History is filled with examples of how unforeseen circumstances can lead to unexpected outcomes. That is no more apparent than in the careers of Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. Consider that Lee came from a prominent Virginia family. His father Henry “Light Horse Harry” Lee rode with Washington during the revolution and was Virginia’s 9th governor. Lee attended West Point and, to that time was the only cadet to graduate without a single demerit. He married Mary Custis, of the same family as Martha Custis Washington. Lee continued in the U.S. Army after West Point, even taking the post of commandant of the Academy for a time. So high was his reputation that, after the firing on Fort Sumter he was asked by President Lincoln to take command of the Union forces. He declined and instead went on to fame as a Confederate army commander. Had the Civil War not intervened, it is not unlikely that Lee’s success as an officer and in running his plantation at Arlington would have eventually led to him being elected president. After all, the country had already established Virginia as a source for presidents, five already being from there. The war drastically changed the course of Lee’s life. The family estate at Arlington became a field hospital during the war and eventually a national cemetery. Lee, with no means of support after surrendering to Grant at Appomattox, accepted the position of president of Washington College in Virginia, later renamed Washington & Lee University.
Ulysses Grant was the son of a tanner in rural southern Ohio, a profession the young Grant detested when growing up. As a boy, Hiram (his actual first name) enjoyed school and thought it would be a good choice to become a math teacher. Doing that and riding horses were the extent of his ambitions. He told his father he wanted to go to college. Grant’s father somewhat complied by securing an appointment to West Point for his eldest son. Grant wasn’t interested in a military career, but acquiesced to his father’s wishes. Things went badly from the start. The admissions department at the Academy made a mistake in Grant’s name, putting it down as Ulysses Simpson Grant (Simpson was his mother’s maiden name). Getting his name corrected would have meant his appointment would have to be re submitted, so he let the error continue. He went on to have a less than successful career in the army, resigning to move to St. Louis to be with his new wife Julia. He tried his hand at a variety of businesses, but failed at each, ending up a hard scrabble farmer often selling firewood cut on land given him by his father-in-law. In 1861, on the eve of civil war, Grant was working as a clerk in his father’s tannery in Galena, Illinois. Then the war came, Grant found himself moving from one success to another in battle. Promotions came until he became Lieutenant General of all Union Armies, a rank not achieved since George Washington. After the war, his fame as a general led to being elected president twice.
So, one man seemingly destined to become president ends up being a teacher. Another, with the humble life goal of becoming a math teacher ends up being president. No civil war and we most likely count Robert E. Lee as one of our presidents and never hear of Ulysses Grant. Funny how these twists of history change the course of people’s lives so drastically.
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