Ulysses S. Grant: America’s Second Three-Star General

 | Civil War Times  | 0 comments  |  Print This Post  |  Email This Post

Halleck was everything Lincoln had hoped for. The fact that Major Generals Ulysses S. Grant and William T. Sherman admired Halleck ensured that he would not have problems in his dealings in the western theater. Lincoln was even more pleased with Halleck’s ability to speak with authority to officers in the eastern theater, his willingness to issue orders for the withdrawal from the Peninsula, and his ability to make those orders stick despite McClellan’s bitter protests.

During the Second Bull Run Campaign late in the summer of 1862, however, Halleck lost whatever chance he had to be a truly powerful general in chief when he let McClellan bully him. By the end of the year, Halleck’s role was reduced to simply a military adviser of the Secretary of War and the President. Lincoln found the situation completely satisfactory. By 1863 he had shed the insecurity over his grasp of military affairs that had led him to defer so much to McClellan. Lincoln was determined to be commander in chief in fact as well as in title. What he wanted from his general in chief was advice and translation of presidential wishes into military orders. This was exactly what Halleck gave him.

Although the Union war effort made considerable progress in 1863, few gave Halleck much credit. Moreover, Halleck accepted that part of his job was to be a lightning rod for the president; when things went wrong, he frequently got blamed. The Army of the Potomac commanders despised him. Relations between Major General Joseph Hooker and Halleck were so bad that Lincoln often dealt directly with Hooker. Major General George Meade became so exasperated with Halleck that he demanded in vain to be removed from command. Even in the West, where Halleck retained great authority with Grant and Sherman, his role was not appreciated. By 1864 all these troubles boiled down to an overwhelming sense throughout the North that the army needed a new general in chief.

Meanwhile, the idea of resurrecting the rank of lieutenant general was introduced to Congress on December 7, 1863, by Representative Elihu B. Washburne, who represented Grant’s home district in Illinois. Although Washburne was a Republican and a stalwart Lincoln supporter, Lincoln did not welcome the initiative. Lincoln was fully satisfied with Halleck and recognized that a new man, especially one holding a rank held only by the Father of His Country, was unlikely to conceive of his role the way Halleck did. More important, Lincoln was reluctant to see further honors bestowed on a man whom some in the North were touting as a presidential candidate for 1864. Congressmen, too, had fears about resurrecting the rank. Worried that Lincoln might give the third star to Halleck, the House passed an amendment to Washburne’s bill specifically designating Grant for the post (though the Senate prevented its attachment to the bill’s final version).

As Congress debated the bill, Lincoln kept silent. Grant, however, shrewdly took opportunities to make comments such as, Nobody could induce me to think of being a presidential candidate…, particularly so long as there is a possibility of having Mr. Lincoln reelected. By the end of February 1864, Lincoln had the assurances he wanted and decided to support the bill fully. After it passed with comfortable majorities in both the House and the Senate, Lincoln signed it into law on February 29 and submitted Grant’s name to Congress as his choice to fill the post.

The law reviving the lieutenant generalcy did not answer the enduring questions of exactly what authority the general in chief had over the army and what his relationship was with the civilian officials responsible for running the war. So, as was the case with all his predecessors, Grant’s power as general in chief would largely depend on the personal relationships he could forge with his subordinates and superiors.

Within the army, Grant’s personality, rank, and record of success immediately enabled him to exercise much greater power than Halleck had. He possessed the full trust of his two principal field commanders — Sherman and Meade — who not only respected his rank and office, but also had full confidence in his character and military judgment. There would be none of the grudging acceptance of orders or attempts to circumvent the general in chief’s authority that had plagued Halleck. Grant understood, on the other hand, that he would not have the unquestioned authority McClellan had briefly enjoyed. His plans would win approval only when they matched Lincoln’s own thinking, a fact that had been impressed upon Grant before his promotion. In January 1864, he had suggested putting 60,000 men from the Army of the Potomac on boats and sending them to North Carolina to conduct a massive raid on Confederate communications. But Halleck had rejected the proposal and impressed upon Grant that no plan that involved taking significant forces away from the line between Washington and Richmond had any chance of winning approval.

Help HistoryNet by bookmarking to

Tags: 19th Century, American Civil War, Civil War Times, Historical Conflicts, Historical Figures

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.