Putting pen to paper, the hero of Appomattox embarked on his final campaign: an effort to write his memoirs before he died. In this maelstrom of woe, Grant refused to surrender. The public ire that turned on Grant first suspected malfeasance, then incompetence, then unfortunate, naive neglect. Business partners had swindled him and his family out of everything but the money he and his wife had in their pockets and the family cookie jar. The news of Grant’s illness came swift on the heels of his financial ruin. But the project evolved into something far more: an effort to secure the very meaning of the Civil War itself and how it would be remembered. Thus began Grant’s final battle-a race against his own failing health to complete his Personal Memoirs in an attempt to secure his family’s financial security. The hardscrabble man who regularly smoked 20 cigars a day had developed terminal throat cancer. the respected New York financier-Ulysses S. the beloved ambassador of American goodwill around the globe. the two-term president of the United States. The former general in chief of the Union armies during the Civil War.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |