ALSO VISIT THE COLES COUNTY FIELDTRIP FOR MORE ABOUT "CAMP GRANT AT MATTOON, IL"
As an army recruiter: U.S. Grant mustered in a volunteer Galena regiment and took it to the state capital, Springfield. There he took charge of mustering several more regiments and came to the attention of the governor, Richard Yates.
Grant fought his first battle, an indecisive action against the Confederates at Belmont, Missouri, in November 1861.
Three months later, aided by Commodore Andrew H. Foote's gunboats, he captured Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River, and Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River. These were the first major Union victories of the war.
The Confederate commander, Brigadier General Simon B. Buckner, an old friend of Grant's, yielded to Grant's hard conditions of “no terms except unconditional and immediate surrender.” Buckner's surrender of 14,000 men made Grant a national figure almost overnight, and he was nicknamed “Unconditional Surrender” Grant. This victory also won him promotion to major general of volunteers.
Samuel Broughton served with the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry, Company I. He was mustered in at Mattoon, Illinois with Colonel U. S. Grant.
Illinois 21st Volunteers camped in Missouri, at the start of the war.