Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885)

Ulysses S. Grant, Civil War leader and 18th president of the United 
States, was born on April 27, 1822.

The son of a tanner, Grant showed little enthusiasm for joining his 
father’s business, so the elder Grant enrolled his son at West Point
in 1839. Though Grant later admitted in his memoirs the he had no interest in the military apart from honing his equestrian skills, he
graduated in 1843 and went on to serve in the Mexican-American
War, though he opposed it on moral grounds. He then left his 
beloved wife and children again to fulfill a tour of duty in California
and Oregon.