Ulysses S. Grant

I

Introduction

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), American general and 18th president of the United States (1869-1877). Grant was born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822, the son of Hannah Simpson and Jesse Grant, the owner of a tannery. Taken to nearby Georgetown at the age of one, he was educated in local and boarding schools. In 1839, under the name of Ulysses Simpson instead of his original Hiram Ulysses, he was appointed to West Point. Graduating 21st in a class of 39 in 1843, he was assigned to Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. There he met Julia Dent, a local planter's daughter, whom he married after the Mexican-American War.

II

Pre-war Career

During the Mexican-American War, Grant served under both General Zachary Taylor and General Winfield Scott and distinguished himself, particularly at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. After his return and tours of duty in the North, he was sent to the Far West. In 1854, while stationed at Fort Humboldt, California, Grant resigned his commission because of loneliness and drinking problems, and in the following years he engaged in generally unsuccessful farming and business ventures in Missouri. He moved to Galena, Illinois, in 1860, where he became a clerk in his father's leather store.

III

The Civil War

At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Grant was appointed colonel, and soon afterwards brigadier general, of the Illinois Volunteers, and in September 1861 he seized Paducah, Kentucky. After an inconclusive raid on Belmont, Missouri, he gained fame when in February 1862, in conjunction with the navy, he succeeded in reducing Forts Henry and Donelson, Tennessee, forcing General Simon B. Buckner to accept unconditional surrender. The Confederates surprised Grant at Shiloh (April 1862), but he held his ground and then moved on to Corinth. In 1863 he established his reputation as a strategist in the brilliant campaign against Vicksburg, Mississippi, which capitulated on July 4. After being appointed commander in the West, he defeated Braxton Bragg at Chattanooga (November 1863). Grant's victories made him so prominent that he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant general and in March 1864 was given command of all Union armies.

Grant's subsequent campaigns revealed his determination to apply relentless pressure against the Confederacy by coordinating the Union armies and exploiting the economic strength of the North. While Grant accompanied the Army of the Potomac in its overland assault on Richmond, Virginia, General Benjamin F. Butler was to attack the city by water, General William T. Sherman to move into Georgia, and General Franz Sigel to clear the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia. Despite the failure of Butler and Sigel and heavy losses at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, Grant continued to press the drive against the army of General Robert E. Lee. After Sherman's success in Georgia and the conquest of the Shenandoah Valley by General Philip H. Sheridan, Grant forced Lee to abandon Petersburg and Richmond (April 2, 1865) and to surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9.

IV

Road to the Presidency

As commander of the army, Grant soon became enmeshed in the struggles between President Andrew Johnson and Congress. Because of the president's evident pro-Southern tendencies, the general gradually moved closer to the radicals and cooperated with Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton in carrying out the congressional Reconstruction plan for the South. Grant accepted appointment as secretary ad interim after Johnson's dismissal of Stanton, but clashed violently with the president when the Senate ordered Stanton reinstated. Then, as the country's best-known military leader, he became the Republican candidate for president in 1868 and defeated his Democratic rival, Horatio Seymour.