Grant’s life story has been written many times since the 1860s, and the basic outline is generally well-known: First-born child of an Ohio tanner and his pious, near-silent wife enrolls at West Point in the class of 1843 (graduates 21st out of 39) distinguished service in the Mexican War difficult period on the west coast leads to his resignation in 1854 struggles to provide for his family in civilian life re-enters military service as the colonel of an Illinois infantry regiment in 1861 rises to the rank of Lieutenant General, accepting the surrender of Confederate General Robert E. And when faced with an opponent he could not defeat – cancer – he managed a moral and literary victory of epic proportions. He remained absolutely devoted to his wife and just as devoted to the cause of civil rights for the men freed by the war he won. (He was also quite capable of nursing a grudge.) Whatever his issues with alcohol – and this is a large and important focus of Chernow’s book – he kept them mostly, if imperfectly, in check. Loyal to a fault (literally), he could yet (and did) admit fault regarding men he had tangled with. As Chernow shows, Grant was fundamentally honest, yet was tragically susceptible to being conned by unscrupulous men. Grant was a complex man, and efforts to reduce him to a simplistic caricature-stolid, taciturn, drunk, butcher, stupid-simply do not stand up to much scrutiny. There have been many biographies of Grant in recent years, and Chernow’s, while suffering from some flaws, is perhaps the best.

Lee’s Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in Wilmer McLean’s parlor. One of the most interesting is the story of the slouchy Ohio-born tanner’s son who progressed from leather-goods store clerk to Lieutenant General and commander of the Union armies and who began the war having trouble getting any position at all in the Federal war effort, yet ended up accepting the surrender of Robert E. Many compelling tales come out of the history of the American Civil War.

Emerging Civil War welcomes guest author James F.

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