After graduating from West Point in 1843, Ulysses S.Grant served valiantly during the Mexican-American War under Winfield Scott and future president Zachary Taylor. Between wars he struggled at several occupations before rejoining the Army after Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter. Championed by President Lincoln as an aggressive fighter, Grant was named general-in-chief of the Army and after the war became the 18th President of the United States.