WASHINGTON — Ohio native Ulysses S. Grant is ending 2022 with a promotion.
The famed U.S. Civil War general and southwest Ohio native is earning a promotion 157 years after the deadliest war in U.S. history.
President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act on Friday authorizing $858 billion for the Pentagon. Included within this act was a provision designed to elevate the former President and Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant.
Posthumously Grant gains the title of General of the Armies of the United States.
He is only the third individual in U.S. history to hold this title. General John Pershing received this honor in 1919 for his service during World War I and George Washington was given the rank in 1976 during the bicentennial of the United States.
Grant rose to prominence as a military leader during the Civil War. His successes on the battlefield led to President Abraham Lincoln appointing him Lieutenant-General of the United States Army in 1864.
On April 9, 1865, Grant accepted the surrender of General Robert E Lee's Confederate forces at Appomattox Court House in Virginia.
Grant was elected the 18th President of the United in states in 1869 and served until 1877. He worked to implement Congressional Reconstruction.
This push to memorialize Grant was advanced by a bipartisan group including Democratic Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown and two Missouri Republicans, Sen. Roy Blunt and Rep. Amy Wagner.
In 2021, Brown and Blunt introduced the Ulysses S. Grant Bicentennial Recognition Act which, in addition to marking the 200th anniversary of Grant’s birth, requested President Biden posthumously promote Grant.
Reflecting on his legacy, Sen. Brown said, “Grant’s exemplary leadership on the battlefield could only be overshadowed by his commitment to a more just nation for all Americans during the Reconstruction Era.”
