Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and thereafter briefly served as U.S. Secretary of War. Later, as president, Grant was an effective civil rights executive who signed the bill that created the Justice Department and worked with Radical Republicans to protect African Americans during Reconstruction.

Born and raised in Ohio, Grant possessed an exceptional ability with horses. Admitted to West Point, Grant graduated in the class of 1843 and served with distinction in the Mexican–American War. He resigned from the army in 1854 but returned to civilian life impoverished. He joined the Union Army shortly after the American Civil War broke out in 1861 and rose to prominence after winning early Union victories in the western theater. In 1863, he led the Vicksburg campaign, which gained control of the Mississippi River, dealing a serious strategic blow to the Confederacy, splitting it in two. President Abraham Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general after his victory at Chattanooga. For thirteen months, Grant fought Robert E. Lee during the high-casualty Overland Campaign and at Petersburg. After Lee fled Petersburg, Grant surrounded and captured his army at Appomattox, where Lee formally surrendered to Grant. President Andrew Johnson promoted Grant to General of the Army in 1866. 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 crushed 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. The Panic of 1873 plunged the nation into a severe economic depression that allowed the Democrats to win the House majority. Grant's Native American policy was to assimilate Indians into White culture. His foreign policy was mostly peaceful, without war, the Alabama Claims against Great Britain skillfully resolved. However, his prized Caribbean Dominican Republic annexation was rejected by the Senate. The Grant administration was often remembered primarily for a number of scandals, but modern scholarship has better appreciated Grant's appointed reformers and prosecutions. In the intensely disputed 1876 presidential election, Grant facilitated the approval by Congress of a peaceful compromise.

Upon leaving the presidency, Grant undertook a world tour, becoming the first president to circumnavigate the world and meeting many prominent foreign leaders. In 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican presidential nomination for a third term. In the final year of his life, facing severe financial reversals and dying of throat cancer, he wrote his memoirs, which were published in two volumes in 1885 and 1886, shortly after Grant's death. They proved to be a major critical and financial success. At the time of his death, he was memorialized as a symbol of national unity. Grant was a modern general and has been called "a skillful leader who had a natural grasp of tactics and strategy". 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 were negative before beginning to recover in the 21st century. Grant's critics take a negative view of his economic mismanagement, his failed Dominican Republic annexation treaty, and corruption within his administration. Grant's admirers emphasize his peace policy with Native Americans, vigorous enforcement of civil and voting rights for African Americans, and securing North and South as a single nation within the Union.

Grant's father wrote to Representative Thomas L. Hamer requesting that he nominate Ulysses to the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York. Despite political differences with Jesse Root Grant, Hamer, a Democrat, nominated his 17-year-old son to West Point in spring 1839. Grant was accepted on July 1, although he doubted his academic abilities. Hamer, unfamiliar with Grant, submitted an incorrect name to West Point. On September 14, Grant was enlisted Cadet "U.S. Grant" at the national academy. His nickname at West Point became "Sam" among army colleagues since the initials "U.S." also stood for "Uncle Sam".

Initially, Grant was indifferent to military life, but within a year he reexamined his desire to leave the academy and later wrote that "on the whole I like this place very much". While at the academy, his greatest interest was horses, and he earned a reputation as the "most proficient" horseman. During the graduation ceremony, while riding York, a large and powerful horse that only Grant could manage, he set a high-jump record that stood for 25 years. Seeking relief from military routine, he studied under Romantic artist Robert Walter Weir, producing nine surviving artworks. He spent more time reading books from the library than his academic texts, including works by James Fenimore Cooper and others. On Sundays, cadets were required to march to and attend services at the academy's church, a requirement that Grant disliked. Quiet by nature, Grant established a few intimate friends among fellow cadets, including Frederick Tracy Dent and James Longstreet. He was inspired both by the Commandant, Captain Charles F. Smith, and by General Winfield Scott, who visited the academy to review the cadets. Grant later wrote of the military life, "there is much to dislike, but more to like."

Grant graduated on June 30, 1843, ranked 21st out of 39 in his class and was promoted the next day to the rank brevet second lieutenant. Small for his age at 17, he had entered the academy weighing only 117 pounds (53 kg) at 5 feet 2 inches (1.57 m) tall; upon graduation four years later he had grown to a height of 5 feet 7 inches (1.70 m). Grant planned to resign his commission after his four-year term of duty. He would later write to a friend that among the happiest days of his life were the day he left the presidency and the day he left the academy. Despite his excellent horsemanship, he was not assigned to the cavalry, but to the 4th Infantry Regiment. Grant's first assignment took him to the Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis, Missouri. Lt. Col. Robert C. Buchanan fined Grant wine bottles for Grant's late returns from White Haven. Commanded by Colonel Stephen W. Kearny, the barracks was the nation's largest military base in the West. Grant was happy with his new commander but looked forward to the end of his military service and a possible teaching career.