BIO: Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885), commanded the victorious Union armies at the close of the Civil War. Grant was the first West Point graduate to become president. A quiet, unassuming man, he had an almost shy manner, was short and stocky and did not look like a leader of men. Ulysses was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, OH, a village on the Ohio River about 20 miles SE of Cincinnatti. He was the first child of Jesse and Hannah Simpson Grant. His greatgrandfather, John Simpson was born in 1738 near Dungannon, Co. Tyrone and emigrated to Bucks Co., PA, in 1763. Grant's name at birth was actually Hiram Ulysses Grant, but he was always called Ulysses or "Lyss. The year after he was born the family moved to nearby Georgetown, OH, where his father owned a tannery and a farm. Grant's two brothers and three sisters were born in Georgetown. His father prospered in the tannery. Although Ulysses disliked working in the tannery, he enjoyed farm work and managing horses and became an excellent horseman. Ulysses was honest and trustworthy, and his father often sent him on business trips. He graduated from West Point in 1843, married Julia Dent in 1848. She was a devoted wife, and gave Grant constant encouragement. The Grants had four children: Frederick Dent, Ulysses Simpson, Ellen (Nellie) Wrenshall, and Jesse Root. Grant resigned from the army in 1854, after complaints regarding his excessive drinking. The family lived on a farm near St. Louis named Hardscrabble. Grant liked farming but the land was poor. In 1859, he sold the f! arm and moved to St. Louis and a relative gave him a job in a real estate office. Grant also worked in a leather goods store with his brothers in Galena, IL in 1860 as a storekeeper. In 1861, he was appointed a colonel of Illinois volunteers, in 1863 lead Union troops to victory at Vicksburg, Mississippi. He was named supreme commander of Union forces in 1864. In 1865, he accepted the surrender of Confederate forces under General Robert E. Lee. (See Civil War era letter below). In 1868, Grant was elected President of the United States. Two months later, the nation's first transcontinental railroad was completed when the tracks of the Union Pacific and Central Pacific railroads met at Promontory, Utah. In 1871, the great Chicago fire killed about 300 persons and left more than 90,000 homeless. In 1872, Grant was reelected to his second term and Congress established Yellowstone National Park, the first national park in the U. S. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in 1876. That same year, in the Battle of the Little Bighorn, Sioux and Cheyenne warriors massacred about 225 men under General George A. Custer. In 1879, two years post-presidency a tired Grant visited Ireland. "Whatever may have been my political opinons before," wrote Grant to his father in 1861, "I have but one sentiment now. That is we have a Government, and laws and a flag and they must all be sustained. There are but two parties now, Traitors & Patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter." Four years later, and on the verge of winning the nation's most consequential war since the American Revolution, Grant neither boasted about his victory nor condemned the South. The tone of his correspondence, in fact, was one of sympathy. In a short letter to his wife, Julia Dent Grant, he wrote the following: "In the Field, Raleigh, Apl. 25th 1865. Dear Julia, We arrived here yesterday and as I expected to return to-day did not intend to write until I returned. Now however matters have taken such a turn I suppose Sherman will finish up matters by tomorrow night and I shall wait to see the result. Raleigh is a very beautiful place. The grounds are large and filled with the most beautiful spreading oaks I ever saw. Nothing has been destroyed and the people are anxious to see peace restored so that further devastation need not take place in the country. The suffering that must exist in the South the next year, even with the war ending now, will be beyond conception. People who talk now of further retalliation and punishment, except of the political leaders, either do not conceive of the suffering endured already or they are heartless and unfeeling and wish to stay at home, out of danger, whilst the punishment is being inflicted. Love and Kisses for you and the children, ULY! S." -- Excerpts, "World Book" encyclopedia, and "Letters of a Nation," A. Carroll.