18. US Grant, Unfairly Maligned as a “Butcher”, Could Not Stand the Sight of Blood
The Civil War’s greatest Union general, Ulysses S. Grant, had an undeserved reputation as a butcher who only won by swamping the Confederates with Yankee bodies faster than they could be shot down. There was actually more to him than the caricature of a bully who only knew how to put his head down and charge straight ahead. Grant’s 1863 Vicksburg Campaign, for example, was a masterpiece of maneuver warfare, using demonstrations and diversions to fool the Confederates into letting him cross the Mississippi River unopposed. That was followed by a 17-day-whirlwind during which Grant maneuvered his forces inland, captured Jackson, Mississippi, won five battles, and besieged Vicksburg as a prelude to capturing it.
For a man reputed to be a bloody-minded butcher, Grant had a major aversion to blood. As in he, would freak out at the sight of the red stuff. Seeing blood made Grant physically ill. Even the hint of blood or redness on a rare steak could nauseate and get him off his feed. As a result, he would only eat meat that was super well done. As in, cooked black until it was nearly charcoal well done, and there was not even the slightest possibility of his seeing anything red when he cut (or cracked) it open.
