Ulysses S. Grants memoirs begins with the authors formative years and his military service continuing through the U.S. Civil War and the authors time as President of the United States. Various battles such as Monterrey and sieges such as Vera Cruz are recounted in this volume with Mexicos actions and abilities as an enemy much detailed. Grant is keen to narrate the experience from his perspective as a junior officer bringing perspective of both the strategic planning and the tactical maneuvers such conflicts entailed together with the morale of the rank and file ahead of each skirmish. Together with U.S. Grants own recollections we find appendices in the form of original correspondences sent and received regarding the Union and Confederate forces. At the time he authored his memoirs in the mid1880s Grant was determined in spite of illness to add to the burgeoning historical narrative as a reliable source. With this autobiography it is indisputable that he achieves this goal.