Visited: Sept 2020
Nearby city: St. Louis, MO
"My oft expressed desire is that all citizens, white or black, native or foreign born, may be left free, in all parts of our common country, to vote, speak and act, in obedience to the law, without intimidation or ostracism on account of his views, color or nativity."
-President Ulysses S. Grant, July 28, 1872
White Haven, an 850-acre plantation, lies a few miles southwest of downtown St. Louis, Missouri. A portion of the property is now preserved and administered by the NPS as Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. The site commemorates the life and times of the important Civil War general and influential President (1869-1877). The property was originally owned by Grant's father-in-law. Grant's wife, Julia Dent, grew up in the home, and Grant and his family lived there before the war (1854-1859).
Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822 in Point Pleasant, Ohio. His birth name was Hiram Ulysses Grant, but his parents referred to him as "Ulysses" throughout his childhood. The middle initial "S" did not stand for anything, and derived from an error on his application form to West Point...and it stuck.
Young Grant received an education at a subscription school and seminary, but was not a particularly good student. Grant did not have much interest in religion either. Instead, Grant spent most of his youth riding horses, and became an incredibly skilled rider. Grant's father was a tanner, and he put his son's talent to use driving wagon loads of supplies and transporting people.
At 17 years old, Grant was accepted into the United States Military Academy at West Point. Grant did not excel at academics, but he became known as the most proficient horseman. At West Point, Grant became friends with fellow cadet Fred Dent, from St. Louis. After graduating, Grant and Fred were assigned as brevet second lieutenants at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis. Grant would spend much time at the Dent home with his friend Fred. During these visits, Grant got to know Fred's younger sister, Julia, and fell in love with her. Grant and Julia were engaged in 1844, but then, world events intervened and led to a long engagement.
Grant got his first taste of battle during the Mexican War of 1846-1848. He led a charge at the Battle of Resaca de la Palma, and his equestrian skills contributed to the American victory at the Battle of Monterrey. Grant was promoted to first lieutenant for his bravery at the battles of Molino del Rey and Chapultepec. Grant's assignments and experiences sharpened his military leadership skills. Grant became known as a good tactician on the battlefield and efficient at the logistics of supplying an army.
After the war, Grant and Julia were married on August 22, 1848. They had four children. Grant fulfilled a few more military assignments in Michigan and California, but resigned from the army in 1854 and moved his family to his father-in-law's home at White Haven in St. Louis. Grant had ventured in a number of businesses with little success, so Grant worked for his father-in-law, farming and managing the plantation. They lived in the house that Julia had grown up in. The home still stands today.
The home was painted a distinct green color by subsequent owners. At the time Grant lived there, the house was painted beige. There have been efforts to restore the color of the home to the time when Grant and his family lived there, but no action has been taken yet. It's certainly a ... unique ... color. 😁
Julia's father was an outspoken supporter of slavery. Grant was rather apathetic towards the slavery issue at the time and was apolitical in general. However, his upbringing (his parents so disapproved of their son marrying into a slave-holding family that they refused to attend the wedding) led Grant to lean towards the anti-slavery camp. In 1858, Grant acquired a slave, William Jones, from his father-in-law. Grant found that he could not bring himself to force William to work, and would often work in the field alongside William. A year later, Grant freed William via a manumission deed.
In 1860, Grant moved his family to Galena, Illinois, to work at his father's leather goods business. After about a year in Galena, Abraham Lincoln was elected president and the Civil War broke out.
Grant recommissioned in the army and was appointed as a colonel of the 21st Volunteer Infantry Regiment. In the early stages of the war, Grant saw action in the Western Theater in Missouri, Kentucky and Tennessee. Grant secured the first major victory of the war for the Union at Fort Donelson in February 1862. Grant's quick thinking and bold moves led to the capture of the confederate fort on the Tennessee River and the "unconditional and immediate" surrender of 12,000 rebel soldiers. Grant's commanding officer, Gen. Henry Halleck, was furious that Grant had acted without his authorization by capturing the fort and thought Grant was too reckless. President Lincoln, happy to have finally notched a significant and decisive victory on the battlefield, rebuffed Halleck's complaint and promoted Grant to a major general. The Northern press praised Grant in the newspapers for the victory, and playing off his initials "U.S. Grant," dubbed him "Unconditional Surrender Grant."
Grant would later acheive significant successes at the battles of Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga. When Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, Grant shared the President's beliefs concerning the ultimate aim of the war. The goal was more than simply the preservation of the Union, the goal should also be the abolition of slavery. On August 30, 1863, Grant wrote in a letter to Congressman Elihu Washburne the following:
"I never was an abolitionist, not even what could be called anti-slavery, but I try to judge fairly and honestly and it became patent in my mind early in the rebellion that the North and South could never live in peace with each other except as one nation, and that without slavery. As anxious as I am to see peace established, I would not therefore be willing to see any settlement until the question is forever settled."
On March 2, 1864, Lincoln promoted Grant to lieutenant general, giving him command of all Union armies. Grant's tenacity proved successful against Lee in Virginia during the Overland Campaign, finally leading to Lee's surrender at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. The war was over.
A few days later, April 14, 1865, Grant attended a cabinet meeting in Washington DC. Lincoln invited Grant and his wife to attend a play at Ford's Theater that night, but Grant, at Julia's urging, declined the invitation. Grant and Julia had plans to travel to Philadelphia, and Julia was anxious to begin the journey. Fatefully, Lincoln was assassinated that very night at the theater.
portraits of Ulysses and Julia Dent Grant
Grant's military rank and Congressional Medal
Grant's early military uniform and dress worn by Julia
At the 1868 Republican National Convention in Chicago, Radical Republicans rallied behind the popular war hero, and Grant was unanimously nominated for the Presidential ticket. Grant ran on a slogan of "Let Us Have Peace" and won the general election in a landslide. Grant urged the passage of the 15th Amendment, extending the vote to African-American males. The amendment was ratified in 1870. To help enforce Reconstruction and civil rights in the South, Grant and Congress created the Justice Department in 1870. This allowed Grant's attorney general, Amos T. Akerman, to prosecute members of the Ku Klux Klan for federal crimes. Formed shortly after the end of the war, the Klan used violent tactics, known as "outrages," to intimidate, harrass, and persecute African-Americans, particularly to suppress their right to vote. The new department prosecuted Klan members vigorously, gaining over 600 convictions in the first year. This aggressive prosecution greatly reduced racial violence, collapse of Klan power in 1872, and led to a record number of African-Americans voting in the South.
Grant signed legislation creating the first National Park, Yellowstone, in 1872. Grant was easily re-elected to a second term in 1872.
Grant's second term in office was less successful. The Coinage Act of 1873 ended the legal basis for bimetallism (use of both silver and gold as money) and established the gold dollar as the sole monetary standard. The gold supply did not increase as quickly as population, which led to deflation and the Panic of 1873, a deep economic depression. This led to a sweeping Democratic takeover of the U.S. House in the 1874 midterm elections. Corruption and graft was exposed in many federal agencies, particularly the notorious Whiskey Ring. Whiskey distillers had been bribing U.S. Treasury officials for years in order to evade paying taxes. Secretary of War William Belknap resigned in disgrace after it was discovered that he had been accepting bribes in exchange for appointments to lucrative trading post positions at military forts. Although Grant was personally not involved in these scandals, it was obvious that he had misjudged the character of many in his administration. Grant opted not to run for a third term in 1876. Economic strife and political scandal took its toll on Reconstruction policy as well, and many in the North tired of attempts to fully integrate the South. After the 1876 election, the last federal troops, essential to preventing political and racial violence in the South, were removed from the capitals of South Carolina, Louisiana, and Florida. Reconsturction was abandoned. This eventually led to the era of Jim Crow segregation and effective disenfranchisement of African Americans in the south.
After leaving the White House, Grant and Julia embarked on a highly-publicized world tour. They met with Queen Victoria, Pope Leo XIII, Otto von Bismarck, Emperor Meiji and many other world leaders. Grant was the first US President to visit Jerusalem and the Holy Land. Grant returned to the country with much fanfare and was met by cheering crowds at San Francisco harbor.
In 1880, Grant sought the nomination at the Republican convention in an attempt for a third term. Although the world tour had brought a resurgence to Grant's popularity, reform-minded Republicans balked at his return to the White House and Grant failed to secure the nomination.
In 1884, disaster struck for Grant's family. Grant went into debt to invest heavily in an attempt to save a business venture between his son, Buck, and Wall Street financer Ferdinand Ward. Unfortunately, Ward had been running a Ponzi scheme, and Grant was left bankrupt and essentially penniless. Grant sold all his assets (including his home in St. Louis and the White Haven farm) to William Henry Vanderbilt to pay off his debts. Grant's health started to fade at the same time, and he was diagnosed with throat cancer. Grant devoted his final days to writing his memoirs, which became an instant best-seller, in order to provide for his family once he passed. Julia lived comfortably off of the royalties of the memoirs for the rest of her life.
The NPS purchased the Grant home at White Haven in 1989, and it was designated as Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site. You can tour the home (it is mostly unfurnished, but there are a few period pieces inside) and explore the grounds. There is also a fantastic museum with a great introductory video to learn all about the life and times of Ulysses and Julia.
this outbuilding was used as a laundry and as a summer kitchen.
There is also archaeological evidence that the elder Dent used the attic of this building as slave quarters
Ice House (on the left) and Chicken House (on the right)
the grounds
Visitor's Center
museum
After battling throat cancer for a year, Grant passed away on July 23, 1885 at the age of 63. A thirty-day nationwide period of mourning was declared, and hundreds of thousands of people viewed the funeral train as it traveled from West Point to New York City. It is reported that over 1 million people attended the funeral in New York. Grant's pallbearers were Union generals William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and John A. Logan; Naval Admiral David Dixon Porter; and former Confederate generals: Joseph E. Johnston, and Simon Bolivar Buckner (who had surrendered to Grant at the Battle of Fort Donelson).
The great abolitionist Frederick Douglass eulogized Grant as follows:
"...the most illustrious warrior and statesman of modern times, the captain whose invincible sword saved the republic from dismemberment, made liberty the law of the land.
A man too broad for prejudice, too humane to despise the humblest, too great to be small at any point.
In him the negro found a protector, the Indian a friend, a vanquished foe a brother, an imperilled nation a savior.
To him, more than to any other man, the negro owes his enfranchisement ... May we not justly say that the liberty which Mr. Lincoln declared with his pen, General Grant made effectual with his sword - by his skill in leading the Union armies to final victory?"
We had a great time at Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site learning about Grant (both his failures and successes) and if you are in the St. Louis area it is definitely worth a stop of about an hour or two.
Learn more about this remarkable man, general, and President here:
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