Personal Memoirs of US Grant Author:Ulysses S. Grant Faced with cancer and financial ruin, the Civil War's greatest general and former president Ulysses S. Grant wrote his personal memoirs to secure his family's future. In doing so he won for himself a unique place in American letters. Acclaimed by readers as diverse as Mark Twain, Matthew Arnold, and Gertrude Stein, Grant's memoirs demonstrate th... more »e intelligence, intense determination, and laconic modesty that made him the Union's foremost commander. Devoted almost entirely to his life as a soldier, Grant's memoirs cover his troubled years at West Point, his time in the Mexican War -- considered by Grant a "most unjust" affair -- and, of course, the ferocious, drawn-out, and celebrated campaigns of the Civil War. Amid the confusion and carnage of battle, the singular mien of Grant is ever present, meeting catastrophe and triumph with quiet pride, humility, and sadness. For their directness and clarity, his writings on war are without rival in American literature.« less