Ulysses S. Grant
Black Thursday at Sayler’s Creek
By David A. NorrisFour hundred Confederate sailors and marines, their small arms loaded and ready, awaited their orders. Some men had their cutlasses within easy reach. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
General Ulysses S. Grant was commander of all U.S. Army forces in the field during the American Civil War from the spring of 1864 until the conclusion of the conflict. He was appointed to command after successes in the Western Theater and accepted the surrender of Robert E. Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Ulysses S. Grant spent most of his time as overall commander in the field with General George Meade’s Union Army of the Potomac. After the war, Grant was elected to two terms as President of the United States. Ulysses S. Grant died in 1885 at the age of 63.
Ulysses S. Grant
End Game at Appomattox
By Mike PhiferLieutenant Colonel Horace Porter, personal aide to Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, maneuvered his mount past ammunition wagons, ambulances, stragglers, and prisoners jamming the muddy roads leading back to headquarters from Five Forks, Virginia, on the evening of April 1, 1865. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
The Disastrous Red River Campaign
By Michael E. HaskewNathaniel Banks was a political creature, and with his country in the throes of civil war, he now held the politically obtained rank of major general in the Union Army. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Grierson’s Raid: Wrecking the Railroad With the Butternut Guerrillas
By Mike PhiferUnion Colonel Benjamin Grierson stuck his left foot into the stirrup and swung up into the saddle. Orders were quickly given, and soon a column of 1,700 blue-jacketed troopers of Grierson’s 1st Brigade, along with a battery of artillery, trampled southeast from La Grange, Tennessee, in the early dawn of April 17, 1863. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Grant Takes D.C.
By Arnold BlumbergOn March 8, 1864, a rainy Tuesday, President and Mrs. Lincoln held a reception at the White House in Washington. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Swirling Cavalry Fight at Trevilian Station
By Arnold BlumbergDespite costing the Union Army 55,000 men in five weeks of hard marching and grueling combat, Lt. Gen. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Taking Forts Henry and Donelson: Turning Point in the Rebel West
By Pedro GarciaOne evening around Christmas of 1861 Union Maj. Gen. Henry “Old Brains” Halleck, commanding the Department of Missouri, dined with his chief of staff, Brig. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Opening Moves on the Rio Grande: The Relief of Fort Texas
By David A. NorrisThe hot days at Fort Texas were about to get a lot hotter. For days, the men of the 7th U.S. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Could the United States Have Gone to War With France Over Mexico?
By Roy MorrisThe continued presence of a handpicked French puppet emperor in Mexico, which had so worried the Lincoln administration during the Civil War, remained a sore point with American political and military leaders after the Union victory in 1865. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Crossroads of Destiny: The Battle of the Wilderness
By Jonas L. GoldsteinThe year 1864 was shaping up to be a critical one in the three-year-long Civil War. During the previous year, Federal armies had gained control of the Mississippi River and consolidated their grip on Tennessee. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Old Rough and Ready at Monterrey
By Chris DishmanOn the morning of September 19, 1846, General Zachary Taylor and his advance party could see little through the mist that shrouded the city of Monterrey, Mexico, Taylor’s next objective in his ongoing northern campaign. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Civil War Generals: William Rosecrans
By Roy MorrisEven more than most people, Union general William Rosecrans was often his own worst enemy. Hot-tempered, emotional, and frequently given to speaking—or shouting—before he thought, the Ohio-born commander of the Army of the Cumberland made enemies easily, even if he usually forgot in an instant what had made him angry in the first place. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Controversial Civil War Commanders: Gideon Pillow
By Roy Morris Jr.Few Mexican War generals fought more battles than Tennessee-born Gideon Pillow—the problem was that many of those battles were with his own superiors. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
William T. Sherman: A Hard Lesson in War
By Arnold BlumbergWith the fall of Vicksburg in the first week of July 1863, the strongest remaining Confederate presence in Mississippi was a recently thrown together force of 26,000 soldiers under General Joseph E. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Civil War Generals: Albert Sidney Johnston
By Roy Morris Jr.Confederate President Jefferson Davis considered his old West Point classmate Albert Sidney Johnston “the greatest soldier, the ablest man, civil or military, Confederate or Union, then living,” and it is safe to say that no other general in either army began the Civil War with a more glittering—or fleeting—reputation. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
How William T. Sherman Was Saved From Certain Death
By Roy Morris Jr.Union General William T. Sherman, not the easiest man to please, always held Colonel Benjamin Grierson in high regard. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Words To Bayonets, Bayonets to Bombs: How the Civil War Escalated
By Roy Morris Jr.“Every war will astonish you,” American general Dwight D. Eisenhower said after World War II. As the leader of the Allied forces that successfully landed on D-Day and marched into Berlin 11 months later, Eisenhower obviously knew what he was talking about. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Medal of Honor Awardee Horace Porter’s Astonishing Career
By Richard H. Owens, Ph.D.Horace Porter was born April 15, 1837 in Huntingdon, Pa. He traced his ancestry and family motto, “Vigilantia et virtute,” to William De La Grange, who accompanied William the Conqueror to England in 1066. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Forty-rod, Blue Ruin & Oh Be Joyful: Civil War Alcohol Abuse
by David A. NorrisUnion General Benjamin Butler was baffled. Every night a picket guard went to an outpost 1½ miles from Fort Monroe, Virginia. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Blood on the Snow: The Battle of Nashville
By John WalkerFor the black-skinned, blue-clad soldiers deployed on the extreme left flank of the Union Army outside Nashville, Tennessee, the order to advance announced at dawn on December 15, 1864, was a long time coming. Read more
