Ulysses S. Grant was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. Grant graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1843 and served with distinction in the Mexican-American War. He resigned from the army in 1854 and returned to civilian life impoverished. In 1861, shortly after the American Civil War began, Grant joined the Union Army and quickly rose to prominence after winning early Union victories in the western theater. In 1863, he led the Vicksburg campaign, gaining control of the Mississippi River, dealing a serious strategic blow to the Confederacy. As commanding general, he led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and thereafter briefly served as U.S. secretary of war. Later, as president, Grant was an effective civil rights executive who signed the bill that created the Justice Department and worked with Radical Republicans to protect African Americans during Reconstruction.
