Ulysses Grant's siblings:
Samuel Simpson Grant (Sep. 23, 1825-Sep. 13, 1861)
Clara Rachel Grant (Dec. 11, 1828-Mar. 6, 1865) (unmarried)
Virginia Paine Grant Corbin ("Jennie")(Feb. 20, 1832-Mar. 28, 1881) married Abel Rathbone Corbin
Orvil Lynch Grant (May 15, 1835-Aug. 1, 1881)
Mary Frances Grant Cramer (July 28,1839- Apr. 5, 1905) married Michael John Cramer.
His parents:
Hannah Simpson (Nov. 23, 1798-May 11, 1883)
Jesse Root Grant (Jan. 23, 1794-June 29, 1873)
Grant:
Hiram Ulysses Grant, April 27, 1822, Point Pleasant, Ohio, U.S.
Died: July 23, 1885, Wilton, New York, U.S.
Ulysses Grant never relied on him or his advice. With his two brothers, the relationships was the reverse of what he said about voting for Buchanan instead of Fremont, "I did not know Buchanan; I knew Fremont". Grant knew Samuel Simpson ("Simpson") very well and loved and trusted and admired him. He moved to Galena to "clerk" in the leather fabricating business that Simpson had built up because Simpson's consumption had made him too weak to travel. Grant took over the job of being what today would be the sales engineer; he visited the mines and mills in the upper Mississippi Valley - Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota and did the contract selling for the leather belts being used for traction power with steam engines. Grant's other job was to keep Orvil in his place; he had seen Simpson's illness as an opportunity for family politics about who would take over Dad's business. Orvil Grant was Jesse's favorite and had his father's taste for intrigue. The business was, in fact, Simpson's; Jesse Grant provided the capital but never organized or ran the business. (I can find no reference to his even visiting Galena.)
Losing Simpson was, for Grant, the first casualty of the war. They were the best of friends, and Grant mourned his loss for the rest of his life.
Grant respected Rawlins and appreciated his superb work as a chief of staff; but it is an exaggeration to say that he relied on Rawlins' judgment. Rawlins had far too brittle a personality; the qualities that made him a superb organizer of data also made him obsessive about issues. Grant's reputation for "drinking" comes from two sources: (1) his political enemies and (2) Rawlins' fanatic teetotalism. He was, on that subject, as dedicatedly irrational as Carry Nation. Grant did his best to help Rawlins have a better end of life than Simpson had; he appointed him Secretary of War and allowed him to stay in that position until he died - 5 months in Grant's first year in office. It is somewhat an exaggeration to say that Grant listened to Rawlins' advice. On the question of Cuba, he took Hamilton Fish's counsel, not Rawlins. He did agree with Rawlins about the Mormons; their "independence" was not going to be tolerated, either on the question of polygamy or on the question of how non-believers would be treated in the territory. Rawlins is given credit for the argument that Grant had with Sherman over the restoration of civilian control of the Army, but that was Grant's judgment entirely. If the price of losing Sherman's affection was preventing him from starving the Plains Indians, Grant was willing to pay it.