Twain hooked Grant up with his (Twain's) publisher. Grant didn't want to write it, thought no-one would buy it, but his death would leave his family penniless and Twain was insistent. The book was an immediate and enormous commercial success, closing out Grant's debts and allowing his family a sizable income. I'm not aware that Twain incurred any loss on it; I thought that was due to a different deal, but I don't know.
Grant finished proof-reading the book as he was dying of throat cancer and forced himself to stay alive despite terrible pain until it was done. The throat cancer was probably due to the cases and cases of cigars sent to him after the Battle of Shiloh, where one newspaperman had him calmly standing beneath a tree and smoking a cigar. That's about as truthful as most newspaper accounts of the day, but it got him a lifetime supply of cigars.
Stories of the 'butcher Grant' began circulating after the Southern apologists started rewriting history around the 'Glorious Cause'. In fact, Grant lost fewer men than Lee - and fewer men in attacks, too. Most of his battles are examples of how to do it right, at least by the standards of the Civil War, and the Vicksburg Campaign is simply masterful. The Overland and Appomattox Campaigns are also worthy of study. The one contrary example is Cold Harbor - which Grant said, to his death, was a tragic miscalculation. I do have enormous respect for Grant as a commander and historian - and rather less as President.
Yes. For the most part I largely agree.
My family was a strong supporter of the Great Captain, and profited mightily by his presidency - but I share the same opinion as you do. A lion on the battlefield with Bill Sherman as his maneuver commander roaming the edges and Phil Sheridan riding the other side. He had an incredibly ability to sink deep into concentration, even in battle, and was unflappable. It was only when nothing was going on and he got bored that he got into trouble and Julia Grant had to be dispatched to keep him in line - Lincoln was very aware of this and kept Julia near Sam the whole time he was C in C of the Union Army. But, Grant's presidency was a head on a totem pole run by moneyed interests and it took until Ronald Reagan to have a more corrupt presidency than Grant's.
Regarding Twain and Grant:
Grant traveled the world after his presidency and lived the high life. He returned home to find his name and his fortune shattered by a Ponzi scheme. He confided this to his friend, Mark Twain, who encouraged him to finish his memoirs of which he did the final edit almost on his deathbed. Twain is the publisher on record through the
Charles L. Webster Publishing House and paid for the publishing of Grant's Memoirs himself. The book sold out overnight. Twain gave all the profits to The Great Captain's family, keeping none for himself despite his own financial woes.
Twain was already himself deep in debt because of a prolonged investment in an automatic typesetting machine that showed promise but failed become stable. Twain went bankrupt and refused to touch Grant's money, and went on world tour to recover his finances and allowed a financial manager to put him on a strict allowance until he was liquid once again.
The Publishing company could easily have kept the lion's share of the profits and solved Twain's liquidity problem by paying the writer the usual commission, but Grant is a pillar of this nation and Mark Twain was a man of fine sensibilities and good horse sense.
Let me end by saying there are three sides to every story. I support the North, I grew up in the South, I have seen both arguments first hand and people who argue this side or that side held the moral compass are both wrong. The concept of lumping every individual who tries to rationally represent the South under a massive umbrella pejoratively entitled 'Southern Apologism' is as foolish as selling the false narrative that the United States fought the War of the Rebellion to end slavery. It sounds great, but it is a lie and has absolutely nothing to do with the vast majority of men who spent time in the trenches on either side.
Simply put. The men of the North fought to preserve the Union, the men of the South fought because the Northerners were 'down here'. While there were notable exceptions on both sides - you can put Robert Gould Shaw in one hand and N.B. Forrest in the other - they are exceptions and not the rule.
Slavery is an awful institution and having lived with the result of this war first hand I can tell you it could not have been handled worse. But 'Preservation of the Union' and expansion of the railroad interests seeking to expand commercial endeavors, these are the martial forces that rose up to the challenge thrown down by the Fire Eaters in that hotbed of evil: Charleston, South Carolina - a city founded as a colony of Barbados, a slave port deep in voodoo country where even the church and the homes are painted to ward off spirits, and a place not to make rational decisions that drag an entire nation into war.
