Last month, I told you about Abraham Lincoln coming to my town—Janesville, Wisconsin. General Grant accompanied him. And he, as did Lincoln, took home a copy of my book.
Larry Werline, who portrays Grant, caressed the cover of Early’s Fall.
“This is great,” he said. “The book is just the right size to go in my briefcase. I fly to Washington often, and I’m always looking for a book to take along, to read, and this is perfect.”
“It’s a Western mystery,” I said.
Grant—Werline—smiled, pleased.
We sat at a picnic table and talked about Ulysses S. Grant, not the Civil War general who would become president, but Grant the writer.
Grant, a man of letters
Grant learned the value of clear language and precise writing by writing battle orders, says Larry Werline, who portrays the man at Civil War events around the Midwest.
“He was able to write an order so clearly that no one could misunderstand it. It was short, concise, and clear,” Werline says.
“Grant would sit at a table at night at his headquarters, and he would write out his orders. He’d write an order for one unit and throw the order on the floor. He’s write another out and throw it on the floor. If he didn’t like an order, he crumple it up and throw it on the floor. Everything went on the floor.
“When Grant was done writing orders, he’d pick them all up, sort them, and give them to his aide and go to bed. The aide would have the orders distributed, and, in the morning when the subordinate officers woke up, they’d have their orders and they knew what had to be done.
“Grant’s orders were very clear. None of this ‘take that hill if it’s practicable.’”
We remember Grant, the writer, for his autobiography, but he started writing for money by writing articles for Century Magazine, articles about the battles in which he had been. A hundred dollars a pop. Excellent money at the time.
“Then Mark Twain, Grant’s good friend, suggested he put the articles together, fill in the gaps, and make it his autobiography,” Werline says.
“Grant thought that was a good idea, that he might try his hand at that.”
Halfway through, Grant contracted throat cancer.
His writing fell off. Twain came to Grant’s home and told him to get back to writing. “Do it now, get it done, and I’ll publish your book and pay you a much greater than average royalty.”
Grant did what he was told. He went back to his writing desk and worked through his pain.
Twain, at the time, was writing his own book—Huckleberry Finn. “So the two of them would talk about their writing. Eventually, Grant got worse and worse, and finally he finished his manuscript on July 20, 1885. He died three days later.”
Twain kept his promise. He published Grant’s autobiography, but not before he sent out crews to sell subscriptions. “He even had veterans groups helping. They would go door to door and sell subscriptions, five dollars for the book. So after Twain got the orders, he published the book—printed enough copies to fill the orders.
“Of course, they sold out. So he did another printing and these books sold out. Grant’s autobiography was the number one nonfiction book of the Nineteenth Century. Mark Twain’s Huckleberry Finn was the number one fiction book of the Nineteenth Century. A bit of irony here, and both books are still in print.”
How Larry Werline became General Grant
“I was always interested in history, probably since I was 5 years old—Civil War history, everything,” Werline says of his fascination with Grant.
In the 1980s, someone suggested Werline become a Civil War reenactor.
Play soldier?
No, that wasn’t for him.
Then a friend, an economics instructor at Kishwaukee Community College and a reenactor, got Werline to attend what he calls “one of these things. Not only that, he put me in uniform and trained me on artillery. And the next thing you know, I’m hooked.”
Werline joined Battery G of the 2nd Illinois Light Artillery. He rose to the rank of captain.
At this time, Werline, the civilian, served on the international board of directors for an enterprise resource planning software system. The board had scheduled a meeting at the U.S. Grant Hotel in San Diego. “The president said to me, ‘You do that Civil War stuff, don’t you?’”
Werline admitted he did, and the executive asked him to plan and direct the opening night reception.
Not a problem.
“Then he says, ‘We’d like you to get a Grant uniform and portray the man.’ I’m just a captain, I say. And he says, ‘Well, get all the pieces you need.’”
Werline did. Even came up with a fake beard.
“But I’m into authenticity, and all fake beards look fake, so I told my wife I’m going to be growing a beard for a short period of time—so I can do this presentation.”
Well, okay.
Put a beard on Werline and, with his face and build, he really does look like Grant. So friends asked him to come to their groups, civic clubs, and schools to talk about Grant.
“I said, sure, I know a lot about him.”
The San Diego board meeting came and went, and Werline still had his beard. His wife’s patience gave out. She asked him when was he going to shave?
“I said, well, I’ve got three more gigs to do. General Grant’s 175th birthday is April 27, and I’ve got a gig in Keokuk, Iowa, that day. That’s the last one I’ll do.”
Before Keokuk, Werline, as Grant, spoke to a fifth grade class.
“Afterwards, the teacher had her students write letters to General Grant. ‘Dear General Grant, thank you for coming to our class. We learned a lot.’ And then they would list all the things that I had said.”
To Werline, this was marvelous feedback—honest, good fifth grade feedback.
“I read those letters and said I now know what I’m getting through and what I’m not getting through. My wife, who is a teacher, came into the room. She saw the dining room table with all these letters spread out and the pictures they’d sent me of General Grant and cannons and flags, and she said, ‘What’s this?’
“I said I know why you’re a teacher now. This is great feedback. Here, read these. So I’m reading them and she’s reading them over my shoulder. I noticed she got very quiet. I turned around and looked at her, and she had tears streaming down her cheeks.
“She said, ‘You can keep the beard.’”
That was 1997.
Twelve years later, Werline is still doing programs and appearances as Grant.
“So,” says he, “I’ve been General Grant longer than General Grant was General Grant.”
As a civilian, Werline works for Oracle as a corporate trainer. He helps companies get enterprise resource planning software up and running. He’s currently working with the Marine Corps at Quantico.
© Jerry Peterson.
