Never before, and perhaps never since, has a first lady enjoyed the White House years as thoroughly as Julia Grant. She called her time in Washington as “quite the happiest period of my life” – a life that was full of nomadic living and hardships but all tempered by Julia’s zest for living and positive outlook. Her charming personality not only won over the dour Washington society dames but also was just what her serious, reserved husband needed to win wars both on the battlefield and in the political realm.
Each month, I’ll detail the life of the first lady and their legacy. Then I’ll share what I learned while studying them, along with ways you can travel in their footsteps through historical sites and museums. I’ll also share books, podcasts, TV shows, and websites where you can learn even more about that first lady. Read all of the way through the blog post or click on the links below to go straight to those sections.
Life
Childhood
Julia Boggs Dent was born on January 26, 1826 in St. Louis, Missouri, making her the first future first lady to be born west of the Mississippi River! Her father, Frederick Dent, was a prosperous merchant-turned-farmer who owned a large plantation just outside of town. Her mother, Ellen, was from Pittsburgh where her father was a Methodist minister. Julia was the first girl born after four sons and was doted on by both parents, particularly since she had an eye issue (strabismus) that made her eyes cross. For the rest of her life, Julia wouldn’t be photographed looking at the camera due to this defect.
The Dents’ plantation, White Haven, became their permanent residence, and Julia grew up there in what she describes as an idyllic childhood spent riding horses and playing in nature. With her father’s enslaved workers taking care of the hard chores, Julia and her siblings were allowed to run free on the property with little discipline. Even in school, first in the local school and then at boarding school in St. Louis, Julia was allowed to study (or not) what she pleased. She was her father’s pampered favorite, but it doesn’t seem to have affected her disposition. She was no simpering, spoiled Scarlett O’Hara; instead she was kind and a bit shy but a lively conversationalist with a positive personality.
Courtship and Marriage
It was these attributes that instantly attracted a young US Army lieutenant, Ulysses S. Grant, when he visited the family of his West Point roommate, Julia’s big brother Fred, while stationed in St. Louis. Grant had been visiting the family for weeks, earning the devotion of Julia’s younger sisters, but once 18-year-old Julia returned from her society debut in St. Louis in February of 1844, Grant had eyes for no one else.
Julia enjoyed spending time with “her lieutenant” as they went for rides and talked during his multiple weekly visits. She brought out the talkative and romantic side in stoic Grant, while he was entranced by her; he even made a little coffin for her dead pet bird and forced some soldiers to come to its funeral. He adored Julia’s spunk and upbeat personality and soon asked her to marry him but she feared she was too young.
After a dream that foretold their engagement, Julia secretly agreed to marry him, but her father didn’t approve of Grant’s line of work, thinking life as a military wife would be too hard for Julia. He offered Nellie, Julia’s younger sister, instead, but Grant stood firm on his desire to wed Julia. In 1845, her father agreed to allow them to correspond during Grant’s upcoming deployment to Louisiana. With the outbreak of the Mexican-American War, however, it would be over three years until Julia saw Grant again.
During his years away, he wrote sweet, tender letters to Julia and worried about her lack of letter writing. His letters are full of longing and plaintive complaints when asking Julia to please write to him. With her letters not surviving, one can only assume that she was too busy with the parties and balls of home life to be a faithful correspondent. One biographer also believed that with her eye issues, it was more difficult for her to write him back with the frequency he desired. Grant was in love and lonely, worried her family wouldn’t let her marry him, but his heroic exploits in Mexico, which included saving her brother’s life, endeared him to the family.
Upon his return, they were married on August 22, 1848 at the Dent home in St. Louis. She wore a gown of watered silk and a veil of white tulle with white cape jessamines. Two of his best friends served as groomsmen (and would one day surrender to him at Appomattox). Grant’s family didn’t attend as they disapproved of his union with a slave-holding family.
The day after the wedding, Julia and Ulysses (or Ulys as she called him) took a boat to Ohio to spend three months with his family. They thought Julia spoiled while she thought they were too austere. Before heading to Grant’s military post in Detroit, they visited her family again, and her father offered to let her stay. Ulysses left the decision up to Julia, but she declined, staying by her husband’s side on an adventurous journey to Detroit and then Sackets Harbor, New York.
They spent their first year as a married couple on Army bases in these two spots, giving Julia time to learn the art of housekeeping without using enslaved labor. She had some success but also many cooking disasters which made them laugh. They didn’t have much money but they were very happy.
By 1850, Julia was pregnant with their first child and went back to St. Louis to have the baby at White Haven. Frederick Grant was born on May 30, 1850, and Ulysses’ letters from the time are full of questions and anecdotes about him. He insisted they come to Detroit so he could be with his wife and child, and Julia thrived among the other military wives, shopping and hosting balls (one where she even dressed as a tambourine girl which led Grant to call her his Tambourina).
By the summer of 1851, however, Grant was given new orders to go to Northern California, which was a dangerous and arduous journey through the Panama region. He insisted a pregnant Julia go to his parents’ home in Ohio where she gave birth to Ulysses Jr. “Buck” on July 22, 1851. Thank goodness Julia didn’t accompany him on the trip as his ship encountered much sickness and troubles.
He spent the next two years in California where he was depressed and lonely. Julia wasn’t good at writing letters (again) so he despaired for news of his little family. He didn’t even know about Buck’s birth until six months later! While he was drinking to cope with his dark thoughts, Julia was living in St. Louis with her family and enjoying her children and the social scene.
After some bad financial investments and a reprimand from his superior officer for his drunkenness, Grant resigned (or was made to resign) from his Army commission and headed home. His own children didn’t know the grizzled, dirty stranger who showed up on the doorstep, but Julia was glad to have her Ulys back.
They soon had another baby, Ellen (Nellie), on July 4, 1855, and Grant farmed land given by his father-in-law. He even built a cabin for Julia, much to her chagrin, and named it Hardscrabble. By 1857, however, her mother died and her father asked Ulysses and Julia to move back into the main house with him. He gave Ulysses control of the property and for the next two years, they lived there with their fourth and final child, Jesse, being born there on February 6, 1858.
They moved into St. Louis for Grant to pursue business with a friend and to get involved in politics, but both endeavors ended up being unsuccessful. Julia encouraged Grant to go to his father’s home in Illinois to work as a clerk, and she and the children followed him to Galena.
Civil War years
The Grants were in Galena when the Civil War broke out in April 1861. Ulysses was happy to leave his boring clerk’s job to rejoin the army where he was quickly promoted to colonel of the 21st Illinois regiment. Julia stayed in Galena, sending 11-year-old Fred with his father to battle. Grant wrote to her almost daily and made the mail service one of his top priorities throughout the war years.
He soon asked her to visit him at his headquarters in Cairo, Illinois and she complied, beginning her Civil War road warrior years. She lived with him in the field more than any other of Lincoln’s generals’ wives, covering more than 10,000 miles in four years (4,000 in the first year alone!). The Confederate military also followed her travels with interest knowing if she was there, Grant would make that place his headquarters for a while.
While in Cairo, Julia loved the military reviews and was such a revered person on the base that the soldiers named a cannon after her – the Lady Julia. When Grant was busy with the actual battles, he sent her and the children back home either to Covington, Kentucky with his parents or St. Louis with hers. When she was with him, she kept his spirits up – and kept him away from the bottle. While the rumors of his drunkenness have been greatly exaggerated over the years, it was true that having Julia there helped his depression.
Throughout 1862 and 1863, Julia was with Grant’s camp right before and after pivotal battles like Shiloh and Vicksburg. She lived in Memphis, Corinth, and Nashville, Tennessee and also Holly Springs, Mississippi where she resided in a Confederate’s home and spent an evening listening to their rebel songs! She went to visit Grant, and while she was there, the Confederate army came through the town and burned her carriage. The Confederate woman protected Julia’s baggage from the raid.
While she traveled, she always had her maid with her, Jule, who was an enslaved woman given to her by her father. Julia didn’t seem to see the irony in bringing a slave to a Union army camp that was fighting to free her! With Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, Jule became free, and there is evidence she was paid afterwards by Julia. When Julia received word that Fred was deathly ill back in St. Louis, she rushed to his side, but Jule, knowing that she would be considered a slave again in Missouri, escaped near Louisville.
As Grant got more famous, she looked into getting her eyes fixed. However, Grant said, “Did I not see you and fall in love with you with these same eyes? I like them just as they are, and now remember, you are not to interfere with them.” She didn’t think about it anymore!
After Vicksburg, Grant was summoned to Washington where he was made the first three star general since George Washington. Julia went with him and attended a party at the White House where Mary Lincoln asked Julia to stand with her in the receiving line. Julia demurred because of shyness and that may have offended Mary. That decision would come back to haunt her.
While Grant took over the eastern theater of the war, Julia put the four children in school in Philadelphia and spent time in a cottage on the ocean in Long Branch, New Jersey where Mary Lincoln had also visited. She then took a boat to Grant’s camp in City Point, Virginia, near Petersburg where the Union began a 9-month long siege. She stayed at City Point for most of late 1864 and early 1865. She encouraged Grant to invite the Lincolns to City Point, but soon regretted it with Mary Lincoln’s difficult personality on full display. Julia sat beside her on the sofa which was intolerable to Mary and also was with Mary in the carriage as they were bumped and jostled around to get to a military review. Julia tried soothing the first lady to no avail and eventually gave up. On the last night of their visit, Mary snubbed Julia by not inviting her to dinner.
When the final battle started for Richmond, Julia was on Grant’s dispatch ship in the James River, and she visited Richmond after it fell, walking through the streets strewn with the abandoned papers of the Confederate government.
She went back to Washington with Grant and narrowly escaped being at Ford’s Theatre on the fateful night of Lincoln’s assassination. The Grants were supposed to go with the Lincolns but when Julia received the invitation from a slovenly messenger, she had a bad feeling. She saw the messenger at lunch with three other men, including one dark-haired man, who seemed to have an unusual interest in her. Then they saw the same man while their carriage took them to the train to New Jersey to see their children. On the trip, they received word of Lincoln’s assassination, and Grant went back to Washington. Julia received a letter the next day that said someone had tried to get into their car on the train to kill Grant but thankfully it was locked. Julia was spooked. She tried to visit Mary Lincoln to express her condolences but she wasn’t received.
Post-War
The Grants were given a home in Philadelphia but they instead moved back to Washington so Grant could assist the new president, Andrew Johnson. They rented a home in Georgetown Heights before buying a home on I Street. Julia enjoyed attending events at the Johnson White House and thought Mrs. Johnson was a “kind, gentle, old lady, too much of an invalid to do the honors of the house.” With the older boys at school in New Jersey and the younger children with tutors, Julia had plenty of time to enjoy herself in Washington even if her husband was drawn into the political games of the Johnson administration.
White House Years
Grant didn’t want to be nominated for president in 1868 but felt he must do his duty. His campaign slogan was “Let us have peace,” and Julia was thrilled when he won the election. She was excited to move into the White House but was shocked by its utter confusion and decrepit state. She directed the mansion’s first major renovation since it was burned in 1814 where she redid the East room and added the reflecting pool while hanging portraits of her family all around. She had the grounds closed to the public so the children could play. The house became a family home again as Jesse had a playroom where he played as a fireman and wrote a newspaper. The boys also had the basement and Nellie had upstairs as their refuge.
Julia entertained in a gracious and elegant style and delighted in the White House dinners and receptions. At her receptions, she invited the wives and daughters of senators and cabinet officials to join her in the receiving line which was novel. Her dinners were lavish and ostentatious in keeping with the Gilded Age, especially after she hired an Italian chef in 1869 who served dinners with over 29 courses! She held public receptions every Tuesday which were open to anyone, and she even directed the White House staff to include any black people who came (but none ever did).
She held the first state dinner with the King of the Sandwich Islands in December 1874, which was the first time a dinner was used to celebrate negotiations with a head of state. Thankfully she had ordered 570 pieces of china to use at these events, which the public didn’t complain about like they did with Mary Lincoln’s orders. Julia was beloved by everyone and her entertainment was held in the highest regard.
The troubles in the Grant administration began in 1869 when the husband of Grant’s sisters was involved in a gold scheme, causing “Black Friday” where gold prices rose and then plunged. There was also a scandal with the Union Pacific Railroad. It seemed that Grant himself was ethical but he surrounded himself with greedy men with no morals who were more concerned with lining their pockets rather than doing what’s best for the country. The scandals didn’t keep Grant from winning a second term in 1872, and the second inaugural ball was held in frigid temperatures.
The Grants’ family life changed greatly during the second term. Their son, Fred, was in Europe with Secretary Sherman, and Nellie went abroad and was presented to the Queen. She met a dashing English-Italian gentleman on the way home and soon married him in May of 1874 at the White House in the first White House wedding in 30 years. The Grants didn’t like her suitor and President Grant gave her away with tears streaming down his face. Nellie lived in England with her husband, and her parents’ premonitions proved right, her marriage was doomed from the start. Happily, the Grants liked Fred’s wife much more, and Julia was especially delighted with his first child, named Julia, who was born at the White House on June 7, 1876.
Julia traveled with Grant west to Salt Lake City, Utah where she met Brigham Young and toured the Mormon temple. She also entertained Russian czars and emperors from Brazil and Japan. She loved every minute of her White House years and took advantage of every opportunity to travel and meet fascinating people.
Julia was heart-broken when Grant decided to not accept a nomination for a third term (in fact, he wrote the letter and mailed it before talking to Julia since he knew she would talk him out of it!). As they readied for life after the White House, Julia spent much time burning all of their correspondence from the White House years and helping Grant give one last dinner party to circumvent the controversy that surrounded the election of Rutherford B. Hayes. As Julia and Ulysses took the train from Washington back home, she sobbed, bereft at leaving a place that had become her home.
Post-White House Years
They spent a few months in Galena and St. Louis before packing their bags and embarking on a two year worldwide tour, the likes of which haven’t been replicated since! Julia’s memoirs devote over a third of their words to this amazing time in her life where she met English queens and European princes, seeing the historical sites that she had read about as a young woman. They visited about every country in Europe and missed an opportunity to visit with Mary Lincoln in Pau, France as they didn’t realize she lived there. One has to wonder if Julia would have visited even if she had known given her dislike of Mary.
Julia and Ulysses then traveled through Egypt and the Middle East with a special stop in the Holy Land. Julia loved the experiences they encountered and the souvenirs she obtained as well as the people they met. They continued east on a ship to India, Burma, Singapore, China, and Japan. She saw many of the wonders of the world and was amazed at the kind people and inspiring places she was able to visit.
This trip ended in San Francisco over two years after they had left with Grant and Julia traveling further than any other former president and first lady before (and probably since!). The itinerary of this trip truly boggles the mind and must have cost a fortune.
They stopped in Galena before touring the Southern coastal cities on their way to Cuba and Mexico. They finally came back to the United States for good and decided to live in New York City to be closer to their children. Julia was hopeful Grant would get the Republican nomination for president in 1880, but he didn’t receive it. Instead Grant entered into a business in New York with his son and for years, it was extremely profitable. He was able to buy a fashionable home on East 66th Street, and Julia loved furnishing it with all of their items from their trip along with their former furnishings from their Washington home.
They loved spending time with their children and grandchildren and life was ideal until Grant slipped on ice after getting out of a carriage on Christmas Eve 1883. He was never well again. Just months later, he learned that his business partner had swindled him and his son out of their money, leaving them broke and indebted to friends such as Vanderbilt. Former soldiers and friends raised funds to help the Grants get by.
The following summer, Grant was eating a peach at his Long Branch cottage when he thought he had been stung by a bee inside it. Months later, he learned that he had terminal throat cancer, and he couldn’t bring himself to tell Julia. She visited the doctor herself and learned the horrible news. He fervently began working on his memoirs to leave a legacy for his family, one that would ensure Julia wouldn’t be poor after he was gone. Even as his health declined, he wrote and wrote with Julia by his side.
As the end neared, Julia and Ulysses moved to a friend’s cottage in upstate New York where he completed his memoirs in July of 1885. Just days later on July 23, he passed away with Julia at his side. She was bereft and said, “I am alone, alone.”
Julia didn’t attend Grant’s massive funeral in New York City and stayed at the cottage until the end of August. She moved in with Fred’s family in New York until he was appointed minister to Austria-Hungary in 1889. She went with his family to Vienna but soon returned. Without Ulysses, she wasn’t happy traveling.
She lived in New York on the vast proceeds from the publication of Grant’s memoirs. Interestingly, she became friends with Varina Davis, Jefferson Davis’ widow, and Varina was the one who accompanied Julia to view Grant’s tomb for the first time. Julia worked on her own memoirs, dictating them to Fred, but no one wanted to publish hers (they were finally published over 70 years after her death).
In 1898, Julia moved back to Washington where she spent some of the happiest years of her life, living quietly there and raising funds for US soldiers in the Philippines. In December of 1902, she came down with bronchitis and died on December 14. As she joined Ulysses in the imposing Grant’s Tomb on the Upper West Side of New York City, thousands stood in rain to pay respects to this first lady whose smile, positivity, and graciousness was revered worldwide.
Legacy
Julia was one of the most enjoyable first ladies to study. While she lived through challenging times and experienced war and hardships, her life seems charmed. She didn’t undergo the horrific grief that most first ladies endured in losing children to the usual 19th century maladies. She grew up as a pampered young woman who never wanted for anything, but even in lean times, she seemed to thrive and enjoy herself. This is what attracted Ulysses, she was game for anything and found a way to look on the bright side no matter the circumstances. As Grant’s biographer, Ron Chernow, said, she viewed the world through rose-colored glasses.
Julia was blessed with family and friends who loved and supported her, something many first ladies didn’t have. She had indulgent parents who thought she did no wrong, which gave her the confidence to live a vivacious life even though most with her physical condition might have shied away from public displays. She seems to have had deep personal connections but wasn’t one to ruminate on troubles, causing one biographer to say she reaped the “rewards of an unexamined life.” I think that’s a little condescending; I believe Julia to just be a happy person who didn’t let the troubles of life bog her down.
Her impact on Ulysses Grant is truly her biggest legacy. Without Julia by his side during some of the most pivotal moments in the war, would he have had the confidence to pursue victory? Would he have controlled his drinking and depression to ensure a Union victory? Thankfully we never have to know. Grant needed Julia to be able to be the man of the hour, the man the country needed. Plus her advice possibly saved his life as she was the one who insisted they not accompany the Lincolns to Ford’s Theatre. Julia was Grant’s one true love, a devotion that allowed him to face the horrors of war and politics, knowing he had her to come home to. It must have been nice for this shy, reserved man who didn’t feel much love from his own parents.
Julia’s legacy on slavery is mixed. She grew up in a slave-holding household and had a nostalgic view of slavery even after the Civil War and Reconstruction when she wrote her memoirs. It didn’t occur to her, even in the late 19th century, that the enslaved men and women on her father’s plantation weren’t happy or didn’t want to stay. It is naive and foolish, as is her lack of awareness in bringing Jule to Union camps. She seems to have stayed oblivious to the horrors of slavery, a time her famous positivity may have blinded her to reality.
No one has embraced the role of first lady quite like Julia; it seems most modern first ladies can’t wait to leave the White House, unlike Julia who sobbed as she left. She truly made it her home and carried its grandeur and importance in American life in her heart for the rest of her life.
My Time with Julia
I really enjoyed reading about Julia and her life, especially her memoirs which tells her story in her own words. I love that this woman who most considered dowdy and “not handsome” had enough courage to not only rise to the highest place a woman could dream about but also didn’t let anything stop her from seeing the world and enjoying herself.
While she sometimes glossed over terrible things, overall her positivity and joie de vivre brought the country out of the depths of despair after a brutal war. She is one of the happiest and most well-adjusted first ladies I’ve studied! After reading about so many women who dealt with death and mourning or who shunned the role, it was nice to see a first lady who thrived.
Travels with Julia
Julia is probably one of the most traveled first ladies in our country’s history! Even by modern-day standards, she sets the bar for seeing parts of the country no first lady had ever seen west of the Mississippi. In her around the world adventure, she also saw more of the world than most people today!
Missouri
St. Louis
Julia’s childhood hometown is the best place to learn more about her life.
Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site
This National Park site includes Julia’s childhood plantation home, White Haven, where she spent an idyllic childhood, had three of her four children, and lived on and off during the war years. Be sure to watch the short video about the home on the website!
Across the street from White Haven is an attraction/park on the original Busch family (of Anheuser-Busch fame) estate with animals to see including the famous Clydesdale horses. The park also contains the original Grant cabin, Hardscrabble, that Ulysses built for Julia and his family.
While in St. Louis, you can also visit the Missouri Civil War Museum which is located on the site of the Jefferson Barracks (now partly a historic park) where Grant was stationed when he met Julia.
Illinois
Galena
Ulysses S. Grant Home State Historic Site
This home was presented to the Grants by the town after the Civil War. It has much of their original furnishings including their bed, Julia’s dresses and shoes, Nellie’s wedding china, and souvenirs from their extensive travels.
Just down the street from the historic site is First Ladies Park where an 8-foot statue of Julia can be found. When it was built, it was the only statue of a First Lady in America!
The Galena United Methodist Church is where the Grants worshiped, and you can still see their family pew marked by flowers and a flag.
Mississippi
Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, Mississippi State
Grant’s formal presidential library is located at Mississippi State and contains much of his correspondence and artifacts.
Vicksburg National Military Park, Vicksburg
You can visit the Vicksburg battlefield and imagine Julia looking out over the besieged city and watching the running of the Confederate batteries by the Union warships. She even gave Ulysses advice on how to take it from the Confederates much to his amusement!
Walter Place Mansion, Holly Springs
Weddings are now held in the mansion where Julia was almost captured by a Confederate raid!
New York
Grant Cottage State Historic Site, Mount McGregor
You can visit the cottage where Julia spent the last days with her husband as he frantically wrote his memoirs in hopes of providing a financial rescue for his family. The cottage remains essentially the same as when they lived there in 1885.
General Grant National Memorial, New York City
Play your respects to Julia and Ulysses at their beautiful tomb. The Overlook Pavilion across the street has a museum.
New Jersey
Cottage, Church of Presidents, and Seven Presidents Park, Long Branch
Visit the site of Julia’s peaceful cottage by the ocean which then became popular with many presidential families.
Michigan
Julia and Ulysses S. Grant House, Detroit
The home where the newlyweds spent several years is not open to the public yet.
Virginia
City Point (part of Petersburg National Battlefield)
You can visit City Point where Julia spent late 1864-April of 1865 in Grant’s cabin (often open to visitors). This was the Union headquarters for the last part of the Civil War and was teeming with activity.
Across the water is Point of Rocks where Julia visited Union hospitals during her time at City Point. Now a park, it’s a lovely walk!
Washington, DC
Scott-Grant House. Georgetown
This was the home on Georgetown Heights that the Grants rented after their world trip. It’s privately owned and not available to tour.
Site of I Street Home
Now an interstate ramp, read this fascinating article about the Grant home.
Smithsonian National Museum of American History
You can see Julia’s china and her 1873 inaugural ball gown in the First Ladies exhibit.
To Learn More
Books to Read
There are many books written about Ulysses and even a few about Julia, including in her own words!
Links are Amazon affiliate links. Be sure to see my Bookshop.org list for all of the books related to my Booking It Through History: First Ladies project.
Nonfiction:
The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant
The best way to learn about a person’s life is to read their own words, and Julia was the second first lady (after Louisa Adams) to write her memoirs. While not published in her lifetime, they provide an insider’s view into her storied life, even if they are a bit saccharine.
My Dearest Julia: The Wartime Letters of Ulysses S. Grant to his Wife
Julia wanted to publish these letters after Grant’s memoirs were so popular, but the publishers didn’t think there was a market for them. They were wrong! These letters show Grant’s personal side, his love for his family and his unwavering devotion to Julia. You can almost hear the pleading in his voice when he asks her to write to him more frequently and when he asks about the children. He was a lonely man whenever she wasn’t around.
The General’s Wife: The Life of Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant by Ishbel Ross
This biography of Julia was written in 1959, and while dated, is a great way to get to know her in a short, quick read.
Civil War Wives: The Lives and Times of Angelina Grimke Weld, Varina Howell Davis, and Julia Dent Grant by Carol Berkin
This was one of my favorite reads of the month! I loved how the author linked Julia with Varina Davis and Angelina Grimke, three very different women who lived in an extraordinary time. I will go back and finish the rest of this one!
Lincoln’s Generals’ Wives: Four Women Who Influenced the Civil War–for Better and for Worse by Candice Shy Hooper
Another book I want to go back and finish! The chapters on Julia are fascinating and full of details. It’s worth the price of the book alone to see the map of Julia’s extensive travels during the war.
Grant by Ron Chernow
While I didn’t get to read much of this tome as I’d have liked, it will be one I will get to eventually. Of course, Julia’s history as Grant’s wife is covered extensively by Chernow’s detailed research.
Fiction:
Mrs. Grant and Madame Jule by Jennifer Chiaverini
Using Chiaverini’s signature extensive historical research, this novel tells the story of Julia and Jule, her enslaved maid who eventually escaped to her freedom rather than be taken back to a slave state. I read it years ago and found it fascinating.
The General and Julia by Jon Clinch
One of my favorite books from 2023, this novel is a beautifully written tale of the love between Grant and Julia. While the title is somewhat misleading (the scenes with Julia are brief), it is a must-read for any first ladies history enthusiast and will make you appreciate the Grants even more.
Podcasts
No real podcasts about Julia herself but I recommend Presidential to learn about Grant’s memoirs/letters and his devotion to Julia.
TV Shows/Movies
C-SPAN First Ladies Influence & Image
Grant on History Channel – one of my favorite TV series about presidents, very well done and shows his love of Julia
Websites
White House Historical Association
- Ornament: The Grant Christmas ornament depicts a child on a rocking horse signifying the Grants’ focus on family and their generous charitable works on behalf of children. It actually rocks!
Julia Grant is a breath of fresh air in studying first ladies. She had the vivacity of Dolley Madison without the intrigue of parlor politics. She was content as a wife to “her lieutenant” and never wavered in her support of Ulysses. Her joie de vivre enabled him to withstand some of the most difficult times in our country’s history, leaving a rich legacy that is finally being acknowledged.
