Ulysses S. Grant's Field Glasses

Physical Description

These field glasses belonged to General Ulysses S. Grant, and were probably used during the Civil War. The objective lenses are 55mm diameter and give a good image. The length is 160 mm (closed). The cloth covered barrels are flared slightly at the eye end; the outer 55 mm are cylindrical.

General History

Ulysses S. Grant, a West Point graduate who fought with distinction in the War with Mexico, found postwar life in the West unbearable and resigned from the army in 1854. When the Civil War began, he offered his services and soon took command of a volunteer regiment. In September 1861 he was appointed Brigadier General of Volunteers by President Abraham Lincoln. In February 1862 Grant took Fort Henry and attacked Fort Donelson. When the Confederate commander asked for terms, Grant replied, "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." The Confederates surrendered, and President Lincoln promoted Grant to Major General of Volunteers. Grant fought one of the bloodiest battles in the West at Shiloh, but it was not the decisive victory that the Union wanted. President Lincoln believed in Grant and refused to remove him from command, saying "I can't spare this man–he fights." His next major objective would cut the Confederacy in two. Grant maneuvered and fought skillfully, winning Vicksburg, the key city on the Mississippi, and breaking the Confederate hold on Chattanooga. Lincoln appointed him general in chief in March 1864. Grant directed Sherman to drive through the South while he himself, with the Army of the Potomac, pinned down Gen. Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia. On April 9, 1865, at Appomattox Court House, Lee surrendered. Grant wrote out magnanimous terms of surrender that would prevent treason trials.