Ulysses S. Grant
Led the Union army to victory in the American Civil War and later became president of the United States.
Life
West Point
A West Point graduate, Grant fought in the Mexican-American War and, after leaving the army, failed repeatedly in business. When the American Civil War broke out he rejoined the army, captured Fort Donelson and Vicksburg, and became Lincoln's most trusted general.
Vicksburg
In 1864 he became general-in-chief of the Union Army and waged a war of attrition against the South's General Lee, besieging Petersburg for nearly ten months. On April 9, 1865, Lee surrendered at Appomattox Court House, and Grant offered generous terms, allowing Southern soldiers to take their horses home.
Appomattox
Elected president in 1869, he pursued Reconstruction and cracked down on the Ku Klux Klan, but his administration was dogged by scandal. Late in life he developed throat cancer and, though gravely ill, finished his memoirs; he died in 1885.
Legacy
Grant was the commander who won the American Civil War, and his memoirs are regarded as among the finest military memoirs in the United States.
Major works & achievements
- Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant
Did you know? The "S" in his name was originally a clerical error made when he enrolled at West Point, and he kept using it from then on.
Key dates
- 1863Captured Vicksburg
- 1864Became general-in-chief of the Union Army
- 1865Accepted Lee's surrender
- 1869Inaugurated as president
- 1885Died after finishing his memoirs