Grant’s career in the closing months of 1861 has been obscured by the success which came to him on the battlefield early in the following year, beginning with the victory at Fort Donelson in February 1862. Hence, Volume 3 of this definitive edition will be especially valuable to historians of the presidency as well as the Civil War for the clear, com­prehensive insight it provides into Grant’s attitudes and motives on the eve of his military victories. The fourteen-week period covered by this volume has been exhaustively researched, and includes a great store of previously un­published material, which has been combined with already available Grant documents—many of them now printed from the original manuscripts. All the correspondence has been placed in context and annotated. As in previous volumes of the Papers, a deepening portrait of Grant emerges. Here is the key to his future actions and policies and a guide to the thought of generations who looked to him for military and political leadership.