Ulysses S. Grant

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Ulysses S. Grant
Grant c. 1870–1880
18th President of the United States
In office March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877
Vice President	Schuyler Colfax (1869–1873) Henry Wilson (1873–1875) None (1875–1877)
Preceded by	Andrew Johnson
Succeeded by	Rutherford B. Hayes
Commanding General of the U.S. Army
In office March 9, 1864 – March 4, 1869
President	Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson
Preceded by	Henry W. Halleck
Succeeded by	William Tecumseh Sherman
Acting United States Secretary of War
In office August 12, 1867 – January 14, 1868
President	Andrew Johnson
Preceded by	Edwin Stanton
Succeeded by	Edwin Stanton
President of the National Rifle Association
In office 1883–1884[1]
Personal details
Born	Hiram Ulysses Grant (1822-04-27)April 27, 1822 Point Pleasant, Ohio, U.S.
Died	July 23, 1885(1885-07-23) (aged 63) Wilton, New York, U.S.
Resting place	Grant's Tomb, New York City
Political party	Republican
Spouse	Julia Dent ​ (m. 1848)​
Children	Frederick Ulysses Jr. Nellie Jesse II
Parents	Jesse Root Grant Hannah Simpson Grant
Education	United States Military Academy (BS)
Occupation	Military officer politician
Signature
Nicknames	Sam Unconditional Surrender
Military service
Branch/service	United States Army Union Army
Years of service	1839–1854 1861–1869
Rank	General[a]
Commands	United States Army Company F, 4th Infantry 21st Illinois Infantry Regiment District of Southeast Missouri District of Cairo Army of the Tennessee Division of the Mississippi
Battles/wars	See list Mexican–American War Battle of Palo Alto Battle of Resaca de la Palma Battle of Monterrey Battle of Molino del Rey Battle of Chapultepec American Civil War Battle of Belmont Battle of Fort Henry Battle of Fort Donelson Battle of Shiloh Vicksburg campaign Battle of Champion Hill Chattanooga campaign Overland Campaign Petersburg campaign Appomattox campaign

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant;^[b] April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was an American military officer, politician, and the 18th president of the United States, who served from 1869 to 1877. As commanding general, Grant led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and briefly served as U.S. secretary of war. An effective civil rights executive, Grant signed a bill to create the Justice Department and worked with Radical Republicans to protect African Americans during Reconstruction.

Grant was born and raised in Ohio and graduated from West Point in 1843. He served with distinction in the Mexican–American War, but resigned from the army in 1854 and returned to civilian life impoverished. In 1861, shortly after the onset of the Civil War, Grant joined the Union Army and rose to prominence after securing Union victories in the western theater. In 1863, he led the Vicksburg campaign that gave Union forces control of the Mississippi River and dealt a major strategic blow to the Confederacy. President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to lieutenant general after his victory at Chattanooga. For thirteen months, Grant fought Robert E. Lee during the high-casualty Overland Campaign which ended with capture of Lee's army at Appomattox, where he formally surrendered to Grant. In 1866, President Andrew Johnson promoted Grant to General of the Army. Later, Grant openly broke with Johnson over Reconstruction policies. A war hero, drawn in by his sense of duty, Grant was unanimously nominated by the Republican Party and then elected president in 1868.

As president, Grant stabilized the post-war national economy, supported congressional Reconstruction and the ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, and prosecuted the Ku Klux Klan. Under Grant, the Union was completely restored. He appointed African Americans and Jewish Americans to prominent federal offices. In 1871, he created the first Civil Service Commission, advancing the civil service more than any prior president. The Liberal Republicans and Democrats united behind Grant's opponent in the 1872 presidential election, but Grant was handily reelected. Grant, however, was inundated by executive scandals during his second term. His response to the Panic of 1873 was ineffective in halting the Long Depression, which contributed to the Democrats winning the House majority in 1874. Grant's Native American policy was to assimilate Indians into Anglo-American culture. In Grant's foreign policy, the Alabama Claims against Great Britain were peacefully resolved, but the Senate rejected Grant's annexation of Santo Domingo. In the heavily disputed 1876 presidential election, Grant facilitated the approval by Congress of a peaceful compromise.

Leaving office in 1877, Grant undertook a world tour, meeting prominent figures and becoming the first president to circumnavigate the world. In 1880, he was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican nomination for a third term. In 1885, the final year of his life, facing severe financial reversals and dying of throat cancer, Grant wrote his memoirs, covering his life through the Civil War, which were posthumously published and became a major critical and financial success. At the time of his death, Grant was the most popular American and was memorialized as a symbol of national unity. Due to the Lost Cause myth spread by Confederate sympathizers around the turn of the 20th century, historical assessments and rankings of Grant and his presidency suffered considerably before they began recovering in the 21st century. Grant's critics take a negative view of his economic mismanagement and the corruption within his administration, while his admirers emphasize his policy towards Native Americans, vigorous enforcement of civil and voting rights for African Americans, and securing North and South as a single nation within the Union.^[5] Modern scholarship has better appreciated Grant's appointments of Cabinet reformers.

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