Susan in NC’s Reviews > Grant > Status Update

“…Abraham Lincoln was an eminently sober figure, having published as an adolescent his maiden newspaper article on the evils of alcohol. Whatever his worries about Grant’s drinking, he could not afford to sacrifice this uniquely successful general. He showed wisdom and fortitude in facing down naysayers who brayed for Grant’s dismissal, perhaps sensing their malice.”

“ By early 1863…Grant was unfairly lumped together with feckless generals in Virginia who had repeatedly disappointed Lincoln with their craven, weak-kneed leadership. The pressure on Grant grew daily…It was an amazing development: the lowly figure who had clerked in a Galena leather goods store now bore the weight of the republic on his shoulders.”

“ For many, the Vicksburg deadlock symbolized the North’s stalled war effort. “This winter is, indeed, the Valley Forge of the war,” moaned an officer.32 It was a miserable time for Grant, who also had to cope with the loss of his false teeth. He had dipped them in a washbasin overnight only to find that his servant had tossed them out with the water the next morning. He also suffered cruelly from hemorrhoids.”

“ These multiple missteps around Vicksburg and widespread stories of ill soldiers stoked fury in the North over the impasse. Echoing a crescendo of criticism, The New York Times scoffed that Grant was “stuck in the mud of northern Mississippi, his army of no use to him or anyone else.”30 The excruciatingly slow pace of the engineering projects aroused mockery…”

“…he worried about the idle state and grinding misery of his men. He therefore approved a series of quixotic engineering projects meant to take Vicksburg by expanding the waterways of nearby bayous, allowing boats to sneak closer to the city…he pursued them in an amazingly stubborn and inventive manner…these efforts also showed the modernity of his mind and his openness to innovation.”

“…Grant had to cope with incessant rains that produced flooding of biblical proportions, postponing a direct assault on Vicksburg. The west shore of the Mississippi was so low that the river overflowed it, forcing Grant’s men to camp on levees, often the only dry land poking above omnipresent water…smallpox, typhoid, dysentery, measles, malaria, and pneumonia flourished, landing a third of the army on the sick list…”

“ There was no handy way to surround or even approach a fortress that was both natural (two-hundred-foot cliffs, cut by ravines) and man-made. The low-lying delta around it, a trackless wilderness of bayous and backwater, overhung by trees and infested by snakes, alligators, and bears, seemed unfit for man or beast. Such inhospitable swamps were all but impenetrable to armies dragging heavy artillery and equipment.”

“ “Vicksburg is the key,” argued Lincoln, who had twice journeyed down the Mississippi as a young man. “This war can never be brought to a close until that key is in our pocket.””

“If Grant wrestled with migraines, it may have been from grappling with the war’s biggest headache, Vicksburg, which he described as “very strongly garrisoned and the fortifications almost impregnable.”14 With seven miles of elaborate fortifications strung along the Mississippi’s east bank, it posed an insuperable obstacle. It stood at a hairpin bend of the river, an unavoidable bottleneck that slowed ships…”