Ulysses S Grant is truly a story from Rags to Wealth (or more specifically from Rags to Potential to Rags to Wealth to Rags to equilibrium at Death) spanning his childhood and early failures, his time as a General during the Civil War, his two terms as President.

Grant is a person of little emotional expression and yet profound and sincere feelings of injustice. He fought tooth and nail for the liberation of black slaves, for their integration into the Union Army and for the protection of their rights during Reconstruction. It hasn't been without missteps along the way, but given the racism that prevails north and south of the Rebels and Union fracture, it's remarkable.

The battle were amazing and gives us a sense of Grant's strategy, his absolute imperturbability under fore, and his horror of bloodshed. It is remarkable how Grant kept his faith and continued to fight racism and slavery to the end. Grant's greatest opponent was probably not Lee, but his own alcoholism. He's struggled with it, with a few failures and successes his whole life.

For decades after his death, Ulysses S. Grant's reputation - General of the United States Armies, President of the United States for two terms, one of the most influential figures of his time or any other, was in the hands of his enemies.