Ulysses S. Grant's Rise From Obscurity to Save the Union

Showing 12 Ulysses S. Grant videos from Charlie Kirk's video collection.

Ulysses S. Grant's rise from obscurity to save the Union became a recurring subject in historical retrospectives examining how a man working as a hat salesman in small-town Illinois became the general who finally matched Robert E. Lee. Garry Adelman, chief historian at the American Battlefield Trust, traced Grant's path through West Point, where he arrived reluctantly but discovered a genuine talent for horsemanship and reading terrain, then through the Mexican-American War, where he first proved to himself he could be a soldier. When Lincoln exhausted a string of overly cautious commanders, McClellan among them, Adelman explained the president finally turned to Grant specifically because he would fight, tracing key victories at Fort Henry, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, and Vicksburg that led to his appointment as commander of all Union armies. Historians distinguished Grant's willingness to accept heavy casualties in pursuit of a clear strategic vision from his predecessors' hesitation, arguing that quality, not just superior numbers, explains why he succeeded where earlier Union generals had stalemated against Lee. Grant's presidency extended that same resolve into Reconstruction, where he continued fighting to protect the rights of freed slaves and hold a fractured nation together after the war's guns fell silent.