The Personal Memoirs Of U.s. Grant

Rating:
Summary: Authentic but dry
Review: U.S. Grant's second volume of his memoirs provide a detailed but dry, unemotional history of his efforts in the Civil War prior to his taking control of the Army of the Potomac and the entire US Army.

We get the details on the actual "unconditional surrender" memo that made him famous, inside scoop on Halleck's jealousy and busting then reinstating Grant, why he was frustrated with Rosencrantz, and why the Rebels lost Chattanooga, but we don't get the man's inner thoughts. We don't get his feelings, his insecurities, his pontificating or reflecting on war and death. The text is virtually devoid of any feeling whatsoever. It is not until the last third of the book when Grant utters his first emotional thought on the carnage at Vicksburg: "While a battle is raging, one can see his enemy mowed down by the thousand, or then ten thousand, with great composure; but after the battle, these scenes are distressing and one is naturally disposed to do as much to alleviate the suffering of an enemy as a friend."

This detachment is strange as Grant began writing this book shortly after being diagnosed with terminal throat cancer, so one would think he would have been extremely introspective and reflective at this time.

Finally, the reader should remember that Grant spent most of his Civil War career in the Western theatre of the war. So while you get first-hand account of operations in Tennessee and Mississippi, none of the book is devoted to the most publicized part of the war - the exploits of the Army of the Potomac and the Army of Northern Virginia. That's in Part 3.