Top of page

Manuscript/Mixed Material Ulysses S. Grant's commission as lieutenant general signed by Abraham Lincoln, 10 March 1864.

About this Item

Title

  • Ulysses S. Grant's commission as lieutenant general signed by Abraham Lincoln, 10 March 1864.

Created / Published

  • 10 March 1864

Headings

  • -  Presidents
  • -  Presidential appointments
  • -  Army officers
  • -  Civil War, 1861-1865
  • -  Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson) (1822-1885)
  • -  Halleck, H. W. (Henry Wager) (1815-1872)
  • -  Lincoln, Abraham (1809-1865)
  • -  Military commissions
  • -  Scott, Winfield (1786-1866)
  • -  United States Army
  • -  Manuscripts

Genre

  • Manuscripts

Notes

  • -  Reproduction number: A38 (color slide)
  • -  Army officer and United States president Ulysses S. Grant (1822-1885) was at his best in war. Although he was a professional soldier, the United States Army probably was not the career he would have chosen had the decision been his alone. He was temperamentally unsuited to army life in peacetime, which for most soldiers in the 1840s meant long years of duty at a remote outpost on the western frontier. But Grant was also intelligent, single-minded, and almost fearless, attributes that served him well in battle. He entered the Mexican War as a first lieutenant and emerged from that one-sided contest as a captain with two citations for gallantry and one for meritorious conduct.
  • -  Grant's achievements during the Civil War were nothing less than spectacular. Having resigned his commission in 1854, partly to avoid court-martial, Grant reentered the army in 1861 as a colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Volunteer Infantry Regiment. Largely through successive victories by the troops under his command, he rose steadily in rank until he commanded all Union land forces. Shown here is Grant's commission as lieutenant general, which was presented to him by President Abraham Lincoln (1809-1865) on 10 March 1864, shortly after Congress had revived the rank at Lincoln's request. Only two men, George Washington (1732-1799) and Winfield Scott (1786-1866) had held the rank before Grant, and Scott's commission was by brevet. With this appointment, Grant essentially replaced his former nemesis, Gen. Henry W. Halleck (1815-1872), as "General in Chief of the Army" and was subject only to the Lincoln as commander in chief. Halleck was relegated to chief of staff.

Source Collection

  • Ulysses S. Grant Papers

Repository

  • Manuscript Division

Online Format

  • pdf
  • image

IIIF Presentation Manifest

Rights & Access

More about Copyright and other Restrictions

For guidance about compiling full citations consult Citing Primary Sources.

Cite This Item

Citations are generated automatically from bibliographic data as a convenience, and may not be complete or accurate.

Chicago citation style:

Ulysses S. Grant's commission as lieutenant general signed by Abraham Lincoln, 10 March. 10 March, 1864. Manuscript/Mixed Material. https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.017/.

APA citation style:

(1864) Ulysses S. Grant's commission as lieutenant general signed by Abraham Lincoln, 10 March. 10 March. [Manuscript/Mixed Material] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/mcc.017/.

MLA citation style:

Ulysses S. Grant's commission as lieutenant general signed by Abraham Lincoln, 10 March. 10 March, 1864. Manuscript/Mixed Material. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/mcc.017/>.