General. He won the Civil War for the North. When critics complained to Abraham Lincoln that Grant drank too much, Lincoln reportedly responded that he wished his other generals drank the same thing. He was not considered a great strategian, like Lee, but his doggedness and determination together with overwhelming force, prevailed. His subsequent presidency became mired in the scandal of his friends and subordinates (his own honesty was never challenged), and he wrote a memoir whose unexpectedly stylish prose has been much admired.