Ulyssis S Grant

Fields was selected to portray Grant at the 150th anniversary of Lee’s surrender to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia, in 2015. He was featured as Grant, and as a Grant authority, in the Discovery Channel three-part documentary series “How Booze Built America.” Fields is the same height and body style as the general and represents a true-to-life image of the man as he would have looked. He does extensive research in order to share an accurate portrayal. His presentations are made in the first person, quoting from memoirs, articles and letters the general wrote, statements he made in interviews and first-person accounts of people who knew the general or were with him and witnessed him during events.

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“It’s eerie. Dr. Curt Fields becomes Gen. Ulysses S. Grant . . . and history comes alive,” said James Goff, professor and chair of the Department of History.

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Fields has a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in education from the University of Memphis in Tennessee. He earned a second master’s in secondary education and a Ph.D. in educational administration and curriculum from Michigan State University. He spent eight years at the junior and senior high school levels teaching before serving 25 years as a high school administrator. He teaches as an adjunct sociology professor at the University of Memphis and in education for Belhaven University, Memphis. He is now an educational consultant and a living historian.

Fields is a frequent contributor to the monthly newsletter “The Civil War Courier,” and is a member of the Tennessee Historical Society, the West Tennessee Historical Society, the Shelby County Historical Society, the Nathan Bedford Forrest Historical Society, the Tennessee Civil War Preservation Association, the Appomattox 1865 Foundation, the 290 Foundation – dedicated to the Civil War Navies, the Civil War Trust and the Ulysses S. Grant Association.