Ulysses S. Grant and the Trials of Leadership Essay -- Ulysses S Grant

Ulysses S. Grant and the Trials of LeadershipOn June 3, 1864, the Union and Confederate armies met on a battlefield in Cold Harbor, Virginia. The Confederates were well fasten and prepared to mount a defensive stand. The Union soldiers on the other side of the lines were preparing for an attack that would prove to be disastrous. They knew what the outcome would be. In only 20 minutes of fighting, 7,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded. As the Yankees prepared to go into action, many began sewing tags with their names on them into their clothes so their bodies could be identified after contendd their deaths. One dead Union soldier was found with a small diary in his pocket. The final entry, dated June 3, 1864, read simply, I was killed. Many work force like him knew they were going to die that day, and yet they went forward anyway, and met their fates. Many people, military and civilian, questioned the intelligence of the attack, and rightfully so. But the decision was made, an d the men carried it out. They carried it out because it was given by General Ulysses S. Grant, the man who was the first to continually win battles against Robert E. Lee, and the man who finally won the war for the United States. They carried it out because Grant was perhaps the most well-thought-of general ever to serve in the U.S. Army to that point. They carried it out because Grant was a leader. Grant was not always the leader that won the war and became president. He was first a failure in business, a quiet young soldier with little social life, a general whose peers criticized him and charged him with drunkenness, and later a president plagued by scandal and rumor. Ulysses S. Grant was born to Jesse and Hannah Grant on April 27, 1822, in Point P... ...ys mind. His logic in organizing supplies for the army was demonstrated early on in the Mexican War. But it seems that his intelligences only served him in wartime, making almost another intelligence of their own, that of makin g war. As President, he severely lacked interpersonal skills in picking and managing his cabinet. He showed little knowledge of safe money handling strategies and lost most of his savings more than once. He was a great war leader and general, and seemingly not much else but a kind man. Works Cited1. Barber, James G. U.S. Grant The Man and the Image. Southern Illinois University Press. Carbondale 1985. 2. Carpenter, John A. Ulysses S. Grant. Twayne Publishers, Inc. new-fashioned York 1970.3. Gardner, H. Creating minds. New York Basic Books, 1993.4. Goldhurst, Richard. Many are the Hearts. Readers Digest Press. New York 1975.