Ulysses S. Grant biography

Dromo's Den

Ulysses S. Grant Biography

GRANT, Ulysses Simpson, eighteenth president of the United States, born at Point Pleasant, Clermont county, Ohio, April 27, 1822; died July 23, 1885. He descended from a Scotch ancestry that came to America in 1630, his father being Jesse R. Grant. While a boy he worked on the farm and in the tannery of his father, attended the public schools, and when seventeen years old received an appointment to West Point, from which he graduated as brevet second lieutenant in 1843. Soon after he was stationed at Jefferson Barracks, Missouri. In 1846 he entered the service in the Mexican War, and took part in all the battles fought by Scott and Taylor, except that at Buena Vista. He declined the honor of being brevetted for gallant conduct at the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, but in 1847 was made brevet first lieutenant for bravery at Molino del Rey.

In 1848 he married Julia Dent, the daughter of a St. Louis merchant, and during the following six years served at various posts, attaining to the rank of captain in 1853. In 1854 he retired from the army and occupied himself in farming near St. Louis, in which he continued until 1860, and, not finding farming profitable, engaged as clerk in his father's leather business at Galena, Illinois. He drilled a body of volunteers at Galena in 1861 and soon entered the service as colonel, and in August of the same year was made brigadier-general of volunteers. His first services of great value were in 1862, when he captured Forts Henry and Donelson and fought the battle of Shiloh. In 1863 he secured victories at Port Gibson and Champion Hill and drove the enemy into Vicksburg, where he commenced a siege in May, and on July 4, 1863, received the surrender of that place with the garrison of 32,000 men. He then became major-general, was given command of the military division of the Mississippi, and by skillful management drove the Confederates from Tennessee. The rank of lieutenant-general was conferred upon him March 9, 1864, and three days later command of all the Union forces was given him. Thus raised into a field of greater latitude, he at once planned to confront the enemy at every important point by aggressive activity with the view of making it impossible for the armies of the Confederates to support each other. Accordingly he took the field in person against Lee in northern Virginia, sent Sigel to penetrate the valley of Virginia, dispatched General Sherman to Georgia, and directed Butler to threaten Richmond. Grant's operations against Lee were characterized by terrible battles from the time he left the Rapidan, including those of the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Anna and Cold Harbor, but he succeeded in causing the enemy to fall back steadily with irreparable losses. To relieve Butler at Bermuda Hundred he crossed the James below Richmond, and thus included Petersburg in the final contest. The campaign from the Rapidan to Appomattox continued from May,1864, to April, 1865, though the country at times became discouraged and the government advised him to abandon his line of aggression. However, Grant kept steadily on. After the battle of Spottsylvania, in May, 1864, he sent a dispatch to the government, which closed with these words: "I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." Early in April, 1865, Richmond was evacuated, Lee retreated to Lynchburg, and on April 9 surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. The great battles fought under General Grant stand among the most terrible in the history of the world, while the nobility of character displayed by him turned many of his opponents into his warmest friends. After the war he had charge of mustering the army out of service and disposing of the enormous stores of the government, In 1866 he submitted a plan to the government for the reorganization of the army, which at once became the basis of army organization. In the same year congress created the rank of general of the armies, to which position he was appointed, and other honors were bestowed upon him by the grateful public.

The republican national convention in session at Chicago in May, 1868, nominated General Grant for president on the first call of states. Of the 294 votes cast in the electoral college he received 214 and Horatio Seymour eighty. Four years later he was re-elected, receiving 286 as against sixty-six that would have been cast for Horace Greeley if he had lived. After the close of his second term he made a tour around the world, and was received with marked enthusiasm in the various foreign countries he visited. An effort was made to again nominate him for president in 1880, but it failed. During his administration the Pacific railroads were completed the Alabama Claims settled, the national debt funded, and the fifteenth amendment passed. President Grant was a plain man, possessed much common sense, but was unfortunate in the choice of advisers and lacked skill in public affairs. His reputation is due to his moral and physical courage and military achievements. Toward the latter part of his life he joined others in a banking enterprise at New York City in which all his property was lost. The writing of his "Memoirs" occupied the last year of his life. In March, 1885, congress placed him on the retired list as general. His death occurred from a cancer at the root of the tongue, after much suffering. The remains were buried in Riverside Park, New York City, with honors never before accorded an American.

The Teachers' and Pupils' Cyclopædia, Vol. II (Kansas City: Bufton Book Co., 1909) 751-752.