As a military commander who rose to the position of general in chief of the armies of the United States during the American Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant helped preserve the Union and destroy slavery. In the last twenty years of his life he did what he could to define what victory meant, most notably as president of the United States from 1869 to 1877. Born in 1822 in southwestern Ohio, Grant was a shy boy who seemed most comfortable around horses. In 1839 he entered the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, graduating four years later in the middle of his class. The army, overlooking his skill with horses, commissioned him as a brevet second lieutenant of infantry. During the Mexican-American War (1846–1848) he distinguished himself several times on the field of battle; however, Grant found life in the peacetime army rather trying, especially when it meant he had to leave his family behind, so in 1854 he resigned his commission as captain. For the next seven years he struggled in civilian life in a variety of jobs; by 1861 he could be found working the desk of his father’s general store in Galena, Illinois.