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Currently going through a creative funk - coder's equivalent of writer's block. So am gunning to go through Chernow's Grant. Some 'light' reading. Kinda goes with the times, ama?
For starter's he looks a lot like Hugh Jackman. The introductory chapter by Chernow is definitely high praise. And he is that unicorn of literature - a complex character. This will be interesting. Poleni sana, we are doing Chernow's Grant together. Hang on tight! lol
Grant and Lee fought side by side in Mexico for the annexation of Texas. Lee rose higher in the ranks than Grant through this campaign. Though Grant was not too far behind. Both displayed considerable daring, elan and military effectiveness in their duties.
The close contact gave Grant a chance to study the man up close and conclude that Lee was mortal. "... and it was just as well that I felt this."
Grant was assigned the task of quartermaster which gave him the enviable talent of knowing how to coordinate large armies and arrive battle ready.
Also, his best man and 2 groomsmen all surrendered to him later at Appomattox. How droll!
Also, his best man and 2 groomsmen all surrendered to him later at Appomattox. How droll!
Grant's forebears arrived in America in about 1755 from England. They were staunch church-going Methodists. Grant's father was staunchly abolitionist and political enough to get himself elected mayor in 2 different cities.
Ulysses had this same abolitionist bent. However as fate would have it he ended up marrying from deep slave owning stock. His father in law owned 850 acres in Missouri. There was a dark stretch in Uly's life when he retired from the military to farm on his wife's inheritance.
During this stretch he never used slave labour. He always hired free blacks and payed them above slave wages. Uly's farm and farming never broke even. He could have made it a whole lot more productive using slaves his wife inherited. He didn't. This was in Missouri. Deep South.
Everyone around him owned slaves and treated them as such. Talk about a complex character.
Popular perception of Grant paints him as a country bumpkin. He merely affected to be one. Beneath that exterior was an erudite fellow and a grasping mind. A lot of his West Point peers thought highly of him.
His experience of the Mexican war also gave him a first hand view ofnthebpolitical side of war. Prior to1860 his views evolved in tandem with the North, and he displayed a keen understanding of the issues and positions around it.
