this part of Texas, and it was
expected that our forces would be attacked. But they were not, and, as
the real purpose was to provoke attack, the army was moved to a point
opposite Matamoras on the Rio Grande, where a new camp was established
and fortified. Previous to leaving Corpus Christi, Grant had been
promoted, September 30, 1845, from brevet second lieutenant to full
second lieutenant. The advance was made in March, 1846. On the 8th of
May the battle of Palo Alto was fought, on the hither side of the Rio
Grande, in which Grant had an active part, acquitting himself with
credit. On the next day was the battle of Resaca de la Palma, in which
he was acting adjutant in place of the officer killed. One consequence
of these victories was the evacuation of Matamoras. War with Mexico
having been declared, General Taylor's army became an army of invasion.

Volunteers for the war now began coming from the States. In August the
movement on Monterey began, and on the 19th of September, Taylor's army
was encamped before the city. The battle of Monterey was begun on the
21st, and the desperately defended city was surrendered and evacuated on
the 24th. Grant, although then doing quartermaster's duty, having his
station with the baggage train, went to the front on the first day, and
was a participant in the assault, incurring all its perils, and
volunteering for the extremely hazardous duty of a messenger between
different parts of the force.

When General Scott arrived at the mouth of the Rio Grande, Grant's
regiment was detached from Taylor's army and joined Scott's. He was
present and participated in the siege of Vera Cruz, the battle of Cerro
Gordo, the assault on Churubusco, the storming of Chapultepec, for which
he volunteered with a part of his company, and the battle of Molino del
Rey. Colonel Garland, commander of the brigade, in his report of the
storming of Chapultepec, said: "Lieutenant Grant, 4th Infantry,
acquitted himself most nobly upon several occasions under my own
observation." After the battle of Molino del Rey he was appointed on the
field a first lieutenant for his gallantry. For his conduct at
Chapultepec he was later brevetted a captain, to date from that battle,
September 13, 1847. He entered the city of Mexico a first lieutenant,
after having been, as he says, in all the engagements of the war
possible for any one man, in a regiment that lost more officers during
the war than it ever had present in a