Ulysses S. Grant and the Trials of Leadership
On June 3, 1864, the Union and Confederate armies met on a battlefield in Cold Harbor, Virginia. The Confederates were well entrenched and prepared to mount a defensive stand. The Union soldiers on the other side of the lines were preparing for an attack that would prove to be disastrous. They knew what the outcome would be. In only 20 minutes of fighting, 7,000 Union soldiers were killed or wounded. As the Yankees prepared to go into action, many began sewing tags with their names on them into their clothes so their bodies could be identified after their deaths. One dead Union soldier was found with a small diary in his pocket. The final entry, dated June 3, 1864, read simply, "I was killed."
Many men like him knew they were going to die that day, and yet they went forward anyway, and met their fates. Many people, military and civilian, questioned the intelligence of the attack, and rightfully so. But the decision was made, and the men carried it out. They carried it out because it was given by General Ulysses S. Grant, the man who was the first to continually win battles against Robert E. Lee, and the man who finally won the war for the United States. They carried it out because Grant was perhaps the most respected general ever to serve in the U.S. Army to that point. They carried it out because Grant was a leader.
Grant was not always the leader that won the war and became president. He was first a failure in business, a quiet young soldier with little social life, a general whose peers criticized him and charged him with drunkenness, and later a president plagued by scandal and rumor.
Ulysses S. Grant was born to Jesse and Hannah Grant on April 27, 1822, in Point P...
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...y's mind. His logic in organizing supplies for the army was demonstrated early on in the Mexican War.
But it seems that his intelligences only served him in wartime, making almost another intelligence of their own, that of making war. As President, he severely lacked interpersonal skills in picking and managing his cabinet. He showed little knowledge of safe money handling strategies and lost most of his savings more than once. He was a great war leader and general, and seemingly not much else but a kind man.
Works Cited
1. Barber, James G. U.S. Grant: The Man and the Image. Southern Illinois University Press. Carbondale: 1985.
2. Carpenter, John A. Ulysses S. Grant. Twayne Publishers, Inc. New York: 1970.
3. Gardner, H. Creating minds. New York: Basic Books, 1993.
4. Goldhurst, Richard. Many are the Hearts. Reader's Digest Press. New York: 1975.
In this chapter O’Brien talks about a young Vietnamese soldier who he had killed with a grenade. He mentions the weight of guilt he carried with him after the event that to took place the day he killed his first man. He opens the chapter with describing the dead corps by saying, “He was a slim, dead, almost dainty young man of about twenty. He lay with one leg bent beneath him, his jaw in his throat, his face neither expressive nor inexpressive. One eye was shut. The other was a star-shaped hole.” Throughout the text it is implied that O’Brien cannot stop staring at the dead body as he continues to think of how the dead Vietnamese soldier lay and what the young man’s life was like and what it could have been before he had become the soldier he was. He states, in one of the interpretation of the young Vietnamese man’s life, “He liked books. He wanted someday to be a teacher of mathematics.” O’Brien Talks about the Vietnamese soldier as if he knew him and experienced the soldier’s life himself. It’s possible that O’Brien could have talked about the dead Vietnamese life as a reference or to fantasize about his own life, and how he wish his life could’ve been if he didn’t go into war himself. O’Brien could have also thought of the young soldier’s life because of the guilt and the regret he was feeling from killing him, and
In this newly written biography, General Ulysses S. Grant: the soldier and the man, Civil War historian, Edward G. Longacre, examines Grant’s early life all the way through to his time as a military leader. Longacre takes the time to carefully analyze Grant’s childhood and the type of kid he was. He also examines Grant’s married life and how important his wife was to him. He takes a look at Grant’s early military career and what made him the kind of general he became. A deep focus that Longacre discussed was Grant’s biggest weakness: alcohol. Alcoholism consumed Grant, in the most literal sense, and affected him during his military career. Longacre describes Grant in a new and fascinating perspective in his biography.
He suffered from stage fright and often “blushed and faltered”, (18) even at his inauguration as President, “he trembled and several times could scarce make out to read his speech” (18) This weakness of his is often glossed over as it doesn’t seem to fit in with his image as the towering, imposing “founding father”. Yet today, it is essential for a President to be able to deliver impressive and clear speeches to the whole country. Finally there are some criticisms that he was not as effective General as is often believed. Thomas Paine claimed that he was a bad general whose strategy consisted of “doing nothing” (19). Although Paine had a personal agenda in condemning George Washington as he resented not being appointed Postmaster-General, and then later by not being rescued from French persecution by the government, it is true that George Washington did lose more battles than he won (20) and often did seem to do nothing for long periods of time. There is also the issue of his harsh treatment towards his own soldiers, any who were caught deserting or plundering were “flogged” (21) and he even a “Gallows near forty feet high erected” to terrify the rest into obedience.
Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, born in central Kentucky within a year and within a radius of eighty-five miles of each other, followed different paths to eminence. Different as their background, training, and experience were, they both eventually turned to politics and wrestled with the issues of their time. The United States in which Lincoln and Davis grew up in was very raw, energetic, and an exploding world that brought in the Market and Industrial Revolution which incidentally created a land of many opportunities. These opportunities were given to the people who fought against the established order to protect their rights, and it was up to Lincoln and Davis to protect those rights no matter how many battles would be fought and no matter how much blood would be shed. The United States, confined within modest boundaries unchanged for a generation, would face the most intense war during a span of five years. Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis would face incomprehensible tactics led by their strongest army leaders, economic failure that was challenged by the subject of slavery and religion, and their own debatable differences that would change the history of America forever.
...rtist and just like any artist O’Brien wants to change your mind. He wants you to see the world the way he sees the world. This is his intent to have the reader believe that this collection of memories, feelings, and actions is actually real and in some parts of the story he has the reader believing that they themselves were once a solider in the Vietnam War. Life itself is a lot like how O’Brien describes war. He says “War is hell, but that’s not the half of it, because war is also mystery and terror and adventure and courage and discovery and holiness and pity and despair and longing and love. War is nasty; war is fun. War is drudgery. War makes you a man; makes you dead” (O’Brien 76). Any well written novel will intrigue a reader because when an author is able to bend in emotions of a real life event with a fictional standpoint of things a story has been written.
war he showed to be a great leader during it. He never gave up on anything he
The men that fought in Vietnam were changed forever the war had such an extensive impact on them. It took away the clear and innocent vision that people possessed and replaced it horrible thoughts regarding many different people, objects, and things. The problem was that they were too afraid to talk about or share their feelings with their squad leaders. Caused by the vast injustice O’Brien was pushed to the edge with the way he felt about this war the people in it, and he wanted to expose what it was actually like to be a soldier, and understand that they were never really cared for as well as present people with reasons for how useless this war was and that it was absolutely a waste of money and lives. (93) Another example for the amount of hate built upside the soldiers was when Colonel Daud was killed in a raid. He was a Colonel and he was American however he was hated so much that the soldiers could not help but rejoice over his death. They sang “Ding-dong, the wicked witch is dead.” (111) This goes on just to
O’Brien uses his authorial freedom to create character and events, that were inspired by what he saw and heard in Vietnam, and mesh them together in ways that allow the reader to experience the war the same way the soldiers did, violently, without explanation, and in emotional isolation. O’Brien is able to show the reader how the soldiers felt like they were trapped by the death and hatred discussed in the above quote and how that affected their mental
A military genius, Grant possessed the vision to see that modern warfare requires total application of military and economic strength and was thus able to lead the Union to victory. In civilian life, however, he was unable to provide the leadership necessary for a growing industrial nation, even though he always retained the affection of the American public.
Drinking Age Limit I. A. HOOK A-1. Everyone knows that it is illegal to consume alcohol until the age of 21 in the United States. Many people are in agreement with this legal restriction. Some would even say that it should be raised. However, the legal drinking age sometimes causes more problems then it prevents. B. I am here today to persuade you that drinking age limit should be lowered. C. Why? Because we care. We care about people who abuse alcohol and in that way harm themselves, their families, and innocent people around them. II. A. First, it is necessary to question this law. Why is 21 the "magical" age that makes one intelligent and mature enough to consume alcohol? Surely, some adults abuse alcohol and some teenagers in this ver room would be perfectly able to drink responsibly. Why not 18 or 35 or 40? At 18, people are considered adults. It may seem unfair to many observers to allow 18-20 year olds to marry, to have children, to own cars, homes, pay taxes, vote, fly planes, risk their lives in the armed forces own firearms and to be financially and socially independent, and yet to be legally prohibited from drinking a glass of wine in a restaurant, or even a glass of champagne at their own wedding. I think it is a problem to have a limit higher then the age of maturity. B. Teenagers look at drinks as something glamorous. It is view as an adult activity; and teenagers want to be adult ASAP.
Did you know that in the year 1980 the legal drinking age was only 18? In 1987 there was a law passed that said in order to drink legally and to buy alcohol a person had to be 21. At the age of 18 people are allowed to buy tobacco, vote, get married without parental consent, and even join the armed forces, so why can’t some one who is 18 by alcohol. This is a question I have; I believe that the legal drinking age should be 18. Dr. Ruth Engs, a professor of Applied Heath Sciences at Indiana University, agrees with me also. She states, “the legal drinking age should be lowered to about 18 or 19 and young adults should be allowed to drink in controlled environments.” (Engs) These controlled places include restaurants, taverns, pubs, and official school and university functions.
Event planning process is a process that the event planners should follow in order to make the event run smoothly and help to avoid problems that could be occurred in the event. According to Shone and Parry, there are 5 main components of the event planning process, which are objective and getting started, planning (draft outline plan), organizing and preparing the event, implementing and divestment/legacy.
James A. Garfield was an outstanding man of many endeavors who went from driving boats down the canal to become a general of the union army to the twentieth president of the United States of America (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans). James A. Garfield was against slavery and had great plans for reconstruction, but sadly they were cut short. His term only lasted in the first year, as Garfield was shot by an office seeker and died many months later (The American Heritage Book of the Presidents and Famous Americans).
After researching the impacts events have on regional development I have come to agree with the statement ‘The events industry is an effective and appropriate vehicle for facilitation of regional development’. The significance of this thesis is to critically discuss and demonstrate an understanding of the relationship between the events industry and regional development while also providing an understanding of the history of events and the increasing significance of the event industry in contemporary society. Real life examples from around the world are used to recognize and justify the event industry as part of the tourism sector and explore specific implications to event management. Various sectors of the events industry are identified and discussed to support the theoretical discussion on how the events industry is an effective and appropriate vehicle for facilitation of regional development.
It should integrate all of the management decisions to focus on the goals and objectives of the events as well as those of the sponsoring organization itself. This integration may take several forms and maybe a subtle campaign to conceive corporate association and shareholders of the importance of their attendance and their personal vote on an issue. It may also be employed to conduct research to assist in the site selection process of the event.