Personal Memoirs

Introduction by James M. McPherson
Suggestions for Further Reading
Maps and Illustrations
Preface
1. Ancestry—Birth—Boyhood
2. West Point—Graduation
3. Army Life—Causes of the Mexican War—Camp Salubrity
4. Corpus Christi—Mexican Smuggling—Spanish Rule in Mexico—Supplying Transportation
5. Trip to Austin—Promotion to Full Second Lieutenant—Army of Occupation
6. Advance of the Army—Crossing the Colorado—The Rio Grande
7. The Mexican War—The Battle of Palo Alto—The Battle of Resaca de la Palma—Army of Invasion—General Taylor—Movement on Camargo
8. Advance on Monterey—The Black Fort—The Battle of Monterey—Surrender of the City
9. Political Intrigue—Buena Vista—Movement against Vera Cruz—Siege and Capture of Vera Cruz
10. March to Jalapa—Battle of Cerro Gordo—Perote—Puebla—Scott and Taylor
11. Advance on the City of Mexico—Battle of Contreras—Assault at Churubusco—Negotiations for Peace—Battle of Molino del Rey—Storming of Chapultepec—San Cosme—Evacuation of the City—Halls of the Montezumas
12. Promotion to First Lieutenant—Capture of the City of Mexico—The Army—Mexican Soldiers—Peace Negotiations
13. Treaty of Peace—Mexican Bull Fights—Regimental Quartermaster—Trip to Popcatapetl—Trip to the Caves of Mexico
14. Return of the Army—Marriage—Ordered to the Pacific Coast—Crossing the Isthmus—Arrival at San Francisco
15. San Francisco—Early California Experiences—Life on the Pacific Coast—Promoted Captain—Flush Times in California
16. Resignation—Private Life—Life at Galena—The Coming Crisis
17. Outbreak of the Rebellion—Presiding at a Union Meeting—Mustering Officer of State Troops—Lyon at Camp Jackson—Services Tendered to the Government
18. Appointed Colonel of the 21st Illinois—Personnel of the Regiment—General Logan—March to Missouri—Movement against Harris at Florida, MO—General Pope in Command—Stationed at Mexico, MO
19. Commissioned Brigadier-General—Command at Ironton, MO—Jefferson City—Cape Girardeau—General Prentiss—Seizure of

Ulysses S. Grant (1822 1885) was born Hiram Ulysses Grant in Point Pleasant, Ohio, and worked on the family farm until his appointment in 1839 to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. There, he was erroneously registered as U. S. Grant a change that he would adopt for the rest of his life. He served in the Mexican War (1846­ 1848) under Generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. After the outbreak of the Civil War, Grant was appointed colonel of a militia regiment, and moved up through the ranks of the army, eventually becoming lieutenant general with command of all the armies of the United States and leading the Union army to victory in 1865. From 1869 1877 he served as the eighteenth president of the United States. Encouraged by his friend Mark Twain, Grant began preparing his memoirs in 1884. The Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant were completed just a few days before his death on July 23, 1885.

James M. McPherson, the George Henry David Professor Emeritus of United States History at Princeton University, is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Battle Cry of Freedom, as well as the award-winning books The Struggle for Equality, For Cause and Comrades: Why Men Fought in the Civil War, and Tried for War: Abraham Lincoln as Commander in Chief, among others. In 2007, he was the first recipient of the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for lifetime achievement in military history, and in 2009, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.

"The best [memoirs] of any general's since Caesar."   Mark Twain

"A unique expression of the national character . . . [Grant] has conveyed the suspense which was felt by himself and his army and by all who believed in the Union cause. The reader finds himself . . . on edge to know how the Civil War is coming out."   Edmund Wilson

  Perhaps the most revelatory autobiography of high command to exist in any language. . . . If there is a single contemporary document which explains why the North won the Civil war, that abiding conundrum of American historical inquiry, it is the Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant. John Keegan

Well observed, often humorous, invariably charming, penetrating and lucid . . . On every page, his narrative has the simple directness of the finest English prose, inspired by the King James Bible on which he had been raised. The overall effect is both intimate and majestic. The Guardian