National Portrait Gallery says: One of the earliest known photographs of Ulysses S. Grant, this tintype likely depicts him after his graduation from West Point Military Academy in 1843. Known for his distaste for military garb, Grant is atypically pictured clean-shaven and in stiff, ornamented military attire. Grant, who wished to end his military career after graduation, planned to become a mathematics professor and marry his sweetheart, Julia Dent. However, in 1844, as war with Mexico became inevitable, he was forced to relinquish his dream of a quiet, professorial life and postpone his marriage. Grant was anxious throughout the conflict to return home. This unaffected image portrays Grant simply as a young lieutenant, more concerned with the toils of love than of military and war.
Simon, The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant says: Second Lieutenant U. S. Grant in 1943
a daguerreotype made soon after Grant was graduated from West Point. As Lieutenant Grant was when I first knew him, wrote Julia Grant.
