0
Ulysses Grant was at the end of his military career a lieutenant general and the commander of all Union armies. He had started the US Civil War as a captain of Illinois volunteers and rose quickly through the ranks.
Still curious? Ask our experts.
Chat with our AI personalities
Professor
Blake
SteveGrant was promoted to Lieutenant General in the spring of 1864. He was the first and only Union officer to wear three stars, and was "the Lieutenant General". It was "the", because he was the only one. Prior to that time the Union armies had no officer of higher rank than two-star Major Generals. This caused problems, because some of the Major Generals who attained that rank early in the war turned out to be incompetent. A goodly number of these were "political generals", politicians who had joined up and through connections and influence got themselves a high position without worrying too much if they had any idea what they were doing. Because these individual were politically powerful it was hard to get rid of them. Lincoln had his hands full trying to keep everyone united behind the war effort. Within the grade of Major General, who outranked whom was decided based on seniority within grade, so those early promotions were a real problem. The other prong of the problem was that the Union did not want to promote anybody past two stars, because George Washington when he commanded the Continental Army had decided to style himself as a Lieutenant General, since he had major generals for subordinates. So, if Washington was a three star, and nobody could be as good as Washington, then nobody got to be a three star. There had been none in the US Army since Washington. Lincoln decided that however laudable this veneration of Washington might be, to make it absolutely crystal clear that Grant was in command, Grant needed three stars, and so Grant got them.
Add your answer:
Earn +20 pts
