Beginning today we will remedy our neglect in covering the 150th Anniversary of the American Civil War, one of the most defining events in our nation's history.
There are over 70 parks in the National Park System which have resources that are related to the history of the Civil War and provide opportunities to tour the real places where this struggle occurred nearly 150 years ago.
In 1858, Abraham Lincoln warned that
"A house divided against itself cannot stand."
But at the time, most Americans were confident that the forces of cohesion in the young republic would continue to triumph over the forces of division.
General Ulysses S. Grant came to the attention of President Lincoln and the nation when in February 1862 Grant captured two Confederate garrisons on the Tennessee River, Fort Henry and Fort Donelson. "U. S." Grant got the nickname "Unconditional Surrender" Grant after he demanded unconditional surrender from the Confederate commander of Fort Donelson. When his superior in the West, General Henry W. Halleck, was transferred to Washington that summer, Grant took over command of the Union Army along the Mississippi River and began his career trajectory to command of the entire Union army in 1864.
Considered among the greatest of military memoirs, these two volumes were an immediate bestseller. With the help of his publisher, Mark Twain, Grant wrote to the last month of his life to leave a legacy for his family after being defrauded a year earlier of his estate.
Grant wrote his memoir out of financial necessity as a dying man; he completed the manuscript within days of his death.
RELATED MEDIA
- Grant's Tomb
- How Arlington National Cemetery Came to Be
- Civil War Veteran Finally Laid to Rest
- Ulysses S. Grant National Historic Site White Haven, Missouri
- New York Times’ account of President Grant’s death