Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. His parents' names are Jesse Root Grant and Hannah Simpson Grant.

At age 17, Ulysses (as everybody called him) was admissioned to the U.S. Military academy at West Point. Ulysses name became Ulysses Simpson Grant because of the writing error the Congressman made. Grant barely graduated in 1843. He ranked 21 out of a class of 39.

Ulysses wanted to be a math teacher but was assigned to infantry duty on the southwestern frontier. For a few years he served in various places in Missouri and Louisiana. In 1845 he went into command of Zachary Taylor in Texas. He was in the Mexican War; he was cited twice for bravery.

In 1848 Ulysses married Julia Dent. They had four children three boys Fredrick, Ulysses, jr. and Jesse; they also had a daughter Ellen. Grant served army posts in Detroit, Michigan and Sackets Harbor, New York.

Grant fought his first battle against the Confederates in Belmont, Missouri November 1861. Three months later, helped by Commodore Andrew H. Foote's gunboats', they captured Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland River, and Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. They were the first two Major Union victories. Brigadier General Simon B. Buckner surrendered 14000 men to the Union, which made Grant a national figure. Grant got a promotion to major general after that.

Two months' later the Battle of Shiloh had begun. Grant did not do so well. Grant and his troops got attacked while unaware of the Confederate attack. In the Battle of Shiloh Grant was supreme commander in the West. Grants men fought many battles' against Lee's men at Cold Harbor on June 3. While in Petersburg Grant cut Lee's transportation system and sent out expeditions against Southern forces. Grant slowly starved out Lee's troops, and the generals carried out the rest of the plan of destroying the confederates.

April 9th at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, General Lee's surrender ended the war.

Grant became the 18th president of the United States. Grant was reelected in 1868. Grant died in 1885 of old age and was buried in New York.