U.S. Grant served two terms as President

It is the birthday of Ulysses S. Grant 1822), who is remembered for leading the Union Army to victory, serving as President of the United States for two terms, fighting the Ku Klux Klan, and defending voting rights of blacks in the South. However, his second term with plagued with widespread corruption in his administration, and Southern Democrats gained control of the U.S. House and most Southern state governments. His Reconstruction policies had been dismantled by the time he left office. Grant’s portrait has appeared on the fifty-dollar bill since 1913. The Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library is located at Mississippi State University.

Happy birthday, Col. John Mosby

It is the birthday of colorful Civil War figure John Singleton Mosby (1833), who commanded a Confederate unit in Virginia known as Mosby's Rangers, which gained a reputation for its lightning-fast raids and its ability to elude Union troops and disappear into the countryside among farmers and ranchers. Mosby became known as The Gray Ghost. After the war, Mosby worked in the presidential campaign of Ulysses S. Grant and served as U.S. consul to Hong Kong. In For Whom the Bell Tolls, Ernest Hemingway called Mosby the best cavalry officer of the Civil War. Does anybody remember the TV show based on Mosby's exploits?