Grant lost his savings in the Grant & Ward fraud and wrote memoirs that paid his widow about $450,000

In 1880 Wall Street backers raised a $250,000 trust fund for Ulysses S. Grant. Grant invested in Grant & Ward, his son's brokerage, which was run by Ferdinand Ward. Ward was running a Ponzi scheme. In 1884 Grant borrowed $150,000 personally from William H. Vanderbilt and signed the check over to the firm. The firm failed in May 1884, and the Grants were left with about $210 in cash. The trust fund was invested in Wabash Railroad bonds, which defaulted. Ward served six years at Sing Sing. Vanderbilt foreclosed on Grant's swords and war trophies in December 1884. On 10 January 1885 he deeded them to Julia Grant in trust for the nation, and the Smithsonian received them in November 1886. In March 1885 Congress restored Grant to general on the retired list at $13,500 a year. With throat cancer, Grant wrote his Personal Memoirs. Mark Twain's Charles L. Webster & Co. offered 70 percent of profits, against Century's 10 percent royalty. Grant died days after finishing. Julia's first check was $200,000 or $250,000 by different accounts, and she received about $450,000 in all. In 2026 the relics are at the Smithsonian, and the National Park Service runs Grant's Tomb in New York.