Fred Grant at Vicksburg: A Boy’s Memoir at his Father’s Side During the American Civil War

Ebook coming soon!

Click HERE to read the Front Matter and Chapter 1!

On March 29, 1863, 12-year-old Frederick Grant, the eldest son of Union Maj. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant, arrived at his father’s headquarters at Young’s Point, Louisiana. Grant’s Army of the Tennessee was preparing to move against Vicksburg, Mississippi, and young Fred had no intention of missing out on the adventure. His incredible journey would consume more than three months and would not end until shortly after the surrender of the Confederate bastion on the Fourth of July. Posterity is the beneficiary of the younger Grant’s brief memoir on the subject, which Albert A. Nofi has edited and annotated as Fred Grant at Vicksburg: A Boy’s Memoir at his Father’s Side during the American Civil War.

For nearly 100 days, young Fred roamed freely within the army, often not seeing his father for days while living amongst the troops, sharing their rations, and seeing war firsthand. At times hungry, cold, and alone, he was also often under fire, slept where he could, was nearly captured, and was lightly wounded in the Battle of the Big Black River Bridge. The pre-teen twice watched as Union ships ran the Vicksburg batteries, acquired souvenirs, met some of the most notable Americans of the time, and nearly died from dysentery—all the while witnessing and participating in some of the most decisive events of the Civil War.

Years after the war, Fred began recounting his adventures at veteran reunions or during interviews with journalists. In 1887, he contributed a long account of his dramatic experiences to The National Tribune, the nation’s principal newspaper for Union vets. This book is based primarily on that main account. Editor and annotator Nofi supplemented Grant’s memoir with material from more than a dozen other versions of his adventures, which often add additional details or explanations omitted in the longer National Tribune telling.

Fred Grant at Vicksburg is one of the greatest yet least-known adventure stories of the age. This entertaining and enlightening new study adds another facet to our understanding of Vicksburg, the Civil War, and the unique relationship of father and son.

Advance Praise

“A fascinating personal insight on the 1863 Vicksburg Campaign by an observant young man close to power by virtue of being Grant’s son.” — Jeremy Black, MBE, Professor Emeritus, University of Exeter, and author of The War for American Independence, The Geographies of War, The Civil War, and other works

“Frederick Dent Grant’s view of his father’s military campaign to capture Vicksburg offers modern readers a unique and fascinating perspective into Ulysses S. Grant’s personality and command relationships. As a young man, Fred Grant paid little attention to grand strategy; instead, he gives us a boy’s view of war and soldier life.” — David A. Powell, author of Tullahoma: The Forgotten Campaign that Changed the Civil War, June 23–July 4, 1863, All Hell Can’t Stop Them: The Battles for Chattanooga—Missionary Ridge and Ringgold, November 24–27, 1863, and other works on the Civil War in the West

“I can think of no Civil War scholar better suited to make a distinguished addition to books, nonfiction and fiction, about the role of children in the Civil War than Al Nofi, who is my own resource for unusual facts and perspectives on the war for more than 50 years. I am not surprised, but very pleased, that he has given us a scholarly, eminently readable, and very enjoyable account of the adventures of General Grant’s son, Fred.” — David Madden, author of The Tangled Web of the Civil War and Reconstruction and many other works on the Civil War era

“Could a young boy imagine a grander adventure: traveling with his father through the heart of war, courting danger and reveling in derring-do. Fred Grant relived his adolescent Civil War adventures his entire life, spinning them into charming fireside tales and audience-pleasing lectures. Al Nofi brilliantly sorts through the boyhood romance to find the real—and still fascinating—story of one of the war’s most unique witnesses.” — Chris Mackowski, author of A Tempest of Iron and Lead: Spotsylvania Court House, May 8–21, 1864, The Battle of Jackson, Mississippi, May 14, 1863, and other works on the Civil War