Sylvanus Cadwallader, a war correspondent for the
Chicago Times and later for the
New York Herald, was attached to General Grant's headquarters from 1862 to 1865. He enjoyed rare access to personalities (Lincoln, Sheridan, and Lee) and events (Vicksburg, Chattanooga, City Point, and Potomac), and he makes them come alive here. Cadwallader also includes information about his own role in constraining and concealing Grant's drinking. Through his pages the real Grant emerges. The manuscript of
Three Years with Grant was edited and annotated by Lincoln biographer Benjamin P. Thomas and first published nearly a century after the Civil War.