An accurate picture of the young U. S. Grant, out of which Grant emerges as a flesh-&-blood human being rather than a general on horseback.

Originally published in 1950, this is an account of Ulysses S.Grant's youth and young manhood.

“The best study of Grant’s military career since Bruce Catton’s two volumes. . . . The best treatment of Union military command and strategy now in print.” —The New Republic Many modern historians have painted Ulysses S. Grant as a butcher, a drunk, and a failure as president. Others have argued the exact opposite and portray him with saintlike levels of ethic and intellect. In Ulysses S. Grant: Triumph over Adversity 1822–1865, historian Brooks D. Simpson takes neither approach, recognizing Grant as a complex and human figure with human faults, strengths, and motivations. Simpson offers a balanced and complete study of Grant from birth to the end of the Civil War, with particular emphasis on his military career and family life and the struggles he overcame in his unlikely rise from unremarkable beginnings to his later fame as commander of the Union Army. Chosen as a New York Times Notable Book upon its original publication, Ulysses S. Grant is a readable, thoroughly researched portrait that sheds light on this controversial figure. “[An] eminently informed and finely balanced portrait of Ulysses S. Grant as man, husband, failed entrepreneur and shrewd, victorious general. Simpson . . . uses carefully excavated facts and anecdotes to reveal an individual far more complex than the caricature . . . handed down to us by popular history. At the same time, Simpson does not gloss over Grant’s shortcomings. Although a fan of the general’s, Simpson is not in the business of writing apologetics, and therein lies his strength.” —Publishers Weekly “Persuasively explains the complexities and seeming contradictions of his subject’s character and genius.” —Library Journal “Skillfully written. . . . Simpson, who has benefited from decades of Civil War study, wears his wide-ranging scholarship lightly. Guaranteed to enlighten and please.” —Kirkus Reviews “Simpson has done a masterly job. . . . He has given us a detailed and exciting narrative of how one man succeeded, where so many others had failed.” —The New York Times Book Review

The Pulitzer Prize–winning historian’s “lively and absorbing” biography of Ulysses S. Grant and his leadership during the Civil War (The New York Times Book Review). This conclusion to Bruce Catton’s acclaimed history of General Grant begins in the summer of 1863. After Grant’s bold and decisive triumph over the Confederate Army at Vicksburg, President Lincoln promoted him to the head of the Army of the Potomac. The newly named general was virtually unknown to the Union’s military high command, but he proved himself in the brutal closing year and a half of the War Between the States. Grant’s strategic brilliance and unshakeable tenacity crushed the Confederacy in the battles of the Overland Campaign in Virginia and the Siege of Petersburg. In the spring of 1865, Grant finally forced Robert E. Lee’s surrender at Appomattox Court House, thus ending the bloodiest conflict on American soil. Although tragedy struck only days later when Lincoln—whom Grant called “incontestably the greatest man I have ever known”—was assassinated, Grant’s military triumphs would ensure that the president’s principles of unity and freedom would endure. In Grant Takes Command, Catton offers readers an in-depth portrait of an extraordinary warrior and unparalleled military strategist whose brilliant battlefield leadership saved an endangered Union.