Grant and Lincoln's invitation

[loetar44]

I now understand Gen. Grant’s exact position in 1865 and the role of the General-in-Chief better. Grant was indeed a man with awesome power in 1865, after he was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant General on March 9, 1864 and was made General-in-Chief of all the Union armies. In his memoirs he clearly stated what his position was and what was expected of him. He was Commander in Chief of the Union Armies in the field and was charged with the chief responsibility for ending the war. He was no mere advisor to the president, but possessed full control over strategic and operational planning; he in fact exercised the actual military control of that moment. The civilian control of the Army was however exercised from Washington, as had always been. This all was a drastic change. Why this change? Today I’ve tried to study this and here is what I found:

In European armies there were four grades in which generals could be commissioned: Brigadier General (1 star), Major General (2 stars), Lieutenant General (3 stars), or General (4 stars). After the Revolution the fear of a dictator remained powerful in America, and so the people were unwilling to give too much power to a military man. That’s the main reason why the U.S. Congress refused to authorize a rank higher than major general (2 stars) until 1798. That year however there was big fear that France would invade the U.S. and the Congress induced to create a lieutenant generalcy and President John Adams appointed George Washington in that position. When it became evident that France had no intention of attacking on American soil, and when Washington died in December 1799, the rank Lieutenant General (3 stars) died with him. So only George Washington had risen to that rank before Ulysses Grant in 1864.

Grant was the second Lieutenant General in U.S. History and the fifth General-in- Chief. Until Grant, it was not clearly outlined what the General-in-Chief's exact powers and responsibilities were. If the General-in-Chief truly commanded the Army and could fully exercise the actual military control, he would decimate the president's role as Commander- in-Chief as written in the Constitution. If he did not, then the civilian leadership in Washington was free to ignore him, making his position in effect merely an honorary one. Because the legislation did not formally define the job, the duties, responsibilities, and authority of the General-in-Chief it all depended on the character of the individual who held the office and on his informal relationships with the army and the nation's political leaders (the President and the Secretary of War). This was not a real problem until the Civil War broke out.

Winfield Scott was at that moment General-in-Chief. He received in 1855 a brevet promotion to Lieutenant General , was 74 and suffering numerous health problems. A brevet promotion is a promotion to a rank, without receiving the authority of that rank, nothing more than a “honorary promotion”, thus meaningless in terms of real authority. In the fall of 1861 Scott was succeeded as General-in-Chief by the far more powerful Major General George B. McClellan. Initially, McClellan was confident he would eventually win a third star— the Lieutenant General's star (against the real wishes of Lincoln, because it would make McClellan more powerful in military affairs), but he fell ill with typhoid fever in December 1861. Lincoln began to fear what might happen if McClellan were gone and he wanted to maintain his authority over the military, so in January 1862 he put Edwin M. Stanton in place of Cameron at the head of the War Department. Stanton encouraged Lincoln to strenghten authority over the military (because of the lack of progress in the war at that moment) and when McClellan recovered from his illness, he found his civilian superiors interfering in areas that had been his exclusive responsibility (operational planning and personnel assignments). Finally, on March 11, 1862, Lincoln removed McClellan from his post.

For the next few months Lincoln and Stanton attempted to direct the Union war effort without the aid of a General-in-Chief, but this did not work. So, on July 11, 1862, Lincoln decided to resurrect the office of General-in-Chief and appointed Major General Henry W. Halleck to the post. Halleck's role however was reduced to simply a military advisor of the Secretary of War and the President. Lincoln found this situation completely satisfactory. He 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. And that was exactly what Halleck did.

After three years of bitter civil war, the conflict was still no nearer to a solution than it had been in 1861. Lee’s Army’s were wounded but still perfectly capable of defending itself. To destroy the Confederation there was in 1864 a need of a new General-in-Chief and a new strategy. At that point Grant came in. But Grant did not want a role as a military advisor, he wanted “real power”. He wanted fully control over strategic and operational planning and personnel assignments, and the rank of Lieutenant General (3 stars).

Initially Lincoln did not welcome this, because he was fully satisfied with Halleck, but he agreed by the end of February 1864, when he had the assurances he wanted concerning his own (military) authority. That’s why Grant did not enjoy complete liberty in managing the war, but neither was he stuck in the role of “simply” an advisor to the president. Lincoln gave Grant his personal assurance that he was to be allowed to exercise the real functions of the office. Halleck, being a good soldier, resigned his position to make way for Grant and was appointed Chief of Staff of the Army in an advisory role, the same work he had done until his resignation, from the same office in Washington.

Grant became in 1864 in fact the controller of the grand strategy of the war. He was also able to choose his own staff (and he drew upon the best men in the Army). Grant knew how to end the war. His strategy was simply to apply relentless pressure on the Confederate Armies and to keep pounding away at the Confederacy until its collapse and the people of the South had had enough of war. Included in his plans was the intention of occupying enemy territory and capturing key positions such as Richmond and Atlanta. His secondary objective was to destroy all communications between Richmond and the deep South. We all know how he ended the war.

On July 25, 1866 Ulysses Grant was promoted to General of the Army (4 stars) and became with this promotion the first 4 star General in the U.S.