The Annotated Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

Mark Twain put a bug in my ear when I read the first volume of his autobiography a couple years ago:

"I tried very hard to get General Grant to write his personal memoirs for publication but he would not listen to the suggestion. His inborn diffidence made him shrink from voluntarily coming forward before the public and placing himself under criticism as an author. He had no confidence in his ability to write well, whereas I and everybody else in the world excepting himself are aware that he possesses an admirable literary gift and style."

Granting Twain some usual leeway for telling the story "his way," it is difficult to disagree with his assessment of Grant as a writer. Through two volumes, 70 chapters, and nearly 1000 pages, Grant takes the reader from his boyhood to the war in Mexico, to leaving the army for civilian life, to his meteoric rise after rejoining for the preservation of the Union. His literary style is simple but never boring; each chapter is logically constructed, relating events as he observed them along with his intentions and considerations at the time. Along the way he remarks on the various generals he served under or commanded, or fought against, offering what seem to be fair assessments of their strengths and weaknesses. His memories of Lincoln, including several anecdotes relating the President's folksy charm and their budding friendship, further add interest. Having driven victories at some of the War's most famous battles, including Shiloh, Vicksburg, Chattanooga, the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, and Petersburg/Richmond, and Sherman's March to the Sea, Grant never comes across as a braggart, instead describing these actions rather objectively, and lauding those individuals who rose to the occasion. Based on his appraisals, I would be interested to read the works of CSA Generals Longstreet and Mosby.

Samet's annotations just about make this two books in one. Her inclusion of various related materials, ranging from other period memoirs to ancient Greek works to Shakespeare, along with her own scholarly input, greatly enhance the memoirs, by providing context and hypercontext, connecting the War of the Rebellion, and in particular Grant's telling of it, within the grand scheme of human history, and indeed humanity. Beautiful full-color maps, illustrations, and period photographs further illuminate the work. If there's any criticism it's that Samet's annotations are sometimes intrusive, though I found I quickly adapted to the breaks in rhythm, and appreciated the color commentary, most of the time.

The Civil War continues to be profoundly relevant in American history and culture. This book therefore would seem to deserve a prominent position in American literature. Twain was on to something.

This is a new edition of Grant’s memoir, one of the best memoirs of the Civil War and probably the best literary production by any president. It is an attractive book with new maps and illustrations, but many of the maps in the original edition have been removed, and you will almost certainly need to read this with an atlas (I used Craig Symond’s A Battlefield Atlas of the Civil War). The editor’s notes are extensive and one must sometimes read the work as if Grant’s text and the notes are two parallel books. Many of the notes are very helpful, e.g. what others had to say about Grant during the times that he covers so briefly - such as his two years in Detroit, and stories about Grant that he or others had told, but which he did not include in his memoir. In one such note, Samet tells us that Grant once described a time when he was under the command of John Frémont,

[Frémont] sat in a room in full uniform, with his maps before him. When you went in, he would point out one line or another in a mysterious manner, never asking you to take a seat. You left without the least idea of what he meant or what he wanted you to do.

Since the editor’s theme is examination of the memoir as a literary, not an historical work, her notes sometimes go far afield. And, while reading Grant’s memoir, I was not always that interested in seeing notes with long quotations from Catch-22, the Odyssey, or Shakespeare. On the other hand, there were instances where Grant, in his usual fashion, did not describe certain details of battle, and the editor has found other historical accounts, e.g. from the writings of ancient Rome, that correspond closely to the Civil War battle.