Great Men??: At the Worst Time

By Xlibris US

War does not determine who is rightonly who is left.
Bertrand Russell

What is it that truly makes a person great? This has been a question both throughout and for the ages. In modern society, greatness is often measured in terms of wealth, power, knowledge, and achievement. Wealth and power can be so fleeting in life and should never truly and totally define an individuals greatness. Educational achievement is an attainment and accumulation of knowledge, facts, theories, and career training. Education is good. It can be valuable, but it should only be considered as one of the many tools in the toolbox of life. There have been many great people throughout history who have gone on to achieve and perform great feats in their life with little to no education. Wealth, power, and education can all be used for good and or for evil. The history of man clearly bears this out.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Mar 25, 2014
• ISBN: 9781493167425

Book preview

GREAT MEN???

At The Worst Time

Dr. Don C. Kean D.M.D.

Copyright © 2014 by Dr. Don C. Kean D.M.D.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted

in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 03/19/2014

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CONTENTS

Acknowledgement

Foreword

Introduction

Chapter 1 Don’t Take It For Granted

Chapter 2 Character Anyone Should Admire

Chapter 3 Old Pete, My Warhorse

Chapter 4 Blue-Eyed Sam

Chapter 5 Little Mac

Chapter 6 The Boy General

Chapter 7 The Gray Ghost

Chapter 8 Plop Plop Fizz Fizz

Chapter 9 Flash And Dash

Chapter 10 Brilliance And Mystery

Chapter 11 The Brilliant Stuttering Rose

Chapter 12 Hell For Breakfast

Chapter 13 From Revenge To Repentance

Chapter 14 The Civil War In Hollywood

Chapter 15 Lucky Six Shot

Chapter 16 The Fightin’ Preacher President

Chapter 17 Was He Or Wasnt He

Chapter 18 The Chameleon On The Fence

Chapter 19 The Great Forgiver

Chapter 20 The Slow-Trotting Rock With A Sledgehammer

Chapter 21 No Damn Man Kills Me And Lives

Chapter 22 Brilliant Courage

Chapter 23 A Wall Of Faith

Chapter 24 Mr. Ed In The Civil War

Chapter 25 Snapshots Of Other Players

Summary

Appendix 1 Basic Explanation Of Army Rank And Promotion

Appendix 2

Appendix

Appendix 3 The Danbury Correspondence

Appendix 4 Annotated Text Of U.s. Declaration Of Independence

Appendix 5 The Bill Of Rights

Biblio Sources For Each Chapter

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to dedicate this book to the following people who have inspired me greatly and helped me in this writing. First I would like to thank mom and dad for having such confidence in me as their son. If I had ever been half as smart as you both thought I was I would probably have been President. You both have been terrific parents and I have been truly blessed to have you both in my life for as long as I have. Thank you both for your love and your support as well as your tolerance of me. Thank you both for teaching me so many of the correct things in life. I love you both. I also wish to thank my beautiful daughter Danielle for loving me so much as her daddy during some really trying times in my life. You helped me to go on and see the bigger picture when life was tough. I hope you will always know that I tried my very best despite the circumstances to be your friend and your father. No words could ever express how much I care for you, nor could I in all my frailties ever show you as completely as I would have liked to. You will forever and eternally always be daddy’s little girl. I love you Danielle. To my wife Shirley who braved the big waves of Kentucky Lake on our first trip together. I thank you for not letting a crazy fisherman scare you so badly that you would never go back across Kentucky Lake again with me. Thank you for sitting in the cold the wind and the rain with me and not complaining. Your desire to spend our honeymoon week their indirectly led me to a place where I needed to go and had everything to do in inspiring me to write this book. To a great and I might add very cute first mate, thank you. I love you sweetheart. To all of you who have tolerated me and loved me, I extend my deepest affections and my eternal thanks.

Don

FOREWORD

War does not determine who is right—only who is left.

—Bertrand Russell

What is it that truly makes a person great? This has been a question both throughout and for the ages. In modern society, greatness is often measured in terms of wealth, power, knowledge, and achievement. Wealth and power can be so fleeting in life and should never truly and totally define an individual’s greatness. Educational achievement is an attainment and accumulation of knowledge, facts, theories, and career training. Education is good. It can be valuable, but it should only be considered as one of the many tools in the toolbox of life. There have been many great people throughout history who have gone on to achieve and perform great feats in their life with little to no education. Wealth, power, and education can all be used for good and or for evil. The history of man clearly bears this out.

I love to fish, and my favorite place to fish in the whole world is Kentucky Lake in southwestern Kentucky. It is my dream to live there one day. I remember going to Kentucky Lake with my wife on our honeymoon in June of 2008. (Yes, that is actually where she wanted to go. She is the greatest). We fished a lot and enjoyed our week thoroughly at the lake. However, something else happened personally to me while on that trip that would inspire me into a new arena. While sightseeing the area, my wife and I visited Fort Donelson National Military Park. Fort Donelson had been a Confederate military fort during the American Civil War that was situated on the west bank of the Cumberland River near the Kentucky-Tennessee border. Little did I know how much that one stop on our sightseeing tour would drive me into the study of an era that I knew little about in our great country’s history, the American Civil War. I would begin to read many books and biographies on the battles, the times, and the men and women whom had participated in this pivotal point in or countries magnificent history. Each work I read made me want to read five or six more, and it is fair to say I was hooked.

In my studies of these great characters of the American Civil War, it was relatively easy to see their greatness in military rank and achievement. But as I progressed in my reading, I was learning that there was so much more to these men that made them truly great. I began to see their great devotion to their faith, family, country, and fellow man. These men were so clearly defined by their respectful mannerisms, deeply held convictions, and chivalrous actions. Yet all, just like you and I, had flaws, weaknesses, shortcomings, sins, and failures.

What made them great was not their battlefield accomplishments and military prowess. It was their ability to see their mortality, their own faults, to learn to navigate through life with their weaknesses and mostly to learn from and rise above the failures and sometimes personal tragedies they had to face. Most were humble in failure and defeat, yet extraordinarily magnanimous and respectful in victory.

In a time of great strife, division, death, and destruction, the most beautiful qualities of grace and humility shone through to me like a lighthouse beacon in a dense fog. Many of these men were truly great because of things the history books do not tell us and unfortunately in some cases have been deleted intentionally for political reasons.

This book is written from a believer’s perspective. However, if you are not a believer or are somewhere in between, you can still gather great feelings of admiration for these men. Their belief in the Almighty was a major part of them and often played a great role in their lives. To omit it from their story would be no less of a disservice to them personally than amputating their military achievements.

INTRODUCTION

Why do men fight who were born to be brothers.

—Confederate General James Longstreet

The American Civil War was probably the most defining event in this great countries history. With approximately 627,000 casualties, it was the costliest war in United States history. Even those who survived it would never ever be the same. Many survived the war but returned home maimed physically by wounds, disease, and amputations. All came home with an altered or damaged soul, many reliving nightmares in their dreams, of death, and carnage that most of us can only scarcely imagine. Many would hear forever the screams and moans of the wounded and dying all around them on a battlefield in the not-so-distant past.

There is little question that slavery was the central issue of the war. No human being should ever be enslaved by another human being for any reason period. Unfortunately, human slavery has been a recurring issue throughout mankind’s checkered history. All the laws, wars, and social movements throughout time have failed to eliminate it. Slavery is still practiced in some places in our world today. In the United States both before and during the civil war, slavery was the law of the land, and all of us know that trying to undo any federal law or program is always difficult if not near impossible. Ronald Reagan once said that "a government bureau, (institution) is the nearest thing to eternal life we’ll ever see on this earth."

The people discussed in this book chose sides at the wars outbreak. It is usually a fairly easy decision to choose sides on an issue. However, when evaluating these characters, it should always be noted that their reasons for choosing to be either a rebel or a yankee were more often than not multifaceted. The issue of being pro—or antislavery was more often than not a very minimal factor in their choice and in most cases was a nonfactor in their choice of alliance. For some, the decision to choose sides was a no brainer. For many it was an agonizing choice that would force best friends as well as family members to oppose one another and be estranged.

It cannot be stated emphatically enough or with enough repetition that not all Union Soldiers joined the Union because they were abolitionists. Conversely not all Confederate soldiers sided with the Confederacy because they were racists. Many left wing political hacks, as well as modern day academicians love to paint those from the north as a race of people loving Mother Theresa’s and all southerners as Ku Klux Klan members by birthright. This is nothing more than a pure deceptive lie.

I think there is little doubt that the American Civil War was the worst time in American history. We saw it coming. We knew it was inevitable but very few saw it for what it really was and practically no one on either side saw it for what it was going to become. The great delusion in the majority of minds on both sides was that the war would last less than a year and some even thought as little as a few months.

Besides the 627,000 casualties, property damage would run into the billions of dollars. Adjusted for modern-day inflation this amount would be in the trillions. Thousands upon thousands of widows were created by the war, as well as an astounding number of orphans. The biblical story of Cain and Abel was replayed again, except this time it would be replayed in terrible multiplicity.

In the words of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, It is good that war is so terrible lest we should grow too fond of it.

This is not a book on military tactics or history, for those are another subject entirely. There are numerous excellent books on these subjects written by those much more learned than me. The history of each person discussed herein is presented in a fairly general form. I only expound on details of personal history when I feel they are important. My goal in writing this book was to eliminate the idea of this being a history book full of dates and places. Most people I know do not enjoy the study of history at all. I wish simply to introduce the general reader to some very interesting people from our nation’s history without giving them political spin.

If many people despise studying and learning history, an even larger segment of the population hates politics even more. This book is not a political expose. In some cases, the politics of a particular person’s life impacted them in such a vital way that some of the political details must be included to give credence to their situation and to their characterization. One thing is for certain, you cannot separate politics from war anymore than you can separate the rancid smell from a fresh pile of dung. They are and have always been eternally wed to one another.

The intent of this writing is to provide a snapshot of each of these individuals without the bogging down of biographical detail and extensive historical revelation. I wish to reveal to the reader information (whenever pertinent) about their worldviews, upbringing, educational training (or lack of), and the terrible event that these individuals lived through. Look carefully at the hardships they had to endure, the personal tragedies in their lives, and the difficult to impossible situations they faced at times. Look for the good in each and only consider the bad, then put it all together and try to formulate your own unbiased nonjudgmental, nonpreprogrammed, or predetermined view and opinion of each. Overcoming our own personal biases is often the most difficult thing we face as human beings in making a fair evaluation of others. The pure truth is all human beings have biases in one way or another whether we want to admit it or not.

I included several appendices at the back of the book for convenience sake. Appendix 1 deals with military ranks and a brief explanation of each and what is minimally required to gain promotion to the next rank. It explains the military chain of command and the official (and dare I say) political processes involved in obtaining rank in military service.

The second appendix includes the majority of the battles of the Civil War that pertain to this writing. Included in each is the battle name and date, the troop numbers engaged by both armies and casualty estimations for each side. In addition, any character featured in this writing, which participated in the battle in either a commanding or subordinate role, is listed as well.

One last comment on the pictures used throughout the book. I included a picture of each figure featured along with the corresponding chapter if applicable. In some cases, a picture of someone who is discussed frequently in the narrative is included in that chapter as well. I feel that pictures give the story more meaning and make an assessment more personal. After all, they say a picture is worth a thousand words. Putting a face to the narrative seemingly gives it much more meaning, and besides that, books with pictures are a whole lot cooler.

The section of pictures on the war in the middle section of the book, in general contain graphic post battle scenes of dead and wounded. They are not placed here to produce a grossed-out factor. They are here to remind us that war is a scourge and a cancer on mankind. Remember, that these great men saw this carnage regularly and for the remainder of their lives lived with its terrible memories. Finally the graphic pictures are here to prove Union General William Tecumseh Sherman correct when he said war is cruelty, there is no way to reform it.

One final note: Some chapters end with a discussion on various human issues and yes some politics. I do express at times some rather strong views on why I am of the worldview and my reasoning and opinion for that view. I feel I have a right that is unalienable, to my view on things, just as you do yours. If you disagree with me, that is your inalienable right, and I will respect that. However, do not let your disagreement or anger with my view and opinion guide you away from the real aim of this book which is simply to portray these historical figures who made such a major impact on our country despite their mistakes flawed characters, often misguided views, misjudgments, prideful ways, distorted views, politics, egos, sins, lies, etc.

I think I just described the human condition in one sentence. All of the characters discussed in this book rose above it all and achieved varying degrees of greatness despite the nightmares in their own lives and the nightmare that was the American Civil War.

File: Ulysses Grant 1870-1880.jpg

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Image%201.jpg

CHAPTER 1

DON’T TAKE IT FOR GRANTED

I cannot spare this man he fights.

—Abraham Lincoln referring to Ulysses S. Grant

I have never advocated war except as a means of peace.

—Ulysses S. Grant

I remember as a young man in grade school going to the library and trying to get my hands on any books I could about wars. The ones I most sought covered World War II. Patton, McArthur, Bradley, and Eisenhower were just a few of the prominent names that I admired. I tepidly read about the other wars in American history but not with the relish that I felt for World War II. Hollywood and television probably had a whole lot to do with it as well.

The younger we are, the more impressionable we tend to be. The more likely we are also to believe others opinions or views about someone else or something. I will be the first to admit that I had gathered four distinct visions in my mind when the name Ulysses S. Grant was brought up. They were as follows:

34072.png The face on the fifty-dollar bill

34074.png Commanding Union General in the Civil War

34076.png President of the United States—but a bad one

34078.png A drunk

I do not believe that there would be much debate that the first two items are irrefutably true. The third item is very disputable. The fourth item may very well be a gross mischaracterization.

Before going into Grant as a military leader just a few notes on his two terms as President. He served as the Radical Republicans nominee. The Radical Republicans were an interesting political lot, and their political proclivities will crop up at times throughout the course of the book. In all fairness, Ulysses S. Grant inherited an even more difficult situation than almost all presidents. He was and still has the unique distinction of being the only president in United States history to be elected immediately after a civil war. He had to spend much time and resource in quelling violence in the South. With veterans from both sides returning from war and entering the workforce plus the now over one million free slaves looking for jobs as well, unemployment was an overwhelming issue. The south’s economy had been utterly destroyed during the war. There was little to no remaining infrastructure left usable. The south would have to be rebuilt in every conceivable way. This along with other factors lead to an economic depression known as the Panic of 1873. Grant’s reputation was marred further by his defense of some corrupt appointees that had become embroiled in multiple federal scandals.

Grant had to respond more than any other president in U.S. history to repeated and drawn out investigations of various Federal Departments on corruption charges. To his credit, Grant has been recognized for conducting a solid foreign policy and for his work and implementation of civil rights.

Grant personally was a kind good and honest man. If he was guilty of anything, it was his cronyism. He appointed many friends to positions in his administration. He was probably a bit over trusting of others as well, and he failed in having as much oversight as was necessary to monitor his appointees. Many were friends, and they likely took advantage of his apparently good-natured and trusting ways.

Ulysses S. Grant was born on April 27, 1822, in a modest home in Point Pleasant, Ohio. He was said to be a solitary child who had a great love for horses. His schooling was rather ordinary for the time, and he spent some time studying at seminary school. In 1834, his father recommended him to the Military Academy at West Point. He detested his time there and frequently accumulated disciplinary demerits for tardiness and misdress. He persevered through his studies and graduated eighteenth out of a class of thirty-nine. While attending, he would excel in both engineering and horsemanship.

After graduating, he really had no intention of becoming a career military man but instead wanted to be a math professor.

His military career began in 1846 during the Mexican American War where he fought under Zachary Taylor as a brevet lieutenant. He performed his duties well and performed courageously earning a promotion to captain.

In 1848 he met and married a woman named Julia Dent who was a sister to one of his West Point classmates. After the Mexican American war, he was placed on garrison duty at several obscure and isolated Forts out west. He soon felt isolated and was homesick for his family. He also suffered with boredom and depression. He spent a period of time while out west where he drank somewhat heavily and regularly. It is because of this period of indisgression in his life that he would carry the label of drunk during his career.

He returned from active duty to Missouri in 1854 and tried his hand at several different occupations, all of which were basically unsuccessful. He ended up settling into a position as a clerk in his father’s leather goods store. He led a very ordinary and uneventful life.

When the civil war began in 1861, he reentered active military service and was promoted to colonel. He was sent to Illinois to train Union regiments. Due to his previous assignments on garrison duties out west, he was not looked upon with favor by his superior officers.

He performed his duties well and remained a relatively obscure officer. Little did I know that on my honeymoon week trip to Kentucky Lake would I get to learn that there was so much more to that bad president who was a drunk with his picture on the fifty-dollar bill who happened to do a pretty good job as a Civil War General.

I learned that this was the starting point in his rise to fame. He was given the task of taking Fort Donelson located on the Cumberland River and Fort Heiman located on the parallel course running Tennessee River. On a personal note, he Land between the Lakes is a beautiful place to visit (the fishin’ ain’t too bad either). I only mention this because while visiting the park, I felt a deep sense of emotion that is not typical of me. It was especially profound at the cemetery while I observed row after row of crosses marking the graves of fallen Union soldiers. I felt an even more profound sense of sorrow when I learned that so many Confederate soldiers who paid with their lives during the war were sadly buried in mass unmarked graves. Neither Fort Donelson nor Fort Heiman was by any means major confederate military installations. But strategically the control of each was vital logistically. Both protected direct transportation routes into the south. They connected the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to the south, especially to Nashville, Tennessee. Gaining control of the rivers would cut off all transportation and shipping in and out of the South.

Grant’s troops marched into Western Kentucky in February of 1862 armed with winter provisions and supplies. For those not familiar with Kentucky, it should be pointed out that the weather at this time of the year can be terribly schizophrenic. When Grant’s men reached areas near the forts, they were met with sunny warm days with temperatures near 80 degrees. Since the soldiers were under the impression that moving south meant moving into warmer climates. They also mistakenly concluded that this meant increasingly warmer as well as steadier temperatures. Most disposed of their winter clothes, coats, and blankets to make their march less cumbersome. True to good ole Kentucky spring weather form, on the night they made camp and set up their center of operations the weather made a typical early spring Kentucky change.

That very night a cold front swept down from the northwest, dropping the temperatures the next day to around freezing and blanketing the area with freezing rain and snow. On another personal note, I could fully appreciate at least in a small way the surprise the soldiers experienced. For three years straight in March of the year, I meticulously planned an early season crappie fishing expedition to Kentucky Lake. For three years straight, the weather was unseasonably warm for the three-to-five-day period prior to my arrival with temperatures as high as the mid eighties. And for three years straight, a front from the northwest would come sweeping through within twenty-four hours of my arrival. I would awake to go fishing the next morning to temperatures below forty degrees, and the mercury would struggle to reach fifty degrees for a high. It would be mostly cloudy, with fifteen to twenty-five mile per hour winds out of the north and the lake would be buffeted with rolling white capping waves of two to four feet. I think the fish responded to it more negatively than I did. My wife was always right by my side and never complained a bit. What a woman!

Grant’s ground forces at Fort Donelson were supported by a relatively new invention of war, Navy gunboats. This new addition to warfare and the fact that the Confederates had none of their gunboats in the area led the Confederates to surrender the forts with minimal resistance and only isolated skirmishes. It was here that Grant issued words that he would become renowned for. He tendered a surrender order to the Confederate command. It stated:

No other terms than unconditional immediate surrender. I propose to immediately move on your works.

These words would become attached to Grant through posterity. The public now referred to him as (U.S. Grant) the U.S. standing for Unconditional Surrender Grant.

Grant had conquered the forts and secured the all important river arteries for the Union. It was significant for two other nonlogistical reasons. To this point in the war, little had gone well for the Union Army. Especially in the Eastern theater of the war, where they for the most part, fought in battles that ended in stalemates or in most of the others they were soundly whipped by Confederate General Robert E. Lee. A total victory with surrender.

Model of the Union Naval Gunboat Monitor. U-boats of this type were used to great advantage at the Battle of Fort Donelson on the Tennessee River in 1862

File: Monitor model2.jpg

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia

Image%202.jpg

was just what the North needed.

Secondly, Pres. Abraham Lincoln, who was hungry for any good news about the war, took note. The victory at Fort Donelson gained Grant great favor and admiration from Lincoln.

To this point in his military career, Grant had far more critics than allies. Many other officers characterized him falsely as a drunk to superiors in order to gain promotion over him. To make matters worse, the major general of the Union Army in charge of the Western theater was Henry Halleck and he had it in his mind as well that Grant was a problem. Halleck was a good man and very intelligent. Unfortunately, he was only good as an administrative or arm chair General. He knew tactics front and back but did not have what it took to be a quick decision making battlefield commander. Halleck looked for any way he could to discredit Grant. But now the real Commander in Chief, Pres. Abraham Lincoln saw Grant with favor, and his opinion mattered most. Lincoln promoted grant to major general of volunteers immediately after the Union victory at Fort Donelson.

Ulysses S. Grant had now proved his worth as a leader and as a battlefield commander. His star was shining and on the rise. His critics and their barbs continued throughout his career but had now lost much of their punch. The level of respect he had garnered from Abraham Lincoln made the sting and effect of those barbs miniscule.

It was also at Fort Donelson that Grant earned another moniker that would characterize him for the ages. After the surrender, Grant was given a cigar by Adm. Andrew H. Foote of the naval command.

A reporter spied Grant sitting boldly on his horse with his CIGAR. At the time Grant did not smoke, and by all accounts, the cigar he had was unlit. Once word reached the newspapers throughout the Union, many in appreciation of Grant’s feat began to send him cigars as gifts. It was reported that he received over ten thousand. It is also reported that he tried to give away as many as he could to his men but had so many sent to him that it was futile.

He picked up the habit of smoking cigars. He was always viewed during battle as General Grant sitting on his horse smoking his cigars with an unflinching steely resolve.

Unfortunately for Grant, his habit grew into an approximately twenty cigar a day habit. It is highly likely that it contributed to his death from throat cancer in later years.

Grant was now in charge of over fifty thousand men. His number 1 senior general was William Tecumseh Sherman. On April 6, 1862, Grant’s forces were camped at a place called Pittsburg Landing on the Tennessee River, near the borderlines of Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi. They were surprise attacked by a Confederate force of nearly forty-five thousand. This began the bloody two-day Battle of Shiloh where nearly twenty-four thousand men from both sides would give their lives.

The Confederates pushed the Union Army all the way back to the river on day one and gained the advantage. Failing to press their advantage further, Confederate General P. G. T. Beauregard decided to rest his exhausted troops as opposed to pursuing a retreating beaten army. This allowed Grant to rally his troops into a counterattack on the next day after receiving reinforcements during the night, and the Union army regained the ground lost on the previous day.

The Battle of Shiloh ended in a virtual stalemate. No ground was gained or lost by either side, yet around twenty-four thousand men lay dead. To that time in the war, Shiloh had been the costliest battle of the Civil War. It still is the bloodiest two-day battle on record. Grant received criticism from many corners due to the number of high casualties suffered at Shiloh. Henry Halleck had Grant demoted to second in command and replaced him with General George H. Thomas. Grant was on the verge of resigning from the military permanently until his friend William Tecumseh Sherman talked him out of it.

Ironically Henry Halleck next planned to assault the Confederate stronghold of Corinth Mississippi shortly after Shiloh. Halleck’s caution and detail slowed the Union Army to such a degree that they only moved nineteen miles in thirty days. The slowness of the venture allowed the entire Confederate force to escape. Grant was then restored by Lincoln to again command the Union Army of Tennessee.

Grant’s next task was to take the Confederate stronghold at Vicksburg, Mississippi. It would take almost a year. Grant attempted two frontal assaults on the Fort both of which resulted in grotesque casualty numbers. His fiercest critics soon labeled him with the nickname the Butcher. Grant finally settled on a seven-week siege that would cut off all supplies too and starve the Fort. It worked. On July 14, 1863, Vicksburg was captured. Again the critics accused Grant of drunkenness, so Lincoln sent journalist Charles Dana to keep an eye on Grant. The two men became great friends, and Dana never saw or provided any ill reports to Lincoln concerning Grant. Whether there were any negative events to report is unknown.

Grant would next lead forces at Chatanooga and at the Battle of Chickamauga. After many ups and downs and a monthlong series of maneuvers and battles the Confederate army scattered in retreat. This battle was significant for the Union because it opened up a path into Georgia for Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman to begin his famous southern invasion. Grant now became a very popular figure in the north and Lincoln promoted him to lieutenant general and head of all Union forces.

When 1864 arrived, the Union army had successfully hemmed the Confederate army into the mid Atlantic and central southeast. There was now one primary objective to attain; and the war could be ended, defeat, and conquer Robert E. Lee’s Army of Virginia. All this, while William Tecumseh Sherman was making his famous march to the sea.

Grant had by this time learned that the best way to fight the Confederate Army was to fight a battle of attrition. Since the Union Army was much greater in number and much better fed and supplied than the Confederate army. In Grant’s view, even if victory in any given battle could not be attained, stalemate with relatively even casualty losses on both sides was like a victory.

Many famous and bloody battles were fought in this period

On the third day of this battle, Grant led on assault that he said he later regretted.

He attacked Lee’s entrenched positions. The results were disastrous with heavy casualties

Grant was now again being called the Butcher. He had lost just shy of fifty-three thousand men in thirty days. Lee had lost nearly thirty-three thousand.

Lee’s army was now forced to back off and protect the Confederate capitol of Richmond Virginia. Lee’s army dug in and entrenched and in a defensive posture. In nearby Petersburg, Virginia, Grant and Lee fought to numerous stalemates during a siege that lasted nine months. In the mean time, General William Tecumseh Sherman had captured the city of Atlanta Georgia.

Petersburg Virginia finally fell to Union forces in March 1865. The next month the Confederate capitol of Richmond fell. Lee saw little recourse but to surrender his forces at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. Grant was respectful and displayed absolute magnanimity toward his vanquished foes. A terrible long bloody conflict was over. Now America would embark on a task that may have been just as painful, was definitely longer lasting, and may very well have been more difficult than the war itself. Americans now had to mend fences with each other and repair damage and heal wounds that were self-inflicted. The battles had ended, but the conflict lingered on, and the shooting would actually resume in just five more days.

Five days after the surrender at Appomattox on April 14, 1865, Grant attended a cabinet meeting with President Lincoln at the White House. Lincoln asked him if he and his wife would like to attend the theater with him and Mrs. Lincoln. Grant graciously declined because he and his wife had already committed to visit their children. Little did Grant know that it would be the last time he would see Lincoln alive. The president would be assassinated at the theater that very night. There is some strong speculation that Grant along with several other top government officials were targets of the assassins as well.

Grant attended Lincoln’s funeral on April 19, 1815, and wept openly and bitterly stating that he was incontestably the greatest man I have ever known.

We have previously talked of the ups and downs of Grant’s postwar political career. After his political career was over, Grant had minimal financial resources. He entered into a partnership with a railroad Co. that failed in 1881. In order to support his family, he liquidated his entire collection of Civil War mementos