Review: Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

[MsMartha]

Autobiography interests me. The writer has the opportunity to explain life and events, and can share detailed information that is only known to his—or her—self before the book is published. If the writer is as famous as Grant, Commanding General of the United States Army during the Civil War, and the eighteenth President of the United States, one can expect to learn a lot of history as well as personal information.

Grant notes in the preface of his book that he never intended to write memoirs, but a combination of health and financial issues gave him the time and need to do some writing for income.

He begins with information about several generations of his family, and moves forward to his own life. I was surprised to learn that, in addition to being a good storyteller, Grant had a terrific sense of humor!

While he details his childhood and education, and it is interesting, my personal favorite chapters were related closely to historical events. He was involved in the Mexican War, for example, and discusses what daily routine activities were like, and which other soldiers he was interacting with. Adding these details—and yes, the occasional humorous comment—to the history of the war really helps the reader to understand what this situation was like, even though it was well over 150 years ago.

Of course, knowing who Grant went to class with at West Point, and who he knew during the Mexican War, is good background for his chapters about the Civil War. He was well acquainted with officers on both sides of the conflict. As a result, he was able to understand and deal with them. He made interesting comments about officers from both the North and South. This included a lot of detail about who did what, how it was done, and what the results were. He was rarely negative, even if the officer in question was a Confederate. In spite of the seriousness of the Civil War, he also made some comments that I found quite entertaining, such as “I congratulated Sheridan upon his recent great victory and had a salute of a hundred guns fired in honor of it, the guns being aimed at the enemy around Petersburg.”

The autobiography ends with the Civil War and its immediate results. I found this surprising, since Grant lived about twenty more years, including his presidency. While there are resources to find out about his post-Civil War life, I would have enjoyed reading his personal stories and comments. I assume that his medical problems kept him from writing further, since the book was published in 1885, shortly after his death.

I have already suggested this book to some friends and family who enjoy history in general and the Civil War in particular; and I think that because of the detailed information and the humor, it would be interesting to readers who like to read about famous people in a personal as well as historic setting. This was a fascinating book!