What military tactics did Ulysses S. Grant use to achieve his major victories?

I now understand just why his predecessors failed so completely.  The south had interior lines while the North had a confined window of opportunity before they withdrew.  This was the way you did things for thousands of years.

By the way it is now mud month in the Ukraine.

The same thing happened during WWI except it was mud month after every bombardment.

Grant understood tempo and used his manpower advantage to keep up the assault while forcing his opponents to keep rushing to a new front while desparately trying to stay in front.

What military tactics did Ulysses S. Grant use to achieve his major victories?

Dennis Boas ·

Retired Military intelligence analyst

Mar 3

Quora.com

Grant introduced two innovations that altered nature of warfare and accelerated the defeat of the South.

First: Grant understood that war could not be a seasonal activity. Until 1864, wars were conducted when the seasons best permitted, or when men could be away from their farms. Grant waged war year-round, recognizing that "total" war would cause, among other things, civilian discomfort and reduce the political will of the enemy. Under Grant, Union armies did not retire to winter quarters to refit and reorganize, and they would require their enemies to remain in the field against them.

Second: Grant recognized that a high tempo of operations reduced or eliminated the enemy’s ability to use advantages such as interior lines. Until Grant took command, the South could count on reprieves during periods of Union inactivity to refit and restore their logistic and supply bases. Or needing men in one location, the South could use interior lines to move men to meet the current threat. Grant’s operational tempo of continuous engagement bankrupted Lee and other Southern generals of their supplies and their morale, and their ability to concentrate against one army while delaying or holding against another. Grant used maneuver in order to increase tempo as well as to place his forces. Indeed, Grant’s use of maneuver was every bit as important to his generalship as it was to those given more credit for using maneuver – Confederate General Robert E. Lee, Union Major General William T. Sherman and especially Confederate Lieutenant General Thomas J. Jackson.

Grant’s focus on campaigns instead of individual battles relied on Continuous engagement and high tempo operation