The Life of Ulysses S. Grant

Hiram Ulysses S. Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio to Hannah and Jesse Grant. He loved horses. He left Ohio for the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. His name was registered as Ulysses S. Grant, a name he will continue to use for the rest of his life. Grant spent the next four years at the school on the Hudson as a cadet. Grant fought in the Mexican War as a quartermaster. He was sent to Humboldt Bay, California. He returned to Missouri after resigning his commission. He worked at a 60-acre farm near St. Louis and built a home. Grant owned a slave named William Jones who was passed down to him from a family member whom he freed in 1859. He moved to Galena, Illinois and accepted a clerkship at his father's leather store. He lived in a comfortable snug house on a hill in front of a cemetery. A commission was signed by President Lincoln which made Grant a Brigadier General of Volunteers. The Battle of Belmont. The Battle of Belmont was Grant's first engagement as General. Union forces raided the Confederate camp but fell back when they counterattacked. Grant's horse was shot from under him. Grant took Fort Donelson, Tennessee, the first Union victory of strategic importance in the war. He became nationally famous with the dispatch, no terms except immediate and unconditional surrender. Grant received his two-star rank as Major General of Volunteers. The Battle of Shiloh. Though Grant and Sherman deny until their deaths that they were surprised here, the evidence was persuasive that they were. Grant's stubbornness resisted disaster and the Union held the field on the second day. They unsuccessfully moved around Vicksburg, Mississippi. Grant implemented his grand strategy in taking Vicksburg by moving between two wings of the enemy and routed them both. In five days he fought and defeated the enemy at Jackson, Champion Hill, and Big Black River. The Surrender of Vicksburg. Grant's tour de force as a General was one of his greatest military campaigns in history. Grant spent the summer with his family in a house near Vicksburg. He took command at Chattanooga, Tennessee. The Battle of Chattanooga. The Confederates are forced to retreat into Tennessee. Grant received his commission as Lieutenant General from Lincoln and on March 12th he is appointed General-in-Chief of all U.S. Armies. The Battle of the Wilderness. The two titans of war, Grant and Lee, finally face each other. The result is a draw with Union forces losing two times as many men as Lee. The Spotsylvania Campaign. Grant was once again thwarted by Lee and the results of the battle are inconclusive. Grant wrote another of his famous dispatches. I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer. The Battle of Cold Harbor. In the main frontal assault on June 3rd, Grant lost 7,000 men in an hour. Lee lost 1,500, but Grant could obtain replacements and Lee couldn't. Lee surrendered to Grant in the McLean House, Appomattox, Virginia. This was Grant's great hour. Congress establishes a new rank of General, which made Grant the first four-star General in U.S. history. Grant refused to be sent to Mexico by President Andrew Johnson, who was a jealous man and wanted Lee out of the way. Grant was nominated as a candidate for President by the Republican National Convention in Chicago. In the 1868 presidential election, Republican Ulysses S. Grant won the office with the slogan, Let Us Have Peace. Many Northerners disgusted by Klan violence lent their support to the 15th Amendment, which gave the vote to black men in every state. President Ulysses S. Grant.