Galena, Illinois

Yesterday we drove back to the town of Galena, Illinois. This was the home of Ulysses Grant before the Civil War. Grant had graduated from West Point and served in the Mexican War. He settled his family in Galena where he worked in his father's leather goods store. He was appointed by the Governor to command the volunteer regiment from Illinois. By September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. Of course, everyone knows he became Commanding General of the Union Army and accepted General Lee's surrender at Appomattox Virginia.

Between the years that the war ended and he became President, the family still lived in Galena. The house had 5 bedrooms upstairs, with a parlor, library and dining room downstairs. The kitchen also had a room off it that held a built in bathtub!!



This town is very proud of their relationship with the Grant's. They have a beautiful park with this statue of Grant and outside the house is this statue of Julia Dent Grant.



















Tomorrow we are moving down and across the river to the Davenport area. I will be very glad to get away from these mayflies. This park would have been ideal if not for them. Think I would rather have misquotes!!