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Ulysses S. Grant, a symbol of
Union victory during the Civil War. |
Biography of Ulysses S. Grant
Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant
quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical
Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil
War, their logical candidate for President in 1868.
When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil.
Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction,
he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a
puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he
does not understand the terms."
Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West
Point rather against his will and graduated in the middle of his class.
In the Mexican War he fought under Gen. Zachary Taylor.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father's
leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor
to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Grant whipped it into shape
and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general
of volunteers.
He sought to win control of the Mississippi Valley. In February 1862
he took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donelson. When the Confederate
commander asked for terms, Grant replied, "No terms except an
unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." The Confederates
surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to major general
of volunteers.
At Shiloh in April, Grant fought one of the bloodiest battles in the
West and came out less well. President Lincoln fended off demands
for his removal by saying, "I can't spare this man--he fights."
For his next major objective, Grant maneuvered and fought skillfully
to win Vicksburg, the key city on the Mississippi, and thus cut the
Confederacy in two. Then he broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga.
Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March 1864. Grant directed
Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army
of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern
Virginia.
Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered.
Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent
treason trials.
As President, Grant presided over the Government much as he had run
the Army. Indeed he brought part of his Army staff to the White House.
Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant as President accepted
handsome presents from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen
with two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk. When Grant realized
their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized the Secretary
of the Treasury to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the
speculation had already wrought havoc with business.
During his campaign for re-election in 1872, Grant was attacked by
Liberal Republican reformers. He called them "narrow-headed men,"
their eyes so close together that "they can look out of the same
gimlet hole without winking." The General's friends in the Republican
Party came to be known proudly as "the Old Guard."
Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run its course in the South,
bolstering it at times with military force.
After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became a partner in a financial
firm, which went bankrupt. About that time he learned that he had
cancer of the throat. He started writing his recollections to pay
off his debts and provide for his family, racing against death to
produce a memoir that ultimately earned nearly $450,000. Soon after
completing the last page, in 1885, he died.
Source: The White House
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