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Congressional Gold Medal.com |
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Congressional Gold Medal Recipient
General Ulysses S. Grant
b. Point Pleasant, Clermont, Ohio, 27 April 1822 (as Hiram Ulysses Grant)
d. Mount McGregor, Saratoga, New York, 23 July 1885
Thursday, 17 December 1863 Joint Resolution of Thanks to Major-General Ulysses S. Grant, and the Officers and Soldiers who have fought under his Command during this Rebellion; and providing that the President of the United States shall cause a Medal to be struck, to be presented to Major-General Grant in the name of the People of the United States of America. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the thanks of congress be, and they hereby are, presented to Major-General Ulysses S. Grant, and through him to the officers and soldiers who have fought under his command during this rebellion, for their gallantry and good conduct in the battles in which they have been engaged; and that the President of the United States be requested to cause a gold medal to be struck, with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions, to be presented to Major-General Grant. SEC. 2. And be it further resolved, That when the said medal shall have been struck, the President shall cause a copy of this joint resolution to be engrossed on parchment, and shall transmit the same, together with the said medal, to Major-General Grant, to be presented to him in the name of the People of the United States of America. SEC. 3. And be it further resolved, That a sufficient sum of money to carry this resolution into effect is hereby appropriated, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. 13 Stat. 399
General Ulysses S. Grant Congressional Gold Medal In 1863 Congress bestowed this presentation box and medal to General Ulysses S. Grant in commendation for his victories during the Vicksburg Campaign. The box is made of gold and ebony and, with the medal, includes well over a pound of gold. The medal was designed by Anthony C. Paquet. The obverse of the medal shows a bust of Grant with the legend: MAJOR GENERAL ULYSSES S. GRANT. JOINT RESOLUTION OF CONGRESS/DECEMBER 17. 1863. Thirteen stars and an ornate wreath surround the design. Division of Information, Technology and Society, Numismatics
National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution - Behring Center
Gift of Mrs. Julia Dent Grant & William Vanderbilt
This colorful lithograph recounts the 1863 battle at Vicksburg that took place on water and land
Ulysses S. Grant
Eighteenth President
1869-1877 Born: April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio Died: July 23, 1885 in Mount McGregor, New York Late in the administration of Andrew Johnson, Gen. Ulysses S. Grant quarreled with the President and aligned himself with the Radical Republicans. He was, as the symbol of Union victory during the Civil War, their logical candidate for President in 1868. When he was elected, the American people hoped for an end to turmoil. Grant provided neither vigor nor reform. Looking to Congress for direction, he seemed bewildered. One visitor to the White House noted "a puzzled pathos, as of a man with a problem before him of which he does not understand the terms." Born in 1822, Grant was the son of an Ohio tanner. He went to West Point rather against his will and graduated in the middle of his class. In the Mexican War he fought under Gen. Zachary Taylor. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was working in his father's leather store in Galena, Illinois. He was appointed by the Governor to command an unruly volunteer regiment. Grant whipped it into shape and by September 1861 he had risen to the rank of brigadier general of volunteers. He sought to win control of the Mississippi Valley. In February 1862 he took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donelson. When the Confederate commander asked for terms, Grant replied, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." The Confederates surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers. At Shiloh in April, Grant fought one of the bloodiest battles in the West and came out less well. President Lincoln fended off demands for his removal by saying, "I can't spare this man--he fights." For his next major objective, Grant maneuvered and fought skillfully to win Vicksburg, the key city on the Mississippi, and thus cut the Confederacy in two. Then he broke the Confederate hold on Chattanooga. Lincoln appointed him General-in-Chief in March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. Finally, on April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials. As President, Grant presided over the Government much as he had run the Army. Indeed he brought part of his Army staff to the White House. Although a man of scrupulous honesty, Grant as President accepted handsome presents from admirers. Worse, he allowed himself to be seen with two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk. When Grant realized their scheme to corner the market in gold, he authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to sell enough gold to wreck their plans, but the speculation had already wrought havoc with business. During his campaign for re-election in 1872, Grant was attacked by Liberal Republican reformers. He called them "narrow-headed men," their eyes so close together that "they can look out of the same gimlet hole without winking." The General's friends in the Republican Party came to be known proudly as "the Old Guard." Grant allowed Radical Reconstruction to run its course in the South, bolstering it at times with military force. After retiring from the Presidency, Grant became a partner in a financial firm, which went bankrupt. About that time he learned that he had cancer of the throat. He started writing his recollections to pay off his debts and provide for his family, racing against death to produce a memoir that ultimately earned nearly $450,000. Soon after completing the last page, in 1885, he died.
For additional information visit
The Ulysses S. Grant Association
Victories in the Civil War made Ulysses S. Grant a national figure and propelled him into the White House. Until recently, however, historians and biographers have found him to be an elusive and controversial subject. For decades basic documents necessary to understand this complex figure- Grant's correspondence, military and government papers, and other important materials - remained scattered in libraries, archives, and private collections. Now, the Ulysses S. Grant Association is assembling these documents in an edition that presents authentic texts to the general public as well as to specialists. In 1962, the Civil War Centennial Commissions of Illinois, New York, and Ohio established the Ulysses S. Grant Association and appointed John Y. Simon as editor. The Grant project began at the Ohio Historical Society, then moved to Southern Illinois University at Carbondale in 1964. During its thirty-eight years, the Grant Association has collected copies of more than 200,000 Grant documents, making possible evaluations of his life and career based on documentary evidence.
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