Ulysses S. Grant

Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, the son of a tanner. A clerical error at West Point registered him as Ulysses S. Grant, and he kept the name. He was a fine horseman, served in the Mexican War, and later resigned from the army and struggled in farming and business. In 1862 he captured Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee, demanding unconditional surrender, and survived the bloody battle of Shiloh. In 1863 he took Vicksburg, giving the Union control of the Mississippi River, and then broke the siege of Chattanooga. Lincoln made him general-in-chief in 1864. He pressed Robert E. Lee's army in Virginia without letup until Lee surrendered at Appomattox in April 1865, where Grant offered generous terms. Elected president in 1868 and 1872, he enforced Reconstruction and used federal power against the Ku Klux Klan, though his administration was marked by scandals among officials. After losing his savings to a swindling partner and learning he had throat cancer, he wrote his Personal Memoirs to support his family, finishing them days before his death in 1885.

Ulysses S. Grant is also an author in the library: author page and works.

Faith: Faith not well documented; he publicly supported keeping public schools free of sectarian religion. Source: Wikipedia