"HERE!" (New Hampshire heard from.) The True "Military Ring."

Nast draws President Grant—stocky, cigar clamped in his teeth, sergeant's chevrons on his sleeve, belt buckled U.S.—holding a roll-call sheet labeled N. HAMPSHIRE ONLY as he faces a ranked file of state soldiers. Each man wears a sash identifying his state: N. HAMPSHIRE, CONNECTICUT, R.I., and others stretching back into the column. One soldier bellows the caption's answer: "Here!" The joke punctures Democratic accusations that Grant ran a corrupt "military ring": his true ring, Nast argues, is loyal Republican states answering the commander-in-chief. The cartoon celebrates New Hampshire Republicans' February 1872 gubernatorial victory—likely Ezekiel Straw's election—as proof that Union veterans and their home states still stood in formation behind Grant ahead of his re-election campaign.