Ulysses S. Grant, 1822-1885

[Mentioned in Science and Health, p. 492]

Ulysses S. Grant , eighteenth President of the United States, owed his election to the United States, owed his election to the distinction he won in the Civil War. Before this war, he disliked Army life. He found his West Point years "about five times as long as Ohio years" on his father's farm.

On his first assignment with the Fourth Infantry in St. Louis, he applied for an assistant professorship in mathematics at West Point. But before anything was worked out, his regiment was ordered to the Mexican War. After the storming of Chapultepec, he received this citation: "Lieut. Grant, 4th Infantry, acquitted himself most nobly upon several occasions." Still he had no enthusiasm for the Army, and after further garrison service, during which time he won his captaincy, he resigned from it.

After the fall of Fort Sumter, Grant, who had been working in his father's leather store, joined the Army. He was made colonel of the Twenty-first Regiment of Illinois Infantry. From the first, he demonstrated ability and skill as a leader. His capture of Fort Donelson was a turning point in the war, and his message to the Confederate general, who asked for an armistice, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted," led to the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant."

The following year he took Vicksburg and Chattanooga, and early in 1864 he received from President Lincoln the supreme command of the Union forces. Grant purposed to mass his forces and thereby wear down the enemy. From Spottsylvania Court House he issued this bulletin: "We have now ended the sixth day of very heavy fighting. . . . I . . . propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer." Many months of heavy fighting finally led to the surrender at Appomattox. His delicacy and kindness in his interview with General showed the innate modesty and magnanimity of Grant's character.

Grant's two terms as President were troubled by reconstruction problems and his inexperience, both in politics and with politicians. Relations, however, between England and the United States improved markedly.

To provide for his family, Grant undertook to write his memories and finished them four days before his death. In writing them, he expressed, even in ill-health, the persistence and devotion which had always characterized him.

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