Happy Birthday Ulysses Grant
On April 27, 1822 (191 years ago) Hiram Ulysses Grant, the 18th President of the United States, was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio.
Grant first made his mark as a successful Union general in the second half of the Civil War. Under Grant, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military forces and accepted the surrender of Robert E. Lee's army at Appomattox. As president Grant led the Radical Republicans in their effort to eliminate all vestiges of slavery. Upset over uncontrolled violence in the South and wanting to protect African Americans, Grant defeated the Ku Klux Klan as a force in 1871. He was the first President to establish Civil Service reform having created a federally funded Civil Service Commission in 1871.
A career soldier, Grant graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the Mexican–American War. When the Civil War began in 1861, Grant trained Union volunteer regiments in Illinois. In 1862, as a general he fought a series of battles and was promoted to major general after forcing the surrender of a large Confederate army and gaining control of Kentucky and most of Tennessee. He then led Union forces to victory after initial setbacks in the Battle of Shiloh, earning a reputation as an aggressive commander. In July 1863, after a long, complex campaign, Grant defeated five Confederate armies (capturing one of them) and seized Vicksburg. This famous victory gave the Union full control of the Mississippi River, split off the western Confederacy, and opened the way for more Union triumphs. After another win at the Battle of Chattanooga in late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made him lieutenant general and commander of all of the Union Armies.
As commanding general of the army, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of very bloody battles in 1864 known as the Overland Campaign that ended with the bottling up of Lee at Petersburg, outside the Confederate capital of Richmond. During the siege, Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns launched by William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George Thomas. Finally breaking through Lee's trenches, the Union Army captured Richmond in April 1865. Lee surrendered his depleted forces to Grant at Appomattox as the Confederacy collapsed. Pro-Confederate historians attacked Grant as a ruthless butcher who won by brute force, while other historians have hailed his military genius.
Grant's two consecutive terms as President stabilized the nation after the American Civil War and during the turbulent Reconstruction period that followed. As president, he enforced Reconstruction by enforcing civil rights laws and fighting Ku Klux Klan violence. Grant won passage of the Fifteenth Amendment; giving constitutional protection for African-American voting rights. He used the army to build the Republican Party in the South, based on African-American voters, Northern newcomers and some native white supporters. As a result, African Americans were represented in the U.S. Congress for the first time in American history in 1870.
Reformers praised Grant's Native American Indian peace policy by having broken the deadlock on Indian appropriations in Congress, the creation of the Board of Indian Commissioners to make reform recommendations, and his enlistment of Quaker Protestants who controlled mid western Indian agencies, that effectively curbed Congressional patronage. Grant remained determined in keeping Native Americans from being exterminated from white settler encroachment or by the U.S. military.
Grant's foreign policy, led by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, implemented International Arbitration, settled the Alabama Claims with Britain and avoided war with Spain over the Virginius Affair. His attempted annexation of the Dominican Republic failed. Grant's response to the Panic of 1873 gave necessary, although limited, financial relief to New York banking houses, but was ineffective in stopping the severe five-year industrial depression that followed. More than any other president, Grant had to respond to Congressional investigations into financial corruption charges of all federal departments.
After leaving office, Grant embarked on a two-year world tour that included many enthusiastic royal receptions. In 1880, he made an unsuccessful bid for a third presidential term. His memoirs were a critical and popular success.
Grant's historical reputation has significantly improved because of greater appreciation for his foreign policy and civil rights achievements, the Fifteenth Amendment, prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan, enforcement of voting rights, and his Indian Peace Policy. Northern Republican capitalists who desired reconciliation without concern for civil rights, joined together with Southern Democrats who forgot the American Civil War was caused by slavery, emphasized Grant's presidential scandals, rather than his role in breaking up the Gold Ring and prosecution of the Whiskey Ring.
Grant first made his mark as a successful Union general in the second half of the Civil War. Under Grant, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military forces and accepted the surrender of Robert E. Lee's army at Appomattox. As president Grant led the Radical Republicans in their effort to eliminate all vestiges of slavery. Upset over uncontrolled violence in the South and wanting to protect African Americans, Grant defeated the Ku Klux Klan as a force in 1871. He was the first President to establish Civil Service reform having created a federally funded Civil Service Commission in 1871.
A career soldier, Grant graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point and served in the Mexican–American War. When the Civil War began in 1861, Grant trained Union volunteer regiments in Illinois. In 1862, as a general he fought a series of battles and was promoted to major general after forcing the surrender of a large Confederate army and gaining control of Kentucky and most of Tennessee. He then led Union forces to victory after initial setbacks in the Battle of Shiloh, earning a reputation as an aggressive commander. In July 1863, after a long, complex campaign, Grant defeated five Confederate armies (capturing one of them) and seized Vicksburg. This famous victory gave the Union full control of the Mississippi River, split off the western Confederacy, and opened the way for more Union triumphs. After another win at the Battle of Chattanooga in late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made him lieutenant general and commander of all of the Union Armies.
As commanding general of the army, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of very bloody battles in 1864 known as the Overland Campaign that ended with the bottling up of Lee at Petersburg, outside the Confederate capital of Richmond. During the siege, Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns launched by William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George Thomas. Finally breaking through Lee's trenches, the Union Army captured Richmond in April 1865. Lee surrendered his depleted forces to Grant at Appomattox as the Confederacy collapsed. Pro-Confederate historians attacked Grant as a ruthless butcher who won by brute force, while other historians have hailed his military genius.
Grant's two consecutive terms as President stabilized the nation after the American Civil War and during the turbulent Reconstruction period that followed. As president, he enforced Reconstruction by enforcing civil rights laws and fighting Ku Klux Klan violence. Grant won passage of the Fifteenth Amendment; giving constitutional protection for African-American voting rights. He used the army to build the Republican Party in the South, based on African-American voters, Northern newcomers and some native white supporters. As a result, African Americans were represented in the U.S. Congress for the first time in American history in 1870.
Reformers praised Grant's Native American Indian peace policy by having broken the deadlock on Indian appropriations in Congress, the creation of the Board of Indian Commissioners to make reform recommendations, and his enlistment of Quaker Protestants who controlled mid western Indian agencies, that effectively curbed Congressional patronage. Grant remained determined in keeping Native Americans from being exterminated from white settler encroachment or by the U.S. military.
Grant's foreign policy, led by Secretary of State Hamilton Fish, implemented International Arbitration, settled the Alabama Claims with Britain and avoided war with Spain over the Virginius Affair. His attempted annexation of the Dominican Republic failed. Grant's response to the Panic of 1873 gave necessary, although limited, financial relief to New York banking houses, but was ineffective in stopping the severe five-year industrial depression that followed. More than any other president, Grant had to respond to Congressional investigations into financial corruption charges of all federal departments.
After leaving office, Grant embarked on a two-year world tour that included many enthusiastic royal receptions. In 1880, he made an unsuccessful bid for a third presidential term. His memoirs were a critical and popular success.
Grant's historical reputation has significantly improved because of greater appreciation for his foreign policy and civil rights achievements, the Fifteenth Amendment, prosecution of the Ku Klux Klan, enforcement of voting rights, and his Indian Peace Policy. Northern Republican capitalists who desired reconciliation without concern for civil rights, joined together with Southern Democrats who forgot the American Civil War was caused by slavery, emphasized Grant's presidential scandals, rather than his role in breaking up the Gold Ring and prosecution of the Whiskey Ring.