Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Bruce Catton's acclaimed two-book biography of complex and controversial Union commander Ulysses S. Grant.
In these two comprehensive and engaging volumes, preeminent Civil War historian Bruce Catton follows the wartime movements of Ulysses S. Grant, detailing the Union commander's bold tactics and his relentless dedication to achieving the North's victory in the nation's bloodiest conflict.

While a succession of Union generals were losing battles and sacrificing troops due to ego, egregious errors, and incompetence in the early years of the war, an unassuming Federal army colonel was excelling in the Western theater of operations. Grant Moves South details how Grant, as commander of the Twenty-First Illinois Volunteer Infantry, though unskilled in military power politics and disregarded by his peers, was proving to be an unstoppable force. He won victory after victory at Belmont, Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson, while sagaciously avoiding near-catastrophe and ultimately triumphing at Shiloh. His decisive victory at Vicksburg would cost the Confederacy its invaluable lifeline: the Mississippi River.

Grant Takes Command picks up in the summer of 1863 when President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to the head of the Army of the Potomac, placing nothing less than the future of an entire nation in the hands of the military leader. Grant's acute strategic thinking and unshakeable tenacity led to the crushing defeat of the Confederacy in the Overland Campaign in Virginia and the Siege of Petersburg. In the spring of 1865, Grant finally forced Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House, ending the brutal conflict. Although tragedy struck only days later when Lincoln was assassinated, Grant's triumphs on the battlefield ensured that the president's principles of unity and freedom would endure.

Based in large part on military communiqués, personal eyewitness accounts, and Grant's own writings, this engrossing two-part biography offers readers an in-depth portrait of the extraordinary warrior and unparalleled strategist whose battlefield brilliance clinched the downfall of the Confederacy in the Civil War.

Bruce Catton (1899-1978) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning author, historian, and journalist. He served in the navy during World War I and was the director of information for the War Production Board during World War II. Catton's military and government experience inspired his first book, The War Lords of Washington, and he is best known for his acclaimed works on the Civil War, including Mr. Lincoln's Army and Glory Road. His most celebrated Civil War history, A Stillness at Appomattox, won both the National Book Award for Nonfiction and the Pulitzer Prize for History in 1954. Catton was also the founding editor of American Heritage magazine. Among his other works are Grant Moves South; Grant Takes Command; and a three-part chronicle endorsed by the US Civil War Centennial Commission, The Coming Fury, Terrible Swift Sword, and Never Call Retreat.

• Contents
• Grant Moves South
  • Title Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • Publisher's Note
  • Maps
  • 1. "Tomorrow I Move South"
  • 2. Assignment in Missouri
  • 3. Time of Preparation
  • 4. "You Looked Like Giants"
  • 5. General Halleck Takes Over
  • 6. Limited Objectives
  • 7. Between the Rivers
  • 8. Unconditional Surrender
  • 9. Aftermath of Victory
  • 10. "What Command Have I Now?"
  • 11. The Guns on the Bluff
  • 12. The Question of Surprise
  • 13. The Unpronounceable Man
  • 14. "To Be Terrible on the Enemy"
  • 15. Victory, and a New Plan
  • 16. Forrest, Van Dorn and McClernand
  • 17. A Noun Is the Name of a Thing
  • 18. Winter of Discontent
  • 19. The Man on the River
  • 20. An End to Worry
  • 21. "Hardtack! Hardtack!"
  • 22. The Core of Iron
  • 23. Sling the Knapsack for New Fields
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Acknowledgments
  • Index
• Grant Takes Command
  • Title Page
  • Dedication
  • Contents
  • List of Maps
  • Foreword
  • 1. Political Innocent
  • 2. The Road to Chattanooga
  • 3. I Have Never Felt Such Restlessness Before
  • 4. The Miracle on Missionary Ridge
  • 5. The Enemy Have Not Got Army Enough
  • 6. The High Place
  • 7. Continue to Be Yourself
  • 8. Campaign Plans and Politics
  • 9. The Fault Is Not with You
  • 10. In the Wilderness
  • 11. If It Takes All Summer
  • 12. Beyond the Bloody Angle
  • 13. Roll On, Like a Wave
  • 14. On the Banks of the James
  • 15. A Question of Time
  • 16. So Fair an Opportunity
  • 17. Roughshod or On Tiptoe
  • 18. The Hundred-Gun Salutes
  • 19. I Will Work This Thing Out Yet
  • 20. Much Is Now Expected
  • 21. A Letter from General Lee
  • 22. I Feel Now Like Ending the Matter
  • 23. Our Countrymen Again
  • 24. Stranger in a Strange Land
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
  • Acknowledgments
  • Index
• About the Author