My aim, then, was to whip the rebels, to humble their pride, to follow them to their inmost recesses, and make them fear and dread us. Fear is the beginning of wisdom.

He served as a General in the Union Army during the American Civil War (1861–65) for which he received recognition for his outstanding command of military strategy as well as criticism for the harshness of the "scorched earth" policies that he implemented in conducting total war against the Confederate States. When Grant assumed the U. Grant in 1862 and 1863 during the campaigns that led to the fall of the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg on the Mississippi River and culminated with the routing of the Confederate armies in the state of Tennessee.

Sherman's subsequent march through Georgia and the Carolinas further undermined the Confederacy's ability to continue fighting. S. Military historian B.