Grant

Ulysses S. Grant.

This man's nameis U.S. Grant.

A military life had no charms for me.

Grant, you know the rules about drink.

Resign or court-martial.

I'm not asking you to speak.

I'm asking you to lead.

There were but two parties now,

traitors and patriots.

I believeif I can take both forts,

we can advanceas far as Nashville.

When I wish to consult you on the subject,

I will notify you.

General Buell's men?

They're three days out.

We'll move on Corinth when he gets here.

There is little doubt that Corinth will fall easily.

Fire!

Come on, now, boys, pitch in.

I'm right behind you.

Fire the cannon!

Very few people really know who Ulysses S. Grant was.

Today there is this sense that he's forgotten.

He's been called so many things over the years.

The greatest general of his time.

A military genius.

A bloody butcher.

A corrupt president.

A belligerent drunk who got lucky.

He didn't get lucky.

Ulysses S. Grant is this perfectly average,

humble individual from a poor, hardscrabble background.

With a lot of hard times and failures in his life.

But he's got this dogged determination,

this bulldog mentality.

This guy comes from nothing,

rises to the highest ranks

of the Union army.

Fights bloody, terrible battles.

With indomitable will.

To save the Union.

To heal his country.

To lead the nation towards justice for everybody.

He's the unheroic hero

of our greatest national epic, the American Civil War.

It's truly an American story

not only of patriotism to the nation

but for the values, who we are,

and who we aspire to be.

Dear Julia

the battle at this place was the most desperate

that has ever taken place on the continent,

and I don't look for another like it.

The battle of Shiloh is the bloodiest battle

in American history up to that time.

The nation is shocked

when the casualty reports come out.

Grant doesn't come out of Shiloh looking very good.

You know, he was "Unconditional Surrender" Grant

at Fort Donelson,

became a hero.

And now all of a sudden, people are asking,

"What happened?"

The casualty list and the fact that Grant

was surprised on the first day

overshadow the fact of the victory.

Rumors start reaching Washington

that explain that surprise as Grant must be

on the bottle once again.

But the president answered

those critical of Grant by saying,

"I can't spare this man.

He fights."

After the bloodbath of Shiloh...

Grant's superior,

Henry W. Halleck,

removes Grant from his army command

with no duties,

no real authority, nothing.

Grant is so frustrated by this.

Halleck is not aggressive,

and then you have someone like Grant,

who is very go-get-'em.

He's ready to jump in, grab the initiative.

Grant wants to finish off

what's left of the Confederate army

that attacked him at Shiloh

but are having time to reorganize themselves

as they fall back into Corinth.

They're well defended.

I would say quite active.

They're preparing for battle.

Respectfully, General Halleck, that smoke?

It's plain. They're burning supplies.

It suggests they're preparing to retreat, sir.

Hear that?

I knew it.

Trains coming in every day.

They're reinforcing.

Again, sir, I differ. This is a retreat.

Our railroad men have ears on the tracks.

They say it's empty trains coming in

and loaded ones going out.

They're withdrawing.

Let's move on them now...

Enough, Grant.

After Shiloh, I'd have thoughtyou'd have learned your lesson.

Grant is like, "Speed, tempothese are weapons

that can be used for an adversary that's on the run."

Grant recognizes there's an opportunity,

but he also knows the windows of opportunity

are very small,

and if you don't take advantage of them,

they'll pass you by.

And Grant sees this as a missed opportunity.

General.

Rebs are gone.

Nothing but a bunch of scarecrows.

Send a telegraph to the president.

Corinth is ours.

It's a great Union victory.

The possession of Corinth was of strategic importance,

but the victory was barren in every other particular.

Corinth had already been evacuated.

A well-directed attack would at least have partially

destroyed the defending army.

Corinth has fallen. Grant is like,

"Great, this is an opportunity to strike out.

We should go to Atlanta. We should go to Vicksburg."

And what happens? Halleck sits tight.

He disperses the army,

and things slow down in the western theater.

Keep in mind that in the early years of the war,

there are really two distinct theaters.

The west is where Grant is.

And there's the eastern theater,

and this is the fights of the Union army

against essentially the Army of Northern Virginia of Lee.

So while Grant has been demoted out west,

in the east, Robert E. Lee

has taken over the Army of Northern Virginia.

And the average result in the eastern theater

is that the Union army loses

to an undermanned Confederate army.

In the east, Lincoln's experience with his generals

had been bad, trending to worse.

Abraham Lincoln had seen Robert E. Lee defeat

an entire bench of Union commanders.

By this time, Grant is in a bad situation too.

That second year of the war is just not very good for him.

In fact, he calls it, of course,

the darkest days of the war.

Dear Julia, I am no longer boss.

What the next move is or the part I am to take,

I do not know.

What's going on?

I've had enough.

I'm resigning.

For God's sake.

Look, I want to fight and win this war,

but if Halleck has me sit it out,

I might as well sit it out at home.

You're not resigning.

If I can't fight, well, then I'm useless.

Sam, you're the most usefulman we have.

I know it. You knowBy God, Lincoln?

He knows it.

Look at this.

It says I was drunk at Shiloh.

Hell.

Forget the papers.

Listen.

You know the next move is Vicksburg.

You can take Vicksburg.

Who else can do it?

Halleck?

Vicksburg.

Lincoln was right.

Vicksburg is the key.

Controlling Vicksburg allowed food and other goods

to move freely across the Mississippi

and get onto railcars

and feed the Confederacy in the east.

Without it, the Confederacy can be cut in two.

But for any army in history,

capturing Vicksburg would be a daunting task.

The city of Vicksburg is on the east bank

of the Mississippi River.

And it is nestled among bluffs that tower 300 feet

above a horseshoe-shaped bend of the Mississippi.

The line of defense consisted of nine major forts

connected by a continuous line of trenches and rifle pits

that stretched for more than eight miles

and then 172 big guns.

Back east, Abraham Lincoln was at that moment

about to rid himself of his general and chief

George McClellan,

and the replacement that he pitches upon

is Henry Wager Halleck.

He brings Halleck east.