The publishers deem themselves fortunate, therefore, in being able to place before the fellow-citizens of General Grant who are appreciative of the great service rendered by him to the country, and who are interested also in the personality of the man, a series of letters written to members of his family or to near friends.  These letters, dating back to the time of his youth, give a clear and trustworthy impression of the nature of the man and of the development of character and of force that made possible his all-valuable leadership.

The plan for the publication of these letters had received the cordial approval of General Grant’s son, the late General Frederick D. Grant, and it is only because of his sudden death, which has brought sorrow upon a great circle of friends and upon the community at large, that the publishers are prevented from including with the volume a letter from the General as the head of the Grant family, giving formal expression to his personal interest in the undertaking.

This collection of letters will constitute a suitable companion volume to Grant’s Personal Memoirs and to the accepted biographies of the Great Commander whose memory is honored by his fellow-citizens not only for the patience, persistence, and skill of the leader of armies, as evidenced in the brilliant campaigns that culminated with Vicksburg, Missionary Ridge, and Appomattox, but for the sturdy integrity of character, modest bearing, and sweetness of nature of the great citizen.

GEO. Haven Putnam.

New York, April 25, 1912.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Ulysses Simpson grant (Frontispiece)
    From a photograph by W. Kurtz, New York.

Jesse Root grant, AETAT. 69
    Father of Ulysses Simpson Grant. 
    From a photograph.

Mrs. Hannah grant
    Mother of Ulysses Simpson Grant. 
    From a photograph by Landy, taken in Cincinnati.

Facsimile of A letter written by Ulysses
  Simpson grant to his father

Facsimile of general grant’s proclamation to
  the citizens of Paducah

General Ulysses Simpson grant
    From a photograph taken in 1865 by
    Gutekunst, Philadelphia.

Ulysses Simpson grant
    From a photograph taken during his second
    term as President.

Letters of Ulysses S. Grant

[In 1843, at the age of twenty-one, Ulysses S. Grant was graduated from West Point with the rank of brevet second lieutenant.  He was appointed to the 4th Infantry, stationed at Jefferson Barracks near St. Louis.  In May, 1844, he was ordered to the frontier of Louisiana with the army of observation, while the annexation of Texas was pending.  The bill for the annexation of Texas was passed March 1, 1845; the war with Mexico began in April, 1846.  Grant was promoted to a first-lieutenancy September, 1847.  The Mexican War closed in 1848.  Both this war and the Civil War he characterizes in his Memoirs as “unholy.”