No evidence that he drank during hostilities; a hyped construct of Southern post-war revisionism. And the strategic and ballistic revolution of rifled weaponry and trench warfare ensured that the combatant's required to exercise the offensive would suffer greater loss in CW...
...Grant's competence was not marred by high casualties while maintaining a perpetual offense. Lee fared no better when he attempted the offensive. No, the competence was in the fact that he finally made overwhelming numbers matter in a necessarily attritive construct...
His greatness is evident in that moment after the ugly stalemate of the Wilderness in which he orders Hancock's corps to turn south at the crossroads and stay on to Richmond. He never again took his hand from Lee's throat and won the war in the East....
Though to be fair, if he had backed away from that frontal assault at Cold Harbor, it would have been a fine thing. But overall, Grant did exactly what was required to end Lee's strategic initiative and, eventually, the Confederacy.
