Nevertheless, Grant was, IMHO, the one, non de script, nobody of a man who came along in just the right place, at just the right time in our history to save the nation.
Agree. Grant’s God given gifts were his ability to conceive military strategy and his relentlessness in pressing forward no matter what. He was an honest man and, no doubt, a much better President than his contemporaries could comprehend. He was a Great American.
And how many times has God blessed this country with just the right man at just the right time? Washington, Lincoln, Grant, Pershing, Patton, Reagan, and maybe now Trump?
In his memoirs, Grant said that ordering the assault at Cold Harbor was the worst mistake he ever made.
He accepted responsibility for his mistakes, then pressed on with getting the job done.
Either that or he had the resources the Confederates never had, and in the end that vast resource pool made the difference. Not taking anything away from Grant, just providing cold hard facts that eventually tilted the war to the Army of the Potomac.
I hate that meme. Save what? The USA was not in danger at all. The CSA was in danger from second one.
The USA continued on during the war, railroads built, immigration, westward expansion. Albeit with fewer states but was in no danger.