Faced with failing health and financial ruin, the Civil War's greatest general and former president wrote his personal memoirs to secure his family's future - and won himself a unique place in American letters. Devoted almost entirely to his life as a soldier, Grant's Memoirs traces the trajectory of his extraordinary career - from West Point cadet to general-in-chief of all Union armies. For their directness and clarity, his writings on war are without rival in American literature, and his autobiography deserves a place among the very best in the genre.

With kaleidoscopic, trenchant, path-breaking insights, Elizabeth D. Samet has produced the most ambitious edition of Ulysses Grant’s Memoirs yet published. One hundred and thirty-three years after its 1885 publication by Mark Twain, Elizabeth Samet has annotated this lavish edition of Grant’s landmark memoir, and expands the Civil War backdrop against which this monumental American life is typically read. No previous edition combines such a sweep of historical and cultural contexts with the literary authority that Samet, an English professor obsessed with Grant for decades, brings to the table. Whether exploring novels Grant read at West Point or presenting majestic images culled from archives, Samet curates a richly annotated, highly collectible edition that will fascinate Civil War buffs. The edition also breaks new ground in its attack on the “Lost Cause” revisionism that still distorts our national conversation about the legacy of the Civil War. Never has Grant’s transformation from tanner’s son to military leader been more insightfully and passionately explained than in this timely edition, appearing on the 150th anniversary of Grant’s 1868 presidential election.

The 18th President of the United States and 6th Commanding General of the United States Army, Ulysses S. Grant wrote his memoirs during the final year of his life. Very highly regarded, President Grant's memoirs focus on his military career, particularly his exceptional service in the Civil War, and on his two terms as President. The memoirs, initially published by Mark Twain, give a truly fascinating insight into a remarkable man, pivotal in American history.

Grant Under Fire comprehensively dissects the military career of Ulysses S. Grant. Rigorously based on a wealth of primary sources--many not cited before--the book resolves scores of controversies, such as his drunken partying with the enemy on flag-of-truce boats out of Cairo, dishonestly blaming Lew Wallace for the march to Shiloh, pretending that he had the ultimate plan to pass Vicksburg all along, stealing the credit for the charge up Missionary Ridge, and leaving wounded men to suffer and die between the lines at Cold Harbor.Despite his sterling reputation as an officer and a gentleman, he suffered the biggest surprise of the American Civil War, committed the worst official act of anti-Semitism on this nation's soil, and came closest of all Union generals to losing Washington. Defenders rank his generalship above Robert E. Lee's, but to do so, they must ignore his simplistic, aggressive strategies that led to a war of attrition and the amateurish tactics of impetuous, frontal assaults, all along the line and against fortified positions.Grant Under Fire overturns the familiar renditions by detailing Grant's corruption at Cairo, his occupation of Paducah under orders, his incapacity in the Mississippi Delta, and the army's non-triumphal exit from the Wilderness, as well as debunking a host of other oft-told tales and myths.

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