Ulysses S. Grant, Union army general and president of the United States, was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio. When he was a year old, the family moved to Georgetown, Ohio, where Ulysses attended local schools and worked in his father's tannery, a job he hated, and on the farm. Shy and reticent with people, Ulysses loved horses and developed extraordinary skills of gentle discipline and command over them.
Under Grant's command, the Union Army defeated the Confederate military and ended the Confederate States of America.
Grant began his lifelong career as a soldier after graduating from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843. Fighting in the Mexican-American War, he was a close observer of the techniques of Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott.
After the American Civil War began in April 1861, he joined the Union war effort, taking charge of training new regiments and then engaging the Confederacy near Cairo, Illinois. In 1862, he fought a series of major battles and captured a Confederate army, earning a reputation as an aggressive general who seized control of most of Kentucky and Tennessee at the Battle of Shiloh.
In July 1863, after a long, complex campaign, he defeated five Confederate armies (capturing one of them) and seized Vicksburg. This famous victory gave the Union control of the Mississippi River, split the Confederacy, and opened the way for more Union victories and conquests.
After another victory at the Battle of Chattanooga in late 1863, President Abraham Lincoln promoted him to the rank of lieutenant general and gave him charge of all of the Union Armies.
As Commanding General of the United States Army from 1864 to 1865, Grant confronted Robert E. Lee in a series of very high casualty battles known as the Overland Campaign that ended in a stalemate siege at Petersburg. During the siege, Grant coordinated a series of devastating campaigns launched by William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan and George Thomas. Finally breaking through Lee's trenches at Petersburg, the Union Army captured Richmond, the Confederate capital, in April 1865. Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox. Soon after, the Confederacy collapsed and the Civil War ended.
1 comment:
We love those confederate and union hats around here. The starting point for many battles:)
You are a champion of seeing everything an area has to offer. A few years ago my parents were obsessed with seeing all of the president's homes and libraries. They spent most of the time they were out visiting us trying to get them all in.
So many near KY.
Post a Comment