By the summer of , tensions were running high between Johnson and the Radical Republicans in Congress, who favored a more aggressive approach to Reconstruction in the South. The president removed a vocal critic of his policies, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton , from the Cabinet and replaced him with Grant. In January , Grant resigned the war post, thereby breaking with Johnson, who was later impeached but acquitted by a single vote in May That same month, the Republicans nominated Grant as their presidential candidate, selecting Schuyler Colfax , a U.
In the general election, Grant won by an electoral margin of and received more than 52 percent of the popular vote. At age 46, he became the youngest president-elect in U. Grant: Known for Scandals, Overlooked for Achievements. Ulysses Grant entered the White House in the middle of the Reconstruction era, a tumultuous period in which the 11 Southern states that seceded before or at the start of the Civil War were brought back into the Union.
As president, Grant tried to foster a peaceful reconciliation between the North and South. He supported pardons for former Confederate leaders while also attempting to protect the civil rights of freed slaves. In , the 15th Amendment , which gave black men the right to vote, was ratified.
Grant signed legislation aimed at limiting the activities of white terrorist groups like the Ku Klux Klan that used violence to intimidate blacks and prevent them from voting. At various times, the president stationed federal troops throughout the South to maintain law and order. He also tried, with limited success, to improve conditions for Native Americans.
The treaty resulted in improved relations between the United Kingdom and the United States. The group nominated New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley as their presidential candidate.
The Democrats also nominated Greeley, hoping the combined support would defeat Grant. Instead, the president and his running mate Henry Wilson , a U. He also continued to grapple with issues related to Reconstruction. Grant did not seek a third term, and Republican Rutherford Hayes , the governor of Ohio, won the presidency in During his first term, a group of speculators led by James Fisk and Jay Gould attempted to influence the government and manipulate the gold market.
The failed plot resulted in a financial panic on September 24, , known as Black Friday. Even though Grant was not directly involved in the scheme, his reputation suffered because he had become personally associated with Fisk and Gould prior to the scandal. Another major scandal was the Whiskey Ring, which was exposed in and involved a network of distillers, distributors and public officials who conspired to defraud the federal government of millions in liquor tax revenue.
In order to combat the corruption and inefficiency that resulted from this system, Grant established a civil service commission to develop more equitable methods for hiring and promoting government workers.
Though Vicksburg marked both Grant's greatest achievement thus far and a moral boost for the Union, rumors of Grant's heavy drinking followed him through the rest of the Western Campaign. Grant suffered from intense migraine headaches due to stress, which nearly disabled him and only helped to spread rumors of his drinking, as many chalked up his migraines to frequent hangovers.
However, his closest associates said that he was sober and polite and that he displayed deep concentration, even in the midst of a battle. In October , Grant took command at Chattanooga, Tennessee.
The following month, from November 22 to November 25, Union forces routed Confederate troops in Tennessee at the battles of Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge, known collectively as the Battle of Chattanooga.
The victories forced the Confederates to retreat into Georgia, ending the siege of the vital railroad junction of Chattanooga — and ultimately paving the way for Union General William Tecumseh Sherman's Atlanta campaign and march to Savannah, Georgia, in Grant saw the military objectives of the Civil War differently than most of his predecessors, who believed that capturing territory was most important to winning the war.
Grant adamantly believed that taking down the Confederate armies was most important to the war effort, and to that end, set out to track down and destroy General Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. From March until April , Grant doggedly hunted for Lee in the forests of Virginia, all the while inflicting unsustainable casualties on Lee's army. On April 9, , Lee surrendered his army, marking the end of the Civil War. The two generals met at a farm near the village of Appomattox Court House, and a peace agreement was signed.
In a magnanimous gesture, Grant allowed Lee's men to keep their horses and return to their homes, taking none of them as prisoners of war. During post-war reorganization, Grant was promoted to full general and oversaw the military portion of Reconstruction.
He was then put in an awkward position during President Andrew Johnson's fight with the Radical Republicans and Johnson's impeachment. Subsequently, in , Grant was elected the 18th president of the United States. When he entered the White House the following year, Grant was not only politically inexperienced, he was — at the age of 46 — the youngest president theretofore.
Though scrupulously honest, Grant became known for appointing people who were not of good character. While he had some success during his time in office, including pushing through ratification of the 15th Amendment and establishing the National Parks Service, his administration's scandals rocked both of his presidential terms, and he didn't get the opportunity to serve a third.
After leaving the White House, Grant's lack of success at civilian life continued once again. He became a partner of the financial firm Grant and Ward only to have his partner, Ferdinand Ward, embezzle investors' money. The firm went bankrupt in , as did Grant. That same year, Grant learned that he was suffering from throat cancer, and though his military pension was reinstated, he was strapped for cash.
Grant began selling short magazine articles about his life and then negotiated a contract with a friend, famed novelist Twain, to publish his memoirs. The two-volume set went on to sell some , copies, becoming a classic work of American literature.
Grant died on July 23, — just as his memoirs were being published — at the age of 63, in Mount McGregor, New York. He is buried in New York City. Grant was the first Union commander to truly take the war to the South and put the region on the defensive. His calm during battle astounded everyone who witnessed it. His strategy for securing the Western Theater was sound; while puffing cigar after cigar, he issued his commanders clear, concise orders while staying out of their way in the heat of battle.
In , Grant, now placed in command over the District of Tennessee, orchestrated the capture of Vicksburg, Mississippi, which sat high on a bluff above the Mississippi River. Grant first attempted to capture this key installation from the north, but eventually decided to march his troops down the other side of the Mississippi and cross over it. Once they landed south of Vicksburg, Grant disregarded convention and cut his supply lines, using enemy resources to feed his troops.
Pemberton surrendered Vicksburg and with it an army of more than 27, men to Grant on July 4, This federal victory ended the Rebel's stranglehold on the Mississippi River, checking Confederate momentum and dealing a devastating blow to Southern morale. Not long afterward, Grant was running the entire Western Theater of the war. By November , Grant secured Chattanooga, Knoxville, and eastern Tennessee for the North, and left the Confederate military command in disarray and defeat.
At this time, Grant emerged as the undisputed top U. Sherman, Philip H. Sheridan, and James B. In early , President Lincoln named Grant lieutenant general and commander of all Union forces directing strategy and planning several major campaigns simultaneously. Grant was transferred to Washington, D. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia. Rather than stay in the capital and direct the war from afar, Grant joined General George Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac in the field for the spring effort.
In the six-week "Overland Campaign" that followed, the Union Army suffered setbacks and high casualties in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor as the titanic fight between Grant and Lee raged over the Virginia countryside.
Grant's direct, relentless battle tactics led to such huge losses that the Democratic press began calling Grant, "The Butcher. In late and early , the invaded, decimated South lost the means and the will to fight. Union troops trapped the main Confederate Army west of Richmond and forced a surrender on April 9, , at the little village crossroads of Appomattox Court House.
General Lee's surrender to Grant effectively ended the war. In four years, Grant had gone from a leather-shop clerk to the most revered soldier in the Union. In , he was named general of the armies, a rank that had been achieved by no one other than George Washington. Along with the military promotion came political opportunity, a development largely due to the war's centrality to American life. The Civil War dominated public discussion and the media for generations afterward.
It was therefore far from surprising that a man widely credited with keeping the nation together was seen as a possible presidential candidate. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes James A. Garfield Chester A. Roosevelt Harry S. Truman Dwight D. For two years following his second term in office, Grant made a triumphal tour of the world. In , he lost his entire savings to a corrupt bank.
To make up some of his losses, he wrote about his war experiences for Century Magazine. They proved so popular that he was inspired to write his excellent autobiography, Personal Memoirs of U. Grant , finishing the two-volume set only a few days before dying of cancer at the age of sixty-three.
Ulysses S. Civil War Biography. Title General-in-Chief. Date of Birth - Death April 27, — July 23, Topic s :.
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