GRANT, ULYSSES Suarsox, eighteenth president of the United States, was b. at Point Pleasant, Clermont co., Ohio, April 27, 1822; graduated at the military academy of West Point in 1843, and served under gen. Taylor in the war with Mexico, 1846, up to the capture of Monterey. His regiment was th'en transferred to the expedition under gen. Scott, and he took part in every action from Vera Cruz to Mexico, and was brev etted first-lieut. and capt. for meritorious conduct at Molino del Rey and Chapultapec. In 1852 he served in Oregon; but in 1854 resigned his commission, and settled at St. Louis, Missouri, whence, in 1859, he moved to Galena, • Illinois, and engaged in the leather trade. At the beginning of the war of secession in 1861, he volunteered his services, and was appointed col. of an Illinois regiment. In August he was appointed brig.gen., commanding the important post of Cairo, occupied Paducah, and led an expedition on the Mississippi. In Feb., 1862, he distinguished himself in the capture of fort Douelson, on the Tennessee River, and was made maj.gen. Oh April 0, following, after a preliminary defeat, he won a great battle over the confederates at Pittsburg Landing, or Shiloh. Succeeding gen. Halleck in the w., he commanded the land-forces which, in conjunction with the navy, reduced July 4, 1863, soon followed by the fall of fort Hudson, and the opening of the Mississippi. He then took command of the army of Tennessee, and defeated gen. Bragg at in September of the same year; and was, in 1864, appointed lient.gen. and commander
in-chief, and personally directed the operations of the great final struggle in Virginia. in which the northern forces, though often repulsed with heavy losses, finally compelled the evacuation of Richmond, April 2, 1865. followed on the 9th by the surrender of the confederate army under gen. Lee, and soon after of the entire confederate forces. Congress, in recognition of his eminent passed an act reviving the grade of " General of the Army of the United States," to which Grant was immediately appointed. In 1868 he was elected, on the " republican " platform, president of the United States; and having in 1872, been re-elected over Horace Greeley, lie retired in 1877, after his second term of office. In the latter year Grant visited Europe, everywhere receiving a hearty welcome, and completed a tour round the world in 1879. Simple, reticent, earnest and persevering in his character, he owed his military success not so much to strateg3Fas to superior numbers and resources, and hard fighting; in which even a series of victories left his enemy less able to resist. During Grant's presidency a great reduc tion was made upon the national debt incurred during the civil war. The military gov ernment of the southern states in those yehrs cannot be regarded as successful. The most important event connected with relations to foreign states was the settlement of the Alabama question by the " joint high commission " in 1871.