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

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Recognizing that Halleck’s views were Lincoln’s, Grant did not bring up the North Carolina scheme again. Instead, he complied with Lincoln’s wish that the Army of the Potomac make General Robert E. Lee’s Army of Northern Virginia its target. Grant, however, was shrewd enough to see Major General Benjamin Butler’s political need for an important command as a way to win approval for a campaign against Richmond using the James River; Lincoln and Halleck had long resisted such action, but Lincoln was up for reelection this year, and a jilted Butler could use his strong political connections to hurt Lincoln’s campaign. So, Grant’s plan for simultaneous advances by all the Union armies received Lincoln’s full approval.

Grant did not enjoy complete liberty in managing the war, but neither was he stuck in the role of mere advisor to the president. He understood that his promotion brought with it the expectation that he would exercise his office in the field (Northerners would have been outraged if he had sat at a desk in the capital) and solve the previously unsolvable problem of Robert E. Lee. Out in the field, Grant realized, he would be more or less free to command as he saw fit. At the same time, he made a point of gratifying Lincoln by keeping Halleck in the advisory role he had been playing since 1862. The move was a fine example of the skillful maneuvering that enabled Grant to establish a good relationship with Lincoln. Other examples of Grant’s political savvy included his accepting Lincoln’s insistence that politically influential men such as Butler and Major Generals Franz Sigel and Nathaniel Banks receive important commands, listening respectfully to Lincoln’s suggestions, and making Lincoln feel welcome whenever he visited headquarters — even finding a place for Lincoln’s son Robert on his staff.

Besides maintaining a good relationship with Lincoln, Grant also worked well with Stanton. In contrast with the way Stanton had treated McClellan two years earlier, he did all he could to strengthen Grant’s hand. The lieutenant general bill, for example, did not change the fact that the staff officers who tended to the army’s administrative, financial, logistical, and technical needs reported directly to the war department rather than to the general in chief. After Grant took office, however, Stanton made a point of telling the members of the general staff that they were expected to follow Grant’s wishes.

Thanks in large part to his superior ability to coddle his superiors and get the most out of his underlings, when Grant took the field in May 1864, he had the full support of everyone necessary to help him overcome the obstacles that Lee and the rest of the Confederacy placed in his path. With the elevation of Grant to general in chief and lieutenant general, the Union had finally found the man who could win the Civil War.

This article written by Ethan Rafuse and originally appeared in the April 2004 issue of Civil War Times magazine.

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

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