- Joined
- Feb 23, 2013
- Location
- East Texas
Captain Sam Grant
by Lloyd Lewis
Pub. 1950 by Little, Brown, and Co., Boston, Mass.
512pp., incl. notes, bibliography, and index
Eighth printing
No ISBN #!
I have just finished reading Lloyd Lewis' first volume in what was to become a classic trilogy on the life of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant through the Civil War, and even before I get into the nitty-gritty review must say it is probably the most enjoyable thing I've read in months and should be a must-read for the legion of Grant fans we have here in the forums! Sadly, Lewis, who was probably best-known for his biography of Grant's principal subordinate Sherman - Fighting Prophet, died before the publication of this first volume in the contracted complete work, leaving it to be finished by Bruce Catton in two subsequent volumes, Grant Moves South and Grant Takes Command. I had read the two by Catton, now many, many years ago, since my primary interest was in the military actions of the Civil War itself, so neglected this "introductory" volume as unnecessary. That may have been satisfactory around the time of the Centennial and afterward, but Lewis' masterwork provides the framework on which all Grant studies should be built.
A decade previous Esther Forbes had written Paul Revere and the World He Lived In in a similar manner: when primary source material may be lacking on a particular individual it may be possible to reconstruct their lives by constructing the world in which they lived, and often this is the case with the early lives of even famous persons. Lewis has succeeded with this approach in spades, from the backwoods of Ohio to the plains at West Point and the mountains of Mexico. A great deal of information is given on that primary figure in Grant's life, his father Jesse who emerges as an important player in local Ohio business and politics who doted on his favorite eldest son and helped secure his appointment to West Point through his secure Whig connections. Grant's mother Hannah Simpson remains a shadowy figure at best, but her quiet yet firm handling of the family shows in Ulysses' own talents for management and a self-effacing dignity that always marked him. A favorite story from this early period concerned a neighbor who concernedly warned Hannah that her toddler son was playing around beneath the hooves of a team of horses and was about to be killed; Hannah's reply was simply "Horses seem to understand Ulysses."
Young Grant's extreme love for horses shines throughout the book, from his early success training them, then working with them in his father's business. Although he hated the tannery, once when his father told him he would have some work to perform there, Ulysses said that he would do whatever his father said - but would prefer that anything he did would involve working with the horses and not in the tannery itself, saying, "Father, this tanning is not the kind of work I like. I'll work at it though, if you wish me, until I am one and twenty; but you may depend on it, I'll never work a day at it after that"; it seems his indulgent father gave in. Even after arriving at West Point Grant was lucky - the very next year equition was added to the curriculum, and although it was against regulations for a cadet to own his own mount, they were eminently available in the stables. The somewhat undersized Grant set records of horsemanship at the Academy that remained unbroken for years; he even was allowed put on a special performance at his graduation mounted on what had been a fractious beast that no one else had been able to ride. Although many aspects of army life bored or at least failed to interest Grant, he was an outstanding mathematician who upon graduation hoped to be detailed as a mathematics instructor at the Academy!
That was not to be; instead, he was posted to the 4th Infantry Regiment as a brevet second lieutenant due to the scant availability of postings within the Dragoons. It was during the prewar interlude that he met the love of his life, Julia Dent of St. Louis, Missouri, while he was stationed at nearby Jefferson Barracks. Their courtship is fully described and should be a welcome supplement to Julia's own rather scant memories she included in her own memoirs. Although she was a member of a family of slaveholders, this provided only a temporary damper to their romance, and by the end of 1844 they were engaged; unfortunately, that was also around the time the 4th Infantry was ordered to the Texas Gulf Coast for the run-up to the war with Mexico which Grant says he always considered immoral. The chapters which follow are one of the very best accounts I've ever read of that particular conflict; anyone familiar with the officers who gained fame in the Civil War will recognize many of them here as subalterns in the earlier conflict and as Grant's fellow officers, many of whom are described in considerable detail, including the reclusive Tom Jackson.
Two officers who likely had the greatest long-term effect on Grant were his respective commanders, Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott; although the author does not in any way beat the reader over the head in pointing out specifics, those even remotely familiar with Grant's subsequent career as a Civil War commander will recognize the traits he adopted from these two very different generals. Grant managed to be in all but one of the great battles of the Mexican War, from Palo Alto, Resaca de la Palma, and Monterrey with Taylor to Vera Cruz and the march to Mexico City under Scott; he missed only Buena Vista, fought while his regiment was enroute to join Scott outside Vera Cruz. The war provided many valuable lessons for impressionable young officers like Grant - although only an infantry lieutenant, due to a shortage of officers he found himself in command of his company in the war's first battle. Soon, because of his recognized administrative ability he was appointed commissary officer for the regiment and later the brigade, taking him from the front and entrusting him with responsibilities outside his normal sphere. Grant even during the fighting abandoned temporarily his quartermaster duties and rejoined his regiment; outside Mexico City at one of the fortified gates on a causeway he even chivvied a mountain howitzer and its crew into a church belfry in order to fire down on the defenders, an action for which he was praised by General William Jenkins Worth commanding the division.
With peace came a period of temporary rest within the garrison of the Mexican capital, but the troops were eventually withdrawn and repatriated to the States, finally allowing Ulysses to marry his Julia, after a period of engagement that had spanned years. Their first post as a married couple was to Detroit, then a small frontier community; and then to Sackett's Harbor in Upstate New York; during this period Ulysses actually became involved with and a driving force behind a local temperance society! Unfortunately, this idyll was shattered when Ulysses was next ordered to the Pacific Northwest where his troubles really began. A harrowing voyage and deadly passage through Panama during which Grant once again acting as regimental commissary officer proved to be a foretaste of coming misfortunes. Although his subsequent bouts with the bottle are well-known and likely highly magnified, his loneliness and yearning for his family almost certainly account for these occasions, which seem to have been sporadic rather than constant, unlike many of his fellow officers in similar situations. Although the exact circumstances will likely never be known, Grant at last gave up and resigned from the army after a career of nearly twenty years. At several points within the narrative the author points out Grant's position within his own particular West Point class, including deaths, promotions, and resignations; indeed, Grant was scarcely alone in resigning from the army, even if somewhat under a cloud.
The final chapters deal with Grant's antebellum life as a farmer and businessman in Missouri and finally a merchant in Galena, Illinois, where his father had gone into mercantile business with a partner years before. Grant's relationship with his family was fully explained: Jesse was no longer directly involved with the business he had founded over thirty years before; one of his goals had always been to retire at sixty, and this he had accomplished, turning over the business to his sons and in-laws. Although Ulysses had been forced by circumstances to borrow from his father, details are sketchy and there is no real evidence Jesse, though disappointed in the downturn his favorite son's career had taken, ever berated him for it. Brothers Simpson and Orvil nominally ran the Galena hardware store, and because Simpson was actually dying from consumption he spent most of his time with his parents in Covington, Kentucky where Jesse had retired. When visiting Galena and the business, Simpson actually lived with Ulysses, Julia, and their by then four children in the substantial brick house on the hill above the town. That effectively left Ulysses with his extensive administrative experience to manage the books while younger brother Orvil and clerks waited on customers. Although rumors of his drinking persisted, Lewis presents testimony from all viewpoints, the best of which was probably this one: "Oh, you know lots of men that, after supper, will come downtown, sit around some store front and visit for awhile. Maybe before going home they'll take a drink, maybe not. That's all Grant's drinking ever amounted to, and anyone who knew him in Galena will tell you the same thing. I never saw him drunk nor anyone else with whom I've talked."
Like all good things, this comes to an end with final chapters on the looming war and Grant's response to it, and here we are introduced to still more personalities who those familiar with Grant's later career will instantly recognize: politician Congressman Elihu Washburne; local lawyer and political fanatic John Rawlins; Augustus Chetlain; Illinois Governor Richard Yates; Civil Engineer and Seneca Chief Ely Parker; and many others who either played a role in advancing grant's career or became members of his staff. Although Grant had always maintained a low profile among his local townsfolk in Galena, he soon took a major role - again using his experience as quartermaster and commissary - in organizing and outfitting the first Galena volunteers for Federal service, accompanying them to the State capital Springfield, where he tendered his service. At first famously ignored and rebuffed in the bedlam that occurred at the beginning of the war, Ulysses cast about for a place, even traveling to neighboring states where he offered his services to former comrades Nathaniel Lyon in St. Louis, Missouri, and George McClellan in Ohio, again meeting with disappointment. But at long last, Yates offered him the colonelcy of a group that had become known for their rowdiness as Governor Yates' Hellions; the book ends with Grant's acceptance.
For anyone wishing to get a much closer look at and appreciation for the often close-mouthed and apparently unremarkable Ulysses Simpson Grant, I cannot too highly recommend Lloyd Lewis' final work!
James N.
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