Ulysses S. Grant Significance

During the 1800s, the United States was changing, expanding, and experiencing many growing pains. In the periods before and directly after the Civil War, many people were influential and sculpted the path of the future. Ulysses S. Grant is significant to our nation’s history because he served in two wars, gave the Union its first major victory over the Confederates, and led the nation as president. Ulysses S. Grant’s actions in the Mexican American War helped the Americans to win the war. Grant was a second lieutenant; because of his skill with numbers and animals, he was promoted to quartermaster for the Fourth Infantry (Havelin, 18, Waugh). As quartermaster, he was responsible for providing transportation and supplies for his regiment as

Grant’s perseverance was an important factor for the Union in the Civil War. In April 1862, Confederates attacked Grant’s troops in the early morning, pushed them back, and captured numerous Union soldiers. Surprisingly, Grant had managed to keep his position by the end of the day and when reinforcements arrived launched a counterattack that forced the South to retreat; the Battle of Shiloh resulted in tremendous losses (Waugh). General Grant attempted to attack Vicksburg, MIssissippi, which gave Confederates control over the Mississippi River, and after that failed, laid siege to the city for two and a half months; the town surrendered on July 4, 1863 (Havelin, 38). Even though Grant was blamed for the Union’s great losses, he did not give up and continued to attack aggressively. At night by the Rapidan River in Virginia on May 5, 1864, Ulysses Grant’s and Robert E. Lee’s forces clashed for the first time in the Battle of the Wilderness (Havelin, 45). Units of soldiers became lost during the battle and mistakenly fired on their own men; sparks from shots started wildfires which burned 200 wounded soldiers (Havelin, 45). In the first two days, approximately 11,000 Confederate troops and 17,000 Union troops died (Havelin, 45). Joan Waugh, a professor of history at UCLA, revealed that “[i]n the six-week “Overland Campaign” that followed, the Union Army suffered setbacks and high casualties in the battles of the Wilderness, Spotsylvania Court House, and Cold Harbor

Grant created the Civil Service Commision which recommended having competitive exams and creating regulations on the promotion and hiring of government employees; these recommendations were put into effect by Grant in 1872 (Waugh). However, Congress did not pass legislation to make the changes permanent and therefore did not allow long-term reforms (Waugh). Grant vetoed an inflation bill, which was a response to a nation-wide depression in 1873 and would have created more paper money; people thought creating more dollars would help stabilize the economy (Waugh). Grant believed that printing more money would cause more inflation and economic instability (Havelin, 84). In 1875, Grant signed the Specie Resumption Act, which allowed the placement of currency on specie (gold) and the gradual removal of paper dollars from circulation (Waugh). Ulysses S. Grant wanted to help the economy and increase the quality of government officials. Grant had good responses, but they often were not what people