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Even though Robert E. Lee had rendered meritorious service, Grant had studied him close-up and knew he was not endowed with supernatural abilities: “I had known him personally, and knew that he was mortal; and it was just as well that I felt this.”100
Grant had two congenital weaknesses, children and horses, and was gentle with both.
Grant was dignified in his downcast state, exhibiting a rigid sense of honor and virtue. James Longstreet was playing cards at the Planter’s House when Grant walked in, and he was shocked to see how far down the social ladder his old friend had tumbled. Grant was “poorly dressed . . . and really in needy circumstances.”94 The next day, Grant accosted him and pressed a five-dollar gold piece into his palm to repay a debt now fifteen years old. “You must take it,” Grant said, even after Longstreet refused. “I cannot live with anything in my possession that is not mine.”95 To allow Grant to save
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Still struggling financially, Grant could have earned a considerable sum had he chosen to sell Jones rather than liberate him. Instead he made good on his pledge to set free Dent slaves when it came within his power.
As an adult, Jesse looked back fondly on his daily tussles with his father. When Grant mounted the long wooden stairs at day’s end, Jesse confronted him in mock defiance: “Mister, do you want to fight?” Grant countered: “I am a man of peace; but I will not be hectored by a person of your size.”
“My horse put his fore feet over the bank without hesitation or urging,” Grant wrote, “and with his hind feet well under him, slid down the bank and trotted aboard the boat, twelve or fifteen feet away, over a single gang plank.”21 It was an exquisite display of horsemanship by Grant, who characteristically credited the horse.
Grant’s transformation into an imaginative abolitionist arose partly from his conception of himself as a professional soldier who believed in military subservience to civilian rule; he was following a changed policy that flowed down from the president.
Less truculent than Sherman, though widely in agreement with his goals, Grant took a more lenient view of how to treat the local populace: “Impress upon the men the importance of going through the State in an orderly manner, abstaining from taking anything not absolutely necessary for their subsistence while traveling. They should try to create as favorable an impression as possible upon the people.”47 To this end, Grant distributed food and medicine to needy residents.
The most immediate issue demanding Grant’s attention after Pemberton’s surrender was what to do about slaves kept by rebel officers. A member of Pemberton’s staff informed Grant that some slaves desired to return home to their masters and that forcing them to separate was “like severing families.” Grant believed the decision should rest entirely with the blacks affected and “that no compulsory measures would be used to hold negroes. I want the negroes all to understand that they are free men.”
Stanton later admitted that in guessing which officer was Grant, he had eliminated the real Grant because he looked much too ordinary and wasn’t the prepossessing figure he had imagined.
Once again the man badly stereotyped as a butcher showed more sensitivity toward his fallen adversaries than his colleagues.
“Why, you are getting to be such a great man and I am such a plain little wife,” Julia replied, “I thought if my eyes were as others are I might not be so very, very plain, Ulys; who knows?” Grant’s response was piercingly tender. “Did I not see you and fall in love with you with these same eyes? I like them just as they are, and now, remember, you are not to interfere with them. They are mine, and let me tell you, Mrs. Grant, you had better not make any experiments, as I might not like you half so well with any other eyes.”
You are now Washington’s legitimate successor and occupy a position of almost dangerous elevation, but if you can continue as heretofore to be yourself, simple, honest, and unpretending, you will enjoy through life the respect and love of friends, and the homage of millions of human beings that will award to you a large share in securing to them and their descendants a Government of Law and Stability . . . I believe you are as brave, patriotic, and just, as the great . . . Washington—as unselfish, kindhearted and honest, as a man should be, but the chief characteristic in your nature is the
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As the two men chatted, Grant was hugely impressed with Meade’s self-effacing manner. Saying he understood if Grant wished to replace him with a western officer close to him, Meade offered his resignation, arguing that the cause should take precedence over personal feelings. Grant was struck by his exemplary character. “He spoke so patriotically and unselfishly that even if I had had any intention of relieving him, I should have been inclined to change my mind after the manly attitude he assumed in this frank interview.”
His friend E. D. Keyes, seated at the table, recorded a telling comment by Grant: “We conversed pleasantly on various subjects, and when I offered to fill a glass with champagne for him, the general placed his hand over his glass saying, ‘If I begin to drink, I must keep on drinking.’”
Grant was the strategic genius produced by the Civil War. He set clear goals, communicated them forcefully, and instilled them in his men. While Lee stuck to Virginia, Grant grasped the war in its totality, masterminding the movements of all Union armies. It was Grant who best apprehended the strategic interactions of the eastern and western theaters. The major victories of Sherman, Sheridan, and Thomas in 1864–65 would occur under Grant’s direct supervision, yet he is frequently denied credit for his overall guidance of the Union war effort. His epic confrontation with Lee in 1864–65 was just
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Throughout the Overland Campaign, he would force Lee to react to him. Striking first, setting the pace, shaping the contours of battle—these were priorities dear to Grant’s heart.
According to Porter, Sedgwick “seemed particularly cheerful and hopeful that morning, and looked the picture of buoyant life and vigorous health.”71 Shortly after Grant rode off, Sedgwick, a smart, good-natured, and much beloved bachelor, affectionately nicknamed “Uncle John,” mocked his men for being afraid of Confederate snipers taking potshots at them. They didn’t have to worry, he insisted, because the rebels “couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance.”72 These were his last words as he toppled over dead on his horse, struck by a marksman’s bullet to the head.
The captured division belonged to Major General Edward Johnson, soon hauled into Grant’s presence as a prisoner. Tarnished with mud, prongs of hair jutting from a torn felt hat, Johnson must have been startled by the cordial greeting from Grant, who remembered him from the Mexican War. “How do you do?” said Grant, shaking his hand. “It is a long time since we last met.” Continuing in this courteous manner, Grant offered Johnson a cigar and placed a camp chair for him by the fire. “Be seated, and we will do all in our power to make you as comfortable as possible.”95 The two men chatted, made no
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Pouring out his thoughts to Julia, he paid tribute to the indomitable grit of Confederate troops, which had clearly astounded him. The enemy, he reported, “are fighting with great desperation entrenching themselves in every position they take up . . . The world has never seen so bloody or so protracted a battle as the one being fought and I hope never will again . . . As bad as it is they have fought for [their cause] with a gallantry worthy of a better.”
