To recoup some of his losses, Grant wrote about his war experiences for Century Magazine. In 1868, Grant ran against Johnson to become eighteenth President of the United States, but in 1884, he lost his personal savings to a corrupt bank. The battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, and the subsequent siege of Petersburg effectively destroyed the rebel army, leading to the fall of Richmond and Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House in 1865.Īfter the Civil War, President Andrew Johnson named Grant Secretary of War over the newly reunited nation. Lee and his vaunted Army of Northern Virginia at any cost. Grant became determined to crush Robert E. In March 1864, President Lincoln elevated Grant to the rank of lieutenant general, and named him general-in-chief of the Armies of the United States. He fights.” Another hard-won victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi, in May of 1863, when coupled with the Northern victory at Gettysburg, marked the turning point in the war and established Grant as the premier commander in the federal army. Following Shiloh, Abraham Lincoln received several demands for Grant’s removal but the president refused, saying, “I can’t spare this man. Grant’s thinking changed, however, when a surprise attack by Confederate forces at the Battle of Shiloh yielded devastating casualties.

Though his first command was colonel of the 21st Illinois Infantry, by September Grant had assumed command of the District of Southeast Missouri.Įarly victories at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson in Tennessee in February 1862 earned Grant the moniker “Unconditional Surrender Grant” and led him to believe that the Confederacy would soon collapse. When the Civil War began in 1861, Grant volunteered for service in the Union army. Grant spent the next six years on the western frontier following short-lived pursuits that included farming and clerking in his family’s store. In 1854 it became necessary for Grant to resign his post in order to avoid discharge. Assigned monotonous duties at remote posts far from his family after the war, however, Grant neglected his work and drank heavily. Grant distinguished himself as a captain during the Mexican War (1846-1848), winning two citations for gallantry and one for meritorious conduct. Born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio in 1822, the future General-in-Chief graduated from West Point in 1843, where classmates knew him simply as “Sam.” After graduation, Ulysses S.

General grant memoirs