Background
Grant was born on January 17, 1828, at Winhall, Vermont. He was the youngest son of James and Elizabeth (Wyman) Grant. His father and mother were both of Massachusetts stock.
Grant was born on January 17, 1828, at Winhall, Vermont. He was the youngest son of James and Elizabeth (Wyman) Grant. His father and mother were both of Massachusetts stock.
Grant’s public-school instruction was supplemented by attendance at the Leland and Gray Seminary, of Townshend, and the Chester Academy. Then followed several years of school-teaching at places as widely separated as Washington, New Jersey, and Harvard and Boston, Massachusets, during which he studied law.
In 1855, Grant was admitted to the Windsor County bar and two years later to practise before the Vermont supreme court.
At Bellows Falls, he entered into partnership with H. E. Stoughton and the firm soon had an extensive practise. In the first year of the Civil War, Grant volunteered and on August 15, 1861, was commissioned major of the 5th Vermont Infantry.
Within a few months after his regiment reached the front, he was promoted lieutenant-colonel on September 25, and a year later, on September 16, 1862, colonel.
At Fredericksburg, he was wounded while commanding the Vermont brigade. At the battle of Salem Heights, Virginia, May 3, 1863, he led his command over the enemy’s breastworks and captured three battle flags.
Gallantry in action during the campaign before Richmond and in the Shenandoah Valley resulted in his promotion to brigadier-general April 27, 1864, and major-general by brevet on October 19 of the same year.
On October 19, 1864, in the battle of Cedar Creek, he commanded a division. He was again wounded at Petersburg, on April 2.
During the course of the war, he led his regiment in six battles, his brigade in twenty.
Having been honorably discharged, August 24, 1865, in 1866, he was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the 36th Infantry in the regular army, but declined the commission because of his preference for civil life.
After the war, he removed from Vermont to Chicago and in 1867, to Des Moines, Iowa, where he engaged in the business of placing loans on real estate. Later, he settled at Minneapolis, where he continued in the practise of his profession.
In 1890, the post of assistant secretary of war was tendered him at the instance of the Secretary, Redfield Proctor, who had served as a regimental commander under Grant in the Civil War.
Grant accepted the appointment and held the office during the remainder of the Harrison administration and for some months after Cleveland’s inauguration in 1893, several times serving as acting secretary.
Grant was twice married: On March 11, 1857, to S. Augusta Hartwell of Harvard, Massachusets, who died in 1859, and on September 9, 1863, to Mary Helen Pierce of Hartland, Vermont.
