Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses G. Grant is regarded by many as one of the greatest Americans of all time. He was a successful soldier and a politician, rising to the rank of general and becoming President. However, his rise to power and prominence wasn’t smooth. Far from it, in fact. Indeed, Grant went through a very low period and, for some time, it looked like he would wind up a bankrupt drunkard. However, through perseverance and the luck of being in the right place at the right time, Grant accomplished a remarkable comeback.
Born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, in 1882, Grant was raised around horses and might have followed his father into the tanning business. However, as a young man, he went to the West Point military academy, graduating with distinction. As an officer, he served, also with distinction, in the Mexican-American War. Upon his return, he married and started a family. Everything was looking good for Grant. He was even selected to head west and command troops in the newly-established territory of Oregon. However, neither Grant nor his family enjoyed life so far from home. In 1854, he quit the army, aged just 32.
Grant was determined to make a success of civilian life. He settled in Missouri, where the climate better suited his nature, and tried to make his fortune farming and trading leather. However, times were tough and soon he was struggling to provide for his family. Before long, he was heavily in debt and, to cope with the stress, he was drinking a lot more than he ever had before. Had the American Civil War not erupted in April of 1861, it’s highly likely Grant would have remained a financially destitute drunk. However, it did, and it offered him the chance to start anew and embark on a truly remarkable comeback.
Since he had graduated from West Point and had served with distinction before, Grant was welcomed into the Union Army with open arms. After a slow start to his rekindled military career, Grant won notable victories first at Fort Donaldson and then at the Battle of Shiloh. Before long, President Lincoln became convinced that Grant was the man to take control of the armed struggle and, in 1864, he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General and put in charge of the whole of the Union Army. Thanks to his tactical prowess, aggression and a small slice of luck, Robert E. Lee offered the surrender of the Confederate forces to Grant in April of 1865. Grant had won the Civil War.
But his comeback didn’t end there. In 1868, Grant was elected to the office of President of the United States. Under his leadership, the national economy became stable once again, plus he also started building bridges between the North and the South. While historians have mixed views of his presidency, nobody can deny his success in turning his life around. Within less than a decade, he had gone from being a near-bankrupt drunk to sitting in the White House having masterminded victory in the bloody Civil War.