Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was a Union general in the American Civil War and the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877).

Military career

Mexican War

Grant served in the Mexican-American War under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, taking part in the battles of Resaca de la Palma, Palo Alto, Monterrey, and Veracruz. He was twice brevetted for bravery: at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec.

Related Topics:
Mexican-American War - Zachary Taylor - Winfield Scott - Resaca de la Palma - Palo Alto - Monterrey - Veracruz - Brevet - Molino del Rey - Chapultepec

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Between the Wars

After the Mexican war ended in 1848, Grant remained in the army and was moved to several different posts. He was sent to Fort Vancouver in the Washington Territory in 1853. His wife could not accompany him because his salary could not support a family (she was eight months pregnant with their second child) on the frontier. In 1854, he was promoted to captain and assigned to Fort Humboldt in California. Despite the increase in pay, he still could not afford to bring his family out West. He tried some business ventures while in California to supplement his income, but they failed. He started drinking heavily because of money woes and missing his wife. Because his drinking was having an effect on his military duties, he was given a choice by his superiors: resign his commission or face trial. He resigned on July 31, 1854. Seven years of civilian life followed, in which he was a farmer, a real estate agent in St. Louis, and finally an assistant in the leather shop owned by his father and brother in Galena, Illinois. He went through serious debt at this time, and once sold his gold pocket watch to get Christmas presents for his family.

Related Topics:
1848 - Fort Vancouver - Washington Territory - 1853 - 1854 - Fort Humboldt - California - July 31 - St. Louis - Galena, Illinois

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Western Theater of the Civil War

On April 24, 1861, ten days after the fall of Fort Sumter, Captain Grant arrived in Springfield, Illinois, with a company of men he had raised. The governor felt that a West Point man could be put to better use and appointed him colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry (effective June 17, 1861). On August 7, Grant was appointed a brigadier general of volunteers.

Related Topics:
April 24 - 1861 - Fort Sumter - Springfield, Illinois - Colonel - June 17 - August 7 - Brigadier general

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In February of 1862, Grant gave the Union cause its first major victory of the war by capturing Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. Grant not only captured the forts' garrisons, but also electrified the Northern people with his famous demand, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works".

Related Topics:
1862 - Henry - Donelson

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In early April of 1862, he was surprised by Gen. Albert Sidney Johnston at the Battle of Shiloh. The sheer violence of the Confederate attack sent the Union forces reeling. Nevertheless, Grant refused to retreat. With grim determination, he stabilized his line. Then, on the second day, with the help of timely reinforcements, Grant counterattacked, turning a serious reverse into a victory.

Related Topics:
1862 - Albert Sidney Johnston - Battle of Shiloh

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Despite Shiloh being a Union victory, it came at a high price; it was the bloodiest battle in United States history up until then, with over 23,000 casualties. Henry W. Halleck, Grant's theater commander, was unhappy by Grant being surprised and the disorganised nature of the fighting. In response, Halleck took command of the Army in the field himself. Removed from planning strategy, Grant decided to resign. Only by the intervention of his subordinate and good friend, William T. Sherman, did he remain. When Halleck was promoted to general-in-chief of the Union Army, Grant resumed his position as commander of the Army of the Tennessee.

Related Topics:
Henry W. Halleck - William T. Sherman - Army of the Tennessee

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In the campaign to capture the Mississippi River fortress of Vicksburg, Mississippi, Grant spent the winter of 1862–63 conducting a series of operations, attempting to gain access to the city, through the region's bayous. These attempts failed. Then in the spring of 1863, Grant launched a new plan, and the subsequent operation is considered one of the most masterful in military history.

Related Topics:
Mississippi River - Vicksburg, Mississippi - 1862 - 63

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Grant marched his troops down the west bank of the Mississippi and crossed the river by using the U.S. Navy ships that had run the guns at Vicksburg. (This was the largest amphibious operation in American military history and would hold that record until the Battle of Normandy in World War II.) There, he moved inland and, in a daring move, defying conventional military principles, cut loose from most of his supply lines. 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, Mississippi and severed the rail line to Vicksburg.

Related Topics:
Mississippi - Battle of Normandy - World War II - John C. Pemberton - Jackson, Mississippi

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Knowing that the Confederates could no longer send reinforcements to the Vicksburg garrison, Grant turned west and won at Champion Hill. The defeated Confederates retreated inside their fortifications at Vicksburg, 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.

Related Topics:
Champion Hill - Siege - July 4 - 1863 - Gettysburg - Turning point

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In September of 1863, the Confederates won the Battle of Chickamauga. Afterwards, the defeated Union forces under William Rosecrans retreated to the city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. The victorious Confederate forces, led by Braxton Bragg, followed closely behind. They took up positions on the hillsides, overlooking the city and surrounding the Federals.

Related Topics:
Battle of Chickamauga - William Rosecrans - Chattanooga, Tennessee - Braxton Bragg

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On October 17, Grant was placed in overall charge of the besieged forces. He immediately relieved Rosecrans and replaced him with George H. Thomas. Devising a plan known as the "Cracker Line", Grant's chief engineer, William F. "Baldy" Smith, launched the Battle of Wauhatchie (October 28–29, 1863) to open the Tennessee River, allowing supplies and reinforcements to flow into Chattanooga, greatly increasing the chances for Grant's forces.

Related Topics:
October 17 - George H. Thomas - William F. "Baldy" Smith - Battle of Wauhatchie - October 28 - 29 - 1863 - Tennessee River

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Upon reprovisioning and reinforcing, the morale of Union troops lifted. In late November, they went on the offensive. The Battle of Chattanooga started out with Sherman's failed attack on the Confederate right. He not only attacked the wrong mountain, but committed his troops piecemeal, allowing them to be defeated by one Confederate division. In response, Grant ordered Thomas to launch a demonstration on the center, which could draw defenders away from Sherman. Thomas waited until he was certain that Hooker, with reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac, was engaged on the Confederate left before he launched the Army of the Cumberland at the center of the Confederate line. Hooker's men broke the Confederate left, while 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.

Related Topics:
Battle of Chattanooga - Missionary Ridge - Atlanta, Georgia

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Grant's willingness to fight and ability to win impressed President Abraham Lincoln, who appointed him lieutenant general—a new rank recently 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.

Related Topics:
Abraham Lincoln - Lieutenant general - U.S. Congress - March 2 - 1864 - March 12 - United States

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General-in-chief and strategy for victory

Grant's fighting style was what one fellow general called "that of a bulldog". Although a master of combat by out-maneuvering his opponent (such as at Vicksburg and in the Overland Campaign against Robert E. Lee), Grant was not afraid to order direct assaults or tight sieges against Confederate forces, often when the Confederates were themselves launching offensives against him. Once an offensive or a siege began, Grant refused to stop the attack until the enemy surrendered or was driven from the field. Such tactics often resulted in heavy casualties for Grant's men, but they wore down the Confederate forces proportionately even more and inflicted irreplaceable losses. Grant has been described as a "butcher" for his strategy, particularly in 1864, but he was able to achieve objectives that his predecessor generals had not, even though they suffered similar casualties over time.

Related Topics:
Overland Campaign - Robert E. Lee - 1864

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In March 1864, Grant put 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 Lee; his secondary objective was to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Virginia, but Grant knew that the latter would happen automatically once the former was accomplished. He 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; Nathaniel Banks to capture Mobile, Alabama. Grant 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.

Related Topics:
William T. Sherman - Virginia - Richmond, Virginia - George G. Meade - Benjamin Franklin Butler - Franz Sigel - Shenandoah Valley - Georgia - Joseph E. Johnston - Atlanta - George Crook - William W. Averell - West Virginia - Nathaniel Banks - Mobile - Alabama - Total war

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Overland Campaign, Petersburg, and Appomattox

The Overland Campaign was the thrust needed by the Union to defeat the Confederacy. It pitted Grant against the great commander Robert E. Lee in an epic contest. It began early in May of 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 a terrible place to fight, but Lee sent in his Army of Northern Virginia anyway because the close confines would prevent Grant from fully exploiting his numerical advantage.

Related Topics:
Overland Campaign - Robert E. Lee - Army of the Potomac - Rapidan River - Army of Northern Virginia

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The Battle of the Wilderness was a stubborn, bloody two-day fight. It was an inauspicious start for the Union. Grant was leading a campaign that, in order to win the war, had to destroy the Confederacy's main battle armies. With the pause in the fighting, there came one of those rare moments when the course of history fell upon the decision of a single man. Lee backed off, permitting Grant to do what all of Grant's predecessors, as commanders of the Army of the Potomac, had done in this situation and that was retreat. Grant, ignoring the setback, ordered an advance around Lee's flank to the southeast.

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

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The campaign continued and Lee, anticipating Grant's move, beat him 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 very next day, May 12, he ordered a massive assault that nearly broke Lee's lines.

Related Topics:
Spotsylvania, Virginia - May 8 - Battle of Spotsylvania Court House - May 11 - May 12

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In spite of mounting Union casualties, the contest's dynamics changed in Grant's favor. Most of Lee's great victories had been won on the offensive, employing surprise movements and fierce assaults. Now, he was forced to continually fight on the defensive. Even after suffering horrific casualties at the Battle of Cold Harbor, Grant kept up the pressure. He stole a march on Lee, slipping his troops across the James River.

Related Topics:
Battle of Cold Harbor - James River

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Arriving at Petersburg, Virginia, first, Grant should have captured the rail junction city, but he failed because of an overly cautious subordinate, William F. ?Baldy? Smith. Faced with fully manned trenches in front of him, Grant was left with no alternative but to settle down to a siege.

Related Topics:
Petersburg, Virginia - William F. ?Baldy? Smith - Siege

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With Grant's and Sherman's armies, respectively stalled 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 Major General Jubal A. Early to invade north through the Shenandoah Valley, hoping that Grant would disengage some of his forces to pursue him. Early reached the outskirts of Washington, D.C., and, threatening the city's inhabitants, embarrassed the Administration. Abraham Lincoln's reelection prospects looked bleak.

Related Topics:
Sherman's - Abraham Lincoln - Jubal A. Early - Shenandoah Valley - Washington, D.C.

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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 the North was winning the war, and Lincoln was reelected 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.

Related Topics:
Philip Sheridan - Shenandoah Valley - March to the Sea - Total war

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At the beginning of April of 1865, 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, although minor actions would continue until Kirby Smith surrendered his forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2, 1865.

Related Topics:
1865 - Appomattox Court House - April 9 - Kirby Smith - Trans-Mississippi Department - June 2

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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, "I can't spare this general. He fights." It was a two-word description that completely caught the essence of Ulysses S. Grant.

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After the war, Congress authorized Grant the newly created rank of General of the Army (the equivalent of a four-star, "full" general rank in the modern Army). He was appointed as such by President Andrew Johnson on July 25, 1866.

Related Topics:
General of the Army - Andrew Johnson - July 25 - 1866

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