Seven Score and Ten…..

…..years ago today.

General Ulysses Grant grooved out the best put down of the Civil War. Though tis tale may be apocryphal to cools not to believe it happened. One hundred and Fifty years ago after capturing an entire Confederate Army at Fort Donelson, Grant met his old school friend and third in command of confederate forces General Buckner during the surrender ceremony. During which Grant is believed to have said something like this (paraphrasing):

Grant: "Hey Buckner, where the hell is General Pillow, the number 1 guy in charge of this here outfit?"

Buckner: "He cut and run. Said he figured that capturing him was your main objective - the way you intended to hurt the Confederacy the most, so he skedaddled and left me in charge, to save the confederacy so to speak"

Grant: "That is not true at all. As a matter of the opposite is true. if I had captured General Pillow, I would have let him go, because he does more good for the Union when he's leading you fella's."

Apparently Confederate Big Wigs adopted Grant's view of Pillow afterwards and he was not given a meaningful role for the rest of the insurrection, much to Grant's chagrin. Grant would go on to capture 2 other Confederate Armies during the war, and Pillow would have surely made that task easier on Grant.