11/13/2023 0 Comments An eloquent speakerThe nature of Grant’s greatness is a puzzle with many pieces. Elected president twice, he would be the only president of the United States to serve two consecutive terms between Lincoln and Woodrow Wilson.Įven with the scandals that tainted his second term, he retained enormous popularity with the American people and probably would have been elected to a third term in 1876 if he had chosen to run. Lionized as the general who saved the Union, Grant was celebrated in his lifetime as the “hero of Appomattox,” the warrior who offered magnanimous peace terms to Gen. Grant as the three great leaders of the nation. A popular 1870s medallion depicted George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Ulysses S. I believe Grant was an exceptional person and leader. McFeely declared, “I am convinced that Ulysses Grant had no organic, artistic, or intellectual specialness.” Describing Grant’s midlife crisis: “The only problem was that until he was nearly 40, no job he liked had come his way-and so he became a general and president because he could find nothing better to do.” Pulitzer Prize–winning Grant biographer William S. When Grant is remembered, he is too often described as a simple man of action, not of ideas. In their retelling, Grant became the “butcher” who supposedly countenanced the merciless slaughter of his soldiers to overwhelm by sheer numbers the courageous Southern army. Lee and the Confederacy in “the War of Northern Aggression.” Historians writing under the influence of the Southern “Lost Cause” theory of the war lifted up Robert E. His remarkable rise constitutes one of the greatest stories of American leadership.Īlthough he was renowned at the time of his death in 1885, it was not long before Grant began to fall from favor. In a story of transformation, Grant moved in the next seven years from clerk at his father’s leather goods store in Galena, Illinois, to commander of all the Union armies, and finally to being president of the United States. Then came the Civil War, and everything changed. And for the next seven years he struggled to make a living for himself, his wife, and his four children, mostly on his pro-slavery father-in-law’s property outside St. He subsequently served with honors in the Mexican War and then returned to marry Julia Dent, who accompanied him to his assignments in New York and Michigan over the next several years.įorced to leave her behind when he was posted to the Oregon Territory and California between 18, he grew so heartsick that he resigned his commission. His personality is a palette not unlike the rich colors he learned to paint with at West Point.Īfter growing up on the Ohio frontier, young Ulysses was accepted at West Point, from which he graduated in 1843. As I dug deeper, I discovered his intellectual journey was filled with surprises, detours, questions, and insights. Grant’s rise to fame has always remained something of a mystery. In my biography of Abraham Lincoln, I wrote of Grant, the decorated Civil War general, but I now confess: I did not fully know the man. Louis tell me most visitors arrive with little knowledge of Grant-but leave with deep appreciation.
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