Fireside Chat, Interview
Talks at GS – Ron Chernow: Lessons in Leadership – The Unlikely Rise of Ulysses S. Grant
- Ron Chernow selected Ulysses S. Grant as a subject because Grant, like Alexander Hamilton, was a "fallen angel" or beaten-down character whose historical significance had been minimized despite being the second most important American after Lincoln at the time of his death.
- Chernow positions Grant's life as a vehicle to examine the "two-act drama" of the Civil War and Reconstruction, a period historians call the "Second American Revolution" due to its sweeping transformation of American society.
- The Civil War resulted in an estimated 750,000 American deaths and left millions maimed; in Mississippi, prosthetic devices constituted the single largest state budget line item immediately following the war.
- Reconstruction introduced transformative amendments: the 13th (abolishing slavery), the 14th (granting equal rights and due process), and the 15th (granting voting rights to black males), which occurred when black populations were majorities in states like South Carolina and Mississippi.
- During Reconstruction, African Americans achieved unprecedented political representation, including 600 black legislators in southern state bodies, 14 representatives in the U.S. House, and two senators, notably Hiram Revels who replaced Jefferson Davis in the Mississippi Senate.
- Chernow disputes the "Lost Cause" narrative that the war was about states' rights rather than slavery, citing Vice President Alexander Stephens' 1861 declaration that slavery was the "cornerstone" of the Confederacy and historical evidence that Confederate soldiers fought almost exclusively over the preservation of slavery.
- Grant's military effectiveness is attributed to strategic genius rather than Northern numerical superiority; five prior Union generals with identical advantages in manpower and material failed to defeat Robert E. Lee, whereas Grant achieved a decisive encirclement and capture of Lee at Appomattox.
- The war was fought primarily on Southern soil, granting Confederate forces intelligence advantages but forcing the Union to protect hundreds of miles of supply lines, negating the theoretical advantage of a defensive war.
- Grant's trajectory shifted from a life of failure—being dismissed from the Army for alcoholism in 1854, struggling to sell firewood on street corners, and working as a junior clerk—to a four-star general commanding over a million men by 1865.
- Chernow argues that Grant's unique psychological constitution allowed him to remain calm and think more clearly under extreme danger, contrasting with the panic of others, exemplified by his indifference to a shell exploding three inches from his ear at the Battle of the Wilderness.
- Grant is credited as a modernizer in warfare for integrating the telegraph and railroad networks to coordinate a 1,500-mile front, and for pioneering "total war" strategies that targeted Southern civilian infrastructure to break the will of the population.
- Chernow highlights a "what-if" scenario where Grant narrowly avoided assassination at Ford's Theater because his wife, Julia, refused to accompany the Lincolns due to a personal feud with Mary Todd Lincoln.
- Grant's presidency (1869–1877) saw the creation of the Department of Justice, where Attorney General Amos Akerman secured over 1,000 convictions against the Ku Klux Klan, effectively crushing the organization in the late 1860s.
- Unlike the "Lost Cause" mythology that later glorified Confederate generals, Grant refused to prosecute Robert E. Lee for treason to ensure a peaceful surrender, a decision that inadvertently allowed Confederate narratives to take root in the North.
- Historically ranked near the bottom in 1948 presidential surveys, Grant's reputation has rebounded significantly, moving him to the middle of the pack in modern rankings, largely due to his defense of civil rights during Reconstruction.
- Despite his military success, Grant was plagued by a "cruel naivety" in peacetime business, leading to his financial ruin in the 1880s when his partner Ferdinand Ward orchestrated a Ponzi scheme that left Grant's family with only $80.
- Chernow notes that while Grant's autobiography is a military memoir, it omits his presidency and his lifelong struggle with alcoholism, requiring the biographer to uncover these hidden dimensions of his life.
- Chernow suggests that Confederate monuments erected at the end of Reconstruction were political statements intended to roll back civil rights gains, and proposes moving such statues to historical societies as "teachable moments" rather than immediate removal.