Mr Ulysses S. Grant ,Mr Robert E. Lee Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Mr Ulysses S. Grant ,Mr Robert E. Lee - Essay Example This document will compare and contrast the two personalities in light of their roles during the Civil War. Ulysses S. Grant was one of the personalities that played a critical role during the Civil war. Bonekemper (233) notes that although people did not know him at the beginning of the war, he was later to emerge as a leading and important commander of the Union forces at the last stages of the war. In fact, Grant was not a soldier at the beginning of the Civil War. His attempt to join the army in 1861 was met with strong resistance from some quarters before being allowed to join the army. He was later to join the Union forces where Grant was elevated to become the Union Commanding General at the last stages of the war. As the commanding general for the Union forces, Grant used military tactics and strategies that helped the Union forces triumph over the confederate forces at the south. By contrast, Lee was a prominent soldier right from the beginning of the Civil War (Bonekemper 233). Unlike Grant, who became a soldier when the war had begun, Lee was the confederate Commanding General right from the beginning of the war, a position, which he held until the end of the Civil War. Secondly, Grant was a very ruthless commander who showed no compassion and mercy to either the confederate soldiers or the civilians. For instance, upon taking command in the last stages of the Civil War, the first thing he did was to order General William Tecumseh Sherman to harass the civilians who were defenseless. Sherman went ahead to implement the direction by ruthlessly taking whatever they wanted from civilians without paying for them. This resulted in the looting of the properties of the local residences even as crops were destroyed, houses torched, and livestock killed (Bonekemper 232). Grants inhumane style of leadership also came to the limelight after ordering a stoppage to the exchange of prisoners of war. Before Grant took command, there was a system in