Ulysses S. Grant Correspondence mssGrant
Melissa Haley
The Huntington Library
March 2021
1151 Oxford Road
San Marino, California 91108
reference@huntington.org
Contributing Institution:
The Huntington Library
Title: Ulysses S. Grant correspondence
Creator:
Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822-1885
Identifier/Call Number: mssGrant
Physical Description:
12.87 Linear Feet
(11 flat boxes)
Date (inclusive): 1864-1865
Abstract: This collection contains correspondence sent by Ulysses S. Grant, primarily from City Point, Virginia, to Abraham Lincoln,
Edwin M. Stanton, Henry W. Halleck, George Gordon Meade, Benjamin F. Butler, Philip Henry Sheridan, William T. Sherman, and
others during Civil War operations from May 1864 to April 1865.
Language of Material: Materials are in English.
Open to qualified researchers by prior application through the Reader Services Department. For more information, contact Reader
Services.
The Huntington Library does not require that researchers request permission to quote from or publish images of this material,
nor does it charge fees for such activities. The responsibility for identifying the copyright holder, if there is one, and
obtaining necessary permissions rests with the researcher.
[Identification of item]. Ulysses S. Grant correspondence, The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Purchased from William Bixby, 1918.
William K. Bixby purchased various parts of the collection from 1904 to 1914 from S.H. Beckwith, Grant's secret cipher operator,
and from the sons of Colonel George K. Leet who was a member of Grant's staff.
Ulysses S. Grant (April 27, 1822-July 23, 1885), the eighteenth president of the United States, was born in Point Pleasant,
Ohio. He graduated from West Point in June 1843 and in 1844 was sent to serve along the U.S./Mexico border under General Zachary
Taylor, subsequently fighting in the Mexican War from 1846 to 1848. Grant resigned from the army in 1854, taking up farming
and real estate. In 1860, he moved with his wife Julia Dent Grant (married 1848) and family to Galena, Illinois.
Grant reenlisted in the army following the outbreak of the U.S. Civil War. In June 1861, he was designated a colonel of the
21st Illinois Volunteer Infantry; in August, he was promoted to brigadier general and assigned to a post at Cairo, Illinois.
Following his promotion to major general in 1862, Grant lead Union troops during engagements at Shiloh, Tennessee in 1862
and Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1863. In March 1864, he was put in command of the Union Army and promoted to lieutenant general,
overseeing campaigns at numerous sites in Virginia, 1864 to 1865, including the Wilderness, Spotsylvania, Cold Harbor, Petersburg,
and Richmond. Grant's army headquarters was located at City Point, Virginia, from June 1864 until the end of the war in spring
1865.
In 1867, Grant served briefly as the Interim Secretary of War in the administration of Andrew Johnson. He was elected president
in 1868, serving two terms from 1869 to 1877. Accomplishments of his tenure include the passage of the 15th Amendment of the
U.S. Constitution in 1870, which guaranteed the right to vote for Black men; his presidency, however, was often marked by
ineptitude and corruption by subordinates. In 1874, Democrats took over the House of Representatives, effectively ending the
Reconstruction period. Grant chose not to run for a third term in 1876.
Grant traveled for two years following his presidency and then moved to New York. He devoted much of his final years to writing
his Personal Memoirs, published in 1885 and 1886. Grant died in Wilton, New York of throat cancer at age 63.
This collection contains correspondence sent by Ulysses S. Grant, primarily from City Point, Virginia, to Abraham Lincoln,
Edwin M. Stanton, Henry W. Halleck, George Gordon Meade, Benjamin F. Butler, Philip Henry Sheridan, William T. Sherman, and
others during Civil War operations from May 1864 to April 1865. The correspondence is in the form of signed letters, most
in Grant's hand and on army letterhead; the letters were then resent as telegrams, many after being ciphered.
Correspondence primarily pertains to Union Army campaigns in Virginia from August 1864 to February 1865. Items sent to Philip
Henry Sheridan also discuss campaigns in the Shenandoah Valley and the Confederate battalion of John S. Mosby; items sent
to William T. Sherman discuss the capture of Atlanta and Sherman's campaign through Georgia and into South Carolina; several
other items mention campaigns in the deep south and western edges of the war.
The letters detail Union troop movements, orders and plans; intelligence on Confederate Army and government officials' movements
and plans, including reports from deserters and Confederate newspapers; Union supplies, stores, and artillery; the capture
of prisoners-of-war and enemy artillery; POW exchanges; soldier enlistments; the state of roads and railroads, especially
in Virginia; Union general and officer appointments and dismissals; the recruitment of Black soldiers; and Grant's movements
and whereabouts.
Correspondence are autograph letters signed and sent by Grant from City Point, Virginia, unless otherwise noted. Most messages
are marked "cipher" (see individual Scope & Contents notes for exceptions). The times noted in the date were in Grant's hand
in some cases; in others, they appeared to have been added later and may have indicated the time the telegram was sent. Many
of the items addressed to Major General Philip Sheridan in Virginia were actually locations in the newly created state of
West Virginia.
This collection was reprocessed in 2020-2021 by Melissa Haley as part of the American Presidential Papers Project. The items
had been assembled physically and arranged chronologically by Huntington Library staff in early- or mid-20th century; material
was rehoused during reprocessing. Previously assigned item-level call numbers have been retained. The number of pages for
each item is noted in parentheses in item-level Scope and Contents notes.
According to the Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, several items in this collection were misdated—see Scope & Contents notes at
the item level for details. These dates were corrected to reflect their apparent actual dates during reprocessing, though
the items were not physically refiled.
The Huntington Library holds a number of individual Ulysses S. Grant letters from this time period, see library catalogs for
details.
Material is arranged chronologically.
Most correspondence in this collection has been published in The Papers of Ulysses S. Grant, John Y. Simon, editor (Carbondale:
Southern Illinois University Press, 1967-2012) under the item's date, either as featured correspondence or in a footnote.
If the item is located in a footnote under a different date or in a calendar, volume and page numbers are noted in item-level
Publication Notes. Items not located in the Papers of Ulysses S. Grant are also noted.
Items may also be published in Ulysses S. Grant, Memoirs and Selected Letters: Personal Memoirs of U.S. Grant, Selected Letters
1839-1865 (New York: Library of America, 1990) and in The War of the Rebellion: A Compilation of the Official records of the
Union and Confederate Armies (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1880-1900).
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Generals -- United States -- Correspondence
Petersburg (Va.) -- History -- Siege, 1864-1865
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns -- Virginia
United States -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Correspondence
Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Campaigns
Virginia -- History -- Civil War, 1861-1865 -- Sources
Letters (correspondence) -- United States -- Civil War, 1861-1865
Military records -- United States -- Civil War, 1861-1865
Butler, Benjamin F. (Benjamin Franklin), 1818-1893
Halleck, H. W. (Henry Wager), 1815-1872
Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865
Meade, George Gordon, 1815-1872
Sheridan, Philip Henry, 1831-1888
Sherman, William T. (William Tecumseh), 1820-1891
Stanton, Edwin M. (Edwin McMasters), 1814-1869
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