American politician, U.S. President from 1869-1877, he was inaugurated 4 March 1869. In the military, as a Union General, he played a great part during the Civil War when Lincoln placed him in command of all the armies of the U.S. He received General Lee’s surrender on 9 April 1865.
Grant graduated from West Point in 1843 and served in the Mexican War. After receiving warnings about his drinking from his commanding officer, he resigned from the Army in 1854. He held a wide variety of jobs in the Middle West for the following six years. At the outbreak of the Civil War he enlisted, seeking a command and to his surprise, was made a brigadier general in the Union army. Grant and General Sherman were placed in charge of the western campaigns and both held a similar strategy of pressing the Confederate armies relentlessly, whatever the cost. Both leaders cost a great loss of life with their strategies. Grant alone lost 40,000 men in a little over a month in a series of running battles. His victory of Vicksburg, Mississippi came at the same time as the victory at Gettysburg and Lincoln placed him in command of all the armies of the U.S.
In 1868, following the Civil War, as a Republican candidate for president Grant was elected over Horatio Seymour as President. His skills as a general were more adept than those he portrayed as a politician. His Cabinet was weak, his domestic policy confused and many of his intimate associates were corrupt. His notable achievement in foreign affairs was the settlement of controversies with Great Britain in the Treaty of London in 1871 which was negotiated by his Secretary of State, Hamilton Fish. At any event, Grant managed to defeat Horace Greeley and was elected to a second term. The Panic of 1873 graft scandals presented great difficulties to his second term. After retiring from office on 4 March 1877, Grant toured Europe for two years. Illness and bad business judgment darkened his last years.
Grant married Julia Dent on 22 August 1848; they had four kids. He wrote his memoirs while suffering from throat cancer. They were published by Mark Twain’s publishing company which helped support his family after his death.
After a year-long struggle with cancer, Grant died at 8:06 AM on 23 July 1885, aged 63, in his cottage at the top of Mount McGregor, Wilton, New York.
Link to Wikipedia biography