05/31/13

General David Hunter and Scorched Earth

This entry is part 8 of 14 in the series The Hard Hand of War

Maj. Gen. David Hunter was a true believer in the abolition of slavery. With his strong relationship with President Lincoln, Hunter had a meteoric rise from colonel to major general in four short months in 1861. By November he was appointed as commander of the Western Department. And in March 1862, he was transferred to the command of the Department of the South and the X Corps.

Hunter was a strong advocate of arming blacks as soldiers for the Union cause. After the Battle of Fort Pulaski in April 1862, Hunter enlisted free d slaves in the occupied districts of South Carolina. He formed the first such Union Army regiment, the 1st South Carolina (African Descent) but was almost immediately ordered to disband. The authorities in Washington were concerned with the reaction from the border states. Eventually, Hunter received Congressional approval for his action.

Hunter followed up this controversy with a second one, that of issuing an order emancipating the slaves in Georgia, South Carolina, and Florida.

General Order No. 11 – HDQRS Dept. of the South, Hilton Head, Port Royal, S.C.

“The three States of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina, comprising the military department of the south, having deliberately declared themselves no longer under the protection of the United States of America, and having taken up arms against the said United States, it becomes a military necessity to declare them under martial law. This was accordingly done on the 25th day of April, 1862. Slavery and martial law in a free country are altogether incompatible; the persons in these three States — Georgia, Florida, and South Carolina— heretofore held as slaves, are therefore declared forever free.”

Maj, General David Hunter
1862

President Lincoln rescinded this order for the same reason: the border states’ reaction. Hunter’s order raised the ire of Confederates to the point where Confederate President Jefferson Davis issued orders to the Confederate States Army that Hunter was to be considered a “felon to be executed if captured”.

Hunter was reassigned to the Shenandoah Valley where he replaced Maj. Gen. Franz Sigel in command of the Army of the Shenandoah and the Department of West Virginia on May 21, 1864. The Valley was the base of supply for General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia and Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant ordered Hunter to cut off the Confederate’s supplies.

Grant ordered Hunter to employ scorched earth tactics similar to those that would be used later in that year during Sherman’s March to the Sea; he was to move through Staunton to Charlottesville and Lynchburg, “living off the country” and destroying the Virginia Central Railroad “beyond possibility of repair for weeks.” Lee was so concerned about Hunter that he dispatched Lt. Gen. Jubal A. Early with a corps to deal with him.

On June 5, Hunter defeated Maj. Gen. William E. “Grumble” Jones at the Battle of Piedmont. Following orders, he moved up the Valley (southward) through Staunton to Lexington, destroying military targets and other industries (such as blacksmiths and stables) that could be used to support the Confederacy.

After reaching Lexington, his troops burned down the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) on June 11 in retaliation of that institution sending cadets to fight in at New Market. Hunter ordered the home of former Governor John Letcher burned in retaliation for its absent owner’s having issued “a violent and inflammatory proclamation … inciting the population of the country to rise and wage guerrilla warfare on my troops.”

Hunter’s depredations came to an end when he was defeated by Early at the Battle of Lynchburg on June 19th. Grant brought in Maj. Gen. Phillip Sheridan as Hunter’s subordinate. However, Grant made it clear that Hunter would only have an administrative role and Sheridan would command the military formations. With that, Hunter promptly resigned. He would have no further combat commands.

05/15/13

Lincoln’s Democrat Generals

Some historians have put forward a theory that the Union generals of the early war were lenient in prosecuting the war due to their political leanings. Abraham Lincoln in an effort to garner support for the war appointed a significant number of Democrats as major generals of volunteers at the start of the war.

The most important reason for appointing political generals was to appease important blocs of voters. President Abraham Lincoln used such appointments as a way to get the support of moderate Democrats for the war and for his administration (“War Democrats“). The first three volunteer generals Lincoln appointed, (John Adams Dix, Nathaniel Prentice Banks and Benjamin F. Butler) were all Democrats, and therefore these three officers were the most senior major generals in the Union Army. Republicans were also appointed including Richard James Oglesby of Illinois.

John Adams Dix was a New York politician who had served in the Senate and as U.S. Secretary of the Treasury under President James Buchanan for less than two months in 1861. He is best known for the telegram that he sent to all Treasury agents in New Orleans. ”If any one attempts to haul down the American flag, shoot him on the spot.” Although the telegram was intercepted by Confederates, and was never delivered, the text found its way to the press, and Dix became one of the first heroes of the North during the Civil War.

Dix was the most senior major general of volunteers in the Union Army because his was the first appointment. He served in a variety of commands in the Eastern Theater. He is best known for the Dix-Hill Cartel for the exchange of prisoners of war.

Nathaniel Prentice Banks was a Massachusetts politician who had served in the U.S. House of Representatives as both a Member and then as Speaker. He left the House and ran for the governorship which he won. He was the second major general of volunteers to be appointed by Lincoln. During his career, Banks held commands in Maryland, the Shenandoah Valley and the Department of the Gulf.

He had the bad fortune to have to face Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah Valley during his memorable Valley Campaign of 1862. Jackson bested Banks at Winchester and later at Cedar Mountain.In the South, Banks commanded at the Siege of Port Hudson and on the Red River Campaign.

Benjamin Butler was the third ranking major general of volunteers appointed by Lincoln. His policies regarding slaves as contraband so they could have freedom, his administration of occupied New Orleans, his ineffectual leadership in the Bermuda Hundred Campaign, and the fiasco of Fort Fisher rank him as one of the most controversial political generals of the war. Butler was the first Eastern Union General to declare runaway Virginia slaves “contraband of war”; refusing to return them to their masters.

Then we have the most famous of the Democrat Union generals, George B. McClellan. After the disastrous Union defeat at Bull Run in July 1861, McClellan was ordered from his post in western Virginia to take command of the Washington defenses. Based on two somewhat minor victories he was feted by the New York Herald as “…the Napoleon of the Present War.”

On May 14th, McClellan at 34 had been promoted to major general in the Regular Army, outranking everyone but Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott. Carl Sandburg wrote, “McClellan was the man of the hour, pointed to by events, and chosen by an overwhelming weight of public and private opinion.” He was appointed commander of the Military Division of the Potomac, the main Union force responsible for the defense of Washington.

On August 20th after consolidating a number of Union formations he immediately formed the Army of the Potomac, with himself as its first commander. McClellan considered himself the savior of his country. In a letter to his wife he wrote, “I seem to have become the power of the land.”

McClellan immediately went about reorganizing the Army of the Potomac as a superb fighting force. He created defenses for Washington that were almost impregnable, consisting of 48 forts and strong points, with 480 guns manned by 7,200 artillerists. From July to November, the army grew from 50,000 to 168,000 men, a stupendous number for the 19th century.

McClellan was a superb logistics officer who understood the use of rail and steamboat transportation in war. However, he never seemed willing to throw his army into the fires of war. Some would say that he loved it too much to risk it in combat. Others whispered that McClellan was among the Union commanders who wished for conciliation with the South on the conditions that prevailed at the start of the war.

McClellan delivered a memorandum to Lincoln on August 2nd which was read to the Cabinet the following day. In it the general seemed to follow Winfield Scott’s Anaconda Plan. He felt that it was necessary “to display such an overwhelming strength, as will convince all our antagonists…of the utter impossibility of resistance.”

McClellan detailed his military grand strategy calling for attacks down the Mississippi, into Missouri, through East Tennessee into Kentucky and into West Texas. Other Union forces would maintain their hold on western Virginia and Fort Monroe. He also alluded to a substantial amphibious forces for attacks along the Southern coastline.

All of this was to be in support of a massive offensive against the Confederate capital of Richmond which would be followed by a thrust deep into the Deep South. McClellan called for a massive army of 273,000 troops with 600 pieces of artillery. This force would have been 20 times the size of the army that captured Mexico City in 1847.

McClellan had two objectives with his strategy. First, he hoped to detach the bulk of the Southern people from their presumably weak loyalty to the “political leaders of the rebels.” His second objective was to convince the “governing aristocratic class” that resistance was futile. In order to be successful with the first objective there could be no more Union defeats. At the same time he felt that a lenient policy of prosecuting the war was necessary in order not to alienate the Southern population.

Part of this lenient policy required the Union Army “to crush the rebels in one campaign” according to a letter that he wrote to his wife on the same day as he wrote the memorandum to Lincoln. He ordered his troops to rigorously respect private property, including slaves, and crush any attempt at a slave insurrection. These were the same orders that he gave his troops in Western Virginia.

However, McClellan could not be moved. Throughout the late and into the fall the Army of the Potomac continued to train while McClellan engaged in a bureaucratic struggle with Winfield Scott. Eventually Scott became so worn out with the struggle that he resigned as General-in-Chief. McClellan was appointed in his place and when he did he pressed his conciliatory views on each of the Union Army’s major commanders.

04/1/13

General Winfield Scott

Today, we remember the names of many of the generals who led the Union and Confederate armies. The names of Robert E. Lee, George McClellan, Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses Grant and Joseph E. Johnston are but a few of these illustrious leaders. Yet, the name of General Winfield Scott who set the stage for the ultimate Union victory is often overlooked.

Winfield Scott was the United States Army’s Commanding General at the start of the war. He established many of the early objectives for the Union army. It was his idea to completely blockade the Southern ports, thereby denying the South of the benefit from the cotton production. He established the plan to split the Confederacy down the Mississippi River and deny them the use of the river. It also split them from the valuable sources of supply in Trans-Mississippi America.

Who was this general? Winfield Scott was a Virginian by birth, being born on June 13, 1786 at the family plantation in Dinwiddie County, Virginia, near Petersburg. He briefly attended College of William and Mary, studied law in the office of a private attorney, and served as a Virginia militia cavalry corporal near Petersburg in 1807. The following year Scott was commissioned a captain in the light artillery.

Scott’s early career in the army was tumultuous. Scott openly criticized the then Commanding General of the Army, James Wilkinson. Scott was court-martialed for insubordination in 1810 and had his commission suspended for one year. Afterwards, he served in New Orleans on staff of General Wade Hampton from 1811 to 1812.

The War of 1812 against the British made Winfield Scott into one of the most well-known soldiers in America. In June 1812, he was promoted to lieutenant colonel and served primarily on the Niagara front. In October, 1812, he led an American landing party across the Niagara River at the Battle of Queenston Heights. Most New York militia members refused to cross into Canada in support of the invasion, and the British compelled New York militia commander Brigadier General William Wadsworth and Scott, the Regular Army commander, to surrender.

After Scott was exchanged, he was promoted to colonel in March 1813. Scott planned and led the capture of Fort George, Ontario, Canada, beside the Niagara River. The operation used landings across the Niagara and on the Lake Ontario coast and forced the British to abandon Fort George. Colonel Scott suffered wounds at this battle which is considered among the best planned and executed operations of the United States Army during the War of 1812.

Scott was promoted to the rank of brigadier general on March 19, 1814. He was only 27 years old at the time and one of the youngest generals in the history of the United States Army.

Scott commanded the 1st Brigade, proving largely instrumental in decisive American successes at the Battle of Chippewa on July 5, 1814. He played an instrumental role in the bloody Battle of Lundy’s Lane on July 25th, but suffered serious wounds. For his valor at Lundy’s Lane, Scott received a brevet (i.e. an honorary promotion) to major general to date from July 25, 1814. However, the severity of his wounds prevented his return to active duty for the remainder of the war.

Over the course of the next 45 years, Winfield Scott led American troops in the Seminole Wars, the Creek War and the Mexican War. In 1841, Scott became Commanding General of the United States Army, a position which he held until November 1861.

At the start of the American Civil War, Winfield Scott was 74 years old and suffering numerous health problems, including gout and dropsy. He was also extremely overweight (he weighed over 300 pounds) and unable to mount a horse or review troops. Although he was born and raised in Virginia, Scott remained loyal to the nation that he had served for most of his life and refused to resign his commission upon his home state’s secession.

Despite his infirmities, Winfield Scott continue to have a keen strategic mind. He drew up a complicated plan to defeat the Confederacy by blockading Southern ports and then sending an army down the Mississippi Valley to outflank the Confederacy.

His Anaconda Plan was derided in the press. However, in its broad outlines, it was the strategy the Union actually used, particularly in the Western Theater and in the somewhat successful naval blockade of Confederate ports. Though the blockade did prevent most sea-going vessels from leaving or arriving to points along the Confederate coast line, a fair number of blockade-runners made their way through. They typically carried cargoes of basic supplies, arms, and mail.

However, Lincoln gave in to public pressure for a victory within 90 days and rejected the Anaconda Plan, but the eventual strategy used by the Union in 1864–65 was largely based on Scott’s original plan.

Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan, the Union field commander, was anxious for Scott to be pushed aside. Political pressure from McClellan’s supporters in Congress led to Scott’s resignation on November 1, 1861. McClellan then succeeded him as general-in-chief. Although officially retired, Scott was still occasionally consulted by Lincoln for strategic advice during the war.

Winfield Scott died at West Point, New York on May 29, 1866 and is buried in West Point Cemetery, having served his country in war and peace for over 53 years.

02/7/13

Montgomery C. Meigs, Quartermaster General

In war, one of the most important departments in the army is the Quartermaster Corps. Without an efficient Quartermaster Corps, no army would be able to execute its mission. The American Civil War was no exception. The Union Army was able to execute its mission to final victory due to the work of its Quartermaster General, Montgomery Cunningham Meigs.

General Meigs was born in Augusta, Georgia on May 3, 1816. He was the son of Dr. Charles Meigs and Mary Montgomery Meigs. His father was a nationally known obstetrician and professor of obstetrics at Jefferson Medical College. His grandfather, Josiah Meigs, graduated from Yale University and later was president of the University of Georgia.

The younger Meigs grew up in Philadelphia where his father had a thriving practice. Young Montgomery received schooling at the Franklin Institute (a preparatory school for the University of Pennsylvania). Meigs learned French, German, and Latin, and studied art, literature, and poetry. He enrolled at the University of Pennsylvania when he was only 15 years old. A hard worker, he was one of the top students at the university.

Montgomery wished to serve in the army an at the rather young age of 16 he enrolled in West Point. Excelling in French and mathematics, he graduated in 1836 fifth in his class. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the artillery but most of his service was in the Corps of Engineers. As an army engineer he assisted in the building of forts and navigational projects from Detroit to Washington. At one point, he served under his future adversary Lt. Col. Robert E. Lee.

At the onset of the civil war, Meigs was given the command of the 11th U.S. Infantry on May 14, 1861. The very next day he was promoted from colonel to brigadier general and given the command of the Quartermaster Corps. He succeeded Brig. Gen. Joseph E. Johnston who had resigned to take command of the Confederate army in Virginia.

A staunch Unionist despite his Southern birth, Meigs detested the Confederacy. He quickly established a reputation as an efficient, hard-driving commander. He was honest to a fault. He was among the first to recognize the importance of logistical preparations in military planning. He was responsible for the transportation system that was able to move troops over long distances in the shortest possible time.

Congressman James G. Blaine of Maine remarked about Meigs’ work:

“Montgomery C. Meigs, one of the ablest graduates of the Military Academy, was kept from the command of troops by the inestimably important services he performed as Quartermaster General. Perhaps in the military history of the world there never was so large an amount of money disbursed upon the order of a single man … The aggregate sum could not have been less during the war than fifteen hundred million dollars, accurately vouched and accounted for to the last cent.”

Secretary of State William Seward was equally as fulsome with his praise, “…without the services of this eminent soldier the national cause must have been lost or deeply imperiled.”

Meigs’ services during the Civil War included command of Lieutenant General Ulysses S. Grant’s base of supplies at Fredericksburg and Belle Plain, Virginia (1864); command of a division of War Department employees in the defense of Washington at the time of Jubal A. Early’s raid (July 11 to 14, 1864); personally supervising the refitting and supplying of Major General William T. Sherman’s army at Savannah (January 5 to 29, 1865), Goldsboro, and Raleigh, North Carolina and reopening Sherman’s lines of supply (March to April 1865). He was brevetted to major general on July 5, 1864.

Meigs’ most lasting achievement was the establishment of Arlington National Cemetary as the primary burying ground of Union dead. At the start of the war, the Federal government had seized the estate of Mary Custis Lee, Arlington House. As the home of their chief adversary, the army was concerned that its position overlooking Washington would present a clear danger to the Capital and the White House. Much of official Washington would have been within range of emplaced artillery.

On July 16, 1862, Congress passed a bill that established military cemeteries and gave the Quartermaster General direct responsibility for them. By the middle of 1863, the two cemeteries in use in Washington were filled and a new cemetery needed to be found. After the Battle of the Wilderness, the Union army became hard-pressed for places to bury the thousands of dead soldiers.

Meigs ordered his staff to find a suitable new site. They suggested the Arlington estate of Mary Custis Lee. It was high and free from floods (which might unearth graves), it had a view of the District of Columbia, and it was aesthetically pleasing. It was also the home of the leader of the armed forces of the Confederate States of America, and denying Robert E. Lee use of his home after the war was a valuable political consideration.

Meigs’ only son, 1st Lieutenant John Rodgers Meigs, was killed at Swift Run Gap in Virginia in October 1864 while leading a three-man patrol. To his dying day, Meigs believed despite evidence to the contrary that he was murdered after his capture.

On the night President Lincoln was assassinated, Meigs rushed to the Petersen House across from Ford’s Theatre, where Lincoln lay dying. He stood at the front door and decided who was to be admitted to the deathwatch. When Lincoln died at 7:22 A.M. on April 15, Meigs moved into the parlor to sit with the president’s body. During Lincoln’s funeral procession in the city five days later, Meigs rode at the head of two battalions of quartermaster corps soldiers.

After the war, Meigs continued as the Quartermaster General of the Army until his retirement in 1882. During that time Montgomery Meigs left an indelible mark in the Capital region. Besides his continual improvements at Arlington National Cemetery, Meigs supervised the building of many official Washington buildings, including the the new War Department building (constructed between 1866 and 1867), the National Museum (constructed in 1876), the extension of the Washington Aqueduct (constructed in 1876), and for a hall of records (constructed in 1878).

Along with fellow Quartermaster Brigadier General Roeliff Brinkerhoff, Meigs edited a volume entitled, The Volunteer Quartermaster, a treatise which was considered the standard guide for the officers and employees of the quartermaster’s department up until the World War I.

After his retirement, Meigs became of the Pension Office Building, now home to the National Building Museum. He was a regent of the Smithsonian Institution, a member of the American Philosophical Society, and one of the earliest members of the National Academy of Sciences.

Montgomery Meigs died at his home in Washington on January 2, 1892. He had served his country in war and peace for 50 years, dating from the time that he took the oath of allegiance on the Plain at West Point. Without his service, the Union army might not have been as successful as it was in the prosecution of the war. Some said the war could not have been won without him. He was buried among his fellow soldiers at Arlington National Cemetery

01/3/13

Hooker’s Division Commanders

This entry is part 4 of 15 in the series The Chancellorsville Campaign

The Maj. Gen. Joseph Hooker’s Army of the Potomac contained a number of division commanders who would earn their stripes during the Chancellorsville Campaign. Several of them would move up to corps command in the ensuing years.

Perhaps, the best known of these division commanders was Maj. Gen. Winfield Scott Hancock. The 38 year old Pennsylvanian was an 1844 graduate of West Point. At the start of the war, Hancock served as a quartermaster but was quickly promoted to brigadier general on September 23, 1861.

The army was in need of trained commanders and Hancock was given a brigade in the division of Brig. Gen. William F. “Baldy” Smith, Army of the Potomac. During the Peninsula Campaign, he earned the nickname, “Hancock the Superb” for his battlefield leadership.

During the Battle of Antietam, Hancock assumed command of the I Division following the mortal wounding of Maj. Gen. Israel B. Richardson in the horrific fighting at “Bloody Lane.” He led the division in the bloody assaults on Marye’s Heights in the Battle of Fredericksburg the following month and was wounded in the abdomen.

One of the lesser-known division commanders, Brig. Gen. David Birney had a rather checkered career during the Civil War. After the Battle of Seven Pines he was accused of disobeying an order from his corps commander allegedly for “halting his command a mile from the enemy.”

Birney was court-martialed, but with strong positive testimony from Philip Kearny, he was acquitted and restored to command. After Kearny’s death at Chantilly, Birney assumed division command.

At Fredericksburg, he was once again accused of allegedly refusing to support Maj. Gen. George G. Meade‘s division’s attack on the left flank of the Union line. He was again exonerated and continued to command his division. Birney led his division in heavy fighting at Chancellorsville, where they suffered more casualties (1,607) than any other division in the army.

Baron Adolph Wilhelm August Friedrich von Steinwehr was a German-Brunswick army officer who emigrated to the United States, became a geographer, cartographer, and author, and served as a Union general in the American Civil War.

He began the war as a regimental commander and progressed through brigade command to division command by Second Manassas. His division mostly included German immigrants. There first real fight was at Chancellorsville where they were in the center of Jackson’s Flank Attack on May 2, 1863.

Brig. Gen. Alpheus Williams had a distinguished career during the Civil War, starting by training volunteers in Michigan. He was promoted to brigade command in October 1861 and moved up to division command in March 1862.

Williams’ Division fought in the Shenandoah Valley where they were outmaneuvered by Stonewall Jackson. They were defeated at Cedar Mountain by Jackson. During the Antietam Campaign, his troops discovered the famous lost orders, Special Order No. 191.

At Antietam, Williams’ corps commander, Maj. Gen. Joseph Mansfield was killed and Williams assumed temporary command. The corps suffered 25% casualties in assaulting Jackson, and Brig. Gen. George S. Greene‘s division was forced to withdraw from its advanced position at the Dunker Church. Maj. Gen. Henry W. Slocum replaced Williams as permanent corps commander immediately after the battle.

At the Battle Chancellorsville, Williams’ Division entrenched hastily and was able to stop the Confederate advance before it overran the entire army, but it suffered 1,500 casualties in the process.

12/28/12

Hooker’s Corps Commanders (Part I)

This entry is part 2 of 15 in the series The Chancellorsville Campaign

As the new commander of the Army of the Potomac, General Joe Hooker exercised his prerogative to name several new subordinate commanders to staff and corps command.

As his Chief of Staff, Hooker originally asked for Brig. Gen. Charles P. Stone. Unfortunately, Stone had commanded the troops at the disastrous Battle of Ball’s Bluff. Stone was largely blamed for the Union defeat and was arrested but never tried on any charges. In August 1862, he was released after 189 days in confinement. When Hooker asked for Stone as his chief of staff, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton denied the request.

Hooker moved on an asked for Brig. Gen. Daniel Butterfield instead. He was a dapper, New York businessman who worked at American Express, a company co-founded by his father. Butterfield had almost no military experience prior to the outbreak of the war, other than serving in the militia. He enlisted as a sergeant but quickly worked his way up to brigadier general by September 1861.

Butterfield was wounded at the Battle of Gaines’ Mill on June 27, 1862 where he was recognized for his bravery with the Medal of Honor, “Seized the colors of the 83rd Pennsylvania Volunteers at a critical moment and, under a galling fire of the enemy, encouraged the depleted ranks to renewed exertion.”

It was while he was recuperating from his wounds that Butterfield began experimenting with bugle calls. He is credited with the composition of “Taps“, probably the most famous bugle call ever written. He wrote it to replace the customary firing of three rifle volleys at the end of burials during battle. “Taps” also replaced Tattoo, the French bugle call to signal “lights out”.

By the Battle of Antietam, Butterfield had risen to division command and at Fredericksburg he commanded the V Corps where his troops made the primary assaults against Marye’s Heights.

He developed a close personal and political friendship with Hooker. The two were known for their drinking and womanizing; their headquarters being described as a combination of a “bar and brothel”. By March 1863, Butterfield had been promoted to the rank of major general.

Another key appointment was that of Maj. Gen. Daniel Sickles. Hooker appointed him to the command of the III Corps, replacing Maj. Gen. George Stoneman who was transferred to command the Cavalry Corps.

Sickles was a New York lawyer and politician who was best known for killing his wife’s lover, Philip Barton Key. A Member of the House, he was tried for murder but was acquitted by using the insanity defense, the first successful use of this legal tactic in United States history.

At the outbreak of the war, Sickles actively recruited volunteers in New York. He was appointed a colonel, then a brigadier general of volunteers but his commission was not approved by Congress. Using his political skills his commission was confirmed by May 1862 and he rejoined his brigade.

Despite his complete lack of military experience, Sickles was found to be a competent commander in the Battle of Seven Pines and the Seven Days Battles. Promoted to division command, at the time of the Antietam Campaign his division was one of those units that protected the capital. His division was in reserve at Fredericksburg.

He was a close ally of Hookers and was given command of the III Corps in February 1863, a controversial move in the army because he became the only corps commander without a West Point education.

The I Corps was commanded by Maj. Gen. John F. Reynolds, a West Point educated career officer. Reynolds had graduated in 1841 from the military academy. He had served with distinction during the Mexican War, receiving two brevet promotions in Mexico—to captain for gallantry at Monterrey and to major for Buena Vista, where his section of guns prevented the Mexican cavalry from outflanking the American left.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, Reynolds was Commandant of Cadets at West Point. He was eventually appointed to the rank of brigadier general and given command of a brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves.

During the Seven Days Battles, he was captured but was quickly exchanged. Promoted to command of the Pennsylvania Reserves Division, he led them at the Battle of Second Manassas where he personally led a successful counterattack waving the flag and shouting, “Now boys, give them the steel, charge bayonets, double quick!”

He missed the Antietam Campaign while on detached assignment with the Pennsylvania militia. Despite the protests of Generals George McClellan and Joseph Hooker, the governor of Pennsylvania insisted on his temporary assignment to his home state.

When he returned to the Army of the Potomac, he was given command of the I Corps which he led at the Battle of Fredericksburg. Despite his corps’ lackluster performance in the battle, After the battle, Reynolds was promoted to major general of volunteers, with a date of rank of November 29, 1862.

The II Corps had been commanded by Maj. Gen. Edwin Vose Sumner until his appointment as the commander of ”Right Grand Division”, one of George McClellan’s reorganizations.

In his place Maj. Gen. Darius N. Couch had been appointed to command the corps. Darius Couch was an 1846 graduate of West point. He served in the Mexican War where he was he was brevetted a first lieutenant for “gallant and meritorious conduct” at the Battle of Buena Vista.

At the outbreak of the war he was given the command of the 7th Massachusetts Infantry on June 15, 1861. He quickly rose to brigade and then division command. He led his division at Seven Pines and then at the Battle of Oak Grove on June 25 and the Battle of Malvern Hill on July 1.

Pleading failing health, he submitted his resignation but General McClellan would not accept it and Couch was promoted to major general. On November 14, 1862, Couch was assigned command of the II Corps, and he led it during the Battle of Fredericksburg.

Maj. Gen. George Gordon Meade was the commander of the V Corps. Meade was a West Pointer, graduating in 1835. He served in the Second Seminole War and the Mexican War where he was brevetted to first lieutenant for gallant conduct at the Battle of Monterrey.

At the outset of the Civil War, Meade was promoted from captain to brigadier general of volunteers by August 1861. He was assigned command of the 2nd Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves. At the Battle of Glendale, one of the Seven Days Battles, Meade was severely wounded in the arm, back, and side.

He partially recovered his strength in time for the Northern Virginia Campaign and the Second Battle of Bull Run, in which he led his brigade, then assigned to Maj. Gen.Irvin McDowell’s corps of the Army of Virginia. His brigade made a heroic stand on Henry House Hill to protect the rear of the retreating Union Army.

He was promoted to division command at the start of the Antietam Campaign. In the Battle of Antietam, Meade replaced the wounded Hooker in command of I Corps, selected personally by McClellan over other generals his superior in rank. He performed well at Antietam, but was wounded in the thigh.

During the Battle of Fredericksburg, Meade’s division made the only breakthrough of the Confederate lines, spearheading through a gap in Lt. Gen. Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson’s corps at the southern end of the battlefield. For this action, Meade was promoted to major general of volunteers, to rank from November 29, 1862. After the battle he was given command of the V Corps.

12/21/12

General George B. McClellan

Maj. Gen. George Brinton McClellan was the youngest commander of the Army of the Potomac when he was given command by Abraham Lincoln after the First Battle of Manassas (or Bull Run). The Army of the Potomac was his creation. He trained it and led it in to a number of battles on the Peninsula and in front of Richmond in 1862. He commanded this large army at the Battle of Antietam.

McClellan was born on December 3, 1826 in Philadelphia, the son of a prominent surgical ophthalmologist, Dr. George McClellan (1796–1847), the founder of Jefferson Medical College. His mother was Elizabeth Sophia Steinmetz Brinton McClellan (1800–1889), daughter of a leading Pennsylvania family, a woman noted for her “considerable grace and refinement”.

He graduated from West Point in 1846, second in his class of 59 cadets and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Corps of Engineers. He served in the Mexican War and received brevet promotions twice during the war.

After the Mexican War, McClellan spent several years on various assignments but by January 1857 he resigned his commission to return to civilian life. He became chief engineer and vice president of the Illinois Central Railroad and also president of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad in 1860. He performed well in both jobs; expanding the Illinois Central toward New Orleans and helping the Ohio and Mississippi recover from the Panic of 1857.

At the start of the war, George McClellan was offered the position of major general of volunteers and command of the Ohio militia on April 23, 1861. On May 3 McClellan re-entered federal service by being named commander of the Department of the Ohio, responsible for the states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and, later, western Pennsylvania, western Virginia, and Missouri. On May 14, he was commissioned a major general in the regular army. At age 34 he now outranked everyone in the Army other than Lt. Gen. Winfield Scott, the general-in-chief.

McClellan began his wartime service in western Virginia where the residents were anxious to remain in the Union. After several victories in what are considered today as minor battles, McClellan began to be referred to as the Young Napoleon.

After the Union defeat at First Manassas, McClellan was brought East by the Lincoln administration. Carl Sandburg wrote, “McClellan was the man of the hour, pointed to by events, and chosen by an overwhelming weight of public and private opinion.”

On July 26, the day he reached the capital, McClellan was appointed commander of the Military Division of the Potomac, the main Union force responsible for the defense of Washington. On August 20, several military units in Virginia were consolidated into his department and he immediately formed the Army of the Potomac, with himself as its first commander.

George McClellan may have a reputation as a cautious battlefield and rightly so but he was a superb logistics officer. He incorporated new recruits into his ever-expanding army. At the same time, he supervised the building of the massive Washington defenses. Under McClellan’s command Washington became the most heavily fortified capital in the world, with 48 forts, 480 guns and 7,200 troops.

Meanwhile the Army of the Potomac grew from 50,000 men to 168,000 by November. But that not enough for George McClellan. He proposed an army of 273,000 men and 600 guns that would crush the Confederates in one battle.

McClellan had developed an irrational belief that the Confederate army that was facing him had 150,000 men. But at First Manassas they had only 35,000. He never explained where they had gotten all of those other troops. This mistaken belief was helped along by the imperfect intelligence-gathering of Allan Pinkerton.

By November 1, 1861, McClellan was appointed general-in-chief with the retirement of Gen. Winfield Scott. Lincoln expressed his concern about the “vast labor” involved in the dual role of army commander and general-in-chief, but McClellan responded, “I can do it all.”

Meanwhile, the civilian leadership began to fret that McClellan would never move. Lincoln complained that his commanding general had a case of the “slows”. On January 10, Lincoln met with top generals without McClellan and directed them to formulate a plan of attack, expressing his exasperation with General McClellan with the following remark: “If General McClellan does not want to use the army, I would like to borrow it for a time.”

After months of exasperation, Lincoln removed McClellan as general-in-chief on March 11, 1862. With this, McClellan proposed his plan to land his army at Fortress Monroe on the Virginia Peninsula and attack the Confederate capital of Richmond from the east.

The Union expedition was massive. It was a vast armada that dwarfed all previous American military expeditions, transporting 121,500 men, 44 artillery batteries, 1,150 wagons, over 15,000 horses, and tons of equipment and supplies. They left Alexandria on March 17^th and arrived off Fortress Monroe shortly thereafter in stages.

The Union advance up the narrow Peninsula was slow and methodical, befitting McClellan’s reputation as a cautious commander. Starting on April 4^th at Yorktown, the Army of the Potomac fought up the Peninsula for nearly two months. The Peninsula was a narrow battlefield that allowed the numerically inferior Confederate force to fight a drawn-out delaying action. The campaign culminated in the Union victory at Seven Pines or Fair Oaks where the Confederate commander, General Joseph E. Johnston, was seriously wounded.

Johnston’s replacement was Robert E. Lee who proceeded to engage the Union forces in seven battles over seven days. The Union Army was driven south, away from Richmond and retreated to the James River.

Lincoln, meanwhile, had named Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck as the new general-in-chief. Troops from the Army of the Potomac were transferred to the Army of Virginia under the command of John Pope. The Army of Virginia was decisively defeated at Second Manassas on August 30, 1862.

McClellan was recalled to Washington and on September 2, 1862, Lincoln named McClellan to command “the fortifications of Washington, and all the troops for the defense of the capital.” McClellan was counted upon to reorganize and combine the Army of the Potomac with the shattered Army of Virginia. Within two weeks, they were engaged in combat with Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia.

On the road to Sharpsburg, Maryland, George McClellan was presented with an opportunity that few generals ever receive: a complete set of the enemy’s plans. An Indiana corporal discovered the written instructions from Robert E. Lee to his subordinate commanders: Special Order 191. With this plan, McClellan was given the golden opportunity to defeat the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in detail and surely end the war.

But an army is very hard to move nimbly and McClellan was not used to quick movements. Instead, they gave Lee the opportunity to slip out of the Union trap. The two armies met in a straight forward battle of attrition along Antietam Creek that resulted in a total of almost 23,000 killed and wounded on both sides.

Rather than follow up the Confederate retreat, McClellan did almost nothing, allowing Lee’s battered army to retreat to the safety of Virginia. Although McClellan had achieved a tactical victory by holding the field, President Lincoln and the Washington authorities viewed it as a disappoint. Lee and the Army of Northern Virginia was allowed to live and fight another day. On November 7, 1862, Lincoln relieved McClellan of command and replaced him with Maj. Gen. Ambrose Burnside.

George McClellan was ordered to return to Trenton, New Jersey to await further orders. They never came. McClellan was nominated by the Democrats to run against Abraham Lincoln in the 1864 U.S. presidential election. Following the example of Winfield Scott, he ran as a U.S. Army general still on active duty; he did not resign his commission until election day, November 8, 1864. He supported continuation of the war and restoration of the Union (though not the abolition of slavery). He was defeated handily by Lincoln, receiving only 21 electoral votes to Lincoln’s 212.

In 1877, McClellan was nominated by the Democrats for Governor of New Jersey, an action that took him by surprise because he had not expressed an interest in the position. He accepted the nomination, was elected, and served a single term from 1878 to 1881, a tenure marked by careful, conservative executive management and minimal political rancor.

McClellan died unexpectedly of a heart attack at age 58 at Orange, New Jersey, after having suffered from chest pains for a few weeks. His final words, at 3 a.m., October 29, 1885, were, “I feel easy now. Thank you.” He was buried at Riverview Cemetery, Trenton, New Jersey. He was survived by his wife Ellen and two children George Jr. (known as Max) and Mary (known as May).

03/5/12

The War of the Generals

This entry is part 1 of 10 in the series The Western Theater Part Two

The War of the Generals

After the capture of Fort Donelson, Maj. Gen. Henry W. Halleck continued his campaign of undermining Brig. Gen. Ulysses Grant, unbeknownst to Grant this was a war of the generals. Halleck was not a particularly good military general but in the field of bureaucratic infighting, he was a polished warrior.

Halleck had attempted to diminish Grant’s stature in the eyes of Washington from the very beginning. He constantly badgered Grant on every detail of his planning. It seemed that Grant could do nothing right.

At the head of the Department of Missouri, Halleck wanted as much of the credit for Grant’s victories as he could garner. After the victory at Fort Donelson, Halleck recommended that Don Carlos Buell, Grant and John Pope be promoted to the rank of major general of volunteers and that he himself be given the overall command in the West. General-in-chief George B. McClellan. “I ask this in return for Forts Henry and Donelson”, wrote Halleck.

By adding Buell and Pope, who had done absolutely nothing, Halleck sought to diminish Grant’s achievements. Halleck sought to expand his sphere of command by absorbing Buell’s Department of the Ohio into his own. Fort Donelson only fell to Grant because Halleck’s orders to halt the advance was intercepted by a Confederate-synpathizer in the Cairo telegraph office.

Halleck also persisted in setting up a reasonable alternative to Grant by continuing to ask for Charles F. Smith’s promotion to major-general. Smith, indeed, deserved promotion but Halleck’s only desired it to diminish Grant. McClellan turned down all of Halleck’s requests except for Grant’s promotion which President Lincoln immediately sent to the Senate who approved it without delay. Smith was promoted at a decent interval after Grant.

It seems that Ulysses Grant was not very aware of Halleck’s attempts to sideline him. He continued to plan for further advances after Fort Donelson. After the capture of the fort, the Confederates had evacuated Columbus, Kentucky on the Mississippi and the Tennessee River towns of Clarksville and Nashville.

Grant continued to keep Halleck informed of his activities. On February 19th, he informed Halleck’s chief of staff that he was sending General Smith to occupy Clarksville. He also suggested a further advance to Nashville which was there for the taking. On the 20th, Grant accompanied by General John McClernand and other staff officers sailed down to Clarksville and toured the town. General Smith and part of his division set out for the same destination on the 21st.

By now, Grant’s Army of the Tennessee number 27,000 men. He reorganized his growing force into four division with the addition of the Fourth Division under the command of Brig. Gen. Stephen Hurlbut. The new division commander was an Illinois lawyer who had been born in South Carolina to New England parents. He was a partisan politician who had been elected to the Illinois House of Representatives in 1859 and again in 1861.

Hurlbut was another bureaucratic infighter who had been favored by Halleck for his administrative skills. Halleck had recommended him to Grant who gave him the Fourth Division. He was not well liked by his troops and there was some question about his character.

With the contemplated movement to Nashville, Grant was beginning to encroach into the department of Brig. Gen. Don Carlos Buell. Buell was a general who was very much like Halleck. While Halleck fretted over the possibility of a Confederate attack on Cairo, Buell became decidedly nervous when his troops came within a three day march of the enemy.

Nashville was in Buell’s department and despite constant prodding from McClellan and Halleck, he was not about to be rushed. The constant bickering between Buell and Halleck was becoming a problem for the Union fortunes in the Western Theater.

When Grant thought that he needed reinforcement, Halleck asked for the use of a division for the Fort Donelson campaign. In typical Buell fashion, the division of Brig. Gen. William Nelson a week after the Confederates had surrendered. Grant dispatched them back to Buell by way of Nashville.

When Buell arrived in the city on February 25th, Nelson and his troops were already there, sent by steamboat from Fort Donelson. Buell was quite upset and complained to Smith at Clarksville that with Nelson in possession of the city, he would now have to hold the south bank at Nashville. He opined that the enemy was about to attack at any time, which was purely delusional. Buell ordered Smith, who was technically in his department, to report to him in Nashville with his entire force.

Grant chose this moment to visit Nashville. When he stopped in Clarksville, Smith showed him Buell’s order. Grant agreed that it was nonsensical but told Smith to obey it anyway. Arriving in Nashville, Grant toured the city and happened to meet Buell as he was leaving. According to a member of Grant’s staff, Buell was an angry man. When Grant told Buell of his intelligence that the Confederates were actually heading south as fast as possible, Buell said it was not so.

On March 2nd, Halleck ordered Grant to move his army to the southern Tennessee border. It was at this point that Halleck attempted to relieve Grant. He accused him, in a telegram to McClellan, of not communicating with headquarters. He also suggested that the army was demoralized after the victory at Fort Donelson, a charge that was patently false.

McClellan responded that Halleck had his permission to relieve the victorious Grant at his discretion. Halleck immediately ordered Grant to turn over command of the army to Smith and remain at Fort Henry. The most successful general in the Union Army had been relieved for being just that. Halleck followed this up with a series of condescending dispatches, lecturing Grant on the importance of “order and system” in the army. Grant was thunderstruck by Halleck’s actions and followed his commands to the letter.

Henry Halleck had won this battle of the bureaucratic war. However, on the evening of March 12th, Smith suffered a freak accident while boarding a rowboat. Within two weeks of his relief Grant was back in command. He had sent Halleck a response to all of his accusations, explaining his action.

Then Grant did something that Halleck never thought that he would do, he forwarded copies to Congressman Elihu Washburne. Washburne was Grant’s patron and also a friend of Lincoln’s. Washburne went to Lincoln who instructed the adjutant general of the army to demand a full report from Halleck. Providentially for Halleck, McClellan had been relived of command and Halleck had been promoted to replace him.

Halleck, in order to begin his new job on the right foot, restored Grant to command and left for Washington. A truce had been declared in the war of the generals. Grant hurried upriver and arrived at Savannah, Tennessee on March 17th to find Smith in poor health. His injured shin had become inflamed and shortly after Grant’s arrival took to his bed. Smith died on April 25, 1862 from his injury, a deep loss for the Army of Tennessee and Ulysses Grant.

02/29/12

Grant Takes Command in the Land of Rivers

This entry is part 4 of 8 in the series The Western Theater Part One

Grant Takes Command

in the Land of Rivers

Brigadier General Ulysses S. Grant quietly took command of the District of Southeast Missouri on September 4, 1861. The troops in his command were to be the foundation of what would become know as the Army of the Tennessee. The district was headquartered in Cairo, Illinois and also included areas in southern Illinois and western Kentucky.

Grant’s district was under the overall command of Major General John C. Fremont. The well-connected Fremont had secured the command of the Department of the West based on his political connections in the Republican party. Fremont had gained fame as “The Pathfinder” who with his guide, Kit Carson, had led a number of expeditions of exploration across the West and into California.

He was married to Jessie Benton, the daughter of the prominent Missouri Senator Thomas Hart Benton. In 1856, Fremont had led the new Republican Party as its candidate for the Presidency under the slogan, ”Free Soil, Free Men, and Frémont”. Lincoln felt that a position needed to be found for Fremont and he was appointed to the command of the Department of the West, headquartered in St. Louis. His greatest contribution to the Union cause may be his appointment of Grant to the command of the District of Southeast Missouri.

Grant’s headquarters were located at Cairo, the southernmost city in Illinois. It sat like a knife point at the junction of the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers. From Cairo’s superior location, Grant would be able to use the rivers for moving troops and controlling his area of operations. Here, he would begin to perfect his use of amphibious movement of troops, a tactic that would use throughout the war.

In the fall of 1861, the most important issue in the Western Theater was the neutrality of the state of Kentucky. The fact that a state had declared itself neutral in the midst of a civil war was simply absurd. However, Kentucky was sharply divided over which side to join. The Governor, Beriah Magoffin, was a Southern sympathizer, while the Kentucky legislature was dominated by pro-Unionists.

The state’s government had strictly warned both sides not to violate their neutrality by sending troops into their territory. What followed was a cat and mouse game by the three sides: Confederates, Federals and Kentuckians. Due to its location, Kentucky had assumed an important strategic.

Both presidents, both native Kentuckians, knew that the state could tip the balance of power in the West. In a September 1861 letter to Orville Browning, Lincoln wrote “I think to lose Kentucky is nearly the same as to lose the whole game. … We would as well consent to separation at once, including the surrender of the capital.”

Upon taking command in Cairo, Grant immediately began to study the river routes leading south. Not only were the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers of importance but two other rivers would hold great consequences in the ensuing military activity: the Tennessee and the Cumberland.

The Tennessee River flowed into the Ohio from due south, about 45 miles above Cairo at Paducah, Kentucky. The Cumberland River came into the Ohio from the southeast at Smithland, Kentucky, about 15 miles upriver from Paducah.

Both rivers were navigable far upstream. A trip on the Cumberland would lead to Nashville, after about 150 miles. A voyage up the Tennessee (moving south since it flowed north) would take a traveler to the northeast corner of the state of Mississippi, after some 200 miles. It ended about 20 miles of the vital rail junction at Corinth, Mississippi. The Union armies in the Western Theater would use the rivers to their advantage.

For about 150 miles south of Cairo, the Mississippi and the Tennessee Rivers paralleled each other and were 70 to 100 miles apart. The Mississippi, of course, flowed south, while the Tennessee flowed north. One side could use either river to turn the other side’s defenses.

Ulysses S. Grant would use these rivers as highways of war. He would push his forces into the heart of the Confederacy and eventually split it in half by strategic use and control of the western rivers.

His first action at Belmont, despite being inconclusive, was classic Grant. He moved his troops by river, delivering them to the battle fresh and ready to fight. He used a number of feints and flanking maneuvers to confuse the Confederates. Finally, he used his naval component to withdraw his outnumbered force when their safety was threatened.

02/25/12

Native Americans in the Civil War

During the Civil War, almost 30,000 native Americans fought in the Union and the Confederate armies. Some tribes had members on both sides, while others were united and fought for one side or the other. They fought despite jeopardizing their their freedom, unique cultures, and ancestral lands if they ended up on the losing side of the Civil War.

Many Native American tribes fought in the war. The Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Catawba, and Creek tribes were the only tribes to fight on the Confederate side.

In January 1862, three regiments of Indian Home Guards were recruited from the Five Civilized Tribes of Indian Territory to support the Union during the war. Two regiments were formed in Kansas, while the third was mustered in Missouri. Originally the tribal leaders had signed a treaty to support the Confederacy. However, “loyal” Indians volunteered for the Union Army. They fought mostly in Indian Territory and Arkansas. They were able to retain their lands because of their loyalty.

The Creeks are an excellent example of a tribe that fought for both sides. At the start of the war, their chief Opothle Yahola, who had fought against the United States Army during the Seminole Wars, declared his loyalty to the Union. However, a greater portion of the tribe, led by ex-chief McIntosh, sided with the Confederacy.

Opothle Yahola led his portion of the tribe to Kansas, fighting three pitched battles along the way. Promised supplies and shelter by the Federal government, they arrived to find inadequate medical facilities and supplies. Between the battles and the harsh conditions, they suffered 2,000 dead out of their total of 9,000. Opothle Yahola was among the eventual fatalities.

The Cherokee Nation had a fierce internal struggle. The Nation divided with Principal Chief John Ross, who wished to remain neutral while Stand Watie pressed for the Nation to support the Confederacy. Watie was an intelligent man who had learned to read and write at the Moravian Mission in what is now Georgia. He was able to convince the majority of the Cherokee Nation to follow him.

In October 1861, he was commissioned as a colonel of the 1st Cherokee Mounted Rifles by the Confederacy. His troops not only fought Union troops but also engaged other Cherokees, Creeks, Seminoles and other Indians who supported the Union. At the Battle of Pea Ridge, Arkansas, on March 6–8, 1862, Watie’s troops captured Union artillery positions and covered the retreat of Confederate forces from the battlefield after the Union took control.

Watie was promoted to brigadier general by General Samuel Bell Maxey, commander of the Army of Trans-Mississippi, and given command of the First Indian Brigade, composed of two regiments of Mounted Rifles and three battalions of Cherokee, Seminole and Osage infantry. It has been said the Watie’s unit fought in more battles west of the Mississippi than any other unit. They fought at what are considered the most famous Confederate victories in Indian Territory at the First and Second Battles Cabin Creek (July 1-2, 1863 and September 19, 1864).

Eventually, Watie moved with his brigade and their families to the safety of Texas where he was the last Confederate general to surrender on June 23, 1865 following the Battle of Doaksville in Indian Territory.

A number of small units fought on the Union side in the Eastern Theater, including Company K of the 1st Kansas Sharpshooters. This unit included Ottawa, Delaware, Huron Oneida, Potawami and Ojibwa. The were assigned to the Army of the Potomac and fought at Battle of the Wilderness and Spotsylvania, and captured 600 Confederate troops at Shand House east of Petersburg. Their final military engagement was at the Battle of the Crater, Petersburg, Virginia where they took devastating casualties.

The highest ranking officer on the Union side was Brig. Gen. Ely S. Parker, a member of the Seneca tribe. Parker was a trained attorney who was not admitted to the bar because Indians until 1924 were not considered American citizens. He later studied engineering at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, New York. He worked as a civil engineer until the start of the American Civil War.

Parker first met Ulysses Grant when he was working on civil engineering projects in Grant’s hometown of Galena, Illinois. After being turned down twice for a commission as an engineer, he turned to his friend Grant who commissioned him as a captain in May, 1863 and ordered him to report to Brig. Gen. John Eugene Smith. Smith appointed Parker as the chief engineer of his 7th Division during the siege of Vicksburg.

Parker was Grant’s adjutant during the Chattanooga campaign. He was subsequently transferred with Grant as the adjutant of the U.S. Army headquarters and served Grant through the Overland Campaign and the Siege of Petersburg. At Petersburg, Parker was appointed as the military secretary to Grant, with the rank of lieutenant colonel. He wrote much of Grant’s correspondence.

Parker was present at Appomattox Courthouse in April 1865 when Lee surrendered. He helped draft the surrender documents, which are in his handwriting. At the time of surrender, General Lee mistook Parker for a black man, but apologized saying, “I am glad to see one real American here.” Parker was said to respond, “We are all Americans, sir.” Parker was brevetted brigadier general of volunteers on April 9, 1865.

If you would like to read more about Native Americans during the Civil War, here are some additional resource:

The American Indian in the Civil War, 1862-1865 by Annie Heloise Abel

BETWEEN TWO FIRES: American Indians in the Civil War by Laurence M. Hauptman

Civil War in the Indian Territory by Steve Cottrell

General Stand Watie’s Confederate Indians by Frank Cunningham

Warrior in Two Camps: Ely S. Parker, Union General and Seneca Chief (Iroquois and Their Neighbors) by William H. Armstrong