Ulysses Grant was the 18th President of the USA from 1869 to 1877.
He was born on 27 April 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He started school in Georgetown and later on in Maysville Kentucky as well as the Presbyterian Academy in Ripley Ohio. When Ulysses Grant was 17 years old his father ensured that he was admitted to the Military Academy at West Point.
He entered West Point in 1839 and he excelled at horsemanship and mathematics. He was a much disciplined person and was able to adjust to a militaristic training and lifestyle. He graduated in 1843 and was assigned to infantry duty on the south-western frontier. In 1845 he was transferred to Texas and he fought in the Mexican War from 1869 to 1877. After the war he was stationed on the Pacific Coast but his heart was not truly in the army and he was forced to resign from the Army due to personal problems.
He returned to his family on a piece of land where he tried without success to make a living for him and his family. To keep up supporting his family he tried one job after the other without much success. He ended up in working for his brother but his break came when the Confederate States of America seceded from the Federal Union and the Civil War broke out. Ulysses Grant was against any form of slavery and he therefore declared him loyal to the Union and offered his services to the Union Army.
He was accepted with open arms and he was commissioned as colonel of the 21st Illinois Volunteers. Due to his reputation he was immediately promoted to the rank of brigadier-general and placed in charge of the District of South-East Missouri. For the first time in his life he was successful in what he was doing and he was on a high when he directed the strategy that successfully concluded the Civil War in 1865.
But, his war campaign was also marred with the negative – he was blamed of certain unsuccessful campaigns and of his personal life interfering with his professional decision making. Fortunately President Lincoln came up for him. To show the world that he was on the side of Ulysses Grant he promoted him to the rank of major-general. In 1867 he was appointed as Secretary of War but internal politics played a role again – when Congress insisted on the reinstatement of the previous Secretary of War, Ulysses Grant resigned.
But, once again fate played a role in favor of Ulysses Grant. In 1868 the Republican Party nominated him for president. At the age of 46, he was elected as the youngest President so far. Unfortunately his youth and inexperience in politics caused him immense problems in dealing with Congress. In spite of this he was popular with the American constituency, so much so that in 1872 he easily regained the Presidency for a second term. But, the second term was not so good. It was plagued by corruption and scandal. His reputation was shot and his trustees in Office were making themselves guilty of corruption.
At the end of his second term he suffered from throat cancer but he had time to complete his autobiography The Personal Memoirs of US Grant before he died on 23 July 1885.
In summary of his life and times, he was a puzzling figure in American public life. He was a failure in his early ventures of business and military life. Later on whilst commanding the Union forces he climbed to the highest rank in the U.S. Army and his two terms as President of the United States are considered by many historians to be the most corrupt in the country's history. But to be historical fair to him, there must be some good in him too as it emerges that he was a person of strong character and considerable dignity.
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