A classic work of military history, follows the enigmatic commander in chief of the Union forces through the last year and a half of the Civil War. It is both a revelatory portrait of Ulysses S. Grant and the dramatic story of how the war was won.

A classic work of military history, follows the enigmatic commander in chief of the Union forces through the last year and a half of the Civil War. It is both a revelatory portrait of Ulysses S. Grant and the dramatic story of how the war was won.

Theodore Lyman was a member of the staff of General George Meade, who commanded the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War from 1863-1865, including most famously at the Battle of Gettysburg. Beginning in 1864, Meade's army was accompanied by Ulysses S. Grant, who made most of the command decisions for the Army of the Potomac even though Meade continued to nominally be in command of it. With Grant and Meade from the Wilderness to Appomattox is an amazing collection of Lyman's letters, in which he discusses contemporary events during the last year of the war, including the Overland Campaign, the siege of Petersburg, and Lee's surrender to Grant at Appomattox.

You will be hard-pressed to find a memoir of the American Civil War that is richer in wonderful anecdotes about Grant, Meade, Sheridan, Sherman, and a host of other prominent leaders of the war. Harvard graduate Theodore Lyman was a wealthy man from birth but in 1863, he joined the staff of General Gordon Meade in the service of the Union. It is incredibly fortunate for history that he did because he became the chronicler of the Army of the Potomac. Few men could have brought the intelligence, keen observation, wit, and engaging narrative to the task of recording what he saw around him. This collection of letters were written to his wife, Mimi and so provides a very personal, unique look at the war. You'll see a side of Meade, Grant, Sheridan, Sherman, and others that you've never seen before. "General Meade is in excellent spirits and cracks a great many jokes and tells stories." Ted Lyman was in the thick of every important action from the time he joined Meade. Lyman was a friend and cousin (by marriage) of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw, portrayed in the film, "Glory." In one letter he writes, "I saw Sherman, Grant, Meade, and Sheridan, all together. A thing to speak of in after years!" He also met and describes General George Custer among others. Lyman shook hands with Robert E. Lee at his surrender and inquired after Lee's son, with whom Lyman had attended Harvard. After the war, Lyman continued his education, worked with famed scientist, Louis Agassiz, and became a member of the U.S. House of Representatives. For the first time, this long-out-of-print book is available as an affordable, well-formatted book for e-readers and smartphones. Be sure to LOOK INSIDE or download a sample.

Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Bruce Catton’s acclaimed two-book biography of complex and controversial Union commander Ulysses S. Grant. In these two comprehensive and engaging volumes, preeminent Civil War historian Bruce Catton follows the wartime movements of Ulysses S. Grant, detailing the Union commander’s bold tactics and his relentless dedication to achieving the North’s victory in the nation’s bloodiest conflict. While a succession of Union generals were losing battles and sacrificing troops due to ego, egregious errors, and incompetence in the early years of the war, an unassuming Federal army colonel was excelling in the Western theater of operations. Grant Moves South details how Grant, as commander of the Twenty-First Illinois Volunteer Infantry, though unskilled in military power politics and disregarded by his peers, was proving to be an unstoppable force. He won victory after victory at Belmont, Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson, while sagaciously avoiding near-catastrophe and ultimately triumphing at Shiloh. His decisive victory at Vicksburg would cost the Confederacy its invaluable lifeline: the Mississippi River. Grant Takes Command picks up in the summer of 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to the head of the Army of the Potomac, placing nothing less than the future of an entire nation in the hands of the military leader. Grant’s acute strategic thinking and unshakeable tenacity led to the crushing defeat of the Confederacy in 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, ending the brutal conflict. Although tragedy struck only days later when Lincoln was assassinated, Grant’s triumphs on the battlefield ensured that the president’s principles of unity and freedom would endure. Based in large part on military communiqués, personal eyewitness accounts, and Grant’s own writings, this engrossing two-part biography offers readers an in-depth portrait of the extraordinary warrior and unparalleled strategist whose battlefield brilliance clinched the downfall of the Confederacy in the Civil War.