Campaigning with Grant

Horace Porter being a staff officer with Ulysses Grant during the latter stages of the war makes his memoir very key to understanding Grant's personality. Porter makes the most of his opportunity in this memoir. The book is very well written and even though it was first published over 100 years ago the writing style is not dated at all. Porter tells a host of anecdotes about Grant and this makes the book very personal and a reader is presented with a very human U.S. Grant. It is a shame that more people did not take this portrayal of Grant to heart and there wouldn't have been throughout the 20th century a 'Grant the Butcher' school and Grant seen as someone totally unfeeling and uncaring to suffering. Through Porter's excellent work you will get views of Grant during the Chattanooga Campaign and the very bloody Overland campaign. You will see his nervous reactions during the Battle of the Wilderness and will read accounts of his personal bravery at Petersburg. Porter also has humorous descriptions of Abraham Lincoln that are enjoyable to read and there is a moving account of the final days of the war in the East and the meeting of Robert E. Lee and Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. The Bison Book edition has as a nice bonus a excellent introduction by Grant historian Brooks Simpson who gives some good background on Porter and Grant's relationship and points out where the memoir differs from other accounts. I highly recommend this book!

Horace Porter being a staff officer with Ulysses Grant during the latter stages of the war makes his memoir very key to understanding Grant's personality. Porter makes the most of his opportunity in this memoir. The book is very well written and even though it was first published over 100 years ago the writing style is not dated at all. Porter tells a host of anecdotes about Grant and this makes the book very personal and a reader is presented with a very human U.S. Grant. It is a shame that more people did not take this portrayal of Grant to heart and there wouldn't have been throughout the 20th century a 'Grant the Butcher' school and Grant seen as someone totally unfeeling and uncaring to suffering. Through Porter's excellent work you will get views of Grant during the Chattanooga Campaign and the very bloody Overland campaign. You will see his nervous reactions during the Battle of the Wilderness and will read accounts of his personal bravery at Petersburg. Porter also has humorous descriptions of Abraham Lincoln that are enjoyable to read and there is a moving account of the final days of the war in the East and the meeting of Robert E. Lee and Grant at Appomattox Courthouse. The Bison Book edition has as a bonus a excellent introduction by Grant historian Brooks Simpson who gives some good background on Porter and Grant's relationship and points out where the memoir differs from other accounts. I highly recommend this book!

I'm in the middle of this right now. It's a long book, over 500 pages, and yet there is nothing tiring or tedious about it. Somehow it flows on in a way few other books have for me. I credit Porter's writing. When this book was first handed to me, I set it aside, having little taste for the carnage I had read of before. But this book is about *people*, not about death. Its as a study of humanity that this book excells. Yes, there is a heavy Union partisanship - Porter is human. But he also writes about the near-insanity of waging this war across the American map. He knows how deep he and everyone around him has descended into the pit. The greatness of the book is that Porter's humanity and his keen study of the human natures around him grow greater in these monsterous circumstances. And there are hints here of a history that I've read very little of. A terrible shadow of despair behind Lincoln and Grant, a feeling that Grant is the Union's last chance. Porter paints a group portrait of the Union leadership on the verge of tearing itself apart. Teetering on the edge of a wave of duels. A war of personalities in the Union which reflects the Civil War itself. The very concept of human society put to the test on all scales. And what is Porter's opinion of Grant? Calm. Utterly fearless. An executive genius. Utterly respectful of other human beings *except* those who mistreat the people and animals entrusted to them. A man who engenders iron loyalty. As Porter says at one point, Grant was given the most appalling task in the history of the nation, and he accomplished it. A man with a genius for stabilizing personalities, for keeping them socialized, for bringing out the very best in them. A man with absolute faith in the human spirit, and the force of will to bring out the best in people. One last note: somehow I grew up with the idea that Lincoln was this slow-moving man, and a stodgy speaker. Porter describes the exact opposite, a Lincoln still angular, almost freakish, but swift-handed in greeting his friends. And a Lincoln who's verbal fluency is as swift as his anecdotes are wise. This is a marvelous window into our past.

The personal anecdotes are truly amazing. This was written by one of Grant's closest aides during the Eastern Theatre campaign. This book shows and disputes the old arguments of Grant as a Butcher. An Important read for those who want to find the real Grant!

I read Grant's "Memoirs" on the recommendation of a cigar-chomping friend. It was a revelation. I began reading with ambivalence about Grant. By the time I was finished, he became a hero for me, for entirely unexpected reasons -- the clarity of his writing, for one; his modesty and straight-forward manner, for two others. I followed it with other volumes about Grant (including Bruce Catton's set) but it wasn't until another friend whom I discovered shared my feelings for Grant's genius recommended Horace Porter's "Campaigning with Grant" that I discovered an equally satisfying successor. Horace Porter's "Campaigning With Grant" is the next best thing to Grant's "Memoirs." Again, the clarity of writing, the descriptions of Grant's decision-making process, the anecdotes from the Wilderness Campaign on through the sieges of Richmond and Petersburg, and on to Appomatox come as a revelation -- at least, in part, when you realize this is one of those "source documents" all the great historians of the era have relied upon.Apparently Porter assisted Grant in writing his "Memoirs" although there is not much (if any) dispute that Grant wrote them himself. While this may explain some of the similarity in style and substance, it probably says more about "like minds" than anything else. No matter. This is well worth the read and very rewarding.