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Presidents' Children: Frederick Dent Grant

A a general during the Civil War, Ulysses Grant was pejoratively called "Grant the Butcher" by his enemies because of the high number of casualties in man of the battles that he commanded in. Ironically, Grant was said to become squeamish at the sight of blood, and he was also said to be a very good family man who loved nothing more than to play wrestle with his young sons when they were children. Grant was described as "an uncommonly devoted parent". His letters contain many expressions of affection for his children. Horace Porter, one of Grant's staff officers, wrote, "the children often romped with him and he joined in their frolics as if they were all playmates together. The younger ones would hang around his neck while he was writing, make a terrible mess of the papers, and turn everything in his tent into a toy." Ulysses Grant and his wife, the former Julia Dent, had four children - three sons (Frederick, Ulysses Jr- known as "Buck" and Jessie) and one daughter (Ellen - called Nellie, who was third in line). Of the four, Frederick, the oldest child, probably had the most distinguished career and grew up to most resemble his famous father both in appearance and in career path.



Frederick Dent Grant was born in St. Louis Missouri on May 30, 1850 (165 years ago today). At the time his father was in the United States Army and Julia went home to be with her parents in St. Louis to give birth. During those years, the Grant family moved around quite a bit because Ulysses Grant was assigned to different army posts in Michigan and New York. Frederick spent much of his early childhood at his paternal grandparent's house, while his father was stationed on the West Coast. When Ulysses Grant resigned from the army in 1854, the family lived first in St. Louis (on a piece of land on Julia's father's property known as "Hardscrabble") until 1860 when the family moved to Galena, Illinois, where Grant took a job at his father's tannery. Frederick (called "Fred" by ha parents) attended public school in Galena until the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, when his father organized a volunteer regiment and began his civil war career. Fred accompanied his father when the regiment was sent to northern Missouri, but he was sent home once it arrived. He then rejoined his father off and on at several campaigns during the war. It wasn't uncommon for Julia and the children to join their father near the front from time to time.

After the war, Fred Grant followed in his father's footsteps by attending West Point in 1866. While at West Point, Grant was involved in a controversy concerning James Webster Smith, the first African-American admitted to West Point, who was admitted on June 1, 1870. Smith was from South Carolina and was sponsored by Senator Adelbert Ames of Mississippi and nominated by Representative Solomon L. Hoge of South Carolina. Smith was chosen for his outstanding character and scholarly ability. While at West Point, Smith was forced to endure immense racism, violence, and shunning by other West Point attendees, including Frederick Grant, his fellow cadet. Fred and the others were intent on driving Smith from the Academy. Smith wrote to his benefactors about the racial hazing, and one of them, David Clark, went to the White House to talk with President Grant. Fred was also at the meeting. Clark demanded that Grant stop the hazing. Fred was reported to say in front of his father, "the time had not come to send colored boys to West Point." When Clark disagreed, Fred is reported to have said, "Well, no damned nigger will ever graduate from West Point." Smith was later discharged after failing an unconventional private examination test by Professor Peter S. Mitchie, one that was designed for him to fail.

Fred Grant graduated in 1871 and was assigned to the 4th U.S. Cavalry Regiment. He took a brief leave of absence to work with the Union Pacific Railroad as a civil engineer, but returned to the army later in 1871, where he served as an aide-de-camp to General William Tecumseh Sherman, and accompanied Sherman to Europe. In 1872 he joined the 4th Cavalry in Texas and in 1873, he was assigned to the staff of General Philip Sheridan and promoted to lieutenant colonel. He traveled with Sheridan on the Yellowstone Expedition and was with General George Armstrong Custer during the Black Hills expedition, but fortunately was not part of Custer's forces at the Little Big Horn.

In 1874, Fred Grant married Ida Marie Honoré, the daughter of Henry Hamilton Honoré, a wealthy Chicago real estate mogul. The couple were married in Chicago. They had two children: Julia Dent Grant (born on June 6, 1876) and Ulysses S. Grant III (born July 4, 1881). When his daughter Julia was born, Grant received leave to travel to Washington, D.C. for her birth. His son Ulysses was also a West Point grad, graduating sixth in the class of 1903 and rose to the rank of Major General.

In 1877, Fred Grant took a leave of absence to accompany his father on Grant's famous "round-the-world" tour. He returned in 1878, and saw action in the Bannock War (an armed conflict between US forces and the Bannock and Paiute first nations in Idaho and Nevada during the summer of 1878). He also served in the battle to capture the Warm Springs warrior Chief Victorio in New Mexico in 1880.

Fred resigned from the army in 1881, and assisted his father in preparing the former president's memoirs. During this time, he was in business in New York City. After his father died in 1885, Fred Grant became more active politically. In 1887, he ran on the Republican ticket for Secretary of State of New York, but was defeated by the Democratic incumbent Frederick Cook. In 1889, Fred was appointed by President Benjamin Harrison as Minister to Austria-Hungary. After Grover Cleveland became president, Grant was allowed to continue in his post. Grant resigned in 1893. He became a commissioner of police in New York City in 1894, an office he held until 1898. He served alongside future President Theodore Roosevelt.

When the Spanish-American War broke out in 1898, Grant was commissioned as colonel of the 14th New York Volunteers on May 2, 1898 and was promoted to brigadier general of volunteers on the 27th of the same month. He served in the campaign in Puerto Rico under General Nelson Miles. In 1899, Grant was sent to the Philippines for service in the Philippine-American War, where he remained until 1902. On February 18, 1901, he was commissioned a brigadier general in the Regular Army. He returned to the United States and held various commands and was promoted to major general in 1906. At the time of his death, he was the commander for the Eastern Division which included the Department of the East and the Department of the Gulf.



Frederick Grant died of cancer, the same illness that took his father's life. Fred died at Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York City on April 12, 1912, just over a month shy of his 62nd birthday. He was buried in West Point Cemetery.