[Congressional Record Volume 169, Number 71 (Thursday, April 27, 2023)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1413-S1414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      REMEMBERING ULYSSES S. GRANT

  Mr. COTTON. Madam President, 201 years ago today, a great American 
hero was born. Ulysses S. Grant rose from humble beginnings to stand 
next to Washington and Eisenhower, as one of America's truly 
indispensable generals. William Tecumseh Sherman once remarked that 
``Grant is the greatest soldier of our time if not of all time.'' This 
great defender of the Republic won our bloodiest war and crushed the 
darkest forces of disunion. He was an unshakable pillar of strength, 
upon which this Nation's future rested time and again.
  Virtually no one foresaw Grant's rise to greatness before the Civil 
War. Although he had graduated from West Point and distinguished 
himself as a soldier in the Mexican-American War, he had stumbled from 
one failure to another in private life. When the Confederates attacked 
Fort Sumner, that all changed. He redonned his army uniform and marched 
into the history books.
  For the first 3 years of the Civil War, Grant fought on the western 
front, winning several of the Union's early victories while commanders 
in the East dithered. After Grant's first great victory, his 
Confederate counterpart sued for peace and asked what terms he would 
give them. Grant firmly responded that he would accept, ``no terms 
except an unconditional and immediate surrender.'' This earned him the 
nickname ``Unconditional Surrender Grant'' and resulted in the largest 
capture of enemy troops in the history of Western Hemisphere up to that 
time.
  Grant waged a relentless form of warfare. He knew that ``the art of 
war is simple enough. Find out where your enemy is. Get at him as soon 
as you can. Strike him as hard as you can and as often as you can, and 
keep moving on.'' Grant's warrior spirit famously moved President 
Lincoln to declare that ``I can't spare this man--he fights.'' When 
Grant's enemies spread the rumor that he was an alcoholic and should be 
dismissed, Lincoln wryly responded that ``if he could find out what 
brand of whiskey Grant drank, he would send a barrel of it to all the 
other commanders.''
  Grant displayed his famous determination and grit during the brutal 
battle of Shiloh, one of the bloodiest episodes of the Civil War. In 
the first day of fighting, Grant's army was mauled by Confederate 
forces under the command of Alfred Sidney Johnston, the Confederacy's 
most capable general at the time. General Sherman approached Grant that 
rainy night beneath a great oak tree and said, ``well, Grant, we've had 
the devil's own day, haven't we?'' Grant replied between puffs of his 
ubiquitous cigar, ``Yes. Lick em tomorrow though.'' He made good on 
this promise, threw back the Confederate forces, and won the carnage-
filled battle. Sidney Johnston was killed in the fighting and 
Confederate President Jefferson Davis later wrote that ``it was the 
turning point of our fate.'' This story remains so legendary in the 
Army that it was commonplace for young officers in the Iraq war to 
conclude a hard day by borrowing from Grant: ``lick `em tomorrow.''
  After the bloodshed at Shiloh, scheming Washington insiders and 
armchair generals removed Grant from the field, only to be forced to 
return him to the fight.
  Grant continued his brilliant streak of victories and on July 4, 
1863, the 87th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of 
Independence, he seized the fortress city of Vicksburg, splitting the 
Confederacy in two and securing the Union's control of the mighty 
Mississippi. This was perhaps the greatest strategic victory of the 
war. Combined with the victory at Gettysburg the previous day, Grant's 
seizure of Vicksburg put the Union on the path to victory.
  Soon after Grant's decisive victory in the Battle of Chattanooga a 
few months later and capture of the supposedly impregnable heights of 
Missionary Ridge, Lincoln promoted him to the rank of lieutenant 
general, a position that no one had held since George Washington. A few 
days later, Lincoln also named him the commander of Union forces.
  In his new command, Grant quickly turned eastward and confronted 
Robert E. Lee, a skilled tactician who had run circles around the Army 
of the Potomac for 2 years. Lee had spooked Union commanders for years 
with his audacious battle plans. But not Grant. ``I am heartily tired 
of hearing about what Lee is going to do,'' an exasperated Grant 
admonished them. ``Some of you always seem to think he is suddenly 
going to turn a double somersault, and land in our rear and on both our 
flanks at the same time. Go back to your command, and try to think what 
we are going to do ourselves, instead of what Lee is going to do.''
  As he marched into the Confederacy, he told a reporter, ``if you see 
the President, tell him from me that whatever happens, there will be no 
turning back.'' In the weeks and months that followed, Grant attacked 
Lee's army again and again. Whether he won or not, Grant continued to 
advance deeper into the Confederacy. Grant's army fought in the burning 
forests of the Wilderness and in the muddy trenches of Petersburg, 
experiencing extraordinary hardship but never allowing Lee to regroup 
or reinvigorate his shrinking army. Less than a year after Grant

[[Page S1414]]

began his Overland Campaign, Union forces took the rebel capital of 
Richmond and broke the back of Confederate resistance.
  U.S. Grant wasn't a great general simply because he won the war. He 
was also great because he never lost sight of the first goal of the 
war: to reunite our shattered Republic and restore the ``bonds of 
affection'' and ``mystic chords of memory'' between Americans, North 
and South. Instead of humiliating Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, Grant 
offered him generous and honorable terms. Uncompromising in war, Grant 
was magnanimous in peace. He allowed Confederate officers to keep their 
sidearms and horses, did not demand Lee's sword, and promised not to 
prosecute rebels who laid down their arms. And as Lee departed the 
courthouse, Grant and his staff took off their hats in respect, a small 
act for the victors, but an extraordinary gesture to the defeated 
Confederates.
  Today, if you travel to his memorial and final resting place in New 
York City, you will see his four-word 1868 Presidential campaign slogan 
etched into stone, which summarizes the prayer of every soldier. Those 
words read ``Let Us Have Peace.''
  Our country may not exist today if it weren't for Ulysses S. Grant. 
It may have been shattered and divided forever by civil strife, but for 
one man. That is why I was pleased last year to sponsor his 
posthumously promotion to the rank of General of the Armies of the 
United States, the highest rank in the U.S. military only held by 
George Washington and John Pershing.
  This was an important step towards recognizing the greatness of a too 
often neglected hero in our Nation's past. His close friend, General 
Sherman, reputedly said that he didn't understand Grant and didn't 
believe Grant understood himself. And for decades, our Nation too has 
misunderstood this American giant. But as we reflect upon his 
accomplishments two centuries after his birth, we realize how great 
they were and how extraordinary he was. I hope that we continue to 
reclaim this exceptional and noble American's legacy.

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