GRANT

[David Lockmiller]

(11-11-2013 08:19 PM)Sally Wrote:  In my reading over the last several years, I have developed more appreciation for Grant. Closer inspection of the historical record does seem to indicate that the stories of his excessive drinking have been exagerrated. As I understand it, his documented episodes of drunkeness were not brought on by a huge amount of alcohol, but rather by his inability to process it like other men who were drinking every bit (and more) than he. And it is also often pointed out that he only took to drink when he was lonely for his family.

I like this quote from the article:

"Grant was also a great writer, as anyone who has read his autobiography can attest. It is hard, perhaps impossible, to be a great writer if you’re stupid. There is a certain irony in the fact that Grant was a better writer–a better historian, in fact–than virtually all of the historians who have assailed his supposed intellectual shortcomings. One wonders whether they had the wit to notice."

I thought that you might appreciate reading this quote from the Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant, Vol. I. (1885), pages 353 - 54.

"During this second day of the battle (of Shiloh) I had been moving from right to left and back, to see for myself the progress made. In the early part of the afternoon, while riding with Colonel McPherson and Major Hawkins, then my chief commissary, we got beyond the left of our troops. We were moving along the northern edge of a clearing, very leisurely, toward the river above the landing. There did not appear to be an enemy to our right, until suddenly a battery with musketry opened upon us from the edge of the woods on the other side of the clearing. The shells and balls whistled about our ears very fast for about a minute. I do not think it took us longer than that to get out of range and out of sight. In the sudden start we made, Major Hawkins lost his hat. He did not stop to pick it up. When we arrived at a perfectly safe posiiton we halted to take an account of damages. McPherson's horse was panting as if ready to drop. On examination it was found that a ball had struck him forward of the flank just back of the saddle, and had gone entirely through. In a few minutes the poor beast dropped dead; he had given no sign of injury until we came to a stop. A ball had struck the metal scabbard of my sword, just below the hilt, and broken it nearly off; before the battle was over it had broken off entirely. There were three of us: one had lost a horse, killed; one a hat and one a sword-scabbard. All were thankful that it was no worse."

I agree that U. S. Grant was a great writer (Lincoln recognized this trait early in Grant's Civil War writings. I recall an example to that effect.) And, as to the commentary about whether or not the historians that criticized Grant had the "wit to notice," I have been wondering myself whether or not Grant also possessed a keen sense of humor. I am referring to the lines in the quote above which read: "In the sudden start we made, Major Hawkins lost his hat. He did not stop to pick it up." Do you think that the second sentence was meant to be humorous or merely a statement of fact?