Tag: Badeau (Adam)

Library of Congress says: Brigadier General Adam Badeau of 4th Regular Army Infantry Regiment and Aide-de-Camp U.S. Volunteers Infantry Regiment.

Wikipedia says: Adam Badeau (December 29, 1831 – March 19, 1895) was an American author, Union Army officer, and diplomat. He is most famous for his service on the staff of Ulysses S. Grant during the American Civil War and his subsequent three-volume biography of Grant. Badeau enjoyed a successful career as a writer, and assisted Grant with the research, fact checking, and editing when Grant authored Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant.

A native of New York City, Badeau was raised and educated in Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow, and became clerk in the New York City Street Department while studying law. In addition to practicing after he was admitted to the bar, Badeau became a writer, and his early work as a theater critic was carried by Noah’s Sunday Times.

Badeau joined the Union Army during the American Civil War, and his abilities as a writer led to his prominence as a staff officer, first for Thomas W. Sherman, and later for Ulysses S. Grant. He took part in several campaigns, and rose from captain to brevet brigadier general. After the war, Badeau became the longtime U.S. Consul in London (1870-1881), and turned down appointments as a U.S. Minister in order to remain in England. From 1882 to 1884, he was the U.S. Consul in Havana, Cuba. Badeau continued to work as a writer, and was a prolific contributor of essays and articles to newspapers and magazines, in addition to being the author of several books, both fiction and non-fiction. In the mid-1880s, he worked with Grant during the preparation of Grant’s memoirs, but left the project before it was complete after a dispute about how much Badeau would be paid, and how he would be credited in the book for his research, fact-checking, editing, and proofreading. He later successfully sued Grant’s heirs to obtain payment.

Badeau died in Ridgewood, New Jersey, and was buried at Sleepy Hollow Cemetery.

…In 1862, Badeau joined the Union Army during the American Civil War and was commissioned as a captain. As a member of the staff of Thomas W. Sherman, he took part in the Siege of Corinth, Mississippi, the defense of New Orleans, and the Siege of Port Hudson. where he was severely wounded. After his recovery, in March 1864, on the personal recommendation of Grant’s adjutant, General John A. Rawlins, Badeau joined the staff of Ulysses S. Grant as a brevet lieutenant colonel and military secretary. During this time Badeau and Grant became close friends. Badeau took part in the Wilderness and Appomattox campaigns, and received promotion to brevet colonel. He remained on Grant’s staff until 1869, and left the Army for disability caused by his Port Hudson wound; he held the permanent rank of captain and the brevet rank of brigadier general.

Badeau, still on the staff of General Grant, began the first volume of a military history of the general, who vetted the manuscript as it was being written. Soon after Grant assumed the Presidency, General Badeau was sent to London and served as Secretary of Legation in the United States embassy in London, England, from May to December 1869, where he could continue working on Grant’s military history. Early in the next year he was made bearer of government dispatches to Madrid, then in May he was returned to London as Consul in 1870 and served in that capacity until September, 1881. and U.S. During that time he was granted a leave of absence from 1877 to 1878, when he accompanied Grant on a portion of Grant’s trip around the world. While Badeau lived in England, he received Grant as a visitor on several occasions during the trip.