[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]
Date: 2023-04-27
Chamber: SENATE
Mr. COTTON: 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 Grantbegan 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.