Ulysses S. Grant
Born April 27, 1822
Point Pleasant, Ohio
Died July 23, 1885
Mount McGregor, New York
Union general who captured Vicksburg and defeated Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, ending the Civil War
Eighteenth president of the United States
Ulysses S. Grant was one of the greatest—and most unlikely—military commanders in American history. Prior to the Civil War, he struggled to provide for his family, first as a soldier and then as a businessman. But when the war began, he quickly showed that he was one of the North's top military leaders. During the first two years of the conflict, his victories at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga helped the Union seize control of the Confederacy's western states.
Grant then moved to the war's eastern theater (a large geographic area in which military operations take place), where he was given command of all the Union armies. Beginning in the spring of 1864, he brought the full power of the Union forces against the South. Grant's merciless use of sustained pressure against the weary armies and citizens of the Confederacy eventually forced the South to surrender in 1865. Four years later, Grant became president of the United States. But the North's greatest military hero never really learned how to be a good political leader, and his two terms in the White House were marked by scandal.
This is a free page. This page contains 201 words. This
article contains 3,671 words (approx. 12 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Article with our Ulysses S. Grant Access Pass.
