Born in 1822, Ulysses S. Grant was an American military officer and politician who served as the 18th president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. As Commanding General, he led the Union Army to victory in the American Civil War in 1865 and thereafter briefly served as Secretary of War. Later, as president, Grant was an effective civil rights executive who signed the bill that created the Justice Department and worked with Radical Republicans to protect African Americans during Reconstruction.

 

 

Admitted to West Point, Grant graduated 21st in the class of 1843 and served with distinction in the Mexican–American War. Grant resigned from the army in 1854 and returned to his family, but lived in poverty. He joined the Union Army after the American Civil War broke out in 1861 and rose to prominence after winning several early Union victories on the Western Theater. In 1863 he led the Vicksburg campaign, which gained control of the Mississippi River. Then President Abraham Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general after his victory at Chattanooga. The above portraits of Grant and fellow Union general William Sherman are dated to 1864, the same year Sherman succeeded Grant as Union commander in the Western Theater. Both portraits are housed in their original frames, truly exceptional artifacts from this fraught period in American history.

 

 

On April 1865, after Grant secured the formal surrender of the South, he was hailed as a war hero who faithfully carried out his duty to the country. The above set is the work of American Union Army officer Adam Badeau. Badeau was recognized for his abilities as a writer, which gave him work first as a staff officer for Sherman, and later for Grant himself. Covering the war years of 1861-1865, Badeau collected eyewitness testimony and researched documents from both Union and Confederate sources. The result is this deeply faithful account of Grant’s military campaigns. This particular copy contains three autographed letters from Grant, Sherman and Union general Philip Sheridan regarding the accuracy of Badeau’s work. An exemplary set with a noted provenance.

 

 

A war hero, drawn in by his sense of duty, Grant was unanimously nominated by the Republican Party and was elected president in 1868, with a second term after his reelection in 1872. As president, Grant stabilized the post-war national economy, supported Congressional Reconstruction, and ratified the 15th Amendment. Under Grant, the Union was completely restored. In 1871, Grant created the first Civil Service Commission, advancing the civil service more than any prior president. This photograph was signed by Grant in the last months of his time in office. A rare signed photograph of President Grant.

 

 

In his retirement, Grant was the first president to circumnavigate the world on his tour, dining with Queen Victoria and meeting many prominent foreign leaders. In 1880, Grant was unsuccessful in obtaining the Republican presidential nomination for a third term. In the final year of his life, facing severe financial reversals and dying of throat cancer, he wrote his memoirs to provide for his family after he passed.

 

 

Mark Twain, who was a personal friend of Grant, sought to help Grant during the publication process. Instead of involving a publisher, Twain purchased the rights to Grant’s memoirs himself, at a seventy percent royalty. Grant passed away soon after the completion of his memoirs, which proved to be a major critical and financial success. At the time of his death, he was memorialized as a symbol of national unity, and his memoirs continue to provide a valuable testimony to his experiences as statesmen and general. Featured above are two different examples of the four original publisher’s bindings of Grant’s work, both of which are in near fine condition. Our collection boasts other rare memorabilia of President Grant, available here.