Grant: The Man who Won The Civil War
By Robin Neillands
Sam Grant made famous the expression ‘unconditional surrender’, which is how most of his campaigns ended – for his opponents.
A hard-drinking soldier in a hard-drinking army, he led the Union armies to victory, first in the West and then in the East, eventually compelling the main Confederate army under Robert E. Lee to surrender at Appomattox in 1865.
Yet at the beginning of the Civil War no one, least of all the man himself, anticipated that Grant would lead the Union forces to victory.
Robin Neillands investigates how and why Grant emerged from pre-war obscurity and whether his ultimate victory was won by brains or brawn.