Loading ...Lincoln was so worried that Lee was winning so many battles that he wanted a General that could win..not talk about it.
He hired a whiskey drinkin cigar smoker that was formally a SILVER miner by the name of Grant that had the guts of a Silver miner to overcome problems with brute force.
First you should know that Lincolns first choice was Lee who turned him down because because of his loyalty to Virginia ,then Lee became a problem by winning! He was the better tactician ,but didnt have the resources of the Norths Industrial capacity and that was his undoing …Grant used industrial might to overwhelm Lee .
Years ago I was in Virginia CITY Nevada and I saw a picture on a wall of two guys that mined Silver there and one looked very familiar ,I inquired and discovered it was WT GRANT and his Father in earlier days when both were Silver miners .Back then mining was a pick AXE and a chisel banged on by a sledge hammer to get er done..A brutal way to mine .using a candle for light in a cold damp 5 ft high tunnel with an elevator made of Hemp rope that lowered you down (which frequently broke and killed more miners that anything else .Thats the life that forged Grants tough Demeaner that Lincoln recognized as what HE NEEDED.
That trip to see California where I ended up on my way to Lake TAHOE in between was VIRGINIA city where I learned a lot about Grant, Silver Mining and how Lincoln won the war..Virginia CITY was History …
I also learned on that trip that William Randolph Hearst father was a Silver miner ..He bought an interest in a Silver mine for $3000 and ended up taking 93,000,000 millions out of it .Then his son William was in college working on the school newspaper and asked Dad to finance a newspaper venture he wanted to buy that was losing money .Dad said ok but I give you two years to turn it around and then I cut your money off. Well William Randolph was successful and ended up buying 96 other Newspapers …Today Hearst Corp owns 100 miles of California Coastline that grazes cattle on it to keep taxes down..(worth about a million a foot today) …This is the History of Silver Mining in the US..
What a Great trip that was ! I was gone 6weeks and traveled the entire California coast west to Sacramento then on to Virginia City and Lake Tahoe..flew back from San Francisco ! What a History Lesson in Silver mining ..!