Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Malady Patch! Ulysses (born Hiram Ulysses Grant) was an avid lifelong cigar lover. He admitted to smoking (and chewing) a dozen a day.  The Chicago Tribune depicted Grant as smoking a cigar in the midst of an army-naval assault on the Confederate strong-holds of Forts Henry and Donelson. Grant said “I galloped forward and while riding among the troops giving directions for repelling the assault, I carried the cigar in my hand. It had gone out, but it seems I continued to hold it between my fingers throughout the battle.”  Soon, the public sent him as many as 10,000 cigars.  Grant ended up partaking in many of these cigars and eventually developed advanced tongue and throat cancer which eventually killed him.