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Ulysses S. Grant

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Ulysses S. Grant
Historical Figure
Timeline: OTL
Nationality: United States
Religion: Methodist
Date of Birth: 1822
Date of Death: 1885
Cause of Death: Throat Cancer
Occupation: General, President of the United States
Spouse: Julia Dent Grant
Children: Jesse Grant, Ulysses S. Grant, Jr., Nellie Grant, Frederick Grant
Relatives: U.S. Grant III (grandson)
Affiliations: United States Army, Republican Party
Timeline: Fort Pillow (OTL; referenced)
Timeline: The Guns of the South
Timeline: Southern Victory
Appearance(s): How Few Remain

Ulysses S. Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant, 1822-1885) was an American general and the eighteenth President of the United States (1869–1877). He achieved international fame as the leading Union general in the American Civil War, proving to be the North's most aggressive general. His tenure as general is treated more favorably by historians than his presidency, which was marred by corruption. Indeed, contemporary critics coined the word "Grantism" to describe government corruption.

After leaving office, Grant was very nearly destitute, but was able to provide for his family by publishing his memoirs. He died of throat cancer two days after completing them.

[edit] Ulysses S. Grant in Fort Pillow

In 1863, Ulysses S. Grant had made Jackson, Tennesee one of his supply depots, until Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest pushed Union forces back out.  Forrest subsequently used Jackson as his launching-pad for the attack on Fort Pillow.

[edit] Ulysses S. Grant in The Guns of the South

Ulysses S. Grant's great achievement in 1862-63 was to seize control of the Mississippi River by defeating a series of uncoordinated Confederate armies and by capturing Vicksburg in July 1863. After a victory at Chattanooga in late 1863, Abraham Lincoln made him general-in-chief of all Union armies.

He faced C.S. General Robert E. Lee during the Battle of the Wilderness through which he attempted to advance on Richmond. Grant's superiority in numbers came to naught due to the AK-47s supplied by the Rivington Men to Lee. A second defeat at Bealeton allowed Lee to advance on and capture Washington City.

Grant later served as an Election Commissioner during the Kentucky and Missouri state-wide referendum on whether they would remain with the Union or join the Confederacy. Although he had a reputation as a heavy drinker, Grant remained abstinent during the election campaign. However, the night of the vote, after it became clear Kentucky voted to join the C.S., he drank himself into a stupor.

[edit] Ulysses S. Grant in Southern Victory

While Ulysses S. Grant had achieved a string of victories in 1862, they came to naught; in the East, General George McClellan allowed his Army of the Potomac to be destroyed at Camp Hill, Philadelphia was taken by the Army of Northern Virginia, and British and French intervention forced the US to surrender. Grant became deeply depressed and reverted to his prewar alcoholism, of which he died some time after the Second Mexican War. (At the outset of that war, he was one of the few sympathetic members of a crowd in St. Louis addressed by Frederick Douglass.)

Nonetheless, he is remembered kindly in US history as the Union's only good commander in the War of Secession, and many Americans are haunted by the thought of how the war might have gone differently if he, rather than McClellan, had faced Robert E. Lee.

Office
Preceded by
Andrew Johnson
President of the United States (OTL)
1869-1877
Succeeded by
Rutherford B Hayes