Book Review: Grant

What an incredibly comprehensive Presidential biography!  Grant, by Ron Chernow, tips the scales at 1074 pages (I read the audiobook version), and details the entirety of Grant’s life.  Unlike Grant’s own memoirs, Chernow explores his marriage and family as well as his professional life.

Grant was a complex man.  He was born to a middle class stable family that was strongly religious and emotionally distant.  Grant excelled as an equestrian and ended up getting an appointment to West Point though his father’s connections.  He was a mediocre student, getting good grades in courses he liked and not doing well where he wasn’t interested.  He graduated in the middle of his class.

He married Julia Dent, the daughter of a slave-owning Missouri farmer, after courting her for years while working to get his future father-in-law to accept him.  It was during that time that he served in the Mexican American War, and began to display his skill in combat operations.

Grant floundered for a while after marrying Julia.  His military career took him away from her for long periods, and he didn’t do well on his own.  He began drinking heavily, and there is some evidence that a drinking episode led to his resignation from the Army in the 1850s.  He puttered away unsuccessfully as a farmer, selling firewood, trying to get a civil appointment as an engineer, and finally went to work in his father’s tannery – which he absolutely despised.  It wasn’t until the Civil War began and he went back to the Army that he found his way.  And boy did he ever.

This is likely the part of the story that you know.  Grant rose though the ranks of the Western theater, capturing Fort Donelson and later implementing a successful siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi.  Having caught the eye of President Lincoln, Grant was appointed as the Lieutenant General of all Union Armies.  Rumors of drinking binges continued to haunt Grant from time to time, and multiple people sent stories to Lincoln, leading to one of Lincoln’s now famous quotes, “I cannot spare this man.  He fights.”  Ulysses S. Grant brought the war to a close, accepting the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox Courthouse, Virginia.

Grant continued as commander of the Army after the war ended, leading the Army’s role in reconstruction in the South.  Reconstruction failed for many reasons, but Grant did everything he could to advance peace and the rights of the former slaves.  He believe more than most at the time that blacks deserved equal rights and the opportunity to vote in the post-war era.

Riding on the coattails of his wartime fame, Grant was elected to two terms as President.  Most believe that his Presidency was mediocre; he ended up being caught in a number of political scandals as a result of his trust in his friends who were participating in a variety of nefarious activities.

Chernow documents Grant’s life thoroughly and he tries to speak of Grant’s strengths and failings in equal measures. He is clearly biased towards Grant though, always willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, preferring to think of Grant as an innocent soul who was duped by dishonest friends and political appointments rather than being complicit in their activities.  We will probably never know how much Grant knew.

The only real annoyance for me was Chernow’s obsessive focus on Grant’s drinking.  By all accounts, Grant had largely gained control of his alcohol problem by the time he went back to the Army, and no one ever alleged that Grant’s drinking got in the way of his ability to command his Army.  Yet Chernow seemingly explores every single allegation, acknowledging that they all sounded similar before dismissing most of them.  Whether Grant fell off the wagon or not seems largely irrelevant in the context of his later career and life.

Chernow clearly did extensive research on Grant, reading his letters, military orders and Presidential papers, in addition to researching many of Grant’s contemporaries and what they had to say about him.  He quotes President Lincoln, General Lee, General Sherman, General James Longstreet and many others to round out his descriptions of this great man.

Spoiler alert – as with most biographies, Grant dies at the end…  I cried.  Well done and worth the read.

4 stars.

COVID Diaries: Day 103

If you would have asked me at the beginning of all of this if I thought I would still be working from home, foregoing life, hugs, travel and seeing my friends 103 days (and still counting) from the start of all of this, I would have looked at you like you were nuts.  Or I would have done that slight, faraway smile, as one of my employees calls it – the one I do when I’m being neutral at work and can’t reveal my real opinion.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the fact that the truth always lies somewhere in the middle.  There are bad people out there, and there are a lot of good ones too.  Your perspective matters, and so does mine.  I believe that people are trying their best to make sense of a world that doesn’t make a lot of sense, even in the best of times.  Life is hard.  Why make it harder because you have some arbitrary ax to grind?

I’m not perfect, but neither are you.  Can’t we all just dispense with the holier than thou attitudes and work things out?  What is is about these times that we live in that make people think that if you are passionate about feeling like you are in the right, that you have a right, or even an obligation, to obliterate somebody else?  Have you forgotten, or do you not realize, that you too, have made mistakes, have had regrets, have things you ought to have apologized and made amends for?

Just stop with the name calling, the finger pointing, the “your opinion is wrong”ing.  The listening needs to be louder than the talking or the ranting…  You have to give empathy to receive it in return.  Sadly, some may not be capable of that.

Kindness matters.  Compassion matters.  Those long ranting messages will be read, and perhaps reread, and then closed again.  The message will be lost.  They will be looked at as a reminder that I don’t want to spend my life surrounded by anger and negativity.  I had that marriage; I’m not doing it again…

As that old saying goes… “Be nice to people on your way up, because you’ll meet them on your way down.”  – Wilson Mizner

Book Review: Curse of the Narrows

Curse of the Narrows, by Laura M. MacDonald

On December 6, 1917, during the middle of World War I, a ship carrying high explosives in Halifax Harbor collided with another ship.  Predictably, it exploded.

Unfortunately, a number of factors came into play in the worst possible way, and the explosion obliterated nearly everything within a half mile radius of the ship, including a heavily populated neighborhood of the city.  More than 2,000 people were killed and over 9,000 were injured. To add insult to injury, communications lines were knocked out, and a blizzard struck the evening of the explosion, making survival uncertain for those who initially lived through the blast.

It was, simply put, the largest man-made explosion up to that point in time.

Boston, receiving word of the disaster, mobilized its Red Cross contingent immediately and sent a relief train to provide assistance to the people of Halifax.  Several other nearby cities did as well, but the Boston relief train was the largest and most well organized, with doctors, nurses, supply coordinators and all sorts of relief supplies.

Rumors of German sabotage pitted people against each other, and sent officials off on wild goose chases to determine if a German bomb or submarine was responsible. Meanwhile the people of Halifax struggled with horrific and long-term injuries, lack of housing in the middle of winter, and the sad process of identifying and burying the dead.

The book details the day leading up to the explosion, and the stories of the people who lived and died in its aftermath.  Historical records research and first hand accounts provide grim detail of the experience, and MacDonald weaves the stories together into the larger narrative.  She does not shy away from the gruesome details of victims injuries, the trauma of separating families, and the legal battle after the initial relief effort ended.

My only criticism of the book is that it is rather poorly edited, with numerous typos and grammar errors, but that doesn’t take away from the story as a whole.  It is a well researched and well written book on an event that was once widely known, but has been largely forgotten to time.

4 stars.

Circus Trip 2018: Mount Washington Tavern and Braddock’s Grave

Day 41, Saturday, August 25, 2018

Fort Necessity National Battlefield, Farmington, Pennsylvania

The Fort Necessity National Battlefield unit has more than just French and Indian War history. It has the history of a period of colonial expansion and the growth of a young United States that spans over 100 years!

We talked in my last post about General Braddock, who was assigned command in the area after George Washington’s defeat at Fort Necessity.  As he commanded troops to gain control over the French in the area, Braddock’s troops worked to extend and widen the road that George Washington had built in the area two years earlier.  Sadly, Braddock was killed in battle in July 1755 during the Battle of the Monongahela.  It was an absolute disaster for the British, with the French and their Native American allies firing on the British from nearly invisible positions in the woods.  900 of the 1400 British troops were killed or wounded (more than half of the 900 were killed).

Braddock was shot through the lung, perhaps by his own troops, and was carried back off the front line by his men.  He knew he was dying, and asked that George Washington oversee his burial; he died four days later on July 13, 1755.  Washington buried Braddock in the road that they had been building, as he feared that the French or Native Americans may steal or mutilate the body if they were to find it.  Almost 50 years later, in 1804, workers repairing the Braddock Road came upon the remains and reburied him a short distance away.  It is now marked by a monument that was erected in 1913, and there is an original section of the road there as well.  The original burial site of Braddock is marked too.

As the road was already established when Congress authorized the construction of the National Road beginning in 1806, it made sense that it would follow this route.  The Mount Washington Tavern was built here in 1830, as a stagecoach stop for travelers along the National Road.  In the evenings when the stage stopped for the night, men could get a drink in the bar room and women and children could relax in the parlor.  Bedrooms upstairs accommodated multiple travelers and were segregated by sex.  This tavern operated as a business until the railroad came through the area and rendered it obsolete.  It was purchased and maintained as a family home for the next 75 years, before being sold to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and then ultimately the National Park Service to be added to the Fort Necessity National Battlefield unit.

When I visited the tavern was open for self-guided tours, and I was surprised to find myself absolutely alone in the building.  I mean, the rooms were protected by plexiglass, but there was no ranger.

I wandered around a bit, and got the distinct feeling that this place was haunted!  I checked out all of the rooms, but did not linger!  I wonder what this old tavern has seen over the last 190 years!?  It was still so fascinating to see – we certainly take travel for granted these days!

 

 

Circus Trip 2018: Fort Necessity NB

Day 41, Saturday, August 25, 2018

Fort Necessity National Battlefield, Farmington, Pennsylvania

The French and Indian War started way back in the winter of 1753 – 1754.  The British colonists had formed the Ohio Company, and had purchased land in the Ohio Country, on the far western wilderness of the colonies.  It’s hard to imagine George Washington as a young man, but he lived and served in the British military back before he became a Revolutionary.  That winter, Washington was sent as an emissary by the British to the southwestern Pennsylvania area (then part of the Virginia Territory) to order the French to withdraw.

Of course, the French had gotten there first, and considered the Ohio River a vital trade link between Canada (then called New France) and Louisiana.  They didn’t really want the British trying to lay claim to land they already thought was claimed…  The French, who had already built a fort there, predictably told Washington to go pound sand.  The British were not deterred, and the next task for the young George Washington, just 21 at the time,  was to build a road that would lead through the wilderness of the Virginia Territory into the Ohio Country, an area west of the land now known as part of Pennsylvania, which was destined to become the new frontier.

Washington was leading a force of colonists and British Army regulars back in the spring of 1754, and he was out there in the wilderness trying to construct the road, and ultimately secure a crossing over the Ohio River, in order to open up the Ohio Country for settlement.  Accounts vary, but the French were getting more and more aggressive, because they didn’t really like the fact that the tribes in the area were trading more and more with the British, as well as these interlopers disrupting their plans to control the Ohio River.  It wound up coming to a head in May 1754, with Washington and his troops, along with a small number of sympathetic Native Americans, ambushing a small group of Canadiens, and killing their commander, Joseph Coulon de Villiers de Jumonville, in what became the Battle of Jumonville Glen.

The French then sent more troops to regain control of the area, while Washington built a fortification to protect his supplies.  Fort Necessity became the location for the Battle of Fort Necessity, where French troops under the command of Jumonville’s brother, attacked Washington’s troops at the fort.  It was raining, muddy, and Washington’s troops were far outnumbered by the French and their Native American allies.  After a rough day of battle against the 600 French troops and their Native American allies, Washington’s force of less than 300 surrendered, and signed a surrender document.  It was written in French, and unknown to Washington, indicated that he had “assassinated” Jumonville in May.  Once Washington found out that the translation he was given was not accurate, he denied that Jumonville’s death had been an assassination, but the French used this “admission” to malign the British and gain support for their cause.

The Battle of Fort Necessity is said to be Washington’s only defeat, and we all know that he went on to become the General who won the Revolutionary War.  As for the French and Indian War though, it went on for several more years.  The British assigned General Edward Braddock to lead troops in the ensuing attempt to oust the French, until Braddock was killed in battle two years later, in 1755.  He was buried under the partially constructed road, to prevent the enemy from finding and desecrating the grave.  He was found and moved to a grave near the road in 1804.  Eventually the French were defeated and western Pennsylvania and the Ohio Country (along with other disputed lands north through the colonies), became part of the colony controlled by the British.

Today, Fort Necessity has been rebuilt, as it was originally burned down by the French after Washington’s surrender.  You can see that while a beautiful grassy meadow, it wasn’t easily defended with the woods and higher ground all around.  The fort was basically designed as a place to protect the supplies, rather than a fort that would accommodate all the men that were with Washington.  They had to settle for the meager protection of the entrenchments that were built around the fort. It was interesting to see.

I did get to watch a musket firing demonstration, which I really enjoyed!  I also heard a Ranger talk about the troops that fought there.  They were a combination of regular army, and ragtag colonists who were poor, not well equipped, and just trying to make a living.

The Fort Necessity National Battlefield also contains the Mount Washington Tavern and General Braddock’s Grave.  I’ll share my visits there next!

COVID Diaries: Day 94

Hard to believe it’s been over 3 months of being mostly locked down.

I continue doing my long walks, sometimes with a friend and sometimes alone, and I hiked last Sunday.

Me on Stewart Mountain

Ingrid and Me (photo cred: Lelani)

WWU sky

I have been venturing out more into the world of indoor spaces – I went for cocktails with friends last weekend, and a late lunch after the Sunday hike.  Restaurants – what a concept!

Besides that, I have just been working – the pace has been a bit grueling as I have one less-than-pleasant project that seems to just be getting bigger by the day.  I am still enjoying my schedule of having every other Friday off – it is nice to have that extra day even if I’m not really going anywhere on those long weekends.  Hopefully that will change soon!

Book Review: Anybody Out There?

I don’t remember how I got Anybody Out There?, by Marian Keyes, but I suspect it was part of a book giveaway.  I had recently finished a rather somber disaster book, and wanted something light-hearted.  Cue the chick-lit…

Anybody Out There? follows the life of Anna, a young woman in her early thirties, who wakes up injured in her parents’ Dublin, Ireland home, with no recollection of how she got there.  She lives in New York, with her husband, so what’s the deal?  She can’t reach him, and she’s confused by all the people tut-tutting around her without explaining what’s really going on.  Despite the advice of her family, she decides to return to New York and her job, and see if she can find her husband.

Anna tries to put back together the pieces of her life, as the memories of her accident come back over time.  Meanwhile, Anna’s sister back in Ireland regales her with wild and entertaining stories of her life as a private detective, caught up in a case dealing with organized crime.  There’s always the mystery of the pooping dog too!  There are mediums and ridiculous drunken nights, and jobs that make you cringe.

Despite the outward light appearance, this book deals with some tough topics of grief and loss, and the trials of relationships.  Heavy topics, framed in humor.  And some very small print…

3 stars.

Circus Trip 2018: Friendship Hill NHS

Day 41, Saturday, August 25, 2018

Point Marion, Pennsylvania

Who has heard of Albert Gallatin?  Anyone?  No?  Don’t worry, I hadn’t either…  Get ready for a history lesson!

Albert Gallatin was a Swiss man who immigrated to the United States in 1780; he started out in the U.S. as a surveyor.  He made his way to western Pennsylvania, which at the time was way out west on the frontier.  He purchased property and set about building his home in stages, with the first section being built in 1789.  He established himself as one of the richest men in the area; which apparently wasn’t difficult.  His neighbors were mostly poor farmers, who made whiskey with their surplus grain after the harvest; the whiskey became the local currency in what was essentially a cashless society.  Stick with me here, the whiskey piece is important…

Gallatin played an important role in the Whiskey Rebellion.  You see, after the Revolutionary War, the newly formed United States was badly in debt as a result of the war.  The country needed money, and the best way to raise money?  A tax!  Never mind that we just spent years trying to win our independence, largely because of the taxes levied by the British.  Of course, the cashless western Pennsylvanians didn’t have cash to pay the tax, and whiskey was really their only marketable product, so they were a bit resentful of this new tax.  Resentful enough to tar and feather a tax collector or two.  They also resented that if they were accused of evading the tax, the nearest court that was approved to try them was in Philadelphia, over 300 miles away (I didn’t think Pennsylvania was that big of a state, but that’s a blog post for another time…).

Gallatin, being an educated and wealthy man, ended up getting unofficially appointed as the man who would negotiate on behalf of his neighbors; he always lobbied for the peaceful solution, but he wasn’t always successful.  Eventually, he succeeded in getting the Federal government to allow people accused of violations of the whiskey tax to be tried locally, which helped.  Gallatin continued to try to convince his neighbors to submit to the new tax, which became more of a pressing issue after President George Washington mustered up an army to go out to western Pennsylvania to quell the violence against the tax collectors.

Alexander Hamilton, then Secretary of the Treasury, thought that Gallatin had been responsible for stirring up the locals and trying to evade the tax.  He tried to dig up evidence to charge Gallatin with treason, but everyone that he interviewed said that Gallatin had been urging his countrymen to pay the tax, and to abandon their violent tactics against the collectors.  Thankfully though, just as things might have erupted into a more widespread insurrection against the army, area men held a vote on whether to submit and pay the tax, and the measure was narrowly passed.  Gallatin, for his trouble, got elected to Congress!

He had clearly caught the eye of George Washington and others in the new United States government, and he served in the House of Representatives between 1795 and 1800.  On January 1, 1801, he was appointed by new President Thomas Jefferson to serve as Secretary of the Treasury.  He served until 1814, under both Jefferson and President Madison, and had two notable accomplishments during his tenure.  One was determining how to finance and pay for the Louisiana Purchase, the huge swath of land that Jefferson bought in 1803, for a cost of 15 million dollars.  After the war, the nation’s debt was $80 million, but even with the additional $15 million, Gallatin was able to reduce the national debt to $45 million by the time he left the cabinet in 1814.

His other achievement was the National Road.  Gallatin was a big believer in improving roads and infrastructure in the young United States, and he delivered a report to Congress recommending that roads and canals be built to increase commerce and travel.  He was able to create a plan that allowed the road to be built without the nation going more deeply into debt.  The National Road, originally known as the National Pike, stretched all the way west to Vandalia, Illinois.  It is now U.S. Route 40, and traverses the entire country, east to west.

If you thought Albert Gallatin is making you feel like a slacker already, there’s more.  He financed the Lewis and Clark Expedition.  He served on the Commission that ended the War of 1812.  He also served as a U.S. Ambassador to France, and after he left public life, he founded a wee little bank that is now well known… as JP Morgan Chase…

Visitors to Friendship Hill can tour the home where he lived with two wives; Gallatin and his first wife eloped against the wishes of her mother.  Sadly, they were only married for 5 months before she died of illness in October 1789; she is buried at Friendship Hill, and you can walk out to see Sophie’s gravesite.  Gallatin and his second wife had six children; three of whom died in infancy.  The home was added onto over the years, with additions in 1798, 1823, and 1824.  It is built in the Federal style, and it is quite impressive in its size.  Sections of the home are exposed stone, stuccoed, and timber frame, which gives it a rather eclectic look.  Gallatin sold the home in 1832.  The furniture is not original to the home or the Gallatin family, but gives a representation of what it would have looked like in the late 1700s and early 1800s.

I enjoyed wandering around the home on the self-guided tour, and taking a walk of the grounds.  There are nine miles of trails on the site, and I saw a few people taking advantage of the park setting.  The home is high up on a hill overlooking the Monongahela River.  It is so peaceful and quiet out there!  I can’t even imagine how remote it would have been at the time…  Friendship Hill is certainly a less visited National Park site, with estimated annual visitation of a little over 25,000 people.  It was well worth the visit to learn about this now little known man in U.S. history!

The Monongahela River down below

Sophie’s Gravesite

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Circus Trip 2018: Pennsylvania Covered Bridges

Day 40, Friday, August 24, 2018

Somerset County, Pennsylvania

I love covered bridges – they are so beautiful!  So I was excited to learn that Pennsylvania’s Laurel Highlands area is home 10 of them.  After visiting Polymath Park, I went to visit a couple that were near my campground.

The Barronvale Bridge is the first; it is the longest bridge in Somerset County, spanning 162 feet, 3 inches over Laurel Hill Creek, and is 10 feet, 3 inches wide.  There is widely varying information out there on its construction date.  The sign on the bridge says 1830. Other sources say 1845 and 1846.  It was reconstructed in 1902 (however one source says 1907).  It is a double span Burr Truss bridge, which is apparently rare in the covered bridge world.  Near the bridge is this home, which I know nothing about, but it looks old so I liked it!

I also visited the King’s Bridge, another Burr Truss bridge, nearby.  The sign says it was built in 1802, and rebuilt in 1906 and 2008.  Of course, sources on the internet vary on these dates as well, arguing that a 1802 date would put it as the earliest known covered bridge in the area, and they believe it was built later.  After the road was bypassed in the 1930s, it was used as a livestock barn for a period of time before being restored.  No matter when it was built or rebuilt, it is still a beautiful bridge and worth a visit.

It was a nice drive through pretty country roads to find these beauties, and a nice way to wrap up a day of sightseeing.

Do you love seeing covered bridges?

COVID Diaries: Day 81

Day 81.  81 days since I’ve been working from home, and not seeing people in real life much.  81 days since thrift shops, restaurants, events, travel, camping, and pretty much anything that brings me joy has been canceled or closed.  81 days – I could have gone around the world and been back home with a day to spare – according to that book at least…

We finally got notice on Friday that our county was approved for Phase 2 – a limited reopening…  Dog groomers, hairstylists, retail and restaurants at limited capacity.  Some places reopened Friday or Saturday – some are waiting a little while, just to see.  Camping is open, but smaller communities still don’t want you to come visit.  People are angry, and they have every right to be, about a number of issues.  With all the protests around the country, I wouldn’t be surprised if COVID case counts go up dramatically this week.  Will that mean a new round of closures?

In the last 81 days, life has gone on, as it always does, but not always in the best of ways.  My horse died in March.  My relationship ended in April.  A close friend of mine died suddenly in May (not of COVID-19).  I’ll admit it, I’m sad.  I’m lonely.  I’m tired of not being able to go do much.  I have been feeling a writer’s block lately, even though I want to write.  There are only so many books, puzzles, and yard work you can do before you are just sick of it, and want something new.  I’ve been going for a lot of long walks, but my routes are feeling monotonous too.

My heart is screaming for a vacation.  The beach, the desert, the mountains, the countryside… Anything but a city…  I’m trying to be patient.  I’m trying to appreciate the fact that I’m saving money, saving vacation time, and making great progress towards my goal of early retirement.  This too, shall pass…  When this is all over, I have some catching up to do!