American President
Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885)
Facts at a Glance
- Term
- 18th President of the United States (1869–1877)
- Born
- April 27, 1822, Point Pleasant, Ohio
- Nickname
- “Hero of Appomattox”
- Education
- U.S. Military Academy, West Point, New York (graduated 1843)
- Religion
- Methodist
- Marriage
- August 22, 1848, to Julia Boggs Dent (1826–1902)
- Children
- Frederick Dent (1850–1912), Ulysses Simpson (1852–1929), Ellen Wrenshall (1855–1922), Jesse Root (1858–1934)
- Career
- Soldier
- Political Party
- Republican
- Writings
- Personal Memoirs (2 vols., 1885–1886); Papers (28 vols., 1967– ), ed. by John Y. Simon
- Died
- July 23, 1885, Mount McGregor, New York
- Buried
- Grant’s Tomb, New York, New York
- A Life in Brief
- Ulysses S. Grant is best known as the Union general who led the North to victory over the Confederate South during the American Civil War. As a President, however, he has long been dismissed as weak and ineffective. More »
- It was my fortune, or misfortune, to be called to the office of Chief Executive without any previous political training.
- December 5, 1876
Essays on Ulysses S. Grant and His Administration
- Ulysses S. Grant
- A Life in Brief
- Life Before the Presidency
- Campaigns and Elections
- Domestic Affairs
- Foreign Affairs
- Life After the Presidency
- Family Life
- Impact and Legacy
- Key Events
- First Lady
- Julia Grant
- Vice President
- Schuyler Colfax (1869–1873)
- Henry Wilson (1873–1875)
- Secretary of State
- Hamilton Fish (1869–1877)
- Elihu B. Washburne (1869–1869)
- Secretary of War
- John A. Rawlins (1869–1869)
- William W. Belknap (1869–1876)
- William T. Sherman (1869–1869)
- James D. Cameron (1876–1877)
- Alphonso Taft (1876–1876)
- Postmaster General
- John A. J. Creswell (1869–1874)
- Marshall Jewell (1874–1876)
- James W. Marshall (1874–1874)
- James N. Tyner (1876–1877)
- Secretary of the Interior
- Jacob D. Cox, Jr. (1869–1877)
- Columbus Delano (1870–1875)
- Zachariah Chandler (1875–1877)
- Secretary of the Treasury
- George S. Boutwell (1869–1873)
- William A. Richardson (1873–1874)
- Benjamin H. Bristow (1874–1876)
- Lot M. Morrill (1876–1877)
- Attorney General
- Ebenezer R. Hoar (1869–1870)
- Amos T. Akerman (1870–1871)
- George H. Williams (1871–1875)
- Edwards Pierrepont (1875–1876)
- Alphonso Taft (1876–1877)
- Secretary of the Navy
- George M. Robeson (1869–1877)
- Adolph E. Borie (1869–1869)
Consulting Editor: Joan Waugh
Professor Waugh is a professor of history at the University of California, Los Angeles. Her writings include:
U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth (University of North Carolina Press, 2009)
Wars within a War: Controversy and Conflict over the American Civil War (editor with Gary W. Gallagher, University of North Carolina Press, 2009)
The Memory of the Civil War in American Culture (editor with Alice Fahs, University of North Carolina Press, 2004)
Unsentimental Reformer: The Life of Josephine Shaw Lowell (Harvard University Press, 1998)
Presidential Speeches
Below are selections from the Miller Center’s Ulysses S. Grant speech collection.
March 4, 1869—Inaugural Address
Scholarship and Speakers
The Miller Center of Public Affairs is a national nonpartisan center to research, reflect, and report on American government, with special attention to the central role and history of the presidency. Below is a selection of Miller Center resources on Ulysses S. Grant.
Watch Historian Josiah Bunting’s 2005 presentation
at the Miller Center on Ulysses S. Grant.
Ulysses Grant came to the presidency with an abundance of experience as a military commander. Learn more about the Miller Center’s National War Powers Commission.
Learn more about the Center’s National Commission on the Presidential Nominating Process and its relationship to Grant.
Scripps Library Reference Resources
Below are links to reference resources prepared by the Miller Center’s Scripps Library, designed to help students and scholars conduct their research quickly.
Information on Ulysses S. Grant’s Private and Public Papers
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