Civil War Women

George Ann Patterson Porter

2009-11-07T16:53:00.004-05:00

Wife of Union Admiral David Dixon Porter

George Ann 'Georgy' Patterson was born in 1819 in New Orleans, Louisiana, daughter of Commodore Daniel Todd George Ann Pollock Patterson. David Dixon Porter was born at Chester, Pennsylvania, June 8, 1813, the son of Commodore David and Evelina Anderson Porter. His father was a naval hero of the War of 1812. He was brother of William D. Porter, foster brother of David Glasgow Farragut; cousin of Fitz John Porter; and brother-in-law of Confederate general Thomas Harris.

Porter spent his youth as a Navy yard rat; his head filled with stories about Barbary pirates and tall tales of sea battles. At age ten, his 'naval training' began onboard the frigate John Adams when Commodore Porter ordered his officers to treat young Porter with the same discipline as midshipmen. He sailed to the West Indies with his father at the age of ten. At 12, he accompanied his father and younger brother Thomas to Veracruz and on to the warship Guerrero.

David Dixon Porter in 1829
Jacob Eichholtz, Artist

He spent his teen years on his father's ships; the Libertad, Esmeralda, and back on the Guerrero. At age thirteen, he joined the Mexican Navy as a midshipman. David also spent time on the USS Sea Gull, the first commissioned steamer in the Navy, where he continued his habit of pestering crew members with endless questions. By the age of 16, Porter had experienced more at sea than most would in their entire lives.

David Dixon Porter received his appointment as midshipman in the U.S. Navy, signed by President Andrew Jackson in February 1829. The same year, visiting Commodore Daniel Patterson's home in Washington, Porter met George Ann 'Georgy' Patterson; but it would be another ten years before Porter would be able to marry her. The low pay of a midshipman wasn't enough to convince her father to release her into his care. Even with Porter's peace-time promotion in 1835, he still lacked the salary to afford a household. With the prospects for higher pay seemingly out of his reach, Porter abandoned hope and offered to terminate the engagement with Georgy. Adamant about waiting as long as it took, Georgy refused.

A single event occurred in 1836 that would allow Porter to get the girl and prepare him in a unique way for the warfare he would face on the Mississippi later during the Civil War. A chance assignment with the Navy Department's Coast Survey supplemented his pay by $30.00 a month; his expert grasp of surveying would result in a great talent for charting channels and navigating heavy ships through difficult shoals. The additional pay Porter steadfastly saved until, in 1839, he'd saved up enough money to remove the financial obstacle to marrying Commodore Patterson's daughter.

David Dixon Porter married Georgy Patterson, March 10, 1839, in Washington, DC, and they had ten children.

The 1840s proved a strange and trying time for Porter. Georgy became ill and Porter's brother, William, who had developed a habit of getting in trouble, got into it with the Navy when a shell he had invented exploded at the Washington Navy Yard; several people were killed. William also caused difficulties for the rest of the family in working out the estate of Commodore Porter, who had died in Constantinople. Porter even grew weary of the Navy; slow promotions and boredom caused him to entertain the idea of resigning.

Admiral David Dixon Porter
During the Civil War

Porter in the Civil War
At the beginning of the war, Porter's loyalty was questioned, given his close association with southerners like Jefferson Davis. Porter himself said he was headed to California to captain a mail boat and wait out the war. Instead, he joined the Navy's Gulf Squadron in command of the USS Powhatan, as the Union's naval forces blockaded Southern port cities. The conflict saw Porter rapidly rise from the rank of Lieutenant to Rear Admiral. He was promoted to commander in April 1861 and to captain in February 1863.

In March 1862, Porter with his 21 mortar boats and several steamers, and Union Flag Officer David Farragut with his blue water ships, collaborated in an attack on Forts Jackson and St. Philip guarding the Mississippi River approach to New Orleans, 70 miles below the city. The Confederates had dug deep into the bunkers and parapets of the forts that peppered the coastline of the river. The effectiveness of the gunboat assault paved the way for Farragut's bigger warships to pound the city of New Orleans and force the city's ultimate surrender.

After the capture of New Orleans, Porter went up the river with his fleet, and was engaged in the unsuccessful siege of Vicksburg, Mississippi, in July 1862. During the second siege of that place in the summer of 1863, he bombarded the works and materially assisted General Ulysses S. Grant, who commanded the besieging army. Porter did not leave Mississippi until his successful support of General Grant's Siege of Vicksburg. That city was surrendered on July 4, 1863 - the same day Porter was promoted to rear admiral.

Admiral David Dixon Porter Monument
Vicksburg National Military Park

Porter narrowly avoided disaster during General Nathaniel Banks' abortive Red River Campaign of spring 1864. He did force the surrender of the gunboat Missouri, refurbished and commanded by the Confederate Jonathan H. Carter. Porter received the Thanks of Congress in April 1864, "for all the eminent skill, endurance, and gallantry exhibited by him and his squadron, in cooperation with the Army, in the opening of the Mississippi River."

During 1864, Rear Admiral Porter commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron, and was chosen to lead an amphibious assault against Fort Fisher in Wilmington, North Carolina, in late 1864. In several assaults on Fort Fisher, he commanded the largest American fleet ever assembled. The eventual taking of the Confederate fort was the only time that this military achievement was made from the sea during the entire war. The capture of the fort closed his combat service in the war.

In late March 1865, General Grant invited President Abraham Lincoln to visit his headquarters at City Point, Virginia. General William Tecumseh Sherman happened to come up to City Point from North Carolina at that time, and Porter also joined the group. As a result, Lincoln, Grant, Sherman, and Porter conferred together on the President's boat, the River Queen, near the end of the war.

The Peacemakers
George Peter Alexander Healy, Artist
Sherman, Grant, Lincoln, and Porter

After the War
Immediately after the war, Porter became Superintendent of the United States Naval Academy from 1865-1869. In this service and later with the Navy Department, where he served as head of the Inspection Board from 1877 to 1891, he stressed professionalism and rewarded active service. He improved the curriculum and instructional methods there. For his Civil War service, Porter was promoted to Vice Admiral in July 1866.

After the death of his foster brother, Admiral David Farragut, in October 1870, Porter was promoted to the rank of Full Admiral, which carried with it the command of the entire navy of the United States, subject only to the order of the president. Porter urged the importance of protecting the coast approaches to all the large cities of the United States, with heavily armored monitors, carrying the heaviest guns. He remained on active duty for life, an honor accorded to only six other US naval officers.

Admiral Porter wrote several naval books and novels:
Memoir of Commodore David Porter, of the United States Navy (about his father, published in 1875)
High Old Salts: Stories Intended for the Marines (co-author, 1876)
The Adventures of Harry Marline (1885)
Allan Dare and Robert le Diable (1885)
Arthur Merton, A Romance (1885)
Incidents and Anecdotes of the Civil War (1885)
The Pictorial Battles of the Civil War (1885)
The Naval History of the Civil War (1886)

Admiral David Dixon Porter died at Washington, DC, on February 13, 1891. He is buried in Section 2, Grave 55, at Arlington National Cemetery, not far from his grandson, Major General David Dixon Porter and his great-granddaughter, Carlie Patterson Porter.

George Ann Patterson Porter died on December 13, 1893, and was buried beside her husband.

Admiral David and George Ann Porter Gravesite
Arlington National Cemetery

David Dixon Porter was one of the first U.S. Navy officers to bear the rank of rear admiral; prior to the Civil War, no officer had held a rank higher than commodore. Though Porter rose faster through the ranks, commanded more men and ships, won more victories, and was awarded more Congressional votes of thanks than any other officer in the U.S. Navy, historians have been influenced by his own postwar accounts, which were flawed by an unquenchable ego, thin skin, and a burning desire to vindicate his equally controversial father.

Porter was a talented fighter and a colorful personality, who earned respect and friendship from the likes of Lincoln, Grant, and Sherman, but drew the ire of political generals like Butler, Banks, and McClernand. His unique tactics and techniques rank among the most imaginative and successful in naval history. He was a potent mix of energy, ambition, courage, and creativity with rash behavior, paranoia, and a taste for intrigue.

Historian Craig Symonds wrote:

Porter was something of a free spirit in the navy, a confident, even brash individual who was not averse to self-promotion. Porter was talented and energetic, but he was also self-promoting, boastful, and casual with the truth.

SOURCES
David Porter
David Dixon Porter
Admiral David Dixon Porter
Wikipedia: David Dixon Porter
David Dixon Porter (1813-1891)
Admiral Porter's Ironclad Hoax
Rear Admiral David Dixon Porter
Admiral David Dixon Porter, USN
David Dixon Porter, Admiral United States Navy

Mary Mason Jones de Trobriand

2009-10-31T14:36:00.003-04:00

Wife of Union General Philippe Regis de Trobriand

Mary Mason Jones was born in 1819, the daughter of Isaac and Mary Mason Jones. Her father was the president of the Chemical Bank, and her mother was American novelist Edith Wharton's great-aunt, and the model for the high and mighty Mrs. Mingott in the Wharton's novel, The Age of Innocence.

Philippe Regis de Keredern de Trobriand was born outside Tours, France, on June 4, 1816, at his father's Loire chateau. Philippe was an aristocratic Frenchman, the son of a baron of ancient lineage who had been one of Napoleon's generals.

The Countess de Trobriand
Frederick MacMonnies, Artist
Oil on canvas, 1901
This portrait depicts her in regal splendor in this portrait, sitting on a golden throne with an ermine wrap at her side. The egret feather in her hair shows that she has been presented at the court of Napoleon III. According to Jones family legend, MacMonnies painted this portrait in Paris, working only during the receptions in her drawing room on Sunday afternoons.

De Trobriand's early education was for a military career. He studied at the College Saint Louis in Paris, the College of Rouen, where his father was in command, graduated from the College de Tours, and went on to receive a degree in law from the Poitiers in 1837. In his youth, he studied law and wrote poetry and prose, publishing his first novel in 1840. He was an expert swordsman and fought a number of duels.

In 1841, the young and dashing de Trobriand came to the United States at the age of twenty-five, and mingled with the social elite of New York City, where he met and became engaged to heiress Mary Mason Jones. De Trobriand was welcomed for his charm and accomplishments as a novelist, poet, editor, and painter.

Mary Mason Jones married Philippe Regis de Trobriand in Paris in 1843. The couple traveled about Europe for a few years, eventually taking up residence in Venice, Italy. This grand court life came to an end when in 1847, at the request of Mary's father, they returned to New York City and took up permanent residence there. Mary took her place in fashionable society, and de Trobriand made a living by writing for and editing French language publications, becoming one of the city's literary group of the 1850s.

The couple had two children: Marie Caroline Denis de Keredern de Trobriand, born in 1845, and Charlotte Antoinette Béatrice Denis de Keredern de Trobriand, born in New York in 1850.

When the Civil War began in 1861, de Trobriand became an American citizen, and enlisted in the Union Army. In August 1861, he was commissioned a colonel and given command of the 55th New York regiment, called the Lafayette Guards - a predominantly French unit attached to the New York Militia.

De Trobriand and the 55th did their first fighting with the Army of the Potomac in early May 1862 in the Peninsula Campaign, at Williamsburg. He showed well there, but by mid-May was left prostrate in a shanty with "swamp fever." Ill, he missed the rest of the campaign, not able to return until mid-July. After this campaign, the regiment was assigned to the III Corps (General Philip Kearny's).

On December 13, 1862, de Trobriand participated in the Battle of Fredericksburg with three regiments under his command - the 55th New York, 99th Pennsylvania, the 3rd Maine, and later in the day, the 57th Pennsylvania. Soon after Fredericksburg, the 55th was merged with the 38th New York (Ward's old command), and de Trobriand was placed in charge of the combined regiment.

Philippe Regis Denis de Keredern de Trobriand

De Trobriand led the new 38th for the first time at Chancellorsville. Though he was not in heavy fighting, he was first on the list of commendations after the battle. When the III Corps was reorganized after its terrible losses at Chancellorsville, de Trobriand was given command of the newly formed Third Brigade, First Division, III Corps, but remained at the rank of colonel.

De Trobriand was a distinguished citizen soldier, but he had no battle experience leading a brigade, and even his regimental experience in combat was meager compared to many others. On July 1, the first day of the Battle of Gettysburg, de Trobriand's brigade was one of two left in Emmitsburg to guard the left rear of the army, while the rest of General Daniel Sickles' III Corps marched toward the battlefield.

Arriving at about 10 o'clock on the morning of July 2, de Trobriand's brigade was posted that afternoon facing southwest on the wooded Stony Hill, midway between Graham's brigade at the Peach Orchard and Ward's brigade near Devil's Den.

About 4:30 that afternoon, CSA General John Bell Hood's division sprang out of the woods to the southwest and savagely attacked the southern end of USA General David Birney's line. After detaching three regiments to General Birney for emergency duty nearer the flanks, de Trobriand stoutly defended his position with the three regiments he had left, holding off numerous insistent attacks by two Confederate divisions, even after the support on both sides had fallen back.

Finally, after losing nearly half of his men, he was relieved by General Samuel Zook's Brigade of the III Corps. De Trobriand and his remaining men moved to the rear and bivouacked east of the Taneytown Road. General Zook was one of the first to be killed at the place where he had relieved de Trobriand. De Trobriand's shattered brigade, was put in reserve on July 3, and supported some batteries but did no fighting themselves.

After Gettysburg, the Third Brigade was involved in the fighting at Manassas Gap on July 23, at Auburn on October 13, and on November 7 at Kelly's Ford, where the operations of the brigade opened the way for three Army Corps for a general advance. For this success, general orders from headquarters conveyed the compliments of the General-in-Chief and the thanks of the President.

After Gettysburg, General Birney wrote:

Colonel de Trobriand deserves my heartiest thanks for his skillful disposition of his command by gallantly holding his advanced position until relieved by other troops. This officer is one of the oldest in commission as colonel in the volunteer service, had been distinguished in nearly every engagement of the Army of the Potomac, and certainly deserves the rank of brigadier general of volunteers, to which he has been recommended.

De Trobriand had shown at Gettysburg that he deserved permanent command of a brigade, but there was no immediate official response to Birney's recommendation. De Trobriand continued to lead his brigade as a colonel through the fall campaign.

17th Maine Infantry Monuments:

One of the most beautiful regimental monuments at Gettysburg National Military Park, the 17th Maine served in de Trobriand's brigade in the Third Corps stands on de Trobriand Avenue. The granite monument was dedicated on October 10, 1888. It represents the stubborn fight the men of the 17th Maine made behind a stone wall on the edge of the Wheatfield. The monument stands at the spot where the colors of the regiment stood on July 2, 1863. Close inspection reveals trampled wheat beneath his feet. The monument also contains inset diamonds in red granite — symbols of the first division of the Third Corps. This is the most expensive Maine monument at Gettysburg; the total height is 20.5 feet.

The 17th Maine has a second monument on Hancock Avenue (where the unit spent July 3, 1863). Raised from the companies of Cumberland, Franklin, Oxford, York, and Androscoggin in the late summer of 1862, the 17th Maine fought in the Wheatfield at Gettysburg and suffered 18 killed, 112 wounded, and 3 missing of 392 engaged.

On November 22, 1863, de Trobriand was not confirmed as Brigadier General by the Senate, although he was recommended by all of the officers above him. He was mustered out of service at his own request until his promotion was approved on January 5, 1864, and commanded the defenses of New York City (First Division, Department of the East) from May until June of that year.

De Trobriand was then ordered back to the Army of the Potomac in command of the First Brigade, Third Division, II Corps, troops formerly belonging to the Third Corps.

With them, he served during the final days of the war. He was at Deep Bottom, Petersburg, Hatcher's Run, and Five Forks, and was at the head of a division in the operations that ended in General Robert E. Lee's surrender at Appomattox Court House on April 9, 1865. De Trobriand was promoted to major general that same day. He was mustered out of service January 15, 1866.

Supposing that his services would not be called for again, de Trobriand returned to France to write his recollection of Four Years With the Army of the Potomac for the information of the French people. (This publication was later translated into English.) In July 1866, he was commissioned a colonel in the Regular US Army, but he was in Paris, and remained there until his book was finished. The two-volume set was published in 1867 and 1868, and won high praise.

De Trobriand reported for duty later in 1866, and took command of the District of Dakota at Fort Stevenson. His mission was to keep the peace, and his time there was uneventful except for a few minor incidents. He was there for three years, during which time he kept a diary, which again was first published in French and later translated into English. This Diary, Military Life in Dakota, is much prized by Dakota historians.

In 1869, he was reassigned to the command of the 13th Infantry of the District of Montana stationed at Fort Shaw. Under this command, he was forced to deal with the hostile and murderous tribe of Piegans practically wiping out the complete tribe. This made the people of Montana happy as peace was restored to their land; however, history has not dealt too kindly with this campaign.

III Corps, First Division, Third Brigade Monument
17th Maine, 5th Michigan, 40th New York, 110th Pennsylvania Infantry
Commanded by Colonel Regis De Trobriand
Gettysburg National Military Park

In 1870, the 13th was ordered to proceed to Camp Douglas, Salt Lake City, Utah to deal with the trouble that seemed to be brewing with the Mormons. De Trobriand and Brigham Young maintained a mutual respect for each other, which did not set well with the territorial politicians because they could not manipulate de Trobriand during the conflict between the US courts and the Mormon people.

By the direct orders of President Ulysses S. Grant, not his military superiors, de Trobriand was transferred to the Wyoming District at Fort Steele. In 1871, de Trobriand took over his new command, which, like the one in the Dakotas, was also uneventful.

On January 4, 1875, de Trobriand was ordered to New Orleans, where trouble was brewing. The Louisiana Legislature had forcibly removed the duly elected Governor (Kellogg) and his government. President Grant sent several regiments, including the 13th, to restore Governor Kellogg. De Trobriand did as he was ordered, and he did it in such a way that he earned the respect of those on both sides of the conflict.

In 1874, de Trobriand's cousin died, so he succeeded to the title of Count. While the general lived quietly for the rest of his life, the countess lived lavishly in Paris.

Retiring from the military in 1879 with the rank of brigadier general, De Trobriand made New Orleans his home, while spending his summers alternating between visits to one daughter in France and another on Long Island, New York.

General Philippe de Trobriand died in Bayport, Long Island, on July 15, 1897, at the age of 81, and was buried in St. Anne's Cemetery in Sayville, New York.

General Philippe de Trobriand Gravesite
Sayville
Suffolk County
New York

Mary Mason Jones de Trobriand died in July 1907, at her daughter's home in Brest, France.

SOURCES
Familial History
Regis de Trobriand
Philippe Regis De Trobriand
In the Peach Orchard at Gettysburg
The Countess de Trobriand 1819-1907
Brevet Major General Regis de Trobriand
The Wheatfield - Gettysburg Pennsylvania
Philippe Regis Denis de Keredern de Trobriand
Colonel Philippe Regis Denis de Keredern de Trobriand
The 110th Regiment in the Gettysburg Campaign

Ruth Anne Brown Dodge

2009-10-24T19:13:00.003-04:00

Wife of Union General Grenville Mullen Dodge

Ruth Anne Brown was born on May 23, 1833, in Peru, Illinois. Grenville Mullen Dodge was born in Putnamville, near Danvers, Massachusetts, on April 12, 1831, to Sylvanus and Julia Theresa Phillips Dodge. From the time of his birth until he was 13 years old, Dodge moved frequently while his father tried various occupations.

In 1844, the fortunes of Sylvanus Dodge improved. An ardent Democrat, he became postmaster of the South Danvers office and opened a bookstore. Good fortune also was in store for the young Dodge. While working at a neighboring farm, the 14-year-old met the owner's son, Frederick Lander, and helped him survey a railroad. Lander was impressed with Dodge and encouraged him to go to his alma mater, Norwich University in Vermont. Like Lander and other scholars at Norwich, Dodge dreamed of a transcontinental railroad, and took courses that would help him implement the dream.

Major General Grenville M. Dodge

After earning his degree in civil engineering in 1850, Dodge made a brief visit home then headed to Peru, Illinois, to join classmates. His first job was surveying for the Illinois Central Railroad. It was during this time in Peru, that he met the lovely Ruth Anne Brown. Although she played piano, and enjoyed opera and poetry, Ruth Anne could ride a horse and shoot a gun as well as Dodge.

In 1852, he became the principal assistant of well-known surveyor Peter M. Dey. Together they made the first railroad survey across Iowa, from Davenport to Iowa City, for the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad. This survey reached a point near Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1853.

On May 28, 1854, Ruth Anne Brown married Grenville Dodge. He took his bride to Nebraska Territory, where the couple tried homesteading on his Elkhorn River claim. Relentless Indian attacks on settlers caused them to move to Omaha by the fall. Their daughter Lettie was born there in 1855. Their second daughter, Eleanor, whom they called Ella, was born in 1858.

In 1856, the family moved to Council Bluffs, Iowa, where Dodge opened a banking and real estate business. The main activity of Dodge's firm was selling lots and locating land warrants, to which land speculation and bribery of public officials were later added. One of his speculative deals involved buying land along the route he and Dey proposed for the Mississippi and Missouri Railroad and persuading the towns of Omaha and Council Bluffs to sell bonds for it.

Before the financial panic of 1857, from which he suffered no great losses, Dodge and his partner founded the Council Bluffs Savings Bank. Dodge lobbied the Iowa Legislature to promote the railroad, which would run on his land. Dodge would go on to make a fortune speculating on real estate along other railroad routes he surveyed. Another Dodge venture in Council Bluffs was a general store.

Abraham Lincoln, then an attorney for the Rock Island Railroad, came to Council Bluffs in August 1859, to deliver a campaign speech and examine a tract of land he held as security for a loan. If he were elected president, the final choice for the route of the continental railroad would be his. Dodge talked with Lincoln for more than two hours at a local hotel, and then Lincoln was taken to a bluff now memorialized with the Lincoln Monument.

In 1860, Dodge, then a Council Bluffs city council member, appeared before the Congressional railroad committee which was debating the issue of funding. The country faced more pressing matters. Before Dodge attended Lincoln's inauguration in 1861, six states had left the Union. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 enabled westward construction to begin; the Act of 1864 solved the financial problems that had blocked the progress of both routes.

Dodge continued in his professional and business interests at Council Bluffs until the Civil War. At the outbreak of hostilities, he offered his services to the state government, and was sent by Iowa Governor Samuel Kirkwood to Washington, in the spring of 1861, to arrange for the equipment of the Iowa troops. Because of his success in this area, he earned immediate respect. Within a short time, he had organized the Fourth Iowa Infantry at Council Bluffs, and he also recruited a company of artillery known as the Dodge Battery.

Within two weeks time, Colonel Dodge was leading his command against the rebels in northern Missouri. He was first assigned to Rolla, Missouri, where he was placed in command of the post; in the southwest campaign, he commanded the First Brigade, Fourth Division of that army. His regiment was the first to enter the city of Springfield, Missouri, and at the Battle of Pea Ridge in March 1862, his brigade saved Curtis' army from disaster.

At Pea Ridge, Dodge had three horses killed, while the fourth was wounded under him. He was under fire for three days and remained at his post until the battle was brought to a close, and lost one-third of his entire command. Every field officer was either killed or wounded, for Dodge would not retreat. His calmness in the face of danger, his understanding of the situation, and his indomitable courage constituted the strong elements in the achievement of that victory.

Dodge suffered two wounds during the Missouri campaigns of 1861 and 1862. He received a thigh wound when the pistol in his flapping coat struck the saddle and discharged, explained Stanley P. Hirshson in Grenville M. Dodge. The second injury occurred at Pea Ridge, when an enemy shell severed a tree branch, striking Dodge in the head.

For his service in Missouri, Colonel Dodge was promoted to brigadier general, and after he had recovered from his wounds, he was assigned to duty at Columbus, Kentucky, in command of the Central Division, Army of the Tennessee, where his previous experience as a railroad builder was brought into requisition in the reconstruction of the Mobile and Ohio Railroad, which had been destroyed by the rebels and was needed to carry supplies to the army.

In November 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant appointed General Dodge to command of the Second Division, Army of the Tennessee. Dodge and his troops aided Generals Grant and William Tecumseh Sherman by rapidly repairing and rebuilding the railroads, bridges, and telegraph lines destroyed by the Confederates. While rebuilding the 150-mile Mobile and Ohio Railroad, the troops had to contend with the Confederates and guerillas ripping up track, wrecking bridges, and killing pickets. Dodge partially solved the problem by building two-story blockhouses near the bridges.

Dodge also organized and ran an effective espionage network. He devised a method to estimate the size of an enemy force based on the space it occupied on a road. His estimates of the size and location of the enemy enabled Union officers to make shrewd strategic decisions. Women and blacks were among Dodge's spies.

He organized the First Tennessee Cavalry, First Alabama Colored Infantry Regiment, and the First Alabama Cavalry Regiment as agents, and armed a detachment to guard runaway slaves. Because Southern pickets seldom stopped and questioned blacks, they made good messengers. Because of the intelligence his spies gave Grant at Vicksburg in 1863, Dodge was given command of the large left wing of the Sixteenth Corps of the Army of the Tennessee.

During General Sherman's Atlanta Campaign of 1864, Dodge commanded the XVI Army Corps. His Iowa troops held the right flank for General Sherman's army, earning Dodge the rank of major general.

On August 19, 1864, during the siege of Atlanta, Dodge received a wound that was so serious the New York newspapers reported him dead. While Dodge was looking through an eyehole in the Union breastworks, a Confederate sharpshooter spotted him and shot him in the head. But the injury was not as serious as first thought; he was given a thirty-day leave, and was brought to Council Bluffs to recover.

In November 1864, he was made commander of the Department of the Missouri. Dodge established his headquarters at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in 1865, and his family joined him. Another daughter, Anne, was born in Kansas in March 1866.

As the Civil War was coming to a close, Dodge's command was expanded to include the Departments of Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, and Utah. Dodge was assigned to clear the plains of Indians, who were murdering settlers. Dodge practiced a tough policy towards the Native Americans through psychological warfare, brutal exterminations, and worthless treaties. During the summer of 1865, Sioux, Cheyenne, and Arapaho Indians had been raiding the Bozeman Trail and overland mail routes. Dodge ordered a punitive campaign to quell these raids, which came to be known as the Powder River Expedition.

The Last Spike of the Transcontinental Railroad
Dodge at right center shaking hands with Samuel S. Montague at the Golden Spike Ceremony.
Promontory Point, Utah

When Dodge called for volunteer troops to fight the Indians, most men said the war was over and declined the service. Five regiments of "Reconstructed Rebs" provided the necessary forces. They were made up of Southern war prisoners willing to fight Indians for their freedom. Before the Indians were eradicated, President Johnson instituted leniency.

During the 1865 campaign in the Black Hills, while escaping from a war-party, Dodge realized he had found a pass for the Union Pacific Railroad, west of the Platte River. On May 30, 1866, he resigned from the military, and returned to Council Bluffs where he took up the duties of Chief Engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad, and thus a leading figure in the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad.

As chief engineer, Dodge was placed in charge of selecting and surveying the 1186-mile route west to Promontory Point, Utah. He was not in charge of construction of the transcontinental railroad or its workers, as he liked people to think. Dodge had been hired by Thomas Clark Durant, who was the main investor in the Union Pacific Railroad and head contractor on the project. Durant was also defrauding the company and manipulating the route to suit his own landholdings.

Although Durant had once promised Dodge stock in his secret scam, the Crédit Mobilier, it had never materialized. Dodge was eager to get in on the windfall, however, and purchased 100 shares in his wife's name. It turned a handsome profit – 341 percent in just 18 months – but when the scandal of Durant's dealings emerged in 1872, Dodge claimed that his wife bought the shares from "her own resources," presumably housekeeping money.

Dodge fled to Texas to avoid testifying in the inquiry. Federal agents were sent out, but they could not manage to find him. Peter Dey, whom Dodge had once replaced as engineer, told Congress that Dodge was "a man of wonderful resources, and can live in Texas all winter, out of doors, if he wants to, where none of your marshals can go, and if he don't want to come he will not come." Dey proved correct.

Dodge was elected to Congress from Iowa's 5th District. He learned the art of lobbying, and for the rest of his life did so on behalf of veterans and the railroads. Finding politics not to his liking, Dodge did not seek another term. The Union Pacific Railroad was well underway, and he devoted four years of his life to building his "greatest accomplishment," as he referred to the railroad.

On May 10, 1869, Dodge and Samuel Montague, the Central Pacific's chief engineer, set the final spike of the Transcontinental Railroad at Promontory Point, Utah. Dodge retired for a while to Council Bluffs. The general was a family man, and he had kept frequent correspondence with his wife throughout his absences. Shortly thereafter, he and Ruth Anne started building a new home at 605 Third Street in Council Bluffs. At age 39, he moved his family into the lavish new home.

The General Grenville Dodge House
General Dodge's handsome Victorian home was built in 1869 in Council Bluffs, Iowa, at a cost of $35,000, a great deal of money for the time. The fourteen room, three-story mansion stands on a high terrace overlooking the Missouri River Valley, and displays such architectural features as parquet floors, cherry, walnut, and butternut woodwork, and a number of then-modern conveniences. The house, a National Historic Landmark, is now the Dodge House Museum, and is open to the public.

By 1870, Dodge was one of the richest men in Iowa. Dodge loved to make money, "irrespective of whether it were ethical or permanent," concluded his biographer, Stanley P. Hirshson. He speculated in land along the railroad routes that he proposed and won government contracts to supply Indian agencies – even though he had the highest bid and substituted items in the contracts. Between 1860 and 1870, his wealth increased from $12,000 to $350,000.

However, despite his wealth and substantial government contracts, and the fact that he helped build the Union Pacific, the Texas and Pacific, and other railroads, the federal government granted him a pension in 1873, because his war wounds disabled him so he could not "obtain subsistence from manual labor." The pension was made retroactive to his discharge from the army.

Dodge then lived in Manhattan for the next few decades. Between 1874 and 1879, Dodge visited Europe and conferred with German and Italian engineers building a tunnel under the Alps. He also assisted in the construction of the Trans-Siberian Railroad in Russia. During the 1880s and 1890s, Dodge served as president or chief engineer of dozens of railroad companies, including those in the Southwest U.S.

In the mid-1880s, Dodge began writing his memoirs. He hired an assistant to compile information and interview people who knew him. The research resulted in the Dodge Records, 23 volumes on Dodge's life. As noted by his biographer Hirshson, Dodge often rewrote history to suit himself, and "conveniently passed over his connections with politics, lobbying, and various scandals. And shrewdly but discreetly, he upgraded his role in significant events and downgraded his opponent's."

Retiring to Council Bluffs in 1907, Dodge spent much of his time organizing his memoirs and being active in patriotic organizations. He donated his records to libraries, but never could arrange for someone to write his biography during his lifetime. In 1914, he was bedridden with cancer, and returned briefly to New York for radium treatment, and also had an operation without anesthesia.

General Grenville M. Dodge died at Council Bluffs on January 3, 1916, at the age of 84. A caisson carried his body to Walnut Hill Cemetery for entombment.

Dodge left a trust to be activated twenty-one years after the death of his grandchildren, to be used for charities. In 1987 it was disclosed at $1 million. More than $400,000 has since been distributed and the fund was valued at $1,600,000 in June 1996.

Fort Dodge in Kansas, an important army base during the settlement of the western frontier, was named in his honor. Camp Dodge, the state headquarters of the Iowa National Guard, established in 1905 as a militia training camp, continues to honor Dodge's memory as does a statue of him at the Soldiers and Sailors Monument at the state Capitol in Des Moines.

Ruth Anne Brown Dodge died on September 5, 1916, at her home in New York. Her body was brought back to Council Bluffs where she was buried at the family mausoleum in Walnut Hill Cemetery.

Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial
The National Park Service has placed the Black Angel on the Register of National Historic Places.

Affectionately called the Black Angel, the sculpture at the Ruth Anne Dodge Memorial is the translation of a dream experienced by Ruth Anne Dodge on the three nights preceding her death. The form is a winged angel standing in the prow of a boat, one arm outstretched and the other holding a vessel from which flows a stream of water.

According to the legend, Mrs. Dodge related to family members that she had a vision of being on a rocky shore and, through a mist, seeing a boat approach. In the prow was a beautiful young woman whom Mrs. Dodge thought to be an angel. The woman carried a small bowl under one arm and extended the other arm toward Mrs. Dodge in an invitation to partake of the water flowing from the vessel. Then, according to accounts later published by Mrs. Dodge's daughter, Anne, the angel spoke twice, saying: "Drink, I bring you both a promise and a blessing."

The daughter wrote that the vision came three times to her mother and, on the third visit, Mrs. Dodge took the drink as offered and felt "transformed into a new and glorious spiritual being." Mrs. Dodge died in her sleep immediately after her supposed third vision.

This story prompted Ruth Anne's daughters, Anne Dodge and Eleanor Dodge Pusey, commissioned and contributed Council Bluffs' most valuable work of art, a solid bronze statue, in memory of their mother. It was created in 1917 by Daniel Chester French, who was responsible for the famous statue of Abraham Lincoln at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, and the Minute Man statue in Concord, Massachusetts.

SOURCES
Grenville Dodge
Abraham Lincoln and Iowa
General Grenville M. Dodge
Grenville M. Dodge Biography
Wikipedia: Grenville M. Dodge
Major General Grenville M. Dodge