Grant, Ulysses S.
Grant, Ulysses S. (1822–1885), Civil War general and eighteenth president of the United States.Born at Point Pleasant, Ohio, on 27 April 1822, and named Hiram Ulysses, young Ulysses (as his father called him) grew up in nearby Georgetown, across the street from his father's tannery, and acquired an intense aversion to the stench of death. He attended local schools, did farm chores, and demonstrated unusual skill with horses. Appointed to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, he was mistakenly registered as Ulysses S., which he eventually accepted, though insisting that his middle initial stood for nothing.
Graduating in 1843, he was assigned to Jefferson Barracks in St. Louis County. In the Mexican War, 1846–48, Grant displayed commendable gallantry under Zachary Taylor, but chafed at assignments as quartermaster and commissary in the army of
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