1864 Mystery Cache
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The cache is NOT at the posted coordinates. To obtain the real coordinates, solve this puzzle that looks back 150 years. BYOP.
Early March 1864 is arguably when the American Civil War entered its final chapter. On March 9, President Lincoln officially promoted then-Major General Ulysses S. Grant to the rank of lieutenant general of the U.S. Army, with the job of leading all Union troops against the Confederate Army. (The rank of lieutenant general had not officially been used since 1798, at which time George Washington was assigned it by President John Adams.) On the following day, March 10, Grant had a fateful first meeting with George Gordon Meade, commander of the Army of the Potomac, in Virginia. Their favorable first impressions of one another set the stage for the critical cooperation that would follow. Although I played with a General Lee figurine as a boy growing up in a Southern home, I constructed this puzzle around fifteen Union generals.
A. Responsible for supplying Union troops, he began the year as assistant commissary general. He became commissary general of the Regular Army and President Lincoln appointed him brigadier general in the summer.
B. Commander of the Department of the West early in the war, by 1864 this politician-general was in New York, expecting a command but receiving none. A former western Senator, he led the anti-Lincoln wing of the Republican Party until striking a deal with the President in September 1864.
C. For most of the war, he held command of the Federal armory in Springfield, Massachusetts. He is known as the first commander committed to the purchasing of the Gatling gun (early machine gun).
D. An 1855 graduate of West Point, this cavalry commander led Union forces at the Battle of Kelly's Ford. In the spring of 1864, he led a cavalry raid toward Saltville but was stopped at Cove Gap.
E. One of the few Federal officers who was a slaveholder, this suspected Southern sympathizer was roundly criticized for failing to pursue the withdrawing Confederate forces following the Battle of Perryville. He spent 1863 and half of 1864 in military limbo in Indianapolis, hoping that a military commission would exonerate him.
F. An 1850 graduate of West Point, he directed the siege artillery that precipitated the surrender at Port Hudson. He later commanded the artillery that would compel the surrender of Mobile, Alabama.
G. After graduating from the USMA in 1839, he commanded Fort Defiance, New Mexico Territory at the start of the Civil War. He was the only United States general to be killed during the later wars, assassinated at a peace talk with the Modoc in Northern California.
H. He led the 5th U.S. Artillery during the First Bull Run Campaign. In March 1864, as part of the reshuffling of the leadership of the Army of the Potomac, he was reduced to commanding the 4th Brigade of the 1st Division, V Corps.
I. Not yet 18 years old when he graduated West Point 5th in a class of 29 cadets on July 1, 1819, this lifelong soldier served as superintendent of the military academy from 1845 until Robert E. Lee replaced him seven years later. He was breveted as a brigadier general of engineers at the close of the Civil War, and retired on March 7, 1867 after more than 47 years active service, not including his almost 6 years as a cadet at West Point.
J. He led an I Corps brigade at the Battle of Gettysburg. In March 1864, he retained command of his brigade even as the Army of the Potomac was reshuffled. At the Battle of the Wilderness, he was shot in the left leg; the same bullet killed his horse. After recuperating, he led a brigade in the 3rd Division, V Corps, during later stages of the siege of Richmond and Petersburg. Four years after the war, he served President Grant as Minister to Honduras.
K. He served as chief of artillery under Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan. He later became chief of artillery under Maj. Gen. William T. Sherman, serving with him in Tennessee, the March to the Sea, and the Carolinas Campaign.
L. In 1864, he was still in embarrassment after his son-in-law, Jeb Stuart, humiliated his Union cavalry by encircling the Army of the Potomac. Historians theorize that St. George, Utah is named for him.
M. On March 12, 1864, he was named Chief of Staff of the Army, after previously serving as Commanding General.
N. In 1864, he became Superintendent of the United States Military Academy, the post Robert E. Lee held a decade earlier. A chronicler, he assigned an identification number to each USMA graduate.
O. Though he outranked the commander of the Army of the Potomac, Maj. Gen. George G. Meade, he waived his precedence of rank on May 24, 1864 just before the Battle of North Anna, and was placed under Meade's direct command.
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Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
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