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Notable people · President · Military

Ulysses S. Grant

Commanding general of the Union armies in the Civil War and 18th president, born at Point Pleasant and raised in Georgetown, Ohio.

Born April 27, 1822, Point Pleasant
Died July 23, 1885, Grant Cottage, Mount McGregor, Moreau

Ulysses S. Grant
Public domain · Wikimedia Commons

At a glance

Born
April 27, 1822, Point Pleasant (Clermont County) source
Died
July 23, 1885, Grant Cottage, Mount McGregor, Moreau source
Buried
General Grant National Memorial (Grant's Tomb), New York City source
Also known as
Hiram Ulysses Grant, U. S. Grant, Sam Grant
Education
Maysville Seminary, Maysville, KY, 1836-1837
John Rankin's academy, Ripley, OH, 1838
US Military Academy, West Point, NY, 1839-1843, graduate, 21st of 39
Known as
President, Military
Organizations
Ohio History Connection

Life story

Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in 1822 at Point Pleasant, Ohio, and grew up in Georgetown, where his father ran a tannery. He went to local subscription schools and short stints at academies in Maysville, Kentucky, and Ripley, Ohio.

An Ohio congressman named him to West Point, where he finished 21st of 39 in 1843. He fought in the Mexican-American War, married Julia Dent in 1848, and resigned from the Army in 1854, then struggled in civilian work.

The Civil War brought him back. Victories at Forts Henry and Donelson in 1862, Shiloh, and Vicksburg in 1863 made him the Union's leading general, and in 1864 he became commanding general. Lee surrendered to him at Appomattox on April 9, 1865.

He won the presidency in 1868 and served two terms. In his last year he wrote his memoirs while dying of throat cancer; he died in 1885 and is buried in New York City. His Ohio birthplace and boyhood home are both open to visitors.

Ohio ties

Timeline

  1. 1822 Born April 27 at Point Pleasant, Ohio, and named Hiram Ulysses Grant. source
  2. 1823 Family moved to Georgetown, where Jesse and Hannah Grant built the brick house now called the Grant Boyhood Home. source
  3. 1836 Spent the winter of 1836-1837 at Maysville Seminary across the river in Kentucky. source
  4. 1838 Attended John Rankin's academy in the autumn. source
  5. 1838 Spent the winter of 1838-1839 at a private school in Ripley, Ohio. source
  6. 1839 Nominated to West Point by Representative Thomas L. Hamer, who entered him as 'U. S. Grant'; accepted July 1. source
  7. 1885 Died July 23 at Mount McGregor, New York. source
  8. 1888 His birthplace house, previously shipped by barge to Cincinnati, was shown in Goodale Park, Columbus, during the Grand Army of the Republic encampment. source
  9. 1936 The birthplace house was dismantled at the Ohio State Fairgrounds, trucked back to Point Pleasant, rebuilt on its original foundation, and rededicated October 4. source

What Ulysses is known for

  • 18th US president
  • General-in-chief of the Union armies; accepted Lee's surrender at Appomattox 1865
  • Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant (published 1885-86, after his death)

Stories

The colt from Mr. Ralston

In his memoirs Grant told a story from about age eight in Georgetown. He wanted a colt owned by a neighbor, Mr. Ralston, who asked $25; Grant's father thought it worth $20. Jesse Grant told the boy to offer $20, and to go to $22.50 and then $25 only if he had to. The boy rode over and told Ralston the whole plan at once, and Grant joked that no one would need to guess the price finally agreed on. The story spread among the village boys, and he wrote that it was a long time before he heard the last of it. He kept the horse until it went blind and later saw it working a ferry tread-wheel at Maysville.

Source

A boy who hated the tannery

Jesse Grant was a tanner, and his tannery stood across the street from the Georgetown house. Ulysses disliked the trade and asked for farm work instead, plowing, hauling wood and tending horses while still in school. By his teens he was driving teams on his own to Cincinnati, about 45 miles away, to Maysville, and once about 70 miles to Chillicothe. On one trip to Flat Rock, Kentucky, he traded for a horse that had never been harnessed; when it bolted, he blindfolded it with a bandanna and got home. The tannery building survives and is run with the boyhood home by the U.S. Grant Homestead Association.

Source

The traveling birthplace

The house where Grant was born in 1822 did not stay put. After his death in 1885 it was shipped down the Ohio by barge to Cincinnati for an exposition. Henry T. Chittenden bought it and moved it to Goodale Park in Columbus, where it was a focal point of the 1888 Grand Army of the Republic encampment. It then went to the Ohio State Fairgrounds, where a glass and limestone shelter was dedicated in 1896. In March 1936 it was taken apart, trucked back to Point Pleasant and rebuilt on its original foundation, and it was rededicated on October 4, 1936.

Source

Honors and things named for them

  • Grant Birthplace State Memorial, Point Pleasant, OH
  • Grant Boyhood Home, Georgetown, OH
  • General Grant National Memorial (tomb), New York City

Family

  • wife: Julia Dent Grant
  • father: Jesse Root Grant
  • son: Frederick Dent Grant
  • son: Ulysses S. Grant Jr.
  • daughter: Ellen (Nellie) Grant
  • son: Jesse Root Grant II

Sites to know

Homes, graves, markers, museums and monuments; the numbered ones are on the map.

12

Places in Ohio to see

Ohio places

Where Ulysses S. Grant was born, lived, worked and is remembered, with the ZIP code, town and county pages for each.

In their words

Let us have peace.

Myths and corrections

Things often said about Ulysses S. Grant, and what the record shows.

Often said The 'S.' in Ulysses S. Grant stands for Simpson.

The record Grant said the initial stood for nothing. It came from Congressman Thomas L. Hamer, who entered him at West Point as 'U. S. Grant'; one account says Hamer took the S from his mother's maiden name, Simpson, but Grant never adopted it as a middle name. source

Pictures

Free to use with the credit shown. Select a picture for the original and its license.

  • View this map on the BL Georeferencer service. Image taken from: Title: "History of the American Civil War, etc" Author:
    View this map on the BL Georeferencer service. Image taken from: Title: "History of the American Civil War, et...
    No known restrictions
  • View this map on the BL Georeferencer service. Image taken from: Title: "History of the American Civil War, etc" Author:
    View this map on the BL Georeferencer service. Image taken from: Title: "History of the American Civil War, et...
    No known restrictions
  • Ulysses S. Grant
    No known restrictions
  • Ulysses S. Grant
    No known restrictions
  • Ulysses S. Grant
    No known restrictions
  • Portrait engraving of Ulysses S. Grant
    Portrait engraving of Ulysses S. Grant
    Public domain
  • Artillery Group Statue, to the south of the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.
    Artillery Group Statue, to the south of the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.
    CC0
  • Atelier Nadar: Robert McLane (1815-1898), amerikanischer Diplomat
    Atelier Nadar: Robert McLane (1815-1898), amerikanischer Diplomat
    Public domain
  • Brady, Mathew B.: Ulysses Simpson Grant
    Brady, Mathew B.: Ulysses Simpson Grant
    Public domain
  • Personnalités françaises et étrangères sous le Second Empire.
    Personnalités françaises et étrangères sous le Second Empire.
    Public domain
  • Cavalry Group Statue, to the north of the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.
    Cavalry Group Statue, to the north of the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial.
    CC0
  • Title: Civil War envelope showing portrait of Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant Abstract/medium: 1 print on envelope.
    Title: Civil War envelope showing portrait of Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant Abstract/medium: 1 print on envelope.
    Public domain

Further reading

Sources

Confidence. Medium: the main facts were confirmed, but some details (often an address or ZIP code) were not.

Every link goes to the original source. Profile researched 2026-10-14.

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