U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth
Thanks to Joan Waugh’s sublime U.S. Grant: American Hero, American Myth we now, at long last, have the answer to comedian Groucho Marx’s sarcastic query, “Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?” Part biography, part military and political history, part historiography and part analysis of fickle public memory, readers can dive into a treasure trove of a book that is both academic and accessible. Taking on conventional notions about Ulysses Grant and challenging previous biographers, most notably William S. McFeeley, Waugh paints a portrait of Grant hitherto unseen. While not a full-scale biography Waugh deftly employs the craft of a skilled biographer against the backdrop of cultural norms and prevailing traditions, asking the reader to go deeper into the Grant myth so that one may plumb the depths of the real Grant. When Grant died in 1885 and when his majestic tomb on Manhattan’s Morningside Heights was dedicated in 1897 Grant was at the zenith of his reputation: that of a superb general, one of the nation’s ultimate military leaders, who along with Abraham Lincoln reunited the country and liberated the slaves and as president did his full well best to manage the difficulties of Reconstruction. But by 1930 Grant’s reputation had seriously waned, in part supplanted by an unconscious national embrace of the Confederate “Lost Cause” myth. Grant had been replaced as America’s most beloved general by the man whom he defeated, Robert E. Lee. For years Grant’s tomb languished in obscurity with its original bucolic location consumed by the ever-northward march of the borough of Manhattan. By the Civil War Centennial Grant’s Tomb was a laughingstock and his reputation as a military hero tarnished by a generation of writers who offered their analysis of Grant’s military success simply within the context of superiority in numbers and a willingness to sacrifice those numbers in an effort to conclude the Civil War. Sadly many people preferred to forget Grant, whose management of Reconstruction was sullied by those he appointed to political positions. At best President Grant was a well- meaning incompetent. Waugh has done a Herculaneum task of research that pays dividends as she reconstructs Grant’s life and his reputation. In particular she is not willing to sidestep the controversies that have plagued Grant’s legacy – alcoholism and a failure of leadership at the battle of Shiloh, in particular. With regard to Grant’s habit to hit the bottle, Waugh provides a portrait of a man who drank because he was lonely in garrison duty in the bleak Pacific Northwest, not because he had a moral flaw. To his defense she skillfully tracked down sources that counter the prevailing sentiment of Grant’s need to imbibe and a willingness on his part to let those around him provide assistance when needed. In short, Grant drank, but was not a drunkard – popular history has clouded the issue. The aftermath of Shiloh provided news that shocked the nation. More men were killed in that two-day battle than in all of America’s wars previously combined. Though it was a Union victory, and a critical one at that, the carnage had to be explained. For this, Waugh asserts, Grant was a scapegoat. Penetrating, and at times moving, Joan Waugh lets fresh air into not only the mustiness of Grant’s Tomb but also the life and legacy of a too often maligned character central to the American narrative. This book should simply not be missed. Reviewer: James A. Percoco James A. Percoco is the author of Summers with Lincoln: Looking for the Man in the Monuments and is History Educator-in-Residence at American University.
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Illustrated, notes, 373 pages, 2009. The University of North Carolina Press, 116 South Boundary St., Chapel Hill, NC 27514, $30 plus shipping.