BRIDGET'S GUIDE TO THE GREAT, NOT-S0-GREAT AND DOWNRIGHT ABOMINABLE AMERICAN PRESIDENTS

18) ULYSSES S. GRANT

President from 1869-1877

At 46, he was the youngest President to take office at that time

The S. in his name didn't stand for anything. It was a mistake that stuck with him.

He was supposed to be with Abraham Lincoln at Ford's Theater the night of Lincoln's assassination but changed his plans. He believed had he been present he would have prevented Lincoln's death.

He had no political experience before becoming president and was not partcularly interested in running. However, his performance during the Civil War when he forced Robert E. Lee's army to surrender, so inspired the Republican party they nominated him as their candidate.

Appointed equally inexperienced and sometimes corrupt friends to cabinet positions

He mobilized the Justice Department against the Ku Klux Klan when they formed in the 1860s, sending troops into South Carolina and causing thousands of Klansmen to run squealing like hooded pigs out of the state.

Mark Tawin published his memoirs.

Grant's Tomb, the place he and his good lady  wife are buried, is the largest mausoleum ever built in North America.