What was Ulysses S. Grants first victory?

Answer 1

He Fought In:

Mexican-American War

• Battle of Rescaca de la Palma

• Battle of Palo Alto

• Battle of Monterrey

• Battle of Veracruz

• Battle of Molino de Rey

• Battle of Chapultepec

American Civil War

• Battle of Fort Donelson

• Battle of Shiloh

• Siege of Vicksburg

• Battle of Chattanooga

• Overland Campaign

• Siege of Petersburg

• Appomattox Campaign

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Answer 2

Some would count a small, confused affair at Belmont, Missouri as Grant's first success. He recounted these events in his memoirs. Belmont was on the west side of the Mississippi River, across from Memphis and Cairo, Illinois. The Confederates were building an earthwork fort there to try to close the River to Yankee ships. Grant landed his brigade from several small ships and dispersed the Rebels in the area, with little fighting.

Grant's first real success was at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. These forts were at the Tennessee-Kentucky border, Henry on the Tennessee River and Donelson on the Cumberland River. The Rivers and the Forts were only about ten miles apart. These forts were built in about the worst possible places. Kentucky had proclaimed it was "neutral", so the fort-builders did not go into Kentucky to build their forts atop high ground overlooking and dominating the Rivers. They settled for building the forts right at the border, on low, swampy ground, where they were knee-deep in water when the Rivers were high. Both the Rivers flowed south to north to the Ohio. In February 1862 Grant sailed up the Tennessee River from the Ohio, straight to the actual gate of Fort Henry, on Union gunboats, and forced it to surrender. Some of the Rebels escaped overland to Fort Donelson. Grant had to reload his men on the boats, sail down the Tennessee to the Ohio, up the Ohio to the mouth of the Cumberland at Paducah, then up the Cumberland to Fort Henry. The Rebel commanders, Floyd, a former Virginia governor, and Pillow, a former law partner of ex-president Polk, were military idiots. When Grant appeared, they lost their nerve and escaped, turning over the command to Simon Bolivar Buckner. Buckner and Grant had been friends in the old army. It was Buckner who had loaned Grant $500 so Grant could get home, after Grant was forced to resign from the army because of his drinking, when both were stationed in California about 1850. Grant never repaid Buckner his loan. Buckner may have hoped to get decent terms for his surrender to Grant, but Grant sent word that only "unconditional surrender" was acceptable. The Union was looking for a hero to inspire the people and this success was reported in the papers all over the north. Since "unconditional surrender" coincides with Grant's initials, U. S., he became "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. The loss of these two poorly placed and worse-commanded forts forced the Rebels to give up Memphis, Nashville, and the western two-thirds of Tennessee, without fighting, and which they were never able to recover from the Yankees. The loss of Nashville, with its industry, particularly its iron works, was a serious blow to the Rebel cause.

Buckner's son, Simon Bolivar Buckner, Jr., was one of the two highest-ranking American Army officers killed in WWII, when he was killed during the Okinawa Campaign while commanding the US 10th Army.

Some cynics would say Grant's first victory was over the bottle, as he was apparently able to leave the whiskey alone for most of the war.

Answer 3

Grant led union victories in Vicksburg, Mississippi, Chattanooga, and Tennessee.

Answer 4

the battle of Vicksburg made Grant to control the Mississippi river