The Art of Command: Military Leadership from George Washington to Colin Powell

2. Determination and Leadership: Ulysses S. Grant

2 Determination and Leadership Ulysses S. Grant Harry S. Laver In a downpour on 6 April 1862, Brigadier General William Tecumseh Sherman spent the early evening searching for his superior, Major General Ulysses S. Grant, commander of the Union Army of the Tennessee. He found him crouched under a tree with rain dripping from his down-turned hat and a dim lantern providing meager light. “Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?” “Yes,” Grant replied. “Lick ’em tomorrow, though.”1 Undoubtedly Sherman was taken aback by Grant’s unremitting resolve. The day’s fighting around Shiloh Church had ended with the coming of twilight, but the federals found little comfort in the darkness. The Confederate Army of the Mississippi had surprised the bluecoats with a morning attack, driving back Grant’s farm boy soldiers nearly three miles, to the banks of the Tennessee River. General P. G. T. Beauregard, who took command of the Southern army after General Albert Sidney Johnston died in the thick of the fighting, telegraphed Richmond that Grant and his men were finished, or they would be the following day. Few could have argued with Beauregard . The Union army had lost its cohesion, energy, and spirit, and it teetered on the edge of annihilation. Its fate rested with its commander , who might well have ordered a retreat, as his subordinates, ULySSeS S. Grant (National Archives, College Park, MD) Determination and Leadership 35 even Sherman, recommended. But Grant decided to fight. His reply to Sherman revealed a tenacity and commitment to press forward. In spite of the day’s setbacks, Grant’s experience confirmed his determination that the next day would bring victory. In that crisis, confronted with overwhelming obstacles, Grant demonstrated perhaps his greatest quality as a leader, what Carl von Clausewitz described as “a great force of will.”2 Grant did not begin his military career armed with an unshakable resolve. His perseverance in war developed from studying the examples of mentors and from learning the hard lessons of experience . During his years in the army, Grant had the good fortune to serve with men like Zachary Taylor and Charles F. Smith, who possessed the drive to succeed and who served as worthy leadership role models. Yet practical, firsthand experience proved Grant’s most effective teacher. With every decision, he gained experience and confidence and developed further into a commander who embodied Clausewitz’s “great force of will.” But make no mistake, Grant’s persistence was not mere stubbornness. A stubborn leader unthinkingly stays the course, failing to recognize the subtleties in strategic, operational, or tactical situations. Major General Ambrose E. Burnside’s repeated, bloody, and failed assaults at Fredericksburg revealed a leader unable to distinguish perseverance from an unreasonable inflexibility. Grant, however, exercised resolve tempered by an eye for the complex and evolving nature of military operations. As his Vicksburg campaign revealed, he was always prepared to adapt, unwilling to allow tactical problems to distract from or overwhelm strategic objectives. Little in Grant’s youth hinted at the presence of great inner strength. An unremarkable childhood in Ohio ended in 1839 with his admission to West Point through an appointment arranged by his father. Grant lacked self-confidence and doubted that he could succeed at the academy, but his father was adamant that he would go, and that settled the matter. As a cadet, Grant was no more than average. He easily conquered math but barely survived two years of French. He excelled at horsemanship, and his high jump record was 36 Harry S. Laver not surpassed for more than a quarter century. During his third year, Grant suffered demotion from cadet sergeant to private because he failed to accept the responsibilities of the rank. “The promotion was too much for me,” Grant later recalled. Nevertheless, he graduated twenty-first out of thirty-nine cadets in 1843, impressing most with his mediocrity despite his superior command of horses. Assigned to the U.S. Army’s Fourth Infantry Regiment—itself an indicator of his undistinguished record, as the best graduates became engineering or artillery officers—the newly commissioned brevet second lieutenant began what all expected to be an unremarkable military career.3 During Grant’s first years in the army, there emerged hints of untapped energy and resolve. One afternoon in 1846, while serving in Mexico under Zachary Taylor, Grant dismounted to help his men clear underwater...