After leaving the office of the presidency in 1877, Ulysses S. Grant embarked on a journey worthy of his legendary namesake, an around-the-world tour that took him from Europe to the Middle East and Asia over two and one-half years. Accompanying Grant was journalist John Russell Young, a wartime associate who was working in Europe as a correspondent for the "New York Herald" when Grant first arrived in England. On assignment for the "Herald", Young joined the former president's entourage and faithfully recorded every detail of the grand tour - the sightseeing, official visits, travel conditions, and Grant's candid discussions with heads of state and other notables about the Civil War and other matters of state. So far from home, Grant felt free to speak his mind about his fellow Union officers, his Confederate adversaries, and the conduct of the war, at far more length than he would in his celebrated but close-to-the-vest memoirs. These salty reminiscences of the war give this travelogue its greatest importance for posterity.
First published in two volumes in 1879, Young's account has been abridged by historian Michael Fellman and is now available to modern readers in a single volume that, besides his adventures abroad, distills Grant's unvarnished memories and judgements of his wartime and executive experiences. It contains Grant's opinions of such Civil War figures as Stonewall Jackson and George McClellan. This is an intimate portrait of one of America's most brilliant - and thoughtful -military men. It is also a travel book, filled with reflections on exotic places and on Western, particularly British, imperialism as America was on the reluctant verge of entering the world stage.
- ISBN10 1344732275
- ISBN13 9781344732277
- Publish Date 17 October 2015 (first published 13 September 2002)
- Publish Status Unknown
- Imprint Arkose Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 702
- Language English