18th United States President, Civil War Union Lieutenant General. Born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, his birth name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. At age seventeen he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where they misnamed him Ulysses Simpson Grant, a name he kept. After graduation, his first assignment was service in the Mexican War. After eleven years, he resigned his commission and pursued a number of failed civilian endeavors. He answered the call for service during the Civil War, quickly rising to rank of Brigadier General. Victories at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson (Stewart County, Tennessee), and Vicksburg earned him a second star. After raising the siege of Chattanooga, Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General and placed in command of all Union Armies. The Army of the Potomac under General Grant finally forced Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to withdraw from Richmond the following spring and finally surrender on April 9, 1865. The following year, Congress awarded a fourth star, making him the first full-rank General in American history since George Washington. With his popularity at an all time high, he accepted the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1868. After serving two terms in the White House, Grant entered business on Wall Street in New York City. He lost all his money. To help support himself, he wrote magazine articles about his military life and also his autobiography, assisted by famed author Mark Twain. He died of throat cancer in 1885.
18th United States President, Civil War Union Lieutenant General. Born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, his birth name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. At age seventeen he entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, where they misnamed him Ulysses Simpson Grant, a name he kept. After graduation, his first assignment was service in the Mexican War. After eleven years, he resigned his commission and pursued a number of failed civilian endeavors. He answered the call for service during the Civil War, quickly rising to rank of Brigadier General. Victories at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson (Stewart County, Tennessee), and Vicksburg earned him a second star. After raising the siege of Chattanooga, Grant was promoted to Lieutenant General and placed in command of all Union Armies. The Army of the Potomac under General Grant finally forced Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia to withdraw from Richmond the following spring and finally surrender on April 9, 1865. The following year, Congress awarded a fourth star, making him the first full-rank General in American history since George Washington. With his popularity at an all time high, he accepted the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 1868. After serving two terms in the White House, Grant entered business on Wall Street in New York City. He lost all his money. To help support himself, he wrote magazine articles about his military life and also his autobiography, assisted by famed author Mark Twain. He died of throat cancer in 1885.
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