U.S. Grant Timeline – Galena History Museum

Timeline of Ulysses S. Grant

1822 April 27: “Birth of a son, later named Hiram Ulysses Grant, to tanner, Jesse R. Grant (Jan. 23, 1794-June 29, 1873) at Point Pleasant, Clermont County, Ohio.”
1823 Autumn: Grant family moved to Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio.
1839 March 3: Ulysses appointed to United States Military Academy at West Point. May 29: Grant arrived at West point and discovered that the Congressman who appointed him used his middle name first and had used his mother’s maiden name (Simpson) for a middle name. U.S. Grant was accepted as his true name, but later Grant insisted that his middle initial stood for nothing. His family and Ohio friends continued to call him Ulysses, but the cadets nicknamed him “Uncle Sam,” for his initials, which was shortened to “Sam.”
1843 June: Grant graduated from West Point, ranked twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine. He showed an interest in mathematics and distinguished himself in horsemanship. July 28: Grant assigned to the Fourth U.S. Infantry at Jefferson Barracks, just outside St. Louis, Missouri.
1844- February: Met Julia Dent, sister of a West Point roommate, at her family’s farm, White Haven, near St. Louis.
1846-47: Mexican War. Grant’s first time under fire was at the Battle of Palo Alto (May 8, 1846). Grant participated in or saw every battle of the war, except Buena Vista.
1848 – August 22: Captain Grant married to Julia Grant.
1849-51: Stationed at Detroit Barracks after short stay at Madison Barracks at Sackett’s Harbor, New York, on Lake Ontario.
1850 – May 30: Frederick Dent Grant born.
1851-52 – Spring: Stationed at Madison Barracks.
1852 – July 22: Ulysses S. Grant, Jr. born; nicknamed “Buck” for Ohio, the “Buckeye” State, where he was born. September 22: Grant arrived at Fort Vancouver, Oregon (later Washington) Territory.
1853 – September 30: Orders for Grant to report to Fort Humboldt, CA.
1854 – June 2:Grant’s resignation from the army accepted by Secretary of War, Jefferson Davis.
1854-Summer of 55: Grant family lived at White Haven with Julia’s parents.
1855 – Summer: Grants moved to another farm on Dent estate, Wish-Ton-Wish. July 4: Ellen “Nellie” Grant born.
1856- Summer: Grants moved into their own home near the Dent farm. Grant named his farm, “Hardscrabble.”
1856- November: Grant cast his only presidential ballot prior to the time he, himself, was elected. “The reason I voted for Buchanan was that I knew Fremont.”
1858 – February 6: Jessie Root Grant, Jr. born. Spring: Grant rented out Hardscrabble farm and rented White Haven from his father-in-law.
1858-59 – Winter: Entered real estate business in St. Louis with Harry Boggs, a cousin of Julia.
1859 – August 15: Grant submitted his application for position of County Engineer of St. Louis, but was turned down. For two months he was a clerk in the U.S. Customs House. Lost his job when Collector of Customs died.
1860 – April: Family moved to Galena, Illinois where Grant took a clerkship at a leather goods store owned by his father and operated by his brothers, Orvil and Simpson. Grant rented a house on High Street.
1861 – April 18: Fort Sumter fired upon by Confederates. April 25: Grant leaves Galena with the Jo Daviess Guard to offer his services to Governor Yates in Springfield. June 28: Colonel Grant and the Seventh District Regiment entered U.S. service as the Twenty-first Illinois.
1861-65 The Civil War
1865 – Appomattox, Virginia. August 18: Grant honored by a large celebration in Galena and presented the home on Bouthillier Street. October: After touring the nation, Grant moved with his family into a house on I Street in Washington, D.C.
1866 – July 25: Congress established a new rank, general of the armies of the U.S. (four stars), to which Grant was immediately appointed.
1867 – August 11: Grant agreed to be Secretary of War, ad interim.
1868–January 14: Grant resigns Secretary of War position after Congress reinstates Stanton. May 21: Republican Convention at Chicago nominates Grant for president and Schuyler Colfax of Indiana for vice president. November 3: Grant elected. He won 26 of 34 states and his electoral college majority over Democrat Horatio Seymour was 214 to 80. The popular majority was only 306,000 in a total vote of 5,715,000.
1872 – June 6: Republican Convention in Philadelphia renominated Grant on the first ballot. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts was his running mate. November 5: Grant reelected with an electoral college majority of 286 to 66, and popular majority of 763,000 over Horace Greeley.
1877 – March 4: Grant retired from the White House.
May 17: The Grant family left Philadelphia on the steamship “Indiana” for a trip around the world.
1879 – September 20: Arrived in the United States at San Francisco.
1880 –June 2: Republican Convention in Chicago. The delegates almost evenly divided between supporters of James G. Blaine and Grant. “Dark Horse” candidate James A. Garfield was nominated on the thirty-sixth ballot.
1881 – August: Grant bought a home, a brownstone at 3 East 66th Street, New York City.
1884 – March 6: “The firm of Grant and Ward collapsed. Ulysses Grant, Jr. had been lured by a remarkable swindler, Ferdinand War, into a partnership supported by his father and relatives.” General Grant discovered he had nothing and owed substantial sums. June: Grant decided to write his memoirs. November: “As Grant dictated to his secretary, he began to feel pain in his throat which soon made eating almost impossible. It was learned that this was a fatal cancer.”
1885 – February 27: Grant signed a contract with his friend Mark Twain to publish his “Memoirs.” May 23: Memoirs, Volume 1 went to press. June 16: To avoid the summer heat, the Grant family moved to a cottages at Mount McGregor, New York, in the Adirondacks. July 23: Grant died at the cottage at Mount McGregor. August 8: Grant buried in a temporary tomb in Riverside Park. December 10: Publication of the Memoirs.
1891 –April 27: Ground broken for Grant’s Tomb.
1897 – April 27: Tomb dedicated.
1902 – December 14: Julia Grant died and was buried with her husband.