"General Grant is emphatically a man, not of words, but of deeds. His eloquence is the eloquence of action. He will be renowned, through all future time, for the achievements which he has performed-achievements which, every impartial student of history will declare, give him position among the ablest men the world has known." -John S.C. Abbott, Preface, 1868 American historian John S.C. Abbott wrote The Life of General Ulysses S. Grant-Containing a Brief but Faithful Narrative of those Military and Diplomatic Achievements Which Have Entitled Him to the Confidence and Gratitude of his Countrymen (1868) as part of his American Pioneers and Patriots series. Ulysses S. Grant, (1822-1885) was an US general, commander of the Union armies during the American Civil War, and the 18th president of the United States (1869-1877).