Now, an upcoming three-night miniseries from the History Channel<\/a>, aptly titled \u201cGrant,\u201d seeks to delve into the general\u2019s myriad complexities and chronicle the full breadth of the \u201clife of one of the most complex and underappreciated generals and presidents in U.S. history.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The six-hour miniseries, executively produced by Leonardo DiCaprio and Chernow, premieres this Memorial Day, May 25.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe come from a nation of citizen soldiers and that differentiates us from other nations in certain ways,\u201d Garry Adelman, a Grant expert featured in the miniseries and chief historian of the American Battlefield Trust, told HistoryNet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOn Memorial Day, if we are to recognize those who have fallen in military service on behalf of the United States, I can\u2019t think of a better person to recognize than U.S. Grant, who helped these citizen and professional soldiers to victory to achieve what America is today \u2014 with all of its bumps and flaws.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Among the many falsehoods at which the miniseries takes aim is Grant\u2019s label of \u201cdrunkard<\/a>,\u201d which so permeated his life and career that it remains one of the more persistent myths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cGrant clearly had a drinking problem,\u201d Adelman remarked, but \u201cpeople have a way of treating drinking like they treat most things in history: Somebody did something once. Therefore, he or she must have been doing it all of the time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Abraham Lincoln was aware of Grant\u2019s imbibing tendencies, but famously defended his general by declaring, \u201cHe fights!\u201d In 1863, when someone in Lincoln\u2019s vicinity commented about Grant\u2019s drinking, the president reportedly asked<\/a> what brand of whisky Grant preferred so he could have barrels of it sent to all the other Union commanders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The myths of Grant\u2019s alcohol consumption and his soaring body counts as a military strategist are largely entwined. However, if Lee is heralded as a master tactician, then it must be acknowledged that Grant surpassed him in grand strategy. It was his military genius that defeated the Confederacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cTo paraphrase Lee, \u2018that man Grant will fight us every day. And if he reaches the James River, it\u2019s just a matter of time,\u2019\u201d Adelman recounted. \u201c[Lee] had figured Grant out, but there was nothing he could really do about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe has been derided as a plodding, dim-witted commander who enjoyed superior manpower and mat\u00e9rial and whose crude idea of strategy was to launch large, brutal assaults upon the enemy\u201d with little care for his men, writes Chernow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the bloody fighting took its toll on the general. Grant once remarked that war was \u201cat all times a sad and cruel business. I hate war with all my heart, and nothing but imperative duty could induce me to engage in its work or witness its horrors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There was little romanticizing of the brutal task at hand, and although Grant never shrank from sending men into battle the analysis of being a \u201cbutcher<\/a>\u201d of men remains flawed and shortsighted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, a careful reexamination of casualty percentages in Grant\u2019s armies have confirmed that his battle losses were often lower<\/a> than that of his Confederate counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Grant\u2019s presidency, meanwhile, only further shrouds his legacy, with many biographers \u201cquickly skipping over his presidency as an embarrassing coda to wartime heroism,\u201d Chernow writes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n President Grant dressed as a trapeze performer, holds up corrupt members of his administration in this political cartoon from Puck magazine, 1880. (Getty Images)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Undoubtedly na\u00efve in business and politics, Grant was taken advantage of by two speculators, Jay Gould and James Fisk, who schemed to corner the market in gold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/UGS_01_11062018_CC_DSF2827-1.jpg.jpg\")