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事迹
1843年于西点军校(陆军军官学校)毕业,并参加过美墨战争,1854年退役。内战爆发后,格兰特于伊利诺伊州加利纳协助招募并训练军队。先后担任志愿军的团长、旅长,作战于西部战场。1862年2月率军攻克南军的亨利堡及多纳尔森堡,从此名声大震,并升任少将。1862年4月在西罗之役(Battle of Shiloh)中击败并重创南军。1863年4至7月率田纳西军队迂回包抄密西西比河畔南军最重要的堡垒维克斯堡,经历了外围作战和攻坚战,最终迫使南军投降,俘获南军3.1万人。11月率部挫败进攻查塔努加的南军。
1864年起被任命为南北战争联邦军总司令,同W.T. 谢尔曼制定东西战线协同作战,分割歼敌的计划划。1864年5月率主力军在弗吉尼亚同罗伯特·李率领的南军主力决战,并命令谢尔曼进攻佐治亚,南军遭受重创。1865年4月2日攻克南部同盟“首都”里士满,南军被迫于4月9日在阿波马托克斯投降。
在整个南北战争期间格兰特的表现被视为富有政治胆识,意识到废奴和黑人武装的重要;善于整体把握战争,指挥坚决果断,无惜代价地主动采取进攻来消灭敌方的有生力量,破坏了敌方的战争潜力。他为内战北方的胜利作出了卓越的贡献。
1865年4月9日接受李将军投降,内战结束。1866年4月晋升陆军上将。1867年8月至1868年1月任陆军代理部长。1869年至1877年连任两届美国总统,他的总统任期政绩平平,更因腐败贿赂、对奴隶主的妥协而遭批评。
格兰特卸任后,于1877年5月偕妻开始环游世界,曾到埃及参观金字塔,在英国受到热烈欢迎,直到1879年12月回到美国。1878年成为第一位到达日本和中国的美国总统,会见明治天皇,并与当时中国清朝军机大臣李鸿章合照,李鸿章并且称两人是当代伟大的人。时值日本强迫琉球国王退位,设置“冲绳县”将琉球并入日本版图,中国总署大臣恭亲王委请格兰特为调人,格兰特欣然同意前往日本调解此事。日本因此提出“分岛改约案”,将宫古岛以南诸岛归还琉球国,但未获中国同意,最后不了了之。
1881年,格兰特的儿子巴克(Buck)与瓦德(Ferdinand Ward)在华尔街成立“格兰特与瓦德”公司,他被儿子说服参与投资,但因瓦德诈欺,“格兰特与瓦德”公司于1884年倒闭,导致格兰特的生活陷入贫困。
小知识
* 在电影飙风战警中的美国总统即是格兰特
著作
《U.S. 格兰特的个人回忆录》
The son of an Appalachian Ohio tanner, Grant entered the United States Military Academy at age 17. In 1846, three years after graduating, Grant served as a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War under Winfield Scott and future president Zachary Taylor. After the Mexican-American War concluded in 1848, Grant remained in the Army, but abruptly resigned in 1854. Struggling through the coming years as a real estate agent, a laborer, and a county engineer, Grant decided to join the Northern effort in the Civil War.
Appointed brigadier general of volunteers in 1861 by President Abraham Lincoln, Grant claimed the first major Union victories of the war in 1862, capturing Forts Henry and Donelson in Tennessee. He was surprised by a Confederate attack at the Battle of Shiloh, and although he emerged victorious, the severe casualties prompted a public outcry that could have resulted in driving him from the army. Subsequently, however, Grant's 1863 victory at Vicksburg, following a long campaign with many initial setbacks, and his rescue of the besieged Union army at Chattanooga, established his reputation as Lincoln's most aggressive and successful general. Named lieutenant general and general-in-chief of the Army in 1864, Grant implemented a coordinated strategy of simultaneous attacks aimed at destroying the South's armies and its economy's ability to sustain its forces. In 1865, after mounting a successful war of attrition against his Confederate opponents, he accepted the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Court House.
Popular due to the Union victory in the Civil War, Grant was elected President of the United States as a Republican in 1868 and was re-elected in 1872, the first President to serve for two full terms since Andrew Jackson 40 years before. As President, Grant led Reconstruction and built a powerful patronage-based Republican Party in the South, straining relations between the North and former Confederates. His administration was marred by scandal, sometimes the product of nepotism; the neologism Grantism was coined to describe political corruption.
Grant left office in 1877 and embarked upon a two-year world tour. Unsuccessful in winning the nomination for a third term in 1880, left destitute by bad investments, and near the brink of death, Grant wrote his Memoirs, which were enormously successful among veterans, the public, and critics. However, in 1884, Grant learned that he was suffering from terminal throat cancer and, two days after completing his writing, he died at the age of 63. Presidential historians typically rank Grant in the lowest quartile of U.S. presidents for his tolerance of corruption, but in recent years his reputation has improved among some scholars impressed by his support for civil rights for African Americans.
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