Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #891371 in Books
• Published on: 1996-11-28
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 362 pages

About the Author

Customer Reviews

Intimate portrait of General Grant
This is a controversial book because of one reason: the author maintains he witnessed Grant getting drunk during the Vicksburg campaign in 1863. Why this is particularly contentious with Grant supporters is a trifle mystifying, but Grant fans still vociferously contend the author "embellished" or "lied" about the drinking binge. Never mind that two other people who were also with Grant corroborate the drinking story. Never mind that his chief of staff specifically wrote about the binging in a private letter.

Aside from this drinking anecdote, the book is a warm, rich portrayal of General Grant from a man with a discerning eye. Cadwallader relates many small incidents of Grant's everyday life as a man and as a general that are fascinating and not to be found in other first-person narratives.

Cadwallader truly loved Grant and his book shows his regard and his profound attachment to him. It's a pity that so many people denigrate such a fine book simply because they feel the author's memory was fallible or because they refuse to see Grant as a multi-facted man. A man with his share of human frailties and weaknesses, but still a towering individual: a great general and a man of uncommon moral fiber and decency. If you know little about Grant, this is a good place to begin a journey in seeking to know him as a man and as a great soldier who saved the union.

A Different Perspective
During the early part of the Civil War, war correspondents were, for the most part, despised reptilians. As far as most of the Union High Command was concerned, they were a scurrilous lot that could not be trusted to be fair in their reporting. They were people who fabricated stories, published battle plans before the battle, were capable of being bribed to produce favorable and untrue stories to assist in one's career planning and could, with the scratch of a pen, terminate the careers of good soldiers. Small wonder the relationship between journalism and the military was adversarial.

Sylvanus Cadwallader set standards in Civil War journalism. This is not a story about the Civil War but rather is the story of how this intrepid man's character enabled him to establish himself as a valuable addition to Sam Grant's Headquarters staff. Becoming a permanent fixture on Grant's staff he literally endeared himself as a trusted confidant. His tent was always pitched close to Grant's, Grant signed passes that enabled him to go wherever he wanted, whenever he wanted to. He had the ability to use, even commandeer, any form of transportation he required, horse, train or boat. He did not abuse his privileges nor did he betray confidences.

These reminisces reveal information not contained in his dispatches. Cadwallader remained with Grant through Union operations in southern Tennessee and northern Mississippi, the Vicksburg campaign (where he is captured and released and subsequently, in a different escapade, gathers intelligence for Grant at the battle of Champion Hill), Chattanooga, the Wilderness (where he is again captured, but escapes), Cold Harbor, the crossing of the James River, City Point and is present for the Union Army's breakthrough at Petersburg and Lee's subsequent surrender at Appomattox Court House. We get a clear picture of Grant, a man Cadwallader thought a military genius. Living close to Grant from October 1862 until the end of the war, Cadwallader was one of the few men, certainly the only civilian, who had a clear view of how the Civil War was fought at the command level. He depicts Grant in the heat of battle and relaxing with friends. He reveals Grant as a surprisingly good military politician, that Grant thought more highly of Sheridan than Sherman, that Grant personally disliked Ben Butler and thought little of Governeur Warren's military skills. Cadwallader observed many Union officers at close range: Sherman, Sheridan, Logan, Wallace, Thomas, Butler, Warren, Meade and others. He appraises their military talents candidly.

The author finished this work in 1896 when he was seventy years old. It was never published. Until its acquisition by the Illinois Historical Society and subsequent publication in 1955, few people had ever read it. It is a wonderful, colorful, insightful work that transports you back into a period of our history when our survival as a Nation was in serious doubt. But perhaps as important, through these reminisces we get a clear picture of Cadwallader himself. He appears honest, straight forward, scrappy, tenacious, remarkably loyal and above all, exceptionally professional in his work and conduct. He gains our respect and admiration today, just as surely as he did throughout the campaigns he covered and the men he interfaced with, 150+ years ago.

This book is as fine a glimpse into this segment of our history as is available today.

good book
If you are familiar with the campaigns of General Grant then you will find this book worthwile.Cadwallader has a front row seat at Vicksburg, Chattanoga,the Wilderness,and Appomattox. He is a reporter therefore a professional writer which helps. His book is filled with inside information on all the principle figureheads of the time. Also it is the only book I ever read that gives us the reader the inside true story on the rumours of General Grants drinking problem.