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David Lockmiller · (This post was last modified: 11-25-2017 03:23 PM by David Lockmiller.)

(11-24-2017 09:34 PM)Eva Elisabeth Wrote:
(11-23-2017 11:03 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote:
(11-23-2017 05:27 AM)RJNorton Wrote:
(11-22-2017 10:52 PM)David Lockmiller Wrote: Captain Grant, as he was called, assisted in drilling the Galena volunteers, but was not elected an officer of the company. He followed the boys to Springfield in his civilian clothes, and got a clerkship at the State capital. Having received his education at the Government's expense, he felt it his duty to offer his services, but the letter he wrote to Washington, rather diffidently suggesting that he was fit to command a regiment, was never answered. At last, he was given a chance in Illinois. A regiment of mutinous volunteers behaved so badly that they drove their colonel to resign, and Grant was put in his place. He soon whipped the regiment into shape. His former neighbor, Congressman Washburne, got him a brigadier's commission. The "unconditional surrender" at Fort Donelson made him a national figure.

There is a marker which commemorates Grant's time in Springfield. It is now located on private property. Over the years the marker has degraded and the inscription is no longer readable. Originally the inscription on the monument read, "Camp Yates, 1861. Here General Ulysses S. Grant Began His Civil War Career."

Roger, you find the most obscure facts about Lincoln history (even it is about only Grant). It's truly wonderful.

I am rather surprised that nobody made a comment on the observation that I made at the beginning of my post: "He [Grant] came very close to not being a factor at all in the American Civil War and was saved in this respect by an undisciplined regiment of Illinois volunteers."

"For Want of a Nail" is a proverb, having numerous variations over several centuries, reminding that seemingly unimportant acts or omissions can have grave and unforeseen consequences, . . . or just the opposite in terms of beneficial outcome.
I counter with a German saying - "es hat so sollen sein" (~"it was to be").

I counter-counter with President Lincoln's conversation that he had early in his presidency with the Chief of the Army, Lieutenant-General Winfield Scott.

To one of his queries as to the safety of Washington, General Scott had replied: "It has been ordained, Mr. President, that the city shall not be captured by the Confederates."

"But we ought to have more men and guns here," was the Chief Executive's answer. "The Confederates are not such fools as to let a good chance to capture Washington go by, and even if it has been ordained that the city is safe, I'd feel easier if it were better protected. All this reminds me of the old trapper out in the West who had been assured by some city folks who had hired him as a guide that all matters regarding life and death were prearranged."

"'It is ordained,' said one of the party to the old trapper, 'that you are to die at a certain time, and no one can kill you before that time. If you met a thousand Indians, and your death had not been ordained for that day, you would certainly escape.'

"'I don't exactly understand this ordained business,' was the trapper's reply. 'I don't care to run no risks. I always have my gun with me, so that if I come across some reds I can feel sure that I won't cross the Jordan, 'thought taking some of 'em with me. Now, for instance, if I met an Indian in the woods, he drew a bead on me--sayin', too, that he wasn't more'n ten feet away--an' I didn't have nothing to protect myself; say it was as bad as that, the redskin bein' dead ready to kill me; even if it had been ordained that the Indian (sayin' he was a good shot) was to die that very minute, an' I wasn't, what would I do 'thout my gun?'

"There you are," the President remarked ; "even if it has been ordained that the city of Washington will never be taken by the Southerners, what would we do, in case they made an attack upon the place, without men and heavy guns?

--A.K. McClure

There is a marker which commemorates Grant's time in Springfield. It is now located on private property. Over the years the marker has degraded and the inscription is no longer readable. Originally the inscription on the monument read, "Camp Yates, 1861. Here General Ulysses S. Grant Began His Civil War Career."

Roger, can you tell me exactly how it is that you came across this obscure fact? I may one day try to see this marker if I can locate it.

I grew up in Decatur, Illinois -- 39 miles east of Springfield. After I found Lincoln (metaphorically speaking) not so many years ago, I would make a pilgrimage to Springfield each year that I would go back to visit family. I would stop at the old Lincoln homestead along the Sangamon River outside Decatur first and then go on to Springfield to visit the various Lincoln sites (the Old Capitol, the Prairie (?) bookstore close by where I would usually purchase a used Lincoln book or two, the railroad station where he made his famous going away (never to return) speech to his neighbors, sometimes the Lincoln home, once the church pew where he worshiped, and always the Lincoln tomb. On the way out of town, I would pass by Butler Cemetery with its Civil War era tombstones (one winter day, I stopped to take photographs with snow covering the grounds). And, I always stopped on the way back to Decatur in the little town of Buffalo, Illinois on old Highway 36 to have a few beers with the local Buffaloes (the bar's owners were huge St. Louis Cardinals fans).