Grant

tulip · #1 11-26-2002, 01:31 AM

Here is a Grant thread, Yankeewoman.

"Grant was a man who had been very unsure of himself...." I personally think that Grant was always confident. Much has been said about his prewar condition, Hardscrabble, selling wood et al. Part of that is the hyperbole of the 1868 election campaign. There are a couple of things to remember. There was a panic in 1857 that affected most of the country, but hit the midwest particularly hard. Grant I believe was in the same circumstances as his neighbors in Missouri. He had a bad harvest in 56 due to a drought and a bountiful one in 57, but the price of wheat had dropped drastically making his crop virtually without value and certainly not profit.

It was December of ’57 when he was forced to pawn his watch for Christmas presents and in the Spring of ’58, he was selling fire wood to make ends meet as the depression was still ongoing. “Perhaps one reason he liked hauling wood was to get away from the plantation and go to the city, where he might run into some old army buddies who were based at Jefferson Barracks or passing through town.”

Grant had his tongue in cheek when he named his land on the Gravois, Hardscrabble. In reality he owned 60 acres that produced well and was able to hire three slaves (he paid the owner and much to the chagrin of his neighbors also paid the slaves themselves) to help with the planting and harvest. The cabin was spacious, fully plastered inside, with three bedrooms, built-in cupboards, woodworking, ample windows and separate cookhouse. After he cut all the logs himself, the call went out for the raising. “The Sappingtons, the Longs, and the Wrights sent in hands, both white and black.”

While Grant loved the cabin, Julia hated the log exterior which was a reminder of crude pioneer days, “It was so crude and so homely I did not like it all, but I did not say so,” she recalled in her autobiography years later. After all there was no real reason to live in the cabin. Julia was perfectly happy at Wish-ton-Wish, her brother Louis’s framed home near White Haven. The Grant’s had moved into Wish-ton-Wish when Louis moved to California and could have purchased it on easy terms.

Lloyd Lewis who researched Grant's life as intensely as any other biographer had this to say in his letters to his publisher. “Found a letter of Mrs. Grant which says they had a hired girl in Galena in 1859-’60-’61 – destroying thus some of the myths of Grant’s extreme poverty at the time. . . Also I have just found a statement of Mrs. Grant’s sister, supported by Fred in 1908, to the effect that they always had a servant at Galena, gave dinners, visited, lived well enough, lived like their neighbors, had $60 a month from the store . . . The tales of his suffering, poverty and hopelessness in those years were apparently largely romance – and the campaign propaganda during his Presidential races blew these stories up for dramatic purposes.” I’ve been in their prewar Galena home. Made of red brick, it is gracious, roomy and compares very well with neighboring homes. There is a nice parlor, dining room, and attached kitchen with three bedrooms and a study upstairs.

During all this time, he was confident and optimistic, but he was also bored. Grant was a man who liked to move. Civilian life did not stimulate him as the battlefield and the army would when he returned.

Hope you consider this a good start to a Grant conversation, Yankeewoman.

*Ulysses S. Grant by Brooks Simpson
*Letters from Lloyd Lewis edited from Little Brown & Company
*The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant by Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant
*Ulysses S. Grant by Hamlin Garland

yankeewoman · #2 11-26-2002, 11:40 PM

The story about Hardscrabble Farm certainly fits in with Shelby Foote's commentary in the Ken Burns miniseries. (Did Mrs. Grant's sister live in Burlington, New Jersey? The house I am thinking of is no longer standing, but I had heard that the Grants were on their way to New Jersey when Lincoln was shot.)

You say that Grant was bored with civilian life. I think he was bored anytime there was no activity, and that was what started the drinking episodes. Even so, I don't look at his binges as anything abnormal for the time; nor do I look at him as being alcoholic. When a man was bored, he would often drink. He didn't drink when Julia was around. The binge episode on the Yazoo(?) certainly benefitted Mr. Cadwallader....I understand his dispatches went straight through after that!

tulip · #3 11-27-2002, 03:03 AM

I don't recall that either Nellie or Emma lived in New Jersey, but could be wrong. As a matter of fact, during the war Emma was living in Mississippi.

The Grant's took the home at 309 Wood St. in Burlington NJ in 1864. Julia put the children in school there and then returned to City Point to "nestle in their cabin." The house is now a private residence with a brass marker out front to mark the Grant Family's time there. I think the home you are thinking about Yankeewoman, is the summer residence at Long Branch NJ which was demolished in the 1960s.

One of my favorite stories about Long Branch comes from Elise Porter, the daughter of Horace Porter, Grant's adjutant from 1863 to the end. At first Elise was shy and nervous around the general, but he soon won her over. "When my first shyness had worn off, the General won his way to my heart by inquiring after my dolls, and the next time I came he even remembered their names."

Since the Porters had a summer home not far from the Grant's, Elise often visited. "General Grant's summer place was not a half-mile from ours, and I frequently played there with his grandchildren. To a small piece of land nearby we had given the appropriate name 'the Wilderness.' A small clearing had been made at one end of the wood, where we erected the swing and the seesaw. Here we played for endless joyful hours. Occasionally the General came down and watched the fun. . . He made once a remark which immediately aroused my interest...he spoke about some other Wilderness. What followed I didn't understand, a remark about three hard days. 'Glad to see it a children's playground.'

I ran after the General's retreating figure. I was no longer quite so afraid of him, and putting my hand in his, keeping well away from his bad leg, I asked, 'Was there ever another Wilderness than ours?' An expression half comical, half sad, came into the General's eyes when he heard my question. 'Yes,' he answered, 'There was another Wilderness many years ago. Your father had some pretty hard work to do in it. And I was glad he was along. You ask him to tell you the story of 'our Wilderness.' He's a better story-teller than I am."

Cadwallader certainly did reap the benefits of the Yazoo binge. According to Cad in his book Three Years with Grant neither he nor the General ever spoke of the incident. However, from that day forward Cad's tent was pitched and taken down for him; he became an integral part of the headquarters staff; his dispatches were often sent via official channels; he had carte blanche with the military telegraph, and he was of course, well informed.

Many historians discount the incident and claim that Cad made it up or exaggerated to sell copies of his book and deliberately waited until after Grant's death to publish the story. The piece de'resistant in this argument is that Charles Dana who was on the trip denied that Cad accompanied them. In Dana's account, "Grant was ill and went to bed soon after we started." Once en route it was learned that Sartaria had been breached by Confederates and it was unsafe to continue. Dana claims that he went to the General's cabin to report and Grant said he was "too sick to decide."

In the morning Dana reported, "Grant came out to breakfast fresh as a rose, clean shirt and all, quite himself. 'Well, Mr. Dana,' he said, 'I suppose we are at Sartaria now."

Personally, I think Grant got drunker than a skunk just as Cad claims. He was a terrible drinker, the quintessential three drink Charley - drink one, spill one, leave one - but still drunk. I think that Dana was simply unaware that Cad was on the boat and missed the shenanigans.

yankeewoman · #4 11-27-2002, 04:37 PM

Connie,
I hail from the Bucks County area of Pennsylvania, bordering the Delaware River as it goes by Burlington. I cannot say where I heard the remark about the Burlington house, just that it was the home of Grant's sister-in-law. Perhaps Long Branch would have been more accurate.

If drinking, I don't believe he ever let it get in the way of a victory. He knew what to do.....wear down the southern army. I feel that the breakthroughs Grant brought about showed how he maintained a singleness of purpose. He would defeat the Confederate Army, not defeat the cities. That was the vision which he kept in mind through the defeats in the Wilderness...the long siege at Petersburg... and Richmond. I believe that Gen. Lee knew the end was in sight when he realized that Grant could not be dissuaded.

tulip · #5 11-27-2002, 10:39 PM

Can't believe I didn't look in Julia's book to ferret out the sister link to Burlington, but I didn't so I did tonight. Here is what I found.

Originally Julia intended to move to Philadelphia. Unable to find a house, "I sent my brother General Dent to Burlington, N. J. hearing excellent reports of the schools there from my friend Mrs. General Stephen Kearney. My brother secured a nice cottage pleasantly situated, and I immediately took possession."

She does not mention either her sister Nellie or Emma. However, "I prevailed on my sister-in-law, Mrs. General Dent to remain with my children, while I went at General Grant's request to make him a prolonged visit, as he was now domiciled in the cabin which . . The Quartermaster Ingalls built for the General so I could be with him he said."

Fred Dent's wife may be the "sister" you found in your reading.

brian_swartz · #6 01-11-2003, 11:03 PM

One thing I find interesting about grants drinking is that when we think of someone with a drinking problem he is a heavy drinker.For the most part exact opposite is true as far as Grant was concerned. It was not so much that he drank heavy as it was that drinking wise he was a lightweight and had a very,very low tolerance to alchohol.One drink and he was gone.

Brian Swartz

tulip · #7 01-12-2003, 02:17 PM

You got that right Brian. In the venacular of the day, Grant "could not drink like a man." Except for the incident on the Yazoo, there is little evidence that Grant got drunk during the Civil War. Yet the label persists. I believe that "drunk, butcher and superior resources," is merely a way to discount the Union victory while exclaiming Lee's invincibility. But as several military historians including T. Harry Williams and John Keegan have pointd out, superior resources existed long before Grant went East to take on Lee. The difference was Grant knew what to do with it and how to win.

"He won battles and campaigns, and he struck the blow that won the war. No general could do what he did because of accident or luck or preponderance of numbers or weapons. He was a complete general and a complete character. He was so complete his countrymen have never been able to believe he was real." T. Harry Williams, Lincoln and His Generals.

johan_steele · #8 01-12-2003, 05:13 PM

I've always been very fond of Pres Lincolns statement when told that Grant was an alcoholic. "What brand, I'd like to give some to all of my general officers." (I don't remember the precise wording but I believe that pretty much carries the sentiment.)

tulip · #9 01-12-2003, 05:29 PM

It is also one of my favorites and you certainly carried the sentiment exactly. Unfortunately, like with so many remarks attributed to Lincoln, it may be another legend. I've seen it discussed frequently and several historians dispute its accuracy. I believe it was covered at a recent symposium of Grant biographers last year carried on C-span II.

Same with "I can't spare this man, he fights." Brooks Simpson, one of the leading Grant experts in the country believes that this John Hay mention is purely anecdotal and since unsupported by any other source has little value. Personally, it is my favorite and I hate giving it up.

jac · #10 01-14-2003, 03:37 PM

A couple Grant anecdotes I like.
Sherman to Grant, after the first day at Shiloh: "Grant, we've taken a helluva whipping."
Grant: "Yep. Lick 'em tomorrow, though."
Confederate General Longstreet, upon hearing that Grant was coming east to face the ANV: "That man will fight us every hour of every day until the end of the war."
Longstreet had been Grant's best man at Grant's wedding.