Lieutenant Grant Climbs Mount Popocatepetl

Throughout his life, Ulysses S. Grant was an avid outdoorsman. He was a skilled horseman who enjoyed exploring new places by horse, boat, or train. One of Grant's most memorable adventures took place during the spring of 1848 in Mexico while serving as a young 26-year-old First Lieutenant in the U.S. Army.

By the spring of 1848, The Mexican-American War was drawing to a close. United States troops occupied Mexico City. The Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo had been signed by peace commissioners a few months earlier in February, but was still waiting for approval from President James K. Polk and the U.S. Senate. Major fighting between the U.S. and Mexico had ended and young Army officers like Ulysses S. Grant were looking for something to do to pass the time. Rather than stay confined to occupation duty in Mexico City, Grant and several colleagues obtained leave to ascend the second highest mountain in Mexico, a volcano named Popocatepetl. The mountain's summit stands a staggering 17,802 feet (5,426 meters) high.

Grant and his party of officers started at the village of Ozumba at the base of Popocatepetl. There they acquired guides and pack mules to assist them and their horses. Grant and his fellow travelers were able to ascend by horseback during the beginning of the trip. As they got higher, the paths began narrowing and the weather got worse with periods of driving rain. When it began snowing, the explorers began navigating by foot. During their climb, Grant remembered the harsh weather. "The wind continued to blow with violence...the wind carried the loose snow around the mountain-sides in such volumes as to make it almost impossible to stand up against it." Grant also remembered two nights he spent at the mountain in cabins. The first night "was one of the most unpleasant I ever knew. It was very cold and the rain fell in torrents." Grant’s party barely slept as rain turned to snow. The weather improved during the second night on the mountain, but Grant recalled feeling "fatigued" as everyone felt "excruciating pain in their eyes” that felt like "the prick of a sharp needle at a white heat." After bathing their eyes in cold water, Grant recalled that the summit of Popocatepetl lay about a mile away. While some in the party continued their voyage and made it to the summit, Grant determined that he had gotten “all the pleasure there was to be had at mountain climbing." Grant never made it to the summit of Popocatepetl, but he remembered this adventure vividly and recounted it with fondness decades later as he was writing his memoirs at the end of his life.

Grant also wanted to witness the “national sport”—bullfighting—while waiting for the treaty to be concluded. In his memoirs he described his memories of watching a match and being appalled by the spectacle. He remarked, “the sight to me was sickening. I could not see how human beings could enjoy the sufferings of beasts, and often of men, as they seemed to do on these occasions.” He mentioned that during these bullfights, between four to six bulls were “sacrificed.” Watching this gory spectacle in Mexico affected him so much that he called the matadors, who actually killed the bull during the bull-fight, “literally murderers.” Grant had fought in two wars and seen countless dead and maimed bodies, but the barbarity of bull-fighting stayed with him for the rest of his life. Grant wrote in his memoirs, “During one of my recent visits to Mexico, bull fights were got up in my honor at Puebla and at Pachuca. I was not notified in advance so as [to] be able to decline and thus prevent the performance; but in both cases I civilly declined to attend.”

While waiting for the Treaty of Guadeloupe Hidalgo to be approved, Grant awaited an important milestone in his own life. As spring turned to summer, Grant looked forward to marrying Julia Dent in St. Louis. The days in Mexico City on occupation duty must have seemed long to him. But perhaps these experiences in Mexico offered distractions to pass the time to that much anticipated event.