The Training Ground: Grant, Lee, Sherman and Davies in the Mexican War, 1846–1848.
By Martin Dugard. The author offers a fast-paced account of the Mexican War of 1848, constructed around the experiences of the U.S. Army's corps of junior officers.
Shaped by the common experience of West Point and tempered by battle, these comrades in arms (including Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Jefferson Davis and William Tecumseh Sherman) matured into the leading generals and statesmen on both sides of the Civil War. Dugard introduces others as well, from Union artilleryman Henry Hunt to Confederate icon Stonewall Jackson, who also learned their craft fighting the Mexicans.
The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant
By Ulysses S. Grant. The Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant. Faced with failing health and financial ruin, the Civil War’s most tenacious general and former president wrote his personal memoirs to secure his family’s future—and in the process won himself a unique place in American literature. Grant’s 736-page collection of memoirs has been called one of the most unflinching studies of war in American history. And among the autobiographies of great military figures, Ulysses S. Grant’s are certainly some of the finest. In fact, Grant’s memoirs are arguably the most notable literary achievement of any American president.