ULYSSES. S. GRANT.

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ULYSSES. S. GRANT.
(1822-1885).

By the end of the civil war Grant was the North's most successful General, born in Ohio Grant was in overwhole Command of the Army of the Potomac at the Wilderness. Grant graduated from West Point in 1843, coming only 21st from a class of 39, despite being a superb horseman he was sent to the Infantry, in which he for the next 11 years, distinguishing himself in the Mexican war, and reaching the rank of Captain.
The boredom of a posting to the Pacific Coast, which involved a long separation from his wife and children, lead Grant into heavy drinking, then in 1854 he resigned his commission.

With the outbreak of the civil war he helped raise a volunteer unit in Galena, Illinois, and the State Governor made him Colonel of the 21st Illinois Regiment, Grant spent most of the civil war in the Western theatre, first coming to the National attention when he captured the Confederate Fort Donelson in early 1862.

Although he was criticised for his conduct of the Federal forces at Shiloh, Grant soon got back his reputation, particularly after his capture of Vicksburg in 1863, in October the same year he was given overwhole Command of the whole Federal Armies in the Western theatre, five months later he was recalled to the White House to be promoted to Lieutenant General by the President, and given the overwhole command of the entire Federal forces, in the Spring of 1864 Grant embarked on a campaign against Gen Robert E. Lee and his Army of Northern Virginia, it lasted a year and fought in many bloody battles, notably at Spotsylvania and Cold Harbour, the sheer weight of numbers ground down the Confederate Forces, who surrendered on the 9th April 1865.

" I feel we are on the eve of a new era, when there is going to be a great harmony between the Federal and Confederate, I cannot say to be corrective of this prophecy, but I feel it within me that it is to be". ULYSSES. S. GRANT.

The qualities that served Grant so well in the civil war, stubbornness, independence, and aversion to politics', deserted him in peace time, he entered the Whitehouse pledged to honesty, peace and civil rights, but corruption tainted his two terms, after the Presidency, he settled in Manhattan, where he lent his name to a Wall street brokers firm, another partner in the firm stole millions from all the shareholders in 1884, and bankrupt the Grant family, once again Grant was pennyless, at almost the same time he was diagnosed of inoperable throat cancer, determined to provide for his family before he died, he set about writing his memoirs, in the Summer of 1885 he moved to a cottage at Mount McGregor, unable now to either eat or speak, he sat on his porch in the evenings, laboring over his manuscript, he finished it on the 16th July 1885,a week later he died, Grants memoirs sold over 500,000 copies, which restored his families fortunes.


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