Grant Happy Grant's Birthday, everybody

KansasFreestater

1st Lieutenant
Normally, I try to restrain myself in the Shameless Fan department, but on Grant's birthday, I give myself permission to release my inner cheerleader.

One of the things that's gone the way of the horse and buggy is campaign songs. Folk singer Oscar Brand has a whole songbook of historical U.S. presidential campaign songs, including this little ditty that made the rounds in 1868.

Warning: Probably exceeds the recommended daily allowance of cheesiness!

 
Happy Birthday............U.H. Grant

Respectfully,

William
Actually, he was born Hiram Ulysses Grant:

Hiram Ulysses Grant was born on April 27, 1822, in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He was the first of six children born to religious and hard-working parents, Jesse and Hannah Grant. His father was a tanner who took animal hides and processed them into leather. He made a good living, but the work conditions were horrible—skinned and raw animal carcasses everywhere, their hides tossed into kettles of stinging, stinking chemicals. Although Grant occasionally worked in the tannery as a child, he hated the work and swore to his father that once he was an adult, he would never do it again.

Ulysses was a small, sensitive, quiet youth. The simple local schools bored him, and other children mistook his quietness for stupidity, nicknaming him "Useless." The boy, however, had an incredible knack in what was a critical skill in that time and place—horsemanship. On the family farm, his father often gave him the responsibility of taking care of the horses and the other farm animals, and he was renowned in the area for managing unruly horses.

Grant's father supported his son's ambitious nature to go beyond the limited life of a tanner. The family had little money for college, but the United States Military Academy at West Point, then as now, offered a deal: a superior free education in return for Army service after graduating. Without telling Ulysses, Jesse Grant applied for an appointment to the Academy for his son, who was accepted. Told of his acceptance, the shy Ulysses did not want to go. His father stated that he thought his son would go, and Ulysses "thought so too, if he did." With his father's encouragement, Grant decided to go to West Point to fulfill his own desire to travel and take advantage of the education being offered to him.

When his congressman applied for Grant's appointment to West Point, he incorrectly wrote the name as Ulysses Simpson (his mother's family name) Grant instead of Hiram Ulysses Grant. Although Ulysses tried to correct the mistake when he arrived at West Point, it was too late, and thereafter he signed his name as Ulysses S. Grant.

West Point was difficult for the humble youth from the Midwest. He was good at math and drawing, but his prior education was limited, leaving him an otherwise unexceptional student. His skill with horses, however, was unmatched, and he amazed everyone with his riding abilities. He seemed sure to win a coveted spot in the Army's cavalry, its horse-soldier elite, but he was assigned to the infantry after graduating twenty-first in a class of thirty-nine.

from a nice little capsule biography from the University of Virginia's Miller Center

By the way, "21st out of 39" sounds so-so, right? But consider that a lot of students washed out the first couple of years, so the 39 in Grant's graduating class were the ones who'd made it through the culling. At the end of his sophomore year, Grant was 10th of 53.
 
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Here are a couple of paintings Grant did while at West Point:

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and here's a drawing of the subject closest to Grant the horse-lover's heart:

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Note signature in left-hand corner; it didn't change much over the years, did it?

More on Grant's West Point career:

Grant developed a strong love of literature in his college days, but for whatever reason would later rarely admit being an avid literary type. He recalls spending more time on his pleasure reading than his school studies, but never elaborated on why he loved to read. Strangely, he also excelled at art and painting–a course West Point taught primarily so that its soldiers would later be able to sketch battle plans–and spent many afternoons in the art studio of Robert Weir, who several years later helped start James Whistler's art career. In fact, Grant became a skilled enough artist that one of his paintings now hangs at West Point–most likely more because of Grant's military legacy than his painting ability, but nonetheless a respectable achievement. Overall, Grant liked many aspects of West Point, though his support for the Academy ultimately wavered during his tenure as President, when he privately supported a congressional move to close the Academy.

The one area where Grant indisputably excelled at West Point was, not surprisingly, equestrian studies. His youth and special talents with horses set him up to be an expert horseman. He set an equestrian high-jump record at West Point that lasted for a quarter of a century.

The Academy promoted Grant to sergeant in his third year, but he later confessed that the rank was too much responsibility for him, so he happily took a demotion to private for his senior year. He graduated twenty-first in a final class of thirty-nine–a low rank that denied him a chance at an appointment to the prestigious cavalry corps. Grant ended up in the infantry instead, but did not intend to remain there long. His plan was to resign as soon as his obligatory commission ended and to pursue a life as a math teacher.

from the SparkNotes bio

Grant actually was offered a position teaching math at a college in Ohio -- but the offer came when Grant was stationed on the Texas/Louisiana border before the Mexican War. The Army was getting ready to send him to Mexico, so he didn't take the offer because he didn't feel it would be right to quit the Army in its time of need after the government had shelled out all the expense of training him at West Point. And this, despite the fact that he strongly opposed the Mexican War.
 
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Actually, he was born Hiram Ulysses Grant:



from a nice little capsule biography from the University of Virginia's Miller Center

By the way, "21st out of 39" sounds so-so, right? But consider that a lot of students washed out the first couple of years, so the 39 in Grant's graduating class were the ones who'd made it through the culling. At the end of his sophomore year, Grant was 10th of 53.

Yes he was..............Thank you for the correction..............Happy Birthday H. U. Grant :smile:

21st is good, he went on to prove he was #1 in the Union.

Respectfully,

William
 
Gosh Kansas, super thread- thank you! Am a little nutty myself, it's a kinda disease, isn't it? Wonder what the photographer had him focusing on, there's SOMETHING down there at whatever degree, has his interest. Would not wish to be whateveritis, seems concerned.

SO many of the stories have been blown up into convenient legend, haven't they? The ' Grant wasn't all that bright, and a failure pre-war ' is all the heck all over the internet, too, if you poke around. It's been pretty well debunked here, would have to look around for the links. One was not too long ago, on his business acumen and how he was NOT a fumbling idjit pre-war as so many, many perspectives insist. Ties in with his status at school, the first is the only one which comes up.

Funny, some of these men and their talents- it's a far cry from Grant's work, ( which is still pretty darn good- horses are tough ) ever gotten a look at Henry Walke's work? Another very original thinker militarily, extremely successful, well respected- and a fabulous, amazing artist. Hmmm.
 
For real ?
Grant was an artist ?
I did not know that.
Thanks !

Not only that I didn't know that either, but I also would not have imagined it! But in this we are not alone, look here, the text on "his" homepage says there are many people who don't realize that Grant was an artist, and obviously a talented one:
http://www.granthomepage.com/grantartist.htm

Thank you KansasFreestater for this interesting piece of information.
 
Not only that I didn't know that either, but I also would not have imagined it! But in this we are not alone, look here, the text on "his" homepage says there are many people who don't realize that Grant was an artist, and obviously a talented one:
http://www.granthomepage.com/grantartist.htm

Thank you KansasFreestater for this interesting piece of information.
Thanks FarawayFriend, that's a very interesting website.
 
Poor Grant! Nobody can get his name straight.... Somebody adds an S, somebody decides Sam sounds better, the initials come out embarrassing, he can't even get it straight himself - he turned the first and middle names around! Tis said the young'n was so unexpected they didn't have a name picked out. All the family came together to name the newborn and threw names into a hat. A toddler cousin of Grant's reached in and pulled out a plum. Father Jesse read it and bellowed, "Who the h-- wrote 'Ulysses'!?"
 
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