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Grant's Final Victory: Ulysses S. Grant's Heroic Last Year
Shortly after losing all of his wealth in a terrible 1884 swindle, Ulysses S. Grant learned he had terminal throat and mouth cancer. Destitute and dying, Grant began to write his memoirs to save his family from permanent financial ruin.As Grant continued his work, suffering increasing pain, the American public became aware of this race between Grant's writing and his fatal illness. Twenty years after his respectful and magnanimous demeanor toward Robert E. Lee at Appomattox, people in both the North and the South came to know Grant as the brave, honest man he was, now using his famous determination in this final effort. Grant finished Memoirs just four days before he died in July 1885.
Published after his death by his friend Mark Twain, Grant's Memoirs became an instant bestseller, restoring his family's financial health and, more importantly, helping to cure the nation of bitter discord. More than any other American before or since, Grant, in his last year, was able to heal this-the country's greatest wound.
Published after his death by his friend Mark Twain, Grant's Memoirs became an instant bestseller, restoring his family's financial health and, more importantly, helping to cure the nation of bitter discord. More than any other American before or since, Grant, in his last year, was able to heal this-the country's greatest wound.
322 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 11, 2011
About the author
Charles Bracelen Flood
17 books24 followersCharles Bracelen Flood was born in Manhattan, and graduated from Harvard, where he was a member of Archibald MacLeish’s noted creative writing seminar, English S, and was on the literary board of the Harvard Lampoon. (In 2001, Flood was honored with the Lampoon’s Clem Wood Award; past recipients have included George Plimpton, John Updike, and Conan O’Brien.)
Love is a Bridge, Flood’s first novel, received nationwide critical attention, and was on the New York Times Bestseller list for 26 weeks. It won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. The twelve books he has written include the novels A Distant Drum and More Lives Than One. Praising Flood’s The War of the Innocents, his account of his year spent in Vietnam as a correspondent, John Updike said of him, “This brave and compassionate reporter’s account of a year spent with our armed forces in Vietnam tells more of the physical actualities and moral complexities of the American involvement than any other book I have read.” Flood’s Rise, and Fight Again won the American Revolution Round Table Annual Award for 1976, the Bicentennial Year, and his Hitler - The Path to Power, a History Book Club selection, was among the successful studies in history and biography that followed. All his books have also appeared in paperback.
Flood’s first venture into the Civil War era was Lee - The Last Years, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and won the Colonial Dames of America Annual Book Award. Lee was followed by Grant and Sherman - The Friendship That Won the Civil War, a work that the Washington Post described as “beautifully defined and explored…a powerful and illuminating study of the military collaboration that won the war for the Union.” Salon.com named it as one of the ”Top 12 Civil War Books Ever Written.” Of his 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History, published in 2009, Lincoln’s Bicentennial Year, Kent Masterson Brown, author of Retreat from Gettysburg, said, “Lincoln walks off the pages as in no other book,” and in the New York Times Janet Maslin wrote, “Mr. Floods versatility is impressive …1864 compresses the multiple demands upon Lincoln into a tight time frame and thus captures a dizzying, visceral sense of why this single year took such a heavy toll.”
This writer’s short pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and other magazines, and a number of his books have been translated into foreign languages. Flood’s journalistic experiences have taken him to many countries, including being a reporter for the Associated Press at the Olympics held in Melbourne, Rome, Tokyo and Mexico City. He has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan, and taught World Literature for two years at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Charles Bracelen Flood is a past president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization, and has served on the governing bodies of the Authors League and Authors Guild. He and his wife Katherine Burnam Flood live in Richmond, Kentucky, in that state’s Bluegrass region.
Love is a Bridge, Flood’s first novel, received nationwide critical attention, and was on the New York Times Bestseller list for 26 weeks. It won the Houghton Mifflin Literary Fellowship Award. The twelve books he has written include the novels A Distant Drum and More Lives Than One. Praising Flood’s The War of the Innocents, his account of his year spent in Vietnam as a correspondent, John Updike said of him, “This brave and compassionate reporter’s account of a year spent with our armed forces in Vietnam tells more of the physical actualities and moral complexities of the American involvement than any other book I have read.” Flood’s Rise, and Fight Again won the American Revolution Round Table Annual Award for 1976, the Bicentennial Year, and his Hitler - The Path to Power, a History Book Club selection, was among the successful studies in history and biography that followed. All his books have also appeared in paperback.
Flood’s first venture into the Civil War era was Lee - The Last Years, which was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and won the Colonial Dames of America Annual Book Award. Lee was followed by Grant and Sherman - The Friendship That Won the Civil War, a work that the Washington Post described as “beautifully defined and explored…a powerful and illuminating study of the military collaboration that won the war for the Union.” Salon.com named it as one of the ”Top 12 Civil War Books Ever Written.” Of his 1864: Lincoln at the Gates of History, published in 2009, Lincoln’s Bicentennial Year, Kent Masterson Brown, author of Retreat from Gettysburg, said, “Lincoln walks off the pages as in no other book,” and in the New York Times Janet Maslin wrote, “Mr. Floods versatility is impressive …1864 compresses the multiple demands upon Lincoln into a tight time frame and thus captures a dizzying, visceral sense of why this single year took such a heavy toll.”
This writer’s short pieces have appeared in The New Yorker, The Atlantic, Esquire, and other magazines, and a number of his books have been translated into foreign languages. Flood’s journalistic experiences have taken him to many countries, including being a reporter for the Associated Press at the Olympics held in Melbourne, Rome, Tokyo and Mexico City. He has been a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Taiwan, and taught World Literature for two years at Sophia University in Tokyo.
Charles Bracelen Flood is a past president of the American Center of PEN, the international writers’ organization, and has served on the governing bodies of the Authors League and Authors Guild. He and his wife Katherine Burnam Flood live in Richmond, Kentucky, in that state’s Bluegrass region.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 80 reviews
September 1, 2020
This account of Grant’s long dying, of the lucid lingering in which he composed his Personal Memoirs, made me think many times of Memoirs of Hadrian - especially the short opening section in which the emperor begins to discern, after a life of warfare and perilous travels, his quiet, domestic death, and in which he describes the abdications of his failing body:
“Horses seem to understand Ulysses,” said his mother, perhaps hinting only horses could. From his cadet years he was acknowledged the finest horseman in the army, and the mastery of large, spirited, unmanageable-looking mounts was one of the few personal demonstrations this shy man allowed himself. Tellingly, he chose to smoke his doctor-decreed last cigar with a Hudson Valley horse breeder, on a fine autumn day, while they were out having a look at the colts.
Flood’s book is blandly written and strangely organized, but the latter chapters quote a wealth of contextual detail. The get-well letters from schoolchildren, the condolence telegrams from former rebel generals and lodges of Confederate veterans, all the funereal logistics of Manhattan crowd control and mourning fashion (by 4:00pm on the day Grant died Bloomingdale’s was sold out of black crepe; the New York Times noted that “in the narrow streets and the tall crowded buildings where the poor make their homes the sign of grief is nearly on every door post…in many cases it is nothing but a narrow strip of cheap black cambric fluttering in the breeze from the topmost story of some tenement house or a small flag bordered with a piece of folded crepe from a wornout bonnet”) allow the reader to sense the nature and magnitude of Grant’s fame in the twenty years he lived after the war. He was the foremost living symbol of peaceful unity – the nation was locally fraught, but generally at peace; its unity mocked, beset, but not fatally endangered by labor strife in the North, racial terrorism in the South, and, out West, amid the piecemeal settlement, sporadic warfare and nigh-genocidal dispossession. A society traumatized and confused but mostly functional, its injustice and inequality somehow borne, its ideals regularly betrayed but still vital enough to inspire immigrants and the young, its citizens ever-hopeful of adapting, rising, overcoming; a country always, said Bernard DeVoto, in the process of becoming something it had not been; a welter of souls strangely channeled, by force, by whim, and deposited somewhere. The semblance of community, and frequently the substance.
The national tributes Grant received in his illness, especially those from old rebels, gave a calm to the “Conclusion” of his Personal Memoirs. “The expressions of these kindly feelings were not restricted to a section of the country, nor to a division of the people.” A prospect of felicitous integration – what he called “a commingling of the people.” The styles of Grant and Yourcenar’s Hardrian intersect at a lyrical legalism, a civic sublimity:
Yourcenar said that in her wartime hiatus from work on the novel, the emperor, “the most official yet the most hidden form of all,” had gradually emerged from Hadrian’s other selves – “The fact of having lived in a world that was toppling all around us taught me the importance of the Prince.” Grant’s memory was for a long time obscured in his nation’s era of general peace, when unity was assumed, order assured, and rebels romantic; what does his memory mean for us now that the Federal political system of the United States is again broken, again at an impasse?
To give up riding is a greater sacrifice still…if the choice of my condition had been left to me I would have decided for that of a centaur. Between Borysthenes and me relations were of almost mathematical precision; he obeyed me as if I were his own brain, not his master. Have I ever obtained as much from a man? ... My horse knew me not by the thousand approximate notions of title, function, and name which complicate human friendship, but solely by my just weight as a man. He shared my every impetus; he knew perfectly, and perhaps better than I, the point where my strength faltered under my will.
“Horses seem to understand Ulysses,” said his mother, perhaps hinting only horses could. From his cadet years he was acknowledged the finest horseman in the army, and the mastery of large, spirited, unmanageable-looking mounts was one of the few personal demonstrations this shy man allowed himself. Tellingly, he chose to smoke his doctor-decreed last cigar with a Hudson Valley horse breeder, on a fine autumn day, while they were out having a look at the colts.
Flood’s book is blandly written and strangely organized, but the latter chapters quote a wealth of contextual detail. The get-well letters from schoolchildren, the condolence telegrams from former rebel generals and lodges of Confederate veterans, all the funereal logistics of Manhattan crowd control and mourning fashion (by 4:00pm on the day Grant died Bloomingdale’s was sold out of black crepe; the New York Times noted that “in the narrow streets and the tall crowded buildings where the poor make their homes the sign of grief is nearly on every door post…in many cases it is nothing but a narrow strip of cheap black cambric fluttering in the breeze from the topmost story of some tenement house or a small flag bordered with a piece of folded crepe from a wornout bonnet”) allow the reader to sense the nature and magnitude of Grant’s fame in the twenty years he lived after the war. He was the foremost living symbol of peaceful unity – the nation was locally fraught, but generally at peace; its unity mocked, beset, but not fatally endangered by labor strife in the North, racial terrorism in the South, and, out West, amid the piecemeal settlement, sporadic warfare and nigh-genocidal dispossession. A society traumatized and confused but mostly functional, its injustice and inequality somehow borne, its ideals regularly betrayed but still vital enough to inspire immigrants and the young, its citizens ever-hopeful of adapting, rising, overcoming; a country always, said Bernard DeVoto, in the process of becoming something it had not been; a welter of souls strangely channeled, by force, by whim, and deposited somewhere. The semblance of community, and frequently the substance.
The national tributes Grant received in his illness, especially those from old rebels, gave a calm to the “Conclusion” of his Personal Memoirs. “The expressions of these kindly feelings were not restricted to a section of the country, nor to a division of the people.” A prospect of felicitous integration – what he called “a commingling of the people.” The styles of Grant and Yourcenar’s Hardrian intersect at a lyrical legalism, a civic sublimity:
Prior to the rebellion the great mass of the people were satisfied to remain near the scenes of their birth. In fact an immense majority of the whole people did not feel secure against coming to want should they move among entire strangers …This is all changed now … The war begot a spirit of independence and enterprise. The feeling now is, that a youth must cut loose from his old surroundings to enable him to get up in the world. There is now such a commingling of the people that…the country has filled up “from the centre all around to the sea”; railroads connect the two oceans and all parts of the interior; maps, nearly perfect, of every part of the country are now furnished the student of geography.
I desired that the might and majesty of the Roman Peace should extend to all, insensibly present like the music of the revolving skies; that the most humble traveler might wander from one country, or one continent, to another without vexatious formalities, and without danger, assured everywhere of a minimum of legal protection and culture…
Yourcenar said that in her wartime hiatus from work on the novel, the emperor, “the most official yet the most hidden form of all,” had gradually emerged from Hadrian’s other selves – “The fact of having lived in a world that was toppling all around us taught me the importance of the Prince.” Grant’s memory was for a long time obscured in his nation’s era of general peace, when unity was assumed, order assured, and rebels romantic; what does his memory mean for us now that the Federal political system of the United States is again broken, again at an impasse?
March 18, 2022
I was a little afraid to pick up this book at first, because I knew that General Grant died an agonizing death from throat cancer (brought on by years of cigar smoking) and I was afraid the details would be too painful to bear.
Well, the agony is there all right. But there's so much more! This is a short, concise book, not meant to be a full length biography of Ulysses S. Grant. But it's actually much better than most of the full length Grant biographies I have read. There are so many beautiful tributes to Grant from his wife, Julia, and their children, and even their grandchildren. There are great Grant stories by other legendary Americans like Mark Twain. And there's a surprisingly detailed account of Grant's achievements as a soldier, along with plenty of background on business, politics, and technology in the booming America of the late 19th century.
If you only read one book on Ulysses S. Grant, by all means read this one!
"Tell me, James, do you drink whiskey?"
"Upon occasion. Why?"
"Because you remind me of another man who drank whiskey. A man I admired very much. General Grant."
"Thank you." (Long pause) "Thank you."
And thank you, General Grant.
Well, the agony is there all right. But there's so much more! This is a short, concise book, not meant to be a full length biography of Ulysses S. Grant. But it's actually much better than most of the full length Grant biographies I have read. There are so many beautiful tributes to Grant from his wife, Julia, and their children, and even their grandchildren. There are great Grant stories by other legendary Americans like Mark Twain. And there's a surprisingly detailed account of Grant's achievements as a soldier, along with plenty of background on business, politics, and technology in the booming America of the late 19th century.
If you only read one book on Ulysses S. Grant, by all means read this one!
"Tell me, James, do you drink whiskey?"
"Upon occasion. Why?"
"Because you remind me of another man who drank whiskey. A man I admired very much. General Grant."
"Thank you." (Long pause) "Thank you."
And thank you, General Grant.
December 16, 2011
I loved Grant's Memoirs.
I loved this book because I really like U.S. Grant. He was an amazing man. "Just do it!" Unlike the other generals that were not ready yet.
I learned a few things from this book:
Know who you are going into business with. Know your numbers and what your are signing.
Don't smoke twenty cigars a day.
Be kind and forgiving.
Love your wife and family.
Write letters even if you don't send them to get thinks off your mind.
Have friends like Mark Twain! What a great friendship.
I loved this book because I really like U.S. Grant. He was an amazing man. "Just do it!" Unlike the other generals that were not ready yet.
I learned a few things from this book:
Know who you are going into business with. Know your numbers and what your are signing.
Don't smoke twenty cigars a day.
Be kind and forgiving.
Love your wife and family.
Write letters even if you don't send them to get thinks off your mind.
Have friends like Mark Twain! What a great friendship.
May 21, 2013
Ulysses S. Grant is one of my favourite historical figures, a real larger-than-life character, a man who, with Lincoln, changed the course of American history. He was the kind of man who met every challenge in his life head-on and, with the exception of his final year, overcame them all. But he couldn't overcome the cancer that killed him at the age of sixty-three, after suffering through a lingering year of pain and discomfort.
That said, Grant's final year was a triumph of sorts. After suffering a financial catastrophe when one of the partners in his firm Grant & Ward swindled Grant, his family and their investors out of significant sums of money and left them virtually bankrupt, Grant decided to embark upon his memoirs in an effort to provide his wife with the means to live after his death. In a single year, suffering unbearable pain, exhausted, unable to eat, by the end scarcely able to talk, Grant wrote his two-volume masterpiece - a military memoir which is ranked, even today, with that of Julius Caesar. Grant died three days after completing his work, and many believed, Mark Twain included, who was publishing the work, that Grant forced himself to live long enough to complete his work and provide for his family.
Somehow we never imagine historical giants like Grant just...fading away. They go out in a blaze of glory in battle or are struck down before their time, like Lincoln. As such, this is an incredibly moving read - I spent most of it with a lump in my throat and tears pricking at my eyes. When Flood comes to the end and describes William Tecumseh Sherman standing to attention at Grant's tomb sobbing, I just about lost it myself.
That said, Grant's final year was a triumph of sorts. After suffering a financial catastrophe when one of the partners in his firm Grant & Ward swindled Grant, his family and their investors out of significant sums of money and left them virtually bankrupt, Grant decided to embark upon his memoirs in an effort to provide his wife with the means to live after his death. In a single year, suffering unbearable pain, exhausted, unable to eat, by the end scarcely able to talk, Grant wrote his two-volume masterpiece - a military memoir which is ranked, even today, with that of Julius Caesar. Grant died three days after completing his work, and many believed, Mark Twain included, who was publishing the work, that Grant forced himself to live long enough to complete his work and provide for his family.
Somehow we never imagine historical giants like Grant just...fading away. They go out in a blaze of glory in battle or are struck down before their time, like Lincoln. As such, this is an incredibly moving read - I spent most of it with a lump in my throat and tears pricking at my eyes. When Flood comes to the end and describes William Tecumseh Sherman standing to attention at Grant's tomb sobbing, I just about lost it myself.
October 16, 2011
Ulysses S. Grant. Your story is remarkable. From a modest background you struggled to make a living until the Mexican War started. You enlisted and served in that war with distinction. After the war you served in peacetime and because you missed your wife so badly and children so much you left the service. Loose from the service you struggled to support you growing family failing at the many things you tried. Another war erupted this time, this time it was the North vs. the South. You joined President Lincoln's cause and moved up the ranks and finally became the president's trusted general and eventually earned command of the entire army. You of course went on to defeat the rebellion and help Lincoln end slavery.
After the war you were thrust into the presidency where you tried your best to follow Lincoln's reconstruction plan. For the record you were truly the only president to walk where Lincoln walked. You even made peace with the Indians. The only president by the way to do this.
After your presidency the south would not see truly enjoy peace again until the civil rights movement, almost 100 years later in the 1960's.
After your presidency you and your wife toured the world.
As you turned 62 financial and medical tragedy struck. This is where this story takes the reader.
Hopefully I have grabbed your attention and you check this excellent book out which covers the final last year of a true American hero.
After the war you were thrust into the presidency where you tried your best to follow Lincoln's reconstruction plan. For the record you were truly the only president to walk where Lincoln walked. You even made peace with the Indians. The only president by the way to do this.
After your presidency the south would not see truly enjoy peace again until the civil rights movement, almost 100 years later in the 1960's.
After your presidency you and your wife toured the world.
As you turned 62 financial and medical tragedy struck. This is where this story takes the reader.
Hopefully I have grabbed your attention and you check this excellent book out which covers the final last year of a true American hero.
October 31, 2017
The story of Grant's final years, mainly the last year in which he wrote his memoirs while facing death from cancer. The book does touch on his earlier life, his time as a central Civil War figure, and more and more on his later presidency and business failings. The author does give us a sense of drama as Grant races against time and adversity: his fortune lost to swindling, his family facing destitution, his own advancing and fatal cancer, and the fight to finish his memoirs to at least save his widow's future. We learn that he had to keep the illness at bay by juggling doses of morphine and what we now call opioids, and had to cope with a literary collaborator who was trying to co-opt Grant's book as his. That Grant somehow managed to finish his book, and write it in a way that made it one of the most candid and well-written military autobiographies, is a remarkable story and worth reading. It was his final victory, no spoiler, and to borrow a line from Shakespeare, nothing so became his life as the leaving of it.
January 27, 2022
I’ve developed such an admiration for Grant, and the more I read about him, the greater it becomes. In so many ways, this book truly solidified that admiration. He was the reigning hero of the Civil War; this book shows how much of a hero he was away from the battlefield.
I can’t even begin to imagine the pain he was going through as he raced to finish his memoirs. But he carried on, without complaint, the rock for his family that he had been for the country. From both North and South, words of praise and condolences would pour in.
He was the truest as well as the bravest man who ever lived.” Words from ex-Confederate General James Longstreet, Grant’s wife’s cousin and a fellow cadet at West Point. But I think his character was best summed up by the words of his friend, Mark Twain: ”He was a very great man and superlatively good.”
Few books have shown Grant’s character so well, or the regard felt by so many of his fellow countrymen. For that alone, the book is well worth reading.
I can’t even begin to imagine the pain he was going through as he raced to finish his memoirs. But he carried on, without complaint, the rock for his family that he had been for the country. From both North and South, words of praise and condolences would pour in.
He was the truest as well as the bravest man who ever lived.” Words from ex-Confederate General James Longstreet, Grant’s wife’s cousin and a fellow cadet at West Point. But I think his character was best summed up by the words of his friend, Mark Twain: ”He was a very great man and superlatively good.”
Few books have shown Grant’s character so well, or the regard felt by so many of his fellow countrymen. For that alone, the book is well worth reading.
February 10, 2013
Having read relatively little about Grant's final years, this account highlights Grant's remarkable achievement of writing his memoirs even as death approached. Poignant.
April 18, 2019
Enjoyable book reliving Grants final days. A driven person who was greatly admired for his accomplishments. My greatest takeaway is the desire to learn more about the person who played such a significant role in the direction of our country.
May 26, 2024
This is an excellent read! Not only is it well written and researched, it was also timely for me. This book is focused almost entirely on Grant’s last year of his life. There are necessary flashbacks to elements tied to this time period.
As with all matters examined specifically, this was a wonderful treasure trove of information specific to Grant, his family, and this critical time at the end of his life. It, along with Chernow’s tome on Grant, are excellent companions in literature for those yearning to learn more about this General, President, and man.
The author gives such excellent descriptions and details about the man, his family and his race to finish his memoirs to ensure financial stability for his family before cancer takes him from them and the nation.
This is another, “well worth the read”, book. I highly recommend it!
As with all matters examined specifically, this was a wonderful treasure trove of information specific to Grant, his family, and this critical time at the end of his life. It, along with Chernow’s tome on Grant, are excellent companions in literature for those yearning to learn more about this General, President, and man.
The author gives such excellent descriptions and details about the man, his family and his race to finish his memoirs to ensure financial stability for his family before cancer takes him from them and the nation.
This is another, “well worth the read”, book. I highly recommend it!
December 11, 2014
Flood reviews in detail Grant's final 14 months of life. This began with Grant's bankruptcy at the hands of two crooked investors: Ferdinand Ward and James Fish. Ward especially, with a strong assist from Fish, took all of Grant's money, as well as that of most of Grant's family.
Only two months after this, Grant began having problems with his throat, but foolishly refused to seek treatment. No exceptionally good reason is given for this fatal error, other than Grant probably wished to see his personal physician, who was then on vacation in Europe. It is impossible to say whether, had Grant sought treatment immediately, the cancer could been successfully removed, or if in the end it would have been a fruitless exercise. Nonetheless, by delaying medical attention for several months, he practically sealed his own death warrant.
As Grant had no money, he felt a strong sense of duty to provide for his wife and children once he was gone. Despite having previously rebuffed publishers' offers to write about his experiences in the Civil War, he came to the decision to write his memoirs. This task probably kept him from dying sooner than he would have otherwise as he refused to give up until he had the book written. He died only three days after finishing it.
Flood does a good job of describing how Grant's final months were. He does not get too graphic, but he does not sugar coat the ordeal that Grant endured. While the overall story is one of sadness (a great man slowly wasting away), Flood points out how Grant retained his dignity throughout his trauma, refusing to let his family see that he was suffering and maintaining focus on finishing his memoirs. Flood also notes the many people - famous and not so famous - who came to Grant's aid either financially (William Vanderbilt, Civil War veterans) or personally (his doctors, his faithful servant Harrison Terrell, Mark Twain). Mark Twain was especially helpful to Grant in making sure that he got the best publishing deal possible for his memoirs.
Flood is appropriately respectful of Grant, but really does not venture into too much criticism of Grant being naïve with his finances, and careless with his health.
Grade: B
Only two months after this, Grant began having problems with his throat, but foolishly refused to seek treatment. No exceptionally good reason is given for this fatal error, other than Grant probably wished to see his personal physician, who was then on vacation in Europe. It is impossible to say whether, had Grant sought treatment immediately, the cancer could been successfully removed, or if in the end it would have been a fruitless exercise. Nonetheless, by delaying medical attention for several months, he practically sealed his own death warrant.
As Grant had no money, he felt a strong sense of duty to provide for his wife and children once he was gone. Despite having previously rebuffed publishers' offers to write about his experiences in the Civil War, he came to the decision to write his memoirs. This task probably kept him from dying sooner than he would have otherwise as he refused to give up until he had the book written. He died only three days after finishing it.
Flood does a good job of describing how Grant's final months were. He does not get too graphic, but he does not sugar coat the ordeal that Grant endured. While the overall story is one of sadness (a great man slowly wasting away), Flood points out how Grant retained his dignity throughout his trauma, refusing to let his family see that he was suffering and maintaining focus on finishing his memoirs. Flood also notes the many people - famous and not so famous - who came to Grant's aid either financially (William Vanderbilt, Civil War veterans) or personally (his doctors, his faithful servant Harrison Terrell, Mark Twain). Mark Twain was especially helpful to Grant in making sure that he got the best publishing deal possible for his memoirs.
Flood is appropriately respectful of Grant, but really does not venture into too much criticism of Grant being naïve with his finances, and careless with his health.
Grade: B
October 26, 2011
This book is not about Grant’s military campaigns; rather, it concerns his struggle to finish his still-celebrated memoirs before cancer killed him, so that his wife and children would have an income after he died. It is also a love story: about how so many people adored Grant for his goodness and unwavering trust in them. This made him, tragically, an easy mark for the many who would exploit that trust, but provided enduring inspiration for those who deserved it. At the end of the book, when the author describes how a bugler playing taps at Grant’s tomb caused General William Tecumseh Sherman to begin sobbing, I was sobbing right there with him.
January 10, 2014
Three-fourths of the book was Grant slowly and painfully dying.
August 7, 2018
Fascinating focus on Grant's final months but also covered many highlights from his entire lifetime as well.
November 19, 2025
My cousin was reading this book while she visited me. She was telling me interesting things in the book. I asked to read after she finished. I'm glad I did. Personally, if I had seen this book available to read I wouldn't have chose it. I'm not very interested in the Civil War but this book wasn't focused on the Civil War. This is years after the war. Grant is diagnosed with throat and mouth cancer. To make sure his wife and daughter have funds to survive after his certain death, he spends every day writing his autobiography even though he was in much pain. This book will be a best seller for sure. He finished his memoirs just 3 days before his death. Mark Twain published the book.
Ulysses S. Grant was brave in battle and in the last part of his life.
Ulysses S. Grant was brave in battle and in the last part of his life.
August 26, 2017
Really good read nice history of Grant last year and year and a half. Talk about the background of Grant and ward went belly up and how Grant got started writing about the civil war years very sad to see the great General be so brave though out his cancer diagnosis and how he wrote his memoirs so that his family would be taken care of. I would of given this book give stars of i didn't already know about all of Grant life at the cottage that I work at. Also I read Chris mac. Grant final battle first which I don't recommend you read or any of his emerging civil war series. I do recommend Bruce catton Grant takes the South and Grant takes command. Thanks
May 13, 2022
Well-written. Was all new information to me. Seemed like a very balanced depiction of U.S. Grant and I have a bigger appreciation of him after this read. Of course I am biased as an Ohioan! Now I'm interested in reading some of Grant's memoirs, given that Mark Twain was impressed with Grant's writing. Because of this book, my next read is a Mark Twain book, to stay back in that era. What I didn't know was that our National Park story starts with Grant, not Teddy Roosevelt. Also what I didn't know was that "charity for all, malice towards none" started at Appomattox, live and in-person. U.S. Grant was one of the greats. Glad I learned more about him.
December 25, 2023
This is an incredible story. In 1184, Ulysses S. Grant had his life savings - along with the savings of most of his family - stolen in a kind of Ponzi scheme. A short time later, he was diagnosed with terminal throat and mouth cancer.
Broke and dying, Grant decided to do something he had sworn he wouldn't do: write his memoirs as a way to financially provide for his family following his death. This book details the year-long race Grant won, completing the work under heroic circumstances less than a week before he died.
It's a moving story of the selfless focus this Union general and former president possessed in the face of certain death.
Broke and dying, Grant decided to do something he had sworn he wouldn't do: write his memoirs as a way to financially provide for his family following his death. This book details the year-long race Grant won, completing the work under heroic circumstances less than a week before he died.
It's a moving story of the selfless focus this Union general and former president possessed in the face of certain death.
November 12, 2017
This is a beautiful journey along with Ulysses S. Grant in his last year of life-a year of triumph over bankruptcy and scandal, amid the tragedy of terminal oral/throat cancer in a time when pain killers were primitive at best. In the wake of the scandalous failure of his brokerage house, the Grants are faced with drastically cutting back the lifestyle of the victorious Union General, two-term President and world traveler. With only his memory and a basic but refreshing writing style, Grant races against the painful and spreading cancer in his throat to pen his memoirs, urged on by his publisher-none other than Mark Twain. Grant's final victory is that often passing up mind dulling pain killers, Grant produces a massive two-volume tome of his early life and war years, assuring in his last days a comfortable-indeed wealthy-legacy for his widow Julia and family. This final year takes us from Gilded Age Manhattan to a cottage in upstate New York above Saratoga Springs, where Grant sought relief in his final weeks from oppressive summer heat. The girlhood memoirs of Grant's granddaughter Julia are especially rich and poignant in these pages-the death of a hero grandfather through a child's eyes. Her simple wreath of leaves accompanied Grant's coffin from the cottage to burial in Riverside Park. Throughout, as Flood skillfully weaves Grant's final battle through earlier battles and victories-Appomattox-in his life, Grant's towering presence in America in the late nineteenth century is front and center. We have lost the impression of Grant as the equal of Lincoln in the Civil War story and in the hearts and minds of his countrymen. Flood's book reminds us as Grant's final battle was front page news, and drew the sympathy of Union and Confederate veterans. Having owned and read Flood's account of Lee's final years-what a contrast. Lee while adored in the South lived a simple life as a university president and his allegiance to the Southern cause never waivered. Grant was adored and known worldwide, his illness monitored by Queen Victoria and his death memorialized in London. While I am not an admirer of Lee, I have been indifferent toward Grant. This book has changed that opinion. (Note: it is listed in the bibliography of Ron Chernow's current best-seller Grant. Flood's work is a worthy companion to that book. )
February 23, 2023
Enuf already re the address that the Grant’s lived in NYC (mentioned at least 10 times) and the creepy reminders that Grant’s grand daughter liked his hands and fingers. This book should be half its length. Instead, details of his near passing (a year-ish before) to his last breath go on and on and on. Also too much is a regurgitation of what anyone said of Grant at the time.
February 17, 2024
I have read many many books about Ulysses Grant, most of which have been really good, but very repetitive. It’s hard for me to find a book that teaches me much that I’ve not already read about the man. This book was full of facts and anecdotes I’d not heard before. It was wonderfully written and easy to read. I found it hard to put down!
April 14, 2023
Excellent Book on Grant from losing his entire life savings when the firm Grant and Ward went under, the diagnosis of throat cancer and the race against time to finish his memoirs as a way to provide for his family.
A magnanimous man who was too trusting of others.
A magnanimous man who was too trusting of others.
May 27, 2017
intimate human focus
July 2, 2018
I learned so much about Grant. What a man of courage and honor.
October 15, 2020
An interesting lens for a biography. The focus on Grant's last years provides important insight into the true character and greatness of the man.
January 27, 2025
Very good detailed essay interesting read
January 5, 2025
All biographies tend to become hagiographies. Do read between lines.
February 11, 2015
The Civil War is my favorite period to study in American history. I often feel as though its importance and magnitude is easily forgotten in the United States, where its issues, words, resolutions, and consequences still possess great meaning. Every time I learn something new I am reminded of the monumental changes it brought. This book focuses on the final year of U.S. Grant (Unconditional Surrender Grant!) and his struggle to finish his memoirs during his final year of life and battle with cancer. The book portrays Grant as a lion of history and the American imagination, beloved by his people and a person of honesty, loyalty, resolve, and love for his family. Flood shows this through Grant's own words, those of his loved ones and friends, and through the many letters and wishes sent to Grant during his illness by strangers. The book primarily focuses on Grant's determination and talent exhibited while writing his memoirs during his cancer. After losing his family's money in an unfortunate financial scheme, Grant wrote his memoirs on his life and the war in an effort to secure financial stability for his family after his death. So steadfast was his resolve to finish them before his death that he worked tirelessly through many days of pain, finishing his work only three days prior to his death. I didn't know that much about Grant apart from his war initiatives before reading this book and I definitely became endeared to his character. Granted,(ha!) the book does not touch on his life much prior to war, which I believe was the period in which the negative aspects of his character were perhaps on display. His reputation as a "drunk" stems in part from his intoxication while on military duty which caused his resignation from the army before the outbreak of the Civil War. In any case, the primary sources supports the characterization of Grant as a resolute, intelligent, and devoted man who cared deeply for his family, country, and the Union in which he helped restore. Most of all I was awed at the ways in which the country appeared to deeply respect and love "their General." In fact, Flood reports estimates of nearly 1.5 million attendants to his funeral procession in New York City, the largest ever to gather at that time on the North American continent.
A Resolution Adopted by the Confederate Survivors' Association
"Remembering him now as the generous victor who, at the ever memorable meeting at Appomattox, to our immortal Lee and to the glorious 8,000 veterans, the surviving heroes of the Army of Northern Virginia, conceded liberal and magnanimous terms of surrender, do we, standing by the graves of our Confederate dead...respectfully tender to General Grant assurances of our sincere and profound sympathy in this the season of his direful extremity." page 169
In a letter to his son, Colonel Frederick Grant
"You ought to feel happy under any circumstances. My expected health called forth expressions of the sincerest kindness from all people of all sections of the country. The Confederate soldier vied with the Union soldier in sounding my praise. The Protestant, the Catholic, and the Jew appointed days for universal prayer in my behalf...All societies passed resolutions of sympathy for me and petitions that I might recover. It looks as if my sickness had something to do to bring about harmony between the sections...Apparently I have accomplished more while apparently dying than it falls to the lot of most men to be able to do." U.S. Grant, page 199
In a letter to Civil War opponent and Friend
"I have witness since my sickness just what I wished to see ever since the war; harmony and good feeling between the sections. I have always contended that if there had been no body left but the soldiers we would have had peace in a year...We may now well look forward to perpetual peace at home, and a national strength that will secure us against any foreign complication. I believe my self that the war was worth all it cost us, fearful as that was. Since it was over I have visited every state in Europe and a number in the East. I know, as I did not know before, the value of our inheritance." U.S. Grant, pg 212
"I, his wife, rested in and was warmed in the sunlight of his loyal love and great fame, and now even though his beautiful life has gone out, it is as if when some far-off planet disappears from the heavens; the light of his glorious fame still reaches out to me, falls upon me, and warms me." Julia Dent Grant
"Ah, you know my weaknesses---my children and my horses." U.S. Grant, page 119
A Resolution Adopted by the Confederate Survivors' Association
"Remembering him now as the generous victor who, at the ever memorable meeting at Appomattox, to our immortal Lee and to the glorious 8,000 veterans, the surviving heroes of the Army of Northern Virginia, conceded liberal and magnanimous terms of surrender, do we, standing by the graves of our Confederate dead...respectfully tender to General Grant assurances of our sincere and profound sympathy in this the season of his direful extremity." page 169
In a letter to his son, Colonel Frederick Grant
"You ought to feel happy under any circumstances. My expected health called forth expressions of the sincerest kindness from all people of all sections of the country. The Confederate soldier vied with the Union soldier in sounding my praise. The Protestant, the Catholic, and the Jew appointed days for universal prayer in my behalf...All societies passed resolutions of sympathy for me and petitions that I might recover. It looks as if my sickness had something to do to bring about harmony between the sections...Apparently I have accomplished more while apparently dying than it falls to the lot of most men to be able to do." U.S. Grant, page 199
In a letter to Civil War opponent and Friend
"I have witness since my sickness just what I wished to see ever since the war; harmony and good feeling between the sections. I have always contended that if there had been no body left but the soldiers we would have had peace in a year...We may now well look forward to perpetual peace at home, and a national strength that will secure us against any foreign complication. I believe my self that the war was worth all it cost us, fearful as that was. Since it was over I have visited every state in Europe and a number in the East. I know, as I did not know before, the value of our inheritance." U.S. Grant, pg 212
"I, his wife, rested in and was warmed in the sunlight of his loyal love and great fame, and now even though his beautiful life has gone out, it is as if when some far-off planet disappears from the heavens; the light of his glorious fame still reaches out to me, falls upon me, and warms me." Julia Dent Grant
"Ah, you know my weaknesses---my children and my horses." U.S. Grant, page 119
December 23, 2014
I liked the audio book till about the last CD or two (out of 7).
It starts out with some ominous foreshadowing, which was a grabber.
The writing and reading are not stellar, but the facts revealed are pretty compelling. I knew so little about Grant before this book, but he is portrayed in a very sympathetic, but not at all effusive manner. The book is kind, but not fawning. I like that relatively objective style very much.
Some very neat things I learned:
On Disc. 4 Track 16 Grant considered secession a legitimate concept that a process for which should have been included in the constitution. That's a pretty strong admission that the war was by no means a great and wonderful thing to have been part of by the former commander of the Northern forces.
Another passage in the book is quite a contrast to Obama's Presidential style & substance:
Disc. 3 Track 6 - In his farewell address to Congress (last State of the Union address) Grant offered a true apology for the missteps (bad judgements) he took in office, by saying he was not really prepared to be a politician head of state (which was certainly true). He also paid homage to the constitution of which he felt bound and had recited his oath.
Here was a former successful General of all the Union forces, in the biggest and bloodiest war the US had ever fought, before or since, who was just completing his last of 4 years as President, and still popular, even though there had been many major scandals during his administration among his subordinates, who actually sincerely apologized for his failings.
Disc 4 Tracks 21-22 - neat description of Mark Twain's business sense in creating 3 different qualities of book, (price discrimination - Micro-Econ. 101) to garner the most money possible (for Grant's family and for Twain's co.) and fill the needs of the public the best (from snobs/wealthy/philanthropic/average/poor/budget minded/etc. - a price for every pocketbook and desire). Also cool to hear about Twain's need for secrecy and security with the manuscript to deal with counterfeiting/unauthorized knock-offs of the book.
Other little tidbits:
Grant picked up the habit during the war of smoking about 20 cigars a day. this was probably what caused the tongue cancer that killed him.
An early treatment after he was diagnosed was a compound that contained cocaine. Could this have given him the extra energy to be able to start and finish the long process of researching, writing and dictating his memoirs? No discussion of this in the book at all. But cocaine does have an energizing effect, especially compared to the alternative pain reliever of the time, opium or morphine.
When the Methodist-Episcopal official came to call daily when Grant was toward his end, and claimed to the press that he was getting better due to prayers, Grant issued a statement that that was basically bunk. He did not fight the religious people around him, since he loved his wife and religion gave her solace. But the book makes clear that he had little value for religion, and did NOT want it believed that he was converted before he died.
I found out my first review point went too far, when I heard the author quote Grant as saying that the [civil] war needed to be fought and things were better in the country for it having been fought, despite it's terrible costs. Grant thought the country "progressed" faster because of the war. The special circumstances of his enduring tremendous pain because of his cancer while writing this, combined with the large number of sympathies pouring in from across the country, perhaps tainted his writing.
The last CD or two of the book were also worse from the standpoint of dealing with far too many trivial details of Grant's final days, the wall paper on his residence, which civil war veteran stood guard, etc. etc.
But one good thing (for the historical record) was that on Disc 6 Track 20 the author said that Grant always thought that the US ware against Mexico was unjust. And he went on to describe why.
Funny that the book only mentioned Grant's drinking once, when Grant wrote a letter criticizing another person for dereliction of duty due to drinking (but Grant never sent the letter), the author pointed out that Grant had been forced to resign from the Army due to his drinking at one point.
It starts out with some ominous foreshadowing, which was a grabber.
The writing and reading are not stellar, but the facts revealed are pretty compelling. I knew so little about Grant before this book, but he is portrayed in a very sympathetic, but not at all effusive manner. The book is kind, but not fawning. I like that relatively objective style very much.
Some very neat things I learned:
On Disc. 4 Track 16 Grant considered secession a legitimate concept that a process for which should have been included in the constitution. That's a pretty strong admission that the war was by no means a great and wonderful thing to have been part of by the former commander of the Northern forces.
Another passage in the book is quite a contrast to Obama's Presidential style & substance:
Disc. 3 Track 6 - In his farewell address to Congress (last State of the Union address) Grant offered a true apology for the missteps (bad judgements) he took in office, by saying he was not really prepared to be a politician head of state (which was certainly true). He also paid homage to the constitution of which he felt bound and had recited his oath.
Here was a former successful General of all the Union forces, in the biggest and bloodiest war the US had ever fought, before or since, who was just completing his last of 4 years as President, and still popular, even though there had been many major scandals during his administration among his subordinates, who actually sincerely apologized for his failings.
Disc 4 Tracks 21-22 - neat description of Mark Twain's business sense in creating 3 different qualities of book, (price discrimination - Micro-Econ. 101) to garner the most money possible (for Grant's family and for Twain's co.) and fill the needs of the public the best (from snobs/wealthy/philanthropic/average/poor/budget minded/etc. - a price for every pocketbook and desire). Also cool to hear about Twain's need for secrecy and security with the manuscript to deal with counterfeiting/unauthorized knock-offs of the book.
Other little tidbits:
Grant picked up the habit during the war of smoking about 20 cigars a day. this was probably what caused the tongue cancer that killed him.
An early treatment after he was diagnosed was a compound that contained cocaine. Could this have given him the extra energy to be able to start and finish the long process of researching, writing and dictating his memoirs? No discussion of this in the book at all. But cocaine does have an energizing effect, especially compared to the alternative pain reliever of the time, opium or morphine.
When the Methodist-Episcopal official came to call daily when Grant was toward his end, and claimed to the press that he was getting better due to prayers, Grant issued a statement that that was basically bunk. He did not fight the religious people around him, since he loved his wife and religion gave her solace. But the book makes clear that he had little value for religion, and did NOT want it believed that he was converted before he died.
I found out my first review point went too far, when I heard the author quote Grant as saying that the [civil] war needed to be fought and things were better in the country for it having been fought, despite it's terrible costs. Grant thought the country "progressed" faster because of the war. The special circumstances of his enduring tremendous pain because of his cancer while writing this, combined with the large number of sympathies pouring in from across the country, perhaps tainted his writing.
The last CD or two of the book were also worse from the standpoint of dealing with far too many trivial details of Grant's final days, the wall paper on his residence, which civil war veteran stood guard, etc. etc.
But one good thing (for the historical record) was that on Disc 6 Track 20 the author said that Grant always thought that the US ware against Mexico was unjust. And he went on to describe why.
Funny that the book only mentioned Grant's drinking once, when Grant wrote a letter criticizing another person for dereliction of duty due to drinking (but Grant never sent the letter), the author pointed out that Grant had been forced to resign from the Army due to his drinking at one point.
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