“Ulysses S. Grant, Red Oak, North Carolina” © Stu Jenks 2021, 51 inches tall.
Price: $125, shipping included. Simply contact me via my email address at [email protected] or Facebook message me, if you would like to purchase one of my pieces. Payments can be made with Paypal, Venmo or credit card with Square. All pieces are signed with its title, and can be hung from the wall. Love y'all, Stu.
U.S. Grant. Great General, not so great of a President.
You may notice that there is no Robert E. Lee stick on the StuBlog but there is a U.S. Grant stick. Even though I was born in the South, and have, in the past, been moved by the bravery and struggles of combatants on both sides of the American Civil War, I strongly recognized that The South represented slave owners and slavery and The North did not. And General Lee, for all his gentile behaviors, was still a traitor to the Union. Yes, yes, "I can not fight against my country," he stated at the beginning of the War, talking about the State of Virginia as his 'country', but Lee did betray the United States of America. And, in his writings, he stated that blacks were not intelligent to be full citizens.
Sadly, I was taught as a child that Grant was a drunk and a butcher. What I know or think I know is that Grant did drink but probably was not an alcoholic. He didn't enjoy killing Southerns but he did what was need to be done to end the war. Also, it is little known that Grant saved Raleigh, North Carolina from being burned to the ground by his own troops, after Lincoln was assassinated. He ever pointed his own cannons at those troops to keep them from coming into town.
Grant also could have recommended that all Confederate officers be tried and shot for treason at Appomattox Courthouse. That would be within his rights to do so, but he did not do that. He showed mercy instead. He let everyone, officers and regular soldiers alike, simply go home.
In the 1990's, I was a fan of Robert E. Lee, but not anymore. I know more now.
In 2021, I'm now a fan of U.S. Grant, because I learned a thing or two.
As a President, he had a corrupt cabinet and administration, which wasn't entirely his faults. But as a General, he showed compassion and wisdom at the end of the Civil War. What he did or rather didn't do at Appomattox was a very big deal.
I'm a fan now of U.S. Grant.
Sir, you get one of my sticks.
#usgrant, #stujenks, #extendedfamilyseries
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