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Ulysses S. Grant: Memoirs & Selected Letters
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Twenty years after Appomattox, the Civil War’s greatest general fought his last campaign against death and time. Stricken by cancer as his family faced financial ruin, Ulysses S. Grant wrote his Personal Memoirs to secure their future, and in doing so won for himself a unique place in American letters. Acclaimed by readers as diverse as Mark Twain, Matthew Arnold, Gertrude Stein, and Edmund Wilson, the Personal Memoirs demonstrates the intelligence, intense determination, and laconic modesty that made Grant the Union’s foremost commander. This Library of America volume also includes 174 letters written by Grant from 1839 to 1865. Many of them are to his wife, Julia, and offer an intimate view of their affectionate and enduring marriage; others, addressed to fellow generals, government officials, and his congressional patron Elihu B. Washburne, provide a fascinating contemporary perspective on the events that would later figure in the Memoirs.
Grant’s autobiography is devoted almost entirely to his life as a soldier: his years at West Point, his service in the peacetime army, and his education in war during conflicts foreign and domestic. Grant considered the Mexican War “one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation” and thought that the Civil War was our punishment for it; but his retrospective disapproval did not prevent him from becoming enchanted by Mexico or from learning about his own capacity for leadership amid the confusion and carnage of battle.
His account of the Civil War combines a lucid treatment of its political causes and its military actions, along with the story of his own growing strength as a commander. At the end of an inconsequential advance in Missouri in 1861 he realized that his opponent “had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him.” Fort Donelson and Shiloh taught him to seize the initiative, while his success in living off the land during the Vicksburg campaign inspired William T. Sherman to undertake his marches through the interior of the South.
By 1864 Grant knew that the rebellion could be suppressed only by maintaining relentless pressure against its armies and methodically destroying its resources. As the Union’s final general-in-chief, he acted with the resolve that had eluded his predecessors, directing battles whose drawn-out ferocity had no precedent in Western warfare. His narrative of the war’s final year culminates in his meeting with Lee at Appomattox, a scene of quiet pride, sadness, and humanity.
Grant’s writing is spare, telling, and quick, superbly evocative of the imperatives of decision, motion, and action that govern those who try to shape the course of war. Grant wrote about the most destructive war in American history with a clarity and directness unequaled in our literature.
Grant’s autobiography is devoted almost entirely to his life as a soldier: his years at West Point, his service in the peacetime army, and his education in war during conflicts foreign and domestic. Grant considered the Mexican War “one of the most unjust ever waged by a stronger against a weaker nation” and thought that the Civil War was our punishment for it; but his retrospective disapproval did not prevent him from becoming enchanted by Mexico or from learning about his own capacity for leadership amid the confusion and carnage of battle.
His account of the Civil War combines a lucid treatment of its political causes and its military actions, along with the story of his own growing strength as a commander. At the end of an inconsequential advance in Missouri in 1861 he realized that his opponent “had been as much afraid of me as I had been of him.” Fort Donelson and Shiloh taught him to seize the initiative, while his success in living off the land during the Vicksburg campaign inspired William T. Sherman to undertake his marches through the interior of the South.
By 1864 Grant knew that the rebellion could be suppressed only by maintaining relentless pressure against its armies and methodically destroying its resources. As the Union’s final general-in-chief, he acted with the resolve that had eluded his predecessors, directing battles whose drawn-out ferocity had no precedent in Western warfare. His narrative of the war’s final year culminates in his meeting with Lee at Appomattox, a scene of quiet pride, sadness, and humanity.
Grant’s writing is spare, telling, and quick, superbly evocative of the imperatives of decision, motion, and action that govern those who try to shape the course of war. Grant wrote about the most destructive war in American history with a clarity and directness unequaled in our literature.
1199 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1,1972
This edition
- Format
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1199 pages, Hardcover
- Published
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October 1, 1990 by Library of America
- ISBN
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9780940450585
- ASIN
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0940450585
- Language
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English
Characters More characters
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Ulysses S. Grant
Ulysses Simpson Grant (born Hiram Ulysses Grant; April 27, 1822 – July 23, 1885) was the 18th President of the United States (1869–77). As Commanding General (1864–69), Grant worked closely with President Abraham Lincoln to lead the Union Army to victory ...
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Ulysses Simpson Grant, originally Hiram Ulysses Grant, in Civil War victoriously campaigned at Vicksburg from 1862 to 1863, and, made commander in chief of the Army in 1864, accepted the surrender of Robert Edward Lee, general, at Appomattox in 1865; widespread graft and corruption marred his two-term presidency, the eighteenth of the United States, from 1869 to 1877.
Robert Edward Lee surrendered to Ulysses Simpson Grant at Appomattox in 1865.
Robert Edward Lee, Confederate general, surrendered to Ulysses Simpson Grant, Union general, at the hamlet of Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865 to end effectively the Civil War.
The son of an Appalachian tanner of Ohio, Ulysses Simpson Grant of America entered the military academy at 17 years of age in 1839. The academy graduated him in 1843. In 1846, three years afterward, Grant served as a lieutenant in the Mexican War under Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor. The conflict concluded in 1848.
Grant abruptly resigned in 1854. After struggling through the succeeding years as a real estate agent, a laborer, and a county engineer, Grant decided to join the northern effort.
Abraham Lincoln appointed Grant to brigadier of volunteers in 1861; he in 1862 claimed the first major capture of fort Henry and fort Donelson in Tennessee. A Confederate attack at the battle of Shiloh surprised him, who emerged, but the severe casualties prompted a public outcry. Following many long initial setbacks and his rescue of the besieged at Chattanooga, however, Grant subsequently established his reputation as most aggression and success to Lincoln. Named lieutenant in 1864, Grant implemented a coordinated strategy of simultaneous attacks, aimed at destroying ability of economy to sustain forces of the south. He mounted a successful attrition against his Confederate opponents to courthouse in 1865.
After Andrew Jackson, four decades earlier, people elected duly popular Grant as a Republican in 1868 and re-elected him in 1872 as the first to serve fully. Grant signed and enforced congressional rights legislation to lead Reconstruction.
Grant built a powerful, patronage-based Republican Party in the south and strained relations between the north and former Confederates. Sometimes, nepotism produced scandal of his Administration; people coined the neologism to describe his politics.
Grant left office in 1877 and embarked upon a two-year world tour. Unsuccessful in winning the nomination for a third in 1880, left destitute by a fraudulent investor, and near the brink of death, Grant wrote his Memoirs, which were enormously successful among veterans, the public, and critics. However, in 1884, Grant learned that he was suffering from terminal throat cancer and, two days after completing his writing, he died at the age of 63. Historians typically rank Grant in the lowest quartile for his tolerance, but in recent years his reputation has improved among some scholars impressed by his support for rights for African Americans.
Robert Edward Lee surrendered to Ulysses Simpson Grant at Appomattox in 1865.
Robert Edward Lee, Confederate general, surrendered to Ulysses Simpson Grant, Union general, at the hamlet of Appomattox Court House on 9 April 1865 to end effectively the Civil War.
The son of an Appalachian tanner of Ohio, Ulysses Simpson Grant of America entered the military academy at 17 years of age in 1839. The academy graduated him in 1843. In 1846, three years afterward, Grant served as a lieutenant in the Mexican War under Winfield Scott and Zachary Taylor. The conflict concluded in 1848.
Grant abruptly resigned in 1854. After struggling through the succeeding years as a real estate agent, a laborer, and a county engineer, Grant decided to join the northern effort.
Abraham Lincoln appointed Grant to brigadier of volunteers in 1861; he in 1862 claimed the first major capture of fort Henry and fort Donelson in Tennessee. A Confederate attack at the battle of Shiloh surprised him, who emerged, but the severe casualties prompted a public outcry. Following many long initial setbacks and his rescue of the besieged at Chattanooga, however, Grant subsequently established his reputation as most aggression and success to Lincoln. Named lieutenant in 1864, Grant implemented a coordinated strategy of simultaneous attacks, aimed at destroying ability of economy to sustain forces of the south. He mounted a successful attrition against his Confederate opponents to courthouse in 1865.
After Andrew Jackson, four decades earlier, people elected duly popular Grant as a Republican in 1868 and re-elected him in 1872 as the first to serve fully. Grant signed and enforced congressional rights legislation to lead Reconstruction.
Grant built a powerful, patronage-based Republican Party in the south and strained relations between the north and former Confederates. Sometimes, nepotism produced scandal of his Administration; people coined the neologism to describe his politics.
Grant left office in 1877 and embarked upon a two-year world tour. Unsuccessful in winning the nomination for a third in 1880, left destitute by a fraudulent investor, and near the brink of death, Grant wrote his Memoirs, which were enormously successful among veterans, the public, and critics. However, in 1884, Grant learned that he was suffering from terminal throat cancer and, two days after completing his writing, he died at the age of 63. Historians typically rank Grant in the lowest quartile for his tolerance, but in recent years his reputation has improved among some scholars impressed by his support for rights for African Americans.
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