Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant: Volume One

Deservedly considered one of the best personal memoirs of the Civil War era by any high-ranking individual. Grant received help in the writing from mark Twain and one can see the influence of the humorist in multiple small vignettes.More endearing is the honest, straightforward treatment Grant makes of his own performance and decisions as well as his evaluations of others, on both sides of the conflict.Clearly he did not like Secretary of War Stanton but his treatment of Stanton, while enumerating the problems, also included an evaluation of Stanton's better features.It is this even-handedness, and the fact that Grant does not use his memoirs as a justification or a white-washing of his own mistakes that makes this a truly valuable tome.Grant made mistakes, he freely admits them and, on occasion, offers suggestions for what he could have done better and also illuminates that the war, command, and battle was a learning process for all involved. He talks about how mistakes he made early in the war were not repeated later and how others made the same growth, or were moved out of command positions.All in all an excellent read, well-written, balanced.