- Grant was one of three presidents to graduate from a military academy: West Point.
- He finished his memoirs only a few weeks before his death from cancer. The book brought in $500,000 for his family after his death.
- While president, Ulysses S. Grant was arrested for driving his
horse too fast. He was fined $20.
- His real name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. He changed it because he didn't want to enter West Point with the initials H.U.G.
- Grant was a fourth cousin once removed of Franklin D. Roosevelt, a sixth cousin once removed of Grover Cleveland, and a first cousin three times removed to Judy Garland.
- Grant ate a cucumber soaked in vinegar for breakfast each day.
- Grant was the first president to have both parents alive when he took office.
Witness to some of the bloodiest battles in history, Grant could not stomach the sight of
animal blood -- rare steak nauseated him.
Grant used around seven to ten cigars a day. Of this 7-10, he often did not smoke them at all. A reporter wrotethat Grant
liked cigars, and people started to send him cigars. He received over 20,000.
Ten years after he was president, Grant was stricken with throat cancer. He regularly swabbed his throat with cocaine, becoming addicted to it.
Grant once said that he knew only two songs, "One was Yankee Doodle, and the other
wasn't."
Grant was the second man in American history to be a Lieutenant General.
Ulysses S. Grant had the boyhood nickname 'Useless'.
- His original name was Hiram Ulysses Grant. He was named Hiram after his grandfather, and Ulysses after the hero in Greek mythology.
