If you’re an American reading this - you’d better know of the Civil War at the very least.

Now if you’re an American who paid a little attention in US History class - you’re familiar with some of the Generals - typically Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas Sherman, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.

They’re the most memorable by a large margin.

If you’re an American who paid a LOT of attention in US history class, you know that Grant’s military brilliance over 13 months (the Overland campaign) caused fits for Robert E. Lee and the rest of the Confederate army, causing their official surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865.

President Lincoln would be assassinated six days later by the stage actor and Confederate sympathizer John Wilkes Booth.

Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s Vice President, would take over after his assassination. His biggest challenge was to be in charge of reconstructing the South after the war… and would do a pretty poor job of it.

His reconstruction plan mostly left the South to it's own devices to rebuild their part of the nation.

He would purposefully block changes to the constitution after the war preventing freedmen from becoming citizens and destroy the goodwill from Congress, so they passed legislation which would prevent him from firing cabinet members.

He wouldn’t be re-elected in 1868.

Instead, the election winner would be the former hero of the Union and current General of the Army:

Ulysses S. Grant

Grant won the election pretty handily as a Republican with electoral votes (214 to 80) and by about 5% of the popular vote.

At 46 year old he’d become the youngest US president to be elected until Kennedy in 1960.

(Theodore Roosevelt is the youngest US president ever, but he wasn’t elected for his first term as William McKinley died in office and Roosevelt was next in line).

His reputation as the commander of the army during the War was known — he was successful at a cost.

He could be incredibly cunning but relied on brute force, he won a lot of battles yet lost a lot of men.

But the question was: What type of president would he be?

Well, it’s honestly a mixed bag.

He won the presidency based on the fact that he was such an effective commander during the Civil War, but military prowess doesn’t always translate to politics.

They require two separate skillsets.

Less than a year into his first term, two railroad tycoons, Jay Gould and Jim Fisk, were working and plotting to corner the gold market to profit off of artificially driving the price of gold up.

They’d purposefully gotten close to Grant’s brother-in-law Abel Corbin and involved him in this scheme to gain access to the President and influence the Treasury’s bi-weekly gold selling policy.

He’d find out about the scheme, order his brother-in-law to sell his position, release $4 million in gold and buy $4 million in bonds.

This caused price of gold to plummet within minutes, creating a bear market and temporary turmoil.

A government investigation in 1870 would exonerate Grant of any wrongdoing in this incident but the fact of the matter is this:

Not a good look for Grant’s first year in office.

The rest of this term was surprisingly smooth though.

No foreign wars, the economy was strong, the US debt had been lowered and tariffs were reduced.

People were paying less taxes and they were happy which is why in 1872 — you guessed it.

He won a second term.

This second term would not be smooth.

Enter the Panic of 1873:

• Silver would become demonetized in Germany a few years prior, with their halt on minting their silver coins (the US got most of it’s silver supply from Germany).

• The US would follow suit shortly after, becoming a de facto gold standard currency.

• Banks failed en masse as major investment banks were leveraged in railroads which at the time were risky investments that offered no fast or liquid return.

• 55 railroad companies failed by November 1873 and 60 went bankrupt soon after. The Railroad industry was the second largest employer in the United States after agriculture at the time.

• Over 18,000 businesses in general failed within the next six years causing unemployment to skyrocket to over 8% by 1878.

• This crisis would cause the US to enter a massive depression lasting between 1873 to 1879 but created long-lasting economic instability, as there would be recessions in 114 of 253 months between 1879 and 1901.

You thought the Gold incident in his first year was bad, imagine having to deal with this.

Democrats would win the House of Representatives in 1874 effectively reducing his ability to influence policy and legislation for the remainder of his term.

And if things couldn’t get bad enough between a depression and losing political power, the Grant administration was constantly embroiled in scandal.

Nepotism, a military-style ran cabinet and low standards for office all contributed to it too —

Over 40 family members were estimated to have financially profited during Grant’s two terms

When whiskey distillers were exposed by the Treasury Secretary in 1875 as coordinating a massive tax evasion ring (as much as $2 million in taxes evaded per year), Grant appointed special prosecutor and ordered him to “Let no guilty man escape”… until it was found that multiple members of the White House including his own personal secretary had profited and was one of the leaders of this “Whiskey Ring”.

There were even rumors of the president HIMSELF being implicated in the ring, but there was no hard evidence to back it up.

Grant would then testify on behalf of his secretary, with his secretary ultimately being acquitted.

The “Whiskey Ring” scandal happened in the middle of his second term and did irreparable harm to his political reputation.

Any chance of running for a third term was decimated by his deposition and by 1875 he publicly wrote a letter, declining to run for office again.

He would end his final term with a war starting between the United States and the Sioux/Cheyenne tribes known as the Great Sioux War of 1876.

You’ve probably heard about the Battle of the Little Bighorn also known as Custer’s Last Stand?

Yeah… that happened during this war.

By the end of his second term, the US economy was in the gutter, corruption was everywhere in his cabinet, there was still hostility between the South and the North (the troops from the Civil War were finally withdrawn from Southern capitals in 1877 - 12 years after the war ended).

His reputation would be rehabilitated in the immediate years after his presidency, and he would actually attempt to run for president again in 1880 and nearly get the nomination.

But the nomination would wind up going to a compromise candidate - fellow Union general James A. Garfield, who would actually win the election… only to be assassinated four months into his term by a “deranged office seeker”.

(Thank you Mr. Norris for making me remember that tidbit for a test in US History)

Ulysses S. Grant would live the rest of his life in relative poverty after multiple failures in business, while finishing his memoirs before dying of throat cancer.

What to make of his reputation though?

Well, as a General he was exemplary and remains highly regarded outside of certain brutal tactics which his enemies considered “excessive” and cost the Union a high body count.

The 13-month campaign where he chased Robert E. Lee remains one of the most legendary tales of US military history.

But as the President?

His first term, outside of the whole cornering the Gold market incident, was actually pretty good.

Grant fought for civil rights, he tried to reconcile with former Confederates and Southern states, and the economy was strong with industry (particularly railroads) and westward expansion growing at a rapid rate.

The policies of his administration towards Native Americans were… mixed.

He wanted to improve relations with the tribes as he was sympathetic to their plight, but it was directly counter to the United States policy of “Manifest Destiny”.

These policies fell apart by the end of his second term (see Great Sioux War of 1876 above).

If he only had that first term, he would have went down as a great President in American history.

His second term absolutely tanked him and his chances for a positive evaluation though.

Ultimately, he deserves a C- grade.

Too trusting with his choices for cabinet, too naive for political maneuvering, shortsighted with policy and not a great judge of character.

A great general doesn’t always make a great president.

But he did have at least ONE solid term.

If you enjoyed reading this post be sure to share it with your friends and your neighbors, as it brings me higher numbers on my analytics screen which gives me dopamine hits and makes me happier.

And we all know that’s what really matters at the end of the day.

Until next time,

Evan.