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Grant finished 21st in a class of 39 at West Point, but he distinguished himself as a soldier in the Mexican War, a conflict that he believed to be morally wrong. He called it "a wicked war" in his memoirs. But it was there that he would first meet some of the men who would later become well known in the Civil War, including Robert E. Lee, George McClellan, George Meade, Jefferson Davis and Franklin Pierce. He greatly admired his commander, General Zachary Taylor.
After the Mexican War, Grant kicked around the army, and tried to supplement his military income with some business ventures. Those failed, and in 1854 he resigned from the army as an alternative to being court-martialled for his drinking. He continued to struggle financially, and ended up working for his father at a tannery in Galena, Illinois.
When the war broke out in 1861, Grant helped with recruitment efforts in his home state. He wanted a field command in the regular Army and made multiple efforts to ask Major General George B. McClellan for one, but he had no success. Illinois Congressman Elihu B. Washburne helped Grant to be put in charge of the unruly 21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Grant did a good job and was promoted by President Abraham Lincoln to Brigadier General, on Washburne's recommendation. By the end of August 1861, Major General John C. Frémont assigned Grant to the District of Cairo in southern Illinois.
Grant's troops first saw action in late 1861. He was originally restrained by his commander, but when Lincoln relieved Frémont from command, Grant attacked Fort Belmont on November 7, 1861. He initially took the fort, but his army was later pushed back to Cairo by the reinforced Confederates under Brigadier General Gideon J. Pillow. Following Belmont, Grant asked Major General Henry Halleck for permission to move against Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Halleck reluctantly agreed and Grant's troops, with the aid of Admiral Andrew Foote's naval forces, successfully captured Fort Henry on February 6, 1862.Grant's force went on to capture nearby Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River on February 16. Confederate General Gideon Pillow fled the fort and relinquished command to Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner, who surrendered to Grant the next day. The Northern press repeated Grant's terms, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender." Grant became a celebrity in the North, and was given the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. With these victories, President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to major-general of volunteers.
Grant's Union army, known as the Army of the Tennessee, had increased to 48,894 troops. Grant met with Brigadier General William T. Sherman, and the two planned an attack the Confederate stronghold at Corinth, Mississippi. On April 6, 1862, the two armies met at the Battle of Shiloh. Over 44,000 Confederate troops, led by Generals Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard, attacked the five divisions of Grant's army. At the end of the day, the Union Army was on the verge of being destroyed, but Grant and Sherman rallied their troops for a counterattack the next morning. With reinforcement troops from Major General Don Carlos Buell and Major General Lew Wallace, Grant succeeded in driving the Confederates back to the road from Corinth. The battle was the costliest of the war to date, with total Union and Confederate casualties of 23,746, and minimal strategic advantage gained by either side. Grant later remarked that Shiloh had made it clear to him that the Confederacy would only be defeated by complete annihilation of its armies. Grant was criticized by General Halleck, who transferred command of the Army of the Tennessee to Brigadier General George H. Thomas and promoted Grant to the hollow rank of second-in-command of the western armies, effectively removing him from an active field command. Grant almost resigned from the army, but his good friend William T. Sherman convinced Grant to stay in the army.
President Lincoln had sent Charles A. Dana to investigate the conduct of the war on the western front. Dana sent Lincoln favorable reports about Grant and Lincoln reinstated Grant to his command of the Army of the Tennessee.
In December 1862, with Halleck's approval, Grant moved to take Vicksburg. Confederate cavalry raiders Brigadier General Nathan Bedford Forrest and Major General Earl Van Dorn stalled Grant's advance. He made a second attempt to capture Vicksburg, in 1863. With the help of Admiral David Porter, he was able to cross the Mississippi. After a series of battles, including the capture of a railroad junction near Jackson, Grant went on to defeat his enemy at the Battle of Champion Hill. Grant then assaulted the Vicksburg fortress twice and suffered serious losses. After the failed assault, Grant settled in for a siege lasting seven weeks. As the siege began, Grant lapsed into a two-day drinking episode. However the Confederates surrendered Vicksburg to Grant on July 4, 1863.
The fall of Vicksburg gave the Union control over the entire Mississippi and split the Confederacy in two. Vicksburg was a great morale boost for the Union, but Grant was criticized for some of his decisions and his reported drunkenness. Lincoln again sent Dana to investigate. Dana became one of Grant's best supporters.
Lincoln put Grant in command of the newly formed Division of the Mississippi in October 1863, giving Grant charge of the entire western theater of war except for Louisiana. After the Battle of Chickamauga, Confederate General Braxton Bragg forced Major General William Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland to retreat into Chattanooga. Bragg surrounded the city, and trapped the Union army inside. Major General George H. Thomas and the XIV Corps kept the Army of the Cumberland from complete defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga. Grant relieved Rosecrans from duty and placed Thomas in charge of the Army of the Cumberland. Grant personally rode out to Chattanooga and took charge of the situation. Lincoln sent Major General Joseph Hooker and two divisions of the Army of the Potomac to reinforce the Army of the Cumberland, but Confederate forces kept the two armies from meeting. Grant was able to open up a supply line to the Army of the Cumberland, still trapped in Chattanooga. On November 23, 1863, Grant organized three armies to attack Bragg's troops on Missionary Ridge and Lookout Mountain. The next day, Sherman and four divisions of the Army of the Tennessee attacked Bragg's right flank. Thomas and the Army of the Cumberland overtook part of Missionary Ridge. Hooker's forces took Lookout Mountain and captured 1,064 prisoners. On November 25, Sherman continued his attack on Bragg. Bragg withdrew Confederate troops on the main ridge and Grant ordered Thomas to make a general assault on Missionary Ridge. The Army of the Cumberland captured the first Confederate entrenchments. It continued uphill and captured the Confederate's secondary entrenchments on top of Missionary Ridge, forcing the Confederates to retreat. The battle opened Georgia to Union invasion.
Lincoln promoted to Lieutenant General, a rank before only held by George Washington and Winfield Scott. Disappointed with Major General George Meade's failure to pursue Lee after the Confederate defeat at the Battle of Gettysburg, Lincoln made Grant commander of all Union armies in March 1864. Grant gave the Department of the Mississippi to Sherman, and went to Washington, D.C. to devise a strategy with Lincoln. Grant established his headquarters near Meade's Army of the Potomac in Culpeper, Virginia.
The Union plan was to bring about a speedy victory by coordinated Union offensives. Sherman would attack Atlanta and Georgia, while Meade would lead the Army of the Potomac, with Grant in camp, to attack Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Major General Benjamin Butler was to attack and advance towards Richmond from the south, going up the James River. Grant was riding a rising tide of popularity, and there talk that a Union victory early in the year could make Grant a candidate for the presidency in 1864. Grant told Lincoln he had no such ambitions.
Butler's efforts sputtered, and Grant was left alone to fight Lee in a series of bloody battles known as the Overland Campaign. Grant crossed the Rapidan River on May 4, 1864 and attacked Lee in the Wilderness, a hard-fought three-day battle with many casualties. Rather than retreat, Grant attempted to wedge the Union Army between Lee and Richmond at Spotsylvania. Lee's army got to Spotsylvania first, and a costly battle began there lasted thirteen days. Unable to break Lee's line of defense after repeated attempts, Grant moved the Union Army to Cold Harbor, a vital railroad hub that linked to Richmond. Lee's men were able to entrench against the Union assault. During the third day of the thirteen-day battle, Grant led a costly assault on Lee's trenches. As news spread in the North, heavy criticism fell on Grant. He was called "Grant the Butcher" by the Northern press, because the Union Army had suffered 52,788 casualties in thirty days since Grant crossed the Rapidan. Lee suffered 32,907 Confederate casualties over the same period, but he was less able to replace them. The two armies fought to a stalemate, and the generals agreed to a truce so that the dead and dying could be removed from the battlefield. Unknown to Lee, Grant pulled out of Cold Harbor and moved his army south of the James River, where he freed up Major General Butler and attacked Petersburg, Richmond's central railroad hub.
Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard was in charge of Petersburg, and was able to defend the cit until Lee's reinforcements arrived. Grant forced Lee into a long nine-month siege of Petersburg, and the war effort stalled. Northern resentment grew as the war dragged on. However the Petersburg siege prevented Lee from reinforcing armies to oppose Sherman and Sheridan. During the siege, Sherman was able to take Atlanta, a victory that greatly helped President Lincoln's reelection. Lee had sent General Jubal Early up the Shenandoah Valley to attack the federal capital and draw troops away from the Army of the Potomac, but General Phillip Sheridan defeated Early, saving Washington from capture.
In an incident known as "the Crater", Grant approved a plan to blow up part of Lee's Petersburg trenches from an underground tunnel, but the explosion created a crater from which Confederates could easily pick off Union troops below. The 3500 Union casualties outnumbered the Confederates' by three-to-one and Grant admitted the plan was a "stupendous failure."
On August 9, 1864, Grant, who had just arrived at his headquarters in City Point, narrowly escaped death when Confederate spies blew up an ammunition barge moored below the city's bluffs.
Once Sherman reached the East Coast and Thomas dispatched Hood in Tennessee, Union victory appeared certain. In March 1865, Lincoln met at City Point with Grant, Sherman, and Porter. While there, Union forces finally took Petersburg and captured Richmond in April. Lee's troops began deserting in large numbers. Lee tried to link up with what was left of Confederate General Joseph E. Johnston's defeated army, but Union cavalry forces led by Sheridan were able to stop the two armies from meeting.
Seeing the futility of carrying on, Lee and his army surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Grant gave generous terms. Confederate troops were required to surrender their weapons, but were allowed to return to their homes with their mounts, on condition that they would not take up arms against the United States. Although other fighting continued elsewhere, the Civil War was effectively over.