Photographer: Brady's National Portrait Gallery, New York. PH Coll 1034.Grant, U1

Ulysses Simpson Grant (April 27, 1822 - July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States, serving two terms of office from 1869 to 1877. Grant was born as Hiram Ulysses Grant at Point Pleasant, Ohio. He graduated from West Point in 1843 and served without particular distinction in the Mexican War. In 1848 he married Julia Dent. He resigned from the army in 1854, after warnings from his commanding officer about his drinking habits, and for the next six years held a wide variety of jobs in the Middle West. With the outbreak of the Civil War, he sought a command and soon was made a brigadier general. His continuing successes in the western theaters, culminating in the capture of Vicksburg, in 1863, brought him national fame and soon the command of all the Union armies. In 1868, as Republican candidate for president, Grant was elected over the Democrat, Horatio Seymour.