Military
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Hiram Ulysses Grant, mistakenly listed as Ulysses Simpson Grant on United States Military Academy cadet rosters, rose from Midwestern obscurity to become the Union’s military savior and later the 18th President of the United States. A soldier by profession, he said he had never felt any fondness for war and had never advocated it except as a means of peace. His requirement for “unconditional surrender” in American Civil War battles and sieges helped define his adopted initials. After President Abraham Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general, Grant designed the comprehensive strategy that doomed the Confederacy and forced Gen. Robert E. Lee’s April 9, 1865, surrender at Appomattox, Virginia. Grant then issued generous surrender terms and worked with Lee to decide the fate of the nation not merely at that hour, but for future generations.
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