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

Fred Grant at Vicksburg: A Boy’s Memoir at His Father’s Side During the American Civil War. Edited and Annotated by Albert A. Nofi. El Dorado Hills: CA: Savas Beatie, 2025. Softcover, 137 pp. $16.95.

Reviewed by Brian Swartz

Readers expecting to experience the Vicksburg Campaign through a pre-adolescent’s rough-honed grammar will pleasantly encounter a fast-flowing and well-written historical tale in Fred Grant at Vicksburg—and it’s told by Fred himself.

The oldest child of Ulysses S. and Julia Dent Grant, Fred was 12 years old when his mother took him to Memphis in late winter 1863. Then he sailed on “a tin-clad gunboat” (9) to join his father at his steamboat headquarters at Young’s Point on March 29, 1863. Over the ensuing weeks and months Fred accompanied the Army of the Tennessee and Ulysses Grant down the Mississippi River, across it into Mississippi, and all along the roads to Jackson and Vicksburg.

His paternity gave Fred a freedom of movement and a “hands off” status unavailable to the common soldier. He witnessed army logistics and camp life, met his father’s top generals and Rear Admiral David D. Porter (who favorably impressed the lad), and came under fire at Port Gibson and the Big Black River, Fred suffering a leg wound during the latter battle.(48)

Modern Civil War historiography obscured his story. Then, while reading “a recent book on the Vicksburg campaign,” historian and author Albert A. Nofi checked the reference for “one of Fred’s escapades” and “discovered … five thousand words” written in 1907 by Fred concerning “hanging out with the Army of the Tennessee.” (VIII)

Further research led Nofi to find the approximately 18,000-word serialized memoir that Fred wrote and the National Tribune published in 1887. Editing and annotating this memoir, Nofi utilizes it as the primary content of his new book.

He sets the stage in Section 1: The Memoir, with Fred speaking at the November 1907 meeting of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee in Vicksburg. Fred explained that his address (drawn from the 1887 memoir) blended “the campaign and siege of Vicksburg as taken from official records, as well as incidents seen by me when a boy of twelve.” (1) Then he introduced the main characters and sets the timeline for Ulysses Grant’s preliminary moves against Vicksburg.

Fred’s story unfolds over the next four parts, each presented as originally published in 1887:

• Part I: The Mighty Grapple with the Stronghold at Vicksburg;
• Part II: Through the Camps;
• Part III: Fighting Jack Logan;
• Part IV: Grant’s Lieutenants, Corps and Division Leaders.

Parts I through III move chronologically. Pausing to introduce such “Grant’s Lieutenants” as William T. Sherman, John A. McClernand, James B. McPherson, and John A. Logan, Part IV returns to the action as the siege dragged on. Then Confederate Gen. John C. Pemberton sought surrender terms on July 3. “I was with my father when this news reached him, but I noticed no excitement in his manner while receiving it,” Fred reported. “Later in the afternoon” he rode with his father and “several of his staff” to where Ulysses S. Grant and Pemberton “went to one side, talking to each other with interest.” (64)

Fred returned with Ulysses to their tent to wait and was present when “a messenger … handed to Gen. Grant a note, which he opened immediately. In a moment my father gave a sigh of relief and said calmly, ‘Vicksburg has surrendered!’” In this way I happened to be the first to hear that the Gibraltar of America had been forced to fall to the Army of the Tennessee,” Fred noted. (66)

Such behind-the-scenes details are spread across Fred Grant at Vicksburg as Fred describes events and personalities from a remarkably observant viewpoint. Although for him the campaign and siege could be considered one grand adventure, he paid attention to details. I particularly enjoyed his Part I description of watching “six gunboats” and “three fragile transports” run past Vicksburg after dark on April 16, 1863. (14).

“Fred noted that he wrote these memoirs almost entirely from memory, not resorting to any references or documents,” Nofi states. (IX) “Fred at times got a name or a place wrong.” (X) To find such errors, Nofi thoroughly researched the events, locations, people, dates, etc. in the book. Placed per page, the copious footnotes identify and correct the few errors and provide a wealth of background information pertaining to the Vicksburg campaign.

The book concludes with Section II: Fred Grant, in Context; six appendices; and a bibliography. With its two period maps and 40-plus illustrations and photographs, Fred Grant at Vicksburg visually backs up the written memoirs. The book is an excellent addition to private Civil War libraries.