Grant

Ulysses Simpson Grant is probably the most recognisable army officer in the pantheon of American history. He is, at the same time, most likely the least understood and most under-appreciated person. This marvellous work by Ron Chernow should do much to resolve that conundrum.

Born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, in 1827 to jesse and Hannah Grant, Hiram Ulysses Grant was the first of six children. An active youngster, he was a superb horseman but objected strenuously to working in his father’s tannery (the sight and smell of blood repulsed him) and thus was given the job of transporting people and supplies.

Not attracted to a military life, he was surprised to find that his father had applied to his political contacts to obtain for Ulysses an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point.

The young man went reluctantly and hoped to leave as soon as possible. A mistake at the registrar’s changed his name from Hiram Ulysses Grant to Ulysses Simpson Grant, much to his relief. Thereafter, rather than being referred to as ‘Hug’, he acquired the nickname of ‘Uncle Sam’ or simply ‘Sam’.

Fortunately for the country, his ambition to abandon military studies was also thwarted. Although a middling student, he did excel at mathematics and horsemanship. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in 1842, and assigned to the 4th Infantry at jefferson Barracks near St Louis, Missouri.

It was here that Grant met and courted his future wife, Julia Dent. Oddly enough, while Grant’s father Jesse was an ardent abolitionist, Julia’s father owned a plantation and was an unapologetic slave-owner.

It was a situation that was to generate much familial friction in the ensuing years. Grant’s father, in particular, was what today we might refer to as a ‘wheeler-dealer’. Avaricious and self-absorbed, he was forever plotting shrewd business moves and, as his son’s reputation rose, attempting to exploit it to his own benefit.

SLOW DEVELOPER

Grant’s own reputation was slow to develop, and marked by highs and lows along the way. A brilliant young officer in the war against Mexico, he was, as Chernow points out, conflicted about the war. Grant thought it a struggle motivated by gross political designs which he personally abhorred, saying later, ‘I am always ashamed of my countrywhen I think of that invasion.’

Whatever his personal views, they did not diminish his soldierly skills or enthusiasm for combat. It was an environment wherein he found he was remarkably calm and composed, even detached. His personal élan was such that he participated with valour and initiative in virtually every major battle during the war, and was cited for his courage under fire.

But, in the aftermath of the conflict, Grant would find himself beleaguered by the vicissitudes of the peacetime army. Separated from his wife and growing family, the young officer found himself assigned to the West Coast of the United States.

After a gruelling passage across the Isthmus of Panama and up the Pacific Coast, Lieutenant Grant was thrust into a world transfixed by the Gold Rush and the lure of opportunity, while subsisting on the starvation wages of army pay and yearning for his young family.

He unwisely engaged in several ill-fated business ventures in the hope of garnering funds enough to bring his family out to join him. Hard-working and scrupulously honest, the young Grant was frequently taken advantage of by feckless business partners and all his efforts came to naught.

Subject to bouts of melancholy, Grant in essence self-medicated with alcohol and began to unravel.

Facing disciplinary action for his drinking, and put upon by his local commanding officer, Grant resigned his commission and returned to the Midwest to join his wife and family.

Julia recognised that Grant was susceptible to the ill-effects of alcohol and ensured that the Grant household remained temperate, much to his betterment.

Over a period of several years, he turned his hand unsuccessfully to farming, real estate, and cutting and selling firewood. His situation was so diminished that he was finally obliged to take a position under his younger brothers in his father’s tanning business in Galena, Illinois. It was at this low point that fate intervened in a most unexpected way, when a Confederacy of Southern states seceded from the Union and fired on Fort Sumter.

THE CIVIL WAR

With his West Point education and his service in the Mexican War, Grant found himself called on to provide guidance and advice to the thousands of young men who volunteered for service in the Union Army.

As Chernow points out repeatedly throughout this superb work, Grant was not one to seek his own advancement. When others solicited his assistance, however, he did not shirk but rather stepped forward to lend a hand. Thus he found himself appointed a colonel of volunteers and, as the war progressed, thrust repeatedly into positions of increasingly challenging responsibility.

Assigned to the western theatre of operations along the Mississippi River, in 1862 Grant devised a joint army-navy operation to capture Forts Donelson and Henry, providing the Union with its first clear-cut victories.

Promoted to major-general of volunteers, he achieved more success at the Battle of Shiloh later that year, and then at the Siege of Vicksburg in 1863, successfully cutting the Confederacy in two.