Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson,
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the
Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868.
When he was elected, the American people hoped
for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One
visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand
the terms."
Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio
tanner. He went to West Point rather against his will and graduated in the middle of his class. In the Mexican War he fought
under Gen. Zachary Taylor.
At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was
working in his father's leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer
regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers.
He sought to win control of the Mississippi
Valley. In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donelson. When the Confederate commander asked for terms, Grant
replied, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." The Confederates surrendered, and President
Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers.
At Shiloh in April, Grant fought one of the
bloodiest battles in the West and came out less well. President Lincoln fended off demands for his removal by saying, "I can't
spare this man--he fights."
For his next major objective, Grant maneuvered
and fought skillfully to win Vicksburg, the key city on the Mississippi, and thus cut the Confederacy in two. Then he broke
the Confederate hold on Chattanooga.
Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March
1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert
E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia.
Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court
House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials.
As President, Grant presided over the Government
much as he had run the Army. Indeed he brought part of his Army staff to the White House.
Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant
as President accepted handsome presents from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen with two speculators, Jay Gould
and James Fisk. When Grant realized their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized the Secretary of the Treasury
to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the speculation had already wrought havoc with business.
During his campaign for re-election in 1872,
Grant was attacked by Liberal Republican reformers. He called them "narrow-headed men," their eyes so close together that
"they can look out of the same gimlet hole without winking." The General's friends in the Republican Party came to be known
proudly as "the Old Guard."
Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run
its course in the South, bolstering it at times with military force.
After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became
a partner in a financial firm, which went bankrupt. About that time he learned that he had cancer of the throat. He started
writing his recollections to pay off his debts and provide for his family, racing against death to produce a memoir that ultimately
earned nearly $450,000. Soon after completing the last page, in 1885, he died.
U.S. Presidents: United in Service Take a look at presidential biographies made by kids and videos about service from the President's
Council on Service and Civic Participation.
Autumn: Jesse Grant moves his family to Georgetown,
Brown County, Ohio. Here their oldest son receives his earliest education.
1836
Autumn 1836 - Spring 1838: Ulysses attends
the school of Richeson and Rand at Maysville, Kentucky.
1838
Autumn 1838 - Spring 1839: Ulysses attends
the Presbyterian academy at Ripley, Ohio.
1839
March 3: Ulysses is appointed to West Point.
May 29: Ulysses arrives at West Point and
discovers that the congressman who appointed him, in doubt about his name, has used his middle name first and has used his
mother's maiden name (Simpson) for a middle name. In time, Ulysses will accept U. S. Grant as his true name, insisting that
his middle initial stands for "nothing."
1843
June: Grant graduates from West Point, ranked twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine.
July 28: Grant learns that he is assigned
to duty, beginning September 30, with the Fourth U. S. Infantry at Jefferson Barracks, just outside St. Louis, Missouri. His
rank, established automatically by his West Point graduation, will be brevet second lieutenant.
1844
February: Grant had often visited the Dent family farm, White Haven, south of St. Louis. Frederick Dent had been Grant's West
Point roommate. Now, Fred's sister, Julia Dent, returns from St. Louis. "After that I do not know
but my visits became more frequent; they certainly did become more enjoyable."
May: While on a visit to his parents in Ohio,
Grant learns that his regiment has been ordered to Louisiana. When he returns, Julia agrees to marry him.
June: Grant arrives at the camp of the Fourth Infantry near Natchitoches, Louisiana. "There was no intimation given that the
removal of the 3d and 4th regiments of infantry to the western border of Louisiana was occasioned in any way by the prospective
annexation of Texas, but it was generally understood that such was the case."
1845
April: Grant obtains leave for twenty days.
He travels to St. Louis to see Julia, and to gain her parents' consent to an engagement which has been a secret for almost
a year. Colonel Dent doubts that Grant can support a family on a lieutenant's pay, but he likes Grant and cannot deny his
daughter's obvious determination.
July: The Fourth Infantry is sent to New
Orleans to await orders.
September: Grant sails from New Orleans,
bound for Corpus Christi on the Nueces River in Texas. Soon, Grant is promoted to full second lieutenant. The land between
the Nueces and Rio Grande Rivers is claimed by both the United States and Mexico.
1846
March 11: Grant begins to march across the
disputed territory. General Zachary Taylor's force reaches the Rio Grande on March 28. Small clashes
between U. S. and Mexican units lead to a Mexican declaration of war on April 23. "Even if the annexation itself could
be justified, the manner in which the subsequent war was forced upon Mexico cannot . . . The Southern rebellion was largely
the outgrowth of the Mexican war. Nations, like individuals, are punished for their transgressions."
May 8: Taylor wins the battle of Palo Alto
as Grant finds himself under fire for the first time. "You want to know what my feelings were on the field of battle! I do
not know that I felt any peculiar sensation. War seems much less terrible to persons engaged in it than to those who read
of the battles... During that night I believe all slept as soundly on the ground at Palo Alto as if they had been in a palace.
For my own part I don't think I even dreamed of battles."
August 19: Taylor begins to move toward Monterey.
Grant is detailed as regimental quartermaster.
September 21: During the battle of Monterey,
Quartermaster Grant is expected to remain behind the lines. Without orders, he rides to the front and charges with his regiment.
Grant now replaces the regimental adjutant.
September 23: Heavy fighting continues in
Monterey. Short of ammunition, General Garland asks for a volunteer to carry a message to General Twiggs through streets occupied
by Mexican forces. Grant runs the gauntlet, riding on the side of his horse with one foot hooked on the cantle of the saddle
and an arm around the neck of his horse.
1847
January 11: Grant's Fourth Infantry is ordered to leave General Taylor's force and join that of General Winfield Scott. The troops retrace their route across Mexico to
Camp Page on the Gulf.
September 8: Grant participates in the assault
on Molino del Rey.
September 13: During the assault on San Cosme
Garita, outside Mexico City, Grant orders a howitzer placed in a church belfry where it can be fired effectively. This comes
to the favorable attention of General Worth. During the night, civic officials of Mexico City ask for surrender terms.
1848
June 12: The occupation of Mexico ends for
Grant as Worth's division marches out of Mexico City. Grant's transport will sail from Vera Cruz on July 16.
July 23: The Fourth Regiment lands at Pascagoula,
Mississippi. As soon as another officer is assigned to the quartermaster's duties, Grant hurries on leave to White Haven.
August 22: Grant and Julia Dent are married.
November 17: Grant reports at Detroit, Michigan.
He learns that he has been assigned to duty at the dreary outpost of Madison Barracks at Sackett's Harbor, New York, on Lake
Ontario. By spring of the following year, Grant has obtained a transfer to Detroit.
Spring 1851 - Spring 1852: Grant spends a
full year at Sackett's Harbor. Then the Fourth Infantry is ordered to the Pacific Coast. Grant says goodbye to his wife and
son, who will be staying with his parents, and reports at Governor's Island, New York, for embarkation on the steamer Ohio.
1852
July 16: The Ohio anchors off Aspinwall
(now Colon) on the isthmus of Panama. The trip across steamy and deadly Panama begins.
July 22: While Ulysses is still in transit,
his and Julia's second child, Ulysses S. Grant Jr., whom they call Buck, is born.
September 20: Grant arrives at Fort Vancouver,
Oregon (later Washington) Territory. Prices are inflated on the Pacific Coast, and Grant's attempts to supplement his captain's
pay are unsuccessful. Discouraged and unhappy about the long separation from his family, which now includes the second son
he has never seen, and with no prospect of reunion, Grant finds consolation in drink, as fellow officers will later recall.
He begins to consider resigning.
1853
September 30: Grant receives notice that
he has been promoted to captain as of August 5, to take the place of an officer who had died, along with orders to report
at Fort Humboldt, California.
1854
April 11: Grant receives his official commission
as captain and writes his resignation from the army the same day. On June 2, the resignation is accepted by Secretary of War
Jefferson Davis.
1855
Summer: After living for nearly a year at
White Haven with Julia's parents, the Grant family moves to Wish-ton-wish, another farm on the Dent estate. Here their third
child, Ellen Grant, whom they call Nellie, is born on July 4.
1856
Summer: The Grant family moves into its own
home, built largely by Grant alone. Almost every farm in the neighborhood has a name, often a pretentious one; Grant calls
his Hardscrabble.
November: Grant casts his only presidential
ballot prior to the time he is himself elected. The nation is deeply divided over the issue of slavery. "It was evident to my
mind that the election of a Republican President in 1856 meant the secession of all the Slave States, and rebellion. Under
these circumstances I preferred the success of a candidate whose election would prevent or postpone secession, to seeing the
country plunged into a war the end of which no man could foretell. With a Democrat elected by the unanimous vote of the Slave
States, there could be no pretext for secession for four years. I very much hoped that the passions of the people would subside
in that time, and the catastrophe be averted altogether; if it was not, I believed the country would be better prepared to
receive the shock and to resist it. I therefore voted for James Buchanan for President."
1857
December 23: Grant pawns his watch, presumably
to buy Christmas gifts for his family. The Panic of 1857 has withered crop prices. Only a few weeks later, February 6, 1858,
the fourth Grant child, Jesse Root Grant Jr., is born.
1858
Spring: Grant rents out his Hardscrabble
farm and himself rents White Haven from his father-in-law. Following another poor season, plagued by poor health, he enters
the real estate business in St. Louis.
1859
January: Grant moves into a back room in
St. Louis rented from his business partner, while his family temporarily remains at White Haven. In March, his family joins
him in a rented cottage in St. Louis.
March 29: Despite the financial troubles
of the Grant family, there is one remedy Grant refuses to consider. He sets free his slave, William Jones, who had come to
him through his wife's family.
August 15: Grant submits his application
for the position of County Engineer of St. Louis. Although qualified, Grant will be passed over by politicians who prefer
a Republican.
1860
May: After many years of financial disappointment in Missouri, Grant turns to his father for help. He takes a clerkship in
a leather goods store owned by his father and operated by his brothers Orvil and Simpson in Galena, Illinois.
November 8: The Republicans of Galena, supporters of Abraham Lincoln, hold a victory celebration in the Grant store. Grant
helps his Republican brother Orvil serve oysters and liquor. Grant has not lived in Illinois long enough to be eligible to
vote, and is apparently undecided about the merits of Lincoln and his opponent, Stephen Douglas.
1861
April: The local Republican congressman,
Elihu B. Washburne, favorably impressed by Grant, arranges for him to preside over a public meeting held in Galena to respond
to Lincoln's call for troops after war breaks out between the North and the South at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. Grant drills the company of Jo Daviess Guards raised
at the meeting, but declines the captaincy. Instead he travels to Springfield, Illinois to offer his services to Governor
Richard Yates. Grant finds temporary employment as a clerk in the adjutant's office.
May 8: Grant is appointed mustering officer.
It is a temporary job which ends within two weeks.
May 10: While Grant is in St. Louis seeking
a commission, he witnesses the disorder following the capture of Camp Jackson by Unionists under Nathaniel Lyon and Frank
Blair.
May 22: Grant finishes his mustering and
returns to Galena. Two days later he writes to Adjutant General Lorenzo Thomas: "I feel myself competant to command a Regiment
if the President, in his judgement, should see fit to entrust one to me." The letter is never answered.
June: Grant visits the headquarters of General
George B. McClellan in Cincinnati, seeking a staff appointment. McClellan does not receive him.
June 15: Grant returns to Springfield and
accepts Governor Yates' offer of the colonelcy of the Seventh District Regiment, an unruly group which has driven its first
colonel into retirement.
June 16: Grant boards a streetcar in Springfield
to ride out to his regiment at Camp Yates.
June 28: Following patriotic oratory from
two Illinois Democratic congressmen, John A. Logan and John A. McClernand, 603 members of the regiment volunteer to enter
the U. S. service as the Twenty-First Illinois.
July 3: The Twenty-First Illinois begins
its first march: from Springfield to Quincy, Illinois, on the Mississippi River.
July: Grant is ordered to proceed from the
Salt River against Colonel Thomas Harris, some twenty-five miles south at Florida, Missouri. "As we approached the brow of
the hill from which it was expected we could see Harris' camp, and possibly find his men ready formed to meet us, my heart
kept getting higher and higher until it felt to me as though it was in my throat. I would have given anything then to have
been back in Illinois, but I had not the moral courage to halt and consider what to do; I kept right on. When we reached a
point from which the valley below was in full view I halted. The place where Harris had been encamped a few days before was
still there and the marks of a recent encampment were plainly visible, but the troops were gone. My heart resumed its place.
It occurred to me at once that Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him. This was a view of the question
I had never taken before; but it was one I never forgot afterwards." Grant's regiment is soon located at Mexico, Missouri.
July 31: President Lincoln appoints Grant a brigadier general of volunteers following the recommendations of a caucus of Illinois
congressmen. Grant is now in command at Ironton, Missouri.
August 17: As Grant prepares to move against
the enemy, General Benjamin M. Prentiss arrives to claim command, wrongfully asserting that he outranks Grant. Without prolonged
argument, Grant departs for St. Louis, where General John C. Frémont reassigns him to Jefferson City.
August 27: Replaced by General Jefferson
C. Davis at Jefferson City, Grant again returns to St. Louis. This time he is given command of all troops in southeast Missouri
(August 28), with headquarters temporarily at Cape Girardeau, Missouri.
September 4: Grant establishes headquarters
at Cairo, Illinois. On September 3, Confederate General Leonidas Polk had violated the self-proclaimed neutrality of Kentucky
by occupying Columbus. News reaches Grant on September 5. Grant then occupies Paducah (September 6). His quick action prevents
the Confederates from consolidating their defense line in Kentucky.
November 7: Grant leads his troops to Belmont,
Missouri, across the Mississippi River from Columbus, Kentucky, in a diversionary movement to prevent Confederate reinforcement
of General Sterling Price. The Union troops overrun a Confederate camp and begin to celebrate victory. Then the Confederates
return with a superior force. Grant's men scramble for their transports, and the general himself barely escapes death or capture.
On August 18, 1865, Galena celebrated
the return of its Civil War hero General Ulysses S. Grant. Following a jubilant procession with much flag waving and speeches,
a group of Galena citizens presented the General with a handsome furnished house on Bouthillier Street. The house is managed
by the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency as the U.S. Grant Home State Historic Site.
Grant in Galena
Grant and his family arrived in Galena in the spring of 1860 and rented a small Federal style
brick house (seen at the right). He had ended a fifteen year military career six years earlier, but had enjoyed little business
success as a civilian. He hoped to reverse his economic misfortune by moving to northwestern Illinois, where he would work
in the Galena store owned by his father and managed by his younger brothers, Simpson and Orvil. Grant was a clerk in name
only; he spent considerable time away from the store, "travelling through the Northwest considerably during the winter of
1860-61. They had customers in all the little towns in south-west Wisconsin, south-east Minnesota, and northeast. Iowa."
Until he left Galena in the spring of 1861 to serve in the Civil War, Grant and his wife, Julia, rented a modest brick home
on the west side of the river for approximately $100.00 a year.
.
The Hero's Homecoming
In 1861, at the outbreak of
the Civil War, Grant left Galena to join the U.S. Army, ending a seven-year hiatus from the military. He was commissioned
colonel of the 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment and was promoted to progressively significant commands of Union forces.
A strong and capable leader, Grant engineered the Union victory at Vicksburg in 1863, which helped turn the tide of the war.
In March 1864 Grant was appointed lieutenant general and commanded the Union army to war's end. On April 9, 1865, Confederate
General Robert E. Lee surrendered his troops to Grant at Appomattox Court House, and Grant's image as a war hero was complete.
Grant family, ca.1865
On August 18, 1865, the citizens
of Galena greeted the return of its victorious General with a grand celebration. A "grand triumphal arch" spanned Main Street,
and a holiday atmosphere prevailed with a jubilant procession, speeches, and evening fireworks. Julia Grant recalled that
"there was a tremendous and enthusiastic outpouring of people to welcome him . . . After a glorious triumphal ride around
the hills and valleys, so brilliant with smiles and flowers, we were conducted to a lovely villa exquisitely furnished with
everything good taste could desire."
The Grant Home
The brick house, which was designed
by William Dennison, had been constructed in 1860 for former City Clerk Alexander J. Jackson. Thomas B. Hughlett, on behalf
of only a small group of local Republicans, purchased the house for $2,500 in June 1865 and presented it to Grant two months
later. The house is typical of the Italianate style, which is characterized by well defined rectilinear shapes, projecting
eaves supported by brackets, low pitched roof, and balustraded balconies over covered porches.
Following his election as president
in 1868 he visited only occasionally. In 1873 Grant commented that "although it is probable I will never live much time among
you, but in the future be only a visitor as I am at present, . . . I hope to retain my residence here . . . I expect to cast
my vote here always." The house was maintained by caretakers in anticipation of the President's visits, the local newspaper
reporting that it was "in excellent order and ready for occupation at any time," adding that "visitors are always admitted."
Grant made his final visits
to his Galena home in 1880. At that time he found that several changes had been made - "a new sidewalk laid in front of the
premises, the outbuildings repaired, the trees handsomely trimmed, a new and commodious wash house built and other improvements
made."
State Acquisition and Restoration
In 1904 Grant's children gave
the house to the City of Galena "with the understanding that this property is to be kept as a memorial to the late General
Ulysses S. Grant, and for no other purpose." However, maintaining the Grant's home proved too costly for the city and the
Grant Home Association, so in 1931 the city deeded the house to the State of Illinois
A thorough
restoration project was undertaken in 1955. Considerable research was undertaken as the house was returned to its 1868 appearance.
Fortunately, much of the furniture used by Grant and his family remained in the house. Restoration of the home was returned
to its appearance as pictured in the November 14, 1868, issue of Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper
Ulysses Simpson GrantBorn: 4/27/1822 Birthplace:
Point Pleasant, Ohio
Ulysses Simpson Grant was born (as Hiram Ulysses
Grant) at Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822. He graduated from West Point in 1843 and served without particular distinction
in the Mexican War. In 1848 he married Julia Dent. He resigned from the army in 1854, after warnings from his commanding officer
about his drinking habits, and for the next six years held a wide variety of jobs in the Middle West. With the outbreak of
the Civil War, he sought a command and soon, to his surprise, was made a brigadier general. His continuing successes in the
western theaters, culminating in the capture of Vicksburg, Miss., in 1863, brought him national fame and soon the command
of all the Union armies. Grant's dogged, implacable policy of concentrating on dividing and destroying the Confederate armies
brought the war to an end in 1865. The next year, he was made full general.
In 1868, as Republican candidate for president, Grant was
elected over the Democrat, Horatio Seymour. From the start, Grant showed his unfitness for the office. His cabinet was weak,
his domestic policy was confused, and many of his intimate associates were corrupt. The notable achievement in foreign affairs
was the settlement of controversies with Great Britain in the Treaty of London (1871), negotiated by his able secretary of
state, Hamilton Fish.
Running for reelection in 1872, he defeated Horace Greeley,
the Democratic and Liberal Republican candidate. The Panic of 1873 graft scandals close to the presidency created difficulties
for his second term.
After retiring from office, Grant toured Europe for two
years and returned in time to accede to a third-term boom, but was beaten in the convention of 1880. Illness and bad business
judgment darkened his last years, but he worked steadily at the Personal Memoirs, which were to be successful when
published after his death at Mount McGregor, near Saratoga, N.Y., on July 23, 1885.
led with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the
Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868. 
April 27: A son, later named 
June: Grant graduates from West Point, ranked twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine.
February: Grant had often visited the Dent family farm, White Haven, south of St. Louis. Frederick Dent had been Grant's West
Point roommate. Now, Fred's sister, 
June: Grant arrives at the camp of the Fourth Infantry near Natchitoches, Louisiana. "There was no intimation given that the
removal of the 3d and 4th regiments of infantry to the western border of Louisiana was occasioned in any way by the prospective
annexation of Texas, but it was generally understood that such was the case."
January 11: Grant's Fourth Infantry is ordered to leave General Taylor's force and join that of General 
August 22: Grant and Julia Dent are married.
May: After many years of financial disappointment in Missouri, Grant turns to his father for help. He takes a clerkship in
a leather goods store owned by his father and operated by his brothers Orvil and Simpson in Galena, Illinois.
November 8: The Republicans of Galena, supporters of 
July 31: President Lincoln appoints Grant a brigadier general of volunteers following the recommendations of a caucus of Illinois
congressmen. Grant is now in command at Ironton, Missouri.
Grant and his family arrived in Galena in the spring of 1860 and rented a small Federal style
brick house (seen at the right). He had ended a fifteen year military career six years earlier, but had enjoyed little business
success as a civilian. He hoped to reverse his economic misfortune by moving to northwestern Illinois, where he would work
in the Galena store owned by his father and managed by his younger brothers, Simpson and Orvil. Grant was a clerk in name
only; he spent considerable time away from the store, "travelling through the Northwest considerably during the winter of
1860-61. They had customers in all the little towns in south-west Wisconsin, south-east Minnesota, and northeast. Iowa."
Until he left Galena in the spring of 1861 to serve in the Civil War, Grant and his wife, Julia, rented a modest brick home
on the west side of the river for approximately $100.00 a year.
.
The Hero's Homecoming