Please login to watch videos.
Ulysses S. Grant’s Cigar Legend
Before Ulysses S. Grant became a Civil War legend and President of the United States, he was a struggling farmer selling firewood on a St. Louis street corner just to feed his family. Life had knocked him down more than once. But when the Civil War erupted, the quiet, steady man put the uniform back on and returned to serve. Grant didn’t look like a heroic general. He looked tired, rumpled, and usually had a cigar in the corner of his mouth. Then one simple photograph changed everything. When newspapers published the image of Grant calmly smoking during the war, Americans saw something powerful—authentic leadership under pressure. So they started sending him cigars.
