50 Fun Facts About Ulysses S. Grant

Who succeeded Grant as president in 1877?

Rutherford B. Hayes: because March 4 fell on a Sunday, he took the oath privately in the White House Red Room the day before, while Grant was still president.

What was Grant's name at birth?

Hiram Ulysses was the name he left behind at 17, and for the rest of his life he insisted that the 'S' in his famous initials stood for nothing at all.

In which state was Grant born?

Ohio: after Grant died, his birth cottage at Point Pleasant was shipped off by barge and spent decades on display around the state before it was finally brought home.

How did Grant end up with the name 'U. S. Grant'?

A congressman's error: nominating him to West Point, Thomas Hamer got his name wrong, and the young cadet kept 'Ulysses S. Grant' for life.

What nickname did Grant's fellow cadets give him at West Point?

Sam: the academy's roster listed him as 'U. S. Grant', and his classmates joked that the initials stood for Uncle Sam.

West Point's best horseman, Grant was nonetheless commissioned in 1843 into which branch of the Army?

Infantry: branch assignments went by class rank, not talent, and Grant had graduated 21st of 39, too low for one of the Army's coveted cavalry places.

Grant's father made his living in what trade?

Leather goods: Jesse Grant was a tanner, and young Ulysses so hated the stench of the tannery that he swore he would never work in it as an adult.

What was Grant's wife's maiden name?

Julia Dent was the sister of his West Point roommate, and James Longstreet, by several accounts one of the groom's attendants at their 1848 wedding, later fought against him as a Confederate general.

What did Grant name the cabin he built on his father-in-law's farm in 1856?

Hardscrabble lived up to its name: the farm failed within a few years, and one Christmas Grant pawned his watch to buy presents for his family.

In which Illinois town was Grant living when the Civil War began?

Galena: Grant was clerking in a family store there when the war broke out, and within days he was helping to recruit and drill the town's volunteers.

Grant demanded 'unconditional surrender' at which 1862 stronghold?

Fort Donelson gave the Union its first major victory of the war, and a delighted North decided that Grant's initials stood for 'Unconditional Surrender'.

Which April 1862 battle, won by Grant, was the costliest in American history to that point?

Shiloh's losses brought calls for Grant's dismissal, but Lincoln is said to have answered, 'I can't spare this man; he fights.'

Grant's 1863 capture of Vicksburg gave the Union control of which river?

The Mississippi: Vicksburg surrendered to Grant on the Fourth of July, 1863, and with the whole river in Union hands the Confederacy was cut in two.

Grant's 1862 General Order No. 11, later a campaign issue, expelled whom from his district?

Jews: Lincoln had the order revoked within weeks, and Grant later admitted he could not defend it; as president he appointed a record number of Jewish Americans to office.

Before Grant, who was the only man to hold the full rank of lieutenant general in the US Army?

George Washington: Winfield Scott had worn the title only by brevet, an honorary promotion, so Congress revived the full rank for Grant, who took command of every Union army.

The brutal series of 1864 Virginia battles Grant fought against Lee is called what?

The Overland Campaign cost Grant dearly at the Wilderness, Spotsylvania and Cold Harbor, but he kept moving south until Lee was pinned down in the siege of Petersburg.

Where did Lee surrender to Grant on April 9, 1865?

Appomattox Court House: after the signing, Grant sent rations across the lines to Lee's hungry army and stopped his own men from firing salutes in celebration.

What did Grant allow Lee's troops to keep after the surrender?

Their horses: at Lee's request, Grant let the cavalry and artillery men take their animals home, reasoning that most were small farmers with a spring crop to plant.

What reason did the Grants give for declining Lincoln's invitation to Ford's Theatre on April 14, 1865?

A trip to see family in New Jersey was the excuse, though Julia Grant was also on poor terms with Mary Lincoln; Booth had expected to find the general in the president's box.

Which president promoted Grant to General of the Army in 1866?

Andrew Johnson made Grant America's first four-star general, but the two fell out over Reconstruction, and within three years Grant had replaced him as president.

Which Grant phrase became the Republican slogan in 1868?

'Let us have peace' closed Grant's letter accepting the 1868 nomination, and the same four words are now carved above the entrance to his tomb.

Who was Grant's first-term vice president?

Schuyler Colfax, the Speaker of the House, lost his place on the 1872 ticket and was then named in the Crédit Mobilier railroad-stock scandal.

Which chief justice swore Grant in on March 4, 1869?

Salmon P. Chase, appointed by Lincoln, had spent the previous spring presiding over the first Senate trial of a sitting president in American history.

Which constitutional amendment, on voting rights, did Grant champion?

The Fifteenth Amendment barred denying the vote on account of race; when it was ratified in 1870, Grant called it a measure of 'grander importance' than any since the nation's founding.

Which federal agency was created in 1870 under Grant to enforce Reconstruction?

The Justice Department was barely a year old when its lawyers were indicting Klansmen by the thousand under the new Enforcement Acts, though convictions proved far harder to win.

Which federal body did Grant create in 1871?

The Civil Service Commission drew up competitive exams for federal jobs, and Grant put them into effect, but within a few years Congress cut off its money and the reform lapsed.

Who was Grant's Secretary of State for nearly all eight years of his presidency?

Hamilton Fish steered Grant away from a war with Spain over Cuba and negotiated the Treaty of Washington, which settled a bitter wartime dispute by arbitration.

The Alabama Claims, settled under Grant, concerned a Confederate warship built where?

Britain let Confederate agents build the CSS Alabama in its shipyards, and an arbitration panel later ordered it to pay the United States $15.5 million for the damage.

Which Caribbean territory did Grant try and fail to annex?

Santo Domingo, today's Dominican Republic, had a government eager to join, and Grant hoped it would offer Black Americans a refuge from violence in the South; the Senate said no.

Which Massachusetts senator led the fight against Grant's Caribbean annexation treaty?

Charles Sumner chaired the Foreign Relations Committee and helped sink the treaty; a furious Grant then had his Senate allies strip him of the chairmanship.

Which two financiers tried to corner the gold market in 1869's Black Friday?

Jay Gould and Jim Fisk tried to work on Grant through his own brother-in-law, but once the president caught on he ordered $4 million in government gold sold, and the price collapsed.

Which 1873 law signed by Grant ended the legal basis for bimetallism, angering 'Silverites'?

The Coinage Act stopped the Mint from striking the standard silver dollar, which left the country on gold alone, and its critics later branded the law the 'Crime of '73'.

Which brokerage's 1873 collapse set off the Panic of 1873?

It failed to sell bonds for the Northern Pacific Railway.

The Whiskey Ring scandal involved distillers colluding with officials of which department?

The Treasury's own agents were taking bribes to let distillers dodge the liquor tax; when the trail reached Grant's private secretary, the president testified in his defence.

Grant later called which war, in which he fought as a young lieutenant, 'one of the most unjust ever waged'?

The Mexican–American War struck him as a strong nation bullying a weak one, yet it was where he first saw combat and was twice cited for bravery.

Grant's war secretary William Belknap rushed to the White House in 1876 to resign, hoping to escape what?

Impeachment: the House impeached him anyway that same day for taking kickbacks, and although most senators voted to convict, the tally fell short of two-thirds.

Whom did Grant blame in the press for the 1876 Little Big Horn disaster?

Custer himself: Grant told a newspaper the defeat was a 'wholly unnecessary' sacrifice of troops; months earlier Custer had angered him by testifying about corruption in the War Department.

In 1872 Grant signed the law creating which place, the first national park in the United States?

Yellowstone won over Congress through pictures: a survey team brought back William Henry Jackson's photographs and Thomas Moran's paintings of its geysers and canyons.

To resolve the disputed 1876 election, Grant signed legislation creating what?

An Electoral Commission of congressmen, senators and Supreme Court justices ruled on every disputed return, and the presidency was settled by a single electoral vote.

How did Grant spend more than two years after leaving the White House in 1877?

Touring the world: cheering crowds met him across Europe, Queen Victoria and the Emperor of Japan received him, and he came home hoping the acclaim would win him a third term.

When Grant went east in 1864 to command all Union armies, which trusted general took over in the West?

William T. Sherman had been written off by one newspaper as insane early in the war, but he found his confidence under Grant, who now left three armies in his hands.

Grant led the first ballot for a third term in 1880, but which dark horse won the nomination?

James A. Garfield had come to the convention only to nominate another man, but after days of deadlock the delegates opposed to a third term for Grant swung behind him.

The Wall Street firm whose collapse in 1884 left Grant penniless was co-owned by which relative?

His son Ulysses Jr. was the Grant in Grant & Ward; his partner Ferdinand Ward had been swindling the firm's investors, and its failure bankrupted the former president too.

Which businessman lent Grant $150,000 and then took title to his home?

William Henry Vanderbilt offered to forgive the debt, but Grant refused and handed over his Civil War swords and trophies, which Vanderbilt then pledged to give to the nation.

Which author published Grant's memoirs after offering far better terms than a rival?

Mark Twain talked Grant out of signing with the Century magazine and published the memoirs through his own firm, which went on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies.

Grant died of what illness in July 1885?

Throat cancer, after decades of cigars: Grant learned he was dying soon after he began his memoirs, and he finished them only days before the end.

Roughly how much did Julia Grant eventually earn in royalties from the memoirs?

About $450,000, a fortune at the time: a fraud had wiped out Grant's savings, so he raced to finish the book days before he died to provide for his family.

Where in the Adirondacks did Grant die in 1885?

Mount McGregor: on his doctors' advice he moved that summer to a cottage on the mountain for the fresh air, and he lived there just long enough to finish his book.

Grant's Tomb was modeled after which ancient wonder?

The Mausoleum at Halicarnassus was architect John Duncan's model; decades later Groucho Marx made 'Who's buried in Grant's Tomb?' the can't-miss consolation question on his quiz show.

Grant's Tomb stands in which city?

New York was chosen by his widow, in part because its offer of a park met Grant's one condition, that Julia could lie beside him, which military cemeteries did not then allow.