yousorename t1_iy4u94u wrote
This is true, but my favorite Grant anecdote is that after the Mexican American war he worked at his father in law’s leather goods shop in IL and he fucking sucked at it
A guy who essentially won the US Civil War for the good guys, was a two term president in a time when that was rare, and made it his mission to destroy the KKK, was just straight up BAD at running a store. Importantly, it’s not like he was some violent skull-cracker when he was in the army and just couldn’t get used to civilian life. He was a logistics guy during the Mexican American War, he should have been able to run a store!
I think about this a lot because it’s important to remember that just because you are bad at one thing doesn’t mean that you are a bad person or bad at everything. Some people are just not in the right job and that’s ok.
But if it weren’t for the Civil War, Grant would have probably just drank himself to death in Galena IL and nobody would have ever heard his name. Maybe you suck at your email job and would be a great leader, but there isn’t a war for you to fight in. Or maybe you’re at war right now and are really much better suited to run a store but never will. Everything lined up for Grant in the most destructive way possible and he did a historic amount of good, killed a ton of people, did deeds that will be remembered throughout the ages, and died penniless, cancer stricken, and in horrible pain
Life is a wild fucking ride
ahornysmurf t1_iy5fj8w wrote
thanks for this. needed it rn
yousorename t1_iy5i24r wrote
Really glad it could help.
Whether you’re into non-fiction history or not, I’d highly recommend the book “Grant” by Ron Chernow. I listened to it on Audible and it was wonderfully narrated and absolutely riveting from start to finish. Grant’s life is fascinating and he truly is a great man.
Another interesting thing about him that I think about often is that he was described as “being a man utterly without guile”, meaning that he had no mind at all for scams, or really business for the most part. He was never a guy that could make money, and he was often conned out of the money he had because he was all too willing to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and trust their good intentions.
Again, this is a guy who ground the Confederate army to dust in multiple theaters of war, but if he was alive today would have totally lost money on a timeshare if a friend talked him into it. Again, we’re all better at some things than others, and that’s ok
capt_tuttle t1_iy5wjih wrote
An absolute gem of a biography and, as you said, Grant was a fascinating human being.
Dblenvelopment t1_iy5qmc9 wrote
Grant was a cool guy- but so are you. Heroes come in many forms.
capt_tuttle t1_iy65mdc wrote
One thing that Grant is known for always taking the initiative. One anecdote of his that I love is how that came to be. As a young officer in command he is was attacked and, surviving, he reflected on how terrifying that was. Instead of being afraid he just resolved to always take the initiative so that the other guy would be terrified instead.
I think Grant is among the most normal or relatable “great men.”
yousorename t1_iy6a6r4 wrote
Absolutely agree on him being the most normal and relatable because his only “super power” to the degree that he had one was just being fucking relentless and methodical. I think it was a story from Shilo maybe, but it’s the middle of the night and poring down rain and Sherman is having a breakdown about the losses they had and how everything was falling apart and Grant, standing under a tree and smoking a cigar said, “Yeah, but we’ll lick em tomorrow” and then they did.
He just kept going, but not in an action hero John McClane way, but more like a rising tide.
Yancy_Farnesworth t1_iy6o8iq wrote
I have to wonder how Grant would have done in the era of industrialized war. The Civil War was in a lot of ways a prelude to that. It seems like he would have had the right strategic chops for it given how he fought the Confederacy... He used the Union's material might to great effect, but it was costly in terms of the body count. Something that generals would have to learn how to deal with in WWI and WWII.
Billy1121 t1_iy99qyo wrote
He might have a few Cold Harbor-sized losses, but Grant may have been one of the few generals with a chance of adapting to the machinegun and mechanized warfare.
Though he liked horses a lot, maybe he would be too attached to cavalry
BanjoB0y t1_iy9n1hg wrote
Hopefully he'd have seen mechanization as "Oh great, now no horses have to die"
It would have been interesting to see how a protege of his might have used horses in WW1 alongside mechanized tanks
DukeDoozy t1_iy7k57n wrote
Two of my favorite Ulysses S Grant stories that accentuate that wild ride point:
- As he was on his way to the grave, sick and slowly dying, he wrote his memoirs in a vain hope to save his family from poverty after his death. The company he signed with was ripping him off, and it wasn't going to matter, but his great admirer Mark "Mother Fucking" Twain stepped in and published it for him with a MUCH better deal.
He allowed Grant's last act to be saving his family from the same poverty he got them into after being swindled multiple times.
- Grant actually started sucking at business really young. When he was a boy, he and his father saw a horse little boy Grant wanted (he loved horses) with a price of $25. His father thought it wasn't worth it, so they walked away, but Ulysses wouldn't stop pestering his dad.
Finally, his dad says, "Fine. You can go to the merchant and offer him 20. If he doesn't take that, you can offer 23. Only if he doesn't take that can you buy the horse for 25."
Ulysses turns around, walks straight back to the merchant, and says, "My dad says I can offer you 20, and if you don't take that, I can offer you 23, and if you don't take that I can offer you 25."
They settled on $25.
- Grant was actually briefly a slave owner for about a year. This was after the Mexican-American War, and his family was reduced to selling firewood to make ends meet, entirely impoverished. His father-in-law, patriarch of a major slave family, gave him a slave.
Now, Ulysses wasn't very ideologically driven at this point. He was from an abolitionist family, but he married into a slave-holding one. And the slave he received was worth probably $1,000 at market, a life changing amount for his family at the time.
But even though he didn't yet have a mind for politics, he couldn't square the act of owning another person. It wasn't a political stance. It just didn't compute. He took the man to the court house and freed him roughly a year after taking ownership. A bold move considering that money would have definitely risen his family from poverty.
Grant definitely didn't succeed at everything he tried, but as a man, I have found no other president and few other figures as compelling as him.
DrRexMorman t1_iy98xx4 wrote
Before starting work in Galena, Grant soldd firewood on the streets of St. Louis to get money to buy his kids Christmas presents.
He ran into a friend from the army who asked him what had happened, Grant reportedly replied, "I am solving the problem of poverty."
ricanhavoc t1_iy8vkxs wrote
He didn't really die penniless, he lost his life savings towards the end of his life because of con men, but the final thing he did was write his autobiography which provided his family enough income to be financially secure.
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