e surrounding area. About his stay at the academy, though, Ulysses later recalledthat he had ambivalent feelings about the institution. When he spoke of it, Ulysses usually spoke without enthusiasm. He constantly recalled the countless drilling, regimented lifestyle, and the spartan routine that had no appeal to him at the time. He was not happy as a cadet and easily described his four years at West Point as interminable. There is one characteristic about West Point that Grant found appealing, and it was that the academy was the best school in the world for turning out “manly characters.” Ulysses was too simple in his deportment and modest in his outlook to canonize the institution, as MacArthur was later to do. There was none of the maudlin "Corps, corps, corps" doctrine within the psyche of U.S. Grant.When he graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1843, Ulysses Grant was commissioned the rank of brevet second lieutenant. He was assigned to the fourth United States Infantry and was sent to the Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri. While at the Jefferson Barracks, Ulysses began to learn his army duties and the great amount of military knowledge that would help in the not to distant future. He also met his wife, Julia Dent, while serving out his duty at the barracks. Julia Boggs Dent was the sister of a West Point classmate. In May 1844, Grant’s regiment was given orders that sent it to the southwest frontier. This order was a temporary interruption of his romance.This interruption of romance was nothing more than the Mexican War. Grant served with distinction in the Mexican War (1846-1848), a conflict that he privately deplored as an unjust war to extend slavery. Promoted on Sept. 20, 1845, to full second lieutenant, he took part in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterrey. Grant's commanding general in all these engagements was "Old Rough and Ready," Gen. Zachary Taylor, ...
