Book: The Complete Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

Overview

Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs trace a life shaped by discipline, adversity, and clear-eyed judgment, moving from small-town Ohio to the apex of Union command in the Civil War. Dictated and written while battling terminal illness, the two-volume account concentrates on military service and eschews personal gossip or sentimental flourish. The narrative is direct, explanatory, and intensely practical, offering a soldier’s view of how wars are supplied, campaigns are conceived, and decisions are made under pressure. It ends with Appomattox and brief reflections on the war’s causes and consequences, deliberately avoiding his presidency.

Early Life and the Mexican War

Grant recounts an unvarnished youth: steady work, a knack for horses, and an unplanned path to West Point. He emphasizes the Academy’s rigor and the grounding it gave him in engineering, topography, and logistics, skills that would define his generalship. As a junior officer in Mexico he serves under both Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott, witnessing contrasting styles of leadership. He fights in the street assaults at Monterrey and in Scott’s campaign from Veracruz to Mexico City, including Cerro Gordo, Churubusco, Molino del Rey, and Chapultepec. He praises the courage of regulars and volunteers while condemning the war itself as aggressive and unjust, a moral judgment that frames his later views on civil conflict.

From Resignation to War

Peacetime soldiering leads to frontier isolation, family separation, and resignation from the army in 1854. He describes years of financial difficulty with unembarrassed candor, finally finding steadier footing as a clerk in his father’s leather-goods store in Galena, Illinois. The outbreak of rebellion calls him back to uniform, first in mustering and training volunteers, then in field command.

Western Victories and Vicksburg

Grant attains prominence with the twin river operations against Forts Henry and Donelson, insisting on “unconditional and immediate surrender.” Shiloh is told without evasions: the surprise, the first day’s blood, the stabilizing effect of reinforcements, and the counterattack that restores the field. He acknowledges missteps while arguing that concentration and resolve prevailed. The Vicksburg campaign is the memoir’s strategic centerpiece. Grant details the winter of failed approaches, the bold run past the Confederate batteries, the crossing below the city, rapid inland thrusts at Port Gibson, Raymond, and Jackson, the decisive victory at Champion Hill, and the patient siege ending on July 4, 1863. He stresses speed, initiative, and living off the country to unhook from vulnerable supply lines.

From Chattanooga to Appomattox

After relieving the besieged Army of the Cumberland and breaking Missionary Ridge, Grant is made lieutenant general and assumes overall command. He explains his design for simultaneous offensives, keeping Confederate armies too engaged to aid one another. Remaining with Meade’s Army of the Potomac, he describes the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor with unflinching brevity, calling the Cold Harbor assault a mistake he regretted. Siege operations at Petersburg, Sheridan’s clearing of the Shenandoah, and the rail-cutting maneuvers culminate in Lee’s retreat and surrender at Appomattox. Grant records the generous terms, the return of sidearms and horses, and a sense of profound relief rather than triumph.

Reflections on War and Policy

The memoirs assert slavery as the war’s root cause and praise Lincoln’s steadiness and magnanimity. Grant urges firm protection of the fruits of victory and reconciliation grounded in justice, not forgetfulness. He credits subordinates such as Sherman, Thomas, Sheridan, and Rawlins, and he criticizes vacillation or vanity where he finds it, Union or Confederate.

Style and Legacy

The prose is plain, exact, and disciplined, often turning on maps, distances, and timings rather than rhetoric. Its authority comes from restraint, an aversion to self-aggrandizement, and a generous fairness to foes. The result is both a masterclass in operational art and a landmark of American letters, shaped by a dying soldier intent on telling the nation how the war was actually won.