the other day I stopped by Grant’s Tomb, and saw the displays mentioning how Grant was more or less broke as a civilian. How much was Grant paid when he took command of the Union Army, and was that a good deal of money?
Not exactly what you asked for, but…
Gen. Grant’s last days
Here’s the relevant scoop from the cite above:
"The last years of Grant’s life were sad ones. Admirers collected a fund of $250,000, which they placed in trust for him; when the securities in which the fund was invested became worthless, however, he was so hard up for money that he had to sell his wartime swords and souvenirs. He became a partner in the brokerage firm of Grant & Ward, but like all his previous business ventures, it failed (May 6, 1884) and he went into bankruptcy. A move to have him restored to the rank of general, which he had resigned to run for the presidency, met political opposition and was not approved until the last day of Chester A. Arthur’s administration (March 3, 1885). Grant had only a few months to enjoy the salary that Congress thus voted him.
Afflicted with a cancer of the throat, the general was heroically trying to provide for his family during these last years. The success of an article on the Battle of Shiloh, which he wrote for the Century Magazine in 1884, led him to plan writing his own account of the war in which he had played so large a part. In his sickroom at Mount McGregor near Saratoga, N. Y., he composed the two volumes of personal recollections that remain one of the great war commentaries of all times. Published by Mark Twain, the Personal Memoirs ultimately brought the Grant family nearly $450,000 in royalties. Grant himself did not live to reap the reward. Exhausted from his heroic battle, he died quietly at Mount McGregor on July 23, 1885, and his body eventually found its last resting place in the great mausoleum (dedicated 1897) in New York City overlooking the Hudson River. "
Grant was appointed as a Lt General on March 2, 1864. His salary for that rank was $758 a month. An online inflation adjuster I found said this was the equivalent of $8519 in current money.