Faced with cancer and financial ruin, the Civil War s greatest general and former president, Ulysses S. Grant wrote his personal memoirs to secure his family s future. In doing so he won himself a unique place in American letters. Acclaimed by writers as diverse as Mark Twain and Gertrude Stein, Grant s memoirs demonstrate the intelligence, intense determination, and laconic modesty that made him the Union s foremost commander. PERSONAL MEMOIRS is devoted almost entirely to his life as a soldier. For their directness and clarity, his writings on war are without rival in American Literature.