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Adjutant
 
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Post 19 Oct 2017, 5:31 pm

Grant was popular for good reason: without him the Union likely does not win the Civil War. Vicksburg was a huge victory, cutting a significant part of the South off from contact (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc.) Then he wore down Lee in 1864-65. No guarantee that was going to happen. And Sherman served under Grant and in 1864 when Grant became the General in command of the entire Union army he selected Sherman to take Atlanta. His fingerprints are all over the Union victory.

And another interesting part...is that Grant was pretty much a failure when the war started. He started drinking too much when he was separated from his wife on California posting I believe (there are various reports of his continuing to drink during the war but nothing substantiated I think). He was working in a clothing store for his father-in-law at the start of the war.

And early in the war some people thought Sherman was crazy or at least acting bizarrely. He asked to be relieved of his command.
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Post 19 Oct 2017, 6:02 pm

freeman3 wrote:Grant was popular for good reason: without him the Union likely does not win the Civil War. Vicksburg was a huge victory, cutting a significant part of the South off from contact (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, etc.) Then he wore down Lee in 1864-65. No guarantee that was going to happen. And Sherman served under Grant and in 1864 when Grant became the General in command of the entire Union army he selected Sherman to take Atlanta. His fingerprints are all over the Union victory.

And another interesting part...is that Grant was pretty much a failure when the war started. He started drinking too much when he was separated from his wife on California posting I believe (there are various reports of his continuing to drink during the war but nothing substantiated I think). He was working in a clothing store for his father-in-law at the start of the war.

And early in the war some people thought Sherman was crazy or at least acting bizarrely. He asked to be relieved of his command.


All true. I think the brilliance and resilience of Grant during Vicksburg was amazing, without equal, at least during the Civil War.

From what I’ve read so far the alcohol was overblown. I’ve got Chernow’s Grant tome to read now.
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Post 21 Oct 2017, 5:02 pm

Getting back to the recent quality of presidential candidates one guy I really liked and think he would have made a really good president: Howard Dean. Got knocked out of the race because he supposedly sounded too angry. Super-smart.