★ ★ Dodge, Grenville M.

Grenville Mellen Dodge:​

Born: April 12, 1831

Birthplace: Putnamville Massachusetts

Father: Sylvanus Dodge 1801 – 1871

(Buried: Walnut Hill Cemetery Council Bluffs Iowa)​

Mother: Julia Theresa Phillips 1802 – 1888

(Buried: Walnut Hill Cemetery Council Bluffs Iowa)​

Wife: Ruth Ann "Annie" Browne 1833 – 1916

(Buried: Walnut Hill Cemetery Council Bluffs Iowa)​

Children:

Lettie Dodge Montgomery 1855 – 1935​

(Buried: Simsbury Cemetery Simsbury Connecticut)​

​

Eleanor Dodge Pusey 1858 – 1931​

(Buried: Walnut Hill Cemetery Council Bluffs Iowa)​

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Anne Dodge 1866 – 1950​

(Buried: Walnut Hill Cemetery Council Bluffs Iowa)​

Education:

1851: Graduated from Norwich University​

Occupation before War:

Surveyor and Ax Man for Illinois Central Railroad​

Worked for the Peoria division of Chicago and Rock Island Railroad​

Surveyor of Railroads in Council Bluffs Iowa​

Member of the Banking firm of Baldwin and Dodge​

Member of Council Bluffs Iowa City Council​

Civil War Career:

1861: Sent to Washington, D.C. to secure 6,000 muskets for Iowa​

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1861 – 1862: Colonel of 4th​ Iowa Infantry Regiment​

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1861: Pistol in his coat discharged causing wound in his left leg​

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1862: Wounded in the side and hand at the Battle of Pea Ridge​

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1862 – 1864: Brigadier General, Union Army, Infantry​

Commander of Union Forces in Corinth, Mississippi

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1862: Served in the fighting at Hatchie River, Mississippi​

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1862: Captured Confederate guerillas at Dyersburg, Tennessee​

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1863: Attacked Tuscumbia, Alabama attacking Van Dorn​

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1863: Intelligence Officer during the Vicksburg Campaign​

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1863: Used method of building two story blockhouses near bridges​

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1863: Aggressive with his recruitment of African American Soldiers​

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1863: Asked by President Lincoln where point Union Pacific should be​

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1863: General Grant petitioned for promotion of Dodge​

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1863: Led successful expedition to Northern Alabama​

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1863: Served in the skirmish at Rawhide, Alabama​

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1864 – 1866: Major General, Union Army Volunteers​

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1864: Corps Commander during the Atlanta, Georgia Campaign​

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1864: Led Sweeney's Division in the Battle of Atlanta, Georgia​

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1864: Got into a fist fight with Thomas W. Sweeny​

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1864: Corps Commander at the Battle of Ezra Church, Georgia​

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1864: Shot in the head during the Siege of Atlanta, Georgia​

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1864 – 1865: Union Army Commander of Department of Missouri​

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1864 – 1865: Provided information for Thomas Clark Durant​

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Commander of the Departments of Kansas, Nebraska, and Utah​

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1865: Ordered the start of the Powder River Expedition​

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1865: Found a pass for the Union Pacific Railroad in Wyoming​

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1866: Resigned as Major General from the Union Army in May​

Occupation after War:

Chief Engineer of Union Pacific Railroad Company​

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1867 – 1869: United States Congressman from Iowa​

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1867 – 1869: Lobbyist on behalf of the Union Pacific Railroad​

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1868: Delegate to Republican Party National Convention​

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Helped complete negotiations for the First Transcontinental Railroad​

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1876: Delegate to Republican Party National Convention​

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President and Chief Engineer of Several Railroad Companies​

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Moved to New York City to manage his business Interests​

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Member of Commission to investigate Spanish American War Army​

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Returned to his home in Council Bluffs, Iowa​

Died: January 3, 1916

Place of Death: Council Bluffs, Iowa

Cause of Death: Cancer of Rectum and Bladder

Age at time of Death: 84 years old

Burial Place: Walnut Hill Cemetery, Council Bluffs, Iowa

 

[gentlemanrob]

Happy Birthday (Tuesday) Major General Grenville M. Dodge! Salutes remembering General Dodge on his birthday week.

 

[Norman Dasinger Jr]

A shrewd and calculating person. He knew who to grease and the companies to promote in order to get super rich.

 

[ErnieMac]

Fort Dodge KS and its namesake Dodge City were named for Grenville Dodge.

 

[J. Hanger]

A shrewd and calculating person. He knew who to grease and the companies to promote in order to get super rich.

Why do you say that? Are you saying he was corrupt, shady, or ????? Am curious as to your sources. Thanks.

Oh, yes, wasn't it General Dodge that controlled the military district in which Sam Davis was hung? (Whoops! I missed this in the article above!)

J

 

[Norman Dasinger Jr]

Look at his post CW resumé'. He was in advantageous positions to make lots of $.

 

[DanSBHawk]

Look at his post CW resumé'. He was in advantageous positions to make lots of $.

Because he was successful building railroads means he was shrewd and calculating?

I'd say he was a competent political general and a competent engineer.

 

[Norman Dasinger Jr]

Read a little about his political contacts and his associations post WBTS. Many successful businessmen are 'shrewd and calculating'. It does mean was a saint nor does it mean was a devil. He did what he did to provide for his family.

 

[Luke Freet]

Dodge's highpoint was his actions at the Battle of Bald Hill, where he stumped the assaults by Walker's and Bate's Divisions. Of course, in the process he had angered his divisional commander Thomas Sweeney, who, despite having just one arm, would go to Dodge's tent and attack Dodge.
Dodge wouldn't remain in command much longer, as a sniper's bullet nearly killed him.

 

[wausaubob]

Norman has a point. Dodge had the right friends: https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.34094/

 

[wausaubob]

In his first survey excursions Dodge dealt with unassimulated Indians. When he died there was a telephone on his desk and automobiles parked on his street in Council Bluffs.

 

[DanSBHawk]

Dodge ran an intelligence organization under Grant.

A week or 10 days before Chickamauga, Dodge sent Rosecrans intel that Longstreet was reinforcing Bragg. Rosecrans told him to mind his own business. In hindsight, he probably felt he should have listened to Dodge.

 

[wausaubob]

Dodge ran an intelligence organization under Grant.

A week or 10 days before Chickamauga, Dodge sent Rosecrans intel that Longstreet was reinforcing Bragg. Rosecrans told him to mind his own business. In hindsight, he probably felt he should have listened to Dodge.

Stanton demanded the names of Dodge's intelligence assets. Dodge refused to provide them. Grant backed up Dodge. The names of those who survived were never disclosed. And the names seem to have been expunged in the O.R. What role Durant had in financing the operation, and how many railroad men in the south Durant knew, remain a ripe area for speculation.

 

[Norman Dasinger Jr]

Thomas C Durant and Dodger were close
The Credit Mobilier of America

 

[USS ALASKA]

Sirs...

Civil War Railroad Books | Railroads & Steam Locomotives

'The Jones-Imboden Raid: The Confederate Attempt to Destroy the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and Retake West Virginia' by Darrell L. Collins 'When Virginia seceded from the United States in 1861, its western counties showed very little popular support for the Confederacy, and loyalist bands of...

civilwartalk.com

Civil War Railroad Books | Railroads & Steam Locomotives

'The Jones-Imboden Raid: The Confederate Attempt to Destroy the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad and Retake West Virginia' by Darrell L. Collins 'When Virginia seceded from the United States in 1861, its western counties showed very little popular support for the Confederacy, and loyalist bands of...

civilwartalk.com

Amazon.com

Military Intelligence 1861-63 (Part I) | Men in Ranks - Battlefield Tactics

the report is here, on the CIA website: https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol10no3/html/v10i3a09p_0001.htm Military Intelligence 1861-63 (Part I) APPROVED FOR RELEASE 1994 CIA HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAM 18 SEPT 95 OFFICIAL USE ONLY A review of...

civilwartalk.com

The Funeral of Major General Grenville M Dodge | Other Soldiers, Politicians, & Men

Courtesy Historic Dodge Mansion Major General Grenville Dodge had a problem when he served during the War. He couldn’t seem to stay out of the way of bullets, starting with an accident in 1861, when he shot himself. But he proved a capable leader, and an excellent engineer, and a formed...

civilwartalk.com

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[USS ALASKA]

Sirs, please also see...

Civil War Railroad Papers | Railroads & Steam Locomotives

Florida Historical Quarterly Volume 43 Number 3 Florida Historical Quarterly, Vol 43, Number 3 Article 4 1964 Confederate Railroad Construction: The Live Oak to Lawton Connector Jerrell H. Shofner This Article is brought to you for free and open access by STARS. It has been accepted...

civilwartalk.com

Cheers,
USS ALASKA

 

[ErnieMac]

Dodge ran an intelligence organization under Grant.

A week or 10 days before Chickamauga, Dodge sent Rosecrans intel that Longstreet was reinforcing Bragg. Rosecrans told him to mind his own business. In hindsight, he probably felt he should have listened to Dodge.

Dodge started his intelligence activities under Samuel Curtis in Missouri prior to the Battle of Pea Ridge.

 

[Joseph A. Rose]

According to Stanley P. Hirshson's bio of Grenville M. Dodge: Dodge apparently was anti-Catholic, anti-Black, and anti-abolitionist. He was not apparently a good student or person as a youth. Dodge lied about lobbying for a Brigadier-General's commission, and he lobbied for a Major-General's commission [He was a lobbyist, after all]. "Under the terms of federal contracts supposedly won by competitive bidding, [Dodge] was supplying goods to the very same Nebraska, Colorado, Wyoming, Dakota, and Montana Indians whose extinction he had advocated seven years earlier." Greeley's election would probably hamper these lucrative contracts. Dodge grossed $180,446.14 in 1871 on two contracts and next year got $537,966.81. Apparently $818,070.34 in 1873. $180,829.11 in 1874. Dodge was forced to testify on Indian contracts and it turned out that Edward P. Smith, Commissioner of Indian Affairs, was giving contracts to the highest bidder, not the lowest, and then allowed Dodge to substitute cheaper and overpriced goods to boot. From HeadQuarters during or after Powder River campaign, Dodge offered Hoxie 1000-2000 Indian prisoners and the Union Pacific company only had to feed and clothe them with a little calico and a few blankets, and give them rations of beef and corn. Dodge would provide guards to make them work and prevent escape. "Dodge never forgot his friends."

John Thomas Noonan's book on Bribes noted that "Dodge was an old hand at lobbying. In Iowa in 1859-1860 he had been the chief lobbyist with the state legislature for the" Mississippi and Missouri Railroad. His biography notes that his practice "had been 'to reward every politician who worked with him.'"

Robert M. Utley's Review of Empire Express: Building the First Transcontinental Railroad by David H. Bain noted: "Construction suffered, less so on the Central Pacific than the Union Pacific, whose line from Omaha to Promontory was so shoddily built that it had to be almost entirely redone at once. Field supervisors and contractors also found ways to plunder the company coffers. Even Grenville Dodge, who usually emerges as the lone untarnished hero, gets caught with his hand in the till -- not only the Union Pacific's till, but afterward in Indian supply contracts and in building the Texas and Pacific Railway."

Wikipedia's article on Dodge states: "Also during the war, he provided information to Thomas Clark Durant who consequently made a fortune smuggling contraband cotton from the Confederate States." Also, "Seeing that Durant was making a fortune, Dodge bought shares in Durant's company, Crédit Mobilier, which was the main contractor on the project. He made a substantial profit, but when the scandal of Durant's dealings emerged, Dodge removed himself to Texas to avoid testifying in the inquiry." George Alfred Townsend, on the other hand, indicated that Dodge, the chief engineer, "was bribed with" 100 shares of Credit Mobilier stock."

Yes, Grenville Dodge was a paragon of virtue.

 

[Reconstructed Rebel]

He is the first General I've read of who did this for his soldiers - see quote below. If this is any indication of his concern for his soldiers, I'd say the men he commanded were not terribly unhappy to serve under him.

"Gen. Dodge has several large plantations going on between here & Decatur & is going to supply his whole command with vegetables as soon as the time comes around. He has as much as 4,000 acres under cultivation to such things."
Source:

What a noble spectacle to the world

Letter 1 Pulaski, Tenn. February (no) March 1st 1864 Dear Mary, We got here last night about 10 P. M. after being on the way from Nashville from 8 A. M. of the same day. It commenced raining the ni…

doncarlosnewton.wordpress.com

 

[wausaubob]

He is the first General I've read of who did this for his soldiers - see quote below. If this is any indication of his concern for his soldiers, I'd say the men he commanded were not terribly unhappy to serve under him.

"Gen. Dodge has several large plantations going on between here & Decatur & is going to supply his whole command with vegetables as soon as the time comes around. He has as much as 4,000 acres under cultivation to such things."
Source:

What a noble spectacle to the world

Letter 1 Pulaski, Tenn. February (no) March 1st 1864 Dear Mary, We got here last night about 10 P. M. after being on the way from Nashville from 8 A. M. of the same day. It commenced raining the ni…

doncarlosnewton.wordpress.com

that

That would have been an important step to prevent scurvy and Vitamin A deficiency.