Financial reverses and the death of his grandmother broke up the
family; and his father, Jesse Grant, was given the kindest of
homes by Judge Tod of Ohio. Jesse, being as independent as he was
grateful, turned his energies into the first business at hand,
which happened to be a tannery at Deerfield owned by the father
of that wild enthusiast John Brown. A great reader, an able
contributor to the Western press, and a most public-spirited
citizen, Jesse Grant was a good father to his famous son, who was
born on April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio.
Young Grant hated the tannery, but delighted in everything
connected with horses; so he looked after the teams. One day,
after swapping horses many miles from home, he found himself
driving a terrified bolter that he only just managed to stop on
the edge of a big embankment. His grown-up companion, who had no
stomach for any more, then changed into a safe freight wagon. But
Ulysses, tying his bandanna over the runaway's eyes, stuck to the
post of danger.

After passing through West Point without any special distinction,
except that he came out first in horsemanship, Grant was
disappointed at not receiving the cavalry commission which he
would have greatly preferred to the infantry one he was given
instead. Years later, when already a rising general, he vainly
yearned for a cavalry brigade. Otherwise he had curiously little
taste for military life; though at West Point he thought the two
finest men in the world were Captain C.F. Smith, the splendidly
smart Commandant, and, even more, that magnificently handsome
giant, Winfield Scott, who came down to inspect the cadets. Some
years after having served with credit all through the Mexican War
(when, like Lee, he learnt so much about so many future friends