Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/159

 caution displayed in failing to make a vigorous pursuit of Lee’s retreating army. As the months passed by until nearly three-quarters of a year had elapsed and his magnificent army had accomplished nothing, the belief became general that Meade lacked the aggressive energy that was necessary in a commander to crush Lee’s forces, capture the Confederate Capital, disperse and destroy its usurping government.

The initiative for a radical change came from the West. E. B. Washburn of Illinois, on the 1st of February, 1864, in the House of Representatives, introduced a joint resolution to revive the grade of Lieutenant-General of our armies, a rank hitherto held only by George Washington (General Scott being only a brevet). General Garfield moved to lay the resolution upon the table, but the House, by the decisive vote of nineteen to one hundred seventeen, refused to table the proposition, and after amending the resolution by a vote of one hundred eleven to forty-one, recommending Ulysses S. Grant for the post, passed it by a large majority. It passed the Senate by a vote of thirty-one to six. President Lincoln promptly approved the measure, and on the 1st of March nominated General Grant for the place, and he was promptly confirmed by the Senate. This act was almost unanimously approved by the loyal people of Iowa and the West. Iowa and western soldiers had from the first served under Grant, and borne a prominent part in all of his great victories. They had unbounded confidence in his military ability, his untiring energy and his uncompromising fidelity to the Union cause. They hailed his promotion to the command of all of the armies of the Nation, under the President, as the sure harbinger of ultimate success. He was summoned to Washington, accepted the position, and was invested by the President with the command of all of the armies of the United States. Leaving General Meade as commander of the Army of the Potomac in name, General Grant made his headquarters with that army, and thereafter directed