Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant

On January 11, 2024, historian John Reeves gave a lecture on the rise of Ulysses S. Grant during an extraordinary decade.
Captain Ulysses S. Grant, an obscure army officer who resigned his commission in 1854, rose to become general-in-chief of the United States Army in 1864. What accounts for this astonishing turn-around? Was it destiny? Or was he just an ordinary man, opportunistically benefiting from the turmoil of the Civil War to advance to the highest military rank? Grant’s life story is an almost inconceivable tale of redemption within the context of his fraught relationships with his antislavery father and his slaveholding wife. His connection to the institution of slavery, before and during the war, will be reconsidered in this talk.
John Reeves has been a teacher, editor, and writer for more than thirty years. The Civil War, in particular, has been his passion since he first read Bruce Catton’s The American Heritage Picture History of the Civil War as an elementary school student in the 1960s. He is the author of The Lost Indictment of Robert E. Lee: The Forgotten Case against an American Icon, A Fire in the Wilderness: The First Battle Between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee, and Soldier of Destiny: Slavery, Secession, and the Redemption of Ulysses S. Grant.
The content and opinions expressed in these presentations are solely those of the speaker and not necessarily of the Virginia Museum of History & Culture.

[@SanJuanCreole]

Fantastic lecture

[@philipcunningham4125]

Fascinating talk, i will buy your book for more.

[@gregrising3668]

Weak historian.

[@BuckleGeoffrey]

Robinson Timothy Young Helen Lopez Michael

[@random-J]

This was critical a little too critical specially on the slavery issue grant truly didn't have strong feelings on the subject before the war, the slaves belonged to his inlaws who he was essentially working for and the one slave that was personally given to him he freed it's unfair for the author to say he didn't know why grant freed the slave. Grant has always had it hard from writers since his death thank God people are looking at him fairly and not through the lense of southern foes he defeated in battle through his armies, they could not defeat him in battle so they ruined his reputation and made small faults he had into earth shattering matters while making a demigod out of Lee.

[@nigelwilliams2547]

Harsh but it worked ..