The author focuses on General Grant's valiant effort while facing impending death to complete his Personal Memoirs and replenish the fortunes of his family. He and his wife, Julia, had not foreseen such an end. Grant left the presidency “with relatively little money” yet became a partner in an investment firm headed by Ferdinand Ward and James Fish. Grant and Ulysses Jr.—“Buck”—each put up $100,000. Buck's father-in-law, Senator Jerome Chaffee, provided “another $400,000 as an investment for himself” (6). Yet, confusingly, Charles Bracelen Flood states that Grant, Buck, Ward, and Fish were the “four equal partners in Grant & Ward” (7). Within three years, Grant's personal wealth totaled $750,000.