Ed Bearss On Orvil Grant and Grant the Disciplinarian

Orvil Lynch Grant was a younger brother of General U.S. Grant and was at Galena, Illinois, when Grant was there and later, when Grant was president one of the ones that led to a scandal.

Governor Richard Yates of Illinois was tasked by Lincoln to raise regiments of volunteers.  Grant was a volunteer aide to the governor.  The 21st Illinois Infantry Regiment was regarded as a unit with particularly bad discipline and Grant was given the task of structuring them out.  He marched them from Springfield to Ottawa and then to Hannibal, Missouri.  All this marching made them a little more amenable to discipline.

--Old Secesh