GRANT, ULYSSES SIMPSON, an American statesman; 18th president of the United States; born in Point Pleas ant, O., April 27, 1822, entered West Point Academy in 1839, graduated in 1843, received a commission in the United States Army in 1845, and served un der Generals Taylor and Scott in Mexico. In 1852 he was ordered to Oregon, and in August, 1853, became full captain. He resigned his commission in July, 1854, and soon after settled in business at Galena, Ill. From this privacy he was drawn out by the Civil War, and having acted first as aide-de-camp to the gover nor of his State in 1861, and afterward as colonel of the 21st Illinois Volunteers, was appointed a Brigadier-General in July of the same year. While in com mand at Cairo, he secured Paducah, and with it the State of Kentucky. In No vember, 1861, he fought and gained the battle of Belmont, and in January of the following year conducted a reconnais sance to the rear of Columbus. After capturing Fort Henry, on the Tennessee, General Grant pursued the Confederates to Fort Donelson. There a severe battle raged almost without interruption for three days and three nights, when, Feb. 15, the fort was surrendered uncon ditionally. This brilliant feat elevated General Grant to the rank of Major General. Having been appointed to the command of the district of western Ten nessee, Grant advanced up that river to Pittsburg Landing, where he had to con tend against a force of nearly 70,000 men. The National lines were over whelmed, crushed, dispersed; but Gen eral Grant, undismayed, formed new lines, planted new batteries, and thus held the Confederates in check till dark, when the long expected arrival of his rear-guard of 35,000 men, under General Buell, enabled him to fight, April 6 and 7, the glorious battle of Shiloh, whence the Confederates, abandoning the field, retreated to Corinth. General Grant was second in command to General Halleck at the siege of Corinth, and when the latter was ordered to Washington, he was appointed to take command of the Department of Tennessee, in which ca pacity he marched against Vicksburg, the so-called "Gibraltar" of the Confed erates on the Mississippi. After a long and memorable siege, this important place was surrendered unconditionally, and 37,000 prisoners, 150 cannons, with an immense amount of military stores, fell into the hands of the victors.
Upon the defeat of General Rosecrans at Chickamauga, Grant was sent to re pair the disaster, and on Nov. 25, 1863,
he defeated General Bragg at Lookout Mountain. This great victory, by which eastern Tennessee was reduced and Ken tucky saved, was perhaps the most bril liant strategic and tactical movement of the war; it placed General Grant on a footing with the ablest generals of any country or of any age. A few months after, March 1, 1864, Grant was raised to the highest military position in the land—under the title of Lieutenant General he was constituted commander in-chief of all the armies of the United States. Invested with this authority, the plan of General Grant was to destroy Lee's army. Washington was to be covered from raid, through the Shenan doah, by General Sigel. General Butler was to menace Richmond from the S. Sherman, in Georgia, was to press his campaign in that department with all vigor, that no re-enforcements might be sent to the aid of Lee. General Grant, with Meade's army of 150,000 N. of the Rapidan, was to draw Lee's army out of their intrenchments and either destroy them, or compel them to rush from the menacing of Washington to the protec tion of their own capital. On the night of Tuesday, May 3, General Grant crossed the Rapidan, and entered what is called The Wilderness- By a flank movement, Grant was getting into the rear of his foe. Lee rushed from his in trenchments, and endeavored to over whelm Grant. Then began the most gigantic and terrific campaign recorded in history.
After 11 days of bloody and almost uninterrupted battles, the two armies, on the 12th day of this unparalled struggle, were still confronting each other, both on the defensive, sternly looking face to face, both prepared for another round! With the first dawn the battle was renewed by a tremendous but vain assault upon the Confederate lines. General Lee, nevertheless, fearing Grant might get between him and Richmond, cutting off his supplies, decided to retire, and Grant succeeded in crossing the North Anna, and reached the famous banks of the Chickahominy. Finding the intrenchments of the enemy in his front too formidable to be carried by direct assault, Grant moved his troops to join General Butler at Bermuda Hun dred. The performance of this movement, in the presence of Lee's army, who at many points were but a few rods from him, is perhaps one of the most brilliant pages of General Grant's military career. Slowly wore away long months of ex pectation on the part of an impatient people.