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GENERAL GRENVILLE MELLEN DODGE.

General Grenville Mellen Dodge, whose career of great usefulness in services of a national character, covering more than a half century, has attained the age of seventy-six years, yet is still a factor in the active affairs of life. Few men have been for so long a time in the public eye and the life record of none has been more varied in character, more far-reaching or valuable in its effects. Constant in honor, fearless in conduct and stainless in reputation, General Dodge has long been accorded classification with the most distinguished citizens of the Empire country. While his business interests have covered a wide scope, extending into all parts of the Union, he has, during the greater part of his life, maintained his home in Council Bluffs and among his friends and neighbors-those who know his personal character aside from his public connections-he is accorded the warmest friendship and highest esteem.

A native of Massachusetts, General Dodge was born in Danvers on the 12th of April, 1831. His father, Sylvanus Dodge, was born in Rowly, Massachusetts, in 1801, and died in Council Bluffs on the 23d of December, 1871. The family comes of English ancestry, although in its lineal and collateral branches it has been distinctively American through many generations. The founder of the family in the new world was Richard Dodge, a native of England, who in 1629 joined the Plymouth colony in company with his brother William, General Dodge of this review being one of Richard's descendants in the ninth generation. In the maternal line he comes from an old New England family, also of English lineage, established in America in 1700. His mother, Julia Theresa Phillips, was born in New England and in 1827 became the wife of Sylvanus Dodge. Three children were born unto them: Grenville M., in 1831; Nathan Phillips, in 1837; and Julia Mary, in 1843. The father followed merchandising and at one time was postmaster of his town. His rather limited financial circumstances enabled him to give his children but meager educational privileges, limited to attendance at the common schools through the winter months. In the

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summer season the sons worked on farms and also at times assisted the father in the store. Ambitious to secure an education, however, Grenville M. Dodge resolutely set to work to provide the means necessary and at the age of fourteen he entered the academy at Durham, New Hampshire. He applied himself diligently to the mastery of his studies and in the following year entered the Norwich University of Vermont, a military college, where he completed the scientific course and was graduated as a civil and military engineer with the class of 1850. Further practical advantages were enjoyed by General Dodge for a short period in field work in Captain Partridge's Military Academy in Vermont.

The great west with its limitless possibilities attracted him and he turned his attention to the field of railroad building in which he has attained distinction. Arriving in Illinois, he took a position in an engineering party of the Illinois Central Railroad running the line from La Salle to Dixon. On completion of this survey he entered the employ of Peter A. Dey, afterward railroad commissioner of Iowa, in building the Chicago & Rock Island Railway, and was soon entrusted with the survey of the Rock Island road to Peoria. While thus engaged he prophesied the building of and to some extent outlined the route for the first great transcontinental railroad, a work with which he was later so closely and prominently connected. After finishing his Peoria survey he accompanied Mr. Dey to Iowa and took part in the building of the Mississippi & Missouri River Railroad from Davenport to Council Bluffs, now a part of the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railway system.

As he had opportunity between the years of 1853 and 1861, he explored the country west of the Missouri river and examined the Rocky Mountains from north to south to find the best place to cross with a railroad. He not only formulated in his mind but also explained in letters the route which was afterward selected. Such a course is typical of General Dodge's entire life. He has not only performed the work in hand but has ever looked forward to the future, planning not only for the exigencies of the moment but for the opportunities to come and in this way he has been one of the promoters of the country's progress and greatness.

In 1854 General Dodge became a resident of Council Bluffs, where he became engaged in manifold interests, including banking, the real-estate business and freighting across the plains. He was one of the organizers of the banking house of Baldwin & Dodge, the predecessor of the Council Bluffs Savings Bank, of which his brother, N. P. Dodge, was president thirty-two years. About this time he took the initial step in his military career in organizing the Council Bluffs guards, the nucleus of his future great command, and was made its captain. He continued in his professional and business interests at Council Bluffs until the outbreak of the Civil war, when he entered upon the second eventful period of his life.

At the outbreak of hostilities he hastened to tender his services to the state government with his command, which he had previously organized. Being located on the frontier, the company was not accepted, but Mr. Dodge was sent by Governor Kirkwood to Washington, in the spring of 1861, to

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Colonel Straite and other raiding parties of the Northern army, one of which under his command destroyed many million dollars' worth of supplies for Bragg's army.

About this time President Lincoln called General Dodge to Washington to consult with him about the location of the eastern terminus of the Union Pacific Railroad, the result of which it was located at Council Bluffs, Iowa.

In the campaigns of 1863 he defeated the. rebel forces under Generals Forrest, Roady, Ferguson and others and took a prominent part in the movement against Grenada, Mississippi, that resulted in capturing fifty-five locomotives and one thousand cars-a valuable equipment for the Northern army. He received appreciative recognition from General Grant on the 5th of July, 1863, the day after the fall of Vicksburg, being first on his recommendations for promotion to rank of major-general and in appointment to the command of the left wing of the Sixteenth Army Corps, with headquarters at Corinth. When General Grant succeeded General Rosecrans, General Dodge's command was ordered to move with General Sherman to Chattanooga, but before the latter reached Chattanooga, General Grant ordered him to halt and rebuild the railroad from Decatur to Nashville, a work which he accomplished in forty days.

At the opening of the Atlanta campaign he joined General Sherman at Chattanooga on May 4, 1864, in command of the Sixteenth Army Corps in the field and was entrusted with the advance of the Army of the Tennessee in its famous flank movement, taking Ships Gap at midnight on the 5th of May and Snake Creek Gap on the 8th of May, reaching Johnson's rear at Resaca and forcing him to give up his almost impregnable position at Dalton, Georgia.

General Dodge was successful in many brilliant engagements and especially distinguished himself in the greatest and most decisive battle of the Atlanta campaign, July 22, 1864, in first meeting and checking and finally defeating, with the Fifteenth and Seventeenth Corps, General Hood's desperate and able movement to the rear of the Army of the Tennessee. While standing in a trench before Atlanta he was severely wounded in the head, August 19, 1864, and was sent north to recover. During his convalescence he visited General Grant at City Point, Virginia, and saw the splendid armies of the Potomac and James. On the restoration of his health he was assigned in November to the command of the Department and Army of the Missouri. The western country was overrun by guerrillas, and the army was in bad condition. General Dodge proceeded at once to restore order, to introduce discipline and demand obedience, and also quelled the general Indian outbreak which then threatened along the entire frontier, and opened the overland mail routes to Denver, Salt Lake and California, which had been closed three months by the Indians, at the same time making a vigorous war on the guerrillas. General Jefferson Thompson's command, with eight thousand officers and men, surrendered to him in Arkansas. At the close of the war General Dodge's command was made to include all the Indian country west of the Missouri river and north of Indian Territory, and for a year thereafter he was in command of the Indian campaigns reaching from the

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Arkansas to the Yellowstone rivers. Many Indian battles were fought by his troops, which finally brought about a temporary peace with all the plains tribes.

Feeling that his country no longer needed his aid, General Dodge tendered his resignation, which was reluctantly accepted, May 30, 1866. He had been placed by General Grant at the head of the list of major-generals of volunteers whose services he desired to retain with that rank in the Regular.

Upon his retirement General Dodge directed his energies into other channels of usefulness. Undoubtedly he could have attained high political honors had his ambition been in that direction. He was elected on the republican ticket to represent his district in congress, his nomination coming to him entirely unsolicited. He did not desire political preferment, but accepted for one term and proved an able working member of the house, rendering valuable aid in putting the army on a peace footing and also in solving the questions pertaining to internal improvement in the west, including the building of the transcontinental railway lines. He had already gained distinction as a civil engineer in railway building and his opinions were regarded as most valuable. While in congress General Dodge continued his work as chief engineer of the Union Pacific, which position he had accepted upon leaving the army. This great transcontinental line owes its existence largely to him. He had faith in its possibilities and with wonderful prescience recognized what its worth might be to the country. Obstacles confronted him on every hand and at one time when it appeared the entire plan would fall through, General Dodge went to New York and so demonstrated the feasibility of the scheme to the financiers that the work was undertaken with new heart and courage. Nearly every mile of the road had to be built under military protection because of the hostile red men who sacrificed to their blood-thirstiness many of the best men employed on the work. The materials and supplies had to be brought from the east and hauled hundreds of miles from the end of the track over wagon roads in the poorest condition and the difficulties were almost insurmountable, but the chief engineer possessed a faith and courage that knew no defeat. He believed that his plan was the most practical solution of the question and though criticisms were heaped upon him he had the satisfaction of completing his line and winning the approval of the government commissioners appointed to examine it and of the engineers who made an examination for the purpose of making changes that would better the line. The great undertaking was completed May 10, 1869, at Promontory Point, Utah, ten hundred and eighty-six miles from the starting point on the Missouri river, and it was built in three years, five hundred and fifty-five miles of it being built in one year, a feat that has not been equaled up to this time. This was but the beginning of his great work as a railroad builder. In 1871 he was chief engineer of and built the Texas & Pacific Railway from Shreveport to Dallas, and Marshall to Sherman; also located the line from San Diego, California, constructing it from San Diego eastward. From 1880 until 1885 he was engaged on the construction of the Texas & Pacific Rail way from Fort Worth to EI Paso; the New Orleans & Pacific Railroad from Shreveport to

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New Orleans; the Missouri, Kansas & Texas Railway; the International & Great Northern Railway; the Mexican Oriental Railway in Mexico, and the Fort Worth & Denver City Railway. From 1886 until 1890 he was engaged on the construction of the Denver, Texas & Fort Worth, the Denver, Texas & Gulf and other railway lines, and in 1894 he was chosen president of the Union Pacific, Denver & Gulf Railroad. The railroad had been justly styled the chief promoter of civilization and in this connection General Dodge has done a great work for his country in opening up the vast west with all of its natural resources and possibilities. From 1874 until 1900 he spent a portion of the time abroad, where his advice was sought by the builders of the great Russian transcontinental line from St. Petersburg through Siberia to the Pacific ocean. He was also consulted on other foreign enterprises and was asked to take charge of a system of internal improvements in China but the project failed at first on account of the death of Anson Burlingame, former United States minister to China, who had this work in charge, and when the work was undertaken again in 1886, although General Dodge was once more asked to go to China in connection therewith, he found himself unable to do so.

General Dodge since he was nineteen years old has been continuously and actively connected with the railroad interests of the United States and has taken an active part in all the questions affecting those interests. He was one of the first to appreciate the necessity of national supervision of the internal improvements of the country, and supported the president and congress in the passage of all the national laws which have now proved so beneficial to the companies and the country, and at this time, 1907, is connected with several railroads, more intimately the Colorado & Southern, which line he commenced building in 1880, and which now reaches from Galveston, Texas, to Orin Junction, Wyoming, and needs only three hundred and fifty miles to build to connect with the lines north of the Yellowstone river, which will give a continuous line from Galveston to Edmonton, Canada, a distance as far north and south along the east base of the Rocky mountains as it is east and west from the Atlantic to the Pacific along the transcontinental lines, and it has been one of the ambitions of his life to see this north and south connection completed.

A republican from the organization of the party, General Dodge was delegate-at-large from Iowa to the national conventions at Philadelphia, Chicago and Cincinnati and has done much effective campaign work. His position is never an equivocal one and he has a statesman's grasp of affairs, studying closely the great problems which have confronted the country in all of the campaigns since the election of Abraham Lincoln. That General Dodge has never sought political honors or had aspirations in that direction is indicated by the fact that in September, 1869, he declined an appointment to the position of secretary of war by General Grant and in January, 1876, the election of United States senator from Iowa. Civic and military honors have been conferred upon him. The state of Iowa has honored him by placing his equestrian statue upon the soldiers' monument at the state capitol, and his statue in bold relief is upon the pedestal of the General John

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A. Logan monument and in bas relief upon the pedestal of the statue of General William T. Sherman in our national capital.

General Dodge's relations with his commanding officers during the Civil war were very close. General Grant in his memoirs pays him the highest tribute and General O. O. Howard gives his relations with General Sherman thus:

"General G. M. Dodge was Sherman's special favorite on account of his work with the bridge making and railway construction on marches or in battles. Dodge's capabilities and personality alike drew Sherman to him. I never knew an officer who on all occasions could talk so freely and frankly to Sherman as Dodge. One good reason for this was that Dodge's courage was always calm and his equanimity contagious, no matter how great or trying the disturbing cause."

President Roosevelt stated when the Panama Canal was to be constructed that if General Dodge was ten years younger he would be given the entire control of the work, and in his speech at Indianapolis paid this tribute to him:

"Iowa did its share in the work of building railroads when the business was one that demanded men of the utmost daring and resourcefulness; men like that gallant soldier and real captain of industry, Grenville M. Dodge; men who ran risks and performed feats for which it was difficult to make reward too high; men who staked everything on the chances of a business which today happily involves no such hazards."

He has been deeply interested in the various military organizations which are the outgrowth of the Civil war. He assisted in founding the Loyal Legion, was commander of the New York commandery for two years and is now, 1907, commander-in-chief of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States. He is a member of the Grand Army of the Republic, and was elected president of the Society of the Army of the Tennessee upon the death of General Sherman. He is vice-president of the Grant Monument Association and in 1897 was chosen as grand marshal at the inauguration of the tomb of his old-time friend and comrade, General Grant. He is likewise president of the Grant Birthday Association, both of these societies being New York Organizations. In April, 1898, he was appointed major general of the United States volunteers of the Spanish war and in September of the same year he was made president of the commission appointed by President McKinley to investigate the conduct of the war department in its relations to the war with Spain. He is a member of the Union League, the Army and Navy Clubs of New York, and also of the National Geographical Society. He likewise holds membership in the Benevolent Protective Order of Elks and in the Odd Fellows of Council Bluffs. He is president of the Norwich University Alumni Association and the Iowa Society of New York.

General Dodge's career has been one succession of victories-victories achieved because he has always had the courage of his convictions, has felt that his position has been a correct one and because he has had the determination and loyalty to continue in the conflict until he brought it to a successful termination. Such has been his course in business as well as in military

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life. His projects have been so vast and of such far-reaching effect that they have naturally awakened the opposition of many conservative men and of those who for selfish, personal reasons have championed a different course. Such opposition has been to him the call to battle, and in no instance of his entire life has he ever been known to lower his colors or swerve in his loyalty. No one has ever questioned the honesty of his intent or purpose and he stands today among the great men of the nation by reason of the fact that his life has been one of signal usefulness to his fellowmen.