Was Drinking in Mexico? by CARL M. BECKER Historical conjecture concerning Ulysses S. Grant's drinking usually has been focused on two periods in the great commander's life: his stint of service at Fort Humboldt, California in 1853-1854, which ended with his resignation from the army; and his exciting days of leadership at Fort Donelson and Shiloh in 1862. But what of Grant's younger life? Specifically, was Grant drinking in Mexico in the days after the close of the Mexican War? Grant's biographers, lacking either the inclination or relevant evidence, have given little at- tention to the subject. During the post-Civil War years, reverential chroniclers recorded no hint of Grant's tippling in Mexico.1 The eulogistic accounts appearing near the end of Grant's life in 1885 were cut from the same cloth.2 Then in 1898, in his anecdotal biography, Ulysses S. Grant: His Life and Character, Hamlin Garland broached the question. Grant, said Garland, "had learned the use of liquor in Mexico"; but, continued Garland, "up to this time there is little reliable evidence of excess in its use."3 Twentieth-century biog- raphers, though more sophisticated than the early narrators, usually passed the question by — as may be seen, for example, in the volumes of Louis Coolidge and William Brooks.4 Even Lloyd Lewis, who brilliantly portrayed Grant in Captain Sam Grant, referred not at all to his drinking habits in Mexico, only implying that he was not given to the heavy drinking so prevalent among Americans there.5 One exception was William E. Woodward, in whose rather superficial study, Meet , Grant appeared on familiar terms with the "viper in the glass"; according to Woodward's undocumented sentence, Grant began to drink while in Mexico.6 Some evidence for such an assertion now may be read in a letter written in 1848 by a

!See, for example, John S. C. Abbott, The Life of General Ulysses S. Grant (, 1868), 17ff; James S. Brisbin, The Lives of Ulysses S. Grant and Schuyler Colfax (Chicago, 1869), 39ff; Henry Coppee, Life and Service of Gen. U. S. Grant (New York, 1868), 24ff; Henry D. Deming, The Life of Ulysses S. Grant (Hart- ford, 1868), 38ff; Edward Howland, Grant as a Soldier and Statesman (Hartford, 1868), 24ff; Edward D. Mansfield, A Popular and Authentic Life of Ulysses S. Grant (Cincinnati, 1868), 33ff. As these publication dates indicate, these titles were primarily campaign biographies. 2Of this genre typical examples are J. T. Headley, The Life of Ulysses S. Grant (Minneapolis, 1885), 31ff; and Ben: Perley Poore and O. H. Tiffany, Life of U. S. Grant (Philadelphia, 1885), 38ff. 3Hamlin Garland, Ulysses S. Grant: His Life and Character (New York, 1898), 124. See also Garland, "Grant in the Mexican War," McClure's Magazine, No. 4, VIII (February, 1897), 366-380. 4Louis A. Coolidge, Ulysses S. Grant (New York, 1917), 25ff; William E. Brooks, Grant of Appomattox (New York, 1942), 46ff. 5Lloyd Lewis, Captain Sam Grant (Boston, 1950), 154, 183-184. 6W. E. Woodward, Meet General Grant (New York, 1928), 86. Was Grant Drinking in Mexico? 69 friend who saw Grant in Mexico — a letter only recently "un- covered." The writer of the letter was Captain John William Lowe.7 Born in 1809 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, later moving with his family to Rahway, New Jersey and then to New York city, he came to the village of Batavia in Clermont County, Ohio in 1833. In 1834 or 1835 he took his way to the nearby community of Georgetown, in Brown County, there to seek employment as a house painter and glazier. Soon thereafter, he started to study law in the office of Thomas Hamer, then representative to the national congress from the Fifth District of Ohio. He soon knew many people in the area — some well - including young "Ulyss" Grant, for whom Hamer would secure an appointment to West Point in 1839. Lowe and Grant kept in touch with each other after Grant went to the academy. Grant's father, Jesse Grant, sometimes relayed messages between the two; anticipat- ing on one occasion his failure to write Lowe, the busy cadet asked his father to assure Lowe of his good intentions: "... if you see Mr. Lowe, tell him if I neglect to write to him, I will not forget to call & see him on July next."8 Home on leave in the summer of 1841, Grant visited Lowe's house frequently — no doubt somewhat attracted there by the presence of young Kate Lowe, one of Lowe's relatives visiting from the East.9 Shortly after the Mexican War began, Lieutenant Grant wrote to Lowe from Matamoras, suggesting that he seek command of a volunteer company for service in Mexico. Grant's language was terse but promising: "I should like very much to see you here in command of a volunteer company."10 First hesitating but finally moved by considerations for his health and his financial position, Lowe, who had served in a cadet company in New York, joined the Second Ohio Infantry Regiment with a captain's commission and in September of 1847 left for the sunny climes of Mexico. A wretched river and gulf voyage brought the regiment to Vera Cruz in early October. From there it set out in late October for the city of Puebla, some two hun- dred miles distant. On the march it was repeatedly harassed by guerrillas whose hit and run attacks gave it the only taste of fighting it knew during the war. Early December saw the regiment in Puebla, where it remained on garrison duty until after the war's end. Denied the danger and excitement of combat, the officers and 7For the main outlines of Lowe's life, see Carl M. Becker, "John William Lowe: Failure in Inner-Direction," Ohio History, No. 2, LXXIII (Spring, 1964), 75-89. 8Jesse Grant to John Lowe, December 8, 1840, in Lowe Manuscripts Collec- tion, Dayton and Montgomery County, Ohio Public Library. 9Garland, Ulysses S. Grant, 49. 10U. S. Grant to John Lowe, June 26, 1846, in Indiana University Library. 70 The Bulletin

Society Collection U. S. Grant As he appeared when serving in Mexico men of the regiment turned to the soldier's traditional diversions — drinking, gambling, fighting and seeking out women of easy virtue. For Lowe it was boring, tiresome duty rendered even more unpleasant by the chronic diarrhea which plagued him. For some reason not explained in his personalia, this illness gave him an opportunity to visit Mexico City in the spring of 1848. He arrived there sometime after April 29, 1848 but before May 5, 1848, taking lodgings in the Hotel de Pans [?]. By May 12 he had returned to Puebla and was writing to his wife, Manorah, of the scenes he had beheld in the capital city. He also was reporting the spectacle Grant had presented for him: "I saw Lieut Grant. He has altered very much: he is a short Was Grant Drinking in Mexico? 71

thick man with a beard reaching half way down his waist and I fear he drinks too much but don't you say a word on that subject."11 Lowe's bare-boned clauses raise a number of questions. Under what circumstances did Lowe see Grant? Did he personally see Grant in the act of imbibing? Did he personally see Grant inebriated? Besides these questions bearing on Lowe's witness, the problem of degree is involved. What were Lowe's criteria for "too much"? If Lowe saw Grant in some stage of intoxication, was he "tipsy" or merely "tight"? If Grant was in a state of inebriation, was it only the result of an isolated "fling"? or evidence of a rather habitual con- dition? Unfortunately, Lowe did not touch on these questions in any way in either his May 12 letter or subsequent letters to his wife; nor did he confide to his diary any details of Grant's drinking. And so, after briefly noting his observation of Grant, Captain Lowe failed to "gossip" a bit about his friend who was drinking "too much." It is enough to drive a historian to drink.

nJohn Lowe to Manorah Lowe, May 12, 1848, in Lowe Manuscripts Collec- tion. This letter has been "available" for at least a decade but only recently was noted by this writer. Grant, it should be noted, was then stationed at Tacubuya, four miles from Mexico City, serving as quartermaster of his Fourth Infantry Regiment.