Ulysses Grant, who as commanding general worked closely with President Lincoln to lead the Union army to victory over the Confederacy in the American Civil War, was once on his way to a reception held in his honour. Caught in a rain shower, he offered the shelter of his umbrella to a stranger walking in the same direction as himself.
The stranger was also bound for the reception, but confided that he was going only to satisfy a personal curiosity, having never seen Grant. "Between us," he explained, "I have always thought that Grant was a very much overrated man."
"That's my view also," Grant said.
Grant became the 18th president of the United States in 1869.
攸利西斯．格蘭特在美國南北戰爭期間，任北軍統帥，和林肯總統緊密合作，擊敗南部邦聯。有一次，他去出席一個為他而設的酒會，路上遇上驟雨，見有個陌生人和他同路，就䇛起雨傘，和那人同行，給他擋雨。
那人原來也是去出席那個酒會。他告訴格蘭特說，此去只是由於好奇，因為他從沒見過格蘭特。他說：「不怕跟你說句私人話，我向來認為格蘭特之名遠遠過於其實。」
格蘭特回答說：「我也是這麼想。」
一八六九年，格蘭特成為美國第十八任總統。