By Daniel J. Ursu, Roundtable Historian
The Cleveland Civil War Roundtable
Copyright © 2024-2025, All Rights Reserved
Editor’s note: This article was the history brief for the November 2024 meeting of the Cleveland Civil War Roundtable.
The new Republican party had just elected its first president, Abraham Lincoln from Illinois. Soon thereafter, Honest Abe boarded a train and headed for the capital, where he would be inaugurated. Excited northern crowds greeted him at every stop. But in D.C., among those enthusiastically waiting for his incognito arrival was a longtime and huge supporter from Galena, Illinois, Congressman Elihu Washburne. Washburne had not only given his unwavering support to Lincoln during his presidential bid, but had ardently supported him in nearly all of his political campaigns, including Lincoln’s 1854 and 1868 unsuccessful runs for the U.S. Senate. In the mid-1850’s, Washburne helped found the new anti-slavery Republican Party. But for now, so connected with Lincoln was Washburne that he rented a private home for Lincoln a few blocks from the White House. However, it was deemed a better political choice for a newly elected president to stay in the more public Willard Hotel.
Elihu Washburne was born in Maine to Israel and Martha Washburn in 1816. (Elihu, at around the age of 20, added an “e” to the end of his surname to make it conform to the traditional spelling of his family’s name, although the rest of the family continued to use the “Washburn” spelling.) Israel Washburn, whose lineage in the states dated back to 1631, sadly was forced to sell his general store in 1829, and his family fell into poverty. However, Elihu and his brothers were industrious, and, at the age of 14, Elihu left home to seek an education. He attended public schools, worked as a printer and a teacher, and eventually attended Maine Wesleyan Seminary. He studied law with a local judge and then completed his legal schooling at Harvard. He finished in 1840, passed the bar, and headed westward to Galena, Illinois, where he joined a successful law partnership.
A few years later, Washburne married into one of Galena’s most prominent families. Thereafter, his already good professional career was propelled exponentially. Ronald C. White, in his book American Ulysses, gives this description of Washburne: “Tall, broad-shouldered, with light gray eyes, Washburne was respected for his seriousness and honesty; he vowed when coming west not to drink, smoke, play cards, or attend the theater.” In 1852 Washburne was elected as one of nine congressmen from Illinois. He was elected to Congress eight times and served from 1853 to 1869. White comments further about Elihu’s siblings, “In remarkable family public service, Washburne served concurrently in Congress with his brother Israel, elected from Maine in 1850, and brother Cadwallader, elected from Wisconsin in 1854.” Elihu thus uniquely benefited in his congressional leadership and initiative from the support of his two brothers.
As an interesting aside, brother Samuel was an officer on the gunboat Galena, which operated on the James River in collaboration with the Army of the Potomac during the Peninsula Campaign. Samuel was wounded at Drewry’s Bluff during an exchange of fire with Confederate artillery, but he recovered and served on various vessels until the end of the war. Brother Cadwallader, in addition to serving in Congress, became a major general in the cavalry and after the war built a very large flour mill in Minneapolis as part of his Minneapolis Milling Company. Cadwallader’s company later merged with other mills to form General Mills. Brother William graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine, moved to Minneapolis, practiced law, and started lumber and flour-milling businesses. The latter company eventually merged with the Pillsbury Company, which many decades later was acquired by General Mills, the company that grew out of Cadwallader’s flour-milling company. And this is only about half of what these industrious Washburn boys accomplished.
But back to Elihu, his friendship and prior support of Lincoln made Elihu a key confidant of the new president. Throughout the Civil War, Abe relied on Elihu as a trustworthy friend and informal political counselor. Indeed, as Lincoln made his way to the inauguration, it was principally Washburne who feared an assassination attempt. Washburne contacted another longtime friend, General Winfield Scott, who multiplied security for Lincoln, which helped ensure the new president’s safe arrival at the capital.
The soon-to-be-famous West Point graduate Ulysses S. Grant also serendipitously made his way to Galena, Illinois to work at his father’s leather goods business and fell into a friendship with Elihu Washburne. It was an example of what we now think of today as “odd political bedfellows,” since Grant was a Douglas Democrat and Washburne an abolitionist founder of the Republican Party. Of course, Grant’s politics later changed due in no small part to Washburne’s efforts. However, if Ulysses Grant is recognized as the “indispensable man” of the Civil War, then it can be argued that it follows that Elihu Washburne should be known as the “indispensable congressman” of the Civil War. Washburne was not only a close friend of President Lincoln, but when the time came, Washburne’s admiration of Grant positioned him as a crucial and prominent proponent of Grant throughout all of his promotions, from the very first minor commission to the very last and top as lieutenant general in overall command of the Union armies.
At the start, Grant discussed with Washburne his West Point education and service in the Mexican-American War, which, Grant argued, merited a commission in the Union army. Washburne swung into action and contacted Illinois Governor Richard Yates, who straight away offered Grant a mustering commission to raise and train volunteers. The modest Grant happily accepted and with Washburne’s further support became a colonel of volunteers appointed to command an infantry regiment. From then on, Washburne kept himself informed of Grant’s progress. It was not unusual for Washburne to visit Grant in the field and observe his military campaigns.
Again from White’s book American Ulysses, the author states, “Washburne, traveling with Grant (at Vicksburg) and knowing the president’s anxiety about the campaign of Vicksburg, wrote reassuringly to Lincoln as soon as the troops crossed the Mississippi. He closed with a comment sure to bring a smile to his longtime friend: ‘I am afraid Grant will have to be reproved for want of style. On this whole move of five days he had neither a horse nor an orderly or servant, a blanket or overcoat or clean shirt, or even a sword. His entire baggage consists of a toothbrush.'” The renowned Edwin C. Bearss, in his book Fields of Honor, makes note of what Grant did when he, after what is now known as the Battle of the Wilderness, surprisingly advanced to a new major engagement only a few days later at Spotsylvania Courthouse. Bearss states, “Grant sends his patron, Illinois Congressman Elihu Washburne, back to Washington bearing his ringing (and famous) words, ‘I propose to fight it out on this line, if it takes all summer.'”
With his Washington, D.C. contacts, Washburne helped Grant to be promoted to brigadier general and then to major general with further assignments to district, field, and division commands. Lastly and most importantly, Washburne advocated successfully to his old friend Abe Lincoln to promote Grant to the position of lieutenant general and overall command of the Union Army! Of course, this was the most timely and important military appointment that Lincoln ever made. It resulted in ultimate victory over the Confederate armies and the end of the Civil War.
Ron Chernow in his book Grant recounts the final and highest promotion this way: “So outsized were Grant’s victories that many Washington admirers thought he merited a rank higher than a mere major general. On December 14, (1863), Washburne presented a bill in the house to resurrect the grade of lieutenant general, a rare honor conferred only on George Washington…Grant was clearly intended as the recipient, which would jump him above Halleck to the pinnacle of military power…Grant, having done nothing to provoke this, played the bashful hero, disclaiming ambition and telling Washburne, ‘I have been highly honored already by the government and do not ask, or feel that I deserve more…A success over the enemy is what I crave above everything else.’…Lincoln had no qualms about backing the…bill…on March 3, 1864 Grant received a telegram, summoning him to Washington to receive his new commission from the president’s own hands.”
Many Civil War scholars and many Civil War enthusiasts consider Ulysses S. Grant the “indispensable man” of the Civil War. If this is so, then Elihu Washburne, by virtue of his crucial backing of Grant amongst government officials and legislators and most importantly with President Lincoln, deserves to be called the “indispensable congressman” of the Civil War.
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