Captain Sam Grant

What a wonderful book that Lewis wrote! It is very tragic that he died before finishing this awesome work. While Bruce Catton was a wonderful writer himself Lewis was almost in a league of his own. I think Lewis would have wrote two more volumes at least: one on Grant in the Civil War and one on Grant's post Civil War career. I can only imagine how moving his accounts of Appomattox and description of the writing of Grant's memoirs would have been. Which brings me back to 'Captain Sam Grant'. It is a absolute American treasure. Lewis writes very compellingly of Grant's forebears and his rascal of a father Jesse Grant. I also love the chapter titles that Lewis uses too. He has just a great writing style and uses many interesting anecdotes to show the youth of Grant. Grant's West Point years are also expertly described in much detail. The highlight of the book is the great description of the Mexican War. This is the stuff legends were made of in the name of 'Manifest Destiny'. Grant shows his mettle and with Lewis' writing you are right in the thick of it. After the high of Grant's experiences in the Mexican War it is on to more domestic matters for Grant and the reader. Lewis paints a charming picture of the love match between Grant and his wife Julia. The resignation of Grant from the army is also treated in a very fair manner and then you see Grant in the 1850s struggling and struggling but always trying to provide for his wife and children. And then like magic Grant's life and career is saved by the coming of the Civil War. Lewis describes how he came to command a bunch of unruly farm boys in the 21st Illinois and the book ends with a wonderful scene of the men asking Grant for a speech. You will have to read to the end of the book to see Grant's great reply. This is history writing at its finest! Highly,highly recommended! A+

Lloyd Lewis's "Captain Sam Grant" is a well-written study of the young Ulysses S. Grant, from his boyhood in Ohio through his years at West Point to his service in the Mexican War and his hard times in the interwar years. U.S. Grant continues to be something of a mystery to students of the Civil War. Lewis's biography reveals a person who seems very ordinary and even unpromising in many respects; there are only a few hints of the man who would be the victorious commander of the Union armies in the Civil War. As a boy, Grant seems diffident and naive; the West Point cadet is average and unremarkable in his class rank; as a young officer, Grant performs with determination and even bravery against Mexico but dislikes the basis of the conflict. Posted to Calfornia after the Mexican War, Grant struggles with alcoholism and resigns from the Army in near disgrace. After the Army, Sam Grant wanders from business failure to business failure; his only obvious success is his marriage to Julia Dent. At the end of this volume, Grant seizes a chance for redemption by returning to uniform as the Civil War breaks out. The stage is set for his appointment with destiny as a successful Union general. After Lewis's untimely death, the two succeeding volumes of this study of Grant were written by famed Civil War historian Bruce Cattan from Lewis's notes and research. Lewis never had the chance to fully summarize his research into the growth of Grant's character. One may infer from this first volume that Grant was a man whose hard life had stripped his thinking down to the essentials and who was less likely than most to be distracted from his purpose. By 1861, Grant was very likely a man who understand that the best way to deal with hard times was with determination and relentless forward movement. The scholarship behind "Captain Sam Grant" may be a little dated, but this book is still highly recommended to the student of the life of Ulysses Grant and of the Civil War.

As a student of Spanish American History, I wonder why this book was not assigned reading when I was in college. The first part deals with family and youth of a precocious lad whose father saw in the Military Academy the Chance for a free education for his son. Grant was a most capable horseman whose ability was appreciated. His first military assignments in the northwest were less than appealing to a man in love, and far from home. His reputation as a drinker began at this time. He was a virtual failure at whatever he attempted to do except crossing the Isthmus of Panama. And he proved his mettle during the Mexican American War along with other familiar West Point cadets who would subsequently become famous leaders on both sides of the Civil War and, later, wars of Indian reduction in the west. In Volume One, the boy becomes a man and soldier. But its greatest greatest contribution is its telling of the Mexican American War and the attitute of those who fought it.

It's a great pity in Grant scholarship that the author of this book, Lloyd Lewis, died prematurely and was not able to continue his trilogy of Grant. Though the able Bruce Catton continued the project, he was never the writer or researcher that was Lloyd Lewis. This book is a remarkably accurate and clear portrayal of Ulysses Grant as a young man. The book ends on the eve of the Civil War, when Grant was stuck in his father's leather shop, bored and aching for something meaningful to do with his life. At 39, the civil war found Grant (or Grant found the war, take your pick) and history was never the same.Lewis was known for his punctilious and dilligent research and it is a pleasure to read a book devoid of errors and rich in interpretation. He illuminates Grant as he *really* was: a decent, engaging, modest and clear-headed young man, destined for greatness but not quite knowing what to do with his considerable talents. This is one of the most outstanding Grant biographies and a must-read for anyone interested in the life and times of our greatest general.