On June 3, 1864, the armies of the Union and Confederacy met on a battlefield at Cold Harbor, Virginia. The Confederates were well entrenched and ready to mount a defensive position. Union soldiers on the other side of the lines were preparing for an attack that would prove disastrous. They knew what the outcome would be. In just 20 minutes of fighting, 7,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded. As the Yankees prepared to take action, many began sewing name tags onto their clothing so that their bodies could be identified after their deaths. A dead Union soldier was found with a small diary in his pocket. The last entry, dated June 3, 1864, simply said: "I was killed." Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an Original Essay Many men like him knew they were going to die that day, and yet they went ahead and met their destiny. Many people, military and civilian, rightly questioned the intelligence of the attack. But the decision was made and the men carried it out. They realized it because it was given to them by General Ulysses S. Grant, the man who was the first to continually win battles against Robert E. Lee, and the man who ultimately won the war for the United States. They did this because Grant was perhaps the most respected general to ever serve in the U.S. Army to that point. They did it because Grant was a leader. Grant was not always the leader who won the war and became president. He was first a business failure, a quiet young soldier with little social life, a general whose peers criticized him and accused him of drunkenness, and later a president plagued by scandals and rumors. Ulysses S. Grant was born to Jesse and Hannah Grant. on April 27, 1822, at Point Pleasant, Ohio, then still a frontier town on the Ohio River. Ulysses was the eldest of six children, two boys, Simpson and Orvil, and three girls, Clara, Virginia and Mary. His name was Hiram Odysseus, but was called Odysseus by almost his entire family, mainly because his father had originally preferred that name. Jesse was an outspoken man and well respected as a tanner, a profession in which he eventually became very successful. He was an abolitionist and a Whig who was almost alone in a part of Ohio populated by tobacco-producing Southerners. He wrote many vain letters to the editor, most of which were more right than wrong in their statements. Jesse was eccentric, too well dressed and very proud of Ulysses. Hannah, on the other hand, remained alone. She was a strict Methodist whose only unbaptized child was Odysseus. Hannah did not exactly neglect her maternal duties, but she showed a notable degree of indifference to their safety and achievements. She never kissed her children and rarely showed affection. The Grant family soon moved to Georgetown, Ohio, where Ulysses received a local schooling before attending boarding schools in Maysville, Kentucky and Ripley, Ohio. He hated working for his father at the tannery, although that would not be a problem for long, as he was assigned to West Point in 1839. It was then that he became known as Ulysses S. Grant. Fearing ridicule from his future classmates, he changed the initials on his luggage from "HUG" to "UHG". The man who signed his papers, however, thought his middle name was S, and so, after several attempts to try to fix his new name, Grant resigned himself to it. This resignation was a trait he showedoften. Unlike his swaggering father, Grant was quiet, and the harshness with which the upperclassmen treated the new cadets appealed less to Odysseus than anyone else. He did not particularly excel in any subject, although he did well in mathematics without studying much. He ended up graduating twenty-first out of thirty-nine. However, it was at West Point that Grant met Fred Dent, brother of Julia Dent, Grant's future wife. Julia was the daughter of a slave-holding southerner from Missouri. Grant was stationed as a brevet second lieutenant near St. Louis in 1843 and was able to visit Julia often. Shortly before the outbreak of war with Mexico, Grant proposed to Julia and they were officially engaged. Although Grant got along well with Julia's family, he often engaged, or rather was engaged by his father, in debates about slavery. Although Grant disliked slavery, he would eventually own slaves through Julia, and so his willingness to debate was probably based solely on an effort to please his father-in-law. Before these debates, however, came the war with Mexico. Grant never expressed his exact position on the United States' involvement with Mexico and Texas during the war, but he later made it known that he did not agree with the manner in which the question had been pushed. War was declared in 1846 and Grant left with the 4th Infantry as company commander and later quartermaster of the regiment, a position considered very important to the Grand Army of Mexico. Odysseus was present for many of the most important battles. At the Battle of Chapultepec, Grant and several other men obtained a good position for a cannon, and their firing on the spot was a great advantage to the American forces, who ultimately won the battle and the war. Grant was recognized for his work and received a captain's commission. He also received generally favorable remarks in battle reports. After the war, the army remained in Mexico to deal with the problems. Grant missed Julia very much, and most of his letters express this. He also wrote to her about his feelings during the battle. “Although the bullets were whizzing around me, I did not feel a sensation of fear...they have less horror when among them than when in anticipation.” After the horrors of the battles had ceased, Grant went to see a bullfight, but left before the end, disgusted with the cruelty to animals. This war did more than just open the young troops to new things. Men like Robert E. Lee, James Longstreet, and Grant himself were first trained in war. They formed friendships, Grant with Dent and Longstreet in particular, and set the stage for their own military careers. The army returned in 1848, and Grant and Julia were married that August. His new post was in Detroit, where Julia gave birth to a son, Fred, in 1850. Grant had a lot of free time and generally frequented military circles. He drank and "...invariably stood on the sidelines, never dancing, rarely speaking" at social gatherings. Grant's regiment was transferred to California in 1852. Julia was expecting another child and could not go. Grant longed for his family more than ever. “I almost go crazy sometimes to see Fred,” he wrote to Julia. That's when he starts drinking to chase away his loneliness. He tendered his resignation and returned home in July, settling with Julia and her two sons on a sixty-acre farm given to them by Julia's father in Missouri. The family grew with a daughter, Ellen, and another son. Grant built ahouse, named it Hardscrabble, and failed miserably as a farmer. He gave up farming after two years which saw him pawning his gold watch and freeing one of his new slaves, when he could have sold him and gotten out of trouble. Grant then became a partner in a collections and real estate agency with Julia's cousin, Harry Boggs. But he wasn't determined enough to become a collector, so he tried, unsuccessfully, to get a job as a county engineer. He then lost a job at the St. Louis Customs House when the owner died and eventually returned to his family's leather business in Galena, Illinois. He was working there as a clerk when the war that would change his life began. When the Civil War broke out in April 1861, Grant reenlisted. He did not show great enthusiasm, but simply felt that he could make himself useful thanks to his previous training. He did this primarily by helping to organize volunteer regiments from Ohio and Illinois, whipping them quickly into shape. He was promoted to brigadier general in August, in charge of the 21st Illinois Regiment, protecting the borders around Kentucky and Ohio. He quickly took control of Paducah, Kentucky, to thwart Confederate movements. This and his nature of sticking with things once he got started made him very popular with his troops. Grant spent most of his early Civil War career in what is known as the Western Theater. He eventually became commander of the Army of the Tennessee, having been second in command to General Halleck. Halleck never liked Grant, and after Grant virtually ignored an order to stay put and attacked Fort Donelson, his contempt for him grew stronger. It was during this attack that Grant told the Confederate commander that he would accept "no conditions but an unconditional surrender." The fascinated civilian public then began to say that the United States, in its name, should represent unconditional surrender. They had found a hero. Driving into the heart of Tennessee, Grant and his forces finally arrived near a small Tennessee church known as Shiloh. It was here that one of the bloodiest battles of the war took place. Grant and his forces nearly lost the battle on several occasions, and the fighting was fought primarily by inexperienced soldiers and leaders. Ultimately, Union forces were victorious after two days of fighting and more than 25,000 combined casualties. After Shiloh, many people called for Grant's removal from power. Leaders like Halleck had continually criticized Grant for his drinking habits. It is still unclear whether Grant was an alcoholic, but he certainly enjoyed drinking. For his part, Commander-in-Chief Abraham Lincoln responded to criticism of Grant's drinking by saying that he wanted to know what brand of whiskey Grant drank, so he could send it to all his generals. At least for a time, this was Grant's masterful capture of the Mississippi River, culminating in the capture of Vicksburg in July 1863. Vicksburg was key to the capture of the Mississippi, and the Mississippi was key to the division of the Confederacy . For two months he besieged the city, finally deciding to cross the river downstream from the city and attack from behind. Grant was constantly along the lines during the slow march, dirty and observing, but urging his troops to close ranks and press on. After winning five difficult battles along the way, Grant finally surrounded the city of Vicksburg. After attempting an assault, the Army of Tennesseeprepare for siege. He bombarded the city every day from April to July. Finally, exhausted, the Confederates surrendered Vicksburg on July 4, 1863. Grant was a hero again, and the people who had castigated him for his drinking, willful behavior, negligence, and any other problem they could find congratulated him now. above all others. Despite his detractors, Grant was appointed lieutenant general and commander of all Union forces. The Army of the Potomac numbered 500,000 men, and Grant soon took them south in what he hoped would be a final push toward the capital of Richmond. The first major combat took place in a dense Virginia forest known as the Wilderness. The battle was chaos and was made worse by the need to fight the usually unbeatable Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Lee finally broke Grant's flank, thus ceasing the battle for a time. After the first day of battle, Grant wept in his tent; the next day he began a walk. No other general before him had marched much, and Grant now did so after a defeat, instilling confidence in his men and a public that had seen slower generals fumble for too long. The army moved toward Spotsylvania, where shots were never fired. stopped two days ago. These types of battles continued for a month, with Grant trying to get around the Confederate flank several times, trying to reach Richmond. It was during this series of flanking maneuvers that the Battle of Cold Harbor took place. ColdHarbour was Grants' only regret. Lee was entrenched and there was now a stalemate. Grant was accused of using his men as if they were not human. He was called “the bloody butcher” for his frontal tactics. Eventually, Grant and his troops crossed the Potomac on pontoons and headed toward Petersburg, Virginia, south of Richmond. The attack was slow and allowed the Confederates to reinforce their trenches. A siege that lasted 10 months began. On March 25, the rebels launched a small attack that was quickly met by a counterattack that ultimately pushed the Confederates out of Petersburg. As with the other battles of the campaign, Grant's forces paid a heavy price, but he was now closer to Richmond than ever. The Confederate government was displaced and Richmond was evacuated; the fleeing people burned the city behind them. Grant's army moved there and the Confederate capital was now his, while Lee and his army retreated to a small crossroads town called Appomattox Court House. Grant quickly followed, with a force nearly 5 times greater than Lee's. Grant telegraphed Lee in April, asking him to surrender. The rebel army was surrounded and almost out of supplies, and Lee agreed to meet with Grant and sign a treaty of surrender on April 9, 1865. They met at a local house, called the MacLean House, that evening. Lee came dressed as finely as possible for a great general, and Grant arrived splattered with mud and wearing a soldier's jacket. Grant offered extremely generous terms; he allowed those who had horses to keep them and arranged to give Lee rations to feed his starving troops. As Lee walked away, Grant silenced his enthusiastic troops, saying that they should not rejoice and that the rebels were now their countrymen. Thus ended what most consider the high point of Grant's life. He had failed in everything up to the start of the war, and now he had won the final and greatest victory of the entire war. What followed, his presidency, is perhaps considered the worst.