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Ulysses S. Grant Presidential $1 Coin — 18th President, 1869 - 1877
Born in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West Point and fought in the Mexican War under General Zachary Taylor. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was appointed to command an unruly volunteer regiment. By September 1861, he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. President Lincoln later promoted him to major general of volunteers. After he won battles at Vicksburg, Miss., and Chattanooga, Tenn., Lincoln appointed him general-in-chief in March 1864. Finally, on April 9, 1865, Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered.
As the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, General Ulysses S. Grant was the Republican Party’s logical candidate for President in 1868. As President, he allowed radical Reconstruction to run its course in the south, bolstering it at times with military force. Under his administration, Yellowstone was established as the first national park and Congress passed a bill calling for equal pay for women and men holding similar jobs in federal government agencies. The happiest day of the Grant presidency was May 21, 1874, when his daughter Nellie was married in an extravagant White House wedding. After retiring from the presidency, Grant learned that he had cancer of the throat. At the suggestion of author Mark Twain, he started writing his memoirs to help pay off his debts and provide for his family; Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant became a best-seller. The book is today considered one of the finest military autobiographies ever written. Soon after completing the last page, he died on July 23, 1885.
The great Union military hero of the Civil War, Ulysses Grant also served two terms as U.S. president. Grant came from humble beginnings in small-town Ohio; his father was a tanner. The future general was baptized as Hiram Ulysses Grant, but when he arrived at West Point military academy in 1839, he found that he had been registered as Ulysses Simpson Grant, and he never bothered to change the name back. A sloppy cadet but a great horseman, Grant went on to serve with distinction in the Mexican War of 1846-48. Grant was later a failure as a farmer and a businessman, but he soared to fame during the Civil War, when he earned the nickname "Unconditional Surrender Grant" for his relentless tactics and leadership. He rose to become President Abraham Lincoln's choice as commander of the Union Armies from 1864 until the war's end in 1865. (The war ended after Grant accepted the surrender of Confederate leader Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on 9 April 1865.) After the war, Grant was easily elected to two terms as president (1869-77), but his administration was tainted by corruption among his Cabinet members. He was succeeded by Rutherford B. Hayes. His Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, written after he left office, were published after his death in 1885 and are still regarded as a classic history of the Civil War.
Grant married the former Julia Dent on 22 August 1848. They had four children: Frederick (b. 1850), Ulysses, Jr. (b. 1850, called Buck), Ellen (b. 1855, called Nellie), and Jesse (b. 1858)... President Grant died deep in debt after being defrauded by Ferdinand Ward, a business partner of his son Ulysses. But Grant's wife Julie was saved from bankruptcy when his memoirs were published and earned hundreds of thousands of dollars... Grant succeeded Andrew Johnson... Grant was the 18th president.
• Born: 27 April 1822
• Birthplace: Point Pleasant, Ohio
• Died: 23 July 1885 (throat cancer)
• Best Known As: President of the United States, 1869-1877
Name at birth: Hiram Ulysses Grant
FDM- Denver - March 7, 2011
FDM - Philadelphia - March 2, 2011
FDI - May 19, 2011