Optimized for

To control the trade of Southern cotton, Lincoln insisted it be licensed by the Treasury

Gen. Ulysses S. Grant

Department and the army. As commander of the Department of the Tennessee, Grant was charged with issuing trade licenses in his area. As cotton prices soared in the North, unlicensed traders bribed Union officers to allow them to buy Southern cotton without a permit. As one exasperated correspondent told the Secretary of War, “Every colonel, captain or quartermaster is in a secret partnership with some operator in cotton; every soldier dreams of adding a bale of cotton to his monthly pay.”

In the fall of 1862, Grant's headquarters were besieged by merchants seeking trade permits. When Grant's own father appeared one day seeking trade licenses for a group of Cincinnati merchants, some of whom were Jews, Grant's frustration overflowed. In November 1862, convinced that the black market in cotton was organized “mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders,” Grant ordered 

LA GRANGE, November 10, 1862.
General WEBSTER, Jackson, Tenn.:

Give orders to all the conductors on the road that no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the railroad southward from any point. They may go north and be encouraged in it; but they are such an intolerable nuisance that the department must be purged of them.

U. S. GRANT,
Major-General.

Meanwhile, in another part of Tennessee, General Sherman was being besieged by similar problems related to the trade of Southern cotton and in a letter to F.G. Pratt he wrote:

HEADQUARTERS DISTRICT OF MEMPHIS,
Memphis, November 17, 1862.

F. G. PRATT, Esq.,
Memphis, Tenn.:

DEAR SIR: Yours of November 14 has been before me some days. I have thought of the subject-matter, and appreciate what you say, but for the present think best not to tamper with the subject. Money is a thing that cannot be disposed of by an order. Were I to declare that Tennessee money should not be quoted higher than greenbacks, my order would do not good, for any person having cotton to sell has a right to brier it for anything he pleases; thus he might trade it for Tennessee money at 50 cents per pound, and for greenbacks at 52 cents, thereby making the discount. Money will seek its value, and no king or president can fix value by a decree or order. It has been tried a thousand times, always without success; but let money alone and it find its true value.
The reason why Tennessee money has been above greenbacks was, and is, because that kind of money was in demand for cotton. Now, is it our interest to encourage the bringing in of cotton? If so, must we not let the owner barter it for what he pleases? When we answer these question in the affirmative, we must let the owner of the cotton sell it as he pleases. Those who own cotton do not insult our Government by preferring Tennessee money to greenbacks. Tennessee money suits their individual purposes better than greenbacks, and it pleases me, as I see they want their money for local home use, and not to send abroad for munitions of war.
Let these things regulate themselves. War, and war alone, can inspire our enemy with respect, and they will have their belly full of that very soon. I rather think they will in time cry, "Hold, enough!" Till then, let Union men feel confident in their real strength, and determination of our Government, and despise the street talk of Jews and secessionists.

Yours,

W. T. SHERMAN,
Major-General, Commanding.

On December 17th 1862, a frustrated General Grant wrote to the Assistant Secretary of the Army of his frustration:

I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into post commanders, the spice regulations of the Treasury Department have been violated, and that mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders. So well satisfied have I been of this that I instructed the commanding officer at Columbus to refuse all permits to Jews to come South, and I have frequently had them expelled from the department, but they come in with their carpet-sacks in spite of all that can be done to prevent it. The Jews seem to be a privileged class that can travel everywhere. They will land any wood-yard on the river and make their way through the country. If not permitted to buy cotton themselves they will act as agents for some one else, who will be at military post with a Treasury permit to to receive cotton and pay for it in Treasury notes which the Jew will buy up at an agreed rate, paying gold.

There is but one way that I know that I know of to reach this case; that is, for Government to buy all the cotton at a fixed rate and sent it to Cairo, Saint Louis, or some other point to be sold. Then all traders (they are a curse to the army) might be expelled.


U. S. GRANT,
Major-General.

Gen. Henry W. Halleck

A handful of the illegal traders were Jews, although the great majority were not. In the emotional climate of the war zone, ancient prejudices flourished. The terms “Jew,” “profiteer,” “speculator” and “trader” were employed interchangeably. Union commanding General Henry W. Halleck linked “traitors and Jew peddlers.” Grant shared Halleck's mentality, describing “the Israelites” as “an intolerable nuisance.”

When illegal trading continued, Grant issued Order No. 11 on December 17, 1862:

GENERAL ORDERS No. 11
HDQRS. 13TH A. C., DEPT. OF THE TENN.,
Holly Springs, Mississippi
December 17, 1862.


The Jews, as a class violating every regulation of trade established by the Treasury Department and also department orders, are hereby expelled from the department within twenty-four hours from the receipt of this order.

Post commanders will see that all of this class of people be furnished passes and required to leave, and any one returning after such notification will be arrested and held in confinement until an opportunity occurs of sending them out as prisoners, unless furnished with permit from headquarters.

No passes will be given these people to visit headquarters for the purpose of making personal application for trade permits.

By order of Major  General  U. S. Grant:


J A. RAWLINS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

Subordinates enforced the order at once in the area surrounding Grant's headquarters. . Some Jewish traders had to trudge 40 miles on foot to evacuate the area. In Paducah, Kentucky, military officials gave the town's 30 Jewish families—all long-term residents, none of them speculators and at least two of them Union Army veterans—24 hours to leave.

Twelve days after order number 11 was issued, a group of Paducah's Jewish merchants, led by Cesar Kaskel, dispatched an indignant telegram to President Lincoln, condemning Grant's order:

PADUCAH, KY.
December 29, 1862.

Honorable ABRAHAM LINCOLN,
President of the United States:

General Orders, Numbers 11, issued by General Grant at Oxford, Miss., December the 17th, commands all post commanders to expel all Jews, without distinction, within twenty-four hours, from his entire department. The undersigned, good and loyal citizens of the United States and residents of this town for many years, engaged in legitimate business as merchants, feel greatly insulted and outraged by this inhuman order, the carrying out of which would be the grossest violation of the Constitution and our rights as good citizens under it, and would place us, besides a large number of other Jewish families of this town, as outlaws before the whole world. We respectfully ask your immediate attention to this enormous outrage on all and humanity and pray for your effectual and immediate interposition. We would respectfully refer you to the post commander  and post adjutant as to our loyalty, and all to respectable citizens of this community as to our standing as citizens and merchants. We respectfully ask for immediate instructions to be sent to the commander of this post.

D. WOLFF & BROS.
C. F. KASKELL.

Jewish leaders organized protest rallies in St. Louis, Louisville and Cincinnati, and telegrams reached the White House from the Jewish communities of Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.

Cesar Kaskel arrived in Washington on Jan. 3, 1863, two days after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. There he conferred with influential Jewish Republican Adolphus Solomons, then went with a Cincinnati congressman, John A. Gurley, directly to the White House. Lincoln received them promptly and studied Kaskel's copies of General Order No. 11 and the specific order expelling Kaskel from Paducah. The President told Halleck to have Grant revoke General Order No. 11, which he did in the following message:

WAR DEPARTMENT,
Washington, January 4, 1863.

Major-General GRANT,
Holly Springs, Miss.:

A paper purporting to be General Orders, Numbers 11, issued by you December 17, has been presented here. By its terms it expels all Jews from your department. If such an order has been issued, it will be immediately revoked.

H. W. HALLECK,
General-in-Chief.

Grant revoked the order three days later:

CIRCULAR
HDQRS. 13TH ARMY CORPS
DEPT. OF THE TENN.,
Holly Springs, Miss., January 7, 1863.

By direction of General-in-Chief of the Army, at Washington, the general order from these headquarters expelling Jews from the department is hereby revoked.

By order of Major  General  U. S. Grant:

J A. RAWLINS,
Assistant Adjutant-General.

On January 6, a delegation led by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati, called on Lincoln to express its gratitude that the order had been rescinded. Lincoln received them cordially expressed surprise that Grant had issued such a command and stated his conviction that “to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad.” He drew no distinction between Jew and Gentile, the president said, and would allow no American to be wronged because of his religious affiliation.

After the war, Grant transcended his anti-Semitic reputation. He carried the Jewish vote in the presidential election of 1868 and named several Jews to high office. But General Order No. 11 remains a blight on the military career of the general who saved the Union.