at the close of Mr. Thomas
J. Turner's term in Congress. There was no time for applications
or for consultation. He must select another candidate to enter
the following June, or leave the place to be filled by his successor.
Fortunately for me, Mr. Turner, as one of the public-school directors,
had been present at an examination where the subject with which I
had to deal was mathematical; if he had caught me at Latin, the
result must have been fatal to all my prospects. Besides, Mr.
Turner had heard from his brother James of the stamina I had shown
in the public land-surveying expedition; and also from my father
of my determination to get a good education before beginning the
study of law. So he brought me a cadet appointment when he came
home, and said he believed a boy with that record could get through
West Point, the training there being, in his opinion, a good
preparation for the study of law.

The little savings from all my past work had been invested in a
piece of land which was sold to fit me out for my journey to West
Point, including some inexpensive visits en route.