Ulysses S. Grant
1822–1885 · United States
“No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.”
Peak-work percentile in the canon.
Portraits
The single most iconic photo of Grant: hand on hip, leaning at his Cold Harbor headquarters, June 1864 — the wartime general image reprinted everywhere.
Mathew Brady, 1864
High-resolution digitally restored Brady portrait, c. 1870 — a crisp, clean version of Grant's presidential likeness widely used across Wikipedia.
Mathew Brady, 1870
Full-length standing portrait of Grant in dark civilian dress, hand resting on a chair, the bearing of the elder statesman rather than the soldier.
Thomas Le Clear, 1880
Famous Quotes
“I propose to fight it out on this line if it takes all summer.”
“The art of war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.”
“I was bitterly opposed to the measure, and to this day regard the war, which resulted, as one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation.”
“I felt like anything rather than rejoicing at the downfall of a foe who had fought so long and valiantly, and had suffered so much for a cause, though that cause was, I believe, one of the worst for which a people ever fought, and one for which there was the least excuse.”
About Ulysses S. Grant
Eighteenth President of the United States and commanding general of the Union Army during the Civil War. His Personal Memoirs, written while dying of throat cancer and published by Mark Twain, are considered the finest military memoirs in English. He completed them days before his death, securing his family's financial future.