Ulysses S. Grant and the American Civil War

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Ulysses S. Grant
Photograph of Grant, staring at the camera while standing next to a tree
General Grant in 1864
Commanding General of the United States Army
In office
March 9, 1864 – March 4, 1869
Personal details
Born
Hiram Ulysses Grant

(1822-04-27)April 27, 1822
Point Pleasant, Ohio, U.S.
DiedJuly 23, 1885(1885-07-23) (aged 63)
Wilton, New York, U.S.
Military service
Branch/serviceUnited States Army (Union Army)
Years of service1861–1869
RankGeneral of the Army
Commands
Battles/wars
See list
This article is part of
a series about
Ulysses S. Grant

General of the Army (United States)

18th President of the United States
Presidential elections
Post-presidency

Ulysses S. Grant's signature

Seal of the President of the United States

On the onset of the American Civil War in April 1861, Ulysses S. Grant was working as a clerk in his father's leather goods store in Galena, Illinois. When the war began, his military experience was needed, and congressman Elihu B. Washburne became his patron in political affairs and promotions in Illinois and nationwide.

Grant trained Union military recruits and was promoted to colonel in June 1861. Major general John C. Frémont, who viewed in Grant an "iron will" to win, appointed Grant to commander of the District of Cairo. Grant became famous around the nation after capturing Fort Donelson in February 1862 and was promoted to major general by president Abraham Lincoln. After a series of decisive yet costly battles and victories at Shiloh, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga, Grant was promoted to lieutenant general by Lincoln in 1864 and given charge of all the Union armies. Grant went on to defeat Robert E. Lee after another series of costly battles in the Overland Campaign, the Siege of Petersburg, and the Appomattox campaign. After the Civil War, Grant was given his final promotion of general of the Armed Forces in 1866 and served until 1869. His popularity as a Union war general enabled him to be elected president in 1868.

Grant was the most acclaimed Union general during the Civil War.[1] Some historians have viewed him as a "butcher" commander who in 1864 used attrition without regard to the lives of his own soldiers in order to kill off the enemy which could no longer replenish its losses.[2] Throughout the Civil War, Grant's armies incurred approximately 154,000 casualties, while having inflicted 191,000 casualties on his opposing Confederate armies.[3] In terms of success, Grant was the only general during the Civil War who received the surrender of three Confederate armies.[2] Although Grant maintained high casualties during the Overland Campaign in 1864, his aggressive fighting strategy was in compliance with the U.S. government's strategic war aims[2] and was in any case abetted by profligate Confederate generals who were willing to match his losses. Grant has recently been praised by historians for his "military genius" and viewed as a decisive general who emphasized movement and logistics.[4] Grant is considered a modern, natural, and skillful general, leading from a central command center, using common sense, and delivering coordinated attacks on the enemy's armies.[5]

Background

United States Military Academy at West Point in 1839. After graduation, he went on to serve with distinction as a lieutenant in the Mexican–American War. Grant was a keen observer of the war and learned battle strategies serving under generals Zachary Taylor and Winfield Scott. After the war, Grant served at various posts especially in the Pacific Northwest, but he was forced to retire from the service in 1854 due to accusations of drunkenness.[6]
He was unable to make a success of farming.

American Civil War

Initial commissions

Brigadier General Grant in 1861

On April 15, 1861, after the

21st Illinois Infantry on June 17. He went to Mexico, Missouri, guarding the Hannibal and St. Joseph Railroad from Confederate attack. On July 31, 1861, President Lincoln appointed him as a brigadier general in the United States Volunteers. On September 1, he was selected by Western Department Commander, Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, to command the District of Southeast Missouri. He soon established his headquarters at Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio River joins the Mississippi. His command was soon reorganized and renamed the District of Cairo.[8]

Battles of Belmont, Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson

Main articles: Battle of Belmont, Battle of Fort Henry, and Battle of Fort Donelson
Campaigns for Belmont, Fort Henry, and Fort Donelson

Grant's first Civil War battles occurred while he was in command of the District of Cairo. The Confederate Army, stationed in

Gideon J. Pillow positioned at Camp Johnson in Belmont, Missouri
, on November 7, 1861. Having initially pushed back the Confederate forces from Camp Johnson, Grant's undisciplined volunteers wildly celebrated rather than continuing the fight. Pillow, who was given reinforcements by Polk from Columbus, forced the Union troops to make a hasty retreat.

Although the battle was considered inconclusive and futile, Grant and his troops gained the confidence needed to continue on the offensive. More importantly, President Lincoln took notice of Grant's willingness to fight.

Andrew H. Foote's naval flotilla, the expedition steamed south on February 3, 1862, with two divisions of 15,000 men. During the winter, the river had risen and swamped some of the defenses of Fort Henry. On February 6, 1862, Adm. Foote's Union fleet consisting of ironclads and wooden ships bombarded Fort Henry as Grant's troops began the landing. Before Grant could attack, the fortress surrendered. Two Union naval officers entered the fort on a rowboat to accept the surrender. Although approximately 3,000 Confederates escaped east before the surrender, the fall of Fort Henry opened up the Union war effort in Tennessee and Alabama
.

Grant became a national hero to the Union public after his victory at Fort Donelson.

After the fall of Fort Henry, Grant moved his army overland 12 miles east to capture Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. Foote's naval fleet arrived on February 14 and immediately started a series of bombardments; however, Fort Donelson's water batteries effectively repulsed the naval fleet. Stealthily, on February 15, Confederate Brig. Gen. John B. Floyd ordered General Pillow to strike at Grant's Union forces encamped around the fort, in order to establish an escape route through to Nashville, Tennessee. Pillow's attack pushed McClernand's corps into a disorganized retreat eastward on the Nashville road. However, the Confederate advance stalled, and Grant was able to rally the Union troops to keep the southerners from escaping. The Confederate forces, under General Simon Bolivar Buckner, finally surrendered Fort Donelson on February 16. Grant's surrender demand to Buckner was popular throughout the Union, " "No terms except an unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted." The general was colloquially known from then on as "Unconditional Surrender" Grant. President Abraham Lincoln promoted Grant to major general of volunteers.[10]

The surrender of Fort Donelson was a tremendous victory for the Union war effort; 12,000 Confederate soldiers had been captured in addition to the bountiful arms inventory of the fort. However, Grant now experienced serious difficulties with his superior in St. Louis, Maj. Gen.

Henry W. Halleck. Some writers believe that Halleck was personally or professionally jealous of Grant.[who?] In any event, Halleck made various criticisms about Grant to Washington, even suggesting that Grant's performance was impaired by drinking. With Washington's support, Halleck told Grant to remain at Fort Henry and give command of the next expedition up the Tennessee River to Charles F. Smith, newly nominated as a major general. Grant asked three times to be relieved from duty under Halleck. However, Halleck soon restored Grant to field command, perhaps in part because Lincoln intervened to inquire into Halleck's dissatisfaction with Grant. Grant soon rejoined his forces, eventually known as the Army of the Tennessee, at Savannah, Tennessee. After the fall of Donelson, Grant became popularly known for smoking cigars, as many as 18–20 a day.[11]

Battle of Shiloh

Main article: Battle of Shiloh
After the carnage at Shiloh, the Civil War became a fight to the bitter end.

In early March 1862, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck ordered Grant's

Pittsburg Landing. Union Col. Everett Peabody, upon his infantry discovering the oncoming Confederate assault, was able to adequately warn the Union Army to form battle lines. Nonetheless, the Confederates were initially able to drive back the Union Army.[12]

General Grant in 1862

The Union soldiers left, however, under Brig. Gens.

W.H.L. Wallace, and James M. Tuttle, bravely withstood determined Confederate assaults in a road pocket known as the "Hornet's Nest" for seven hours before being forced to yield ground towards the Tennessee River. This gave the Union army much needed time to be able to stabilize their line formations and gather reinforcements. Prentiss, himself, was taken prisoner and forced to surrender his division to the Confederates, while Wallace was mortally wounded. Grant, nursing a previous horse fall injury, arrived from Savannah where both he and Sherman rallied the troops and staved off defeat. Although Grant's forces were battered, the Army of the Tennessee held strong compact positions with 50 artillery guns while two federal gunboats fired at the Confederates. After receiving reinforcements from Buell and his own army, Grant had a total of 45,000 troops and launched a counter offensive on April 7. Confederate General Johnston was killed in the battle on the first day of fighting, and the Confederate Army, now under Beauregard, was outnumbered and forced to retreat to Corinth, Mississippi.[13]

The 23,746 casualties at Shiloh shocked both the Union and Confederacy, whose combined totals exceeded casualties from all of the United States' previous wars. The Battle of Shiloh led to much criticism of Grant for leaving his army unprepared defensively; he was also falsely accused of being drunk. According to one account, President Lincoln rejected suggestions to dismiss Grant, saying, "I can't spare this man; he fights." After Shiloh, General Halleck took the field personally and gathered a 120,000-man army at Pittsburg Landing, including Grant's Army of the Tennessee, Buell's Army of the Ohio, and

William T. Sherman, persuaded him to stay in Halleck's Army.[14] After capturing Corinth, Mississippi, the 120,000-man army was disbanded; Halleck was promoted to General in Chief of the Union Army and transferred east to Washington, D.C. Grant resumed immediate command of the Army of the Tennessee and, a year later, captured the Confederate stronghold of Vicksburg.[15]

Refugees from Slavery

Further information:
Freedmens Bureau

On July 2, 1862, President Lincoln had authorized African American contrabands or "fugitive slaves" seeking refuge in the Union Army to be recruited. During the fall of 1862, Grant made efforts to take care of "wagon loads" of black slave refugees in Western

Reconstruction. Similar efforts to incorporate African Americans into the Union war effort were made on the Atlantic coast. Many Union political conservatives in Illinois, however, were against and blocked the influx of African Americans into their state. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing the slaves in the states and parts of states in rebellion. Thereafter, the Union recruited both former slaves and other blacks to fight against the Confederacy in new regiments of the Union Army known as the United States Colored Troops.[16]

The Battle of Vicksburg

Main articles: Vicksburg campaign; Chickasaw Bayou; Arkansas Post; Battle of Jackson, Mississippi; and Battle of Champion Hill
Further information: General Order No. 11 (1862) and Antisemitism

Resolved to take control of the

William T. Sherman was repulsed by the Confederate forces at the Battle of Chickasaw Bayou.[17]

Grant's bold gamble: the Union fleet running the Confederate Vicksburg fortress guns.

In January 1863, McClernand and Sherman's combined XIII and XV corps, the Army of the Mississippi, defeated the Confederates at Arkansas Post. Grant made five attempts to capture Vicksburg by water routes; however, all failed. With the Union impatient for a victory, in March 1863, the second stage to capture Vicksburg began. Grant marched his troops down the west side of the Mississippi River and crossed over at Bruinsburg. Adm. David D. Porter's navy ships had previously made a run past Vicksburg's batteries on April 16, 1863, enabling Union troops to be transported to the east side of the river. The crossing succeeded due to Grant's elaborate series of demonstrations and diversions that masked his intended movements from the Confederates. After the crossing, Grant maneuvered his army inland, and after a series of battles, the state capital, Jackson, Mississippi, was captured. Confederate general John C. Pemberton was defeated by Grant's forces at the battles of Champion Hill and of Black River Bridge and retreated to the Vicksburg fortress. After two unsuccessful and costly assaults on Vicksburg, Grant settled in for a 40-day siege. Pemberton, unable to combine forces with the army of Joseph E. Johnston, which was hovering in central Mississippi, finally surrendered Vicksburg on July 4, 1863.[17] The capture of Vicksburg was a turning point for the Union war effort. The surrender of Vicksburg and the defeat of Confederate general Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg were stinging defeats for the Confederacy, now split in two by the Union's domination of the Mississippi River. President Lincoln promoted Grant to the permanent rank of major general in the Regular Army. Vicksburg marked the second surrender of a Confederate army (the other being Buckner's surrender to Grant the year before). During the Vicksburg siege, Grant dismissed McClernand for publishing to the press a congratulatory order that seemed to claim it was McClernand's corps that was winning the campaign. McClernand appealed the dismissal to his personal friend, President Lincoln, but to no avail. Grant had ended the rivalry on his own terms. The Union army had captured considerable Confederate artillery, small arms, and ammunition. Total casualties, killed or wounded, for the final operation against Vicksburg that started on March 29, 1863, were 10,142 for the Union and 9,091 for the Confederacy.[17]

Grant's victory at Champion Hill forced Pemberton into a 40-day siege at Vicksburg.

Although the victory at Vicksburg was a tremendous advance in the Union War effort, Grant's reputation did not escape criticism. During the initial campaign in December 1862, Grant became upset and angry over speculators and traders who inundated his department and violated rules about trading cotton in a militarized zone. As a result, Grant issued his notorious

John A. McClernand was alleged to have promoted and secretly spread this rumor in the Union Army. Both McClernand and Hamilton were seeking promotion in the army at the time of these allegations. Cincinnati Commercial editor Murat Halstead railed that, "Our whole Army of the Mississippi is being wasted by a foolish, drunken, stupid Grant". Lincoln sent Charles A. Dana to keep a watchful eye. To save Grant from dismissal, assistant Adjutant General John A. Rawlins, Grant's friend, got him to take a pledge not to touch alcohol.[18]

General Order No. 11

During the Vicksburg campaign Grant had received numerous reports from General Sherman and others that "highly visible" Jewish merchants were trading gold for cotton and were routinely violating trade regulations in Grant's war district. When his own father, Jesse Grant, arrived at his headquarters with two prominent Jewish merchants requesting special permits to trade in cotton Grant became angry and ordered his father and his partners to leave on the next train going north.[19] Believing Jewish merchants had used his father and were also playing a large role in the widespread cotton speculation, he issued General Order No. 11 from his Headquarters in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on December 17, 1862. Because of the generalized wording of the order allegations of antisemitism were soon levied at Grant.[20][21] [22] The Order stated in part:

The Jews, as a class, violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department, and also Department orders, are hereby expelled from the Department (comprising areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky).[23]

The

New York Times denounced the order as "humiliating" and a "revival of the spirit of the medieval ages." Its editorial column called for the "utter reprobation" of Grant's order.[24] After protest from Jewish leaders, the order was rescinded by President Lincoln on January 3, 1863.[25] Though Grant initially maintained that a staff officer issued it in his name, it was suggested by Gen. James H. Wilson that Grant may have issued the order in order to strike indirectly at the "lot of relatives who were always trying to use him" (for example his father, Jesse Grant, who was in business with Jewish traders), and perhaps struck instead at what he maliciously saw as their counterpart — opportunistic traders who were Jewish.[26] Bertram Korn suggests the order was part of a consistent pattern. "This was not the first discriminatory order [Grant] had signed [...] he was firmly convinced of the Jews' guilt and was eager to use any means of ridding himself of them."[27] During the campaign of 1868, Grant admitted the order was his, but maintained, "It would never have been issued if it had not been telegraphed the moment it were penned, and without reflection."[28] The order, ostensibly in response to illegal cotton smuggling done without Treasury approval, has been described by one modern historian as "the most blatant official episode of anti-Semitism in nineteenth-century American history."[29]

Chattanooga

Main articles: Chattanooga campaign, Battle of Lookout Mountain, and Battle of Missionary Ridge
Union troops swarm Missionary Ridge and defeat Bragg's army.

When Maj. Gen.

George H. Thomas's chief engineer, William F. "Baldy" Smith. After Union army seized Brown's Ferry, Hooker's troops and supplies were sent into the city, helping to feed the starving men and animals and to prepare for an assault on the Confederate forces surrounding the city.[30]

Battles for Chattanooga, November 23–25, 1863

On November 23, Grant launched his offensive on Missionary Ridge, combining the forces of the Army of the Cumberland, the Army of the Tennessee, and the Army of the Potomac. Maj. Gen. Thomas took a minor high ground known as Orchard Knob while Maj. Gen. Sherman took strategic positions for an attack on Bragg's right flank on Missionary Ridge. On November 24, in heavy fog, Hooker captured Lookout Mountain and positioned his troops to attack Bragg's left flank at Rossville. On November 25, Grant ordered Thomas's Army of the Cumberland to make a diversionary attack only to take the "rifle pits" on Missionary Ridge. However, after the soldiers took the rifle pits, they proceeded on their own initiative without orders to make a successful frontal assault straight up Missionary Ridge. Bragg's army, routed and defeated, was in complete disarray from the frontal assault and forced to retreat to South Chickamauga Creek. Although the valiant frontal assault was successful, Grant was initially upset because he did not give direct orders for the men to take Missionary Ridge; however, he was satisfied with their results. The victory at Missionary Ridge eliminated the last Confederate control of Tennessee and opened the door to an invasion of the Deep South, leading to Sherman's Atlanta campaign of 1864. Casualties after the battle were 5,824 for the Union and 6,667 for Confederate armies, respectively.[30][31]

Promotion to general-in-chief

After the Confederate defeat at Chattanooga, President Lincoln promoted Grant to a special regular army rank,

infrastructures
.

No longer refugees,

Benjamin Butler would attack south of Richmond from the James River; Sherman would attack Johnson's army in Georgia; and George Crook and William W. Averell would destroy railroad supply lines in West Virginia. Nathaniel P. Banks was to capture Mobile, Alabama. Franz Sigel was to guard the Baltimore and Ohio railroad and advance in the Shenandoah Valley. Grant would command all the Union army forces while in the field with Meade and the Army of the Potomac.[32][33]

Fort Pillow Massacre

On April 12, 1864, Confederate forces under Maj. Gen. Nathan B. Forrest captured Union Fort Pillow and slaughtered Union African American troops rather than keep them as prisoners. Union Lt. Gen. Grant retaliated by ordering Union prisoner exchanges canceled until Union black soldiers were treated equally with white soldiers. The Confederate government declined to do so.[34]

Overland Campaign

Main articles:
Battle of Spotsylvania, Battle of North Anna, and Battle of Cold Harbor
Movements and battles of Grant's Overland Campaign

On May 4, 1864, Grant began a series of battles with

A.P. Hill's corps two miles; however, Lee was able to drive back the Union advance with Confederate General James Longstreet's reserves. The difficult, bloody, and costly battles lasted two days, May 5 and 6, resulting in an advantage to neither side. Unlike Union generals who retreated after similar battles with Lee, Grant ignored any setbacks and continued to flank Lee's right moving southward. The tremendous casualties for the Battle of the Wilderness were 17,666 for the Union and 11,125 for the Confederate armies, respectively.[35]

General Grant (at center, standing with shoulder resting on tree) and members of his staff, at Cold Harbor, Virginia, 1864

Although the Wilderness battle was costly for the Union, Grant decided to move south and continue the fight with Lee. As the Army of the Potomac moved southward from the Wilderness, Grant, on May 8, was forced into yet an even more desperate 14-day battle at

Horatio G. Wright. During the fighting at Spotsylvania, Grant stated, "I will fight it on this line if it takes all summer."[36]

Black and white photo of Ulysses, Julia, and Jesse Grant at City Point
General Grant with his wife Julia and son Jesse at City Point in 1864

Finding he could not break Lee's line of defense at Spotsylvania, Grant turned southward and moved to the North Anna River a dozen miles closer to Richmond. An attempt was made by Grant to get Lee to fight out in the open by sending an individual II Corps on the west bank of the Mattaponi River. Rather than take the bait, Lee anticipated a second right flank movement by Grant and retreated to the North Anna River in response to the Union V and VI corps, withdrawing from Spotsylvania. During this time, many Confederate generals, including Lee, were incapacitated due to illness or injury. Lee, stricken with dysentery, was unable to take advantage of an opportunity to seize parts of the Army of the Potomac. After a series of inconclusive minor battles at North Anna on May 23 and 24, the Army of the Potomac withdrew 20 miles southeast to important crossroads at Cold Harbor. From June 1 to 3, Grant and Lee fought each other at Cold Harbor with the heaviest Union casualties on the final day. Grant's ordered assault on June 3 was disastrous and lopsided with 6,000 Union casualties to Lee's 1,500. After twelve days of fighting at Cold Harbor, total casualties were 12,000 for the Union and 2,500 for the Confederacy. On June 11, 1864, Grant's Army of the Potomac broke away completely from Robert E. Lee, and on June 12 secretly crossed the James River on a pontoon bridge and attacked the railroad junction at Petersburg. For a brief time, Robert E. Lee had no idea where the Army of the Potomac was.[37][38]

Union opinion

Among northern antiwar elements after the stalemate at Cold Harbor, Grant was castigated as the "Butcher" for having sustained high casualties without a decisive victory over Robert E. Lee. However, Grant was able to successfully eliminate Lee's offensive capacity after the Overland Campaign and pinned him in the trenches of Petersburg. Grant, himself, who regretted the assault on June 3 at Cold Harbor as a bad mistake on his part, was determined to keep casualties minimal thereafter. Grant's plan was to keep fighting and Lincoln supported him, as did the Republican party apparatus, speakers and newspapers across the North.

Without a Union military victory, President Lincoln's presidential

Benjamin Butler, who was supposed to attack Confederate railroads south of Richmond, was trapped in the Bermuda Hundred. Sigel had failed to secure the Shenandoah Valley
from Confederate invasion and was relieved from duty.

The entire Union war effort seemed to be stalling and the Union public was growing increasingly impatient. The

Copperheads, an anti-war movement of northern Democrats, advocated legal recognition of the Confederacy, immediate peace talks, and encouraged draft dodging and desertion. The Union war effort was at its weakest point in the summer of 1864 while leaving the Washington capitol exposed to Confederate attack.[39]

Petersburg and Appomattox

Main articles:
Petersburg campaign, Valley campaigns of 1864, and Appomattox campaign

P.G.T. Beauregard. Grant established his new headquarters at City Point for the rest of the Civil War. The Union forces quickly attacked and overtook Petersburg's outlying trenches on June 15. However, Smith inexplicably stopped fighting and waited until the following day, June 16, to attack the city, allowing Beauregard to concentrate reinforcements in secondary field works. The second Union attack on Petersburg started on June 16 and lasted until June 18, when Lee's veterans finally arrived to keep the Union army from taking the important railroad junction. Unable to break Lee's Petersburg defenses, Grant had to settle for a siege.[40]

Realizing that Washington was left unprotected due to Grant's

Jubal A. Early, hoping it would force the Union army to send forces to pursue him. If Early could capture Washington, the Civil War would not have ended, but the Confederates would have embarrassed the Union and deeply wounded northern morale. Early, with 15,000 seasoned troops, marched north "down" the Shenandoah Valley, defeated Union Major General Lew Wallace at the Monocacy, and following the Battle of Fort Stevens, he reached the outskirts of Washington, causing great alarm. At Lincoln's urging, Grant dispatched the veteran Union VI Corps and parts of the XIX Corps, led by Major General Horatio Wright, to the capital. With the Union XXII Corps manning Washington's fortifications, Early was unable to take the city. The Confederate Army's mere presence close to the capital was still an embarrassment. At Petersburg, Grant blew up a section of Lee's trenches with gunpowder planted inside a huge mine tunnel dug by Pennsylvanian coal miners. The explosion dug a huge crater and opened a big gap in the Confederate line. The Union assault that followed, however, was slow and chaotic, with troops milling around inside the Crater. This allowed Lee to repulse the breakthrough.[41]

The Peacemakers depicts the March 1865 strategy session among William Tecumseh Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, Abraham Lincoln, and David Dixon Porter during the final days of the Civil War.

Despite the setback with the Crater incident and a Congressional investigation that followed, Grant was able to lock in Lee and the

John B. Hood at Nashville. Grant continued for months to stretch the Petersburg siege line westward to capture vital railroad lines that supplied Richmond, stretching Lee's defensive works thin.[42]

In March 1865, Grant invited Lincoln to visit his headquarters at City Point, Virginia. By coincidence, Sherman (then campaigning in North Carolina) happened to visit City Point at the same time. This allowed for the war's only three-way meeting of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman, which was memorialized in

Kirby Smith surrendered his forces in the Trans-Mississippi Department on June 2, 1865.[42][43]

Historical reputation and aftermath

Grant's portrait is in the middle of a colored engraving, surrounded by his chronological military history starting with his graduation from West Point, next the Mexican–American War, and then Civil War events and battle scenes.
Clockwise from lower left: Grant graduates from West Point (1843); Grant in the tower at Chapultepec (1847); Grant drilling his volunteers (1861); Grant in the battle of Fort Donelson (1862); Grant in the battle of Shiloh (1862); Grant in the siege of Vicksburg (1863); Grant in the Chattanooga campaign (1863); Grant being appointed lieutenant general by Lincoln (1864); Lee surrendering to Grant at Appomattox Court House (1865)

Grant was a very popular man in the United States after the American Civil War. After President Lincoln was assassinated in April 1865, Grant became America's first four-star general and would aid Congress, led by the Radicals, in their effort to reconstruct the South. Grant often disagreed with President

Reconstruction Era of the United States. Grant was looked on as a popular national leader who could mend the nation's wounds and bring in an era of peace. Grant was able to oust the French from Mexico as commanding general under Johnson and also able to thwart a Fenian Brotherhood attempted takeover of Canada. Grant was also in charge of Indian campaigns on the Western frontier. Elected President twice in 1868 and 1872 Grant's terms in office were filled with federal corruption scandals and sectional violence over the constitutional citizenship rights of African Americans
.

Grant, as President, supported the efforts of Congress to protect the

Civil Rights of African Americans and was able for a few years to legally and militarily defeat the Ku Klux Klan.[44] After Grant retired from the Presidency, he went on an unprecedented World tour visiting Europe, the Mid East, and Asia, returning by ship to San Francisco in June, 1879. In March 1885, with the help of his friends in Congress, President Chester A. Arthur authorized Grant to be reinstated into the U.S. military in order to receive retirement pay. Grant then was reinstated his full rank in the U.S. military by President Grover Cleveland
, whereupon Grant and his family received much needed full military retirement pay. In 1885, Grant finished his popular and financially successful military memoirs and died after a painful struggle with throat cancer.

Toward the end of Grant's life, the semi-religious cultic

Lost Cause movement in the South propped up Robert E. Lee, who had surrendered to Grant at Appomattox, as the greatest general during the Civil War, and elevated Lee, rather than Grant, to a god-like status. This false view permeated throughout American society.[1] Grant was viewed as a drunk and butcher who had won only because he waged a brutal war of attrition.[1] Historian Edward H. Bonekemper counters this view and says that Grant was the most successful general of the Civil War, noting that in the West, Grant drove the Confederates out of the Mississippi Valley through a series of battles and campaigns, including Fort Donelson, Vicksburg, and Chattanooga.[45] When Grant was brought back East and put in command of the Union Army, he was able to defeat Lee's Confederate army within a year and effectively brought the war to a close.[45] According to Bonekemper, Grant's armies were more destructive than Confederate armies. Grant's Union armies in the West and East that battled Confederate armies, inflicted more casualties, a total of 190,760 Confederate versus 153,643 Union, a difference of 37,118.[46]

Dates of rank

Insignia Rank Date Component
No insignia Cadet, USMA 1 July 1839 Regular Army
Brevet Second Lieutenant 1 July 1843 Regular Army
Second Lieutenant 30 September 1845 Regular Army
Brevet First Lieutenant 8 September 1847 Regular Army
First Lieutenant 16 September 1847 Regular Army
Captain 5 August 1853 Regular Army
(Resigned 31 July 1854.)
Colonel 17 June 1861 Volunteers
Brigadier General 7 August 1861 Volunteers
(To rank from 17 May 1861.)
Major General 16 February 1862 Volunteers
Major General 4 July 1863 Regular Army
Lieutenant General 4 March 1864 Regular Army
General 25 July 1866 Regular Army
Source:[47]

List of Union western ranks and commands 1861 to 1863

Union vs. Confederate casualties estimated

Western campaigns and Battles of Ulysses S. Grant

  • Total Union casualties under Grant: 36,688[49]
  • Total Confederate casualties: 84,187[49]

Eastern campaigns and Battles of Ulysses S. Grant

  • Total Union casualties under Grant: 116,954[50]
  • Total Confederate casualties: 106,573[50]

Totals Western and Eastern campaigns and Battles of Ulysses S. Grant

  • Total Union casualties under Grant: 153,642[50]
  • Total Confederate casualties: 190,760[50]
  • Net casualties difference: (37,118)[50]
Note: killed, wounded, missing, or captured included.[50]

References

  1. ^ a b c Bonekemper 2012, p. xiii.
  2. ^ a b c Bonekemper (April 2011), The butcher's bill: Ulysses S. Grant is often referred to as a 'butcher,' but does Robert E. Lee actually deserve that title?, Civil War Times, pp. 36+
  3. ^ Bonekemper 2012, p. xxiv.
  4. ^ Bonekemper 2012, p. 386.
  5. ^ Axelrod 2011, p. 205.
  6. ^ Lyle W. Dorsett, "The Problem of Ulysses S. Grant's Drinking During the Civil War," Hayes Historical Journal 4#2 (1983): 37–39.
  7. ^ John Y. Simon, "From Galena to Appomattox: Grant and Washburne." Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society 58#2 (1965): 165-189.
  8. ^ McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, pp. 79–85; Smith (2001), Grant, pp. 98–115.
  9. ^ McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, pp. 79–85; Smith (2001), Grant, pp. 98–115
  10. ^ McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, pp. 89–101; Smith (2001), Grant, pp. 143–162.
  11. ^ McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, pp. 107–109; Smith (2001), Grant, pp. 177–179, 244. According to Smith, the relationship between Halleck and Grant much improved as the war progressed. When Grant was heavily inundated with charges of drinking during the Vicksburg campaign, Halleck wrote on March 20, 1863, "The eyes and hopes of the whole country are now directed to your army."
  12. ^ Eicher (2001), The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, pp. 219, 223; Timothy B. Smith (May 2006), The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield, America's Civil War magazine; Emerson (1896), Grant's life in the West and his Mississippi Valley Campaigns
  13. ^ Eicher (2001), The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, pp. 219, 223; Smith (2006), "The Untold Story of Shiloh: The Battle and the Battlefield", – According to Smith, the battle of Shiloh is "perhaps one of the least understood" battles of the Civil War, with many myths generating years after the actual battle. The Union Army was never "surprised" by Johnson's Confederate attack, having been entirely mobilized after being alerted by a Union patrol under Col. Everett Peabody. Prentiss is claimed to be the hero of Shiloh; however, W.H.L. Wallace's brigade took most of the Confederate onslaught. Prentiss himself was taken prisoner by the Confederates, having surrendered the remnants of his brave division. The sunken road was not actually sunken; rather, it was mistaken to be sunken by one Union soldier, Thomas C. Robertson, who was in no position to accurately see the road. The claim that Buell's army saved Grant's army from destruction is unfounded, since the Army of the Tennessee was able to hold their lines before Buell's reinforcements arrived. The claim that Union soldiers were stabbed in their tents while sleeping was made by newspaper reporter Whitelaw Reid, who was miles away from the actual battle when he wrote his 15,000 word article.
  14. ^ Schenker (2010), "Ulysses in His Tent", passim.
  15. ^ Daniel (1997), Shiloh: The Battle That Changed the Civil War, pp. 209, 210; Farina (2007), Ulysses S. Grant, 1861–1864: his rise from obscurity to military greatness, pp. 101–103
  16. ^ Simson (1999), Ulysses S. Grant and the Freedmen's Bureau, p. 1; McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, pp. 126–128.
  17. ^ a b c McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, pp. 128–132
  18. ^ Jones (2002), Historical Dictionary of the Civil War: A-L, pp. 590–591; Simpson (2000), Ulysses S. Grant: triumph over adversity, 1822–1865, pp. 176–181.
  19. ^ White, 2016, p.252
  20. ^ Brands, 2012, pp. 218, 201
  21. ^ McFeely, 1981, pp.123-124
  22. ^ The road to Appomattox, Robert Hendrickson, J. Wiley, 1998, Page 16.
  23. ^ Clare, 2012, General Grant's Order 11: Causes and Context, p.34
  24. ISBN 0-7425-4313-7
  25. ^ Isaac Markens (1909), Abraham Lincoln and the Jews, self-published, pp. 12–13, retrieved 2008-01-09
  26. ^ McFeely, p 124.
  27. ^ Bertram Korn, American Jewry and the Civil War, p. 143. Korn cites Grant's order of November 9 and 10, 1862, "Refuse all permits to come south of Jackson for the present. The Israelites especially should be kept out," and "no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the railroad southward from any point. They may go north and be encouraged in it; but they are such an intolerable nuisance that the department must be purged of them."
  28. ^ American Jewish history, Volume 6, Part 1, Jeffrey S. Gurock, American Jewish Historical Society, Taylor & Francis, 1998, page 14.
  29. ISBN 978-0-88125-756-4
    . Retrieved 2010-02-02.
  30. ^ a b Bruce Catton (1969), Grant Takes Command, pages 42–62
  31. ^ Eicher (2001), The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, pp. 600, 601
  32. ^ Catton (1969), Grant Takes Command, Chapter 8
  33. ^ McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, pp. 162–163 – According to McFeely, "Lincoln wisely obtained from Grant a disclaimer of any hope of a hasty move to the White House."; pp. 180–181 During Sherman's southern campaign African Americans were employed and conscripted as soldiers into the Union Army.
  34. ^ Fuchs (2002), An Unerring Fire: The Massacre at Fort Pillow, pp. 143, 144; Eicher (2001), The Longest Night: A Military History of the Civil War, p. 657
  35. ^ Catton (1969), Grant Takes Command, p. 181; Bonekemper (2004), A Victor, Not a Butcher: Ulysses S. Grant's Overlooked Military Genius, p. 307 Appendix II
  36. ^ McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, pp. 168–169
  37. ^ Smith (2001), Grant, pp 360–365
  38. ^ Catton (1969), Grant Takes Command, pp. 249–254
  39. ^ Catton (1969), Grant Takes Command, pp. 309–318
  40. ^ Catton (1969), Grant Takes Command, pp. 283, 285–291, 435
  41. ^ Smith (2002), Grant, pp. 377–380
  42. ^ a b McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, p. 186
  43. ^ Sherman, Memoirs, pp. 806–17; Donald C. Pfanz, The Petersburg Campaign: Abraham Lincoln at City Point (Lynchburg, VA, 1989), 1–2, 24–29, 94–95.
  44. ^ McFeely (1981), Grant: A Biography, pp. 368-369
  45. ^ a b Bonekemper 2012, pp. xiii–xiv.
  46. ^ Bonekemper 2012, p. 477-478.
  47. ^ Historical Register and Dictionary of the United States Army. Francis B. Heitman. 1903. Vol. 1. p. 882.
  48. ^ a b c Dyer's Compendium (Union) Western Departments and Armies 1908
  49. ^ a b Bonekemper 2012, p. 477.
  50. ^ a b c d e f Bonekemper 2012, p. 478.

Sources

Main articles: Bibliography of Ulysses S. Grant  and  Bibliography of the American Civil War
Military offices
Preceded by
Henry W. Halleck
 Commanding General of the United States Army
1864 – 1869 		Succeeded by
William T. Sherman
New title Commander, Military Division of the Mississippi
1863 – 1864
Commander, Army of the Tennessee
1862 – 1863
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