The FReeper Foxhole Profiles General Ulysses Simpson Grant - Sep. 27th, 2003

grolier.com ^ | David Donald

[SAMWolf]

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Ulysses Simpson Grant
(1822-1885)

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Early Years

Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, on April 27, 1822, and baptized Hiram Ulysses. The eldest son of Jesse Root Grant and Hannah Simpson Grant, he came from a family that, he proudly declared, had been American "for generations, in all its branches, direct and collateral." In 1823 his father moved his tanning business to Georgetown, Ohio, where "Lyss" spent his boyhood. His education at a grammar school in Georgetown, at Maysville Seminary in Maysville, Ky., and at the Presbyterian Academy of Ripley, Ohio, was superficial and repetitious, and the boy showed no scholarly bent. He became noted, however, for his sturdy self-reliance and for his ability to ride and control even the wildest horses.



In 1839, Jesse Grant secured for his son an appointment to the U. S. Military Academy. When he arrived at West Point he learned that he was on the muster roll as Ulysses Simpson Grant, through an error of the congressman who had nominated him. Finding it impossible to change this official listing, Grant accepted the inevitable and dropped Hiram from his name.

Military Career

"A military life had no charms for me," Grant said later, and his only purpose at the academy was "to get through the course, secure a detail for a few years as assistant professor of mathematics at the Academy, and afterwards obtain a permanent position as professor at some respectable college." Understandably, his West Point record was not spectacular. In 1843 he graduated in the middle of his class (21st in a class of 39), was commissioned brevet 2d lieutenant, assigned to the 4th U. S. Infantry, and sent to Jefferson Barracks, near St. Louis, Mo. There he began to learn his army duties and, even more important, met his future wife, Julia Dent, sister of a West Point classmate. The orders that sent Grant's regiment to the Southwest frontier in May 1844 temporarily interrupted his romance.

Mexican War to 1860

Grant served with distinction in the Mexican War (1846-1848), a conflict that he privately deplored as an unjust war to extend slavery. Promoted on Sept. 20, 1845, to full 2d lieutenant, he took part in the battles of Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterrey. Grant's commanding general in all these engagements was "Old Rough and Ready," Gen. Zachary TAYLOR, whose informal dress and lack of military pretension he was to copy in later years. In 1847, Grant's regiment was transferred to the army of Gen. Winfield Scott, and he participated in all the battles that led to the capitulation of Mexico City--Veracruz, Cerro Gordo, Contreras, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, where he was made 1st lieutenant for his bravery, and Chapultepec, where he was brevetted captain. Besides teaching Grant the practical lessons of warfare, the Mexican conflict gave him a personal acquaintance with most of the men who were later to command the Confederate armies.



After the Mexicans surrendered, the American military establishment was drastically curtailed, and Grant was assigned to routine garrison duty. His four years at Sackets Harbor, N. Y., and Detroit, Mich., were pleasant, because Julia, whom he had married on Aug. 22, 1848, was with him. But in 1852, when the regiment was transferred to Fort Vancouver on the Columbia River, his wife and young family had to be left at home. Grant's next two years, spent in barracks life on the West Coast, were the most miserable in his career. His duties were dull and routine; his superior officer, Col. Robert Buchanan, rode him hard; his income was inadequate, and efforts to increase it by farming and cattle raising were unsuccessful. Most of all, he missed Julia, the one woman in his life. Like so many other peacetime officers of the period, Grant began drinking. Though he was promoted to a captaincy, he continued forlorn and unhappy, and a quarrel with Colonel Buchanan helped to precipitate his decision, on April 11, 1854, to resign his commission.

Returning to Missouri, Grant settled his family on 80 acres of land given him by his father-in-law and tried to farm. With grim humor he called the place "Hard Scrabble," for he had to bear all the work of clearing the land, hauling wood, plowing, and cultivating his crop. After four years he abandoned farming and set up an unsuccessful real-estate business in St. Louis. In 1860 he moved to Galena, Ill., where he worked in his father's leather shop.

Secession and Civil War

Not particularly interested in politics, Grant was nominally a Democrat at this time; but when the South seceded, he had no trouble in making up his mind to support the Union cause. He helped organize the first company of Union volunteers in Galena and accompanied the men to Springfield. At the request of the Illinois governor, Richard Yates, he remained to muster in the new volunteer regiments, for his experience as quartermaster, commissary, and adjutant in the field made him invaluable. Grant longed for active duty, however, and on May 24, 1861, tendered his services to the U. S. government, suggesting modestly that he was "competent to command a regiment." Failing to secure such an appointment, he accepted from Governor Yates the command of the 21st Illinois Regiment, quickly brought it under excellent discipline, and did good service against guerrillas in Missouri.



On Aug. 7, 1861, President Lincoln appointed Grant brigadier general of volunteers, and he took up headquarters at Cairo, Ill. Only a few days after he assumed his new command, he occupied Paducah, Ky., at the strategic junction of the Ohio and Tennessee rivers. On November 7 he attacked the Confederates at Belmont, Mo., in an assault that was not well planned or executed. The arrival of Confederate reinforcements compelled him to retreat. The general was still learning his trade.

Rise to National Prominence

In February 1862, after much persuasion by Grant, Gen. Henry W. Halleck, Grant's superior officer, authorized him to move against Forts Donelson and Henry, the Confederate positions guarding the Cumberland and Tennessee rivers. With 17,000 men and a flotilla of gunboats under the command of Commodore Andrew Hull Foote, Grant captured Fort Henry on February 6 and promptly moved against Donelson 12 miles (19 km) away. When the Confederate commander there, Brig. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, asked for terms of capitulation, Grant replied tersely: "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works." On February 16, Buckner surrendered with over 14,000 men. The capture of Forts Henry and Donelson, the first major Union victories in the war, opened up Tennessee to the Federal armies. For the first time "Unconditional Surrender" Grant became prominent on the national scene. Despite Halleck's jealousy, Lincoln made him major general of volunteers.

Grant's next important battle was at Shiloh, or Pittsburg Landing, Tenn., on April 6-7, 1862. Early in the morning of April 6, Gen. Albert S. Johnston's Confederate army burst through the unfortified Union lines near Shiloh meetinghouse and threatened to drive Grant's men back into the Tennessee River. Historians differ on almost every aspect of the battle: whether Grant was at fault in being at Savannah, 9 miles (14 km) from Pittsburg Landing, at the beginning of the battle; whether Grant was surprised by Johnston; whether Union troops should have been entrenched; whether Grant was personally responsible for checking the Confederate advance; and whether the arrival of Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell's army saved the day for the Union cause.



At any rate, on April 7 the Union forces recaptured the initiative and drove the Confederates back in great disorder. When the news reached the North, a storm of abuse broke out against Grant, who was blamed for this bloodiest battle yet to occur on the American continent, and it was falsely whispered that he had been drunk and negligent of his duty. But Grant also had defenders, among them Lincoln, who said simply, "I can't spare this man--he fights."

On April 11, General Halleck arrived at Pittsburg Landing and took personal command of the army. In the ensuing campaign against Corinth, Miss., Grant occupied an ambiguous and humiliating position. Nominally second in command of the army, he was in fact ignored during the slow advance that occupied the Union troops until the end of May. When Halleck was called to Washington in July, Grant was left in command of the District of West Tennessee, holding a wide territory with few troops. He was, nevertheless, able to drive Maj. Gen. Sterling Price's Confederates from Iuka, Miss., on September 19-20, and a part of his army, under Brig. Gen. William S. Rosecrans, defeated Price and Maj. Gen. Earl Van Dorn at Corinth on October 3-4.

Vicksburg Campaign

On Oct. 25, 1862, Grant was made commander of the Department of Tennessee and was charged with taking Vicksburg, Miss., the principal Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. He first followed a rather conventional strategy, advancing with 30,000 men overland through Mississippi while sending Brig. Gen. William T. Sherman's troops down the river from Memphis. On December 20, Van Dorn destroyed Grant's principal supply base at Holly Springs; nine days later Sherman was bloodily repulsed at Chickasaw Bayou.


May 21, 1864. Grant meeting with his war council. Grant is the man leaning over the bench looking at the map. Notice the perspective. The photographer must have been on the second floor of the church building to be so high.

Grant now faced the most important decision of his career. To pull back to Memphis and mount a new expedition would be an admission of defeat and a severe blow to Union morale. To any retreat Grant had an instinctive aversion. "One of my superstitions," he wrote, "had always been when I started to go anywhere, or to do anything, not to turn back, or stop until the thing intended was accomplished." He decided, therefore, "There was nothing left to be done but to go forward to a decisive victory." That is precisely what he did, in a plan as brilliant in conception as in execution.

Abandoning the overland approach, Grant moved his army to the position Sherman had occupied across the Mississippi from Vicksburg and ostensibly busied his troops during the rainy winter months in constructing a canal bypassing Vicksburg, while beginning to gather supplies for a daring experiment. By April 1863 he was ready. He ran his provisions down the river under the guns of Vicksburg, marched his men through the backcountry, reached a position on the west bank of the Mississippi below Vicksburg, crossed over to high ground on the eastern side, and commenced operations behind the Confederate lines. Grant had cut himself off from communications and supplies from the North; his troops had to subsist on the country until victory. He drove inland to Jackson, Miss., held off a threatened attack from Gen. Joseph E. Johnston's army to the north, and pushed Lieut. Gen. John C. Pemberton's troops on the west into the defenses of Vicksburg. After a regular siege, on July 4, 1863, Pemberton was obliged to surrender his 30,000 men.

The victory was one of the most decisive in the war. It eliminated a major Confederate army from the conflict; it cut off the trans-Mississippi states from the rest of the Confederacy (the capture of Port Hudson, La., by Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks promptly followed); and it brought to the attention of the Northern government and people the ablest Union general of the war. President Lincoln wrote Grant a personal letter of congratulations and nominated him major general in the Regular Army.



Grant's next major engagements saw him in a different field of operations. In September the Confederate general, Braxton Bragg, defeated Rosecrans at Chickamauga and placed the Union army in Chattanooga under virtual siege. Grant was summoned to the rescue. He acted promptly: Rosecrans was replaced by Maj. Gen. George Henry Thomas; Sherman's troops were ordered to march east; a "cracker line" was opened to bring in desperately needed food for the garrison; and reinforcements from the Army of the Potomac were speedily moved west by rail. By the end of November, Grant was prepared to take the offensive. On November 24, Brig. Gen. Joseph Hooker cleared Lookout Mountain of Confederates, and on the following day Thomas' men stormed Missionary Ridge. Bragg retired, demoralized, to Dalton, Ga.

Commander of the U.S. Armies

Grant's new victory made him the man of the hour, and he was brought to Washington to receive the personal thanks of the President, a gold medal voted by CONGRESS, and the newly created rank of lieutenant general commanding all the armies of the United States. Grant looked anything but a hero. He was, as Richard Henry Dana observed, "a short, round-shouldered man, in a very tarnished ... uniform. ... There was nothing marked in his appearance. He had no gait, no station, no manner, rough, light-brown whiskers, a blue eye, and rather a scrubby look withal." But behind the unprepossessing exterior and the modesty of manner lay a powerful strategic genius.

Grant now gave to the Union armies something they had never had before, a concerted plan of action. He ordered simultaneous movements (commencing May 4, 1864) of all the Union armies--Maj. Gen. George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac, which he personally accompanied; Maj. Gen. Benjamin F. Butler's Army of the James; Sherman's Army of the Tennessee; and Banks' troops in Louisiana. Throwing enormous concentrated force against the enemy, Grant planned to batter the Confederates constantly and, if only through attrition, to compel their surrender. The advance of Meade's army into the Virginia Wilderness was skillfully parried by Gen. Robert E. Lee's strategy, but undeterred by the appalling loss of 17,666 men, Grant gave the enemy no rest. At Spotsylvania Court House and on the North Anna, Lee again fended off Grant's sledge-hammer blows. At Cold Harbor, Grant ordered a direct assault on the Confederate lines, only to lose 6,000 men in an hour's fighting. Though he was wearing down the Confederates, he had failed to defeat Lee in a single engagement. His prestige plummeted, and enemies in the North began to call him "Grant the Butcher," careless of his men's lives.



Grant continued to hammer away. On June 12 he shifted his base, adroitly withdrew from Lee's front, and crossed the James River. Failing to capture Petersburg by surprise, he settled down to a regular siege. From June 18, 1864, to April 2, 1865, the Army of the Potomac was engaged chiefly in mining, sapping, assaulting, cutting Lee's transportation lines, and sending out flanking expeditions. But while Grant was starving Lee in Richmond, Maj. Gen. Philip H. Sheridan was devastating the valley of Virginia, and Sherman's army, far to the south, was burning a trail of desolation through Georgia.

In the spring of 1865, Grant was ready for the final push. Sheridan's victory at Five Forks (April 1, 1865) was the beginning of the end. The next day when Grant assaulted the Confederate right, Lee was obliged to abandon Richmond and Petersburg and march west, hoping to join the army of Gen. Joseph E. Johnston. Grant cut off his retreat, and a series of running battles made it clear that further resistance was useless. On April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee capitulated. Grant's terms were magnanimous, and Lee accepted them without question. Seventeen days later Johnston surrendered his army to Sherman, and the Civil War was over.

[SAMWolf]

Presidency

Given the grade of full general (newly created) in 1866, Grant oversaw the sale of wartime surpluses, had the Indian frontier policed, and protected the gangs constructing the transcontinental railroad. The most ticklish part of his postwar duties related to the reconstruction of the Southern states. At first he was inclined to be easygoing with the ex-Confederates; and when President Andrew JOHNSON, Lincoln's successor, sent him on a fact-finding tour of the South in 1865, he reported that the "mass of thinking men of the south" were willing to accept their defeat. But Johnson's pro-Southern policy and the outbreak of renewed violence and rioting in the former Confederacy disturbed the peace-loving general.

New Day at Appomattox
Grant and Lee

Despite growing doubts, Grant accompanied Johnson on his "swing round the circle" in 1866, an attempt to publicize presidential reconstruction plans. On Aug. 12, 1867, when Johnson suspended Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, Grant agreed to act as secretary ad interim. During the next five months he served rather uncomfortably in the cabinet; but when the SENATE refused to concur in the suspension of Stanton, he resigned.

While the President publicly accused him of bad faith, Grant drifted into the Radical Republican camp, supported the impeachment of Johnson, and became the obvious REPUBLICAN candidate for the presidency in 1868. He easily defeated the DEMOCRATIC candidate, Horatio Seymour, and won 214 out of the 294 ELECTORAL votes.

First Administration

Grant was not a politician, and he entered the presidency with no real comprehension of the powers and duties of his office. For his CABINET he picked not the strong leaders of his party but personal friends, such as Secretary of War John Aaron Rawlins, or wealthy men who had contributed to his campaign chest, such as Secretary of the Navy Adolph Edward Borie. His famous motto, "Let us have peace," was a slogan, not a program of executive action. Grant explicitly denied any intent to exert leadership over Congress and his party; he had no policy "to enforce against the will of the people," he declared. For the eight years that he occupied the WHITE HOUSE, therefore, one is obliged to speak of the events of Grant's administration, not of the actions of the president.

Domestic Policy

On questions of Southern reconstruction, Grant acquiesced in the plans of the Radicals to enfranchise blacks. Half-hearted efforts to enforce the 14th and 15th amendments proved futile, and not even the Force Acts of 1870-1871 put down Ku Klux Klan violence in the South. By 1876 most blacks had been driven from the polls, and the former Confederate states were becoming the solidly Democratic South.

In financial matters Grant followed conservative Republican economic theorists who deplored the inflated paper money issued during the war. One of the first important measures to receive his signature was an act declaring the government's ultimate intention to redeem these greenbacks in coin. Grant's financial ignorance led him to serve as a dupe of the unscrupulous Jay Gould and James Fisk in their attempt to corner the gold market in 1869. But when he discovered their scheme, he ousted the lesser officials whom they had bribed, ordered prompt sale of government gold, and on Black Friday (September 24) broke the corner. Later, not even the panic of 1873 shook Grant's distrust of inflation, and in 1875 he signed a bill pledging the resumption of specie payments in January 1879.

Foreign Policy

On foreign policy, Grant generally followed the advice of his cultivated, aristocratic secretary of state, Hamilton Fish. Through Fish's caution, Grant's desire to recognize the belligerence of Cuban insurgents (who had set up a republic in 1869) was curbed. His one independent effort at making foreign policy, his plan to annex Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), led to a rupture with Charles Sumner, powerful chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and annexation was defeated in the Senate (1870). In a treaty with Great Britain in May 1871, Fish settled the Alabama and other claims arising from British aid to the Confederacy during the Civil War. Later, he also secured a peaceful adjustment of the Virginius crisis with Spain in 1873.

Second Administration

Grant's Southern policy alienated the former Confederates; his financial policy discouraged debt-ridden Western farmers who desired inflation; and his foreign policy outraged Sumner and some other Republican leaders. Nevertheless, his popularity with the masses was unimpaired in 1872, and the regular party bosses enthusiastically urged his renomination. Dissident Liberal Republicans and Democrats joined in nominating Horace Greeley as his opponent, but Grant was triumphantly elected for a second term, receiving 286 of the 349 electoral votes.

Ulysses S. Grant with his wife and his son, Jesse

Grant's second four years in the White House were not happy ones. A storm of scandal, which had started while the campaign was still under way, broke about his head. Leading Republican congressmen and officials were involved in railroad scandals; his whole party was implicated in the "salary grab" act (February-March 1873), which retroactively increased the pay of congressmen and the executive; and his secretary of war, William Worth Belknap, shared in Indian agency frauds. The president's private secretary, Orville E. Babcock, had a hand in the Whiskey Ring peculations, and Grant, refusing to doubt his integrity, supported him to the last. Grant himself was not involved in the corruption, but when his close advisers proved faithless, the popular conviction grew that he was a failure as president.

The more completely the Republican Party was discredited, however, the more firmly did party stalwarts like Roscoe Conkling, Zachariah Chandler, and Oliver P. Morton cling to Grant as the one man who could bring victory at the polls. Their attempt to run him for a third term had Grant's assent and Mrs. Grant's enthusiastic approbation, but the Republican National Convention of 1876 refused to break with precedent and nominated Rutherford B. Hayes. In the disputed election that followed, Grant's presence in the White House had a steadying effect and discouraged hotheaded supporters of both Hayes and the Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden.

Last Years

Upon leaving office, Grant made a tour of the world with his wife and youngest son, during which he was treated not as a discredited president of the United States but as the triumphant victor of the Civil War. After two years of travel, he returned more than ever interested in a third term, which now seemed possible because Hayes did not seek reelection. At the Republican National Convention in 1880 in Chicago he had 306 supporters, organized by Conkling; but a coalition of his opponents gave the nomination to James A. GARFIELD on the 36th ballot, and Grant's political career was ended.

The last years of Grant's life were sad ones. Admirers collected a fund of $250,000, which they placed in trust for him; when the securities in which the fund was invested became worthless, however, he was so hard up for money that he had to sell his wartime swords and souvenirs. He became a partner in the brokerage firm of Grant & Ward, but like all his previous business ventures, it failed (May 6, 1884) and he went into bankruptcy. A move to have him restored to the rank of general, which he had resigned to run for the presidency, met political opposition and was not approved until the last day of Chester A. Arthur's administration (March 3, 1885). Grant had only a few months to enjoy the salary that Congress thus voted him.

Afflicted with a cancer of the throat, the general was heroically trying to provide for his family during these last years. The success of an article on the Battle of Shiloh, which he wrote for the Century Magazine in 1884, led him to plan writing his own account of the war in which he had played so large a part. In his sickroom at Mount McGregor near Saratoga, N. Y., he composed the two volumes of personal recollections that remain one of the great war commentaries of all times. Published by Mark Twain, the Personal Memoirs ultimately brought the Grant family nearly $450,000 in royalties. Grant himself did not live to reap the reward. Exhausted from his heroic battle, he died quietly at Mount McGregor on July 23, 1885, and his body eventually found its last resting place in the great mausoleum (dedicated 1897) in New York City overlooking the Hudson River.

[SAMWolf]

The best evidence of the changes that had occurred in warfare from Jomini to Clausewitz can be found in the campaigns of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant. The latter was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Ohio but through confusion at West Point he became Ulysses Simpson Grant. Appointed to the military academy, he found it distasteful and hoped that Congress would abolish the institution, freeing him. He excelled only in horsemanship for that he had displayed a capability early in life and graduated in 1843, 2lst out of 39 graduates. Posted to the 4th Infantry, since there were no vacancies in the dragoons, he served as regimental quartermaster during most of the Mexican War. Nonetheless he frequently led a company in combat under Zachary Taylor in northern Mexico.

He came to greatly admire his chief but was transferred with his regiment to Winfield Scott's army operating from the coast. He received brevets for Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. With the resumption of peace he was for a time stationed in Mexico, a country which he came to admire greatly, and then was posted to the West coast. Separated from his wife, he tried numerous business ventures to raise enough capital to bring her to the coast but proved singularly unsuccessful. On July 31, 1854, he resigned his captaincy amid rumors of heavy drinking and warnings of possible disciplinary action by his post commander.


General Grant and Staff near Petersburg.

His return to civilian life proved unsuccessful. Farming on his father-inlaw's land was a failure, as was the real estate business and attempts to gain engineering and clerk posts in St. Louis. He finally became a clerk in a family leather goods store in Galena, which was run by his two younger brothers. Before he had been there long the Civil War broke out. Offering his services to the War Department and to General George B. McClellan in Ohio, he met with no success in gaining an appointment.

After organizing and mustering state volunteers and with the aid of local Congressman Elihu B. Washburne, he got his second military career off to a start. His assignments included:

• Colonel, 2Ist Illinois
  (June 17, 1861);
• Brigadier General, USV
  (July 31, 1861, to rank from May 17);
  • commanding District of Ironton, Western Department
    (August 8-21, 1861);
  • commanding U.S. Forces Jefferson City, Western Department
    (August 21-28, 1861);
  • commanding Post of Cape Girardeau, Western Department
    (August 30-September 1, 1861);
  • commanding District of Southeast Missouri, Western Department
    (September 1 - November 9, 1861);
  • commanding District of Southeast Missouri, Department of the Missouri
    (November 9 -December 23, 1861);
  • commanding District of Cairo, Department of the Missouri
    (December 23, 1861-February 21, 1862);
• Major General, USV
  (February 16, 1862);
  • commanding District of West Tennessee, Department of the Missouri
    (February 21 - March 11, 1862);
  • commanding District of West Tennessee, Department of the Mississippi
    (March 11 - April 29 and June 10 - October 16, 1862);
  • second-in-command, Department of the Mississippi
    (April 29 - June 10, 1862);
  • commanding Army and Department of the Tennessee
    (October 16, 1862 - October 24, 1863);
  • also commanding 13th Corps, Army of the Tennessee
    (October 24 -December 18, 1862);
• Major General, USV
  (July 4, 1863);
  • commanding Military Division of the Mississippi
    (October 18, 1863-March 18, 1864);
• Lieutenant General, USA
  (March 2, 1864);
• Commander-in-Chief, United States Army
  (March 12, 1864 - March 4, 1869);
• General, USA
  (July 25, 1866);
• Secretary of War ad interim
  (August 17, 1867 January 14, 1868);
• President of the United States
  (March 4, 1869 - March 4, 1877).

When Kentucky's fragile neutrality was falling apart, Grant moved quickly from his Cairo, Illinois base to take Paducah, Kentucky at the mouth of the Tennessee River. His subsequent action at Belmont, Missouri, turned into a defeat following early success. In a joint operation with the navy his land forces arrived too late to take part in the capture of Fort Henry but at neighboring Fort Donelson a major engagement was fought by the ground forces, defeating a Confederate breakout attempt. When asked for terms his reply earned him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. He got in hot water with his superior, Henry W. Halleck, over reports not being filed and his unauthorized trip to Nashville. Ordered to remain at Fort Henry while his forces advanced up the Tennessee, he was restored to field command upon the injury of General Charles F. Smith. Surprised by the Confederate attack at Shiloh-William T. Sherman was in charge on the field at the time-Grant recovered to score a major victory on the second day.



Again in trouble with Halleck, he was demoted to second-in-command of Halleck's field army in the slow advance on Corinth, Mississippi. Subsequently restored to command, he was thwarted in his attempt to reach Vicksburg by following the railroads through central Mississippi when his supply base at Holly Spring was destroyed by Confederate cavalry. Over the next months he tried various routes to get at the river city but didn't launch his final thrust until late April 1863. In a brilliant manner he shifted his troops south of the city and advanced on Jackson to defeat Joseph E. Johnston before scoring two victories over Pemberton at Champion's Hill and Big Black River Bridge - and finally besieging Vicksburg. With the July 4, 1863, capitulation of the city he was awarded a major generalcy in the regular army. His return was complete.

After some minor operations in Mississippi he was given charge of all the armies in the West and raised the siege of Chattanooga and sent Sherman to raise that of Knoxville. That winter he was appointed to the re-created grade of lieutenant general and given command of all the Union armies. He also received the thanks of Congress. Making his headquarters with George G. Meade's Army of the Potomac, he hammered away at Lee - the devout follower of jomini - in his Overland Campaign. Despite heavy losses at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, Grant kept going. His attack at the latter was one of two movements he wished he had never ordered (the other was at Vicksburg). Swinging south of Richmond he besieged Petersburg and after a 10-month siege took both cities. Pursuing Lee to Appomattox, he had virtually ended the war. Meanwhile, the other armies under his direction had torn the Confederacy apart.

In the postwar reorganization of the army he was promoted to full general in 1866 and oversaw the military portion of Reconstruction and the reduction of the army. During Andrew Johnson's fight with the Radical Republicans in Congress Grant was in an awkward position. He was ordered to replace the suspended Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of war, in violation of the Tenure of Office Act. He weathered the storm and became the party's nominee for president in 1868. Elected, he served two terms during which-although he personally remained untainted-there were many scandals, especially in relation to the Whiskey Tax and the appointment of Indian agents. Despite his interest in creating a peace with the Indians, Custer's Massacre occurred during his tenure. Also the freedmen lost much ground during his term, as the white supremacists regained control in the Southern states. During his term the problems with England evolving from the Civil War were resolved and an attempt to gain Santo Domingo for the United States failed. Thwarted for a third term, he embarked on a two-year tour around the world, which took on the appearance of a political campaign. Denied renomination in 1880, he was involved in a number of unsuccessful ventures, the worst of which-in the brokerage firm of Grant & Ward-wiped him out. He then wrote his excellent Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, while dying of cancer of the throat. His family realized profits of almost $450,000. Shortly before his death at Mount McGregor, New York on July 23, 1885, he had been placed on the retired list with the rank of general in order to ease his financial situation. His remains lie in a mausoleum on the Riverside Drive in New York City.

Additional Sources:

www.civilwarhome.com
www.dropbears.com
freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~dgstuart
www.senate.gov
teachpol.tcnj.edu
www.richardmiller.com
www.allenscreations.com
www.civilwaralbum.com
www.wikipedia.org
dialogue.dukenews.duke.edu
www.twainquotes.com
205thpvi.org
bondo.wsc.mass.edu
www.library.wisc.edu
www.mscomm.com

[SAMWolf]

Ulysses Simpson Grant, (1822-1885), American general and 18th PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. Grant, the most capable of the Union generals during the Civil War, was a master strategist. He won the first major Union victories. President Abraham LINCOLN staunchly defended him against critics and promoted him to command all Union forces. Grant accepted Gen. Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House.

However, Grant had no disposition for political leadership, and as president (1869-1877) he scarcely attempted to control events. He made injudicious appointments to public office, and official corruption tainted his administration, although Grant himself was not involved in the peculations.

'I would not have the anniversaries of our victories celebrated, nor those of our defeats made fast days and spent in humiliation and prayer; but I would like to see truthful history written. Such history will do full credit to the courage, endurance and soldierly ability of the American citizen, no matter what section of the country he hailed from, or in what ranks he fought....For the present, and so long as there are living witnesses of the great war of sections, there will be people who will not be consoled for the loss of a cause which they believed to be holy. As time passes, people, even of the South, will begin to wonder how it was possible that their ancestors ever fought for or justified institutions which acknowledged the right of property in man.'

-- Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant

'The right of revolution is an inherent one. When people are oppressed by their government, it is a natural right they enjoy to relieve themselves of the oppression, if they are strong enough, either by withdrawal from it, or by overthrowing it and substituting a government more acceptable. But any people or part of a people who resort to this remedy, stake their lives, their property, and every claim for protection given by citizenship--on the issue. Victory, or the conditions imposed by the conqueror--must be the result '

-- Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant

'No terms but unconditional surrender.'

-- Grant's answer to the Confederate General Simon B. Buckner's request for surrender terms at Fort Donelson.

[SAMWolf]

[snippy_about_it]

.......FALL IN to the FReeper Foxhole!

.......Good Saturday Morning Everyone!


If you would like added to our ping list let us know.

[SAMWolf]

Good Morning Snippy

[snippy_about_it]

Good night SAM.

[quietolong]

I have read several book on Grant. He was a good and fair man. But like all great battle field commanders made only a fair politician.
He had many good policies but could not get them past is distracters.
A few things most people don’t know
- Grant was the real president that started the ball rolling on the Panama Canal
- Wanted to make Island of Haiti / DR a state were the newly freed slaves could go and govern them self.
- Saw the need for a base in the Caribbean
- Wanted to make Canada part of the US

If he could have gotten these and others passed I think many thing would have been better.

[E.G.C.]

Good morning, Snippy and everyone here at the Freeper Foxhole. How's it going?

[Samwise]

Good morning, all.

[manna]

Present!

[Valin]

On This Day In History


Birthdates which occurred on September 27:
1601 Louis XIII king of France (1610-43)
1657 Sophia regent of Russia (1682-89)
1722 Samuel Adams revolutionary rabble rouser/(Lt Gov-Mass, 1789-94)
1772 S…ndor Kisfaludy Hungary, poet/Austrian army (1793-1801)
1783 Agust¡n I de Iturbide emperor of Mexico (1822-23)
1792 George Cruikshank England, illustrator for Charles Dickens
1817 Hiram R Revels Fayetteville NC, 1st black US senator
1840 Alfred Thayer Mahan US, naval officer (Influence of Sea Power)
1840 Thomas Nast political cartoonist of late 1800s America
1858 Giuseppe Peano Italian mathematician, founder of symbolic logic
1875 Grazia Deledda Italy, novelist (Old Man of the Mtn-Nobel 1926)
1880 Jacques Thibaud Bordeaux France, violinist (Caf‚ Rogue)
1881 William Clothier 1st pres of tennis hall of fame
1895 George Raft NYC, actor (Each Dawn I Die, Scarface, Some Like It Hot)
1896 George Bender Cleveland, (Rep/Sen-R-Oh)
1896 Sam Ervin (D-Sen-NC), Watergate committee chairman
1905 Ernest Baier Germany, figure skater (Olympic-gold-1936)
1917 Louis Auchincloss Lawrence NY, lawyer/novelist (Watchfires)
1918 Jame McCallion Glasgow Scotland, actor (Mi Taylor-National Velvet)
1918 Sir Martin Ryle Britain, radio astronomer, astronomer royal 1972-82
1919 Charles H Percy (Sen-R-Ill)
1920 William Conrad Louisville Ky, actor (Bullwinkle Show, Cannon)
1921 Mil¢s Jancs¢ V c Hungary, director (My Way Home)
1922 Arthur Penn Phila, director (Miracle Worker, Bonnie & Clyde)
1923 Mary McCarty Winfield Ks, actress/singer (Starch-Tra[pper John MD)
1926 Jayne Meadows Wu Chang China, Mrs Steve Allen, actr (Dark Delusion)
1929 Sada Thompson Des Moines Ia, actress (Family, Pursuit of Happiness)
1930 Igor Kipnis Berlin Germany, harpsichordist/professor (Fairfield)
1933 Kathleen Nolan St Louis Mo, actress (Real McCoys, Janie, Broadside)
1934 Barbara Howar Nashville, reporter (Wash Post, Entertainment Tonight)
1934 Claude Jarman Jr Nashville Tn, actor (Rio Grande, Inside Straight)
1934 Dick Schaap sportscaster/author (Joe Namath's co-writer)
1934 Greg Morris Cleveland Ohio, actor (Mission Impossible, Vega$)
1934 Wilford Brimley Salt Lake City Utah, actor (Gus-Our House, Cocoon)
1935 Jerome Shipp US, basketball (Olympic-gold-1964)
1939 Kathy Whitworth golfer (AP Woman Athlete of the Year-1966)
1941 Don Cornelius TV show host (Soul Train)
1943 Randy Bachman Winnipeg, rocker (Bachman-Turner Overdrive-Roll On)
1945 Misha Dichter Shanghai China, pianist (Tchaikowsy 2nd prize-1966)
1947 A Martinez Glendale Calif, actor (Whiz Kids, Cruz-Santa Barbara)
1947 Cheryl Tiegs Minnesota, model's figure
1947 Liz Torres Bronx NY, actress (Phyllis, All in the Family)
1947 Meatloaf aka Marvin Lee Aday, Dallas, rocker (Bat Out of Hell)
1949 Mike Schmidt 3rd baseman & HR hitter (Phillies)
1949 Robb Weller TV host (Entertainment Tonight, Home Show)
1952 Del Russel Pasadena Calif, actor (Richard-Arnie)
1952 Dumitru Prunariu 1st Romanian space traveler (on board Soyuz 40)
1958 Shaun Cassidy LA Calif, actor/singer (Hardy Boys, Breaking Away)
1959 Beth Heiden Madison Wisc, 3000m speed skater (Olympic-bronze-1980)
1963 Caren Metschuck German DR, 100m butterfly swimmer (Olympic-gold-1980)
1970 Mark Caldero vocalist (Color Me Badd-I Want to Sex You Up)

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Deaths which occurred on September 27:
1404 William of Wykeham, chancellor/Bishop of Winchester.
1660 St Vincent de Paul Vincentian Cong founder, dies
1870 Henry TP Comstock Canadian silver prospector, dies at 50
1956 Milburn Apt in X-2 rocket plane reaches 3370 kph, but, dies in crash
1956 Mildred "Babe" Didrickson Zaharias great female athlete, dies
1962 Francisco Brochado da Rocha PM of Brazil (1962), dies at 52
1965 Harry Reser orch leader (Sammy Kaye Show), dies at 69
1972 Rory Storm lead singer of Rory Storm & Hurricane, commits suicide
1979 Jimmy McCullough musician (Wings), dies of a drug overdose
1981 Robert Montgomery actor/dir (Robert Montgomery Presents), dies at 77
1984 John Facenda sportscaster (NFL Action), dies at 72
1985 Lloyd Nolan actor (Dr Chegley-Julia), dies of lung cancer at 83
1988 William V Shannon US ambassador to Ireland (1977-81), dies at 61
1993 James H Doolittle, US air force general (led first raid over Tokyo 1942), dies at 96
1996 Mohammed Najibullah, Pres of Afghanistan Democratic Party (1986-90), executed

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Reported: MISSING in ACTION

1965 HALL GEORGE R. HAITTIESBURG MS.
["02/12/73 RELEASED BY DRV",ALIVE AND WELL 98]
1966 SPILMAN DYKE A. WILDWOOD NJ.
1966 STINE JOSEPH M. EVERETT PA.
1968 SMITH WILLIAM A. JR. BATTLE CREEK MI.
1969 FISHER DAVID JOHN AUSTRALIA 1969 HUNTLEY JOHN N. PORTLAND ME.

POW / MIA Data & Bios supplied by
the P.O.W. NETWORK. Skidmore, MO. USA.

---

On this day...
0070 Walls of upper city of Jerusalem battered down by Romans
1290 Earthquake in Gulf of Chili China, reportedly kills 100,000
1540 Society of Jesus (Jesuits) founded by Ignatius Loyola
1669 The island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea falls to the Ottoman Turks after a 21-year siege.
1777 Battle of Germantown; Washington defeated by the British
1779 John Adams negotiates Revolutionary War peace terms with Britain
1787 Constitution submitted to the states for ratification
1791 Jews in France are granted French citizenship.
1821 Mexican Empire declares its independence
1821 Revolutionary forces occupy Mexico City as Spanish withdraw
1825 Railroad transportation is born with 1st track in England
1854 Steamship Arctic sank with 300 people aboard
1863 Jo Shelby's calvery in action at Moffat's Station, Arkansas
1864 Battle at Pilot Knob (Ft Davidson), Missouri: 1700 killed/injured
1864 Confederate guerrilla Bloody Bill Anderson and his henchmen, including a teenage Jesse James, massacre 20 unarmed Union soldiers at Centralia, Missouri. The event becomes known as the Centralia Massacre.
1869 After only five weeks in office as sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas, Wild Bill Hickok, found it necessary to kill his second man in the name of preserving peace.
1877 John Mercer Langston named minister of Haiti
1881 Chicago Cubs beat Troy 10-8 before record small "crowd" of 12
1892 Diamond Match Company bought the patent for book matches
1894 Aqueduct racetrack opens in NY
1905 1st published blues composition goes on sale, WC Handy Memphis Blues
1905 Boston's Bill Dinneen no-hits Chic White Sox, 2-0
1910 1st test flight of a twin-engined airplance (France)
1912 W C Handy publishes "Memphis Blues" 1st Blues Song,
1919 Democratic National Committee votes to admit women
1919 Pitcher Bob Shawkey sets then Yank record with 15 strike-outs
1920 Eight Chicago White Sox players are charged with fixing the 1919 World Series. (Black Sox scandal)
1921 Yanks beat Indians 21-7 in Polo Grounds
1923 Lou Gehrig's 1st homer
1928 US recognizes Nationalist Chinese government
1930 Bobby Jones completes the Grand Slam of Golf
1930 White Sox 1st baseman Bud Clancy didn't handle the ball at all in a 9 inning game vs St Louis Browns
1931 Lou Gehrig completes his 6th straight season, playing in every game
1936 Franco troops conquer Toledo
1937 1st Santa Claus school opens (Albion NY)
1938 Ocean liner Queen Elizabeth launched at Glasgow
1939 Warsaw, Poland, surrenders to Germans after 19 days of resistance
1940 55 German aircrafts shot down above England
1940 Black leaders protest discrimination in US armed forces
1940 Floyd Giebells, 1st game, 2-0 pennant clinching beating Bob Feller
1941 1st WW II liberty ship, freighter Patrick Henry, launched
1942 NY Giants beat Wash Redskins 14-7 without making a 1st down
1942 St Louis Cards win NL pennant on last day of the season
1950 Heavyweight champ Ezzard Charles defeats Joe Louis
1953 Bert Bechichar, Baltimore Colts, kicks a 56-yard field goal
1953 Typhoon destroys 1/3 of Nagoya Japan
1954 School integration begins in Wash DC & Baltimore Md public schools
1954 Steve Allen's "Tonight Show" premiers
1956 The U.S. Air Force Bell X-2, the world's fastest and highest-flying plane, crashes, killing the test pilot.
1959 Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev concludes his US visit
1959 Typhoon Vera, hits Japanese island of Honshu, kills nearly 5,000
1961 Sierre Leone becomes the 100th member of the UN
1962 US sells Israel, Hawk anti-aircraft missiles
1963 At 10:59 AM the census clock, records US population at 190,000,000
1964 Phillies 7th straight loses sends them into 2nd place
1964 Warren Commission released, finding Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone
1967 Phillies Jim Bunning ties NL record of 5, 1-0 losses in a year
1968 France vetoes UK entry into common market
1968 Cardinal's super pitcher Bob Gibson's 13th shutout of the year
1970 Ken Boswell sets 2nd baseman record of 85 games without an error
1972 1st game at Nassau Coliseum, Rangers beat Islanders 6-4 (exhibition)
1973 Nolan Ryan strikesout his 383rd batter of the year
1973 Soyuz 12 carries 2 cosmonauts into Earth orbit (2 days)
1977 Phillies clinch 2nd straight NL East Division title
1979 Congress' final approval to create Dept of Education
1980 WHOT (Bkln NY pirate radio station) begins on 1620 AM & 92.5 FM
1982 John Palmer becomes news anchor of the Today Show
1985 Hurricane Gloria's 130 MPH wind hits the Atlantic coast
1986 Senate joins House of Reps voting for sweeping tax reforms
1987 NFL players' strike
1988 Grand jury evidence shows Tawana Brawley fabricated rape story
1988 Lab tests reportedly show Shroud of Turin not Christ`s burial cloth
1988 Senate votes for major federal tax code changes
1989 Sony purchases Columbia Pictures for $3.4 billion cash
1990 A gunman holds 33 people (killing 1) hostage in Berkley Calif
1990 Deposed emir of Kuwait address the UN General Assembly
1990 Senate Judiciary committee approves Souter's Supreme Court nomination
1990 Tour de France champion Greg LeMond visits White House
1991 "Princesses" premiers on CBS TV
1991 Pres Bush decides to end full-time B-52 bombers alert
1991 1st scheduled NHL exhibition game in St Petersburg Fla, is cancelled due to poor ice conditions (NY Islanders vs Boston Bruins)
1996 In Afghanistan, the Taliban, a band of former seminary students, seized control of Afghanistan from the previous rebel group that'd taken the country back from Moscow's control. Enforced strict Islamic law across the nation
1998 Gerhard Schroder led Germany's Social Democratic Party to victory in parliamentary elections, bringing to an end 16 years of power by Chancellor Helmut Kohl and his Christian Democratic Party.

---

Holidays
Note: Some Holidays are only applicable on a given "day of the week"

South Belgium : French Day
Taiwan : Moon Festival
World : Ancestor Appreciation Day
US : Gold Star Mother's Day (Last Sunday in September) (Sunday)
US : Good Neighbor Day (4th Sunday in September) (Sunday)
US : Press Sunday (Sunday)
US : American Indian Day (4th Friday in September) (1916) (Friday)
Hong Kong : Moon Cake Festival

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Religious Observances
Orth-Eth : Exaltation of the Precious & Life-Giving Cross (9/14 OS)
Old Catholic : Feast of SS Cosmas & Damian, martyrs
RC : Memorial of Vincent de Paul, priest, patron of charitable works
Judaism : Rosh Hashanah The year 5764

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Religious History
1540 Through the encyclical "Regimini militantis ecclesiae," Pope Paul III officially approved the Society of Jesus, a body of priests organized by Ignatius of Loyola in 1534 for missionary work. Today, the Jesuits constitute the largest Catholic teaching order in the United States.
1735 Birth of Robert Robinson, English clergyman and author of the hymn, "Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing." He was converted at age 20 under the preaching of revivalist George Whitefield.
1785 The Protestant Episcopal Church in the U.S. was founded on this date, following the American Revolutionary War, when U.S. Anglicans met in Philadelphia to create a denomination independent from and autonomous of the Church of England.
1947 The Church of South India was officially formed by the merger of three denominations: the Anglicans, the Methodists and the South India United Church (a Presbyterian and Congregational union). Historically, it was the first union ever between episcopal and non-episcopal bodies.
1957 The dramatic anthology series "Crossroads" aired for the last time over ABC television. Depicting the work of various clergymen, the series had premiered in October 1955.

Source: William D. Blake. ALMANAC OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. Minneapolis: Bethany House, 1987.

---

Thought for the day :
"Let a fool hold his tongue and he will pass for a sage."

---

YOU MIGHT BE REDNECK IF ...
You think ICQ is how smart your computer is.

---

Murphys Law of the day...(Freeman's Law)
Nothing is so simple it cannot be misunderstood.

---

It's a little known fact that...
Bayer was advertising cough medicine containing heroin in 1898

[The Mayor]

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning SAM. Just finished reading. Thank you for todays lesson on Grant. Being from Ohio you'd think I would know more about him but I learned a lot on today's thread.

As far as his presidency, it seems as though he thought the government could run itself and for two terms! I also see the corruption was out of control and was probably easy to get away with since Grant appears apathetic about his role as president.

[snippy_about_it]

He had many good policies but could not get them past is distracters.Good morning quietolong.

In reading today's thread I found it interesting that he didn't seem to exert much control over his cabinet after being a leader in the field of battle.

He appears to have been somewhat apathetic about his role as president.

I readily admit to being "unschooled" about Grant and would appreciate any comments you could add as to why it seems he didn't put up much of a fight for his policies.

Thanks.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning EGC.

Made it through a very stormy night with tornado watches, lots of storms rolled through, kept me awake. All quiet cold and slight rain today.

How's things out your way today?

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Samwise.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning and thank you Valin.

Birthdays:1722 Samuel Adams revolutionary rabble rouser/(Lt Gov-Mass, 1789-94)

Quote:
"Even when there is a necessity of military power, within the land,...a wise and prudent people will always have a watchful & jealous eye over it." -- Samuel Adams




Quote:
"..It does not require a majority to prevail, but rather an irate, tireless minority keen to set brush fires in people's minds.." -- Samuel Adams


SAMWolf, this last quote reminds me of you :)

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning manna.

[snippy_about_it]

Good morning Mayor. I think I'm going to need an extra pot of that coffee this morning.

mmmmm. donuts!