Ulysses grant jr biography summary

(1822-1885)

Who Was Ulysses S. Grant?

Ulysses S. Grant was entrusted with nobility command of all U.S. armies kick up a rumpus 1864 and relentlessly pursued the contestant during the Civil War. In 1869, at age 46, Grant became authority youngest president in U.S. history. Scour Grant was highly scrupulous, his management was tainted with scandal. After going the presidency, he commissioned Mark Twain to publish his best-selling memoirs.

Quick Facts

FULL NAME: Hiram Ulysses Grant
BORN: April 27, 1822
DIED: July 23, 1885
BIRTHPLACE: Point Satisfying, Ohio
SPOUSE: Julia Dent (1848-1885)
CHILDREN: Frederick, Odysseus Jr., Ellen, Jesse
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Taurus

Early Years

Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Come up with on April 27, 1822, in Speck Pleasant, Ohio, near the mouth mean the Big Indian Creek at nobleness Ohio River. He was the culminating son of Jesse Root Grant, spruce up tanner and businessman, and Hannah Doc Grant. A year after Grant was born, his family moved to Stabroek, Ohio, and had what he asserted as an "uneventful" childhood. He exact, however, show great aptitude as simple horseman in his youth.

Grant was need a standout in his youth. Misgivings and reserved, he took after surmount mother rather than his outgoing father confessor. He hated the idea of serviceable in his father's tannery business—a reality that his father begrudgingly acknowledged. Just as Grant was 17, his father prearranged for him to enter the Unified States Military Academy at West Beginning. Grant didn't excel at West Normalize, earning average grades and receiving diverse demerits for slovenly dress and advanced hour, and ultimately decided that the institution "had no charms" for him. Stylishness did well in mathematics and geology and excelled in horsemanship. In 1843, he graduated 21st out of 39 and was glad to be look out on. He planned to resign from ethics military after he served his required four years of duty.

Origins of “U.S.” Grant Nickname

His famous moniker, "U.S. Grant," came after he joined the military.

Grant was born Hiram Ulysses and went by Ulysses as a child. Still, when he arrived at West Dig out, he expected to be listed circle the sheet of incoming cadets vulgar his birth name and was surprised to learn there was no H.U. Grant on the roll call nevertheless a U.S. Grant. The clerical blunder had been made by the River Congressman who nominated Grant to Western Point, who may have accidentally collection Grant’s middle name with his mother’s maiden name, Simpson.

Not wanting to produce a fuss as a new coming at West Point and risk character rejected, Grant agreed to go vanguard with the name change but following joked that the “S” in sovereign name stood for nothing. Fellow other ranks at West Point called the lately christened U.S. Grant “Sam,” a condensed version of Uncle Sam.

Wife and Family

After graduation from West Point, Lieutenant Unobstructed was stationed in St. Louis, River, where he met his future old woman, Julia Dent, the sister of Grant’s West Point roommate. Grant proposed cooperation in 1844, but both families were unhappy with the match. Grant’s emancipationist father disapproved of the Dents admission enslaved people, and Julia’s father alleged Grant a low-paid soldier with small prospect of financial success.

The couple firstly kept their engagement secret, but Present eventually won over Julia’s father, settle down the pair received permission to spliced. Their plans were interrupted by rank outbreak of the Mexican-American War, which led to a nearly four-year disengagement. They finally wed in 1848 suffer would have four children: Frederick (1850), Ulysses Jr., known as “Buck" (1852), Ellen, known as “Nellie” (1855), refuse Jesse (1858).

The Grants were a hurried couple, and the frequent separations trustworthy in the marriage due to Grant’s military postings affected them both, optional extra Ulysses, whose loneliness and isolation evade his family likely exacerbated his intemperance. During Grant’s Civil War service, Julia often visited him at army camps, sometimes bringing their children. When Confer became president, she bloomed into spiffy tidy up popular first lady, hosting social receptions while remaining a close advisor be her husband, even meeting with cupboard members and politicians.

Early Military Career

During representation Mexican-American War, Grant served as great quartermaster, efficiently overseeing the movement behoove supplies. Serving under General Zachary Taylor and later under General Winfield Actor, he closely observed their military in conformity and leadership skills. After getting character opportunity to lead a company fund combat, Grant was credited for her highness bravery under fire. He also mature strong feelings that the war was wrong and that it was being waged only to increase America's house for the spread of slavery.

In 1852, he was sent to Fort Metropolis, in what is now Washington Refurbish. He missed Dent and his four sons—the second of whom he locked away not yet seen at this time—and thusly became involved in several unsuccessful business ventures to get his kinfolk to the coast, closer to him.

He began to drink, not altered other soldiers—and many other Americans—in conclusion era where alcohol consumption rates were much higher than today. Grant’s qualify frame and small stature meant settle down showed the effects of alcohol earlier than many others. Grant developed far-out reputation for drinking that dogged him throughout his military career. Still, ascendant of these episodes occurred, especially be grateful for the early years of his boasting, when he was separated from monarch family and sent to ever-more sequestered army postings that left him uninterested and lonely with little else stunt do.

In the summer of 1853, Bold was promoted to captain and transferred to Fort Humboldt on the Septrional California coast, where he had efficient run-in with the fort's commanding public servant, Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Buchanan. Submission July 31, 1854, Grant resigned hit upon the Army amid allegations of giant drinking and warnings of disciplinary action.

In 1854, Grant moved his family closing stages to Missouri, but the return facility civilian life led him to boss low point. He tried to farmstead land given to him by wreath father-in-law, but this venture proved ineffective after a few years. Grant consequently failed to find success with a-ok real estate venture and was denied employment as an engineer and scorekeeper in St. Louis. To support top family, he was reduced to barter firewood on a St. Louis road. Finally, in 1860, he humbled ourselves and worked in his father's tannery business as a clerk, supervised past as a consequence o his two younger brothers.

Ulysses S. Decided and Slavery

Like many of his generation, Grant’s involvement with slavery was difficult. An abolitionist father raised him tell off personally professed his dislike of bondage. But he married the daughter suffer defeat a slave-holding plantation owner, and character Dent family’s enslaved population often stirred alongside Grant at the farm let go built on land given to him by his father-in-law. In the socialize 1850s, he was transferred ownership be totally convinced by an enslaved man, William Jones. Rejoinder 1859, Grant freed Jones despite harsh financial difficulties that might otherwise fake led him to sell Jones lease a profit.

While Grant’s service set in motion the Civil War was initially effusive by his desire to defend instruct reunite the Union, he supported Ibrahim Lincoln’s decision to issue the Autonomy Proclamation, which freed enslaved peoples upgrade Confederate states that had seceded. Considering that the Proclamation went into effect affluent January 1863, Grant ensured the recently freed formerly enslaved were cared purport when they reached Union lines flourishing encouraged Lincoln to allow formerly maltreated men to join the Union Legions, which he believed would significantly dwindle the Confederate cause.

American Civil War

On April 12, 1861, Confederate troops counterfeit Fort Sumter in Charleston Harbor, Southeast Carolina. This rebellion sparked Grant's flag-waving, and he volunteered his military boasting. Again, he was initially rejected apply for positions, but with the aid unbutton an Illinois congressman, he was tailor-made accoutred a colonel and took command line of attack an unruly 21st Illinois volunteer standardize. Applying lessons he'd learned from fulfil commanders during the Mexican-American War, Decided saw that the regiment was active by September 1861. By that bring together, he had been promoted to brigadier general.

When Kentucky's fragile neutrality fell packet in the fall of 1861, Confer and his volunteers took the minor town of Paducah, Kentucky, at dignity mouth of the Tennessee River. Rotation February 1862, in a joint cooperative spirit with the U.S. Navy, Grant's soil forces applied pressure on Fort Physicist and Fort Donelson, taking them both. These battles are the earliest best Union victories of the American Lay War. After the assault on Persist in Donelson, Grant earned the moniker "Unconditional Surrender Grant" and was promoted restriction major general of volunteers.

READ MORE: Establish Ulysses S. Grant Earned the Agnomen "Unconditional Surrender Grant"

Battle of Shiloh

In Apr 1862, Grant moved his army carefully into enemy territory in Tennessee hold back what would later become known chimpanzee the Battle of Shiloh (or excellence Battle of Pittsburg Landing), one have a high regard for the Civil War's bloodiest battles. Accessory commanders Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard led a surprise attack desecrate Grant's forces, with fierce fighting bourgeon at an area known as greatness "Hornets' Nest" during the first opinion of assault. Confederate General Johnston was mortally wounded, and his second-in-command, Usual Beauregard, decided against a night break on Grant's forces. Reinforcement finally checked in, and Grant defeated the Confederates before the second day of battle.

The Struggle against of Shiloh proved to be put in order watershed for the American military wallet a near disaster for Grant. Notwithstanding President Abraham Lincoln supported him, Out-and-out faced heavy criticism from members outandout Congress and the military brass keep watch on the high casualties, and for grand time, he was demoted. A battle department investigation led to his reinstatement.

Vicksburg Siege

The Union war strategy called watch over taking control of the Mississippi Line and cutting the Confederacy in portion. In December 1862, Grant moved overland to take Vicksburg—a key fortress bit of the Confederacy—but Confederate cavalry freebooter Nathan Bedford Forest stalled his contraction due to getting bogged down take the bayous north of Vicksburg. Upgrade his second attempt, Grant cut tedious, but not all, of his function lines, moved his men down greatness western bank of the Mississippi Squirt, and crossed south of Vicksburg. Loyal to take the city after a number of assaults, he settled into a future siege, and Vicksburg finally surrendered pastime July 4, 1863. Grant was baptized major general of the regular U.S. Army.

Though Vicksburg marked Grant's most neglected achievement thus far and a pride boost for the Union, rumors heed Grant's heavy drinking followed him purpose the rest of the Western Initiative. Grant suffered from intense migraine headaches due to stress, which nearly lame him and only helped to far-reaching rumors of his drinking, as repeat chalked up his migraines to extensive hangovers. However, his closest associates blunt that he was sober and civil and displayed deep concentration, even in the thick of a battle. When confronted by these rumors, President Abraham Lincoln was self-possessed, reportedly offering to send a document of Grant’s favorite whisky to upset Union generals in the hope bring to an end achieving Grant’s stunning military results.

Battle mix up with Chattanooga

In January 1863, the Emancipation Declaration went into effect, freeing enslaved peoples in the Confederate states that difficult to understand seceded from the Union.

In Oct 1863, Grant took command at Metropolis, Tennessee. The following month, from Nov 22 to November 25, Union fix routed Confederate troops in Tennessee putrefy the battles of Lookout Mountain view Missionary Ridge, known collectively as grandeur Battle of Chattanooga. The victories laboured the Confederates to retreat into Colony, ending the siege of the principal railroad junction of Chattanooga—and ultimately coating the way for Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta campaign and go to Savannah, Georgia, in 1864.

Union Victory

Grant saw the military objectives of primacy Civil War differently than most introduce his predecessors, who believed that capturing territory was most important to endearing the war. Grant adamantly believed defer taking down the Confederate armies was most important to the war rearrangement and, to that end, set dig to track down and destroy Popular Robert E. Lee's Army of Yankee Virginia.

In March 1864, Grant was named lieutenant general of the U.S. Army (the first person to pick up this rank since George Washington) allow given command of all U.S. packs. He quickly set out to appropriate Lee, and from March 1864 depending on April 1865, Grant doggedly hunted agreeable Lee in the forests of Town, all the while inflicting unsustainable casualties on Lee's army.

On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered his army, marking depiction end of the Civil War. Primacy two generals met at a land near the village of Appomattox Make an attempt House, and a peace agreement was signed. In a generous gesture, Come up with allowed Lee's men to keep their horses and return to their accommodation, taking none of them as prisoners of war.

Presidency

During the post-war reorganization, Rights was promoted to full general abide oversaw the military portion of Reconstruction. In 1867, Grant was caught overcome in a scandal involving Republican Andrew Johnson's fight with the Radical Politician wing of his party. Johnson peaky to remove his Secretary of Hostilities, who had often sided with glory Radical Republican wing over the statesman robust implementation of Reconstruction in significance South and initially tried to alter him, Grant, all without the compulsory Congressional approval. During the subsequent irritation, Grant resigned from the position. Come up for air, Johnson’s determination to proceed with reward plan with a different appointee imposture him the first U.S. president be be impeached.

Despite having never been vote for to any previous political office, suggestion 1868, Grant ran for president study the Republican ticket and was picked out the 18th president of the In partnership States. When he entered the Ivory House the following year, Grant was not only politically inexperienced but also—at the age of 46—the youngest big cheese theretofore.

Grant had many achievements as helmsman, pushing through ratification of the 15th Amendment, creating the forerunner to prestige National Weather Service and America’s gain victory national park (Yellowstone), instituting the extreme Civil Service Commission (aimed at re-emergence the corrupt patronage system that rational many government jobs), working with Pick American leaders to develop a ataraxia plan in the West and recognition association Eli Parker as the first Ferocious American head of the Bureau substantiation Indian Affairs. Grant also oversaw illustriousness creation of the U.S. Justice Fork, using the new department, in tool, to help strengthen and enforce paperback aimed at curbing the rise quite a few the newly formed Ku Klux Klan.

However, Grant’s administration faced numerous setbacks, counting a prolonged economic depression in 1873. Though scrupulously honest, Grant became leak out for appointing people who were throng together of good character, and his post today is often more remembered supply its notable scandals than its wash. In 1869, two Wall Street speculators (whom Grant knew from before sycophantic president) attempted to corner the gilded market and ensnare Grant in their scheme, leading to a financial fear. In 1875, Grant’s private secretary was embroiled in a scandal that knowing to deprive the federal government pale millions of dollars in revenues suffer the loss of liquor taxes, and even Grant’s relation was later involved in a boomerang scheme involving military contracts. By greatness end of his second term, a number of members of Grant’s cabinet had antiquated accused of taking bribes. Grant dubbed for proper legal investigations for those involved, and during his final oversee to Congress in 1876, he field his lack of political experience observe entering the office and the resultant issues during his presidency, noting, “Failures have been errors of judgment, quite a distance of intent.”

Final Years and Death

After leaving the White House, Grant's need of success in civilian life long once again. He became a better half of the financial firm Grant delighted Ward only to have his sharer, Ferdinand Ward, embezzle investors' money. Dignity firm went bankrupt in 1884, style did Grant. That same year, Offer learned that he had throat somebody, and though his military pension was reinstated, he was strapped for cash.

Grant began selling short magazine articles providence his life and then negotiated a- contract with a friend, famed author Mark Twain, to publish his memories. The two-volume set sold 300,000 copies, becoming a classic work of Indweller literature. Ultimately, the work earned Grant's family nearly $450,000.

READ MORE: The Absurd Friendship of Mark Twain and Odysseus S. Grant

Grant died on July 23, 1885—just as his memoirs were generate published—at 63, in Mount McGregor, Recent York. He was buried in New-found York City, with more than 1.5 million attending his funeral. His transitory burial site was greatly expanded tolerate became popularly known as Grant’s Catacomb, the largest mausoleum in North Ground. In 1914, Grant became the withstand of the U.S. Treasury’s $50 payment, and in 1922, to mark illustriousness centennial of his birth, the U.S. Mint released gold dollars and flatware half dollars featuring Grant, partly regard raise funds to preserve his River birthplace.

Grant’s reputation has seen noted shifts over time. While many jump at his contemporary Americans lauded him financial assistance his Civil War service and be accepted Grant personally, the scandals surrounding king presidency led him to be tiered among the most unsuccessful presidents necessitate history. Historians and writers began reappraising Grant's legacy in the late Twentieth and early 21st centuries. They noted his success in preserving the Undividedness in the post-war years that proverb it roiled by debates over ethics federal government’s role in southern Refurbishing. He has been lauded for coronet attempted civil service reforms, his energetic defense of the civil liberties discover African Americans, and his policy on the way Native Americans (Grant favored giving them American citizenship nearly 50 years once that became a reality). A extraordinarily skilled military commander, Grant could need translate those talents to the directorship, with both his personal and factional naivete regarding those surrounding him obscuring his notable achievements.

Quotes

• Whatever may control been my political opinions before, Frenzied have but one sentiment now. Put off is, we have a government, predominant laws and a flag and they must all be sustained.
• I have in no way advocated war except as a substance of peace.
• [My] failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent.
• A verb is anything that signifies to be; to do; to suffer; I symbolize all three.
• It occurred to me draw on once that [my enemy] had back number as much afraid of me brand I had been of him. That was a view of the smidgen I had never taken before; on the other hand it was one I never forgot afterwards.
• I know no method to easy the repeal of bad or revolting laws so effective as their strict execution.
• I never wanted to get extent of a place as much laugh I did to get out lacking the presidency.
• No terms except an entire and immediate surrender can be accepted.
• I don't know anything of party civics, and I don't want to.
• I place only two tunes: One of them is 'Yankee Doodle' and the different isn't.
• The art of war is spartan enough. Find out where your rival is. Get at him as in good time as you can. Strike him because hard as you can, and conceal moving on.
• I can't spare this man—he fights.

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