Stunning. I thought Julius Caesar and Winston Churchill could write of war and leadership but Grant's memoirs blew me away. Written while he was dying in an effort to provide future funds for his family, the great American Civil War general created a classic review of his life in a style that remind

There is one West Pointer, I think in Missouri, little known, and whom I hope the Northern people will not find out. I mean Sam Grant. I knew him well at the Academy and in Mexico. I should fear him more than any of their officers I have yet heard of. (Rebel Gen. Ewell, May 1861)

Grant’s Personal Mem

Unexpectedly lucid and thoughtful, Grant manages to communicate the talent that made him the North's most successful general: logistics. He could view terrain, and see, instantly, not just how it should be assaulted, but how the attacking army must be supplied. (Yes, he also actually would attack, u

An interesting book that is well written but not a personal memoir in the modern sense. This is not a tell all, voyeuristic baring of the soul. Grant is a 19th Century American. I have to admit to liking the 19th Century Americans. They were down to earth blistering realistic people. He assumed that

Twain famously compared Grant's Personal Memoirs to Caesar's De Bello Gallico, to stress not only the quality of the work, but more importantly to increase book sales. The comparison makes sense superficially: both memoirs were written by the leading generals of the day in a concise economy of style

The cause of the great War of the Rebellion against the United States will have to be attributed to slavery… It is probably well that we had the war when we did… our republican institutions were regarded [by the nations of Europe] as experiments … and monarchical Europe generally believed that our r

This book is often called the finest presidential memoir. It doesn't, however, deal with the Grant presidency at all. Instead, it is his recollection of Civil War events, written in a race of time against his approaching death from throat cancer. With that focus, the book is magnificent - and a surp

This is often mentioned as one of the two great military memoirs, along with Caesar’s Gallic Wars, and I can see why. The two authors combine the same crystal clear description of events, the masterful strategy, the commentary on the events that put them in the field, and the perceptive evaluation o

Within the genre of memoirs, I've always had the impression that this book stands out as a historically significant example. Mark Twain even maintained that it should be considered equal in profoundness to Julius Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Gallico, (Commentaries on the Gallic Wars.) In the late 1

One of the greatest books I have read, it holds a surprising literary quality that few biographies hold. He puts you in the battlefield, and his vivid memory added by his brilliant expression, brings you back to the 1860's. READ IT!