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18th President (Hiram) Ulysses S. Grant

Male 1822 - 1885  (63 years)    Has more than 100 ancestors and 55 descendants in this family tree.

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  • Name (Hiram) Ulysses S. Grant  [1
    Prefix 18th President 
    Birth 27 Apr 1822  Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Gender Male 
    Prominent People 1869 
    Death 23 Jul 1885  Mount Mcgregor, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Burial Grant's Tomb, Riverside Park, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Siblings 5 Siblings 
    Person ID I74610  Geneagraphie
    Last Modified 25 May 2002 

    Father Jesse Root Grant,   b. 23 Jan 1794, Greensburg, Westmoreland Co, Pennsylvania, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 29 Jun 1873, Covington, Kentucky, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 79 years) 
    Mother Hannah Simpson,   b. 23 Nov 1798, Horsham. Montgomery, Pennsylvania, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 11 May 1883, Jersey City, Hudson Co, New Jersey, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 84 years) 
    Marriage 24 Jun 1820  Point Pleasant, Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this location 
    Family ID F30328  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family Julia Boggs Dent,   b. 16 Feb 1826, White Haven, St Louis, Missouri, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 14 Dec 1902, Washington, District of Columbia, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 76 years) 
    Marriage 22 Aug 1848  St. Louis County, Missouri, USA Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Children 
    +1. Col. Frederick Dent Grant,   b. 30 May 1850, St. Louis County, Missouri, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 11 Apr 1912, New York, New York, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 61 years)
    +2. Ulysses Simpson Grant, Jr.,   b. 22 Jul 1852, Bethel, Claremont Co., Ohio, USA Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 26 Sep 1929, San Diego County, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 77 years)
    +3. Ellen Wrenshall Grant,   b. 4 Jul 1855, Washington-Wish Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 30 Aug 1922, Chicago, Cook Co., Illinois, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 67 years)
    +4. Jesse Root Grant, II,   b. 6 Feb 1858, Hardscrabble Find all individuals with events at this locationd. 8 Jun 1934, Los Altos, California, USA Find all individuals with events at this location (Age 76 years)
    Family ID F30327  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 29 Aug 2000 

  • Photos Photos (Log in)Photos (Log in)

  • Notes 
    • Was elected in 1868 over Horatio Seymour by a popular vote of 3,013,421 to 2,706,829 and an electoral vote of 214 to 80. Won reelection in 1872 by votes of 3,596,745 to 2,843,446 and 286 to 0 over Horace Greeley. Became known in 1862 as "Unconditional Surrender Grant". In 1864, Lt. General Grant was given command of the northern army; accepted General Lee's surrender at Appomattox.
      Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868. When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms."
      Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West Point rather against his will and graduated in the middle of his class. In the Mexican War he fought under Gen. Zachary Taylor. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father's leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. He sought to win control of the Mississippi Valley. In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donelson. When the Confederate commander asked for terms, Grant replied, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." The Confederates surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers. At Shiloh in April, Grant fought one of the bloodiest battles in the West and came out less well. President Lincoln fended off demands for his removal by saying, "I can't spare this man--he fights." For his next major objective, Grant maneuvered and fought skillfully to win Vicksburg, the key city on the Mississippi, and thus cut the Confederacy in two. Then he broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga. Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials. As President, Grant presided over the Government much as he had run the Army. Indeed he brought part of his Army staff to the White House. Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant as President accepted handsome presents from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen with two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk. When Grant realized their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the speculation had already wrought havoc with business. During his campaign for re-election in 1872, Grant was attacked by Liberal Republican reformers. He called them "narrow-headed men," their eyes so close together that "they can look out of the same gimlet hole without winking." The General's friends in the Republican Party came to be known proudly as "the Old Guard."
      Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run its course in the South, bolstering it at times with military force. After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became a partner in a financial firm, which went bankrupt. About that time he learned that he had cancer of the throat. He started writing his recollections to pay off his debts and provide for his family, racing against death to produce a memoir that ultimately earned nearly $450,000. Soon after completing the last page, in 1885, he died.

      He did not have the middle name "Simpson" -
      The name Simpson was entered by mistake on Ulysses' nomination to West Point. He later adopted the initial S.

  • Sources 
    1. [S32] Brian Tompsett, Presidents Database: Genealogy of the US Presidents, (based on book "The Presidents", pub. by Funk & Wagnall's).



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