Ulysses S. Grant achieved greatness, but not without struggles. He “careened from poverty to riches, from triumph to failure, from humiliation to glorification.” (Smith,14) Grant developed both integrity and strong character in his boyhood years and at West Point Military Academy, that took him through the Civil War, his years as President, and throughout the rest of his life. (Smith, 13-19)
Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio, during the time period called the “Era of Good Feelings.” (The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, 9) (Smith, 21) His father was Jesse Root Grant and his mother, Hannah Grant, and he had three sisters and two brothers. When Ulysses S. Grant was born, his father and mother could not agree on a name for their son. Grant's father liked the name Hiram Ulysses Grant, but his mother liked the name Albert Gallitan Grant. They eventually agreed on the name Hiram Grant. (Smith, 21-23)
Grant's father owned a tannery in Point Pleasant; but when Grant was only a year old, his father sold their tannery and the family moved to Georgetown, Ohio, where he spent the bulk of his boyhood years. As a boy, Grant did not like school, therefore he did not try to succeed and was considered a poor student. As a teen, he was famous around town for training horses with ease, a skill that would help Grant in his years in the army. (Smith, 21-23)
After Grant's seventeenth birthday, his father suggested that he go to West Point.
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Initially, Grant did not want to go, but reluctantly, agreed to apply. His only motivation for going to West Point was to travel around the world. The congressman in charge of scheduling an appointment for Grant wrote down his name not as Hir...
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... provide for his family after he was gone. Grant's Memoirs soon became America's best seller, second only to the Bible. (Korda, 150)
Ulysses S. Grant passed away on the morning of July 23, 1885. (Grant, 1161) At his funeral, over 1.5 million viewers joined in the celebration of Grant's life and the mourning of his death. The words engraved on his tombstone, which were the mark of his life, were “Let Us Have Peace.” (Smith, 18-19, n.p.)
Ulysses S. Grant's character, which was shaped as a boy and as a soldier at West Point, helped him rise above the struggles he faced as general, President, and throughout the rest of his life. Though Grant faced many difficulties and failures, he had many more triumphs and successes. (Smith, 13-19) “The common thread is strength of character—an indomitable will that never flagged in the face of adversity.” (Smith, 15)
leading up to and surrounding President Abraham Lincoln’s death. The purpose of this book is to
Ulysses S Grant born Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on 27 April 1822 in Pleasant, Ohio. Grant and his family moved to Georgetown, Ohio, just one year after his birth. Grant was a graduate of West Point in 1843 and was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 4th U.S. Infantry stationed in Missouri. Grant was married Julia Dent and had four children later in marriage. Grant served in the Mexican-American War and he resigned from the military in 1854 after being stationed for several years away from his family. Grant tried a few different occupations after resigning from the Army such as a Farmer, Realtor, and after moving to Galena, Illinois, worked at his father’s leather goods business but failed at all these occupations. Grant was promoted to Colonel in the 21st Illinois Volunteers in April 1861after the start of the Civil War. Grant was then promoted to the rank of Brigadier General later that summer by President Abraham Lincoln. (www.histo...
Robert Remini writes with straightforward opinions and facts while in the sizing his motive and addressing his. Throughout this book, Remini informs you of nearly every event remotely important,bwhich was very helpful and kept me interested. Before reading this, I only knew about the events, not the underlying facts and characteristics of the people involved. Learning more about Jackson 's upbringings, raised without a father and became an orphan when he was fourteen due to his mother dying while nursing American prisoners of war during the revolution, and his underrated accomplishments revealed have changed my view of him
As the United States became divided through civil war in 1861, the Union was in need of a military leader who could carry their Army to victory over the resolute troops of the Confederacy. These demands were met with the unmatched leadership tactics of Commanding Union Army General, Ulysses S. Grant. Grant consistently displayed the values and image of a true military leader. These leadership qualities were displayed both on the battlefield, as Grant commanded Union troops to victory in the American Civil War, and while he served as the 18th President of the United States. Grant was a knowledgeable and skilled military leader, graduating from West Point in 1843 and continuing on to serve in the military until 1854. However, Grant’s military leadership is most clearly characterized through three distinct leadership traits other than his military competence: Firstly, Ulysses S. Grant was determined. Despite how diverse or intimidating the battle or political allegations during his Presidential scandals, Grant did not back down; secondly, Grant was inspirational, and was able to both inspire his men during battle and increase morale of the northern citizens through decisive Union victories; Lastly, Ulysses S. Grant was morally courageous both on and off the battlefield as he made ethical decisions in dealing with the terms of surrender and reconstruction of the South as well as openly supporting and focusing his efforts on emancipation. By possessing these leadership traits, Ulysses S. Grant served as one of the most influential and important military leaders in U.S. history.
James Garfield was born on November 19, 1831, in Orange, Ohio, in a log cabin. His father died only two years after his birth, so his mother raised him along with his older siblings while still managing the family farm. During his teen years, he towed barges up the Ohio Canal in order to support his impoverished family. He was nicknamed “The Canal Boy”. He later attended the former Western Reserve Eclectic Institute, which is now currently Hiram College in Hiram, Ohio, from 1851 to 1853. He then proved himself to be a skilled public speaker and an excellent student at Williams College. He attended Williams College for two years before graduating in 1856.
Ulysses S. Grant once said, “The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.” Although this may seem simplistic, this quote is verbatim to what he did during the civil war. Ulysses is a notorious person in U.S history. He was a family man, farmer, store clerk, and the eighteenth president of the United States but his impact as general of the Union army during the Civil War is what he is known for and has made him the legend that he is today.
Ambition is beautiful. Ambition drives people to do things they have a strong sense of desire to do, believing they are capable of achieving a certain goal. We find this trait among many of our nations remarkable leaders who were willing to make a stand, take risks, and speak their minds, sharing their greatest triumphs as well as their painful loses. These leaders were distinctive individuals who changed our nation solely through their unyielding ways. During times of racial injustice, post emancipation proclamation, and women’s suffrage, seeking the right to express individualism was a burden upon many. However, in the late 19th century, the nation’s post-war South remained a precarious place, and significant challenges lay ahead after
what others thought of him. His life symbolized what a lot of people have gone
The differences between the backgrounds of the North and the South’s way of life created a difference in perspective that was shown through these two leaders. The North was focused on the idea of rebirth and of evolution. They had focused less on agriculture and more on manufacturing and the development of technology. This shift in life created opportunities for any man to potentially work their way up to owning their own factory. Grant, a Northerner from the Western Frontier, learned from this type of living and represented this idea that “life was a competition”. Everything that a person obtained was earned through hard work. On the other hand, the South remained agriculturally based. They believed that change was not needed because every white man could buy and make a living off of his own farm. Even further, social status was inherited through bequeathing of land. There was no need for competition, except perhaps the competition for land or for slaves. Hence, being a Southerner who believed life should rema...
Grant remained a child at heart throughout his life, and seems never to have realized that he was one. His faith in the goodness of humanity was unbounded, and he was taken advantage of. His simplicity of nature was remarkable, yet this simplicity was the mainspring of his success; certainly it was the first asset of his generalship. While McClellan could see nothing beyond his own operations and Halleck nothing outside of his textbooks, Grant saw things as they were, uncontaminated by his ideas or anyone elses. He saw that the entire problem of winning the civil war was nothing more than an equation between pressure and resistance. The side which pressed the hardest along the lines of least resistance was going to win.
" 'It is not the style of clothes one wears, neither the kind of automobile one drives, nor the amount of money one has in the bank, that counts. These mean nothing. It is simply service that measures success.'-"-George Washington Carver. George Washington Carver paved the way for agriculturists to come. He always went for the best throughout his whole life. He didn't just keep the best for himself; he gave it away freely for the benefit of mankind. Not only did he achieve his goal as the world's greatest agriculturist, but also he achieved the equality and respect of all. George Washington Carver was born near Diamond Grove, Missouri in 1864. He was born on a farm owned by Moses and Susan Carver. He was born a sick, weak baby and was unable to work on the farm. His weak condition started when a raiding party kidnapped him with his mom. He was returned to the Carver's farm with whooping cough. His mother had disappeared and the identity of his father was unknown, so the Carver's were left to care for him and his brother James. Here on the farm is where George first fell in love with plants and Mother Nature. He had his own little garden in the nearby woods where he would talk to the plants. He soon earned the nickname, "The Plant Doctor," and was producing his own medicines right on the farm. George's formal education started when he was twelve. He had, however, tried to get into schools in the past but was denied on the basis of race.
George Washington Carver was born into slavery January of 1860 on the Moses Carver plantation in Diamond Grove, Missouri. He spent the first year of his life, the brutal days of border war, between Missouri and neighboring Kansas. George was a very sickly child with a whooping cough, which later lead to his speech impediment, and he was tiny and puny. George's father, James Carver, died in a wood hauling accident when he was bringing wood to his master's house one day. George was sick a great deal during his early years. In 1861, when George was one year old, raiders kidnapped him and his mother with horses from their home in Missouri. Moses Carver, Mary's master, heard that a bushwhacker named Bentley knew Mary's whereabouts along with little George's. Moses offered him 40 acres of his best timberland and Pacer, one of his best horses. Bentley accepted the offer and started in pursuit all the way into Arkansas. Bentley returned a few days later only with young George in a bundle and no sign of Mary. A few years later, in spring, little George was in the woods scraping at the earth. When someone was sick George gathered roots, herbs, and bark, which he boiled to make medicines. Carver grew to be a student of life and a scholar, despite the illness and frailty of his early childhood. Because he was not strong enough to work in the fields, he helped with household chores and gardening. Probably because of these duties and because of the hours he would spend exploring the woods around his home, he developed a keen interest in plants at an early age. Neighbors called George the Plant Doctor because he made house to house calls in Diamond Grove to prescribe for ailing plants. George had his own mini garden where he nursed sick plants b...
Jefferson died with dignity and Grant returned to Bayonne believing he could make a difference. It is not clear that religion, a belief in God, made the difference for either of them. It is clear that as they struggled with the issue of a higher power, they did discover that the meaning of their lives was not attached to the white man’s beliefs and myths, but rather came from inside themselves. To the end, they both struggled with whether or not there was a God. As they end their journey together, Jefferson is at peace and becomes a hero in his community. Though Grant cannot be a hero, he does find his place and returns to the schoolhouse with new hope and a vision for making a difference, if not for himself, for his students. He doubts himself at times, but he gains determination for his students. "Yet they must believe. They must believe, if only to free the mind, if not the body. Only when the mind is free has the body a chance to be free. Yes, they must believe. They must believe. Because I know what it means to be a slave. I am a slave" (Gaines 251)
Abraham Lincoln deserves the accolade “The Great Emancipator”. The title “Great Emancipator” has been the subject of many controversies. Some people have argued that the slaves themselves are the central story in the achievement of their own freedom. Others demonstrate that emancipation could result from both a slave’s own extraordinary heroism and the liberating actions of the Union forces. However, my stance is to agree that Abraham Lincoln deserves to be regarded as “The Great Emancipator” for his actions during and following the Civil War.
James a Garfield was born, the youngest of four, in orange Township, Ohio on November 19, 1831 (Duckster). His father, Abraham Garfield, died when James A. Garfield turned two years of age leaving his mother, Eliza Ballou Garfield, to fend for herself and four young boys (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans). Garfield, around age seventeen, drove steamboats through Ohio canals for a year to assist his mother financially while in their state of poverty(The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Amer...