Grant deserves a lot of credit.

The important thing to remember is that the U.S. Civil War was fundamentally asymmetrical. The South did not have to win the war, they only had to manage to not lose long enough for Northern support for the war to collapse. The Union, however, had to win. Grant’s victories in the West during the Vicksburg Campaign helped to sustain Northern support for the war through a difficult period in 1863, and Grant later won the war by capturing Petersburg and Richmond (the capital of the Confederacy), the fall of which led directly to Lee’s surrender.

Lincoln gave an extraordinary amount of credit to Grant, which we know, because Lincoln put it in writing. When Grant captured Vicksburg, Lincoln wrote him a letter expressing his “grateful acknowledgement for the almost inestimable service you have done the country.” He went on to say that he had his doubts about Grant’s strategy in the Vicksburg campaign, but that “I now wish to make the personal acknowledgement that you were right, and I was wrong.”

Lincoln had been plagued with a string of ineffectual generals early the war (including George McClellan, who later ran against Lincoln for president - and lost - in 1864), who consistently failed to press their advantage following major victories. So, when Grant turned out to be bold and effective, Lincoln was so pleased that he promoted Grant to the rank of Lieutenant General - the same rank once held by George Washington - and gave him command of all Union forces nationwide. Grant personally commanded the campaign to take Richmond (via Petersburg), which finally fell in early April 1865. A few days later, Lincoln wrote Grant again with a short message to encourage him to bring about the end of the war. Lincoln wrote, “Gen. Sheridan [who had cut off Lee’s retreat from Richmond] says ‘If the thing is pressed I think that Lee will surrender.’ Let the thing be pressed.” Grant pressed the advantage, and two days later, Robert E. Lee surrendered the Army of Northern Virginia. Though scattered fighting continued for months afterward, Lee’s surrender marked the end of any legitimate hope for a Southern victory.

In addition to being largely responsible for winning the war, I would also go further and say that, as president, Grant was largely responsible for many of the racially progressive policies of the Reconstruction era (much of which was rolled back after the end of his presidency). Grant understood the hard fought victory of the Civil War and worked to enact long term change in the United States. Grant signed a variety of legislation aimed at securing the rights of black Americans, many of which were aimed at enforcing the 14th and 15th amendments and ensuring that citizens could vote regardless of race. Grant also actively opposed the Ku Klux Klan, and was not shy about using the U.S. military to enforce the rights of the formerly enslaved and oppose the racial terror of the Klan. However, most of the social progress made during Reconstruction was lost in the years after Grant’s presidency, due in large part to the Compromise of 1877, which ended Reconstruction and pulled the last federal troops out of the South.

Grant was certainly not perfect - no human is - but even flawed individuals can achieve great things.