Commutations and Dispatches

Jews, Israelites

 

 

{LA GRANGE, TENN} November 9, 1862

Major General HURLRUT, Jackson, Tenn.:

Refuse all permits to come south of Jackson for the present. The Israelites especially should be kept out.

What troops have you now, exclusive of Stevenson's brigade?

 

{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

 

 

{HDQRS} THIRTEENTH A. C., DEPT. OF THE TENNESSEE

Oxford, Miss., December 17, 1862

Hon. C. P. WOLCOTT,

Assistant Secretary of War, Washington D. C.

I have long since believed that in spite of all the vigilance that can be infused into post commanders, the specie 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 at any wood-yard on the river and make their way through the country. If not permitted to buy co~ ton themselves they will act as agents for some one else, who will be at a military post with a Treasury permit to receive cotton and pay for it in Treasury notes which the Jew will buy up at an agreed rate, paying in gold.

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

U.S. GRANT,

Major General

 

 

{GENERAL ORDERS} HDQRS 13TH A. C., DEPT OF THE TENN

{No. 11.} Holly Springs, 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 Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant:

JNO. A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant General

 

 

{PADUCAH} KY, December 29, 1862

Hon. ABRAHAM LINCOLN

President of the United States:

General Orders, No.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 out laws before the whole world. We respectfully ask your immediate attention to this enormous outrage on all law 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 to all 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 thin post.

D. WOLFF & BROS

C. F. KASKELL

J.W. KASWELL

 

 

{WAR DEPARTMENT}

Washington, January 4, 1863.

Major-General GRANT,

Holly Springs Miss:

A paper purporting to be General Orders, No.11, issued by you December 17, has been presented here. By its terms it expels all Jew~ from your department. If such an order has been issued, it will be immediately revoked.

H. W. HALLECK

General-in-Chief

 

 

{CIRCULAR} HDQRS 13TH ARMY CORP, 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 Maj. Gen. U.S. Grant:

JNO. A. RAWLINS,

Assistant Adjutant-General

 

 

What are your thoughts on Special Order No.11? After first reading these dispatches I did not know what to think. What it left me with was a fury of questions, was Major General U.S. Grants expressing hatred of the Jewish population, if so, why? But I soon realized, my question of why, would Probably never be answered.

Another Question I though of was, What would have happened, if President Grant were to have been granted the power by the constitution of the United States to fix the Jewish problem? Sound familiar?

What prompted General Grants Issuing Special Order No.11? Was he raised to feel this way? If not then what did General Grant see happening in his Department to prompt these Dispatches? I am sure you the reader have questions of your own, for me I now know I need to be more careful of who I give my admiration too, such as today’s Leaders, and Politicians.

Ronald Roy Wallace