Joseph A. Rose
Corporal
- Joined
- Jan 5, 2010
Although this subject has probably been discussed in prior threads, another poster just requested evidence of Grant's binging. His New Orleans accident probably offers the most clearcut and relatively uncontested episode (uncontested, that is, by contemporary participants).
Debarking at New Orleans on September 2nd, Grant reviewed fifteen thousand soldiers at Carrollton two days later. His horse took two men to hold. After a "handsome dejeuner at May’s—music, wine, choruses, &c.” Grant raced back towards New Orleans. One day after the mishap, General Banks wrote his wife how “I am frightened when I think that he is a drunkard. His accident was caused by this, which was too manifest to all who saw him.” ”Several months later, General Franklin explained: "... Grant had commenced a frolic which would have ruined him in body + reputation in a week. For two days he had been on a continual bender, and after his review, he was riding full split along the road, when he + his horse came down." Through “information obtained at Headquarters,” reporter Sylvanus Cadwallader found out that Grant’s “being thrown from his horse … was solely due to his drinking. Mark Twain wrote that Ulysses’ friend Franklin recounted how he “saw Grant tumble from his horse drunk.”
One historian used Lorenzo Thomas’ and Cadwallader Washburn’s silence about drinking in letters written soon afterward to signify Ulysses’ sobriety. The fact that Thomas had been imbibing heavily with Grant and his officers negated that half of an already weak postulation; silence about such tippling that caused an accident would have been expected. As for Cadwallader Washburn, his letter referred to the presidential candidates for 1864 and enlightened his brother the congressman on how “Grant has the prestige of success + so far is the very man, but he is anything but a statesman to say nothing about some other points.” He hoped that a better contender would come along. Less than a week later, a second note reaffirmed his doubtfulness: “I have already told you that I take no stock in [Grant] as a Presidential Candidate. I can tell you why at another time.” Coming after the momentous victory at Vicksburg, the General’s unrevealed shortcomings must have been substantial indeed, with the distinct possibility of alcoholic binging being one of them. And this was the third recorded instance of an intoxicated Grant galloping off on a horse in wartime. Divulging to his fiancée the details of a later bout of inebriation by his boss, John Rawlins hoped, in vain, that “his New Orleans experience would prevent him ever again indulging with this his worst enemy.” Grant’s pledge of abstinence “was broken on several occasions,” recalled Dr. Kittoe, specifically naming New Orleans.
No one there, as far as I know, claimed that Grant was sober.
Debarking at New Orleans on September 2nd, Grant reviewed fifteen thousand soldiers at Carrollton two days later. His horse took two men to hold. After a "handsome dejeuner at May’s—music, wine, choruses, &c.” Grant raced back towards New Orleans. One day after the mishap, General Banks wrote his wife how “I am frightened when I think that he is a drunkard. His accident was caused by this, which was too manifest to all who saw him.” ”Several months later, General Franklin explained: "... Grant had commenced a frolic which would have ruined him in body + reputation in a week. For two days he had been on a continual bender, and after his review, he was riding full split along the road, when he + his horse came down." Through “information obtained at Headquarters,” reporter Sylvanus Cadwallader found out that Grant’s “being thrown from his horse … was solely due to his drinking. Mark Twain wrote that Ulysses’ friend Franklin recounted how he “saw Grant tumble from his horse drunk.”
One historian used Lorenzo Thomas’ and Cadwallader Washburn’s silence about drinking in letters written soon afterward to signify Ulysses’ sobriety. The fact that Thomas had been imbibing heavily with Grant and his officers negated that half of an already weak postulation; silence about such tippling that caused an accident would have been expected. As for Cadwallader Washburn, his letter referred to the presidential candidates for 1864 and enlightened his brother the congressman on how “Grant has the prestige of success + so far is the very man, but he is anything but a statesman to say nothing about some other points.” He hoped that a better contender would come along. Less than a week later, a second note reaffirmed his doubtfulness: “I have already told you that I take no stock in [Grant] as a Presidential Candidate. I can tell you why at another time.” Coming after the momentous victory at Vicksburg, the General’s unrevealed shortcomings must have been substantial indeed, with the distinct possibility of alcoholic binging being one of them. And this was the third recorded instance of an intoxicated Grant galloping off on a horse in wartime. Divulging to his fiancée the details of a later bout of inebriation by his boss, John Rawlins hoped, in vain, that “his New Orleans experience would prevent him ever again indulging with this his worst enemy.” Grant’s pledge of abstinence “was broken on several occasions,” recalled Dr. Kittoe, specifically naming New Orleans.
No one there, as far as I know, claimed that Grant was sober.
Forum Host
