Ulysses S. Grant
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After leaving office, Grant was very nearly destitute, but was able to provide for his family by publishing his memoirs. He died of throat cancer two days after completing them.
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Ulysses S. Grant in Fort Pillow
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In 1863, Ulysses S. Grant had made Jackson, Tennesee one of his supply depots, until Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest pushed Union forces back out. Forrest subsequently used Jackson as his launching-pad for the attack on Fort Pillow.[1]
Ulysses S. Grant in The Guns of the South
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Ulysses S. Grant's great achievement in 1862-63 was to seize control of the Mississippi River by defeating a series of uncoordinated Confederate armies and by capturing Vicksburg in July 1863. After a victory at Chattanooga in late 1863, Abraham Lincoln made him general-in-chief of all Union armies.
He faced C.S. General Robert E. Lee during the Battle of the Wilderness through which he attempted to advance on Richmond.[2] Grant's superiority in numbers came to naught due to the AK-47s supplied by the Rivington Men to Lee.[3] A second defeat at Bealeton allowed Lee to advance on and capture Washington City.[4]
Grant later served as an Election Commissioner during the Kentucky and Missouri state-wide referendum on whether they would remain with the Union or join the Confederacy. Although he had a reputation as a heavy drinker, Grant remained abstinent during the election campaign, preferring coffee at dinner with fellow commissioner Robert E. Lee.[5] However, the night of the vote, after it became clear Kentucky voted to join the C.S., he drank himself into a stupor.[6]
In 1868, Lee had the opportunity to review Grant's Overland Campaign as it had taken place in the world the Rivington Men had come from.[7]
Ulysses S. Grant in Southern Victory
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While Ulysses S. Grant had achieved a string of victories in 1862, they came to naught; in the East, General George McClellan allowed his Army of the Potomac to be destroyed at Camp Hill, Philadelphia was taken by the Army of Northern Virginia, and British and French intervention forced the US to surrender. Grant became deeply depressed and reverted to his pre-war alcoholism. At the outset of the Second Mexican War in 1881, he was one of the few sympathetic members of a crowd in St. Louis addressed by Frederick Douglass.[8] Later generations primarily remembered him as having died a drunk.[9]
References
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- ↑ Fort Pillow, pgs. 1-2.
- ↑ The Guns of the South, pgs. 100-104.
- ↑ Ibid., pgs. 140-150.
- ↑ Ibid., pgs. 205-210.
- ↑ Ibid., pgs. 296-307.
- ↑ Ibid., pgs. 313-14.
- ↑ Ibid., pg. 431.
- ↑ How Few Remain, pg. 65.
- ↑ Blood and Iron, pg. 630.
| Political offices (OTL) | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Andrew Johnson | President of the United States 1869-1877 | Succeeded by Rutherford B. Hayes |
| Party political offices (OTL) | ||
| Preceded by Abraham Lincoln | Republican Party nominee for President of the United States 1868; 1872 (won both) | Succeeded by Rutherford B. Hayes |
| Military offices (OTL) | ||
| Preceded by Henry Halleck | Commanding General of the United States Army 1864–1869 | Succeeded by William Sherman |
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