At the time of his death, Ulysses S. Grant was the most famous person in America, considered to be equal in stature to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Yet today his legacy is quite unremarkable. Waugh uncovers the reasons behind the rise and fall of Grant's renown.
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At the time of his death, Ulysses S. Grant was the most famous person in America, considered to be equal in stature to George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Yet today his legacy is quite unremarkable. Waugh uncovers the reasons behind the rise and fall of Grant's renown.
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Joan Waugh's thoughtful new book "U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth" (2009) uses this now-famous question to explore the changing nature over time of American attitudes towards Ulysses S. Grant (1822 --1885). (The answer "U.S. Grant" to the question, in fact is only half correct. Grant's wife, Julia, is buried with him.) Waugh is Professor of History at the University of California at Los Angeles and the author of several earlier books on the American Civil War.
The outlines of Grant's life remain fairly well known. Grant, of course, was the leading Union commander in the Civil War and the 18th president of the United States. Born in Ohio in humble circumstances, Grant reluctantly entered West Point at the insistence of his father. He served with distinction in the Mexican War but grew bored with the humdrum nature of Army life in peacetime. He resigned his commission in 1854, likely as a result of his problems with alcohol. He then had an undistinguished career in various civilian occupations until the outbreak of the Civil War. Grant volunteered his services at the outset and rose from an obscure commander in the Western theatre to win critical victories at Fort Donelson and Shiloh. In 1863, Grant captured the seemingly impregnable fortress of Vicksburg, dividing the Confederacy in two. Later that year, he won an impressive victory at Chattanooga. Grant became the first Lieutenant General since George Washington and ultimately defeated Robert E. Lee in a series of bruising battles in Virginia. But as a soldier, Grant may be best remembered for the generous peace terms he gave to Lee at Appomattox Court House in 1865.
Grant's two terms as president (1869 -- 1876) are generally regarded as less than distinguished. Grant attempted to implement Reconstruction but proved largely unsuccessful. His administration is remembered, somewhat unfairly, for the corruption of many of his associates. Although there has been an attempt to revise his reputation as president, Grant still routinely is listed at near the bottom, with Harding and Buchanan, in various rankings of the American presidents.
Waugh combines a rudimentary biography of Grant with a detailed study of the vicissitudes of his historical reputation. She tries to understand the reasons for Americans' changing attitudes towards Grant. Through the end of the 19th Century, Grant was commonly regarded as part of a triumvirate of great Americans that included as well George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. Grant was regarded as the savior of the Union for his military victories and for the spirit of reconciliation he displayed at Appomattox. But for much of the 20th Century, Grant's military reputation has frequently been denigrated in favor of that of Lee. More unfairly, Grant's military skills have been ignored and his successes attributed to his alleged talents as a "butcher." Grant's reputation also suffered as a result of the failures of his presidency.
Waugh focuses on a Grant less familiar than the General and the President. She describes the two-year world tour that Grant took following the conclusion of his presidency when he was universally feted as the greatest living American. In a lengthy chapter, Waugh describes how Grant lost all his money upon his return to the United States (Bernie Madoff -like corruption was common in the Gilded Age.) and turned to writing to support his family. During this time, Grant was terminally ill with a painful throat cancer. In the last year of his life, Grant wrote his two-volume history of the Civil War, his "Personal Memoirs" which has become a literary classic as well as a primary source for understanding the conflict. At his death in 1885, over 1.5 million people attended Grant's funeral. Then ,12 years later, an equal number witnessed the dedication of Grant's Monument, the so-called "Grant's Tomb", in Riverside Park, New York City. The monument was paid for entirely by private subscription. Early in the 20th Century it was the most frequently visited monument in New York eclipsing even the Statue of Liberty. Subsequently if fell into disrepair and obscurity which has been corrected in part only in recent years.
In the 19th Century, Waugh argues, Americans saw Grant as the self-made man who rose from humble circumstances, overcame adversity and failure, lived simply and honorably (even if his associates did not) and found his calling as a General and as the savior of the Union. Americans remembered the Grant who tried to reunite the sections but who also had a firm belief in American unity and nationalism and in the cause for which the Union fought. With the rise of the "Lost Cause" mythology, Waugh argues, Americans tended to become critical of Grant's staunch support of Emancipation and his attempt as president to enforce African American civil rights in the South. And as the 20th Century wore on, Waugh claims, Americans became increasingly skeptical of military heroes and increasingly dubious about the nature and worth of American Nationalism. Tied inextricably to both the military and to nationalism, Grant's reputation suffered as a result.
Waugh argues that it is time for Americans to revisit and reassess Grant. She writes (p. 307) "Perhaps now is the time for a new kind of tourist to the tomb ... one more appreciative and knowledgeable. Never again will most citizens feel an uncomplicated pride in Grant's achievements, or in what America has become since Appomattox, but there should be a realization that Grant's goal of national reconciliation -- as general and as president -- included principles that are vitally important today: justice and equality for all.... No living person in the postwar era symbolized both the hopes and the lost dreams of the war more than Grant."
Grant is too all-too-human in his failings to be regarded as an "American Myth". But he richly deserves to be remembered as an "American hero."
