Likely not the same General Grant you’re envisioning.

Grant fought alongside Lee, who didn’t remember him, in the Mexican-American War.

After resigning from the Army, Grant failed at farming, real estate, and bill collecting. Eventually, he was clerking in his father’s leather shop, subordinate to his younger brothers.

Graduating 21st out of 39 cadets at West Point, nothing suggested future greatness.

Grant wrote offering his services to the military at the start of the Civil War. They never replied.

He cried after battles. Yet each morning, he rose and ordered his men forward.

With counsel confined to his notebook, he was private in his strategy.

“Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon as you can. Strike at him as hard as you can, and keep moving on.” Grant focused on what to do to the enemy, while other men only wanted to talk of what the enemy was doing to them.