This incident may have been prominent in Grant’s mind when he issued General Orders No. Grant denied the Mack family the purchasing permit and sent them back home. General Grant was not happy with his father when he made this attempt to use his position as a military officer for monetary gain, and he was not happy with the Jewish clothiers who had tried to get a permit for purchasing cotton through his father. Jesse Grant had agreed to take the Mack family to General Grant’s headquarters in Mississippi for 25 percent of the profits gained from the cotton they had hoped to obtain. The Mack brothers were part of a prominent Jewish family from Cincinnati that owned a clothing business. Grant’s father, Jesse Grant, inflamed his disgust with the traders when he tried to obtain a permit for purchasing cotton for Harmen, Henry and Simon Mack. He wanted to keep the traders from following his armies as he moved further into Mississippi.
Grant found it very difficult to enforce the rules intended to stop illegal trading of cotton. A compromise was eventually achieved to allow traders who held a permit to buy cotton so long as they did not travel into enemy territory to purchase the cotton. The War Department worried that money given to the planters would end up in the coffers of the Confederacy, which would prolong the war. Many of the officers were getting extra money on the side by “greasing” the wheels of this illegal cotton trade. Even Union army officers were involved in helping speculators gain access to the cotton grown in the South.
Since these planters were cut off from markets by the blockade surrounding southern ports, they were often willing to sell their cotton to these questionable speculators. They searched for planters who were willing to sell their lucrative crops for the best price, especially along the Mississippi River. Cotton speculators often followed the Union armies as they made their way south. Some people were anxious to cash in by illegally smuggling resources into the North. By closing out the market for Southern goods such as cotton, rice, and tobacco, the Confederacy would run out of money and be more likely to eventually give up its effort to gain independence from the United States. The government’s blockade was intended to cut off the Confederacy from all trade with the North and other countries. Grant during the American Civil War circa 1864-1865.Īt the beginning of the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln’s administration imposed a blockade against the Confederacy.
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