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 personages, political views, and upbringings of Grant and Lee are used to emphasize this, as "they were two strong men these oddly different generals, and they represented the strengths of two conflicting currents that through them, had come into final collision. As North and South was in contrast, so the generals at the head of the army represented this contrast. But ultimately, these generals were forced to come to peace, and thus their similarities are discussed at the end, in symbolic parallel of this peace.

How would you characterize Catton's attitude towards the two men? Refer to specific parts of the essay when answering.

The emphasis of Catton's essay is to highlight how both generals embodied the strengths and weaknesses of their respective region and army's values. The squire-like upbringing of Lee represents "the notion that the old aristocratic concept might somehow survive and be dominant in American life," as well as expresses the values of the man himself that there "should be a leisure class, backed by ownership of land; in turn, society itself should be keyed to the land as the chief source of wealth and influence." In contrast to the aristocratic Lee, Grant was "the son of a tanner on the Western frontier who "stood for democracy, not from any reasoned conclusion about the proper ordering of human society, but simply because they had grown up in the middle of democracy and knew how it worked and had a "deep sense of belonging to a national community," and a broad sense of shared society, commensurate with equality, the North, the Union, and an end to slavery. However, both men fortunately shared fidelity, tenacity, military values and valor, and lastly, "perhaps greatest of all, there was the ability, at the end, to turn quickly from the war to peace once the fighting was over."