Posted on 03/09/2017 5:00:51 PM PST by Bull Snipe
President Abraham Lincoln promotes Major General Ulysses S. Grant to the Rank of Lieutenant General. He is the first Army officer to hold that rank since George Washington.
He fights.
“The rank of lieutenant general remained inactive until Winfield Scott received a brevet promotion to the rank in 1855.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/General_officers_in_the_United_States
“A year prior to his death, Washington was appointed by President John Adams to the rank of lieutenant general in the United States Army during the Quasi-War with France. Washington never exercised active authority under his new rank, however, and Adams made the appointment to frighten the French, with whom war seemed certain.”
Sacre Bleu! Ne pas Washington! C’est terrible!
Washington was ‘The Man’!
Two years earlier on this date the USS Monitor and CSS Virginia (USS Merrimack) fought it out to a draw and made every other naval vessel in the world except two obsolete (Britain and France each had one experimental ironclad).
Brevet promotion is not permanent rank. Scott’s permanent rank was Major General. Grant’s promotion however was to Lieutenant General in the Regular Army. That is what he would retire as when retired from the Army.
“find out what brand of whiskey he drinks and send a barrel of it to all my Generals. A.Lincoln
Yep. Our second president fought an undeclared ware with France, and our third president fought one with the Muslim pirates. Guess they didn’t know they needed a DOW.
Grant believed in states rights and in secession. I guess fighting a war that you think is fought for the wrong reasons would make one a drinker.
On this date in 1945...
???
I assume a USA lieutenant general has always worn three stars?
Just 50 years later, in World War One, John J. Pershing became America’s first six star general - General of the Armies of the United States.
In 1978, George Washington received a posthumous promotion to the same rank.
Grant had had an alcohol problem from the his time at Vancouver Barracks in the Oregon Territory and Fort Humbolt in California. He greatly missed his wife and son and dove into the bottle for solace. He resigned his commission soon after. There is very little documented evidence that Grant drank during the Civil War. In his Memoirs, Grant lays the blame for the Civil War on the Slave owning aristocracy of the South.
Yes, Lieutenant Generals have always worn 3 stars.
Too bad his insane Tactics killed more soldiers under his command than any other in that war.
Cold Harbor alone makes me question his sanity
Grant believed the south had a right to secede. I think he is fairly clear here:
The fact is the constitution did not apply to any such contingency as the one existing from 1861 to 1865. Its framers never dreamed of such a contingency occurring. If they had foreseen it, the probabilities are they would have sanctioned the right of a State or States to withdraw rather than that there should be war between brothers.
Grant was the North’s Hood.
Five star general.
LOL!
Human life was of little value to either.
Let alone tactics. Just a few frontal assaults and maybe we’ll make em run!
I guessed that Iwo Jima was finally pacified.
But, Wiki says 26 March 1945.
So, maybe in Europe?
My second guess was the capture of the Rhine bridge at “Nijmegan.”
But, no! Nijmegan is in Holland.
So, I had to look up the name of the town.
My guess - the capture of the Rhine bridge at REMAGEN, in Germany.
Re: “Five star general.”
No.
Five star is General of the Army (singular).
Ike had five stars.
It always maddens me to see interpretations of the Constitution that conflict with how the Founders’ actions show they ‘interpreted’ it.
Heck, they “wrote the book”!
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