"I'm no historian, but I recall reading about a very early Grant-led engagement (Belmont?) in which he escaped the scene by fancy footwork on his horse's part.
That doesn't seem like a victory to me." Maybe you're thinking of the Mexican War in 1846?
At the battle of Monterey, Mexico, under the command of future President, Zachary Taylor:
"Locked in fierce street by street fighting, Grant was forward with several companies when ammunition was nearly gone.
He mounted a horse, kicked a leg over the saddle and hung low on the horse's neck and flank, then raced the animal to the rear.
Then after gaining help and ammunition, he returned under intense fire again, being fired at street by street, and amazingly arrived to resupply his regiment unharmed."
Then there was Shiloh, where Grant lost the first day's fighting but came back to win on day two?
The November 1861
Battle of Belmont, Missouri, is listed as "inconclusive", and Grant himself did not consider it a defeat since it accomplished his purposes:
"The Confederates viewed Belmont as a Southern victory, since Grant had staged an attack and been driven off.
Polk's superior, General Albert Sidney Johnston, remarked that 'The 7th of November will fill a bright gap in our military annals, and be remembered with gratitude by the sons and daughters of the South.'
On the evening of November 7th and the morning of November 8th, Grant recalled the units he had ordered forward in Missouri and Kentucky.
One Union soldier commented,
'Well, Grant got whipped at Belmont, and that scared him so that he countermanded all our orders and took all the troops back to their old stations by forced marches.'[15]
However, Grant viewed the battle very differently.
In his memoirs he states,
'The two objects which the battle of Belmont was fought were fully accomplished.
The enemy gave up all idea of detaching troops from Columbus.
His losses were very heavy for that period of the war.' [16]"
I guess, maybe, "Grant never lost a battle" is not exactly the same as saying, "Grant won every battle".
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