Don Wildman

But this is what's always confused me about him, is how much did Grant understand what had gone wrong with the war prior to his taking over the General Command?

Or was he just going on his own instinct and saying, this is how you fight?

Was he seeing himself as a corrective to what was so flawed about the Union strategy prior to his command?

And once again, we have a military leader who ends up being a president, a politician, who has a huge role in reshaping the nation after the battle is done, so to speak.

Doesn't go so well for Grant.

He doesn't see his vision fully executed, but he does try.

And it's a lot to be said for the guy.

All right, we've done four generals.

Let's wrap this up with a caveat.

it's not fair what I'm about to do to you.

But let's choose.

Who's your favorite of these four generals in terms of their effect and impact on American history?

I certainly agree with you in so many regards.

Certainly the values involved in that reasoning.

I'm going to go with Eisenhower myself because I believe that we live in a world that is demanding many of the values that he represents to me, which was a lot of, on the American side, domestic side, the bipartisanship that he believed in and the restraint that he believed in.

I think that without defeating fascism, the way that that was done in World War II, we'd be, oh boy, where would we be now, you know?

And so any one of these four guys can claim the crown, of course, but we're going to go with our choices for today.

Major Jonathan Bratton has been our guest.

Please look up the other episodes that he has been with us for, from Lexington and Concord to Bunker Hill and the invasion of Canada.

There's even one on George Washington's generalship.