This column first appeared in July, 2009.
So you think you’re a Civil War buff? Well, so did I. I’ve read, researched and written about the American Civil War most of my life. Yet, I recently discovered an interesting little factoid from my beloved home state and city of my birth that I had never heard before.
On Saturday October 17, 1863, Union General Ulysses S. Grant was given orders to travel to Indianapolis from Cairo, Illinois by General Henry Halleck, General-in-Chief of all Union Armies. Halleck told Grant to bring his staff with him in preparation “for immediate operations in the field.” General Grant, his wife Julia, and his staff arrived in Indianapolis in the early evening and checked into the Bates House Hotel on the old National Road (present day Washington Street).
On the morning of October 18th, the party prepared to leave for Louisville, where Mrs. Grant expected to meet old friends. The train was preparing to roll out of Union Station when word came to delay its departure pending the arrival of an important passenger. It was none other than Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, who traveled west from Washington, D.C. to confer with Grant. Secretary Stanton made his way to Grant’s car, and seeing a group of officers, strode forward with his hand outstretched and said, “How do you do, General Grant? I recognize you from your pictures.” Unfortunately, the man Stanton greeted so confidently was not General Grant but his medical director, Dr. Edward Kittoe. True to his legendary reputation, the staunch Quaker lawyer was nonplussed by his mistake and as Stanton was pointed in the right direction by Grant’s staff, the General struggled to conceal his amusement. Before this Indianapolis meeting, Stanton had only communicated with Grant via telegraph.
Stanton handed Grant a telegraph from President Abraham Lincoln that read: “By direction of the President of the United States, the Departments of the Ohio, of the Cumberland, and of the Tennessee, will constitute the Military Division of the Mississippi. Major General U.S. Grant, United States Army is placed in command of the Military Division of the Mississippi, with his headquarters in the field.”
Secretary Stanton felt compelled to travel 600 arduous, bone-shaking miles by rail to hand-deliver these orders to a man he had never met, General U.S. Grant, placing him in command of three armies that would now be known collectively as “the Military Division of Mississippi.” Grant was now in charge of all military operations from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River.
Grant immediately relieved Rosecrans in Chattanooga and replaced him with Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas, soon to be known as “The Rock of Chickamauga.” Devising a plan known as the “Cracker Line,” Thomas’s chief engineer, William F. “Baldy” Smith opened a new supply route to Chattanooga, helping to feed the starving men and animals of the Union army.
Upon reprovisioning and reinforcing, the morale of Union troops lifted and in late November, they went on the offensive. The Battles for Chattanooga ended with the capture of Lookout Mountain, opening the way for the Union Army to invade Atlanta, Georgia, and the heart of the Confederacy.
Grant’s willingness to fight and his ability to win impressed President Lincoln, who appointed him lieutenant general in the regular army — a rank not awarded since George Washington, but re-authorized by the U.S. Congress with Grant in mind — on March 2, 1864. On March 12, Grant became general-in-chief of all the armies of the United States. The rest is history.
It’s also noteworthy to remember that Edwin Stanton was appointed by President Grant to the Supreme Court, but he died four days after he was confirmed by the Senate and never took the oath to become a Justice.
Why is this important? This was the first official step taken by General Ulysses S. Grant on his road to fame that ultimately ended at the White House.
In U.S. Grant’s memoirs, the General remembered that the train arrived in Louisville at night in a cold drizzling rain. Secretary Stanton told Grant that he had caught a miserable cold from that trip from which he “never expected to recover from.” Grant believed that Stanton never fully recovered from this cold and that it contributed to Stanton’s death in 1869.
The Galt House Hotel in Louisville always takes the credit for this important announcement meeting, although it actually happened right here in Indianapolis on a south bound train leaving Union Station on a crisp Hoosier autumn Sunday morning.
Al Hunter is the author of the “Haunted Indianapolis” and co-author of the “Haunted Irvington” and “Indiana National Road” book series. His newest books are “Bumps in the Night. Stories from the Weekly View,” “Irvington Haunts. The Tour Guide,” and “The Mystery of the H.H. Holmes Collection.” Contact Al directly at Huntvault@aol.com or become a friend on Facebook.