false 6926 3 1
The son of an Appalachian Ohio tanner, Grant entered the United States Military Academy at age 17. In 1846, three years after graduating, Grant served as a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War under Winfield Scott and future president Zachary Taylor. After the Mexican-American War concluded in 1848, Grant remained in the Army, but abruptly resigned in 1854. After struggling through the succeeding years as a real estate agent, a laborer, and a county engineer, Grant decided to join the Northern effort in the Civil War.

Appointed brigadier general of volunteers in 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln, Grant claimed the first major Union victories of the war in 1862, capturing Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. He was surprised by a Confederate attack at the Battle of Shiloh; although he emerged victorious, the severe casualties prompted a public outcry. Subsequently, however, Grant's 1863 victory at Vicksburg, following a long campaign with many initial setbacks, and his rescue of the besieged Union army at Chattanooga, established his reputation as Lincoln's most aggressive and successful general. Named lieutenant general and general-in-chief of the Army in 1864, Grant implemented a coordinated strategy of simultaneous attacks aimed at destroying the South's armies and its economy's ability to sustain its forces. In 1865, after mounting a successful war of attrition against his Confederate opponents, he accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House.

Popular due to the Union victory in the war, Grant was elected President of the United States as a Republican in 1868 and re-elected in 1872, the first President to serve two full terms since Andrew Jackson 40 years before. As President, Grant led Reconstruction by signing and enforcing Congressional civil rights legislation. Grant built a powerful, patronage-based Republican Party in the South, straining relations between the North and former Confederates. His administration was marred by scandal, sometimes the product of nepotism; the neologism Grantism was coined to describe political corruption.

Grant left office in 1877 and embarked upon a two-year world tour. Unsuccessful in winning the nomination for a third term in 1880, left destitute by a fraudulent investor, and near the brink of death, Grant wrote his Memoirs, which were enormously successful among veterans, the public, and critics. However, in 1884, Grant learned that he was suffering from terminal throat cancer and, two days after completing his writing, he died at the age of 63. Presidential historians typically rank Grant in the lowest quartile of U.S. presidents for his tolerance of corruption, but in recent years his reputation has improved among some scholars impressed by his support for civil rights for African Americans.]]> male Point Pleasant, Ohio 1822/04/27 1885/07/23 10547 0940450585 9780940450585 24 <![CDATA[Ulysses S. Grant : Memoirs and Selected Letters : Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant / Selected Letters, 1839-1865]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/10/547/10547-m-1255569089.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/books/10/547/10547-s-1255569089.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10547.Ulysses_S_Grant_Memoirs_and_Selected_Letters_Personal_Memoirs_of_U_S_Grant_Selected_Letters_1839_1865 4.26 148 6926 4.24 304 66 1972 10550 1598188984 9781598188981 4 <![CDATA[The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Vol. 2]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166254005m/10550.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1166254005s/10550.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/10550.The_Personal_Memoirs_of_U_S_Grant_Vol_2 4.13 15 6926 4.24 304 66 1990 6059631 0831706783 9780831706784 5 <![CDATA[Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6059631.Personal_Memoirs_of_U_S_Grant 4.33 12 6926 4.24 304 66 1995 1862292 5555354495 9785555354495 0 <![CDATA[Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant Part 1 (10 Cas)]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1862292.Personal_Memoirs_of_U_S_Grant_Part_1 4.00 3 During the last year of his life, when he was dying of cancer, Grant recalled his Ohio boyhood, his West Point years and the grim military campaign in Mexico that ended in military victory but which Grant thought was politically shameful.

Grant resigned from the army and returned to civilian life. But then came the rebellion that split the Union and recast Grant's fortune: he proved to be a general who could win.

What it takes for victory, we learn from these pages, is an amalgam of qualities, among them unconscious physical courage, foresight, iron-willed determination, the vigorous exercise of command.

Among biographies of generals and statesmen, PERSONAL MEMOIRS OF U.S. GRANT rank with the greatest.

]]> 6926 4.24 304 66 2002 553492 1571458379 9781571458377 1 <![CDATA[The Civil War: In the Words of Its Greatest Commanders : Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant : Memoirs of Robert E. Lee]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175740980m/553492.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1175740980s/553492.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/553492.The_Civil_War_In_the_Words_of_Its_Greatest_Commanders_Personal_Memoirs_of_U_S_Grant_Memoirs_of_Robert_E_Lee 4.50 2 6926 4.24 304 66 2002 1121227 1406833479 9781406833478 0 <![CDATA[Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to His Father and His Youngest Sister,]]> http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181161645m/1121227.jpg http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1181161645s/1121227.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1121227.Letters_of_Ulysses_S_Grant_to_His_Father_and_His_Youngest_Sister_ 3.00 1 6926 4.24 304 66 2005 7411155 1436607558 9781436607551 0 <![CDATA[Stories, Sketches And Speeches Of General Grant: At Home And Abroad, In Peace And In War (1879)]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7411155-stories-sketches-and-speeches-of-general-grant 0.0 0 6926 4.24 304 66 3197712 0.0 0 0 2008 7312123 1438297076 9781438297071 0 <![CDATA[The Complete Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7312123-the-complete-personal-memoirs-of-ulysses-s-grant 0.0 0 6926 4.24 304 66 2009 6615525 1593164491 9781593164492 0 <![CDATA[Blood: Stories of Life and Death From The Civil War]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6615525-blood 0.0 0 6926 4.24 304 66 229 4.30 417 72 1438 4.16 11848 673 19879 3.06 15004 829 567836 0.0 0 0 2986032 0.0 0 0 29415 3.75 12 1 470871 0.0 0 0 150534 3.00 1 0 144334 4.19 16 2 1458986 0.0 0 0 2986033 0.0 0 0 2001 6055460 0760775095 9780760775097 0 <![CDATA[Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant and Recollections and Letters Robert E. Lee]]> http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-111x148.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/images/nocover-60x80.jpg http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6055460.Personal_Memoirs_of_Ulysses_S_Grant_and_Recollections_and_Letters_Robert_E_Lee 0.0 0 6926 4.24 304 66 41991 3.79 48 6 2005