Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) American general and 18th president of the United States (1869-1877) won fame for his capture of Vicksburg (1863) and defeat of Robert E. Lee (1865), thereby winning the American Civil War.

Early career

Grant was born April 27, 1822, in a two-room cabin at Point Pleasant, Ohio. His father, Jesse Root Grant, was descended from undistinguished Puritan forebears who had immigrated to Massachusetts in the early 17th century. His mother, Hannah Simpson Grant, was a typical hard-working and pious frontier woman. The elder Grant was a tanner who by hard work and native shrewdness managed to acquire a modest competence. Lacking much education himself, he was determined that his sons should have the best the community offered. From the time he was 6 until he was nearly 17, young Grant regularly attended school, first in Georgetown, Ohio, to which the family had moved soon after he was born, and later at nearby academies. WHile working on the family, he developed a fondness for horses almost amounting to a passion and a liking for outdoor life that in after years stood him in good stead.

Bibliography

Politics

• Bunting III, Josiah. Ulysses S. Grant (2004) ISBN 0-8050-6949-6
• Garland, Hamlin. Ulysses S. Grant: His Life and Character, (1898).
• Hesseltine, William B. Ulysses S. Grant, Politician (2001) ISBN 1-931313-85-7 online edition
• McFeely, William S. Grant: A Biography, W. W. Norton & Co, 1981, ISBN 0-393-01372-3, Pulitzer prize
• Mantell, Martin E. Johnson, Grant, and the Politics of Reconstruction (1973) online edition
• Nevins, Allan. Hamilton Fish: The Inner History of the Grant Administration (1936) online edition, covers the diplomatic and some political history of his administration
• Rhodes, James Ford., History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896. Volume: 6 and 7 (1920) vol 6
• Scaturro, Frank J. President Grant Reconsidered (1998).
• Simpson, Brooks D. Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861-1868 (1991).
• Simpson, Brooks D. The Reconstruction Presidents (1998)
• Simpson, Brooks D. Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph Over Adversity, 1822-1865, (2000), ISBN 0-395-65994-9. first volume of major scholarly biography
• Skidmore, Max J. "The Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant: a Reconsideration." White House Studies (2005) online
• Smith, Jean Edward, Grant, (2001), ISBN 0-684-84927-5.

Military

• Badeau, Adam. Military History of Ulysses S. Grant, from April, 1861, to April, 1865. 3 vols. 1882.
• Ballard, Michael B., Vicksburg, The Campaign that Opened the Mississippi, University of North Carolina Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8078-2893-9.
• Bearss, Edwin C., The Vicksburg Campaign, 3 volumes, 1991, ISBN 0-89029-308-2.
• Carter, Samuel III, The Final Fortress: The Campaign for Vicksburg, 1862-1863 (1980)
• Catton, Bruce, Grant Moves South, 1960, ISBN 0-316-13207-1; Grant Takes Command, 1968, ISBN 0-316-13210-1; U. S. Grant and the American Military Tradition (1954)
• Cavanaugh, Michael A., and William Marvel, The Petersburg Campaign: The Battle of the Crater: "The Horrid Pit," June 25-August 6, 1864 (1989)
• Conger, A. L. The Rise of U.S. Grant (1931)
• Davis, William C. Death in the Trenches: Grant at Petersburg (1986).
• Fuller, Maj. Gen. J. F. C., Grant and Lee, A Study in Personality and Generalship,
• Gallagher, Gary W. ed. The Wilderness Campaign (1997) excerpt and text search
• Gott, Kendall D., Where the South Lost the War: An Analysis of the Fort Henry-Fort Donelson Campaign, February 1862, 2003, ISBN 0-8117-0049-6.
• Korda, Michael. Ulysses S. Grant: The Unlikely Hero (2004) 161 pp
• * Lewis, Lloyd, Captain Sam Grant, 1950, ISBN 0-316-52348-8.
• McWhiney, Grady, Battle in the Wilderness: Grant Meets Lee (1995)
• McDonough, James Lee, Shiloh: In Hell before Night (1977).
• McDonough, James Lee, Chattanooga: A Death Grip on the Confederacy (1984).
• Maney, R. Wayne, Marching to Cold Harbor. Victory and Failure, 1864 (1994).
• Matter, William D., If It Takes All Summer: The Battle of Spotsylvania (1988)
• Miers, Earl Schenck., The Web of Victory: Grant at Vicksburg. 1955.
• Miller, J. Michael, The North Anna Campaign: "Even to Hell Itself," May 21-26, 1864 (1989).
• Mosier, John., "Grant", (2006), 224pp; ISBN 1-4039-7136-6. excerpt and text search
• Rhea, Gordon C., The Battle of the Wilderness May 5–6, 1864, (1994) ISBN 0-8071-1873-7. excerpt and text search
• Rhea, Gordon C., The Battles for Spotsylvania Court House and the Road to Yellow Tavern May 7–12, 1864, (1997), ISBN 0-8071-2136-3. excerpt and text search
• Rhea, Gordon C., To the North Anna River: Grant and Lee, May 13–25, 1864, (2000), ISBN 0-8071-2535-0. excerpt and text search
• Rhea, Gordon C., Cold Harbor: Grant and Lee, May 26 – June 3, 1864, (2002), ISBN 0-8071-2803-1. [ excerpt and text search]
• Simpson, Brooks D, "Continuous Hammering and Mere Attrition: Lost Cause Critics and the Military Reputation of Ulysses S. Grant," in Gary Gallagher and Alan T. Nolan, eds., The Myth of the Lost Cause and Civil War History, (2000)
• Steere, Edward, The Wilderness Campaign (1960)
• Sword, Wiley, Shiloh: Bloody April. 1974.
• Trudeau, Noah. Bloody Roads South: The Wilderness to Cold Harbor, May-June 1864 (2002) excerpt and text search
• Williams, T. Harry, McClellan, Sherman and Grant. 1962.

Primary sources

• Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs (1885) online edition
• Grant, Ulysses S. Memoirs and Selected Letters (Mary Drake McFeely & William S. McFeely, eds.) (The Library of America, 1990) ISBN 978-0-94045058-5
• Wilson, Edmund. Patriotic Gore: Studies in the Literature of the American Civil War (1962) pp 131-73, on the Memoirs
• Johnson, R. U., and Buel, C. C., eds., Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. 4 vols. New York, 1887-88; essays by leading generals of both sides; online edition
• Porter, Horace, Campaigning with Grant (1897, reprinted 2000)
• Sherman, William Tecumseh, Memoirs of General William T. Sherman. 2 vols. 1875.
• Simon, John Y., ed., The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, Southern Illinois University Press (1967- ) multivolume complete edition of letters to and from Grant. As of 2006, vol 1-28 covers through September 1878.