Book: Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

Overview and Scope

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant is a clear, disciplined narrative of Grant's life through the end of the American Civil War, with only brief attention to childhood and civilian years and sustained focus on military service. Written while suffering from terminal illness and intended to secure his family's financial future, the two-volume account emphasizes operations, command decisions, and the moral stakes of the conflict. The voice is plainspoken and analytical, generous to subordinates and even to adversaries, and marked by a reluctance to embellish personal heroics.

Formative Years and the Mexican War

Grant sketches his Ohio boyhood and cadet years at West Point chiefly to explain his practical approach to leadership. The Mexican-American War provides his first sustained battlefield experience. Serving under Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, he learns the value of maneuver, logistics, and audacity; he also condemns the conflict as an unjust war of aggression. After peacetime postings and family hardship, he resigns his commission in 1854. His candid account of failed ventures and modest clerking in Galena, Illinois, underscores the unglamorous reality from which he reenters service in 1861.

Rise in the Western Theater

The Civil War narrative begins with his rapid return to arms and early command at Cairo. Grant recounts the experimental fight at Belmont and then the twin river operations against Forts Henry and Donelson, where he demands “unconditional and immediate surrender, ” a phrase that shapes his public image. He narrates the friction with superior Henry Halleck and defends his conduct at Shiloh, acknowledging surprise on the first day while insisting that firmness and reinforcements turned the battle into a Union recovery on the second. Throughout, he highlights the importance of riverine coordination with Flag Officers Foote and later Porter.

Vicksburg and Mastery of Maneuver

The heart of the memoir is the Vicksburg campaign. Grant patiently lays out failed bayou attempts, the bold decision to march his army down the west bank of the Mississippi, run the fleet past Confederate guns, and then cut loose from his base. In quick strokes he describes Port Gibson, Raymond, the seizure of Jackson to disrupt Confederate communications, and the decisive win at Champion Hill. The ensuing siege of Vicksburg traces the tightening noose around John C. Pemberton until the July 4, 1863 surrender. Grant frames the victory as strategically decisive, severing the Confederacy and validating the operational principles of mobility, logistics, and relentless pressure.

Chattanooga and National Command

After reinforcing the beleaguered Army of the Cumberland, Grant organizes the breakout at Chattanooga, culminating in the unexpected surge up Missionary Ridge. He sketches crisp portraits of Sherman, Thomas, and other lieutenants whose strengths he exploits. Elevated to lieutenant general in 1864, he moves east, sets overall strategy for all Union armies, and describes frank, respectful collaboration with Abraham Lincoln. His aim is simple: simultaneous advances to prevent Confederate concentration, with the destruction of enemy forces prioritized over the capture of places.

Overland, Petersburg, and Appomattox

The Virginia chapters are unsparing about cost and perseverance. Grant details the brutal learning in the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, then the shift to cross the James and invest Petersburg. He coordinates with Sheridan’s cavalry, supports Sherman’s sweep through Georgia and the Carolinas, and methodically squeezes Confederate logistics. The final movement, Five Forks, the fall of Petersburg, and the pursuit, leads to Appomattox. The surrender scene is rendered with humane precision: plain dress, a memory of Mexico shared with Lee, generous terms designed to end bloodshed and hasten reunion.

Judgments, Style, and Legacy

Grant closes with steady conclusions: slavery was the war’s cause; the Union’s volunteer soldiers deserve abiding gratitude; reconciliation must rest on victory and equal citizenship. He avoids partisan debates over Reconstruction and offers measured assessments of allies and opponents, praising Sherman and Thomas, respecting Lee and Johnston, and criticizing indecision or political intrigue where it impeded success. The prose is spare, the reasoning transparent, and the emphasis consistently on logistics, coordination, and moral clarity. The memoirs stand as both a strategic case study and a humane testament, capturing the Union’s hard road to triumph without boast or rancor.