General Order No. 11
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General Order No. 11 is the title of General Ulysses S. Grant's infamous order of December 17, 1862 that all Jews in his district (areas of Tennessee, Mississippi, and Kentucky) be expelled.
General Order No. 11 is also the title of the August 25, 1863 order that all persons living in Jackson county, Cass county, and Bates county, Missouri, and in that part of Vernon included in this district, except those living within one mile of the limits of Independence, Hickman's Mills, Pleasant Hill, and Harrisonville, and except those in that part of Kaw Township, Jackson County, north of Brush Creek and west of Big Blue, were to be expelled and their lands burned.
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Previous orders
On April 10, 1862, Grant issued an order to all the conductors on the road, that no Jews are to be permitted to travel on the road southward.
On December 8, an aide, Colonel John V. DuBoise, ordered all cotton speculators, Jews, and all other vagabonds with no honest means of support, to leave the district.
Reasons for the order
The order was issued as part of a campaign led unwillingly by Grant, who would much have preferred devoting his energies toward the capture of Vicksburg, against a black market in Southern cotton. Eventually he became convinced that it was being run, "mostly by Jews and other unprincipled traders, " although only a handful of them were in fact Jews.
Text of the order
HDQRS. 13TH A. C., DEPT. OF THE TENN.,
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.
""General Order No. 11. "Headquarters District of the Border, "Kansas City, August 25, 1863.
"1. All persons living in Jackson, Cass, and Bates counties, Missouri, and in that part of Vernon included in this district, except those living within one mile of the limits of Independence, Hickman's Mills, Pleasant Hill, and Harrisonville, and except those in that part of Kaw Township, Jackson County, north of Brush Creek and west of Big Blue, are hereby ordered to remove from their present places of residence within fifteen days from the date hereof.
"Those who within that time establish their loyalty to the satisfaction of the commanding officer of the military station near their present place of residence will receive from him a certificate stating the fact of their loyalty, and the names of the witnesses by whom it can be shown. All who receive such certificates will be permitted to remove to any military station in this district, or to any part of the State of Kansas, except the counties of the eastern border of the State. All others shall remove out of the district. Officers commanding companies and detachments serving in the counties named will see that this paragraph is promptly obeyed.
"2. All grain and hay in the field or under shelter, in the district from which inhabitants 'ire required to remove, within reach of military stations after the 9th day of September next, will be taken to such stations and turned over to the proper officers there and report of the amount so turned over made to district headquarters, specifying the names of all loyal owners and amount of such product taken from them. All grain and hay found in such district after the 9th day of September next, not convenient to such stations, will be destroyed.
"3. The provisions of General Order No. 10 from these headquarters will be at once vigorously executed by officers commanding in the parts of the district and at the station not subject to the operations of paragraph 1 of this order, and especially the towns of Independence, Westport and Kansas City.
"4. Paragraph 3, General Order No. 10 is revoked as to all who have borne arms against, the Government in the district since the 20th day of August, 1863.
"By order of Brigadier General Ewing. "H. Hannahs, Adjt.-Gen'l.""
Reaction
A Jewish businessman, one Ceser Kaskel, of Paducah, Kentucky was expelled from his home by this order.
Furious, he formed a delegation that telegraphed a petition to President Abraham Lincoln. Following Grant's order would, the petition said, "place us...as outlaws before the whole world. We respectfully ask your immediate attention to this enormous outrage on all law and humanity..."
There is no record of a direct reply from the President, but five days later, a message from the War Department was sent to Grant, stating, "A paper purporting to be General Orders, No. 11, issued by you December 17, has been presented here. By its terms it expels all Jews from your department. If such an order has been issued, it will be immediately revoked. "
See also
- 40 acres and a mule, aka Special Field Order No. 15
A group of Paducah's Jewish merchants, led by Cesar Kaskel, dispatched an indignant telegram to President Lincoln, condemning Grant's order as an “enormous outrage on all laws and humanity, ... the grossest violation of the Constitution and our rights as good citizens under it.” Jewish leaders organized protest rallies in St. Louis, Louisville and Cincinnati, and telegrams reached the White House from the Jewish communities of Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.
Cesar Kaskel arrived in Washington on Jan. 3, 1863, two days after the Emancipation Proclamation went into effect. There he conferred with influential Jewish Republican Adolphus Solomons, then went with a Cincinnati congressman, John A. Gurley, directly to the White House. Lincoln received them promptly and studied Kaskel's copies of General Order No. 11 and the specific order expelling Kaskel from Paducah. The President told Halleck to have Grant revoke General Order No. 11, which he did in the following message:
A paper purporting to be General Orders, No. 11, issued by you December 17, has been presented here. By its terms, it expells (sic) all Jews from your department. If such an order has been issued, it will be immediately revoked.
Grant revoked the order three days later.
0n January 6, a delegation led by Rabbi Isaac M. Wise of Cincinnati, called on Lincoln to express its gratitude that the order had been rescinded. Lincoln received them cordially expressed surprise that Grant had issued such a command and stated his conviction that “to condemn a class is, to say the least, to wrong the good with the bad.” He drew no distinction between Jew and Gentile, the president said, and would allow no American to be wronged because of his religious affiliation.
After the war, Grant transcended his anti-Semitic reputation. He carried the Jewish vote in the presidential election of 1868 and named several Jews to high office. But General Order No. 11 remains a blight on the military career of the general who saved the Union.
