[at-l] Grant and the grape, and other myths.....

[baltimorejack@hotmail.com (Jack Tarlin)]

Wow, I'm enjoying this thread, which is funny as I'm frequently amused (and 
sometimes NOT amused) when this list goes so far afield from the Trail.  In 
this case, tho, it something I'm interested in, so here goes.....

   Brian Merrell writes "I disregarded Grant because of his reputation as a 
drunk..." helps perpetuate one of the great and enduring myths of American 
history, that being that the great Union commander was, to put it mildly, 
overly fond of the grape.  To put it less than mildly, the popular 
perception is that he was a hopeless lush.

  This maligns a very decent man and a great American.  While there exists a 
small (and hotly disputed!) body of evidence to show that Grant drank to 
excess while stationed far away from his familiy in California in the early 
1850's, there exists no evidence whatsoever that drinking, either 
excessively or not, ever affected his decisions or judgment in the field.  
As far as being under the influence or drunk while making command decisions, 
there exists not one iota of evidence to support this, and in fact, the 
greatest comment in Grant's favor was made by his boss, President Lincoln.  
When a malicious gossip informed Lincon that Grant might have had an 
over-fondness for whiskey, Lincon's immediate rejoinder was to find out what 
Grant drank, in order that Lincoln could supply every general in the field a 
case of their own.  Such was Lincon's confidence in Grant.

  However we may feel about the war, its causes, or why it was fought, it 
cannot be argued that the Union victory provided the continued and 
flourishing existence of the United States.  Other than Lincoln, the man 
principally responsible for this was Ulysses Grant.  Whatever his faults, 
abuse of alcohol was not one of them, at least not during the War years, and 
we dishonor his memory by by repeating gossip and myth.

  And having said that, I promise to refrain from more wildly off-Topic 
posts, as I'm still curious to hear from folks who attended the Gathering in 
October and have opinions on what happened there, and who may wish to 
comment on my recent post.  Of course, if people don't want to discuss such 
a distasteful event, that's fine, too; I'm not entirely sure that I blame 
them.

_________________________________________________________________
Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com