Ulysses S. Grant

Ulysses S. Grant 

Thomas Allen, editor

In The United States Unmasked: A Search into the Causes of the Rise and Progress of These States, and an Exposure Of Their Present Material and Moral Condition (London, Ontario: J. H. Vivian, 1878), pages 58–60, G. Manigault gives a candid description of General Ulysses S. Grant.

We know little of the earlier part of that [Grant's] career. He [Grant] was educated at West Point, and held a commission in the army for several years, but had to leave it for causes, of which intemperance was the chief. He was afterwards engaged in some manufacturing or commercial enterprises, but failed in them. 1860 found him a broken man, of dissipated habits and desperate fortunes. But he was known to be a man of great resolution. It has been said that he offred his services to the Confederates; but this may be false. The same thing has been asserted as to another noted Northern General of better character than Grant. He was, we believe, first employed by the U. S. government in crushing a movement of the secessionists near St. Louis in Missouri, where they were greatly in the minority — and afterwards attracted attention by his success in subordinate positions. But his good fortune sprang from a peculiar conjunction of events. The Northern government and people began their efforts to put down the “rebellion” as they called it, with inadequate forces. Every time they made a failure, they changed their general, and greatly increased their levies. Luckily for Grant it was not until a number of commanders in chief had been shelved — and the insufficient strength of successive armies had been acknowledged, that the government put forth all its remaining strength and credit, raised an army of a million of men, more than half of whom were foreigners — and put Grant in command. He certainly succeeded at last in performing the task entrusted to him. But we do not just now remember, in all history, any successful general who had so many of his men slaughtered by an enemy greatly inferior in numbers. But he had been furnished with plenty of men and plenty of ammunition, and seems to have valued the one about as much as the other. We are not well informed as to the details of his campaigns. But we know of no one instance in which he displayed stategetic [sic] ability of a high order — and would be surprised if any military critic could point it out. Wielding an overwhelming force against enemies very inferior in numbers, he showed the most dogged resolution, and disregard for the lives of his men; and failure at one point only stimulated him to try his luck at another. This explains his more than semi-circular campaign around Richmond in 1864–5. One feature in General Grant’s success has been little commented on, for the steps that led to it are wrapped in obscurity. It is known that he went into the war desperately poor, but seems to have come out very rich. But the process has never been explained by which he acquired his wealth.

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