 Hello from the National Archives' Public Programs and Education staff. My name is Sarah Lyons Davis and I'm an education specialist at the National Archives. Welcome to the National Archives Comes Alive Young Learners Program. Today, we meet Ulysses S. Grant, portrayed by reenactor and storyteller Kurt Fields. Ulysses S. Grant was the 18th President of the United States. After graduating West Point Military Academy, Grant served in the Mexican-American War and later the U.S. Civil War for the Union. He rose through the ranks after a significant win at the Battle of Vicksburg. Known for excellent horsemanship, dogged determination, and strategic maneuvering, he was eventually appointed as Commander of the Union Army, 1864-1865. His military accomplishments led to his nomination in two presidential terms. The National Archives has many records related to Ulysses S. Grant. They can be found on National Archives' online catalog and in our education-specific resource, docsteach at docsteach.org. Here, we have a map of the Siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, where the Northern U.S. forces were under the command of Major General U.S. Grant. Today, this battlefield is known as Vicksburg National Military Park and open to the public as part of the work of the National Park Service. In this activity in docsteach, you can see a message from President Abraham Lincoln. Lincoln wrote his nomination for Ulysses S. Grant to be the Lieutenant General of the Army on February 29, 1864. Congress had recently authorized this rank, a rank held previously only by George Washington. And a final image I want to share with you today is that of a photograph of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant. This one shows him standing by a tree in front of a tent, Cold Harbor, Virginia. This is from circa June 1864 during the Civil War. Our programs are brought to you from the National Archives' public programs and education team and the National Archives Foundation. You can find information for teacher and student programs on the National Archives website, archives.gov, under Archives News, upcoming events, and if you follow the National Archives on social media. And let us now give a warm welcome to Ulysses S. Grant. Good morning. I am delighted to be here and to have an opportunity to talk with you and tell you who I am. Because many people have heard my name, General Ulysses S. Grant, or some folks like to tease a bit and call me unconditional surrender grant. But a lot of folks are curious about who I am, where I come from, what kind of a life have I had. And it is such a joy to be able to stand a few minutes with you and tell you some of those things about myself. I was born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, right on the banks of the Ohio River in 1822. When I was less than a year old, my parents moved about 10 miles away to Georgetown, Ohio. And that's where I grew up and lived there until I was 17 and left for the United States Military Academy. But things about me as a child, I'm the first born. Now I've got five brothers and sisters. And I'm the oldest, the first of six. I have two brothers, Orville and Simpson, and I've got three sisters, Virginia, Mary, Francis, and Claire. Also, I was a small child. I was known to be a very strong muscular, but I was a small child. I am now five feet eight inches tall. So when I grew to full adulthood, I'm still not a tall person. But I'm five, eight grew up a small child. I was also considered to be a very quiet child because even as a little fellow, I always felt if you don't have anything to say, don't say it. So I was actually considered to be a little slow because I never talk much. I didn't feel like talking unless I did indeed have something to say. But when I did talk, I'd like to emphasize, I never uttered a curse word or a swear word in my life. I never, I never saw any profit in using profanity. And also, I will not permit off-color dirty stories or jokes to be told in my presence. I feel them to be a waste of time and to pollute the air. In fact, during the war, there was one occasion that an officer in my gathering of officers in my tent said, there are no ladies present, so I've got a job. And I said, but there are gentlemen present. And that was the end of that matter. So I've never uttered a curse word. As I grew up, I began going to school when I was five years old there at the Dutch Hill School, which is still there in Georgetown, Ohio, a brick one room schoolhouse, and indeed the home that I grew up in is still there and may be visited in Georgetown, Ohio. And Georgetown is about 40 or 45 miles southeast of Cincinnati. So you have an idea of where I grew up. I really enjoyed school. But I found out two things about myself early on. I love math. I love arithmetic. It came to me very easily and it just made sense to me, still does. And I also found out that I have quite the hand. I'm an artist and I could draw horses particularly well. One occasion in school, Mr. White, our schoolmaster, was having me clean up my slate board and my notebook and rework it. And a fellow rode a horse past the schoolhouse and my desk was next to the window and I got distracted looking out the window and was drawing the man on the horse until I realized Mr. White was standing next to me and he took my picture away. But my friends said I could draw such a horse. It looked like he could walk off the page. So I love math and I love to draw when I was an artist. I did fairly well in school. My father got an appointment for me to the United States Military Academy. And I didn't really want to go. The military life held no chance for me. But my father wanted me to have an engineering degree since I was good in math. And the country was exploding with immigration and the westward movement. So father thought an engineer would always be able to make a living, a good living. And West Point, the United States Military Academy, was the only college in America that gave an engineering degree at that time and it was free. And my father really liked it being free. And even though I didn't really want to go, father sent me and I was accepted. I graduated 21st out of the class of 39. We had small classes. So I was right about in the middle. But I am still recognized as being the greatest horseman to ever go to the United States Military Academy. And I sit jumping records while they're at the academy. In fact, during our graduation exercises, I was on a horse named York and jumped over a six foot stanchion. And they still have that pole I'm told in the archives at the United States Military Academy. I was graduated and within a year or so found myself involved in the Mexican war. And for the next four years from 1844 through 1848, we were involved in the Mexican war. I was in every battle in the Mexican war except one. I missed the Battle of Buena Vista, but I was promoted twice for bravery under fire. And after the war in 1848, I came back to St. Louis and I married my sweetheart Julia Dent. And then we began our life together. Julia and I had four children. We had Fred, our oldest, and then Buck, Ulyssesie Jr. And he's named Buck because he's the only one of our children that was born in Ohio, the Buckeye State. So his nickname is Buck. And then we had Nellie, who was born on the 4th of July. And then we had Jesse. So we have four children that have been a great joy to us through my life in the military and my life with my wonderful wife, Julia. When the war started, the Civil War, I was able to secure a commission as a colonel of volunteers of the 21st Illinois, which is a unit that I understand is still in existence. And I quickly, within seven weeks, was appointed by President Lincoln to be a Brigadier-General. That's one star in command of about four or five thousand men. It's a French word, Brigadier for Brigade, and a brigade is about four thousand soldiers. It's your lowest level of general officer. And then in February of 1862, I was able to, with the Army under my command, I was privileged to command some fine soldiers. And they were able to take Fort Donaldson in Northwestern Tennessee, and we were able to take, therefore, control of the Tennessee and the Cumberland rivers. And after that, Nashville, the first capital, Confederate capital to fall, was taken by federal forces under my command. And then in July of 1863, I took Vicksburg, it surrendered. So by that time, I've got two complete armies that have surrendered. One at Fort Donaldson under General Buckner, and then the second one at Vicksburg under General Pemberton. And I was sent to Chattanooga and helped General Roscrans Army get out of a very tight spot there in the mountains in Chattanooga, Tennessee. And at that time, President Lincoln decided that he wanted me to be the commanding officer for all federal forces. So on March the 8th, it was approved, as you were told earlier, on February 29th, which is a leap year, of course. And then on March the 8th, I went to Washington City, met the president, and on March the 9th of 1864, I was made a Lieutenant General as three stars. And I'm the first one since George Washington. For the last year of the war, I was engaged with General Robert E. Lee. I was there with the Army of the Potomac. I was not the commander of the Army of the Potomac, I was the general in chief. I had command of all the armies in the United States from Washington DC to Galveston, Texas. But I traveled, my headquarters was in the field with the Army of the Potomac. And after 11 months, Siege at Petersburg, Virginia, General Lee on March the 2nd broke away from there and began retreating across Virginia, westward. And on April the 9th, after seven days and 100 miles, the Army of the Potomac was able to bring Lee to bay, and he surrendered on April the 9th of 1865. So I'm the only general in American history that's had three complete armies surrender to him. And after the war, about a year after the war in 1866, Congress created the rank of General of the Army, and I became the first General of the Army with four stars. For years, I was a General of the Army and was in command of all military activities. And then in November of 1868, I was elected the President of the United States as a Republican, the second Republican after President Lincoln to be elected president. And on March the 4th, 1869, I will take the oath of office as the 18th president of the United States. Wow, thank you so much. That was such wonderful information. I learned so much from what you shared. I'm sure our audience did as well. I'd love to ask you some questions in addition to the information that you just shared. Certainly, ask me what you will. Thank you. So I know we have a lot of school children who join us for these programs. What was your experience like going to school? Did you enjoy it? I really enjoyed going to school. It was a delight to go to school. I had, as I said earlier, I was introduced to arithmetic early on at the age of five. And it always appealed to me. It came to me easily. As I said, it just made sense. And I learned also that I could draw. I had, as my school children would say, quite a hand. School was a pleasure. I never worked as hard as I should have, which I regret, but I always enjoyed school. That's great. Thank you. And I know you mentioned being an artist also. Did you have a favorite subject while you were in school? Horses. Absolutely. Horses. I love horses. Anything to do with horses. If I may tell you, when I was a tot about three years old, I was swinging on the tail of a horse in the yard at my father's tannery. Father had a business and it was always full of horses. And I loved to swing on the tails of those huge, drey animals, those big horses that would pull such heavy loads. And I was a small child and I was able to jump up and grab a horse's tail and swing back and forth. One of my mother's friends saw me doing that once and bolted into the house, calling Hannah, Hannah, my mother's name. Liz, it's my family call me Liz. Liz is out there swinging on the tail of a horse. The horse is going to kick him. He's going to kill him. And the story goes that my mother never even looked up at what she did. She was wiping it. She said, oh, he'll be all right. The horses just seem to understand Liz and he understands horses. And that was the end of the matter and I was never ever kicked or injured by a horse. Love horses, love to draw horses. One of my friends said it looked, I do such a fine horse. It looked like the horse could walk off the page. Hmm, wonderful. And if you could, would you tell us about your greatest victory in the Civil War? Questionably, my greatest victory was Vicksburg, Mississippi. And it briefly because Vicksburg is right on the Mississippi River. And in the middle of the Mississippi River from its mouth up in Minnesota, all the way down to the source and to the mouth in New Orleans, Louisiana. It divides pretty much the eastern third of the United States and the western two thirds. All of the commerce, all of the business that came out of the Midwestern states and even into New England flowed down the Mississippi to New Orleans to be shipped out to South America and to Europe. It was a the main artery for business in America, as well as travel people going south to it could then go to St. Louis and further south and go west into immigration. When the war started, we had to have control of that river. And as long as the Confederates had control of it as far north as Vicksburg, there was no commerce that I mentioned there. There was no movement. We had to have that river because if I may, the rivers were the interstate highways of my day during the war. And we went to Vicksburg. We tried seven or eight different ways to get in. I finally was able to get across the river lay siege. We pressed Vicksburg against the river. It's right on the river banks, but we pressed General Pemberton's army against the river and after a 47 day siege. Pemberton surrendered to me on the 4th of July of 1863. When Vicksburg fell, the Confederacy was split asunder. It was split in half and like an earthquake sheared it off for the Confederacy. And it was a devastating blow from which they did not recover. When they couldn't get to the supplies and food, hundreds of thousands of heads of hogs for pork, tens of thousands of head of cattle for beef, and all the leather goods made from the cattle, and thousands and thousands of potential recruits that were across the Mississippi River in what we call the Trans-Mississippi Theater War. It was a devastating blow. It did the most for the Union cause to bring the country back together of any other battle of which I participated or indeed I feel of any other battle in the war. So my greatest victory was unquestionably Vicksburg. It sounds like an incredibly consequential victory as you describe it and so many decisions I'm sure went into your involvement with it. Are there any decisions you regret that you made during the war? I have two decisions that I regret. One involves Vicksburg when we were able to get across the Mississippi River south of Vicksburg and I moved the Federal Army across the river and got on the same side as the enemy, Pemberton and the Confederates there. We were able to push them back into their lines at Vicksburg. They had already dug tremendous heavily fortified lines and fortress fortifications. And we attacked them on the 19th of May, making 63 and we were not successful. Three days later on May 22 of 1863 we tried again and I thought perhaps we could overcome them and push them back into a surrender and it was not successful. It was a very bloody assault and repulse and we did not gain any benefit anywhere near to compensate the losses of life that occurred in that second assault. I regret that and in your earlier in your opening description you referred to a photograph of me near Cold Harbor in June of 1864 and in fact that photograph was taken on I think June the fourth or fifth. I didn't want to take that picture. I had declined to have the photograph made, but my staff and the photographer pressed me and I said alright alright and I put on the coat that I was wearing in the photograph as it turned out it I think that is the most famous picture of me ever taken. And it's one I didn't want to take. But that's right after June the third when we assaulted General Lee's lines there at Cold Harbor Virginia. And I, again, I thought that we could have a massive assault of our troops had many thousands of troops attack the fortifications and entrenchments but for us that the Confederates had and it was not successful. It was repulsed and again I felt I regret having made that decision because we gain no benefit to compensate for the loss of life so the assault at Vicksburg and the assault at Cold Harbor are two decisions that I regret having made. I understand that. That sounds like they're really monumental decisions at the time. And we also have a question I know you must have encountered so many interesting and notable people during your time. Commanding the army. Did you ever meet Clara Barton during the war. Yes, but only glancing Lee I don't recall the circumstances but like everyone else I more knew who she was and what she was doing. She was a very, very important woman and what she did has resulted in some tremendous work to provide aid and help in crises, not just for the military, but for civilians as well. But our past did cross yes. Another question that we have. How did you treat General Lee at the surrender at Appomattox. I treated General Lee very well indeed. In fact, I wrote about that meeting in my memoirs. And I said as I was sitting there in the parlor of the Wilmer McLean House and Appomattox Courthouse Virginia. I want to make it clear we weren't sitting in a courthouse that's the name of the village. And it was a county court there and in Virginia and I think maybe in other places. They call the village the courthouse so after that is courthouse is the name of the village. And we met in the parlor of a local farmer Wilmer McLean. I was in the room with General Lee and I'd like to point out it's the only time that the headquarters of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia were both in the same place at the same time. But I was watching General Lee as he wrote the terms of surrender that I had given him which were very generous indeed. And I couldn't tell his emotions generally is is he's called the marble man. He shows very little to no emotion. And I couldn't tell if he was saddened because they had lost the war. Or if he was relieved because the war was over at last. I could not tell. When I got the news that morning that he wanted to surrender I was exultant I was over overwhelmed with joy it's over. But at the meeting with General Lee, I was anything but exultant as I said, I wrote about later. I was melancholy I was sad for General Lee because even though the cause for which he fought was the worst that I had I think a country ever went to war to fight. He had lost the war he had fought for cause he believed in and I was sad because of the pain he was expressing or feeling at the surrender. So, I gave him very generous terms, kind terms which President Lincoln applauded and approved of and Congress approved. Because I wanted the healing to begin right there in the parlor of the McLean House. I wanted the country to come back together, and we needed to heal the scars and the wounds. And by being generous and kind to bring the war to an end was the best way to heal those wounds and bring the country back together so I was kind to General Lee. And I was pleased to do so General President Lincoln had said to me the week before the last time I saw the president before I left to join the army to pursue Lee. President Lincoln has said let him up easy general. When you get to Lee and he surrenders, let him up easy. And that is exactly what I did. I mentioned President Lincoln. What was your relationship like with President Lincoln? Did you like him? I like President Lincoln very much indeed. I really liked him. He's a tall gangly man. He's awkward. He's so tall and rail thin. His clothes never fit him very well. He's one of those folks and he laughed and would tell me one of those folks that no matter what he wears he doesn't look good. He doesn't look like it doesn't fit. And he's got a real high voice. I've never imitated him, marked him in his presence, but he's got a real high voice and he doesn't like to make speeches. But he's a good storyteller. He's a good joke teller. He's a good, good man. And by the time I met him on March the 8th of 1864, and we were able to talk at length and private. He astonished me because he said, General, I've been trying to run the military for three years and frankly I've made a mess of it. And I think it's time to hand over the control of the armies and the direction of the armies to someone who knows what he's doing. And that's you. And in fact, and I was really astonished when he went on to say, I don't want to know what you're doing. Don't tell me what you're doing. I might blab it. And he can't, he can't keep a secret. I can't keep a secret. And I might, if I know what you're doing with the army, what your plans are, I might tell somebody, of course he gets into the Confederate newspapers too. And he said, so don't tell me what you're doing. A president of the United States told his general in chief, don't tell me what you're doing. I don't even want to know. He was deeply, deeply grieved and saddened by all the loss of life in the war. And the burden on him was incredible and I would think unbearable. He was, he was melancholy to this melancholy is a deep sadness. And the president, it was etched in his face he had a so, and he teared up several times when we were talking. He's a good man, good hearted man, extremely intelligent, great sense of humor. And we got along famously really enjoyed the two few times that I had to. I was able to spend with President Lincoln. Well, thank you. And we have a final question for you for today. What advice do you, as Ulysses S. Grant have for young people today? Read, read, and read some more. Read everything that can't outrun you. Grab those books and read them. Read about everything. Hopefully you'll read about me and the war. But read, read, read, and read. Did I say read? Read some more. Read about everything. Because if you read, you can succeed. A person who is well read, who's read everything they can, you stretch your mind out. And once you stretch out that mind, it never goes back to its original shape. Read. The one thing that I would heavily emphasize, and I believe I have, is read. That's the advice that I give to all young people and adults to read and read everything. Well, thank you. That is certainly wonderful advice. And thank you so much for your time with us today. I know I have learned so much and you shared such wonderful stories. I really appreciate your taking the time to speak with us and answer our questions. It has been a joy. Thank you. Thank you. And now let's take one last look at the Docs Teach Educational Activity related to President Lincoln's nomination of General Grant as Lieutenant General of the Union Army. Again, with this activity for today's program, that's on docsteach.org. Well, thank you all for joining us. I hope you can join next month for our Young Learners Program with American Aviator Bessie Coleman. Thanks for participating in our program today.