‘Grant’ on History Channel: Ulysses S Grant and Julia Dent's real love story on Leonardo DiCaprio's docuseries
Spoilers for ‘Grant’ Episode 1 ‘Unlikely Hero’
Who was Ulysses S Grant? An exceptional soldier who served as the 18th president of the United States, his battles at the border are as interesting as the battles he fought in his personal life. Peeping into his fascinating life and narrating the chronicles of his bravery, is History Channel's three-part miniseries 'Grant' which will reveal lesser-known facts.
A lot has been spoken about how he served as a soldier and politician but not much is known about his relationship with his wife, Julia Grant. Here's how true 'Grant' stands to the real story. Born in Ohio to a merchant father in 1822, he was named Hiram Ulysses Grant at birth. A year later, the family moved to Georgetown, where Grant's five other siblings were born: Simpson, Clara, Orvil, Jennie and Mary.
In the winter of 1836–1837, Grant studied at Maysville Seminary and in the autumn of 1838, he attended John Rankin's academy. Since a very young age, Grant could tame horses and had an exceptional ability to make them drive wagons with supplies and carry people. But behind the legacy of the unlikely hero who led the nation during its greatest tests: the Civil War and Reconstruction, there was a simple meek man who overcame incredible obstacles.
Hailing from a family of abolitionists, Grant was never destined to move mountains in his career, but he walked on a startling path since the very beginning. At 21, he moved to Missouri to the Army’s 4th Infantry Regiment at Jefferson Barracks, where he found work as a quartermaster. It was the same year when Grant fell in love. Grant locked eyes with Julia Dent at her White Haven home and soon realized she was the woman he wanted to marry. He was a promising officer from the military academy while Julia was a simple, cross-eyed woman with little formal education. However, her warmth, affection and kindness touched his heart. They spent long afternoons, riding horses and reading poetry to each other and their courtship was one of the most beautiful times in Grant's life.
In 1844, he asked the Dent family for her hand. There were tensions between the US and Mexico and before he headed south, he gave his West Point ring to Julia. A secret engagement ceremony was held as Julia’s father did not approve of his daughter marrying a military man. When Grant left for the war, Julia gave him a lock of her hair. The first year was difficult. Grant and Julia were separated from each other and melancholia affected his initial years at the war zone. According to a few snippets from Smithsonian Magazine, he was a tender and sensitive young man who wrote letters to his wife. “My Dear Julia,” he wrote. “You can have but little idea of the influence you have over me Julia, even while so far away…and thus it is absent or present I am more or less governed by what I think is your will.” Sending dried petals of flowers in another letter, he wrote, “Before I seal this I will pick a wildflower off of the Bank of the Rio Grande and send you.”
From Matamoras, he wrote, “You say in your letter I must not grow tired of hearing you say how much you love me! Indeed dear Julia nothing you can say sounds sweeter…. When I lay down I think of Julia until I fall asleep hoping that before I wake I may see her in my dreams.” He also spoke about how burdensome the battles had become: “I have the Blues all the time.”
Separated for four years, Grant was insecure and in one letter, he wrote, “I believe you are carrying on a flirtation with someone, as you threaten of doing.” In 1848, Grant’s regiment returned to the States, and by then, Julia's father Frederick Dent as a changed man after poverty hit his family. He let his daughter get married to Grant in St. Louis. At a time when slavery hit the nation, Grant married into a slave-holding family. And perhaps, that is the precise reason why not a single person from the Grant family attended the wedding, as revealed by historians in the docuseries.
Grant was back in the Army and Julia gave birth to Frederick Dent Grant in 1850 and Ulysses Simpson Grant in 1852. Incredibly sad to be far from his family, Grant resigned from the Army in 1854 and moved with his family to a small farm called Hardscrabble in St. Louis. To make do in those difficult times, he bounced from job to job, at one point selling firewood on the streets to buy food for his family.
At one point, he could barely put food on his family's table. Despite that, he appeared in court in 1859 and emancipated a slave he had purchased from Julia's brother Fred instead of selling him. Right around then, Grant suffered a bout of malaria and couldn't return to the farm. The Grants had to move in with Julia’s parents in White Haven. Once there, he even started collecting rents for a real estate firm in St. Louis, but even that failed.
In 1860, Grant got a job in the family leather business, earned $600 a year and moved his family to Illinois. At 38, he was settled with his family when Southerners fired on Fort Sumter in April 1861 and that changed his life forever. Taking command of 15,000 Illinois troops, he led the battle at Fort Donelson, Tennessee. Not long after, he commanded millions of men, reunited the nation after the Civil War and brought freedom to four million slaves.
Grant once said, "The friend in my adversity I shall always cherish most. I can better trust those who helped to relieve the gloom of my dark hours than those who are so ready to enjoy with me the sunshine of my prosperity." The miniseries will premiere on Memorial Day and air over three consecutive nights beginning Monday, May 25 at 9 pm ET on History Channel.