Ulysses Simpson Grant

- Born Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822, Point Pleasant, Ohio
- Graduated U.S. Military Academy, 1843, an average student who excelled only in math, art and horsemanship
- Served in the Mexican War; garrisoned at western posts; attained rank of Captain
- Married Julia Dent from St. Louis in 1848; they had four children, three sons and one daughter
- Resigned from U.S. Army, 1854. Farmed near his father-in-law’s plantation (White Haven) in St. Louis, MO; built “Hardscrabble” log cabin
- Came to Galena, April 1860; employed with his two brothers, Orville and Simpson, in the family leather store
- Commissioned Colonel of 21st Illinois Infantry, June 1861, at the outbreak of the Civil War
- Promoted Brigadier General, August 1861; Promoted Major General, February 1862
- Promoted Lieutenant General, March 1864; Made General in Chief of All U.S. Forces, March 1864
- Named Secretary of War, August 1867
- Elected President of the U.S. in 1868; ran his campaign from the DeSoto House Hotel. Re-elected in 1872
- Conducted Around the World tour, 1877-1879; met heads of state in more than a dozen countries
- Sustained financial losses in 1884; recouped by authoring his widely successful “Personal Memoirs,” finished just days before his death
- Died at Mt. McGregor, New York, July 23, 1885, of throat cancer; buried in New York City’s Riverside Park
