Ulysses S. Grant | |
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![]() General Grant in 1864 | |
Commanding General of the United States Army | |
In office March 9, 1864 – March 4, 1869 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Hiram Ulysses Grant April 27, 1822 Point Pleasant, Ohio, U.S. |
Died | July 23, 1885 Wilton, New York, U.S. | (aged 63)
Military service | |
Branch/service | United States Army (Union Army) |
Years of service | 1861–1869 |
Rank | General of the Army |
Commands |
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Battles/wars | |
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Pre-presidency 18th President of the United States ![]() |
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On the onset of the American Civil War in April 1861, Ulysses S. Grant was working as a clerk in his father's leather goods store in Galena, Illinois. When the war began, his military experience was needed, and congressman Elihu B. Washburne became his patron in political affairs and promotions in Illinois and nationwide.
Grant trained Union military recruits and was promoted to colonel in June 1861. Major general John C. Frémont, who viewed in Grant an "iron will" to win, appointed Grant to commander of the District of Cairo. Grant became famous around the nation after capturing Fort Donelson in February 1862 and was promoted to major general by president Abraham Lincoln. After a series of decisive yet costly battles and victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general by Lincoln in 1864 and given charge of all the Union armies. Grant went on to defeat Robert E. Lee after another series of costly battles in the Overland Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. After the Civil War, Grant was given his final promotion of general of the Armed Forces in 1866 and served until 1869. His popularity as a Union war general enabled him to be elected president in 1868.
Grant was the most acclaimed Union general during the Civil War.[1] Some historians have viewed him as a "butcher" commander who in 1864 used attrition without regard to the lives of his own soldiers in order to kill off the enemy which could no longer replenish its losses.[2] Throughout the Civil War, Grant's armies incurred approximately 154,000 casualties, while having inflicted 191,000 casualties on his opposing Confederate armies.[3] In terms of success, Grant was the only general during the Civil War who received the surrender of three Confederate armies.[2] Although Grant maintained high casualties during the Overland Campaign in 1864, his aggressive fighting strategy was in compliance with the U.S. government's strategic war aims[2] and was in any case abetted by profligate Confederate generals who were willing to match his losses. Grant has recently been praised by historians for his "military genius" and viewed as a decisive general who emphasized movement and logistics.[4] Grant is considered a modern, natural, and skillful general, leading from a central command center, using common sense, and delivering coordinated attacks on the enemy's armies.[5]