Grenville Dodge:
The Fighting Spymaster

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Lincoln's letter to his Secretary of War

Grenville M. Dodge was an engineer by trade, working in railroad construction in Iowa prior to the war. He joined the Union Army as a colonel when hostilities began, and the 30-year-old soon became one of its most versatile figures. He not only commanded troops in the field, but at the request of his superior, General Ulysses S. Grant, managed rail operations and protected Union trains from Confederate raiders. President Lincoln even consulted with him on the construction of a trans-continental railroad.

Dodge rose to the rank of major general, leading by example and from the front lines. Multiple horses were shot from beneath him, and his skull was even grazed by a Confederate sniper round, sidelining him for months. By the midway point of the war, Dodge was directing intelligence-gathering and scouting missions on his own initiative. He eventually evolved into the most effective spymaster in the Western Theater, and perhaps, in the war. At one point, he managed a network of more than 100 spies, including Union sympathizers in Confederate states and formerly enslaved African Americans. Dodge’s ventures were largely funded from the sale of captured Confederate cotton to keep the names of his operatives out of Union pay records.

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From left: Major General Grenville Dodge; 7th Kansas Volunteer Cavalry

Grenville M. Dodge was an engineer by trade, working in railroad construction in Iowa prior to the war. He joined the Union Army as a colonel when hostilities began, and the 30-year-old soon became one of its most versatile figures. He not only commanded troops in the field, but at the request of his superior, General Ulysses S. Grant, managed rail operations and protected Union trains from Confederate raiders. President Lincoln even consulted with him on the construction of a trans-continental railroad.

Dodge rose to the rank of major general, leading by example and from the front lines. Multiple horses were shot from beneath him, and his skull was even grazed by a Confederate sniper round, sidelining him for months. By the midway point of the war, Dodge was directing intelligence-gathering and scouting missions on his own initiative. He eventually evolved into the most effective spymaster in the Western Theater, and perhaps, in the war. At one point, he managed a network of more than 100 spies, including Union sympathizers in Confederate states and formerly enslaved African Americans. Dodge’s ventures were largely funded from the sale of captured Confederate cotton to keep the names of his operatives out of Union pay records.

By far, Dodge’s greatest intelligence coup came during the mid-1863 Union siege at Vicksburg, Mississippi, the Confederate stronghold on the Mississippi River. One of Dodge’s spies gained access to the fortress, and remarkably, received a pass from the Confederate commanding general that provided unfettered access to the garrison’s defensive positions. Dodge passed the intelligence that was collected to General Ulysses S. Grant, then in command of Union forces at Vicksburg, allowing Grant to concentrate his artillery and infantry on key Confederate defensive positions. When Confederate President Jefferson Davis dispatched reinforcements under General Joseph Johnston to relieve the besieged city, Dodge’s spies were able to infiltrate Johnston’s force and report that it was half the number initially believed. That intelligence permitted Grant to divert fewer forces to intercept Johnston, and leave the bulk of his army at Vicksburg, where they eventually broke the Confederates and achieved a decisive victory.

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From top: Map of Vicksburg, Mississippi in 1863; General Ulysses S. Grant; General Grant and Staff

Dodge was also adept at counterespionage. In late 1863, his agents in Tennessee exposed a Southern intelligence-gathering unit known as Coleman’s Scouts, capturing its leader as well as another prominent spy, Sam Davis. Although Dodge promised to spare Davis’s life in exchange for information on other Confederate spies, Davis refused to betray his compatriots and was executed by public hanging. At the execution, Dodge declared to the onlookers: “I want him hung where you all can see him. There are more of you guilty of his crime—I know it—and if I ever get my hands upon you, damn you, I’ll hang you upon the same gallows.”

After the war, Dodge resigned from the Union Army and became chief engineer of the Union Pacific Railroad. He later served a single term in Congress and died in 1916.

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Completion of the first transcontinental rail line, 1869