WEBVTT - Ep. 479: Civil War - Part 5: The Most Underrated Man in the Civil War? 0:00:03.320 --> 0:00:07.240 He's chasing down this Confederate group of soldiers and he 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:10.680 knows where they're camped. They're camped over this hill, and 0:00:10.720 --> 0:00:13.000 this is his first time he's going to face battle 0:00:13.160 --> 0:00:16.279 during the Civil War. And he says, man, I said, 0:00:16.280 --> 0:00:17.960 we're going up over this hill. I starts to get 0:00:18.000 --> 0:00:20.680 so nervous. It feels like my heart is in my throat. 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.319 He's freaking out. And they get up over the crest 0:00:24.360 --> 0:00:26.840 of the hill and they look down and the camp's gone, 0:00:28.600 --> 0:00:32.159 and he, you know, his heart and went back to 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.240 his place, he says, and he goes. But I learned 0:00:34.240 --> 0:00:38.159 a valuable lesson in this. I learned that the enemy 0:00:38.320 --> 0:00:41.200 is just as afraid of me as I am afraid 0:00:41.240 --> 0:00:42.120 of them. 0:00:42.800 --> 0:00:47.040 This episode, Part five of our American Civil War series, 0:00:47.159 --> 0:00:50.600 is about Ulysses S. Grant, the commanding general of the 0:00:50.680 --> 0:00:54.040 Union Army. I'd say he's the most underrated player in 0:00:54.080 --> 0:00:58.279 the Civil War. But was he actually or was his 0:00:58.320 --> 0:01:04.800 reputation besmirched in strategic effort to renarrate the Southern cause. Regardless, 0:01:05.160 --> 0:01:08.920 we're gonna hear about Grant's meteoric rise from selling firewood 0:01:09.000 --> 0:01:11.720 in the streets to becoming the leading general of the 0:01:11.760 --> 0:01:14.679 American Army in the span of five years, and within 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:18.240 two more years he was the war hero President of 0:01:18.240 --> 0:01:21.440 the United States, Considered one of the most famous men 0:01:21.480 --> 0:01:24.600 on planet Earth. This story is one of the most 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:28.160 fascinating in American history, and I really doubt that you're 0:01:28.160 --> 0:01:37.959 gonna want to miss this one. My name is Klay 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.600 Nukeomb and this is the Beargrease Podcast, where we'll explore 0:01:41.720 --> 0:01:46.319 things forgotten but relevant, search for insight and unlikely places, 0:01:46.680 --> 0:01:49.440 and where we'll tell the story of Americans who lived 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:51.320 their lives close to the land. 0:01:51.760 --> 0:01:53.960 Brought to you by to COV's Boots. 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:56.760 I'm a cowboy boot man and I've been wearing to 0:01:56.840 --> 0:01:59.680 Covis for years. They're the most comfortable boot I've ever 0:01:59.680 --> 0:02:18.680 put on. Good boots for good times, if I'm being honest. 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:22.080 When I started this series on the American Civil War, 0:02:22.320 --> 0:02:26.280 the leader of the Union Army, General Ulysses As Grant, 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.720 was the person I was least interested in. I couldn't 0:02:29.760 --> 0:02:32.480 quite put my finger on why, but I'd rarely heard 0:02:32.520 --> 0:02:35.640 anything about him. His brilliance was never bragged on, like 0:02:35.680 --> 0:02:40.359 his Confederate counterpart Robert E. Lee, and Grant never had 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.320 an orange dodge charger named after him, that could ramp 0:02:43.320 --> 0:02:46.280 buildings while evading the government's corrupt officers. 0:02:46.880 --> 0:02:49.079 This is gonna make more sense later, But. 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:52.880 As I learned the history, Grant quickly became a focal 0:02:52.919 --> 0:02:57.600 point of intrigue, partly because of his character, his dogged tenacity, 0:02:57.720 --> 0:03:02.040 his addictions, his history was slaves, but mainly because he 0:03:02.160 --> 0:03:03.360 was like a shadow to me. 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.680 My interest in this man took me on a road trip. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:17.320 So I'm in Starkville, Mississippi, at Mississippi State University, and 0:03:17.880 --> 0:03:22.400 I am going to the Ulysses S. Grant Presidential Library, 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:27.040 and I cannot wait to understand and learn why. 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:29.520 That it's here. Because Ulysses S. 0:03:29.600 --> 0:03:35.880 Grant was the champion general of the Union Army, probably 0:03:35.880 --> 0:03:41.760 the most underrated underrecognized player inside the Civil War. And 0:03:41.840 --> 0:03:48.360 his presidential library is deep in the South. Most presidential 0:03:48.400 --> 0:03:51.400 libraries are in cities that meant something to the president. 0:03:51.880 --> 0:03:54.720 Grant never lived in Mississippi. This is odd. 0:03:55.400 --> 0:03:58.000 But I've come here with an assumption that have already 0:03:58.000 --> 0:04:03.520 stated twice that Grant is underrated. But was he or 0:04:03.560 --> 0:04:06.880 is he just underrated in the South? This is all 0:04:06.920 --> 0:04:10.160 a bit fishy. I walk up a long set of 0:04:10.200 --> 0:04:12.800 stairs to the fourth floor of this big, beautiful brick 0:04:12.840 --> 0:04:16.680 building to meet Louis Gallo. He's a tall, stout built 0:04:16.720 --> 0:04:20.440 man with dark framed glasses, genuine eyes, wearing a collared 0:04:20.480 --> 0:04:23.560 shirt and slacks, and he's standing by a cannon. 0:04:24.000 --> 0:04:27.240 Hello, Hey, Louie. 0:04:27.160 --> 0:04:31.040 Hey Louis clay nukelem Clayton. Yes, this's my wife missed it. 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:36.599 Louis is an expert on Ulysses S. Grant, having edited 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:40.960 and annotated Grant's personal memoir in twenty seventeen in a 0:04:40.960 --> 0:04:46.040 well received Harvard University press book. This library has every 0:04:46.160 --> 0:04:50.480 written correspondence of Grant's that's in existence, that has uncountable 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:55.240 personal items, including a pistol, furniture, some clothing, an original 0:04:55.320 --> 0:04:59.120 portrait of Grant, life sized mannequins of Grant at different 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:01.560 stages in his life. And when I stand up next 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:04.200 to him, turns out he's about five foot eight and 0:05:04.240 --> 0:05:07.160 weighs about one hundred and forty five pounds during wartime. 0:05:07.880 --> 0:05:09.760 This is a top shelf museum, is what I'm trying 0:05:09.800 --> 0:05:12.599 to say. And I've come here with an assumption that 0:05:12.680 --> 0:05:16.520 my thoughts on Grant, or even lack of thoughts on Grant, 0:05:16.760 --> 0:05:25.080 are across the board in America. Now, I may have 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:27.760 started off on the wrong foot with Louis, but I 0:05:27.800 --> 0:05:28.960 have to be honest with him. 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:31.920 But he's about to teach me something I didn't know. 0:05:32.880 --> 0:05:35.440 Is it true that Grant is one of the more 0:05:35.560 --> 0:05:37.719 underappreciated players in the Civil War? 0:05:39.960 --> 0:05:41.440 I mean, I would disagree with that. I think he's 0:05:41.480 --> 0:05:47.480 pretty I think he's pretty appreciated. Now, okay, well, let 0:05:47.480 --> 0:05:50.239 me give you a little more complicated answer that question. 0:05:50.600 --> 0:05:55.840 I think over time that reputation has changed. Right after 0:05:55.880 --> 0:05:58.840 the Civil War, you have the Lost Cause movement, and 0:05:59.279 --> 0:06:02.119 the crux of the Lost Cause movement is to lift 0:06:02.200 --> 0:06:05.960 up the Confederate cause and Roberty Lee and to knock 0:06:06.000 --> 0:06:10.080 down Grant. And so that's where all these big stories 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.520 about him and his drinking and his character and he 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.720 was a butcher, like a cold harbor like. That's where 0:06:16.760 --> 0:06:20.520 all this comes from, is this Lost Cause movement. And 0:06:20.560 --> 0:06:23.800 it's effective. Right now. They always say history is written 0:06:23.839 --> 0:06:26.800 by the winners. That it's not always the case, because 0:06:26.839 --> 0:06:31.560 the ex Confederates did a great job at publicity in 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:35.680 trying to change the narrative after the war. And so yeah, 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:39.520 so for years, for decades, he is undervalued. He is 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:43.080 seen as just a drunken butcher who got lucky because 0:06:43.120 --> 0:06:45.400 he had more resources than Lee did and he just 0:06:45.480 --> 0:06:46.240 overwhelmed them. 0:06:46.279 --> 0:06:50.599 Okay, the Lost Cause movement? Have you heard of that? 0:06:51.360 --> 0:06:54.039 I'm embarrassed to say that. I'm a grown dad gum 0:06:54.120 --> 0:06:58.080 man and I'm just learning about it. Could I unknowingly 0:06:58.160 --> 0:07:00.839 be a product of a marketing campaign started in the 0:07:00.880 --> 0:07:02.000 eighteen seventies. 0:07:02.839 --> 0:07:04.360 Maybe could this. 0:07:04.360 --> 0:07:07.600 Be part of the origin of the warm feelings towards 0:07:07.640 --> 0:07:11.560 the Confederacy I spoke of in the first episode. Maybe 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:15.240 The Lost Cause movement is controversial with some, but a 0:07:15.320 --> 0:07:19.800 widely accepted idea that there was a revisionist ideology that 0:07:19.880 --> 0:07:23.560 emerged in the American South after the war, framing the 0:07:23.600 --> 0:07:26.920 Confederate Cause as morally heroic in their attempt to fight 0:07:27.000 --> 0:07:30.880 an army superior in number for the sole purpose of 0:07:30.960 --> 0:07:35.160 states rights. There's traces of it all over down here. 0:07:35.920 --> 0:07:39.520 In eighteen sixty six, a book titled The Lost Cause 0:07:39.640 --> 0:07:45.040 coined the term and the idea. Influential Confederate organizations started 0:07:45.080 --> 0:07:48.080 forming soon after the war. One of those would be 0:07:48.240 --> 0:07:52.200 the United Daughters of the Confederacy, started in eighteen ninety four. 0:07:52.720 --> 0:07:57.320 Confederate monuments started popping up, peaking around eighteen ninety through 0:07:57.440 --> 0:07:58.560 the nineteen thirties. 0:07:59.000 --> 0:08:01.040 Many other books were published. 0:08:00.680 --> 0:08:05.040 About this, including the nineteen thirty six Pulitzer Prize book 0:08:05.120 --> 0:08:08.720 Gone with the Wind and the movie in nineteen thirty nine, 0:08:08.800 --> 0:08:12.080 which I watched as a kid, the most recent evidence 0:08:12.200 --> 0:08:14.960 being the mainstream interest in the Civil War in the 0:08:15.040 --> 0:08:16.840 last half of the twentieth century. 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:19.320 The Dukes of Hazzard TV. 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:22.120 Show came out the year of my birth, nineteen seventy nine, 0:08:22.400 --> 0:08:25.440 and for the next twenty years, every kid in America 0:08:25.520 --> 0:08:29.520 had a General Lee General Lee Toy Carr with a 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.240 rebel flag on the roof. Bo and Luke Duke were 0:08:33.280 --> 0:08:37.520 just good old boys fighting a corrupt government. Sound familiar, 0:08:38.320 --> 0:08:42.160 never meaning no harm, beats all. You never saw been 0:08:42.240 --> 0:08:45.040 in trouble with the law since the day they was born. 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:49.240 Even Steve Ranella, growing up in Michigan, had a General 0:08:49.520 --> 0:08:52.560 Lee Carr. I'm telling you, we all did, and it 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.000 had nothing to do with race relations in our mind. 0:08:57.200 --> 0:09:01.280 The nostalgic opening lines of Don Williams nineteen eighty song 0:09:01.360 --> 0:09:05.000 Good Old Boys Like Me is a crumb of the campaign. 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.880 Over a century later, when I was a kid of 0:09:09.120 --> 0:09:11.000 Kareem a supper. 0:09:11.320 --> 0:09:12.319 To bed. 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:20.720 With a picture of Stonewall Jackson above my head. 0:09:21.760 --> 0:09:24.680 I grew up listening to that song. It's a great song. 0:09:25.160 --> 0:09:27.960 I read children's books about Stonewall Jackson when I was 0:09:27.960 --> 0:09:30.520 in the second grade. I was taught that he's our 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:35.800 direct ken on my grandmother's side. Will definitely be back 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:39.360 to this idea of the Lost Cause. I'm endlessly fascinated 0:09:39.360 --> 0:09:42.320 by things in our culture that impact us, but that 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:46.240 were completely unaware of their origins. But directly after the 0:09:46.280 --> 0:09:50.160 war and soon after Grant's presidency, without a doubt, the 0:09:50.200 --> 0:09:56.120 focus of the Lost Cause campaign was to dethrone Ulysses S. Grant, 0:09:56.559 --> 0:09:59.920 and it looks like it worked. Here is doctor Brooke 0:10:00.360 --> 0:10:02.240 Blevins on Grant. 0:10:02.760 --> 0:10:05.839 I think he I think still he gets he gets 0:10:06.040 --> 0:10:11.880 minimized too much in Civil War history because it you know, 0:10:12.080 --> 0:10:15.880 for for so many years the Lost Cause created this 0:10:16.520 --> 0:10:19.880 marble character of Robert E. Lee as the great and 0:10:19.920 --> 0:10:23.680 he was a great general, but as a as a general, 0:10:23.679 --> 0:10:27.160 I mean he he was Lincoln's guy, and Lincoln recognized 0:10:27.200 --> 0:10:30.080 that this is the guy that can can win me 0:10:30.160 --> 0:10:30.880 this war. 0:10:31.480 --> 0:10:34.880 If Brooks says it, I believe it. The Lost Cause 0:10:34.960 --> 0:10:38.480 is a real thing, but it wasn't just the Lost Cause. 0:10:39.200 --> 0:10:42.800 Grant's got to take some personal responsibility for this. He's 0:10:42.840 --> 0:10:47.040 a complicated man with some stuff going against him, and 0:10:47.160 --> 0:10:51.120 some of it may revolve around our perception of ourselves. 0:10:51.800 --> 0:10:55.160 He was underestimated for so much of the war because 0:10:55.200 --> 0:10:56.120 he didn't look the part. 0:10:56.600 --> 0:10:58.400 Yeah, he's a short. 0:10:58.480 --> 0:11:02.720 Dumpy, kind of dishevel guy. You know, his uniforms always 0:11:02.760 --> 0:11:06.040 messed up, and probably his boots weren't shined up and 0:11:06.080 --> 0:11:10.320 things like that. He's just just kind of a messy, sloppy. 0:11:10.160 --> 0:11:13.120 Interested in having the accolades of being a general. 0:11:13.320 --> 0:11:13.960 Yeah, he didn't. 0:11:14.040 --> 0:11:16.600 Yeah, he wanted to be called sir, and he he 0:11:16.760 --> 0:11:18.679 was just. 0:11:17.800 --> 0:11:18.600 Just all business. 0:11:18.840 --> 0:11:22.800 Yeah, and he was, you know, his subordinates talked about 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.200 him drinking and stuff like that. He just he had 0:11:25.240 --> 0:11:27.200 a lot of things, a lot of strikes against him 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.120 in terms of rising through the ranks. 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:30.840 Yeah, of the military hierarchy. 0:11:30.960 --> 0:11:32.880 You know, as you say that, it also makes me 0:11:32.920 --> 0:11:36.839 think that a person's perception of themselves is often the 0:11:36.880 --> 0:11:41.480 way that people view them, good and bad. It's really 0:11:41.600 --> 0:11:45.600 kind of a not a pleasant truth if it is 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:50.320 in fact a truth that Grant always had this kind 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:51.760 of like I'm not. 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:52.720 Here for the glory. 0:11:53.400 --> 0:11:56.200 I'm not here to be famous, I'm not here to 0:11:56.240 --> 0:11:59.439 be well known. I'm just here to get the job done. 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:03.240 And he absolutely does, and then history's kind of just 0:12:03.360 --> 0:12:06.520 like dismissive of him, kind of like this Scottie Pippen. 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:12.960 My wife always talks about Scottie Pippen being statistically one 0:12:13.000 --> 0:12:16.280 of the best players in the NBA. He got paid 0:12:16.400 --> 0:12:20.000 less than all these other guys and it was Misty 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:24.439 Nukeom the Great Sports Analysis says that it was was 0:12:24.559 --> 0:12:28.520 because he perceived himself as small. I think there's something 0:12:28.559 --> 0:12:31.560 maybe to be learned there from Grant. He kind of 0:12:32.400 --> 0:12:35.920 prophesied almost he got what he asked for. But then 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.800 you don't want to walk around life like asking for 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:42.400 recognition or something. 0:12:42.120 --> 0:12:43.120 When you don't deserve it. 0:12:43.160 --> 0:12:45.520 I mean, we've all been taught to be humble, or 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:48.800 hopefully we have, and not think too highly of yourself 0:12:48.840 --> 0:12:51.040 and just kind of be who you are, and we 0:12:51.120 --> 0:12:53.240 see that in Grant. But then you see kind of 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:56.160 history treat him a little bit like he asked to 0:12:56.160 --> 0:12:56.720 be treated. 0:12:57.000 --> 0:12:57.200 Yeah. 0:12:57.360 --> 0:13:00.800 Yeah, it's kind of a self fulfilling prophecy. But one 0:13:00.840 --> 0:13:04.880 thing he was he was persistent, and he was relentless, 0:13:05.840 --> 0:13:07.120 and he was a fighter. 0:13:07.520 --> 0:13:08.240 And that's what. 0:13:08.160 --> 0:13:11.600 Lincoln needed with someone who would who would just take 0:13:11.640 --> 0:13:14.200 it to the enemy and you get punched in the 0:13:14.200 --> 0:13:16.439 face and you get back and you just go right 0:13:16.480 --> 0:13:18.920 back at him. And Grant did that. 0:13:19.800 --> 0:13:23.680 If Scotty, a fellow Arkansan ever listens to this, I 0:13:23.720 --> 0:13:26.480 hope you feel the love coming from Bear Grease. And 0:13:26.640 --> 0:13:29.760 like Scotty on the court Us, Grant was a war 0:13:29.840 --> 0:13:34.160 horse general on the battlefield. But before Grant was forty 0:13:34.240 --> 0:13:39.040 years old, he'd experience almost uncountable business failures. He'd be 0:13:39.120 --> 0:13:42.920 swindled by almost every business partner he ever had, and 0:13:43.040 --> 0:13:45.880 was basically forced to resign from the army because of 0:13:45.920 --> 0:13:50.240 a drinking problem. These failures seemed to temper him, and 0:13:50.280 --> 0:13:52.920 when he would rise to the top, his lack of 0:13:52.960 --> 0:13:57.240 ego and ambition in contrast to his peers was notable. 0:14:02.160 --> 0:14:04.959 But now that we've addressed that, we've got to address 0:14:05.040 --> 0:14:07.360 the elephant in the room, which I talked about at 0:14:07.400 --> 0:14:10.520 the beginning of this episode, and that question is why 0:14:11.080 --> 0:14:13.680 is his library in the Deep South? 0:14:14.320 --> 0:14:17.160 Now, on the surface, you know it does seem weird. 0:14:17.480 --> 0:14:18.440 I thought it was weird. 0:14:19.000 --> 0:14:21.680 You usually think of Presidential library as being in a 0:14:21.720 --> 0:14:24.040 place that meant something to the president. 0:14:24.240 --> 0:14:28.160 Yes, and one hundred percent, but there is a historical 0:14:28.240 --> 0:14:31.080 connection at least between Grant and the state. Now he's 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:32.000 not from here. 0:14:31.680 --> 0:14:32.600 He fought here. 0:14:32.680 --> 0:14:34.600 He fought here. He was here for well over a 0:14:34.680 --> 0:14:37.920 year and a half. Yeah, fighting here, yea. And what's 0:14:37.920 --> 0:14:40.840 even more important in that is that that's really what 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:42.960 catapults him to the national stage as well. 0:14:43.120 --> 0:14:45.000 Okay, his work hit, what he did, what. 0:14:45.000 --> 0:14:47.440 He does in Mississippi, and so really without Mississippi, we 0:14:47.480 --> 0:14:50.960 don't know who Grant was. Right, It's been really good. 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:53.560 So it wasn't an attempt for the South to control 0:14:53.600 --> 0:14:54.480 the narrative on you. 0:14:54.560 --> 0:14:57.720 This is Asta Grant. It was not a conspiracy theory 0:14:57.760 --> 0:14:59.000 that I heard about this. 0:14:59.040 --> 0:14:59.920 Oh really, you heard this. 0:15:00.920 --> 0:15:05.720 It came from my wife. We were joking by the 0:15:05.720 --> 0:15:07.200 way here and then. 0:15:07.080 --> 0:15:09.480 You say that or was that that's what I thought 0:15:09.520 --> 0:15:10.000 I thought it was. 0:15:10.040 --> 0:15:13.640 You know, this sounds like a great conspiracy theory. 0:15:13.720 --> 0:15:15.880 It does. But you know, it's funny that you say 0:15:15.920 --> 0:15:19.040 that because the president of the university, doctor Mark Keenan, 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.880 he's really the one who championed having this here. But 0:15:22.960 --> 0:15:25.480 he talks about this or he says, you know, the 0:15:25.560 --> 0:15:28.480 idea is in the quote that he has is we 0:15:28.600 --> 0:15:31.080 want to we want to show things not from a 0:15:31.160 --> 0:15:35.600 Southern perspective or in a northern perspective, but an American perspective. 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:40.400 Yeah. Right, it appears that it's not a conspiracy, but 0:15:40.480 --> 0:15:44.240 the functional reason the library is here is logistical. The 0:15:44.280 --> 0:15:48.680 Grant Library moved from Southern Illinois University to Mississippi State 0:15:48.720 --> 0:15:51.200 in two thousand and eight because they needed more space 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.120 and Mississippi had the funds and champion the cause. And 0:15:55.200 --> 0:15:57.720 Louis and his colleagues are passionate about it, and they're 0:15:57.760 --> 0:15:59.800 proud that it's here, and this place is worth a 0:16:01.320 --> 0:16:04.680 But it's time to get down to the details. I 0:16:04.760 --> 0:16:08.880 ask Louis to tell us about ulysses As Grant's early life, 0:16:09.360 --> 0:16:11.680 what formed him. This is going to help us see 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:12.520 who this man is. 0:16:13.280 --> 0:16:16.600 Yeah, this is great because I honestly think that's one 0:16:16.600 --> 0:16:18.840 of the most compelling parts of his stories, his early life. 0:16:18.920 --> 0:16:21.680 It's kind of overshadowed, right, Obviously, we always think about 0:16:21.680 --> 0:16:23.640 the general, we always think about the president, But where 0:16:23.640 --> 0:16:26.160 did he come from? Kind of right, So yeah, I 0:16:26.200 --> 0:16:28.400 can definitely do that to answer your question. He was 0:16:28.400 --> 0:16:32.400 born in Point Pleasant, Ohio, April twenty seventh, eighteen twenty two. 0:16:32.600 --> 0:16:37.000 It's a small little Ohio River valley town. At a 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.520 young age, the family up and moves to Georgetown, Ohio, 0:16:39.560 --> 0:16:41.880 which is not too far right outside of Cincinnati, and 0:16:41.880 --> 0:16:45.720 that's where he grows up. A good, interesting little story 0:16:45.720 --> 0:16:49.120 that most people don't know. His father grew up in 0:16:49.160 --> 0:16:53.800 Ohio to his father as a young man, lived with 0:16:53.960 --> 0:16:58.680 John Brown, d John Brown, the John Brown John Brown. Really, yes, 0:16:58.760 --> 0:17:00.880 that's a lot. It's a fact that most people don't realize. 0:17:01.040 --> 0:17:04.560 He worked as a tanner for John Brown's father. I 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:07.720 think his father's name was Owen Brown. And so he 0:17:07.960 --> 0:17:10.959 lived and he lived with the abolitionist, Yes, the abolitionists 0:17:10.960 --> 0:17:12.560 who kind of either started this. 0:17:12.760 --> 0:17:14.320 Got skilled civil warriors. 0:17:14.680 --> 0:17:17.119 Yes, And so that might inform you a little bit 0:17:17.119 --> 0:17:20.920 about Grant's parents, right. His father was a very he 0:17:20.960 --> 0:17:23.160 had a very big personality, so I guess we would 0:17:23.160 --> 0:17:27.000 describe it he was an abolitionist. That kind of informs 0:17:27.000 --> 0:17:31.480 Grant's worldview. But Grant himself, though I wouldn't call him 0:17:31.520 --> 0:17:34.639 an abolitionist. Early on in his life. I would kind 0:17:34.680 --> 0:17:37.360 of label him as indifferent towards the institution of slavery. 0:17:37.720 --> 0:17:40.400 Didn't really affect him personally, and so I don't think 0:17:40.480 --> 0:17:42.840 he really thought too much about it. 0:17:44.560 --> 0:17:47.120 This is worth a look because there's more here than 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:51.680 meets the eye. Grant's father, Jesse Grant, was a narcissist 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:55.720 and a staunch abolitionist with a huge personality. He loved 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:59.360 to squabble with people. He loved to tout his own achievements, 0:17:59.760 --> 0:18:03.879 and Grant's personality would be the exact opposite in every way. 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:08.000 He was a man who let his accomplishments speak for themselves, 0:18:08.240 --> 0:18:11.200 even to a fault. Grant had impeccable character when it 0:18:11.240 --> 0:18:14.920 came to self promotion. He didn't promote himself. He lacked 0:18:14.920 --> 0:18:18.320 any sense of visible vanity. He didn't dress fancy like 0:18:18.359 --> 0:18:21.760 the other generals. Some even said he was sloppy. He 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.879 made a lifelong commitment to view the best in people, 0:18:25.080 --> 0:18:29.000 even his rivals like Bobby Lee, and he had unshakable loyalty, 0:18:29.160 --> 0:18:32.680 which was personified in his relationship to Lincoln and many 0:18:32.720 --> 0:18:35.800 of the other generals. But this went against him in 0:18:35.920 --> 0:18:39.639 business because he always got taken advantage of As a child, 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.879 Grant stood up to bullies, protecting the weak, but was 0:18:42.920 --> 0:18:47.080 also picked on himself. He was quiet and often a loner. 0:18:47.680 --> 0:18:51.280 Later in his military career, he would shut down any 0:18:51.400 --> 0:18:56.120 and all course talk about women. He maintained his faithfulness 0:18:56.119 --> 0:18:58.919 to his wife Julia until the end of his life 0:18:59.600 --> 0:19:00.919 and his his entire life. 0:19:00.920 --> 0:19:01.520 Listen to this. 0:19:02.000 --> 0:19:05.720 He refused to use vulgar language once he said that 0:19:05.760 --> 0:19:09.040 he'd let the words thunder and lightning slip from his mouth, 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:12.520 as if that were a curse word. But oddly Grant's 0:19:12.560 --> 0:19:16.760 views on slavery evolved over the years. Was it because 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:25.800 he wanted to be different than his hot headed dad. 0:19:29.080 --> 0:19:31.359 We're going to learn that Grant would marry a girl 0:19:31.400 --> 0:19:35.080 from Missouri whose family owned slaves, and we'll learn that 0:19:35.160 --> 0:19:38.960 Grant even owned one slave in eighteen fifty eight for 0:19:39.080 --> 0:19:42.480 one year a man was given to him. It's complex, 0:19:43.320 --> 0:19:45.960 So back to the issue of him not being a 0:19:46.040 --> 0:19:48.200 complete abolitionist from the beginning. 0:19:48.720 --> 0:19:51.280 But it's surprising though, considering who he was growing up 0:19:51.280 --> 0:19:54.480 around right right, But as a kid he wasn't really 0:19:54.680 --> 0:19:56.880 he was doing what kids do at the time who 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.960 were living kind of what they would consider Western life. 0:20:00.680 --> 0:20:03.720 He's working the fields, he's working with animals. As a 0:20:03.760 --> 0:20:07.240 young boy, Uh, he's obviously really really good with horses, 0:20:07.520 --> 0:20:10.399 which we see later on in his life. He's so 0:20:10.480 --> 0:20:13.240 good with horses in fact, that even as a little kid, 0:20:13.280 --> 0:20:16.239 maybe about eight or nine, maybe ten years old, his 0:20:16.359 --> 0:20:21.440 parents are letting him drive seventy miles away like on 0:20:21.640 --> 0:20:24.080 with horses, you know, to transport good. 0:20:24.240 --> 0:20:26.840 Like letting him take the car today, Yeah, letting him 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:30.080 take the horse. Yeah, seventy miles away, yes, ten years old. 0:20:30.040 --> 0:20:32.880 He was doing this. Yeah, so he was really really comfortable. 0:20:33.000 --> 0:20:34.000 Was he a horse trainer? 0:20:34.920 --> 0:20:36.359 I mean you could say he was. 0:20:36.920 --> 0:20:39.480 I mean he I guess everybody could ride a horse 0:20:39.520 --> 0:20:41.359 during that time because you had to. Yes, I mean 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.240 pretty much everything. He could hit a team to a wagon, 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:46.000 one hundred percent. He was known as a horseman. 0:20:46.320 --> 0:20:47.240 Yeah, one hundred percent. 0:20:47.440 --> 0:20:51.440 Yeah, Grant as a horseman and a trainer is an understatement. 0:20:52.359 --> 0:20:54.679 He began riding at age five and was said to 0:20:54.800 --> 0:20:57.880 stand up with one foot on a horse's back while 0:20:57.960 --> 0:21:01.600 riding full speed with only a sheep skin on the animal, 0:21:01.680 --> 0:21:04.760 no saddle. When he was under ten years old, a 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:07.800 circus came through town and recruited a boy from the 0:21:07.840 --> 0:21:11.399 audience to ride a bronchy pony as it ran around 0:21:11.400 --> 0:21:13.199 the ring to see if the kid could stay on. 0:21:13.920 --> 0:21:16.639 Ulysses was selected and he jumped on the pony and 0:21:16.680 --> 0:21:19.080 it ran fast laps around the ring. 0:21:19.640 --> 0:21:21.639 But the crowd pleaser this whole. 0:21:21.400 --> 0:21:24.280 Thing was when a monkey ran into the ring on 0:21:24.480 --> 0:21:28.800 command and jumped on the rider's back. Almost all the 0:21:28.880 --> 0:21:32.439 riders fell off in the melee, but Grant stuck in 0:21:32.480 --> 0:21:36.600 the saddle like glue, riding until the ring master called 0:21:36.640 --> 0:21:39.399 him off him and that monkey and the crowd was 0:21:39.480 --> 0:21:45.119 shorted their pony wreck. Louis mentioned Grant riding seventy miles 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:47.520 when he was ten years old, but when he was 0:21:47.520 --> 0:21:50.320 a young teenager he had delivery service where he'd take 0:21:50.359 --> 0:21:53.280 a horse and wagon over two hundred and fifty miles 0:21:53.320 --> 0:21:58.200 to Cincinnati. His relaxed demeanor, fearlessness, and his natural instinct 0:21:58.280 --> 0:22:01.440 made him a natural with horses, and he started training 0:22:01.440 --> 0:22:04.600 horses early in life, in a time when training was. 0:22:04.520 --> 0:22:06.560 Typically harsh and even cruel. 0:22:07.240 --> 0:22:09.640 By the time he was an adult, he was known 0:22:09.800 --> 0:22:13.280 as a virtuoso on horseback, and in the Mexican War, 0:22:13.400 --> 0:22:17.320 he broke wild horses for the Army one soldier reported 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:22.119 watching Grant blindfold, bridle and saddle and unbroke horse and 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:26.040 ride it for three hours until it was tame. Grant said, 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:28.880 if people knew how much more they could get out 0:22:28.880 --> 0:22:32.879 of a horse by gentleness than by harshness, they would 0:22:32.920 --> 0:22:35.679 save a great deal of trouble, both to the horse 0:22:36.119 --> 0:22:36.880 and to the man. 0:22:38.080 --> 0:22:39.600 These words would be. 0:22:39.520 --> 0:22:42.879 Prophetic words that reflected the way that he treated people, too, 0:22:43.400 --> 0:22:47.000 But it's also ironic because he was a masterful and 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:51.439 relentless war leader. A story that Grant told in his 0:22:51.600 --> 0:22:55.400