Ulysses S. Grant's Inhuman Disinterestedness
Larkin Tyler English II (H) May 17, 2024.
Ulysses S. Grant was a man capable of an almost inhuman disinterestedness in reaching judgments about strategy and saw things bluntly and directly. As the only American president to serve two complete and consecutive terms between Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson, he was an enigma to generations of historical generalists and scholars. Their difficult assessment of him involved wrongly assessing the objectivity and disinterestedness he prized and represented (Bunting 2). Grant was a man who won countless battles and crucial wars all while keeping the rest of the country in check; however, the counts against him remain immovable: drunk, butcher, scandalmonger. Grant was a crude man, perhaps the type needed to …show more content…
In January 1862, President Lincoln ordered an advance on all Union fronts immediately and Grant’s force was on one of them. Fort Henry was the first place to be taken during this and it fell immediately (43). By mid-March, Grant’s army was encamped at Pittsburg Landing on the west bank of the Tennessee River. This is where one of the most tragic battles of the war, Shiloh, occurred. In Mississippi, there were 45,000 confederates with their commander, Albert Sidney Johnston, who decided that they needed to attack the Union troops before they could be reinforced. Johnston’s troops came screaming out of the woods at 6 a.m. on April 6, catching the Union army off guard. A two-day battle followed where more than 23,000 men were killed or injured. Among the dead was General Johnston (46). The Battle of Shiloh was a tactical draw, with both sides sustaining enormous casualties. Grant was criticized for his engrossment in his army and not thinking they could be ambushed, but he was immediately defended by President Lincoln. This was useless, though, and he was removed from command and into second in command (47). After not being able to replace someone like Grant, the army restored
Ulysses S. Grant was a man capable of an almost inhuman disinterestedness in reaching judgments about strategy and saw things bluntly and directly. As the only American president to serve two complete and consecutive terms between Andrew Jackson and Woodrow Wilson, he was an enigma to generations of historical generalists and scholars. Their difficult assessment of him involved wrongly assessing the objectivity and disinterestedness he prized and represented (Bunting 2). Grant was a man who won countless battles and crucial wars all while keeping the rest of the country in check; however, the counts against him remain immovable: drunk, butcher, scandalmonger. Grant was a crude man, perhaps the type needed to …show more content…
In January 1862, President Lincoln ordered an advance on all Union fronts immediately and Grant’s force was on one of them. Fort Henry was the first place to be taken during this and it fell immediately (43). By mid-March, Grant’s army was encamped at Pittsburg Landing on the west bank of the Tennessee River. This is where one of the most tragic battles of the war, Shiloh, occurred. In Mississippi, there were 45,000 confederates with their commander, Albert Sidney Johnston, who decided that they needed to attack the Union troops before they could be reinforced. Johnston’s troops came screaming out of the woods at 6 a.m. on April 6, catching the Union army off guard. A two-day battle followed where more than 23,000 men were killed or injured. Among the dead was General Johnston (46). The Battle of Shiloh was a tactical draw, with both sides sustaining enormous casualties. Grant was criticized for his engrossment in his army and not thinking they could be ambushed, but he was immediately defended by President Lincoln. This was useless, though, and he was removed from command and into second in command (47). After not being able to replace someone like Grant, the army restored