American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant

Ronald C. White, “American Ulysses: A Life of Ulysses S. Grant,” Random House, 2016, 659 pgs.

By the time of Grant’s death in 1885 he was considered by most contemporaries as one of three greatest Presidents in U.S. history: Washington, Lincoln, and Grant.  These contemporary admirers included most of the confederate Generals, leaders of Mexico, Britain, Ireland, Japan, China, etc.  After reading this book, I conclude that I agree with this evaluation.  His policies toward healing the wounds of the war, ensuring blacks the right to vote, and treating the Indians fairly were very much the same as could have been expected from Lincoln had Lincoln not been assassinated.

This book is a must read for anyone interested in the Civil War.  I found my previous knowledge of Grant either erroneous or lacking in most areas; yet accurately knowing Grant is essential to understanding the Civil War.  This book highlights a positive image of Grant.  It helps correct the military butcher and political incompetent image previously put forward by Jim Crow era historians. 

This book accurately portrays Grant’s loving marriage, the sense of honor that made him agonize over debts and his fundamental decency. It convinced me that his drinking has been grossly exaggerated and he was mostly blameless for the corruption that erupted during his second term, other than trusting friends too much.

My Notes:

Pg. xxvi:  What to make of Grant’s two terms (1869-77) as president?  The specter of scandals in his second term has tended to demolish the accomplishments of both terms.  Yet Grant as president defended the political rights of African Americans, battled against the Ku Klux Klan and voter suppression, reimagined Indian policy, rethought the role of the federal government in a changing America, and foresaw that the US would now assume a larger place in world affairs, a durable peace with Great Britain would provide the nation with a major ally.

Pg. 135:  Galena IL in 1859 had a population of 10,000 and owed its prosperity to the rich lead mines that were found in fifty square miles around it comprising 80 percent of the lead mining in the US. (I visited Grants home in Galena twice over the years).

Pg. 139:  On December 20 a state convention in Charleston, South Carolina voted unanimously to secede from the Union.  Within forty days, one by one, the southern states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, and Texas voted themselves out of the Union.  They quickly took control of Federal institutions, including forts. 

Pg. 144:  In April 1861 with the attack on Fort Sumter, Grant found himself thrust back into the Army from which he had resigned seven years before.  (He was a West Point graduate and a veteran of the war with Mexico).

Pg. 371:  Grant’s Virginia campaign involved forty –five days, from the Rapidan River to the siege in Petersburg, in woods, on rivers, and in small towns, Grant fought Lee in some of the most brutal battles of the war  He suffered sixty-five thousand casualties; Confederate casualties numbered around thirty-five thousand.  (It was always more effective to fight from defensive positions).

Pg. 411:  The US population stood at barely more than 30 million at the start of the war  For that small nation, the accepted total of deaths in the Civil War has recently been  estimated at 750,000 (up from previous estimates of 620,000: 360,000 from the North; 260,000 from the South).

Pg. 440:  The Military Reconstruction Act of 1867 brushed aside the present southern state governments as merely provisional.  The act would create five military districts in the ten southern states that refused to ratify the Fourteenth Amendment.  Five generals were appointed to the areas to govern and had broad powers to act as the effective government.  This act was passed over the veto of President Johnson. Grant as General in Chief appointed the five generals in General Orders No 10.

Pg. 441:  Stanton was the lone remaining holdover from the Lincoln cabinet.  The Tenure of Office Act was passed over Johnson’s veto to protect Stanton from dismissal by Johnson.  The act attempted to prevent the president the power to remove any executive officer who had been appointed by the president with the advice and consent of the Senate, unless the Senate approved the removal during the next full session of Congress. The act was significantly amended on April 5, 1869. Congress repealed the act in its entirety in 1887.  (When Johnson went ahead and removed Stanton, this became one of the impeachment items.)

Pg. 487:  The policy of the government toward the Indians had been codified by President James Monroe in 1824 when he ordered the voluntary’ removal of Indian tribes residing in the East to the Trans-Mississippi West.  Andrew Jackson, after becoming president in 1829, instituted an Indian removal policy in the lower South, home to the ‘Five Civilized Tribes.’  Under his successor, Martin Van Buren, the ‘Trail of Tears’ trek of 1838-9 forcibly resettled Cherokees in present day Oklahoma.