yousorename t1_iy6a6r4 wrote
Reply to comment by capt_tuttle in TIL that Ulysses Grant was made commander of all Union armies at 41 and President at 46 by IllustriousAct28
Absolutely agree on him being the most normal and relatable because his only “super power” to the degree that he had one was just being fucking relentless and methodical. I think it was a story from Shilo maybe, but it’s the middle of the night and poring down rain and Sherman is having a breakdown about the losses they had and how everything was falling apart and Grant, standing under a tree and smoking a cigar said, “Yeah, but we’ll lick em tomorrow” and then they did.
He just kept going, but not in an action hero John McClane way, but more like a rising tide.
Yancy_Farnesworth t1_iy6o8iq wrote
I have to wonder how Grant would have done in the era of industrialized war. The Civil War was in a lot of ways a prelude to that. It seems like he would have had the right strategic chops for it given how he fought the Confederacy... He used the Union's material might to great effect, but it was costly in terms of the body count. Something that generals would have to learn how to deal with in WWI and WWII.
Billy1121 t1_iy99qyo wrote
He might have a few Cold Harbor-sized losses, but Grant may have been one of the few generals with a chance of adapting to the machinegun and mechanized warfare.
Though he liked horses a lot, maybe he would be too attached to cavalry
BanjoB0y t1_iy9n1hg wrote
Hopefully he'd have seen mechanization as "Oh great, now no horses have to die"
It would have been interesting to see how a protege of his might have used horses in WW1 alongside mechanized tanks
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