Homestead mailing list

[DSanner106 AT aol.com]

In a message dated 5/18/2005 10:16:13 PM Eastern Standard Time,  
lurine AT softcom.net writes:

U.S.  Grant would be a prime example of whitewashing history in both old and
new  textbooks.  He as well-known here as he was given the choice  of
resigning or being court marshalled a couple of miles from the  family
homestead.  He, and his drinking and womanizing, were well  known to family
and family friends.  In fact, the letter he wrote to  his wife telling her
"they request that I resign or they will have me court  marshalled" whine,
whine, whine was hanging at Fort Humboldt until the  property was given to
the state.  Wow, surprise, surprise, the letter  disappeared.  Wouldn't want
the world to know what Grant really  was.


Gee, you seem to know a lot for a story that was covered up. Grant was  
caught intoxicated after a party at which the base commanders wife insisted 
on a  
string of toasts and Grant had absolutely no tolerance for liquor. The 
commander  made him sign a statement that if found drunk again, he would 
resign, and  
several years later, the next time anyone saw him in that state, the letter 
was  placed before him. Soldiers are not normally court martialed for being  
intoxicated when off duty, so the only reason would have been for violating 
his  
own written promise. When re-admitted to the army, his old commander wrote 
many  letters to Lincoln implying that Grant was drunk during all those 
victories 
in  the west (he was 1000 miles away at the time) , but Lincolns own man, 
sent to be  at Grant's side swore that he had been with him every day of the 
campaigns, and  Grant had no drinks period, and knew his own problem well and 
avoided alcohol.  The Commander backpedaled and admitted he had no evidence 
or 
witnesses to his  string of charges, but all those published accounts over a 
long 
period would  never be retracted of course. Although he did have a problem 
early in life with  this, he was not the lush he was portrayed to be. As far 
as 
the letter  disappearing from the wall, was it an original?? How long would 
any letter worth  thousands of dollars hang in a public space before being 
snatched. I would like  to hear more about the womanizing issue though, In 
all my 
reading on this era, I  did not come across this. Most of this account comes 
from the book, Grant and  Lee, by Gene Smith, but I can quote others as well.
 
Drew