Grant

Grant met with his father-in-law Colonel Dent to debate over whether Julia and her children should stay in Illinois or at New Haven. Dent urged Grant to join the cause of the South. Grant refused to go to New Haven or let Julia and their children live there. Dent vowed to shoot Grant if he showed up in Missouri. On June, 16, 1861, Governor Yates appointed Grant as the colonel of the 7th Congressional District Regiment, which would later become the Twenty-First Illinois (136). As commander, Grant was “overly harsh” at first, but also showed “fairness, competence, and aplomb” (137). Due to his own past, Grant avoided all alcohol and was especially careful to deal with heavy drinking among his own men. Grant’s first major assignment was to go to Missouri to stop the Confederate general Thomas A. Harris, who was sabotaging railways used by the North. The experience of feeling fear about confronting Harris taught Grant about “the psychology of war” and made him “intuitive about enemy weakness” (140). During this time, Grant’s regiment came close to a Confederate company that included the future famous author Mark Twain.

When a runaway enslaved person appeared at the camp, Grant did not allow the enslaved person to enlist in the military. Instead, his men helped the man reach an escape route. When the enslaver appeared, they detained him by forcing him to make a pledge of allegiance to the Union. Grant began seeing success: “After years of seeing his life maddeningly stalled, Grant began to experience gigantic leaps in power” (142). Grant was promoted to brigadier general and put in charge of regiments at Ironton, Missouri. Unlike General Frémont, who freed enslaved people and executed Confederates, Grant closely followed orders from the Lincoln administration, even if it meant not liberating enslaved people that his soldiers came across. Grant set up his army’s headquarters at Cairo, Illinois, which was near the border with Missouri. He developed as someone who could “make rapid-fire decisions under extreme pressure” (147), but he was “almost laughably inefficient when it came to filing paperwork” (148) and often gave important positions to trusted relatives. Grant’s adjutant or right-hand man was John Rawlins, a man whose family also suffered from alcoholism and with whom Grant made a non-drinking agreement.

In the early stages of the American Civil War, the Lincoln administration’s war strategy focused on Kentucky, “a centrally located buffer state between North and South” (153). Like Missouri, the people of Kentucky were torn between the pro-Union and pro-Confederate causes. Grant marched on the strategically important town of Paducah in Kentucky. Grant quickly occupied the town and assured the citizens of his peaceful intentions. After this, Grant wanted to move on to Columbus, Kentucky, but he did not get permission from his superior, General Frémont. When Frémont was dismissed by Lincoln, Grant acted on his own, confronting Confederate reinforcements and the Confederate general Leonidas Polk at Belmont, Missouri near Columbus. Chernow argues this shows Grant “becoming the most self-confident of Union commanders” (156).

The battle proved to be a “narrow Union victory” (159) that drove Confederate forces out of southeastern Missouri. Following this victory and Grant proving himself in the army, Julia became a supporter of the Union cause. Meanwhile, his father tried to have Grant secure contracts with the Union army for his business, but Grant refused. Next, Grant worked to capture a Confederate stronghold in Tennessee, Fort Henry. The fort’s construction was poorly planned, making it vulnerable to flooding from the nearby river. Using a new kind of steam-powered naval warship, the timberclad, Grant was able to take control of Fort Henry. Chernow argues that the victory at Fort Henry saw Grant developing a unique “style” as a general, one that was “scrappy, mobile, opportunistic” (174).

For his next campaign, Grant decided to attack Fort Donelson also in Tennessee “instead of strengthening Fort Henry” (177). During the siege of Fort Donelson, Grant and his men endured a severe snowstorm. Grant demanded an unconditional surrender from the troops at Fort Donelson, which happened to be commanded by Simon Bolivar Buckner. This violated the old rules of military chivalry. Chernow asserts that “Grant retired outmoded forms of chivalry, showing that gentility had given way to a stark new brand of modern warfare” (182). The battle at Fort Donelson represented the “first major Union victory” (184) in the Civil War. After capturing Fort Donelson, Grant went along with a change in policy by the Lincoln administration in the treatment of enslaved people. Although Grant did not allow enslaved people to join the army, he would not return enslaved people to the Confederates, instead having them work for the Union army. As a result of his triumph, President Lincoln promoted Grant to lieutenant general.

“Grant’s military philosophy called for following up on victories before the enemy had time to recuperate” (187), so Grant moved on to his next targets, Clarksville and Nashville. However, his new fame raised rumors about his alcoholism. Also, Chernow suggests that Grant’s rise to fame provoked the jealousy of his superiors, George McClellan and Henry Halleck. Based on reports about Grant’s drinking, they stripped him of his authority. However, Grant was supported by other Union officers, including General William Sherman, who became a personal friend. Eventually, Grant was absolved of any wrongdoing and McClellan was removed from his command.

The next step for Grant was to try to take the town of Corinth in northern Mississippi, which “served as a crossroads for two major railroads that connected the Mississippi River with the Atlantic Ocean, and its capture would pave the way for vanquishing Memphis, Vicksburg, and broad swaths of the Deep South” (195). Although Grant would later claim that he expected a battle, Chernow points out that in his letters from the time Grant had no idea that a Confederate army was coming. At a small church named Shiloh in southwest Tennessee, Grant’s army was surprised by Confederate forces. The battle “was a free-for-all of death in which brute force trumped tactical subtleties” (200), but Grant himself “did not crumble in adversity” (203).

While seeking treatment for a bullet that struck him near his knee, Grant was horrified to see a pile of limbs in the field hospital. During the Civil War, it was common for doctors to amputate limbs in order to treat gangrene and severe infections. Whiskey was given to patients instead of anesthesia. Before Shiloh, Grant had thought the South could be quickly defeated. Now, after seeing the resistance the Union army faced at Shiloh, he believed in a “theory of total warfare in which all of southern society would have to be defeated” (206). For Grant personally, Shiloh was a “personal victory” (207) in which he reversed his own mistake in not realizing Confederate forces were about to strike. However, Grant was shocked and dismayed to see the press in the North declaring that the Battle of Shiloh ended in a Union defeat. One devastating criticism came from an article in the Cincinnati Gazette, which was written by Whitelaw Reid under the penname AGATE. It spread the false idea that the Union troops were so unprepared for a Confederate attack the soldiers were killed in their beds. Grant was also accused wrongly of being drunk during the battle. This led Grant to develop a negative opinion of the press in the North.

Nonetheless, Lincoln retained his confidence in Grant. The president kept Grant as a general despite pressure from his advisors to dismiss him. Meanwhile, Grant’s father Jesse defended him, publishing a private letter Grant had written him in the newspaper, the Cincinnati Commercial, and writing an angry letter to the governor of Ohio. Grant angrily told his father not to do such things again. Instead, Grant found real support from his friendship with Sherman: “Few things secured the fate of the Union as much as the bond of loyalty struck between these two generals who believed themselves wronged by the world’s estimation of them” (215-16). General Halleck restored Grant to full command after the Union army captured the Tennessee city of Memphis. Then Grant was ordered to come to Corinth, where he learned from Halleck that Grant would be placed in charge of a large territory termed “West Tennessee,” which would lie between the Ohio, Mississippi, and Tennessee rivers. Nonetheless, Grant found himself in charge of a smaller army, yet “Halleck’s departure gave Grant much more room to maneuver” (219).

Although he was told by Halleck to imprison Confederate sympathizers and confiscate the property of civilians in the South, Grant tended to treat Southern civilians well: “Grant never behaved vindictively toward the southern people” (221). While Grant blamed radical abolitionists for prolonging the war, his treatment of runaway enslaved people changed. Congress had passed laws banning the return of runaway enslaved people to their enslavers, even if they were loyal to the Union—allowing enslaved people to be hired into the Union army—and liberating any enslaved people who crossed into occupied Union territory. Grant quickly instituted policies in his army that reflected these laws.

Grant became ill and had to recuperate in St. Louis. While there, according to one testimony, he went on a “drinking binge” (224). In the meantime, Grant was able to push his army into Mississippi. There, he found large numbers of enslaved people eager for liberation. Under this experience, Grant went from being skeptical of radical abolitionism to envisioning the former enslaved people being made into full citizens of the United States (229). In the territories he occupied in Mississippi, Grant created a system where enslaved people would work for the Union army and be paid for their labor.

The war in Virginia was going badly, with several major Union losses to the confederacy. Grant also found himself trying to stop profits from the cotton trade, which was needed by the North and by Great Britain, from going to the Confederate army. To do so, he tried to enforce laws requiring those trading cotton to be registered with the federal government. Grant especially blamed Jewish merchants and made what Chernow describes as “the most egregious decision of his career” (233), a ban on Jews from the territory Grant controlled. Chernow theorizes this might have been a reaction provoked by his father, who came to Mississippi with three Jewish merchants, the Mack brothers, to get cotton-trading permits through his connection with Grant. In the end, Grant refused to give a trading permit to the Mack brothers, who ended their deal with Jesse Grant. Lincoln soon rescinded Grant’s antisemitic order.

The next target for the Union army was Vicksburg, Mississippi. If Vicksburg fell, the Union would control the Mississippi River and the Confederacy would lose the ability to ship supplies to their forces in the east. However, instead of putting Grant in charge of the operation, Lincoln sent John A. McClernand, who had little military experience. McClernand had widely accused Grant of alcoholism. While Grant was in Mississippi, however, the Confederates managed to destroy some of Grant’s supply lines through Tennessee. One of the leaders of this Confederate campaign was Nathan Bedford Forrest, who was known for being unpredictable and, like Grant, “demanding ‘unconditional surrender’” (239). Still, Grant and Sherman took McClernand’s troops and assumed control of the Vicksburg campaign.

President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863. By this point in the war, Grant’s “thinking had evolved in tandem with Lincoln and he now opposed slavery on practical, military, and religious grounds, taking on the president’s agenda as his own” (242). The four enslaved people that Julia Grant had still owned were freed. Personally, Grant struggled with migraines, although Chernow suggests he may have also been drinking heavily again.

At Vicksburg, Grant adapted the strategy of attacking from the east bank of the Mississippi River where the city’s defenders would not expect an assault. To help with this strategy, Grant had a canal dug that would allow gunboats to get past the city’s defensive artillery. Also, Grant had a nearby levee on the Mississippi River destroyed to allow easier transportation of supplies. However, Grant’s campaign was slowed down by the difficult swampy terrain, especially the thick vegetation. Because of this, Grant faced another round of vicious criticism from the media and from other army officials. Even so, Lincoln stood by him. Chernow notes that most politicians, since they were based in Washington, DC, never even met Grant. Charles A. Dana, the assistant secretary of war who arrived in Grant’s camp during the Vicksburg campaign, had been sent to investigate concerns over Grant’s competence under the pretext that he was working on an issue involving military pay. Grant managed to win over Dana. Dana’s impression of Grant was overall positive, although he did not deny that Grant drank. Also, he “thought Grant’s staff was populated with mediocrities chosen less for competence than for loyalty to Grant” (252).

For Vicksburg, Grant adopted a new strategy. Instead of trying to strike from an unexpected spot in the east, he would instead directly attack the city from the south, relying on gunboats. It was “one enormous role of the dice” (254). Accompanied by Julia and his children, Grant watched the naval attack. After the gunboats were able to reach Vicksburg, the army marched on the city. Grant’s strategy also benefited from the fact a runaway enslaved person informed them of an unguarded stretch of river shoreline at Bruinsburg, south of Vicksburg. Sherman and Grant marched through Mississippi, capturing the Mississippi capitol of Jackson. Grant fought a Confederate army at Champion’s Hill, a battle that ended with a Union victory. This victory finally opened the way to Vicksburg. Grant’s forces marched toward the city to cheers from the area’s enslaved people.

Grant’s army of 50,000 soldiers surrounded Vicksburg (268). However, the defenders of Vicksburg “dealt Grant a bloody setback” (268). Grant was forced to agree to a two-and-a-half hour ceasefire to tend to the wounded and the dead. Next, Grant switched tactics. Instead of trying to take Vicksburg by force, Grant started trying to starve its defenders of supplies. One silver lining was that Grant was able to get rid of McClernand. By giving a speech published in a newspaper that claimed he contributed more to the Vicksburg campaign than he actually did, McClernand violated military rules. Still, Grant had to deal with rumors of his alcoholism, especially reports that he had gotten drunk on a boat near a town called Satartia. It did not help that a doctor prescribed Grant wine to deal with his ongoing headaches. Rawlins supposedly wrote Grant a letter chastising him for drinking too much wine (272-73). Although Chernow admits the stories preserved about Grant’s alcoholic misadventure at Satartia is probably mostly untrue, he does admit it might have been based on a true story. This is because it shows a consistency with other stories of Grant’s alcoholism:

[T]he granite self-command breaking down under the influence; the slurred speech, wobbly gait, and sudden personality change; the strange reversion to a babbling childlike state; the straightening up and getting sober and resuming his personality in a twinkling (276).

However, Chernow suggests Grant was not really an alcoholic in the sense that he always had to battle the temptation to drink, but instead had “sporadic binges” (276).

Grant continued besieging Vicksburg, although the humid climate and outbreaks of malaria took a toll on his men. The citizens of Vicksburg themselves suffered from starvation and constant shelling, something new to wars. However, the Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston considered saving Vicksburg to be a hopeless cause. In the meantime, Grant met with Brigadier General Lorenzo Thomas. He had been sent to check in on Grant’s progress, but also to try to convince rank-and-file soldiers to accept regiments of formerly enslaved people. Grant also supported and befriended John Eaton, an official whose job was to oversee education, medical, and employment outreach to enslaved people who were now free. Grant confiscated a plantation owned by Joseph Davis, the brother of the president of the Confederacy, and turned it into a self-sufficient community for enslaved people who were now free. Part of Grant’s change in attitude was a reflection of the change in the Lincoln administration’s policy since Grant “believed in military subservience to civilian rule” (282). However, Chernow also argues Grant was influenced by how bravely and well Black soldiers acted. At Grant’s personal urging, Lincoln adopted a wide policy of recruiting and arming Black troops. Still, in the Union army Black soldiers faced discrimination, especially lower pay.

The siege at Vicksburg wore on, in the meantime. Grant, who was “open to technological innovations” (285), began using underground explosives to try to topple the city’s forts. Grant insisted on an unconditional surrender to the Confederate commander at Vicksburg, John C. Pemberton. In the end, however, Pemberton surrendered on the condition that his troops would be allowed to surrender with honor and return home on parole, pledging not to fight for the Confederacy again. However, Grant insisted that Pemberton and his men surrender the enslaved people.

The loss of Vicksburg was a huge moral blow to the Confederacy. The defeat “seemed to portend the end of the Confederacy itself” (291). This also vindicated Lincoln’s confidence in Grant, and Lincoln began directly corresponding with Grant. Lincoln was especially “delighted” (292) to learn that Grant credited the Emancipation Proclamation with helping to achieve his victories. Vicksburg had the additional effect of tampering down criticisms of Grant and stories of his alcoholism. In fact, some voices began to propose that Grant run for president. By July of 1863, Grant was promoted to major general. However, he resisted attempts to put him in charge of the Army of the Potomac, which was responsible for all military efforts in the eastern United States. At about the same time as the fall of Vicksburg, the Confederacy had also suffered a serious loss at Gettysburg in eastern Pennsylvania.

Worried that McClernand, who was back in Washington, DC, might turn Lincoln against him, Grant sent Rawlins to report on the Vicksburg campaign directly to the president. Rawlins convinced Lincoln that McClernand had interfered with the Vicksburg campaign. Also Lincoln made Rawlins the brigadier general of volunteer recruits. Back in Mississippi, Grant resumed disrupting Confederate supply lines to the east and occupying Confederate territory. Grant was also merciful to the civilians, giving them food and medicine. At the same time, Grant worked on recruiting more Black soldiers.

Because his troops were exhausted from the Mississippi heat, Grant took some downtime. Staying in Cairo, Illinois with his family, Grant enjoyed the fame that his recent exploits had earned him. Invited to parties, Grant abstained from any drinking. While in New Orleans to confer with another general, Nathaniel Banks, Grant was severely injured while trying to ride a difficult horse. Grant may have been drunk at the time. Chernow notes that, although the stories that Grant was drunk then come mostly from hostile sources, he adds that Rawlins believed Grant was drunk at the time.

Still on crutches, in Cairo Grant met Edwin Stanton Lincoln’s secretary of war. At first, Stanton confused Grant for Grant’s doctor because Grant was “much too ordinary and wasn’t the prepossessing figure he had imagined” (306). Stanton was liked by Lincoln because “he got things done,” but at the same time he was “tyrannical in exercising power and heedless of civil liberties” (307). After the meeting with Stanton, Grant was placed in charge of the new Military Division of the Mississippi, which put Grant in charge of most of the armies stationed between the Mississippi River and the Appalachian Mountains. Grant’s first major action was to replace the inept general William Rosecrans, who wanted to withdraw from the strategically valuable city of Chattanooga, Tennessee. During this time, “Grant sometimes exhibited a melancholy air, as if burdened by responsibility” (309).

Grant travelled to Chattanooga to meet with the new general he appointed, George Thomas. Grant worked to help the campaign in Chattanooga by opening up supplies of food from Alabama. Soldiers nicknamed the new supply line the “Cracker Line.” By enforcing standards and being a morale booster, Grant “sparked new vitality in the hitherto sluggish, downcast army” (315). Also, Grant requested that Lincoln appoint Sherman as the general in charge of the Army of Tennessee. Under Grant’s overall command, the Union was able to take control of eastern Tennessee, which was a hotbed of pro-Union sentiment. Next, Grant wanted to take the city of Mobile, Alabama. However, Grant’s plans for an Alabama campaign were rejected by Lincoln, who wanted to strengthen defenses in eastern Tennessee. Lincoln still trusted Grant, but he also began to eye him as a potential future rival for the presidency. Still, though, Grant denied any plans to get involved in politics. Despite their friendship, Sherman began to resent Grant for his fame, since Sherman did have political ambitions for after the war.

Relocating his headquarters to Nashville, Tennessee, Grant planned further operations into Alabama and Atlanta. The eastern Confederacy represented the industrial core of the Confederacy. For the time being, Grant focused on organizing supply lines to support future campaigns east. Julia Grant visited hospitals where wounded soldiers were located, although Julia stopped because Grant found her accounts too depressing. Grant and Julia found out they had become celebrities. When they tried to attend a play, the audience applauded them until Grant bowed. Meanwhile Rawlins “behaved like a nervous mother fretting over a potentially wayward son” (333), afraid Grant would slip back into heavy drinking.

In Washington, DC, there was a debate in Congress over whether or not Grant should be promoted again to lieutenant general and put in charge of the Union’s entire war effort. The title of lieutenant general was a massive honor, since it was associated with one of the nation’s founders and first president, George Washington. Some in Congress argued that Grant should only receive the title after the war. Allegations of Grant’s alcoholism and his earlier resignation in 1854 also hurt his chances. In the meantime, Grant was enjoying his newfound celebrity. He managed to get Rawlins promoted to brigadier general, despite his bad health.

In the end, Congress voted to bestow the title of lieutenant general on Grant. He eventually arrived in Washington, DC to receive news of whether or not he would be placed in command of the Union’s forces. There, Grant also met Lincoln for the first time. Lincoln urged Grant to take an aggressive approach to ending the war: “The South understood the portentous meaning of Grant’s promotion to lieutenant general: the North would have a fearless, aggressive commander who would ferociously exploit the North’s full resources in manpower and matiérel” (344). Grant went to the town of Brandy Station, Virginia to speak with the general in charge of the war effort there, George Gordon Meade, a well-educated and temperamental figure. Although Meade offered to resign, Grant kept him as the general of the army in Virginia.

Chernow argues that, under his total command, Grant reorganized the Union army and gave it a “modern command structure” (347). After visiting his parents, Grant returned to Virginia and set up his headquarters at the town of Culpeper. Lincoln completely trusted Grant with control over the Union’s military and liked him personally. Particularly, Lincoln liked Grant’s “unpretentious style” (352). They “developed a deep mutual trust that transcended petty egotism or rivalry” (354).

Grant was in command of an army with 533,000 troops, about twice the size of the Confederate army (355). He centralized the command structure of the entire Union army, focusing the army on crushing the remaining Confederate forces led by generals Johnston and Robert E. Lee. In particular, Grant planned to attack Confederate supply lines further south in order to deprive Lee’s army in Virginia of resources. However, the plan was abandoned because it could leave Washington, DC, vulnerable to an attack by Lee’s army. Instead, Grant devised a new plan to attack the Confederacy on five fronts, with Grant fighting Lee in Virginia, Sherman marching on Atlanta, and Edward R. S. Canby launching a campaign on Mobile, Alabama.

Despite his promotion, Chernow argues Grant still treated his soldiers like he was a “first among equals” (359). Grant’s past as a store clerk and a drunk drew criticism, but he also had prominent defenders. Among Grant’s actions was that he kept Rawlins as his chief of staff despite Rawlins being diagnosed with chronic bronchitis. Over time, Grant “began to pull away” (362) from Rawlins either because of his worsening health or due to rumors that Grant needed Rawlins’ support not to get drunk. Also, Grant tried to reform the army’s cavalry. Grant’s plan was to defeat Lee’s army, which Grant considered the most prominent threat the Confederacy still posed. Besides also being a “masterly tactician” (369), Lee was dangerous because he “fought mostly on home turf in Virginia, enjoying intimate knowledge of the geography, not to mention a spy network of local residents” (368). However, Chernow argues that Grant was better at broad planning while Lee was better at planning out individual battles. Lee was also focused on defending Virginia in a way that was “perhaps more personal than strategic” (370). Meanwhile, Grant was outraged to learn that President Jefferson Davis of the Confederacy had ordered that all captured Black Union soldiers would be sent back to their enslavers or executed. This provoked Grant into refusing to agree to any prisoner exchanges with the Confederacy until white and Black prisoners were treated equally.

Grant planned the lead the Union army stationed in Virginia, the Army of the James (named for the river), to take the Confederate capital of Richmond in eastern Virginia. This was the start of Grant’s Overland Campaign, “seven weeks of brutal, remorseless fighting” (377). Overall, Grant’s strategy was to avoid confronting Lee and “force Lee to react to him” (380). Lee and Grant’s armies finally clashed at the region of Wilderness. It ended with the Union suffering more casualties than the Confederacy. The battle was so bloody that Grant had an emotional breakdown in his tent (383). Instead of retreating in the middle of the night, Grant planned to try to get his army closer to Richmond than Lee’s. However, Lee anticipated Grant’s move and set up defenses at the Spotsylvania Court House, where the surrounding swampy and heavily forested terrain benefited Lee. The battle took days, with delays caused by heavy rains. Still, Grant was recorded saying what would become a famous line, “[I] propose to fight it on this line even if it takes me all summer” (391).

Another Union general, Ben Butler, failed to stop Lee from calling up more soldiers from North and South Carolina. Chernow writes, “Some historians believe Butler’s failure […] may have prolonged the war by nearly a year” (396). At the same time, one brigadier general, Franz Sigel, had failed to capture a Confederate supply source at Staunton, Virginia. Lee attempted an offensive assault on Grant’s forces, but the Union army managed to drive them away. Grant continued south, destroying railroad tracks leading to Richmond on the way. With Grant facing public pressure to end the war, Lee and Grant’s forces met again at Cold Harbor, a town eight miles from Richmond. Despite Grant’s army outnumbering Lee, Grant’s decision to attack Lee head-on was a mistake, resulting in tremendous Union losses. “In time, Cold Harbor became a byword for senseless slaughter, a club with which Grant was beaten by opponents” (405).

Even in his memoirs, Grant regretted his tactical decision, although he never publicly apologized (407). Still, Chernow argues the Battle of Cold Harbor still “robbed” Lee “of mobility” (407). Despite the public outcry over the losses at the battle, Lincoln remained supportive of Grant. In the meantime, Grant had managed to trick Lee into losing track of his army. Also, he had a bridge quickly built over the James River. Further to the south, Meade led an assault on the city of Petersburg near Richmond, but he could not overcome the city’s fortifications. Grant set up new headquarters at City Point, which strategically sat at both the Appomattox and James Rivers. There, Lincoln visited Grant personally, eating “at a common table with the officers” (415).

Grant and Lee were stuck in a “stalemate” (417) near Richmond. During the standoff, Grant tried to force Lee to extend his resources to the breaking point. Lee sent a force commanded by Jubal Early to attack Maryland and Washington, DC, in an effort to force Grant to leave Virginia. In a rare instance of Lincoln interfering with Grant’s command, he suggested that Grant come north to defend Washington, DC. To try to calm the public, Lincoln appeared at Fort Stevens in DC, which was “the only time in American history a president came under fire in combat” (419).

One account claims that in this stressful time Grant drank heavily again at least one night. It was even rumored that Butler blackmailed Grant over his alcoholism to stay in command. Chernow discounts this, however, since no other sources confirm these claims. Still, Rawlins was dismayed to find that Grant had gone back to drinking. Regardless, Grant kept on Butler and dismissed an officer named Baldy Smith for rebuking Meade and refusing to serve with Butler. Another attempt to take Petersburg failed because of missteps by General Ambrose Burnside. Afterward, Ambrose’s military command was quietly ended. In his place, Grant elevated Philip Sheridan, whom Grant compared to Frederick the Great and Napoleon (432). In the meantime, at City Point a Confederate agent successfully set off explosions at the base. It was noted by an observer that Grant was the only person who ran toward the explosion to help people (434). Grant himself started to show symptoms of illness, which may have been brought on by his stress. He could only be cheered up by the presence of his family.

Grant lacked the men to battle Lee again and could only continue trying to prevent supplies from reaching Richmond and Lee’s army. Meanwhile, in Washington, DC, there was talk of keeping Lincoln from running for president again as the Republican nominee. Grant was one of the names proposed to replace Lincoln. In response, Grant wrote letters urging Northern unity and describing his total agreement with Lincoln. While the Republicans were committed to continuing the war, the Democrats voted on a peace platform that declared the war was a failure and called for peace. Their presidential candidate was George McClellan, “who was perfectly willing to trade emancipation for peace” (441). Grant viewed these Democrats as traitors as much as the Confederates.

The long-wanted Union victory came when General Sherman captured Atlanta. This was a psychological boost for the North and a blow to Lee’s ability to supply his forces. Chernow suggests the fall of Atlanta ensured Lincoln’s election. Chernow argues Grant also deserved credit since he signed off on Sherman’s plans. In the meantime, Grant had given up his dream of living on the west coast and instead planned to live in Princeton, New Jersey. Also, he continued to be dogged by rumors of alcoholism, to the point he had only water served to visitors to his headquarters.

Grant suspended prisoner exchanges, to preclude the Confederacy from receiving more men. When an exchange was proposed by Lee, Grant refused because Lee insisted enslaved people who were freed and then became soldiers should be returned to their enslavers. In his personal life, Grant reluctantly pushed for the release of his brother-in-law John, who had been managing a plantation in Mississippi and had been captured by Union soldiers. Also, he pushed for the right for soldiers to be able to cast votes through absentee ballots, although he was also careful not to encourage his soldiers to vote for one candidate or another. In the end, Lincoln won the election, with 78% of the military backing him (452). However, Grant played a prank on his troops, leading them to think Lincoln was losing the election. After the election, Grant went to Burlington County in New Jersey, where his family was living. He was surrounded by cheering crowds wherever he went.

When it came to the war, Grant found himself having to pressure General George Thomas to confront the Confederate army led by John Bell Hood in Tennessee. Just when Grant was about to have Thomas replaced, Thomas won a victory against Hood at Nashville. Grant continued to keep Lee’s army trapped in Richmond and Petersburg, preventing them from stopping Sherman’s army down south. Sherman took Savannah, Georgia and planned to march through South and North Carolina next. This left only Lee’s army as the last major defense of the Confederacy.

Grant focused on capturing Wilmington, North Carolina, which was the only major eastern port left to the Confederacy that could defy the Union’s blockade. When Butler failed to take Wilmington, Grant fired him. Since Lincoln had just won reelection, he approved of the decision without fear of political repercussions. As a Union victory seemed to be getting closer, Grant and Julia were given more gifts, including a house in Philadelphia: “Neither then nor later was Grant nagged by the possible impropriety of such gifts, regarding them as a reward commonly bestowed upon victorious generals” (463).

Lee’s army struggled with a lack of food and inaction from the Congress of the Confederacy. Grant met with three envoys from the Confederacy, who proposed peace terms, including a joint venture between the Union and the Confederacy to fight the French, who had just set up a puppet government in Mexico. Grant received them courteously, although in his memoirs he later wrote that he did not believe the Confederacy should ever be considered a legitimate government. Lincoln also met with the envoys. However, the Republican victory in the last election made it clear that there could be no resolution to the war that would preserve slavery. Lincoln’s main conditions for peace were the restoration of the Union; the end of slavery; and that the war would only end once all Confederate armies were disbanded. The talks broke down.

Grant’s friendship with Lincoln deepened. He helped resolve a conflict in the Lincoln family, where Lincoln’s eldest son Robert wanted to enlist in the Union army but Lincoln’s wife Mary refused to allow it since she feared he would die. Grant gave Robert a job on his staff while keeping him from entering dangerous scenarios. Meanwhile, the Confederacy became so desperate for army recruits a bill was passed allowing for the formation of Black regiments, although they stopped short of emancipation. Meanwhile, Sherman set aside the Sea Islands and some territory in South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida for new communities of formerly enslaved people. More Union victories followed, with Union forces taking Wilmington. Still, Grant’s campaign against Richmond was halted by a harsh winter. Grant’s strategy was to at least keep Lee in eastern Virginia where he could not help to stop Union campaigns in Tennessee or in Lynchburg, a city in central Virginia.

While Grant’s relationship with Lincoln strengthened, his and Julia’s relationship with Mary Lincoln was “strained” (480). She was notorious for her temper and “her pretensions as she lavishly refurbished the executive mansion” (380). Also, she was criticized for the fact that four of her brothers fought on the side of the Confederacy. Unlike Lincoln himself, Mary disliked Grant and thought he was incompetent, while also believing that Grant and Julia wanted the presidency for themselves. Meanwhile, Lincoln kept a forgiving attitude toward the Confederacy, hoping to treat the Confederates with leniency after the war.

Because the public of the North had grown so impatient for an end to the war, Grant felt further campaigns in Virginia had to be an unmitigated success. Grant planned to attack Lee’s right flank, which would keep Lee from being able to help the Confederate army of Albert Sidney Johnston further west. Grant prepared for a final campaign against Petersburg. For this final stage, Grant wanted the Army of the Potomac, which had not experienced as many victories over the Confederacy as their western counterparts, to be involved: “In that way, each section of the nation would share the final victory laurels, helping to restore postwar unity” (488). Chernow sees this as an example of Grant’s “political instincts” (488).

Lacking the resources to face Grant, Lee had his army leave Petersburg. After this, Grant was able to capture Petersburg, which was just south of the Confederate capitol of Richmond. President Davis of the Confederacy and other government officials fled Richmond as soon as possible. Richmond soon surrendered as well. Lee’s army fled to the area of Appomattox, west of Richmond. In the meantime, with Grant away near Appomattox, Mary Lincoln had excluded Julia Grant from her social circles. Grant sought to wipe out Lee’s army. General Philip Sheridan managed to defeat and capture a Confederate regiment at Sayler’s Creek. As for Lee, he still hoped to escape westward and be able to continue the fight from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Lee turned down Grant’s attempt to discuss peace terms. While preparing for his decisive confrontation with Lee, Grant was stricken with severe headaches from stress. After a failed attempt to break through Sheridan’s army at Appomattox, Grant received an offer to meet and talk terms from Lee. They met at Appomattox Court House. Lee signed an agreement of surrender on April 9, 1865: “The bright lamp of the Confederacy was now nearly extinguished” (510). Grant treated Lee, whom he genuinely admired, with courtesy. People were so aware of what a momentous occasion this was, they seized as many mementos as they could. At the news, celebrations broke out in Washington, DC. Grant’s outlook at the end of the war was optimistic: “Grant believed the country was stronger for having endured [the Civil War]” (517).

The Grants kept being treated like celebrities whenever they appeared in public. Still, Julia “disliked the idolatry lavished on him” (519). However, there was a dark side to the fame showed when a former Confederate soldier Michael O’Laughlen allegedly stalked Grant with the intention of assassinating him. He was later charged and imprisoned for life. However, he may have been thinking of warning Grant about the plot of a friend of his, John Wilkes Booth, to assassinate Lincoln.

Discussing plans for Reconstruction (the rebuilding of the United States after the Civil War) with Lincoln and his cabinet, Grant learned of plans to put the former Confederacy under military rule for an interim period. Also, Lincoln agreed with Grant’s decision to offer clemency to all Confederate soldiers as long as they did not violate their parole. After the meeting, Grant and Julia were invited to join Lincoln to see the play Our American Cousin at Ford’s Theater in Washington, DC. Instead, Grant and Julia left for Princeton, New Jersey. Julia did not want to go because of her dislike of Mary Lincoln, who had antagonized her.

Lincoln was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth at the play. Evidence that would come out in the subsequent trial suggested that Grant was also going to be a target at the theater. Chernow deems the day Grant received the telegram about Lincoln’s assassination: “This saddest day of his life would be etched in black in Grant’s memory” (526). Grant was called back to Washington, DC. On top of his personal feelings, Grant dreaded Lincoln’s vice president Andrew Johnson becoming president, especially because of Johnson’s “cozy relationship with white southerners” (527). Although there were fears that the assassination had been timed to coincide with another Southern uprising, Grant “continued to believe that a just policy toward Confederate soldiers was far more likely to reconcile them to Union victory than a punitive one” (529). Meanwhile, John Wilkes Booth was shot and killed trying to elude capture.

The new President Johnson “was a humorless, pugnacious man” (530) who, like Grant, was suspected of alcoholism. A native of the South and a Democrat, Johnson presented himself as a champion of poor whites and an enemy of the South’s plantation-owning class, but he had no sympathy for formerly enslaved people. However, Grant soon found himself disagreeing with Johnson. At first, Johnson vowed harsh punishments toward Confederate officers, but soon Grant actually found him too forgiving toward former Confederate officers. Johnson faced his first problem with news that General Sherman got the Confederate general Joseph E. Johnston at Raleigh, North Carolina to surrender with promises they could leave their weapons in the state capitols and that their existing state governments and constitutional rights would not be challenged. This enraged President Johnson and Grant, who believed strongly in the civilian government’s control of the military. Sherman’s agreement with Johnston was struck down in Washington, DC. Grant personally arrived to help Sherman negotiate Johnston’s surrender on the same terms as General Lee.

On the way back to Washington, DC, Grant narrowly avoided another assassination attempt. Grant was also caught in the middle of tensions between General Sherman and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. Meanwhile, the former president of the Confederacy, Jefferson Davis, who had been on the run, was captured in Georgia. Before a military court, eight defendants were charged with helping John Wilkes Booth plan the assassination of Lincoln. Finally, Grant also became the star of a Grand Review that had the army parading through Washington, DC.