“Get Your troops on the Rio Grande in readiness for active service should the emergency arise”

The President has given me instructions on how to handle the European forces in Mexico. I passed them along to Gen. Sheridan.

WASHINGTON, July 1, 1865.

Major-General SHERIDAN,

New Orleans:

Get Your troops on the Rio Grande in readiness for active service should the emergency arise. Caution them, however, against provoking hostilities. Demand the return of all public property carried to the south side of the Rio Grande since Kirby Smith’s surrender, and report the reply received.

U. S. GRANT,

Lieutenant-General.

The Papers of Ulysses S Grant, Vol 15, p 235-6

O.R., I, xlviii, part 2, p 1035

Grant in Wartime

The Civil War of Ulysses S Grant, from Springfield to Appomattox

“Get Your troops on the Rio Grande in readiness for active service should the emergency arise”