Although Ulysses S. Grant is best remembered as Civil War commander and as president, documents included here demonstrate his importance in the intervening years. Grant interpreted Reconstruction as the means to preserve battlefield victories. He avoided taking a public stand in the bitter dispute between President Andrew Johnson and Congress because he believed that military men served the country, not partisan interests. Nevertheless, he recognized that presidential Reconstruction had failed and privately supported passage of the First Reconstruction Act. Grant's public silence on political issues led to lively newspaper speculation, and individuals from unreconstructed rebels to ardent Unionists wrote to him offering support and advice. Circumstances were forcing him inexorably onto the political battlefield.
In spite of his public silence, Grant was caught in the dispute between Congress and President Andrew Johnson. His position became intolerable after Johnson publicly accused Grant of dishonesty. The same sense of duty that sent Grant to war in 1861 gave him no alternative to accepting the Republican nomination. "I could back down without, as it seems to me, leaving the contest for power for the next four years between mere trading politicians, the elevation of whom, no matter which party won, would lose to us, largely, the results of the costly war which we have gone through." From Washington, Grant monitored events in both the South and the West. He felt that military government could protect the citizenry when civil government faltered and endorsed the efforts of the congressional Indian Peace Commission.
This biographical dictionary catalogs the Union army colonels who commanded regiments from Missouri and the western States and Territories during the Civil War. The seventh volume in a series documenting Union army colonels, this book details the lives of officers who did not advance beyond that rank. Included for each colonel are brief biographical excerpts and any available photographs, many of them published for the first time.
America's second oldest higher education institution experienced the full violence of the Civil War, with a wartime destiny of destruction compounded by its strategic location in Virginia's Tidewater region between Union and Confederate lines. This book describes the fate of the College and also explores in-depth the war service of the College's students, faculty, and alumni, ranging from little-known individuals to historically prominent figures such as Winfield Scott, John Tyler, and John J. Crittenden. The College's many contributions to the Civil War and its role in shaping pre- and post-war higher education in the South are fully revealed.
By late 1878, after a year and a half abroad, Ulysses S. Grant had visited every country in Europe, and he was homesick. "I have seen nothing to make me regret that I am an American. Our country: its resources; energy, inginuity and intelligence of the people, &c. is more appreciated abroad than at home." Grant decided to return through Asia. After "a delightful run" to Dublin and northern Ireland, he left Paris with his wife Julia, son Frederick, and a few friends in January, 1879. Heading east, Grant kept a travel diary. On the voyage to Bombay, travelers socialized on deck. "Four of the lady passengers and one of the gentlemen Amature Artists, amused themselves by sketching me." Crossing India overland, the Grant party rode elephants, visited the Taj Mahal, and witnessed Hindu ceremonies. From Calcutta, Grant sailed for Burma, Singapore, and Siam, where he found young King Chulalongkorn "quite impressive in appearance and intelligent." After stops at Hong Kong and Canton, Grant wrote: "I am satisfied that the Chinese are badly treated at home by europeans as well as when they emigrate." At Tientsin, Grant befriended Viceroy Li Hung-chang, "probably the most intelligent and most advanced ruler--if not man--in China," and at Peking he agreed to mediate a dispute with Japan over the Ryukyu Islands. While China languished, Japan had made "almost inconceivable" progress since the 1868 Meiji Restoration. During a "very delightful" ten weeks, Grant met the Emperor, visited shrines and hot springs, attended a play and a lantern parade in his honor, and held talks on the Ryukyu dispute. He departed "with assurances that pleasant recollections of my present visit will not vanish while my life lasts." Throngs welcomed Grant to San Francisco on September 20, 1879. Grant assured all that the United States stood second to none in the world in its people, institutions, and ideals. He told Confederate veterans: "I have an abiding faith that we will remain together in future harmony." Grant toured Yosemite and visited scenes from his army days in Oregon and Washington Territory, then headed east again, his train cheered at every stop. At Galena and Chicago he basked in the warmth of ovations and old friends. Another series of crowds and banquets culminated in December at Philadelphia, where Grant completed his circuit of the globe. As 1880 began, Grant headed south. He marveled at Florida's potential and groused at Cuba's heat, then reached Mexico, a country he had long ago admired as part of an occupying army. "The climate is perfection, the scenery unsurpassed and the people as clever and hospitable as it is possible for them to be." Grant met influential leaders, toured silver mines and old battlefields, and encouraged development. Grant returned to New Orleans and more banquets and speeches, touting reconciliation and praising black advancement. His progress north took on the air of a campaign as the Republican convention loomed. Newspapers debated a third term while Grant kept silent. In June, at Chicago, delegates split between Grant and James G. Blaine, and settled on dark horse James A. Garfield. Grant expressed relief at avoiding a "most violent campaign." Grant spent the summer in the Rocky Mountains inspecting mines, sometimes by pack mule, for possible investments. In September, back in Galena, he rejoined the political fray, attacking Garfield's opponent, Major General Winfield S. Hancock, in an interview. "He is the most selfish man I know.... He can not bear to hear anyone else praised, but can take any amount of flattery." With the election weeks away, and the outcome in doubt, Grant took to the stump. "I am a Republican," he told an Ohio crowd, "as the two great political parties are now divided, because the Republican Party is a national party seeking the greatest good for the greatest number of citizens."
Man in the Middle reopens the history of Henry Benjamin Whipple, the First Episcopal Bishop of Minnesota, using his sermons, his letters, and Dakota and Chippewa letters. The book explores his role as a crusader for the survival and salvation of the Dakota and Chippewa peoples of Minnesota and brings to light an obscure figure in American history that deserves a reintroduction to the story of American religious and Indian history.
