Ulysses S. Grant was a successful military general and the eighteenth President of the United States. A graduate of the prestigious West Point military academy, Grant served in both the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) and the American Civil War (1861-1865), in which he was appointed commander of the Union Army. Grant's successful military campaign against the Confederate States, executed by Union Generals William Tecumseh Sherman, Philip Sheridan, and George Thomas, culminated in his acceptance of General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox courthouse on April 9, 1865.

First elected President in 1869, Grant's two presidential terms focused on reconstruction, further stabilizing the nation socially, politically, and economically following the end of the Civil War. His government successfully passed the Fifteenth Amendment, protecting voting rights for Africa-American citizens, pursued an Indian peace policy and created the Board of Indian Commissioners, and shut down the Whiskey Ring, recovering over $3 million in embezzled federal taxes. Grant died of cancer in 1885 and is interred at New York's Riverside Park in Grant's Tomb.