Knoxville and Beyond

He proved nevertheless a hero. Assigned a quartermaster, he chanced shot and shell to supply his soldiers with ammunition during the bloody attack on Mexico City September 1847. When an infantry assault was stymied by a heavily defended Mexican walled position, he scraped up a small cannon, had it hauled up a well-placed church's steeple and fired hell down on the defenders.

Posted in lonely and isolated forts, especially Vancouver, Oregon Territory and Humbolt, California, after the war, he pined for his wife, Julia, and his two little boys in St. Louis. Abusing liquor to dull his loneliness or make it worse, he was urged to resign as a company commander (captain) in 1854. He scratched out a living for Julia and their four children by the hardest, first by farming near his father-in-law outside St. Louis. Then, he sold firewood and later real estate. He failed at those efforts and as a bill collector in St. Louis. From 1860 he worked until the outbreak of the war (April 1861) in his father's Galena, Illinois tannery and leather store.

His letters requesting reinstatement in the regular army went unanswered. Sponsored by his congressman, Elihu B. Washburn, he organized and trained Union volunteers from Galena. He was appointed colonel in the 21st Illinois Infantry in June 1861. Promoted to brigadier general, he quickly proved to be a good commander and effective, tenacious leader, capturing Ft. Donelson, Tennessee in February 1862. When sued for terms of surrender by his old West Point classmate, Simon B. Buckner, he answered, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately on your words." With that capture of a vital Confederate waterway (Tennessee River), he gave the Union their first major victory and launched his reclaimed military career and reputation.