Three Years with Grant: As Recalled by War Correspondent

by Sylvanus Cadwallader, Benjamin P. Thomas (Editor)

During the Civil War, Sylvanus Cadwallader, a war correspondent employed first by the Chicago Times and later for the New York Herald, was attached to General Grant’s headquarters from 1862 to 1865. Three Years with Grant is his account of that period.As a portrait of Grant, the personality and the military leader, as a civilian’s picture of how the war was fought at the command level, and, above all, as a hitherto unknown primary source of Civil War history, as a hitherto unknown primary source of Civil War history, this is an important book. It is also an extremely entertaining one that makes an exciting reading. Entertaining because Cadwallader was a shrewd and stubborn man who was remarkably frank about his contemporaries and who was continually in trouble with all authority except Grant himself; exciting because he was a superb reporter in a unique position. Cadwallader had privileges and information accessible to no other journalist. Through his eyes—and, indirectly, Grant’s—the reader experiences the Vicksburg and Chattanooga campaigns; the actions of the Army of the Potomac; Grant and Lincoln at City Point; Grant and Sherman hatching strategy; Grant and Lee at Appomattox. The manuscript of Three Years with Grant, never published, was acquired some years ago by the Illinois State Historical Library; probably not more than a half- dozen living persons have read it. Now it has been ably edited, with an introduction and extensive notes, by Benjamin P. Thomas, whose Abraham Lincoln is generally regarded as the best one-volume life of the President yet written.

362 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 1, 1955

Reviews

[Sharon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty amazing book and the story is fascinating if you are a Civil War Buff. If not, you probably won't enjoy it much. It has a lot of military name dropping, verbaL sketches of battles which are so brief I suspect they would only confuse readers not familiar with the events. The manuscript of this memoir of a newpaper journalist's three years embeded in General Grant's command family during the War was found by a descendant in the 1960s I believe, and first published recently. Personalities emerge from lively descriptions of their behaviors by a skilled writer. I finished the book feeling as if I had actually met General Grant and President Lincoln.