James Canning, author

it’s unfortunate that his legacy was tainted by the lost causers who aimed to change the narrative of the civil war—and ultimately won that battle. once the generation who had lived in the same period as ulysses grant died out, people began to view him as a drunk, a butcher & a corrupt politician.

and to refute those…

no, grant was not a drunk. he only drank when he was away from his wife & family, or when he wasn’t busy with something. he famously resigned from the army in the 1850s for excessively drinking, yes, but that was because he was away from his wife and family as i mentioned. yes, there were reports of him being drunk during the war, but those were possible false reports from his enemies. his chief of staff, john a. rawlins, made him pledge not to drink, and i don’t think grant is the type of person to break that pledge.

no, grant was not a butcher. sure, he threw his men at the enemy, but grant never did that for evil purposes. it’s just how war works. the north had a string of incompetent generals before grant took command. george mcclellan famously had refused to throw his men at the enemy. also, the technology at the time was new in warfare, which had made the casualties even worse. grant and a bunch of other generals had found that the new technology did not suit napoleonic warfare, which europe would unfortunately learn from the first world war. also, grant infamously regretted that assault at cold harbor for the rest of his life.

and no, grant was not a corrupt politician. grant himself was not corrupt. in fact, i would argue that grant was not suited for politics at all. he had thought politics was like running the army, which is not the case. grant’s biggest flaw was that he trusted people too much, which unfortunately made him surround himself with corrupt people who had no good intentions with grant (orville babcock, adam badeau, roscoe conkling, ferdinand ward, etc.). grant had always seen the best in people & treated them with kindness, even if they’ve done him wrong (with possibly the exception of andrew johnson). william t sherman even knew that grant was not suited for politics, sherman had hated that grant involved himself in politics (sheridan too i believe). he knew that grant would be taken advantage of, which is why he distanced himself from grant unfortunately.

in my opinion, ulysses s. grant is one of the top human beings who have been president of the united states—along with jimmy carter—and all of the people who had the balls to take advantage of him deserve to rot. <3

they called each other sam & sandy respectively.

unfortunately for them, general hays was killed during the bloody battle of the wilderness on may 5th, 1864, which apparently general grant had witnessed but did not know he was dead until the next day. he had nearly broke down in front of his aides.

in 1868, during grant’s presidential campaign, he visited hays’ final resting place in pittsburgh, pennsylvania.

according to former pittsburgh mayor, jared m. brush, “‘There’s the place, General,’ I said to him when we arrived at General Hays’ monument, and Grant got out, when the carriage was driven about forty feet away. He passed around the monument, read all the battles of the Mexican war in which Gen. Grant had participated, then rested himself on a cannon, and when I looked he was weeping like a child.’”