Notes

Preface

1. Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, 2 vols. (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).

2. G. P. Gooch, History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century xxxvi (London: Longmans, 1913).

3. William B. Hesseltine, Ulysses S. Grant: Politician vii (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1935).

4. David Herbert Donald, in “Overrated and Underrated Americans,” 39 American Heritage 48–63 (1988). Donald won the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1961 for Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1960) and again in 1988 for Look Homeward: A Life of Thomas Wolfe (Boston: Little, Brown, 1987).

5. See especially, William S. McFeely, Grant: A Biography (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981).

6. As Princeton historian James M. McPherson points out, “Even in the fighting from the Wilderness to Petersburg during the spring of 1864 . . . Grant’s casualties were proportionately no higher than Lee’s even though Grant was fighting on the offensive and Lee’s soldiers stood mainly on the defensive behind elaborate entrenchments. Lee had lost as many men in Pickett’s assault at Gettysburg (and proportionately four times as many) as Grant did in the equally ill-fated June 3 Assault at Cold Harbor,” 27 Civil War History 365 (1981). Also see Richard N. Current, “Grant Without Greatness,” 9 Reviews in American History 507 (1981); John Y. Simon, untitled book review, 65 Wisconsin Magazine of History 220–21 (1982); and Brooks D. Simpson, “Butcher? Racist? An Examination of William S. McFeely’s Grant,” 33 Civil War History 63–83 (1987).

7. 2 Personal Memoirs of Philip Henry Sheridan 204 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1888).

8. Lloyd Lewis, Sherman: Fighting Prophet 639 (New York: Harcourt, Brace, 1932).

9. James Longstreet, From Manassas to Appomattox 17 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1896).

10. T. Harry Williams, McClellan, Sherman and Grant 105 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1962).

11. Grant, 1 Memoirs 38–40.

12. Ibid. 248–50.

13. Ibid. 570.

14. Grant, 2 Memoirs 493.

15. Gen. Edward F. Beale interview, Washington Post, July 24, 1885.

16. New York Times, August 9, 1885.

CHAPTER ONE: THE EARLY YEARS

1. Ulysses S. Grant, 1 Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant 18–19 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885); cf., William S. McFeely, Grant: A Biography 4–5 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981).

2. Admiral Daniel Ammen, “Recollections and Letters of Grant,” 141 North American Review 361 (1885).

3. Hamlin Garland, Ulysses S. Grant: His Life and Character 3, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1920).

4. Grant paid homage to his mother’s fierce partisanship in his Memoirs. “Until her memory failed her, a few years ago, she thought the country ruined beyond recovery when the Democratic party lost control in 1860.” Her son’s success as the Republican standard-bearer in 1868 and 1872 did not moderate her stance. During the eight years Grant was president, Hannah never visited the White House. Grant, 1 Memoirs 23.

5. Ibid. 25.

6. Ibid. 24–25.

7. Lloyd Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 22 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1950).

8. Grant, 1 Memoirs 26–31.

9. Garland, Grant 13–15; also see Bruce Catton, U.S. Grant and the American Military Tradition 11–12 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954); Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 31–34. Garland won the Pulitzer Prize in 1922 for A Daughter of the Middle Border (New York: Macmillan, 1921).

10. Ibid. 50–51. Henry Clay, Jr., commanded a regiment of Kentucky volunteers during the Mexican War and was killed rallying his men at the battle of Buena Vista.

11. Grant, 1 Memoirs 32. Emphasis in original.

12. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 57.

13. Hamer to Sec. of War, March 4, 1839, National Archives. Also see 1 The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant 22 note, John Y. Simon, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967).

14. “Descriptive Book of Candidates,” manuscript, USMA. A photo of Grant’s oath of enlistment, signed “U.S. Grant,” appears facing page thirty-two in Garland, Grant. Grant never acknowledged the middle name Simpson, and simply used “S.” as his middle initial. His acquiescence to his name change speaks volumes about his attitude toward life. He attempted three times to call the army’s attention to the mistake, but when that failed he simply accepted the situation.

15. Grant, 1 Memoirs 34–35.

16. Grant to R. McKinstry Griffith, Sept. 22, 1839, 1 Grant Papers 4–5. Emphasis in original.

17. Ibid. 7.

18. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 69.

19. William Tecumseh Sherman interview, New York Herald, July 24, 1885.

20. The comments are those of General Lucius Clay, quoted in Jean Edward Smith, Lucius D. Clay: An American Life 35 (New York: Henry Holt, 1990).

21. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 81. For Grant’s comments on Lyon, see John Russell Young, 2 Around the World with General Grant 468 (New York: American News, 1879).

22. Jeffry D. Wert, General James Longstreet: The Confederacy’s Most Controversial Soldier 31–32 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993); James Longstreet interview, New York Times, July 24, 1885.

23. Longstreet interview, ibid.

24. Reflections of General D. M. Frost, quoted in Garland, Grant 43.

25. Grant, 1 Memoirs 38–39. Grant’s reference is to the nine historical novels of Bulwer-Lytton, James Fenimore Cooper, the naval adventure stories of Frederick Marryat, and the exuberant novels of Charles Lever. In the spring of his last year at the academy Grant wrote twice to Lever’s American publisher for copies of Charles O’Malley and Harry Lorrequer. 1 Grant Papers 11.

26. In his senior year, Grant was elected president of the Dialectic Society, the academy’s only literary club. Winfield Scott Hancock was secretary. For membership certificates signed by Grant and Hancock, see ibid. 21.

27. Weir’s large mural, The Embarkation of the Pilgrims, painted during Grant’s stay at West Point, adorns the rotunda of the United States Capitol.

28. McFeely, Grant 18.

29. Grant, 1 Memoirs 53.

30. Ibid. 39.

31. James B. Fry, “An Acquaintance with Grant,” 141 North American Review 540 (1885).

32. “That horse will kill you some day,” a classmate, Charles S. Hamilton, told Grant. “Well, I can only die once,” Grant was quoted as replying. Albert Deane Richardson, A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant 92–93 (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing, 1868).

33. Fry, “An Acquaintance with Grant” 540.

34. Richardson cites the record at “over six feet.” A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant 92; cf., Garland, Grant 51.

35. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 94.

36. Grant, 1 Memoirs 42–43.

37. Ibid. 43.

38. Ibid. 44.

39. For Kearny generally, see Dwight L. Clarke, Stephen Watts Kearny (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1961).

40. Grant, 1 Memoirs 45–46.

41. Ibid.

42. Ibid.

43. Julia Dent Grant, The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant 47, John Y. Simon, ed. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1975).

44. Longstreet interview, New York Times, July 24, 1885.

45. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 104. Cf., McFeely, Grant 22–23; Harry Wright Newman, The Maryland Dents 70 (Richmond: Dietz Press, 1963).

46. Longstreet became engaged to Maria Louisa Garland, daughter of the 4th Infantry’s commander, Lieutenant Colonel John Garland, in May 1844. They were married March 8, 1848, the war with Mexico having intervened. Wert, Longstreet 36–49.

47. Emmy Dent Casey, “When Grant Went a Courtin’,” typewritten manuscript, quoted in Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 105. Also see the remarks of Mary Robinson, a Dent family friend, in the St. Louis Republican, July 24, 1885.

48. P. Mauro and his daughters, the Misses Mauro, operated an Academy for Young Ladies at Fifth and Market streets, St. Louis. The course of study was advertised in the Missouri Republican, July 2, 1839.

49. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 105; Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 47–48.

50. Mrs. Grant related the story to Longstreet long afterward. Longstreet interview, New York Times, July 24, 1885.

51. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 48–49.

52. Ibid.

53. Ibid.

54. Grant, 1 Memoirs 48.

55. Ibid. 47.

56. Grant had great respect for Ewell, and went far out of his way in his Memoirs to commend him. “He was a man much esteemed, and deservedly so, in the old Army, and proved himself a gallant and efficient officer in two wars—both in my estimation unholy.” Ibid. 49.

57. Ibid. 50.

58. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 50.

59. Grant to Julia Dent, July 28, 1844, 1 Grant Papers 29–33.

CHAPTER TWO: MEXICO

General Porfirio Díaz was president of Mexico from 1876 to 1880 and 1884 to 1911. The quotation is commonly attributed to him. John S. D. Eisenhower, So Far from God xv (New York: Random House, 1989).

1. Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast: A Personal Narrative of a Life at Sea (New York: Harper, 1840). Lieutenant John C. Frémont’s Report of the Exploring Expedition to . . . Oregon and North California, the first detailed survey of the region, was not published until the autumn of 1845.

2. In 1830 the Mexican Congress, alarmed at increasing American emigration, enacted a new colonization law designed to cut off further American settlement. However, it was not implemented effectively and migration continued as before. Frederick Merk, Manifest Destiny and Mission in American History 20–21 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1963).

3. Ulysses S. Grant, 1 Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant 53 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).

4. Ibid. 54–55.

5. Ibid. 56.

6. According to figures provided by the Department of Defense, American wartime casualties were as follows:

	NUMBER SERVING	DEATHS	RATE
Mexican War	78,718	13,283	16.9%
Civil War (Union)	2,213,363	364,511	16.4%
World War I	4,743,826	116,708	2.4%
World War II	16,353,659	407,316	2.5%
Vietnam War	8,744,000	58,168	0.7%

7. Grant to Mrs. George B. Bailey, June 6, 1844, 1 The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant 28, John Y. Simon, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967).

8. Grant, 1 Memoirs 57–58.

9. Some students of the game believe brag was the earliest example of poker. See David Parlett, The Oxford Guide to Card Games 101 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). The game itself is a three-card form of non–draw poker, similar to 21 or three-card monte, except the hands are dealt face down with each player turning up his last card. Any player may brag he holds the best hand, and the betting begins at that point. Hoyle described it in 1751, and the 1835 edition of Hoyle’s Games, edited by G.H____, Esq., holds that while the game is “not near so much in vogue as formerly, [it] is at present much patronized at the Oriental Club, in Hanover Square” (pages 240–42). (London: Longman, Rees, 1835). For commentary on Hoyle’s “Treatise on Brag,” see Allen Dowling, The Great American Pastime 23–40 (New York: A. S. Barnes, 1970).

10. James Longstreet interview, New York Times, July 24, 1885.

11. Grant to Julia, July 28, 1844, 1 Grant Papers 31.

12. Grant to Julia, August 31, 1844, ibid. 36.

13. Polk received 170 electoral votes to Clay’s 105, with New York’s 36 providing the margin of victory. If New York had gone for Clay, he would have won 141–134. Polk’s popular vote total in New York was 237,588; Clay received 232,482, and Birney 15,812. Congressional Quarterly, Guide to U.S. Elections 267 (Washington, D.C.: Congressional Quarterly, 1975).

14. 9 United States Statutes at Large 108. The constitutionality of admitting Texas by joint resolution rather than treaty was briefly contested, but the text of the Constitution supported Tyler’s approach. According to Article IV, Section 3, “New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union. . . .” The method is not specified, which would seem to leave the determination to Congress. In United States v. Texas, 143 U.S. 621, 634 (1892), Justice John Marshall Harlan, speaking for the Court, simply assumed the method was constitutional when he said Texas “was admitted into the Union on an equal footing with the original States in all respects whatever.”

15. In his Memoirs Grant stated his leave commenced May 1, 1845. War Department records indicate that his leave was from April 1 to May 6. Grant, 1 Memoirs 35; Regimental Records, Camp Salubrity, National Archives.

16. Emma Dent Casey, “When Grant Went a Courtin’,” unpublished manuscript, quoted in Lloyd Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 122 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1950).

17. Bancroft to Taylor, June 29, 1845, U.S. Congress, House, Executive Document No. 60, 30th Cong., 1st sess., Messages of the President of the United States with the Correspondence Therewith Communicated, Between the Secretary of War and Other Officers of the Government on the Subject of the Mexican War 79–81 (Washington, D.C.: Wendell and Van Benthuysen, 1848), hereinafter cited as Mex. War Corres.; K. Jack Bauer, Zachary Taylor: Soldier, Planter, Statesman of the Old Southwest 115 note 17 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1985).

18. Bauer, Zachary Taylor. 116. Taylor was a staunch Whig, and according to Lieutenant George Meade, he was “opposed in toto to the Texas annexation.” 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 26, George Meade, ed. (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1913).

19. Grant, 1 Memoirs 62–63.

20. In 1845 the United States had four regiments of artillery. Each regiment contained eight batteries, seven of which were equipped with heavy guns designed for stationary emplacement. Only one battery per regiment was mobile field artillery. These batteries were equipped with four howitzers each, and all four batteries were assigned to Taylor at Corpus Christi.

21. Eisenhower, So Far from God 35.

22. Grant, 1 Memoirs 168.

23. Ibid. 138, 100.

24. Ibid. 100.

25. Ibid. 139.

26. Ibid. 100.

27. Meade to his wife, April 24, 1864, 2 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 191.

28. Lafayette McLaws interview, New York Times, July 24, 1885.

29. Only five of Grant’s thirty-eight classmates were promoted before him. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 128.

30. E. Kirby Smith to his wife, August 28, 1845, in E. Kirby Smith, To Mexico with Scott: Letters of Ephrim Kirby Smith to His Wife 43 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1917).

31. Meade to his wife, November 3, 1845, 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 35–36.

32. Grant, 1 Memoirs 64–65.

33. Ibid. 77–78. Emphasis in original.

34. Ibid. 87.

35. Ibid. 70.

36. Longstreet interview, New York Times, July 24, 1885.

37. Grant to Julia, September 14, 1845, 1 Grant Papers 54.

38. Grant to Julia, from Corpus Christi, October, 1845, ibid. 59.

39. Grant to Julia, February 5, 1846, ibid. 71.

40. Grant to Julia, February 7, 1846, ibid. 73. Also see Grant’s letter to Julia, March 3, 1846, ibid. 74–75.

41. Grant to Julia, March 3, 1846, ibid.

42. Army of Occupation Order 30, March 8, 1846, Mex. War Corres. 119–120.

43. Grant, 1 Memoirs 85.

44. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 56.

45. Grant, 1 Memoirs 86.

46. Ibid. 88.

47. Grant to Julia, March 29, 1846, 1 Grant Papers 78.

48. E. Kirby Smith to his wife, letter written in increments beginning March 17, 1846, in Eisenhower, So Far from God 53–54.

49. Ibid. For Taylor’s laconic report of the crossing, see his dispatch to the adjutant general, March 25, 1846, Mex. War Corres. 129.

50. To ease the aches of the men working on the fortifications, Taylor ordered an extra gill of whiskey be issued to them each day. Army of Occupation Order 39, Special Orders No. 45, Record Group 94, National Archives, April 6, 1846.

51. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 58–59.

52. Ampudia to Taylor, April 12, 1846, Mex. War. Corres. 140.

53. Ibid. 139–40.

54. Taylor to the adjutant general (TAG), April 26, 1846, ibid. 141.

55. President Polk’s message to Congress, May 11, 1846, ibid. 8.

56. Grant to John W. Lowe, June 26, 1846, 1 Grant Papers 95.

57. Grant, 1 Memoirs 92.

58. Army of Occupation Order No. 58, May 7, 1846, Mex. War Corres. 487.

59. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 83.

60. Grant, 1 Memoirs 94.

61. The verse is from Rudyard Kipling’s “Gunga Din,” Barrack-room Ballads and Other Verses 23–30 (London: Methuen, 1892).

62. Grant, 1 Memoirs 94.

63. Ibid. 95.

64. Major Samuel Ringgold, Taylor’s senior artillery officer. Ringgold is credited with developing the field artillery arm prior to the Mexican War. He was mortally wounded at Palo Alto and died several days later at Point Isabel.

65. Grant to Julia, May 11, 1846, 1 Grant Papers 85.

66. Ibid. Captain John Page and Lieutenant Henry D. Wallen were friends of the Dents in St. Louis. Page died of his wounds, July 12, 1846.

67. Grant to Lowe, June 26, 1846, ibid. 96.

68. Grant to Julia, May 11, 1846, ibid. 85.

69. Although the Mexican army deployed three times as many artillery pieces at Palo Alto as did Taylor, the American guns got off some 3,000 rounds to the enemy’s 750. Russell F. Weigley, History of the United States Army 184 (New York: Macmillan, 1967).

70. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 80.

71. Grant to Lowe, June 26, 1846, 1 Grant Papers 96.

72. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 83.

73. Grant, 1 Memoirs 97–98.

74. Ibid.

75. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 81–83.

76. Taylor to adjutant general, May 12, 1846, Mex. War Corres. 297.

77. Grant to Julia, May 11, 1846, 1 Grant Papers 86.

78. Grant to Lowe, June 26, 1846, ibid. 97.

79. Bauer, Zachary Taylor 164–65, and the sources cited therein.

80. Grant to Lowe, June 26, 1846, 1 Grant Papers 97.

81. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 105, 94, 121.

82. Ibid. 121.

83. Hamlin Garland, Ulysses S. Grant 74, 2nd ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1920).

84. Taylor advised the War Department his prime concern was to draw volunteers from “as many states as possible.” In fact, he chose the units least depleted by disease: three regiments of Texans; the Mississippi Rifles (commanded by Taylor’s former son-in-law, Colonel Jefferson Finis Davis); the Tennessee Regiment; the 1st Ohio; and the Baltimore-Washington Battalion. Taylor to adjutant general, September 3, 1846, Mex. War Corres. 417.

85. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant, 167–68.

86. Ibid. 168–69.

87. Grant, 1 Memoirs 105–6.

88. The comment was made by Grant’s friend, Alexander Hays, later General Hays, who was killed leading his brigade against Confederate forces in the Wilderness. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 172.

89. Justin Smith, 1 The War with Mexico 230–38 (New York: Macmillan, 1919).

90. Worth’s division consisted of the 5th, 7th, and 8th infantry regiments, two battalions of dismounted artillerymen, the Texas cavalry, and two howitzer batteries. Mex. War Corres. 102.

91. Grant, 1 Memoirs 110–11.

92. Ibid. 111.

93. Ibid. 112.

94. Robert McNutt McElroy, 1 Jefferson Davis: The Unreal and the Real 83 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1937).

95. John R. Kenly, Memoirs of a Maryland Volunteer 119 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1873).

96. Charles P. Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics 136 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964).

97. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 135.

98. John W. Emerson, “Grant’s Life in the West and his Mississippi Valley Campaigns,” Midland Monthly 40 (January 1897).

99. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 136.

100. Grant, 1 Memoirs 115–16.

101. The comments are those of Mary Robinson, who heard Grant tell the story at White Haven in 1848. St. Louis Republican, July 24, 1885.

102. Taylor’s orders, sent to him by General Winfield Scott, June 12, 1846, were ambiguous: “Should continued success attend your operations, you may sometime before be met by the proposition to treat for peace, with an intermediate armistice. No such proposition will be entertained by you, without your first being satisfied that it is made in good faith on the part of the enemy. Being satisfied on that point, you may conclude an armistice for a limited time, and refer the proposition to treat for peace to the government here.” Ampudia told Taylor that was the intent of the Mexican government, and Taylor was satisfied. Eisenhower, So Far from God 148–49.

103. James K. Polk, entry of October 11, 1846, Polk: The Diary of a President, 1845–1849, 155, Allan Nevins, ed. (London: Longmans Green, 1929).

104. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 138–39.

105. Ibid. 151. Emphasis in original.

106. Grant, 1 Memoirs 117.

107. Taylor to adjutant general, September 28, 1846, Mex. War Corres. 424.

108. Grant to Julia, October 3, 1846, 1 Grant Papers 113.

109. Ibid.

110. Grant, 1 Memoirs 138.

111. Ibid. 138–39.

112. Eisenhower, So Far from God 173.

113. Diary of Private Joshua E. Jackson, Illinois State Historical Library.

114. 1 Life and Letters of General George Gordon Meade 182.

115. For the role of the Mississippi Rifles at Buena Vista, see Joseph E. Chance, Jefferson Davis’s Mexican War Regiment 81–103 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991).

116. It was on this occasion Taylor allegedly said, “A little more grape, Captain Bragg.” What Taylor actually called out was: “What are you using, Captain, grape or canister?”

“Canister, General.”

“Single or double?”

“Single.”

“Well, double-shot your guns and give ’em hell.”

See Grady McWhiney, Braxton Bragg and Confederate Defeat 90–93 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969).

117. Smith, 1 War with Mexico 395.

118. Grant, 1 Memoirs 124.

119. Daniel H. Hill, “The Real Stonewall Jackson,” 47 Century Magazine 624 (November 1893–April 1894).

120. Mex. War Corres. 230–37; Douglas Southhall Freeman, 1 R.E. Lee 225–35 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1934); Charles W. Eliot, Winfield Scott: The Soldier and the Man 461–62 (New York: Macmillan, 1937).

121. Grant to John W. Lowe, May 3, 1847, 1 Grant Papers 135–37.

122. Ibid.

123. Mex. War Corres. 1089–90; Winfield Scott, 2 The Memoirs of Lieut-Gen Winfield Scott 445–51 (New York: Sheldon, 1864).

124. Grant, 1 Memoirs 134.

125. Ibid. 132.

126. Eisenhower, So Far from God 297, 303.

127. Smith, 2 War with Mexico 89.

128. Grant, 1 Memoirs 137.

129. R. Ernest Dupuy and Trevor N. Dupuy, Military Heritage of America 160–61 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1956).

130. The 1,053 American casualties included 137 killed, 878 wounded, and 38 missing. 30th Congress, 2nd session, House Executive Document 1, Message of the President of the United States . . . With Accompanying Documents 313–14 (Washington, D.C.: Wendall and Van Benthuysen, 1848).

131. Smith, 2 War with Mexico 118; K. Jack Bauer, The Mexican War 305 note 38 (New York: Macmillan, 1974).

132. Scott, 2 Memoirs 481–82.

133. Grant, 1 Memoirs 145–46.

134. Eisenhower, So Far from God 330–31; Bauer, Mexican War 306–7.

135. Grant, 1 Memoirs 148.

136. See, for example, Smith, 2 War with Mexico 127–39; Bauer, Mexican War 307–8; Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 237.

137. Lewis, ibid.

138. Ibid. 153.

139. Ethan Allen Hitchcock, Fifty Years in Camp and Field: Diary of Major-General Ethan Allen Hitchcock 297–98, W. A. Crofutt, ed. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1909).

140. John Sedgwick, 1 Correspondence of John Sedgwick, Major General 113, 138 (New York: DeVinne, 1902).

141. Grant, 1 Memoirs 154.

142. Dupuy and Dupuy, Military Heritage 166.

143. Bauer, Mexican War 318.

144. Grant, 1 Memoirs 158.

145. Ibid. 159.

146. Dupuy and Dupuy, Military Heritage 166.

147. Bauer, Mexican War 326.

148. Grant, 1 Memoirs 164.

149. Ibid. 165–66.

150. Ibid. 168–69.

151. Grant to Julia, September 1847, 1 Grant Papers 146–48.

CHAPTER THREE: RESIGNATION

1. For the text of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, see 5 Treaties and Other International Acts of the United States 207–36, David Hunter Miller, ed. (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1937). Also see Robert W. Drexler, Guilty of Making Peace: A Biography of Nicholas P. Trist 120ff. (Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 1991).

2. The Senate’s advice and consent was a near-run thing. Democratic senators from the South, led by Sam Houston and Jefferson Davis, opposed the treaty because it did not incorporate northern Mexico into the United States, while the Whigs, led by Daniel Webster, opposed it because it took anything other than Texas. Ultimately the Democrats fell into line and the treaty was approved by a vote of 38–14, four more than the required two-thirds majority. See especially Richard Griswold del Castillo, The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo: A Legacy of Conflict 43–51 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1990).

3. Grant to Julia, September, 1847, 1 The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant 146–47, John Y. Simon, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967).

4. Grant to Julia, January 9, 1848, ibid. 148–49.

5. Ulysses S. Grant, 1 Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant 162–63 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).

6. Sixty-eight were killed in battle; 218 died of wounds, disease, and accidents. Niles Weekly Register, November 15, 1848.

7. For McClellan’s reaction to West Point and the Mexican War, see Stephen W. Sears, George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon 5–27 (New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1988), as well as The Mexican War Diary of General George B. McClellan, 16–21, William Starr Myers, ed. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1917). For Halleck, see Stephen E. Ambrose, Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff 7 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962). Also see Recollections of General Henry W. Halleck in 1847–49, Doyce B. Nunis, ed. (Los Angeles: Dawson’s Book Shop, 1977).

8. The comment is that of Joseph E. Johnston, quoted in A. C. Avery, “Life and Character of Lieutenant-General D. H. Hill,” 21 Southern Historical Society Papers 115 (1893).

9. Joseph Hooker, address to the fifth reunion of the Society of the Army of the Cumberland, 1871 (Cincinnati: no publisher, 1872).

10. 30 War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies 358 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1890).

11. Grant, 1 Memoirs 191–92.

12. Ibid. 180.

13. For Grant’s affidavit and supporting documents concerning the theft, see 1 Grant Papers 162–63.

14. Grant, 1 Memoirs 175–78.

15. Grant to Julia, September 1847, 1 Grant Papers 146.

16. Grant to Julia, January 9, 1848, ibid. 148–49.

17. Grant to Julia, February 14, 1848, ibid. 150–52.

18. Grant to Julia, March 22, 1848, ibid. 153–54.

19. Grant to Julia, May 7, 1848, ibid. 155–57.

20. Cadmus Marcellus Wilcox, History of the Mexican War 551–52, Mary Rachel Wilcox, ed. (Washington, D.C.: Church News Publishing, 1892).

21. 1 Grant Papers 164, note; cf. Grant, 1 Memoirs 193.

22. Julia Dent Grant, The Personal Memoirs of Julia Dent Grant: Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant 54–55, John Y. Simon, ed. (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1975); Emma Dent Casey, “When Grant Went a Courtin’,” quoted in Lloyd Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 283 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1950).

23. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 55.

24. Ibid. 56.

25. See Grant to Maj. O. F. Winship, Ass’t. Adjt. Gen., February 23, 1849, 1 Grant Papers 175–77.

26. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 59.

27. Lee to Quartermaster General, December 2, 1848, 1 Grant Papers 169.

28. For the history of Madison Barracks, including a description of the battle of Sackets Harbor, May 29, 1813, see Gordon G. Heiner, From Saints to Red Legs: Madison Barracks, the History of a Border Post 18 (Watertown, N.Y.: A. W. Munk, n.d.).

29. Lee to the adjutant general (TAG), January 16, 1849, 1 Grant Papers 381.

30. Grant to the Ass’t Adjt. Gen., February 23, 1849, ibid. 175–77.

31. Lee to TAG, January 29, 1849, ibid. 381.

32. Eastern Division Special Orders No. 18, March 2, 1849, cited ibid. 181, note.

33. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 61–62.

34. From Julia’s description of social life in Detroit, see ibid. 65–68.

35. Grant, 1 Memoirs 233.

36. Albert Deane Richardson, A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant 138 (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing, 1868).

37. Grant to Julia, June 4,1851, 1 Grant Papers 204–5.

38. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 69–71. Also see Grant to Julia, June 29 and August 3, 1851, 1 Grant Papers 214, 223.

39. Grant’s commission as brevet captain carried the date of rank as May 27, 1851. It is reproduced in William H. Allen, The American Civil War Book and Grant Album 82 (Boston: W. H. Allen, 1894).

40. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 71.

41. Grant, 1 Memoirs 194.

42. Grant to Julia, June 24, 1852, 1 Grant Papers 237–39.

43. At Grant’s request, General Worth convened a board of inquiry in Mexico. Chaired by Colonel Francis Lee of the 4th Infantry, it concluded “no blame can attach to Lt. U.S. Grant, that he took every means to secure the Money, and that the place he deposited it was the most secure in camp.” Mary A. Benjamin, “Grant and the Lost $1,000,” 69 The Collector 17–20 (1956).

44. The statement of fact is provided by John S. Gallagher, third auditor of the Treasury, in a letter to Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treasury, February 12, 1852. It is quoted in 1 Grant Papers 244 note 1.

45. Grant to Julia, July 4, 1852, ibid. 245–46. Grant’s effort to clear the record began in 1849 when at his request Representative David Fisher of Ohio introduced a private bill “The Memorial of U.S. Grant, of the United States Army, praying to be released from further payment to the government, of public moneys which were stolen from him near Jalapa, in Mexico.” 30th Cong., 2d sess., House Journal 345. The same petition was reintroduced in the next Congress by Representative Jonathan Morris of Ohio. 31st Cong., 1st sess., House Journal 1073.

46. “Reminiscences of Delia B. Sheffield” 50, William S. Lewis, ed., 15 Washington Historical Quarterly (Summer 1924).

47. John Haskell Kemble, The Panama Route 239 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1943).

48. Grant to Julia, July 15, 1852, 1 Grant Papers 247–49.

49. Grant, 1 Memoirs 195–97; 1 Grant Papers 249–50, 261–62. One survivor wrote “the most laborious part [of the trip] fell to the lot of our quartermaster, Captain Grant, [whose] services were of the greatest importance. . . . His kindliness and thoughtfulness were not confined to his own command, but he assisted many [civilian] passengers in getting across the Isthmus.” [Lieutenant] Henry C. Hodges to William Conant Church, July 7, 1897, Church Papers, Library of Congress.

50. Sheffield, “Reminiscences” 56.

51. Hamlin Garland, Ulysses S. Grant 119 (New York: Macmillan, 1920); Frank A. Burr, General U.S. Grant 114 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1885).

52. Grant to Julia, August 9, 1852, 1 Grant Papers 251–53.

53. Grant to Julia, February 15, 1853, ibid. 287–90.

54. Hodges to Church, July 7, 1897, Church Papers.

55. Grant told Congress “The subject of an interocean canal to connect the Atlantic and Pacific oceans through the Isthmus of Darien is one in which commerce is greatly interested. Instructions have been given to our minister to the Republic of Columbia [sic] to endeavor to obtain authority for a survey by this Government, in order to determine the practicability of such an undertaking, and a charter for the right of way to build, by private enterprise, such a work, if the survey proves it to be practicable.” 7 Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897 33, James D. Richardson, ed. (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1898).

56. Charles G. Ellington, The Trial of U.S. Grant: The Pacific Coast Years, 1852–1854 64 (Glendale, California: Arthur H. Clarke, 1987).

57. Panama Herald, July 27, 1852.

58. Major O. Cross to Quartermaster General, August 31, 1852, House Executive Document No. 1 89 (Serial No. 674), 32nd Cong., 1st sess.

59. Grant to Julia, August 9, 1852, 1 Grant Papers 253. Grant’s subsequent statement to the board of survey placed responsibility on the local contractor’s failure to provide prompt transportation across the isthmus. Ibid. 261–62.

60. Bureau of the Census, A Century of Population Growth, 1790–1900 222–23 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1909); Joann Levy, They Saw the Elephant: Women in the California Gold Rush xv (Hamden, Conn.: Anchor, 1990).

61. Grant to Julia, September 19, 1852, 1 Grant Papers 265–67.

62. Grant, 1 Memoirs 200.

63. Hodges to Church, July 7, 1897, Church Papers.

64. Grant to Julia, August 20, 1852, 1 Grant Papers 256–58.

65. Grant, 1 Memoirs 201.

66. Grant to Julia, August 30, 1852, 1 Grant Papers 258–60.

67. Arthur S. Morton, A History of the Canadian West to 1870–71 2nd ed., Lewis G. Thomas, ed. (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1973). Also see Richard I. Ruggles, A Country So Interesting: The Hudson’s Bay Company and Two Centuries of Mapping 175–77 (Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1991).

68. Grant to Julia, October 7, 1852, 1 Grant Papers 267–69.

69. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 72. Grant’s veiled account of the episode is lightly touched on in his letters to Julia of February 15, March 31, and June 15, 1853^, 1 Grant Papers 289, 297, 301.

70. Frank A. Burr, General U.S. Grant 116 (Boston: Little Brown, 1885).

71. Ibid.

72. Grant to Julia, February 15, 1853, 1 Grant Papers 287–90.

73. Grant to Julia, March 4, 1853, ibid. 290–93.

74. Grant to Julia, March 31, 1853, ibid. 296–98.

75. Grant to Julia, March 19, 1853, ibid. 294–96.

76. Grant to Julia, June 15, 1853, ibid. 301–3.

77. The episode was related by Delia Sheffield, whose husband had been recruited by Grant to buy the chickens. Sheffield, “Reminiscences” 61.

78. 2 Historical Magazine 179, 2nd Series, September 1867.

79. Burr, General Grant 116. It was typical of Grant’s sense of honor that on June 28, 1855, when he was struggling to make a living as a farmer in Missouri, he wrote Wallen a promise to pay $300 because of “our unfortunate San Francisco speculations.” Ten years later, on December 29, 1865, General Grant sent Wallen a check canceling the debt.

80. Grant to Julia, October 26, 1852, 1 Grant Papers 269–70.

81. Grant to Julia, December 3, 1852, ibid. 274–76.

82. Grant to Julia, December 19, 1852, ibid. 277–79.

83. Grant to Julia, March 4, 1853, ibid. 290–93.

84. Grant to Julia, March 31, 1853, ibid. 296–98.

85. Grant to Julia, June 15, 1853, ibid. 301–3.

86. Ibid.

87. Second Lieutenant George Crook, who joined the 4th Infantry in San Francisco in 1852, remembered that all of the officers he met were drunk at least once a day, “and mostly until the wee hours of the morning. I never had seen such gambling and carousing before or since.

“My first duty after reporting was a file closer to the funeral escort of major [Albert S.] Miller, who had just died from the effects of strong drink. Major Hannibal Day commanded the escort, and when all of us officers had assembled in the room where the corpse was lying, he said, ‘Well, fellows, Old Miller is dead and he can’t drink, so let’s us all take a drink.’ I was never more horrified in my life.” General George Crook: His Autobiography 7, Martin F. Schmitt, ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1946).

88. The testimony is that of Commissary General Robert McFeely, then a second lieutenant in the 4th Infantry, who served with Grant from 1851 to 1853. Ellington, Trial of U.S. Grant 167.

89. Hodges to Church, January 5, 1897, Church Papers.

90. McClellan was a perfectionist even then. His plans called for a party of 61 persons, 200 horses and pack mules, three months’ rations, plus an infantry escort of 29 soldiers from Fort Vancouver. Two weeks out McClellan realized he had overprepared. He cut everything by half and sent the infantry escort back. Sears, George B. McClellan 38. For Grant’s comments on the expedition, see his letters to Julia, June 15 and June 28, 1853, and to the chief quartermaster of the Pacific Division, July 25, 1853. 1 Grant Papers 301–5, 308–10.

91. Hodge to Church, January 5, 1897, Church Papers. Also see Sears, George B. McClellan 38, 73.

92. Grant to Commissary General, September 8, 1853, 1 Grant Papers 312–13.

93. For Grant’s intent, see his letters to Julia, January 29 and February 15, 1853, ibid. 285–90.

94. Ibid. 311 note.

95. Quartermaster General to Grant, December 2, 1853, ibid. note. The commissary general’s office also replied negatively, December 17, 1853, ibid. 313 note.

96. Lloyd Lewis states Grant received notification on September 20, 1853. The vacancy occurred upon the death of Brevet Lieutenant Colonel William W. S. Bliss, the longtime aide to General Taylor, August 5, 1853. Bliss had been carried on the rolls of the 4th Infantry for nineteen years, although except for a few months after his graduation from West Point in 1834, he had not served with the regiment. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 320, 322.

97. Davis’s letter to Grant was dated August 9, 1853, although President Pierce did not sign his commission until February 9, 1854. 1 Grant Papers 312 note. The War Department was often behind in its paperwork and there was nothing unusual in the delay.

98. Sheffield, “Reminiscences” 61.

99. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 323. Lieutenant George Crook, who served with Buchanan at Fort Humboldt, thought he was “particularly elated with his own importance and lost no opportunity to impress upon all of us . . . how far we fell short of what he expected.” Crook was appointed Buchanan’s adjutant and as he reports, “I soon became familiar with his idiosyncrasies, and I avoided him whenever it was possible, for I never believed in that mode of discipline which consists in trying to break down men’s self respect and make a mere machine of them instead of appealing to their better feelings and judgment.

“Colonel Buchanan’s principle was to allow no subordinate to make suggestions unasked, and told me, on one occasion, never to take the suggestions of a non-commissioned officer but go ahead and do it my own way, even if I knew I was wrong. It was clear he must have followed this principle, judging from the number of mistakes he made.”

Crook wrote with an acid pen. His view of Buchanan is benign compared with his appreciation of Philip H. Sheridan, his former West Point roommate, with whom he served at Cedar Creek. “The adulations heaped on him by a grateful nation for his supposed genius turned his head, which, added to his natural disposition, caused him to bloat his little carcass with debauchery and dissipation, which carried him off prematurely.” Crook, Autobiography 9–10, 134 note.

100. J. C. Ropes, The Army Under Pope 140 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1882).

101. The inspector general’s report was rendered by Colonel Joseph Mansfield, later Major General Mansfield, who was killed leading his division of the Army of the Potomac at Antietam. Joseph K. F. Mansfield on the Conditions of the Western Forts, 1853–1854 119–20, 162–63, Robert W. Frazer, ed. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1963).

102. Grant to Julia, July 13, 1853, 1 Grant Papers 305–7.

103. Grant to Julia, January 18, 1854, ibid. 315.

104. Grant to Julia, February 2, 1854, ibid. 316–18.

105. W. I. Reed to William C. Church, August 25, 1909, Church Papers.

106. Grant to Julia, February 6, 1854, 1 Grant Papers 320–22.

107. Ibid. 322 note 2.

108. Grant to Julia, March 6, 1854, ibid. 322–24. Emphasis in original.

109. Ibid.

110. Grant to Julia, April 3, 1854. Grant began the letter on March 25, was interrupted after writing a few lines, and continued on April 3. Ibid. 326–28.

111. Grant to the adjutant general (TAG), April 11, 1854, ibid. 329.

112. Hodges to Church, January 5, 1897, Church Papers.

113. Garland, Grant 127.

114. Grant, 1 Memoirs 210.

115. John Eaton and Ethel O. Mason, Grant, Lincoln, and the Freedmen: Reminiscences of the Civil War with Special Reference for the Work of the Contrabands and Freedmen of the Mississippi Valley 100 (New York: Longmans, Green, 1907).

116. The regimental commander to whom Buchanan spoke was Thomas Anderson, who afterward commanded Fort Vancouver and became a general officer during the Philippine Insurrection. Thomas Anderson to Hamlin Garland, August 15, 1896, Garland Papers.

117. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 75.

118. Grant to Julia, May 2, 1854, 1 Grant Papers 332.

119. War Department Special Orders No. 87, June 3, 1854.

120. 1 Grant Papers 330.

121. Ibid.

122. Ibid. 330–31.

123. Ibid. 331.

124. New York Daily Times, June 26, 1854. For details of Grant’s voyage home, see Ellington, Trial of U.S. Grant 191–98.

125. Garland, Grant 128–29; Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 336–37.

126. Buckner interview with Hamlin Garland, Garland Papers.

127. Ibid. Also see Arndt M. Stickles, Simon Bolivar Buckner: Borderland Knight 34 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940).

128. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 72.

129. William S. McFeely, Grant: A Biography 57 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981).

130. Grant, 1 Memoirs 210–11.

131. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 79.

132. The team of horses was provided on easy terms by Charles Ford, manager of the United States Express at St. Louis, an old friend of Grant’s from Sackets Harbor. Grant never forgot Ford’s assistance. Hamlin Garland, “Grant’s Life in Missouri,” 8 McClure’s Magazine 516 (1897).

133. Grant to Jesse Grant, December 28, 1856, 1 Grant Papers 334–35.

134. Grant to Jesse Grant, February 1857, ibid. 336–37.

135. Washington Post, July 24, 1885.

136. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 346–47.

137. Garland, Grant 137–38. After leaving the presidency in 1877, whenever Grant visited Washington he stayed with General Beale, and it was Beale to whom he gave the two Arabian stallions presented to him by the sultan of Turkey. Beale later sold one of the stallions, Leopard, to Randolph Huntington, who began the first purebred Arabian breeding program in the United States. See Chapter 20. For Beale on Grant, see Washington Post, July 24, 1885.

138. Church, Grant 57.

139. Ibid.

140. Grant to his sister Mary, August 22, 1857, 1 Grant Papers 338–39.

141. Grant received $22 from J. S. Freligh of St. Louis. Whether he redeemed the watch is unknown. Ibid. 339–40.

142. Grant to Mary Grant, March 21, 1858, ibid. 340–41; Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 80.

143. James Longstreet interview, New York Times, July 24, 1885.

144. Grant to Mary Grant, September 7, 1858, 1 Grant Papers 343.

145. Garland, “Grant’s Life in Missouri” 518.

146. Ibid. 518–19.

147. The figures were compiled from the St. Louis Republican, 1856–58.

148. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 363.

149. 1 Grant Papers 353 note 1.

150. Ibid. 347. After describing William Jones’s appearance, Grant certified that he did “hereby manumit, emancipate and set free said William from slavery forever.”

151. The text of Reynolds’s letter, with Frost’s endorsement, is ibid. 348–49. Reynolds later served as a major general of volunteers and was Thomas’s chief of staff in the Army of the Cumberland. Frost became a brigadier general in the Confederate army.

152. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, September 23, 1859, ibid. 351–53. Cf., Garland, “Grant’s Life in Missouri” 517–18.

153. In his Memoirs, Grant attributed his 1856 vote to his fear of war and disunion. “Under these circumstances I preferred the success of a candidate whose election would prevent or postpone secession, to seeing the country plunged into a war the end of which no man could foretell. With a Democrat elected by the unanimous vote of the Slave States, there could be no pretext for secession for four years. I very much hoped that the passions of the people would subside in that time, and the catastrophe be averted altogether; if it was not, I believed the country would be better prepared to receive the shock and resist it. I therefore voted for James Buchanan for President.” Grant, 1 Memoirs 215.

154. John Russell Young, 2 Around the World with General Grant 268 (New York: American News, 1879).

155. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 370.

156. The comment is by George W. Fishback, publisher of the Missouri Democrat, written expressly for McClure’s Magazine. Garland, “Grant’s Life in Missouri” 520.

157. Julia Dent Grant, Personal Memoirs 82.

158. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 371.

159. Grant to Julia, March 14, 1860, 1 Grant Papers 355–56.

160. Bruce Catton, U.S. Grant and the American Military Tradition 53 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954).

161. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 373.

162. Hamlin Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak of the War,” 9 McClure’s Magazine 601 (1897).

163. Jesse has been quoted as saying Grant “took hold of the business with his accustomed industry and was a very good salesman.” The comment was made after the war and warrants skepticism. James Grant Wilson, The Life and Public Services of Ulysses Simpson Grant 16 (New York: R. M. DeWitt, 1885).

164. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 377.

165. 1 Grant Papers 359.

166. Richardson, A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant 172, 175.

167. Richardson, 5 Messages and Papers of the Presidents 3206–13.

168. “I am ordered by the Government of the Confederate States to demand the evacuation of Fort Sumter,” wrote Beauregard. “All proper facilities will be afforded for the removal of yourself and command . . . to any post in the United States which you may select. The flag which you have upheld so long and with so much fortitude, under the most trying circumstances, may be saluted by you on taking it down.” 1 War of the Rebellion.

169. “General,” wrote Anderson, “I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your communication demanding the evacuation of this fort, and to say, in reply thereto, that it is a demand with which I regret that my sense of honor, and of my obligations to my Government, prevent my compliance. Thanking you for the fair, manly, and courteous terms proposed, and for the high compliment paid me, I am, general, very respectfully your obedient servant, Robert Anderson, Major, First Artillery, Commanding.” Ibid.

170. Anderson’s forces held Fort Sumter for a day and a half under sustained fire from Confederate shore batteries. Not until his provisions were exhausted did he strike his colors. As a result of his heroic defense, Anderson became an immediate Union hero. Lincoln promoted him to brigadier general and dispatched him to his native Kentucky to keep that state in the Union. Ill health forced Anderson to retire from the army late in 1861, but he was recalled to active duty briefly in April 1865 and presided over the ceremony on April 12 that raised his shot and tattered battle flag above Fort Sumter once more.

CHAPTER FOUR: WAR

Chaplain Crane’s epigraph quotation is from his article, “Grant As a Colonel: Conversation Between Grant and His Chaplain,” 7 McClure’s Magazine 40 (June 1896).

1. David Herbert Donald suggests Lincoln’s newness in Washington, his inexperience as an administrator, and his preference to react to events rather than take the initiative help explain his inaction during his first six weeks in office. Lincoln 292–93, 645 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995). For additional discussion of Lincoln’s motives, see James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom 272 note 78 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988); James G. Randall, Lincoln the Liberal Statesman 88–117 (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1947); Richard N. Current, Lincoln and the First Shot 194–99 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1963); John Shipley Tilley, Lincoln Takes Command 172–75, 179–89 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1941); Charles W. Ramsdell, “Lincoln and Fort Sumter,” 3 Journal of Southern History 259–88 (1937); Kenneth Stampp, “Lincoln and the Strategy of Defense in the Crisis of 1861,” 11 ibid. 297–32 (1945).

2. On April 9, 1861, Davis, with the consent of his cabinet, and fearing Lincoln was about to reinforce the beleaguered Charleston garrison, instructed Beauregard to “at once demand [Fort Sumter’s] evacuation, and, if this is refused, proceed in such manner as you may determine to reduce it.” Quoted in Shelby Foote, 1 The Civil War 48 (New York: Random House, 1958).

3. The quotation is from T. Harry Williams, P.G.T. Beauregard: Napoleon in Gray 50 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1954).

4. Orville Hickman Browning, entry of July 3, 1861, 1 The Diary of Orville Hickman Browning 477, Theodore C. Pease and James G. Randall, eds. (Springfield: Illinois State Historical Library, 1925).

5. George Ticknor, 2 Life, Letters, and Journals of George Ticknor 433–34, Anna Ticknor and George S. Hillard, eds. (Boston: J. R. Osgood, 1877).

6. New York Times, April 15, 1861.

7. New York Tribune, April 17, 1861.

8. Chicago Tribune, April 15, 1861.

9. Robert W. Johannsen, Stephen A. Douglas 868 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1973).

10. Allan Nevins, 1 The War for the Union 93 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1959).

11. New York Evening Post, April 23, 1861.

12. John B. Gordon, Reminiscences of the Civil War 10 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1904).

13. Henry T. Shanks, The Secession Movement in Virginia, 1847–1861 268 (Richmond, Va.: Garrett and Massie, 1934).

14. William Howard Russell, My Diary North and South 52, Fletcher Pratt, ed. (New York: Harper, 1954).

15. James D. Richardson, ed., 6 Messages and Papers of the Presidents, 1789–1897 13–14 (Washington, D.C.: Bureau of National Literature and Art, 1897).

16. The Virginia convention adopted an ordinance of secession (88–55) on April 17; Arkansas on May 6 (65–5); Tennessee on May 7 (59–22); and North Carolina on May 20 (unanimous). Ralph A. Wooster, The Secession Conventions in the South, 151ff. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1962).

17. Ulysses S. Grant, 1 The Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant 231 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).

18. Grant to Frederick Dent, April 19, 1861, 2 The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant 3–4, John Y. Simon, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1969).

19. Ibid.

20. Augustus Louis Chetlain interview with Hamlin Garland, Hamlin Garland Papers, University of Southern California.

21. Hamlin Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak of the War,” 9 McClure’s Magazine 605 (May 1897).

22. The Galena company styled itself the Jo Daviess Guards, Galena being the county seat of Jo Daviess County. The county was named for Jo Hamilton Daviess, a prominent Kentucky lawyer and Indian fighter. A brother-in-law of Chief Justice John Marshall, Daviess was killed leading a charge at the battle of Tippecanoe in November 1811.

The uniform Grant prescribed was similar to the regular army infantry: blue frock coats and dark gray pants with a blue cord down the side of the trousers. Money to buy the cloth was advanced by the Galena bank, N. Corwith & Co. Local tailors volunteered their services to cut the cloth, and the ladies of Galena made them up. Grant, 1 Memoirs 231–32; 2 Grant Papers 8 note 3.

23. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, April 21, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 6–7. Grant had little reason for concern. Jesse Grant lived unmolested in Kentucky throughout the war. Jesse also anticipated his son’s desire to return to the service. The day after Lincoln’s call for volunteers Jesse had written to General Winfield Scott asking that Grant be recalled to active duty. On April 25, 1861, after receiving Grant’s letter, Jesse wrote to his friend, Attorney General Edward Bates, requesting him to “see General Scott & if necessary the Pres & let me know soon if they can restore him to the Reg Army.” 2 ibid., note 2.

24. Lloyd Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 410 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1950).

25. Grant to Julia, April 27, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 9–11.

26. Wallace J. Schutz and Walter N. Trenerry, Abandoned By Lincoln: A Military Biography of General John Pope 62–64 (Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990).

27. Van Dorn resigned from the United States army on January 3, 1861, six days before his native state of Mississippi seceded. When Jefferson Davis was elected president of the Confederacy, Van Dorn succeeded him as major general of the Mississippi militia. Robert G. Hartje, Van Dorn: The Life and Times of a Confederate General 77 (Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 1967). Longstreet offered his services to the state of Alabama at about the same time. Jeffry D. Wert, General James Longstreet 52–55 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1993). Kirby Smith to his mother, March 3, 1861, Kirby Smith Papers, University of North Carolina. Also see Joseph Howard Parks, General Edmund Kirby Smith, C.S.A. 119 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1954).

28. Craig L. Symonds, Joseph E. Johnston: A Civil War Biography 96–97 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1992).

29. Michael B. Ballard, Pemberton: A Biography 84–87 (Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 1991).

30. Freeman Cleves, Rock of Chickamauga: The Life of General George H. Thomas 67–68 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1948). Thomas’s three maiden sisters, living at the family homestead in Spotswood, Virginia, responded by turning George’s picture to the wall and never spoke or wrote to him again. Insofar as they were concerned, George Thomas died April 17, 1861.

31. Charles P. Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics 252 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964).

32. Foote, I Civil War 59.

33. Walter H. Hebert, Fighting Joe Hooker 49–51 (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1944).

34. Stephen W. Sears, George B. McClellan: The Young Napoleon 64–70 (New York: Ticknor and Fields, 1988).

35. Stephen E. Ambrose, Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff 8–11 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962).

36. Arndt M. Stickles, Simon Bolivar Buckner: Borderland Knight 52–79 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940).

37. Franklin Buchanan commanded the Chesapeake Bay Squadron of the Confederate navy with the Merrimack (C.S.S. Virginia) as his flagship. Later he commanded Confederate forces in the battle of Mobile Bay, the greatest naval engagement of the war. Charles Lee Lewis, Admiral Franklin Buchanan: Fearless Man of Action (Baltimore: Norman, Remington, 1929).

38. Russell F. Weigley, History of the United States Army 199–200 (New York: Macmillan, 1967).

39. Schutz and Trenerry, Abandoned By Lincoln 60. Also see Clark Ezra Carr, The Illini: A Story of the Prairies 364 (Chicago: A. C. McClung, 1905).

40. Grant, I Memoirs 239.

41. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, May 6, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 20–22.

42. Grant to Julia, April 27, 1861, ibid. 9.

43. During the period between Lincoln’s election in November 1860 and the inauguration in March, Washburne served as the president-elect’s informal representative in Washington. It was to Washburne that Lincoln sent a statement of his no-compromise policy. He asked him to tell General Winfield Scott to be ready to defend Federal forts in the South, and even had him make hotel arrangements in Washington. When Lincoln departed from his schedule and entered Washington surreptitiously, only Washburne greeted him on the station platform. John Y. Simon, “From Galena to Appomattox: Grant and Washburne,” 58 Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 165–70 (1965).

44. Cincinnati Commercial, November 16, 1868.

45. Albert Deane Richardson, A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant, 182–183 (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Co., 1868).

46. The voluminous Washburne Papers at the Library of Congress contain no reference to Washburne’s intervention; by 1885, when Grant published his memoirs, he and Washburne had fallen out politically and he barely mentioned his long association with the congressman. But see the essay on Washburne in W. C. King and W. P. Derby, Campfire Sketches and Battle-Field Echoes of the Rebellion 119 (Springfield, Mass.: W. C. King, 1887); Richardson, Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant 181–82; Augustus L. Chetlain, “Recollections of General U.S. Grant,” 1 Military Essays and Recollections 13 (Chicago: Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 1891).

47. Simon, “From Galena to Appomattox,” 187–89.

48. R.H. McClellan, Galena’s delegate in the Illinois legislature, reports that Grant told him, “I’m going home. The politicians have got everything here; there’s no chance for me. I came down [to Springfield] because I felt it my duty. The government educated me, and I felt I ought to offer my services again. I have applied, to no result. I can’t afford to stay here longer, and I am going home.” Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak” 605.

49. Grant, 1 Memoirs 232–33.

50. Grant to Mary Grant, April 29, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 13–14.

51. Hamlin Garland, Life of Ulysses S. Grant 164 (New York: Macmillan, 1898).

52. Grant to Governor Richard Yates, April 29, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 12–13.

53. Garland, Grant 164.

54. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 418–19.

55. Garland, Grant 164–65.

56. Illinois General Orders No. 52, May 8, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 25 note.

57. Illinois numbered its Civil War regiments beginning with the number seven, out of deference to the six regiments of volunteers that served in the Mexican War.

58. Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak,” 607.

59. Grant’s pay voucher, dated May 22, 1861, is reprinted in Garland, Grant 166.

60. “Tell Orvil that he need not be surprised if I should have to draw again for some money,” Grant wrote Julia. “Paying for my meals and tobacco (I have not spent a dollar otherwise and have gone without my dinner sometimes to save four bits) takes a good deal. It will all be made up to me [by the state] when I return home.” Grant to Julia, May 10, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 26–27.

61. The comments are those of Colonel (later Major General) John M. Palmer, quoted in Garland, Grant 166–68.

62. Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak,” 608.

63. Grant to Lorenzo Thomas, TAG, May 24, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 35–36. Many years later Grant wrote he “felt some hesitation in suggesting rank as high as the colonelcy of a regiment. . . . But I had seen nearly every colonel who had been mustered in from the State of Illinois, and some from Indiana, and felt that if they could command a regiment properly, and with credit, I could also.” 1 Memoirs 240–41.

64. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, May 30, 1851, 2 Grant Papers 37.

65. Grant to Julia, June 6, 10, ibid. 37–39.

66. Grant, 1 Memoirs 241.

67. John Russell Young, 2 Around the World with General Grant 214–15 (New York: American News, 1879). McClellan’s recollection of the episode differs, but as his most recent biographer notes, “One officer he did not seek for his staff was Ulysses S. Grant. . . . Grant was known in the old army as a drinker and McClellan would not have forgotten his spree at Fort Vancouver during the Pacific railroad survey in 1853, and he no doubt considered this reason enough to avoid the interview.” Sears, George B. McClellan 73. Cf., George B. McClellan, McClellan’s Own Story 47, W. C. Prime, ed. (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1887).

68. John Luther Ringwalt, Anecdotes of General Ulysses S. Grant 25 (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1886).

69. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 426.

70. New York Herald Tribune, September 27, 1885; 2 Grant Papers 44 note 1.

71. Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak,” 609; Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 427.

72. Jesse R. Grant, “The Early Life of General Grant,” New York Ledger, March 21, 1868; Young, 2 Around the World 215. For documentation relating to Yates’s order, see 2 Grant Papers 43 note 1.

73. Grant to Julia, June 17, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 42–43; Orders No. 7, June 18, 1861, ibid. 45–46.

74. Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 427.

75. Major J. W. Wham interview, New York Tribune, September 27, 1885.

76. Regimental Order Book, 21st Illinois, June 16, 1861, RG 94, National Archives.

77. Crane, “Grant As a Colonel,” 7.

78. Orders No. 7, 21st Ill., June 18, 1861, Grant Papers 45–46.

79. I am indebted to Bruce Catton for this insight into Grant’s assumption of command. Grant Moves South 6–7 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1960).

80. Private Aaron Elliott, in St. Louis Republican, August 22, 1885.

81. Orders No. 8, 21st Illinois, June 19, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 46.

82. Wham interview, New York Tribune, September 27, 1885.

83. Orders No. 9, 21st Illinois, June 19, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 47.

84. Crane, “Grant As a Colonel,” 40.

85. 2 Grant Papers 44–45, note 4. Also see Lewis, Captain Sam Grant 428.

86. Special Orders No. 13, 21st Illinois, June 26, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 49.

87. Special Orders No. 14, 21st Illinois, June 26, 1861, ibid.

88. Grant, 1 Memoirs 243.

89. Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak,” 610.

90. Crane, “Grant As a Colonel,” 9.

91. Grant, 1 Memoirs 246.

92. Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak,” 610.

93. Grant, 1 Memoirs 246–247; Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak” 610; Bruce Catton, U.S. Grant and the American Military Tradition 58–59 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1954).

94. Garland, “Grant at the Outbreak.” 610. Also see Grant’s instructions to his company commanders specifying the items to be requisitioned and packed. Special Orders No. 17, 21st Illinois, June 28, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 55. For an eyewitness account of the march, see Ensley Moore, “Grant’s First March,” Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society for 1910 55–62 (Springfield: ISHS, 1912).

95. Catton, U.S. Grant 59. “Promptness,” said Chaplain Crane, “was one of Grant’s characteristics, and is one of the causes of his success. A general behind time with his division or corps and the day is lost.” “Grant As a Colonel,” 41.

96. Grant to Julia, July 7, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 59–60.

97. The order to Grant has not been located, but see McClellan to Lt. Col. Charles Harding, July 5, 1861, and follow-up telegrams, 3 The War of the Rebellion: Official Records 390–91, 399–401 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880).

98. Orders No. 23, 21st Illinois, July 9, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 61.

99. General Orders No. 24, July 9, 1861, ibid. 62–64.

100. Pope to Grant, July 10, 1861, ibid. 64–65, note. On July 13, 1861, Grant wrote to his father that his regiment performed as effectively as veteran troops might have done. “At the Illinois River, I received a dispatch at eleven o’clock at night that a train of cars would arrive at half past eleven to move my regiment. All the men were of course asleep, but I had the drum beaten, and in forty minutes every tent and all the baggage was at the water’s edge ready to put on aboard the ferry to cross the river.” Ibid. 66–67.

101. Grant, 1 Memoirs 252; General Orders No. 1, July 25, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 74–75. When the 21st was relieved of constabulary duty on the Hannibal & St. Joseph Line, Brigadier General Stephen A. Hurlbut wrote Grant: “In taking leave of the Regt which now probably leaves his command, [the commanding general] desires to render his thanks for orderly and Soldierlike deportment which has given the Regiment a most desirable reputation—no complaint has been made to any Citizen against the 21st Regt. and their Obedience to all Orders and promptness of movement are the best evidence of the attention of the Officers.” Hurlbut to Grant, July 19, 1861, 2 War of the Rebellion 188.

102. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, August 3, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 80–81.

103. Grant, 1 Memoirs 252–53.

104. Crane, “Grant As a Colonel,” 43.

105. Act of July 22, 1861, 12 Stat. 279.

106. Lincoln submitted Grant’s name to the Senate on July 31, 1861. New York Times, August 1, 1861. For Grant’s relative ranking, see Register of the United States Army, September 1861 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1861). Also see Simon, “From Galena to Appomattox,” 171–72.

107. Frémont assumed command of the Western Department, July 25, 1861. Grant was nominated brigadier general by Lincoln on July 31, and confirmed by the Senate on August 5. 8 The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln 593, Roy P. Basler, Marion Delores Pratt, and Lloyd A. Dunlap, eds. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1967).

108. Frémont manuscript memoirs, Bancroft Library, Berkeley, California. Quoted in Allan Nevins, 2 Frémont: The West’s Greatest Adventurer 536 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1928).

109. Thomas L. Snead, The Fight for Missouri from the Election of Lincoln to the Death of Lyon 199–200 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1886).

110. Quoted in Foote, 1 The Civil War 87.

111. Grant, 1 Memoirs 253.

112. Schutz and Trenerry, Abandoned by Lincoln 63.

113. The phrase is that of Missouri railroad superintendent Edward H. Castle. Castle to Frémont, August 8, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 87 note. Castle added, “Genl Grant I am pleased with. He will do to lead.”

114. General Orders No. 9, August 9, 1861, ibid. 88–89. Grant said “Hereafter the strictest discipline is expected to be maintained . . . and the General Commanding will hold responsible for this all officers, and the degree of responsibility will be in direct ratio with the rank of the officer.”

115. Grant to Capt. John C. Kelton, Ass’t. Adj. Genl., August 9, 1861, ibid. 89–90.

116. At Wilson’s Creek, Lyon’s present for duty strength was 5,400, of whom 258 were killed, 873 wounded, and 183 were missing, total casualties amounting to 1,314, or 24 percent of those engaged. Confederate losses totaled 279 killed and 951 wounded of 11,000 men engaged. In percentage terms, total casualties were double that at Bull Run.

117. Frémont to Grant, August 19, 1861, National Archives, Record Group 393, Western Department, Letters Sent. For Grant’s intention to return to Galena, see his letters to Julia, August 10 and August 25, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 96–97, 140–41.

118. Grant to Capt. Speed Butler, Ass’t. Adj. Gen., August 22, 1861, ibid. 128–29.

119. Grant to Butler, August 23, 1861, ibid. 131–32.

120. Grant to Julia, August 26, 1861, ibid. 140–41.

121. Frémont wrote Grant, “Colonel Jefferson C. Davis will relieve you in command at Jefferson City and you are directed to report yourself forthwith to these Head Quarters for special orders.” Ibid. 150–51 note 1.

122. The decision was partially personal. Most West Pointers bore ill-concealed animosity toward Frémont (who was not an academy graduate) for his insubordination in the old army, his quarrel with General Stephen Watts Kearny in California, his subsequent court-martial and popular vindication. Pope, in particular, talked and wrote in the most reckless fashion about his superior, including letters to the Illinois congressional delegation suggesting that he, Pope, rightfully should be the major general commanding the Western Department. Grant on the other hand was delighted just to be back on active duty and did not complain. Long after the war he admitted Frémont had been a puzzle to him. “He sat in a room in full uniform, with his maps before him. When you went in he would point to one line or another in a mysterious manner, never asking you to take a seat. You left without the least idea of what he meant or what he wanted you to do.” Young, 2 Around the World 215. Also see Allan Nevins, 1 The War for the Union 321–322 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1959).

123. Grant had given his colonel’s uniform away and claimed he had not had a chance to have a general’s uniform tailored. Grant to Mary Grant, August 12, 1861; Grant to Julia, August 15, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 105–6, 115–17.

124. Frémont manuscript memoirs, quoted in Nevins, 2 Frémont 591–92.

125. Frémont to W. A. Croffet in Ringwalt, Anecdotes of Grant 34.

126. Frémont to Grant, August 28, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 151.

127. Frémont manuscript memoirs, Bancroft Library.

128. General Orders No. 1, August 30, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 153–54. Also see Grant to Captain John C. Kelton, August 30, 1861, ibid. 154–55.

129. Grant to Julia, August 29, 1861, ibid. 148–49.

130. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, August 31, 1861, ibid. 158–59.

131. Foote, 1 The Civil War 88.

132. Edward Conrad Smith, The Borderland in the Civil War 301 (New York: Macmillan, 1927). Following the action by the legislature, Governor Beriah Magoffin and Senator John C. Breckinridge resigned and cast their lot with the Confederacy. Other Kentuckians followed. On November 18, 1861, a rump convention meeting at Russellville passed an ordinance of secession and formed a provisional government, which the congress at Richmond admitted as the thirteenth state in the Confederacy on December 10 (Missouri had been admitted on November 28, 1861).

133. Grant’s initial September 5 telegram to Frémont has been lost. But the substance is set forth in 2 Grant Papers 191–92 note, and in Grant’s subsequent messages that day. Also see Grant, 1 Memoirs 264–65.

134. Grant to the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate, September 5, 1861, published in 1 Journal of the House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Kentucky 49 (Frankfort: Hunter and Beaumont, 1861).

135. Grant to Frémont, September 5, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 193.

136. Grant to Frémont, September 6, 1861, ibid. 196–97.

137. Grant, 1 Memoirs 265–66.

138. Grant to Frémont, September 6, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 196.

139. Grant to Brig. Gen. Eleazer A. Paine, September 6, 1861, ibid. 195.

140. Frémont to Grant, September 5, 1861, ibid. 189 note.

141. Major Joseph H. Eaton [military secretary to Frémont] to Grant, September 6, 1861, ibid. 189 note.

142. Frémont to Grant, September 6, 1861, ibid. 198 note.

143. Looking back on his cadet years, Grant wrote that he regarded General Winfield Scott, the army’s commanding general, and “Captain C.F. Smith, the Commandant of Cadets, as the two men most to be envied in the nation.” Grant, 1 Memoirs 33.

144. Ibid. 221.

145. In his communications with Smith, Grant invariably signed himself, “Very Respectfully, Your Obedient Servant, U.S. Grant,” a closing he rarely used when writing to Frémont, or later to Halleck. For Grant’s comment, see Military Order of the Loyal Legion, 1 Military Essays and Reflections: Papers Read Before the Commandery of the State of Illinois 22–25.

146. Louis A. Coolidge, Ulysses S. Grant 82 (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1917).

147. Lew Wallace, 1 Lew Wallace: An Autobiography 338–45 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1906).

148. Grant to Frémont, September 10, 1861, 2 Grant Papers 224–25.

149. Grant to Frémont, September 12, 1861, ibid. 241–42.

150. Frémont to Grant, September 26, 1841, ibid. 301 note.

151. Catton, Grant Moves South 59. Also see 3 War of the Rebellion 494.

152. 2 Grant Papers 240 note.

153. 3 War of the Rebellion, 732 ff.

154. Ibid. 712, 730.

155. Grant to Captain Chauncey McKeever, Ass’t. Adj. Gen., Western Department, 3 Grant Papers, 24.

156. Grant to McKeever, October 27, 1861, ibid. 78–79.

157. Grant to Benson J. Lossing, printed in William W. Belknap, History of the 15th Regiment Iowa Veteran Volunteer Infantry 422 (Keokuk, Iowa: R. B. Ogden and Son, 1887). The special agent, Absalom H. Markland, had been a classmate of Grant’s in Maysville Seminary in Kentucky. For details of the arrangement, see 4 Grant Papers 204–5 note.

158. Grant to McKeever, 3 Grant Papers 78.

159. Testimony of U.S. Grant before the House Select Committee on Government Contracts, October 31, 1861, 3 ibid. 90, 94–95.

160. Ibid. 90–98.

161. Washburne to Chase, October 31, 1861, 2 Annual Report of the American Historical Association for the Year 1902 507–8 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1903).

162. McKeever to Grant, November 1, 1861, 3 Grant Papers 143–44.

163. McKeever to Grant, November 2, 1861, ibid. 144.

164. Grant to Plummer, November 4, 1861, ibid. 111–12.

165. Grant to Oglesby, November 3, 1861, ibid. 108–9.

166. Grant to Smith, November 5, 1861, ibid. 114–15. Emphasis added.

167. Grant to Col. C. Carroll Marsh, Birds Point, Mo., November 5, 1861. Similar instructions were sent to Col. Henry Dougherty and Brig. Gen. John A. McClernand. Ibid. 113–15.

168. The most extensive description of the battle of Belmont is provided in Nathaniel C. Hughes, Jr., The Battle of Belmont: Grant Strikes South (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1991). Grant’s preparations are described, 45–56.

169. Smith’s troops were organized in two columns: the 9th, 12th, 40th, and 41st Illinois (about 2,000 men) under Brig. Gen. Eleazer Paine moved in the direction of Columbus via Melvin, while the 23rd Indiana (800 men) advanced to the railhead at Plumley’s Station. Smith to Grant, November 6, 1861, 3 Grant Papers 114–15.

170. Grant to Colonel John Cook, November 6, 1861, ibid. 121.

171. 1 Medical and Surgical History of the Rebellion, 1861–1865, Appendix, 19 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1870).

172. Grant to Oglesby, November 6, 1861, 3 Grant Papers 123–24.

173. Grant to William H. L. Wallace, November 6, 1861, ibid. 124–25; Oglesby to Grant, November 7, 1861, ibid. 124 note.

174. Grant to Smith, ibid. 120.

175. Grant to Julia, September 22, 1861, 2 ibid. 299–300. Also see Grant to Julia, September 25, 1861, ibid. 311–12.

176. Adam Badeau, 1 Military History of U.S. Grant 20–21 (New York: D. Appleton, 1881).

177. Porter to Foote, November 15, 1861, 22 Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion 430 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1894).

178. Ibid. 397. Foote was on station in St. Louis and requested Grant to inform him by telegram when action was to be taken. Grant agreed but either forgot, or decided it was too risky to telegraph St. Louis lest department headquarters countermand him. Grant said later he forgot. As Foote informed navy secretary Gideon Welles, “General Grant, on my arrival this morning [November 9, 1861], called upon me and expressed his regret that he had not telegraphed as he had promised, assigned as the cause that he had forgotten it . . . until it was too late.” Ibid. 399–400.

179. Wallace, 1 Autobiography 341, 351–353.

180. Ibid. 355–56.

181. News dispatches from Springfield dated November 4, 1861, were printed in all major newspapers the following day. See, for example, the New York Times, November 5, 1861. Rumors of Frémont’s impending dismissal were carried November 3 and 4, 1861. Also see John Y. Simon, “Grant at Belmont,” 45 Military Affairs 163 (1981).

182. Special Orders, On Board Steamer Belle Memphis, November 7, 1861, 3 Grant Papers 125.

183. John H. Brinton, Personal Memoirs, 73 (New York: Neale, 1914).

184. Grant to Jesse Root Grant, November 8, 1861, 3 Grant Papers 136–38. Emphasis in original.

185. Hughes, Battle of Belmont 78–177.

186. Grant, 1 Memoirs 274.

187. Cheatham took command of all the forces on the riverbank. The regiments that accompanied him were the 13th Arkansas, 2nd Tennessee, and 13th Tennessee. Timothy D. Johnson, “Benjamin Franklin Cheatham at Belmont,” 81 Missouri Historical Review 159, 167 (1987).

188. Brinton, Memoirs 77.

189. Grant, 1 Memoirs 276.

190. Brinton, Memoirs 78.

191. Patrick H. White, “Civil War Diary of Patrick H. White,” J. E. Boos, ed., 15 Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 640, 647 (1922–23).

192. Grant, 1 Memoirs 276.

193. White, “Civil War Diary,” 647.

194. Byron Andrews, A Biography of General John A. Logan 397 (New York: H. S. Goodspeed, 1884); 3 War of the Rebellion 289.

195. Lt. Charles James Johnson to Lou Johnson, November 8, 1861, Johnson Letters, Louisiana State University. Southerners refer to what the Union calls Bull Run as Manassas. Manassas is the closest town; Bull Run is the creek nearby.

196. Brinton, Memoirs 92; Hughes, Battle of Belmont 158. Also see Grant to Jesse Root Grant, November 27, 1861, 3 Grant Papers 227.

197. The incident was related to Grant by a member of Polk’s staff. Grant, 1 Memoirs 281.

198. Ibid. 278–79.

199. The precise number of casualties at Belmont is difficult to determine, largely because of the inaccurate after-battle reports filed by both Grant and Polk. The most detailed revised figures indicate that the Union lost 120 killed, 383 wounded, and 104 captured or missing. Confederate losses are put at 105 killed, 419 wounded, and 117 missing or captured. The 7th Iowa, with 512 men present for duty, lost 31 killed, 77 wounded, and 114 missing, for a total of 43 percent. The 22nd Illinois, with 562 present, lost 146, or 26 percent. Dr. William M. Polk, “General Polk and the Battle of Belmont,” in 1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 355–56 note, Robert Underwood Johnson and Clarence Clough Buel, eds. (New York: Century, 1887); Hughes, Battle of Belmont 184–185; 3 War of the Rebellion 310.

200. John Seaton, “The Battle of Belmont,” in War Talks in Kansas 316 (Kansas City: Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States, 1906).

201. 3 Grant Papers 148. Grant’s instructions were oral, but the gist is revealed in the subsequent report of Colonel Nicholas Perczel of the 10th Iowa, who quotes Oglesby as saying, “Our friends [Grant’s forces] had engaged the enemy at Belmont and . . . had been routed.” 3 War of the Rebellion 257.

202. Grant to Smith, November 6, 1861, 3 Grant Papers 129.

203. Grant to McKeever, November 6, 1861, ibid. 128.

204. On April 27, 1864, Grant’s chief of staff, Brig. Gen. John Rawlins, wrote his wife “Colonel [Theodore S.] Bowers and myself finished yesterday General Grant’s report on the battle of Belmont.” The revised report was sent forward to Secretary of War Stanton, June 26, 1865. James Harrison Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins 425 (New York: Neale, 1916).

205. For the text of Grant’s revised report, see 3 Grant Papers 143–49.

206. In his revised report Grant claimed to have received a telegram from department headquarters in St. Louis on November 5, 1861, instructing him to move immediately to prevent a linkup between Polk and General Price. He also reported that at 2 A.M. on the morning of November 7, while his ships lay at anchor along the Kentucky shore, he received a message from Colonel W. H. L. Wallace warning him of major Confederate troop movements from Columbus to Belmont for the purpose of following after and cutting off the forces under Colonel Oglesby. According to Grant, “Such a move on [Polk’s] part seemed to me more than probable, and gave at once a two-fold importance to my demonstration against the enemy, namely: the prevention of reinforcement to General Price, and the cutting off of the two small columns that I had sent . . . in pursuit of Jeff Thompson. This information determined me to attack vigorously at Belmont.”

Neither the telegram from St. Louis nor the message from Wallace can be authenticated. John Y. Simon, editor of the Grant Papers, reports the telegram cannot be found and that it may have been “extrapolated by Grant’s staff.” Frémont had already been relieved of command and General Hunter, his replacement, had no staff in St. Louis. Given the changeover, “it is unlikely that St. Louis hd. qrs. would have issued orders for an offensive on Nov. 5.” In Simon’s opinion, “It is more than odd that this telegram was not officially mentioned until 1865, four years after the battle. . . . [I]t is almost surely nonexistent.” More to the point perhaps, Captain Chauncey McKeever, Frémont’s adjutant general, stated explicitly on November 9, 1861 (two days after the battle), that “General Grant did not follow his instructions. No orders were given to attack Belmont or Columbus.”

The message from Wallace is equally suspect. According to Simon: “No mention of the 2 A.M. message from Wallace appears in any USG account written soon after the battle; no contemporary documentary record has been found; and it is not listed in USG’s register of letters received. [Confederate records] clearly indicate that there had been no movement from Columbus to Belmont or against Oglesby; additional troops were sent to Belmont only when Maj. Gen. Leonidas Polk learned of USG’s approach.” Like McKeever, Colonel Wallace is also on record contrary to Grant. Writing to his wife immediately after Belmont, Wallace said the report of Polk’s troops crossing into Missouri was just Grant blowing smoke.

For Grant’s revised report, see 3 War of the Rebellion 267–272, emphasis added. For Simon’s comments see 3 Grant Papers 149–52; John Y. Simon, “Grant at Belmont,” 45 Military Affairs 161–65 (1981). Also see McKeever to Frémont, November 9, 1861, 53 War of the Rebellion 507, and Isabel Wallace, Life and Letters of W. H. L. Wallace 141 (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley, 1909).

207. Grant, 1 Memoirs 271.

208. For a summary of criticism from the St. Louis, Missouri, Weekly Democrat, the Chicago Tribune, the Louisville Daily Journal, and the Illinois State Journal, see Hughes, Battle of Belmont 195.

209. Cincinnati Gazette, November 9, 1861.

210. Chicago Journal, November 11, 1861.

211. National Intelligencer, November 11, 1861; Philadelphia Daily Ledger, November 11, 1861.

212. New York Times, November 11, 1861.

213. St. Louis Republican, November 11, 1861.

214. New York Herald, November 19, 1861.

215. Simon, “Grant at Belmont,” 165; Chicago Tribune, November 9, 1861.

216. The Living Lincoln 444, Paul M. Angle and Earl Schenck Miers, eds. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1955).

217. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom 396.

CHAPTER FIVE: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER”

The epigraph is from Grant’s message to Halleck pertaining to the situation in southeastern Missouri. 3 The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant 211–12, John Y. Simon, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1970).

1. Polk to Davis, November 8, 1861, 3 The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies 304 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1881).

2. Polk to Gen. A. S. Johnston, November 10, 1861, ibid. 306–10.

3. Joseph C. Benson, “Belmont Quick Step,” Nashville: C. D. Benson, 1861; Augustine J. Signaigo, “Battle of Belmont,” in War Songs and Poems of the Southern Confederacy, 1861–1865, H. M. Wharton, ed. (Philadelphia: John C. Winston, 1904).

4. 3 War of the Rebellion 312.

5. Halleck’s command was designated the Department of the Missouri, and consisted of Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkansas, and Kentucky west of the Cumberland River. Frank J. Welcher, 2 The Union Army, 1861–1865 88 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993).

6. Buell’s central theater was titled the Department of the Ohio. On November 9, 1861 (the same day Halleck’s department was delineated), it was reorganized to include Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Tennessee, and Kentucky east of the Cumberland. Ibid. 127.

7. Shelby Foote, 1 The Civil War 169 (New York: Random House, 1958).

8. Ibid. 173.

9. See especially Stephen D. Engle, “Don Carlos Buell: Military Philosophy and Command Problems in the West,” 41 Civil War History 89–115 (1995).

10. 7 War of the Rebellion 532.

11. For details of the battle at Mill Springs, see R. M. Kelly, “Holding Kentucky for the Union,” 1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 373–392, R. U. Johnston and C. C. Buel, eds. (New York: Century, 1887); Freeman Cleaves, Rock of Chickamauga: The Life of General George H. Thomas 81–100 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1948); and especially Gerald J. Prokopowicz, “All for the Regiment: Unit Cohesion and Tactical Stalemate in the Army of the Ohio, 1861–1862” (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Harvard University, 1994), Chapter 3.

12. Halleck was a pedant at heart and could not resist lecturing Lincoln on military strategy. What the president had suggested, he said, is “condemned by every military authority I have ever read.” Halleck to Lincoln, January 6, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 532–33. “It is exceedingly discouraging,” Lincoln noted at the foot of Halleck’s letter. “As everywhere else, nothing can be done.” Ibid.

13. McClellan’s instructions to Halleck are reprinted in Adam Badeau, 1 Military History of Ulysses S. Grant 583–84 (New York: D. Appleton, 1881).

14. Halleck to Grant, ibid. 537–38; 4 Grant Papers 4 note.

15. For a vivid description of conditions on the approach to Columbus in January 1861, see Benjamin F. Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson: Key to the Confederate Heartland 70–71 (Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 1987).

16. Grant to Halleck, January 20, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 74–75.

17. John Emerson, “Grant’s Life in the West and His Mississippi Valley Campaign,” Midland Monthly Magazine (May 1897).

18. Smith to Grant, January 21, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 561; 4 Grant Papers 90–91 note.

19. Grant to Halleck, January 20, 1862, ibid. 74–75; also see Ulysses S. Grant, 1 Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant 286–87 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).

20. Halleck to Grant, January 22, 1861, 7 War of Rebellion 561–62; 4 Grant Papers 75 note 2. Twice before, on November 20, 1861, and January 6, 1862, Grant asked permission to come to headquarters but Halleck said no. “You will send reports in writing,” he told Grant, and emphasized there was no reason for him to be in St. Louis. 3 ibid. 202 note. Halleck’s sudden change of heart is best explained by his concern over Thomas’s triumph at Mill Springs.

21. Grant to Mary Grant, January 23, 1862, 4 ibid. 96–97.

22. Grant, 1 Memoirs 287.

23. Stephen E. Ambrose, Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff 21 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962); William S. McFeely, Grant: A Biography 96–97 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981).

24. Bruce Catton, Grant Moves South 97 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1960); A. L. Conger, The Rise of U.S. Grant 128–29 (New York: Century, 1931).

25. Special Orders No. 78, Department of the Missouri, December 20, 1861. 3 Grant Papers 330–32.

26. Conger, Rise of Grant 128–29.

27. See Grant to Washburne, July 22, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 225.

28. Grant, 1 Memoirs 287. Also see Ambrose, Halleck 24; Catton, Grant Moves South 123–24; cf. Conger, Rise of Grant 151–53.

29. 5 The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln 111–12, Roy P. Basler, ed. (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953).

30. David Herbert Donald, Lincoln 334–35 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995).

31. Grant to Halleck, January 28, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 99.

32. Foote to Halleck, January 28, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 120.

33. Grant to Halleck, January 29, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 103–4.

34. Ibid.

35. Halleck to McClellan, January 20, 1862, 8 War of the Rebellion 508–11.

36. Halleck to Grant, January 30, 1862, 7 ibid. 121.

37. Halleck to Grant, January 30, 1862, ibid. 121–22.

38. Grant to Halleck, February 3, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 145.

39. Foote’s flotilla consisted of the ironclads Cincinnati, Essex, Carondelet, and St. Louis, plus three wooden gunboats—Conestoga, Tyler, and Lexington.

40. Halleck to Buell, February 7, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 593. Pursuant to General Halleck’s instructions of January 30, Grant left eight regiments at Cairo (plus supporting cavalry and artillery) to guard against a possible northern thrust by Polk from Columbus. 4 Grant Papers 141.

41. Emerson, “Grant’s Life in the West,” Midland Monthly (June 1898).

42. Ambrose, Halleck 26.

43. Halleck to Buell, February 3, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 583; Halleck to McClellan, February 3, 1862, ibid.

44. Ambrose, Halleck 38.

45. Halleck to Cullum, February 7, 1862. 4 Grant Papers 172–73 note. Also see Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 119–20.

46. Cullum to C. F. Smith, February 1, 1862, Smith Papers, Glenbrook, Conn.

47. Brinton, Memoirs 130–31.

48. Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 93.

49. Grant, 1 Memoirs 290.

50. Fort Henry was named for Gustavus A. Henry, the senior Confederate senator and a native of nearby Montgomery County. Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 14.

51. Foote, 1 Civil War 180.

52. For an eyewitness description of Fort Henry’s shortcomings, see Captain Jesse Taylor, C.S.A., “The Defense of Fort Henry,” in 1 Battles and Leaders 368–72.

53. Ibid. 369.

54. Foote, 1 Civil War 185. In a letter to Julia, written on the eve of battle, Grant estimated Confederate strength at “probably 10,000 men.” February 5, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 153.

55. Field Orders No. 1, Camp in the field, near Fort Henry, Tenn., February 5, 1862, ibid. 150–51.

56. Taylor, “Defense of Fort Henry,” 369.

57. Grant to Julia, February 5, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 153.

58. James Mason Hopping, Life of Andrew Hull Foote: Rear-Admiral United States Navy 20–26 (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1874).

59. Foote’s report on the storming of the barrier forts is reprinted ibid. 113–21. The incident occurred during the so-called Arrow War, pitting Britain and France against China. The United States remained neutral, but in the Treaty of Tientsin, which ended the conflict in 1858, the United States and Russia, along with France and Great Britain, gained valuable trade concessions from the Manchu dynasty. See Edward D. Graham, American Ideas of a Special Relationship with China 134–39 (New York: Garland, 1988).

60. Foote, 1 Civil War 184–85.

61. 7 War of the Rebellion 858–59. Tilghman was so confident he could hold Fort Henry that he turned down Leonidas Polk’s offer of cavalry support, “I’d rather have disciplined infantry,” and he was picky even about that. “I don’t want new troops who are just organized; they are in my way.” Tilghman to Polk, ibid. 580–87.

62. Taylor, “Defense of Fort Henry” 170.

63. Rear Admiral Henry Walke, “Gunboats at Belmont and Fort Henry,” 1 Battles and Leaders 364–65.

64. Taylor, “Defense of Fort Henry” 170.

65. Grant to Halleck, February 6, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 124.

66. Grant to Julia, February 6, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 163.

67. General McClernand, in his report to Grant on February 6, stated the rebel fortifications were “far beyond expectations and the haste with which they were abandoned proves the efficiency of the cannonade and their apprehension of being cut off from retreat by my command.” 4 Grant Papers 159 note. The best evidence of the panicked flight from Fort Henry, however, is in the contemporaneous reports filed by newsmen accompanying McClernand’s division. According to the correspondent of the Cincinnati Gazette and Commercial, “We found that the rebel infantry, encamped outside the fort, had cut and run, leaving the rebel artillery company in command of the fort. . . . The infantry left everything in their flight. A vast amount of trophies have fallen into our hands.”

The correspondent of the New York Herald, who reached the Confederate trench line while the rebel flag still flew over Fort Henry, reported it was deserted. “Not a solitary rebel remained. They had taken alarm, and fled precipitately, leaving all their effects except their arms and the clothing they wore.”

The Herald’s reporter noted the defensive position was well prepared and “would have presented almost insurmountable obstacles to the approach of cavalry or artillery, had the rifle pits been filled with men. But despite their much vaunted determination to ‘die in the last ditch,’ the Rebels had run away with marvellous celerity, equaled only by John Phenix’s [sic] hero, who ‘was compelled by the prejudices of the inhabitants to leave home in such haste that he took nothing with him except a single shirt, which he happened to have about him at the time.’ [The reference is to George Horatio Derby, who wrote under the pseudonym John Phoenix and whose principal work, Phoenixiana; or Sketches and Burlesques, published in New York by D. Appleton in 1856, was in wide circulation.]

“Crossing the rifle pit we were in the enemy camp, but there was no enemy to be seen. Here were the wall tents of a regiment, all standing in complete order, with the camp-fires still blazing, the copper pots of stew for dinner boiling over them, and half-made biscuits in the pans beside them. Inside the tents everything was just as they had left it—pistols, shot-guns, muskets, bowie-knives, books, clothing, tables partially set for dinner, letters half-opened, cards thrown down in the middle of a game, overcoats, blankets, trunks, carpet sacks, and so on through all the articles of camp life. It looked as though the men were out at guard mounting, expecting to return in ten minutes. . . .

“One Inhabitant of the Camp Who Didn’t Run

“Standing in front of one of the dwellings, we encountered the first occupant of the Rebel camp we had met, in the form of an old negress, who was rubbing her hands with glee.

“ ‘You seem to have had hot work here, aunty.’

“ ‘Lord, yes, mess’r, we did; just dat. De big balls, dey come whizzing and tearing ’bout, and I thought de las’ judgment was cum, sure.’

“ ‘Where are all your soldiers?’

“ ‘Lord a’mighty knows. Dey jus’ runned away like turkeys—nebber fired a gun.’

“ ‘How many were there?’

“ ‘Dere was one Arkansas regiment over dere, where you see de tents, a Mississippi regiment dere, another dere, two Tennessee regiments here, and lots more over de river.’

“ ‘Why didn’t you run with them?’

“ ‘I was sick, you see [she could only speak in a whisper]; besides, I wasn’t afraid—only ob de shots. I jus’ thought if dey didn’t kill me I was all right.’ ”

This dispatch was dated Fort Henry, February 7, 1862, and was printed in the New York Herald, February 14, 1862. Also see Cincinnati Gazette and Commercial, February 8, 1862, reprinted in the National Intelligencer (Washington, D.C.), February 10, 1862. For additional documentation of the garrison’s panic, see A. L. Conger, comp., Donelson Campaign Sources; Supplementing Vol. VII of the Official Records (Fort Leavenworth: Army Service Schools, 1912). Also see A. L. C. [Conger], “Fort Donelson,” 1 The Military Historian and Economist 33, 40–41 (1916); Frank Moore, The Rebel Record 4, 69 (New York: G. P. Putnam, 1862); Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 109–10, and the original diary sources cited therein.

68. Grant, 1 Memoirs 292.

69. Taylor, “Defense of Fort Henry,” 372.

70. New York Tribune, February 8, 1862.

71. Ibid.

72. New York Times, February 8, 1862.

73. New York Herald Tribune, February 8, 1862.

74. The gunboats were commanded by Lieutenant S. T. Phelps, captain of the Conestoga. His report of the mission is reprinted in Hopping, Life of Andrew Hull Foote 211–15.

75. Alfred D. Roman, 1 The Military Operations of General Beauregard in the War Between the States 221–23 (New York: Harper, 1883); T. Harry Williams, P. G. T. Beauregard 151–54 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1954); Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 123–25.

76. Foote, 1 Civil War 191.

77. The validity of Johnston’s strategy is attested by the subsequent reunion of the two wings at Corinth and the battle of Shiloh. Had the men lost at Donelson been present at Shiloh, the course of the war might have been different.

78. Like other Civil War historians, Johnston’s biographer is at a loss to explain Johnston’s change of heart. See Charles P. Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics 289–91 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964).

79. J. F. C. Fuller, The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant 85–86 (London: John Murray, 1929).

80. Johnston to Davis, March 17, 1862, Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston 291.

81. Grant to McClernand, February 7, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 165–66.

82. Grant to Mary Grant, February 9, 1862, ibid. 179–80.

83. Halleck to Grant, February 8, 1862, ibid. 193–94 note.

84. Ambrose, Halleck 28.

85. McClellan to Halleck, February 7, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 591.

86. Richey Kamm, The Civil War Career of Thomas A. Scott 105 (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1940).

87. Halleck to Stanton, February 8, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 594. Stanton immediately agreed to Halleck’s proposal. See Stanton to Halleck, February 8, 1862, 3 ibid. 208. On February 5, 1862, General Winfield Scott, retired but still in Washington, informed Hitchcock he would be recalled to replace Grant on the Cumberland and Tennessee. Hitchcock’s appointment as a major general was confirmed by the Senate on February 10, 1862. 12 Senate Executive Journal 115.

88. Halleck to Cullum, February 9, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 597–98. Halleck told Cullum that Hitchcock was coming to take charge of the overall operation between the rivers and that he should prepare to assume command of the column on the Cumberland.

89. Halleck to Buell, February 13, 1862, ibid. 609. Also see Halleck’s telegrams to Buell, February 11 and February 12, 1862, ibid. 605, 607.

90. Grant, 1 Memoirs 315; John F. Marszalek, Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order 169–73 (New York: Free Press, 1993).

91. Grant to Halleck, February 11, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 193. In his Memoirs, Grant said he received Halleck’s instructions to fortify Fort Henry when he was already in the field in front of Fort Donelson. His message to Halleck of February 11 suggests otherwise. Cf., Grant, 1 Memoirs 296.

92. General Field Orders No. 12, February 11, 1862, ibid. 191–92.

93. John Russell Young, 2 Around the World with General Grant 213 (New York: American News, 1879).

94. Grant, 1 Memoirs 297–98.

95. John H. Brinton, Personal Memoirs 115 (New York: Neale, 1914).

96. Grant, 1 Memoirs 299.

97. New York Tribune, February 22, 1862.

98. Grant, 1 Memoirs 302. Grant’s air of confidence was reported by a newsman on the scene. Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 153.

99. Rear Admiral Henry Walke, “The Western Flotilla,” 1 Battles and Leaders 433.

100. Foote to Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles, February 15, 1862, in Hopping, Life of Andrew Hull Foote 226.

101. Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 157.

102. Walke, “Western Flotilla,” 433–36.

103. Foote, 1 Civil War 205.

104. Grant to Cullum, February 14, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 209.

105. Grant to Julia, February 14, 1862, 4 ibid. 211.

106. 7 War of the Rebellion 800–801.

107. Roy P. Stonesifer, Jr. “Gideon J. Pillow: A Study in Egotism,” 25 Tennessee Historical Quarterly 344 (1966).

108. Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 162–65, and the sources cited therein.

109. Grant, 1 Memoirs 304–5.

110. Harper’s Magazine 697 (April 1862).

111. 7 War of the Rebellion 163.

112. Catton, Grant Moves South 163–64.

113. Grant, 1 Memoirs 307.

114. Ibid. 307–8.

115. Lew Wallace, “The Capture of Fort Donelson,” 1 Battles and Leaders 422.

116. Grant to Foote, February 15, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 214. Foote had already departed for Cairo when Grant’s message arrived, but Commander Benjamin J. Dove promptly took St. Louis and Louisville upstream and spent the late afternoon lobbing shells at Donelson. 22 War of the Rebellion 588.

117. Benjamin Franklin Cooling, in his thorough study of the fighting at Donelson, lays out the considerations that might have precipitated the Southern decision, but concludes, “What really caused this turn of events will never be known for sure.” Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 181–83.

118. Wallace, “Capture of Fort Donelson,” 422.

119. Corporal Voltaire P. Twombley of Co. F, 2nd Iowa, “took the colors after three of the color guard had fallen . . . and although almost instantly knocked down by a spent ball, immediately rose and bore the colors to the end of the engagement.” On March 17, 1897, he would be awarded the Medal of Honor for the deed at Donelson. V. P. Twombley, The Second Iowa Infantry at Fort Donelson, February 15, 1862 27 (Des Moines: Plain Talk Printing House, 1901).

120. Wallace, “Capture of Fort Donelson,” 423; Brinton, Personal Memoirs 120–21.

121. Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 185.

122. Emerson, “Grant’s Life in the West.”

123. Ibid. The lines are from Burns’s “Man Was Made to Mourn,” stanza 7.

124. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom 401.

125. Wallace, “Capture of Fort Donelson,” 429 note; Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 201.

126. 7 War of the Rebellion 273, 287–88, 295–97, 334, 385–86.

127. Nathaniel C. Hughes., Jr., and Roy P. Stonesifer, Jr., The Life and Wars of Gideon J. Pillow 233–39 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993).

128. Ibid. 288.

129. Ibid.

130. Catton, Grant Moves South 174.

131. Brinton, Personal Memoirs 129.

132. 4 Grant Papers 218. Grant’s letter to Buckner is preserved in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

133. Ibid.

134. Grant, 1 Memoirs 313. Earlier, Buckner told Smith his charge had carried the day. “I simply obeyed orders, nothing more, sir,” Smith replied. 5 Grant Papers 82 note.

135. Cooling, Forts Henry and Donelson 212.

136. Brinton, Personal Memoirs 133.

137. Grant to Halleck, February 16, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 625.

138. Grant to Cullum, February 16, 1862, ibid. 159–60.

139. New York Tribune, February 18, 1862.

140. 7 War of the Rebellion 627–28, 641–42.

141. “Was it not funny to see a certain military hero [McClellan] in the telegraph office at Washington last Sunday organizing victory and by sublime military combinations capturing Fort Donelson six hours after Grant and Smith had taken it . . . ! It would be a picture worthy of Punch.” Stanton to Charles A. Dana, in Dana, Recollections of the Civil War 10–14 (New York: D. Appleton, 1899). Emphasis in original.

142. Helen Nicolay, Lincoln’s Secretary: A Biography of John G. Nicolay 131–32 (New York: Longmans, Green, 1949).

143. Grant to Julia, February 16, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 229.

144. Buckner Papers, quoted in Arndt Stickles, Simon Bolivar Buckner: Borderland Knight 173 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1940).

145. Grant to Cullum, February 17, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 235.

146. M. B. Morton interview with Gen. Buckner, 1909, Nashville Banner, December 11, 1909.

147. Fuller, Generalship of Grant 93–94.

148. On March 11, 1862, James Mason, the Confederacy’s agent in London, informed Richmond that “the late reverses at Fort Henry and Fort Donelson have had an unfortunate effect upon the minds of our friends here.” From Paris, John Slidell filed a similar report with the Confederate secretary of state on March 26. Virginia Mason, The Public Life and Diplomatic Correspondence of James M. Mason 264 (New York: Neale, 1906); James D. Richardson, ed. 2 Messages and Papers of the Confederacy 207 (Washington, D.C.: United States Publishing Co., 1905).

149. Catton, Grant Moves South 181.

150. Foote, 1 Civil War 214.

151. Cullum to Grant, February 20, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 235–36 note.

152. On February 19, Halleck’s assistant adjutant general issued General Orders No. 43: “The major-general commanding the department congratulates Flag-Officer Foote, Brigadier-General Grant, and the brave officers and men under their commands, on the recent brilliant victories on the Tennessee and Cumberland.” 7 War of the Rebellion 638–39. Halleck did not write to Grant, although on February 17 he told Assistant Secretary of War Scott (who was in St. Louis) that he thought Grant should be promoted. Scott to Stanton, February 17, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 272–73 note.

CHAPTER SIX: SHILOH

1. Grant to Cullum, February 19, 1862, 4 The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant 245–46, John Y. Simon, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1972).

2. Grant to Brig. Gen. Stephen A. Hurlburt, February 20, 1862, ibid. 252.

3. General Orders No. 6, February 21, 1862, ibid. 253–54.

4. Grant to Cullum, February 21, 1862, ibid. 257.

5. Halleck to Grant, February 18, 1862, ibid. 260 note. The telegram was sent to Sherman at Paducah, who forwarded it to Grant. Grant did not receive it until the 21st.

6. Foote to Cullum, 7 War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records 648 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1881).

7. Stephen E. Ambrose, Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff 33 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962); A. L. Conger, The Rise of U.S. Grant 201 (New York: Century, 1931).

8. Halleck to McClellan, February 20, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 641.

9. Foote to Grant, February 22, 1862, 22 Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion 624 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1894).

10. Halleck to McClellan, February 17, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 628 (see Chapter 5).

11. 22 War of the Rebellion (Navy) 626.

12. Grant to Julia, February 24, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 284. In December 1861, Congress established a joint seven-member committee to keep tabs on the conduct of the war. On January 10, 1862, the committee began taking testimony pertaining to John C. Frémont’s conduct of the war in the Western Department, and that may be what Grant was alluding to. See William Whatley Pierson, Jr., “The Committee on the Conduct of the Civil War,” 23 American Historical Review 550–76 (1918).

13. Ulysses S. Grant, 1 Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant 317–18 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).

14. Commander Benjamin M. Dove to Grant, February 23, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 279–80 note. Grant received a similar message from C. F. Smith at Clarksville.

15. Grant to Cullum, February 24, 1862, ibid. 278–79.

16. Grant to Nelson, February 24, 1862, ibid. 282. For Grant’s meeting with Nelson, see John H. Brinton, Personal Memoirs 139–43 (New York: Neale, 1914).

17. Nelson to Grant, February 23, 1862, ibid. 282–83 note.

18. Stephen D. Engle, “Don Carlos Buell: Military Philosophy and Command Problems in the West,” 41 Civil War History 101 (1995).

19. For Buell’s order to C. F. Smith, February 25, 1862, see 7 War of the Rebellion 944–45.

20. Grant, 1 Memoirs 320.

21. William B. Shanks, Personal Recollections of Distinguished Generals 252 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1866).

22. Buell to McClellan, December 10, 1862, Buell Papers, Huntington Library, San Marino, California.

23. Lincoln later told Halleck “a McClellan in the army was lamentable, but a combination of McClellan and Buell was deplorable.” Ambrose, Halleck 88. There is as yet no biography of Buell, but see James R. Chumney, “Don Carlos Buell: Gentleman General,” Ph.D. diss., Rice University, 1964.

24. Charles P. Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics 298–303 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964).

25. Grant to Cullum, February 25, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 286–87.

26. Grant to Julia, February 26, 1862, ibid. 292.

27. On March 1 Buell wrote he finally had enough men in the city “to feel secure.” 7 War of the Rebellion 675.

28. New York Herald Tribune, March 6, 1862; Isabel Wallace, ed., Life and Letters of General W. H. L. Wallace 171 (Chicago: R. R. Donnelley, 1909); New York Times, March 5, 1862; Chicago Tribune, March 8, 12, 1862; Walter T. Durham, Nashville: The Occupied City 52 (Nashville: Tennessee Historical Society, 1985).

29. Brinton, Personal Memoirs 139.

30. Grant, 1 Memoirs 321.

31. Grant to Buell, February 27, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 293–94. It was not until March 1 that Buell felt sufficiently secure in Nashville to return Smith’s division to Clarksville. Buell to Halleck, March 1, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 675.

32. Halleck to McClellan, March 3, 1862, 7 ibid. 679–80.

33. McClellan to Halleck, March 3, 1862, ibid. 680.

34. Halleck to McClellan, March 4, 1862, ibid. 682.

35. See McPherson to Grant, February 21, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 222–23 note.

36. Halleck to Cullum, February 25, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 677.

37. Grant to Cullum, February 24, 25, 28, 1862; Grant to Kelton, February 28, March 1, 1862; Grant to Halleck, March 1, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 278–305.

38. Grant, 1 Memoirs 325. Compare Conger, Rise of U.S. Grant 211 note.

39. Halleck to Grant, March 1, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 674.

40. Halleck to Grant, March 4, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 319–20 note 1.

41. Grant, 1 Memoirs 326.

42. Grant to Julia, March 1, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 305–6.

43. Grant to Halleck, March 5, 1862, ibid. 317–19.

44. Ibid.

45. Grant, 1 Memoirs 328.

46. Brinton, Personal Memoirs 150.

47. Grant, 1 Memoirs 328.

48. William Tecumseh Sherman, 1 Memoirs of General William T. Sherman 245 (New York: Library of America, 1990).

49. Halleck to Grant, March 6, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 331 note.

50. Grant to Halleck, March 7, 1862, ibid. 331.

51. Copies of Halleck’s telegram of March 6, 1862, and Grant’s reply can be found in the Washburne Papers, Library of Congress.

52. Halleck to Grant, March 8, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 21.

53. Grant to Halleck, March 9, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 334.

54. Grant to Halleck, March 9, 1862, ibid. 334–35 note.

55. Halleck to Grant, March 9, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 22. Emphasis added.

56. Grant to Smith, March 11, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 343.

57. Smith to Grant, March 14, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 29.

58. Smith to an unidentified person, March 17, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 344 note.

59. Lorenzo Thomas, TAG, to Halleck, March 10, 1862, 7 War of the Rebellion 683.

60. Halleck to Thomas, March 15, 1862, ibid. 683–84.

61. “The want of order and discipline and the numerous irregularities in your command since the capture of Fort Donelson,” wrote Halleck, “are matters of general notoriety, and have attracted the serious attention of the authorities in Washington. Unless these things are immediately corrected I am directed to relieve you of the command.” Halleck to Grant, March 6, 1862, 11 ibid. 13.

62. Grant to Halleck, March 13, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 353.

63. Halleck to Grant, March 13, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 32.

64. Grant to Halleck, March 14, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 358–59.

65. Grant, 1 Memoirs 327. By the time Grant wrote his Memoirs, he was aware of Halleck’s correspondence with McClellan about his drinking, and he never forgave him.

66. General Orders No. 21, March 15, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 364.

67. Grant to Julia, March 15, 1862, ibid. 375.

68. Halleck to Grant, March 16, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 42.

69. Bruce Catton, Grant Moves South 213 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1960).

70. Shelby Foote, 1 The Civil War 321 (New York: Random House, 1958).

71. Grant to Capt. N. H. McLean, Ass’t. A.G., St. Louis, March 17, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 378–79; Grant, 1 Memoirs 331.

72. Sherman to Rawlins [Grant], March 17, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 27.

73. Larry Daniel, Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War 102 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997). Also see Stacey D. Allen, “Shiloh! The Campaign and First Day’s Battle” 14 Blue and Gray 16 (1997).

74. Owl Creek flowed into Snake Creek before reaching the Tennessee, but since the latter did not figure in the fighting at Shiloh, I have used the designation Owl Creek throughout.

75. Halleck to Grant, March 18, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 46.

76. Grant to Smith, March 20, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 398.

77. Grant to Halleck (via Cairo), March 20, 1862, ibid. 391–92. Grant followed up his telegram with a letter to headquarters in St. Louis stating that he intended to lead the expedition to Corinth in person unless he received orders to the contrary. Grant said he hoped to leave on the 22nd, but delays in bringing the 1st and 2nd divisions forward set him back a day or two. “I will take no risk at Corinth under the instructions I now have. If a battle on anything like equal terms seems to be inevitable I shall find it out in time to make a movement on some other point of the railroad, or at least seem to fill the object of the expedition without a battle and thus save the demoralizing effect of a retreat upon the troops.” Grant to McLean, May 20, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 396–97.

78. Halleck to Grant, March 20, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 50–51.

79. Grant to Halleck, March 21, 1862, 4 Grant Papers 400–401.

80. Ibid.

81. Grant to Smith, March 23, 1862, ibid. 411.

82. Halleck to Buell, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 42. As a historian sympathetic to Buell has noted, “ ‘As rapidly as possible’ might have implied, ‘haste,’ but to Buell it essentially meant whenever he was ready for his army to march in full—again exercising his own judgment.” Stephen D. Engle, “Don Carlos Buell: Military Philosophy and Command Problems in the West,” 41 Civil War History 102 (1995).

83. Logistical support during the first year of the war was often a comedy of errors. After reaching Columbia, Buell wired Halleck that he had ordered pontoons shipped from Nashville to assist Grant crossing the Tennessee. Grant, however, was already across the Tennessee, while the Army of the Ohio sat idle for lack of pontoons. Ibid. 82, 86. Also see Kenneth P. Williams, 3 Lincoln Finds a General 326 (New York: Macmillan, 1952).

84. In March 1862 the Army of the Ohio numbered well over 65,000 men, but they were scattered hither and yon. Buell left a garrison of 18,000 to guard his supply base in Nashville; a division of 8,000 was dispatched to Murfreesboro to protect the army’s flank; and another division sent to defend the Cumberland Gap. That left Buell with a field force of approximately 37,000 men organized into five divisions. These were commanded (in march order) by Alexander McCook (2nd); Bull Nelson (4th); Thomas Crittenden (5th); Thomas Wood (6th); and George Thomas (1st).

85. 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 70; Engle, “Don Carlos Buell” 103.

86. On March 26 Grant wired Halleck that Buell’s army was “yet on the east side of Duck river detained in bridge building,” but he expressed no alarm. The following day he wrote St. Louis, “I have no news yet of any portion of Gen. Buell’s command being this side of Columbia.” Again he expressed no alarm. 4 Grant Papers 424–28.

87. Daniel, Shiloh 114.

88. Grant, 1 Memoirs 333.

89. Edwin C. Bearss, “General Nelson Saves the Day at Shiloh,” 63 Register of the Kentucky Historical Society 45 (1965).

90. 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 329–30. Ordinarily the privilege of leading an army’s advance fell to the senior division commander, who in this case was Brigadier General Alexander McCook commanding the 2nd division.

91. Bearss, “General Nelson Saves the Day” 50.

92. Daniel, Shiloh 94–95.

93. Johnston to “Soldiers of the Army of the Mississippi,” M. J. Solomon Papers, Duke University. Bragg called the army “a heterogeneous mass in which there was more enthusiasm than discipline, more capacity than knowledge, more valor than instruction.” Braxton Bragg, “General Albert Sidney Johnston and the Battle of Shiloh,” Johnston Papers, Tulane University.

94. Allen, “Shiloh!” 18.

95. Foote, 1 Civil War 329.

96. Bragg, “General Albert Sidney Johnston at Shiloh.”

97. Charles P. Roland, Albert Sidney Johnston: Soldier of Three Republics 325 (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1964).

98. Allen, “Shiloh!” 18.

99. 11 War of the Rebellion 93–94.

100. John K. Duke, History of the 53rd Ohio Volunteer Infantry 41 (Portsmouth, Ohio: Blade Printing Company, 1900).

101. Grant to Halleck, April 5, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 13–14. After the battle, Grant told the Cincinnati Commercial that although some skirmishing had occurred on April 4–5, “I did not believe [the Confederates] intended to make a determined attack but were simply making a reconnaissance in force.” Reprinted in the New York Herald, May 3, 1862.

102. Daniel, Shiloh 130.

103. Franklin Bailey (12th Michigan) to his parents, March 27, 1862, Franklin Bailey Letters, Michigan Historical Society.

104. Lt. Seymour D. Thompson, Recollections with the Third Iowa Regiment 62 (Cincinnati: privately published, 1864).

105. Payton Shumway (52nd Illinois) to his wife, March 19, 1862, Shumway Letters, Illinois State Library.

106. Mary Ann Anderson, ed., The Civil War Diary of Allen Morgan Greer 23–24 (New York: Appleman, 1977).

107. William Skinner (71st Ohio) to his brother and sister, March 27, 1862, Shiloh National Military Park Collection.

108. Foote, 1 Civil War 323.

109. Sherman, 1 Memoirs 249.

110. Grant, 1 Memoirs 332–33. Grant was confident, in retrospect overconfident, that he would have to carry the attack to Johnston. On April 3 he wrote Julia he hoped to move forward soon. “When I do there will probably be the greatest battle of the War. I do not feel that there is the slightest doubt about the result and therefore, individually, feel as unconcerned about it as if nothing more than a review was to take place. Knowing however that a terrible sacrifice of life must take place I feel concerned for my army and their friends at home.” 5 Grant Papers 7.

111. Grant, 1 Memoirs 335.

112. E. Hannaford, The Story of a Regiment 237–38 (Cincinnati: Hannaford, 1868).

113. 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 330–31.

114. Ibid. (Part 2) 387; Alfred D. Roman, 1 The Military Operations of General Beauregard in the War Between the States 271 (New York: Harper, 1884); T. Harry Williams, P.G.T. Beauregard: Napoleon in Gray 126 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1959). Also see James L. Morrison, Jr., “Educating Civil War Generals: West Point, 1833–1861” 38 Military Affairs 108, 109 (1974).

115. Allen, “Shiloh!” 19–20.

116. Charles A. Morton, “A Boy at Shiloh” 59–60 Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (1907).

117. Edwin L. Hobart, The Truth About Shiloh 12 (Springfield, Ill., 1909).

118. Allen, “Shiloh!” 21.

119. Catton, Grant Moves South 223.

120. Grant to Nelson, April 6, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 18 note.

121. Grant to Wood, April 6, 1862, ibid. 18–19 note.

122. Grant to Buell, April 6, 1862, ibid. On April 4 Buell had written Grant, “I shall be in Savannah myself tomorrow with one perhaps two divisions. Can I meet you there? Have you any information for me that should affect my movements? What of your enemy, and your relative positions?” Grant had replied on April 5 that the enemy was still “at and near Corinth and probably from 60 to 80 thousand.” Ibid. 16–17 note.

123. Grant, 1 Memoirs 336; Foote, 1 Civil War 335; Catton, Grant Moves South 224–25.

124. 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 181.

125. Ibid. 179, 185. Baxter was a quartermaster on Grant’s staff.

126. Grant to Nelson, April 6, 1862, in Adam Badeau, 1 Military History of Ulysses S. Grant 77 (New York: D. Appleton, 1881).

127. Allen, “Shiloh!” 21.

128. Ibid.

129. John F. Marzalek, Sherman: A Soldier’s Passion for Order 178 (New York: Free Press, 1993).

130. Sherman, Memoirs 266.

131. Grant, 1 Memoirs 343.

132. 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 278.

133. Thompson, Recollections with the Third Iowa 214.

134. Allen, “Shiloh!” 27.

135. Ibid. 48.

136. Grant to Commanding Officer Advance Forces [Buell’s army], near Pittsburg, April 6, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 18.

137. Grant, 1 Memoirs 342.

138. Foote, 1 Civil War 338. Also see Daniel, Shiloh 209.

139. Don Carlos Buell, “Shiloh Reviewed,” 1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 487–95 (New York: Century, 1887).

140. Badeau, 1 Military History of Ulysses S. Grant 82. Cf. Buell, “Shiloh Reviewed” 493–94 note.

141. Allen, “Shiloh!” 52–53.

142. Grant, 1 Memoirs 342.

143. Ibid. 337.

144. Daniel, Shiloh 260–61. For Wallace’s account, see “The March of Lew Wallace’s Division to Shiloh,” 1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 609.

145. Badeau, 1 Military History of Ulysses S. Grant 81 note, citing a letter from Grant to the War Department, April 13, 1863.

146. Grant, 1 Memoirs.

147. Allen, “Shiloh!” 53.

148. Grant, 1 Memoirs 356.

149. Foote, 1 Civil War 341.

150. Bearss, “General Nelson Saves the Day” 57.

151. Allen, “Shiloh!” 62.

152. Catton, Grant Moves South 239.

153. Daniel, Shiloh 255.

154. Ibid.

155. Ibid.

156. Allen, “Shiloh!” 63.

157. Charles F. Hubert, History of the 50th Regiment of Illinois Volunteer Infantry 93 (Kansas City: Western Veteran Publishing Company, 1894).

158. Whitelaw Reid, reported in the Chicago Tribune, November 21, 1880.

159. Grant, 1 Memoirs 348.

160. Sherman, 1 Memoirs 266.

161. Catton, Grant Moves South 240–41.

162. Sherman interview in the Washington Post, quoted in the Army and Navy Journal, December 30, 1893.

163. Allen, “Shiloh!” 64.

164. 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 384.

165. The report was from Colonel Benjamin H. Helm, whose scouts observed the division of General Ormsby Mitchell marching toward Alabama and assumed that the entire Army of the Ohio was following. Roman, 1 Military Operations of General Beauregard 531–32.

166. Thomas Jordan and Roger Pryor, The Campaigns of Lieut.-Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest 136–37 (New Orleans: Blelock, 1868).

167. 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 518.

168. Daniel, Shiloh 262–63.

169. Lew Wallace, 2 Autobiography 544–45.

170. Allen, “Shiloh!” 17.

171. Ibid.

172. Thomas Jordan, “Notes of a Confederate Staff Officer at Shiloh,” 1 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 603.

173. Grant, 1 Memoirs 354–55. When he left the field that evening, Grant wrote Buell he intended “to occupy the most advanced position possible for the night . . . and follow up our success with cavalry and fresh troops. The great fatigue of our men . . . would preclude the idea of making any advance at night without the arrival of the expected reinforcements. My plan therefore will be to feel on in the morning with all the troops on our outer lines, until our Cavalry can be organized and a sufficient Artillery and Infantry support to follow them are ready for a move.” Grant said his instructions from Halleck precluded moving beyond Pea Ridge, Tennessee, about five miles away.

174. Grant, 1 Memoirs 368–69.

175. Wellington to Thomas Creevey, 1 The Creevey Papers 237, Sir Herbert Maxwell, ed. (London: John Murray, 1904).

176. New York Herald, April 9, 1862.

177. New York Times, April 9, 1862; New York Herald, April 9, 1862.

178. Alexander K. McClure, Abraham Lincoln and Men of War Times 193–96 (Philadelphia: Times Publishing, 1892).

CHAPTER SEVEN: VICKSBURG

The epigraph is attributed to Sherman by T. Harry Williams, McClellan, Sherman, and Grant 46 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1962).

1. Halleck to Grant, April 9, 1862, 10 The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Armies (Part 2) 99 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1884).

2. Even Grant was reluctant to push on without reinforcements. In his Memoirs Grant argued that Beauregard should have been pursued aggressively and “the arrival of Pope should not have been awaited.” But in a letter to Halleck three days after Shiloh, Grant wrote: “I do not like to suggest but it appears to me that it would be demoralizing upon our troops here to be forced to retire upon the opposite bank of the river and unsafe to remain on this, many weeks, without large reinforcements.” Cf., Ulysses S. Grant, 1 Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant 374 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885) and 5 The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant 31, John Y. Simon, ed. (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1973).

3. Bragg to Beauregard, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 398–99.

4. Ibid. (Part 1) 400.

5. An Impressed New Yorker, Thirteen Months in the Confederate Army (New York: Barnes and Burr, 1862).

6. Stephen E. Ambrose, Halleck: Lincoln’s Chief of Staff 47 (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1962).

7. Halleck to Grant, April 14, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 105–06.

8. General Orders No. 16, April 13, 1862, ibid. 105. Halleck told Grant, “Your army is not now in condition to resist an attack. It must be made so without delay.”

9. Halleck to Grant, April 14, 1862, ibid. 106. Emphasis added.

10. William Tecumseh Sherman, 1 Memoirs of W.T. Sherman 270 (New York: D. Appleton, 1875).

11. Henry Wager Halleck, Elements of Military Art and Science 132 (New York: D. Appleton, 1846).

12. Ambrose, Halleck 46–47. Writing years later, Grant ridiculed Halleck’s places theory, arguing it was unclear “how the mere occupation of places was to close the war while large and effective rebel armies existed.” 1 Memoirs 381.

13. Stanton to Halleck, April 23, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 98–99.

14. Halleck to Stanton, April 24, 1862, ibid. 99. On June 15, 1862, after reviewing all of the battle reports from Shiloh, Halleck wrote a follow-up to Stanton exonerating Grant. “The impression which at one time seems to have been received by the Department that our forces were surprised in the morning of [April] 6th is erroneous. I am satisfied from a patient and careful inquiry and investigation that all our troops were notified of the enemy’s approach some time before the battle commenced.” Halleck to Stanton, June 15, 1862, ibid.

15. Grant to Julia. April 30, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 102.

16. Two days before his death, General Smith wrote Grant to express his admiration and affection. It was the last letter Smith would write. Grant was deeply touched and passed the message to Julia. “I want the letter saved. Gen. Smith was my old Commandant whilst a Cadet and a better soldier or truer man does not live.” Grant to Julia, April 25, 1862, 5 ibid. 72. Also see Grant to Julia, May 4, 1862, ibid. 110–11.

17. Grant to Mrs. Charles F. Smith, April 26, 1862, ibid. 83. Years later, when Grant was writing his Memoirs, he looked back on his days at West Point: “I regarded General [Winfield] Scott and Captain C. F. Smith, the Commandant of Cadets, as the two men most to be envied in the nation. I retained a high regard for both up to the day of their death.” 1 Memoirs 42.

18. Sherman to R. W. Scott, September 6, 1885, Sherman Papers, Library of Congress.

19. General Orders No. 21, April 25, 1862.

20. Stanton’s announcement is reprinted in the New York Times, April 28, 1862.

21. Philadelphia Inquirer, April 28, 1862.

22. Special Field Orders No. 31, April 28, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 138–39.

23. Special Orders No. 35, April 30, 1862, ibid. 144. Also see Halleck to Grant, April 30, 1862, 52 ibid. (Part 1) 245.

24. I am indebted to Colonel Arthur L. Conger for these observations. The Rise of U.S. Grant 272–73 (New York: Century, 1931).

25. Grant, 1 Memoirs 376.

26. Sherman, 1 Memoirs 274.

27. Allan Nevins, 2 The War for the Union 112 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1960).

28. Grant to Julia, April 30, May 11, May 13, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 101–2, 115–16, 117–18.

29. Grant to Halleck, May 11, 1862, ibid. 114.

30. Halleck to Grant, May 12, 1862, 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 182–83.

31. Grant to Julia, May 16, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 123–24.

32. Grant to Julia, May 20, 1862, ibid. 127–28.

33. Grant to Julia, May 24, 1862, ibid. 130.

34. Ambrose, Halleck 52.

35. Grant, 1 Memoirs 379. Colonel John Webster, Grant’s chief of staff, said that Halleck rejected the proposal “in the most insulting and indignant manner.” It was one of the very few times, said Webster, he ever saw Grant struggle to keep his temper. Afterward, Grant was depressed for hours. New York Times interview with Webster, reprinted in the Cincinnati Commercial, October 26, 1867.

36. 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 223, 225.

37. Ibid. 228.

38. Ambrose, Halleck 53.

39. Grant, 1 Memoirs 380–81.

40. Lew Wallace, 2 Lew Wallace: An Autobiography 581 (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1906).

41. Kenneth P. Williams, 3 Lincoln Finds a General 417 (New York: Macmillan, 1952).

42. Lieutenant Seymour D. Thompson, Recollections with the Third Iowa Regiment 275 (Cincinnati: privately published, 1864).

43. Shelby Foote, 1 The Civil War 387–88 (New York: Random House, 1958).

44. 10 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 668.

45. Grant, 1 Memoirs 381. Grant was more outspoken writing to Julia. “The rebels will turn up some where and have to be whipped yet,” he wrote on May 31. 5 Grant Papers 134–35.

46. Sherman, 1 Memoirs 275–76.

47. In his Memoirs, Grant wrote he had “obtained permission to leave the department, but General Sherman happened to call on me as I was about starting and urged me so strongly not to think of going, that I concluded to remain.” 1 Memoirs 385.

48. Sherman, 1 Memoirs 276.

49. Grant to Julia, June 3, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 137–38.

50. Sherman to Grant, June 6, 1862, Sherman, 1 Memoirs 276.

51. I am indebted to William S. McFeely for this observation. Grant: A Biography 119 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981).

52. 17 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 5; 10 ibid. (Part 2) 254.

53. Special Field Orders No. 90, June 10, 1862, ibid. 288.

54. Foote, 1 Civil War 543.

55. Grant, 1 Memoirs 388–90.

56. Grant to Halleck, June 24, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 149–50.

57. Hillyer [Grant] to Hurlbut, June 24, 1862, 17 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 30. Emphasis in original.

58. Halleck to Grant, June 29, 1862, ibid. 46. For Grant’s original message, see Grant to Halleck, June 29, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 167.

59. Grant to Halleck, June 29, 1862, ibid. 168–69.

60. Halleck to Grant, July 3, 1862, 17 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 67–68. Emphasis in original.

61. Three weeks later Grant wrote Congressman Washburne that if President Lincoln intended to make Halleck general in chief “a better selection could not be made. He is a man of gigantic intellect and well studied in the profession of arms. He and I have had several little spats but I like and respect him nevertheless.” Grant to Washburne, July 22, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 225–26.

62. Foote, 1 Civil War 567.

63. David Herbert Donald, Lincoln 361 (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1995); Gideon Welles, 1 Diary of Gideon Welles 119 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1909). Also see Ambrose, Halleck 60–62.

64. Halleck to Lincoln, July 11, 1862, 17 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 90.

65. Halleck to Grant, July 11, 1862, ibid.

66. Grant to Halleck, July 11, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 207 note.

67. Halleck to Grant, July 11, 1862, ibid.

68. Grant, 1 Memoirs 393.

69. Some writers, taking their cue from Adam Badeau, have suggested Halleck was unwilling to entrust the command at Corinth to Grant. Badeau (who despised Halleck) based the assertion on a personal letter he received from Colonel Robert Allen, a quartermaster officer, in 1866. Allen claimed Halleck offered command of the Army of the Tennessee to him, and he turned it down. Aside from Allen’s letter there is no evidence to support that wild assertion and a great deal of evidence, beginning with Halleck’s July 11, 1862, telegram to Lincoln, to the contrary. Cf., Badeau, 1 Military History of Grant 107–8; Bruce Catton, Grant Moves South 287–88 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1960); Geoffrey Perret, Ulysses S. Grant: Soldier and President 214 (New York: Random House, 1996).

70. 17 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 101.

71. See Grant to Maj. Gen. Samuel R. Curtis, August 7, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 270–71.

72. Grant, 1 Memoirs 395.

73. Beauregard and Bragg remained on surprisingly good terms after Bragg took command, a fact that is especially surprising given Bragg’s reputation for being quarrelsome. Beauregard was quoting Danton’s famous speech to the French Legislative Assembly in 1792. Beauregard told Bragg “I have no doubt that with anything like equal numbers you will meet with success.” Foote, 1 Civil War 573.

74. Grant to Halleck, July 30, August 1, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 254–55, 257.

75. Halleck to Grant, July 31, 1862, 17 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 142.

76. Grant to Rosecrans, August 17, 1862, 5 Grant Papers 305.

77. Foote, 1 Civil War 583.

78. Grant, 1 Memoirs 410.

79. Foote, 1 Civil War 722.

80. Ibid. 724.

81. Ibid. 738.

82. Bragg’s abrupt decision to withdraw has been often criticized. Yet as he wrote his wife, “With the whole southwest in the enemy’s possession, my crime would have been unpardonable had I kept my noble little army to be ice-bound in a northern clime, without tents or shoes, and obliged to forage daily for bread, etc.” Ibid. 739.

83. Roy P. Basler, ed., 5 The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln 433–36 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1953).

84. Message to Congress in Special Session, July 4, 1861, 4 ibid. 429–31. Lincoln’s emphasis.

85. Grant to Halleck, October 26, 1862, 6 Grant Papers 199–201.

86. Grant to Halleck, November 2, 1862, ibid. 243.

87. Halleck to Grant, November 3, 1862, ibid. note.

88. Ambrose, Halleck 92.

89. Grant to Halleck, December 8, 1862; Grant to Sherman, December 8, 1862, 6 Grant Papers 403–5. Also, Grant to Sherman, December 8, 1862, ibid. 406–7. Cf., Grant, 1 Memoirs 431.

90. Catton, Grant Moves South 460.

91. McClernand to Stanton, October 21, 1862; Foote, 1 Civil War 763.

92. Ambrose, Halleck 111.

93. Halleck met with Elihu Washburne in early December and expressed unlimited confidence in Grant. Grant acknowledged the accolade December 14, 1862. Grant to Halleck, 7 Grant Papers 32.

94. Halleck to Grant, November 9, 1862, 17 War of the Rebellion (Part I) 468.

95. Grant to Halleck, November 10, 1862, 6 Grant Papers 288.

96. Halleck to Grant, November 11, 1862, 17 War of the Rebellion (Part I) 469.

97. Grant, 1 Memoirs 430–31.

98. Grant to Sherman, December 8, 1862, ibid. 429.

99. Grant to Halleck, December 9, 1862, 7 Grant Papers 6. Sherman’s task force, loaded on more than a hundred steamers, did not depart Memphis until December 20. But for Grant and Halleck, the kidnap operation was accomplished when Grant ordered Sherman to take command.

100. Ambrose, Halleck 115.

101. Grant to Halleck, December 14, 1862, 7 Grant Papers 28–29.

102. Grant, 1 Memoirs 430–31.

103. Foote, 2 Civil War 65; Grant, 11 Memoirs 108. Also see Jerry O’Neil Potter, “The First West Tennessee Raid of General Nathan Bedford Forrest,” 28 West Tennessee Historical Society Papers 55–74 (1974).

104. J. G. Deupree, “The Capture of Holly Springs, Mississippi, December 20, 1862,” 4 Publications of the Mississippi Historical Society 49–61 (1901).

105. Grant, 1 Memoirs 435.

106. Sherman to Rawlins, December 19, 1862, 17 War of the Rebellion (Part I) 603–4.

107. Foote, 2 Civil War 77.

108. Tyler Anbinder, “Ulysses S. Grant, Nativist,” 43 Civil War History 120 (1997).

109. Charles A. Dana to Edwin M. Stanton, January 21, 1863, 52 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 331.

110. See Anbinder, “Ulysses S. Grant, Nativist” 122.

111. James McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom 622 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).

112. Grant to Hurlbut, November 9, 1862, 6 Grant Papers 283

113. Grant to Webster, November 10, 1862, ibid.

114. Grant to Sherman, December 5, 1862, ibid. 394.

115. 7 Grant Papers 50.

116. Simon Wolf, The Presidents I Have Known from 1860–1918 70–71 (Washington, D.C.: Press of B. S. Adams, 1918).

117. See Bertram Wallace Korn, American Jewry and the Civil War 140–44 (Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1951).

118. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom 622 note.

119. James H. Wilson, The Life of John A. Rawlins 96 (New York: Neale, 1916); Albert Deane Richardson, A Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant 277 (Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing, 1868).

120. 7 Grant Papers 51 note; cf. Korn, American Jewry 142.

121. For an extensive analysis of Grant’s nativism, see Anbinder, “Ulysses S. Grant, Nativist” 117–41.

122. Stephen V. Ash, “Civil War Exodus: The Jews and Grant’s General Orders No. 11,” 44 The Historian 509 (1982).

123. New York Times, January 18, 1863.

124. Halleck to Grant, January 4, 1863, 7 Grant Papers 53 note. Emphasis added.

125. Halleck to Grant, January 21, 1863, ibid. 54 note. Emphasis added.

126. Congressional Globe, 37th Congress, 3rd session, 184, 222, 245–46.

127. 7 Grant Papers 54 note.

128. Grant to Halleck, January 11, 1863, 7 Grant Papers 209.

129. Halleck to Grant, January 12, 1862, 17 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 555.

130. Grant to McPherson, January 13, 1862, 7 Grant Papers 220.

131. Grant to Halleck, January 20, 1863, ibid. 233–35.

132. Grant, 1 Memoirs 441.

133. 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 11.

134. McClernand to Grant, January 30, 1863, ibid. (Part 3) 18–19.

135. Grant to McClernand, January 31, 1863, 7 Grant Papers 264.

136. McClernand to Grant, February 1, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 13–14.

137. Grant to Halleck, February 1, 1863, 7 Grant Papers 274.

138. Lincoln to McClernand, January 22, 1863, 6 Collected Works of Lincoln 71.

139. J. F. C. Fuller, The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant 135 (London: John Murray, 1929).

140. Grant, 1 Memoirs 443.

141. Ibid. 446.

142. Foote, 2 Civil War 192.

143. Grant, 1 Memoirs 449.

144. Samuel Carter III, The Final Fortress: The Campaign for Vicksburg, 1862–1863 147 (New York: St. Martin’s, 1980).

145. Grant to Julia, February 11, 1863, 7 Grant Papers 311.

146. Cadwallader Washburn to Elihu Washburne, March 28, 1863. Washburne Papers, Library of Congress.

147. New York World, March 12, 1863.

148. Medill to Elihu Washburne, January 16, 1863, in Catton, Grant Moves South 369.

149. Halstead’s letter, February 19, 1863, was printed in the Chicago Tribune, September 28, 1885.

150. Foote, 2 Civil War 217.

151. John Eaton, Grant, Lincoln, and the Freedmen 64 (New York: Longmans, Green, 1907).

152. Eyewitness reports of Grant’s drinking are numerous. In addition to those cited below in the text, see the comments of Brigadier General Charles S. Hamilton quoted in Catton, Grant Moves South 395, and of journalist Sylvanus Cadwallader, Three Years with Grant 103–19 (reprint, Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1996).

153. Lyle W Dorsett, “The Problem of Grant’s Drinking During the Civil War, 4 Hayes Historical Journal 45–46 (1983).

154. New York Sun, January 28, 1887; Harry J. Maihafer, “Mr. Grant and Mr. Dana,” 35 American History 24–32 (2000).

155. Foote, 2 Civil War 417.

156. 8 Grant Papers 322–23 note.

157. Cadwallader, Three Years with Grant 118–19.

158. New York World, February 20, 1863.

159. A. O. Marshall, Army Life: From a Soldier’s Journal 274–76 (Joliet, Ill.: privately published, 1884).

160. Foote, 2 The Civil War 218–19.

161. Interview with Dr. E. A. Duncan, in the National Republican, August 9, 1886.

162. Sherman interview, New York Tribune, August 2, 1885.

163. Marshall, Army Life 275.

164. Eaton, Grant, Lincoln, and the Freedmen 89–90.

165. Foote, 2 Civil War 218.

166. Charles A. Dana, Recollections of the Civil War 61–62 (New York: D. Appleton, 1902).

167. Grant, 1 Memoirs 459–60.

168. Donald, Lincoln 435.

169. Halleck to Grant, March 20, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 22.

170. Grant to Porter, April 2, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 3–4.

171. Grant to Halleck, April 2, 1863, ibid. 5 note.

172. Grant to Halleck, January 18, 1863, 7 ibid. 231.

173. Richardson, Personal History of Ulysses S. Grant 295.

174. Grant to Halleck, April 4, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 11–12.

175. Grant, 1 Memoirs 542–43 note.

176. David D. Porter, Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War 175 (New York: D. Appleton, 1886).

177. 24 War of the Rebellion, (Part 3) 179–80. Also see Sherman, 1 Memoirs 342–45. Badeau, 1 History of Grant 184–85.

178. Grant, 1 Memoirs 543 note.

179. Halleck to Grant, April 9, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion, (Part 1) 27–28.

180. James R. Arnold, Grant Wins the War: Decision at Vicksburg 76 (New York: Wiley, 1997).

181. Grant, 1 Memoirs 464.

182. Pemberton to Cooper, April 11, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 3) 733.

183. Pemberton to Chalmers, April 18, 1863, ibid. 765.

184. Lee to Jefferson Davis, April 27, 1863, 25 ibid. (Part 2) 752–53.

185. Ira Blanchard, I Marched with Sherman: Civil War Memoirs of the Twentieth Illinois 82 (San Francisco: J. D. Haff, 1992).

186. Grant to Halleck, April 21, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 102.

187. Porter to Welles, April 24, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Navy) 607.

188. Porter to Fox, April 25, 1863, in Gustavus Fox, 2 Confidential Correspondence of Gustavus Fox, Assistant Secretary of the Navy 125 (New York: De Vinne, 1919).

189. Arnold, Grant Wins the War 93.

190. Grant to Halleck, April 29, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 133.

191. Foote, 2 Civil War 342–43.

192. Grant, 1 Memoirs 480–81. Emphasis added.

193. Grant to Sherman, April 27, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 130.

194. Sherman to Grant, April 28, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 3) 242–44.

195. Foote, 2 Civil War 332.

196. Sherman to Grant, May 1, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 576–77.

197. Foote, 2 Civil War 334.

198. Grant to Halleck, May 3, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 144.

199. Foote, 2 Civil War 345.

200. Grant to Halleck, May 3, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 145–48.

201. Grant to Sherman, May 3, 1863, ibid. 151–52. Emphasis in original.

202. Mary Ann Anderson, ed., The Civil War Diary of Allen Morgan Greer 99 (Tappan, N.Y.: Cosmos, 1977).

203. Arnold, Grant Wins the War 120.

204. Foote, 2 Civil War 350.

205. Grant, 1 Memoirs 490–91.

206. Grant to Halleck, May 3, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 148.

207. Grant to Julia, May 3, 1863, ibid. 155.

208. Grant, 1 Memoirs 492–93.

209. Joseph Orville Jackson, ed., Some of the Boys: The Civil War Letters of Isaac Jackson, 1862–1865 90 (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1960).

210. Grant, 1 Memoirs 483.

211. Grant to Halleck, May 6, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 169.

212. Sherman to Grant, May 9, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 3) 284–85.

213. Grant to Sherman, May 9, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 183–84.

214. Grant to Hillyer, May 9, 1863, ibid. 187.

215. Ibid. 186.

216. Osborn H. Oldroyd, A Soldier’s Story of the Seige of Vicksburg 11–12 (Springfield, Ill.: privately published, 1885).

217. Grant to Halleck, May 11, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 196. Emphasis added.

218. Grant, 1 Memoirs 492.

219. Grant to McClernand, May 11, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 197.

220. Grant to McPherson, May 11, 1863, ibid. 200.

221. Pemberton to Gregg, May 12, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 3) 862.

222. Grant, 1 Memoirs 500.

223. Grant to Halleck, May 14, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 213. Grant’s message arrived in Washington on May 18.

224. Johnston to [Secretary of War James A.] Seddon, May 13, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 215.

225. Johnston to Pemberson, May 14, 1863, Grant, 1 Memoirs 465.

226. Ibid. 507.

227. Foote, 2 Civil War 363.

228. Grant, 1 Memoirs 508.

229. Grant to McClernand, May 14, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 215.

230. Grant to McPherson, May 14, 1863, ibid. 226.

231. Arnold, Grant Wins the War 145.

232. Grant, 1 Memoirs 512.

233. Grant to McClernand, 5:40 A.M., May 16, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 224.

234. Grant, 1 Memoirs 513.

235. Arnold, Grant Wins the War 151. Bowen was promoted to major general after the battle of Port Gibson.

236. Carter, The Final Fortress.

237. John B. Sanborn, The Crisis at Champion’s Hill: The Decisive Battle of the Civil War 14 (St. Paul, Minn.: n.p., 1903).

238. S. H. M. Byers, “Some Recollections of Grant,” in Annals of the War Written by Leading Participants North and South 346–56 (Edison, N.J.: Blue and Grey Press, 1996). Reprint.

239. Report of Brigadier General Alvin P. Hovey, May 25, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 44.

240. I am indebted to James R. Arnold for this reference. Grant Wins the War 199.

241. Grant, 1 Memoirs 519–20.

242. Ibid. 522.

243. Grant, 1 Memoirs 524–25. Cf., Catton, Grant Moves South 447–48.

244. Cadwallader, Three Years with Grant 83.

245. Dora [Miller] Richards, “War Diary of a Union Woman in the South,” 38 Century Magazine 931–46 (October 1889).

246. Samuel Lockett, “The Defense of Vicksburg,” 3 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 488.

247. Grant, 1 Memoirs 528. “I do not claim to quote Sherman’s language,” Grant wrote, “but the substance only.”

248. Lincoln to Arnold, May 26, 1863, Collected Works 270.

249. Special Field Orders No. 134, May 19, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 237.

250. Foote, 2 Civil War 384.

251. Ibid. 386.

252. Grant to Halleck, May 24, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 260–62.

253. Grant, 1 Memoirs 531.

254. Foote, 2 The Civil War 387.

255. Carter, Final Fortress 241.

256. A. A. Hochling, Vicksburg 92 (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall, 1969).

257. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom 635.

258. Foote, 2 Civil War 414.

259. Ibid.

260. Grant told Sherman that “should Johnston come, we want to whip him if the Siege has to be raised to do it.” Grant to Sherman, June 23, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 410–11.

261. Foote, 2 Civil War 414.

262. Grant, 1 Memoirs 549.

263. Foote, 2 Civil War 425.

264. Ibid. 426.

265. Grant, 1 Memoirs 556–57.

266. Ibid. 557–58.

267. Grant, 1 Memoirs 558.

268. Grant to Pemberton, July 3, 1863, 8 Grant Papers 457–58.

269. Jackson, Some of the Boys 112.

270. Richards, “War Diary of a Union Woman” 775.

271. Willie H. Tunnard, A Southern Record 272 (Baton Rouge: privately published, 1866).

272. Porter, Incidents and Anecdotes 201.

273. Lincoln to Grant, July 13, 1863, 6 Collected Works 326.

CHAPTER EIGHT: CHATTANOOGA

The epigraph is from B. H. Liddell Hart, Sherman: Soldier, Realist, American 196 (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1929).

1. Grant to Sherman, July 4, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 3), 473.

2. Lincoln to James C. Conkling, August 26, 1863, 6 The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln 409, Roy P. Basler, ed., (New Brunswick, N. J.: Rutgers University Press, 1967).

3. James M. McPherson, Battle Cry of Freedom 638 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1988).

4. T. Harry Williams, Lincoln and His Generals 272 (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1952).

5. Lincoln to Burnside, July 27, 1863, 6 Collected Works 350.

6. Williams, Lincoln and His Generals 262.

7. Ulysses S. Grant, 1 Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant 99–100 (New York: Charles L. Webster, 1885).

8. Shelby Foote, 2 The Civil War 638 (New York: Random House, 1963).

9. Lincoln to Meade, July 14, 1863 (not sent), 6 Works of Lincoln 327–28.

10. Grant to Dana, August 5, 1863.

11. Grant to Halleck, July 18 and July 24, 1863, 9 Grant Papers 186.

12. Halleck to Grant, August 6 and August 9, 1863, 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 3) 558.

13. Halleck to Grant, July 30, 1863, ibid. 562.

14. Lincoln to Grant, August 9, 1863, ibid. 584.

15. Halleck to Grant, September 17, 1863, ibid. 538–62.

16. Sherman to Halleck, ibid. 695–97.

17. 24 War of the Rebellion (Part 3) 562.

18. 30 ibid. 732.

19. Bruce Catton, Grant Takes Command 20–21 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1968).

20. Henry Coppee, Life and Services of General U.S. Grant 206–7 (Chicago: Charles B. Richardson, 1868).

21. 9 Grant Papers 222 note.

22. Foote, 2 Civil War 774.

23. Grant, 1 Memoirs 581–82.

24. So out of touch was Union intelligence that on September 11, 1863, when Longstreet’s corps had been underway to join Bragg for three days, Halleck telegraphed Rosecrans that according to Union intelligence reports Bragg was sending men north to reinforce Lee! 30 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 34.

25. Foote, 2 Civil War 748.

26. Ibid. 768.

27. Dana to Stanton, October 13, 1863, in Freeman Cleaves, Rock of Chickamauga: The Life of General George H. Thomas 180 (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1948).

28. Tyler Dennett, ed., Lincoln and the Civil War in the Diaries and Letters of John Hay 106 (New York: Dodd, Mead, 1939).

29. Grant, 1 Memoirs 583–84.

30. Ibid.

31. 30 War of the Rebellion (Part 4) 404.

32. Grant, 2 Memoirs 17–18.

33. 9 Grant Papers 281 note.

34. Grant, 2 Memoirs 19.

35. Grant to Rosecrans, October 19, 1863, 9 Grant Papers 286.

36. Grant to Thomas, October 19, 1863, ibid. 287.

37. Thomas to Grant, October 19, 1863, 30 War of the Rebellion (Part 4) 479.

38. Grant, 2 Memoirs 26–27.

39. Harvey Reid to Sarah Reid, Reid Papers, October 21, 1863, Huntington Library.

40. John Russell Young, 2 Around the World with General Grant 288 (New York: American News, 1879).

41. Grant, 2 Memoirs 28.

42. Rawlins to Mary Emma Hurlbut, November 16, 1863, Rawlins Papers, Chicago Historical Society.

43. Horace Porter, Campaigning with Grant 2 (New York: Century, 1897).

44. Ibid. 4.

45. Catton, Grant Takes Command 40. After the war, Reynolds said there was never any bad feeling between Thomas and Grant. “They were both big men. The only thing Grant ever had against Thomas was that Thomas was slow. And it’s the God of Mighty’s truth he was slow.”

46. Grant, 2 Memoirs 29.

47. Porter, Campaigning with Grant 4–5, 8.

48. Grant, 2 Memoirs 31.

49. Ibid. 38–39.

50. Grant to Halleck, October 29, 1863, 9 Grant Papers 295.

51. Ibid.

52. Catton, Grant Takes Command 56.

53. Grant to Julia, October 27, 1883, 9 Grant Papers 288.

54. Porter, Campaigning with Grant 14–16.

55. Charles Francis Adams, Jr., quoted in T. Harry Williams McClellan, Sherman, and Grant 82–83 (New Brunswick, N.J.: Rutgers University Press, 1962).

56. Allan Nevins, 3 The War for the Union, 1863–1864 184 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1947).

57. Catton, Grant Takes Command 42–43.

58. Grant, 2 Memoirs 42–43.

59. Young, 2 Around the World 295.

60. Grant, 2 Memoirs 50.

61. 9 Grant Papers 315.

62. Grant to Julia, November 14, 1863, ibid. 317.

63. “Grant to Chattanooga,” in Frederick D. Grant, 1 Personal Reflections of the War of the Rebellion 244–257 (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1907).

64. Ibid.

65. William Tecumseh Sherman, 1 Memoirs of General W. T. Sherman 387 (New York: Literary Classics, 1990). Reprint.

66. Cleaves, Rock of Chickamauga 192.

67. Foote, 2 Civil War 845.

68. Catton, Grant Takes Command 72.

69. Grant, 2 Memoirs 64.

70. Richmond Dispatch, quoted in Catton, Grant Takes Command 72.

71. Grant, 2 Memoirs 72.

72. Grant to Halleck, November 24, 1863, 9 Grant Papers 439–40.

73. Lincoln to Grant, November 25, 1863, 7 Works of Lincoln 30.

74. Halleck to Grant, November 25, 1863, 9 Grant Papers 440 note.

75. Rawlins (Grant) to Sherman, November 24 [25] 1863, 31 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 43–44.

76. Grant to Hooker, November 25, 1863, 55 Ibid. 44.

77. Grant to Thomas, November 24 [25] 1863, 9 Grant Papers 443.

78. 31 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 116.

79. Irving Buck, Cleburne and His Command 167 (Jackson, Tenn.: McCowat-Mercur, 1959).

80. Grant’s orders to Thomas have been subject to varying interpretations, some historians insisting that Grant did not mean for the Army of the Cumberland to move beyond the rifle pits. The Official Record suggests otherwise. Grant saw the taking of the rebel first line as a preliminary to attacking the ridge itself, but he assumed that Thomas’s men would halt at the pits and re-form before proceeding against the heights. The most useful analysis is by J. F. C. Fuller in The Generalship of Ulysses S. Grant 176–77. Also see 55 War of the Rebellion 508 and Appendix II; 9 Grant Papers 447 note.

81. Foote, 2 Civil War 853.

82. Catton, Grant Takes Command 80.

83. 31 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 78–79.

84. Grant, 2 Memoirs 79.

85. James A. Connolly, Three Years in the Army of the Cumberland 158, Paul M. Angle, ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1959).

86. Joseph S. Fullerton, “The Army of the Cumberland at Chattanooga,” 3 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 725.

87. Douglas MacArthur, Reminiscences 8–9 (New York: Random House, 1964). Arthur MacArthur, the father of Douglas MacArthur, best known for his role in suppressing the Philippine Insurrection, was the senior general in the army from 1902 to 1909, but was never chief of staff. The Medal of Honor for his role on Missionary Ridge was awarded in 1890.

88. Foote, 2 Civil War 858.

89. 31 War of the Rebellion (Part 2) 666.

90. Ulysses S. Grant, “Chattanooga,” 3 Battles and Leaders of the Civil War 693 note.

91. Grant, 2 Memoirs 86.

92. Ibid. 87.

93. Williams, McClellan, Sherman, and Grant 100.

94. 31 War of the Rebellion (Part 3) 402.

95. William S. McFeely, Grant: A Biography 139 (New York: W. W. Norton, 1981).

96. Longstreet to Maj. Gen. LaFayette McLaws, November 29, 1863, 31 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 494.

97. Grant to McPherson, December 1, 1863, 9 Grant Papers 480–81.

98. Grant to Halleck, December 7, 1863, ibid. 500–501.

99. Halleck to Grant, December 21, 1863, 31 War of the Rebellion (Part 1) 458.

100. Lincoln to Grant, December 8, 1863, 7 Works of Lincoln 35, 53.