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.
After service in the Mexican-American War he was promoted to Captain in 1853. 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, 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 however 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 volunteers.
Grant gave the Union its first victory of the war by capturing Fort Henry, Tennessee on February 6, 1862.
Following the Battle of Chattanooga, he was appointed Lieutenant-General on March 2, 1864, and on the 17th he assumed command of all of the armies of the United States.
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 votes cast.
He served two terms of office 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, whilst 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.
| Rank: | 18th |
| Term of Office: | March 4, 1869 - March 3, 1877 |
| Followed: | Andrew Johnson |
| Succeeded by: | Rutherford B. Hayes |
| Date of Birth | April 27, 1822 |
| Place of Birth: | Point Pleasant, Ohio |
| Date of Death: | July 23, 1885 |
| Place of Death: | Mount McGregor, New York |
| First Lady: | Julia Boggs Dent |
| Occupation: | soldier |
| Political Party: | Republican |
| Vice President: |
Henry Wilson (1873-1875) |
Military Career
- Mexican-American War
- American Civil War
- Fort Henry and Fort Donelson (Unconditional Surrender!)
- Battle of Shiloh
- Vicksburg, Mississippi
- 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
Nicknames
- The Hero of Appomattox
- "Unconditional Surrender" Grant
- Sam Grant
- Ulys (in youth)
- "Useless" (in youth)
Quotes
- "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."
Supreme Court appointments
- William Strong - 1870
- Joseph P. Bradley - 1870
- Ward Hunt - 1873
- Morrison Remick Waite - Chief Justice - 1874
External links
- First Inaugural Address
- Second Inaugural Address
- Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, 1885. Available from Project Gutenberg