The Complete Personal Memoirs Of General Ulysses S. Grant By Ulysses S. Grant

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

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.

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.

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!