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Details
GRANT, Ulysses S. (1822-1885). Autograph letter signed ("U. S. Grant"), as Brigadier General, to Capt. Speed Butler, Headquarters, Jefferson City, Mo., 22 August 1861. 3 pages, 4to, two small punctures along left edge.
"THEY ARE DRIVING OUT THE UNION MEN ...THE WHOLE OF THIS COUNTRY IS IN A STATE OF FERMENT..."
"A GENERAL LOOSENESS PREVAILS...": GRANT DECRIES THE AMATEURISH STATE OF THE ARMY AND THE CHAOTIC SCENE IN MISSOURI. After completing a tour of local encampments, Grant delivers a scathing report: "I find a great deficiency in everything for the comfort and efficiency of an Army. Most of the troops are without clothing. Camp & Garrison equipage, ammunition was down to about ten rounds of cartridges, and for the Artillery none is left. The Artillery here consists of four six pounders, without Artillerymen, and one twenty-pound howitzer, too heavy for field use. The Post Quartermaster & Comy. [Commissary] has not been here since my arrival so that I cannot report fully as to those departments. They are apparently in a bad condition. There are no rations for issue, the mules sent some time since are guarded in a lot, no effort being made to get them into teams, and a general looseness prevails."
Grant goes on to explain that he has sent a detachment of 350 men to "scour the country" in search of those who had recently fired into a supply train, and he thinks it will "probably lead to the arrest of many." Given the desperate supply situation, those troops would have to live "off of the community." And that was a risky proposition: "From reports received here the whole of this country is in a state of ferment. They are driving out the Union men and appropriating their property. The best force to put this down would be mounted Home Guards and I would therefore recommend that as many as possible of this class of troops be put upon horses." If there was any trouble finding mounts, Grant cheerfully suggests that "horses could be obtained from good Secessionists who have been aiding and abeting the Southern cause." Startling reports like this explain Grant's rocket-like ascent to Brigadier General. The Army was amateurish, disorganized and undisciplined. It took more than flag-waving speeches by local politicos and a few muskets to wage a war. Grant was one of the few men who knew what needed to be done and how to do it. Things were particularly rough in the border state of Missouri where there was a near breakdown of civil order. With the state split between Unionists and "good Secessionists" there was virtually no authority capable of keeping bad people in check. The region was plagued by vigilantism, private score-settling, and bank robberies. Thanks in large part to Grant, things soon came under better control.
"THEY ARE DRIVING OUT THE UNION MEN ...THE WHOLE OF THIS COUNTRY IS IN A STATE OF FERMENT..."
"A GENERAL LOOSENESS PREVAILS...": GRANT DECRIES THE AMATEURISH STATE OF THE ARMY AND THE CHAOTIC SCENE IN MISSOURI. After completing a tour of local encampments, Grant delivers a scathing report: "I find a great deficiency in everything for the comfort and efficiency of an Army. Most of the troops are without clothing. Camp & Garrison equipage, ammunition was down to about ten rounds of cartridges, and for the Artillery none is left. The Artillery here consists of four six pounders, without Artillerymen, and one twenty-pound howitzer, too heavy for field use. The Post Quartermaster & Comy. [Commissary] has not been here since my arrival so that I cannot report fully as to those departments. They are apparently in a bad condition. There are no rations for issue, the mules sent some time since are guarded in a lot, no effort being made to get them into teams, and a general looseness prevails."
Grant goes on to explain that he has sent a detachment of 350 men to "scour the country" in search of those who had recently fired into a supply train, and he thinks it will "probably lead to the arrest of many." Given the desperate supply situation, those troops would have to live "off of the community." And that was a risky proposition: "From reports received here the whole of this country is in a state of ferment. They are driving out the Union men and appropriating their property. The best force to put this down would be mounted Home Guards and I would therefore recommend that as many as possible of this class of troops be put upon horses." If there was any trouble finding mounts, Grant cheerfully suggests that "horses could be obtained from good Secessionists who have been aiding and abeting the Southern cause." Startling reports like this explain Grant's rocket-like ascent to Brigadier General. The Army was amateurish, disorganized and undisciplined. It took more than flag-waving speeches by local politicos and a few muskets to wage a war. Grant was one of the few men who knew what needed to be done and how to do it. Things were particularly rough in the border state of Missouri where there was a near breakdown of civil order. With the state split between Unionists and "good Secessionists" there was virtually no authority capable of keeping bad people in check. The region was plagued by vigilantism, private score-settling, and bank robberies. Thanks in large part to Grant, things soon came under better control.