Ulysses S. Grant — Biography Reading Comprehension Lesson

Reading Passage

Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. His father arranged for him to attend the United States Military Academy at West Point, where a clerical error changed his name to Ulysses Simpson Grant — a name that stuck. He graduated in 1843 and served capably in the Mexican-American War under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. After the war, he struggled in civilian life, failing at farming and business, and was working in his father’s leather goods store in Galena, Illinois, when the Civil War broke out in 1861.

Grant’s military genius emerged quickly during the Civil War. In February 1862, he captured Fort Donelson in Tennessee, demanding unconditional surrender — earning him the nickname ‘Unconditional Surrender’ Grant and making him a national hero. His campaign to capture Vicksburg, Mississippi (1863) gave the Union control of the entire Mississippi River, splitting the Confederacy in two. President Lincoln, frustrated with cautious generals, brought Grant east and gave him command of all Union armies in 1864. Grant pursued a strategy of relentless pressure — fighting Confederate General Robert E. Lee in a brutal series of battles in Virginia.

Grant accepted Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, on April 9, 1865, effectively ending the Civil War. He offered generous terms — Confederate soldiers could go home, keep their horses, and face no punishment — reflecting his belief that healing the nation was more important than humiliating the defeated South. When Lincoln was assassinated just days later, the country mourned, and Grant became one of the most celebrated figures in America. He was elected the 18th President of the United States in 1868.

Grant’s presidency (1869–1877) focused on Reconstruction — the effort to rebuild the South and protect the rights of formerly enslaved people. He used federal troops to suppress the Ku Klux Klan and enforce the 14th and 15th Amendments, which guaranteed citizenship and voting rights to Black Americans. However, his administration was also marked by corruption scandals, as some of his trusted appointees abused their positions. Grant himself was not personally corrupt, but his loyalty to dishonest friends damaged his reputation. His presidency remains one of the most debated: praised for his civil rights enforcement and criticized for the scandals around him.

After leaving the presidency, Grant toured the world to great acclaim and later wrote his memoirs to provide for his family after being financially ruined by a dishonest business partner. He completed the final pages of his Personal Memoirs just days before dying of throat cancer on July 23, 1885. Published posthumously, the memoirs earned nearly $500,000 for his family and are considered among the finest military memoirs in American history. Grant is buried in Grant’s Tomb in New York City, the largest mausoleum in North America.

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