Ulysses Grant was born on April 27, 1822. He attended a local subscription school in Georgetown, Ohio, from 1827 to 1836, boarding school in Maysville, Kentucky, from 1836 to 1837, boarding school in Ripley, Ohio, from 1838 to 1839, and the U.S. Military Academy at West Point from 1839 to 1843, where he ranked 21st in a class of 39. From 1829 to 1839 he hauled wood, cleared and plowed fields, transported passengers, and worked in his father's tannery. He farmed in 1856, worked various jobs in St. Louis from 1857 to 1860, and served as a leather store clerk at his father's store in 1860. In military service, he was commissioned brevet 2nd Lt. in the 4th U.S. Infantry in 1843, promoted to 2nd Lt. in 1845, fought in the Mexican War from 1846 to 1848, was promoted to 1st Lt. in 1847, was stationed at Sackets Harbor, N.Y. and Detroit from 1848 to 1852, was stationed along the Pacific coast from 1852 to 1854, was promoted to Captain in 1853, and resigned his commission as Captain in 1854. He re-entered the army in June 1861 as a Colonel of an Illinois Volunteer Regiment, was appointed Brigadier General in August 1861, promoted to Major General in 1862, and promoted to Lt. General in 1864 and given command of the Union Armies. A Republican, he served as U.S. Secretary of War from 1867 to 1868 and as the 18th U.S. President from 1869 to 1877. When he enrolled at West Point, the congressman who made the appointment did not know his full name, Hiram Ulysses Grant, left out Hiram, and added S as the middle initial because Simpson was his mother's maiden name.