trying to excuse one numbskull by pointing to another...first of all, we're not in another civil war yet though the teabaggers are pushing us towards that end..if it happens they will be crushed in one day..in order to do that, we need leaders, commanders like Grant...
Grant was a disciplined officer and leader..his drinking was infrequent and never interfered with his duites as a commander..and he never once rode his horse into a tree drunk!!
many myths and stories are told about the civil war ..and I was there, I saw Grant take a few sips now and again, but it seems if General Grant was a lousy drunk, I'd be singing Dixie right now wid a slave cleaning
up my condo and takin' care of my chirren..but that ain't what happened because I'm listening to Whitney Houston sing her heart out right now and she ain't no slave... Many of the drinking stories come from battlefield politics. Jealous Northern generals who could find no other way to discredit this brilliant man who was delivering battlefield victories to President Lincoln, spread malicious rumors about Grant being drunk on the job. There were stories, there were innuendoes, there were suppositions. But, in truth, there are NO RELIABLE witnesses of any drunkenness on the part of Grant during the Civil War.
In his book The Trial of U.S. Grant, Charles Ellington illuminates Grant's controversial West coast years. He asserts "Captain Grant was not an alcoholic. If he were an alcoholic he would have a problem in drinking any time, even in a moderate way. And there is plenty of evidence that Grant did drink-moderately, for the rest of his life. Furthermore, as somebody who had that reputation, everybody kept their eye on Grant. It was impossible for him to take a drink without somebody watching out of the corner of his eye to notice that he did not have another drink. Every time he turned over his wine glass, as a signal for declining wine, somebody seems to have taken note of it. It was almost a no-win situation." 2 Mixing speculation with fact, Ellington further asserts: "Grant drank, sometimes to excess, but he was not a problem drinker. His physical build made it impossible for him to drink much, yet he had sometimes desired alcohol to relieve his loneliness [during the West coast years]. Grant did spend time in Eureka [California] saloons, but that is not evidence of heavy drinking. Here is where community leaders met, talked about a wide variety of subjects, and expressed the civilized conviviality of that isolated place.... That Grant and his fellow officers drank off-duty seems to be undisputed. That Grant was drunk on duty has not been proven. ... The only valid conclusion that can be drawn about Grant's drinking is that he drank-like most soldiers of his time. But he was not a drunkard. Grant did not consume large quantities of liquor because his body did not require much to achieve the inevitable results. Some of Grant's contemporaries recorded that he went on 'sprees,' but none accused him of failing in his duty because he was under the influence ..
so maybe the truth lies somewhere in between..people drink but some can't handle alcohol..we've seen it right here in Santa Barbara and Carp..and the drunks are still blaming everyone else from the cops to their political enemies for their own failings...
tipping the bottle and passing the buck...
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