Wandering Lizard

Biographical Notes

Ulysses S. Grant

On January 27, 1862, a frustrated President Lincoln issued President's General Order #1 requiring a general advance on all fronts and holding all commanders responsible for carrying it out. Grant had been petioning Halleck for permission to move south ever since the completion of the Belmont campaign. On January 30, Halleck, who had earlier disapproved Grant's proposal, now saw the situation in a different light, and concurred in his proposal to attack Fort Henry on the Tennessee River. Fort Henry fell to Grant on February 6 after a brief fight. Halleck urged Grant to dig in and prepare to defend Fort Henry. Grant replied that he intended to move against Fort Donelson on the Cumberland River. Halleck again had doubts about Grant's abilities and sounded out several other general officers about replacing him. All declined. Major General George B. McClellan, General in Chief of the Army, was also concerned and told Halleck to take command of Grant's force himself. Unaware of the convoluted machinations in the command above him, Grant moved on Fort Donelson and captured it on February 16. The Confederate officer in command at Donelson at the end of the fighting was Brigadier General Simon Bolivar Buckner. Buckner asked what Grant's terms of surrender were. Grant replied "Unconditional Surrender." When President Lincoln heard of this exchange he was delighted and the Northern press wrote stories explaining that the initials "U.S." in Grant's name stood for "Unconditional Surrender Grant."

Buckner was the first Confederate General to surrender to Union forces in the war. Lincoln was elated and, on his order, Grant was promoted to Brevet Major General. After Donelson, Grant wanted to move on Nashville, but once again Halleck ordered him to halt his advance. Halleck now felt that Grant was allowing his recent successes to go to his head and felt that he should be taken down a peg or two. McClellan and Halleck both suspected that Grant was once again drinking heavily even though there were numerous officers with direct access to Grant who vouched that he was not drinking. McClellan even gave Halleck the authority to arrest Grant if necessary. Grant was sidelined from direct field command and offered his resignation in protest. Washburne and Lincoln rose to Grant's defense and relations between the generals were smoothed out. Grant resumed field command of his army and started an advance toward the Confederate rail junction at Corinth, Mississippi. On April 6, 1862, Major General Albert Sydney Johnson's Army of the Mississippi hit an unsuspecting and unprepared Grant at Shiloh. The battle raged for two days. A total of 100,000 Confederate and Union troops were involved. Of these, 23,746 were killed, wounded or captured. Both sides had been badly mauled, but the North could recover more easily than the South. In that sense as well as in the fact that the Union forces retained control of the battlefield, Shiloh was a qualified Northern victory. Shiloh was also an important battle because it presaged the war of attrition that was to follow.

Initial press stories praised Grant as a national hero, but when the Shiloh casualty figures became public, demands were made for his removal. In Washington, Lincoln was urged to sack him, but the President explained that he could not spare a general who was willing to fight. After Shiloh, Grant wanted to followup as soon as his soldiers were rested and refitted and destroy the remaining Confederate forces, but once again Halleck ordered him to stop and avoid battle until reinforcements arrived. On April 9, 1862, Halleck telegraphed Grant saying that he was on his way to take command of the army. Halleck was given command of all Union forces in the west, but he had never fought a major battle and needed Grant. He made him his second in command as the Army moved slowly toward Corinth. Grant was disgruntled and the two generals disagreed fundamentally on the proper strategy to be undertaken. Halleck's objective was to force the Confederates to give up Corinth. Grant's objective was to destroy the Confederate Army facing them. Halleck purposely left an escape route open and the Confederates took advantage of it. Corinth was occupied without a fight much to Grant's displeasure and Halleck's delight. After Corinth was taken Grant prepared to quit the army, but Brigadier General William T. Sherman talked him out of it saying that if he stayed he might well be restored to command.

In June, 1862, Grant, still under Halleck's overall command, was restored as commander of the Army of the Tennessee and ordered to establish his headquarters in Memphis, Tennessee, from which place he was to protect railroad communications along the Mississippi-Tennessee border. Very shortly after that reassignment, Union forces in the east sustained severe reverses and Major General McClellan was relieved as general-in-chief of the army. Halleck was recalled to Washington to take his place and Grant replaced Halleck in command of the Army of the Tennessee and the Army of the Mississippi. Grant's 80,000 troops were organized into ten divisions and were spread out over an immense area. He immediately set about trying to reorganize them so that he could take the offensive. The only other major force west of the Mississippi was the Army of the Ohio, under Major General Don Carlos Buell. It was a separate command reporting directly to Halleck. Grant was ordered to send almost half of his army to reinforce Buell who was being threatened in Kentucky by aggressive Confederate forces led by Major General Braxton Bragg. On October 3, 1862, the Confederate Army struck Grant's forces at Corinth and were beaten back with heavy losses. On September 22, President Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation effective January 1, 1863, and on September 24 suspended the writ of habeas corpus. On October 3 Buell defeated Bragg at Perryville and forced the Confederate Army to retreat. Grant began planning for a campaign against Vicksburg.

On December 8, 1862, Grant gave Sherman command of all Union forces on the Mississippi River with instructions to take Vicksburg. Sherman tried, but was repulsed with heavy losses. On January 13, 1863, Grant took direct command of the assualt on Vicksburg. During this difficult campaign he appears to have taken to drinking heavily again, but on July 4, 1863, Vicksburg surrendered to Grant. Lincoln promoted Grant to Major General in the regular army. After Vicksburg, Grant suggested that his next target should be Mobile, Alabama, but President Lincoln was concerned about developments in Mexico. In the Spring of 1863 Napoleon III invaded Mexico and established Arch Duke Maximillian as Emperor of Mexico. Napoleon was a Confederate symphathizer and Lincoln worried about his intentions in Mexico. The President ordered Grant to turn away from Mobile and establish a strong Union presence in Texas. In mid-September, Major General William S.Rosecrans, commander of the Army of the Cumberland, fought and lost the Battle of Chicamauga Creek. Suffering heavy losses, Rosecrans fled the battlefield and was severely censured. Lincoln reorganized the command structure and gave Grant command of all three armies west of the Mississippi River including Rosecrans' Army of the Cumberland. Rosecrans was replaced by Major General George Thomas, the "Rock of Chicamouga," and Sherman replaced Grant as Commander of the Army of Tennessee.

In the fall of 1863, Bragg besieged Union forces in Chattanouga. In November, Grant commenced operations designed to break the seige. In the resulting battle, Captain Arthur McArthur, a member of Brigadier General Philip Sheridan's infantry division, won the Medal of Honor for being the first man to plant his regiment's colors atop Missionary Ridge. Union losses were heavy, but once again Confederate losses were not only heavy, but more difficult to replace. By February 1864 Congress was debating a bill that would reinstate the rank of lieutenant general (last held by George Washington), and the public was begining to consider Grant a potential presidential candidate. Leaders in the Democratic Party asked if he would be their candidate, but he declined. Grant reassured President Lincoln that he was not a candidate and that he continued to support Lincoln in that position. On February 1, 1864, the rank of lieutenant general was restored, Grant was promoted, and simultaneously assigned as General-in-Chief, with his headquarters in the field. Halleck remained in Washington as Grant's chief-of-staff. Grant left Major General George G. Meade in command of the Army of the Potomac, but established his own headquarters tent adjacent to that of Meade thus controlling the Army of the Potomac through Meade. Sherman replaced Grant in the west.

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