“Grant” by Ron Chernow, 2017.
Rarely does achieving
the presidency decrease an individual’s prestige in the annals of history. Yet the
presidency of Ulysses S Grant teaches us that the qualities that make a great
general, do not always make a great president. Such an honest, forthright, almost gullible
man really was out of his depth in Washington during the Reconstruction. This lengthy biography is amazingly well
written and is supposed to be turned into a movie by Steven Spielberg. In fact, Grant’s biography requires a two-part
blog post due to the length of the book and a need to completely explore his
Civil War exploits. I have never enjoyed
reading about battle field tactics, but this book really brings them alive!
Hiram Ulysses Grant was the first child born in Ohio to
Jesse
Grant, a fairly successful tanner/merchant and Hannah Grant, a modest
quiet woman. Jesse was a huge figure in
Grant's life. Loud, self-promoting, and
pushy, he was always the first to criticize Ulysses when he was down but quick to
ride his son’s coat tails when he was doing well. Jesse was also a vocal
abolitionist in the Whig party. Ulysses was a decent student who did well in mathematics
but he hated working in the tannery with his father. Since his greatest joy and talent as a kid
was with horses, he made deliveries for his father’s business. Other
kids liked him because even though he was fairly small, he would always stick
up for
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| Grant at West Point |
weaker kids. Jesse secured an appointment for his quiet, self-effacing
son to West Point- who did not really want to go. Due to a clerical error, he was listed on the
roll as “Ulysses S Grant” and the name stuck but his friends called him Sam. At
West Point, his class was literally a who’s who of the greatest military
leaders of the Civil War. Grant excelled
at mathematics and was the undisputed best horseman but graduated middle of his
class. He was not really interested in a military career but wanted to teach
mathematics at West Point when he was done.
His roommate introduced Grant to his sister, Julia
Dent. Her father, Colonel Dent, owned
slaves and had a small plantation in Missouri.
Colonel Dent did not think Grant was good enough for his only daughter,
despite the fact that she was quite plain and had crossed eyes. She had almost no
other suitors and was somewhat spoiled, not learning how to keep house since
slaves did most of the work. Grant’s abolitionist father hated the Dent family
as well. Colonel Dent was almost as loud
and overbearing as Grant’s own father.
He insisted that Julia and Grant wait to marry, leading to a four-year
engagement. Meanwhile, Grant joined the
military to try to prove he could provide a good life for Julia. Throughout their life Julia would be
completely devoted to Grant and always thought he could do anything. Her
positive attitude and friendly personality with everyone helped compensate for
his quiet, sometimes withdrawn nature.
The Mexican American War erupted in 1845 and Grant was sent
to
the front. Serving with the unit of General Zachary Taylor, Grant mainly
worked as a regimental quartermaster but when allowed to participate in the
fighting, was a good leader, very caring toward injured comrades and always supremely
calm when under fire. He gained renowned
by assembling a howitzer in a church bell tower to shell Mexican troops. He was
promoted to brevet captain and returned from the war to marry Julia.
After the war, the Grants were stationed in Michigan but
when Julia became pregnant she returned to Missouri to have their first son,
Fred. Grant’s separation from Julia led
to depression and heavy
drinking, a pattern that would repeat itself frequently
in his life. However, upon her return he would completely abstain from
drinking. Then in 1852 Grant’s unit was
ordered to the west coast to tame the area undergoing the gold rush. Julia was
seven months pregnant with their second child and the naval journey then long trek
through Panama would be impossible for her. So she stayed with her father in Missouri again. Also, Grant could just not afford to bring
her and the kids west. The journey was a nightmare- malaria and
cholera, leading to the death of almost every woman and child who had gone with
the soldiers.
Arriving at his new post in Columbia, Oregon, Grant was
surrounded by people touting get rich quick schemes. Grant was
desperate to raise money to bring
Julia and the kids out. Consistently,
Grant would trust someone with an idea and lose lots of his money. His ice exporting scheme failed when the
shipping was stalled and it all melted.
His chicken importing venture failed when they all died along the way.
His potato farm was flooded and they all rotted. He tried to start a retail business with a
partner then the man took his money and left. Grant’s depression about his
failed businesses and loneliness for Julia lead to massive alcohol problems and
he was quietly asked to resign from the army.
Grant was so broke he had to borrow money from several people just to
get home.
Grant returned to Julia and the kids in Missouri at the Dent
plantation at the age of 32 with no money and no idea how to support them. Julia’s father had given her a small piece of
land and a few slaves. Grant tried his hand at farming but ended up making ends
meet by selling firewood on street corners. When given his own slave by Colonel
Dent, Grant freed him even though he really
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| Grant's Farm in Missouri |
needed the money, while Julia kept
her four slaves. After farming failed
him, Grant sold the land and cabin they had been living on but was once again swindled
and had to sue for several years to get the money owed. Grant and his family packed up and moved to
Galena, Illinois for him to take a job as a store clerk working for his younger
brother at a tannery there.
Meanwhile, the Civil War was looming and now that he was
back
in Illinois, Grant became more outspoken in favor of the Union and against
slavery. When Illinois began a volunteer
regiment, Grant had to work very hard to get an appointment as a colonel. He
took his raw recruits and quickly turned them around, participating in some
small skirmishes in Missouri. Thanks to
the support of an Illinois congressman named Washburne, who just happened to be
close friends with Lincoln, Grant was promoted to brigadier general and
stationed at Cairo, Illinois. He hired Colonel John Rawlins as his chief of
staff and he became the man to help control Grant’s drinking when Julia was not
around and the most loyal friend Grant ever had.
Winning small battles in Paducah and Belmont, Grant longed
to push forward to seize the Mississippi River area but was frustrated by the
cautious bureaucracy of higher generals.
But he eventually won larger battles at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson
with a lot of support from naval gun boats. Since the Union was doing poorly
almost everywhere else at this time, Grant’s victories brought a lot of press
and attention from those higher up- including Lincoln. It also increased his confidence and the size
of command.
Grant’s troops planned to attack a major southern stronghold
on the Mississippi River called Corinth.
But he paused at a small church called Shiloh with his 25,000 troops to
await an additional reinforcement of 18,000 from Gen. Buell. Gen. William T. Sherman, had a large amount
of the 25k troops that were “green”- some literally just were given their rifles
that day. (Sherman was Grant’s stalwart
friend and most consistent subordinate general during the war.) Grant wanted to
use this pause to train these new troops and so discouraged them from “digging
in” with defensive postures. The Confederacy launched a surprise assault on
April 6, 1862. Grant’s new troops and
lack of planning made the first day of battle a mass slaughter as Union troops
fled. However, Grant knew 18k of Buell’s
reinforcements would arrive during the night and the second day of the battle allowed
the Union to regain the ground it had lost -technically a Union victory.
However, casualties at Shiloh (14k Union troops and 10k Confederate troops)
were the largest of the war to date and more than the Revolutionary War and War
of 1812 combined .
The nation was
horrified by the scale of death and people began referring to Grant as a “butcher”,
an insult that followed him throughout the war. Rumors about his drinking became rampant. (Although he had a few drunken episodes, none ever interfered with his command.) Grant was removed to more of a desk job while Halleck,
his supervisor, proceeded to capture Corinth after a painfully slow assault
that allowed the Confederates to strip the town of everything then just abandon
it. Lincoln recalled Halleck to
Washington since the Union troops continued to lose major battles to Lee in
Virginia. Therefore, Grant was restored
to command.
Grant went on the offensive, seizing, Iuka and walling off
Tennessee. Grant had a major superstition
about retreating or
going backwards and constantly pushed his troops. However,
as he
moved further into the south, he became overwhelmed by the number of
escaping slaves seeking the protection of the Union troops. At first, he did not know what to do with them
and just plopped them into large camps.
But then he began using their labor to build fortifications, cook etc and
eventually became a leading
proponent of allowing them to serve in the Union Army. Grant’s embrace of “colored” troops endeared him
to Lincoln and also removed the possibility of the Confederacy forcing their
slaves to function as troops or labor support and crippling the plantation
economy. Grant became impressed by the
freed slave’s enthusiasm and hard work- making him a vehement supporter of
black rights for the rest of his life. Lincoln’s emancipation proclamation in
January 1863, increased the flood of escaping slaves and forced Julia Grant to
free her own four slaves as well.
Eventually, the last Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi
was Vicksburg, a massively fortified town overlooking a bend in the river. Impossible to attack from the river or north,
Grant decided on a risky move to use riverboats to move troops past Vicksburg-
literally right beneath their cannons. Then he circled around cutting off the
city from any support, capturing Jackson as well. Grant also employed a new strategy of “living
off the land” – taking whatever was needed from confederate farms and cities.
Grant
knew that until the confederacy could no longer rely on food and
supplies, the populace would continue to rebel. He also began to destroy
southern crops, businesses and towns- a strategy perfected by Sherman in his
march to the sea. By early May 1863, he completely
encircled Vicksburg and settled into a siege, constantly shelling the town.
Julia and the kids even came down to join him. By June half of the people in
Vicksburg were ill or starving to death. On July 4, the town and 25K
confederate troops surrendered and the Mississippi fell completely under Union
control, splitting the Confederacy in half.
Vicksburg is the most brilliant campaign that Grant completed and he
became a national hero- leading to promotion and eventually the presidency.
Part 2- Commander in Chief, President, Scandals, World
Traveler, Financial Desperation
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