Photo Gallery
Ulysses Grant lived in the public limelight from his first battlefield successes in 1862 until his death in 1885. Browse these pro- and anti-Grant political cartoons, spanning his military and political careers, and investigate the range of popular opinions about Grant and the major issues of his time.
Who is the Greatest Civil War General?
Do you admire Ulysses S. Grant? Or perhaps Robert E. Lee? Tell us who is your favorite and why.
Few public figures have ever held such a firm grip on the American popular imagination as Ulysses S. Grant. The greatest hero of the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant was a brilliant military strategist who rose from obscurity to a rank held previously only by George Washington, then became a leader for whom thousands of Northern soldiers were willing to fight and die, and for whom thousands did. His hard-nosed fighting style won him the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant and the admiration of the Northern public.
However, the strength of the Confederate resistance forced Grant into a hard war that destroyed the South and led to his being labeled a butcher. As the author of the great Union victory at Vicksburg, which etched his name in military history, he irrevocably altered the course of the war. Perhaps most memorably, he was the general who took Lee's surrender at Appomattox and the author of its generous terms.
"U.S. Grant: Warrior" paints a revealing portrait of one of America's most paradoxical leaders, from his first days on the Ohio frontier to the darkest days of the Civil War.
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