preview

Grant And Contrast Lee And Bruce Catton

Decent Essays

Ulysses Grant and Robert Lee were vital to the United States during the Civil War. Their meeting in a small parlor in Virginia, where they wrote out and signed the terms of the end of the war, brought the war to its near finish. In the article “Grant and Lee: A Study in Contrasts”, author Bruce Catton analyzes the similarities and differences between these leaders’ points of view and qualities. Thus, author, Bruce Catton compares Grant and Lee to demonstrate that all successful people have the same underlying qualities shown through their tenacity and fidelity, while also contrasting them to demonstrate that there are different paths of success, shown through their different backgrounds. Bruce Catton compares Grant and Lee’s similar paths to show that they both had the same underlying qualities of tenacity and fidelity. For example, he writes, “Grant fought his way down the Mississippi Valley in spite of acute personal discouragement and profound military handicaps. Lee hung on in the trench at Petersburg after hope itself had died” (Catton par 14). When Grant …show more content…

Catton stated “Grant was the modern man emerging; beyond him ready to come on the stage was the great age of steel and machinery, of crowded cities and restless burgeoning vitality”(par 11). Catton also stated “ Lee might have ridden down from the old age of chivalry , lance in hand, silken banner fluttering over his head”(par 11). Because of Grant’s modern age, he was able to understand what people wanted to happen in the future, which made him successful as a president. On the other hand, Lee was successful because he knew what people were leaving behind when they moved into the future. He understood that people would get tired of change and knew what to do if that ever happened. Grant and Lee’s different paths show how they both led to

Get Access