The Civil Hero
Ulysses S. Grant was an American hero during the Civil War. He was a union fighter, a writer, and a leader. He was appointed general by President Abraham Lincoln. His tactics and strategies make him a brilliant leader. Due to his efforts he was able to appease Americans all around the nation and landed him the spot as President. Yet Grant is more known as for what he did as a general then as he did as president.
Early Years: Ulysses S. Grant was born in Ohio on April 27, 1822. He was born to an Ohio tanner Jesse Grant and a religious woman named Hannah Simpson Grant. He has 5 siblings; 2 brothers and 3 sisters. The farm gave him experience as a farmer and was raised in Point Pleasant. He worked in terrible conditions, having animal skin and raw carcass everywhere. Grant vowed to his father that he will never grow up to do what he did being a tanner. His father was ok with his ambitious as a child. Which showed he had a good father. Due to being raised at a farm, his horsemanship was impressive. Ulysses was a small, sensitive, and quiet, these traits made local schools a bore for him. His family had little money but a deal was made, free education for service in the Army. Without telling Grant at first, his father signed him up. The shy boy wasn’t all for it, but with his father’s encouragement he went to the school.
Education: Grant’s first education was at a Marysville Seminary in Maysville Kentucky. When he moved back to Ohio he attended to Presbyterian Academy in Ripley, Ohio. His next education was in a military academy called West Point. He was appointed in the school in 1839. This was the first time he used Ulysses S. Grant because his father accidentally wrote his name as Ulysses S. Grant instead of Hiram Ulysses Grant. Grant never bothered to change his name. At school he was an average student, but he excelled in Math and Horsemanship. He was also a strong horse rider because of how he was raised in the farm. By proving his horsemanship he established the record for the high jump on horseback for 25 years. He wasn’t the only person who attended to the school who served in the Civil War. There were many like him who both served in the Civil War both in the Union and Confederate.
Although he was shy, he did make a few friends. Two of which were Frederick Tracy Dent and Rufus Ingalls. He joined a fraternity group known as the Twelve in One and was popular among his classmates. He didn’t excel scholastically, he studied under Romantic artist Robert Walter Weir. He was also nicknamed as Uncle Sam because of how his initials where U.S. He had the reputation as a brave and expert horseman. He graduated in 1843 where he ranked 21st out of 39. He even said that his departure from West point was the “happiest of his time” and he intended to resign his commision after serving the minimum term of duty. Once he graduated he went served at the Jefferson Barracks in Missouri as brevet second lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Infantry. Though it was a surprise, he didn't get assigned into cavalry because of his excellence in horsemanship. This was because assignments were ranked by class rank not aptitude.
Career: Grants first assignment was in the Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis. Though he did join late in September 1843, due to being ill that left him thin and weak. He was part of the nation’s largest military bastion in the West that was commanded Stephen W. Kearny. Grant loved his commander and learned from him but he still wanted to resign his military service and start a teaching career. During his service in Missouri, he was living with his classmate and friend Frederick Dent. There he met his future wife Julian Dent the following year he got in the the barracks and secretly engaged to her.
Rising tensions with Mexico made Grant serve for the upcoming war and shifted him to Louisiana as part of the Army of Observation under General Zachary Taylor. When the war broke out in 1846. Grant went to Mexico and became a quartermaster. He wasn't happy with his job so he made his way to the front lines in battle and fought as a cavalryman in the Battle of Resaca de la Palma. At Monterrey, Grant showed how good of a rider he can be by carrying a dispatch through sniper-lined streets on horseback. Taylor's army was split to send some troops to Major General Winfield Scott. Scott’s army went to Veracruz and advanced to Mexico City. There the army met the Mexican forces at the battle of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. Grant dragged a howitzer and bombarded Mexican troops. Scott’s army was in the city and soon after the Mexicans agreed for peace.
He went back to the military during the Civil War where he volunteered as colonel. He was promoted to Brigadier General later and led is men to take Fort Donelson, his first major victory. Later in July 1863 he made the most brilliant move ever known in war. His strategy to take down Vicksburg was on par the greatest capture in American History. What he did was that he made his men use the environment as an advantage against the confederates. He made his men march and take part in five battles during that time, where he took 6000 prisoners. Due to his achievement, he was promoted to lieutenant general and was given command of all of the U.S. armies.The person that gave him this promotion was Abraham Lincoln. He later led a series of campaigns to take down the Confederates. He was getting a reputation and slowly became a war hero. Due to his non stop attacks on the feds, the Confederates surrendered and ended the Civil War. Giving the Union the win of the long war.
Five days after the war, president Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by a Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth. He was shot and killed in the Ford Theatre. His death meant that a new president was in line. The new president was Andrew Johnson. His cabinet was made up of people from the war including Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was the Secretary of War for Johnson's cabinet after he fired his first one Edwin Stanton. Johnson was impeached because of how he violated an act, Grant ran as president. Ulysses S. Grant was a nominee in due to him being so popular among the american people. He was a leader, a warrior, and a hero in the american eyes. He was also very honest to people. Many saw that he was deemed fit for presidency.
When Grant was elected, he made his cabinet members people who served with him during the Civil War. As president he wanted peace in a reconstructing America. Black men were allowed to vote for the 15th amendment was ratified during his time as well as a legislation for the Ku Klux Klan to limit all their activities. He sent troops to the south where they kept law and order. Grant signed a legislature for establishing the Department of Justice. As a man who wanted peace, he wanted to give fairer treatment to the Native Americans, but there was little success to that. Yet Grant was the reason why national parks exist today. He established Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the U.S. He also signed a treaty that improved relations with the U.K. All of these actions rewarded him with another term as president, but this term was filled with scandals.
When Grant was president, many people saw him as a pretty good one, but others do not see that. People believed he was to soft. There was also many scandals about his cabinet. One such as James Fisk who used the market for his own gain to become rich and wealthy, the plan ultimately failed but it crippled Grants reputation among Americans. Another is with the Whiskey Ring where officials defrauded millions of liquor tax revenue. Due to many scandals with his cabinet, he fired most of them and replaced them with much more reliable and honest people. Grant also decided that there should be a more fairer way of hiring and promoting people. So he established a civil service reform, but it was shot down by Congress. The reform was slowed downed though because President Chester Arthur signed the Pendleton Civil Service Act.
Impact:
Later Years: After leaving the White House in March 1877, Ulysses Grant and his family embarked on a two-year trip around the world, during which they met with dignitaries and cheering crowds in many of the countries they visited. At the 1880 Republican National Convention, a group of delegates voted to nominate Grant for president again; however, James Garfield (1831-1881), a U.S. congressman from Ohio, ultimately earned the nomination. He would go on to win the general election and become the 20th U.S. president.
In 1881, Grant bought a brownstone on New York City’s Upper East Side. He invested his savings in a financial firm in which his son was a partner; however, the firm’s other partner swindled its investors in 1884, causing the business to collapse and bankrupting Grant. To provide for his family, the former president decided to write his memoirs. In late 1884, he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Grant died at age 63 on July 23, 1885, in Mount McGregor, New York, in the Adirondack Mountains, where he and his family were spending the summer. His memoirs, published that same year by his friend Mark Twain (1835-1910), became a major financial success. More than a million people gathered in New York City to witness Grant’s funeral procession. The former president was laid to rest in a tomb in New York City’s Riverside Park. When Julia Grant died in 1902, she was buried beside her husband.