Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant (b 1822) was an officer in the United States Army in the mid-nineteenth century. He held general's rank during the War of Secession.

Shortly after Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter, President Abraham Lincoln put out a call for 75,000 volunteers. Grant helped recruit a company of volunteers, and despite declining the unit's captaincy, he accompanied it to Springfield, the state capital. Grant accepted a position offered by the governor, Richard Yates, to recruit volunteers, but pressed on multiple occasions for a field command. The governor, recognizing that Grant was a West Point graduate, eventually appointed him Colonel of the undisciplined and rebellious 21st Illinois Infantry, effective June 17, 1861.

With Union sentiments in Missouri divided, opposing forces began gathering in the state. Grant's regiment was ordered there, and upon arriving, he concentrated on drilling his men and establishing discipline. On August 7, he was appointed brigadier general of volunteers, a decision by President Lincoln that was strongly influenced by Elihu Washburne's political clout. After first serving in a couple of lesser commands, at the end of the month, Grant was selected by Western Theater commander Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont to command the critical District of Southeast Missouri.

Grant's first important strategic act of the war was to take the initiative to seize the Ohio River town of Paducah, Kentucky, immediately after the Confederates violated the state's neutrality by occupying Columbus. He fought his first battle, an indecisive action against Confederate General Gideon J. Pillow at Belmont, Missouri, in November 1861. Three months later, aided by Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote's gunboats, he captured Fort Henry, on the Tennessee River, and Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River. At Donelson his army was hit by a surprise Confederate attack (once again by Pillow) while he was temporarily absent. Displaying the cool determination that would characterize his leadership in future battles, he organized counterattacks that carried the day. The captures of the two forts were the first major Union victories of the war. The Confederate commander, Brig. Gen. Simon B. Buckner, an old friend of Grant's, yielded to Grant's hard conditions of "no terms except unconditional and immediate surrender." Buckner's surrender of 14,000 men made Grant a national figure almost overnight, and he was nicknamed "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. This victory also won him promotion to major general of volunteers.

Despite his significant victories, or perhaps because of them, Grant fell out of favor with his superior, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck. Halleck objected to Grant's visit to Nashville, where he met with Halleck's rival, Don Carlos Buell, and used that as an excuse to relieve Grant of field command on March 2. Personal intervention from President Lincoln caused Halleck to restore Grant, who rejoined his army on March 17.

In early April 1862, Grant was surprised by Gens. Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard at the Battle of Shiloh. The sheer violence of the Confederate attack sent the Union forces reeling. Nevertheless, Grant refused to retreat. With grim determination, he stabilized his line. Then, on the second day, with the help of timely reinforcements, Grant counterattacked, turning a serious reverse into a victory.

Despite Shiloh being a Union victory, it came at a high price; it was the bloodiest battle in United States history up until then, with over 23,000 casualties. Halleck was unhappy by Grant being surprised and the disorganized nature of the fighting. In response, Halleck took command of the army in the field himself on April 30, relegating Grant to the powerless position of second-in-command for the campaign against Corinth, Mississippi. Despondent over this reversal, Grant decided to resign. Only by the intervention of his subordinate and good friend, William T. Sherman, did he remain. When Halleck was promoted to general-in-chief of the Union Army, Grant resumed his position as commander of the Army of West Tennessee (later more famously named the Army of the Tennessee) on June 10. He commanded the army for the battles of Corinth and Iuka that fall, but had little direct effect at the tactical level.

Grant's victories came to naught, of course; in the East, General George McClellan allowed his Army of the Potomac to be destroyed at Camp Hill, Philadelphia was taken by the Army of Northern Virginia, and British and French intervention forced the US to surrender. Grant became deeply depressed and reverted to his prewar alcoholism, of which he died some time after the Second Mexican War. (At the outset of that war, he was one of the few sympathetic members of a crowd in Illinois addressed by Frederick Douglass.)