Warm up

Barn Door started with a PreRuck

20 SSH

15 Wonderbra

10 Imperial Walkers

12 Windmills 

10 Tappy Taps 

The Thang

10 General Grant Merkins  Character: Resilience, Discipline, and Fearlessness

• Early Grit & Fearlessness
• Born in Point Pleasant, Ohio near Cincinnati, weighing 10 lb 12 oz.
• As a toddler, calmly asked for a gunshot to be repeated after someone fired at a can beside him.
• By age 5, mastered full gallop riding.
• At 8, managed a team of horses; regular routes averaged 40 miles, occasionally riding 250 miles to Toledo.
• At United States Military Academy, known as the best cadet on horseback.
  • Theme: Courage and composure were present from childhood. Fearlessness became controlled discipline.

38 American Hammers IC Endurance Through Personal Collapse

• Forced to resign from the Army amid alcohol rumors.
• At age 38, while his father was worth the equivalent of $50 million (today’s value), Grant was:
  • Making $800/year as a junior clerk in Galena, Illinois.
  • Borrowing $1,500 from the store to pay debts.
  • Frequently scammed out of thousands of dollars through bad investments.
  • Had to borrow money to return to New York at one point.
• Theme: Character is revealed not at the peak, but at the bottom. Grant endured humiliation without bitterness.

Dora 20 yard sprint  336 Gas pumpers pot of gold Relentless Work Ethic at the End of Life

• Smoked 20 cigars per day.
• After financial ruin in early May 1884 (partner fraud discovered), began writing intensely.
• Wrote 4–6 hours daily.
• Produced 336,000 words in one year.
• Once wrote 10,000 words in a single day.
• Dictated over 9,000 words on Appomattox without pause or revision.
• Broke his jaw on Christmas Eve 1883.
• Finished editing his memoirs and died one week later (1885).
• Memoirs sold 300,000+ copies in two volumes.
  • With support from Mark Twain:
• Offered Grant $50,000 commission and 70% of profits (instead of $500 stipend + 10%).
• Julia received $200,000 initially, $450,000 total.
  • Theme: Even while dying of cancer and financially ruined, Grant worked at an elite level. Discipline over despair.

135 Applejack Merkins pot of gold Moral Convictions: Leadership, Responsibility, and Justice

• Civil War Leadership
• Fought in 50+ battles.
• Shiloh casualties exceeded those of the:
  • Revolutionary War
  • War of 1812
  • Mexican-American War(combined)
• On June 16, 1861, his military fortune turned.
  • At 41, promoted to Supreme Commander.
  • As Lieutenant General (only second after George Washington at the time).
  • Salary increased to $8,640.
  • Weighed 135 lb at 5’8″ while commanding the entire Union Army.
• Broke his femur; laid up 2 months, during which he formed the 63rd and 64th U.S. Colored Regiments.
• Moral Theme:
  • Aggressive when necessary (Shiloh).
  • Embraced Black soldiers as both moral and strategic necessity.
  • Believed “cost of inaction” was as dangerous as action.

40 Mountain Climbers (L/R 2) Reconstruction & Racial Justice

• Supported Black enlistment as a “win-win.”
• After Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, Grant avoided Ford’s Theatre by declining the invitation the day before.
• John Wilkes Booth remained at large 11 days.
• Special Order No. 15 (issued by William Tecumseh Sherman):
• Allocated 400,000 acres.
• Promised “40 acres and a mule.”
  • Theme: Grant stood firmly behind the Union’s moral purpose and supported early federal efforts toward reparations and emancipation enforcement.

46 Stone Crabs IC Presidency & Governance

• Elected at 46, youngest president at that time.
• Won all but 8 states.
• Never campaigned.
• Established the National Park system in 1872, making Yellowstone National Park the first national park.
• Resolved the Alabama Claims for $15.5 million, stabilizing relations with United Kingdom.
• Returned U.S. to gold standard.
• In 1874, only $360 million in greenbacks circulated.
• Faced a 5-year depression.
• Nearly implemented a large-scale federal work program.
• Moral Theme:
  • Pragmatic reconciliation over revenge. Long-term stability over short-term popularity.

Life Lessons: Power, Humility, and Reversal

• Sudden Reversals
• Career marked by dramatic swings:
• Clerk at $800/year → Supreme Commander at 41.
• Net worth thought to be $1 million+ → reduced to $80 personally, Julia had $130.
• Firm owed $16.7 million, assets only $68,000.
  • Lesson: Fortune is unstable. Identity must not be tied to wealth or status.
• Power Without Grasping
• Never campaigned for president.
• Never aggressively sought promotion.
• Feared promotion would remove him from the field.
• Allowed reputation to elevate him.
  • Lesson: Authority gained through competence is more durable than authority chased.

Loyalty & Influence

• Supported by:
• Elihu B. Washburne (early advocate; first to float Grant for president).
• John Rawlins (loyal wartime chief of staff).
• Mark Twain (financial savior despite former Confederate ties).
• Lesson: Great lives are rarely solitary achievements.

10 Absolution  Final Synthesis: Who Grant Was

• Fought 50+ battles.
• Commanded more land area than Europe.
• Became youngest elected president at 46.
• Wrote 336,000 words while dying.
• Turned bankruptcy into a publishing triumph.
• Died one week after finishing his memoirs.
• Grant’s life demonstrates:
  • Courage without drama
  • Ambition without grasping
  • Failure without surrender
  • Power without cruelty
  • Work without complaint
• Above all:
  • A life defined not by uninterrupted success, but by relentless forward motion despite collapse.

Mary

COT

Q1: What hardship are you currently facing that might be shaping you for something greater?

Q2: What promises (spoken or unspoken) define your character?

Good conversation around the two questions

Prayers for Trojan

Prayers for Barndoor’s M

Prayers for Continued growth of F3

Rucktober continues, south side is running away with it!!!