Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant (1822–1885) was the commanding general of the Union armies in the American Civil War and the eighteenth President of the United States. The son of an Ohio tanner, he graduated from West Point, served in Mexico, resigned from the army in 1854 and failed in civilian life before the Civil War recalled him. Victories at Fort Donelson, Vicksburg and Chattanooga brought him command of all Union forces in 1864; he accepted Lee's surrender at Appomattox a year later. His two terms as president (1869–1877) were marked by Reconstruction and scandal. Bankrupt and dying of cancer, he wrote his Personal Memoirs to provide for his family.