Grant & Taylor

Taylor and Grant had their military, political, and personal critics. Both have been called morose, inarticulate, dim, stubborn, and unforgiving. Harsh critics exaggerated Taylor’s volcanic temper and Grant’s struggles with alcohol. That being said, they shared personal traits that Americans found compelling, and that are telling about their larger meaning.

Taylor and Grant were exquisitely American in a number of ways, perhaps none more than their informal attitude in the field. Smith wrote that soldiers under Grant saw him as “`a friendly partner, not an arbitrary commander´.” The same applied to Grant’s mentor. Taylor, like Grant 15 years later, would get to know his entire command by informally chatting with troops.

His mud splattered, informal dress, particularly when accepting the surrender of the impeccably adorned Lee at Appomattox, is one of the most compelling and lasting popular impressions of Grant. Mocked for wearing a formal uniform while at West Point, Grant had already started learning his lesson at a young age.

But his fashion inspiration and command demeanor during the Civil War clearly came from Taylor. Smith again: At Vicksburg, “a veteran of the Mexican War…would have recognized Taylor’s mannerisms immediately…Grant even took to wearing a Tayloresque linen duster and a battered civilian hat over his uniform.”

What did this image convey? In Grant’s case, it meant that he “was indifferent to claims of spruceness and military rigmarole,” Bunting wrote. This indicates modesty. Both displayed what a newspaper reporter said of Taylor: that he was utterly devoid of “I-am-a-great-man-ishness” in how he behaved, what he said, and how he said it. As Hamilton wrote, perhaps Taylor and Grant understood intuitively that in so doing, their troops were able to absorb the greatness that they had repelled.

A rare, 1849 daguerreotype of President Taylor (standing at center) and his cabinet. "Left to right: William Ballard Preston, Secretary of the Navy; Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Interior; John Middleton Clayton, Secretary of State; President Taylor; William Morris Meredith, Secretary of the Treasury; George Washington Crawford, Secretary of War; Jacob Collamer, Postmaster General; Reverdy Johnson, Attorney General." From the Library of Congress.

Bauer postulated that Taylor’s style represented “the new Andrew Jackson, the new Cincinnatus, springing from the egalitarian frontier to demonstrate with simplicity of manner and natural dignity the superiority of the New World Anglo-Saxon. That little of this fitted Zachary Taylor mattered not at all; his image had been struck.” A short lineage in personal style, a characteristic of leadership, can be drawn. Working backward, it would be Grant to Taylor to Andrew Jackson to the first American example, George Washington. Leaping far, far backward, perhaps the original article was Lucius (Titus) Quinctius Cincinnatus. In 458 BCE, Cincinnatus, a former consul, was summoned from his farm, took command, defeated Rome’s enemies, refused honors, and returned to his plow.

In the case of Taylor and Grant, the former was the teacher, the latter the pupil. Both exhibited things the other found useful. Smith wrote that in one telling incident during the Mexican War, Taylor seemed to see his own “best qualities” in Grant. Taylor happened by when Second Lieutenant Grant jumped into the sea to help his detail clear some obstacles off the beach at Corpus Christi in 1845.

Some smart-aleck officers snickered as Grant mucked around in waste-high water. “I wish I had more officers like Grant who would stand ready to set a personal example when needed,” Taylor said, making sure they heard.

To the end of his life, Grant remembered Taylor’s example, and saw his own best qualities in Old Rough and Ready.

Grant wrote in his Memoirs, “Taylor was not a conversationalist, but on paper he could put his meaning so plainly that there could be no mistaking it. He knew how to express what he wanted to say in the fewest well-chosen words.” The words apply just as well to Grant himself.