author
Samuel Gibbs French
1818–1910
A West Point graduate who fought in both the Mexican-American War and the Civil War, he later wrote a memoir reflecting on a life shaped by conflict and change. His story spans battlefields, plantation life in Mississippi, and decades of remembering the 19th-century American South.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in New Jersey in 1818, Samuel Gibbs French graduated from the United States Military Academy in 1843 and began his career in the U.S. Army. He served in the Mexican-American War, where he was wounded at Buena Vista, and later left the army in the 1850s to manage a Mississippi plantation connected to his wife's family.
During the Civil War, French became a major general in the Confederate Army and served in the western theater, including at Vicksburg and in the Army of Tennessee. His military career made him a notable figure of the era, especially because he had first served in the regular U.S. Army before joining the Confederacy.
He lived long enough to publish Two Wars: An Autobiography of General Samuel G. French, a memoir that looks back on both the Mexican-American War and the Civil War. French died in 1910, leaving behind a firsthand account that still draws readers interested in military history and personal recollections of 19th-century America.