Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant
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
Born	April 27, 1822(1822-04-27) Point Pleasant, Ohio
Died	July 23, 1885 (aged 63) Mount McGregor, New York
Birth name	Hiram Ulysses Grant
Nationality	American
Political party	Republican
Spouse(s)	Julia Dent Grant
Children	Jesse Grant, Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., Nellie Grant, Frederick Grant
Alma mater	United States Military Academy at West Point
Occupation	General-in-Chief
Religion	Methodist[1]
Signature
Military service
Nickname(s)	"Unconditional Surrender" Grant
Allegiance	United States of America Union
Service/branch	Union Army United States Army
Years of service	1839–1854, 1861–1869
Rank	General of the Army of the United States
Commands	21st Illinois Infantry Regiment Army of the Tennessee Military Division of the Mississippi Armies of the United States United States Army (postbellum)
Battles/wars	Mexican-American War Battle of Resaca de la Palma Battle of Palo Alto Battle of Monterrey Battle of Veracruz Battle of Molino del Rey Battle of Chapultepec American Civil War Battle of Fort Donelson Battle of Shiloh Siege of Vicksburg Battle of Chattanooga Overland Campaign Siege of Petersburg Appomattox Campaign

Ulysses Simpson Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant^[2]) (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was general-in-chief of the Union Army from 1864 to 1869 during the American Civil War and the 18th President of the United States from 1869 to 1877.

The son of an Appalachian Ohio tanner, Grant entered the United States Military Academy at age 17. In 1846, three years after graduating, Grant served as a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War under Winfield Scott and future president Zachary Taylor. After the Mexican-American War concluded in 1848, Grant remained in the Army, but abruptly resigned in 1854. After struggling through the succeeding years as a real estate agent, a laborer, and a county engineer, Grant decided to join the Northern effort in the Civil War.

Appointed brigadier general of volunteers in 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln, Grant claimed the first major Union victories of the war in 1862, capturing Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. He was surprised by a Confederate attack at the Battle of Shiloh; although he emerged victorious, the severe casualties prompted a public outcry. Subsequently, however, Grant's 1863 victory at Vicksburg, following a long campaign with many initial setbacks, and his rescue of the besieged Union army at Chattanooga, established his reputation as Lincoln's most aggressive and successful general. Named lieutenant general and general-in-chief of the Army in 1864, Grant implemented a coordinated strategy of simultaneous attacks aimed at destroying the South's armies and its economy's ability to sustain its forces. In 1865, after mounting a successful war of attrition against his Confederate opponents, he accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House.

Popular due to the Union victory in the war, Grant was elected President of the United States as a Republican in 1868 and re-elected in 1872, the first President to serve two full terms since Andrew Jackson 40 years before. As President, Grant led Reconstruction by signing and enforcing Congressional civil rights legislation. Grant built a powerful, patronage-based Republican Party in the South, straining relations between the North and former Confederates. His administration was marred by scandal, sometimes the product of nepotism; the neologism Grantism was coined to describe political corruption.

Grant left office in 1877 and embarked upon a two-year world tour. Unsuccessful in winning the nomination for a third term in 1880, left destitute by a fraudulent investor, and near the brink of death, Grant wrote his Memoirs, which were enormously successful among veterans, the public, and critics. However, in 1884, Grant learned that he was suffering from terminal throat cancer and, two days after completing his writing, he died at the age of 63. Presidential historians typically rank Grant in the lowest quartile of U.S. presidents for his tolerance of corruption, but in recent years his reputation has improved among some scholars impressed by his support for civil rights for African Americans.^[3]

Early life and family

Ulysses Grant birthplace, Point Pleasant, Ohio

Ulysses S. Grant boyhood home, Georgetown, Ohio

Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, to Jesse Root Grant (1794–1873), a tanner, and Hannah Simpson Grant (1798–1883), both Pennsylvania natives.^[4] At birth, Grant was named Hiram Ulysses.^[5] In the fall of 1823, the family moved to the village of Georgetown in Brown County, Ohio.^[2]

Education and the Mexican-American War

At the age of 17, Grant entered the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York, after securing a nomination through his U.S. Congressman, Thomas L. Hamer, who erroneously nominated him as "Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio."^[6] Grant adopted the form of his new name with middle initial only.^[7] Because "U.S." also stands for "Uncle Sam," Grant's nickname became "Sam" among his army colleagues. He graduated from USMA in 1843, ranking 21st in a class of 39. At the academy, he established a reputation as a fearless and expert horseman. Although this made him seem a natural for cavalry, he was assigned to duty as a regimental quartermaster, managing supplies and equipment.

Mexican–American War

Grant from West Point to Appomattox, an 1885 engraving by Thure de Thulstrup. Clockwise from lower left: Graduation from West Point (1843); In the tower at Chapultepec (1847); Drilling his Volunteers (1861); The Battle of Fort Donelson (1862); The Battle of Shiloh (1862); The Siege of Vicksburg (1863); The Battle of Chattanooga (1863); Appointment as Commander-in-Chief by Abraham Lincoln (1864); The Surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House (1865)

Lieutenant Grant served in the Mexican–American War (1846–1848) under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, where, despite his assignment as a quartermaster, he got close enough to the front lines to see action, participating in the battles of Resaca de la Palma, Palo Alto, Monterrey (where he volunteered to carry a dispatch on horseback through a sniper-lined street), and Veracruz. During one battle, Grant saw Fred Dent, his friend, later to become his brother-in-law, lying in the middle of the battlefield; he had been shot in the leg. Grant ran furiously into the open to rescue Dent; as they were making their way to safety, a Mexican soldier was sneaking up behind Grant, but the Mexican was shot by a fellow U.S. soldier. Grant was twice brevetted for bravery: at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. He was a remarkably close observer of the war, learning to judge the actions of colonels and generals. In the 1880s, he wrote that the war was unjust, accepting the theory that it was designed to gain land open to slavery. He wrote in his memoirs about the war against Mexico: "I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day, regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation."^[8]

Between wars

The Mexican-American War concluded on February 2, 1848.

On August 22, 1848, Grant married Julia Boggs Dent (1826–1902), the daughter of a slave owner.^[9] Together, they had four children: Frederick Dent Grant, Ulysses S. "Buck" Grant, Jr. , Ellen Wrenshall "Nellie" Grant, and Jesse Root Grant.

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 quartermaster of the 4th Infantry Regiment. His wife, eight months pregnant with their second child, could not accompany him because his salary could not support a family on the frontier. In 1854, Grant was promoted to captain, one of only 50 still on active duty, and assigned to command Company F, 4th Infantry, at Fort Humboldt, California. Grant abruptly resigned from the Army with little notice on July 31, 1854, offering no explanation for his decision. Rumors persisted in the Army for years that his commanding officer, Bvt. Lt. Col. Robert C. Buchanan, found him intoxicated on duty as a pay officer and offered him the choice between resignation or court-martial.^[10] However, the War Department stated, "Nothing stands against his good name."

At age 32, Grant struggled through seven lean years. From 1854 to 1858, he labored on a family farm near St. Louis, Missouri, using slaves owned by his father-in-law, but it did not prosper. Grant acquired one of those slaves in 1858 (and manumitted him the next year, when the Grants returned to Illinois) and his wife owned four slaves.^[11] From 1858–1859, he was a bill collector in St. Louis. Failing at everything, he asked his father for a job, and in 1860 was made an assistant in the leather shop owned by his father in Galena, Illinois. Grant & Perkins sold harnesses, saddles, and other leather goods and purchased hides from farmers in the prosperous Galena area.^[12]

Hardscrabble house at the Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site in St. Louis, Missouri

Although Grant was not affiliated with any political party, his father-in-law was a prominent Democrat in St. Louis, a fact that lost Grant the job of county engineer in 1859. 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 Abraham Lincoln^[13] and the Union Party, which combined both Republicans and War Democrats. Grant announced his affiliation as a Republican in 1868, after years of apoliticism.^[14]

Civil War

Western Theater: 1861–63

The home of President Grant while he lived in Galena, Illinois.

Shortly after Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln put out a call for 75,000 militia volunteers. Grant helped recruit a company of volunteers and accompanied it to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. Grant accepted a position offered by Illinois Governor Richard Yates to recruit and train volunteers, which he accomplished with efficiency. Grant pressed for a field command; Yates appointed him a colonel in the Illinois militia and gave him command of the undisciplined and rebellious 21st Illinois Infantry in June 1861.

Grant was deployed to Missouri to protect the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad. Under pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Jackson, Missouri had declared itself an armed neutral in the conflict, stating it would attack troops from either side entering the state. By August 1, the Union army had forcibly removed Jackson and Missouri was controlled by Union forces, who had to deal with numerous southern sympathizers.

In August, Grant was appointed brigadier general of the militia volunteers by Lincoln, who had been lobbied by Congressman Elihu Washburne. At the end of August, Grant was selected by Western Theater commander Major General John C. Frémont to command the critical District of Southeast Missouri.

Battles of Belmont, Henry, and Donelson

Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant photographed at Cairo, Illinois on September 4, 1861

Grant's first major strategic act of the war was to take the initiative in seizing the Ohio River town of Paducah, Kentucky, immediately after the Confederates violated the state's neutrality by occupying Columbus. He fought his first battle, an indecisive action against Confederate Brig. Gen. Gideon J. Pillow, at Belmont, Missouri, in November 1861. Three months later, aided by Andrew H. Foote's Navy gunboats, he captured two major Confederate fortresses, Fort Henry on the Tennessee River and Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. At Donelson, his army was hit by a surprise Confederate attack (again by Pillow) while he was temporarily absent. Displaying the cool determination that would characterize his leadership in future battles, he organized counterattacks that carried the day. Both General Floyd and Pillow, the two senior Confederate commanders fled. The Confederate commander, Brig. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, an old friend of Grant's and a West Point classmate, and senior commander with Floyd and Pillow fleeing, yielded to Grant's conditions of "no terms except unconditional and immediate surrender." Buckner's surrender of over 12,000 men made Grant a national figure almost overnight, and he was nicknamed "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. The captures of the two forts with over 12,000 prisoners were the first major Union victories of the war, gaining him national recognition. Desperate for generals who could fight and win, Lincoln promoted him to major general of volunteers. Although Grant's new-found fame did not seem to affect his temperament, it did have an impact on his personal life. At one point during the Civil War, a picture of Grant with a cigar in his mouth was published. He was then inundated with cigars from well wishers. Before that he had smoked only sporadically, but he could not give them all away, so he took up smoking them, a habit which may have contributed to the development of throat cancer later in his life; one story after the war claimed that he smoked over 10,000 in five years.

Despite his significant victories (or perhaps because of them), Grant fell out of favor with his superior, Major General Henry W. Halleck. Halleck had a particular distaste for drunks and, believing Grant was an alcoholic, was biased against him from the beginning. After Grant visited Nashville, Tennessee where he met with Halleck's rival, Don Carlos Buell, Halleck used the visit as an excuse to relieve Grant on March 4 of field command of a newly launched expedition up the Tennessee River. However, Halleck soon restored Grant to field command of the expedition (personal intervention by President Lincoln may have been a factor), and on March 17 he joined his army at Savannah. ^[15] At this juncture, Grant's command was known as the Army of West Tennessee; soon, however, it would acquire its more famous name as the Army of the Tennessee.

Shiloh

General Grant at Cold Harbor, photographed by Mathew Brady in 1864

Eventually, most of Grant's expedition was staged at Pittsburg Landing, Tennessee, nine miles south of Savannah, on the western side of the Tennessee River. On April 6, those troops were surprised by Confederate generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard in the Battle of Shiloh. The violence of the Confederate attack sent the Union forces reeling; nevertheless, after hastening to Pittsburg Landing from Savannah, Grant refused to retreat. With grim determination, he stabilized his line. Then, on the second day, with the help of reinforcements, Grant counterattacked and turned a serious reverse into a victory.

The victory at Shiloh came at a heavy price; with approximately 12,000 casualties to each side, it was the bloodiest battle in the history of the United States to that time and had unpleasant repercussions for Grant. As previously planned, Grant's superior in the Department of the Mississippi, Henry Halleck, arrived at Pittsburg Landing to take personal command in the field, whereupon he proceeded to organize a 100,000-man army, dividing it into three corps and a reserve, in order to mount a campaign to capture Corinth, Mississippi. Initially, Grant was to command the right wing (First Corps).^[16] However, on April 30, perhaps in response to the surprise and disorganized nature of the Shiloh fighting and the ensuing criticism of Grant, Halleck assigned Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas to command the right wing and gave Grant the position of second-in-command of the entire 100,000-man force. Grant became very dissatisfied with this arrangement, which he complained was a censure and akin to an arrest.^[17] Accordingly, he explored the possibility of obtaining an assignment elsewhere and might have left the Army altogether after the Union forces occupied Corinth on May 30. The intervention of his subordinate and good friend, William T. Sherman, caused him to remain.^[18] He was thus in position to play an increasingly important role in the West when, in July 1862, Halleck was promoted to general-in-chief of the Union Army and recalled to Washington.^[19] That fall, Grant had overall command of the Union forces for the battles of Iuka and Corinth, although the fighting in those battles fell mostly to Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans.

Vicksburg

In an attempt to capture the Mississippi River fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Grant spent the winter of 1862–1863 conducting a series of operations to gain access to the city through the region's bayous, which ended in failure. One newspaper complained that "[t]he army was being ruined in mud-turtle expeditions, under the leadership of a drunkard, whose confidential adviser [Sherman] was a lunatic."^[20]

However, his strategy to take Vicksburg in 1863 is considered one of the most masterful in military history. Grant marched his troops down the west bank of the Mississippi and crossed the river by using United States Navy ships that had run the guns at Vicksburg. There, he moved inland and—in a move that defied conventional military principles—cut loose from most of his supply lines.^[21] Operating in enemy territory, Grant moved swiftly, never giving the Confederates, under the command of John C. Pemberton, an opportunity to concentrate their forces against him. Grant's army went eastward, captured the city of Jackson, and severed the rail line to Vicksburg.

Grant and Pemberton at Vicksburg

Knowing that the Confederates could no longer send reinforcements to the Vicksburg garrison, Grant turned west and won the Battle of Champion Hill. The Confederates retreated within their fortifications, and Grant promptly surrounded the city. Finding that assaults against the impregnable breastworks were futile, he settled in for a six-week siege. Cut off and with no possibility of relief, Pemberton surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863. It was a devastating defeat for the Southern cause, effectively splitting the Confederacy in two, and, in conjunction with the Union victory at Gettysburg the previous day, is widely considered the turning point of the war. For this victory, President Lincoln promoted Grant to the rank of major general in the regular army, effective July 4.

One historian with a military background has written that "we must go back to the campaigns of Napoleon to find equally brilliant results accomplished in the same space of time with such a small loss."^[22] Indeed, anticipating that Grant would soon capture Vicksburg, Abraham Lincoln declared that "if Grant only does this thing down there . . ., why, Grant is my man and I am his the rest of this war."^[23]

Chattanooga

After the Battle of Chickamauga Union Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans and his Army of the Cumberland retreated to Chattanooga, Tennessee. Confederate Braxton Bragg followed to Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, surrounding the Federals on three sides and besieging them. On October 17, to deal with this crisis, Grant was placed in command of the sweeping, newly-created Military Division of the Mississippi; this command placed Grant in overall charge of the previously independent Departments of the Ohio, the Cumberland (embracing Chattanooga), and the Tennessee. In taking this new command, Grant chose a version of the War Department's order that relieved Rosecrans from command of the Department of the Cumberland and replaced him with Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. Sherman succeeded Grant in charge of the Department of the Tennessee.^[24]

Grant went to Chattanooga personally to take charge of the situation. Devising a plan known as the "Cracker Line," Thomas's chief engineer, William F. "Baldy" Smith opened a new supply route to Chattanooga, helping to feed the starving men and animals of the Union army. Upon reprovisioning and reinforcement by elements of Sherman's Army of the Tennessee and troops from the Army of the Potomac under Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker, the morale of Union troops lifted. In late November, Grant went on the offensive.

The Battles for Chattanooga started out with Hooker's capture of Lookout Mountain on November 24 and with Sherman's failed attack on the Confederate right the following day. He occupied the wrong hill and then committed only a fraction of his force against the true objective, allowing them to be repulsed by one Confederate division. In response, Grant ordered Thomas to launch a demonstration on the center, which could draw defenders away from Sherman. Thomas's men made an unexpected but spectacular charge straight up Missionary Ridge and broke the fortified center of the Confederate line. Grant was initially angry at Thomas that his orders for a demonstration were exceeded, but the assaulting wave sent the Confederates into a head-long retreat, opening the way for the Union to invade Atlanta, Georgia, and the heart of the Confederacy. According to Hooker, Grant said afterward, "Damn the battle! I had nothing to do with it."^[25]

Grant's willingness to fight and ability to win impressed President Lincoln, who appointed him lieutenant general in the regular army—a rank not awarded since George Washington (or Winfield Scott's brevet appointment), recently re-authorized by the U.S. Congress with Grant in mind—on March 2, 1864. On March 12, Grant became general-in-chief of all the armies of the United States.

General-in-Chief and strategy for victory

"General Ulysses S. Grant at City Point in 1864 with his wife and son Jesse."

In March 1864, Grant placed Major General William T. Sherman in immediate command of all forces in the West and moved his headquarters to Virginia, where he turned his attention to the long-frustrated Union effort to destroy the Army of Northern Virginia; his secondary objective was to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, but both Grant and President Lincoln understood that the latter would ensue, once the former was accomplished. Grant, following Lincoln's suggestions, devised a coordinated strategy that would strike at the heart of the Confederacy from multiple directions: Grant, George G. Meade, and Benjamin Franklin Butler against Lee near Richmond; Franz Sigel in the Shenandoah Valley; Sherman to invade Georgia, defeat Joseph E. Johnston, and capture Atlanta; George Crook and William W. Averell to operate against railroad supply lines in West Virginia; and Nathaniel Banks to capture Mobile, Alabama. Grant, under President Lincoln's supervision and guidance, was the first general to attempt such a coordinated strategy in the war and the first to understand the concepts of total war, in which the destruction of an enemy's economic infrastructure that supplied its armies was as important as tactical victories on the battlefield.

Overland Campaign, Petersburg, and Appomattox

Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant

The Overland Campaign was the military thrust needed by the Union to defeat the Confederacy; it pitted Grant against Robert E. Lee. It began on May 4, 1864, when the Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapidan River, marching into an area of scrubby undergrowth and second growth trees known as the Wilderness. It was such difficult terrain that the Army of Northern Virginia was able to use it to prevent Grant from fully exploiting his numerical advantage.

The Battle of the Wilderness was a stubborn, bloody two-day fight, resulting in advantage to neither side, but with heavy casualties to both. After similar battles in Virginia against Lee, all of Grant's predecessors had retreated from the field. Grant ignored the setback and ordered an advance around Lee's flank to the southeast, which lifted the morale of his army. Grant's strategy was not just to win individual battles, it was to fight constant engagements to wear down and destroy Lee's army.

Sigel's Shenandoah campaign and Butler's James River campaign both failed. Lee was able to reinforce with troops used to defend against these assaults.

The campaign continued. Confederate troops beat the Union to Spotsylvania, Virginia, where, on May 8, the fighting resumed. The Battle of Spotsylvania Court House lasted 14 days. On May 11, Grant wrote a famous dispatch containing the line "I propose to fight it out along this line if it takes all summer". These words summed up his attitude about the fighting, and the next day, May 12, he ordered a massive assault by Hancock's 2nd Corps that broke a portion of Lee's line, captured 30 artillery pieces, took 4,000 prisoners, and broke forever the famous Stonewall Division. In spite of mounting Union casualties, the contest's dynamics changed in Grant's favor. Most of Lee's great victories in earlier years had been won on the offensive, employing surprise movements and fierce assaults. Now, he was forced to continually fight on the defensive without a chance to regroup or replenish against an opponent that was well supplied and had superior numbers. The next major battle, however, demonstrated the power of a well-prepared defense. Cold Harbor was one of Grant's most controversial battles, in which he launched on June 3 a massive three-corps assault without adequate reconnaissance on a well-fortified defensive line, resulting in horrific casualties (3,000–7,000 killed, wounded, and missing in the first 40 minutes, although modern estimates have determined that the total was likely less than half of the famous figure of 7,000 that has been used in books for decades; as many as 12,000 for the day, far outnumbering the Confederate losses). Grant said of the battle in his memoirs "I have always regretted that the last assault at Cold Harbor was ever made. I might say the same thing of the assault of the 22nd of May, 1863, at Vicksburg. At Cold Harbor no advantage whatever was gained to compensate for the heavy loss we sustained." But Grant moved on and kept up the pressure. He stole a march on Lee, when Union engineers had stealthfully constructed a pontoon bridge, allowing the Army of the Potomac to move southward across the James River on June 15, 1864.^[26]

Arriving at Petersburg, Virginia, first, Grant should have captured the rail junction city, but he failed because of the excessively cautious actions of his subordinate William Smith. Over the next three days, a number of Union assaults to take the city were launched. All failed, however, and finally on June 18, Lee's veterans arrived. Faced with fully manned trenches in his front, Grant was left with no alternative but to settle down to a siege.

As the summer drew on and with Grant's and Sherman's armies stalled, respectively in Virginia and Georgia, politics took center stage. There was a presidential election in the fall, and the citizens of the North had difficulty seeing any progress in the war effort. To make matters worse for Abraham Lincoln, Lee detached a small army under the command of Lieutenant General Jubal A. Early, hoping it would force Grant to disengage forces to pursue him. Early invaded north through the Shenandoah Valley and reached the outskirts of Washington, D.C.. Although unable to take the city, Early embarrassed the Administration simply by threatening its inhabitants, making Abraham Lincoln's re-election prospects even bleaker.

In early September, the efforts of Grant's coordinated strategy finally bore fruit. First, Sherman took Atlanta. Then, Grant dispatched Philip Sheridan to the Shenandoah Valley to deal with Early. It became clear to the people of the North that the war was being won, and Lincoln was re-elected by a wide margin. Later in November, Sherman began his March to the Sea. Sheridan and Sherman both followed Grant's strategy of total war by destroying the economic infrastructures of the Valley and a large swath of Georgia and the Carolinas.

General-in-Chief of the Union Army, Ulysses S. Grant in 1865.

In March 1865, Grant invited Lincoln to visit his headquarters at City Point, Virginia. By coincidence, Sherman (then campaigning in North Carolina) happened to visit City Point at the same time. This allowed for the war's only three-way meeting of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman.^[27] At the beginning of April, Grant's relentless pressure finally forced Lee to evacuate Richmond, and after a nine-day retreat, Lee surrendered his army at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. There, Grant offered generous terms that did much to ease the tensions between the armies and preserve some semblance of Southern pride, which would be needed to reconcile the warring sides. Within a few weeks, the American Civil War was effectively over; minor actions would continue until Kirby Smith surrendered his forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2, 1865.

Immediately after Lee's surrender, Grant had the sad honor of serving as a pallbearer at the funeral of his greatest champion, Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln had been quoted after the massive losses at Shiloh as saying, "I can't spare this man. He fights." It was a two-sentence description that completely caught the essence of Ulysses S. Grant.

Grant's fighting style was what one fellow general called "that of a bulldog". The term accurately captures his tenacity, but it oversimplifies his considerable strategic and tactical capabilities. Although a master of combat by outmaneuvering his opponent (such as at Vicksburg and in the Overland Campaign against Lee), Grant was not afraid to order direct assaults, often when the Confederates were themselves launching offensives against him. Such tactics often resulted in heavy casualties for Grant's men, but they wore down the Confederate forces proportionately more and inflicted irreplaceable losses. Many in the North denounced Grant as a "butcher" in 1864, an accusation made both by Northern civilians appalled at the staggering number of casualties suffered by Union armies for what appeared to be negligible gains, and by Copperheads, Northern Democrats who either favored the Confederacy or simply wanted an end to the war, even at the cost of recognizing Southern independence. Grant persevered, refusing to withdraw as had his predecessors, and Lincoln, despite public outrage and pressure within the government, stuck by Grant, refusing to replace him. Although Grant lost battles in 1864, he won all his campaigns.

Despite his reputation, deserved or not, as an uncaring butcher, Grant was always concerned about the sufferings of the wounded. Horace Porter who served with him, described a scene of a soldier dying beside a roadside during the battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse, and Grant's reaction as the dying young man was splattered with mud by a passing rider:

The general, whose eyes were at that moment turned upon the youth, was visibly affected. He reined in his horse, and seeing from a motion he made that he was intending to dismount to bestow some care upon the young man, I sprang from my horse, ran to the side of the soldier, wiped his face with my handkerchief, spoke to him, and examined his wound; but in a few minutes the unmistakable death rattle was heard, and I found he had breathed his last. I said to the general, who was watching the scene intently, 'The poor fellow is dead,' remounted my horse, and the party rode on.... There was a painfully sad look upon the general's face, and he did not speak for some time. While always sensitive to the sufferings of the wounded, this pitiful sight seemed to affect him more than usual.^[28]

Historian Michael Korda explained his strategic genius:^[29]

Grant understood topography, the importance of supply lines, the instant judgment of the balance between his own strengths and the enemy's weaknesses, and above all the need to keep his armies moving forward, despite casualties, even when things had gone wrong—that and the simple importance of inflicting greater losses on the enemy than he can sustain, day after day, until he breaks. Grant the boy never retraced his steps. Grant the man did not retreat—he advanced. Generals who do that win wars.

After the war, on July 25, 1866, Congress authorized the newly created rank of General of the Army of the United States, the equivalent of a full (four-star) general in the modern United States Army.^[30] Grant was appointed as such by President Andrew Johnson on the same day.

General Order No. 11 and antisemitism

Allegations of antisemitism -- "a blot on Grant's reputation" ^[31] -- arose in the wake of the infamous General Order No. 11, issued by Grant in Oxford, Mississippi, on December 17, 1862, during the Vicksburg Campaign. The order stated in part:

The Jews, as a class, violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department, and also Department orders, are hereby expelled from the Department (comprising areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky).

The New York Times denounced the order as "humiliating" and a "revival of the spirit of the medieval ages." Its editorial column called for the "utter reprobation" of Grant's order.^[32] After protest from Jewish leaders, the order was rescinded by President Lincoln on January 3, 1863.^[33] Though Grant initially maintained that a staff officer issued it in his name, it was suggested by General James H. Wilson that Grant may have issued the order in order to strike indirectly at the "lot of relatives who were always trying to use him" (for example his father Jesse Grant who was in business with Jewish traders), and perhaps struck instead at what he maliciously saw as their counterpart — opportunistic traders who were Jewish.^[34] Bertram Korn suggests the order was part of a consistent pattern. "This was not the first discriminatory order [Grant] had signed [...] he was firmly convinced of the Jews' guilt and was eager to use any means of ridding himself of them."^[35] During the campaign of 1868, Grant admitted the order was his, but maintained, "It would never have been issued if it had not been telegraphed the moment it were penned, and without reflection." ^[36]

The order, ostensibly in response to illegal Southern cotton smuggling, has been described by one modern historian as "the most blatant official episode of anti-Semitism in nineteenth-century American history."^[37]

Antisemitism became an issue during the 1868 presidential campaign. Though Jewish opinion was mixed, Grant's determination to "woo" Jewish voters ultimately resulted in his capturing the majority of that vote, though "Grant did lose some Jewish votes as a result of" the order.^[38] Grant appointed more Jewish persons to public office than any president before him.^[39] Although Grant's order was anti-Jewish, Grant had many Jewish friends. One such friend was Joseph Seligman, whom Grant offered the position as Secretary of the Treasury, which Seligman declined. Seligman had helped finance the Union war effort by obtaining European capital.^[40]

1868 presidential campaign

This is an 1868 presidential campaign poster for Ulysses S. Grant, created by superimposing a portrait of Grant onto the platform of the Republican Party.

As commanding general of the army, Grant had a difficult relationship with President Andrew Johnson, a Southern Democrat, who preferred a moderate approach to relations with the South. Johnson tried to use Grant to defeat the Radical Republicans by making Grant the Secretary of War in place of Edwin M. Stanton, whom he could not remove without the approval of Congress under the Tenure of Office Act. Grant refused but kept his military command. This made him a hero to the Radical Republicans, who gave him the Republican nomination for president in 1868. He was chosen as the Republican presidential candidate at the 1868 Republican National Convention in Chicago; he faced no significant opposition. In his letter of acceptance to the party, Grant concluded with "Let us have peace," which became his campaign slogan. In the general election of that year, Grant won against former New York Governor Horatio Seymour with a lead of 300,000 votes out of a total of 5,716,082 votes cast. However, Grant commanded an Electoral College landslide, receiving 214 votes to Seymour's 80. When he assumed the presidency, Grant had never before held elected office and, at the age of 46, was the youngest person yet elected president.

Presidency 1869–1877

The second President from Ohio, Grant was elected the 18th President of the United States in 1868, and was re-elected to the office in 1872. Grant served as President from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877. In his re-election campaign, Grant benefited from the loyal support of Harper's Weekly political cartoonist Thomas Nast and later sent Nast a deluxe edition of Grant's autobiography when it was finished.^[41] Grant's notable accomplishments as President include the enforcement of Civil Rights to African Americans, the Treaty of Washington in 1871, and the Resumption of Specie Act in 1875. At the same time Grant's reputation as President suffered from scandals caused by many of his political appointees and personal associates.

Cartoon by Thomas Nast on Grant's opponents in the re-election campaign

Domestic policies

Reconstruction

Grant presided over the last half of Reconstruction. In the late 1870s, he watched as the Democrats (called Redeemers) took the control of every state away from his Republican coalition. When urgent telegrams from state leaders begged for help to put down the waves of violence by paramilitary groups surrounding elections, Grant and his Attorney General replied that "the whole public is tired of these annual autumnal outbreaks in the South,"^[42] saying that state militias should handle the problems, not the Army.

He supported amnesty for former Confederates and signed the Amnesty Act of 1872 to further this.^[43] He favored a limited number of troops to be stationed in the South—sufficient numbers to protect Southern African Americans, suppress the violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and prop up Republican governors, but not so many as to create resentment in the general population. Grant confronted a Northern public tired of committing to the long war in the South, violent paramilitary organizations in the late 1870s, and a factional Republican Party.

Civil and human rights

A distinguishing characteristic in the Grant Presidency was Grant's concern with the plight of African Americans and native Indian tribes. Grant's 1868 campaign slogan, "Let us have peace," defined his motivation and assured his success. As president for two terms, Grant made many advances in both civil and human rights. He won passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave freedmen the vote, and the Ku Klux Klan Act, which empowered the president "to arrest and break up disguised night marauders." He pressed for the former slaves to be "possessed of the civil rights which citizenship should carry with it."^[44] In 1869 and 1871, Grant signed bills promoting voting rights and prosecuting Klan leaders and later signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875^[45], which entitled equal treatment in public accommodations and jury selection. The Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, establishing voting rights, was ratified in 1870. While these were used to effectively suppress the Klan, by 1874 a new wave of paramilitary organizations arose in the Deep South. The Red Shirts and White League, that conducted insurgency in Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana, operated openly and were better organized than the Ku Klux Klan had been. They aimed to turn Republicans out of office, suppress the black vote, and disrupt elections.

Grant also created the Office of Solicitor General to aid the attorney general Amos T. Akerman and appointed Benjamin H. Bristow to the post. Both Akerman and Bristow vigorously prosecuted Ku Klux Klan members in the early 1870s. The first few years of Grants first term in office there were 1000 indictments against Klan members with over 550 convictions from the new office establish by Congress, the Department of Justice. By 1871, there were 3000 indictments and 600 convictions, most only serving brief sentences while the ringleaders were imprisoned for up to five years in the federal penitentiary located in Albany, New York. The result was a dramatic decrease in violence in the South. Akerman gave credit to Grant and even told a friend that no one was "better" or "stronger" then Grant when it came to prosecuting terrorists.^[46][47]

Grant's attempts to provide justice to Native Americans marked a radical reversal of what had long been the government's policy: "Wars of extermination... are demoralizing and wicked," he told Congress. The president lobbied, though not always successfully, to preserve Native American lands from encroachment by the westward advance of pioneers.^[44]

Recent historians have emphasized Grant's commitment to protecting Unionists and freedmen in the South until 1876. Grant's commitment to African American civil rights was demonstrated by his address to Congress in 1875 and by his attempt to use the annexation of Santo Domingo as leverage to force white supremacists to accept blacks as part of the Southern political polity. Grant also advocated that African Americans enter the West Point Academy. However, Grant failed in 1870 and 1871 to protect the first African American West Point Academy cadet, James Albert Smith, from racist hazing by other cadets. This lack of protection was influenced by Frederick Dent Grant, Grant's son, then a West Point cadet, who participated in the hazing against Smith.^[48]

Civil service reform

Grant was the first U.S. President to recommend a professional civil service, pushed the initial legistation through Congress, and appointed the members for the first Civil Service Commission.^[49] The temporary Commission recommended administering competitive exams and issuing regulations on the hiring and promotion of government employees. Grant put their recommendations in effect in 1872. However, Congress denied any long-term reform by refusing to enact the necessary legislation to make the changes permanent.^[50]

The movement for Civil Service reform was the growth of the National Government after the American Civil War and reflected two distinct objectives: to eliminate the inefficiencies in a non professional bureaucracy, and to check the power of (President) Andrew Johnson. Although many reformers after the Election of 1868, looked to Grant to ram Civil Service legislation through Congress, what they got was a pragmatist. Unlike many reformers, Grant did not confuse patronage with corruption. Grant believed that Civil Service reform rested entirely with Congress.

"Civil Service Reform rests entirely with Congress. If members will give up claiming patronage, that will be a step gained. But there is an immense amount of human nature in the members of Congress, and it is human nature to seek power and use it to help friends. You cannot call it corruption-it is a condition of our representative form of Government."

According to Jean Edward Smith, a Grant historian, President Grant believed deeply in reform but was not sanctimonious about it. Grant accepted patronage as a fixture in Washington but sought to minimize its effects.^[49] President Grant instinctively protected those whom he thought were the victims of injustice, even if those persons were at fault. Grant believed in loyalty with his friends, as one writer called it the "Chivalry of Friendship". It was more important for Grant to be loyal to a friend then letting his Presidency suffer in reputation. Loyalty from the bottom up also demanded loyalty from the top down.^[49]

Panic of 1873

The Panic of 1873 was an international depression that was caused by overspeculation in the railroad industry. Prior to the Panic of 1873 the U.S. economy was in good standings. Eight years after the Civil War had brought thousands of miles of railroad construction, thousands of factories opened, and a strong stock market. Even the South experienced a boom in agriculture. However, all of this growth was done on borrowed money by many banks in the United States having over speculated in the Railroad industry by as much as $20,000,000 in loans ($371,212,068.97 CPI for year 2008).^[51] Initially, the panic started when the stock market in Vienna, Austria crashed, in June 1873. Unsettling markets soon spread to Berlin, Germany and throughout Europe. The panic eventually reached the shores of the United States when two major banks went bankrupt, the New York Warehouse & Security Company (September 17) and Jay Cooke & Company (September 18). The depression lasted 5 years, ruined thousands of businesses, depressed wages, and the unemployment rate went up to 14%. It would take decades before wages would rise to pre-1873 levels.^[52][53]

The Grant Administration only responded to the panic after the two major banks went broke, even though there was three months to prepare for the oncoming crisis. Grant’s Secretary of Treasury William A. Richardson did not take any financial actions to curb the panic until Saturday, September 20, 1873 when the Secretary bought $2,500,000 of five-twenty bonds with gold. On Monday, September 22, Richardson bought $3,000,000 of bonds with legal tender notes or greenbacks and purchased $5,500,000 in legal tender certificates. From September 24 to September 25 the Treasury department bought $24,000,000 of bonds and certificates with greenbacks. On September 29 the Secretary prepaid the interest on $12,000,000 bonds bought from security banks. These actions prevented more panic among depositors and curbed the general alarm to some extent. However, much of this limited relief was done after two major banks crashed. Had these actions been done even a week earlier it may have prevented Jay Cook & Company from going bankrupt. Also, the greenbacks that were dispersed into the market for commercial banking relief by Richardson were horded by private individuals and the banks.^[53][54]

From October, 1873 to January 4, 1874 Richardson printed and reissued a total of $26,000,000 greenbacks to the public in order to make up for lost revenue in the Treasury. In other words he inflated the economy, on his own, with the permission from Grant. There was question as to the legality of such actions by the Secretary from Senator John Sherman. Senator George S. Boutwell, the previous Secretary of Treasury believed Richardson's actions were legal. However, the money distributed by the Secretary was horded by the public and the banks. It was believed at that time much more green backs were needed to stimulate the economy.^[55]

The Grant administration, however, was culpable for not responding to the crisis soon enough and did not take adequate measures to reduce the negative effects of the general panic. The government’s ultimate failure was in not reestablishing confidence in the businesses that had been the source of distrust. All the money put into the market by Secretary Richardson did not produce the confidence needed to stop the panic. The Panic of 1873 eventually ran its own course in spite of all the efforts from the government. Another contributing factor to the Panic of 1873 was nine months of unsettled markets due to money stringency created by previous Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell in fall of 1872. Boutwell had lessened the money by selling more gold then he bought bonds, giving businesses less currency to invest.^[53][54]

Economy

The Grant administration's first economic accomplishment was the signing of the Act to Strengthen the Public Credit which the Republican Congress had passed after Grant's inaugural in March 18, 1869. The act had the effect that the gold price on New York exchange fell to $130 per ounce, the lowest point since the suspension of specie payment in 1862.^[56]

As Jean Edward Smith notes in his 2002 biography on Grant, the presidential treasury secretary George S. Boutwell reorganized the United States Treasury by discharging unnecessary employees, started sweeping changes in Bureau of Printing and Engraving to protect the currency from counterfeiters and revitalized tax collections to hasten the collection of revenue. These changes soon led the Treasury having a monthly surplus.^[57] By May 1869, Boutwell reduced the national debt by $12 million. By September the national debt was reduced by $50,000,000, which was achieved by selling the growing gold surplus at weekly auctions for greenbacks and buying back wartime bonds with the currency. The public was very enthusiastic about Grant's appointment of Boutwell as Secretary of Treasury. The New York Tribune wanted the government to buy more bonds and greenbacks and the New York Times praised the Grant administration`s debt policy.^[57]

Political cartoon by Thomas Nast: Grant congratulated for vetoing the "inflation bill" on April 22, 1874

The first two years of the Grant administration with George Boutwell at the Treasury helm expenditures had been reduced to $292,177,188.77 in 1871. In comparison to the Andrew Johnson administration expenditures were $322,865,277.80 in 1869. The cost of collecting taxes was 3.11 percent in 1871. By comparison to the Andrew Johnson administration the cost of collecting taxes was 4.06 percent in 1868. Grant had also reduced the number of employees working in the government by 2,248 persons from 6,052 on March 1, 1869 to 3,804 on December 1, 1871. In addition, Grant had increased tax revenues coming into the government by $108,055,163 from 1869 to 1872. During Grant's first administration the national debt had been reduced by $333,976,916.39 from $2,525,463,260.01 on March 1, 1869 to $2,191,486,343.01 on July 1, 1872.^[58]

The rapidly accelarated industrial growth in post Civil War America and throughout the world came to a colossal crash with the Panic of 1873. Many banks over extended their loans and as a result went bankrupt causing a general panic throughout the nation. Secretary of Treasury William A. Richardson, in an attempt put capital into a stringent monetary economy, released $26,000,000 greenbacks. Congress, in 1874, debated the inflationary policy to stimulate the economy and passed the Inflation Bill of 1874 that would release an additional $18,000,000 greenbacks. Many farmers and working men in the South West were anticipating Grant to sign the bill in order to get the needed greenbacks to continue business. Eastern bankers favored a veto because their reliance on bonds and foreign investors. On April 22, 1874 Grant unexpectedly vetoed the bill, against the popular strategy of the Republican Party, on the grounds that it would destroy the credit of the nation. Initially Grant had favored the bill, but decided to veto after evaluating his own reasons for wanting to pass the bill.^[59] Although Grant vetoed the bill on strong economic grounds, it may have created the needed economic confidence in the South West.

On January 14, 1875 Ulysses S. Grant signed the Resumption of Specie Act, and could not have been more happier. He even wrote a note to Congress congratulating members on the passage of the act. The legislation was drafted by Ohio Republican Senator John Sherman, the brother to General William T. Sherman. This act provided that paper money in circulation would be exchanged for gold specie and silver coins and would be effective on January 1, 1879. The act also implemented that gradual steps would be taken to reduce that amount of greenbacks or paper money in circulation. At that time there were "paper coin" currency worth less than $1.00 and these would be exchanged for silver coins. The effect in essence was to stabilize the currency making the consumers money as "good as gold". In an age when there was no Federal Reserve system to control inflation, this act stabilized the economy. Grant considered it the hallmark of his Administration.^[60][61]

Foreign policies

Grant/Wilson campaign poster

Santo Domingo

President Grant proposed to annex the independent, former French colony, largely black nation of Santo Domingo. Not only did he believe that the island would be of use to the navy tactically, but he sought to use it as a bargaining chip. By providing a safe haven for the freedmen, Grant believed that the exodus of black labor would force Southern whites to realize the necessity of such a significant workforce and accept their civil rights. Sending African Americans to Santo Domingo to gain citizenship and employment had first been suggested by Thomas Jefferson in 1824.^[62] At the same time he hoped that U.S. ownership of the island would urge nearby Cuba to abandon slavery. The Senate refused to ratify it because of (Foreign Relations Committee Chairman) Senator Charles Sumner's strong opposition. Grant helped depose Sumner from the chairmanship, and Sumner supported Horace Greeley and the Liberal Republicans in 1872.

Cuban Insurrection

In 1869, Grant was urged by popular opinion to support rebels in Cuba with military assistance and give them U.S. diplomatic recognition. Grant and Fish instead attempted to use arbitration in Madrid, Spain with Daniel Sickles negotiating. Grant supported the rebels, but did not want to go to war with Spain. Grant and Fish wanted Cuban independence and to end slavery without U.S. military intervention or occupation. Fish, diligently, against popular pressure, was able to keep Grant from officially recognizing Cuban Independence because it would have endangered negotiations with Britain over the Alabama Claims.^[63]

The negotiations failed in Madrid, however, Grant and Fish did not succumb to popular pressure to go to war.^[64][65] Grant sent a message to Congress, written by Fish and signed by Grant, to urge not to officially recognize the Cuban revolt.^[63] War had been averted with Cuba and Spain. The United States, during the McKinley Administration, finally did go to War with Spain over Cuba in 1898, known as the Spanish-American War. Cuba was granted independence, however, the United States was granted the condition to keep U.S. military occupation. This upset many Cubans who wanted full independence as a nation.^[66] Currently, the United States, continues military occupation on Cuba at Guantanamo Bay Naval Station.^[67]

Treaty of Washington

Possibly the greatest achievement of the Grant Administration was the Treaty of Washington in 1871. Grant’s able Secretary of State Hamilton Fish had orchestrated many of the events leading up to the treaty. Previously, Secretary of State William H. Seward during the Andrew Johnson administration first proposed an initial treaty in regards to damages done to American merchants by three Confederate war ships, CSS Florida, CSS Alabama, and CSS Shenandoah made under English jurisdiction. These ships had inflicted tremendous damage to U.S. merchant ships during the Civil War with the result that relations between England and the United States was severely strained. An initial treaty was negotiated on April 1868 at a convention between U.S. representative Reverdy Johnson and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom William Gladstone’s Foreign Secretary Lord Clarendon. Andrew Johnson requested the treaty be submitted the following year to the U.S. Senate.^[68]

Confederate Warship

CSS Alabama

Active Service (1862-1864)

On April 1869, the U.S. Senate overwhelmingly rejected the Johnson-Claredon convention treaty on the grounds that there were no adequate reparations for the damages done to American merchant ships and the British did not have to admit any fault in the CSS Alabama matter. Negotiations for a new treaty began in January 1871 when England sent Sir John Rose to America to meet with Fish. A joint high commission was created on February 1871 in Washington D.C., consisting of representatives from both England and the United States. The commission created a treaty where an international Tribunal would settle the damage amounts and the English admitted regret, not fault, over the destructive actions of the Confederate war cruisers. President Grant approved and on May 24, 1871, the Senate ratified the Treaty of Washington.^[68]

The Tribunal meeting took place in Geneva, Switzerland. The U.S. was represented by Charles Francis Adams, one of five international arbitrators, and was counseled by William M. Evarts, Caleb Cushing, and Morrison R. Waite. The English arbitrator was Alexander Cockburn counseled by Sir Roundell Palmer. The American and British agents were J.C. Bancroft Davis and Lord Tenterton, respectively. At the end of the arbitration, on September 9 1871, the Tribunal awarded United States $15,500,000. Historian Amos Elwood Corning noted that the Treaty of Washington and arbitration “bequeathed to the world a priceless legacy”.^[68]

In addition to the $15,500,000 arbitration award, the monumental treay settled the following desputes with England and Canada:

• Ended immediate threat of war with England.
• Settled border dispute between U.S. and Canada.
• Settled disputes over fishing rights in the North Pacific.

The treaty triggered a movement for countries to seek alternatives to declaring war through arbitration and the codification of international law. These principles would be the motivating influences for further peace keeping institutions such as the Hague Conventions, the League of Nations, the World Court, and eventually the United Nations. The renowned scholar in international law, John Bassett Moorein, hailed the Treaty of Washington as "the greatest treaty of actual and immediate arbitration the world has ever seen."^[69]

Virginius incident

Emilio Castelar, Spanish Republic President

(1873-1874)

On October 31, 1873, an independent American steamer, Virginius, carrying war materials and men to aid the Cuban insurrection was intercepted and held captive in Santiago by a Spanish warship. Virginius was flying the United States flag and had an American registry. 53 of the passengers and crew, eight being United States citizens, were held prisoners and summarily were executed. The immediate impact of these events was an outcry for war with Spain in the United States. Many prominent men such as William M. Evarts, Henry Ward Beecher, and even Vice President Henry Wilson made impassioned speeches to go to war with Spain.^[70]

Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, although outraged over the incident kept a cool demeanor in the crisis. Upon investigating the incident Fish found out there was question over whether Virginius had the right to bear the United States flag. Fish informed Daniel Stickels, the U.S. Spanish ambassador, that reparations were demanded by Spain for this act of "peculiar brutality". The Spanish Rupublic's President, Emilio Castelar, expressed profound regret for the tragedy and was willing to make reparations through arbitration.^[70]

Fish finally met with the Spanish Ambassador to the United States, Senor Poly y Bernabe, in Washington D.C. and negotiated reparations. With President Grant's approval Spain was to surrender Virginius, make indemnity with the American slain surviving families, and salute the American flag. Spain made good on the reparations with the United States with the exception of saluting the American flag. U.S. Attorney General, George H. Williams, said that saluting the American flag was not necessary since Virginius, at the time of the incident, was not entitled to carry the flag or to have an American registry.^[70]

During the Virginius affair Grant and congress authorized Secretary of Navy George M. Robeson to get warships ready in case there was war with Spain. Robeson repaired 14-15 single-turreted monitors and got them ready for battle. Robeson also authorized the construction of 5 new double-turreted monitors by outside contractors, in response to a Spanish ironclad that was moored in New York harbor.^[71]

Liberian-Grebo war

United States Warship

USS Alaska

Active service (1868 - 1876)

Another notable foreign policy action under Grant was the settlement of the Liberian-Grebo War through the dispatching of USS Alaska to Liberia, where US envoy James Milton Turner, the first African American U.S. Ambassador, negotiated the incorporation of Grebo people into Liberian society and the ousting of foreign traders from Liberia. Grebo tribesmen, starting in September 1875, were rebelling against the Liberian government and threatening the safety of American and British missionaries. Turner informed Hamilton Fish at the U.S. State Department of the Grebo Rebellion and with Fish's prompt involvement got the full support from the U.S. government. Turner believed that a show of force was necessary to stop the Grebo tribesmen. Grant then issued orders to send the "man of war" USS Alaska to Cape Palmas, Liberia.^[72]

On February 3, 1876, USS Alaska, headed by Captain Alexander A. Semmes, pulled into Cape Palmas and immediately began talks with the Grebo tribesmen. Semmes agreed with Turner that a show of force was necessary and told the tribes men that the United States was determined to use the full extent of its power to defeat them. With USS Alaska in port and with the threat of further U.S. force from Semmes, the Grebos eventually signed a peace treaty with the Liberian government on March 1, 1876.^[72][73]

Scandals

President Grant with his wife, Julia, and son, Jesse, in 1872.

Grant's inability to establish personal accountability among his subordinates and cabinet members led to many scandals during his administration. His appointments of personal military friends or campaign contributors opened opportunities for corruption. Although Grant himself was not directly responsible for and did not profit from the corruption among subordinates, he was reluctant to believe friends could commit criminal activities. As a result, he failed to take any direct action and rarely reacted strongly after their guilt was established. Grant also protected close friends with Presidencial power and pardoned person's who were convicted in the Whiskey Ring scandal after serving a few months in prison.

Grant, often, would vigorously attack when critics complained, being very protective and defensive of his subordinates. Grant was weak in his selection of subordinates, many times favoring military associates from the war over talented and experienced politicians. He alienated party leaders by giving many posts to his friends and political contributors rather than supporting the party's needs. His failure to establish working political alliances in Congress allowed the scandals to spin out of control. At the conclusion of his second term, Grant wrote to Congress that "Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent." Nepotism was rampant. Around 40 family relatives financially prospered while Grant was President.^[74]

The following are summaries of the scandals of the Grant Administration in chronological order:

Black Friday

September 1869: Financial manipulators Jay Gould and Jim Fisk set up an elaborate scam to corner the gold market through buying up all the gold at the same time driving up the price. The plan was to keep the Government from selling gold, thus driving up the price of gold. President Grant and Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell found out about the gold market speculation and ordered the sale of $4,000,000 in gold on (Black) Friday, September 23. Gould and Fisk were thwarted and the price of gold dropped. However, the effects of releasing the gold by Boutwell were disastrous. Stock prices plunged and food prices dropped devastating farmers for years.^[75]

Emma silver mine

October 1871: American Ambassador to England, Robert C. Schenck, appointed by Grant, loaned his name and reputation to a fraudulent Emma Silver Mine in Utah. The result was that many misguided English speculators invested millions of pounds in a worthless mine. Senator William M. Stewart, Nevada, was also involved in the international debacle.^[76]

Crédit Mobilier

September 1872: Congressman Oakes Ames opened his financial notes and exposed the congressmen whom he had bribed with money or stocks in the Crédit Mobilier construction company, established 1864, for the Union Pacific. Congressman Ames was also chairman of the Crédit Mobilier company. The actual bribing and stock trades had been done in 1868. Vice President Schuyler Colfax, then Speaker of the House, was one of the many congressmen named, had received stocks from Ames and as a result had to be dropped from the 1872 presidential ticket. ^[77] Grant's replacement for Vice President, Henry Wilson, was also on the Ames list. Wilson returned the Crédit Mobiler stock he bought in his wife's name and was later exonerated by a House investigating committee.^[78] The Crédit Mobilier was also a front company for the Union Pacific that made $43,929,328.34 through fraudulent railroad stock speculations and exorbitant Government construction contracts.^[79]

Salary grab

March 1873: Congress voted themselves a pay raise and a $5,000 retroactive bonus. Newspapers exposed the new law and it was repealed in January 1874. ^[80]

Sanborn contracts

June 1874: Secretary of State William A. Richardson gave private contracts John D. Sanborn who in turn collected illegally withheld taxes for fees at inflated commissions. As a result, Richardson was forced to resign.^[81]

Pratt & Boyd

April 1875: It was discovered that Attorney General George H. Williams received a bribe through a $30,000 gift to his wife from a Merchant house company, Pratt & Boyd, in order to drop the case for fraudulent customhouse entries. Williams was forced to resign by Grant in 1875.^[82]

Whiskey ring

May 1875: Secretary of Treasury Benjamin H. Bristow discovered that millions of dollars of taxes were being funneled into an illegal ring from Whiskey manufactures. Prosecutions ensued and many were put in prison. Grant’s private Secretary Orville E. Babcock was indicted and later acquitted in trial.^[83] The Whiskey Ring was organized through out the United States and by 1875 it was a fully operating criminal association. The investigation and closure of the Whiskey Ring resulted in 230 indictments, 110 convictions, and $3,000,000 in tax revenues were returned to the Treasury Department.^[84]

Bogus agents

October 1875: The Secretary of Interior Columbus Delano, discovered to have taken bribes in order to secure fraudulent land grants, resigned from office on October 15, 1875.^[85]Fraud was rampant in the Patent Office. Fictitious clerks were earning money and other clerks were earning money without performing services. In the Department of Indian Affairs bogus agents known as "Indian Attorneys" were paid $8.00 a day plus expenses by the Native American tribes for sham representation in Washington, D.C. Grant's reforming replacement Secretary of Interior Zachariah Chandler in 1875 fired clerks in both the Patent Office and Department of Indian Affairs and also banned "Indian Attorneys" from Washington D.C.^[63]

Trading post ring

March 1876: It was discovered under House investigations that Secretary of War William W. Belknap was taking extortion money in exchange for allowing a trading post agent to remain in position at Fort Sill. Belknap was allowed to resign by President Grant and as a result was acquitted in a Senate impeachment trial .^[86]

Naval department ring

March 1876: The main charge against Robeson was giving lucrative contracts to a grain company in return for real estate, loans, and payment of debts. He may have used the kick back money to buy a summer vacation home.^[87] Also, a House investigating committee discovered the Secretary of Navy George M. Robeson had taken $15,000,000 in naval construction appropriations and had used the money to buy 18 home lots in Washington, D.C. Robeson was good at hiding his financial tracks and was exhonorated by the House investigation. ^[88]

Safe burglary conspiracy

September 1876: Orville E. Babcock was indicted in a Safe Burglary Conpiracy case when corrupt Washington D.C. contractors attempted to frame Columbus Alexander, who had particpated in their prosecution, by breaking into a safe and delivering evidence to his house. Babcock was aquitted.^[89]

Scandal cabinet and appointees

This is a summary list of presidential cabinet or appointees by Ulysses S. Grant who were either involved in scandals or criminal activity.

• Alfred Pleasanton, Internal Revenue Commissioner - (Unauthorized Tax Refund- 1869)
• Daniel Butterfield, Assistant Secretary of Treasury – (Black Friday- 1869)
• Robert C. Schenck, Ambassador to England - (Emma Silver Mine - 1871)
• Schuyler Colfax, Vice President - (Crédit Mobilier-1872)
• Henry Wilson, Vice President - (Crédit Mobilier-1872)
• William A. Richardson, Secretary of Treasury – (Sanborn Contracts- 1874)
• George H. Williams, Attorney General - (Pratt & Boyd- 1875)
• Columbus Delano, Secretary of Interior - (Bogus Agents - 1875)
• Orville E. Babcock, Private Secretary – (Whiskey Ring – 1875) (Safe Burglary Conspiracy - 1876)
• John McDonald, Internal Revenue Supervisor, St. Louis – (Whiskey Ring– 1875)
• William W. Belknap, Secretary of War – (Trading Post Ring- 1876)
• George M. Robeson, Secretary of Treasury – (Naval Department Ring- 1876)

Reforming cabinet members

Grant's cabinet fluctuated between reformers and those involved with political patronage or party corruption.^[90] Some notable reforming cabinet members were persons who had outstanding abilities and made many positive contributions to the administration. These members did not abide by or endorse the widespread practice of political or party patronage.

Hamilton Fish

Hamilton Fish

U.S. Secretary of State

(1869-1877)

Hamilton Fish was not seeking any office when his name was presented to the Senate for confirmation and even declined Grant’s offer to serve as United States Secretary of State. Grant, however, insisted that Fish be in his cabinet and had his name placed before the Senate where he was confirmed on March 17, 1869. According to Amos Elwood Corning in 1919, Fish's biographer, Fish was known as "a gentleman of wide experience, in whom the capacities of the organizer were happily united with a well balanced judgement and broad culture." After the confirmation Fish went immediately to work and collected, classified, indexed, and bound seven hundred volumes of correspondence of a malicious nature. He established a new indexing system that simplified retrieving information by clerks. Fish also created a rule that applicants for consulate had to take an official written examination in order to get an appointment. Previously, applicants were given positions on a patronage system solely on the recommendations of Congressmen and Senators. This raised the tone and efficiency of the consular service and if a Congressman or Senator objected, Fish could show them that the applicant did not pass the written test.^[63]

George S. Boutwell

George S. Boutwell

Secretary of Treasury

(1869-1873)

Another reforming cabinet member was United States Secretary of Treasury George S. Boutwell who was confirmed by the Senate on March 12, 1869. His first actions was to dismiss S.M. Clark, the chief of U.S. Bureau and Engraving, and set up a system of securing the plates that the paper money was printed on to prevent counterfeiting. Boutwell also set up a system to monitor the manufacturing of money to ensure nothing would be stolen. Boutwell prevented collusion in the printing of money by preparing sets of plates for a single printing, with the red seal being imprinted in the Treasury Bureau. It was also Boutwell who convinced Grant to have Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Alfred Pleasanton, removed for misconduct over approving a $600,000 tax refund. In addition to these measures Boutwell established a uniform mode of accounting at custom houses and ports.^[91]

Benjamin H. Bristow

Benjamin H. Bristow

Secretary of Treasury

(1874-1876)

Perhaps Grant's most popular cabinet reformer, Benjamin H. Bristow was appointed Secretary of Treasury in June 1874. Bristow had served ably as Solicitor General of the United States from 1870 to 1872 prosecuting many Ku Klux Klan's men who violated African American voting rights. Bristow was a "hard money man" and Grant felt that he owed the Kentuckian another cabinet position. The U.S. Treasury department had been in a state of corruption following William A. Richardson's "negligence, if not actual connivance" in the Sanborn contracts. The Treasury department was a prestigious appointment and offered Bristow an opportunity as a reformer to help the Republican Party restore strict moral standards. ^[92]

Immediately when Bristow assumed office he made an aggressive attack on corruption in the department. Bristow discovered that the Treasury was not receiving the full amount of tax revenue from whiskey distillers and manufactures from a number of cities out West, primarily in St. Louis, Missouri. Bristow discovered that the Government in 1874 alone was being defrauded by $1,200,000. More whiskey was being shipped then taxed and the profits from the untaxed liquor were being spread out in a ring that ultimately led to Grant's private secretary, Orville Babcock and Internal Revenue supervisor John McDonald in St. Louis. It was estimated that for the years 1871, 1872, and 1873 three times as much whiskey was shipped from St. Louis as paid in taxes. It is estimated that in St. Louis alone, during a six year period while Mcdonald was supervisor, $2,786,000 was defrauded from the Government. ^{[93] [94]}

Bristow's two aims included stopping the profiteering and punishing the ringleaders. On January 26, 1875 Bristow's first action was to break the ring by moving the Internal Revenue officers in various cites to different locations. This would keep the fraudulent officers off guard and allow investigators to uncover their misdeeds. Grant, who was initially in favor of moving the supervisors, rescinded the order on the grounds the February 15, 1875 implementation date would cause the ringleaders to cover their tracks and become suspicious. This action would later cause Grant to be accused of interfering with Bristow's investigation. Bristow, not defeated, was able to find the rings secrets by sending an agent, Myron Colony, and other spies to gather whiskey shipping and manufacturing information. In May 13, 1875, armed with enough information, Bristow struck hard at the ring, siezed the distillaries, and made hundreds of arrests. The Whiskey Ring ceased to exist.^[95] With the help of other reforming cabinet members Attorney General Edwards Pierrepont and Solicitor General Blueford Wilson, Bristow secured the indictment of three officials and a journalist in Saint Louis, and one official in Washington D.C.

At the end of the Whiskey Ring prosecutions in 1876 there were a total of 230 indictments, 110 convictions, and $3,000,000 in tax revenues were returned to the Treasury Department.^[96] Although, Bristow made historical significance and captured the attention of the nation, he made many political enemies for prosecuting the Whiskey Ring. These included political Republican bosses Oliver P. Morton, Roscoe Conkling, and James G. Blaine. Bristow resigned the Secretary of Treasury office in June 1876 in order to attempt an unsuccessful Republican Party presidential nomination.^[97][98] In addition to prosecuting the Whiskey Ring, Bristow also restored the heads of departments to auditors and controllers, rather then clerks. Bristow also fired hundreds of clerks, male and female, in order to match the payroll appropriations.^[99]

Zachariah Chandler

Zachariah Chandler

Secretary of Interior

(1875-1877)

In 1875, the U.S. Department of Interior was in serious disrepair with corruption and incompetence. The result was that United States Secretary of Interior Columbus Delano, having taken bribes in order to secure fraudulent land grants, was forced to resign from office on October 15, 1875.^[100] In a personal effort of reform Grant appointed Zachariah Chandler on October 19, 1875 to the position and he was confirmed as Secretary of the Interior by the Senate in December 1875. Chandler immediately went to work reforming the Interior Department by dismissing all the important clerks in the Patent Office. Chandler had discovered fictitious clerks were earning money and other clerks were earning money without performing services. Chandler also simplified the patent application procedure and as a result reduced costs.^[63]

Chandler next turned to the Department of Indian Affairs to reform. This department had more corruption then the Patent Office. President Grant was personally interested in this reform and ordered Chandler to fire everyone saying, "have those men dismissed by 3 o'clock this afternoon or shut down the bureau." Chandler did exactly as Grant had ordered. Chandler also banned the practice of Native American agents, known as "Indian Attorneys" being payed $8.00 a day plus expenses for supposedly representing their tribes in Washington. These bogus agents did nothing necessary to aid the Native Americans and induced the tribes into believing they were being represented in Washington, D.C.^[63]

John A.J. Creswell

John A.J. Creswell

U.S. Postmaster General

(1869-1874)

In December 1869, U.S. Postmaster General John A. J. Creswell made the recommendation to reorganize and increase the efficiency of the Special Agency service. He also wanted to establish the Mail service under the Union flag on the Atlantic coast. He asked for the total abolition of the franking privilege since it reduced the revenue receipts by five percent. The franking privilege allowed members of Congress to send mail at the government’s expense. The Congress member would put their signature on the corner of the envelope instead of using postage; as a result, no revenue would go into the Postal service.^[101]Cresswell went on to completely reorganize the Postal service with modernization and ingenuity. Creswell introduced the first American penny postcard in 1873 and greatly improved the transalantic mail service.^[102]

Vetoes

Grant vetoed more bills then any of his predecessors, a total of 93 vetoes, during the 41st through 44th Congresses. 45 were regular vetoes and 48 pocket vetoes. A pocket veto is one where the President does not sign while Congress is in session, making the veto permanent without Congress's constitutional ability to override with 2/3's majority, as with regular vetoes. Grant had 4 vetoes overridden by Congress.^[103]

Administration and Cabinet

Grant's second inauguration as President by Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase on March 4, 1873.

Only two of Grant's cabinet appointments lasted from 1869 to 1877. These include Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and Secretary of Navy George M. Robeson.

Supreme Court appointments

Grant appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:

• Edwin M. Stanton – 1869 (died before taking seat)
• William Strong – 1870
• Joseph P. Bradley – 1870
• Ward Hunt – 1873
• Morrison Remick Waite (Chief Justice) – 1874

States admitted to the Union

• Colorado – August 1, 1876

Government agencies instituted

• Department of Justice (1870)
• Office of the Solicitor General (1870)
• "Advisory Board on Civil Service" (1871); after it expired in 1873, it became the role model for the "Civil Service Commission" instituted in 1883 by President Chester A. Arthur, a Grant faithful. (Today it is known as the Office of Personnel Management.)
• Office of the Surgeon General (1871)
• Army Weather Bureau (currently known as the National Weather Service) (1870)

Legacy

Ely Spenser Parker was the first Native American to be appointed Commissioner of Indian Affairs(1869-1871)

The legacy of President Grant is one of American civil rights, international diplomacy, and scandals. In terms of civil rights Grant had urged the passing of the 15th Amendment and signed into law the Civil Rights Bill of 1875 that gave all citizens access to places of public enterprise. Grant defeated the Ku Klux Klan by sending in the military in order to vigorously enforce civil rights legislation passed by Congress. Also, while Grant was President the term he coined in the 1868 Presidential campaign “Let us have peace” did not ring hollow during Grant’s two terms as President. Two wars had been averted with England and Spain under the leadership of Grant’s Secretary of State Hamilton Fish and with the new concept of “International Arbitration”.

Finally, an examination of the many scandals shows that Grant was a reactionary President rather then proactive and that he failed to establish and enforce cabinet rules. Although Grant did not directly cause any of these scandals he never attempted to established strong ethical guidelines within his cabinet members, particularly with money matters. The enemies according to Grant were not those who committed the scandals, but rather the politicians who were against his own politics. Grant was very reluctant to prosecute those who were appointed by himself, and those whom were convicted were set free with presidential pardon after serving a brief time in prison. Grant's associations with these scandals have tarnished his personal reputation while President and ever afterward. By the end of Grant's second term the corruption in the Departments of Interior and Treasury were cleaned up by his appointed reforming cabinet members.

Although Grant did not display the eloquent genius of Abraham Lincoln, he managed to stabilize the country by enforcing civil rights legislation and by keeping the United States out of war with England, Spain, and Liberia with diplomacy and international arbitration. Grant’s economic struggles during his times in Missouri actually helped him achieve a common touch with the people and his generous treatment of Robert E. Lee at Appomattox helped give him popularity in the South. Through his support of civil and human rights and the "security of property" Grant attempted to restore his reputation and gain support within the Jewish community. Although Grant kept civil rights on the political agenda, the Republican party at the end of Grant's second term shifted to pursueing conservative fiscal policies. Grant was the first President to appoint a Seneca Indian, Do-Ne-Ho-Geh-Weh, name in English Ely Spenser Parker, as Commissioner of Indian Affairs in 1869.^[104] James Milton Turner was the first African American to be appointed an U.S. Ambassador position in 1871 by Grant.^[72]

Post-presidency

World tour 1877–1879

Ulysses S. Grant in his postbellum

After the end of his second term in the White House, Grant spent over two years traveling the world with his wife. He traveled first to Liverpool, England onboard the Pennsylvania class steamship SS Indiana, subsequently visiting Scotland and Ireland; the crowds were enormous. The Grants dined with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle and with Prince Bismarck in Germany. They also visited Russia, Egypt, the Holy Land, Siam (Thailand), and Burma. In Japan, they were cordially received by Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken at the Imperial Palace. Today in the Shibakoen section of Tokyo, a tree still stands that Grant planted during his stay.

In 1879, the Meiji government of Japan announced the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands. China objected, and Grant was asked to arbitrate the matter. He decided that Japan's claim to the islands was stronger and ruled in Japan's favor.

Grant returned to the United States from Japan on board the Pacific Mail steamship City of Tokio. That year, he was awarded an honorary doctorate from the University of Wisconsin Medical School.

Third term attempt in 1880

In 1879, the "Stalwart" faction of the Republican Party led by Senator Roscoe Conkling sought to nominate Grant for a third term as president. He counted on strong support from the business men, the old soldiers, and the Methodist church. Publicly Grant said nothing, but privately he wanted the job and encouraged his men.^[105] His popularity was fading however, and while he received more than 300 votes in each of the 36 ballots of the 1880 convention, the nomination went to James A. Garfield. Grant campaigned for Garfield, who won by a very narrow margin. Grant supported his Stalwart ally Conkling against Garfield in the battle over patronage in spring 1881 that culminated in Conkling's resignation from office.

Bankruptcy

Grant writing his memoirs.

In 1881, Grant purchased a house in New York City and placed almost all of his financial assets into an investment banking partnership with Ferdinand Ward, as suggested by Grant's son Buck (Ulysses, Jr.), who was having success on Wall Street. In 1884 Ward swindled Grant (and other investors who had been encouraged by Grant), bankrupted the company, Grant & Ward, and fled.

Last days

Grant appears on the U.S. $50 bill.

Grant learned at the same time that he was suffering from throat cancer. Today, it is believed that Grant suffered from a T₁N₁ carcinoma of the tonsillar fossa^[106]. Grant and his family were left destitute; at the time retired U.S. Presidents were not given pensions, and Grant had forfeited his military pension when he assumed the office of President. Grant first wrote several articles on his Civil War campaigns for The Century Magazine, which were warmly received. Mark Twain offered Grant a generous contract for the publication of his memoirs, including 75% of the book's sales as royalties.

It was not until 1958 that Congress, believing it inappropriate that a former President or his wife might be poverty-stricken, passed a bill granting them a pension, still in effect today.

Terminally ill, Grant finished his memoir just a few days before his death. The Memoirs sold over 300,000 copies, earning the Grant family over $450,000. Twain promoted the book as "the most remarkable work of its kind since the Commentaries of Julius Caesar." Grant's memoir has been regarded by writers as diverse as Matthew Arnold and Gertrude Stein as one of the finest works of its kind ever written.

Ulysses S. Grant died on Thursday, July 23, 1885, at the age of 63 in Mount McGregor, Saratoga County, New York. His body lies in New York City's Riverside Park, beside that of his wife, in Grant's Tomb, the largest mausoleum in North America. It was originally interred in a vault in the same park, which was used until the current mausoleum was built. The Ulysses S. Grant Memorial honors Grant.

Writings and speeches

{{cquote|The fact is I think I am a verb instead of a personal pronoun. A verb is anything that signifies to be; to do; or to suffer. I signify all three." Grant wrote this before his death ,due to throat cancer, while bearing the discomfort stoically at Mt. McGregor.^[107]

Cinema portrayals

Actors have played Ulysses S. Grant in 35 movies. Grant is third most popular President to be portrayed in movies, films, or cinema.^[110]

Portrayals include:^[111]

The Birth of a Nation, 1915 silent epic movie, played by Donald Crisp.

Only the Brave, 1930, played by Guy Oliver.

They Died with their Boots On, 1941, played by Joseph Crehen (uncredited).

The Horse Soldiers, 1959 John Wayne movie, played by Stan Jones.

How the West Was Won, 1962, played by Harry Morgan.

Lincoln, 1992, played by Rod Steiger.

Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, 2007, played by Senator Fred Thompson

Sherman's March, 2007, played by Harry Bulkeley.

Grant is often portrayed in cinema or mass media derogatorily and historically inaccurately.^{[citation needed]} One notable exception was by Kevin Kline in the 1999 film Wild, Wild, West. Kline consulted Grant scholar John Y. Simon for advice on how to play Grant, and portrays him as a formidable authority figure who has courage mixed with a hard-bitten sense of humor.^[112]

See also

American Civil War portal

United States Army portal

Military of the United States portal

• Grantism
• Grant's Farm
• History of the United States (1865–1918)
• List of American Civil War generals
• U.S. Grant Home, Galena, Illinois
• Ulysses S. Grant Memorial
• Western Theater of the American Civil War

Notes

References

• Catton, Bruce, Grant Takes Command, Little, Brown and Company, 1968, Library of Congress Catalog Card No. 69-12632.
• Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3.
• Fuller, Maj. Gen. J. F. C., Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship, Indiana University Press, 1957, ISBN 0-253-13400-5.
• Garland, Hamlin, Ulysses S. Grant: His Life and Character, Macmillan Company, 1898.
• Gott, Kendall D., Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry—Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862, Stackpole books, 2003, ISBN 0-8117-0049-6.
• Grant, Ulysses S., Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Charles L. Webster & Company, 1885–86, ISBN 0-914427-67-9.
• Hesseltine, William B., Ulysses S. Grant: Politician 1935.
• Lewis, Lloyd, Captain Sam Grant, Little, Brown, and Co., 1950, ISBN 0-316-52348-8.
• McFeely, William S., Grant: A Biography, W. W. Norton & Co, 1981, ISBN 0-393-01372-3.
• McPherson, James M., Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era (Oxford History of the United States), Oxford University Press, 1988, ISBN 0-19-503863-0.
• Nevin, David, and the Editors of Time-Life Books, The Road to Shiloh: Early Battles in the West, Time-Life Books, 1983, ISBN 0-8094-4716-9.
• Simpson, Brooks D., Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, 1822-1865, Houghton Mifflin, 2000, ISBN 0-395-65994-9.
• Smith, Jean Edward, Grant, Simon and Shuster, 2001, ISBN 0-684-84927-5.
• Woodworth, Steven E., Nothing but Victory: The Army of the Tennessee, 1861 – 1865, Alfred A. Knopf, 2005, ISBN 0-375-41218-2.
• Official Ulysses Simpson Grant biography from the US Army Center for Military History

Bibliography

Biographical, political

• Bunting III, Josiah. Ulysses S. Grant (2004) ISBN 0-8050-6949-6
• William Dunning, Reconstruction Political and Economic 1865-1877 (1905), vol 22
• Hesseltine, William B. Ulysses S. Grant, Politician (2001) ISBN 1-931313-85-7 online edition
• Mantell, Martin E., Johnson, Grant, and the Politics of Reconstruction (1973) online edition
• Nevins, Allan, Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration (1936) online edition
• Rhodes, James Ford., History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896. Volume: 6 and 7 (1920) vol 6
• Scaturro, Frank J., President Grant Reconsidered (1998).
• Schouler, James., History of the United States of America: Under the Constitution vol. 7. 1865-1877. The Reconstruction Period (1917) online edition
• Simpson, Brooks D., Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861-1868 (1991).
• Simpson, Brooks D., The Reconstruction Presidents (1998)
• Simpson, Brooks D., Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity, 1822-1865 (2000)
• Skidmore, Max J. "The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant: a Reconsideration." White House Studies (2005) online

Military studies

• Badeau, Adam. Military History of Ulysses S. Grant, from April, 1861, to April, 1865. 3 vols. 1882.
• Ballard, Michael B., Vicksburg, The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi, University of North Carolina Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8078-2893-9.
• Bearss, Edwin C., The Vicksburg Campaign, 3 volumes, Morningside Press, 1991, ISBN 0-89029-308-2.
• Carter, Samuel III, The Final Fortress: The Campaign for Vicksburg, 1862-1863 (1980)
• Catton, Bruce, Grant Moves South, 1960, ISBN 0-316-13207-1; Grant Takes Command, 1968, ISBN 0-316-13210-1; U. S. Grant and the American Military Tradition (1954)
• Cavanaugh, Michael A., and William Marvel, The Petersburg Campaign: The Battle of the Crater: "The Horrid Pit," June 25-August 6, 1864 (1989)
• Conger, A. L. The Rise of U.S. Grant (1931)
• Davis, William C. Death in the Trenches: Grant at Petersburg (1986).
• Fuller, Maj. Gen. J. F. C., Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship, Indiana University Press, 1957, ISBN 0-253-13400-5.
• Gott, Kendall D., Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862, Stackpole Books, 2003, ISBN 0-8117-0049-6.
• Korda, Michael. Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero (2004) 161 pp
• McWhiney, Grady, Battle in the Wilderness: Grant Meets Lee (1995)
• McDonough, James Lee, Shiloh: In Hell before Night (1977).
• McDonough, James Lee, Chattanooga: A Death Grip on the Confederacy (1984).
• Maney, R. Wayne, Marching to Cold Harbor. Victory and Failure, 1864 (1994).
• Matter, William D., If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania (1988)
• Miers, Earl Schenck., The Web of Victory: Grant at Vicksburg. 1955.
• Mosier, John., "Grant", Palgrave MacMillan, 2006 ISBN 1-4039-7136-6.
• Rhea, Gordon C., The Battle of the Wilderness May 5–6, 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 1994, ISBN 0-8071-1873-7.
• Rhea, Gordon C., The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern May 7–12, 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 1997, ISBN 0-8071-2136-3.
• Rhea, Gordon C., To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 2000, ISBN 0-8071-2535-0.
• Rhea, Gordon C., Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26 – June 3, 1864, Louisiana State University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-8071-2803-1.
• Miller, J. Michael, The North Anna Campaign: "Even to Hell Itself," May 21-26, 1864 (1989).
• Simpson, Brooks D., "Continuous Hammering and Mere Attrition: Lost Cause Critics and the Military Reputation of Ulysses S. Grant," in Cad Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, eds., The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, (2000)
• Steere, Edward, The Wilderness Campaign (1960)
• Sword, Wiley, Shiloh: Bloody April. 1974.
• Williams, T. Harry, McClellan, Sherman and Grant. 1962.

Primary sources

• Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs (1885) online edition
• Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs and Selected Letters (Mary Drake McFeely & William S. McFeely, eds.) The Library of America, 1990) ISBN 978-0-94045058-5
• Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Papers, located at Mississippi State University's Mitchell Memorial Library
• Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War (1962) pp 131–73, on the Memoirs
• Johnson, R. U., and Buel, C. C., eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 4 vols. New York, 1887-88; essays by leading generals of both sides; online edition
• Porter, Horace, Campaigning with Grant (1897, reprinted 2000)
• Sherman, William Tecumseh, Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. 2 vols. 1875.
• Simon, John Y., ed., The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Southern Illinois University Press (1967- ) multivolume complete edition of letters to and from Grant. As of 2006, vol 1-28 covers through September 1878.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Ulysses Grant

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Ulysses S. Grant

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Ulysses S. Grant

• Ulysses S. Grant Association
• Extensive essay on Ulysses S. Grant and shorter essays on each member of his cabinet and First Lady from the Miller Center of Public Affairs
• First Inaugural Address
• Second Inaugural Address
• White House Biography
• Ulysses S. Grant: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• Presidential Biography by Appleton's and Stanley L. Klos
• Emerson, Col. John W., Grant's Life in the West and His Mississippi Valley Campaigns, U.S. Grant Association website.
• Ulysses S. Grant at Find a Grave Retrieved on 2008-11-03
• Many rare General Grant photographs
• Military biography of Ulysses S. Grant from the Cullum biographies
• Works by Ulysses S. Grant at Project Gutenberg
• The Education of Henry Adams by Henry Adams. (1918). "President Grant (1869)", 260-65.
• Collection of US Grant Letters
• Ulysses S. Grant: America's Second Three-Star General article by Ethan Rafuse
• Historic White Haven (Grant-Dent home)
• Ulysses S. Grant Genealogy, Mississippi State University Library
• Works by or about Ulysses S. Grant in libraries (WorldCat catalog)
• Animations of the Campaigns of Ulysses S. Grant (Forts Henry and Donelson, Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, Overland, and Petersburg/Appomattox)
• Ulysses S. Grant is remembered as a champion of civil rights

v • d • e Presidents of the United States George Washington · John Adams · Thomas Jefferson · James Madison · James Monroe · John Quincy Adams · Andrew Jackson · Martin Van Buren · William Henry Harrison · John Tyler · James K. Polk · Zachary Taylor · Millard Fillmore · Franklin Pierce · James Buchanan · Abraham Lincoln · Andrew Johnson · Ulysses S. Grant · Rutherford B. Hayes · James A. Garfield · Chester A. Arthur · Grover Cleveland · Benjamin Harrison · Grover Cleveland · William McKinley · Theodore Roosevelt · William Howard Taft · Woodrow Wilson · Warren G. Harding · Calvin Coolidge · Herbert Hoover · Franklin D. Roosevelt · Harry S. Truman · Dwight D. Eisenhower · John F. Kennedy · Lyndon B. Johnson · Richard Nixon · Gerald Ford · Jimmy Carter · Ronald Reagan · George H. W. Bush · Bill Clinton · George W. Bush · Barack Obama

v • d • e Cabinet of President Ulysses S. Grant (1869-1877) Vice President Schuyler Colfax (1869-1873) • Henry Wilson (1873-1875) Secretary of State Elihu B. Washburne (1869) • Hamilton Fish (1869-1877) Secretary of the Treasury George S. Boutwell (1869-1873) • William A. Richardson (1873-1874) • Benjamin Bristow (1874-1876) • Lot M. Morrill (1876-1877) Secretary of War John A. Rawlins (1869) • William W. Belknap (1869-1876) • Alphonso Taft (1876) • J. Donald Cameron (1876-1877) Attorney General Ebenezer R. Hoar (1869-1870) • Amos T. Akerman (1870-1871) • George H. Williams (1871-1875) • Edwards Pierrepont (1875-1876) • Alphonso Taft (1876-1877) Postmaster General John Creswell (1869-1874) • James W. Marshall (1874) • Marshall Jewell (1874-1876) • James N. Tyner (1876-1877) Secretary of the Navy Adolph E. Borie (1869) • George M. Robeson (1869-1877) Secretary of the Interior Jacob D. Cox (1869-1870) • Columbus Delano (1870-1875) • Zachariah Chandler (1875-1877)

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