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Did Grant have the authority to send Sheridan to the Mexican Border without President Johnson's approval?
Yep. I want to know what date he got here and when he left.
Did Grant have the authority to send Sheridan to the Mexican Border without President Johnson's approval?
At the close of the Civil War Grant wanted to militarily expel the French from Mexico. He sent Sheridan with 50,000 troops to Texas. He wanted to provoke an incident to start war.
In contrast, Secretary of State Seward rightfully reasoned he could get the French out w/0 war. He prompted President Johnson to outlaw the export of weapons. Grant instructed Sheridan to ignore the prohibition. Sheridan supplied at least 30,000 rifles to the Juaristas. Grant, Sheridan, and Schofield schemed to get armed U. S. troops on the right bank of the Rio Grande.
Fortunately Seward outfoxed them. The French army was gone by 1867.
Interestingly, I learned nothing about this in either the two "highly recommended" Grant bios I have. Wonder why?
Even Grant apologist William Hardy admits the topic "remains understudied"...indeed.
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Sources:
Hanna, Alfred and Kathryn, Napoleon III and Mexico
Smith, Gene, Maximilian and Carlotta
Haslip, Joan The Crown of Mexico
At the close of the Civil War Grant wanted to militarily expel the French from Mexico. He sent Sheridan with 50,000 troops to Texas. He wanted to provoke an incident to start war.
In contrast, Secretary of State Seward rightfully reasoned he could get the French out w/0 war. He prompted President Johnson to outlaw the export of weapons. Grant instructed Sheridan to ignore the prohibition. Sheridan supplied at least 30,000 rifles to the Juaristas. Grant, Sheridan, and Schofield schemed to get armed U. S. troops on the right bank of the Rio Grande.
Fortunately Seward outfoxed them. The French army was gone by 1867.
Interestingly, I learned nothing about this in either the two "highly recommended" Grant bios I have. Wonder why?
Even Grant apologist William Hardy admits the topic "remains understudied"...indeed.
====================
Sources:
Hanna, Alfred and Kathryn, Napoleon III and Mexico
Smith, Gene, Maximilian and Carlotta
Haslip, Joan The Crown of Mexico
Really? They didn't even have enough troops to enforce Reconstruction and stop the Comanches. Seriously.
I hate to even ask but what the heck is your source?
50,000 people sent to Texas would be quite noticeable.
And what year? I'm so confused.
At the close of the Civil War Grant wanted to militarily expel the French from Mexico. He sent Sheridan with 50,000 troops to Texas. He wanted to provoke an incident to start war.
In contrast, Secretary of State Seward rightfully reasoned he could get the French out w/0 war. He prompted President Johnson to outlaw the export of weapons. Grant instructed Sheridan to ignore the prohibition. Sheridan supplied at least 30,000 rifles to the Juaristas. Grant, Sheridan, and Schofield schemed to get armed U. S. troops on the right bank of the Rio Grande.
Fortunately Seward outfoxed them. The French army was gone by 1867.
Interestingly, I learned nothing about this in either the two "highly recommended" Grant bios I have. Wonder why?
Even Grant apologist William Hardy admits the topic "remains understudied"...indeed.
====================
Sources:
Hanna, Alfred and Kathryn, Napoleon III and Mexico
Smith, Gene, Maximilian and Carlotta
Haslip, Joan The Crown of Mexico
Really? They didn't even have enough troops to enforce Reconstruction and stop the Comanches. Seriously.
I hate to even ask but what the heck is your source?
50,000 people sent to Texas would be quite noticeable.
Slightly skewed history.
It is hard for me to give any serious credence to the idea that Grant wanted to expel the French by force. More sources and evidence would be welcome to support this idea.
The way you describe it, sounds like Grant outfoxed Seward. Grant/Sheridan pursued there own course and got the French out without a war.
I've provided three sources, two of which cite the applicable figure.
For anyone genuinely wanting to lean more about the incident, here are a couple of more:
Miles, Donald Cinco de Mayo
Arthur, Anthony General Shelby's March
Grant's motivation is obscure...One biographer suggests a simple inability to let go of war because he had no life to leave without it.
I have provided three sources that offer a similar description. You may also want to examine Donald Miles's Cinco de Mayo.
I have provided three sources that offer a similar description. You may also want to examine Donald Miles's Cinco de Mayo.
That is all well and good, but it is also very well known that the Lincoln Administration (including Seward) had been pressuring Grant to do something to get Federal troops into Texas and create a US presence there as a means of exerting influence on the French in Mexico since early in 1864.
The most likely explanation for those May 1865 orders would be that Grant was simply following through on the next to-do item on his list now that the war was ending and he had plenty of troops available to move wherever he wanted. In addition, when the order to Sheridan was issued, it looked like E. Kirby Smith was going to try to hold on a little longer west of the Mississippi and Grant was sending Sheridan to put an end to any resistance quickly.
Interesting bit of history I know nothing about. Wait to see if a concensus develops of what Sheridan was actually up to, where and when.
Think the idea that the French had more important issues at home could be nearer the truth as to why they gave up supporting Maximillian whose own familys nation Austrian had just been crushed by Prussia.
Actually, the pressure started as early as July 1863, right after the fall of Vicksburg and Port Hudson. But Grant was not singled-out as you imply. In fact most of the pressure was put on Banks.
But it is irrelevant. After the war Grant defied President Johnson's prohibition on exporting weapons to Mexico. Seward was handling the matter correctly and successfully.
That presumption fails to conform to the facts available in the sources I provided.
Grant told Sheridan that his order to track down the last of the Transmississippi Rebels was just a cover for something Grant had not told President Johnson or Secretary of State Seward. What he really wanted was to make a military show of force against the French in Mexico. When Sheridan and Grant met privately to discuss it they agreed that Sheridan should leave immediately "in case Seward were to find out about the plan and try to stop it."