What was so Special About Ulysses S. Grant?

We have had peaceful and militaristic Presidents. We have had savvy diplomats and tactless soldiers. How did they come to be who they were? What shaped the lives of those who shaped our nation?

Ulysses S. Grant was a frustrated and aggressive man. He grew up poor and was thrust into military service unwillingly. He did graduate from West Point, but that's the best that can be said of his academic achievements. Though he was brave in battle and possessed an instinctively military mind, his profession was helped no closer to him than his alternate profession of a tanner. He was a unhappy man. His alcoholism constantly threatened his position within the military, occasionally causing him to be dismissed or stripped of authority. When serving in the military, he was regularly out of uniform and rarely behaved in military fashion His enigmatic militaristic abilities brought him great success and fame, but even his closest advisors couldn't riddle out his plans or how he derived them.

He led the United States the same way he led the military, with aggressive discipline and no tact. He was surrounded by scandals that were almost, but never quite, avoided. He accepted gifts and divulged secrets. He was known to be an honest man. He wasn't actually taking bribes or selling secrets. He was just used to the fame of heroism and had a big mouth. If anything, he was a military man and did not belong in the political arena. Poor Mr. Grant was simply an angry, drunken soldier that got in over his head.