Ulysses S. Grant Die Proof Engraving, die sunk on card BEP

Ulysses S. Grant BEP proof. Grant was serving in his first term as the eighteenth president of the United States when this portrait engraving was produced by the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The engraving measures 4″ x 5″ and is pressed onto a larger presentation sheet to an overall size of 6″ x 7.75″. BEP control number 9824 in blue on reverse. Toned margins,  foxing, water stain left side.

Ulysses S. Grant was born April 27, 1822, the son of a tanner in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He attended West Point, and served in the Mexican War under the command of Zachary Taylor long before the military events that would bring him fame in the Civil War and pave the way for his election to the Presidency of the United States in 1868 and 1872. During the Civil War, he led Union soldiers in battle at such famous engagements as Shiloh and Vicksburg, earning the respect of Lincoln as a strong fighter and eventually earning the rank of General-in-Chief, appointed as such by Lincoln in March 1864. Perhaps his most famous accomplishment of the war was the leadership of the Army of the Potomac in the defeat of General Robert E. Lee at the command of his Army of Northern Virginia. This resulted in Lee’s famous surrender at Appomattox Court House, Virginia on April 9, 1865. This action, in concert with General Sherman’s brutal advance through the South brought the Civil War to a decisive end.