| Ulysses Grant | |
|---|---|
| 18th President of the United States | |
| In office March 4, 1869 – March 4, 1877 |
|
| Vice President | Schuyler Colfax Henry Wilson |
| Preceded by | Andrew Johnson |
| Succeeded by | Rutherford B. Hayes |
| Commanding General of the Army | |
| In office March 9, 1864 – March 4, 1869 |
|
| President | Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson |
| Preceded by | Henry Halleck |
| Succeeded by | William Sherman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | April 27, 1822 Point Pleasant, Ohio, U.S. |
| Died | July 23, 1885 (aged 63) Wilton, New York, U.S. |
| Political party | Republican |
| Spouse(s) | Julia Dent |
| Children | Jesse Ulysses Nellie Frederick |
| Alma mater | United States Military Academy |
| Profession | Soldier |
| Religion | Methodism |
| Signature | |
| Military service | |
| Allegiance | United States Union |
| Service/branch | Union Army United States Army |
| Years of service | 1839–1854 1861–1869 |
| Rank | General of the Army |
| Commands | 21st Illinois Infantry Regiment Army of the Tennessee Military Division of the Mississippi United States Army |
| Battles/wars | Mexican-American War |
Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States (1869–1877) and military commander during the Civil War and post-war Reconstruction. Under Grant, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and effectively ended the war with the surrender of the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox. Grant, born in Ohio of English and Scottish ancestry, shunned his father's trade, but had exhibited equestrian ability as a youth. With his father's guidance, he began a lifelong military career after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843. He fought in the Mexican–American War, resigned from the Army in 1854, and then struggled in business, while nurturing his growing family in St. Louis and Galena, Illinois.[1]
When the American Civil War began in 1861, Grant trained Union volunteer regiments as a colonel, and engaged the Confederates near Cairo, Illinois. In 1862, he fought a series of battles and was promoted to major general. He then led fierce combat at the Battle of Shiloh, earned a reputation as an aggressive commander, and eventually seized control of most of Kentucky and Tennessee. In July 1863, after a long, complex campaign, Grant defeated five uncoordinated Confederate armies (capturing one of them) and seized Vicksburg. This famous victory gave the Union full control of the Mississippi River, split off the western Confederacy, and opened the way for more Union triumphs. After another win at the Battle of Chattanooga in late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln made him lieutenant general and commander of all of the Union Armies. As Commanding General of the United States Army from 1864 to 1865, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of very high casualty battles known as the Overland Campaign that ended in a stalemate siege at Petersburg. During the siege, Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns launched by William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George Thomas. Finally breaking through Lee's trenches at Petersburg, the Union Army captured Richmond, the Confederate capital, in April 1865. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox; the Civil War soon ended and the Confederacy collapsed. Although Lee's allies denounced Grant in the 1870s as a ruthless butcher who won by brute force, most historians have hailed his military genius.[2]
During Reconstruction, General Grant implemented Congressional plans to reoccupy the South and hold elections in 1867, including black voters, which gave Republicans control of the Southern states. Enormously popular in the North after the Union victory, Grant was elected to the presidency in 1868. Reelected in 1872, he became the first president to serve two full terms since Andrew Jackson. As president, he effected Reconstruction by signing and enforcing civil rights laws and fighting Ku Klux Klan violence. He helped rebuild the Republican Party in the South, an effort that resulted in the election of African Americans to Congress and state governments for the first time. Grant's foreign policy, led by Sec. Hamilton Fish, implemented International Arbitration, settled the Alabama Claims with Britain and kept the United States out of war with Spain over the Virginius Incident.
Nevertheless, Grant's presidency was marred by economic disaster and multiple scandals in his administration. Political infighting between Sen. Charles Sumner and Grant, over Grant's attempted annexation of the Dominican Republic and patronage, initiated a Republican party split in 1872. His response to the Panic of 1873 and the severe depression that followed was heavily criticized. His inferior Cabinet and federal appointments and lack of accountability generated corruption in seven government departments. In 1876, his reputation was severely damaged by the graft trials of the Whiskey Ring. His image as a war hero was tarnished by the scandals during his presidency and he left office with diminished popularity.[3] After leaving office, Grant embarked on a two-year world tour that included many enthusiastic royal receptions. In 1880, he made an unsuccessful bid for a third presidential term. In 1884, insolvent and dying of cancer, he wrote his memoirs. Historians until recently have given Grant's presidency the worst rankings; his reputation, however, has significantly improved because of greater appreciation for his enforcement of African American voting and citizenship rights during Reconstruction.
Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio on April 27, 1822. His father Jesse Root Grant (1794–1873) was a self-reliant tanner and businessman of Yankee and English ancestry, from an austere family. His mother Hannah Simpson Grant (1798–1883) was of Scottish ancestry.[4] Both were natives of Pennsylvania. In the fall of 1823, the family moved to the village of Georgetown in Brown County, Ohio. Raised in a Methodist family devoid of religious pretentiousness, Grant prayed privately and was not an official member of the church.[5][6] Unlike his younger siblings, Grant was neither disciplined, baptized, nor forced to attend church by his parents.[7] Grant is said to have inherited a degree of introversion from his reserved, even "uncommonly detached" mother (she never took occasion to visit the White House during her son's presidency).[8] Grant assumed the duties expected of him as a young man at home, which primarily included maintaining the firewood supply; he thereby developed a noteworthy ability to work with, and control, horses in his charge, and used this in providing transportation as a vocation in his youth.[9] At the age of 17, with the help of his father, Grant was nominated by Congressman Thomas L. Hamer's for a position at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point, New York. Hamer mistakenly nominated him as "Ulysses S. Grant of Ohio." At West Point, he adopted this name with a middle initial only. His nickname became "Sam" among army colleagues at the academy, since the initials "U.S." stood for "Uncle Sam". The "S", according to Grant, did not "stand for anything", though Hamer had used it to abbreviate his mother's maiden name.[10][11][12]
The influence of Grant's family brought about the appointment to West Point, while Grant himself later recalled "a military life had no charms for me".[13] Grant, then standing at 5 ft 1 in, and weighing 117 lbs., graduated from West Point in 1843, ranking 21st in a class of 39. Part of Grant's demerits were due to his refusal, at times, of compulsorily church attendance; then a West Point policy that Grant viewed as anti-republican.[6] Grant freely admitted that he was lax in his studies; however, he achieved above average grades in Mathematics and Geology.[14] He established no close or lasting friendships while at West Point, though to his own later advantage, he closely observed the many notable officers he would serve with and command in the future.[15] At West Point, Grant studied under artist Robert Walter Weir and produced nine surviving artworks.[14] Trained under Prussian horse master, Herschberger, Grant established a reputation as a fearless and expert horseman, setting an equestrian high jump record that lasted almost 25 years.[14] Grant later recalled that his departure from West Point was of the happiest of his times, and that his intent had been to resign his comminssion after serving the minimum term of obligated duty.[16] Although naturally suited for cavalry, he was assigned to duty as a regimental quartermaster, managing supplies and equipment in the 4th U.S. Infantry, and achieved the rank of brevet second lieutenant.[11][17]
During the Mexican American War (1846–1848), Lieutenant Grant served under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott.[18] Discontent with his responsibilities as a quartermaster, Grant made his way to the front lines to engage in the battle, and participated as a de-facto cavalryman in the battles of Resaca de la Palma, Palo Alto, Monterrey, and Veracruz.[19] At Monterrey, he demonstrated his equestrian ability, carrying a dispatch through sniper-lined streets on horseback while mounted in one stirrup .[20] He was twice brevetted for bravery – at Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. He detailed his reflections on the war in his memiors, indicating he had learned extensively by closely observing the decisions and actions of his commanding officers, particularly admiring Zachary Taylor's methods, and in retrospect identified himself with Taylor's style. At the time he felt that the war was a wrongful one and believed that territorial gains were designed to spread slavery throughout the nation, writing in 1883, "I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day, regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation." He also opined that the later Civil War was inflicted on the nation as punishment for its aggression in Mexico.[21]
On August 22, 1848 after a four year engagement, Grant married Julia Boggs Dent (1826–1902), the daughter of a prominent Missouri plantation and slave owner, and sister of a West Point roommate, Frederick.[22] He and Julia had four children: Frederick Dent Grant; Ulysses S. "Buck" Grant, Jr.; Ellen Wrenshall "Nellie" Grant; and Jesse Root Grant.[23] The couple corresponded during his service in Mexico; in one letter Julia shared with him a very pleasurable dream she had of him in a beard, which he was then sporting upon his return after the war.[24]
Lieutenant Grant was assigned to several different posts over the ensuing six years. His first post war assignments took him and Julia to Detroit and Sackets Harbor, New York, which was perhaps their happiest location. At this time Julia asked Grant to provide her regularly with whatever funds he considered appropriate to manage their household, which he consented to. She continued to manage the household accounts for them until her death.[25] In the spring of 1852, he traveled in to Washington, D.C. in a failed attempt to prevail upon the Congress to rescind an order that he, in his capacity as quartermaster, reimburse the military $1000 in losses incurred on his watch, for which he bore no personal guilt.[26]
He was sent west to Fort Vancouver in the Oregon Territory in 1852, initially landing in San Francisco during the height of the California Gold Rush. Julia could not accompany him primarily because she was eight months pregnant with their second child; also, a lieutenant's salary would not support a family on the frontier. The journey proved to be a ordeal due to transportation disruptions and an outbreak of cholera within the entourage while traveling overland through Panama. Grant exhibited notable organizational and humanitarian skills, arranging makeshift transportation and hospital facilities in Cruces to take care of the sick. There were 150 4th Infantry fatalities including Grant's long time fellow soldier friend John H. Gore.[27] After Grant arrived in San Francisco he was stationed in the Pacific Northwest. At Fort Vancouver, he served as quartermaster of the 4th Infantry Regiment. Grant came in contact with western American Indian tribes. In 1853, Grant stated that the Native Americans were "harmless" and that they would be "peaceful" had they not been "put upon by the whites".[28] He stated that the Klickitat tribe was formerly "powerful", yet had been inundated by white civilization's "whiskey and Small pox."[29]
While on assignment out west and in an effort to supplement a military salary inadequate to support his family, Grant, assuming his work as quartermaster so equipped him, attempted but failed at several business ventures. His father had predicted early in this son's life that he would never succeed in business, hence Jesse's efforts to steer him to the military. The business failures in the west only confirmed this belief, creating frustration for both father and son, now into his thirties. In at least one case Grant had even naively allowed himself to be swindled by a partner. These failures, along with the separation from his family, made for quite an unhappy soldier, husband and son. Widespread rumors began to circulate that Grant was drinking in excess.[30]
In the summer of 1853, he was promoted to captain, one of only 50 still on active duty, and assigned to command Company F, 4th Infantry, at Fort Humboldt, on the northwest California coast. Without explanation, he shortly therafter resigned from the Army with little notice on July 31, 1854. The commanding officer at Fort Humbolt, Bvt. Lt. Col. Robert C. Buchanan, a strict disciplinarian, had reports that Grant was intoxicated off duty while seated at the pay officer's table.[31] Buchanan had previously warned Grant several times to stop the alleged binge drinking.[31] In lieu of a courtmartial, Buchanan gave Grant an ultimatum to sign a drafted resignation letter.[31] Grant resigned; the War Department stated on his record, "Nothing stands against his good name."[31] Rumors, however, persisted in the regular army of Grant's intemperance. Biographer McFeely states that historians overwhelmingly conclude that the intemperance was a fact, though there are no eyewitness reports extant.[32] [31][33][34] Grant's father, again believing his son's only potential for success to be in the military, tried to get the Secretary of War to rescind the resignation, to no avail.[35]
At age 32, with no civilian vocation, Grant struggled through seven financially lean years. Jesse initially offered Grant a position in the Galena, Illinois branch of the tannery business, on condition that Julia and the children, for economic reasons, stay with her parents or the Grants in Kentucky. Ulysses and Julia were adamantly opposed to another separation, and declined the offer. From 1854 to 1858, Grant labored on a Dent family farm near St. Louis, Missouri, using slaves owned by Julia's father, but it did not succeed. In 1856, Grant, in order to give his family a home, built a house he called "Hardscrabble", and which he considered an achievement. Julia hated the rustic house, which she described as an "unattractive cabin".[36] In 1858, Grant owned one slave he had bought from Julia's father; Julia herself owned four slaves. Having met with no success farming, the Grants left the St. Louis farm when their fourth and final child was born in 1858; Grant also ended his slave ownership. For the next year, the family took a small house in St. Louis where he worked, again without success, with Julia's cousin Harry Boggs, as a bill collector.[37] In 1860 Jesse offered him the job in his tannery in Galena, Illinois, without condition, which Ulysses accepted. The leather shop, "Grant & Perkins", sold harnesses, saddles, and other leather goods and purchased hides from farmers in the prosperous Galena area. He moved his family to Galena before the Civil War broke out.[38][39]
Until the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant kept any political opinions private and never endorsed any candidate running for public office. He also, at this time, had no animosity toward slavery, and he was a War Democrat.[40] His father-in-law was a prominent Democrat in St. Louis, a fact that contributed to a failed attempt to become county engineer in 1859. In the 1856 election, he cast his first presidential vote for the Democratic candidate James Buchanan, saying he was really voting against Fremont, the Republican presidential candidate.[41] In 1860, he favored Democratic presidential candidate Stephen A. Douglas over Abraham Lincoln, and Lincoln over the alternate Democratic candidate, John Breckinridge. Lacking the residency requirements in Illinois at the time, he could not vote. His own father, Jesse Root, was a prominent Republican in Galena. It was during the Civil War that his political sympathies coincided with the Republicans' aggressive prosecution of the war. In 1864, his patron Congressman Elihu B. Washburne used Grant's private letters as campaign literature for Lincoln's reelection.[42]
On April 13, 1861, Confederate troops attacked Union Fort Sumter in Charleston, South Carolina forcing surrender. Two days later, on April 15, President Lincoln put out a call for 75,000 volunteers. A mass meeting was called in Galena to initiate recruitment, and recognized as the sole miltary professional in the area, Grant was asked to lead the meeting and ensuing effort. He proceeded to help recruit a company of volunteers and accompanied it to Springfield, the capital of Illinois. He accepted a position offered by Illinois Gov. Richard Yates to recruit and train volunteer units, but Grant wanted, and expected, a field command in the regular Army. He made multiple efforts with contacts (including General McClellan) to acquire such a position with no success. Meanwhile, he remained efficient and energetic at the training camps and made a positive impression on the volunteer Union recruits. With the aid of his advocate in Washington D.C., Elihu B. Washburne, Grant was promoted to Colonel by Governor Richard Yates on June 14, 1861, and put in charge of the unruly Twenty-first Illinois volunteer regiment. By the end of August 1861, Grant was given charge of the District of Cairo by Maj. Gen John C. Fremont, an outside Lincoln appointment, who viewed Grant as "a man of dogged persistance, and iron will." Grant's own demeanor had changed immediately at the outset of the war; having renewed energies, he began to walk with a confident step.[43][44][45][46] Indeed, he later recalled with apparent satisfaction that after that first recruitment meeting in Galena, 'I never went into our leather store again, to put up a package or do other business..."[47] During this time Grant quickly perceived that the war would be fought for the most part by volunteers, and not professional soldiers.[48]
Grant's first battles during the Civil War centered on Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio River runs into the Mississippi River. The Confederate Army was stationed in Columbus, Kentucky under General Leonidas Polk. Grant, who was headquartered at Cairo, was given an open order by Union General John C. Frémont to make "demonstrations", not including attack, against the Confederate Army at Belmont. After President Lincoln relieved Frémont from command, Grant attacked Fort Belmont taking 3,114 Union troops by boat on November 7, 1861, and initially took the fort, but his army was later pushed back to Cairo by the reinforced Confederate General Gideon J. Pillow. Though a defeat logistically, the battle instilled much needed confidence in Grant and his volunteers.[49] Grant also increased his profile in Washington by his testimony at a Congressional hearing in Cairo; he there reported that foreign weapons had been purchased by the government for which there was no compatible ammunition.[50] Following Belmont, Grant asked Gen. Henry Halleck for permission to move against Ft. Henry; Halleck agreed on condition that the attack be conducted with oversight by Union Navy Flag Officer Andrew H. Foote. Grant then moved Union forces down the Mississippi River to capture Confederate water fortresses. Grant's troops, in collaboration with the Union Navy under Foote, successfully captured Fort Henry on February 6, 1862 and Fort Donelson on February 16.[51] Fort Henry, undermanned by Confederates and nearly submerged from flood waters, was taken over with few losses; however at Fort Donelson the Union Army and Navy experienced stiff resistance from the Confederate forces under General Pillow. Grant's initial 15,000 troop strength was increased by 10,000 reinforcements. Grant’s first attack on Fort Donelson was countered by Pillow's forces, pushing the Union Army into disorganized retreat eastward on the Nashville road. However, Grant was able to rally the troops; he resumed the offensive, this time without support from disabled Naval craft, and the Confederates forces surrendered.[52] Grant’s surrender terms were popular throughout the nation: “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender.” With these victories, President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers.[53]
The Union advances achieved by Maj. Gen. Grant and Adm. Foote at Forts Henry and Donelson caused significant concern in the Confederate government. The Union army, known as the Army of the Tennessee, under Grant had increased to 48,894 men and were encamped on the western side of the Tennessee River. Grant met with his senior General, William T. Sherman, who advised he was prepared to attack the Confederate stronghold of equal numbers at Corinth, Mississippi.[54] The Confederates had the same thing in mind, and moved first at dawn on April 6, 1862, with a full-force attack on the Union Army at the Battle of Shiloh; the objective was to annihilate the Western Union offensive in one massive assault. Over 44,699 confederate troops led by Albert Sidney Johnston and P.G.T. Beauregard, vigorously attacked five divisions of Grant’s army bivouacked nine miles south at Pittsburgh Landing. Aware of the impending Confederate attack, Union troops sounded the alarm and readied for battle, however, no defensive entrenchment works had been made. The Confederates struck hard and repulsed the Union Army towards the Tennessee River. At the end of the day, the Union Army was largely vulnerable, and subject to elimination by Beauregard, had he been able to continue the fight, but for the exhaustion of his troops.[55] Not only did they avoid panic, but Grant and Sherman actually rallied their troops for a vicious counterattack the next morning. With reinforcement troops from Maj. Gen. Don Carlos Buell and Maj. Gen. Lew Wallace's missing division, Grant succeeded in driving the Confederates back to the road from Corinth; though he stopped short of capturing Beauregard's army, he was able to stabilize the Army of the Tennessee.[56][57]
The battle was the costliest of the Civil War at the time, with aggregate Union and Confederate casualties of 23,746, and minimal strategic advantage gained by either side. Nevertheless, Grant received high praise from many corners. He later remarked that the carnage at Shiloh had made it clear to him that the Confederacy would only be defeated by complete annihilation of its army. Lincoln was also alarmed at the level of casualties, and queried Halleck as to Grant's potential responsibility for them; Grant was criticized for his decision to keep the Union Army bivouacked rather than entrenched. As a result, Gen. Halleck transferred command of the Army of the Tennessee to Gen. George H. Thomas and effectively demoted Grant to the hollow position of second-in-command of all the armies of the west. As a result, Grant was again on the verge of resigning until Gen. Sherman paid a visit to his camp; Sherman had very similar experiences as Grant – he studied at West Point, served in the Mexican War, and later had resigned from the Army only to fail in his civilian career. Sherman succeeded in convincing Grant to remain in Halleck's army. Due to Halleck's sluggardly assault on Corinth – covering 19 miles in 30 days – the entire Confederate force there escaped; the 120,000-man Union Army was then broken up. Charles A. Dana, an investigative agent for Secretary of War Stanton at the time, interviewed Grant; Dana related to Lincoln and Stanton that Grant appeared "self-possessed and eager to make war." Thus, Grant was reinstated to his command of the Army of the Tennessee.[58]
President Lincoln, the Union Army and Navy, were determined to take the strategic Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, located on the Mississippi River. Gen. McClernand was authorized to raise an army in his home state of Illinois for the purpose of taking Vicksburg; Grant was very frustrated at the lack of direction he was receiving to move forward from his station in Memphis, and more aggravated to learn of this apparent effort to brush him aside. According to biographer McFeely, this discontent may have been responsible for Grant's ill-considered issuance of General Orders No. 11 on December 17, 1862. This order expelled Jews, as a class, from Grant's military district, in reaction to illicit activities of overly aggressive cotton traders in the Union camps, which Grant believed was interfering with military operations.[59] President Lincoln demanded the order be revoked, and Grant rescinded it 21 days after issuance. Without admitting fault, Grant believed he had only complied with the instructions sent from Washington. According to another Grant biographer, Jean E. Smith, it was "one of the most blatant examples of state-sponsored anti-Semitism in American history." [60] Grant had believed that gold, along with cotton, was being smuggled through enemy lines and that Jews could pass freely into enemy camps.[61] Grant later expressed regret for this order in 1868; his attitude concerning Jews was otherwise undeclared.[61]
In December 1862, with the approval of Halleck, Grant moved to take Vicksburg by an overland route, aided by Charles Hamilton and James McPherson, in combination with a water expedition on the Mississippi led by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman. Grant had thus pre-empted his rival McClernand's move. Confederate cavalry raiders Bedford Forest and Earl Van Dorn stalled Grant's advance by breaking communications, while the Confederate army led by John C. Pemberton concentrated and repulsed Sherman's direct approach at Chickasaw Bayou. McClernand afterwards made an attempt to salvage Sherman's effort to no avail, so at the end of the first day neither Grant nor McClernand had succeeded.[62]
During the second attempt to capture Vicksburg, Grant made a series of unsuccessful and highly criticized movements along bayou and canal water routes. Finally, in April 1863, Grant marched Union troops down the west side of the Mississippi River and crossed east over at Bruinsburg using Adm. David Porter's naval ships. Grant previously had implemented two diversion battles that confused Pemeberton and allowed the Union Army to cross the Mississippi River. After a series of battles and having taken a railroad junction near Jackson, Grant went on to defeat Confederate General John C. Pemberton at the Battle of Champion Hill. Grant then made two assaults on the Vickburg fortress, and suffered gruesome losses. This battle and one other at Cold Harbor were prominent in his memory as the distinctly regrettable ones of the war. After the failed assault, Grant decided to settle for a siege lasting seven weeks. According to biographer McFeely, as the siege began, Grant lapsed into a two day drinking episode.[63] Pemberton, who was in charge of the fortress, surrendered to Grant on July 4, 1863.[64][65][66] During the Vicksburg campaign, Grant assumed responsibility for refugee-contraband slaves who were dislodged by the war and vulnerable to Confederate marauders; President Lincoln had also authorized their recruitment into the Union Army. Grant put the refugees under the protection of Chaplain John Eaton who authorized them to work on abandoned Confederate plantations harvesting cotton and cutting wood to fuel Union steamers. The effort was the precursor to the Freedman's Bureau during later Reconstruction.[67]
The Vicksburg Campaign was Grant’s greatest achievement up to this time, opened the south to Chattanooga and gave the Union army access to the vital grainery supply in Georgia. The fall of Vicksburg in 1863, combined with the Union naval capture of New Orleans in 1862, gave the Union Army and Navy control over the entire Mississippi and logistically fractured the Confederacy.[68] Grant demonstrated that an indirect assault coupled with diversionary tactics was highly effective strategy in defeating an entrenched Confederate Army. Although the success at Vicksburg was a great moral boost for the Union war effort, Grant received much criticism for his decisions and his reported drunkenness. President Lincoln again sent Charles Dana to keep a watchful eye on Grant's alleged intemperance; Dana eventually became Grant's devoted ally, and made light of the drinking.[69] The personal rivalry between Maj. Gen. John A. McClernand and Grant continued over Vicksburg, but ended when Grant removed McClernand from command after he issued, and arranged the publication of, a military order in contravention of Grant.[64]
President Lincoln put Grant in command of the newly formed Division of the Mississippi in October 1863; Grant was then effectively in charge of the entire wetern war front for the Union, except for Louisiana. After the Battle of Chickamauga, Confederate General Braxton Bragg forced Maj. Gen. William Rosecrans's Army of the Cumberland to retreat into Chattanooga, a central railway hub, surrounded the city and kept the Union army from escaping. Only Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas and the XIV corps kept the Army of the Cumberland from complete defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga. When informed of the ominous situation at Chattanooga, Grant relieved Maj. Gen. Rosecrans from duty and placed Maj. Gen. Thomas in charge of the besieged Army of the Cumberland. To stop the siege and go on the attack, Grant, injured from a recent horse fall in New Orleans, personally rode out to Chattanooga and took charge of the Union Army's desperate situation. Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker and two divisions of the Army of the Potomac were sent by President Lincoln to reinforce the Army of the Cumberland, however, the Confederates kept the two Armies from meeting. Grant's first action was to open up a supply line to the Army of the Cumberland trapped in Chattanooga. Through an ingenious plan by Maj. Gen. William F. Smith, a "Cracker Line" was formed with Hooker's Army of the Potomac located at Lookout Mountain and supplied the Army of the Cumberland with food and military weapons.[70][71][72]
On November 23, 1863 the situation at Chattanooga was urgent. Grant had organized three armies to attack Bragg on Missionary Ridge and Confederate troops on Lookout Mountain. On November 24, Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman and four divisions of the Army of the Tennessee assaulted Bragg's right flank. Thomas and Army of the Cumberland, under order from Grant, overtook Confederate picket trenches at the base of Missionary Ridge. Maj. Gen. Hooker and the Army of the Potomac took Lookout Mountain and captured 1,064 prisoners.[73] On November 25, Sherman continued his attack on Bragg's right flank on the northern section of Missionary Ridge.[74] In response to Sherman's assault Bragg withdrew Confederate troops on the main ridge to reinforce the Confederate right flank.[75] Seeing that Bragg was reinforcing his right flank, Grant ordered Thomas to make a general assault on Missionary Ridge.[76] After a brief delay, the Army of the Cumberland, led by Sheridan and Wood, stormed over and captured the first Confederate rifle entrenchments.[77] Without further orders, the Army of the Cumberland continued up hill and captured the Confederate's secondary entrenchments on top of Missionary Ridge; forcing the defeated Confederates into disorganized retreat.[78] Though Bragg's army had not been captured, the decisive battle opened Georgia and the heartland of the Confederacy to Union invasion by Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman.[70][79] Grant's fame increased throughout the country, and he was promoted to Lieutenant General, a position that had previously been given to George Washington and given to Winfield Scott as a brevet promotion. Grant was given charge of the entire Union Army.[80] Grant gave the Department of the Mississippi to Maj. Gen. Sherman, and went east to Washington D.C. to make and implement a strategy with President Lincoln to decisively win the Civil War in 1864, when Lincoln was facing re-election. After settling Julia into a house in Georgetown, he then established his headquarters fifty miles away, near Gen. Meade's Army of the Potomac in Culpeper, Virginia.[81]
The Union strategy, of a comprehensive effort to bring about a speedy victory for the Union, designed by President Lincoln and Grant, consisted of combined military Union offensives, attacking the Confederacy's armies, railroads, and economic infrastructures; to keep the Confederate armies from mobilizing reinforcements within southern interior lines. Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman would attack Atlanta and Georgia, while the Army of the Potomac, led by Maj. Gen. George Meade with Grant in camp, would attack Robert E. Lee's Army of Virginia. Maj. Gen. Benjamin Butler was to attack and advance towards Richmond from the south, going up the James River.[82] Depending on Lee's actions, Grant would join forces with Butler's armies and be fed supplies from the James River. Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel was to capture the railroad line at Lynchburg, move east, and attack from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Lee's objectives were to prolong the war and discourage the Northern will to fight, keep Grant from crossing south of the James River, and protect Richmond from Union attack.[83][84][85] Grant was riding a tide of popularity, and there were discussions in some corners that a Union victory early in the year could open the possibility of his candidacy for the presidency. Grant was aware of it, but had ruled out any self interest in discussions with Lincoln, and assigned no weight to it; in any case, the possibility would soon vanish with delays on the battlefield.[86]
The efforts of both Sigel and Butler failed and Grant was left alone to fight Lee in a series of bloody battles of attrition known as the Overland Campaign. After taking the month of April 1864 to assemble and ready the Union Army of the Potomac, Grant crossed the Rapidan River on May 4 and attacked Lee in the Wilderness, a hard-fought battle with many casualties, lasting three days. Rather than retreat as his Union predecessors had done, Grant flanked Lee's Army of Virginia to the southeast and attempted to wedge the Union Army between Lee and Richmond at Spotsylvania.[87] Lee's army got to Spotsylvania first and a costly and lengthy battle began that lasted 13 days. During the battle, Grant attempted to break through Lee's line of defense at the Mule Shoe, which resulted in one of the most violent assaults during the Civil War, known as The Battle of the Bloody Angle. Unable to break Lee's line of defense after repeated attempts, Grant flanked Lee to the southeast east again at North Anna, a battle that lasted three days.[88] This time the Confederate Army had a superior defensive advantage on Grant, however, due to sickness Lee was unable to lead the battle. Grant then maneuvered the Union Army to Cold Harbor, a vital railroad hub that was linked to Richmond, however, Lee was able to make strong trenches to defend a Union assault. During the third day of the 13-day Cold Harbor battle, Grant led a costly fatal assault on Lee's trenches, and as news spread in the North, heavy criticism fell on Grant, who was called "the Butcher", having lost 60,000 casualties in 30 days since crossing the Rapidan. When the two armies had fought to a stalemate, the two generals ruthlessly took three days to reach an truce, so that the dead and dying could be removed from the battlefield.[89]The June 3 assault at Cold harbor was the second of two battles in the war which Grant later distinctly regretted.[90] Unknown to Robert E. Lee, Grant pulled out of Cold Harbor and stealthily moved his Army south of the James River, freed Maj. Gen. Butler from the Bermuda Hundred, and attacked Petersburg, Richmond's central railroad hub.[91][92][93]
After Grant and the Army of the Potomac had successfully crossed the James River undetected by Lee and rescued Maj. Gen. Butler from the Bermuda Hundred, Grant advanced the Union army southward to capture Petersburg. Confederate General P.G.T. Beauregard, in charge of Petersburg, was able to defend the city and Lee's veteran reinforcements arrived. Grant forced Lee into a long nine month siege of Petersburg and the Union War effort stalled.[94] Northern resentment grew as the Copperhead movement led by Clement Vallandigham demanded that the war be settled through peace talks. But an indirect benefit of the Petersburg siege was found in preventing Lee from reinforcing armies to oppose Sherman and Sheridan.[95] During the siege, Sherman was able to take Atlanta, a victory that advanced President Lincoln's reelection. Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan was given command of the Army of the Shenandoah and directed to "follow the enemy to their death".[96] Sheridan defeated Confederate General Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley; saving Washington D.C. from capture. Lee had sent Early up the Shenandoah Valley to attack Washington D.C. and draw troops away from Grant's Army of the Potomac. Sheridan's cavalry, after Early was defeated, pursuant to Grant's orders, destroyed vital Confederate supply farms in the Shenandoah Valley. When Sheridan reported suffering attacks by irregular Confederate cavalry under John S. Mosby, Grant recommended rounding up their families for imprisonment as hostages at Ft. McHenry.[97]
Grant attempted to blow up part of Lee's Petersburg trenches from an underground tunnel; however, the explosion created a crater from which Confederates could easily pick off Union troops below. The 3500 Union casualties were over 3 for every 1 of the Confederates; Grant admitted the tactic had been a "stupendous failure".[98][99] On August 9, 1864 Lieut. Gen. Grant, who had just arrived at his headquarters in City Point, narrowly escaped certain death when Confederate spies blew up an ammunition barge moored below the city's bluffs. The enormous explosion, similar to the Petersburg mine, killed 47 men; 146 injured.[100] As the war slowly progressed, Grant continued to extend Robert E. Lee's entrenchment defenses southwest of Petersburg, in an effort to capture vital railroad links. By August 21, 1864 the Union Army had reached and captured the Weldon Railroad. As Grant continued to push the Union advance westward towards the South Side Railroad, Lee's entrenchment lines became overstretched and undermanned.
Once Sherman reached the East Coast and Gen. Thomas finally dispatched Gen. Hood in Tennessee, Union victory appeared certain, and Lincoln resolved to attempt a negotiated end to the war with the Confederates. He enlisted Francis Preston Blair to carry a message to Jefferson Davis; Davis appointed three Commissioners, who were sent to Grant to arrange a peace conference. Meanwhile, Lincoln sent Secretary of State Seward and his emissary Major Thomas T. Eckert to Hampton Roads to facilitate a meeting. Eckert met with the Confederate Commissioners and insisted that they acknowledge that "one common country" was to be the subject of the conference. This brought matters to a halt; Grant contacted the President directly and Lincoln agreed to personally meet with the Commissioners at Ft. Monroe. Though Grant was pivotal in arranging the peace conference, it ultimately yielded no results; but Grant had demonstrated a remarkable willingness and ability to assume a diplomatic role boyond his normal military posture.[101] Grant's diplomacy failed him however, when he jokingly suggested to his wife that, perhaps if she met with Mrs. Louise (James) Longstreet, they could restore peace. When Julia took the offer seriously and pleaded for the opportunity, and Grant earnestly objected, she turned silent, indignant and quite disappointed.[102]
In March of 1865, while Lincoln met at City Point with Grant, Sherman and Admiral David Dixon Porter, Union forces finally took Petersburg and then captured Richmond in April, after an unsuccessful Confederate assault on Fort Stedman. Lee's Confederate troops began deserting in large numbers to the Army of the Potomac; disease and lack of supplies also weakened Lee's forces.[103] Lee attempted to link up with the remnants of Confederate General Joe Johnson's defeated army; however, Union cavalry lead by Maj. Gen. Phil Sheridan was able to stop the two armies from converging. Lee and the Army of Virginia reluctantly surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. Grant gave generous terms; Confederate troops surrendered their weapons and were allowed to return to their homes, with their mounts, on the condition they would not take up arms against the United States. Within a few weeks the Civil War was over.[104]
On April 14, only 5 days after Grant's victory at Appomattox, President Lincoln was fatally shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theater, and died the next morning. The assassination was part of a conspiracy which targeted a number of government leaders.[105] Grant attended a cabinet meeting on the 14th, and Lincoln had invited the Grants to the theater, but they declined, as they had plans to travel to Philadelphia. Grant is thought by many to have been a target in the Lincoln assassination plot; an unknown assailant allegedly failed in an attempt to break into Grant's railroad car. Stanton, through Charles Dana, notified Grant of the President's death and summoned him to Washington. At Dana's recommendation, for security purposes a scapegoat engine preceded Grant's train on the return trip. The following day Grant hastily ordered arrests of paroled Confederate officers. Maj. Gen. Edward Ord, however, was able to narrow the existing threats in Washington through the use of accurate army intelligence and persuaded Grant to reverse his arrest orders.[106] Attending Lincoln's funeral on April 19, Grant stood alone and wept openly. Grant said of Lincoln, "He was incontestably the greatest man I have ever known."[107] Regarding the newly sworn in President Andrew Johnson, Lincoln commented to Julia that he dreaded the change in administrations; he judged Johnson's attitude toward white southerners as one that would "make them unwilling citizens", and initially thought that with Johnson "Reconstruction has been set back no telling how far."[108]
Later in April, Gen. Sherman, without consulting Washington, concluded an agreement with Confederate Gen. Joseph E. Johnston to effect the latter's surrender, believing it to be consistent with Lincoln's recent statements to him at City Point; Secretary Stanton and Grant quickly surmised the terms were much too lenient. Stanton even declared so publicly with scorn for Sherman; Grant, concerned that his lead commander's mistake not be mishandled, requested a cabinet meeting to discuss the problem, and offered to personally deliver the message of repudiation to Sherman, who was expected to be quite vexed. Grant handled the matter adroitly and made the most of their friendship, conveying the message to Sherman and ultimately getting his consent to renegotiate the agreement in accordance with the terms at Appomattox, and with no residual hard feelings between the two.[109]
In May of 1865 the Grants were provided a house in Philadelphia, but Grant's work was in Washington. He attempted to commute for a time and return on the weekends, but he and Julia decided to move to Washington and secured a place in Georgetown Heights, while he instructed his old ally Washburne that, politically, his legal residence remained in Galena, Illinois.[110] In the spring of 1865 the Grants went to New York and Grant made an appearance at Cooper Union; the New York Times thus described the reception for the war hero: "...the enhanced and bewildered multitude trembled with extraordinary delight." [111] Further travels that summer, with repeated enthusiastic receptions, took the Grants to Albany and back to Galena and throughout Illinois and Ohio. On July 25, 1866, Congress promoted Grant to the newly created rank of General of the Army of the United States, a form of the rank General of the Armies of the United States.[112]
Grant was the most popular man in the country and was the overwhelming choice of Republicans to be their presidential candidate in 1868.[113]
President Johnson sent Grant on a fact finding tour of the South after which he filed a report recommending continuation of the Freedman's Bureau but opposed use of black troops in garrisons which were still needed in the South for protection of both races. He also warned of threats by disaffected poor people, black and white, and recommended that local decision making be entrusted only to "thinking men", by which he was thought to have meant, men of property. In this respect, Grant's initial Reconstruction policy aligned with Johnson's policy of pardoning established southern leaders and restoring them to their positions of power. He joined Johnson in arguing that Congress should allow congressional representatives from the South to be seated.[114]
Grant, as commanding general, immediately had to contend with Maximilian and the French army which had taken over Mexico under the authority of Napoleon III in violation of the Monroe Doctrine. Johnson told Grant to put military pressure on the French to leave Mexico by sending 50,000 troops to the Texas border under by Phil Sheridan. Grant told Sheridan to do whatever it took to get Maximilian to abdicate and the French Army to leave Mexico. Sheridan sent Benito Juárez, the ousted leader of Mexico, 60,000 U.S. rifles to aid in an effort to defeat Maximilian. By 1866, the French Army completely withdrew from Mexico; Maximilian, was executed by Juárez in 1867.[115]
After the war, thousands of Irish veterans joined the Fenian Brotherhood and formed the Irish Republican Army with the intention of invading and holding Canada hostage in exchange for Irish independence. In June 1866, Johnson sent went to Buffalo, NY, to assess the situation. He ordered the Canadian border closed to prevent Fenian soldiers from crossing over at Fort Erie and that more weapons be confiscated. In June 1866, the U.S. Army arrested 700 Fenian troops at Buffalo and the Fenians gave up on their attempt to invade Canada.[116]
To bear the fruits of a Northern victory over the South, Radical Republicans deployed troops in the former confederate states to ensure constitutional rights to loyal whites and freedmen. Grant, as the highest military commander next to President Johnson, favored the will of Congress through the enforcement of congressional Reconstruction. Throughout the Reconstruction period, thousands of blacks were elected to political office, sheriffs, and accessors while Grant and the military protected their rights initially by overturning the black codes in 1867. The southern states were divided into five military districts to ensure that African Americans newly granted constitutional and congressional rights were protected. Although Grant was initially in favor of using limited military force, he authorized Phil Sheridan to remove public officials in Louisiana who were against congressional Reconstruction.[117] Congressional Reconstruction finally ended with the Compromise of 1877 and the complete withdrawal of military troops from the southern states.
As commanding general of the army, Grant had a difficult relationship with President Andrew Johnson, who preferred a moderate approach to reconstruction of the South and was increasingly at swords-point with the Radicals in Congress. Johnson tried to use Grant to defeat the Radical Republicans by making him the Secretary of War "ad-interim" in place of Edwin M. Stanton. Under the Tenure of Office Act, Johnson could not remove Stanton without the approval of Congress. When Congress reinstated Stanton as Secretary, Grant handed over the keys to the War Department and continued his military command. On January 14, 1868 Johnson launched a media campaign to discredit Grant over giving the War Department to Stanton, stating Grant had been deceptive in the matter.[118] Grant, however, defended himself in a written response to the President, made public knowledge, and increased his national popularity.[119] Stanton’s return to office and Grant's curt response to Johnson made him a hero to the Radical Republicans, who gave him the Republican nomination for president in 1868. He was chosen as the Republican presidential candidate at the 1868 Republican National Convention in Chicago; he faced no significant opposition. In his letter of acceptance to the party, Grant concluded with "Let us have peace," which became his campaign slogan.[120]
Grant's General Orders No. 11 and antisemitism became an issue during the 1868 presidential campaign. Though Jewish opinion was mixed, Grant's determination to "woo" Jewish voters ultimately resulted in his capturing the majority of that vote, though Grant did lose some Jewish votes as a result of the order.[121] In the general election of that year, Grant won against former New York Governor Horatio Seymour with a lead of 300,000 votes out of 5,716,082 votes cast. Grant commanded an Electoral College landslide, receiving 214 votes to Seymour's 80. When he assumed the presidency, Grant had never before held elected office and, at the age of 46, was the youngest person yet elected president. After the election, in an attempt to reconcile with Jewish leaders and people, Grant offered the position of Secretary of the Treasury to Joseph Seligman, a prominent Jewish businessman. Seligman, who had helped finance the Union war effort by obtaining European capital, declined the offer.[122] Grant appointed more Jews to public office than any president before him.[123]
The second president from Ohio, Grant was elected the 18th President of the United States in 1868, and was re-elected to the office in 1872. He served as President from March 4, 1869, to March 4, 1877. He was the first U.S. President to be elected after the nation had outlawed slavery and given citizenship to former African American slaves by U.S. constitutional amendments. Although Grant desired economic expansion and a productive citizenry, his presidency from the start had to contend with Ku Klux Klan violence, Native American conflicts between settlers in the West, and an unsuccessful attempt to annex Santo Domingo.[124] Reconstruction dominated most of Grant's presidency, with sectional riots over the status of what the new freedman would have in post-Civil War society. Booming post-war industrial markets and the expansion of the American West fueled wild speculation and corruption throughout the United States, only to come to an abrupt crash with the Panic of 1873. National wounds brought on by the massive socio-economic upheaval of the Civil War continued to mend.[125] Grant's innovative "Peace" policy advocated Native American citizenship and denounced wars of extermination as "immoral and wicked". Grant, however, allowed millions of buffalo to be hunted without restriction that resulted in the depletion of Native American food supply and of tribal independence.[126]
Although there were initial scandals in his first term, Grant remained popular in the country and was re-elected a second term in 1872. His notable accomplishments as President include the enforcement of Civil Rights for African Americans in the Reconstruction states, the Treaty of Washington in 1871, and the Resumption of Specie Act in 1875. Grant's personal reputation as President suffered from the continued scandals caused by many corrupt appointees and personal associates and for the ruined economy caused by the Panic of 1873. A faction of the Republican party, the Liberal Republicans, bolted in 1872; publicly denounced the political patronage system known as Grantism and demanded amnesty to Confederate soldiers. In his re-election campaign, Grant benefited from the loyal support of Harper's Weekly political cartoonist Thomas Nast.[127] As more scandals were exposed during Grant's second term in office, his personal reputation was severely damaged, while any chance for a consecutive third term nomination vanished.
Grant presided over the last half of Reconstruction. He supported amnesty for former Confederates and signed the Amnesty Act of 1872 to further this.[128] He favored a limited number of troops to be stationed in the South—sufficient numbers to protect Southern Freedmen, suppress the violent tactics of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), and prop up Republican governors, but not so many as to create resentment in the general population. President Grant signed the Naturalization Act of 1870 that allowed persons of African descent to become citizens of the United States.
By 1873, Grant was confronted by a Northern public angry with the economic depression that began in 1873 and tired of continuing to use the army to control politics in the former Confederate states. In 1873–75, he watched as the Democrats (called Redeemers) took the control of all but three Southern states. The Republican coalition in the South was collapsing. When urgent telegrams from Republicans begged for Army help to put down the violence by paramilitary groups at election time, he told his Attorney General that, "the whole public is tired of these annual autumnal outbreaks in the South," insisting that state militias should handle the problems, not the Army.[129] Grant was concerned that increased military pressure in the South might cause white supremacists in the North to bolt from the Republican Party.[130]
A distinguishing characteristic in the Grant Presidency was his concern with the plight of African Americans and native Indian tribes, in addition to civil rights for all Americans. Grant's 1868 campaign slogan, "Let us have peace," defined his motivation and assured his success. As president for two terms, Grant made many advances in civil and human rights. In 1869 and 1871, he signed bills promoting black voting rights and prosecuting Klan leaders. He won passage of the Fifteenth Amendment, which gave freedmen the vote, and the Ku Klux Klan Act, which empowered the president "to arrest and break up disguised night marauders."[131]
Grant continued to fight for black civil rights when he pressed for the former slaves to be "...possessed of the civil rights which citizenship should carry with it." However, by 1874, a new wave of paramilitary organizations arose in the Deep South. The Red Shirts and White League, who conducted insurgency in Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Louisiana, operated openly and were better organized than the Ku Klux Klan had been. They aimed to turn Republicans out of office, suppress the black vote, and disrupt elections. In response to the renewed violent outbreaks against African Americans, Grant was the first President to sign a congressional civil rights act: the Civil Rights Act of 1875.[132] This legislation mandated equal treatment in public accommodations and jury selection.
Grant's attempts to provide justice to Native Americans marked a radical reversal of what had long been the government's policy: "Wars of extermination... are demoralizing and wicked," he nobly told Congress. The president lobbied, though not always successfully, to preserve Native American lands from encroachment by the westward advance of pioneers.[133] Statistical data revealed that during Grant's two terms as President the number of Indian battles per year decreased by 58 starting from 101 in 1869 to 43 in 1877.[134]
The Panic of 1873 was a world-wide depression that started when the stock market in Vienna crashed in June 1873. Unsettled markets soon spread to Berlin, and throughout Europe. Three months later, the Panic spread to the United States when three major banks stopped making payments, the New York Warehouse & Security Company on September 8, Kenyon, Cox, & Co. on September 13, and the largest bank, Jay Cooke & Company, on September 18. On September 20, the New York Stock Exchange shut down for ten days. All of these events created a depression that lasted five years in the United States, ruined thousands of businesses, depressed daily wages by 25% from 1873 to 1876, and brought the unemployment rate up to 14%. Some 89 out of 364 American railroads went bankrupt.[135][136]
The causes of the panic in the United States included over-expansion in the railroad industry after the Civil War, losses in the Chicago and Boston fires of 1871 and 1872, respectively, and insatiable speculation by Wall Street financiers. All of this growth was done on borrowed money by many banks in the United States having over-speculated in the railroad industry by as much as $20,000,000 in loans. Grant, who knew little about finance, relied on bankers for advice on how to curb the panic. Secretary of Treasury William A. Richardson responded by liquidating a series of outstanding bonds. The banks, in turn, issued short-term clearing house certificates to be used as cash. By October 1, $50,000,000 had been released into an economy desperate for paper currency. This was done without undermining the value of the dollar. By January 10, 1874, Richardson continued to liquidate bonds that released a total of $26,000,000 of greenback reserves into the economy. Although this curbed the Panic on Wall Street it did nothing to stop the ensuing five year depression. Grant did nothing to prevent the panic and responded slowly after the banks crashed in September. The limited action of Secretary Richardson did nothing to increase confidence in the general economy.[137][138][139]
After the Panic of 1873, Congress debated an inflationary policy to stimulate the economy and passed the Inflation Bill on April 14, 1874. The bill released an additional $100,000,000 into the nation's tight money supply. Many farmers and working men in the southwest expected that Grant would sign the bill. Those with outstanding loans needed greenbacks to stay in business. Eastern bankers favored a veto because of their reliance on bonds and foreign investors. On April 22, 1874, Grant unexpectedly vetoed the bill on the fiscal grounds that it would destroy the credit of the nation. Initially, Grant favored the bill, but decided to veto after evaluating his own reasons for wanting to pass the bill.[140][141]
The Caribbean island of Hispaniola, now Haiti, and the Dominican Republic (sometimes known as Santo Domingo), were the sources of bitter political discussion and controversy during Grant's first term in office. Grant wanted to annex the Dominican Republic by treaty to allow Freedmen, oppressed in the United States, to work, and to force Brazil to abandon slavery. Senator Charles Sumner was opposed to annexation because it would reduce the amount of autonomous nations run by Africans in the western hemisphere. Also disputed was the unscrupulous annexation process under the supervision of Grant's private secretary, Orville E. Babcock. The annexation treaty was defeated by the Senate in 1871; however, it led to unending political enmity between Senator Sumner and Grant.[142] Historians have heralded the Treaty of Washington for settling the Alabama Claims dispute between Britain and the United States by International Arbitration. In 1871, Grant’s Secretary of State Hamilton Fish had orchestrated many of the events leading up to the treaty. The main purpose of the arbitration treaty was to remedy the damages done to American merchants by three Confederate war ships: CSS Florida, CSS Alabama, and CSS Shenandoah, built by or purchased from the British. These ships had inflicted tremendous damage to U.S. merchant ships during the Civil War with the result that relations with Britain were severely strained. A commission met in Washington and designed a treaty whereby an international tribunal would settle the damage amounts; the British admitted regret, rather than fault. Grant and the Senate approved the Treaty of Washington. The international tribunal awarded the United States $15,500,000. Historian Amos Elwood Corning noted that the Treaty of Washington and arbitration “bequeathed to the world a priceless legacy”.[143]
On October 31, 1873, a merchant ship, Virginius, carrying war materials and men to aid the Cuban insurrection, was taken captive by a Spanish warship. Virginius was flying the United States flag and had an American registry; the U.S. did not at first realize it was secretly owned by Cuban insurgents. 53 of the passengers and crew, eight being United States citizens, were trying to illegally get into Cuba to help overthrow the government; they were executed, and many Americans such as William M. Evarts, Henry Ward Beecher, and even Vice President Henry Wilson made impassioned speeches calling for war with Spain.[144]
Hamilton Fish handled the crisis coolly. He found out there was question over whether Virginius had the right to bear the United States flag. Spain's President expressed profound regret for the tragedy and was willing to make reparations through arbitration.[144] Fish met with the Spanish Ambassador in Washington and negotiated reparations. Spain surrendered the Virginius and paid a cash indemnity to the families of the executed Americans.[144] President Grant's Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish, has ranked high among historians, having settled the Alabama Claims and cooly handling the Virginius Affair.
President Grant, more then any other president, had to respond to financial scandals in almost all federal departments during his two terms in office.[145] Some historians, however, have noted that Grant's reputation for presidential corruption has been exaggerated and that President Grant actually established Civil Service reform and abolished the moiety system.[145] Grant's inability to establish personal accountability among his subordinates and cabinet members, ultimately, led to many scandals during his administration. Grant often attacked vigorously when critics complained, being protective of his subordinates. Although personally honest with money matters, Grant was weak in his selection of subordinates, often favoring military associates from the war over talented and experienced politicians. He also protected close friends with his Presidential power and pardoned several convicted officials after they had served only a few months in prison. His failure to establish working political alliances in Congress allowed the scandals to spin out of control. At the conclusion of his second term, Grant wrote to Congress that, "Failures have been errors of judgment, not of intent." Nepotism was rampant. Around 40 family relatives financially prospered while Grant was President.[146]
There were 11 scandals directly associated with Grant's two terms as President of the United States. The main scandals included Black Friday in 1869 and the Whiskey Ring in 1875. The Crédit Mobilier is not considered a Grant scandal; it actually began in 1864 during the Abraham Lincoln Administration and carried over into the Andrew Johnson Administration. The Crédit Mobilier scandal was exposed during the Grant Administration in 1872 as the result of political infighting between Congressman Oakes Ames and Congressman Henry S. McComb. The involvement of U.S. Ambassador to Britain, Robert C. Schenck, owning stock in the Emma Silver Mine, although corrupt, was an embarrassment to the Administration, rather than a scandal. The primary instigator and contributor to many of these scandals was Grant's personal secretary, Orville E. Babcock, who indirectly controlled many cabinet departments and was able to delay investigations by reformers. Babcock had direct access to Grant at the White House and had tremendous influence over who could see the President.[147] Grant's politcal opponents used the phrase Grantism, coined by Sen. Charles Sumner during the President election of 1872, to describe the many corruption charges during the Grant Administration.[148]
Grant appointed Benjamin Bristow to the Secretary of Treasury in 1874, who uncovered and shut down the notorious Whiskey Ring. When Secretary Bristow discovered that the President's personal secretary Babcock was involved in the ring, Grant became defensive. Grant eventually defended Babcock in an unprecedented 1876 deposition read in St. Louis during the Whiskey Ring graft trials.[149] Grant's top military commander, William T. Sherman, testified in person for Babcock during the standing room only trial.[149] The result of Grant's deposition and Sherman's testimony saved their friend Babcock with an acquittal. However, political enemies and the unpopularity of giving the deposition for Babcock ruined any chances for Grant getting a third term nomination. No President, before or since Grant, has ever given a deposition for a criminal defendant in a federal trial.[149]
| Concurrent Scandals and Corruption | Description | Date |
|---|---|---|
| Black Friday | Speculators corner the gold market and ruin the economy for several years. |
|
| New York custom house ring | Three investigations, two congressional and one Treasury, looked into alleged corruption ring set up at the New York Custom House under two of Grant's appointments, collectors Moses H. Grinnell and Thomas Murphy. |
|
| Star Route Postal Ring | Corrupt system of postal contractors, clerks, and brokers to obtain lucrative Star Route postal contracts. |
|
| Salary Grab | Congressmen receive a retroactive $5,000 bonus for previous term served. |
|
| Sanborn Contract | John Sanborn collected taxes at exorbitant fees and split the profits among associates. |
|
| Delano Affair | Secretary of Interior, Columbus Delano, allegedly took bribes to secure fraudulent land grants. |
|
| Pratt & Boyd | Attorney General George H. Williams allegedly received a bribe not to prosecute the Pratt & Boyd company. |
|
| Whiskey Ring | Corrupt government officials and whiskey makers steal millions of dollars in national tax evasion scam. |
|
| Trading Post Ring | Secretary of War William Belknap allegedly takes extortion money from trading contractor at Fort Sill. |
|
| Cattelism | Secretary of Navy George Robeson allegedly receives bribes from Cattell & Company for lucrative Naval contracts. |
|
| Safe Burglary Conspiracy | Private Secretary Orville Babcock indicted over framing a private citizen for uncovering corrupt Washington contractors. |
|
Grant appointed the following Justices to the Supreme Court of the United States:
After the end of his second term in the White House, Grant spent over two years traveling the world with his wife. In Britain and Ireland[151] the crowds were enormous. The Grants dined with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle,and with Prince Bismarck in Germany, met Pope Leo XIII at the Vatican then ventured east to Russia, Egypt, the Holy Land, Siam (Thailand), Burma, and China.[152]
In Japan, they were cordially received by Emperor Meiji and Empress Shōken at the Imperial Palace. Today in Shiba Park in Tokyo, a tree still stands that Grant planted during his stay. In 1879, the Meiji government of Japan announced the annexation of the Ryukyu Islands. China objected, and Grant was asked to arbitrate the matter. He worked with Japanese and Chinese officials to arrange a compromise, by which Japan would get most of the Ryukyus, and China would get the southernmost island groups, and Taiwan, thus settling the dispute over Taiwan at the same time. In the end, after Grant's departure, and much negotiation, China refused to sign the agreement.[153]
In 1879, the "Stalwart" faction of the Republican Party led by Senator Roscoe Conkling sought to nominate Grant for a third term as president. He counted on strong support from the business men, the old soldiers, and the Methodist church. Publicly Grant said nothing, but privately he wanted the job and encouraged his men.[154] His popularity was fading however, and while he received more than 300 votes in each of the 36 ballots of the 1880 convention, the nomination went to James A. Garfield. Grant campaigned for Garfield, who won by a narrow margin. Grant supported his Stalwart ally Conkling against Garfield in the battle over patronage in spring 1881 that culminated in Conkling's resignation from office.
The trip around the world, although successful, was costly. When Grant returned to America, he had depleted most of his savings from the long trip and needed to earn money. In 1881, Grant purchased a house in New York City and placed almost all of his financial assets into an investment banking partnership with Ferdinand Ward, as suggested by Grant's son Buck (Ulysses, Jr.), who was having success on Wall Street. In 1884, Ward swindled Grant (and other investors who had been encouraged by Grant), bankrupted the company, Grant & Ward, and fled. Depleted of money and compelled by a sense of personal honor, Grant repaid a personal loan of $150,000 from William H. Vanderbilt with his Civil War mementos. Although the market value did not completely cover the loan, Vanderbilt insisted the loan was paid in full.[155] [156]
Grant learned at the same time that he was suffering from throat cancer.[157] Grant and his family were left destitute, having forfeited his military pension when he assumed the office of President. Congress restored Grant to General of the Army with full retirement pay.[158][159]
Deep in debt, Grant wrote a series of literary works that improved his reputation and eventually brought his family out of bankruptcy. Grant first wrote several articles on his Civil War campaigns for The Century Magazine at $500 each. The articles were well received by critics. Mark Twain, who was in a financial bind himself, offered Grant a generous contract for his memoirs, including 75% of the book's net profit as royalties. Twain created a unique marketing system designed to reach millions of veterans with a patriotic appeal. 10,000 agents canvassed the North, following a script Twain had devised; many were themselves veterans who dressed in their old uniforms. They sold 350,000 two-volume sets at prices from $3.50 to $12 (depending on the binding). Each copy contained what looked like a handwritten note from Grant himself. In the end the widow received about $450,000 and Twain about $63,000.[160][161]
Grant finished his memoir just a few days before his death. The Memoirs. It has been highly regarded ever since by the general public, military historians and literary critics.[162] Grant was a shrewd, intelligent, and effective writer. He portrayed himself in the persona of the honorable Western hero, whose strength lies in his honesty and straightforwardness. His candidly depicts his battles against both the Confederates and internal military politics.[163]
Ulysses S. Grant died on Thursday, July 23, 1885, at the age of 63 in Mount McGregor, Saratoga County, New York. After lying in state, Grant's body was placed on a funeral train and traveled south from Albany, New York, and passed through the West Point station of Garrison, across the Hudson River from the Academy. The train carrying Grant's body was draped in black and slowly passed on its way to New York City. As it passed through West Point the whole undergraduate battalion with Cadet Captain John J. Pershing at its head stood at present arms.[164][165] Grant's body lies in New York City's Riverside Park, beside that of his wife, in Grant's Tomb, the largest mausoleum in North America. Grant is honored by the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial at the base of Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. In early 2010, Grant was proposed by the Ohio Historical Society as a finalist in a statewide vote for inclusion in Statuary Hall at the United States Capitol.
The following is a sample of persons who portrayed Ulysses S. Grant as a character in either historical-dramatic or documentary media formats. A more complete list can be found at Ulysses S. Grant.
Actors have played Ulysses S. Grant in 35 movies. Grant is the third most popular President to be portrayed in movies, films, or cinema.[166]
Portrayals include:[167]
Grant has often been portrayed in film as a scowling drunkard, which is historically inaccurate, and has also frequently been placed in false historical events.[168] One notable exception was by Kevin Kline in the 1999 film Wild Wild West. Kline consulted Grant scholar John Y. Simon for advice on how to play Grant, and portrays him as a formidable authority figure who has courage mixed with a hard-bitten sense of humor.[169]
In The Wild Wild West, President Grant appeared occasionally, as Secret Service agents West and Gordon worked exclusively for him. In Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee Senator Fred Thompson played Grant as an astute leader who listens to both sides of an argument.
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