page_title: Ulysses S. Grant and the American Civil War
section_title: Historical reputation and aftermath
hierarchical_section_title: Ulysses S. Grant and the American Civil War / Historical reputation and aftermath
caption_attribution_description: English: Grant from West Point to Appomattox, an 1885 engraving presumably intended to commemorate Grant's achievements after his death. A half-length portrait of Ulysses S. Grant is surrounded by nine scenes of his career from West Point graduation in 1843 to Lee's surrender in 1865. Clockwise from lower left: Graduated at West Point 1843 - Gen. Scott presenting diplomas In the tower at Chapultepec 1847 Drilling his Volunteers 1861 Fort Donelson 1862 The Battle of Shiloh 1862 The Siege of Vicksburg 1863 The Battle of Chattanooga 1863 Commander-in-Chief 1864 The Surrender of Gen. Lee 1865 Français&#160;: Ulysses S. Grant de West Point à Appomattox, Gravure de 1885, probablement hagiographique. Un portait en plan taille de Ulysses S. Grant est entouré de neuf vignettes retraçant sa carrière de sa remise de diplôme à West Point en 1843 à la capitulation de Lee en 1865. Dans le sens des aiguilles d'une montre depuis en bas, à gauche&#160;: Remise du diplôme par le Général Scott à West Point en 1843 Dans le chateau de Chapultepec en 1847 Instruisant ses volontaires en 1861 La bataille de Fort Donelson en 1862 Bataille de Shiloh en 1862 Le Siege de Vicksburg, en 1863 La bataille de Chattanooga 1863 Commandant en chef en 1864 Capitulation du Général Lee en 1865
context_page_description: Ulysses S. Grant was the most acclaimed Union general during the American Civil War and was twice elected President. Grant began his military career as a cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1839. After graduation he went on to serve with distinction as a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War. Grant was a keen observer of the war and learned battle strategies serving under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. After the war Grant served at various posts especially in the Pacific Northwest; he was forced to retire from the service in 1854 due to accusations of drunkenness. He was unable to make a success of farming and on the onset of the Civil War in April 1861, Grant was working as a clerk in his father's leather goods store in Galena, Illinois. When the war began his military experience was needed, and Congressman Elihu B. Washburne became his patron in political affairs and promotions in Illinois and nationwide.
  Grant trained Union military recruits and was promoted to Colonel in June 1861. Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, who viewed in Grant an "iron will" to win, appointed Grant to commander of the District of Cairo.
context_section_description: Ulysses S. Grant was a very popular man in the United States after the American Civil War.  After President Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, Grant became America's first four-star general and would aid Congress, led by the Radicals, in their effort to reconstruct the South. Grant often disagreed with President Andrew Johnson's conservative approach during the Reconstruction Era of the United States. Grant was looked on as a popular national leader who could mend the nation's wounds and bring in an era of peace. Grant was able to oust the French out of Mexico as commanding general under Johnson and also able to thwart a Fenian Brotherhood attempted take over of Canada. Grant was also in charge of Indian campaigns on the Western frontier. Elected President twice in 1868 and 1872 Grant's terms in office were filled with federal corruption scandals and sectional violence over the constitutional citizenship rights of African Americans.
  Grant, as President, supported the efforts of Congress to protect the Civil Rights of African Americans and was able for a few years to legally and militarily defeat the Ku Klux Klan.  After Grant retired from the Presidency, he went on an unprecedented World tour visiting Europe, the Mid East, and Asia, returning by ship to San Francisco in June, 1879. In March 1885, with the help of his friends in Congress, President Chester A. Arthur authorized Grant to be reinstated into the U.S. military in order to receive retirement pay. Grant then was reinstated his full rank in the U.S. military by President Grover Cleveland whereupon Grant and his family received much needed full military retirement pay. In 1885, Grant finished his popular and financially successful military memoirs and died after a painful struggle with throat cancer.
  Toward the end of Grant's life, the semi-religious cultic Lost Cause movement in the South, propped up Robert E. Lee, who had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, as the greatest general during the Civil War, and elevated Lee, rather than Grant, to a god-like status. This false view permeated throughout American society. Grant was viewed as a drunk and butcher who had won only because he waged a brutal war of attrition. Historian Edward H. Bonekemper counters this view and says that Grant was the most successful general of the Civil War, noting that in the West, Grant drove the Confederates out of the Mississippi Valley through a series of battles and campaigns, including Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. When Grant was brought back East and put in command of the Union Army, he was able to defeat Lee's Confederate army within a year and effectively brought the war to a close. According to Bonekemper, Grant's armies were more destructive than Confederate armies. Grant's Union armies in the West and East that battled Confederate armies, inflicted more casualties, a total of 190,760 Confederate versus 153,643 Union, a difference of 37,118.
caption: Grant from West Point to Appomattox, an 1885 engraving by Thure de Thulstrup. Clockwise from lower left: Graduation from West Point (1843); In the tower at Chapultepec (1847); Drilling his Volunteers (1861); The Battle of Fort Donelson (1862); The Battle of Shiloh (1862); The Siege of Vicksburg (1863); The Battle of Chattanooga (1863); Appointment as Lieutenant General by Abraham Lincoln (1864); The Surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House (1865)
exif: {}