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

Blood on the Snow: The Battle of Nashville

By John Walker

For 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

William Welsh walks us through the steps of Robert E. Lee and Ulysses S. Grant at the Battle of Appomattox Court House National Historical Park.

Ulysses S. Grant

Civil War’s End: The Battle of Appomattox Court House

by William E. Welsh

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

Mark Twain Joins the Marion Rangers

By Roy Morris, Jr.

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

Locals still live with reminders of the Chattanooga Campaign and its aftermath 150 years after the American Civil War.

Ulysses S. Grant

The Chattanooga Campaign: Then and Now

by Roy Morris, Jr.

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

Michigan’s Ottawa Indians in the American Civil War

By Roy Morris Jr.

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

The Battle of Champion’s Hill: Prelude to Vicksburg

By Lawrence Weber

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

The 16th U.S. President, Abraham Lincoln guided the nation during the turbulent years of the American Civil War years.

Ulysses S. Grant

President Abraham Lincoln & The American Civil War

by Mike Haskew

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