Damn the Uniform, Full Speed Ahead: Ulysses Grant in ’61
ECW welcomes back guest author Greg Wolk.
The first 39 years of Ulysses Grant’s life were troubled in many ways, typified perhaps by strained relations with his father. Although not strictly speaking an abolitionist, Jesse Grant held strong anti-slavery views.[1] Later, in his thirties, Ulysses lived with wife Julia and their children on the slave plantation of his father-in-law, Frederick Dent of St. Louis. This is not a psychological study. There is no easy answer to the question of how Ulysses Grant turned his life around in 1861. Still, we can point to the precise time that he did.
On August 29, 1861, from St. Louis, Ulysses wrote a letter to Julia that began with this statement: “I have a moment to drop you a line … but this time I cannot inform you where I am going. I know there is a Steamer laying at the Wharf, loaded with troops, ready to start whenever I go aboard.”[2] This rare outbreak of exuberance followed on the heels of three more months of uncertainty, during which time Grant found that his service as colonel of volunteers and a promotion to brigadier general did not guarantee personal success.
Grant had learned of his promotion during the first days of August, while camped with his regiment in Mexico, a railroad town in northeast Missouri. He had since then been required to move his command twice, while also dealing with questions of seniority among new Illinois brigadiers. He was serving in the state capital, Jefferson City, on August 28, 1861, when the officer who would replace him delivered an order from Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont, directing Grant to report forthwith to headquarters in St. Louis. Grant was on the next eastbound train out of town and reported to headquarters that very afternoon. He carried away an order that appointed him to command the District of Southeast Missouri and to report to Cape Girardeau, Missouri to assume command.
Readers know how this story ends: Grant first conquers the valleys of the Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers, then the valley of the Mississippi, then the hearts and minds of the northern populace. Before he gets all the way to the end, though, there is a story of a suit of clothes, a boat, and a Russian-born spy that begs to be told.
While stationed in Mexico, Missouri from July 20 to August 6, 1861, Grant came to know another colonel stationed there, Benjamin Grover of the 27th Missouri Volunteer Infantry. By the time he met Grover, Grant had been a colonel for five or six weeks; he had a colonel’s uniform. After learning of his promotion, Grant quite inexplicably gave his old uniform to Grover.
Grant left Mexico with his 21st Illinois Infantry on rather short notice, bound by rail to a town in southeast Missouri called Ironton. Perhaps he meant to acquire a general’s uniform, but he didn’t. Grant served in Ironton for just a week, then he was reassigned to Jefferson City. On his way to his new post, he stopped briefly in St. Louis. There, through a local haberdasher, he placed an order with Brooks Brothers for a general’s uniform.
The steamer that General Grant boarded in St. Louis was, during its civilian career, a packet boat known as one of the fastest on the river.[3] The City of Louisiana had by this time been chartered by the Union army to carry troops and supplies, but in August and September 1861 it was still carrying civilian passengers as well. City of Louisiana, named for the Pike County, Missouri hometown of its owner, had a storied history: for example, in 1858 it conveyed Abraham Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas together on the same voyage, from their sixth debate in Quincy to the last one in Alton, Illinois. The boat, in the end, served as a hospital ship under the name R.C. Wood.
Returning to St. Louis in 1861, it so happened that a New York Herald reporter by the name of Thomas W. Knox boarded City of Louisiana for the trip to Cape Girardeau.[4] Knox wrote many years later about his encounter with Gen. Grant on this trip, claiming in his book Boys Life of Grant that he was the first news reporter ever to describe Grant’s physical appearance: “The general is decidedly unmartial in appearance, and would be the last man among the twenty occupants of the cabin who would be selected as superior officer of all. He is about forty-five years of age, not more than five feet eight inches in height, and of ordinary frame, with a slight tendency to corpulency.”[5]
After arriving in Cape Girardeau, Grant spent several days there to marshal Union forces; then he departed for Cairo, Illinois, where he established permanent headquarters. He posed for a memorable picture with Gen. John McClernand in front of the Cairo post office – both men were attired in civilian clothes. Several days later, warned by a spy on Frémont’s payroll that Confederate forces were invading Kentucky, with Paducah in their sights, Grant took two regiments of infantry and transported them to Paducah overnight. He was just in time to save the city for the Union. Disembarking on the Paducah levee in the early morning of September 6, in his “street clothes” of course, Grant read a rousing proclamation to the citizens of that city. Only six days had passed since the City of Louisiana left the St. Louis wharf.
We might know nothing of the spy that alerted Grant to save Paducah, but for the fact that the spy later sued the U. S. Government for compensation. It was an astounding display of judicial restraint. The case of Charles de Arnaud v. United States (reported at 151 U.S. 483) was decided by the U. S. Supreme Court in 1894. Arnaud, born in Russia and a veteran of the Crimean War, was denied the full amount of the compensation he sought for his services.
In proceedings before the government accounting office in 1861, Grant endorsed Arnaud’s claim, stating: “I took possession of Paducah, Kentucky, solely on information given by [Arnaud], and to the effect that the rebels were marching upon that city with a large force.” The Supreme Court decided that the passage of time and Arnaud’s acceptance of a receipt in full payment were fatal to his claim.
What of Ulysses Grant’s colonel’s uniform? Benjamin Grover was mortally wounded at the battle of Lexington, Missouri in September 1861. He is buried in Warrensburg, Missouri, in Sunset Hill Cemetery. So is Ulysses Grant’s uniform.[vi]
Mr. Wolk is a retired trial lawyer and writer. He serves on the Boards of Directors of the Jefferson Barracks Heritage Foundation and the National U. S. Grant Trail Association, both based in St. Louis. His works include Friend and Foe Alike: A Tour Guide to Missouri’s Civil War (Eureka, MO: Monograph Publishing Co., 2010), and numerous magazine articles focused on the Civil War in Missouri.
Endnotes
[1] Jesse Root Grant apprenticed as a tanner under Owen Brown, father of John Brown. Jesse Grant lived in Owen Brown’s home near Akron, Ohio under the same roof as John Brown when the latter was a young boy. See Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant (New York: Literary Classics of the United States, 1990)18-19.
[2] John Y. Simon, ed., The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant (Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1967-1985) 2:149.
[3] In 1859, City of Louisiana set the speed record for an upriver voyage from St. Louis to Keokuk. “Illinois in the Gilded Age,” from the archives of Northern Illinois University, accessed November 15, 2024 at https://digital.lib.niu.edu/islandora/object/niu-gildedage%3A23691
[4] Tom Knox was the reporter who William T. Sherman court-martialed in 1863 for his reporting during the Chickasaw Bluffs campaign. President Lincoln overturned Knox’s conviction.
[5] Thomas W. Knox, Boys Life of Grant (New York: The Werner Company, 1895) 185-186.
[6] Missouri History Museum Archives, St. Louis, Missouri. Photo with file description accessed November 15. 2024 at https://mohistory.org/collections/item/resource:156223?view=zoom
Interesting article. And a lesson in the legal doctrine of “accord & satisfaction.” Arnaud never should have accepted the money with the statement that it was in full payment of his claim. Uncle Sam seemed to have received a bargain with this fellow.
This is an interesting article, for a number of reasons. First, “Grant had learned of his promotion [to Brigadier General] during the first days of August 1861” should read “Grant had learned of his pending promotion to Brigadier General of Volunteers during the first days of August 1861.” Just because a man “read in the newspaper” that he was on track to be promoted [as Grant claimed to have done] did not guarantee accuracy of that report: How many times did newspapers get their information wrong? Also, just because Grant’s benefactor, Congressman Elihu Washburne, informed U.S. Grant “that he would be made ‘the ranking Brigadier General from Illinois,’” that outcome was also not guaranteed: John Pope was the ranking Brigadier General from Illinois. Field promotions could NOT be made to the rank of Brigadier General; a process had to be followed: a man had to be nominated, and his name submitted for consideration; the Senate had to confirm its offer of appointment; the War Department had to be informed by the Senate of the pending appointment (and General Orders issued confirming the pending promotion and establishing the seniority among officers); the individual officer had to be OFFICIALLY informed of his offer of promotion to Brigadier General and the appropriate paperwork signed and witnessed [signifying acceptance of the promotion] and any Oath of Loyalty or other requirements completed. Once all these formalities were accomplished, the newly-minted Brigadier General had the right to title, benefits, staff, and PAY of Brigadier General.
The above explanation is important because Colonel Grant “jumped the gun” and began acting as Brigadier General and pulling rank on another Brigadier General before General Orders No.62 of 20 August 1861 had been issued; a few months later, U.S. Grant [calling himself Major General Grant] made a voyage to Nashville and “lorded it over” Brigadier General Buell. Once again, Grant jumped the gun: his promotion to Major General did not take effect until Grant signed the paperwork upon his return to Fort Donelson (witnessed by Washburne’s brother.)
In all other respects, I found the article enjoyable.
Thank you, Mike, And I found your remarks enlightening!