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S. citizens.
Despite all of the destruction and chaos that had crippled the South as a result of the war and his surrender to Grant, Lee was considered "the symbol of everything for which (the Confederate soldiers) had been willing to die." Thus, "if the Lost Cause," being the loss of the Old South and its aristocratic/slavery system, "sanctified by so much heroism and so many deaths, had a living justification," it was Robert E. Lee (Catton, 2003, 632).
In contrast, Ulysses S. Grant "was everything Lee was not," for instead of being raised in a rather well-to-do family with close and important ties to a number of wealthy and prominent Southern political figures and leaders, Grant, the son of a skin tanner of the Western American frontier, had been raised "the hard way" and symbolized the "eternal toughness" and sinewy fiber" of the great mountain men, those who had fled civilization for a life of roughness and struggle in the wilds of the Rocky Mountains and beyond (Catton, 2003, 632). Grant was also what one might call a non-conformist, for he felt that he was his own man and owed nothing to no one, much unlike Lee who came from a family background filled with reverence and admiration for all things southern and a deep respect for the Southern way of life with its laid-back indifference to the plight of the black man and woman. But like Lee, Grant was also a firm detractor of the institution of slavery in the South and felt that...
Both were undoubtedly great soldiers and military geniuses and always faced the enemy with great resolution and an air of defiance and superiority. As Catton tells us, Grant and Lee possessed "great virtue and utter tenacity," meaning that they firmly believed in their individual causes and would do anything to accomplish them. They also were daring and extremely resourceful which is supported by Lee's "dazzling campaigns of Second Manassas and Chancellorsville" and Grant's turbulent and deadly victory for the Union at Vicksburg (2003, 634).
But one of the most important similarities between Grant and Lee was their ability to face defeat honorably and to recognize that neither side, being the Union and the Confederacy, came out the victor after the war, due to the continuing struggles of African-Americans and the devastating consequences of Reconstruction. Yet all in all, Grant and Lee have much in common, especially related to their determination to bring peace to America even though it meant the lost of thousands of lives and the rending apart of the foundation of American democracy.
References
Catton, Bruce. (2003). "Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts." Bannon: A Writer's Workshop: Crafting Paragraphs, Building Essays. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies, 631-34.
Grant supporter, George Curtis, editor of Harper's Weekly, once wrote to a friend, "I think the warmest friends of Grant feel that he has failed terribly as President, but not from want of honesty or desire, but from want of tact and great ignorance...It is a political position and he knows nothing of politics and rather despises them" (Goode).. After he left office, Grant and Julia settled in New York.
ULYSSES S. GRANT The 18th President of the United States, Ulysses S. Grant, was a most curious American public figure. His two presidential terms are considered by political critics as the most corrupt in American history, yet his contribution and role in those most important and historic times cannot be under-estimated. He was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in 1822 to a hardworking couple in southwestern Ohio. He went to a seminary and
After all, "he was headed South, toward Richmond, not back to Washington in retreat. To Grant, even the heavy losses in the Wilderness signified a victory. The Confederates had no reserves to replace the dead and wounded. But Grant could call on a huge supply of civilians to fill the Union armies" (People & events: Grant's greatest battles, 2006, PBS). At Cold Harbor, Grant lost 12,000 men but while his
Grant and Lee: A Study in Contracts Why do the differences between Grant and Lee receive more extended treatment than the similarities? Why are the similarities discussed last? The United States, at Appomattox, had just suffered a profound rend in its history because of the Civil War, culturally and personally. For the duration of the war, the nation's regional and political differences rather than its similarities had come to the forefront. The
Ultimately, Grant may be remembered as one of America's best generals. He is still the only general in history to capture three separate armies, and he presided over Lee's surrender at Appomattox in April 1865. He was also a fair man who treated the Confederates well during their surrender. He was simply determined not to allow the South to be victorious. He sometimes misjudged his generals, and perhaps left some
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