This is the third in a nine-part series looking at Ohio’s history of presidents. Some of the information was gleaned from a kit provided by the Ohio Historical Society released in 1967 titled “Portraits of Ohio Presidents.” Knox Pages has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Ohio History Connection to share content across our sites. Part I, an introduction, was published on Feb. 9. Part II, on William Henry Harrison, was published on Feb. 16.
The Union Army’s greatest Civil War hero was also the salvation of Abraham Lincoln’s presidency, all the while being a native of one of Ohio’s smallest communities.
Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio. Grant’s hometown is about 25 miles southeast of Cincinnati, hard along the Ohio River.
He was christened Hiram Ulysses Grant, but was better known by his military contemporaries as “Sam.”
The Grant family had a bit of history in the military. Ulysses’ grandfather Noah fought for the Colonial Army at the Battle of Bunker Hill.
As a child, Ulysses’ father, Jesse, moved the family to Georgetown, Ohio, where five siblings were born. Ulysses showed little interest in his father’s tannery trade, but displayed unusual skill with horses, a trait he would carry throughout his life.
Ulysses’ military career launched at West Point, where he graduated in 1843 as the academy’s most proficient horseman. In 1844, he married Julia Dent, the sister of his West Point classmate Frederick Tracy Dent, with future Confederate General James Longstreet among his groomsmen.
The Grant couple had four children, Frederick, Ulysses Jr. (“Buck”), Ellen (“Nellie”), and Jesse.
Shortly after the marriage, Ulysses served in the Mexican War in 1846 and led a charge at the Battle of Resaca de la Palma.
But he eventually soured on life in the service. Badly missing his family during an assignment in California, he took to the bottle, was reprimanded by a superior, and resigned on July 31, 1854.
Grant returned to his family in St. Louis and tried numerous ventures to make a living, including farming, real estate and even working as a clerk in his father’s hardware business. The low point came in 1857, when he had to pawn his gold watch to afford Christmas gifts for his family.
He had little luck outside the service, but when the Civil War erupted he was appointed brigadier general of a group of Illinois volunteers. Grant advanced through the ranks and earned a key but costly victory at Shiloh with a shockingly high casualty rate that triggered controversy.
Still, he was now known nationally and was catapulted into the spotlight after a lengthy siege resulted in the capture of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Lincoln famously noted of Grant “I can’t spare this man, he fights.”
The president had gone through numerous supreme Union leaders, dissatisfied with all of them. Finally, after Grant earned yet another victory at Chattanooga in 1863, Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general, giving him command of all Union Armies on March 2, 1864.
Grant chased Confederate General Robert E. Lee for the rest of the war. Finally, Grant trapped him, and accepted Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865. Grant’s reputation and legacy as a military leader was forever cemented with this victory.
He was commissioned General of the Army in 1866, and Secretary of War 1867-68.
In 1869, at the age of 46, Grant was elected the 18th president of the United States. He was the youngest to that point in the nation’s history.
Grant served two terms from 1869-1877 and although they are viewed with mixed results, his reputation of personal integrity remained intact.
On March 1, 1872, he signed legislation that established Yellowstone National Park. While generally considered an effective Civil Rights president, the controversial Reconstruction Era dominated his presidency. One one hand he created the Justice Department and the Civil Service Commission. On the other, scandal along with economic turmoil marked his second term and a number of his domestic policies were eventually overturned.
A series of financial misfortunes wiped out his personal holdings. However, despite suffering from terminal throat cancer, the 63-year-old Grant willed himself to finish his best-selling book Memoirs in 1885.
He died July 23, 1885, with his family’s financial future secured via the proceeds from his autobiography.
