"Grant Rises in the West" "holds the reader ...[Williams's] own military career ...has given him knowledge tempered with charity and understanding for human weakness in the stress of battle."- "New York Times" Book Review. "[Williams] demonstrates a remarkable ability to make the most confused battle clear."-"Journal of American History". Ulysses S. Grant was a store clerk in Galena, Illinois, in April 1861 when he answered President Lincoln's call to fight for the Union. In The First Year, 1861-1862, Grant begins as a colonel of Illinois volunteers and moves into prominence after strategically important battles at Belmont, Forts Henry and Donelson, and Shiloh. Kenneth P. Williams (1887-1958) taught in the Department of Mathematics at Indiana University, Blomington. Mark Grimsley is a professor of history at Ohio State University and the author of "The Hard Hand of War: Union Military Policy toward Southern Civilians, 1861-1865".

Introduction by: Brooks D. Simpson