Campaigning with Grant [Paperback]

Horace Porter (Author), Brooks D. Simpson (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1, 2000

In 1863 Horace Porter, then a captain, met Ulysses S. Grant as Grant commenced the campaign that would break the Confederate siege at Chattanooga. After a brief stint in Washington, Porter rejoined Grant, who was now in command of all Union forces, and served with him as a staff aide until the end of the war. Porter was at Appomattox as a brevet brigadier general, and this work, written from notes taken in the field, is his eyewitness account of the great struggle between Lee and Grant that led to the defeat of the Confederacy.

As a close-up observer of Grant in the field, Porter was also able to draw a finely detailed, fully realized portrait of this American military hero—his daily acts, his personal traits and habits, and the motives that inspired him in important crises—rendered in the language that Grant used at the time. Porter intended to bring readers into such intimate contact with the Union commander that they could know him as well as those who served by his side. He acquits himself admirably in this undertaking, giving us a moving human document and a remarkable perspective on a crucial chapter of American history.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Brooks D. Simpson is a professor of history at Arizona State University. He is the author of several books, including Gettysburg: A Battlefield Guide, also available in a Bison Books edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 618 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books; Bison Books ed edition (June 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803287631
• ISBN-13: 978-0803287631
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,266,824 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The next-best-thing to Grant's "Memoirs", December 8, 1998

By 

Ned Leonard ([e-mail]) (Arlington, Virginia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Campaigning with Grant (Collector's library of the Civil War) (Leather Bound)

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.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Masterpiece!, April 23, 1998

By 

Candace Scott (Lake Arrowhead, CA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Campaigning With Grant (Civil War Library) (Hardcover)

If you had to read one book about U.S. Grant as a man this is it. Horace Porter knew Grant quite well and thought he book was written in 1896, it still retains a vibrancy and modernity to it. Porter wrote the book in an almost conversational style which is entertaining and interesting. Do you want to know how much Grant weighed or how tall he was? What kinds of foods he liked? How about a description of him necking with his wife in full view of Lincoln and his staff officers? Look no further than between the covers of this remarkable book. I guarantee you won't be able to put it down!

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars More Contemporary The One May Think!, July 10, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Campaigning With Grant (A Da Capo paperback) (Paperback)

This book is a true classic. And it has a great advantage which many books of the 19th century do not have. It is readable. In fact it is a very good read indeed. Many of the 1860's to 1890's books about (or by) Civil War figures read more like 300 page obituaries than real memoirs or good history. "Campaigning With Grant" does not. It is a work of relatively unstilted language written by a literate man about a man he came to know quite well. As such it is a charming combination of history and personal memoir. Much of what we know of Grant the human being during the war comes from this book. Scott Brundage