Have a drink and win the war.

Last night Kadizzle stumbled into a history lesson.  The lesson came from doing a little research on Ulysses S. Grant.  There has been a lot of debate about Grant's drinking and how it affected the outcome of the Civil War.  Strangely it seems to have made him a better general.  Drinking did a lot to destroy Grant's life and got him to the point that he felt he had nothing to lose.  When you have nothing to lose you might be more aggressive and do things in a different manner.  One historian pointed out that a lot of Generals might withdraw and recuperate after winning a battle, not old Ulysses.  When he had the rebels on the run he kept after them.

Think about it, who would you rather fight, a calm rational person or a wild drunk.  If you have ever seen a wild drunk fight you know they often don't seem to have any regard for what might happen to them.  That seemed to be Grant.  One big problem Lincoln had with a lot of his generals was they sat in a tent all day planning and never did anything. If Grant sat in his tent he usually was having a drink and priming the pump for an explosion.

At one time Grant was on a ship sharing quarters with the captain.  The Captain of the ship had a well stocked supply of liquor. The captain told Grant to help himself, he did.   Always remember, "When you got nothing, you got nothing to lose".   When you are at the bottom there is only one way to go. Grant capitalized on this, perhaps there is a lesson here.