I have been a fan of General Grant since the books of the last century by Bruce Catton.
I have since learned that he had some interesting habits, notably not liking to take the same route in travel from one place to another. His father owned a tannery, but was more a sales type, and allowed young Grant to cart his hides to customers – as far away as Chicago from the Ohio River town not too far from Cincinnati – when he was 12!
Boredom got the best of him when he had several consecutive Army assignments in "the wilderness of the West," etc. He became an alcoholic, and during the Civil War, whenever possible, he had his wife with him to help him stay away from alcohol.
During the Mexican War, he had an assignment, not as a troop commander, where he lugged a howitzer into a tall building (church steeple?), and blew open the heavy door of a Mexican defensive position.
The books are long gone, and this is from a memory much more full of Peninsular War readings and painting, but I have long admired him.
GdeP
