A lieutenancy in the engineers or cavalry was more than a man of
low standing in the Academy could expect, and Grant was assigned
to the Fourth Infantry, with orders to report for duty at Jefferson
Barracks, St. Louis, Missouri, at the end of a short leave of
absence. The prospect of active service, far from his native state,
was anything but pleasing to the new officer; but he had come home
with a bad cough, and had he not been ordered to the South, it is
highly probable that he would have fallen a victim to consumption,
of which two of his uncles had already died. The air of Camp
Salubrity, Louisiana, where his regiment was quartered, and the
healthy, outdoor life, however, quickly checked the disease, and
at the end of two years he had acquired a constitution of iron.

Meanwhile, he had met Miss Julia Dent, the sister of one of
his classmates whose home was near St. Louis, and had written to
the Professor of Mathematics at West Point, requesting his aid in
securing an appointment there as his assistant, to which application
he received a most encouraging reply. Doubtless, his courtship
of Miss Dent made him doubly anxious to realize his long-cherished
plan of settling down to the quiet life of a professor. But all
hope of this was completely shattered by the orders of the Fourth
Infantry which directed it to proceed at once to Texas. Long
before the regiment marched, however, he was engaged to "the girl
he left behind him" and, although his dream of an instructorship
at West Point had vanished, he probably did not altogether abandon
his ambition for a career at teaching. But Fate had other plans
for him as he journeyed toward Mexico, where the war clouds were
gathering. Lee was moving in the same direction and their trails
were soon to merge at the siege of Vera Cruz.