396 Grant and Thomas

396. Grant and Thomas

In Illinois there appeared a trained soldier of fierce energy and invincible wil , Ulysses Simpson Grant . He had been educated at West Point and had served in the Mexican War . In September ,1861, he seized Cairo at the junction of the Ohio and the Mississippi . In January ,1862, General George H . Thomas defeated a Confederate force at Mill Springs , in the upper valey of the Cumberland River . In this way Grant and Thomas secured the line of the Ohio and eastern Kentucky for the Union .