Ulysses S. Grant Historic Site

Ulysses S. Grant Historic Site
7400 Grant Road
St. Louis, MO 63123
Directions: North of Gravois Road (Highway 30) between I-270 and Laclede Station Road (Next to Grant's Farm)
Admission: Free but tickets are required for visiting the home and can be obtained at the Visitor's Center
http://www.nps.gov/ulsg/

The Man

Ulysses S. Grant was actually born Hiram Ulysses Grant in 1822 near Point Pleasant, Ohio. In 1839 Grant applied to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The U.S. Congressman who applied for Grant mistakenly listed his name as Ulysses Simpson Grant because his family often called him by his middle name, or Lyss for short (Simpson was Ulysses' mothers maiden name). Grant decided to keep the name. After his graduation in 1843, U.S. Grant was assigned to the infantry and eventually served at Jefferson Barracks south of St. Louis. While serving at Jefferson Barrack, Grant met his future wife, Julia Dent, who was the sister of a West Point classmate. Her family owned a plantation, White Haven, which eventually would become the Grant's home.

White Haven
Ulysses and Julia were married in 1848, 4 years after being engaged, once Grant's service in the Mexican War had concluded. They were a very loving and devoted couple during their 37 years of marriage. Julia was remembered to say Ulysses was "the nicest and handsomest man I ever saw." For six years the couple was stationed in a variety of locations as Ulysses continued to serve in the infantry. In 1852 Grant was sent to the west coast but pregnant Julia moved back to her parents plantation. Captain Grant returned to his family at White Haven in 1854 after resigning from the Army. Grant built a home for his young family in 1855 named Hardscrabble near the White Haven plantation but the family moved out very quickly. Julia would later recall that the home was, "so crude and homely I did not like it at all, but I did not say so. I got out all my pretty covers, baskets, books, etc., and tried to make it look home-like and comfortable, but this was hard to do." (Today, Hardscrabble can be visited at Anheuser-Busch's Grant's Farm completely reassembled after being moved a number of times from its original site.)

In 1860, after many business and financial struggles, the now family of six, moved to Galena, Illinois to work in Ulysses' father's leather shop. At the onset of the Civil War, U.S. Grant would enlist in the Union Army eventually serving as the Union commanding general at the Confederate's surrender in 1865. Later, Grant would serve two terms as president from 1869-1877.



Much of Ulysses S. Grant's public history is written extensively about but this post is about Grant's home on a plantation in rural St. Louis, Missouri. The Grant's would not spend much time at White Haven between 1860 and Ulysses' death in 1885 but always considered it their family home. The Grant's would build a stable to raise thoroughbred horses that exists today as a museum (the red barn in the upper-most picture.) The home itself provides visitor's a glimpse into life 150 years ago on the American frontier. Typical outbuildings of a plantation still remain including a summer kitchen, ice house, and chicken house all shown in the picture to the left.

As a whole, the Ulysses S. Grant Historic site is a great place to learn about the man, his family, his home, and in general, midwestern plantation life during the mid 19th century.

Soldiers Memorial Military Museum

Soldiers Memorial Military Museum
1315 Chestnut
St. Louis, MO 63103
Directions: One block north of Market Street between 13th and 14th Streets
Admission: Free
http://www.stlsoldiersmemorial.org/


A familiar site for many downtown St. Louis visitors, The Soldiers Memorial stands as a reminder of St. Louis' sacrifice in war. The Memorial was built to honor the "gallant sons and daughters of Missouri and of our City, who made The Supreme Sacrifice in the late World War (1)". President Franklin Delano Roosevelt traveled to St. Louis to dedicate the site on October 14, 1936. Appropriately, the memorial and museum officially opened to the public less than two years later on Memorial Day, May 30 1938. The museum has two galleries on either side of an open air loggia. Inside the loggia is a black granite cenotaph inscribed with the names of 1,075 St. Louis citizens who died serving in World War 1. The ceiling of the loggia is a tile mosaic of a gold star on a red field symbolizing the service flag for family members who have lost family members in conflict.

Inside the two galleries are various military items including uniforms, photographs, weaponry, posters and even a jeep from World War II. I personally enjoyed a display case containing World War II weapons, mostly rifles, from Japan, Germany, America and England. The museum is not merely a World War exhibit space. Artifacts from Korea, Vietnam and both Desert conflicts are also on display as well.


All-in-all, the museum does a great job of showcasing how American men and women, particularly St. Louis natives, have served their country for the last 90 plus years. I believe another website I found on the Memorial stated it best: "The Soldiers Memorial Military Museum is there to remind us of the sacrifices made by the men and women who wear the uniforms and put themselves on-the-line for their countrymen ."