Lt. General Grant Leaves Siege of Petersburg to Plan Fort Fisher Campaign Superb Civil War Letter!

In this brief note, Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant Tells Brigadier General Alfred H. Terry that he is going to Fort Monroe for two days. During Grant's absence, Major General George G. Meade, in command of the Army of the Potomac, would provide Terry with any necessary orders.

Two days earlier, Grant had congratulated President Abraham Lincoln on his reelection victory at the polls on November 8.

Grant traveled from his headquarters at City Point to Fort Monroe accompanied by Admiral David Dixon Porter, Assistant Secretary of the Navy Gustavus V. Fox, and perhaps General Benjamin Butler, commander of the Army of the James and of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina. They were planning the joint Army-Navy expedition to take Fort Fisher on the North Carolina coast, which guarded the important port city of Wilmington. Supplies that eluded the naval blockade came into Wilmington and were transferred to Lee's army in Richmond by rail. By capturing Fort Fisher, Union forces could close this route of supply.

Although Grant had designated Major General Godfrey Weitzel to lead the troops in the campaign, General Butler demanded that he lead the troops, and Grant acquiesced. Admiral Porter commanded the North Atlantic Blockading Squadron forces in the operation. The first campaign, from December 24-27, 1864, resulted in abject failure and Butler's declaration that the fort was impregnable.

On January 8, 1865, Grant relieved Butler of command and replaced him with Major General Alfred H. Terry, the recipient of this letter. In a second campaign from January 13-15, 1865, the combined army, navy, and marine corps forces captured the fort and opened the path to Wilmington, which fell to Union forces on February 22.

ULYSSES S. GRANT, Autograph Letter Signed, to Alfred H. Terry, November 13, 1864, City Point, Virginia. 1 p., 7.125" x 3.75"; matted to 8.875" x 11.375". From the collection of William C. L. Diefenbach. Some mat burning at edges, not affecting text; small tape repairs to verso; very good.

Complete Transcription
City Point, Va. Nov. 13th/64
Maj: Gen. Terry,
I am going to Ft. Monroe. Will be absent until to-morrow evening. Should any thing occur you will receive orders from Gen. Meade.
U. S. Grant / Lt. Gen.

Historical Background
At 8:30 a.m. on November 13, 1864, General Grant telegraphed to Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton: "As soon as troops begin to arrive here rapidly so as to insure against offensive operations on the part of the enemy, I want to run up home for a day or two. I can go and return before troops enough will have arrived for me to take the offensive. I would not if I could just now do anything to force the enemy out of Richmond or Petersburg. It would liberate too much of a force to oppose Sherman with."

The same day, Grant also sent a message to Major General George G. Meade, "Admiral Porter and the Assistant Secretary of the Navy [Gustavus V. Fox] are here and will start back in a few minutes. I go with them to Fortress Monroe and will be absent until to-morrow night, leaving you in command in the interval."

In mid-November 1864, the Union and Confederate armies faced each other behind miles of entrenchments and fortifications on the east and south sides of Richmond and Petersburg, Virginia. Union officers learned some details of Confederate movements from a steady stream of deserters from the Confederate forces.

When Grant returned to City Point, he sent a flurry of telegrams and messages on November 15. He told Secretary Stanton of his plan to remove all white soldiers from the X Corps and transfer all African-American soldiers from other corps to it and to promote and place German-American general Godfrey Weitzel in command of the X Corps. In December, Weitzel was promoted to major general of the new XXV Corps of more than 13,600 men. In a separate message to Stanton, Grant also encouraged the brevet promotion of Colonel Henry A. Morrow of the 24th Michigan Volunteers for his service "with distinction in command of his regiment since August, 1862."

Most importantly, Grant wrote to General Meade, "The movements now being made by the army under General Sherman may cause General Lee to detach largely from the force defending Richmond to meet him. Should this occur it will become our duty to follow. In such case the Army of the James will be promptly withdrawn from north of James River and put in the trenches about Petersburg, thus liberating all of your infantry and cavalry and a sufficient amount of artillery."

Alfred H. Terry (1827-1890) was born in Connecticut, attended Yale Law School in 1848, and became a lawyer. At the beginning of the Civil War, he raised the 2nd Connecticut Volunteer Infantry and became its colonel. After leading the regiment at the First Battle of Bull Run, Terry and his regiment were transferred to South Carolina. He then raised the 7th Connecticut Volunteer Infantry and was appointed a brigadier general. He led a division of the X Corps in operations against Charleston, including the capture of Fort Wagner in September 1863. In 1864, he and the entire X Corps were transferred to General Benjamin Butler's Army of the James in Virginia. There, he led the 1st Division of the X Corps, and when corps commander David B. Birney died in October 1864, Terry was briefly commander of the corps before it was dissolved. Having earned the confidence of Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant, Terry was placed in charge of the Fort Fisher Expeditionary Corps in January 1865 and successfully captured Fort Fisher on the North Carolina coast. For his role, he was promoted to major general of volunteers and brigadier general in the regular army. Leading the X Corps, Terry participated in the final stages of the Carolinas campaign. After the war, Terry remained in the U.S. Army, helping to negotiate the Treaty of Fort Laramie with several Native American nations in 1868 and serving as military governor of the Third Military District from Atlanta, where he opposed the activities of the Ku Klux Klan. He later commanded troops in Montana against various Native American nations. From 1886 until his retirement in 1888, he commanded the Military Division of the Missouri from headquarters in Chicago.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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