Ulysses S. Grant and His Triumph Over Adversity in 1822-1865

Ulysses S. Grant was a mystifying figure in American public life. He was a failure in his early ventures into both business and military life. In four years of commanding Union forces he climbed to the highest rank in the U.S. Army and directed the strategy that successfully concluded the Civil War in 1865. His two terms as president of the United States are considered by many historians to be the most corrupt in the country's history. Yet from accounts of Grant's colleagues, as well as from his own memoirs, there emerges a personality of strong character and considerable dignity. Grant would soon become the most celebrated and respected American of his generation.

Ulysses S. Grant arrived at West Point on May 29, 1839, a 17-year-old youth who had been coerced by his father into attending the Academy. His record in the following four years was unremarkable and he graduated in 1843, 21st in a class of 39 cadets. In later years, he had ambivalent feelings about the institution, and when he spoke of it, it was generally without enthusiasm. The endless drilling, regimented lifestyle and Spartan routine had not appealed to him, though he thought it the best school in the world for turning out "manly characters." After a ten-week leave of absence home, he confided: “The ten weeks were shorter than one week at West Point.” He had hoped to get a position teaching mathematics at the academy and later a professorship “in some respectable college,” but he was instead assigned to infantry duty on the southwestern frontier.