Skip to Main Content

U.S. Presidents & Presidency: Grant

A topic guide covering the Presidents of the United States. This is an ongoing project. As such, additional individuals will be added over time.

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 - 1877. Prior to the presidency, he served as a Union general who helped defeat the Confederate States of American during the Civil War. Grant was a member of the Republican party. 

Grant died on July 23, 1885. 

Resources

Research & Reference

Grant

GRANT tells the unbelievable and quintessentially American story of a humble man who overcomes incredible obstacles, rises to the highest ranks of power and saves the nation not once, but twice.

Watch on Kanopy>>

Perspectives

To Rescue the Republic

The #1 bestselling author and Fox News Channel's Chief Political Anchor illuminates the heroic life of Ulysses S. Grant "To Rescue the Republic is narrative history at its absolute finest. A fast-paced, thrilling and enormously important book." --Douglas Brinkley An epic history spanning the battlegrounds of the Civil War and the violent turmoil of Reconstruction to the forgotten electoral crisis that nearly fractured a reunited nation, Bret Baier's To Rescue the Republic dramatically reveals Ulysses S. Grant's essential yet underappreciated role in preserving the United States during an unprecedented period of division. Born a tanner's son in rugged Ohio in 1822 and battle-tested by the Mexican American War, Grant met his destiny on the bloody fields of the Civil War. His daring and resolve as a general gained the attention of President Lincoln, then desperate for bold leadership. Lincoln appointed Grant as Lieutenant General of the Union Army in March 1864. Within a year, Grant's forces had seized Richmond and forced Robert E. Lee to surrender. Four years later, the reunified nation faced another leadership void after Lincoln's assassination and an unworthy successor completed his term. Again, Grant answered the call. At stake once more was the future of the Union, for though the Southern states had been defeated, it remained to be seen if the former Confederacy could be reintegrated into the country--and if the Union could ensure the rights and welfare of African Americans in the South. Grant met the challenge by boldly advancing an agenda of Reconstruction and aggressively countering the Ku Klux Klan.  In his final weeks in the White House, however, Grant faced a crisis that threatened to undo his life's work. The contested presidential election of 1876 produced no clear victory for either Republican Rutherford B. Hayes or Democrat Samuel Tilden, who carried most of the former Confederacy. Soon Southern states vowed to revolt if Tilden was not declared the victor. Grant was determined to use his influence to preserve the Union, establishing an electoral commission to peaceably settle the issue. Grant brokered a grand bargain: the installation of Republican Hayes to the presidency, with concessions to the Democrats that effectively ended Reconstruction. This painful compromise saved the nation, but tragically condemned the South to another century of civil-rights oppression. Deep with contemporary resonance and brimming with fresh detail that takes readers from the battlefields of the Civil War to the corridors of power where men decided the fate of the nation in back rooms, To Rescue the Republic reveals Grant, for all his complexity, to be among the first rank of American heroes.

American Experience: Ulysses S. Grant

Following a rich childhood on the American frontier, Ulysses S. Grant went on to be the leader not only of the Union Army, but of the United States itself. Learn more with this biography from American Experience.

Source: Films on Demand