Born in the Ohio hamlet of Point Pleasant, he rose to become the ranking General of the Armies of the United States and eighteenth President of the United States. He was baptized as Hiram Ulysses Grant, but the Congressman appointing Grant to the Military Academy in 1839 stated his name as Ulysses Simpson (Simpson being his mother's maiden name), and thus his name was changed. Being from a family of modest means, Grant had but a common-school education but sufficient such that he passed the entrance examination to the Military Academy.

At West Point Grant was outstanding only in horsemanship, a talent he had honed on his father's farm where at the age of seven he had begun hauling wood with a team. "Sam" graduated 21st in his class of 39 on July 1, 1843 but stood notably higher in some branches of the school: 10th in mathematics; 15th in philosophy and 16th in engineering. He received a brevet to 2nd Lieutenant, 4th Infantry, there being no opening in any of the Army's cavalry regiments for the finest horseman at West Point. He received a promotion to 2nd Lieutenant, 4th Infantry, on September 30, 1845.

Serving in the Military occupation of Texas, 1845-1846, Grant was ordered to join General Taylor's army, about to invade Mexico from the Rio Grande base of operations. He was engaged in the Battle of Palo Alto, May 8, 1846 and Battle of Resaca-de-la-Palma, May 9, 1846. Though a Regimental Quartermaster in Charge of the Train, Grant took an active part in the Storming of Monterey, September 21-23, 1846. He was thereafter transferred to General Scott's Army and participated in the Siege of Vera Cruz, March 9-29, 1847; Battle of Cerro Gordo, April 17-18, 1847; Capture of San Antonio, August 20, 1847; Battle of Churubusco, August 20, 1847; and Battle of Molino del Rey, September 8, 1947, for which he received a brevet to 1st Lieutenant for gallant and meritorious conduct. He was engaged in the Storming of Chapultepec, September 13, 1847 and the Assault and Capture of Mexico City, September 13-14, 1847. He received a brevet to Captain, September 13, 1847, for gallant conduct at the Storming of Chapultepec.

Ulysses S. Grant
Summer of 1843
James Bultema Collection

Following the close of the War, Grant served as Quartermaster, 4th Infantry, April 1, 1847 to July 23, 1848; in garrison at Sackett's Harbor, NY, 1848-1849, as Quartermaster, 4th Infantry, September 11, 1849 to September 30, 1853. He was promoted to 1st Lieutenant, 4th Infantry, September 16, 1847. After frontier duty at Benicia, CA and at Columbia Barracks, OR he was promoted to Captain, 4th Infantry, August 5, 1853. While serving in the northwest, it seems that Grant at times took to the bottle and, after a warning from his commanding officer, resigned his commission on July 31, 1854.

Ulysses S. Grant
1844
James Bultema Collection

Above is Grant, standing left, with his horse "Dandy". Next to Grant is Lt. Alexander Hays. The two men had been fellow cadets at West Point and served together in the Mexican War. Hays served on Grant's staff during the Civil War and was killed at Spotsylvania Court House during the Battle of the Wilderness.

Having settled on a small farm in St. Louis, Grant found farming a hard life. He pursued work as a real estate salesman and unsuccessfully ran for county engineer in St. Louis. He gave it up and moved to Galena, IL in 1860 where he accepted a small salary as a clerk in his father's hardware and leather store, then operated by his two brothers. When news broke of the outbreak of the Rebellion, he presided at a public meeting calling for support of the Union cause. Yet, he found no ready market for his talents, despite having offered his services to the Adjutant-General in Washington and to General George B. McClellan, then considering applications in Cincinnati. Instead, Grant raised and drilled a company of volunteers and was then employed by Governor Yates in the Adjutant-General's Department and made mustering officer. Soon after he was appointed Colonel, 21st IL Volunteers, and on August 7, 1861 was commissioned Brigadier-General, U. S. Volunteers, with rank from May 17, assigned to the command of the District of Southwestern Missouri, headquartered in Cairo, IL. This promotion stemmed from Grant's connection to Elihu B. Washburne, an important member of the Illinois Congressional delegation which handed out four brigadierships.

Learning of the Confederacy's intent to seize Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee, he at once occupied the city which aided in keeping Kentucky loyal to the Union. Next, having survived an ill-advised attack on Belmont, MO, Grant prepared to attack the center of the Confederate line protecting Nashville.

The Fort was under the command of Simon Bolivar Buckner who, after an exchange of letters in which he urged the appointment of commissioners for the negotiation of peace, received the following short note from General Grant, quite specific as to the terms he would accept.

Grant's Demand for Surrender

The resulting surrenders of Forts Henry and Donelson in February, 1862, yielded 14,623 prisoners, a large amount of materiel and vast stretches of Confederate-held territory. For Grant, it brought the acclaim of the nation, the sobriquet of "Unconditional Surrender Grant", and a commission as Major-General, U. S. Volunteers, February 16, 1862. He later wrote:

"I had been at West Point three years with Buckner and afterwards served with him in the army, so that we were quite well acquainted. In the course of our conversation, which was very friendly, he said to me that if he had been in command I would not have got up to Donelson as easily as I did."

Ulysses S. Grant
Early in the Civil War

Placed in command of the District of West Tennessee, what followed next was the bloody Battle of Shiloh, where Grant and Sherman were surprised by Albert Sidney Johnston and nearly driven in the Tennessee River before the arrival of Don Carlos Buell and the death of Johnston helped turn the tide. Grant's next major effort was the taking of Vicksburg which, if successful, would split the Confederacy in two and give the Union control of the last railroad leading east from Mississippi.

After an aborted attempt in the fall of 1862, Grant decided to march his troops down the west bank of the river to rendezvous with David Porter's gunboats which were to run the Confederacy's gun batteries and ferry Grant's men to the east bank. The plan was successful; after interposing between the forces of Joseph E. Johnston and John C. Pemberton, Grant defeated Johnston with his right, driving him out of Jackson, and with his left drove Pemberton into his fortifications at Vicksburg after defeating him at Baker's Creek (Champion Hill), and Big Black River Bridge. The Confederate garrison surrendered on July 4, 1863. Grant was widely acclaimed and rewarded with the appointment as Major-General, U. S. Army.

Next came the relief of William S. Rosecrans' beleaguered forces in Chattanooga, the replacement of Rosecrans as commander of the Army of the Cumberland by George H. Thomas, and the routing of Braxton Bragg's army by the combined forces of Thomas, Sherman and Joseph Hooker. The Thanks of Congress were presented to Grant, December 17, 1863, along with a gold medal. The rank of Lieutenant-General was revived and bestowed upon Grant, along with it command of all the Armies, as General-in-Chief, March 2, 1864.

Lincoln met the 41 year old Grant for the first time at a White House reception on March 8, 1864. The five-foot eight general seemed quite nervous.. As introductions were made, someone in the crowd cried out, "Stand up, so we can all have a look at you." Grant obliged by standing on a sofa where he remained, receiving the adulation of the crowd for nearly an hour. One journalist writing: "The little, scare- looking man who stood on the crimson-colored sofa was the idol of the hour."

Grant went to Cincinnati to confer with General Sherman, whom he had named his replacement in command of the western army. Later, Sherman characterized the grand strategy they devised in that meeting: "He was to go for Lee and I was to go for Joe Johnston. That was the plan."

Ulysses S. Grant

When he returned to the East, Grant's orders to Meade were equally succinct: "Lee's army will be your objective point. Wherever Lee goes, there you will go also." Meade would lead the fight against Lee, but Grant would be there with him, often in the next tent, to map the way.

From this point, a coordinated plan was developed to bring down the Confederacy: George C. Meade's Army of the Potomac against Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia; Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James against Lee's communications, and Sherman's forces (Army of the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland) against Joseph E. Johnston's Army of the Tennessee entrenched ninety miles northwest of Atlanta. Making his headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, Grant directed the battles at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Courthouse, the North Anna, and Cold Harbor in May and June, 1864, suffering staggering losses.

Ulysses S. Grant
Post Civil War

Following the failure to take Petersburg, the siege lasted until the following spring. Sheridan's victory at Five Forks on April 1, 1865, and the penetration of the main Confederate line the following morning, drove Lee west in the hope of uniting with Johnston. However, Lee was stopped at Appomattox and surrendered on April 9, 1865. Johnston surrendered to Sherman in North Carolina on April 26. The War was over.

Grant held command of the Armies of the United States, August 12, 1866 to March 4, 1869. Following the Civil War, Congress revived the rank of full General, not used since the days of George Washington, and, on July 25, 1866, conferred it upon the General-in-Chief, Ulysses Simpson Grant. He served as interim Secretary of War, August 12, 1867 to January 14, 1868.

He sided with Congressional radicals and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton against President Andrew Johnson during the Tenure of Office Act imbroglio which made Grant the inevitable Republican candidate for President in 1868. Four days after Andrew Johnson was acquitted of impeachment charges the Republicans met in Chicago in their nominating convention and made it official. Grant accepted the nomination in a brief note in which he said: "Let us have peace", thus coining the slogan of his campaign. Grant defeated his opponent, Democrat Horatio Seymour, former Governor of New York, a compromise candidate who twenty minutes before his nomination had no inkling that he might be a candidate. The final vote tally was Grant, 3,012,833; Seymour 2,703,249.

Grant had a difficult Presidency. He was attracted by the suave, the polished, the rich and well-mannered; if they also happened to be crooks, he did not notice it. Grant doled out Cabinet positions with little regard for fitness and gifts were loosely accepted. As a result, graft and corruption brought the morale of the government to an all- time low. Though the President was not himself tainted with graft, he was so incredibly naive that he could not see the crookedness of the men around him. A full-fledged depression occurred in 1873. Five thousand businesses went bankrupt; three years later the number was over nine thousand. However, despite it all, with his abundance of simple honesty, Grant weathered the storm of criticisms. During his Presidency, Grant hosted the Aztec Club at dinner in the White House.

Following his retirement from the Presidency in 1876, Grant traveled abroad for two years and in 1880 was a leading contender for the Presidency once again but a coalition of Grant's opponents agreed upon James A. Garfield.

In 1881 Grant was among those who attended the Aztec Club's historic meeting in Philadelphia. He was elected Vice President of the Club, announcing his intention to become its President in 1885.

Ulysses S. Grant
Vice President of the Aztec Club 1881-1885

Grant's last years were marked by misfortune and agonizing illness. He lived in New York in a home and on a trust fund provided by his admirers for a time, but the income failed and he entered a business in which his name could be exploited. The insolvency of the brokerage firm of Grant & Ward threw Grant into bankruptcy and his swords and souvenirs were lost as security on a loan he had been unable to repay.

In 1884 Grant learned he had throat cancer. At length, his friends succeeded in having his name restored to the retired list of the Army, from which he resigned upon becoming President, carrying with it a salary for life. In his last months, he completed his memoirs which were later published by Mark Twain.

Grant and his Family
at Mt. McGregor 35 Days before his Death

Near the end of his suffering, speechless and racked with pain, Grant wrote notes on slips of paper in order to finish the manuscript. His Memoirs proved one of the greatest successes in publishing, earning nearly $450,000 for his family. He died four days after they were completed, on July 23, 1885. His remains lie in a mausoleum in New York City.

The Club met on September 16th, 1885 where General Zealous B. Tower delivered a eulogy to Grant, published in the Club's Sesquicentennial History and soon to be published elsewhere on this site.

Above, Grant at Mount McGregor, New York, on July 22, 1885, having just finished the heroic task of completing his memoirs against the most immutable of deadlines of all, his own death. He died the following day.

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