Ulysses S. Grant: The Man Who Saved the Union

 

Ulysses S. Grant: The Man Who Saved the Union – H.W. Brands

I’m always a bit hesitant to read a biography of a subject matter when I’ve already read a previous one.  There are so many bios of subjects out there that I haven’t yet tackled, so it always feels a bit of an injustice, or perhaps a timewaster.  I especially felt this way when it came to Ulysses S. Grant.  I had already read the brilliant biography of him by Ron Chernow, and how does one top a Ron Chernow?  Well, you really can’t, but I guess that shouldn’t matter. It had been a few years since I read the Chernow offering, and H.W. Brands has a very high reputation within my literary palate, so I thought I’d take a chance.  Of course, it helped that I bought this thing at a “Library clearance” sale.

I imagine the toughest part about writing a bio of Grant is that he had two “careers” that are both, in and of themselves, worthy of retrospection.  He was the commander of the Union army during the U.S. Civil War, and then he later went on to be President of the United States.  So there’s a lot to write about obviously. What I found a bit shocking, or maybe it was actually necessary, is that author Brands really wrote about very little else concerning the man’s life.

It seems as though Grant’s upbringing is told here as briefly as possible and then -BAM- we arrive very  quickly at the Mexican-American War.  Grant was an officer in the war and seemed to be a bit more than a minor character in the conflict.  It seems as though soldiering suits Grant rather nicely. During the war, he became betrothed to future wife Julia, and we read a lot of snippets from Grant’s correspondence to her during the war.  This is the one area of the book that seems a tad too much.  Brands isn’t satisfied telling us, for example, that Grant wakes up with a headache one day.  Instead, he tells us: “Grant wrote to Julia that day telling her that he felt poorly due to a headache….”  Most of this communication does border on the inconsequential, but it does give us a lot of insight into Grant’s character and demeanor.

As someone who has seen a lot of pictures of Grant in various Civil War books, I must admit that I’m bit shocked by his personality as detailed by Brands (and others).  Whenever I would see pictures of Grant in his dirty Union uniform, scraggly beard, chomping on a cigar, and yelling “unconditional surrender only” I had a much harsher impression of his personality.  However, we read that he was actually a very calm, mild mannered, polite, and articulate man.  Yes, he was a stellar general but he always comes across as a guy who, if you invited him to dinner, he wouldn’t leave a mess for you to clean up.  I learned that you definitely cannot, and should not,  judge a book by its cover.

Anyway, soldiering seems the only thing that Grant can do well.  Between the Mexican-American War and the U.S. Civil War, Grant seems pretty inept at whatever business or trade he encounters.  He’s frequently a failure at the most simple, mundane jobs and often needs family assistance to keep the bills paid. So when Fort Sumter is fired upon igniting a tinderbox in 1861, Grant is back in the service and slowly starts to emerge as one of the best commanding officers that President Lincoln has; and Lincoln doesn’t have that many.  Another thing this book did that was a bit different is that author Brands gives us a somewhat historical account of the entire U.S. Civil War; regardless of whether Grant was a part of the particular event or not.  This is actually a good thing since it gives the reader a clearer picture of just what was going on all around Grant before he assumes command of the entire army (this happened in 1864).

Once the war is over, the mess of reconstruction begins, and it turns out the South is still filled with bitter obdurate racists. President Lincoln is assassinated and his Vice President, Andrew Johnson, is a horrible replacement.  Pretty soon the nation is clamoring for Grant to be the next Commander in Chief.  What is it exactly that endures so many to want former well-known generals to also serve as President?  Anyway, Grant is a bit ambivalent about holding the office and he never really seems to encourage his name being mentioned.  However, in such times, Grant feels that he (and others) need to respond to the call of duty from their countrymen regardless of personal preference.  It’s so odd to read about a time when front runners for the most important political post in the country never even campaigned for the office.  It was looked at back then as uncouth and disrespectable.  Can you really imagine?

Anyway, we read about Grant’s two terms, with the highlights of the comings and goings in the nation and the world, and get enough information to understand the times, and Grant’s beliefs about how he thinks a country should be run. Fortunately, though, we never get weighed down too much by many of the events that happen during this eight-year period.  In a sense, it almost seems as though more is necessary, but as I’ve mentioned, there’s already so much to pack into one book when talking about the life of Ulysses S. Grant, so what author Brands provides us is probably a good satisfactory balance.  I’m guessing there are plenty of other books out there devoted solely to many of the incidents that occurred during Grant’s presidency.

I really enjoyed this book, yet it’s been too long since I read the biography by Ron Chernow, so I can’t honestly compare the two.  I would say, though, that either one of these offerings would be suffice if you want to read about a great man, and a very significant, yet somewhat unfortunate time in U.S. history.