Named in memory of Ulysses Simpson Grant (1822–1885), eighteenth president of the United States and lieutenant general commanding the armies of the Union during the American Civil War. Grant served with distinction as a young lieutenant during the Mexican War and afterward resigned his commission to enter civilian life. Having failed at several dozen occupations, a poor, distraught Grant entered the volunteer service as a colonel at the outbreak of the Civil War. Grant captured Fort Donelson on the Tennessee River and Vicksburg on the Mississippi, and this transformed him from an obscure army commander to the best-known general in Blue. In the spring of 1864 Lincoln {see planet  (3153)} promoted him to general-in-chief; his crunching “May Campaign” through Virginia ended in Lee’s {see planet  (3155)} surrender at Appomattox Court House on 1865 Apr. 9. (M 16442) _ _.