Grant was not the brilliant tactician Lee or Longstreet were. He didn’t need to be. Where they fought with a scalpel, he fought with a bludgeon.
But in the end, as all good generals do, he used the resources at his disposal to defeat his enemy. Unlike MacClellan, who hoarded the resources to little effect, or Hooker, who sacrificed them for nothing.
you call Malvern Hill, or Pickett’s charge a “scalpel” approach to tactics. Head long frontal assaults up hill against an enemy that was awaiting the attack backed up by hundreds of field artillery pieces. Real tactical brilliance at its best.