Ulysses S. Grant who returned to Bethel by stagecoach had the upright carriage of a cadet instead of his familiar boyhood slouch. Training had made him lean and muscular. When he encountered his mother, she didn’t shower him with tears or hugs, but inspected him closely instead. “Ulysses, you have grown much straighter,” she commented, and he shot back, “Yes, that was the first thing they taught me.”25
