Times History Channel's Grant Lied To You

History's three-part miniseries Grant details the life of 18th president and celebrated Union general Ulysses S. Grant. The reenactments in the show are stirring, but there's some material that the series leaves out, distorts, or just plain gets wrong. Here are the times Grant lied to you.

One of the earliest scenes in Grant attempts to explain Ulysses S. Grant's mysterious middle initial. The show portrays the moment Grant arrived to his first day as a student at West Point in 1839, only to discover that he had been enrolled under the name "Ulysses S. Grant" — an error, as his real middle initial is "H." A stubborn official informs Grant that he must go by his registered name, and he nervously agrees.

This story is mostly true but leaves out the more complicated details of Grant's name. Grant was born Hiram Ulysses Grant, but he went by "Ulysses" from a young age. Then, when his father got their representative to nominate him for acceptance at West Point, the representative mistakenly registered him as "Ulysses S. Grant."

But the "S" didn't come out of nowhere. According to the New York Historical Society, the "S" actually originated from the maiden name of Grant's mother, Hannah Simpson Grant; the representative who registered Grant had thought that "Simpson" was part of his name, too.

When asked about the initial later in life, Grant would claim it stood for nothing. (No offense, mom.)

The young Grant ultimately embraced the name. His new moniker "U.S. Grant" spawned a number of nicknames, as the show Grant explains. These included "United States" Grant, "Unconditional Surrender" Grant, and "Uncle Sam" Grant — the latter of which was shortened to Grant's most famous nickname, Sam.

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A famed name's origins | 0:00
Grants friend at West Point | 1:26
Sober resignation | 2:36
Grant and Lincoln | 3:49
Shocking anti-semitism | 4:50
The Union army before Grant | 6:09
Death and warfare | 7:14
Lee's surrender | 8:27
End of the war | 9:42

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