GENERAL and PRESIDENT, U.S. Grant!

"He was a GENERAL and a PRESIDENT!"

Henry is doing a biography report on Ulysses S. Grant and was angrily moved to defend his choice. As his big brother, Jamie felt that it was his duty to be critical of Henry's decision. He did his 2nd grade project on Sitting Bull and felt that he was a much cooler choice. 

"If you don't do Sitting Bull, then you should do Martin Luther King or Jim Carrey."

(Jamie LOVES Jim Carrey just as much as Sitting Bull)

But Henry would not be swayed. 

His heart was with Ulysses, so last week we headed out on a little field trip to check out the historical roots of Ohio's civil war general and 18th President of these United States.

Our first stop was Point Pleasant, Ohio, steps away from the Ohio River.

This was the house where little Ulysses was born and took his first little future general/president steps.

It really very small and very pretty.

(I just had to reminisce a bit about my visit to see Grant's house as a fourth grader, both Henry and the schnoodle were kind enough to humor me as I rambled on about how awesome this was for me)

 

 Henry wanted to walk to the river and check out the cannon, so off we went.

 

 Here are Henry and the schnoodle aiming their cannon at some sneaky confederate soldiers hiding out in the hills of  Kentucky.

They look like a dangerous pair.

(for the record, the cannon no longer shot cannonballs...Kentucky was spared from the careful aim of these two)

We walked down to the rivers bank where I implored both boy and dog not to fall in.

They didn't (yay!) and Henry spent a few moments looking at the water with his hands behind his back as Civil War generals often did.

I had to kick some beer cans out of the way, to make things more naturally scenic.

(Perhaps the beer debris was left there by President Grant's descendents?)

We found this helpful map which made it very easy to tour the Land of Grant.

With a healthy warning to drive responsibly we left Point Pleasant and set off to Georgetown Ohio... about 40 minutes away.

This was our first stop, the schoolhouse where young Ulysses attended primary school. After he left this tiny little school, he continued his education at West Point.

I don't imagine the transition was an easy one for the young Buckeye.

This is the home where young Ulysses lived while he attended his little two room school house a few blocks away.

I have to believe that Mr. and Mrs. Grant were happy to move from the little river house to the big town of Georgetown when Ulysses was a little guy.

Henry's next step with his biography project is to create a replica of U.S. Grant out of an empty 2 liter bottle and a Styrofoam ball. He wisely check out this lovely statue for inspiration. 

I think that he made a good choice in deciding to study this General and President and spent a happy afternoon an afternoon driving around Southern Ohio with my son, checking out the Land of Grant.