Disunion follows the Civil War as it unfolded.
The story of Ulysses S. Grant is an American epic practically without equal. Hollywood couldn't dream it up. Even today, Grant's complicated persona and unquenchable will to victory enthrall historians and fiction writers alike.
How can anyone explain, 150 years later, the complicated psychology that drove this great general: despite repeated personal failures, he remained undaunted in his self-confidence. At times horribly crude, he had a precision of language that made him a great leader and, at the end of his life, the author of a classic text in American autobiography. He demanded unconditional surrender from the Confederacy, but offered humility and generosity to those he defeated. He struggled with alcoholism and depression but remained, by all accounts, an exemplary family man.
Ulysses S. Grant simply did not have the look, the flash or the fortune that could stand up to the early 20th century's needs for mythic figures and celebrity. Perhaps that is why, for so long, this signature American hero was derided, lauded for his battlefield victories but little else. For much of the last century, it was the well-heeled Robert E. Lee who was exalted as the formidable general of Arthurian nobility. Grant, a man of humble circumstances, was maligned as a drunkard, a butcher and a frump.
He is, however, a man fit for our more complicated, imperfect times. His hard, complex life made him understand that the war itself was to be hard and complex; he knew that slavery bore no easy answer, and that the chosen one, armed conflict, would bring unspeakable horrors to the land. But it was, he recognized, the only way forward.
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This vision, combined with a clarity of both strategic and tactical leadership, simplicity of organization and command, and the ability to connect with and move troops effectively, made the faltering Union Army victorious. As with the institution, so with the man: on the verge of destitution at the outset of the conflict, three years later Grant was given the military's highest rank, lieutenant general.
Grant's story is ultimately inexplicable. Despite volumes that I have read about the man, I still do not understand the drive that made this hero. Thus, I embarked on a photographic journey to make an elegy, to capture the essence in those places made great by his indomitable spirit. By doing so, I hope to come to a greater understanding of this American hero hidden in plain sight.
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Charles Traub, a photographer, is the chairman of the masters in fine arts program in photography, video and related media at the School of Visual Arts. Images courtesy of the photographer and Gitterman Gallery.
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