Who was Ulysses S. Grant?

He was the Union general-in-chief who won the American Civil War (1822 to 1885) and the 18th president of the United States.

What is Grant famous for?

For winning the Civil War as commander of the Union armies, especially the capture of Vicksburg and the campaign that forced Robert E. Lee to surrender at Appomattox in 1865.

What happened at Appomattox?

In April 1865 Grant accepted the surrender of Robert E. Lee's army at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, on generous terms, effectively ending the American Civil War.

Was Grant a good general?

Yes. Though criticized for heavy casualties, he understood that the Union's advantages could only win the war through relentless pressure, and he delivered the victories that others could not.

What did Grant's victory achieve?

It preserved the United States as one nation and made possible the end of slavery, the central issue over which the war was fought, abolished by the 13th Amendment in 1865.

How is Grant remembered?

As the general who saved the Union, a two-term president who defended the rights of freed people, and the author of celebrated memoirs written as he was dying.

Ulysses S. Grant: the general who saved the Union

Ulysses S. Grant was the general who would not let go. In a war that had ground down commander after commander, he took hold of the Union armies and did not stop, taking Vicksburg to split the Confederacy and then hammering at Robert E. Lee until the South could fight no more. His victory preserved the United States and made possible the end of slavery, and he accepted the surrender that brought the nation back together.

Compare: Grant vs Lee

An unlikely soldier

Born in Ohio in 1822 and trained at West Point¹, Grant left the army and struggled in civilian life² before the Civil War called him back in 1861. Quiet and unassuming, he proved to have a rare gift: the nerve to keep attacking when others hesitated.

Vicksburg and command

In 1863 Grant's campaign against Vicksburg split the Confederacy in two along the Mississippi³, one of the decisive strokes of the war. After another Union victory at Chattanooga, President Lincoln, who had waited long for a general who would fight, made him general-in-chief of all Union armies in 1864.¹

Photographic portrait of Ulysses S. Grant — Ulysses S. Grant, photograph by Mathew Brady. Public domain.

Others hesitated; Grant kept attacking until the war was won.

Victory and Appomattox

Through the brutal Overland Campaign of 1864, Grant pressed Lee's army relentlessly, absorbing terrible losses but never releasing his grip. In April 1865 he accepted Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House¹ on generous terms, ending the war and reuniting the nation. His victory made possible the end of slavery: Congress passed the 13th Amendment in January 1865⁴ and it was ratified that December⁴, and Union victory made abolition enforceable.

Painting of Union and Confederate officers around a small table in a parlour — Lee surrenders to Grant in the McLean house at Appomattox Court House, April 1865. Painting by Alonzo Chappel, about 1870, Smithsonian American Art Museum. CC0 (public domain)

The presidency

Grant was elected the 18th president in 1868⁵ and worked to protect the rights of freed people during Reconstruction, though his administration was also marked by corruption scandals among his appointees¹. In his final months, dying of cancer, he wrote memoirs now regarded as a masterpiece³. He died in 1885, remembered as the soldier who saved the Union.

Photograph of an elderly Grant wrapped in a blanket in a wicker chair, writing on his lap — Grant, dying of cancer, writes his memoirs at Mount McGregor, New York, on 27 June 1885, less than a month before his death. Library of Congress. Public domain

See the war's turning point at the Battle of Gettysburg, or explore the greatest battles in American history.

Sources and notes

Numbered notes in the text point to the works below.

American Battlefield Trust, “Ulysses S. Grant” ↩ a b c d
Ronald C. White, American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant (Random House, 2016). ↩
Ron Chernow, Grant (Penguin Press, 2017). ↩ a b
U.S. National Archives, “13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution: Abolition of Slavery (1865)” ↩ a b
Miller Center, University of Virginia, “Ulysses S. Grant” ↩
World History Encyclopedia, “Ulysses S. Grant, Encyclopedia of World History”
Wikipedia, “Ulysses S. Grant, Wikipedia”