Grant earned the nickname “Unconditional Surrender Grant” after winning a major victory over the Confederates in the Battle of Fort Donelson in Tennessee in February 1862. Later that summer, President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) made Grant a brigadier general. Ulysses Grant volunteered for the Union cause and became a colonel of the 21st Illinois Volunteers. The American Civil War began in April 1861. READ MORE: 10 Things You May Not Know About Ulysses S. (known as “Buck”), Ellen “Nellie” Grant and Jesse Root Grant. Julia Grant and Ulysses Grant had four children: Frederick Dent Grant, Ulysses S. The outbreak of the Civil War changed their fortunes, as Grant’s success as Union commander eventually provided a Julia with a more comfortable lifestyle. By 1860, the family was forced to move to Galena, Illinois, where Grant worked in his father’s leather goods store. However, the process of turning the farm into a profitable venture proved difficult from the early stages and was rendered virtually impossible following the Panic of 1857.

Given 80 acres of land by her father as a wedding gift, Julia embraced the role of farmer’s wife in the 1850s. Grant (center) sits for a family portrait with his wife, Julia Dent Grant, and their children and grandchildren at his last home, in New York, circa 1883. Grant finally asked Dent for permission to marry Julia in 1845 and received approval, but the outbreak of the Mexican-American War delayed the wedding until August 22, 1848.įormer Civil War General and U.S. The two wrote letters to one another, including an 1844 note where Grant poked fun at the error Ohio Congressman Thomas Hamer made when he inadvertently added an “S” as Grant’s middle initial in his nomination letter for West Point: “Find some name beginning with “S” for me,” he joked to Julia, “You know I have an “S” in my name and don’t know what it stands for.” However, the two kept the engagement hidden from Colonel Dent, who was unhappy with Grant’s meager pay as a soldier. Ulysses Grant met his bride-to-be at White Haven early in 1844, where the two rode on horseback and walked the grounds together. Her future husband, Ulysses Grant, was a classmate of Julia’s older brother Fred at West Point. She painted an idyllic picture of her upbringing in her memoirs. The future first lady was well educated, attending the Mauro Boarding School for seven years and taking a liking to literature. Louis, Missouri, she enjoyed outdoor activities such as fishing and riding horses. Raised on the White Haven plantation approximately 12 miles from St. She was the fifth of seven children born to “Colonel” Frederick and Ellen Wrenshall Dent. Julia Grant was born Julia Boggs Dent on January 26, 1826.

Ulysses s grant memoirs