Grant

by Ron Chernow

gave orders to shell Fort Sumter amid rejoicing from Charleston citizens,

Lincoln had seized the moral high ground and avoided firing the first shot of the Civil War, lest he lend credence to southern charges of being a despot and thereby forfeit the loyalty of border states.

It was inevitable that Grant, trained at West Point, would step into the huge vacuum of military leadership laid open to seasoned officers.

traitors have fired on our flag.”

Whatever may have been my political opinions before I have but one sentiment now. That is we have a Government, and laws and a flag and they must all be sustained. There are but two parties now, Traitors & Patriots and I want hereafter to be ranked with the latter.”

However much he may have preferred that his talents lay elsewhere, he came startlingly alive within the daily, sometimes hourly, challenges of a military world.

McClellan never acknowledged Grant’s presence, giving him a foretaste of the arrogance that would so infuriate Abraham Lincoln and Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.

Grant received a telegram from Governor Yates, appointing him colonel of the 7th Congressional District Regiment, shortly renamed the Twenty-First Illinois,

to project authority, he had to transcend petty anger.

Once he took command, a remarkable change overcame Grant, mirrored in his letters. He now sounded energized, alert, and self-confident, as if shaken from a long slumber.

incessant activity was clearly therapeutic for a man whose foremost enemy had been unwanted idleness.

Grant never hesitated to admit human fears.

Harris had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him.”

Henceforth he would project himself into opponents’ minds and comprehend their fears and anxieties instead of blowing them up into all-powerful bugaboos,

Union troops staged the war’s first major confrontation, assaulting Confederate forces at Manassas, Virginia, west of Washington.

The battle of Bull Run (First Manassas)

What had looked like certain victory degenerated into a panicky rout of Union forces,

a grand strategy began to germinate in his mind of how to exploit the broad waterways

Since alcohol abuse was widespread among local troops, Grant shut down saloons

Grant would qualify as a model general who accepted military subservience to civilian leadership.

Dr. John H. Brinton, an army surgeon, at first dismissed Grant as “a very ordinary sort of man,” then noticed his unusual concentration, his capacity to make rapid-fire decisions under extreme pressure.

order out of chaos,”

basic principles of warfare, especially the need to concentrate forces instead of spreading them too thinly.

Grant demonstrated his fine political tact and a command of the English language that would assist his success.

the officers dined and engaged in animated discussion, while Grant, with customary sangfroid, officiated in silence at the head of the table.

He had shown a boldness bordering on impetuosity and a preternatural coolness under fire.

one of Grant’s few salient weaknesses. Intent on his own offensive strategy, he often failed to anticipate countermoves from opposing generals, leaving him vulnerable to dramatic surprises,

the military boy wonder, thirty-four-year-old George B. McClellan,

He carped at generals in a way that offended rather than motivated them. At first taken with him, Lincoln came to view Halleck as a paper-pusher who ducked tough decisions in the field.

Rawlins functioned as Grant’s protector as well as watchdog.

Halleck making excuses for his lethargy,

new war secretary, Edwin Stanton,

do-nothing McClellan,

Grant rated speed and timing as more important than having every soldier in perfect position.

Foote’s trusty gunboats

Fort Donelson

less jaunty than when he pounced on Fort Henry.

Confederate cavalry commander Nathan Bedford Forrest

As Grant watched, the badly battered fleet began to drift back down the river after ninety minutes of tempestuous conflict.

Grant did not like soldiers to build fortifications, which he thought sapped their fighting spirit,

Always better at plotting his own moves than at anticipating enemy reactions—he could sense weakness better than strength—Grant had been caught by surprise, but now assumed personal charge of the situation.

Once again Grant showed a predilection for taking the offensive.

Assuming that Confederate strength on the Union right meant corresponding weakness on the Union left—an insight he exploited repeatedly in later battles—he ordered General Smith to attack the Confederates on that side, predicting he would encounter only “a very thin line to contend with.”

Grant was taking the decisive measures the president wanted, while George McClellan procrastinated with his large, well-accoutred army in the East.

Grant believed the South had conducted an illegal rebellion and wasn’t entitled to enjoy the niceties of military etiquette.

In homage to his message to Buckner, Grant was endearingly dubbed “Unconditional Surrender Grant,” a nickname that tallied nicely with his initials.

special affinity between Grant and Lincoln

“Is father afraid yet that I will not be able to sustain myself?” he asked Julia sardonically,

Grant had now proved himself beyond a shadow of a doubt and would never again have to truckle to his father or father-in-law.

Grant’s conquests at Forts Henry and Donelson carved open huge chunks of Confederate territory,