- CountryUS
- Town:IL Chicago
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Year of creation:1890
- Rider(s):Grant, Ulysses S.
(1822–1885) is the big hero of the Civil War. As a general, he fought a series of battles and was promoted to the rank of major general after forcing the surrender of a large Confederate army. After a number of successful battles, during which Grant earned a reputation as an aggressive commander, Lincoln made him commander of all of the Union Armies in 1863. As general-in-chief, Grant confronted Lee in a series of very high casualty battles in 1864 that ended by bottling up Lee at Petersburg, outside the Confederate capital of Richmond captured by the Union Army in April 1865. Lee surrendered his depleted forces to Grant. As the eighteenth President of the US (1869–1877), Grant led the Radical Republicans in their effort to eliminate all vestiges of Confederate nationalism and slavery; he effectively destroyed the Ku Klux Klan in 1871.
- Sculptor(s):Rebisso, Louis T.
(1837 – 1899) Italian born American sculptor and teacher. After immigrating to the United States Rebisso settled in Cincinnati, Ohio where he spent the most productive years of his career
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The oldest Grant equestrian statue, in Chicago, Illinois, was the result of a spontaneous reaction by the population. Within days of Grant’s death in 1885, tens of thousands of people began donating dimes, quarters and dollars to commission a monument in his honour. When the statue was dedicated in 1891, more than 200,000 people attended the Lincoln Park ceremonies. Participants included Grant’s widow and relatives, members of his regiment, cabinet members from his presidency, as well as several governors and senators. Not everyone thought the sculpture by Italian immigrant Louis T. Rebisso resembled the Northern general, but Grant’s own son thought that it was accurate. Grant is shown on the horse he rode into battle—named “Cincinnati”—a Kentucky thoroughbred.
