- NAME – born Hiram Ulysses Grant
- NICKNAME(S) – Unconditional Surrender
- BIRTH / DEATH – April 27, 1822 Point Pleasant, Ohio / 1885 Mount Gregor, N.Y.
- FATHER – leather tanner, farmer
- MOTHER – housewife
- COLLEGE – West Point
- WIFE – Julia
- KIDS – three boys, one girl – all lived to adulthood
- PETS –
- RELIGION – Methodist
- ANCESTRY –
- AGE – 46
FIRSTS:
– first President to have both parents alive when he was elected
– first Civil War veteran elected President
– first full general since Washington
MA AND PA: His father had a leather tanning business and owned a farm. His mother was devoutly religious.
BACKGROUND:
– served in the Mexican War 1846-48
– resigned from the Army in 1854
– held various jobs
– Civil War 1861-65
– President 1869-77
– lost the Republican nomination in 1880
FIRST LADY: Julia was his West Point roommate’s sister. He courted her at their home. One day he was riding with her in a wagon. They passed over a rickety bridge and she clutched him saying: “I’ll cling to you no matter what happens.” He proposed by saying: “I wonder if you would cling to me for the rest of my life.” She called him “Victor” or “Caesar”.
RETIREMENT: He was in bad financial shape and suffering from throat cancer. His friend Mark Twain urged him to write his autobiography. Grant worked diligently as he was dying. The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant was a huge hit and netted him $450,000. He died a few weeks after it was published. It is considered one of the best memoirs written by an American.
TRIVIA:
– at West Point, he excelled in horsemanship and math, otherwise he was an average student; he finished 25 out of his class of 39
– he may have been an alcoholic when he was stationed at isolated western posts away from his family
– he got the nickname “Useless” after he resigned from the Army and was forced to work for his brother in his leather-goods store
– favorite food – rice pudding
– when he applied for West Point, his sponsor wrote Ulysses S. Grant on the application. He assumed the S stood for his mother’s maiden name, Simpson
– After the Civil War, he received gifts including a $16,000 house, $100,000 in cash, $50,000 worth of books, twenty fine horses, and lots and lots of cigars
– after his death, 90,000 people donated $600,000 to build Grant’s Tomb
– after his victory in the Battle of Vicksburg, he received 10,000 cigars and he smoked all of them, apparently. He averaged twenty a day. Not surprisingly, he contracted throat cancer.
– 196 canaries for his inauguration ball died from freezing
– he loved to ride fast on his horses or in his carriage; one day he was stopped for speeding in Washington; when the policeman recognized him, he wanted to look the other way, but Grant insisted on paying the fine ($5) and having the carriage impounded; he walked back to the White House
– as President, he was once stopped for speeding in his carriage
– for a great military men, he did not like to hunt, he deplored profanity, and hated the sight of blood
ANECDOTES:
HORSE TRADER
When Hiram was 8, his father sent him to buy a horse. His father told him to offer $20. If the neighbor turned him down, offer $22.50, and if he still wouldn’t sell, offer $25. Hiram went to the neighbor’s and said: “My father wants to buy that horse. He said to offer you $20 and if you won’t take it to offer $22.50 and if you still won’t sell, to offer $25.” The neighbor smiled and sold the horse for $25. It took years for Grant to live down the story once the town heard about his hard bargaining.
– Boller 158
CLEANING THE STABLES
When Grant was a young boy, his father took him to the stable and asked if he was big enough to shovel all the manure out of the stable. He took out a silver dollar and told him he would get it if he was able to accomplish the task in one morning. Little Grant busted his butt to clean the stables by the end of the morning. He went to his father proud of his hard work and his father patted him on the head and hand him the dollar. And then he told Hiram that since he had proved he could do the job, it was now his to do every day. Without pay.
– Boller 158
YANKEE DOODLE DANDY
Grant was tone deaf. Once he attended a band concert at West Point when he was President. After the concert was over, a friend asked him if he had enjoyed the music. Grant: “How could I have? I know only two tunes. One of them is ‘Yankee Doodle Dandy’ and the other isn’t.”
– Boller 161