In the ‘‘James M. Inhofe National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2023, one section relates to General Grant: SEC. 583. POSTHUMOUS APPOINTMENT OF ULYSSES S. GRANT TO GRADE OF GENERAL OF THE ARMIES OF THE UNITED STATES.The President is authorized to appoint Ulysses S. Grant posthumously to the grade of General of the Armies of the United States, equal to the rank and precedence held by General John J. […]
Joseph A. Rose vs. Dr. Brooks D. Simpson: What Really Happened on Orchard Knob and at Missionary Ridge? One of the Civil War’s most intriguing controversies concerns the “miraculous” charge up Missionary Ridge during the Battle of Chattanooga on November 25, 1863 and whether Major-General Ulysses S. Grant intended the soldiers to ascend, as he claimed. The Confederate defenders dug in at the bottom of the ridge, the top, and […]
[So much is wrong with Chernow’s biography. This expanded review adds further examples of his mistakes and partisanship.] There is no doubt that Ron Chernow tells a beautiful story in his recent biography of Ulysses S. Grant. He is especially compelling in discussing the fight for Black civil rights during Reconstruction. But throughout, the author takes a highly partisan view of his subject in controversy after controversy when the evidence […]
First, I’ll stipulate that Ulysses S. Grant had many good qualities as a person, a general, and even as a president. The History Channel’s recent three-part miniseries on Grant, however, contained a surprising number of egregious mistakes and strained arguments, especially given the prominent “talking heads” involved. Even though the long list of executive producers starred Grant biographer Ron Chernow, little comprehension of the American Civil War was shown. It […]
A forthcoming book posits that the “Civil War’s Most Persistent Myth” involves the existence or non-existence of Black Confederate soldiers. Yet, the Amazon description admits that it “largely originated in the 1970s.” Many myths concerning that conflict have persisted well beyond fifty years. I would nominate a far older and much more egregious example of distorted history. General Ulysses S. Grant has acquired a sterling reputation as an officer and […]
Serendipitous: Having an aptitude for making desirable discoveries by accident. Synonym—Lucky A weary Napoleon Bonaparte listened patiently as the speaker continued extolling a friend’s military prowess. Finally, unable to contain himself any longer, the Emperor abruptly cut in and asked: “Fine, he is brilliant, but is he lucky?” Taken from Napoleonic lore, the story may have some basis in truth for, though he would have been the first to acknowledge […]
Of the myriad blunders that needed to be excused or covered up concerning the Battle of Shiloh, one of the most notorious was Ulysses S. Grant’s absence from his army. Maintaining headquarters from approximately March 17th to the start of the battle on April 6th in a mansion at Savannah, Tennessee—ten miles downriver and on the opposite bank from his army at Pittsburg Landing—General Grant took a steamboat up to […]
Although the standard version of Ulysses S. Grant’s war-time history portrays him to be a military genius and a reliable chronicler of the American Civil War, his biographers have exaggerated, distorted, or omitted certain, salient facts. One of the most stark examples of this practice is from the Chattanooga campaign, which featured many of the most famous Union generals: Ulysses S. Grant, William T. Sherman, George H. Thomas, Joseph Hooker, […]
Although it assuredly happens all-too-often in histories and biographies, I have run across many seemingly fabricated stories about an heroic Ulysses S. Grant, which have been repeated without regard to the evidentiary background. One of them, concerning Richard Ewell, figures in my book, Grant Under Fire: In regard to Albert Richardson’s anecdote of Ewell’s warning other rebel officers early in the war of one as-yet-undiscovered federal leader whom they should […]
An article in the current (online) New Yorker, “Why the leadership industry rules,” Joshua Rothman discusses the concept of a leader. He refers, at one point, to the Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant, in which Grant tells a story of himself as a recently commissioned colonel in the Union’s volunteer army. Approaching the presumed location of an enemy camp, Grant related how, “‘My heart kept getting higher and higher, […]
The valiant stand in the Hornets’ Nest position at Shiloh by Union generals William H.L. Wallace and Benjamin M. Prentiss helped to save the rest of the Union army from ignominious defeat on April 6, 1862. Instead of honoring their achievement, General Ulysses S. Grant offered two implausible assertions in his Personal Memoirs. First, he unjustly cast blame on one of his subordinates for the surrender: “In one of the […]
