 The relationship of Parker and Grant began in Grant's hometown, Galena, Illinois, in 1860 when Parker was a civil engineer and Grant was a clerk in a harness store. They became good friends. In the war, they campaigned side by side from Vicksburg to Richmond and they were still together when Lee surrendered at Appomattox. But this is the rest of the story. As a young man, many years before that significant meeting in a harness store in Galena,