Ulysses S. Grant Biography Quotes 22 Report mistakes

Early Life and Education
Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio, the son of Jesse Root Grant, a tanner, and Hannah Simpson Grant. Raised in nearby Georgetown, he disliked his father's tannery but showed remarkable skill with horses, a talent that would be noted throughout his life. In 1839, with the support of Congressman Thomas L. Hamer, he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point. A clerical error in the nomination listed him as Ulysses S. Grant, a name he adopted; the middle initial had no given meaning, though it echoed his mother's Simpson family name. He graduated in 1843, average in academics but exceptional in horsemanship, quiet in manner, and known for his steadiness under pressure.

West Point and the Mexican-American War
Commissioned in the 4th U.S. Infantry, Grant served on frontier posts before the Mexican-American War, where he fought under Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. He earned brevet promotions for gallantry, notably at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec, where he displayed initiative and coolness under fire. The experience exposed him to contrasting styles of command: Taylor's informality and decisiveness, and Scott's careful planning and logistics. His observations of leadership, supply, and maneuver would shape his generalship in the Civil War. He also developed friendships with officers who later became prominent, including James Longstreet, who would be a Confederate corps commander, and Rufus Ingalls, who later supported Grant's logistics in the 1860s.

Marriage and Struggle in Civilian Life
After the war, Grant married Julia Dent in 1848, whom he had met while visiting her family's home near St. Louis through his West Point friend Frederick Dent. The couple had four children: Frederick, Ulysses Jr., Ellen (Nellie), and Jesse. Peacetime postings carried him to remote stations on the West Coast, including Fort Humboldt. Separated from family, enduring low pay and loneliness, he resigned from the Army in 1854 as a captain. Trying to support his family, he attempted farming at White Haven, worked in real estate, and then joined his brothers in the leather goods business in Galena, Illinois. These years were marked by financial difficulty, but also by a growing reputation in his community for modesty, reliability, and a dislike of boastfulness.

Return to Arms and Rise in the Civil War
With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Grant offered his services, initially helping organize volunteers in Illinois. He became colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry and quickly impressed superiors with his energy and common sense. Promoted to brigadier general of volunteers, he won attention at Belmont in Missouri. His bold campaign in early 1862 against Forts Henry and Donelson on the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers yielded the first major Union victories of the war. At Donelson, he demanded "unconditional surrender" from Simon Bolivar Buckner, establishing a reputation for firmness and giving the Union a strategic foothold in the West.

Shiloh, Setbacks, and Recovery
In April 1862, at Shiloh, Grant's army suffered staggering casualties after a surprise Confederate attack. He steadied the line, counterattacked with reinforcements under Don Carlos Buell, and won the field. The bloodshed shocked the North, and critics accused him of carelessness. Henry Halleck briefly sidelined him, but Grant returned to prominence with the slow, methodical move against Corinth and then with a campaign that displayed his hallmark: relentless pressure coordinated with agile maneuver.

Vicksburg, Chattanooga, and National Command
In 1863, Grant led a daring inland campaign that crossed the Mississippi south of Vicksburg, defeated Confederate forces at Port Gibson, Raymond, Jackson, and Champion Hill, and invested Vicksburg itself. John C. Pemberton's surrender on July 4 split the Confederacy along the Mississippi and transformed Grant into the Union's foremost field commander. Later that year, sent to reverse a crisis at Chattanooga, he orchestrated the breakout with George H. Thomas's Army of the Cumberland, Joseph Hooker's troops from the Army of the Potomac, and William T. Sherman's forces, culminating in the storming of Missionary Ridge. In March 1864, Abraham Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general and placed him in command of all Union armies.

Overland Campaign and Appomattox
Grant established headquarters with the Army of the Potomac, entrusting the western theater to Sherman and the Shenandoah to Philip Sheridan. Against Robert E. Lee, he drove a brutal Overland Campaign through the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, trading space and time for attrition while maneuvering south of the James River to invest Petersburg. His operational conception linked fronts: Sheridan crippled Confederate logistics and cavalry; Sherman captured Atlanta and marched to the sea. In April 1865, Grant's forces broke the Petersburg lines, compelling the evacuation of Richmond. On April 9, at Appomattox Court House, Grant offered Lee generous terms, allowing Confederate soldiers to return home with their horses. Ely S. Parker, a Seneca officer on Grant's staff, engrossed the surrender terms. Lincoln's assassination a few days later cast a pall over victory; Grant and Julia had declined an invitation to Ford's Theatre that night.

Reconstruction as General of the Army
As General of the Army, Grant supported Congressional Reconstruction, backing protections for freedpeople and the reestablishment of loyal state governments. He clashed with President Andrew Johnson over the Tenure of Office Act and the removal of Edwin M. Stanton, navigating a constitutional crisis while trying to preserve the rule of law. His stature and reputation for integrity made him the leading Republican candidate in 1868.

Election of 1868 and the Presidency
Running with Schuyler Colfax and the simple watchword "Let us have peace", Grant won the 1868 election against Horatio Seymour. His presidency prioritized national reconciliation anchored in civil rights, fiscal stability, and a modernized federal state. Often reserved and personally loyal, he relied on a circle that included his trusted wartime aide John A. Rawlins, who served briefly as Secretary of War before his death in 1869, and Hamilton Fish, his exceptionally capable Secretary of State.

Reconstruction and Civil Rights
Grant pressed hard to secure the fruits of Union victory. He urged ratification of the Fifteenth Amendment, guaranteeing voting rights regardless of race, and backed the Enforcement Acts, including the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871. With Attorney General Amos T. Akerman and federal prosecutors, he used the newly created Department of Justice to dismantle the first Ku Klux Klan through indictments and, when necessary, federal troops in South Carolina and elsewhere. He appointed Ely S. Parker as the first Native American Commissioner of Indian Affairs and pursued a "Peace Policy" that aimed to reduce corruption in agencies and avoid war, though conflicts on the Plains still erupted. He later signed the Civil Rights Act of 1875, a broad statement against racial discrimination in public accommodations, though the Supreme Court would narrow and strike down much of it in 1883.

Foreign Policy and Economic Challenges
Under Hamilton Fish, Grant's foreign policy was pragmatic and successful. The Treaty of Washington (1871) submitted the Alabama Claims to international arbitration in Geneva, where the United States won a significant award from Britain. Fish also defused the Virginius Affair with Spain and improved relations with major European powers. A controversial attempt to annex Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), promoted by Grant and carried out in part by envoy Orville E. Babcock, failed in the Senate, sharpening his rift with Charles Sumner.

Economically, Grant faced the Panic of 1873, which plunged the nation into a severe depression. He vetoed an "inflation bill" in 1874 to preserve financial credibility and supported the Specie Payment Resumption Act of 1875, preparing the way for a return to the gold standard. His Treasury secretaries, including George S. Boutwell and later Benjamin Bristow, worked to shrink war debt and modernize revenue collection.

Scandals, Reform, and Political Strains
Personal honesty coexisted with a sometimes excessive loyalty to associates, a tendency that complicated his administration. Early in his tenure, financiers Jay Gould and James Fisk attempted to corner the gold market, an episode culminating in Black Friday (1869); Grant's decision to release Treasury gold halted the scheme but embroiled acquaintances, including a relative by marriage, in public controversy. Later, the Whiskey Ring (1875) exposed a network of revenue fraud; Bristow's prosecutions aligned with Grant's directive, "Let no guilty man escape", yet his defense of Babcock, ultimately acquitted, fed charges of favoritism. Secretary of War William W. Belknap resigned in 1876 amid a trading-post scandal. Despite these blows, Grant pursued civil service reform, creating the first Civil Service Commission and experimenting with competitive examinations, though funding lapses curtailed early progress.

Reelection and Late Presidential Years
Grant won reelection in 1872 against Horace Greeley, whose coalition of Liberal Republicans and Democrats fractured under the strain of Reconstruction policy debates. While Reconstruction enforcement waned in the mid-1870s as national fatigue and economic distress mounted, his administration continued to support federal authority where possible. Challenges in Indian policy intensified, culminating in conflicts such as the Great Sioux War of 1876 after gold discoveries in the Black Hills. Grant left office in 1877 with mixed reviews: admired for preserving the Union's victory and protecting Black citizenship, criticized for administrative scandals and the limits of his reform agenda.

World Tour and Final Years
Out of office, Grant embarked on a celebrated world tour from 1877 to 1879, greeted as a conquering general and former president across Europe and Asia. He met leaders including Queen Victoria and Otto von Bismarck, and visited Japan and China, where he informally encouraged peaceful resolution of disputes. Back in the United States, he was considered for a third presidential term in 1880 but lost the Republican nomination to James A. Garfield after a prolonged convention. Settling in New York, he invested with his son Ulysses Jr. in the firm Grant & Ward, only to be ruined in 1884 when partner Ferdinand Ward's fraud collapsed the firm. Soon after, doctors diagnosed him with cancer of the throat.

Determined to secure his family's financial future, Grant began writing his memoirs. Encouraged and published by Mark Twain, he produced a lucid, unflinching narrative of his life and campaigns. He completed the Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant just days before his death on July 23, 1885, at Mount McGregor, New York. The book became a best-seller, providing for Julia and earning praise for clarity, honesty, and command of strategic detail. Grant was later interred at what came to be known as Grant's Tomb in New York City, where Julia joined him after her death.

Character, Leadership, and Legacy
Grant's character joined modesty, resilience, and determination. He rarely sought the spotlight and disliked self-promotion, yet he showed iron steadiness in crises. In war, he combined relentless pressure with a humane pragmatism, exemplified at Appomattox. In peace, he saw the federal government as a guardian of equal citizenship; his deployment of federal power against the Ku Klux Klan and his support for the Fifteenth Amendment and the Civil Rights Act of 1875 marked enduring commitments. His administrative record was marred by scandal and misjudged loyalties, but his foreign policy under Hamilton Fish stands among the century's most successful, and his economic decisions helped restore national credit.

Historians increasingly credit Grant with preserving and extending the core results of the Civil War: union, freedom, and a constitutional vision of equal rights. His Personal Memoirs secure his literary reputation, and his example as a principled, unpretentious leader continues to resonate. From a reluctant tanner's son to general-in-chief and two-term president, Ulysses S. Grant's life traced the central arc of nineteenth-century America, marked by struggle, victory, and the unfinished work of equality.

Our collection contains 22 quotes who is written by Ulysses, under the main topics: Witty One-Liners - Wisdom - Justice - Never Give Up - Friendship.

Other people realated to Ulysses: William Tecumseh Sherman (Soldier), Frederick Douglass (Author), James A. Garfield (President), William Howard Taft (President), George Armstrong Custer (Soldier), Andrew Johnson (President), John Lothrop Motley (Historian), Salmon P. Chase (Politician), John Hay (Writer), Shelby Foote (Author)

• Ulysses S Grant accomplishments: Led Union Army to victory in the Civil War and served two terms as U.S. President.
• Ulysses S Grant nickname: Unconditional Surrender Grant.
• Ulysses S Grant Fun Facts: He was once fined for speeding with his horse-drawn carriage.
• When was Ulysses S Grant born: April 27, 1822.
• Ulysses S Grant family: Married to Julia Dent with four children: Frederick, Ulysses Jr., Ellen, and Jesse.
• Ulysses S Grant education: United States Military Academy at West Point.
• Ulysses S Grant cause of death: Throat cancer.
• What did Ulysses S Grant do as president: He worked on Reconstruction, fought against the Ku Klux Klan, and supported the 15th Amendment.
• How old was Ulysses S. Grant? He became 63 years old

• 1885 The Complete Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (Book)
• 1885 Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant (Book)

• Wikipedia