Ulysses S. Grant, 18th President of the United States

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877) as well as military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction periods. Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America. Grant began his lifelong career as a soldier after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843. Fighting in the Mexican–American War, he was a close observer of the techniques of Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. He resigned from the Army in 1854, then struggled to make a living in St. Louis and Galena, Illinois.

After the American Civil War began in April 1861, he joined the Union war effort, taking charge of training new regiments and then engaging the Confederacy near Cairo, Illinois. In 1862, he fought a series of major battles and captured a Confederate army, earning a reputation as an aggressive general who seized control of most of Kentucky and Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh. In July 1863, after a long, complex campaign, he defeated five Confederate armies (capturing one of them) and seized Vicksburg. This famous victory gave the Union control of the Mississippi River, split the Confederacy, and opened the way for more Union victories and conquests. After another victory at the Battle of Chattanooga in late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general and gave him charge of all of the Union Armies. As Commanding General of the United States Army from 1864 to 1865, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of very high casualty battles known as the Overland Campaign that ended in a stalemate siege at Petersburg. During the siege, Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns launched by William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George Thomas. Finally breaking through Lee's trenches at Petersburg, the Union Army captured Richmond, the Confederate capital, in April 1865. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. Soon after, the Confederacy collapsed and the Civil War ended.

During Reconstruction, Grant remained in command of the Army and implemented the Congressional plans to reoccupy the South and hold new elections in 1867 with black voters. This gave Republicans control of the Southern states. Enormously popular in the North after the Union's victory, he was elected to the presidency in 1868. Reelected in 1872, he became the first president to serve two full terms since Andrew Jackson did so forty years earlier. As president, he led Reconstruction by signing and enforcing civil rights laws and fighting Ku Klux Klan violence. He helped rebuild the Republican Party in the South, an effort that resulted in the election of African Americans to Congress and state governments for the first time. Despite these civil rights accomplishments, Grant's presidency was marred by economic turmoil and multiple scandals. His response to the Panic of 1873 and the severe depression that followed was heavily criticized. His low standards in Cabinet and federal appointments and lack of accountability generated corruption and bribery in seven government departments. In 1876, his reputation was severely damaged by the graft trials of the Whiskey Ring. In addition, his image as a war hero was tarnished by corruption scandals during his presidency. He left office at the low point of his popularity.

After leaving office, Grant embarked on a two-year world tour that was received favorably with many royal receptions. In 1880, he made an unsuccessful bid for a third presidential term. In 1884, broke and dying of cancer, he wrote his memoirs. Historians have ranked his Administration poorly due to tolerance of corruption. His presidential reputation has improved among scholars who are impressed by the Administration's support for civil rights for freed slaves.

Important Note about U.S. Grant

The repeated manifestations of General Grant's truly great qualities--his innate modesty, his freedom from every trace of vain-glory or ostentation, his magnanimity in victory, his genuine sympathy for his brave and sensitive foemen, and his inflexible resolve to protect paroled Confederates against any assault, and vindicate, at whatever cost, the sanctity of his pledge to the van-quished-will give him a place in history no less renowned and more to be envied than that secured by his triumphs as a soldier or his honors as a civilian. The Christian invocation which came from his dying lips, on Mount McGregor, summoning the spirit of peace and unity and equality for all of his countrymen, made a fitting close to the life of this illustrious American. Scarcely less prominent in American annals than the record of these two lives (General R.E. Lee), should stand a catalogue of the thrilling incidents which illustrate the nobler phase of soldier life so inadequately described in these reminiscences. The unseemly things which occurred in the great conflict between the States should be forgotten, or at least forgiven, and no longer permitted to disturb complete harmony between North and South. American youth in all sections should be taught to hold in perpetual remembrance all that was great and good on both sides; to comprehend the inherited convictions for which saintly women suffered and patriotic men died; to recognize the unparalleled carnage as proof of unrivalled courage; to appreciate the singular absence of personal animosity and the frequent manifestation between those brave antagonists of a good-fellowship such as had never before been witnessed between hostile armies.

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• Ulysess S. Grant Website

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant[2]) (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was general-in-chief of the Union Army from 1864 to 1865 during the American Civil War and the 18th President of the United States from 1869 to 1877.

The son of an Appalachian Ohio tanner, Grant entered the United States Military Academy at age 17. In 1846, three years after graduating, Grant served as a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War under Winfield Scott and future president Zachary Taylor. After the Mexican-American War concluded in 1848, Grant remained in the Army, but abruptly resigned in 1854. Struggling through the coming years as a real estate agent, a laborer, and a county engineer, Grant decided to join the Northern effort in the Civil War.

Appointed brigadier general of volunteers in 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln, Grant claimed the first major Union victories of the war in 1862, capturing Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. He was surprised by a Confederate attack at the Battle of Shiloh, and although he emerged victorious, the severe casualties prompted a public outcry that could have resulted in driving him from the army. Subsequently, however, Grant's 1863 victory at Vicksburg, following a long campaign with many initial setbacks, and his rescue of the besieged Union army at Chattanooga, established his reputation as Lincoln's most aggressive and successful general. Named lieutenant general and general-in-chief of the Army in 1864, Grant implemented a coordinated strategy of simultaneous attacks aimed at destroying the South's armies and its economy's ability to sustain its forces. In 1865, after mounting a successful war of attrition against his Confederate opponents, he accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House.

Popular due to the Union victory in the Civil War, Grant was elected President of the United States as a Republican in 1868 and was re-elected in 1872, the first President to serve for two full terms since Andrew Jackson forty years before. As President, Grant led Reconstruction and built a powerful patronage-based Republican Party in the South, straining relations between the North and former Confederates. His administration was marred by scandal, sometimes the product of nepotism, and the neologism Grantism was coined to describe political corruption.

Grant left office in 1877 and embarked upon a two-year world tour. Unsuccessful in winning the nomination for a third term in 1880, left destitute by bad investments, and near the brink of death, Grant wrote his Memoirs, which were enormously successful among veterans, the public, and the critics. However, in 1884, Grant learned that he was suffering from terminal throat cancer and two days after completing his writing, Grant died at the age of 63. Presidential historians typically rank Grant in the lowest quartile of U.S. presidents for his tolerance of corruption, but in recent years his reputation has improved among some scholars impressed by his support for civil rights for African Americans.[3]

Contents [hide]

1 Early life and family

2 Education and the Mexican-American War

2.1 Mexican–American War

3 Between wars

4 Civil War

4.1 Western Theater: 1861–63

4.1.1 Battles of Belmont, Henry, and Donelson

4.1.2 Shiloh

4.1.3 Vicksburg

4.1.4 Chattanooga

4.2 General-in-Chief and strategy for victory

4.2.1 Overland Campaign, Petersburg, and Appomattox

5 1868 presidential campaign

6 Presidency 1869–1877

6.1 Reconstruction

6.2 Civil rights

6.3 Panic of 1873

6.4 Economic affairs

6.5 Foreign affairs

6.6 Scandals

6.7 Administration and Cabinet

6.8 Supreme Court appointments

6.9 States admitted to the Union

6.10 Government agencies instituted

7 Post-presidency

7.1 World Tour 1877-1879

7.2 Third term attempt in 1880

7.3 Bankruptcy

7.4 Last days

8 See also

9 Notes

10 References

11 Bibliography

11.1 Biographical, political

11.2 Military studies

11.3 Primary sources

12 External links

General Grant began the conversation by saying: "I met you once before, General Lee, while we were serving in Mexico, when you came over from General Scott's headquarters to visit Garland's brigade, to which I then belonged. I have always remembered your appearance, and I think I should have recognized you anywhere." "Yes," replied General Lee, "I know I met you on that occasion, and I have often thought of it and tried to recollect how you looked, but I have never been able to recall a single feature."

Early life and family

Ulysses Grant Birthplace, Point Pleasant, Ohio

Ulysses S. Grant Boyhood Home, Georgetown, OhioGrant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, east of Cincinnati on the Ohio River to Jesse Root Grant (1794–1873), a tanner, and Hannah Simpson Grant (1798–1883), both Pennsylvania natives.[4] At birth, Grant was named Hiram Ulysses.[5] In the fall of 1823, the family moved to the village of Georgetown in Brown County, Ohio.[2]

Education and the Mexican-American War

At the age of 17, Grant entered the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, after securing a nomination through his U.S. Congressman, Thomas L. Hamer, who erroneously nominated him as "Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio."[6] Grant adopted the form of his new name with middle initial only.[7] Because "U.S." also stands for "Uncle Sam," Grant's nickname became "Sam" among his army colleagues. He graduated from USMA in 1843, ranking 21st in a class of 39. At the academy, he established a reputation as a fearless and expert horseman. Although this made him seem a natural for cavalry, he was assigned to duty as a regimental quartermaster, managing supplies and equipment.

Mexican–American War

Grant from West Point to Appomattox, an 1885 engraving. Clockwise from lower left: Graduation from West Point (1843); In the tower at Chapultepec (1847); Drilling his Volunteers (1861); The Battle of Fort Donelson (1862); The Battle of Shiloh (1862); The Siege of Vicksburg (1863); The Battle of Chattanooga (1863); Appointment as Commander-in-Chief by Abraham Lincoln (1864); The Surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House (1865)Lieutenant Grant served in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, where, despite his assignment as a quartermaster, he got close enough to the front lines to see action, taking part in the battles of Resaca de la Palma, Palo Alto, Monterrey (where he volunteered to carry a dispatch on horseback through a sniper-lined street), and Veracruz. Once Grant saw Fred Dent, his friend and later his brother-in-law, lying in the middle of the battlefield; he had been shot in the leg. Grant ran furiously into the open to rescue Dent; as they were making their way to safety, a Mexican was sneaking up behind Grant, but the Mexican was shot by a fellow U.S. soldier. Grant was twice brevetted for bravery: at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. He was a remarkably close observer of the war, learning to judge the actions of colonels and generals. In the 1880s he wrote that the war was unjust, accepting the theory that it was designed to gain land open to slavery. He wrote in his memoirs about the war against Mexico: "I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day, regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation."[8]

Between wars

The Mexican-American War concluded on February 2, 1848.

On August 22, 1848, Grant married Julia Boggs Dent (1826–1902), the daughter of a slave owner.[9] Together, they had four children: Frederick Dent Grant, Ulysses S. "Buck" Grant, Jr. , Ellen Wrenshall "Nellie" Grant, and Jesse Root Grant.

Grant remained in the army and was moved to several different posts. He was sent to Fort Vancouver in the Washington Territory in 1853, where he served as quartermaster of the 4th Infantry Regiment. His wife, eight months pregnant with their second child, could not accompany him because his salary could not support a family on the frontier. In 1854, Grant was promoted to captain, one of only 50 still on active duty, and assigned to command Company F, 4th Infantry, at Fort Humboldt, California. Grant abruptly resigned from the Army with little advance notice on July 31, 1854, offering no explanation for his decision. Rumors persisted in the Army for years that his commanding officer, Bvt. Lt. Col. Robert C. Buchanan, found him drunk on duty as a pay officer and offered him the choice between resignation or court-martial.[10] However, the War Department stated, "Nothing stands against his good name."

At age 32, Grant struggled through seven lean years. From 1854 to 1858, he labored on a family farm near St. Louis, Missouri, using slaves owned by his father-in-law, but it did not prosper. Grant acquired one of his father-in-law's slaves in 1858 (and set him free the next year, when the Grants returned to Illinois) and his wife owned four slaves.[11] From 1858–1859 he was a bill collector in St. Louis. Failing at everything, he asked his father for a job, and in 1860 was made an assistant in the leather shop owned by his father in Galena, Illinois. Grant & Perkins sold harnesses, saddles, and other leather goods and purchased hides from farmers in the prosperous Galena area.[12]

Hardscrabble house at the Ulysses S Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, MOAlthough Grant was not affiliated with any political party, his father-in-law was a prominent Democrat in St. Louis, a fact that lost Grant the job of county engineer in 1859. In 1856, he voted for Democrat James Buchanan for president to avert secession and because "I knew Frémont" (the Republican candidate). In 1860, he favored Democrat Stephen A. Douglas but did not vote. In 1864, he allowed his political sponsor, Congressman Elihu B. Washburne, to use his private letters as campaign literature for Abraham Lincoln[13] and the Union Party, which combined both Republicans and War Democrats. Grant announced his affiliation as a Republican in 1868, after years of apoliticism.[14]

Civil War

Western Theater: 1861–63

The home of President Grant while he lived in Galena, Illinois.Shortly after Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln put out a call for 75,000 militia volunteers. Grant helped recruit a company of volunteers and accompanied it to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. Grant accepted a position offered by Illinois Governor Richard Yates to recruit and train volunteers, which he accomplished with efficiency. Grant pressed for a field command; Yates appointed him a colonel in the Illinois militia and gave him command of undisciplined and rebellious 21st Illinois Infantry in June 1861.

Grant was deployed to Missouri to protect the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Under pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Jackson, Missouri had declared it was an armed neutral in the conflict and would attack troops from either side entering the state. By the first of August the Union army had forcibly removed Jackson and Missouri was controlled by Union forces, who had to deal with numerous southern sympathizers.

In August, Grant was appointed brigadier general of the militia volunteers by Lincoln, who had been lobbied by Congressman Elihu Washburne. At the end of August, Grant was selected by Western Theater commander Major General John C. Frémont to command the critical District of Southeast Missouri.

Battles of Belmont, Henry, and Donelson

Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant photographed at Cairo, Illinois on Sept. 4, 1861Grant's first important strategic act of the war was to take the initiative to seize the Ohio River town of Paducah, Kentucky, immediately after the Confederates violated the state's neutrality by occupying Columbus, Kentucky. He fought his first battle, an indecisive action against Confederate Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, at Belmont, Missouri, in November 1861. Three months later, aided by Andrew H. Foote's Navy gunboats, he captured two major Confederate fortresses, Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. At Donelson, his army was hit by a surprise Confederate attack (once again by Pillow) while he was temporarily absent. Displaying the cool determination that would characterize his leadership in future battles, he organized counterattacks that carried the day. Both General Floyd and Pillow, the two senior Confederate commanders fled. The Confederate commander, Brig. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, an old friend of Grant's and a West Point classmate, and senior commander with Floyd and Pillow fleeing, yielded to Grant's hard conditions of "no terms except unconditional and immediate surrender." Buckner's surrender of over 12,000 men made Grant a national figure almost overnight, and he was nicknamed "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. The captures of the two forts with over 12,000 prisoners were the first major Union victories of the war, gaining him national recognition. Desperate for generals who could fight and win, Lincoln promoted him to major general of volunteers. Although Grant's new-found fame did not seem to affect his temperament, it did have an impact on his personal life. At one point during the Civil War, a picture of Grant with a cigar in his mouth was published. He was then inundated with cigars from well wishers. Before that he had smoked only sporadically, but he could not give them all away, so he took up smoking them, a habit which may have contributed to the development of throat cancer later in his life; one story after the war claimed that he smoked over 10,000 in five years.

Despite his significant victories (or perhaps because of them), Grant fell out of favor with his superior, Major General Henry W. Halleck. Halleck had a particular distaste for drunks and, believing Grant was an alcoholic, was biased against him from the beginning. After Grant visited Nashville, Tennessee, where he met with Halleck's rival, Don Carlos Buell, Halleck used the visit as an excuse to relieve Grant on March 4 of field command of a newly launched expedition up the Tennessee River. However, Halleck soon restored Grant to field command of the expedition (personal intervention by President Lincoln may have been a factor), and on March 17 he joined his army at Savannah, Tennessee.[15] At this juncture, Grant's command was known as the Army of West Tennessee; soon, however, it would acquire its more famous name as the Army of the Tennessee.

Shiloh

General Grant at Cold Harbor, photographed by Mathew Brady in 1864Eventually, most of Grant's expedition was staged at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, nine miles south of Savannah and on the western side of the Tennessee River. On April 6, those troops were surprised by Confederate Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard in the Battle of Shiloh. The sheer violence of the Confederate attack sent the Union forces reeling. Nevertheless, after hastening to Pittsburg Landing from Savannah, Grant refused to retreat. With grim determination, he stabilized his line. Then, on the second day, with the help of timely reinforcements, Grant counterattacked and turned a serious reverse into a victory.

The victory at Shiloh came at a high price; with approximately 12,000 casualties on each side, it was the bloodiest battle in the history of the United States up to that time and had unpleasant repurcussions for Grant. As previously planned, Grant's superior in the Department of the Mississippi, Henry Halleck, arrived at Pittsburg Landing to take personal command in the field. Halleck proceeded to organize a 100,000-man army there, dividing it into three corps commands and a reserve for a campaign to capture Corinth, Mississippi. Initially, Grant was to command the right wing (First Corps).[16] However, on April 30, perhaps in response to the surprise and the disorganized nature of the Shiloh fighting and the resulting criticism of Grant, Halleck assigned Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas to command the right wing and gave Grant the position of second-in-command of the entire 100,000-man force. Grant became very dissatisfied with this arrangement, which he complained was a censure and akin to an arrest.[17] Accordingly, he explored the possibility of obtaining an assignment elsewhere and might have left the Army altogether after the Union forces occupied Corinth on May 30. The intervention of his subordinate and good friend, William T. Sherman, caused him to remain.[18] He was thus in position to play an increasingly important role in the West when, in July 1862, Halleck was promoted to general-in-chief of the Union Army and called to Washington.[19] That fall, Grant had overall command of the Union forces for the battles of Iuka and Corinth, although the fighting in those battles fell mostly to Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans.

Vicksburg

In an attempt to capture the Mississippi River fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Grant spent the winter of 1862–1863 conducting a series of operations to gain access to the city through the region's bayous. These attempts failed. One newspaper complained that "[t]he army was being ruined in mud-turtle expeditions, under the leadership of a drunkard, whose confidential adviser [Sherman] was a lunatic."[20]

However, his strategy to take Vicksburg in 1863 is considered one of the most masterful in military history. Grant marched his troops down the west bank of the Mississippi and crossed the river by using United States Navy ships that had run the guns at Vicksburg. There, he moved inland and—in a daring move that defied conventional military principles—cut loose from most of his supply lines.[21] Operating in enemy territory, Grant moved swiftly, never giving the Confederates, under the command of John C. Pemberton, an opportunity to concentrate their forces against him. Grant's army went eastward, captured the city of Jackson, Mississippi, and severed the rail line to Vicksburg.

Grant and Pemberton at VicksburgKnowing that the Confederates could no longer send reinforcements to the Vicksburg garrison, Grant turned west and won the Battle of Champion Hill. The Confederates retreated inside their fortifications at Vicksburg, and Grant promptly surrounded the city. Finding that assaults against the impregnable breastworks were futile, he settled in for a six-week siege. Cut off and with no possibility of relief, Pemberton surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863. It was a devastating defeat for the Southern cause, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two, and, in conjunction with the Union victory at Gettysburg the previous day, is widely considered the turning point of the war. For this victory, President Lincoln promoted Grant to the rank of major general in the regular army, effective July 4.

One historian with a military background has written that "we must go back to the campaigns of Napoleon to find equally brilliant results accomplished in the same space of time with such a small loss."[22] Indeed, anticipating that Grant would soon capture Vicksburg, Abraham Lincoln declared that "if Grant only does this thing down there . . ., why, Grant is my man and I am his the rest of this war."[23]

Chattanooga

After the Battle of Chickamauga Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans and his Army of the Cumberland retreated to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Confederate Braxton Bragg followed to Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, surrounding the Federals on three sides and besieging them. On October 17, to deal with this crisis, Grant was placed in command of the sweeping, newly-created Military Division of the Mississippi; this command placed Grant in overall charge of the previously independent Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland (embracing Chattanooga), and the Tennessee. In taking this new command, Grant chose a version of the War Department's order that relieved Rosecrans from command of the Department of the Cumberland and replaced him with Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. Sherman succeeded Grant in charge of the Department of the Tennessee.[24]

Grant went to Chattanooga personally to take charge of the situation. Devising a plan known as the "Cracker Line," Thomas's chief engineer, William F. "Baldy" Smith opened a new supply route to Chattanooga, helping to feed the starving men and animals of the Union army. Upon reprovisioning and reinforcement by elements of Sherman's Army of the Tennessee and troops from the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, the morale of Union troops lifted. In late November, Grant went on the offensive.

The Battles for Chattanooga started out with Hooker's capture of Lookout Mountain on November 24 and with Sherman's failed attack on the Confederate right the following day. He occupied the wrong hill and then committed only a fraction of his force against the true objective, allowing them to be repulsed by one Confederate division. In response, Grant ordered Thomas to launch a demonstration on the center, which could draw defenders away from Sherman. Thomas's men made an unexpected but spectacular charge straight up Missionary Ridge and broke the fortified center of the Confederate line. Grant was initially angry at Thomas that his orders for a demonstration were exceeded, but the assaulting wave sent the Confederates into a head-long retreat, opening the way for the Union to invade Atlanta, Georgia, and the heart of the Confederacy. According to Hooker, Grant said afterward, "Damn the battle! I had nothing to do with it."[25]

Grant's willingness to fight and ability to win impressed President Lincoln, who appointed him lieutenant general in the regular army—a rank not awarded since George Washington (or Winfield Scott's brevet appointment), recently re-authorized by the U.S. Congress with Grant in mind—on March 2, 1864. On March 12, Grant became general-in-chief of all the armies of the United States.

General-in-Chief and strategy for victory

In March 1864, Grant put Major General William T. Sherman in immediate command of all forces in the West and moved his headquarters to Virginia where he turned his attention to the long-frustrated Union effort to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia; his secondary objective was to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, but Grant knew that the latter would happen automatically once the former was accomplished. He devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of the Confederacy from multiple directions: Grant, George G. Meade, and Benjamin Franklin Butler against Lee near Richmond; Franz Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley; Sherman to invade Georgia, defeat Joseph E. Johnston, and capture Atlanta; George Crook and William W. Averell to operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia; and Nathaniel Banks to capture Mobile, Alabama. Grant was the first general to attempt such a coordinated strategy in the war and the first to understand the concepts of total war, in which the destruction of an enemy's economic infrastructure that supplied its armies was as important as tactical victories on the battlefield.

Overland Campaign, Petersburg, and Appomattox

Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. GrantThe Overland Campaign was the military thrust needed by the Union to defeat the Confederacy. It pitted Grant against the great commander Robert E. Lee in an epic contest. It began on May 4, 1864, when the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River, marching into an area of scrubby undergrowth and second growth trees known as the Wilderness. It was such difficult terrain that the Army of Northern Virginia was able to use it to prevent Grant from fully exploiting his numerical advantage.

The Battle of the Wilderness was a stubborn, bloody two-day fight, resulting in advantage to neither side, but with heavy casualties on both. After similar battles in Virginia against Lee, all of Grant's predecessors had retreated from the field. Grant ignored the setback and ordered an advance around Lee's flank to the southeast, which lifted the morale of his army. Grant's strategy was not just to win individual battles, it was to fight constant battles in order to wear down and destroy Lee's army.

Sigel's Shenandoah campaign and Butler's James River campaign both failed. Lee was able to reinforce with troops used to defend against these assaults.

The campaign continued. Confederate troops beat the Union to Spotsylvania, Virginia, where, on May 8, the fighting resumed. The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House lasted 14 days. On May 11, Grant wrote a famous dispatch containing the line "I propose to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer". These words summed up his attitude about the fighting, and the next day, May 12, he ordered a massive assault by Hancock's 2nd Corps that broke a portion of Lee's line, captured 30 artillery pieces, took 4,000 prisoners, and broke forever the famous Stonewall Division. In spite of mounting Union casualties, the contest's dynamics changed in Grant's favor. Most of Lee's great victories in earlier years had been won on the offensive, employing surprise movements and fierce assaults. Now, he was forced to continually fight on the defensive without a chance to regroup or replenish against an opponent that was well supplied and had superior numbers. The next major battle, however, demonstrated the power of a well-prepared defense. Cold Harbor was one of Grant's most controversial battles, in which he launched on June 3 a massive three-corps assault without adequate reconnaissance on a well-fortified defensive line, resulting in horrific casualties (3,000–7,000 killed, wounded, and missing in the first 40 minutes, although modern estimates have determined that the total was likely less than half of the famous figure of 7,000 that has been used in books for decades; as many as 12,000 for the day, far outnumbering the Confederate losses). Grant said of the battle in his memoirs "I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made. I might say the same thing of the assault of the 22nd of May, 1863, at Vicksburg. At Cold Harbor no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained." But Grant moved on and kept up the pressure. He stole a march on Lee, slipping his troops across the James River.

Arriving at Petersburg, Virginia, first, Grant should have captured the rail junction city, but he failed because of the overly cautious actions of his subordinate William Smith. Over the next three days, a number of Union assaults to take the city were launched. But all failed, and finally on June 18, Lee's veterans arrived. Faced with fully manned trenches in his front, Grant was left with no alternative but to settle down to a siege.

As the summer drew on and with Grant's and Sherman's armies stalled, respectively in Virginia and Georgia, politics took center stage. There was a presidential election in the fall, and the citizens of the North had difficulty seeing any progress in the war effort. To make matters worse for Abraham Lincoln, Lee detached a small army under the command of Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early, hoping it would force Grant to disengage forces to pursue him. Early invaded north through the Shenandoah Valley and reached the outskirts of Washington, D.C.. Although unable to take the city, Early embarrassed the Administration simply by threatening its inhabitants, making Abraham Lincoln's re-election prospects even bleaker.

In early September, the efforts of Grant's coordinated strategy finally bore fruit. First, Sherman took Atlanta. Then, Grant dispatched Philip Sheridan to the Shenandoah Valley to deal with Early. It became clear to the people of the North that the war was being won, and Lincoln was re-elected by a wide margin. Later in November, Sherman began his March to the Sea. Sheridan and Sherman both followed Grant's strategy of total war by destroying the economic infrastructures of the Valley and a large swath of Georgia and the Carolinas.

In March 1865, Grant invited Lincoln to visit his headquarters at City Point, Virginia. By coincidence, Sherman (then campaigning in North Carolina) happened to visit City Point at the same time. This allowed for the war's only three-way meeting of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman.[26] At the beginning of April, Grant's relentless pressure finally forced Lee to evacuate Richmond, and after a nine-day retreat, Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. There, Grant offered generous terms that did much to ease the tensions between the armies and preserve some semblance of Southern pride, which would be needed to reconcile the warring sides. Within a few weeks, the American Civil War was effectively over; minor actions would continue until Kirby Smith surrendered his forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2, 1865.

Immediately after Lee's surrender, Grant had the sad honor of serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of his greatest champion, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had been quoted after the massive losses at Shiloh as saying, "I can't spare this man. He fights." It was a two-sentence description that completely caught the essence of Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant's fighting style was what one fellow general called "that of a bulldog". The term accurately captures his tenacity, but it oversimplifies his considerable strategic and tactical capabilities. Although a master of combat by out-maneuvering his opponent (such as at Vicksburg and in the Overland Campaign against Lee), Grant was not afraid to order direct assaults, often when the Confederates were themselves launching offensives against him. Such tactics often resulted in heavy casualties for Grant's men, but they wore down the Confederate forces proportionately more and inflicted irreplaceable losses. Many in the North denounced Grant as a "butcher" in 1864, an accusation made both by Northern civilians appalled at the staggering number of casualties suffered by Union armies for what appeared to be negligible gains, and by Copperheads, Northern Democrats who either favored the Confederacy or simply wanted an end to the war, even at the cost of recognizing Southern independence. Grant persevered, refusing to withdraw as had his predecessors, and Lincoln, despite public outrage and pressure within the government, stuck by Grant, refusing to replace him. Although Grant lost battles in 1864, he won all his campaigns.

Despite his reputation, deserved or not, as an uncaring butcher, Grant was always concerned about the sufferings of the wounded. Horace Porter who served with him, described a scene of a soldier dying beside a roadside during the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, and Grant's reaction as the dying young man was splattered with mud by a passing rider:

The general, whose eyes were at that moment turned upon the youth, was visibly affected. He reined in his horse, and seeing from a motion he made that he was intending to dismount to bestow some care upon the young man, I sprang from my horse, ran to the side of the soldier, wiped his face with my handkerchief, spoke to him, and examined his wound; but in a few minutes the unmistakable death rattle was heard, and I found he had breathed his last. I said to the general, who was watching the scene intently, 'The poor fellow is dead,' remounted my horse, and the party rode on.... There was a painfully sad look upon the general's face, and he did not speak for some time. While always sensitive to the sufferings of the wounded, this pitiful sight seemed to affect him more than usual.[27]

Historian Michael Korda explained his strategic genius:[28]

Grant understood topography, the importance of supply lines, the instant judgment of the balance between his own strengths and the enemy's weaknesses, and above all the need to keep his armies moving forward, despite casualties, even when things had gone wrong—that and the simple importance of inflicting greater losses on the enemy than he can sustain, day after day, until he breaks. Grant the boy never retraced his steps. Grant the man did not retreat—he advanced. Generals who do that win wars.

After the war, on July 25, 1866, Congress authorized the newly created rank of General of the Army of the United States, the equivalent of a full (four-star) general in the modern United States Army.[29] Grant was appointed as such by President Andrew Johnson on the same day.

1868 presidential campaign

This is an 1868 presidential campaign poster for Ulysses S. Grant, created by superimposing a portrait of Grant onto the platform of the Republican Party.As commanding general of the army, Grant had a difficult relationship with President Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat, who preferred a moderate approach to relations with the South. Johnson tried to use Grant to defeat the Radical Republicans by making Grant the Secretary of War in place of Edwin M. Stanton, whom he could not remove without the approval of Congress under the Tenure of Office Act. Grant refused but kept his military command. This made him a hero to the Radical Republicans, who gave him the Republican nomination for president in 1868. He was chosen as the Republican presidential candidate at the 1868 Republican National Convention in Chicago; he faced no significant opposition. In his letter of acceptance to the party, Grant concluded with "Let us have peace," which became his campaign slogan. In general election of that year, Grant won against former New York Governor Horatio Seymour with a lead of 300,000 votes out of a total of 5,716,082 votes cast. However, Grant commanded an Electoral College landslide, receiving 214 votes to Seymour's 80. When he assumed the presidency, Grant had never before held elected office and, at the age of 46, was the youngest person yet elected president.

Presidency 1869–1877

The second President from Ohio, Grant was elected the 18th President of the United States in 1868, and was re-elected to the office in 1872. Grant served as President from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877. In his re-election campaign, Grant benefited from the loyal support of Harper's Weekly political cartoonist Thomas Nast and later sent Nast a deluxe edition of Grant's autobiography when it was finished.[30]

Cartoon by Thomas Nast on Grant's opponents in the re-election campaign

Reconstruction

Grant presided over the last half of Reconstruction. In the late 1870s, he watched as the Democrats (called Redeemers) took the control of every state away from his Republican coalition. When urgent telegrams from state leaders begged for help to put down the waves of violence by paramilitary groups surrounding elections, Grant and his Attorney General replied that "the whole public is tired of these annual autumnal outbreaks in the South,"[31] saying that state militias should handle the problems, not the Army.

He supported amnesty for former Confederates and signed the Amnesty Act of 1872 to further this.[32] He favored a limited number of troops to be stationed in the South—sufficient numbers to protect Southern African Americans, suppress the violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and prop up Republican governors, but not so many as to create resentment in the general population.

Grant confronted a Northern public tired of committing to the long war in the South, violent paramilitary organizations in the late 1870s, and a factional Republican Party.

Civil rights

In 1869 and 1871, Grant signed bills promoting voting rights and prosecuting Klan leaders and later signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875[33], which entitled equal treatment in public accommodations and jury selection. The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, establishing voting rights, was ratified in 1870. While these were used to effectively suppress the Klan, by 1874 a new wave of paramilitary organizations arose in the Deep South. The Red Shirts and White League, that conducted insurgency in Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana, operated openly and were better organized than the Ku Klux Klan had been. They aimed to turn Republicans out of office, suppress the black vote, and disrupt elections.

Recent historians have emphasized Grant's commitment to protecting Unionists and freedmen in the South until 1876. Grant's commitment to African American civil rights was demonstrated by his address to Congress in 1875 and by his attempt to use the annexation of Santo Domingo as leverage to force white supremacists to accept blacks as part of the Southern political polity.

Panic of 1873

The Panic of 1873 hit the country hard during his presidency, and he never attempted decisive action, one way or the other, to alleviate distress. The first law that he signed, in March 1869, established the value of the greenback currency issued during the Civil War, pledging to redeem the bills in gold. In 1874, he vetoed a bill to increase the amount of a legal tender currency, which defused the currency crisis on Wall Street but did little to help the economy as a whole. The depression led to Democratic victories in the 1874 off-year elections, as that party took control of the House for the first time since 1856.

By 1875 the Grant administration was in disarray and on the defensive on all fronts other than foreign policy. With the Democrats in control of the House, Grant was unable to pass legislation. The House discovered gross corruption in the Interior, War, and Navy Departments; they did much to discredit the Department of Justice, forced the resignation of Robert C. Schenck, the Minister to Britain, and cast suspicion upon Blaine's conduct while Speaker.[34] Historian Allan Nevins concludes:[35]

Various administrations have closed in gloom and weakness ... but no other has closed in such paralysis and discredit as (in all domestic fields) did Grant's. The President was without policies or popular support. He was compelled to remake his Cabinet under a grueling fire from reformers and investigators; half its members were utterly inexperienced, several others discredited, one was even disgraced. The personnel of the departments was largely demoralized. The party that autumn appealed for votes on the implicit ground that the next Administration would be totally unlike the one in office. In its centennial year, a year of deepest economic depression, the nation drifted almost rudderless.

In 1876, Grant helped to calm the nation over the Hayes-Tilden election controversy; he made clear he would not tolerate any march on Washington, such as that proposed by Tilden supporter Henry Watterson.

Economic affairs

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The Grant administration's first economic accomplishment was the signing of the Act to Strengthen the Public Credit which the GOP Congress had passed after Grant's inaugural in March 1869. The act had the effect that the gold price on New York exchange fell to $310 dollars an ounce — the lowest point since the suspension of specie payment in 1862.

As Jean Edward Smith notes in his 2002 biography on Grant, the presidential treasury secretary Boutwell reorganized the Treasury by discharging unnecessary employees, started sweeping changes in Bureau of Printing and Engraving to protect the currency from counterfeiters and revitalized tax collections to hasten the collection of revenue. These changes soon led the Treasury having a monthly surplus.

Political cartoon by Thomas Nast: Grant congratulated for vetoing the "inflation bill" on April 22, 1874The Grant administration reduced the debt by approximately $435 million. That was achieved by selling the growing gold surplus at weekly auctions for greenbacks and buying back wartime bonds with the currency. With this Grant's treasury secretary Boutwell had established a policy which if continued would had paid off the national debt in a quarter of a century. Newspapers like the New York Tribune wanted the Government to buy more bonds and Greenbacks and the New York Times praised the Grant administrations debt policy.

On other economic fronts Grant administration had several other accomplishments. Under Grant the nation's credit was substantially raised. Taxes were reduced by $300 million. Annual interest rates were reduced by approximately $30 million. The U.S. balance of trade was changed from $130 million against the United States to $120 million in favor of the United States. He also reduced inflation and to 1873 bolstered economic recovery. He also promoted economy in federal expenditures. His veto of the Inflation Bill in 1874 saved the aftermath of the Panic of 1873 to get worse and the veto was praised by the financial community and many newspapers.[citation needed]

The Resumption of Specie Act of 1875 which was signed by Grant helped to end the crisis in 1879 when the law came into effect.[citation needed]

He also pressed for internal improvements coupled with increased shipbuilding and foreign trade. He also wanted to enhance and improve the commercial marine.

Foreign affairs

Grant/Wilson campaign posterIn foreign affairs, a notable achievement of the Grant administration was the 1871 Treaty of Washington, negotiated by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish. It settled American claims against Britain concerning the wartime activities of the British-built Confederate raider CSS Alabama. He also proposed to annex the independent, largely black nation of Santo Domingo. Not only did he believe that the island would be of use to the navy tactically, but he sought to use it as a bargaining chip. By providing a safe haven for the freedmen, Grant believed that the exodus of black labor would force Southern whites to realize the necessity of such a significant workforce and accept their civil rights. At the same time he hoped that U.S. ownership of the island would urge nearby Cuba to abandon slavery. The Senate refused to ratify it because of (Foreign Relations Committee Chairman) Senator Charles Sumner's strong opposition. Grant helped depose Sumner from the chairmanship, and Sumner supported Horace Greeley and the Liberal Republicans in 1872. Another notable foreign policy action under Grant was the settlement of the Liberian-Grebo War of 1876 through the dispatchment of the USS Alaska to Liberia where US envoy James Milton Turner negotiated the incorporation of Grebo people into Liberian society and the ousting of foreign traders from Liberia.[36]

Scandals

President Grant with his wife, Julia, and son, Jesse, in 1872.The first scandal to taint the Grant administration was Black Friday, a gold-speculation financial crisis in September 1869, set up by Wall Street manipulators Jay Gould and James Fisk. They tried to corner the gold market and tricked Grant into preventing his Treasury Secretary from stopping the fraud. However, Grant eventually released large amounts of gold back onto the market, causing a large-scale financial crisis for many gold investors. Jay Gould had already prepared and quietly sold out while Fisk denied many agreements and hired thugs to intimidate his creditors.

The most famous scandal was the Whiskey Ring of 1875, exposed by Secretary of the Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow, in which over $3 million in taxes were stolen from the federal government with the aid of high government officials. Orville E. Babcock, the private secretary to the President, was indicted as a member of the ring but escaped conviction because of a presidential pardon. Grant's earlier statement, "Let no guilty man escape" rang hollow. Secretary of War William W. Belknap was discovered to have taken bribes in exchange for the sale of Native American trading posts. Grant's acceptance of the resignation of Belknap allowed Belknap, after he was impeached by Congress for his actions, to escape conviction, since he was no longer a government official.

Other scandals included the Sanborn Incident, an embezzlement of government funds involving Treasury Secretary William Adams Richardson and his assistant John D. Sanborn. The Crédit Mobilier of America scandal also ruined the political career of Grant's first Vice President, Schuyler Colfax, who was replaced on the Republican ticket in the 1872 election with Henry Wilson, who, ironically, was also involved in the scandal.

Although Grant himself did not profit from corruption among his subordinates, he did not take a firm stance against malefactors and failed to react strongly even after their guilt was established. When critics complained, he vigorously attacked them. He was weak in his selection of subordinates, exercising the practice of nepotism, favored colleagues from the war over those with more practical political experience. He alienated party leaders by giving many posts to his friends and political contributors rather than supporting the party's needs. His failure to establish working political alliances in Congress allowed the scandals to spin out of control. At the conclusion of his second term, Grant wrote to Congress that "Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent."

Administration and Cabinet

Grant's second inauguration as President by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase on March 4, 1873.The Grant Cabinet

Office Name Term

President Ulysses S. Grant 1869–1877

Vice President Schuyler Colfax 1869–1873

Henry Wilson 1873–1875

None 1875–1877

Secretary of State Elihu B. Washburne 1869

Hamilton Fish 1869–1877

Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell 1869–1873

William A. Richardson 1873–1874

Benjamin H. Bristow 1874–1876

Lot M. Morrill 1876–1877

Secretary of War John A. Rawlins 1869

William W. Belknap 1869–1876

Alphonso Taft 1876

J. Donald Cameron 1876–1877

Attorney General Ebenezer R. Hoar 1869–1870

Amos T. Akerman 1870–1871

George H. Williams 1871–1875

Edwards Pierrepont 1875–1876

Alphonso Taft 1876–1877

Postmaster General John A. J. Creswell 1869–1874

James W. Marshall 1874

Marshall Jewell 1874–1876

James N. Tyner 1876–1877

Secretary of the Navy Adolph E. Borie 1869

George M. Robeson 1869–1877

Secretary of the Interior Jacob D. Cox 1869–1870

Columbus Delano 1870–1875

Zachariah Chandler 1875–1877

Supreme Court appointments

Grant appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

Edwin M. Stanton – 1869 (died before taking seat)

William Strong – 1870

Joseph P. Bradley – 1870

Ward Hunt – 1873

Morrison Remick Waite (Chief Justice) – 1874

States admitted to the Union

Colorado – August 1, 1876

Government agencies instituted

Department of Justice (1870)

Office of the Solicitor General (1870)

"Advisory Board on Civil Service" (1871); after it expired in 1873, it became the role model for the "Civil Service Commission" instituted in 1883 by President Chester A. Arthur, a Grant faithful. (Today it is known as the Office of Personnel Management.)

Office of the Surgeon General (1871)

Army Weather Bureau (currently known as the National Weather Service) (1870)

Post-presidency

World Tour 1877-1879

Ulysses S. Grant in his postbellum.After the end of his second term in the White House, Grant spent over two years traveling the world with his wife. He travelled first to Liverpool, England on board the Pennsylvania class steamship SS Indiana, subsequently visiting Scotland and Ireland; the crowds were enormous. The Grants dined with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle and with Prince Bismarck in Germany. They also visited Russia, Egypt, the Holy Land, Siam (Thailand), and Burma. In Japan, they were cordially received by Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken at the Imperial Palace. Today in the Shibakoen section of Tokyo, a tree still stands that Grant planted during his stay.

In 1879, the Meiji government of Japan announced the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands. China objected, and Grant was asked to arbitrate the matter. He decided that Japan's claim to the islands was stronger and ruled in Japan's favor.

Grant returned to the United States from Japan on board the Pacific Mail steamship City of Tokio. That same year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

Third term attempt in 1880

In 1879, the "Stalwart" faction of the Republican Party led by Senator Roscoe Conkling sought to nominate Grant for a third term as president. He counted on strong support from the business men, the old soldiers, and the Methodist church. Publicly Grant said nothing, but privately he wanted the job and encouraged his men.[37] His popularity was fading however, and while he received more than 300 votes in each of the 36 ballots of the 1880 convention, the nomination went to James A. Garfield. Grant campaigned for Garfield, who won by a very narrow margin. Grant supported his Stalwart ally Conkling against Garfield in the terrific battle over patronage in spring 1881 that culminated in Garfield's assassination.

Bankruptcy

Grant writing his memoirs.In 1881, Grant purchased a house in New York City and placed almost all of his financial assets into an investment banking partnership with Ferdinand Ward, as suggested by Grant's son Buck (Ulysses, Jr.), who was having success on Wall Street. In 1884 Ward swindled Grant (and other investors who had been encouraged by Grant), bankrupted the company, Grant & Ward, and fled.

Last days

Grant appears on the U.S. $50 bill.Grant learned at the same time that he was suffering from throat cancer. Today, it is believed that Grant suffered from a T1N1 carcinoma of the tonsillar fossa[38]. Grant and his family were left destitute; at the time retired U.S. Presidents were not given pensions, and Grant had forfeited his military pension when he assumed the office of President. Grant first wrote several articles on his Civil War campaigns for The Century Magazine, which were warmly received. Mark Twain offered Grant a generous contract for the publication of his memoirs, including 75% of the book's sales as royalties.

It was not until 1958 that Congress, believing it inappropriate that a former president or his wife might be poverty-stricken, passed a bill granting them a pension, still in effect today.

Terminally ill, Grant finished his memoir just a few days before his death. The Memoirs sold over 300,000 copies, earning the Grant family over $450,000. Twain promoted the book as "the most remarkable work of its kind since the Commentaries of Julius Caesar." Grant's memoir has been regarded by writers as diverse as Matthew Arnold and Gertrude Stein as one of the finest works of its kind ever written.

Ulysses S. Grant died on Thursday, July 23, 1885, at the age of 63 in Mount McGregor, Saratoga County, New York. His body lies in New York City's Riverside Park, beside that of his wife, in Grant's Tomb, the largest mausoleum in North America. The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial honors Grant.

Born Hiram Ulysses Grant.

Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868.

When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms."

Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West Point rather against his will and graduated in the middle of his class. In the Mexican War he fought under Gen. Zachary Taylor.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father's leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers.

He sought to win control of the Mississippi Valley. In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donelson. When the Confederate commander asked for terms, Grant replied, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." The Confederates surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers.

At Shiloh in April, Grant fought one of the bloodiest battles in the West and came out less well. President Lincoln fended off demands for his removal by saying, "I can't spare this man--he fights."

For his next major objective, Grant maneuvered and fought skillfully to win Vicksburg, the key city on the Mississippi, and thus cut the Confederacy in two. Then he broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga.

Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials.

As President, Grant presided over the Government much as he had run the Army. Indeed he brought part of his Army staff to the White House.

Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant as President accepted handsome presents from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen with two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk. When Grant realized their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the speculation had already wrought havoc with business.

During his campaign for re-election in 1872, Grant was attacked by Liberal Republican reformers. He called them "narrow-headed men," their eyes so close together that "they can look out of the same gimlet hole without winking." The General's friends in the Republican Party came to be known proudly as "the Old Guard."

Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run its course in the South, bolstering it at times with military force.

After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became a partner in a financial firm, which went bankrupt. About that time he learned that he had cancer of the throat. He started writing his recollections to pay off his debts and provide for his family, racing against death to produce a memoir that ultimately earned nearly $450,000. Soon after completing the last page, in 1885, he died.

18th President of the USA Ulysses is my 6th cousin 3 times removed. Me, Virginia McClure (Anderson) , My mother Beatrice Anderson (Brakefield), Her mother Esther Brakefield (Allen), Her father Edward Allen, His father James W Allen, His father Hugh Allen, His father James Allen, His father William Allen, His father Zachariah Allen, His father Ralph Allen, His brother James Allen, His daughter Amy Hatch (Allen), Her daughter Amy Delano (Hatch), Her daughter Susanna Grant (Delano), Her son Noah Grant III, His son Jesse Root Grant, His son President Ulysses S. Grant.

Ulysses S. Grant

Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled

with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was,

as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for

President in 1868.

When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant

provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed

bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man

with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms."

Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West Point rather

against his will and graduated in the middle of his class. In the Mexican War he

fought under Gen. Zachary Taylor.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father's leather store in

Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer

regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank

of brigadier general of volunteers.

He sought to win control of the Mississippi Valley. In February 1862 he took Fort Henry

and attacked Fort Donelson. When the Confederate commander asked for terms,

Grant replied, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be

accepted." The Confederates surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to

major general of volunteers.

At Shiloh in April, Grant fought one of the bloodiest battles in the West and came out less

well. President Lincoln fended off demands for his removal by saying, "I can't spare this

man--he fights."

For his next major objective, Grant maneuvered and fought skillfully to win Vicksburg, the

key city on the Mississippi, and thus cut the Confederacy in two. Then he broke the

Confederate hold on Chattanooga.

Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive

through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert

E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.

Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out

magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials.

As President, Grant presided over the Government much as he had run the Army. Indeed

he brought part of his Army staff to the White House.

Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant as President accepted handsome presents

from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen with two speculators, Jay Gould and

James Fisk. When Grant realized their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized

the Secretary of the Treasury to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the speculation

had already wrought havoc with business.

During his campaign for re-election in 1872, Grant was attacked by Liberal Republican

reformers. He called them "narrow-headed men," their eyes so close together that "they

can look out of the same gimlet hole without winking." The General's friends in the Republican

Party came to be known proudly as "the Old Guard."

Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run its course in the South, bolstering it at times

with military force.

After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became a partner in a financial firm, which went

bankrupt. About that time he learned that he had cancer of the throat. He started writing

his recollections to pay off his debts and provide for his family, racing against death to

produce a memoir that ultimately earned nearly $450,000. Soon after completing the last

page, in 1885, he died.

Former President of the United States

President Grant was actually born Hiram Ulysses Grant, but was called Ulysses by his family. The congressman who appointed him to West Point though, in doubt about his name, had used his middle name first and had used his mother's maiden name (Simpson) for a middle name. Officers insisted that Ulysses S. Grant had been appointed to West Point, Hiram Ulysses Grant had not, so he became U.S. Grant insisting that the middle initial stood for nothing.

He was elected in 1868 over Horatio Seymour by a popular vote of 3,013,421 to 2,706,829 and an electoral vote of 214 to 80. He won reelection in 1872 by votes of 3,596,745 to 2,843,446 and 286 to 0 over Horace Greeley. Became known in 1862 as "Unconditional Surrender Grant". In 1864, Lt. General Grant was given command of the northern army; accepted General Lee's surrender at Appomattox

In His Own Words:"In my early days, every one labored more or less, in the region where my youth was spent, and more in proportion to their private means. It was only the very poor who were exempt.

While my father carried on the manufacture of leather and worked at the trade himself, he owned and tilled considerable land. I detested the trade, preferring almost any other labor; but I was fond of agriculture, and of all employment in which horses were used. We had, among other lands, fifty acres of forest within a mile of the village. In the fall of the year choppers were employed to cut enough wood to last a twelvemonth. When I was seven or eight years of age, I began hauling all the wood used in the house and shops. I could not load it on the wagons, of course, at that time, but I could drive, and the choppers would load, and some one at the house unload. When about eleven years old, I was strong enough to hold a plough. From that age until seventeen I did all the work done with horses, such as breaking up the land, furrowing, ploughing corn and potatoes, bringing in the crops when harvested, hauling all the wood, besides tending two or three horses, a cow or two, and sawing wood for stoves, etc., while still attending school."

DECEMBER, 1838. "My father received a letter from the Honorable Thomas Morris, then United States Senator from Ohio. When he read it he said to me, 'Ulysses, I believe you are going to receive the appointment.' 'What appointment?' I inquired. 'To West Point; I have applied for it.' 'But I won't go,' I said. He said he thought I would, and I thought so too, if he did."

MAY 15, 1839. Ulysses boarded a steamboat at Ripley to begin his journey to West Point. Apprehensive that other cadets would tease him about his initials, he decided to reverse his first two names and call himself Ulysses H. Grant. "I would have been glad to have had a steamboat or railroad collision, or any other accident happen, by which I might have received a temporary injury sufficient to make me ineligible, for a time, to enter the Academy."

MAY 29, 1839. Ulysses arrived at West Point and discovered that the congressman who appointed him, in doubt about his name, had used his middle name first and had used his mother's maiden name (Simpson) for a middle name. Officers insisted that Ulysses S. Grant had been appointed to West Point, Hiram Ulysses Grant had not. In time, Ulysses accepted U. S. Grant as his true name, insisting that his middle initial stood for "nothing." His family and Ohio friends continued to call him Ulysses; the other cadets nicknamed him "Uncle Sam" for his initials, soon shortened it to "Sam."

AUGUST 28, 1839. The cadets entered the barracks for the school year. "A military life had no charms for me, and I had not the faintest idea of staying in the army even if I should be graduated, which I did not expect . . . I did not take hold of my studies with avidity, in fact I rarely ever read over a lesson the second time during my entire cadetship." Grant usually stood near the middle of his class in both studies and conduct, distinguishing himself in horsemanship and by election as president of the cadet literary society.

JUNE, 1843. Grant graduated from West Point, ranked twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine.

JULY 28, 1843. Grant learned that he was assigned to duty, beginning September 30, with the Fourth U. S. Infantry at Jefferson Barracks, just outside St. Louis, Missouri. His rank, established automatically by his West Point graduation, would be brevet second lieutenant.

APRIL 7, 1865. Grant wrote to Lee: "The results of the last week must convince you of the hopelessness of further resistance on the part of the Army of Northern Virginia in this struggle." 38

APRIL 9, 1865. After discovering that escape would be impossible, Lee arranged to meet Grant at Appomattox. "I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse." 39 The two generals met in the parlor of the McLean House, Lee in an immaculate new uniform, Grant informally dressed with only shoulder straps to show rank. "We soon fell into a conversation about old army times . . . Our conversation grew so pleasant that I almost forgot the object of our meeting." 40 Finally, Grant wrote a letter embodying his terms and Lee wrote one accepting them. See more about Grants' involvement in the Civil War from the history of the Battle of Shiloh at the end of this "about me".

APRIL 14, 1865. Grant met with the Cabinet to discuss Lee's surrender and the future of the South. Lincoln invited the Grants to join him at the theatre that evening. Grant replied that he was anxious to visit his children at Burlington, New Jersey. Thus Grant eluded the plan of John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators to assassinate him along with Lincoln.

November 5, 1868, Grant was elected President. Four years later, he was elected to a second term. He probably would have been elected to a third term, but he refused to run. He recieved 306 votes, even though he had refused to run, only 36 less than the elected President in 1880, James A. Garfield.

DECEMBER 5, 1876. In his last message to Congress, Grant surveyed his years in the White House. "It was my fortune, or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training. From the age of 17 I had never even witnessed the excitement attending a Presidential campaign but twice antecedent to my own candidacy, and at but one of them was I eligible as a voter.

MAY 23, 1885. "Memoirs," Volume I, went to the press. Prepared as Grant was dying, only the first part was dictated, since Grant could no longer speak without pain as the cancer grew in his throat. The latter parts were scrawled in pencil on a tablet and transcribed by former staff officer Adam Badeau and Grant's oldest son, Frederick.

In a note to one of his doctors, Grant wrote: "If I live long enough I will become a sort of specialist in the use of certain medicines if not in the treatment of disease. It seems that one mans destiny in this world is quite as much a mystery as it is likely to be in the next. I never thought of acquiring rank in the profession I was educated for; yet it came with two grades higher prefixed to the rank of General officer for me. I certainly never had either ambition or taste for political life; yet I was twice president of the United States. If any one had suggested the idea of my becoming an author, as they frequently did, I was not sure whether they were making sport of me or not. I have now written a book which is in the hands of the manufacturers. I ask that you keep these notes very private lest I become an authority on the treatment of diseases. I have already too many trades to be proficient in any."

JULY 23, 1885. Grant died at the cottage at Mount McGregor.

AUGUST 4, 1885. Funeral services for Grant were held at Mount McGregor. At the same time, a memorial service was held in Westminster Abbey. Following the funeral ceremonies, the coffin was carried by special train to Albany and displayed in the Capitol. The following day, the coffin was taken to City Hall in New York City.

AUGUST 8, 1885. Three Presidents of the United States attended the burial services, and Union and Confederate Generals rode together in carriages. New York City had offered ground in any of its public parks for the tomb, and although the family had originally inclined to a location in Central Park, it had finally settled upon Riverside Park. The coffin was placed in a hastily constructed temporary tomb.

DECEMBER 10, 1885. Publication of the Memoirs. Sales were so successful that by February 27, 1886, the publishers could give Mrs. Grant a check for $200,000. Total profits to the Grant family may have reached $450,000.

DECEMBER 14, 1902. Julia Grant died, and was buried with her husband as both had earnestly requested.

Civil War Union General, and President Ulysses S. Grant. Descendant of Richard Warren.

Ulysses S. Grant > Jesse Grant > Noah Grant > Susanna Delano & Noah Grant Sr.> Jonathan Delano > Mercy Warren > Nathaniel Warren > Richard Warren, passenger on the Mayflower.

Here is a little bit about Grant from a history of the Civil War & the battle of Shihloh.

On the morning of April 6, 1862, the sun rose over the Union encampment at Pittsburg Landing. Neither Ulysses S. Grant, the Union commander, nor Albert S. Johnston, the Confederate commander, could possibly know what this day would hold. It would bring advances in military tactics. It would bring innovations in the medical field. It would change all preconceived notions that the Civil War would be short-lived. For Johnston and thousands of other brave soldiers on the Union and Confederate sides, it would bring death.

During the winter of 1861-62 Federal forces pushing southward from St. Louis captured Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. This action forced Ulysses S. Grant & Gen. Johnston to abandon southern Kentucky and much of West and Middle Tennessee. After withdrawing further south, he established a new line covering the Memphis and [Ulysses S. Grant] Charleston Railroad, the only all-weather link between Richmond and Memphis. Realizing that he could not wait for another Federal advance, Johnston began concentrating forces at Corinth, Mississippi, where he hoped to take the offensive and destroy General Grant's Army of the Tennessee before it could be joined by General Don Carlos Buell's Army of the Ohio.

On April 2, 1862, Johnston began his march from Corinth. "The roads were meandering cow paths," one confederate soldier said. Because of the lack of marching experience, the march took much longer than expected.

Meanwhile, at the Union camp at Shiloh, the Federals troops spent a day drilling and merry-making. Hundreds went for a swim in Owl Creek. Others rested. There was also a good deal of diarrhea, which the boys labelled the "Tennessee quick step".

Grant wired his superior General H.W. Halleck. "I have scarecely the faintest idea of attack." Halleck told Grant to "sit tight at Shiloh and wait for Buell to arrive." William Tecumseh Sherman, division commander, was quoted saying to reporters, "Take your regiment to Ohio. No enemy is nearer than Corinth." Little did he know that the night of April 5, the huge and powerful Army of the Mississippi was poised to strike just out of sight of the Union camp. P.G.T. Beaureguard, second in command of the Confederates, felt they had lost the element of suprise because of some shots fired by the men in front. Beaureguard pleaded with Johnston to postpone the attack. "I would fight them if they were a million," Johnston said.

On the morning of April 6, Johnston told his fellow officers "Tonight we will water our horses in the Tennessee." When Johnston's powerful Army of the Mississippi hit the federal [William Tecumseh Sherman] camps, they had achived complete suprise. The attack pushed most Union divisions back to reform elsewhere. Others fought doggedly to hold their line.

Once the attack started, there was mass confusion on both sides. Most of the boys had never been in battle before, and did not know there orders. "It was a murderous fist fight.

The Rebels rolled over one Union position after another. Then, amongst the confusion along a sunken road, the federals finally established and held a line that stopped the southern advance. The division consisted of Illinois and Iowa farm boys mostly, under the command of General Prentiss. Grant's orders were to "Hold the sunken road at all costs."

Prentiss greatly understood the seriousness of Grant's orders. Bullets buzzed through the saplings around the area, and it appeared and sounded like a hornet's nest.The Confederate infantry launched eleven attacks on the Hornet's nest. The Union line wavered and bent, but would not break. The Confederate artillery lined up sixty-two cannons at point blank range and fired on the sunken road. It was the largest number of cannons ever used at that time in a war effort.

Under protection of the cannons the Rebel troops were able to move in and take the sunken road. The Union troops were forced to surrender. They had fought well holding the Confederates for six hours. For years to come Union veterans were proud to say, " I fought with Prentiss at the Hornet's Nest."

There was also a great deal of fighting at a peach orchard, just yards away from the Hornet's Nest. The peach trees were in full bloom. Many soldiers lay dead. Peach blossoms covered the dead like a fresh-fallen snow. Gen. Johnston led the last raid on the peach orchard. He came out with his clothes tattered from bullets that had grazed him, and his boot sole was shot. A Confederate officer saw him wobbling in his saddle and ask if he were hurt. "Yes," he replied. "And I feel seriously ill."

His aid took him to a nearby tree. He was shot in the back of the leg. He bled to death. He could have easily been saved with a touniquet, but he had sent his surgeon off to care for Union prisoners.

A farm pond near the peach orchard was covered with soldiers from both armies. Many men went to bathe their wounds and drink from the water. For many it was their last drink The water was stained red with blood.

That night dead lay everywhere. Neither army had developed a system for gathering the dead General Grant said a peson can walk in any given direction without stepping on ground." In a Confederate camp that night one soldier said, "You can hear the screams of the injured. They screamed for water, God heard them for the heavens opened and the rain fell." Flashes of lightening showed vultures feeding on the ungathered dead.

On the night of April 6, the long-awaited arrival of Don Carlos Buell's reinforcements arrived. Through the cover of gunboat fire, his troops came in on steamboats. The gun boats fired on fifteen minute intervals, allowing Buell's forces to come aground, and robbing the Confederates of their greatly needed rest.

That morning the Confederates were pushed back on the ground that they had fought so hard to win the day before. With the fresh troops, the weary Rebels had little chance to win a complete victory. The Southerners were forced to march back to Corinth.

The final number of dead or missing was 13,000 on the Union side and 10,500 on the Confederate side. There were as many people killed at Shiloh as there were at Waterloo. The difference between that Napoleanic war and the Civil War is that there weren't twenty more Waterloos to come.

Shiloh was a decisive battle in the war. The South needed a win to make up for land lost in Kentucky and Ohio. It also needed to save the Mississippi Valley. Memphis and Vicksburg were now vulnerable to Union attack, and after Corinth there is now doubt that those cities would be the next targets.

However, Grant and his men had been rid of their over-confidence by the battle of Shiloh. They now knew that hopes for and easy victory over the south were ill-founded. Grant knew then that this war was going to be, in the words of a Union Soldier, "A very bloody affair."

Shiloh is a Hebrew word meaning place of peace.

General, and President

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_S._Grant

Ulysses Simpson Grant, the best-known Federal general in the Civil War, served also as 18th president of the United States. He was born in the Ohio River village of Point Pleasant, Ohio, on Apr. 27, 1822, the son of a tanner. Although baptized Hiram Ulysses, Grant was listed by the congressman who secured his appointment to West Point as Ulysses Simpson, the latter being his mother's maiden name.

Grant made some mark as an equestrian at the United States Military Academy; otherwise his performance there was undistinguished. He graduated 21st in a class of 39 in 1843. In the Mexican War, Grant served effectively with Zachary Taylor's army at Monterrey and then with Winfield Scott's army in the campaign for Mexico City; he won two brevets for meritorious conduct at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec.

After the war Grant was assigned to garrison duty. His early postings in the Great Lakes region were happy because he was with his new wife, Julia Dent Grant (1826 - 1902), whom he married on Aug. 22, 1848. In 1852, however, he was sent to the Pacific Northwest, where he was unable to have his family with him. He apparently so overindulged in alcohol that he was impelled to resign from the army in 1854. For six years he struggled in Missouri as a farmer, real estate salesman, unsuccessful candidate for county engineer, and agent in a customhouse. In 1860 he was obliged to accept a clerkship in his brothers' leather-goods store in Galena, Ill.

Civil War

After the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant tried in vain to obtain a position on the staff of Gen. George B. McClellan. He initially received the colonelcy of an Illinois regiment, but his effective leadership of that soon brought him appointment (Aug. 7, 1861) as a brigadier general of volunteers. Grant's Civil War career revealed him as a man of serious, self-contained, determined bearing. Confident yet humble, he demonstrated consistent, unflinching courage, both physical and moral. In November 1861 he launched an ill-prepared attack on Belmont, Mo., where, after an initial advantage, he was forced to fall back, with losses. A few months later, however, with considerable help from the Federal navy, Grant captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson on respectively, the Tennessee and Cumberland rivers. This success of February 1862 brought him new prominence, and he was advanced to major general.

In early April, Grant moved incautiously southward along the Tennessee River to Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh, Tenn. There his carelessly disposed army was surprised by a sudden and shattering attack by Albert Sidney Johnston, who was mortally wounded at the height of the Confederate advance. Near defeat on the first day of battle, Grant was reinforced by Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell and counterattacked the following day. The Unionists were able to turn the tide and slowly to push the enemy back toward Corinth. Grant's army was just one of three that made the snail-paced advance on Corinth, which the Southerners evacuated. Gen. Henry Halleck had taken personal command and Grant was largely ignored. He was subsequently shelved for several months as unfounded rumors to the effect that he was again drinking caused several of his superiors to hesitate in giving him another important command.

On Oct. 25, 1862, Grant was restored to a vital position. Appointed commander of the Department of Tennessee, he was instructed to take Vicksburg, Miss., the great enemy bastion on the east bank of the Mississippi River. The Vicksburg Campaign began badly for Grant. An enterprising cavalry raid by the Confederate major general Earl Van Dorn captured Grant's base at Holly Springs and compelled his retreat in December. Grant's approaches to the north of Vicksburg were also ineffective and resulted in the abortive "Bayou Expeditions" in the spring of 1863. Then, however, in a masterpiece of planning and bold execution, Grant crossed the Mississippi south of Vicksburg, marched northeastward to insert his army between John C. Pemberton's at Vicksburg and Joseph E. Johnston's at Jackson, and fought five victorious battles. This permitted his investiture of Vicksburg, which, after a stern 47-day siege, capitulated on July 4, 1863.

In September 1863, Grant went to the rescue of the beleaguered Union army under William Rosecrans at Chattanooga, Tenn. He reinforced this army, replacing Rosecrans with George H. Thomas, and opened up new lines of supply and communication. Then, in battles at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge in November 1863, he defeated Braxton Bragg and opened the way toward Dalton, Ga., and eventually for William T. Sherman's advance on Atlanta and Savannah. (See Chattanooga, Battles of; Atlanta campaign.)

Thus far during the war, Grant, although ambitious for advancement in the army, had remained largely disinterested in politics. He had, however, impressed Abraham Lincoln with his self-reliance, bulldog tenacity, and confidence in final victory; so, early in 1864 he was promoted to lieutenant general and named general in chief of all the Federal armies. Grant did well in this top command; he was able to see the big picture of the war as well as its parts and skillfully coordinate the movements of the many armies of the Union. Leaving Sherman in command in the West, Grant established his headquarters with George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac in the East. In effect, he commanded that army in its driving campaigns of 1864 against Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia. Although the command structure was at times awkward, Grant and Meade were usually able to work together harmoniously and to complement each other's activities.

With troops outnumbering Lee's almost two to one, Grant launched the so-called Wilderness Campaign in early May 1864. He tried to bludgeon his way through the Virginia Wilderness, but he was checked and forced to sidestep toward Spotsylvania Court House (see Spotsylvania, Battle of). There, in several days of desperate fighting, Grant's gains were negligible and he suffered numerous casualties. At Cold Harbor he was massively repulsed, again with high losses, as morale sagged in the Army of the Potomac. Finally outguessing Lee and stealing a march on him across the James River (June 12 - 18), Grant and his subordinate generals missed an opportunity to take Petersburg, the railroad key to Richmond, by surprise. After the 9-month Petersburg campaign (June 18, 1864, to Apr. 2, 1865), conducted while Philip Sheridan cleared the Shenandoah Valley of Jubal Early's forces, Grant was finally able to force Lee back from Petersburg and Richmond. A 142-km (88-mi) pursuit to the west-southwest ended in final triumph when Lee was obliged to surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House on Apr. 9, 1865. Grant's generous terms were accepted immediately by Lee.

Presidency

After the war Grant was advanced to full general and served not only as general in chief but also, briefly, as interim secretary of war after President Andrew Johnson suspended Edwin M. Stanton in 1867. Grant's attempts to protect the army of occupation in the South deflected him from Johnson and toward the Radical Republicans and their more rigorous Reconstruction policies. This helped secure for him the Republican presidential nomination in 1868. In the election of that year he defeated the Democrat Horatio Seymour and began an 8-year administration in the White House.

As president, Grant seemed at times torpid and irresolute, and many of his appointments left much to be desired. He had 25 men in his small cabinet in eight years. Despite campaign pledges for civil service reform, Grant was largely responsible for scuttling such a program. At first conciliatory toward the South, he pushed for the unconditional readmission of Virginia to the Union. He relentlessly opposed the Ku Klux Klan, however, in which effort he was aided when Congress passed the so-called Force Acts of 1870 - 1871.

Grant's hard-money stand delighted business and banking interests and helped him win reelection over Horace Greeley in 1872. Although at first slow to react, he had been able in 1869 to block the attempts of Jay Gould and James Fisk to corner the gold market. However, his second term came under a cloud of graft, scandal, and corruption. The scandal that came closest to the White House itself was that of the Whiskey Ring, in which Grant's private secretary, Orville Babcock, was implicated. Grant's chief successes, due largely to his capable secretary of state, Hamilton Fish, were scored in the field of foreign affairs. They included favorable settlement of the Alabama Claims dispute with Britain.

Later Years

After leaving office, Grant made a 2-year cruise. In 1880 he was unsuccessful in securing the Republican nomination for a third-term bid as president. Subsequently, he was exploited in business and failed. To get his family out of debt he undertook to write his memoirs. These were completed while he was dying of throat cancer and were published in two volumes as the Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (1885 - 1886). Not only were they profitable, netting his family $450,000, but they also have become an American classic. Grant died at Mount McGregor, N.Y., on July 23, 1885, and his body was finally laid to rest in an imposing tomb on Riverside Drive in New York City.

was general-in-chief of the Union Army from 1864 to 1865 during the American Civil War and the 18th President of the United States from 1869 to 1877.

The son of an Appalachian Ohio tanner, Grant entered the United States Military Academy at age 17. In 1846, three years after graduating, Grant served as a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War under Winfield Scott and future president Zachary Taylor. After the Mexican-American War concluded in 1848, Grant remained in the Army, but abruptly resigned in 1854. Struggling through the coming years as a real estate agent, a laborer, and a county engineer, Grant decided to join the Northern effort in the Civil War.

Appointed brigadier general of volunteers in 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln, Grant claimed the first major Union victories of the war in 1862, capturing Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. He was surprised by a Confederate attack at the Battle of Shiloh, and although he emerged victorious, the severe casualties prompted a public outcry that could have resulted in driving him from the army. Subsequently, however, Grant's 1863 victory at Vicksburg, following a long campaign with many initial setbacks, and his rescue of the besieged Union army at Chattanooga, established his reputation as Lincoln's most aggressive and successful general. Named lieutenant general and general-in-chief of the Army in 1864, Grant implemented a coordinated strategy of simultaneous attacks aimed at destroying the South's armies and its economy's ability to sustain its forces. In 1865, after mounting a successful war of attrition against his Confederate opponents, he accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House.

Popular due to the Union victory in the Civil War, Grant was elected President of the United States as a Republican in 1868 and was re-elected in 1872, the first President to serve for two full terms since Andrew Jackson forty years before. As President, Grant led Reconstruction and built a powerful patronage-based Republican Party in the South, straining relations between the North and former Confederates. His administration was marred by scandal, sometimes the product of nepotism, and the neologism Grantism was coined to describe political corruption.

Grant left office in 1877 and embarked upon a two-year world tour. However, in 1884, Grant learned that he was suffering from terminal throat cancer. Unsuccessful in winning the nomination for a third term in 1880, left destitute by bad investments, and near the brink of death, Grant wrote his Memoirs, which were enormously successful among veterans, the public, and the critics. Two days after completing his writing, Grant died at the age of 63. Presidential historians typically rank Grant in the lowest quartile of U.S. presidents for his tolerance of corruption, but in recent years his reputation has improved among some scholars impressed by his support for civil rights for African Americans.

Grant's maternal great-grandfather, John Simpson, was born in what is now the Grant Ancestral House in Ballygawley, Northern Ireland.

Grant was a descendant of Mayflower passenger Richard Warren.

Grant is also a descendant from John Lothropp, who is also an ancestor to Benjamin Franklin.

Si les historiens considèrent Ulysses Grant comme un excellent général, ils le jugent un très mauvais Président des Etats-Unis malgré une intégrité personnelle qui ne fut jamais remise en cause. Né le 27 avril 1822 à une quarantaine de kilomètres de Cincinnati dans l'Ohio à Point Pleasant, sa famille modeste s'installe ensuite à Georgetown toujours dans l'Ohio. À 17 ans, il entre à l'Académie militaire de West Point d'où il sort 21me sur 39 élèves. Il se marie la même année et le couple aura quatre enfants. Il participe à la guerre mexicaine en tant qu'officier en étant décoré par deux fois pour des actes de bravoure. Il démissionne ensuite de l'armée en 1854 et devient fermier et agent immobilier puis aide son père dans sa fabrique de tannage de cuir. Au début de la guerre de Sécession, Ulysses Grant est enrôlé en tant que capitaine puis est très vite nommé colonel à Springfield en Illinois. Un mois et demi plus tard, il est nommé Général de brigade des volontaires. Gagnant quelques victoires (Fort Henry, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga), Ulysses Grant est nommé lieutenant général le 2 mars 1864 par Abraham Lincoln. Deux semaines plus tard, Grant est à la tête des armées de l'Union. Il faut préciser que Lincoln avait longtemps cherché quelqu'un qui pouvait tenir tête au général Lee qui avait refusé son offre afin de rejoindre les Confédérés. Les tactiques de Grant (attaques, assauts, retraites, sièges) sont finalement un succès malgré un très lourd tribut en vies humaines. Aidé par le major général William Sherman, Ulysses Grant force finalement le général Lee à capituler. Devenu après la guerre, Général d'armée, Grant dont la popularité est très forte, est choisi pour représenter les Républicains aux élections après le mandat d'Andrew Johnson. Il devient le 18me Président des Etats-Unis le 4 mars 1869. Durant son premier mandat, il fait ratifier le 15me amendement accordant le droit de vote aux Noirs (même si les droits civiques prendront énormément de temps à être vraiment appliqués), condamne le Ku Klux Klan, crée le premier parc national Yellowstone. Il est ensuite réélu mais ce sera une succession de crises économiques et de scandales. Tout commence par la faillite frauduleuse des chemins de fer, ce qui entraînera une récession pendant au moins 6 ans. Il permet aux Indiens Nez Percé de garder leurs terres en Oregon mais doit subir un terrible échec contre la coalition indienne à Little Big Horn. L'affaire est classée sans suite. Pendant ces deux mandats, des fraudes dans lesquelles les proches du Président sont impliqués, vont se multiplier. On peut citer : détournement de 3 millions de dollars par les distilleries de whisky, dessous-de-table reçus par le Ministre de la guerre... Si personne n'a pu prouver l'implication d'Ulysses Grant, celui-ci n'a jamais puni les coupables. À la fin de son second mandat, il prend sa retraite et voyage pendant deux ans et rédige ses mémoires qu'il achève quelques jours avant de mourir d'un cancer de la gorge le 23 juillet 1885 au Mount McGregor, comté de Saratoga, état de New York. Il repose dans le plus grand mausolée d'Amérique du Nord à New York, près de Riverside

General Grant Memorial : New York

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Situé dans un parc au bord de la Rivière Hudson, au nord ouest de l'Université de Columbia, le General Grant memorial est un mausolée où repose le Général de l'Union sui sopposa au Général Lee durant la Guerre de Sécession. Dans l'édifice réalisé par l'architecte John Duncan en 1897 on y découvrira en effet la tombe de Ulysses Simpson Grant (27 avril 1822 - 23 juillet 1885), héros du peuple américain et 18ème président des Etats-Unis.

Le mémorial construit en marbre et en granite a été conçu en s'inspirant du célèbre mausolée d'Halicarnasse. C'est le 27 avril 1897 que fut inaugurée la tombe de Ulysses S. Grant en présence d'une foule de près d'un million de personnes et du président Williams McKinley. Le mausolée abrite également les restes de l'épouse du Général, Julia Dent Grant. On estime que 90 000 personnes ont contribué au financement du mausolée en donnant environ 600 000 dollars.

Hiram Ulysses Simpson Grant, né le 27 avril 1882 à Point Pleasant (Ohio) entre à la prestigieuse académie militaire de West Point à l'âge de 17 ans, à 80 kilomètres au nord de New York. Il en sort diplomé en 1843 et se marie avec Julia Boggs Dent. Il fait ses premières armes durant la guerre contre le Mexique et il est décoré à Molino del Rey et Chapultepec Mais una an plus tard, le 31 juillet 1854 il décide de se retirer de l'armée.

Mais après une vie civile où il exercera plusieurs métiers, la guerre civile le fera reprendre les armes en étant nommé colonel de la 21e division d'infanterie de l'Illinois puis Général de brigade des volontaires le 7 août 1861. Il va rapidement s'imposer comme le grand chef de l'armée de l'Union contre celle des confédérés. Nommé par Abraham lincoln Lieutenant Général il devient le commandant en chef de toutes les armées le 17 mars 1964.

Grant va mener ses troupes contre les armées confédérées du Général Lee jusqu'au siège de Petersburg. Il obligera les sudistes à évacuer Richmond, et le Général Lee devra se rendre à Appomattox le 9 avril 1865, mettant pratiquement fin à la guerre civile. La Guerre se terminera définitivement le 2 juin quand le général confédéré Kirby Smith déposera les armes.

Nommé Général d'armée le 25 juillet 1866, Ulysses S. Grant sera le candidat républicain pour les élections présidentielles de 1868. Vainqueur avec une large majorité, il devient le 18ème président des Etats-Unis le 4 mars 1869.

Grant restera président des Etats-Unis durant deux mandats, jusqu'uen 1877. Si certains pensent qu'il ne fut pas un bon président car son administration était corrompue, Grant décréta cependant des lois importantes comme le droit de vote sans conditions de race en 1870, la condamnation du Klu Klux Klan en 1871, la création du Parc de Yellowstone en 1872, la protection des terres des indiens Nez-Percés en 1873.

A la fin de son deuxième mandat, Grant se met à voyager à travers le monde puis il s'occupera de la National Rifle Association et de s'installer à New York où il rédigera ses mémoires. C'est le 23 juillet 1885 au Mont McGregor, dans le comté de Saratoga, que le grand général nordiste s'éteindra. Les américains lui rendent alors hommage une première fois lors de son enterrement, puis une seconde fois le 27 avril 1897 quand ses restes ainsi que ceux de son épouse sont transférés dans le mausolée qui lui est consacré

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ulysses_Grant

18th United States President, Civil War Union Lieutenant General. He was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio. His birth name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. At seventeen, he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point. After graduation, his first assignment was service in a border war with Mexico. After eleven years he resigned his commission and pursued a number of failed civilian endeavors. He answered the call for service during the Civil War, quickly rising to rank of Brigadier General. Victories at Fort Henry, Fort Doneson