GRANT 



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GRANT 



RANT, ULYSSES SIMPSON (1822- 

 1885), an American soldier and statesman who 

 achieved his great fame as commander-in-chief 

 of the Federal armies during the last year of 

 the War of Secession, when he directed the 

 final campaigns of that terrible struggle. With 

 a singleness of purpose and an unyielding de- 

 termination that wore out the defense of his 

 gallant opponents, Grant hammered his way 

 to victory and became the savior of the Union. 

 The keynote of his military career is revealed 

 in the message which he sent to Washington 

 from the battlefield of Spottsylvania, where for 

 two weeks, in 1864, the Confederate armies had 

 held Grant's forces in check: "I propose to 

 fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer." 

 In 1868 a grateful people elected him to the 

 highest civil office in the United States, the 

 Presidency, and reflected him four years later. 

 Grant was born on April 27, 1822, at Point 

 Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio. His father, 

 Jesse Grant, was seventh in descent from Mat- 

 thew Grant, a Scotchman who was one of the 

 original settlers of Dorchester, Mass., in 1630. 



HIS BIRTHPLACE 



and was one of the founders of Windsor, Conn., 

 in 1635. Noah Grant, grandfather of Ulysses, 

 fought in the Revolutionary War, and at its 

 close migrated first to Pennsylvania and later 

 to Ohio. Jesse Grant, the father of Ulysses, 



was a tanner by trade, and at one time was in 

 the employ of Owen Brown, the father of 

 John Brown of Osawatomie. In 1822, when 

 Ulysses was born, Jesse Grant was .in business 

 for himself at Point Pleasant, but in the next 



ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT 

 A man who was almost a failure until "he 

 found his work." 



year the family removed to Georgetown, about 

 forty miles southeast of Cincinnati. Here 

 Ulysses spent his boyhood, working on his 

 father's farm in summer and attending school 

 in winter. His father, ambitious for his son's 

 advancement, secured for him in 1839 an ap- 

 pointment to West Point, where Ulysses was. 

 graduated in 1843. 



It was at West Point that Grant adopted the 

 name "Ulysses Simpson"" He had been bap- 

 tized .Hiram Ulj r sses, but was known to his 

 family and friends as Ulysses. The member 

 of Congress who appointed him to the military 

 academy thought that Ulysses was his first 

 name, and that his middle name was probably 

 that of his mother's family, Simpson. The 

 appointment to West Point was therefore made 

 in the name of Ulysses Simpson Grant. The 

 West Point officials were notified of this mis- 



