On the Very Day U.S. Grant Offers the United States His Services in the Civil War, He Explains to a Potential Commander How to Gain an Officer’s Command

An apparently unpublished and previously unknown letter

 

“The Governor has to make the appointments of commissioned officers to the regiments accepted in the United States service and will not commission those who are objectionable, even though they are elected by their companies…Where companies, since the election of their officers, have found anything like reasons which they are near unanimous in for objecting to their first choice, they will not be commissioned…”

U.S. Grant graduated from West Point and served with fidelity in the Mexican War. So Grant was an experienced military man upon the outbreak of the Civil War in April 1861. He wanted to sustain the U.S. government, and quickly became involved in helping recruiting, equipping, and drilling troops in Galena, Illinois, his home town. He then accompanied the new troops to the state capital, Springfield, where Gov. Richard Yates made him an aide and assigned him to the state adjutant general’s office. Grant wrote his wife about this, saying “I am in to do all I can and will do my best.” On May 24, 1861, Grant formally offered the United States his services for the duration of the war. In June, Gov. Yates appointed Grant colonel of a regiment (later known as the 21st Illinois Volunteers). Before he had even engaged the enemy, Grant was appointed brigadier general through the influence of Elihu B. Washburne, a U.S. congressman from Galena. In September he was given command of the District of Southeast Missouri. Washburne’s belief in Grant is one of the little known stories of the war.

As a battlefield commander, Grant won the Union’s first major victory, capturing Fort Donelson in Tennessee and demanding the rebels’ unconditional surrender. He successfully turned back a surprise Confederate attack at the Battle of Shiloh in Tennessee. His capture of the city of Vicksburg, Mississippi on July 4, 1863, after a drawn-out siege, broke the Confederate stranglehold on the Mississippi. Grant had finally found an arena where he could shine: the battlefield.

In March 1864, a grateful President Abraham Lincoln appointed Grant commander of all the U.S. armies, with the rank of lieutenant general. No soldier since George Washington had held the rank. As commander, Grant worked to constantly occupy Robert E. Lee’s rebel army in the East, while Union troops struck at the heart of the South, destroying homes, farms, and factories — and lessening Southerners’ willingness to fight. Grant’s plan worked, and on April 9, 1865, he accepted Lee’s surrender. Four bloody and tragic years of Civil War ended, and Grant was the hero who had achieved the victory.

Autograph letter signed, on his General Head Quarters – State of Illinois letterhead, Springfield, May 24, 1861, the very day he tendered his services to the United States, explaining how to go about obtaining a command. “Since my arrival here I have spoken to the Governor relative to you and said everything for you (which I felt conscientious in doing). The Governor has to make the appointments of commissioned officers to the regiments accepted in the United States service and will not commission those who are objectionable, even though they are elected by their companies. That is to say, where companies, since the election of their officers have found anything like reasons which they are near unanimous in for objecting to their first choice, they will not be commissioned. I have said such words for you as will make it easy for you to take the place of any officer who might resign or fail to get a commission.

“I do not think there would be any use in tendering a company in a way you proposed, though it will do no harm to do so.

“I write this to keep you posted how to get into the service, if you still feel anxious to get there, but hope you will keep this letter to yourself for the reason that in commenting up on it, it will give rise to rumors that the executive intends to interfere unfairly with the choice of the troops. This is not so. His hopes are to start them with officers of their choice, after having been associated with those chosen.”

This letter is a great rarity in that it explains the procedure for getting a command, something we have not seen before in a Grant letter. It is also the earliest Grant Civil War letter we have ever seen, and a search of public sale records shows none earlier in the past century.