Here’s a joke: When did Vicksburg get its first federal grant and what kind of grant was it?

Answer: July 4, 1863, and it was a Hiram Ulysses Grant.

That’s the name the Union general was given at his birth 198 years ago Tuesday in Point Pleasant, Ohio.

By the time he became President Abraham Lincoln’s favorite general, he was known as Ulysses S. Grant. It’s not clear when Grant’s middle name became his first name, or when Hiram was dropped altogether — but he enrolled at West Point as Ulysses S. Grant.

And that makes Grant like so many figures in history. Some things are well-established. Some things are not. Some accounts will portray them as deeply flawed; other accounts will praise their near perfection.

I don’t pretend to be an authority on any formative figure in America’s history, but because Grant’s efforts here were so prominent in American history, we should at least note his birthday.

What I believe to be true from reading books and listening to stories is that military leaders have often fallen into one of two categories. One batch consists of the political-minded. Several statutes of officers in the Vicksburg National Military Park were paid for and erected by the officers themselves or their families. Many graduates of West Point or Annapolis saw their time in the armed forces as a steppingstone to elective office.

Grant, who later became president, of course, wasn’t like that. Nor was Gen. William T. Sherman, who also figured prominently in the Vicksburg campaign.

Early in the War Between the States, Lincoln had a horrible time finding generals who had, for lack of a better term, fire in their bellies. Many found reasons to delay, to avoid confronting Confederate troops.

The South had a principled leader in Robert E. Lee. Everyone knew he could have had command of Union forces, but determined he could not take up arms against his fellow Virginians.

Whether Grant was similarly principled or not, is not clear. After about 12 years of active duty, he had gotten out of the Army six years before the Civil War started. What is clear is that he and Sherman were “mission-oriented.”

When given a job, they found a way to get it done — including conquering Vicksburg, which most considered an impregnable fortress city.

The record is also clear that Grant, regardless of what his personal opinions might have been, carried out Lincoln’s view that Southern people, even those who had taken up arms, should not be treated as vanquished enemies, that the South was not to be regarded as conquered territory.

He was known as “Unconditional Surrender Grant” because that was his standard in “negotiating” with Confederate forces after fighting near Nashville, but in Vicksburg and later at Appomattox Court House in Virginia, Southern forces were not subject to undue humiliation. Soldiers in Lee’s army were allowed to sign a paper promising never to fight against the Union again and allowed to go home.

“The war is over,” Grant is quoted as saying at the time in chastising members of his Army who were celebrating too much. “The Rebels are again our countrymen, and the best sign of rejoicing is to abstain from all demonstrations in the field.”

Of course, perhaps no general’s words could avoid the hard feelings and acts of revenge that followed. Today and perhaps for many years to come there are and will be animosities and suspicions that have their roots in the years when about half the states decided they wanted to form a different country.

There’s no way to know what Grant, dead for 125 years, would think about eruptions over such topics as having Col. Reb as the mascot for Ole Miss or the wording in proclamations by Southern governors remembering the Confederacy. He might think we should have moved on by now, but then again he was mission-oriented, not a politician.

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Charlie Mitchell is executive editor of The Vicksburg Post. Write to him at Box 821668, Vicksburg, MS 39182, or e-mail cmitchell@vicksburgpost.com