The U. S. Grant Trail has its roots in the era of the Civil War sesquicentennial (2011 to 2015). Established in 2012 as a program of Missouri’s Civil War Heritage Foundation, its first foray into public education was a map of Ulysses Grant’s first days and weeks as a combat commander in the Civil War. By the end of the sesquicentennial, the Foundation had expanded the program to three maps, tracking Grant’s movements from the area of Hannibal, Missouri to Columbus, Kentucky. Although these maps are out of print, the copyright now belongs to the Trail Association [click to see map samples].
Over the past several years, the Trail Association has continued to conduct the Annual U. S. Grant Symposium, and it has conducted and/or funded (in whole or in part) a number of activities such as these: 1) Bicentennial Touring Exhibit (2022-23) “Ulysses Grant’s Missouri”; 2) video production of “The Roll of Vanished Drums,” a recitation of passages from Grant’s Memoirs, accompanied by music; 3) a preliminary archaeological investigation of a portion of the Belmont battlefield.