Frederick spent his early childhood at his paternal grandparents' house while his father was stationed on the West Coast.

[2] While following retreating Confederate soldiers in the aftermath of the Battle of Big Black River Bridge, he was shot in the leg by a sharpshooter.

In his weakened state, Frederick fell victim to typhoid fever, which was common in Union camps during the war, but made a full recovery.

[4] On June 1, 1870, the first African American cadet, James Webster Smith, from South Carolina, was admitted into the United States Military Academy.

Smith was sponsored by Senator Adelbert Ames of Mississippi, and nominated by Representative Solomon L. Hoge of South Carolina.

[5] While Grant was named as one of the chief persecutors of Smith by American historian William McFeely in his 1981 biography of Ulysses S. Grant, where he is quoted as saying to his father, then President, that "no damned nigger will ever graduate from West Point,"[5] recent scholarship has raised questions about McFeely's sources.

In a January 1871 investigation of the hazing, Grant testified to the Committee on Military Affairs that he was aware of the prank, that he supported it, and that he did nothing to stop it.

In 1887, he ran on the Republican ticket for Secretary of State of New York, but was defeated by the Democratic incumbent Frederick Cook.

After Grover Cleveland became president in March 1893, Grant continued in his post until his successor presented his credentials on June 8, 1893.

[4] In May 1906 he asked that YMCAs be established at every post under his command because the associations reduced "courts-martial and desertions, and the enlisted men were more contented and happy.

Frederick Dent Grant died of cancer, the same disease that had claimed his father, and diabetes in the Hotel Buckingham near Fort Jay on Governors Island in New York City on April 12, 1912.

At the time of his death, Grant was the second most senior officer on active duty in the U.S. Army after Major General Leonard Wood.

[1][12][13] Grant was a hereditary companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States by right of his father's service in the Civil War.

They were married in Chicago and had two children: Through his daughter, Grant was the grandfather of Prince Michael Mikhailovich Cantacuzène, Princess Bertha Mikhailovna, and Princess Zenaida Mikhailovna, who married Sir John Coldbrook Hanbury-Williams, son of Major-General Sir John Hanbury-Williams.