How Did Ulyssess Grant Impact The Nation

U.S. Grant Hiram Ulysses Grant has a great impact on the nation today, even though he lived many years ago. His early life did not set up the rest of his life for success. However, the nation started to see his hard work throughout the many battles he fought and some won. He was a very determined person, on and off the battlefield. This hard work translated to when he became the president of the United States, even though he made few errors. Ulysses Grant was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio on April 27, 1822. Ulysses Grant was a reserved and introverted young man who loved horses and hated working at his father’s tannery. Very little about Grant’s early life hinted at his future success as a General in the Civil War or that he would one day become president of our nation.

As a cadet, Grant was known for his horsemanship and graduated in the middle of his class in 1843. U.S. Grant married Julia Dent in 1848 at Julia’s home in St. Louis. Grant’s father, an adamant abolitionist, disapproved of the Dent family’s slave ownership and did not attend the wedding. Saunders, Paul, Julia and Ulysses would go on to raise four children. Between 1846-48, Grant served honorably in the Mexican-American War. (Waugh, Joan) During the war, Grant earned a reputation as a brave and capable soldier which led to a promotion to Captain. Later, Grant expressed his opinion that the Mexican-American War was unjust and believed it was fought to help the spread of slavery in the United States. (“Ulysses S. Grant.”) In 1854, Grant resigned from the Army after undocumented incidents of “drunkenness”. Grant returned home to Julia and their children on the Dent farm as a civilian. He was in his early 30’s. (Encyclopdia Britannica) Grant’s views on slavery have been heavily debated by historians. Many of Grant’s personal writings expressed opposition to slavery, and his father was a strict