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
Confederate offensives into two border states, Maryland and Kentucky, formed the key highlights of the second half of 1862 for the Confederacy. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Tall, handsome, and ramrod-straight Winfield Scott Hancock perfectly embodied his flattering nickname, “Hancock the Superb.” His performance on Civil War battlefields from Antietam to Gettysburg underscored that sobriquet. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
When Confederate General Robert E. Lee learned on the morning of April 9, 1865, that Union infantry was both in front and behind of his meager army of 12,500 effectives as it approached Appomattox Court House in central Virginia, he resigned himself to the sad task before him. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Twenty-five-year-old Mississippi River pilot Samuel Clemens (not yet known by his famous pen name, Mark Twain) was in his home port of New Orleans in late January 1861 when word reached the city that Louisiana had seceded from the Union. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Living in Chattanooga is a little like living inside a museum. American Civil War reminders are all around: many of us remember going as students on field trips to Point Park and Chickamauga Battlefield and spending long Sunday afternoons driving with our families along the winding, monument-strewn Crest Road on Missionary Ridge. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
The soldiers of the two armies at Fort Donelson awoke on the morning of February 15, 1862, to another frigid morning. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
To the rebel pickets manning the trenches in the so-called Mule Shoe of the Confederate earthworks at the Battle of Spotsylvania Courthouse the sound of hundreds of tramping feet could be heard above the steady rain on the morning of May 12, 1864. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
While many Cherokee, Choctaw, and Chickasaw Indians threw in their lot with the Confederacy, fighting alongside southern troops at the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862, a more northern-based tribe—the Ottawa—chose to remain loyal to the Union, in the forlorn hope that its willingness to fight for the white men’s country would help preserve its increasingly imperiled way of life. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Deep ranks of Federal troops moved steadily across the valley floor toward Missionary Ridge late in the afternoon on November 25, 1863. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
Kennesaw Mountain was an alluring sight to General Joseph E. Johnston as he fell back from Allatoona Pass in mid-June 1864 toward the Confederate supply hub of Atlanta. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
The Battle of Champion’s Hill was a pivotal event in the American Civil War. Ulysses S. Grant would pursue the retreating Confederate army to an area 20 miles east of Vicksburg, bringing about the Siege of Vicksburg and the Confederates’ surrender. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
The defenders of Vicksburg, clad in tattered uniforms, stood drenched in sweat at their posts on the morning of May 22, 1863. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
The 16th President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln was elected to the highest office in the land in November 1860, and the event prompted the secession of numerous southern states beginning with South Carolina the following month. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
When you mention the Petersburg campaign to someone familiar with Civil War battles, chances are the discussion will turn to the Battle of the Crater. Read more
Ulysses S. Grant
To say the Confederates had the perfect chance at the Battle of Shiloh to evict Maj. Gen. Read more
