Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant ) was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio , Clermont
County, Ohio (25 miles above Cincinnati on the Ohio River ) to Jesse R.
and Hannah Simpson Grant. His father and also his mother's father were
born in Pennsylvania . His father was a tanner. In the fall of 1823 they
moved to the village of Georgetown in Brown County, Ohio, where Grant spent
most of his time until he was 17.
At the age of 17, he received a cadetship to the United States Military
Academy at West Point, New York through his Congressman . The Congressman
erroneously registered him as Ulysses S. Grant, and as such he is thus
known. He graduated from West Point in 1843, No. 21 in a class of 39.
He married Julia Boggs Dent ( 1826 - 1902 ) on August 22 , 1843 and
they had four children: Frederick Dent, Ulysses Simpson, Jr., Ellen Wrenshall,
and Jesse Root.
He served in the Mexican-American War under Generals Zachary Taylor and
Winfield Scott , taking part in the battles of Resaca de la Palma , Palo
Alto , Monterrey , and Vera Cruz . He was twice breveted for bravery: at
Molino del Rey and Chapultepec . The following summer, on July 31 , 1854
, he resigned from the army. Seven years of civilian life following, in
which he was a farmer, a real estate agent in St. Louis, Missouri , and
finally an assistant at his father and brother's leather business.
On April 24 , 1861 , ten days after the fall of Fort Sumter , Captain
Grant arrived in Springfield, Illinois with a company of men he had raised.
The Governor felt that a West Point man could be put to better use and
appointed him Colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Infantry (effective
June 17 , 1861). On August 7th he was appointed a Brigadier-General of
Grant gave the Union its first victory of the war by capturing Fort
Henry, Tennessee on February 6 , 1862 .
He doggedly pursued the Confederate Army and won impressive but costly
victories at the Battle of Shiloh , the Battle of Vicksburg , and the Battle
of Chattanooga . His willingness to fight and ability to win impressed
President Lincoln who appointed him Lieutenant-General on March 2 , 1864
, and on the 17th he assumed command of all of the armies of the United
Grant left Major General William T. Sherman in immediate charge of all
forces in the west and moved his headquarters to Virginia where he turned
his attention to the long frustrated Union effort to take Richmond, Virginia
. Despite heavy losses and difficult terrain, the Army of the Potomac kept
up a relentless pursuit of General Robert E. Lee 's troops and won bloody
contests in the Battle of the Wilderness , at the Battle of Spotsylvania
Court House , at the Battle of Cold Harbor , and at the Battle of Petersburg
. His relentless pressure finally forced Lee to evacuate Richmond early
in April 1865 and forced him to surrender at Appomattox Courthouse on 9
April 1865 . Within a few weeks, the American Civil War was over.
After the war the United States Congress appointed him to the newly-created
rank of General of the Army on July 25 , 1866 .
Grant was chosen as the Republican presidential candidate at the Republican
National Convention in Chicago on May 20 1868 with no real opposition.
On election day he won with a majority of 309,684 out of a total of 5,716,082
He was the 18th ( 1869 - 1877 ) President of the United States and served
two terms from March 4 , 1869 to March 3 , 1877 . After the end of his
second term Grant spent two years travelling around the world.
Grant wrote his memoirs shortly before his death, while terminally ill
from throat cancer and in financial difficulties after the collapse of
the firm Grant and Ward . He heroically fought to finish his memoirs in
the hope they would provide financially for his family after his death.
He finished them just a few days before his death, and they succeeded in
providing a comfortable income for his wife and children. He died on July
23 , 1885 at Mount McGregor , Saratoga County, New York . His body lies
in New York City , with that of his wife, in Grant's Tomb , the largest
mausoleum in North America .
Grant's portrait appears on the U.S. $50 bill.
His professed religion was Methodist .
Key events in Grant's military career
American Civil War
Fort Henry and Fort Donelson (Unconditional Surrender)
Battle of Shiloh
Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Battle of Chattanooga
Battle of the Wilderness
Battle of Spotsylvania Court House
Battle of Cold Harbor
siege of Richmond, Virginia
Appomattox Court House
The Hero of Appomattox
"Unconditional Surrender" Grant
Ulys (in youth)
"Useless" (in youth)
"The will of the people is the best law."
"Although a soldier by profession, I have never felt any sort of fondness
for war, and I have never advocated it, except as a means of peace."
"My failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent."