Grant's Secret Service

B. Feis William

Description

William B. Feis offers us the first scholarly examination of the use of military intelligence under Ulysses S. Grant’s command during the Civil War. Feis makes the new and provocative argument that Grant’s use of the Army of the Potomac’s Bureau of Military Information played a significant role in Lee’s defeat. Feis’s work articulately rebuts accusations by Grant’s detractors that his battlefield successes involved little more than the bludgeoning of an undermanned and outgunned opponent.

Sujets

• Histoire
• USA
• United States of America
• Military intelligence
• History of the Americas
• États-Unis
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Nebraska
• Date de parution: 01 avril 2002
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780803202498
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 5 Mo

Extrait

Grant’s Secret Service

G R A N T ’ S

S E C R E T S E R V I C E The Intelligence War from Belmont to Appomattox

William B. Feis

University of Nebraska Press : Lincoln and London

2002 by the University of Nebraska Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America  

Library of Congress CataloginginPublication Data

Feis, William B., 1963 – Grant’s secret service : the intelligence war from Belmont to Appomattox / William B. Feis. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. isbn0803220057 (cloth : alkaline paper) 1. United States – History – Civil War, 1861–1865 – Secret service. 2. United States – History – Civil War, 1861–1865 – Campaigns. 3. Grant, Ulysses S. (Ulysses Simpson), 1822 –1885 – Military leader ship. I. Title. e608 .f45 2002 973.7200103767385 – dc21

Parts of chapter 1 and the epilogue of the present work appeared in a different version in ‘‘ ‘He Don’t Care a Damn for What the Enemy Does out of His Sight’: A Perspective on U. S. Grant and Military Intelligence’’ inNorth & South1 (January 1998): 68 – 72, 74 – 81, and are reprinted with permission of the publisher. Chapter 3 was previously published as ‘‘Grant and the Belmont Campaign: A Study in Intelligence and Command’’ inThe Art of Command in the Civil War(Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1998) and is reprinted with permission by the University of Nebraska Press. Portions of chapter 10 were previously published in ‘‘A Union Military Intelligence Failure: Jubal Early’s Raid, June 12 –July 14, 1864’’ inCivil War History36 (September 1990): 209 –25 and ‘‘Neutralizing the Valley: The Role of Military Intelligence in the Defeat of Jubal Early’s Army of the Valley, 1854 –1865’’ inCivil War History39 (September 1993): 199 –215. The material from both of theseCivil War Historyarticles is reprinted with the permission of The Kent State University Press.

In memory of La Veta P. Feis (1910 –2000) and Edwin C. Fishel (1914 –1999)

CONTENTS

List of Illustrations List of Maps Acknowledgments Introduction: ‘‘He Don’t Care a Damn for What the Enemy Does Out of His Sight’’ 1 ‘‘My Means of Information Are Certainly Better Than . . . Most’’ 2 ‘‘I Always Try to Keep Myself Posted’’ 3 ‘‘You Will Soon Hear if My Presentiment Is Realized’’ 4 ‘‘There Will Be No Fight at Pittsburg Landing’’ 5 ‘‘With All the Vigilance I Can Bring to Bear I Cannot Determine the Objects of the Enemy’’ 6 ‘‘I Have Reliable Information from the Entire Interior of the South’’ 7 ‘‘What Force the Enemy Have . . . I Have No Means of Judging Accurately’’ 8 ‘‘That Gives Just the Information I Wanted’’ 9 ‘‘Is It Not Certain That Early Has Returned?’’ 10 ‘‘He Could Not Send Off Any Large Body without My Knowing It’’ Epilogue: ‘‘The Difference in War Is Full Twenty Five Per Cent’’ Notes Bibliography Index

ix ix xi

1

11 27

53 77

107

139

175 191 219

251

265 269 309 321

ILLUSTRATIONS

photographs Ulysses S. Grant Maj. Gen. William S. Rosecrans Brig. Gen. Grenville M. Dodge Maj. Gen. George G. Meade Col. George H. Sharpe Capt. John McEntee The Bureau of Military Information staff Scouts and guides of the Army of the Potomac Lt. Gen. Ulysses S. Grant Grant and his staff at City Point Elizabeth Van Lew

maps The Civil War in Missouri, 1861 Cairo and Vicinity, 1861 Major Operations of Grant’s Command in Late 1861 Grant’s Area of Operations in Early 1862 Area around Shiloh Major Operations of Grant’s Command in Late 1862 Later Phase of the Vicksburg Campaign Chattanooga and Environs Grant’s Spring Campaign of 1864 The Rapidan Front Jubal Early’s Raid, June 12 –July 18, 1864 The Richmond and Petersburg Theater, 1864 –1865 ix

147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157

12 20 36 64 83 116 143 179 194 202 224 255