brian: i noticed the name brooks simpson. brooks simpson was here in 2000 talking about grant. here is something he had to say about the general. >> he was an extremely able commander, able to master challenges that felled other men. his success was not inevitable. improvising,er at responding, on the spur of the moment, to changes in plan and circumstances. i think he played favorites. sometimes he was too stubbonrn n favorites.o those sometimes he forgot that the enemy also had a will and was trying to impose it upon him. there are things that grant did that were not so shrewd. ms. samet: i think the point about grant's aggressiveness is on the mark. his errors were those of being too aggressive. he had a moment early in the civil war when he was chasing a confederate commander named harris through missouri. camp thatp on harris' and just been vacated. he realized that the enemy was as afraid of him as he was of the enemy, and he called that a valuable lesson. sometimes, he didn't always remember or take certain precautions. sometimes those errors of aggression didn't yield g