What were Ulysses S. Grants mannerisms?

Answer 1

William T Sherman, Grant's closest friend, described him as one of the hardest people to understand he ever met. There is a distinct possibility that Grant suffered from high level autism, not unlike Asperger's syndrome. He had few friends as a child and few as an adult. He did not revel with fellow officers nor seek their society. He was quiet and said little, but when he did speak he could heard across a battlefield. He could order thousands to their death but could not stand the sight of blood, especially animal blood. His empathy with animals was legendary, and he was most likely the best horseman in America. The few friends he had he was devoted to, including Sherman and the Confederate General Longstreet. His command of the English language, as evidenced by his memoirs, shows a literary talent that is clearly genius. He rarely made eye contact, did not indulge in gossip nor politicked, which made his career in the peacetime army difficult. He was, in the opinion of his biographers, one of the most misunderstood men in American history. The stress caused by these awkward mental ticks drove him occasionally to drink and contributed to the constant smoking of cigars which eventually proved fatal.