Ulysses S. Grant

Born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, 25 miles (40 km) east of Cincinnati on the Ohio River, he was the eldest of the six children of Jesse Root Grant (1794–1873) and Hannah Simpson (1798–1883). His father, a tanner, and his mother were born in Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1823, they moved to the village of Georgetown in Brown County, Ohio, where Grant spent most of his time until he was 17.

At the age of 17, and having barely passed the United States Military Academy's height requirement for entrance, Grant received a nomination to the Academy at West Point, New York, through his U.S. Congressman, Thomas L. Hamer. Hamer erroneously nominated him as Ulysses Simpson Grant, knowing Grant's mother's maiden name and forgetting that Grant was referred to in his youth as "H. Ulysses Grant" or "Lyss". Grant wrote his name in the entrance register as "Ulysses Hiram Grant" (concerned that he would otherwise become known by his initials, H.U.G.), but the school administration refused to accept any name other than the nominated form.[1] Upon graduation, Grant adopted the form of his new name with middle initial only, never acknowledging that the "S" stood for Simpson.[2] He graduated from West Point in 1843, ranking 21st in a class of 39. At the academy, he established a reputation as a fearless and expert horseman. Grant drank whiskey and, during the Civil War, began smoking huge numbers of cigars (one story had it that he smoked over 10,000 in five years) which may well have contributed to the development of throat cancer later in his life.

On August 22, 1848 Grant married Julia Boggs Dent (1826–1902), the daughter of a slaveowner. They had four children: Frederick Dent Grant, Ulysses S. (Buck) Grant, Jr., Ellen (Nellie) Wrenshall Grant, and Jesse Root Grant.


Military career

Poster of "Grant from West Point to Appomattox."[edit]
Mexican War

Grant at the capture of the city of Mexico, painting by Emanuel Leutze.Grant served in the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, taking part in the battles of Resaca de la Palma, Palo Alto, Monterrey, and Veracruz. He was twice brevetted for bravery: at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec.


Between wars

The home of President Grant while he lived in Galena, Illinois.After the Mexican war ended in 1848, Grant remained in the army and was moved to several different posts. He was sent to Fort Vancouver in the Washington Territory in 1853, where he served as regimental quartermaster of the 4th U.S. Infantry regiment. His wife could not accompany him because his salary could not support a family (she was eight months pregnant with their second child) on the frontier. In 1854, he was promoted to captain and assigned to command Company F, 4th Infantry, at Fort Humboldt, California. Despite the increase in pay, he still could not afford to bring his family out West. He tried some business ventures while in California to supplement his income, but they failed. He started drinking heavily because of money woes and missing his wife. Because his drinking was having an effect on his military duties, he was given a choice by his superiors: resign his commission or face trial.[3] He resigned on July 31, 1854. Seven years of civilian life followed, in which he was a farmer and a real estate agent in St. Louis, Missouri, where he owned one slave (whom he let go free), a bill collector and finally an assistant in the leather shop owned by his father and brother in Galena, Illinois. The land and cabin where Grant lived in St. Louis is now an animal conservation reserve, Grant's Farm, owned and operated by the Anheuser-Busch Company.

Grant was nonpolitical, but in 1856 he voted for Democrat James Buchanan for president to avert secession and because "I knew Frémont" (the Republican candidate). In 1860, he favored Democrat Stephen A. Douglas but did not vote. In 1864, he allowed his political sponsor, Congressman Elihu B. Washburne, to use his private letters as campaign literature for the Union Party, which combined both Republicans and War Democrats. He refused to announce his politics until 1868, when he finally declared himself a Republican.[4]

Western Theater: 1861–63
Shortly after Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln put out a call for 75,000 volunteers. Grant helped recruit a company of volunteers, and despite declining the unit's captaincy, he accompanied it to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. Grant accepted a position offered by Illinois Governor Richard Yates to recruit volunteers, but he pressed for a field command on multiple occasions. The governor, recognizing that Grant was a West Point graduate, eventually appointed him Colonel of the undisciplined and rebellious 21st Illinois Infantry, effective June 17, 1861.

Although part of the Illinois militia, Grant was deployed to Missouri protect the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad from attacks that would interrupt the Pony Express mail service. At the time Missouri under Governor Claiborne Jackson had declared it was an armed neutral in the conflict and would attack troops from either side entering the state. By the first of August the Union army had forcibly removed Jackson and Missouri was formally a Union state -- although a state with many southern sympathizers.

On August 7, Grant was appointed brigadier general of volunteers, a decision by President Lincoln that was strongly influenced by Elihu Washburne's political clout. After first serving in a couple of lesser commands, at the end of the month, Grant was selected by Western Theater commander Major General John C. Frémont to command the critical District of Southeast Missouri.


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