Trivia 5-15-17 Strategy

[Trivia Master]

What is the name of the person who single-handedly persuaded Lincoln and the cabinet to take more than 20,000 troops away from General Meade and transfer them by an extraordinary feat of logistics to save a key western city? Once they were there though, it needed General Grant to stop them from starving.

credit: @MajGenl.Meade

 

[Jimklag]

What is the name of the person who single-handedly persuaded Lincoln and the cabinet to take more than 20,000 troops away from General Meade and transfer them by an extraordinary feat of logistics to save a key western city? Once they were there though, it needed General Grant to stop them from starving.

credit: @MajGenl.Meade

Gonna guess Andrew Johnson.

 

[Wallyfish]

This should be Edwin McMasters Stanton.

Fed by the Cracker Line at Chattanooga.



https://books.google.com/books?id=P...lincoln to send troops to chattanooga&f=false

 

[Stony]

Edwin McMasters Stanton - seige of Chattanooga.
source-The Grand Design:Strategy and The US ivil War. by Donald Stoker. page 325
https://books.google.com/books?id=a...+from+general+meade+and+sent+them+west&source

 

[Copperhead-mi]

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

 

[Wallyfish]

I am not changing my answer as Stanton is the person who called the Council of War urging Lincoln and his cabinet to send troops West. However Stanton was initially prodded by newspaper man Charles Dana to send Rosecrans reinforcements. So Dana may be the strategy creator but Stanton is the individual who called for the late night meeting with Lincoln and his cabinet to persuade for the westerly troop movement.

I assume the question would be worded who prodded Stanton to send troops West if they were looking for Charles Dana as the answer. Hope I am correct.

 

[captaindrew]

Edwin Stanton persuaded Lincoln to send General Joe Hooker with the 11th and 12th corps. from the Army of the Potomac to Chattanooga to support Rosecrans after the defeat at Chickamauga. Things were a mess there with no supply bottled up in Chattanooga and the troops were close to starving. It took Grant showing up in person and taking over to get things moving.

 

[MC44]

Charles Dana, saving the city of Chattanooga.

Edit - Sorry, MC44, your answer agrees with mine, but I'm afraid we're both wrong.

Post # 6 contains what is probably the best explanation - it may have been Dana's idea, but Stanton is the one who convinced Lincoln and the rest of the Cabinet to take the action.

Hoosier

 

[adisciu9]

Henry Halleck

 

[kholland]

Edwin Stanton

 

[FarawayFriend]

Frankly, I could not find a source saying that it was single-handedly done.
I found a source saying that Secretary of War Edwin Stanton persuaded Lincoln to send the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps of the Army under Hooker to Chattanooga. But Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles thought the idea might have come from Salmon P. Chase. On the other hand another source said that Stanton had the idea and Seward an Chase supported him.

But all in all, from reading all these sources, my final answer is Edwin Stanton. And I think I can give good evidence.

"Reinforcements were already moving towards Chattanooga. At the end of September Stanton persuade Lincoln to detach the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps of the Army of the Potomac and send them west under Joe Hooker (failure in command of the Army of the Potomac was clearly no barrier to further service!). By the middle of the first week of October some 20,000 men had been moved to Bridgeport from Virginia, a journey of over 1,100 miles in eleven days."
http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/wars_chattanooga_chickamauga.html

Here Gideon Welles writes in his diary under Sept. 26th, 1863 that he thinks the idea came from Chase and was adopted and seconded by Stanton:

https://books.google.de/books?id=Ca...on Lincoln&hl=de&pg=PA299#v=onepage&q&f=false

The Lincoln Log says that the September 23rd cabinet meeting was called in by Secretary Stanton, so he might have been the one who persuaded President Lincoln:

Returns to city from Soldiers' Home late at night for cabinet meeting called by Sec. Stanton at War Dept. Reinforcements of all kinds to go to Army of Cumberland by rail in seven days. Orderly escorts President to Soldiers' Home after meeting.
http://www.thelincolnlog.org/Result...4P3llYXI9MTg2MyZyPUwwTmhiR1Z1WkdGeUxtRnpjSGc9

From the Civil War diary of John Hay, secretary to Pres. Lincoln "Inside Lincoln's White House". He also describes that it was Stanton who called in the meeting:

https://books.google.de/books?id=TR...pg=PA86#v=onepage&q=hay letters diary&f=false

Last but not least, from the book "The Northern Railroads in the Civil War, 1861-1865":
Stanton had the idea and was supported by Seward and Chase.

https://books.google.de/books?id=w0... lincoln send 20,000 troops rosecrans&f=false

 

[DBF]

That would be Edwin Stanton during a "midnight crisis" meeting with Lincoln and to move troops under General Hooker's command by rail from Virginia through the Western states, to Alabama and then they marched to Chattanooga.

 

[truthckr]

Stanton

 

[Jackson'sArm]

Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton proposed the speedy transfer of the XI and XII Corps to Chattanooga by rail, to the incredulity of Lincoln and the rest of the Cabinet.

https://books.google.com/books?id=2...ton transfer 20000 men to chattanooga&f=false

 

[JOHN42768]

Sec. Edward Stanton. Lincoln and Stanton agreed to make Maj. Gen. Grant the commander of almost all forces in the west,

Source: http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH/AMH-11.htm

 

[sarladaise]

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

 

[Reb]

Secretary of War Stanton

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton proposes an audacious maneuver of men from the Army of the Potomac under Gen. Joseph Hooker to the besieged force in Tennessee via rail. Although initially hesitant, Lincoln approves the plan. 20,000 men soon began an 1100 mile, 7-day journey to reinforce Chattanooga.

http://www.lincolncottage.org/the-battle-of-chattanooga/

 

[57th Indiana Infantry]

Secretary of War Edwin Stanton

 

[lelliott19]

Secretary of War Edwin McMasters Stanton convinced Lincoln and the cabinet to transfer the XI and XII Corps to the Western theater to reinforce the Union forces near Chattanooga.
https://books.google.com/books?id=p...sfer 20,000 troops from General Meade&f=false

 

[chellers]

Edwin Stanton