Julia grant autobiography

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The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant: Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant

September 24, 2021

This book sat unread for about three years; I’d purchased it as a complement to Ulysses S. Grant’s memoirs and a biography by Ronald White. Grant’s memoirs are famously devoid of almost anything autobiographical or intimate: it’s largely a riveting account of his Civil War campaigns, which he describes in straightforward detail, without flourish. His allusions and references to other officers and politicians at the time are always temperate and measured, and it’s difficult to get a sense of just how withholding/forbearing Grant is, until one reads a comprehensive biography like White’s. While Grant entirely elides in his memoirs his years as a president and his world travels thereafter, White covers them in some detail, enough so that my yen to know more kept Mrs. Grant waiting on the shelf.

After finishing Alan Gurganus’ hefty Oldest Living Confederate Widow Tells All, I thought it fitting that I mi

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On January 26, 1826, Julia Dent was born to parents Frederick and Ellen Dent in St. Louis, Missouri.¹ One of seven children, Julia grew up at her family’s plantation, White Haven. There, she interacted with and was served by enslaved servants.² From age ten to seventeen, Julia attended Misses Mauros’ boarding school in St. Louis, studying literature, history, philosophy, and other subjects.³

In 1844, Julia met her brother Fred’s roommate from West Point: Ulysses. S. Grant. The two fell in love and became engaged – however, they were largely separated during Grant’s military service in the Mexican-American War. They finally married on August 22, 1848.⁴ For the next several years, Grant’s military career meant relocation and separation, until his resignation from the U. S. Army in 1854. Their family also grew in the 1850s to include four children: Frederick, Ulysses (“Buck”), Ellen (“Nellie”), and Jesse.

A homecoming for Julia, the Grant family accompanied her back to Mis

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Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant

Memoir bygd Julia Grant

The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant (Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant) is a book bygd Julia Grant, the first lady of the United States and wife of Ulysses S. Grant. Though the book's initial manuscript was written in the 1890s, it was not published until 1975, nearly 73 years after Grant's death. Upon publication, the book received mixed reviews from critics, with some appreciating its description of the author's life and insight into life in the Victorian era. Others criticized the book as un-revealing and "not very insightful".

Background

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Julia Dent was born on January 26, 1826, in St. Louis, Missouri US, and grew up in a well-off family who owned thirty slaves. She first met Ulysses S. Grant through her brother, Fred, as they attended West Point together. Julia and Ulysses were married on August 22, 1848; they would have fyra children: Frederick Dent Grant, Ulysses Simpson Grant Jr., Ellen Wrenshall Grant, an