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The Complete Personal Memoirs and Selected Letters of Ulysses S. Grant Paperback – December 28, 2012

by Ulysses S Grant (Author)
4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 4,410 ratings
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Completed just days before his death and hailed by Mark Twain as "the most remarkable work of its kind since the Commentaries of Julius Caesar," this is the now-legendary autobiography of ULYSSES SIMPSON GRANT, 18th president of the United States and the Union general who led the North to victory in the Civil War. Though Grant opens with tales of his boyhood, his education at West Point, and his early military career in the Mexican-American war of the 1840s, it is Grant's intimate observations on the conduct of the Civil War, which make up the bulk of the work, that have made this required reading for history students, military strategists, and Civil War buffs alike. Grant wrote his "Personal Memoirs" to secure his family's future. In doing so, the Civil War's greatest general won himself a unique place in American letters. His character, sense of purpose, and simple compassion are evident throughout this deeply moving account, as well as in the letters to his wife, Julia, included here.
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  1. Print length
    1128 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Publisher
    www.bnpublishing.com
  4. Publication date
    December 28, 2012
  5. Dimensions
    6 x 2.21 x 9 inches
  6. ISBN-10
    1607965550
  7. ISBN-13
    978-1607965558
  8. See all details
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ www.bnpublishing.com (December 28, 2012)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 1128 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1607965550
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1607965558
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.25 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 2.21 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 4,410 ratings

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Ulysses S. Grant

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
4,410 global ratings
Edition Produced by Reprint House
3 Stars
Edition Produced by Reprint House
Whomever was charged with the proofreading of this edition should seek other lines of work as a careful proofing is not your strong suit. General Grant would never put up with this slipshod job! The book is an autobiographical masterpiece and deserves loving care which it did not receive.
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Top reviews from the United States

Steve Lacey
5.0 out of 5 stars Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
Reviewed in the United States on March 24, 2024
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As a long time civil war buff, I am stunned and disappointed it took me so long to read and thereby admire this most extraordinary of Presidential memoirs. I had no idea what a marvelous book it until I read Accidentally Presidents wherein it was highly recommended. I am indebted to Jared Cohen for the superb recommendation. The man could really write and he told an extraordinary story from an extraordinary perspective in marvelous detail with humility in spite of the enormous success he wrought.
4 people found this helpful
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David H.
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful - the best book about Grant
Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2024
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I bought the unabridged Audio CD, which is a huge bargain and played great in my car CD player.

I read 2 biographies about Grant first and then this autobiography. The biographies were by Chernow (first) and Brands (second). I recommend the Brands book. A reason to buy that first is because you will learn something you need to know about Grant > after he left the Presidency, Grant was in great financial shape until he was swindled and lost everything ($750,000) - he only had about $100 left. Shortly after that happened, he learned he had incurable throat cancer (probably from the cigars). Can you imagine? Most people would have given up - but not Grant. How could Mrs. Grant avoid poverty? Mark Twain was a friend of Grant's and offered Grant 70% of the profits if he would write an autobiography. Grant forced himself to write it even though he was dying. It was a huge success. It made $350,000 for Mrs. Grant - a HUGE amount of money in that day (like $10 million today). Grant died shortly after completing the book. I have a lot of respect for Mark Twain for helping Grant by giving him a MUCH better deal than anyone else would have given Grant.

Read the Brands book first and then the Autobiography. If you like Grant, you will enjoy his Autobiography very much - I did.

Grant was an AMAZING guy - brilliant, honest and good in every way. I think he's one of the most important people in US history - definitely Top 10 - with Washington, Franklin, Lincoln, etc.

You will see that the North would NOT have won the Civil War without Grant - at the least the North would have made a deal with the South to allow them to keep slavery, because the voters in the North were getting tired of the War. Without Grants victories, Lincoln would have probably lost in the 1864 election - Grant's victories gave Americans hope. When you read the Autobiography you will see that Grant was a good, humble, fair, honest, dependable guy and that he was a military genius. He was like a Chess Master and could comprehend what was happening and all the alternative courses of action and their consequences, AND he was aggressive. Most of the other Generals would NOT follow up an advantage - they would stop and rest, giving the Confederates an opportunity to escape or entrench.

I like and respect Grant very much. That's why I'm writing this review - Grant deserves more credit than he gets.

You will also learn that Sherman and Sheridan were critical to winning the War, that Lincoln was a good guy, and that Stanton was a jerk.
7 people found this helpful
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Daniel Myers
4.0 out of 5 stars Determined And Deterministic
Reviewed in the United States on July 6, 2009
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I freely confess to having read this book simply because I one day remembered that it existed and that I hadn't read it. It seemed to me a gaping lacuna in my reading history. Now, having read it, I must say that the writing is competent - as it was edited by Mark Twain, one shouldn't expect less - and these memoirs of the famous General's life from birth to the end of the American Civil War are quite interesting, especially for someone such as myself who, due to my upbringing, knows rather too much about the history of Europe, whilst knowledge of the history of my adopted country remains comparatively scanty. But I must say here that I am not concerned here with the American Civil War as such, but rather with the personality of Grant and the role he played in them. These are, after all, "Personal Memoirs."

What a rum fellow Grant seems to me, having finished the book, especially in Volume I. Volume II tends to bog the reader down in tactics, dispatches, skirmishes and engagements with - to me - very odd names for the locations of these set-tos all piled rapidly on top of one another. Grant is a curiously passive figure in his philosophical outlook. He didn't fancy going to Westpoint, was surprised he passed the entrance examination and, whilst there, hoped that a bill pending in Congress to abolish the military academy would pass. It didn't.

Early on, during his account of the Mexican War, he lists two separate accidental deaths of superiors who were favourable to the young Grant and the effect that they had on his career, and then comments: "Neither of these speculations is unreasonable, and they are mentioned to show how little men control their own destiny."

Throughout the book, proponents of free will or choice will find Grant as dogged an adversary as ever the Confederates did. Again, after being selected as head of all the National armies - The term "Union army" is not to be encountered herein. - Grant states again, "It is men who wait to be selected, and not from those who seek, from whom we may always expect the most efficient service." This determinism rather surprised me coming from an American where the credo is that each man makes his own destiny. Grant seems to have been what pop psychologists of today would denominate a "Type B" personality, through and through.

But, once selected, Grant was as tenacious as a pit bull, as the Vicksburg and all subsequent campaigns bear out. He speculates upon this sterling quality (for a commanding officer) in him thusly: "Everyone has his superstitions. One of mine is that in positions of great responsibility everyone should do his duty to the best of his ability where assigned by competent authority, without application or the use of influence to change his position."

And Grant carries out his duties, once assigned, with unmatched doggedness. An interesting read, this book, especially Volume I---The bewildering intricacies of Volume II are what leads me to bequeath it four stars - the memoirs of a man both determined and deterministic.
5 people found this helpful
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Top reviews from other countries

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J R
5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting and enlightening
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 9, 2019
Verified Purchase
First hand recollection of the American civil war. It is (obviously!) written in the style of the time, which makes the reader ‘work’ a bit harder - but this also provides a real understanding of the thinking, and the values, of people who lived through the events. Ulysses Grant was an amazing person, so humble about his own skills and contribution to the Union - but also possessing the confidence and decisiveness sadly lacking in other generals. He was also that rare type of leader who is willing to listen to others, and to recognise their skills when proven on the battlefield. He comes across as a person of real integrity - which is 9n stark contrast to the political leadership in the US today....and how tragic, given the hardships endured, and the loss of life difficult of the civil war, which created the modern nation!
6 people found this helpful
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Rahul Anil Kumar
5.0 out of 5 stars MRP is 599, not 699. Got it for ...
Reviewed in India on September 23, 2017
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MRP is 599, not 699. Got it for 390. I will not attempt to review a book which has achieved universal acclaim as a masterpiece
One person found this helpful
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Peter Boettcher
5.0 out of 5 stars Personal Memoirs of US Grant.
Reviewed in Australia on January 23, 2024
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Purchased the Kindle edition. Have read many various books on the American Civil War and having just read US Grant memoirs, one can appreciate the life that he had in those times.
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Marc Ranger
5.0 out of 5 stars You cannot understand the Civil War fully before having read Personal Memoirs.
Reviewed in Canada on April 18, 2016
Verified Purchase
I bought this book as a complement to my knowledge of the Civil War. US Grant goes through his military career and every battlefield he was involved in during the Mexican and Civil War. Even if the stories of the battlefield movements are sometimes hard to follow, many operations being done simultaneously and without the benefit of military charts or plans to fully understand them, the reader will learn very fast that US Grant was not only courageous and deternined, he was also a military genious. More so than Robert E Lee who mainly fought defensively in a country he knew well, backed by the population who informed him of all the Union's movements. In fact, almost every offensive action Lee undertook during the War ended in defeat.

However, what I enjoyed even more was Grant's political assessment of the Civil War reasons and roots. Those are way clearer than anything you can ever read on the subject. Also, Grant's view about Lincoln, Stanton, and many of his colleagues, be it Union or Confederate, are treasures to read. His frankness about Jefferson Davis, Robert E Lee, James Longstreet, George Meade, Phil Sheridan or William Sherman is astonishing.

You cannot understand the Civil War fully if you haven't read Personal Memoirs.
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Lettore appassionato
5.0 out of 5 stars Un generale che odiava la guerra
Reviewed in Italy on September 6, 2015
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La visione della Storia che ci offrono i nostri studi e ancora di più il nostro provincialismo ci lascia all'oscuro di eventi importanti e decisivi, solo perché si sono verificati lontano dall'Europa o dall'Italia. La Guerra di Secessione americana, contemporanea della parte più decisiva del nostro Risorgimento, meriterebbe una maggiore attenzione da parte nostra. E' stata la più sanguinosa nella storia degli USA ed ha anticipato per molti versi le strategie e le tecniche di combattimento della I Guerra Mondiale. La figura di U.S. Grant emerge, fra i protagonisti di quel conflitto, come quella di uno stratega acuto, un genio militare e un uomo pragmatico e nello stesso tempo generoso e ironico. La sua autobiografia, scritta in un inglese elegante nella sua piana semplicità, ne mette in risalto le qualità, prima fra tutte la capacità di riconoscere i meriti dei suoi sottoposti (in particolare il generale Sherman) anche a costo di sminuire i propri. Ricca di aneddoti anche divertenti e spesso autoironici, non è mai autoalogiativa. Particolarmente significativo è il disprezzo che dichiara verso i generali che brigavano per ottenere incarichi e la sua ammirazione per quelli che gli incarichi se li meritavano sul campo. Il libro si legge come un romanzo ed è fra i pochi che, terminata la lettura, inducono a desiderare di rileggerli al più presto.
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