American Ulysses. A Life of Ulysses S. Grant

950 Pages·2016·16.35 MB·English

by  Ronald C. White

Credit fm.1

In him the negro found a protector, the Indian a friend, a vanquished foe
a brother, an imperiled nation a savior.
—FREDERICK DOUGLASS
Mightiest among the mighty dead loom the three great figures of
Washington, Lincoln, and Grant.
—THEODORE ROOSEVELT
Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Epigraph
List of Maps
Author’s Note
Cast of Characters
Prologue
Part One: Formation, 1630–1848
CHAPTER 1 “My Family Is American”
CHAPTER 2 “My Ulysses”
CHAPTER 3 West Point
CHAPTER 4 “My Dear Julia”
CHAPTER 5 “Either by Treaty or the Sword”
CHAPTER 6 “Army of Invasion”
Part Two: Trial, 1848–1861
CHAPTER 7 Panama
CHAPTER 8 “Forsaken”
CHAPTER 9 “Hardscrabble”
CHAPTER 10 Galena
Part Three: Transformation, 1861–1865
CHAPTER 11 “I Am In to Do All I Can”
CHAPTER 12 Belmont
CHAPTER 13 “Unconditional Surrender”
CHAPTER 14 Shiloh
CHAPTER 15 William Tecumseh Sherman
CHAPTER 16 “More Than Forty Richmonds”
CHAPTER 17 Vicksburg
CHAPTER 18 Chattanooga
CHAPTER 19 “Washington’s Legitimate Successor”
CHAPTER 20 The Wilderness
CHAPTER 21 Robert E. Lee
CHAPTER 22 Petersburg
CHAPTER 23 Appomattox
Part Four: Reconstruction, 1865–1868
CHAPTER 24 “I Will Keep My Word”
CHAPTER 25 “More & More Radical”
CHAPTER 26 “Let Us Have Peace”
Part Five: President, 1869–1877
CHAPTER 27 Gold Panic
CHAPTER 28 “A Radical Change in the Indian Policy”
CHAPTER 29 Foreign Relations
CHAPTER 30 Ku Klux Klan
CHAPTER 31 The Gilded Age
CHAPTER 32 “Malfeasance!”
CHAPTER 33 Centennial Crisis
Part Six: World Citizen, 1879–1885
CHAPTER 34 American Ambassador
CHAPTER 35 Grant & Ward
CHAPTER 36 Final Campaign
Epilogue
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Illustration Credits
By Ronald C. White
About the Author
List of Maps
Family Background and Early Life
Grant Family’s Progress, Massachusetts to Ohio, 1630–1822
Ohio, 1822–1839
The Mexican War
Texas, 1821–1845
The Mexican War
Scott’s Campaign, March 7–September 14, 1847
Peacetime Duty
Grant’s First Postings
Isthmus of Panama, 1852
Grant on the Pacific Coast
St. Louis to Galena, 1843–1861
The Civil War
The Western Theater, 1861–1864
Battle of Belmont, November 7, 1861
Battle of Fort Henry and Fort Donelson, February 4–16, 1862
Battle of Shiloh, Confederate Attack, 6:30 A.M., April 6, 1862
Battle of Shiloh, Afternoon, April 6, 1862
Battle of Shiloh, Second Day, April 7, 1862
Mississippi Campaign, 1862–1863
Vicksburg Campaign, December 26, 1862–May 10, 1863
Vicksburg Campaign, May 10–July 4, 1863
Siege of Vicksburg, May 18–July 4, 1863
Battle of Chattanooga, November 24–25, 1863
Virginia Theater, 1864–1865
Battle of the Wilderness, May 5–6, 1864
Battle of Spotsylvania, Action on May 10, 1864
Battle of Spotsylvania, Action on May 12, 1864
Movement of Grant’s Armies to Petersburg, June 1864
Siege of Petersburg, June 1864–April 1865
The Shenandoah Valley Campaign, April–October 1864
Pursuit to Appomattox, April 1865
President
The West: Railroads and Indian Wars, 1865–1880
American Ambassador
Grant’s World Tour, May 1877–September 1879
Author’s Note
For the sake of clarity I have sometimes modernized the spelling and
punctuation of Grant and his correspondents. Spelling and punctuation in the
nineteenth century were far from regular or consistent. Grant’s spelling was
often imaginative. Any revisions were made with the goal of maintaining the
original meaning for contemporary readers.