Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant — Volume 1
1885
Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant — Volume 1
1885
The most popular book in American history, once selling door-to-door alongside the Bible, now reads like a quiet miracle. Ulysses S. Grant composed these memoirs while dying of throat cancer, racing against time to provide for his family. The result is prose of startling clarity and restraint, devoid of self-pity or boastfulness. Mark Twain, Henry James, and Gertrude Stein recognized what made this book extraordinary: its moral seriousness, its unflinching honesty, its refusal to embellish what it cost to save the Union. This first volume traces Grant's journey from his Ohio childhood through the Mexican-American War and into the opening campaigns of the Civil War. He writes of his father, a tanner who could not afford West Point but insisted on education. He writes of soldiers he commanded, of battles won and lost, of the terrible arithmetic of a nation tearing itself apart. The stakes could not be higher: Grant understood he was writing the definitive account of whether America would survive, and under what terms. This book endures because it tells hard truths without flinching. It is for readers who want history from someone who was there, who made the decisions, who counted the cost in human lives. Grant's voice, humble and relentless, remains the clearest window onto the war that defined America.
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“But my later experience has taught me two lessons: first, that things are seen plainer after the events have occurred; second, that the most confident critics are generally those who know the least about the matter criticised.””
— Ulysses S. Grant
“The distant rear of an army engaged in battle is not the best place from which to judge correctly what is going on in front.””
— Ulysses S. Grant
“As time passes, people, even of the South, will begin to wonder how it was possible that their ancestors ever fought for or justified institutions which acknowledged the right of property in man.””
— Ulysses S. Grant
“There are many men who would have done better than I did under the circumstances in which I found myself. If I had never held command, if I had fallen, there were 10,000 behind who would have followed the contest to the end and never surrendered the Union.””
— Ulysses S. Grant
“General Lee was dressed in a full uniform which was entirely new, and was wearing a sword of considerable value, very likely the sword which had been presented by the State of Virginia; at all events, it was an entirely different sword from the one that would ordinarily be worn in the field. In my rough traveling suit, the uniform of a private with the straps of a lieutenant-general, I must have contrasted very strangely with a man so handsomely dressed, six feet high and of faultless form. But this was not a matter that I thought of until afterwards.””
— Ulysses S. Grant
“To maintain peace in the future it is necessary to be prepared for war.””
— Ulysses S. Grant
“the most confident critics are generally those who know the least about the matter criticised.””
— Ulysses S. Grant
“I am not aware of ever having used a profane expletive in my life; but I would have the charity to excuse those who may have done so, if they were in charge of a train of Mexican pack mules at the time. CHAPTER VIII.””
— Ulysses S. Grant
“It is possible that the question of a conflict between races may come up in the future, as did that between freedom and slavery before. The condition of the colored man within our borders may become a source of anxiety, to say the least. But he was brought to our shores by compulsion, and he now should be considered as having as good a right to remain here as any other class of our citizens.””
— Ulysses S. Grant
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Grant, Ulysses S.. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant — Volume 1. Lex, lex-books.com/book/personal-memoirs-of-u-s-grant-volume-1-0feb7258-065d-498d-8ea6-7c0c815334b5.Grant, U. S. (1885). Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant — Volume 1. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/personal-memoirs-of-u-s-grant-volume-1-0feb7258-065d-498d-8ea6-7c0c815334b5Grant, Ulysses S.. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant — Volume 1. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/personal-memoirs-of-u-s-grant-volume-1-0feb7258-065d-498d-8ea6-7c0c815334b5.
