Great post, billbears. Grant and Sherman were not interested in equality or freeing slaves. They destroyed the South (and then the Native Americans) and placed puppet regimes in charge of Southern states. Corruption and greed were rampant. One of the biggest blights in American history; hardly "brilliant."
VDH is no WBTS historian. He's out of his league on this period (especially Reconstruction). I wish he would stick to ancient Greek history.
Actually, VDH is right on with most of his Civil War history. It's my second area in grad school, and he does know what he's talking about. Sherman did not free a lot of slaves because he was marching "light," foraging for everything he got, and he saw numerous "contraband" as slowing him down. He also was something of a racist. But he fully understood the need for emancipation and absolutely knew he was doing the work of emancipation.
As for corruption, Reconstruction was no different than antebellum Alabama or Arkansas or Mississippi. The corruption there was epidemic, all by Democrats.