President Abraham Lincoln and General Ulysses S. Grant did not often meet in person. But their mutual respect and trust increased during the last year of the civil war, as they together ruled America and its armies during the most convulsive period in the history of the country.
In his memoirs, Grant admitted that he was “by no means a” Lincoln man “” in the years before the first shots of the Civil War were fired at Fort Sumter, South Carolina. By the time General Grant accepted Robert E. Lee’s surrender to Appomattox, however, the four-year war cauldron had forged a strong partnership between Grant and Lincoln – a partnership that, for all intents and purposes, saved the Union.
“I think it was Grant’s aggressive and fighting spirit that drew him to Lincoln,” said Ron Chernow, author of the Pulitzer Prize Grant. Not only was the general a self-starter, but he had calm self-confidence and a refreshing willingness to accept full responsibility for his defeats on the battlefield. “Too many Lincoln generals quickly made him the scapegoat for their failures,” said Chernow, “while Grant, for both pride and honesty, never blamed the president.”
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Similar life stories have also linked men. The two overcame a difficult upbringing in the American heart, married into slave families, and suffered from periodic bouts of depression. With their modest Midwestern origins, a shared democratic ethic came: “Grant didn’t hang out with his men and treated ordinary officers and soldiers with the same courtesy,” says Chernow. “It appealed to Lincoln, who also showed common contact with the soldiers.”
Grant’s ascent to the west
With its roots in the prairies, Lincoln knew that the western theater of civil war and control of the The Mississippi River would be vital to the success of the Union, so Grant’s early victories in the region caught the President’s attention. As Lincoln bubbled in 1862 at the frantic pace of General George McClellan and the Army of the Potomac, he admired Grant’s rapid action to capture Fort Donelson and Fort Henry in Tennessee.
When his troops were taken by surprise in the bloody battle of Shiloh in April 1862 and waded for months outside Vicksburg, Mississippi, Grant faced high charges of incompetence and rumors intoxicated. A Republican senator denounced Grant to Lincoln as “bloodthirsty, carefree of human life and totally unfit to lead troops”. The president supported Grant and, according to some accounts, even joked about sending a barrel of everything Grant drank to the other generals. Nonetheless, Lincoln ensured that his assistant war secretary, Charles Dana, personally confirmed his competence and sobriety.
General Grant receives his commission from Lieutenant-General from President Lincoln.
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In a perhaps apocryphal tale, the Republican politician and editor of the newspaper Alexander McClure reported that after pleading for Grant’s withdrawal, Lincoln told him, “I can’t spare this man. He’s fighting. “Real or not, the line has endured, in large part because it captures so well why the President valued Grant.” Many Union generals have procrastinated and postponed the battles until their troops are better trained and equipped, “said Chernow.” Grant recognized that such delays would also benefit his Confederate opponents and preferred to strike quickly and take advantage of the element of surprise even when his troops were not fully prepared. ”
READ MORE: 10 things you may not know about Ulysses S. Grant
Victory at Vicksburg
With his capture of Vicksburg on July 4, 1863, Grant seized the last bastion of Confederation on the Mississippi. After Grant’s subsequent capture of Chattanooga and Knoxville, Lincoln initially resisted calls to give general command of all Union forces due to the growing gossip he coveted for himself.
Lincoln appointed Grant General-in-Chief of the Union Army in March 1864.
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However, once Grant made known that he had no interest in political office, Lincoln elevated him in March 1864 to the post of lieutenant-general, a rank previously held only by George Washington and Winfield Scott (who had received a temporary patent promotion in this position). rank before the war). It wasn’t until three years after the start of the Civil War that the two men first met when Grant came to Washington, D.C., to receive his new commission. Grant recalled that Lincoln had told him when they first met that “all he wanted or always wanted was someone who would take responsibility and act.”
Grant and Lincoln maintained frequent contact during the final year of the Civil War. If the silent general never criticized the commander-in-chief, he bit his tongue. “No general could wish for better support, because the president was a man of great wisdom and moderation”, Reminded Grant. When he decided to sue Lee’s army after brutal losses during the battle for nature, he sent a New York Tribune reporter with a message for Lincoln. “He told me that I should tell you, Mr. President, that there will be no turning back,” said the correspondent. Delighted to finally have a general who he believed was leading the fight against the enemy, Lincoln kissed the reporter.
READ MORE: President Ulysses S. Grant: Known for His Scandals, Ignored For His Achievements
The near-accident
While Grant and Lincoln had a warm relationship, the same couldn’t be said of their wives. When Mary Todd Lincoln was unleashed in jealous rage against the wife of General Edward Ord for the attention she paid to the President in late March 1865, Julia Grant found herself at the receiving end of the acid tongue of the First Lady when she tried to intervene.
Several weeks later, on the morning of April 14, 1865, after Lee’s capitulation, the President invited the Grants to accompany him and the First Lady to a performance of “Our American cousin” at the Ford’s Theater. Lincoln wanted the public to see the victorious president and general together. Julia’s desire to avoid spending more time with Mary Lincoln sealed Grant’s tendency to decline the invitation, and the general was not by the president’s side when he was assassinated.
Tears ran down Grant’s cheek as he stood by the Commander’s coffin inside the White House and mourned the loss of a friend. “My personal relationships with him were as close and intimate as the nature of our respective duties allowed,” Wrote Grant. “To know him personally was to love and respect him for his great qualities of heart and head, as well as for his patience and patriotism.” Grant had clearly become, by all means, a “Lincoln man”.
