Accepting Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House (1865)
As Union commanding general, effectively ended the Civil War four years before becoming president
US Presidents · 19th century
Ulysses S. Grant
1822–1885 · American
Republican
In office: 1869–1877
Ulysses S. Grant was the Union's most successful general in the American Civil War, accepting Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox in 1865, and served two terms as the 18th president. His administration enforced Reconstruction and fought the Ku Klux Klan, but was dogged by corruption scandals. Dying of throat cancer and nearly bankrupt, he wrote celebrated memoirs published by Mark Twain's firm.
How to spot them
- ▸'Unconditional Surrender' Grant; victories at Fort Donelson and Vicksburg; Lee's surrender at Appomattox
- ▸Born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio
- ▸Scandals: the Black Friday gold panic (1869) and the Whiskey Ring
- ▸Signed the act creating Yellowstone, the first national park; face on the $50 bill
- ▸'Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?'
In office
Creation of Yellowstone, the first national park (1872)
Signed the act setting aside Yellowstone as a public park
The Ku Klux Klan Act (Enforcement Acts) (1870–1871)
Federal laws used to suppress the Klan in the South during Reconstruction
'Black Friday' gold panic (1869)
Jay Gould and James Fisk tried to corner the gold market; the Treasury sold gold to break it
The Whiskey Ring scandal (1875)
Distillers and officials defrauded federal tax revenue; his private secretary Orville Babcock was indicted
Campaign slogan 'Let us have peace' (1868)
From his letter accepting the Republican nomination
Key ideas
- Widely regarded as the architect of Union victory, with a strategy of relentless pressure on Confederate armies
- His Personal Memoirs are often ranked among the finest military memoirs in English
Quick-fire facts
- •The 18th President of the United States
- •Born Hiram Ulysses Grant; registered at West Point as 'Ulysses S. Grant' by mistake and kept the name
- •Earned the nickname 'Unconditional Surrender' Grant at Fort Donelson in 1862
- •The Department of Justice was created and the 15th Amendment ratified in 1870, during his presidency
- •Toured the world for over two years after leaving office
- •Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant were published by Mark Twain's firm; he finished them days before dying of throat cancer in 1885
- •Buried in the General Grant National Memorial (Grant's Tomb) in New York City
- •Appears on the US $50 bill
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Sources
- Miller Center, University of Virginia — Ulysses S. Grant
- Ulysses S. Grant — Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant