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Essay / Ulysses S Grant and his contributions to America
Hiram Ulysses Grant, more commonly known as Ulysses S Grant, was the eighteenth president of the United States of America. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essayGrant was born on April 27, 1822. When Grant was growing up, he attended schools in Georgetown, Ohio. When he was not in school, he worked on the family farm. He loved playing with horses. Grant's father, Jesse Root Grant, was born on January 23, 1794, in Greensburg, Pennsylvania. Jesse Grant made a lot of money as a tanner. Odysseus hated helping his father with the tan line. In May 1839, Grant left Ohio to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York. When Grant was registered, his name was written. He was registered under the name Ulysses S Grant. He ended up bearing that name. After four years, he graduated from West Point on July 1, 1843, and was commissioned a Brevet Second Lieutenant. Grant placed 21st out of 39 in his class. He was then assigned to a Fourth Infantry at the St. Louis Jefferson Barracks. It was here that he met his future wife, Julia. After Grant's honeymoon, he was reassigned to Sackets Harbor, New York. At this point, Grant was bored with the peacetime boredom of the army. However, he really enjoyed playing cards, racing with his horse Cicotte and taking Julia to the ball. Grant continued to be displaced when he was sent to Humboldt Bay in July 1852. Grant found himself overcome by loneliness and missing his wife and children. Finally, after two years, Grant resigned his commission in August 1854 and returned home to his family who currently resided in Missouri. When he returned home, he began working on a farm and then in real estate. In May 1860, he moved again to Galen, Illinois, where he again began working in his father's leather shop as a clerk. Here he only earns eight hundred dollars a year. On June 17, 1861, Grant re-enlisted in the army because of the Civil War. While in the army, Grant developed a serious smoking habit, where he smoked approximately twenty cigarettes a day. On August 9, 1861, Grant was promoted to brigadier general by President Lincoln because he so impressed his commanders with his transcendent ability to train boys into soldiers. The Battle of Belmont was Grant's first battle as a general. The Union attacked the Confederate camp but retreated during the counterattack. This battle is sometimes referred to as the "fighting retreat" for the Union. However, through this battle, the union gained much-needed experience. Grant won his first victory in February 1682 at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. This victory made Grant nationally famous for his dispatch "No conditions except immediate and unconditional surrender." I suggest we move on to your work immediately. 15,000 Confederates surrendered to Grant. After the victory, the war was nicknamed "unconditional surrender" due to Grant's demand for total surrender. This major victory made President Lincoln extremely happy. So happy in fact that he promoted Grant to major general. On April 6, 1862, Grant and his arm were attacked by Confederate General Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh Church. After a few attempts to gain control of Vicksburg, Grant finally had the opportunity to implement his grand strategy between May 12 and 17, 1863. Vicksburg was an important location for the Confederates as it was used for communications and navigation . After five days he fought and defeated the enemy at Jackson,Champion Hill and Big River with approximately 42,000 men under his command. But Grant still captured Vicksburg. Between this period of May 19 and May 22, 1863, Grant attempted to attack Vicksburg twice, but failed each time. Union forces then moved in for a siege. On July 4, 1863, Grant finally won the victory he fought so desperately for. Grant captured and imprisoned 20,000 Confederate soldiers. During this period of war, every time a soldier died in combat, two more died of illness. This fact gives an idea of the unsanitary conditions of the hospitals and of everyone. During the summer of 1863, Grant finally got the time he needed with his family. He missed his family a lot and he couldn't wait to see them. They spent the summer together in a house in Vicksburg. Although he desperately wanted to spend more time with this family, he had to return to combat on October 22, 1863 where he fought in the Battle of Chattanooga, Tennessee, against William S. Rogers. The Union was very successful in this battle, with Union victories at Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge forcing the Confederates deeper into Tennessee. Grant continued to advance when he was promoted to lieutenant general on March 9, 1863. Once again, President Lincoln promoted him, and on March 12, 1863, Grant was named chief general of all armies of the United States. The next major battle in which Grant participates is the Battle of the Wilderness against Robert E. Lee. When the battle ended in a draw, Grant had lost more than twice as many men as Lee. Fight after fight between the two fierce and determined generals ends in a draw. On May 11, 1863, Grant wrote another famous dispatch saying, "I intend to fight on this line if it takes all summer." At the Battle of Cold Harbor, Grant lost approximately 7,000 men in an hour. This was Grant's lowest point while he was a general. The Rebels lost about 32,000 while the Federals lost 50,000. Grant had a greater advantage over Lee when it came to losing men because he had an easier time replacing his men whereas for Lee , he could not replace his men so quickly. Due to Lee's lack of men, he had to surrender on April 9, 1865, at Mclean House, Appomattox, Virginia. “The war is over,” said Grant, “the rebels are our countrymen again and the best sign of rejoicing is to refrain from all demonstrations on the ground.” When Lee surrendered, Grant only asked them to stop fighting and lay down their arms. President Lincoln asked Grant if he wanted to come to the White House and go to the theater together, but Grant politely rejected this proposal due to the fact that he greatly missed his family, where they lived in New Jersey. If he had accepted this offer, he would have been at Ford's Theater the night John Wilkes Booth killed President Lincoln. Union General Sherman also accepted Confederate General Johnston's surrender on the same terms Grant gave Lee. This ended the fighting in the south. On July 25, 1868, Congress created a new rank of general for Grant. Grants' title is now four-star general. By the end of the war, 600,000 soldiers died. 350,000 soldiers were with the Union and 250,000 with the Confederates. When the war ended, everyone who owned slaves had to free them. Only states that ratify the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments would be readmitted to the Union. Grant fully supported equal rights for African Americans. Grant was elected Secretary of War and Advisor to the President in 1867 when Edwin M. Staton, who had previously been fired by President Johnson.Staton was later fired from the position due to wrongful termination. Grant was, however, chosen in 1868 by the Republican Party as its presidential candidate. Grant accepted his nomination by delivering the following speech: "The proceedings of the convention have been marked by wisdom, moderation and patriotism and, I believe, express the feelings of the great mass of those who have supported the country through his trials. I accept their solutions, if elected to the office of President of the United States, I will endeavor to enforce all laws in good faith, with economy and with the aim of bringing peace, tranquility and security everywhere. protection in times like the present it is impossible, or at least it is entirely inappropriate to establish a policy to adhere to, rightly or wrongly, over the course of a four-year administration. New, unforeseen political questions constantly arise, public opinions about old ones are constantly changing, and a purely administrative official should always be left free to carry out the will of the people. I have always respected this wish and I always will. Universal peace and prosperity - its sequence - with national debt economics. Let us have peace.” This speech only shows you how much respect Grant has for our nation and how much he wants to see it succeed. Grant received a lot of attention for this last phrase, "Let us have peace." In this presidential election, only two parties had a candidate running. Both Democrats and Republicans wanted Grant. When they took the Republican nomination, the Republicans campaigned as "the party that won the war, led by the man who did it." At the age of forty-six, Grant was elected president on March 4, 1869. Grant received 3,012,833 votes and 214 electoral votes. Grant received all of the electoral votes of Ohio, his home state, and received 280,159 votes. His opponent, Horato Seymour, a Democrat, received only 2,703,249 votes and 8 electoral votes. Seymour considered his agreement to run against Grant "the mistake of my life." An estimated five hundred thousand African Americans voted for the first time. The majority of votes were in favor of Grants. During Grant's first year as president, many people considered him untrustworthy because of his friendships with James Fisk and Jay Gould. At the time, Grant didn't realize they were doing illegal things. They were trying to take over the gold market. When Grant finally discovered their plan, he ordered that the four million dollars of government gold that had been confiscated be returned to the market. This depressed gold prices, but saved the government from further economic disaster. Grant's main goal during his term was to hope to secure equal rights for African Americans. Grant was able to create and enforce the Fifteenth Amendment which allowed black men to vote. The Enforcement Act of 1870 stipulated that the government could send troops into southern states if someone attempted to prevent a black man from voting. In 1871, the United States signed a treaty with Britain called the Treaty of Washington, which required Britain to repay the United States fifteen million dollars. As if Grant needed any more scandals during his presidency, there was another involving the transcontinental railroad that cost the United States three million dollars. The owners of the construction company that built the railroad, called Mobiler of American, attempted to pocket some of the money the government had given them. When they were arrested, Grant's vice president was caught accepting money from them, leading to.”